AUTHOR'S NOTES

I love writing : ). It makes me fell so childish and giddy whenever I start another chapter. Anyway, here is the fifth chapter in the series. Enjoy!

Oh, and by-the-by, this one is from the currently unnamed girl's perspective.

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It was cold. Very cold.

I was in a sombre forest with a black sky, and the only source of light was the ring of flame that peeked around the moon, indicating an eclipse.

The forest was misty and suffocating, so much so that I reached for my bow.

The one I didn't seem to have.

I panicked, and soon realized that it was not the only thing missing. I had no bow, no quiver, no armor, no gear. I was defenseless.

Cornered against a tree and afraid, I kept repeating the same thing over and over, trying to calm myself down; you are an elite skeleton archer, and archers don't show fear. You are an elite skeleton archer, and archers... don't...

I saw a looming shape in the distance, with hypnotizing purple eyes. It stretched its hand to me, and enticed me to hold on to it. I hesitated, and looked at the creature's face.

It simply nodded back at me.

I tentatively took its hand, and the ground beneath me shattered. Whatever it was, it lifted me up before I fell just like the forest. After just a few seconds, all that was left was an ocean of lava and the blackened sky. The creature lifted me to its shoulder and walked away.

It felt like I was standing atop a shadow, unable to tell if it was real or not. It brought me to a mountain range at the end of the lava ocean's edge. It took a step up and over, and it crossed the long and tall line of mountains.

It walked like that for a long time, wandering through dark forests and black deserts, until it came to a stop at a seemingly never-ending ocean. It slowly put me down on the beach, and when I turned to look at it, all that was left was two stars were it's eyes used to be.

I turned to the ocean.

Even through the darkness I could see that it was teeming with life, from small cod to large turtles.

But there was something wrong. All of the animals had a glazed look in their emotionless eyes. 'By all of the holy saints, they're sick. Everything, every last one of them. They're withering.' I turned and ran from the waters edge, as fast as I possibly could.

I ended up getting lost in another misty forest, so I sat down to catch my breath. Suddenly, I heard every tell-tale sign of mobs approaching. There must have been hundreds of them. I took off again, hoping that I could put enough distance between me and them to look for a way to defend myself. I felt my skin get scratched and bit, I felt as arrows dug into my limbs and torso, and I heard the explosion of a nearby creeper.

I kept running, as fast as possible, when I was met with another shadow-spirit. This one had beautiful gold-ringed hazel eyes, and was only taller than me by a couple of inches. This one, however, showed me a smug and captivating smile. It grabbed my hand with unreal tenderness and led me, still sprinting, to a nearby frozen river.

He kept his loving hold on my hand even as we jumped the river in unison. All of the mobs crashed through the ice and fell in the water. The spirit guided me through steep hills and tall forests.

Until we arrived at a flat plain. Then, just like the last one, it disappeared leaving nothing but stars were it's eyes used to be. I looked around, hoping to find something useful. Then I saw two people. The same hazel-eyed spirit, and a shorter silver-eyed one. The latter I recognized instantly. I mean, it's really hard to forget someone as important as...

As yourself.

I saw them both begin to cut down trees and placing them on the ground. The longer I looked, the faster they seemed to build. They acomplished a small square of a building when a third shadow-spirit arrived. This is another that I recognized.

It was the same as the one that had brought me to the seashore, the purple-eyed one. However, this time it was just about as tall as the hazel-eyed spirit. All three of them worked together to expand their little house, or hut, or whatever.

Then a fourth spirit showed up. And a fifth. More kept appearing, until there was ten spirits helping to build up the house, all of them of different sizes and of different eye colors. Their structure became a beautiful three-story place, with probably around ten rooms and a penthouse on top.

They also had managed to make a farm with tall wheat fields, and lots of apple trees. And I mean, an obscene amount of apple trees. They kept building, from a railway to an airfield with airships to match. They built a dock near the lake and a little house on a tiny island in the middle of it. They wouldn't stop.

Then they all disappeared, every last one, and the ground shattered once again.

But this time, there was no spirit to help me up.

I fell unto the merciless lava and felt as it singed my skin and burned me to a crisp.

Suddenly, the hazel-eyed spirit teleported beside me, and held me in his arms as we were teleported away again.

