Hunted Return: Blazing Family

Last Chapter: Beginning Task: Nature's Time Bomb

Ghosts of the Past
Though she had gotten up early, Fiona couldn't find any trace of her sister Kat in their apartment. She saw a small note on the door and went over to investigate and quickly saw that it was from Kat, letting her know that she had been called away and would be back later. Soon after she finished reading it, she smelled something cooking in the kitchen, and soon heard someone else in the apartment with her. She drew a pair of knives and creped closer to the kitchen, preparing for just about anything to be waiting for her. She peeked around the corned and saw Shelly and Carra working over a stove, but it was apparent that nether of them knew anything about what they were doing. Out of the corner of her eye, Shelly saw Fiona and turned to her with a smile. "Hey Fiona. Good morning."

"Oh hi Shelly and Carra, sorry I didn't think anyone else had keys to this place" She said calming down and putting her knifes away and walked over to the two. "What brings you by here this early in the morning?" Fiona asked sitting down at the table while looking at the two who were trying to make the stove work.

Giving up on the making anything, Shelly sat down with her. "Well, Kat got called away by Dad again, and she asked me to stop by." She began twirling her pointer fingers as she blushed a little. "We where going to make you something to eat, but...well."

Carra, who was partially hidden behind Shelly, cut in. "We don't know what to do." She said quietly.

Fiona simply laughed at the young girls, moving up towards the stove as she turned it on with ease, "Why don't the two of you sit down and I will make us all something to eat" She said smiling before going into the fridge to see what they had to eat. She began making some fried rice with an omelet and some slices of bacon on the side. "So where is the little dog that was with you Carra?".

Carry finally sat down at the table, after seemingly concluding that Fiona wasn't one to be feared. "He's here somewhere. I thought he was on the couch with you."

A small whine came from the next room, and all three of the girls looked in to see Chico siting on the couch with a long green feather hanging out of his mouth. He turned his head quizzing when Fiona and Shelly blushed, while Carra got up to get him, oblivious to what the feather was from.

"Haha, there he is, where did you come from" Fiona said chuckling nervously as she went over to him, putting the feather out of his mouth and rubbing his head before passing him over to his mistress and getting back to her cooking, trying not to let her nervous behavior show.

Carra was still curious about the feather, and was about to ask before Shelly caught on and changed the subject. "Hey Fiona, you guys don't have a lot of food here do you?" Fiona looked over at Shelly, who quickly began to stumble thinking she had insulted her. "I mean, uh. Kat's always eating at the guild. So, you know, I thought she didn't keep much around here." Shelly couldn't quite get a handle on the wording, but Carra quickly forgot about the feather.

Fiona looked over to the fridge, looking into it as she opened it to find that it was empty inside, "Well, you were right, she doesn't have much in here" She said looking over to them as their three stomachs plus Chico's stomach growled as they all blushed. "I guess our tummy's want something now".

They all sat and thought for a moment, then Carra had an idea. "We could go to the market." Though she sunk back when Fiona and Shelly looked at her.

Shelly smiled a little. "What do you say Fiona?"

"Sure, anything's better than having our own stomachs eat each other" She said with a smile as they all laughed at her joke. Grabbing their purses and bags, the group, along with their little companion Chico, left to head into town. However, unaware to them, three figures could be seen hidden in the shadows as they began to follow them.

Though Merow City was a relatively big place, it wasn't really a big tourist town, so restaurants where few and far between. They found more than enough vendors though, so the 4 of them began browsing food stands looking for something they could turn into a meal. It was crowded enough that Carra had to carry Chico just so they didn't loose track of him. Though she couldn't exactly tell why, Fiona had felt uneasy ever since they had left her apartment. Shelly was leading ahead of them, so she was to busy to really notice. But Carra, who was sticking much closer to Fiona, could tell something was up. "Hey, are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh yes I'm fine, well not exactly, it's just... I've never been in such a huge place with a lot of different people and it's just very new to me" Fiona replied as she looked around, all she ever remembered was seeing people through the forest, this was the first time she was ever with others directly.

Carra turned her head to the side confused. She didn't really understand, or rather she couldn't. "You've never been in a store?"

She shook her head looking over to her, "I never been around public areas, I was mostly trained to keep with the shadows and make sure no one would see me" Fiona replied as she kept close to the two girls, not wanting to be seperated from them.

They heard Shelly calling them over, so Carra didn't push the subject further. When they got closer, they saw Shelly pointing to a stand with a bunch of assorted fruits on it. "How about these?"

As Carra and Shelly where talking back and forth, Fiona couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. It wasn't just discomfort about being in a crowd, it was something else, something she couldn't really explain. She was so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed Shelly trying to get her attention. "Hey Fiona." She said waving her hand in front of her face. "Are you in there?"

"Uh yes, sorry, um the left one" She said looking back at them before looking around the area, she could sense something was in the air, but couldn't figure out what.

Shelly began looking out in the same direction Fiona was. "Do you see someone you know?" Before Fiona could respond, she was bumped by someone behind her. A slim man behind her apologised, and continued into the crowd, disappearing a moment later. They hadn't seen his face, but Fiona could have sworn she saw a small grin on his face as he passed by.

