The Five Realms

Chapter 13 - Discovering New Freaking Abilities

Harper fell over when the winds quit and landed heavily on top of me. I groaned but then I sighed deeply instead. Grass. I was lying in grass! Wind caressed my cheek; I lifted my head and inhaled deep greedy breaths of the floral perfumed clean air. Sounds of birds chirping erupted all around me in a heavenly chorus of song, and with my hearing ability I was able to hear the roar of a distant waterfall and the gentle trickle made by a lazy stream.

I raised my eyes and looked to the blue sky that was dotted with white puffy clouds and smiled as a ray of sunshine found my face. As I felt the dew of heat from the summer sun I imagined the ray traveling through my body and lighting my bruised and battered soul: clearing away the pain, clearing away the nightmares, clearing away the blood and grim; leaving me clean and fresh and whole.

Harper and I looked around the thick lush forest we had just entered and then embraced each other. Harper laughing gently, I was in too much disbelief and wonder to even try and arrange my emotions in discernable order.

I gasped in pain as I can back to reality with jarring speed. My wrists had started bleeding from where I had fallen when we entered Celestine, and I had unconsciously pressed them against Harper's back. Harper pulled away and laid me down on the soft carpeted forest floor and he tore a piece from my disgusting loin cloth secured around my middle before he grabbed a chunk of moss wrapped it around each wrist and then tied the cloth around that in a mock bandage.

"Move!" Came a shout that startled us both.

Harper just had time to move me two feet before a pile of Warriors came bustling through the portal. Their hair disheveled from the strange wind and their faces flushed from the heat of the battle. Thalion appeared last, trailing a thrashing Oren who was completely covered in smoking black demon blood and swinging his sword like a mad man.

"Cease brother! Oren, we are home! Stop your blade!"

I motioned for Harper and he gently picked me up and cautiously led me to where Oren was still swinging his double edged sword his eyes crazed.

(Oren. You saved me. I am safe. You can rest now my Warrior. Thank you.) I laid my trembling hand on Oren's shaking shoulder and Oren stopped instantly, he stood up straight and whipped around to look at me. Tears filled his eyes as he looked at the sumptuous greenery that surrounded him. Then he dropped his sword, took me from Harper's arms, and held me to him while dropped to his knees he sobbed into my shoulder.

"Elowen, our Warriors need you." Thalion called to me as he tended his men. Oren's body started to shake again and I patted his arm, reassuring him.

"It's okay, you can stay with me, I need help to stand anyways."

Oren sighed in relief and stood up from the forest floor taking me in his arms. I smiled up at him and wiped the tears and dirt and blood from his face from a bit of moss I had plucked from the ground. His mouth twitched up at the edges at my gentle maternal touch, but I doubted it would be days maybe weeks before Oren remembered how to smile. I was just very good at hiding my emotions. I had been doing it all my life. I was still broken inside. I needed to be alone so I could break down and go insane for a while; but I had a job to do first.

Oren kept one arm on my back as I knelt in the soft living grass and squishy moss. I couldn't help taking in deep breaths every chance I could. Smelling the floral air, the spice of the giant trees, and the cool clean nature smell of the grass and moss. It was the only thing holding me together.

I looked down at the fallen Warrior, lying in the grass on his back, his face twisted in pain. Thalion had managed to rescue all but two of his Warriors, who had died in Valefor. This Warrior was in bad shape. He was covered in black blood mixed with the scarlet blood from his own veins. A deep sword wound sliced across his chest, ending deep in his stomach. A bruise closed one of his eyes, and another cut trailed from his wrist to his elbow. I looked up at Thalion, panic in my eyes.