Chapter 5

Aric was pissed and growing more pissed as the weeks went on.

While the twins were also upset, it was starting to scare them how angry their father was becoming as each day passed that they didn't find everyone. He was short with everyone they met and at times outright threatening to them.

And one time they thought they might not be able to fully restrain him when one man stupidly bragged when asked that he and Brianna spent the night together as they passed through his town. Aric said he would not allow lies to be spread about his wife as his hands seemed to turn into flames as his eyes went bright red.

The man pissed his pants and started crying saying he would never say it again if Aric would let him live. The twins thought that their father wasn't going to back away, but at the last moment he stalked off headed the way the man said they were last headed. They looked at each other in shock not knowing what to think about what they just witnessed. They both decided they would question people from then on.

But no matter how hard they searched they had yet to catch up to them. But it was somewhat easier because it wasn't hard for people to remember the attractive group of women and girls that passed through their area, and they were able to get many leads which way they were headed.

Even though they just had barely week's head start on them Aric thought they would have caught them by now. He was starting to get really concerned about Brianna's safety and viewed her being in this much danger as his personal failure to protect her when she needed him the most.

Every night Caelan would talk with Darla and relay everything that he could she had not seen yet. While Darla could access his eyes to see what he saw when he saw it, at night time they took their time to be with each other so that the two of them could talk between themselves and she felt she wasn't distracting him from searching for their daughter.

There was an uncommon closeness shared between them when they had moments like this that only drew them closer together each time they did it. And Darla would relay to the others what was happening even though it was tell them that they still hadn't found anything out yet.

And after seeing Caelan's memory of how Aric was acting over time, she was starting to get concerned about Aric as well.

She wasn't sure why Aric was starting to lose his composure. Aric had never shared with any of them how much of a failure he felt for not being by Brianna's side. But even without that knowledge she could understand that he was worried about Brianna, but he was starting to scare everyone who came in contact with him and that wouldn't help them find her any faster if the people were too scared to talk to him.

As the reached this new city they decided to head to an Inn and get some information like they had always done. The first Inn didn't yield any information so they went to the second one.

When they entered the Inn, they immediately noticed that there were a lot of people in it and three of the rooms upstairs were roped off. The center room looked like it had sustained heavy fire damage.

Aric started to head to the bar to speak with the bartender, but Caelan stopped him.

"Dad we need information. We can't get it if you start scaring everyone around us. We need them to talk to us first. Please let Jaden and I speak to them first, ok?" asked Caelan looking at Aric.

Aric didn't like it, but he begrudgingly agreed. Jaden led the way to the bar with Aric and Caelan trailing him.

"My good man, we're looking for ale and some information. We're looking too see if a party of seven passed through here? Four very young girls accompanied by three older women. One of the women had coppery colored hair, one of them had jet black hair, and the third with silvery hair?

"The black haired one probably had her hair in a pony tail and the other two women with theirs braided down their backs. I'm pretty sure that all three women were wearing twin swords at their waist?" asked Jaden smiling at the man and putting a gold coin on the bar in front of him.

A hush went over the bar as he asked his question. Aric and Caelan slowly turned to look around the room behind them, but Jaden hearing how quiet the room got decided to keep watching the bartender. Something in the way he looked at Jaden while he was asking his questions bothered him.

"No one passed through here like that that I can remember," said the bartender. Jaden noticed that he was starting to form sweat on his upper lip.

"Oh come now, I find that hard to believe. I know I can make it worth your while if you just give me some information. Those were our family, our children and sister we're talking about," smiled Jaden. But now the smile had a dangerous edge to it.

"Look buddy, I just told you that I don't know anything about them. It's best you move on," said the bartender who was now actually sweating as he spoke.

Caelan turned and looked the bartender square in the face.

"Judging by that burned out room up there I'd say either my sister or my daughter did that. But because it spread to two other rooms before you put it out, I'm leaning more towards my sister. Trust me when I say you don't want this to be any harder than it needs to be," said Caelan without a hint of a smile on his face.

As the bartender started shaking, one of the larger men seated at a table with five men at it, seated closest to the bar, suddenly got up and headed for their group.

"I think that the three of you need to leave. And I don't mean just this Inn. Head out of town, keep going and don't look back, if you know what's best for you that is," said the man.

And as he said this, he reached out to grab Aric's shoulder to start to push him out the door. Probably the single largest mistake he had ever made in his life.

As his hand rested on Aric shoulder Aric moved so fast Jaden and Caelan almost didn't catch it all.

It almost appeared that Aric just only briefly touch the man's wrist and forearm, then quickly right behind it he hit the man around the elbow and bicep. The wet snapping noises could be heard through out the quiet room.

The man could not ever remember being in so much pain in his entire life. He would have continued screaming if Aric hadn't kicked him in the pit of the stomach hard enough to knock him out.

The room was stunned by the vicious and savageness of Aric's attack without a single word being spoken by him.

"Caelan, head over to the door and block anyone from leaving. Jaden stand over by the kitchen door," said Aric quietly.

His calmness was frightening. The twins were in shock as much as the rest of the room at what happened. They both moved without a second thought.

As the boys quickly moved to do what he said, Aric turned to face the room standing in front of the table with the four men left at it.

"I'm only going to ask this once, and only once. I'm not in the mood to be lied too. In that group was my wife. The only reason I have for living. If harm comes to her I will be back and there will be a crater where this town used to be. I will personally destroy everything I can with-in reach and might even move into your countryside and continue my devastation. Now, WHAT. HAPPENED. HERE?!" roared Aric as he finished his speech.

As he was first speaking, he did it at a normal tone of voice, but midway through his eyes started glowing. And by the time he was finished he was yelling and his eyes were almost too bright for anyone to face him. And his body had also taken on a light red glow.

Suddenly all the men started talking all at once. No one wanted to be next if this crazy man had his way. They knew he was using magic now, but he also put down a man about his size in under 10 seconds. Those weren't very good odds for them they thought.