Chapter 25: When they returned home (8)
We get weapons and my old bag which has some supplies including the mission. Or at least our mission's objective. The plant is mostly brown but there are some colors here and there. There are also seeds scattered in my bag. The seeds, like the plant, are very bright. They are bright greens, pinks, and oranges. We can make more! I think. We can finally have a chance against Cora!
We are finally ready to go. Jaxon convinced me to wait inside with Reece while he makes sure it's safe. The boy and I stay for a minute and Jaxon peeks out. He carefully puts one foot out. Two. his hand reaches in and signals us to come. We push the large leaf out of the way and quietly walk out into the woods. Inside the woods, each tree's shadow seems to stretch forever and the shadows cover the entire forest ground.
"Let's go!" I say To the boy, and we walk out side by side with Jaxon leading. "We have to be quiet, I highly doubt she doesn't already know we're here." Jaxon says. The boy nods, eagerly. "Okay! I'm just glad I'm not in that cave anymore."
We walk through the woods quietly with only the moon to light our way through the shadows. I feel my backpack begin to shake. "Jaxon, they're near."
He pulls us behind a large tree and a minion soon peaks around the corner, looking for us. He looks for a while and I know he's not leaving anytime soon. He walks around over and over and sometimes just stands there like he's waiting for us. He knows we're here. This minion is one of the original minions that look human, which seem rare but I recognize this one.
"Jaxon! He's the one who guarded us at Cora's cottage last time, he's smarter than the others." I say. Reece looks terrified. "I've seen him before too. He's the one who was with her when I killed my best friend."
I look down at Reece who's slumped against the tree, breathing hard. "It's okay, he's gonna be much easier than the others." I say, but I'm not so confident. He'll be easier, Last time we were both injured as well so that didn't make it any easier. "I'm not too worried about him but if he was with Cora last time, he'll probably be with her again." Jaxon says.
Reece breathing speeds up again. I forgot he was here, "I'm gonna need to watch what I say." Jaxon whispers to me. "It'll be okay Reece, you won't have to fight, I will and then you'll run. After Oberon and I attack him, run straight that way, Oberon will meet you at the lake and if anyone's there leave and come back when they're gone." Jaxon says.
He nods. "O-okay, good luck." he whispers. I grab Jaxon and pull him aside. "Wait, you said I'll meet him. What do you mean?"
"We both will fight then you'll run after Reece and I'll follow soon after, I'll need to make sure Cora's not around."
"Okay, just- just be careful." I slowly leave the cover of the tree and the minion wastes no time. He immediately darts to me. I run around behind him and he spins around grabbing my arm and pulling me towards him. Behind him, I see Reece running towards the lake and Jaxon slowly emerges from behind the tree. I try to get out of the minion's grip but it's no use. He's too strong.
An arrow flies into the minion's back and it releases its grip enough for me to struggle free and jump back. "Thanks." I say to Jaxon. "No problem."
The minion speeds at us again but before it reaches us, Jaxon grabs my arm and runs. "We can't outrun it! We need to hit it's eye!" I say. "Well it doesn't look like we can do that either!"
"We have to try! We can't leave Reece!"
Jaxon pulls me hard to the left and the minion follows. "They'll tackle us if we keep running but I need to slow down, if I get tackled, I'll have a clear shot on it's eye!" I say.
"No, you already got your chance out there, it's my turn!" Jaxon says, and I'm about to protest but he slows down enough for the minion to tackle to him the ground. Immediately it tries to grab Jaxon's neck but Jaxon stops him. Jaxon looks in to my eyes long enough to say, "Go to Reece, I'll be there before ya know it!"
I can barely tear myself away from the site but I know if I don't go now, I might not get another chance, Reece might be in danger. I force myself to run faster and faster until I reach the lake. Reece sits next to the lake staring into the water probably at the fish.
He jumps when I sit next to him. "You have to pay attention, even here. As you may know, the minions, they're silent." I say. He nods and looks around, probably for Jaxon.
"Are we, um, leaving?"
"No, Jaxon will be back soon, we just have to wait a minute, then we'll all leave." I say. He nods.
