touching the clouds; the small shrubs that hug the bottom of the
trees; the grass that surrounds the life in the forest; the animals
that roam here quietly rummaging around the forest floor. Feel it,
let it run through your veins." He said, as we walked slowly.
I could feel it with every beat of my heart and the energy
grew. I could feel the energy from the wind that blew softly around
us, blowing my hair back away from my shoulders; kissing my skin
ever so softly. I could feel the energy from the water that flowed
near by tickling my toes as it entered into my body. "I can feel it
Elder; everything, I can feel it." I said, touching everything as I
walked by, allowing the spirit of every being in the forest to fill me,
and as I did the feeling of sadness and hurt began to disappear.
"Elder why can I hear the animals talking?" I asked.
"Because Mia every being that is, has a voice; but only some are
chosen to hear them talk, and if you are one of the few who can;
you are blessed by the gods. Be thankful that you can, because
they can be your greatest allies. They know things that no person
can know, they see things that no person can see." He said
walking along the windy path.
"Mia, you have great power; a power that has been locked
away for many, many moons; but you must learn to control your
emotions if you are to use your power effectively." He said; as he
stopped, turning back toward me. "Can you do that Mia, can you
control it?" He asked, looking at me sincerely. "Yes Elder; I can." I
replied quickly.
"Mia, I will say this, if you are not able to control your
emotions, you will be the cause of our failure." He said, as he
once again continued down the path.
We came to a clearing that
overlooked the entire forest; we could see the lake, the grassy
planes that stretched far, the town at the edge of the forest and
the trails that led into the mountains.
In the far distance we could
see uncle Tom and the Elemental's practicing, as they honed in on
their skills. "Mia, what do you see in the distance there?" He asked
pointing in the direction of Hillside town.
I tried to look but saw nothing more than a overcast town.
"Nothing." I replied. "Look harder Mia; and concentrate." He said,
putting a hand on my shoulder.
I could see dark clouds beginning
to cover the town, and it looked like it was going to rain; but as I
stared harder and concentrated more I noticed that it wasn't like
normal rain clouds, it looked like a massive storm was going to hit.
The clouds slowly stirred around the mid day sky.
As I thought about it for a moment, I thought it was odd that
there would even be a storm. It's the summer time and in Hillside
there is never rain during the summer, let alone a massive storm.
Through my concentration I heard a deep evil voice.
"Mia." It said,
which sent shivers down my back. I shook my head in complete
disbelief. "What, what did you see?" Elder Wing asked. "I heard a
voice calling my name." I said, turning to a stunned Elder Wing.
"Mia, the other night you floated into the sky, do you
remember that?" He asked. "Yes, I know I did but the energy that I
felt was so overwhelming. It was like I could barely control it." I
replied. "It has a lot to do with your emotions. You must control
that in order for your powers to be effective for you to use, if not
it'll just go haywire."
He said.
"Mia, what do you truly remember about your mother from
when you were a child?" He asked. "Not much other than she left
us; my dad, my brother and me. Why is that something that seems
to always come up?" I asked with a slight attitude, not
understanding what she had to do with anything.
Just then Jon's
words came back to me, ringing in my head.
“What if they are the
ones we had to defeat?”
"Did you know that your mother was apart of the reason that
your grandparents also left back then?" He asked.
"Um; no I
didn't. I do remember that one stormy night she was sitting in front
of the fireplace with our dog, then dad took me to a closet with
Tucker and closed the door. The next morning she was gone and
so was my dog Dougie." I replied, starting to feel the hurt that I felt
when my dad told me that she was gone.
"Your mother Mia, is a spawn of the demons that have been
trying to take the red diamonds for well over thousands of years."
He said, just looking at me. "What?" I said, as I swiftly jerked back.
"I'm not sure how much your grandmother told you about all of
this, but if she didn't tell you then I will. I think you really need to
know, so that you understand what is being asked of you." He
explained.
"What do you mean?" I asked suspicious of where the
conversation was leading.
"Mia, you will have to eventually defeat your mother." He replied
sincerely, trying his best to not sound so apprehensive.
"Alright, I can do that." I said, as I accepted his statement quickly.
"Mia this will test your ability to control your emotions, if you fail we
will all fail." He replied.
"I won't fail, I will not let her win." I said, as I shook my head.
I put my hands out and pulled every bit of energy that I could
from the forest around me, and I could fell that energy pulsating in
and out of me.
The invisible force that I could feel nights before
was back again, as I continued to pull the energy in. "Hold that
energy in the pits of your body, Mia." Elder Wing said, as he stood
aside watching. "Focus it into a ball." He said. I did as I was told
and focused all that energy into a tight ball; a tight pulsating light
formed, and it continued to build in front of me.
“Now push it away from your body.”
He instructed.
I pushed
the energy out and away from my body, right into a huge rock that
was buried deep in the ground. The rock up rooted itself and flew
across the small open field over the drop then hit the lake with the
force of a plane, splashing the water high up into the sky. As the
water lifted into the air I pulled the energy from the lake and felt
the water lifting, I put my hands out and pulled harder, I could feel
the water as it lifted higher and higher into the air; soon it lifted
above us, I closed my hands that were now positioned just above
my head and the water fell all around us, as the soft mists of the
water kissed our faces.
