MATURE: - Ongoing A Changed World (Science Fantasy/Adventure) [Not a Fanfic at all]

[Akimbo]

So yeah as it says in the title, not a fanfic, so no Pokemon (although there will likely be references to Pokemon among other things). This story takes place in the distant future (apart from Chapter One) and is based on a small group of teenagers from current time trying to make their way in this new world. Anyways enjoy!

Chapter One: The End of the Old Days

Part One: The New World

The faint glow of sunlight slowly started to break the darkness of Mike’s cluttered bedroom, today was the day that his entire world was about to be flipped upside down. It was his last whole day of school ever. No more teachers, no more classes and now it seemed like the one thing he had spent most of his life doing were coming to a close. The few rays of light that had managed to get through the blinds of his window caused him to stir in bed, the faint red glow of his digital clock showed the time and how long he had slept in, Mike’s eyes opened suddenly.

‘Shit,’ he swore under his breath and raced out of his room to get ready.

After a meagre breakfast and a short shower Mike set off at a run towards the school, he had ten minutes to get there. The houses and trees passed by like a slow blur as Mike ran as fast as he could manage, finally after about nine minutes he reached the school and the bell rang, with a slight groan Mike ran for rollcall.

Maths and English flew past and Mike was left with an empty feeling in his stomach as everyone was called to the assembly. A faint red glow caught his attention and he looked up into the sky and saw something peculiar, to the left of the blearing sun was a rather large crimson dot in the sky, it looked something like a star. But that can’t be possible Mike thought to himself, no star would be close enough to shine through the day, apart from the sun of course.

‘Hey, Lex, can you see that,’ Mike pointed at the dot, to the brown haired girl that had just walked past him.

‘See what?’ asked Alexia, putting on her glasses to get a better view of whatever Mike was pointing at.

‘See that red dot in the sky, left of the sun.’

‘Oh I see it, what is it?’

‘I thought you’d be able to tell me.’

Alexia smirked, she was probably the smartest person in their year, well not probably, she was the smartest person in the year and although she never was one to admit it. Her eyes moved and transfixed on Mike, but it was as if she was looking straight through him, like he wasn’t even there.

‘How the dickens am I meant to know?’ she asked, finally looking at Mike properly, ‘It’s probably nothing to worry about, come on let’s keep moving.’

Mike followed her towards the gymnasium, it was a large building shaped like half a cylinder with a metallic roof, a torture house during hot weather. But as they walked towards the door Mike noticed more people looking up into the sky muttering amongst each other, he looked again. It seemed to have gotten bigger.

Alexia caught him looking up at the sky again, ‘come on,’ she muttered rolling her eyes and pulling Mike into the gymnasium.

The heat of the gym hit Mike like a brick wall; it was a furnace inside the enormous room. Students had already started to line the seating area; many were already dripping with sweat. Mike and Alexia moved to the front row where the Year 12s had been designated to sit and sat next to their friends Nicole and Mark who seemed to currently be in the middle of a conversation.

‘I swear it was getting larger. Oh, hey,’ said Nicole quickly turning her attention to Mike and Alexia, ‘did you guys see the “red dot?”’

‘Yeah, we saw it,’ muttered Alexia, ‘you know it’s probably nothing right?’

‘Hmm I don’t know Lex, as I was just saying to Mark it looked like it was getting bigger.’

Mark just rolled his eyes at Mike; it looked as if he hadn’t even gotten a word in on the prior conversation. Mike gave a quick grin back, making sure not to catch either of the girls’ attention.

‘Oh, and how can you tell that?’

‘Better eyesight I guess.’

Alexia’s eyes flashed with annoyance, but before she could retaliate the remainder of the school entered the gymnasium, the sound of the talking students and the ominous presence of so many teachers forced their conversation into oblivion. The remainder of Year 12 sat around them, some people mentioning the “red dot,” as it had been dubbed and others just talking about some other pointless drivel. John, another of Mike’s friends sat beside him and gave him a massive grin of excitement.

‘You ready?’ John asked, talking about their final ever school assembly.

‘Yeah,’ Mike lied, hiding his feelings of anxiousness.

‘I wish they’d hur-’ John’s next few words were cut short by a loud rumbling noise filling the gymnasium.

Screams filled the air as Year 7 students got to their feet. ‘It’s the red dot, it’s the red dot,’ cried a few of the older students over the screaming, ‘it’s coming for us all.’

Mike looked over at his friends, John looked as pale as a snowman and Alexia was twitching as if she had spiders crawling up and down her spine, none of them looked too good. A hand grabbed his shoulder and a soft voice whispered in his ear.

‘We should probably get out of here.’

Mike turned to find a tanned girl with silver eyes looking at him, her long sandy blonde hair hanging over her face, which wore a concerned look as another younger student screamed, ‘the harbingers of death are coming!’

He nodded slowly at Cass and gestured for the others to follow them. The gymnasium was in chaos, there were students on their knees crying while a religion teacher was yelling at the top of his voice ‘the lord will come and save us!’ Some of the older students had the same idea as Mike and his friends and were trying to get out of the madhouse.

Once the small group had reached the exit to the gym a brilliant bright blue light had swept across the sky, the sun had been blocked and only the ‘red dot’ could be seen in the centre of the light’s source. The enormous rock was hurtling towards Earth, but it looked as though its trajectory was not towards them but to an area further north of them.

‘I don’t think it’s going to hit us,’ said Alexia behind him, confirming Mike’s thoughts.

As they stared up towards their impending doom it entered the Earth’s atmosphere causing the ground to shake, knocking many people over, the gymnasium made a loud rattling noise like a baby’s toy and shook with great intensity. The heat from the fiery meteor was burning Mike’s skin and he could see the others were sweltering in the heat of the oncoming meteor.

A deafening roar passed over them as the meteor flew over heard only a few kilometres over their heads and towards the north, and then the shaking stopped. An ear splitting thud rocketed from where the meteor had likely landed and the earth violently lurched from underneath their feet and an enormous shockwave hit Mike in the chest. Everyone around him collapsed to the ground as if some invisible force had grabbed their shoulders and pushed them downwards. A loud crunching sound came from behind Mike and the he turned to find the gymnasium collapsing in on itself, petrified screams from the inside echoed off the collapsing walls, the building had completely collapsed, and then everything went silent. Only the rumbling of other buildings falling over in the distance carried through the dry wind in the air around them.

Mike looked around to see who had managed to escape, among them; Alexia’s glasses had fallen off and shattered, John’s face had turned from white to green as he stared at the remains of the gymnasium, Nicole was nursing a large cut that had run the full length of her arm, with shards of glass sticking into it, Mark was just staring into the vast expanse of cloudless sky as if the answers would rain down on him, Cass’s long hair was covering her face as she stared determinedly at the ground, Brett had his mouth slung open like a fish gasping in the air, Gen was mumbling something incomprehensible under her breath and Brash and Darna were both hugging their knees and rocking back and forth. Around them were littered groups of students and teachers who were trying to figure out what to do, nothing in the text books could have prepared them for this. To his left Mike saw a group of Year 10 girls staring at what must have been one of their friends crushed underneath a large pole, a small stream of blood was leaking from underneath the pole and seeping into their shoes.

‘We should go,’ said Cass, her voice muffled underneath her hair.

‘Go?’ asked John, his voice shaking.

‘Yes. Go.’

‘Go where? Where do you think we should go, my sister’s stuck in there, we need to help them.’

‘Away from here, away from this…’ Cass’s voice was now trembling as she looked up at John, ‘I … I don’t think we can help them…’

John stared at her flabbergasted, and then Mike realised something, his sister was in there too, and so was Brett’s sister and Cass’s brother. Most of them had someone in there they wished to save, but he knew it would be impossible to do anything; the screams had died away so quickly that it that he was almost certain none of the unlucky people inside could have survived.

‘I agree,’ said Alexia shaking as much as the others, pausing to think about what she was going to say, ‘with Cass, there’s nothing we can do really.’

John looked from Cass to Alexia not knowing of what to say next, he then stood up and looked down at them his brow furrowed in some form of silent fury, ‘well, let’s go then…’

Mike wearily brought himself up, and then turned to help Gen up, who was still sitting on the floor beside him, her long golden blonde hair a complete mess. Once everyone had managed to get to their feet they turned and headed towards the closest house that belonged to any of them; Mike’s.

They avoided the road as they headed towards a bushy path that led to Mike’s house, the road was sticky with hot tarmac and felt like a hotplate, which burned the soles of Mark’s feet due to his thin shoes. They managed to reach the path without any sort of dilemmas, although a few meteorites fell from the sky and destroyed houses along their path.

They entered a wooded path that led to their destination, it was surprisingly cool as they passed under the low hanging branches of a paperbark and over the small cement bridge that spanned the tiny murky watered creek that had stopped running for some unknown reason, although Mike suspected that a meteorite may be choking up the water flow further upstream it wasn’t visible due to the dense reeds that blocked their view. Large eucalypts hung over their heads, casting a deep looming shadow that covered most of the path, it was eerily silent, not even the usual bird calls could be heard among the huddled trees, a lone brush turkey ran past them in what could only be described as hysteria. Its black wings waved about in an odd manner and its knobbly legs kept tripping over themselves.

A moaning noise came from behind Mike, he turned to find Cass holding her head in pain, Mark gave a short gasp and he winced in pain. A sharp pain surged through Mike’s brain, his head felt like it had been set a light, and soon he was on the ground with the others who seemed to be receiving the same torture. Stars flashed before Mike’s eyes as his whole body just burned, his nerves felt distinct throughout his body as each one ached, causing immense agony throughout Mike’s body.

Then everything went dark, the pain left Mike, flowing from his body like the water in a creek after a heavy downpour. The groans of pain from his friends was slowly being drowned away by the sounds of waves in the distance as Mike lay in wait for his body to awake, but it never came, all he knew was the crashing of waves and the soft shadows of his mind lapping at his consciousness as if he was lying in an ocean of darkness.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter 2: Leaving the Darkness

Green shadows of emerald and jade passed over the ceiling of the small room that seemed to be made of leaves. Mike sat up quickly, sharp pains jutted through his shoulders at the sudden movement and his head gave a nauseating throb. A soft feminine groan came from the floor next to him, Cass lay on the ground in a silky dress that seemed to flow in the slight breeze that came through the small door, if you could even call it a door, it was more like a whole in the wall just big enough to walk through. Mike looked down at himself he was wearing a white oversized shirt that drifted to his knees, and had pants that were as white as his shirt and were soft and baggy.

Cass’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of Mike’s movement, and then he gasped, how hadn’t he noticed that before, large streamlined wings of black and grey feathers were extended from behind her shoulders, they shivered as she sat up as well. A puzzled look fell across her face she looked at Mike’s goggling mouth, but as she opened her mouth to ask her jaw dropped and her eyes flashed from their usual silver to a brilliant yellow in surprise. She opened and closed her mouth as if trying to say something but nothing came out, just gargled breaths, and then Mike realised something, the sharp pains that he felt earlier had gone far further than just his shoulders, they went into an area of his body he didn’t even realise he had.

‘Wings…’ Mike murmured to himself.

Cass nodded at what he said as if just realising what they were. Mike turned to look at his wings, they were much larger than Cass’s and were a dusty white colour with flecks of grey scattered throughout the thick feathers. He moved his hands to touch the feathers, they weren’t as sleek and streamlined as Cass’s, and they were slightly fluffier and felt very soft to touch.

‘What happened?’ asked Cass slowly as she finally regained the ability to speak again.

‘I dunno,’ was all he could muster.

‘You’ve turned into angels,’ came a much softer voice than the both of theirs from behind Cass.

Mike looked around Cass’s wings to see a young girl with sleek black hair and a smiling face full of freckles. Her brilliant blue eyes shone at them as she sat up from her hunched position in her poorly constructed wooden chair.

‘Angels?’ asked Cass, quite unsure of what else to say.

‘Yeah,’ said the girl happily, ‘you’ve been asleep for ages, and I mean ages, like a couple of millennia or something…’

Both Mike and Cass stared at the girl in shock, what kind of a joke was this, what did she take them for? It wasn’t possible.

‘Apparently you all act like that,’ said the girl smiling at their dumbfounded faces, ‘anyways I’m Belle, I’ll go get my dad he can explain all this much better than I can.’

With that she gave them a quick wave and ducked out the door leaving Mike and Cass to their thoughts.

‘It’s bullshit,’ muttered Cass under her breath, ‘some kinda joke, it’s gotta be.’

She looked at Mike for confirmation, but he didn’t give it to her. Maybe what this girl was saying was right, maybe they really had “slept” for a few millennia, but that can’t be right.

‘Mike!’ snapped Cass, ‘tell me this is some sort of sick joke, please.’

‘If it is,’ said Mike thinking slowly, ‘I’m not a part of it…’

A soft shadow passed by the wall and a short man with black hair and dark green eyes entered the room, his skin was a pasty colour like Belle’s and he had the same rounded face as her as well, but what separated him from his daughter were the large grey wings that sprouted from his shoulders that needed to be tucked in by his side for him to enter the small green room.

