Shela wandered towards the medical refugee house and saw Carth standing off to the side chatting with Denz. She quickly ran up to bear hug Carth.

"Let's go find the-" Carth was immediately caught off guard by Shela's sudden grapple and was lifted off the ground. "Hey put me down! Oh… Shela… was this really necessary." Carth was suddenly in a princess carry position. 

"Where do you want to go? I'll carry you there," Shela said with a big grin on her face. 

"Did something change between you two?" Braith said finally catching up to the group.

"Braith, just how dense are you? It is quite obvious," Denz chuckled, "Carth the shek tamer." Denz started to burst out in laughter at the sight. 

"Do you really have to Shela?" Carth looked up at her face, her smile answered his question, " fine we need to find Moll and plan on what to do next."

"Right away, Master" They began to move out to find where Moll had gone, Shela still carrying Carth. 

"By the way Carth, what are your future plans? I doubt you want to stay in this village forever," Denz looked at Carth, "where will you go."

"Hard question with an even harder answer. I will be honest as I usually do. My home is no longer my home. I want to find where I truly belong. This place is nice but cowering in the shadows is not for me. We will stay until the threat of these cannibals gets removed. After they are dealt with I will be moving on." Carth looked into Denz's eyes, it would have been more threatening looking if Carth wasn't still being princess carried by Shela. 

They reached the entrance to the metal dome. As they walked in Shela put down Carth. There was a decent sized crowd inside rambling and shouting. Listening to a select few they could here talk about the cannibals, mostly about how to stop them. As soon as the crowd saw the group enter the room fell silent. 

“Good to see you are still, dem others radah argue then solve the problem,” Quin stepped out of the crowd along with Lilith, “the boss locked herself in the backroom. Somethin’ about it being too loud.”

The crowd parted to the door, they seem to think Carth can do something they haven’t tried. He approached the door and simply knocked “Hey are you in there? Seems that there are many out here looking for you.”

A sudden click was heard on the other side of the door. “Come in, quickly.” Carth entered the room leaving everyone else behind. The first thing he noticed was the scent, blood and a lot of it. Looking at Moll he soon saw the epidemic of this horrid smell. Moll sat on a bed, her clothes were stained with blood. Cough, cough. She was in a terrible state. 

“What happened? Why are you so bloodied?” Carth quickly scanned over her body looking for the source.

“I’ll be fine, but I do need to make better judgments sometimes.” She looked up into Carth’s eyes, “ He wanted me to give you that.” She pointed to a note on the bed stand. 

Carth picked up the note and opened it. It reads : 

Greetings Carth Lostforge.

 I am glad to have found your location. I know you wouldn’t be stupid enough to be within the borders of the Holy Nation. I came to give you some information. The Phoenix himself seems to have taken notice of your fascinating escape. Your name is now showing up on bounty boards all across the Holy Nation. He wants you alive for some reason. But do not fear, I lead the ones accused of hiding you out of their borders. I leave you this note to get you moving in the right direction, head north-north east to a settlement known as World’s End. Find the man named Collindore, most of the town knows of him. He has information you will find intriguing. Don’t stay quiet, ask questions, MAKE DECISIONS. 

                                Sincerely, Z.N

“Did he do this to you?” Carth said, his hands were shaking, so many more questions, no answers. 

“It was the messenger, but he was the one who saved me. The cannibals broke through a damaged section of the walls, a man in a full suit of samurai plate threw me back with his arm and I crashed into our weapon rack, covering me in cuts. I don’t know where he came from. As soon as he threw me back he charged through the crack and started killing the cannibals, my guards quickly sealed the wall behind him. I assume he escaped but I don’t know.” Moll explained as she exchanged her bloody rags with new bandages, "give me a hand will you."

She lifted her shirt to reveal long rough cuts on her back covered by even more bloody rags. Carth grabbed a new roll of bandages, when he removed the old bandages it made a loud ripping noise and blood began to flow again. Some of the wounds seemed quite old, others quite fresh. Following basic medical training he applied some alcohol to the wound.

