Fallen Fire | The Isle of the Wyverns

Chapter Seven

After Alethea had finished eating, she went and stood outside the pavilion, waiting for her friends to join her. After minutes of looking at the crashing sea, Aesira and Altan came walking up to her. Alethea waved to her friends as they walked over to her and without preamble, said "What do you mean by 'all magic items are allowed?'" The other two blinked at her. "I mean, in the capture the flag rules!" she added, slightly impatiently. Altan clapped his forehead and exclaimed "I forgot! Today's Friday! Alethea's right! We do play capture the flag today! I bet you heard it from Arius." Aesira nodded and said "I'll show you what they mean by magical objects Alethea. But let's go towards the woods. I don't want anyone to see this. Alethea turned towards Altan, expecting some recognition of this odd behavior, but Altan too looked as clueless as she did. After getting to the edge of the forest, Aesira looked around and pulled up her gauntlet to reveal 2 bracelets on her wrist. One was a thin silver chain with a diamond studded, also silver, infinity charm whereas the other was a twisted silver bracelet with 7 assorted charms on it. There was a translucent teardrop like jewel, a silver iron sword, a shining crescent moon, a black feather, a silver willow tree, two black entwined serpents and one white owl.

Aesira saw Alethea staring at it and then said, "For every year you're with camp New Moon, you get a charm to remember something memorable from that particular year." Alethea mused silently and then said "Something tells me that you don't want me asking what exactly happened those years" Altan and Aesira both answered, "Exactly" knowing how long winded she was, and also, not wanting to get pulled back into the past. Alethea smirked and said "Okay, back to my first question." and Aesira nodded and said, "Watch this" she then clutched the silver infinity charm and after a few seconds, disappeared. Alethea stood gobsmacked, staring at the place her friend had been. Altan too stood there looking dazed. After a moment, Alethea said "It must be pretty easy to win capture the flag with that." and then grinned at the air and experienced the unique sensation, that was air grinning back.

Aesira re-materialized once again saying, "I wish. It appears that you'd have to be pretty thick to not see a flag drifting off into thin air." Alethea chuckled as Altan said, breaking off her laughter abruptly. "We need to find Alethea's weapon. Everyone's still at lunch, the weaponry will be empty. Alethea can practice while avoiding any er...accidents." he concluded somewhat hesitantly. Aesira nodded and together, the threesome made their way out of the forest. Alethea then asked, "Who gave you that bracelet anyway? The invisibility one?" She looked up and answered, "It was a tenth birthday gift from my mother." Nodding, Alethea stoll a look at Altan who was gazing wistfully at Alethea's bracelet and Alethea wondered what his story could be.

The weaponry turned out to be a large open area, about the size of a fairly large killer whale. As Aesira and Altan beckoned her to follow them inside, Alethea was immediately blinded by bright light. Once the aftershock had worn off, Alethea, blinking, finally adjusted her eyes to the brightness, soon realised that the light was coming from tall windows that reflected thousands upon thousands of gleaming weapons. Altan stood next to her and said "Here, we are going to help you find a weapon that suits you best." Alethea nodded as Aesira passed her a sharp, curved and evil looking dagger. "Try and disarm me." she said. Alethea, feeling rather foolish, tried to pull Aesira's dagger away from her using the curved tip of her own, but instead ended up almost goring the latter's eye out.

Shaking her head firmly, Aesira took the dagger from Alethea's hands and placed it to the side. Altan then passed her a long bronze sword. "Give it a swing." he had said, and Alethea swung the sword and was inches away from beheading Altan as he jumped away at the last second. "Absolutely not." Alethea said, passing Aesira the sword. "I'll say." Altan laughed as he and Aesira began fantasizing about what weapon her's would be. After moments of growing tired of listening to their voices, Alethea's eyes fell upon a quiver full of battered, but intact, shining bronze arrows. Stealing a glance at her friends, Alethea hurried over to the arrows and picked up the bow. It seemed to be made for her, the curve fitting right into the curve of her hand. Placing an arrow onto the string, Alethea aimed towards a wooden dart board attached up against the wall and let go of the string. With a soft 'Twang' the arrow lodged itself right into the middle of the center circle. "Woah." came a voice from behind her.