The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Improvising

The first thing everyone heard was the Shadovian's roar. Followed by Sophia screaming. They looked up to see she had been tackled, both scrambling to get up in time. Everyone yelled as they saw the Shadovian grab Sophia's torso in its jaws before she could get her hand inside her satchel. She screamed as she clawed at the ground, trying to pull away, but the Shadovian was too strong.

No one hesitated.

They all charged after the Shadovian as it tried to run back into the trees, unsure how to bring it down without injuring Sophia in its grasp. Apollo had taken the lead, but everyone stopped as another Shadovian leaped out in front of them. Sophia was thrashed around in the jaws of the first Shadovian for a moment as it tried to get a better grip on her, leaving her unable to draw her sword. The other Shadovian lunged at everyone. Teri came up beside Apollo, weapon in hand and gripping it tightly as it pierced the side of the beast. It let out a howl as Teri tried to pin it down. The twins came over to wrestle it as Teri struggled to pull out the trident.

"Go! We'll take care of this one!" she yelled to Apollo.

Apollo didn't hesitate. The Shadovian was getting farther into the forest as Sophia continued to scream and smack the creature, but couldn't do any real damage to it. Apollo knew he couldn't blast it with fire and risk hurting Sophia within it. Both his arms began to freeze over as he sprinted towards the creature, before using his wings to leap into the air, hoping to hit the Shadovian along its backside.

But out of nowhere, he was tackled roughly to the ground by another Shadovian hiding within the trees. They tumbled against the ground for a moment as the wind was knocked out of Apollo. He grunted as he tried to turn over, looking up to see one last glimpse of Sophia getting dragged away and he started fighting all the pain in his body to stand. He could hear the Shadovian beside him also struggling to get up. Apollo's frozen arms burst into flames as he pushed himself up and blasted the creature's face. The Shadovian barked and howled as it thrashed around before pushing itself away and standing on all fours. It lunged for Apollo, but he managed to evade. The flames disappeared into smoke and large icicles began to grow from Apollo's fingertips. He launched himself on top of the Shadovian, jabbing its sides with the sharp icicles and the beast shrieked. Apollo slammed his arms in and out of the creature until it fell to the ground and became nothing more than a shapeless black mass on the dirt.

Apollo's arms returned to normal as he breathed heavily and stood back up. He looked around, realizing the sound of Sophia's shrieking had ceased. He ran back to where he thought he saw her before, but couldn't find anything. The ground... left no noticeable trail. He suddenly heard Teri and the twins calling to him from afar and Apollo looked over to see them catching up to him.

"What happened? Where's Sophie?" Teri asked.

Apollo shook his head, "No idea. Another one... came at me. I just killed it over there, but... I don't see..."

"Where did you see her last?" the twins asked.

"I dunno, somewhere in that direction! But... I can't hear her..."

"Then let's get going. They can't have gone far."

Everyone rushed off in the direction where Apollo thought he saw Sophia. He wasn't about to give up yet, but he was confused as to how he lost her. How the hell did that Shadovian drag her away that fast? And to where? It didn't make any sense. Is this what it felt like for Sophia when she saw him.....

Apollo told himself to focus as everyone continued to rush forward. But they quickly became just as confused as he was. Where did Sophia go? How was the Shadovian able to drag her away so quickly and not leave some sort of trail behind. Not even a sign of Sophia's own struggling. How did this all happen so fast? Why snag Sophia this time? None of this made any sense...

But the day was still early, they had plenty of time, they'd search all day if they had to. As determined as they were to rescue Sophia and get themselves home safe, they hoped no other Shadovians would pop out at them any time soon.

Apollo doesn't remember being able to kill a Shadovian as quickly as he just did today. But he was also relived that Teri and the twins were okay holding off one on their own.

Everyone spread out ato cover more ground, but made sure they could all see each other from a distance. They searched for what felt like ages, but they still came up with nothing. Apollo wasn't about to assume the worst just yet, nor would he leave the forest for any reason until Sophia was found and brought home safely.

The Shadovians didn't... normally try to abduct either Apollo or Sophia before. So... why start now? Why not kill them on the spot like they were trying to do before?

Was... was all of this planned somehow? There was no way the Shadovians were capable of... doing something like that... right?