The World of The Winged

Kidnapped

Chapter 15:

We had ridden for the rest of the afternoon and decided to stop when the lights slowly became fainter. We had been riding through the woods and found an open spot for us to set up our tents.

I went into the forest to find wood and so did the others, leaving Gure and Zilanna to guard our small camp. I hadn't told Ryan about me and Luke's kiss yet but I knew he could sense that something was different between us.

We all split up to cover more ground and I could once again see a flash of red before I was pinned to the tree. "I can see that Zero knows about me, I guess I'll just have to take him away from the group to protect myself." The man said, his green eyes piercing mine.

He ran off into the forest as I yelled after him: "No, you can't! I never told him anything!" I dropped the wood I collected and started running in the direction he dissapeared to and yelled Zero's name.

"Amelia?" I heard Zero's voice from behind me, I whipped my head around and relief filled me when I saw him standing there. No harm was done. "Zero you have to get back to camp quickly." I stated and started walking over to him.

Before I could take my second step towards him, the hooded man dropped from a tree and blew a dart at Zero's neck, but before it reached him, it stopped in mid air and then fell to the ground.

Zero turned towards the man and gave him a dangerous smile. "You can't sneak up on me." He said in a low voice before he reached his hand out and looked like he was grabbing the man's throat although it was in mid air.

The man took a step forwards, slapping Zero's hand to the side. "I'm not affected by magic." He said and stabbed Zero in the neck with another dart. I let out a yell, muffled by my hands.

Zero's body fell to the ground but was caught just in time by the man before it could actually hit the ground. The man gave me one last look and then ran off into the forest with Zero's body over his shoulder.

I dropped to my hands and knees squeezing my eyes shut, trying to figure out what to do next. I couldn't tell the rest to ignore this nor could I tell them about the hooded man. I made up my mind and went back to the camp.

When I arrived, everyone else was already there. I walked over to them with my head down. "I'm sorry," I quietly said as they all turned to look at me. "I couldn't stop him." Zilanna frowned at me, "What are you talking about?"

I looked up at them, "Someone took Zero." I said to them and Ryan reacted first, just mere seconds after I told them. "Sit down and tell us everything."

We all sat down around our small campfire and I started with the whole story about the hooded man. I used 'the man' a lot so Ryan proposed to just call him Hood and we all agreed.

After I finished everyone was quiet. I laughed uncomfortably, "At least say something, otherwise it'll be incredibly awkward..." I said softly. Gure was the first to say something: "Uhh, wow. That's really.... strange." I laughed at him. "Yeah..."

We heard some rustling behind us and I saw Hood walking out of the forest towards us. He had Zero over his shoulder and dropped him once we had all turned to him. Hood suddenly started running at us and I saw Zilanna move out of the corner of my eyes.

Hood ran right for me but Zilanna jumped in front of me holding two small curved swords in her hands. "I won't let you-" she started but was quickly cut off when Hood just ran past her before she could do anything.

He passed Zilanna and ran straight for me again, he quickly stuck a small dart in my shoulder. I couldn't move anymore and started falling, but I was caught by Hood. He carried me bridal style and right before I passed out, he said: "Thank goodness. You're much lighter than that guy."