by Swart, Karen
As she landed on her back, I was on her hitting her like mad. “Still … haven’t … learned a th-thing,” she stuttered through it all. Confused, I just kept going. Suddenly I felt roots start to engulf me, and then tighten their hold on me, squeezing out the air.
“Ben!” I yelled, trying to tear off the roots. I heard the light bomb go off behind me and suddenly the roots went slack. Getting back into action Nina was already missing. Okay, that’s it, no more nice Kas. Getting up I could see Max and Ryan were engaged with two werewolves.
I stormed forward and grabbed the one out of Ryan’s grip, lifting it up into the air I grabbed whoever the werewolf may be and fell straight for the earth, werewolf beneath me. We hit the ground with a huge bang, and the werewolf was lights out. Right, one down, and one to go. Getting up, I could see pink and purple light all over the place. I turned and found Nanini and another light fae in the middle of a light war. Captivated, I watched as pink and purple lights hit each other, then burst away in tiny sparks. Wow, that’s kinda cool. Looking around I found Max and Ryan giving the last werewolf hell. Just as the werewolf would swipe, Max or Ryan would hit it back.
I moved forward to assist and to get the last werewolf when the earth fae made her appearance again, wrapping my feet in roots. I was hit with a million thorns, the roots wrapping around me were covered in them. I covered my face in an attempt to spare it from the spikes, but I could feel the thorns digging in past my fur. Still struggling, I felt arms around me and tried to retaliate. “We have to work together, Kasadya,” Chax said behind me.
“When I say now, I want you to push your wings out as hard as you can,” he explained, and I prepared myself. “Now!” he yelled. I whipped my wings out with such force that I was staggering back from it, thorns and roots ripped away around me. The earth fae came into view, just a few paces in front of me, still calling out more roots. Oh hell no! I moved fast and tackled her to the ground; we rolled around until I ended up pinning her face to the earth. It’s time out time for you, fae.
Locking my arm around her tight, I locked down in a sleeper hold and held on for the ride as she tried to kick and fight her way out of it. Finally she stopped moving. I pushed her off me, and stood up. Looking around, I saw that the fight had ended with that last effort. Nina and her team were down and out. Oh yeah, I like this view. I walked over to the rest who were dusting themselves off and engaging in fight talks. “Well done, Godzilla. At least I didn’t have to save your butt this time,” Nanini rubbed in at Max who just regarded her in silence.
“That was some hectic stuff,” Lotan pitched in, but Chax was not part of the group. Turning around I looked for him and found him helping up the earth fae I just sleep choked. Oh great, we are bathing in glory and he needs to play Mr Good and Responsible. Damn, I just hate him. Sighing, I rubbed off the blood from my face and hands and walked over to the first fallen still trying to get back up on his feet.
“Here, let me help,” I said, offering my hand. The guy with green eyes and blond hair looked up, and with a small smile accepted my offer. I pulled him up and placed my arm around his torso, trying to hold him up.
“Thank you,” the guy replied, smiling at me.
“No problem. And, um, sorry for the whole training thing,” I said with a smile.
I returned back to normal and helped him move over to a small bench nearby. As we reached it I saw that Max and the others were pitching in, helping Nina and the rest to get up and take a seat. Smiling at my teammates, catching on late, I helped the guy on the bench and stepped back. “Do you need me to call Maia?”
“No thank you, it’s nothing a few minutes won’t cure. You and the half-breeds are great warriors, Kas. It was a good fight,” the guy replied and my smile went up all proud at that.
“Well, thank you I guess. I’ll go see if I can assist with the others.” I walked over to Max and Ben who were helping two fallen to a spot. “That was short lived,” I said as I reached Max and Ben who both smiled at my remark.
“Indeed,” Max replied, shaking his head. We joined Chax and the others as the group came back together.
“Well done, but we need to do more training together now that we have new members. We are still not combining our strengths on attacks,” Chax remarked. We looked at each other and nodded.
“Come, Apprendos, your training starts now.” Chax nodded, indicating his head for us to follow. Okay so that wasn’t our training, wonder what’s next. Well what the heck, it’s not like we can’t survive it, so far our training overshadowed theirs. We followed Chax up a hill and at the top came to an abrupt stop.
“Oh my freaking soul,” I said out loud, watching the picture in front of us. It would appear that we were in what you could call some sort of ravine, and smack in the middle of it was some sort of gladiator course set out.
“What in the world is that?” Ryan asked, his eyes roaming the scene.
“Oh that’s our training course for Apprendos. Do you like? I helped to design it,” Nanini chirped, delighted at the whole thing.
“And what is this course supposed to teach?” Ben asked, also stunned at the sight.
“To move of course,” Nanini laughed at the question. Okay, so it’s to teach Apprendos to move, got it. But I sure as hell don’t get the section where three other Apprendos are becoming well done by the flames shooting out from everywhere.
“Come, your Custos are already waiting,” Chax said and I could swear I saw a small smile before he turned and started to walk. Oh he is just enjoying the moment, damn him. As we walked on the ridge to the apparent starting point, I could not take my eyes off the course below us. Wow, Nanini is one sick puppy. Where the hell did she come up with this? We reached the end of the ridge and started our descent to the starting line where some other Apprendos waited their turn, and they did not look impressed at all.
