Preternatural Prophecy Chapter 8

            When the twins awoke in the morning the sun was rising and Haru was gone. They looked around for him and saw his foot prints leading off along the lake shore. Tatiana stood up and shook her sister awake.

            “Come on Laurel get up we have a lot to do.” Laurel rolled over and mumbled something under her breath. She stood up and shivered.

            “Why does it have to be so cold? It is freezing.” Laurel said rubbing her hands together. She blew into them and started rubbing them together again.

            “Restart the fire then. The wood is dry so all you need to do is put some more wood on the coals.” Tatiana said pulling her sword and polishing liquid from her pack.

            Laurel grumbled and put some small sticks on the coals. They instantly started to smoke and turn black. Slowly a small flame grew and Laurel put more sticks onto the flame. Slowly the fire grew and Laurel soon had a small fire. She looked up and down the beach. She went back to the patch of dead trees and pulled more firewood out from it and dragged it back to the campsite. Tatiana was polishing her sword and sharpening it on a stone she kept in her pack. Laurel threw the dead wood on the fire and plopped down in front of it warming her body with the heat that the new wood was giving off. She shivered again feeling the cold deep inside her body and inched closer to the fire. The wood popped and she jumped a little. Tatiana chuckled and Laurel glared at her.

            “How are you two this morning?” Haru said. They both jumped at the sound of his voice not expecting him. Their heads whipped back and they both looked at him. His pants was bloodied on the bottom and wet.

            “Haru what happened to you?” Laurel exclaimed in shock.

            “Those villagers that weren’t far off were not too friendly. They attacked me as soon as they saw me coming. Luckily for me they were very weak.” He sat down next to the fire cross legged and warmed his hands. The twins looked at each other and then back to Haru. Laurel shrugged and inched toward the fire again.

            “Haru did you find out where we are?” Tatiana asked.

            “No before I could ask I was kind of attacked.” Haru said chuckling.

            “Right.” Tatiana said letting the words hang in the air. Haru closed his blind eyes and let his head fall. His chin hit his chest and his breathing grew deeper. Soon he was snoring.

            “Tati I need to go for a walk I will be back soon.” Laurel said standing up. Tatiana nodded and went back to sharpening her falchion.

           

            Laurel walked down the beach following Haru’s tracks. She followed them to the top of a sand dune. Once on top she looked around and saw a small village not far off. She could barely see people moving around inside the village. Red was splattered everywhere. She got down off the dune and walked toward the village. The trail to the village was thorny and over grown. Laurel pulled out her short sword and hacked at the plants to try to get through.

            As she got closer to the village the plants thinned out and were replaced by vegetables and fruits. She stared at the strange fruits as she walked through their fields. Soon she came upon a dead body. It was the body of a female soldier. She was holding her sword in a cold hand. A branch was jammed through its torso like it had been skewered. Her head was hung, her helmet half off her head. Blood ran down the tree and pooled at the roots. Laurel flinched at the sight. A shiver went down her spine.

She walked on toward the village. The people walked happily along in the streets. Some turned and looked at Laurel. All of the people had a hint of red in their faces while the rest of their skin was olive colored. The eyes of the people were all focused on her. Everything stopped as they stared at her.

A woman carrying a baby in her arms walked up to her and stared her right in the face. She looked her up and down then backed up a step. “You are with that blind man. The blind one that killed my daughter. Get out of this village now.”

Laurel flinched as she heard those words. “I am here to make reprimands. I would like to know what happened.”

“The blind one came into our village just as the sun was on the rise. My daughter had been working the fields as a scout at that time. Then your friend showed up. We welcomed him into the village with open hearts. He said he came with two twins. He also said that he used a medallion to fly like the vampires did. We then asked him to leave thinking he was a vampire. He started to leave but then turned and got mad. He went straight for my daughter. He stopped in front of her and cursed at her then walked off. She was not one to get angry much but she stormed after her. I tried to stop her but she went after him. We found her later slaughtered and hanging from that branch. Please leave. We do not want anyone associated with him here.” The woman said with a stern look on her face.

“I am sorry about your daughter’s death but the blind man is a psychic man so he can read minds. Your daughter must have insulted him through her thoughts.” The woman turned and walked away. The rest of the village went on with their business ignoring Laurel. Any time she tried to talk to anyone she was ignored. She became slowly angry. Finally she grabbed a man by his tunic and pushed a knife against his throat.

