05-Sorcery

It started to rain heavily although we didn’t get the full force of it because of all the branches that were in the way. The walk was still hard and the ground got muddy as the leaves weren’t able to bear the water’s weight. To top it off Akantha was complaining loudly about everything she could, the weight of her pack was too heavy, she was cold, mainly it was everything everybody else was feeling but she made it sound like she wanted to be treated like a princess. My pack started to dig into my shoulders, we kept getting stuck in sink holes, and Akantha kept moaning it took all of my self control not to hit her. Fortunately before I snapped Aldis did it for me. I heard a snap of something connecting. I spun around quickly fearing attack my hand went to my sword and I gripped the hilt, cursing I realised that I couldn’t see anything further than two tree’s away. I peered into the gloom until I spotted something, Akantha was lying on the muddy ground and Aldis standing above her with her fists clenched and every muscle tensed for fight. I knew that once she entered a rage nobody could calm her down apart from me. So I carefully walked up to her and put my hand reassuringly on her shoulder,
“It’s okay,” I whispered, then turned to Akantha who was just starting to get up,
“You’re coming up front with me,” I told her gruffly, “And I don’t want another word out of you unless you see a regiment or you get shot but if I do hear one little peep you’re on clean up for the entire camp….including toilets now go stand there with Guido,” She glared at me and I met it with a gaze of steel. Aldis smiled gratefully but she still looked angry,

“You going to be okay?” I asked and she nodded.
“Alright, let’s move out!” I called and we all carried on our way.

“We’re here Des!” Guido called out to me. I looked around I couldn’t see anything apart from forest, I stared at him questioningly then I realised I could see him, it must have stopped raining which meant that the stars would be out if there wasn’t any clouds. Behind me I heard the relieved murmurs of every one and the annoying voice of one,
“I better get canned food” I spun round with a look the shot daggers at Akantha, who had spoken to Nemesio,
“You had your warning Akantha,” I told her,
“For what?” she asked, “Because she punched me in the face?” she jabbed her index finger in the general direction of Aldis who tried her best to look innocent but was given away by the big grin on her face,
“I don’t care that she punched you in the face Akantha just that you spoke when I clearly told you not to,” Akantha balled her fists at me and glared,
“That’s unfair and I refuse to take an unjust punishment!” everyone seemed to get smaller at that instant and I said in a voice that I hardly knew I had, calm deep and commanding,

“Akantha, you are punished no matter how you feel about it and you broke your warning of not speaking so you are on camp clean up,” she opened her mouth to argue,

“You have no say in this matter unless you want to leave and go off on your own. Take the punishment or leave.” I pointed to the direction we were all heading knowing somehow that she would go a different way if she did leave.

“What say you?” I said in the same tone, Akantha just pouted and didn’t look like she would answer I repeated myself only louder,

“I’ll take the punishment,” she said like she was agreeing to her death. Everybody returned to normal size and I suddenly felt tired like I had just run 800 metres without stopping. 

“Good, Guido show them the way in take the second house it’s the biggest and least damaged looking,” Guido nodded and complied, everyone that walked past looked shocked and scared of me, and as they were walking away I heard some comments they made between each other I could hear the words but I was to tired to know who said them,

“Did you see him get taller? It must have been some kind of sorcery, but why is he starting now?”

“I think it could be his…” I couldn’t hear anymore as they walked out of earshot. I lent against a tree and looked at my muddy shoes,

“Des?” someone asked cautiously, my head snapped up and I saw Accalia standing there with a worried look on her face. I smiled at her weakly then looked back down at my shoes. The once white ‘all stars’ as Aldis had called them whatever, that meant were plastered with mud,

“Des?” Accalia asked again, “You okay?” I nodded avoiding her eyes ashamed for some reason.

“Des, we have to go into this new camp okay.” She told me softly as she walked over to me. She gently lifted my arm and put it around her shoulders, so I was leaning against her instead of the tree,

“Stop, Accalia. I can do it myself,” I murmured to her, she looked at me then let me go but held her arms out as if to catch me just in case I fell. Which I did, she caught me luckily. I put my arm around her shoulder again and left it there,

“What did you do to yourself back there Desmond?” She asked almost to herself for all the response she got from me.

