Chapter 22 - Close Call

“Whew, that was a fun time,” said Cris as they returned to the base camp.

Holly didn’t think so – she was certain several years had been shaved off her life from heart palpitations alone.

“I’ll say!” Rob chimed in.
“She’s not bad in a fight,” Mick agreed.
“Maybe you can hang out with her Cris, not often we see another zalavan,” Kat suggested.

All the positive attention warmed Holly right down to her soul. Even in just this one little hunt, she felt she had found some of that camaraderie she had been pining for. This was… nice.

Cris chuckled. “That’s all up to her.” He looked to his fellow zalavan.

Holly nodded eagerly. “Yes! It’d be fun!” she chirped.

The lycoris boy grinned. “How about I meet you tomorrow and I can show you around town? We’ve been here for about a month since it’s a nice city.”

Mick appeared to frown at the idea but didn’t say anything. Surely if he had a problem, he’d say something? Holly took that as tacit permission and spoke her own agreement.

“That’d be great!” Holly beamed.

After informing Cris of where she was staying, they parted ways. Despite her earlier sentiments, it had been a good evening. They didn’t end up finding the calabash fruits she had been looking for, but that was okay! There was always tomorrow when she’d be able to spend time with her new friend. All was good, all was right in her world.

She hummed to herself as she skipped along through town. The walk was long and it was dark, with many spots failing to be illuminated, due to a distinct lack of streetlamps on certain blocks. As she passed through one such spot a hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed her.

Her eyes went wide as time slowed. She could feel each individual beat of her heart as it pounded painfully hard.

Not again!

Tears came to her eyes as she was dragged into the darkness.

“Score! This one’s a stray!”
“Zalavan? Pretty nice catch.”
“Hold it still.”

Holly had no idea what was happening, but she wasn’t going to let this go like the first time she got kidnapped. Her mouth was covered – it sure was a good thing her hollies worked at the speed of thought.

Corteccia Armatura

“What the fuck?!”

The zalavan turned to bark in the man’s grasp and he lost his grip over her. Jumping out of her armor and out of the man’s hold, she left him with a whole lot of wood and no easy meal.

Holly breathed hard, facing down her would-be assailants, her eyes glowing with bright yellow rhythm as she processed her current predicament. Two men; one Maestro, one Resonator. The Resonator was some kind of mammalian species, the trademark fluffy ears and tail giving it away. His element was solar based on the feeling of sunlight radiating fiercely from his form. Lunar element magic would be his downfall, which thankfully she possessed.

She pulled her seed satchel from her jacket, but before she could even open it, the Maestro called a spell of his own.

“Raffica Discendente, Lento!”

In an instant, Holly was crushed. A vicious down draft forced her to the ground and blew her satchel just out of her reach.

She burned her remaining two hollies on a Tempesta di Polline, hoping to buy herself enough time to grab her other seeds.

“Vento in Poppa, Accelerando!”

Just as the pollen in the air began to intensify, it was blown away by a wind from behind the dastardly duo.

Holly couldn’t breathe, despite the deep gasps of air she was taking in. They cut off all her options, all her hopes for an escape in just two measly spells, and she had nothing left. The two carnivores stepped towards the little plant, looking to add some leafy greens to their diet.

“Onda Mentale, Lento.”

By the time the two men registered the new voice, it was too late; they were suddenly and inexplicably thrown over Holly, slamming straight into a wall.

The zalavan looked up, finding Cris standing at the end of the alleyway, the clouds parting to illuminate him under the moonlight as the lycoris flowers burned from his head. The blue glow in his eyes blazed brilliantly in the darkness.

“The FUCK?!” the Maestro roared as he and his Resonator scrambled to their feet.

“Prigione di Ghiaccio, Fortissimo.”

Cris’ words were as chilling as the ice that suddenly crept up the two assailants’ legs.

“What?!” They tried to break free and escape the ice magic, but they were too slow and the creeping frost encased them up to their necks.

The now lycoris-less zalavan stepped forward and knelt next to Holly. “You okay?” he asked, picking up her seeds.

Holly trembled; the words lost before she could even form them. Grateful wasn’t a strong enough adjective to describe what she was feeling at that exact moment – she didn’t think the Maelish language had a strong enough word she could express herself with.

“You bitch! I’ll get you too!” roared the frozen Maestro as he and his Resonator viciously struggled against their icy entrapments.

Cris remained cool and opened the borrowed satchel he held. He plucked four seeds from it as he stood up straight. “Shut the fuck up,” he snarled. With the four coca seeds between his fingers, he held his palm towards the restrained targets. “Esaurimento, Adagio,” he called in the fourth level of support magic.

As the Maestro and Resonator pair were glaring daggers at the boy, they couldn’t turn their focus away quickly enough as the spell took effect. Seconds later they were rendered unconscious.

It was at that moment that Mick and his other two Resonators ran up.

“Cris! What happened?!” Kat shouted, skidding to a stop next to the two zalavan.
“Those guys were tailing her from the hunting ground.” Cris jerked his head at the frozen, sleeping, attempted kidnappers.
“Looks like they were gonna chip her,” Rob revealed, holding up a broken syringe.

“Ch-chip me?” Holly squeaked. She didn’t know what that meant, but the gravity of their words conveyed the seriousness of the situation.

“They were gonna force you to go with them,” Cris said. “The tuner… has a function like that,” he spoke that revelation lower.

It was already hard enough to breathe, but the idea that she had almost lost her freedom completely sent her over the edge as she started hyperventilating.

“Woah! Woah! Calm do…! It’s… y! I’m …!”

His words became more and more muffled and then it all went black.

---

…

…

…by the sages, I suck.

Holly didn’t want to open her eyes. Unfortunately, her curious rhythm demanded a conclusion to the events of last night, so the lids rose.

Night had passed into day. Two holly berries informing her not of the time that had passed, but the poor quality which she slept.

She forced herself up, slowly looking around. It was her hotel room. How did she get back?

As her gaze listlessly took in the amenities of the room, she found her seed satchel lying on the desk of the table.

A couple of slow blinks allowed her brain the processing time to come to terms with her situation. She almost lost it all last night – again. Her breath hitched as she began to sob into her hands.

Being alone sucked.

This all sucked.

If Cris hadn’t followed her last night, she’d be god knows where. How could she have stopped them? She broke free, but as soon as she did, they hit her with that wind spell and it was all over from there.

They even had the answer to her pollen.

She wasn’t quick enough, plain and simple.

Or perhaps it was her lack of decisiveness. Just escaping didn’t cut it. Out of all the nature spells, perhaps she could have attacked them instead of passively making distance? Her head hurt and she slumped over, plopping on her side.

“I hate this,” her voice cracked.

Holly wanted to go back to sleep, just forget about everything. It wasn’t as if she could go back. The problem was she still had no clue where Inverna was. Even if she wanted to, she was stuck out here in this world that was actively hostile towards what she was.

As she lay on her side, her eyes never left her seed satchel. Her blank gaze appreciated that it had yet to abandon her. She sat up upon realizing something.

“Paper?”

Scrambling out of bed, Holly stumbled over to the table. Underneath her precious seed collection was indeed a piece of paper with some writing on it. Holly couldn’t help the tug of her lips as the message brought a smile to her face.

“Hey Holly,

Sorry I couldn’t stay here with you, Mick was getting on my ass about it so I made sure to lock up before we left. I really wanted to make sure you woke up, but thems the breaks, I guess.

I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you, even if I have to sneak away.

-Cris

PS. Sorry for using some of your seeds – prommy I’ll pay you back!”