The blue hot bead’s heat began to blister Ebony’s lips. The pain brought more begging to her lips and quickened her breathing. Her eyes flickered down to the beads still hovering around Lucifer. She attempted to coax two out and they responded willingly. She drove the first into the bead in between her lips and the second into Lucifer’s arm. The smell of burnt flesh instantly filled the area and Lucifer let out a blood curdling shriek of agony. Ebony hit the floor and ran for the cross laying in the middle of the clearing. She grabbed the cross as she was thrown head over heels.
Snapping her wings out, she flipped over in place and pocketed her rosary, the beads no longer glowing hot and cool to the touch. When her feet touched the ground, she shot into the sky, wind rustling through her feathers and hair. She cleared the tree tops when something wrapped around her ankle and there was a crack, pain rupturing into her leg. Her lips parted in a numbing shriek of agony as she tumbled back down to the ground, slamming down onto her back. A rock dug into her back and she lay there, unable to move.
“You, little bitch, are going to need to get taught a lesson,” Lucifer hissed.
White pain flashed behind her eyes as he kicked her ankle. She saw black for a moment before the world came back into focus and she wheezed for air, “Please, stop.”
“Why?” Lucifer asked. His boot connected with her ankle again.
“Gabriel, help me!” she cried through her scream of agony. The pain receded for a brief moment and then bounced back at her.
Lucifer’s face erupted in a large smile and he knelt down, taking her face in his hands. “Gabriel? He took a wife? Oh this is wonderful!”
“No! Don’t touch him!” Ebony cried. She threw Lucifer back, slamming him into the pillar, turned and ran.
***
Ebony grabbed the lip of the rock and pulled herself forward, her ankle dragging useless behind her. She pulled herself over the lip and fell the foot into the semi-sheltered area at the base of the magma tree. She lay there and held her breath. The brittle flakes of cooled magma crunched under Lucifer’s boots as he walked towards her. The footsteps were agonizingly slow and Ebony squeezed her eyes shut as she curled into a ball.
“Oh, Ebony, I told you that you wouldn’t be able to outrun me and seeing as you can’t even walk, how exactly do you intend to do that?” he called out. Ebony’s ankle continued to throb, the spot where magma vine had wrapped around her skin was blistered and burnt. A quick wiggle of her toes confirmed she still had at least minimal usage of the foot.
Lucifer stood on the ridge above her and surveyed the forest spread out around them. Lava flowed from spouted in the trees and into holes on the ground, occasionally creating a stream of lava that flowed into the distance. The tree’s roots very massive lava builds that provided a sufficient hiding spot. Nestled in between a root and a stone still warm to the touch, Ebony held her breath as Lucifer stood over her. He head snapped right and he vanished from the ridge. Ebony sighed in relief.
Just a few more minutes, for good measure. Ebony thought. She nestled down into the cavity and waited, the seconds felt like minutes and the minutes like an eternity. The rough magma underfoot cut into the soles of her feet as she pulled herself to her feet. Her ankle gave out on the first step, sending her crashing face first into the razorsharp magma shards.
“There is no way Lucifer would be crawling around the Magma Forest, it doesn't make any sense.” A female voice cut through the air.
Ebony's head jerked up at the voice. Blood filled her mouth as she bit down on her burnt lips to keep from screaming. The action brought a whimper of pain with it.
“Don't look at me like that.” The voice was getting closer.
Scrambling up to her knees, Ebony began to crawl along the ground grateful for the Nanosuit. The magma shards slicing her palms open causing her blood streaking the hard rock below.
“No, no, I am telling you, Lucifer doesn't take strolls through the Magma Forests. Hey, who’s that?” The voice was right behind her.
A hand clamped around her ankle and a scream ripped through her lips. She was flipped onto her back and a young girl stood there accompanying the creature holding her. He or she, Ebony wasn’t really sure, was made up of the same stone that the ground was made up of. Their eyes burned orange like the lava flowing from the trees.
“You're really pretty,” the girl said. “Oh shut up, she is!”
Ebony knocked the mans hand on her shoulder away and tried to push away but his grip on her ankle was a vice.
“Leave me alone,” Ebony whimpered.
“Does this form not please you?” the little girl asked. “Shut up with the I told you so. If it’s not obvious I don't really care about your opinion.”
