"It's ok," Diane said patting her back, "There was no way you could have known."
"But to grow up in a household where your parents spent so much time hating each other. Watching your father consume himself with alcohol and work. While you and your mother were home feeling neglected and forgotten. Then your mother getting a job too and leaving you to fend for yourself." Nisse pulled away and looked Diane in her eyes, "No wonder your family was so important to you. You didn't want to see your own kids go through the same pain you did."
Diane thought back to the memories that Nisse dredged up for her. It wasn't just the feeling of loneliness. It was feeling as if your existence didn't matter anymore. You were no longer loved but a burden, a chore to be dealt with. She blocked her parents from her life for so long she had completely forgotten about how it felt growing up. She had taught herself early on in her life to toughen up, keep her feeling buried deep. That is until she met Mike. He had a way of making her important again. Like nothing else would ever be able to replace her in his life. He showered her with affection and love that was a balm for old wounds. He became her new family and filled the void in her heart. She was the most important person in the world to him. That is until Lisa's untimely death. Even before she died when he was still a sophomore in college he was toying with the idea of time dilation and inter-dimensional travel. Seeing Jerry so devastated and heart broken, he slowly started to dedicate more and more time into helping his best-friend. Even when Jerry said he didn't want or need Mike's help he wouldn't stop. Diane slowly became less and less important. With the birth of their first-born Diane hoped it would change Mike's focus, and for a little while it did. He was so excited to be a new dad he would rush home early just to see her and Tom. By the time Tom was one he had already reverted back to his old was. When Stacy was born he was an excited dad again and came home every day, but it lasted even shorter this time. Diane did all she could to be there for her kids every day, but as the birthdays and holidays went by with Mike there less and less, she could see a change in her kids. They were starting to feel neglected by their father. It all came full circle for her one day when Tom was almost eleven. He had a little league game and he was really hoping Mike would be there. Mike gave promises all the way up to the day of the game. Tom had hit his first home run in a game and was so excited, until he looked over and saw his father wasn't there. His team mates and coach all ran out to home base to congratulate him. But Diane knew, she could see the fake smile he had plastered on his face. After the game, on the ride home Tom asked her why he wasn't important to his father. Hearing those words broke her heart. She knew Mike loved them he just didn't know how to prioritize his life. He tried to make up for it, but the damage was already done.
Diane stood up and shook her head to clear it of the sad memories and to focus herself on the task at hand. She didn't want to practice throwing fireballs on a tree because she didn't want to accidentally start a forest fire. She slowly turned in a circle looking for something that looked suitable to practice on, when she spotted a cliff face not too far from them. Since she didn't look into Nisse's memories past her fireball training, she took this time to see what other spells Nisse was capable of. She was surprised to discover that besides fire Nisse had a limited control of water, wind, and plant-life. Nisse was strongest with fire so that was her go to spell of choice. As they approached the cliff face Nisse was concerned that this might not be a good spot to practice. The cliff was thirty feet high with a small cave entrance about eight feet tall to the left of where they stood. Nisse looked around hoping this wasn't a Chricktar nest.
Diane could feel her worry thru the bond, "What's a Chricktar nest?"
"Hmmm.... how to explain? Imagine a nine foot tall bear from your world mixed with a beetle. It has six legs, a shiny blue, black, or green insect shell with patches of brown or black fur. Its head is that of a bear with razor sharp teeth. And some of its feet end in claws and some are just sharp insect pincers. They follow a queen and are very territorial. They will attack relentlessly to protect their hive. And they take a very long time to calm down when aggravated. They will follow you till either you are dead, or they are all dead." Nisse explained to her.
"Well I don't see or hear anything around here, so I think we should be fine."
Diane looked to the top of the cliff and cleared her mind. She closed her eyes and focused her energy into her hands, visualizing the fireball appearing before her outstretched palms before pushing the energy away with all her might. Since Diane had no idea exactly how powerful she was she didn't realize her mistake until it was too late. As she opened her eyes she saw a white fireball fifteen feet across streaking thru the air toward the cliff. Upon impact it exploded, and the flash was so bright it over powered the suns in the sky and lit the forest up, kind of like when a nuclear bomb goes off. The force of the blast sent debris everywhere and topples a couple trees that were very close by. When Diane and Nisse looked again half the cliff face was missing. Nisse started to congratulate Diane but then she heard a clicking sound coming from the cave. She looked back over her shoulder just in time to see a Chricktar stick its head out to see what was there. As soon as it spied them it let out this hissing howl that sounded like a mix between a snake and a dog. It ran out of the cave and it was as if a stopper had been loosened as hundreds of them poured out after it. They swarmed over tree and some even climbed the rock face of the cliff. The Chricktars where in a frenzy and they were head right for them. Nisse flew high into the air to escape the coming horde. Diane grabbed her sword and tried to devise a quick battle plan. The Chricktars were too fast for her to outrun them all. She knew it was her fault they were attacking, but she had to defend herself no matter the cost. She pictured Tryna's moves in her head and charged the beast in the front. She sliced the first diagonally taking its head and one of its arms off. She charged the next one with her left shoulder sending it flying backwards and knocking down several of its brethren giving herself enough room to dodge to the right and decapitate the next one.
Nisse from her vantage point could see that some of the swarm had already started spreading out to surround Diane. She knew that if she didn't do something soon Diane would be blindsided for sure. So Nisse started raining fireballs down from above. Her accuracy wasn't the best, but she was creating enough of a distraction that it gave Diane more time to attack without being overwhelmed.
Diane knew she was going to have to come up with a better strategy then charging in head first. There were just too many of them. She needed a way to take out more than one or two at a time. While she was fighting she got a weird glimpse of her view of the Chricktars and Nisse's view at the same time. This distracted her and allowed a Chricktar to get the drop on her. It came in from behind and to the right knocking her down onto her left shoulder. She was able to get her arm in the way of its open mouth just in time and it bit down and shook it head violently. Diane got her legs bent and planted her feet against its chest. She kicked off with all her might sending it flying up over the tree tops. She looked at her arm expecting to see a bloody mess and was very surprised to only see the Chricktars teeth marks and no blood. Nisse fireballs were creating a space around her, but she could feel Nisse tiring from her efforts. She looked around and spotted the clearing she was just sitting in with Nisse. She sent Nisse her idea and started running for the clearing. Nisse stopped shooting fireballs and the Chricktars quickly followed. Diane ran and started jumping from tree to tree getting higher and higher. The Chricktars swarmed into the clearing climbing on each other and the trees to try and catch up to her. When she felt she was high enough she jumped off the last tree doing a backwards flip, at the same time she gathered all her energy, and when she was facing upside down she launched the biggest fireball she could muster directly into the swarm. The explosion blinded Diane for a second and she ended up crashing into the branch she was trying to land on. She tumbled for a while before finally snagging onto a branch twenty feet off the ground. As she hung there breathing heavily, exhaustion weakening her grip, there came a rumbling sound. Diane dropped down to the next branch that was five feet below her and hung onto the tree as a sink hole started to open up where her explosion just was. The Chricktars that had survived her fireball were getting up and stumbling back toward their hive. The sink hole was quickly opening up taking rocks and trees into it. Diane had to jump from the tree she was in as it too fell into the sink hole. Suddenly a loud roar pierced the air, emanating from the sink hole. As Diane struggled to her feet, a giant snake head with spikes running from its neck down both sides of its body rose out of the hole and began grabbing Chricktars in its mouth swallowing them hole. It locked eyes with Diane and leaned forward letting loose another ear splitting roar.
Diane shook her head, "You have GOT to be fucking kidding me....."