The pass was cold and covered in shadows. The ground was rocky and we all stumbled several times as we made our way through it. For some reason the place creeped me out. Maybe it was the way the wind howled as it blew threw cracks in the mountains but I just hoped that we would be out of there soon. Suddenly a cloud blew over the sun and then I heard a sudden grunt and some scraping sounds as if someone was rubbing their shoes against the stone. The sun came out again and I saw that Elise had almost fallen into a long crack to one side. She was hanging grimly onto a small bush with her feet dangling in midair. I knew that she could not hold on for much longer so before anyone else could react I ran over and helped her out of the crevice. "Thanks," she muttered stiffly before we rejoined the team. At last the howling pass was behind us. We stood outside. Then Roger pulled out a few teleport orbs and handed them to everyone. We all teleported into a big forest but instead of trees in the forest we were surrounded by huge mushrooms. I peered around and after a while I turned to A.C. "Are we in Nightshade forest?" I asked. He nodded solemnly. We started weaving our way through the mushrooms.
We walked like that for around two hours and soon A.C began walking slower and slower until he stopped completely. "Ash, where in the name of First Mage Ezra are we? We've been walking forever." Ash frowned. "To be honest I'm not really sure where we are. We should have reached the Guild by now." Everyone groaned. "Oh, for magic's sake, Ash. You've gotten us lost!" Elise said, exasperated. We walked for about half an hour until we reached a small clearing. My team-mates and I flopped down on the ground. "Let's take a quick rest," Ash panted.
He seemed to be thinking and then he turned to me. "So, Westlyn. How do you know an Ultimus spell already? They take years to learn and you don't look old enough to have been taught one." I wondered what I should say. What lie could I tell that would be even a little bit plausible in this situation? Well West, the time has finally come. What will you tell them? At last I decided to tell the truth. "Honestly, I don't know." Everyone stared at me. A.C sat up. "What do you mean you don't know?" I sighed. "I, I'm not who you think I am. I'm a human from the human world. I'm Ash's counterpart, the person who he has been talking to on the pocket watch all this time," I blurted out. There was silence in the clearing. "How could you keep something so big to yourself?" Roger asked in disbelief. "Yeah. We trusted you. We let you into our team and you held back something like this? How can we ever trust you again?" Elise said glaring at me. I lowered my gaze. "I'm sorry. I didn't know how you would take it and I wasn't sure how to tell you." The team stared accusingly at me for some time.
After a while I got up and quietly walked off into the forest. I threaded my way between the mushrooms for a few metres until I came to a huge purple one. I leaned against it and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting and I could already see the faint glimmer of stars far away. I grinded my teeth and clenched my fists. Now I had done it. I had been accepted into the team of my dreams and now I had completely blown my chances of being friends with them away. I would spend the rest of my life in Alyncia all alone. My shoulders slumped in defeat. I could have had many amazing memories with these people but now it would never happen. Why did I keep making the people around me hate me? I did not know what I had done to my sister back home but she must have some reason to be so mean to me. It was probably something that I had said as usual. It was always my fault.
Suddenly Ash broke out of the forest in front of me and ran towards me. I wondered if I should try to run away from him but he was already too close. I just stood there, watching as he stopped and gasped for breath. He approached me and settled down beside me. "Westlyn, I can't believe that you are my counterpart." I blinked at him. This wasn't the first thing that I had expected him to say. "Aren't you mad at me?" Ash frowned. "Actually, not really. I kind of suspected that something was off when you told us that you came from a town where we were well known, because I have personally never encountered a town like that." I laughed a little. "But it could have been true." Ash grinned as well. "I doubt it. The Timecrest Guild barely knows who we are, let alone an entire town." "I still don't get why you aren't really angry at me. I kept this from you even though I've already known you for a long time." Ash shook his head. "You're my counterpart. You saved me when I died. You supported me and believed in me when no one else did. You put up with my crazy stories and thoughts. I am really happy to finally meet you in person. Though I think you should have told us the truth in the beginning, I kept a secret from my friends as well so I kind of get it." "You mean the secret about your human lineage?" He nodded. "Yeah." "Do you think your friends will ever forgive me?" I asked worriedly. Ash smiled. "I'm sure they will in time." Then he took a step in the direction of the clearing. "We should probably get back to them. Who knows what could happen out here." We started sprinting back towards the clearing. Suddenly a man jumped into our path. He had untidy dark blonde hair and dark turquoise eyes that looked a bit crazy. He pointed at me with a shaky finger. "You, the First Mage wants you. He is looking for a girl with red hair and green eyes. It's you, it's you!" he leapt at me but I used the heat from my fire magic to blast him back. Ash and I went to stand over him. "What do you mean? Why does Ezra want me?" The man didn't reply. He just got to his feet and ran away. "Should we go after him?" I asked Ash but he shook his head. "This gives me a bad feeling. I think we should get back to the team and tell them about that guy." "Why do you think the First Mage is searching for me?" I asked as we began running again. "No idea, though knowing Ezra it can't be a good thing that he is looking for you."
We burst into the clearing just in time to see a group of masked men run in from the other direction and grab Roger, Elise and A.C. They began dragging them away. A.C used his sword to chop at his thug's arm but the man simply swiped The Breakfast out of his hands. A stream of water flowed out of Roger's hand but it just swirled around his kidnapper without touching him. Elise tried to throw a dark barrier up around her opponent but it faded as soon as it was formed. "Hey, stop!" Ash yelled charging at the kidnapper holding Roger but then he was grabbed from behind by a big dude with long dark red hair that looked like it had fresh blood all over it. I tried to pull Ash away from him but the guy held on like his life depended on it. Then I felt someone grip my arms. I tried to use Incendiatas but just like the other's spells had done mine would not come into contact with the thug. We were all dragged helplessly deeper and deeper into the forest and when are struggles became too much the kidnappers just knocked us out with their fists like it was nothing. I gazed around in terror. Were we going to be killed? Was this the last time that I would ever see the sky?