Attack Of Fear

What have they gotten into?

Awaking from my rock sleep that morning wasn't pretty. Apparently everybody else woke up before me and Jaime had told them all about my purple eyes.

" It's true! That so cool, Jake! " Lilian gushed. " I wish my eyes did that. "

" Haha... no, your eye color is perfect just the way it is. "

Lilian blushed and changed the subject to moving out. I was sure I saw a gleam of joy in her eyes, though.

With everything packed up, we finally walked through those outgoing doors. There was a long sidewalk that ended with a large building. The building was made of glass, and the door was smaller than the rest. It was clear that every person was to enter alone. Inside, only a table sat in the middle of the floor. Could it be a trap?

" I'll enter first, " Whinjester offered. She was a good choice; she could both fend for herself and evade and traps.

She pushed the door opened and approached the table. She came withinh feet of it, and we just sat outside and watched.

I saw the sign on the door, and read it aloud, fighting laughter.

" Welcome to the Yellow Light Area. Today, we'll scare you to death. "

I heard some light giggles, and turned back to receive the goofy smiles of all that could.

Suddenly the table turned into mice. Millions of mice. Whinjester froze, and then ran out screaming.

" What's wrong? " I asked, alarmed.

The answer came from Spooky. " She's deathly afraid of mice. "

To add to his point, Whinjester glared at everyone, as if challenging them to laugh. Her fear was irrational, but when I looked back, the table was just a table again.

" Chloromorph. It's a creature that takes on the form of a common household item and then turns into your worst fear when you come too near, " Cassel analyzed. " To defeat the chloromorph, I'm afraid we're going to have to face our worst nightmares. "

" Who wants to try? "

Jaime stood up. " Somebody give me a bow. "

I handed her my own bow, wondering what this girl could be afraid of.

She grabbed some arrows of a different kind than my preference and stepped into the room, and stepped up to the little table.

The table was a table no longer. Instead, it was a lumber jack. It seemed obvious now, her being a wood elf. The man stood about five foot five, his belly big and carrying a chainsaw. His beard was gruffy and he stepped towards her. She hesitated, pulling up her bow, and the lumber jack started his chainsaw. Instead of the blade just being a chainsaw, it suddenly was on fire.

Of course she was also scared of uncontroled fire.

I had an urge to go help her, but the door wouldn't budge. She'd have to do it herself.

Jaime was frozen up. Reliving memories, most likely. Jerimiah banged on the glass and screamed at her about how she needed to move, and just in time, she moved out of the way. She drew her bow, and with a swift motion I'd only seen in movies, she took that lumber jack out, the first arrow hitting him in the heart. She flung open the next doors and waited just outside them. The door slammed shut on their own. The lumber jack was a table again.

" Ok, we need to know eachother's worst fears. Then we can decide who goes in next. "

Jaime was afraid of lumber jacks, and Whinjester of mice. We knew that already.

Spooky coughed. " I don't really want share mine.... "

" Yeah, " Jerimiah agreed. " Me neither. Mine's embarassing. "

" I have no fears, " Cassel declared and he fidgeted with his feathers while Lilian told us about her fear of heights.

My fear? Well, we'll find out. I turned to those unwilling to tell. " We're all gonna find out in a minute. Cassel, since you have no fear, why don't you go? "

Cassel relucantly went, and sure enough, the table stayed a table for once. He walked right out. Huh. I guess we were right to have him along.

Jerimiah finally got himself together enough to ask for an extra bag of his blue powder. Slowly he entered the dome and approached the chloromorph. I almost died laughing when I saw what it turned into: Our principal at our school mixed with an evil clown. The evil she-clown honked her nose, and Jerimiah screamed.

This is as good as it gets! I wouldn't have wanted tell either, especially if I knew I would scream like that.

The clown figure started to lecture, and Jerimiah fell asleep two seconds in. I was so glad that Jaime had gone in first, because this could have totally ruined the poor dude's love life. Eventually he woke up and got mad at it. He suddenly realized he could finally kill the person he hated most, the head of the school, and let loose a fireball that would make a really cool death. He was home-free.

