Far Away From Home

Epilogue

Stephanie opened her eyes. She hadn't seen the spear before it lunged at her, but her body was in attack and flight mode. It had built strong ice around her veins and vital organs, but the spear still pierced her vocal cords. It didn't get through, but it took her body forever to repay the damage.

By then, it was morning, and the monster had finished eating her friends. Her body broke down very quickly and quietly, and it sipped into the wooden planks beneath her.

She could hear their voices as they were looking for her. From what she could tell, they had a natural affinity to counteract any power they encountered, but they hadn't seen hers yet. So, she's in the clear. 

She couldn't change back, even if she wanted to, because her body was very alert to any danger around her. She was stiff and not in charge of her body. It's as if her body called all the shots and her mind was asleep somewhere in dreamland.

It took a very long time before any of them gave up on looking for her. She couldn't feel their steps on the creaky wooden planks. She couldn't hear any discussions going on, and she didn't feel them laughing outside the castle.
Her body slid itself through wooden boards after wooden boards until it reached the entrance of the castle.

The human body is made up of 60% body water, and she knew her body water was going beyond its limit. She could feel it as her body released itself from the wooden planks. The molecules of water formed the shape of a body before it solidified into her human body, and she was naked. 

She noticed that she was naked, but it didn't matter to her. She was extremely thirsty and needed to make contact with any body of water. Her body is not in any condition to go under the sun, and she needs water to escape.

She looked through the window, but she couldn't see the forest. It was a different place all together, and it was almost very beautiful. What made it very ugly were the little green children she saw playing next to a pond.

The pond she had seen in her dream.

She wasn't on earth anymore, and she wasn't on the other planet she and her friends had been on before they were killed. But as she thought about it, her body wasn't deterred. Instinctively, she knew that she had the power to get back to earth. She just had to get to that pond. 

Outside the castle, the grounds were filled with sand, which was a huge benefit to Steph. She could clump up the sand in one huge ball and try to move very slowly. That way, she would reserve her water percentage because sand, especially white sand, absorbs water.

She closed her eyes and willed her body to turn back to water, but it didn't. At this point, she felt desperate, but her body was out of touch.

Then she remembered it.

There are water molecules in the air.

She closed her eyes and tried to absorb the water around her into her pores. Soon, her surrounding area was so dry that she felt like she was suffocating. The room was getting drier by the minute and heating up. She stopped absorbing and tried to dissolve herself.

It worked.

She went through the wall and latched on the first atom of sand. It was instantly wet, and it started attracting other particles. What she hadn't anticipated was how large the ball would be. One of the green creatures noticed it and said,
“Let's play sand ball.”

Soon, Steph was picked up and wrapped around two palms to harden the ball.

“This one is hard,” one of them said.

“I'll make a stronger one,” one said.

Soon, the children started rolling sand while wetting them with the water inside the pond. There was nothing Steph could do but wait until the children were tired of playing. The one holding her was squeezing very tight, but she couldn't feel their palms. Her body had created ice with the remaining water residue to protect her physical body from harm.

Soon, the game began, and she was thrown or kicked by children. Sometimes, they would leave her and play with other sand balls, but the other sand balls always fell apart whenever they hit a target, but she always remained intact. 

Then one of them threw her into the pond. She immediately let go of the sand particles, and they fell apart. She latched onto the water molecules and started to dissolve inside them. They filled her body with much needed water before she heard one of the children say,
“Go in and get that strong one.”

She retracted herself from a few water molecules and hid in the shadows. The child jumped into the pond and started swimming down in search of the ‘strong one.’ 

“The water is drying up, Sarah,” one of them said.

“How so?” a female voice said.

“I think it was bigger than this,” the other voice said.

Steph watched as the other child started swimming upward. He surfaced and said,
“I can't find it.”

“Come out of there. Something is sucking the water,” a familiar voice said.

Steph realised where she had heard it: the young gay girl.

Immediately, her body was seized with fear, and it went into survival mode. It locked Steph's will and started swirling the water, making a hole at the end.

It was making a portal, Steph realised.

Her hands were flunged above her head in reckless abandon, and she swooped down very quickly into the hole. The water tightened around her waist and threw her upward. She surfaced to the surprise and horror of the green children and Indian family that had been trying to enter the pond. The young girl had anger in her eyes as she saw Steph surface.

For a moment, Steph wanted to send an ice dagger straight through her neck, but she didn't have time for that. It was only a second before her body, propelled by the water, shot upward into the sky and desipated into the air.

Her body fell to the edge of the forest, worn out and naked. She had used up a lot of water making a portal, and she was tired and very thirsty. She sat up and started absorbing the water in the air very recklessly.

The large adult trees around her grew drier and drier until their branches fell and their trunks lost every bit of water in them. When she got herself, she looked around her surroundings. The place was almost cleared of healthy trees, and she could see the blue sky. She used the remaining water to whip up an ice dress that was cool on her skin. It was see-through, but she didn't think anyone would notice because they would be wondering how she could create ice around her body.

She walked into their town and watched as everyone started looking at her. Soon, there was a commotion as one man ran up to her with a large shirt. She wore it before she dissolved the water.

“Thank you,” she said.

Her voice was very soft and whispery, but she cleared her throat and repeated it.

“Thank you.”

The news spread around that she had returned, and her parents came to collect her. But before that, Jackson's father had spoken to her and heard her side of the story. Her parents were emotional, and they cried. They were happy that she had matured while she was in danger.

Steph was happy at first. Her parents' voice covered the growing sadness and emptiness she felt following her friends' deaths. She was planning on leaving them when she got to the university, but that wasn't how she wanted it to happen. She hadn't wished for their deaths, but seeing as she's the only survivor, she might as well have wished for their deaths.

That was why, when the SA (Spy Agency) asked her if she could join them, she immediately joined the academy and decided to train hard in order to revenge her friends. One day, she will go back there and kill all of them.