Hope raised her head and looked at him through her wet lashes. And then she said in a hoarse voice after she was crying, "You don't need to do that, the three of them just woke up." She told him what the priestess had just told her.
"Good," Kace said coldly.If it wasn't because he knew that Hope would be so mad if he gave the idea of leaving behind the three witches, he would be more than glad to waltz out of this cave, and back to the village. And proceeded to go back to their realm, as soon as possible.
There was nothing they could do here and this journey had completely failed. The only reason they were here was because of the priestess, to ask her to heal the damn wounds on his back.Yet the priestess was gone forever, along with the sight of her dead body there.
Hope's mood was still down when they walked back to the other part of the cave where the priestess left Lydia, Leon and Abby.
But, a little smile graced her lips, when Hope saw the three witches had woken up, and stared at their surroundings in daze.
"Lydia!" Hope cried out and immediately gave the witch a warm hug. "You are awake! I am so glad!"
Lydia almost fell on her back, when Hope all of a sudden pounced on her. "Where are we? What is this place?" she asked dizzily, seemed unable to break free from her.
"Don't worry, you are safe. We are inside a cave in Mount Uzu," Hope finally released the poor witch, who seemed almost suffocated by Hope's tight hug.
"Mount Uzu? What is that?" Lydia didn't really remember what the last thing that had happened to her. Apparently her mind still worked on that.
However, before Hope could talk further, or fill her in about the latest thing that had happened during her absence, both of them whipped their heads when they heard someone was screaming.
Abby was screaming.
Hope watched how Abby flew a few meters away, and her body hit the damp wall of the cave, beside Leon, Kace was standing while fuming mad.
Leon was flabbergasted.He shook his head upon seeing how his sister was being hurled by Kace, yet did nothing to help her, he just mumbled absentmindedly. "Wow… I bet that hurts a lot…"
Apparently, when Kace approached Leon to help him to stand up, Abby was too excited to see the man from her dream. And she threw herself towards him, only to be thrown away by the man himself in reality.
"Don't you dare to touch me!" Kace growled in low voice, threateningly. "One more time you try to do that, I will tear you limb by limb!"
If it was not the normal Kace. He wouldn't be so vicious. So, it was the beast.Yet, the beast was kind enough to give her a warning, instead of doing whatever his true intention was in the first place.
Abby whimpered softly, and looked at Kace sullenly.But didn't dare to make another reckless move. She was not yet completely aware of her surroundings, adding that to the pain on her back, and her head after hitting the hard wall. That combination just made her feel worse.
"So, where are we?" Leon shook his head, to clear his mind, shifted his attention towards Kace. He didn't worry too much for his sister, something like that wouldn't kill her. Abby would be fine in a minute.
Kace then briefed him with their current situation. Lydia listened to it as well.
"Hope I think you have to leave this cave now," the priestess suddenly spoke as her expression became worried.
"What happened?" Hope frowned, she followed the priestess's line of sight, but she just stared at the direction of the tunnel.
"'What happened' what?" Lydia looked at Hope questioningly, didn't understand to whom she was talking to.
Hope silence for a while before she turned her attention towards Kace. "We need to go from here," she said, her voice laced with fear.
"Why? What happened?" Lydia asked, she could sense there was something wrong with Hope's facial expression.
"The priestess said there will be many vampires and witches. They are on their way heading here, with numerous of the witches, she is not sure if she has enough energy to guard this place." Hope relayed what the priestess told her.
"What priestess? Didn't you say earlier that she is dead?" Lydia frowned.
"I will explain about it later, we don't have time now, I will show you the way." Hope stood up and helped Lydia to get her balance.
Lydia circled her left hand on Hope's shoulder as the girl supported her to walk. Of course, it was the priestess, who showed Hope which direction that she needed to take.
Seeing Hope was having difficulty to support Lydia's weight, as the both of them trudged very slow, Kace pulled Lydia towards him and let her weight fall on him. "Show us the way," he said.
Meanwhile, Leon approached Abby and stretched out his hand, "need help?" he asked casually. He felt better, though the world around him was still slightly spinning.
Grumbling, Abby grabbed Leon's hand and stood up, "why is he willing to help that witch, but threw me away without a second thought?" Abby used her brother's body for support when they walked to follow Hope.
"Because she didn't have the same intention as you," Leon said while spatting the truth all over his sister.
Abby didn't answer that, yet she was clearly fumed as they walked along this long tunnel.
"Why is she talking about the priestess?" Lydia asked Kace as they followed Hope.
"Apparently she can see the spirit," Kace then added. "The souls of those who died."
Lydia raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything about it. She just made a mental note at the back of her mind to tell about this progress to Serefina once they managed to get out of this place. Serefina needed to know about this.
Meanwhile, this journey became more and more unpredictable.
"Hope, you know the right way, don't you?" Lydia asked, because if they had to fight those vampires, and witches, with their current condition, she was unsure if they would survive.