How could she be the one? I mean look at her!
Her hair was plain brown, no extra colors, no ombre, nothing. And her eyes—what kind of green was that? And again, not even another color? Not to mention she’s broken, thinks she’s dead, and brought another human with her!44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeiPPBCW3eW
And the worst of all. Brax likes her. As in more than friends. She doesn’t even know who Brax is, yet he acts like they’ve known each other forever and have a deeper connection than we do.
It makes me mad. He thinks I don’t know, too. As if he doesn’t make it obvious.
Mr. Yarrowood sat down in his seat, and I sat down on the couch. Brax joined me as Kaitlyn, and the other girl shared the sofa chair. The two of them looked awkward and nervous, the other girl more than Kaitlyn though.
I stared at the girl—Amonda or Emanda or something. What color hair was that? We don’t have that color here. It looked like a pale yellow that was stripped of its color, and then someone tried to paint it back on. When she saw me staring, her eyes widened, and her cheeks filled with color.
I looked away when Mr. Yarrowood cleared his throat. We all turned to look at him. “So, I guess I should start with why you are here.” He said Kaitlyn, and the other girl nodded slowly.
“The most simplistic way to put this is that you are the ‘chosen one’ in a sense. Or the ‘savior of our world’.” Mr. Yarrowood said, looking at Kaitlyn. She pointed a finger at herself, mouthing a ‘me?’.
Kaitlyn gave a small and awkward laugh, widening her eyes at the girl. Did she really think this was some sort of joke?
I knew she wasn’t the right one.
“Yeah…Okay.” Kaitlyn glanced at the girl again. She seemed to be in the same awkward disbelief that Kaitlyn was.
“I mean it, you are the one who is going to save us and our world.” Mr. Yarrowood stood and walked to his small kitchen in the back.
“Sorry for the confusion, but I’m not—in any world—the ‘chosen one’,” she said, putting up air quotes. “Tea?” Mr. Yarrowood offered. The girls said no, but Brax and I got a cup.
Mr. Yarrowood looked out the window for a moment, in which a thick silence fell upon everyone. "Hm, it seems like it’s getting late. How about I show you why you’re here, hm? It could help explain things much faster if you understand our past.”
He then stood, opened the door, and left. There was a moment of silence before Brax awkwardly said, “Er, I think we follow.” He stood up and held the door open for us.
I stood and left. When I exited the cabin, a light breeze hit me. My ponytails swayed lightly; I watched as Mr. Yarrowood walked to the water basin.
It was like a large stone bowl that collected water whenever it rained. Mr. Yarrowood had set it up a few years ago when Brax had begun tunneling more.
I walked up next to him. “Mr. Yarrowood?” I asked, looking at him and then down at the water.
“Zeva,” he turned to me, his one eye looking deep into my soul, like he knew my every thought. I am aware that she may not appear right now, but in time, she will. Don’t you worry yourself.” He has this way of predicting what I’m going to say; maybe it’s just because we’ve been together for so long.
My dad had died when I was young, and after a few months, my mom had decided I was too much of a burden for her to care for by herself. One day, she found Mr. Yarrowood at a shop, and she asked him to hold me for a moment, and he had said yes.
Then she left and didn’t come back.
I looked wistfully into the water. Sometimes I wish my mother died instead of my dad. I bet he would’ve cared for me. He would’ve given me a great childhood, and we’d play with our beasts together, and I’d bring friends over from school.
It would’ve been amazing.
My dreams were interrupted by light whispers. I looked behind me and saw Kaitlyn, Brax, and the other girl. Kaitlyn was whispering to her as she looked around, squinting. Brax was watching them, or more specifically, Kaitlyn.
Kaitlyn’s eyes flicked to Brax for a moment, and then her face crinkled. “Why are you staring at us?” She asked, leaning a little closer to the other girl, who also moved away slightly.
Brax started to blush, and his eyes shot towards the ground. “U-um, s-sorry.” He stuttered. I couldn’t help but to turn and smirk a little.
“Okay…” Mr. Yarrowood mumbled after he saw we were all here. All attention turned to him as he pulled a silver pouch out of his pocket. He pulled out some of the orange powder, and I saw Kaitlyn staring at it the entire time.
That’s suspicious.
“Where we are going... It has turned into a sad place, like many others. I just want to warn the three of you.” He said to me and the girls. Had he taken Brax before?
The girls looked at each other nervously. Mr. Yarrowood lifted his hand up and shot the powder into the water, shouting, “Atmiņu pilsēta!”
