Midoria's Heart

Midoria's Heart 34 - Stand and Fight

Well, I wasn't going to upload, but since it was my birthday yesterday, I decided to give you guys a reverse-present :P

Oh man. I'm so busy right now. and tired. Summer's going by way to fast >.<

Anyway. Enjoy!

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Chapter 34 - Stand and Fight

I woke up thrashing and gasping from the sensation of falling. I caught my breath and lay back, staring at the darkened sky. It had clouded over while I was sleeping, blocking all the light from the stars and the moon. I sat up, frowning. It was colder now as well, and besides the chill, I got the feeling that there was something sinister in the air.

"It's dangerous," Jay had said. "You have to leave." I thought he had been speaking of being together in the dream; that he had forced me awake so I wouldn't be bothering him. But now I wondered if he had been warning me. Maybe he had made me wake up so that I wouldn't be sleeping when the danger arrived.

As if to reinforce my realization, at that moment an inhuman scream tore through the air, sending chills down my spine. A scream that, even at a distance, paralysed my body for a few minutes. I fought at the sensation until finally I regained movement in my limbs.

“Daniel!” I shrieked, dashing over to where he lay and shaking him roughly until he opened his eyes and glared at me.

“Adelle, what do you want?” he groaned at me. “I just closed my eyes,” he complained.

“We’ve got to go, now! There’s something coming,” I gasped, and his eyes widened as another scream sounded, followed by a chorus of others. I shuddered, covering my ears just in time.

“They’re getting closer,” I whispered desperately, and Daniel wasted no time in getting up. We turned to Lis, who was already awake and moving, gathering up our stuff.

“Grab the essentials, leave everything else,” Daniel ordered, going through his bag and pulling out weapons. He strapped his swords to his back, and shoved a dagger through his belt.

“What about food?” Lis asked.

“Leave it. We need to travel light; these things move fast. We need to be faster to stay ahead of them.” Another scream sounded, closer than the last ones. Daniel, who had already stuffed his ears with ear plugs, grabbed at my wrist, releasing me from the monster’s spell.

“Fly low, through the trees,” he called to Lis, as he unfurled his wings and took off, throwing me in front of him. “It will be harder for them to follow that way.” I followed his directions, keeping low to the ground as I twisted my way through the forest as fast as I could. It was hard to fly in the dark, and a few times I almost crashed into a branch or a trunk.

“Not fast enough,” I heard Daniel groan in my mind. I risked looking behind me for a second to see dark shapes moving swiftly through the forest behind us. A bright flash lit up the forest, and I realized what it was just in time to duck as a fireball crashed into a tree just above my head.

“Adelle! Are you alright?” Daniel asked, stopping to hover in front of me. I nodded, though in the dark he probably couldn’t see.

“Fine. But we’re not just dealing with a pack of Heian here. There’s Aerians with them as well,” I told him.

“So much for being able to out-fly them in the forest,” Lisimi groaned. Another fireball flew towards us, missing Daniel by inches. He turned, spread his wings wide and pushed down, causing a massive gust of air to pass through the trees. A crunching sound followed by a groan let us know that at least one of our pursuers had been taken out.