“Wait!” Arina cried.
I didn’t stop. I leapt over the edge of the clearing, and despite my injured shoulder, landed soundly on the other side. The wind and rain greeted me with full force, trying to blind and hold me back, but my legs were strong and they powered after the creature.
It must have stopped or slowed at some point to regain its bearings because I suddenly caught a glimpse of its blue tattoos through the trees. I changed direction and sprinted towards its direction. It was oblivious to my pursuit or simply ignored it. Had the creature picked up on some original scent, intent on finding its prey?
Considerably faster than me, I lost sight of it once more through the trees. A large, fallen tree came across my path. I held my hurt shoulder and leapt to stand on its trunk. Scanning the scrubland, I wiped the rain from my eyes.
“Shane?!” I screamed. “Nate?!”
My words were met with silence. I scoured the scenery to see if I could catch a glimpse of the creature again, or even a sign of Shane and Nate. Disappointingly, I couldn’t make either of them out. I had been too slow, and now, I wouldn’t be able to help them.
All of a sudden, something hit me from behind in the middle of my shoulders and my body went flying off the tree trunk. Caught off guard, I landed heavily on the ground and screamed as my hurt shoulder took the brunt of the fall. I curled up into a ball rolling over to my righthand side so my left could gain some relief. I cried, quivering and whimpering in the grass unable to stand.
Soft but hurried footsteps came up beside me, and I sensed a person, different to the creature, crouch down. Warm but firm hands rested on my skin and they made vocalized sounds that were unrecognizable to my ears. The person’s fingers ran from my wrist, up my arm, over my shoulder and across my collarbone. I whimpered and twisted my left hand free and tried to swat the person away.
“Leave me alone!” I cried, attempting to swing my head back at the same time to catch a glance of who owned the pair of hands.
The person grabbed my left arm with the ruby vambrace, and they made a sound that I could only take as an exclamation. They dropped my arm and several moments later, they twisted my head away and to the side. A sharp pain pierced my skin behind my exposed ear. Grimacing, I reached up and covered my ear as a high-pitched ring flooded through my head.
As quickly as it came, it subsided and all of a sudden, random words came through the jumbled noise coming from the person’s mouth.
“We were wrong!” the voice exclaimed. “It’s not your brother, it’s you!”
The words floated over me, my mind now focusing on my shoulder, willing and wishing it to stop hurting, even though another part of me was trying to convince myself to stay focused and pay attention. Surprisingly, the sharp jolts turned to warm ebbs of pain. Through it, I managed to pick up on some words. “Don’t worry,….. help your brother…. You……. secret. I’ll come back ...”
Silence.
I was alone again beside the tree trunk. I tried to turn over again, and this time, I managed to roll onto my back. The peculiar man had disappeared. I lay there and tried to remember the words that he had spoken, but I hadn’t been able to absorb what he had said. The rain continued to fall on my face, and I sighed at my misfortune.
“Jaliyah!” Arina appeared on the other side of the tree trunk. “Thank goodness I’ve found you. You scared me to death! Why did you leave me?” She straddled the trunk and slid to the other side, her dismount far more elegant than what mine had been. Her slight figure leant beside my body.
“I fell off that stupid tree trunk,” I moaned, still unable to move from the ground.
“Are you okay?” Arina asked. “Why did you do that?”
I scowled. “I didn’t fall off on purpose. I think I was pushed.”
“Pushed?! By who?” Arina scanned the scenery, her eyebrows furrowing. “There’s no one here and that creature is gone. Why did you take off like that into the storm and leave me back there by myself. You scared me.” She took my right hand and pulled me up to a sitting position. “You’ve got to be more careful.”
Another loud, heart-wrenching scream suddenly filled the dusk that was starting to form. It was deeper and stronger, echoing through the storm. I scrambled and stumbled to my feet and held onto Arina, both of us breathing fast.
“Oh, my goodness!”
“That was Nate,” I whispered. “I’m sure of it.”
Had that creature hurt him or even worse? I tried to swallow down the fear again.
Arina didn’t say anything, but her eyes were wide as she looked into the trees.
Before I could decide on what to do, the same feeling of dread which had filled me before, returned and nausea filled my stomach. The faint daylight dulled further, the ground vibrated and began to shake like it had previously only half an hour earlier. And then, all of a sudden, it was gone. As quickly as it had started, it stopped and we were left standing in the grass trembling. Goosebumps rose onto my arms.
“We need to go and see if we can find Shane and Nate,” Arina said quietly. She looked at me, her eyes still large with fear. “Do you think that creature got them?”
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A lump had formed in my throat, and when I spoke, my voice shook. “I hope not. Help me with my bag. I’ll try calling them. We might have a signal now.”
Arina moved behind me. I heard my zip and felt a soft tug as she put her hand into my bag. She passed me my phone. I pressed the side and sighed. “Nothing,” I sighed. “I still can’t make any calls.” I thrust it back into her hand. She nodded and put it back into my bag.
“Come on,” Arina said gently. “Let’s see if we can find them.”
We turned to head off but stopped short. Striding towards us through the undergrowth were six grown men dressed in camouflaged clothing. The five at the back were armed. I had never seen guns in real life before. It was daunting.
At the front, leading the way, was a tall man with black hair. He was older than us, easily in his thirties with a dark shadow on his square jaw. Covering his grey shirt, he wore a brown vest that had so many bulging pockets, it must have carried some considerable weight. Not that it would have mattered, his build was strong and athletic.
