"And you're sure this is safe?" Alvern asked as he hopped onto the horse. Yeah, a horse. We had one each, stolen (borrowed?) from some mans farm. Scathach clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes at the question.
"Haven't any of you heard of Oisín i dtír na nÓg? It's actually one of the place we'll be passing." Scathach shuddered. "I'd hate to see what it looks like now."
"For the record, we're American," Jack reminded her, poking the horse who whinnied.
"Australian, actually," Mund said.
"Russian," North told him.
Nightlight and Katherine both opened their mouths to say where they're from when Jack shot them a warning look and they closed their mouths again.
'Technically, I'm Irish. I've heard of the story. Good ol' Oisín and the goddess Niamh. It's a classic,' Bribry said to me.
"Fine. Fine. We're not all American," Jack muttered. "But none of us are Irish."
"Scottish, actually," Scathach said, fixing the saddle on her own horse. "I came to Ireland to train warriors aeons ago. That era has passed though, and I stay to fight people like Balor. Anyway, in the story, they travel to the land of youth by Niamh's horse. And Oisín travels back by horse too. But he sees struggling men and gets off his horse to help them. Sadly, once his feet touched the ground outside dtír na nóg time caught up with him and he became old, weak and mostly useless. In some versions he meets Saint Patrick himself after he becomes old. Great story."
"I've heard of it, actually," Katherine said. "I've heard most stories, seeing as I'm the guardian of storytelling."
Scathach finally adjusted the horses saddle and reins correctly and hopped onto the horses back. She gave us all a quick glance and made sure everything was okay.
Bribry was sitting on the horse in front of me, my arms around him to be sure he didn't fall off. It was hard to hold the reins and the fox on horseback, to be honest.
"Well, let's get a move on, shall we? Balor isn't going to wait for us to cause chaos in the world," Scathach said. She edged her own horse on and we followed closely behind. Jack was next to me and he still looked somewhat embarrassed by his memory. I wanted to tell him it was okay, and everybody had those thoughts at sometime in their lives. Whenever I saw Ben I had that longing.
My own cheeks got hot. I never really thought about it a lot, but it hit me what we'd have to do to have a baby. Most girls my age have already slept with three guys by now. I don't know why, but I never really thought about it. It just seemed odd to sleep with a guy before you're married, or if you're not in love with him.
But I do love Jack. But I wasn't sure I was ready for that big step in our relationship. I mean, technically, by now I'd only be eighteen. But seeing as I died before my eighteenth, I'm only seventeen. Embarrassing as it is, I have occasionally thought about Jack and I. Truth, I'd say most girls y age have thought about that with a guy. It wasn't unnatural in anyway. But I was still embarrassed to be having these thoughts as we rode off to battle Balor in the Otherworld.
Bribry laughing echoed through my mind. I shot him a death glare. I really needed to learn how to control the barrier between our thoughts. It was humiliating.
'Shut up!' I snapped at him, resisting the urge to fan my face. Gosh, for a place so cold, I sure felt hot. I frowned. 'How old were you when you died?' The question had always crossed my mind when I remembered that Demon was, well... A demon.
'Hm... Hard to remember, exactly. I know I was definitely in my teens when I died. Maybe sixteen? I'm not too sure. It's really hard to remember.'
I was about to reply, but Scathach cut in. "Okay, guys. These horses were specially picked. They will have the ability when we reach the waters." I looked at Jack confused, but he just shrugged his shoulders. "So, try not to freak out. Um... And try not to puke, either."
I just shook my head, not wanting to question what Scathach meant. But the minute the horses legs hit the water, I knew what she meant. The horse seemed to pick up speed almost immediately. It took all my will not to scream as the horse raced over the water. The world blurred in and out of focus, and I could barely glimpse islands of people laughing and singing songs. But the further we went, the gloomier things seem to get on these various islands.
The weather changed. Although it had been raining before, it wasn't this bad. Rain fell down heavier and thicker, the wind picked up to gale forces, and I could hear thunder.
The islands rolled on, blurring past us. I learned to stop looking after the third one. Things just got worse and worse.
"Over there is the land of youth," Scathach yelled over the thunder. Lightning struck down and my eyes grew in alarm even though I had the power to conjure it myself. I looked over at the land of youth. Everyone on the island looked so sad and broken. My chest ached just looking at them.
We passed them in seconds, but it felt longer. Seeing their faces, seeing them so sad made me almost miserable.
More islands rolled past us. Eventually, the horses came to a stop and I feared we'd sink under the water. But we didn't. The horses gently galloped on, until they came to the edge of an island. It was by far the worst of them all.
