Shadow
Dracoponian retrieves my knives from the river, and we set up a camp near the beach, using palm tree wood to make a lopsided shelter. It was hard to make, because everyone kept elbowing me, trying to place their piece of wood into position.
The next morning, Dracoponian is- surprisingly- the first one up. He somehow healed overnight, despite his heavy injuries.
"How do you think that happened?" I ask.
The group had no commentary on the question, so I leave it be. As we continue following our path, I brainstorm theories of why Dracoponian is so perfectly injure-less. Maybe someone in our group manifested as a Healor or a Ginko, and they don't know it yet! That would explain everything. I wonder if- a breathtaking view ahead cuts off my train of thought.
Huge mountains tower over us, sprawled over a landscape. It'll be a challenge to climb them, I realize bitterly. The beautiful mountains ahead are also known as the Protection Charm in the Elf Cities. The tallest mountain has an enchantment over it that makes sure that no one can leap straight to the elf cities, which is a pain, but I have to say, the mountains are pretty. Gorgeous rolling hills of green and crystal clear blue waters, colourful birds flying amidst some fat, lazy white clouds drifting through the blue sky, it seems like fairies will pop up and grant us wishes any second. Pretty unlikely, but possible.
"Athena and Stefan, you two will have to explain yourselves to the ESS. A human and a demon. Hmm... They'll probably register you guys as orphans, even though you aren't. But it's better than them knowing who your father is." ESS stands for Elf Security System. I look at Athena. I open my mouth to continue, but double over. Darkness crashes over me, slowly fading to beautiful shades of azure and amethyst. Just like at the hotel... My thoughts are cut off as I find myself in a closed room.
...
A male elf- no, the elf I saw in my dream- blinks rapidly at me. He's gagged, but it looks like he's trying to say something. A demon is standing next to him. The elf is struggling. The demon takes his gag off, and he immediately yells, "She's smarter than that! They all are! She'll know that this is-" I open my eyes.
...
"Shadow!" I feel dizzy, and I blink at a blurry figure with flaming hair as they shake me, hard. "You blacked out! Are you all right? Shadow?"
I sleepily look at the figure, scanning their blurry features and identifying them as Stefan.
"Arkera!" Vapor yells, snapping me out of my trance.
"Sorry. I'm all right." I mutter. I then continue to explain what happened to the group.
"Describe this elf to me, Shadow." Wittnor commands. I begrudgingly obey him, describing the mystery elf. "Did he have glasses? Blue ones?" Wittnor gasps as I nod. Then he whispers, "That elf is your brother, Shadow."
That would mean... I shut down the thought before my imagination can run free. "But how do you remember him?" I ask. I have questions. A lot of them.
"When we saw him, it triggered our memories of your brother." Wittnor answers, "And it happened recently." I look at him curiously. He sighs. "All we saw was him, struggling against several demons. They leaped him somewhere before we could help. He's... probably dead," I look down at the green, grassy ground.
"So he's gone," I whisper. "I just found out that I have a brother, but he's dead." For a second, I can tell my face is all shadows and angles. Suddenly, I feel hopeful, and I can feel my features soften. "Wait! If he sent me these visions, then he's alive!" I exclaim, throwing up my hands. Wittnor pauses.
"Yes. Yes, that's true!" His face lights up. "We can get him back!" Wittnor opens his mouth to say something, but shuts it abruptly, jerking
his head towards empty air. I'm about to ask him what he's doing, but then I see a flash of colour.
I freeze, and then cautiously yell, "Wittnor! Spray the air with water!" He obeys, and a group of goblins materialize in front of us, one carrying a can of some sort of spray, probably what they used to hide themselves. Athen Hisses at them, probably sensing danger. Stefan yelps. One of the creatures glares at me with its brown, ovalish eyes. I glare back, then notice that he and the other goblins all have vines wrapped around them, for some reason.
Vapor brandishes a sharp stick, and readies himself to use his abilities. I grip my daggers, ready to attack. A goblin wearing a crown of metals and crystals on his wrinkly, bald and yellow-brown-green head steps to the front of the group. This goblin must be their chief. He wears a crown of metal and crystals on his wrinkly, bald and yellow-brown and green head. Another opens its mouth, revealing yellow teeth. I think it's female. The leader begins to speak, and I smirk at his terrible english.
"Yous geeve us yur weh-pens. Den us spaaare yous. We will no fight." There is something nagging at the back of my head. Something about goblins... "Boot. If us spaare yous, yous will geeve us deh-mon, too." Stefan looks horrified.
"You wouldn't dare! I'll... Attack you!" he shrieks - which might have been threatening, if not for the fact that he is huddled behind Dracoponian.
Wittnor cocks his head, looking far too casual for the situation. "Riiiiight. Why would we trust you? Knowing your species, you'll just feed us a lie." He says, shrugging as if he means nothing by it. Then it clicks. Goblins never tell the truth in situations like these. Or very often, if I was being honest. "Anyways, we'd never give Stefan to the likes of you!" I snort. "You don't know anything about friends, do you?"
