Victoria Dia: The Missing God

Chapter 3: My Greatest Enemy is Actually a Tree

"It's been five years, and we were ten, Emily, at this point, I thought you'd be over it," I told her as I held my sword against her sword.

"I will never be over it!" She exclaimed, pulling her sword back and clashing her shield with mine, making a loud metallic clang that echoed around us. "You made a fool of me!"

"Sounds like that's your issue," I told her as I swung below where our shields clashed and was met with the tip of her sword blocking my attack.

She gave me space again as she took a step back, I thrust my sword forward, but she redirected me with her shield. I raised my own as she brought her sword down trying yet again to strike at my head.

For the first time, she gave me a clear opportunity for a hit as she clashed her sword against my shield, I raised mine and cut into the tender skin on her forearm, she recoiled slightly in pain, as blood began to spring from the wound.

I gave her no time to recover as I thrust my sword forward, making her redirect me with the shield again, this caused her to give me her back, and I took the opportunity for the second hit, as I struck my sword against the leather armor on her back, not hard enough to cut through it but hard enough to knock her down. Soon, Emily was at my feet, sword out of her hands on the forest floor, holding her injured arm with her hand.

I held my sword out and pointed at her face, daring her to get up and face me again.

"Maybe you shouldn't let it go," I said, as I smiled, "After all, five years later and I'm still better at sword fighting than you."

I watched pure rage flash in Emily's eyes as she pushed my sword away with her bare hands, and then used the force of her getting up to push me backward, making me stumble and hit my back and head against the tree behind me.

Despite my helmet, my head hit the tree hard enough to make me think I might get a concussion. I closed my eyes as searing pain shot through my skull.

I  opened my eyes to find Emily picking up her sword again and pushed aside the numbing pain to push off the tree and swing at her hands and arm. I nicked her forearm again, making her drop the sword and drawing blood once again.

"You little-" she started, swinging the shield at me, I redied my own to block it when the horn sounded again. Someone had captured one of the flags, the game was over.

Emily dropped her shield and glared at me with narrowed brown eyes through her bronze helmet. She took several steps backward before picking up her sword again and scowling at me.

"You will pay for this Dia, you better watch your back," She warned me, before heading off with her two other injured siblings who Charlie had taken care of while Emily and I were fighting.

"I bet I will," I replied under my breath as I finally relaxed my muscles, letting my shoulder droop and my sword limply hang beside my legs.  

Technically one of Diane's rules is to not get into fights, but I like to pretend that whatever happens in Capture the Flag doesn't count. in the end, what she doesn't know won't hurt her. 

As I stood there regaining my breath, I felt something wet and warm on my upper lip.

I raised my hand and was met with crimson blood smeared on it. My nose was bleeding. I heard Charlie's voice calling out to me as my vision started to blur.

"Are you okay, Victoria?" he asked. I stumbled a step forward, as my legs suddenly felt like they were made out of jello.

"I'm fine I think I just..." I trailed off as my legs failed to support me, and my sword fell from my hands. Suddenly the forest floor was approaching my face with alarming velocity.

"Fuck," was the last thing I mumbled before I began to pass out.

As the corners of my vision went dark I began to hear voices. I recognized Charlie, Axel, and Will, but I swore I could hear someone singing. It was like a siren song, though I couldn't make out any of their words.

 My consciousness solidly left me as my face rested against leaves and dirt.

I opened my eyes and found I wasn't in the Apollo Cabin but in what looked like a damp, dark, and quiet cave. I looked around for a minute, and I could only make out the shapes of some dripstones around me.

It wasn't anywhere I recognized, and I wondered how I had gotten there when I heard the same singing I had heard before.  I braced myself against a wet cave wall as I took cautious steps forward.

"Hello?" I called out but realized I couldn't recognize my voice. That's because it wasn't my voice, it was someone else's. I paused and looked at my hands, but in the darkness, I couldn't see any details as to why I sounded different.

I resorted to touch and found that the hands I was moving about weren't my own. These hands were larger, like belonging to someone taller and older than me. The skin was smooth aside from the calluses at the fingertips, and on the middle finger, like those you would find on someone who works with string instruments or is an archer.  The calluses on my own hands, which were below my fingers and right at where the palm ended from holding my sword, were gone, replaced with smooth skin.

These were not my hands, and therefore this was not my body. Somehow I had passed out and woken up in somebody else's body.

While I tried to figure out what in the Freaky Friday was happening, I called out to the darkness, hoping someone was there to answer. 

"Hello?" I— he? called again. My—his? voice echoed into the darkness. "Is anyone there?"

The voice singing the siren song continued. It sounded like it was coming from deeper within the cave, or the darkness itself. It wasn't getting any louder or clearer as I continued to walk towards it.

"Can anyone hear me?" I—he, we, or whatever, asked as we continued. "Who's there?"

Suddenly I lost my footing, the cave floor seemed to end right under my feet and I wasn't fast enough to catch myself. The last thing I did was let out a swear word, as I fell from what I could only imagine was a very large height into pure darkness.