"Did I not ask you to bring Aqua out?" Volca got slapped by her mother. Anger boiled inside her body. Volca tried her best to control the emotions as taught by her shifu.
Volca has been forcefully sent to school and make friends with people there for Fiona to exploit the relationship and abduct the prince and take the princess all along back to Hell. But Volca was resisting as she could, lying and hiding the fact she is best friends with the two people she is ordered to keep track of. She didn't want any dangers, she didn't want to be the reason for the war. She didn't want the demonic nature take control of her emotions.
"I am not doing anything against my will mother, what I want is peace between the realms not kill each other, if everyone hates the Demon clan it is because we act like we are the cruelest creatures. Why can't we behave for once?" She questioned her mother back.
"How dare you?" Volca got slapped again. But she remained quiet about it. Huo saw this from the distance and overhead their conversation. He couldn't connect things well but he could sense a sort of danger coming from Fiona.
Huo waited until the meeting between the mother and daughter ended. If Master Bo Hai ever gets to know this, Volca would be expelled from the school and banished from the lands forever. Huo decided to get to the root of the problem and find if there is any solution before he reports it, he wanted to give a chance and see how she explains it to him.
As soon as her mother, the military leader of the Demon clan left, Huo appeared in front of Volca, he didn't wish to hide behind the screen and watch it. She looked embarrassed and began to cry in front of Huo'er unable to control herself. Her face red and marks from being hit hard.
"I didn't do anything, I won't, I can't, " she sobbed.
"Just stop crying and tell me," Huo said to her.
She didn't explain and buried her face in his chest and hugged him as she went on weeping. That was unexpected, and for him that was little intimidating. But he just let get. He didn't want make her feel bad again about herself.
Aqua came in search of Volca at the wrong time and witnessed the intimacy. She held back and left silently. Something hurt inside. Still unaware of her feelings. Since she saw something she wasn't meant to. She sealed her lips and tried to forget what she saw. She didn't wish to get in the middle and disturb them. But she couldn't understand Huo. Being with her and then seeing him with Volca. She couldn't tell to whom he was being close and to whom he was being only a friend. She was confused and went numb at the same time.
Yet she was relieved to see Volca back at school who disappeared for a whole day, without news. She has been worrying about it and it turned alright. But something felt off for her. She felt empty all of a sudden and decided to walk around. She didn't let anyone know where she was heading to. She wanted some lone time stay away from Huo for some time.
A few hours later, Aqua found herself in a river bank. It's a border between the kingdoms, but this part of the woods wasn't guarded, intact nobody was aware of it.
"How could father miss such an important part?" she thought. Looking at the river, she could tell that the water had some healing powers. She looked around and spent some time.There was a huge tree she found with a tree hut on its top. It was so peaceful around the place and curiously she climbed the tree and entered the hut. It looked shabby with dust and spider webs hanging.
Aqua pulled her sleeves up and decided to clean them. She tidied up the small place and hung a hammock inside to rest. She placed some candles and scented dry flowers getting them from a nearest seller. She was satisfied and decided to spend the night since she was tired to go back to the school and under go night cultivation.
Little did she know that Huo has been searching for her when he understood the reason behind the disappearance. He understood that she could have seen him and misunderstood him greatly. For the first time, unaware of what is the feeling stirring inside, Huo panicked.
Aqua meditated for sometime and searched for some fruits to have as dinner. She was starving and craved for good food. Sadly she only managed to get a few edible berries and filled her stomach by drinking the clear water from the river. She realised it's not any normal river, but the water coming from the precious fall that had medicinal. powers flowing through so many forests, and she understood why the Demons have been constantly making moves to initiate a battle.
Aqua performed and put out some protection formations outside the river banks and she put out the fire and stayed awake all night unable to sleep, scared. It was her first experience of staying far away, and alone. She was sure how father would punish her when he hears about her action, at the core zone of forest that would be thick with wild beasts of all sorts. She has always been afraid of beast even though she had powers.
She prayed to the heavens and laid in the hammock watching starry night sky. She looked at her constellation shining bright slowly drifted off to sleep, tired and hurt.
She woke up suddenly from her sleep as her formation and spells broke outside. Danger crept in. She got tensed and prepared to fight, drawing out her crystal sword and stepped out of the hut.
"Aqua what the hell are you doing here?" She heard a familiar sound shouting at her from the bottom.