A/N: Sorry I haven't updated as frequently as I usually do. I had to pull together my ideas for the next few chapters.
Preview:
Dana grunted and crossed her arms…while Seth couldn't stop laughing.
"Okay, we're all set," Victor announced.
They all got back into their seats and drove away from Lost Mesa…and from Urgel and Udna.
Chapter 11
It was like Midsummer's Eve. No, it was worse. The demons and creatures all around her were ten million times worse and bigger…not only in size but also in number. She was crouching down and dodging them. They were coming at her head and she had to duck every time. She couldn't help but scream as more and more appeared and surrounded her.
The biggest demon there, an overlarge Cytrion, stomped toward her and gave a roar of triumph. Its slime was slipping down its side and leaking towards her. Then it was like déjà vu—tongues spiraling out from those familiar slits. But there was something different this time. All of the tongues were purple. Poisonous. She got up and ran…towards more darkness.
A giant canyon opened up underneath her and she was falling. It was like being on a roller coaster and it went off track…right when it was supposed to go down the steep mountain.
When she fell, it added more pain to her left arm, mostly because she fell on it.
She looked around. No more demons. She got up and sighed with relief. Her whole body ached. How can a spirit ache in the back of your mind? She didn't know, but it happened. This whole thing seemed real, like she was back in her own body again.
"Alone again?" she told herself.
"No," said a familiar voice. Seth?
"Seth?" He couldn't be here in person right? This was the back of her mind.
All of a sudden someone stepped out from the far darkness and appeared somewhat glowing so that she was able to see him.
"Seth! You're here? How? Magic potion—" Then she noticed something wrong. His face looked serious. And hard and…un-Seth-like.
Seth stepped forward again. "We won't help you anymore. Finding the antidote is useless."
"Why? You can't find it?"
No answer. He just looked off to the side. Bored.
She sighed, and looked down. She wringed her hands. "I-I-I understand…w-we talked about this before you guys left right?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What are you even talking about?" She looked up in shock.
"Huh?"
Seth scoffed easily. He approached her with an evil face. She couldn't move back, no matter how terrified of Seth she was right now. She was in shock.
"We're not going to get you the antidote purely because we've given up on you and realized our wrongs in all this."
"Your wrongs?"
"You know, you shouldn't talk anymore. All you're doing is repeating what I say anyway. But yes, our wrongs. We were wrong to even try to look for the antidote. It was your fault this all happened. You were so stupid to not move. That's how the tongue got you in the first place. Your own stupidity put you where you are now."
She shook her head repeatedly. "It was no one's fault…you're wrong about that."
"Seth's not wrong you know." Bracken walked out from the shadows, too. His face wasn't really like Seth's. His was mocking, and contorted, and looked like he was having fun picking out all her flaws.
"Bracken."
"Duh. Who else?"
"You agree with Seth? But before…you said—"
"—that I loved you? Times and things change ever so fast don't they? No, I've replaced you already."
A girl now stepped out of the shadows. She was blond with beautiful hazel eyes and her features were nicely placed. Her body was proportioned right and she matched with Bracken, as if she was also someone of fairy descent. How could she compete with that? She was only fairykind. This girl was perfect…especially when paired up with Bracken.
To make it worse she walked over to him. "Hi, I'm Angela. Bracken's new girlfriend." She flashed her a fake smile.
Bracken held her close to him. "Perfect name for her, don't you think? She's just like an angel." He kissed the top of Angela's head and she hugged him back.
She stood there not reacting. This couldn't be happening. This was not real. Neither of them would do this to her.
"You aren't real. None of you are! This is just the poison working on my mind. I'm not going to fall for any this."
All three of them started laughing and giving her mocking looks. No matter how much she tried to plug her ears or shut her eyes their laughter wouldn't drain away nor their faces disappear.
They weren't real. This is all just a fake illusion. They're trying to trick her. The real ones are going to come back. These were fakes…but why did they have to look so real?
*.*.*.*
"Now where do we go?" Vanessa asked Warren.
"I don't know anymore. Evolot seems likes a good idea but we have no idea where to start."
They drove for a long time just like this: Warren was silently driving, Seth was laughing at Dana for the potions who was busy trying to whack him, Vanessa attempted to stop them, Gavin was looking at a piece of paper he took out from his back pocket, and Bracken was looking out the window silently.
"Is it just me…or do you look younger, Dana?" Seth asked slyly. And it was true. As time passed her age potions had worn out and her face was going back to its real state.
"Shut up."
In front of them Trask's jeep was driving. But then it suddenly swerved off the road to avoid something blocking its path. Everyone seemed fine, just shaken, in their jeep.
Warren stopped their jeep instantly and reached for his sword.
"What is that thing?" Seth asked, craning his neck to see.
"It's a person. And he has cuts all over his body," Bracken said. He got out of the jeep and prepared his weapons.
"He's injured! Why are you taking out your swords?" Dana said.
"To put him out of his misery?" Seth shrugged.
"This could be a trap," Warren replied cautiously.
Warren slowly approached the figure on the ground. It didn't move. He prodded him with the sword. Trask also walked over and kneeled down next to the stranger.
"He's not dead. Just badly injured. What are we going to do with him?" Trask asked them.
Elise, along with everyone else, got out of the jeep. "Well, we can't just leave him here. Someone with a lesser conscience will probably run him over. Or a creature might eat him."
"So then what do we do? Take him with us?"
"No, we can't. We still have a mission to do," Bracken reminded them. "While you were inspecting him, I was on the lookout. If you look hard enough, there's a hut in the woods next to us. It's mostly covered by shrubs and vines, but you can make out a door and two small windows."
