Dark Days

Chapter 5

                Malelia flew as fast as she could to the village, in hopes of warning them, in hopes of saving them; she knew she had to at least try. Hakan and Makka were right behind her, keeping pace with her. Malelia glanced back behind her to make sure that Ritsu wasn’t trying to rush Miyuki, knowing that she was in no shape to try and fight. Ritsu’s eyes were very solemn, but he understood why she had taken off so quickly. As Malelia reached the village, she saw the upset faces of the people watching her swoop in. They all knew about the shadows coming, and they all blamed it on the group.

                “I know… This looks bad,” she admitted to them all, “but we’re going to try and stop them. Once Ritsu gets here with Miyuki, he will join the fight. I do ask that you take care of Miyuki though. She already lived through one of their attacks. She won’t live through two…”

                The crowd just watched her in silence, in anger. None of them wanted her here anymore; they wanted them all to leave. Malelia’s eyes scanned every face she could find in the crowd, looking for some type of sympathy. She could feel her heart dropping when she began to realize that everyone here blamed them for the arrival of the Shadows.

                “Please, just give us a chance…” Makka whispered.

                “We will,” said a man very quietly from the front of the crowd; the same man that convinced the crowd to let the Ralquid stay, “let us take care of the injured ones and you go.” Everyone’s head whipped to look at the man in disgust. They didn’t understand why he trusted the group so much, and they were getting more and more agitated with him.

                Malelia was shocked, but she handed Niyol to the man and smiled sweetly. “Thank you,” she whispered as she shot back into the sky and over the fort wall heading toward the oncoming attack with Makka and Hakan.

                “Malelia, do you think this is a good idea?” Makka questioned her.

                “No, not really, but we have to try,” Malelia smiled, “I mean, humans are no more or less important than us.”

                Shortly after Malelia left with Hakan and Makka, Ritsu came flying in with Miyuki almost fully supported on him now. She was exhausted and barely in any shape to be standing on her own. Ritsu grew uncomfortable with all the eyes staring at him; he could see they were full of rage.

                “We’ll fix this…” he said lightly, laying Miyuki down, “I promise.”

                With that Ritsu took off into after Malelia, flying as fast as he could to catch her. If she went alone, she’d die in no time flat. When Ritsu caught up with her, he found her holding off one of the shadows while the rest hurtled toward the village. It was a strange site, watching these things that wanted the Ralquid dead practically ignore them for a human village. Hakan took notice to Ritsu and met up with him as he charged one of the Shadows. Right before Ritsu made contact with the beast; he turned into his lion form, knocking it back from the other Shadow. It hesitated for a moment, but when the other hissed at it, it continued on toward the village.

                Ritsu didn’t know what to do. If he didn’t pursue the other Shadow, the village would be in trouble, but if he did, then he’d have to fight two Shadows at once. The first Shadow slashed at him as Hakan took off after the other, and he jumped out of the way. He covered himself in fire again and jumped at the Shadow, and vaulting back off of it. He was sure to put all of his power into the jump and watched as the beast flew back against a tree with a thud. There was a burn mark on its chest and it seemed to struggle to get back up. Ritsu changed to his human form and went to snap a flaming kick at its neck when it grabbed his leg and threw him up over the trees. He spread his wings and caught himself in the air, only to see Hakan pursuing the other Shadow, leaving a blazing trail of Fire behind him. Hakan sped up to tackle the beast to the ground, but instead flew right through it. It let out a shrill scream, the sound that you would expect the very beasts of hell to unleash, and turned around back into the forest.

                Malelia was using her power of the earth very expertly for just learning that she had the power. She was summoning up the ground to protect her from blows and launching boulders at the beast. Makka was instructing her as she fought to preoccupy the beast. As Makka flew around the Shadow, avoiding its swinging arms, she flung energy bursts of aura at it. Eventually the Shadow’s eyes began to glow very bright red with rage, and it hit Makka sending her flying into a tree and knocking her out.

                “I’d like to see you fight now, little Ralquid,” the beast hissed, “without your teacher, you can’t do anything new,” it sneered.

                Malelia felt panic fill her heart, knowing that this shadow was right. She transformed into her wolf form, in hopes of being more agile, and sprung out of the way of two attacks. Suddenly, Malelia was knocked to the ground by another enemy that came from behind. It was another shadow that had a white hole in its chest. Malelia attempted to get up again, but she could not. The two shadows seemed to be enjoying beating on her and would surely keep her alive for as long as they could. Malelia, spread out her wings and put up a weak aura shield, but she couldn’t hold it up for long. The shadows broke it and pinned her wings to the ground. Malelia had shooting pains all over her body as she looked to Makka for help, but she was still out cold. She felt the beasts begin to tear and rip at the flesh on her wings, and she howled out in pain.

                “Malelia!” Ritsu screamed, connecting a flaming kick to one’s head, and sending a fire blast toward the other. Both the Shadows were sent flying from the attack and Malelia fell to the ground. Her Black wings were coated in blood, and he could see tears flowing from her eyes. The pain had to be overwhelming for her. The third Shadow entered the clearing with Hakan not far off of its tail. The Shadow went over to its comrade with the white hole in its chest, and Hakan quickly grabbed Makka, bringing her close to the others. Makka awoke once she hit the ground and took noticed to Malelia’s blood covered wings.

                “I’m so sorry,” Makka whispered to Malelia as she transformed back into her human form, “I thought I could protect you…”

                “It’s not your fault Makka,” Ritsu said sternly, “It could have happened to any of us.”

                The Shadows began to surround them as they planned a strategic way of finishing off the group. They silently hissed to one another, planning and thinking. The one that had the white hole in its chest from Ritsu’s attack looked particularly weak, but it was trying not to look phased.  Ritsu examined them all, trying to figure out why they were taking their time with this attack.

                “You know,” one of the shadows hissed, “I thought we killed all of the Ralquid…”

                “Apparently we missed some,” sneered the one that had the hole in its chest.

                “I guess we’ll just have to be more thorough with the humans then,” the third one snickered, “I was happy, when I thought all you hideous Ralquid were dead… “

                “And now,” they all hissed approaching the group, “We’re going to relish this opportunity to pick you apart, feather by feather, and watch your lights slowly fade from the Earth”