''Marie are you alright?'' Clara asked one she felt they were far enough from the building of their captor. The winged mouse reponded with a nod of her head. They were now outside of the town in a big wooden area. Clara didn't know where she was going but she thought anywhere would be better than staying close to these monsters who had transformed poor Marie in this form.
Their walk through nature was interupted as they heard a low growl coming from behind a bush. Before she could understand what was happening a wolf made entirely out of wood began to run toward them with it's mouth wide open. Letting out a scream of horror the girl began to sprint back toward the town.
When they came close to the town the wooden creature stopped and hissed toward them before running back toward the forest. Clara was confused, why did the creature stopped folowing them as soon as they got close to town? Clara decided she shouldn't look at a gifted horse in the mouth. Now that she knew the world outside was dangerous she decided that instead of running away it would be a better idea to hide and learn more about how much the world has changed since the Invasion.
Clara was careful to only walked in back alleys and tried to be seen by the least amount of people possible. She didn't know how far the influence of her kidnappers spreaded after all. For all she knew this was a town full of psychos. Clara smiled when she came face to face in front of a library. This could be the perfect place to lay low and learn more assuming people had written any books in the time she had been frozen.
Making sure that no one was watching her. She ran toward the building at first she thought of just going to the front door. But she thought better of it, she wanted to lay low for a while and if the librarian knew she was there she would be kicked out as soon as the library closed. She saw door close to the ground that led to the basement the library.
Much to her relief the window effortlessly opened up. She guessed the librarian wasn't that worried about thieves since libraries tend to lend books for free. The window was a bit small for her but she managed to squeeze throught and landed on the ground with a small thud.
This section of the libraries had many shelves but most of them were empty and there were spider webs everywhere. Maybe this part of the library had been abandoned? Luckily for her she found an old flashlight laying around and it still worked she looked around for the few books that remain bit to her disappointment most of the book were fictions written before the Invasion.
As much as she would like to read Harry Potter again she had more important things to learn. In the corner of her eyes she noticed that a book had been thrown into the trash bin. That piqued her interest why would a library throw away a book? The book was a simple yellow color and written in red color was 'Children of The Great Ones: How to Become More Than Humans.'
Instantly something didn't sit well with the title of the book and Maries made her known that she didn't like it either with a soft squeak. ''Don't worry Marie it's just a book, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about maybe the librarian just threw it because it's been damaged?'' Ignoring the protest of the small winged mouse Clara opened the book and began to read.
Dear readers you might be wondering what are the Great Ones and how can they help us overcoming these frail humans bodies we have been accustomed to? Well wonder no more! The Great Ones have freed us of the shackles of civilisation! For millenia humanity has been stuck working as willing slaves for leaders that did not care about them. The Great Ones freed us by destroying the thrones of lies and greed of such leaders. People see this as a tragedy, but nay! This was the first step to our next evolution!
By joining the Great Ones we will become more! They freed us of corrupted leaders who were guided by nothing more than greed and lazyness! People have tried to get rid of the Great One's children over and over again, these creatures we call the Elestia, but nay! We should accept them as brother and sisters and join them in the worship of The Great Ones! For only then will humanity stop being the preys hiding like cattle in our walls of stones and finally become equal to the Elestia!
Clara closed the book loudly her face pale at all the implications. ''People are worshiping the Dragons?! But they destroyed everything!'' Marie squeaked at Clara and rubbed her head against the girl's arms. Clara putted the book back into the trash can and petted the top of the head of the winged mouse. ''I'm okay Marie, I just hope not everyone see Dragons as saviors. Because I'm not sure I could stand living in a world that worship these monsters.''
Clara and Marie stayed in the basement all day. When night finally came and they were sure no one was left in the building, they slowly made their way upstair. Just as she hoped there were more books in the main area but most of them were still from before the Invasion. Finally she came in front of an interesting book. It was called 'Elestia for dummies: A Basic Guide On How To Deal With Elestia'
''That word again, what is an Elestia?'' Marie maked a chittering sound as if to say 'how should I know?' ''Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to look. I just hope this is not another book for a crazy cult.'' Opening the book she began to read with great interest.
I assume most people know what an Elestia is. But in case you've been living under a rock since 2069. Elestia are creatures with great and terryfying power. They can be found everywhere, in the forests, jungles, the sea, the rivers and even the sky. As I'm writting this they have arleady replaced the previous ecosystem of Earth.
