Seasons Within Box Set

by Lele Iturrioz

  “They’re getting us! How far?” asked Donovan.

  “Ten miles!” said Edan, who was at the very front of the line next to Willow and Shui.

  “I have an idea!” Priyam screamed from the other side of the group. “G, tell my bird to get closer to Pink.”

  Gaia called the condor to take Priyam closer. “What’re you going to do?”

  “Pink, pass me the explosives you have left.” She stretched her hand to grab it. “I can tie it to an arrow and shoot.”

  “How are you going to do that?” asked Pink. “You need both hands for that.”

  “That’s the second part of the plan.” Priyam took the explosives. “G, I need you to tell birdy to release me and then catch me after I shoot.”

  “That’s not a plan, you idiot!” Gaia growled at her crazy friend. “That’s suicide.”

  “Trust me.” Priyam untied her crossbow. “I did the numbers.”

  “Damn it!” Gaia knew Priyam’s math was always right. “If you die I swear I’ll kill you!” Priyam laughed at the irony.

  The condor dropped Priyam. She fell through the air. Her dark hair floated all over as she removed her hair tie which she used to wrap the explosive to the arrow. She aimed at the Draak with her crossbow, her hands were shaking from the free fall and the wind currents hitting her body. She tightened up her arms and shot.

  “Now!” Gaia told the condor to get Priyam but she was going too fast for the condor to reach her.

  “Priyam!” Gaia panicked. Veter flew towards her but he was too far away.

  BOOM! The arrow hit the Draak. The shock wave from the explosion gave the condor the extra push it needed to reach Priyam. It took her by one arm, dislocating her shoulder. Priyam screamed in pain.

  The rest of the condors attacked the remaining Draak slowing it down. It wasn’t long before the Draak killed them all. Obeying orders, Shui’s and Donovan’s condor dropped them to a safer zone first, followed by Pink and Floyd.

  Priyam was about to land when her dislocated arm slipped from the condor’s claws. “Priy!” Gaia screamed as she watched her best friend falling.

  As soon as Floyd’s feet touched the ground, he sprinted in the direction where Priyam was falling. “Sis, stairway.”

  Pink threw a bunch of knives she had tied to her thigh. The knives stuck in a tree, one on top of the other. Floyd used them as a ladder to reach Priyam.

  Floyd intercepted Priyam. He hugged her to cushion her body with his, and they both fell into a weeded net Willow managed to wield.

  Without getting down from the net, Floyd took Priyam by the arm. “Sorry in advance,” he grinned, and pushed her shoulder back to its place. Priyam panted with pain. “How are you feeling, Snowflake?” he asked out of breath.

  “How do you think?” She nudged him. Her long black hair floated with the wind. “The putting it in was worse than the snapping of it out.”

  “Be mad all you want.” He jumped from the net and lifted his arms to carry her. “Falling with a crossbow next to an explosion, that was awesome.”

  Once out of the net, she tapped him on the shoulder. “You’re so weird,” she whispered with a smile.

  “Priy!” Gaia jumped to hug Priyam. “What did I say about not dying!?”

  “I’m alive, aren’t I?”

  “Barely.” Gaia pushed her friend back into the arms of Floyd. “Don’t take your eyes off of this irrational girl.”

  “Not planning to.”

  “Hold steady.” Out of the blue, Willow took out a crystal dagger and stuck its pointy end in Priyam’s back shoulder.

  “What the fuck!” Priyam gasped with pain as Willow pointed her palm towards the wound.

  “Relax, Priyam.” Shui calmed her down. “Willow is giving you an earth mark so you can cross the barrier to Terra.”

  “Geez, a little warning wouldn’t hurt.” Priyam squeezed her hands as the drawing of a branch with a stunning lilac magnolia tattooed on her skin.

  “Twins.” Willow called them and did the same thing she did with Priyam, leaving Pink and Floyd with a branch of a flame tree tattooed on their right forearm. “Done.”

  “Ripper!” Floyd passed his hand over the mark.

  “Need to go. We are half a mile away.” Hunter was very weak but at least he was finally awake.

  Pink took out a metal bar that expanded when she flicked it. She attached the bar with a curved sword creating some sort of crazy scythe. “Let’s go then.”

