Road to Ruin

Like waking at end of an intense dream, Voah sprang to attention, instantly drawing her sword as she spun toward the jarring sound. Thoughts and worries shattered and spilled away just like the jug of oil spilling across the hovel floor. The only thing that registered was an innate sense of danger. Survival kicked in and the clattering of the arrow that followed shortly after only served to confirm that instinct. Voah felt the cold dread of Zin’s smile waiting in the tremulous shadows cast by the subsequent inferno. The flames took the tent first, but more soon followed.

This was it. They had been hunted down and were now under attack. At this point it could be any number of the people who recognized them as Helians. Enemies were abound and trouble had once again caught up with her. Voah had outstayed her welcome and this was the cue to leave.

The look from Gonyaul said all too much and he was quick to move to their secondary egress point. Unfortunately, there was no time to salvage anything except for some of the packs she carried on her person as well as the Skara egg which she gently placed on the ledge above. Before pulling herself up, Voah sheathed the sword and paused, looking on despairingly as the fire hungrily engulfed the bundle that carried the woolen Arisha Ikeburer which she had painstakingly sewn for Gonyaul. He never even got to see it. She only hoped the rest of their belongings would be spared from the fire allowing her to return and recover them.

She followed shortly after Gonyaul, keeping her head low as she ran along the rooftop with arrows whizzing past. Both of them moved nimbly enough through the buildings but Voah moved slower, taking different routes than Gonyaul with extra care to avoid damaging the egg pack. At one point she had to lower the pack gently and hang it from a broken protruding beam before making a jump to another platform. She looked back to see Gonyaul. He was already rounding the frame of a window to climb outside while Voah was still carefully recovering the Skara egg pack from its suspended position above a dilapidated section of flooring. When she proceeded to turn and follow her beau, she could feel something was wrong. There came the briefest moment of weightlessness as the floor fell away from her perch and she tumbled down a pile of rubble into the ruination below.