LIGHTS OF THE OTHER WORLD

Chapter 12: The War

The battle field was quite petrifying. On one end was a huge army of soldiers, behind whom a few ministers sat on their horses. Amongst them was a carriage. The mighty Alaric stood surprised at the sight of his opposition. We stood still, side by side, holding each other's hand. There were only a few soldiers present with us. Alaric laughed.

"So this is your army, Rhiannon?" Alaric mocked.

"The size if our army does not matter Alaric. Our intention does. We will not even let you lay a finger on the Pura Councillium."
Rhiannon warned.

"Who cares about your stupid Councillium anyways? It's just filled with losers. I'm just after the pendents. I know you have them. Hand them over and I'll peacefully go." Alaric said, calmly.

"Never. I will not let you destroy whatever is left of Bellendis. And plus, the pendents are already with their true owners." Rhiannon said, looking at Eva and I.

"Them? Seriously? I can kill them in seconds as well as you." Alaric said.
"Well, give it a try then." Rhiannon said with confidence.

"Attaaaaaackkkk!" Alaric ordered his troops and they bolted towards us.
"Attack!" Rhiannon ordered us and we got on our horses and rode towards them with fury.

We ran past soldiers, Luke and I used our strength, our sword fighting skills and slashed whichever head came in between Alaric and us. Evanthia used her strength, her magic and tossed her wand around and turned the soldiers who crossed her path into butterflies. Yes, butterflies. Little colorful butterflies who flew away everywhere in search of shelter. It was a funny sight. This kind of magic was different. It did not involve spells. One just had to learn to concentrate on which magic to use and think of the outcome. Then the wand would do its thing. But Rhiannon just did something with her hands which made a something like a bomb blast that killed about a fifty soldiers each time. This women was truly crazily awesome. But the more we moved towards Alaric, the more he seemed to move farther. It wasn't just my sensation but it was true. Every moment, there were thousands of soldiers that added to their strength and soon almost all our soldiers got tired of fighting. Our horses too, yearned for water and rest.

In minutes there was blood everywhere. The blood of our brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives for Bellendis.

I looked at Rhiannon, clueless of what else we could do to stop this massacre. She was on the battle field now, fighting one of Alaric's ministers. Probably her horse gave up on her. Out of nowhere, Alaric came behind her and raised his sword. I knew what his intension was. At once I raced myself towards Rhiannon, pushing soldiers past me who were probably one too. "Rhiannon! Behind..." And I stopped as I saw Alaric stabbing Rhiannon through her back.

"Noooo!!!" I shrieked, and after laughing shamelessly, Alaric disappeared somewhere. I didn't know that he could do that.

I ran and knelt beside Rhiannon. I felt my warm tears wet my cheek. "I.. I..." I started. "Don't worry about m...me" she uttered with difficulty.

"Nothing. Nothing will happen to you. I will take you back to the Councillium where the nurses will cure you." I assured myself and Rhiannon as I started panicking.

"Look we don't have time. You have to take Evanthia and run from here. Go into the forest and hide." Rhiannon adviced.

"Hide? We haven't come here, r from home, far from our parents, to hide." I said.

"Yes. But Alaric is stronger than before. With this unplanned attack, we are sure to lose. You have to go." Rhiannon replied.

"I am not leaving you alone!" I asserted as I held her hand. It reminded me of the times I used to hold grandma's hand as a child, when I was scared of the dark.

"No one is leaving anyone alone. I'll always be with you. In here." Rhiannon pointed at my heart. By this time, Eva , Grifford, Luke and Violet gathered and sat down around Rhiannon and me.

"Don't worry about me." Rhiannon repeated, seeing the look of helplessness on all our faces.

"But..." Eva started.

"Grifford, violet and Luke. Take these girls to the Forever Forest. Promise me that you'll protect them." Rhiannon said.

"What about you?" Violet asked.

"Promise me." Rhiannon repeated.

"I promise." Violet said, shakily.
"Promise." Grifford said.
"I promise too." Luke said.

They quickly got up and pulled Eva and I too. Violet took something out of her pocket, pressed a button and threw it at the soldiers who were coming towards us. A big cloud of smoke spread vigorously and we vanished from there just as Eva tossed her wand around the all of us.

We found ourselves right in the middle of the Forever Forest. We had learnt that it was called as the Forever Forest because you could see only tall trees everywhere which always did the inner beauty of the smaller plants. The birds spread a sense of music everywhere by their timely chirping. "I didn't know you could do that Eva. When did you learn?" I asked.

"Rhiannon taught me on the last day. She was afraid that we would have to face this kind of situation. And we did." Eva said, in a mellow tone. I hugged her and consoled her. She too had never experienced a loss like this before. By now all of us were weeping.

The thought that Rhiannon had left us forever, pained me. "We have to keep moving. We have to find a hideout." Luke said.