A goblin raises its fist, showing brown nails, and yells, "AIPRALAE!", with an oily accent, which just causes us to glance at each other in confusion. The goblin looks disappointed, as if he was looking for more of a reaction. After a few seconds of silence, a goblin with twitchy ears slaps the original goblin and declares, "Ideeit. DEY CAN NO UNDASTAND!" The original goblin looks back with a blank expression, scratching behind his ears with his noticeably brown nails. Twitchy Ears sighs, murmuring something unintelligible under his breath before he hisses, "He meen... ATTACK!"
The goblin horde stampedes us. Stefan scratches one with his demon claws. Dracoponian freezes one goblin with a blast of icy breath. Athena and Vapor duel with separate goblins back-to-back, each taking on two goblins. Pustyn bites the strongest goblin, other than the leader, on the neck, and it cries out in agony, it's beady eyes watering. Durpner slams two goblin's heads together, knocking them unconscious. I knock them out one at a time with my daggers, quickly going through them. The Chief bellows something, and instead of trying to hurt us, they trap us with vines that also wrap around them. They whip them around with alarming speed, and then tie the group up, except for Stefan, Durpner, and I.
"So... I have no idea who you are, but... any chance you can leave us alone?" Stupid Stefan asks, still dodging the vines. He's certainly an idiot. Crown Head looks slightly confused as he shakes his head, an expression that seems to be both amused and determined sliding onto his face. With a sudden burst of strength, about ten goblins who were previously lying on the floor and presumed to be unconscious jump up and step into battle formation.
Rage bubbles up deep inside me. It couldn't end like this, trapped and then killed... Or whatever they plan to do with us. The rage grows, trickling into a sort of dull admission - and yet there's a part of me that wants to keep fighting. A part of me that turns to a feeling, a feeling which spreads across my core, prickling every inch of my skin. Exposing a raw nerve. My thoughts are cut off as a flame suddenly sparks on the leaf-covered ground.
"Fire!" I scream. The goblins all scramble back, tripping over each other. A sphere of water quickly materializes in Wittnor's hand, and he hurls it at the growing flames. We all brace ourselves, waiting for the fire to extinguish, but to no avail.
We continue to back up, and my eyes turn to a small goblin that has lit himself on fire! He struggles to extinguish the flames, frantically running around in circles, and accidentally spreads it to his fellow goblins, who collapse onto the floor, slowly burning to death. My eyes widen, bile rising in my throat as I force my eyes away, only to notice that my hands are being licked by thin curls of fire. I shake them fiercely, desperate to put the fire out, but after Wittnor's water didn't even affect the flames, I doubt a bit of wind can. I cringe, waiting for the pain. But there's nothing - not even a hint of a burn, and I raise my hands closer to my eyes. Definitely on fire. And yet... there was nothing but a presence of some sort, like a rush of energy that called to me.
And then I realize... the flames are coming from me.
Vapor shrieks,"Infernor!" I look around wildly, looking for a figure through the thick smoke, when it dawns on me. I'm the Infernor. The realization sets on heavy, and the flames in my hands go out instantaneously. What have I done?
"Wait, I killed all those goblins?" I ask, curling in on myself. Even if the flames are gone, their presence isn't. Wisps of flames dance in my subconsciousness, begging for my command, a deep set hunger that has infected every bone, every gland. Instinctively, I shudder.
My friends' eyes widen as they look at me, each turning pale. Athena blinks rapidly, looking shocked. "You mean... you're the one who..." She trails off, taking a few steps away from me. She's scared. They're all scared, I realize. Scared of me.
I attempt to stay calm, taking a deep breath, but the fire rages on. Stefan takes action and throws a wave of water over the fire, and yelps at himself. I sigh in relief as the destructive flames snuff out, but... they don't snuff out within me.
"I'm an Abyssal?!" he shrieks, half happy and half terrified.
"Yes." answers an unfamiliar voice. I step back as I look at the newcomer. The creature has the sleek, slender body of a wolf. Its fur has dark blues, greens, and purples, with a pitch black stripe starting at its snout and ending at its tail tip. Giant, fairy-like wings of pink sprout out of its back. It is looking at us with interest, eyes glowing. I spot Pustyn staring at it's paws, and follow her gaze. The creature's claws drip with poison, three claws on the front of each foot and one at the back. I look back at its warm, inviting gaze. "Sssso pleased to meet you. Won't you tell me your name?" It has a warm, lulling voice, ushering us to answer. The creature smiles coyly. "I know what you are thinking. Who am I... and what am I." We nod slowly, and I gaze at the creature. "Well, you should know!" It suddenly spat, circling around us and weaving through us. "You elves hunted my kind to the brink of extinction!" That must be why I've never seen it's species in the books! "I am Chinglar of the Chingles, if you needn't know." It smiles at us, its voice returning to its lull. "So, what's your name?"
I go look at it straight in the eyes.
"I'm Shadow. This is Stefan, Athena, Vapor, Pustyn, Durpner, Wittnor, and my animal companions."
