Among The Stars

CHAPTER 9

A few months later William and I were racing through a field in our animal forms. Both of us had mastered full transformation and were enjoying it a lot.

"Haha! I win again," I said, transforming back at the finish line.

"You had a head start," William panted, sitting down on the grass.

"Nu-uh. YOU had a head start," I argued, sitting beside him. William scoffed.

"You remember the day we picked potatoes? The day I mastered partial transformation?"

"Oh? Yeah I think I do," William answered, the question 'what do you mean?' very evident in his voice.

"That day I was thinking back to before the explosions. I thought about how changes hurt but most of them might turn out good. I also thought this one might also turn out good."

"Livy-" he started but I cut him off.

"But then the war thing came and I started giving up on the idea. But now that it's been months since the threat I'm slowly starting to get the hope back. We'll live a long life, William. I just know we will."

"Olivia-" he started again but the ground rumbled.

I sent him an alerted and questioning glance. "That's not normal?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

The ground rumbled again and little cracks started to appear.

No, no, no, no, no!

"What is it, Livy?" William asks me, clearly noticing my alarmed face. I didn't give him an answer. "Livy? Olivia! What's wrong?"

I looked up at him. "The war is here. That's most likely the element people. Earth specifically."

"Oh crap. Let's go back," he said and transformed into a fox.

Oh crap indeed, I thought and followed his actions.

***

"Let's go find Salyna," I told William and we ran through the cheerful campus.

I feel really bad. I don't want anyone to be sad because we noticed the enemies, I thought but still followed William through the crowd.

"Salyna!" William called the wolves' leader. "They're here."

The woman didn't notice exactly what William was saying right off the bat but soon her face lit up with fear.

"I'm going to get Andrew and Lucius. Then show us where they are," Salyna said seriously and we nodded.

These clever bastards! I cursed our enemies. They come and attack exactly when we let our guard down! Exactly when we thought we were safe! In all honesty I wished I could cry. But I had to be strong. I couldn't show any weaknesses. Especially when the war was closer than ever before.

"Let's go," Salyna said, being back with Lucius and Andrew. William and I nodded and started walking back towards where we just came from.

The crowd around us must have noticed the three leaders and their serious faces because one by one, everyone started to group behind us. If it would've been for a happy reason, I would've been proud to lead all the animals with my best friend. But this was different.

We were nearing the point where William and I usually ended our race but Will suddenly put a hand in front of me, making me and also the crowd behind us come to an abrupt stop.

I looked at him questioningly but soon noticed the problem for myself. When we left the ground had started cracking slightly. But now there was a ravine. I furrowed my brows. The ravine was fairly wide. Around six meters wide and seemingly very deep, darkness consuming everything after around twenty meters.

On the other side of the ravine we saw hundreds of people standing, metal-looking armor glistening in the last rays of sunlight.

In front stood a man who was hoovering slightly over the ground.

An air controller, I realised. I had dreamt about meeting the element controllers but not in this kind of situation.

Andrew and Lucius stood in front of us while Salyna pulled us - William and me - back a bit to make room for the grown-up leaders.

"What do you want?" Lucius asked the army in a polite, yet slightly venomous voice.

"We have come to fight the war you asked for," the air controller in the front answered back.

"We have asked for no war," Andrew tried to reason with the air controller.

"Then why have you held a secret for all those years? Is that not enough reason for us to know that you are planning to kill us all with an animal army?!"

Shouts of agreement emerge from behind the air controller.

Animal army? This man is crazy, I thought, looking at William with a look that asked 'you thinking what I'm thinking?'. Said manchild nodded and rolled his eyes, mouthing 'animal army' very mockingly. I chuckled.

"Animal army? What are you even on abou-" Lucius started but was cut off by the ground crumbling beneath him and him nearly falling.

"Enough!" the air controller said. "We are here for serious business and could end you all right now if we wanted to. But we are men enough to let you prepare until dawn. Then we'll get to the serious part."

And with that he turned away, and in the matter of a few minutes, the army started setting up a camp on the opposite side of the ravine.

I gulped and looked at Will warily. He stared right back at me with an identical look and in the last rays of the setting sun, we headed back to campus, knowing that nothing would ever be the same again.