Igniting The Life Within

◈Igniting The Life Within◈
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The sun rose over the hills, sending shafts of sunlight which illuminated the waking town. Most mornings begin with waking up, hearing the sound of the soft buzz of cars driving outside and inhaling the air of a fresh start to the day. That isn't everyone's morning, though. Especially not for Pierce.
The loud crashing filled his ears, he pulled his bedsheets over his head, trying to drown out the loud noises, but his efforts were fruitless. He got up and rubbed his eyes then yawned and looked around, his vision was still blurry.
As he tried to walk out of his room, he tripped over a shoe and fell on his face. Blood spilled out of his nose and dotted the dusty wooden floor, he rubbed his nose and winced. He got up and opened his door and stumbled to the bathroom to get a piece of toilet paper to dry his bloody nose. He tore a piece of toilet paper off the roll and wiped the blood off of his face and put it in his nose to stop the flow of blood.
He walked out to the kitchen, the yelling got louder every step he took closer to the kitchen, his ears throbbed and rang."Good morning." Pierce mumbled tiredly, he stared at the ground. The yelling stopped and the two people that were yelling at each other turned their heads towards Pierce.
"I thought you ran away or died in your sleep since you slept in, that's a shame that you're still here." The man grumbled, his voice was deep and gruff.
"I agree, why don't you just get out of our lives anyways? You weren't supposed to even be in this world. Go play in traffic for all I care." The woman said in a crackly voice.
"Sorry." He said, still lowering his head. These were his parents, he didn't want to refer to them as his parents since they showed no love for him whatsoever. His parents don't let him call them 'Mom' or 'Dad', he is only allowed to call them by their real names, he found that out the hard way.
"You better be, now stop standing there and wasting our time, make yourself useful and wash these dishes. We already made breakfast but since you were asleep we fed it to the dog." The woman snapped.
"Ok. I'm sorry Ann." He said to Ann
Ann frowned as she looked at him, Ann had very frizzy and messy gray and black hair, she had a tired and worn down pale face and eyes that were dead and flat. Eyes that lacked any sense of love and warmth. He grabbed the dirty dishes and poured soap onto a sponge and started to wash them.
"Wash them faster, boy! I want to eat my jam-filled donut and those plates are the only clean ones we have!" His father yelled at him.
"Sorry. I'll wash them faster Greg." He said to his 'father', Greg, and started to wash the plates faster.
Greg had very torn up and dirty looking hands, he had brown hair that was always hidden under a hat, he was almost positive that Greg had never washed that hat. Greg had some muscle since he used to go to the gym, but then he hit a low point in his life and now he only eats jelly-filled donuts instead of picking up a single weight. Greg also had a slight mustache.
He handed Greg a plate that he just washed and dried off so that he could eat his diabete-filled donut on it. Greg snatched the plate off of him and started to eat the jelly-donut very loudly, Greg had no manners at all.
"Will you stop chewing so loudly! All you do all day is spill jam and frosting down your shirt and chew loudly! Our house is filled with donut crumbs! I can't get rid of the mice now because of you!" Ann yelled at Greg. They both started to yell at each other and that was his sign to walk out of the kitchen. His parents didn't even notice him walking to his room.
Their house wasn't the biggest house, it only had one floor and 2 bedrooms, his and his parent's. It took a lot of convincing Greg and Ann to give him a room to sleep in, instead of the couch that was in the living room that was connected to the kitchen.
He walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth, since he figured that he wouldn't eat breakfast this morning. He set down his toothbrush then picked up his comb and started to brush his black and brown hair. Hazel's eyes looked back at him in the mirror as he touched his freckled cheeks and sighed. He looked so tired, so beaten down. There was only a hint of life that still remained in his eyes.
He walked into his bedroom and got dressed, he always wore a hoodie and a bland shirt underneath the hoodies that he would always wear along with a pair of sweatpants or jeans.
He grabbed his phone and opened the door to go outside and closed it softly behind him so Greg and Ann wouldn't yell at him for closing the door with the slightest sound.
He inhaled the fresh air and put his headphones on, letting music's comforting hands cradle him in the symphony of music. He started to sing the song he was listening to softly under his breath while he walked down the sidewalk.
The chill morning breeze gently ruffled his hair and grazed his face. He watched the cars drive by, and the lights of the town waking up.
He walked beside the open fields, he ran his finger alongside the worn down wooden fence. The sun's light started to pour into the town, he raised his hand and let the sun slowly creep up his arm and soak into his skin.
He kept walking down the sidewalk, and made a couple of turns before he stopped in front of the local Cafe. He opened the door to the Cafe and walked in, the bell softly rang as he opened the door, and the warm scents of baked food and coffee filled his nose.
He looked around for his friend. He and his friend always met up at the Cafe on the weekends. He saw his friend's brown hair and green eyes out of the corner of his eye, so he walked over to sit down next to him. "Hey Oliver." He said as he sat down across from his friend, Oliver.
"Hey Pierce! I already ordered your usual coffee, I also got myself a coffee as well." Oliver said.
"Thanks for doing that, you didn't have to. You're the best." He said, faintly smiling. Oliver was his only friend, the only person that he trusted, the only person who was there for him.
"No problem! So, has anything interesting happened to you this week?" Oliver asked, taking a sip out of his coffee. He thought for a moment, nothing much happened to him this week, only school. He went to a different High School than Oliver, but they would still always find a chance to hang out with each other.
"Nothing much, just finishing with finals since it is nearing summer break, how about you?" He said.
"Same, I have finals going on. My dad got a new job, so that's cool I guess. I don't really know what else to say, so that's it." Oliver said, taking another sip of his coffee. Pierce took a sip of his coffee as well.
Him and Oliver began to chat, and when he checked the time, an hour had already passed.
"It's already been an hour? Time flies when you are having fun, doesn't it?" Oliver said after he saw what time it was.
"Yea." He replied, tapping his fingers on his empty coffee cup.
"Well I have to get going since I have a lunch plan with one of my cousins at 11:45, so that starts in 30 minutes." Oliver said, grabbing his own empty coffee cup and he flung his bag over his shoulder.
"Alright, have fun." He replied and waved goodbye to Oliver, Oliver waved back as he walked out of the Cafe.
Pierce grabbed his empty coffee cup and threw it into the trash as he walked out. He opened the door, and felt the warm breeze caress his face.
He walked down the sidewalk, heading towards the pet store. He walked into the store, and headed towards the cat food aisle. He grabbed a tin of cat food and walked to the counter to pay for it.
He handed the tin to the cashier along with the money to pay for it.
"Who are you feeding today?" The cashier asked as she scanned the can and took the money that he put down on the counter.
"A very adorable calico cat." He replied, smiling softly to be polite.
"Aw, I love calicos, what's their name?" The cashier asked. "Her name is Koi." He replied, shuffling slightly.
"That has to be the cutest name for a calico! I hope she enjoys her food, have a nice day!" The cashier handed him the can back.
"You too." He said as he walked out of the doors. He walked down the sidewalk, as he kept walking, the sidewalk began to become cracked and more destroyed. He stopped in front of an abandoned worn-down warehouse.
He slid the doors open, rust flung and scattered into the air. He walked into the warehouse, and made his way to the far left corner. In the corner was a hollow wooden box, he flicked on the small lightswitch near it, and the inside of the box filled up with light.
"Little Koi fish, I have your food!" He whispered, tapping the side of the box with his finger.
A little meow came from inside the box, and he looked inside of it. Laying on her bed was a bundle of white, orange and black fur. It was Koi.
"Wake up sleepy head." He said, petting her softly. Koi stretched then yawned and opened her gray and orange eyes.
He opened the tin of food, and Koi's ears immediately raised. He poured the food into one of the dishes on a mat that was next to her bed. She got up and started to eat the food.
Pierce found Koi when she was a kitten in this abandoned warehouse, he assumed she was abandoned by her mother, so he built this box for Koi to sleep in. He installed lights in the box, put a big plush bed in it, along with two dishes and a mat. He came everyday to this place to feed Koi, he liked to talk to Koi, and she would always listen to him while he stroked her on his lap.
He pet Koi and had their usual conversation with each other, which mostly consisted of him speaking and Koi being silent or replying with a meow.
"Well I have to go now, I'll see you tomorrow my little Koi fish." He said to Koi as he got up and walked out of the warehouse. Koi walked back into her box to sleep again, since that was her hobby.
He made his way back to his house, he walked past the eerie dark forest that everyone was afraid to go into.
He paused for a moment and turned towards the forest. He didn't want to go back to his house since that was a place he hated the most, so he decided to go walk into the forest.
No one in the town dared to venture into the forest, since the last time people did go into the forest, they never returned. Ever since that people have never set foot into it.
He didn't care about that, since if he were to die mysteriously in the forest, it wouldn't be much of a big deal since no one really cared about him, besides Oliver and Koi.
He heard screeching in the distance as he walked into the forest, the tree branches seemed like hands that were about to grab him and take him away. A crow watched him as he ventured deeper into the forest, its small black eyes seemed to never blink.
As he kept going deeper into the forest, the darker it seemed to get. He heard growling coming from a bush, he turned around and looked around, his heart seemed to be beating faster than before. He turned on the flashlight in his phone and looked around some more.
He heard footsteps behind him and ran for his life, thoughts started to cloud his mind, was it a bear? Or worse, but he didn't want to find out. As he caught his breath he looked behind him, it turned out it was just a rabbit.
He felt an odd sensation on his skin, the hairs on his arms raised, his heartbeat was getting faster every second. He felt a weird vibration in the air, so he decided to go further towards the weird vibration. As he walked on, the vibration got stronger, the air felt heavy, his hearing got muffled.
He stopped near a boulder to look around, and as he placed his hand on the boulder to lean on it, a strong burst of electricity flowed through his hand. He stumbled back, clenching his hand, smoke billowed off of it. His veins felt like they were pulsing with electricity, he could clearly feel his heart pulsing.
"What the heck?" He whispered as the pain started to fade away.
He walked over to the other side of the boulder and saw that there was a large mysterious hole in the side of it. As he got closer to the odd hole, his lungs felt like they were being squeezed.
He stretched his arm out, he put a single finger into the darkness of the hole, he felt a tingling sensation, and when he took it out, his finger was gone. He held in a scream, his finger was completely gone. Then, right in front of his eyes, his finger materialized again. He exhaled a sigh of relief, and squeezed his finger to make sure it was really there, and sure enough it was.
He felt something deep inside of him urge him to go inside the hole, it was like a magnet. He walked closer to the large hole, he could almost hear something whispering in his ears "Step in, I'll take you to a world of pure imagination, step in, Pierce. Step. In."
He gave in to the whispering, and he walked into the hole.  Everything was dark at first, then he felt a sensation on his body, it was like someone tickling him. He started to laugh because of the tickling, but then his laugh soon turned into screeching and sobbing.
Light flashed all around him, his eyes felt like they had exploded, getting worse and worse as the flashing grew more intense and fast. He felt like his lungs were being filled up with too much air, then stepped on. His body felt as if it was being stretched beyond limit, then squished down. His brain throbbed, it felt like it was on fire. His insides felt as if something was eating them, smoke billowed out of his own mouth, blood welled in his eyes.
Force was being applied at his throat, clenching it and never letting go, his limbs were being twisted around, twisting in ways beyond their limit. He felt as if all of his bones were shattered, he felt his heart burst inside of him, he vomited blood and his own bones. He tried to scream, but he couldn't.
Then all of a sudden the pain stopped, the flashing stopped, everything stopped.
He could feel warmth on his skin and grass below him. He slowly opened his eyes, his head felt as if it was spinning, but that slowly faded away. He sat up and looked at himself, all of his limbs were intact, he didn't have any broken bones, and he wasn't vomiting and crying blood. He looked around, it took him a second for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he couldn't believe what he saw.
He was in a tropical place, the grass below him wasn't green, but rather a light teal, and everytime he touched it, it gave off a soft teal glow. Tiny orbs floated out of the grass, but when he touched them, they disappeared and made a faint giggling noise.
The air here was fresh and pure, his lungs exhaled a sweet sigh of relief. The trees here looked like birch trees, but instead of being black and white, it consisted of subtle greys and browns, they seemed to almost shimmer. Twisting vines hung off of the trees, the leaves were slanted downwards and they were larger than a normal leaf.
He looked behind him, and he almost fainted. There were floating islands in the sky. He felt the ground beneath him sway slightly, he was on one of them. He knew he wasn't on Earth anymore, he was in a different world.
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Chapter 1
◈ A new world. ◈
He felt as if he couldn't breathe, he felt dizzy and sick. He wasn't on Earth, so where was he? He looked around panicked, how can he get back to Earth, will he die in this strange world? His mind was clouding with terrifying thoughts, he ran into the trees in desperate search of a way to get out of this place.
He stopped to catch his breath, he felt like something was watching him. He heard a hiss come from the leaves above him, but he didn't take that as a warning hiss, and that was his big mistake.
He felt something land on his back, he fell to the ground. He turned over quickly to see what landed on him, and what he saw was terrifying. It was a creature about as long as his arm, it didn't have any fur, only diseased looking skin that clung to its ribs and scrawny, boney body. The creature did not have any eyes, it had sharp whiskers and small rat-like ears, and long yellow claws.
The creature screeched at him, its jaw detaching into halves, each with razor sharp teeth inside them. Pierce tried to fling the creature off of him, but it dug its claws into his shoulders, blood dripped off of them. The creature snapped at him, but luckily he dodged the attack.
Pierce realized another unsettling feature of this creature, it has a second mouth inside of its main mouth. The creature swiped at his face, its claws dug deeply into his cheek, blood trickled down his face, along with his own tears. The creature grabbed a hold of his neck with its jaws, it started to crush his neck in its jaws. He felt blood gurgle in his throat, he tried to gasp for air, but he couldn't breath. His face started to turn purple, the creature kept a harsh hold on his neck, despite his effort to fling it off.
Pierce was on the brink of death, when all of a sudden he felt the pressure on his neck stop and the creature's limp body lay on his chest, he felt its warm sticky blood spray on his face.