  Gaia sighed with relief. Hunter is okay. She was running with a body that was breaking from exhaustion, but she’d never felt better. Hunter was okay.

  “The door is in that hole.” Edan pointed out a few yards from where they were. “Reach it.”

  “And then?” Gaia asked, running next to him.

  “Jump,” said Edan before stopping cold.

  “Crap.” Gaia cried. Dozens of beasts were waiting for them before the door.

  “Veter,” Edan placed himself in front of Gaia, “wind.”

  “Whenever Blondie and Princeza are ready.” He turned his palm forward. Willow and Gaia curled hard tendrils from everyone’s feet to their shoulders.

  Willow held the root tendril that crossed over her chest. “All yours.” Veter swung his arms in a hugging motion. Soaring through the forest, four sturdy wind currents whirled from every angle clashing in the middle where the beasts where standing. Most of the Trackers flew away, while some of the Crawlers, and all of the Skuggors, managed to hold their ground.

  Gaia sensed the wind weakening. She took out her Wakizashi and turned it on fire. Lowering the tendril, she raced against one of the Skuggors. The beast swung one of its three scorpion’s tails. Gaia cut it in half. She stabbed the blade at the end of the tail, using it to jump on top of the beast.

  Soul memory. Gaia felt it. Hunter was right. Even if her mind or her body hadn’t memorized the techniques, her instincts were reacting to movements they recognized from before. All her movements were natural. She felt how her other reincarnations used the elements just like she was doing now. It was like breathing. Instead of doubting, she let her instincts decide how to fight.

  Gaia landed on top of the Skuggor. She wielded the earth to swallow it down, two seconds before she wielded a bubble of water around a Tracker.

  Pink took out a dagger from the back of her vest’s knife holster. She spun around chopping off one of the tails from a Skuggor. She threw the dagger at a Crawler who was about to hurt Shui, caught the Skuggor’s tail and used it to stab the beast with it.

  Floyd took out his sister’s dagger from the Tracker, slashing the throat of a Crawler in one hit.

  Donovan slid down cutting the legs off the Skuggor. “Willow!” He moved away before she smashed the giant spider with a pointed rock. Edan used the rock to propel himself against a Draak. With the help of Veter’s wind, he landed on the bone dragon. Edan gripped one of its ribs and turned on fire. He clenched his jaw; his fire was strong but the beast was exceptionally resilient. With a roar, Edan sent the fire with all his strength burning the beast to death.

  He fell from the remains. Gaia caught him with a rolling branch that dropped him close to her. “Edan, there’re too many.” They both watched in horror as eight Draaks flew directly for all of them. Edan took her hand.

  SWISH! A halo of bright red fire exploded in the sky igniting most of the dragons. The fire consumed as the burning remains fell towards the group. “Don’t just stand there,” Klog Mor laughed.

  “Mor!” Gaia hugged her.

  “We won’t have much time.” Klog Mor left her fire wielding by itself. “Azazel knows how difficult it will be to get you once you cross over the barrier.”

  Edan and the rest fought everything in their way. Gaia turned herself on fire burning a Skuggor into ashes. The ashes floated in front of her. For a moment Gaia was distracted by the vision. She was back in the middle of the burnt town. Ashes fell like snow covering everything in their way. Not now, not now. The same as the rest of her d
reams, Gaia saw Azazel staring at her from afar.

  “Gaia!” she heard Shui screaming in the distance. The ashes kept falling in slow motion. She tried to attack Azazel’s vision but an explosion of ashes bent her body from the stomach and made her fly backwards.

  A Crawler had punched Gaia’s stomach with its tail sending her flying. Her back crashed on the trunk of a tree. Gravity pulled her down. She hit her head on the ground as she saw Hunter fighting a Tracker. His movements were slow, unfocused. He’s still drugged.

  Gaia stumbled up to help him. The pain woke her a little bit from her illusion. She saw Azazel walking towards her.

  Gaia couldn’t tell if it was because of her vision or because she hit her head but everything was blurry and made no sense to her.

  She looked up but it was too late. The tail of the Crawler was about to crush her. That time, unlike the past one, the spikes from its tail were facing her.

