Chapter 6, Broken promise

*~~Arabella~~*

Cold. White. Silent, not even a gust of wind. Stood up. Looked up. Lots and lots of stars. Wow, the moon was big. Where was Wilma? Hannah? The others? Oh, there was Hannah, not even a meter from her. Wilma was behind her and so were the others. They too stood up and looked around. Their faces expressed mild surprise and wonder, she must’ve looked the same. Glasses took up a handful of snow, stared at it and felt it. Arabella took up snow just as Glasses had done. It would be hard to make a snowball, but she did the best she could and hit Wilma in the chest. She looked down, looked at Arabella and grinned. She herself began to laugh and ducked the snowball coming her way. She would have thrown one back if Blacky hadn’t asked:

“What now?”

No one said a word. It was as if no one had thought of that yet.

“Maybe we should just walk around and look?” Wilma suggested.

“Shouldn’t…shouldn’t we introduce ourselves first?” Hannah stuttered just as she did when they had arrived at Amal Ialad for the first time. No one said a thing. Hannah’s cheeks began to redden but not ‘cause of the cold. “I’m H-hannah and I can change a thing’s shape.” After that they introduced themselves in order. Blacky’s name was Eleanor and she could change herself into anything and get that thing’s, person’s or animal’s ability. She could still think, of course. Then Arabella introduced herself, said that she would rather be called Arbell and with her power she could control or change a person’s feelings, needs and memories. After her, the red head said she was Miranda, the one Ingya had pointed out as the leader, and she could heal and fix things. By the way she said it you could think she wasn’t that happy about her powers. Then it was Wilma, and Arabella listened very closely to what she said, and her power was that she could turn anything into a weapon. Or a shield. Awesome. The girl who looked a little scared was Natalie and she could enhance her physical abilities. The last one was Glasses, her name was Charlotte and she could see anything, even through walls. It didn’t have a wide radius when she had tried it out at home, but then someone said that it might have a wider radius now. Then Arabella said that it probably wasn’t like that since they hadn’t transformed or anything, just switched clothes.

“Great!” Miranda said. “So, do you agree when I say that we should make a promise that we’ll always say everything to each other when we’re in other worlds?” She sounded serious but not boring-serious, that was good. Too serious people were boring.

“…Everything?” Natalie asked.

“Yes,” Miranda answered. “Everything you see, hear, suspect, whatever you think can be of importance, especially if it might be something dangerous or if we are in a dangerous situation. Even if you think it might be nothing.”

“Yeah,” Arabella said. “Wouldn’t want to die, or anything.” Eleanor drew a quick breath, making Arabella look at her. The girl looked up slightly as if the sky would tell her if she was going to die or not.  Arabella herself didn’t want to die, either, and she didn’t need Tenso’s and Ingya’s order ‘bout not to die. She certainly didn’t plan to.

“So. Anyone got an idea in which direction we should go?” Miranda asked. “Maybe you have, Charlotte? With those eyes of yours?” She turned to Charlotte with a warm smile.

“Yes.” She said, not returning the smile. “Please just wait a moment.” She took of her glasses, looked up to the sky and closed her eyes. Her body jerked as if her mind left her. They watched her. After a moment her body jerked again and she opened her eyes.

“It’s fascinating.” Was all she said, couldn’t she motivate why it was so fascinating?

“Did you see something?” Miranda asked. There was no doubt she was the leader. Much time hadn’t gone by, but she had a certain feeling around her.

“Yes, but no. There isn’t anything but the forest and white. There might be a lake to the west and there are cliffs to the south-east, but nothing more interesting than that. I can’t see far.” She sounded cold and confident, not nervous as Arabella had thought she would be.

“I vote for the cliffs.” Wilma said. “They seem more interesting than the lake.”

“I agree.” she said. “We could climb them and it seems like a good place to start.” Cliffs were way more interesting than a lake. She wasn’t so keen ‘bout the forest. Geez, she shouldn’t have played Slender, but it was so fun to be scared like that, especially together with Wilma.