‘Hello, I’m Gabriel’ said the man smiling, his eyes wrinkled in delight at the sight of them, ‘so you’ve finally awoken…’

‘Awoken? What do you mean awoken? We can’t have just fallen asleep for years on end can we?’ asked Mike desperately searching for the answers he desired.

‘Yes, I thought that at first too,’ said Gabriel as if pondering upon what Mike had just asked him, ‘but somehow it is possible and you were some of the many people who underwent this metamorphosis.’

Mike and Cass just looked at the man in shock again leaving their jaws dropping for what felt like the hundredth time since they’d awoken. Letting this sink in, Gabriel finally continued, after not receiving a single question from the either of them.

‘So after, how do I put this, after you fell asleep, after what we call the Day of Reckoning, the world continued to evolve and change around you, and well, things are quite different from what they used to be.’

‘How is it different?’ asked Cass realising that this man, Gabriel, was telling them the truth.

‘Well, you know what evolution and continental drift and all that stuff is right?’

‘Yeah,’ said Mike and Cass simultaneously.

‘Well while you were asleep, while we were all asleep, it continued on around us, new creatures evolved, the landscapes changed, places that might have been metres apart from each other in our time might now be kilometres away, but don’t you worry about any of that right now.’

It all came so fast, but something in the back of Mike’s mind told him that it made sense, it could explain why the pain in his shoulders, well wings, had not woken him up from the sleep he was in. It explained a lot really, but not enough. But before he could ask any more questions the older angel spoke again.

‘Let’s go outside, and you can see the new world for yourselves…’

He turned and left Mike and Cass; the pair looked at each other, then got up and followed. Mike had to bend down and tuck his wings in tight as his large frame struggled through the small door. Dim light filtered through a canopy of deep green, tall eucalypts spanned hundreds of metres above their heads and fresh and dead leaves were sprawled across the forest floor sprayed with soft drops of sunlight. Small dwellings rimmed the edge of a large grove that had formed in the forest, each dwelling was different from the one next to it, but they all were made of the same materials; wood, stone and leaves, each house had a rough stone base and structure of wood with a dense coating of leaves that formed dome shaped houses. In the centre of the ring of houses was a large hollowed out tree, the trunk broke through the canopy and continued into the sky. The base of the tree was 50m in circumference and had large root that spanned across the clearing towards the small houses. Gurgling along through a gap in the houses was a small creek that ran a small moat around the tree and continued off past more houses and into the dense trees.
Cass gasped at the small community and turned to her left, ‘Gabriel, where are we?’

The man looked down at Cass and smiled, he was only a few centimetres taller than Cass, but Mike still towered over the both of them, and said ‘this is Glade.’

As he spoke the name, of what could only be described as a village, people started to come out of their dwellings and look at the newcomers. A hushed murmur spread through the people as they stared at the newly awoken angels, they were all human, no wings, just plain humans. But as Mike looked at the small population of Glade he realised something.

‘Cass?’ he whispered into his friend’s ear.

‘Yeah?’ she whispered back at him, slightly transfixed at the mass of people watching them.

‘Wh-what do y-you think happened t-to the others?’ he asked slightly panicking at the thought, ‘Gen, Brett, John…’ his voice slowly trailing off in thought.

‘I-I don’t know…’ Cass mumbled at the sudden realisation, ‘I think, I think they might all be gone…’

Mike realised she couldn’t bring herself to say it properly. Dead was what they were. All dead. His parents, his friends, everyone who he’d ever loved was dead, not a part of this world any more. Gabriel looked over at the pair of them with a grim expression on his face.

‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered, ‘it’s hard I know, but after a decade of two you’ll let it pass.’

Mike looked up at Gabriel, his dark expression showed more lines than Mike realised were there, he was quite old, but he still had some youthfulness about him. Mike wanted to ask when he woke, but before he could ask his question Gabriel was answering it for him.

‘I awoke,’ he started, slightly mumbling as he went, ‘about a century and half ago; it was a nicer place than what it is now, not so much conflict, not so much death…’
He trailed off, staring at the canopy, his voice had become quite different from when he had been speaking to them before, it had become quite distant and detached from the world.

‘But about fifty years ago it changed rapidly, the demons rose against the peace and started slaughtering those who kept it; the angels. They massacred many of the sleepers until only a few were left, they were slowed and stopped, but the remaining angels banded together, some left, others went in search for the remaining sleepers. I set off with my waking partner, but during our travels he was…’ Gabriel’s eyes had gone a glassy white as he stared at the ground, it was clear he did not want to continue, ‘and then I found you two, and you were among the remnants of the angel guardians; the Aethers. And so I waited thirty long years, and here you are now awoken.’

Mike found Gabriel’s story hard to take in at first, there were demons and angel guardians, and all sorts of things that he didn’t understand, but as Mike turned to ask more questions Gabriel patted Mike’s shoulder.

‘Come on, let’s go meet the people of Glade,’ a big smile was now placed across Gabriel’s once gloomy face and many of the lines had disappeared.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Three: The Killer Koala

Mike found it amazing how all the people of Glade, even though there were not too many of them, wanted to introduce themselves to himself and Cass. Each person was very different from each other, although they were all fairly pale from living under the shadows of the trees of the forest for their entire lives. Belle, the young girl who was Gabriel’s daughter introduced them to every single person in the village, the old lady Benet who was a healer, Jeth a young man who had built many of the dwellings and Roger Belle’s boyfriend were the main few Mike remembered fairly clearly. After their introductions Belle and Roger had decided to take Mike and Cass on a small tour of the surrounding forest area.

‘This entire area,’ said Belle gesturing to all the trees and plant life around them, ‘is called the Glaven Forest. It is home to many creatures you would never have heard of.’

Belle seemed to be full of excitement of knowing something they did not, she was constantly grinning at them as she showed them the forest. On the other hand Roger had been fairly quiet most of the time, just walking slightly behind the others and keeping an eye on the trees as if he was sure something was going to jump out at them, his mop of black hair flopped over his mousy face constantly as he moved his head about.

‘This here is the…’ but Belle didn’t finish her sentence, her sharp pointed ears twitched, as she searched for the source of a sound that Mike couldn’t hear.

Mike turned to find Roger had pulled a large dagger from a sheath that was attached to his lower leg, he stood staring towards a dark patch of trees to Mike’s right. A deep growling floated from the branches above Mike’s head, he looked up to see a koala with razor sharp claws and crocodile teeth staring at him, it’s large dark eyes the colour of the night sky stared at him, waiting for him to react.

‘Don’t move,’ whispered Belle, as she too spotted the koala thing.

Mike’s eyes darted to where Belle’s voice had come from, but she wasn’t there, he looked back up at the koala thing, it had not moved, its black eyes still fixed on Mike. As he watched the creature the muscles in its arms seemed to tense, the shaggy grey fur moved in close to its body and then it leapt at him. Its long knife claws spread open ready to tear at Mike’s skin, teeth bared ready to sink into his flesh, but the koala never reached him. Something invisible knocked it with such force from its side causing it to collide with the thick trunk of the eucalypt beside it.

‘Move Belle!’ bellowed Roger from behind Mike.

The young girl materialised from beside the koala, the leather skin tight clothing she wore had a large rip across her chest as blood poured from an open wound where the claws of the koala had slashed her. She rolled away from the stunned creature as Roger charged from behind Mike and dug his knife deep into its chest and thick amber coloured blood bubbled out of the creature’s chest, its body went limp, twitched for a few moments and then became motionless.

‘Mike, can you carry her?’ asked Roger bending over Belle, examining her wounds.

‘Umm, yeah sure,’ said Mike, still shocked by the koala’s attack.

He quickly moved over and bent down to pick up Belle, she was surprisingly light and was easy to carry, wrapping her arms around Mike’s neck for support.

‘Thanks,’ she muttered in Mike’s ear.

They began to walk back to Glade; Roger kept ahead of everyone this time, leading the way.

‘I should be thanking you,’ said Mike, ‘you saved me.’

‘It’s nothing.’

‘But that koa…’

‘Drop bear, and it wouldn’t’ve been able to kill you anyway, Roger was just as ready as I was.’

Roger nodded from just ahead of them. Now another question was stirring in Mike’s mind.

‘But how did you become invisible?’

‘I’m part angel.’

‘We can turn invisible?’

‘Nope, just me, but you’ll have some sort of power, dad glows in the dark, pretty lame really, but I saw one guy that could absorb all the light around him and send everyone into darkness, that was pretty cool.’

They came across a small creek that winded through the trees and into a dense mass of bushes.

‘Let’s move through the water,’ said Roger, fairly calm after what had just happened, ‘it should block the scent of blood.’

‘So we all have powers?’ asked Cass.

‘Yeah,’ replied Belle, ‘although most angels take a while to find out theirs.’

‘I think I know what mine is,’ murmured Cass.

Everyone stopped at Cass’s statement; no one really knew what to say.

‘Howhat?’ Mike stammered, jamming the two words together in surprise.

‘Well,’ said Cass, ‘this kinda explains it.’

She lifted her hair away from her neck, along the side her neck ran three deep slices that seemed to be breathing; a slight shiver ran down Mike’s spine at the sight of them. Belle let out a small gasp in Mike’s arms, Cass let out a sigh and let her hair cover the slices up again, a gloomy look came over her face.

‘Gills,’ mumbled Cass under breath, ‘and it would explain the water bird wings.’

A slight rustling came from behind them and Mike saw Roger turn to quickly check the area where the noise came from, ‘uhh, come one, let’s keep moving, we’re almost at Glade now.’

The four of them stepped into the crystalline creek, keeping in the shallows where the round pebbles of the creek bed were visible. Further into the middle of the clear water creek were dark shadows that twisted and twirled in the deep, Roger explicitly told them not to enter the deep water.

It took only about five minutes for Mike and the others to return to Glade, no one spoke the rest of the trip; they were still quite stunned from the drop bear attack and Cass’s power having already been discovered. Belle had lost a fair amount of blood once they’d came into the opening of Glade, the water at Mike’s feet had been dyed a deep crimson and all colour had drained from Belle’s face.

‘Why won’t the blood clot?’ whispered Cass to Roger, who was leading them towards a house that lay just outside the main circle of homes.

‘The drop bear secretes a venom along its claws that prevents the blood hardening, or clotting, whatever you want to call it,’ he answered grimly.

Without even bothering to call out to the occupant of the house Roger entered, Mike followed carrying Belle and Cass came in behind them. The dwelling was very similar to the one that Mike and Cass had awoken in, but slightly larger and with a small section drooped in shadows, in the centre of the room was a big table with assorted jars containing liquids and bowls of herbs and other bits and pieces.

‘Oh poor dear,’ came a wheezy voice from the shadows, ‘a drop bear I suspect.’

‘Yeah, but it was an adolescent and the wounds are shallow,’ said Roger.

‘Oh good, good,’ said the voice, and out of the shadows came Benet the healer, holding a basket of leaves and roots.

Benet was rather short with frizzy grey hair, she was all skin and bone, and her saggy skin drooped off her short bony arms giving Mike the impression of sugar glider. She buried her hand into the basket clearly searching for something and then pulled out an onion, or rather something that looked like an onion. As Benet spun the bulb around a grotesque face came into view, it looked like shrunken head that had been punched multiple times, it’s features were squashed in on itself and thick wrinkles covered the entire bulb. On top of the bulb was a tuft of leaves that Benet was using to carry the onion thing.

Seeing Mike’s look of disgust Benet smiled, ‘it’s a mandrake head, they can be used to draw out all different sorts of venom.’

As she said this she opened the slice in the mandrake head, which could only be described as a mouth, and allowed it to sink in its tiny teeth like structures around Belle’s wound. As Mike stared at the phenomenon in front of him, liquid started to drip from where the mandrake’s neck should have been, Benet quickly placed jar underneath the head and collected the green liquid that reminded Mike of mucus.

‘Drop bear poison is very valuable you know,’ said Benet smiling, ‘but so are mandrakes,’ she then turned on Roger, ‘so I’ll take this venom as payment for the mandrake.’

Roger nodded without saying anything.

After about ten minutes Belle regained consciousness, they thanked Benet and left quickly so that she didn’t change her mind and charge them something a bit more unreasonable. The light seeping through the canopy was slowly disappearing and a dim red glow loomed among the treetops.

‘You two will be staying in there for tonight,’ said Belle pointing at the dwelling where Mike and Cass had awoken, ‘once you go inside close the doors and do not open them, under any circumstances, got it?’

The seriousness in Belle’s face took Mike by surprise; her liquid blue eyes seemed to be holding him to the spot until he said what she wanted.

‘Yeah, got it.’ 

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Four: The Angel's Call

It was quickly apparent why Belle had ordered them to close their doors, ominous shadows passed the tents as the small treacles of moonlight that managed to pass into Glade spread an eerie glows over the small dwelling that Mike felt was just as safe as being outside. Once or twice Mike saw an enormous shadow with large fangs like a wolf’s being cast over them and each time he would hear Cass quietly whimper to his right.

