Seasons Within Box Set

by Lele Iturrioz

  * * *

  “I can’t believe nothing happened!” Priyam protested as she dipped into her bed and lifted her legs on top of the recliner.

  “What are you talking about?” Gaia passed a brush through her red hair as she tried to untangle it from the twigs that got stuck after the fall. “You literally bet that nothing was going to happen.”

  “I know, and don’t get me wrong, I love my gains.” Finished untangling her hair, Gaia sat on the bed and Priyam leaned her head on her lap. “I just wish something good would have come out of that unusual, yet awesome, situation,” Priyam said. “Willow was burning with jealousy.”

  “I can imagine.” Gaia thought about what could have happened if Willow hadn’t opened the cocoon at that exact time, especially since, with her blurry vision, she could swear Edan looked like he wanted to kiss her. And what was that thing with my neck… It wasn’t a kiss, right? It felt like one but, him? Please, never… “That would be a miracle,” she said out loud.

  “What would be a miracle?” Priyam asked, but before Gaia could answer Hunter stormed into the room and pulled them off of the bed.

  “Hunter! What’s going on?” Gaia tried to read Hunter’s expression when she heard horrifying howls close to the cabin.

  “They found us.” Veter took both girls and they all ran out of the cabin.

  Gaia made an effort to focus on what was happening. Ten minutes ago she was trapped with the man she secretly adored while he sort of kissed her neck. Two minutes ago she was about to tell her best friend all about it. Now she was watching everyone she loved run for their lives. “Where are Edan and Donovan?” she asked anxiously as they fled as far as possible.

  “Don’t worry; they went in the other direction,” Shui tried to calm her.

  Suddenly, Hunter stopped and the rest followed.

  “Why are we stopping?” Gaia asked not understanding what was going on.

  “It’s too late to run now, Princeza. If we want to survive, we’ll have to fight.”

  Pink and Floyd opened their duffel bag and took out dozens of weapons, while Veter, Shui and Willow prepared.

  “OMG! OMG!” cried Synthia. “This isn’t fun anymore! What’s going to happen to me?”

  “Nothing.” Veter gave Hunter a signal. The teen took a couple of knives, pushed Synthia between two rocks and stood in front to guard her.

  “Here, take this,” Floyd said giving Priyam his dagger and a gun. “We haven’t practiced with guns, nonetheless, I reckon you’ll manage to kill something.” To Priyam’s surprise, he took her by the back of her head and pulled her until their foreheads touched. “Just try not to dispatch one of us.”

  “They’re here.” Willow lifted her hands and two big rocks rose from the ground.

  Gaia took Priyam’s hand and waited as the ground trembled below their feet. She could hear the dark beasts’ cries. She could smell the rotten stench. She could see the black smoke coming their way. This is it… It’s finally happening … at least Edan and Donovan will make it.

  Clouds covered the sky, turning everything dark. Gaia looked at her best friend standing right next to her, just like she had through all her hard times. The sister she found, the crazy and most lovable person she’d ever met. Gaia knew she needed to be there since it was her mission to accept all the powers of nature and become Nature itself. Priyam didn’t, yet she was, strong as ever, holding her ground. Gaia squeezed Priyam’s hand. “Please, don’t die,” she whispered to Priyam.

  “Same goes to you,” Priyam smiled.

  A loud growl echoed through the forest. Veter pulled Shui by the arm, “I need you to get out of here,” he begged. “Take Gaia and run away.”

  “No, I’m staying here.”

  “They are too many and I can’t fight with you here. I need to protect Gaia.”

  “We both do!”

  “You don’t understand.” Veter pulled her closer to him. “If it comes to having to choose who to protect, I will always choose you.”

  Shui curled her arm around Veter’s neck and pulled him closer to her. She stood on tiptoes and kissed him for the first time. “I would never leave my match to fight alone.”

  Veter let go a deep breath. He then pulled Shui back and kissed her deeply. “Took you fourteen years to say it.” He smiled as the dark beasts arrived.

  The first wave of monsters were Trackers. Small and malicious, always knowing how to find their pray before the others. Willow wielded the rocks and smashed them against one of the Trackers. Pink and Floyd jumped into the middle of the pack and, with crazy skillful movements, they killed most of the Trackers with their blades and guns.

