The Council

by Phoenix Willow

  “Well, that sure sounds like fun.” Rain snarked.

  “Yep. Five-star vacay spot.” Jewel added with a smirk.

  “So, we didn’t teleport to the peak?” Galadriel asked, cutting off the girl’s banter.

  “No. That was just the entrance. Teleporting to the peak isn’t possible. You have to go through to go up.” Foster explained.

  Silence fell amongst the group as they continued. They made it through the swamp with a few bug bites that had swelled to the size of walnuts, and some scratches, but nothing too bad so far. The final terrain, on the other hand, was brutal. It was similar to a desert and the inside of a volcano all rolled into one with the heat so stifling that Jewel had to force herself to keep her legs from noodling to a point of no return. Pure will-power and the renuviants were the only things keeping Jewel going, and she could only imagine the strain the renuviants were under, so they needed to get out of the desertcano as quickly as possible.

  About five minutes into their journey across the sand, the wind began to pick up, and as the wind picked up, the glowing amber sand started whipping around and straight into the group as they walked, and each time it did that, it burned their skin. Not bad, but it still hurt, and the longer they walked the more the bottom of their shoes melted, so they picked up the pace. But the sand wasn’t the only problem, they also had the sand gnats to contend with, and these particular sand gnats that were swarming them weren’t the normal gnats that are annoying but can’t really hurt you. Nope. These suckers stung, and they did so over and over. And as if jogging through the stinging gnats and burning ember sand while yelping and shouting a colorful string of adjectives wasn’t enough- they also had to worry about the ginormous tarantulas that kept jumping out of the sand. Yes. Jumping tarantulas, each the size of a honeydew melon and absolutely terrifying.

  In fact, one came so close to landing on Jewel that she took off in a sprint. She could see the edge of the desert and she didn’t care about anything other than getting there and away from the jumping arachnids. The others must have had the same idea, because everyone was running as fast as their melting shoes would carry them.

  Jewel was so close to being on the grass that lay just beyond a sand dune that she picked up the pace even more. She had already toyed with the idea of teleporting but she remembered that Foster had told her earlier that teleporting to the peak was a no-go, and she didn’t want to wind up somewhere even worse than she was now, if that was even possible. And she didn’t want to use her wind power to propel herself because with wind would come more of the burning sand. So, instead- she ran and ran, legs burning, body in so much pain from the effects of the polarrier that her skin felt like it was boiling from the inside out and sweat pouring from every pore in her body. She reached the top of the dune, and upon seeing that she was less than fifty feet from being away from the desertcano and on to the little bit of grass situated in front of a cave, she pushed her body even quicker. Unfortunately, a tarantula jumped out of the sand right where she was headed and she had to try and maneuver around it, so it didn’t latch onto her face. And of course, it was at this point that her lack of coordination decided to make its appearance.

  Not only was she not able to miss the tarantula, as it landed on her arm, but her feet got tangled up and she face planted into the burning sand, rolling like a barrel all the way down. She felt the sting of the tarantula’s fangs, the burning flesh on every piece of exposed skin, the renuviants pulling her hair follicles as they held on for dear life, and the gnats that were only too happy to sting her repeatedly as she continued to roll uncontrollably.

  When her body finally came to a stop, she couldn’t bring herself to stand up. Every part of her body was in pain, and the renuviants were tapped out from trying to keep the effects of the polarrier away. Jewel began to shake, and even though she was burning from the outside in and from the inside out, she still couldn’t manage to move her limbs. The gnats had descended upon her, but she could barely feel the stings anymore. Her body was already in a point of shock and her mind was beginning to dim.

  Jewel felt something being tugged from her arm, and a pair of strong arms grabbing her as the wind began to hit her face again.

  “Don’t you dare quit on me now, Green.” Galadriel said as he carried her away from the desertcano as fast as he could. “Sage! I need that spit-dirt. All of it. I don’t care if there’s only a little left. If we don’t use it on her now, she’s not going to make it to the peak.”

