The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 20 Emrys

The skin on his arms turning rock-solid, it starts to crack open like dried mud they day after it has rained, his skin falls to the ground revealing underneath a light brown and light green reptilian like scales, his fingers narrowing and extending twice as long as they used to be with razor sharp talons. 

Her hand glide over his arms down to where his hands where, now they are claws with razor sharp talons shinning on the end, he feels smooth and cold to the touch.

She looks at his face now busy transforming becoming more reptilian.  His head becoming more oval shaped his short hair blowing away by the wind revealing flat smooth scales covering his head.  Where his eyebrows were now solid hard scales and his eyes more sinking in with light scales on his eyelids. His nose and mouth swallowed away by what looks like a reptilian beak.  His nostrils moving in and out as he is breathing.

“What have happened to you, my love; what have I done to you?” she sits there crying. 

The backside of Tylers shirt gets ripped apart by spikes running down his spine and a tail that is about the same length as his body.  They make a clattering sound as they start the get erected revealing light brown webbing between them.  His pants also can’t take the tension anymore and they rip and she can see muscular reptilian legs revealing themselves.  The last thing is his shoos as three big toes rips through the front part of them and one big toe at the back side with big sharply formed talons at the ends.

She sits there for another couple of minutes and then she feels movement.  She looks down his head moves slowly in her lap like he was becoming conches, his eyelids opening up slowly with fleeces moving from left to right revealing a big yellow eye with a catlike pupil looking right at her.

It feels like her heart is coming to standstill, it feels like she can’t breathe. 

With force she feels how he lifts himself from the ground and pushes himself away from her.  Dust surrounding her, she tries to see what is happening getting up on her feet.  He falls to his side like he was drunk or have lost his balance.  He tries to stand up again but falls again, with her hand forward she tries to calm him down, “Shh it’s all right, it’s alright” she says stepping closer slowly, she removes the cloaks hood from her head revealing her face to him.  Still trying to calm him, but he seems disoriented not knowing what is going on around him.

He falls to his hands, and hisses at her like a snake, a long thin split tong like that of a snake goes in and out from his mouth, his tail hanging over his head like a scorpion’s stinger.

“I’m not going to hurt you Tyler” she says softly.

The two of them stand there staring at each other for another minute or so.

She goes and kneels trying to talk softly “I’m so sorry, I really didn’t know it was you and I really didn’t know that I will bring you with me to into this place.” She cries out loud “and I didn’t know that this is going to happen to you!”

She can’t read his facial expressions she can’t make out what he is thinking or what he is going to do.

He goes down hugging the ground with his chest he pushes himself up lifting him through the air, when he lands, he scurries off, climbing over one of the enclosure walls and then running into a dark abandoned den.  She tries to follow him but she is afraid that she might provoke him or make him feel more scared.

She runs to the dark hole where she saw him disappearing but stops outside. 

As long as he is in there I will at least know where he is she thought. 

“But what am I going to do?” she asks herself looking into the dark hole.  “Should I remove my cloak and conjure Ignus or what should I do?” She sits there for a couple of minutes and then decides that she just want to peek if he is in the hole.  She crouches walking slowly not wanting to make any noise into the hole, around one of the corners she can see him pacing around in a circle looking up the walls for a place to escape.  She retreats slowly well while he is here, I need to act and I need to act now.

Once she is outside, she jumps through a rift, she lands in the land of living just outside an animal’s den.  She quickly let the cloak dissipate and then she conjures Ignus.

Once he appears he can see and feels that something has happen, she goes down on her knees again crying, and trying to explain to him what happened.

Shocked he tries to comfort her, “We will sort this out, we will make a plan” he says to her.

Looking up at him “Should I have tried to bring back with me through a rift; what should I do?

He looks at her nodding no, “you did the right think leaving him there, there is no guarantee that if you brought him back that he would have changed back to Tyler, for all we know you could have let a monster loose in the city if you brought him back with you” he tries and explain.

“But what are we going to do; he can’t stay there his parents are going to miss him!” she calls out starting to cry again “is there someone else that can help us with this problem?” she asks him.

He turns his back on her “Emrys!  He might know what he is and how to get him back”

“Who is the Emrys?” she asks him running around him facing him.

“Emrys is one of the last druids…”

“So where do we find this Emrys?”

“That is a problem, I don’t know, the last time I have seen him was about five hundred years ago, I don’t know if he is still at the same place” Ignus replies

“Isn’t he dead; I mean if you have seen him more than five hundred years ago?” she falls to the ground in despair.

“Emrys can’t really die, you see he made a potion that was infused with the blood and tears of a phoenix, once he starts to get old or if he does through unnatural causes he burst into flames and gets reborn a new just like a phoenix.” 

“Wow that sounds amazing so how are we going to track him down?” she asks jumping up with excitement wiping the tears from her face.

“He used to stay in a small hut inside a forest, I doubt that the hut exists but maybe the forest” replies Ignus.  “Where was this forest?” she says with a high pitch in her voice.  “You see this human city was built on what used to be marches and forests, the question is did it expand so much that it swallowed up the forest entirely?” he asks her.  “Was there any specific characteristics about the forest that stood out?”

