A/N
Me: Hi everybody! So I'm doing spectacularly in Nanowrimo (I already have 10,900 words!), and I was so excited I put up chapter 2 before letting my beta-readers do their stuff. XP
Scar: *gasp* You are a terrible person! D:
Me: Yeah, I know. But I was itching to get it on here so bad! XP
Scar: Shame on you. :(
Me: Hey, I gotta please my readers. :3
Scar: You have no readers.
Me: Touche. XP
DISCLAIMAH!: I own all the stuffs in this thingy. But go ahead and take anything you want. I can't afford copyrights.
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Chapter 2: A Restless Night
Blood-curdling shrieks filled Scar's ears as she fell. The thread that was still attached to her wrist was pulling at her so hard she feared it would snap, and just when she thought the string was breaking, a sharp yank from the other side of it sent her flying into the opposite direction she'd been falling. The colors and sounds of Sodamonia once again played aloud as she returned upwards; only this time there was no pain. Her soul slammed into her waiting, drifting body, retying all of the broken stitches.
Pictures flooded her vision: Children and women weeping. A man running for his life. Dark creatures in the shadows. Ruin. Terror. Blood. A huge, black cat attacked. Then suddenly the flurry of images ended with a flame flickering in the never-ending darkness.
'We will engulf all. We will create society anew. And from these ashes will rise the perfect world.'
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Scar raised her face from the eternity water with a gasp, her body shivering uncontrollably. It took her moment to realize where she was, back in Baba's hut. Baba had been waiting for her to finish by sitting in the corner knitting a rug, one of her favorite pastimes. The candles placed on several shelves and the window of the hut alerted Scar that it was already night. "How long was I out?" she asked as she began to catch her breath.
"Quite a few hours. I've never heard of anyone Seeing anything for that long. Most last for only a minute or so," Baba got up and wiped the dripping mixture of eternity water and sweat off of her student's face using a damp cloth, "What happened? In your vision, what did you See?"
"Raoul. He spoke with me."
"A spirit! You talked to a spirit?" Baba looked at Scar in bewilderment, "No sorceress has ever seen a spirit much less conversed with one!"
Scar rubbed the back of her head humbly. "I guess I'm special."
"You most certainly are." The old sorceress's face broke into a tender smile, and she pulled something out from her belt-sash. "I think you're ready for this as well." Baba held out a skin full of liquid, which Scar curiously took from her. The teenager gently popped off the cap and peered inside to find it to the brim with the sparkling eternity water.
"Oh thank you, Baba!" Scar gave her teacher the biggest hug she could manage.
Baba accepted the affection graciously. "Now you can use your new ability whenever you feel the need to connect to the magic world, new sorceress of Monataro." Scar nearly had tears in her eyes she was grinning so hard, but the feelings of accomplishment quickly vanished as exhaustion took over.
"I'd love to teach you more about Seeing, but you're probably a little tired from your trip," Baba teased as they pulled away from the embrace.
Scar yawned loudly. "I'm not tired. I'm ready to learn more. Please?" she pleaded drowsily.
"Not tonight, my dear," Baba beamed warmly, remembering back to when she had first crossed over to the magic world and returned. The old sorceress' teacher, Master Thunge, had had to prevent her from falling asleep and letting her head drop back into the eternity water that was in front of her. "Tomorrow we will continue."
"Ok," Scar said, obviously fighting the urge to snooze right where she was, "Good night, Baba."
"Not yet," Baba stopped her, getting her feet as quickly as an old woman could. "You haven't eaten all day. Get some bread in you before you go to bed." She took some of Monataro's famous, fresh-baked, seasoned bread and handed it to her pupil.
As soon as the food reached her hands, Scar realized just how starved she truly was and wolfed the bread down while standing. Once she had finished eating, she brushed the crumbs off her tunic and bowed to her teacher before heading to her own hut. "Thank you."
"Good night, my child," Baba said as Scar exited through the door, shutting it softly behind her.
