The town square was bustling in Hollybrook, with Vincent and Crimson standing in the middle of it being at a book merchant with a blue tent and white fgs. The tent was run by a fox harlif with thick gsses.

  “Look Vin I like you, but that book is going to cost more than a few qorin. Do you know how rare a book like that is? It is worth at least 120 qorin.” The harlif concluded, giving back the handful of qorin and tint to Vincent.

  “Come on Red I know you can make an exception, what if I added my most high-quality log along with the deal, this book will help a lot,” Vincent begged pointing to the Stall where Crimson and him were selling wood from.

  While the two argued Crimson flipped through the pages of the encyclopedia where there were many creatures including the banshee, she kept her thumb on the page and continued flipping through until she nded on dragons. Her eyes widened and she tried to soak as much knowledge before sneezing interrupting Red, and Vincent's conversation.

  Red sighed, folding his ears to the side. “Fine Vincent, sixty qorin and two of your most expensive logs, and we have a deal.”

  “SIXTY!”, Vincent yelped in shock”

  “You are insane and those logs are way over the price of this book. Yellowwood is literally a dying tree species, and I sell it for seventy Qorin. How about fifty-five qorin, and one yellowwood log? That should settle it.” Vincent proposed staring Red down.

  “Deal, enjoy your new addition.”, Red said, rubbing his hands together with a giant smirk.

  Vincent walked back to the stall with Crimson following behind her eyes still glued to the page.

  “You better use that it's costing us a lot, like a whole week of allowance” Vincent mumbled, grabbing the yellow log for the payment.

  As Vincent walked away Crimson sat down and continued reading about dragons. Since she was small she always loved them. It was one of the few things she could look back on and smile, remembering the soft blue plush toy her mother gave her as a child. A time when everything seemed perfect.

  She began reading the introduction; “We do not know much about the dragon, yet we do know they have a hierarchy of different species and powers. Some do possess powers such as breathing fire or using their own magic spells, while some can be considered as giant lizards.”

  Underneath the short introduction was a diagram, illustrated by a picture that crimson couldn’t stop staring at.

  Vincent came back shaking his head, “Sometimes I think that guy just wants to start things. He accused me of the log being too small, but I just told him it's bigger than his log by a mile.” Vincent ughed at his joke with Crimson looking up from the book with a gre of annoyance which made him stop.

  The day continued to go by with many visitors stopping by, all giving them warm smiles. Before they knew it the sun began to set, and a young woman came up to the stall as they were packing up.

  “Sorry, Marie we’re packing up unless you want something just lying around that's all I can give you.” Vincent smiled standing back at the front of the stall.

  “No no I’m here to give Crimson this, I baked it st night and I thought it would be the perfect gift.” Marie walked up to Crimson who was packing away some products for chiseling.

  Marie baked her a raisin cinnamon loaf bread. Crimson looked at it confused, never really receiving anything other than Vincent or Jouvins before. This feeling was different.

  Crimson smiled and accepted the tin the loaf was sitting in, “Thank you so much, Marie.”

  Marie smiled back and proceeded to walk away. Crimson stared at the dessert feeling a bit confused.

  “Hey Vincent, why is everyone so nice to me?”

  Vincent packed the st bit of the logs on dispy, putting them on a hand trolley then tied a rope around them to keep them secured. He then took a stretch, and responded,

  “Before Jouvins or I came here, Hollybrook was in a disaster. It Was the coldest winter yet, many people were falling ill or dying. So of course they went to seek aid from the Empire to send them medicine, or coal, or wood for fires, but they told them they couldn't spare anything, shoving them away. Things were getting desperate. Every letter that could have been sent was ignored. The te adventurer had enough with the letters and decided to trudge through the blizzard toward the Empire, but once he got to the gate he colpsed. Someone who was at the gate was a friend, an insider for Jouvins. If you could call it, you would, and he called me and some other employees to pick him up.

  Once I arrived I immediately noticed the way his jacket was made. He was from Hollybrook. Me and another guy dragged him to the closest house we had and tried to wake him up. Three days passed and Jouvins was in the room with us at that point. After the fourth, he woke up and told us everything, how the Empire was ignoring its closest ally for food, and other goods.”

  They began to start moving back home as the mps began to light up. Down the street, During the walk, Vincent continued,

  “Jouvins was pissed more than usual; he immediately made a call to gather all the coal, bnkets, medicine, and food we could. Every car will head straight to Hollybrook to aid them.” We went into the capital part of the Empire and took everything and went straight there. I remember the look on the adventurer's face. He was so shocked.”

