Author’s note: I know this chapter isn’t done so well…I’ll prob. try and come back to it later and sort of rewrite the battle scene better. But yeah…you’ll get the general idea of how the battle goes from this, the first draft 
We were going to battle at first light the next day.
My heart pounded quickly with fear and adrenaline already. I hoped with all my heart that Aaliyah’s idea was going to work…if it didn’t, we were all destroyed.
I wished so much that Adan was here. I wished that his arms were around me, making me feel safe before all the fear and darkness that would come tomorrow. I imagined what he would say… Everything’s going to be fine, Aaleyah. I’ll be with you the whole time. We’ll fight together.
“Aaleyah?” a voice said.
I recoiled, thinking it was Wes, and started to get up to leave (I had once again been sitting by the fire, but this time it was morning and I was struggling to eat breakfast)…but then I saw it was Shastara.
“I’m sorry…I thought you were…someone else,” I said, sitting back down.
He came and sat near me. “What’s wrong, Aaleyah? Things have seemed…strained…between Wes and you lately. What happened? Did he do something to hurt you?” he asked, his voice protective. He had always been like that-protective of me-even when we first met, and I was actually glad of this. He was like an older brother to me, and I knew I could come to him with any problem-and besides, I needed ‘protection’ now that Wes was being so…Wes-ly. I needed someone who could stand up to him and tell him to leave me alone…now that Adan was gone and couldn’t do that for me. That thought made my heart ache so much.
“He just…he thinks that I can just magically fall in love with him now that Adan is gone. What he doesn’t understand is that I loved Adan so much…I still do. There isn’t any room in my heart right now for anyone else-and Wes is being pushy. Even if I did have room in my heart to love someone else this soon after Adan died, Wes would not be the person I would choose. He doesn’t have any regard for what I feel or think; he just wants, and if he doesn’t get what he wants, he acts childishly to try to get it,” I said, unable to keep disdain from my voice.
Shastara tightened his jaw as he stared into the fire. “That man doesn’t get much,” he said quietly. I could tell he was annoyed…angry. “To think that he would do that when you’re still hurting so much…what is wrong with him?”
“I’d like to know the same thing,” I said. “And I’ve tried telling him how I feel, but he doesn’t care.” I left out the part about how Wes had grabbed my arm so hard there were bruises where his fingers had been-otherwise Shastara probably would have gone after him with a sword, and while I was mad at Wes, I wasn’t mad enough to have his death on my hands.
“If he keeps it up, tell me,” Shastara said, eyeing Wes, who stood a ways off, warily.
“Alright,” I said softly.
Shastara gave me a quick hug, patting my back. “You’re not alone, Aaleyah-remember that. Adan may be gone, but you still have friends, a sister, parents…we all love you. Remember that, and remember that the darkness will not go on forever,” he said quietly.
“Thank you,” I murmured, wiping away the few tears that had sprung to my eyes. “I just miss him so much…”
“I know you do,” Shastara said. “Though I can’t imagine how much you must miss him, I miss him too…very much. He was like the brother I never had…and one of my closest friends. And, since we were close, I consider it one of my duties-and priveleges- to take care of you, so please do not hesitate to come to me with even the smallest problem.”
“Thank you, Shastara…I don’t know what I would do without you-without all of you. I just wish all of this would be over.”
“So do I…so do I,” Shastara said. Then we just sat, staring into the fire and thinking of what tomorrow would bring.
~
‘Tomorrow’ dawned bright and early; a lovely day. Ironic, I thought, that such a beautiful day would bring such bloodshed.
We had actually discovered a cliff that looked out over the spot where the battle would take place, and it was here Aaliyah and I would hide. It would give us a perfect view of the Rennians and make it much easier for us to send our fire to them than to just get a glimpse of them, leave, and do it that way.
There would be six soldiers with us in case we were discovered and too weak to fight back…but there wasn’t a very big possibility of us being discovered. We would be up high; no one would suspect that we would be up there.
