Goraldia: The Element Wielders

8: The First Arrival

At the tunnel's mouth, we spot people moving towards the path. A lot of people. They charge toward us with massive, lumbering weapons. I look at them with fear in my eyes. They're monstrous weaponry, motorized with steam billowing out. The machines are armed with giant crossbows, trebuchets, slings, and some other odd looking contraptions. Icarus pulls my right arm the other direction. He and I run down the rocky, uneven side of the mountain. Trying to be careful, we charge down. "WE CAN'T BE IN RANGE!" Icarus yells. "EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL CASTERS GET OVERPOWERED!" Oh god! 

Heading down was several times faster than climbing up. Two minutes down I make the mistake of looking backwards. I see the machines at the ready where we were only a few minutes ago. THAT SHIT IS FAST, I think, even though our ascent had been a slow one. 

Instincts kick in as I fall forwards. I tripped running at full speed. I look forward to quickly scan the ground in front of me. There luckily were no big rocks in the way, but the terrain was still rough. I roll sideways to avoid serious damage, but it doesn't stop the ground from scraping me up and it hurts pushing into my skin. Mid-roll, I balance myself and continue running. OW! I think. No turning around!

A large chunk sound sounds from behind us and Icarus yells to move sideways. I push off a rock and land to my right. Icarus had jumped left. A massive harpoon looking shaft plunges into the rocks beside us, throwing them everywhere. The shaft then opens up and a net flies out. They meant to catch us one way or another. The net fails, as we are too far ahead of it.

I almost trip three more times. We get to the ground when the sun just passes under the horizon. We run into the trees. A good ways in, we take a break. Running for your life is very strenuous, in case you hadn't realized. We wait until our breathing had leveled out a little to start moving.

As we mentally prepare to begin moving again, we hear a voice. A quiet female voice speaks out to us from the shadows, "Are you here to help me?" We halt and look in the direction of the voice. "I'm scared," the voice says again.

I break the awkward pause, finally. "We are here to help you." We all wait in silence until she decides I was telling the truth. She steps out of the shadows behind a tree. Her eyes are red from crying and the look on her face displays fear and confusion. The moon had been in the sky with the sun, so even with the sun only a little past the horizon, the moonlight shone bright on her face. My brain kicks in. Seeing her face had triggered something. But unlike Eric, I couldn't remember enough about her, and she remains a prick in the back of my skull. It could be possible that she is only a girl I've seen in a video for all I know. If it is a person I should know, she doesn't know me back. 

"What's your name?" I ask, hoping her name would help me remember.

"My name... I... I'm not sure... I can't remember my name," She tells me, worry returning to her face.

Should I tell her my real name? Would that help? I think. But maybe it would be best not to give her any extra information about me... "That's ok," I say trying to calm her. "A lot of stuff is forgotten when you get to Goraldia." I inch my way over to her. "I can't remember my name, either," I lie. I do not think I should tell her my Earth name. I try to think of other names I used on Earth, and one name shone out of the fuz in several places, probably because I used it so much: ace2____6. The numbers were all a jumbled mess, but I remember the word half. "I'm, uh, A-," My voice falters. Oh god this sounds so STUPID! "Ace. My name is Ace." As I get closer to her, she backs away. "Please, I want to help you," I advise. She stops backing away so I stop inching closer. It seemed like a polite thing to do. 

Then all of a sudden she launches at me, but not in a harmful manner, no. She jumped at me to strangle me in a hug. Face buried in my chest and arms in a death grip, she begins to cry. I put my arms around her and stand there, motionless. I fear that any movement I make might upset her. Icarus lets us stand there a few minutes longer and then informs us, "I wish we could stay here, but we have to keep moving. We're still very close to them and they will overcome us quickly."

I try to push her away gently, but her grip won't ease up. "Hey," I try to say in as calming a voice as possible, "I would love to just stay here forever with you, but there are scary people with big weapons coming after us. We're going to a big city because it will keep us safe." At that she loosens her grip.

"People are coming for us?" she asks.

"Yes," I inform, grimly. "But you don't have to worry a bit. Icarus and I will protect you. We have abilities that are very special. You have them, too."

"Abilities?" she wonders.

"It's best for me to explain later," I say. "C'mon." I wrap my arm around her and encourage her to follow Icarus, who had walked a little ahead of us.

The first arrival had come. And now we are more powerful than ever.