Don the Hero

Don stared at Florence. He did not know what else to do but stare and stay frozen like a statue. Florence took a step closer. Don took a step back as he came back to his senses. He started to laugh nervously.

"Oh wow, I think I must have entered the wrong room. ha ha ha. I Guess I am late for my appointment." Don tried to walk out of the room only to be blocked by Florence.

"You have heard too much boy" Florence said with a cold tone.

"No! I was just uh cleaning and I slept off. I just woke up right now, I swear!"

Florence looked coldly at Don. He bent down to get into eye level and stared at Don. Don started to sweat as he felt his whole body shiver. Then all of a sudden, he felt pain. He tried to move his legs only to realize that he was stuck to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Don said in fright as he felt the ground slowly wrap around his leg. Florence slowly laughed at the question.

"Is it not obvious? I am making sure things that should not be heard, will not be heard." Don's heart started to beat faster.

"Y-you're going to k-kill me?"

"Good, we have a understanding then. I will make sure it is quick if you don't struggle. I would rather not have to fight that thing again"

"WAIT WHAT UNDERSTANDING?! I DON'T WANT TO DIE....I-I can't die here"

Florence scuffed at Don's remark.

"No one can choose how they die and what their life amounts to. You seemed like a bright kid. Maybe if you hadn't been snooping around you would have been able to live for a few more days."

Tears started forming in Don's eyes. He stared in fear as he saw Florence raise his sword.

"Let me give you some advice, hold your breath and think of sunshine"

Don did not have time to process these words when suddenly-

SHINK

He felt the sword pierce through his chest. He wanted to scream but was mouth became covered with earth. He tried to struggle but it was of no avail as he was slowly covered in earth, turning into a statue. After he was finally fully covered, Florence created the image of a beautiful women to hide Don's shaped. He then carried the sculptor out of the room.

As he made his way to where their horses were, Viscount Bart walked towards Florence anxiously.

"What took you so long?! We need to leave now before it's too late!" Florence scoffed as he looked coldly at Bart. He had acted to heroic in front of the villagers, but he was nothing more than a useless coward in Florence's eyes.

"A village boy had been listening to our conversation. I took care of it though so don't worry your little brain" Viscount Bart did not have the energy to process the little insult as he was more focused on the statue that Florence was hiding in the carriage. If Florence had not dealt with the boy, then his whole plan would have failed. Bart sighed in relief at the thought that they had averted a messy situation.

"phew, thank you for the service I will definitely tell my grandfather of your great contribution to our quest." Florence grunted in acknowledgment and sat on his horse. The rest of the party did the same as they quickly rode to the edge of village. The force themselves to stop and wave sweetly at the crowd pf villagers saying their thanks and byes. some children even made flower crowns for Megan, Bart the rest of the party.

The party were met with roars of cheers as they quickly left the scene like a dream. As the villagers were saying their good byes swam to the back of the crowd looking for his little brother.

"Geez, I told that hermit to call me if he is having trouble getting to the front. I have already found a few kids being tossed around. Now where is he?" Elijah looked all around but could not find him. After making sure he checked twice he pushed his way back to the front where Mary was cheering as the Party left. She looked at Elijah with a confused face.

"Where is Donny?" She asked nonchalantly. Elijah scratched his head.

" I don't know. Even though that runt is a hermit, he would not miss an event like this for no reason..." Maryline nodded her head in agreement.

"Maybe we should look for him in the crowd. I Bet he is getting pushed around." Mary said. Elijah shook his head,

"I am an expert at finding that runt, yet I have checked twice and he is no were to be seen...I think he is somewhere else." Maryline's face turned serious as she nodded in agreement.

They went into serious mode as they quickly vanished from the crowd. They searched everywhere. their house, in the old treehouse, at school, in the inn, the arena and even the martial arts but there was nothing.

By the time they came home, it was already evening and their parents were worried sick.

Betty quickly walked up to them filled with anger.

"Now where have you kids been on day? Even if we have delayed your curfew a bit we still expect you to be responsible and actually come home when the sun is still up! And to let your little brot- wait where is Don?" Betty suddenly cold her temper as she realized that Don was not with them.

"Mommy..." Maryline sniffed as her tears started to flow to her cheeks. Betty heart started to pound in fright. Alfred who had wanted to leave the yelling to his wife stood up only to see that even their eldest was looking lost and confused.

