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"Avril."
The soft whisper woke up my senses, but all I could see was darkness. My arms felt on fire, but I felt stronger now so I knew that my body had been able to power up in my blackened haze.
"Avril, are you awake?" That sounded like Kaiya.
Reluctantly, I forced my eyes to open. A low groan wheezed from my mouth, the molten pain in my arms soared as I came more into the incoming present.
I, we, were in what looked like an underground cell. Blackness and rusted stone walls enclosed us. Looking closer, I realized we were in a large hole with walls made out of stone. Half of the ceiling was covered by the grim looking stone but a small portion of it was opened to the world above us; there a stream of light dully lit this stuffy encasement. Worn stairs made out of dirt led up into the opening.
"Where are we?" My throat felt dry, my voice came out in a cracked wheeze. When was the last time I had any form of liquid?
"From what I can tell it's a jail cell. I've been up for a few hours and there's people up there. I heard them. They've been talking, but I can't understand what they're saying." Mist's voice sounded from the left of me.
I turned to her seeing her hanging, shackled, by her arms. She looked weak, the exact way I felt, but there was fire behind her eyes reminding me that even though Mist gave out the vibe of being dainty and fragile, she was anything but that. Realization hit and I turned to my arms seeing that just like her's, they were dangled above me too. Selene, how did I always get in these crazy predicaments.
"How long have we been hanging like this?" I glanced at the rusted shackles. The throbbing in my arms seemed to appear with vigor since I now had my full attention on the manacles. Lowly, I groaned.
"Since yesterday." Kaiya muttered dryly from beside me.
"The boys?"
"I don't know." Both of them said, the solemness laced in their tone wasn't missed on me.
"We'll get out of this, guys. We just have to think of a plan." I tried to build them up, but they both snorted skeptically at me. What the hell was up with them twinning all of a sudden?
"There's no plan. We're locked down here, waiting for our fate like sitting ducks and Teelah is still unconscious..."
"While the boys are probably being prepared to be mated like breeding horses!" Kaiya finished Mist's rant, the frustration and powerlessness clear in her voice.
Hearing that, my thoughts instantly went to Ike. Dark thoughts surfaced of a random woman, her hands on him, her seeing him in places that I have not even seen yet. With those horrible images in mind, I began struggling in my chains. No one would touch Ike or try to have their way with him. If any one touched him, they would all die from my hands. It was quite simple.
"There's no use in doing that, the shackles are on tight. Kaiya and I have tried everything...our elemental powers still aren't working." Mist sighed, head turned slightly watching my erratic-like movements.
"But Ike used his powers last night, and we couldn't even use our elemental powers." Kaiya noted and my stubborn struggling stopped temporarily remembering how he had blasted that woman with water when she had attacked me.
"He's stronger than the rest of us and just like Avril, he overexerted his body too. He may have been able to do it though due to seeing his kindred spirit in turmoil. Kindred spirits can make you do crazy things." Mist answered wisely, but tone emotionless. I frowned having an inkling of where her thoughts were.
Realizing that her words of wisdom were finished, I began pulling against the chains again. My feet were barely touching the floor, my tippy toes just skimming the murky damp surface. Unfortunately because of us being held up by chains, my struggling ultimately caused my chains to began swinging back and forward.
I groaned lowly, letting out a whimper of dismay, feeling my arms cry in protest with each forward and backward movement.
"Great job." Kaiya sarcastically pipped from beside me. "How's the pain in your arms going?"
"Shut up!" I hissed at her patronizing tone while clenching my teeth trying to conceal my cries of pain. Swinging back and forward, I dropped my head trying to get control of my emotions. The pain was so agonizing that I wanted to cry, but I held the tears at bay. I had to be strong if I wanted to get out of this...and smart.
An idea suddenly sprung to mind. "Hey, Mist how are these chains hung up?" Voice was quiet, barely restraining from yelling out. I was trying to not focus on the pain, but my arms were still be swung out of my control.
"By the stones, they're embedded in the stones why?" She asked. Her eyes were filled with concern seeing me in clear pain,
"You'll see." Taking a deep breath, trying to focus on the wall in front of me I began to try to block out everything else. During my training, Ike had taught me how to block out pain and emotions during combat. He said the better your blocked it out the more you were able to focus. Unfortunately, the only time I seemed to be able to block out pain was when I wasn't putting my full focus on that instead of using my powers. I had slowly began getting better and better at it too. Of course, I wasn't skilled enough to block the pain out a hundred percent, but I could block it out to be just enough.
If I could just block out everything like he taught me then the throbbing pain in my arms would just become just a dull buzz.