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With a point of her finger Scar lit a candle that was sitting on the windowsill of her hut using her fire magic. Scar's hut held an empty and lonely ambiance, as she had no family to share it with. In the corner of the tiny home sat a pile of hay covered in a soft cloth that served as her bed. Next to it sat another candle on the dirt floor as well as a wooden trunk with a leafy design on the opposite side. Nothing else was in the room as Scar trudged over to the trunk and lifted open the top; inside were all the trinkets and treasures she'd collected over the years: a rock shaped like a heart, herbs that were supposed to bring happiness and luck, a toy mazelle she'd played with when she was younger, a book of exciting adventures which had been read so often its spine was on the verge of tearing, a sharpened hunting knife, and, the most important object she owned, a beautiful gold necklace with a fiery red pendent. The necklace was all she had left of her mother.
Scar gently placed the skin of eternity water in the nearest open space of the trunk, and immediately thereafter her vision was drawn to the sparkle of the necklace. Her hand moved to pick it up, yet something inside her told her not to touch. She pulled her fingertips away from the jewelry and instead wrapped them around the edge of the book.
A happy expression came across her face as she recalled all of the wonderful stories the pages held, all of the places its words had taken her, and all of the people she would have given almost anything to meet just once. Reading was more than a hobby of Scar's; it was an adoration. Unfortunately her love of the written word had been limited to this single book, as these things were hard to come by in such a rural town as Monataro. Rather, things were passed down by mouth than by writings.
Scar plopped down on her bed of hay and summoned a flame to her palm to light the candle beside her. She eagerly cracked open the novel, turning to her favorite short story. It was about the most brave, beautiful princess in the world rescuing her love, a goatherd, from the clutches of an evil dragon. This in particular was her favorite because it gave the girl a chance to be strong, too; no more waiting for some dumb, old prince to save a weakling damsel-in-distress. In the end of the tale the princess defeated the beast using her keen wit and rode off into the sunset with her beloved. Though she hated to admit it, Scar had a soft spot for "happily ever afters."
Not long after beginning her adventures through the pages, Scar's eyelids began to droop again. She let out a defeated sigh and sent a blast of wind to blow out the two candles that had kept the room semi-lighted. With a light 'thunk', she let the book drop to the floor beside her bed, silently promising herself to remember to put it back in the trunk in the morning. She settled down further into the cloth-covered hay to attempt to drift off to sleep, yet the night had other plans.
As soon as she shut her eyes, Scar was back in the battlegrounds she had Seen in her vision. The only difference from before was that all of the sensations were intensified; the scent of blood was stronger than ever, the sky glowed an even darker red, the bodies lying on the dirt had rotted to the point of skeletons.
"Why?" The question coming from Scar's rear made her jump. She instantly whipped around to see a ghostly figure, its body mangled from warfare. The sorceress immediately recognized it as the little, dead boy she had encountered from her last time in this awful place.
"Why didn't you save me, Scar?" the boy asked, his lifeless eyes staring through her, "Why?"
"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" she shouted at the boy as her heart pounded a million miles an hour.
His innocent face began to melt away in front of her very eyes. Startled, Scar backed away only to trip over a soldier's corpse. At this, all of the skeletons turned their heads to look in her direction. Beads of sweat covered Scar's face as the bones in soldiers' uniforms stood up, their vacant eye-sockets staying on her. Following her instincts, she quickly got to her feet and ran. The clanking of bones coming from behind her as the skeletons had attacked the place she'd been standing moments before. When they realized they had missed her, the hordes of dead people joined together to chase after her. Scar nimbly dodged each carcass while they reached out to grab her until finally she made it to the edge of the battlefield. She glanced back to see that thousands of bony hands and their horrifying owners were only meters away. She looked towards the direction she was sprinting for her life in to find herself going over the edge of a cliff. As she fell, the colors and sounds of shrieking similar to those of her vision surrounded her.
"Come to me, my precious child. Come to me!" Teki's cold, heartless voice reverberated in her ears. A scream let out. Whether or not it was her own, she didn't know.
