Author's Note: I do not own W.I.T.C.H., etc.
Chapter Three – Friends
"Will…Will…wake up, sleepyhead." She opened her eyes and after a moment, she saw Matt kneeling over her.
"Matt…what happened…" Will held her head, "Where was I?"
"You were having a dream."
"Really? That all was a dream? It seemed too real."
"Well, it was. We were watching a movie and you fell asleep in the theater. I didn't want to wake up for you were too cute sleeping there."
She smiled, "You're making me blush."
"It's what I do best." He leaned in for a kiss, she closed her eyes and puckered up.
Matt shouted, "Will! Will! We're in danger! You need to wake up!"
"Matt, why are you…"
"This is the Shade! Unless you want to be burnt at the stake, wake up!"
Will opened her eyes and saw she was still in her room at the inn. There were the shouts of a mob outside her window.
"Witch! Get her!"
The innkeeper spoke, "Calm down everyone, ye have no right to treat one of my patrons this way without any proof of witchery. What makes ye think that?"
"No one comes dressed in a black cloak from the wasteland that isn't an evil one. Our town has long since been harassed by such creatures, but no more!"
The crowd roared in agreement.
"She paid her way, she's caused no trouble, and ye not wrecking my place."
Will stepped away from the window, "What do you do now?"
"We could Dark Shift, but I don't know if I have enough energy and the nearest clone isn't near enough. I suggest we run out the kitchen, they haven't secured that entrance."
Will nodded and they hurried. The clone jumped around her and acted like her cloak. Getting down the steps, she looked around and saw the entire place was vacant. Taking this as a blessing, Will runs to the kitchen. The cook kept to his business as Will ran out the back. Some of the mob had started going around.
"Look! There she is! Get her!"
She managed to slip right between their hands as they chased after her. Looking back for a brief moment, Will was reminded of a medieval chase scene. The peasants wielded pitchforks and shovels, now some of them were mounting horses.
"Oh no! If they have horses, we can't outrun them."
"Will, let me Dark Shift. I can get us to safety."
She started to cry, "But…you could die. I need you, don't leave me alone."
Will had never felt so frightened before in her life, she wasn't used being chased by normal people, monsters she could deal with, but people she vowed to never hurt. The Shade saw this fear in her eyes.
"Fine. Let's hope we don't get caught."
The horsemen quickly closed the gap. Will looked for a place to hide, but the grass was not tall enough nor were there large rocks to hide behind. It seemed Dark Shifting was the only means to freedom.
The windy air was filled with a strange chanting, Will dared to take a peek behind her again to see another horseman had joined in the chase.
"Oh no, we're doomed."
"No, Will. That's Delthion!" The Shade said with renewed hope.
"Who's Delthion?" She gazed at the new rider.
Delthion wore a leaf green vest, shorts and bracers. She made out the brown sandals he wore, but the most important article was his quiver and longbow. Will looked away and resumed fleeing to safety.
The three horsemen turned to see the new rider approaching as they whipped the reins, hoping to get ahead. Will knew this was hopeless as her legs started to fail her, still tired from yesterday's journey.
"Will, don't worry. He's here!" The clone said as she felt a tug on her cloak. With one hand, Delthion hoisted her from the ground and looked in her eyes.
"You know…for a human, you're awfully cute." He said with a smile.
"You're an…an…"
"Yes, my lady. I'm a moon elf, nice to meet you."
The clone sighed, "Delthion, if you could stop showing off, we'd like to get on the horse now if you'd please."
"Huh? Oh right." He heaved Will a little forward and by the time she fell, she landed on the horse right behind Delthion.
"Ouch! That hurt…"
"Well, at least, you weren't a man, correct?" Delthion's snide remark was soon followed by an arrow flying pass.
"Delthion, now might be the time to gallop faster."
"Still looking on the brighter side of life, eh, Shade? Don't worry. No horse can catch mine. All right, here we go!" He started chanting softly.
Will looked back at their pursuers as they were becoming more and more like dots on the horizon. After three hours of riding, they were sure they were in the clear.
Getting off, Will massaged her behind and Delthion stood up, somersaulting to the ground. He turned to his escort with a smile.
"So, Shade, what's the story on her?"
The Shade opened his eyes on the back of the cloak where Delthion was facing, "She's a Guardian of Kandrakar and right now, she's stuck on this world."
"Well, no better place to get stuck in my opinion. So, any plan on getting her home?"
"We need to undo the binding spell Haritus put on her."
"Haritus?" Delthion looked around, "Is he near?"
"No, but with his powers, he could be."
"Haritus! That name still gets me down, big disappointment he turned out to be."
"Wait, where do you know him from?"