The night before, a few of the Rennian war leaders had come to meet with Cozar, (our) the Kirian general, Zane, and a few other of our war leaders. They had tried to get us to surrender, but we wouldn’t, of course. They had gone back to their own army, but not before saying we would meet in battle at first light the next day.
The Kirians were already spreading on the battlefield, the Rennians doing the same thing in the distance. War was nearly upon us.
Aaliyah and I, and our six guards, were in position on the cliff. My heart was pounding so hard I was completely certain it would pound out of my chest. I clutched Aaliyah’s hand, my own sweaty.
For Kiria, Aaliyah thought to me.
Aye, and for Adan, I thought back fiercely.We smiled encouragingly at each other. I love you, sister.
I love you too, she thought. We’ll do this together.
Always together, I thought. Sisters forever.
And longer, she thought back. Then each was left to her own thoughts as we watched and waited.
STAMP, STAMP, STAMP…went the rhythm of the Rennians’ feet as they marched toward us. The Kirians stood tall and brave, ready to meet them.
Finally they stopped, just far enough that the Kirians probably couldn’t make out their faces. “DEATH TO THE SERVANTS OF THE LIGHT!” the Rennian general screamed suddenly. The Rennians echoed him, and then, that quickly, swords and weapons ready, they were rushing at the Kirians, shouting battle cries.
“FOR KIRIAAAAAAAA!!!” Cozar shouted…and then the Kirians were rushing forward too.
Ready, Aaliyah? I thought.
Ready, she replied.
Staring hard at the swiftly approaching Rennians, we let the surrounding heat press on us…and then we channeled it through the air and onto them (we thought our fire onto them).
Many Rennians suddenly lit up with flames. They screamed in pain and fell where they had been running, rolling and trying desperately to put out the flames.
Many of them died, but some were able to get up and keep going. Even though we had killed a large number of Rennians, there was still a large number of them left. No, they hadn’t expected our fire, but it hadn’t done as much damage as we would have liked.
I was already feeling weak, and my baby chose that moment to kick…and kick my spine. My legs gave out beneath me, and I collapsed to the ground.
“Rest, Aaleyah,” Aaliyah said as I tried to get back up. I sat back then, grateful to her…I couldn’t go on much longer. Just that one time of burning we had done had greatly weakened me (it had probably greatly weakened her too, but not quite as much). Then she went closer to the edge and contined to burn on her own.
~
When Aaliyah became too weak to keep going, I got up and made her rest. I started to burn on my own then, my strength quickly draining out of me…and that was how we did it for the rest of the battle. One of us would rest while the other burned, and then when the one burning became too tired to stay upright, they would switch places with the one resting.
The problem was, using our fire that much-in such great quantities-was devastating to our supply of strength. We weren’t sure how much longer we could go on.
Finally both of us simply could not go on. “Get…a healer,” I panted to one of the soldiers. “Quickly.” If a healer came and touched us, then some of his strength would flow into us, enabling us to go on a bit longer.
The soldier ran off to get a healer, though we all knew that there might not be a healer available. There were many casualties, and the battle had been going on maybe eight hours.
Oh, Adan, I thought sadly. I wish so much that you were here.
Below us, on the battlefield, things were not going well. It seemed that, in the place of every Rennian we killed, two more would appear. Their numbers seemed endless, and our men were getting weary. They couldn’t keep going much longer either.
“Aaleyah!” a voice said behind me. I spun around to find Mara and Japheth approaching us. I ran toward Mara and threw myself into her arms.
“You came!” I cried.
“We did, and we’re sorry we didn’t get here sooner. Don’t worry, the children are safe,” Mara said. “We miss Adan so much…but we can’t abandon Kiria when it needs us the most.”
“Aye,” Japheth said. I hugged him then, so happy they were here.
Just that contact with two other Chosen Ones had given me quite a bit of strength, and my heart swelled with hope now.
We all went over to Aaliyah then, and they quickly hugged her.
“Ready?” Japheth asked all three of us. We nodded, and then we stepped closer to the edge of the cliff.