The island was covered in trees, but in the distance I could see the smoke rising up. Fires. Lightning seemed more prone to land down here. The thunder was louder than ever, almost deafening. My head ached with the loud noise. The horses whinnied in fright. I couldn't blame them. I wanted to just turn around and not come back here.
But then I remembered the faces of the people on the islands and was suddenly filled with determination to defeat Balor of the Evil Eye.
"Let's leave the horses here. They will still be here when we need them, so do not worry," Scathach said.
I got off the horse and grabbed Bribry into my hands. He was shaking, and I knew it wasn't because he was cold. I didn't let him down, and instead decided to carry him. It was comforting to have the fox in my arms. I could hear him silently whimpering.
'My master's gonna be pissed when he realises I'm on your side now,' Bribry muttered.
"That's the least of our worries," I whispered to him as I examined my surroundings. I froze when I saw more demons at the edge of the islands forest. It was hard to describe them. They looked almost monstrous, but they looked as lost as the spirits on the other islands.
"We have to go in there, don't we?" Mund gulped.
"Right you are, furry paws," Scathach said. He gave her a cold look, but she didn't notice. She unsheathed her swords and began walking ahead. Reluctantly, the rest of us followed. Everyone had their weapons at the ready, looking edgily around them. I just held Bribry tighter.
Jack held his staff tightly, walking closely by my side. Thunder boomed above us again. Jack edged closer to me. "Look, I'm sorry about what that demon told you," Jack mumbled. "I don't really think about that stuff. Um... Not entirely like that, anyway." His cheeks went red. "I mean..."
"Bribry told me what you mean, Jack," I replied to him. His face went redder. "I've been thinking about kids too." He quirked a brow up. "And I think we should talk about it when we get back to Burgess. Now isn't exactly the time to discuss having kids someday."
He managed to give me a sheepish smile. I looked away. If only he knew I might not make it back home. The omens made it pretty clear that I was going to die. And seeing that there was fire up ahead, it didn't exactly settle my nerves.
My heartbeat raced as we walked further into the darkness of the forest. Nothing good ever came from being in forests. Especially when you knew it was leading you to your death.
And of course, as usual, I had to be right.
The demons (which resembled wolves) came prowling out of the darkness. Unlike Demon's eyes, these guys' had red eyes. It was almost as though their eyes were on fire. We all froze. There was at least two dozen of them surrounding us.
A bark, and the demons lunged at us. I dropped Bribry, and held out my hands. Immediately, lightning shot out, killing two demons in the process. Another demon sprang at Katherine, knocking her over. He snarled at her face, attempting to rip it open with its horrible pointed teeth. But Nightlight came to her aid. He pointed his staff at the wolf and a moonbeam shot out, disintegrating the wolf into dust.
Jack had frozen two wolves already, and was at work at getting a third. Scathach slashed at them viciously, speeding around them with careful and quick agility. Tooth whirled around them, slicing them with her very sharp feathers. Sandy attached them with his sand whip.
I heard a cry as a wolf bit into Alvern. He managed to escape its grip and held out his hands. The grass extended, wrapping itself around the wolf and pinning him to the ground. Almost like the power Mund has.
Mund and North worked together, defeating five Wolves in the process.
More wolves came at me. I struck down another two and the third knocked me over, pinning me down to the ground. It took all my strength to keep the wolves teeth away from my throat and face.
The wolf was knocked off my body in a blur of grey and black. Bribry. He bit into the demons shoulder, causing a yelp from the demon. But the demon was bigger and stronger than Bribry. In a split second the tables were turned, and the wolf bit into Bribry's leg. Furious, I shot lightning at the wolf. I hit him. But Bribry lay on the ground, not moving a single muscle.
I didn't have time to run over and check on him.
By now there was only six or so wolves left. One scraped at my arm, drawing blood. But Jack froze him. I hit one more. Scathach hit two with her sword and Tooth and Sandy got rid of the rest.
The second we were sure no more were coming, I ran over to Bribry. Bloody poured from his leg and he was whimpering in pain.
Without hesitation, I ripped of the bottom of my shirt, which was in shreds anyway, and began to make a clumsily put together bandage for him.
'I. Hate. Wolves.' he said quietly.
"So do I," I replied aloud. Bribry got up, but couldn't put any force on his leg.
'At least I'll live.' he said.
I nodded my head. If we thought the wolves were bad, I couldn't begin to imagine the dangers that awaited us further in. I didn't even want to imagine what Balor was like. I shuddered.
This was most definitely not going to end well.
Agh. I'll be gone for the next two weeks! D: I'm going on holidays where I'll more than likely have no Internet access! :3
Anywho... I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :) I don't know if it's interesting or not? I don't know, but I do enjoy writing it. :D
So, please review for more. :)