  Jewel felt Galadriel drop to the ground, and a cool breeze ran across her body. It seemed darker somehow and Jewel wondered if they had reached the cave or if her mind was shutting down, so she didn’t have to feel the excruciating agony that was wracking her body anymore.

  “Chocolate sauce…..she looks really bad.” Rain said in a worried tone.

  “The spit-dirt should help, but I’m sorry Galadriel- we have to keep some in case of an emergency. Everyone gets a little, Jewel can get a lot, but we have to keep at least a handful for later.” Sage said.

  “I’m not going to argue with you. We’ll use what we need. The tarantula bite is pretty bad, and her skin is charred. Give me the jar.” Galadriel ordered.

  Jewel couldn’t speak, but she agreed with Sage. They couldn’t use it all at this point, or there would be no way for them to heal their wounds later if the need should arise. She felt the cool, healing sensation of the spit-dirt take effect. The renuviants must have been okay after the topple Jewel took down the hill, because the effects of the polarrier were also lessened. She felt the tissue and skin knitting itself back together, and when Jewel was finally able to open her eyes, she saw Galadriel’s chocolate brown one’s staring down at her in a mix of worry and relief.

  “Donuseitall.” Jewel tried to speak, but it sounded more like one big word. Galadriel looked at her in confusion, so she tried again, but more slowly. “Don’t. Use. It. All.”

  Galadriel shook his head. “You need it Green. You can’t see what I’m seeing, but believe me when I say, you need it.”

  “I feel like I should be insulted. I must look pretty ugly if you want to use it all, huh?” Jewel chuckled, or at least tried to chuckle, because it sounded more like a guttural grunt.

  “You couldn’t be ugly if you tried, Green.” Galadriel said sincerely, his face showing no sign of joking as he gingerly moved a wisp of her hair off her face.

  Galadriel began leaning down, his face mere inches away from Jewel’s when Rain cleared her throat.

  “Spitfire. You are going to be the death of me.” Rain scolded. “You keep almost-dying, and that is a trend that has got to stop.”

  Jewel grinned as Galadriel helped her onto her feet. “I couldn’t agree with you more Raindrop.”

  “We need more of that spit-dirt for your arm.” Galadriel murmured as he inspected the arm the tarantula had feasted on.

  “It depends on how much spit-dirt is left.” Jewel said, turning her attention to Sage. “Well. How much is there?”

  “Enough for one of us.” Sage admitted with a crestfallen expression. We went through two and a half jars just now. I never planned on needing more than three, but everyone had a lot of injuries from that desert from Hell.”

  Jewel shook her head. “It’s not your fault. None of us could have imagined that in our worst nightmares, so don’t worry about it. We need to keep that though, just in case we need it later.”

  “But your arm-” Galadriel began to interject.

  “Will be fine once we leave here and meet up with Ambrosia or go back to the hotel with Frost and Jade.” Jewel said, attempting to assure a very disgruntled looking Galadriel.

  “Here.” Zephyr said as he tore fabric from his shirt, and carefully wrapped it around Jewel’s arm until it made a sort of sling for it. “This should help until then.”

  Jewel’s jaw dropped a little. She was shocked by Zephyr’s gesture. He had been so different towards her lately, that Jewel had started to think that he couldn’t stand her
. “Thanks, Gusty.” Jewel smiled, giving Zephyr a side hug.

  “No problem. Are you okay to walk or do you want me to carry you?” Zephyr asked.

  “I can carry her.” Galadriel growled. “You worry about your girl, and I’ll worry about Green.”

  Zephyr looked Galadriel up and down and snorted. “Yeah, okay. I’ll worry about my girl and you worry about Frost’s. Sounds good.” He finished with an ‘I dare you to say something else’ look on his cherubic features.

  “We’ll see about that.” Galadriel muttered as he went to pick Jewel up, but thankfully Sage beat everyone to the punch and scooped Jewel up before following behind a very focused Foster.

  “Seems you are causing a bit of a raucous even with all your burns and cuts.” Sage chuckled.

  “Not really trying to, and last time I checked, I was no one’s girl, so I’m not sure what all that was about.” Jewel half shrugged.

