Claimed By Darkness

CHAPTER 22

We were almost out of the forest, we'd been walking the whole day. Occasionally stopping to drink some water. 

"This is good exercise," Caspian exclaims happily, I give him a weird look but he just shrugs in reply. 

The trees began to thin, and we opened up into a large grassy plain, it smelled of mint and flowers. A few feet away, there was a gushing stream, Luna ran towards it.

"We're close now, only a few more kilometers to go." Jude states, glancing at the map.

"Should we stop for the night?" I ask.

"Yeah that's a good idea," Jude then adds, "I need to talk to you.. In private."

Caspian has a small smirk on his face, I feel my heart beating faster as I grab Jude's hand and we walk over to some rocks sitting near the river.

"I don't know what's going on with us," Jude starts to say. "You seem so distant and out of it all the time, are we even dating? Cause we seem to just be friends, that's what it feels like..." Jude whispers the last sentence.

For a few seconds I'm at a loss for words. I knew we had to have this conversation eventually but...
"I'm sorry Jude, I just don't feel the same way about you when we first started dating. I don't want to hurt you anymore so... I guess we're over..."

We stand in silence for what feels like forever, "I'm sorry," I mutter lamely. Jude's face falls a little, "it's okay, we'll be good as friends is guess."

And with that, the conversation ends. We return to the group quietly, did that really just happen? How was he so cool with it? He probably was able to feel and sense my romantic feelings weakening for him, since he was claimed by Gianna and all.

"Trouble in paradise?" Caspian asks when I'm close enough to him, Jude and Luna were a few feet away talking and setting up the tents.

"Ugh don't even start," I mutter.

"Okay okay, but you should talk about it," Caspian replies. 

"Not with you!" 

He dramatically puts a hand to his heart, "how dare you! I'll have you know I'm a trustworthy confidant!"

I roll my eyes at him, a small smile making its way to my lips. 

It was pitch black when I woke up to a loud rustling coming from the trees and bushes. Caspian was on lookout and he rose steadily and slowly walked over to the sound. I follow him, the rustling and screeching getting louder. I hear Jude and Luna starting to get up to as we all stop a few feet away from the grove of trees. Suddenly, three beefy ogres jump out, we jump back immediately. 

"Run!" Jude screams, running backwards to the camp. 

Caspian doesn't move and instead cracks his knuckles, a sly smile on his face. He immediately attacks one of them, blasting him with energy and doing crazy other things I couldn't even name. I disappear into the shadows and try to attack another one of the ogres. Ogres were not like the ones you see in Disney movies, they were around fifteen feet tall, with thick white skin, and bloated tummies. From what I had heard, they were pretty difficult to kill.

The third ogre was chasing after Luna, from the corner of my eye I see her running towards the water. I continue fighting the ogre, trying to shoot energy blasts at weak spots, like his eyes. But it was taking longer than I expected, and I was running out of energy. 

A huge rushing sound of water is blasted around where we were, and I see luna standing by the water bank. A huge wave rising from the lake, the ogre that had chased her was slowly backing away. But a second later the wave came crashing down on him, washing him up in the current and throwing him into the lake, drowning him. We were all so shocked we didn't move, even the other two ogres stopped to take in what had happened. A second later, the ogres were retreating...

"Holy shit Luna!" Jude screeches, Luna gives us a lazy smile as we all collapse at our makeshift campsite.

"I need to sleep, that was draining as hell." Luna mutters, she falls asleep only minutes later.

"Thanks for all the help map boy," Caspian says snarkily at Jude. 

Jude lowers his head, "I was claimed by Gianna, I literally can't do anything as cool as you guys." 

Caspian shakes his head, "you're probably the smartest one here Jude... You would be great at battle strategy, and I know for a fact that you know how to defeat an ogre!" 

"Okay Caspian, he gets it, give him a break," I interject before lying down to try to get another hour of sleep. They both agree begrudgingly, and the campsite falls into silence. 

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I FINALLY finished writing this chapter! Thanks for reading! 

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