Chronicles of Eden - Act VI (7 page)

“All I have to do is tap her nose and she’s as good as dead,” Ember said with a laugh before glaring at Apoch with discontent. “Do you want to see your dear sister scream in agony before she drops dead in the flames?”

“No, please don’t take her from me!” Apoch pleaded holding her hands together.

“Then tell me where Alyssa went!” Ember shouted at her. “You two are known helpers of Charlotte, you travel around her region at the beck and call of your alpha, you know where your sisters go and hide in this land better than most. So tell me where has Alyssa gone?”

“We don’t know,” Apoch desperately implored. “We don’t know where she is, we haven’t seen her since she left Eston. I swear, we have no idea where she is!”

“I think you’re lying to me,” Ember derided while narrowing her eyes at the girl.

“I’m telling you the truth!” Apoch begged while dropping down onto her knees. “We don’t know where she went to, I swear on my life!”

“We don’t know where she is,” Astreal choked out while shutting her eyes tight. “It’s the truth. We have come across nobody that has heard of where she went to.”

Ember glared at Apoch for a while before recalling the fires around her hand, then grabbed Astreal by the chin and turned the girl around to face her. Astreal whined with a strained expression as even though the fires were gone Ember’s hand was still hot to the touch and caused extreme pain to her. Apoch watched fearfully as Astreal wavered while seeming half-conscious from being drained of her strength, her eyes wearily staring into Ember’s as the dark witch scowled at her.

“You swear on your life?” Ember repeated. “On your sister’s life even, that you don’t know where Alyssa is?”

“I swear,” Astreal quietly said while struggling to remain standing.

“Please, don’t hurt her anymore,” Apoch pleaded with tears in her eyes.

Ember slowly breathed out then threw Astreal aside towards her sister. The battered witch tumbled to the ground in front of Apoch who quickly knelt down and held her close with watery eyes.

“How disappointing,” Ember derided looking to the burning firestorm nearby with annoyance.

“Sister,” Apoch whimpered while shakily holding a hand over Astreal’s burned chest.

Ember rested her good eye on the twins with a dull expression on her face as Apoch held her sister close and cried from seeing her hurt so badly. Astreal slowly glanced over to Ember and saw the dark witch watching them with a small scowl briefly being seen before vanishing.

“You… will… regret… this…” Astreal managed to get out before her eyes began to lose focus.

“You will not be forgiven for this act!” Apoch snapped at Ember with fury.

“I don’t need your forgiveness,” Ember retorted before flinging her hand towards the sisters, throwing a fiery spear of crimson flames at them. Apoch quickly held her sister close and ducked down before it hit them, the two girls instantly bursting into flames with shrieks of agony echoing out around the area. Ember watched as the two witches lit up with fire almost seeming to erupt from their bodies, her face illuminated from the bright light showing her cold expression while she casually flicked her hand to the side with specks of fire coming off her fingers briefly.

“All I need is to know where Alyssa is, nothing more,” she spoke before walking away while dragging her sword behind her. The screams of the sisters quickly died as life left their charred bodies, both the girls collapsing together while burning intensely as witches normally did. A few poofs of crimson and white light exploded from their focusers cracking apart and dissolving from the extreme heat and flames while their staves started to turn to dust and crumble into pieces.

Ember dragged her sword away with the haunting scraping sound of the blade razing across the ground behind her, eyes set in a dark glare as she departed the graveyard which now had three new corpses among it. The witch glanced back once more to seeing the flames burning brightly and smoke billowing into the air before she waved her hand sharply before her, causing fire to erupt wildly around her in a thick torrent before fading away to reveal she was gone once again.

*****

The sun started to shine across The Outerlands as another day began. As the rays crept along the land it came across Kroanette and Clover, with the centaur slowly beginning to stir as the warmth on her face woke her up. Clover grunted with annoyance as she turned to her side and clutched her bow close to her, seeming to be irritated by the light coming across her while Kroanette yawned and sat up rubbing one of her eyes as she came to.

“Another day,” Kroanette spoke to herself as she saw the sun rising over the horizon. “And it’s starting off beautifully so far.”

“Shut up,” Clover muttered while turning her face down towards her quiver.