He gasped for air, he touched his throat and winced, the creature didn't completely shatter his neck and vocal chords, but when he tried to speak, his voice sounded croaky. He wiped the blood off of his face and looked at the creature, an arrow piercing its skull. He looked around to see who shot the arrow, but he saw nobody.
He sat up, he touched his face and winced, blood trickled down his face from the deep slash on his cheek. He looked at his shoulder, blood trickled out of the deep wounds, he put his hand over the shoulder with the deepest wound to stop the blood from trickling out of it. He wiped the tears from his eyes, he still wondered who shot the creature, then he heard rustling in the leaves above him.
"Who's there?" He tried to yell, but it turned out as a mangled croak. He heard more rustling in the leaves above him.
"Please come out, whoever you are, I won't hurt you, I want to thank you for saving my life." He said, his voice seemed less croaky.
The rustling stopped for a second, then the thing that shot the creature hopped onto one of the tree branches so that he could clearly see them. It was a human, a girl.
She had flowy and wavy brown hair, which was a slight teal color at the ends of it. On top of her head were vines that had been carefully twisted together, along with feathers that were on the front of it in the shape of a butterfly. She had brown eyes which had hints of grey and teal in them, they looked almost wild, yet calming at the same time, like the ocean.
She had very tribal looking clothes on, it was like a bikini, but made out of leaves, vines, and wood. Her bow and arrows were fastened onto her back by some straps. On each side of her beautiful soft face were two flowy lines of faint teal markings under her eyes, with small circles under the bottom line. She also had a butterfly wing on each ear, like earrings.
She stared at him with her ocean-like eyes, she seemed to not blink, her body was still, she was ready to flee at any of his slightest movements. He stared into her striking eyes, he got lost in them.
"I'm not here to harm you." He repeated softly, his voice seemed clearer now. She looked him up and down, her face was almost unreadable, the only emotion he could sense from her was bewilderment.
"Can I talk with you? I want to ask you some questions about this place." He said. He didn't want to make the slightest move to scare her.
She narrowed her eyes, and after a long moment of silence, she hopped down from the branch onto the ground, the grass beneath her glowed warmly. She kept low to the ground, so that she was almost on all fours, her arms hovered over the ground.
Pierce was still sitting on the ground, he tried his best not to move. She warily started to crawl towards him, she didn't take her eyes off of him. She stopped 2 feet away from him, she intensely looked at him, she looked more curious now.
"Can I ask you questions now?" He asked the girl, hoping that she understood english. The girl nodded.
"Where am I?" He asked his first question. The girl paused for a moment, she narrowed her eyes even more at Pierce.
"Pandora." She replied, her voice was soft and silky. "Where are you from?" The girl hesitantly asked him.
"Earth." He replied, this moment that he was having with this girl felt unreal.
"What is Earth?" The girl asked, her head tilted slightly.
"A big blue planet with a lot of people like me on it." He replied. "What is Pandora?" He asked the girl.
"Home." She replied.
"What is your name?" He asked. She looked at him suspiciously.
"Zuri." She replied after a long pause.
"Nice to meet you, Zuri." He said.
Zuri didn't say anything back to him.
"My name is Pierce." He said, breaking the odd silence.
Zuri crawled closer to him, she narrowed her eyes, she seemed more curious now.
"What is this?" She asked as she grabbed a hold of his hoodie.
"It's what the people on my planet wear." He replied as he watched her intensely examining it.
"Odd." Zuri replied. She circled around Pierce, examining every detail of him. "You smell different." She said as she moved her fingers along one of his arms, she was perplexed by the texture of his hoodie.
He nodded, he felt a weird feeling around this girl, it wasn't a bad feeling, it was a feeling he couldn't describe, like there was something fluttering in his stomach.
"You are hurt." She said, gently pressing her hand against the slashes on his face, she didn't hurt him when she did that, since her touch was so gentle.
He felt even more of that odd feeling when she gently touched his face, he assumed it was the air in this place that was making him feel funny. He nodded, he still kept his hand over one of his shoulders, he felt the blood seep between his fingers, he started to feel more lightheaded than before.
"Can you help me?" He asked Zuri, his vision started to cloud and get darker. Zuri paused for a moment, then replied with a 'Yes'.
The world started to spin and get darker, he fainted. The last thing that he felt before he fainted was Zuri's arms wrap gently around him and pick him up.
He woke up, he heard the soft trickling of water next to him, and something soft below him. He opened his eyes, he saw a pond that seemed to slightly glow with a small waterfall that trickled into it, he was laying on a blanket made out of soft vines.
He felt slightly dizzy, he felt as if his body was a heavy brick, he couldn't completely get up since he was weak. He saw that his hoodie and the shirt below it was taken off. He could see how boney and scrawny his body was.
He looked at his shoulders, leaves were wrapped around them, with a vine that secured them on. He still had some blood on his arms and face, but the majority of it has been washed off.
He heard footsteps, he looked behind him to see Zuri walking towards him.
"You are awake, that is good." Zuri said as she crouched down beside him. "I have not finished tending to your wounds, and I still need to wash off some of the blood on your skin." She said as she sat down next to him, he noticed that she had a vine belt around her waist with sealed off jars that were made out of wood and leaves on it.
"How do you feel?" Zuri asked him as she gently placed a large piece of moss into the pond to dampen it.
"I feel a lot better than I was feeling." He replied, his throat felt dry, it still hurt.
"That's good." She replied, turning towards him with the soaked piece of moss in her hand. "I didn't get to see if you had any more injuries since you were laying on your side and I didn't want to disturb you by flipping you over, can you lay on your back please?" She asked him, he nodded and laid on his back.
Zuri gasped when she saw how scrawny he was. She ran her fingers along his stomach and chest, she had a very worried expression on her face.
"You are starving!" Zuri exclaimed, worriedly staring at his body. He felt that weird fluttering in his stomach as Zuri ran her fingers along his body. "I must give you food, you poor thing you are starving!" She said as she quickly got up and ran over to a tall tree.
The tree had odd looking fruit hanging off of it, Zuri jumped up and climbed on the branches, swinging elegantly from one branch to another. She plucked a fruit off of it then swan dived off of the tree, she gently landed on the ground, almost without making a sound. Pierce was at loss of words while he was watching Zuri elegantly move.
She sat back down next to him, she sliced open the fruit with a stone knife that was fastened to the side of her belt and took out some seeds that were in it. "Are you able to lift up your arms to eat?" Zuri asked him. He tried to lift his arms, but pain shot through them, making him unable to lift them. He shook his head. "That's ok, I'll feed you." She said softly.
She opened one of the jars and pulled out a piece of wood that looked almost like a spoon. She scooped out some of the fruit and turned towards him, she leaned closer to him. "Open up." She said, her voice was so calming, so gentle, like a mother's.
He hesitantly opened his mouth, the fruit smelt odd, it had a scent that was similar to the smell of a decaying creature. When the fruit entered his mouth, he was surprised. It didn't taste like its smell at all, it tasted like what a cloud would taste like, it was a comforting soft and sweet taste. It tasted like a dream, he had never tasted anything like this before. The fruit made his throat feel slightly better.
Zuri fed him the rest of the fruit, Pierce had never been so full in his life. "Do you feel better?" She asked him, he nodded with a slight smile, a real smile.
"I'll work on tending to your wounds now." She said as she raised the damp moss that was in her hand. She gently rubbed the moss over any blood on his body, washing it off. She unwrapped the vines that were keeping the leaves in place, and set the vines and leaves to the side.
Zuri opened another one of her containers and dipped her fingers into the container, when she took her hand out, a glowing green paste was on her fingers. "This might sting." She said as she gently pressed her fingers to the wound on one of his shoulders and rubbed it in slowly. He winced as he felt the stinging, but he tried to hold in his slight scream.
He looked at his shoulder, the wound was slightly glowing. "Woah." He whispered as he stared at his wound that was now glowing softly. "How does it do that?" He asked, his throat began to feel more crackly again.
"You don't have these on Earth?" She asked, puzzled.
"No, nothing like it at all." He responded, his throat felt like it was closing in on itself, he coughed.
"Are you ok?" Zuri asked worriedly, holding one of his hands.
He looked into Zuri's beautiful eyes, they were warm and comforting.
"My throat." He tried to say, but he was caught off half way saying it and started to cough even more. Zuri quickly opened one of her jars and sorted through it, then took out a minty white paste that was on her fingers, and she gently rubbed it on his throat that was beginning to turn purple. He felt his throat loosen up, and it started to tingle and feel cold.
Zuri filled an empty cup up with water from the pond, and held it to his mouth. "Drink." She said softly as she trickled the water into his mouth. The water tasted so pure, so fresh.
"Well, if you were still wondering about how your wound is glowing, I make the special herb mixes that are in my jars on my belt out of the plants here on Pandora, some of them glow. The fluids inside of the plants glow, so when you look at the plants closer, you see that their veins glow, not the whole plant. The fluids inside of the plant come from the center of the floating islands, it's called "The Heart" of each of the floating islands." Zuri said as she set aside the now empty cup, Pierce already felt much better.
"That's amazing" He said, his voice was clearer now.
"Yes." Zuri said she began to treat the wound on his other shoulder, then grabbing fresh leaves and vines to tie around his shoulders again.
Zuri examined the slash on Pierce's cheek, she grabbed more of the glowing green paste and rubbed it softly on the deep slashes, she gently pressed her other hand against his other cheek, he assumed it would keep him more still with her doing that. His cheeks began to feel warm, but it wasn't from the herb mixture, and it wasn't from the warmth of Zuri's soft and gentle hands.
"Is it just me or did it get hotter?" He asked.
"No, just you." Zuri replied, slightly confused, but she kept tending to the slash.
"O-oh, ok." He stuttered, Pierce rarely stuttered, why did he stutter? Was it just the fact that he was in a new world and his body was being weird, or was it something else? Pierce thought to himself.
"Your cheeks are turning red." Zuri said.
"They are?" He asked, almost surprised. Zuri nodded. "You seem to act weird, is this how people on your planet act?" She asked, confused.
"No, not most of the time, I guess people on my planet act differently towards each other than here." He responded.
"How so?" She asked.
"I don't know, I guess we don't touch others as much as you are now, but that isn't a bad thing! I-I don't mean that as a bad thing at all." He said quickly.
"My people are very connected to things, so they like to feel things, it makes our senses be more alive, it makes us more familiar with strange things. My tribe has said that I have been more touchy-feely than the rest, they say that my connection to things is stronger than anyone in the tribe has to things." She replied, looking warmly into Pierce's eyes. "Do you not like me touching you as much as I am? I can stop if I am making you feel uncomfortable." Zuri said quickly, slowly taking her hand that was resting on Pierce's cheek away.
"No, it's fine. It's..comforting." He replied quickly, Zuri placed her hand back in its resting position again, her eyes shone for a moment.
"Comforting.." She said airly under her breath.
Zuri pressed a couple of large leaves to the slash to act like a bandage. "Do you feel better?" Zuri asked him as she closed the lids to the jars that she opened and she began to wash her hands in the pond. He nodded.
The breeze blew gently through the trees, the island that they were on shifted slightly, the grass glowed as it rustled in the breeze. He could hear things like birds calling in the distance, but their calls were more complicated, more diverse, more exotic than any birds that he had heard before.
Something flew above their heads, he looked up, to see an odd looking creature about as big as a hawk with four feathered wings and a long beak, with reptile-like eyes. It had complex orange and blue patterns on its body, and had long sharp looking feathers that ran down its back, its tail was long and thin. The creature did not have any front limbs, only scaly legs with sharp talons at the end of them.
It was hovering above them, staring at them without blinking.
"Uhh, Zuri, there's a creature that's hovering above us." He said worriedly. Zuri looked up and smiled, she closed her eyes and called back to the creature, almost exactly mimicking its previous call, but with some new notes. She wasn't whistling, but making the complex sound with only her vocal box.
The creature tilted its head then made a noise in response to her call, then flew down closer. Zuri held out her arm, and the strange looking creature landed on her arm, its talons dug into her arm, but did not draw any blood. It tucked its wings to its sides and looked into the Zuri's eyes, they stared calmly at each other for a moment.
Zuri ran her finger down its spine and rubbed her finger against the creature's cheek, it made a cooing sound and ruffled its feathers.
"He won't harm you, he might look scary, but he won't harm you unless you harm him. This is an Avi." Zuri said as she kept petting the creature. He stared at the Avi, he was still scared of it. He held out one of his fingers and moved it closer to it, it narrowed its eyes at his finger. "He won't harm you." Zuri told the Avi. After a moment of the Avi judging Pierce, it let him pet it. Its feathers felt like silk, smooth and soft. The Avi stayed for a moment then flew off of Zuri's arm.
"Did you know that specific Avi?" He asked Zuri, she looked over at him and smiled.
"No." She responded.
"How did it trust you then?" He asked, perplexed.
"You can trust by looking into someone's eyes." She replied.
"How..?" He asked, still confused, he did remember that the Avi and Zuri looked at each other for a long moment.
"You can see who they are by just looking into their eyes, you can only do that by noticing the small details, noticing, not assuming." She replied softly.
"Isn't it very hard for you to trust others?" He asked, surprised, since he barely trusted anyone.
"It's easy to trust when you know who and how to trust." She replied. That left Pierce speechless.
They both sat there in a moment of silence, then Zuri broke the awkward silence. "Your wounds should have healed now." She said, reaching her hand towards his shoulder to take the leaves off of them. Already? Pierce thought to himself. She took the leaves off, and he gasped under his breath. The deep wounds that were on his shoulders were completely gone, along with the slash on his cheek.
"I do need to head off now, but it was nice meeting you!" Zuri said as she stood up and began to run away.
"Wait! Can we meet up again tomorrow at midday?" He yelled as she was still running away into the forest.
"Ok!" She yelled back, her voice was merely a whisper now. She was gone.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 2
◈ Perplexed. ◈
        Pierce got up and put his shirt back on, but held his hoodie in his arms since it was too hot to wear it. He walked through the forest, he made sure to be extra cautious now since of the recent attack. He found the place where he woke up, and looked around in desperate search of how to get back to Earth.