  Seconds before hitting her, Azazel grabbed the Crawler’s tail. His black symbols turned red as he absorbed the snake’s life. He dropped the tail from the dead monster.

  He’s real.

  Gaia tried to move but her body was still dizzy from the punch on her stomach. Her skin crawled with goosebumps as Azazel held her up, his strong hands grasping her by the arms. She opened her eyes, glared right at him. There was no way she would let him take her life in cowardice.

  He curled his lip in a disturbing smirk, whispering a phrase into Gaia’s ear that left her blank cold.

  “What… did you say?” her body trembled in shock.

  Then, a small pair of hands grabbed her from her shirt. Hunter snatched her away from Azazel’s hands and pushed her down the hole.

  As Gaia fell down the door she saw in horror how Azazel smiled at her. The smell of iron made her break the eye contact and turn to her bloody hands. She searched for her wound but that blood wasn’t hers… it was Hunter’s.

  Chapter 29

  The Grave Under the Tree

  GAIA FELT THE BARRIER snapping against her skin. She felt the energy. Excessive amounts of life and adrenaline crawled all over her body, waking up each one of her cells. She imagined it was the feeling most skydivers were searching for; an instant of pure life.

  She crash-landed on soft grass. Her stomach hurt like hell. Disoriented, she looked around trying to find Hunter. She twisted her body but no matter how hard she tried, her eyes couldn’t see anything but flashes and blurry images. She felt a couple of hands holding her. Strangers treating her wounds. “Hunter?!” Her throat burned painfully. The pain brought her back to reality. She turned her head and saw Hunter lying on the floor.

  “Stop helping me!” She slapped at the hands of a teen with bright brown eyes and pastel rainbow hair. “Help the boy! Help the boy!” she cried.

  “Stay still, Lady Gaia,” said the girl with the rainbow hair.

  That wasn’t happening. Gaia scratched the teen’s arm and crawled towards Hunter.

  His pale skin looked even whiter against the bright red blood. “Don’t worry, Hunter. I’m right here.” She tried to cauterize his wound but there were too many, too deep. Hunter coughed, more blood came out.

  “HELP!” she cried in desperation. Gaia placed both of her hands on his chest wound and pressed, trying to keep him from bleeding. “Don’t move! Somebody, please help!”

  Hunter smiled. He lifted one of his hands and placed it on Gaia’s wet cheek. “Safe,” he managed to speak out loud for the first time.

  “No!” Gaia placed her hand on top of his and felt how it slowly slipped to the floor as his life left his body. “No. Don’t leave me! Hunter please, don’t leave me,” she sobbed as she clung to his body. The sky slowly turned black with clouds. Rain poured down.

  A pair of hands held Gaia trying to separate her from Hunter. “No!” she jerked and turned on fire burning whoever was holding her.

  Still on fire, she fell against the dirt crawling next to Hunter. Feeling like she was suspended in time, everything moved in slow motion. The rain turned the dirt into mud underneath her hands. She screamed her lungs out as the water drenched her clothes and hair without putting out her fire.

  A pair of strong familiar arms held her. “Let go Gaia.” Edan pulled her ignited body towards him. “I’m sorry, Gaia… he’s gone.” His hand covered Gaia’s eyes and helped her to let go of the boy.

  “What the hell happened!?” Gaia wept. “How could he get that hurt?”

  “His body had a toxin that prevented him from being able to have the wound closed and the bleeding stopped. It also numbed his senses,” he hugged her tightly. “He wasn’t able to defend himself.”

  “I don’t understand.” Gaia pushed herself away from Edan’s chest. She dried her tears. “What toxin?”

  “He was drugged with it back at Xilitla,” Edan held her hand, trying to pull her back to him.

  “No.” Gaia shook her head. “Why? Someone wanted him dead?”

  “Someone wanted him numb, unable to sense anyone coming closer.”

  “Azazel?” She spat the name with hate. “How? How could He get close enough to numb him without having Hunter sensing him?”

  Edan lowered his gaze. He couldn’t tell if it would be a good time to let her know. Then again, when would any time be good for that type of news. “Because he didn’t do it.”