The harder I stared, the more the wall in front of me began to become detailed. I could now see small plants that had slowly crawled across the groves of the black stones and found their homes in the tight cracks. I could also see the dampness of the bricks and the way the stones dully glowed, the glowing was nearly invisible if you didn't look at it closely. All to soon, Mist's and Kaiya's questioning voices faded into the distance.
I swung my weight forward only to feel the dull pain sprout in my arms when the shackles moved forward and swung me. I then swung my weight backward feeling the shackles moving with me. To Kaiya and Mist, I probably looked like some idiotic wannabe gymnast trying to swing from the shackles.
The swinging went on for a few moments, me trying to bring myself enough momentum to keep myself swinging without having to use my body. Once I reached this point, I closed my eyes mustering up some of my energy.
I knew I could move things anywhere I wanted, so if I focused that energy on pulling the chains I could hopefully create enough weight to break the chains. I searched for the energy to come to me, I practically called for it. But I could hardly gain any of my energy. I now understood the dire truth of how much I had overexerted myself yesterday. I could barely draw any energy and my already weakened state was doing nothing to help that. But still I pushed forward to find it. Just as I was beginning to lose my momentum, I felt a small surge of energy flow through me from some distant reservoir.
Reaching out to it, I pushed harder to gain control of it. And finally I was able to barely grasp it and used it or my benefit. As my energy pushed downward weight onto the chains, I felt the chains cracking. The pain in my arms were beginning to take over again, my focus wavering, but I kept my attention on the chains.
With my swinging and the downward momentum the chains would surely break.
"Or you plan was completely stupid and you would have caused yourself unnecessary pain and energy depletion." My voice pessimistically droned in, and I scowled.
"Shut up! I don't need this right now. Could you think of a better plan?"
"Hmm, no but that's only because I just woke up."
"Excuses!" I hissed at it and it didn't reply proving me right. Arrogant voice.
The chains suddenly erupted with a loud crack and before I could catch myself the chains had tumbled onto my shoulders slamming me to the hard, cold stone floor.
I let out a yelp on my way down, feeling the dampness of the floor against my cheek. The weight of the chains trapped me to the floor. The murky stinky water was beginning to leak into my hair and I groaned softly.
"Great idea." Kaiya sarcastically muttered. "How's the arms?"
"I'm out aren't I?" I hissed from my spot on the floor...like a boss.
"Yeah, but you look like you can't even pull yourself up." Mist just had to add.
Letting out a slow groaned, I braced myself against the floor and began to slowly push my way up. "See, I'm up." But now since I'm up, I can definitely feel the fire burning through my arms, I silently added to myself.
"What now because I'm surely not gonna try and pop my arms out of the socket to get out of these chains." Kaiya said. Selene, she was such a bitch. Most of the time it amused me, but when it was directed at me, it only pissed me off. Especially when I was trying to figure out how to save our lives.
"You're ungrateful." I griped from my place on the floor as I slowly made my way on wobbly legs. It felt like at any moment I would collapse so I knew Mist getting out was crucial. I just needed a little bit of her healing power; however, I had to be smart about my next move. I was one step away from exerting myself again and knocking myself out.
Using the wall to sturdy myself, I stared intently at the hard rusted chains. Her chains looked even worse off than mine, so I prayed that it would be easier to break her chains than mine. Mustering up the depleting strength, I began to mentally pull on the chains.
I watched in small satisfaction as the chains began to shake with each passing second. A soft cracking in the musty air made Mist's eyes widened in happiness as they both stared at me.
"It's working keep going Av!" She squealed quietly.
A second crack echoed in the air followed by a few more metallic cracks. Just as I was about to collapse, her chains broke.
Just like me she let out a soft scream as her chains snapped from the stone and fell on top of her. Her body collided with the floor and she groaned. Through drooping eyes, I stumbled to her and fell on my knees. Shakily I helped her onto her knees.
"Mist, I need you to heal me, just a little!" I added when I saw her eyes widened worriedly.
"Avril, I don't know if I can. I feel so weak and-"
"Did you hear something?" A woman's deep voice from above our prison stopped Mist. Eyes both wide in fear, we sat frozen.
"Go check on the prisoners!" One voice yelled,.
"Mist!" I practically pleaded. "You can't be scared. If you don't' do this, we're dead. You and I both know that I am the only one that had a slight chance to take down these Amazon bitches!" I hissed touching my hands against her dirtied cheeks.
Nodding, her wide does eyes filled with fear, she listened to me. Her hand came up to my forehead and she closed her eyes. I could only stare at her, hearing the quickly approaching pounding set of booted feet.