He almost lost hope, but then he stubbed his toe on something. He winced at the pain, he looked down to see what he stubbed his toe on. He brushed the grass off of it, and it was a round stone slab with gold markings on it. He bent down and touched it, the gold markings started to glow, and he started to feel the tingling sensation again. Light flashed all around him, but he didn't feel like he was vomiting up his bones and blood, or his limbs were being twisted around. He felt a warm and fuzzy sensation, he felt no pain at all. He opened his eyes, he felt the cold air blow in his face.        
He was back in the dark forest, right next to the boulder. He stood up and looked around, he felt slightly dizzy.
He started to walk out of the forest, he didn't know how to describe the feeling that he felt. He couldn't describe what just happened to him, he was almost positive it was a dream. But he knew it wasn't a dream.
        He walked to his house, the sun was just beginning to set. He opened the door, he could hear the yelling coming from inside his house. He walked into the living room, his parents were yelling over something that was on a plate, he assumed it was supposed to be their dinner, but it looked like a pile of charcoal. Ann turned her head towards Pierce, her eyes had no emotion in them.
He walked into the bathroom to have a shower, his brain couldn't think, he didn't know how to feel about what had just happened to him. He walked into his room and laid on his bed, he didn't know what to think about.
He got under the covers of his bed and closed his eyes, and let sleep cradle him in its arms.
        He woke up to yelling, like everyday. He went to do his normal routine, he ate a piece of bread with some butter on it then brushed his teeth and walked out the house to go feed Koi. After he fed Koi, he went to the Cafe to meet up with Oliver, since it was still the weekend. He grabbed two coffees, one for him and one for Oliver, then sat down at a table and waited for Oliver. Oliver walked in the Cafe and sat down with Pierce.
"Sorry I was late, there was a car crash and the traffic was blocked up, so were the crosswalks." Oliver said, catching his breath.
"That's alright, I got you your coffee." He replied, handing Oliver his cup of coffee. "Thanks." Oliver said smiling, Pierce nodded.
"Any news?" Oliver asked him. He paused for a moment, he didn't know if she should tell Oliver that he went to a different world and met this strange girl.
"Nothing much." He replied, deciding to keep the world and the girl a secret until the time was right to tell Oliver about it.
Oliver and him chatted for an hour, then Oliver had to go and they said goodbye to each other.
Pierce checked his watch, it was almost midday. He walked to the dark forest and made his way to the boulder. He arrived at the boulder, he took a deep breath, getting ready for the pain he was about to experience, but then he heard a whisper. "Why would you come back, even after I made you feel horrible pain?" The whisper asked before Pierce walked into the hole.
The pain he felt wasn't as bad as the pain he had felt before, he only felt cramping in his muscles. He opened his eyes and got up, he was now on Pandora. He walked around in a circle, waiting for Zuri to show up.
He started to get worried that she wouldn't show up, he sat down and sighed. He was about to lose all hope, but then he heard rustling in the leaves. Zuri landed on the ground and walked up to him.
"Hi!" Zuri said, smiling, he smiled back. "What do you want to do?" She asked him, her wavy brown hair softly blew in the warm breeze.
"I am interested about your herb mixes, and how they heal the body so quickly! Could you teach me about them?" He asked.
"No one has been interested in my talent with herbs, so of course!" Zuri said in surprise.
Zuri taught him about almost all of the plants on Pandora, about their different uses, how they are important in her culture, and more. He was fascinated, but some of the time when she was showing him a plant and talking about it, he caught himself looking at how beautiful she was.       
She taught him how to make the herb mixture that healed his wounds. He tried to make it, but he somehow managed to make the mixture explode. Him and Zuri began to break out in laughter, Pierce hadn't laughed in years, it felt weird to laugh.
Hours had passed, but it didn't feel like hours to him, but rather minutes. The sun was starting to set, Zuri noticed that and said to him that it was time for her to go back to her village. He watched her as she swung elegantly from vine to vine, then she disappeared again.
They agreed that they would meet up every weekend at midday from now on. When he said weekend to her, it confused her, since the days on Pandora were different from the days on Earth, but they figured it out.
He returned back to Earth again and walked back to his house. He did his normal routine then slept. He woke up to go to school, his day consisted of mostly studying and taking tests, and when he got back home he immediately took a nap.
The days began to feel longer, since he couldn't wait to meet up with Zuri on the weekend. Sometimes he would catch himself daydreaming about her, the way she smiled at him, the way her hair blew in the breeze, the way she elegantly moved.
The weekend finally came. He woke up early, earlier than usual and got dressed quickly, but instead of him wearing his usual hoodie, he wore a t-shirt. He fed Koi and walked to the Cafe to meet up with Oliver. He couldn't wait to meet up with Zuri, he couldn't wait to hear her soft and soothing voice.
He walked into the Cafe and sat down at the table where Oliver was sitting. He tapped his foot on the ground as Oliver talked about his day, he couldn't wait.
"Why are you all of a sudden energetic, you never tap your foot like that, or are you nervous? What is it? I can't tell since you don't really express emotion." Oliver asked, then giggled softly.
"Oh nothing, maybe it's the coffee, yea it's the coffee." He lied.
"That's the same coffee you always get, and you never act like this when you drink it." Oliver said, narrowing his emerald eyes.
"Nope. It's the coffee." He said quickly. Oliver narrowed his eyes more. "What time is it? Is it almost midday?" He asked, almost frantically.
"Why?" Oliver asked suspiciously.
"Nothing." He replied.
"Well, it's 11:40." Oliver said, he was still suspicious of Pierce.
"Oh well I got to go to a uh.. soccer game!" He said as he got up quickly and threw his empty coffee cup away.
"I never knew you played soccer.." Oliver said.
"Yeah well I do now ok bye!" He yelled back to Oliver as he ran out of the Cafe and to the forest. He almost ran into a tree since he was so excited to go see Zuri.
He teleported to Pandora, he walked around and waited for her. Pierce realized that he had never been this excited to meet up with someone, or that he had been this excited in his life. He wondered why he was feeling like this towards Zuri, he didn't even know how to describe the feeling that he felt towards her. He always wanted to be with her now, to smell her comforting scent, to feel her comforting presence. It was more than a comforting feeling that she made Pierce feel, but he didn't know what it was. Pierce had always felt numb inside, he forgot what emotions were, but when he met Zuri, he felt what emotion was for him.
He heard rustling in the leaves again, he looked around but he couldn't see Zuri, Then from behind he felt someone's arms wrap around his stomach. "Boo!" The person that was hugging him from behind said, that startled him a bit, but then he smelt the comforting scent, it was Zuri.
It felt like butterflies were flying in his stomach. Zuri started to giggle, she gently held him tighter. He started to giggle as well.
"Am I very scary?" Zuri asked, almost whispering in his ear.
"Very." He replied affectionately, he felt like even more butterflies were fluttering in his stomach, he didn't know why.
Zuri stopped hugging him from behind and walked in front of him, she twirled around so that she faced him.
"Do you want to go explore?" Zuri asked energetically.
"Sure!" He responded, smiling. She led the way, they walked around the island that they were on. Zuri taught him more things about Pandora and the creatures that live on it. Zuri ran over to the edge of the island, he followed her and stopped where she stopped, he gasped for air.
"See those vines connecting that island to ours?" Zuri said, pointing to the vines that hung and connected the two islands, he nodded. He noticed that all the islands were connected by vines.
"I'm going to teach you how to island hop!" Zuri said. He nodded gingerly, he didn't like the idea of hopping to the other island by using those vines. "I'll go first and show you how to do it, look carefully." She said. Zuri started to back up then ran towards the edge, he was about to scream as he watched her leap off of the edge. "Zuri!!" He yelled, running to the edge and looking down, he couldn't see her.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 3
◈ Swimming in the air. ◈
Then, grasping a vine and swinging around, was Zuri. She elegantly moved through the vines, she flung herself in the air, letting go of the vine she was grasping, then grabbed another vines, and she kept repeating that process.
Some of the time as she was in the air without any grasp of a vine she would do an elegant 360 in the air or frontflip. She moved so smoothly, so effortlessly, she looked like she was flying.
She swung herself up on the other island and landed on it, almost without making a sound. He was speechless.
"Come on! It looks easy, but it is very hard, and if you slip, you will fall in the void and your body will be torn apart and exploded! So don't do that, but I think you can do it!" Zuri called from the other island.
He gulped as he looked over the edge and down to the void.
"Are you sure this is safe?" He yelled back in freight.
"Not at all!" Zuri called back. He took a deep breath and jumped off of the edge.
He grabbed a vine, he could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He looked around frantically for another vine, he saw another one that was hanging above him, and his grasp on this vine was starting to slip. He quickly climbed up the vine and jumped to the other one. He couldn't believe he was actually doing it.
He got more confident and swung to another one, then another one, and then he saw that there were only two more vines to grab onto to get to the other island. He was overcome with pride and confidence, now he didn't need to worry about falling, in fact he would close his eyes on swinging to this vine.
He lept off of the vine he was holding, his eyes closed. He reached out to grab the vine, but all that he grabbed was air. Then he felt himself plummeting down.
He screeched, he looked down to see the dark void, he could hear eerie noises coming from it. He was going to die. He was going to fall into the void and explode. He closed his eyes, bracing for his death. Then he felt something grab his hand and swing him up in the air, just before he was about to get swallowed in the void.
He still kept his eyes closed, he felt tears streaming down his face. He felt himself swinging around, his hand was still being clenched by another hand. He opened his eyes, to see Zuri holding his hand and swinging vine to vine.
She lifted him up and threw him on the second island, she jumped up onto the second island beside him. Zuri saved his life, once again.
He sat up, Zuri ran over to him and hugged him, she almost made him fall on his back. He could hear Zuri sobbing, she buried her face into his shoulder. He didn't know how to feel, he almost died, he was going to die. He felt his heart thumping in his chest.
He looked down at Zuri, her face was still buried into his shoulder, still sobbing. He instinctively pressed his arms against her back, hugging her. She raised her head and looked into his eyes, her eyes were filled with tears.
He felt extremely hurt when he looked into her tearfilled eyes, her sadness.
"I'm so sorry, I almost killed you, I am so sorry!" She wailed, tears streamed down her soft face.
"It's ok, it was my fault for being overconfident and closing my eyes, it wasn't your fault." He said, trying to be as soothing as possible to calm her, he hated seeing her tears, her smile turn into a frown, her soft face having tears rolling down it.
"But I made you do it in the first place! I'm so sorry! You almost died...you almost.." She sobbed, her voice growing smaller and quieter.
"But I didn't die." He said, wiping the tears off of her face, he didn't expect himself to do that, it was instinct for him to brush away her tears, he didn't know why.
Zuri paused for a moment, gazing into his eyes, she sniffled. She nodded and looked away for a moment, he could see the guilt in her eyes, the sadness. She quickly wiped her remaining tears away and blinked quickly. After a moment, it looked almost like she wasn't just crying, her nose was just slightly red along with her eyes.
"Thank you for saving me." He said to break the silence. She looked back into his eyes, she nodded.
Her eyes reflected his face, he hadn't noticed until now, but his face seemed more alive. He felt more alive.
They got up, he was still a little fazed by what just happened. They explored the new island that they were walking on, he could see that Zuri still felt extremely guilty, he saw that she would look away most of the time, and momentarily glance at him with a look of guilt. He wondered why she felt so guilty, he said that it was ok, but she still was feeling guilty. After a long pause of silence, Zuri spoke.
"Your hug is comforting. Safe." She said in a quiet voice. He was surprised at what she said, he didn't expect her to say that.
He didn't know how to respond to that, he had never thought that his hug was comforting or safe, but he had never hugged anyone before, so how would he know? It felt weird to hug Zuri at that moment, but it also felt right, completely right.
"Thank you." He responded awkwardly. "Your eyes are like a beach with calm waves splashing on its sand." He said. Zuri stopped and gazed at him, her expression was almost unreadable.
She was so exotic looking when she stood there with her hair blowing in the breeze, her calming yet wild eyes gazing at him, the sun's rays dappling her skin which made it glow with warmth.
"No one has ever said something like that to me. That....thank you." She replied, her eyes shimmered. He smiled.
They walked around some more and chatted for a while. He saw that the sun was slowly starting to set, so he said he would have to leave now, but that would mean he would have to swing on the vines again to get to the island with the portal to get back to Earth. As they stopped at the edge of the island, Zuri looked at the vines then at him worriedly.
"I can carry you over if you would like." She said.
"I can do it, I've learned not to be overconfident this time, don't worry, I'll be safe, you can stay here." He reassured her.
She nodded gingerly and watched him as he started to swing vine to vine over to the other island. He landed on the other island, glad he didn't almost plummet to his death this time.
He looked back to see Zuri proudly gazing at him, he waved goodbye and she waved back, and in an instance, she disappeared into the forest.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ 👁 ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 4
👁 Those eyes. 👁
He returned back to Earth and made his way home. As he was walking down the sidewalk and passing an alleyway, he heard sobbing coming from the alleyway. Curious, he turned around and looked inside the alleyway. He saw, huddled in the corner, was a girl sobbing.
He walked over to her to see if she was alright, he could see that the girl lifted her head slightly so that she could peer out to see what was happening, her eyes were yellow, and they sharply looked at him like daggers.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he walked closer to her, but he kept a two foot distance from her. After a moment she raised her head completely. She had blonde hair which curled sharply at the ends of it, the ends of her hair also faded to a muted black color. She looked him up and down with her sharp yellow eyes then grinned.
"I am now." She responded grinning, he noticed that her cheeks grew rosy, that was most likely from her crying, he assumed.
"Do you need help?" He asked, something about this girl seemed off, but he couldn't tell what it was about her that seemed off. She didn't respond, she just stared at him with her unsettling yellow eyes.
He felt bad for her, seeing her sobbing in the corner of an alleyway alone.
"Do you want to go to the Cafe with me and grab a coffee..?" He asked hesitantly, he only asked that because he felt bad for her. Maybe he would help her get to a better place mentally and physically if he did this, but who knows.
"Yes." She responded quickly, still grinning.
