Kartar: The Young Guardians Series

Chapter Nine: The End of Jared

Someone was whispering in my ear.

You're okay, you're okay. I'm going to help you.

It was like in a dream, and as I began to get more conscious, the voice started fading. I tried going back to sleep but it never works that way. I felt a pang, it had sounded like Eiran, but maybe I only wished it was. The voice was deeper, and slightly rough. As if they weren't used to speaking so much.

When I woke up, fear shot through me I realized I couldn't see at anything at all. I sat up but regretted it immediately as my forehead connected with a thick branch. 

I lay on my back again, blinking away the sharp pain, praising myself for staying quiet and scolding myself at the same time for being such an idiot. I began to remember the night's events. Sloan, Evan, Nikeisha... alarmed, I sat up again.

Once more I found myself on my back with a throbbing pain in my forehead. I tried calming myself down and to just breathing. Panicking would not help me in this situation. I needed to be collected and find help for the others. I had just fallen twelve feet to the ground. Now what?

I began counting. "One, two, three, four," I rattled off. 

If I could count correctly, then I wouldn't be concussed. But if I was concussed, maybe I was making sense to myself even if I wouldn't have to a non-concussed person. Does a concussed person even know whether or not they've acquired a concussion? 

I shook my head to clear my mind and check if anything was rattling up there. Nothing was.

Carefully, I got up a third time, this time brushing the branch away with my hands. I got up gingerly and crawled on my hands and knees out from the underbrush of the tree. I stumbled on to my feet and looked around me.

The park's woods seemed bigger for some reason, more open. And the weather wasn't so horrendously warm. There was a gentle breeze, I almost felt cold. The sun was rising and I could see a faint pink and yellow line, brushing the dark night. 

I looked around and listened carefully for any sound from any one. There were no sounds of people or buses and cars. I started looking for the stone engraved path the park had built.

"Calm down, now," I said to myself. "This is no time for freaking out."

An image of Sloan flashed into my head and I stopped talking out loud. I swallowed a lump in my throat, wondering what had become of him and Evan. 

I took a deep breath; the air smelled faintly of a campfire. I stood still, completely confused. Last time I was conscious, I had about three huge guys after me plus a very hysterical Nikeisha. We were in a park, with lamp lights and playgrounds and paths. Now for all I could see, I was in an actual forest, with wild creatures and God knows what. 

I felt like freaking out. If no one was around, then who would care if I were to scream and yell and run around in blind fear?

A crunching sound broke me out of my thoughts. I blinked back the oncoming waterworks and stood still. I heard another crunching, closer this time, and I bolted.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" I screamed. "Somebody help me! Somebody please!" I jumped over logs and rocks, climbed random foliage, all the while not daring to look behind me. I was aware I was choking on my inability to breathe, but there was nothing I could do but to keep running.

The sun had come up now, lucky for me I could see much better. I was in a clearing now where there was a smouldering fire and other signs of humans. I saw a large stick which I figured was for tending the fire and grabbed it. 

A loud roar made me shriek and trip over a twig. I whirled around on my back, sitting up, and held the stick very tightly; ready to fight for my life. 

A snarl came out from the trees and to my surprise, a man ran out, looking extremely enraged. He was flushed and looked roguish as if he'd been lost for a long time.

"Don't move!" a voice rang out.

I didn't know who this was directed to, but I was paralyzed in position nevertheless.

"Come out, Madoc!" the light haired man said in a vicious way. His eyes were red and his voice was rough, as if it was used to yelling a lot. "Or are you afraid?"

The invisible voice started laughing. The body became visible as he stepped into the clearing from the side, hands raised in front of him. He looked directly at the crazed man before him with gunmetal eyes and laughed again.

I crawled backwards.

"Jared," said Madoc. "You know you're the biggest joke of them all?"

Jared growled and lunged forward, but Madoc dodged the attack and the smile faded away into a teeth baring snarl. Jared was doubled up and was too slow to recover from the blow he had tried giving Madoc and quickly was pinned up against a tree. They were breathing heavily and I realized they must have been after each other for a while.

"Traitor," Madoc said in a low voice. "You're the reason she's gone."

Jared looked back at Madoc with such venom and hate that I flinched and this look wasn't even directed at me. "I loved her."

Madoc looked disgusted and he slammed Jared on the tree again, hard. Jared's mouth opened but nothing came out, it was the kind of scream of pain you couldn't hear. 

Madoc grinned and he laughed in a way that made me cold. "I'm going to slit your throat, Jared," he said softly, looking right into his eyes. "And it's going to hurt you, just like it hurt her." Madoc's face twisted itself involuntarily and I wondered if he was going to cry. But his eyebrows just narrowed cruelly and a weak grin worked his way into a full fledged smirk. 

He shoved Jared again roughly against the bark and Jared coughed and wheezed. "I'm going to make you hurt so bad," he said so coolly and quietly that I could barely hear him. But his words weren't meant for me, they were meant for Jared, and he heard every venom coated syllable.

And suddenly I heard choking.

And a hand went over my mouth and I was so scared all I could do was look around for whoever it was who was now dragging me away from the scene in the clearing and under a tree brush.

"Don't be scared, don't be scared!" a voice kept repeating quietly. "Don't scream."

And I was so afraid of Jared and Madoc that I let myself get kidnapped, ending up sitting under the roots of a tree staring into the amber eyes of a stranger.

And lord, wasn't he a cute stranger. He grinned and a whole galaxy of suns blazed at me.

 "Thanks," he said slightly arrogantly. His light brown hair was just slightly too long and in the sunlight that had started coming in, it looked almost blonde. I stared at his ridiculously gorgeous gold eyes and involuntarily thought You can read my mind?

Yup. And I think you're cute too. He wagged his eyebrows and laughed. Are you a fairy or something? You're all glittering and stuff.

"Whoa," I said quietly.

"EIRAN!" a voice bellowed. 

I almost had a heart attack, not only because of the voice but because then I just realized Eiran had been right in front of me, flesh and blood, speaking, communicating, he had touched me, I had felt him!

Eiran jumped. "Oh. Right. Be right back."