Chapter 4: There's No Way of Knowing…
At first, Bethany thought her dream was a pleasant one. It actually started as a happy memory…
Her mind traveled back to the days when she was at Nelly's farm. It was, of course, one of the days when Leo came. It was a sunny afternoon and Bethany was finally done weeding the cabbage fields. When Leo saw Bethany stressed and caked with various dirt he grabbed her hand and said, "Come with me, I know the perfect place where we can fix you up."
Leo led Bethany deep into the woods where leaves and flowers from the trees rained down on them. The air was so intoxicating, sweet, and crisp that Bethany sighed whenever she took a breath. Eventually, they arrived to their destination: a clearing with a sparkling creek running through it. "This place is so beautiful, however did you find it?" Bethany inquired. Leo grinned, "You discover more than food when you're out hunting, Beth."
And with that, he pushed Bethany into the creek, laughing heartily as she made a loud splash in the cool water. "What on earth did you do that for?" Bethany said, half-smiling, half-angry. "Well, you're not dirty anymore are you?" Leo chuckled. Bethany went into a giggling fit and tugged Leo into the stream, "Come in, the waters fine!" They thrashed and laughed in the water for the longest time. For once, Bethany didn't have a care in world.
All of a sudden, the pleasant memory distorted into a nightmare. The forest turned into pitch black darkness, Bethany could feel the cool water of the stream evaporating into nothing, and Leo was fading away like sand through her fingers. His lips were moving as he disintegrated…but no sound came out.
Bethany wanted to scream, but then she was suddenly sent flying through time and space itself. She finally slammed onto hard ground after what seemed like forever, and when she opened her eyes, the worst of the nightmare was yet to come.
She was in the midst of a desolate, scorched landscape…Ascalon…she thought. Stony-faced soldiers walked right passed her, apparently oblivious of her presence. They were marching in unison towards something in the distance, and that thing was marching towards them. She followed the troops to see what they were facing; it could have been nothing else but…the Charr. The humans were outnumbered by far. Then she noticed something--no--someone. It was Leo among the soldiers, bow gripped tightly in his hand.
She began bounding straight for him, not even noticing she was literally sprinting right through people. She appeared before Leo in mere seconds "Leo! It's me! I'm so glad I found you! Leo? Leo?" she said as Leo did not to seem to notice that there his love was standing right in front of him. He simply halted and blinked, rather confused, for a few seconds then continued marching straight through Bethany. "You alright, Leopold?" asked a thin man next to him. "I'm fine…I felt some sort of strange presence for a moment. It was nothing." "Probably just the nerves messing with your head," the man replied.
Bethany just stood there with her mouth open, a look of shock and frustration on her face. Then all of a sudden, both the Charr and the humans stopped marching. The two sides were mere feet away from each other, each one waiting for the other to begin the battle. Then, a Charr broke the silence by shouting in a ghastly voice, "FIRE!"
In a blur of motion, swords were clashing, arrows were flying, and spells were cast. A passing ball of fire flew straight through Bethany's stomach and hit the soldier behind her. She gasped as the man fell to the ground, screaming in pure agony as his body slowly burned into ashes. Scared out of her wits, she began running to find Leo. She witnessed a female soldier proudly decapitating a Charr with her axe. She almost got sick when she saw a Charr slowly ripping a person's intestines out with its teeth.
The battle became more gruesome as Bethany continued her frantic search for Leo to no avail. "Where in the name of bloody Dwayna are you?" she cried as she began to give up. She spotted Leo a minute later, firing arrows as a Charr snuck up behind him with a war hammer in its grip. She shouted, "WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!" Leo couldn't hear her and the Charr clobbered him over the head. Leo was unconscious on the ground with his skull cracked open. Bethany was shrieking louder than she ever had in her life, but the Charr wasn't finished with Leo yet. No Charr ever just killed someone and walked away, they loved torture too much to pass up the opportunity. The Charr sunk its claws in Leo's face, the pain waking him right up. A second Charr joined in the "fun" and both Charr started ripping off Leo's limbs. Bethany never saw such a gory sight in her life. She fell to her knees and threw up. In moments, every human soldier was dead. As the Charr dragged off Leo's remains, Bethany lay in the puddle of his blood, sobbing, until she heard a voice growl "You're next."
Bethany awoke screaming like a beast from Hell. She got up and started knocking things over. A fire rising inside of her made her want to unleash her wrath on anything she could find in her room. Tears fell from her eyes as the unthinkable happened.
Her hands were outstretched as she stood in the room, she could feel a power inside her. Her hands began to glow with purple light…magic. Bethany was too upset to care, and she let the magic loose. The surge of chaotic energy swirling around her caused the windows to shatter, knocked her door off its hinges, and illuminated the dark bedroom before the spell subsided. Bethany's chest was heaving as all the fury in her drained out.
"What is going on in here? Are you okay Bethany? Your mother and I heard screaming and smashing!" her father said as he and Florence ran into the room. "I have to find Leo," Bethany said. "What?" Florence said aghast. "I need to see if he is still alive!" Bethany insisted. Gregory examined the damage to the room and smiled. "You just used magic…didn't you?" "Huh? Oh yeah, I guess I did," replied Bethany. "That's my girl," Gregory said breathlessly. "Gregory! Did you just here a word our daughter said? She wants to go find that ranger fellow!" Florence snapped. "Right. Bethany, you can't go looking for him when you just discovered magic. I know you are worried about him, but you need to be able to defend yourself before you run off to Charr-Hell. I'm sorry." said Gregory. "Fine," Bethany mumbled, "I'm going back to bed." Florence protested, "But your room is a total--" "I said I'm going to bed!"
And with that, Bethany was alone in her bed; not getting any sleep at all.