Chapter XV

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"Do you still remember how to fight?" I joked when I saw them.

"Just a few things, thought it could be good for both of us to practice a little," she said trying to recover her breath. It seemed like they had been in that plan for a while.

"And? Can you still beat some shadows?" I said while walking to them.

"Not sure, but maybe a little one, just a matter of practice," she smiled and then sat on the ground.

"And you, Wiese? How was it?"

"Great," they said more than just happy. The kid seemed to be tired, but excited. "It's becoming easier with each time."

"Glad to hear it, but do not press yourself so much, okay?" They gave me a nod in response.

I couldn't say anything else then. Another shadow, a snake with spider legs, came out of nowhere, took me by the neck with its tail, and before Pandora could do anything, it climbed a tree right beside me.

The bruises, the cuts done by the branches, all of them, I didn't even feel them, only my head spinning as I crashed with the wood. The creature was suffocating me, and I felt it was tightening the grip with eery second.

My hands were trying to free me, I was becoming desperate, but the lack of air, the fact that I was losing more of my breath with each moment just made me weaker. I felt my muscles as mere masses of useless flesh.

I could still hear someone screaming, the sound of the creature's legs on the tree, climbing at full speed, as if it was as desperate as I was, just that it was about to kill me. I reached my boots as I could, but of course I didn't had my daggers, and my bare hands were no match for that thing.

Slowly, as a freezing wind embraced me, my vision started to blur, turning everything around me into a collection of dots and colors. My neck was hurting, then the pain went to my head, my spine, my legs and arms. I felt I was on fire and that some part of my physical body started to shake.

No, no, no, nononononono please, I said in my head, I cannot die like this, please, not like this, not right now. Please, don't let me die. I realized I was praying. It had been a long time since I did something remotely similar.

Suddendly, when my eyes were about to shut down and my brain to finally collapse, a shrill scream ripped through the air and shattered my ears. I felt the creature loosing her grip on me, the wind caressed me, and when I thought I would fall to be a dead body, a pair or arms took me.

"Going down!" Said a voice.

My mind had already collapsed, my eyes could only see colors and shapeless forms around, but there was someone in there for me, and that was all I needed. A voice in my mind told to be careful, my body was still trying to regain control, and certainly there were some parts of it that were half-dead thanks to the shadow.

Sooner than I expected, I was in the ground, coughing, and another pair or hands took me in care, although these were shaking. I started to feel better in that pretty second, feeling as a calming fire traveled in my veins, purifying everything on its way. Of course it was Pandora, but when I saw the one that saved me, I almkost died again.

Wiese was standing in front of me, deer antlers on their head, and with their extremities in a different position, as if they were from an animal. I was sure that they was thinner than usual, maybe even taller, or longer, or something, but their body was different, althought I couldn't find the right word to describe it.

"For-forget about mee," I managed to say. "Wiese..."

"I have two hands, one for each of you," said Pandora, and by her tone I knew she was trying to smile.

I fixed my eyes on her hands, and as she said, one was calm, on my chest, healing me inside, while the other seemed to move by itself, creating impossible shapes in the air, while green lights came out, which ended up surrounding Wiese.

They was now in front of the creature, who just fell down from the tree, but Wiese didn't gave it time to attack. Soon, they became another form with no shape, just a mess of colors and sounds. The shadow had like a million cuts in just a minute.

Wiese was cutting as if they was mad. I saw his body covering the entire creature and hurting it, making it scream in pain. Down its spine, the tail, legs, even the neck, making a kind of cross in the front and the back in less than a second. I saw, when they stopped for a second, that they had my daggers, one on each hand.

The creature ended on the ground, bleeding to death with faint moans escaping from its mouth, and Wiese slowly walking to us, with just a few drops of blood on their face, although their hands were painted in red.

What surprised me was their face. Brown lines and dots gave them a more animal look, which, with their rabbit ears and deer antlers, only made me ask more questions than never before in  my life. I thought I knew the kid, and then I was realizing that I was in Dreamare, after all, that things are never as simple as they seem to be, and that every creature has its secrets.

Wiese simple fell to the ground, visibly tired, a falling that slowed down because of Pandora's spells. She was sweating as well, but the kid was the one that worried me. My friend took air with her mouth and made a gesture with her hand, as if pulling something to bring it closer, and Wiese's body started to move.

I knew we had nothing to fear, they had been with us since I found them, but Wiese would answer a couple of questions when they came back to their senses.



PS: If anyone wants to know how Wiese's face looks like in this chapter for sure, it is inspired in Katy Perry's single E. T.


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