The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#143 And Now We Know

[Sophia]

Teri and I continued to make our way across the empty field. There wasn't enough water or any moisture for Teri to draw into to make another pair of wings and I was too tired to fly in general, or even have the strength to carry Teri if I wanted to. But it seemed very unlikely that we'd get attacked out here again so soon. That was... until we spotted shadows flying around us, making the both of us flinch and stop moving. We quickly looked at the sky, preparing to fight once again. But we relaxed immediately and sighed a breath of relief when we recognized the shadows.
"Hey, you guys! Up here!" the Twins called out to us. I waved to Apollo who waved back at me and waited for them to land close to us. They all ran up to us, immediately noticing that we were exhausted and a little beaten.
"What happened to you? Are you okay?" Apollo asked me.
"Yeah, I'm good. It's-"
"We were attacked by another shadow creature." Teri spoke ahead of me.
"What? Is that what all that screaming was? We could hear it all the way from the tree house."
"Yeah, and I'd be surprised if you didn't," I said quietly.
"Apollo, do you remember those bird creatures you fought?" Teri asked.
"Yeah. Those loud, screaming things that almost tore me in half?"
"Yes. Those are the same ones we fought. But this time, they merged into something bigger," Teri explained.
"They merged into each other?"
"Yeah! I've never seen them do that before. They literally just combined into this massive bird thing that chased us all the way out here. It almost got me too..." I added.
"What? What do you mean it got you? Are you okay?" Apollo began to worry.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay." I assured him.
"The creature grabbed Sophia and when I tried to go after her, it almost knocked me out of the sky. I was able to get her free and she was able to bring it down. For a moment I was worried it was gonna get me too." Teri continued.
"What were you two doing out here anyway?" the Twins asked.
"I asked Sophie to come with me to the lake so I could gather more ingredients to make medicine. I told you guys we'd be right back. We both had our weapons with us in case we got ambushed. And it seems that's exactly what happened." Teri explained in perfect detail. Apollo stepped in front of us, motioning us to follow him.
"C'mon, let's get out of here before any more come back to get us."
We silently agreed and returned to the tree house.

"I don't understand something..." Teri said as we sat down around the low table, "The creature went after you first. It's almost like it didn't pay any attention to me until you dropped your crystal. And when I threw it back to you, it just ignored me again. Doesn't that sound a little strange to you?"
I nodded, "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."
I wanted to bring up what happened when I went out the other day. But I didn't.
I wanted to tell her that when I got attacked, they only went after me when I lost my crystal and they tried to keep me from it so I couldn't fight back. But I didn't.
I don't know why.
"Sophie, you said when... the Demon had you, it was using your crystal to keep us away from you. You think those other creatures were trying to do the same thing?" Apollo thought out loud.
Something about that clicked in my head. "Yeah, I think you might be right about something. It's like they wanted to separate me from it before taking us down. Like... it knows that I'm powerless without it."
The Twins jumped off the platform of the tree house, Flyboy handing me and Apollo each a water bottle. Part of me was relieved to know that the mini fridge inside was working smoothly.
"Something else doesn't really make sense... If the Demon knows what it can do with the crystal, then how do the other monsters know that they need to go after Sophie?" they wondered.
"No, no, no, it does make sense. You don't get it," Apollo waved them off. "The Demon is the one that makes those monsters, then sends them off to go fight us. It only appeared to us in person because it was so desperate to get us. And every time we got away, it sent something bigger to hunt us down."
Teri and the Twins inhaled sharply at this realization.
"That's how it knows so much about us! That's how it's been watching us! Those creatures it sends out have been watching and waiting for us and attacking us when we're in the right place! Sophie! Sophie!"
"Huh?" I looked up at Teri.
"You still have that notebook with all the notes you take? The one with the little drawings?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I have it right here."
I pulled  my bag into my lap and started shuffling around until I found a small composition notebook and threw it on the table. Teri took it from me before I could open it and started flipping through the pages. She went through the timeline before laying it down flat on the table and pointing at my illustrations.
"See, look. Every time it ambushes us, it tried to separate us from each other so  it has a better chance of taking us out. It took Sophie, and tried to keep us away when we went to rescue her. And it took Apollo so Sophie didn't have a choice but to go after them. And all those other times, it's been going after us one by one in hopes that it can get rid of us before... before..."
"What? What is it?" Apollo asked. Teri turned her head away, thinking to herself.
"I don't know... we know the Demon is after us, but why? I think that's the only thing we don't know."
We sat in silence for a moment, contemplating this. Teri had to be right. The creatures, the planned attacks, getting us separated from each other. Chasing the Twins out of their home, destroying Teri's kingdom... it's trying to gather us in one place and take us out one by one. It all made sense.
But... why?

"Wait, you guys said the beast caught Sophie and only went after Teri when she caught her crystal. And then went back after Sophie when she got it back?" The Twins asked us.
"Um, yes?" Teri replied.
"What if it's going after Sophie's crystal?" Fleetfoot started.
"The Demon used it against us when it got Sophie."
"Now these creatures know that if they can get her crystal, Sophie won't be able to fight and they can use it against us again."
"And it has to take us out first because we're the only ones who can help her," Flyboy finished.
"That... yeah, I guess that makes sense." Apollo agreed.
"That power the Demon is searching for. Maybe it was looking for Sophie's crystal the whole time!" Teri thought out loud.
"Um... yeah, that does make sense, but the only thing it does for me is turn into a sword when I need to defend myself. That's all it's ever done." I added. I pulled the crystal out of my bag and turned it over in my hand. I felt everyone looking at it. I held it up to the light, turning it around at every angle.
"Are you sure that's all it does? You've never seen it do anything else?" the Twins asked.
"No, for as long as I've had this thing, it's done nothing but become a sword or a crystal," I replied.
"Can you try and see if it'll turn into anything else?" Teri wondered.
"I don't know, I don't really need anything else right now. I don't completely know how it works."
"Hmm, maybe that's why the Demon wants it so badly. Maybe it knows something we don't and wants to get it before we find out what it's really planning." Apollo hypothesized.
"Yeah! Maybe it's trying to destroy all the evidence we need so we can't figure out how to defeat it. The book from my home was completely ruined and you guys found those drawings in the caves. But now we can't go back to either of those places because the Demon has completely ruined them. It has to know something and it wants to make sure we can't know what it knows!" Teri practically shouted.
"But how are we supposed to find out what the Demon is really planning if it's already destroyed all the information we need to know? Sophie's crystal has to be the key for something, but what is it planning to do after the Demon gets it and takes us out along the way?" the Twins thought out loud.
"That's probably the only thing we don't know. For all we do know, it might be trying to take over the world. But it wants us out of the way first because maybe it knows we're the only ones that might have a chance at stopping it." said Apollo.
"So, then..... what do we do now?" I asked. Everyone fell silent. I could see the looks on everyone's faces that they were all trying to come up with a plan, but no one was really sure about what to do.
"I guess... maybe... all we can do is try to find the truth. However much there is left, at least." Teri said quietly.
"Yeah, probably. But now the one thing we need to make sure of is that the Demon does not get ahold of Sophie's crystal. Under any circumstances." Apollo said seriously. Everyone nodded in agreement.

I looked down at the crystal in my hand again, the light passing through it and making a blue shadow on my palm. Something in the back of my mind gave me a heavy feeling.