Fifty-Ray

A Chapter by Sophie

chapter fifty! I never thought I'd see the day...

Chapter 50

Ray

We come into view of the camp to a sight I never thought I'd see. Not because Jasper was comforting Briar-Rose while she cried, but because of the headless body of Ariel. Airborne lands and Nox and I reform. His wounds are now scars, slightly raised and more red, unlike the older ones.

“What happened?” I ask the second I'm solid again.

“Ariel came to fight me and kill me. But I killed her instead.” Bry sniffs, tears still dripping off her jaw. Jasper's arms are tight around her, hugging her to him, like he's protecting her from anything else that might come. But he looks worriedly at me. I smile slightly and nod. He smiles and holds her closer, if that's possible.

“Nox, what happened to you?” Jasper asks, noticing the new scars. I look away in shame.

“Oh, Satelles dropped me above some trees.” Nox says nonchalantly.

“That's not what happened! Don't lie on my account!” I say, then turning to the others I say, “No, he's lying. I whipped him 167 times until he passed out for the second time.”

Air gasps, because she still hadn't found out what happened.

“Well tell the rest of it too!” He argues, “She was brainwashed, and I had to get her out of it.”

“One hundred, sixty-seven times!” I say again. He rolls his eyes.

“It's okay! You blew up the manor anyway!”

“What?!” Bry asks. I tell her what happened right up until the almost kiss, where I restrain that. I'll tell her that later. Then I see something in the sky. Marina is waving from the back of a griffin with Wren, who doesn't look hurt at all like Nox said. They land.

“Griffin is on our side, a lot of Malum's creations are tuning against him.” Wren says when we back away from the monster.

“That's what the giants said, I told him I was fighting against Malum and he put me back on Earth's surface.” Jasper says.

“Phoenix is sorry, Light. She changed mind, tried save. But Light gone.” The griffin says, turning to me. I nod. “Fire be back soon. Dragon had to take so Plants could kill Death.” He says.

“Wait, what did you call my sister?” Bry asks, not angrily just confused.

“Sine are Death. Your sister was leader.”

“Guys, there's a prophecy I need to show you.” Bry says, getting the journal. She opens it up to a page and we all read it out loud.

“Darkness' soul surrenders

to the light hidden within

when the tides are in,

you cannot see inside

but it is pulled out again

showing the rubble in it's wake

when the tight knots turn to loose strings

the bird learns to beat his wings

Fight fire with Fire

many shall be burned

And out of the ashes

love will be returned.

Wind must rise to meet the challenge

or none will escape the wicked talons

on cloudy days

you can't see the Sun's rays

she must shine bright

for the Eight to win the fight

The Earth trembles and quakes

keeping all at arms' length

and waits

for one who can see real from fake

From the ruins and broken glass

seedlings begin to regrow at last

old scars are fading

and secrets she has been cradling

are released in her awakening.

Both good and evil will realize

what has always been in front of their eyes

but for them to see

many will discover their mortality

and only then will evil flee

And, finally, the love that grows,

beautiful yet lethal

shall decide

whether it is the thorns,

or the rose.”

“So, what does that mean, exactly?” Air asks.

“Well, I guess that's the point of prophecies, you don't know until it happens.” Wren shrugs.

“There's another thing.” Nox says, “Each of us has to have some sort of tragedy happen to us, something bad. Like, Marina has definitely had hers.” He says, looking at her. She puts her head down.

“I have, my mom being an a*****e.” Airborne says. “Or accidentally killing Missy. The first time.”

“Wait, what?” Jasper asks.

“Well, I was taken by... Missy. Malum had found her and revived her, she was an angry zombie with black wings, and I killed her again, she wanted me to.” Air gulps.

“I just had mine, or maybe it was the first time.” Bry says quietly.

“Maybe mine was living with Malum.” Nox says, but he sounds like he was going to add another option. Was mine what I did to Nox? I don't think so, so that means something is to come. Great.

“Maybe Ash's was his dad leaving or something.” Air suggests.

“Why do we have to have tragedies?” I ask.

“Well, I figure it's kind of like karma, we're extra powerful, so something bad has to happen to us. It's just how the universe works.” Nox explains.

We speculate about the prophecy and our tragedies for a while. Then a dragon lands behind us and Ash gets off, his arm only slightly burnt.

“Ash!” Air yells and throws her arms around him. Then she realizes something and her eyes snap open and jumps away. “Sorry.” She mumbles. He laughs nervously. Then spots Ariel's body, which is still just lying there.

“Um, can someone bury her?” I say, directing my gaze at Jasper.

“What? Oh-oh yeah.” And soon she is covered by earth. We tell Ash the flood of things that has happened, starting with Ariel's death and ending with tragedies.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” He says, something my mom always said when she was shocked, it makes me sad.

“When do we get to go home?” I whisper quietly, “The town must be going crazy.”

“We can't yet, we haven't even fought Malum once.” Nox says.

“Easy for you to say! You don't even have a family to miss!” I snap. I see pain flash in his eyes. “Nox, I'm sorry, I'm just tired and stressed, I guess saving the human race is just a lot to think about today...” I ramble and apology.

“It's okay.” He says softly. Jeez, you'd think I'd be more careful after what I did to him, whipping him and rejecting him, sort of. It's just so frustrating!

“Ray's right, why don't we all get some sleep.” Wren says, even though the sun isn't even setting yet. We all nod and I notice the circles under everyone's eyes, how thin we all are, how desperate we look. I want to go home.

Is it bad I want to fight Malum just so I can go home and sleep in an actual bed and take a warm shower with conditioner?

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© 2012 Sophie

Author's Note

reviews please!
Also, the prophecy is different than in the other chapters because I'm too lazy to go back and fix them. Eventually.
Brooklyn wrote the prophecy for me because I suck at it. If you haven't already, check out her writing, its amazing :P