The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 21

Lifting her head from where they were just finishing setting up in the healing bays of the school, Florence could hear the loud noises happening outside in the courtyard which made her ears prick up half in fear, half in longing. She hated the way she was stuck in the healing bays, when she could be an extra head helping the fight, she could be helping her friends, using more than just the abilities she was born with. She just hoped and prayed as she laid out bandages, making sure that she had everything that she would need if one of her classmates got injured, that none of her classmates would get injured. As the thunder roared overhead, she closed her eyes, gulping down the nervous lump in her throat, willing for all the hard work and sleepless nights to have paid off.

As the army charged straight at them through the thick grey fog that Nox had blanketed their surroundings in, the students fought back, charging right into their ranks with all their might. They may have been young, but they had the courage to beat kings. Mabel felt she should've led the charge, but was incredibly grateful when some of the older students, the ones who had called Merkwood their true home for longer took charge and led them to a hopeful victory.

Evie stayed back with Mabel, she wanted desperately to lead with her fellow students, but knew that it was down to Mabel, in one way or another, they would need to stay calm and collected for as long as possible. If the two of them went off straight away, the battle could end before it had even begun. Arthur tried his best to help strategize everything, but none of them knew what to say, everything was a surprise, which is what made every single thing just that little bit more difficult. So they joined in the charge, racing faster than they had ever thought they would go. Mabel looked to her left to see Arthur, a sharpened sword in his hand; his ability being his intellect didn't help physically, but it helped when it came to remembering tactics and thinking very quickly of ways to outsmart the enemy. She then looked to her right to see Evie as her different coloured eyes glowed golden as she changed from brave girl to even braver wolf, paws hitting the cobbled courtyard hard and fast.

The students all ran together then in unity, armed with their abilities and some weapons of all kinds, right at the enemy through the thick fog, racing as fast as their youthful legs could carry them. Headmistress Chase, still taken aback from her encounter with Nox, and everything he had said, watched for a minute at the young people she cared for as if they were her own. If only she could turn back time and do the same for the son that she had lost all that time ago. There was no denying that what was unfolding in front of her eyes was powerful, they were willingly protecting the place they had effectively grown up, all of them together, as one.

Once they had raced into the fog, there was nothing. No one could even see their hands if their arms were outstretched before them. The growls and grunts from Nox's army had vanished as if they were never there, there was just darkness. Students began shouting at each other trying to locate friends and loved ones, but the darkness seemed endless and infinite. Mabel found Arthur and Evie after a few minutes, Evie had found then both first, with her better sense of hearing in her wolf form.

Eventually, the fog weakened and they were re-gifted the ability to see where they were; at the other side of the school courtyard. Evie, Mabel and Arthur stayed alert of their surroundings and played spectators to the events that unfolded around them, as the student's brave faces were replaced with expressions of confusion. Hair blowing in the cold wind, Mabel tried her best to see what was going on. Her eyes shifted from the groups of students around her, mumbling in bewilderment, to Nox, who was stood in a very smug way, remaining aloft in his darkness.

"This is what he wants," Arthur muttered quietly, as they all collectively stared up at the person they were supposed to beat. How on earth were they supposed to fight him if he stayed up there? They looked at each other, trying to figure out a plan, this needed to be finished sooner rather than later.