Some say they should be erradicated from the face off the Earth, while other suggest they could become our allies. But I'm not here to debate what we should do with them. I will only try to help you understand them better. Firstly Elestia are divided into eight category or as most commonly reffered to, eight Natures. Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Wind, Lightning, Mind and Death.
Well you can probably figure what most Natures do with their names but let me explain it in more details. Even thought Natures are named after a single element they sometime have multiple attributes, One of the most well known is Earth. Earth Elestia can control plants around them, but that's not all. If they become strong enough they can also control the earth itself to create small earthquakes or throw rocks at their foes.
But no matter what an Elestia can do with their Nature. The most important thing you should understand about them is that they are not animals. Sure they might look like it at first glance. But they are definetly much smarter. Some go even as far as to say that they are sapient, whether that's true or not I could not say at the moment.
And yes I can arleady hear the question. If they are so inteligent why do they live in the wild and attack us like savage animals? The response to that is that while they are very inteligent they are much more guided by instincts than humans ever were. Not only that but even if they tried to built a civilisation the Dragons would probably destroy anything they would make. Just like they did with humanity by forcing us to live only in small settlements.
Another theory suggest that the Elestia worship the Dragons. And as such refuse to build any civilisation as to not threaten the natural order their deities created. I do not know if that theory have any weight. What we can learn from these creatures is very limited since as of now they do not speak the language of humans. Even the few Chosens I have managed to speak to all say that the Elestia are very tight-lipped about anything that has to do with the Dragons. But enough talk about that for now.
Now you might be wondering what is a Chosen? Well a Chosen is someone who became master to one or multiple Elestia. A lot of people hate them and call them traitors of mankind. But even if you hate them you cannot deny that they are the last line of defense humanity has left against wild Elestia and the Dragons. Sure there is also the Knights of Humanity, but they can't be everywhere. And I for one do not approve of how they threat the settlements they protect. Everywhere they set foot I see drought of food and people being killed for befriending any Elestia. And the leaders of such settlements become nothing more than a puppet bending to the every whims of the Knights.
If you're planning to become a Chosen yourself. Do not try to capture a Elestia without a Draconid Gem unless you absosutely have to. Elestia are much more powerful than humans. If you try to capture one without a gem you could die in an instant. And don't even think about trying to threaten one with weapons like knives, or even guns, they will do absolutely nothing to an Elestia and they know it. The Draconid Gems allow you to communicate with the Elestia in all security. I have often wondered how is it to talk to an Elestia. I salivate at the thought of all the secrets they could reveal to me about their world. But I am far too old to do something so foolhardy. And unfortunately getting to talk to a Chosen with such things has proven to be a diffcult task. Being treated like outcasts by their peers has made most Chosens wary of strangers asking too many questions. Not that I can blame them.
Now into where the energy of The Elestia come from the Elestia-
Clara gasped she was about to turn a page and noticed that the rest of pages were missing. She fumed at this, who would dare destroy such important pieces of information?! Clara sighed in disappointment and putted the book back in it's place on the shelve. At least she had learn a lot from this book. So the creatures made of wood earlier was an Elestia huh? Did that make Marie an Elestia too or was she something else? After that both her and Marie decided it would be best to go to sleep maybe they would be able to get more information another time.
Multiple days and nights passed after that night. Clara didn't know how much time she had spent in that library. She came close to being caught a few times but with quick reflexes she managed to avoid detection. But then eventually as more and more time passed a familiar pain began to invade her body. Every days it became worse and worse. Marie would try to convince Clara to get some help but she was convinced that no one would help her in this settlement.
Then one day she heard a commotion coming from upstair. The librarian who she learned was an old lady named Magnola was shouting at someone. She didn't understand everything so she decided to put an ear on the wall and tried to hear more of the conversation. But even with an ear on the wall she could only make out muffled voices.
''...Don't want you here... scaring my clients!'' She heard the voice of the old lady shout. A man with a calm voice replied to har.
''...Don't want any touble...prove to you...Just want to... and spread the word of the Great Ones.''
Her heart turned to ice as she heard the last sentence. ''Marie we have to get out of here the crazy cultists are here!'' The winged mouse nodded at her with a determined expression. Clara took a chair and as quietly as she could placed it under the window she had entered weeks ago. She was still a bit too short to reach the window so she tried to grab the ledge by jumping.
