Chapter 18: Chapter 16 – Emergency Evacuation

                It started as an ordinary day. Sofare left to play with her peers, while Cabg was at home creating some spears.

                Suddenly, his father burst into the tent and yelled, “Quick, pack up everything that you can carry. Leave everything unimportant behind!”

                Concerned, Cabg asked, “What happened? Didn’t we just move recently? Why the rush?”

                “It’s the giant rats!”

                Cabg looked at his father in confusion, and said, “What?”

                His father did not stop packing as he said, “Yes, the giant rats. Ah, you’re too young to have experienced it, but roughly every 24 years, the giant rats will come in huge hordes and eat everything in its path. Well besides the trees. So we have to move out of their way or become their food.

                The last time it happened was twelve years ago, so we weren’t expecting it to happen this soon. Anyways, the scout said that the rats will arrive in a few hours, and they move quite fast, so we need to hurry.”

                “Where’s mom and sis?”

                “Your mom should be coming soon. Someone should be taking care of the kids so either there’s enough time to send them home, or they’ll just get everyone there and leave.”

 

                Not long after, Cabg’s mother came back and began rushing to pack. By the time they finished packing, Sofare still hadn’t showed up.

                “Is sis going to come?”

                “At this point, probably not.”

                “Then should we carry her stuff?”

                “If you have room, sure, but remember that we’ll have to move fast to outrun the rats. We can always make her new stuff if necessary.”

                The family stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, but as they watched all their neighbors dismantle everything and started leaving, they followed suit.

 

                On the way, Cabg asked, “So where are we going?”

                “I don’t know the specifics but it’s definitely across the river, since the rats can’t move across the water.”

                “Wait, but how would we get across then?”

                “There’s a few shallower spots, so we’ll just cross over the river there. Anyone too small will get carried over, so don’t worry.”

 

                By the time they reached the river, many of them had to ditch their belongings in order to carry the exhausted children, or simply brought too many to begin with and couldn’t handle the weight at the pace they were going. The sun was already high in the sky, and they were all feeling sleepy. Cabg hoped that his sister wasn’t being too much of a burden for whoever was carrying her, since there was no way that she could have kept up.

                Carefully carrying everything above the water, they slowly crossed the river until everyone made it over. A few belongings fell off and were washed away, but overall, it was successful. Everyone temporarily made camp and slept.

                Now that the crisis was over, there was a flurry of activity as everyone tried to regroup with their loved ones. Cabg and his family began looking for Sofare, and went around asking everyone if they knew where the four year old children were at.

                When they finally arrived at the location, they yelled “Sofare,” only for no one to respond. They couldn’t find her at all amongst the children. Worried, they asked the children what happened to her.

                “Sofare? Who’s that?”

                “Oh, the one that sucks at everything? No idea where she is.”

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                “Sofare? She stopped showing up most of the time, and only occasionally joined us. She never showed up on that day.”

                Hearing the last answer, Cabg and his family began to panic. Surely she noticed that all the lupo decided to leave the area and should have followed, but what if she didn’t and she was left behind?

                They began to ask everyone if they had seen her, but all the answers were negative. When the sun began to rise again, the family headed home, depressed.

                Cabg began to pack his belongings, only for his mother to ask what he was doing.

                “But my sister is out there, alone! We have to find her!”

                His mother sighed, and said, “Look, there’s three things that could have happened. One is that she followed the group to here, in which case you are just wasting your time. The second is that she didn’t follow the group, but still managed to escape the rats. In that case, how would you know where to find her? She’s smart, and lots of lupo dumped their belongings along the way, so she could just follow the trail and find us. The last one, and unfortunately the most likely, is that your sister failed to outrun the rats, because, well, what we know about her physical condition.”

                “So you’re just going to do nothing?”

                “More like there is nothing to do. Just like we hunt and kill deer all the time, if one of us gets killed by something else, then that’s just the way of life. Obviously, we try to prevent it, but if it happens, so be it.”

                “I refuse to accept this!”

                “Well, feel free not to, but whatever you do, do NOT go and look for your sister yourself. Losing Sofare is bad enough. We don’t want to lose you too.”

                Cabg went back to his room, where sounds of sobbing could be heard.

 

                His father quietly asked his mother, “Did you really have to word it that harshly?”

                “Better to be harsh now than to let him do something stupid. Besides, he’ll have to get over it sooner or later, just like us. Just give him time.”

 

                The family continued to ask the others if they have seen Sofare, but after days past and no one had seen her, it was obvious she was not in the village. Cabg blamed himself, saying if he didn’t drop the egg all those years ago, Sofare would have grown up normally. Not only that, he swore he would protect her, but he didn’t even do that right. His parents tried to comfort him, but he no longer was the cheerful child he once was.

 

                “Do you think Cabg would be happier if he had another sibling?”

                “Who knows? It might distract him at least.”

                “Then, you want to make one?”

                “Sure. This is also to distract yourself too, right?”

                “I… yes.”

                “Don’t worry, once we get started, the only thing that you can think of is how good it feels.”

 

                This time, Cabg flat out refused to even go near the egg. The egg hatched without incident, and out came a healthy baby girl that her parents decided to name “Mirefa”.