Scar awakened suddenly and sat upright in bed, tears streaming down her face. She was safe and snug at home; "No need to worry," she repeated to herself over and over in her head. She looked around the empty, moonlit room as she regained her composure. Never before in her life had she felt so alone. Hesitantly, she got up from her bed, a chill going down her spine as her bare feet touched the cold earth, and hurried over to her trunk. Opening it with ease, Scar reached delicately down for the golden necklace. It had been so long since she'd put it on, seeing that she saw it almost as something sacred, but this is exactly what she did. Not believing what she'd done, Scar stood completely rigid. Everything was so silent she could hear her slow, thudding pulse in her ears. After a few minutes her body relaxed and revealed just how tired she really was. With a loud yawn, Scar made her way back to her bed and curled up in the fetal position. She held the pendent close to her heart, feeling as if she were in a held in a tender hug. Love seemed to radiate from the rouge crystal and warmed Scar all the way to her core. Needless to say she slept soundly for the rest of the night, having nothing but sweet dreams of frolicking with Genevieve on the plains.
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It was still dark outside when Scar awakened. Not feeling at all sleepy, which was unusual for her this early, she sat up in bed. Something bounced against her chest, causing her to jump slightly until she remembered she had worn her mother's necklace overnight.
Scar placed the necklace back in its place carefully. At this point she realized how dry her mouth was, so she searched through the trunk for her water-flask. After looking for it for a few moments, she picked it out of the mess of articles and shook it; it felt extremely light. She popped open the lid to look inside and found it to be empty, not a single drop left. Scar let out a defeated sigh. If she could, she would've created water with her sorcery, but magically produced water was undrinkable, as she had discovered the last time she had tried she had had severe stomach pains for the week following. The only place in Monataro to get drinking water was from the well just outside the village, and so Scar slipped on her moccasin-like shoes and exited her hut into the chilly morning. Outside the streets were empty as Scar hurried walked, water-flask in hand. To someone foreign to Monataro, they may have found the scene rather eerie, with the sheets hanging out to dry, all of the windows of the huts revealing nothing but darkness, and the sound of a plainswolf howling its lonely call in the distance. Yet all Scar noticed were the lovely harmonies created by the crickets' symphony of chirps and the occasional snores coming from a few of the huts' windows.
She pulled the bucket up from the deepest depths of the well with only a few, hard tugs. The water in the bucket was brown with sediments from the bottom of the well; Scar used her earth magic to coax the mud from the water and let it drop to the ground. Not wanting to accidentally spill any of the now-clear liquid on the ground, she waved her hand to lift the water from the bucket and gently funnel it into her waiting flask. She eagerly took several gulps of water the moment she had it filled up full.
As she re-capped the water-flask, her eyes wandered out to the open plains. Scar felt herself being drawn to its beauty, so, dropping her flask next to the well, she ran out freely into the grasslands. She loved the way the yellowed grass tickled the bottoms of her feet through the holes in her shoes, the way the dirt cushioned her every footstep. This was happiness. This was home. When she had made her way into the middle of the field, she wasted no time in beginning to practice her battle sorcery; she spent the next few hours sending fiery kicks, intense water sprays, huge rocks, and hurricane-like winds at imaginary enemies. Though it wasn't long before the night sky began changing into a light shade of lavender, signaling the rise of the sun was coming soon. Content that she had practiced enough, Scar walked over to the well to grab her water-flask and head back to her hut to prepare for the day, but before Scar entered her own hut, she noticed a light coming from beneath Baba's door as well as voices emanating from behind it. Curious, Scar snuck over, tip-toing quietly to her teacher's hut, and silently cracked the door so she could peek in. Three people wearing black robes with hoods covering their faces surrounded Baba almost intimidatingly. The one in the center was currently speaking to the old sorceress, so Scar listened in.
"… So consider this an invitation." The man didn't sound too happy about the invitation, as if he were being forced to give it.
"No." Baba's voice was in a quiet fury as she stood strongly against the man and shook her head solemnly.
"There would be a place waiting for you amongst the highest ranked of our members."
"I won't join you."
"Terrible things could happen to that girl of yours."
"No! What you all are doing is wrong! Horribly horrible wrong!" she yelled at them fiercely. Scar had never seen her so angry before, and it scared her.
