Bewiched

Chapter 10: Skeletons

Asha awoke the next morning to someone banging at her door. She looked at her alarm clock. It was only five in the morning. She got on her robe and opened the door. There stood Daphne, fully dressed, with her long braid swinging.

“What are you doing here? It's five in the morning!” Asha said. Sylvia stirred from under her blanket.

“There are skeleton warriors walking all around town, though! I was sent to wake up all the other students to try and help get rid of them. You're the last one.”

“Where did they come from?” Asha asked as she pulled on some jeans and a shirt. Sylvia got up and stretched. Can I come?

If you wish to, Asha told her, But stay out of trouble.

All right. That shouldn't be hard to do, considering that there are a bunch of skeletons in the street.

“What were you doing?” Daphne asked. “You looked at Sylvia for nearly a minute.”

“I was talking to her.” Asha said, confused. She had a dragon. Couldn't she talk to Saphira?

“Wait, you can talk to her? Only Myth....”

“Isn't there a skeleton attack we should be getting too?” Asha interrupted.

“Oh, right.” They hurried outside and into the street. Aris ran up to them. She looked horrible. There was a slash on her cheek, her arm was burned, and her clothes were ripped to threads.

“Good, both of you have come. Daphne, they need you to help put out the fires the skeletons have started in the dining room. Asha, come with me.” she motioned to her as Daphne headed off in the other direction.

“Where did the skeletons come from?” Asha asked.

“No one really knows,” Aris said. “But we think the Black Dove may have summoned them.” They arrived at the battlefield. “Now, try and kill as many as you can.....well, not kill, since they are already dead, but do anything, just anything, to defeat them. As soon as they're defeated, they'll sink into the ground again.” They set off.

“Healia!” Asha healed a boy's wound as she went by. “Dimichio!” she yelled, and pointed at a skeleton. He smashed to pieces.

They were the most disgusting things she had ever seen. Some of them had chunks of flesh still left on their bones, and they were mostly dressed in armor, which made them harder to defeat.

“Windgaurdia!” a tree reached out its roots and grabbed the nearest skeleton. He yowled as he was dragged beneath the surface.

“Rowl!” a skeleton sneaked up behind Asha and knocked her to the ground.

As he closed in for the kill, Sylvia suddenly came out of nowhere and hit him in the head. That gave Asha the opportunity she needed.

“Dimichio!” the skeleton was forced back into the ground.

“Rrrrrr!” Sylvia growled, trying to bite the skeleton's hand as it sank.

Sylvia. Asha chided. You could have gotten hurt.

And he was going to kill you! Asha had to admit she had a point. That's it, I'm going to stay by your side, and you can't stop me!

Sylvia!

What? I'm not going to let you get hurt again! It's hard enough watching you fight monsters.

I'm not hurt. But even as she said it, she felt a pain in her shoulder. Okay, she grimaced. Maybe a little.

Sylvia sighed. You idiot. She said.

“Rowl!!!!” another skeleton got their attention.

“Windguardia!” Asha yelled, but this skeleton was stronger than the others.

He seemed to be the leader, and Asha's attack only seemed to make him angrier. His sword came down with a clash as it hit the pavement where Asha once stood. She countered with Windguardia once more. His left arm broke off, but that didn't seem to faze him. In fact, he came at Asha with much more force.

“RRRR!” Sylvia came down at him and breathed fire, but was just knocked aside, which of course made her more angry.

After that, the battle became much more fierce. Asha tried new spells she had never tried before, but had only read about, and the skeleton fought harder. Then suddenly, Wham! A new force whacked Asha's head from behind. She fell to the ground, dazed, and the leading skeleton's jaw opened with idiotic amazement. A new skeleton had joined the party.

“Argh!” It yelled, seeming to enjoy its victory.

Asha struggled to get up, before it decided it was time to kill her. Finally she stood, her head throbbing. The skeleton stared at her with his dark empty sockets.

“Windguardia!” She yelled, pointing to each of the skeletons, the leader yelling in misery as it woke up from its dazed state, and the new skeleton howled even louder than the leader, forced to give up its victory.

Asha tasted blood in her mouth. She hardly saw Sylvia flying towards her to see if she was okay. The last thing she saw was the ground rushing up to meet her, and darkness swallowed everything.