Fritz turned around with a grumble as Richard persisted “Wait, what do you mean? If you loved her you wouldn’t have left her!”

Fritz shook his head. “I thought I loved her. Then she wasn’t even loyal to me so I left. She deserved worse, hence you.”

“Ouch.”

“You deserved it.”

There was no response. They sat in silence for a while. Fritz snuck a look at Richard who was looking at the ground. He looked like he was pondering something, hard. After a minute he spoke, “Do you love my sister?”

Fritz flushed slightly as Richard turned to him, his eyes piercing. “Yes.” Fritz responded, trying to look intimidating himself. “I do. She’s…” He racked his brain for a word good enough for her, “She’s pretty awesome.” he managed before letting his face fall into his hands with a chuckle. “I’m just not the best with words.” He defended with a slight smile. Richard opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted, “If you really loved her she wouldn’t be leaving.” Marisa’s voice was cool, and distant. Fritz spun back to see her leaning against a tree, grimacing. “What?” Fritz said, trying his hardest to ignore his pounding heart. “She left.” Marisa said coldly, not bothering to meet Fritz’s gaze. “Not that I care, she seemed stuck up and stupid.” Fritz reacted quickly getting to his feet. “Fritz, stop.” Richard commanded, glaring at Marisa for the first time. She shrugged nonchalantly, as if she couldn’t care less. Marisa then opened her mouth to make a snarky comment, to really make Fritz hurt with her words, but she too was interrupted, but not by a voice. The sound was so much worse. A blood curdling scream echoed, followed soon by another. Then a loud clang, and silence. The world froze. Not again. Esme. The only thought running through Fritz’s head was that he needed to save her as he tore away from Richard and out into the woods. Neither of them followed as he ran as fast as he could. The branches of trees whipped his face, causing deep scratches to form but he didn’t care anymore. He ran around frantically. He touched his cheeks, expecting tears to be sliding down them but they were dry. He was numb with pain. Fritz’s ears perked and he turned to the noise he heard. Loud cursing sounded and clothes being torn for bandages, maybe someone had found Esme and helped her, there was still hope. But as Fritz bolted to the place he heard the sounds the hope faded to question. Why were people hurting Esme in the first place? As he neared a tree line he reached for his sword and gripped the hilt. He walked in slowly and gasped. Esme was on the ground, covered in more blood then he had ever seen. Seven rabbits huddled next to each other binding wounds. Esme had not gone down without a fight. But he looked away from her quickly, he couldn’t cry, not yet, not now. “Who are you?” he asked, raising his voice. The band turned. Their eyes were cold and empty. One of the does smiled, tilting her head, never blinking. “We have a visitor.” she whispered. “Get the captain.”

“Who are you?” Fritz repeated, his voice turning into a yell. The crowd ignored him and moved, some towards Esme. “Stop!” he screamed, as one of the bucks leaned down to drag Esme away.

“Please.” Fritz pleaded, not taking his eyes away from Esme’s limp form

“You can break my soul. Tear me apart. Beat me. Hurt me. Take my life away!” His voice cracked with emotion,

“But for the love of god. Don’t touch her again.”

The buck grinned maliciously.

“Give us the map.” came a deep voice from behind him. Everyone turned, saluting their leader. Fritz turned and his eyes widened and tears finally spilled over, he couldn’t keep it in. This was too much. He looked into the bucks eyes.

“Cory?”