What now?

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2022 @ 3:59pm by Professor Sabrina III Chainsaw-Hecate & Fifth Year Sylphs Student Prince Malykhin & Third Year Hufflepuff Student Remus Flower & Fifth Year Daulphine Student Polly Patagonia & Third Year Sylphs Student Tifa Valentine & First Year Undines Student Milena Cabral & Fifth Year Ravenclaw Student Casey Severide Jr. & First Year Daulphine Student Rehan Paul & Third Year Sylphs Student Elisabeth Harper

Mission: Unity
Location: Lonely Town

ON

Sabrina and the herd of children who followed behind emerged from the green foliage surrounding Lonely Town. But the only thing that stood in its place was fire, ashes and burning wood buildings what or who could have done this? Anyone left alive? Sabrina withdrew her wand to protect herself and others but then her instincts of a mother kicked into gear. "New plan!" Sabrina shouted "Spread out, look for survivours, or anything to tell us what happened here. Remember the spells that you learnt in charms, Episkey (spell to treat mild to moderate injuries including split lips and broken noses) and Aguamenti (water making spell). Be careful"

Remus and Prince both buddied up together with their wands out as they left the group and headed to the nearest building with the sign outside on the ground that read "Queen bee supplies." Stepping inside, it was quite bright as the roof had fallen inwards but smelt like a backfired Bombarda spell. As Remus went behind the counter as Prince looked at what they had to offer. Remus entered the back office and saw a charcoled corpse, beyond any recognition.

Elisabeth Harper and Milena Cabral worked together to extinguish the fires that threatened to engulf one large hut like building, together they managed to put the fire out with ease. Elisabeth and Milena went inside to see if there was someone inside, and found a small girl, maybe 4 or 5 and a woman who was in her 30s huddled together frozen with fear. At the sight of the two girls both relaxed and scurried outside as fast as their legs would carry them, Elisabeth and Milena followed suit, making it outside just before the roof caved in.

Tifa stared at the smoldering housing freezing in place for a moment unsure why fear had filled her suddenly. It took her a moment after to shake it off and force herself to move, "Aguamenti," She said pointing her wand at the first house that was still smoldering and had fire still licking at the wooden beams. Unlike her fellow classmates, she didn't find much within the building. She couldn't even tell if it was a store or a house, but there were odd markings just barely noticeable under the char of the wood. Tifa frowned moving closer to see if she could get a better look. Touching it there was no indent, but the wood felt slightly different. "Revelio," Tifa said to see if she could reveal the marks under the charring.

Rehan was frightened. Dead frightened. He might as well drop dead this very moment. Back in the school battle, he was evacuated because he had no knowledge of combat spells, but this time, there was no such option. He rushed inside a charred building--it was so charred that it was beyond recognition ( not that he knew the village like the palm of his hand anyway). He drew his wand and muttered, "Lumos". He stepped in, his feet crunching on something. All charred objects. What might have caused this? "Revelio" No change. "Aguamenti", and a jet of water started clearing away the rubble. There, he found something, something which was shining. It was not a part of the original objects present in the house, as there was no burn sign on it. It was something external, and something familiar... "Professor Chainsaw, there is something odd here." he called out.

"What is it Rehan?"Sabrina shouted as she slithered like a serpent towards the remnants of his voice. Prince and Remus however exited their building while Rehan shouted for the teacher he turned to Remus and said: "I'm going to find Milena and Elisabeth, can you go find Tifa and joins us?" Prince asked rhetorically and quickly left him there in the middle of the dirt road.

"Professor, there is something here which I think is oddly familiar-- I saw this during the battle also." Rehan pointed his wand at the object.

"Let's take a look," Sabrina said approaching Rehan. What is it?"

As Prince walked with his wand out, alert and on guard, he quickly saw Milena and Elisabeth with survivors sitting outside a now ruin like so many others. "Hey," Prince said softly, trying not to scare them "Who are these guys? Did you find anything like clues?"

"Not sure who they are, but we found them in here," Elisabeth replied "We just got out before the roof caved in," she added.

Milena smiled at Prince "They are Sabrina and Izabel Brito, but no we didn't notice any clues, most of the stuff inside was either burned beyond any recognition or half burried," she told Prince.

"Hey," Prince said kneeling down to them "I'm Prince," He extended his hand out to them "I'm sorry if this has already been asked but can you tell me what has happened? It's my job to keep everyone safe and that means you too," Then he gave them a smile trying to comfort their worries.

Milena smiled back at Prince "I remember you, we met in the library some time ago," she told him "We just rescued those two from this place," she told Prince.

"We went in there to look for survivors, and found two, but had to escape before the roof caved in," Elisabeth told Prince who looked to her to be quite odd.

"Lucky you got out when you did," Prince said with a warming smile trying to comfort them. "Let's go find the others, see if they've found anything."

Elisabeth and Milena nodded "Let's get moving," they said in unison.

Remus was nervous he really didn't know anything about Tifa except she was in his class but the bit that scared him the most was walking through a ghost town he once walked through to get to Castelobruxo when he started this year. "Tifa?" He repeatedly called out "... Prince sent me to check up on you. Is everything okay?" He hoped everything was okay, the thought of crossing her dead on the floor didn't sit well with him or his stomach.

