A Tale of Traitors

Willow: Realm 8

     I came to staring up at trees. They were blurry in my vision, but beautiful, the branches intertwining with neighboring trees. It was as if they were all one shield over us while we rested. They almost looked like the trees on Earth, but more dark and alive. Something was shooting through the bark, like blood through veins. They looked alive. The moss coating the trees looked more like the hide of an animal. I let the minutes slip by as I watched the green leaves stirring in the wind. Green was my favorite color. It reminded me of life. And Calysia. It made me happy that I remembered her name.

The silence was perfect, the wind just enough, the grass soft under my head.

"Willow?" Adri hurried over to my side from where she was standing at the edge of our patch of trees. "Are you alright?"
"Just fine," I grunted as I held my head and sat up. "What'd I miss?"
"Not much. We border jumped and then sprinted to a random direction. The professor is upset to have his plan thrown out the window, but it was either hurry or be found by the assassin."
"He's here?" I nervously exclaimed.
"Yeah. Shouldn't be far behind us, either. Queen went back and tried to cover our trail."
I didn't explain to Adri that I had a feeling the assassin wasn't who everyone else said he was. Something about him didn't give me the suspicion that he was a bad person trying to kill us. Well, trying to kill me. He could have when he found me in Syrnafin's hideout, but instead he made sure the spirits wouldn't be able to find me. That doesn't sound like someone who wants me dead. If he's not an enemy, he's an ally, right?
"Willow, you're awake now! What the heck happened?" Bob climbed down from the tallest tree behind me.
"I'm not sure," I responded calmly. "The spirit was talking to me, and I thought he was about to take me. So I guess that's what happened. Is that normal?"
"No. It's totally not." Bob responded, his eyes devoid of any humor. "You heard the voice of, like, a for real spirit?"
"Yes," I frowned. "That's... strange?"
"No one ever hears their voice. I mean, like, it's rumored that some Averages can sometimes. People in realms don't, though. That's really a pretty bad sign."
"It's not like I can help it," I was struggling to get the words out. "Are you saying there's something wrong with me?"
"No, Willow," Adri put her hand on my shoulder and sat down next to me. "I think the opposite."
"Would you—uh—please elaborate?" Bob asked.
"Well, I think most people can't hear the spirit taunting them because there's no reason the spirit would want to get inside their heads. You're obviously special, Willow. You can't control the spirit, but you can fight until it's out of your thoughts. I just mean I don't think you should be thinking something is wrong with you. I think you should assume it's attacking you as a last resort. Amnesia couldn't stop you. An army couldn't stop you. A cave that collapses at the slightest bit of nerves couldn't stop you. And now the spirit couldn't catch up. That's pretty awesome, I think."
"I'm only here because of you guys," I smiled widely. "I think Tormod's problem is that he assumes if he stops me, he stops everyone. But that's absolutely not true. If I'm not here, there's all of you guys, and when I'm defenseless, there you are. We help each other, and I think that bond is something he will never be able to comprehend."
"You know something," Adri smiled back, "I think you're right."
"Speaking of, did the spirits follow us here?" I asked.
"Three of them did. Dalia and I have been casting as many spells as possible. I'm hoping we lost them." Adri answered.
Queen frantically tore toward us through the bushes. "Where's the professor?"
"He went to look for some, like, food. Like, literally any food." Bob responded. Adri pointed down a side path.
"We need to move. Now." Queen panted, pushing past us and heading down the path.
"What's wrong?" I questioned as I slowly rose to my feet and wrung my cloak out. Most of the water was dried, but some was still soaked into the blue fabric.
"Scouts nearby. We have to move ASAP. Follow me." Queen ordered, and we instantly obeyed.
The natural terrain of the mountain we were on was incredibly beautiful and teeming with untamed wildlife. A massive organism that was a mix between a frog and a dragonfly leapt onto Bob's foot. He dramatically yelped and flung the poor creature far away from him. Queen laughed hysterically at his outburst, called him a wimpy chicken, and proceeded to laugh about it for the next hour while we hiked over the rocks and scurried up into trees. I tried to get her to shut up, but it was an impossible feat. 
