I was awoken by the furious voice and hands of a mighty earthquake, and by earthquake, I mean none other than Morgan—I found him kneeling beside me with his frantic, laser-focused eyes seeming to shriek triumphantly at the realization I were no longer unconscious.
"Morgan?"
He seized me by the collar and began shouting confusing things that hammered into my already aching head.
"Hanako, why did you leave?! I thought you were going to come right back so I just waited patiently and watched over Nathaniel and Eliana like I thought you wanted me too, but then you didn't come back!! And when I looked outside, I nearly had a heart attack! You guys were all on the ground and unconscious. I didn't know what to do. I panicked! And then, when I went back inside to check on the little guys, there was this strange woman who was there with them. I mean, she was really pretty, but still, I had never seen her in my life, and I didn't know what to say or do, so again, I panicked! She said her name was Suri, and she told me to tell you that she wanted you to come to the S.Y.N., whatever that is. She even left horses! I kid you not!! Then she up and left. Just like that! And I-"
"Calm down, Morgan!!" I scolded. It didn't occur to me until after I had grabbed him by the shoulders...that my hands were both in perfect condition.
"Also, your sprain, it's not real. The pain caused by the fall wasn't real either, but rather a trick your mind played on you. Once you wake up, your arm will have healed, so don't worry about that."
Jean...
I had to give myself a moment, just to wrap my head around the fact that all of what happened with Jean had been a dream. I wondered if I'd ever be able to meet him in real life.
"Are you listening to me?!"
"Yeah...yeah. Sorry, Morgan." I heaved a sigh as Morgan helped me to my feet. To my relief, Jeremy, Edith, and Niall were already awake. And they all looked frighteningly alarmed by Morgan's words.
"Did you say...Suri?"
"Yes." Morgan nodded at Niall. "That's what she told me. Why, is that name familiar?"
Niall's face suddenly became ghostly pale, and sweat drops appeared on his forehead. "If Suri came all the way out here...then that means..."
I glanced at Edith, and she appeared equally nervous. "This must be pretty important... Hanako. You have to go immediately."
"Huh?!" I exclaimed, completely caught off guard by her tone. "Why?"
"I'll tell you why..." She took a few steps towards me until she was just inches away from my face, then stared intimidatingly into my eyes. "Suri is a member of the Elite Corps of Synthesia, otherwise known as the S.Y.N.. The S.Y.N. is a special army that was created to protect and keep justice in the land. Their authority is not something to laugh at. I am positive that if it were not for them, Eliana and Nathaniel would have either been murdered or devoured long ago. "
I felt my stomach drop, and a shiver was sent down my spine as I thought about her harsh words.
"But that's besides the point," she continued in the same, solemn tone. "If Suri came all the way out here just to deliver a message, then it must be big. You've got to get your butt on that horse and get out of here now. The more time you waste, the more danger you'll be in. I'm sorry, but I can't go with you. I need to stay behind and watch over Nathan and Eliana. It's my duty. But you've got Ironmage and my brother to protect you, so you don't need to be afraid, okay? You can trust me." Her voice began to slow and soften as she finished speaking, and she took a step back. "Okay?"
I swallowed my breath and nodded firmly as I attempted to put on my bravest face. It was virtually impossible. I was shivering from the inside out.
Edith released a breath of air and turned her back to me, then headed off to her cabin without another word. I blinked several times in hopes that I could erase this side of Edith I had just seen. It didn't work. This must be freaking serious...
"Hey, brat. Are you just gonna daydream all day?" Jeremy snapped. I looked at him, and he seemed irritated. What for, I had no idea, but I pushed the thought aside. Jeremy peered at the 5 horses tied to a gate beside Edith's cabin. They were beautiful creatures, and they looked very high-class. Two were black stallions with white diamonds on their snouts. The other three were shiny, chestnut mares. All five of the horses were wearing a fancy embroidered saddle with some sort of strange crest imprinted on it. How the heck she managed to get all five of them here was beyond me. She must have had someone help her or something...right...?