  “I don’t understand.” Yet deep down she did. All those times Synthia took Hunter something to drink, all those times she used to disappear, all that emptiness she lived by.

  “I’m sorry.” Edan tried to hold her but she moved away.

  “Where’s Synthia? Where IS Synthia?” she screamed. Her tears and pain morphed into anger. “Where the fuck is she?”

  “Donovan saw her running away before the fight even started,” he said. “He never made the connection until it was too late.”

  “No, No!” Gaia trembled. Her body was crawling with bottled-up energy. All those months where she had several opportunities to get her away from her loved ones. All those times she knew Synthia was putting them in danger yet she tried to look on the bright side, the better way.

  “Please Red, try to stay calm.”

  “Stay calm?!” she growled at her match. “I let her stay. I chose not to kill her over and over again!”

  “Because you are kind and pure.” He tried to get closer yet she moved away again. “There was no way you could’ve known, none of us did.”

  “You did.” She pointed at his drenched chest. “Priyam did. Everyone!”

  “Stop!” Edan raised his tone, afraid she was going to lose it. “We didn’t like her, that’s true, the mark was enhancing her, yes, but no one could’ve seen this coming. Not you, not me, not even Mor.”

  “Oh, no… Hunter defended her. He said he would live with the consequences of letting her live.” Gaia held her stomach. She was repulsed by the thought. Her anger turned into hate. “Where is she? I’m going to kill her!”

  “She’s gone!” Edan stood in her way.

  “Where?!”

  “I’m sorry, Gaia.” Donovan shook his head. “No one knows. She never made it to Terra.”

  Gaia walked towards the door they came from. “Where are you going?” Edan grabbed her by the wrist.

  “Earth.”

  “Gaia! Stop this right now.” He was terrified she would do something stupid. “You are behaving recklessly!”

  “Recklessly?! Aren’t you angry?” Gaia pushed him. “Don’t you care?”

  “Don’t confuse my ability to think clearly with indifference towards the death of someone I saw as my family.” His tone was so cold it made Gaia pause.

  “Then do something!”

  “I will, when we can all think clearly.” He picked Gaia up and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “Let me go!” Gaia twisted and turned her body on fire. She was furious. She felt as though if she didn’t do anything about it now she would explode by pure anger.

  Edan held her tightly absorbing her fire and shut
ting it down. “Willow!” Edan called.

  Willow ran towards Gaia. She made a small cut on her arm and placed a paste covering it with a dark-green leaf. Almost instantly, Gaia’s body stopped fighting Edan, and slowly her body went limp.

  “Veter, take care of Hunter,” he asked his crying friend.

  Heartbroken, Edan carried Gaia to bed. He made sure the leaf was in the right place. He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. A small tear fell from his eyelashes to her cheek. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her lips and lay next to her bringing her closer to him.

  He hugged her, not sure if it was to make her feel safe or so he could feel it.

  Gaia woke up and fell asleep over and over again throughout the night, each time thankful she was buried in Edan’s arms or else she would lose it again. Confused and foggy, every time Gaia woke up, she felt for a split second as if everything was right, at least until the memory of Hunter’s empty eyes crawled back into her mind.

  Trying to shake the image, Gaia nuzzled her face against Edan’s chest. He held her tight. “I’m here,” he whispered, each time softer and warmer than the last one.

  * * *

  The next morning, Gaia stood still before crossing the doorway. She couldn’t move past that ledge, as if staying in the room would mean Hunter was still alive. She grasped the doorframe as tightly as she could until it hurt. A thorn pierced her skin and a thread of blood trailed down the Five Fold symbol on her wrist. She needed physical pain, begging the blood on her hand would distract her from the burning emptiness she felt inside.

  “G?” Priyam called her from downstairs, a place that was only a few feet away but seemed far away from Gaia’s reach.

  “I can’t,” she whispered between sobs while staring at the line between the room and the outside.

  “Yes, you can.” Priyam offered her hand so Gaia could hold onto it. “I’ll be right next to you.”

  Gaia lifted her head and saw her best friend with crying eyes and her shaky hand still reaching out to her. Feeling like she was ripping her soul, she took Priyam’s hand, let go of the doorframe and followed her to the forest where everyone was gathering.