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

Chapter Seven: Goodbye

Eliana

"Do you need any help, Ali?" I walked into the tent to find him packing a bag for our journey. We were going to leave in the morning, it scared me knowing that for the first time in a long while I would be traveling without the other celestial guardians. I remembered a time when it was always me myself and I, but I guess once you get used to friends and company, you can never really go back.
" I'm fine, thanks. Are you ok?" Ali asked looking at my dampened expression. I was sure to quickly put on a forced smile and nodded my head, trying to convince him that I was fine. To be honest, I was fine, I guess the situation was just bittersweet.

" Everyone seems to be a little down nowadays," He turns back to a packing his bag, trying to spark up the casual conversation.
"What do you mean?" I ask politely, as social conventions dictate.
" Alena seems a little off kilter earlier," Ali shrugged "Or maybe that's just me," he looked away from packing for just long enough to give me a warm smile and I couldn't help but smile back. The moment was quickly ruined when Tsuki and Kaito walked in. Tsuki's hand was wrapped in Kaitos and I had a pang of the yearning in which I had felt before, luckily it was gone in a few milliseconds.
"Oh, sorry, we didn't realize you guys were in the tent, we thought everyone had gone to do their own thing outside," Tsuki rushed to say the words and her cheeks turned pink. It was sometimes oddly humorous to see Tsuki so nervous. It seemed as though only Kaito brought out that trait in her. I looked at Ali and caught his warm eyes, we shared a knowing glance as we nearly burst out in laughter.
" No! We were just leaving," Ali got up from the ground and swung the bag onto his shoulder "You guys can be alone," he added, I stifled a laugh. Ali put on a mischievous smile and looked at me, " And we mean completely alone, no one else will be able to see what you do in here," together we slowly walked to the entrance of the tent "You can now do anything you want," I partially lost it as Ali put emphasis on the word anything, " You to have fun," Ali finished as we exited the tent leaving the couple behind in the tent to do who knows what. I burst out laughing, Ali looked at us with a happy light in his eyes at making fun of his friends.
" Hey! What's up guys!" Umair came up behind us, scaring me half to death. I screamed so loud that I was sure that Aswa could hear it, wherever he was. Ali and I cracked back into laughter as I jokingly punched Umair for scaring me.
"No seriously, though, what's going on?" He asked, sharing a glance with Ali that I wasn't sure I understood.
" Nothing," I answered, suddenly feeling serious, "We better get a good night's rest," I sighed as I made my way back to the tent, careful to peak inside making sure I wasn't interrupting anything. Tsuki and Kaito were huddled up together nice and cozy in their sweats, talking about life. I climbed into the cot farthest from them, not even bothering to change my clothes, and closed my eyes as darkness took over.
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"WAKE UP!" An urgent, panicked voice shouted in my ear, "ELIANA!" The voice rung in my eardrums. I wanted to pick up my pillow and whack the persons face for waking me up so early, but something forced me to open my eyes. Umair was standing above me, a bow raised in his hands and an arrow notched, he was aiming for the door. I scrambled to my feet in the panic. A wind was whirling so loud outside it seemed as though the weight of the world was crashing down.
"What's going on!" I tried to shout above the wind, my voice seemed to drown against the roaring power. Somehow Umair heard me and motioned to the tents door flap that was now being tossed to every side by the wind. Umair put his hand on my back and gently pushed my out the tent. Just in time too, for the second we left the tent, the entire thing was lifted into the sky. The rest of the group stood together, each of their backs facing each other so they had eyes on all sides. Umair and I approached the group and I flicked an inquisitive glance to Tsuki.
"Nortoches," she mouthed, or screamed, with the wind, I couldn't tell. My heart increased and the wind seemed to get cooler; the sky darker. Aswa might be here.
The thought made my heart cold and I struggled to breathe.
" We need to get Eliana, Ali, and Umair out of here if Aswa is here he could control Eliana!" Alena shouted into our minds through her telepathy. Her shouting only made the noise increase, although I wasn't sure if it was just her voice or the thunder, or maybe both. I hadn't spotted the Nortoches yet but the crisp darkness in the clouds could mean nothing else. My hair was flying in a million different directions and I could barely see.
"Where do we go, Alena? How are we getting out of here?" Ali sent the message via the brain.
" What, you didn't plan ahead?" Alena questioned.
"No! But I know for a fact that you did!" Ali and Alena seemed to be having In of those brother-sister conversations and I felt strange listening to their conversation.
"Lucky for you! You have such a great sister," Alena joked, although I couldn't understand how she kept her cool with such a threat literally above our heads.
"Remember when you told me that teaching Nike fetch was stupid?" She asked.
"Ya?" Ali asked, probably wondering why this was relevant.
" Well I contacted her and being the well-trained dog she is, followed my directions, she found me last night and gave me this," she tossed a small wooden cart to Ali. His jaw dropped.
"I am NOT riding into the storm on this thing!" He rebuked.
"You going to have to! We have no other option," I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about but the way Ali refused had me a little nervous, I was already nervous from the entire conversation that took place in my mind.
I somehow heard Ali huff in my head and then he took my arm. He dragged Umair by the arm on his other side and only stopped when we were a good distance away. I was too fed up to argue with Ali as he threw the wooden cart on the ground. To my amazement it grew twice in size, enough room for the three of us to just fit.
Umair and I piled in and Ali followed. He said a couple of incoherent words under his breath and the cart jolted into the hair. The wind was sucked out of my lungs as we raced towards the sky. I saw the darkness grow closer, Nortoches getting ready to attack. I rapidly tapped on Ali's shoulder, hoping to warn him of what was coming.
"GO!" I shouted and that's exactly what happened. The cart jerked forward in the air with immense speed and in a matter of second, the planet we were on was out of sight. I could only hope that the others could handle the Nortoches alone.