*Tap* *Tap*
Water poured from the skies, hitting the top of umbrellas. A large crowd of people in black stood by as two large caskets were lowered into the rain soaked ground. One child with bright red hair and crystal blue eyes stood ahead of them all. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her beautiful black dress that stood apart of the others became soaked. She was the only one in the crowd that was actually crying. Nobody else was crying, only an unreadable expression.
*Tap* *Tap*
Soon people started to leave. One by one, until only two people left, a man and woman. They held one a black umbrella over her head.
"Rose," the child looked towards them, "it's time to go."
Taking one last look at the graves, before she stood up and walked with them to back to their house.
13 Years Later-Rose's POV
Birds were chirping and flowers were blooming, days like this made me feel alive. Even though I was stuck on this mountain for another good hour I still couldn't help but feel free in some kind of weird way. Not that I didn't like it out here, I love nature. Still, it can start to feel like a prison after someone has spent their entire life on Mt. Ebott. Sometimes I just want to be normal.
Well right now I'm heading to the primary entrance to the cave where the monsters are sealed. I had to check if the barrier was okay there and to see if anyone had been there recently. The entrance was well hidden behind some shrubbery but sometimes people still manage to find the entrance.
If someone did find the entrance then I'd have to report to the nearby town about missing person. Anyone that goings into it will end up falling down into the cave. Though it's not a very common that someone would find the cave since I did put a low level illusion spell on it. But seeing as I've had to go down there and save a few people, it would better to be safe than sorry.
Sighing to myself, I put my earbuds in and started to play some random music on my phone. King of Anything by Sara Bareilles started to play. I hummed to the lyrics, it was one of my many favorite songs. It kind of reminded me of the past...
Mom, Dad, everybody pushed me to become the barrier's protector saying if it broke, I was the last defense against the monsters that would come and take all of the human souls. Honestly, I thought they were being paranoid and still do, even if they aren't here.
A few years ago, Mom and Dad went to going to check the barrier and it was been raining pretty hard. Of course, I was worried but I had to study for an exam. Later, I found out that they had died in mudslide. Ever since then I just wanted to make them proud. So I started to be the protector they always wanted me to be.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I turned off my music as I saw the entrance to the cave and approached it. Inside the cave it was dark, so I conjured a small white spire to alumina darkness. The cave itself was covered in vines and there was a few small animals in the corners. Whereas a normal girl would scream and cry, not me though. In school I was that girl that would play with bugs and tackle the boys in football team.
Quietly I walked until I reached a huge opened area. Sun was shining through some cracks where the rocks had fallen and wildflowers and grass surrounded a hole that dropped into where the monsters were sealed at. There was a small river that fed into the cave and into the sealed area too. It was a beautiful sight, to be honest.
Contrast to popular belief, Mt. Ebott was somewhat hollow on the inside. The cause could have been because of the barrier or maybe the large amounts of magic that require it to stay up since magic, unlike what most believe, can be toxic. In fact if a normal human just suddenly started to use magic, they'd probably die within two maybe three weeks if they're lucky. Only certain kinds of magic, like mine and monsters, won't cause things to literally die or the slowly disappear. Magic can and will do that.
To be more specific, my magic isn't made the same way every other humans make theirs. Ya see, human's magic is made from their emotions and spiritual energy and these emotions play into part of influencing their spiritual energy. People tend to have negative emotions so it's only natural that they would have a toxic magic.
Monsters, on the other hand, drive their magic from their souls. Depending on how strong their soul is, which isn't very much, or their resolve, their magic can be powerful. But of course they also have side effects. Because of their constant use of their souls, they will have naturally weak souls. That is partially why they have extremely weak souls, though there are other factors too but that is beside the point.
Mine, however, is different from either group. It's hard to describe what mine is like or what it is even to begin with. All I know is that because of it I can use powerful magic that replicates what my ancestors did millennia ago.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I approached the hole. My boots quietly tapped against the stone, the metal gear hanging off my backpack clinked together, and the hairs on my neck stood up. Everything about this kind of scared me... all I wanted to do was break the barrier for them. I couldn't help be feel sorry for them.
Stopping at the edge I stared into the hole for a while before snapping back, I still had a job to. Shapely inhaling I took off my military grade backpack and I started to dig through it. Right now I was trying to find my rope and anchor so I could climb down there and actually see if anything is wrong. Sadly it was the only way I could tell if anything was wrong with the barrier.
And I'm also kind of scared of heights... great right?
Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. Inwardly I started to freak out because I seriously needed to check the barrier and if someone was coming in now, they could fall down into the hole and break it. Since I only come to check the barrier every two to three months, it could very well be weak.
Either way, this was a bad situation…
Turning myself to face the other person, I nervously laughed and scratched the back of my head. My bag was hidden behind my back since I had a staff that helped me cast the spell that strengthens the barrier. As cliché as it sounds, I really do need a staff to help me cast certain spells. And those spells are always high level ones too.
I looked up at the stranger who was actually was a guy and he had stopped in an area of the shade where his body was in sunlight just not his head. Like me, (I was wearing a black skirt, white socks that went a little pass my knees, a pair of black flat dress shoes, and a burgundy sweat shirt with a small Rocky Mountains logo on the top left breast) he wasn't wearing any hiking gear. But unlike me he didn't have a backpack.