"Well. How convenient! I'm going somewhere... The elf capital. So why don't you come... with me?" Chinglar asks invitingly, still snaking around and through us. "Yessss... That sounds good, doesn't it?" I'm just a lonely chingle. What harm would it do?" My senses are being dulled by Chinglar's voice. But I try to snap out of it. Is this a trap? Or does he really just want to accompany us? I narrow my eyes, trying to focus my thoughts. "Think carefully. Why would I try to harm you?"
I wince. Is it that obvious that I can't trust him? I look at the others. They shrug, except for Durpner, who shakes his head no. Hmm. Not very helpful.
"Fine," I decide quickly. It doesn't hurt to have backup. "But one chance, and that's it." Chinglar nods.
...
"Are we there yet?" Stefan asks for the millionth time. We are on the top of a smallish mountain, and have been walking for two days.
"N- wait." He looks at me eagerly as I scan the horizon. It's almost dusk. "We're close. But we should set up camp for the night," I reply. His face lights up, and he sets to work, gathering fallen leaves and sticks. While we all work, looking for things to sleep on and things to eat, I hear Vapor shouting. I drop the firewood I'm holding and dash back to our camp. "What happened?" I yell.
"Shadow! Thank goodness you're here! Can you tell this lazy sack of bones to help us work? Chinglar won't do a thing!"
"What happened?" I repeat. Chinglar rolls his malicious yellow eyes as Vapor continues. "I found a lot of long sticks, so I came back to camp to ask for some help bringing them here for a shelter. Nobody was here, so I went back and collected some berries. It still looked like it was gonna rain, so I came back to see if anyone was here. Chinglar was, and he refused to help! He's probably enjoying us working while he sits down and watches!"
I take a breath.
"Chinglar. We heard what Vapor thinks. What do you have to say for yourself?" I ask. Chinglar stares at me.
"I was working! I had found some edible flowers and caught some fish, so I came back and took a break! Then, the second I sat down, Vapor came and started accusing me! And then you came!" Chinglar adds. I look at Vapor. He starts to stutter.
"You believe him? No way! His mind is full of cow droppings! He probably just made all this up!"
"Nobody has any proof. How about we drop this topic?" I ask, annoyed. Vapor glares at me and storms off. Great. Now he's mad at me. "Go get some firewood. I dropped some somewhere that way." I point. Chinglar nods and scampers off. I go look for someone, and I find Athena picking some pink and yellow berries from a bush. "Shadow? Do you need something?" she asks.
"Yes!" I yell. "Go and help Vapor collect wood for shelter!" I order her. Athena looks at me strangely and goes. I pick the rest of the berries off the bush and head to camp with it. Along the way, I see Durpner collecting water. He accidentally steps in an animal trap, and injures his foot. Wittnor jumps out from behind a tree and starts accusing Durpner of setting off his trap in spite of him. They scream insults at each other. I think of helping, but decide not to get stuck in the middle.
...
We eat dinner in silence, all glaring at each other. Finally, Chinglar interrupts our glaring.
"Did anyone find redlinr berries?" Vapor asks. "They're good." Chinglar nods and scampers off. We wait for a bit, and then he comes back.
"Found them when I was looking for food. Most red berries are poisonous, so I didn't take them. All non-red berries are all right." I spit out the food in my mouth.
"You tell if things are poisonous by their colour?!" I ask, shocked. "Uh oh." Everyone stares at him.
"Just kidding," he adds. I continue staring at him. Is he trying to get us all mad? That's actually a good question. We eat.
"Okay, guys." I say. "Can we not be mad at each other? It's been a long, hard day, and this isn't helping." Athena drops her glare.
"Yeah. It's just tiring." Vapor scowls.
"No, you're all just crazy," he accuses. The rest of us apologize.
...
Wittnor had promised that I could practice my Infernory after learning about the ability, so I just had to sit and bear through it - something that proved more of a challenge than I expected.
Wittnor had spent the last half hour or so explaining the basics of abilities to Stefan and I, since Stefan recently learned he was part of the Vamcorl species, and he found out that he was an Abyssal. But the minutes had started to bleed into each other, and I was barely paying attention to his lecture - unlike Stefan, who seemed to be paying close attention with wide, fascinated eyes. I fought off a small pang of jealousy at his focus. Determined to do better than him, I forced my eyes to lock with Wittnor's as I attempted to look extremely focused and dedicated. Ha. That'll show Stefan.
Wittnor seemed to be in the middle of a description about energy, and I catch some of his drawl. "All abilities rely on your reserves, which is where you store your energy. So, the core energy of abilities comes from your..."
"Guys!" A voice interrupts, and I whirl my head around to see Athena and Vapor jogging towards us. I let out a small sigh of relief at the intervention - at least I won't have to hear Wittnor's long, convoluted explanation for another hour.
"Um..." Athena starts. "I was walking, and I tripped on something," she says, holding up a small vial. "I looked where it came from... Wittnor's backpack. I looked inside, just to put it back, but then..." Vapor looks at her, and finishes the sentence.
"It was poison. There were several vials. Labeled our names. Shadow, Wittnor," He points to Wittnor. "Is trying to kill us."