Light of the Unexpected Adventure

Chapter 14 The Power

Gabriella's POV

This time around, she gently puts her hand to my forehead, before the light illuminates even brighter from within her, but what is startling is that we are both brought off of the ground instantly after this action. I instinctively yelp out, holding her tighter within my grip as I look around us while wobbling in the air, feeling like we are flying on something thin, like a cloth. It takes me a moment to steady myself, but that doesn't take the fear away. I am terrified I will fall while she stays completely still. She looks confident in this, or maybe it's the desperation to get this done, before it's too late.

Swaying in the air with nothing but the hard ground underneath me, by a good amount of space, is unnerving. I keep squeaking out between attempts to steady, calming down before I feel her weight lift from me as she starts floating on her own. But I never knew she was the one making me feel remotely stable in this action. That is until she left, because my body instantly starts tipping, like I am falling back. My arms extend straight out, hoping this will work to steady myself, as I also keep my eyes on her. I see that her tenacious stride to get this done doesn't slow down at all, not even remotely with all of my movements, like I thought it would.

My alarming actions, and probably even the argument with her, have now alerted the enemy to our whereabouts. Which was the last thing I would have wanted. I looked around below us, seeing many ogres quickly circling underneath us. They are trying to use one another to climb up, getting as close as possible to us. That doesn't exactly work. So I nervously watched as they reached up, swiping at us, almost able to reach, but luckily we are just out of reach.

A bright light that came straight from her started to surround us, making it seem as if we are sitting in some sort of bubble. Which causes us to slowly bob up and down. But oddly enough, I am not touching any of the edges of this bubble as I bob around in the air. I keep looking around at the glistening surface of the bubble. It is shining, making everything look slightly blurred. I keep looking around at the details until my attention is grabbed by the ogres relentlessly slashing their arms at the bubble's edge. I am terrified of what may happen to the both of us if the wall of ogres pop our bubble.

That question is easily answered within the next moments as I watch them jump and swipe, but when they make contact with the bottom of our light bubble, they turn into dust without a moment to lose. This doesn't stop them as I had hoped it would. They are relentless, looking vicious and almost brainless, knowing they will die but not caring as if they are in an endless trance taking over them entirely. They drool and claw at the light surrounding us, showing what they plan to do to us when given the chance.

I am worried and don't know how long this light-shield will last, since she plans to give me the light power, when she is the one controlling all of this. I just hope that it can last long enough, because I don't want to be on the pointy end of those claws when I don't know what to do to defend us. I look across from me and can see the old woman with clarity, thanks to the bright light of the illuminating bubble.

This poor woman, she looks exhausted as I see blood draining from her nose, mouth and also her side, showing how strained she is in this moment. She wears rags as I do, but her eyes carry a wisdom in them that I wish I had. Once the light drifts from her body, it automatically forms into a bright ball of light that I cannot look directly at. I squint my eyes just to slightly make out that it is coming towards me. I brace myself for the impact, not knowing what it will feel like within me, let alone how it may feel going into me.

I suck in a sharp breath, as I feel pressure pushing into my chest, taking the air from within it, as if a hole has been poked inside my lungs, letting all the air out at once and not allowing me to fill them back up right now. I am automatically gasping for air as I feel the light entering into me, filling me up like the time when a strong current sucked me underwater and took my breath away as I sucked the water in. Overwhelmingly suffocating, and hurts all at the same time. That is until a surge of energy is instantly shooting through every inch of my body, waking up every bit of it while taking the suffocating feeling with it.

Before this feeling can settle within me, I felt another surge instantly shoot out of me before demolishing the security surrounding us and within us, as I was afraid it would. So, with a loud pop, I watch the sphere around us dissipate in an instant, while the piles of ogres turn to dust just as quickly. We both drop to the ground without warning, so the hard weed and dirt covered ground is the only thing there to catch us. With the straight smack to my body when colliding with the ground, I feel my body ache as if something broke inside of me.

I hold my stomach, wincing in pain, but I am not the only one reacting like this. We are both groaning out, rolling back and forth on the hard, cold ground. The pain within my chest is something I never felt before, and it hurts beyond belief, I reach up touching my chest as if I expected something to be protruding out of it because of the immense amount of pain inside of it right now. I groan out louder while holding my chest, gaining only little bits of air back into my lungs. They are not soothed, let alone feeling better, at least for the moment.

