The Goddess's Chosen

Death Valley

The drive took about 5 hours, luckily the chauffer was still driving us, so we got to discuss plans a little longer and sleep the rest of the way. The rest of our group was unhappy about being left behind again, and Gabe did not want to be so far away from me, especially dealing with the hunters. He told us everything he knew about the Death Valley sect of hunters, and they sounded ruthless. They kept in a small camp so that they can move quickly if need be. He said that as far as he knew, they had the most contact with the dark witches, second only to his father. He said that they liked to use invisible magic traps and special warding to keep straying tourists away from their camp, but it was only effective on mundanes. The magic traps were for the super naturals. Gabe had also said that the head of the camp went by the name sergeant Nicholas Gainsby. He did not know much about him, just that he was a sergeant in the army before his squad came across a rogue werewolf. Apparently, the werewolf killed his entire squad and he barely escaped with his life, losing his right eye and gaining a nasty scar. Gabe’s father had recruited him, recognizing the scar as an injury from a werewolf. Gabe said that the last he had heard, Nicholas was blinded with hate and fear, and began to hunt down the wolves explicitly, using wolfsbane to weaken them and keep them in their beast forms, keeping them from healing, and skinning them alive and he would watch them die. The whole story turned my stomach, and if I got to have a swing at him, I would gladly do it for Alpha Jonas, and all of the werewolves that I can now call my family. Varwen had told us that he only ever saw, at most, 10 hunters present at the camp during his scouting missions. He had told us that he was with his brother when they were attacked. They were scouting around the valley, having heard rumors that hunters were stationed out there. He said that the arrows had a greenish glow to them, and one would have hit him had his brother not shoved him out of the way. Barwen had saved his life, and now it was Varwen's turn to save his brother's life. Ava was prepping some spells so that we can have a sort of witchy mind link of our own for when we separated. It made me feel a little better knowing that I had some way to keep in contact with them. Before we had arrived, she tested it out, making sure it worked. Testing, testing. Ava’s voice cut through my head, startling me. “I can hear you.” I said aloud. No, try thinking it! Ava said through the link. I can hear you, working on your end, Varwen? I thought. It does appear to be working for me as well. Great job, Ava! He thought, giving me some seriously private vibes through the link. Oooookaaaaayyyy, none of that, not until this, I motion to my head, wears off.  Ava and Varwen chuckle and share a flirtatious smile. f**k my life. I thought, earning looks from my Ava and Varwen. “My bad, not used to the whole werewolf-y mind link-y stuff. My bad.” I said sheepishly. Lucky for us it will only last the night. Ava thought. Thoroughly weirded out, I rest my head against the window and tried to nap.  

   I felt as though I had barely closed my eyes, before being jerked awake as we pulled off the paved road and onto a dirt one. We drove for about another twenty minutes before Varwen instructed the chauffer to stop. Stepping out of the car, I was glad that I still had on my black hoodie, though I had traded my black leggings for black cargo pants. It was noticeably colder out here in the desert than it had been in the city, and in the distance, I could see the lights from the hunter's camp. We go by foot from here. They will hear the sound of the engine.” Varwen’s voice sounded through the link. My job tonight was to distract the guards so that Varwen and Ava could sneak into the science tent and take back his brother’s crystal. Ava pulled out three flashlights that were missing their batteries. Uh, Ava, these work better with the batteries in them... I linked to her. No s**t, but they are spelled to show any magical traps, like I said before, we cannot disarm them, but we can avoid them. She said, handing one to me and pointing at the power button, when you hit this and point it ahead of you, a light will shine but it will not be visible to any humans, but when it is pointed at a magical trap, it will reflect and we will be able to see it, but only us, not the hunters. She quickly explained. Varwen used his magic to cloak us, and then motioned for us to move and we made our way towards the camp. We all switched on our flashlights, and they worked as Ava had described. It was projecting a blue light, and when we saw a trap, there was a weird bluish mist, signifying the magic that was used, and we could avoid it all together. Once we got close enough, Varwen pointed in the direction of the science tent. It was a large white tent, with the plastic type zip-up doors. I could kind of see inside of it, and the floors were white, and looked like some sort of tile. There were people inside wearing white lab coats and carrying clipboards, they were walking around a table that had glowing light coming off of it. That is Barwen’s crystal.  