"H-hi..." I waved at him.
He didn't respond.
"Um... y-you know i-it's dangerous here, r-right?"
No response.
"A-are you o-okay...?"
Still, no response.
'Something is wrong here!'
Something about this guy gave me the chills. Even though I couldn't see his face, I knew him smiling. I could feel it. His presence made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. He just seemed off. But what could it be? This guy was dangerous. There was no question about it.
So, I slowly zipped my backpack back up and put it back on. My magic became surrounded me as some kind of protective shield or warning device. All the while, narrowing my eyes I analyzed ever single breath he took and every single twitch he made. If he was going to do something awful to me, like kidnap me, he was going to have another thing coming. I wasn't known as the Barrier's Protector for nothing.
In fact, I am a black belt in karate and while Mom and Dad were alive, they taught me how to protect myself and how to kill. After all they basically pounded into my head that I was the last defense against monsters if the barrier ever broke. But if anything else, it has helped me protect myself from perverts and creeps.
"What do you want?" My voice held no hesitation. If we were going to fight, then I'd be ready for it.
Suddenly, he stepped into the light and my eyes widened when I saw his face. Red eyes stared back at me as he smiled back at me. Questions clouded my mind as he slowly appeared me, smirking all the way.
My legs grew shakily and I collapsed on the ground, all the while I stared at him in utter confusion. This man, at least I thought, disappeared years ago. Before I was even a thought in this world. When my mother was just a child and my father a rowdy teenager. He was my uncle. My mother's brother. But he had disappeared decades ago. Many people that knew my parents said that he probably died since he had climbed Mt. Ebott that day alone.
If he's supposed to be dead... then why is he right in front of me?
With every step he took, my entire being shook. A deadly aura surrounded the area, killing the plants and blackening the free flowing water. All the while I just stared at him, not even taking noticed of it. That was until a small gray rabbit jumps out of my sweat shirt and lands in front of me, growling loudly as small flames escaped from the rabbit's mouth.
It is Blizz.
Blizz is my familiar. She's more or less your everyday cotton tail except for one fact, she is a hell rabbit. Most people would correct me saying she was a 'hellhound' because they have never heard the term used before but they are sadly mistaken. Hell rabbits are made to be witches or warlocks, (male witches) or as we would like to call ourselves wizards, familiars and they are a rather rare one too.
Some people say that the rarer they are stronger they will be but that is completely false. Hell rabbits' strength actually depends solely on who is summoning them and since I have a unique magic that is strong, I ended up getting Blizz who is an extremely strong hell rabbit. Also, hell rabbits tend to be male gender wise and Blizz is female.
Fire engulfed Blizz and grew larger and larger until it was up to my waist. The feeling of the heat on my face snapped me out of my trance and just in time too, the fire surrounding her disappeared revealing Blizz in a more demonic state.
She was now about the same width and height as a German Shepherd, she was completely back with some long orange/red four inch thick lines that curved to her hind legs, her head was about the same size as a football (an American football I mean and not a soccer ball), and she had long rabbit ears that were a bit longer than my arms with the same orange/red marks on them. Blizz's razor sharp claws scratched into the rock below her, her long canines peered through her jaw, and her orange/red eyes glared dangerously towards him.
Pushing myself off the ground, I finally noticed the aura that was destroying the area around us. It felt as all the air that was previously in my lungs before had be suddenly forced out of them. Grabbing my chest, I desperately gasped for what air I could get from the surrounding.
As I gasped for air, he laughed menacingly at my futile efforts. Blizz moved closer to me to be in order to protective. In the pit of my stomach, I could tell that something bad was going to happen, I just could tell what was going to happen.
"It seems that my brat of a sister actually did have a child. Tell me... how does it feel that you have a failure for a mother?" I glared dangerously at him.
The aura surrounding me was pushed by my superior magic making the black inky water turned back to its crystal clear state and the dead plants flourished with life. My magic often had this effect on things. There's even people who call me the Witch of Life, a woman that could even bring back the dead but that's completely false, I can just heal people.
"Blizz..." She turned her head just enough so her left eye was looking at me, "disarm."
It seemed as if she smiled before she took off towards him. She was faster than any land, air, or water animal at two hundred miles per hour or three hundred and twenty one meters per hour. But she had to have more space and to be farther than she already was to even get that fast. Though that didn't matter, she would catch him before he could even turn around.
As she was only inches (centimeters) away from him, a blast knocked us both back and into the hole. I held out my hand towards his figure as I fell into the cave below, tears pooled in my eyes as I watched him wide eyed. It seemed as if time itself had stopped as we stared at each other for what seemed like hours.
He smirked as he watched. As I stared into his eyes I noticed something, something that I couldn't make out. Everything just seemed to be going really slow even my mind couldn't figure out what was happening. Finally, I mustered up the only word I could think of.
"Why?"
Everything then faded to black.
Thank you for reading my first chapter of this series. Please tell me if it's alright. I really would like to know. Also I wanted to let you guys know that the idea for this story can from another author, I just wanted to put my own twist on it.