As the sea of arrows were about to rain on Zeres and Alex, a thick mist suddenly appeared like smoke being fanned at them out of nowhere. The fast-moving mist enveloped the two halflings before they realized what was happening and within a second, they were lost inside it. Even though the two of them stood so close to each other, the fog was that thick that they couldn’t see each other anymore.

  The sound of arrows flying above them drew their attention but it was futile to try and dodge the arrows as they could see nothing. Without thinking, they both immediately raised their arms over their head, shut their eyes and crouched down in a defensive position, expecting the volley of arrows to cut through the thick fog and pierce into them at any moment.

  But…… nothing came. The sound of the arrows disappeared and the world became very still and very quiet.

  Young Alex and Zeres opened their eyes in shocked surprise before confusion set in. What just happened? Where did all those arrows go? Wait! They could see each other again! Their eyes were the only part of them that moved as they carefully looked up to find that the mist had formed a small bubble around them. They could see each other again, but they could see nothing of the world outside their bubble. They both sighed in relief because they really thought that that was it for them.

  They moved to put their arms down and the mist seemed to move along with them, as if it was avoiding them this time. A frown crossed Zeres’ face and Alex’s expression was one of curiosity. They slowly stood up from their crouched positions and that was when they felt something warm wrapped around their waists. Alex was the first to notice and look down and he saw that it was someone’s arm.

  The moment Alex turned around, his heart almost stopped beating from the shock.

  "A-abigail?" Alex uttered in disbelief but then a second later, relief flooded his body. Thank goodness she was safe!

  Zeres was also just as shocked. The two of them didn’t sense her presence at all! What, how? Didn’t Alex tell her to run back towards the house? Why didn’t she go? What was she still doing here? How did she slip close to them unnoticed? When did she even get close enough to them to be able to hug them like this? So many questions passed through their minds.

  Did they not notice because they were too distracted by the thought that they were about to die? Or was it because the mist covered up her movements? Both theories seemed plausible.

  They both looked at Abigail and saw that she had her eyes closed but it wasn’t because she was taking a nap, obviously. They could tell she was concentrating…… concentrating on what? What was she doing?

  The two looked at each other and then back at Abigail but then they noticed that the thick mist was slowly thinning out, exposing the forest around them slowly. Their gaze immediately flew towards the horde of attackers but what appeared before their eyes shocked them once more.

  They thought that the mist was disappearing but that wasn’t the case at all! It was as if the tiny, tiny particles drew together into tiny droplets which then stretched out into long, thin needles suspended in the air. These crystal-like needles were floating in the air around them, forming a protective shield. But these weren’t just a protective barrier, these were weapons, too. The duo’s eyes fell on the ground before them and the sea of arrows that were aimed at them finally came into view. These were lying on the ground, broken into fragments, as if they had been cut into a thousand pieces.

  And these needles were now pointing at their human attackers, who all looked terrified. They dropped their weapons as they backed away slowly, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

  "Retreat!!" a deep voice echoed and they finally heard the humans footsteps running away as if they had seen a monster.

  Young Alex and Zeres were in total awe. Was this Abigail’s doing? Was this her power?

  They glanced at Abigail again to see that her eyes were still closed and the two halflings didn’t dare move as they glanced at each other with questioning eyes, as if asking the other what they should do.

  Gladly, the young woman sucked in a deep breath and finally opened her eyes. The needles hanging in the air seemed to have dissolved and turned into a thick mist once again. The mist fell downwards, enveloping the ground before it slowly disappeared.

  "Are you guys okay?" Abigail asked, checking on both of them. When she saw that they were wounded, a worried look immediately appeared on her face. "Let’s go back to my house. We need to treat your wounds," she said to both of them. She then knelt in front of Zeres as she studied his wound. An arrow had pierced through his leg. "Can you walk?" she asked as she looked up at him.

  "Of course I can walk," Zeres said indignantly. He straightened up and the moment he tried to put his weight on the wounded leg, it gave out from under him.

  Alex went over to him and held his hand out, offering his help but Zeres swatted it away, determined to show Abigail that he wasn’t a weakling. However, from that short show to pride, he knew he wouldn’t be able to walk with it.

  "Look," Alex said. "Just let me help you. I don’t like owing anybody. We can call it even after this, alright?"

  Zeres looked at Alex with some resentment. Unfortunately, Zeres had no choice. It was either accept this vampire’s help or be a burden to Abigail, so Zeres pushed his pride down and took Alex’s hand. He stood up and leaned on Alex, putting all his weight on his good leg, and Alex acted as a crutch.

  Thus, the trio headed home.