Varwen’s voice appearing suddenly in my head nearly made me jump in surprise. I do not know how werewolves deal with it all of the time. I can go this way, I say, pointing the opposite direction of the science tent, wait for my mark, and when I have created the distraction and can keep them occupied, I want you to run in and get the crystal as fast as you can, please let me know as soon as you have it. I said, Varwen and Ava agreed, and I moved into position. Varwen had told us last night that his cloaking magic would only work in a small radius, so with that in mind, I kept as low as I could and stayed out of the light the best that I could. Once I felt I was a sufficient distance from Ava and Varwen and the tent, I took a deep breath and called forth all of the elemental spirits. Earth with my green sprite, fire with my purple flame dancer, my water dragon, and the one I had yet to call on, but hoped it worked, my wind sprite. Concentrating as hard as I could, I imagined a great white and grey dragon with large wings that could cause hurricane force winds when flapped hard enough. Soon enough, my large dragon appeared out of thin air. All of my sprite came to me, all life-sized versions of themselves. “Wreak havoc.” Was all I said, and they were off. It was amazing to watch. The purple dancer hurling fireballs at people, tents and vehicles. The two dragons were doing a dance in the sky causing a massive monsoon, and the sprite was causing crevices to open up and swallow anything in its way. Soon enough the area was crawling with hunters trying to find the source of this power. I moved back a little and recited a spell for night vision that Ava had shown me earlier. “Goddess grant me sight, vision to pierce the night, when the shining lights do fail, help me to prevail.” I said, then pressed my hand on a light pole they had erected and used my electrical powers to override the generators and batteries that were hooked up to it. In an instant, all of the light turned dark, but I could still see fine. All around me there were screams to get the generators back, and we are being attacked, find that f*****g witch. I knew that we had caught them off guard and I smiled. They are distracted, GO! I instructed through the mind link. I did not have time to gloat because a moment later I felt someone grab my wrist and clasp a bracelet or cuff on it. All of a sudden, I couldn’t see any more, and everything looked normal. “Not so tough without your powers, are you witch?” A deep voice boomed behind me. I swung around but I could barely see. The only light was the purple flames left in the wake of my sprite. f**k! I thought, Ava? Varwen?  I thought out, but there was no answer. I was on my own. A large fist came from behind me and caught me in the kidney, and it hurt like a b***h. “f**k!” I screamed out. “Now that’s no way for a young lady to speak. Tell me, did you call these monsters here witch?” The voice came from behind me yet again, but this time I did not turn. I closed my eyes and listened. “They aren’t monsters, they are my elemental spirits, and I can say whatever the f**k I want to, asshole.” I said, hoping to get a rise out of him. I was right not to turn around, because when he laughed it came from in from of me. I tried prying the bracelet off of my wrist, but it wouldn’t budge. “Are you Nicholas Gainsby? Couldn’t cut it in the military so you beat up defenseless girls?” I spat, and I could sense him movement, I could hear his angered yell and dodged another blow that would have gotten me right in the face. “What’s the matter Nick, werewolf got your eye?” I antagonized him, waiting for him to swing again. I heard another yell as he went to punch me again, only this time I deflected and hit him with an uppercut to the jaw, summoning the werewolves' strength the best that I could. I heard a loud thump as he fell to the ground. The storm was getting stronger and I was having a hard time hearing where he was, so I opened my eyes. It was still hard to see, but the purple flames were growing brighter, even with the amount of rain that was falling, so I could see a little better. Nicholas was no longer on the ground, but I could see where he had fallen. “Aww, Nicky, come back, it was just getting fun!” I yelled out into the night. In a stroke of genius, I knelt to the ground and got as much mud on my wrist as I could and twisted and pulled the bracelet, trying to get it off of me. When it wouldn’t budge, I realized I was going to have to dislocate my thumb, and I knew it was going to hurt. f**k me, I thought bitterly. I took a few deep breaths and popped my thumb out of socket. I bit my jacket to keep from screaming out. After the initial pain, I was able to slide the bracelet off, just as I got knocked down from behind. I fell into the mud, and when I tried to stand back up, a warm body was straddling my back, pushing my face into the mud. “Not so tough, are you witch?” Nicholas’ voice came from above me. “No magic and no friends to help you. You were stupid to come here alone.” He snarled, sounding happy with himself. CAS?!? Answer me dammit! Ava’s voice in my head was like music to my ears. I could barely breathe because my face was shoved into the mud, but I closed my eyes and imagined my whole body being surrounded in the electricity that I stole from the generators. I noticed a glowing and then the electricity flowing through me and coming off of me in waves. Without a sound I felt his body convulse and fall to the side. Ava, Varwen, I am ok. I have Nicholas Gainsby here convulsing on the ground. Did you get the crystal? I reached out to my companions. Yeah, we got it, where are you? Ava replied. I couldn’t find a way to signal where I was, but then I thought about the elementals. Follow my dancer.  