Fifty-Eight- Wren

Chapter 58

Wren

Marina and I round everybody up and we meet in Bry's yard, like they used to. Marina explains what happened, how she sort of got out of the spell, what her parents said, and how they are coming to kill a lot of people.

“So what did you try to get completely out of the spell?” Ray asks. Marina blushes a deep red, completely contradicting my, “We haven't.”

They look back and forth from both of our faces, and you can practically see when each of the comes to the realization of what we tried, except for Nox, who has been smiling slightly since the question was asked. Damn impure thought thing. Jasper stifles a laugh and Ray grins.

“Well, you're back together then?” Bry says.

“Okay, we have more pressing matters than our cure methods. An army is on its way here to kill everyone we care about, and I'm still a weapon.” Marina says. That shuts up the giggles, even though we've already told them.

“Do you know where they're coming into town?” Ash asks.

“Up the main road, which street is that?” She asks, turning to me.

“Main Street.” I laugh.

“Oh, easy enough then, but then they're all branching off onto the other roads, taking over the entire town, and they're going to be here soon.”

“I wish we had more time to prepare, but you didn't tell us because you were... busy.” Air giggles.

“Oh shush.” Marina blushes again. We walk to the edge of town, but on our way, we see they're already in the town. We stand, horrified, in the center with all the shops. People run, screaming. A woman tugs on Jasper's shirt and screams at him to run.

Bry goes into leader mode, “Ash, Marina, and Air, stay here and fight them. Jasper and I will go up Holly Street where all the fields are, Ray and Nox, you go opposite us, on Ridge Drive, and Wren... I have an idea. Make up, in your head, the best fictional animal you can, biggest too, and focus on turning into it.” She says, as the others disperse. It's too on-the-spot, and I'm panicking too much, to be creative, but within seconds I'm a dragon.

“HOLY S**T!” I hear someone yell, as I beat my huge wings and fly upward. Wow. I'm a dragon. Awesome! I'd dreamed of this day when I was five, and I actually happened! Nothing you dream of when you're five happens! I fly upward until I can see the majority of the town.

How the crap am I supposed to fight creatures made of fire as a dragon?

Can I be a water dragon? I focus on it and I feel something inside me shift. I fly over a few Fire Children, douse them with a torrent of water, and then land on them. I'm really huge, and I crush them. When I fly away, ashes swirl in the wind.

It's not exactly a beautiful day, it seems the world wants to help us, because suddenly it is torrential down pouring, really weakening the Fire Children, but along with Ash. Hey, you win some you lose some. I spot my house, and plenty of Sine marching in. I land and quickly turn into a human, then I turn to the neighbor's vicious German shepherd.

I picture the Sine in my mind and then growl to him, “Kill them.”

The dog barks and bounds into the house, and emerges a minute later with blood on his muzzle. I go into the house, the bodies of Sine litter the floor, but my mom and dad stand unharmed.

“You're welcome.” I say, then bark to the dog (literally barking) “C'mon.”

We walk out the door, and masses of Sine surround me, all hungry looking. Something rises within me, I don;t know what it is, but suddenly a crow's caw bursts sonically loud from deep inside my chest, and all the crows within a five mile radius dive at the Sine, pecking their eyes, shredding their skin. Metaphors for death against metaphors for death. The dog, Bear, kills a few Sine, and I finally remember the gun I was given. It appears in my hand and I shoot at the Sine with varying degrees of well-aimed-ness. I pull the trigger and all there is is a click, but then I click it again and another bullet fires into a Sine's head. It reloads itself! I keep firing, and eventually I clear a path in the crowd of Sine, leaving the crows to pick at their remains, and the other one's scattering, not wanting to be killed. The blood mixes with the rain, running in rivulets down the street.

I turn to my parents who stare in shock through the opened door, grin and give them a little solute and walk away singing 'Pumped up Kicks', or just the chorus, by Foster the People, because I feel in someway, it applies.

