“How dare you touch me like that,” Alice growled through bared teeth. “You will suffer for that. You, your mom, that fucking brat, you’re all going to die! I’m done playing with you, I’m done wasting my time with all of you!”
“Why didn’t you kill her?” the child cried out at Cindy. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I couldn’t do it,” Cindy whimpered shaking her head. “I can’t kill anyone, not anymore. I can’t now that I know it’s wrong. I don’t want to be a bad girl. I want to be a good girl. I don’t want to be like her. Not again. I don’t want to be bad.”
“She’s bad!” the child desperately tried to explain. “You’re not bad for wanting to stop her! For fuck’s sake, she killed my mother! She’s been killing my people! If you’re not going to stop her, then who the fuck is?”
Cindy looked between the young elf and Alice while struggling to understand, seeing the child bound in place in midair while crying and the witch who was glaring at her with a chilling aura and glowing eyes. The elf whimpered and shook her head then showed a worried smile at Cindy.
“You’re not like her,” she reassured. “You’re not. You wanted to stop her, you wanted to save us. That’s what you wanted, right? You said earlier that you weren’t going to let The Sisterhood hurt us. You meant that, didn’t you? You’re not bad for wanting to help us. So please, I’m begging you, do something. Don’t let this witch kill any more of my people.”
Cindy slowly turned her eyes to the child as the young girl tried to keep showing a smile through her fear.
“I heard sand wraiths were terrifying monsters in this world. That they kill everyone they meet, that they live to kill others and nothing more. If you really came here to stop them, if you really want to save us, if you want to be a good girl like you say, then do what sand wraiths do best and put an end to this witch once and for all. Prove you’re not heartless like them and save us, please.”
Slowly Cindy lowered her head, paying no mind to the sounds of more of the glass murals shattering or the eruptions of fire and chaos outside. Instead she thought back to what Daniel had said to her before they entered Green Haven, something that became prominent in her mind.
“Cindy, let me tell you this. Somebody very wise once told me that even a pacifist must draw their blade from time to time. We’re out here for peace between our races, but there will be times we’ll be forced to fight for what we believe in or simply to defend ourselves from those who wish to harm us. Killing is bad if it’s done out of cruelty or hatred, if it’s done to purposefully cause pain and suffering to others. Killing when protecting the innocent and defending ourselves isn’t bad, but it too isn’t something we look forward to doing. Taking a life is never an easy choice to make.”
Daniel’s words echoed in her head, her eyes then turning to the bodies of fallen elves that floated in the air nearby. She looked to the elven child who was screaming at seeing everything being lifted around them, then to Alice, the witch holding out her hand and summoning dark ghostly skulls out from the casting ring around her wrist.
“Killing is bad if it’s done out of cruelty or hatred,” Cindy repeated. “If it’s done to purposefully cause pain and suffering to others.”
“What are you babbling about now?” Alice growled.
“Killing when protecting the innocent and defending ourselves isn’t bad,” Cindy continued with a stern expression. “But it too isn’t something we look forward to doing.”
“Cindy?” Felucia asked, then started screaming as fire was swiftly spreading along the airborne debris and getting closer to her.
“I’m not a bad girl,” Cindy declared. “I’m a good girl. I’m going to be a good girl. I’m going to do what’s right. That’s what I want to do with my life.”
“Good for you,” Alice mockingly scorned. She clacked her staff on the ground, the casting base below lighting up profoundly while Cindy was lifted up by a magical force. The sand wraith slowly looked at seeing the floor lowering below her then turned her glare onto Alice again while her skirt and hair fluttered in the air.
“Taking a life is never an easy choice to make,” Cindy said narrowing her eyes.
“Really? It is for me,” Alice retorted, then launched a howling ghostly skull towards the floating sand wraith. Cindy growled and grabbed her hip, tearing out a large chunk of her sand with a crunch before throwing it towards the incoming attack. The skull struck the glob of sand and vanished with a haunting wail, casting out distorted dark bends of light around the gravel that turned to bleak powder and spread out in the air. Alice yelled and fired the other two skulls towards Cindy, with the wraith again ripping out handfuls of her own sand and tossing them at the incoming spells. The skulls collided with the wraith’s grit and let off their life-draining power that reduced the magical grains of gravel into dust that drifted about in a thin cloud.
“You think that’s going to protect you?” Alice shouted, only to then be struck with a glob of sand right to the face. The witch coughed and wiped it away before taking another clump of the wraith’s dirt into her shoulder, then her leg, and then her face again as Cindy kept tearing out chunks of her own sand and throwing them at the witch. The elven child and Felucia watched in bewilderment as Cindy ripped apart and threw at the little monster her legs, waist, then her face and chest; the furious sand wraith literally tearing herself into pieces and throwing them at Alice who was knocked back a few steps with sand and powder pelting her and the ground nearby in a relentless barrage.
“Knock it off!” Alice yelled swinging her arm blindly to clear the building haze in front of her. With a furious scream she jumped forward into a roll out of the dusty cloud and held out her hand, forming her dark ghostly magic around her wrist again and taking aim. She blinked then stared in confusion at the sight of seeing only one of Cindy’s arms gently floating in the air with barely anything else remaining of the girl.
