After we enter her room, Stella locks the door behind us and grabs a bag putting a hand full of different potions taken from her desk inside it.
She has a serious look on her face unlike me who was trying to process everything that happened.
A man wearing a full set of iron armor wielding a sword attacks our mother in our backyard out of nowhere.
Why did he do that?
Mom used to tell stories about chivalrous knights when I was young. Stories of how they fought the evil monsters to protect the innocent.
And then, one of those brave heroes attacks our mother like she was some kind of evil being. But that has to be wrong right? She never did anything bad. Unless...
"Alice!" my sister's voice brings me back from my wild thoughts. "We need to get out of here. Just follow me and don't do anything stupid."
"What? But, what about mom?" I asked shocked at the possibility of leaving our mother behind.
"She can take care of herself, let's go"
"I don't care if she can or not, we have to help her!'
"Listen, Alice, mom knew that this day might come so-"
She stops herself when we both hear an unfamiliar voice coming from inside the house.
"Hey, you little brats!" the voice was wild and maniacal. "Come out of wherever you're hiding. Unless you want me to ruin this beautiful house of yours!"
We both quickly and silently go under Stella's bed trying not to freak out.
Outside the knight and the woman keep going at each other.
His fiery sword cuts and burns our mother's flesh leaving huge scars in her animalistic body.
But she keeps fighting.
The knight charges forward slashing her torso again but she fights through the pain and attacks him on his left side with her claw making the men back off several feet.
The armor seems to lessen the damage but he's definitely feeling her attacks.
Almost every time he slashes her, she counter-attacks with much force.
He knows that at this point it will be a matter of who succumbs to the injuries first.
"I know that you're trying to buy time for those two to escape." he readies his sword. "But I'm not crazy enough to come here alone you know?"
They both then hear of wood being destroyed from inside the house.
The woman starts running towards the house.
"First rule of combat: never give you back to your opponent!"
The man charges forward with his sword ready to stab through the woman's back. His plan worked perfectly.
What he didn't expect was the maternal instincts of this bear-woman.
She then turns back so fast that he barely had time to brace himself from her attack, which sends him flying towards the trees.
"How... how did she hit me so hard like that?..." He wonders while trying to stand up with little success.
Inside the house, my sister and I try to stay as quiet as possible under her bed while we hear that maniac destroying everything in our home trying to find us.
"Well, the only place left is HERE," he says punctuating his sentence with his ax splitting apart the bedroom door.
We both cover our mouths in an attempt to muffle the sound of our screams.
He then for a few seconds just stands there. As if he was looking for some good hiding spot.
Unlike his armored friend, he was wearing some kind of leather armor. With some metal pads on his shoulders and forearms. And of course, his giant two-handed ax.
"I have a pretty good guess of where you rats are hiding..."
I take a look at Stella. Her face wasn't full of panic like mine. But instead, her eyes were full of anger. Why would she be angry at this point? Yes, he destroyed our home, but at this point, why does it matter?
No. She looked at him as if she knew exactly why he was doing all that. Why they are trying to kill us.
And considering what she was talking about before, mother knows it too.
He starts slowly coming towards the bed lifting his ax.
I don't even consider asking her if she really knows what's going on. There is no way for us to get out of this situation.
Luckily, I was wrong.
A giant bear comes through the wooden wall with a deafening roar,
"WHAT THE FU-" He clearing wasn't expecting this.
She lands on top of him taking this opportunity to rip his chest apart with her giant claws. He dies in mere seconds.
We both come out of our hiding spot right on time to see the carnage happen.
I know he was trying to kill us, but it is never easy to see a person being ravaged by a beast. Because that was what our mother looked like at that moment, a beast.
Not only thanks to her appearance but the way she ripped him to shreds with no hesitation.
She then starts to slowly turn back into a human. Still covered in blood and most important, covered in several cuts and burns all over her body.
"Stella, get Alice to the White Creek. I'll be there in a minute." She says seriously between heavy pants.
Stella agrees. She clearly wasn't faced at all by what just happened.
Stella takes my hand for us to get out but I immediately shake her off.
"No! I'm not going anywhere until you too tell me what the hell just happened!"
"Alice, you-"
I cut my mother off
"Who are those guys? Why they tried to kill us? What-"
"ALICE!" Stella screams at me while shaking me from my shoulders. "I know you have a bunch of questions, but right now we have to get out of here and go somewhere safe, ok?!"
Before I could say something our mother pushes us to the side.
When we turn back to see her, an arrow was sticking out of her chest.
"MOM!!!" We both scream with tears running through our face as she falls to her knees.
We both look outside to see another man wearing a black cloak holding a bow.
"Please... just get... out..." Our mother whispers with her dying breath.
Stella recovers from the shock and drags me out of the room.
I try to shake her off again to go help my mother but this time she will not let me go.
I can only watch and cry as I see the man entering the room and pulling the arrow out of her chest.
I still see this scene in my nightmares to this day.