4 The First Battle

Every two-legged creature in the clearing pushed, threw, and clawed, striving to get to the mouth of the cave before their counterparts, after making the connection of the strange phenomenon with the newborn child.

As Luke's companions used their supernatural abilities to clear their way, Ramose subordinates lunged and leaped, using their extraordinary strength and speed to keep their ground, striving to reach their Mistress and the newborn child before their deadly foe.

Inside the cave, Versailles and Liza were crying hysterically from wonder and fear, passing the child between them continuously as if still not believing its existence. Instantly, the cave was gone, debris and dust flying everywhere in its disappearance.

Thousands of creatures were suspended in the air, others surrounded on the ground gaping at the tiny creature held between the two women with disbelief. A figure extracted itself from the mass and hovered over the two women.

Ramose stared at the little child with violet eyes held in Versailles arms in wonder and tears. As he reached for the child cautiously, Luke shouted,

"Attack! Kill the child and that Ramose, but do not harm the woman!"

Gazing longingly and lovingly at the child for a moment, Ramose straightened and turned to face the enemy. The two women shielded defensively behind him, anxiously looked around.

He quietly whispered, "Liza, the moment an attack is launched, you will take the child and run without stopping or turning back. Understood?"

"Yes, Master," Replied Liza without hesitation.

"But Master, what about Mistress?" she queried silently.

"Luke will not harm Versailles, but nothing will stop him from killing the child now that he knows of its existence. You must make sure to protect that child no matter what happens, understand?" Ramose commended forcefully.

"Yes, Master! I would have done the same even without your order, Master. I feel honored that you trust me with such an important task," Replied Liza fiercely and solemnly, before gathering the child from the tearful Versailles into her arms.

Versailles gazed brokenly at her newborn child, not even lucky enough to be held by its father, and wept sorrowfully at the impending separation.

With his back towards them, Ramose nodded stiffly in response to Liza before lunging at one of Luke's men. Snapping the man's neck, he disengaged himself and dived at Luke.

His subordinates followed his lead and a melee of macabre ensued where legs and arms were ripped off bodies as living beings got flushed, burned, or thrown around like pieces of garbage.

Within the clamor, Liza stealthily and silently slipped away with the child, distancing herself from the battle as she took cover in the shadows of the night. Once she was at the edge of the clearing, she glided through the trees instead of walking out in the open to get to the other side of the battlefield.

After a long while in the dark, light caught her eye and she started into a run, failing to catch the glimmer of silver light in the violet pupils of the child in her arms.

Moments in the form of hours, days, months, and years passed.....

A long while later, the long trek making her tired, hungry, Liza found herself old, weak, and lost in a place completely different from the one she knew. Not different only in the way of conduct and language of those surrounding her, but environment and atmosphere as well.

Almost as if she was in a completely different dimension, realm, than the one she was from.

About an hour after stepping in this new world, still clutching the now wailing infant to her chest, Liza steps out from the last line of defense the trees offered into bright light of the bustling human world.

After adjusting her sight to the sudden brightness, she looked around her nervously at the edge of the rushing crowd.

A young couple weave through a group of drunken friends and witness the bewildered small old woman. Upon witnessing her decrepit condition, they approached her cautiously so as not to frighten and softly asked, "Are you alright?"

Liza remained silent, not comprehending what he was saying.

Noting the crying baby, the man remarked, "The child is probably hungry."

And still getting no reaction from her, he whispered to the woman beside him before walking back in the direction they came.

The two women, one old whilst the other in her early twenties, suspiciously evaluated one another and upon seeing no threat in each others eyes, they both relaxed. The woman moved closer to peer at the now silent child.

"Wow, what beautiful violet eyes she has. But she will catch a cold in this weather with so little clothing on. We should probably go find a warm place to wait. Come with me." She gestured and pulled the woman and child with her walking in the opposite direction the man went.

Without further delay, they entered an alley into a corner shop across from the busy marketplace. Looking around, the woman found a purple silk fabric and motioned for Liza to wrap the child in it. Liza slowly unfolded the child from her arms and wrapped her with the clothe.

Abruptly, she froze.

Sensing a burning glare on her back, she stepped sideways to block the view of the observer and passed the child in her arms decisively into the arms of the foreign, kind woman.

Surprised, the woman glanced down at the baby in her arms pleasantly and back at Liza, before looking down again. She smiled delightfully as the child looked up at her cheerfully. In her trance, the woman failed to notice Liza walking out of the store, clutching a small bundle in the form of a child in her arms.