Darkness Rising (fanfic) (4th book in Destiny series)

Chapter 13 : Stolen

They flew silently over the sparse clouds. The bright moon cast Posiontails shadow onto the clouds as they flew. Ericka peeked back at Atom who was facing the opposite direction. She saw that his cheeks were red and flushed. And she thought she saw a tear slither out of his eye. She turned back to Drac, "that was wrong."

"What was that?" he asked, turning to look at her.

"Snapping at Atom," she said, looking back Atom, "he doesn't know any better." He turned her head to look at him,

"Yes he does," he said, "he knows that your married and you have a son."

"Yeah i know," she said, "looking down into her lap, "but-" she stopped talking when Posiontail started to hover.

"Um, why are we stopped?" Comet asked.

"I thought i heard something." Posiontail grumbled, scanning the forest below them. They hovered in silence for a few seconds. Then a black glob of the black goop shot out of the forest below and stuck to Posiontail's right wing. It quickly encased his wing and made him start to fall right. He flapped his left wing erratically making him only fall faster.

"WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO US?!" Comet screamed as they fumbled through the air. They crashed through the forest, knocking several trees down and splashing into a river. Drac and Ericka were the first to reemerge from the river, they took a few deep breaths,

" At least the river softened our fall." Drac said.

"I wouldn't say 'softened'." Ericka commented. Atom and Comet were the next to break the surface.

"Wait, where's Posiontail?" Atom asked, looking around. Then Posiontail rose out of the water with Atom hanging onto his head.

"Get.off." Posiontail snarled and Atom obediently slid off and fell into the water. He emerged a second later. Posiontail shook himself like a dog, spraying the black goop everywhere off of his wings. They goop slithered away on the ground. They got out of the water and rung out their clothes.

"Hey, can we talk?" Atom asked Ericka, taking a step away from the group. she crossed her arms,

"No funny business?"

"Cross my heart and soar through the sky." He said. They made sure nobody saw them leave together and snuck out through some bushes. They walked in silence down a overgrown path, listening to the crickets chirp and the croaks of frogs. Then they found a small beach overlooking a lake. They sat down about a foot apart from each other and Atom started the conversation. "I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"Hmm?" she asked looking at him.

"I'm sorry," he said a bit louder, "i shouldn't have done that, i wasn't thinking and i took advantage of you." She was stunned by his confession and was speechless to respond. She opened her mouth to respond, but shut it because she didn't know what to say. "It's ok if...if you don't want to talk to me." He said.

"No i do," she blurted and he looked over at her, "it's just...you lied to me." his eyes snapped back at the ground,

"I know!" he growled, "and it was foolish of me." As they were getting back to rekindling their friendship, Comet hobbled through the bushes. But Comet wasn't trying to catch them together,

"S-s-s-s-s-shadows..D-d-d-d-d-r-rac." Was all he could say as he collapsed to the ground, wheezing uncontrollably. Even though Comet stuttered like a broken record, they knew exactly what happened. They jumped up and sprinted in the direction that Comet came from. When they got to their camp, it was a wreck. The ground was all ripped up, claw marks had deeply scored the trees. And Posiontail had been bound up with the black goop so all you could see was his eyes. They ripped it off as fast as they could. Posiontail's first words were,

"THEY KIDNAPPED DRAC!!"

"And we'll get him back!" Atom said.

"I thought you didn't like him." Ericka said. He shrugged,

"Gotta be greater than the haters." They joined together and Ericka grew her wings and tail, but now she had added features; like her eyes were fire, she had a sword and she also had one of the gladiator helmets without the frill on top. It is to protect your head. Atom said to her. She nodded and shot up into the sky like a rocket. She could see for miles, and fortunately she saw something large running away from her. And she knew that was her target and flew after it. She sped through the air, then Atom started to talk, can we do a dramatic entrance? he asked. She rolled her eyes,

"Ok fine." she said. She flew in front of the running masses and started to dive. She flipped at the last second so that she landed feet first. Her impact on the earth was so hard that it made a crater in the ground. She kicked up a lot of dirt, making a large smoke cloud. Atom had set two trees on fire and flapped his wings so that the embers would fly around. She did that cool pose superheros do with their fist to the ground. The Shadow Riders skidded to a stop once they saw that their escape route had been demolished. She opened her eyes to show her flames of fire and started to walk dramatically closer to them. The Shadow Riders were confused until she launched out of the fog and onto one of the Shadow Rider's face, knocking it back. She also hit the right one because that was the one carrying Drac in its mouth. It spat him out and he rolled over to the base of a tree. She went over to him, forgetting about the three Shadow Riders that wanted to rip her to shreds. She turned around to see the Shadow Riders leaping at her, claws extended, but then they froze. In mid air. She looked back at Drac who had his hand up. He was keeping them from moving. Then he gave away from how weak he was. She put her hand up. hoping it would freeze them. to her surprise, she heard a painful whimper come from them and saw that she had cast a bubble shield around them. The Shadow Riders had rebounded off of it. "You ok?" she asked.

"I'm not immune to everything," he said in a strained voice, trying to sit up, "but i'll live." She put a hand on his chest, but pulled back because his shirt was wet.

"Ewwwwww!" She exclaimed, rubbing her hand on a leaf.

"Slobber," he said, "discussing." The bubble shield suddenly wore off, and the Shadow Riders had recovered. The Shape shifters jumped out of them and started to advance on them. As they got closer, she tried to make a run for it. She swiftly hoisted Drac onto her back and took to the sky. But one of the Shape shifters was fast and latched onto one of her legs before she got to high. She looked down and tried to shake off. It had a strong grip and started to climb up her leg. Then, trying to be a hero, Atom fazed out of her and fell onto the Shape shifter.

"ATOM!!!!!!!" Ericka screeched, quickly turning into a bat and snagging Drac.

"GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" Atom yelled back, tumbling to the ground with the Shape shifter. She saw a flash of orange light and Atom was a Phoenix again. He spread his wings out and snapped his beak at them. He looked back and saw she was still hovering there, "WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE!?!?!" he yelled, "GO!" While he was distracted, a Shape shifter walked up behind him and the last thing he saw before blacking out was it's hideous face saying "sleep," and it slammed his face into the ground.

"Atom..." she whispered. she had a urge to follow them, but resisted and flew back to Posiontail and Comet.