Verboten
Chapter 44
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club. I do own this amazingly long and tedious story.
Fore Note: A round of thanks is in order for Darev and Stills and Photographs for religiously reviewing my story and to summerlovin76 and Robert Teague.
Special thanks to Darev who told me that Roxy was too whiny in the first version.
No thanks to the site who have made it impossible for me use centred hypens for breaks in the story. I have emailed them about the issue.
Since she was very young, Roxy had considered herself an awkward sort of loner. She was not totally antisocial but she had felt that something was different with her. She preferred Artu to real humans for company and sometimes, she was just plain perturbed by human nature.
She remembered in her last year of high school that the teacher had left the class for a moment and one student had had to stupidity and pour hand sanitizer into the teacher's water bottle. In the end, the student had gotten in trouble just before graduation for intoxicating the teacher and sending her to a poison control centre.
Human nature was synonymous for stupidity.
A bird or a dog would have never done that and neither would she which was why she preferred animals to people sometimes.
She hoped that her father could manage the house and the bar by himself for the weekend. He was still recovering from the bullet wound.
"Is this really Italy still?" Roxy asked Asta. They dropped their bags to the ground to rest. They had hiked some distance up a hill. On the other side was a small lake in the valley and its surface was silvery and reflecting the sun like a mirror. Layers of green forest raced down the surrounding mountains to meet up at the lake.
"You make it sound like you've never seen a lake before."
"It's just something you don't see often at home. I mean all these trees…"
The witch stood back for a moment to contemplate the girl. Roxy was like a newly born baby seeing the world for the first time.
They made their way down to the small lake and set a blue tarpaulin on the ground. Roxy looked into the lake for fish, not that she was going to see any. She was disappointed though when all she saw was the dirty brown water. She saw a black coot in the middle of the lake, docilely swimming. She regarded her blurry reflection in the water and she saw her lips move, telling her something. She blinked her eyes, thinking she was hallucinating. She fell back on her bottom and held her head. Her head pounded like a drum.
Her mind was being assaulted by all sorts of images and she saw her reflection try to speak to her. In an instant, she saw the entire world and she heard her reflection talking to her in a thousand languages. She heard a thousand voices speak to her fervently with many accents from the past and present, some them from languages that were long dead.
Finally, her reflection spoke to her in an understandable tongue, "Don't touch the water!" her reflection shrieked, pounding against the surface of an invisible window in the water. "Get away from the water!" And then Roxy fainted, some force ripping her spirit from her body.
There was that darkness again. It felt comforting like a worn blanket but chilly and foreign. It was like that dreamy darkness one felt between sleep and waking up.
Roxy knew that she was far from being awake. She sat up, wary of her surroundings. She had seen this darkness before. This was the dreamworld, as she had called it. She understood that whatever was happening here did not direct affect her current world somehow but she knew that they were undoubtedly connected. She just could not see how. She looked about expectantly for someone to come out and start talking; Nebula, the Lioness or the veiled woman who defended her from Nebula.
Life was one thing after another. The most recent apparition from her mind had been her own reflection in the water telling her to get away. God, she needed therapy or someone to interpret her dreams.
She looked down at herself. She was wearing the scandalous green and pink outfit with ruffles. Her shirt covered only one arm and barely her midriff and her short shorts were indescribably uncomfortable aesthetically for her tastes. She let out a breath when she saw the pair of green and mauve heart-shaped wings on her back. It was comforting but she wondered if this was simply a figment of her imagination.
"Roxanna!"
Roxy turned around suddenly at the mention of her name and she found herself on a wide stone path in the middle of a picturesque flower garden that went on for miles, like in a Monet painting. All around her, she saw mountains rise up to the sky in the distance.
Her eyes fell on a black-haired woman with tanned skin. The woman looked puzzled, inspecting her own person like she was wondering if she actually existed.
She was dark-skinned like Flora and her braided black hair fell to her ankles. She wore an embroidered leather top that reached over one shoulder. The other shoulder had a pauldron and over her waist was a belt made of metal disks. She wore leather gloves and a brown ankle-length skirt. She kind of reminded Roxy of an American Indian like Pocahontas except Pocahontas was not a fairy. This woman had large light blue glittering butterfly wings.
