The River of Shadows by Elektra (great books for teens .TXT) 📕

pathways, the stores… gone.
“Why did you run out so fast?” Reemo asked as he ran up to us both, Simon close behind. They froze in the exact same way.
“The crazed…” I heard Reemo mutter.

Chapter 9

“I blame myself!” Reemo said, kicking up ashy dust.
“How come the only house they didn’t burn down was the one we were in?” I asked.
“Because, If we were to find out about this… it wouldn’t have happened so easily.” Reemo muttered, his eyes narrowing, “Follow me, now!” He then ran toward Kaymead, jumping on him with no trouble at all. Simon instantly responded too, he jumped on his own jet black Iriskush. Emma and I exchanged glances, she then went on her little metal chariot and two phoenix appeared. I was the last one to respond, I leapt atop Sermeter and we all dashed off.
Reemo stopped when we reached the starlit cave, “Good… they didn’t find it.” He sighed with relief, going up to the entrance and down into the cavern. We followed quickly behind, wondering what was going to happen. When we reached the bottom Reemo was already at the table.
“It looks as if I have no choice but to take two children and a human into battle.” He hissed. I had just noticed he had a tail, he must be really pissed.
“Hey! Shut it dude! WHAT were you doing when you were our age?” Simon spat, coming up to him with the same snakey eyes and tail.
“I was battling a whole camp of Crazed.” Reemo spat back.
“You can do that and you say that we can’t simply fight with your sour puss!” Simon hissed, his forked tongue lashing wildly.
“Simon! Keep your tongue in your mouth!” I hadn’t noticed that Simon’s mother and father had come down here.
“Yes mommy.” He said, the tail disappearing into smoke and his eyes turning human.
“And YOU! Don’t you say that my kid can’t do any less than you!” His mother hissed, wiggling her finger in Reemo’s face. “You self-righteous child!”
“Yes Mrs. Aurborell.” He sighed, all the reptile features disappeared as well.
“Wow… she is mom, hear her roar!” Emma said, grinning and leaning against the wall. Relaxed as usual. How does she even do that?
Darius was at the head of the table, he looked as if he was in speech-mode. “Listen up! This has gotten out of control! The Gekian Armed Forces are coming… well, what’s left of it! And I need you four, and NOT arguing! I need Reemo fighting out in the battle field, I need Emma in the sky, I need Simon beside me and the other archers, and I need Maeve healing. So sit down at the damn table and shut up!” He then pounded his fist and we all sat down.
“DARIUS! Don’t swear in front of the children!” Mrs. Aurborell said although she sat down too.
Darius went on, ignoring his wife, “Now, there is NO way I can announce complete war without two other Gekians. But so you guys don’t act so pathetic, all three of you will join.” He then grasped Simon and Reemo’s hands, they grabbed mine. A bright blue light shone in front of us. “This is a time of war, let no one see these as happy times. We all must fight with every fiber of our being, we must fight for justice and justice only. The moon rises above us now, and the sun will never set. The Elements collide in a mind-bending experience, and shadows will be killed.” The ball of light then flung out of the cave.
When we got out of the cave we were instantly visited by millions of Gekians. One not much older than ten ran up to me. She had silver hair, and beady highlighter-orange eyes. Then I noticed that she had a staff two times taller than herself.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked.
“Believe it or not but she’s more skilled than you.” Reemo snickered.
“Hiya! You must be the other Portrayor I had a vision about!” She said, with a cheesey smile, “I’m Mauree.”
“Quit being such a slowpoke Maeve.” Reemo said, dragging me to the center of the myriad of Gekians. I froze dead when I noticed everyone was staring at me.
“Uh… this is odd.” I sighed.
“They’re staring at me not you.” He muttered.
“Reemo! We’re attacking now.” I heard in the crowd, there were a lot of mutters in agreement.
“Why didn’t you save our most sacred of villages?” I heard in the crowd too.
“Maybe he’s not on our side anymore!” Another call came. My head was reeling with all these voices.
“CALM DOWN!” Reemo shouted and the crowd became silent, “Now here’s how we do things! Darius, you and the other archers are what they’re gonna go after at first, you take down as many as possible as with the Arial team. Then the warriors and I will come unexpectedly out of the forest.”
“Eh-HEM!” I said, folding my arms and looking sassy, “What about us?”
“Please! You have so much as a stick to protect you…” Reemo replied, “You just… HEAL! Okay?” He instantly waved me off and gave further instructions to the rest.
“UGH! He’s absolutely infuriating!” I hissed.
Mauree didn’t seem angry at all, she was calmly going through the crowd, giving them check-ups. Her long silver hair bounced through the crowd, tribal beads tinkling as she did her work. She then came up to me, “Come sour puss! I need to give you a good luck charm.” She said, and once again I was dragged along.
“Hmm… She said, looking around in her leather bag. “Ah! Yes! Iriskush scale, for strength.” She stated, handing me a bracelet with a single pearly scale, “The Trilla flower, for bringing peace.” She then laced the crystal-like flower into my hair, “And the ashes of a phoenix, to symbolize new beginnings.” She then showered me in the sparkling gray dust. When she did the little ritual, she didn’t seem like such a young girl, she almost seemed old and wise, like the many ancestors that came before her.
“Now… on that note.” She sighed, a glare spreading across her face and snakey features washing over her, “WAR!” She cried, the other Gekians shouting and hollering after her cry.
“Eh?” I asked, confused looking.
“Portrayors lead us into battle.” Simon whispered into my ear and shoved me encouragingly toward the front of the mob of Gekians.
So their I was marching toward the deaths of many. One thing that I never thought I would ever do ever, ever, ever was sign up for a war. I never wanted a job that meant I would die sooner than I had to, call me crazy. Then I noticed a fuzzy thing trying to comfort me I turned to see Sermeter, her dragon tail lashing, her lion claws sheathing and un-sheathing, but her eyes strong and comforting. My staff was clasped in her mouth. I took it from her and patted her head.
“Thanks.”