***

As soon as we left the trees protection I realised something wasn’t right there was something that wasn’t unnerving about the place. In the distance there were six or seven houses shimmering in the moonlight. The houses themselves all looked almost identical in colour a creamy white for the walls and what used to be a light green but had faded over time, in size and shape though all of them differed. I thought they all looked peaceful but then I spotted the last house. It was a two story with a metal roller door sitting at the bottom of it and wooden steps going to the side where the front door was that was normal, the weird part was the blue flames that were flickering all over it the wood wasn’t burning either they were just sitting next to each other.

“Whoa…” I breathed softly,

“What?” Accalia asked me trying to see what I was staring at,

“Look,” I said raising my arm to point at the blue flames that sent a flickering light stronger than the moon everywhere and creating creepy moving shadows.

“I don’t see anything Des,” She said concern in her tone, I looked at her shocked and wondered if she was lying then dismissed the notion, Accalia never lied to me.

“I see flames on the house,” I told her “I want to go and check it out,”

“No!” she exclaimed in alarm, “You don’t know what it is,”

“That’s why I want to have a look at it Accalia,”

“I don’t want you to,” I looked at her with a stubborn look in my eyes and a small scowl on my face, I knew I looked like a toddler who had just been told ‘no’ but I didn’t care, because something told me that I had to see that house,

“Desmond,” She said in a warning tone, I ignored her and took my arm from around her shoulders. To my surprise and most likely hers too I stood without swaying and walked slowly towards the house,

“Desmond, please don’t,” Accalia said chasing after me and grabbing my arm. I spun around at the touch and a strange feeling rose inside me almost like pity for the poor defenceless thing trying to stop me. Accalia must have seen a wild look in my eyes or something, because a flash a fear shot across her features and in that instant of her fear my feeling of pity washed away.

“I’m sorry Accalia but I need see this,” I almost pleaded she gave me that worried look again I thought she was going to say no and try to drag me back to the house but instead she surprised me by wrapping her arms around my waist and drawing me into an embrace, we stood for a while her head resting on me and my chin resting on to top of her head. I pulled away from the hug after a short time and walked across the ground my feet making no noise as I walked, I didn’t look back but I called out a promise to her that I would be back. I’ve never broken a promise. I walked to the house and strangely felt no heat from the flames. I arrived at the staircase and took a few breaths’ to fight the instinct to turn and run from the unnatural flames that weren’t emitting any heat. I took a tentative step onto the first stair and gasped as my foot connected with the flames.

