The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

At the end of his words, Vernon raised his head to look at Madame Rebecca and he instantly wished he had not. The look on her face was so scary, he flinched not just internally but physically as well. He immediately braced himself for whatever attack that would follow, he expected it to be b****y.

"I can see it, Vernon. I don't need to tell me something that is so obvious and something is being done about it. He would be fine soon enough. Now, return to your position and stop interrupting my work." She barked.

Vernon jumped at the end of her words and literally ran away. He got to where Dev was, gasping for breath even though the distance he had run was only about ten to fifteen feet. He sat on the ground as he tried to recover from the attack.

"I told you not to ask her," Dev said slowly and sat close to Vernon on the ground.

"I am just really worried about James. I mean look at him. He does not even have any energy to play with us and he barely eats too." Vernon muttered, he sounded to be on the verge of tears.

"I am sure it will be fine eventually. Now, stop sulking and play with children, you're ruining their mood. We can also go play with James since he can't play with us." Dev said as he tried to cheer him up.

Vernon nodded his head and got to his feet.

The rest of the day passed by quickly and Vernon went to bed terribly worried. However, it did not hinder his sleep as worrying had put a strain on him and he was more tired than he knew. He slept as soon as he laid in bed and did not wake up at any point during the night until the bell rang.

As soon as training was over, he ran pulling Dev as they made their way to the children's section. He arrived panting and Dev was annoyed at being pulled. "You know we did not have to run right?" Dev said between breaths.

"Admit that you did not mind running," Vernon smirked and collapsed on the ground.

"I did mind, you're the only one who wanted to run." Dev attested.

"I am, you could have pulled your hand out of my grasp at any time and stopped running but you didn't, which meant you didn't mind," Vernon muttered, refusing to give in.

"I did try to pull but you did not let me," Dev obviously was not letting it go.

"I don't recall," Vernon replied and was about to argue further when he took a scan of the children that were hovering around them and there was no sign of James. "Where is James?!" He asked suddenly and jumped to his feet almost immediately for a clearer view.

"Where is James?" He asked again. This time he directed his question to the children.

He stared at them as he waited for a response, all of them shrugged and a few, don't know popped out from a few of them. Vernon exactly felt a cold deep in his bones. He turned to look at Dev to ask what they meant by they didn't know but the look on Dev's face stopped him. He looked genuinely scared.

He gave Dev a few moments to recover before he finally asked, "What does this mean?" He asked.

"I don't know," Dev muttered stiffly. "But we will never see him again." As he spoke, water gathered at the sides of his eyes.

"What does that mean? Where did he go?" The questions poured out of Vernon.

"I don't know." He muttered and bent his head, he was still seated on the ground.

"I am going to ask Madame Rebecca," Vernon said he had no clue as to what was going on and it bothered him.

"No, don't!" Dev yelled and grabbed his hand. "She told me before that the children that go, get adopted."

"What? Wait, this isn't the first time?" Vernon's eyes widened and he stopped struggling to free himself from Dev's grasp.

"No, and if you ask her about James she would be even angrier with you." He said and even though Vernon was not struggling neither did he look like he was about to run away Dev still did not let go of his hand.

"But who would adopt James that does not make any sense? I am sure he was taken away from his parents." Vernon persisted. He did not want to let it go but he knew there was not exactly anything he could do about it. "Besides, he was very sick."

"He would be taken to a doctor first, treated, and then taken to his new family. That is what Madame Rebecca told me. She did not want to tell me at first, only told me the children were taken to the hospital but when they weren't coming back, she finally told me the truth."

Vernon frowned, it did not sound like the truth in any way and Dev sounded more like he wanted to believe it was the truth than the fact that he believed it. "How many children have you seen go?" Vernon asked.

Dev looked down and away before he spoke. "What?" Vernon queried. "I can't hear you. What did you say?"

"Eleven, James is the twelfth,” Dev said and his hold on Vernon relaxed a little.

"What? Why didn't you tell me anything earlier?"

"I couldn't, I did not know how to bring the topic up."

Vernon sat back down, feeling dejected and not knowing what to say. "Have you tried looking around for any of them?" Vernon asked, simply for the sake that he had nothing else to say, not that he actually thought it was a good idea.

Dev shook his head, "I don't know where to look."

They sat in that position for a while until the rest of the children pulled them up to come to play with them. It was a bit hard but they did. Nobody spoke about James for the rat of the day and Vernon knew it did not make the situation any better.

Soon enough the day was over and Vernon found himself wondering if this was something he wanted to be a part of, knowing that at some point, he would have to say goodbye without even knowing where they left off to. He wondered how they felt knowing they might be next to go off.

However, irrespective of what their situation was, Vernon found that he enjoyed hanging out with the children, it took his thoughts away from things and left him too tired to do anything but sleep.

The next day passed by easily and Vernon could not tell if it was easier now or it still felt the same. One thing he was sure of was that most of the day passed by in a blur and as he laid in bed staring at the ceiling, he knew he could barely remember most of the things that had occurred.

He was still not over the fact that James was gone and nobody was saying anything about it nor did they give them a chance to say goodbye. The fact that they were helpless in the situation reminded him of his predicament and the fact that he was taken from his mother and father. It made him feel smaller.

It did not take him a week to notice the change in another child. Her name was Medea but they all called her Me. She looked to be the oldest after James and was really just a quiet child with a huge crush on Dev. She never left his side once he came around and would sometimes cry when he had to leave unless he made a lot of promises to be back the next day.

Vernon did not have the heart to bring up what he had noticed with Dev because he knew Dev noticed it first. It definitely explained why they left training as soon as it was over to hang with the kids and did not leave for dinner until Madame Rebecca would chase them away.

Dev looked sadder with each passing day as Me looked more worn out and just spent most of the time they were around lying down with her head placed against his legs. Dev didn't do much running around, just stayed with her all through the time.

Vernon however, did not mind as the girls also helped so he did not have too much workload on him and the toys he made also made a huge difference as each was always preoccupied with one thing or the other.

Precisely a week and three days after Vernon noticed the change in Me's weight, they came around as usual and she was nowhere to be seen. Dev has looked like he had seen a ghost and had asked to be excused.

He did not come back and Vernon did not try to get, he knew Dev needed the time alone. They both did but he did leave rather he played with the children until it was time to go even though Dev never came back.