LEO
Leo awoke the fastest. He looked around. He was in a misty forest. His bones ached, and his brain rattled. He should be dead. They all should be. He knew that they had traveled across at least three cities before they all passed out. Where were they? What had happened? Why had this happened?
He had so many more questions, but his first priority was Liam. Liam- where was he? Leo saw Ayla lying on the soil with her head facing the ground. Jewel- who cared? But Leo could not find Liam. In desperation, he called out his brother's name. No use. Then he heard a groan.
Leo turned his head to the sound of the voice, to find that it had been Ayla rousing back into consciousness. He walked over to Ayla and gently shook her. "Wha-?" Ayla was still getting up, and waking from her dizziness. Leo decided to leave her leaning on a tree, while he went searching for Liam again. Soon, he found a beach. There, he saw two figures on the shoreline. Liam. And, of course, Cilia Jewel. Leo made his way over to them.
"Leo!" Out of breath, his brother was obviously tired. But there was a grin etched onto his face. Turning his head over his shoulder, he told the girl behind him, "See, Cil? Nothing to be worried about!" Jewel was in worse shape than Leo or Ayla combined. Jewel's face was scratched and bleeding, with her right arm bent in a weird angle. Sweat beaded her neck and face as she limped over to them.
Although she was in a terrible condition, she said with a stern voice, "Alright, Rivera. Where's Ayla?" Leo wasn't sure who she was talking to, him or his brother, but since she was glaring at him, he guessed she was talking to him.
"She's over there by a tree, idiot." But Leo wasn't going to make a snappy comeback at Jewel right now, because he was so happy at seeing his brother in one piece.
Leo led Liam over to the tree where Ayla was laying. Ayla had come to her senses, and was now examining the area. Once she saw Leo, Liam, and her best friend, she relaxed. "Guys, where were you? And more importantly, where are we?"
'That's a good question,' Leo thought. Where were they? "We're near her." All heads turned to Jewel, who had just spoken. "Zarina's nearby. I don't know how I know, but I'm sure of it."
Silence.
Then with a shaky laugh, Liam said, "All, right, let's calm down for a few seconds here. We obviously have to get off this island as soon as possible, so I suggest we work together to find something that'll work." After a few hesitant moments, Ayla says, "Yes. Yes, we should do that. But first, we need to figure out exactly where we are."
"Hold on," said Jewel. "I can help with that." There was a sudden flash of light from Jewel's hand. Then her left ring transformed into a compass. Her right one turned into a paper map. We're here, in. . . The Isles of the Dead."
The Isles of the Dead. Centuries of years ago, during Zarina's time, it used to be a prison for all the minor spirits she had captured. Legends told of the island being alive; Feasting itself upon minor spirits every night. After the war, nature had taken its course, allowing the island to turn from a burning wasteland into a beautiful forest.
Leo snapped out of his thoughts when Ayla began talking again. "We need to teleport out of here, there's no other way. Anybody got a teleporting stone?" After rummaging around in his pockets, Liam said, "I've got one, but I doubt it would work here. We wouldn't get any service. Maybe we could try the main island out of the Isles. The Volcano island is a tourism site, right?" Cilia nodded. "Probably. So we should build a boat and-"
Then Leo cut in. "No. No. Absolutely not. All of this has happened because of her." he said, gesturing towards Jewel. "And now you expect us to believe her and let her lead us out of here on a suiciding mission to hell? No way." Leo barely managed to control his anger. Then Jewel walked up to him and erupted it all.
"Look, Rivera. I never asked to be part of any of this. I definitely didn't ask to be stuck on a death island with a brainless numbskull(she said something worse than 'a brainless numbskull') who doesn't have the sense or the common knowledge to bust us out of this situation. Maybe if you went back to shutting your ridiculously large mouth like before, we might actually reach a solution-" Leo pushed her with all his might, and she got thrown to the nearest tree with a sickening thud. Ayla yelled, "Cilia!" At the same time, Liam screamed angrily, "Leo!" Blood began to trickle slowly out of Jewel's head.