Much to her horror this caused the chair to fall on the ground causing a loud 'clang!' as it connected with the cement floor. She heard the people from upstair make a curious sound before she heard them walking toward the stairs. Throwing caution to the wind she climbed throught the window as fast as she could and began to run into the streets.
Two hooded men arrived in the basement and they immediatly noticed the fallen chair and the open window. ''Let's go! This might be the escaped subject!'' The other man nodded and both of them ran toward the exit.
Clara was sprinting as fast as she could toward the forest she didn't know what she would do once she was there but at this point she didn't care she preferred dying by a wild Elestia rather than being captured again by these lunatics. Unfortunately at the worst moment she felt the pain rearing back it's ugly head. She tried to ignore it as best as she could until they were far away from here.
Meanwhile the two men weren't able to catch up to the girl so one of them stopped and yelled toward his partner. ''She's too fast, let our Elestia handle the job.'' The silent man grinned at the suggestion before nodding. ''Alright Rookie come out!'' A blue bird came out of a green gem and squawked loudly awaiting the command of his master.
The silent man whispered something and a brown beam of light came out from his belt. A wolf made out of woods exactly like the one that had chase after Clara a few days ago appeared in front of the quiet man. ''Alright you two we need to capture someone who's trying to to run from us. They came out of this library a short while ago so their scent should still be fresh.''
The wooden wolf nodded and began to sniff at the ground. Then it barked loudly and ran toward the south exit of town. The more talkative man of the two began to laugh. ''Whoever it is there no way they're gonna escape our Elestia. Professor Balsam will be please if it turn out to be the escaped hybrid.''
Clara heard a bark behind her and she shrieked when she saw the same species of Elestia pursuing followed closely by a blue bird. Marie wiggled out of the girl pocket and jumped on the ground. She ran alongside Clara until she found a rock laying on the ground. Picking it in her mouth she proceeded to throw it at the wooden dog who growled more annoyed than anything else at the attack. Then Marie ran to the right and the wolf followed the mouse instantly.
It finally dawned on Clara what her friend was trying to do. ''Marie no! You're going to get killed!'' But it was too late the winged mouse was arleady too far away to reach. If only she knew how to fly she wouldn't have been in much danger, but now...
She considered running after her friend but before she could even try a strong gust of wind pushed her to the ground making her hit her head on the dirt. Looking up she saw that the blue bird was still after her and was looking at her with a predatory glint. The bird began to flap it's wing more erraticaly and produced another gust of wind. But this time Clara reacted in time and rolled on the ground to escape the blast of wind. Then she jumped from the ground and began to sprint away from her attacker.
She heard the wind whistling loudly, instinctively she ducked and she was glad she did. The wind had missed her head by a hair and had putted a large gash on the trunk of a tree. Clara gulped as she realised how close she had come to death, but then looked up at the bird in defiance. ''You think you're so strong huh? Well take this!'' She picked a tree branch on the ground and threw it toward the bird.
As soon as it made contact with the Elestia the branch snapped in half and the Elestia looked no worse for wear. ''Are you serious?!'' She exclaimed with baffled look before trying to run again but suddenly the pain from earlier came back in full force. It spreaded suddenly all over her body and wouldn't subside. Clara kneeled on the ground and began to scream in agony.
The blue bird began to squawk in shock as the girl began to convulse and trash on the ground. Her scream could be heard in all the forest. Finally the girl couldn't take it any longer, her vision faded to black and she felt her mind slowly shutting down. The last thing she saw was the bird begining to frantically cry for it's master to come to it...
- - - - -
When she was bought back to consciousness she was back in her familiar cell as if the last few weeks had been nothing more than a dream. She tried to rub some of the sleepiness out of her eyes and nearly screamed when she felt something furry brush against her eyelids instead of her usual hands. She quickly opened her eyes and gasped at what she saw.
Her hands were covered by spotless white fur that almost glowed into the darkness of her cell. Looking at the rest of her body she saw that the fur was everywhere. Touching the top of her head her stomach drop when she felt two small horns protruding from atop of her head and there was something warm and smooth encrusted in her forehead. She tried to scream but all that came out was a loud bleating sound which did nothing to calm her panic.
