Tale of Chaos 2: This War of Ours

Chapter 10: Mountain

Eon's POV

"Why did you do that!?" Forestra started ranting, stomping over to the little girl, Mae.

"How will we find Maia in the middle of a giant mountain?"

Mae was eerily calm.

All she said was, "I promise, I know what I'm doing---"

In Forestra's fury, she shoved the girl.

With a small yelp, Mae tumbled to the ground, trying to escape from her new predator.

I knew that none of this would end well. I was about to run to her, but Arcmagos got ahead of me.

He ran the short distance separating him and Forestra. He pushed her away from Mae. She didn't fall down like Mae did, but it made a small difference. Mae was scrambling to her feet and backing away from her.

Forestra glared at him.

"Because of this kid, we'll probably be stuck here forever! And you're trying to protect her!?"

Her eyes were... feral, for lack of a better word.

Arcmagos retorted, "She's like... eleven, alright!?"

Mae cut in.

"Ten."

Arcmagos rolled his eyes.

"Ten, whatever. Just stop being mean to her! We have to find a way out---"

"The single way out is saving Maia," Mae cut in.

We all stared at her.

"How could we save her in the middle of a mountain?" Forestra seethed.

Mae sighed.

"I have to lead you to several different tasks before you could actually find her. It's going to be hard, I know. But this is your purpose. It's really confusing, but it will all make sense eventually."

I thought back to that one phrase: You are an Enigma.

Why was 'Enigma' used as the term?

Were the others Enigmas as well?

It hurt my head to think about it.

Forestra sighed.

"We're on a mountain, so we need to know how to survive."

She turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

"Pyroclast, come with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arcmagos's POV

I watched Forestra carefully as she darted through several trees, her eyes trained on a large deer. She was very quick and agile.

Maybe it was from the times when she ran away from Mark and his group.

Finally, Forestra and Pyroclast froze, crouching down in a bush. Forestra's hands were raised, palms facing the deer, which was swelling with muscles.

Seemed like a perfect meal.

Soon, Forestra's eyes glowed green and vines emerged from the ground around the deer. Once she clenched her fists, the vines wrapped around the deer's legs, keeping it there.

"Now, Pyroclast!" I heard Forestra whisper.

Pyroclast's hands were soon in flames. She gathered enough fire, formed a fireball, and pushed the ball to the unaware deer, causing it to collapse. I'm surprised it didn't really get burnt...

A thought suddenly flew into my mind.

"How will we get that out?" I asked.

Both of them yelped a bit, surprised at my sudden appearance.

"Oh, right, that problem..." Forestra mused.

"We might need Blackout's help."

"That will wait, I'm afraid," a voice cut in from behind us.

I whirled around and saw Blackout leaning against a tree.

"I found something."

This was going to be good.

"What did you find?" Pyroclast asked.

She brought herself up and motioned to the field.

"How about I show you?"

The three of us exchanged fearful looks as we each exited the forest and followed Blackout.

After a short period of time, Blackout stopped by a stone tablet. When I got a good look at it, I found that it was marked with paths and stuff like that. Blackout looked at us. We looked up at her.

She sincerely said, "It's probably a map."