Gladiator Wars

Chapter 13: Aftermath

Natalie's point of view

Fighting alongside Heath was exhilarating and made everything easier. If I saw someone coming at him, then I would parry away their blow. Heath did the same for me.

Everything was going great, until out of the corner of my eye I saw a knife coming straight at me. I heard someone shout my name.

Then suddenly I was pushed to the ground. I turned to see who had pushed me and saved me, what I saw shocked me.

Heath was impaled by the knife that was meant to hit me. He fell to the ground, just as a blinding blue light engulfed everything in sight

I blinked away the black spots from my eyes and I noticed that all the elementals that we were attacking us, were now frozen statues.

I heard a pained groan and I looked over at Heath. I ran over to him to see how bad his injury was.

He was losing a profuse amount of blood and the throwing knife was still sticking out of his chest.

"Help! Joseph, Catherine, anyone!" I shouted looking around the garden of statues for someone.

"Natalie!" Victor shouted from what sounded like a distance. "Where are you?"

"Over here." I shouted happy that at least one person other then myself was alive.

Victor ran over and started going through his medicine bag he always seems to carry. He got out some potions filled with what looked like liquid gold.

"Here take one." He said offering me a bottle. "It's a transporting potion. It'll be easier to treat Heath if we're at homebase."

Just then everyone except for Victoria and Daniell burst into the small clearing where Heath and I were. They looked surprised, then horrified by how pale and close to dying Heath looked.

Victor explained to them that we all needed to leave before the cops arrived, but I could hardly care I was to busy trying not to cry.

"Natalie, here." Victor said snapping me out of my thoughts and offering me the bottle again.

I downed the bottle and suddenly I was at our makeshift home. Suddenly the others appeared and we got to work helping Victor to save Heath.

Daniell's point of view

Using power the way I had, drained me of all the energy I had. Staying conscious was a struggle and eventually I succumbed to the waiting darkness. I was automatically thrown into a strangely vivid dream.

It was very bright, wherever I was. Finally I could make out the shapes of a tree and I realized I was lying down on a bed of soft green grass.

I was looking at the fluffy white clouds that moved lazily across the sky. I moved into a sitting up position and I noticed that right next to me was a picnic basket.

"Sorry I'm late." Said a familiar sounding voice. I turned to the source of the voice and saw that it was Victoria.

The strange thing was that she wasn't wearing some grand princess gown or battle armor. She was wearing a simple white and gold dress.

"I had to sneak out or else my brother would have a fit." She continued and then she seemed to notice the picnic basket. "Cool. You brought food for our date."

My jaw dropped when she said that. I felt like my head was going into overload. I felt like I couldn't talk or move.

"Are you okay?" She asked, worry etched across her face. I swallowed with great difficulty and nodded yes.

Victoria smiled in a way I had never seen her smile and sat down next to me and starting unpacking the basket. She set out the food, handed me a sandwich and started eating.

After a few minutes, I knew this wasn't real and I had to get out of this dream. I wasn't even sure if my plan to destroy the army and the Dragon worked or not.

"Escape would mean watching all your friends die and your home dimension burning." Thundered a loud voice across my dreamworld. The voice that I could guess belonged to Bale. "Staying here ensures that you can be happy for an eternity."

I looked across the dreamworld and noticed that the clouds had darkened considerably, the oak tree had grown dark and twisted, and Victoria had disappeared.

"Why not just kill me?" I shouted. Bale would never do anything for someone without some ulterior motive.

"It is easier to make sure an enemy is trapped, than dead. The most secure prison, is one of happiness and perfection." He responded.

"You would escape if you were trapped in a world that you hated, but you would stay in a world that you has everything you desire." He continued.

I knew that if I didn't leave now, I would never want to leave. I focused on opening my eyes and waking up. I felt like I had snapped some sort of connection and I knew I was starting to wake up.

Victoria's point of view

I had been sitting for what felt like an hour, but when I checked the clock on the dresser I saw it was only five minutes since I had sat down.

Then I heard Daniell groan and I looked over at him. His eyes opened slowly and then he covered his eyes with his hand. He looked absolutely exhausted.

"How do you feel?" I asked. He turned towards me and smiled faintly. I could automatically tell that there was something he wanted to tell me, but it seemed kind of personal.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck." He replied sitting up. "Did the plan work?"

I told him all that transpired after he passed out. He seemed solemn after I told him about what happened to Heath.

"How's Heath doing?" He asked slowly.

"I'm not sure. Everyone's downstairs helping besides me. I just hope that he doesn't-" My throat felt incredibly dry and tears were already falling down my cheeks.

Then Daniell did something I didn't expect. He pulled me into a hug. When Daniell pulled away, he was studying my face intently.

I wasn't sure what to say or do, so I decided to do what came naturally. I asked him questions.

"Do you need anything?" I asked slightly nervous.

"Water would help." He said softly. I got up to go fetch him a bottle.

The problem wasn't that I didn't like him, in fact the very opposite was true. I liked him alot, I just simply didn't want to be worrying about him on the battlefield.

"Why is liking someone so freaking complicated!?" I thought to myself in frustration.

On the way downstairs I ran straight into Hama and both of us fell to the ground.

Hama got up and pulled helped me up as well. His face was unreadable and I wasn't sure if he had good news or bad.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Then I thought about what I just said.

"What's worse?" I asked in place of my last question.

"You need to come downstairs." He stated, "It's Heath."