Elements (Part Two)

Author’s Note: It is advised to read part one before reading part two. Click here for part one.

By: Colette 

Edited by: Praxilla

Down in the clearing, her mother and father were fighting for their lives against four other people. As she watched, her dad severely injured one of them, but the other three people continued to fight. After a few more minutes, her mom and dad were back to back. Rosemary had never seen her dad use any other weapon other than his cross bow, but at the moment he was holding back the fighters using only what looked like a wooden sword lined with sizzling green poison.

She had no idea how he had survived that long with a wooden sword because his opponents were all using steel. Her mom was using a sword made out of ice or just regular water, Rosemary couldn’t tell. She wondered how her parents had survived with the weapons they were using now, because neither weapon made any sense. By all rights, her family should be eating dinner right now, not fighting these people.

Just then her mother sent out ice “sparks” flying towards the strangers. What looked like the leader of the group retaliated by pointing at the cliff face and it began to crumble around her parents, forming a ring of boulders. With a final wave of his hand, the dome of rocks collapsed on her parents and a scream built up inside Rosemary.  She watched in shock as her parents’ killers made sure her mother and father were dead.

The leader said loudly, “Come. Our business is done here.” The others followed him right to the cliff face and then dissolved into it and disappeared.

Rosemary lay there a long time. She had to make sure that the attackers were gone. Then she climbed down the cliff  to the rock pile. She began to shift the rocks, trying to find her mother and father, but after she had shifted through the entire pile, she was forced to conclude that they were gone.

As she kneeled down and began to sob, she noticed a message scratched in the dirt:

      Widah! Flee water, tree spirit! Flee my little Rosemary!

It took Rosemary a few tries to read the message through blurry eyes. Then she turned away and walked barefooted, slowly towards the house, and, by the time she got there, her eyes were dry. The rabbits lay simmering in the pot ready to eat. She collected the book she had left on the bed and threw it in a backpack along with a photo, some coins, and a sweater.

Rosemary then used some black sap she had collected the day before to write a message on the table. When she finished, she threw the backpack on her shoulder and left, leaving her childhood behind, as she followed the river downstream, and never once looked back. The message on the table read:

Look out Widah.  I’m coming.

                                                Rosemary