Rise of Tempest Merlin

Chapter 13

Lilith’s POV

I wake as if it's an emergency, as if sleeping had become a dangerous thing. My heart beats fast and there is a buzzing in my brain and together they are as panic with jump-leads. Only now my brain is as a flat battery, the exertions of the night being a marathon of erratic problem-solving. And so this day will pass as if I am hungover, not from drink, but from the nightmares that demand solutions.

I could not understand what happened and how had I reached here. It looked like I was in a ditch and there were leaves and sticks and branches all over me. How on earth did I reach here? My clothes were all torn and there was dried blood covering my body. My face was caked with mud which was now causing this skin of the Avatar to itch.

I gradually tried getting up. My body was sore and I was hurt but somehow I was alive and then I remembered what had happened last night once the sun had gone down. It was a miracle that I was still alive

“You are alive!” came the voice of the Keeper who was talking to me in a dry voice.

I looked at her and my anger surged in her direction but then I thought that it was pointless showing her my emotions.

“Well did you lose the bet of me not going to survive the night?” I asked her in a mocking tone and she smiled.

“Sarcasm will not take you very far in this game, Lilith. And I was glad to see that for once you believed in yourself and acted accordingly. It looked like you have some very odd powers which I have never encountered before in this game,” she said and I knew that she was fishing for information so that she could make changes in the monster but I was not going to allow her to do that under any circumstances.

“What are you talking about? I stuck knife in that monster and still I am sure it is rampaging somewhere,” I said and she sighed.

“Unless you are able to understand what you need to do with the monster as you call it then there will be no freedom for him from this pain and suffering that he is in and neither for you as well,” said the Keeper as she smiled sadly at me.

“And what about you?” I asked.

“What about me?” she repeated as she turned to look at me with those bewitching green eyes. I knew that they did not have the intended effect on me but I sure wished to know how many men had fallen under the entrapment of that spell.

“If the monster is liberated then are you liberated as well? Would you be free?” I asked. I genuinely wanted to know what would become of her. But she nodded and said,” Cogito ergo sum.”

I said,” I think therefore I am.”

She smiled and said,” For me being liberated means stopping to exist. So no I am never going to choose that. However wretched my existence might be, I can never choose not existing in any world. Best of luck with your game Lilith.”

The keeper left me there with my own thoughts and I did not know what I would think after that. But then I knew that it was not time for me to just keep thinking about what might have happened but to rather plan what actually would happen in case I did not know that what I would be doing tonight when the monster arrived again. I mean the day and night did not happen in a difference of twelve hours, they were on whims of a few hours controlled by the one who is looking at and after the setting.

First I needed to figure out what was happening with me and what were my powers. Something or rather someone had saved me last night. If there was place where I could have seen the recording or the footage of last night then maybe it would have been easier but as the Keeper had said. This was a trial and it was not intended to make things easy for me.

Suddenly there was a whoosh behind me and I jumped in scare and looked back but there was nothing there and I heard a soft whisper.

“You do not need to find us outside, sweet child. For we reside in you,” said the soft melodious voice and I was filled almost instantly with a feeling of peace and warmth which I had not previously encountered.

“How do I call upon your help? Who are you?” I asked as I went closer to the dead patch of the land. After all that was the land that I had to revive again.

“We are part of you, Lilith. We are composed of the power of your soul holds. For you are the destined queen of the brujerias,” said another voice. This time I laughed, whoever was talking was surely joking with me.

“I am only twelve years old and I am stuck in a game of Greek mythology. If you reside in my soul then why did you not tell me not to come here then?” I asked but there was a soft pause before the answer came. This time the voice was harder and a lot stronger.

“For we are not the ones to control your fate and neither the ones to make your choices. And you are here because this blasted place will give you the ammunition that you need to fight beside that girl who is leading you all,” said the voice and there was a lot of outrage after the sentence uttered. I could hear things like,” you did not need to scare the child. You need not have spoken your mind. Why are you so hell bent on making things so difficult by saying the inopportune things at the worst moments..”

