Incident 27 by Scott Kinkade Page A

and bring you back to
the Academy for questioning.”
     
    He
waggled a chastising finger in front of her. “Bad girls should be punished. But
I’ll let you off with a warning this time. Farewell, Ev. We’ll meet again real
soon. I’m sure of that.”  
     
    Maya
shot an arrow at him which speared the couch. However, Arcturus was no longer
sitting on it. Now he stood in the doorway, a testament to his incredible
god-speed.
     
    And
in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
     
    Maya
put a hand on Ev’s shoulder. “Are you OK?”
     
    “I
don’t know,” he said. He belatedly realized that meant he wasn’t OK.
     
    “We
need to tell the Academy about this,” she said.
     
    “No. I’ll tell them when I’m good and ready. Until then, I want to keep this
quiet.”
     
    “But
Ev—”
     
    “Please.”
     
    “All
right. I won’t tell anyone.”
     
    “Thanks,”
he said.
     
    The
rest of the team suddenly came into the house. “Where have you two been?” Daryn
asked.
     
    “Yeah.
We lost the both of you a short time ago,” Jaysin said.
     
    “We’re
fine,” Ev said. “We finished off the refghasts in this area and we came in here
to look for survivors.”
     
    “We
finished off the refghasts in our area as well,” CiCi said. She was very
chipper about it.
     
    Daryn
looked around. “Well? Did you find any?”
    Of
course they hadn’t. They had, in fact, completely forgotten about the people of
this village during their chat with Arcturus Reich. Ev said, “Uh…not yet. We
think they might be holed up in the cellar, though. We should check.”
     
    After
a brief search, they found the stairs leading down to the cellar. At the bottom
was a door that wouldn’t budge. Daryn knocked on it. “Hello? Is anyone down
here? We took care of the monsters.”
     
    From
behind the door, a voice responded. “Faith’n’grovery! Are ye our saviors?”
     
    They
exchanged curious glances on the stairs. “‘Faith’n’grovery’?” Jaysin said.
     
    “It’s
a common expression in the Tru Republic,” Daryn explained. “It basically means
‘Bethos be praised’.” To the people in the cellar he said, “Yeah, I guess you could
say we’re your saviors. You can come out now.”
     
    There
were loud sounds as something ripped away from the door on the other side.
After a few minutes the door opened and three red-haired people emerged. From
what Ev could tell, it was a husband and wife with their young son. “Oh, thank
ye so much! It was ever so frightful when those monsters showed up,” the woman
said.
     
    “Thank
nothing of it,” Ev said. “It’s our job to help people.”
     
    “Just
who exactly are you?” the man asked. His accent wasn’t as pronounced as the
woman’s.
     
    Ev
scratched his head. “Well…I guess you could say we’re exterminators. We took
care of the infestations in this village. Don’t worry; you don’t owe us
anything.”
     
    The
man scrutinized them. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
     
    “We’re…sorta
from everywhere ,” CiCi said.
     
    “What
were those ghastly beasts?” the woman said.
    “Ref—”
Ev said but was cut off by Daryn elbowing him in the ribs.
     
    “I’m
afraid we’re not at liberty to say. But rest assured, if any more show up,
we’ll deal with them again.”
     
    “Well…um…thank
ye kindly. I’m Jenny, by the way. Jenny O’Hare. And this is my husband
Michael.” In the Tru Republic, men took their wives’ last name when married.
     
    “Nice
t’meet you,” Jaysin said.    
     
    “Same
here,” Maya added.
     
    “And
this is our son Christopher.”
     
    “Well,
hello there, champ,” Ev said to the boy. He wasn’t used to dealing with people
that young, so he just said what he thought you were supposed to say to kids.
     
    The
boy nodded nervously, but didn’t say anything. “He’s still terrified, I’m
afraid,” Michael said.
     
    “It’s
OK. We really should be going,” Daryn said.
     
    Jenny
looked