She got up and brushed herself off, she was wearing a creamy colored twisted knit sweater and baggy black pants. She also wore a belt with glass vials attached to it with some red liquid in them.
They walked to the Cafe, he opened the door for her, the girl was still grinning. They sat down at a table and he ordered her a coffee and gave it to her.
"What's your name?" He asked, he still felt weird around this girl, something was off about her.
"Well, you can call me by my nickname, Fox!" She said, giggling slightly. She rested her head on her hand and gazed at him.
"What is your name?" Fox asked in a singsong voice.
"Pierce." He replied, he felt uncomfortable when Fox laid her gaze on him, it was something about her sharp yellow eyes.
"That's a very lovely and handsome name." Fox replied with a bigger smile, she ran her finger across the lid of her coffee cup.
He didn't know how to respond to that, the air felt heavier now, his heart started to beat faster everytime he looked into her eyes.
"May I ask you something?" He said to Fox, trying his best to avoid eye contact with her.
"Of course." She said in another singsong-like tone.
"What are those glass vials on your belt filled with?" He asked. She paused for a moment, then laughed in a weird way.
"They are filled with.. Strawberry juice! I own..a garden and I grow..strawberries.. and I like to have their juice always with me so that whenever I'm tired I can drink it and feel more energized!" She replied.
He didn't like the way she stumbled over some of her words, almost like she was telling a lie.
"Oh, don't you just love the metallic-like taste of strawberry juice? The way that it's almost tangy..don't you just love that?" Fox said, smiling even wider.
He had never thought that strawberry juice tasted metallic and slightly tangy. He didn't nod, he didn't know how to respond to that either.
He looked out the window, he saw that the sun was almost gone over the hills. He could still feel Fox's gaze, it was immense, terrifying almost.
"I have to go now but it was nice meeting you." He said and he quickly got up. "Oh you have to go now? That's a shame, it was extremely pleasant to talk to you. Maybe we should speak again, because I know I would love to chat with you again." She said as she gazed at him walking out the door.
"Maybe." He replied as he walked out.
He walked quicker down the sidewalk now, not because the sun was almost completely set, but because of a strange feeling that he was in trouble. Being watched.
He rushed into his house, he didn't bother to acknowledge his parents. He did his normal routine then walked into his room. He closed his blinds and locked his door, even though he had never done that before.
He crawled under his sheets and tried to fall asleep, but the feeling of being watched still festered inside of him.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 5
◈ The Tribe. ◈
He woke up and got ready to go out to Pandora again, he fed Koi and right as he was walking to the forest he realized that he was supposed to be meeting up with Oliver in five minutes. He paused for a moment, thinking if he should leave Oliver and say that he had to do something or chat with him and put his and Zuri's meeting on hold.
He paced around, he didn't know what he should do. He sighed and walked to the Cafe and waited for Oliver to arrive. Oliver arrived and sat down at the table and sipped on his coffee. Pierce was barely listening to Oliver, he was only thinking about the time that he was missing to be with Zuri.
"Hello? Are you even listening to me?" Oliver asked, waving his hand around in front of his face.
"Huh? Oh, I was listening to what you were saying, but I didn't catch that last part. Could you say it again?" He asked, he didn't even know what Oliver had been talking about.
Oliver narrowed his eyes at Pierce and sighed then kept talking. The only thing that Pierce could catch was that Oliver got a cool job somewhere, but Pierce wasn't interested about that, the only thing he could think about was Zuri.
"You could at least show more interest in what I'm saying." Oliver said, frowning.
"I am interested." He replied, he felt offended even though he wasn't interested at all.
"You have never been a good liar." Oliver said, sighing. "Well I have to go now, go have fun on whatever you have been waiting for." Oliver mumbled, frowning.
"How did you know I was waiting to go do something?" He asked, surprised.
"Because I can tell it by the way you tap your leg, the way you gaze out of the window longing to go somewhere, or to meet someone. I am not that stupid, Pierce." Oliver said sharply as he walked out of the Cafe without saying goodbye to him.
Pierce felt slightly bad for not being interested in what Oliver was saying, but why was Oliver so upset that he wasn't paying attention? Oliver was normally the type of person to be chill about anything, but he wasn't in that moment. Maybe it has to do with him getting a new job, but what's so big about a new job? He thought to himself.
He brushed that off of his shoulder and walked out of the Cafe and made his way to the boulder. He entered Pandora and met up with Zuri, they mostly chatted for the entire day. Zuri had to go so they waved goodbye to each other.
Pierce went back to Earth and went to bed. The school days felt even longer without Zuri to chat with.
Him and Zuri kept meeting up with each other, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months.
One day Zuri showed him her village, the houses were round and had leaf roofs, they either hung down from a cliff or were on the ground. The people seemed afraid and threatened by him, they had similar reactions to when Zuri met him, but more fierce.
After a long time they accepted him and taught him their ways. The children braided his hair as one of Zuri's friends taught him about the history of Pandora, he was fascinated.
The children loved his company, he would play games with them. He could see Zuri watching him in the distance while she was talking to one of her friends, she was smiling softly.
"Can I braid his hair now?" One of the children asked the one that was currently braiding his hair.
"But you already went! I want to braid his hair!" Another one wailed as it ran over to them. The children started to argue, he had to separate them before anything got physical.
"You will all get the chance to braid my hair, just be patient, patience is key." He said, laughing softly.
One of them looked up into his eyes, her eyes shimmered.
"So wise." she said in awe.
After what seemed like hours of the children braiding his hair, Zuri said that it was time to show him how to fly. He didn't know what she meant by 'time for him to fly', he was confused. All of the children seemed excited when she said that, they all ran off giggling. Zuri led the way, they walked out of the village and Zuri stopped.
"They are a pain, but so loveable at the same time, they seem to love you." Zuri giggled, referring to the children.
"Yea, do you like my new hairdo? I think I should keep it, it looks very cool." He replied, Zuri burst out in laughter.
"Very cool." She replied, smiling warmly. He followed Zuri some more, they had to island hop across a few islands. Pierce was getting a hang of island hopping, Zuri said that he was almost a professional at it.
They stopped at a very rocky island, it consisted mostly of tall cliffs and rocky terrain. It was hard to maneuver over the jagged rocks, but they made it to where Zuri wanted them to be. It was more flat than the other areas, and they were standing right on the edge of the island.
"Be very quiet and crouch down, now you will see what I mean by it's time for you to fly." Zuri whispered, crouching down and peering over a boulder that they were hiding behind. He crouched down as well, he could hear weird roaring noises coming from the area over the boulder. He peered over the boulder, and what he saw sent terror down his spine.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 6
◈ Time to fly. ◈
There were a large number of creatures on the other side of the boulder, they were either hanging upside down on the rocks or climbing on them, most of them clung to the edge of the island.
They looked to be the size of an elephant, they looked like dragons. They had four wings and long twisted or curly horns. That had sharp glossy talons on the end of each toe which tapped the rock below them like a velociraptor. They had sails that ran down their spines and sharp fin looking things on their legs. They all had complex patterns and colors, each of them had completely different patterns and colors than the rest, they were all unique. They had long tails with either a sharp spike or fin at the end of it.
Their calls were loud and sounded nothing like what he had heard before.
"What are those?" He asked.
"We call them Tesserapteryx's, which means 'four winged', we mostly refer to them as the 'Gods of the wind' because they are the biggest creatures that fly in the air of Pandora, and we have a very deep connection to them. My people tame them so that they can fly in the skies to hunt or get places more quickly. You can only tame the one that has a connection with you when you try to tame it. It is a very rare occurrence for someone to tame one of them." Zuri whispered.
"Do you have one?" He whispered back.
"Yes, her name is Vayu, she was named after the wind and air god." She replied. "Take a look now to see which one you think connects to you, just by looking." She added.
"So you are saying that I am going to tame one of those?" He asked. Zuri nodded. "How do I manage to do that without getting eaten?" He asked worriedly.
"They normally don't attack us because they know we are allies, but they might see you as an enemy since you weren't born here, but it depends if they pay attention to you." She replied.
"That's comforting." He replied sarcastically.
Zuri laughed softly under her breath.
"Alright, go whenever you want, I'll be here watching just in case anything bad happens." She whispered.
He nodded then started to crawl over the boulder, trying to be as silent as possible. He landed on the other side of the boulder, his landing wasn't as silent as he hoped for. A couple of the Tesserapteryx's heads turned towards him, most of them turned their heads away from him after a moment, except one. It was a dark blue color with black stripes on it, its spine was a light blue which faded and blended out with the other colors. Across its wings and down its neck were light blue patterns, it looked like water ripples. Its striking eyes looked like if blue lightning was bottled up in them, they seemed to glow. It looked like lightning was creeping up its neck, it glowed bright blue.
It let out a low clicking noise in its throat and flared its nostrils, smoke billowed out of them and flashed slightly, like if it was a cloud with lightning striking in it. He walked closer, he stepped over the many tails that were laid on the ground.
He felt a weird feeling coming from that one Tesserapteryx that had been looking at him, its head was now turned away, but it still looked at him, like a side eye. He almost slipped on the rock as he was trying his best not to step on any of the surrounding Tesserapteryx's limbs.
He neared closer to the one that he felt a feeling towards, almost like a connection. Right as he was four feet away from it he turned around and looked at Zuri, her head peeking out from over the boulder.
"What should I do?" He mouthed those words to Zuri.
"Hop on its back and fly, it will try to fling you off, but try to calm it down in any way you think is right. If you manage to calm it, you have tamed it." She mouthed back.
His heart sunk in his chest.
He would have to fly on this creature, he might get flung off into the void, and how could Zuri save him then?
He took a deep breath in, and ran towards the specific Tesserapteryx. He jumped up and landed on its back, their eyes went slit and it let out an ear-piercing screech. It tried to fling him off then jumped off of the side of the island, then they started to plummet downwards.
His face was being stretched back from the air that was heavily blowing on his face as they plummeted down, he held onto their horns for dear life.
It barrel rolled in the air and opened its wings again and shot up into the sky. He felt like he was going to puke, he could feel his grip loosen, his stomach doing flips. He felt himself get lightheaded as they flew higher and higher. His vision began to cave in, his head began to feel light, his fingers slipped slowly off on the Tesserapteryx's horns.
Everything felt as if it was in slow motion, his body slowly falling, his hair blowing in the air, his fingers softly moving in the air as if they were still trying to grab an intangible thing. He felt himself go through a cloud, mist dappled his skin.
Even though he was plummeting down at a fast rate to his death, it felt peaceful. There was no time for Zuri to save him again, there was no time to save himself.
He accepted death, but he was afraid. Death seemed to be scary, it took your life away, it blew out your candle. Everyone he knew was scared of Death, but he was never fully afraid of it. Death to him was almost like the world saying 'you lived and fulfilled your purpose, now we will reward you by letting you rest in well deserved peace.'
He wondered what the afterlife would be like, would he see nothing, or would there be something else? He figured that he would soon find out.
He could feel himself smile softly, his tears floated in the air. He felt the void grasping his arms and reaching inside of him to take away his life.
Then he felt talons grasp onto his arms and pull him away from the void's grasp.
He opened his eyes, shocked. He expected to see Zuri being the one to save him, but he was wrong. It was the Tesserapteryx.
It threw him gently on an island and landed beside him. It folded its wings and glanced at him before it turned towards him and sat down. He got up and stared into its wild eyes, smoke softly rose out of its nostrils.
Why would it save him? He thought.
It blinked slowly and lowered its head so that they were seeing each other eye-to-eye.
"Why did you save me?" He asked the Tesserapteryx, knowing that it would probably not understand him. It unraveled hidden antennas that he hadn't noticed before and lowered them to touch his hand, the ends of them glowed. A light came from the base of the antenna and moved through it until it surged through his hand and veins.
'You smiled. Even though you were going to die, you smiled. You accepted.' He heard a voice say. The Tesserapteryx moved its antennas away and still looked into his eyes, they seemed to soften. It closed its eyes, he didn't know what to do, but something inside of him felt a connection.
He moved his hand closer to the Tesserapteryx, he moved it near its snout and gently pressed against it. Smoke billowed out of its nostrils when he did that, the lightning that flickered in the smoke seemed to be softer, and its color changed to purple.
He had just tamed one of the 'Gods of the wind'.
He couldn't believe that he just did that, it seemed so unreal that he actually tamed one of the most terrifying things he had ever seen. He moved his hand away from its snout and they looked into each other's eyes for a moment.
"I'll give you a name now." He said, since that was the most logical thing to do now. "How about Tempest?" He asked, he could see the ends of its lips curl into a soft smile. Tempest it was. He thought that Tempest would be a good name for it since it looked like if lightning was turned into a dragon, and it meant a fierce storm.
"Can you take me back to where I met you?" He asked Tempest. Tempest nodded and lowered a side of its back so that he could get on their back. He climbed up and sat on its back, it felt oddly comfortable.
Tempest raised their wings and started to fly. He felt that now he wouldn't need to feel like he was going to die, since he had tamed Tempest.
As they were flying, he petted the side of Tempest's face. Their patterns began to glow softly and they let out a low purr, like a cat.
It felt weird to fly, this wasn't like flying in a plane, it felt like he was flying. They landed on the side of the boulder where Zuri was. He slid down the wing of Tempest and brushed himself off, he felt insanely cool at that moment.
He felt Zuri's arms wrap around him, which startled him.
"I can't believe you tamed one! I lost all hope when I saw you plummeting in the air, but you actually did it" She yelled with excitement. She took a step back to look at Tempest, her jaw slightly dropped.
"Oh wow, look how stunning he is!" She said, then paused for a moment then covered her mouth with her hands. "Wait a minute, those patterns are familiar. I think you tamed a Tesserapteryx that is in one of the most powerful bloodlines of Tesserapteryxs ever. I can tell by looking at those lightning and water ripple patterns." She said.
"What? How could I, out of all the people, tame a Tesserapteryx that is in one of the most powerful bloodlines ever?" He asked, shocked.
"It must have seen something in you to make it trust you, they don't trust easily." She replied, her eyes still wide. He was at a loss for words.
"May I say hi to him?" She asked, stepping closer to Tempest.
