Seciria

“We must get to them before they do. Are you sure though, that you’ve seen enough to assume them as the…?”

A black head nodded solemnly at the unfinished statement. It’s ears flipped back to its head as birds flew out of their tree sanctuaries and the wind suddenly ceased to waft through the forest. An unusual stillness reigned.

“This does not look good.” The man listened to the silence, his muscles tense underneath the silken cloak of black, as if expecting something to occur. He arranged his hood over his clear blue eyes and steadily made his way beside his companion and beckoned it to follow him towards the thicker part of the forest. They walked silently under the thick mass of leaves of the trees through a series of jigsaw paths when suddenly a streak of lightning made them look up and saw a mass of dark clouds moving eastward to cover the blue horizon.

This does not bode well for us. They’re getting desperate.

His black companion seemed to share his opinion as it growled in apprehension, its head lifted towards the darkening sky. “Come, we have to meet Raido.” The man walked towards another part of the forest, his black companion behind as a gust of wind started to blow through the eerie forest.

Three girls are making their way through a rocky part of the forest. They looked so tired and hungry they are almost dragging their feet. Days passed without any knowledge on how to get out of the forest without their supplies or any instruments to direct their way. Though they considered it futile for them to just rely on their instincts to take any path which they thought was right, they felt it was better to move on rather than stay on one spot.

They continued their search of the area and didn’t notice the darkening horizon until Dea stopped in her tracts.

“Dhey, anything wrong?” Alithea asked as both she and Lacaille took the opportunity to bend and massage their tired limbs.

“It’s that.” Dea’s voice trembled and pointed. Their eyes moved to the direction Dea pointed and saw the massive dark clouds.

They huddled close and were silent for a long time. All seemed to think of the same thing:

Are we to get out of here alive?

“There is not much time. We need to get them before they do. Gebo, do you know where to find them?” the man with the black hood asked.

The black one nodded.

“Good. Try in any way to lead them to this area to ensure their safety in case we can’t accompany you. Make sure they don’t get hurt in any way. Understood?” He got another nod. The man then turned to approach a person a few feet away from him, standing a few meters from the pointed edge of a cliff as an unknown light shone from his outstretched hands.

The portal-creator seemed to sense his companion observing him behind his back. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. Just a few minutes more…”

“No need to hurry. As long as you do everything right.” The hooded man removed his covering and ran his fingers through his golden locks. He was nervous but he didn’t show it his companions. It was up to him to remain rational no matter what kind of adverse situation they were in. A part of his upbringing he sometimes detested but discerned its necessity.

After a few minutes, the light from his companion’s hands faded. He placed his hands down and faced him. “It’s is done.”

“Well done, Raido.” He looked up to the sky and saw the dark clouds covering the whole horizon. “All we need to do now is bring them here.” He turned to his companions. ” Let’s go. ”

“Who’s there?” Alithea and Lacaille were surprised to hear Dea speak abruptly. They followed her gaze and saw a woman clad in thick silken robes that flowed around her figure; her long, dark hair played gently with the wind. She was almost mystical in nature, so beautiful, almost like a water-nymph in form that the three were taken in her splendor, their mouths dropped open.

“I can see you’re lost fair ones. And you look so tired and hungry, I invite you to come with me and have some rest. Surely, you would not resist that.” The lady smiled and her voice was like the tinkling of little bells.

“Are you a fairy?” Alithea asked in a whisper.

The lady laughed as she came towards them and held out a white, slender hand. “I know a place where you will be safe. Come with me and I’ll take you there.”

Dea was to grasp the lady’s outstretched hand when Lacaille held her wrist and narrowed her eyes to the lady. “How are we to trust you?” Lacaille asked suspiciously.

The lady was slightly taken aback but regained her composure. “There is nothing to be afraid of. I’m…”

“Stop!”

