Chapter 23 : Its Side Of The Story

Snow spun back and looked towards the three. It seemed Lyte had released the darkling from its bounds against her effort of restraining the little creature that might be dangerous to them.

"Ahem!"

At that sound, Lyte slowly turned his head towards Snow with a guilty and scared expression on his face. He could see that Snow was in rage as she was surrounded by a dark aura. Her pupils shrunk and for a second there morphed into slits before returning to normal.

"S-Snow. Look, I c-can explain. You see, Lisa here wanted me to free the darkling or else sh-"

"No need to explain! She's the one at fault here! How could she torment this poor creature by chaining it up like an animal! That was very cruel!" Lisa snapped at Lyte as she found him almost snitch on her. If he had said anymore, she would very likely be killed by the reapress, no doubts.

"I do not need an explanation. I need you to chain it back up! It may be dangerous to us,"

"Dangerous?! This little thing?! Ha! I believe you are more dangerous than it! How could you chain it up like its an animal!"

"If you are so happy to call that thing an it, it means you see it as an animal too, so how I am treating it was a hundred percent correct,"

"H-hey! Don't play with my words, you-" Snow snapped her fingers and Lisa's lips were sealed once more.

"Wow, you r-really like to use that lips sealing spell, huh Snow?"

"Yes, it helps me deal with childish behavioural beings like her. They do not know when to close their mouths and I need to shut it for them before they get themselves into trouble with that mouth. But like just now, I will remove it as soon as I am done. Besides, all the yelling will make Lisa lose her voice and we would not want that, so I am technically helping her out,"

With another snap, Lisa and the darkling were magically separated into individual chains and were dragged 5 feet away from one another on the dirt path. Lyte watched in horror as he started to doubt that Snow was as good of a person as he thought she was.

"Now I will remove the seal and the chains as soon as you are done answering my questions. And I hope Lyte is not dumb enough to cross me at this moment. Now, I may began my questioning. You, dark one! Who are you?"

Snow removed the lips sealing spell off the darkling. The darkling who knelt on the ground timidly looked up at Snow and spoke the truth. It dared not lie to such a scary being that stood menacingly in front of it.

"I-I have no name, m-miss. But, m-my fellow darklings call me Tiny so I-I guess that's m-my name. I-I am a darkling, though I think m-miss had already guessed t-that,"

"Okay, Tiny. Now I heard Thomas's part of the story, I want hear yours. Why did you chase the boy?"

"I-it was as h-he had told, miss. He broke a-an item of our master's belonging. W-we were forced to chase after him, m-miss,"

"Hmm, alright. May I know what the item was?"

"I-it was a surveillance camera, m-miss. Designed as a crystal orb to c-confuse intruders. M-my master uses it to keep an eye on t-trespassers that d-d-dared travel close to his m-mansion. I-I swear, m-miss. We didn't want to c-chase him. We were forced t-to,"

"No need to panic, Tiny. Now, I need to know who is your master,"

"U-uh. M-may I ask why, m-miss? If you don't w-want to a-answer that you don't h-have to, m-miss," Tiny began to panic as it feared it had offended Snow somehow.

"I need to know because I have some business there, a hunt for someone there to be precise. I am curious whether it is your master's head I seek,"

"I-I see. T-thank you for answering, m-miss. My master's real name is unknown but h-he insisted we call him P-Professor Smiley. He lives in a-a mansion called S-Smiley Mansion,"

"Why did he hire servants?"

"I-I don't know, m-miss. H-he offered f-food, shelter and a high s-salary f-for those who work for him. W-we darklings l-live in poor conditions so most o-of us took up his offer. W-we were not allowed to question him,"

"Anything else you want to add?"

"W-well. I-I don't know much, b-but I remember he is planning something for the w-wind elementals. I don't know w-what will be done to them, b-but I know it would not be something g-g-good. T-that is all I know, m-miss. I-I swear on my l-life,"

Snow was in deep thought. It seemed Tiny really had nothing else that it could tell her. Tiny who was stuttering as if terrified for its life as any sane being would looked at her with a beg for mercy in its eyes. It feared she would ask more questions and it would not be able to answer them and be killed mercilessly.