They all looked in the direction Bracken pointed to. There indeed was a hut, and it was hidden well.
"Okay, then. We'll take him there. But we can't leave him alone to fend for himself," Victor cut in. "How about we give it a few hours? We'll have time to think about what we'll do next—how we'll get to Evolot or whatever—and at the same time help this man. You never know…he could actually be a help to us in the end."
"But what if he's a bad person? We can't prove that this isn't a trap."
"I can." Bracken attentively took the stranger's hand in his so that he could search his mind and thoughts. "He's clear. No bad ideas…for us at least."
"What's his name?"
"It's hard to tell since he's unconscious. Let's move him to the hut now."
They eventually agreed, although some were hesitant. Trask and Warren lifted him up and put his arms over their shoulders. They dragged him over to the hut while Vanessa and Elise hid the jeeps in the trees and covered them up.
*.*.*.*
Everyone made themselves at home in the hut. In the main/living room, there were books and a fireplace and a sofa—probably where the man slept. In a room in the back were the kitchen and the dinette, which held a table and a sink and a stove. They all looked handmade. The whole hut was only one floored and filled with cabinets and papers. Leading from the kitchen was a small bathroom. Even though it was crowded, it was very cozy.
They had washed the stranger up since he was so bloody and dirty. Everyone was able to see now that he had curly golden hair and a slightly stubby face. His skin was fair and smooth where cuts and bruises weren't. He was really skinny due to the fact that he was beaten and laid out on the road, but it seemed as if he used to be very fit and buff. They guessed he was in either his late 20's or early 30's.
"So we're going to look for someone else who can help us?" Elise confirmed.
"We don't really have a choice," Trask answered gravely. "Our best bet is to go back to the Sphinx and ask for more information on his sources."
Dana sat up. "I heard that his mansion is very elegant and giant. Are we going to stay over there? Maybe for just one night?"
"We don't have the time for that. We've left Fablehaven four days ago and we barely have any time left. We can't afford to lose a night of looking," Warren said.
"Here," Vanessa said, walking into the living room holding a pot of hot soup. "Give this to him when he wakes. It's not much, considering that he didn't have a lot to work with in his cabinets. I put a bit of pain potion to ease the bruises."
"We'll have to give it to him now then. I think he's waking up now." The stranger was shifting and his eyes slowly started to open. He had gray-blue eyes and long lashes. Once he saw them he freaked. He tried to attack them and get away but Bracken immediately held him down.
"Calm down," Bracken said. "We're not here to harm you. We found you on the road and took you here."
"Right. Then how did you know that I lived here? How did you find it?" he croaked back. But he relaxed back on the sofa.
"We didn't know you lived here," Gavin said.
"And this hut was very well hidden. We happened to look at it from the right angle and saw through the disguise," Victor added.
The stranger looked suspicious for only a second before giving it up. "Since it's pretty obvious by the looks on your faces that you're not lying about what you just told me I'm guessing you're not bad people."
"We're not," Seth said.
He laughed weakly. "Obviously. By the way, I'm Cain."
"No last name?" Elise said.
"None that I have gone by in years."
Everyone else introduced themselves, and what they did and everything else in general: Kendra, Fablehaven, the Society, etc. Cain looked confused most of the time, but after some explaining he got the gist of it.
"A fairykind girl," he pondered thoughtfully. "And she's sick? Wouldn't the fairies be able to help her?"
"From what I know, the Queen or her subjects aren't in possession of anything that will be a suitable antidote," Bracken said.
"Okay. Have you asked others? Find someone with reliable information?"
Seth frowned. "If it were only that easy. We've been to the Sphinx and Lost Mesa to see Udna and Urgel. They weren't much of any help though. In the past we had to get help from a witch, Muriel, but she ended up being evil."
Cain gulped down some soup. "And I thought I had a big past. But then again my past is mostly been spread out in the four hundred years I've lived."
"Four hundred years?" Dana asked incredulously.
"Yeah, as unbelievable as it is. I was turned immortal when I was 28 years. Been alive ever since."
"Turned immortal?" Bracken asked. "Who turned you immortal?"
"My wife…if you can still call her that. At first, I was okay with being immortal, but now I regret it. I also had some falling outs with her. I even tried persuading her to turn me back to what I once was, but of course she refused. I've tried to divorce her, but it isn't that easy to get her out of Evolot."
That got everyone's attention. "Evolot? She's in Evolot?"
"Oh, you know Evolot? Not many people do."
"If she's in Evolot…that means you know where it is, and how to get there," Warren said excitedly.
"It's not simple. I was kicked out of it. But I know more about Evolot than most do. My wife's told me a lot 'bout it." Cain slurped up some more soup as everyone else digested his words.
Bracken walked over to where he could look right into Cain's face. "Is there some way we could get in touch with your wife? I think she could be a great help to us."
"The only way you can get in touch with her is to go to Evolot yourselves."
"So she's trapped there?"
Cain almost choked on the soup. "Trapped? She's made the whole darn place. It's been her home ever since she can remember."
Then it dawned on all of them the truth behind what Cain was saying. "The person who made Evolot was Silvertongue…"
"Silvertongue? That's what you call her these days?"
"Yeah…but that means that you…you…"
He absent-mindedly finished up his soup. "Yes, I'm the husband of the great Silvertongue."
That's all for now. So we just found out that Cain is Silvertongue's husband/wannabe ex-husband. What will happen next?
Thanks for reading, reviewing, etc^.^
—aznbooklover
