Unexpected Journey

Friend or foe

Marla Growled louder and the shadow tried to get her off, but she wouldn't move for the life of her and certainly not him. Her eyes grew brighter as she picked up a paw and slashed at his chest. He winced in pain as he finally summoned his sword and swung at Marla. She jumped out of the way, and as she did the sword hit her in mid air. She fell to the ground and transformed back into a human.

"Marla!" Autumn, Isaiah, and Erin all shouted.

Autumn ran to heal Marla, and Isaiah threw a bolt to the shadow for revenge and ran off with Erin to protect her. The shadow shouted. The shadow blurred into an almost human form. It was Vlad from school, but he was pale, had desaturated colors, and he had high end clothing that had been torn and bloodstained where Marla had scratched him. As soon as Autumn had helped her, Marla jumped up in shock.

"Vlad!", Marla screamed, "Are you okay?"

Marla got up towards him, but Vlad jumped back, fearful of Marla. Autumn grabbed Marla's arm to stop her from scaring Vlad.

Autumn got up, "Here Vlad let me help you", she said.

"What?", Vlad said.

"You're hurt."

"But why would you...", he stopped in realization. Looking down at his hands he saw what he looked like. "Darn it" he whispered.

"Vald, what is it?", Marla asked.

He stood up, "Don't call me that!"

"What? Vlad?"

"Yes! My name is Loc Hisen."

"Whatever your name is, let me heal you", Autumn said.

He once again summoned his sword in hand and brought it up to fight them. Autumn got scared and fell back. Marla picked up and turned her around, pushing her to start running to the clearing.

"Run, get out of here, go!", Marla commanded.

Autumn followed the order and went in the direction of the clearing with Marla. Loc then appeared in front of them and tried to hit them. Marla summoned her claws, this time focusing on her fist so that they came from her knuckles like Wolverine, and blocked his sword. Marla was ready to fight but, a purple orb knocked the sword from Loc's hand and a purple bubble formed around him. Sahithi had called for them to follow her out. Marla retracted her claws and followed Autumn out.

In the park they were met with a group of worried friends. Marla saw Andrea and remembered what Erin said. Marla ran and tackled her to the ground.

"Dude," Hannah objected, "She almost died in the rapids, you doesn't need a death hug from you!"

Ethan laughed, "Knowing you, you would accidentally give her a bear hug."

Marla let go, "I probably could, too."

Andrea got slightly scared, "Please don't."

"What happened after me and Isaiah left?", questioned Erin.

"Yeah you two were in there for too long," Genna added, "I was about to come after you if it wasn't for Sahithi beating me to the thought."

"It's a long story", Autumn stated.

"It happened about thirty minutes ago." Hailey mentioned.

"Still." Said Marla.

"We have time", Ethan said.