"Aaaaaahhh!" I plunged down toward the ground, determined to have everyone hear me before I splattered between the trees.
"Calm down, would you?"
I froze and opened one eye. I was floating well above the trees. I twisted to look up at Max, who was holding my ankle.
"Oh, thanks." I beamed up at him. His wings were working hard in order to support his and my weight. He rolled his eyes.
"Only you would forget that we were by a cliff." He muttered as he flew back up to the ledge. He dropped me straight down onto the ground. I grunted as I took the brunt of it on my shoulders and neck.
"You both could have done that more gracefully." Raiutski criticized.
"Let's just get on with it!" Max snapped, ignoring Raiutski's comment. As he spoke he crossed his arms. His wings melted away until only a few feathers gave evidence that they had even existed. I knew the frustration he felt. It was beginning to get to me, too. Raituski had called us here to tell us something important, but wouldn't say a word until Darik got here. We'd been waiting for a whole hour now.
A faint echoing whistle announced the arrival of the stupidest boy on our group. We were specially arranged so that each of us complimented each other. Raiutski was the smartest of us, plus he had the ability to read people's thoughts and communicate telepathically. On the opposite side of the spectrum was me, Miss Muscles. With a simple squeeze, I could easily crush the bones of anything. Max was good at being the first wave of an attack, swooping in on his bird wings and following that up with any of his transformations like a bear or tiger.
And Darik? Well I don't know how he helped us out. All he's good at was fire.
He strolled up the hill slowly, eating a sandwich and snapping fire out of his fingertips. Max and I glared at him.
"What? I was talking to someone." He replied to Raiutski's mental query of where he had been. He plopped back down on the ground and lay back.
"All right, so here's the thing," Raiutski started. "We were going to spend a couple weeks out here working on survival,"
Darik sat up, all ears. "What?! But we just got back!"
"He said we were, not we are, stupid," Max snapped.
Raiutski nodded. "But we have important visitors coming, so all we're going to work on is getting from point A to point B as quickly as you can., and how well you know distances and directions. So, point A is where you are standing. Point B is one mile away towards the south. Go!" he pulled out a watch.
I took off. I could cover a mile in four, maybe five minutes. I thought about how Max and Darik would get there. Max had wings. Darik… ok so he would probably be too lazy. But I had to beat Max. I pushed off the ground harder and harder until I was making twenty footsteps. I would have gone faster except for all the trees.
You've made a mistake already. A faint voice said dully in my mind.
I cringed. It was probably Raiutski. Ugh. I had overshot already? I swung around a small tree, using it to launch myself up to a taller tree. I wrapped my way around a small tree, using it to launch myself up to a taller tree. I wrapped my way around the large trunk, keeping up my momentum so I could make it easily to the very top. I looked back to the edge of the cliff. Impossible. I hadn't made any mistakes. Raiutski was much closer than I had expected.
"Sari! To your left!" Max blew past my right, blocking four arrows that had been shot straight at me, on my left someone was coming straight for me. I blocked their punches, but lost my balance as they surprised me with a kick.
I felt the familiar numbness engross me as I fell. My body was accustomed to break my blows and falls. I hardly ever felt pain. I felt the jolt from hitting the ground an tried to recover, but my body was held down. Vines cut into my arms and legs. The harder I pushed against them, the deeper they cut into my skin.
I heard the chuckle of the figure as they walked out of the shadow of the trees. I saw them raise their hand, and more vines rose out of the ground. These looked more lethal, with thorns narrowed to sharp points. Their arm pulled back and shot forward.
I screamed and thrashed violently against the vines restricting me, but gasped as a wave of heat laid itself slowly onto me.
"Geez, Sari, chill." Darik strolled over to me through the fire and burned the vines away.
"Putting up a wall of fire won't stop them," I warned, trying to look through the blazing flames.
"No, but it will give us enough time to get away," he said, pulling me with him as he ran back to Raiutski. Max dove down to our level so that they couldn't get our coordinates by following his flight.
Within a few minutes, I felt Raiutski's relief wash over me, soothing my panic and adrenaline rush.
Good, you two got to her, he said quietly in our minds.
We stood in front of him now.
"You were out of range from my communication, I couldn't tell you that there were intruders coming at you." He explained why he had panicked.
"What are you talking about? I heard you tell me I'd messed up second before the whole thing happened." I retorted.