"And who are you?" Roxy asked. She straightened up; readying herself for whatever destiny would throw at her next. She needed to take control of what was happening to her and the first step would be to understand what was going on.
The Native American woman looked up surprised.
"You heard me, Roxanna?"
"You can call me Roxy but yeah, I heard you."
The woman was speechless. Roxy saw her mouth try to form words but none came out. After a long time, the tanned girl approached her with unsure bare feet.
"Roxanna, I am Sokanon. I was the Fairy of Animals, your predecessor."
"I-I don't understand. You are my predecessor?" Roxy said in disbelief. Sokanon had guided her to a large mossy stone and they sat on it.
"Before you, there was me, Roxanna. I was the Fairy of Animals. I was born in 1320 and—"
"Please, just stop!" Roxy said. "You were the Fairy of Animals. You're saying that you came before me. What does this mean about me?" The pink-haired girl pointed to herself.
"Roxanna, I am dead." Sokanon held her by the shoulders and Roxy shivered as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown on her. Sokanon's touch was as cold as death and her being emanated a ghostly aura. "It means that you are the Fairy of Animals."
"Why me?" Roxy felt like those two words were insufficient at expressing the many thoughts in her mind. "So I'm the Fairy of Animals. I…wow…that's really out there…"
"You accept it?" Sokanon said surprised.
"I don't have much of a choice."
"That's good because there is much I want to do before something takes you away from me. Right now, you are on the plane of the dead, the void, but I know that you are not dead. If we had time, I would teach you myself or let discover you powers on your own but we don't have that luxury…Roxy…right?"
The pink-haired fairy nodded with a smile.
Honestly, deep inside of her, she still hated being a fairy. There was no point in hiding it but there was no point in fighting it either. She was what she was and she could not change it. It was just so confusing. Finding out that she was a princess (hypothetically, of course) would have been so much easier to deal with than being a fairy.
"But how is 'animals' a power? It's not like water or fire or plants." Roxy rubbed her hot neck with one hand to show her nervousness. "What kind of spells do I get from that?"
Sokanon looked at Roxy in disbelief. "Roxy, you're a fairy, not a warrior. We shouldn't take sides, especially if our affinity is something as important as animals."
"What can we do exactly?"
"Don't you know already?" Sokanon said expectantly.
Roxy became puzzled. "Know what?"
"Can you feel it in your bones the urge to sing with the birds and explore the places you've seen a thousand times in a completely new way?"
Roxy looked to her for further explanation.
"Have you ever felt more connected to animals than you thought was normal?"
An unsettling feeling started to creep up Roxy's spine. She wanted to say something and but she was not sure what to say. "Yes…?"
"You don't sound confident."
"It's just I don't know how to go about this," Roxy paused to collect her thoughts. "What do I say to my dad? How do I explain…?"
Sokanon looked ahead into the abyss of the garden. Butterflies fluttered from flower to flower. "A parent's, a human's, love is eternal," she spoke from some deep-seeded experience. "Klaus may not understand, but I do think he will. He loves you unconditional but you make it sound like you are alone. Klaus, no what or where, will be there with you."
"Dad?" Roxy gasped at the sight of her father who was walking towards her in the garden, smiling and unwounded. His arm was not in a sling. Roxy frowned at the sight.
"An image of your father, Roxanna, but all the same." Sokanon gestured to the illusion and broke into a sweat. "Klaus will always love you no matter what. That is the love of a parent but he is not the only one."
Behind Klaus's legs, Artu trotted to Roxy's feet, sat and placed his muzzle on Roxy's knee. He was warm and alive as ever and she patted him. He whimpered in concern.
"Artu loves you. He may not be able to speak in a language that you can understand but he loves you. There isn't only him though, Roxy. Look."
Roxy gasped as animals of every kind in closed in on them: lions, tigers, elephants, bears, wolves, leopards, deer, moose, swarms of insects, dragons, griffins, chimeras, unicorns, pegasi and every creature imaginable from the animal kingdom and mythology. She almost fainted when she saw a tarantula crawl up her lap. Sokanon held her down tight and gently took the tarantula off of Roxy and placed it on her own lap.
"As the Fairy of Animals, every creature will defend you if you defend them."
Roxy bathed in the warmth and love from every creature, getting a feeling of confidence and reassurance and smiled.
