"Ow!" Amy yelped as Shintaro pressed his hands over the small nick wound above her left hip, the one she'd gained by shoving Shintaro out of the way of a Dark Magic blade. The Darks who had previously attacked had shot a magical knife in Shintaro's direction - and when he hadn't reacted, Amy had jumped in front of him, pushing him down and taking the blade for him. She'd claimed that it would have gone straight in between Shintaro's ribs, possibly striking a vital organ, if she hadn't gotten him out of the way.

While Shintaro was grateful for that, he didn't need Amy taking all the hits for him. 

"Come on, dude, be gentle!" Amy protested huffily, crossing her arms over her chest. She was leaning against the back of the couch, sitting on the other end of Ruby with her shirt pulled up over her the wound above her hip. "That hurts, you jerk!"  

"Oh, calm down," Shintaro said gruffly, sending Light Magic through his arms and into his hands. "You're fine. Even if I was hurting you that bad, you're tough enough to handle it like a big girl." 

Amy opened her mouth in an insulted gasp, and was about to say something back when Moon's cackling laughter interrupted her. When Shintaro turned slightly, he found Moon holding her stomach, laughing joyously. 

"HEY!" Amy cried, looking from Shintaro to Moon, and then to Falte, who was also holding back delighted laughter. "I- You- STOP! It's not funny! ARGH!" 

"It kind of is, Amy," Linda said as she walked by with a glass of water that she was going to give to Zeke as soon as he woke up. She and Rachel had agreed to let him rest in the guest room bed, while everyone else shared the floor of that room and the living room. 

Amy opened and closed her mouth in a loss for words, then blew a raspberry at all of them, which set Moon into a fit of laughter again. She nearly doubled over this time, but eventually settled for sitting down on the floor by the couch. 

"You guys are so mean," Amy protested with a pout as Shintaro leaned away from her, standing up straight. "Except you two," Amy added, gesturing to Abby and Ruby, neither of whom were laughing. 

However, Abby looked like she was hiding one, which brought a small smile to Shintaro's face. 

It was good to see his daughter happy again. 

But Shintaro knew that eventually, he would have to crush her mood by telling all of them that they couldn't remain here. 

Thankfully, Falte seemed to notice the tension on Shintaro's face, and almost immediately, he figured out the reason. He turned his eyes away from Amy, the smile leaving his face, and clasped his hands in front of him nervously. 

"So," he said tensely, pulling everyone's attention to him. When they saw the seriousness on his face, all the smiles in the room vanished, including Moon's. Falte sighed through his nose. "What are we going to do now? It's pretty obvious that the Darks are going to know soon where we are, if they don't all know already." 

Seeing Abby's face fall made Shintaro want to wrap her in a fierce hug; but he wasn't sure she wanted that, and the situation was too dire for hugs. Taking a deep breath, Shintaro took charge of the talking.

"We can't go back to Ruby's town, for two reasons," he said quietly. "One, the Darks might still be roaming around that area. Two, there probably aren't any houses left to take refuge in." He hated the crestfallen looks that he'd put on Falte and Ruby's faces; but he had to be blunt with this. "Zeke's town is also unavailable. My old home isn't an option either, because Thorn destroyed it many years ago."

Amy stood off the couch with a small, almost unnoticeable wince. "I know a place we can go," she said suggestively, but Shintaro caught the smallest bit of hesitation in her voice before she continued. "It's far out to the east of here; but if we keep a steady pace going, we should reach it in maybe a week and a half." 

Shintaro tipped his head at her but decided not to question why and how she knew a place. "Alright," he concluded. "As soon as everyone is able to get moving, we'll head there. Everyone should start packing up less essential things now so we can be prepared to leave quicker." 

~

"They didn't care who they killed, just as long as they killed everyone," Zeke said gruffly from his spot on the bed, his arms crossed over his chest gingerly. His stone brown eyes were narrowed in anger and slight pain as he seemed to recall exactly what had taken place at his home. "There wasn't any order behind their attack whatsoever. They just came in, killed, and left." 

"They left?" Shintaro, who was standing beside the bed, asked with a small tip of his head.

"The ones that didn't follow me into the woods vanished," Zeke confirmed with a nod of his head. "From what I've heard, three other towns have been overthrown and abandoned without any reason from the Darks. If The Dark Lord is doing this for a reason, he's got very strange reasons." 

Shintaro sniffed through his nose, silently agreeing with Ezekiel. Brethren's reasoning had always seemed strange to Shintaro; but that was probably because Shintaro didn't like him, trust him, or think of him as a father at all. 

"What else have you heard on the Darks?" Shintaro asked Zeke, crossing his arms over his chest. He needed to know everything that Zeke did, and hopefully he could use the information to his advantage. 

Zeke shook his head briefly. "I only heard one talk about how the three other towns were harder to overthrow. I don't know anything of The Dark Lord or his whereabouts; or where he's keeping the rest of his Dark lackeys." 

Shintaro huffed impatiently, but it wasn't directed at Zeke. His father was somehow managing to evade him, but how? What kind of magic spell was he using that Shintaro wasn't able to break through? 

Zeke grunted as he reached for the glass of water that Linda had set on the side table by the bed. He was obviously done talking, and sensing this, Shintaro nodded politely at him and walked out of the room.

As he sat down on the floor of the living room, where Gabriel and Falte were already sleeping, he began to tell himself these things: 

You will defeat your father.

You will get Kai back.

You will bring peace among Darks and humans.

You will.

He lost track of how many times he repeated those words in his head until he fell asleep.

~

NEXT CHAPTER!!! 

YAY!!!!

BRO, WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NOW?!?!?!

Will they get caught? 

Will someone get hurt?

Will The Dark Lord find them?

Will he capture them??

AHHHHH-

Well, thanks for reading!

P3ac3!!~~~