Escaping Homes

^^TAVERN

  Ember looked left as she saw two of the city guards drinking liqueur and talking about different things ranging from their daily activities to beautiful damsels. Speaking of which Ember was inches away.

  The first one whistled and she politely ignored them as usual. They were bunch of blithering idiots who took their time to make mockery of life. She heard the second one say "Come and seat on my lap girl".

  She wrinkled her face in disgust as she imagined herself trying such rubbish. "Have your drink" she faced the village drunk. He nodded as he drank on his twelfth beer just that night. The first city guard yelled.

  "I called you, how dare you disrespect me by not answering?" she bowed her head low before clenching her fist. Ever since she was a young child, she worked here in this tavern for her daily bread.

Her parents according to her foster mother died because of some crazy shit she didn't want to give in details. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk to her about it. Her foster father, Lazlo owned the tavern and took care of it for years.

Ember looked to see her younger brother, Rainer holding a tankard watching the drama with an evil look. She gave him a look to keep calm when she saw that deadly look of warning in his eyes.

The city guard walked to her and spanked her ass and she got infuriated at once. "How dare you?" she growled as she turned to slap his hands but he held her hands high up and attempted to touch her breast.

Rainer was quite angry at what was happening. Lazlo was too old to even stop the city guards. They were very mean and could get away with whatever they did to the locals. She felt his calloused hands wipe her front and she growled.

"Shut it angry kitty" he said and she became angry. She could not even say no to him. She felt a strange rush of adrenaline pump through her veins. It was cold and not encouraging. She used anger and pushed him.

As expected, he only staggered and did not fall. She saw him gather morale and tried to hit her but she pushed him and the fire from her hands burnt his left cheek. "Damn you, what the hell?" he asked and the other people in the tavern looked with surprised and mixed fear.

She was shocked with what she did. She couldn't believe that right now, her hands were on fire and she couldn't feel burnt. She began to hear murmuring running across the locals in the tavern.

<<What just happened here?< p>

<<Is she a witch?< p>

<<She must be sentenced to death< p>

<<So we have a witch amongst our midst?< p>

<<She must be banished< p>

  The second city guard tried to attack her but she pushed him backwards with her hands and he coughed then fell. Shockingly, he didn't move a bit. It was quite compelling that the village drunkard had to go near his body and touch him.

  Ember looked confused at what she had done. It was so strange but right now, she felt a little bit better after hurting the city guard. She glared at the other one she had singed his cheek and took a deep breath.

  "He is dead!" the drunken man confirmed and many people gasped. One man stood up and scowled. "Hey drunkard, what do you know you are saying?" he said taking tentative steps towards the corpse.

  "Touch his heart for yourself if you think I am lying" he spoke plainly and the man did just that. His face became pale when he saw that he was dead. "You have killed a city guard Ember and you must pay the consequences".

  She gasped in fright when she saw the anger in the villager's eyes. Two men went to block the gate at once and the rest walked menacingly to her. She shook her head and moved back scared. 

She sensed Rainer looking at her and she saw him give her eye signal to rush through the backdoor. She weighed her chances and when she saw it was very slim, she decided to use her instincts.

Of course her instincts were what she had. Rainer smashed the bowl he was holding and for a split second, everyone turned to his direction and she used the opportunity to run. She nimbly slid beneath a table and scraped her knees.

That was the least of her worries. She ran towards the kitchen with Rainer hot on her heels. "Lazlo looked as Rainer passed him. "Quickly, escape, I don't think if I can hold those angry tavern frequents any longer" 

^^CELLAR 

Rainer nodded briskly before Lazlo continued "Take this amulet, be safe" he said handing Rainer a moonstone-coloured amulet. He threw himself to prevent them. Rainer rushed to the little chamber which they shared right in the big kitchen.

  "Let us get going, now" she barked as she grabbed the beaver skin bag and pushed a crate of ale revealing a staircase. She nodded and they walked in. Carefully, Rainer pushed back the crate back in place before rushing down.

  They were going down to the cellar, which was as old as the tavern itself. Rainer followed her quickly as she navigated her way through the crates of supplies. It was very dusty and with the way things were going, if she didn't lead them to land, he would faint from dust.

  She reached the end of the cellar and looked at the wall. "We will have to crawl, we are directly under the Ghoulish Forest" she said and she calmed down as she let fire glow on her fingers of her left hand.

  She used it to navigate their way as they crawled slowly and tediously. At this rate, he was surely prepared to die. "Ember" he called her softly and she said "Eh". When she said this, the illumination went off.

  This left them in darkness. "Can you put it back on?" he asked totally impatient about moving in the dark. "I am trying" she said pausing to let the same energy course through her veins and then her fingers but nothing worked.

  "What is happening Ember?" he asked and she shook her hands. "I seriously don't know Rain" she said trying again but still nothing works. "Damn it" she cussed as she began crawling in fury. 

  "How in seven hells did you do this fire thingy?" he asked and she closed her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me you could do this? Or did you regard me as a child who can't know a single thing?" he asked and she closed her eyes.

  "It is not like" she tried to soothe him down but it was not working in anyway. She was 19 and he was 17 so due to the fact that he was not past the age of maturity which was 19, she always taunted him and treated him like a puny child.

  She had to seat cross-legged on the bare earth and faced Rainer. "Please don't talk like that. I regard you as my brother. I didn't know how to feel when I experienced the signs" she apologized.

  "And when did this happen?" he asked and she took a long breath and spoke "It started the day I…"