Scene 8-08

'So weak, so dumb,' it hissed with obvious disgust. Or was it disappointment? Either way, it glared at me with its beady red eyes.

'Ooh, smells it. Fresh life.' It stepped further into the light so I was able to make out its shape. It was the black snake I had met before in my dreams, and the voice that plagued my mind.

'Tell me you're not seeing this Wolf,' I whispered.

He answered by trembling near my legs and its orb eyes fixed on the monster before us.

'Now yousee see, Ish be real.'

It stretched its sinew body, snuffing out the light with its shadow so only one flame remained. In near darkness, it towered over my head. I sensed the want to squeeze out life and devour it.

Shadows entered my mind and began turning my thoughts into dark holes. Words were pulled out of an abyss, out of my mouth and I had no control over them.

'Worthless creatures of the Chiorntex. You don't deserve Chiorntex gifts,' we scorned.

The shadows pressed their assault further into my mind but were stopped by a high pitched scream. I shook myself free and saw Wolf unconscious before me.

'Wolf – Wolf!' I screamed.

I cupped Wolf's body in my hands and trembled. This couldn't be happening.

'Yousee did this,' the snake thing taunted. 'Yousee killed it.'

Wolf didn't move. He seemed to be sleeping but his body was losing heat, losing life.

'No! Why you do this? Why you want to kill?' I sobbed.

It leaned in close so I felt my face go numb with cold and my body sag with the want to become nothing. I was subdued.

'Ish can Waybearer, ish can,' it hissed sardonically. 'Yousee disappoints me. Ish expected more.'

Shadows entered my mind again, and with greater persistence.

'Nothing more than flesh,' it hissed with obvious disgust.

The ground shook. I felt the earth quake and cave in around us. The air wafted with mildew and the sweet elegance of white lilies.

'NO!' The snake screamed. As its voice faded and the danger eased, I felt my warmth and will return.

'Wolf,' I whispered, hoping my warmth would pass on into him and bring him back to life but he didn't stir.

'Wolf,' I sobbed. 'Please, get up.'

There was still no response. I refused to believe he was dead.

'Get up you stupid rat!'

I felt a tiny beat against my fingers.

'Stupid two-legs, I'm no insect,' Wolf whispered.

I picked him up and hugged him so tight to my chest. Wolf was alive! All was well.

'Gef off meh.' I heard Wolf muffle and placed him back to the ground before me. He shook his body and faced me. His orb eyes betrayed fear.

'The snake talked,' Wolf said soberly.

'It's not a snake,' I said, hoping it would reassure him but it only made his fear more obvious.

'Neven,' He said but didn't say anything else. I had to change the subject.

'We better get moving,' I said and offered him a lift on my shoulder. He was quick to scamper up my arm and snuggle against my neck.

My dark sight returned so I was able to see what had changed. The path behind us was blocked with rubble, which only left the way forward. It was a tricky way as half the path had crumbled away leaving nothing more than a ledge to tippy-toe along.

'There's not much of a path left.'

I glanced at the newly made abyss next to us. I couldn't see any bottom.

'Hang tight,' I said and wobbled to my feet.

I gripped the solid wall and began making my way along the edge. I didn't expect the earth to shake again. The wall started to crumble around me so it was difficult to maintain my grip. I felt Wolf's claws dig deep into the folds of my dress. The earth shook more ferociously so dust and rock debris rained on us. My hands slipped and feet lost their footing. I couldn't hold on anymore.

'Hold on!' I shouted to Wolf and felt his claws dig into my skin.

The air was sucked out of our lungs as we fell into the abyss.

Scene 8-07

I felt a cold sensation numb my skin, causing my feet to drag along the ground like I was the walking dead. I was tired, cranky and wishing I could sleep in a comfy, cosy bed. Good wishes don't come true now do they?

'Almost there Neven, just around the corner,' Wolf's voice sliced through my consciousness, so much so I fainted. When I woke I found Wolf's nose nudging my cheek and his stale-cheese breath warming my lips.

'Eew, get off me Wolf!' I looked about and saw myself sitting on the grey mossy path of the rock corridor. Only this corridor had patches and strands of wispy silk wrapped around rocks or dangling from stumpy stalactites. We were getting closer to the Hollow Hill's and the path to the Banshees' lair.

'You're getting weak two-legs. Not as fit and smart like us skirrats are you?'

'Careful with your wit skirrat or I'll chase your sorry ass into a box and lock you in.'

'If there was a box, I doubt you'll have the breath in you,' Wolf huffed back. He hopped off my chest and started sniffing the path and ambiguous space before us. Suddenly, he arched his back and started hissing.

A chilling gust of wind smacked into my face like a pair of hands, freezing my cheeks for a brief moment. When warmth returned to my skin so did my senses. I felt a weird, horrible feeling in my stomach; a feeling of the familiar crossing paths with unknown danger. Wolf and I were in danger?