I slowly use what little bit of strength I have to get up and to my knees while still gasping for air, moving on all four limbs as fast as I possibly can just to crawl over to her limp, frail body. All I can think is that if I am feeling this bad, then how is this frail, aged woman feeling? Especially when she was already hurt before the bad fall. "You need to get up.. Come on.. We need to go before they come back." I say to her between forced gasps of air, knowing full well this is a long shot, but I still can't fight the strong need within me to save her.

I noticed her automatically declining as her head shook at my comment. "No my dear, my time is up. The sun is setting for my life. But that is not the same for you.. You need to go before more come back. It's only a matter of time, since I'm sure they heard the burst of light between us along with the agony of our pain afterward.. But don't worry, I will be going to a better place, very soon.. I have done my job, and now it is your turn.. You need to see the witch and discover your next task for yourself."

I keep shaking my head while gripping her arm in my hands and trying to help her to sit up, just to then get her to her feet after. She shakes her head more than I do, while she pushes my hands off of her as she goes limp, falling the couple of inches to the ground underneath her. I try to pick her up again, but this time around she is feeling heavier than I ever would have imagined she could be. It's as if she has shifted into some sort of boulder in disguise, or maybe I am just feeling incredibly weak in this moment, mostly because of everything I have been through thus far.

"Stop my dear.. Please.. I am not going with you. I can't and I won't. Thank you for coming to me though. You have helped me in more ways than you will probably ever know or even understand.. and for that you will always have my gratitude. So feel good with that thought in mind. Especially since there is nothing you can do to change my mind, it is made up. I don't have long in this world, so I won't spend it hurting myself for the inevitable end that is coming, whether we like it or not. Besides, I can already see that you have the light brightly thriving within you, so I'm confident that you will put it to good use, so I don't regret giving my gift to you. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I know deep within my heart, that no matter how scared you are, you were meant to be the one coming to me and helping me in this hard time. So with that thought, I know that I will be at peace now.. Thanks to you." She says this so sweetly making my eyes automatically water up as I start shaking my head.

"Don't talk like that.. There's got to be something we can do, and I don't even know what to do with this gift, let alone helping anyone with it.. So, if I give it back, will you be ok again? Can you heal yourself or anything along those lines? I think you can do this for yourself, actually I believe you can. Because I feel like it will be a waste of your power if it stays with me. I want to give it back so you can help not only yourself but more, just like you helped me." I declare as she chuckles as if this is some playful conversation when we both know it is not.

"I love the positivity within you for everyone else, I really do, but there is nothing that can be done for a hag like me." She says as I shake my head vigorously before she reaches up, putting her finger to my lips to stop anything I wanted to say in her defense. "You want to know something? I was just like you many moons ago.. Full of fear and no confidence within myself to see the person I could be. So afraid of the mistakes I could make that I was never able to grab the strength that I did have and needed to get me through, until it was almost too late.. But don't fret my dear, all of this will come to you faster than it ever did for me.. Keep your head up and don't trust anyone.. There are not many out there that won't turn you in to the King to help themselves. So just stay away from all but the witch." She warns as I huff out feeling the overwhelming emotions hitting my system.

"I can't do this.. Please don't leave me alone with this. I don't know what I am doing." I squeak this, begging her as I feel a tear fall, before another is right behind it, mostly from being scared for not just her, but me as well. She wants me to do something that I don't know if I can, and I don't want to fail her dying wish. I would never forgive myself if I did. The wavering breath leaves my lips as I watch her reach up, then touch my cheek gently while wheezing.

"Oh.. My dear.. Don't worry.. You will be ok.. No one.. Ever knows what they are doing.. In situations such as this.. But I know.. That you can do this.. So be strong and always keep fighting the darkness. Farewell.. It is my time to go.. So, until I see you again." She pushes the words out, and it sounds like that action alone was incredibly hard to do, taking her last bit of breath with the words. I shake my head, terrified of what's to come. But before I have a chance to say anything else, she turns to ash in my hands.