" Spooks, your up. "

He shook his head, and put his claws in the ground. I tried to pull him off the ground and throw him in, but he wouldn't go. I looked at Lilian with pleading eyes and she walked in. I was wondering how the table would represent a fear of heights. Nothing happened, but Lilian froze. Probably giving her the illusion of being on a cliff. She stepped onto the table and jumped off. Then it was over. What exactly had happened. I hadn't a clue.

I finally got Spooky loose and threw him in. He tried to escape but it was too late. The table took on form even more hilarious than Jerimiah's. The figure was made of water, it's long tail swishing and its eyes gleaming. Spooky being afraid of water is rational, but the shape it took.....

" Is that me?! " Whinjester exclaimed.

The water Whinjester roared within an monsterous roar. The real Whinjester looked down in defeat. " I thought Spooky liked me...? "

Spooky seemed in a world of his own. The roar became a long arguement.

" You are a disgrace! A filthy and arrogant jerk! You walk around like you're everything, but you are not! How could anyone love you?! "

Whinjester seemed like something had just dawned on her and the sadness was gone. Maybe they would end up together after all.

Spooky's ears were back and he hissed. " Nasty chloromorph! Who do you think you're talking to? "

Spooky was a prince as of this moment; he walked right through the chloromorph and out the door.

Only Whinjester, Storm, and I were left. Storm went through, and was faced with a pretty girl, well, dog.. The dork was able to walk out the door sucessfully, and Whinjester overcame her fear.

Now I wondered about my own fear. What could it be? My worst fear was failure. But it wouldn't happen in my book. I walked right through without looking at the chloromorph. On the outside, all the girls were playing some hand game while the guys just sat back and watched. We sat in a large field, covered in flowers of sorts. Lilian cautioned not to eat them because they were poisonous. We set up camp right there. Out in the distance sat a huge metal gate that went right into the heart of the ShadowFirez city. It wasn't just an army. It was a civilization. Inside were children and mothers , except they all spoke a different language a lived a different way than us. We would ignore them. Once the reinforcements arrived, we would storm into the middle and take over the leader's palace. For tonight, I reported to Doomeater.

I was shocked to learn all the reinforcements were dead. The Shadowfirez had reset their traps while we were somewhere else and they hadn't made it. We were on our own. Announcing it to everyone was even harder. Some, like Whinjester, Cassel, Storm , and Lilian, had been there a while. They probably knew most of who died. The dragons were recovering the fallen. We would find out.

" Animal teacher Anata was among them, " Spooky put in. " Cassidy's twin brother too. "

We paid our respects and went silently to sleep. Today hadn't been quite as hard as expected. Even humorous in some aspects. Why was the paranoia still foreshadowing the future?

...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win.

I dreamed that night of the phrase, and the one proceeding it: That''s sweet of you.

* * *

The fear that had gripped my heart was gone the next morning. Suprisingly, my eyes were still purple. Whinjester and Spooky seemed to stand next to eachother more often than usual. Everything was fine; well, even.

So why am I so nervous?

Today we would venture through the Red Light Area, where the ShadowFirez' civillians live. It would be easy to ignore them. They had no defense, so there was no reason to attack them; it would be cruel to do so. Most of the fighting would be done in the palace, where the leader himself lived. Sources told us the palace was large and dark red- thus the name ShadowFirez- and was more like an arena with rooms than a palace. Our plan was to move through the town in disguise- just in case - and then sneak in the palace with the recruits and silently take them out right under their nose. Nothing to worry about.

Maybe we need a new plan. There are just too many things that could go wrong. At earliest, we could be discovered while moving through the town; most of them didn't speak English. In fact, most spoke a weird mix between English, Italian, and Japanese, called Kagurahiro. If we weren't caught then, we could be caught entering the building; what if we need something to get in, like a pass or secret word? At latest we could get discovered once inside and be taken out or killed. Worse than that, taken hostage.

Yet, there seemed to be no netter way. If we just stormed in, we would be taken notice of immediatley and have to fight hundreds-maybe millions-of enemies at once. We could also bomb it from above, but that would mean killing some of our own that were inside as spies or prisoners. We would have to go with what we had and hope for the best, but its possible we could be in way above our heads.

