Chimera

Chapter Twenty-four: Alana

"Come on. We've still got two Hydras left to go," Callista said, reaching out her hand. Her faint smile building, Alana took her hand and was hefted onto her feet. Behind her, Jaylin struggled to a standing position.

"We can do this," Callista said. Then she morphed. She seemed to grow and augment, doubling in size as her skin became a sea of brown, shaggy fur, and thick nails replaced her fingers. Her snout extended, a slightly lighter shade of fur than the rest of her body. Her eyes were huge, red and blue, and they raged with fire. She had transformed into a bear.

Callista snapped her jaws around the neck of a Hydra, holding on tight even as it twisted and roared. In a flash, she had lifted her blade and severed the head.

Suddenly, the other Hydra head took Alana by surprise, throwing her to the ground. Alana lay face down, her throat and nose full of dirt. She rolled to face the Hydra, sputtering clouds of dust, her vision was blurred. The Hydra reared back its head, then shot forward-

Except it didn't. The strong arms of a bear held it back.

Suddenly, Callista flung the Hydra forward, towards her. She screamed. What had the mercenary just done? But then she saw that the Hydra was stumbling and tripping and then falling, and she raised her broadsword, impaling the beast.

A last yell from the Hydra. A spatter of blood.

The body of the Hydra gave a final shudder, a movement that went from its bloody, mangled heads all the way down to its tail. Then it went still.

Alana stood there for a second, staring at the dead creature in front of her as the soil turned scarlet and wet.

"We... we did it," she said. Her legs felt faint. She swayed. And then a wave of nausea came over her, the horror of realising what she had just done. How many living, talking beings had she just killed? Her arms were aching, pulling her down. Her eyelids drooped. Suddenly, the ground was rushing towards her. It took her a slow, weary moment to even realise it was happening. She felt like she was in a dream, where she could do nothing to move her body, to change the situation. A dark haze surrounded her vision.

Everything went black.

When Alana awoke, most of the pain had left her body. Her bones still ached and her muscles felt worn and tired, but she could see that someone had put a bandage on her arm and it had stopped bleeding. She was lying in soft grass. Green blades tickled her back.

Alana sat up. She was in the glade, next to the laboratory buildings, and it was morning. Callista and Jaylin sat across from her, eating some kind of stew. She could see Vern wallowing in the lake.

"Nice glade you got here," Callista said, gesturing around them. She handed Alana a bowl, filled with hot stew. Alana ate it avidly, gulping and chewing. The flavours and textures seemed to be amplified, enhanced a million times: a chunk of cheese tasted like a rich and buttery cake with mounds of cream, a roasted tuber was an explosion of deep, fire-burned goodness. Alana didn't know what most of the things in the stew were, and a black, cubish object that looked suspiciously like charcoal bobbed up and down next to a stringy, purple vegetable, but she didn't care. To Alana, it tasted like the best thing she had ever eaten in her entire life, an extrasensory effusion of vibrant, vivid, heavenly flavour.

"How long have I been out?" she asked when the bowl was nearly empty.

The reply didn't shock her. "All night."

Alana tilted the bowl to get the last of the stew and then wiped the liquid from her mouth.

"I need to go somewhere, to check on something," Callista said, sharpening her blade.

"Oh... bye. Where are you going?"

"Los Lagos."

Los Lagos? Los Lagos! That was her home, not Callista's. Why was the mercenary going there?

Alana forced herself to trust Callista. The mercenary had said when they first met that she would never harm the innocent citizens of Los Lagos, and she had defended them from the Hydras just the day before.

Callista stood up to leave, sheathing her blade.

"Wait!" Alana said, reaching out a hand.

Callista turned back to her.

"Um... thanks. For everything," she mumbled.

"I was just doing what I thought was right," Callista said.

There was nothing else to say. After a minute of silence, Callista turned and left.

Alana stayed, sitting in the grass, for maybe an hour, maybe two. Eventually, she stood up. Took a deep breath. Ran a hand through long, knotted hair. The hand stuck, trapped in a tangled mass. She groaned, and then laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

Suddenly, something stirred in her peripheral vision. The laughter evaporated before most of it had even left her mouth, dying away in her throat. Instinctively, her hand flew to her hip. She felt fabric, not the cool handle of her broadsword. Fear seized her. Had Callista taken away her sword when she had passed out? Was she defenseless against the threat behind her?

Then her hand closed on something metallic. Relief flooded through her.

Alana turned, blade poised. Then she saw what it was, and relaxed. Jaylin. The boy was standing behind her, smiling.

"I see you're goo- um, better than you were before," he said, catching himself before he said something that wasn't really true.

Alana didn't think they could really be 'good' anymore. After all the shocking bloodshed and dashed hopes and desperate fighting, would they ever feel normal? Would she ever feel like the girl she had once been, the girl who sat contentedly on her chair, safely within the wall? The girl who had only ever known about the world from her parent's stories? The girl who was innocent, naive, ignorant... but happy?

Well, maybe she knew she was different. She was scarred, she was tough, she was no longer a girl who took pride in training courses, laughable things so distant from real battle. She was less happy, she knew that. But despite that, she was free. She was strong, no longer trapped and bound. She was free to do the right thing, no longer constricted by regulations spawned in power-hungry ideals. Had she traded a comfortable life for freedom? Yes. Was it worth it?

Alana thought about it. She thought hard, remembering everything that had happened since that life-changing decision she had made. That last minute choice to follow Lance and the others, and step up onto the rungs of the wall ladder. She thought about it. She thought about discovering peaceful mutants like Goldenstroke. She thought about finding a freshwater paradise. And then she knew.

Yes, it was worth it.

I hope you enjoyed reading that chapter! Now that the brutal fight with the Hydras has come to a bloody end, a space of peace will ensue for both Jaylin and Alana. However, for Lance and Camila, the danger is far from over - and they are faced with huge challenges. I published new chapters multiple times a week, so stay tuned for more!

If you've enjoyed reading this story, don't forget to vote, comment and add it to your reading lists. I will be adding a new chapter every day. If you have any tips for how I can improve my writing, or what I did well this time, please feel free to tell me (in a nice manner). Thanks so much for reading my story!

Thanks again, Sylver!