The Hope Collection

The Black-Winged Angel and the Girl in the White Gown (unedited)

We were off before we had finished dinner nearly. I finished up my last bite of sandwich as we started climbing the hill up to the top of the cliff. It was steeper than we had assumed, so we weren't wearing any climbing boots. They would have made the climb a whole lot easier. I mean, it didn't take long to climb up the hill, but it was still steep and we were still out of breath when we reached the top.

Rylin and I layed down on the top of the cliff and caught our breaths. Looking around I could tell this cliff was just a normal cliff in the middle of the plains. Nothing was suspicious about it in any way. No abandoned cabin spewing smoke from its chimney sat at the edge of the cliff. Why would Nadia show up here? Surely this place wasn't important in any way.

"Why do you think the map led here? There's nothing here," I sighed and turned my head to look at Rylin.

"I'm not really sure, I'm as confused as you are to tell the truth," Rylin frowned.

"Maybe we went to the wrong place," I thought out loud quietly.

"No, we couldn't have gone to the wrong place. The map is perfect, it's led us all the way here correctly. I'm still not sure how it was able to tell the future if our event isn't to happen till tomorrow, but it's not a false map," Rylin explained, shaking his head in frustration.

I nodded, frowning, Rylin looked stressed. I didn't want to stress him out any more than he was already was. I was the one who dragged him into this disaster. He didn't even deserve to be stuck in this mess. Who knew what was happening back at the kingdoms. They could have started a war and we wouldn't know all the way out here. It was like we were on an isolated island out in the middle of a golden ocean. No one but Prince Thanos knew where we were going, that we were on a mission to save a girl who was supposed to be the ultimate hero from her own demise.

I stood up and helped Rylin stand up. We wiped off our clothes from the loose dirt littered over our clothing from lying down. Walking over to the shear drop-off of the cliff I looked down. The cliff was much taller than it looked from the ground. The drop-off would definitely kill someone if they were to fall, or be pushed off.

"Hope, get over here I don't want you to fall," Rylin sounded worried so I backed away from the cliff and walked over to him.

"It's tall, tall enough to kill someone if they fell," I told him, his eyes grew wide.

"You don't think Nadia will try to, kill herself, do you?," Rylin whispered.

"No, I saw her being pushed over the edge by someone in my vision. She was cornered and murdered," I sighed and pushed my palm against my forehead.

"You had a vision? Why didn't you tell me?," Rylin sounded heartbroken.

"I didn't want you to worry and back out, I need you Rylin. I need your help, your comfort, and your humor," I walked over to him and put my arms around him in a hug.

"I need you too, Hope. I'll always be here to help you no matter what. Don't for a second think I'll wimp out and leave you stranded here alone to fight whatever monster is trying to kill Nadia," Rylin's voice is muffled because his face is pushed into my hair and his arms are wrapped around me tightly.

It felt like hours before we broke our hug. I smiled at him and he grinned goofily back causing me to giggle girlily. We sat down and ate our snack we had packed on the top of the cliff. The sunset bled throughout the horizon as we watched the sun disappear. It was a beautiful and dangerous looking sight. We made our way back down the cliff's hill, picking our way carefully so we didn't topple down the hill.

It was a long night with almost no light from our campfire. The plains were hot and dry and we slept as far from the fire as we could without getting too close to it. It was already light out when I woke up. I looked over to Rylin's sleeping bag and there he was softly snoring and sprawled out across the ground. Smiling and rolling my eyes I stood up and went to change into my green armor dress and gauntlets. I fixed us a large breakfast of Elven bread that I toasted, chicken eggs I had found in the plains, and even sliced ham I found in the bottom of our food bag.

"What smells so delicious," Rylin sat up yawning.

"Toast, ham, and scrambled eggs," I grinned when he licked his lips.

"Give me five minutes to go change," Rylin stood up and grabbed his clothing bag and walked behind the cliff.

In exactly five minutes he was back dressed in his white riding suit and he was pulling on his dark blue high wizard's cloak. He walked over and helped me take the pot of sliced ham off the fire. We made sandwiches of toast and ham and ate scrambled chicken eggs. We hadn't even eaten everything before we were full. We stuffed the toast and ham into a bag and packed up camp. We scattered the remaining eggs in the fire to let them burn. We planned to leave this place with Nadia before nightfall.

"Ready?," Rylin asked me as he hoisted himself up onto his horse.

"As ready as I'll ever be to face death in the face," I sighed nervously and climbed up onto Haven's back.

"Then let's be off," Rylin laughed worriedly, so he was nervous about how today will turn out, too, huh.

I nodded and took a deep breath before following him up the hill. We made it up onto the cliff, but to our surprise, no one was there. We were once again alone on the cliff just as we were yesterday. I was started to regret our decision to try to help Nadia and save the worlds. Maybe we did have the wrong cliff. I sighed and swung myself off Haven. Landing on the ground I walked over to the cliff's edge and looked over the edge. Nothing was there, it was just dry, golden ground below.

Frustrated, I stomped my foot and let out a sound kind of like an animal screech. Falling onto my knees I started sobbing uncontrollably. No one was here, if we had gotten the wrong cliff Nadia would die without any help of any kind. And it would be all my fault. That figure with grey wings in my vision must have been lying to me, he must have sent me on a wild goose chase.

"Hope!," I heard Rylin yell and I looked over to him.

He looked panicked and he was pointing behind me. Spinning I saw the guy from yesterday, the wings from the vision, all in one figure. He was hovering in the air with his onyx black, feathery wings gently flapping. His hands were clasped behind him and a smirk was visible on his face. His dark chocolate brown eyes glittered dangerously.

Looking back at Rylin I saw a girl in a white gown running up behind him. She looked confident and angry. I pointed behind Rylin and he turned to look just as the girl ran past him. She sprinted up to me and stood in front of me looking right at the guy behind me.

"They are not involved in this Thomas, leave them out of this," the girl's voice projected through the entire top of the cliff like she was announcing something important.

"Don't you know, Nadia, that this girl is the one who's been chosen to save you from me?," the black-winged guy behind me laughed, I assumed his name was Thomas.

"You're Nadia?!," Rylin gasped and looked at the girl in front of me wide-eyed.

"Yes, I'm Nadia, the Seeker of this time and the protector of the dimensions," Nadia announces and glared at Thomas, who only smirked more.

"You aren't going to be a protector for very much longer," he already looked victorious.

"This battle hasn't even started, so don't go around getting opinions," I growled and stood up spinning around to face Thomas.

"Oh? And where's your weapon?," Thomas laughed.

"Right here," I snarled and shifted into a tiger.

Nadia pulled a small dagger out of her leather satchel slung over her shoulder. I stood growling at Nadia's side and Rylin walked up and stood at her other side holding his wizard's staff. He looked confident just as Nadia was. My lips were curled up and I bared my sharp, white teeth at Thomas.

"Oooo, I'm so scared. I can't wait to see who has the most beautiful death scream. If I had to guess, it will be you, Nadia," Thomas laughed again and stepped onto the cliff's edge.