Katia rushed out of the store and swung the door open so forcefully that she caused a couple walking by to jump in surprise. She didn't bother acknowledging them or their stunned looks. A second later Nathan, Celia, and Damien emerged. Nathan gave them an apologetic smile as the three of them followed hurriedly after Katia.
"Nice doing business with you!" Cato called out after them with a fake smile.
Celia stopped in her tracks and turned around.
"Later son of a--"
Damien clamped Celia's mouth closed, knowing she wasn't going to say anything nice. Celia writhed against his hand over her mouth, and Cato returned back inside.
"Get off me! What was that for?" Celia shouted as she his arm away in disgust.
"We can't go cursing at him. Did you forget he knows magic? He'd probably trap you in a cage forever," Damien said dramatically emphasizing the last word and shaking his fingers in her face.
"Please, like that fat waste of space could take me!" Celia humphed with a roll of her eyes.
Damien just laughed at her expression. She was still worked up about that hat and she was still annoyed with Damien. She glared at him and tried to trap him in rocks she lifted from the ground, but Damien just lightly jumped over the rising stones. He shot a quick burst of fire, causing the rock to catch on fire and crumble back into the earth.
"Nice try but you can't do the same thing twice," he said, smirking at her from over his shoulder.
Celia just pouted in annoyance while feebly throwing another stone at him that he hit easily with a ball of fire. His confidence could get really annoying at times.
Now that they were away from Cato's store, Kaia calmed down. She looked back happily at Damien. He was finally loosening up and didn't look as afraid of using his powers if he was using them just to annoy Celia.
"Where are we heading?" Celia shouted to Katia who was in the lead.
"Lilly said we should get to the north forest if we head in this direction," Katia shouted back.
"Who's Lilly?" Celia asked as she ran to catch up with Katia.
"This fairy," Katia replied.
Celia looked and saw that the fairy was floating freely in the air. She was twirling around with her wings fluttering in the air. Each time her wings flapped, a small pinch of glitter fell to the floor.
"Won't she try to escape?" Celia questioned.
"Nope she has a curse. She has to follow every word we say," Katia said with a note of anger.
Lilly led them through the city and to the edge. The buildings started to disappear and turn into smaller houses that finally morphed into trees.
"Great another forest," Celia grumbled.
It wasn't a normal forest however. As soon as they entered, not only Celia could tell that it felt different. There was some hidden force that was full of life that the four of them felt connected to somehow.
They followed her small glowing figure ahead along a winding path through the trees that were thickening the further they moved in. It was getting dark but they knew they had to keep going. Their time was quickly running out and they still hadn't figured out how to defeat Akur.
No one was talking. They were too tired and lost in their own thoughts. They were beginning to feel the helplessness of the situation. The four of them were alone, given an impossible task with so much at stake.
Suddenly Katia heard rustling in the trees and tensed, expecting another attack. She stopped in her tracks and started to unsheathe her sword, but it was just a small rabbit. Katia let out a sigh of relief as she watched the creature scurry away. All of these attacks were making her really paranoid. She always found herself looking over her shoulder at the quietest sounds.
Katia gave Lilly a small smile and the fairy continued to lead them down an invisible path.
"How do the Hunters keep finding us?" Katia asked her friends.
"I don't know. I've been wondering the same thing. We were in the middle of the forest. I don't think some Hunters just decided to go for a hike," Nathan said, pondering how the Hunters could've found them when they were searching for Cato's hat.
"You think we're being followed?" Celia asked.
She glanced worriedly into the shadows but couldn't see anything. None of them could shake the feeling they were being watched, but no threat exposed itself.
"Possibly but wouldn't we feel their presence with our necklaces?" Damien reminded them.
"We should but maybe they're staying far away enough," Katia said though she sounded unsure.
This was all way too confusing for them. It was a mystery. She looked around at her surroundings again. It was getting darker. Their only source of light was the dim moonlight overhead, the slight glow of Lilly's wings, and Damien's hands, which he lit on fire a while back.
"No everything went silent that last time and that only happens when they teleport. That means they knew exactly where we were," Nathan said with a grim expression.
"But how is that possible?" Damien asked.
"I have really no idea. We just have to keep an eye out I guess," Katia said with a serious expression.
Nathan changed the subject, and they began to talk of happier things. The air was frigid and it seemed like a storm was coming in, but the four of them were fine. If it wasn't for the magical jackets Saladin packed for them, they would be ice sculptures by now. The jackets could change temperature so that the wearer was always warm even if it was negative a hundred degrees. It was mid December and the air was bitingly cold around them. Their faces were red and freezing but the rest of their bodies was warm.
"Do you ever wish you weren't an Elicti?" Celia asked suddenly. "Then maybe instead of being on this quest, we'd just be in some house doing homework or something."
"I don't know. My life kind of sucked before I knew who I was. It only got better when I went to Aevria," Damien said.
"Yeah same," Katia replied. "I'd probably be working trying to pay for my own house if I didn't know I could just stay in Aevria."
"Our lives are pretty messed up if I lost both my parents and I'm the luckiest one here," Nathan said at a half hearted attempt at a joke.
