3rd Person P.O.V.
While the 2 girls headed down to breakfast, the world was still spinning. For example, the witches circle had people preparing for the worst, and something or someone was walking into the circle...
Progenitor's P.O.V.
I was dizzy. A sensation I hardly ever felt anymore, due to it being caused by very few things for me. Dizziness, was caused by 2 different things, sickness, and over use of magic. Sickness was hardly a problem anymore, as healing magic had nearly everything covered, and magic... I had practiced enough to know when I was reaching my limits. So to say these dizzy spells made me nervous, was an understatement. (mind you I just realized the pun I made while writing this. It wasn't intended, just saying....back to the story.) It took a few things to make me nervous, but not only was I unusually dizzy, my mind was also fuzzy. It was like a part of my magic was being blocked, or subdued. Just as I started contemplating what might be wrong, another one hit me, sending me reeling towards the ground. My followers saw me fall, Mai ran to catch me, when another set of hands caught me. "Progenitor, your quite faint," a voice echoed sanding me up.
I looked at Mai, before looking back. Behind me stood a young, slender, woman, with bluish grey skin, dark purple hair, and bright red eyes. These eyes seemed to glow against the dark shadows around her eyes. I smiled in recognition of the creature that stood before. "Is that a Willow?" Mai asked in shock.
"Yes, but she must be here for a reason," I responded calmly,"Child, what is your name?"
The willow bowed, before saying,"Kind Progenitor, my name is Mist. And we have much discuss."
She seemed to be urgent in her introduction, and wanted to talk immediately. "Of course, rise Mist. Let's head to the main tent, Mai, you're in charge for the time being," I said, leaving Mai behind.
Mist and I went to the tent, and I closed the tent flaps, and turned to her. She looked more nervous, upset, and distraught in here compared to outside. I cocked an eyebrow, then spoke up,"You seem distressed, what's wrong Mist?"
She was dead silent, her hair hung in front of her face like a curtain, then I saw her shoulders shake. She was crying, so I gave her a hug. She was still fairly young for her species, so now I really was curious about what had happened. I stayed quiet for a bit, so she could calm herself. When she finally did, Mist wiped a few stray tears from her face, and then looked at me seriously. "Progenitor, a heretic witch has attacked and, killed all of the willows from our sanctuary. I am the only survivor in the area," she said not breaking concentration.
I became wide eyed, wondering how I hadn't seen that coming. It made me even more worried, was there something wrong with me? "That's awful, but is there more? I didn't see any of that," I answered.
"I can help you regain your sight, but it must be outside the circle. The energy blocking you sight, is witch Jezebel's, she was the one who attacked," Mist said, causing my eyes to widen in surprise.
"Jezebel...no, impossible, she's supposed to be dead," I said with uncertainty.
Mist shook her head,"She's alive. Whoever you sent to end her life, either didn't, or couldn't."
"No," I said calmly,"I don't believe Mai would lie to me. She might have missed, but to bluntly lie to my face, not likely."
Mist nodded, as we headed away from the witches circle. I knew she wanted to help me, but there was more to it than that. It was as if her reasons for doing this were deeper than just helping me. As I started to pick up on this, we drew to a stop. It was right on the edge of a clearing, and the area were the boarder between slender's forest and our circle was the thinnest. "Let's sit, and gather energy from the moon, Progenitor," Mist said calmly.
I nodded, sitting, legs crossed, with Mist in front of me. We linked hands, and started to chant in unison with each other. I didn't know the words to her chant, as I wasn't paying attention to them. Even if I was keeping up, it was only because, I knew the language of the Willows. As we continued to chant, I saw visions I was supposed to see before, and my head began to feel clearer. Then I saw us, a new vision which was coming fast, we were being attacked. Then, as if the vision wasn't enough, Mist and I broke chant, and physical contact. We both fell away from each other, when laughter surrounded us, we looked up an saw hundreds and, hundreds of dream stealers. We were completely surrounded, with no apparent exits. "Looks like trapping you would be as easy as Jezebel suggested," one of them said, laughter and, sickening grins followed.
