Chapter 4

The longest chapter yet.

“You think we should trust them,” Eliena asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Molento replied. He swooped down towards the figure that had spoken, and Eliena followed, readying her spear.

As they got closer, Molento realized that what he had thought were clothes on some of the figures were in fact fur. In all, there were about as many Avins as Nekons in the crowd gathered below them.

Landing in front of the person that had spoken, a young Nekon with black fur and even darker hair, the liquid void ending just after his shoulders, Molento asked, “Who are you?”

The Nekon laughed, his golden eyes obscured as he closed his eyes and revealed the sharp fangs in his mouth. The sound was eerily disturbing, despite obviously being an expression of mirth, and Eliena shivered. “That’s a good one, Molento,” he said, “You always did have a sense of humor at all the wrong times.”

“Molento,” one of the Avins asked, “As in The Molento, the founder of the Army?”

Murmurs broke out in the crowd, and everyone leaned forward to get a better look at him. The Nekon clapped his hands together and yelled out over the crowd. “Yes,” he confirmed, “This is in fact your leader. He has never shown himself to you because he feared you would reject him, and not follow him and his cause because of prejudice and fear.”

“That’s stupid,” one of the other Nekons yelled out, “We’d follow you anywhere; you’ve led us to many great achievements already.”

“But what if,” Molento spoke out, “You didn’t know about those achievements; what if you had just seen me, a boy, a crossbreed, an abomination? Would you even listen to me, or would you kill me on the spot?”

“Well, okay, we’ll give you that,” the same Nekon yelled out, “But what about after that, after we knew what you had accomplished?”

The black Nekon turned to Molento. “Nothing to say to that, eh? Go on; take full command of your soldiers. Give them a speech.”

Everyone gazed at Molento expectantly. He looked back at all of them, realizing that they would, in fact, follow him.

“I-I… um,” Molento stammered, “I… um.” He cleared his throat and started again. “I am very grateful for your words,” he said, his voice gaining strength as he spoke, “But I was not kidding, I don’t remember any of you. I lost my memory about…”

He turned to Eliena. “Three days,” he asked her.

“Yup, three days.”

“Three days ago,” he said, turning back to everyone else, “A little bit has come back to me, such as some details about the Army, and what happened leading up to my loss of memory, but other than that, nothing.”

Cries of amazement erupted from the crowd, and Molento waited for them to die down before speaking again. He explained what had happened the past three days, and also about Eliena. He also explained how he survived the explosion and the fall, explaining that he had wards around him, but they had been depleted when he had the ground.

As Molento talked, the sun rose to its zenith. When he was finished, the lead Nekon stepped forward. “It’s past time for lunch, so let’s eat, but please don’t pester Molento.” Then, turning to Molento and Eliena, he said, “Follow me, we’ll eat together, and I’ll answer your questions.”

They climbed down off of the ruins of the castle, careful of the bodies, and walked to the edge of the cliff. The Nekon’s long, wide-sleeved tunic flowed out behind him like a cape as he walked. Around them, everyone was taking food out of packs, sitting and talking amongst themselves or staring at Molento.

“My name is Vien,” he said, looking out at the valley, “and I am your best friend, military advisor, and right hand man.” He turned around and sat down, gesturing for Molento and Eliena to sit as well.

“Why weren’t you in the castle when it was destroyed,” Molento asked, sinking to the ground, “Where were you?”

“We had found a secret passage, and with your permission, went to explore it and where it went.”

“And where did it go?”

“You won’t believe this,” Vien said, shaking his head in disbelief, “It went through the mountains. We emerged about a hundred miles away from the Nekon capitol.”

“But the capitol is over five hundred miles away,” Eliena exclaimed.

“Yes, it took us a week to get there,” Vien confirmed, “and a week to get back.”

“Only a week?”

Vien looked at her suspiciously. “Why are you surprised,” he said, “You’re an Avin, you know of the strength of our races.”

“Eliena is only half Avin. Her father is human and her mother…”

“She disappeared when I was seven.”

“Oh,” Vien muttered, feeling slightly wrong-footed, “Um… well…”

“Do you know who my parents are,” Molento asked, moving on.

“No, I don’t,” Vien responded, “That was the only thing you refused to tell me, or anyone else that I know of about. I’d say sorry, but you kinda have yourself to blame.”

