Cherish

Chapter 4

As the darkness started to fade, I could feel the warmth of the sun and the heat of a hand on my forehead. I slowly began to open my eyes and winced at the bright light.

"Cherish, are you awake?" I heard a familiar voice call out. I opened my eyes once again because of said voice.

"Mystic? Is that you?" I open my eyes completely and look at my surroundings. "Wait... am I home?"

I look around once again and my eyes begin to water. I can see the trees covering the road from the harsh sun rays, I can see a clear field with enough grass to feed an entire flock of sheep.

"Cherish? Are you... back to normal?" Mystic is looking at me with burning crystal blue glossy eyes. I reach out to touch his face and slowly brush a few stray hairs back to the rest of his hair. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into a close hug.

"Cylla, Mystic... Cherish, we may want to hurry if we are going to make it to... Cherish?" Zeland slowly walked into the opening to make sure everyone was following. He looked at me hugging Mystic with a flash of jealousy but quickly covered it with shock. His hair was tousled and he looked to be in some pretty bad shape.

"What happened to you?" I slowly stood up and walked over to him. I grazed his cheek with the back of my fingers, right next to a huge gash left by his eye. He flinched away and grabbed my hand. He held my hand for a moment longer before pulling me into a hug.

"I should be asking you that question." He held my body close to him for a second longer before pulling away and holding me by my shoulders. "I thought you'd never come back." He looked me up and down and hugged me once more before he let me go.

I heard rustling behind me and as I turned around I was engulfed in a warm hug from Cylla. Stealthy as always. I giggled and wrapped my arms around them. They smelled like pine wood and vanilla. I pushed against their chest a bit after I was losing all sense of breathing. They let me go and then smiled a bit.

"Wanna know something?" I looked up at Cylla and waited for their silent response. They nodded and then waited for me to proceed. "I was in another world for a while, there were people with the exact same look and names as everyone here... and Yoooouu spoke to me." I told Cylla as they stared at me in horror. They looked every which way and leaned down close to me and put their lips next to my ear.

"I didn't say anything I shouldn't have... did I?"

My eyes opened wide in shock as the words escaped their mouth.

They obviously had a more masculine voice than a normal woman would but they also didn't have enough of a masculine voice to be a man.

Zeland looked over at me with humor in his eyes until he heard the rustling of the wind. His body went stiff and his hands started to tremble. He looked directly into my eyes and didn't move a muscle. His eyes slightly moved from my eyes to right behind my head. I looked ever so slightly behind me until I saw a large lizard-like creature that was only a few yards behind me. Cylla noticed where we were looking and moved their gaze to the same spot and froze. Mystic had already looked like he had gotten the wind knocked out of him. His ears were growing red and they began to twitch in anger.

That's it. That is the basilisk that took both mine and the other Cherish's Zen away. It took the only thing that mattered to two people... and I won't let it take anyone else. Never again.

As we all took our fighting stances, a black hole opened up in the ground and swallowed the basilisk up. It then closed after the basilisk was completely submerged. All we could do was sit and watch as it disappeared again.

"What the Hell?" Zeland yelled making the silent path echo.

"Zeland... that was... that was the same basilisk that took Zen's life..." Mystic looked at everyone with panic and rage in his eyes. Zeland looked at all of us in a state of shock. I looked away with tears welling in my eyes.

"It got away from me," I whispered under my breath. I kicked at the dirt and tried to calm myself down. Zeland slowly lifted his hand and was about to touch my shoulder, but he stopped and just let his hand fall. He was trying to comfort me but I don't need comfort right now. I need closure. So that beast can't hurt someone ever again.

"Listen, whatever just happened must be happening all over other worlds. Not just ours. That beast took another worlds Zen from another Cherish." I looked up and tried to push the tears to the back of my mind. I have to be strong for my friends. They can't see me like this. If they see me broken, then they may end up broken, too.

"Cherish? What are you talking about?" Mystic looked over at the rest of the party while questioning.

"I'm talking about the fact that I haven't been here for weeks. It was another worlds Cherish that had been here. I had to lay in a pure white bed all day long while people would come in and visit. The other world had all of you, even a Zen. But that worlds Zen was taken from the same Cherish that was in this world for weeks." I explained. They were all staring at me in shock. In the moment of speaking, I hadn't realized that I had begun to cry. The tears wouldn't stop flowing down my face.

I scrubbed my face with the cloth of my sleeve and looked down at my feet. That's when I noticed that my clothes were my clothes from this world and not the comfy warm long sleeved shirt and black thin clothed, skin-tight trousers. I began to cry more. I realized that I would miss that world. That world where I actually had a mother. Someone that cared as a mother should. Not like the mother from this world who left me on a pathway only to be picked up by some travelers. None of them actually cared about me.

"I had a mother. Someone that cared about me as a mother should. She came to see me every day. She loved to see me happy as if it was her Cherish." My face was covered by my sleeve, but I knew they could tell I was bawling like a baby.

I quickly turned and ran away into the tree line ahead of me. Then a feeling that seemed familiar but still quite distant began to fill my head again. I could tell what was happening, I was fading into another world again. I was falling but my mind pulled me away at the last second. And then I was gone. Just like that.