THE WRETCHED

EARTH 2

The elders were quite, the council house oozed a lifeless odour. The once lively council members slouched on their seats like defeated warriors. The was an unspoken death in the air; a dread reigned supreme inside the bamboo enclosure. The seer's hang loosely in the air; no one could save them, darkness approached fast accompanied by a heavy presence of fear and defeat. The chief rubbed his temple, it was at times like this he wished he could turn back time and be the little boy his father would often s***k when he got into trouble. He felt his father's shoes were too big for him but he had no choice, it was his obligation... no... not obligation, but rather it was a passion, a passion to take humanity to greater levels. He wanted to create such a weapon that would make his community immune from all the external threats that threatened to breach the walls of his community but he just couldn't figure out how he would achieve that especially with the foreseen threat of Aeschylus breeding an army by snatching his people and the worst part was that he couldn't fight him but he would fight it, even if it was a losing battle.

"The night grows darker but a star rises, shining bright to bring forth a new hope," the seer said, her voice clear and raised. The silent elders pulled away from their seats, their minds stirred with a new curiosity. The young chief cleared his throat, "please make the things you speak of clear to us for we do not understand it," he said, speaking the minds of the five elders in his council.

"It shall be known when the time comes," she answered.

A moment later, the chief's nephew, his sister's first son entered the council room. His long legs carrying him swiftly.

"Alec, what brings you here? Don't you know we are discussing important things?" Chief Ale asked his nephew, casting a hard stare at the barely fourteen-year-old whose legs seemed longer than his body. 

"Forgive me, uncle," Alec replied while bowing his head in front of the council who were seated in a round mahogany table with the chief at the head, "a girl and her sister are here to see you, they bring two strangers whose accent is...complete;y off," he hesitated.

"Let them in," the chief replied, his curiosity peaked. He hadn't been expecting anyone.

A moment later, three girls and a tall scrawny boy entered the chambers, two of the girls were dressed in the common clothing while the boy and the girl both wore strange clothes. The two girls in tunics bowed before him while the other two only seemed taken by the view of the chambers.

"what brings you here?" he asked.

The tall girl with green striking eyes spoke first, "we thought it wise to bring these two strangers," she paused, her fingers pointing at the two mesmerized strangers," my sister and I were fetching water at the river when they fell from the sky," she said.

There was a murmur in the room, "they must be fallen angels," an elder said.

"Don't be stupid Gregory," one elder added, "if so then they would have scars on their backs enough to hinder them wearing clothes,"

"Strange clothes," another elder commented, bringing Jenna's attention on him.

"Actually it's normal clothing, you are the ones with a strange sense of clothing," she replied, her eyes not breaking contact with the eyes of the shocked elder.

"Strange accent," Gregory commented, his eyes taking in the view of the two strangers.

"You must be fallen angels," another elder said, his dark eyes boring holes into Arold's head, "but angels aren't as scrawny as you," he said, his eye pointing at Arold. 

Jenna chuckled, "this one needs to eat, he looks like a malnourished chicken," she commented, hoping to make things lighter but it only seemed to intensify the stares they were receiving.

"Tell me, who are you?" the chief asked.

"This is Arold and I am Jenna," she replied, not a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"What are you?" he asked once again, an emphasis in his tone.

"Human, we are not vampires," Arold said, irritated that they would think they he not human when in fact the whole community looked like a page take out a story book.

"I didn't say so," the chief said, his eyes twinkling with a mischievous challenge.

"You didn't need to say it," Jenna jumped in, "I think we were thrown into a new reality," she explained, "one second we were at a party and the next we are passing through a dark hole and then we fell from the sky and into the river," 

"Why should we trust you?" Gregory asked.

Arold purse his lips, the Gregory guy was really pissing him off.

"You can trust them," a calm voice said from the corner of the room, the seer stepped into the light, "they speak the truth," she added.

"What shall we do with them?" asked the chief.

"Give them food, shelter and security," she answered curtly.

"So you say you suspect you're from another world?" the chief asked, seeking confirmation.

"Yes," they both answered.

"They could be spies," the girl with grey eyes spoke for the first time and the chief found himself taken by her beauty, his mind a chaos of thoughts. How had he not noticed her before?

