10 Caroline Darrel

*Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!*…!

Under the awe-inspiring lights of the starts; four black horse type monsters, all of them having scarlet glowing eyes, are running powerfully and side by side in a row, at a speed of 80 km/h on a silver E-class zenanium road. They are pulling a 4 m x 9 m red and white D-class zenanium carriage of eight wheels.

Even though it seems impressive as a mean of transport, in this world, it is just one of the poorest ones.

Within the carriage, there are fifteen individuals including the driver, who is an old goblin, and two mercenary escorts, both of them middle-aged war elves.

The escorts are in the early Intermediate Awaken stage, and everybody else is in the early Initial Awaken stage or in the Without Awaken stage.

There are four humans, two monster humans, three gargoyles and three gorgons amongst the passengers.

The gorgons all have the same kind of snake on their heads: The white snake; and as their white snakes, their eyes are entirely black, too. Of course, they share similar characteristics because the three of them are members of the same family, the Darrel family.

They are: Cara Darrel, a 30-year-old-looking middle-aged female, she is a peaceful mother who always awaits his husband to come back home from the war; the next is Kawan Darrel, an 18-year-old-loking young male, he is the kind of person who wears a consistent and gentle smile even in the darkest days, but he isn't just an optimistic fool, he does it because he wants to make his mother and his sister feel that everything will be alright just as his father did at all times when he was with them; and the last is Caroline Darrel, she looks like an 8-year-old girl and she is an 8-year-old girl, her cultivation is in the Third Level Without Awaken stage, and the word that describes her the most is 'shy', because she loves to live within her own world and hates to talk with everybody but herself and her family.

Kawan Darrel looks at his two blood relatives and sees the tiredness in them, thus he says, smiling as ever: "Don't worry, we'll stop to rest very soon."

Cara Darrel smiles softly and says turning her concerned gaze to her daughter: "Luckily, yes. Caroline is still too young and too weak, she must be the most tired of all us after traveling for three days straight from Stormy Cloud City."

Feeling the vibration of the carriage under the loud horse type monsters galloping sounds, and wearing a simple black one-piece dress, Caroline Darrel just keeps on staring at the immense night sky through the window silently, expressionlessly, and with large and deep bags under her eyes.

Kawan Darrel speaks again happily: "At least the trip was worth it, after all the wedding of the aunt Ellen Darrel was just wonderful."

"It's true, it was." Cara Darrel says recalling pleased.

Even Caroline Darrel slightly nods at the words of her brother.

A while later, the horse type monsters slow down and get off the road.

Shortly, the carriage stops on a grassland covered by a few trees of harmless eucalyptus type vegetable monsters.

The old goblin driver gets off the carriage and begins to take care of the horse type monsters, while everybody else starts to set up their camps.

Once the camp of the gorgons is ready, Caroline Darrel let her body fall on a blanket, and in no time she falls asleep, and even all her little and cute white snakes fall asleep at the same time as her.

Cara Darrel and Kawan Darrel can't help chuckle at this sight, and soon they also lay down to sleep.

After finish feeding the horse type monsters, which are creatures in the Fourth Level Initial Awaken stage and have the Steady Gallop Racial Skill, the old goblin driver says to the mercenary escorts: "Robert, Daniel you both won't fall asleep, right?"

Robert, the taller war elf, responds seriously: "Of course. We had taken turns to sleep in the carriage through the trip, that's why we'll be alright."

Daniel adds tapping the small shoulder of the old goblin: "You don't have to worry, we are very competent mercenaries! I assure you that no matter what we absolutely won't fall asleep!"

Seeing the confident gazes of these war elves, the old goblin nods and says: "Alright then, I'll go to sleep calmly." And as he finishes speaking, he gets in the carriage to sleep in his little bed.

The mercenaries sit by the side of the improvised encampment and start to talk of random stuff while doing their job.

And like that, two hours pass without any issues.

At that moment within the tent of the Darrel family, a pair of eyes open weakly.

(I need to piss…) Caroline Darrel says in her mind sulking. She gets up and looks at her mother and brother. (I should be careful to not wake them. They had been worried about me but they must be really tired as well.)

She comes out from her camp and walks toward a region slightly more occupied by eucalyptus type vegetable monsters than other surrounded regions.

Obviously, Robert and Daniel notice this and they exchange looks, they found a severe expression on each other's face, their eyes showing fighting spirit. In the blink of an eye, they raise their right fists and start a wild competition of rock-paper-scissors. After eighty-nine superfast bouts, in the end, Daniel breaks the constant flow of draws with scissors.

"Je." Daniel utters a single 'je' with a half-smile, he then follows Caroline Darrel.

Robert lifts his eyes up and listless sighs: "*Sigh*… What a boring job…"

Caroline Darrel feels someone following her, so she stops and turns to face at Daniel.

He also stops and asks: "What's wrong?"

She lowers her head and says timidly: "… Don't follow me…" Then she runs toward where she was heading to.