  Vincent ughed leaving a smile on his face, “I bet that was the only time this pce saw more than one car ever enter. They all are still very appreciative and they see you as Jouvins family so they treat you with the same respect.”

  Crimson scratched her arm, “They wouldn’t have accepted me without him. If they knew -.”

  Vincent bumped into her making her swerve the wheelbarrow, “Don’t say that, I believe anyone can change. Look at me I was assassinating people for a quick dolr until I came here, and now I can’t even watch Ms. Eliot butcher her old sheep.”

  They finally reached the house and wheeled everything into the shed. Vincent locked up and Crimson went inside to sit on the couch.

  Vincent walked through the door seeing Crimson nose deep into the book already.

  “Alright, what do you want to eat tonight? I honestly was thinking chicken breast, with a side of potatoes and carrots.”

  Crimson looked up and answered, “ That sounds great. Can we have the red drink again with it as well?” she asked.

  “Fruit punch? yeah but it will be a bit.” Vincent replied, heading straight into the kitchen and putting on his apron.

  The stove started steaming and chopping could be heard in the distance.

  “So what does that book say about Banshee’s?” Vincent asked, pouring water into a pot.

  Crimson forgot completely about the main reason they got the book, she flipped back to the page in a hurry and started reading,

  “Banshees are created when a female spirit has died with a broken heart, grieving over another family member passing away, majority of the time Banshees are mothers. Sometimes their whales can even be heard from over five miles and adventurers are to take caution coming across them. If you look like their child they may try to comfort you however this will cause you to join them in death's embrace.

  There are two kinds of Banshees, environmental and haunting. Haunting Banshees are usually tied to a home not being able to leave the house, while a bigger threat is the environment. Environmental Banshees are bound to where in the world they have passed. So if the woman passed away in a meadow that whole area and a five-mile radius is her boundary.” Crimson finished reciting the summary and then proceeded to trace her finger over the drawing underneath a banshee crying.

  She could hear pots whistling from the kitchen. Vincent started to sweat from all the steam being produced.

  “Remind me to buy a new stove, this lump of junk will explode on us one day,” Vincent grumbled walking over to the sitting room to rex.

  As he sat down he emptied out his pockets, throwing out a pack of gum and paper clips, then the stove started to whistle again he let out a giant groan and went back to the stove, “So how do we kill it? Do we use holy water or something?” Vincent asked, now fidgeting with the stove's dials.

  Crimson flipped the page for an expnation on dealing with the monster, now reading out loud the expnation and directions.

  “Getting rid of both banshees are the same but they have different levels of difficulty, they both can be sin with holy weapons or a priest can use exorcist magic against it due to it being an undead monster. However, if none of these are avaible, using elemental magics or enhanced elemental weapons are both effective. Banshees have a weak point on their neck like most undead creatures, however for it to be effective the user must use fire or ice magic to behead it.”

  Vincent said cheerily, “So you win!”

  Crimson started skimming for more answers “I’m unsure I don’t feel like I'm at the strength I was at a week ago with my elemental powers. What happened that night took almost everything I had. Not to mention it has the power to paralyze.”

  She began to recite the precaution, “Haunting Banshees are easier to fight due to the limited space, unlike environmentals. Both have a shrieking attack that can stun, paralyze, or knock out a person. Usually, the hauntings only have paralyzation, but environmentals can use magic by using the elemental mana around them to attack adventurers. We advise you to locate a local priest to perform an exorcism on the Banshee and not allow lower adventurers to engage.” Crimson closed the book and set it to the side.

  “The priest of Hollybrook is also on an outing, the adventurer was escorting him,” Vincent grumbled, turning off the stove, the smell of vegetables wafting through the air.

  “I have no choice, I have to get rid of it. You won't be able to work or continue your pns if I don’t. My only issue is it paralyzes me.” Crimson said, rubbing her ear.

  Vincent's eyes lit up, “use earplugs that should cancel some of the screams.” He suggested.

  “Alright next is when to fight Lana. I believe it should be sometime in the morning before people wake up.” Crimson suggested.

  Vincent finished the meal prep, put it on all the two ptes and walked over to the sitting room. He pced the food on the coffee table in front of Crimson, she started to pick at the carrots not looking too thrilled. Vincent went back to the kitchen for the gsses of fruit punch, while his back was turned she picked all the carrots on her pte and put them onto his. When he came back Vincent was none the wiser.

  “I say you should fight her during the afternoon. Everyone should be in town by then and out of range of the scream if it gets too loud.” Vincent procimed sitting down.

