Land Of The Lost

Jinxx POV:

It had been about two weeks since we raided F.E.A.R’s compound, and there was still no sign of Lynx. We searched through the rubble of the building, and though we did find a few bodies, none were her. The faint traces of magic in the air around the building belonged to her, but they were all over two weeks old and there was no way to track them. I found myself standing at the edge of the rubble again just looking for any sign of life. There was no way I was going to stop looking for her, especially after what happened before she went off to face F.E.A.R.

Ash and CC usually tagged along with me since Andy didn’t want me out on my own but still needed people to keep our town safe. Though why both of them felt the need to come with me didn’t really make sense to me, but I didn’t say anything suggesting that I didn’t want them to come with me.

“We’ll cover more ground if we split up, this place was massive. There could be places that we missed. She could be trapped under something.” I knew Ash was trying to stay positive, but we had come out to this place every day since the raid and every evening we would return home empty-handed.

“Is there a chance that she made it out with some injuries and ended up wandering into the desert?” I looked over at CC and nodded. He was right, there was always that chance but she would have worked her way back towards town, not farther away.

“If she was disoriented then she probably headed off in a random direction while thinking that she was heading back to town, we have to look for her.”

“Ash, you and CC are right. You two should head back and tell Andy to inform the other towns to keep an eye out for her. I’ll look around here again before making my way back.”

“You know the Prophet is going to get all pissy when he sees that you’re not with us.” I smirked, Andy was always too protective.

“Then just tell him I put a spell on you both that made you go back against your will. I could actually do it you know.” The guys nodded and started heading back towards town. I sighed as I walked through the rubble, pushing large slabs of stone aside. I found the staff that she was using, covered in blood. I sighed and looked around the area a bit more before giving up and going back to town. I knew that she was still alive, I just didn’t know where. “At least she was when she left that place.” I sighed and looked up at the slowly setting sun. It was probably around three in the afternoon, which meant that I had been wandering around the site for at least six hours.

I entered the town about an hour later and looked at the few people who were standing guard. None of them wanted to admit that we lost one of our best members, but with each day that we came back without Lynx it only seemed to hit harder that she might not come back. I stopped at the café and sighed. “Hey Clair.”

“Hey Jinxx, still no sign of her?” Clair was sympathetic, she adored Lynx.

“No, but we think we know what might have happened. I can only hope that we’re right.”

“Don’t worry Jinxx. She said that she’d come back to you, and you know Lynx always keeps her promises.” I nodded and accepted the drink that she placed in front of me. “I know it’s hard on you, especially after the kiss. And don’t even deny it, CC and Ash told me everything.”

“I miss her.” I finally said it and just stared at the glass that I had.

“We all do Jinxx. She’ll be alright, a little banged up but otherwise she’ll be fine. Have faith in that girl, she’s like you boys. She’s stubborn, but resourceful. Just wait, she’ll be showing up at the gate throwing a fit about not being able to sleep or harass Ash.” Clair had a point, Lynx used to go out of her way to harass Ash and bitch about it if she didn’t get a chance to.

“You’re right. We’ll go looking for her again tomorrow. I think we’ll have a general idea for how we’re going to approach this by then.” I finished the drink, and headed towards Andy’s place. I saw that the guys were all there, probably waiting for me to show up.

“So, we’ll go out tomorrow morning to start looking. We’ll each take a small group with us and check out different areas. We’ll spend five days out there and that’s it. If we can’t find her then I hate to say it, but we have to stop. We’ve found no traces of F.E.A.R either, so we can’t just assume that he’s gone for good.”

“I know Andy, but I don’t want to give up on her.” Jake gave me a sympathetic look.

“She’s still alive, I know that much.” I nodded and sighed. Jake was able to sense when people close to him departed from this realm to the afterlife. We talked for a while longer until I slipped out to take the night watch with Ash. It was starting to seem like things were going back to how they were before Lynx showed up.

“I wonder if Kotta will know where our kitten ran off to.” Ash finally spoke up after an hour of staring out into the darkness.

“You might be right, they were close when they were younger. She might have a few ideas, do you know where she is right now?”

“Probably at the southern guard tower, I’m guessing that you want to go talk to her?”

“Yeah, the sooner the better; I want to find Lynx as soon as possible.”

Notes