His Quest for Raine

Pressing On

Traveling by power line had her visiting nearly every home within the area, which had shown her more of the devastation that had happened there. It was honestly too much to process, too many homes and lives ruined for, gods, how long? She couldn’t even calculate it. Not a single note, that she could find anyway, gave away what day it was, month or year for that matter. It all just seemed like it was trapped in time or even still, part of a production, a ghost town as seen in Peter’s documentaries. 

The thought that she might be right about Peter never making it back gnawed at her only deeper while she raced home. 

Crossing the threshold of the neighboring yard through the line to their home was just as surreal as traveling through town. It was an empty feeling, one she couldn’t quite name. It settled in the space around her quietly as if sound was a luxury she could count on now accompanied by something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. 

The moment she crossed into their home, she released herself from the wire, quietly reforming as herself, her human form that is, before creeping around. Raine’s senses were heightened as if she herself was being hunted, as if the darkness was creeping around these parts now too. 

Raine shook the thought from her mind. She trembled hoping that wasn’t the case but with the silence here, she couldn’t help but extend an ear, waiting for that tell tale sound of the shadows calling to her as they did in the forest. Not knowing what was worse, the actual silence or the hard truth that something indefinitely had happened here that she may not get answers for, each began to haunt her mind. 

Raine moved quietly through the small two story cottage style home, first checking what used to be their parent’s room. As she moves through it she sees old pictures at their bedside, their bed completely unmade, blankets strewn around making it look as though there had been a tussle, which broke her. Raine hoped it was nothing, that she would see them again. Peter had to have them somewhere safer given their age. Maybe their hearts simply couldn’t manage the stress of what was going on and so he handled it as he always had. 

Raine moved to slide through their opened door carefully, desperate not to make a sound. As her form made it through the door frame and out into the hallway, she swiftly checked the bathroom, completely unfazed by the thought that she might see… things… Raine couldn’t care less about personal space or all of that junk. She would deal with the afterthoughts later. For now, as it always was, she needed to find her brother and that was…

Her mind stopped when she came across her door. 

Her gaze trailed over it with a longing to have just stayed home that day. It then dropped to the handle of which was begging to be opened only to resist. There wasn’t anything in there she truly needed, she told herself as she moved on to Peter’s room. That at least, looked somewhat put together. It was in its usual disarray. A dirty laundry pile seemed to overflow just past the brim just on the other side of the door. It was always strategically placed so that Mom wouldn’t take it to be cleaned. He would promise her that it was his mess and he’d do it. 

They did, after all, take us in and feed us. Another indication that he might be still there is his musty boots that stunk to the high heavens. There were days, especially rainy ones, that they would just reek after he used them. The very fact that she could smell them from across the room promised her she had a chance. Just beyond it on the side of his bed where the wall was not, he kept a trunk he had a friend make into a treasure chest. Their project took forever just to learn how to bow the wood, but once it was completed, all of his dungeons and dragon’s inspiration was loaded up in there. 

Raine remembered how frustrating he could be a couple days before a campaign he was supposed to lead as a co-dungeon master, thanks to her own additions to his game, and all. It wasn’t her fault she had follow up questions that would rattle him at times. Their friends would look for her input before his own, splitting the two of them for a while. That is, until they figured out they were better together. At any rate, she knew that going through his treasure chest would work as if she summoned him back to that place. And so she reached out to touch the soft wood as if she was petting the back of a small animal. 

She felt the hand carved grooves just beyond her fingertips and wondered why they did it instead of continuing throughout the entire piece. Her thumb dipped down onto the lacquered face of it, feeling yet another groove, before looking around for any sign of movement. 

Still, there is none. 

It’s nerve racking, and yet, with another stroke of her hand, her palm this time, she was sure she would hear Peter creep up on her and scare her senseless. Maybe even the guards would have spotted her, anyone… but she was still alone in her thoughts, in the space… nothing, not one being was there at all. 

At last, Raine reached out and touched a cord to search the remainder of the house, leaving her room well enough alone. There was no reason to go in and she was more than afraid to pull another nightmare out with her. 

Leaving the house was difficult. So many memories seemed to lie far to still there. Not many resurfaced, just that of Peter, his antics and well, their games… leaving Raine with nowhere else to go. 

She could feel a pull back to Nerranne again, one she answered with an understanding nod, even though there really was nothing to understand, when she saw her, or rather, a girl that looked like the chick that Peter was set on dating. Raine couldn’t help the way she released herself from the line, the way her cloud of energy swirled around her as she formed. Her feet hit the ground harder than she thought they might making her turn quickly to pretend she simply tripped. 

Not a soul moved but she could feel eyes on her from points she couldn’t even see. 

The most important, however, pierced her through the window of a low lit coffee shop she once knew as Just Beans. Now was branded as Food & Beverage # 3, making her skin crawl all over again. 

Raine forced herself to continue her eye contact with the girl in the window, egging herself on to go through the door like a normal being but her own body resisted. Instead she turned into her sparrow-like dragon, tiny in form and flew into the window in front of her, shedding a layer of feathers that she didn’t conjure. It seemed to startle the people around her as her energy, her soft light, passed through the large window. Her body was hurled into a row of books on the other side of the girl and still she hadn’t moved. 

Raine felt pressure building in her head, the start of a headache, or worse the potential of a concussion began to feel as though that was her fate. She would pass out there and if she wasn’t careful, she’d be found. Her energy crawled through her slowly now, emphasizing on not wanting to be found. Thanks to her body’s malfunction, she’s nearly sure she will be.