  By the time he got to sit down Crimson ate all the food making the pte cleaner than it was previously, she grabbed the juice from his hand and chugged it with the little grace she had. Vincent sat in shock looking at the empty pte. She got up and took three pieces of gum from Vincent's pack sitting on the table then took a giant stretch.

  “Thanks for dinner, it was amazing but I think I will head to bed. Ya know, I have a big day tomorrow and I need all the energy I can get.” Crimson said, with a fake yawn walking up the stairs.

  Vincent cheerfully smiled at her, “Goodnight I will be here watching the telobubble, tonight they are going to figure out who killed the governor on Elflock.”

  Crimson walked up the stairs chewing all three pieces of gum and when she opened the door with the chimes whistling, Vincent's homemade arm. As Crimson closed the door she turned to stare out the window. She knows Lana has been waiting for her for the past two nights. When they went to collect wood for today's sales from the back of the house she could feel Lana's piercing stare.

  She can’t wait for tomorrow; she has to go now. If she didn't, Who knows was elemental magic she could cast. Crimson left this part out of the expnation in the encyclopedia but out of all the Elementalist banshees water was the worst for her to fight, not only was it going to be difficult for fire users, but if Lana was more powerful than expected she could cast a lightning storm that could harm Hollybrook, she needed everyone indoors.

  Crimson kept staring at the brushes waiting for a slight movement until there she was. Lana was trying to escape the forest with her mist which slightly passed through the brush.

  Crimson's eyes lit up, and a grin appeared on her face.“Well, I won’t keep you waiting, and luckily for you, Vincent didn’t bolt down the windows.”

  Crimson headed towards the window above her bed, standing on top of it keeping her bance. She opened the window as much as she could and looked down. The log pile that sat behind the house was underneath the window. Crimson slowly put one leg out the window followed by the next, now sitting on the window ledge she turned around and began to dangle using her arms as the only reason for not falling. She lowered herself until she felt the top of the logs with her foot, then dropped down nding on the pile then proceeded to take another big jump off, nding on solid ground, giving a pose with her arms above her head.

  Crimson quickly walked towards the shed and used her powers to melt the lock on the door to grab an axe, she knew it might not be effective but it was better than nothing, she turned and started running into the forest wasting no time.

  It was damp, and the only sound that could be heard were the frogs and toads croaking, the trees let off a luminescent glow that sprouted from their leaves and something like veins running up the whole tree also glowed, helping her see through the rugged terrain.

  When she finally arrived at the open space in front of the river she prepared herself, with her hair turning a bzing red she spat out the gum into her hands splitting it into two pieces, and stuck them in her ears. She proceeded to pick up a stone sitting beside her and threw it at the river making a popping noise. It didn't even sink to the bottom and was shot back out directly at her like a bullet. She jumped to the side and Lana slowly emerged with the mist surrounding her.

  Lana immediately screamed trying to paralyze Crimson but it didn't work. The makeshift gum plugs in her ears were working. Crimson's hands lit a bze and she charged without fear. The axe was burning up, illuminating into a red glow from the heat she swung at Lana aiming for her neck. Before it could even touch her Lana moved up allowing her lower body to get swung, she floated behind Crimson and kicked her into the river trying to extinguish her.

  Crimson could feel the coldness surging through her body and the axe immediately lost all heat. If she would let this continue she would freeze. This wasn’t a normal river, it was a spell Lana made prior making the river deeper than usual as if it was like an ocean. Crimson put the handle of the axe in her mouth and immediately started swimming trying to ignite herself up at the same time making the water boil around her. On the surface, Lana watched preparing another attack as the surface boiled with an orange glow.

  Crimson emerged and threw the axe straight at her head; it was ignited again from being in her mouth while swimming. Lana slowly dogged only for her left arm to be sliced.

  A silent ugh could be heard from the Banshee, then a gasp of shock as she looked down at the nub. It couldn't regenerate. The axe was so hot it cut off all the nerves in the left arm. Lana looked back up but Crimson wasn’t in the water anymore but right in front of her.

  The Banshee stared into her glowing slit eyes and watched as her ignited hand was coming straight for her throat; it looked like it was forming into a cw. Lana screamed using the sound to push Crimson back towards the river which made her tumble across the ground.

  Lana started to glow blue which meant she was opening her Aura Gate to unleash a more devastating blow of attacks. Crimson got her footing again but it was too te. Water-like chains appeared from the river and cmped around her fist, forming water bubbles that snuffed the fmes out. Once again she was confined, and Lana was going to execute her. She raised her right arm towards the sky and swirls started to form in the area creating a darker cloud above them. The rain started to fall, and thunder began to roar, she knew what this was, she was going to lightning bolt her. If that happened Crimson would die.