The man's slight smile was visible from beneath this hood. "Our leader will not be pleased. If you are not a friend of the Panthers you are merely our enemy." Instantly he pulled out a long knife and thrust it at Baba. She tried to defend herself by throwing up an earthen wall to block the weapon, but the man in black was too fast. The rock was only to her waist by the time his blade embedded itself into her and was pulled back out. The old woman fell to the ground, the gash in her chest bleeding profusely.
"Baba!" Scar screamed, revealing her hiding place, and pushed open the door to run to her mentor.
"The apprentice! Seize her!" one of the men in black commanded. Scar stopped in her tracks to blow away the figures with a powerful gust of wind before sending out a blast of fire to scorch one of them to smithereens. She had never killed anyone before, yet Scar felt no remorse as the burned figure crashed to the dirt dead. The second of the three got back up in a fraction of a second to throw a poisoned dart at her which she nimbly dodged and countered with creating two rocks from the ground and slamming him between them, leaving a squashed, bloody mess. The last of the shadowy figures, who was obviously fearful of her power, punched a hole through the back of the hut and escaped. Scar didn't have time to worry about him, instead running to Baba.
"Baba!" she hurriedly knelt down next to her teacher and placed the old sorceress's head on her lap.
"My child, it is time for me to go," Baba whispered between strained breaths.
"No! You can't go! Please!" Scar begged with tears in her eyes.
"Scar, I tried."
"I know. I know you tried to stop them."
"No," the old woman coughed up some blood before continuing even quieter, "I tried to prepare you for this. You will do great things, but never alone. You must leave now. Take your things and go."
"I won't leave you!" Scar sobbed.
"Please. Save yourself. Don't die in vain. Just remember, I love-" Baba stopped speaking, leaving Scar in a deathly silence. Scar could feel her teacher's life leave her body.
"I love you, too." One of Scar's teardrops fell onto the dead old woman's cheek. It only took her a few seconds of grieving to realize that she needed to follow Baba's dying wishes; it would've been the highest act of dishonor if she hadn't listened, so, with a kiss on her beloved master's forehead, she got up and sprinted over to her hut to get packing. When Scar was inside her hut, she grabbed her satchel that was hanging from a metal peg in the wall, threw open her trunk, and tossed everything she owned into the bag, her mother's beautiful necklace included. Once she was done packing, she was about to head outside when she heard a loud ruckus and a scream from behind the door. Scar quickly opened it to discover a scene worse than any of her nightmares could possible hold.
At least two dozen of the figures dressed exactly like the ones she had fought in Baba's hut were outside terrorizing the village. Some were breaking into homes, killing and taking whatever they could find. Others were creating fire and setting huts ablaze as well as flooding out places with water. Villagers who weren't dead or too injured to move were running away frantically towards the Hangarti Plains. A small heap lying on the side of the street caught Scar's attention. She recognized it immediately and ran toward it.
"Martwen!" He was face-down on the ground, his body badly bloodied and burned. Memories of the vision in the battlefield came flooding back to her, causing her to almost be sick. She fell to her knees in front of him, yet she dared not touch him or turn his corpse over in fear of seeing the boy from her nightmare again. The little, energetic body that had been so full of life less than a day ago; it was hard for her to believe that what was in front of her used to be her friend. Scar's vision turned a vicious red. A rage filled everything inside her; she felt like at any moment she could explode.
"So you're the apprentice I've been told about," a man's thick-as-honey voice came from behind her. Scar immediately jumped to her feet and whipped around, creating balls of fire in her palms. Standing about ten meters down the street on which Scar had been mourning her young friend was another one of the figures in black.
"What the hell do you want?!" Scar roared at him. The man took off the hood hiding his face. His skin and hair were pale white, and his fiery red eyes stared amusedly at the furious sorceress as if he intended to toy with her like a cat with a mouse.
"Oh, nothing much," the albino said casually with a grin, as if he were completely ignoring the destruction occurring around him, "It took quite a while to find this place. To find you. Your teacher hid herself well. Yet not well enough for me. It's a pity my superior sent me to kill you. You would've made a fine member of the Panthers, seeing what you did to my soldiers back in that hut." A long knife covered in blood slipped out of his robe's sleeve for him to catch in his hand.
Scar instantly recognized the blade. "You! You murdered Baba!"
