24 hours had past, and the only development within that time frame was a twitch behind my left eye.

I had also been interrogated like a criminal, and as if that weren’t bad enough, there was a steady tugging in the back of my head that I couldn’t identify. I furrowed my eyebrows in complete frustration.

“It doesn’t help if you’re hovering. I can’t concentrate like this.” I resigned, opening my eyes to glare at him.

Ennissyen returned my gaze with a hard look before stalking off across the bank, mirroring my own anger. I slumped to the ground in exhaustion. I had been attempting to return us to Awsta for several hours now, but with little luck. As if I knew how I did it in the first place anyway!

I couldn’t get a handle on how I was supposed to access this innate power, let alone transport us. The twitch in my eye flared, and I grumbled. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. The tugging in the back of my mind vibrated annoyingly. Something about this situation wasn’t right.

Ever since we mysteriously arrived here, I noticed Ennissyen keeping himself a safe distance from me, careful not to touch or brush past me in anyway. I ignored the suspicion initially because I thought it was just nerves, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he’s always been that way from the start. Only on a few occasions has he stepped beyond the comfort zone he built around himself.

What’s more, when I explained everything I knew up to this point about my situation, he only kept a guarded expression. He never let any kind of emotion slip through his hard mask of indifference. I couldn’t figure him out. At the very least, I half expected him to make fun of me or something. I looked up just in time to see him heading towards the tree line.

“Where are you going?” Irritation flooded my senses as I stood up.

“To find some fire wood.” With that he disappeared into the growing darkness without a glance in my direction. I scowled. What was I supposed to do with myself while he did that?

Time dragged on forever it seemed. The sun was already behind the trees, and the chilly evening air swept in with a vengeance. I sat shivering in the grass, still trying to decipher that annoying tug in the back of my mind. I already gave up on reenacting the Houdini trick I managed to pull. It wouldn’t be very useful if I figured it out by myself and left Ennissyen here alone- Although, that idea was steadily growing on me. How long did it take to collect firewood anyway?

The feeling in the back of my mind strummed sharply. It was so sharp, in fact, that my ears started to ring. The brush behind me rustled and I got to my feet and turned around. Ennissyen walked out of the forest line, and I almost collapsed with relief.

“What took you so long…wait; I thought you were collecting firewood?” I narrowed my eyes.

Ennissyen had walked out of the forest empty handed. I immediately thought of those black dog-like monsters and shivered. I opened my mouth to ask, but stopped. He was smiling, and it wasn’t just a smirk or a grin either. But that wasn’t why I was shaking; there was a dangerous look in his eyes. It was flat out murderous.

I took a shaky step backwards as he made his advance towards me. Something definitely wasn’t right. This wasn’t like him. My eyes widened when the pieces connected; this wasn’t him. Had it been an imposter the whole time? No, I reassured myself, this guy had a completely different feel than the normal Ennissyen. I turned to make a run for it, but it was too late. The imposter was close enough to grab my shoulder. He spun me around and lifted me a foot off the ground by my neck with his other hand. I tried to kick and struggle, but nothing worked.

“You’re...not Ennissyen. Who are you?” I managed to choke out, somehow sounding braver than I felt. I could feel his powerful hand tightening around my throat.

To my horror, His appearance shifted in front of me. It was the most bizarre and disgusting thing I had ever seen. The imposters’ face bubbled and melted away to reveal his true form. Nausea hit my stomach hard.

The thing holding me was hideous. He was much bigger than Ennissyen, and a lot wider; his size was equivalent to a bus. His skin looked burnt. Red, brown, and black patches covered every inch of him that was visible to me, and it looked as if parts of his skin were dangling from his limbs.

His face was contorted and mangled beyond words. One side seemed to be unnaturally drawn downwards, as if someone made his face out of wax and then purposely melted it. Sores bubbled and oozed all over causing the skin he had left to turn a blotchy crimson. The other side was jet black, including his eye. The two sides of his face were so different, that it seemed like someone had sewn them together. His clothes looked much too small for him, and as a result were torn and shredded in various places.

The brush behind us rustled again and my heart sank even deeper when two other unfamiliar figures stepped onto the bank. They looked almost identical to the one holding me except for their physical size.

“Oh? Raven, you found a new toy?” One of the things cooed behind my captor.