  Sage smirked. “You know, for someone so smart, you sure are oblivious sometimes.”

  “To what?” Jewel asked.

  “To the fact that two members of this group are head over heels in love with you.” Sage said, his eyebrow lifting.

  “Eh. They just like to argue with eachother.” Jewel stated.

  “Yeah, okay.” Sage said dubiously, stopping abruptly.

  “Okay. We made it past the physical portion of the journey. Now, what we will face in the next part of the cave will be purely mental and believe me when I say that it will be much harder than the physical part.” Foster said, getting a round of groans and huffs in response. “However, the good thing is that after we exit the cave, we will have reached the peak and we can do what we came to do and get out of here.”

  “Now, that is what I’m looking forward to.” Rain stated.

  “Don’t believe anything you see or hear in here. It’s not real.” Foster said, as he turned towards the opening of a tunnel that looked ordinary from the outside but felt creepy from where Jewel was situated. “Here we go.” He said as he floated down to the ground and entered the hallway.

  “Anyone else getting the chocolate covered heebie jeebies in here?” Rain asked as she positioned herself closer to Zephyr, who was only too happy to let her.

  “Yeah, it’s definitely creeptastic in here. It’s weird though because I don’t see anything creepy. It just seems like an ordinary hallway.” Jewel said as she glanced around. “Sage, what do you…..Sage? You okay?” She asked as she saw that Sage’s face had taken on a sort of grimace. He was shaking his head and scrunching his face as though he was trying to get away from something. Problem was, there was nothing to get away from. Jewel scrambled out of his arms as Sage began to yell at something invisible to stop, landing on the concrete floor less than gracefully and with a loud thud. Jewel looked at all her friends, and all of them were pale and appeared to be fighting something mentally.

  “What’s wrong?” Jewel asked. “Someone please tell me what’s going on.” She pleaded as Rain fell to her knees, grasping the sides of her head, and sobbing.

  Zephyr began using his wind power to try and stop some unknown assailant; Sage was roaring as he began shouting spells all over the place; Foster was screaming ‘it’s not real. You’re not real’ to something Jewel couldn’t see; And Galadriel looked like the god of war as he fought an invisible foe with graceful moves and a deadly expression.

  Jewel looked at all her friends who were battling something within their minds and felt helpless. They were going to end up hurting each other or losing their minds if she didn’t get them out of the hallway. Thankfully, being an Immune was giving her the clarity she needed. Knowing she couldn’t use her teleporting, Jewel fell back on the only other thing she could- her mind control abilities and telepathy.

  Jewel slipped into Sage’s mind first to see what it was he was seeing or hearing and what she saw was a punch to the gut. The scenario that Sage was seeing was one that made Jewel’s blood run cold. Ambrosia was laying on the grass, blood pouring out of a stomach wound she had endured, and there were dozens of Dispatchers attempting to finish her off as Sage tried desperately to fight them. Not wanting Sage to live through another second of this lie, Jewel used her mind control to push away the false images and clear his mind. Before whatever was in the hallway had a second chance to trick him again, Jewel moved on to Foster, seeing a very different image. It was him being taken by the Horde again and having to endure torture tactics repeatedly. Again, Jewel pushed the images away, but afterwards she felt much more exhausted than she should have. Whatever power was in the hallway wasn’t affecting her the same as everyone else, but it was zapping her energy much quicker. Before she could deplete her magic entirely, she helped Zephyr who was experiencing his own mental torture in the form of Rain’s death, giving Jewel a horrible view of her friend in a broken mess. Jewel didn’t allow her mind to look on the images too long and used her mind control to push that out of Zephyr’s mind as well.

  Turning to the three that she had helped, she yelled for them to grab someone and run. Foster grabbed Jewel and flew as fast as possible with Sage carrying Galadriel who was still fighting whatever image he was mentally seeing, and Zephyr carrying a hysterical Rain in tow. They reached the end of the hallway and ran directly into the light outside, not stopping to see what unknown horror might be lying in wait.

