The Fifth Element

Part 2 Chapter 25

"What was she?" I asked him.

"She is...was part of you. Your guard can be lower,  she is not a threat to your wellness because you  ended her. When you sacrifice part of ones soul is splint offs, she was that splinter."

"Seems like I am better off without that splinter, I mean she did try to kill me."

"Daughter we could talk endlessly about this occurrence, but you must  do what you came to do. If you delay longer you will be unable to. Take that knife, with remembrance that this is what I wanted."

"I see," I  said and took a deep breath. "We'll I guess here goes everything." I ran at Neeva, raised the knife, and plunged it into his chest. Neeva's face twisted in pain and then he crumbled away to ashes.

Dark clouds rolled around the sky and rain drops hit my cheeks but I ignored them and stared down at the pile of ashes that had once been Neeva. My father was dead and gone.  I opened my hands and my ash poured for my fingers.

Then I realized I was no longer under the tree or surround by the black flowers .

All around me, I could feel men, women, and children dying, while their souls slipped  into the gray place.

I was back in the real world from where ever I had just been , while a battle raged just out of my line of sight. Deception, having never left my side, stood over me, while I fell to my knees, my hands pressing hard into the moist wet earths.  I these was a tornado of pure energy whirling around my body and it made me feel like I could do anything, like raise an undead army.

I closed my eyes and forced all my energy into the ground I many things stir, and then the earth around me began to shake under my feet. I stood up and began to stumble back before the shaking of the ground knocked me onto my butt. Cracks began to form in the earth and from it, the dead began to emerge.

Suddenly the sunlight above my head was blocked out by something. I just had enough time to let out a cry of surprise, while two arm rough arms wrapped around me and pulled off the ground and into the air. Deception's roar echoed in my ears while I head him take off in pursuit of whoever had snatched me.

My captor flung me onto the dragon saddle in front of them like a sack of potatoes, and I caught a glimpse of a blood red uniform and champagne colored hair.

I struggled into a seat position, despite my captors best efforts.

I tried to turn and face my kidnapper, but as per usual, my long curly black hair suctioned  cupped itself to my face making it had to see. I swore if I survived this I was going to cut it all off.

"Let me go," I screeched and managed to grab a handful of air.

The rider elbowed me in the chest and I let out a small gasp while I lost my balance and fell of the dragon. While I fell my hair, damp hair finally  parted and I was able to catch a glimpse of the half-burned face of Shirley, glaring at me from a back of her orange dragon.

Instead of screaming, while I plummeted towards the ground, I inhaled deeply and let out a long whistle. A second and a half later Deception was speeding towards me, he grabbed me from the air, and I climbed onto his back .&

A large shadow fell over us and I looked up alarmed only to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw John, one of Henry's mentor from back at his days in the academy, on the back of his massive green and brown dragon, Frog. He lowered himself until he was hovering right beside us. His hood was pulled up and it covered most of his face. I could just barely see his eyes

Frog's scales were covered with numerous scratches and burn marks. It was obvious that the two of them had just been fighting.

"What are you doing up here, you're supposed to be on the ground..." he shouted over the wind and the rain, but he trailed off when his eyes fell to the ground so far below us.

From where we sat hovering in the air the army of the dead was visible and a few undead creatures with wings were beginning to take flight. They were still far below us, but they were steadily climbing their way upwards.

"Anyways," John said and gave me a look of apprehension, "I will land you safely on the ground, come with me."

I nodded my head but something behind his head stopped me in my tracks. A rectangular black opening had appeared in the sky and a familiar figure, dressed in all white, was standing in it.

The rectangle was large, large enough for Frog to fly through no problem. It dwarfed the figure standing within it.

The woman smiled at me, her gray eyes flashing before she raised her hand and pointed it at John.

John's eyes rolled back in his head and his whole body went stiff and with a jerky motion, John's hands yanked the reins upwards.

I turned my attention from the women to John, "John!? Are you alright!? Can you hear me!? John!?" I cried out, while I watched the dragon rise into the air until it was hovering above us.

"Frog grab!" I heard John's voice shout, only it wasn't John's voice. This voice was flat and monotone and devoid of all emotion.

The dragon descended and wrapped its claws around us. I let out a scream and Deception let out a roar. My ears were filled with the sound of cracking bone and Deception moaned in pain.

I looked up to see the woman, who was the last person on earth I wanted to see, back slowly into the darkness of the rectangle and disappear.

"Frog throw!" John yelled over the wind and rain and just like that me and Deception were tossed into the rectangle and into whatever awaited us inside.