A Tale Of Sister's Revenge

"A Fallen Warrior"

Helen and Sam reached her home in Seoul and Helen ran straight into the washroom as she was about to vomit.

“What was that?” She shouted after coming out of the toilet. “Why didn’t you told me that we were about to enter the wormhole.” She again ran back to the washroom.

“If I would have waited to take your permission for this short trip, then maybe this trip wouldn't have happened and that monster would have flown with the gem after he would have killed us,” Sam said as he was trying to justify his move.

“Ok, I forgive you this time, but next time, remember that you have to inform me in advance before doing any such thing,” Helen said

“But I didn’t ask for forgiveness,” Sam mumbled this as she didn’t catch what he said. “There is one thing that I didn’t understand is why my powers didn’t worked as I reached near the monster.”

“Maybe you don’t have a proper control on your power,” Helen suggested. “We will get back to that later because the important thing is that what are we going to do with that gem of fire?”

“We have to keep it safe and away from his grasp,” Sam said in a tense voice. “Because if what this book says is true then I made a huge mistake.”

Sam took the gem out of his pocket and held the gem in his outstretched hand and it lay there just as heavy as a common rock. Yet in the moonlight, it glittered like the moon-kissed ocean lapping the sands. The brilliant golden hue was so vivid it was how he imagined crystalline sun would appear if such a thing existed.

“It looks beautiful. Isn’t it?” Sam asked as Helen's eyes got stuck at the beauty of the gem. “But it is equally dangerous and that monster will definitely come looking for this stone.”

“So how are we going to protect it?” Helen asked

“I don’t know, but I know someone who does and we need to find her.”

In Somako – The Lost City of Africa

Eva came to Somako with a lot of hopes. She thought that the king would understand her and would agree to help her in the time of war if there is any, but she was disappointed and completely frustrated by the fact that the king is not going to help her. Eva knows that she would be needing help from every part of the earth if she even wants to have a slight bit of chance of defeating her, but the start of making an army didn’t go as planned. Eva didn’t wanted to waste more time in Somako and was preparing to leave for the mirror world.

“What are you going to do now?” Blake enters Eva room and asked.

“Do not know yet. I will find out something once I reach home.” Eva started to snivel, looking sad and angry. “But why did you care since you are not going to help me out. You are just going to stay back home, save Somako and your people, but I will fight for the humanity.”

After looking Eva so angry Blake just leaned ahead and grabs her arm. The next thing they knew, he had slammed his lips to her and nearly knocked all wind from her lungs. He kissed her and the world fell away. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.

“What was that for?” Eva said, this time her voice is much soft.

“It is my way of saying sorry.” Blake said.

“Then I would love to see you make more mistakes and give sorry kisses.”

“Stay for the festival tonight we will celebrate it together,” Blake said as Eva was still thinking about the kiss. “After the festival, I will talk to the King maybe he will agree.”

It was the festival of lights, feathers and sparkles, smiles and laughter. It was every outrageous thing and it brought such life to everyone’s souls. It was the grand party of the year, the one everyone was invited to. The girls and boys wore whatever garish costumes they could dream up: fantastical creatures, faeries, angels or superheroes. Wherever you looked there were painted faces and masks. The stilt walkers marched down the middle of the crowd blowing bubbles or waving as they went. The Somako music was the heartbeat of the crowd and they swayed long limbs in time to the beat. Almost no- one walked anywhere, they danced, skipped, jogged, jumped, hopped and wiggled. It was the day when extraordinary was the norm and just being alive was a riot.

Along the usually dark summer lane shone hundreds of lamps; illuminating with their flickering candles. The light was cast every colour by the tinted panes and Eva couldn’t help but be reminded of candy which her mother used to make for her. Eva's eyes ate up the scene like a post-marriage feast, her limbs feeling supercharged and her head giddy. Everything about the flowing silks made her want to dance, her feet moving with grace and her heart beating with joy.

“Why are they dancing and celebrating?” A Somako boy maybe 4 years of age asked his mother.

“This festival is to celebrate the birth of Somako and to thanks our godfathers for protecting Somako from its enemies.” The mother replied. “And also worship the fallen warrior statue as one day the warrior while rise from its sleep and pull the sphere of fallen warrior out of the broken stone.”

