by Dani Swanson
"That's why Phantasma was hunting you; when going after the tree didn't work, she saw you were still moving around and brought you to me," Zyon said through a hiccup. "You can't save her, Princess. It's time to go home." Zyon got up from his spot and started to walk toward the trees.
"No, we can fix her! We can save the Winding Woods!" Her tears were hidden by the falling rain. "Don't walk away from this. You're a part of this, Zyon!"
He kept walking and didn't bother to turn back toward her. Izzie started after him, slipping in the mud, landing hard on her back. The vessel went flying off her neck and smack against The Mother, breaking open as it hit the ground. Everyone gasped for a moment, and it was as if time had stood still as they watched the black smoke spin in circles around the tree, forming a tornado that was taking down the trees that it touched. Pan and Jade were too close when the smoke turned to the wind; they were sucked to the center of the tornado, never to be seen again.
"Iz, what did you do? You didn't seal the vessel after you put her in there?!" Zyon came running back to the tree and helped Izzie to her feet before kicking the emerald away.
"No one told me I had to seal it! How do I seal it?"
"I don't know! You said you read the book on the thing!"
Before their eyes, Phantasma formed from the tornado. She started to glide out of its center before she began to walk. Her legs had fully formed while she was trapped in the vessel. Her face no longer was a smear of nothingness, and her features were well-formed. She reached into the tornado and pulled out the feathered mask Jade had stolen from her home, placing it firmly on her head, before she smiled at Izzie.
"Thank you, little witch. You have given me enough of my powers back that I feel like my old self." Her hair was no longer in chunks on her head, but a full mane of raven hair fell framing her face. "Now, to finish what was meant to be." Phantasma turned to The Mother and pulled a few of the blacken leaves off her branches and dropped them one by one in front of the face of the tree. "Fifteen years of bad water will really do a number on a tree, even if it is the source of all magic."
Reyna, Zallen, and Robin formed into a demon, towering over Phantasma, and attempted to surround her with their darkness. Phantasma was able to grab the shadows as if they were a solid material and threw them far off into the trees.
Xander drew his bow, pulled an arrow that was dipped in something red, and fired it right at Phantasma. It passed through her as if she wasn't there.
"She's a ghost! You can't shoot a ghost with an arrow, man. Phantasma like a phantom!" Zyon had made himself invisible, but his voice could be heard over the booms of the thunder, getting closer to the group.
Izzie was standing in front of Xander, shielding him from Phantasma. "You need to run!" She yelled as her skin was starting to glow silver.
"I'm not leaving you!" He moved her to the side and drew his arrow again. He was hoping that one of these would do something to her.
"She will kill you; just go. I love you, and I don't want you to die! Go!" Izzie knew she couldn't handle looking him in the face and seeing the hurt of her rejecting his help. She used her powers and pushed Xander into the trees until she couldn't see him anymore. Her eyes darted around until she found Nathan. He was lying unconscious by the tree. He must have hit his head when the tornado went by. She rushed to his side and shook him, trying to rouse him.
"You need to wake up, Nathan! You need to get out of here."
"Let me see your brother; maybe I could help?" Phantasma was done taunting The Mother and was walking toward Izzie.
"Stay away from us! I'll put you back inside the necklace!"
"You mean this thing?" Phantasma held up the emerald that was now cracked in half, laying limp in her hand. "I don't think it will be holding much of anything anymore."
"ENOUGH!" The Mother cried. "You will not take any more power. You had your life. Your reign of power is over!" The Mother's branches violently shook as a large bolt of lightning hit her branches, igniting the dead, blackened leaves. The Mother opened her mouth, and all the electricity from that bolt came spewing out, hitting Phantasma in the chest. Her body glowed in the dark, shaking as the energy went through her. Izzie used the Ether and pushed Phantasma away from the tree. Phantasma's body hit the bark of an old elm and went limp, slumping all the way down to the ground.