Sokanon looked around worriedly. "I'm sorry if I can't take more time to explain and teach you everything, Roxy, but I must be quick. I don't know how we met or how long I have but we must make the most of this meeting."
Roxy sobered up as the images of the animals faded. Klaus and Artu disappeared. "What's going to happen?"
"I know that the wizards of the Black Circle are after you and I don't know how to destroy them. I don't know how they got their immortality but it is wrong and it cannot be. All I can do is give you the means to defend yourself from them until you can find out how to beat them. Give me your hands." Sokanon forced Roxy's hands into fists and enveloped them into Sokanon's freezing hands. "What I'm going to do is dangerous. I'm going to give you knowledge that you should learn on your own but we don't have the luxury of time. It's going be like steroids and most likely painful. Are you willing to take it? For the sake of the animals, for the sake all the humans on Earth? You are strong, Roxy. You just need to see it for yourself.
"You are in good hands. Follow you instincts and trust the people you believe are good and you won't be wrong."
"Yes, I'll try."
She placed her fore against Roxy's and whispered a nonsensical prayer.
Roxy felt her mind pound as Sokanon chanted. It was like something was invading her and setting up permanent roots in her spirit. Roxy shivered. She heard a thousand sounds, hearing dead words as if they were natural to her. She thought she heard angel's singing in her head.
Roxy clenched her fist tightly. She wanted to pull her forehead away from Sokanon but could not. Sokanon was freezing cold to the touch that it burned. It was like a thousand little creatures were entering her mind and settling in some dark corner. She felt raw magic flow from Sokanon's head arms up her own.
At last, the pain subsided and Sokanon pulled away from her.
"What did you do?" Roxy asked, holding her head.
"I gave you the power to speak to animals. You will need it, if you are the Fairy of Animals," Sokanon said, extremely tired. Sokanon glowed palely, her aura turning slightly pale. "Unfortunately, I do not know the language of every creature on Earth. I only learnt the ones that I met and now you have assimilated them, Roxy. I feel weak."
Roxy held the woman by the shoulders before she fell. "Sokanon, you said that you were born in 1320. What does—?"
"I am dead, Roxy. I am a ghost and I have been for several centuries. I have been waiting for you to be born," Sokanon breathed heavily, as if talking was an incredible effort. "They say that an affinity hallows out a piece of our spirit and throws that piece of us into the void to wait for us to return after death. The affinity takes residence in that hole in our soul and guides us during our stay on Earth."
"You're not going to fade away, are you?"
"No, no, I cannot be reborn until I find that missing part of my spirit. I am simply tired. I feel that someone has been working, that there is a greater scheme. Roxy, do you remember what happened when the White Circle tampered your memories?"
"No." Roxy had no recollection of what had happened when Sky, Bloom and Asta had ventured into her mind. It had felt like she had a fairly short nap but that nap happened to have lasted for several days.
"I went in and saw the memories for myself. I saw that even in the memories that there were signs of tampering, even the witch received signs."
"The witch? You mean Asta? Is she bad or good?" Roxy's heart constricted at the thought. Who was there that she could trust?
"Bad? No. I can't tell. She's dark but…light, I feel. Good intentions. It's hard to discern her with one word. Part of our ability as the Fairy of Animals is to judge a creature's heart but Asta is not from Earth, yet she seems like she could be. As we go through life, you'll see there is so much that we don't understand. And the only thing we know is things don't always go the way we planned but you'll see every day that we'll never turn away.
"Take her lessons. Stay away from the Black Circle. Just make sure that what you decide is what you want. Asta will try to influence you. One more thing, as the Fairy of Animals, you will be able to see beyond what is in front of you. You will see the planet in a way that no human or animal sees it."
Without warning, a mist rolled in on a strong wind, making Roxy shielded against the gust.
"What are you doing to me?" Roxy heard Sokanon say. "I can't leave yet!"
Roxy lowered her arms and found herself in a fog so dense that she could not the flowers around her. Sokanon had disappeared.
"Sokanon!"
"It is time to go back to Asta, Roxy."
Asta had moved Roxy's body away from the lake and had her laid down on a tarpaulin. She had a hand on the pink-haired girl's forehead, trying to read her mind. Roxy's mind had been alarmingly silent, almost dead or at least unoccupied by a soul and Asta panicked until Roxy sat straight up and abruptly hitting Asta.
