Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 306: Protecting You

Chapter 306: Protecting You

I think that this was the first morning that I had woken up to silence.

There was no screaming, no pounding at the door, no angry mob ready to sacrifice me to their God... or their Princess.

It was actually nice.

I raised my hands over top of my head and smiled as they hit a wall. I was back in my closet, the men sleeping in the room right outside, and everything was right with the world.

It had been decided that since windows weren’t to be trusted, I was going to sleep in a place that didn’t have one.

Worked for me.

"Mommy?" murmured a voice beside me. "Is it morning, or has something happened?"

Ah, the poor baby.

"It’s morning," I smiled as I wrapped my arms around Wang Chang Ming and pulled his warm body into mine.

"What are we doing today?" he asked, snuggling down deeper into my chest, his eyes drifting shut again. "And do I have to wake up for it?"

"You don’t have to do anything today that you don’t want to do," I assured him, running my fingers through his hair. "But I was hoping to go to the Retribution Guild and see how they are making out. With all the attacks, I wanted to make sure that Uncle Hu Wen Cheng is okay."

"Okay," murmured the boy as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Let’s get going then."

"Whatever happened to not waking up?" I smirked as Wang Chang Ming swayed to his feet and stumbled toward the door.

"The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back. I’ll sleep then," he countered as he opened the door to the sight of all the men lounging around the room. "Morning Daddies."

-----

While I might not have been woken up to the screams and pounding I had gotten used to, that didn’t mean that everything was okay.

I could practically feel the grief in the air as we left Bin An Sha’s building. The sounds of people softly sobbing continued to follow us through the different rings until we reached the Third Circle.

The gate separating the two circles spat us out in the Third Circle common area. Everything inside of me wanted to call it the main square, but my brain was too hung up on the idea of a Circle square...

"Mommy, what’s going on?" asked Wang Chang Ming as he shook my arm, dragging me out of my thoughts.

Looking in front of us, I crouched down beside the child. "It’s a funeral," I murmured slowly.

A massive fire was burning in the center of the square, and bodies were piled on top of each other, casting eerie shadows, even in the daylight.

Women were crying on the shoulders of loved ones while the men around us were offering what little comfort they could.

"You’re here," grunted Cheng Guo Zi as he approached us from the side. "We weren’t sure if you would be coming."

I looked at him for a moment before I turned my attention to Wang Chang Ming. I had washed my hands of that man, and I was petty enough to make sure that I didn’t speak to him ever again.

"What’s going on?" asked Cheng Bo Jing as he blocked the man’s sight from mine.

Our ’team leader’ opened his mouth before closing it again. "We should get back to the guild. I can explain everything there."

The guys looked at me, and I nodded. It was the whole point of coming here, to go to the guild. Why would I let this man run me away?

"Thank you, we’ll follow you," smiled Cheng Bo Jing, but I think I was the only one to notice that it didn’t quite meet his eyes.

"Of course," replied Cheng Guo Zi. He shot me an embarrassed look before turning around and leading the way out of the crowd.

----

"You’re safe," smiled Hu Wen Cheng as he strolled toward us, his arms outstretched.

Nodding my head, I took what had to be my first full breath of air since we arrived back in the city. This building was completely covered in plants and trees, and while most of them had their roots locked into a small ball, there were some that were planted outside, their roots stretching deep below the city.

"Have you had any troubles?" asked Bai Long Qiang as one particular tree caught my attention.

It was a massive Red Maple tree, one of the most beautiful ones that I had ever seen.

Placing my hand on its trunk, I found its life force.

"What the hell?" I gasped, turning around to where the guild leader was speaking to my men. "What?’

At the sound of my voice, Hu Wen Cheng broke off his sentence and turned to me. "Ah, yeah, that one."

Shaking his head, he walked over to where I was standing and looked at the tree with me. "I think it is possessed or something," he admitted. "One of the teams found it in a greenhouse on the edge of the city and brought it back here. As soon as they put it down in the lobby, its pot practically exploded, and its roots went everywhere."

I had been concentrating so much on the tree that I hadn’t actually noticed the office around it.

Roots were everywhere, thick ones the width of my thighs spread out over the marble floor, and I could just make out where they seemed to merge with the walls around us. But as impressive as the roots were, the tree itself was maybe only six or seven feet tall.

It was as if it had adapted to the lobby, only growing big enough to be about halfway to the ceiling, but people were cautiously stepping over the roots so as not to trip on them.

No wonder this maple had so much power. It was building connections to every other plant in this building.

Even if City A did fall, this building would not.

"It’s not possessed," I assured him. "It is actually protecting you."