Without any other options, the both of us started fighting. The dream stealers coming almost faster than we could strike them down. The ways they died varied, some shattered, others splashed into puddles, while some just faded into seemingly non-existence. It was enough to get anyone disoriented. Whipping, back and, forth between targets, I started to get tired. Suddenly, when I felt like I was actually going to die, I noticed blue flames. I looked over to see that Mist was not only attacking them with it, but also using disorientation to keep me from harm. "M..mist?" I said gasping for air,"What are you doing?"
"We can't keep this up! You're still pretty worn out from fixing your problem, so run! Progenitor please...just run. Let me keep the promise I made to my mother," Mist said urgently.
I shook my head, but I hardly had a choice. "Try not to die Mist!" I yelled, feeling rather childish as I turned tail and, ran.
I didn't even have time to think about the energy I felt not too far away from us.
???'s P.O.V.
I had been sent on patrol. I mean I would have preferred to go on patrol with Toby, but Slendy said that he was out earlier, so I left it alone. I didn't exactly hate doing it by myself, it was a way to kill time, but with all that was going on, I wasn't sure. Nix, Flora, and Cyclops were all dead, found burning on a pyre by Toby earlier on. It kinda sucked, since they were actually all pretty chill. Not the point though. When I thought about how this killed time, my eye twitched, even the mention of time made my eye twitch. My blood would boil, and I would have half a mind to kill whatever was in front of me. It was after pissing myself off, that I heard something strange. It was just near the boarder, and met up with another area of forest. An area we as the allies, and proxies of Slender, were forbidden to enter. The boarder was extremely thin here, so I had no idea who would be out here. I walked closer, hearing someone around my age tell another person to run. The cried back, asking them to try not to die, before I assumed they left. As I drew closer, I saw a girl who looked anything but normal, surrounded in blue flames. I was surprised, something about this felt wrong, especially with one of her against several of them. I was brought to the point of snapping, hearing the ticking of a clock in my head. That was until, the creatures attacking her turned to me. They didn't look human, and certainly didn't look like anything I knew. I got prepared, grabbing my trusty knife from my pocket. I managed to take down a few of them with ease, but that was a short lived experience. They found an opening, and took their chance. They began making me relive my life, every memory, both good and bad. I screamed in agony, and felt dizzy and confused for what felt like an eternity. It wasn't until I heard myself say,"My name is Clockwork, and Your time is up," that I was released from my torment.
I felt dazed, drained, dizzy, and weak all at once. My heart was pounding inside my chest, as I felt a sudden burst of energy return to me. "GET OUT OF HERE! RUN NOW! I'LL KEEP THEM HERE, JUST REPORT IT BACK TO YOUR OPERATOR!" yelled the girl who now stood in front of me.
"Wha-?" I said still trying to process.
"I TOLD YOU TO RUN DAMN IT!" She cried.
I didn't even stop to ask her name, seeing that she currently had them distracted. I took off running, not wanting to go through that experience a second time. The idea of that surprisingly terrified me. I looked back a couple times, making sure none of those things were following me. "Ok Clocky," I mumbled,"Their gone for now, so report back to slender."
I rubbed my shoulders, as if I had been cold before. When I felt something touch my shoulder. I jumped, spinning around, ready to stab whoever was behind me. That was when I heard the all familiar static, followed by seeing Slender's featureless face. "Well that's unusual for you Natalie," Slender said following my outburst.
I looked up at him, realizing that he not only was surprised, but also worried about me. Something that slender rarely ever showed, it would have felt wrong if it weren't for the fact that I wasn't on edge because of what had happened already. To be fair, I just hoped she would live. I hoped that she could handle it, but for now, I knew I was in for some inquiry from Slendy. Whatever he was about to ask me, was cut short though. As Slendy froze up, then looked at me,"Clockwork, we have to head back."