  Crimson tried to ignite her hands again but the water around them snuffed it out every time. Lana began to scream and the electricity started to form. Crimson kept trying, the chains were glowing orange and bubbling. The clouds started to spark and a final scream could be heard Lana threw her arm down towards Crimson the only thing that could be seen was the light from it cshing towards her making sparking sounds as it hit her. The Banshee smiled, staring, but then the smile faded.

  Crimson stood with purple sparks crawling around her with her arms up in the air. The chains were cut from the river, and they glowed a vibrant red with the same purple electricity popping out of them. Just like before she escaped her confinement. Crimson's eyes were also different; they had a purple outline around her iris. She immediately ran towards Lana and started whipping her with the chains being her new weapon The noise of the chains and Lana's grunts as she tried blocking each blow with her right arm was so loud that even the thundering above them sounded more quiet.

  Meanwhile, at the house, Vincent turned off the telobubble to look outside the sitting area window. The rain poured so hard it was bouncing off the dirt path creating dust everywhere.

  “What the hell? There was no call for rain for the next three days.” Vincent said, locking the windows shut in the sitting room, and kitchen.

  “I better wake up Crimson and tell her to lock her window, even though she will be pissy about it.”

  Vincent ran up the stairs and knocked his little jingle at the door, “Crimson? Hey lock the window I can hear it from the hall.”, he hollered with no response.

  “Crimson locks the window!” Vincent nagged, knocking without the jingle.

  “Crimson!?” Vincent grabbed the door handle.

  He opened the door with the chimes ringing, “Sorry but I need to lock that window or it might blow you and the wall away with it.”, Vincent expined.

  When he looked towards the bed it was empty and the window was wide open. He looked towards the desk and she wasn’t there either. He balled his fist and walked towards the window, locking it.

  “That little! GOD DAMN IT!”. he exploded

  Vincent ran out of the room toward the door. He opened it and closed it smming behind him. The rain drenched him the second he left the house. As he ran towards the brush he was immediately stopped by a wall of mist that wouldn’t let him through. He banged on it constantly harder and harder each time.

  “Fuck.”, Vincent whispered.

  He turned around and ran down the dirt path getting dirty trying to find help.

  Crimson was still fighting Lana, the both of them dodging and weaving each other's attacks. Lana was using her hair to fight back, whipping Crimson, and blocking with her right arm until Crimson ignited the chains again to the point where they turned into boiling red water. Lana's arm was starting to fil uncontrolbly and eventually fell off. Crimson dashed closer, closing in the gap between them only to be flung away with another scream, but not before sshing Lana in the face with her chains. She was heading straight towards a branch, and in that instant, she was pierced through her abdomen. All she could see was red, and she was coughing up blood. Lana kept screaming until she kneeled on the floor weak.

  Crimson dangled in a trance of st thoughts, “This is it, I couldn’t even kill a Banshee. Vincent is going to be pissed. Ms. Eliot will be sad, and Jouvins probably won't care, but I know Dankle will. The people of this town won't care either. Wait, those kids, that kind woman Marie who made me the dessert, I didn't even eat it, they care. Without me, they won't be safe.”

  As if it were a miracle she began to ignite from the wound, un-attaching herself from the tree, her shackles vaporized and the electricity left her body. Crimson fell lying on her side, then kneel to stand up again. She stared at Lana whose jaw was dangling, unable to close.

  Crimson reached for the branch lodged into her and pulled it out. Even with a gashing hole in the middle of her body, she kept walking towards Lana holding the branch trudging behind her. Crimson ignited her hands, her hair flowing with elemental energy opening her Aura Gate. The branch sprouted fiery leaves, The illuminating veins on it went from a golden yellow to a fiery red. Crimson raised it into the air and sshed down toward Lana's neck. All that could be heard afterward was a wheeze as if it was turning into a scream, as her head rolled on the ground. The body fell over and Lana stared up to the sky with tears in her eyes.

  Crimson watched as her body started to evaporate into small light particles, she turned towards the head who was staring at the full moon that was behind the rain clouds as they faded away.

  With a small whisper, Lana smiled, “Tha-nk yo-u, fo-r help-ing m-e.”

  Her head began to fizzle into the light particles heading towards the moon.

  Crimson fell to her knees and the branch went out, turning back to normal, without its yellow glow. Crimson fell face forward and passed out under the moonlight.