Roxy's mind was foggy. "Asta?"
The witch straightened up. "I'm here. Where were you, Roxy?"
Roxy rubbed her eyes and they fell onto the lake with the brown water. She did not feel any different but suddenly, she saw the lake differently.
The lake surface was littered with rotting fish and fallen vegetation. The leaves of the trees around them were wilting and black on the branches and the bark had started to fall off the trees with unnatural tumour growths on them. Some were small as a fist and some were huge as a beach ball, some of them were secretion a strange liquid like pus. Death radiated from the lake. The black coot that had been swimming was suddenly drowning in the rancid water.
The birds wails were akin to a child in mortal pain to Roxy.
"The bird!" Roxy pointed. "It's going to drown! We have to save it."
Asta turned and looked at the coot. "What about you?"
"Asta!"
Asta flew over the lake and plucked the waterfowl. She returned to Roxy in less than a minute. The witch put the bird on the ground. It, no, he waddled on the ground exhausted.
"Thank you," the black bird whispered.
Roxy jumped back, surprised. It spoke to her?
Exhausted, the bird ceased to struggle on its legs, fell to its side and died.
Asta looked to the side, wishing she was not there. The witch struggled to keep a straight face but she seemed be battling an inner turmoil of her own: she was hearing the bird's thoughts as it died. Unexpectedly, she picked up the dead bird and threw it into the bush, with a haunted look in her eyes.
"Asta!"
"The bird was poisoned by the lake water and the lake water is being polluted by something. We must leave now, Roxy."
Roxy looked at the lifeless lake. They folded the blue tarpaulin she had been sitting on and set out for their campsite. Roxy was even more troubled.
"You reacted worst than I thought that you would," Asta said, referring to when Roxy fainted. They were back at their campsite. "The lake was not like that when I went and scouted ahead a few days ago and you were not supposed to faint at the sight of it. As someone who practises magic, it is important to be in intimately tuned with nature. Not just like Flora, but to see yourself as a bigger piece of the puzzle. Something is accelerating the process at the lake." Asta seemed to be talking more to herself than to Roxy.
Roxy kept silent about the coot. She had tried to get an explanation out of the witch: "I read minds whether I like it or not. I may not completely understand the thoughts of all creatures but death is universal. It is a creature's passion to keep living that is terrifying; it's fiercer than a dragon protecting its eggs. It's like the screaming of…I can't describe it and I'm glad that I can't. I faint every time I visit graveyards or places of death because there are so many restless souls."
Asta gathered some things from their various backpacks and Roxy watched. "So what are we going to do?"
Asta unclipped her knife and magnesium block. She piled the tinder in the fire pit, shaved some curls of magnesium and lit it all on fire. She feed the fire small pieces of wood. "You are going to watch the fire while I search for more wood. Burn the fire slowly at first, like a lazy fire. Someone might come to check up on us around dinner before we crash for the night. Think about the third principle: learn; the fourth is used what you have learnt and the fifth is to attain balance in all things."
Roxy got up to argue. "Where are you going?" The fairy had a feeling that Asta was not going to look for wood but Asta was already dashing through the foods at breakneck speed, bouncing like ball in a pinball machine from tree to tree.
The witch returned to the lake and felt a feeling of nausea looking the direction that she threw the coot. She had returned to the lake because the lake's state was more than just terrible, it was wrong and she knew that it would only get worst unless something was done.
She did not mean to desecrate or disturb any creature's body after death; it is just that she could not handle it. The coot was still clinging to its dead body, like a restless ghost. Its presence was a suffocating aura of white-hot screams. Death by itself was not the thing that made Asta weak, it was the lingering feeling of why a creature fought death that made her sick. Its passion to stay alive was so overwhelming that it made her weak with madness.
Reading thoughts was her ability that she had no control over. She could only filter thoughts she interpreted but she knew that if she opened her mind for the full onslaught of a city's worth of thoughts or the complex thoughts of a being that was superior to her, madness would touch her mind from her inability to decipher.
The howling of the dead was all over the lake but it was not strong enough that even a regular magicless human could pick up on the supernatural activity. Asta felt uneasy but proceeded nonetheless. She pulled out a small candy from her pocket unwrapped it. She pulled on a silver finger armour ring that covered her whole index finger and ended with a point, like a pronounced claw.