Jeremy strode over to the horses and claimed one of the black stallions as his own. "You three," he announced, firing harsh glances at Morgan, Niall and me. "You take the identical three. Since Edith ain't coming, we're one horse extra. I'll lead this one along."
"Right," I nodded, soon reporting to Jeremy's side. It hadn't occurred to me until now that I had absolutely no idea how to ride a horse, let alone mount one. I took a deep breath and gripped the horn of the saddle, then lifted my foot and placed it firmly on the stirrup. To my surprise, hoisting myself up wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be, and I was soon mounted on the horse's back. "This is pretty cool," I said proudly. Jeremy scoffed.
"Never been on a horse before, city boy?"
"Shut up," I hissed angrily. "And excuse me for not being born in the countryside." Apparently, the idiot hadn't heard this, because he was too busy waving hand gestures at the two clueless boys standing idly around. Niall and Morgan hurried over and mounted the horses as quickly as they could. Niall was pretty professional about it, but Morgan, as I suspected, took his time, and still ended up tripping and falling a few times. Jeremy rolled his eyes at my friend and slapped the reins once, making his stallion turn in the direction of the deep, darkened forest. "Come on, you brats. There's no time to lose."
Startled by the sudden whine Jeremy's horse let out, I clumsily gathered the leather reins and snapped them as well, and my horse soon followed Jeremy's into the forest. Niall and Morgan came close behind.
After the first, long stretch through thick bunches of dense, lush trees, Jeremy said that it was alright to slow down now that there was more open space. So we did. I tugged gently at the reins as a signal for my horse to move forward. Once I was beside Jeremy, I whispered, "Are you sure you know where we're going?"
Jeremy's grip tightened on his reins in a way that let me know my question had irritated him. "What do you think? Of course I do."
"R-right, sorry for asking."
I directed my attention to the road in front of me, which was basically just a clear, dirt path. On both sides of me stood neat rows of tall, beautiful oak trees whose leaves were breaking off their branches and gently drifting to the ground. I found myself following the course of the leaves for quite a while, until soon the rows of trees around me seemed to disappear in a matter of seconds.
We entered a beautiful field of bright golden wild flowers, and the sound of rushing river water could be heard nearby. I actually had to shield my eyes for a minute due to the sudden brightness in atmosphere. The dimly lit path of the forest we had been traveling on for an hour had made me become adjusted to the darkness. Seeing that the sun was still out made me feel a bit more at ease. "It's beautiful..."
Morgan let out a noise of agreement. "I've never seen anything like it!"
I was almost hoping that Niall would comment about it too, or at least say something, but he remained silent. This only made caused me to worry more.
"So how much further till we reach this place anyway...?" I asked absentmindedly, still mesmerized by my surroundings.
"Edith said it's pretty far away, remember?" said Jeremy. "Just...hold your horses and be patient alright?"
I snapped out of my daze and stared at Jeremy with a look that practically shouted 'are you serious?' He noticed my expression and chuckled. "Oh, come on, it was pretty funny."
"No, it really wasn't."
"You're such a killjoy..."
I rolled my eyes to the sky and found myself staring at it for quite a while. I couldn't help it. I was completely amazed by the beauty of it all. Back at Bluegate, we never had skies like this. We never had fields of flowers like this. And we hardly had such a cool, sweet smelling breeze like the one that was gently making my hair whip against my face. I could stay here forever...
"Don't get too comfortable," I heard Niall say coldly. My eyes grew wide in shock, as these had been the demon's first words in a long while. I twisted my neck around until I was gazing at his blank expression.
"What's wrong, Niall?"
He shook his head sadly.
"The sky is afraid."
"Huh?"
"Dark days...an unknown future...a frightening past...history...repeats itself...dark days...repeat...repeat..." His voice was deep and unvarying, in a way that I couldn't deny worried me.
Apparently Morgan had overheard Niall, and his eye began to twitch in fear as he leaned forward to whisper something to me. "Hanako...what is he talking about?"
