บท 3: Prologue (3/5)

"What exactly am I looking at?" Sans muttered as he knelt down next to the remains of the handwoven basket.

"It looks like lightning struck it," Dana responded as she too bent down to get a better look at it. "Though that doesnt make much sense considering there arent any rain clouds around. Just big fluffy ones."

The black haired youth nodded in agreement as he reached out and gently pricked the deteriorated exterior with his index finger, testing it with as much caution and as little force as he could manage. Unsurprisingly, the surface of the container broke apart into ashes, falling in on itself while some of the hotter ones stuck upon Sans's skin, giving him a slight burning sensation. From what he could tell, it did indeed look like it had been struck by lightning, or at least lit on fire.

But this didnt really make much sense on both accounts. If lightning had struck it, everyone who wasn't positioned in the confines of a house would've seen the strike and immediately rushed over to the scene. The same scenario would also play out if the basket had been set on fire, the residents being able to see the smoke for at least a mile away as the wind wasn't strong enough to dissipate the smoke in its entirety. Not to mention that the two boys had been carrying the basket together and if lightning had struck, their dead or burning bodies would be lying next to it.

The current situation was quite confusing to Sans on multiple levels and he himself reasoned it was because of his own age. He was neither experienced nor smart enough to fully work out what may or may not have happened. In his opinion, it would be better to call forth a reliable adult who could help them to work out the problem and gather a search party to figure out where they could have gone.

"This definitely isn't the work of coyotes," Sans stated obviously, more to himself then anyone else. "It also can't be Kindo's idea of a prank. Burning valuable fish isn't something he'd ever do, even as a joke."

"Maybe we should split up and look around," Danna offered helpfully as she rose up from the floor, slapping the sand off her dress. It seemed she had managed to calm herself down quite a bit after her initial panick to the point where she could once again think logically. "They obviously didnt go back to the Village, meaning they only could have gone east or west. If we cover both areas we're bound to find something that could be helpful."

Sans thought about this for a second as he once again looked over the remains of the fish, picking one up and looking over it. He wasn't sure what exactly he expected to see but he did manage to find out something from doing so and that was traces of an actual fire. It was hard to describe but it was clear to him, a youth who had spent his days cooking fish and even occasionally gutting them personally, that the entire basket had bit lit ablaze for quite a while before dying down. It didnt even require him to use excessive intelligence to know that this was the result of raging flames.

Knowing this, his curiosity and apprehension increased a considerable amount as he rose from the floor.

"I'll cover the east side while you take the west," Sans said as he dropped the fish he had been clutching in his hand. "If you get farther then shouting distance then just head on back.

Danna gave a small nod before heading in the opposite direction from Sans, long brown hair swinging behind her as she walked away with quickness in every step. The youths crimson eyes followed her until she was a good distance away before Sans finally turned around and began his own trek.

The basket had been a bit of the ways off from where the young adolescent had first left two of them, this was something he had just realized. It seemed that they may have indeed been on their way to Dana's house before their untimely disappearance, no doubt wanting to show off their immense catch for the day before heading back to the Storage room to drop it off. What Sans found weird was why Dana didnt see it if she had left her house after knowing that the two had gone fishing that morning.

(("Was she lying about calling them over? Or am I just too young to be some sort of detective like in great grannies stories.")) Sans brain was hurting from so much thinking, his mind running in figurative loops trying to figure out the order of events. (("I should've just called in an adult for this.......and so should she as well. Come to think of it....why DID she call me out? A mere child instead of one of the dozens free adults roaming the village."))

So many things just didn't add up. Inviting an eight year old to search, not seeing the basket despite it being on the path to the beach which she would've no doubt checked first, and a plethora of other small details which Sans just now were remembering. While he didn't think Danna had harmed the two of the teenagers in any shape or form, he felt that she knew way more then what she let on.

"Am I overthinking this compl.....never mind," Sans muttered as he stopped short. "There's no way she didn't see this."

Shortly ahead of him, leading forward in a straight path, were slightly smoking craters almost akin to footprints. Each spot was about a foot deep with blackened sand, a sort of color that gave a very unearthly vibe and sent shivers down Sans's spine. The weirdest part of the path was the beginning where a large gaping hole rested, an abyss that was far too dark to even make out a bottom. The footprints lead from the hole and continued eastward, laying out a path that lead towards Dana's house, curving slightly to the south and away from the beach.

