"This place sort of resembles the Nether from Minecraft, if I'm being honest. But I highly doubt they have computers, let alone playing Minecraft," I half-jokingly told my friends, but the response from Valerie surprised me. "Yeah you're right, they have never heard of gadgets. Did you guess that?" Valerie chuckled, "Minecraft is a nice game, I used to play it a lot."
I grinned, learning that Valerie and I had a common hobby reassured me a bit, as I realized that my new friends weren't so different from me, after all.
As we walked through the streets, the villagers glared at us with unmistakable distrust - disgust, even. Despite this, we still knocked from door to door, with the slightest hope that we could possibly find Ashley's parents, and find a place where we could take shelter from.
By midday, our clothes were soaked from our sweat. We were far from giving up, but it felt like we were going to collapse from fatigue any second. So we found a narrow back alley where we sat down to take a break and eat our food.
Willow, always one to be prepared ahead of time, calculated how much food we had and how long it would possibly last us. As everything goes, there was good and bad news. The food was enough to last us a few days, which was long enough for us to travel to Azuris, the Water Dynasty. However, it would not be long enough to let us travel to any other kingdoms.
"There are not many more houses left to visit, I'm sure we can find Ashley's parents," Elena assured us.
"I do wish that I was as optimistic as you, Elena," I sighed.
"Well sitting around and doing nothing isn't going to help you with being optimistic or finding Ashley's family anyway. So let's go, guys!" She quickly skipped off, and the others and I groaned before reluctantly following her.
Whether Ashley's parents would take us in or not, we would have to stay the night at Ignis. It was too dangerous for us to cross the woods again, being in our states - we would have no strength to fight back, and even though the crime rates were high in this kingdom, it would be better than staying in the forest.
It was not until nightfall did we find Ashley's family. Knock. No one was answering the door, so we knocked again, and footsteps could be heard coming from inside the house.
"Hello?" The door eased open to reveal a woman with brilliant red hair and a haunting similarity to Ashley. "I'm sorry but who are you and how can I help you?"
She looked at Ashley curiously, and she looked past her and right at us. "So you're those kids claiming to be from the prophecy, huh? I've heard all around Ignis about the trouble you've been causing already, so get out of my face! I don't want to see you!"
Just then, a man appeared behind the woman, and he asked, "Who are these people, Hestia?"
"I-I'm sorry but I believe that Ashley is your child," I stammered.
"Yeah, I abandoned her when she was still a gemstone. I didn't and still don't want to raise a kid who is in the prophecy." The woman - Hestia? huffed, "Now get out of my face before I burn you down to ashes." And then the door was slammed shut in our faces with a loud bang.
From the corner of my eye, I could see a tear slide down Ashley's face, but no one said anything and the silence hung in the air for a few moments until I suggested we go back to the alley to stay the night.
"It's not like we have any other choice, do we?" Valerie said and then laughed sadly as she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. We all comforted Ashley as we went back.