Gale's Storm

CHAPTER 9

James was ecstatic that morning, because it was his first border patrol on his own. He had been training for an entire year for this chance. He heard his commanding officer call for him and he was off.

"Go get your armor and sword, you will be leaving soon," he said when James had saluted him. He ran off to the armory to retrieve his armor and sword.

He was greeted by Anita who said; "Big day I see. Here for your armor and weapon?" James nodded to her, bouncing on his feet.

She brought out all of the pieces of his armor along with his shortsword. He went off to put the armor on and before long he was walking up to Commander Schoorel who was dismissing two men.

He brought James to the edge of town and told him to patrol around this area, to make sure there were no cursed people coming for town. James saluted him as the commander left through the trees back toward town. He started to wander around in the trees and undergrowth, on the lookout with his hand near his sword hilt.

After almost a half an hour of wandering and patrolling through the forest, he heard a loud rustling from some undergrowth to his right.

He whirled around with his hand on his sword hilt just before he called out; "Who goes there?!"

A dark skinned girl walked out. He noticed her wild hair and the thought of her being cursed crossed his mind. He pushed that thought away and told himself she was just lost.

"Hello there, please don't hurt me," she said with her hands out non threateningly. "I won't hurt you, what are you doing this far from town?" James said reassuringly as he pulled his hand away from his sword hilt.

The girl folded her arms as she said; "I could ask you the same thing." He reasoned pridefully, "I'm patrolling the border with the cursed, so they don't anywhere near town," He paused again before adding, "it's not safe for a girl your age to be this close to where they lurk, you should head back. I could help guide you if you're lost."

A fire lit in the girl's amber eyes and she started yelling at him saying; "I can take care of myself thank you very much! I'm not lost and I've never been lost in my entire life! You have no idea who's out there, not all shapeshifters are evil monsters! You've never even met one! Well, you've made the wrong impression on the first one you've met!"

James stumbled backward as her ears and face started to point and she started to get slowly smaller and redder. Her hands started to let off a bright yellow light. He yelled for another guard to come and help him.

Another girl and a pale boy came out from behind her and James brought out his shortsword, but they weren't attacking him like he thought they would.

She could be right, but how can I trust her? James thought. "Gale, we should go, he's not the right person. Rock, help me," the other blond girl said.

The pale boy apparently named Rock helped to pull the slowly changing girl named Gale away and into the undergrowth. James put his sword away and called after them; "Wait! Give me a chance, you scared me, but you might have a point."

The boy named Rock came back out and James heard Gale yelling something and heard something like a blast of fire. "Give us some time to calm her down, don't tell anyone we're here and we can talk, alright?" Rock said evenly, glancing back at the undergrowth where Gale and the other girl were.

"Deal, I'll wait here and talk to any guards who heard me or her yell," James agreed. Rock nodded and hurried back to where the two girls were.

James heard the two trying to calm down Gale and her shouting some more. He heard more sounds similar to the bonfire in the center of town rising up and some crashing sounds. He wondered what was going on as his friend Mark came out from behind him.

"I heard you shout, is everything alright?" Mark said with his hand on the spear on his back.

"Yeah, I just got spooked by a nearby eagle, it landed right above me and called out really loudly before I spooked it by shouting," James said as an excuse.

"Is it just me, or is it hotter than usual out here?" Mark asked him. "Just you my friend, have a good day," he said to him before he left.

The blond girl came out from the undergrowth and told James he could come and introduce himself again. He froze as he saw the burning bushes and ferns around them and a fox in Rock's arms.

"What on Mystica happened here?!" James said as he took in the scene. The fox in Rock's arms leaped down and transformed into Gale and she walked up to him.

"So... I kind of have fire magic... And you made me really mad by what you said about my kind, and my age, and girls. So, everything you said in general deeply upset me to where I had to scream it out in fox form and shoot fire everywhere. Don't worry, it won't spread much further than it has now. My name is Gale, as you might have guessed. I'm from your neighboring shapeshifter colony, Oak Colony," she said as she winced.

"That is really scary, but also so freaking cool! My name's James Gaspard, I'm a newly trained soldier in my town," James told her.

"Since we're doing introductions I guess I should introduce myself too. I'm Rock, from the northern coasted Mountain Colony. My shapeshift is a gray falcon, also, nobody in my colony knows I'm here," Rock said as he stepped forward. "And I guess that leaves me, I'm Lillian. I have a bull shark as my shapeshift and can swim twenty-four miles at once, in human form," the blond girl said.

Lillian and Rock looked at Gale as she said; "We came out hoping to find a way to make the sky, land, and water colonies come back together. We were also hoping that humans would join this alliance as well. Both kinds of people mixed together, not in colonies and cities like now. Would you like to join us? We don't know exactly how we're going to accomplish this massive task, but Reef Colony, Birch Colony and Oak Colony have backed us up in this dream. There's hope."

"I'd love to help! You guys are the exact opposite of how my town describes you. If I find a way to get Commander Schoorel to come out past the boundary, he can meet you and talk to the king about all of this! It's a big risk, but if he meets you and realizes what I have, we could make the greatest change since Anthony here on Nemus!" James said enthusiastically.