Snow slightly nodded her head and snapped her fingers, releasing Tiny of his bindings. She then walked towards it, bent down slightly and held out a hand to help it get to its shaky feet. Tiny was hesitant but it was scared of offending her that it accepted the help and stood up.

"Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate your cooperation and honesty in this matter. My sincerest apology to you for having killed your friends, I was worried about my friends' safety. I should have asked you guys the questions I asked you before I murdered them in cold blood. I understand if you are furious at me so here is a symbol of my apologies,"

With that, Snow pulled a small bag out of her baggage and handed it to Tiny. It slowly took it and opened the bag and took a peek inside to find that it was filled with precious stones. It was exactly what it needed to pay for its mother's medical bills as she had fallen very ill a few months ago. She was diagnosed with a tumour growing rapidly in her appendix and another odd mutation on her liver. Its current job as Professor Smiley's henchman did not pay it enough to afford the amount needed to perform surgery to remove the tumour and treat the mutation. Tiny felt relieved that it finally found the solution to its crisis.

"T-thank you so much! Miss! Y-you're a life s-saver! This is exactly w-what I needed to save m-mother! Thank you! I-I owe you my life, m-miss!" Tiny thanked Snow as tears welled up inside its eyes and it bowed at a ninety degree angle at Snow. It then turned away and ran off with relief that it was alive and its mother would be too when it return with the diamonds. It would be a long walk but it was willing to do so. Maybe about a month and Tiny would be back there.

After making sure Tiny was finally out of sight, Snow turned towards the two behind her, one shackled and one kind of bored.

Lisa looked up at Snow with hatred in her eyes, as usual. Snow knew what was about to go down so she removed the chains and lips sealing spell to allow the other to speak her mind.

"So, dangerous huh? Tiny wasn't as dangerous as you claimed," Lisa said as she rubbed her wrist dramatically until her wrist became red.

"I did not say it was confirmed that Tiny is dangerous. But I did not want to take any chances. As you know, we have the Griffin here. His life is very important and as his friends, we have to help keep him safe. That was why I did that,"

"I despise you. You killed all its friends and just let it deal with it and leave us by bribing it with diamonds. That is just despicable,"

"I understand it was completely my fault that I was frustrated and lost control over myself. At least I apologised and gave it something in return as a form of my sincere apology. I do not understand how that was despicable,"

"How was that despicable?! Let's see. You took many innocent lives even though you said before that soul collectors were 'not allowed to be violent'. Then when you got yourself in a problematic situation, you could stayed calm and just dealt with the problem with cash? Those are lives we're talking about. If it was that easy in the real world, the rich would murder all they want and get away with it easily,"

"It is true that we are not allowed to be violent. But rules were made to be broken and I have a valid excuse for my actions "

"Don't use Lyte or me to take the blame for your faults. You made the mistakes yourself,"

"I did not plan to. I will just use the reason that I did it out of self defence. It is a believable excuse since darkling was given the stereotype that they are dangerous creatures and killing one would be a deed instead of a crime. Anyway, you mentioned that the rich would commit crime if getting away with it is as easy as buying clothes. I am afraid I have to tell you that not all the sane people have the desire to kill for fun. It is just your opinion, and maybe you,"

"Whatever, I could have used those precious stones for good use instead of Tiny,"

"At least I apologised, and the stones are not bribery, it is just a form of my sincere apology,"

"Sure, I don't care. I'm here because I just want to repay Lyte for saving me. I didn't sign up to deal with your nonsense. Let's just continue this stupid journey so you can be off on your pathetic life and we can continue our fabulous lives,"

"Fine by me. But before we go, let us make an agreement. If any one of us is dealing with something, the others will step aside and shut up, only interfering when necessary. This is to ensure no more such situations will arise anytime soon. This conflict between us is going to drive one of us mad. Deal?"

"Deal! Don't come crawling to me when you need to be healed, because I can bet my life it will happen at some point,"

"Okay, let us continue our way,"

The trio continued their journey to the Smiley Mansion. Lisa held onto Lyte's left arm and talked to him while Snow followed a little way behind the two. They walked for a while and was fortunate enough to stumble upon a place before the sun sets. It was a place that Lisa loved very much - Witch Cavern.