Claire's POV
The fog reached over the whole field, covering my eyes and damping all noises.
Black shadows were all around me.
I walked around, searching for anything and anybody. Where? Where were they?
I heard a pricing scream and a crying on my right side. A few meters away. I only gathered a glimpse of a black figure, stabbing a blade in the front of a soldier.
"NO!" The scream escaped my throat before I even thought about it. I fell next to the soon to be dead woman.
"Now they know where you are... Not the smartest thing you ever did, goddess." She coughed and blood was running from the edge of her mouth.
"I'm not a goddess, but... Just stay okay? We need you!" The resignation and terror inside me rose to a monster of all I was fearing.
I was shaking my head. I was only imagining the creatures crawling towards me and the woman in my head.
"You don't need me. We need you. Claire, you know what to d-do... Mo isn't what you-all I"
The rest of her words were cut off from a new coughing and blood sprinkled my armour front plate.
"What's with Mo? No, no, no don't die now!" I got angry. What was up here?
I slapped her cheek lightly.
"I believe in you, friend" she smiled.
Her eyes turned upwards and she died.
"No...no, c'mon, come back. Please" I sobbed. Nothing would bring my friends back to me.
I backed away from the dead women. I felt sick and dirty as if it was my fault she died.
But she was right. I knew what to do.
I struggled with not throwing up.
"Claire?" A light voice reached my ears. "Claire? Over here, please..."
That was this other commander...Niklas or something I guess.
I walked a few steps in his direction till I heard another noise from the direction I just came from. I turned around and saw the shadows again, approaching me.
They came nearer.
Suddenly something from behind bumped into me. In an instant my sword cut through the air and hit some kind of metal.
"Claire! Calm down, it's just me!"
Niklas. His sword was in contact with mine, his eyes and mouth wide agape.
"They are here! We have to get to the thing they possess, we need to kill it and-"
"Claire, clam the fuck down. You know how to end this. You can't kill anything that doesn't exist in this world. You just can destroy why they are here and stop them from attacking us over and over."
His face stayed neutral.
"I know you're scared" Niklas said.
But I shook my head and took steps away from him. No.. Desperation and panic overwhelmed me.
The temple... This is where I should go. No or never. Saving Rel and Mo and the circle and my soldiers.
The fog was so thick I couldn't really make out where the angle was. Here and there I saw new schemes. The yelling seemed miles away on other rocks and islands.
Claire.
It sounded in my head, reaching out for me, touching and grabbing. They found me.
You know how to end this.
Yea, sure. Suddenly I should play the little kid in the middle of all this? No, thank you.
I started running. Though I didn't plan on surrender, fear took over. My feet were damped and quiet as I rushed over the soil, covered in gras and stone.
I reached a bridge and knew immediately, this was the wrong way.
I could hit myself for my stupidity. Too late for that anyways.
What if they would find me? Will they kill me? Or something even more worse than killing?
From every direction I heard my name. Sometimes it was a little child, than Ana or Lennart. Another time it was Rel's voice.
They were messing against me and were successful. This was the worst part of it.
"Claire, it's just me, Tim. Come back, I won't harm you, trust me."
From the fog and clouds around me I gathered a look at dark figures approaching me.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" This was too much. Too much to handle for me. How could Tim...?
"You said, I shouldn't leave you, Claire" Ana's voice sounded through the milky air like sirens.
"You said, I shouldn't hurt you and we won't, little Claire. Come back to us." Her voice was sugary sweet and it was hard not to throw up.
I pressed one hand against my stomach, trying to not let everything come up, while the other held my sword.
It's fine, we can do that. They are just messing against us. There's no Ana with such a voice and no Tim who would lead you in such aberration. Would they? I knew I should trust myself and intuition but it was so damn hard.
The world around me seemed to move, to spin and playing tunes I didn't know and didn't even want to hear. It whispered in languages I didn't speak. Everything was turning around me, threating to devour me in one bite, to break me in a blink of an eye.
The temple.
You better start concentrating, Claire.
Suddenly I got hungry. Not this normal kind of hungry but starving. It was as if I hadn't eaten in weeks. Additionally the thirst was rising up in my throat. This was what I was concentrating on from this moment on.
Was it hope? Could it be, that Daphne wasn't in their power? Where were Daphne and Lennart anyway? Why didn't they come with Ana?
The clouds started rising and thickened again. From way behind me I heard another voice, smaller and thinner than the others.
"Ana? Ana, I can't see you. Where are you? I'm scared, this is really not funny. Can you please come out again? Ana?"
With every word she was speaking the voice got more distorted. My voice coming from way behind me, begging for Ana to come out. My voice distorted and biased. Slowly I made my way into its direction. Orienting on the voice's sound. One step after the other.
Suddenly I felt something grabbing my leg. I stumbled and nearly fell. The grip got more tight. I struggled, try to get rid of it, but no chance. The touch was wet and abnormally cold. No human, no living creature could have such an icy touch. Out of my mind I kicked after it and really, its gripped loosened.
A hand, half covered in white armour, reached for mine.
"All are waiting for their commander. We are all waiting for you, because you're the missing piece. The missing piece in a chaos."
Shaking I got up, leaning against Ana.
They wanted exactly this to happen. They wanted me to split from the group, to search for my soldiers, who were in safety the whole time, to play with my senses.
Ana's eyes said right the same.
YOU ARE READING
The third Planet
Fantasy"Where's the Ana I knew? I thought I'd know you but I was wrong. I erred in every single thing. Maybe it's really this place but if you won't change when we're gone I won't be able to go with you." "YOU WILL" she screamed. "You promised to never hu...