A tunnel opened into the water. Mr. Yarrowood stepped up onto the basin wall and walked down the passage. Kaitlyn gave a loud gasp as he walked down with ease.
“Zeva, you go first. It’s their first time, so they’ll need help to stay balanced.” Brax told me. I nodded and went in. Water surrounded me as I walked a few steps and stopped. I didn’t want to help them, but Brax wanted me to, so I would.
I reached my hand out as the girl slowly got down, trying not to fall. She grabbed my hand lightly. “This is tight.” She said softly as we walked. I didn’t like that Brax was helping Kaitlyn. As if he needed to be with her even more.
He was without a doubt worse at hiding his likeness for her than I was for him.
“Don’t touch the water.” I heard Brax tell Kaitlyn not even a moment after I had gotten the girl down to the even part of the tunnel. “Why?” She asked; I didn’t have to see her face to know that she wanted to touch it badly.
“Because the passageway will collapse and suffocate us all.” I said flatly. “Hmmm.” I heard her hum. Was she planning something?
When we finally got out of the tunnel, a cold shiver ran down my spine as freezing air engulfed me. I looked around; it was foggy, and the stone buildings in the distance were crumbling on the ground. We were on stone ground that had cracks running through where little weeds poked through.
Goosebumps ran down my arms as I heard faint whispers. “I’m sorry… Come back… How dare you… I regret…” They were sad. I instinctively grabbed the handle of my katana on my belt. Just in case.
I turned to Kaitlyn and Brax; the girl had joined Kaitlyn again. Kaitlyn’s eyes were full of sadness, like being here brought back horrible memories. She looked back at the tunnel as it closed.
I turned away for a moment as Brax walked up next to me. My breath fogged in front of me as I exhaled.
“W-where are we?” The girl said, worry in her voice. I was waiting for Kaitlyn to say her name again so I could remember it this time, but she hadn’t yet.
“Atmiņu pilsēta. Or the City of Memories.” Mr. Yarrowood said. He took a step forward; his cane made a soft clunk sound when he walked.
I followed him, and the sound of everyone else following behind me added to the sound of Mr. Yarrowood’s cane. Brax joined next to me; I heard Kaitlyn whisper to the other girl as we walked.
“It used to be a happy place where people could store memories so that they never forgot them.” Mr. Yarrowood said, his back turned to us, and his voice seemed wistful as he peered at the remains of the city.
“U... used to?” Kaitlyn asked softly.
“Have you been here before?” I whispered to Brax as Mr. Yarrowood continued to drift in his thoughts. He nodded. “How’d you know?” He asked, our eyes meeting.
“Mr. Yarrowood didn’t warn you.” I said, glancing at the old man a few paces in front of us. Brax looked at the ground; his hands were in his pockets.
“What did he show you?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle as I formed a guess in my head.
He looked at me for a moment. The memory seemed to make him sad. “A memory of my parents.” He whispered. I wondered for a moment what memory it was and why Mr. Yarrowood showed him it.
“I thought he was going to show you one before Kaitlyn came. But I guess not.” He seemed to calm down a little, no longer as sad as he seemed when he mentioned the memory. Had it been a sad one?
Before I could reply, Mr. Yarrowood walked a few more paces and then stopped. Kaitlyn and Amanda joined Brax’s side to see the sight in front of us, Kaitlyn still leaning on Amanda for support.
There was a large stone platform that I hadn’t seen when we first exited the tunnel. Lines cracked throughout it. Four crumbled pillar bases surrounded it, with the remains degraded on the ground. In the middle of the platform was a round pedestal.
There was a slick marble bowl on top. It stood out among the rubble. On the ground in front of the pedestal were two holes in the shape of feet.
Mr. Yarrowood walked up to the pedestal and leaned his cane against it. He set his feet in the holes and reached into the bowl with one of his hands.
He held a smooth and thin black rock that he used the sharp tip of to scrape the inside of the bowl. Surprisingly, it made no sound, but when Mr. Yarrowood had finished, it glowed a light blue.
“It’s glowing…” Kaitlyn whispered, and I rolled my eyes. But that made me realize that we were all whispering even though there seemed to be no reason to. But the feeling of this place draped a blanket of silence on our words either way.
I turned my attention back to Mr. Yarrowood and watched as the light grew brighter until I had to squint to keep from blinding myself. Soon, there was a bright flash, and the crumbled buildings seemed to disappear as a translucent scene appeared around us.