"Of course." He replied. She let Tempest smell her hand, then she began to run her fingers along his face and down his neck. Tempest seemed to enjoy that.
She started to scratch behind his ear, and when she did that he immediately rolled over onto the ground.
"How did you do that?" He asked.
"Simple really, all Tesserapteryxs are big softies when you pet them and give them love. They all seem to like getting the area behind their ear scratched, they get all goo-goo over that." She giggled. "What is his name?" She asked, still petting Tempest.
"His name is Tempest." He replied, almost breaking out in laughter to see Tempest acting like a cat.
"Aw, what a handsome name." She said to Tempest in a baby-voice.
"How about we go show the village what you have tamed, I'm sure they would be surprised." Zuri said as she got up, Tempest sat back up and yawned.
"Ok, how will you get back since you don't have Vayu with you right now?" He asked as he began to climb onto Tempest's back.
"I'll sit behind you." She replied as she climbed onto Tempets's back, she seemed to do it quicker than him and in a fluid motion.
They flew over to the village and they landed. The expressions on the tribe's faces were hilarious, it looked as though the gateway to heaven just opened up in front of their eyes. Some of the people started asking him how the heck did he manage to tame Tempest, and others marveled in his beauty.
Zuri stood next to her friend, her friend was extremely surprised. "I told you, he is a keeper. I knew I saw something in him." He overheard Zuri saying to her friend.
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Chapter 7
◈ A warm welcome. ◈
They sat down and ate some fruit, him and Zuri watched the kids play on Tempest, he didn't look amused. Him and Zuri began to laugh and Tempest replied with a hiss, he knocked over one of the kids that was nibbling on the end of his tail with one of his talons.
He heard a horn blast in the distance, Zuri got up and started to run towards the horn call. "Come on!" She yelled at him and she bounded off. He began to follow her, he could see Tempest shaking off the kids and following him slowly, kids still grabbed onto his ankles.
"What is this for?" He yelled to Zuri, trying his best to keep up with her.
"I have no idea, but I guess this is important so let's see!" She yelled back.
He stopped next to Zuri to catch his breath, and when he looked up, he saw a large pedestal with some markings engraved on it. Someone was standing on top of the pedestal, he looked old and wise, he had his hand gently resting on the horn.
The tribe began to gather in front of the pedestal, their eyes wide.
He could see another man standing next to the pedestal, he had a stoic expression on his face. He could see that Zuri was looking at the man with a stoic expression, she seemed as if she was wanting an answer from him.
"Who is the person that you are looking at?" He asked Zuri, confused.
"It's my father, he is the leader of our warriors and fighting, and if he is standing there, that could mean something." She said.
"Mean what?" He asked.
"Maybe it means that what I asked him earlier is true, and this gathering is for it." She said, she tapped her foot, eager to know.
"What is it-" He asked but was cut off by the old man speaking.
"Today we are gathered here for something that has never happened before." The old man called out, everyone went silent. "This was never meant to be, this gathering was never meant to be. But something showed me otherwise." He called out. "As you all may know, there is a person here that doesn't belong to this tribe, or this land. He is the one that tamed the Mighty Lighting Tesserapteryx." He said.  Pierce knew that the man was talking about him.
"May that person come up and stand next to me on the pedestal." He said, Zuri looked at him with an excited expression.
"Go on!" She whispered to him, he began to walk towards the pedestal, he could feel the eyes of the tribe staring at him in wonder.
He stood next to the old man, he had not a clue on what was happening.
"Pierce." The old man said.
"Yes..?" He replied, he saw that everyone's eyes were focused on him, and only him.
"Someone tried to convince us that you were good, different from the others that came from Earth to here years ago, which we sacrificed to the void. The ones that we sacrificed tried to attack, they didn't want peace. The same person that said that you were different was the person that sacrificed the Earth people to the void, they saw how awful they were, but despite that, they saw something in you that was different." The old man said. Pierce realized that 'someone' was Zuri.
"We doubted that person, we assumed all Earth people were a threat. But then you showed us that we were wrong. That person kept trying to convince us to let you into the tribe, and no matter how many 'no's' we would respond with, they still kept asking, hopeful. Now you have shown us that we can trust you, that you are worthy." The old man said.
"Pierce, an Earth person, a tamer of Mighty Lighting Tesserapteryx, has shown your worth. You will receive your markings, the markings of the tribe." The old man said as he dipped his fingers into a jar of dark blue substance.
The old man turned towards him and brushed his fingers under his cheeks and moved them to make patterns with the dark blue substance. The old man finished and looked into his eyes.
"You are now part of the Pandorian Tribe."
He couldn't believe it. He was a part of the tribe now, they accepted him, they saw the worth inside of him that he had never seen before.
He looked into the crowd, people were cheering and chanting "Pierce! Pierce! Pierce!" He had never heard his name being chanted like that, or people cheering for him. Pride filled his chest. Amongst all of the yelling and cheering, he could see Zuri crying tears of happiness.
He stood there, the sun warmly lit up his markings, birds started calling out in the distance, like a victory call. It was like the whole of Pandora was congratulating him. Tempest looked into his eyes and nodded.
He felt like his life was a book at that moment, he was the main character, his ending would be happy. His ending would end like this, fulfilling his purpose in Pandora and living happily ever after.
But little did he know his story wasn't going to end just yet.
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Chapter 8
◈ Proving the unreal. ◈
The next day he met up with Oliver, like usual.
"What are those markings under your eyes? Did you get your face painted or something?" Oliver asked him.
He paused, he didn't know if he should tell Oliver about Pandora. After a long pause, he made up his mind.
"I got accepted into a tribe from another world." He whispered. Oliver's eyes widened, then he shook his head.
"Stop saying these make-believe things, there is no other world with humans on it other than Earth, and besides, you don't have a rocket ship to travel to a supposedly 'other world.'" Oliver doubtally said.
"I know that you won't believe me, but it's true!" He said, trying his best to get Oliver to believe him.
"You're delusional." Oliver replied, sighing.
"What can I do to make you believe me?" He asked.
"How about you show me this so-called 'other world', and don't bring me into Disney World or something because that isn't exactly a new world." Oliver said, getting up to throw away his empty coffee cup.
He paused for a moment, he could put Oliver in danger if he brought him to Pandora, and even put Pandora in danger if he brought him there.
"Do you not know what to say since you just made that up?" Oliver teased, giggling.
"You know what, I will show you, I'll show you that I'm not lying." He said, getting up and signaling Oliver to follow him with his hand.
He walked into the forest, Oliver following closely behind him.
"Are you sure this is safe? You know that whoever comes in here never comes out!" Oliver whispered to him worriedly.
"I've been here so many times, and I am still alive speaking to you, so I don't think you need to worry." He replied, dodging over a fallen down branch.
"Excuse me but what?" Oliver replied, shocked.
"Oh yea, I forgot to say, but this is where you go to get to Pandora." He replied.
"So what's so special about this Pandora place?" Oliver asked, almost getting hit in the face with a branch.
"You will see." He replied, he could see the boulder through the leaves. "Do you want to see a magic trick?" He asked Oliver as they stopped right next to the hole in the boulder.
"Uhhh...sureee?" Oliver hesitantly responded.
"Now watch my finger carefully, ok?" He said, wringling his pointer finger around. Oliver nodded, narrowing his eyes.
"Now, you see it is there, now watch me put it into this mysterious hole in this boulder." He said, putting his finger into the shadowy hole. "Now, when I take my finger out, it should be gone!" He said and took his finger out. Oliver screeched and covered his mouth when he saw that his finger was gone.
"HOLY SON OF A COW HOW DID YOU DO THAT? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW MAGIC! AND WHEN YOU TRIED IT IN 9TH GRADE YOU EMBARRASSED YOURSELF IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL AND FAILED MISERABLY! SO HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO PULL THAT OFF?" He screeched, running over to him and touching the area to where his finger was.
"Thanks man, I really had to remember that." He sighed. Then his finger started to materialize, Oliver's eyes widened even more.
"That wasn't some corny cheap magic, was it." Oliver said in a light voice.
"No, it was real magic. The magic of Pandora."
He began to step further into the hole, Oliver watched him nervously.
"You are disappearing, you are actually disappearing!" Oliver squealed, watching Pierce's body slowly fade away into Pandora.
"Quit standing there and come with me!" He yelled back, laughing as he grabbed Oliver's hand and dragged him into the portal with him. Oliver let out a high pitched squeak. Then they were off into Pandora.
He opened his eyes and got up, he watched Oliver laying down on the ground, shivering and trembling, tears ran down his face. He felt bad for Oliver, since he had to experience the pain he went through the first time he came here. Oliver opened his eyes and screeched, looking frantically around at his body, feeling his limbs and sighing a sigh of relief.
"What the heck was that? That was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life!" Oliver yelled, gasping for air, sweat rolled down his face.
"I agree, it was horrifying, but that will be the worst it gets, then from now on when you come back here, it feels less worse." He replied, helping Oliver get up. Oliver rubbed his eyes then looked around. His mouth was wide open, his eyes were huge.
"Woah." Oliver said under his breath, gazing at the land.
"I told you I wasn't lying." Pierce said with a smirk.
Pierce showed Oliver around, and taught him some things about Pandora. The whole time Oliver was at loss for words. He told Oliver about Zuri and that they had been meeting each other frequently, and she was the one who showed him everything he now knew about Pandora, and how exotic and amazing she was. When he told Oliver that, Oliver smiled, and Pierce didn't know why.
He thought it would be cool to go grab Tempest and to fly Oliver around, so he stopped walking for a moment and smirked at Oliver.
"Do you like dragons?" He asked Oliver. Oliver nodded.
"You know I love dragons! What a stupid question to ask, why?" Oliver responded, giggling.
Pierce smiled then ran to go get Tempest, he told Oliver to stay there.
He and Tempest the other day found a calming island with a pond and some moss beds, so he decided to leave Tempest there to relax, and that island was only a couple islands away from this one.
He island hopped all the way over to that island, he peaked through a bush and saw the shimmer of scales.
"Pssst Tempest!" He whispered.
Tempest turned his head elegantly towards him, his eyes lit up.
"Hey bud." He said as he walked over to Tempest and scratched behind his ears.
"I have a visitor, and how about we show off how cool we are to him and surprise him by flying over to him, he would absolutely freak out when he sees you, he loves creatures that look like you." He said to Tempest.
Tempest nodded and he hopped on his back, and they began to fly off.
"Oliverrr!" He called as he flew over to him, but Oliver couldn't see him yet since they were hidden behind a tree that was hanging off the side of an island.
"What? Pierce? Where are you? I can't see you but I hear you in the distance." Oliver yelled back.
"Alright, time to impress him." He whispered to Tempest. They flew out from behind the tree, Tempest spread all of his glorious wings and let out a exotic call. Lightning sparked from the tips of his wings, they danced along his wings, glowing miraculously.
The face that Oliver made was hilarious, he was absolutely stunned.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!!! It's a dragon! You, you are flying a dragon!" Oliver screeched, jumping up and down and flailing his arms.
"Pretty cool, huh?" He responded, trying to look cool.
Tempest looked way cooler than Pierce did, but then again Tempest was the dragon. Tempest definitely got what Pierce meant by 'lets be cool', he was showing off his lighting and shimmering his stunning scales.
They landed and Oliver sprinted up to Tempest.
"What is their name? Can I pet them? Please!? Oh my god it's an actual dragon. Please tell me this isn't a dream, oh my god!" Oliver said quickly, jumping up and down and trying his best to not screech from happiness.
"Ok ok slow down. His name is Tempest, you can pet him, and no this isn't a dream." He replied, smiling softly, he had never seen Oliver so excited in his life.
Oliver ran up and stared into Tempest's eyes for a moment then gently pressed his hand against his snout. Tempest closed his eyes and accepted his trust. Oliver started to pet him gently, he was almost going to explode with excitement.
"Have you ever wanted to fly?" He asked Oliver, Oliver turned towards Pierce and looked at him with wide eyes.
"YES!" Oliver yelled.
Pierce took Oliver for a flight, Oliver clung onto his waist, terrified of falling off. They did some barrel rolls, and that didn't make Oliver happy. Pierce couldn't help but laugh.
They flew around some more then he brought Oliver back home and said goodbye to Tempest. Oliver was almost stumbling out of the dark forest, his eyes still wide.
"Hey Oliver, don't you ever tell someone about Pandora. You hear me? Ever, no matter what. We must keep that place a secret, our secret. Only our secret." He whispered sternly to Oliver.
"Yea, our secret." Oliver replied. "Alright, see ya later man." He said.
Him and Oliver did their handshake then he watched Oliver walk away.
He made his way back to Pandora, but he paused for a moment. He felt like something was watching him.
He turned around to see, and for a split moment, a pair of sharp yellow eyes was glaring at him in the shadows. He felt scared and uneasy, so he started to run to the boulder. He quickly jumped into the portal.
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Chapter 9
◈ Painted sky. ◈
He met up with Zuri again, he decided not to tell her that he showed Oliver around.
They did some things in the village, she showed him around, everyone accepted him kindly.
The sun started to set, but he decided to stay longer.
"Want to go for a sunset fly?" Zuri asked him.
"Of course!" He replied.
That idea seemed very nice.
He got to see her Tesserapteryx, she was the definition of beauty and elegance. She was white with flowy brown lines that faded dark to light often that covered her body and around her snout. Her antennas were long and the tips of them were feathery. She had alluring soft brown eyes, and a long wavy tail with feathers at the end of it. She had some leopard looking spots on her neck and on her wings. She smelled faintly of cherry blossoms and tea.
He got on Tempest and Zuri got on Vayu and they started to fly. The setting sun's light gently illuminated the clouds, making them look like cotton candy.
They flew side-by-side, Tempest's and Vayu's wing tips touching together softly. Vayu's feathers rustled softly in the warm breeze, Tempest's scales shimmering the fiery color of the sunset. And Zuri's eyes gently gazing at the clouds, her hair warmly lit up by the sun's light.
He looked over at Zuri, she was smiling softly, the sun's light reflected onto her eyes, it looked like fire dancing on top of a watery surface. Pierce couldn't help but smile looking at her.