A wave of realization washed over me. This explained it! We had somehow drifted into the middle of an Army operation. I paused. Surely, there would have been signs to warn us off though. I shook my head, casting the thought aside. It didn’t matter. At least we would be safe now. Maybe we had been subjected to some kind of hallucinatory drug and we had imagined everything we had seen in the past hour.
The man at the front saw us looking at him and stopped when he was about three strides away. I moved closer to Arina, and she gripped my arm.
He eyed both of us and then sighed impatiently. “I created the protection circle so the Phalean wouldn’t catch you,” he said, loud enough to speak over the wind and rain. He turned his head to me. “You are lucky you weren’t captured. You weren’t supposed to leave it.”
I didn’t answer, but I shared a quick questioning glance at Arina. My immediate theory that this whole afternoon was down to the Army, was already starting to crumble. Protection circle? He had created that circle in the long grass to keep us safe from that monster?
As we stood there, the five men at his back surveyed the surrounding bushland, watching vigilantly as the trees continued to sway in the storm. One man held an electronic device up in front of him, and he moved it from side to side as if he was scanning the trees.
“Who are you?” Arina asked.
I was more concerned about the strange name he had said. “The Phalean? Who are they?”
“My name is Rayon,” he said, answering Arina’s question first. He took a step closer. “The Phalean is the being that was stalking you while you were inside the circle, but I will explain the Phaleans in more detail later. We need to move quickly because there are more of them and they are determined to find you.” His eyes fell back on me when he finished his last sentence.
I swallowed. Them? There was more than one of those creatures? This man had seen that thing circle round us while we cowered? Why hadn’t he tried to help with all his weapons and men? And then, his other words hit home.
“Me?” I scoffed. “Why would they be searching for me?”
“You opened the gate.” His gaze fell to the vambrace on my wrist, and I instinctively hid it behind my back. Gate? What was he talking about? “You need to come with us back up the hill,” Rayon continued. He took another step closer, and this time, I edged backwards. “They have moved off to the south, but they could easily come back.”
“We’re not going anywhere with you!” I laughed. “We have no idea who you are.”
The expression on Rayon’s face never changed. My disbelief and disagreements did not seem to bother him. He simply waited, appearing confident that we would obey. My eyes fell on the men behind him and the weapons in their hands. I wasn’t stupid, and with a sinking feeling, I didn’t know how we could truly be able to refuse his orders.
“Look,” I said forcefully, wiping more rain from my eyes. “No offence, we don’t know who you are and we’re tired. All we’re going to do now is go find my brother and his friend, Nate.”
I started to tug on Arina’s arm, urging her to come with me.
“You won’t find them,” he said. “The Phalean used the gate you opened and have taken Shane by mistake. Nate is injured and in our care.”
“Gate? What gate?”
He looked at Arina, ignoring my questions. “You were nearly a victim of their powers as well,” he said. “We’ll see to it that your friend gets medical assistance.”
Alarm rose in my chest. Shane had been taken? Nate was injured? I glanced at the men at his back again.
He pointed to my left arm where my hand was still hidden behind my back. “Don’t you think it’s a bit of coincidence that this all started happening after you put on the scorpion vambrace?”
“Scorpion vambrace?” I swung my arm back around and looked down at my wrist.
“It fitted to you perfectly, didn’t it?”
“Well?” I felt the skin on my forehead tighten. “I guess so.”
“It was not by chance,” Rayon said.
“What is it?”
“I’ll answer if you come with me.”
“We’ve got movement,” one of the men at Rayon’s back said. “We need to go.”
A loud call, similar to the sound we had heard from the creature earlier, echoed through the trees. It gained in momentum, and I immediately covered my ears as it continued to resonate louder and louder. A crash came from the left some distance away, and we all turned. One of the creatures had broken a tree trunk in half and was now lumbering towards us. My eyes widened. The strength it must possess to break the trunk in two.
“Come on!” Rayon said firmly, turning in the direction of the hill. “We’re out of time. I’ll take you to Nate and out of harm’s way.”
Arina and I shared a quick glance. I looked back into the trees and more movement caught my gaze. To my horror, only several meters to the first creature’s side, another one loomed through the trees. This stranger of a man before me had told the truth. There was more than one of these creatures out here.
The scrubland around us burst into noise. The men accompanying Rayon began shouting and popping sounds filled the air as they pointed their guns towards the running creatures. I crouched and covered my ears, unable to tear my eyes away.
Rayon took on last stride and stood before me. I looked up. He motioned with his hand, indicating I should take it. With only one last hesitant glance at it, I reached my hand out and placed it into his. He seemed the safer alternative out of the two and he told us he had Nate.
“Where can we go?” I shouted over the noise. “We’re surrounded by scrubland.”
He nodded to one of the men in his group before he turned back to me and smiled, of all things. “Somewhere far away from here. We’re going to use the gate you opened.”
One of Rayon’s men lifted a small, grey device and held it outstretched from his body. “The gate is over there. Twenty meters.”
Before I could argue, Rayon pulled me in the direction the man had just pointed to. I staggered over more grass and shrubs.
“Arina,” I yelled over my shoulder. With relief, I saw her in fast pursuit following us.
We came to an abrupt stop. At first, the landscape in front looked exactly how the scrubland should be. Then, one meter ahead, the space before us rippled. I could see the scrubland and scenery on the other side, but the air danced. Rayon’s fingers tightened around my hand.
“Follow me,” he said. “The Phaleans are nearly upon us.”
I looked over my shoulder to see the creature with its dark hair and tubed facial features running with his arms pumping. His weapon glinted in the light even though there was no sun. I turned back to ensure Arina was still with me. She nodded, her chest heaving and her eyes wide.
Rayon stepped into the sheen of dancing air and pulled me with him.