“Well, then, what’s you and the Army’s next move,” Molento asked.

“Well, we don’t have much food left,” his eyes fixed on a couple of Nekons that were chasing rats while he spoke, “ we expected to be back in the safety of the castle by now.

“We could always stay here, but we have no shelter other than the tunnel, and after awhile we’d deplete the resources of the area. Maybe going back through the tunnel and fending for ourselves would be the best choice, but it’s not up to me, I only advise, the final decision is always up to you.”

“Even now? Even when I don’t remember anything?”

“Yes, I trust your judgment, always have, always will.”

“But I won’t remember what did or didn’t work in the past.”

“That’s what you have me for.”

“Well…”

“You don’t have to decide now.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“Tell me everything since we met.”

Vien sighed. “That won’t fill in much, I’m afraid,” he said, “we only met about a year ago. I was getting tired of the war. I started to realize that it was just senseless killing. People around me were dying, people in my command, friends.”

“In you command?”

“Yes, I was a general in the Nekon army, a good one too.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen, same as you, near as I can figure; you never told me your age, but after you got your wings it wasn’t too hard to guess. I joined the army when I was ten and quickly rose through the ranks.

“But, like I said, I started to realize the truth, and I know that some of my soldiers felt the same way.

“That’s when we met. I was at the capitol on leave, visiting my family, and I decided to desert the army, possibly take some of my soldiers with me. I needed someone to confide in, someone, anyone.

“I was sitting on a bench in the park, when a small tiger-printed housecat appeared before me. I just started rambling, telling the cat everything. When I had finished, the cat spoke to me. Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind; I thought I had just told a loyal Nekon that I was going to desert.

“Then, the words started to trickle through my panic. ‘I agree with you,’ the cat had said, ‘this war is pointless. I can help you disappear.’ I was shocked, another Nekon, a seemingly powerful one, wanted to help.

“The cat looked left and right, checking that no one was near. When it was satisfied, it jumped on to the bench, shifting in midair. When it landed it was you, Molento.”

“Me.”

“Yes, you.

“Over the next few days, we formulated a plan. We would cause a distraction in the military camp, and we would run, taking some of the rebelling Nekons with us.

“When I went back, I found the rebelling Nekons and told them the plan, the distraction was up to you.

“The day of our escape came, and you initiated the distraction. To this day I don’t know how you pulled it off. The distraction you created was an illusion of an Avin attack party, flying towards camp. Everyone thought that they had slipped past the border somehow, and in the confusion of everyone running to attack, we escaped. We were noticed, however, and attacked. I was the only survivor out of the twenty of us that ran.”

“It sounds like I used magic, doesn’t it,” Molento asked.

“Not possible,” Vien replied, “You have never shown the slightest inclination towards magical ability. You can’t use magic.”

Molento and Eliena exchanged uneasy glances at that statement.

“What is it,” Vien asked, noticing the glance.

“Well,” Molento said, troubled, “You should see this.”

Molento closed his eyes and reached deep inside himself, searching for the power that had rushed to the surface when he had levitated the window. Just as he was about to give up, he felt a small pulsing of energy. He grabbed hold of it and opened his eyes, which glowed black with power again.

Vien gasped and stumbled back, nearly falling off the cliff. “What? But how,” he asked in surprise.

“I don’t know,” Molento responded, and then fell silent, feeling the power start to slip away. He raised his right hand, which started to glow black as well, and pointed at a piece of the castle. The stone glowed black and lifted itself off the ground, following Molento’s motion.

All motion stopped around them, everyone watching the stone. When it had floated up about a hundred feet, it stopped glowing and crashed back down, narrowly missing someone.

“Oops,” Molento said, eyes and hand back to normal, “Lost my concentration.”

“Interesting,” Vien said, “That was definitely magic, but you definitely didn’t have magic when we met.”

“But what about the wards,” Molento asked, “I definitely remember wards.”

“I put those on you.”

“Oh.”

“That reminds me, I should take a look at your injuries; I can heal, too.”

“Okay.”

Molento took off his shirt, revealing the bandages on his left side. He took the bandages off, revealing large patches of bare skin, but no burns.

“How,” Vien breathed, astonished, “You should have burns.”

“He did,” Eliena responded, equally mystified, “When we bandaged him up, he had severe burns. My dad said that he’d have scars.”