The ‘Sphere of Fallen Warrior’ is the ancient weapon of angel name Aarin who lost a battle in heaven and fall on the very ground on which the Somako was built. There is a prophecy related to the person who will again pull the sphere out and it says that

“The day when the old stars will fall

And the humanity is burned to the ashes

A moon which has lost its shine will born again from the ashes of grief and anger

To pull out the sphere of fallen warrior from the broken stone to revenge the stars and to save gods creation.”

Everyone was enjoying the festival, dancing and drinking, having the feast of their lifetime, but princess Jonet was standing out in the balcony of the castle enjoying the new moon night all by herself.

“You don’t have to do this.” Prince Khari said as he walked into the balcony holding a drink in both of his hand, one for himself and another for his daughter. “You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. You are my daughter and the rightful heir to the crown.”

“It is the very reason that I have to do this.” said Jonet, “I want these people to see me with the same respect they see you. They should address me as the warrior Jonet, not as Jonet the daughter of King.” She added briskly, turning away from the balcony.

“I can understand the emotions with which you are going through.” Eva walks in, wearing a lovely black colour gown which suits her body perfectly. “I have faced the same situation when I was young and sometimes even today.”

“I called you to talk her out of this, but you are pushing her into this.” King Khari said

“She is a grown-up girl and knows what she should do,” Eva said to Khari. “We all are with you. I know you are a strong princess and rightful heir to Somako just go out there and tell it to the whole of Somako.”

Jonet seems more confident than ever and looked desperate to go out there and perform. It looks like the pep talk by Eva is working and just when all of them were sipping the best wine of Somako a gatekeeper came searching for Eva

“There is a visitor outside the gates of Somake. She is telling her name Rohini and wants to see you, Queen Eva.”

Eva quickly kept the glass of wine on the table and ran to meet Rohini. She just could not think of any reason for Rohini’s visit except for any bad news, which made her heart pump much faster than normal and made her tense. She was running very fast even in the gown and those big heels, even the guard could not match her speed as she wanted to meet Rohini as soon as possible so that she can end the speculation about Rohini’s visit which was going on in her mind. As Eva reached the gates Rohini started crying and hugged her tightly.

“Calm down Rohini.” Eva said “I am there with you don’t worry. Now tell me what happened.” Eva’s intuition that something is wrong was about to come true.

“We lost everything. Master Jinglin, Amber, Oliver and Isaac all died fighting.” Rohini kept on saying and crying at the same time.

Eva’s face had no expression what so ever. The horrific scenes that she saw in her dream started to reappear in her mind which made her go quiet.

“We need to leave now,” Eva says

“But where will we go?”

“Don’t know yet, but let’s just leave Somako.” Eva and Rohini left Somako to see what they are left with.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the stadium for the race of the Fallen Warrior Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr Blake down to the stadium now.” Violette Smith said in her lovely voice

Jonet got up. The whole council along the table were applauding her; the King and her mother wished her good luck, and she headed off out of the Great Hall with other champions.

"Feeling all right. Jonet?" Blake asked as they went down the stone steps onto the grounds. "Confident?"

"I'm okay," said Jonet. It was sort of true; she was nervous, but she kept running over all the strategies she had been practising in her mind as they walked, and the knowledge that she could remember them all made her feel better.

They walked onto the field, which was now completely unrecognizable. They were standing right outside the Black Majestic Forest which was fully dark and nothing was visible. Thousands of long trees covered the whole jungle. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the forest. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.

Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of Somako citizens filed into their seats. The sky was a deep black now, as it was a new moon night and the first stars were starting to appear.

"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the forest," said Blake to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, just below this horn then, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"

The champions nodded

“Off you go, then!” said Violette to the 5 patrollers.

“Good luck Jonet,” Blake whispered and the 5 of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the forest. Violette now pointed her hands at her throat, muttered, “Sonorus,” and her magically magnified voice echoed into the stands.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the race of the fallen warrior tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how it works, all the ten champions will enter the forest one by one. Their position will be decided by picking a number from the bowl. After entering the forest they will have to clear some hurdles which are waiting for them since last year and the champion who will find the magical gem of creation first will win the race and can challenge to become the heir to the crown.”

The entry numbers of the champion were decided and Jonet was going to enter at number 6. Jonet could just make out her father and mother applauding fleur politely, halfway up the stands. She waved up at them, and they waved back, beaming at her.

