To Ally with the Guardians

Chapter 11: Haven

Matt whipped the bag of what he had left of the curing orbs out of his pocket as a feverish panic rose in him once more, lighting his still-recovering body on fire with a heightened sense of danger. The Yetis still had their swords, and the Guardians their own weapons.

Everything fell to chaos as the first Fearling came through a nearby tunnel. Mallory grabbed his kids and booked it. Children began screaming. The Yetis brandished their swords and charged, and the egg statues turned so that their angry expressions were facing front and did the same. Matt's heart rate rose even further, and his head spun, trying to come up with a way to protect the Fearlings this time.

"Stop!" Duran shouted, using a voice Matt had only heard when the Fearlings had threatened Angelia. "Don't kill Haven, Vivian, or anyone else!" He took out his sword and tried to run in front of the Yetis and eggs, a few veins clearly visible in his neck, but he wasn't fast enough.

"Just get the children and elves to safety!" Angelia said, racing after him with her gleaming scythe. One of the Yetis shouted something at them, but Matt couldn't understand their language, and his friends didn't stop trying to get in front of the furry creatures as the Yetis continued to advance.

"I will use this!" Duran warned, and Matt didn't doubt for a second that he would. The guy had made threats before and not followed through with them, but this one sounded more real with the fear in his voice. And he was likely under the influence of the curse now. Who knew what he might do?

The Yetis slowed, but it was because of the children and elves running away from the dark creatures, going in the opposite direction that the Yetis were. But the fleeing halted their retreat once they were in the middle of the Warren, surrounded on all sides by Yetis and egg statues, Fearlings and Nightmares. Matt couldn't see Mallory or the Guardians or Whisper, but it didn't really matter for the most part. Whisper was temporarily incapacitated, Mallory had no weapons and was more keen on defending his kids than saving anyone, and the only Guardian on his side was Bunny, who sometimes stopped him from doing things anyway.

Matt sprinted into a tunnel with only Fearlings in it and didn't look back. He fumbled with the tiny curing orbs as his fingers perspired, but he managed to close in around the spheres and throw them at the nearest Fearlings. Their shrieks hurt his ears, echoing in the tunnel, and they froze in white.

He grasped another orb and threw it. Another. Another. Screams danced around him as he ran farther into the cave, and the light faded to a dim glow that came from somewhere above the ceiling, though the Fearlings lit up before they turned into children, disorienting him.

The boy threw another curing orb. And another. And still none of the rescued children looked like Haven, a Pooka, or a Prophecy Person.

It grew even darker, but Matt could still see. His body was filled with a liquid fire that burned bright in his soul, and he began to grab and throw the clear spheres with a surprising ease and strength. He ignored the thoughts of who he was looking for possibly being dead already or in another tunnel or that he might run out of curing orbs. It was like he was in a lucid dream, where just because he thought something, it was bound to happen. Certain to.

Whack! Matt was sent to the stone floor with a thud, and his bag of curing orbs flew from his hand. He sucked in a breath to replace the stolen air and jumped up, not feeling a single ounce of pain. He didn't even care what had attacked him, just that he had to get his orbs back, especially before the Fearlings bore down on him.

But as he squinted in the low light, he saw that all the phantoms had backed away, forming a sort of wall of shadow. Among their ranks was a single Nightmare, its golden eyes standing out from the darkness of its companions, probably what had hit him. But the teen couldn't spot his bag or its contents anywhere. Screw their transparency!