"I...I don't know," I replied.
"He's scaring me..."
"He's scaring me, too, Morgan."
"Should we be worried?"
"How should I know?"
"Y-you're right..." Morgan sighed and relaxed his shoulders, straightening his back at the same time. "Sorry. I shouldn't be concerned about something that's none of my business. I'll just go back to admiring the scenery."
"Yeah, you do that..."
+++
Before long, our four horses (plus one extra) arrived at our desired location. This place was far more incredible that I could have ever imagined. It was almost as though—at the moment I had stepped through the wide, silver steel gate—I had entered a whole other world. In front of me, starting from the left and stretching over and around to form a sort of rectangular arch, was a building I had guessed to be the main quarters.
The rooftops were covered in a shimmering, bright red shingles. The building itself looked to be constructed with fine, sturdy bricks that were painted over with a dark, solid color brown. I didn't see many windows on the building, though, which oddly enough surprised me. But even so, the entirety of it amazed me, and I found myself staring at it in marvel. "This place is phenomenal..."
"Don't let its appearance fool you," said Jeremy as he swiftly dismounted his horse. "The Synthesia Elites are no royal family, and this is no castle."
I soon dismounted mine as well, followed by Niall and Morgan. There was a middle-aged man standing tall and firm beside the gate, his eyes fixing on us as we walked by. Jeremy signaled us to stop and make our way over to him.
"We have been awaiting your arrival," the guard said to us. "It seems General Suri has succeeded in her mission of delivering the message to you. I will gladly take our horses back to the stable now." Without another word, the man in the green and black uniform with the golden crest gathered up the reins and began leading the five horses in the other direction.
Jeremy scratched his head and gazed curiously into the distance. "Huh. So they were expecting us..."
Only a few seconds passed before another unfamiliar figure—wearing a uniform identical to the guard's—came running up to us, panting heavily from exhaustion. I only noticed when he was a few yards away that he was just a teenage boy. He struggled to salute us with one hand, clutching his chest with the other. "Welcome to the S.Y.N.!" He exclaimed. "General Adams will be pleased to see that you have decided to come. I will inform her immediately!"
"Wait, wait, wait..." Jeremy released a sigh of exasperation as he gazed into the boy's eyes. "What's your name, kid?"
This question came to a surprise to the the boy, and his eyes grew wide. "P-Peter, sir. Peter Williams."
"Hmm." Jeremy nodded. "Thank you for your service, Peter. You may go now."
"T-thank you, sir!!" Peter saluted us once again, then took off at lighting speed towards the main building.
Once he was out of sight, I tilted my head questioningly in Jeremy's general direction. "Suri Adams? Is that her name?"
"That's the one," Jeremy hummed softly. "And it looks like she's coming this way right now. Look sharp, guys. You want to make a good impression."
Already? That was quick, I thought, quickly stiffening my back and staring straight ahead. There were two figures coming towards us, one walking proudly and confidently, the other, stumbling awkwardly along while shuffling piles of document papers.
The awkward one was Peter, of course, and the other was a beautiful woman I presumed was Suri Adams. She had lush, chocolatey brown hair that was tied back in a neat ponytail, reaching the tips of her shoulders. She was wearing a pair of thin glasses that were pressed far up on her nose, the light reflecting off them only adding to the brightness of her green eyes.
"I see you made it here in one piece," she said after having approached us, the edge of her mouth bending into a half-smile. "Glad you decided to come." She looked at me. "Shadow Keeper, I am especially glad that you're here." She spoke to me in a friendly tone, but something about the dark circles under her eyes told me to be cautious when choosing my words.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, General Adams," I said, bowing slightly to her.
Suri turned to face Niall, and her expression softened a bit. "It's good to see you as well, Niall."
Niall didn't respond. He continued to stare blankly at the ground.
"You know who I am," Jeremy chuckled, shrugging nonchalantly.
Suri's facial features twitched noticeably. "Indeed I do. But you..." She slowly twisted her neck until she was staring directly into Morgan's eyes. "Hey, pretty boy. What's your name?"