"The old hag? I guess I did. I'm almost glad she denied my invitation. She was probably one of the most powerful sorceresses I've taken out yet, as you will be."
Scar ran at the man with a battle cry of fury, flames stronger than she'd ever made them before. The man dodged quickly, more quickly than any normal human would have been able to run. As sorceresses were granted with the ability to control the four natural elements, sorcerers were incredibly fast and strong. Scar's fiery fist slammed into the ground where the albino had been just moments before and turned around as the man came up behind her with his blade aiming for her head. Scar brought up a wall of rock to block the blow. He crashed into it with a 'thunk.' She brought the earth back down and countered with a flaming kick while he was slightly dazed into the gut.
"Aaagh!" he shrieked as the flesh on his stomach blistered at the heat while he flew a few meters before crashing into the dirt hard.
"My, my, aren't you the powerful one? My superior should have requested me to invite you rather than that Baba of yours," he said with a pained grin as he got up. Scar angrily bared her teeth at him with fire erupting from her hands as she waited for him to make his next move. The albino leaped up to the sky and onto the roof of one of the burning huts. Scar, thinking he was cowardly retreating used her air magic to propel her into the roof as well. As soon as she landed on the thatch, the man came at her again with his blade. Scar pulled up rocks from below to cover her arms which she then used to block his hit. From there the man attempted time after time to strike at her, yet she thwarted and parried every blow. The albino, growing more and more furious at every failed strike, began to stab at her with a stronger force. Scar, on the other hand, was having a tough time keeping the blade away from her skin, and the rocks that were covering her forearms were chipping away with every smash of the weapon against them. Finally, the albino caught her off-guard and used the blunt edge of his knife to hit her shoulder, sending her flying off the roof and hitting the ground.
She felt a painful pop in her shoulder, letting out a scream of pain. The albino man gracefully landed on the ground next to her as she quickly jumped back to her feet, her arm hanging limply to her side. The man smiled, knowing he was winning.
"Any last words, Scarletta?" he stated, the grin still glued firmly to his face.
Scar's breathing was heavy, and she fought to stay conscious through all of the pain coursing through her body. "Yeah. Bite me, asshole." With that, she gave a fast, flaming roundhouse kick aimed for his chest, yet he caught it with one hand. She then took her other foot and jumped to give a mighty kick, this time making contact with his chest and sending him soaring backwards to slam into the mud wall of a hut. He was knocked unconscious. After a moment of silently celebrating her victory, she turned to look at the destruction of Monataro.
"Oh no," she whispered. The village behind her was in ruins and corpses of people she'd known all her life were lying around rotting. The other figures in black were finishing their ransacking and began heading towards her, seeing that she had defeated what she guessed to be their leader. In as much pain as she was in, her uncontrollable rage was itching to kill them all and finish off that albino, yet her physical condition was too weak to even consider it. She had no choice but to flee. Scar ran towards the stables, which were on fire but still standing, and gave a loud whistle as she opened the gate to one of the pens. Out of the smoke Genevieve galloped up to her with a yip. Using her wind magic to give her a boost Scar leaped onto her mazelle's back.
"Hyah!" Scar hollered. The mazelle instantly charged forward, almost knocking over several of the figures in black as they passed. As Genevieve's delicate-looking hooves carried Scar away she peered back at the Monataro as it grew smaller and smaller until it looked like an ember in the distance.
"I will avenge you. I promise," Scar whispered to the crumbling village while she raced farther away from her home, into the unknown.
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Me: Hey, Scar. :3
Scar: Yeah? :/
Me: Remember what you said about having no readers? :3
Scar: Um yeah? :/
Me: Well guess what! I've got at least one! See! I got a review! XD
Scar: What? 0.o
Me: Suck it! XD
Thanks for wasting all those minutes reading my unworthy literature. And thank you Bittersweet Morsel for the lovely review with one of my old characters which I gave to her, Target. I guess it's a fair trade considering Scar was hers.
Scar: I belonged to who?! 0.0"
Me: Nothing! Go back to what you were doing! XP
Scar: Uh-huh. Nothing suspicious here. *eye roll and walks away*
Me: Phew! Good thing she remembers nothing... MWAHAHAHA!
Reviews= Love :3