Downfall

Chapter Eight

"Areille?" A voice asked, "What happened – Why are you wearing – Where did you get all that?"

"Liv!" Areille sighed in relief, "I'm not really sure what happened, but when you both left me alone in the forest, a Shadow Hound appeared and-"

Liviya's eyes widened in shock, "Are you okay? Did it harm you?"

"No, I'm fine," Areille replied, removing Liviya's arms, which were checking for injuries, "Anyway, Tessa protected me, and then the creature turned into a strange orb of darkness... I touched it and suddenly, my regular clothes were all gone, and I was wearing this! I don't know where the bow came from, but all I know is that it came from the dark orb!"

Areille froze, feeling a surge of strength pass through her as though they were no longer alone. Stretching her arm behind her and grabbing a bow from her quiver, she quickly notified the others, Liviya slowly drawing her sword, Alion grabbing his bow, still on EAGLE's back, and they quickly soared upwards, scouting for nearby creatures.

"How do you know we're not alone?" Liviya asked suspiciously. Usually, Liviya would be the first to sense a creature nearby, because of her training, however Areille had felt something strange, which she couldn't explain.

"I just do – Trust me."

"She's right – Massive flock of Blood Falcons headed this way, I'm sure they know we're here, they're headed right towards us, and we're completely exposed here..."

Liviya swore under her breath. "Okay, I guess we're all going to have to fight."

The horde of Blood Falcons quickly approached, until they had surrounded the three in a tornado formation. Liviya swiftly burst into action, speedily swiping at the birds, leaving trails of dust behind her as she did so, Alion firing above to protect the three of them, Areille firing outwards. The three creatures protected them as they fought, Lea protecting them on the ground, her sharp jaws tearing through the small birds while Tessa flew around, disrupting their formations and distracting them. Areille soon realised that there were too many birds and that they three of them wouldn't last much longer – She could already feel Liviya and Lea tiring, and the other three weren't far from exhaustion. Focussing her strength, she found herself able to create a small force shield around her, and although shocked by this, she closed her eyes and focused. She could feel the strength of all the birds, and she could also feel her siblings' tiredness. Focussing again, she focused on the birds, filling herself with their strength, passing it on to Liviya and Alion, who suddenly seemed to have all their strength back, but even stronger. The Blood Falcons slowly dropped in power until there was none left. Areille opened her eyes to see her force shield fall, black dust swirling around all of them, and then everything turned black as all her strength was drained out of her.

***

"What- what happened?" Areille complained, her vision blurry, head pounding.

"It was awesome, sis! You created some kind of magical forcefield around yourself and then I was like whoosh bam yeah! And Liv! Liv was just slashing through the birds like a tornado! Liv's sword glowed black, and my bow and arrows did too, Then – then some kind of black fog encased us and bam! Magical outfits, just like yours! For EAGLE, Tessa and Lea too! Well, not outfits but cool armour! It's epic!"

"What he means," Liviya said softly, as Areille sat up and began to notice changes, their partners all armoured and protected, Alion moving hyperactively even faster than normal, if that was even possible. "Is that like how the remnants of these enchanted creatures affected you, it affected us as well. You passed out from using so much strength, but Lion and I were just a bit tired out, probably because whatever you were doing meant that you were the one losing strength instead of us... What were you doing?"

Arielle put a hand to her aching head and looked up at Liviya, whose dark hair was messily falling into her face, her bandana missing, most likely because of the birds.

She explained the strange feeling she got, and how she seemed to be able to sap the creatures' strength. Alion bounced off part way through, and Areille was sure that his speed had increased, that he was moving a lot faster than before. She watched him moving around, and found herself distracted by him, and then as she began feeling stronger, she noticed that he seemed to be slowing, tiring out.

"Areille! Stop!" Liviya shouted, and Areille blinked and felt tired again.

"Stop what?"

"I don't know what you were doing, but it was affecting Lion, and you had a dark look in your eye, your eyes turned dark blue and you began to glow in a dark light... Areille, I'm worried about you..."

Areille's eyes darkened as Liviya looked down at her like she was a small child who had found a sword and thought it was a toy – Like she was dangerous but unlike dark creatures, she couldn't just be destroyed to eradicate the threat.

"Well you shouldn't be. I'm fine." Areille felt anger welling up inside her and so sh stood up, pushing Liviya away from her. Usually, she would have responded but she was far too shocked by Areille's actions. Areille stormed off into the nearby forest, Tessa following her nervously.

"What's with Arei?" Alion asked Liviya.

"I don't know, little lion, but I have a bad feeling about this whole thing..."

"Stupid Via. She thinks I can't control this! She probably thinks that I'm too weak to stop myself from doing something wrong! Well for once I'm the strong one! For once I don't need to be protected! I'm the one protecting them but obviously, she doesn't understand that! Alion just jumps around happily all the time and he doesn't even understand simple things! Maybe I'd just be better off leaving..." Areille stormed around furiously, not noticing the shadows surrounding her, closing in, the trees and plants turning darker as the life was slowly sucked out of them. "I'm more powerful than the both of them combined, and I've hardly even tapped into my true power yet! With all this power... I could destroy them all!" She suddenly froze in shock, and dark cloud vanishing as she fell to the ground, weak. "I... I don't want to destroy anything... I... I just want to go home..." A lone tear fell from her eye, but instead of being clear blue, it was black, and as it hit a small flower on the ground, the flower began to wilt until it was no longer alive. Something was happening to her, but she didn't know what, but it was terrifying, and she knew that she needed to learn to control it before someone got hurt... Namely Alion or Liviya. No, she couldn't tell them, they would try and help, which would cause her to lose control again... No, she would avoid using it at all costs. That way they would be safe... she would be safe.