Marshall glanced over at Abeline, who was constantly switching back
and forth (which honestly made her seem to look a bit like one of
those Animorphs) and kicking soldiers in the face. He ducked,
slamming his foot into the abdomen of the soldier (they knew the
general weak spots, having dealt with the soldiers for all his
lifetime). The soldier stumbled back, its spear swirling with dark
aura. The soldier's weapon lurched toward Marshall and he dodged
it, causing the spear to dig deeply into a tree.
The tree engulfed in pitch-blackness before exploding in half, the
top part of the tree launching into the air. He aimed his gunblade
for the abdomen of the soldier and fired, causing the blade to
shoot out (attached to a chain) and pierce the soldier through the
stomach. His backbone shivered as the blade retracted back into the
gun and the soldier fell, to its knees and then onto the
ground.
Fallow grabbed Marshall's hand, practically dragging him towards
Abeline. Marshall cast a wall to protect them from the blasts of
darkness that followed. The soldiers cornered the three, chanting
some sort of ancient spell. Fallow grabbed Abeline's shoulder and
they poofed, as far away from the soldiers as Fallow could manage
and on the very edge of a cliff.
Abeline put her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. Her arm
throbbed and stung from the rapid transformations. Her stomach was
still reeling from the teleportation, and her head throbbed from
all the fighting. The iron taste of blood was in her mouth, and in
her nose. She shook her head to clear it, and it only helped
slightly. She crouched down, regaining her breath, before squeezing
out a question. "Where are we?"
"This is the outskirts of what is known as the Serenity Ocean,"
Marshall said, recognizing the stretch of water by its
turquoise-ish color. "It's where most of the different water
species reside, but it's not really like a kingdom or anything. To
the water and nature-like creatures it's a common place for
healing." He looked back down at the water and behind him.
"Here, you look in bad shape," Fallow said, putting a hand on both
of their shoulders and teleporting down to the water. "Since you're
a deer shapeshifter, it'd probably heal you pretty well," she said,
stepping back so the water didn't touch her when it lapped the
sand. Marshall did the same, as if it scared the twins to be
touched by the water. I really hope the soldiers didn't remember
her face... oh crap, what are the chances that they did?
Abeline raised an eyebrow suspiciously before stepping into the
water. Her ankles and feet immediately experienced a warm tingling,
and she nearly hopped out of the ocean in fright. She lifted her
foot out of the water, rubbing the bottom of it. No cuts, bruises,
callouses, anything. All of it had been washed away within a few
seconds. A feeling of discomfort spread throughout her body. This
was not natural. Abeline didn't like it at all. She stepped out
from the water and back on to the sand.
She shook her feet out, flinging off the water and gave a shake of
her head. "I'd rather heal naturally." She said with a shrug.
"If ya want," Fallow said, shrugging. She stepped back from the
ocean and cleared her throat, but let her gaze slip from Abeline.
"Look, we're sorry that we got you into this mess... honestly, I'd
like to think on the bright side but there's a small possibility
that the soldiers cared enough to remember your face. I doubt
they'd come after you, but you should, uh, keep on the lookout for
good measure."
Abeline snorted. In one second, her innocent facade changed.
"Look," she started, "you can stop mollycoddling me. I'm not gonna
suddenly drop dead." She held up a hand to stop any potential
protests. "I've dealt with people like this before. Granted, they
weren't demon soldiers. But name any secret society, and I've dealt
with crazy people who want to track me down from it." She shook her
head again. "I'm not the pathetic person you think me to be."
"I never said anything about you not being able to handle it,
Abeline," Marshall replied, his voice calm and steady but his
strange eyes somewhat on the colder side. Some of the soldiers
are a lot stronger than we take them for, anyways... He
thought. Fallow stood, tediously, to the side, looking at Marshall
in question. Okay, now what? Do we just leave her? I doubt she'd
ever want to see us again, He thought, although not even
glancing at the shape-shifter.
Abeline narrowed her eyes and shook her head. The pair was
frustrating, sure, and had brought danger to her front door, but
there was something endearing about Fallow. Marshall... well, she
didn't quite enjoy his presence. She felt uncomfortable around him.
Not in the way that he was a predator and she was... prey-predator,
but just that she generally didn't get along with him. Her gray
eyes studied his face. "I can decided my own fate. Like I said
earlier, you don't need to hide things from me. I've been out here
for a long time. I'm not just going to suddenly drop dead!"
Fallow cradled her elbows to her chest, looking at Abeline. She
thought of something, anything, to say but couldn't find anything
to say. Marshall usually did most of the talking (for some reason),
but that wasn't working too well. Her tail swished as she thought.
"I believe you, Abeline. Although I have to say--"
She snapped into silence as she heard a gruff, raspy voice from
somewhere in the distance. "Scan the premises!" Barked the voice.
