In Between Thorns and Roses

Chapter 4: Shaken

***Swoosh!

Chione opened her eyes as she felt small rocks digging on her skin.

The air whistled in a thundering roar and the rain pitter-pattered in her back.

It was heavy and cold.

'Just what had happened?' She cannot help but think.

Nevertheless, she was able to sit up. No, she forced herself to sit on her knees.

"Grandma!" She helplessly cried as she saw the kind woman who helped her lie lifeless in the cold pool of mud.

Her whole body was hurting. Her knees are scratched and so are her arms. She was dirty and muddy. Shuddering and old.

Using the cold hardening hands, and the knees that seemed to be vibrating while they kissed the rocks, Chione crawled slowly towards the old lady.

"Grandma..." She called, waiting for her to speak up. She looked around her, only regretting as she saw the amount of dead bodies.

She grumbled in horror upon realizing that it was the very same people she was with within the carriage she just rode.

"W-what do you think you're doing?!" A man shouted he was also one of the passengers. Taken aback and scared as he looked in one direction.

Chione's eyes followed the place the weakened man was looking at, there she found three males who were looking down on the broken pieces and people.

She bit her lips slightly realizing whatever it was that had happened.

The hazy picture in front of her slowly cleared up as she stared into the rain.

The carriage that they were traveling with showed traces of ash in front. As if it was bombed.

It isn't 'as if'

They were bombed.

The bandits.

The word crossed Chione's mind. The biting of her lips helped her suppress the urge to cry upon seeing the burnt-out image of the coachman whose head flew off.

The man's hands were nowhere to be found. And his skin was turning purple. His blood gently dropped down to the ground, mixing with the mud.

Again, there was that fishy-bitter stench.

She froze, realizing the situation she was in.

"Hah! A pouch of gold! We got quite the loot." A man laughed after taking off the pouch which was hanging on the dead man's neck.

Her eyes looked away, and on the other side, she saw another person who rode the carriage. It was the person who sat across her.

If she sat in the middle, she would've died like the other ones already.

"Hahahahahahahhahah!" The bandits laughed at the face of the retaliating man. "What? Do you still have the energy to go against us??"

Another man with a blade ruthlessly grabbed the man from his back. His eyes were brown and so was his hair. But as Chione watched the bandit as he did what he did, he closely resembled a demon. As if his eyes are slowly turning red.

"M-My gold is yours! Just don't hur—Ack!!!" The head of her fellow passenger flew away in the blink of an eye.

The three men who did it to him laughed in unison. The shivering Chione tightly gripped the hands of the grandma who helped her which is slowly turning cold.

She died a bunch of times already.

An addition won't be a problem but... but she can't leave the kind soul that helped her.