He held me for a long time, just looking straight into my eyes with loving devotion. I kept slipping into and out of consciousness.

But he never let go.

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I opened my eyes one more time and found myself laying on a cold stone floor, under a low stone ceiling with bandages all over my skin. It was raining heavily outside. And I was under the cover of a soft wool blanket.

I was already forgetting everything that happened during my fever dream. Then I noticed more things. Or the lack of them. My gear was gone, my weapons and armor nowhere to be found. I jumped up and stood, frantically looking around for a culprit.

Then I found one, a sleeping shape that laid nearby.

I skipped over and shook him, lifting him up by his collar. He was shocked awake and I stared into somehow familiar gold-ringed hazel eyes. A spike of anger surged through me and I uttered the one thing I could think of.

"Where is my bow?"

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POV Change to our unnamed male character.

I woke up sweating and with my heart pounding a thousand times a second. My uncomfortable dream was interrupted by a horrible dream of fire and death. I couldn't really remember any of the details anymore, but at least I knew none of it was real. Had to be a dream.

I stood up, exited the cave and climbed the hill to check on my injured friend. She seemed fine, better than she had last night. I decided to take her arrows out now that she looked better. It pained me to do so, but it had to be done, the sooner the better.

It took awhile, but I carefully pulled out the arrows, cleaned the wounds and bandaged them up with crude leather strips. Once I was satisfied with my work, I slid down the hill to explore.

There was two things that I found interesting down here, a sheep and an apparently fully working bow on the floor. In picked it up and took an arrow out of my pockets.

As I had no experience with bows, I decided to walk a few ways away to practice my aim on a tree so as to not scare the sheep. I spent a long time aiming and firing at the same tree, getting slightly better with each shot. It was about noon when I decided that my accuracy was 'sufficient'.

I crawled my way towards the sheep I found earlier. On my knees, I slowly nocked an arrow into my batered old bow and pulled back on the string. The sheep turned its crossed eyes at me and bleat.

I let go of the string.

The arrow sailed through the air until it landed on soft flesh. The sheep just sort of fell on its side, and it's crossed eyes closed. Sadly and a little squeamish, I collected the sheep's wool and it's meat.

It's not like I could cook it, or whatever, but didn't want it to go to waste. Once I was done with that, the rest of the sheep suddenly disappeared. Weird, but oh well.

I walked back to the cave and decided that I could make something useful with the wool. I sorta just bunched it up and then flattened it with a thick wooden stick. This crude wool blanket was surely going to help the sleeping girl when it comes to warmth.

I cut a few strips off so that I could use them to replace her old bandages. I brought my soft cargo up to the girl, who was still sleeping under the makeshift shelter. I pulled her out so that I could swap her bandages, and once I was done, I put her back under and covered her with the newly made blanket.

Satisfied with today's work, I collected a few of the red things from a nearby tree and gorged myself on them.

Then a small drop of water landed on my face. Then another, and then it seemed like the whole sky let loose. I quickly picked up the resting girl and brought her with me in the cave. By then, the sky was pouring water like it had sprung a hundred leaks.

I put her down slowly at the end of the cave and sat beside her. I had a strip of wool left, and it somehow had managed to stay dry even under this monsoon. I used it to dry the poor girl's forehead and skin.

All of this hunting and wandering and running had left me exhausted. I just sat there, leaning against the cave's wall. I got myself into a more comfortable position by laying down on the floor. I fell asleep rather quickly, but this time, I had no dreams.

It felt like I had closed my eyes for only a few minutes when I was suddenly jerked awake by a certain someone.

I opened my eyes in shock. They were met with gorgeous light grey eyes, a an equally as beautiful scowl of of anger. She spit out four words with an amount of poison I thought unimaginable.

"Where is my bow?"

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YET AGAIN, MORE AUTHOR'S NOTES

Yaay, she finally opened her eyes! And mouth, I suppose. About time, huh?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this weird soup of a chapter. Who could all of those shadow-spirits be? What had the male character's dream meant? Ha! Only I know!

Also, there is going to be multiple divisions. The v's indicate the beginning and end of the chapter, while the w's are usually changes in perspective. What do you guys think?

Also also, this is the longest chapter I have ever written, at almost two thousand words!

Again, hope you enjoyed, thank you for your time and have a good day!

~ LeMafiaKreb