All of them turned to the sound of the voice that came from behind a cluster of leaves. Standing there were two men and one of them had a sword, shining mysteriously, sparks illuminating from its edges. “You have no right to take them Uruz. Their place is with us,” he continued.

“That we will see, Rigel,” The woman called Uruz countered. She opened her mouth wide and a ear-splitting screech pierced through the forest. The three girls covered their ears and gritted their teeth in pain while the man called Rigel endured it and pointed his sword to Uruz. A ball of white, electrical energy shot out. Uruz dodged the ball of power, creating a small crater on the ground as the explosion sent everyone in the area flying.

The head-splitting sound stopped. Dea, Lacaille and Alithea scrambled up their feet and stared in bewilderment at the two figures facing each other in guarded postures, awaiting who will make the next move.

Uruz was clearly infuriated but instantly gave a wicked smile, her beautiful face contorting indescribably, as she saw an elder man emerged beside her from nowhere. “About time you got here, Thurisaz. Now help me get rid of these nuisance.”

The elder man raised his hands and the threatening clouds burst open and heavy rain poured out. The three girls braced themselves at the force. The next instant Uruz was beside them. “We have to go. Now!” She reached out for Alithea’s and Dea’s hands. “Hey!” Lacaille followed where her two friends were being dragged.

Rigel blinked a few times, unable to see through the wall of rain, but once he was able to and saw what Uruz was doing, shouted. Immediately, the puma appeared from nowhere and growled menacingly as it lunged towards Uruz. The woman screamed in surprise and was about to call out to her man companion but saw that he was fighting another companion of Rigel.

Rigel was about to get the three girls when he was thrown back with such force that took his breath away. Through the curtain of rain he saw a man in what seemed like armor and he too was holding a sword. “So Uruz has another companion, doesn’t she? We’ll see how you fare with my sword.” He struck the side of the man with all his might and was shocked to see that there was not even a scratch. The man with the man armor then advanced toward him and struck with his sword. Rigel almost didn’t avoid that attack but he didn’t give up. He had a job to do, and by the gods, he was going to do it!

Dea nudged Alithea and Lacaille standing by her side and an unspoken agreement passed through their eyes as they slowly moved backwards to escape the hostile creatures in their midst.

The clashing of steel faded as they ran away, hoping to escape the unbelievable scene they witnessed. They didn’t stop though sounds of explosion and the sky has totally turned black and the wind started to blow so hard that trees were toppling over with rain splattering everywhere. They didn’t dare to look back, for fear they might witness something that might cost their lives. They didn’t know in what way. They just knew they had to get away.

Despite this fear, Alithea risked looking back without slowing her pace. At that instant, a black cloud seemed to forcibly infiltrate her senses; her breathing became hard and her body grew heavier until she fell to the ground but felt no pain, only the numbness in her body.

A burning impression imprinted on her forehead and through her closed eyes, a vision of three, glowing symbols appeared in her consciousness.

“Al! Al! Hey, wake up! You can’t think of sleeping now!” She felt herself being shaken and pain coursed through her head. She moaned.

“She’s waking up.” Alithea heard Lacaille and felt herself being lifted on both sides and being supported to walk in haste.

“Pull yourself together. We have to find a place to hide and shelter us from this storm.”

Storm?

Alithea’s vision cleared a little as the pain gradually wore off and she noticed her surroundings were darker compared earlier. It wasn’t that late a while ago; still the vision of the black cloud gave her goose bumps.

She turned to look at the frightened faces of her companions. She couldn’t bring herself to tell them what she saw, what she felt and add to their growing anxiety.

There’s no sense of frightening them. But something is out there … but I don’t know what…

The rain was already down to a drizzle even before they found a safe place. They walked endlessly but found something blocking their path. It was the puma. They ran away from the puma but found themselves in another cliff.

“What is with this place and cliffs?” Lacaille wailed.

The puma was edging closer to the girls and with every step taking them closer to the edge of the cliff. “Could you do what you did before, Dhey?” Alithea asked. ”You know, the levitation thing.”