She heard footsteps coming to her cell and her blood began to boil when she saw her father standing there with an indiferent look on his face. He didn't even react when Clara ran toward him and slammed on the bars of her cells.
''Such a shame I had high hope for you my daughter. When I saw that you retained your human form for much longer than the other subjects I thought we had finally succeeded at unlocking the power of the Elestia. But you became just another hybrid just like all the other ones that survived. But don't worry it is possible we might give you back your humanity with time. We will preserve you and the others in a jar of life. They are similar to cryogenic pods just much safer. Since it doesnt required us to freeze you. If we don't manage to find a way to turn you back into humans well... It's a shame but humanity has no need for more monsters, so I will have to dispose of you.''
Clara banged on the bars of her cell and her bleating was filled with rage but the man she used to call father was unaffected by this as he walked away. Pretty soon someone else came to her cell and summoned a black cat Elestia in front of her cell. The gem on the Elestia began to glow with a eery blue color. She tried to back away from the light, but a sudden drowsiness overcame her. She soon fell asleep once again, this time she wouldn't see the light of days for a long time...
- - - - -
She didn't know if it was a positive thing or not. But the so-called jar of life worked differently than the cryogenic pod. The biggest difference is that she was a bit more conscious than she had been in the previous pods. In both case she didn't feel the passage of time. But the difference was that while she wasn't really concious her brain was active enough to sometime get dreams in this new pod. Most of them she had forgotten a long time ago, lost in a cacophony of sound and colors. But the last dream she had, she still remembered it as clearly as if it had really happened.
She was standing in a large grassy field. There was no end to this field in sight it was almost like a sea of green and the sky was a perfect blue color with no clouds in sight. She wasn't concerned about being alone in this vast place in fact she felt more at peace than she ever did before.
She heard someone walking on grass behind her. As she looked back she smiled, her mother was standing there with a loving smile on her face. Her mother had died while giving birth to her. But for some reason in the dream it made perfect sense to her that her mother would be standing there.
''Mom! You're finally back!'' She said before giving the woman a bone crushing hug.
''Sorry for the long wait my little cloud. I wanted to see you because I have a gift for you.''
Clara smiled at that. ''Really?! What is it?'' She asked curiously.
The woman giggled before responding to her daughter. ''Close your eyes and I'll give it to you.''
Clara did as ordered and she felt her mother finger touching her forehead, suddenly her head felt really warm, then the warm sensation spreaded to all over her body, then as suddenly as it had appeared the sensation was gone. She opened her eyes and look at her mother in wonder. ''What did you give me?''
''I gave you what is rightfully yours my child. I gave you the gift of the Mind.'' For one second her mother's eyes seemed to glow, but she thought nothing of it, it was probably just her imagination.
The girl cocked her head curiously. ''The gift of the Mind? What is that?''
Her mother laughed at that once again. ''Oh I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. But first you have to open your eyes. You have been asleep for almost a year now sleepyhead, it's time to wake up and return to the real world.'' As soon as she said those words the world around them faded to white...
Clara opened her eyes her heart was beating wildly. She was standing in a weird green and goopy liquid. An alarm blared from just outside her containment and she could hear someone screaming. ''Subject forty-two is waking up! That shouldn't even be possible!''
''Of all the fucking time! The Knights are at our doorsteps we don't have time to deal with this shit. Steve inject her with the f-33 serum.'' A gruff voice said.
The man she assumed to be Steve could be heard gasping in shock. ''But sir this is the Professor daughter are you sure we should kill-''
The other man grabbed him by the collar. ''We don't have time for this! Do it now! In fact kill all of them! If the Knights find out what we've been doing they will never stop tracking us down!'' The man named Steve paled at the order but nodded and tried to prepare the serum.
During the conversation Clara had felt her blood boil more and more. When they threatened to kill everyone her rage became uncontrollable. A blue glow began to emerge from her forehead and illuminated the whole tank around her. As soon as she did this a louder alarm went off this time it was heard in all the facility.
''Holy shit don't tell me-'' He didnt have time to finish his question before Clara's tank exploded and sent the two men crashing brutally against the wall. If Clara had been able to hear she would have heard the sickening crunch of their bones before they fell lifelessly on the ground.