I gulped reflexively. The scene before me started clouding over in spots because of the lack of oxygen. A small tingle somewhere deep inside of me sparked encouragingly. It was like the last little flicker of a flame about to go out. I knew I didn’t have much time before unconsciousness took over and I had to do something. I closed my eyes, and envisioned myself fanning that tiny flame, trying to draw strength from it. I didn’t know what else to do.

“Giving up already? Raven, it seems you picked one without any spirit.” A raspy voice to my right spit out. My captor just grunted unhappily.

I focused harder; the tiny spark started to writhe and coil. I tried to suck in as much of the energy as I could.

“What’s it doin Rave...?” A deeper pitched rasp questioned from somewhere to my left.

It felt like I had just enough power to do something. I just needed them to let go of me long enough so that I could make an escape. I knew I would be dead otherwise. I coiled all my energy into an imaginary ball to gain momentum, and when I opened my eyes I burst the bubble and sent the energy in every direction possible expelling the imposter and his friends back into the forest line they emerged from.

I hit the ground hard, coughing and wheezing. The cool air burned my throat and lungs as I lay sprawled on the grass completely stunned. I needed to get up, I needed to run. Those things could come back any second, and when they did, I knew I wouldn’t have any more strength to fend them off. My mind flashed to Ennissyen. I couldn’t leave him behind, I realized. As stupid as the thought was, I just couldn’t help myself. I still had that strange urge to protect him, and I didn’t know why.

I rolled onto my side, and managed to get to my feet. When I moved to walk, I immediately fell over out of exhaustion. I couldn’t even lift my arm without my body shaking from the strain. How am I supposed to help him in this condition? Wasn’t fate supposed to intervene in times of need and guide me in the right direction?

I blew out a sigh of exasperation. Whoa, I thought. I definitely needed to lay off the movies. This was far from any story book ending, and it was pointless to hope for such a thing now.

From where I lay, I could see the tiny island resting in the middle of the lake. The water was so still that it looked like a sheet of mirrored glass, reflecting the luminescent colors of the forest that surrounded it. I couldn’t really believe that this was going to be the end. The brush rustled somewhere behind me and I heard a string of curses.

“Rave, playtime is over.” The rough rasp grated against my ears. I could only assume the grunting response came from the one called Rave.

I felt him pick me up by my neck again and turned so that I was face to face with his misshapen form. The pure malice in his eyes rolled my stomach uncomfortably. I realized in that instant a quick end was out of the question. There was a sickening pain coming, and I knew it would be slow for their enjoyment.

“How should we end it Raven? Perhaps we snap her bones one by one?” One of the others suggested eagerly. My captor only smiled, or what looked like a sore attempt at a smile, and shook his head.

“Whatsit gonna be Rave?” I heard from behind me. The ugly beast holding me looked at his companion for an immeasurable minute. It was like they were reading each others minds.

“Raven you’re so melodramatic.” Came the remark in response to the silent exchange. I tried to make a last effort to struggle, but I barely twitched a toe.

A gust of wind bristled through the trees suddenly, and I could almost hear the three things stiffen in response. My captor shifted his gaze to the tree line and squinted hard.

“It seems she wasn’t alone after all Raven.” My heart almost leapt out of my chest, and then recoiled in fear. It almost sounded like they were expecting to find two of us instead of one. I started to panic; I could hear the faint rustling noise of brush to my left. I saw Ennissyen break through the tree line with a hand full of wood.

“ENNISSYEN, GET OUT OF HERE!” I managed to scream. He looked up, focusing on me then my attackers, and the wood dropped to the ground with his hand on his sword.

“Arie!” He breathed, and then a shock of horror crossed his beautiful face that I didn’t understand. An explosion of pain erupted through my chest a second later causing me to scream involuntarily. I was tossed aside as the three of them focused their attention on Ennissyen. I pulled my eyes from his terror stricken face to the source of pain.

A long thorn was sticking out of the middle of my chest. It was a thorn from one of the sacred flowers, that much I recognized. Aside from the unbearable blistering pain, I felt a burning begin around the edges of the puncture spreading lethargically. My body began to tremble in response. I could only guess it was the venom going to work. The burning feeling along with the pain rolled lazily over my body, as the world in front of my eyes grew dark. Then I was alone.