Sleep was something that did not come for Mike that night, when the sunlight finally broke through the canopy of leaves signalling morning his hand was entwined in Cass’s, both were cold and clammy like a dead man’s. Although the morning had come for them they did not get up, lethargy swept over them and they continued to lie in a sleepless rest.

The door to their dwelling opened with a creak like a loose floorboard and Gabriel’s face peered through the open door, his dark hair shadowing his features. Upon seeing him Mike closed his eyes feigning sleep.

‘You guys alright?’ asked Gabriel.

Neither Mike nor Cass answered.

‘Don’t ignore me,’ said Gabriel calmly ‘I know no one sleeps on their first night, no one really sleeps during their first week and tonight was a fairly difficult night.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Cass softly with her eyes still closed.

‘It was a full moon,’ muttered Gabriel, ‘nothing’s ever quite at peace during a full moon. Anyway don’t you worry about that, let’s get outside your journey begins today.’

Before Mike and Cass could question him any further Gabriel was out the door, the pair grudgingly got up and followed him, moving in a similar manner to sloths. In front of Mike he saw Cass’s wings drooping, almost touching the ground, she seemed to have as much energy as Mike. Mike had to hunch over again to get through the small door.

The cool morning air stung Mike’s skin as he walked outside, his hairs stood on end and goosebumps crept down his spine and spread all over his skin. A wisp of steam floated out of his mouth as he took in deep breaths of the fresh, cool air. It was still fairly dark outside as the sun was not yet far enough across the sky to pierce the dense canopy above them. No one seemed to have awoken yet; their doors were shut tight with large boulders, which Mike had not noticed the day before, rolled in front of them as if preventing something from entering the houses. Mike turned to find that a boulder had stood in front of their doorway too, but now lay to the right of the door.

‘Ok, so I have a few questions for you about before you fell asleep,’ said Gabriel turning to them, a grim look plastered on his face.

Mike and Cass both nodded without saying a word.

‘How many of you were there when you fell asleep?’ asked Gabriel.

‘Umm ten I think,’ said Mike, his mind was a little foggy about that day, and the question increased the pain he was feeling about losing those he cared about who had been with him that day. What had happened to them, did they stay with the unconscious Mike and Cass, or did they just leave and continue on with their journey, no longer needing to go to Mike’s house where they were heading. But something shined in his mind with a glimmer of hope, maybe they fell asleep too, it was possible, he had seen Mark collapse; he looked up at Gabriel hoping the man would answer his unasked questions.

‘That’s a big group,’ said Gabriel more to himself than the two people standing in front of him, ‘well here’s the thing, when someone falls asleep it spreads to those closest in the vicinity to them, somehow during the five millennia or so the angels spread into pairs and can be found in a hiding place. So those who were with you have likely turned into angels as well.’

Cass gasped beside Mike and a small smile, the first in days, crept across his face; it was a good thing to hear that the others had made it to this time as well.

‘Usually those who fell asleep first wake up first, with a few days in between the different awakenings. I don’t know whether you guys were first, last or somewhere in the middle, but you need to find the others, you need to find them before the demons or something else do.’

Gabriel’s voice was full of urgency as he said these words; Mike now noticed the dark shadows underneath his eyes after a sleepless night like theirs.

‘Do you know where we need to go?’ asked Cass, her voice a little shaky.

‘I don’t know, but…’ Gabriel’s voice trailed off as heavenly voices began to sing in Mike’s head, a soft humming chorus floated through his mind behind the voices as over and over again they repeated words that became clearer and clearer each time the verses were repeated, then finally full clarity came:

‘In caves of glimmering crystal your friends are said to be,
Underneath the grey lake of darkest deep waters,
Lies a beast of immense size and magnificent colours,
Guarding the caves where your friends are said to be…’

The voices came to a stop and Mike began to focus on the real world again, Gabriel was looking at him curiously, Mike turned to see Cass was in a similar state to him. Mike quickly told Gabriel what he had just heard, the man just nodded at what they said taking in everything that Mike told him.

‘It sounds like you just had the Angel’s Call,’ said Gabriel finally, he then turned to Cass, ‘I guess you heard it too?’
Cass nodded weakly.

‘Ok, that means there is still someone to wake, hmm, “grey lake of darkest deep water,”’ repeated Gabriel thoughtfully, ‘that sounds like the Sullen Lake, but this beast the song describes I have never heard of…’

‘Do you think we’ll have to fight this thing?’ asked Cass nervously.

‘Not sure,’ answered Gabriel, ‘but I think you may need some weapons.’

Mike then noticed for the first time during their conversation a small brown rucksack that lay at Gabriel’s feet. Gabriel leant down and pulled out to small objects wrapped in brown paper, he handed them over to Mike and Cass. They anxiously unwrapped the brown paper to find to steel daggers with a pattern of leaves etched into their hilts. Mike turned the blade over in his hand a few times admiring the handiwork that had gone into the weapon.

‘Thanks,’ he said gratefully.

‘Sullen Lake is to the northwest of here,’ continued Gabriel, ‘if you follow that creek you should find a small village, they can direct you from there. This rucksack has food enough for a couple of days; it should take you that long to walk there.’

‘Walk?’ asked Mike, ‘can’t we just, you know, fly?’

‘Have you flown yet?’ asked Gabriel with small smile, ‘why don’t you give it a shot?’

These taunting words got to Mike, he spread his larger wings and prepared to take flight, then he realised, he had no idea what he was doing. He moved his wings up and down a few times trying to take off, but all he did was create a few gusts of winds and give Cass a face full of white feathers.

‘Thanks for that,’ came the muffled voice of Cass behind Mike’s wings.

‘Uhh sorry about that,’ mumbled Mike, he quickly folded his large wings away then turned to Gabriel, ‘how exactly do you fly?’

‘It’s easy enough, although it’s not exactly something I can just teach you,’ Gabriel then unfurled his smaller wings that consisted of multiple shades of grey. He then began to flap them and rose a few metres above the ground before stopping and landing with a gentle thud on the ground.

‘Umm ok then,’ said Mike, wondering how he was supposed to learn to fly without instructions.

‘Anyways you should probably get going soon, you’ll want to leave before the other villagers wake up so they don’t prolong your wait to see your friends again,’ said Gabriel.

Mike opened his mouth to say goodbye, but Belle materialised beside Gabriel giving Mike a small frightful jump. She was still wearing her torn leather clothes from the day before and the wound was still visible across her chest, although it was healing much faster than any wound Mike had seen before, he quickly moved his eyes away from her chest, feeling slightly guilty.

‘Roger’s still sleeping but I thought I’d wish you goodbye,’ said Belle smiling widely.

She then gave Mike and Cass each a large hug, passing Mike something small into his hands during the embrace, ‘uh, thanks.’

‘Don’t mention it.’

Mike quickly stored the object in his pocket for safe keeping. Gabriel then passed Mike the rucksack, not having seen whatever Belle passed him and shook his hand firmly, then turning to shake Cass’s as well.

‘Good luck,’ he said, his previous grim look had returned to his face.

‘Yeah, good luck,’ said Belle cheerfully, ‘and come back and visit us, ok?’

‘Definitely,’ said Mike and Cass together.

With another quick handshake and a hug they left and started to follow the small creek away from Glade.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Five: A Ring of Lights

Mike held the small stone Belle had passed him in his hand, rolling it over trying to figure out what exactly it was. It was very smooth with three mounds protruding from its surface and a small hole going straight through the middle, like nothing Mike had ever seen, although almost everything now Mike had never seen before. Mike stuffed it back into his rucksack and decided to search for some clothing in the bag, the white cloths he and Cass were wearing stood out like chalk on a blackboard, and it was no wonder to Mike that the drop bear the day before had spotted them. They needed some new clothes desperately so that they weren’t attack by some random creature that wanted to eat their flesh.

He closed the bag in frustration and swung it back onto the ground, the pair of them had stopped by a small pond on what seemed to be the outskirts of the forest. Cass had decided to collect some fish from the pond, Mike had become worried at first when she hadn’t surfaced after about ten minutes, but soon remembered the sets of gills sliced into her neck. After about fifteen minutes she finally emerged from the water holding three wriggling fish and some sort of crustacean that resembled a deformed yabby, a small section of her arm was wounded in a strange circular pattern with a slow trickle of blood leaking from the wound.

‘You alright?’ asked Mike looking at Cass’s bleeding arm.

‘Yeah should be fine,’ said Cass with somewhat of a croaky voice and shaking out her dripping wings, ‘any bandages in the bag?’

‘Nope, sorry,’ said Mike emptying the rucksack at his feet, with only a small quantity of food and Belle’s stone rolling out of it.

‘Thought not,’ muttered Cass walking over to her dress that lay on nearby rock, she pulled a knife from a strap around her leg and tore off some of the lower section of her dress and used it to bandage her arm.

‘What did that to you?’

‘Not sure, came from behind, couldn’t really see it, but it looked like some sort of eel.’

Mike looked closely at the wound, it was not very large, but looked as if a hundred razor sharp needles had plunged into Cass’s skin. As Mike withdrew Cass wound the material tightly around her arm and wrapped it like a bandage, she then pulled on the rest of her dress which now came to just above the knees and started gutting the fish.

The afternoon passed by quickly and soon Mike could hear both his and Cass’s stomachs starting to rumble, the gutting of the fish did not go according to plan and afterwards they were left with two poorly gutted fish and the remnants of what was the crustacean. The first fish had been so badly damaged that Cass had thrown it into the woods in frustration. The waning sunlight was becoming a cruel symbol of the little time Mike and Cass had left; they tried to put together a small fire with their little knowledge of camping and failed dismally.

As the sun finally set Mike and Cass retreated into the branches of willow that lay on the shallow banks of the pond and ate the fish raw to Mike’s great displeasure. The drooping leaves of the willow provided protection from the cool breeze that was floating through this thinner section of the forest, but as the night continued on Cass huddled into Mike as he listened to the gentle breathing of her sleep.

The night was long, as the moon started to peer through the canopy dangerous growls emanated from the ground below and dark shadows passed beneath the branches of the trees, occasionally stopping to sniff the base of the tree. On the opposite bank of the pond glowing orbs floated towards a ring of light, a slow humming chant resounded across the water meeting Mike’s ears. He slowly moved towards the end of the branch and peered through the mass of drooping leaves, his wings getting caught in a tangle.

Once he’d managed to pull himself free he watched quietly from the branch as more and more orbs of light began to dance round what looked like a ring of mushrooms as the chanting began to grow louder, and a faint buzzing noise filled Mike’s ears.

‘What’s that noise,’ muttered Cass from behind Mike, her voice back to normal after getting used to breathing air again.

‘I’m not too sure,’ whispered Mike back to her, ‘but come and have a look.’

Cass crept quietly along the thick branch towards where Mike sat and peered through the leaves at the orbs of fire. The faint glow illuminated their hiding place as they watched the lights dance around and around the ring of mushrooms; neither of them spoke as they watched. A comforting hand grasped Mike’s and he looked into Cass’s eyes and smiled, maybe this new world wouldn’t be too bad after all.

But then all of a sudden the lights burst into flames and a brilliant light swept across the pair of watching angels and Cass screamed as they both fell from the high branches of the willow and collapsed with a thud on the ground. The fireballs stopped moving and Mike felt as if they were watching him, he lay motionless on the ground trying not to gain any more attention from the dangerous looking fireballs, but one by one each of them extinguished and small firefly like creatures were looking at Mike, glowing dimly.

‘Humens, you should not be here,’ said one of the creatures in a high pitched voice, moving forward, ‘humens are not ment to watch our rituels.’

Mike stood up to say sorry, but before he could speak another one of the creatures spoke.

‘They are engels, meybe they do not know?’

A buzzing mutter crept across the rest of the creatures as they turned in to talk to each other, Mike watched curiously wondering what these creatures were. As if reading his mind the first creature turned away from the group and flew across the lake towards them, it was definitely an insect, it had large goggle like eyes on either side of its head the stuck out of a mass fur that covered the rest of its body, apart from the wings which looked like those of an oversized fly.

‘Do you know what we er?’ asked the creature, speaking much more calmly than it had been before, now at eye level with Mike.

‘No, sorry,’ said Mike, feeling odd talking to such a diminutive little creature.

‘We are the ferries,’ said the fairy, now wearing something that looked like smile upon its face, ‘I am Zigar.’

‘I’m Mike, and this is Cass,’ said Mike.

‘Fairies, wow,’ said Cass excitedly, ‘we didn’t mean to interrupt your, umm, ritual was it? We’re very sorry.’

‘Thenk you for your epologies, but es you are engels we do not mind so much, humens on the other clew are e nuisence,’ there was a tone of annoyance in Zigar’s voice as he said this, ‘they cennot choose e side in the wer thet is being cast upon us, end it ennoys us greatly.’

‘War?’ asked both Cass and Mike at the same time.

‘Didn’t you know?’ said Zigar bewildered, ‘the wer between the engels end demons, the wer where beings need to choose e side, end humens are stuck between both…’

‘Both? What do you mean by both?’ asked Cass quickly, accidentally interrupting the fairy.

