Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 6

“What are you?! Where’s my mom!?” I yell at him. “Tell me!” I swear I can feel him grinning now and I start to get mad. I push everything the old man taught me into breaking out of these bonds. I struggle for what seems like hours, pushing against the invisible force that restrained my movement.

        After about five minutes of enraged struggling, my body collapses in a fatigued slump. The thick branch falls from my hand as the cloaked thing looked at me with obvious bemusement. I looked back with utter disdain. "Done yet?" He asks, his voice echoing in my ear drums. "You won't be able to escape", he says as he pulls a red and black sword from inside his cape. "The Arkling must die."

         I look at it, heart pounding, and know I'm about to die. I once again start struggling with restored vigor, trying and trying to kick my legs out. The cloaked man looks at me and raises the sword above his head, and chops it down in a obvious death blow. I wince and shut my eyes against the inevitable doom.

        I hear some shuffling of feet and a hoarse grunt and open my eyes slowly. I gasp as I see the most puzzling sight ever; the old man standing in front of the cloaked thing, pointing a bright green hand in his face. The old man sounded menacing when he snarled out the next words, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand, scum."

        "Gre-Green aura... You're supposed to be dead! I must tell the others.. The fir-", the cloaked man's nervous chant gets put to a swift end by a blinding flash of green light.

         As he dies, my limbs are suddenly released and I fall to my knees. I look up at the old man with something that resembles awe. "Wha-What was that? You just killed him! How? Why?" I look down as I realize something and almost inaudibly whisper out, "Where's my mom?"

          The old man looks at me and I notice something strange. His eyes have turned a deep green color, and, in a trance like state, I reach down my shirt and pull out my green charm. He looks at it and his old eyes wrinkle up as he gives me one of his rare smiles. "It is time. I must explain everything, and bring Jinny with you."

"Why should I do something like that? She's not involved", I say.

"She is more involved than you think, now hurry. More should be coming soon. And, please, rose, can you get out of that tree? Your presence is driving my enthal crazy."

I look up in surprise as I'm untying Jinny and see a dark shape in the tree. The shape jumps down and, once illuminated by moonlight, I see it's the red haired girl from earlier. "Hey you! What are doing and why ar-"

"The Arkling is weak, are you sure this is the one?  His enthal is so tiny I can barely sense it", says Rose. The old man chuckles and looks at me.

"Believe it or not, he's the one. The Fourth Ark."

I look at him in confusion. "That's the second time someones called me that in one day, can you please tell me what it stands for? And stop making weird nick names for me!" I look down and gently rub Jinny's shoulder, waking her up.

         She opens her eyes wide and it's immediately apparent that she is scared out of her mind. She looks at me and starts to tear up. She starts to talk and blubber and speaks so fast that I can barely understand her. "Alark, he asked me where you were and I said I didn't know so he attacked me and I tried to run but he was too fast and he caught me and started dragging me and my head hit a rock and I was knocked out and-"

I look at her and hug her. "Shut up, it doesnt matter. I'm just glad you're safe." she gasps as I hug her and weakly hugs me back. Then she proceeds to start sobbing on my shoulder.