Packing up, at least, had no dangers. We would send Jerimiah- the only one that had the qualities to pose as ShadoowFirez at this exact moment- and put some paint on his face. He looked exceptable. We would need robes - one for each person - to go in. Wearing a black, plain robe was a law in their land. Jerimiah owned one for is light fire magic training, so we would send him in to buy more from within the town. Inside the town he would find a store that sells them and trade some hides, leftover from me and Spooky's hunting, for them. Then he would come back and we would all move out.

Now, before I continue, there's some things you should know about how the ShadowFirez were. Laws within the city were weird. It was illegal to have more than two children, for population control reasons. The drinking age was twelve, but the smoking age was twenty-five. Marijuana was legal, but chewing tobbaco was not. Sometimes people would be fined for littering, but if you were caught throwing things into the ocean, you went to jail for life. Pets? Pets were allowed, except for rodents,amphibians,and reptiles.

Since you know, it is easy to see why Spooky, Whinjester, and Storm wouldn't need a disquise, except a little paint so they couldn't be identified. Storm painted a white spot around his left eye, Spooky gave himself white stripes, and Whinjester wore some contacts so her eyes would be blue instead of fiery red. Sadly, Cassel would only be able to help in the air, because there was no way we could sneak him into the city. He was too weird to pass for a pet, and too animal-like to pass for a person. We made the paint for Jerimiah's face- paint being a trend in the growing village- out of berries and some of Lilian's magic. We stood at the gate that went into the city, and pushed Jerimiah through. Now we would wait.

It semed to take forever, but Jerimiah finally came back with the black cloaks and something we hadnt thought of- black collars, also a law for pets. Storm, Spooky, and Whinjester didn't like them- but who would? We hastily painted our faces. We had a little trouble with Jaime's face, because it already had markings on it, but Lilian just changed them different colrs so we woudn't have to paint her face. We put up our hoods. And we walked into the city.

This particular village was named Nero De Tenuta... Kagurahiro for " the Black Sealing " . Nero De Tenuta- Nero for short- was the capital, though it was small. Walking in, I looked around/ It was lush, and green. Children played outside, in twos or threes, their parents smiling at them.

" Chirede-ren! Rimanere fuori dara sarada! " a mother yelled. I quickly had Storm translate. The translation was this: Children, stay out of the road! Several carts raced down the roads at god knows what speeds- the ShadowFirez were without speed limits- and I quickly uderstood why it would be good for those kids to stay out of the roads. It seemed somewhat hard now, taking over their city. Then I remembered Jaime's little sister June, and that feeling slipped away.

We walked straight through the center of town. Looking around, their were few schools and no hospitals. These kids would have been in poverty, but the community cared for one another, sharing resources equally so their were no rich nor poor families. I also took this to mean that if we injured the palace, our societies could become one, and we could learn from eachother.

It was in these thought that we came to be close to the palace. The palace itself was made of either obsidian or onyx, both sacred metals. It looked like a dome with doors. We snuck around it, looking for where the forces entered. We found an entrance suitable and were haulted by a guard. " Chibara? " Who goes there? he asked.

I put my hand up, and I didn't have a clue where I'd learned this, but said, " Chi sono soro uomini che shirogono de serebire ra kapitare. " In translation: we are but men who choose to serve the capital. He nodded and grinned. Then he said something like, you may enter. So we did.

Inside was bustling. Men were everywhere. I saw a bunch of those signs we'd seen earlier, now realizing that all those weird signs had been written in Kagurahiro. Several of these signs said otherwise, though: Prison, Office, Registration. I hadn't known what to expect in here. But first, we would free our own prisoners. Storm, Jaime , and Jerimiah headed towards prison. Whinjester, Spooky, Lilian and I headed towards office. We were haulted.

" Chibara? " the two guards said in unison. I replied again, "C hi sono soro uomini che shirogono de serebire ra kapitare. " This time, though, they didn't buy it.

" De kui Maeshiro shi serebono? Of which Master do you serve? " Potete demotsurare ra botsura federuta? " Can you prove your loyalty?

I could not. I shook my head, and tried to knock him out , but he pushed a black alarm button on the wall two seconds before I could. A siren went off; we were in deep.

Well, at least Jaime, Storm, and Jerimiah were in.

Author's Note

Short chapter.... will lengthen later.