“He should have at least that, but his skin is perfectly fine, he just has no fur on it.”

“It doesn’t hurt. It’s a bit tender, but it doesn’t hurt. It hurt a few minutes ago, before I used magic, but now it doesn’t.”

“Amazing, it’s almost as if…”

“What?”

“Instinctive healing.”

“Instinctive healing?”

“Yes, instinctive healing. You healed yourself with no intent to do so.”

“Hmm.”

“To have such the ability to do that is very rare. To be able to do so, you have to have the rarest of all innate abilities, an instinctual knowledge of magic.”

“But my innate ability is shape-shifting.”

“Net necessarily. Instinctual knowledge of magic, from what I’ve heard about it, can manifest itself, seeming to be something else. You might have instinctual knowledge of magic, and it just manifested itself as shape-shifting until now.”

“But why would it do that?”

“Maybe it latched onto a feeling, maybe a feeling of needing to change yourself, or a feeling of inadequacy.”

“But won’t it do that again?”

“No, from what I’ve heard, now that you know about it, it will stop manifesting as something else, and instead unlock fully. But I may be wrong; I’m just going off of rumors and hearsay.”

“I wish I had an innate ability,” Eliena sighed.

“Have you ever tried to do magic,” Vien asked.

“Well, no, but wouldn’t it just randomly appear?”

“Not necessarily. It’s true that in some cases an innate ability randomly appears, but in the majority of cases, it only appears when the person tries to do magic for the first time. Why don’t you try to do magic now?”

“Okay, how do I do that?”

“It’s different for every person, but try to search for some indication of power deep inside you. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work immediately, it will probably require concentration and digging in parts of your mind you have never accessed.”

“Okay, I’ll try,” Eliena said, excited. She closed her eyes and reached deep into her mind. “Please be there, please be there,” she thought as she searched through her mind, past her oldest memories. Almost immediately, she found a part of her mind that was closed from her. “Almost like a door,” Eliena thought as she pushed against it.

Immediately, she felt a swirling stream of energy surge through her whole body and the door seemed to open. She opened her eyes in surprise.

“Your eyes,” Vien exclaimed, “They’re black!”

“Yeah, so,” Eliena asked.

“I’ve never seen a magic aura that color before today.”

The power coursing through Eliena’s body was getting stronger, and she started to vibrate. “What does that mean,” she shouted over the noise of it.

“You could possibly have the same ability,” Vien responded, raising his voice over the wind, which had started to blow harder.

“I could have the same ability as Molento,” Eliena thought as the ground started to shake. Everyone watched as Eliena started to glow with a soft white light. Water from a nearby stream rose into the air and started to circle her. The wind picked up, swirling around her and the ground shook even harder.

“Stop it,” Molento yelled over the gale, “You’re doing this. Stop it!”

Eliena tried to release the magic, but found that she couldn’t. The magic had taken control of her body. “I can’t stop it,” she yelled back to Molento.

Molento cursed, realizing that someone had to stop her before she accidentally killed them all. He reached for his magic and thought about what he needed: a way to stop Eliena. Immediately, he saw something that he hadn’t before: everything that Eliena had summoned up was moving in a pattern, following the flow of magic underlying everything.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Molento ran forward, dodging gusts of wind and water moving so fast it would have cut him. He made it though the outer circle of magic without so much as a scratch on him and jumped, slipping through a momentary weak point in the magical barrier of the inner circle, his hand glowing black as it reached forward. Grabbing Eliena by the forehead, he sent a surge of magic down his arm and everything stopped. The wind died down, the water fell to the motionless ground with a splash, and Eliena stopped glowing. She collapsed to the ground, motionless.

“What did you do,” Vien asked, afraid.

“I locked her magic,” Molento responded sadly, reaching out a hand to help Eliena up, “I made it so that she won’t be able to use magic until I remove the seal.”

“It’s for the best,” Eliena said, taking Molento’s hand and pulling herself up, “I can’t trust myself to do that again.”

“What I want to know is: Why did that happen?”

“Well, first of all, I think that it is obvious that Eliena has instinctive knowledge of magic.”

“Yes? And?”

“And, well… Eliena, did you in any way want that to happen?”

“No! Well… it did feel good to have that power.”

“And that’s the reason. Your magic took charge and did what you subconsciously wanted.”

