The Eight

Chapter 7 - Escape The Keep

They all lolled lazily on the beds, chatting quietly about the events of the day. Sofia had been assigned the role of protecting them all to give her practice with blades and she was asking if she was still allowed to kill things if she was a protector.

"Well duh," Chloe said, rolling her eyes. "How else are you supposed to protect us?"

Sofia shrugged and leant back into her lion, who was lounging beside her. "I don't know."

The others sighed. They were excited at the prospect of riding a dragon and a phoenix, but also a little sad that they couldn't fly on their birds any more. They were also terrified of what the land was like outside of the protective Keep. They were expecting creatures such as sandmen, hydras, other dragons and phoenixes, and maybe a gorgon or two, which they had to look out for lest they be turned to stone.

Abbie laughed suddenly at a memory. "Remember that time you hit someone with a stick and got suspended?" she said to Sofia.

Sofia smiled slightly. "Yeah. That was fun."

Everyone was talking about Sofia's antics when all of a sudden there was a huge boom and everyone was thrown backwards as the door shattered into pieces.

***

Jodie sat up and coughed. There was dust and debris everywhere, and an alarmingly large piece of marble was lying next to Cera's unconscious body. In fact, everyone was unconscious, and a piece of wood from the door was sticking out of Cherry's arm. Jodie gulped and started clearing debris to get to her friends. Breanna's bad arm - the one that was in a cast for a while - was at a strange angle and Jodie knew it must be re-broken. She pulled a blade out of the wall - Sofia must have created one out of panic - and started sweeping away bits of wood and marble much more easily than she had done with her bruised hands.

Reaching Abbie's still form, she checked briefly for injuries and shook her gently. Abbie began to stir and started coughing uncontrollably, taking searing breaths in between. This woke Cera, who looked around her with a dazed expression. She found her leopard and clutched her as eagerly as a young child, caressing the small, bleeding ears. Jodie looked around for her zebra, who was lying with a chunk of marble holding it down. It desperately needed healing.

She found Chloe in a relatively clear space, her wildcat pawing lazily at her face. Jodie shook her and Chloe woke up, immediately gasping as she felt the weight of the wildcat. He shifted off.

"Are you hurt?" Jodie croaked and Chloe shook her head.

"Then we'd better get to Breanna, her arm looks really bad."

Chloe nodded and pulled herself over to where Breanna was lying, healing her in a couple of minutes. She worked her way round everyone, and having to take Cera with her because she wouldn't let go. Alex was last, buried under a pile of rubble and struggling to get out. It was a team effort to lift everything off him and Chloe healed his leg, which had been trapped under a piece of marble in much the same way as the zebra.

"What—what was that?" mumbled Abbie, holding her head. "There was an explosion and stuff flew everywhere...that's all I remember."

The others nodded, holding their newly healed animals tightly.

"Do you think the magic animals are ok?" Cherry asked and everyone gasped, running out into the corridor.

It was completely ruined.

***

"Almost—there—" Breanna gasped, melting the last few pieces of black marble that stood between them and the Beast House. There were roars erupting from within, and occasionally a magical creature escaped through the hole where the door used to be and out of the shattered front of the building. The most worrying fact was that the blast, whatever it had been, had went straight through the middle of the Beast House, surely taking some creatures with it. That made the friends all the more pressured to get there.

Reaching the hole in the wall, they heaved away part of a door and stepped into chaos. Creatures were flying everywhere, some keening and wailing from the injuries they had sustained. A tail was poking out from under some rubble, and when it was shifted there were many dead animals.

Cherry began to cry - she couldn't stand to see animals suffering or dead before their time. Jodie hugged her, not letting go.

They made their way over to the corner where they had met their mounts, and found them huddling in the corner with their eyes tightly shut.

Alex mind-controlled them into a standing position, and as soon as he released his hold they screeched and flapped until they were calmed down a little. Chloe was still off healing, so they escorted all the healed creatures out the hole in the wall where they escaped along the corridor and out into the night. There was still no sign of the Keeper.

"Ok, let's just go find the Keeper, there's nothing more we can do here," reasoned Breanna, motioning towards the dragon and the phoenix. "Come on, we were supposed to ride them anyway. I'm getting the phoenix."

After some arguing, Cherry, Jodie, Sofia and Abbie were seated comfortably on the dragon, while Breanna, Chloe, Alex and Cera were cushioned on the phoenix. They were ready to leave when the Keeper came hobbling in, a gash on his left calf.

"What do you think you're doing?" he shouted, making everyone wince. "All my animals are gone - thanks to you! And now you are leaving me here? I don't think so!" He reached into his pocket and drew out a short stick. He rolled it back and forth between his palms and it became a trailing rope of fire.

"What the hell?!" Sofia screamed, almost drowned out by Cera's shrieks.

"Move!" shouted Chloe, but the dragon and phoenix were already lumbering forward, not wanting to stay behind with the suddenly mad Keeper.

They launched themselves into the air and arrowed along the corridor, dodging debris and the surprisingly long firewhip that the Keeper flicked at them. Everyone thought they would make it, of course they did, but at the last moment the whip curled itself around the phoenix's leg and pulled it backwards. Breanna, seated at the front, tried desperately to control the screeching bird while Cera screamed again - she screamed at everything - and Chloe and Alex tried to find a way to get rid of the fire-rope. Then Alex had an idea.

"Breanna!" he shouted and she turned round. "Put your hands on the whip!"

Breanna looked horrified. "I can't do that!" she yelled back. "I'd get burned!"

Alex groaned in frustration. "But how? Your power is fire! It can't affect you!"

A light seemed to come into Breanna's eyes and she hung upside-down from the phoenix's back, held in place by Cera. She grabbed the rope and channelled the energy through her, adding it to her own well of magic deep within. The Keeper screeched with fury as the fire was extinguished. He dropped the handle of the whip and resorted to spheres of raw energy, hurling them with alarming accuracy at the friends. There was no way to avoid them, but suddenly a strange creature shot past, absorbing the light like a sponge to water. It dived at the Keeper, knocking him to the ground and sinking its claw-like hands into his chest, blood spurting out of the wounds. It was over in seconds. The creature picked once at the dead man's eye and, in a burst of dark flame, it was gone.