The Brink of Giving Up || A KotLC Fanfiction

Chapter Two; Encounter

The moment I slid down the whirlpool waterslide into Atlantis, I knew something was wrong. A single shriek filled the air, and right as I slid onto the sponge, chaos arose. Children were hiding behind their parents, and shops were herding as many elves as they could indoors.

At first I was confused about what everyone was freaking out about, but then I saw them. Three cloaked figures were standing around the Unity Fountain. I sucked in a breath. Their capes were identical to the ones that had killed my mother and sister and captured my father...

I stumbled back, and Aunt Ezra caught me.

I faintly heard her asking me if I was okay, asking me to take deep breaths, but it was too late.

Wind started to blow around me. That's what happens when strong emotions hit me, I use my ability. I don't choose to use it, but I guess my body thinks I'm under a threat when I get anxious or scared, and it just... happens. It got stronger and stronger and I knew I couldn't stop it, so I tried to channel it away from me, and toward the figures in cloaks.

The windstorm slowly moved toward the figures, and I pushed it outwards faster and faster and it kept picking up speed. I felt like I was going to pass out from the straining, but I kept going.

One of the elves in cloaks had lit the human statue on fire. My vision was a bit blurred, as I was still trying to move the windstorm toward them, but I could've sworn it was blue fire. Balefire.

Suddenly, I lost control. The carefully twisting windstorm I had created had gone wild, it blew in every direction. I was no longer controlling it, so I had come back to my senses. Wind was blowing everywhere, and people were still screaming.

The guy who had lit the human statue with balefire had been blown to the ground, and I guess he took some head damage, because he was unconscious. The other two weren't by the Unity Fountain anymore, and I frantically looked around. They couldn't hurt anyone else.

But then I found them, right in front of the restaurant we were going to go eat at. Seven elves stood opposing them, and one of them was controlling a huge water shield, pushing the cloaked figures away.

I hurried toward them, and I realized they were younger elves, probably around my age or a bit older. I ran over to the girl who was controlling the water, and I could see she was struggling. So I called some wind over to me, and pushed it forward, propelling the water shield even faster, and crashing them to the ground.

Just as another elf came forward to try and capture the two fallen figures, they got up and light leaped away with their unconscious friend, yelling something along the lines of "You haven't seen the last of us."

Everyone stood in shock for a second, almost like time was frozen. The wind had stopped. No one moved an inch. Everything was so silent I could've sworn everyone could hear my racing heartbeat. Then, a wrinkly old elf walked forward. I was confused for a second, but then the smell of him told me he had eaten ruckleberries to hide his appearance, which I found strange, but I said nothing.

"It's safe now, everyone. Best hurry home." He called out to the people around him who were shaking with fear.

Soon most of the people had left besides the shopkeepers, Uncle Kalen, Aunt Ezra, Dawn, the group of seven kids, and the ruckleberry-elf.

I started to run back toward my aunt and uncle when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was a small girl with tangled blonde hair. She had huge, ice-blue eyes and lots of mini braids woven into her hair.

"Hey, what you did back there was really helpful, thanks!" She told me with a grin.

I was surprised at how... calm she seemed after pretty much having a near-death encounter.

"Um, you're welcome!" I replied, starting to walk away again.

She stopped me. "I'm Marella! Marella Redek. Who are you?"

I gave her an awkward smile. I kind of really wanted to leave, but I didn't want to be rude.

"Rae. Rae Miracle."

"Oh, and those are your parents?" She asked, and I realized my aunt and uncle had moved right up behind me. My uncle was giving me a stern look that said 'we'll talk about what you did later.' but my aunt was giving Marella a huge smile.

"No, she's our niece. She doesn't have many friends though, so I'd love it if you could maybe let her hang out with your friends? You seem like a wonderful young lady!"

My face turned red. Gosh this was embarrassing. I really didn't need my aunt helping me make friends. Besides, I didn't need any. I had Ana and Dawn. But Marella smiled and nodded, hooking her arm through mine and bringing me over to the group of kids.

Marella introduced me to them.

"Guys, this is Rae. She was the Guster who helped us defeat the Neverseen!" She told them.

When all they did was give her a small wave and a smile, Marella sighed. "Come on, where are your manners? Introduce yourselves!"

I gave a small laugh. "No, it's fine. I've got to be going anyway."

But Aunt Ezra was right behind me. "No, no! We can go on ahead to the restaurant, you can take your time with your new friends!" Before I could say anything, she winked and left. I internally sighed. Aunt Ezra was just trying so hard to make me feel better, but it wasn't always what I wanted...

"Hey, it's nice to meet you! I'm Sophie." I immediately recognized her. She was the girl who had multiple tribunals, the 'experiment girl', the girl with brown eyes, she was the girl raised with humans. I felt sort of bad for her, everyone knew her. And not in a good way. But I kept my mouth shut and pretended I'd never heard of her.

"That's a nice name." I told her, and she blushed.

Three more elves introduced themselves as Biana, Fitz, and Dex.

I was kind of surprised to meet the Vackers... they're like practically royalty, and I didn't exactly know how to act. Did I stutter too much? Did I forget to say something important? Was I acting to awkward?

A small breeze blew in my face, and I knew it was because of the anxiety so I took a few deep breaths.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Linh!" A girl with long, jet black hair with silver tips interrupted my thoughts, grounding me back into reality.

She looked pretty nice, I guess. She was also the one with the super cool Hydrokinetic powers from before, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to be her friend. "Hi!" I told her, waving.

"And this is my twin brother, Tam!" She said, giving a soft smile.

Tam looked similar to Linh, except he looked a lot more... apprehensive. "Can I read your shadowvapor?" He asked.

I frowned. "Huh?"

"Tam's a Shade, and he doesn't trust people if he can't read their shadowvapor," Linh explained. "It won't hurt, it'll just tell how much darkness you've got inside you."

I nodded slowly. "Um, okay."

As Tam read my shadowvapor, I shivered. I don't know if it was because of his intense and intimidating stare, or because of the chill that passed through my body as he read the shadowvapor.

Then it was over.

He stared at me for a good ten seconds.

And then walked away.

I shifted around uncomfortably. "Um.. what happened? What was the result?" I called out to him. Everyone else looked sort of confused as well.

He looked back at me. "The result was," he started, his voice cold. "One hundred percent darkness." 

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thank you sooo much  @TheHannahElizabeth for voting on my last chapter!! it really means a lot :) 

but anyways, here's the next part! i know it took awhile to come out, but i was brainstorming and i didn't really know what would come next until it clicked haha. so anyways, i hope whoever reads this enjoys this! if you did, pls let me know in the comments so i know i should keep writing!