Brandon had been going at it for almost an hour now. Swing, after swing, after swing, after swing. His arms now getting tired, but every time he cut a thorned branch, it immediately grows back in a second.
Every time Grandma tried to fly over barricade of throned branches in front of us, there seemed to be an invisible force field that stops her from flying over and pushed her back. Fiercey and I ran left and right directions into the forest. Hoping we'd find an opening.
But there was none. We were stuck here in this new path and forest. Worst, we were stuck with an army led by a lunatic snake trying to kill us.
I only had one person in mind because of this. Mom.
Brandon finally gave up slicing the branches. He dropped his sword and got on his knees, panting like a dog. Grandma was tired too. All that bumping into the invisible force field had made her dizzy. We took a break and sat on our ground to catch our breath and restore our energy.
"Mom." I said panting. "This is mom's doing."
"Now, sweetie, don't get all accusing on your mother alright? She already left." Grandma countered.
"I know, but... This has got to be her doing right?" I went on. "She's a witch, right? She was also the one that brought us here in this new path. The one who sent Fiercey after me, the one who has power to open up this path and quite possibly close it too." I stated.
"Maybe we weren't supposed to leave yet." Brandon added. "Maybe there's still something else we need to do here."
"More like, she doesn't want us to leave."
"Alright. Elliot, we are going to look for your mother, so that we could ask her about this." Said Grandma.
"That sounds better." I agreed.
We took a couple more minutes for our break before we started moving again. Brandon was the first one to stand up. He got on his knees, picked up his sword and moved to Fiercey.
"Let's go."
I got up on my knees and stood up. Brandon climbed up on Fiercey's back. As I got close to Fiercey, he reached out his hand at me.
"Come on." He said pulling me up and setting me behind him.
This time, he was in front controlling Fiercey and I was behind him. "I guess I should hold on tight so I wouldn't fall?" I asked him jokingly.
"You better Princess, I'm known for making the ladies fall." He joked back.
I smiled and chuckled, "Consider me fallen then."
Grandma got up and once again spread her wings. Seconds after, she was already high up and started flying to a direction leading to the woods. Fiercey followed and once again, we were on the move.
We passed through countless trees. Fiercey leaped every time a large root or branch was in the way and Brandon and I would bump into each other. I held on closer and tighter each time.
After what it seemed like an hour, I began to wonder. How are we going to find mom exactly? I looked at up and yelled at Grandma regarding my question. She said that mom said they could find her at the east side of the forest if they needed anything.
I was a bit surprised. Mom actually said that, which adds more to my suspicion. Maybe she knew that this was going to happen, that's why she gave her location. Just wait 'til we got to her, I'll end up being right.
"Hey, do you hear that?" Brandon questioned. "Eritha, hold up!"
We stopped for a moment and listened to our surroundings. We stood still there and Grandma was still above us.
"There!" Brandon pointed to the left. "Voices are coming from over there; they seem to be screaming." Brandon stated.
"Yeah, I hear it too. I see some commotion going on also on the direction you pointed. Let's check that out." Grandma said. She came down on the ground to walk with us, stating in case it was Yurian's company again.
We walked slowly to the direction of commotion noises. We got closer and the noises and voices were louder. People were screaming. We got close enough to see everything and we were right; it was Yurian and his goons.
Brandon was about to draw his sword out, but I stopped him. Something already seemed to attack them; a creature of some sort since there was roaring. We looked around and saw Yurian getting his ass kicked by a Dark furred Lion with a black Maine. He was helplessly defending himself from it while his men scatter around screaming.
"What should we do?" Brandon looked at me and asked. "It's your call Elliot." He added.
I thought for a moment as I looked at what's happening in front of us. I looked at Yurian, who's on his back crawling the opposite direction his looking at trying to desperately get away from the beast in front of him. For a moment, it reminded me of myself days ago with my first encounter with Fiercey. Helpless and alone, trying to survive.
"Elliot!" Brandon's voice snapped me back from my thoughts. "We don't got all day you know!" He stated.
"Right, right sorry." I responded. "I know that these assholes tried to kill us so many times now, and I would've left them here to die while laughing." I stopped for a moment and glanced back at the situation at front, "But that's the old me. We should try and help them."
"Are you really sure on that?" Brandon tried to re-confirm.
"What difference would I make from my other self if this isn't my decision?" I glanced at both Grandma and Brandon.
Brandon's eyebrows went up as he looked back at me. "All right then," he answered, "What do we do?"
"Okay, you and I will run and stand between Yurian and the Lion. While Grandma, you will fly over Yurian and grab him. Get him away, far away." I explained.
Grandma nodded as I explained the plan while Brandon agreed to it. Brandon drew out his sword as I got on Fiercey's back. I counted to down to 1 and we all ran out of the bushes to act on the plan. Both the attention of Yurian and the lion were on us as we ran towards them.
As planned, Brandon and I stood in front of the lion. Brandon turned the flame of his sword on and swung it in front of the lion. "Grandma! Get 'im out of here!" I yelled. When Yurian was about to respond to me, she quickly grabbed him from the ground and flew away.