"No! Don't!" Nathan cried from the ground as he tried to stand. His legs had shattered when he hit the tree and were now mush. "She takes your magic. You can't beat her like that!" But his words of warning came too late. Phantasma rose to her feet, her skin glowing from the energy surging through her. She pulled back her cloak, exposing the skin on her chest to show the outline of a beating heart within.
"I guess I'm no longer a ghost, Mother. Let's see what we can do about my powers." She raised her hands to the sky, and a thunderbolt formed in her hand that she sent soaring to the tree, burning the bark as it hit. The Mother screamed in pain as her bark started on fire.
Izzie raced to her brother, pulling him away from the tree. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, Iz. I tried to keep my promise." His body was weak as she dragged him away from the flames.
"I got to get you out of here. Zyon! Zyon, please help him!" Izzie begged to the void. She knew he had to be here still. He wouldn't leave her stranded.
"It's too late for that. You need to save yourself. Get out of here." Nathan started to cough, and she could see the trickle of blood coming from his mouth when the lightning illuminated the sky.
"Don't leave me, Nathan! You don't get to leave me." She locked her pinkie finger with his. "Remember?"
Zyon answered her pleas as she could see the outline of the boggle form next to her. Zyon bent down to move Nathan, but all life had left his body. Zyon, with sorrow in his eyes, shook his head and pulled Izzie away as she screamed out for her brother.
"Izzie. You need to run and hide. Your magic is just making her stronger. Let her and the tree fight it out."
Izzie's veins were now white as her breath was rapid. She watched as The Mother and Phantasma were shooting blows at one and another. "She killed my friends and my brother. I am not going to run and hide!" She moved closer to The Mother and could feel the necklace around her neck start to burn her skin. She removed it and smashed it against The Mother, sending the sparrow flying around the tree just as it had done before, nesting in its groove by the face of the old woman.
"I hope that's enough to help her. " Izzie started to use the Ether to pull up the trees that surrounded them. She was hurling them at Phantasma, who now was a solid form.
"Should have let the kid stay with the arrows," Zyon said sarcastically as he started to grow.
"How was I supposed to know she would become a solid?"
"I'm doing this for you, kid," Zyon said as he was growing in size. The boggle charged at Phantasma with his razor-sharp nails; he grabbed her from behind, ripping into her skin. She screamed in pain for the first time since the attacks had started. Izzie smiled for a moment before seeing Zyon get hit with the lighting and fall to the ground.
"NO!" She screamed as she watched him hit the dirt. Phantasma smiled as she was alerted to where Izzie was standing.
"You're running out of protectors, little witch. Soon all that magic you have inside of you, or should I say what you have left inside of you, will be mine!" Phantasma lifted her arm, and another thunderbolt appeared. Just as she was going to hurl it to Izzie, The Mother let out a stream of electricity from her mouth, knocking Phantasma over.
Izzie could see Zyon stirring in the dirt, slowly making his way to his feet.
"You will not win. That's not how this story is going to go." Zyon grabbed Phantasma's leg before she could conjure another bolt and sunk his teeth into the calf of her leg, holding tight with an iron-strong jaw.
Izzie watched and hoped that his saliva would take effect as it had done before, but then she remembered it took a few days for her classmate to die. The Mother attempted to hit her again, but her magi
c was weakening, and she was losing the battle. Phantasma shook the boggle from her leg, she was about to hit him with another thunderbolt, but he made himself invisible and ran into the darkness. Phantasma followed his tracks in the mud, throwing random bolts where she thought he might be standing.
"Play fair little boggle. Come out, come out wherever you are." Another flash of lightning lit the sky showing her his tracks.
"What's wrong, Mother? What do you need me to do?" Izzie ran to the face of the tree. Her sparrow charm's light was fading just as the light in The Mother's eye.
"My power is fading, and I am too weak to fight her. She absorbs your magic that was once hers. There is nothing that you can do."
"We can't let her win. What about all the creatures that live within your magic? What will happen to them?" Izzie's voice cracked as she brushed the edge of the tree.
"I don't have time to rejuvenate my powers, and I grow weak. I am pulling as much as I can from the Woods, but it's not enough to stop her." The Mother's eyes grew heavy, she shut them, and was no longer responding to Izzie's cries.