We wait for about an hour and I'm starting to lose hope when a figure emerges from the forest. I stand and so does Reece. I push Reece behind me. The figure moves closer until I can make out it's features. I sigh relieved. "Jaxon, I was worried!" I say. Jaxon looks sad. "What's wrong?"
He looks at me and ignores my question. "We need to get home."
He walks off in the other direction towards the camp. Reece looks up at me.
I signal for him to go and we follow Jaxon. I try to ask Jaxon about what happened, if Cora was there, and if the minion is still a problem, but he just completely ignores me or says, "We have to keep quiet." Jaxon also avoids my eyes and we walk the rest of the way in silence.
We finally make it back to the camp with no more problems except a few minions in the distance we avoided, mostly thanks to Willow. At the camp, Graham is pacing around scanning the edge of the woods for us. When he spots us he immediately runs up to me and hugs me.
"I'm glad you two are okay." He looks at Reece. "Who's this?"
"He's from another destroyed tribe."
"Our tent can't hold everyone, it's not even solid."
"We can deal with that in the morning, I'm tired." Jaxon says. "We got more food too and weapons!" I say. Graham still looks a little stressed about our whole situation. "Where from?" he asks.
"Our old home, we had a ton of supplies there, a- and look! I unzip my bag, excitedly, pulling out a brown plant but it still had neon colored spots. "Not just that, but there are seeds that fell off it in here! We can make a garden!"
"Is that-" Graham starts. "I'll go get in bed then." Jaxon backs into the tent. Graham is now uninterested in the plant and looks at the doorway of the tent where Jaxon just was. "What's up with him?" Graham whispers. "I don't know." I whisper back.
"What's that?" Reece asks, staring at the plant in my hand. "Cora's weakness."
We finally head inside after a while. To my surprise, Logan is up and eating some of the food we got today. In it, there's carrots, an apple, and some beans but there isn't any kind of meat since we never really got meat there. "I figured it was fine if he had some since-" Jaxon starts. "It is. He needs to eat. Do you want something too?" I ask Reece.
"Yeah, I'm starving, haven't ate a thing since my village-"
A sad expression crossed his face. "Okay, here," I say, and hand a brown bag to Reece. "Thanks."
We're all soon ready to sleep and I fall asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
"Wow, weren't you out late?"
"Cora, this is getting old, if you wanna see me so bad, why don't you come see me in person and not here?"
"I'm busy getting the last civilization, they're putting up quite the fight. But don't worry. We aren't bothering with your camp until last because you're gonna be so easy to concor."
"Ha! You couldn't even get two people last time and this time these two people have an army." I say. "An army you can't control" She smiles cleverly. "You're all gonna die. And, if you really want to talk about last time, last time, I didn't kill you because I didn't want to, now I do- or will."
"You're never gonna win this cora. Even if we had nothing we'd still win this fight."
She smirks. "You have no idea how much power I have now and what do you have? An army who won't obey, a couple flimsy weapons, and- oh! Temporary homes because you still want to go home. You still haven't gotten over your home's loss yet, have you? Even though you hated it," She says. "If you're still not over the loss of your home when you hated it that much, there's no way they're ever getting over that loss."
"It's not my home's loss I'm so mad about. It's being here."
Cora steps closer. "Well, you don't have to settle in, you won't be here much longer anyways, we're just about done with them."
"Why do you wanna kill us so badly? Why do you wanna go home? Here, you're like a queen, you're more powerful than anyone and can literally create life! You could do so much down here." I say. "I want to see my family, and he won't let me until every last one of you are gone! I have no desire to stay on this reached planet with your kind. All they do is hurt each other. Hurt themselves. Hurt me. Maybe at one point I could've stayed but not now."
"Then do it. Kill me right now. It'll make my life easier and get you one step closer to winning. I know this is a battle we can't win, it's against you after all."
She clenches her fists. "Ha! look at this, the one person everyone is depending on, begging to die. what happened to all that talk about winning? But fine. If that's what you want" she says. A knife appears in her hand and she walks closer towards me. "Let's get this over with."
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