Chapter 10

I hid in the bushes next to many other Gekians, waiting for the archers to shoot at the Crazed camp. A blue flaming arrow would signal us.
“Uh… I’ve been thinking…” Reemo said from behind me.
“Well that’s new.” I muttered.
“And you need to get out of here.”
“Huh?” I said, my voice rising into a squeak.
“You haven’t been trained properly, and I would hate myself if an un-trained Gekian died.”
“Well you trained me. So you’re doubting you’re mad skills?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh… No, never mind, it was just a weird feeling.” He replied, trailing off as the blue arrow passed.
Immediately we all darted out of the bushes, after the Crazed. I clutched my staff hard and ran toward the archers, seeing if they were hurt.
“Maeve, no one got hurt.” Simon said through shooting arrows, “But it would be best for you to stay up here, you can see the others.”
I took his advice. For a while things weren’t so bad, but then soldiers began dropping like flies, too many. Every time I went to heal someone, another would die. Sooner or later I found myself crouching on the ground in a cold sweat.
“Maeve!” Darius’ shout came from the distance, “Come quickly! It’s Reemo.”
When I heard that, I felt as if I was punched in the gut. Even so, I still managed to get up and run in Darius’ direction. I stopped to see Reemo crouched on the ground all lizardy and twitching. He let out numerous hisses and cries.
“It’s Absostrania.” He huffed, “It’s consuming him.”
“W-what do I do?” I said, going into complete panic.
“I-I don’t know.” He sighed.
Reemo stopped twitching for a while and looked right at me with his golden slit eyes, “Maeve, I hate for you to see me like this.” He said shaking his head.
“It’s not your fault.” I said, putting my hand to his head.
“Yes, it is.” He coughed, “If I didn’t have such a big head, I wouldn’t have been scaly for so long.” He gave me the saddest puppy-dog eyes ever. It was so odd to think of him as a big, strong war-hero at the moment.
“Now’s not the time for blaming yourself.” I replied.
“Well, now in my time of death, I must tell you that I’m going to regret that I didn’t spend so much time with you. In fact, I hate that before you I never had any fun.”
“PLEASE! I’ve wanted you to go away for a LONG time. The fact is, that you never do. I doubt that a little lizard-related disease is going to change that.” I laughed, “In fact, when this is over, I promise you that I’m going to take you to the human world. Then I can apprentice you.”
“I heard… I did not believe…” I heard Mauree mutter as she ran up to us, kneeling down near us both. She began examining Reemo, and once again she didn’t seem like a mere child. “He’ll be alright. Thank goodness he fell from exhaustion before it would take. Only issue is that it will take about an hour until he goes back to normal, and I refuse to let him fight in his state. We’ll have to deal without you.”
“But!” Reemo began to protest, his head shooting up.
“NO! Now don’t make me sit on you to keep you still.” She said harshly.
“Fine!” He spat, resting his head back against the ground.
A shadow then fell across us all, “Ssso this is how I find the War Hero Reemo.” A hissing caramel-cream voice that shot ice down my spine, the man had skin whiter than a full moon, his eyes were bright red and permanently snakey. “Pathetic!”
“Kakath!” Reemo hissed.
“Looksss like you’re about to join me little brother.” He purred.
“You have no right to call me brother!” Reemo spat, “Having the same parents says NOTHING about brotherhood.”
“I’m afraid you’re not in a good posssition to sssay anything.” Kakath purred, pressing a black, muddy boot against Reemo’s chest.
I grimaced and closed my eyes, looking away. I heard a thud.
I was confused when I heard Emma’s voice, “Don’t ever say that I never did anything for you, perve.”
I opened my eyes to see Kakath under Emma’s silver chariot. Kakath slithered out from under the steel vessel. He looked about and then grabbed onto me faster than lightning.
“Time to go!” He shouted throughout the forest and began dragging me backwards, “You’ll surrender.” He cackled. I was then dragged away, surrounded by defensive hisses and howls of laughter.

Chapter 11

Today I have learned two things, one, that I have just about the greatest friends ever in the entire world, and two, that