They kept flying, sometimes they would fly through clouds. Zuri would lift her hands out and let her fingers touch the clouds, mist flowed through her fingers. Tempest and Vayu would fly above and under each other sometimes, like a flowing weaving pattern.
Zuri flew upside down right above him and looked down at him smiling. He smiled back, and for a moment, their fingers touched.
"The sunset is like paint streaks in a blank canvas, it looks as if someone is painting this for us, and only us, to admire. Their last painting before another day begins, a new painting." Zuri murmured gently.
"I have never thought of a sunset like that, that's beautiful." He replied, admiring the sunset even more.
"But do you know what else is more beautiful?" He asked Zuri.
She turned her head towards him, her hair gently waving in the breeze, she tilted her head and asked 'what?'.
"The way you look at the world. And...you." He said in a shy tone.
"Thank you." She replied after a moment of her really taking in his words, her eyes softened, she smiled softly and looked away shyly for a moment.
"Do you know what else is beautiful?" She said, turning her head towards him again, her eyes shimmering.
"What?" He asked.
"Your eyes. The way they are so soft and warm. They are like a place to find refuge and peace in when you gaze into them." She murmured softly.
He had never thought of his eyes in that way.
The sun began to slowly darken, stars started to twinkle in the sky. They landed on a nearby island, Vayu went to go get a drink and he and Zuri sat down and rested their backs on Tempest's side.
They watched the night sky which was filled with twinkling stars. Tempest watched him and Zuri sit there gazing up at the stars, smoke billowed softly out of his nostrils.
Tempest put his tail against Pierce's side and shoved him closer to Zuri so that they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.
"What the heck Tempest?" He asked, startled, Zuri was also slightly startled.
Tempest smiled and let out a small bird-like giggle then rested his head down and closed his eyes.
"Sorry about that- Tempest doesn't behave like this, I don't know why he did that." He nervously said quickly.
"I don't mind." Zuri said, smiling softly.
Slowly their fingers intertwined with each other and rested them together.
He couldn't describe what feeling he was feeling, or the feeling he felt towards Zuri. He had never felt this feeling before. And little did he know, he was experiencing the feeling of love.
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Chapter 10
◈ It changed everything. ◈
More weeks passed, some days he would stay the night in Pandora, or stay longer.
Once he missed a school day to go to Pandora, and a couple of times he didn't meet up with Oliver. He felt that him and Oliver were becoming more distant, and from the times that they met up, Oliver seemed sadder.
One day, they had a conversation that changed their friendship, and changed things more than he realized at the time.
Oliver glared into his eyes, he barely touched his coffee.
"What's the matter?" He asked, confused at why Oliver was acting like this.
"You know." Oliver replied sharply.
"No, I really don't." He replied, confused.
Oliver sighed and shook his head, he tapped his finger on the table, fury bubbled inside of his eyes.
"This is a perfect example of how oblivious you have become." Oliver snarled.
"That's not very nice to say." He replied, frowning.
"Yea, do you think I don't know that?" Oliver replied, narrowing his eyes sharply.
"What's with you today?" He asked, his tone began to turn angry.
"Now you are noticing me and what I'm saying! Isn't that nice compared to past weekends?" Oliver muttered.
"What do you mean?" He asked, his tone getting angerer.
"You haven't been listening to me as much ever since you met that girl! You have been so sidetracked by her and thinking about her that you forget about what is actually happening at the moment!" Oliver said, almost in a yell.
The few people that were also in the cafe turned their heads, but then put their headphones back on and turned their music up.
"I have been listening to you!" He snapped back.
"Oh really? Well then what big job did I get weeks ago?" Oliver snapped harshly back.
He paused for a moment, he had no idea.
Oliver was sort of right that he hadn't been listening, but he didn't want to give him credit that he was completely right, even though he might have been ....right.
"See?! You don't even know!" Oliver snarled.
"I might have gotten a little sidetracked when you said that, so how about you tell me now, since it's so important to you 'apparently'!" He replied, doing air quotes with his fingers.
Oliver's eyes stopped having the anger blazing in his eyes for a moment, and for a brief moment, they clouded with sadness. A deep sadness, a harshly powerful and panging sadness.
Pierce sat back in his chair slightly, realizing that what he said hurt Oliver deeply.
"I published the book that I have been writing for years. It became one of the bestsellers in our state. I became an author. I completed my childhood dream of being a writer." Oliver replied in a small voice which crackled with sadness.
He paused, he knew that it was so important to him. Oliver always talked about how he wanted to be an author and publish his book. Sometimes he would go on rants about his character and his plots, his crazy ideas that somehow in the end he would beautifully pull off.
"It was huge when I published my book, a big step forward in my life. Immediately after I published my book I thought of you, and telling you, and how excited and proud you would be for me! But you didn't even pay attention to me, and you said 'that's cool' without even knowing what I was saying!" Oliver said, tears started to well up in his eyes.
"I'm..sorry." He replied quietly, it hurt him to see Oliver upset.
"What happened to us always meeting up here, in the cafe? What happened to the old Pierce? You left me for some girl and a place you don't know, a place you don't belong in! You don't know how worthless you have made me feel! Am I just an extra to you? A pawn that always gets knocked out in the end so that the king can get his queen?" Oliver said, almost yelling.
"The old Pierce is dead! The old Pierce is someone I hated! Someone that didn't believe there was any light at the end of the tunnel! Someone who was numb and his candle's flame of life was flickering, on the verge of being blown out! He looked at his flame's burning life, wondering when it would blow out so that he could finally be at peace!" He replied angrily, his voice raising.
"She isn't just some girl! She gave my candle a new flame, a brighter flame that now burns fiercely with life and hope!" He said, he felt his eyes start to fill with tears.
"You are the only person that has been there for me and cared about me, and I don't know how to thank you for what you've done because I've been numb for too long and I forgot what emotion was! I've lost what thankfulness feels like! How can I express something if I don't even know what it was for me? Everyday I spend time with her I get the vague sense of what emotion was for me! Everyday I gain parts of emotion! I've never felt so alive in my life!" He said, tears started to roll down his cheeks.
"At the end of the day the pawn is placed in the same box as the king!" He almost yelled, tears started to stream down his face.
"I've..never seen you cry." Oliver replied, tears welling up in his eyes.
"I've been crying everyday ever since I was brought into this cruel and unforgiving world! I cry day and night, but when I'm around others I'll put on my happy face to mask the one emotion I still have, sadness!" He replied, tears heavily streaming down his face.
"I have always thought love was a reality that only others lived in, and not me! I wondered why I wasn't in that reality, what was so wrong about me! And now, I think I have realized what love feels like for me. I've never experienced or felt loved in my entire life, until now. I might not be right, but I think I am in love! I found my reality where my love is! I found love and people that care about me!" He said. His vision was blurry from tears.
"I cared." Oliver responded, his voice still crackling with sadness.
"I didn't mean it like that-" He said quickly.
But by then Oliver had already walked out of the cafe, leaving him there to sit and think about what he had just done.
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Chapter 11
◈ Blood. ◈
More days passed, and when he went back to the cafe to see Oliver, he wasn't there. Pierce would go back to hang out with Koi for longer periods of time, she seemed to be more worried for him, she tried to comfort him, but something still felt broken. Zuri tried to cheer him up, but what was broken inside him couldn't have been fixed, not even by her.
He had just lost his best friend, and he couldn't hide from the fact that it was mostly his fault for leaving him without telling him.
The next week he was walking into the dark forest, feeling lonelier than ever. He had never really understood the quote 'you don't appreciate what you had until it's gone.', but now he did.
As he was walking into the forest he felt like something was watching him, again. He looked into the shadows to see a pair of yellow, sharp eyes.
"Hello, Pierce." The eyes said, then giggled. He recognized the creepy giggle.
It was Fox.
She walked out of the shadows and still stared at him, she smiled.
"Oh h-hello Fox, why are you out here in the forest?" He stuttered, he didn't expect her to be here.
"I could ask you the same thing, you know." Fox replied, her sharp yellow eyes seemed to almost glow in the darkness.
"Well, I was dared to go into the forest by my friends, that's why I am here." He lied.
"You liar, you don't have any friends, besides Oliver of course, and you and I know he would never dare you to do that. Besides, when would he say that to you, since you don't speak to each other anymore because of a specific argument?" Fox replied with a sharp grin.
He took a step back, how did she know Oliver was his only friend, and that they had an argument and didn't speak to each other as much anymore?
"You know, I have been writing a book lately, and I think I'm going to kill off a few characters in it, to spice things up a little." Fox said.
She didn't take her eyes off of him.
"What book is it..?" He asked hesitantly.
"My autobiography." Fox replied, her yellow eyes seemed to sharpen, her grin twisted into a bigger, eerie grin.
He started to step back even more, Fox still stared into his eyes.
She slid out something that was in a sheath on her belt. Its blade reflected Pierce's face, it was a knife.
She flung the knife at him, he tried to move out of the way to dodge it, but it flew into the side of his left arm, flinging out a small chunk of his own arm. The knife fell on the ground, blood spurt from his arm and into the air.
Fox started to laugh like a maniac, she stuck out her tongue to catch the falling blood droplets that were scattered in the air. Like catching falling snowflakes on your tongue on a winter day. She let his blood sprinkle her face, her shrill maniac laughter echoed off of the trees.
Pain sharply flowed through his nervous system and veins, he grasped the side of his arm, tears of pure pain streamed down his face. He tried to run, but he tripped on a rock and fell on his face, blood dripped out of his nose and dotted the dense earthy ground. He gasped for air, his lungs felt like they were frozen, along with his whole body.
Frozen in pain.
Frozen in fear.
Fox started to walk towards him, her arms swaying side to side. She picked her knife off of the ground and licked the blood off of its blade.
She stood above him, he looked into her dagger-like eyes, and she looked into his eyes, her cheeks seemed rosey red, he didn't know if that was from his own blood or if she was blushing. She crouched down to him, so that they met eye to eye.
Fox wrapped her finger around a lock of his hair and started to twirl it around.
"What are you doing?! Why won't you kill me now?!" He said almost in a yell.
"Oh, but if I kill you now, what fun is that? And besides, I'm too fond of you to kill you." Fox giggled, moving her face closer to his.
"I wonder what should be sliced out first." Fox said, lifting the knife in her hand up and towards his face.
"What about your eyes? Your calming brown eyes." Fox said, partially to herself and partially to him.
She ran the knife's tip around his eyes, the blade barely grazing his skin.
"Or your soft kissable lips." Fox said with an odd smirk, she carefully ran the knife's tip around his mouth.
"Maybe your warm freckled cheeks." She said, running the knife's tip over them.
"You look even cuter when you are afraid." Fox giggled.
"Why are you planning out what to do, and not even cutting me with the knife?!" He asked angrily.
"Because I don't want to cut your cute face." Fox said, pressing her hand lightly on his shoulder.
Cute? Fox thought he was cute? She was blushing, that wasn't blood, he realized.
Fox was in love with him.
"Oh! I know, how about I cut out your heart, since you broke mine, so I'll return the favor!" Fox said, her smile faded slightly, her eyes grew dark.
She ran the knife's tip in a circle around where his heart was.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, confused.
"The girl." Fox replied with a blank expression, her sharp eyes flickering.
Fox knew.
How did she know about her? He had told no one about the hidden world and the girl besides- Oliver.
Oliver told Fox, he realized.
How could Oliver do that? Was it because Pierce and him had an argument and now he didn't care about keeping the secret? He wondered, fury bubbled deep inside of his core.
"It's a shame though, but once I kill that girl, I'll finally have you to myself!" Fox said with a sharp grin, she pressed the knife lightly into where his heart was, she started to slowly press on the knife, he felt it rip through his shirt.
"Why are you playing with me like I'm your puppet?"
He asked, terror in his voice.
"Because you are my puppet." She giggled, saying it as if it was obvious.
"Why?" He asked again.
She only replied with a grin.
"Is it because you're jealous, or do you have a sad backstory like every bland villain in those books?" He asked.
When he said the word 'jealous' to Fox, she sharply frowned and pressed the knife more into his chest.
"No, I had a good upbringing, my parents didn't leave me or anything, they were actually pretty nice. Before I killed them." She replied, her eerie grin returned.
His eyes widened, she killed her parents? How could someone kill their parents, and if they were nice to? Even though Greg and Ann were monsters, he still wouldn't kill them.
At that moment, the realization fully hit him.
That she was a pure psycho.
He slowly put his hand in his pocket, hoping Fox wouldn't see it, and she didn't because she was too busy looking at his face. He tried to find what he wanted that was in his pocket, trying not to be obvious.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, that so-called 'strawberry juice' filled vials on my belt isn't actually filled with strawberry juice. It's the blood from my victims, and I was true about one thing that I said. It's a nice refresher to drink." Fox giggled loudly.
She took off one of the vials and opened it and began to drink the blood that was inside of it. She licked her lips and smiled, her teeth were streaked with blood.
"You know, my name isn't actually Fox, it's just my nickname. My real name is FoxGlove, like the poisonous plant." She giggled.
He nodded, trying to keep her talking so that she would be distracted.
He grabbed a hold of what he was looking for in his pocket, and waited for the perfect chance to use it. The thing that was in his pocket was a small knife. Oliver had given it to him on his 16th birthday, which was only a couple of months ago.
Oliver had been always extra careful, sometimes he would get paranoid enough to spray sanitizer on things. When Oliver gave him the knife, he said: "Make sure to always have this with you, just in case you need it. There's a special trick to this knife- if you press the button on the side it will inject the poison that it seeps into the blade and whatever it's stabbing, which is one use only." He had always thought that he wouldn't need it and it didn't do anything rather than probably kill someone, but he still kept it in his pocket.
Now he knew that Oliver was right, it's good to be always careful.
He knew the time was right, so he yanked the knife out of his pocket and stabbed it into FoxGlove's neck. She stopped talking and paused for a moment. She had no expression on her face, not even pain. She looked to where his hand was grasping the knife that was in her neck, blood trickled from it.
"Oh my, it seems that I have been stabbed with a knife. Isn't that interesting." She said.
