Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Ten

Leala

As time went on, the search for answers about the Nadir, or any information, was proving to be a fruitless endeavor. Often Leala and Robin would walk throughout the city looking for any wandering Nadir, but they never came across another one. Research never brought up any results either, leaving the two with more questions than answers.

"Maybe that figure that keeps running away is behind this." Leala suggested. The two had spent the morning looking through downtown for any signs of Nadir, only to once again come up empty handed. Exhausted, they had stopped in a coffee house hidden away from the busy streets of the city. Only a handful of people were here, but it was big enough that they had some space to themselves to talk.

"It's a possibility." Robin shrugged. "But at this point, it could be anything."

Leala sighed. "At this point we have pages and pages of questions with no answers..." She took a moment to have a sip of the tea she had bought. "It'd be nice to have at least one answer."

"I'm sure we'll find something eventually." Robin tried to sound optimistic, though he was also a bit concerned about this lack of information. A thought came to him out of the blue. "Have you given any more thought into how you can conjure your bow?"

Leala shook her head, looking a little confused. "I've tried, multiple times, but it won't work."

"The last two times you were able to conjure it, your life was at risk. If that's anything."

"It'd be great to conjure it without being in danger though." Leala added.

"Y-Yeah, that'd be a good thing." Robin replied nervously, "but I brought it up because I wanted to ask... before the car accident have you had any other near-death experiences?"

Leala took a moment to think about this, before she ultimately shook her head again.

"Perhaps that was what gave you that ability."

"I was thinking the same thing, but... I don't know. This is just so... weird." Leala had no idea how to explain it. "I mean, how is any of this possible?"

"I think we'd be here all day if we tried to figure that out..." Robin spoke, slightly laughing. "But I have heard of some instances of people having near-death experiences and then gaining some sort of strange ESP ability. Maybe that's what happened for you?"

"Maybe?" Leala made a face. "If we just had one clue..."

Suddenly Leala felt a breeze of cold air brush past her, followed by the sound of footsteps close by alerted her of someone coming into the building. But the bell at the door didn't go off. This strange occurrence caused her to turn around, and she caught a brief glimpse of someone, who looked like the same man from the gardens, walking in a hurry.

Robin looked over at the door. "Was that guy listening to us?"

Leala leapt up from her seat. "He was at the gardens!" Part of her froze realizing that she had nearly shouted that last part.

"Seriously?" Robin got up from the table. "Should we go after him?" Right as he had asked it, Leala was already walking after the guy. "Leala!" Thankfully the two had already paid for their drinks, so Robin immediately leapt up and ran after her.

They followed the man for about a block before Leala caught up to him. "Hey you!" Leala cried.

The man stopped walking, and groaned. "Will you two stop following me?"

"You were there at the gardens!"

"Keep your voice down!" The man spun around and glared at Leala. He was a younger-looking guy, probably in his early twenties. "Do you want people to think you're a lunatic?"