“For the new ones, my advice is pay attention. This course is not just to teach you how to move and operate with your fallen body, but also how to out think your enemy. I believe the term stop and think will be applicable,” Chax encouraged as we reached my mother and the other Custos that volunteered this morning. I kept my eyes on my mother, remembering how she scared the bejeebers out of me. Her eyes were scanning over me, a disapproving facial expression becoming visible. Oh hell yes this is going to be fun. Rolling my eyes I stopped just a pace or two away from her. “Salve, are you’re ready to start?” Chax asked them.
“Indeed, we can proceed,” my mother answered, looking at me. “I see that you are not following my advice about your choice in clothes.” My mother continued onwards. Not wanting to pick a fight with her, I just smiled.
“Good, seeing that we have new Apprendos I will explain the course before we start,” Chax said, moving to stand in front of us. Ignoring my mother’s death stare, I kept my eyes and mind on Chax, it would seem to be the most logical thing at the moment. Either that or become a barbeque for the day.
“We start off with the devil’s fork, this is where you would need to cross the section using the pikes erected around the devil’s forks,” Chax began to explain. “If you make that in one piece, you would need to cross the bridge of demons. At this part, various other fallen will engage you in fighting. From there we move on to the pit of despair, which is quite simple … get over the bridge without ending up in it, and try to avoid the light fae bombs et cetera when you get there.” He went on to explain what I have now come to call the death course. At each section the odds of you continuing on is pretty much zero. The breath of Hell was the last section, where you have to cross an open field and fire fae send out shooting flames to prevent you from reaching the end. Ouch! An Apprendo just became roast beef as Chax explained this section.
I looked over at Max, who had his determined look on, then Ben who was shaking his head, and finally Ryan whose mouth was just hanging open. Oh yeah this is gonna be fun. “Kasadya, I will coach you and Abby from the side line, pay attention to what I say,” Chax finished and mov
ed with my mother and the others to the ridge above. Holy crap, here we go. We were to go four at a time, joining Abby and me were two other fallen boys. The one with the black hair was giving me the look of death.
“Abe, show this traitorous dog what a real hellhound can do,” came a very familiar voice. Looking up at the ridge on the other side, I saw Nina, Marcus, and Jules standing there glaring down at me. I looked at the black haired guy and stepped back. The look of death had just a twinkle of red. Oh boy, that’s one scary look. His eyes were flashing from red to brown and back again, is that what I will look like?
“Focus, Kasadya!” Chax yelled at me and had me snapping back to reality. Okay, so it just became clear to me not only would I have to survive this course, but the fellow hellhound next to me as well. Hells bells, I love my life. “Begin!” Chax yelled and we all transformed in unison, the male hellhound’s and my own wings hitting each other with a bang. Shutting my wings with speed I pressed forward. I jumped on the first pike, getting my balance under control; Abby joined me on the one next to me her harpy wings fluttering like a butterfly. Oh I wish mine weren’t so heavy. I looked for the second pike to start my way forward and jumped for it, my wings opening up to help me stabilize myself. Suddenly the other hellhound’s wings hit me in the face and I fell to the right, my balance broken.
In an attempt to not fall on the devil’s fork below me, I had no other option but to open up my wings and use them to spike me between the pikes. Both sides of my wings were pierced by the devil’s fork and I bit down, trying to bear the pain. All right, now to see how strong they really are. Grabbing hold of the two forks below me, I pushed myself into the air and lifted my wings, blood running down the forks I was holding on to. Now for the hard part. I started to flap my wings, blood spraying around me from the pierced tips. As I pushed harder to get a lift off, the wind created by my flapping started blowing up sand, encircling me inside a dust storm. Finally I felt myself lifting up from the forks, my wings pounding from the strain. Blood sprayed out of my wings, running down the flesh of them.
“Come on, Kas! Get back up!” I heard Max and Ben yell behind me, waiting for their start off. Slowly but surely I was back up the pike and steadied myself on it so I could close my aching wings. I looked at the other hellhound, ready to get out my swords and cut off his head, and hell yeah I found him leaping from the last pike and landing on the safe zone. Turning around, he gave me a devil smile, his eyes flashing from red to brown.
No way in hell was he getting the better of me; I would finish the course before him. Sucking up the pain in my wings and palms, I started jumping with speed from one pike to the other. At the second to final pike, I used my wings to leap onto the safe zone, getting up and straightening out. Only then did I hear the cheering from the others.
“That’s it, give him hell!” came Max’s voice.
“Yeah, girl you kick his freaking butt!” Nanini pitched in. I looked around as Abby also finally joined me on the safe zone, the other boy close behind.
Okay, it’s so game on. “Come on, Abby, we need to push it and get our butts over that finish line,” I said, moving forward. Jumping up we were on the bridge of demons, immediately a werewolf was on me. I grabbed him around the neck and brought him down hard. On the wood floor, I lifted my leg and brought down my skull crackers right on the torso, the wind whooping out from him. Then came a kick in the face, I took it with ease and turned to meet my opponent. A female vampire coming into view.
