I
was grateful I managed to wake up from the sleep I was so sure would send me to
my death. The coldness around me seemed a bit easier to bear, and I drifted
about the cold void of endless space.
Suddenly, a huge screen appeared out of nowhere, startling me. It was
like a huge television screen, viewing everything my body was seeing. The first
thing I saw was Jackie, lying motionless on the floor, in a village I couldn’t
place. I froze. Was Jackie dead? It seemed that way. Not only was her wound
spilling more blood than a tap does water, Avery seemed overly teary than if
she was just unconscious.
“Stop!!” I screamed into the silence. “Stop hurting them!! Stop using
me! Get put of my body!!” I hammered on the screen, but it wouldn’t stop
playing the grisly sight before me. “Please….stop this…” I muttered, allowing
myself to slowly slide down the screen, tears pouring from my eyes. As much as
I didn’t want to watch, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene. I watched
helplessly as the devil used my body to head for Avery next. “Avery, watch
out!!” I screamed into the screen, but she couldn’t hear me, and it was too
late to save her anyway.
AVERY
I was
so wrapped up in Jackie’s short death that I didn’t realize the devil was
coming after me next. As soon as I realized her barreling over to me, it was
too late. Using both her hands she managed to create some sort of dark beam
that she shot at me. Seconds before the laser shot, I managed to scramble to my
feet and avoid it, but the impact sends me flying. I crashed onto the ground,
the wind knocked out of me. Behind me, I could hear shouts as many Red Indians threw
themselves onto the devil to stop her from killing anymore.
“Stop!!” I yelled at the mob of Red Indians that threw themselves at her
that I knew would never stand a chance, but it was too late. The devil created
a powerful looking dark orb in her palms and it shot lasers in all directions,
killing many instantly and greatly injuring many. Saysha appeared before me and
shot huge handful of arrows at the devil, but it seemed that she created a
force field around her so the arrows just repelled off her. The devil sneered
at Saysha which just stood, frozen, as the devil made her way to her, dark orb
in hand.
Suddenly,
it looked like her hand absorbed the dark orb in her palm and her nails turned
into claws. I realized what she was about to do to Saysha just seconds before
she acted, and I kicked at Saysha’s legs, tripping her over and therefore
dodging the claws that scratched the air where Saysha was standing just moments
before.
Saysha
scrabbled to her feet, breathing muttered thanks and ran off to the direction
of the crowd, shooting arrows at the devil until the very last one of the
arrows in the barrel on her back disappeared and she was defenseless. Knowing
she had no chance against the devil, she slipped and disappeared into the
crowd.
The
devil, which deflected all the arrows, turned her gaze back to me, which
scrambled to my feet and ran like no tomorrow. Again she summoned another dark
orb and wanted to shoot me with a laser, but someone grabbed her from behind,
throwing off her aim and the dark laser shot up high into the sky and
disappeared behind the clouds, shaded orange by the evening light.
I
quickly turned to see who had helped me throw the devil off aim, and was
surprised and amazed to see it was Jackie. Jackie! How many times did she come
back from the dead? I was shocked to see that the hole in her stomach had
practically disappeared, and other than the blood that stained her clothes it
looked like she never got injured at all. What the heck was she made of!?
The
devil glared at Jackie and threw her off her back, and Jackie hit the floor
with a thud. The devil sneered at her in disgust and summoned another dark orb,
this one meant for Jackie. “Any last words, Deforest?” The devil sneered as she
was about to let the laser in the orb fly. Jackie spat out some dirt and smiled
smugly at the devil. “Yeah, I do,” she said, and yelled. “Silver Hawk!!”
With
amazing speed, so fast the devil couldn’t even fire her laser, Jackie’s bow
flung out of Saysha’s tepee and into Jackie’s outstretched hand, which she
fired about two arrows into the devil’s stomach at top speed. I heard her
whisper under her breath: “Sorry, Danica.”
The
devil pulled the arrows from her body, drawing blood, but she wasn’t done yet.
“Nice speed, Jaclyn Deforest,” The devil said mockingly, stretching her lips
into a hideous grimace. “But not fast enough.”
We
watched as the devil teleported away, leaving a gust of black smoke trailing in
her wake. Her voice flew into my mind as she said: “I’m not done yet, Avery
Melissa. I might have gone easy on you, but it won’t last forever, so get ready
for your death.” I shuddered at the evilness that crept into her voice and into
my mind.
“Jackie!!” I yelled to her, still lying on the floor with her bow in
hand. She smiled at me, and picked herself off the ground as I ran towards her
and flung my arms around her. “I honestly thought you were dead!!”
“Well, I’m not,” she said, smiling at me, and I released her. “It was so
weird. I mean, first I was attacked by the devil and everything went black.
