The Valdosta Forest were the borders to the Otherside. Towards the East, the orphanage where Deanna was from and life, the West, the Otherside where living is shrouded in mystery.
Most of the kids agreed beforehand that they will go to the Otherside, for the best.
Bethany entered a heated argument with Jeannette, about being the leader.
"Ha. Who agreed for her to be the leader?!", not astonishing, everyone, even Willow raised her hand. Bethany just had an itch. Jeannette was probably the mysterious bimbo that snuck out of the dorms to sleep in the guys' dorm.
"Fine, I'll move Westward and if you don't mind following that thing, then, sayonara", Bethany said before she stormed off to the West. They have less than 5 hours left so she picked her pace.
"B-bethany!", Willow called out but she didn't stop.
"Not to worry, she'll be fine. She's a strength-typed mage". "How do you know that?"she questioned. "Deanna tells all the leaders beforehand"
Truthfully, she didn't lie but her abilities are more of brainwashing and seduction, than strengths so, as soon as Deanna mentioned her heart filled speech, the disgust from deep within Jeannette's heart broke the time barrier for knowing how to use her powers.
A smirk rolled across her face. She didn't expect all this. If she entered the Otherside, they'd control her but back in the real world, she could make a harem! She could be #1!!
"Sorry about Bethany, let's go back home", she did with an anime girl persona. She jumped dramatically to show her inner joy.
At 4:13 mins left
Willow gradually fell behind. Her fear started to get to her. Leaves brushing her resulted in a scream and each sound beget a shriek. Jeannette grew tired and shouted at her time and time but nothing changed.
A slither past Willow's side. She held her scream with her hands, "Umm, Jeannette!", she started panicking
"Oh suck it up! You're such a baby!", Jeannette scoffed, slightly giving a look. But the slither got louder. Then the naive Willow just noticed that they were supposed to be 5 since Bethany left
"W-where is Naigail?", no one answered. She thought their leader didn't hear so she started repeating herself
"Where's Naigail?"
"Where's Naigail?"
"Where's Naigail?"
"Where's Naigail?"
"Where's Nai -"
"STOOOP!!! You're making me regret not killing you too"
Willow began vibrating. She didn't dare talk or move forward. She couldn't make a sound.
Something slithered on her face. She stayed still to let the snake pass but she moved her eyes and saw a huge split tongue loving her nostrils. With icky saliva, it had moved across most of her face. She looked more and saw a huge pair of white eyes. She screeched in fear, startling the beast which accidentally tripped into the light. Willow instinctively knew that it was harmless. She rubbed its head, granting it permission to side hug her and place its big anteater's head on that dragon look of a body.
It was cute
The compass started to go haywire. Willow and the beast panicked when Nath lunged at the beast, pummeled to its death.
Willow's eyes lost focus instantly. Her tears choked her being. "Why!!!", she beckoned Jeanette to answer but the devilish grin on her says 'no comment'.
Roars of agony resonated from the forest and 2 others came out. Fear pushed the backs of the group together. They began hearing voices in their heads, "We are the elders of the forest, The guardians beasts of Valdosta. The outsiders have spilled blood and as such shall be cleansed by blood from the forest...immediately!"
Everyone across the forest felt their bones rattle as the almost risen sun left the forest.
The evergreen has reverted to a dead colour.
The guardian beast with an owl head raised a feathered fist and threw it downwards to Nath. He shuddered and began to run, "Run!!!"
Throughout the once ethereal Valdosta forest, people ran, panicked, nearly grazing certain death.
Deanna's group heard a major explosion and they all faced their East. Something was wrong, major.
Deanna, sharper than before, formed a huge bundle of violet energy, her multicolor dragonfly aura, swirling like electrons. It felt free to not hold back her looks and strengths.
"Come out, Bailandorè!", Two sunset yellow eyes peered from the bars of the forest trees. With a great tremor, the head guardian, who looked like a Komodo Dragon king rose to its feet, towering the entire forest by 3 folds. Each muscle contraction casually sends earthquakes across the land. He looked like a god, reigning over all of the sky and sea.
Its huge head bent over the woods slightly, fearing damage. Its voice came not from his mouth but, a voice reached their ears, softly and authoritatively.