"Not exactly, I just feel like there's a strange feeling in the air, as if someone was trying to come near us and hurt us" Fiona said as she looked around, trying to see if there was anyone who would look suspicious.

"Hurt?" Carra repeated, her face losing all color. "Shouldn't we run away then?" She gripped Chico a little tighter and slumped her head over him. Weather it was for comfort or to protect him, Fiona couldn't tell.

Shelly looked over the crowd again, but in truth she had no idea what she was looking for. She studied Fiona for a moment, before asking. "How can you tell?"

"I don't know, it's just a strange feeling that there is something more in the crowd" Fiona said as she looked around, the feeling was getting stronger with each passing person.

The three of them watched people walk by, slowly growing more nervous as the thought of someone hunting them grew in their heads. With nothing to go on, Shelly took Carra and Fiona's hands. "Come on, let's get going." She said while tugging them down the street.

Fiona nodded as she walked hand in hand with her two younger friends and Chico, she knew that there was a dark energy here, a familiar energy that she remembered feeling during her time she lived in Genosha with her mother, but she shook her head and tried to ignore the feeling as she continued looking around some of the vendors for some foods.

Above them on one of the rooftops, the three mages from the night before watched the girls walk away rather fast. "Great job dumbass. You scared them off." the woman said to the thin man.

He put his hands up. "Well? The hell are we waiting for? We know where she is and she's only got a pair of kids with her, so excuse me if I don't see the point in waiting."

"Quiet you two." The third man commanded. He explained further while flipping through a small notebook. "We're waiting because we don't need any other problems. If we kill those other two in the crossfire, their guild will trace it straight back to us. And Phantom Breaker and this guild seem to be close ally's, we won't be able to take the both of them at once."

His companions nodded, then the three of them headed to the next building over in the direction Fiona, Carra, and Shelly had gone. They kept just close enough so as to not loose sight of them, but far enough away that they couldn't be detected by the oblivious Fiona.

A Choice
The group had walked down several streets before stopping to look at the food stands again. Shelly and Carra had forgotten about the thought of someone coming after them, but the entire place still had Fiona on edge. At this point, she couldn't tell if she was just being paranoid or not. "Hey Fiona, what kind of food do you like?" Shelly asked, snapping her back to reality.

"Uh, well... To be honest, I've never really had a taste for different foods, all I ever ate was simple soup and salad along with simple meat and rice" She said as the duo, including Chico looked at her in a comedic way with such shock faces.

Carra was the first to speak. "Like, never ever?" Nether of them could comprehend what Fiona had gone through. For the most part, they had led happy lives, always having someone to fall back on. But it was only now sinking in that Fiona had to deal with all these things on her own. Worse so that the one person who was suppose to comfort her was the one causing her so much pain.

Shelly puffed out her cheeks. "That won't do, we're going to find you something you like today. No if's, and's, or but's." She ran ahead and put her hands on her hips, as if about to make an important announcement. "We'll buy a bit of everything until we find a food that you can call your favorite." She said in a serious tone.

Fiona blushed at her proclimation, but simply smiled and laughed as she saw the young girl trying to act serious. She knew that it would take time, but like her sister wanted her to do, she would attempt to trust the same people that she trusts.

Carra watched Shelly march off with stars in her eyes, in aw of her friends determination. Fiona was about to follow, but was stopped by a sounds of echoing voice in her head. "Hey there brat. Having fun with your little friends?" Fiona spun around quickly to look for the person responsible when another message came through. "Don't make a scene unless you want your friends to get caught up in this."

"You! Why are you here?! How did you find me?!" She said with her mind back at the person, she knew who the person using Telepathy was one of the three retrival mages that was assigned by her mother, Sabriel Gulwick, to capture or retrieve anything she needed.

There was silence for a moment. "You really got to ask? Boss lady sees you as her property" Fiona was a little disheartened to here that. Thinking it was one thing, but hearing the words from someone else seemed to sink in more. "So this is how this is going to go. You're coming with us, no questions. You do that, and we don't harm your little friends. Understand?"

Fiona grinded her teeth as she looked over to Carra and Shelly, in her mind she knew it was the best choice for everyone, but in her heart, she knew she couldn't abandon those she cared about most. "Fine, but we meet on the far side of town, alone".

Again there was a pause, like the person who was contacting her was contemplating something. "Fine, but make sure you don't keep us waiting. I'd really hate it if something happened to the bubbly one and the redhead over there." Silence followed, and Fiona just stood still. She didn't want to go back, but she couldn't put her friends in danger because of her selfishness. Was this better? To just give in and let her mother have her way? Or should she risk a fight and put everyone in danger because of her.

She couldn't come to a conclusion ether way, but knew that she wanted her friends to be safe. Just as she thought to leave, she heard Shelly behind her. "Fiona? Is everything alright? We don't have to the food thing now if you don't want to."

"What? Oh no it's fine really, it's just I kind of forgot to get something from the apartment, how bout after you gather the ingredients, we meet at the guild for a feast" She said with a grin before running back towards her apartment, only to be stopped by Shelly.

"Your lying." She said seriously. It was strange to see Shelly without a smile for once. "What's wrong?" She asked again as Carra got back to where they where standing.