‘Hey listen, I was getting to thet,’ said Zigar slightly annoyed.

‘Sorry,’ said Cass, her cheeks going slightly red in the dim light.

‘Good, now some of the humens, they hev decided to side with the engels and with us, but others they chose the demons, end now we don’t know who we can trust.’

Zigar looked as if he had more to tell them, but just at that moment a dark shadow swept across the pond and Mike looked up to see a bulky winged silhouette circling the sky above them. A low buzz hummed across the lake and the ring of fairies dispersed into the trees in different directions, their diminishing glows blinking as they flew between the trees.

‘Hide!’ screamed Zigar, his small bug eyes bulging out of their sockets in terror.

Mike clambered back up the willow, Cass right behind him; the branches seemed to slip from his grasp as the rush of terror seeped through him. Once he reached the branch he and Cass had been sleeping on he peered through the leaves of the higher branches to find a scene of horror unfolding below him. The tiny fairy was now face to face with some sort of monster creature with lumpy grey skin, bat like wings and the feet of an elephant. Its two bulging red eyes were staring at the fairy, its face twisted and evil, with its bottom lip protruding over its top lip.

‘Where are they fairy,’ said the thing with a deep growling voice, ‘Goruk saw the angels, where are they?’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Zigar stubbornly, his voice was a complete contrast to that of Goruk’s.

‘Goruk saw you talking to them fairy, do not defy Goruk.’

‘End whet will you do if I do?’

With one swift movement Goruk grabbed Zigar in one hand and brought the fairy to his great ugly face, his face twisted in rage, ‘Goruk could crush you very easily; now tell Goruk where the angels are.’

‘No idea.’

Goruk began to squeeze his hand; a faint crunching noise came from Zigar as his tiny body began to break. Suddenly Zigar became a ball of fire and Goruk’s entire hand was engulfed in flames, Goruk roared with pain and threw Zigar into the pond where the flames instantly extinguished and the limp body of the fairy glowed dimly as he floated on the water’s surface. His wings twitched slightly for a couple of seconds, but soon became rigid. A small eel like creature leaped out of the water and snatched Zigar in its needle like teeth and took him into the depths of the pond.

‘Goruk will find you angels, and when Goruk does; Goruk will crush you like the fairy.’

Goruk then opened his wings and took flight and disappeared into the darkness of the night, both Mike and Cass sat in the tree sleepless and speechless for the remainder of the time that the moon sat in the starry sky that night.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Six: A Shadow in the River

The next morning Mike and Cass separated themselves from each other’s arms and set off down the creek again, the experiences from the night before still vivid in their minds. The image of the fairy’s light dying was something Mike never wanted to see again, and he felt worse than ever about it. Zigar had sacrificed himself for the sake of Mike and Cass, was this war really that important to the fairy that he would give up his life to protect those who he had only just met? It was a question that continued in his mind as he walked blankly onwards. They set off with a belly full of the rations that Gabriel had given them the day before.

As they edged further through the forest the trees began to thin out until they were walking through scrubby bushland and the creek was now widening into river as other small creeks merged together. Small insects flew over the water, a blue and green butterfly with wings that glittered in the wind fluttered over the river towards the pair of angels, only to be swiped out of the air by a light blue fish with wings that allowed it to hover slightly over the water before diving back into the safety of the creek. A large creature with sleek blue fur and green feelers propped on its head swam past, eyeing Mike and Cass; its large tail seemed to be the only thing carrying it against the swift current that now flowed in the river. With one last glance at the pair it dived deep into the river, dissolving into the darker waters.

The sun sat in the sky peering down at the two angels, its blistering heat taunting them as they trudged along the luscious green grass that covered the ground, now fairly bare of trees, Mike could only see a few scattered throughout the scrubland, most were huddled close to the river seeking its water. Every now and then a large shadow would pass over them and they would huddle underneath one of the riverside trees, praying for the creature above them not to notice their presence.

When midday came the pair came to rest under a tree for a break in the constant walking. Mike dipped his sore, dirty feet into the crystalline water; it was a soothing and relaxing feeling. He laid back into the luscious emerald grass and let relaxation wash over him, he felt Cass beside him do the same thing.

‘I wonder who’s in these crystal caves,’ pondered Cass.

‘I’m not sure,’ said Mike wondering the same thing, then a different thought wandered into his thoughts, ‘hey; do you think that that Goruk was a demon?’

‘Maybe,’ said Cass softly, ‘he met the description Gabriel gave us didn’t he?’

‘Yeah he did,’ said Mike remembering the grotesque features of the demons from the night before, his crimson eyes kept flashing in front of him.

‘Let’s not worry about him,’ muttered Cass,’ we probably won’t see him again anyway. Ouch!’

Cass quickly pulled her feet from the water and Mike saw the same kind of eel creature that had eaten Zigar the night before latched onto one of Cass’s feet. The sun reflected off its body and the small black scales that covered its slimy body shimmered the colours of the rainbow, its razor sharp teeth were buried in Cass’s skin, barely visibly though the blood seeping around its mouth.

‘Get it off, get it off!’ squealed Cass, a tone Mike had never heard her use before.

‘What was that?’ said Mike smirking at Cass’s reaction to the eel creature.

‘Nothing,’ said Cass more calmly, ‘can you just get it off?’

Mike smiled and pulled his dagger out its sheath that hung at Mike’s side and plunged the blade into the creature’s cranium instantly killing it. Its teeth released Cass’s foot and it fell limp to the ground, Mike then tore some fabric from his own clothes and bandaged Cass’s foot.

‘If you continue to do this, soon we will both be naked,’ said Mike as he tied the bandage.

‘Oh shut up,’ snapped Cass, then muttering something inaudible under her breath.

Mike looked into the river, a small pool of blood hung by the riverside and a school of malicious looking fish swam around the blood waiting for its source to return. Their dark scales were dull in the shimmering water and their large sharp fangs protruded from their bottom lip, masking the top half of their heads.

‘Umm, let’s keep moving,’ said Mike, eyeing the murderous fish.

Cass looked into the water and nodded. They headed back towards the base of the tree where their belongings were and lay back against the thick trunk. Mike watched as a small family of rabbit creatures with antlers perched on top of their heads hopped past, they had deep brown fur and large bucked teeth. Mike kept an eye on them as they drew closer, he fingered the handle of the dagger at his side and then through it at one of the larger rabbits. The dagger stabbed into the ground a metre away from the family, alerted of the angel’s presence they began to hop speedily away, but not before a second dagger hit the largest of the rabbits, piercing its neck and spilling blood all over the grassy earth.

Cass nudged him smiling at the rabbit creature she’d hit, ‘want some lunch?’ she walked over to the rabbit grabbed it by its antlers, accidentally tearing the head from the body. She tossed the head into the river and it soon disappeared among the school of fish, she then grabbed the legs of the animal and bought it back over to the shadows of the tree.

After managing this time to make a fire from the dry sticks underneath the tree they cooked the animal, the meat on the rabbit was tough and chewy, but Mike was just thankful that their meat wasn’t raw this time. After their meal they let out the fire and continued along the river towards what looked like a settlement in the distance.

After about another hour of walking Mike noticed a shadow in the water, it looked somewhat familiar, moving steadily along beside them. He looked up to check the sky for demons, but there was nothing there. He decided to not pay it too much attention, but he couldn’t help but to keep checking the shadow in the river. It was slithering through the water like a snake, much wider than a snake, but no visible limbs or fins sticking out. Its presence was disturbing and filled Mike with uncertainty, and then he realised what it reminded him of; a crocodile.

At that moment the creature that was the shadow leapt out of the water, it had a gaping mouthful of sharp teeth and rigid spines running down its body. Claws that had been tucked into its body were now visible as its thick dark green scales glistened with the crystalline water in the sunlight. It landed with a loud thud on the river bank, standing up on its two back legs it was very crocodilian in appearance, but with a rather rotund belly.

Cass screamed in terror at the creature’s sudden appearance and Mike gave a massive jump in fright, taking to the air without realising, his large wings carrying much further above the ground than where he wanted to be. He suddenly stopped flying and crashed to the ground in a heap in front of the large reptile. He groaned loudly as pain ached through his bones, although nothing seemed to have broken thankfully; that sort of pain he had felt before.

‘You righ’?’ grunted a rough voice.

‘Y-yeah,’ said Mike, shocked to find the voice had come from the crocodilian creature, ‘what are you?’

A sudden wave of guilt rushed through Mike, he had meant to say ‘who’ but the wrong words had come out. Luckily the creature seemed to find his crudeness quite amusing and gave a grunted chuckle.

‘Dragon,’ he said, ‘name’s Bronson.’

He extended his claw; Mike shook reluctantly as the talons slightly dug into his skin, ‘I’m Mike.’ The dragon’s name struck Mike as rather odd, but he felt he had been rude enough to the dragon already and didn’t ask.

‘So who’s yer friend?’ asked Bronson, gesturing to Cass who had just come out from behind a nearby tree.

‘I’m Cass,’ she said walking over to Mike and Bronson with much more confidence than she had had moments ago.

‘Nice ter meet the both of yer,’ said Bronson shaking Cass’s hand, she winced from the contact of his claws, ‘how long have yers been awake for?’

‘This’d be our third day,’ said Mike.

‘Guess I’m the firs’ dragon yer two’d met then.’

Mike ad Cass nodded in agreement, not too sure what to say.

‘So where yer headin’ if, yer don’t mind me askin?’’

‘Uhh, Sullen Lake,’ said Mike not too sure whether to trust the dragon or not after their experience with Zigar.

Bronson seemed to notice their reluctance at giving away too much information and smiled a big toothy grin that would have given any full grown man the shivers.

‘Don’ worry, dragons are on yer side, otherwise I would’ve killed yer when yer dropped from the sky.’

With a sudden realisation Mike remembered he had just flown for the first time, he quickly got up and spread his wings examining them. He then did the same thing that he’d done when he saw Bronson, and soon he had shot off the ground and was now hovering a couple of metres up in the air. He slowed his beating wings and came to a heavy landing on the ground, much clumsier than he had intended on.

‘That was awesome,’ he whispered to Cass who was looking slightly sulky over not being the one that had flown first.

‘Nice,’ said Bronson grinning, ‘so as yer headin’ to Sullen Lake, do yer mind if I join yers both? I’m headin’ in the same direction anyways.’

‘If you want,’ said Mike a little unsure of what was happening, Cass shot him a furtive look, she still seemed uncertain whether to trust the dragon or not.

‘The more the safer,’ said Bronson, ‘anyway we’d better get goin’, don’ wanna be in the open when nightfall comes.’

At these words he started forwards leaving a slightly confused Mike and Cass behind him; they quickly ran after him and continued on upstream.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Seven: Sporegan Village

It was dark before Mike, Cass and Bronson reached Sporegan Village, faint lights flickered into being in the distance and Mike realised it would at least be another hour until they reached the village. The outskirts had one lone farm that was open for travelers to walk through, the fields had glowing lights scattered throughout them and on closer inspection he noticed glowing bulbs from the insides of what looked like carved pumpkins.

The village had not been what Mike had expected, each dwelling was a large cavernous fungus with doors and windows carved into them. They had large root like structures that spread into the ground and the stems and white dots on the stool of the mushroom glowed a pale white colour. Bronson led them through the village of mushrooms until they reached the largest of the mushrooms and he went inside. The doorway was fairly low and Mike had to bend down low to get inside, the roof was surprisingly low, but there were stairs that led up to another floor.

Mike stared around for whoever owned this place, but all he could see were a bunch of children with pointed ears conversing in high pitched voices at a table at the opposite end of the room. Bronson saw them and quickly walked over to talk to them, his long tail swishing behind him.

‘We need a couple a rooms to stay the night,’ said Bronson to the group of children.

‘A couple of angels and a dragon,’ said a blond haired girl that reminded Mike strikingly of Gen, ‘that will cost four gold pieces.’

Mike stared slightly surprised at the girl; she seemed to be the one that owned the place. Then Mike realised they had no gold, and Bronson didn't seem to be carrying anything on him, but then to Mike’s surprise the dragon put his claw into the crevice of a large scale that faced the opposite direction of the rest of his scales, it was located on his leg and he dug out four gold coins and placed them in the young girl’s hand.

‘Thank you,’ said the girl, ‘your rooms are on the second floor, numbers three and four, hope you have a good night.’

She then turned back to her conversation with the other children; Bronson gestured to the stairs and Mike followed him up them onto a landing with four doors and another set of stairs onto a higher level.

‘You two can have tha’ room there,’ said room on the far right, ‘jus’ a word of warnin’ though, there’re no beds, yer’ll be sleepin’ on the floor.’

‘Um, thanks,’ said Mike, not too sure what to say.

‘Ok, also they’re elves,’ said Bronson nodding down the stairs, ‘yer’ll do good to not cross ‘em, they’re on yer side, but it don’ take much to upset ‘em.’

