Fire Scarred

Chapter Fourteen

     Later that evening, when Noah turned to leave, he looked back at me and said, "You know I broke things off with her, right?"

     I didn't have to ask who the "her" was. My breath caught in my throat, and all the emotion from the day I saw him with Georgia came whirling back. I didn't know if I would ever be able to look at him the same way, or ever get over how I had once felt. Leo next to me gripped my hand. I loved how he could sense and sooth the emotional storm inside of me. My eyes, though, still stayed locked with Noah's. 

     "I didn't know."

     The next day I sat with Noah, Georgia, Raylynn, and Josh for my meals. I wasn't fully relaxed around them yet, but they seemed to be making an effort. Two days later, I was attacked again, this time in my bedroom. That same day, I decided to tell my friends everything that they didn't already know, about me being hunted and everything. Three times I was attacked over the next five days– twice in the woods, once in the middle of my English class. Each time after an attack, I would end up back in front of the Hall, whimpering, crying, and no one but me knowing what had happened for sure. It was exhausting.

     Students and teachers began to avoid me like my misfortune would wear off on them. Mom and Dad were concerned that I would never be safe again. Leo believed he wasn't doing all that he should to keep my well-being intact. My friends were on edge. Everyone's stress levels at Woodland Creek had cranked up to an all time high. I was tired of it. 

     The next morning I was walking to the Hall for breakfast when the world went silent. The birds hushed, the wind stilled, the bugs were dumb. The air seemed to grow thick like pudding, but venomous like whiskey. My head felt light like I was on a high, which was what made me that much more vulnerable. I stood frozen in my tracks. 

     A liquid hand placed itself over my mouth and nose and wrapped itself around my arms, legs, and waist, restricting any movement I could have made. It burned into my skin, and I wriggled in attempt to free myself from the poison. Like candle wax, it melted into me.

     "Let me go!" I yelped only to have it sound like "Wet we grow." My skin screamed. The acid sank into me. My head spun and my knees grew weak.

     My capturer chuckled, a sickening familiar sound. "I don't think I can do that."

     Then, the world vanished.

     The air was heavy and cold. It hurt to suck it into my lungs. Stalactites and stalagmites rose and fell all around me like a cage made of daggers. Snakes of water slithered across the stone surface. It singed everything it touched. Strange hieroglyphics scarred the cave's walls. Pictures of trees and mountains and rivers marked the surface, a path carving a way through it. A map. In the center of the web was the painting of a stone. Even from my sprawled position on the floor, I could see the great care and detail taken in the drawing of this oval. It reached out to me in a way nothing else ever had. It was like it depended on me for its own survival. It radiated hope, love, and a need that I couldn't describe. Like I was wanted.

     "Beautiful. Is it not?" The sky was dark as it peaked through a crack in the hard rock dome. The moon's light barely highlighted the satisfied face of my capturer.

     My face could hardly move, it burned like fire, but I managed to peep out, "Yes. What is it?"

     Ciris smiled. "I might as well tell you. It's called the Stone of Zephri. Makes you feel special, doesn't it?" I nodded. "It should," he continued. "When Zephri died his final time, he left that stone in his place. It contains all the power of every nature spirit ever created, and whomever posses the stone has power over all nature spirits. He can control them, bend them to his will, claim their power for himself. It has a mighty powerful call to those of us who know of it. The Stone of Zephri was hidden, though, to be kept secret from the common nature spirit, such as your friend Leo. No one was to know of the stone's existence to save our kind from the fight for power. Only one spirit was entrusted with the knowledge of how to get to the Stone of Zephri. This is where you come in. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves, my dear. Proper introductions must be made." The man gave me a wide smile. "Call me Sorrel."