Asta dropped the candy into the water, as an offering to the nymph. The candy was swallowed up by the rancid water. "I am Astrid Stryker, a witch. I implore you limnatide, nymph of the lake, to reveal yourself." A shimmering blue and green nimbus appeared around the witch as she compelled the nymph to talk to her.
The water gurgled and it made a disturbing sight as rotting fish was pushed to the shore on waves. A stench was released by the fish.
"I wish to know what happened to this lake," Asta continued. "I have given you an offering and my name; therefore you return the offer with your name and an answer."
The dirty polluted water boiled and the ground shook. It rose like a pillar to form a feminine human-like form. Its body was made of the vile water, on its head was a pile of decaying branches and foliage for hair and the remains of animals and other pollutants could be seen inside its body moving about like in a circulatory system.
"I am Eufemia," it said in a gurgled voice.
"Your offering is sufficient. You are not of this planet," Eufemia deemed. Eufemia, despite her decaying form, had the personality of a robot. "South of this lake is a refuge for human waste. Its poison reaches far."
"The nearest city is hours away. Why aren't you doing anything?"
"Why would I? The Black Circle is powerful and has control of this planet's flow magic. They have stolen all of the souls of Earth except for those trapped in the White Circle and one free moving soul."
"Roxy."
"Yes, but I should tell that even I am controlled by the Black Circle."
Asta leapt back in alarm as Eufemia's decaying form melded back into the water. The wretched liquid swirled and bubbled and from it, a black clothed form stepped out. His Mohawk hair cut was brushed so that it covered one bald side of his head and he wore a black linen suit. Duman frowned at the sight before him, adjusting a pair of cufflinks.
"What stupidity, they send children to do an adult's work. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?" Duman glanced Asta's teenage appearance.
"What did you do to Eufemia?" Asta could hear her blood pumping in anxiety. To her, Duman was menacing but not as a wizard who could fell her in one sweep of a clawed hand but as a terrifying adult whose approval mattered. Duman looked like he had just stepped out of some executive business meeting. Her first instinct was to run but that would be stupid because she might lead him to Roxy. Despite his not-so-terrifying appearance, he looked utterly annoyed at her presence, as if she had interrupted something.
"Not that it matters anymore but I got rid of the nymph centuries ago. You should be running from me, Miss Stryker."
Asta stood her ground. She ached to throw a bolt of energy at him but that would be stupid as well. She had no idea how powerful he was but she had gathered from the trip in Roxy's mind that Duman, as a member of the Black Circle, had stolen the powers of fairies and killed them off. That meant that he was a dozen, maybe a hundred times more powerful than one fairy. She did not want to test his powers.
"You're the cause for enmity for the Winx Club but it seems that they had left the Earth a day ago, at least. I can't sense their magic anywhere on this planet. That's all fine as long as they haven't taken the last fairy. Tell me, Asta Stryker, have they?"
"I will not tell you." Asta tried to read Duman's mind but his thoughts were hard to pick up on. His thoughts were spoken in a language that she did not know.
"You won't tell me or you don't know, Miss Stryker? I know the subtle differences. Tell me what you know and I'll let go with your life. I can't imagine why you're in the middle of the Apennines, anyways," he said impatiently.
Asta hesitated. She was put off by his not-so-menacing attitude. It was like she was a mere chore that Duman had to deal with and then he could get on to more important things. "I don't know where she is."
Duman scrutinized her with shrewd eyes. He stepped across the surface of the water until he was standing on the shore. As he moved forward, she moved back into the forest wanting to keep a certain amount of distance between them.
"Let's pretend for a moment that I believe you, Miss Stryker.
"Who are you? Asta Stryker? A witch from another world? I'm sure that there's more than that. I've travelled the universe and I've seen Magix. Magix is a vulgar city full of indulgence, squalor and decay like Paris or Rome, no better than what we have here on Earth. I saw the Trix's invasion and how the Army of Decay rose. I saw the fall of the kingdom of Sparks and the many wars that ensued when they thought their god the Dragon had abandoned them forever. A person's story is not as simple as one thinks when one has lived as long as I have."
