Tales of Aridia

Who am I?

I waved the knife in his face, the tip pointing to his nose. He held his hands up and tried to edge closer to me. I pushed the knife forward and it skimmed his chin. "Robyn I will explain, but please we have to go!" He shouted. I stayed unmoving.

Suddenly there was a push of force, my entire body was sent hurdling into a tree and I was slammed limply onto the ground. I lay terrified in a pile of nettles, each one jarring me in the side.

Looking up there was another man. He wore a long Navy cape and a tiny silver badge. The man stood and stared at my pain for a second, eyeing me down with his deep dark eyes. And then, his attention diverted and he struck Max in the face. From under the cape he pulled a long silver sword, much more impressive than my borrowed knife from the dining table.

I shrivelled in fear, cowering away from it all. Max fought well, punching the man and pushing him down to the ground. And then Max pulled away, like he had surrendered. But then he held up his hands and did....something. I couldn't tell what it was that he did, but it threw the man back and he screamed in agony.

I watched the man wriggle and squirm, begging for Max to stop. Eventually his body got closer to mine, almost above me. Max closed his eyes, his hands still in the air. He waved his hands around gently and opened his eyes.

A cracking sound came from the mans back, his spine was broken. His torso was twisted to face me and the fragments of bone poked out of his cape. Stiff as a board he fell onto the floor with a bang.

I screamed in terror, looking at the mans cold, lifeless face. "Please, Robyn lets go!" Max shouted before running away. I had no choice but to follow him. I dashed through the forestry and came to an opening. Unexpectedly there was a long branch that ran along the forest floor. I tripped on it unknowingly and fell to the ground.

I yelped in agony as my ankle lay twisted. Max looked around unsure of what to do. He lugged me onto his shoulder and I limped by his side. We struggled to get to the clearing but in the end we got there.

However, there was one slight problem. Outside my house lay at least a dozen policemen, each with their own police car. I looked around mortified. My mother stood on the front porch talking to one of them, she looked distraught. I could hear her tears from where I was standing.

The lights flashed in my face and there were more policemen emerging out of the forest with torches. My mother looked from the porch, weakly she pointed at me. Immediately, the policeman marched over angrily, his feet stomping in the mud.

First his eyes met mine, and then they moved to Max. He stayed fixated for a while. "You're coming with me," he said. Max laughed shocked at the response. "On what terms?!" He asked. The policeman said nothing, he just grabbed him by the arms and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Max tried to fight but it was no use, escaping would land him in more trouble.

"Stop!"  I pleaded. The officers paid no attention to me, but I could see my mother rushing over in the distance. "Please stop!" I repeated once more. Again, they ignored me. Anger began to build up inside me, boiling to my core. I repeated calmly, "Please, stop it!"

They didn't even look at me. My fists were held tightly together, and when they loosened crescent moons were indented into my palm. "I said, STOP!"

Everything was silent. Nothing moved nor spoke. Max edged back from the officer carefully. The policemen, they were frozen still. No blinking, no twitching just completely still. You could see the cold breath escape from their mouths. I looked closely at one, he was like a statue. However, not Max. He was untouched by whatever I had caused. "W-What happened?" I stuttered.

Max said nothing. He carefully slipped out of the hand cuffs and tucked them back into the officers belt. "Robyn, don't worry, it'll wear off." Max explained.

"What will wear off?" I asked. A cloud of darkness covered his eyes and he stared at the floor, grabbing me by the arm he whisked me away to the silent, unmoving house that lay just around the corner.