"Deanna, you forgot me so soon, u ungrateful child"
"Shut up", she yelled aloud, "What the heck did we do to cause this. You're also damaging your precious forest", she air quoted. She didn't care anymore about bridling one's tongue or respect and all. She needed to get info fast and save the others. At most only 4 groups would have crossed to either side.
Deanna was in a fritz. Her mind grew fizzy. Her appearance began glowing and glitching. The ball of energy burst in her hand, plunging all to darkness only to be submerged by those big glowing eyes
"Why? Why punish us?"
"None shall be exempted, oh Tamer of the dragon. The blood runs thick and turns black. A pillar fallen", they speak in too much poetry.
But, do I know this guardian beast before? What about the forest was familiar? What happened to 2 years worth of my memories? Was it that year?
"Who died?", Kayla boldly spoke up. She had read Shakespeare to understand this basic form of oxymoron
"Ooh, she's smart", his widened eyes were like the rising of 2 suns. "The guardian of tranquility was killed by the one you assigned strength", his fingertip brought a tsunami of winds to Deanna. Sumi lost balance as a result of the sheer force.
"You old weasel, I'll crush you like Donkey Kong", enraging the calm head guardian. He flickered a booger sized sphere of energy to them, that size was tripled in reality. Deanna blew forth a dove made of energy to the killing sphere that was hurled to them. The impact caused the bird to change to a net and caught the sphere. Together, they vanished. They felt nothing.
Deanna, who was already pale, began coughing blood and couldn't stand anymore. Oliver ran over and carried her on his back. In her drained state, she could make out a few things like how they were stopped and they were forced to fight, using their words as magic and their might reached more folds. She was glad that they weren't weaklings. She didn't have to teach them anything. They carried each other along and every talent read needed.
Oliver took over as the leader as Deanna was slipping in and out of consciousness. He began making routes for people to meet and with the stuff Deanna packed; a flashlight, 60 smoke bombs, the temporary forest map she made before casting the broadcast spell, and a survival kit.
He made rescue plans, the groups could now talk to each other through the flag, they were also able to instinctively say words that they never learnt.
With the drill they were forced to learn every noon at the facility, no one was soft.
She woke up again, she was placed on a foldable chair at a camp, she glanced round and saw people running circles tending injured people, and making calls to groups, teaching others their skills and making records of progress.
Everything was a bit calm. They were now on a straight path to the border wall of the Otherside. They had lost a lot of time and the support spell she put before anything went wrong, right at the start. Deanna felt her getting drained but she didn't mind.
"Dee!", Oliver flinched as he felt eyes on him. He was racing over before she slept back but it's too late.
She smiled as her senses left her
The least she could do was replace the magic flag with a survival kit for each group. She steadied her shaking and cast the spell. With bathed breaths, her world grew dark.
Resultantly, the flags vanished and the glowing compass detached from the flag. They were left with ordinary supplies and their strength was greatly reduced.
Deanna woke up later - the smell of broth. She got up, staggered to the meal and plopped herself at the logwood midnight dinner circle. Everyone was startled but chose to help her maximise her strength.
"Yanassa, how are the groups responding?"
"Good, even without your support"
"..."
Silence ensued on the grounds. No one was comfortable. One by one, they got up to do various things as an excuse, leaving Dee with Oliver.
He looked at her calm purple irises and she beamed like a midday sun. She leaned in and put their foreheads together. She lovingly placed kisses across his face and neck, boldly declaring a "thank you", the ambiguous air made the environment fade.
After she pulled away, he sighed deeply and said, "Dee, there's something I need to -"
"Boss, they've rebelled and their powers have manifest, what do -"
"Clean up", he said with a smile. Deanna, let's see you be a main character here.
"Bring that tamer alive!"
RUN!!!
The facility's soldiers had found the camp. They didn't come with tranquillisers like last time. They killed, burned, raided and even pinned some girls for sexual desires.
Deanna grew anxious and frustrated, she knew they were watching her but, what happened when she was out?
"Why?!", she questioned Oliver.
Guilty Oliver took a deep breath before confessing, "A girl named Jeannette, well, she came to camp and she stole information and gave it to the facility, in exchange for her gaining a huge status back home. I-I also...", they began shaking for different reasons, "...she tempted me and I gave in", he winced from her wrath which never came. She was just frozen.
Behind her was a sniper whose shot seemed unavoidable. Like a viper, he swooshed in and blocked the bullet with his steel-reinforced skin. A clean cut and the assailant was eliminated.
