Fall of Igneeria: The Half-ling

by Kaylee Soderburg

In the morning I changed and ran down stairs and left a note saying I was going out to eat with Jason, Emily and Seth. It took me minutes to speed down to the small breakfast restaurant in town. I chained up my bike and walked over to the plastic blue table my friends had occupied.

  I slid in next to Emily, who was talking about some book she had read recently. Jason, who sat next to her, was pretending to be fascinated by her rant. Emily stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed me sitting beside her.

  “Jazell, you’re here!” she exclaimed. “Is it true, did you take on a monster by yourself yesterday?”

  I sighed, shooting a look at Seth. “Yes it is. Thanks tattle-tale Seth.”

  “Well you did and I thought the group had a right to know that.” Seth said sharply.

  “How could you Jazell? You could have gotten seriously hurt. Plus I bet all of us want a shot at them too.” She huffed and shook her head. The light brown curls that framed her pretty face bounced around playfully.

  “I’m fine Emily, seriously.”

  Jason was silent. He never talked much like Emily, who was easily the most talkative, friendly person I knew. Jason was more of the silent, watching type, who said little but noticed much. I traced in a puddle on the table, avoiding everyone’s eye contact as they stared at me. Emily patted my arm.

  “It’s okay. We aren’t mad at you or anything. Right Seth?” She glared at him.

  He shrugged. “I guess.”

  Emily perked up. “You see, everyone makes mistakes.”

  Seth grunted to himself.

  Emily rolled her eyes. “Hey Seth, it’s not like you haven’t done something stupid. We all remember the swamp troll.”

  Seth frowned and Jason snickered. Seth punched his arm. “Hey don’t make me nag you about the time you almost took off my head with your throwing knifes.”

  Jason stopped dead and narrowed his eyes. “It was an accident. I didn’t know you’d run that way.”

  “Alright, we understand that we’ve all done stupid, foolish things. So let’s just add this accident to my list, okay?” I said quickly before the two started something.

  They nodded but shot each other smirks. I sighed, wondering why those two buffoons had been granted this power along, with Emily and me. It’s not like they weren’t foolish enough already.

  The day when it all changed was still a mystery to us. A lot of things happened that didn’t quite make sense.

  The four of us were already best friends. We were walking through the woods, rambling on about how Halloween was almost here and that Ms. Stecher was still giving us too much homework. Then all of a sudden an invisible object slammed into me. I shrieked and couldn’t move. It had me pinned to the ground.

  Seth ran forward and grabbed a branch to protect me. It should have gone right through the air but it collided into something and snapped in half. Seth dropped it in amazement.

  Emily ran over to me but was plowed to the ground. She screamed, spitting out dirt, twigs and leaves. Seth stood watching, terrified. He didn’t have a clue as what to do to fight these invisible creatures. None of us did, at that time, because we didn’t know what was going on. The world was still a normal place to us at the time.

  Something grabbed Seth’s legs and pulled him against a tree. He kicked and punched but couldn’t find the right place to hit his attacker.

  “Hold on!” Jason yelled.

  I opened my mouth to say that we already were when he vanished. Dragged away was my guess.

  My legs shot with pain. I heard Emily yell the first curse words I’ve heard her say in a while. I spotted her red arm just before my body felt like fire. I closed my eyes and blacked out.

  I didn’t really black out but that’s what I thought at the time. I opened my eyes to find I was sitting on the ground next to my sleeping body. I saw Emily sitting there, saying nothing for once.

  Something fell off my back and I picked it up. It was a wooden bow, and when I reached behind my back I felt a quiver full of feathered arrows strapped there. I ran a finger over the smooth, dark wood and turned to see Seth crashing out of the woods. I smirked at him and pointed at his head.

  “You have dark blue hair.” I giggled, not knowing why I was giggling after what had just happened to us a few minutes ago.

  He frowned and pulled a piece or two out of his head. His eyes widened, and I laughed at the shock on his face. If we were dead, which was my best guess, why not poke fun at him?

  Seth smiled at me. “Well, yes but you have green hair. It’s bright green, like neon green.”

  I shoved my hair in front of my face. It was bright green all right. I stood up and examined myself. I was wearing light brown hunting boots and tight black pants made out of some sort of light cloth. A thick woven jacket was shielding me from the October cold.

  When I looked back at Seth, I realized he had also made an outfit change. He was wearing black leather boots and dark blue pants. His top was a short, brown cloak with a hood and leather belt. A beautiful steel sword with an ornamental hilt was swinging at his side from a woven sheath.

  “Oh well, I guess I have green hair. It’s not that bad. I like green.” I rambled as I examined the short hunting knife that was resting in a small sheath on my hip. I ran a finger over the blade before putting it back. How Seth and I had acquired such dangerous weapons was anyone’s guess. I certainly had no clue.

  I heard footsteps and turned to see Emily running over. She was wearing a close fitting, long robe. It was a stunning deep blue with a trim of gold embroidery. She had no weapons dangling from her body were visible from where I was standing.

  “I have pink hair! Isn’t it cool?” She spun around so we could take in all of its bubblegum pink color. She looked at the bow slung over my shoulder and Seth’s gleaming sword. “Hey, I don’t have anything cool and deadly. Why do you both get something like that and I didn’t? It’s not like you can trust Jazell with something sharp or dangerous.”

  “Hey! We can’t trust you either.” I pointed out, crossing my arms. “Arming you is as scary as giving a kindergartener a knife.”

  She gasped. “Yeah, well, I’m ignoring you now.” She huffed and turned around.

