Narrator- Melissa

“Stand back!” Ethel screams. “Protect the sisters!”

He orders the guards and rushes towards the monster with his sword. His eyes turn red as he takes the hood off his head and raises the sword. “What are you waiting for, asshole!”

He thunders. The monster growls in anger and charges towards Ethel. But Ethel is too fast. In a blink of an eye, the monster falls before us in two halves. The body turns back to a young man.

“What is that? And how did it transform… into a beast. What is going on!?” I might sound like a coward, but this is something we were never warned about. The rest of them stand behind me startled.

“We call them Forest Beasts.” Says the guard. “They are a part of Krulisa’s army. And their power is transformation. They can transform into wild beasts and animals. That’s how they hunt the mortals and immortals.”

Why didn’t father warn us about all this? I wonder.

“Is everyone alright!?” Ethel screams from where he is standing.

“Yes, yes, we are.” I replied. Ethel smiles at me. Blood splattered all over his face. Suddenly, three more beasts come to view from the bushes behind Ethel. Ethel who is still unaware of them keeps smiling at me until he notices the smile on my face fading. I cover my mouth with my palms.

“Ethel! Watch out!” Patty screams her lungs out. Ethel turns around to see the beasts jump towards him. Scared, I closed my eyes tight.

Suddenly everything gets silent. The birds, the growling of the beasts and the screams of the guards. I open my eyes and see the beast hanging to nothing in the air as if an invisible noose is holding them through their necks. Ethel stares at them too, surprised. He turns back to look at us and his eyes go wide open with shock as he looks at someone behind me.

Who is it? I can’t help but wonder. Both Patty and I turn around. And that’s when I see her. Catty.

Her eyes clouded into a foggy mist, lips curled into a snarl as her right hand remains outstretched towards the beasts, which are now clawing at the invisible nooses tied to their throats.

“Catty?” I whisper. She looks at Erica and gives a gentle nod. Erica follows after her and then teleports herself behind the beasts as she slits their throats with her sword. The lifeless bodies of the beasts fall to the ground before Ethel. Catty’s eyes go back to normal. She removes the hood off her head and heads off to Ethel. Alicia, Patty and I follow them too.

“Are you alright?” Catty scans every part of Ethel to assure herself if he is fine. Ethel looks at her for a few seconds. His face looks confused and shocked at the same time. He holds her hands and pulls her to his chest and hugs her.

“Thank you, sister.” He says. “That thing almost killed me.”

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.” Catty says, hugging him back.

Ethel looks at Erica and forwards his hands.

“Oh yeah, no. Not happening. I am not going to hug you. There’s blood all over your body. You’re dirty right now. But yes, you're welcome.” She says. Ethel smiles at her and she smiles back.

“That was a jest. I almost died seeing those three behind you.” She steps forward and hugs him.

“Guys!” Alicia holds her head in pain and closes her eyes shut.

“Alicia!” I hold her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Voices. More are here. They are surrounding us. I can feel them. I can feel their pain. I can feel their anger. They want us dead. They are angry-”

“You mean, the Forest Beasts?” Ethel cuts her out.

“Yes.” She says, under her breath.

And that’s when fifteen beasts emerge and stand before us. This forest is dense and hollow enough to hold thousands of beasts like that! Now that they sensed our presence, they are trying to kill us all. Ethel once again gets prepared with his sword.

How many more times does he have to fight for us? I think to myself. What are we here for?

“I can’t see this anymore.” I say. “Let’s fight!” I push back my hood and unsheath my sword.

“Are you serious?” Ethel holds my sword and stops me.

“Does it look like a jest!?” I pull back my sword from Ethel.

Patty and Alicia follow me with Erica and Catty behind them. The five of us stand in a row facing fifteen giant beasts. Ethel nods at me and then joins us. The guards get in position as well. As we get prepared to fight, fifteen more beasts emerge from behind.

“Wait, what!?” Alicia exclaims. “You got to be kidding me!”

“We have to turn.” Catty says. “Ethel, Erica and I will take the ones in the back.” She says, and they turn around. We stand with three on the front and three in the back.

“On my command.” Ethel orders. “Now!”

The guards run after Ethel and one after another they start slashing the beasts with their swords. Patty raises her hands to the sky and rounds it in circles, creating a mixture of air and leaves followed by tiny branches and targets it at the beasts. She releases the pressure from her body as she hits them with the force of the wind. One after another the beasts fly up and then fall down. Some fall dead while some only get injured. The injured ones walk furiously towards Patty again. And that’s when Alicia controls them with her mind and makes them break their own bones. Once dead, she looks on with a smirk.

