The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Nighted

[Sophia]

Teri and I both looked up, seemingly staring into nothing. No light made an appearance, besides the red eyes that stared right at us. We were both confused and scared. Surrounded by shadows and darkness. Not sure what we were looking at, but feeling threatened by it's presence somehow. We took a few steps back as the shadowy creature rose above us, almost meeting the treeline. Neither of us were sure about what to do. What we could do, or what we should do.

"I've had enough of waiting around!" the shadow roared deeply. We were both unnerved by the sound of it's voice.

"If I want this to be done right, I'll do it myself!"

Teri and I didn't understand what it was saying, but we prepared ourselves to fight. In that moment, long, shadowy arms started waving around us and Teri and I fought our way around them. With the darkness around us, it was a little hard to see but somehow our efforts seemed to be working. We dodged and struck, but neither of us were sure how long we could keep this up. I followed one of the arms with my eyes and quickly jumped over it before it could knock me down. I shouted to Teri, but she wasn't able to avoid it. I got distracted in that moment and was suddenly knocked to the ground, my eyes spinning in bewilderment. I heard Teri scream as her body was dragged into the air and it made impact against a tree. Her weapon dropped out of her webbed hand as she fell with it. I didn't see her get up.

I gripped my crystal sword tightly and raised it defensively, feeling impact after impact of the dark, shadowy arms try to strike me down. I quickly rolled out of the way as another, thicker shadow almost crushed me into the ground. I stumbled as I stepped back, trying to distance myself. The creature before me hissed and I glanced at Teri. Look's like she's been knocked out. I forced myself to look up at the darkness before me. The red eyes burning through my head. I was scared, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if we could escape. Exhausted, hurt, I was panicking and I had no plan.

However... there was on thing. But up until now, I hoped that I wouldn't have to use it. But since I had no other plan, and Teri was down for the count, I supposed it was the only idea that would be worth the risk. I placed my sword into my other hand and reached my arm into my bag. I stared at the creature as I felt around, until my fingers reached something familiar.

I equipped myself with a blue paintbrush.

The red-eyed darkness looked at me suspiciously, eyeing my movements. I wasn't sure if it waited to see what I was gonna do, or if it let me move first. But in hindsight, it seemed like we were both waiting for either one of us to make a move. I raised the brush into the air and started swiping left and right, creating broad, blue strokes in the air. The creature struck, but the blue streaks gave me cover as I started moving towards Teri. I waved the brush frantically in the air, creating more thick, colorful brushstrokes in the air. Each time the creature attacked, the colored air would take the hit and dissipate when it reeled back. Soon I was only a few steps away and the darkness tried to reach for me through the branches. I raised my other arm and struck back with my sword. The creature screeched and moved away from me. I dropped my sword at my feet, keeping my paintbrush in the air and nudging Teri with my free hand. She stirred, but she wasn't fully conscious. I kept waving my paintbrush in the air, sidestroking the air in colorful streaks to shield myself and give me enough time to get Teri out of harms way. Or to wake her up somehow.

Teri refused to wake, so instead I started dragging her by the arm away from the creature. The trees didn't provide us with much cover from the shadow's attacks, and my arm was starting to get tired.

"Teri! Teri, c'mon! Wake up!"

I dropped her arm and started brushing the air in a silvery tone. Reaching up into the air, all around the sides until it dripped to the ground. I created a temporary bubble around us. I knelt back down at Teri, shaking her, trying to get her back to her senses.

"Teri! Teri! Get up, get up!"

Teri finally opened her eyes, dazed and confused. The shadow struck the bubble, making me flinch and I couldn't look back down at Teri. With each strike, the bubble around us rippled and began to lose it's form. I didn't know how we were gonna to get out of this.

Teri's eye's widened. "Sophie, look out!"

