Worlds Apart by ninja jinx (different ereaders txt) 📖

By night time I couldn’t take it anymore. My body was shivering and cold sweat had broken out on my forehead. The waves outside seemed noisier, crashing on the shore and the darkness seemed more prominent. No moon appeared that night and everything was shrouded in darkness, the winds howling. I was too riled up to light a candle and every second that ticked by seemed like a second closer to something terrible.

Standing up suddenly I walked to the entrance of the hut and peered out, my hand resting uneasily on the wall. Ellie’s eyes telling me not to come popped in my mind, but the sense of something wrong was far greater. I would just take a peek I thought; see if everything was all right.

Stepping outside, a dagger and black cloak in hand, the wind of the coast whipped my hair back and the strong taste of salt landed on my nose. I let my eyes focus first before slinging the cloak around my shoulders and over my long hair (since from what Mathew had told me it was an unusual colour) and sheathing my dagger to my side. Then I began my light jog towards the lining of the tree’s, trying my best to sniff out Ellie’s and Mathews scent which seemed to have been carried off slightly by the wind and the moving sand.

By the time I had reached the enclosure of the tree’s there scent which had seemed so faint had begun to get stronger, the path they always followed leading me to their town. Leaves which appeared black hung creepily down the branches and every crunch of my foot seemed so loud in the quietness of the woods. The quite before a storm I thought as I brushed some branches away from my face. This time I treaded carefully, making sure not to fall into any mysterious ponds or pools of black water.

I smell something burning was what I first thought when finally the tree’s seemed to thin out in front of me. Squinting I gasped as I viewed smoke rising high into the sky. All my previous thoughts about being careful fled out the door as I rocketed myself down the course of the trees, not caring about anything else. The sickening feeling was back in my stomach and I had trouble breathing, my throat clogged with emotions, and breaking through the wall of branches I stumbled back at what I saw. 

Houses of stone lay crumbled to the ground with a strong fire ravaging the area that I could feel it prickle my skin. Grey thick smoke rose to the air and distantly I could hear cries and pleas. My eyes followed horrified as a person ran across my vision, there skin charred and flames eating at them.

“Ellie!” her name ripped itself from my mouth as a desperate cry. “Ellie! Oh God please answer me!”  I continued to scream, diving straight to the streets of flames. The fire nipped at my heels as I sniffed the air but all I could smell was the sickening smell of burnt flesh and smoke. No matter how much I looked I couldn’t see her or her brother.

“Ellie?! Mathew?!” I screamed out. Stumbling on a pillar of wood which would have held a house up not long ago, I felt the gravel graze my skin, cutting into the tender flesh. Hissing I stood up, my breath rushing in pants.

“You” I said as I looked at a girl rushing past. In her arms was a bundle of fabric which I imagined wrapped all her precious things. She glanced at me, her hair burnt black and her skin coated in soot. “Tell me, do you know an Ellie and Mathew?!”

The girl looked at me for a moment, something like recognition dancing briefly in her eyes and I clutched her shoulders hard, my nails digging into her skin. “Tell me!” I demanded and the girl flinched back, her head looking towards from the direction she had come.

“I-I s-saw them over t-there somewhere” she stuttered out, “I just…oh god I don’t know” and suddenly she began wailing, her cries reverberating from deep within her chest. She pulled back harshly from me, her teary eyes looking so lost. “God I don’t know!”

Her cries were frantic, something inside flipping to make her act hysterical with various emotions.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” she screamed as she flung herself away from me, her staggered breaths ringing out. I tried to grab her, to hold her down but her nails blindly scratched at my skin.

“Calm down. Just-“

It was so sudden. One moment she was standing in front of me and the next she was laying head first on the floor with an arrow speared through her chest, blood seeping slowly through her back. I stumbled back, never having seen someone killed before in all my life right before my eyes. My body was numb for only a moment, my mind reeling as my eyes sought out the culprit and in the distance, with my sharpened eye sight, I saw someone once again drawing there bow and aiming at me. It was like staring at the end of a barrel.

