Talismen

Chapter 1
    I wake up to a high, shrill scream. I open my eyes and am blinded by the sudden flash of light above me. As my eyes adjust I notice my surroundings, I hear river water running, birds chirping, and the sound of a light spring breeze. I lie on a bed of flowers surrounded by a river flowing in a circle and branching in different directions like a compass. Trees block any view of where the river may lead to but there are two trees bent in the shape of an 'X'.

    Then suddenly I feel a rumble in the ground and see giant rocks rising from the river bed water dripping off them as they rise higher, and higher above the ground. The rocks are big enough so that there is enough space to stand on them with both feet, I step onto the first rock and nearly fall into the river below, the rocks are wet. I carefully step across the rocks and as I near the trees bent in the shape of an 'X' they creak and bend aside revealing a path outlined by trees and highlighted by sunlight.

   I step off the last of the rocks and they sink back into the ground, then after I pass the trees I hear the creaking sound they made preciously. I turn around and see that the trees have returned to their original formation and thorns have entwined themselves around the trees stopping any way of possibly getting through. I turn around and continue to walk along the path and see bright symbols that are inscribed along the trunks of trees along the path. And as I progress further the symbols get brighter, and brighter until I find two more trees bent into the shape of an 'X' then the light of the symbols vanish. The trees bend aside and reveal a meadow with flowers growing all around. I walk into the meadow and notice that along the edges of the meadow, in the shadows of the trees are dead plants. I notice in the middle of the meadow is a giant patch of dead plants, but there is no tree to be seen that would cause this.

    Then as I get closer to the patch of dead plants I see to figures in the middle of this patch of grass. The dead grass silently crunches under my feet, and I walk carefully trying not to make any noise. The figures become more visible as I near them, a buckle lies on the ground with blood splattered along its neck, and hunched over it is a boy dressed in black. Then I hear a crunch from underneath my feet, I look down and see that I have stepped on the bones of a bird, I cover my mouth trying to muffle my gasping. Then the boy turns around and walks toward me, gracefully walking and not making a sound. The boy has black hair, a muscular body but not to the point where he's ripped, and is pale but it could be because he is wearing all black. Then he stops, and so do I preparing for his next move. He smiles raising the corner of his mouth and in a flash he is standing in front of me, blood stains his mouth and hands.

    "Hello Hellena," he said in a mysterious voice."Its been a long time since I have last seen you, my love."

   "How do you know my-"

   "Oh there is no time for how how I know your name or why, but the events to come," he said smiling. "People you love will die, societies will crumble, and from the ashes a new will be reborn. A new where you and I will-" But he was interrupted by the sound of a howl from the tree bank to the right of the us, I look in the direction to see what might have happened and so does he.

    "What was that-" Then I was interrupted by another howl from the forest, then followed by a rustling noise. In the shadows of the trees are a pair of bright golden eyes, then a figure begins to emerge from the forest. 

     "We have company." says the boy standing near me and looking at the figure with a smile formed on his face. The figure charges at us and the image of the figure becomes more vivid, it has dull dirty blond hair covering its body but looked more of a light brown. Then the figure stopped a yard away from us but it's not a figure it is a wolf-man, that has the head of a wolf and the body of a man. Its torso is muscular and covered in blond fur and is larger then its legs, which are also covered in the same blond hair on its torso. It takes slow steps toward the boy and I and stops in front of us and stops in front of the boy and roars in his face. The boy closes his eyes and opens them and then snarls at him showing his white teeth, and then lunges at the wolf-man catching him off guard and sinks his teeth into his shoulder.

    The wolf-man howls in pain and claws at the boy and eventually pushes him off. The boy now wears three long claw marks across the side of his face, they begin to weld with blood, and stream down his face in thin streaks. The boy feels at his face and looks down at his hand covered in blood and looks up at the creature. It growls at his baring its white fangs, and in the blink of an eye the boy is at the meadow's edge, disappearing into the darkness of the trees.

    I keep looking into the forest and hear the sound of howling followed with a twist of human screams. I turn around and see a boy on all fours with ripped jean shorts, no shirt, and coughing. He stands up and sweat covers his chest making his muscles stand out, he looks about 16 the same age the other boy looked. His damp dark blond hair looked brown.

     "Who are you?" I ask.

     "Your future, your past, and your end." he replied combing his hair back out of his face. He is gorgeous!

     "Why are you here?"

     "You were in danger, I came to help." he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

      "I wasn't-" But then u was interrupted by a quick gust of wind I raised my arm to get a glimpse of what was happening, but then I was knocked to the ground and felt arms wrapped around me holding me tight. I open my eyes and see the boy is right above me holding me to the ground, his golden eyes staring at me.

    "Are you okay, Hellena?" he says with obvious concern in his voice.

    "I'm fine. Can you get off me please?" I reply. He gets off me and helps me to my feet. Then I hear the wind blowing again and see the bird bones I had stepped on swirling and spiraling into the air, and from the bones rose an owl with vivid wings and feathers. Then the body of the deer shined bright with light and began to rise, when the light diminished the the deer had resurrected. Blood no longer covered its neck.

     "What's going on?" I asked as the deer began to approach me.

     "What happens now needs to happen, I can't help you now." said the boy. I looked at him to reply, but then he began to smile and blew away into the wind like pieces of a puzzle flying away. Suddenly the sky went dark and the only source of light was from the moon above. The deer continued to approach me, and the moon lit its path toward me. It stopped in front on and stared into my eyes, I reached out to pet it and it bumped my hand with its head. And from the spot where I touched it, its color went from white to black and its antlers began to turn black. It reared back and screamed, I fell to the ground and backed up to escape from its plummeting hooves. It missed me by a couple feet and I continued to scramble to escape from it. The moon now had turned a scarlet red and replaced the white moonlight with a red light. The deer charged at me and stopped knowing I can't outrun this creature. The deer reared up once again, I screamed out as its hooves plummeted toward me, then everything went black.