Everyone agreed on the cliffs and they were ‘bout to go when Natalie blurted out:

“I think we should go to the lake!” They turned around and looked at her.

“Why?” Arabella asked with a tone she knew didn’t sound that nice. Everyone agreed on the cliffs and now she wanted to go to the lake? The majority should decide, but ‘cause of the way she said it and that she said it as late as she did she must’ve had a reason. At least she should’ve had.

“I-I...” her eyes darted from one place to another. “I…I have…I just thought it would be better. We might find a city or something.” Her smile was nervous. She acted strange, too. Not that they had known each other for long.

“I didn’t see any cities.” Charlotte said coldly.

“Oh. Right. Otherwise you would have said that.” She spoke fast but she didn’t look scared anymore. “Let’s just go to the cliffs.” Her smile wasn’t sincere this time either. Before Arabella turned she saw Natalie glance towards the forest.

~~*~~

It was pretty nice to just walk, sure the snow was a little too deep, but the surroundings were beautiful. White everywhere, silent except for their footsteps in the snow, talking with Wilma and just being happy about everything. She and Wilma didn’t talk as loud as they used to, even though she didn’t like to admit it, the complete silence made her uncomfortable, so when the wind came she felt relieved. In front of her she heard Hannah and Eleanor talk (“This whole thing is creepy, so silent, at least it seems like we’ll reach the cliffs soon.”), Natalie went in front of them and at the very front was Miranda and Charlotte. It didn’t take long before they saw the cliffs and after that it felt like bit took only seconds to stand next to them. She felt excitement in her chest, what would they find? A city or even the dragon, Tegon? When they got to the cliffs, though, they didn’t look that climbable. If Natalie strengthened her legs she might be able to jump over them, or at least high enough to grab onto something. They weren’t that high. Otherwise Hannah could try to change the shape into something, like stairs. If it was possible, of course.

“So, anyone got any id…” Miranda only got that far before a loud sound came from the cliffs. They all looked up, something was there. She felt her heart throb. Hard. She thought she heard Natalie sob. Then Charlotte yelled:

“Run! There’s something bad up there!” Her voice was so full of horror. Arabella was about to do just that when another yell cut through the air.

“NO! Come to me and form an f*uckin’ circle!” Your words are my law, leader, she thought.

Everyone rushed to get near her, everyone except Natalie.

“What are you waiting for?!” Wilma screamed at her. Now things came from above and landed hard on the snow all around them. People. In white clothes that covered everything except their eyes. The wind picked up even more and the sky said light was ‘bout to come.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Miranda screamed in anger next to her. “Come back! The hell are you thinking?!” She looked at Miranda, looked at the direction she looked in and saw Natalie run away. She could almost not believe what she saw! That b*itch!

“Come b…” Miranda dodged something. Eleanor screamed, war cry or not, she couldn’t tell. So much noise. “Hey!” Then Arabella thought of something. If ‘they’ didn’t notice Natalie, if ‘they’ didn’t capture her, she could help them later on! They weren’t going to make this, too inexperienced, no way. Die? Maybe. NO! She would not!

Miranda, don’t scream again, she thought.

“He…!” Arbella immediately put her hand over the red heads mouth. Stared into eyes that looked back with anger. She probably understood, she didn’t scream anymore. They continued to stare at each other, though, to give each other strength when the chaos slowly died down and until both of their worlds faded and became black.

