Chapter Five (Akasha)

The chill of the morning dissipated as the sun reached its zenith. We had been walking for around two hours when Ari broke the silence that enveloped us.

“Do we even have a plan? Where are we going?” Ari snapped, annoyed.

“Simple, we are going in… this direction.” Huricana laughed, pointing in front of us.

“I’m more concerned about putting distance between us and the big green if you know what I mean.” Sunama whispered, worried. “They could be right behind us.”

“Big green?” Huricana spat with laughter.

“We should head toward one of our allies. We need an army if we are going to stop the Goblins.” I suggested casually.

“An army?" Ari stared blankly, "What do we waltz up to an allied king and say?" Making her voice high pitched and whiny she said, "Please king sir, give my sisters and me control of your army so we can fight the nasty goblins and fulfill the prophecy." Her voice returning to normal, she glared. "They’ll laugh in our faces and lock us up."

“Do you have a better idea? Maybe wander around the woods a while, hope they give up on finding us. Maybe growing old in an old witch's hut and never fulfil what we are meant to?” I asked, annoyed.

“An old witch's hut sounds good to me.” Huricana chided in. I glared at her in response.

“Our best bet is to talk to our allies and try to prove ourselves so we can wipe this scourge from our realm. Do you really think they are going to stop at pixies?” I accused, “they will go after everyone who differs from them. If we don’t do something, our realm will belong only to the goblin kingdom and their allies.” I shuddered at the thought.

Gia shuddered. “What a visual. Thanks for that.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Ari shrugged.

“Which ally should we go to first?” Sunama asked as she pulled out a map of the different kingdoms. The map showed the regions of the different species in our realm, the goblins, and pixies obviously, but also the elves, nymphs, dragon shifters, centaurs, and Drow (dark elves), to name a few.

“The Elves are the closest.” Huricana pointed to a spot on the map.

There were rumors that the elves have tattoos on their shoulder of a phoenix; They trained the Kingdom not to show any emotion, as enemies could use it as a weakness. The tattoo changed color with their mood. They painstakingly kept these tattoos covered so their opponents would be at a disadvantage, It was also said that some have psychic abilities and that they could read minds, feel emotions from others, and, in rare cases, could move things with their mind.

“Yeah, and are notoriously hard-headed.” Ari pointed out.

“You sure you’re not related?” Gia asked with a smirk as Ari punched her in the arm. “Ow.” She pouted.

“Some prophetic warriors.” I laughed.

They passed the prophecy that was in a way a curse down through pixie bloodlines. It told of five sisters who could control an element to the point of becoming the element itself, but the more powerful the ability, the more debilitating the side-effect. Like my migraines and vision loss.

Five sisters who would stop a great evil that was trying to destroy the mythological realm and connect it to the human one. The sisters are suspected of hiding the key to the human realm. The key, when used, could cause a rift between our realm and theirs, forever connecting them.

The evil wanted to take over the human realm and enslave them to do their bidding and thus expand their empire.

My parents believed we were the sisters of prophecy, so from a very young age they had trained us militantly so we can fulfil the prophecy. We also believed that the reason the Goblins attacked was because of the prophecy, and I fully believe that they are the evil we are meant to stop. Ela and Karm believed this as well.

The human realm aged faster than ours a year in our time was a couple hundred in theirs. We age a lot more slowly as well. Humans think us immortal, but the truth is we are not. Everything dies, even us, our lifespan was just a lot longer.

“We should go to the nymphs first.” Ari pointed to another spot on the map, pulling me from my thoughts. “They can camouflage us.”

“The nymphs are over two weeks away; the Elves are closer. We should speak to them first!” Gia argued with Ari.

There are many types of nymphs, forest, mountain, jungle, and desert. They are shape shifters and can camouflage to match their home regions. They have tattoos to go with their region. Forest nymphs, for example, have leaf tattoos that line their arms and legs. Jungle nymphs have vines or snake tattoos on their arms and legs and so on.

I sighed. “It makes more sense to go to the Elves. They are closer, and their army is larger.” I stated. “I think you are being difficult on purpose.”

“I don’t like elves,” she pouted, “they are so rigid.” Ari stated.

“Have you ever met one?” I asked.

“No” Ari admitted.

“Then how do you know?” Gia accused

 “I might point out that nymphs rarely fight they hide and observe, so how would they help us?” I asked. “We need an army, not a place to hide.”

“They can hide us for a while so we can make a decent plan, and they may know about goblin weaknesses from their observing.” Ari pointed out.

“You make a good point, but with no army, their information would be useless.” I informed.

“Fine, we will go to the elves first.” Ari fumed.

After deciding which route to take, we folded up our map and headed out in the decided upon direction.

I looked around for Eva and Karm, wondering if they were around; it was unlike them to stay away for this long, especially when we were on the run. Maybe my tie to them weakened the further we were from pixie territory.

Not even an hour into our journey, a tree sneezed and turned into a half-dressed woman. A forest nymph? Why is she so far from home?

The Nymph was beautiful. She had long curly blonde hair that fell to her waist it was tangled with branches and leaves sticking out randomly. Her face was slim with wide blue eyes, tattooed leaves lined her arms and legs. She was wearing a skirt made of leaves (if you could call it that) and no shirt, but her hair covered what a shirt would have.

“Just keep walking. I’m trying to hide from the Goblin Prince. He’s out looking for nymphs and pixies.” She whispered in a rush.

“How long has Prince Rehan been looking for us?” I asked before she tried to shift.

Half shifted into a tree and half human, she asked, “Why would he be looking for you?”

“He wiped out our village and wanted no survivors. He knows we got away.” I answered, not giving the full truth.

“He’s been crashing through the forest with his guards. For the past few days, I could hear the screams from the forest last night.” She paused. “They are coming.” And finished her transformation.