~ Power ~

Chapter 9 - Emerald

 ‘Thank God! Throw me the pouch Wendy, quickly!’ Freya said backing away from her attackers, unarmed. Wendy was about to throw the pouch when one of the men turned around and gave her a menacing glare.

 ‘I can’t throw it, he’ll just catch it.’

The man grinned at Wendy, he was missing several teeth. It was not a pretty sight.

‘Well figure something out.’ Freya was desperate. She had nowhere left to run. Or, more accurately, she had nowhere left to scurry. She wished that she could transform into a hawk, like she had done in her dreams. What an ability that would be.

Just then Freya had an idea. ‘Wendy,’ she called out, ‘Try and use the stones yourself.’

‘But, I don’t know how.’

‘Just try. Please!’

The men with the short swords started slashing at Freya once again. She narrowly avoided the first blade, but the second one nicked her right arm. She let out a yelp of pain. A look of horror crossed Wendy’s face. She now realised how dire the situation was. She tipped out the contents of the pouch into her hand. There were five stones in total, an Emerald, a Sapphire, a piece of Hematite, and Freya’s Amethyst and Red Jade stones. In the right hands these stones could decimate an army of thousands. But unfortunately, they were in untrained hands.

‘How do I make them work?’ Wendy said frantically.

‘It’s hard to explain.’ Freya said, between dodges. ‘But I think it’s fuelled by passion or rage.’ Freya got hit again, this time on her face. She screamed again as the blood hit the dirt beneath her. She looked at her attackers once more and tried to plead with them.

‘Why are you doing this? I can pay you money,’ Freya lied.

‘We don’t want money,’ they replied.

‘What do you want? Freedom? I can give you that as well. If you just let me go, I’ll grab the stones and we can bust out of here in no time.’

The men started laughing.

‘Nice try girlie.’

Wendy’s voice cut through the air. ‘It’s not working!’

Freya sighed deeply and looked back at the men.

‘So the way I see it is this. Four on one, yes, you are going to win that fight. However, I will have enough time to break at least one person’s legs. My question is whose should they be?’

They looked a little intimidated and glanced around at one another.

Wendy pulled herself together and started running towards Freya. She had a plan. It had taken almost half an hour, but she had a plan. She was going to defeat the men with the stones, just not the way they had been intended to be used. She grasped the piece of Hematite, the largest of the power stones, and ran close to the man blocking Freya in.

Wendy drew her arm back and yelled at the top of her lungs, ‘Hematite!’ and then she threw it as hard as she could at the man’s head. It hit him between the eyes and he fell quickly to the ground. Freya scurried over to him and elbowed him in the gut. Freya picked up the Hematite.

‘I wonder what this does?’

Wendy continued throwing the power stones at the other men’s heads. She was astonishingly accurate. When the last of the attackers hit the ground Freya caught a glimpse of one of the stones.

‘Is that an Emerald?’ she said in awe.

Wendy nodded.

‘I’ve read about those. They are supposed to have Earth powers…’

Before she moved anywhere she realised she was bleeding quite badly. She picked up the Amethyst and healed herself. Wendy’s eyes widened.

‘Wow!’ she said.

Freya smiled and got up. She looked around the cage. All of the men were unconscious or too sore to move. She walked around and picked up all of the power stones. She looked back at Wendy and said, ‘Good job kid.’

‘Kid? I’m only two years younger than you!’

‘Shut up. I’ve lived by myself for almost a year okay? That makes me the adult, and you the kid. So good work, kid.’

‘So what now?’ Wendy asked.

‘Well–’

Lena cut Freya off. ‘Ten out of ten, very good indeed. Very impressive improvisation Wendy.’

Wendy looked at Lena awkwardly. ‘Um, thank you, I guess.’

Freya glared at Lena. ‘Alright, you’ve had your fun once again. What now? Round three, four, five. When does it end Lena?’

‘It ends when I say it ends. Don’t be rude dear; if I wanted to I could have killed you weeks ago.’

‘Yeah well. You didn’t, so…suck eggs.’

‘What are you doing?’ Wendy whispered.

‘Just trust me.’

Lena opened the cage door and started walking towards them. ‘You are an extremely rude child Freya!’

Freya clasped the Emerald tightly in her right hand.

‘I may be rude, but at least I’m not an old hag who kidnaps children for her own entertainment.’

Wendy felt something brush past her face. It was small chunks of dirt. They were floating in the air. She looked over at Freya who was still deep in concentration.

‘You have no idea what you’re talking about poppet. But that’s okay. You’re only young. I couldn’t expect you to know or comprehend–’

‘Yes?’ Freya asked.

‘Never mind. I’ve said too much already.’

‘I couldn’t agree more.’

Lena was now within two body lengths of the girls.

‘Tell me,’ Freya said. ‘How smart was it to put an Emerald in the pouch? Seeing as we are surrounded by earth.’

Lena’s face turned to stone. ‘A what? Emerald. That’s ridiculous, there was no Emerald in that pouch.’

‘Interesting,’ Freya said, ‘Then how did I get this?’ She flashed the stone quickly to Lena.

‘Impossible!’ Lena shouted. ‘Impossible.’

‘You know what? I’ve learnt in the past few weeks that nothing impossible. Not really.’

With that, Freya closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. The ground around them began to shake violently.

                                                  #                      #                      #

This week’s options:

1.      Freya and Wendy escape through the open door but are confronted by the two guards.

2.      Freya and Wendy bust their way through the other door.

3.      Lena uses the power stone in her necklace to even the playing field.

4.      The violent earthquake creates a cave in of the warehouse, trapping everyone inside.