“So… on my whistle, Adam and Ruan!” said Viollete. “Three – two – one”

She gave a short blast on her whistle, and Adam and Ruan the two champions hurried forward into the forest. The towering trees cast black shadows across the path, and, whether because they were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silence the moment they entered the forest. Adam felt almost as though he was inside a dark room. He pulled out his torch fire and lighted that up and saw Raun do the same just behind him. After running for about 10 minutes, they reached a fork. They looked at each other.

“See you,” Adam said, and he took the left one, while Raun took the right.

Everyone in the stadium heard the Violette whistle for the second time. Klara entered the forest and one after the other champions started to enter the forest on every whistle. Violette below the whistle for the fifth time, the cheers and applause from the crowd sent the birds from the Black Majestic Forest fluttering into the darkening sky, as it was the time when Jonet enters the forest.

Jonet sped up. Her chosen path seemed completely deserted. She turned right, and hurried on, holding the torch high over her head, trying to see as far ahead as possible. Still, there was nothing in sight.

Violette’s whistle blew in the distance for the 9th and last time. All the champions were now inside the forest.

Jonet knew the gem would be somewhere near the circle of trees and that point is in the middle of the forest, and she knew that she needed to go southeast for the center of the forest. So she took the right and go straight for as long as possible. The path ahead was empty too, and when Jonet reached a turn and took it, she again found her way unblocked. Jonet didn’t know why, but the lacks of obstacles was unnerving her. Surely she should have met something by now? It felt as though the forest were luring her into a false sense of security. Then she heard movement right behind her. She held out her dagger, ready to attack, but its beam fell only upon Ruan, who had just hurried out of a path on the right and is followed by a black soul.

Jonet shook her head and dived out of sight, along another path. Keen to put plenty of distance between her and the black souls, Jonet hurried off again. Then, as she turned a corner, she saw a human eater gliding towards her. 9 feet tall, its face was hidden by its hood, its rotting, scabbed hands outstretched, it advanced, sensing its way blindly towards her. Jonet could hear its rattling breath; she felt clammy coldness stealing over her, but knew what she had to do…

She took out the magical oil of goblets, and put that oil all over her body. That oil made her smell disappeared and the blind human eater could not smell her scent and was unable to find her. Then she took out some silver colour magical powder pour over the fire torch and blew in front of human eater.

A silver beam erupted from Jonet’s torch and galloped towards the human eater, which fell back and tripped over the hem of its robes… Jonet had never seen a human eater stumble.

“Hang on!” she shouted, advancing in the wake of her silver beam, “You’re a boggart! Ridiculous!”

There was a loud crack, and the shape shifter exploded in a wisp of smoke. It was a trap by the black soul who came from behind, but Jonet was ready as she quickly figured it out and turns sharply and stabbed her with a silver dagger. The silver beam faded from sight. Jonet wished it could have stayed, she could have used some company…. but she moved on, quickly and quietly as possible, listening hard, her fire torch held high once more.

Right…left….left again… Twice she found herself facing a dead end. She turned back, took a right turn, and saw an odd golden mist floating ahead of her. Jonet approached it cautiously, pointing the torch’s beam at it. This looked like some kind of enchantment. She wondered whether she might be able to blast it out of the way.

She took out a bomb and threw it in its direction. The bomb went straight through the mist, leaving it intact. She was out of ideas for removing it. What would happen if she walked through the mist? Was it worth chancing it, or should she double back?

She was still hesitating when a scream shattered the silence. Jonet took out her dagger again

There was silence again. She stared all around her. What had happened to him? His scream seemed to have come from somewhere ahead. She took a deep breath and ran through the mist

The world turned upside down. Jonet was hanging from the ground, with her hair on end, her protective mask dangling off her face, threatening to fall into the bottomless sky. She clutched them to the end of her nose and hung there, terrified. It felt as though her feet were glued to the grass, which had now become the ceiling. Below her the dark, star- spangled heavens stretched endlessly. She felt as though if she tried to move one of her feet, she would fall away from the earth completely.

Think, she told herself, as all the blood rushed to her head, think….

But not one move she had practised which had been designed to combat a sudden reversal of ground and sky. Did she dare move her feet? She could hear the blood pounding in her ears. She had two choices- try and move, or blow up the horn and get rescued and disqualified from the task.