Moving with super speed, she maneuvered around me, kicking and punching out. But with my hellhound slow-motion I picked her up easily and diverted her blows. When she reached the south side of the bridge, I stormed forward and kicked her off the bridge. “Kasadya, focus!” Chax yelled again. Is that all he is going to keep saying? Because that’s not really giving advice, that’s complaining. I straightened up and found Abby on the ground, three other fallen stepping on her to keep her down. In an effort to protect herself from the blows, she was in the fetal position covering her face. Around me the sounds of flames and bombs sounded, the crowd standing on the side cheering us on and shouting advice.
Ganging up are we? Two can play that game. I stormed forward and grabbed the first one behind the head, using his hair to take control. “Abby scream!” I yelled at her while I punched the fae in the face. The next thing I knew, a screeching harpy scream filled the air and the others went down covering their ears. Oh yeah, gotta love Kali for this. Moving quickly, I made sure not one was left on the bridge, Abby only stopped when I lifted her up from the ground her eyes big and confused.
“Take control, Kasadya!” Chax yelled. Yeah, like I didn’t just do that?
“Abby, we are going to do this together, okay?” I asked, her frightened eyes searching mine. She gave a small nod and I gave her a smile in return. She has a far way to go in this world, but she will get there. Wait until she meets Kali. Oh yeah, she is going to have a lot of fun. Next was the pit of despair. Basically there was a plank placed across an open pit about twenty feet down. And just finishing it was the crazy hellhound, his devil smile greeting me before he jumped down to the mine fields section.
Oh that just pissed me off. “Come on, we need to move fast,” I told Abby and pulled her to move first. Struggling to keep her balance, I encouraged her, “If you move fast the balancing act won’t be that bad, just move I will block the bombs.” Pushing her forward, and setting the pace. With our second step on the plank the first two bombs came at us, I opened up my wings and took the burning punch, my wings closing around Abby to protect her.
“Kas, you won’t be able to complete the course if you continue on like this,” she wailed in front of me. Her legs were shaking real bad, and it created a vibration on the plank.
“Don’t worry about me, just keep your focus in front of you,” I answered her back. Yeah I was taking a hell of a beating, with my wings already bleeding, but we had no choice. I wasn’t going to let that ass win. I pulled my strength together and bit down on the pain. We reached the end of the bridge and jumped together, landing on the mine fields and locking dead still on the place we had landed. Looking around, I found the crazy hellhound just in front of us, and from the look of it he had taken a few very bad hits already.
The mine fields, as explained, were rigged with lightning bombs, with love from our elemental fae’s. One step and you got zapped like a bug on an insect light. Yip, two rounds of extra crispy. Nanini and I are going to have a talk when I get out of this. Her sick ideas need to end today, or the rest of the fallen world won’t make it. “Kas, what now?” Abby asked next to me, her eyes looking over the field. Hell, I had no freaking idea.
“Remember the cave, Kasadya!” Chax yelled above me. Looking up, I gave him the biggest smile I could muster. That’s right, nobody said anything about shifting. All right, when I do kick his butt I will remember this one and keep two shots back.
I was up and grabbed Abby, shifting to the safe zone. Landing with grace we turned around and looked at the crazy hellhound that just stood there mouth gaping, so I did the best thing and blew him a kiss. Now we had to move double time because he also knew that he could shift. “Come on, Abby, get in there,” I said to Abby and pushed her into Hades Haze.
“Which way?” she whispered to me. Right, take control Chax said, so let’s see what the hell I can do now.
“This way,” I replied and took the left turn into the haze. According to Chax, we had to get through the haze, which was either confusing or filled with more fallen to attack us. Slowly and quietly we moved from one wall to another, until we turned right straight into the crazy hellhound whose eyes were still flashing.
“Well what do we have here?” he said, smiling and moving forward with a fast pace. Crap, I hate my freaking life.
“Run, Abby, and get the hell out of this thing!” I yelled at her, storming forward to meet the attack. As we reached each other, his fist was the first thing to come at me. I ducked and moved forward, grabbing his ba
ck and bringing up my knee straight into his torso.
Bending over from the blow, I moved fast and elbowed his back with brutal force. His face hit the ground below me, dust kicking up from the landing. Oh yeah, I might not be crazy—yet—but I could still kick butt. I ran the way I knew Abby had gone, and turning the corner I found her fighting off another fallen. For once, the twenty or so fallen around was not my biggest concern. Nope, it was the hellhound I’d just decked back there that was pushing me to get the hell off this course.
From what Amon told me, when we go all Hellhound Born there is almost nothing that could stop us from the one goal we were made to do. Kill. I moved fast, punching the fallen vampire to the ground the moment he circled. Grabbing Abby’s arm, I pushed forward. “Where’s the other hellhound?” she asked, concerned.
“Somewhere behind us, but I pissed him off royally so I take it his goal for the day just changed. We need to get out of this course now or this is not going to end well,” I explained to her, her eyes going big with panic.
