Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter 47: Home Stretch

There a moment of silence between us. We all just sort of stared at each other in disbelief. Finally, Ashley exploded, “So you just had me damn near kill Nathan for nothing?!! If I known you’d pull something like this, I’d have given up myself!” She was furious! Beside herself with anger, and with good reason.

“I’m sorry to have upset you, Ashley. But you know just as well as us that we had no control over who was chosen. This decision was made shortly before the fight as well. And it is neither mine nor Tom’s choice to follow those rules. To follow those rules are our jobs,” Sara explained apologetically.

“She’s right,” Nathan admitted.

Ashley was silent for awhile, but eventually nodded, “I understand. I’m sorry to have done that. Let’s go.”

Star interrupted, “Not before Curstan gets her ankle fixed!”

“I tried! It wasn’t much good,” Nathan said.

Star smiled and replied, “Well like we said before, your healing abilities aren’t that great. Mine are a lot stronger than yours, and from what I see, it’s been fixed pretty well!” Star began to use her powers as she held Curstan’s ankle in one hand and wave her channeling rod around the ankle with the other. It was really the hand holding the ankle doing the work, but no one had to know that, right? A minute or so later, the ankle was healed completely.

“Thank you sooo much Star!” Curstan thanked her with a hug. Her ankle felt better than it was before!

Star hugged her back and laughed, “No problem, girl! Now let’s go home!” she shouted. There was a cheer amongst us all in agreement with the statement and we gathered out possessions, walking to our separate paths.

Tom stepped forward and cleared his throat. “I’m very proud of you all! You are, in fact, the youngest group of Demox to ever have participated in this historic tradition of ours!” Hearing this, we all gave ourselves a much needed round of applause. Tom continued, “I want each and every one of you to stay focus, brace yourselves, and pull out all the stops down these deadly paths! Some of the planet’s most vicious and voracious demons have been reported to live among these woods! All of you can and will come back alive if you keep this information in mind!”

Everyone became silent again, calming and focusing our minds. Star walked up to me and hugged me, resting her cheek on my chest. “We’re gonna get home just fine, baby. You got something to prove to the world. Your people are not dead, and they’ve survived this long without anyone’s help! Prove it, baby! Prove it,” I whispered, then kissed her forehead.

She nodded with a smile and kissed me back. Star then helped Ashley load up our horses for the trip. Once they finished, I helped them both on one and I got on the other. Kratias and Lamis looked up at us, ready to go as if they could keep up with a horse. Better to act confident than to act as if you know you’re going to lose.

A familiar silence fell over us. Memories of starting this race flooded my mind. I could barely hear Melissa count us down. Thunder roared and rain started to fall. The gun was fired and the horses instinctively knew to move forward.

We shot off ahead of the others and if we’d been loaded into a cannon or something. I looked back to see that a helicopter had arrived for Sara and Tom. Neravien held the central path once more. On each side of us, gigantic trees hung over and created a thin roof, partially shielding us from the rain. It poured down and created mud puddles and little streams on the sides of the road as we moved on.

After a while, we slowed down to a walk. We put on jackets and pulled up our hoods in our slow pace. It seemed we were bound to win, so why rush? “We did good, guys!” Ashley said to break the silence.

“Yeah! We worked hard for this! And thanks to Star, there’s no way we’re gonna lose!” I laughed.

Star denied the compliment. “Pfft! You would’ve won without me! I suck!” she assured us. She and I went back and forth, playfully arguing about the situation. Eventually she told me to shut up and I complied. The three of us were on our way to victory!