  Sage and Zephyr carefully placed Rain and Galadriel on the ground and began to scan their surroundings. Jewel on the other hand felt like her skin was peeling off. She could tell they were higher on the mountain now because the sun was ten times hotter and closer than it had been when they began their journey. No one else seemed bothered by it, as they were still trying to cope with what they had just been through, but as Jewel began squirming in Foster’s arms, he glanced down and saw she was in pain, immediately inching closer to the cave’s coverage but making sure not to get too close in the process.

  “Thank you for what you did back there.” Foster whispered, still cradling Jewel in his arms like a newborn baby, which should have been awkward since Jewel was fully grown, but somehow it just felt safe.

  “Of course. I couldn’t let those images keep flashing in your minds. I only wish I could have gotten to all five of you. I feel bad about Galadriel and Raindrop.” Jewel admitted, her eyes darting over to her other friends and seeing Rain clutch on to Zephyr like he was her lifeline and Galadriel attempting to calm his breathing while kneeling with his eyes focused on the ground beneath him.

  “You couldn’t have helped all of us. The madness would have taken hold again before you could have. It was already coming back when I grabbed you and flew out of there.” Foster stated.

  Jewel gave a small nod, biting her lip as she asked hesitantly, “What exactly happened in there? What was it that you were seeing?”

  “They were memories mixed with my worst fears. The Cave of Loss and Hopelessness makes you relive your worst experience while also twisting it with whatever fears you may have. If you don’t have the mindset to know that it’s a trick on your mind, then you can become stuck forever, which I almost did the first time I came to the peak. Luckily, I had the help of a potion that keeps your mind a bit clearer. Now that’s not to say that it worked completely, because as I said- I almost lost myself in the cave, but it’s definitely the reason I got out the first time.” Foster explained. “And as for what I saw, well, let me just say that my worst experience was when I was betrayed and captured, stripped away from everything and everyone I loved only to be tortured and imprisoned for decades by the Horde. Until you came along, I had no hope of escaping and had it not been for Ambrosia and Teagan, I wouldn’t have survived. So, what I was experiencing and what you saw was a bit of truth mixed with my fear of ever being captured, imprisoned, and tortured again. I would rather die first than that ever again be my fate.” He admitted.

  “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Foster. We will get justice for everything that has happened to you and everyone else.” Jewel promised.


  “I know we will. And it’s because of you. I’m just thankful that because of you, I’ll be able to be a part of it.” Foster stated.

  “You okay, Spitfire?” Rain asked as she made her way over while making sure she didn’t get too close to the mouth of the cave.

  “Yeah. What about you, Raindrop? You okay?” Jewel asked, hoping her friend wasn’t too mad at her for not helping to push the images away.

  “I’ll be fine, and don’t you dare apologize for not being able to clear my mind along with the others. You made a good judgement call so we could all get free of the tunnel of all things horrible.” Rain said seriously.

  Jewel smiled and motioned for Foster to go ahead and let her down. They still had a quest to complete and it was going to be tricky, because Jewel knew she wouldn’t be able to go directly out into the sun without her potion necklace.

  “Where exactly are we?” Jewel asked Foster.

  “Around the corner from the Peak. We made it.” Foster grinned.

  “Then what are we waiting for! Let’s go!” Sage said excitedly.

  “Um. Well. I don’t know if I can right now. We might have to wait until it’s dark.” Jewel said sheepishly. She hated feeling like she was holding the group back, but the pain from the sunlight had been extreme and very quick.

  “Why?” Zephyr asked, with Rain punching him in the arm as a response.

  “The sun is too bright. I, um, can’t really do it without the pain being too much.” Jewel answered.

  “I hadn’t said anything before, but that might be a problem.” Foster said, emitting a questioning look from Jewel. “Well, not might be- more like is a problem, because the sun never sets on the peak. It’s always like this. It sets everywhere else surrounding the mountain, but the peak itself never goes without the heat of the sun.”

  “Buckets.” Jewel muttered. “That definitely makes things more difficult.”

  “Well, why can’t we just go get rid of Slayer and Spitfire can stay here with someone?” Rain offered.