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Rated: 18+ · Book · Action/Adventure · #1757392
A fantasy adventure that's full of action, mystery, and an ending making you beg for more.
#792195 added April 10, 2015 at 9:05pm
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Chapter X-The White Rain
Max woke up at the sound of someone walking toward them, his arm wrapped around Becky's body, who was awake before he was. Cody was walking to the fire with a sly smile on his face as he sat down across from them.


"Well," he chuckled, "I heard you two had quite a bit of fun last night."


"From who?" said Max.


"Myself," he answered. "I heard you guys have fun, so I got up and kinda walked away. Don't know how Garen slept through it, the poor bastard's still asleep." He looked down at Garen and threw a pebble at him.


Garen stirred a little bit and jumped up when Cody threw another pebble at him. "Now what the hell was that for?" Then he looked over at Max and Becky, a smile coming across his face. "Enjoy yourselves last night, did we?"


Becky gave him a quick smile then kissed Max on the neck, "Why yes, yes we did."


"Well, hate to spoil the good stuff," said Cody, looking over at Max, "but we have business to take care of and a cloud of black mist to get through, so we should head off as soon as we can."


"Yes, I suppose we should," Max said. "Wait, what's this?"


Max was looking up at the sky as small white powder fell onto them and melted to water as it touched their body's and stuck to the ground. It was cold, along with the air around them, cold enough for them to see their own breath.


"It's white rain," Cody explained. "When it gets cold enough normal rain turns to this. But it's nothing right now, hopefully it doesn't get worse."


"Worse how?" asked Garen.


"You know when it rains really hard?" Cody asked. "Well white rain does the same thing but it's a lot worse because of the cold air and winds that usually go with it. And judging by the distance towards the Dark Lord, that's exactly what's happening."


Garen looked off to the distance to where the Dark Lord was and could only see a sheet of what must be the white rain. He looked back at Cody with panic in his eyes.


"How do we get out of this?" Garen asked. "It's coming at us pretty fast."


"A shelter made of the earth around us of course," Cody said. He then balled up his hands and lifted his arms up, the earth surrounding them raising up to completely cover them within in a dome made of earth. Cody lit the middle of the ground with his Rainbow Fire for some heat and light. "This should suffice for now."


"We haven't moved that far, geographically speaking," Becky said slowly looking up at Cody. "How is it that we've gone through two different climates in such a short time and distance?"


"It's the unbalance of the world from the war," Cody explained starring into the fire. "You know how the time lapses were different as we traveled here? It's the same thing with the weather. It doesn't know what to do, so the earth protects itself by causing bad weather to stop whatever could be causing it harm. There could be a desert waiting later on down the road for us."


"Oh, don't say that," Garen said. "You speak of the earth as if it's alive, an actual living thing."


"That's because it is," Cody said. "We as Fire Raiders should know that the best because our powers come from the earth and its elements. But over the years, we have lost the connection with the earth. The only race still left that are all fully at one with this planet are the elves. Those who cannot connect with the earth will never meet their full potential."


"Well, now," Garen said, "that was quite deep."


Cody just nodded, then walked over to a different side of the dome and touched the wall of it. The earth wall started to melt down at the touch of his hands and there was another room exposed for them. He looked over at the others who were looking at him questioningly.


"What?" he said. "I'd rather not have to listen to Max and Becky entertaining themselves again tonight. I would suggest you do the same thing Garen. That is if you know how to."


"Er, yeah, not really sure how to do that quite yet," Garen said.


"Right." Cody walked across the dome of where he was and did the same thing to give Garen a room. "You do know how to raise the earth to make yourself a door, right?"


"Yes, I do know how to do that."


"Good, now we don't have a very good concept of time in a place where there's no Near Star. So I think whoever is the first to wake must wake up the others. Then we can see how the weather is doing outside."


They all nodded in agreement and Cody walked into his room, the earth coming up and filling in the hole after him. Garen just watched the fire as if it was sucking him into it. Becky grabbed onto Max's hand tightly and wrapped around his arm looking up at him.


"It's still early," Max said softly. "We should come up with some sort of plan to beat the Dark Lord when we cross paths."


"No matter what plans we make, we won't be strong enough for him," Garen said finally looking away from the fire. "I think we should rest for now so we can get an earlier start when we wake. I know that I'm still exhausted from the battle we had yesterday and I'm feeling quite sore. I can't imagine how Cody is feeling after his show of power." He walked over to his room, giving Max a quick nod and the earth behind him closed shut.


"You just want to sleep for tonight?" Becky asked. "You look like something's on your mind."


"Er, yeah," Max said. "I think that would be best for now.” No one knew that he had been marked by the Dark Lord before. Langholm had originally stopped it with his Yellow Fire, but it's come back since then and the pain was returning.


He could see his death every time he blinked, but it wasn't the same repeating death as it was before. Now, every time he closed his eyes he was shown a different death; more detailed when he tried to sleep. He never knew there were so many ways to die, but there were. Every creative and painful way the Dark Lord could think of to kill him. Becky laid down, bringing him with her and cuddle up with him. She could sense there was something wrong with him but she didn't want to say anything. There had to be a reason he hadn't told anybody, she just hoped it wasn't anything bad. She closed her eyes trying to fall asleep, but couldn't because she was too worried for Max.