She didn't scream or anything, even though the blade of the knife was pretty small, it would still hurt a lot to get stabbed with. FoxGlove just stared blankly at the knife, she tilted her head slightly.
He was weirded out by her reaction. FoxGlove smiled then started to giggle. If anything, she was enjoying the pain. He couldn't stand her terrifying giggle, so he pressed the button to inject the poison into her neck. She stopped giggling for a moment and her eyes widened.
Her veins began to grow purple, along with her throat and face. Blackish-purple liquid began to frothily spill out of her mouth. She looked back to his hand, still holding the knife, the whites of her eyes began to darken and become the blackish-purple. He waited for her death to happen anytime, but then she started to laugh. A crackly laugh through the frothy poison that was in her throat.
She started to spit the poison out of her mouth when she laughed because she was laughing so hard.
She should be dead right now, but she wasn't. She was still there, laughing psychopathically.
"Do you think that can kill me?" She said, as if the poison that was running through her veins was a joke. He didn't reply, he laid there, in horror.
        "I'm immune to poison, silly Pierce!" She laughed.
"How?! No one can be immune to poison!" He screeched.
"When I was little I accidently drank something that was highly poisonous, and when my parents took me to the doctor, the doctor said that I had deformed blood cells that are slightly immune to poison. That day I was supposed to die, but I didn't. Ever since then I would drink more poison, building my immunity. It used to hurt, but now the pain is almost enjoyable!" She said, laughing even more, froth occasionally choking out her laughter.
FoxGlove fell on her back from laughing so much, she thought it was the funniest thing ever. Poison spat out of her mouth along with froth, her veins growing more purple.
In that moment, she really looked like what she was named after. Her sharp yellow eyes looked like the spots in the FoxGlove plant, her purple veins looking like the main color of a FoxGlove.
She truly was a venomous creature.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 12
◈ The Chase. ◈
While she was on her back laughing, he decided to make a run for it. He got up, still clutching the side of his arm, he already felt heavily lightheaded from the blood loss.
He could hear a blood curdling screech come from behind him.
"You can't run from me!" He heard FoxGlove screech.
He could hear her getting closer and closer, he tried to lose her by making sharp turns, but that didn't help.
"Oh, I just love the smell of fear and blood!" He could hear her say, he didn't know from which direction since her words echoed off of everything eerily.
He could hear her giggle everywhere, he could see her eyes staring at him through every shadow.
"Oh Piercey, you know that you can't run away from me! Come back here, we aren't over just yet! And even if you successfully run away from me, I'll find you. I always will." FoxGlove's words echoed off of the trees.
He felt FoxGlove's breath on his neck, it smelt of blood. He tried to think quickly on what he should do, then saw a hanging down vine in the distance. He grabbed onto it and flung himself behind FoxGlove and started to run. She skidded to a stop and fell over, she glared at him with her sharp yellow eyes.
He saw that she dropped a notebook on the ground that was in her pocket while he was running, so he quickly picked it up, curious.
He kept running, faster than he thought he could. He started to slow down, his head becoming extremely lightheaded. He kept running though. He kept pushing on, until he saw the light of the entrance to the dark forest. He ran out of the forest, he kept running down the sidewalk.
People gave him weird glances watching him run with him clutching his bloody arm. He ran to the warehouse where Koi was, he flung open the doors and sprinted in. He locked the doors behind him and stumbled in, he collapsed onto the floor, dust scattered everywhere. He heard a confused meow come from inside Koi's box before he fainted.
Koi poked her head out and then ran over to him. She began to lick his face, trying to get him to wake up. She frantically ran around in a circle, she walked on his back and jumped up and down, trying her best to wake him up. She started meowing loudly and tried to lick the blood off of his shoulder.
She realized that she couldn't help him, so she scurried out of the warehouse through a hole.
30 minutes passed, then Koi returned and kept meowing at something to follow her. A couple people broke down the door of the warehouse and kept following Koi. They saw his unconscious body and ran over to him.
He could hear their faint yelling and screaming and someone picking him up before everything returned to darkness.
He woke up to hear beeping sounds, he opened his eyes and saw that he was laying in a hospital bed with Koi laying on his lap. He looked at his injured arm and saw that it had multiple bandages wrapped around it. A tube was connected to his arm, blood flowed into his arm at a steady rate from the tube.
Koi rubbed her face on his cheek and purred, she started to lick his face. He began to pet Koi, he was vaguely confused on how he ended up here, but then remembered the things that happened before he completely fainted.
Koi led people to him to save him.
He saved her as a kitten from death, and she returned the favor, by saving him.
He recalled the times that he had almost died in the past months, and he counted three. That wasn't a very comforting number.
A doctor walked in and looked at him.
"Good you are awake. We tried to get this cat off of you, but she refused to. She even scratched one of my colleagues." The doctor said.
Koi had never been aggressive, she had never harmed or scratched someone in her    life.
"That cat is very protective of you, the people that brought you in said that she was the one that led them to your unconscious body. You must have a really strong bond with her, since she saved your life." The doctor said as she wrote some things on a piece of paper that was attached to a clipboard.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your injury?" The doctor asked, tightening the mask on her face.
"Um..." He murmured.
The doctor waited patiently.
"A psychopath tried to kill me and threw a knife at me..and, uh yea thats it without any of the terrifying other things. " He stuttered.
The doctor's eyes widened.
"What?" She replied, her eyes still wide.
"What are the other terrifying things, if you don't mind me asking?" She asked, intrigued.
He told her about FoxGlove, and how she was immune to poison and all those other things.
"Oh my god that is horrifying! That sounds like something straight out of a book. Do you want me to contact officials to find this girl since she is considered a mass murderer?" The doctor said.
"No, it's fine. She is my problem to deal with. And besides, she likes a chase, and will kill anything in her way to get that.
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Chapter 13
◈ It's starting to begin. ◈
The next day he woke up, still in the hospital. One of the doctors handed him a card and a get-well balloon, saying that someone wanted to give him that but was unable to come due to problems.
He opened the card, and immediately recognized the handwriting. It was Oliver's.
"Dear Pierce, I'm so sorry to hear that you are in the hospital, I hope your arm gets better. I'm sorry I couldn't deliver this to you myself, but sadly my Grandma passed away last night, and we are going to her funeral. I hope you feel better soon. - Oliver." Is what was written out. Despite their argument that made them distant, he still wished him to feel better.
Oliver was a true friend.
Later in the day he convinced the doctors to let him go, since he said that he was 'feeling much better', which was a lie. The only reason he needed to leave was to go to Pandora and get Zuri to heal him, since it would speed up the process by almost 10x.
The doctors kept saying no and that he was in too poor of a condition to be leaving just yet. It took him hours of convincing them, but they gradually let him go. He went up to the front counter to pay for their care, and Koi followed him.
He knew that he couldn't afford it, because hospital bills were always high. The lady working at the desk said that someone else paid for it and that he didn't need to worry.
"Someone already paid my bill?" He asked, confused.
"Yes. The person's name was Oliver." The lady replied.
Of course Oliver did that, he was always kind and always helped others. Oliver knew that Pierce didn't make much money by working a part time job at a subway, so he knew that he wouldn't be able to pay the hospital bill.
A tear ran down his face, a singular tear.
"Are you alright?" The lady asked him. He nodded and walked out.
He knew that he didn't deserve a friend like Oliver.
He still had FoxGlove's notebook, so he decided to open it up and read it, and what he read was terrifying.
She had written about everything about him, what time he went to sleep everyday, what time he got up. How long he would brush his teeth for, how long he would eat breakfast for. What school he went to, what his favorite classes were, his least favorite classes. His enemies at school, his exact school schedule. How many beats per minute did his heart beat at, the way he made eye contact with certain people. Everything about him, to the last detail.
She had been stalking him.
Recording information about him. Now he knew that whenever he had felt that he was being watched, he was indeed being watched.
That sent terror rippling down his spine.
He ran to Pandora, Koi stopped at the edge of the forest and watched him run in, then she began to walk back to the warehouse.
Sweat dripped down his face, he felt like he would see FoxGlove appear at any moment. He ran to the village and found Zuri.
"Why are you here? We don't usually meet up on this day, is everything alr- Oh my! What happened to your arm?! Why are their bandages wrapped around it?" Zuri asked frantically.
"An accident, can you heal it for me?" He asked.
"Of course! Come over here and sit down." She said as she sat down and patted the mossy area next to her.
He sat down and watched Zuri unravel his bandages. She gasped.
"That's a deep gash! Oh that looks so painful!" Zuri worriedly said as she applied some herb mixes to his shoulder.
He watched her do her magic, the way her fingers moved smoothly on his skin without hurting him. She finished, and just like that, it began to heal right in front of his eyes.
"Thank you." He said, smiling.
"No problem, is that all you needed?" She asked.
"Yea, I can stay longer if you'd like." He said.
"I would love that." Zuri smiled. They hung out, and for a moment, he forgot about FoxGlove and his terror. He looked into Zuri's eyes, then tears started to run down his face.
"Are you ok?" She asked, startled. He nodded.
At that moment when he looked into her eyes, he thought of FoxGlove's words. "I'm going to kill that girl." He thought of how he didn't want to lose Zuri, and how she might be in danger, because of him. He shook that thought away and they kept talking.
He returned home, then the feeling of terror reappeared. The only thing on his mind was FoxGlove, and how she might be outside of his window right now staring at him.
A week passed, and there was no sign of FoxGlove. He started to feel less terrified, maybe FoxGlove had enough with him and found another unlucky victim.
That was until he was in the cafe and the News on the TV turned on.
He had never paid attention to the News, but something caught his attention. The presenter was talking about the discovery of a new world, which didn't seem out of the ordinary since humans are discovering more and more in space.
But then things started to drastically change.
"I am now going to show you the person who discovered this new world!" The presenter said.
Then the camera moved to show the person, and that person was FoxGlove
His heart sank. Pandora was in trouble. Pandora was found by the worst person. It wasn't a secret now, the whole world will know about it soon.
"Tell us, how did you find this place? The audience is eager to know!" The presenter asked her.
"Well, something was leading me to it, or someone. Like desire, a calling. A call of love, possibly." FoxGlove replied, smiling and giggling softly.
The presenter looked somewhat confused but then he shrugged.
Pierce felt himself frown in disgust when she said 'a call of love', which was obviously referring to him.
"Tell us about how the military is going to be involved with this discovery." The presenter said, holding the mic to FoxGlove's mouth.
"Well, I have discovered that there are people that live on that world that are a threat. I have discovered many rare resources that would help change humanity, but you see, those strange people are in the way. The military will help get rid of those creatures." She said, smiling and looking at the camera, that look was intended to be for him.
His heart sank even more, they were going to kill everyone he knew on Pandora. He felt fury bubbling inside of him when she called them strange.
"And tell us, where is the military now?" The presenter asked.
"Well, they are entering the portal right as we speak."
Right as he heard that he sprinted out of the door and ran to the portal. He saw large groups of people marching into the forest with guns and bombs. He shoved passed all of them, not caring if they shot him or not.
"Kid, watch where you're going!" He heard one man yell at him.
"You aren't supposed to be here, go back home!" A man said, blocking him from entering the portal.
"Do you think I care?" He yelled and shoved him aside and kicked him in the shins as he ran into the portal.
He saw that no one had fully entered the portal yet. He sprinted to get Zuri. He arrived at the tribe and almost knocked Zuri over.
"Wha- Oh hi Pierce, why are you here?" She asked, startled
. "Pandora is under attack." He said, out of breath.
Zuri's eyes widened then became harshly serious.
"What?!" She screeched.
He nodded.
"How did they find us?!" She frantically yelled.
He paused for a moment.
"Don't get mad at me..but it might have been my fault." He murmured.
Zuri's facial expression drastically changed. She took a step back.
"No...no.." She whispered, shaking her head. "How could you?" She said, her voice becoming angry.
"I didn't mean to- it wasn't supposed to happen!" He said quickly.
"I thought you were different, but I was wrong. You are just like the rest."
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 14
◈ War. ◈
He reached his hand out to Zuri, but she slapped it away.
"Zuri..please-" He said, but she cut him off.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She yelled, tears started to well up in her eyes. Her eyes filled with anger and hatred.
Zuri ran away sobbing, she started to warn everyone. Screeching that they were under attack. Some of the tribe's people turned towards him, their eyes filled with pure hatred.
He stood there.
He just stood there, thinking of what he had just done.
He ran away, he hopped to the island to where Tempest was.
"Tempest!" He wailed. Tempest poked his head through the bushes and looked at him, confused.
"Oh Tempest..you don't hate me do you?" He wailed, he held out his hand so that Tempest could speak to him. Tempest unfurled his antenna and pressed it to his hand.
"No, why?" Tempest asked.
"Pandora is under attack and it's my fault that it is!" He said. Tempest's pupils went slit. Tempest didn't reply, he just stared at him with his slit pupils. He looked terrifying.
"Can we fly over to where the portal is so that we can get an aerial view?" He asked Tempest, he felt uneasy when he looked into Tempest's eyes now. Tempest nodded slightly, he got onto his back and flew off.
They hovered over the portal, and he already saw a dozen or so people laying on the ground. He assumed that they were in shock and pain after what they all have just experienced going through the portal for the first time. Slowly they started to get up, and more people kept appearing. The people walked around, bewildered by Pandora.
They all held their guns in their hands, ready to pull the trigger.
One of the soldiers noticed him and Tempest, so he started to scream to the rest to look.
"Fly away!" He whispered to Tempest. Tempest turned around and began to fly away, but the bullet was too fast. The loud sound of a shotgun firing crackled in the sky. A bullet flung through Tempest's shoulder, blue blood flung in the air. Tempest let out a screech and he tried to flap his wing, but his shoulder was too badly injured, so they started to plummet down. Tempest kept letting out distressed calls.
They crashed into one of the islands, dirt flung everywhere. Tempest managed to grab Pierce and cover him with his wings so that he wouldn't get hurt on the impact. Tempest's wings opened and lay limp, he let out a groan.
Pierce wrapped leaves quickly around the wound on his shoulder.
