Good-bye Forever; Chapter 1: Tripped

Author's Note: Please try to enjoy what I've written so far! It's not perfect, I know, but it's the most detailed story I've every written. Any suggestions for titles of this story would be greatly appreciated, and feel free to leave as much or as little comments as you want, but any and all comments would be greatly appriciated! Thanks in advance!



         Life is short, so you should live everyday like it's your last, right? Now THAT is an understatement. When you’re me, your life will be very short if you don't live everyday to the extreme. In fact, if you don't push yourself to the limits everyday, ALL life will be relatively short.
         Confused? Good. Not a day goes by where I DON’T find myself confused.

         It started quite a while ago. It’s all getting blurry now that I've realized "Fantasy" as they call it in that other world. I wish that I could keep my old memories, but "They" said that I would be dangerous if I had memories of Earth. However much I don’t like it, this is what I have to do; if I don’t forget, then I will have memories of the horrors I experienced as a normal human that will keep me from doing what needs to be done.
         I was shoveling snow on the driveway of our comfy little abode in a comfy little neighborhood in comfy old St. Augustine. My younger sister, Jessica, was inside watching TV with my baby brother, Mark. My parents were upstairs wrapping presents. I figured that shoveling snow would land me an easy $15, so why not? As I finished the sidewalk, I saw my cat hissing at something in the backyard.
         "Snickers!" I called to her. "What're you doing?" I dropped my shovel and dashed over to her and scooped her up. She fought to get away from my grip, but she failed to get free. I looked in the backyard, Snickers still not giving up. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. My new deck was sitting there, the grill being far away from it. We had to get a new deck and grill after my dad almost burned our house down by forgetting to turn off our old coal grill. There was a huge lump of snow near the old wooden swing set. It was the snow fort that my sister and brother had started to build. It was awfully long, maybe six feet in length, and about two feet tall. It was pretty good considering the fact that a 12-year-old girl and a toddler made it.
         My cat in tow, I walked into the garage and opened the door. I quickly tossed my cat in and quickly closed the door. I ran out to the sidewalk and grabbed my shovel. I started to walk back up the black asphalt driveway to my garage when I heard a loud crash in the backyard. I literally jumped out of my boots. I slipped them back on and ran out back with my shovel in hand. I needed to be ready for anything, because it isn't every day that you hear a loud crashing noise in your backyard.

         That was my first mistake. I never should have gone to see what had happened.

         As I ran out back, sweat was running down the back of my neck, then getting trapped because I had my coat hood on. I dropped my shovel. When I saw what the crash was, I’m pretty sure that the bead of sweat froze right where it was. There was nothing normal about my backyard anymore.
         A huge crater had formed in the ground that looked to be almost 15 yards in diameter (okay, maybe that’s not huge, but big enough). My swing set was non-existent. The bodies of several weird creatures were spewed across the crater; some completely ripped to pieces, others whole, but all of them were covered in blood. At the center of the crater was a human, or at least that’s what it looked like was there. I couldn’t tell if the person was dead or alive so, being the kind soul that I was, I ran over to the crater, still with my shovel. I looked down at the crater. It was much more enormous up close. I still couldn’t tell if the person was alive or not, or even the gender of the person. I decided to climb down into the crater and see if they were okay.

         That was my second mistake. I never should have gone to see if the person was alive or not.

