A Second Chance

"Kygor is my brother." Zarek explains.

Lyra stops untying the girl and stands up. She stares at Zarek with terrified eyes.

"Y-you're not gonna kidnap us too? A-r-re y-you?" Lyra asks clearly scared from the possibility.

I walk in between the two to protect Lyra, also skeptical.

"No, I cut ties with Kygor 3 years ago when he first kidnapped someone." He explains "I've had numerous run-ins with him since. Although I've never gotten the chance to kill him"

"How can we believe you!?" I interrupt.

"We go and kill him now" Zarek answers quickly.

"How do we know you aren't bringing us to him? To make your life easier?" I snap.

"I understand your concern, but you have to trust me." He says, "you're brave for protecting Lyra, but you don't need to. I promised I'd help you make it back home, and I will."

I have many conflicting thoughts. Trusting him vs not trusting him. I sit there watching him for a while before speaking "Fine, we kill him before we go anywhere. That'll prove your innocence."

"Deal" Zarek says.

Lyra speaks up saying: "How do we know where he is? You killed them before we could ask."

"I know where he is." Zarek responds "I've been looking for him for months and I learned where he was right before I ran into you two."

"Then where is he?" I ask

"He's probably in this cave, I learned he was hiding out in this town. These guys being here gives enough evidence for him to be here. Look, the cave keeps going through here."

"That would make sense." I say then I look at the girl. "Let's get her back to her family first."

"Y-yeah" Lyra agrees then continuing to until her eventually Zarek picks her up and we start walking out of the cave.

Just after we leave the cave the girl wakes up screaming.

I look at her, "calm down, we're here to help"

The girl quiets down noticing me "A kid?" She notices Lyra as well then looks at Zarek. "Two kids? You're not the kidnappers are you?"

"N-no were not" Lyra speaks up. "We... Well they killed the guys who did.."

"The kid did?" The girl asks.

"Y-yeah he killed one of t-them" Lyra mutters just loud enough for her to hear her. "Z-zarek killed the other two"

"Zarek?" She asks looking at him again. "ZAREK?! LIKE THE BOUNTY HUNTER?!" She yells.

"Bounty hunter?" I ask looking at Zarek then back to the girl.

"Yes if this is the same Zarek then he's a renowned bounty hunter. He's better at doing the police's work than the police." She praises.

Zarek has a slight smile on his face, clearly trying to hide his proudness.

"If you two are traveling with him. Who're you?" She asks

"We're just kids from the Central continent who got teleported here and just so happened to run into Zarek." I answer.

"Central continent? You two are far from home." She says, then the girls grandmother notices us walking towards her, and she runs towards us.

"Nora!" She yells

"Gram Grams!" Nora yells back as Zarek puts her on the ground. They run up to each other then hug. "These three saved me, that's Zarek! The bounty hunter"

"Really?" She asks letting go of Nora, and walking up to us. "Thank you so much" she bows to us before going back to Nora

"You're welcome" all three of us say simultaneously.

They then walk off while Nora's grandmother is still hugging her while they walk. Afterwards we head back to the cave and walk back in. We walk by the original 3 kidnappers. Their bodies still there and no one else, hopefully that means Kygor doesn't know this happened yet. After a while of walking we start to see a light in the distance. Once we get closer, we can see that it's two lights. They seem to be Tiki Torches, at this point we start moving slower and more quiet. Surprisingly nobody is by the torches. Although we can hear people talking. Just a few not a huge amount. We get right by the torches and can finally see most of what's passed it.

It's a large opening, at least ten times the size of the last opening. It has numerous people sleeping and a few at a table talking. Nobody has noticed us yet.

We scan the area more trying to figure out how many exactly are here and which one is Kygor.

After a little bit one of the guys gets up from the table and starts walking towards us. It doesn't seem like he knows we're here but he's getting closer by the second. We all hug the wall to hide. Turns out the guy was just going over here to pee. While he's pissing I notice my shadow is visible from where he is. He notices it aswell and peeks around the corner.

Before he can say something Zarek lunges at him and pushes him on the floor covering his mouth. The guy pulls out a knife and attempts to stab Zarek but I cast Wind Shot and hit the knife out of his hand. The knife clanks against the ground and the other two look over and get up noticing us.

"Fuck" I mumble.

Zarek punches the guys throat that he's on top of and gets up then he throws his javelin at one of the other guys hitting him so hard it throws him against the wall behind them. The other guy yells for his sleeping comrades. Soon most of them get up after hearing it, mumbling about what's going on before they notice us as well. Once they do they all run for weapons. At some point a man walks out from a hole in the wall. He seems to be the ringleader based on what he looks like.

"Is that him?" I ask Zarek.

"Yes, that's Kygor."

"Ahhh, Zarek! How long has it been? A year? Longer? Here to attempt to kill me again?" Kygor yells, one of the men start sprinting towards us. He didn't get far before Kygor pointed his finger at him and suddenly an icicle shoots at him piercing his temple.

"Don't interrupt my conversations" Kygor orders "otherwise you'll end up like him".

Lyra almost pukes after seeing Kygor kill his own comrade.

"Now where were we?" He asks "ah yes, are you gonna attempt to kill me? With two... Children?" He is clearly surprised by Lyra and I being alongside him.

"Yes, and I will succeed this time," Zarek whispers to me: "you two take care of the lackeys, they are usually weak compared to him, I'll deal with him myself"

I give a nod to Zarek and explain to Lyra.

Kygor begins to explain how that's not going to work, but mid sentence Zarek shoots himself towards Kygor. His body being thrown into him, Kygor in between Zarek and the wall.

Kygor splits blood onto Zarek's face and then yells for his lackeys: "Kill them!".