Phantasma had given up on her pursuit of the boggle and came back to The Mother. "She's out of magic and can't protect you anymore either." An arrow whizzed past Phantasma, hitting The Mother's bark. Xander had made his way back through the Woods. His second arrow hit Phantasma, breaking the skin of her shoulder. She pulled the arrow out and snapped it in half as she shot a bolt back at its sender. She missed as Xander dived into the bushes.
"Please forgive me, Iz. I meant it when I said I love you, but I have to save them." Zyon's form started to show in the droplets of the rain.
"What are you talking about?" Izzie's face was scrunched up in confusion as she turned to face where Phantasma was.
"Forgive me for this!"
Zyon pushed Izzie to the mouth of The Mother, forcing her lips to part and putting Izzie inside of the tree.
"Zyon, stop!" Xander's screams were drowned out by the thunder that was right above them.
"NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Phantasma screamed as she shot bolts at the boggle. Zyon immediately turned invisible and left.
The downpour stopped as quickly as it had started, and The Mother opened her eyes. They twinkled as she smiled at Phantasma. The blacken leaves on her branches shed gracefully, dancing down around her as her limbs instantly started to bud with fresh, green leaves.
The ground began to shake, and The Mother's laugh echoed over the trees as one last blast came shooting from her mouth, wrapping silver streams of power around Phantasma's body, tying her limbs to her torso, and pulling her to the tree. The Mother opened her mouth wide, ready to receive Phantasma's powers. Phantasma spun in place, faster and faster until she was a blur of black smoke, and there was no trace of her there.
The ground shook so hard it knocked Xander over, hitting his head on a rock leaving him unconscious in the mud.
When Xander awoke, the sun was high in the sky, and the muddy ground had started to harden as it baked in the sun's rays. There wasn't a trace of Phantasma, or Zyon, nor the shadows. He was left there with Nathan's body and the eerie silence of the aftermath of a storm.
He went to the face of The Mother, tears running down his face as he stumbled with the confusion of the head trauma. "Let her out! She doesn't belong in there! Please, give Izzie back to me." The face on the tree looked just like a wooden carving that covered the rest of the bark. The Mother didn't wake to speak to Xander. He looked up and saw that the sparrow stone still was glowing on its perch. It fell from its spot, landing in Xander's open hand as if the tree were telling him to take the sparrow.
Xander buried his friend not far from The Mother. He called out for Zyon and the shadows through the trees as he sobbed but didn't get an answer.
The rest of the Winding Woods woke with the rain. Creatures woke from their slumber and fought to get released from the vines that had protected them while they slept. They weren't aware that fifteen years had passed while they had slumbered.
Xander stared at the freshly covered grave, grieving his friend and his love until no more tears would come from his eyes. They were dry, and he felt sick to his stomach and didn't know what to do. Being in a strange land without any direction on how to get back home or what to do, his sadness turned into anger as he replayed Zyon throwing the love of his life into the tree. She was gone. He was lost and scared.
Xander picked up his bow and quiver of arrows; deciding that he had nothing else to lose, he began marching to Incubus on his own to avenge Izzie's death.
29: HAPPILY, ever after
Not a single story involving a boggle has ever ended happily ever after. All boggles bring the fear of the world to the light. The rest of the world's creatures are tortured by their dreams with the evil waiting for them. Zyon knew this when he agreed to take the girl, but he thought this time could have been different in his heart. This time, he could have been the hero that saved the girl.
Zyon had made it back to Incubus without harm. He didn't have the stomach to stay and watch the rest of the battle. He knew that Phantasma would fall eventually from the poison of his bite. His kingdom was still intact, and most of his subjects were still alive. They had already begun rebuilding from the fires that Phantasma used to destroy them on her last visit. Zyon sat down on his throne as the sole ruler of Incubus and just listened. He listened to the silence scream through his ears as he sobbed. He pulled out a bottle of fermented daisy wine and drank himself into a stupor while he locked himself in his room.