“I am definitely afraid enough right now to. But I don’t think I can. I can’t leave you two guys and I can’t very well carry you!”

Lacaille grimaced at what she heard and turned to the puma. It’s eyes watching them warily. That’s a good kitty. You won’t eat us won’t you? We’re not tasty and we haven’t eaten for quite some time so we’re all stick and bones, you wouldn’t want that would you? Nice kitty.”

“Caille, it’s not working.” Alithea observed.

They continued inching backwards, to their inevitable doom.

“What if we play dead? Maybe it would go away.” Alithea suggested.

Dea shook her head. “I don’t think so. It has seen us moving.”

They stepped backwards yet another inch and Alithea felt a tingling feeling. What was that? Maybe I’m just so afraid, that’s all.

Lacaille groaned. “I don’t want to be cat food. Think of something you guys!”

Looking around for some sort of escape, Dea’s hopes fell. “There’s no way out…”

Alithea closed her eyes in fear. ”Oh please, somebody help us…” The other two also shut their eyes, desperately praying for a miracle to happen. Any second now and the puma would be on top of them.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Dea slowly opened her eyes and was shocked at what she saw.

“Al, Caille, look!” Dea shouted.

Alithea shut her eyes more tightly. “I don’t want to.”

“Open your eyes. Look!” Dea insisted.

Lacaille opened an eye. “What the…!”

Alithea reluctantly opened her eyes and saw the puma slowly morphing into a human form. The human stood up and smiled to them.

The former-puma-now human spoke. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The three’s mouth were hanging wide open. Who… I mean what are you? A shape shifter?”

The newcomer gave a small smile. “Quite like that.”

Dea shook her head in disbelief. “That can’t be true. That’s only a myth.”

Alithea thought otherwise. “But we just saw it, Dhey. She morphed from a cat to a human.”

Dea wasn’t convinced. “This can be just a joke. Look here, we don’t have time to play games and we need to get back home so if you would please lead us back to the trail…”

The shape-shifter interrupted. “I would readily oblige but I can’t do that.”

Lacaille, who was silently digesting the situation, narrowed her eyes. ”And why not?”

“Because you now belong here. You are needed,” the shape-shifter answered cryptically.

Now Lacaille was confused. “Needed? Needed by whom?”

“Needed by all the people, to fulfill a prophecy.”

Lacaille had enough of cryptic messages. “Look here, miss. We have been in the woods for a long time. Longer than we intended. Many things happened to us, most of them bad. We lost all our things, our supplies and almost our sanity. We are very hungry, tired, wet and even bruised and then you come into our lives with this weird friends of yours and lead us to this place and say we are needed! This is not a good joke and I’m loosing my patience here so it would be best for all of us if you and your friends to stop this charade of yours, lead us back to the trial or better yet, bring us out of that cursed forest and let us live our own lives.”

On the other hand, Alithea was thinking of something else. What is this? Why do I feel as if there is some truth to what this person says, that we are needed? I even feel as if I… belong here? No it’s impossible. She looked around and was frozen at what she saw.

Lacaille was still talking to the shape-shifter. “If you don’t do as we say, you are going to get it. Right, girls?”

“Right!” Dea shouted.

Lacaille didn’t hear Alithea’s answer. “Al?” There was no answer.

“Al?”

The two turn to Alithea, who was staring at something. Dea decided to repeat the question. “Al, we were telling this person that…” They all stopped as they saw what Alithea was staring at. There were floating mountains, waterfalls, giant crystals, a multicolored sky, everything of the imagination.

“What is this place?” Alithea whispered.

The shape-shifter found amusement in their shock. “This is the place of dreams and magic and you are here to fulfill a destiny.” She smiled. “I welcome you ladies, to the world of Seciria.”

Licorne’s Notes:
Jasmine Rose dumped the action scenes to me! Again! In this chapter, Shattered Eyes was taking a break from writing.

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