"I beg to differ," the girl next to her answered, "they could be a phenomenon to explain what happened to them and I strongly believe that they were sent here for a reason...most likely to help us,"

The chief nodded, "we will know with time," he answered both of them.

"My nephew will give you a place to stay," he told the strangers.

Alec wanted to know where they'd come from. It was one of his traits, he could be overly curious and this seemed like a very interesting case. He had always believed there was more out there, there had to be! Some part of him knew there was life outside their world; maybe a place where there weren't any vampires or Nephilims and all those supernatural creatures that threatened to make human beings extinct.

"The place you come from... what is it called?" he asked as they passed his mother's house, she was likely making dinner, he thought.

"Earth," Arold answered immediately, his own question burning at the tip of his tongue, "what's this place called?"

"It's Earth," Alec answered, "maybe we aren't that different," he added, he added, stopping in front of a whitewashed stone building, "I sleep here, there are two spare bedrooms, you can take one and Jenna can take the other," he said, his eyes falling on the girl with red highlights in her hair, he'd never seen anyone dressed up like that, it was kind of mesmerizing but out of place in a world where everyone wore tunics.

Maia tapped Jenna's shoulder, "I'll see you later," she said.

Jenna felt a little tug at her heart, she'd wished she could stay with Maia. There was an unseen bond that developed in the few hours they had spend together. She smiled, barely showing her teeth, "I hope so,"

Maia and her sister left while Jenna and Arold went in to have a rest. Jenna had expected that she'd sleep on the floor with nothing to cover herself but she'd been surprised to find a bed with white clean duvet, the walls of the room were pristine clean, not a speck of dust tainted the room and there were tunics neatly placed on a table beside the bed. 

Arold was asleep when he felt someone pat him on the shoulder, he ignored it thinking it was just his mind merging with his dream but then he felt the pat again and this time he groaned, it felt real. He opened his eyes half lazily and turned his head to see who it was. 

"what are you doing here?" he asked Alec.

"I came to take you with me," he said.

Arold furrowed his eyebrows, "that's creepy,"

"I mean, you and I should go in search of the horsemen rings before the vampires find it," he explained.

Arold rolled off the bed, his mind more awake, "no, I just want to go home," he said "you should go sleep,"

"If we don't find the rings, my people will be killed and turned into vampires. I don't want to watch my family made into slaves," 

Arold could feel the teary emotions of the kid, it tugged at his heart.

"The chief will be very angry you know,"

"I know but it's worth a try,"

Arold agreed, not because he felt moved but he wanted to satisfy his curiosity, he wanted to know if vampires really existed.

Arold had a big pouch hanging on his loosely on his waist from the shoulder, "what are you carrying in there?" Arold asked.

"Some food supplies, it will keep us fed for the journey,"

"We should probably wake Jenna," 

"She's outside waiting for us,"

"You went to her before coming to me?"

"She seems more adventurous than you," Alec smirked, "I didn't even have to beg her,"

Arold felt like smacking the kid, "let's go,"

They found Jenna outside the house, her hands wrapped around herself, "it's kind of chilly," she said when she saw Alec, "did you have to take so long?"

"Takes a lot to convince him," Alec whispered.

Jenna scowled at Arold, "why are we whispering?"

Jenna could help but roll her eyes at him, "are you that much of a simpleton?" she exclaimed earning a frown from Arold, "we have to keep our voices low because the chief's guards might hear us,"

"We have to pass by the weapon store," Alec said, looking around for any signs of the guards, "follow me," he whispered.

The chief's weapon store wasn't guarded as Alec had expected which made their mission easier. He took out the key he'd stolen from the chief earlier in the day and opened the huge lock on the door.

"Pick a weapon," Alec whispered, "Be quick about it,"

"what about you?" Arold asked.

"I have my knives,"

"Knives? Can't you take something more ... dangerous?"

"Stop wasting time Arold!" Jenna scolded. She reached for a sword, taking it out of its sheath. It glistened in the dim light, "that's freaking awesome!" Arold exclaimed trying to reach out and touch it but Jenna pulled away, "keep away," she growled.

