Midoria's Heart

Midoria's Heart 22 - Torn

Here you go guys, another chapter!!

You should thank my friend for this, she has been bothering me to upload everyday for the past week, and got sooo annoying that I had to write :P

Tell me if the italics and bold parts of this work! :D

Oh, and in this one you learn a little more about Kamen ;)

Enjoy!

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Chapter 22 - Torn

There really is nothing like flying. Though I had been enchanted by the beauty of the countryside as we had passed through it, I had to admit that I had missed the exhilarating feeling of the wind flowing through my wings. No matter where I was in this world, no matter who I was with; this is where I belonged. Looking around at the faces of the others as we flew in the endless blue sky, I could tell that they felt the same way. We were Aerians, and this was our home.

Of course, flying had other benefits as well. For one thing, it was much faster than riding had been; we could cover roughly twice the distance in half the time. This was definitely a good thing, because we had to go back the way we had come and then some; the mountains that were our destination were on the complete opposite side of the kingdom.

After some lengthy discussions and some attempts to further decipher the prophecy, we had decided to start searching in the mountains. It was the first place that the prophecy mentioned, so it seemed like the best place to begin. I had never been to the mountains, but I could see their majestic beauty from my bedroom window in the castle. They bordered the north-western part of our kingdom, a protection we hadn’t needed since Midoria had risen to the heavens. According to the stories, they used to guard our ancestors from human bandits that came to raid the small villages near there. Now, most people thought that they were simply for show; myself included, until a few hours ago. Apparently, they now guarded something far more important - one of the three artifacts that would lead us to the Heart.

I still wasn’t sure what to think of the prophecy. In a way, it was terrifying; knowing that we were right and the kingdom was threatened by Kamen’s return. On the other hand, the prophecy brought with it a sense of relief; at least we knew that there was a way to protect the kingdom, to save it from being destroyed. But how could a sword, a staff and a key help us find the heart? That was the problem with prophecies; as helpful as they were in their foresight, they were almost always in riddles – meant to be solved by the brave, the wise and the pure of heart; those who would in turn be the saviors of kingdoms. But could any of our group really size up to that standard? Were we good enough to be considered those chosen to save our kingdom?

Asking questions like these seemed pointless. Regardless of whether we were this prophecy’s chosen heroes or not, we were the kingdom’s only hope. One thing I was sure of, at least, was that we would never stop fighting for our people.

So we traveled as fast as we could; time was of the essence, and the journey would be at least two days by wing. The skies were mainly clear and we were making good pace until the late evening, when Lisimi pointed out a massive cloud formation looming ahead of us in the sky. The air had become humid and it tingled with electricity; a clear warning that a storm was approaching, and fast.

Reluctantly we dropped low in the sky, searching for shelter from the storm. The sky darkened and rain began to fall from the sky; a loud crash of thunder after a flash of lighting I had not seen made my chest rumble, and I blinked the water out of my eyes, hoping to see anything that could provide safety from the storm. Suddenly I spotted what looked like a castle ahead of us. Signaling to the others, we changed our course, heading toward the building. When we got closer I saw that I was right, to some extent. It had been a castle once, but now was a decrepit, abandoned old structure that looked like it could collapse at any moment.