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Talia
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I found it a little funny. I mean, I was running in a vision, not in real life, and yet I could feel myself getting physically exhausted from it. And that was strange. I wasn't the type of person that got tired just from running through the woods. I was decently athletic when I was out and about, not to mention that I was a damned werewolf that was able to outpace a human in no time at all.
This felt different though. And I guess that it was. Especially when you consider that I was only here in a spiritual sense as opposed to a corporeal form. It was my soul that was here. As we had learned recently, I was projecting my soul when I went to these visions. I was seeing parts of the future by literally sending myself into the future to see it.
That made even less sense to me then. If I was getting winded and tired, did that mean that my soul was tired? What happened when your soul was tired? What would happen to me if my soul couldn't catch its breath? There was just so much for me to try and figure out.
Moving past that though, I was getting closer and closer to the castle. I could see the towers and large windows that were shining in the distance.
.....
“I am almost there.” I grinned as I pushed through the trees. “I will see whatever it is that is happening soon. I am almost there.”
I don't know why, but I felt the need to give myself a pep talk. I needed to psych myself up so that I wasn't overwhelmed by whatever it was that was waiting for me on the other side of the trees.
I was wrong. The pep talk didn't help. I don't care what it was that I was thinking. No amount of mental preparations would have been enough to prepare me for what was waiting for me on the other side of the tree line.
I wanted to go back. I wanted to rewind time to just before I saw what was over here. I wanted to unsee this. This nightmare was the worst of them all. So much worse.
The scene that met me on the other side of the forest was utter chaos. Or it looked like it was. There were people fighting everywhere. Men and women were screaming in fear and fury. There was blood, fire, lighting, and so much more that could be seen in every direction.
I was trying to see where everyone was. Where was my mom? Where was my dad? What about Reagan and Rika? And Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley, where were they? What about my aunts and uncles? And my grandparents, were they safe? I couldn't see any of them yet, so I was scared that something had happened to them.
“MOM! DAD!” I started to scream for them. “WHERE ARE YOU!?” I knew that they couldn't hear me, I understood that thoroughly, but I couldn't stop myself from yelling out in panic.
I saw a flash of orange tinted light shoot down from the sky as I looked around. That was when I noticed that there were people that were flying in the sky. I couldn't see what they looked like, but I could smell them, and it was horrible. It was like some sort of decay that was thick and heavy in the air. Were they dead? What was going on with them?
As I looked up, I could hear that they were talking to each other. They were screaming orders and commands at each other, but not all of it made sense to me.
“Vogran, get them! Allow no enemy to escape.” The man that spoke had a deep voice, but it was one that was a bit raspy and dry rather than imposing and powerful. It was like this man, whoever or whatever he was, had long since forgotten how to use his voice. This sounded like someone that was trying to voice the tones out of an extremely parched throat.
I guess it didn't matter what it was that his voice sounded like. I knew that this person was not supposed to be here. I didn't know them, and they instantly gave me a bad feeling. This was an enemy. This was someone that was attacking my family. They were trying to hurt the people that I loved. And I wasn't about to allow that to happen.
“MOM! DAD!” I called for them again. I needed to know where they were. I had to find them and see that they were OK.
“KILL THE QUEEN ON SIGHT!” I heard the man yell again. “ELIMINATE HER AND THE OTHERS WILL FALL!”
“YES, KING OLORUD!” There was a chorus of voices from the sky. There were more of them than I had thought would be up there. I didn't see more than a few dozen of them at most, but it sounded like hundreds of voices responded to that command. And all of the voices were similar. They had that same dry, barely used raspy sound to them. And they were all deeper than normal voices.
I am used to deep voices. Uncle Trevor, Lex, my Dad, all of them had deeper voices of different timbres, but these voices were not the same. If I had to picture something that went with those voices, I would say that they weren't human at all. I know that my family and I are not exactly human, but we're close enough. These voices were just not human at all. There was something wrong about them.
I understood now why it seemed that there was something so wrong about those voices. They all seemed to have a strange lisp to them. Not like they were a human with a lisp, but like there was something about them that made it impossible for them to form certain words properly.
I knew that it was getting dark out, but the sky was darker than I thought that it should be. I couldn't see the moon or the stars. I had thought that it was the sky that was reflecting and shining off of the windows of the castle, but it wasn't. It was the light of the battle that was raging in the courtyard and the gardens. Everything about the home that I knew was being destroyed. And there was nothing at all that I could do about it.
I still needed to find my parents. I needed to see what was happening to them so that I could tell them when I woke up. So, instead of watching the sky that seemed to have some weird black cloud filling it, I ran in search of other people that I knew.
I saw Uncle Dietrich and Uncle Shawn fighting with someone that was wielding a sword. The sword was glowing a blood red though, and I somehow knew that just one touch from that blade would kill either of them.
I found Uncle Shane as he was sending lightning arrows into the sky, aiming at the enemies that were hiding in the darkness. He and the others were dodging what looked like giant rocks that were raining from the area directly above them. And if they moved at all, the storm of stones moved with them.
While looking for my family I came across several other people. And I was not happy with what I saw in most of the cases. Uncle Paul, Uncle Cedar, Uncle Carter, Uncle Devon, they were all dead. They were strewn across the castle grounds with dozens of other bodies that I didn't recognize at all. This scene was like the images one just might imagine that they would see in a movie during an active battle scene, or perhaps in a real battle. I guess I wouldn't know for sure.
The ground was slick with blood as I ran, but I refused to give up. Whenever I slipped and fell, I would just get up and keep pushing on. I needed to find my parents. I needed to know that my siblings were OK. I just needed to.
“KILL THEM ALL! DON'T LET A SINGLE MONSTER LIVE!” I heard that man from earlier, Olorud. He was screaming at his men like he was giving a battle cry.
“You are the monsters.” I snapped in response to him just as I saw my parents. They were floating in the air as well. My mom was using her magic to fight against the things that I couldn't see very clearly. There was nature magic, ice, fire, water and wind. Arrows and other projectiles flew through the air. I saw my father's fire whip screaming through the sky, the sound of the whip moving almost as angry as he looked.
They are here, and they are alive. They haven't been lost. And neither have the others. We will save them. No one will die. I will see to that.
“GIVE UP, Olorud, and you Zarinog. We will not let you take over.” My mom was speaking in her diplomatic tone of voice. “Stop this assault now, before I am forced to end your life.”
“HA HA HA HA HA!” The man thought that she was being funny, but I knew that my mom meant it. “If anyone is going to be ended, it is you Monster Bitch.” He snapped at my mom. “NOW DIE!”
I don't know what it was, but something huge and dark shot out of that man's hand and straight toward my mom. It was some sort of large winged monster, and it bit into both of my parents with its long sharp mouth.
I just screamed in fear as their blood seemed to rain down on top of me.