Leo stood there, watching, not moving an inch. He wasn't sorry. Jewel began to rouse, and as soon as she did, the map and compass she was holding in her hands turned into something else. Something larger. Two seconds later, Leo was looking at two long, sharp javelins charging towards his face. He barely had enough time to dodge as Jewel struck. There was little he could do with his sword, and the sword that looked much smaller now compared to Jewel's twin blades.
As the son of Anger, Leo was able to sense Jewel's emotions. They were full of rage. Inhuman rage. The anger wasn't Jewel's feelings. Something- or someone- was burning and feeding her anger. Jewel's eyes were full of blue flames. "She's being controlled!" he yelled to the others. Ayla and Liam, who had been trying to stop Jewel, now grabbed Leo by his head and yanked him away from her.
"Running away?" Jewel's voice wasn't normal. It was like she was speaking into a overly dosed microphone. Her voice echoed through the forest. Then Jewel melted into the shadows, just as four figures stepped onto the moist soil.
Black hooded men, with thin green fingers appeared on the soil. Zarina's servants. Leo had read all about them in history books. They used dark magic and summoned lethal fog to suffocate their enemies. Leo tried to remember more about them from history class, such as how to defeat them, but he couldn't. He was too panicked.
Fortunately, Ayla remembered. "Water! Cold water!" That was all she managed to say before she got knocked out by the fog.
Leo saw Ayla collapse to the ground. He wanted to get to her, but he knew that the fog would just poison him. So he yelled to his brother to get behind him. Then he summoned a bubble shield that allowed the fog to swirl past him. Slowly, the two brothers edged their way towards Ayla, and managed to get her into the bubble.
Leo was sweating from exhaustion of magic. What had Ayla said? But as the shield got weaker, the fog poisoned his mind, making it hard for him to think. Water? She had said something about water. What about water? Then Liam screamed "Get to the beach!" right before he collapsed as well.
That was it- Cold water. Using all his strength, Leo ran to the icy blue waters of the sea. With the only remaining power he had left, Leo willed the water to come out of the sea and launch itself at the black creatures. Soon, Leo had collapsed as well. But not before he saw two black things evaporate into thin air and the other two two fly away north.
ZARINA
"You failed?" Silence. "You failed?" More silence. "How could you fail to kill three unarmed children?!" Zarina's voice rang throughout the cave. Zarina got up from her throne, and breathed out red smoke. When the black hooded monsters inhaled, they fell onto the floor, twitched for a minute, and lay still.
Zarina transformed into black smoke, and sped towards the island. There, she relieved Cilia Jewel of her control. Without a word, she silently grabbed the child of the Mind by her neck, and flung the girl to the ground. The two boys, who had just roused from their passing out, got to their feet. Both were still weak from the fog, but they- especially the older one, had a determined expression on his face.
"Let her go," The older one said. Let her go. . . Zarina dropped the girl.
The color slowly returned to Ayla Yu's face. As the child of the Mind gasped out for air, Zarina made a swiching motion with her hands. Both boys froze in place. Petrified, unable to move. Zarina smiled, and whispered to the girl, "You will be the first of my new army. . ."
Many years before, Zarina had turned her enemies into her followers using a potion. A difficult one to make. She was only able to make it twice a year, at each solstice. Although she only had a vial of the potion, she wanted to use it on Ayla Yu. Having the best friend of the girl whom she needed would be helpful.
An opening was needed in order to pour the potion in. Zarina spotted a small cut on Yu's head. She took the vial out of her coat pocket, and uncorked it. The older boy tried to yell out, but only managed a grunt. Zarina tilted the potion towards the bleeding wound.
Suddenly, the older boy rushed at her as the vial spilled all its contents out. Somehow, the boy had broken away from her petrifying spell. The potion wriggled and moved on the boy's skin, trying to find an opening. And it found one. A gash on the boy's cheek. The potion seeped into his wound, and enclosed itself in there. Zarina, the girl, and the younger boy all yelled, "No!" But it was too late. The potion had already begun to take control of the boy's body. The boy's eyes turned green, and he fell on his knees.
From the corner of her eye Zarina saw Ayla Yu getting up, grabbing the younger boy, and running off. They were going to get Cilia Jewel. Zarina let them go. She would have many other chances. Zarina touched the older boy's forehead. His eyes began to glow brighter and brighter, until his two eyes had transformed into an unnatural color of green.