Daniel remains without knowing what to do for a while, finally, he shrugs and returns with Robert.

"Hahaha… it seems the girl feels safer alone than being with you." Robert says laughing at the depressed Daniel.

In response to this, Daniel grabs a stone from the ground and throws it at Robert while whispering angrily: "If you can't shut up, just put this stone in your throat, you fucker. There are a lot of sleeping folks around us…"

Blushing, Caroline Darrel keeps running.

*Sigh* *sigh!* *sigh* *sigh!*…

And after near three kilometers, panting, she stops. (… I think I have exaggerated a little with the running…)

Before long, she finishes what she wanted to do, and starts to walk slowly toward the encampment.

On the way, she feels the fragrant and fresh smell of the eucalyptus type vegetable monsters, and after walking for a short while, she begins to feel sleepy. Although she tries to not fall asleep with all her willpower, soon, she drifts into sleep. Her body then hits the grassy ground, and the fall, rather than waking her up, it gives her a soft bed to sleep more comfortably.

Meanwhile, a few kilometers from the campsite, seven characters wearing deep green capes are standing and observing at the war elf mercenaries. They are middle-aged individuals, and they are in the mid Intermediate Awaken stage.

The leader is a 40-year-old-looking elemental elf, and due to his Awakened Skill being earth type his hair and eyes are yellow. He is holding a portable telescope, which he is using to stare at Robert and Daniel.

"This is perfect. Let's get this done." The leader says and nods at a bald human.

After receiving the authorization, the bald human opens his mouth wide and uses his Special Awakened Skill. Afterward, from his mouth comes out a colorless and odorless gas, which is transported by the whistling wind toward the encampment.

Robert and Daniel are sitting silently, and they are quite angry with each other, especially Robert who has a bump on his forehead.

Suddenly, Robert realizes that Daniel is drowsy, then a light of an idea pass through his eyes. He quickly and silently grabs a stone, of course, bigger than the stone Daniel used to hit him, and he then strikes Daniel with it. The blow sends Daniel flying straight to almost eight meters away.

"You seemed so sleepy, I had no choice." Robert says shaking his head, and without hiding his happy expression.

"Hejeje… jeje… jejejeje… Don't worry about it. It was my fault, I was supposed to be focused on my surroundings." Daniel says while returning staggering to where he was sited.

After some minutes of time, even though Robert is trying really, really hard to not lose his awareness, he still closes his eyes for more than an entire second. Obviously, immediately afterward, a rock smashes his face heavily.

In this way, they forget the purpose of being in this place, and simply they just keep watch over each other with bloodshot eyes, and at the moment someone is about to fall asleep, the other one mercilessly throws a rock at that someone.

This doesn't last for long because the point comes where they are about to fall asleep at the same time, so they just nod off.

Once this happens, the seven beings that were watching them come close to the encampment.

The leader glares at the swallowed faces of Robert and Daniel, and says snorting coldly: "How was it possible for such a pair of morons to reach the early Intermediate Awaken stage?"

The gas that the bald human has released was actually a powerful sleeping gas!

Without delay, two of the seven put Robert and Daniel in sacks, while the bald human takes out a dagger. Almost immediately, he uses that dagger to chop a tent, and then he uses his Special Awakened Skill to make the sleep of the gargoyles inside the tent deeper. After doing this, he goes to another tent to do the same.

The others just concentrate their efforts on putting the sleeping beings in sacks.

In no time, there are fourteen sacks with someone in each of them.

"Our boss will be very satisfied with this quantity of 'food'. Fellow bastards, time to return." The leader says.

They then swiftly disappear in the distance.

Some hours pass.

At that point in time, one of Caroline Darrel's little snakes wakes up leisurely. Seeing that everybody else is sleeping, that snake decides to bite softly the nose of its owner. This action causes Caroline Darrel's eyes to abruptly open. She exclaims inwardly: (Where am I!?)

She stands up anxiously, and cautiously looks at her surroundings.

(Oh, I was…) After seeing the eucalyptus type vegetable monsters around her, she quickly remembers how she got here.

(I have to get back to the camp.) She thinks.

Shortly after, she is surprised: (Where those mercenary escorts went? Are they slacking off on their job?)

She reaches her tent, and, at that moment, her body freezes.

And mutters in her head: (It is empty…)

She quickly search through the entire encampment and after a while, she finds no one, just empty tents. She ponders frowning: (Is this some kind of joke? Or perhaps… am I still dreaming?)

After a few minutes of time without finding any signs of this being a dream, she inspects the tents again, and by doing this, she discovers a suspicious cut in each tent.

*Sigh*...

She sighs deeply fondling her own forehead, and wonders about: (What is going on?)

The more she thinks about it the more horrific assumptions she makes.

In the end, she just keeps standing there, looking at the empty tent her family used, and, inevitably, tears begin to flow out from her eyes. And an instant later, her little snakes star to cry as well.

The thought of losing forever her most beloved family assaults her, and it cruelly drills a heart-shattering pain direct into her soul.