It was all a pale blue, but you could easily make out shapes, animals, and soon people.
There was a small boy, about seven or eight. He was frowning and peering through a crack in an open door. A woman was crying on a seat, her face in her hands and her hair hanging around her lowered head.
Tears filled the boys’ eyes as he turned. He ran to a different room. I guess it was his bedroom because he grabbed a bag from a bed. For a moment all I could see was his back in front of us. He whispered goodbye, as if talking to us.
He slipped the bag on his shoulders and walked out of his room.
“Where do you think you’re going?” A man had stepped out in front of him. He was big, and the boy had to crane his neck to meet his seemingly evil eyes.
“I’m leaving. And you’re not going to stop me.” The child said, planting his feet firmly into the ground.
The man growled and reached to grab the boy. But the boy’s eyes started to glow. He lifted his hand up and a light shot out of it. There was a flash, and the man was gone.
All that remained was a pile of ash.
I watched in horror as it continued.
The boy looked a little frightened at his powers. He suddenly turned his head as a door opened. I could only see part of a frail woman who looked at the scene with a gasp.
“You’re welcome, Mother.” Said the boy, only ghosts of tears left in his eyes.
He walked out without another word.
Everything blurred, and for a second, I thought we were done.
I took this time to look at everyone. Brax had a distant face, his fists shoved in his pockets. Kaitlyn and her friend were watching in horror like I was, completely frozen.
I turned back as the scene changed. This time, there was a young man with a crazy smile standing in front of us, surrounded by a big field.
“Give it up, Aziz!” The evil man yelled to someone.
“You won’t get away with this.” A familiar voice said, most likely Aziz. I wondered where Aziz was because the scene didn’t show him.
“Cade. We don’t have to do this.” Aziz said, the scene shook a little. But Cades’ face turned angry. He ran toward us, but the scene moved away, and I got glimpses of shoes. It was then that I realized we were watching the memory from Aziz’s point of view, the way he saw it.
A dust cloud built up as they moved. Cade kept trying to hit Aziz, but he seemed to easily dodge. Then the scene stopped, and Cade ran toward Aziz once more. But he didn’t move.
I heard Aziz exhaling and wondered angrily why he wasn’t moving. Cade was inches from us now, and right when we moved, the blade of Cade’s sword pierced the transparent blue.
There were two cries of pain. The scene had been partially blocked now, and where it still showed the memory, it was a hand moving to and from the blue with a blue mass on Aziz’s hand. It wasn’t hard to tell it was blood.
Then the screen looked up. Aziz was looking at Cade, who was twitching on the ground. He had been shocked by Aziz.
Then, Cade started to laugh like a maniac. “You know… I’ve been practicing my magic... I should’ve done this at the start.” He staggered up. “But I wanted to see how long you would last.”
His eyes started to glow, and he started to shoot light out of his hands, just like the boy had. Aziz dodged, but it was slower than before, and I could hear pained grunts.
But then Cade fell to the ground. Behind him was a young girl. Her face was frightened, and she was holding a sword, the same that Cade had previously used.
Cade’s body fell to show a stab wound on his back, and the girl dropped the sword with him, her hands visibly shaking.
“Xantara!” Aziz yelled and tried to run to her. He barely made it a few steps before he collapsed and Xantara yelled, “Dad!” She ran to him. I assumed she put his head on her lap because all I could see was her worried face.
“Dad! It’ll be alright!” She started to cry as Aziz continued to look up at her, the scene darkening at points. “M-mom is b-bringing people to h-help.” Xantara stuttered.
“Okay…” He said it softly. “I-I knew you shouldn’t have gone. M-mom should’ve stopped you.” She continued to sob.
“Crystal, I would’ve gone no matter what... It had to be done.” Aziz pushed a strand of hair behind his daughter’s ear. Hadn’t he called her Xantara?
I noticed that Cades’ body had disappeared in the corner of Aziz’s vision. Mr. Yarrowood cleared his throat, and the scene switched again as if on command.
There was fire. Everywhere. On buildings, trees, everything.
And there stood Tumšais in the middle of the chaos. Smiling evilly to himself as screams filled my ears.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuYAo0gzQtI
---AUTHORS NOTE---44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsa0G2FVzch
Hi! I hope this was a good chapter! Little insight on Zeva. Well, I don't have anything else to say, so as usual, have a great day/night/endless abyss!44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8GnJjDxtYb
Bye!44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnaXqkry2D
---AUTHORS NOTE---44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb43BHcJL2E