“And you’re just as foul in the morning as you are during the day. Splendid,” Kroanette dryly replied to her.

“I don’t like waking up to hearing sentimental bullshit,” Clover grunted before she reluctantly sat up and took out the leaf ribbons from her hair. As she fluffed her long golden locks with a dull expression on her face Kroanette merely shook her head at the elf as she never recalled a moment when the elf appeared genuinely happy.

“Don’t you smile about anything?” Kroanette asked as she got up onto her feet and brushed some grass off her side. “You’re always so angry and negative about everything. Would it honestly kill you to have a more positive outlook on life?”

“What do I have to smile about?” Clover scoffed at her as she started to set her hair into her long pigtails again. “I’m stuck hitching a ride home with you weirdos, I had to sleep out here with the horse and you because Dan snores louder than pissed off minotaur, I lost my priestess’s treasure to that fucking cat bitch, and to top it all off I’m hungry!”

Kroanette sighed then walked over and knelt down to wake Lucky, the horse grunting softly while she pat him on the head and nose.

“She’s just the worst kind of person, isn’t she, Lucky?” she mused to the horse.

“Fuck you too,” Clover snapped as she got to her feet and holstered her quiver behind her. She marched off towards the caravan while holding her bow, grumbling profanities to herself as Kroanette glanced back to her and shook her head slightly.

“I really do pray she doesn’t ruin this day,” she voiced without much hope before she stood up and stretched out her arms, her eyes then taking notice that Pip wasn’t sleeping in her chest.

“Pip?” she asked as she parted her bosom with both hands, peering into her shirt and seeing no sign of the tiny monster. Looking around the area she scratched her head with a worried frown. “And I hope she didn’t blow up another village while we were all asleep again.”

Clover climbed up onto the seat of the caravan then barged in through the curtain with a scowl on her face.

“Alright, I’m-” she started before freezing in place. Standing before her Daniel was also still as he watched her with some surprise and also only having his pants on. Clover slowly eyed the boy over then showed a confused face and looked past him to where the girls were watching her from the bed. Triska, Alyssa, and Specca had their eyes on the elf while they still had the sheets pulled over their laps and were naked together. Triska merely raised an eyebrow at Clover with a dull stare while Alyssa was adjusting her focuser necklace while watching the elf with aggravation. Specca was adjusting her glasses while sleeping next to her Luna was cuddled up against the nixie and holding onto her waist with a small smile on her face. Squeak slowly uncurled from her ball and yawned with a squeak while Falla was still sound asleep near her, while fluttering above her Pip was looking at the elf with a curious eye as her wings moved about rapidly.

“Clover?” Daniel asked as the elf glanced to him again, down to his chest, then to the other girls with puzzlement.

“Seriously?” she questioned looking at Daniel’s chest skeptically. “Why do you all want to be close to this guy? There’s barely any muscle on him, he looks like a twig.”

A mere second later the elf crashed through the side of the cabin, with Kroanette and Lucky jumping from the sound as Clover tumbled away on the grass with her bow bouncing onto the ground behind her. Luna and Falla jumped with a surprise at hearing the sudden noise, both quickly looking around in a daze before noticing a large hole in the side of the cabin above the second bed. A few broken pieces of wood dropped down from the wall while the group turned to Alyssa who had her hand held out towards the opening with a stern expression on her face.

“I really hate that girl,” Alyssa scorned with a small grunt.

“Alyssa!” Specca snapped at her.

“What? You’re telling me you didn’t want me to throw her out after saying that about Daniel?”

“No, I’d rather she get worse to be honest, but you could have hit the support beam in the corner,” Specca explained while pointing to the enlarged magical support beam near the bed that was right next to the open hole that Clover had made with her body being thrown through it by the witch.

“If that gets broken we all would have been in danger,” Specca scolded. “You remember what Charlotte warned us about those, we can’t damage them at all or else.”

“I was careful not to hit it,” Alyssa replied with a wave of her hand.

“What just happened?” Falla asked glancing around confusedly.

“Clover wouldn’t keep her mouth shut again,” Triska answered with a shrug.

“Is she alright?” Luna asked looking at the hole in the wall curiously.