It took Xander a bit longer than he had wanted to make it to Incubus. He encountered creatures that he didn't know if they would be friends or foes and would hide in the bushes until he was sure that they all had passed. In the dead of night, he saw the shadowy black cat with the bright yellow eyes out stalking. When it passed Xander’s hiding spot, he saw it lift its head and sniff the air. He was sure that it saw him, but it kept walking. He thought that it recognized his scent and left him alone. He tried to sleep during the night, but his dreams were horrible nightmares that woke him in sweats and screams.
It took him three days before he reached the gate. New boggles had taken the wall. They knew exactly who he was and had strict orders not to harm the human, but Zyon had also instructed them not to allow him into the castle.
"One way or another, I'm going to come in there."
"You need to leave, now!" A female boggle who was larger than her male counterparts projected her voice from the wall. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I will restrain you."
"I'm done talking. Let me in." Xander had drawn his bow, aiming at the boggle that was talking to him. He shot the arrow flying through the air. The boggle lifted a metal shield that quickly broke his arrow.
"Fire when ready!" She instructed her comrades.
The boggles didn't launch anything that could hurt the human but were more concerned about getting him to stop trying to hurt them. They had glass bottles full of sleeping spells that the fairies had sold to them now that they were awake. The boggles loaded slingshots with their glass bottles, surrounding Xander as they exploded on the mossy grass around him. Xander shielded his face from the broken glass. He was amazed that they had missed every shot. When he removed his hands, he could smell the sweet scent of lavender and something else that smelled of fresh-baked cookies, dancing up to his nostrils. The purple mist rising from the broken shards danced around him until Xander's eyes felt too heavy to hold open. He slowly slumped over, managing to cut the side of his arm on the broken glass before he started to snore.
Zyon had had a throne carried down to where the cells were far below the ground. There Xander was snoring for days, until the sleeping spell had worn off. Zyon stayed by his side the entire time, emptying more and more bottles of wine as he waited.
Xander woke feeling as though the entire thing had been a dream, as he snuggled into the blankets of the soft bed they had given him. He reached out his arm as he rolled over, reaching for Izzie, coming to his senses
faster when he realized she wasn't there. He cursed out loud; his voice echoed against the dank rock walls.
"Language, human. There's no need for any of that." Zyon hiccupped as he stumbled and fell back into his chair.
"You! I'm going to kill you!" Xander was to his feet and shaking the bars of his cage, trying to break out of his cell.
"Well, that's not going to get you out of there." Zyon took another drink of his wine.
"You're just going to go back to being in a drunken stupor after what you did, acting as though nothing has changed? You killed her! You killed my girlfriend!"
"I didn't kill her. I gave her power to The Mother. That's what needed to happen. Don't you see that? I would never KILL Izzie! She was like a child to me." Zyon threw his empty bottle at Xander, shattering it on the floor just outside of the bars. "I never wanted to be involved with this. I never wanted even to be King! But here we are, our paths were already laid out for us. It isn't about want or even needs, Xander. It's about responsibility!"
"Responsibility." Xander scoffed. "Your responsibility was to protect Izzie! She trusted you!" His voice was echoing up the hallway where other boggles were listening.
"My responsibility is to do what is best for the majority. If I saved just Izzie and let Phantasma run amuck, where would we all be? There would be no Winding Woods left. She was so hungry for the power she would have killed The Mother, which in turn would have killed every one of us that depend on her ability to keep our minor ecosystem going. One girl? Or millions of creatures? My only regret was that I did not realize that she was nothing more than a ghost when this started. I would have done everything different. I wouldn't have taken Izzie on as a RESPONSIBILITY." He cracked open a new bottle and draped one leg over the arm of the chair. "I didn't ask for any of this. Just as Izzie didn't ask for it. We were just pawns in a story that started before she was born, man. "
Xander found a little chair left for him in his cell that he dragged over to the bars, so he could look Zyon in the eye as he spoke. "So, you lied to her. You had no intention of actually protecting her. You knew the shadows were trying to save her, and you made her believe that you were her friend."