  “There you are!” Jason exclaimed as he crashed out of the trees, panting. His wavy hair was a deep red that framed his eyes but he didn’t seem to have noticed its color change or to care. He was wearing an all black layered tunic and pants with boots that looked as light as mine. If I didn’t know it was Jason, I would have taken a huge step backwards at his assassin-like appearance. “What’s going on?” he demanded, eyes flickering from each of us as he took in all of our strange appearances.

  “Don’t know Jason, we’re as stumped as you.” I said.

  He bit his lip and then smirked. “Oh, I almost forgot. Look at this.” He gestured at his belt, grinning mischievously.

  Hanging there were a multitude of thin, dangerous looking knives. He pulled up his sleeve so I could see another one strapped there. “Cool, huh?”

  Emily had turned to see Jason appear. She spotted his knives and groaned, stomping her foot. “Aw come on!”

  Jason whispered behind his hand to Seth and I. “What’s up with her?”

  Seth shrugged. “I don’t know. Girl issues?”

  “I heard that!” Emily said angrily.

  That’s when suddenly a hideous creature appeared in front of us. It was hunched over, with thick furry skin and wicked claws that shot out of its curled paws. We would soon know them as thrashers, beasts we would get used to seeing.

  I don’t know who screeched louder in fear, but I’m pretty sure it might have been me. Seth pulled his sword out but his hand shook like mad. I clumsily pulled an arrow out of the quiver on my back and struggled to attach it to my bow. How the heck did those people in movies make this look so easy? I exchanged a look with Seth, but he looked as clueless as I did. None of this felt real.

  I swear, the creature laughed at us. Or maybe my fear was making me see and hea
r things. Jason moved silently to stand beside us, one of his throwing knives in his hand.

  “What do we do? We’re dead so it can’t hurt us right?” I asked.

  “I don’t feel dead.” Jason whispered.

  I didn’t either. In fact, I realized that my whole body was aching from the strange attack I had experienced. And if I was dead, I wouldn’t need to breathe so heavily. My heart was racing so fast that it might explode right out of my chest. Jason threw the knife he had been holding and it stuck into a tree. He grinned at me and I guess it hit exactly where he wanted.

  “On the count of three, we attack with everything we’ve got. Okay?” Seth looked at Jason and I. We nodded at him. “One, two three!” When Seth hit three, he charged with his sword.

  I pulled back and released my arrow. It hit the thrasher’s front paw. Before I could think, I had notched another one on the bow and drew back the string. It was like I had been an archer my whole life.

  Jason threw knife after knife, hitting its mark every time. When the creature went down, Seth stood and took a breath. Then another tackled him to the ground.

  I didn’t know what to do and Jason didn’t either. Emily ran forward and pointed to Seth who was clawing toward his weapon. “Do something!” she screamed.

  Before I could reply, fire shot from her finger. The thrasher yelped and jumped off Seth and ran toward Emily. She smiled wickedly and held both hands out, pelting the creature with fire. I pulled Seth up in time to see the Thrasher buried entangled by roots shooting from the dirt. Jason threw a knife in the pile to make sure it was really dead.

  “You okay?” I asked Seth, and congratulated Emily on her new found talent.

  “I’m fine.” He said and limped over.

  I gasped and pointed to his leg. “Seth, you’re bleeding blue!”

  He just blinked at him, glancing down at his leg. He didn’t answer as he tugged at me to start walking back towards where we had last seen ‘ourselves’. We could still see our bodies sleeping peacefully, but this time I noticed that we were all faintly glowing blue. I could see the rise and fall of my chest as I breathed. So I really was alive, which made this situation even creepier and stranger. I had two bodies! How was this even possible?

  “What do we do? Seth, do you any ideas?” She frowned when he didn’t answer. “Seth?” Emily spun in a circle but Seth was nowhere to be found.

  Seth walked out from behind a tree. But he was normal Seth. He had his dirty blonde hair back and was wearing his dirty jeans and shirt from school. No dark red hair, no glimmering sword, no bleeding wound. His warrior self was nowhere to be seen.

  “Seth how’d you do that?” I asked.

  He whirled around. “Who’s there?”

  “Me, you idiot!” I snorted.

  He stared at the place where I was standing, but his eyes weren’t focused on me. “Jazell?”

  “Obviously, are you blind?”

  “I can hear you but can’t see you. Aren’t you back? Where are you?”

  “No.” I said frustrated, “Now tell us how you got back.”

  He closed his eyes and sat down. “I imagined myself in my body, and what is was like to be back. And then I was back to normal. Wait.” The wind picked up around him and then suddenly he was back, blue hair and all, standing beside his sitting, normal body.

  “Wow how did you do that?” Emily gasped.

  “I imagined what it was like to fight that creature. And then my body took over.” He explained, but I don’t think he even understood.

  Then he was gone again and the real Seth stood up. “Try it.”

  I closed my eyes and thought of school and all of Ms. Stecher’s homework that I needed to do. Then my body was doing the rest. I felt hot and cold, as the winds seemed to pick up. I shivered and opened my eyes. I was lying on the ground. My hair brown hair flopped in my face as I sat up, seeing Emily dash over to me. Seconds later Jason walked through the trees, rubbing his face. Seth grinned at all of us; we were back.

  That’s how it all started. I don’t know how we got the gift to become these different people, but we did. That’s the mystery and hopefully we’ll solve it one day. We were chosen for some unknown reason, but that reason doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we protect this town.

  Jason’s eyes flashed. I stood up and leaned over to him. “What Jason?”

  “Monsters, a whole bunch of them. I saw the movement near the pond.” He pointed to the pond that was just nestled in the woods.

  And with that, we were off. Running towards the pond to do what we do best, destroy monsters. Only this time it was different.

  Chapter 2