  The second wave were Crawlers of all different sizes. They came and attacked everything that moved in their way, be it one of The Six or even a Tracker.

  Priyam pointed her gun to the fight and closed her eyes. “Don’t hit a friend, don’t hit a friend,” she chanted and shot. A loud cry was heard and Priyam opened her eyes to see she shot the Tracker Pink was fighting with.

  “Not too shabby!” Pink laughed at the lucky shot. “Just don’t close your bloody eyes next time.”

  Full of adrenaline, Priyam turned and saw a Crawler who appeared a few feet from her. She shot its tail, but the Crawler kept moving, only this time it was furious. The Crawler jumped to kill Priyam when a wall of fire grew in front of her and wrapped itself around the dark monster burning it. Priyam smiled at Gaia who had her hand on the ground covered in flames.

  “Priy, I told you not to die! Go with Hunter!” she ordered and fought the flailing Crawler.

  Gaia kept her eyes on Priyam to make sure she arrived to Hunter safely. She was distracted when a huge tail hit her from the back. Gaia fell to her knees and crept backwards while the Crawler who hit her lifted his tail to pierce her in half.

  Gaia lifted her hand to defend herself but before she could attack, the beast burned to ashes in a wave of blue fire.

  “Pay attention!” Edan ran across the ashes and lifted Gaia to her feet.

  With Edan and Donovan there, the fight seemed to balance up. Edan stayed close to Gaia, moving effortlessly as he killed every creature in front of him.

  SMASH! A Crawler jumped in front of the group. Willow wielded the trees, crashing the Crawler and everything around it.

  With Edan’s help, Gaia burned a Tracker alive. She saw Donovan surrounded by ferocious forest animals who fought against a Crawler heading towards Priyam.

  On the far end of the battle, Hunter defended Synthia and Priyam by swinging, jumping and attacking like a wild monkey, killing two beasts with his knife.

  Veter and Shui combined both of their elements to freeze and drown the beasts, while the twins looked like they were having a blast using their entire arsenal.

  The third and final wave were eight Skuggors and four Draaks. Craving to kill, the feared beasts arrived into the battle zone and the group knew they were done. With effort they would be able to kill the Skuggors, but not the Draaks.

  Edan grabbed Gaia by the arm and pushed her towards Veter. “Take her and the rest and get the hell out of here.”

  “That’s crazy. You won’t be able to do this alone, Kapetan; there are too many.”

  “I know, but it will give you time to run.”

  Gaia understood what Edan meant, he wanted to stay and serve as a decoy so they could sneak out of there in time. She pushed Veter’s hand away and grabbed Edan. “No! No way, you have to come with us.”

  He held her by the cheeks. “I already taught you fire, you don’t need me anymore.”

  Gaia pushed Edan away and slapped him in the face. “Don’t you-” All of the sudden, Gaia felt sick to her stomach. She felt everything that she loved in the world was dying and there was nothing else she could do. She felt powerless and full of hate. A cold chill made its way down her spine, she turned around and she saw them. Two light blue eyes viciously staring at her, so light they almost seemed white. The tree next to the man with the light blue eyes rotted,
the black lines of symbols he had peeking from the neck of his shirt to the corner of his left eyebrow turned red crimson and she knew, it was Him. “Azazel,” she whispered.

  There was a fierce battle raging around him, and yet he seemed unaffected by it. As he moved towards Gaia’s direction, she managed to take a better look at him. Azazel’s face was paler than most people; sharp features, a long thin nose and black hair combed back in a small ponytail with the exception of a few strands which danced around his face with every step he took.

  Without being detected by the others, and still staring at Gaia, Azazel walked through the forest. What is he doing? Shouldn’t he be attacking me? Gaia followed his trajectory and found what was near him… it was Priyam. “No!!!” she screamed and Azazel smiled at her discovery.

