Take Back the Light

Chapter 3

This one's a tiny big longer, so buckle up!

~~~~~~~~

"Now you and the Shane will be on his watchlist."

"H-he was in a slugslinging tournament, got beat yesterday by John Bull."

The worker's words were on repeat in Alana's head.

Eli.

She felt bad, but she had almost forgotten about him. After years of thinking about "when Eli comes," it had slipped her mind that one day, he would actually be here in Slugterra. Will had always made it sound like Eli had a choice, but Alana knew that no Shane would be able to resist this underground world. And judging from letters passed between her and Eli throughout their childhood, he had the same fascination with Slugterra as any Shane did.

Eli.

The letters had stopped coming nearly five years ago.

She hadn't thought about Will or his son in a while. She tried to keep her mind occupied with the idea of taking down Doctor Blakk and, recently, figuring out what he needed so many slugs for. She tried to keep herself busy.

She had to. Otherwise the thoughts would clog her mind and she would get stuck in another bad mental state.

Alana shivered as she remembered the strange slug she had been hit with. The movement caused more pain to shoot up from her side, so she tried to stay still as she thought of the icy feeling that had come when the slug had touched her.

She didn't know why she'd gotten such a horrible sensation, or why it had only happened when she had been in contact with the slug. Because it hadn't been the first time she had seen one of those monstrous slugs.

Alana frowned and bit her lip as memories resurfaced.

~~~~~~~~

Alana was five years old, sitting under a mushroom-tree in the Jungle Cavern. It was her earliest memory, but she could still see almost every detail. Her hair was in two messy pigtails. Her clothes- a long shirt with detachable sleeves, shorts, and boots- were torn and singed. She was detaching one of her sleeves and wrapping it around a burn on her right arm.

Ash sat on the ground next to her. He looked a little younger than he did now, but he was frowning and looked exhausted. More slugs were around her, too. They sat in the leaves of the bushes around her, all peering at her like she was something brand new. She just assumed that this was an area of the jungle that few people ever ventured to.

Eyeing the slugs warily, Alana pulled the detached sleeve into a knot and stood shakily.

"We should get going, Ash," she said, bending down and picking up her Infurnus.

Her mind was fuzzy- she felt like she was just going through the motions. She couldn't shake off the feeling that she should be running, trying to get away from something.

It was the something that was giving her trouble. She couldn't remember why she was in danger, just that she was. Or had been.

It was too confusing for a five-year-old to think about, so she chose not to. Instead, Alana had decided to keep following her instincts and not question them.

"Bye," Alana said to the mass of slugs peering at her as she began another day of trekking through the jungle in attempt to find a town.