Then I woke up in a puddle of my own blood and saw her about to fire at you, so
I ran so fast I barely felt my legs touch the ground-” She gestured the feeling
with her hands, then continued. “-and threw her off aim. I honestly thought I
died, but I guess I didn’t.”
“Well, actually you did die, Jaclyn,”
Saysha said, starting towards us. She had her barrel of arrows refilled and was
smiling at us as she came. “But it seems that the spirit of your bow, the
Silver Hawk, kept you alive. You get me?” Jackie and I looked at her with our
stupid confused looks and Saysha sighed, then tried to explain further. “You
see, all valuable and rare bows like yours have a spirit; as long as that
spirit is alive, it will keep you alive, but you mustn’t get to dependent on it,
because the life in it will burn out eventually if you keep dying and there
won’t be anymore light arrows for you.”
“Wow,” Jackie said, looking at her bow. She put the smooth silver
surface to her mouth and kissed it. “Love you too, Silver Hawk. Thanks for
keeping me alive.” Was it just me, or did I see the bow vibrate slightly after
Jackie kissed it, like a cat when it purrs? I decided to push the thought from
my mind and focus on normal stuff instead.
“So, will I get a bow, too?” I asked Saysha. I was suddenly filled with
excitement, excitement at having a beautiful bow with a name and a spirit that
would help me fight. If Jackie has a silver bow, than what would I have? Gold?
Bronze? Saysha thought for awhile before she answered: “Well, actually, if you
are an heir, then you should have gotten a bow by now. Maybe the other special
bows like Golden Raven, Rising Spirit and fallen star. But since you don’t have
a bow, I really don’t know how to answer you.”
I
think the smile on my face must have melted off quite dramatically because
Jackie slapped me on the back and said: “Relax…Danica didn’t get her bow
either, right? That means maybe you can still get a bow,” those words reassured
me. Jackie always finds ways to reassure me. I don’t know how she does it, but
she always seems to know what is bothering me, when I’m bothered and why. I
like her because of that, and she likes me because according to her I do the
exact same thing, though I don’t feel like it.
Suddenly, a shriek sounded from the edge of
the village, and the huge mob of crowd turned back to look. We stared in horror
as a group of faeries – five, probably – let a little red Indian girl slide
from his fingers, her throat slit. A young woman screeched at the sight of the
little girl, and I figured she was probably her mother, but we all knew the
girl was beyond saving.
Jark
stepped out of the tepee he was in and tried to calm the mob of Red Indians
down, but with no avail. Jark turned to the faeries that killed the little
girl, their faces hidden under the masks they wore. “What do you want?” Jark
snarled at them, and they sneered. “We want this land, obviously,” one of the
faeries said, threatening Jark with a rifle. “and we shall take it from you, no
matter what the cost. The little girl was simply bothering me, so I killed her.
It’s simple.”
Jark’s
face grew fierce. He sunk the tip of his spear deep into the ground,
threatening the faeries back. “You cannot have this land,” he growled, his
voice fierce. The faeries just sneered, but Jark wasn’t done talking. “And you
cannot take it from us, with the pitiful amount you have.”
As soon
as Jark finished his sentence, all of the Red Indians cheered, agreeing with
him that they could easily outnumber them. The faeries laughed, a mean, mocking
laugh that echoed over the silent plain. The cheers of the Ganji died down,
confused how the faeries didn’t flee. Faeries normally knew what was beyond
their levels, and if they knew the amount was too large for them, they flee.
But the five was just standing there sneering.
“We
know five is easily outnumbered by you,” the same faerie said, sneering.
“That’s why we brought reinforcements.” Then he stuffed his two fingers in his
mouth and a piercing whistle echoed through the plain, and we sprung back in
surprise.
Suddenly, a soft noise that sounded like a stampede of something rumbled
through the air, and got louder, and louder, as whatever the stampede was coming
closer. Suddenly, a huge mob of faeries, so huge I easily outnumbered our
amount came running towards us and the five faeries grinned smugly at us. Jark
edged back, then broke into a run, shouting at people to follow him and not to
fight because he was pretty sure it was pointless.
But of
course, the faeries charged towards the village so fast that they couldn’t
avoid fighting. Soon I was standing in the middle of a war zone, swearing
exchanged between the two races as blood of faerie and elf stained the ground a
deep, dark crimson. I had a terrible feeling that the Ganji would not be able
to win, because when one faerie was defeated, another came and took it’s place.
We were easily outnumbered by the faeries huge numbers, but the Ganji didn’t
give up their precious land even for their lives.
Frantically, I tried to locate Jackie or Saysha in the crowd of fighting
warriors, but I found none of those two. I couldn’t even find Jark or Sulan, or
any of the elders. Where we they?
“Avery…..”