'Wolf what is this place exactly?'

'Ssh!' Wolf hushed.

'Something with us, something...' His voice trailed away. He raised his back higher so his front shoulders were bunched right up to his head then he dropped his back and padded his way back to me.

'Seems to have moved on.'

Wolf bounded up my legs and on to my shoulder. He opened his mouth to say something else but went stiff instead; his mouth seemingly frozen in place. I placed him in my hands and brought him to my lap.

'Wolf, you okay?'

Wolf didn't respond. I fingered his belly and ran my pinky along his spine; no twitches. Fear and panic pumped through my unfrozen blood veins that I found myself chanting 'no' over and over between breaths blown into Wolf's nose. I felt some relief warm my heart when Wolf's nose regained its warmth and his breaths came out of his mouth although, he was still stiff as a statue and non-responsive to my attention seeking antics. I wasn't sure what to do. How do you bring life back to a comatose skirrat who was perfectly fine minutes ago?

Suddenly, I felt my energy being drained from my blood. Images in my mind flickered on and off with the strong sensation of drowning in darkness. That's when I heard the slow, rhythmic chinking - scratching sound against rock. It was coming toward me.

I glanced at the only torch burning fiercely against agate walls and noticed my own shadow raise its arms and grab at my throat. I felt a squeeze around my neck and my head about to explode. Then it stopped. The shadow was my shadow again. Wolf shook himself out of whatever force had kept him in a coma.

We both stared at the being before us.

Scene 8-06

How was I going to find my way in the dark? I stood underneath the fissure's eaves, praying for some sort of light to flick into existence. I almost fell backward when the way was revealed before me as bright as the early morning sun. I glanced around the moist rock walls and path carpeted with yellow lichen. Some of the lichen dotted the way with miniscule beacons here and there but not enough to bring the whole area into picture. I couldn't see anything else, which would light up the area. Is it possible I was able to see in the dark?

'Oh my God Wolf - I can see you. I can see everything!'

'Don't you always?' Wolf cocked his head to one side, clearly confused at my surprise.

'No. Humans are not supposed to see in the dark without a torch or some sort of extra light to guide the way.'

'What does this mean Neven?'

A raw feeling gripped my heart. Ele's words of being more than human chimed around my ears. I felt sick in the stomach.

'Two-leg, you be okay?'

'I - I don't know. I feel strange like something's changing in me.'

'Changing?'

'I don't know - hard to explain.'

'Neven we must move on and find your friend.'

Scene 8-05

'Is that you Wolf?'

'Neven! By cheese, I've found you.'

Wolf ran up to my side and rubbed his nose against my arm.

'Okay – okay,' I let out with a laugh. His rubs tickled.

'Oh sorry,' he squeaked and took a step back so I was able to see his furry face clearly. His eyes peered into mine with an expression I hadn't seen in him before – worry.

'Why were you looking for me?'

'For your two-legged friends, the female ones,' he lowered his voice, 'they be in trouble.'

'Trouble?'

My head throbbed with images of Edde and Kalia being locked away in holding cells, constantly whipped and tortured because of my actions. Oh Anwar! What was I thinking when I ran away? I placed my friends in danger.

Wolf's lips twitched uneasily, he answered carefully, 'The one with the head of sunny fur was caged in the underbelly of the big house. The tall one went with the old man and a group of black monsters to look for you.'

'Kalia caged?'

Wolf frowned.

'The one with the sunny fur,' I explained.

'Oh, yes,' Wolf said, He told me how he had other skirrats to look out for her while he followed the search party. When he caught my scent, he followed it to find me.

'Why would you do this?'

Wolf twitched, 'We friends right?'

I gave him a reassuring smile and a few lies about why I had asked. He seemed more at ease.

'So what'd I do?'

'You can run away and hide. I fear your tall friend is walking to her death.'

'Death?'

Wolf shuffled to my left so half his body was blended in with the shadows. He gave the cave a good check with his orb-like eyes before telling me of the dangers.

'These parts be home to horrible creatures we call Banshees. These creatures like the dark cold holes and cracks these rocks make,' Wolf whispered.

'Tell me of these Banshees,' I asked and scratched his back. He arched his body to meet the strokes of my fingers.

'Ooh that be good. Get the spot at the back of my leg – ah yes!' Wolf sighed and shook himself free from the rest of my scratching, 'Right, the Banshees.'

My heart skipped a beat as he described, in more detail, the spider creatures we had already faced. The tallest banshee was ten times the height of a henchman and the babies just as big as a child. Their spindly legs where sharp as swords and flexible to climb the hills at fast speeds. They always hunted in families, covering the entire area of the Rocky Hills. They had nests scattered all over the place like a web itself.

