Mary had been horribly disturbed by Edward's outburst. Similar tears from yesterday were shed and the distraught mother found herself at the kitchen table in a flurry of sobs. Skyla, meanwhile, hadn't exactly understood what the hippocampus' words meant. Kayden used this opportunity to convince her cousin that Edward spoke of little more than a friendly game. Jake hadn't actually been captured by bad guys, but he was instead playing a game with Caleb. That's what the girls partially believed as they busied themselves with cleaning dirt off of golden horse's mane.
"I should be helping Jake and Caleb." Edward shook his head. "I shouldn't be here."
"They'll be okay." Next to Kayden was a wooden bucket filled to the brim with water that had since turned to an ugly shade of brown. One dirty and sopping wet sponge was in Kayden's left hand while the other could be found floating atop the bucket. Skyla seemed more distracted with catching a white butterfly at the moment than helping with Edward. This, as to be expected, led to her running to the opposite end of the garden without her sponge. "Grandma will save them, I promise."
"I hope so." A hoof was lightly dug into the earth. "I shouldn't have ran like that."
"It's okay. Even if they are hurt, then it would take a lot for them to really die." That much Kayden knew for certain. She had seen blood loss before, from her father's affiliates, and it took a long time before anything really happened. That's why Witch Hazel would be fine. She would be fine though under the watchful eye of Marrathew much to the young girl's ignorance. At least until Sara returned from the Great Oak anyway. "Oh! You're injured. Let me get something to take care of that scratch for you. I'll be right back!"
There was a soft sigh from the hippocampus. "Thank you, Kayden."
Ribbon had become Jake's sole source of comfort in the aftermath of the chaos.
Most of his captors had been slaughtered or fled thanks to dark magic somewhere in the distance. The pointer dog had come from nowhere not too long after and sat near the edge of the Great Oak next to the young boy. Part of Jake's throat was aching from where the blade had sliced it. Thankfully, however, it hadn't gone very deep. It was little more than a threat and he could speak just fine. The pain wasn't what had led him to tears though. The young boy was shaken from everything that had happened and was worried for his friend's sake. He spent several minutes sobbing to himself with little fistfuls of dog fur in each of his hands. He was so far lost into his own sorrow that he almost hadn't noticed the familiar voice of an elderly woman by the time that it finally arrived to rescue him.
"Jake?" A pause. "Jake, I'm so glad that I found you. It'll be alright now."