Aftermath

JP with Lorem, Bandorchu, Jaxx, and Cindy

Islana saw Alexis down the pig head man, she saw the head removed to reveal, no one Islana recognized.

The redhead felt like she couldn't breath, she could feel herself shaking, her head dropping as if she just couldn't hold it up any longer.

Islana's mind didn't register the final blow to The Preacher, the cult members dead or those that had run off. It didn't register that the fighting was over.

A sense of someone approaching but her mind, clouded in the moment, didn't realize it was Alexis. Her eyes starred forward not really looking at anything in particular, too frightened to look any place else.

A gentle touch made her tense up slightly, but a few blinks, a slight look down to see a hand. Islana said nothing. It was if she was waiting to awake to find out the rescue had been in her dreams and she was still on the rock.

Her eyes followed the hand on her shoulder up to the owner of the hand. It was Alexis, part of her registered that fact. So, she didn't recoil from the touch. Still, what had kept her present in her mind, for the fight, all but seemed gone for the moment.

Gonyaul moaned, “Uramot.” Sleeping beauty had awakened on his own with no need of a kiss.

His lips brushed into blades of grass as he spoke. Hunter had placed him in a recovery position, so that he would not accidentally swallow his own tongue or choke involuntarily on saliva. He started to try and stir, but it was a slow process. He felt like he had thirty thick wool blankets weighing him down.

What had happened? Why was he laying on the ground? Why couldn’t he remember? He last was looking at hunter and now everything was different in what felt like an instant. Very similar to falling asleep on a trip and waking up to suddenly be there. His stomach was yelling at him and it made him feel ill, even though he wasn’t.

He slowly turned his head and took in the scene. He remained in the recovery position on the ground still, not yet feeling the drive to sit up. He could see Islana and Alexis. He smiled gently and inwardly celebrated. They did it, they made it in time to save her. He could also see good Wim. The man brought the Calvary after all, the only reason they were all still alive. He also noticed Voah, he knew it was her now, and Hunter moving about the campsite. They had done the tremendous lion share of the slaying and saving. He lamented for Hunter, based on the scene he witnessed from earlier.

And there was a large quantity of dead bodies scattered all around. They looked a lot like him actually in how they were just laying still. They would have to do something about those bodies, most likely burn them.

Gonyaul just continued to lay there, he was lost in thought at the moment about all the dead and how they probably had family and others that cared or depended on them. How awful this mess was and all because desperate people were led astray by a zealot because they didn’t understand how seasons actually change.

“Islana.”

Alexis softly addressed the girl, gently trying to pull her back from the dark place her mind most certainly resided at this moment.

“It is over. You made it.”

Hunter took the time to search through all the dead bodies for personal effects and began putting them in a bag. He would let Voah decide on what to do with them in the end. However as looted the body of his dead lover, he kept it separate. he needed to know if her sister was in on this chaos since they shared everything as they said. he separated her body from the others as he began dragging them into the open area. They would need to burn the bodies before they could start a plague later on. He didn't ask anyone for help since he knew they were worn out. he himself was tired but if he sat to long his mind went back to the eyes of his dead lover as they faded to black. He had no idea how long he was moving but exhaustion was getting to him. So he decided to take a rest and curled up to his dead lover and hugged her till his mind faded to darkness.

A voice came through the fog that was Islana's mind, and she heard her name like being called from a distance. Then hearing the words that it was over. Was it?

The words came first, then the knowledge that the words belonged to a familiar voice. Alexis's voice.

Islana looked at Alexis, then she slowly looked around, then back at Alexis. Then around again.

It took her eyes landing on the owl that now lay dead and then to the dead Pastor, then to the Owl. She felt a weight press on her, flashes of Jiyn, Hendrick, the executions (people she were sure were mostly innocent), being kidnapped, brought to the rock, the hog headed pastor standing above her, calling her a witch, the owl, wings torn off, all flashed before her in a moment. Then the sound of Gonyaul, Alexis rushing in, the Pastor going down. In the next moment.

It took another minute to piece together what had actually occurred and separate it from the darkness her mind had conjured up.

Another glance to the owl and she felt tears falling. Tears of relief, tears of misplaced guilt, tears of a mix of emotion.

"It's over?" Her mind finally comprehending what Alexis was telling her.

Crying was good, strange as that might seem. Crying meant she could still feel, and eventually, heal.

“Yes. The Preacher is gone. The other cultists ran away or are dead. No one left who wants to hurt you. You’ve made it.”

Alexis reiterated , strangely soft compared to her usually more gruff demeanor.