     Numerous times, I thought I saw flowers moving, turning to watch us as we walked past them. I felt like an idiot when I spun around and didn't catch them in the act of moving. But I knew they were. It was hard to say why, but I could just tell. There were at least six odors coming from who knows where; one smelled like jelly beans, one smelled like death, and still another smelled like... that smell that you know from when you were a kid but you can never identify it. Everything blended in an almost pleasing but mostly disgusting scent. It was pretty distracting. I turned my attention to the view. The cliff we were on was enormous and faced one of the three suns of the realm; although there were numerous suns, they weren't particularly warm. They were close to the planet and small in size. One was red, another was blue, and the third looked like an opal with flecks of blue, red, and green. They were heading down now. I figured it would be so beautiful when they rose the next day and intersected in the sky. Creatures of all kinds were flying through the stringy clouds. Most of them I couldn't even name. I wondered--
"Dragon!" The professor's yell shattered my thoughts into a million pieces. "They have outstanding eyesight—disguise yourself as well as you possibly can!"
We dove out of sight, hiding in trees and under boulders. Bob the genius chose to hide in a bush. He would surely have sticks or thorns in his cloak afterwards, but that was the least of our worries. The girls and I tore up the bark of the thickest trees, hiding together in the thickly intertwined branches. I looked up through the sticks just in time to behold a glittering gold dragon. Her piercing blue eyes scanned the terrain as she tore through the clouds, her wings dancing up and down. She was like a bullet, shooting from one end of the sky to the other, and we stayed frozen in place until long after she disappeared from sight. We stayed silent, catching our breath until the glint of her wings vanished from the horizon. Slowly, cautiously, we crept down to the ground again.
"The dragon was a time traveling one," I spoke when no one else had. "She was beautiful."
"I agree with you about its time-traveling abilities, but what makes you think the dragon was a female?" The professor asked.
"I don't know," I responded. "I've always wanted to see a dragon, though. I think I studied them back home."
     We carried on for another hour in complete silence before we decided to stop by a freshwater brook to fill up our water bottles and take a much-needed break. The water was crystal clear, entirely see-through, and as I sat on the edge of the brook, I knelt over the water to see the creatures at the bottom. There were black lizards crawling under the water, their tails sprinkled with neon colors. I wanted to know if they could glow in the dark. Were they poisonous? The others seemed content drinking the water. So, they were probably not poisonous.
     Though they were beautiful, the woods around us was simply too quiet. Something unknown filled me with overwhelming dread. I felt like we were being watched, like someone was lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting victim.
"Dalia," I whispered, crouching next to her to fill up my bottle, "I think we're being followed."
She had gone back to her normal self, her blonde hair hidden under the grey beanie that matched her eyes, which darted over everyone and everything.
"I don't want to tell the others, just in case I'm wrong. There's no need to alarm them. But I thought maybe I should tell you, being as you sort of see everything at once."
She nodded.
"If you see something, please let me know. I hope I'm not going crazy."
She shook her head.
"Okay, well maybe I'm not going crazy, but a little sleep and a day off wouldn't hurt."
She smiled.
I heard a twig snap. I flung to face the sound, creeping slowly toward the edge of the woods.
"No." Dalia called after me in a shaky voice, motioning for me to come back to them.
"I'll be back in a minute," I mumbled back. "I just need to make sure we're safe. Stay here."
     The woods were alive with something inhuman. I was sure of it. I started to hate the nearly-silent sound of the tree veins. I started to hate the almost silent steps I was taking. Stopping dead in my tracks, I realized the twigs didn't snap under my feet. The sticks were so thick they wouldn't break under my feet. Nothing made noise when I walked. Whatever was out here was deliberately trying to get me to follow.

Another twig snapped, and then another.

Was it cowardly to turn back and wait for the others to come? Or was it wise? What direction was this thing coming from?

Something was moving toward me, and fast. I tore my knife from the holster at my waist.

"Stay alert," I called to the others. "Someone's out he—"

 I didn't see him knock me over, but I felt him hit the knife out of my hand. Before I could even scream, his hand was over my mouth and his arm dragged me backward. I kicked at him as hard as I could, punching and shoving any chance I got. I couldn't even mumble spells. I was losing feeling in my limbs. My muscles were going numb, locking firmly into place as he dragged me away. He was using magic to slow me down--I didn't recognize it, but I couldn't fight back. It was like I had been poisoned, like he was a spider and I was the fly caught in his web.

Defenseless.

Alone.

We rolled down the edge of a hill and he dragged me down into a cave. At this point, I could barely move at all, but I refused to stop fighting. I grew more and more horrified as it dawned on me... he was mumbling Elvish spells into my ear.