I stood back as a large, shadowy arm came down and I almost failed out of the way in time as it crashed onto the bubble and shattered. Teri rolled away as I stumbled back, tripping over my own feet and I couldn't seem to get back up. The darkness swiped and tried to hit me, but I scooted backwards across the dirt trying to avoid each attempt. Teri shook her head, stood up and raced towards her weapon. She grabbed it in time and raised it up, blocking another attack. She looked down, spotting my sword.

"Sophie!"

I looked up to see Teri kicking it back at me. I instantly picked it up and slashed away with all my might. I was able to gain some ground, with Teri at my side. I quickly sidestepped, seeing an opening. I retracted my sword, shoved it back in my bag, and raised my paintbrush in the air. My wings that were previously folded tightly were finally let loose and I rose into the air. It's hard to fly while your fighting, but somehow I was doing alright. I waved left and right with the brush, a deep blue streaked across the air. I started gliding around in circles, the blue rippling and dripping along the invisible edges. Carefully weaving myself and avoiding attacks. Soon, the whole area was covered in some sort of floating wave of water. I started flying backwards, brush still up in the air. I suddenly dived to the ground and at the same time, the ceiling of water rose up and rushed forward like an actual tidal wave and crested on the creature. The area became flooded, but also quickly dissipated. The creature roared and shrank back into the shadows, it's form beginning to lose it's gaseous state and melt. Black ooze dripping to the ground. I quickly rushed over to Teri and urged her to get going. We started running through the trees as fast as we could. As exhausted as we were, we dared not stop or look back for a second. But we didn't get very far enough when the creature struck the both of us and we were knocked off our feet. We slid down the dirt and skidded to a halt. We coughed and shook our heads, trying to regain our strength.

"Sophie! Sophie, come one!" Teri got up first and pulled me to my feet and we started running again. We brushed away branches and jumped over earthly debris as we blindly ran through the forest.

"Sophie! Look!" Teri pointed at something ahead of us and I realized what it was. The cliff side was coming into view and we picked up our feet. We heard trees snapping and rocks tumbling from behind us, the creature wasn't far from us. Another idea suddenly popped into my head.

"Teri, we need to jump!"

"What?!"

"Just do it!"

I slowed down a little bit to let Teri get ahead of me. As soon as we came upon the cliff, Teri shut her eyes and jumped. She gasped as she began to plummet. I held my paintbrush in-between my teeth and jumped towards Teri. I reached my arms out and grasped onto Teri's wrist, almost letting her slip from my sweaty hands. I quickly extended my wings to their full length and we slowly gained a little bit of altitude. And as soon as we rose up, Teri pointed at something on the other side of the cliff. I looked up and gasped lightly. Apollo and the Twins were standing on the cliff's edge, watching us. I was partially relieved to see them again, but I didn't have the strength or the wing length to pull myself and Teri to the other side. Instead, I glided over the lake and let Teri go. I circled around, took my paintbrush out of my mouth and shoved it back in my bag as I slowed myself and collapsed on the tiny beach near the edge of the water. I coughed and sputtered as I tried to pull myself up, but I could only get to my knees. I heard Teri jumping in and out of the water and splash up on the shore. She took a deep breath before dragging herself to my side.

"You okay?" Teri asked me as she breathed. I took a moment to catch my breath before I gave her an answer.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm good..." I stammered.

We suddenly flinched at the sound of a roar that echoed throughout the area, making our blood run cold. And as quickly as it came, it went. Disappearing into the trees until it looked as though there was nothing there before. Teri and I both stared upwards. Until we heard wings flapping against the wind. We looked around to see Apollo and the Twins gliding towards us. Apollo landed closely towards me and helped me up to my feet.

"Sophie! Are you okay? What happened, what was that?"

"I'm okay, I'm good." I repeated.

The Twins looked Teri up and down and were relieved to see her unharmed.

"Teri, are you alright? What was that?"

"I think I hit my head back there, but I'm okay."

Teri and I tried to explain what happened, but Apollo quickly stopped us and told us it'd be safer if we retreated for now. We all agreed and one by one, took off and headed back home. The adrenaline that flowed through me was finally wearing down and I was relieved to get somewhere warm and safe and out of the dark.