Raiutski stayed silent for a few seconds, a rare occurrence. "That wasn't me." He finally answered.
"Urgh!" Max veered out of control as trees began sprinting in front of him no matter which direction he turned. He was finally caught by one and swept upward by its rapid growth.
Raiutski and Darik had their own problems, trying to fight off the same annoying vines that had held me down before.
"Not as talented as we expected, are they?" I snapped my head around for the source of the sound to see them again.
"No. Everyone else put up a better fight, they weren't as quick to be captured as this group is."
Better fight, my butt! My team is the best of the best! I thought to myself and charged at them, grinding my teeth. One man dodged my punch, but the others' face was smashed to the pack of his head, recognition. The man came at me from behind. I ducked his stab and snatched his wrist. With the twitch of my hand I broke his arm, and he dropped the weapon. A crumbling noise caught my attention, and I saw half of the rogue plants die away.
"Hmm. So you're controlling those annoying plants, are you?" I asked smugly, having figured out his ability. "so if I break your arms, you're out of luck."
This tie I reached for his healthy arm, but came away with only the sleeve of his shirt. The rip exposed a strange tattoo composed of twelve stars put together to make a pyramid. I went to attack again, but almost fell face first to the ground.
"Ugh! What is with you and these vines?!" I screamed in frustration. I pulled at them with my hands, but they only became entangled in the vines as well. I watched as they slithered up past my hands. They wanted to reach my neck, and didn't have any trouble finding it.
I gagged as they tightened abruptly. I twisted and pulled against them, but they only strengthened their hold. My sight began to turn fuzzy and my peripheral vision blackened. I pulled one last time against my restraints. I couldn't hold on any longer. I was dizzy from lack of oxygen, and welcomed the darkness.
I glowered darkly at all three of them.
"You could've woken me up!" I snapped at Raiutski.
"Could have. But you needed the rest, and we needed to get going."
I pushed against Darik's back, but this only caused him to tighten his grip on my legs.
"Well I'm up now, and Darik doesn't need to carry me anymore."
All of them ignored me.
"Put. Me. Down." I said threateningly in Darik's ear. He continued humming. I tightened my hold on his neck. Still humming. I tensed my muscles even more. The humming stopped. I tightened just a touch more… I didn't want to break his neck.
"Raiu…tski!" he choked out.
"Sari!" Raiutski didn't stop or look back at me, but I could tell he was irritated.
"Well, he wouldn't…" I paused. Something was wrong with my arms. They were either very cold or very hot. "Ack! Darik don't do that!" I let go of his neck. He had burned my arms until they were blistered. Stupid me. Raiutski had Darik hold me because he was the only one that could make me feel pain. I sighed and slumped down. I might as well just sit here quietly until we get to town.
Darik literally dropped me the moment we got into town.
"You little--!" I got to my feet and glared.
"You were sleeping. I had to wake you up." He grinned mischievously.
I was off after him, but Darik was just as fast. We sped straight through the streets. People barely moved. It was a common enough occurrence to see me, Max, and Darik chasing each other around. I was gaining on him. I grinned as I reached out to grab the collar of his shirt. The fabric tickled the palm of my hand.
"Ack!" I snatched thin air. He had turned. I could keep up with pretty much anyone in the world until they turned. I dug my feet deep into the ground and backtracked.
Let's see. He turned on the corner with the yellow sign on it… I scanned around for the yellow.
"There it is," I sped up to a steady jog and rounded the corner carefully. "What in the--??" I gasped open-mouthed at Darik. "DARIK YOU PERVERT GET OFF THAT GIRL!" I stomped over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the poor girl (and the ground) he had been laying on.
"I'm sorry! It was a total accident!" he was blushing madly and looking anywhere to avoid my accusing gaze. A flash of black caught my eye. One boy was standing protectively in front of the girl, and another had his arms crossed and was watching me closely. All three of them had goggles around their necks, and strange technology on their wrists. They each had sturdy boots on and the boys had backpacks with poles sticking out at odd angles. They were all also extremely good-looking… I couldn't help but notice.
"Howe dsebe edat?" the boy closest asked a strange and unintelligible question.
"Excuse me?" I asked, confused. His dark green eyes narrowed underneath his shaggy blonde hair.
