Hope Released

Brutal Gloom

We crouched behind a small rock hump in the ground before us, all the while surrounded by thick trunks of natural defense and dense foliage that whistled with the silent wind. According to Lada, this was one of the rendezvous points along the way to the rundown town of Livita. In the form of a squirrel she crouched on the thin branches above us awaiting any signal we wouldn't be able to sense from our position.

A hand came to rest on my shoulder. It was Nixon, who's eyes pierced through the veil of dim darkness around us. The spare energy Flyte gave us still tingled through my limbs like fire.

"Listen.." My eyes paired with my ears to scan my surroundings in search of the amiss. The hushed slithering of water in a stream trickled down a slope nearby. "There it is again." Nixon's eyes jerked suddenly ahead of us where the city lay in a trance, neither asleep nor awake in this war.

Lada tipped off the branch transforming into a small grey bird mid fall and landed softly at our feet with the flutter of her small wings. She grew back to her Awetonian form, crouching with a distressed look on her small facial features. "Someone's coming." She said and shuffled closer to us. Skye's hand reached for hers to which she absentmindedly entwined her fingers with his.

Without a second thought I peaked over the steep mound of land and heard Nixon give a soft growl of disapproval. Without a glow it was abnormally dark to my eyes but I felt the need to find the source of the noise. An old brick house stood in the darkest shadows about fifty meters away almost completely hidden in the leaves of the thriving plants. An old light post, needed only by the Shadows, stood empty of any brightness just beside the entrance.

"See anything?" Lada asked, hesitantly lifting herself to see over my shoulder. She placed a strong clawed hand on the dirt , the other prepared to attack if the need arose. I eyed her claws then looked back out towards the house. "Nothing here."

"Do not be alarmed. There are Shadows in the trees up ahead. You will need to carry on stealthily to get past them. I'm afraid I didn't notice a large enough gap for you to pass through undetected." Flyte gave no warning to his arrival but his presence gave off it's usual calm influence, successfully bringing our attention to him without fright.

"What is our duty to perform?" Nixon asked as the four of us listened intently.

Flyte looked to each of us as he spoke, looking over his shoulder now and again to assure our safety. "I tell you this strictly, we do not want to kill ,or maim, or destroy. That is not our goal. However the only solution to stopping The Shadows from forcing themselves upon us is to influence whoever is the leader of this attack. Find whoever this is and be ready to form a barricade between them and those who reside here. I have already attempted at contacting the Awetonians here by way of telepathic dream warnings but it may not be enough to get them out by morning."

Our Prince stood and left us carefully through the darkness towards another group that awaited farther instructions. He assured us he'd be safe when Nixon insisted to join him as he ventured alone. We decided our plan of action; Lada would pass through the barrier of Shadows unseen as a small rodent. Skye believed he could manipulate the energy within himself to give himself a boost of speed. After testing his theory out a few times and regaining enough energy to attempt it over again we discovered he would make it just far enough to duck behind the brick building.

That left us with Nixon's ability to transform into his Jaguar form and my water abilities. It was obvious to us that if seen, Nixon would be better off attempting to sneak past the Shadows watching in the trees as an animal rather than an upright Awetonian. I dug my hands in the cool dirt to feel the path of the water source nearby and found that the stream beside us ran very shallow but just deep enough to cover my body as I swam. The only challenge was getting there before I would be spotted.