04-Pack up

“We’re here” Guido called as we walked into the campsite. It had it been about 30 minutes since the raid and I guessed that every regiment within a 10 km radius would have got wind of the attack from communications. So I reasoned to myself they would have blocked all the roads, damn no trucks,
“Alright everyone pack up camp, we leave in 20 minutes.” I called out to others commandingly as I walked over to Guido,
“You know that old town about 2 km down the road?” I whispered to him,
“Yeah, why?” He asked,
“Can you get us there?” I said ignoring his question,
“Sure I can find it. It’s nor-nor west of our position right?”
“Yeah, we need to be there by 4am can you do that?”
“It’s oh-200 now,” he muttered to himself,
“That gives us….Yeah I can do it. Get everyone packed up by oh-230 hours,” I nodded knowing he wasn’t used to 24 hour times because of being in the Regiments. I walked over to Aldis who had started putting all her belongings from her tent into her bag mainly two pairs of clothes one consisting of a pair of scuffed up navy ‘jeans’ as she called them with rips in the knees, a long sleeved grey t-shirt, and a black leather jacket with a water resistant coating, the other being a pair of dark green camo ¾’s, and a brown cotton t-shirt. She packed two other items too; one was a tatty leather pocket type thing with a picture of her family from the ‘old world’ and a brilliant white sword that had been passed down her family for generations up until her. She put the blade into a sheath and hooked into her heavy duty belt. I walked over to her as she looked at her family picture with sadness; Aldis was next to a young man with messy dark hair and deep blue eyes that looked like a stormy sea. He stood just a litter shorter than Aldis but he was definitely younger, in-between her and the man was a young girl who looked almost looked exactly like Aldis, except her eyes were brown and she only reached Aldis’ knee. All of them were smiling and the man had his tongue out, a tear dropped onto the picture and Aldis hurriedly put it back into the pocket.
“You going to be okay?” I asked softly a touch of concern in my voice; she looked up at me with a smile, and wiped a tear from her eye,
“Yes I’ll be fine Desmond don’t worry,” I nodded at her my face saying that I didn’t believe her one bit, but before I could say anymore to her bickering started on the other side of the camp. I looked towards at the commotion and saw Akantha arguing with Nemesio, Nemesio was the youngest member of our little group and the most vengeful you wouldn’t want to pick a fight with him on a good day and most of the group tried to not annoy him, with the only exception of Akantha, but she annoyed everyone.
“I better go deal with that,” I muttered to Aldis, “Unless you want to deal with it?”
“Yeah I’ll do it you need to go get packed,” I nodded.
“Okay but don’t strain yourself,” I headed towards my tent as Aldis interrupted the bickering saying in a clear voice,
“And what is the problem here,” I chuckled quietly to myself knowing that Aldis hated Akantha so she always tried to make her life a misery. I reached my tent a humble 3 man grey triangular shaped one with three metal poles keeping it upright. I lifted the flap and stepped inside into the gloom. On the left of the middle pole my small single layer roll up mattress lay on the ground my sleeping bag stretched over its length like a rug. To the right of the pole on the other side sat a small fold up camping table complete with drawers which were filled with personal possessions like the necklace that I took from Hammond’s corpse before I left the crash site the last night I saw my friend, tears flooded into my eyes threatening to roll down my cheeks. I blinked them back and walked over to the table, opening one of the drawers in it was a whole lot of underwear but that wasn’t what I wanted. I pushed them all aside and felt along the bottom of the drawer, running my fingers over the rough surface of the wood. Finally I found what I was searching for, a small notch in one corner of the bottom I lifted it to reveal a hidden part in it was a painting Aldis had done for Accalia and I one night. We were both smiling and staring into each others eyes, looking away from the picture there was Hammond’s old necklace the sapphire and silver chain gleaming. Gently I picked up the chain and brought it up to my eyes. I started to lose track of my surroundings the drawers in front of me turned into a fuzzy image the bed disappeared from my vision entirely. Someone yelled outside and I jumped, my mind flashing back to the present I undid the latch on the chain and put it around my neck.
“I know I always ask you this Des But where did you get that necklace from?” a voice asked in the darkness, I pulled out a hunting knife from my belt and whipped around to the sound in the bed there was a figure which I recognised as Accalia. I must have not noticed her before because she was under the cover and not much more than a bundle of sheets,
“You shouldn’t do that to me Accalia.” I told her,

“So where did you get it?” she giggled ignoring the fact that I’d almost stabbed her, I sighed and put the knife back in its sheath,

“I got this off a very close friend of mine that needed remembering,” I said,
“Always mysterious you are Des,” She smirked and patted the mattress beside her,

“Always so lovely you are Accalia,” I laughed and lay down,
“I thought you weren’t going to make it,” she whispered to me softly, I pulled her into a tight hug and said just as softly as she did,
“But I did make it, just like I said I would,” she nodded and snuggled into my chest, we lay there for a few seconds before I unhappy informed her that we needed to pack and leave.
“Okay.” She said and pulled away from the hug, stood, and walked over to the door, before she left the door she turned and asked,
“Where are we going Des?” I tapped the side of my nose with my finger and smiled cheekily,
“You’ll find out.”  


About 15 minutes later than I’d originally planned everybody was assembled in a semi circle around Aldis and I, waiting to hear where we were going I gestured for Aldis to start.
“Unfortunately we cannot take the trucks so we will have to walk to our destination, Desmond and I have decided that we will not tell you where we are going until we get there, but just know it is a long walk and we will need to lay false trails like always just in case the Regi’s find the camp.” There was a groan from Akantha, Aldis and I both shot her a piercing glare.
“Alright lets go, anything from you first though Des?”
“I think that’s it,” I said and walked over to Guido,
“Lead the way mate,” I told him and we all started off to our new camp.