Chapter Four: Destiny

Marsh lay helplessly in the grass, breathing heavily with his eyes sealed shut, his bleeding getting worse, and his heart beating slower. Why did I ever send Ian away? He thought to himself. It's true those girls could heal my wound, but I'd never thought that it would take this long to catch them. Marsh placed his left hand over the bloody patch in his shoulder. Damn it! I'm not going to last!

Marsh flickered his eyes open as he tried to sit up, his large armored blue and green suit blocked that from possibly happening. He sighed in exhaustion as he balanced on his knees and stood, stumbling and trembling as he tried to walk through the grassy plain where there was no sign of life.

Marsh couldn't make it far. He was on his knees in the center of the field instantly; he could see the green grass dyeing red from his liquid blood. He couldn't continue another inch. He then fell forward like a fallen tree and slammed his face into the dirt.

The darkest of blackness surrounded his vision as he began losing consciousness. His eyes opened a few inches for a few seconds; he kept at it to stay awake, to stay alive. The odds of winning were not on him, they were forcing him down, making him suffer, making him wish he were already dead. For the brief moment that he wished it would all stop and go away, he heard a voice, several voices actually. Footsteps reached his motionless body, the warm touches and concerns of strangers gave him hope again. He only heard one response for his mind went dark and he could no longer see clearly.

"Let's get him to the mountains. Hurry!"

Marsh's shoulder pumped massively, he could feel the blood flowing easily, but strangely, it was not painful. He opened his eyes peacefully, feeling no agony or queasiness as he had before. He felt perfectly fine as if he had died and been reborn.

He looked around the unfamiliar room. He noticed immediately that it looked somewhat like a mini house. Not that anything was mini, but the wide perimeter looked like it could contain only a few people. He wondered who would live here and why they would want to.

"Oh, so you're up," spoke a woman who seemed to be calling from another room.

Marsh stood easily but seemed to be too tall for the ceiling. He crouched down low under the arch as he entered a nicely designed kitchen. He spotted a young child cooking on her small stove.

"W-where am I?"

"Sit, have a nice hot bowl of soup," she said sweetly as she poured the steaming liquid into the bowl and handed it to Marsh as he sat down at the kitchen's entrance.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Marsh questioned nervously.

"You talk too much. Eat."

"Why is everything so small here? What is–?"

The little girl had finally got him to stop talking by sticking the spoon filled with soup into his mouth. "Eat."

Marsh gulped down the hot liquid and removed the spoon from his dangling lips. "Damn! That's good stuff!" He excitedly held onto the spoon as he gulped down the rest of the soup from the bowl in only a few moments. The girl smiled with glee. "What is that!"

"My world famous recipe," she answered. "It makes everyone feel better and happy again."

Marsh set the empty bowl beside him. "I'd ask for more but I must get going."

"Oh! You want some more?"

"No, I want some answers," Marsh demanded.

The young girl's smile never vanished; Marsh knew she had been intending to tell him. "I may be small but I'm capable of taking care of myself."

"You're an Elf," Marsh finally realized, staring at her large ears, something he had somehow not seen before.

The little girl's young smile grew larger. "I can see you are too." She paused as she picked up Marsh's bowl and carried it over to the sink and washed it. "I built this whole house myself, you know. Well, I had some help by some foreigners in the mountains."

"Foreigners? What foreigners?" Marsh asked as if he were a protective father.

"They were the ones who brought you to me, so that I could heal you," she explained. "They found you in the middle of the fields, not that far from here." She walked over to him silently. "Did you know how close you were to death?"

"Yeah," Marsh replied, grasping his shoulder. "I hadn't realized how bad it was."

"If you leave a wound unattended for too long then it becomes worse than it seems," the girl explained.

"So who are these foreigners who brought me here?" Marsh wondered.

"They live up in the high mountains in a very small village. Most people say they are humans, but sometimes they've been proven otherwise. There was this one foreigner who was faster than all the others. He and his friends destroyed a whole factory at the top of the mountains. It was owned by the Captain of this land. Nobody knows his full name but we all know how ruthless and powerful he is. No one has seen him in person unless you were captured. But being captured is not a wise move," the young child explained.

"And why's that?"

"He likes to torture his victims to death. It's terrifying."

"Why was this foreigner trying to destroy the Captain's factory?" Marsh asked curiously.

"Oh, he destroyed it alright, no doubt about it! But he probably did it because he despises the fact that the Captain thinks he could do whatever he wants, we all do. His factories are placed everywhere and they are destroying everything; that's why he took it down. He's a very honorable boy. He's the fastest out of all of them and could have left them easily and escaped, but he fought back. He saved all of his friends and practically gave himself up for the taking to protect them; after all, it was his idea in the first place. I bet he didn't want the others to suffer from something of his own doing."

"You talk about him as if you know him," Marsh informed.

"He's my brother."

"What?"

"But he doesn't know it. We were separated from our parents when we were young. First him. He was taken before I was born then was found up here in the mountains," the young girl spoke so sadly, feeling depressed and feeling the desire to see her brother again, to know that he was alright, that he was safe.

"How could you possibly know that?" Marsh questioned.

"My parents told me," she answered.

"How could they know that if he was taken?"

"Because they tried to get him back, but they were killed in the process," she said in sorrow. "They had told me everything when I was old enough to understand. After hearing news about him, they went to search for him and were not careful enough."

"I'm sorry," Marsh apologized.

"So, I was left alone, I had no one. Then I ran into the foreigners. It was the group up in the village, my brother had joined them. They had rescued him not that long ago. They've always been kindhearted. They helped me build this house."

"Was your brother there as well?" Marsh said, his eyes watching her intently.

"Yes, but I didn't know it was him until they shouted his name the day he was captured; but by that time it was too late. I had seen it all from my bedroom window; watching his terrible plan unfold. He had told them all to run and leave him be. They all obeyed but regretted it ever since."

The sorrow which drowned out any happy emotion on her face was extremely powerful and striking for a long amount of time. Marsh couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.

"So, these foreigners are friendly?"

"Yes, would you like to meet them?"

Marsh winced back in shock by the girl's sudden change in emotion. He could feel his heart pumping from her change in voice volume. "Um, I guess?"

The girl giggled as she walked past him. "Come with me!"

Marsh followed her, crouching not too low, but low enough so his head wouldn't drag against the ceiling. He had to say that although this house was small, the width of its length was very large and spaced out. He walked out of the house and was finally free to stretch his back.

"I'm Destiny by the way."

He smiled. "Call me Marsh."

"Marsh! That's a cool name! Marsh! Marsh! Marsh! Marsh!"

He chuckled as Destiny used his name in a song, making it sound like the word 'march'. She, herself, soon began marching up the large mountain, giggling and singing gleefully along the way.