It was really getting ridiculous and I said,” Ummm guys, maybe we can discuss a game plan? On how can I kill the monster and get the hell out of this place?”

“You already know the answer to that. You are the one who needs to figure out the plan and we are only going to be there to protect you as your shield,” said the first voice. I needed to start naming them to differentiate between these thingies.

And I could hear the sound of collective laughter.

“We are called the Orishas, Lilith. We are not different from you, and we shall never leave you until you give us up. However, we are all different ones and yet we are all the same. But we are sentient beings sweet child Not thingies,” came the reply with a slight twang of laughter.

“Sorry,” I whispered and then started walking in the direction of the forest. Even though I would not want to attack any one when it was injured or sleeping, that did not say good things about you. However I was not very opposed to the fact of creeping up on them and trying to collect information or try and know the weaknesses because that was going to help me when time would come for battle. And I knew that it was good plan.

I started walking in the direction of the ditch where I had spent the better part of last night. And I tried to find the tracks where the monster had gone but I still could not find anything at all. How could something so heavy have no print on the soil?

Finally I said,” Do you think that you might be able to track the thing?”

“Yes. But you have to find the shield buried in the soil first,” said one of them and I nodded.

Right! There needed to be something like this. I did not know what was I supposed to do if I did not have my Orishas beside me. And then I went to the dead patch of land and started digging with an old spade that I had found nearby the cottage where the keeper lived. I was sure that she was not going to mind me taking it. It did not take me a lot of time to dig and I found that that Avatar was really habituated with manual labour.

And then I finally got it.

Upon the soil lay a shield, rusted and scratched. I could see that it had been made by a master, forged in fiery heat before setting in cold water. Thereafter it had then been adorned, embellished, decorated. It reminded him of turtles, how they lived inside a shell, keeping their softness hidden.

The shield is more than metal, greater than the carving or the paint. The shield is the symbol of our protection and that all who carry it are our protectors. It is a symbol of love and courage to do what it takes to keep our community safe - our family, our hearts. My father had a shield, a great piece of protective armour. For the most part it lay upon the floor near the hearth that kept us warm. As a child it was my boat, or a roof when the rain quenched the earth. It was a comforting thing, though plain and functional. He only ever touched it upon the roar of a foe, the call of one who means to harm. He raised it to keep us safe, his heart beating as steady as when he slept. He was always sure of himself and so having faith in him was easy, we simply did our best to emulate his ways and hope to one day be as great.

And as soon as I lifted it on my arm the day light disappeared and I heard another roar from behind. I muttered,” You have got to be kidding me!!!”

“This shield will protect you and also let you rip out the heart of the monster. That is what is required to reverse the curse of this dead land,” whispered my Orishas together and I knew that this was my moment. I had to do this for myself for I had to get out of here.

The monster was coming at full speed in my direction and the last night that I had wounded I did not even see any of them on the body of the monster. If I had to take out it’s heart then I needed to be underneath the monster. And then it happened and I did not even think what was going to happen.

I slid down on the rough soil and felt that my jeans was tearing and so were the leather boots but the monster jumped with its front legs up in the air and I stuck the shield in the middle of its torso. And strangely the monster stuck and I could feel the weight of that thing on me when I slid out as fast as I could. I did not waste much time on whipping out my knife and then sticking it in the cut made by the shield and hacked out the heart of the monster.

The guttural scream that came out of the helpless animal was something that was never going leave my mind again ever.

But finally I had the heart in my hand and within a moment the monster had dissipated from before my eyes and the shield fell on the ground with a loud clang. I had already dug a lot of soil with that half-broken spade and now all I needed to do was plant this heart. And I knew that because this heart was a huge seed with green veins throbbing in it.

Once I did it, the entire ground rumbled and shook and immediately a tree started growing out of the soil and all the leaves were white….I stared at the tree in amazement as the Keeper came forward with a small plant in her hand.

“This is your achievement from this level, Lilith. This plant will come of lot of help to you when you are in danger later on.”

And as soon as I took it…I was thrown in a vortex and back in another room.