This was the part where Sans had to decide. He could either push forward into the unknown and find out for himself what the hell was happening or he could turn back, grab Danna by the arm and find a few adults. The logical option was to back off and let someone more qualified handle it, something he himself had been preaching since the very start.

Of course, Sans didn't listen to his own gut feeling as he began following the demonic looking footsteps, wanting so badly to ease his own spiking curiosity. He figured he could simply hightail it out of the place should any problems arise that he was incapable of handling. In terms of speed, there wasn't anyone within the village, man or child, who could outrun him on foot and he was quite confident in his own ability to escape a situation. While the threat of any real danger was moderate, the feeling in his gut told him to flee for his very life and to depart the scene as fast as possible.

"Who listens to their guts anyways," Sans muttered as he slowly followed the footprints up to Dana's household. "In the same words my mother would say, 'I have to know what the f*ck is happening'."

Dana's house was located near the edge of the village itself, resting near the shore on a rather tall slope. To get to it, one would have to go out of their way as it was quite a distance from any of the other houses that were also positioned away from Arina. It was one of the reasons Sans was suspicious of Dana due to how far away from the normal path the ruined basket of fish had been.

"To think the two idiots would make this trip out here nearly every day just for her," Sans muttered as he went up the small grassy slope. "They definitely have issues."

The large footprint-like marks that lead to Dana's house, stopped just before the door to the wooden home, of which was completely shattered. Wooden fragments littered the inside of the hallway, leaving Sans no place to carefully tread as his bare feet stopped just before the entrance. It took quite a few moments to recollect his own thoughts as he peered into the hallway that, for some odd reason, was much darker then it was supposed to be. From his positioning, Sans could hear a sort of crunching sound deep within the somewhat small wooden household, a repetitive clicking and crunching that made him want to immediately turn around.

(("Kind of a shame the intruder left me no place to knock,")) Sans muttered internally as he slowly and cautiously made his way inside. (("Its messed up entering without permission but I guess it's okay for now."))

Wincing in pain from the numerous pieces of shrapnel scattered about, Sans literally held his breath as he made his way towards the clicking noises, his senses going increasingly haywire the closer he got. It wasn't until he reached the corner of the hallway where his left foot became wet, the feeling of warm liquid pooling around his toes and sole. At this point it was far too dark to properly see the fluid, but Sans was able to pinpoint it by mere smell of death that suddenly accosted his nose out of nowhere.

(("Okay, time to leave,")) Sans exclaimed in his head, now more afraid then he had ever been before. The full reality of the situation hit him like a train as he turned around and barreled towards the entrance. (("I apologize to whoever is bleeding out but you'll have to forgive me."))

Just as he was about to reach the doorway though, a figure appeared out of nowhere, blocking his path and guaranteeing a head on collision.

"Sans, what the hell happ-"

Dana didnt even get a chance to fully scream before the two of them were rolling down the slope, the front of the house blasting apart mere seconds later. Thick wooden chunks rained down over them, some of the bigger pieces missing them by mere centimeters, as they finally reached the bottom of the small hill. One of the pieces, a piece of the metal holding the window in place, slammed into Sans's head, causing everything to blur in and out of vision as he began to see double.

"Sansss!!!"

The youth could barely hear anything apart from the ringing in his hears, his name being the only non garbled piece of speech he was able to make out.

When both his sight and vision returned, and he was finally able to make coherent sense of everything, he immediately wished he had been knocked out instead. His mind stopped working entirely, his heart skipped a number of beats while nearly stopping, and his body froze, refusing to obey anything he may have commanded it to do. Red eyes watched as the monster, straight out of one of his mothers stories, lifted Dana up by the top of her dress, long black fingers raising her high off the ground.

Skeletal like body with its innards made of fire on full display, it clicked constantly like an insect as it gazed at Dana with blazing orange eyes. Blood dripped from its pincers as it tilted its head as if gauging its newly caught prey, preparing itself for the next course.