Daniel walked over and saw Clover further away from the caravan, the elf stumbling back to her feet before she started stomping around while cursing repeatedly with relentless fury. Kroanette watched with a raised eyebrow as the elf shouted and stomped her feet in her tirade while Lucky grunted and shook his head slowly before he started walking off to find something to eat.

“She’s… alright,” Daniel answered with a small shrug.

“Damn,” Alyssa muttered.

Specca shook her head slightly then smiled amusedly at Luna, the butterfly girl looking to her curiously as the nixie glanced down to her hips then to Luna again.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Specca asked. “I mean you were holding onto me rather tightly the entire time.”

The group turned to Luna as she jumped with a small blush before she smiled nervously and lowered her head.

“Well… yes, I did. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“It wasn’t a bother, it was sort of cute,” Specca giggled with a shrug. “You rolled over in the middle of the night and held onto me like I was a child’s stuffed animal.”

“She does that,” Falla spoke up with a small chuckle. “Whenever we slept together out in The Outerlands she always held onto me at night. Whoever’s next to her becomes her sleeping buddy.”

“Sorry,” Luna apologized again. “I like being close to someone when I’m asleep, it makes me feel better.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Specca assured with a wink at her. “I’m used to being held by someone when I’m sleeping now anyway. I don’t mind.”

Luna giggled softly with a timid glance to her then looked to her sister with a curious smile.

“Did you sleep well, Falla?”

“Yeah, I did,” Falla said turning to Daniel with wonder. “After Daniel stopped snoring I felt so relaxed in here like this.”

“He didn’t stop snoring,” Pip chimed in before flying around Daniel in a blue blur. “He was making those loud noises all through the night. I was bouncing on his chest so much from it rumbling like a wild bear, it was fun! It was like he was rocking me to sleep all night long!”

“You were sleeping on me?” Daniel asked curiously, then showed concern as the fairy stopped in front of his face with an innocent smile. “Wait, I’m not that loud at night, am I?”

“You sure were!” Pip cheered with a hop in the air. “Can I sleep on your chest again tonight? Please? That was so much fun!”

Daniel smiled weakly to that then looked to the girls as they all shrugged with amusement at him.

“I didn’t notice it,” Triska reassured him. “And I was right next to you all night.”

“Same here,” Alyssa agreed. “We saw Pip fly in here during the night and lay down on you before she fell asleep. She seemed to be okay with it.”

“His chest rumbled like crazy!” Pip giggled before flying around Daniel again and again in her excitement. “It felt like all of Eden was shaking! I dreamed of so many boobies bouncing around me from sleeping like that, it was the greatest!”

Everyone just stared at the circling blue blur of light around Daniel with blank expressions for a moment before looking to each other again.

“I don’t know how to take that,” Daniel said shaking his head.

“None of us do,” Specca replied with a similar gesture.

“So wait,” Falla spoke before pointing to Daniel. “You were snoring all night again?”

“I guess so,” Daniel worriedly said as he looked down to the giggling fairy.

“But… it sounded like you stopped after a while,” Falla wondered before looking down with confusion. “I didn’t hear you doing that for the rest of the night.”

“Congratulations,” Triska dryly praised. “You’re one of us now.”

“I guess that proves you really do love him, Falla,” Specca reasoned with a finger held to her chin thoughtfully. “Seems those that do are able to tune out his severe snoring completely.”

“Severe?” Daniel weakly repeated before slumping his shoulders down with a sigh.

“I didn’t hear his snoring when he slept outside with me the other night,” Kroanette chimed in from the entryway. The group looked to seeing her sticking her upper body through the curtain again with a curious smile on her face. “By the way, what happened to Clover just now?”

“She made a snide remark about Daniel so I threw her out,” Alyssa answered.

“Thank you so much, Alyssa,” Kroanette kindly said with a cheery smile. “I saw her crash through the side of the caravan rather violently. It was nice.”

“It was my pleasure.”

“Good morning, Kroanette,” Daniel greeted the centaur with a smile.

“Good morning, Daniel,” she replied before watching Pip circling the boy. “Oh, and Pip is in here as well, I was wondering where she went this morning.”