Everglade: The Underaged

Chapter 16

Luke walked through the woods, heading for the rendezvous point where his friends were waiting. When he got there, he could tell that their nerves were shot. They all got into defensive positions when he arrived.

"Oh, Luke, it's just you. We thought you were a Crow. An actual one." Korman said.

"That's okay." Luke replied. He recognized the kid who had run away. The kid shied away from him. Luke understood. The kid had last seen him with The Crows. Ailwin noticed the movement.

"Cailean, it's alright, Luke was a spy." He said. Cailean didn't move.

"What's our next move?" Isabella asked.

"We stop The Crows." Luke answered.

"How?"

"We destabilize them."

"How do we do that?" Ailwin asked.

"We take the Underage and free them." Luke answered. "Break them free of the mind control. While The Enslaver was in my head, I learned how to break the mind control."

"Wait, what?"

"I don't know how I did it, I just did." Suddenly, a figure jumped out of the shadows straight at Cailean. Everyone scattered.

"You brought one with you?" Korman asked.

"Not willingly! I must have been followed." Luke looked at the person that had followed him. He was an Underaged with jet black hair and a Dragon. "The Enslaver must have ordered this Underaged to follow me!" Luke blocked the Underaged's way. He pushed out his mind to the Underaged's, and found the mental chains holding the Underaged's mind captive. He broke them. The Underaged's mind came flooding out from the prison in which it had been held. The Underaged stopped moving and shook his head before collapsing to the ground. Luke felt his own knees give out. He fell to the ground as he was enveloped in darkness.

When Luke woke up he saw the night sky. The view was suddenly obstructed by Eclipse's head.

Okay? Came into Luke's head.

I will be. Luke replied. He looked around. They were still at the rondevu point. There was a fire blazing. Everyone except Ailwin was asleep. Luke figured the Underaged was still unconscious. But he also wondered why he'd passed out. It had never happened before. Ailwin looked at him.

'"You're awake." He said. Luke carefully sat up.

"What happened to me?" He asked.

"I've been thinking about that. The best explanation I can come up with is that freeing our Underaged friend here, you got so mentally exhausted, your mind shut down."

"Is he awake yet?"

"No. he hasn't woken up yet. I hope he will soon."

"Yeah. We don't know how long he was under The Crows' control." Luke over at the still figure lying nearby. It surprised him as to how easy it had been to free him from the mind control. It just had been mentally exhausting. The Underaged moved. Luke and Ailwin watched him with bated breath as they waited to see if he would wake up. The Underaged groaned. He lifted his head up and looked around. Then he got up fast and tried to run, but he fell. Ailwin approached him. The Underaged pulled a stiletto out of his jacket and pointed the end at Ailwin as he scrambled backward.

"Get away from me!" he screamed. Ailwin put his hands up and stepped back. The Underaged kept his knife pointed at him. Luke stood up. The Underaged's eyes immediately turned on him. There was distrust in them. This Underaged had lost all trust in others.

"It's okay. We freed you from the mind control that you were under." Luke said. "What's your name?"

"Why should I tell you? You could be planning to do horrible things to me. You could be a Crow!" the Underaged said. He stared accusingly at the clothes Luke was wearing. Luke looked down at them. He wished he still had his old clothes. These ones weren't helping much.

"I infiltrated The Crows' base."

"Yeah right. You're lying!" Eclipse came over. She chirruped. That proved

to be too much for the Underaged. With a wild scream, he jumped at Ailwin.