Tifa debated ignoring Remus but had a feeling he wasn't going away. Besides this wasn't the time to ignore him she had found something and as she had told the professor, she didn't need to like him or trust him to work with him. She turned cold eyes on him, then she took a calming breath, "I found some strange symbols on the floor here. They weren't disturbed by the fire it seems, however, I am unsure what they mean." Tifa admitted keeping her tone as neutral as possible when dealing with Remus, she didn't trust that he wouldn't stab her in the back somehow. Because of this sense, she stayed tense and alert around him ready for anything.

Remus entered the room where Tifa was located still scared, taking a look at the floor for a moment then the walls or what was left. "Could it be a ritual or something? "Remus said thinking out loud then turned around to Tifa "...Maybe look for a secret switch?" He shrugged his shoulders he wasn't exactly a leader.

Tifa kept her expression neutral as she looked around for a possible switch of some sort. "There are more symbols over here." She told him as she noticed more marks that didn't exactly look burned they were on the floor in front of a charred bookcase that surprisingly was still intact.

Remus went over to look at the symbols, he didn't know what he was doing but hoped something came into his head. Until the roar of an engine came, looking at Tifa Remus asked. "Was that your stomach rumbling?"

"No," Tifa said with a scowl and stood up to go to the door and look.

The sound of an approaching engine made it apparent that the group from the school was not alone. On what was left of Lonely Town's main drag, a pair of headlights belonging to a white 4-door 1967 Chevrolet Impala turned onto the street. The muggle car rolled to a stop near a gathering of students, and the headlights and engine shut off shortly thereafter. The driver's door opened, and a young girl around 15 dressed in muggle clothing stepped out of the vehicle.

"What the hell is going on here?" She called out in Spanish, hoping one of the students knew the language.

Tifa frowned as she stood in the shadows of the door just in case. "Look like a White 4-door 1967 Chevrolet Impala, with a 15-year-old girl dressed in muggle clothing, from here I don't recognize the girl though," Tifa told him reluctantly.

Remus frowned, he thought he knew her but couldn't really place where, he knew it was one of Prince's friends but he had all sorts of friends. "We don't know," Remus said appearing from the shadows of the door. "I'm sorry who are you?" Remus asked trying to pluck up the courage from somewhere.

Milena and Elisabeth studied the newcomer with interest and suspicion, they didn't recognize her at all. Both of them spoke Spanish so they understood what she was saying quite well.

Tifa watched where she stood in the shadows of the door. She didn't trust Remus, so why would she trust this stranger.

"Am I really that unrecognizable out of uniform?" The girl muttered to herself. "Name's Patagonia; Polly Patagonia: The name ring any bells to any of you?"

Tifa rushed out and gave Polly a hug, finally glad to see someone she recognized well other than the traitor Remus and the Betrayer Prince, she didn't know Milena or Elisabeth or even Professor Chainsaw-Hecate. But Polly she knew from before the fight, "What happened to you? are you ok?" Tifa asked her while still giving her a hug.

Casey stepped out of the foliage a few twigs stuck in his hair. His pants were wet up to his knee on the left side and his shoe was missing. "i hate this place already." Looking around, "holy crap what did i miss?" seeing the other gather and moved towards them.

Polly was taken by surprise when Tifa rushed out of cover and hugged her. She could picture Milly's reaction to another girl hugging her already. Speaking of Milly, Polly knew what she had to ask next; as depending on the answer she received, Polly could very well still be a danger to everyone there:

"It's... Good to see you too, Valentine." Polly said, hoping her tonality would indicate to the younger girl to let up on the hug a bit. "Is McIntyre here?"

Melina and Elisabeth looked relieved that the newcomer was known, but they had no connections to Polly Patagonia, thus they kept their distance and waited for something or someone else to happen.

Tifa let go after the hug, she hadn't meant to hug for so long. "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen her Polly," Tifa admitted, but then she'd been dragged on this outing. "Sorry about the hug, I was just glad to finally see someone I can actually trust," Tifa said in a low voice only for Polly.

Polly's heart sank upon hearing that Milly wasn't among this group from Castelobruxo.

"If that's the case, I can't stay." She said. "I'm too much of a danger to you and everyone else here."

Polly's admission was indicative that she didn't have her locket on her, and thus there was nothing preventing her transformation.

"Oh..." Tifa tried to hide her look of disappointment, she had been so relieved when she first realized it was Polly, but Tifa didn't know about Polly's locket, she bit her lower lip wondering if that meant she couldn't leave with Polly then.

Sabrina approached the mass gathering, she knew who the newcomers were straight away and gave a smile. "Everyone gather your bags, we're leaving and heading back to the school. This place isn't safe anymore."

Tifa didn't exactly think the school was safe either all things considering. Rather than argue something that was fact and couldn't be changed at the moment she went to gather her pack and things for the trip back.

Milena and Elisabeth gathered up all of their things and prepared to move out, this trip had been fun
Polly, still standing near the open car door, turned to get back in. She would follow the group back to the school, and hopefully if Milly wasn't there already, news of Polly's return would prompt Milly to return, and she could be reunited with her locket. Only once that happened would she feel safe being around people again.

To be continued...