Niah and the Pheonix (Watty's 2024!)

Chapter IX: Niah

"How did you get here?" I asked.

"Why, all I had to do was follow you. I knew that once you were separated from your friends, you would stand almost no chance against me alone. So, once I noticed you and your friends going in different directions, I decided to take my shot." He said.

"Wait, but I've been alone many other times. Why didn't you just take your shot then?" I asked, slightly confused. Just as I finished, someone burst in the room.

"Because he's not real," Lani said, "It's all just a trick. Whoever you're talking to, you need to stop." 

"Wait, you can't see him?" I asked Lani.

"Don't listen to her. Of course I'm real! How else do you think your precious necklace would stop working?" The thing said to me, but Lani couldn't hear or see it, so it must have been lying. Although it does have a point.

"Wait, but what about my necklace?" I asked Lani.

"What about it?"

"It's not working. It won't let me change back into a phoenix, and he said that he put his 'shadows' inside of it to make it stop working." I said, sounding slightly crazy. 

A thing that she couldn't even see shoved it's 'shadows' into a magical necklace that allows me to turn from a phoenix into a human. Huh, not something you hear every day.

"Um, I don't know how that's happening, but it's not from him. Look, we can make him disappear. The vine on your back, take it off and you'll stop seeing him. It must've stuck onto us while we were at the portal." Lani said.

"Don't listen to her! She's lying. Once you reach back to take off the vine, she'll... use you having no free hands as an advantage to kill you. No free hands, no defense." It said to me, trying to persuade me out of taking off the vine.

"Why don't you stop me then? If it's so bad, then you'll stop me, right? Or don't you at least want to kill me yourself?" I said, knowing that it couldn't do anything if it really was fake.

It looked at me, anger growing in it's face. It reached out to grab me, but it's hand just went through me. I reached for the vine on my back, ripping it off and throwing it on the floor in front of me. I looked up, and he was instantly gone, disappearing into thin air.

"Huh, you were right. Thanks, Lani." I said as I looked at nothing, just the empty space where the thing used to be.

"Don't thank me, thank... never mind," Lani said, "Do you know where Yoshi's at? I haven't seen him, and he might also have the vine on him."

"I haven't seen him either. Last I saw he was running away from where the portal was, but I do know which direction he was heading. Follow me." I said.

We ran out of the small bakery, running so fast you could barely hear anything with the wind blowing in our ears. It was freezing, so I ran out of breath fast and put my hands on my knees as I took a break.

"You good, Niah? You seem out of breath." Lani said as she looked at me.

"That's because I am. It's hard to handle these cold temperatures as a human, and I also run out of breath extremely fast. I wish I could turn back into a phoenix."

"Why can't you? You said something about that back there at the bakery, but I guess I didn't think highly of it." Lani asked.

"I don't know, but it's been happening for a while. Just on our way to the portal on Earth, when me and Yoshi were trying to find you, I felt a shiver go down my spine. Right when I turned into a human, it started to glitch and wouldn't allow me to turn back into my normal form. I don't know why, though, because it's never done this before." I said as I fingered my necklace.

"Hmm, I've never heard of anything like that before, even with all the studying I've done. But, I guess if you turned into a human and then you smashed your necklace, you could potentially be stuck in your human form forever. Unless," Lani said as an idea spread across her face, "maybe if you go up to Herason Peak during a full moon, then you can fix it."

"How do you know that will work? What if-" A loud yell cut me off.

"Yoshi? Come on, Niah, let's go!" Lani yelled as she ran off in the direction she hear the scream.

We ran through the cold breeze, snow whipping my face. The fire everywhere had dimmed down, now just a little fire here and there. We knew that Yoshi would be ok, because whatever he was imagining couldn't hurt him, but we still wanted to help him as soon as possible. Finally, we found him talking to whatever he was imagining. But he didn't seem scared at all, but like he was having a great time.

"Yoshi!" Lani yelled as she saw him.

"Hey, Lani! Look, it's... people! I know it's weird, but I found out that they just wanted my help!" Yoshi exclaimed as he pointed to nothing.

"Yoshi, it's all fake. It's just a hallucination that a plant's causing you to have." I said as I pointed to his back. He looked back to see a vine grabbing onto his shirt, the toxins soaking through it.

"Oh, so it is. So this is all fake? Can you guys even see them?" Yoshi asked.

"No, we can't, but we can help you stop seeing them! All you have to do is take the vine off of you." Lani said.

"Alright, wait a second. Let me just talk to them really quick. I know that they're not even real, but I would at least like to say goodbye." Yoshi said as he turned around.

"Alright, we'll... be over here. Come to us when you're ready to go and save the West. no big deal or anything, just trying to save thousands of innocent people." I said as Lani and I walked away. 

We stood and waited for Yoshi to stop talking and saw him pull the vine off of his back. He turned around us and looked slightly saddened, which confused Lani because he had just saw his greatest fear. Why was he sad to say goodbye to his greatest fear?

"So... what was all that about?" Lani asked Yoshi.

"Well, it's a long story. Let's just say that I thought they wanted me dead, but they actually just wanted my help. I did help them, so my work here is done." He said.

"What did they need help with?" I asked Yoshi.

"They wanted to go home. They actually were kind of real, and they just needed to find their way back to their realm. Maybe I was just imagining that they needed to go back to their realm, too, but it seemed so real. It turned out that I was the 'chosen one' that could help them get back to their home, and all I had to do was tell them they could." Yoshi said.

"Wow, that's actually crazy," I said, "but we have stuff we need to do. We need to get to the West before it's too late. We've already been sidetracked so much, so we don't have a moment to lose. Let's go." 

We all walked towards nothing; literally nothing. Just an empty field, burned to ashes. We looked ahead, knowing that we would have to face many challenges in the distant future. We had to do this, though. Everyone I had ever grown up with lived there, and I couldn't just sit back and do nothing while they all died. It wasn't humane, and it wasn't something I wanted to do anyways. I knew that it was up to us to save the West; a fifteen year old, sixteen year old and a ten year old.