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--donation bonus week (day 4/5, post 2/5)--
It didn’t end. She just kept running. Her schoolbag slapped against her back, and her folded umbrella pattered uselessly against her so that it wouldn’t catch the air and slow her down. Through alleys, over fences, under madega trees, across streets and yards and parks and empty lots. She didn’t know where she was going. She only knew that she had to get away. Strange men had come to abduct her, and Cisco had protected her from them.

She tried to reach her mother, but the call wasn’t going through. Her father wasn’t answering. She was panicking. Everything was wrong. She didn’t understand how Chergoa was able to keep so calm, but she certainly appreciated it.

‘Can you call any of the other Rainlords?’ the reaper was asking.

‘Uhh--’ Emiliana tried to sift through the numbers in her phone while she splashed through a series of ponds. She would’ve really liked to have even one of her parents’ Vanguardian friends listed, but she’d never gotten to know any of them well enough to exchange personal information. The other Rainlords, she barely knew--but no, wait. She’d met lots of their children. A couple of them were even her cousins. If she called them, maybe they could tell their parents? Did she have any of their numbers?

She had three, she realized. Selena Cortes, Ester Zabat, and Alicia Redwater. She went for Alicia’s number first, as it was the only one Emiliana remembered calling at all in the last three months. And as she waited for it to ring, she tried to think about where she was in relation to the Redwater family. The main branch lived on the other side of Aguarey, as she recalled. House Cortes was the same, and the Zabats lived all the way in Luzo, so Alicia was probably her best bet after all.

Mercifully, Alicia picked up. <“Hi, Emy. What’s up?”>

A beat passed, and she just blanked. How was she supposed to explain this without sounding utterly ridiculous?

<“...Hello?”>

‘Talk!’ Chergoa yelled at her. ‘Say things!’