Destiny Island

Chapter 31

Among the Shadows

The fall was so sudden that it took their brains a few precious seconds to figure out what was happening.
This time around, Ignacio was the one who recovered quicker than anyone else since he was taught the important lesson during his first fall. Always be ready for anything.
He was just in time to fly under Amber and scoop her up in flight.
His strong arms made a perfect cradle for her lithe body.

The reason he chose to help her first was that he assumed that here magic levels were depleted, and she had no other means of saving her life. The others had a chance, she didn't.
Besides, he owed her his life.
"Now, we are even." He said as he landed with a loud thud, Amber still safely in his arms.

The only reason she knew they landed was the slight jostle that traveled through Ignacio's body and then hers. Only then did she dare open her eyes.
"Thanks," she said ignoring Ignacio's strange comment.
He might have saved her life, but she had a feeling he only did it because he didn't want to owe a favor to someone, especially to a woman.

Once they had their feet firmly on the ground they scanned the surrounding area for Jade and Royce.
Finally, they spotted Royce clumsily tumbling to the ground unable to fully control his landing.
Jade on the contrary, gracefully hovered over him, watching him with contempt.
"See, I told you I can take care of myself." She said as she landed perfectly without making even the slightest sound.

"Well, I see you both remembered to use the fairy gift, that's a relief," Ignacio said.
"Actually, I totally forgot about the fairy magic. I was too panicked to tap into it.
After all, my biggest fear was becoming a reality. I didn't really have any time to think." Jade said.
"Wait a minute, then how were you able to fly? You landed like you had been flying your whole life like it was a normal thing to do." Amber asked.

"Ahem, guys! I think we have a bigger problem to deal with." Ignacio said.
The others followed his gaze just in time to see the gathering shadows form a silhouette of a person.
Soon enough the person in question stepped out of the shadows as solid as they were.

"Ci Nada, were you the one who tried to kill us? I thought you had to respect the Law? That you couldn't hurt anyone?" Amber asked, equally terrified and confused.
"Haha, of course, I have to follow the Law, I gave an oath.
I can't hurt anyone out there, and I haven't, but you see we are no longer out there.
Even humans such as yourselves should have been able to notice something amiss with this place." Ci Nada said.

As they started paying attention to their surroundings, they started understanding what Ci Nada was saying.
The hill they found themselves on was like nothing they have seen before.
Instead of green grass or colorful flowers, all they could see was the blackness of the hill with a few gray spots.
Behind it, there were some more black hills and even the trees and rocks were either gray or black.
The sky was also black with small hints of gray.

It was obvious that the place was one of pain and fear.
They could feel the slimy fingers of terror trying to take them under its control, but they fought it off with the sick feeling in their stomachs.
It surely was the place where all the bad things resided, the evil's home.

"Welcome to Shadowworld!" Ci Nada said creepy smile spreading in a show of teeth and disgusting black goo.
"How did we get here?!" Ignacio shouted at Ci Nada.
It was obvious that he was boiling with anger, but Ci Nada was unperturbed by the strength of his anger.
Even after everything that happened before and Ignacio's foreknowledge of how dangerous Ci Nada could be he showed an inability to control his temper.

"That's the best thing about it. You are not actually here.
Your bodies are still at the top of the mountain. So technically I will not be hurting you, at least not out there where the Law is valid.
But once I murder you here, once your souls die, your bodies shall waste away and no one will know what happened to poor little humans." Ci Nada explained with glee.

That was when the darkness surrounding her became even thicker than it was before and in her hand, a familiar shape was forming from the black mist, the shape of a spear.
In one fluid motion, she sent the spear flying towards Amber.
Frozen in fear, Amber could only watch the deadly projectile approaching her.

A lot of thoughts ran through her head but the most prominent one was regret.
She already almost died once during that day, she should have taken the leap of faith and did what she longed to do for a long time now, but refused to accept the strange emotions that had her confused.
Now she thought she would never get the chance to do and say what she needed to.

When the spear was only inches from penetrating her skin and then piercing her heart something strange happened.
The spear was swatted away to the side just as if it were a fly.
No one was close enough to Amber, or strong enough to do that.
However, when she raised her eyes she could see Ignacio's hand frozen in a gesture that reminded her of the one used to swat away the fly and that was when she knew.
Ignacio had saved her life once again, and she had no idea how.

No one was more surprised by the action than Ignacio himself.
When he saw the spear, heading in Amber's direction, something in him snapped as the rage he was trying to keep contained broke through.
Reflexively he made a gesture with his hand as his eyes shone with the obvious bronze tinge to them, the color no one had ever seen.
He could feel the texture of the spear and it felt like he had physically moved it off its deadly path.

Even though he knew that it was impossible, he also knew that he actually did the exact thing that he considered impossible.
As he was standing there flabbergasted breathing heavily, Ci Nada let out a cry of annoyance.
"Well, that complicates things but what is victory without a bit of a challenge." She said.

In a matter of seconds, she created a dozen small but deadly arrow-shaped projectiles and hurled them their way.
"See if you can save all of them," she said taunting Ignacio.

Jade flew off the arrows' way bringing Royce with her while Ignacio diverted the arrows going Amber's way.
He barely had enough time to jump out of the way of the ones that were heading his way.
Unfortunately for them, Ci Nada was just warming up.