The Changes

Part 18

    We arrived on the other side of the portal to meet a devastating sight. It wasn't much different from what we saw in Texas, but it was worse here. This time, Mages were hurling things at innocent people. I saw a man in a black hooded cloak throw fireballs at a man and his children. Luckily they ducked, but the flames hit a car behind them. Only now did I see how dangerous we were to mortals.

   "Dang..." muttered Amber. She ran her hand through her hair, her deep eye bags of exhaustion deepening. 

   Barry patted her on the arm. "We've got to try, right?" 

   "Well," Ashton sighed. "This is it, guys. We're going to kick some butt. Hopefully with the help of this guy over here?" he angrily gestured towards Kaleiron.

   "Hey, back off! I haven't killed you guys yet, right?" Kaleiron responded throwing his arms up.

   "He does have a point," mumbled Ethan.

   "Watch out!" yelled Leyna. We ducked just in time. A ball of flames had just passed right over our heads. 

   We jumped into battle. I didn't have a chance to say anything to my friends, but I tried to think positive. I jumped at the mage who had attacked us. After being different animals, I kind of started to think like them. Sometimes I had the urge to scratch myself with a leg, or eat red meat. I realized I had started to look for small pieces of food to eat (probably from the rat). The man must've been pretty surprised that I had done something so stupid, so he didn't attack. I hit him square on the chest with mr rod and kicked him in the face just for good measure.

   Suddenly, all time froze. To my left, Marissa almost got hit by a flying piece of wood. She held her hands over her face shielding her face, but I looked behind me at Kaleiron. He winked at me. We took that moment to our advantage. We knocked over the rest of the bad guys and got innocents out of the way. 

   "You have to hurry! My magic won't hold up long since I opened up two portals already," he said, sweat beading his pale face.

   Right on cue, things started flying again. A woman pushed her palm in my direction causing vines to grow around my feet. Great. I changed into an ant. The woman looked surprised and looked around her, wondering where I had gone. I stopped when I was directly in front of her and changed back to a human, punching her under the chin.

   "You okay over there?" Barry shouted in my direction. 

   "Yeah," I responded. I said that, but I had used up too much of my energy. My vision blurred and my knees buckled. I fell to the ground. A Mage with dark skin saw this to his advantage and came up in front of me. 

   "Good bye, little girl," he grinned, flashing his yellow crooked teeth.

   "No.." I whispered. This can't be my end. I had worked so hard. I hoped my friends could continue and finish the quest. I had failed them. If Ashton could read my thoughts right now, he would call me emo.

   He took his time backing up, probably enjoying this moment. Darkness engulfed my being. Before I could see my death, a figure in green leapt in front of me. This gave Amber time to knock him over with some of her winds. Ethan pierced a knife in the guy's foot. He groaned.

   The person who had saved me lay next to me, motionless. I crawled over to them, my body weary from fatigue. I recognized the graceful figure, dark complexion, and brown wavy hair.

   "Eleanor," I gasped.

   Her eyes flitted open. She let out a small laugh. Her green eyes met mine for the last time. Then she was gone. 

   "NO! Wake up! Eleanor!" I sobbed, not caring about the scene of chaos and madness surrounding us. She had risked her life for me, and now she was gone. Then my despair left me. Eleanor had sacrificed herself for me. I'm going to use my life wisely.

   Ethan put  his hand on my back, and renewed strength entered me. 

  "You okay?" sniffled Marissa, wiping the tears from her eyes. 

   "Yeah, but these guys won't be," I replied, my voice deadly calm. Anger flared in my chest. I often felt angry, but I never had let it show in front of people. Now I let it go. I wasn't going to let it hold me back.

   I marched towards a female Mage about to harm someone innocent and whacked her in the face with my rod. I grabbed the coil of vines off the floor and channeled my anger into it, making it animate. I had no idea how I had done that, but now it was slithering around like a snake, strangling terrorists and Mages left and right.

   I looked behind me and saw Ashton nod with approval. He gave me a thumbs up and continued to spar with his opponent with a karambit. Then he turned into a dragon, roared angrily and whacked him aside.

   We were doing pretty well. I heard someone scream behind me. I looked which cause me to get distracted. Someone had knocked me off my feet. I groaned. My back ached from the impact. 

   Barry summoned a bolt of lightning, but the man was quick. He rolled out of the way just in time. I turned into a cheetah, lunging at the man. Again, he dodged and hit me with my rod he had picked off from the ground. No one touches my staff. I had it for so long, I had kind of grown fond of it. I know, weird. I had feelings for a metal stick.

  I grabbed the stick out of his hands with my sharp canines. Leyna tried to hit him with some dark blue flames, but he moved again. 

   He removed his hood, revealing a face of a man probably in his early 20's. He had dark hair, and some hardly visible stubble on his chin. His dark eyes startled me. He had dark hair streaked with gray and a pale complexion, though not as much as Kaleiron. 

    "Ugh, this guy reminds me of an older, eviller version of Jisoo," stated Leyna.

   "Aah, Kaleiron, you have broken our deal," he said, smiling. His smile reminded me of Kaleiron. "Dear nephew, I thought I could trust you."

   "N-no, uncle, you can't do this. I was wrong. This world doesn't belong to anyone person. Look at all the pain you have caused these people. You can't have this all."

   Vladmir let out a deep throaty laugh. It was a laugh, but not really one. It was complicated. There was no humor in his laugh. It was actually quite scary. It sounded maniacal and crazy. I was terrified. I understood why Kaleiron was reluctant about fighting him. Though he wasn't a mage, he was drunk in his own type of power. Control. Control over people. He wanted more though. It wasn't enough for him. He had all the money he needed, yet he still wanted more.

    "Oh, Kaleiron, you're so naïve. There is so much more than just this."