Nathan might have never gotten to know his parents but he had a pretty good life with his aunt and uncle. He didn't have to struggle with who he was like Celia and Damien and he wasn't stuck in the foster system like Katia.
"If we weren't Elictis then none of those bad things would have happened," Celia pointed out. "We'd just have normal problems."
"Or it might have sucked even more," Katia said.
She met a lot of people who had pretty crappy lives, many of them hitting a dead end. They were entirely normal. They just pulled the short stick.
Celia sighed. "I don't mean to be such a downer. It's just that can we do this?"
"We still have time. We aren't doing half bad," Katia replied.
"Yeah we're not trying to kill each other," Celia laughed.
"Hey what's that?" Damien asked.
He pointed ahead of them and they saw pinpricks of light up in the trees. They pulsed like little heartbeats and occasionally a line of light would flow down the trunk and up the branches.
They approached slowly but there didn't seem to be any danger. They were hypnotized by the dots of light that lit up a small section of the forest and bathed it in a gentle glow.
"It's so beautiful," Katia gasped. "What is it?"
She touched the trunk of a nearby tree and the lights gathered around her hand and pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
"Young nymphs," Lilly explained in her high pitched voice. "They've just been born and are still connected to their tree. The lights are their essence but humans can't see them."
Katia grinned up at the branches above her which looked like they were raining light. A sprinkling of snow was falling from the sky, making the scene look even more magical.
"I've never seen anything like this," Nathan said quietly beside Katia.
She smiled at him. He was just as entranced as she was. Celia was running her hands through the branches and they all seemed to bend towards her. Damien traced his finger across the bark of the tree, watching as a trail of light followed him.
"I love who I am, who we are," Katia said. "If not, we wouldn't be able to experience all this. Even if it comes with a lot of struggles, I love it."
"Me too," they all agreed.
They reluctantly left the glowing trees and after walking for a couple of hours, they decided to stop in a clearing for the night. Damien made a small fire that they all huddled around with Lilly sitting up in a tree, dangling her little feet.
It was now snowing steadily by now. Katia stuck at her tongue out and caught the drifting snowflakes and smiled contrntly. Katia caught Nathan staring at her with an amused expression on his face.
"What?" She asked after catching another snowflake.
"You just seem so immature doing that," Nathan laughed.
"Says the boy who makes 'that's what she said' jokes everyday," Katia shot back.
She turned her back on him to catch more when she felt something cold and wet hit her straight on the back. Katia turned around quickly with a glare to see Nathan with an innocent smile on his face.
"Yes?" He asked with his hands hidden behind his back.
"Nathan what is that behind your back?" Katia asked. She had a pretty good idea what it could be.
"Just a little present..." Nathan trailed off.
Then with incredible speed he threw the snowball in his hands. It started to hurtle towards Katia's face quickly. She let out a little yelp and ducked. The snowball hit the tree behind her with a smack, causing chunks of snow to fly everywhere.
"Oh you're going to get it now!" Katia warned.
She grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Nathan. Katia heard, with satisfaction, the snowball hitting its target. She burst out in laughter at his snow covered face. All she could see were his eyes and the very tip of his nose.
Nathan shook his whole body like a dog trying to dry itself and the snow flew everywhere. He grabbed three more snowballs and this time threw it at Katia, Celia, and Damien. Soon it turned into a full blown snowball fight with a little twist.
The four of them were trying to use their powers to give them an advantage. Nathan would use the wind to throw the snow with extra speed. Damien would throw fire at any balls hurtling towards him. Since the snow was pretty much made of water, Katia could make the biggest ones and throw ten at a time. Celia would quickly grow some plants or raise a wall of stone to protect her from the flying snowballs. They were all laughing and screaming as they would get hit by the torrents of snow.
Pretty soon they were covered from head to foot in snow, except for Damien who just melted it all off. Katia lifted the snow off of her, Nathan, and Celia using her powers. Then they sat down and warmed themselves by the fire. For that short time, they were able to forget about their quest and the fact that the fate of the world rested in their hands. They were just four teenagers having a great time.
"This storm is pretty strong," Nathan commented.
The fire was warm, but the cold wind hitting their faces made it hard to relax. Nathan was able to block the worst of it, but he didn't want to drain his energy keeping it at bay the whole night.
"Let me try something," Katia said.
She looked around at the snow sticking to the ground around them. Then a look of concentration crossed her face as she lifted her hands. It was slow at first but walls of ice began to rise around them before. Soon they were in an igloo with a hole in the top to let the smoke of the fire escape.
"It's not our cabins on Aevria but better than nothing," Katia said.
"No this is so cool!" Nathan exclaimed.
Celia nodded in approval and Damien gave Katia a small smile. Lilly was sitting contently in her own small niche that Katia made her up in the wall of the igloo.
Now that they were safe from the storm, they turned in for the night, lying peacefully beside the fire. It was getting late though, and they had to get up early in order to reach Agnitio in time.
"Night you guys," Katia said quietly from her spot on the ground. She laid her head on her backpack.
"Night!"
"Goodnight!"
"Don't let the bed bugs bite!"
Each of them closed their eyes and escaped all of their problems for a couple of hours, dreaming of a time when they could be as carefree as they were that night.