'Banshees don't care what they eat as long as they eat. They even eat their own when there's no other food,' Wolf said with a shiver and flinched when he heard a faint howl from the fissure.

'We must go Neven.'

'Okay but what about my friend, you said she be walking to her death.'

Wolf's whiskers twitched nervously. 'Her group were headed toward the path between the hollow hills.'

'And?' I pressed. Wolf shivered as he told me what existed within the hollow hills.

'Anwar! We have to get to them.'

'You'll be in danger too.'

'I know Wolf but it's because of me my friend is in danger in the first place. I have to save her!'

Wolf sighed and stood up. I followed his lead out of the cave and into the darkness ahead.

Scene 8-04

'The forest, from where I grew up, was once abundant with life.' Ele's voice sighed through my mind as gusts of cool air.

Images of baby-blue skies and wispy stratus clouds, peaking through gaps between families of Giant Red Cedar and slender Kauris, sailed into view. My body twitched with the urge to sprint. I wandered through soft underbrush; danced over moss covered rocks and fallen logs well rooted into their places. I breathed in the rich aroma of wood and damp earth and felt bursts of energy pulsate through my veins. My heart beat in time to the tune of Spring Morning, which resounded through out the trees, evergreen undergrowth and the blossoming Emerald Ebony amongst majestic Forest Flames and their fiery leaves.


'Everything had its place of respect,' Ele recounted sadly. 'The trees were the wise advisers of the Sun and Moon's moods. The flowers were always putting on a grand show with their flashy colours. The ferns were gentle friends who kept me warm at nights. We lived and let live. The humans of this time understood us and what we valued or so we were led to believe.'

The vision of her world changed into one of devastation where shadows moved with a life of their own to bring disease, despair and death to each living thing they passed over. Trees became lifeless corpses, the flowers wilted and rotted into pulp and the undergrowth was uprooted and burned from existence until the forest was nothing but a desolate wasteland. The song of Spring Morning was silenced and forgotten.

Tears welled in my eyes.

'I'm so sorry Ele.'

Ele sighed deeply and faced me. Her expression was a sober mask of her true feelings.

'Are you?'

I frowned. 'Of course I am Ele. Who would want such unthinkable devastation?'

'You'll be surprise,' Ele replied bitterly.

My body shivered with cold. My heart beats slowed.

'W-What c-caused it Ele?' I asked between chattering teeth.

'Are you ready to know? Are you Daughter of Marsilien?' she warned with a brittle voice.

She sighed and said more warmly, 'One day you'll find out for yourself. Know this - the shadows that destroyed my home are the very shadows that exist in that memory of yours. There'll be a time when you need to decide who you truly want to be and what side you want to be on.'

Ice winds slapped my cheek. There was a pause before warmth raced through my body to sooth my aches and fears. I opened my eyes and saw a skirrat enter from the fissure entrance. Ele was gone.

Scene 8-03

‘Neven!’

I opened my eyes; white lilies, ginger leaves, baby breath and red roses swam into my view. My head throbbed as if I had been clobbered from behind.

‘Oh.’

‘You’re okay.’

‘Okay?’ I cursed. I was nauseous, my head pounded with pain and, on top of all that, I was grumpy as hell. ‘Ele – I feel like crap!’

‘At least you are feeling,’ Ele chimed and flashed me a smile like some sort of peace offering.

I eased into a sitting position and stared into Ele’s glistening eyes. They seemed kind and innocent. Seemed.

‘Why did you show me that vision?’

Ele frowned, perplexed. Her frown changed into an expression of concern.

‘I only hoped to show what was in your heart; the core memory of your soul that is keeping you from remembering who you truly are.’

‘In my heart?’

‘Yes.’

Ele explained, as an elemental she was able to draw out memories from a person’s mind like water drawn from a pool. She explained how Mother Earth was made up of four base elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and each were connected by threads of energy they called “Synapsiums”.

‘By connecting to the Synapsium in your heart, I was able to draw out the memory.’

She sat, crossed-leg, before me; her earthly gown spreading out over the cold hard ground like soft patches of dew-fresh grass.

‘Please, tell me of this memory?’ She asked with a voice that resembled the pitter-patter of raindrops, which came after a bitter storm.

I sighed and told her then wished I hadn’t when her reaction turned into one of anger. The whole cave darkened. I felt a cold hand grip my heart and squeeze. ‘I… breathe…’ Each breath burned up my throat. When I felt I was about to die, the pain went away and light returned to the cave.

Ele stood and faced the dark fissure. ’160 years ago, the Realm of Leinard was once known as the Kingdom of Greater Marc, and was controlled by a human monarchy.’

I was surprised when Ele turned to me with a warm smile. ‘I learned the human ways from a good man who ended up being the last king.’

She then elaborated on her history. As she spoke of her past, I found my mind wandering into it and seeing a completely different and wondrous world.