The nightmares were keeping Max from sleeping. Each death that he saw was getting worse. He was finally able to fall asleep, but it was not peaceful. The nightmares continued and they wouldn't let him wake up to cast them from his head. When he did wake it was because someone was shaking him awake and he jumped up, looking around for any threat. It was only Cody, with Garen and Becky and looking at him with worry.


"You have something to tell us, Max," Cody said.


"It's nothing; I was just having dreams of the battle."


"That would be believable if you would have woken up from the night terrors," Cody said roughly. "I know what's causing your nightmares and the cold sweats at night. The nightmares that won't let you wake at night."


Max looked down, starting to scratch at his chest where the mark was.


"You need to tell us, Max. I'm worried about you," Becky pleaded.


"Alright fine, I'll tell them if you won't," Cody responded to Max's silence. "He's been marked by the Dark Lord."


"What does that mean?" Garen asked.


"I'm not marked anymore. Langholm cured me of the curse."


"That's only a temporary thing. When you come close to the Dark Lord, it activates again and becomes worse," Cody said. "As for what it means; he will die. The Dark Lord's Mark is his way of targeting his victims. His way of causing torture before he kills them."


"Well then, we have to stop him!" Becky shouted.


"There's no way of stopping him!" Cody yelled back, his voice echoing in their dome. "When we kill the body he's in, his spirit will just leave and take over another! There's no way of killing him in his true spirit form. We're defenseless against him at this point."


"We have to try," Garen said. "The best thing to do now is to leave here and keep traveling. We've already checked out the weather and the white rain is only coming down slightly."


Becky looked over at Max with a painful look. "I don't want to head towards him."


"Do you expect us to retrace our footsteps?" Cody asked annoyed. "There is no way of avoiding him now, and even if we do, he'll find us because of the mark."


"He's right, Becky," Max said walking up to her to hold her tightly in his arms. "We can't stay here and we can't fall back. When we cross him, we'll just have to do our best."


Becky leaned up to kiss him softly on the lips and he kissed back, interlocking their tongues together.


"Oh, alright then, let's get moving shall we?" Cody said, lifting up his arms. "I suggest you all put on some warm layers, it will be cold." The earth around them started to dissolve into dust and when it was gone, there was a harsh wind to hit them in the faces. The white rain came down fairly hard, but it was bearable.


Cody started the walk towards the Dark Lord's Mist, dragging his feet through the shin high white rain. Garen, Max and Becky followed him, tugging the scarves they had up to their noses and squinting their eyes. The walk was horrible for them. Their faces and fingers grew numb and their feet stung in pain from them getting wet from the melted white rain. Not even the Near Star could keep them warm and it was at its highest peak now. Then, their surroundings began to change. The white rain around them was gone, the wind blew no more and it was warm.


Garen looked behind him and could see a stretch of abandoned and rotting buildings and he immediately let out a sigh of frustration.


"Garen?" Max called out shockingly. "Is this what I think it is?"


"Yes, I'm afraid so," Garen said, turning back around. He looked at the ghost town in front of him and started to get shivers run down his spine. This place still haunted him in his dreams from when he and Max first came across it.


"What is this place?" Becky asked.


"Is this the same place you two disappeared to before?" Cody asked, looking around a little nervously.


There was a loud crash behind them and Max squealed and jumped back as the other three spun around with their swords in hand. It was just like last time. People or creatures peering out at them in a hungry gaze, strange noises and whispering surrounding them and unnerving them all.


"You will not escape alive this time," hissed something in all of their ears. "This is our domain, all intruders must be killed."


"I'm beginning to miss the cold," Becky said.


A shadow appeared in front of them and then another. They looked around and these shadows were now encircling them, looking deadly and holding unidentifiable weapons. The one in front of them smiled and the darkness around him began to vanish to expose a decaying body with the face of Kyle. Garen starred at the face, it was the same one as before but now it had a body to it. Cody began to walk to it slowly, reaching out his free hand trying to grab for his childhood friend. The corpse just laughed at him and swung the weapon, which Cody parried away.


"Hm, so you're really not Kyle," Cody said smiling. "You scarred me for a moment there. Now I know you pose no threat."


"Master!" said one of the shadows. "He's been marked by Him."


"Really?" asked the Kyle corpse looking at Max. "Well, then we have no need of you, I suppose. You're all his." He looked back at Cody with a curious look. "Then again," he touched his weapon to Cody's chest. "You've also been marked by Him, but yours is different."


Cody grabbed hold of the weapon in the corpse's hand and pulled him closer. "Is that so? I hadn't realized. Now, are you going to let us out of here, or is the Dark Lord going to have to punish you all for intervening with his prey."


The corpse looked frightened, then waved his hand. The buildings around them started to blow away with the wind as if they were made of a heavy gas and the shadows around them did the same. The last one to blow away was the Kyle corpse, laughing out a cruel laugh pointing at the darkness that was now beginning to engulf them.


"It looks like we'll be facing him sooner than we thought," Cody said. "Prepare yourselves."


© Copyright 2015 Kyle Peterson (UN: kybaby40 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/792195