He then turned and walked into his room on the far left of the corridor. Mike and Cass walked into the room on the far right and shut the crudely cut wooden door. The room was only just big enough for Mike to lie length ways across and was rather small. There was one window that looked over the street below them and across at the river that sparkled in the starlight. The floor of the room was soft and felt like a large cushion and Mike lied down on the floor and Cass laid beside him her large silver eyes staring at him in the darkness unblinking.

‘Who do you think we’ll find in the caves?’ she asked, still staring at him, her eyes changing colour to a silvery blue.

Mike couldn't help but admit he had been wandering this too and had anticipated the question, but it was unlikely they would find out till they reached the caves at the bottom of the lake. He really didn’t know and just shrugged.

‘Who would you like to find in the caves?’ reworded Cass, this question struck Mike like a cricket bat, he had not expected to be asked this.

The different people he had been with during the day of Reckoning flashed through his mind; Alexia, John, Mark, Gen, Brett, Nicole, Darna and Brash.

‘Any of them would be good to see,’ said Mike more to himself than Cass.

She nodded in agreement, ‘well we’ll be seeing two of them very soon…’

Her voice trailed off and she closed her eyes that had just gone back to their usual silver colour. A soft breeze flew through the open window and Cass’s hair blew weakly into Mike’s face, he reached his hand out and tucked the long strands behind her ears and noticed for the first time they were pointed. He moved his hand to his own and found that they were now pointed too, how much more could change Mike thought to himself, he then closed his eyes and let sleep come for him.

A loud thumping noise echoing throughout the large mushroom from the floor below them awoke Mike with a start. Childlike screams pierced Mike’s ears and with a rush he jumped to his feet, hitting his head on the low ceiling, Cass did the same wincing at Mike.

‘You - you would not hurt a child would you?’ asked a high pitched voice.

A deep throated laugh echoed through Mike’s head and then a familiar growling voice spoke, ‘do not patronise Goruk elf, Goruk knows what you are, do not try to trick Goruk. Now tell Goruk where the angels are, or Goruk will break your neck like your little friends.’

Mike and Nicole’s door opened silently and Bronson had one large talon to his pursed mouth, and then gestured for them to follow him, another high pitched scream pierced the air as they edged towards the stairs.

‘Up-upstairs,’ said a whimpering voice.

‘Good elf,’ said Goruk, sounding very happy with himself.

A loud crash came from downstairs and the demons heavy footfalls caused the entire place to shake. Mike and Cass froze to the spot, the demon knew they were here and they could now hear him lumbering up the stairs. Mike saw Cass grab her knife and did the same as the ugly head of Goruk emerged from the stairs, his toothy mouth curved into a grotesque smile. A strong sense of detest ebbed at Mike at the sight of the murderous monster as it stood at the top of the landing staring at them. And then Mike noticed Bronson was nowhere to be seen.

‘Goruk found you.’

The bulky demon began to charge at the pair of angels, each footfall caused the giant mushroom to shudder with his immense weight. With a loud bang the door to the right of Goruk flung open and Bronson leapt at the demon, teeth bared. Bronson’s long talons dug into Goruk’s thick hide and the demon roared with pain, his huge arms as thick as a trunk slammed into the dragon and smashed him against the wall and he fell to the ground in a heap.

Goruk kicked Bronson aside and once again charged at the angels, Cass screamed and threw her dagger at the demon in fright, which caught him in the shoulder, but continued past him and landed somewhere unseen. He faltered a little, but still continued down the corridor, not thinking Mike put his hands in front of him trying to protect himself from the oncoming beast. A surge of energy pulsed through Mike’s veins and through to his fingertips, releasing into the air and forming a barrier between the angels and the demon.
Goruk’s smile disappeared and his eyes widened as he met the barrier, he roared in pain, but it was soon cut short as he passed through the barrier and the flesh from his body disintegrated and the remaining bones crumpled into a heap on top of the stunned Mike.

‘W-what just happened?’ asked Cass as the barrier disappeared.

‘I don’t know…’ said Mike trying to get the bulky skeleton off him, ‘can I have some help?’

‘Sorry, I’m coming,’ said Cass quickly moving over to help remove the skeleton from Mike.

With the extra help Mike escaped from underneath the skeleton and went to check on Bronson who was groaning in pain on the floor.

‘I’m right,’ muttered Bronson taking Mike’s extended hand to get off the floor.

He staggered slightly and then without a word headed downstairs, Mike and Cass quickly followed him. A horrific scene fell before their eyes as they came out on the ground floor, three child-sized bodies lay broken on the floor in pools of their own blood. Only one remained alive, the blonde haired girl they had given their gold to knelt on the floor her blonde hair covering her face and her heavily bruised arms gripped the spongy floor.

‘Is it alive?’ squeaked the girl.

‘No,’ said Mike grimly.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, all that’s left are bones.’

The girl looked up at Mike shocked at his answer; tears were rolling from her bloodshot eyes and combined the light red blood that dripped from her nose.

‘Good, you can stay the rest of the night, but in the morning you must leave.’

The girl then struggled on to her feet and walked over to the bodies of her friends, and dragged them over to the remains of the broken table they had been sitting at. Bronson offered to help the elf but she refused and he left to go upstairs, Mike and Cass followed him. Cass pulled her dagger from the floor where it had embedded itself after her attempt at protecting herself.

‘Well I think we found your power,’ said Cass entering the room.

Mike gave a weak smile and lay down on the spongy floor, for the second time in two nights he had witnessed the cruelty of the demons, and both times it had been what felt like their fault. He looked over at Cass to find her large luminous silver eyes staring at him unblinking and he knew they were both in for another night of little sleep.

End of Part One

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter 8: The Rainbow Serpent

Part Two: Dihydrogen Monoxide

The next morning Mike, Cass and Bronson left the inn and wandered into the markets and had a small breakfast. Every dwelling in the village was a hollow oversized mushroom called a sporegan, and Bronson explained how this was the only settlement of elves in society as many were killed by demons and a lot of humans don’t take too kindly to elves in the neighbourhood. After slightly filling their bellies and renewing their dwindling supplies they headed off towards Sullen Lake in the north. As Mike and Cass walked along Bronson swam beside them in the river as he still had a slight limp from the night before that was slowing him down. The clear waters to the south were starting to turn from a brilliant blue to a dull grey, although the turbidity remained much the same.

After two hours of silent trekking the group reached the lake, Bronson left the grey water and came to shore; he eyed the water cautiously as if it was something evil. The water of the lake was greyer than the river, but was still very clear, dark shadows swam through the deep waters of the lake. Large melaleuca trees grew by the banks of the lake, their lime green leaves drooping in the morning sun, small shrubs grew around their bases hiding their root systems. On the opposite side of the river were a group of the blue mammalian creatures Mike and Cass had seen the day before swimming in the waters of the river, they were now sunbaking and took little notice of the angels and the dragon looking at them.

‘Bunyips,’ said Bronson, noticing Mike’s interest in the creatures, ‘they’re the least of yer worries in this lake. So anyways, why did yer want ter come here in the firs’ place, I forgot ter ask yers.’

‘Uhh, we need to reach some caves at the bottom of the lake,’ said Mike, wondering what Bronson was worried about in the lake.

‘I wouldn’ do that if I were you,’ cautioned Bronson, ‘as I said, bunyips are the least of yer problems in there….’

‘We need to get down there, we need to find…’ Cass stalled for a moment, as if she was unsure whether Bronson would believe her, ‘we need to find our friends…’

‘I guess the “Angel’s Call” told yer they were down there, hmm, I’ll help yer, but how’re yer gonna get down there?’

Cass pulled her hair back to reveal the gills sliced in her neck, Bronson winced at the sight of them, but nodded and looked at Mike. At that moment Mike realised he had no way of making it to such depths of the lake without needing to take a breath, he hadn’t even tried to swim since he had awoken.

‘I don’t think I can go in,’ muttered Mike.

‘Well yer gonna have to sit and wait then,’ said Bronson, ‘now Cass, if yer see any bright colours in there, swim fer yer life and get away.’

She nodded, then took off her dress and dived into the grey waters of the lake, Mike watched as Bronson dived in after her. They quickly disappeared from view as the grey waters swallowed them both. He wandered over to a tree at the edge of the lake and waited.

***

The grey waters were fairly clear as Cass swam speedily into the depths of the lake, she could see Bronson in the corner of her eye swimming behind her. During those first moments between the change of air and water caught her off guard again and she struggled at first, but it soon felt natural as the liquid passed over her gills and filtered the dissolved oxygen out of the water.

Every now and then she would spot some sort of fish swimming nearby, but Bronson would snap it in his large jaws and swallow it whole, not caring whether it looked dangerous or not. Then in the corner of her eye Cass spotted a flash of bright red go by and noticed Bronson had stopped swimming. She turned and let out a gargled scream as enormous rainbow coloured eel swam at her, its mouth wide open and ready to attack.

She darted out of the way of the huge mouthful of teeth and swam for the deeper depths of the lake, with Bronson nowhere to be seen. The giant eel came back around and this time was prepared for Cass’s speed, with one swift movement it snapped its jaws shut around her and she was enveloped in darkness.

***

Mike watched as he saw Bronson emerge panting from the pewter coloured water, his chest heaving as he took in large gulps of air. Terror then swept through Mike as no one else emerged from the depths of the lake.

‘Where is she?’ bellowed Mike, ‘where is Cass?’

‘The Rainbow Serpent, it attacked, knocked me aside, I los’ sight of her,’ panted Bronson.

‘Are you serious, she’s still in there!’ yelled Mike.

The dragon was still struggling to speak, but seemed determined not to go back in the lake as he dug his claws into the ground, ‘I ain’t goin’ back in there.’

A rage of fury swept over Mike at the dragon’s words, he then dived into the lake to find his friend. He pulled his wings tight around him and swam through the grey water; he got a few metres under before he had to come back to the surface gasping for air. He dived again, but it was no use he couldn’t get any deeper than before and Cass still hadn’t resurfaced. He swam back to shore, struggling slightly in his stressed state, and then lay on his back his wings now waterlogged and stared into the sun that hung in the middle of the sky.

The waters of the lake did not stir as Mike stared at them, not even a ripple spread across its smooth surface. The sun was drooping behind some of the taller trees on the other side of the lake and was casting an eerie blood red glow over the grey waters.

‘I don’t think she’s comin’ out,’ growled Bronson from beside him, ‘face it, she’s gone.’

Mike didn’t respond; he couldn’t let these words reach him. Cass had to be alive; she was his last link to the world he was from. The world that he realised he now missed more than ever. He missed the care and comfort from his parents, he missed the constant pestering he received from his sister and he missed the peace that that time had been in. He had not been involved in any war; he had not had to witness the killing of four innocent souls just because someone did not get their way or so that they could get what they wanted.

As he continued to watch the lake the water stirred near them both and a large pair of yellow eyes emerged and stared at the pair. Large spines that glittered in the red sun shone all of the different colours of the rainbow, and a row of large teeth could be seen sticking from its mouth. Mike stood up in shock at the enormous creature, but at the sight of him, and his spread wings it skulked back into the water, leaving a pool of blood where it had just been.

‘Now yer see why I didn’t wanna go back in,’ muttered Bronson as Mike gloomily sat back down at the base of the tree, ‘that thing woulda snapped me up fer sure.’

Mike said nothing, but continued to watch the creature as it swam across the lake to the sleeping bunyips. With a sudden burst of speed the serpent took hold of two bunyips with its strong jaws, the creatures screamed in pain and terror as the serpent dragged them back into the water as they tried to claw their way back onto the land. But soon they had disappeared into the depths of the lake with the Rainbow Serpent, leaving the rest of the frightened group to huddle together on the shore, unsure of what had just happened.

Heavy snores began to break the silence as Bronson fell asleep in the afternoon light and Mike felt anger spread through his entirety, he wanted to just strangle the reptile, ring his hands around his throat and make him pay for the death he could have prevented. But as he imagined the different ways he could make Bronson suffer he realised it really wasn’t the dragon’s fault, he had warned her. He had told her to get away if she saw the creature and warned them not to swim in the lake, but then joined her, but he still wished Bronson would show just a little sympathy or remorse for the anguished Mike.

With a sudden urge to do something, Mike got up from where he was sitting and started to walk around the edge of the lake. The setting sun was now casting an ominous shadow over the lake and darkness started to creep across the landscape. As Mike continued to walk along the lake’s shore he noticed a small patch of bushes by the base of a large gum tree that towered over all the other trees in the area, and saw a faint glow coming from the bushes. He made his way over and found that the source of the light was a small tunnel that opened at the base of the tree and looked like the entrance to Wonderland. He made his way into the tight tunnel and saw small crystals of warm colours across the roof of the tunnel that illuminated the small passage way. As he crawled his way through the tunnel like an overgrown wombat he came into a large chamber full of crystals that lit the cavern like fire. His bewilderment at the sight of the crystals soon faded at the sight of something else among the crystals.

