War Of Millennium

Chapter 8: Convoluted Complications

"Sleep." It said. And then everything started to go black and hazy. I was out like a light.

When I woke up, I felt like I was completely replenished. All my energy was back. I felt like I'd gotten a full night's sleep. But it looked like the rest of the world had continued to spin while I was asleep.

There were children sprinting across the campground, looking as joyful as ever, screaming their heads off. I was surprised all the noise hadn't woken me up.

"Hey," Ivy looked up at me from whatever she was doing. "What time is it?" I asked frantically. "Past noon, I guess."

I immediately wondered how I'd gotten back to sleep. It took me a few seconds to remember the voice that had supposedly spoken to me. It had told me to go back to sleep, and then I'd just fallen back asleep.

Before I could think too much about it, something was shoved into my hands. "Lunch. Eat. Now." Shane commanded. "What's so important about lunch right now?" I asked, feeling slightly babied. "Just eat, and I'll explain later." He said.

"Is something wrong again?" I asked. "A lot of things are wrong, Cyrus." Ivy idly flipped through another page in her book. "What are you reading?" I asked curiously, trying to get my mind of things.

She flipped the cover towards me. It was the same book she'd been reading in the castle: First Aid 101, For the magical and Mortal Instances. "Oh." I mumbled. "What are you really reading that for?" I asked.

"I told you—you're clumsy. And we're all going to need as much help as we can get. We'll all probably be injured, almost killed, and have a lot of narrow misses along the way. I'll know how to fix you when you almost get yourself killed." She explained sweetly.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. She was right. There was a lot that could've supposedly happened to me. I was already reminiscing the possibilities. It was probably a bad idea, but I was full of those.

***

I'd just finished eating when all of my brothers crowded around our fire. Ivy and I shot each other worrying glances. They were all staging an intervention or something like that. I hardly knew them, but I knew that whatever they had to say probably wasn't good.

Ivy shoved her book back into a backpack, and we all just stared at each other for a good minute. I waited for them to say something.

"What's wrong?" I broke the silence. "See, he just assumes everything is wrong." Griffin mumbled awkwardly. "He'd be right this time." Shane said, looking over to me. "Mom is gone." Shane told me. "Yeah. She went off with dad last night all angry and such." I replied.

"No," Shane said. "Mom and dad went out of the protective camp barrier. You can see damage in the forest from when the world tried to stretch the barrier to keep them safe—the trees are burnt to a crisp. It's reached its limit—and now mom is gone. Dad woke up and she wasn't there." He explained.

Even though I'd been extremely angry at her the night before, I couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. It was my fault she'd stormed out of the camp in the first place. But I had a feeling she wouldn't just run away from everything because of me.

"We think it has something to do with the warlocks." Christopher said obliviously. Ivy threw her hands in the air. "Of course it does!" she spluttered. "You think she'd just wander off on accident and get herself lost? I don't." she said sarcastically.

All of us just stared at her. I knew we all agreed, even though no one was going to admit that. "I think," Jay said quietly. "They've probably taken her to Damaskuas." He said. "Why would they do that? Why would you even assume that?" Shane asked skeptically.