“What the fuck?” Alice spat out. She coughed and dropped her staff to wipe her face again, her eyes locked onto the motionless arm drifting in place while Felucia and the elven child were keeping their sights on her very closely now.
“Was that the best you could do?” Alice laughed. “You think a little sand is going to bring me down? You fucking moron! You’re nothing but useless dirt! Did you really think throwing your shitty self at me would do anything at all? Nice try! Now show me your stupid face again so I can sap the life from it!”
She held out her hand to aim at the wraith’s remains, her furious glare then turning into puzzlement as Cindy’s remains crumbled apart and began drifting towards her in siphoning streams of sand. Alice watched the grains floating towards then going past her, the witch slowly turning her head with eyes widening as she saw Cindy regenerating right behind her with a stern glare aimed at the little monster. She jumped around and brought her hand forth to attack, only for the wraith to reach out and grab it painfully tight, lifting the frightened witch up off the ground as Cindy finished reforming her body again. Alice screamed with kicking legs, her wrist cracking under the pressure and her casting ring dissolving along with the ghostly skulls she summoned.
“It’s not an easy choice to make,” Cindy repeated. “I don’t want to kill anymore. I don’t want to hurt others anymore. I want to be a good girl. I want to be happy with my friends, with Daniel, with so much yummy food to eat. That's what I want. That’s all I want.”
She glanced over to the elven child who was watching her in speechless marvel, her eyes then moving back onto Alice as the witch was shaking with a nervous whine in her grip.
“I’ve made my choice,” Cindy declared.
“That you’re not going to eat me?” Alice shakily asked with a weak smile. “You’re going to be a good girl and not eat me, right?”
“I’m not going to eat you,” Cindy answered, slowly shaking her head. She then clenched her other hand into a fist with a small grinding noise. “I’m going to bop you one.”
With a quick windup Cin
dy struck the witch in the chest with a powerful punch, blasting apart the little monster’s focuser crystal and her upper body into a shower of blood and gore splattered across the ground. The elven child stared in amazement at seeing the witch’s remains strewn along the floor with her hat slowly floating down onto the ground, then turned to Cindy as the wraith tossed aside the fallen monster’s arm while scowling at the remains.
“Meanie,” Cindy said as she wiped her hands on the matter. Before anyone else could speak the witch’s casting ring flickered and vanished below, with everything then falling to the ground with a clatter. Felucia quickly scrambled away from the burning debris while the elven child dropped to her feet as she was freed from her magical binds, her eyes never leaving Cindy as the sand wraith looked around at seeing everything released from Alice’s control. The wraith then took notice of the child staring at her, a small smile forming on her face as she walked up to the young girl.
“Are you okay?” she kindly asked. “I’m sorry if you were scared. You’re not hurt, are you?”
The elf quickly lunged forward and hugged her, breaking down into tears as Cindy gently held the child with a warm smile on her face.
“Thank you!” the child cried out. “Whoever you are, thank you so much! Thank you!”
“It’s okay,” Cindy gently replied. “You’re safe now. That mean monster won’t hurt you anymore.”
Felucia slowly walked around the broken benches and shards of glass, watching in bewilderment as Cindy knelt down and hugged the crying elf while gently rubbing her back. The young girl shook her head in the wraith’s shoulder then slowly drew back, seeing the sand monster watching her with not a trace of malevolence in her eyes or face which only bared a gentle smile at her.
“You’re not… going to eat me?”
“No, I’m not,” Cindy answered shaking her head.
“Why are you here?”
“To rescue you.”
“You came… to rescue me?”
“Uh huh,” Cindy replied with a big nod. “You and all the other elves. Me and my friends are here to take you away from all this.”
“Your… friends?” the child repeated, rubbing her eye and watching Cindy in confusion. “You’re going to take us away? To where?”
“To where you’ll be safe,” Cindy answered, using her fingers to gently wipe the last of the tears from the girl’s cheek. “So let’s go get the rest of your people and leave this bad place together, okay?”
The child quickly grabbed her hand and nodded with a whimper, with Cindy watching as the young girl held onto her tightly with an empathic smile. Standing back up on her feet she then saw Felucia walking closer, the elder wraith looking between the two in stunned silence before finally holding her arms out wide.
“What the hell are you talking about, Cindy?” she loudly demanded. “What are you doing, and what… who… why are you… for crying out loud, explain what’s going on this instant!”
At that moment the building began to shake wildly, the three girls quickly tensing up as the remaining windows shattered while the fires amidst the debris were steadily growing. Outside in the flower garden beside the church a blast of molten rock and steam erupted while splitting the ground apart, tearing a crevice right into the monastery and rupturing through the floor across the front alter. The wall caved from the loss of foundation beneath it while the nearby stone columns dropped into the collapsing ground as the remains of the garden fell into a hazy chasm that opened up next to the building.
“But first, run!” Felucia cried out, right before the ceiling started to collapse at the same time the side of the church that was split from the fracture lifted up with the slab of rocky ground it was on teetering from underneath.
