Chapter 16, The first moments in Hires

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~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.