Khaiya wasn't sure about Iharu, but her own search left her feeling gutted.
It wasn't a large town, which meant the raiders had been able to crash over it like a tsunami over a tiny coastal village--and who knew how long they'd been there before she and Iharu had arrived? She could have sworn she'd seen surviving villagers when they'd come across the place, but maybe what she'd actually glimpsed were other raiders. No. She could have sworn she'd saved at least one man before the raiders had gotten him--stopped them from hurting him, in fact.
But all she came across were ashes and bodies and the skeletal remains of what had once been homes. Rooms torn apart, meager belongings strewn about and broken. Blood here and there. Men, women, and children with slit throats and holes in their bodies; some had their clothes pulled off. Dead livestock, some burned alive, trapped in their barns...
She felt sick by the time she'd finished digging through the rubble and checking bodies for signs of life, calling into empty rooms in case anyone had been trapped. Sick and empty. Maybe this was the part she'd been avoiding when she and Iharu had exchanged their awkward greetings.
And then, as she kicked down the door to a home that was little more than rubble (strange how the entrance way remained mostly intact, while the rest was in shambles), a sound caught her ear, like a whimpering cry. Her heart leaped, and she pushed some rubble out of the way, cautious of the ceiling that threatened to collapse, and then paused. It was too precarious. If there was someone trapped back there, she didn't want to make the one wrong move that would crush them.
"Hello?" she called, but got no response. Just more sobbing, and some choked coughs.
Shit...
"Jasper, where's Iharu? Can you bring him here? We'll need you, too. There's someone trapped here, west end near the tree, the one that's been split by lightning. Hurry!"
And while she waited, Jasper, who had left his spot to sniff around the buildings for signs of survivors, snapped his head up and looked to Garaduin.
"Fetch your rider," he said. "Khaiya's found someone."