A Long Ways From Home

Chapter Twelve: Welcoming Waters

Under the panic, Emily does not realize that she is alone until she cannot hear the Piken.

"Cody?! Stela?!" she shouts in the middle of the woods surrounded by only trees and bush, wanting to make sure the others are near and also getting to safety. "Where are you?!"

Then there is a figure emerging from behind a tree, from the way she just came. A figure matching nowhere near one of the Garde allies, but one that closely resembles another soldier. He is pale with dark clothes, a similar cannon in his hands. He stands at least fifty feet away, and still, Emily can see the darkness in his eyes.

She doesn't stop to fight. Only continues running in the direction that leads away from the house and away from the beast and Mogs. Though as she runs and as she breathes, she releases an icy mist. A fog of breath courtesy of her temperature control, and alters the air behind and around her. She spreads it out far enough to reach the Mogs behind.

She isn't sure if it's working, but she can hear them following her still. Pursuing her like she is a prime target that obstructs universal domination. She supposes that is what they think of her as.

Nevertheless, she keeps running, sprinting, her legs burning with exhaustion but too desperate for safety to stop. Until eventually the trees fade out. Becoming fewer and fewer, and she comes across a lake.

A lake that has to be about a hundred feet in width and stretches a couple of miles in length, with a hilly landscape on the far side. If she weren't trying to survive, she'd almost find the scenery beautiful. But this is a war she is in. And with war comes battles and survival.

Though without the others – how she hopes they are safe – trying to fight them all on her own means certain death. Especially against any number of Piken they have. Her Chest is back at the house. She suddenly regrets ever leaving without it. Under the urgency that has befallen them all, they could only think to run and reach either safety or better odds. Have the others considered the same that she had? Have they gone back to the house to retrieve their Chests? Emily wonders if it's worth going back now. She could get her Loric Chest and use the blue and orange stones to summon a vortex of extreme frosty air enough to freeze an opponent. Or use the orange stone to create a heat wave so strong that gives the soldiers heat stroke within the first 30 seconds of impact. She curses herself for not being as decisive as she could've been.

Though her thoughts are interrupted when she feels the ground rumble beneath her feet. A strong seismic wave from the woods to her right. Immediately following a bolt of lightning from the cloudy skies above. Chenoa and AJ. They're in trouble!

"Chenoa! AJ! Hold on! I'm coming!" Emily shouts and races along the edge of the rippling water's edge and back into the woods at her side. However just before she enters the thicket of green oak trees, a nasty tall Mogadorian stops her in her tracks.

He laughs a deep mocking laugh as others come out near, and speaks in a deep gruff voice, "Where do you think you're going?"

It doesn't take her long to realize that she has heard his voice before. It doesn't take her long to realize who he is. His bod is strong; he is bigger than most, in tone and in height. His eyes are dark, skin is pale, hair is a tousled brown. There is blood on his face and a gash on his cheek spilling wet dark blood – she thinks its blood anyway. He carries the same gleaming sword as before; it is glowering a deep divine blue.

He is the one that took Mae. He is the one that killed Katarina. And now, he is here to kill her.

She backs away.

The others form a perimeter, making running in any direction impossible. Meaning if she tried it meant death. The line of forest and calming water behind suddenly becomes all too quiet. Any animals, birds, insects, rabbits, or creatures that lives in the wild gone. Their breathing the only thing she can hear, hasty and demeaning.