Hope isn't a word I really believe in. [ON HOLD]

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

‘To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.’

Confucius

“Hey, Alexia?..” Sinny called.

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t told you the truth about what happened with Ackiar.”

Alexia turned around from rummaging through her few things and sat down next to Sinny on a log. Alexia was like the mother of the group, if you had a problem you would look to her for advice.

She had those same eyes too, that you seemed to get lost in. “What do you mean, Sinny?”

Sinny told her all about it; the way he changed, what he said, the colour of his eyes and the sound of his voice. But she didn’t tell her about her dream. She told no one about what went on in her sub-concious mind.

Alexia began pacing back and forth. For someone who talked so much, she was an amazing listener.

“No! Why would someone do that to Acky?..” she muttered to herself.

“What? What did they do?!” Sinny cried.

“Ackiar was possessed.” Alexia narrowed her eyes, deep in thought.

“Possessed?! But that’s not possible! Sorcery?! How can that be? That’s a myth, isn’t it?”

“Well in all my medical studies, I haven’t heard of anything like it. But when I was little, I read magic books in the library and that sounds exactly like it.”

“How? Who? When?!” Sinny stuttered in amazement.

“I don’t know the answers to your questions but all I know is that possession is a powerful thing. It takes a lot of energy out of the person – the person that got possessed and the person who did it. Now I know definitely that Ackiar will be asleep for longer than expected. He’s too exhausted to even be awake!”

“Huh?” Sinny said.

Alexia laughed. “Don’t go all shocked on me, again! Get some sleep.” And she walked away like being possessed was normal. Typical really, she wasn’t a worrier.

Sinny sat there, trying to grasp ‘possession’ with a confused but shocked look on her face.

Kallee, Pinnferr & Gnit strolled out of the ‘dining tent’.

“Woah Sinny, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost!” Pinnferr said.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Kallee wondered.

“Ackiar was possessed.” She murmured.

Everyone gasped. “Vot? But I zought zat vas impossible?”

“That’s what I thought, but it’s obviously not…”

They sat in silence.

“Anyone want some damper?” Pinnferr suggested. He got up with Gnit, collected some sticks and made some damper. They even got some for Kallee and Alexia.

Everybody sat down on the logs and talked. The smell of cooking damper wafted around the campsite and the stars came out but the moon was hidden, as usual.

“…What I can’t work out is, how come Ackiar was unconscious when I got there?” Sinny asked.

“Maybe he got possessed like that. Maybe he was pretending to be unconscious.” Alexia suggested.

“I don’t reckon. Remember, he has a cut on his head. Maybe he got hit. But who could of done such a thing?” Kallee said.

“Zat sounds true… Ve should investigate in ze morning. But you’re right. It can’t have been vun of us because ve all like him…” Gnit explained.