I got confused, Slendy was hardly ever this blunt, but then, when I thought about it. This usually happened when there was trouble back at the house. So I didn't question it, and followed him back. When we did get back, we were welcomed by the same creatures that attacked me.
3rd Person P.O.V.
The attack on Slendy's home hadn't been a coincidence. Jezebel had wanted to take Slenderman and, Progenitor out in the same night. However, with Mist in the way, her best option was to attack Slenderman, his forest, and its inhabitants. Her dream stealers were quite adept at separating individuals from the group. This was proven, by young Sally...
Sally's P.O.V.
They came out of nowhere. Big, black, shadow monsters, that could make you weak very quickly. They were fast, and once they cut you off, you were very unlikely to escape them. I didn't have time before they surrounded me. I couldn't stick by Jeff, or Toby, as they had pushed us apart. I felt scared, and screamed for anyone, even Clocky would have been ok. They laughed at me, watched me squirm, and took the form of a man. I remembered him, he touched me, he killed me, but I couldn't really remember him beyond those things though. I started to cry, and even teleported away. I couldn't take this anymore, I couldn't fight them. They could hurt me, but I couldn't hurt them! No matter what I did, they wouldn't die! I shook as I tried to get away, frightened of what might happen if I didn't get away. Before I knew it, my surroundings became unusual. Was I still in Slendy's forest? I couldn't tell...and it scared me. I heard the monsters laugh, and prepared for the worst. "And just what do you think you're doing on our turf?" I heard a echoey voice ask.
"Did you really think we wouldn't notice, I mean really. You dream stealers are a serious eye sore," Another voice added, this one sounded more like a 'normal' person.
I looked up to see who they were, and to my surprise, at least one of the girls looked like Toby.
Lyra's P.O.V.
We had gone on patrol, by we, I mean Shadow, and I. It had been several hours since this morning, and it was probably around noon. We had finally found out what had taken Ace so long to get down stairs for breakfast, and were now just keeping our eyes open for trouble while Annie, and Ace were at work. Lily was watching tv, Simon was going to go eat the meal Ace set aside for him, Emma had left with something Ace made for her, and Ben was playing video games. Ace hadn't ordered us to go on this patrol, we had just chosen to. With all of the tension, and chaos, we as a group, no as a family, thought it might be a good idea. With that being said, Shadow and I had been 'volunteered' to take the first patrol. (what really happened was that everyone else wanted to do their own thing, and despite wanting to hang out with BEN, Shadow didn't think ot was a good idea to have Lyra patrol alone.) What neither one of us expected to happen, was to see the ghost of a young girl cowering in fear. We also hadn't expected to see dream stealers cornering someone. Shadow and, I looked at each other for a brief second. We both knew that we shouldn't just stand there, but we were both pretty damn surprised. Then we looked back, and Shadow asked,"And just what do you think you're doing on our turf?"
Shadows voice was cold, it definitely fit how I felt too,"Did you really think we wouldn't notice? I mean really? You dream stealers are a serious eye sore," I added in agitation.
The girl in the center looked at us, at the same time the attackers surrounding her did. Our guards were up, and it didn't take long for us to develope a plan, though no words were exchanged between us. Dream stealers charged us left and right, as we fought and, destroyed each one. Shadow nodded, telling me to get out of leave with the girl. I phased through them, and approached the girl. "LOOK OUT!" she cried, looking behind me.
Little did she know that I could tell he was behind me, so when he did attack, I made the kill quick and easy. After doing this, I turned to face her again. She looked shocked, and then asked,"Who are you?"
"My name's Lyra, Lyra Rodgers," I answered.
"So your Toby's Sister?" she asked, cocking her head in confusion.
"Yep," I said with a smile, and a chuckle.
"Woah!" she said with a bright smile.
"And you are?" I asked calmly.
"Sally," she answered excitedly
"Well Sally," I said standing up,"Would you like to get out of here?"
She nodded, and with that, we took of.....