The Shadow!!

**Nora’s POV**

“NO!” I screamed.

My body convulsed as the natural reflex took over. Every fibre in my body screamed as if I was in grave danger. My breath caught in my chest as my heartbeats flared. The raptor skimmed through the air, swooped down at a steep angle from above, cutting through the winds, giving loud alarm bells. It dive-bombed towards me, plunged in my direction, plummeting its wings in a flurry, probing for weakness on my body, its beak as sharp as a razor as it rips its claws on my scalp with its wings beating in the air. I could smell its fishy breath as it attacked me like a plesiosaur from the Jurassic world. The blank space flooded my eyes as my scalp dripped with blood, my hands still over my head, protecting the top of my head in case it strikes back. I fell backwards, landing on my backside.

It disappeared as quickly as it came on the opposite side. I could feel the zingy sting on my forehead as the swelling took place. My eyes involuntarily released the flow of salty tears. Zach immediately aimed his gun to shoot down the attacker.

“Stop!” Rorik pushed away from the gun before Zach could pull the trigger. Ronin rushed towards me, holding me in his arms and his shadowy eyes feigning on my injury.

“Jesus! What the hell was that? Why did you stop him to shoot?” Meghan shouted on Rorik as her hand went to still her pounding heart.

Whatever it had been, it was huge! Ronin helped me on my shaky legs and brushed off the wet leaves and mud from my back.

“It was Viridian Clawz; they are aerodynamic, remorseless scavengers and always attack in groups. Suppose you take out one, more will come, and we all will be lunged to an unending wave of attack by their flock,” Rorik responded while his head whipped from side to side, looking at all angles scouting the sky, narrowing his eyes to focus in the distance to catch any movements beyond the bushes.

“It looked like Dasan’s flying Ghoul”, I spoke, swallowing the hard lump and inhaling fresh air to normalize my beats.

“Yes, Dasan has the ghoul version of this carnivore. It’s much bigger as well,” Ronin replied, his eyes still figuring a way to stop blood flow through my scalp.

“If they attack in a group, why did only a single one come near us and specifically attack Nora?” Liam asked.

“It is said that they have this weird habit of tasting the blood of its prey before killing it”, Rorik replied, still lurking in the sky.

“What!? This minacious creature wants to kill me?” My heart pounded in fear as a cold stung tremored through my spine; my stomach lurched in rumbles as sweat beads coated my forehead.

“No! If it intended to kill you, then you would already be dead. It had some other purpose,” Ronin replied with furrowed brows, indicating his senses are on high alert. The muscles of his jaw twitched as he dabbed a piece of cloth over my wound.

“What p-purpose!?” I stammered as my heartbeat was racing. I seriously hope that it’s nothing serious perhaps they both are just toying with me.

“Identity verification. Someone sent it to taste your blood to confirm that you are Rebekah. Someone anonymous is eagerly waiting for you. An unknown enemy has eyes set on you,” Ronin replied.

“Fuck! I already warned you. We are damned beyond these enemy lines, struck here with no idea about this hellish of a place,” I screamed at Rorik, “If I die, it’s on you!”

“Quickly take us to Temple of Sanctum; once Ronin becomes a three-headed serpent, we will figure out how to leave this place”, Sypha spoke; her aim was also on high alert, scrambling here and there.

“Do you think of me as GPS? I am a stranger to this place as you all. I have no idea about the whereabouts of this damned temple of Sanctum,” I snapped as frustration roved through my veins.

Damn all. This was the first time I got scared for my babies as my hands involuntarily scooped over my belly, starting to show a bit.

“What!? Do some hocus-pocus and bring out your witchy alternate identity- Rebekah,” she taunted as she rolled her eyes.

“If I bring out Rebekah, the first thing she will do is to kill you”, I snorted at her, my eyes slithering with anger.

“Stop it! Both of you. This is something serious. We need to get away from here fast. We are dealing with an unknown enemy; it can be anything as this place is notorious to bore supernaturals. Soon darkness will take over. We will need to find a shelter. And I am sorry to break this news late; I have lost all my fucking powers, so I am just a normal human,” Ronin replied.

“What!? You cannot transform to the serpent?” Sypha widened her eyes at him as fear loomed through it and her next destination was at me, “See, I knew this witch deliberately hid it from us, so we all become helpless.”

“Stop blaming me for your family’s stupid mistakes. I already warned you. You were the one overzealous for the adventure; I hope you have packed the shroud. Now, if you are done nagging my mind, drag your ass on the move and start searching for shelter,” I blurted back.

“Nora, try something. Maybe, you can get a vague hint. Try to concentrate,” Ronin asked, looking in my way, clearly ignoring Sypha.