Pointing both hands on the sky, her face frowning in concentration, Mara made the sky turn dark with a storm. We had discussed what we were going to do, and Aaliyah and I were going to turn Mara’s hail into fire hail. The hail would be huge, heavy, and flaming…doing much damage to the Rennians-or so we hoped.
Let’s do this, I thought to Aaliyah. Then, each pointing one hand at the sky and holding onto Mara with the other, we created what we called firehail.
It rained down from the sky, plummeting to the ground below. Rennians began to scream as it fell on them. Some died instantly, others died slowly. Japheth was able to control the wind so that the hail only fell on Rennians, missing all of the Kirians.
Then Mara began to make long, sizzling streaks of lightning shoot out of the sky and hit the Rennians. The ones it touched exploded instantly, and combined with the firehail, the Rennians’ number began to quickly go down.
Japheth then sent wind spiralling toward the Rennians, lifting them off their feet and spinning them in the air-suffocating them.
The four of us grew tired quickly, but just then the healer arrived, putting his hands on each of us and giving us more strength.
We did this with Mara and Japheth for about seven hours, and, because it was winter, darkness was quickly falling. The Rennians’ ‘great sorcerer’ was quickly losing his strength-he couldn’t go on much longer either.
But, just before he completely ran out of strength, and because of his desperation, he began hurling orbs of something like black lightning up towards the cliff. He didn’t know that we were there, but he must have suspected that we could be up there.
I forced myself not to scream as one brushed my arm, leaving a terrible, oozing burn. The healer did his best on it, but as was common with wounds inflicted by black magic, it refused to heal completely. I finally told him not to waste any more energy trying to heal it; I would have to just bear the pain.
By the time none of us could go any longer-including the healer who had come-the battle had turned in our favor. The number of Kirians was now greater than the number of Rennians, and soon the Rennians were blowing on their horns-sending out the ‘retreat’ signal.
The Kirians chased them far into the forest, and finally let them go. There was no way they could retaliate and come back and defeat us-there weren’t enough of them, and they were too weak.
When the Kirians that had given chase to them finally got back, a loud cheer rose up from the battlefield.
We had won.
The Rennians were defeated.
~
As we wearily trooped back to camp, Cozar, on his horse, rode up to me and stopped. “Tegoa came a short while ago. She said they couldn’t get here sooner because the sorcerer had put spells all over the place. He knows that some Chosen Ones can transport themselves to different places, and he didn’t want us getting any more power than we already had. She said to tell you ‘he’s as good as new’. I’m not sure what she meant, but she asked me to tell you that…she said you would know what she meant,” he said.
I was puzzled. What on earth could she mean by that? I had no idea. “Oh…well, thank you,” I said. “I don’t know what that means though.”
“Well, thank you for what you and your sister did. Let me say on all of Kiria’s behalf that we are proud of you, and we are honored to call you fellow Kirians and, furthermore, protectors of Kiria,” Cozar said.
“You’re welcome, and it is our honor to protect Kiria alongside you,” I said. Cozar rode on then, leaving me to my thoughts. I was puzzled by Tegoa’s message, and I was also saddened and sickened by all the blood and death all around me. There were so many dead bodies that some spots on the ground were so thick with them that you couldn’t even see the ground beneath them. It brought tears to my eyes.
But even with all this death, we could have joy and hope…joy, because one more large shadow over the land had been destroyed, and hope because the Darkness really was disintegrating. The Light would defeat the Darkness…and soon.
nce upon a time there was a princess locked away in the tall castle of Reapensow. Her long brown hair had been tediously braided that morning by Lady Ariel, and now she pulled the tiny pins out in frustration.
eople swarmed around Reapensow’s castle like little boys around something revolting. All wanted to catch a glimpse of Stewart Comengo, the king of Brickenstone, and his enormous family, who were there for yet another feast. They had seven children, and not one girl among them. Anastasia stood at the door greeting guests and trying to avoid the seven bratty boys, whom she knew were always up to no good. She had shaken so many hands in the past few minutes, and could stand the monotonous, “How do you do?” no longer. “I’d much rather be watching all this through the window,” she thought to herself with vexation.
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