Rykers POV
I can't believe I'm on night patrol while Lyria is doing her first mission with Sunny.
'I'll never hear the end to his bragging.'
It's bad enough he came to me and throw it in my face about how he was chosen to go with her when I didn't even know about it.
'I hope she's alright. He better be taking care of her.'
Ryker was pacing around for most of the night. Sunny said he'd let him know how their mission went.
Ryker was patrolling the east side of the valley.
He was practicing his stances to help take his mind off his sister and all the possible dangers she could be in.
A strange chill went through his body. He stood up and noticed a lot of smoke in the distance near the trade center.
'What have they done now?'
Suddenly he heard screams and knew it was much worse than he thought.
He howled a warning to the other patrol guards and everyone headed to the village to find out what happened and get further instructions.
The chief and my father were waiting for everyone when a battered beastman came running over.
"A rogue army has infiltrated the valley through the secret passageway. I don't know how they got in but they're burning and killing everything in the trade center."
The chief spoke first, "Gather all the females, young, and old in the warehouse quickly, the rest of you follow me to the trade center."
Most of the beastmen followed the chief, myself included, but what about Lyria?
'Sunny knows what to do better than I do. He'll make sure she's safe.'
I need to focus on getting rid of the filth that made its way into our valley.
I noticed Liam running in the opposite direction.
I reach for his arm stopping him. "Where are you going? The battle is this way." I pointed back towards the group that was running to the fight.
"Lake is carrying my cubs. I need to be with her."
"If you see Lyria look out for her too."
Liam nods his head and takes off toward the warehouse. At least there will be one capable man looking out for them.
Ryker caught up with the group in no time and went straight into battle.
It was getting hard to tell which was our people and which were rogues in this mess of blood and bodies flying everywhere.
Out of nowhere we hear a howl saying were in danger and need to evacuate immediately.
'What's going on?'
The rogues start to move in a different direction and somehow I can smell Lyria's scent.
'Oh no, they're going after Lyria. What is she doing here?'
"Dad it's Lyria." Ryker pointed in the direction the rogues were gathering.
Dad went running in that direction followed by Pat and myself. We jumped as hard as we could to get close to Lyria.
She was surrounded by bodies. I knew we taught her well but this sight was unbelievable. A rogue was about to get the kill shot when dad stopped him.
"What are you doing here, don't you know it's dangerous? Go to the shelter and hide like the rest." Dad screamed at her, but I could tell he was afraid for her.
"The rest have already been found and are being taken out of the valley right now. I came here to warn everyone that we are living on a volcano and now that The Great Tree is burning, it can no longer keep the volcano dormant. We must all evacuate now." She screamed right back at her father.
The look on her face said she was afraid and serious.
Dad stared at Lyria intently before howling a mighty howl that told everyone they were in danger and needed to evacuate now. She smiled in relief. Sadly, it didn't last long.
The ground started to violently shake and the earth was splitting open and hot steam was coming out.
I wasn't close enough to Lyria so she got onto Pat's back and everyone stopped fighting to try to leave through the entrance.
I lost track of my family in the crowd of beastmen running for the entrance.
I would stop and help those that were hurt or had fallen in the stampede.
I wanted to find Lyria but seeing my people in need, I had to stop and help.
When I was close to the entrance I heard Pat howl out to go up and over the valley walls and looked up to see beastmen doing their best to climb up and over the edge.
At this point, large rocks that were on fire were even exploding from underground and crashing down catching fire wherever it landed as well as killing anyone that was near the crash.
I followed since it would take longer to go through the entrance.
Once I was at the top, I watched the others going down at an angle at a fast pace and not falling.
'How do they know how to do that?'
I did the same and ran down as best as I could while helping three others.
I run toward the direction of the entrance to hopefully meet up with the others.
I've been outside of the valley so I knew where I was going and many others followed me knowing I was someone they could trust and follow.
I could see others gathering down below. We were close. Sadly, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings and one of those fire rocks was coming right at us when we were pushed aside.
The impact from the rock still sent us flying, and I was knocked unconscious when I hit the ground. I don't know how far I was flung or how badly I was hurt. The last thing on my mind was my dear sister's smiling face.