“Killing everyone?”

“No, not killing everyone, didn’t you notice that no one was ever close enough to get hurt until you ran in? It looked more like a display of power.”

Molento suddenly realized that everyone was silently watching them, listening to the conversation. He looked at them, and they quickly turned away, muttering to each other. He then turned back to Vien. “Please continue your story,” he asked.

Vien nodded and they sat back down. He started speaking, telling them about the beginning days of the Army, when they hid in fear, of the growth of the Army, and of battles they had stopped or won. When he was done, Molento was silent. “I can’t remember any of this,” Molento said suddenly, frustrated, “I want to remember, but I can’t.”

“It’ll come back to you eventually,” Eliena assured.

Molento looked up at the sky in desperation and noticed that the sun had sunk while Vien had talked and was now halfway to the horizon. He knew that he would have to make his decision soon. He also knew the decision he should make, but was loath to make it because it would mean giving up his friend.

“I have made my decision,” Molento sighed, getting it over with, “The Army will go through the tunnel and camp out somewhere in Nekon territory.”

“What about you,” Vien asked.

“I will come with you. Eliena, on the other hand, will stay here.”

“What! No, I won’t, I’m coming with you.”

“No you won’t.”

“Give me one good reason.”

“One: you’re a civilian; I can’t put you at risk. Two: even if I allowed you to come, you would slow us down.”

“Then I’ll join the Army.”

“You can’t, you’re too young.”

“I’m the same age as you.”

“But…”

“She’s got you there, Molento.”

“Fine, but she’ll start out at the lowest rank, same as everyone else. Not so keen now are ya?”

“I’ll do it gladly.”

“Then you should talk to your father and tell him you’re leaving.”

“Oh. Um… how about I don’t and we’ll say I did?”

“Why?

“Well… he won’t like it.”

“And he’ll say no?”

“And he’ll say no.”

“Well, that’s pessimistic, you never know until you try.”

“Okay, but I’m telling you: it won’t work.”

Molento turned to Vien. “I’m going with her, get everyone ready to go.”

“Why did you change your opinion so fast,” Vien asked in an undertone.

“He’ll say no,” Molento responded equally hushed, then louder: “We’ll be back soon.” Then he turned to Eliena. “Let’s go,” he told her.

They rose up into the air, higher and higher until they appeared no larger than birds to anyone watching from the village, then turned towards Eliena’s farm. They glided until they were directly above the house and dove, landing in front of the house. Eliena turned to Molento. “Wait here,” she said and entered the house.

Molento turned to look at the castle, watching the figures rush around, and thought about his past. He didn’t remember much, but he knew that what Vien had told him was true. He knew that he had founded the Army, and had a suspicion that he hadn’t created the distraction, but had arranged it.

He heard shouts coming from the house, and turned back to it. A moment later, Eliena opened the door and stormed out, closely followed by David, who was the one shouting.

“I won’t let you,” he yelled at Eliena, “You’ll get killed! You have no fighting training!” Noticing Molento, he started raving at him. “And you! Why are you trying to recruit a sixteen year old girl into an Army! Are you crazy?”

“I didn’t try to recruit her,” Molento responded calmly, “she insisted to join. She wanted to come with the Army, but I told her that I wouldn’t take a civilian with us, it is too dangerous.”

“So you made her a soldier?”

“No, I was waiting for your approval. Seeing that you don’t approve, I’ll go now.”

Molento turned around and opened his wings. “Maybe I’ll see you again someday,” he said and flew off, leaving David and Eliena staring at him, dumbstruck.

“Come on,” David said, recovering first, “let’s get inside.”

He put his hand on Eliena’s shoulder to guide her inside, but quickly removed it when a large spark jumped between them.

“You can’t stop me,” Eliena told him, her voice dangerous, “I’m going whether you like it or not.”

She turned to David, and he noticed that her eyes were black. “Goodbye,” she said and floated up in the air without using her wings. When she had floated up ten feet, she opened them and flew towards the castle, low and fast.

“That was unsettling,” David thought, turning back and entering the house. “They did something to her when they were up there.” He climbed up the stairs. “Whatever they did, Molento is responsible for it.” He opened the door to his room and stepped in. “I’ll make him pay.” He stood in the middle of his room, examining his large collection of assassin weapons. “He’ll regret ever making The King of Death angry.”