~
~Charlotte~~
It was time
again.
They were back
at the white place.
She noticed
there were mixed feelings regarding the return, most of them looked like they
wanted to be anywhere but were they were. Charlotte wasn’t scared, even though
she was the one who had almost been killed. Since she didn’t remember anything
from their last moments in Rurica, she was fine. Actually, she was pretty
neutral about everything right now. Everything at home seemed too normal and
travelling to yet another world felt like just another way to pass the time.
Though she must
say, she was flattered the girls had stayed and waited for her to wake up, she
had actually got tears in her eyes when she saw them standing by her bed. She
had thought they looked even worse than her.
And now they
were back, it had been about 5 weeks and school would start in 2,5 weeks, she
hoped they were going to be home for the first day. They would remember
everything about it even if they weren’t home, but it would feel weird and she
really wanted to be there herself, the real her.
“This
time…you’re going to Hires. A powerful magician has taken control over the
country and many around it. It..”
“Can’t they
solve it themselves?” All heads turned to Arabella. She stood with crossed arms
and glared at Tenso. “We’ve always solved our problems, why do we have to go
in? It’s going to be a bloodbath there soon, right? Well, we’ve had plenty of
bloodbaths and you’ve never come and helped us.”
Charlotte looked
around at the other girls, they looked shocked. It was true, though.
“We…have helped
you, but centuries ago your world made us stop.”
Charlotte was
surprised with the calmness in his voice. She knew if someone had said that to
her, she wouldn’t be as calm. She wouldn’t show how angry she was either, of
course, that was immature.
“We did give you plenty of chances, but you
still broke one of the most important rules over and over again.” Ingya said in
a hard voice.
Rule?
What did they do
that was so horrible?
“What’s the
rule?” Miranda asked the thing all seven of them wondered.
“Anyways…” Tenso
said, “This magician…has gotten to power hungry and have taken most of the east
and the south. He have also found and imprisoned the so-called Chosen People.
Many of them are now dead. You need to save them, the civilians and overthrow
the magician.”
If he chose to
ignore Miranda their world must have done something awful, but then why had
they been chosen to do these missions? Charlotte didn’t care, though, she was
happy with doing something else than just sitting around at home.
“It won’t be as
hard as your first.” Ingya assured them, “And this time we know exactly what
and who you’re facing.”
“W-what happened
to Raenton?” Natalie asked right before they were going changing. Tenso smiled.
“He’s fine, but
it did take him some time...to accept the loss of the arm. Rurica is fine, too.
After one of the elite groups went in and defeated their forces, peace came.”
She wondered if
it was just something Tesno said. If that had been her, she wouldn’t have
accepted the loss of a body part so easily. Raenton probably hadn’t accepted
it.
“Though now they
have to deal with the aftermath…” Her voice was bitter, “But they’ll survive.”
She added with a smile.
“How do you
become elites?” Miranda asked.
“When you have
completed… many missions with success,” Tenso said, “And some of the group
members have gotten to the next level. Though yet…that is no concern of yours.”
Charlotte wasn’t
so assured it would be much easier, they just made it seem easy. She didn’t
think much of it, though, the things going around in her head were about the
rules their world had broken. What could they have done for Amal Ialad to not
care about them, anymore? It had to be something incredibly awful to make this
many peace loving people ignore you.
They went
through the same process as last time, changing clothes, but this time they
were more lightly dressed, going through the mirror and being told to create
peace in their own way. At least they were more prepared this time.
They were in a
forest; the greenish trees mixed with the light made the whole forest seem both
green and yellow at the same time. Like a place you only saw in fan art. When
she looked around she saw the thick branches of the tall trees touch each
other. Some of the branches almost touched the ground.
The girls looked
around; they weren’t as confused this time.
She heard the
chirping of birds and the soft sound of the wind, it felt sincere, not scary at
all. It was pleasant to come to such a place. It was too warm, though.
“It’s actually
nice.” Wilma said. “I was dead sure they’d send us to some other empty place,
but this is actually nice.”
“Look!” Natalie
said and pointed to something behind Hannah, “Doesn’t that look just like a
cat?” They all turned around and looked at it, Charlotte flinched and stared
wide eyed at it. It did look like a cat, but it wasn’t covered in fur. It had
blue skin with orange stripes, a wider head with yellow deep-set eyes and a
wide mouth with small, sharp teeth that showed when it hissed at them, climbed
up a twisted branch and ran away.
“Turquoise
teeth?” Charlotte heard Eleanor say to her left.
“We should get
going.” Miranda said, “Maybe we’ll find some people.”
They walked over
branches and past strange animals, a green lizard with a crown of red skin
around its neck for example, but before anyone could look long enough at any of
the animals, they ran away, often up a tree.
“Maybe we should
climb a tree, too?” Hannah asked.
“It would be
cool.” Arabella agreed.
“What if we fell?”
Miranda countered.
“As if. These
branches should hold our weight.” Eleanor said.
“Who do you
think she is?” Charlotte asked, talking about the girl in front of them.
The girl seemed
to be their age or older. Her skin was a light green with deeper green sharp
lines around her eyes and on her legs that were exposed by the short, simple
dress. She was barefoot and held onto a bow with an arrow. Her hair was brown
and moved slightly in the wind, but it was her ears that made Chrlotte take a
deep breath. They were long and pointy.
They were
looking at each other; the girl seemed as surprised meeting them as they were
meeting her. Then the girl broke out into a smile and jumped down from the
branch. She landed right in front of Eleanor, who took a step back.
“You have
finally come!” Her voice was deep, “You have to come with me! Everyone would
love to meet you!”
“’Everyone’?
‘You have finally come’?” Arabella stepped in front of Eleanor, facing the
girl, “…How do you know who we are?”
“And I’m sorry,”
Miranda placed herself next to Arabella, “But we don’t have good experiences
meeting new people.”
The girl looked
at them. Then she began to laugh, too loud for Charlottes taste.
“You’re newbies,
then? Don’t worry, in this forest you won’t find anything harmful, except for
some plants and animals, of course.” She swung the bow onto her back. “But you
have to come, the people have been waiting for you to come and save us.”
So they went
with her. Charlotte didn’t think the girl was dangerous; Natalie seemed to
agree with her. If it came down to a fight anyway, they should be able to
defeat her. If more like her didn’t come.
“She looks just
like an elf.” She heard Hannah whisper to Eleanor.
“Yeah, this is
one of the best things with this, seeing things you thought you would never
see.”
Charlotte
agreed. To some extent. There were things she didn’t want to see, like dead
bodies. She walked behind them; actually she walked behind everyone else. She
could see them much better that way. She climbed over a big root; it was really
amazing how big the trees were.
“We’re here,”
the girl said, “Dab’s here!” She then yelled upwards and a rope ladder came
down. They climbed it and found themselves high up on a wooden platform built
on two branches; surrounded with people who looked with the same skin and ears.
And all of the people were looking at them with wide eyes before they began to
cheer.
