The Hope Of The Three (Book 2 of the Hidden Trilogy)

Chapter One: Let down

Eliana
(SLB)
Tsuki's shoulder plowed into my chest. My butt hit the ground painfully but I didn't have time to think about that. I scrambled to my feet and quickly reached for the hair clip that pulled my hair to the back of my head and also doubled as a magical stick-staff thing. The clip was a staff In a matter of seconds but that was enough time for Tsuki to grab my hair and pull it harshly, dragging me back towards her.

I struggled against and regained as much of my composure as I could muster. I twisted so I was facing her and smacked my staff into her gut. She doubled over and I took the opportunity to grab her shoulders as tight as I could, considering I was holding a staff in an attempt to push her to the ground. Yet, she caught my arms and spun me around with such force that my feet couldn't catch up and I landed on my back. The wind was knocked out of me but as Tsuki came towards me with an intent to inflict more damage I pushed my legs up and they connected with her shoulder, throwing her off balance. I didn't have time to get to my feet so I lunged towards her legs. I grabbed them and held them as tight as I could. With her legs caught in my grip, she couldn't regain her balance and fell as I did. I scrambled to get on top of her and hold her arms to the ground. Tsuki did the same thing anyone would do when they can't use their legs or arms. Her head flew towards mine and connected with a sickening sound. She pushed me off of her and got to her feet. I realized that somewhere along the way I had lost my staff and frantically looked around to find it. The sand circle we were in was full of patterns made by our struggles and just outside of the circle was my staff.

I made a run for it. I jumped to my feet and headed towards the outside of the circle but I suppose I had made my plan a little too obvious because Tsuki was at my heels. She looked for anything to grab on to and found the back of my shirt. I suddenly stopped but my momentum pushed my neck into the collar of my shirt, temporarily choking me before leaning back and finding a way to breathe. My victory was short lived as she pulled her arm against my windpipe. I gasped for air but then collected my thoughts as I dug my chin between my neck and her arm, then I stepped on her toes. She quickly let go as I ran to my staff. Then I found myself on the ground staring at silver eyes and a knife to my throat.

" Nice try," Tsuki says as she offers a handling to help me up "That was a good training session," she smiles at me with an emotion that resembled pride "I have to tell you something," she says looking at the ground.
"What is it?" I ask, a bit nervous at her sudden change in emotion.
"Well it's just that- you see it's sort of-" she struggled to the right words.
"Spit it out," I joke, trying to convince her that whatever she says isn't that bad.
" You almost killed Alena and I'm sorry but we can't have you interfering any more than you already have. It's not like we don't like your company but you're a danger to us and our mission. You understand right?" She asked looking at me, ready for any reaction. I wasn't sure how I felt or how I should feel. My heart ached to know that my friends had talked about me behind my back and that they had considered me a threat to a mission. Yet, I understood where they were coming from. There was a lump in my throat so I thought it better than to speak.
" There's a legend about this woman who could heal people who were touched by a nortoche," I finally understood what they were intending to do, they wanted me to be healed so I couldn't be controlled anymore, it made me feel slightly better knowing that it wasn't exactly me they didn't trust, just my ability to defend myself against him. Although that wasn't much better.
" If you find her, perhaps she could take away the nortoche. We don't want you to go alone, though. Alena and I will continue with figuring out where Aswa is hiding and how to destroy him," I winced when she said she would be destroying my brother. He was terrible, but he was my brother "Kaito is also coming with Alena and I. We wanted Rayn to go with you but he refused-"
" Nice to know he enjoys my company," I interrupt her, speaking sarcastically. She looks at me with eyes of pity.
"That's not why he doesn't want to go. He probably just wants to follow me around like a puppy dog," she sighed.
" So I am going alone?" I ask as my heart deflates, I had always been alone, up until I met these people, people I could call friends. Now I was being pushed away by them.
" No! Of course not!" Tsuki says with a smile "Luckily Alena's brother is so eager to help out! He offered to escort you," she looked at me expecting my reaction. I would have rather traveled with Tsuki or Alena, I knew them much better, I trusted them. When I was around Ali is was quite wary, he was very defensive and it sometimes came across as harsh. However I nodded, it wasn't exactly my choice anymore.
" Come on, let's get back to camp," Tsuki said leading me back to the two tents we had set up in the middle of the forest on an abandoned planet a couple light years away from the moon kingdom. We figured it would be too dangerous to go to any of our domains, if Aswa wanted to find us first, that's the most obvious place to find us. Tsuki smiled to herself as she led me through the trees, as though she was pleased with the way our dismal conversation went. I put on a fake smile as we came to the tents.