"Wow." I said, stunned at the power that flowed through my
veins. "I think wow, is an understatement." He laughed. "Come on
I think it's time that you meet with Elder Wolf." He said, as he led
me back along the long windy path, back to the camp.
As the
evening air began to cool everything around us, we got closer to
the camp.
Elder Wing held a steady stride well ahead of me.
I felt like something weird going on, like someone was
watching me; like something was close but I could not see it. I felt
an energy surrounding me, a bad energy; it was like something
was going to happen. I felt my body instinctively go into fight
mode. I pulled the energy from around me and let it build inside of
me. I felt the ball of energy building stronger and stronger within
me as the feeling of danger also grew around me.
Suddenly everything went absolutely quiet; not a single
movement could be detected, no wind, no trees moving, not a
single animal or insect made any noise. I slowly looked around at
my surroundings taking note of everything, then I took notice that
Elder Wing was no longer in my sights, and I couldn't tell which
way he went. Thinking that he hurried along the path, I too hurried
along the path quietly, but very observant constantly looking
around.
Then I could sense a large being behind of me on the
path. I stopped dead in my tracks, I didn't move, I took small light
breaths.
The energy ball continued to build, but the power that was
already compacted in me was immense. I spun around quickly
and released the ball of energy at this large being that stood there
behind of me, knocking it off it's feet. Before I could take notice of
what or who it was I pulled the energy of the wind right out of the
sky pushing this being on the ground back into a tree. "Mia, stop."
I heard. I quickly stopped the wind from blowing and I released
any energy that continued to build.
When the dust settled I saw Elder Wolf crouching over with
his back against the tree, in pain.
"Elder Wolf? Oh my god I'm
sorry." I said, hurrying over toward him. I pulled him forward off the
tree. "I'm so sorry Elder." I said, feeling so stupid, like maybe I
really wasn't ready for any of this.
"Mia, that was the point of what
I did. I needed to know that you could do it, and do it by yourself."
He said, with a painful voice.
"But I could have really hurt you Elder." I replied. "Ah yes, you
very well could have, but you controlled your emotions and did
what you needed to keep yourself safe." He said, as he shrugged
his shoulders. I helped him to his feet and we walked slowly back
to the camp, with elder Wolf limping slowly along side me.
When we got back to the camp I helped elder Wolf sit by the fire,
as the night air chipped at his painful body. "What happened?"
Dad asked, as he stirred a pot of something cooking.
"Ha, ha, ha; looks like she got you huh?" Elder Wing teased.
"She sure did.
David your daughter will do fine." He praised, as
he tapped me on my head. Everyone began laughing hysterically.
All of a sudden I could hear birds chirping in the distance; this
chirping was not your normal sounds instead it sounded like it was
in a panic.
"Elders, Elders." I heard as the chirping got closer. "The
darkness grows just beyond the barricade. The Elemental's will be
back soon. Thomas got hurt." Wing said, fluttering his little wings
in utter panic. Dad, Elder Wing, and Elder Wolf picked up sticks
that were filled with funny looking patterns; that leaned on the logs
around the fire; together they hit the ground very hard, and made
a bright red and green pulsing light with every time the sticks hit
the ground.
Suddenly the camp was surround by the red glowing eyes of
animals. "Go now and keep the Elemental's safe, and bring
Thomas back." Elder Wolf commanded, with that said the red
eyes disappeared back into the forest.
The air grew very cold and
the sky grew very dark. I looked up at the sky and saw that the
same over cast that was above the town earlier was now swirling
around the forest stretching far and wide.
I put my hands up in the air to feel the energy that built above
me. I could feel a dark energy, an evil energy, and energy so
black that it began to burn the palms of my hands. I dropped my
hands down quickly; shaking it, trying to cool the burns that I felt.
A loud crashing sound grew louder and louder until I saw the large
bear come running out of the path to the old tree, he had uncle
Tom on his back. The bear brought uncle Tom to dad, laying on
the ground to make it easier for uncle Tom to get off.
"What happened?" Dad said. "That damn devil is just beyond
the barricade and her puppet's gonna get through it soon." He
replied sliding his body off the bear.
I looked over toward the path
and noticed that Steve, Jon, Jim and Tucker was running back to
the camp. "Is everyone here?" Steve asked looking around. I
looked around and nodded my head.
Steve quickly moved away from everyone in the camp and
waved his hands as he slowly spun around in a complete circle.
All of a sudden around the entire camp; Steve built Up a wall
made completely out of fire, he raised his hands high above his
head, raising the fire higher and higher until it was as high as the
tallest tree. He made his hands into fist, pulled it close to his body
then hit it on the ground, and the red and orange glow of the
flames, turned bright white. The heat of the fire pushed the tree
tops back and away.
I could hear a deep growling that slowly got louder and
louder, as it got closer to the camp. "That sounds like animals." I
