Forever Lost

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fortress, He's Escaped

Dawn became dusk [When I was typing this instead of dusk I put duck. Like for the awesome typo] and dusk fell into the night. The trees lay behind me as does Julie. After exiting the woods, she lead me here then disappeared. So here I stand, near a vast body of black water. There is no moon above me, leaving me alone in the dark, my only protection hidden behind the sky.

I stand on the sand, facing south, watching the water ripple beside me. I turn around when I feel pressure on my shoulder.

Julie stands before me, her icy blue hair flowing around her, her vibrant green eyes piercing in the black night sky, her skin glowing yet pale. I could hardly believe that this had been the little peach calico cat that I had found in my backyard when I was only five and raised like my own child. Every time I had imagined her as a human she was a blond, her skin peach, and she wasn't taller than me!

Her voice sounded sorrowful, still it held that same courageous property to it.

"Look, I need to tell you who I really am."

I half smiled, getting a vibe that she wasn't the same. "I'm assuming you're not really a calico cat named Julie."

She laughed, yet the sound set my skin crawling. "Actually, in a sense, yes. But I'm not from Eath, I'm from the planet Kurma. And before you ask, no, neither of the planets are in any danger."

"Then why are you here?" Just when I thought everything made sense, I lost it. I mentally slap myself in the face for thinking that I had ever grabbed sense of my messed up life.

She laughs again. "To protect you! Haven't you noticed how many supernatural incidents have occurred?"

"Well, yes." I admit guiltily.

"Exactly, and it's not only you but your friends too. You're all in danger!"

I stare at her, confused.

"See, on my planet, at birth, we are assigned our forms."

"As in more than one?"

"Yes, and before you ask, no, that doesn't mean we have to fill out surveys and things, it's the other definition. See, this is only one of my forms. The other, my animal. Okay, we have four forms. The first, human, second, animal, third, meld, forth, shift."

"So this is your human form. The calico cat named Julie is your animal form -- wait, what is your real name?"

She appears shocked at first, but within seconds she replies calmly with. "On Kurma or on Earth?"

"Both,"

"On Kurma, I go by the title Forest Wielder Stealth, on Earth, it's just Stealth."

I gasp. "You're my guardian?!" I inquire, eyes wide in shock.

She smiles widely. "Yeah, I am."

"So you're the one who's been sending me all those letters?"

"Yeah, I am!"

"Wow," I stare at the sand. "Wow,"

She laughs. "We'll go into more depth later."

I nod and look back up at her, still a little stunned. I put my alarm to the side and begin to sort out all of the thoughts running around my head into questions. "Okay, but why Forest Wielder?"

"I am an archer, most skilled one on Kurma, in fact." she smiles triumphantly. "See, I was born with it." she curled her hair behind her ear.

"Born with what?"

She stares at me as if I was blind. "Look,"

It took a while to deduce that she meant her ears. They were just as ordinary as mine except for the sharp point at the top. "Oh, you're an elf!" I say with a delightful smile. I've always admired the elf race.