Erica and Catty both fight together. Erica teleports from one beast to another killing them with her sword while Catty uses her sword as well as her spells and kills the beasts one after another. She swings her sword from left to right, and when there are more beasts attacking her, she uses some sort of spell that makes their heads explode.

Catty is as fast as Ethel. But seeing her right now I can say she is even stronger than Ethel. I join her and Erica and we fight the beasts together. I let the electricity flow inside me, it almost burns my whole body when I finally let it out. My sword, which is now charged with the electricity from my body, hits the beast hard on its shoulder, making it explode. Not just one but I see almost five of them explode and turn to ashes. Catty looks at me with a tiny smile on her face, her eyes covered in white fog again.

It’s all messed up. The forest is a mess with blood and flesh splattered everywhere. I look around and see that it’s not only the beasts but a few guards of ours too. We stand there holding our swords and panting hard once we are done killing all of them. Only three guards survived, and the rest… dead. Catty walks to one of the injured guards who whines for help, his arms ripped from his body with claw marks in his back and a broken leg. Catty sits beside him and places her palm on his chest.

“Catty, don’t.” Ethel warns in a low voice. But Catty ignores Ethel and continues.

“I, Catherine Cross, cast the spell of life on you. You are going to live again. Those that made you like this will suffer instead of you. Rise.” She says, raising her hands slowly. His body rises as she orders and his arms start to grow back again, the claw mark disappearing.

“You will live again.” She says. Finally, the guard stands back amazed, looking at himself all fine and well as if nothing ever happened to him.

“You shouldn’t be doing that, what if father knows about it? You think he will let it slide?” Ethel pulls Catty away holding her arms.

“You can’t cast a spell to bring someone back to life. You have never tried it before. What if something happens to him later?” Catty looks at him, the fog in her eyes starts to disappear.

“So you are saying you want me to let them die? Is that what you suggest?” Catty looks mad. “Ethel, half of our men are dead already! They came here for us. The reason these guards are dead is also because of us. And yes, I did this before. I brought back a dead bird back to life. Nothing happened to it. It was alright until it died with your arrow!”

Well, she is right. It was in winter last year when Erica and I found a dead raven in the forest. We brought it to the Academy. And Catty almost broke down seeing it. That was the first time she used the spell of life and brought it back. She was so happy every time she saw it until one day it flew out and an arrow just brought it back down. It was later when we realised that the one who killed Catty’s little raven was her beloved brother, Ethel.

Ethel looks at her in silence. Of course, poor Ethel is speechless at the moment.

“It was an accident! And besides, that was a bird! Not a Vampire. Do you not see the difference?”

Or maybe I was wrong. He has words prepared.

“No, I don’t.” Catty pushes Ethel away and walks to the carriage. “Even if I did, I would still volunteer to save those that risk their lives for us.”

The rest of us stand like four normal girls seeing a couple argue. In the midst of all this, what scared me was the sudden whisper of my name. I turn to Alicia, who is holding her head in pain. Again.

“Melly.” She whispers in pain. “Something is wrong, I can still feel them, or one… maybe.”

“Alicia, what are you saying? One what?” Erica and Patty look pressured.

“Something is not right.” She repeats. “One is still here. The beast, one of them is still here hiding somewhere. I can feel its presence.”

I turn around to warn Ethel, but it’s too late. As soon as I turn and run to him, I see the silhouette of a beast right next to the carriage where Catty is.

“No.” I whisper. “No!”

I run for her and at the same time the beast shows itself behind Catty with its claws ready to charge. Finally, Ethel notices it too.

“Catty! Behind You!” He screams. And as she turns, she moves her hands for the sword on her back. But to all of our surprise, someone already pierces a sword at the beast’s broad chest from its behind. Catty looks on, surprised and gasping hard as her hands still remain on her sword. I stop running too. Everyone stands still at their positions until the body of the beast falls to the ground, and reveals its killer. The one that saved Catty. Blue eyes, Blue lips, raven black hairs and snow white skin.

“Reno!” Ethel runs to him and throws his arms around Reno’s shoulders.

“Two idiots reunite!” Erica says, giggling.

I look at Catty. Still surprised from what happened, she stands in her place all silent. Her eyes locked with Reno’s. I can see a tiny smile on his face but Catty looks emotionless.

“This isn’t going to go well.” Patty whispers, standing behind me. “Why is he here anyway? How did he know we are here?”

“Believe me, even I am thinking the same!” I say, my eyes still gazing at Catty and Reno. All four of us stand there looking tense at both Catty and Reno and their awkward faces. Ethel, who was busy embracing Reno untangles his arms and gives a gentle smile to Reno.