I whirled around as I raspy voice said my name. My
eyes flickered back and forth, trying to locate the owner of the voice. I saw a
bruised and battered faerie fall to the floor, another taking it’s place and
defeating the elf that knocked down the previous faerie, a little girl crying
for her mother and getting knocked down by a faerie, splattering her blood
everywhere. It was chaos, and I felt so worthless to be just standing here
doing nothing. Still, I wondered why no faerie has killed me yet. Suddenly I
became truly worried something terrible happened to Jackie and that was the
reason I couldn’t find her. I frantically ran across the Warfield, shouting her
name, my voice lost in the endless clatter of weapons as they collided each
other. Suddenly the voice whispered in my head again.
“Avery…..Avery the
Melizza…Melizza Avery….come…”
“Who are you?” I asked the air around me, ceasing my
running for a moment to catch my breath. The loud noises of the killing around
me suddenly became muffled, as if I was standing a good distance away instead
of standing right in the middle of it. The raspy voice was the only thing clear
in my mind.
“My name is Sumi,
Melizza….Behind you….”
I whirled around and saw the tepee where Saysha
introduced me to the elders, which looked vacant, but hey, doesn’t hurt to
check. Cautiously, I made my way to the tent without being spotted, then
slipped inside. The tepee was pretty much empty except for the elderly woman
who was Saysha’s grandmother, Sumi, the elder of magic, sitting cross-legged on
a straw mat, in some sort of heavy concentration. Her eyes opened as she saw
me, her eyes the color of gray twilight. She had a piece of paper wedged
between her finger and thumb, which she set ablaze with only a blow from her
mouth. While I was still in awe at the fire breathing, she dropped the burning
remains of the paper into an ancient looking antique pot, which muffled the
fire and just left the smoke to curl into the air.
“Mm…” Sumi said in a deep voice, closing her eyes again for awhile, and
extending her hand to me, as if expecting me to put my hand in hers. I just
stared at it, then back at her. “Um, I don’t get it...do you want me to put my
hand in yours?” She just nodded, and I did so. She took in a deep breath,
inhaling the smoke and coughing slightly, and then her eyes snapped open and
she stared down at me with her gray eyes. “When was the last time you visited
Elvaeda?” she said in a panicked voice.
“I…I,”
I muttered. It seemed hard to get the words out of my mouth with Sumi staring
at me like that. I swallowed and began. “I…I never went to Elvaeda before,
ever. I….I was supposed to find the Great Spirit first.” Sumi’s eyes went big
and she dropped my hand. “Do you know what is happening to your world?” She
uttered, and I shook my head.
“Elvaeda has been taken over by the faeries,” she said frightfully. I
almost stumbled over! What does she mean, taken over by the faeries? That’s not
possible!! It just couldn’t be possible! How could that happen? “What?” I
muttered, my voice trembling. Sumi sighed and nodded. “I’m afraid….if Elvaeda
is left unattended…..it will fall in the hands of the faeries….forever.”
Forever. That’s what did it. That’s what
made my heart burn with fear, what made me run out of the tepee so fast I
stumbled over. The war was still raging on, but I couldn’t focus on that right
now. Elvaeda, home to the elves, home to Mercedes…..How could something like
that happen?
I had to find Jackie.
As
I stumbled blindly through the war, I felt unusually dizzy. It must have been
the fumes of the smoldering paper Sumi dropped into the pot. I must have
accidentally breathed in the smoke, causing my headache. Of course, I hardly
knew Sumi. How was I sure she knew what she was doing? Knew that Elveada was
under attack? Know that her predictions were correct? But of course, if they
weren’t, she wouldn’t be picked to be the elder of magic, would she?
Suddenly,
my foot kicked something that lay on the floor and I fell over, willowing up a
huge cloud of dust. I coughed, my eyes stung, but when the dust settled down, I
managed to see what tripped me over. I froze at the sight of Yaen, the little
boy that managed to gain the name the elder of peace, lay cold, unmoving, blood
seeping through his cut wrist. His black eyes stared at me, but they were
blank, lifeless. Freaked out, I yet out a yell that should have rang across the
entire village, but everyone was too focused on their battle to notice me.
I
knew the boy was beyond saving. I don’t know how long he lay there bleeding,
but judging by the huge puddle of blood on the floor, I could guess a long
time. I scrambled to my feet and continued to search for Jackie, doing my best
to push the thought of the dead boy from my mind; gently piling up the
disturbing thoughts into boxes in my mind and sealing them away, just like my
father instructed I do when something disturbing came to mind, but it wasn’t so
easy. The thoughts kept freeing themselves, hoping out of the sealed boxes,
surfacing into my mind again. I couldn’t push them away.
“Jackie!!” I yelled into the crowd. No one paid attention to me, and I
started to panic. Where is she? Suddenly, there she was; unconscious, bow still
clasped within her limp hand. She was being carried by a smugly grinning
faerie, which he carried off in his hand. I wanted to yell to her, but suddenly
I felt something cold and hard hit the back of my head. Darkness surrounded me as
the world was snuffed out.
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