From the front of the church a cloud of dust blew out from the open doors, its towering belfry dropping into the collapsing building while a wall of smoke erupted behind it along with a crashing roar. Felucia ran out onto the grass from the billowing haze, the sand wraith stumbling with her steps on the shaking ground as she turned to see the remains of the building falling apart and crumbling into a cloud of dust and smoke. The sand wraith slowly looked around at seeing trees on fire, pockets of flame and smoke bursting from the ground throughout the burning forest, and also the sight of several elves kicking and beating the living stuffing out of a group of monsters belonging to The Sisterhood nearby. The elves and clerics from earlier stomped the broken arms and legs of gremlins and goblins, poked out eyes of the screaming arachne, grabbed their axes and swords to rend flesh and bone from the evil creatures with extreme prejudice, allowed their children to tear hair out from their horrible oppressors, and let loose terrifying roars from their pent-up rage having finally been released.
“You fucking assholes!” an elf shouted, her boots bathed in goblin blood as she kicked in the face of a gremlin repeatedly. “It’s not enough you treat us like shit, but you have the audacity to mock our people with such horrible disrespect in our darkest hour? Our forest is on fire! Our royal tree is knocked over! You fucking bitches laughed at our gods! I’m going to smash your fucking skull in and shit on your brains, you filthy stinking whore!”
“You can’t treat us like this, you wretched cunt-sniffers!” another yelled as she was literally beating an arachne with one of the spider’s legs that she had torn off. “That was our royal tree that just went down! This was a goddamned holy place, you putrid piles of horseshit! This is all your fault! I’m going to fucking skin you alive, you ugly bitch!”
“How dare you mock our gods in there!” a child raged as she ripped out clumps of hair from a screaming goblin while the clerics were busy stomping her ribs in. “Burn in hell and choke on the devil’s cock, you shit-eating horsefucker!”
Another elf was completely misunderstood with what she was saying, her words slurred in her furious warcry as she used a staff that was on fire to mercilessly jam into a goblin under her, the screaming monster flailing around as the enraged elf punctured her chest a few times before using the flaming end to stab the monster in the face.
“I always thought elves were peaceful monsters of the forests,” Felucia dryly said to herself. “It’s been a real eye-opener coming here.”
The elves beat down and savagely murdered the grunts of The Sisterhood before turning their furious glares over to Felucia, the sand wraith then showing a nervous smile as a few of the elves picked up flaming sticks and branches as they appeared ready to charge at any moment.
“Um, hold on,” she pleaded holding a hand out. “I’m not with them anymore. Never wanted to be. I was being used, just like you girls were. I’m a victim too.”
The elves snarled and prepared to attack before noticing something behind the sand wraith, with Felucia blinking then turning to see Cindy walking out of the dust cloud with the elven child in her arms. The little girl was watching Cindy with eyes of wonder while the sand wraith came up beside her mother, a smile being shown towards Felucia who fell silent from seeing her daughter cradling a young elf in her arms.
“Yanee?” a cleric called over. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” the child replied with a few slow nods. “This sand wraith saved me. She saved me and took down that wicked witch. She protected me.”
“She’s a sand wraith?” an elf questioned while holding a flaming branch. “They both are, aren’t they? Why would she help us?”
“I want to be a good girl,” Cindy answered. She set the child down who choose to stay close by her side then walked up towards the elves, all of them watching her carefully while her mother was again rendered speechless from what she was seeing and hearing.
“I don’t want any of you to die,” Cindy explained. “I don’t want that at all. Especially your babies and children, I just couldn’t stand the thought of them being hurt. That’s why I’m here. That’s why we came to save you.”
“We?” an elf repeated. “What do you mean we? You and that other wraith there?”
“I have abso
lutely no idea what she is talking about right now,” Felucia stated shaking her head. “Cindy, please explain what the hell is going on here.”
Cindy looked around to seeing all eyes on her now then showed a puzzled expression as she noticed something missing in the forest.
“Hey, where did the big tree go?” she asked scratching her head. “The big big one. Daniel and Clover were up in that tree, but now I don’t see it. Where is it?”
“Clover?” an elf repeated with a jump. “Did you say Clover is here?”
“Clover’s back?” a child asked with bright eyes. “Are you fucking serious? She’s really back?”
“She is, but where’s the tree?” Cindy whined. “I don’t see it anymore. Where did it go?”
“It fell,” an elf explained, herself and the others pointing over to where the towering branches of the toppled timber were seen burning in the air. “It dropped down moments after you fell into the church. Do you know what happened to it?”
“It fell?” Cindy worried. “But… Daniel and Clover were up in that tree. They went up there… and now it’s not there. Now it’s… down there? It… it… but… but then… but they…”
“Who’s Daniel?” the child at her side asked.
“Some human male nutjob that defied the gemini,” Felucia spoke up, with everyone turning to see her walking up next to her daughter. “He’s armed with a magic sword that tore the palace apart. Cindy, who was that guy? He just waltzed right in and actually challenged the gemini to a fight. Is he messed up in the head or something?”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 17