"Keep going that way," Lily said, pointing from Pete's shoulders. "We have to keep the sun at our back. Just like Diana said." Lily was taking her job as scout as serious as always.

  The plan was simple. Pete would use his aura to scare the local wildlife towards the general direction of the Red Hand camp.

  Diana and Michael had found them a game trail to follow, that went roughly parallel to the camp. It wasn't precise, but they hoped he would scare enough monsters in the right direction to give Michael and Diana the opening they needed.

  Pete released another short burst of his aura.

  "Wow," Lily said, excited. "Can you hear that?"

  Massive sounds of snapping branches. Howling and high-pitched roars. Some sounded very close.

  "Are you sure you're not affected when I do that?" Pete asked.

  "Nope," Lily said, smiling.

  Sera seemed to think about it, before answering with an uncomfortable look. "For me it feels familiar and warm. Sort of like Lily does."

  Pete saw Sera's cheeks flush red. "I'm just glad I'm not terrifying you." He didn't want to embarrass her further. "Let's walk a little further and do one last push." He felt happy about their answer, but he was also worried for Michael and Diana.

  Just as Pete prepared his last aura burst, he heard explosions coming from the direction of the camp.

  All three of them tensed immediately.

  "Do you think they're all right?" Lily asked.

  "We have to trust them, as they trust us to do our part of the plan," Pete replied. He felt exactly the same as Lily did, but he needed to be strong now. "Let's go."

  They made their way towards the camp.

  This was the part they'd argued most about. Michael hadn't wanted Pete or the girls anywhere near the camp. Just create a diversion and head back to base camp to wait.

  The problem was, Pete doubted he could find the spot again. Just walking in a general direction he could manage, but he had no idea how Michael and Diana navigated through the Borderlands.

  They'd settled on Michael and Diana finding Pete and the girls based on Pete's aura. What they hadn't specified was Pete and the girls waiting in the same spot.

  So now, with explosions echoing through the forest, Pete had a pretty good idea where they needed to go. He'd keep the girls safe, but he needed to be closer.

  After an hour of walking, they saw the Red Hand camp. The explosions had stopped, but they followed a black plume of smoke visible above the trees.

  "Ok girls, this is far enough." Pete took Lily from his shoulders and crouched down.

  "Don't you think it's too late for that?" Sera remarked. "If we wanted to hide, we should have done that sooner."

  Pete thought about that. "You're right. But they'd only see us if they were looking directly at this spot. Let's make ourselves as small as possible anyway."

  Pete couldn't help but feel stupid. This was probably why Michael had wanted to keep him away. He'd do better. He had to.

  "Look," Lily whispered. "A part of the wall is destroyed."

  When Pete had pictured the Red Hand camp, he'd imagined tents and wooden cages for the slaves. What he saw looked more like a small town.

  Large wooden towers stood strategically along a wooden wall surrounding the camp. Two towers were reduced to rubble. One was still smoldering but not completely destroyed.

  Pete wondered for the first time what kind of monsters lived in the Borderlands and how people survived around them. He really did have it easy.

  "What do we do?" Sera asked.

  Pete didn't have an answer. He felt as useless as he had when he first met Michael. He'd felt so strong when he said "I choose to care." And now he'd endangered Lily and Sera because he'd failed to see his own shortcomings.

  "Old man!" Sera said, sharper this time.

  "We wait," Pete answered with a calm he didn't feel. "We trust in Michael and Diana. The diversion was a success. Now we wait."

  He sat down, keeping the girls close, watching the destruction he'd helped orchestrate.

  And hoped his friends were still alive.

  ***

  Michael and Diana watched as a variety of monsters passed them by. They were in such a rush to get away from whatever terror Pete had inflicted, they didn't even notice the two figures hidden in the brush.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  A lot of the monsters passed close enough to the camp to trigger a defensive response. What was unexpected was the frenzy this caused. The fleeing creatures went berserk at the walls, attacking anything in their path.

  "Their defenses are strong," Diana observed. "Stronger than they need to be with good warding."

  Michael agreed. He watched multiple B-class monsters get eliminated rapidly. It meant the Red Hand had a good variety of B-rank or higher defenders stationed here. The 'or higher' part worried him most. Ranking power wasn't linear or an exact science, especially true after B-rank. A strong B-ranker could demolish weaker A-rankers, but some A-rankers could devastate an entire army of B-ranks.

  He'd gambled on him and Diana being strong enough to overpower whatever was stationed here. That was looking increasingly unlikely.

  Suddenly his senses went off.

  "Something big is coming," he warned Diana.

  She looked at him with those ethereal amber eyes, her expression telling him she hadn't picked up on it yet. He'd always known he had good senses, but it still surprised him they were sharper than an A-rank dragonkin's.

  Her head jerked in the same direction a moment later. "What is that? It feels strong."

  Then they saw it. A shock running through them.

  "That's an armored earth drake," Michael said, unable to keep the awe from his voice. "Its strength is high A-class, sometimes even S-class."

  "It's heading straight for the camp," Diana said.