When they seemed to be out of sight, Brandon jumped on Fiercey's back with me. We got ready to tail and run when the lion suddenly spoke a woman's voice.
"Well, you're no fun." The Lion said.
"What the..." I looked back at it.
It suddenly started to change is body physique. It started to change into human. A woman. Mom. It was mom.
"What the hell... mom!?" I exclaimed.
"Surprise!" She said smirking. "If you're going to say 'Why am I not surprised?', your reaction begs to differ."
"I'm surprised both that it's you and what you can do."
"Well, I'm a with, aren't I? That's how you established me in your mind." She replied.
'Established in your mind'. I didn't know what she was talking about on that. "Yeah, but I didn't know witches could shapeshift."
"Well, fair point."
Brandon and I got off Fiercey's back and waited for Grandma to come back. It was an awkward, couple minutes of silence while waiting. After a couple more of minutes, Grandma finally arrived back.
"Ellie! Where did you come from?" She asked the moment she landed on the ground.
"She was the lion, grandma." I replied.
"Oh. Well, that explains it."
"So... I thought you guys were on your way. Why are you back here?" Mom asked us.
"Oh, I thought you would know." I replied.
"What do you mean?" She looked at me.
"You closed the path we came from. We need you to open it."
"Closed?? What do you mean? I didn't close any path. I didn't even know which path you came from."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Either she's telling the truth and we still have unfinished business here, or she's just lying. But because I was angry at her, I came to believe the second one.
"Oh bullshit. I know you're the one orchestrating things in my mind even in my own coma! So why don't you stop lying to us and just let us go!" I yelled at her.
"Elliot, tone down your voice! I didn't do anything you said!"
"Why do you have to torment me too much, huh! After dad you just didn't act like a mother to me at all!"
"Elliot, please tone down your voice, right now... Don't get so loud, please." She pleaded on a calm quiet voice.
"Or what!?" I yelled out as loud as I can. "You'll maul me with your lion!?"
"Elliot, maybe she's right. Don't get so loud now." Grandma said, backing up mom.
Even when Grandma tried to calm me down, I didn't listen. I continued to talk and yell as loud as I can with mom. I kept babbling on, letting out my bottled up anger with mom as she tried to calm me down. Kept saying that I shouldn't be so loud and that I shouldn't mention dad. But I didn't. I didn't listen to mom, and even grandma.
The ground seemed to shake like a drum beat but I still went on.
It's really bad what anger does to you. It's like when you're at the moment, you just lose all senses and control. You don't seem to notice or care anymore what was happening in your surroundings as long as you went on, letting it all out. These eventually lead to bad consequences.
As I kept babbling on, I didn't notice the birds that flocked from a nearby tree from the right direction. As the ground continued to rumble, mom pleaded even harder for me to tone down and be calm.
"Elliot, this is your last chance! I wouldn't want to shut you up myself!" Mom said to me.
"Oh yeah? Try me!"
"Hey guys I think something's co-" Brandon was cut off.
A very large (larger than even Fiercey and Grandma) silhouette suddenly emerged from the trees on out right. It roared loudly that we had to cover out ears. We all stood there shocked, looking up to the giant man-like creature standing in front of us. Its smell reeked alcohol and liquor.
Brandon was the first one to break his stance and draw out his sword. It burned brightly under the shadow of the creature that shaded us. Unfortunately, it also got its attention. Without a moment to passed, the large creature grabbed Brandon from where he stood.
It let out a loud roar and said words. "You want 'im back!? Take 'im from me!" It said to us. It then drank from a giant bottle it was holding on its left arm. At first, it seemed like a baton or something, but it was just a giant bottle of alcohol. After gulping down an amount of alcohol, it turned and started to walk away. Holding Brandon tight on its right arm.
He screamed for help as they got further and further away, but we were all too scared and stunned to move our bodies. They were already out of sight when our senses came back to us and we moved our bodies. They left a trail of destroyed trees behind.
"Brandon... no..." I muttered.
"I told you to shut your mouth." Mom said.
"Alright, that's enough! Both of you!" Grandma cut in. "We can't accomplish anything with you two always going on at each other! We need to rescue Brandon from, whatever that thing is and get out of here as soon as possible!" The last part sounded like there was anger in Grandma's voice.
"I'm sorry." That was all I could say, but Grandma nodded at me.
"Alright. Finding where they went won't be as much hard since they left a really big trail." Grandma pointed at the destroyed trees.
"What we need to figure out, is how." She paused for a moment, "How are we going to get Brandon back from that thing." She continued.
For a moment we were all silent. Grandma looked at us, while I looked down on the ground thinking of a way. Then, I questioned why mom was silent. I looked at her and she seemed to be agitated. Then I remembered that she tried to shut me up before the monster got here, making it like she knew what was about to happen.
"Okay okay, I got it. But first things first, we need to figure out what that thing was." I turned to face mom and talked to her. "Mom, you seemed to know what was coming so that's why you tried to calm me down." She immediately faced me as I said this. "So, care to explain what the hell was that?"
Her eyes looked down for a moment before opening her mouth. "Well, uh, Elliot... That's going to have a complicated answer. Because you see, that... that was your father."