The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the dull pain in my head. I smelled the fresh air and felt the cold breeze. Then my eyes flew open.
Looking around, I noticed that I was still in the forest and I judged that it was sometime in the afternoon. There was a huge brown tent camouflaging in with the trees. My hands were bound together with some thick rope, with a Devalitizer on my left wrists and I was shivering slightly from the cold.
I shifted uncomfortably and tried to get a look at the others. Most of them were awake already. Only the youngest two, Cecile and Joshua were still unconscious. Next to me was Damian who was staring at the blue sky and canopy of trees. On my other side was Vladmir who, like Damian, was also looking up. On the other side of Vladmir was Austin, who was unsuccessfully trying to rip the rope off his wrists, and causing them to shed blood. Adam was next to Austin, glaring with hatred at the brown tent. At first, I tried to get my hands unbound, but after a few failed attempts, I gave up and stared off into the sky.
The thought kept popping into my head of why aren't we out of here yet? There's nobody here, let's just take off. But seeing as nobody else was doing anything, and that they've been awake longer than I have, meaning they've had more time to escape, I kept that thought to myself.
"Well, well, well. Look who finally woke up," a voice drawled, as a man walked over to us.
I jerked my head up and propped my self up somewhat uncomfortably on my elbows. I took a good look at the man. Yup, I thought, grimly, he's the same one in my dream. With a brown t-shirt and dark jeans, he loomed over us, his dark eyes piercing. His light brown hair curled in locks as he stared us down, smiling unfriendly.
Something caught my eye, glinting in the sun by my foot, and I realized why we weren't out of here. My foot was chained to a hook in the ground.
I glanced down at the others feet and saw the same thing.
"What do you want from us?" Damain said, bringing me back to the situation with the man in front of us.
"A man has to run a business doesn't he?" the man said.
"Not one like this," Austin said, "Let us go."
"Yeah, let us go," came Cecile's small voice, as she had just woken up.
"Chase was right, we should have gagged you and your loud mouths." the man said. "But we won't hesitate to gag you if you speak out of turn,"
then he added darkly, "And gagging isn't the only thing we won't hesitate to do."
Another man appeared next to the first, this one seemed a lot more serious than the other. He had dirty blond hair, cut short, and blue eyes. His tall structure made the other man seem small.
This man turned to the other, "Everything's ready," he said, then walked away, back to the tent from which he came from.
The brown haired man faced us again, "Hear that? It's time to get a move on." He bent down and moved to each of us, releasing our feet from the shackles one at a time.
For a quick moment, when my foot was unbound, I debated whether I should make a break for the woods and run. But it didn't matter because just then, someone behind me grabbed my shoulders with strong, rough hands and pulled me to my feet.
I stumbled at first, my head still pounding slightly, but the someone behind me tightened their hold and pulled me straight up and steady.
Around me, the others were being yanked to their feet as well, poor Josh having woken up when a big, burly man jerked him up. None of them were resisting, but rather cooperating with the men holding them. I wondered if they'd made a plan while I was still knocked out and this was part of it. The other option, would be that they all gave up, and were defeated. But I pushed that thought away, We're stronger than that, they're just waiting for the right time to act.
I let myself be pushed along as we made some sort of group parading through the forest to who knows where. The seven of us were all accompanied by another man who kept us walking forward. In the very front of the group was the man from before who made the snide comment about the gags and a woman I didn't recognize.
She was wearing a long sleeved, dark blue dress that fell to her ankles and shiny, black shoes covered her feet. Her long golden hair hung loosely past her shoulders, and she walked with a sense of authority.
The two of them were talking to each other in hushed voices.
"The healer for about eight hundred dollars," I heard the man say as the woman said back, "Yes, and the little metalmolder for five hundred."
I felt like we were back in the early 1800s, and were being sold as slaves.
"Ahh," I gasped, as I tripped over a root that stuck up on the earthy floor. I fell forward, the man behind me still holding my shoulders, stumbled into me. With my bound hands, I tried to break the fall, throwing them down.
The impact hurt, and I let out another yelp, then with momentum I rolled over onto my back.
Looking up, my eyes met the surprised light ones of the man who was until recently clutching me. He was falling forward on top of me, my fall must have jerked him forward as well.
I feared the moment he would collide into me, with his large, burly structure. I tried to roll to the side, but knew I didn't have enough time; he was right above me. I scrunched my eyes so I only saw him through tiny slits, and waited for the pounding of his body against mine, hoping, praying, that he would have enough sense to put his hands out to break the fall and not crush me. But the blow never came.
I saw him fall on top of me and felt nothing. No, scratch that, I saw him fall through me, and felt nothing. Then a second later, he disappeared. Vanished into thick air. Poof.
My eyes widened in shock, and I lifted my head searching for the others.
I saw six frozen faces, staring at me. Adam with his eyebrows raised in surprise, Damian and Cecile with identical gaping mouths, Josh looking frustrated, probably because he couldn't read the others minds, Vladmir staring at me in confusion with widened eyes, and I could practically hear all the thoughts buzzing through Austin's head as he tried to process what had just happened.
The six remaining men who were holding the others, stopped and a look of uncertainty crossed their faces, not sure what they should do.
And up front, I heard the man and woman stop talking. Their footsteps stopped as well, and I craned my neck to see their expressions. Both of them had similar looks of horror plastered on their faces, as they turned around to see what had happened. The woman was the first to recover, her blue eyes turning hard, her expression becoming serious.
A second later, a man appeared right in front of me, literally appearing out of nowhere, and pulled me harshly to my feet again.
My mind became a jumble of thoughts and crazy exclamations that I kept to myself, as my unwavering gaze focused on the newly appeared man.
"Illusions," I heard the word muttered behind me and turned.
I saw Vladmir and Austin lock gazes, communicating with they're eyes. Then, simultaneously, they both jerked free of their holder's grip and threw awkward punches at the men, since their wrists were still bound.
Instantly, the woman angrily shrieked, "No!"
I broke off from the man who was holding me and with my tied hands, I threw my own punch at him. I wasn't sure what to expect. After all, I was punching someone who wasn't really there, an illusion.
At first, my fists made contact with what actually felt like a human being, but almost immediately after, I felt my fists fly through the man.
There was a weird feeling as my arm rested there inside the illusion man for a moment. Where he was, felt like watery air. Neither a solid nor a gas. Then the man disappeared and my arm was back in pure air again.
I blinked, once, twice. Then whirled around. The other illusions of the six men were gone. The blonde lady stared at us with a fixed look of horror on her face. Then she spun on her heel and ran, her blue dress fluttering behind her.
Her partner the man, looked confused at first, unsure of what to do. Then he too turned around and ran, not looking back.
In silence we watched them disappear behind the trees.
"So, uh, what exactly was that about?" I asked, still a bit shocked.
"Those two were Illars," Vladmir spoke, "They'll catch any Validians and sell them, most likely to Osiris. I hear he pays well," he added with a chuckle.
"And the other men?"
"They were illusions created by one of them, probably the woman."
"How come they felt real? Until, you know..." Until they didn't, I was about to say, but held off because that sounded a bit lame.
"The woman's talent probably wasn't so developed. After that man fell on you, she didn't have enough control to keep him physical, so he disappeared."
"Then they got scared and ran off."
"And we're left with these devilish things on our wrists again," Damian said angrily, tugging at the Devalitizer.
That's it for now.