"Mist! Hurry up-" An euphoric feeling shot from my head all the way down to my toes. I sucked in a sharp breath feeling my whole body blare to life. So caught up in the strengthening feeling, I barely had enough time to catch Mist as she collapsed in my arms.
I gasped lightly seeing her fragile, terrified form in my lap. I knew that I had to get us out of here. Mist had helped me, and now I needed to help everyone. The footsteps had just began to clomp down the stairs when I stood up after placing Mist gently against a wall.
Turning away from an unconscious Mist and a worried looking Kaiya, I turned to the approaching women. Her black booted feet, athletic legs, and camouflaged attire appeared, only seconds before her head did. Her yellow piercing eyes connected with mine, and she stumbled backwards in shock.
"What the hell?" She growled lowly seeing two of the prisoners out. The shock quickly turned to determination; however, I was already two steps in front of her. Before she could yell for backup, I ran forward and threw my chained arms forward.
The rusted chains slapped against her leg and she let out a yell seconds before she fell and tumbled down the rest of the stairs. Her head cracked against the floor and her body went still. I prayed that I hadn't killed her. Even though, I had killed in the past it had all been out of my control and I surely didn't want to make this my first actual premeditated killing.
"Something going on down there go help the new recruit!" A voice yelled from above us
I turned to Kaiya only to see her watching silently from her dangling place along the chains. Already knowing what I was about to do, she shook her head trying to silently plead for me not to do it.
With a slight shrug, I turned my back to her. I was damned if I didn't, and I was damned if do. I stepped over the woman and rushed up the stairs. Immediately the fresh air hit my face, and the purple landscape circling the jail greeted me.
My eyes took in four women guards who had temporarily froze at my unexpected entrance, but were now back in control. One woman, the closest to me, rushed at me with a long speared weapon in her hand.
Using my chained hands as my own weapon once more, I flung my hand in her direction. Like a whip, the rusted chains came out and struck her directly in the face. Her pained scream echoed through the air followed by a sharp crack. I winced, but turned to my next assailant seeing the first one collapse to the ground holding her nose.
Like the first one, I used my chains as a weapon and struck out. However, she was ready for me. Lightening quick, her hand caught the chain and yanked. I tumbled forward, but with only a little bit of my new restored energy, I used my power to fling her away from me.
The last two shocked women were easily flung away from me too. With surprise yelps, they disappeared into the coverage of trees circling us. Their pained grunts and the ruffling of the forestry were the only things to alert me that they have landed.
My eyes skirted around the entire field waiting for someone else to jump out. If they wanted to fight, a fight I would bring their asses. I had gotten this far, so I needed to keep going. I could do this. For Mist, for Kaiya, for the boys, for Ike, and even for Teelah, I could do this.
For a few moments, my heavy breathing was the only thing you could hear in the field besides the high pitch sounds coming from the creatures in the forest.
"Avril!" Kaiya screamed breaking me from my paralyzed state. "Avril, are you okay?"
"Yeah." I answered turning around and sprinting back down the stairs.
"Did you get them?" Kaiya asked from her spot, arms still dangling.
I nodded taking a quick worried glance at Mist to see she was still unconscious. I cursed under my breath. Moving her around would be a struggle, but there was no other way and I was not leaving her behind. My eyes briefly flickered to Teelah, and dismissively I turned back to Kaiya.
"Yeah." I sighed. Within a few seconds, Kaiya was down on the ground rubbing her knee. "Sorry." I muttered. "I didn't know you were going to land that hard."
She shrugged, slowly pushing her way up. Her knee was oozing teal blood and looked inflamed. "I guess I deserved it. I was a Debby Downer."
I quirked an eyebrow at her statement.
"What?"
"Nothing, that's just something my friend Lilly use to say."
Realization dawned on her face. "Oh the Earthling girl who visited Terra. The one with the odd bleached hair."
"It's actually natural." I muttered looking at my chains and wondering how I was going to get these off my wrists.
"It's not natural for bleached hair to grow out of someone's scalp." She shook her head matter of factly, rubbing at her chaffed wrists. The chains had bit into all our skin so now our wrists were red and inflamed. The worry of infection drifted into my mind before I pushed that thought away. First I would worry about escaping, then infection would come into play. No point in worrying about your health if you didn't even know if you would lose your life soon.
"It's called blonde hair, and it's natural if you live on Earth." My tone was more snappy and I knew instantly she heard the bitterness when she glanced up at me with a frown. She didn't say anything else, and I was glad for it. Lately, our entire group had been more snappy towards each other. The thought of your home planet being destroyed and knowing you were the only one who could save it did that to a person.