"Thank you for saving me." He whispered into Tempest's ear. Tempest did a small smile then closed his eyes.
"You stay here and rest." He said as he stood up and watched Tempest rest.
He ran and jumped off of the island and grabbed a vine. He hopped onto the island that was closest to where all of the soldiers were. He watched closely at the soldiers, they ran around and gave commands to each other.
There was a cart full of bombs, and another cart that had a large box in it with the words painted on it 'Extremely deadly bomb, stay away at your own risk. Only use in a dire emergency.'. All of the soldiers were equipped with guns, some of them had things that looked like flamethrowers.
There had to have been at least 200 soldiers lined up ready to go to battle. And in one of the lines, grinning toothily, was FoxGlove.
He heard a horn blast in the distance, all of the soldiers turned their heads and raised their guns.
The Pandorian Tribe began to island hop over to where they were. He watched them land on the island and stand only a couple feet away from the soldiers. The elder that accepted him into the tribe and gave him his markings walked in front of the rest of the tribe, so that he was facing eye to eye with the soldiers.
"Hello. We hear that you come from Earth. This is Pandora. We do not mean any harm to you, we want peace." The elder said.
Murmurs broke out in the soldiers, then the crackling noise of a gun being fired sounded in the air. The elder dropped to his knees and fell flat in his face, blood trickled down his back. Everyone in the tribe started to scream in fear, the elder was dead.
That elder was the leader of the tribe, and now his limp body laid on the ground in a pool of blood.
Someone from the tribe shot an arrow through one of the soldiers. More gunshots were fired, more arrows.
The war had just begun.
Tears streamed down his face as he watched blood scatter in the air. It was all his fault that this happened. Oliver was right, he doesn't belong here.
In amongst all of the chaos, was Zuri. She was firing arrows at soldiers, always hitting them straight in the eye. Tears rolled down her angry face, her teeth barred. Blood started to scatter all over her face, the blood of the victims she had just killed. He knew she didn't want to kill those people.
He made up his mind and decided to go help fight.
He swung on the vines to that island, the loud noises of screeching and gunshots filled his ears.
He picked up a knife that was laying on the ground and ran into the battle. Blood sprinkled his face as he ran. A soldier began to point his gun at Pierce's head. Pierce spun around and tackled the soldier. He looked into the soldier's eyes. His eyes were filled with fear.
He knew he couldn't kill this innocent man.
"Run home, and don't return." He whispered harshly into the soldier's ear. The soldier nodded and got up then started to run away.
He couldn't do this, he wasn't a fighter, he wasn't a killer.
He was just some ordinary teenager with a complicated life that no one cared about.
He ran to the edge of the forest, trying not to get killed. He slid the knife back into his pocket.
He tripped over something and looked at what it was. It was a dead body.
He kept running, he saw that bodies were scattered everywhere, and there were more bodies of the Pandorian people than the soldiers.
Pandora was losing.
He managed to get into the forest, his heart thumping. He heard an ear piercing screech and saw something clumsily gliding down. It was Tempest. Tempest crashed into a large number of soldiers, tearing their bodies to pieces, crushing their skulls, strangling them with his tail. Lightning spewed out of his mouth, electrocuting whoever was in his way. Tempest let out multiple roars of pain. There were many gunshot wounds on him now, most of them were in his wings and legs.
Despite that, he kept fighting.
Pierce realized something, near the forest's edge only 20 feet away from him were a group of children huddled together. He recognized all of them, they were the ones that had braided his hair and the ones that he played with a while ago.
There was no way the tribe would bring their children into battle, he realized.
They followed them here, curious.
And he never realized how literal 'curiosity killed the cat.' could be.
He looked back over to see Zuri still fighting, tears were heavily streaming down her face, sometimes he could hear her wail in amongst the screaming.
Someone threw a bomb and bodies went flying into the air, then thudding onto the ground. There were more dead bodies than there were alive people.
The grass wasn't teal anymore. It was dark red, from blood.
He ran closer to the children, then stopped when he was 10 feet away from them. Huddled on the ground with its wings covering something was Tempest. Tempest let out whimpering noises. He lifted his wing for a moment, and he could see what he was huddling over. It was one of the bodies of the children, dead.
Tempest turned his head towards Pierce, his eyes went slit. For a moment he could see tears rolling down Tempest's face. Tempest let out a hiss and spat a ball of lighting at Pierce. He dodged it and looked into Tempest's eyes.
Even though they were hostile, they were filled with pain and sadness.
Pierce ran away further into the forest, tears rolling down his blood-covered face.
He stopped and caught his breath. His heart hurt from sadness, he couldn't cry anymore because he cried himself dry. He fell onto his knees and started to punch the ground. He sobbed without tears, his throat felt sore. He felt like he had just lost everything that he had gained.
Then he started to hear giggling echoing off the trees.
That giggle was unmistakable FoxGlove's.
"What else do you want to take away from me? Haven't you already done enough?" He wailed.
He turned around, still sitting on the ground. FoxGlove stood in front of him, smiling toothily. She responded by giggling, then crouching down to meet eye to eye. She laid both of her hands on top of his, she pressed her body closer to his.
"I told you that I will always find you." FoxGlove giggled.
"Please, just kill me already." He responded weakly.
"I won't do that, silly." She replied, running her finger down the side of his face.
"Why did you do all of this?" He murmured, the life in his voice was thinning.
"For you." FoxGlove said in a singsong voice, smiling.
"I didn't want this." He replied.
"Well, whatever. At least I have you to myself now, since that girl is bound to die in that battle." She smiled.
"Love really makes you do crazy things, doesn't it?" FoxGlove said.
He paused, and for once, she was right.
Love really did make him do crazy things. Things he thought he would never try out and do.
For FoxGlove love made her do crazy and horrible things.
FoxGlove stared into his eyes, the sight of her eyes made shivers run down his spine.
"I love you Pierce. Oh, I can't stand it when I'm without you." FoxGlove said in her singsong voice.
He didn't reply.
"You have to say that you love me too!" She snapped.
"I don't love you. I have never loved you. Not even the slightest." He replied in a dry voice.
FoxGlove's eyes sharpened.
"What?" She replied.
"You heard me." He replied.
Anger started to bubble inside of FoxGlove's eyes, which made them even more terrifying.
"You...you have to love me!" She screeched.
He shook his head.
"No..no! This isn't right, we were supposed to get married- and have a family and live happily ever after! I planned it all out! You have to love me!" She screeched in a higher pitch.
He made a disgusted face.
FoxGlove began to screech with pure anger, she grabbed her knife and swung her arm towards him.
She stopped, right as the knife was about to stab his neck.
She looked down, to see that he was holding his knife which was impaling her heart.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 15
◈ Amongst the clouds. ◈
Her eyes began to tremble, she dropped the knife that was in her hand, it landed on the ground with a hollow thud.
She fell on her back, blood trickled down her tan sewn sweater.
She touched the knife that was impaling her softly, as if she couldn't grasp the idea that she had just been stabbed through the heart.
"It wasn't supposed to end like this..." She mumbled with the remaining life she had. He crawled over to where she was laying down and looked into her eyes, they weren't as sharp as they normally had been.
Blood trickled out of her mouth, her face expression was still in disbelief.
He removed the knife, it made a gurgling noise and blood spat out of her chest and trickled more down her side.
She looked into his eyes, she raised her arm weakly and touched his lips with her fingers and mouthed the words 'kiss'. Her arm thudded back onto the ground.
She wanted him to kiss her.
He sighed, and nodded. He bent down, but didn't kiss her lips.
He kissed the exact spot where he stabbed her.
FoxGlove smiled, and it wasn't creepy, but serene. Soft. Glaze began to fall over her eyes, she exhaled, but never inhaled again. Her last breath disappeared into the air, never to return again.
He got up and let her body lay there, he didn't even bury it, since she didn't deserve it.
He ran into the battlefield, seeing that Pandora was losing still. His gaze moved to the box which had the deadly bomb in it, then an idea came to his head. He was going to sneak the bomb into the middle of the soldier group and set it off. But then he realized something, after he would set it off, he wouldn't have enough time to get out of there. He would explode in seconds, but that would mean Pandora would win.
He made up his mind, he would give up his own life to save the others.
He ran to the box and picked it up, it was heavy. He managed to set it in the middle of the soldiers' side of the battlefield. He opened up the box quickly and saw the bomb, and the button to explode it.
He looked around, then he saw Zuri in the distance. She turned her head towards him, and saw him about to press the button to explode the bomb. She screeched and tried to run over to him, but it was too late.
He pressed the button.
Everything seemed to be in slow motion, his body flung into the air, the explosion bursting into the sky and breaking the ground. Soldier's bodies flung into the air.
And Zuri, standing there, her hair blowing back from the explosion, her face illuminated by the explosion.
Then he fell to the ground, his eardrums burst, some of his bones broke, pieces of his burning skin melted off of his face and arms. His clothes were on fire and most of it was burnt. His vision began to cave in, his heart felt slower. It was harder to breathe.
He felt Zuri's arms wrap around him. He felt her tears drop onto his melted and burnt face. He looked around, his vision delayed, spotted and cloudy.
Pandora won.
Zuri sobbed, she looked into his dying eyes.
"You did it. You made us win." She sobbed.
He smiled softly.
"Please..please don't go. I don't want you to go. Don't leave me. Please." Zuri begged, tears rolling down her soft cheeks.
"I'll paint the sky for you, and only you, to admire." He said before his heart stopped.
He opened his eyes, he was surrounded by light and clouds. He looked beneath him to see that he was walking on water, but it didn't feel like water. He moved his foot and that sent ripples in the water which reflected the clouds around him.
He heard giggling come from behind him, he turned around. He saw little spirits running around, their laughter echoed around.
He looked above him, and a halo was floating above him, glowing softly. He had small white feathered wings on his back.
Tears ran down his face in realization that this was heaven, and he was an angel.
His tears dropped onto the watery floor, it sent ripples in the water. A bright light suddenly glowed in front of him, he shielded his eyes, then saw what it was after the glowing had stopped. It was a person, but not any normal human.
It had wings on the side of its face, and two halos above its head which intertwined with each other and eyes were on them. It wore a long robe with gold details on it, and large narrow wings were on its back. It had long and flowy hair.
She looked at him with its completely white eyes, then smiled.
"Who are you?" He asked the creature.
"Death." She responded, smiling.
He had never expected Death to look like this, he had always expected Death to look scary and evil. That was the opposite of how Death looked, now that he has seen her.
"Am I in heaven? Am I dead?" He asked.
Death nodded.
Tears began to roll down his face faster.
Death rested her hand on Pierce's shoulder and looked into his eyes.
Death smiled.
"You don't belong here just yet." She murmured gently.
"Now live your life to the fullest, Pierce." She said and slowly took her hand off of his shoulder.
Light started to glow around him.
"Until next time, Pierce." She said before everything around him was white.
He gasped for air and opened his eyes. Zuri lifted her head up and stared into his eyes with complete disbelief.
"How..? Your h-heart stopped for 20 minutes!" She whispered, resting her hand on his face.
He smiled.
A tear ran down his scorched face, not a tear of sadness or despair. A tear of belonging, happiness.
Zuri smiled, tears running down her face. The sun came out behind the clouds, shafts of sunlight illuminated their faces.
"I love you." He said.
"I love you too." Zuri responded, tears of happiness running down her face.
He leaned closer to Zuri, and kissed her.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Chapter 16
◈ The light at the end of the tunnel. ◈
In the distance, standing there and watching him with tears rolling down his face and smiling, was Oliver. Koi sat next to him, she was smiling.
The ground began to shake, Zuri held him closer, she looked around, then looked to the stone slab which let them return back to Earth. It was cracked in half.
"The portal is closing!" One of the tribe people yelled.
All of the remaining soldiers ran to the stone slab, escaping back to Earth.
He looked at Oliver, he was beginning to run towards the portal. But instead of running to the portal like Pierce thought, he ran to him and hugged him.
Zuri moved out of the way and watched them, she smiled.
"Aren't you going to leave to go back to Earth? You have so much going for you, you became an author and have a successful job!" He asked Oliver weakly.
"I'm not going to leave you again like I did at the cafe. Besides, I can write a better book here. The book of my life." Oliver murmured, smiling, tears slowly trickled down his cheeks.
Then the last shake of the island happened, and just like that, the portal to Earth was gone.
Months passed, the tribe was beginning to fix everything. The past battlefield was now blooming with flowers, each flower symbolizing each death from both sides. Tempest recovered, and so did Pierce.
Oliver soon became a part of the tribe as well, and they gave Oliver and Pierce the traditional Pandorian Tribe clothing.
One day Pierce decided to go back to that forest on the past battlefield, which they had now called The Battlefield Of Blooming Souls. He walked further into the forest, knowing exactly where to go.
He could hear faint giggling echoing off the trees, trauma flashed in his brain. It had almost been 2 years since the battle, but it still remained fresh in his mind.
He took a deep breath in, and in the distance he could see something laying on the ground. He walked up to it, he was closing his eyes, embracing himself.
He opened his eyes and looked down at FoxGlove's body.
The sound of screams, giggling and more came to his mind when he looked down at her. He noticed something new to her body.
Growing right out of the hole through her heart was a rose.
He touched its petals softly then stood back up and made his way back to the village.
       
        He watched Zuri take charge of things, a couple months ago she became the leader of the tribe.
More days passed, more months, more years.
It had already been 4 years since the battle. Bells rang in the distance, and this time, he knew what they were for.
He tightened up his suit made of leaves and looked at Oliver. Oliver smiled and wiped a tear off of his face. Oliver nodded and they walked to the stand. The tribe was gathered sitting down on the ground, flowers adorned everything.
He looked down the glowing isle, and saw Zuri walking down it wearing a beautiful dress. She stood across from him and smiled, he smiled back. A tear of happiness ran down both of their faces.
He grabbed the stunning ring out of its box and slid it onto her finger.
"You may now kiss the bride." Oliver said. They kissed, and cheering sounded all around them.
He couldn't believe that he made it this far. He always thought his candle's flame would burn out soon, but it didn't. He had a new purpose, a new life. He ignited the life within.
The end.
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