Suma’s POV

Our plan failed. The enemy Captain didn’t care that we took his squad-mate hostage. As soon as he found us, he went on the attack. There was no warning, no demands for the hostage to be freed. Instead, a bolt of lightning shot directly towards us, striking the hostage, Odens, and Rou all at once. Leaving Lieutenant Datahu and myself alone to fight him. Panicking, and with no real plan, I began casting spells over and over again in the direction that the lightning came from; causing the forest around us to burn.

“Dive!” The Lieutenant shouted. Without thinking, or knowing why, I tucked my wings and dove. Another bolt of lightning, this time from behind, cracked past and struck a tree, narrowly missing me. “Eastward!” She said, and cast a spell in that direction. It was the same spell she used against Jake in their match half a year ago. Small but quick orbs darted around, seemingly tracking something I couldn’t see. I cast a spell of my own, trying to aim for where I saw the darts were going. A crimson bolt streaked across the forest, casting just enough light for me to finally catch a glimpse of a single Neame, weaving between the trees at high speed. After trying and failing to hit him with a spell, I lost sight of him again. The Lieutenant however, somehow managed to continuously track the Captain, all while warning me and casting spells of her own. It did not register during the fight, but afterwards, I realized just how large the skill gap was between us.

A moment later, I saw the Captain again, but only because he was flying straight for me! The Lieutenant shouted for me to escape, but I was not fast enough. He was still coming for me, as if he were planning to ram into me. I tried to dive, but the Captain was beak to beak with me before I could even fold my wings or turn. He stopped less than a wingspan from me. There was no slowing down; he simply stopped, and floated in the air without even needing to beat his wings. His eyes began to glow, a sickly yellow fog surrounded them, and he spoke a single word. “Fear.”

With that, darkness surrounded me, and my body grew too stiff to move. I fell, but I do not remember hitting the ground. What I do remember, is the over-whelming sense of dread rising inside me.

“Suma,” a voice in the darkness said. I looked around, and Jake was standing there.

“Jake!” I shouted… except it was not him. It was that thing again; the monster that killed those Neame.

“Hello Suma.” The monster in the darkness said. Stepping out of the shadows, he raised his palm, and a roaring black flame appeared in his hand, burning the flesh away just like before. Only this time, the flame did not stop at his hand. It spread across his body, causing his ribs, stomach, and even his jaw to burn and fall off; until he looked more like a corpse than Jake. “There’s no circle to protect you this time.” He said, raising his flame above his head.

I screamed, and started falling deeper into the darkness, leaving the monster above me and behind. “Suma, where were you?” The voice of my mother said. She and my father flew out of the darkness, and flew beside me as I fell. “Why did you leave?”

“We waited for you to come home! But you died!” My father accused me. Looking down, I saw it; my death tree. The branches pulled back, and a wide hole opened up in the center, and I was falling straight towards it! Fell through the hole, and landed hard in the tree’s stump. Flapping wildly, I tried to escape, but the hole I fell through closed before I could get out.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I’ll never see my mum again.” Jake’s voice said. I turned and saw him laying on an alter in the center of my death tree, where I was supposed to be. “I’m all alone, because of you!” He shouted, as he began to age rapidly, until he turned to dust, and blew away.

“You stole my son! You took him from his home, and killed him!” Jake’s mom’s voice said, but I could not see where she was. She echoed from the shadows, like a wailing spirit. “Worse, you turned my son into a killer; a monster! It’s all your fault!”

Below me, water started to pour into my death tree from cracks in the roots, and Jake’s voice came out of the water. “You think I wanted to be here with you? I was happy! You stole me away, forced me to become your familiar! For what? So you could be special? Oh, look at the amazing Suma everyone! She’s got a Viking familiar!”

Without warning, more voices started to chime in. “You are not special,” my mom said, “you are a medium class mage.”

“Low class is more like it. Never had any talent.” My dad said. Suddenly, I felt something floating in the water behind me, bump into me. It was Jake. He grabbed me by the wings, and lifted me up.

“All my power, I could have been someone! But you held me down! If it weren’t for you!” He shouted. “I should have killed you the day we met!” He screamed, and dunked me into the water. I could not breath! His grip… I could not… I was going to die!

“Please… no…” I begged, choking on the water.

“SUMA!” Everyone shouted. “SUMA!”

I tried to yell, but the water was filling my lungs… “AHHHHHH!”

“SUMA!” The voice of the Lieutenant said, and I snapped out of the darkness. My breathing was fast, and ragged; I could even feel my heart pounding in the tips of my wings, and the base of my tailfeathers. “By the dragons, are you alright?” Lieutenant Datahu asked again.

“W-what…?”

“Captain Nexen cast his spell, and you fell… far. Are you okay?”

“I…I…” I stammered.

“My most sincere apologies, Private Suma. I did not realize your defense against mental attacks was so low. Are you injured?” The Captain who had been attacking us earlier asked, now calm and docile.

“N-uh… what?” No matter how hard I tried, I still could not force myself to form a complete sentence. I was still in shock.

“We should have her looked at by a few healers, she may have hit her head.” Captain Nexen suggested.

“Yes. I’ll send up a flare.” Lieutenant Datahu said, and cast a spell similar to the one Odens had used earlier. Moments later, two Neame arrived, and began casting healing spells on me, while I continued to lay stunned and motionless on the forest floor.

“One broken wing, and a bad cut to her head, but nothing lethal.” One of them said, and cast a spell on my wing. I heard a sickening crunch and my wing, which had been bent almost completely backwards and twisted unnaturally, slowly drug itself back into place. Strangely enough, I felt none of this; not until my wing untwisted itself, and then I felt all of it.

“Ahugh!” I shouted as soon as the pain set in, and threw up from the sudden sensations.

“Don’t worry, that means the spell is working.” One of the healers attending to me said coldly.

Once I was healed, I found the strength to speak again. “What happened?”

“I cast a spell to show you what you feared most, and you fell rather far.” Captain Nexen said.

“So, we lost?” I asked, as one of the healers helped me stand up by placing her head under my body for support.

“No, we won.” Answered the Lieutenant.

“But…”

“When Captain Nexen cast his spell, I attacked him from behind. You gave me the perfect distraction Private Suma. Good job.” She explained.

“It was a gamble. I suppose I’m not as quick as I once was, but you are quite skilled nonetheless, Lieutenant.” Nexen said.

“But… we lost almost every member of our team… Should we really-”

“Lieutenant, don’t tell me your squad has not had ‘the talk’ yet?” Nexen asked.

“The Captain wanted to wait until our team was ready.” She said.

“The talk?” I asked, still feeling lightheaded, and still grappling with what I saw.

“Do not worry, Private. I am sure, now that our squad has won, you all will be receiving it very soon.”