Disclaimer: Julia Golding owns all her ideas and characters. I own Daniel and Sand Sprites as well as this plot.
Ch.10 The End
I watched as the silver on the quartz swirled, forming into patterns and filling me with sadness and thought. I turned and watched as Kullervo turned back to the eagle, triumphant in his supposed total domination of my thought. He had unwittingly brought his own end by bringing me to the castle that resisted his flood.
"What about Shift?"
"Don't worry, when he is gone we will be one!" Kullervo crowed, mistaking my concern to be for our union.
I walked forward and wrapped my hands around the eagle formed shifter and let a few tears slide out. He had shown kindness to me when no one else had. But I couldn't let him kill Shift. I couldn't let him kill Shift then use me to wipe humanity off the face of the planet. I was going to have to stop him and save the Shift I had never met.
Tightening my grip, I wrapped the silver tendrils that had clung to me from the moon like thing tight around him, binding him while I could think.
"What is the meaning of this!" Kullervo shouted, anger lashing at me and knocking me away. I backed away and started searching the sand for the real quartz sphere, all the fakes having disapeared.
Kullervo screamed as I searched and I cringed away. There! I dashed forward and grabbed the small sphere that was glinting in the light. I held it to my chest and could feel my mind like the stretch of desert that it had been before.
A tearing sound brought my attention back to Kullervo, who had just freed himself from the bonds I had imprisoned him in. Malice filled his eyes as he dissolved into the blue whirlwind. I dashed away and dodged as he gusted past as different mythological creatures. One time a hydra, the next a pegasus, but I kept away. I knew that if he got hold of me he would not let go.
My left leg was clipped by the fire of a dragon and I howled in pain. I stumbled forward and felt as if I could no longer move. Turning, I watched Kullervo stalk forward.
"Another fool!" he cried out harshly. "You have betrayed me and now you shall be consumed by my power! But first, the sandling."
I cradled Shift against me and sealed my hands to keep Kullervo away, but it mattered not.
In a flash he shifted to something that I could not see and fired a spike at me. It pierced one hand, the sphere, than my chest. I coughed in surprise, feeling blood on my lips. The spike was slid and Kullervo returned to his eagle form.
"There, now you are too injured to resist, the last obstacle is gone and you are bound until I can break this pitiful castle to shreds!"
More blood trickled down my chin as I felt the desert in my mind fading, replaced by a dark blue ocean. Shivers ran down my spine and I screamed with fury. Suddenly the spike was gone and surrounding me were weapons and covering me was armor. I instinctively grabbed a bow and arrow and fired bolt after bolt at the eagle.
Each impact left visible holes that dripped blue. I ran out of arrows and grabbed a mace, slamming it into Kullervo's head before turning to grab a set of short swords. I slashed angrily at the thing in front of me.
Weapons passed through my hands and dropped away as I picked up the next. One moment there were darts, the next I had a maul.
Then I had a great axe that seemed to slice through air when I aimed at Kullervo. Blinking, I realized that it had passed through air. There was no blue eagle there, only a fading splotch where he had been. Ilooked out of the gates and saw a great desert that stretched for as far as I could see. It was fading.
I looked to my hand and saw the pierced orb that would make Shift's eyes. A perfect hole was in the center and I gasped as I could feel the desert fading past my reach. I refused and slammed my helmet into silver energy which I poured into the gem. It still wasn't enough.
I took all the armor I was wearing and poured the silver energy into the orb, but it still wasn't enough.
Weapons faded around me as I turned them and stopped the fading desert. I could see it clearly, but it was still far off. I slammed the walls around me with a mental blast that would have taken out a continent and poured the energy in.
I desperately looked around and saw that I had missed only one weapon. It was a large sword and I grabbed it as quickly as I could. As soon as I did it was as if I could feel the desert around me, then I faded back to the real world.
You are a true companion to the sand sprites. The true Shift spoke to me.
Silver mist was surrounding my prone form. Shift was draped over me, easily ten feet long with a six foot wingspan. Connie was kneeling in front of us and the unicorn was behind her, silver streamers dripping from the horn.
I felt relaxed and smiled at those around me. Trees were uprooted and tossed everywhere, but I didn't care.
I ran a hand over my chest and it came away a mix of blue and red. Blue left from the spike and red from my blood. I looked at the gaping wound n my chest and coughed as blood trickled into my lungs and down my face.
I ran a hand over Shift and was happy to see the desert blossom in my mind's eye. Everything would be alright for Shift. I was sure.
Blackness threatened to take over me and I reached a hand forward before falling.
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…
…
A week later in the hospital I was sitting with the necklace form of Shift. He was happy go lucky and I felt the same. We had fought against the greatest evil in the mythical world and beaten it. I had already been congratulated by all of the Trustees and had been visited by many of the local Society members.
I had found out that a lot of what Kullervo had told me had been lies. Although I was able to go unnoticed easier than others, I could by no means 'fade away'. I had a good resistance to heat, but none to cold. And the biggest was that I was only a companion to sand sprites, which were not a combination of things as Kullervo had told me.
I was happy and thumbed the small lapel badge that held the image of a rock. I was an elemental and I was the companion of the last sand sprite. I would do everything in my power to keep him safe and help to my fullest to create more.
The End.
If you are confused by the last comment, I am saying that sand sprites can be created, if there is at least one still alive.