She shut her eyes, so she wouldn’t be able to see the view of endless space below her and pulled her right foot as hard as she could away from the grassy ceiling. Immediately, the world righted itself. Jonet fell forward onto her knees onto the wonderfully solid ground. She felt temporarily limp with shock. She took a deep, steadying breath, then got up again and hurried forward, looking back over her shoulder as she ran away from the mist, which twinkled innocently at her in the dark light.

She paused at a junction of two paths and looked around for some sign of Adam. She was sure it had been he who had screamed. What had he met? Was he all right? She didn’t even heard the horn, did that mean he had got himself out of trouble, or was he in such trouble that he couldn’t reach his horn? Jonet took the right fork with a feeling of increasing unease… but at the same time, she couldn’t help thinking. One champion down…

The gem was somewhere close by, she could feel it and it sounded as though Adam was no longer in the running. She’d got this far, hadn’t she? What if she actually managed to win? It would be the first time a girl would have won the tournament, she started to dream of herself, raising the tournament gem in front of the rest of the Somako.

She met nothing for ten minutes but kept running into dead ends. Twice she took the same wrong turning. Finally, she found a new route and started to jog along it, her torchlight waving, making her shadow flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then she rounded another corner and found herself facing a gladiator. She met with a gladiator means that the gem is nearby as these gladiators are protecting the stone from all side and they are the last line of defence.

Raun was right, it was enormous. 9 feet long, it looked more like a giant than anything. Its long steel sword was kept over its back. Its thick armour glinted in the light from Jonet torch, which she pointed at him.

Jonet drew her sword this time and started to walk towards the gladiator who was not moving a bit. She attacks the gladiator first. Her speed and movement were amazing and gladiator found it hard to match her speed. Jonet was quick to pry the edged cutlass from gladiator swollen fingers and whipped around to clash steel. She held the blade even, a perfect, undaunted horizon; always levelled with the nose, just as her father had taught her. She had stalled the gladiator’s strike, but after few close movement gladiator finally caught her and threw her on the ground. Jonet felt that crash from top to bottom and was unable to move. The blade flashed as the gladiator brought it over her head and was about to bring it down and eliminate Jonet.

“You shouldn’t have come here.” The gladiator shouted and brought the sword from high in the sky to the ground.

Klara Cloete came at the right time to save Jonet as she crashes her sword with the gladiator. “Get up quickly. I don’t think I will be able to hold him for long.”

Jonet quickly stands up, and then she along with Klara defeated the gladiator.

They both reached the circle of trees and they could see the gem lying there in the middle. Along with Jonet and Klara two more champions Raun and Bern reached the circle of trees. It has come down to 4 champions out 10 Jonet, Klara, Raun and Bern who has lasted for 3 hours in this to reach to the final stage, and now one of these four warriors of Somako would have the chance to challenge the king.

They all looked at each other wondering what to do now. “You have luckily survived for too long, but not anymore.” Raun said and then takes on Jonet. On the other side, Bern attacks Klara. Bern was the last person to enter the forest and he seems much more energetic then others Klara could not handle his pace and power and got eliminated.

“We are down to three now,” Violette shouted and the whole stadium started to cheer louder, their cheers were so loud that it would have reached the United Nations of America.

Now Raun and Bern team up against Jonet to eliminate her and later decide themselves who is going to touch that gem first.

Here we go, Raun, and Bern attacked Jonet together, but Jonet was extremely good with her sword and trained for months for the very same situation as she knew this would happen. Jonet eliminated Bern and then it was down to Raun and Jonet. They both were tired and there was only one thing that was making them go and that is to be chosen the fallen warrior.

Standing on the opposite side of the gem they both started to calculate the distance between where they were standing and where the gem was. Raun reacted first and started to run towards the gem. Jonet was a bit late and was playing the catch-up game. They both tried to put some hurdles in each other passage by throwing daggers, bombs, dust and what not. Jonet was just moment away from the gem so she divided and stretched her body in the air to reach the gem. Raun did the same exact thing, but Jonet long hands helped in this close call and she touched the gem first.

Instantly, Jonet felt a jerk somewhere behind her navel as she was lying in the middle of the stadium. Her feet had left the ground. She could not believe that she was holding the creation gem in her hand and she won the tournament.

She stands up to live the moment which she was dreaming for so many months and it has finally arrived. She held the Gem high in the air with her hand high in the air.

“Bang…” there were no loud cheers from the crowd anymore, but a sound of an explosion and the whole Somako was burning like hell and everyone was running to save their lives as Somako was under attack.