"Howe dsebe edat." He repeated slowly. My eyes widened. He had fangs. He knew what I had seen and snapped his teeth together audibly. They flashed in the midday sun. I dropped Darik onto his feet.
"You see them? He's got fangs."
Darik nodded and crouched into a fighting position. The green-eyed boy bore his teeth and uttered a low hiss.
"Ilkel yowf neto." He spoke again.
"Rokur," the girl cooed and stood by the boy. "Benees." She smiled and pushed him out of the way. She beamed at us, blinding me with her beauty. Seriously though. Her icy blue eyes widened as she looked us up and down curiously.
"I'm Akemi Okitatke." She held her hand out to me.
I fit mine hesitantly into hers. "I'm Sari Chiharu."
A smile pulled on the corner of her mouth. "You could break my hand right now, couldn't you?" she asked. She had a strange accent, one I hadn't heard before.
"'Course I could. Without even trying."
"Try it."
I tightened my grip on her, smirking. Hmm. Hadn't even heard a crack. I squeezed as hard as I could. A small crack. She pulled her hand out of the grip to reveal the crooked bones in her hand. She examined it and then flexed her hand. They seemed to pop back into place and then heal instantly. Impossible!
"And you," she turned to Darik. "You're Darik. And your power is… fire?"
"Er, yes," he said, blushing.
"Show me." She said sweetly.
Darik regained his composure and snapped his fingers. A small spark erupted from the friction, and he opened his palm. The fire easily grew on his command.
"No, no!" she laughed. It was like music. "Show me."
"Whaaaaat? You mean , like, attack you?" Darik and I chorused.
"Akemi!" the boys were both standing protectively in front of her again. "Ksto phit!" they both hissed at her. She rolled her eyes.
"Sari!" Max landed behind me. Raiutski was right after him.
They're from the west. I can't get more than that from them. Raiutski gathered information from the foreigners' minds as soon as he saw what was going on. I'll translate for you.
"I assume you three have had it rough these last few days?" to my ears, Raiutski's words made sense, but in my mind I understood them perfectly.
"Sort of." The girl seemed to enjoy having more people around. She moved towards Raiutski.
"Akemi!" the blonde boy moved back to his defensive position in front of her. "Cut it out, will you? You're not making this job any easier for Scott or me!" Now I could understand exactly what their strange words meant.
"Oh, please, you already ruined my experiment with the fireboy." She muttered and then backed away.
"So how can we help you?"
The boys looked at each other hesitantly, but the girl broke into a smile. "We need a place to stay!" I couldn't help but laugh at her childlike personality. When I opened my eyes I gasped. They were in fight stances, low to the ground and wearing hard expressions.
"Wait, what happened, I blinked." Darik opened and closed his eyes faster to prove his point.
"Which one is it?" a low gravelly voice announced the arrival of a man.
"I'm not sure. Both held up fine earlier." It was the plant man and one of his comrades. Their eyes flickered from me to Akemi.
"What the heck is it that you guys want?" Max muttered to Raiutski.
"I can't tell. Either Sari or Akemi."
"I don't think any of them will help us weed her out." The plant man nodded toward the guys.
"It's fine." The other man replied. "I'll help them out a little." He leaped down from his perch on the fence and charged at Akemi. He disappeared mid-jump and was behind her in less than a second. He swung a knife at her neck just as quickly.
His blade cut only air. Akemi was up on the fence, dangling her legs as she sat next to the plant man. He fell off the fence in surprise. The other man's hand had been caught by the blonde boy. He revealed his fangs and his eyes flashed red. I couldn't help but look straight into them. I was immediately paralyzed by images of horror and gore. Faces ripping apart, shapeless monsters stalking in the shadows, too fast, too strong to escape from—
"Affton," Scott placed his hand on the blonde boy's shoulder. "Not in front of them." He gestured toward my group. Affton nodded and disappeared with the other man.
"Aaarglkl!" a sickening scream escaped to my right. The plant man had a terrified look on his face as he gaped down at his stomach. A strange tearing noise came seconds before blood blossomed from underneath his clothes, but they soon ripped through, revealing a writhing mass of bloody flesh.
He was being turned inside-out.
I closed my eyes and looked away.
Who's doing it? I asked Raiutski.
Either Akemi or Scott. They're very practiced at blocking people out of their minds. Even speaking to Raiutski in his mind, I could tell he was horrified at the sight of the man.