         I dropped down into the crater. It looked more like a hemisphere of earth was suddenly removed from the ground rather than a meteorite or something hit. I noticed one of the whole bodies close to me so I crept over to the body to examine it more clearly. It definitely wasn’t human, and as a matter of fact it didn’t look like any creature I had ever seen before. It was much larger than any other (humanoid) creature I had ever seen as well, maybe 9 feet in length. Of course, now I know what the creature was but back then I thought it just could have been too mutilated to be able to get a good idea of what it actually was.
I turned my attention back to the person at the center of the "crater". I slowly crawled down the crater (avoiding tripping over any stray body parts) to the person. It looked unconscious, if anything. The person looked like a male, and a very strong one at that. He was wearing a strange green garb of some kind. My heart beating through my chest, I crept ever closer to the unconscious human. It looked almost like he was sleeping.
         The man suddenly opened his eyes and sat up. I quickly jumped away in case he was going to attack. I tossed my shovel several feet away with startledness. He looked like he had just had the worst nightmare imaginable. He breathed heavily while his eyes darted to all directions until his gaze locked onto me. He jumped up with amazing speed and grabbed me by the coat with both hands. He lifted me off the ground as if I were than a balloon before I even knew what was happening. I was terrified out of my mind.
         "You! Human!" he spat furiously. His voice was gruff; he sounded like the kind of person that got ticked off easily, and he was definitely ticked off. "Where am I?" he demanded.
         I panicked. "Y-Y-Y-Your-r-r i-i-in S-S-Saint Aug-Aug-Augustine, s-s-sir!" I whimpered. My voice was wavering like crazy.
         The man frowned. "What? Saint Augustine? Where is that?" he demanded again.
         "Um...Earth?" I squeaked. The man seemed to look hurt when I said that. I was actually trying to lighten him up and get him to let me go, so how did I end up hurting his feelings? Still clutching me, he slowly let his head slide down to look at his shoes or boots or whatever they were. It was then that I noticed, not only how far off the ground I was, but also the man's pointed ears. And not just a little pointed, but really pointed. Like past-the-back-of-his-head pointed. I also looked down to the ground and noticed that I was about a yard to a meter above the ground. This man was not only strong, but also very tall. I noticed that his eyes were a very deep and pretty blue, like the kind an animé character would have. His hair was shoulder length and jet-black, just like my hair was (except my hair wasn't shoulder length, it was short). His skin wasn't white, but it was a bit darker, like a half-Caucasian, half-Hispanic (also like myself).
         "Um, what's going on here," I said, breaking the silence, "and why did you destroy my backyard?" The man/elf-type thing snapped out of his trance and whipped his head up in surprise at my sudden intrusion. He didn't seem to be angry with me any more. In fact, he stared at me with sort of a silent curiosity. "I said, what's with the bodies, the crater, my non-existent swing set, and the ears?" I repeated, more sure of myself this time. "And would it kill you to let me go?"
         "It just might," he muttered and dropped me. I landed on the rubble of the crater with an 'ungh'. His eyes never unlocked from me. "Now, human, what was it you wanted?"
         "I said, what the hell is going on here?" I said, rubbing my slightly aching backside.
         "You should not ask such questions, human," he said sternly. "If you continue sticking your nose where it does not belong, you will end up getting it cut off. You are lucky that you saved me or I would have killed you by now."
         I gulped and frowned at the menacing figure towering over me. "Uh, please don't kill me. I haven't even had my first kiss yet!" He stared at me like was crazy. That, or he was trying to decipher what I had said. It was most likely both. "Now, could you please tell me who are you are," I continued, "and could you please tell me why there's a 50-foot-long hole where my old swing set should be?"
         "You are a nosy little brat, are you not?" he responded casually.
         I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. "I-I'm not a brat!"
         "You sure seem like it," he replied with absolutely no change in expression.
         "Well...I'm not!"
         "You most certainly are."
         "Shut up! No I'm not!"
         "Are you arguing because you know it's true?"
         I no longer stared at him with amazement, but now with annoyance. The man's face did not change at all while I argued with him. Until something surrounded by black and red flames crashed right behind him.