“Glad you came.” He says and looks at Catty. The smile on his face washes off as he realises the kind of awkward fellow he was to butt in between two broken couple.

“Why are you here?” Finally the words spit out of Catty’s mouth. The smile on Reno's face disappears as he sighs.

“I came here for you.” He says. “I can’t let you go alone. Krulisa and her army, they are not as easy as you think. And the mortal world, you’ve never been there before.”

“You think I don’t know that you would be here to save me if I were ever in danger? My question is, how did you know we are here? And how did you know about all this?” Catty walks closer to Reno and grabs his shoulder. Reno’s face fills with confusion. The sort of look that describes that the person is not really sure of where this whole conversation is going.

“Catty, the letter. You sent me a letter. That’s why I came here.”

Both Patty and I exchange quick glances.

“Letter? What letter?” Catty is getting frustrated. She lets go of Reno’s shoulder.

“Umm… actually, it was me.” Ethel walks back to his position between Catty and Reno. “I sent the letter.” He says.

“You did what!? You deranged mongrel!” Erica had seen enough of Ethel’s worst behaviours today. In fact, all of us have.

Reno’s gaze finally falls to the ground. Broken. I can say he is completely devastated.

“That’s impossible.” He says quietly, and then looks back at Catty. “It was your handwriting.”

Catty doesn’t reply. I don’t know why we are supposed to witness all this.

“Because she wrote it.” Ethel replies. “She wrote the letter but was nervous to send it to you. So I picked it up from the garbage and sent it instead. But I swear, I didn’t read it!”

The smile on Reno's face returns back. “It doesn’t matter who sent it as long as the writer is Catty. I am glad you wrote to me.” He walks closer and tries hugging her but she pushes him off.

“Glad? Why glad now? This isn’t the first time you received a letter from me!” I knew that it hurt her every single day not getting a reply from Reno after she sent him tons of letters. It was so hard for her to give up. The one reason I hated Reno was because he moved on really quick.

“Catty, I-”

“Don’t! Please leave. You better leave.” She says walking to the carriage. Reno grabs hold of her left arm and pulls her closer to him.

“Say what you want, but I am not leaving. I loved you and I still do. I am not letting you go to this mission alone, I can’t let you die. Because every time I think about my future, you’re in them.”

Another awkward moment for me, Erica, Alicia and Patty.

“I am not going to melt by your words again. Do what you want, but don’t you dare come closer to me again.

She pushes Reno out of her way.

“Let’s go, we can’t waste another day here!’’ Catty is full of rage and anger right now. She closes her door before Ethel can get in.

We all get back to our carriages. Only three soldiers survived to assist us including the one Catty brought back to life. Reno, who is upset, accompanies Ethel. The both of them stand behind our carriages with their horses.

“Let’s get moving!” Ethel orders. And with that, the three guards in the front start moving and our carriages follow.

We move a few miles further from one direction to another. And soon after we get out from the dense forest of Hallsenberg, three big Institutes stand right in front of our eyes. They look just like our Academy.

“Here we are!” Both Patty and I glance at each other and then back at the Institutes.

‘’It’s rather bigger than our Academy.” She says.

As we get closer the Institutes grow even larger. And if you look at it from afar the Institutes look like they are joined to one another, but as we go further, they are not as close as we thought. They have a really huge distance between each other.

The carriage stops right in front of the giant fountain. And we all get out of our carriages.

“We walk from here.” Ethel suggests.

“Fine, let’s go then!” Erica looks excited. “But we need to go to our own Institutes, right?”

“We will drop you and Catty here first. This is where you and Catty will stay. After that I will drop the rest of them and then Reno and I will head back to the forest. Understood?” Ethel says.

“Wait!” Catty looks around the Institutes. “I need to do something first.”

She says and walks a few distances away from us backwards, whispering some sort of spell. Her eyes turn foggy again as she raises her hands facing the sky. Suddenly a spark of blue light appears in the sky and as she slowly lowers her hands down, the light starts to grow bigger and bigger. Like a tomb, she covers the three Institutes with the light. Her eyes turn back to normal and she walks back to us.

“That was… amazing!” Ethel’s eyes are still wandering around the blue giant tomb.

“It’s a protection spell.” Catty says. “No immortals can pass through it. Except for us and you two.’’ She points at both Ethel and Reno. “It’s the strongest and most deadly protection spell.”

“But the light, the mortals-”

“They can’t see it. Only immortals can see the shield that I created.”

We send off Catty and Erica to their Institutes and just like that, one after another we part our ways.

“We’ll meet in the forest. Don’t forget.” Ethel hugs me one last time before sending me off.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________