All the other kids with their pumped up kicks

better run, baby, run,

outrun my gun...

I pass by the graveyard and notice three Sine practically frolicking among the grave stones, breathing the souls that inspire my town's ghost stories. I shoot them all and hit my mark each time, my aim drastically improving. My hair drips into my eyes, dark brown because of the amount of water that's in it. I see the town is on fire but the rain keeps it from getting too big, and Ash, Marina, and Air are struggling.

“Help them.” I say to Bear. He does a dog's version of a nod and bounds off. I turn back into the water dragon thing and fly over to where Bry and Jasper are fighting. When I see the scene below me, both Briar-Rose and Jasper look tired, and there are way too many Fire Children for them to handle, but luckily, no Sine. I roar, just because I can, and put out half of the Fire Children's fire, then sit on them. They are dead instantly, I must be unimaginably heavy. I turn back into a human. Satelles stands in front of us. And then he doesn't.

“Does that mean we won?” Jasper asks.

“I don't think so.” Bry answers. We walk through the bloody field and down the street into the center of town, Ray and Nox are already helping the others and we join the battle. Bear sits at a headless man's side, looking forlorn. Mr. Flanagan. I walk up next to him and pet his soaked, bloodstained fur, and he looks up at me with sad brown eyes. But I can only do this for a second and I turn to jump into the battle.

I'm helping Marina fight a Sine when she freezes, looking behind me. Before I can turn around I'm pulled a few feet up and spun around. Malum stares back at me, his black eyes crinkling in the corners in a grin.

“Marina, don't move.” I say calmly, a direct command. I know what he's going to do the second I see the rope in Satelles' hands. He places me a few feet up the telephone pole and ties me to it.

“You've done quite a bit of damage.” Malum says. “Such a shame to waste such power.” He turns away and points at a Fire Child holding an axe, motioning for it to come over.

“Kill him.” Malum commands. Marina screams from her frozen position in horror as the beast takes his stance in front of me. It pulls back the axe and swings it forward. I don't close my eyes, only stare into Marina's blue-green ones, the one's that seem to say, “F**K YOU!” in the most loving way possible.

Then, suddenly, the eyes are gone from my view, and something cold touches my throat. The Fire Child is frozen in a torrent of water. She broke free. She unties me and I fall. I hold her in my arms and she cries, hugging me tight, as if she's making sure I'm still alive, not beheaded by an axe while she watched.

“You're an a*****e.” She sobs into my shirt, though it is already soaked from the rain, so it doesn't really matter.

“I know.” I stroke her hair. Bear bounds up to me and licks my hand. Marina wipes her tears away and we break apart to rejoin the battle. Now with added threat of Malum himself. The rain falls harder though, and the Fire Children are scarce, along with the Sine, who are as easy to kill as humans, just faster and slightly stronger. I kiss Marina quickly on the cheek, and all hell breaks loose once more when Malum roars, and I suddenly understand why he's undefeated.

Fire erupts from his pores.

Author's Note

a longer chapter, I used to write them longer than this, but after the intermission, I couldn't again, so I'm trying to fix that.
reviews please!

Reviews

[Astro MacGuffin]

Nicely chaotic, the way a battle should be, with plenty of character moments seamlessly woven into the action. I did lose track of whose perspective I was in, though.

This is the first and only chapter I've read, so I can't say too much, but the interaction between the characters and the natural, matter-of-fact way they discuss and execute their powers made it easy for me to go along with the shape shifting, animal partnering, superpowered developments.

The use of weather, although sparse, was a nice touch. You seem to have a great grasp of using minimal details in just the right way to give me a picture and then move on to placing action into the scene. Kudos.

[Abbie]

hey, isn't mr. flanagin our school's guidence councelor, or something like that?
any ways, aside from that, great chapter sophie! you need to write fast, cuz I'm hungry for more!!!!! :P

[Amanda]

I'll only be 100% satisfied when my favorite character gets a certain girl. Anywayyyyz good chapter, feel bad for Bear though.