Kaiya dropped to Mist's level and threw a limp arm over her shoulder. "Here come help me."
Nodding, I rushed to Mist's other side and threw her other arm around my shoulder. We stood to our feet, and I glanced at Teelah who was still unconscious. Despite a part of me wanting to leave her, a bigger part oddly wanted to save her. So I decided once we got Mist up the stairs, we would come back for her. We would then have to find some way to carry them both to safety. Although I knew that would be a struggle all by itsself since Kaiya and I both felt weakened.
Carrying Mist wasn't hard, she was thin and only weighed a buck two. No, the hard part was figuring out where to put our chains so we wouldn't trip over them as we walked and went up the stairs. We finally managed to throw all our chains behind us and carefully made our way up the worn dirt stairs. With every step we ascended, the stairs would make an ominous creaking sound like any time they would collapse.
With our eyes downcast on both the stairs and the chains, we finally made it to the top. I looked up and gasped shock at the sight before me feeling my heart pause.
"What is..." Kaiya drifted off as she finally looked around us. Her dirt rimmed eyes, which were more green then yellow now, widened at the sight.
About twenty women surrounded us in a tight circle. All dressed in identical purple camouflage outfits that were each embellished with leaves, vines, or different accessories of nature, war paint decorating their deadly features, and weapons that oddly resembled crossbows aimed directly at all of us, I knew our plan of escape had went down the drain. There was no way I could use my powers to get rid of all these women without getting an arrow through the forehead first.
Kaiya cursed under her breath, and I was right along with her. A heaviness settled in my stomach and the bitter taste of defeat fell upon me.
A women broke through the tight packed circle and appeared in front of us. My frown turned into a scowl as I realized who the woman was.
She was dressed in similar purple camouflage except instead of knee length shorts covering her toned legs, mid thigh shorts exposed more muscled tan, smooth skin. A tight vest like shirt covered up her torso which was fringed with lavender leaves of the trees. The shirt exposed her bare strong arms and toned stomach. For a second my eyes flicked to my stomach knowing I would never have a stomach that flat, until I shook my head out of those thoughts. It was no time to be vain or envious.
Her vicious eyes landed on mine and a satisfied smile crawled onto her face. "Now look what we have here. The lows girls managed to somehow escape their jail cell and attempted to escape." A slow chuckle crawled from her throat. It was a dry, cacophonous noise that sounded like she rarely chuckled.
She made three clicking sounds and immediately my small close knitted group was separated as hands roughly pulled us away from each other. Without the support from Kaiya and I, Mist fell forward. Her face met the ground with a cracking sound that made me wince. I stared at her still body for a few seconds paying no mind as I was forced to my knees and my hands were tightly pulled behind me. With my heart squeezing painfully at the pitiful stance they had left Mist in, I felt my anger began to simmer.
Mist didn't deserve to be treated that way. She was a fucking princess, a fucking good one at that who wouldn't maliciously harm a single living soul. She didn't deserve to be treated that way.
I felt my eyes glowing as I stared at the pink grass. I began to take deep breaths trying to reign my fury, but the more my mind replayed the scene of watching an unconscious Mist plop to the ground, the more I got angrier.
I had just began to stand back to my feet, letting my anger be my puppeteer until one of the butts of a crossbow was savagely slammed into my back. I let out a muffled scream knowing these bitches had purposelessly aimed at where my kidneys were. They had taken a kidney blow, and as I grounded my teeth, feeling my eyes water in pain, I finally understood why kidney punches in boxing had became illegal moves a long time ago.
A finger appeared in my wavering vision. "Ah, ah, ah." The voice sung amused mixed with sickly sweet maliciousness. "You wouldn't want your anger to get the best of you would you now creature? You know what happened last time your anger got the best of you don't you? Your love interest was taken away from all of you and as we speak they are preparing to get bred. Each of them are in their own little room, they've been cleaned, dressed, and the ritual has been said. All there is to do now is wait for the women to file in." Her face appeared in mine watching with sick entertainment as I tried to keep my rage under control all the while battling a tidal wave of vengeance and possessiveness at the thought of anyone touching what was rightfully mine, Ike.
We stared at each other refusing to break the stare. As the seconds ticked by her amused cold green eyes grew more angered at my refusal to let her see me break. "And do you want to know something else. After we have finished up here and you're dead, I'll be the first to mate with that lovely specimen you call a...what did one of them say, a kindred spirit? Yes, I'll be the first one to touch his body, to feel-"
"You fucking bitch!" Kaiya screamed causing everyone to whip their heads in her direction. A brunette woman with even more muscles then the bitch in front of me was smirking as Kaiya cussed her out, furiously struggling in her chains. "I'll fucking skin you and kill you myself before you lay a hand on him, you dirty bitch."