         "Get down!" he yelled before the object touched down, his face suddenly changing to that of an honorable warrior in battle looking out for a comrade. He grabbed me with one arm and tossed me a few feet away just before the object touched the ground. "Ugh!" he cried in what seemed to be either pain or surprise. He was blown away and landed right on top of me with a thud.
         "Oomph," I gasped. "You're...as heavy as...you are...tall..."
         The object stopped glowing with flames and took the form of one of the dead creatures in the crater. Only this one was alive. And from the looks of it, it looked like it was much more powerful. He had to have been about 12 feet tall, or at least taller than the other creatures. It had ugly dark green skin and three ivory-colored horns protruding from the top of its skull. It also had spikes running down the back of it and they ran down its long, thick, sweeping tail, as well. It was wearing some kind of full-body armor, black with silver lines running throughout its armor, with holes in the back to allow the spikes to poke through. The only showing parts of its body were its head, hands, and feet. The armor didn't reveal much about its body, but its bulging pectorals and abs (are they the same?) sent me a message that didn't say "bodybuilder", but rather "bodybreaker". Its hands were large with four large, white-clawed fingers, and many black dots on the back of them. Its feet were also rather large with numerous black spots on top of them, and it also had four white-clawed toes on each foot, three in the front and one on the back. Its eyes were an icy blue, much different from the tall man's eyes, and very piercing. It had a vile smirk on its face, which fit very well with its four sharp fangs that jutted out of its mouth.
         "So, Aryan, you've stooped so low as to ask a human for help," it said in a deep, menacing tone. It fit well with its menacing body. "That is very unlike you. You rarely ask even another elf for assistance."
         Whoa, I thought, shocked, he really is an elf!
         Aryan lifted his head up. "I did not ask for his assistance, Xelphinos," he snorted. "He happened to be in the area when I used the Firexplosion."
         "Hold on a minute," I interjected, pushing Aryan off of me, "I never saved your life! I don't know how to save a life!"
         "Do not play dumb, human," Aryan snapped while standing up. "You know just as well as I do that when you approached me, you transferred some of your energy into me to revive me."
         "I did?" I asked, dumbfounded.
         "Of course!" Aryan barked while dusting off some dirt and snow. "Do not tell me that you cannot use magic! Every human can, just not very potent magic!"
         I sat there, staring in awe at the powerful beings towering above me. Xelphinos was standing there with its arms crossed getting impatient. "As much as I'd love to stand here and watch a stupid elf teach an incompetent human that he's dumber than an Orc, you and I have a score to settle, Aryan," Xelphinos growled. "I don't care if we finish it on Altaria, Ukrod, here, or Hell, but we are in the middle of a fight that you had the nerve to run away from. Prepare to finish it." Xelphinos took a fighting stance, and then looked down and started chanting something incomprehensible. A dark aura began to form around it, making strange noises that sounded like a cross between muffled siren and hurricane.
         Aryan gasped and picked me up again with one hand. "Get out of here, now!" he shouted as the noises began to get louder. "I no longer care if you saved my life or not, but just get away from here as fast as you can if you want to live!" He lobbed me about seven feet away and I tumbled an extra foot.
         I stood up and brushed some of the dirt and snow off of me. I stared at Aryan, who made some strange hand motions, and then he shouted something incomprehensible. A light green aura formed around Aryan and sounded like giant wind chimes clanging together. Xelphinos lifted his head up and smirked at Aryan's attempt to stop him. Aryan and Xelphinos both moved their arms out in front of them, their palms facing each other. They both roared in what seemed to be either pain or them releasing energy. A shining green beam of energy shot from the elf's hands; a pitch-black beam of energy shot from the monster's hands (AN: DBZ inspiration right here! = ^.^m= ). The two waves of energy met and froze in place, neither beam giving in to the other. Green and Black energy shot out from their collision point in all directions, detonating whatever they impacted immediately. I was standing conveniently out of range.
         It seemed as if I couldn't move; I was frozen in place. I wanted to leave and forget that I had ever met that elf and that monster, but I couldn't. I had to watch and see this battle through to the end. Besides, Aryan might've needed me to save him again, however I had previously done it.