She could see the rough outline of the head of a soldier from the
lake and grabbed both Abeline's and Marshall's hand, tensing up as
she did so. Attempting to channel her power, she managed to turn
all three of them invisible and keep them in that state.
Abeline whispered fiercely, "I can take care of myself!" She
resisted the urge to tear her hand out of Fallow's. Aggravation
coursed through her blood, but it was a life or death situation.
She held her breath as a soldier appeared in the clearing.
"There's too many of them," she whispered, although sliding her
hand up to Abeline's shoulder so she could rip away if she wanted.
I'm one-hundred percent sure she'll get hurt if she tries to
take on that many demon soldiers... I know she's strong, but
still... Fallow thought. A soldier dropped from the cliff,
barely taking any recoil. He strode around the sand, but concluded
there was nobody and jumped, launching himself back up the cliff.
"We're clear," he said, and the soldiers presumably walked away.
Silence enveloped the group as they waited to make sure that the
soldiers were really gone. Abeline had once hidden in a tree, and
was almost caught by the authorities after they "left" and she came
out. This was no new ground to Abeline. She knew exactly what to do
in a situation like this. Abeline opened her mouth and threw her
voice in the treeline, a good twenty yards away from the group. It
was surprising, even to her. Maybe more powers were emerging?
Marshall could hear the rustling of many footsteps fading into the
distance. That's amazing, he thought, looking at the cliff.
Although I guess that our powers are just really different...
hers are nature-tied-ish, anyways. He glanced over at Fallow's
general direction. Although reluctantly, she released touch from
both of them. Abeline immediately re-appeared. She then reappeared
herself, although a bit after they did. "How far can you do that?"
She asked Abeline.
Abeline gave a shrug. "I've never tested it." So far, that was the
farthest she'd ever done, but she was quite sure that her voice
could go father if she wanted it to. "I've never really had to use
it for self-defense. I had the ability before I found out I was..."
she cleared her throat, "a deer... so I'm not sure if it's an
actual power or not."
"Are those your only abilities, Abeline?" Fallow asked softly,
showing somewhat innocent, curious eyes. She and Marshall both had
somewhat of a large range of powers (most being demon powers),
although that was because they were hybrids. Has this girl been
on the run her whole entire life? Fallow wondered, considering
the options. It would explain why she was so calm about being
hunted down, and so independent. It's possible she's just had a
lot happen to her, though... probably shouldn't ask about it.
"I think, though I may have the ability to stare, um, down people.
Not quite sure about that one, though." She blinked rapidly before
turning away, and gave a laugh that cracked in the middle. She
cleared her throat before adding, "Yeah, I probably seem pretty
pathetic. You guys have all these amazing powers... teleportation,
invisibility, and probably a lot more that I don't even know." She
shrugged her shoulders again, trying once more at the laugh. "Just
a deer-girl."
(*Awkwardness intensifies*)
"Aw, you're not pathetic. What you can do is really fascinating to
us, actually," Marshall said with pure honesty, looking at her with
somewhat of an awkward smile. "Besides, deers are a-doe-able,"
Fallow said, brushing her aqua hair behind her ear with double the
awkwardness of the other two.
By the way I ship)
Abeline gave a half-laugh and said, "Whatever you say." Inside, she
glowed. Knowing that the two respected her, and that Fallow felt
comfortable enough to make a pun about her shape-shifting
abilities, well, it spoke a lot to her.
She straightened her back, going into business mode. "Well, the
people that I usually deal with spend thirty to forty minutes
searching before the realize what's happened." She bit her lip.
"However, those time frames have been getting shorter
as the authorities are starting to realize what I'm doing. Do you,
um, know if these guys are in touch with them, or know that I have
this power?" The thought made her plain uncomfortable.
(Knowing that the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the
cheese... it fills you with AWKWARDNESS.)
"The demon soldiers don't have any direct ties with the human
authorities. They serve under one king, who has chosen to isolate
his kingdom from everyone else... and I think by now they might've
figured out that you have that trick under your sleeve," Marshall
replied, looking above the cliff. "I don't know this area very
well, so I can't really teleport us anywhere out of sight," Fallow
murmured, slightly embarrassed. It'd probably be best to try and
keep out of the forest... besides, this lake is making me
uneasy, Marshall thought, his eyes flitting over to the water.
(#AwkwardTale4Lyfe)
Abeline gave a shrug. "Doesn't matter, usually I'm without
teleportation. All we need to do is find a cave around here,
somewhere we can hide out and defend easily." She surveyed the
area, and the low tide. "Probably won't be hard with this water
here. Might have an alcove or something whittled into existence by
this lake." She swept her gaze around the area, hoping to find
something that could keep them safe.