{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK IV} The Day of Death

Afterwards

23:  Afterwards

Night had fallen.  The swirling balls of coloured light shone in the darkness, illuminating the blood-splattered grass.  If you didn’t know what they were, they were almost beautiful.  They could have been fairies, dancing in the moonlight, at one with nature.

The effect was sort of ruined when you realised they were the souls/spirits/powers of dead people.

I was still standing in exactly the same position, staring vacantly, although it had been a few hours since it was all over.  I could sense the other seven moving and rustling behind me, but I honestly didn’t care.

I had watched all these people been hacked to death.  And I hadn’t done anything about it.

An owl hooted.  Bats chattered.  Crickets buzzed.  Deer barked.

And I still stood still.

Whispering.  Nudging.  “You do it!”s and “No you do it!”s.

Luke, the nominated spokesperson, came forward.  I moved my head for the first time in hours to look at him.  I’d forgotten what it was like to move.

“Um, Liv?”  He asked.  “It’s getting cold.  Maybe we should go inside.”

Before I turned my head back round, I caught Rock and Rachael shivering, Felix setting his hands alight to keep warm, Ethan watching us whilst pretending not to be watching us (very entertaining) and Josie and Pebble playing rock-paper-scissors.  (Neither Josie or Pebble appear to feel the cold).

I suddenly realised that I actually was quite chilly.  Maybe they were right.  I had to go inside at some point.  As much as I’d like to, I couldn’t really stay up this tree all night.  Although I wasn’t ready to move on, it was probably time to start moving forward.

Still unable to speak, my throat dry, my tongue raw, I nodded my head thrice, and grew some branches so those of us who weren’t Air Elementists could get back down.

There were some balls of light from Air Elementists.  They were a sort of lilac colour, and changed from being clouded up to white to clear.  There were Earth energies, too, a collection of neutrals.  The swirling blue ones were Water.  The rich purple, red and black ones Death, and the shiny metallic whirring ones Technology…

“Liv?  You coming?”

Slowly, I got down from my branch, and followed Rock and Luke down.  Felix was the only one left.  I saw him look back once more at all the balls of light.