         That was my third, and final, mistake. I should have heeded Aryan's advice and ran away.

         My arms were hanging limp at my side. The only thing keeping me standing upright was the equal distribution of my weight. My wide eyes were locked onto the colliding beams of pure energy, even though Aryan's beam shone brighter than the sun on a cloudless summer day. I scrambled my brain looking for a logical explanation as to what was happening, but no answer came. All logic that I previously owned had shoved a grenade down its throat and blew itself to pieces. How could this be possible? There's no such things as Elves; theres's no such things as magic; there's certainly no such things as...whatever Xelphinos is. But the more I watched the blinding light that was released from Aryan's palms, the more I accepted that it was true: elves and magic do exist. Fantasy wasn't fantasy anymore: it was real.
         After being restrained for almost an entire minute, the two beams of energy exploded in a flash of black-and-green light, sending both Aryan and Xelphinos flying in opposite directions. The dirt-filled crater in my backyard suddenly became a little larger. I quickly became covered in the dirt, grass, and snow that was spewed out, and squeaked an "ugh" as a leg of one of the dead creatures landed right next to me. When the snow and dirt settled, Aryan was sitting against a large dent in my white house which was shaped just like himself, covered with dirt, snow, and bruises and was bloody in several places. He was breathing heavily, and his tunic was ripped to partially reveal his well-toned body. His shoulder length black hair was tossed around violently and was a complete mess, with chunks of dirt and snow mixed with traces of blood apparent in it.
         Xelphinos was much better off with its armor completely intact. There wasn't even a scratch on its armor. As a matter of fact, there was no scratch on its entire body. He didn't seem at all shaken by the explosion, even though he was sent flying straight through a snow-covered pine tree. As it pushed the tree off of it like the tree was just a twig, Xelphinos appeared to be perfectly fine: no sped-up breathing, no scratches, no bruises, no blood, nothing. In fact, it looked like it was even stronger. How this was possible, I had no idea, but for all I knew this could have been normal with Xelphinos' race.
         I heard Aryan mutter something under his breath, which I assumed was a curse. I turned my attention back to Aryan, who was behind me from where I was standing. He struggled to stand up while Xelphinos stood up with ease. Aryan's right arm hung limp at his side. He rubbed it gingerly with his left hand. If Aryan can't beat that guy, we're in trouble, I thought grimly. I took a few steps backwards and tripped over the leg that almost hit me earlier. I stumbled a few steps, and then stood upright again. Slowly, but steadily, the reality of everything that was happening started to sink in. I still didn't understand how I had managed to save Aryan's life--such a powerful being's life--but I wouldn't find out the truth until much later.
         Xelphinos slowly walked forward with a vile smirk on his face. I could tell that he was ready to cause Aryan more pain if I didn't do something about it. Of course, I had no idea what I could've done to save Aryan, but it came to me shortly after. Aryan was slowly staggering towards Xelphinos, whose gargantuan figure slowly crept closer and closer. I remembered how terrified I was supposed to be, and slowly backed up on to the remains of my deck, which now mostly just one giant crater. Xelphinos didn't seem to notice that I still existed, and that suited me just fine.
         As the two beings from another world approached each other, I could feel the tension getting thicker and thicker. If it became any thicker, I could've cut it with a knife (cliché, but appropriate). Aryan and Xelphinos stopped about two feet from each other. Aryan craned his neck to look at Xelphinos' face, still lightly rubbing his right arm.
         Xelphinos smiled and chuckled a deep, evil chuckle. I had no idea what this guy's beef was, but I knew that I needed to stop him somehow. Xelphinos' face became a stern frown. "Aryan, you disappoint me," it growled. "First you teleport to a different planet just to get away from me, then you seek the help of a human to replenish your life energy, and now you are almost defeated without putting up any fight at all. Come now, Aryan, haven't I taught you better than that?"
         "Go to Hell!" Aryan snarled.
"Been there, done that. The only one going to Hell here is you, you stupid elf." Xelphinos smirked, its teeth looking sharp as ever, and slowly began to walk towards Aryan's shivering figure. Aryan gritted his teeth and grunted, not being able to ignore the pain in his arm. From were I was standing, I couldn't see Aryan's eyes, but I had a feeling what kind of emotion they showed. I wasn't even a part of this conflict, but I was terrified, as well. I had to do something, and I had to do it fast: someone's life was at stake, human or otherwise.
         That's when it hit me: I have to attack Xelphinos! I thought with excitement. I didn't think of it as stupid (or how I would accomplish it) because all reasonable logic had left me long ago. All I knew was that something had to be done soon before the elf's life was ended.
         Xelphinos was barely an inch away from Aryan when it stopped moving. It seemed like if it breathed outwards, it would knock Aryan over. Xelphinos lifted up its right hand and flicked Aryan in the head. Aryan cried out in pain went flying into the same side of my house and made another, more apparent dent in it. I was surprised that he didn't break through the wall entirely, and was even more surprised when I realized that my family hadn't heard any of the commotion that was happening outside. Aryan slumped to the ground and landed on his back, not moving at all. Xelphinos didn't show any emotional changes as it slowly brought its arm back to its side and began to slowly walk towards Aryan's motionless body.
         I quickly decided that I needed to act immediately or else Aryan would be dead. It was obvious that Aryan's life held a lot more meaning than mine, so if I died to help Aryan live, it would be worth it, right? Since I didn't have any common sense to tell me otherwise, it was the perfect plan. I jumped off my deck and ran at Xelphinos as fast as I could, screaming madly. Xelphinos whipped its head towards me, not expecting any interruptions.
         "What's this?" it said to no one in particular. I hardly even noticed when my hands and boots started glowing blue. Xelphinos gasped in surprise and his expression was replaced with an expression so fearful of what was coming that Aryan couldn't have done it better himself. "You're not a human! You're--you're--!" It would've finished its sentence but I had already jumped up about 30 feet into the air and dive bombed towards Xelphinos, hands first. The last thing Xelphinos heard was my mad screeching; the last thing Xelphinos saw were my radiant blue hands plunging towards its face. Aryan weakly lifted his head up and made a strained gasp as my hands made contact with Xelphinos' face. For a split second, an explosion fiercer than anything I had ever seen or heard before came to my eyes and ears, and then everything went dark and silent.