The longer Duman spoke about his experiences, the more worried Asta became. She could idly stand still when Roxy's threat stood so near. "What do you want from me?"
"I want to know why you are here. What do you have to gain by being with the Winx Club and the King of Eraklyon? You must admit that you keep some very good company. A lot of princesses, a prince, a squire, a king and I suppose that even those others that I don't know have noble titles? They pretty much all come from Magix's top schools so it can only be assumed—"
"Why do you care about me?" she said defensively. She looked for a goal in the man's ploy. Was he stalling for time? There was no magical activity from Roxy's end but if she had decided to run and check, she would lead Duman to Roxy anyways. The best she could do was stay put and stall for time, at least until the team that supposed to check up on them at dinner arrived.
"Entertain an old man, why don't you?"
Duman gestured nonchalantly at the forest around him. All of a sudden, life was brought back to the lake and forest around it. The wretched water was clean and clear of debris. Fish swam, birds sang, flowers bloomed and trees were suddenly reinvigorated with life. Asta was unnerved by such nonchalant display of magic. Two chairs and a table appeared beside them and Duman offered her a seat like a gentleman would. Nervous, she sat. He sat across from her, unfazed by the entire situation.
A tray with a carafe of coffee and cups appeared. "Coffee?" he offered.
Asta tried to relax and think clearly. She was a witch of good breeding but she was not a Cloud Tower witch. She was not trained in the dark arts like Griffin's witches. She was a witch! Born of good blood and proud ancestry! She could do deal with Duman.
"I prefer tea."
"I can only offer you green tea. I'm not a tea connoisseur." A pot of tea appeared floating in the air and poured its contents into the cup before her.
Asta murmured her thanks and drank. She did not know what to make of Duman. He was a walking paradox: he had no qualms about destroying people and things but he was the perfect gentleman.
Duman noticed her finger claw which shone in the sunlight. It was set rubies and diamonds. On the ring was the symbol of a dragon's head. The dark wizard reached for the witch's hand abruptly to Asta's alarm.
"I have seen this dragon before, with its fangs dripping blood." He read the inscription around it. "Justus et pius. Just and faithful. Word to live by, Miss Stryker. How did you come upon this piece? Just before coming back to Earth, I was in Magix speaking to a man called the Strigoi."
Asta pulled her hand back hastily. "It's nothing special."
Duman seemed to have sunk his teeth into something juicy, judging from the witch's reaction. "Forget the ring, Miss Stryker. The better question is to ask who are you and what are you really doing here on Earth?"
Asta stiffened in fear.
A helicopter crossed the sky and Asta's heart stopped at the sight. She dared not send a thought to them or else her eyes would glow with magic and it would alert Duman that something was going on.
Duman followed her eyes. He looked at Asta thoughtfully. "A helicopter. A little far from where you would expect them. I bet that chopper belongs to your king, no? It's the kind of vehicle that I would expect that you would need on Earth, considering he is a Red Fountain graduate. Isn't it odd how their histories are smeared all across the universe, Miss Stryker? I'm sure your father would have something to say about you joining Eraklyon."
"How—!"
"My dear, I know most certainly know who are. Daughter of Eckhart Stryker, the Strigoi! What a coincidence that I got out of meeting with him."
Asta cursed and got up to run. Duman smiled as the earth swallowed Asta's feet, preventing her from escaping. Duman grabbed her arm and made her face him.
"Don't you want to know why I was meeting with your father, Miss Stryker?" the dark wizard antagonized.
The table, the chair and pristine forest disappeared as the decaying woods returned. Asta was knee-deep in mud that releasing a noxious gas. She struggled to keep her balance as both of her legs were stuck and Duman kept an iron grip over her arm.
Duman continued, "I was in a business meeting with your father. The Black Circle has decided that to deal with Eraklyon's legion on Earth, we will need a legion of our own. We're powerful but we simply can't waste our time dealing with a platoon of paracommandos every time. Don't make me hurt the daughter of the man who I just struck a deal with.
"Instead, let me offer you something better: join the Black Circle and I will guarantee that we will never harm you. We need a woman's touch and I sense that you might be the one who can help us as we dawn upon a new era on Earth. After all, you are the Strigoi's daughter. I'm sure he would approve."