Arold looked around, nothing really caught his eye. He didn't know what he wanted. The swords in the room didn't really excite him, the knives weren't really his taste, the spear didn't feel like something he would want.

"Will you pick something!" Jenna scolded.

"Nothing feels right," he said.

"What about the bow and arrow," someone commented a female voice. The three went still as the seer walked entered the room, "the bow and arrow," she said once more. 

Arold smiled nervously while Alec seemed like he'd rather been somewhere else than there.

"Am sorry seer, we didn't mean to..." she held up her hand to silence him.

"We do what we have to do in times like these," she said, "take the bow and arrow Arold," she said, her eyes intensely staring at him.

He looked around and noticed the bow and arrow at the furthest corner of the room, he suddenly felt a pull towards it. He reached out and held the weapons in his hand, "this feels right," he said, it felt light and fulfilling to hold them in his hands.

"It has unique arrows," she said.

"How?"

"You'll see," she said, "you better get going, the others are waiting at the river," she said and then disappeared back into the darkness.

"She's very weird," Arold commented.

"Tell me about it. Everything here is weird," Jenna added.

They made their way to the river, making sure to stay in the shadows lest they were seen by anyone. The night was dimly lit by the blue moon in the sky giving an illusion of secrecy and mystery as the three teenagers walked under it, their bodies casting long dark shadows on the green grass that lined the path to the river. Arold felt a certain excitement in the pit of his stomach. He felt like he'd finally found something he really wanted to do, something his father didn't have a say on. It felt liberating even though there was a possibility that he might come to great danger if the vampires were real. He didn't know if he would go back to earth and see his family but at that moment, he was happy to be going on an adventure even if he had to tolerate the sassy Jenna.

"What are you thinking about?" Jenna asked she'd seen the faraway look in his eyes.

"It's crazy how the reality we thought was real isn't even  real,"

She smiled, he'd voiced her thoughts, "Twenty four hours ago if someone had said there was another earth I would have thought them crazy,"

"Is it weird that I actually like it?"

She shook he head, a painful memory coming into mind, "I do too," she smiled, "maybe this is where we were meant to be," she added.

As they approached the river, they noticed the silhouettes of five people standing under a tree, "that's Maia," Jenna said.

"I think they are the ones we are to meet," Alec added, quickening his steps.

"It's them," Arold added.

Deimos and the two tricksters; Ammon and Amethyst. He would have loved to go on the mission alone as the two tricksters were always arguing. They were slowing him down. If he had his way, he'd have cut off their heads.

"We should camp here for the night," Amethyst said, she was a short plump trickster with protruding plump ears and a long thin sharp nose, a feature many tricksters had. Her eyes were a watery grey that challenged anyone who dared to look into them, it was an intimidating kind of look that had made her a great trickster.

"Time is running up," Deimos simply answered, going on with his long strides that the short-legged tricksters found hard to keep up. He raised his sword and slashed a twig that hindered his path in the forest. They had been walking for two days and hadn't stopped to take rest. Deimos believed rest was for the lazy; a warrior wasn't lazy. He would only rest after he found the rings and delivered it to Aeschylus. They were in the blue forest; home to many creatures. The only creatures he had to be careful not to wake were the green lions. The blue forest was the breeding ground and home to the malicious creatures. They attacked on sight, their green sharp fangs scared even the bravest warriors. He made sure to carefully check his surroundings before he took a step. It was an act of caution because the green lions often resembled a carpet of grass spread on the ground. This camouflage was a survival mechanism that helped them catch prey. 

"Don't listen to her Deimos," Ammon chipped in, "the sun will soon go down and it would be unfortunate for us if we're still in this forest,"

Deimos grunted the tiny trickster had a point. The sooner they were out of the forest the better for them since darkness would make it hard for them to avoid the green lions. His vampire sight would be of help to him but the arguing tricksters would most likely step on something and awaken an unnecessary battle with the lions. He made a resolution to leave the tricksters at the Nephilim mountains and take one Nephilim on the journey. He would need a strong ally when he got to the Fairy forest where the first ring was rumoured to be. A strong Nephilim would make the retrieval easier as they were strong and vicious, characters he found admirable unlike the silly tricksters he was stuck with.