It was in that split second that it finally dawned on me fully that I was on a real battlefield and that at any moment I could die for real. It also dawned on me that Ellie and Mathew could be a pile of burnt, shot and crumpled bodies on the floor. Feeling sickened with the dreadfulness of the situation, I narrowly missed the arrow from piercing my own chest, although its pointed edge did cut my arm. I hissed in pain as I flung myself to the floor on all fours, quickly staggering up and making a wild dash before I could be struck again. I ran through the flames once again, my eyes darting wildly. Now I was not only looking for Ellie and Mathew but also making sure I could live long enough to save them.

“Ellie! Mathew!” I screamed the smoke and fumes winding its way into my lungs and I imagined it like thick black tar clogging my pipelines. Coughing I clutched at my throat feeling the immensity of struggle to breathe.  I couldn’t get air; it was like I was suffocating.

“Ellie, please answer me. Mathew please” I croaked out. Please I thought desperately.

Stopping in the middle of the fire with burning buildings, screaming people and crumpled bodies, I felt fear grip my heart. I didn’t even know I had tears streaming down my eyes because all I felt was a sense of hopelessness. It was as if at that moment I realized the sheer seriousness of this world.

Someone gripped my arm, tugging me roughly to the side. I gasped in shock, eyes finding a woman who had a mean looking face and a scar running across its side.

“Who are you?” I asked weakly as I followed her blindly, running down winding streets and narrow paths which I had failed to notice. The lady didn’t even spare me a glance, her eyes focused solely on what ‘must’ be done.

“It ain’t matter who I am” she said suddenly as she shoved me against a wall, my back slamming with a thud. I was merely a sack of potatoes in her eyes I thought. “The question is who are you to my son and daughter?”

“Son and daughter?” I asked confused as I thought deeply. Did I perhaps know this woman….no that’s not right, unless…“Your children can’t perhaps be Ellie and Mathew right?”

The lady quirked her eyebrow up and I stood utterly shocked. I had always imagined the children’s mother to be a somewhat delicate looking lady, just like Ellie, but not someone who could pass for a man.

“Surprised ain’t ya” she said, grinning dryly, which didn’t seem appropriate in such a situation. “So who are you to my children?”

I swallowed my gulp audible in the tense atmosphere. Be strong I thought, don’t back out!

“Your children saved me…for the past month or so I’ve been staying close to the beach…”

“That’s where those dratted children always disappeared to” she muttered under her breath.

“Um” I asked, “are they both safe?” I couldn’t help my voice from sounding hopeful.

The mothers face darkened, her eyes flashing as she looked distantly to a place I couldn’t see. “Hope they are…my children ain’t dying without a fight though!”

“What” I demanded as I grabbed her by the shoulders, even forgetting that she was such a big woman. “What do you mean?!”

“Those two were taken”. She said it so simply, as if she were telling me the weather.

“How can you be so calm?! Where are they?! Whose taken them?!” I screamed as I shook her with my hands, using my strength slightly without realising. Suddenly grabbing both of my hands she snapped back at me like an angered and terrified animal. “You think I ain’t worried! Of course I am. These are my children I’ve born and raised taken from me! But what can I do?! There’s nothing I can do, I’m just a woman who has no home and no man. But even so, I know that my children will live and so will I, so then there will come a day when I will see them! So for now, even if I can’t be with them, I will help those who I can and then do all in my power to restore this village….”

Stepping back like I had been burnt, it dawned on me my mistakes on my rash and thoughtless actions. Here was a woman, so strong and noble, who’s had her children, her lively hood and everything snatched from her, and yet even though she must be feeling immense pain and grief, she still barrels through. Thinking so clearly, using such wisdom and never giving up hope, this was the kind of woman I wanted to be!

I’ve made my decision. I knew what I had to do next.

“I let my emotions cloud my judgement…but even so I still want to save them both so let” I bowed down on my knees “so let me save them in your stead. This is all I can do to repay your families kindness”.

“You?” she enquired with a grunt, “a woman? No way, you must be crazy; war ain’t a woman’s place. War isn’t a game, there’s killing and death and everything dark. A woman like you who doesn’t even know pain will never-“

“Then let me not be a woman” I said cutting her off as I unsheathed the dagger, pulled the hood from my head down and cutting my hair in one swipe. Still kneeling I threw my black