“You will tell me where I am now or I will slice open your neck! I am sick of playing games with people! This will end here and now. I have a mission to save the human race and you people are holding me back. Give me the information now!” She screamed in the man’s face.

His face became strained and fear shone in his eyes. He cried out and every one of the villagers drew a weapon and advanced toward her. The sun glinted off the metal swords as the villagers moved toward her.

“Stop!” a voice called from the crowd. It parted and the old woman walked through the path. “I leave you three alone for less then a day and already you two are in trouble.” The men and women of the village kneeled down as she passed by them. The villagers put away their swords and became silent.

“Laurel, drop the man please.” Laurel let go of the man and he scurried off into the kneeling crowd. “Now what has brought you to my village?”

“We had no clue where we were and your village?”

“Yes, my village. I can’t have a village?”

“I thought that your village was the one we visited awhile ago, the empty one.”

“Thoughts and appearances can be deceiving. This is my home and these are my people. I am the elder of this village and I would like to know why you attacked one of my villagers.”

“No one here would listen to me. These jerks would not acknowledge me at all. I tried to get their attention in other ways but no use. I had to do it to get some attention. I need to know where I am so my sister and I can continue on.”

“You are not far from your destination. The mountains should be your guide now.” The old woman pointed off in the distant to a far away mountain. “You need to go there to get to where you need to be. There you will find the brimstone blade. There also is where you will find Wendel. Now out of my village before my people get any angrier then they already are. Good bye Laurel. I hope you and your sister make it.”

Laurel scowled and left. As she made her way back along the path she had beaten on the way here she noticed that the body that had hung from the tree before had disappeared along with the pool of blood that had gathered at the tree. She walked back to the beach.

Tatiana watched her sister go down the beach and over the sand dune. After her sister was out of sight she stood up and walked down to the water and sat down on the beach sticking her feet in the water. She rolled up her pant leg and checked the small incantation on her leg. None of it had washed off in the water. She sighed in relief.

“Let me guess that spell is keeping you alive?” Haru said still in the position he was in before.

She quickly covered it up. “I have no clue what you are talking about.”

“Tatiana I am a mind reader. There is no lying to me. That is keeping you alive and you know it. Why did you not tell your sister about it? Or me for that matter? You should know that you cannot keep it from us forever. I know it’s to keep you alive because I am searching through your mind right now. That thing, what ever it is, is keeping your heart beating and your blood running through your veins. Where did you get it and why do you have it?”

“I have it because the healers could not fix me enough for my body to keep itself running. It needs magical influence to make it keep running. There is no way I would survive without it. Do not tell Laurel I have it please. She will not understand. This is what keeps me alive and she will be scared if she finds out. Please Haru do not tell her.”

Haru nodded and turned slightly away. His body faced the water as if he were staring out and watching the lake. They were both silent for awhile. Haru lay down and fell asleep a short while after they stopped talking.

Laurel silently came back with her whole body tense. She sat down next to her sister and stared at the sleeping figure. She shook her head then turned away from him. She stood up and drew her sword. She went over to Haru and kicked him. He jerked awake. Tatiana looked up and drew a sharp intake of breath. Laurel pushed the blade of the sword into the ground next to Haru’s throat.

“Do not ever lie to me again. You went to that village and saw the old woman. You killed the girl because you insulted her. When she attacked you for insulting her in her mind you killed her in cold blood Haru. How could you?”

Laurel was breathing heavily, her pupils dilated, her nostrils flaring. Haru lay still on the ground breathing softly unable to see the sword merely an inch away from his face.

“Laurel that may be true but can you get the sword from my face. I do not appreciate you almost stabbing me in the face. I will not explain myself nor will I make excuses. Yes that is what I did. I do not deny it because it is true. So I am guessing you went to the village to find out what the information you needed was? Did you find it or were they hostile to you because of me?”

“No thanks to you I found it. We need to head for the mountains. There we will find the temple that holds the Brimstone Blade. The only thing is that there are many mounts in that mountain range so we may never find the temple.”

“What if we used the necklace again? Is that possible?” Tatiana interjected.

“After this just happened? I don’t want to find another lake with a village close by that Haru can kill more people because he insults them. He can’t be trust now Tati! This might happen again. You never know! He is just a blind old fool.” Laurel screamed at the top of her lungs. She stood there panting. She slowly pulled her sword away and put it in her sheath. “Trust me if you ever do this again I will not hesitate to kill you.” She told Haru quietly.