Tree Secrets

Chapter 33

Showdown– Lineal Pastures

Timeless

Zacheus hadn't gone far from the cabin when he heard it. It was the sound of pounding water. He looked up and saw a waterfall suspended in mid-air in front of him. It was the size of a grown human. As he stared at the gushing water, it began to take shape and he recognized Lilith's familiar billowing corn silk hair and greenish skin. Within seconds she was standing in front of him and she was furious. She took wide deliberate steps toward Zacheus, her spun grass cape snapping wildly in the wind. A crack of lightening exposed her wild eyes and flared nostrils as she bore down on him.

"Is this how you do what you're told? Is this how you repay Pandora for keeping you and your sister alive?"

"I told Pandora I wouldn't kill anyone. I meant it," he shouted over the storm, hoping that he didn't look as frightened as he felt.

"You're a very stupid young man, Zacheus!" Lilith's fury was mounting. "I know you're in love with the human. If I know it, it's only a matter of time before Pandora finds out," Lilith moved within inches of Zacheus' face and her tone became slow and deliberate. "If we fail, Zacheus, Pandora won't just take her wrath out on you...at the very least, she will banish us and take away our powers. Do you understand what that means?" The angrier Lilith becomes, the worse the storm rages.

Zacheus turned away from her. He knew he couldn't let her know that I had been separated from them. It would be my death sentence. "I have to get back to the group," he stammered.

"Is it the children you're worried about? Why?" Lilith was truly perplexed by the concern. "There's nothing you can do to save them. Pandora wants them dead. We have to kill them or she'll take it out on us."

"Maybe we can stop her," Zacheus tried to reason with the elemental.

Lilith gave a slight smirk, "You don't know, do you?"

Now it was Zacheus' turn to run out of patience, "Don't play games, Lilith, what don't I know?"