" Elijah...where is Don?" Alfred tried to ask calmly. Elijah put his head down as he whispered,

"...I don't know..." Alfred walked a little closer hoping that he heard wrong.

" Wh-what did you say?" Elijah looked up at his father with teary ears.

"I don't know, okay?! We looked everywhere and we asked everyone but no one knew where he was! I-I don't know where he is." Betty collapsed to the ground. Maryline quickly caught her before she injured herself.

"My baby…MY BABY!" Betty cried.

This was the beginning of the darkest days of the Finch's family history. No one slept that night as they searched all over town looking for Don. Some of the family friends like Solomon and teacher Zen also came out to look for Don. They even went around Bloom and Vineyard village out of desperation.

It has been 5 days since Don's disappearance. Hundreds of kilometers from where Laire village is situated, the party was selling some of the gifts the village had given them for money. One of the items they sold was the statue of a female standing in a very awkward position.

Unlike the other items, they quickly sold this one without haggling. The merchant who bought it was glad he snatched a good deal. The statue was only bought for about 5 coppers. He could easily resell it for 10 silver. As for the flower crowns, he was planning to give it to his daughters when he finally traveled back home. He carefully put them in his organic ring to keep them for drying up and losing their colour.

As he was about to pack up, he heard one of his comrades in the merchant business calling him from a far.

"Hey Lee! Which direction are yah heading to?" His friend asked.

"Oh hey Tom, I am just gonna go a few kilometers east and then go back home." Tom shook his head as he gave a stern look at Merchant Lee.

"Yah better go home now before the Beast storm hits yah." Lee's heart shook as he heard his friends warning.

"What? there is a beast horde? Where?" Lee asked in fear. Beast hordes might be more common in Taurus than any other continent but it was still rare.

"It is east at the edge of Vernia. It began just about 3 hours ago in some weird forest or sometin." Tom said.

"Wow the news got here quite fast" Lee took a breath once he realized he was still quite some ways from the horde.

"Yeah, from what I heard, a child went missing a few days ago so a village close to the horde hired a few detectives from a town close by to help find him. Because of this, they realized that a horde was approaching and sounded the Beast storm alarm pretty quick."

"Wow, That's quite a coincidence. Wait, what happened to the kid?"

"I don't know man... Maybe he went into the forest to play and got eaten?" Lee shook his head in pity for the child. He had children of his own and always warned them to stay away from dangerous places.

"So what is the status of the Beast horde Tom?"

"Well yah now how it is. The villagers close by are trying their hardest to evacuate but how many will make it, yah know? The adventurers and Martial artists close by are not idiots, how many will survive after facing a beast horde? They will quietly wait until the beast horde naturally dies down and will 'come to the rescue' after a week or 2" Lee sighed after hearing Tom's analysis, although it seemed quite inhumane to just let tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people die, this is the way the world works. Even he himself would not risk his life to save people he did not even know. he is only a merchant with pitiful earth magic. What can he do? All he can do is shake his head in pity and pack up and go home to his family.

After saying good bye to his friend, he got his men to help him carry his items to his carriage. As they were lifting the sculptor, all of a sudden the men realized that the sculptor was shaking. In confusion, the men put the sculptor only to marvel in shock as the sculptor continued to shake.

It rumbled and trembled ferociously and at some point even the ground began to tremor. Merchant Lee yelped in fright as he felt his body shake to the rhythm of the sculptor. Slowly the whole market place began to shake which made everyone go in a panic.

"Is the beast horde already here?!"

"What is going on?"

"I knew I should have took that left in Albuquerque!"

Many people started to run away in fright and only a few people were staring in awe at the shaking sculptor

"Those men... Did they give me a cursed sculptor?" Lee thought in anger. He was too naive thinking that, he could get such a steal with his mediocre merchant skills.

As he was thinking this, the sculptor finally stopped shaking. The Merchant squinted his eyes as cracks started to form on the sculptor. each crack sent out a blazing light that could blind a man. When the sculptor finally broke open into pieces, Lee could not hide his confusion. Standing in front of him was a child who looked 13 at best. His eyes shined liked gold but his face only showed anger and distress.

Before Lee could even get his head in line, the child sprouted wings and flew away. Lee cried in shock when he saw this and so did the other bystanders. After processing the information, he shouted in fright at what he had seen.

"AEGIS!"