“We'll let me think” he turns around and floats a couple of feet away from her “There used to be a waterfall that run past an old watermill and a small keep, more than that I cannot say” he explains.

She checks her phone for cell reception but it shows no bars, she jumps up infusing her power with her steps she jumps out of the enclosure and runs towards the entrance.  Once at the ticket booth she looks again at her phone, she has two bars where she is standing, she phones Willow.  It rings and rings and then “Oh hi bestie, you board?”

“Sorry I can’t explain I need you to look for me on your phone if there is a forest around the city that has a watermill and a small keep, and then phone me back, this is very urgent please…” she begs Willow over the phone, tears starting to run down the side of her cheek again.

Willow hearing that something is wrong immediately does what was ask of her.  After a couple of minutes Clarise’s phone start to vibrate, “Hello” she answers her hands shaking.

“I found out that not far from the abandoned town there is a forest, and in the forest, there is the ruins of an old watermill and also there is a keep, the forest forms part of a protected conservation area because there is a very rare flower growing in the forest.  But tell me are you okay, you sound very sad”

“Yea I think I will be okay, what side of old town is the forest?”

“I believe it’s the same forest that is taking over the old zoo, do you want me to come and help you, I can call James and Tyler and meet you somewhere then we can all go together” Willow can hear how Clarise starts to cry on the other side and then the phone goes dead.  

Clarise turns around and runs back into the zoo, she looks at Ignus that is still summoned.  “This is part of the forest; you will need to help me find Emrys” she says running down the same way she came.

She needs to get to high ground so she can scour the area.  She takes a jog down the path, at a fork on in the road she can make out, “Exotic Birds” on the one board and on the other “Primates”.  She turns right again going to the primates' enclosures.  She reaches a big enclosure with rocks and a manmade mountain in the center peeking through the trees.  She swiftly moves into the enclosure and then she jumps infusing her power underneath her feet, with a couple of pusses she reaches the top of mountain.   

As she looks over the tops of the trees, she can see in the distance the city with all of its tall buildings, she can even make out the suspended rail tracks running over the city disappearing between the buildings.  She turns around and she sees damaged buildings looking over old town, she turns some more, with her back towards the city she can see in the south a mountain range with a plateau peeking from the one side with a small waterfall sprouting from it.

“Is that the waterfall you were talking about?” pointing towards the water running over the cliffs.   

“I believe it is!” she says impressed with her.

Without hesitation she makes her way down, and then she starts to run in the direction of the waterfall.

She reaches the end of the zoo, it’s enclosed by a huge wall, she can see the waterfall from where she is standing even though it’s still far away.  Giving a few steps back she jumps and launches herself over the wall into the forest as she lands, she sees rabbits that were out and about jumping away disappearing between ferns.  It’s difficult to walk, her clothes get stuck to plants and a lot of times she needs to use her power to go over obstacles.  Half way in she goes and sits on a rock overgrown with moss.  She takes out some water and some food, she feels exhausted the use of her powers with all of the stress have made her very tired.

After eating she continues on till, she reach a stream, she conjures Ignus and asks him if this is the stream and if she should go up or down.  After thinking for a bid and moving around he tells her that she needs to go towards the waterfall and then work her way back till she gets to the mill.

Towards the waterfall she hears “No one is allowed in this forest!” she turns around and she sees and elderly man dressed in a light green shirt and dark green pants.  He wears a hat that makes her think of Indiana Jones with white hair curling out from underneath it.

“I'm looking for someone!” her voice shaking.

“And who might you be looking for?”

“A man called Emrys” she says walking towards him.

His eyes turn big, he walks closer to her looking her up and down.  “Who are you?” he asks.

“I’m Clarise, Clarise Carter”

“NO! WHO ARE YOU?!” he screams at her.

Tears running from her face “I’m a reaper” she says softly.  

“Who is you Bellator Intus?”

Without saying anything she conjures Ignus, the man jumps back about six or seven feet.  “Ignus I never thought I will see you again!” the man says with a huge smile and lifting his arms up into the air greeting him. “Emrys my dear old friend, you haven’t changed a bit, except for your short hair” replies Ignus with a smile.

He invites them to come with him, he received permission from the parks board to live in the old keep that he has been restoring.  He explains to them that with a little magic he convinced them to make the forest a protected area and that they have appointed him solely to look after the park.  He also explains that he can communicate with the animals, birds and plants and that they have told him that she was in the forest and that is why he came looking for them.

From outside the keep looks like it’s in ruins with big blocks of rock that once formed its outer walls lays scattered all around.  But once he leads them through a big double wooden door with the emblem of a stag's head on it, they find themselves in an antique room with book shelves with books in them attacked to the roof.  On a table there is a couple of mortar and pestle, where he mixes his ingredients.

“I see you found a place to settle down” Ignus says as a joke to him.

“Since when do you have a sense of humor?” Emrys says and start laughing.

Clarise walks forward and asks him for his help, she explains to him what have happened earlier that day.

“That is a problem indeed” he says as he goes and sits in an old wooden chair, “what you are describing to me, sounds like your friend have been transformed into a Draconian.”  He continues “A draconian is formed or borne when the laws of nature are broken.  Once other case I have witnesses was when a Valkyrie fell in love with a human, and bared a child with him, that child was born as a draconian.”