  Without thinking twice, Gaia pushed Edan away and ran across the field in order to reach Priyam in time. The fear of losing her best friend suffocated Gaia in a way that was making her dizzy. STOP IT! she thought and pushed her fear away. She gasped for air and tried not to pass out as she ran towards her friend. “Priy!” she yelled. “Run!!” But Priyam couldn’t hear her.

  “Gaia!” Edan shouted from a distance, not yet aware of Azazel’s presence. “Stop! What the hell are you doing?” He tried to follow Gaia but a Skuggor attacked him.

  Out of the smoke, a Tracker launched on top of Gaia, causing her to fall backwards. “Argg!” she cried out with pain after the Tracker swatted her chest and scratched her shoulder. She grabbed the beast by the head and pushed as hard as she could to prevent it from killing her. Pinned down and covered in her own blood, Gaia watched as Azazel called Priyam and she followed without a fight. “No!”

  Hunter and Synthia noticed him. Synthia immediately ran away but, Hunter jumped to save Priyam. Before they could go far, Azazel lifted his hand and they both fell to the ground unconscious. Terrified, Gaia, still holding the Tracker’s head inches away from hers, turned her hands on fire, instantly killing the Tracker. She scrambled to her feet and ran towards Priyam who was now taking out the dagger that Floyd gave her.

  At first Gaia thought that Priyam was going to try to stab Azazel, but then her world froze. She saw Azazel whispering some words making Priyam turn the dagger and stab herself. “No!”

  Edan finished killing the Skuggor and ran behind Gaia when he finally noticed Azazel. “Gaia…”

  Gaia came to a sliding stop in front of Priyam, taking her dying friend in her arms while Azazel looked at her with contempt. “I’m going to kill you!” she hissed at Azazel, who replied with a sinister smile.

  Azazel lifted his hand, but before he could harm anyone, a whip of blue fire wrapped around his wrist. “Don’t you dare to touch her.” screamed Edan as he wield the blue whip.

  Azazel shook his hand making the fire disappear.

  “Edan, take the others,” Gaia ordered him. Her body turned into flames and shook uncontrollably. She wanted to kill Azazel. She wanted to kill everything around her just like he did to Priyam. She hugged Priyam closer to her chest and instead of burning her, the flames covered Priyam’s body too.

  Edan watched as Gaia’s red hair began to wave and turn into hot flames. Her clothes, her skin and the air around her were immediately covered by the fire and created a circle that grew brighter in color. “Take them, now!”

  Edan ran towards Hunter and Synthia’s unconscious bodies, carrying them both. “Veter, get the rest!”

  Veter looked at Gaia, the fireball around her was expanding. All the beasts ran away. “Mother of all, a supernova,” he gasped and signaled everyone to run towards him. Once everyone was together, Veter punched the ground and a thick bubble of air grew around them. “Hurry,” Edan screamed.

  As fast as possible, Willow wielded the trees around them, making a hard shell surrounding the air bubble, then Edan covered the tree’s shell with a wall of blue lava and Shui used water to harden it. “Hold still,” Edan said, hugging Hunter.

  The fireball around Gaia reached its boiling point and within seconds, it got sucked back at her. Once the ball returned to Gaia’s body, it expanded into a massive explosion incinerating everything around it. The Skuggors, the Trackers and all the beasts within the explosion became dust and ashes; so did the cabin, the rocks, the trees and anything in its way.

  Chapter 25

  Dawning Of Spring

  THE TICKING CLOCK ECHOED IN GAIA’S HEAD. Nausea, pain, and the sense of loss drowned her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to explode everything around. Mostly, she wanted to wake up from this nightmare. The pain from the scratch on her shoulder was the only thing reminding her that everything that had happened last night was real.

  Even though her body felt like breaking, Gaia didn’t want to move. If she moved it would mean she was awake. She was in no hurry to face reality.

  She squinted her eyes as she continued reliving the feeling of her best friend’s cold body lying lifeless in her arms. After all those years together, after all the things they’d been through, Priyam was gone.

  She would never hear her complain about Bobby’s name, she would never find cookies and junk food hidden all over her room… she would never see her. “Priy,” Gaia cried out loud.

  “What’s up?” said a voice that strongly resembled Priyam’s.