I said and requested my fire spirit to create a signal for them to follow. Nicholas started moving and coming to, so I zapped him again to put him back down. A moment later, Ava and Varwen rushed to my side. “Oh my goddess, what happened?” Ava squealed and put her hands over her mouth. I can only imagine I was covered in mud, as well as blood from being hit in the face. “I’m fine really, but what should we do with him, and the others?” I asked nudging Nicholas’ unconscious body with my foot. “We will bring him back with us. He is their leader; they will probably scatter once they realize he is gone. He is also the one that shot at my brother and I with that arrow, we have many questions for him.” Varwen said, rolling Nicholas over and motioning for me to help him lift up his dead weight. Nicholas was probably 6’3” and weighed about 200 pounds, and unconscious, soaking wet and covered in mud, he probably weighed 300 pounds. When I went to lift him, I screamed out in pain. “f**k me.” I said, painfully popping my thumb back into place. “What the hell happened, Cas?” Ava demanded. So, I told them how he slipped that bracelet on me and it blocked my powers for a bit, and about our fight, ending with me dislocating my thumb to slip the bracelet. “We should find that; it will be one less weapon they have against us.” I said, looking for the bracelet in the mud. It took a couple minutes but I found it, and slid it into one of my cargo pants’ zip-up pockets. I turned around and helped Varwen lift Nicholas when I had a better idea. “Hang on a second,” I said, dropping his feet into the mud. Mentally I asked the air dragon for assistance. I did not feel like carrying this useless sack of meat, so I requested that the dragon allow us to set him on her back, and she obliged. She stopped her aerial dance with the water dragon and landed next to us. Up close she was so much larger than I thought. “You’re beautiful.” I said rubbing the side of her head. She was very long, with a snake-like body, she had four legs, and a set of wings and piercing storm grey eyes. She responded with a huff and rubbed her head against my hand. ‘Yes, Cassandra.’ I heard a low growly sounding feminine voice in my head. “Is that you?’ I asked the dragon. “It is, my name is Alya, spirit guardian of the skies, thank you for tonight, it has been too long since my siblings and I could stretch our legs.’ Alya said. “Would you mind helping us get him back to our car? I know you aren’t a camel or anything, but he is really heavy.” I said, mentally slapping myself for sounding like a dummy. Alya let out a low drawling laugh. ‘Of course, I can help you, daughter of Hecate, I can grab him with my claws. I can give you three a ride back as well, if you’d like.’ She said. “One sec,” I said to Alya, then turning to Ava and Varwen, “want to ride a dragon?” I asked. “Wow, sure!” Ava said excitedly, earning another low, growling laugh from Alya. “Her name is Alya.” I told them, thinking if she was giving us a ride, I had better do introductions. “Alya, this is Ava and Varwen.” I motioned to my two companions. Alya bowed her head. “Come on, we need to get going before he wakes up and before the others realize what we are doing.” I said, remembering that we were still in middle of a monsoon and the rest of the elemental spirits were still causing mayhem. “I will let the others know to disperse after you are out of range, they are having fun.” Alya said. The three of us climbed on her back and held on the best we could. It was a strange feeling, riding such a magnificent creature through the skies. The wind was cold and wet from the storm Alya and the water dragon had created, but it was still amazing.  I leaned low so that the wind from her flying didn’t drown out my words, “do the others have names as well?” I asked her. “Yes. Hestia is the fire spirit. Cybele is the earth spirit, and Vodnik is the water spirit.” Alya told me. It was good to know their names, and somehow all of the names suited them. Hestia sounded regal and magical, and as a purple dancing flame, she was definitely that. Cybele was a strong, yet feminine name, suiting the earth spirit perfectly, and Vodnik sounded strong and reliable, though I now felt really weird having summoned a male spirit while I was showering... “Thank you, for everything, Alya. I cannot express my gratitude enough.” I told her as we were landing near the car. “You have given us purpose, we had been forgotten for so long, and now here you are. It is we who are I your debt, Cassandra, daughter of Hecate.” she said, bowing her head again, I bowed mine back at her. “Call upon us whenever you need, and we will come.” Alya said, now joined by the other three spirits. I curtsied to them and they bowed in response. Alya dropped Nicholas’ body, still unconscious from my zap, and they all flew back to the camp and continued their fun.