***

The eel’s tongue was thin but slippery as Cass gripped her hands round the forked muscle. Her wings were touching the roof of the creature’s mouth and it was struggling to keep its mouth open as it was constantly tickled by the feathers. I am not going to die like this, thought Cass to herself as she gripped the tongue with everything she had, determined to live another day. Then an idea came to her she pulled her dagger from its home in the strap by her leg and as the tongue moved up again she forced the blade into the roof of the eel’s mouth and blood clouded her vision as it escaped from the wound.

A scream of pain came from the creature’s throat and a sudden current of water washed Cass out of the eel’s mouth, with dagger in hand. The light from above filtered down through the grey water as she escaped the prison she had been held in. She then turned and saw the creature eyeing her off, she stared into the eel’s enormous yellow eyes, and then as if deciding that she wasn’t worth the pain it swam away, its scales shimmering all the colours of the rainbow as the sunlight touched it.

Cass turned around to find herself on the lake floor, and she spotted an opening in the rock and swam for it. The opening led to a dark tunnel that surfaced in a brilliant cave filled with shimmering crystals or bright colours, which ranged from red to gold, from yellow to orange. They illuminated the cave with fiery colours. All around her echoed the dripping of what seemed to be water, the entire cavern was underneath the lake. And then her amazement turned to horror as she saw them.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Nine: A Rough Awakening

In the centre of the cave among the largest of the crystals were two angels; John and Darna, and both were encased in the fiery glowing crystals and were not moving. Mike made a start for the them, but stopped as he saw movement on the other side of the cave; he squinted and saw Cass running over to the sleeping angels. With a cry of surprise he called out to her and without realising he ran over and wrapped his arms around her tightly, prepared to never let her go again.

‘I thought… I thought you were dead,’ the words had trouble escaping his mouth as he pulled away from their embrace, her wet skin sticking slightly to his dry clothing.

‘Yeah, so did I,’ mumbled Cass.

They then both turned to look at the angels in the crystal; Darna was encased completely in crystal, her long dark hair spread out as if in water and her skin pale, the colour of death. She was gone, beyond help. Mike felt Cass lean into his arm and felt warm tears roll down her face and on to his arm. John was slightly luckier; the lower half of his body was encased in the fiery crystal and he was still breathing, but very heavily. As if sensing the presence of the angels his eyes flickered open widening to the size of golf balls and his breathing became much heavier. His eyes fell upon Mike and Cass and his breathing slowed, but the sense of panic was still very evident in his green eyes.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, his voice was much deeper than it had been a few millennia ago.

Mike turned to Cass, how were they going to explain this? Mike was lost for words and just stared at John blankly while Cass diverted her eyes from John and pretended to be distracted by something at her feet.

‘At least tell me where the hell we are,’ said John, annoyed at his friends’ silence.

‘Some caves under a lake,’ muttered Cass, still not looking at him.

‘That doesn’t help much,’ said John, ‘and why do you have wings?’

‘Well…’ started Mike, ‘umm, well you have them too, I want to point out and it’s because, well this is going to seem a little farfetched, but we’re umm, we’re angels…’

Mike cringed at the word and then continued to explain what was going on, how the world had changed and all that belonged in it. It took a while, with many interruptions from John, finding it a lot harder than it had been for Mike and Cass to take in what had happened. Finally they finished telling John everything that had happened so far.

‘Ok, well one more thing,’ said John, ‘how am I going to get out of this bloody crystal and what’s up with my feet?’

Mike looked closely at the crystal encasing the lower half of John’s body for the first time, in the depths of the crystal Mike could see some of John’s body along with a pair of large bird talons where his feet should have been. They were much larger than what his feet should have been and were a pale orange colour and were covered in scaly skin with huge black claws at the end of each of his eight toes. The brown feathers that covered the area where his human legs merged with the eagle talons were the same colour and type as the large eagle wings that protruded from John’s shoulders.

‘I’ll go find something to get you free,’ said Mike and he turned to walk away, but a loud crunching noise came from behind him and he turned to find John free of his crystal casing and staring into the crystal beside him.

‘Darna,’ he whispered, staring into the depths of the crystal.

‘What happened?’ muttered Mike under his breath towards Cass, so that John couldn’t hear him.

‘He saw Darna and just sorta broke free, he just ripped his legs out of the crystal and it just kinda shattered…’ she whispered to Mike.

‘We need to save her!’ said John, breaking away from the crystal and turning to Mike and Cass, ‘she could still be alive.’

‘John, I think, I think she’s gone,’ whispered Cass as he looked determinedly at both of them, ‘I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help her.’

‘We could at least get her out to bury her,’ said John, thinking of excuses to break her free.

‘I think this is a better burial than any that we could give her,’ said Cass, she was much better at sympathising than Mike was, he just felt awkward, so he remained quiet beside her and just nodded.

Neither Mike nor Cass were feeling as bad as John was, they had both already accepted most of the losses that had occurred and Darna was now one of the many they had lost. John stood thinking of some reason to free Darna, but nothing else seemed to be coming to him, and then he just stared blankly at the both of them, ‘yeah, you’re right…’

At that moment a loud thud echoed throughout the entire chamber as the walls and crystals started to shake as if they were in an earthquake. Again the noise echoed through the cave and cracks started to appear in the wall, it was as if something was trying to break through the cave wall. Water was starting to leak through the cracks and large puddles were forming in the crevices of the cave floor.

‘Where did you say we are again?’ called John over the noise of flowing water.

‘In a cave under a lake,’ yelled Mike.

‘So what’s trying to get in?’ asked John.

‘I think it might be the Rainbow Serpent,’ yelled Cass, ‘I think it saw me escape into the tunnel after I got out of its mouth.’

‘Wait, what?’ asked John.

But neither Cass nor Mike could say any more at that moment a final deafening thud broke through the cave wall and the head of the large multi-coloured eel had emerged through the gaping hole as a wave of water came smashing towards the three angels. Mike flung his arms over his head to protect himself and the same energy he had felt the night before tickled his fingertips and he created a barrier between them and the wave.

‘How’d you do that?’ asked John in bewilderment.

‘No idea, get to that tunnel over there and let’s get out of here,’ called Mike over the sound of rushing water.

Without need for any more encouragement both John and Cass ran f0r the tunnel entrance, making sure they were both a safe distance Mike let down his arms, and bolted for the tunnel entrance. He heard the sound of the enormous wave crashing towards him, just as he reached the tunnel the water caught up with him and forced him through, he was quickly washed further and further up the tunnel colliding with both Cass and John as he went. He saw the moonlight feeding through the small hole at the base of the tree roots and they were forced out like a geyser and towards the gaping mouth of the Rainbow Serpent that was prepared for them. But before they could reach the great eel’s mouth a great force collided with Mike’s side and he was pushed away from waiting fangs.

‘Got yers,’ said the rough voice of Bronson as he unfurled from the mess of limbs and bodies in the moonlit grass.

The dragon then turned and leapt at the oncoming jaws of the eel, his talons dug into the creature’s face and drew copious amounts of blood. The Rainbow Serpent shook violently, splashing blood all over the three angels as Bronson was flung from its face and it retreated back into the grey depths of the lake.

‘Th-thanks,’ said Mike shakily emerging from the mass of angels.

‘Nothin’ to it,’ said Bronson grinning, ‘wait, weren’t there supposed ter be two of yers in tha’ cave? What happened ter the other one?’

‘She’s dead,’ said Cass croakily, ‘gone before we could get to her.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Bronson his grin disappearing.

No one spoke for some time; Mike stared into the blinking stars of the universe. His mind started to wander away from the planet they were all stuck on and into the multitude of blinking lights and shimmering galaxies. How many of these stars was he seeing from the same time as when he had come from, how long ago had the light travelled from their galaxy and into theirs? Was everyone still alive in those times or were they already gone? He looked at the other three and realised he could not voice his thoughts to them, they would not be able to understand; they just wouldn’t understand…

For the first time since he’d awoken Mike noticed the moon, it was not hidden behind a canopy of trees of by the roof of a mushroom and now he saw how much larger it looked. It had done the opposite of many predictions and had approached the Earth. But its increase size was not what struck Mike most, partly covered in shadow; the moon now had a large face carved into it, with demonic eyes and a grin of wickedness.

‘It’s odd ain’t it,’ said Bronson taking notice in Mike’s fixation with the moon, ‘some creature’s claim it a god, others, they reckon it just a coincidence and that space rocks carved that face into it, I don’t know what to think really.’

‘What’re you talking about?’ asked John, clearly confused.

‘The moon,’ muttered Mike still staring at the giant grin carved into the enormous chunk of rock, ‘it’s bigger and well, take a look.’
John and Cass both craned their necks to look at the face and gaped silently for a few seconds as its eyes bore into them.

‘Wonder when that happened,’ said Cass, slightly perplexed.

‘It’s amazing how much stuff has changed,’ muttered Mike more to himself than the others.

Darkness soon swept over them and silence carried them into unconsciousness, sleep met Mike properly for the first time since he and Cass had awoken.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter 10: An Unsung Angel

‘I tell ya I saw one!’

‘Saw what exactly?’

‘An angel! I was fishin’ off the coast and there she was; on them shores of that island.’

‘You were either dreaming it or she was one of them bloody maenads.’

‘She wasn’t a maenad, she wasn’t mad; I’m tellin’ ya she was an angel.’

Mike lay awake among the bushes as the voices of the two men in their boat floated across the unstirred waters of Sullen Lake. The orange morning sun trickled through the dull grey foliage, lighting patches of grass around him.

‘You’re about as mad as them maenads,’ said the younger of the two men, ‘anyways where are we heading again?’

‘Fleetfish, where else would we be goin’ ya bloody good fer nuthin’,’ said the older man, then calming down a little, ‘anyways when we get there I’ll take ya to that bloody island and show her to ya, mind you I don’ want ya fallin’ for some ruddy angel. Your mother wouldn’ be too happy ‘bout that now would she?’

‘What’d she look like again?’

‘Now you’re interested,’ laughed the older man, ‘from what I saw she had long golden blonde hair and was rather pale, not like them maenads, and her wings they were small and black and a dark browny colour.’

‘Couldn’t she have just flown away from the island?’

‘Nah, I don’t think they can fly at first, and her wings… they didn’t look in the best of shape, like they’d been damaged or somethin’.’

‘Even if she is real, how do you reckon she got there?’

The older man, who Mike thought must have been the younger man’s father did not speak, pondering the question. His voice was only just audible as he answered his son as they continued on their journey down river.

‘Dunno, maybe that’s where she woke up…’

With a start Mike got onto his hands and knees and crawled over to where Bronson was curled up on a patch of grass, his small glassy brown eyes seemed almost human as he stared off into the distance. Mike waved his hand in front of the dragon’s face trying to get his attention, but he did not even flinch. He was sleeping; Mike then grabbed his shoulders and shook him awake.

‘Bronson!’ he whispered, ‘Bronson!’

‘Wha’, what?’ stammered Bronson rubbing his eyes, a trickle of steam shot out of his nostrils, ‘everythin’ alright?’

‘Yeah, we’re fine,’ said Mike quietly, trying not to wake the other two, ‘where’s Fleetfish?’

‘I s’pose you mean Fleetfish Village,’ said Bronson regaining his senses, ‘it’s on the coast to the east. Why der yer wanna know that for?’

‘I think there’s an angel off the coast from there on an island, I heard a couple of men talking about her just before,’ said Mike, his voice carrying a slight tinge of excitement, ‘can you take us there?’

‘Sorry Mike, but I told yer Sullen Lake was on the way ter where I was goin’, I gotta get home,’ said Bronson with regret, ‘and, if that’s the island I’m thinkin’ of, I won’t be of much help ter yer anyways.’

‘Why?’ asked Mike, not liking the idea of the dragon leaving them, ‘what’s wrong with that island?’

‘Maenads.’

‘Those men spoke of them, what’s wrong with them?’

‘They ain’t a massive fan of men.’

‘Why, what do they do?’

‘They can sniff them out, and once they’ve found one; well, they’ll kill them.’

‘Seriously? What creature did they come from?’

‘Humans and they are still very human, just insane. That’s why they were only restricted to that island of theirs, ‘bout a hundred years ago when the firs’ maenads appeared they went on killin’ sprees. Men from all different species were dyin’ left right and centre, and it was the firs’ and only time all the beings united against a common threat. Anyways mos’ were killed and the remainder fled to the Bloodlust Peninsula, the dwarves, they’re really good with technology, they created some sort of machine to separate the peninsula from the mainland and it was renamed the Isle of Maenads. The dwarves and gorgons had the worst casualties durin’ the cullin’, many dwarves died as the females have a similar scent to the males and the whole gorgon male populace was wiped out, luckily for them they don’t need men to mate.’

‘So, so, would they harm her?’

‘Dunno, hard to say really, but I reckon yer should get there as soon as yer can.’

‘Where are we going?’ asked John groggily, as if he had just awoken.

‘To the east, to find an angel’ said Mike.

‘But I didn’t hear an Angel’s Call,’ muttered Cass as she too had awoken.

‘She probably woke before us or wasn’t one of our group,’ said Mike.

