Blinded (A Sequel to "Sight")

Battle

When Rose opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the position she was in when she had fallen asleep. Her head was now on Varian’s chest, with her arms wrapped around his left one. His head was resting on top of Rose’s head. Rose smiled to herself.

    She didn’t move, though, in case she woke up Varian. So she stayed like that, for who knows how long.

    Eventually, Varian woke up, and lifted his head. Rose let go of his arm and repositioned herself so that she was facing him. “Good morning, sleepy head.”

    Varian rubbed his eyes before looking over at Rose. Rose grabbed her glasses and put them on her face as he did this. “Oh, hello. I forgot we were in this… dimension.”

    “Yeah, it’s kinda hard to accept that it’s real. But it is,” Rose said. She stood up and stretched, then tried combing through her hair with her fingers, but it failed miserably. She’d fix it once they got home. She quickly put her shoes back on, and Varian did the same. He went up to the portal’s lever as Rose gathered their clothes from the dance last night. No sense in wasting them!

    “Ready?” Varian asked. Rose nodded. He wrapped a rope around the lever, then stood next to Rose. “This is so that I can turn the portal back off once we go through. We can’t have it continuously running while we’re gone-- who knows what else will come back with us!”

    He pulled on the rope, and the purple portal appeared again. Rose was lifted off the ground, and swept into the portal. Varian went next, pulling on the rope as he went through, shutting off the portal right as he went through.

                        . . . 

Coincidentally, they landed right in front of Rose’s house. They ran through the door, only to find a worried Elisha pacing through the kitchen. She looked up as they entered the house.

“Where have you two been! Rosalinde disappeared, and then Varian suddenly was gone, too! Do you know how worried I was?” Then she looked them up and down. “Where’d you get those new clothes?”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I was kidnapped and Varian went to search for me. And we got these clothes from another dimension. Now we need to get ready,” Rose said hurriedly.

“Get ready for what?” Elisha demanded.

“For a fight. Rae isn’t going to give up that easily,” Rose told her.

“Rae? Wh-I-you need to explain everything!” Elisha yelled.

After a few minutes of explaining everything, Elisha joined the two teens as they prepared for a battle. Rose quickly brushed her hair, then grabbed her bow and a full quiver. Varian headed home to gather some things, saying he’d be back soon. Elisha grabbed her own bow from out of her closet-- it was dusty and covered in cobwebs. But her quiver was still full.

Varian arrived back at Rose’s, Rudiger on his shoulders, and he was back in his old outfit. He explained that he’d packed a bunch of different solutions and compounds into his belt’s pockets, just in case they needed them.

Rose went to get Daina, only to find she was nowhere to be found.

“Oh, I let her out a little while earlier. She looked like she needed a walk by herself, after everything that had happened,” Elisha explained.

Eventually, they were all ready. Varian gave the beast serum to Rudiger, and together, they all rode on him, towards Rae’s house.

Once at the house, Rose and Elisha jumped off of Rudiger, Varian staying behind to check the perimeter. They walked through the door, bows raised, only to find it deserted. They both frowned. Where was she?

Varian came running up to them. “A royal guard just came by. He said there’s trouble in Corona.”

They all shared a look. They knew what this trouble was. Or, who.

At full speed, they dashed down to Corona. Crowds of people ran all over the place, as giant, terrifying beasts, just like Rudiger, chased after them. Rae had definitely been here. But as Rose looked around, all she could see were giant, terrifying monsters. Where was Rae?

Rose jumped off of Rudiger, slinging her bow off her shoulder. Elisha followed after her. Rose turned to Varian, who stayed atop Rudiger. “Try to help anyone you can out of Corona. We don’t want anyone to be harmed by these beasts.”

Varian nodded, then was gone in a flash. Rose faced the chaos before her, and took a deep breath before running into the battle.

Knocking an arrow into her bow, Rose shot at a large beast that looked as if it had been a bunny. It turned to face who had shot it, leaving the people in front of it free from being mauled. Varian appeared beside them, and helped them up onto Rudiger’s back, before disappearing again.

The bunny-beast slowly stalked closer to Rose, before leaping at her. She quickly turned around and ran, only to hear an arrow whiz past her, and watched as it launched itself in the beast’s chest. It fell to the ground, and in a flash of light, turned back into a sweet, innocent rabbit. But it was dead. Rose stared at it, crestfallen. These animals didn’t deserve to die-- they were being forced to fight against their will.

Rose faced her mother, who was shooting arrows at more beasts, causing them to fall to the ground, dead. “Mom!” Elisha turned to her daughter. “Please, don’t kill them. They’re not themselves!”
    “But, sweetie, they’re attacking innocent people!” Elisha argued.

“They’re being forced to. These innocent animals don’t deserve to die!”

Elisha was silent for a moment before nodding. “Alright.” She let another arrow fly through the sky, landing in a beast’s foot. “But you should find Rachael-- if you shut down the source, everything else should go down with it!”

Rose nodded, then sprinted forward, shooting various arrows at random beasts-- careful not to make the wound fatal. She paused for a moment, thinking. If I was a notorious villain, where would I be?

Sunlight shone into her eyes, and she lifted an arm to cover them. She looked up at where the sunlight was coming from. The castle.

Of course. Every villain would target the royal family-- everyone would protect them at all costs. Rose slung her bow back on her shoulder, and narrowed her eyes. Rae, here I come.