Paranora

Chapter #7 DRAINED

They were surrounded in a heartbeat. The suits parted and the elder from before walked into the circle.

"What happened!?" She asked, lightning is striking inside of her one-piece before producing continuous light.

Cloe stepped forward, "We were in the theatre watching the stars when they grabbed Nora and tried to run away, but we stopped them."

"They? Them? Who are they? And what about the fire?" The elder asked.

"I don't know, but I do know they were suits." Nora said

"Suits? You want me to believe that suits are behind this, where is your proof?" The elder gestured

"Check the cameras," Cloe said.

"We did; they were down." The elder said.

"Bullshit! Why were they down!?" Nora asked.

The elder stepped forward, closing the distance to Nora. "Your stride is loud and proud. You need to watch how you move."

Nora stared at her, "I saw them. They were suits. Probably the one from before, the capturer."

Nora returned to Cloe, whose expression seemed to calm down. The elder smiled and fixed a few hairs on her head, "Let me be crystal clear, if you ever step out of line like that again. You will summon a storm that you're not ready for. I'll look into this personally." She walked off disappearing the way she'd come.

Nora turned to Cloe, "That lady's starting to annoy me."

"She's the youngest elder for a reason. She's also an elemental, that's why her suit is glowing. She controls lightning," Cloe informed her.

"Let's get out of here." Nora ran back to the theatre and grabbed their training book. As Cloe reached the theatre, Nora was flying off.

"Collide!" Cloe overshot Nora and flew ahead, Nora continued flying further over the glowing jungle. "Collide!" Cloe zipped to the other side, still missing Nora. She was spinning in the air as Nora was getting further away. "Collide!" Cloe zoomed in behind her, slowly catching up; until she was right behind her.

Cloe clenched her fist, and Nora stopped in her tracks then was drawn like a magnet back to Cloe.

"Where are you going!?" she asked

Nora tried to avoid eye contact, "To train, I don't want you to get in any-more trouble. It's better if we—."

They began to fall towards the jungle.

Cloe's eyes widened, "No! You said you were going to take me with you! You said we were going to do this together!" Flames burst around Cloe. She aimed her other arm at the ground and clenched her fist. Nora's hair ripped through the wind, everything enlongated as they zoomed in towards the ground.

Nora squares up against her, "Fine! If you're serious. You first, pick one." Nora pushed the training book at her.

Cloe used the light from the nearest tree and flipped through the pages then pressed her palm to the page. A fiery light glowed then disappeared and a symbol was etched on the left side of her neck. She dropped the book.

"Enlighten!" Cloe was trying to figure out exactly what was happening.

Nora retrieved the book, Enlighten, enhanced perception.

"Stupid!"

Nora flipped the page and press her palm to it. The symbol appeared on the inside of her right calf. She aimed at Cloe, "Traffic!"

Nothing happened! Cloe was still exploring enlighten. Nora waited to see if anything happened.

Suddenly Cloe's legs were kicked from under her, and she fell into a backseat. In the back of a car! She got out of the black car and they were stuck in traffic. She spun around looking for Nora but it was just replicas of the same block in every direction. She ran away from the car and as she reached the end of the block, she was returned to the beginning.

Nora was still staring at Cloe, "Traffic!" Cloe fell to the ground.

"That's lame." Nora blurted

"Did you not see that? I was in the city stuck in traffic in a space that never ended. I couldn't escape. Let's get out of here, Please!" Cloe demanded

"What about training from the suits?"

"We can do it in your world!" Cloe suggested

"Okay, but we're gonna need that old vixen. Lead the way." Nora said, moving to the side. She picked up the training and followed her. Cloe and Nora begin their two-hour hike out of the electric jungle. All the animals in the jungle glowed, making them look spiritual and godly. The electric jungle becomes harder to navigate the longer you're in it. Cloe left marks along their journey, thirty minutes into the hike, a pack of wolves started following them. Their purple glow was visible in the distance.

"That's not good." Nora grabbed Cloe, "Slip!" The wind tunnel summoned to raised them off the ground lost power, throwing them to the ground. Cloe hit and threw herself up, breaking Nora's fall. Cloe saw the purple glow on the ground behind them; the wolf was in mid-air. "Collide!"

The wolf was stopped in the air, Cloe clenched her fist ready to throw the wolf. When it fell, narrowly missing Nora, who rolled aside and race beside Cloe. A hill rested behind them as the wolf started corning them. Nora grabbed Cloe's arm and pulled her towards the hill. When the rest of the pack came over the top, they begin circling them, growling and lashing out.

"Cloe! Our magic!" Nora said

Nora leaned forward and wrapped her right arm around Cloe, she grunted as a wind tunnel blasted them off like a jet stream of wind. Cloe waited for them to near the ground and clenched her fist, stopping their momentum. They tucked and rolled, landing on one of the several dirt paths and started running while the wolves howled in the distance; apparently on to the trick and searching the area. A while later, they stopped, "let's get off the ground." Cloe suggested.

They climbed to the top of a nearby tree, waiting and resting. The trees are thick and the tops of the branches are flat enough to walk on with bushes growing on the edges of the make-shift walkway. The trees are mostly connected as if they were all a single organism, with multiple levels growing together. The wolves were on their track now and their purple glow was visible on the dirt path. They stayed out of sight concealed in the bushes, in a man hold. Nora peaked out, watching the wolves down below slowly making their way.

The trees started vibrating as green glows appeared running along the trees as they circled the wolves, scouting them before leaping down. Cloe motioned to Nora to move as more monkeys ran into the battle. They ran along the lower branches, trying to avoid any other monkeys that happened to be near.

The surrounding branches up above were all shaking as countless monkeys flooded to the battlefield. They followed the tree trunks as it dipped and dove, weaving its way amongst the other branches.

"Is there anything in there that gives us our magic back?" Nora asked, pointing at the book.

Cloe shrugged and handed it to her.

Nora used the light from the trees and skimmed through the pages and stopped on the very last page. It was a note from grandma. When you exhaust your magic, it can take several days to restore. "There are a few sentences about a glowing root."

Nora handed the book to Cloe, "Yeah, right? Glowing root! That root is in this jungle, I've seen it when I was younger. We'd have to go further into the jungle, but we'll get our magic back and be out of here in no time."

Nora nodded in agreeance, "These monkeys are a problem though."

Cloe went over to the edge by Nora; she could see that the pack of wolves is surrounded down below and the monkeys were toying with them. Jumping around, baring their fangs and trying to find the weak link in the pack.

Branches extended across the dirt path making makeshift bridges, Cloe crossed one of the bridges staying low and keeping an eye out for other green glows. Nora trailed her as they put some distance between them and the monkeys.

An hour later, the branches started to thin out, and they made it to the edge of the electric jungle. Cloe stopped. They eyed the bamboo forest that extended before them. It was dark but every now and then, you would see clusters of bamboo trees light up and very large, hairy shadows were illuminated.