Deanna looked at the guy who was shy and kinda suddenly looked cold and fearsome.
"Stay here. I'll help the others and I'll get you to head to the Otherside"
"And who's ordering me?!", she was baffled by his audacity.
"I am! You want to know why? Cuz your heart stopped beating, Dee!! It was like I was crazy, carrying a dead you...", he covered his face with his bloodied palms.
"One of the tamers brought over a military badge. The guards are soldiers, military soldiers, sent by the government. Our friends need help"
Duh, she knew they were involved since inception.
Deanna sighed and sat where she woke up, making Oliver smile.
He ran to the attacked people. They started going to where Deanna was.
He was stained with blood but luckily everyone else was safe. He walked up to Deanna and solemnly got on his knees. Deanna, confused just looked at him
"I love you. I really do but going across may not be the best -".
Deanna's eyes twitched. A crazy idea entered her head. 'Maybe, don't tell me...'
"What did you do?"she was shaking violently.
He brought out a flare from his pocket and shot it to the sky. The soldiers surrounding them started shooting everyone. One down, two, seventeen. Deanna used her rage as fuel and made a defense dome of light cover them. A sparkle of light began landing on every wound. The dome also made people with wounds heal.
Oliver was shocked. He expected to be kicked out for tricking her. He helped the soldiers round up the Tamers but Deanna remained silent to him.
"Everyone, the moment your wounds heal, we're racing it, all the way to the Otherside"
Yanassa and the others were taking care of the people that attacked those near Deanna. Deanna left the dome, with a crowbar in hand and soon, it was a massacre. More were killed but the stench of blood gave Deanna more resolve. She went manic
The guardians were still purging all the humans when the flare was lit. Guardians, who don't usually enter violence, started clearing the whole forest. Their coloured eyes turned black. They moved like zombies, towards the flare, a stampede.
As Deanna was still killing, the air pressure shot up. People were finding it difficult to stand. A fallen, more sober Deanna placed her ear to the floor and heard the sound of many, many, MANY FOOTSTEPS.
RUN!!!
She cancelled the dome and everyone started running.
An overhead helicopter shone its spotlight on the running children. A huge monster rode from the lake and smacked the helicopter out of the sky. It fell near them, sending sand and rocks to them. Deanna used her dragonfly aura magic to heal the wounds as they ran.
The guardians were of all sizes. It was like a whole ecosystem of animal diversity. They had the same scaly body but they all had different heads, resembling different animals. Some were faster, some were taller but nevertheless, they were dangerous.
They ran in a turtle formation; the weakest in the middle and the tankers round them.
Racing minds, pounding hearts and restless souls won't let them stop running.
This would be worse than any marathon they'd ever do in their whole lives.
~ Btw, the oldest at the facility was 14 and the youngest was 10
But like a plot twist of a novel, the Head guardian suddenly looked to the moon and made a screech. With such a resounding noise, no one left their ears open. The guardians retreated.
"Look, they're going back!"Cheers filled the air. Everyone felt that they were finally seeing good things.
"Everyone, we're almost there!"
They kept moving, now at their pace. No one was rushing. Tanya walked up to Deanna, who was chatting away with her new love.
"Umm, Deanna...is there anything else in the forest?" "Umm, no", she replied, hiding something significant in their mind. 'They won't come', she thought.
But like child's play, it's best to bridle the tongue as it is often said that there is power in them.
A scream was heard from their left. "Lucy!", everyone rushed over. They met a truly horrifying sight.
Her head, stomach, and skin were eaten off in huge bites. Her legs firmly rooted to the forest floor. She was bitten all over. Some began to puke, others were trying to stay quiet, the soldiers were still on their heels.
A swish in the wind, and a woosh to their left, something passed them with speeds they couldn't tell.
"AHH!", Tanya began shaking. Looking in the eyes of several red eyes, surrounding them.
"Deanna what are they", Yanassa spoke, shaking. Deanna couldn't speak. She shouldn't have assumed.
"Oh no, los Cernunnos están aquí...por nosotros!!"
"What did she say?", Yanassa asked the Tamers. A guy who was still cowering by a tree, spoke without moving an inch
"S...she said that the hell dogs are here...for us". Everyone began panicking. No one dared to move.
The hell dogs were closing in. Deanna shot a beam of light in their direction, slicing everything and some of them into pieces.
"Run!!!"