With animal-like senses, Duman turned to listen to the cracking of wood. Trees started to tumble down like dominoes until one large cedar started falling towards them. Duman raised a hand and blasted the tree away, creating a storm of smoke, dust and splinters of wood.
Helia burst out of the dust and flew at Duman with Riven's sword. The wizard backed away from Asta to evade the sword and Asta freed herself from her earthly shackle. Cornered between several fallen trees, Helia raised the sword to strike the fatal blow until at the last moment, Riven's blade cut black smoke.
"Let's get out of here, Asta!" Helia breathed harshly and tried to swat away the dust in his eyes.
The witch and specialist ran through the forest and finally leapt up to the top of a tree. Above them, the chopper hovered steadily and a harness line was thrown down. Helia attached himself and was pulled into the helicopter. Asta flew after him. The sound of the choppers blades were deafening. Their hearts were racing, wanting to run away as soon as possible.
Duman trailed after Asta in his miasmic form and finally coalesced himself between the witch and the chopper.
"Get out of my way! Psychic thunder!" Asta roared. She threw a bolt of lightning at Duman with all her anger, a concentrated and fatal shot. Duman absorbed it in one hand and threw it back at her with the other. Before she could register anything, Asta faced her own attack and blacked out from the incredible electric and white-hot pain.
"Asta!" Helia shot his laser strings out from the chopper to catch her body. He screamed when the threads found purchase and became taut with weight. He struggled to pull Asta up.
Two black portals flanked Duman and he summoned dark winged human shapes from black portals.
In the helicopter, Roxy gasped in terror and held on for dear life as Riven swerved the chopper. The sound of the blades was deafening even with the protective headphones on. The men had spotted trouble on their way and told Roxy to put out the fire and board the chopper as quickly as possible, leaving most of the equipment behind.
"Daemons?" Roxy heard Riven say on the headset. Riven concentrated on keeping the chopper steady but he could not help his eyes being drawn to Duman and the leathery winged angels.
The first daemon flew into the helicopter and crowded the artist with its wings and imposing body. It was male with opalescent skin, black as soot hair and red eyes. Sheer terror and instincts compelled Roxy to stay silent and hide. Instincts told her that she was in the presence of a hunter, a killer, an unmerciful being that would readily kill her for filthy lucre.
This being's appearance screamed, "Demon, the Devil's angel!"
She could not help but be drawn in to look at it still. It was doing nothing. Just standing and watching Helia struggle with Asta's dead weight. She was drawn to its wings. They were bat wings with a grey tint.
Without warning, she caught sight of a swishing forked tail, like she had always imagined on the Devil. It swung side to side like a cat's tail. The thing raised a hand and took its time as foot-long claws protruded from his fingers, intent on swiping Helia.
Terrified, Roxy shot a bolt of blue energy at it. It stumbled in the cramp space and almost fell out before catching a railing handle to stay right. Embolden, Roxy pelted another blue ball of magic at him but this time, the daemon swatted it away like a fly.
Helia felt his threads swing dangerously, becoming taut and lose in alarming intervals and then, he heard the strings snap.
At the sound, the daemon flew out of the chopper to Duman's side. The second demon held Asta's limp body in its arms.
"Helia, we're gonna have to leave her behind if we don't get outta here. We're outnumbered three to one!" Riven said.
Caught in a difficult decision, Helia cursed as he slid the chopper door closed and found his seat beside Riven to pilot the Earth vehicle back to Gardenia.
"We can't leave Asta behind!" Roxy screamed.
"I know," Helia said. Roxy could hear an underlying sadness in the artist's voice.
"But we have to," Riven said.
Helia turned back to look at the lake, their impromptu theatre of war, and found that Duman and the two summoned daemons had disappeared along with Asta.
Latter Note: You cannot imagine how many times this has been rewritten. Because I took longer to write this, I compressed what would have been ten chapters worth of story (I think).
On a bright note, I have been accepted to both language programs at the French and English cegeps that I applied to. Now, I'm torn up about which one I want.
Forum pimping: Winx Writers Anonymous: Three other authors and I are starting a round robin fanfic prequel to the Winx Club. It's about how Domino/Sparks fell, the Three Witches, Dafne, etc. If you have suggestions, go to the forum or contact Stills and Photographs, Chibi Horsewoman, rogue-scholar07 or me.
Ciao!