It took a minute for my clueless friend to register that the general was speaking to him. "P-p-p-pretty boy?!" He exclaimed. "Me?"
"Yes, you."
"M-m-Morgan, sir!" He stammered. "I mean, ma'am!"
Suri smiled fondly at him, then turned to me again. "Hanako, right?" She said questioningly. "I apologize. You probably aren't too keen on being addressed as 'Shadow Keeper,' are you?"
I shook my head sadly.
"I didn't think so. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I thank you again for coming all the way out here. It must have been a long trip. I just wanted to say-"
Before Suri could finish that sentence, Jeremy rudely interrupted with a very ignorant question. "Yeah, hey, Suri, I have something I'd like to ask you." He cleared his throat and placed a hand on his hip. "Why.....why on earth did you bring five horses all the way to the cabin? I mean, it's not like you could possibly have known that we were all with Hanako at the time, right? Also, what could possibly be so urgent that you'd take the time out of your busy schedule to travel such a long distance to get us?"
"I wasn't alone," she spat irritably whilst glaring at Jeremy. "I had four of my soldiers with me. They were supposed to be taking care of some important business in the area, and they were intending to stay at a smaller base stationed near the lake. I knew that you'd be with him, and I chose to put my trust in you to bring the other horses back. I have to thank you for that, by the w-"
Yet again, the general had been cut mid-sentence, but this time the interruption came not from Jeremy, but from Niall.
"It's coming...it's coming...it's right behind me...I'm leading it to you...be ready...be ready..."
Stunned silence followed his words. We all stared at Niall as if anticipating him to provide an explanation. But he didn't. Instead, we heard his breaths gradually become slower and heavier with each sharp inhale, until soon, his eyelids began to flutter, and he collapsed into Suri's arms.
"Niall, you reckless idiot..." She muttered through her teeth, staring frantically at Niall's ghostly pale face. "You never should have stayed in your Reaper form for too long-!"
Just then, we all heard a high-pitched ringing sound come from the general's belt, and she glanced at it with a puzzled look.
"I'll take him," Jeremy offered, taking Niall's arm and draping it over his neck.
Suri snatched the cell phone from her belt and flipped it open, then hurriedly pressed it to her ear. "Yes? Hello? Who is...oh. Why...why are you breathing so heavily? Are you alright? Where are you?"
A strange, muffled voice was yelling inaudible things into the receiver, until soon, we all heard it utter something unmistakable...
"It's coming! It's right behind me, and I'm leading it to you, so be ready!!"
A sudden click indicating the end of the call followed these words, and everyone fell silent. We all slowly turned our fear-stricken eyes toward Niall. Suri was the first to speak.
"Get. Niall. Inside. Now," she ordered, taking a deep breath between each word. "I have a feeling we don't have much ti-"
As if on cue, a low rumbling sound interrupted Suri and urged us to look in all directions. Not long after this, we all heard a loud, distant voice cry, "Coming your way at 12:00!!"
Since none of us were facing the same way, it was impossible to tell where '12:00' was. But then, just over the top of the headquarters building, came a mysterious figure that was dressed in all black, save the crimson scarf that swayed wildly in the fierce winds that had picked up instantaneously. But what frightened me wasn't this suspicious figure that had appeared out of nowhere, but what followed it. It was all a blur at first, but before long, I could clearly capture the horrifying sight of the creature.
It was an enormous, black and white dragon whose head alone was larger than my entire body. Its own body was like that of a snake's, having a long, wavy tail-like shape to it. The giant mouth attached to its lizard-like head was open and bearing its many razor-sharp teeth, a strange, black liquid oozing from the root of each one. Its claws looked similar to many blades fixed onto each of his arms, four on each hand. At first, the dragon seemed to be pursuing the suspicious figure, but just as it came over the headquarters building, it craned its head until its beady white eyes were fixed on me. And I froze.
"What...the heck...is that thing...?!"
"Hanako! Just run!!"