*~~Natalie~~*

She hadn’t run for that long when she found it, the shelter in the middle of nowhere. It was amazing that she found it, it was almost invisible. She had sat down as close to the opening as possible with her cloak around her knees. She could start a fire, she had found stuff inside the cloak that she hadn’t noticed before, but she didn’t feel like it. A snow storm raged outside and she was cold. She would like to go further in, but she didn’t dare to. While she sat there she began to think about what had just happened. She had noticed people with ill feelings, towards them, in the woods. If they had gone to the lake they wouldn’t have been surprised like that.  If she had said something instead of just going along…she had been afraid! But…She had promised! Promised….She began to sob violently, didn’t care about wiping away the tears as she had done when she had run. They had promised to tell each other everything, it was necessary to be able to trust each other, especially in situations like this! And…And standing your ground and fight and use your powers to help…Common sense! But she had just used her powers to run away. She didn’t know how far she had run, she had run so fast. Where were they now? What did they think about her? Actually she knew what they probably thought…She wished so bad that she had told them, but she was scared they were going to reject her, she shouldn’t be able to sense others feelings! They would probably feel intimidated and feel like she would always be able to know when they lied and they would never know when she did…

What would she do now? She couldn’t stay there forever. She should save them, but she wouldn’t be able to do it alone. Or could she? She stopped sobbing and began to consider it. Maybe she actually could?

“So you’ve finally stopped now, little one?”

Her head shot up and looked inside the cave. She heard breaths, but it was too dark to see anything.

“Can’t you see me?” Her chest hurt, the only thing she heard was her heart’s throbbing. She glanced at the exit, ready to run if necessary.

“Thinking of running, are you?”

She drew a quick breath. She felt her hands become sweaty, her heart pumped so hard it hurt and her body was ready to run away, she felt it. She heard a weird sound, heavy in the air, next something warm and heavy landed on her shoulder and she screamed. 

She backed, fell and landed so hard on her back she lost her breath. When she lay there, too chocked to move, the thing had left her shoulder. She saw a fire, just a fire. From its light she could see a long, thin shape with two thinner, long shapes and four shorter things attached to it. The thing was small.

“Get over here” it said. “I bet you’re freezing, are you not?” Go there? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no….”I said, get over here, little one.” She got dragged by an invisible force to the fire, her heart began to beat hard again, a lump formed in her throat. Her eyes got teary, she was so, so scared. When got to the fire she saw what the thing was, a dragon. A small dragon. A small dragon.

“You can’t believe what you see? I don’t blame you. Beings like me don’t exist in your world, do they? Warrior of Amal Ialad.”  She just stared at it. Everything felt so strange that she forgot she was afraid. It was a real dragon. An Asian styled one. “You’ve done a horrible thing, girl.” She felt the tears coming and wasn’t in the least surprise he, she assumed it was a he, knew it.

“I…um…I-I…“ What could she say? She knew what she had done and she couldn’t say otherwise.

“Your friends are probably disappointed in you, do you not think so?” He sounded serious now and she felt like a child being told off by her parents.

“Yes…” was all she could say.´

“You plan to rescue them, I hope?” He didn’t sound accusing, he said it like it was obvious, like he didn’t expect her to do anything else.

“Of course!” she said.

There was moment of silence.

“What’s your name, little one?” Little one?

“Uh…Natalie.” You couldn’t stay quiet and ignore him. His presence was big for someone so small.

“Do you know who I am?” She shook her head slowly. She had been so amazed that he was a dragon and hadn’t come that far in her mind yet.

“Whidra Tegon, the dragon of the North, the White Dragon or the Dragon of luck and prosperity.”  She felt her eyes widen and her mouth open. She had found him! And with his help she could free the others! “You’re here to help this world, are you not?”

 “Yes.” She said and swallowed.. “But I don’t know how.”

“I’ll help you, little one.”

Silence.

“….Really?” Would he really…? If he did…

“I’ve stayed here for far too long, the land I swore to protect is falling apart. I should have done something long ago, little one.” She looked down so he wouldn’t be able to see her smile. She couldn’t believe her luck, she had hoped but not believed…She would save them and then I wouldn’t be as mad at her anymore! She hoped….

“What are you waiting for, little one?” A voice darker than anything she had ever heard before asked. She looked up and now saw, instead of the small dragon, a big one had taken its place. It had horns and two, long and fairly thick whiskers. The teeth were huge and the legs’ muscles could be clearly seen. She looked at him in wonder, it felt like it wasn’t real, now more than ever. “Get on my back.”