‘How d’you know all this?’ asked John.

Mike quickly retold the story of the two men and Bronson explained the tales of the maenads, both Cass and John were shocked at the atrocity of the maenads. John seemed less than happy to be going to an island of male killers.

‘So when do we leave?’ asked Cass eager to find another angel, ‘Bronson?’

‘I won’t be goin’ with yers,’ said Bronson, slightly bitter, ‘I gotta get home; they’ll be wandering’ where I am.’

‘But…’ started Cass.

‘No buts, yer can follow tha’ river there,’ said Bronson pointing at the fast moving water closest to them, ‘it leads straight through the scrubland and opens near Fleetfish Village.’

The sun had risen further into the sky and was now lighting up the clearing with a sharp yellow glow. Bronson checked the sun as if it was a watch and nodded.

‘I’d best be off,’ he muttered, ‘good luck, and hopefully I’ll be seein’ yer again.’

Mike, Cass and John gave their goodbyes and Bronson set off for one of the northern creeks and dived in against the current, his shadow disappearing into the grey water. The sound of chirping crickets, or whatever evolved from crickets was the only thing to break the silence that followed the departure. Without any further conversing the three angels set off down towards the fast flowing river that led to Fleetfish Village.

As they walked along the riverbank Mike noticed how different the landscape here was compared to that of when they were coming from the Glaven Forests, the grass was a less luscious green and much of the land was drier, with only the area around the river containing plenty of plant life. Small red birds flew over their heads as they walked; their feathers were the same red colour as the branches of the tall trees around them. The birds would swoop into the water and drag out the large sinister fish that kept occurring in the waters, their fangs would snap at the tiny bird, but it knew exactly how to catch these fish and kept the fish’s head away from itself waiting for it to suffocate in the air.

‘Hey Mike!’

‘Yes Cass?’ asked Mike, slightly annoyed at the interruption from watching the birds.

‘That wasn’t me,’ said Cass a little confused, ‘I thought it was you.’

‘That was way too high for my voice, and why would I be calling out my own name?’ asked Mike now just as confused as Cass.

‘Well you do daydream sometimes,’ said Cass mockingly, ‘anyway the voice came from your direction.’

‘That’s because it was me,’ called a voice from inside Mike’s backpack, ‘pull the stone out of the bag.’

‘Huh, wha’?’ said Mike dazedly.

‘Get the stone I gave you out of your bag, it’s me Belle.’

‘Oh, really?’ asked Mike searching his bag for the stone, now recognising the voice as Belle’s.

‘No it’s a fairy trapped in your bag, of course it’s me, now get the stone.’

Mike hesitantly pulled the stone out of the bag which vibrated sharply in his hand as Belle spoke, her calm voice resonated from the hole that ran through the middle of three lumped stone. Mike held the stone in the palm of his hand so that the other two could hear Belle.

‘Okay I got it,’ said Mike a little unsure of what to do with the stone.

‘Took a bit,’ muttered Belle, ‘okay the reason I called is I wanted to make sure you were alright, we had an elf visit us and he told us about a demon attacking the Sporegan Inn, but he didn’t know much more.’

‘I don’t think we need to worry about that demon,’ said Mike with a hint gleefulness in his voice, ‘we took care of him.’
‘You what?’ asked Bell rather surprised, ‘explain.’

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter 11: A Tower Among the Trees

After a complete story from Mike, with some help from Cass, Belle had been completely filled in on their goings on over the past few days. It was well into the afternoon once they’d finished the story and the sun was now behind them, bearing down on their backs, many creatures that had hidden during the midday were now out and about, including some spiked creatures Mike had not seen yet.

‘So you’ve killed a demon, fought the Rainbow Serpent and found an angel?’ said Belle a little taken aback by their venture so far.

‘Uh, yeah,’ said Cass modestly, ‘it sounds pretty good when you say it like that.’

‘Well it is pretty bloody amazing,’ said Belle, ‘so now you guys are heading towards Fleetfish, how close are you to the mangroves?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Mike observing the land around him, ‘at the moment we’re in some kind of bushland.’

‘That’d probably be the Scrublands,’ said Belle thoughtfully, ‘keep your eye out for manticores and griffins. Also fill up your water skins now before the water turns salty.’

‘Ok, thanks’ said Mike, signalling to John to fill their skins, ‘umm what do manticores and griffins look like exactly?’

‘Manticores are covered in a thick layer of spines and have long tails that can shoot those spines, griffins are large birds that use their wings as legs, so look slightly similar to horses, although they can use those wings to fly.’

Mike looked cautiously at the herd of spike creatures across the river from them with their long tails; they seemed to be ignoring them right now and were just grazing the grasses. As Mike watched a small group of bipedal furred creatures with gruesome teeth approached the manticores, their patchy red and brown coloured fur camouflaging them in the blotched sunlight. They wore primitive garments made of animal furs and bones, although they had no weapons, instead they had rather large claws that looked as they could tear the bark from the thick trees around them with ease.

‘Ahh, Belle, what do you know about furry tribesmen?’ asked Mike as he stared at the creature people, a little unsure of how to describe them.

‘Orcs,’ muttered Belle, ‘they’re stupid, but ferocious, where are they?’

‘On the opposite side of the river to us,’ said Mike worriedly, ‘with what looks like a herd of manticores.’
Laughter rang from the inside of the stone.

‘This should be quite interesting, just sit back and watch; neither of them should be able to cross the river.’

As she finished speaking the orcs attacked, with surprising speed the herd of manticores leapt back from where they had been grazing with the grace of a gazelle. Each one of the manticores then raised their long tails over their heads and sent blasts of spines into each orc as if the tail was a shotgun. The orcs howled in pain as drops of blood oozed from their wounds, most scampered way on all fours, although two of them were not so lucky and had received more than one blast of the spines, they writhed on the ground with terrible screams. Mike watched in horror as the manticores began to eat the orcs alive, not bothering to end their suffering.

‘Well that sounds like it’s all over, as I said; avoid them,’ said Belle through the stone, as the screams of the dying orcs faded away, ‘now make your way through the Scrublands and towards the mangroves and avoid any trees that have vines, don’t even go near them. Don’t stray too far away from the river either as it’s very easy to get lost. Once you come to the ocean you should be able to see the village, I don’t know what side of the river you’re on, but it should be easy enough to spot anyway, just head north.’

‘Uhh thanks,’ said Mike still staring at the manticores that had finished on the orcs and had gone back to grazing, blood and bones were strewn over the dry ground.

‘I have to go now,’ said Belle, talking a little more lightly than she had been before, ‘follow those instructions and you should be fine, I will talk to you whenever you need me, just be careful, okay?’

‘Okay, we will,’ said Mike, ‘you and your dad too.’

There was no response; Belle had left before Mike’s last words. The three angels quickly left the scene of the bloodshed and continued to follow the river through the Scrubland, there were no more manticores or orcs as they journeyed through the thick bushes that clung to the bases of the paper bark trees that populated the Scrubland.

As they continued along the widening river the trees began to start thickening and changed from the papery bark of the melaleucas to the thick solid trunks of mangroves. The bank they had once been walking along with ease was starting to break away and sink underneath their feet with each step. The murky brown water hid unknown creatures that swam swiftly past the travelling angels. Khaki frog-like creatures surrounded in a thin veil of mist sat in the tall branches of the mangroves, their large yellow eyes staring unblinking at the small group. Occasionally they would pass by mangroves with low reaching vines with fruit that tempted all of them, but the warning from Belle stayed in their minds as they continued along the river.

As the sun sank into the distance a large tower rose from the canopy of trees, protruding like chimney from the roof of trees. Mike and the others made their way towards the building, hoping to seek its protection before night fell upon the mangroves.

Upon reaching the tower Mike realised how old it was, almost ancient. The stones used to build the tower were a dark shade of grey and were so badly weathered away that they seemed to have moulded into one large stone. The rotting wooden door guarding the entrance creaked weakly as John slowly pushed it open, cautiously peering inside in case some unknown monstrosity had claimed the tower as its home. The thick mud that surrounded the base of the tower began leaking inside and Mike noticed how the building had begun to sink into the muddy depths of the mangroves.

After ensuring that it was all clear they entered through the door, Mike tried to shut the door behind him, but the thick sludge of mud prevented the door from closing properly. The floor of the tower was covered in patches of green mould and puddles of unsettlingly green water. The floorboards were damp and squished uncomfortably underneath Mike’s feet.

‘Should we try going up?’ asked Mike, hoping it would be a little bit more hospitable than the bottom floor.

Cass and John nodded in unison and the three of them began to climb the stone stairs upwards. The steps were cold and slippery and Mike had to make sure to take care each time he moved up, the old stone felt as if it would crumble away at the touch of his foot, but thankfully it held strong and was able to support the three of them.
The top floor was much drier than the ground floor; the wooden floorboards felt old, but still somewhat strong and were not rotting like those below. There were no walls, instead four pillars held up the roof and in the centre of the floor was a large bowl-like structure made of rusted metal. The sun had finally settled below the horizon and the only light came from the blinking stars surrounding the night sky.

‘I guess this must’ve been a lighthouse,’ mumbled Mike looking at the bowl structure.

‘Doesn’t matter what it is, or was,’ said John a little uneasily, ‘cause it’s gonna have to do.’

After a meagre meal of the remaining mushrooms and roots they had bought at Sporegan Village they went to sleep, the chilly winds providing no comfort upon the open room. Mike turned over and looked at John, he was silently shaking, but he knew it wasn’t from the cold. Unable to think of anything comforting to say he turned over and let him be, silently rocking himself asleep with his large wings wrapped around him, protecting him from the bitter breeze that swept over them.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Twelve: Darna's Return

A faint glow broke through the darkness of the entranceway to the stairs as John stared sleepless trying to figure out what it was. This was his second night without sleep and it was getting to him, but he could not let himself fall asleep, he had to protect Mike and Cass from this new world that they had accepted so easily. The glow began to get brighter and eventually something appeared at the top of the stair taking his breath away.

‘Darna,’ he whispered under his breath.

The blue glow had taken the figure of a young girl, the only features that weren’t hidden by the glow was her long dark hair that fell over her face, similar to how Darna used to have hers. The girl turned her head slightly, giving him a quizzical look and then took a step towards him.

Remorse swept over John and he started spluttering words out of his mouth at the girl, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t protect you, I couldn’t save you…’

She didn’t say a thing, just stared at him. Tears crawled down the side of his face as he got up and started walking towards the girl.

***

The howling wind of the estuarine wetlands swayed the tower back and forth during the night, but that was not woke Mike up from his deep sleep, nor was it the hands that did not belong to him that were wrapped around his waist. No, it was the screaming.

Screaming of pain and loss, and worst of all it came from a mouth that he had never expected it to come from; John’s. Mike jumped to his feet, accidentally knocking Cass away, waking her up with a start.

His vision was slightly blurred from the sleep, but he made out two figures in the darkness, one was obviously John, his large brown wings silhouetted against the blue glow of the other figure. She was blue herself and had dark hair that was wrapped around John’s face maliciously, her blue hands holding him close to her, preventing him from getting away.

‘Get off of him!’ screamed Cass who was now on her feet as well.

But the blue girl took no heed in her words and continued to hold John close to her body. Mike ran at the girl and tried to pull her hands away from John’s body, but it was no use, she was too strong for him. He tried to pull her hair away from John’s face, but at his touch the hair stuck to his skin and Mike screamed in excruciating agony as the hair burned at the skin of his hand.

Cass came up beside him and drew her knife, cutting the hair away from Mike’s hand, instantly numbing the pain. She the swiftly cut at the girl’s arm, easily slicing through like she was made of water, her limb dropped lifelessly to the ground and the stump that was left began leaking the glowing blue fluid. After a few seconds though the liquid stopped flowing and she began to regrow her arm as if it was nothing.

Mike stared in horror as the girl turned to him, dropping John’s body on the floor, his screams died away as he twitched spasmodically, but no other signs of life could be seen. She outstretched her arms and pushed her head forward staring at him menacingly, her hair spread out around her as if she was underwater.

But it wasn’t him that she was after; she was after Cass, the more dangerous one who had cut away her arm. With a swift movement she dived at her, pushing her into one of the pillars holding the roof of the tower up. The whole building lurched to one side forcing Mike to steady himself on the pillar opposite Cass and the blue girl, but Mike quickly put Cass to the back of his mind as he saw John’s body rolling along the floor towards the edge of the building thanks to the lean that had occurred.

Mike dived at John’s body grasping his cold clammy hand that only had the faintest of pulses; with both hands he gripped his friends arm and before his whole body rolled over the edge. He heard Cass scream behind him as the girl’s hair encompassed her face, inflicting the severe pain that Mike had only endured on his hand. In his hands he felt John’s arm twitch and he almost thought he’d let his unconscious friend fall to his death, but he looked down to find John wide eyed and for the most part conscious.

‘I don’t think that’s Darna,’ said John weakly as he grabbed the ledge with his other hand, ‘help me up will you?’