The shade looked at Will, "We met him and his hunting party just after we made our Pact. Delthion is the one who guided us safely to the crags before parting ways. And it looks like you've been exploring the world like you promised."
"Yes, I have. Now then, we have all introduced ourselves. On to business, how are we going to kill Haritus?"
"Kill? But isn't he your friend?"
"Little girl, we WERE friends. When he starting destroying villages, we kind of lost that connection. I tracked him down three times and tried to stop him, but no luck. Then again, why am I explaining this to you, Shade? You were there."
"I'm a clone, I don't have all the knowledge the real Shade has. The fact you fought Haritus and lived without some much as a scratch is amazing. Right now, the plan is only removing the spell, fighting Haritus will come later."
"I'm not so good with magic, I prefer arrows and riding over everything. If you have any chance of getting her free, you need to go to the Arcane City of Kep'mordos."
"Kep'mordos? You're kidding, right?" Will said in disbelief.
"Not this time, actually. You see, the entire city is a kingdom onto itself. All of them are spellcasters and the like. You got wizards, sorcerors, necromancers, any spellcasters imaginable is there. If anyone can help you, it's them."
"Delthion, Kep'mordos is a few days' ride, even with your horse."
"It's fine, I got nothing to do much anyway. So, helping you fits my schedule."
"Thanks, Delthion."
"No problem, old friend. Come on, young lady, we still got a few hours before nightfall and we still got a long way to go." He mounted up.
Will sighed for still being a little sore, but she took his hand and sat behind him. With his strange chanting filling the air, they sped east down the road on their way to Kep'mordos.
"Are you sure, Will hasn't called back?" Hay Lin said, starting to worry.
"Relax, this isn't the first time she hasn't picked up her phone. She's probably just sick today, that's all."
"Yeah, but she would have called beforehand."
Irma sighed, "Yeah, you're right. We should stop by Will's house to make sure everything is all right."
"Thank you, Irma." Hay Lin hugged her friend real hard.
"Air…air!"
Hay Lin released her, "Oh, sorry…"
Class let out shortly after and the two girls walked to Will's house. Her mom wasn't home yet, but they did manage to make emergency keys for this kind of situation.
Irma unlocked the door and looked around, "Will? Are you home?"
Hearing no reply, they entered and closed the door behind them. They went to Will's room and peeked inside.
"Huh? She's not here. Hay Lin? What's wrong?" She asked as her friend got her knees, rubbing her arms.
"It's so cold…"
"No, it's about room temperature for me."
"I'm freezing. It's like the time we were fighting…" She froze in realization.
"What is it?"
Hay Lin turned to Irma, "Haritus…he was here."
"So? He's a friend."
Hay Lin shook her head, "No, this wind doesn't feel right. I don't know how to explain it, but it feels like there's something wrong here."
"Wrong, how?"
"I don't know, I feel like the wind is telling me it is Haritus, but it's not Haritus. The air recognizes him, but the air flows around him different than it did before."
"Okay, gotcha. I'm on your level now. So, what do we do?"
Just then, Will's phone began to ring. Irma picked it up and looked at the ID, "Taranee?" She pressed the call button and held it to her ear.
"Hello, Will?"
"No, Taranee. It's Irma."
"Irma? Why is Will not there?"
"We had the same question, so Hay Lin and I went to her house. But, there's no Will and Hay Lin thinks Haritus might be responsible."
"Haritus? Dark Light guy Haritus?"
"Dark Light guy? When did you…nevermind, I'll let Hay Lin explain it to you."
Irma passed the phone to her friend, "Hello, Taranee. Listen to what I'm about to tell you."
Hay Lin said the same thing she did to Irma and waited for Taranee's answer.
Taranee was on speakerphone now, "Okay, right now we can assume Will is on Veluria. We can also assume that Haritus is indeed responsible. But that's where what we know ends, we need to find out what to do next."
"Good enough, but what do we do about Will? I think her family is going to notice she's missing? Any bright ideas about that?"
"Several, but we'll need to add Cornelia to the discussion. Take Will's phone and meet us at W.I.T.C.H. Headquarters, we got a lot to talk about."
"Right, okay 'til then." Irma hung up the phone and put it in her pocket. They walked out of Will's room.
"I hope we can find Will."
"Me too, Hay Hey, but right now, we should be focused on getting out of here for it is almost time for…" She reached for the doorknob and it started to fidget.
"This new key isn't fitting right."
Irma telepathically shouted, "Oh no! Will's mom!"
"Great timing, what else to go wrong?"
The door unlocked, "There we go."
Irma thought, "You had to ask, didn't you?"
Hay Lin sheepishly smiled.
End of Chapter Three.