"Aahhh fffuck," Moll groaned in pain, "that sting just doesn't get easier does it." 

Carth continued to treat the wound by applying cotton. Once applied he wrapped her up with gauze. 

"Let's get out there to prove to everyone you are still alive. I understand waiting for me so I can read the note in private but hiding your injuries could lead to distrust. Show everyone that you may have been hurt, but you are willing to stand strong in the face of danger," Carth openly explained as he tightened and tied off the gauze.

They both exited the room to a very loud gasp from the crowd. To see their leader in such a wounded state. 

Shela ran over to Carth and looked him up and down to see if he had any injuries. "Are you alright? What took you so long? Did you win?"

"It's not like that, she just acted to deliver this note to me," Carth whispered to Shela as she checked for wounds, "I'll discuss this with you later. Let's focus on the cannibal problem at hand." Carth’s mind was made up.

"Let's plan to counter attack the surrounding cannibals. We need to clear the current threat." Moll announced to the crowd. 

There was silence for a few moments, but cheering began shortly after as everyone was splitting off to arm themselves and prepare for combat. Men and women began to form groups. They marched towards the gates and prepared for it to be lifted. 

“MOVE OUT!” Lilith pulled the lever and the gates rose. Carth followed Shela into the fray as the battle began. Clashing of metal and slicing of  flesh began to ring out as the first bodies hit the floor. Carth stabbed the one in front of him with a quick jab. The cannibal tried to back up only to be caught by a swing of the fragmented axe straight to the throat. It’s head popped clean off as blood gushed and spilled onto the ground. It did not take long until the other cannibals realized what was happening. With a quick swing a cannibal nailed Carth on the back of his head. He stood there, blurry visioned 

“CARTH!” Shela Cried out, all time slowed down as Shela could only hear the sound of Carth’s unmoving body hitting the floor. She began hacking her way straight through the crowd of cannibals with sheer rage and anger. She soon reached him and slung him over her shoulder and began to retreat. The battle was coming to a close as she made her retreat. This looked to be a pyrrhic victory, the cannibals may be dead, but many of the village's members were unconscious, dead, or limping with broken bones.

“SHIT! Stay with me Carth, don’t die on me.” Shela soon reached a bed and laid him there very carefully. She quickly placed sheets under his legs to raise them to hopefully keep him alive. She sat beside him and quickly checked his pulse, he lives.

Panicked, Shela ran outside to help the others. When she returned to the now completed battlefield she saw death on all sides. She quickly located Lilith and headed over to ask what she could do.

"Grab anyone that has a pulse and isn't a cannibal," Lilith said trying to stand up, "Dammit all," with a loud crunch she fell back to her knees, "fuuuck."

Shela ran over and supported her back into the village and onto a bed. The few who remained in the village that did not participate in the battle came out and helped Shela look for survivors that are unconscious. 

Eighteen dead, fifteen wounded, twenty missing, ten uninjured. That was the list after the clean up was completed. Shela returned to her quarters where Carth was currently being monitored. She worried he would go unstable any minute.

"Poor girl," Denz whispered to himself in the shadows. After his quick remark he backed out of the house. 

"Can you quit spying on them?" Braith showed up with her hand on Denz's shoulder with an angry smile, "this is the third time I caught you. Have any excuses?"

Denz shrugged, " of course I do, I made a promise with his caretakers. If they found out I broke that promise," with that he disappeared.

Braith walked into the house to see Shela staring at Carth. Her eyes seemed disturbing as if she had been through this scenario before. 

"Hey, are you good? You seem to be dozing off," Braith said, trying to break the silence. It worked a bit too well. This was the first time she saw a shek cry. It didn't look right to her. She had seen many shek fight and die with only anger or joy, but never had she once expected to see one cry.