“Okay”, I snorted out as I kneeled on my knees, grabbed a handful of soil and aerated it in a downward motion as a few particles clumped together and pointed in a specific direction.

“We will go East”, I muttered as we all started moving.

We wandered further, along a beaten path towards the thick wilderness. The majestic forest suddenly took on a very different look as the clouds darkened angrily, hiding Sun or Collapsar or whatever star it was.

Shit! Is this some other alien planet? My mind mused in all the directions, searching for answers.

“You can do magic, even if your talisman is in their control?” Meghan whispered in my ear as she walked closer to me.

“Na, I was doing time pass to scare off that Sypha and to prove to those serpents that I am in control. I don’t know how to do magic even if talisman will be with me. It only happens when Rebekah takes over and is in the mood to help me,” I giggled.

“So, you have no idea where we are going?” Meghan asked as hope evaporated from her face.

“Not exactly, but I have a few vague memories, or you can call a feeling of déjà vu, which is helping me to sort out the way”, I responded.

We almost walked for the whole day; darkness was creeping below the setting star, all ready to embrace the sky in its grip. This planet is not Crixus as there are no purplish hues in the sky and orange soil is nowhere to be found.

My gaze landed on a far silhouette of a cave-like structure as the dark memories flickered my mind. I know this place was the first thought that ventured through my mind. My legs involuntarily started ambushing in its direction as if betraying my body which was repelling their descent. Everybody followed me. It was a cave as dark as a tombstone at the base of the small black hill. The dark cave looked natural, but the entrance was carved out artificially to make a smooth passage in its interior.

I stood outside the entrance, my eyes searching for something on its left side. I scraped my fingers through the surface as my nails hooked on some carvings, scratched through the surface. Something was written on it. I gestured to Rorik to take a look.

“Rebekah-Ornith”, he muttered as his face went blank. Ronin’s features twitched as tensed folds coveted his face. A bout of jealousy surfaced in his expressions, but he struggled to put on an indifferent attitude in front of everyone. I decided to take a look inside it.

“Are you sure?” Ronin stopped me, grabbing my hand, his eyes focused on mine as if warning me of dire consequences.

“Yes, I want to know him. I want to search for the answers. Maybe, he is the unknown enemy. It’s better if we know something about him,” I retorted as I took a heavy step inside. The air was thick and damp, as if a wandering soul was trapped inside. The flood of darkness took over me as my mind got flooded with distant memories. My instincts couldn’t hold back as my eyes brimmed in an uncontrolled flow of tears.

“What happened, Nora?” Ronin asked me, shaking my shoulders, trying to calm me down. I dug my face into his shoulders as my cries soon turned into uncontrollable sobs.

“I came here with him. We stayed here for a few days. We were so in love, like soul-mates. Loving each other was all we did; living without him was like a heart without a heart beating. Without him, I would stop breathing and die. I never imagined my life without him. I don’t know what went wrong between us. I don’t understand what was written in our destinies as loving each other was all I know of,” I yelped as I slumped on his shoulders.

“Nora!” Meghan said as she handed me a bottle of water, “You don’t remember what went wrong that he has to kill you?”

“No, I don’t. I remember the feeling of falling in love with him,” I retorted

“Is he alive? You said he was when Rebekah took over you?” Ronin asked.

“I don’t know”, I responded.

“Stop talking about him now, and let’s make a bonfire. I am famished, and I guess you all are as well. We have food stock only for today; from tomorrow, we will have to hunt if we can’t find a nearby village” Rorik tried to distract me.

Zach and Liam collected the wood. Soon we all were seated in a semi-circle around the campfire. We all decided against venturing inside the cave at night-time.

“Are you sure about this? I don’t think it’s a good idea for a campfire. We can attract some unknown elements” Ronin was talking to Rorik.

My thoughts wandered around as it took a moment for me to realize why the skin on the nape of my neck tingled. The feeling when somewhere close by, a pair of eyes are drinking in your sight. It started with a tingling sensation in my spine as it swirled inside my core. I scanned around for any sign of life and tried to listen to the sound other than the frantic beats of my heart and chattering of fellow people. My head shot around without thought as I saw it. It scared the life from my bone as I froze on my feet, too terrified to move, “We are seven; I can see eight shadows”, I screamed as everyone jolt out from their place. Before anyone else could notice, in a fraction of a second, the shadow merged with the shadow of one of us.

“I can’t see any shadow”, Liam gasped as everyone bragged their face all-around to search the source of the shadow.

“It has merged in one of us”, I mumbled to myself, looking suspiciously at the faces of Meghan, Liam, Zach, Sypha, Ronin and Rorik.

The shadow has merged in one of them!!

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