Ebony looked between the two of them and kicked out at the man holding her. Her heel caught his shoulder but did nothing more than slice her foot open more. A smear of her blood appeared on his shoulder, soaking into it and paling the stone below it.
“Would you like me to change? I can change into a more pleasing form. Any form you like,” the girl offered.
Ebony raised her eyebrow in a questioning look and the girl’s face erupted in a smile. She began to grow and change, muscles becoming more lithe, jawline and cheekbones more predominate, breasts filling out. The new person standing over Ebony was a well toned woman wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top that little to the imagination.
“Or do you prefer a male figure?” she asked. She changed again, muscles becoming larger and more defined. Now a well defined man with a tribal tattoo stood over her wearing a pair of jeans. “Does this please you?”
Ebony tried to push away again but the grip on her ankle didn’t fail.
“No really? I thought her scrambling away was a sign she enjoyed my current state,” he said. He directed his next question at her. “Seriously, what would you prefer I look like? I can do anything.”
Ebony looked between the two men, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she found her voice, “S...s...sure. Th...th...that’s f...f...fine. You can stay like that.”
He smiled, “Good. Why is Lucifer following you? Yes, I expect her to know why!”
“Who are you talking to?” Ebony asked.
The shape shifter motioned to the man holding her.
“Okay,” Ebony nodded, “Can you tell him to let me go?”
The man released her and stood up. The shapeshifter offered his hand down to her and Ebony reached up. His hand was rough and calloused as he pulled her too her feet. Her ankle gave out as he released her. He grabbed her before she hit the ground and picked her up. He began to walk and she struggled against him.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“To my village, you will be safe there. Lucifer doesn’t come here often,” he said, “So why does he want you?”
“I don’t know,” Ebony said.
“Shut up!” the shapeshifter snapped at the man. “I know I was wrong you don’t have to rub it in.”
“How do you know what he is saying?” Ebony asked.
They crossed a lava flow and the man with the glazed eyes stood on the other side. The shapeshifter looked back and sighed.
“Come on, get over here. No you will not melt. You are made of lava!” he shouted. “I don’t care, you will not melt and if needed its not that large. You can step over it. Oh my god, you truly are useless.”
The shapeshifter put Ebony down on the ground and stepped over the lava flow once more. Ebony held onto the trunk of the tree and looked around. The forest around them was void of life except for the three of them. She began to limp away, cringing in pain with every step. Grabbing another tree for balance she whipped around it and flattened against the trunk, covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt not to scream.
“Yes! I know she ran off! She couldn’t have gotten far, help me look for her. No? You think she’s scared? I had no bloody clue!”
Ebony listened as the shapeshifter and his companion walked away, their voices carrying into the distance and she let out the breath she had been holding. She made her way from tree to tree. Her ankle, now numb from pain, finally gave out on her in a patch of red moss. Pain coursed through her temple before she blacked out.
Ebony awoke with a blanket covering her. As she sat up, the blanket fell away exposing her completely. She snatched the blanket up again and held it up as she looked around. She was on a mattress made of straw and in a sparsely furnished room with nothing more than curtain of beads over the doorway. A woman walked through the beads with a tray in her hands.
“You are awake, that is good. Sam was getting worried that you had died,” she said. Her fiery red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face was covered in some kind of tribal markings. Her orange eyes shone in confidence.
“Sam?” Ebony asked.
“The man who brought you here, the shapeshifter. It would be a shame if the Goddess died before she could uphold the prophecy,” the woman said.
“Goddess?” Ebony asked.
“Oh yes,” the woman nodded vigorously, “Here, eat. You must be starving.” She set the tray down and there was something that resembled food.
“Where are my clothes? I would like them back,” Ebony said.
“Of course. I will go fetch them,” the woman stood and walked out. As the beads settled back, the shapeshifter walked past. His eyes flashed in desire as he passed. Ebony tried to wiggle her toes again and found that they were sluggish to respond. Pulling back the blanket to inspect her ankle, a scream of surprise parted her lips for a brief moment.
The shape shifter was at her side instantly. “What's wrong?"
“My ankle, what did he do to my ankle!” She cried. Her ankle was pitch black with the redness extending up her leg, nearly reaching her knee.
Hey! I know it's a little late and this is rough, but I've been having computer issues and I jacked my sisters to post this so it only underwent really, really minor editing. So I promise this will get better.