  Not believing it, Gaia sat up in a flash and stared at her best friend eating chocolate on the end of her bed. “Priyam!” Despite the pain on her shoulder, Gaia hugged Priyam as she cried. Full of stress and adrenaline, Gaia punched Priyam’s arm. “What is wrong with you?!”

  “Ouch! What is wrong with YOU?” Priyam laughed and hugged her friend. “I’m hurt over here.”

  “I thought you were dead,” Gaia sobbed against Priyam’s chest.

  “Relax, relax,” she patted her hair. “I’m not dead.”

  “How? I saw you stabbing yourself.”

  “I did, how crazy is that? Luckily, that morning I practiced swords with Floyd, he gave me a vest to prevent me from hurting myself. Never thought it would be that useful.”

  “Right on.” said Floyd across the frame door. “Those turtlenecks work like a charm.”

  “When I stabbed myself, the vest prevented the blade from going as deep as it would have.”

  Gaia remembered the sight of Priyam stabbing herself and her stomach hurled so much she almost puked. Vest or no vest, that was something Gaia wasn’t the slightest bit interested in witnessing again. “You are forbidden from going into battle ever again.” She cuddled around a pillow flinching at the touch of her wounded shoulder. “How are the rest?”

  “Do you want to go out and see them?”

  “Yes.” Gaia swung her legs around the bed when Edan entered the room.

  “I don’t know if you should get up. You need to rest.”

  Gaia smiled at his comment. This was officially the first time his annoying commands and rules made her feel like everything was going to be alright. “Good to see you are ok.”

  “Good to see you are. Running towards Him? What the hell were you thinking?!”

  Gaia stood up and Priyam lent her a hand. “Do I detect a little worry on your part?”

  Edan caressed Gaia’s cheek. Her skin shivered with soft tickles. “No. I wasn’t worried. I was terrified.”

  Nervous by how Edan was looking at her, Gaia’s knees gave in. Edan moved fast and caught her mid-air. “Here, I’ll help.” He leaned down so she could use her healthy arm to hold herself up against his shoulder.

  “I don’t want to let go of Priy.”

  “She’s right there. We can’t have two wounded people carrying each other.”

  Happily, Priyam opened her arms to Floyd and tilted her head smiling. “Floyd, can you help?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Edan and Floyd escorted the wounded friends outside. Gaia took a look around and didn’t recognize a thing. The place was wide open, no trees or mountains or anything around them.

  In the middle of the field, there were a bunch of wooden room
s with weapons and crystals hanging from each one of them, a big dining table and a bunch of logs that were being used as seats.

  “Moja Princeza!” Veter stood up from the log, hugged Gaia and cried.

  “I’m fine, Veter,” she said trying to calm him down. “I saw a little of your bubble before losing it, so thanks for taking care of the others.”

  “We all did our part.” He wiped away his man-tears and grinned at Gaia with pride and admiration. “You were very powerful back there.”

  “You were insane, little lady,” cheered Donovan.

  “Thank you for saving us.” Shui gave Gaia a hug and sat next to Veter holding his hand.

  Willow made the grass around her grow taller. “You did alright,” she said trying not to sound grateful. Hunter stood in front of Gaia, not knowing if it was acceptable for him to hug her like the others did.

  “Glad to see you are ok. You gave me a big scare.” Hunter signaled her.

  Smiling, Gaia pulled him close and hugged him. The last time Gaia saw Hunter was when her body was surrounded by the fireball and Edan was carrying him towards Veter. “By the way, what was that mega blast?”

  “It’s called a supernova.” Edan helped her sit down on a trunk. “After Mother Nature masters an element she can create anything with it. The supernova is the strongest thing that requires fire.”

  “We’re lucky you didn’t blow half of the planet up,” laughed Donovan.

  Gaia looked around, everyone she loved was there. They had cuts, bandages and bruises, but they all were alive. A few tears ran down her cheek, she made no effort to dry them since they were tears of happiness. For one moment she thought she had lost it all and now everything was perfect. “Where are Synthia and Pink?” Gaia asked, not seeing them in the group.

  “Pink is taking care of Synthia,” said Shui. “Synthia isn’t handling what happened very well.”