More men and women came rushing throught the hall and they were left speechless when they saw the bipedal goat floating in the air enveloped in etheral energy. At this point Clara wasn't really thinking clearly her rage and instincts had taken over completely. One of the men shakily took out a gun and began to fire at Clara. The hybrid raised a hand and stopped every bullets in mid-air with almost no efforts.
When his charger became empty she had seven bullets in her grasp. ''You fucking dumbass! She's an Elestia now! Your gun is going to do jackshit!'' Clara proceeded to do a flicking motion with all of her fingers. The bullets were sent back toward the group of attacker at such speed that it made the same damage it would have done if it had been shot by a gun. Three men and two woman lay dead while two other men where laying on the ground and groaning in agony.
''Retreat! Retreat! We don't have any Elestia on us, call the guards!'' The group of cultists ran away leaving Clara alone. Even in her state of pure instinct her first act was to look for Marie. She found the small winged-mouse in another tank close to what was left of her's. She tried to free her friend from the tank but it was much more solid than she thought and she wasn't able to open it without risking hurting her friend. Then she found a terminal at the end of the hall she tried to use it but was instantly pushed back by a strong shock of electricity.
She wanted to scream in rage but she managed to contain herself for now. She turned back toward Marie. and promised herself that that she would free her if it was the last thing she did. With that she sent a large blast of blue energy toward the ceiling and created a massive hole which she flew throught.
Once she was on top of the building she saw members of the cult trying to fight against people wearing large metalic armors but the member of the cult were losing and pretty quickly they were retreating with their tails between their legs.
Clara proceeded to float down toward an abandoned building as soon as she landed she fell unconscious all her rage and instincts vanishing in a instant only leaving her tired from all the power she had used...
After that it took her a few days to be able to get used to her new power without using her instincts. Her first priority had been to turn herself back into her humans form. She managed to create an illusion of her former self which would fool most people who didn't have powers similar to her.
Then she tried to recruit the help of the townsfolk so she could free Marie. But everyone she met threated her as if she wasn't even there, or tried to get away from her as fast as possible since she was an outsider. In that time she also tried to learn as much as possible about this new world. She readed everything from books, newspapers and even diaries, everything she could get her hands on. There was probably a lot she was still missing but she learned the basic on how this new world worked.
What was left of Orchestralia was controlled by two factions. The Knight of Humanity and the Ding Dong Resistance. The Knights wanted to kill all the Elestia while the Resistance tamed wild Elestia to help them protect people. The two groups seemed to be in a sort of cold war. Skirmish between the two factions popped there and there but both groups seemed to want to avoid a full on war.
Clara instantly knew she was more on the side of the Resistance. It's true that she wasn't there to witness the true horror that the Elestia bought to the world. But she couldn't believe all of them deserved to die. And beside would the Knights even make the difference between what she had become and a true Elestia? She didn't want to find out.
Finally after almost a month of trying to find someone to help her, she came across a boy who looked around the same age as her. He was currently muttering to himself about where he should go next. She saw that just like her, people were giving him a wide berth but he didn't seemed to care about it.
The boy looked malnourished and his torned up clothes looked too big for him. And yet there was an air of defiance about him as if he wasn't willing to give up despite the hardship he was facing. That made her interest in him, she thought someone like that would be perfect for helping her get Marie back. Taking a step toward him she smiled. ''Do you always talk to yourself?''
- - - - -
''And I guess you know how the rest of the story goes from there.'' Clara finished, Oliver was looking at her with a weird expression she had a lump in her throat as she waited for him to react to what she had said.
''...I really don't know what to say. I mean wow and I thought I had a shitty life. No offense but your father is like a super-villain or something.''
Clara stiffled a laugh at that. ''I guess you're right. Unfortunately what he did was unforgivable and even if he's my dad if I ever see him again, I won't hesitate to kill him.'' She said it with such certainty that it sent shiver down Oliver's spine.
''Enough chit-chat you two. The day is almost over we should get back to the Ding Dong Community.''
''What about you? Won't you share your mysterious past with us?'' Clara asked in a teasing tone.
''My past is none of your business, now come on. The General will be pissed if we're out too late.'' The man dress in black said impatiently.
''Wait so does this mean we passed the test?!'' Oliver asked excitedly.
Xofamai sighed in exasperation. ''I guess you did, both of you. But don't think that everything will be easy from now on. Once I'm done with your training you will wish you had failed the test today.'' He said with a dark chuckle which made the two teens look at each other nervously.