  The drake was massive. Not as large as a true dragon, but still the size of a house. It charged through the cleared ground around the camp in a full sprint, a great cloud of dust rising in its wake.

  Michael watched a grand display of mid and high-level magic being thrown at the creature. None of it slowed it down. The drake countered with its own earth magic and one of the towers was gone. Destroyed in a single attack.

  The sound was deafening. Explosions of magic kept going off in what seemed like forever but was only minutes.

  Then the drake hit the wall.

  Michael felt the ground shake beneath him. The wards in the wall must have been incredibly potent to withstand even that first impact.

  But the earth drake was stronger.

  A large portion of the wall collapsed along with another tower. A third tower caught fire, probably from a spell that went wrong. As far as Michael knew, earth drakes didn't use fire magic.

  "We need to act now!" Michael bolted forward. "It's going to destroy the whole camp."

  They abandoned stealth for speed, running towards the breach in the wall.

  "They're running," Diana pointed.

  The gate on the far side of the camp had opened. Dozens of slavers were fleeing. Michael caught glimpses of them scattering into the Borderlands.

  The screaming reached them now. Not just the drake's roars, but human voices. Terror and pain and death.

  Another explosion shook the ground.

  "It blasted through the gate!" Michael shouted.

  He caught a glimpse of what happened next. Half the remaining slavers kept running. The other half tried to make a stand.

  The runners survived. Those who fought were crushed.

  The earth drake had also driven off all the other monsters. As Michael and Diana reached the wall and entered the camp, the massive creature was already disappearing into the eastern forest, still fleeing whatever terror Pete had unleashed.

  Michael assessed it all with a quiet detachment. He knew this would come back to haunt him later, but right now he needed focus.

  The drake had carved a path of destruction almost in a straight line through the camp.

  And it hadn't distinguished between slaver and slave.

  Even with his emotions locked away, Michael felt his heart skip a beat.

  Bodies lay crushed in the rubble, too mangled to even tell if it had been a man or woman.

  "Such power and destruction," Diana said.

  "Keep your focus," Michael said as much to himself as to her. "We don't know who or what is still around. You make sure we don't get ambushed. I'll focus on what we came here to do."

  Diana gave a firm nod, her eyes glowing a light orange as she swept their surroundings.

  The camp was not quiet. They heard the wailing of the dying all around them. Michael knew Diana had healing magic, but they couldn't use it now. Their own safety came first.

  "Help me."

  "It hurts."

  "Please."

  They heard it constantly over the next hour as they made their way through the camp, checking for threats. They found none. The slavers who hadn't fled were dead. The rest had abandoned everything.

  Eventually they reached a large square that looked purpose-built for gatherings. Michael didn't want to think about what kind of gatherings.

  "It looks like they all left," Michael said. "We should do what we can now. We'll start here and begin freeing whoever is alive and able."

  He opened the first large wooden structure that was still intact. Inside, he found dozens of men. They looked better than he'd expected. Not good, but not as malnourished as the slaves he'd seen in other places. They all wore the same simple clothing. He figured they'd been put to work here, though on what he didn't know. A question for another time.

  But they all had the hollow, beaten-down stares of slaves.

  When Michael opened the door, they scrambled to their feet. He saw bunk beds arranged in neat, orderly rows.

  "Everyone outside," Michael commanded, knowing these people would respond to nothing else.

  They hurried out and formed a perfect line.

  "My name is Michael Cordovan, and you have been freed," he told them. "You might not believe it yet, or even understand it, but it's true."

  He watched for any sign of understanding. No one dared move.

  He hadn't expected anything else, but he'd hoped anyway.

  "We need you to open up all the other bunks and have everyone who is able gather here in the square. Help whoever is sick or wounded and bring them to this building." He pointed to the structure he'd just opened. "Does anyone have healing magic or experience treating wounds? Step forward now."

  One man stepped forward, eyes on the ground.

  Michael approached him. The man was past his prime, with a slender build and short gray hair.

  "Thank you. What is your name and experience?" Michael kept his tone friendly but direct.

  "Number 1861, sir!" The words came out filled with fear. "I am the assigned healer for groups five through ten."

  "And you can use healing magic?"

  "Yes, sir."

  Michael turned back to the others. "You know what to do. Gather everyone here who is still alive. Start with the buildings that are in one piece, then work through the wreckage. Go."

  The man in front of him started to move as well, but Michael stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  "You stay with me."

  Diana had been silent until now. "What do you need me to do?"

  Michael was slightly surprised at her deferring to him, but he didn't show it.

  "Did you sense him approaching too?" he asked.

  "Of course."

  "Help the healer set up a triage point here. When that's done, start bringing people in. I suspect we'll be spending the night here."

  Over the next hours, the square filled with people. They found three more healers among the slaves, but the damage to both the camp and the people was severe. Diana wanted to stay and work with the healers, but Michael had sent her to fetch Pete and the girls.

  When they returned, he could finally search for answers about his mother and sister.

  He tried not to think about what he might, or might not find.