The woman only stood back and watched with a sinister grin; however, once a spit rocket was fired at her eye with alarming accuracy the grin disappeared instantly. With a furious grunt, like a beast roaring, the woman flicked the spit out of her eye. I turned my head just in the knick of time.
I head the sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a loud jab before Kaiya screamed. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I could do something but knowing I had no power. The feeling of complete powerlessness and defeat wasn't a feeling I was new to, it was just a feeling that I haven't felt in a long time. But as I listened to her defeated whimpers, the feeling hit me hard in the chest.
My head fell forward only to be tugged upwards by the woman in front of me. "I guess your friend didn't like the idea of her love interest being mated to my friend either, Oh well." She chuckled.
"He's not my love interest bitch, he's my kindred spirit."I spat.
She merely shrugged taking a step back. "I could care less creature. I only care about the thing between his legs and the fact that I have finally come into age where I am applicable to mate."
I gritted my teeth, but made no further sound. There was no use. These women were vicious and ruthless and crazy.
The sound of a weapon being unsheathed had me looking up. The blonde woman was holding what looked like a dagger with a curved blade. Sharp geometric designs traveled around the glinting gold blade swirling onto the handle.
"It's almost sad really." Her voice said as my hair was yanked sideways and my neck was presented to her like a head on a platter. "You have spirit. With the right discipline, you could have served under me. It's a shame you have to die."
"I think I would rather die then serve you." I muttered.
She smirked. "Well, your wishes are about to be answered.
She raised her dagger in the air. The sunlight reflected off the blade making it shimmer in the air. I turned away not wanting to watch my death unfold.
"WAIT!" A voice yelled.
The blonde woman screamed enraged dropping her dagger as the entire group turned to where the voice was coming from.
"What is it Ivy!" The blonde yelled. Even though the attention had been changed to the frantic voice, the group of women were still in a tight knit group so I couldn't see the girl who had stopped my slaying and was apparently named Ivy.
"Jerica! Jerica! Don't kill the captives. Alem gave me orders-"
The vicious blonde who I now knew was Jerica cut the girl's sentence off. "Alem says slaughter any unknown creature who we can not use for our benefit."
"She's important." The girl finally broke through and bent forward on her knees trying to catch her breath. A gasp left me at the sight of her.
In front of me stood a creature I had never had the pleasure of seeing.
The girl had a deep chocolate skin tone. Her face was heart shade with a small flat nose, plump large lips, and high cheekbones. Her ears were pointed and had what looked like hardened flowers decorating the outer parts. She had big expressive eyes with large silver irises that nearly took up the entire white of her eyes. Coily hair which was a deep, almost blackish, purple color ran down her body in delicate waves. Her ends were a dark blue. I then noticed what protruded from her back. A pair of luminescent almost transparent wings.
With each heavy breath she took in, they would flutter and what look like particles of light would fall from her wings. In the sunlight they glowed a light bluish color. Purple circles and swirls that expanded like a web decorated her wings. I could only look on in a trance.
"The girl is important." Ivy said once she finally caught her breath. Her large eyes slid to me and glimmered like glitter. "She's important and Alem told me to tell you to not slaughter her...her friends too. He said if you kill her friends, her trust for us will not be established." She added as the brunette women who was harassing Kaiya took out a dagger of her own. With another grunt, which oddly reminded me of a dragon letting out a breath, the brunette woman sheathed her dagger.
This time it was me who looked on satisfied as Jerica and I locked eyes. "You heard Ivy, let me go."
"You're still a prisoner!" She snapped.
"Actually." Ivy cut in raising her finger in the air with an uneasy chuckle as Jerica looked at her. "Alem also told me to tell you that she is to be treated as a guest and not a prisoner."
"Ha!" I shouted.
"But she is to be chained along with her friends till she is back to the village just for safety measurements." Ivy reluctantly added in.
"Ha!" Jerica shouted while I rolled my eyes feeling relief fall over me.
At least I wasn't going to die. Avril would get another day to tell her story.
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I feel like my updating skills have really been on point lately! However, I will soon be going back to school and my updating will most likely slow again. I'm going to be trying for 18 credit hours, so my head will be more into schoolwork than updating. I will try to upload at least one more chapter before I start school (key word: I will try.) Anyways, thanks so much for your commenting you thoughts and support. Love it!