Chapter 52

She took off running again. The entrance is on the south side not far from where her hideout was.

Sadly the closer she got the more bodies she found, both outsiders and her people. No one she knew personally, thankfully. All were males and no females and yet she could still hear females screaming.

She slowed her pace seeing flames ahead. She climbs up the nearest tree hoping to get a better view of what was happening.

When she got high enough the sight before her made her both nauseous and afraid.

The trade center was set up closest to the entrance so outsiders wouldn't venture too far into the village. It was on fire and many beasts and men were furiously battling. Bodies, blood, and fire were everywhere.

Near the entrance, the rogues were leaving with females. I could see they were either knocked out or tied up from here. A few were making a scene. So, they were taking them by force.

Lyria heard a howl that sounded like the chief and her eyes found him instantly. The chief brought many male beastmen with him including her father and two brothers.

She had to warn them.

She howled to her family. A warning and a cry for help.

She ran as fast as she could to her family, taking her knife out to wound anyone that came at her. She was not gonna slow down now.

When she got into the battling mess, many of the outsiders noticed her and that gave her people the advantage they needed but now more beastmen were trying to grab at her.

Everywhere she turned, her knife was slicing into someone. So much was going on she lost sight of her family.

She howled a desperate cry for her family to find her.

Her father barreled through the people to get to his daughter that shouldn't even be there.

He saw his daughter struggling to fight off the masses of beasts around her and when one of them knocked her down he jumped into the middle with Ryker and Pat right behind him.

Lex screamed angrily at his daughter. "What are you doing here, don't you know it's dangerous? Go to the shelter and hide like the rest."

"The rest have already been found and are being taken out of the valley right now. I came here to warn everyone that we are living on a volcano and now that The Great Tree is burning, it can no longer keep the volcano dormant. We must all evacuate now." She screamed right back at her father.

He knew his daughter was serious and trusted her greatly. He howled a mighty howl that told everyone they were in danger and needed to evacuate now. She smiled in relief. Sadly, it didn't last long.

The wind picked up and she just could barely make out Nona's voice, "Goodbye my child, may you live a long and careless life." She felt an intense pain in her heart and knew that was the last of Nona's life force leaving.

The ground began to shake and split open. Everyone stopped fighting and looked around perplexed.

Lyria hopped on Pat's back since he was in his beast form and the closest family member.

"We must leave now or we'll all die in this valley." With that Pat took off towards the valley entrance and so did so many others.

Many beastmen were seen at the narrow entrance and she knew they would not make it if they patiently waited.

She looked up. The valley was protected by dangerous plants that were controlled by Nona. Now that Nona was dead, she wondered if they could get through now.

"Pat, try going up and over. It's just a guess but I think we can go that way now." Pat did as his sister had said and sprinted to the top.

All the plants were dropping like they were morning the great tree.

"Go slow at first if they don't attack let the others know it's safe." Pat didn't like this idea, especially since his sister may also be in danger.

He slowly got close to the vines and even touched one and nothing happened. They didn't even flinch.

Pat howled it was safe to go up the village walls. You could literally hear many beastmen running to escape the earthquake and flames.

"Hurry and move!" Lyria screamed. They might just get trampled if they didn't move quickly.

It was a steep descent down.

"Lean back and go down at an angle so we don't fall." She leaned back to help her brother. She also put her knife away so she wouldn't lose it.

Looking back it seemed the others were watching them go down without falling and copied what they were doing. And she was right, beastmen were coming down the side of the mountain from all over, not slowing down either.

This will be a mess soon.

Going down took a lot longer than going up. This will take a while before they can safely get down.