With a hefty tug from Mike John managed to clamber back onto the uneven floor of the lighthouse, his skin still very pale and Mike now noticed he had large red welts across his face from where the girl’s hair had been.

‘God I hate heights,’ muttered John under his breath as scrunched his eyes and hands shuddering, ‘not good.’

Another scream resounded around them; as if it was echoing off the darkness itself, Mike turned to find Cass now on the ground and her usual tanned skin completely lacking in colour. Without a second thought Mike grabbed the knife from his side and leapt at the girl, plunging the blade into her pale blue skin and forcing her off of Cass’s shaking body. As he lay on top of her he continued stabbing her in the chest, blue liquid leaking from her skin.

Finally she stopped moving and Mike removed the knife her body, relaxing a little, but obviously that was what the girl had intended and immediately she wrung her hand around Mike’s neck and through him across the floor knocking him into another column.

Unfortunately this one was weaker than the others and it crumbled and broke away from the force of the girl’s throw, one of the large stones dropping onto Mike’s foot making an unnatural cracking noise that he did not like the sound of. With all the effort he could muster he crawled to his feet, putting a majority of his weight on his unhurt foot. He heard a loud crashing sound behind him, of stone falling through wood as part of the roof began to crumble away.

The blue girl began to edge forwards towards him, assured that he could no longer hurt him due to his injury, but what she had not anticipated was John leaping at her from across the room like a poised lion waiting for a gazelle, slamming her into the final pillar that had managed to remain untouched throughout the endeavour so far. This was the final strain for the tower and it gave and almighty groan and the roof gave way above them, stones falling through the floor and through the stone stairs of the tower causing more and more damage as they went.

Mike felt a familiar energy surging towards his fingertips and quickly ran around the room collecting his friends before huddling together with the other two angels allowing the impermeable barrier to form around them, protecting them from barrages of stone as the tower crumbled away around them. With a final moan Mike felt his insides lurch upwards as the lighthouse leaned dangerously over the trees and finally the entire tower fell away beneath them as it began to rain stone and debris around them.

As the final crash of stone hammered into the mud of the mangroves Mike felt the drain of the forcefield and released the protection from around them. The carnage of the tower left the surrounding area in ruin, trees were snapped in half and many parts of the river were flowing around stones that were now clogging it up.

Mike got up shakily, his foot flaring up as he accidentally put pressure on it. He looked down to find a small shard of bone protruding from his skin almost making him vomit at the sight of it, but after checking his surroundings he was relieved to find that the girl had not survived the fall.

‘Okay,’ he said weakly, picking up his pack that seemed to be the only one that had survived the collapse, ‘I don’t think we can stay here any longer.’

He turned and began to weakly traverse over the ruins of the tower heavily limping thanks to his foot, but he did not hear the other two following him. He turned around to instead find them staring, paralysed in horror as a blue figure rose from the carnage, its body contorting oddly as it began to mutate back into its feminine form.

‘Shit…’ was all Mike could manage to say as the blue girl stood up straight and started to walk towards them.

‘Oh fuck this!’ screamed Cass and she threw her knife at the girls head, passing straight through and lodging itself into the remains of one of the mangrove trees behind her.

The girl instantly stopped moving and her body began to twist and squirm as she began to curl up into a ball, and then to Mike’s revulsion she began to melt, her whole body just turning into the blue liquid until all that was left was a puddle of glowing water.

‘I think that’s the end of her,’ said Cass turning to Mike with a large grin on her face.

‘Yeah I think so,’ said Mike a little stunned.

Cass then turned back and ran towards the knife wedged into the tree; something blue seemed to be glowing and stuck on the blade as she pulled it out. John walked easily over the rocks towards Mike, his large eagle claws gripping the unsteady footing as he went.

‘Good thing she can throw,’ said John, his voice softer than Mike had ever heard, he was still very pale, his skin glowing in the moonlight, ‘by the way you’re not walking on that foot of yours.’

‘And how do you reckon we’re going to get to Fleetfish if I don’t walk,’ he asked.

‘I’ll carry you.’

‘No, yo-’

Without another word John grabbed Mike around the waist and hoisted him over his should. Even though it relieved the pressure on his foot greatly, Mike was none too happy about this situation.

As Cass came back over to them she grinned widely at the pair of boys, ‘oh how cute!’

‘Oh shut up,’ Mike snapped as he felt John silently laugh.

 

[Akimbo]

Chapter Thirteen: An Unexpected Call

Although the humiliation got to him a little Mike found that being carried alleviated the pain in his foot substantially as they continued through what seemed like an endless night. At one point Mike tried to fly beside them, but this ended very quickly as he found it was like running a marathon trying to fly beside the other two as they walked. Cass had tried to fly too, but struggled staying airborne and twice crashed like an unpiloted plane into the salty waters of the estuary to Mike’s amusement. John on the other hand downright refused to even try to remove his feet from the ground.

The salty tang of the ocean welcomed the trio as they met the smooth sands of the beach, stones and fragments of shells were scattered everywhere like toys in a young child’s play room. What appeared to be sea gulls browsed the sands, searching for some sort food among the debris of shells and seaweed. The ocean was a clear orange in the rising sun, more beautiful than Mike remembered from his time, like the pictures that used to appear in magazines of untouched places, it was as if the Earth had cleansed itself of pollution.

‘I think we should take a rest for now,’ said John as he laid Mike on the soft sand.

‘I’m fine with that,’ said Mike picking up a handful of sand and letting it run through his fingers, ‘you know you’re not very gentle right?’

John gave Mike a dirty look, but before he could retort Cass butted into the conversation, ‘I think we may be on the wrong side of the river…’

Mike turned to look at the river, but as he moved his neck he received an unexpected face full of sand that knocked him to the ground. In a daze he looked up through stinging eyes to find John grinning, baring his teeth that looked a lot sharper than they used to be.

‘You deserved it,’ muttered Cass looking unamused at the two boys, Mike figured she was still a little pissed about not being able to fly, ‘I’ll go get some water, and John try not to cripple Mike more than necessary, okay?’

John laughed jovially, but he quickly cut himself short as he froze to the spot, his eyes dilated in uncertainty. Mike turned to look behind him and found Cass too had stopped moving, but instead of confusion she looked as if she was concentrating on something, and then Mike heard what had frozen the other two. A familiar heavenly voice chanting lyrics to a song of four verses and no rhyme, although not quite audible Mike noticed that the words were definitely different this time as the Angel’s Call echoed through his thoughts.

‘What’s…’ asked John.

‘Shhhh,’ whispered Mike, as he put his fingers to his lips trying to concentrate on the call.

“In the land of Green climbs a mountain of fire,
Inside its chambers lie an immense power and friends.
Those you seek have yet to awaken, but are in need,
As the power is said to finally awaken again…”

The voices began to soften and grow distant, leaving Mike in a stunned silence. Then as the voices died away two single words were spoken in the same voice, but only once.

“Ten days.”

‘Okay, now will you tell me what that was?’ asked John irritably.

‘The Angel’s Call,’ called Cass over the waves that had started to break on the shore of the pristine beach, ‘it’s sort of a clue as to where to find the other angels in our, I’m not sure what to call it, group maybe?’

‘That works,’ said Mike, ‘those that we “fell asleep” with pretty much, and apparently those guys are in trouble.’

‘Well let’s go save them,’ said John enthusiastically, ‘where’s this mountain of fire then?’

‘No idea,’ said Mike and Cass in unison, ‘we’ve only been here a few days longer than you remember?’

‘Well let’s find someone who knows then.’

‘Well what about the angel on that island?’ asked Mike looking out at sea and for the first time noticing the green outline on the horizon that most likely indicated the island he was talking about.

‘What about her?’ asked John.

‘She’s stuck on that island with a group of bat shit crazy women that want to kill men,’ Mike noticed he was raising his voice significantly, ‘and she may be one of us, we don’t know.’

‘Did you get the call for her?’

‘No, but she may have woken up before us.’

‘Oh,’ John mumbled, ‘I thought you guys must’ve been the first to wake.’

‘Yeah we thought so too, but it’s likely that if it is one of us or any other angel stranded on that island that they would have no way of knowing what was going on would they? We were lucky to wake up in Glade, but imagine if you had woken in those caves by yourself, you’d have been lost for sure.’

‘Oh yeah, that makes sense,’ John murmured, ‘we should probably help her out.’

‘Yeah, so let’s get to Fleetfish so we can get someone to take us out there,’ said Cass coming back from the beach with one of the used waterskins full of salty water, she quickly passed it to Mike, ‘you should probably get that sand out of your eyes.’

‘Oh, thanks,’ mumbled Mike, he looked up at Cass smiling down at him, her eyes were a bright shade of green, but upon turning to John they went a brilliant shade of orange, almost the same colour as the rising sun.

‘Pick him up and let’s get moving,’ her voice was calm, but a clear sense of anger could be felt in her breath as John stared at her eyes for a few seconds then bent down and picked Mike up.

‘What’s up with her eyes?’ whispered John in Mike’s ear as Cass turned away from the both of them.

‘I dunno, I think they change according to her mood,’ Mike whispered back, glad that their argument was over, conflict had never been something he enjoyed, ‘but I don’t think there’s any sort of pattern, they just change.’

‘Ooh, looks like the tides gone down,’ said Cass turning to the other two with a big smile on her face, the orange colour had faded slightly, but it was still rather obvious, ‘that’ll make it easier to cross.’

Mike felt John cringe, both knowing full well that this was not the end of it.

As they set off Mike felt the harder dry sand give way to the soft wet sand as they edged over to the river mouth, John’s movements became more precarious and awkward as the sand turned to mud. Luckily the tide seemed to be at its decreasing and small islands of sand poked out of the water only to be quickly submerged again by the flow of water, like whales trying to take a breath. With each step Mike felt John sink further and further into the wet sandy mud thanks to the pair’s combined weight.

‘I think I’ll try and fly across,’ said Mike slipping from John’s shoulder and landing uncoordinatedly in the mud, ‘it’ll be easier for you.’

‘Sounds good,’ mumbled John who was apparently in a deep thought.

Mike spread his wings catching the slight breeze that blew across the estuarine gap in the coastline and beat them strongly, gaining as much air as possible and then glided easily over the wide river mouth. As he landed he accidentally put all his pressure on his injured foot and released a yelp of pain, but it soon disappeared in panic as he looked over at Cass and John fighting something he could not see in the distance.

***

Cass sucked in a breath of air in pain as another long fingered hand clawed at her ankle, it was a slimy pale green and the body to which is belonged to she couldn’t make out in the now murky water thanks to the stirred up mud. As another hand came out of the muddy water she prepared herself and grabbed it, yanking the creature out of the water, like its hand its whole bloody was the same slimy green colour, it had a rather large head, but lacked legs, instead it had a ring of tentacles around the base of its torso where its legs should have been. A gaping maw hung open in the morning air, stunned from the sudden change in environment, thick tusk-like protrusions jutted out either side of its mouth and deep black eye gazed awkwardly at Cass.

As she stared at the ugly creature utterly perplexed by what it was another one clawed at her ankle causing her to drop the one she was holding, but instead of dropping into the water it used its strong tentacles to grip her legs. Cass screamed in panic and leapt into the air, kicking off the tentacle creature and flinging it into the ocean, but when she landed she wasn’t back in the river again, but instead standing next to Mike who gave her a joyful smile.

‘You flew!’

‘I what?’ asked Cass incredulously.

‘You flew, you finally flew without crashing.’

She tried to form words but was too confused by what had happened to say anything intelligible, all she managed to stammer was; ‘John?’

Mike widened his eyes in realisation and they both turned back to the river to see John still fighting off the creatures, over encumbered by about ten of them gripping to his body. Cass took a step forward to go and try and rescue him, but it wasn’t necessary.

At that moment John spread his large brown wings and shook his body powerfully, ridding himself of the octopus-like creatures, sending them flying into the water as he started running across the land bridge that had finally formed properly across the river. Some more creatures leapt from the water and tried to latch onto him, but he easily brushed them off and didn’t stop sprinting until he reached Mike and Cass who both stood there slightly amazed.

‘You. Flew,’ gasped John severely out of breath, he looked up with a big smile on his face.

‘And you, what the hell did you just do?’ said Cass.

‘Just ran,’ said John smiling as if it was completely normal, ‘anyways we should get to Fleetfish.’

With one swift movement he picked up Mike and turned his back to Cass walking away from the river, she felt her anger at him slowly subside as she ran behind him to catch up on his head start. John didn’t turn around to look, but Mike looked up and smiled, he flicked his eyes back at John’s head and mouthed the words “Not gentle.”

Cass giggled under her breath and felt a warm feeling flush over her body as she looked at Mike’s grinning face, his blue eyes looking gently back at her. Her wings drooped in embarrassment as she felt her face flush full of redness, knowing Mike he would probably be oblivious to what she was feeling, but maybe more had changed than just the wings…



Ahh so this has taken a while to come out, university exams and assessments can be thanked for that, along with a bit of an unfortunate block (which may have been influenced by the greatness of the new Fire Emblem...). Anyways another chapter down, enjoy!