Note by MLB998:
Sorry for the delay, but I'm excited to have this back on track again! Enjoy!

Chapter 25

My eyes grew wide as I looked at the woman who stood before me. Her name seemed familiar to me, but nothing would pop up in my mind. The breeze of wind left for a moment, slowly fading and returning the air to its normal, still state. I grabbed the sword in my hand, but something about it was now different. I turned my head to look at the sword, the handle, the blade, everything about it had changed. As I stood up, I kept the tip of the newly found sword on the ground. It had gotten even lighter than before, which made it much more easy to handle with. Once again putting my focus on the mysterious woman.

Why does the name sound so familiar? My own voice called out in my mind. I expected Leo to say something, but then I remembered what had happened to him. It was like a sharp thorn stabbing through my heart to know we had to leave him behind. "Don't worry, dear," the women said in her soothing voice. During the time after what had happened, all my body wanted to do was tense up, but the area around me would not allow it to do so. Taking in a deep breath, I glanced down at the ground, then back up at the women. She walked up to me and started to speak again, "You must be Stella."

Suddenly something pricked at me and all the sadness in my mind went away in an instant. "You've met my mother, Stellina, right!?" I said enthusiastically. The women just chuckled at my enthusiasm. She went around me and over to where the rest of my siblings stood, shocked at what they had just seen. My head and body turned to follow her. The women looked at each and every single one of them, but only for a moment of time before speaking once more.
"You all must be Stellina's other children?" She said in a questioning tone.

My lips moved as if ready to answer, but the shouting of men from the tunnel could be heard. As the noise started to rise up higher, Amara turned to stare at me. I was caught up in her sharp eyed gaze, looking at her eyes more closely, they had narrowed like that of a cat's eyes. My own eyes widen on shock, before I could do anything more, she started speaking,"Quickly! It seems as though you have some followers." She ran quickly and grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, only to to start dragging me along instead.

My eyes wandered off to look behind me and see if the others were following, and they were, but they were just barely able to keep up. Feeling my hand and wrist, I somewhat tried to wiggle it free, but not a single movement came from it. The strength of Amara's grip, her speed, was incredible. Almost unimaginable. Amara continued to bring me along, but as I continued to look at the others, they were starting to fall even further behind. "A-Amara! Please! Wait! I can't leave without my siblings!"

Suddenly she slowed down and stopped. Her hand still firmly holding mine. As I looked at the rest of my siblings, I spotted the slightest bit of movement from behind them. Looking more closely, I realized that it was the werewolves and other men that served under the rule of the two kings we had seen early before charging up behind us. Once the others had caught up to me and Amara, she started off again, away from the soldiers. The soldiers were falling behind, but somehow my siblings were able to keep up with us this time. My pace also going about the same as everyone else's. My hand had become numb from her holding it so long, that I hadn't realized before that she had released it from her grip. Only when I went to look at it did I realize this.

Our group continued to run along what seemed to be a large wooded area, which somewhat confused me since we were once in a very dark area. It had quickly and easily turned brighter. The plants all of around use all seemed to have bright, neon colors. The colors reflected onto the trees, making it hard to tell if the area was more open or closed. A few minutes later, we had lost sight of the soldiers, and it seemed it was the same for them. We'd finally stopped to catch our breath after running for about 10 minutes or so. Finally, I thought as I leaned down, bringing my hands to my knees. The others in their own position as they breathed heavily and groaned as their bodies ached.

Looking up at Amara, I noticed she hadn't even broken a sweat from the long run. I wanted to say something, anything, really to her about our situation, who we were, or even ask her a question, but my sore throat prevented me from doing so. Amara turned and looked at us. Her eyes had returned to normal now, which I suspected it meant she was okay now. "I'll bring you all somewhere safe," Amara said, her voice turning suddenly serious. Soon enough, I was able to catch my breath. As soon as I had, she had turned away and started walking away from us.

"Wait!" I shouted to her, and she calmly turned to look at me. "Do you, do you know Stellina," I repeated myself, as it was hard to put any words out of my mouth with what was like a wall of sandpaper surrounding the inside of it. Amara stared blankly at me as though she were thinking of something, but how would I know that, I barely know anything about what I am supposed to do other than die to save my own mother and the rest of this world by taking a huge journey to where ever that is going to happen.

With a sigh, she answered,"We are almost to the place. When we get there, I can tell you more." She then turned back around and continued walking. I looked back at my siblings, Aquilo, Glacia, Briar, Teriana, Acorus, and... Leo, I thought to myself. Once again, the memory of him being left behind had passed right on through my thoughts without a single notice for a while. I didn't like this one bit. I looked at Covie as she started to walk up to me.

I had almost forgotten that she was family too, even though we are not related. I looked into her eyes and I could see the spark of curiosity within her eyes. I somewhat thought that maybe she was waiting for my word, like I was the leader of the group. Come to think of it, the group had been that way almost from the very beginning of the journey. In a way, I even was like a leader to Leo. Leo. Just the thought of him brought on a pain umimaginable.

I raised my head toward the others, ready to speak,"Come on, we need to find out more about what we need to do." After finishing my words, I turned and started to follow. I couldn't tell if the others were following me, but I was sure they were. I guess it is like one of those 'I know my siblings' thing. We all followed behind her for a while. Our feet were sore, but we were getting more used to it now. The woods started to turn and shape to look like normal wooded areas would look. They could have looked all colorful before because of the castle, but I don't know. I barely know anything about this world, but somehow, I get the feeling that memories of me, sometime before I found myself in the desert, have started to return to me.

Amara stopped. My siblings came to my side, or somewhat close to it. The group looked at the cavern that stood before us. Amara looked at us and spoke,"We'll be safe in here for now. We can spend one night and one night here only, then we will have to continue." She said, her soft and gentle voice had returned and soothed the tension rising up in my mind. We all entered the cave.

Small, but somewhat flat, piles of grass and a few leaves sat about on the ground. I was glad it hadn't surprised me this time that there were any leaves in here, especially since they were arranged in such neat piles. I guess it meant I was getting used to the strange and weird mishaps in this world. "Does anyone notice how these pile of leaves kinda look like human-sized beds?" I turned to look at Glacia as she spoke, then afterward I looked back at the little piles on the ground. She was right, and I suppose it was a good thing that she had mentioned it, or was I jinxing myself?

"I always knew you had good eyes," Amara said as she sat down on one of the piles. I think we then all had the sudden realization as to why Amara had brought us here.

"You expect us to sleep on that?" Teriana exclaimed. Amara nodded in reply, and I was sure this would be a bad night for me. The other moaned and groaned. We were all really sore, and we were sure this would just make our aching pains even worse. Covie was the first to sit down on one of the grassy beds. She chose the one closet to Amara. In just seconds, Covie had become relaxed, so relaxed that she had fallen asleep. As her body started to lean and fall to the ground, I dashed over and grabbed her head, placing it lightly on the bedding.

"What happened to Covie!?" I said with a worried tone. Amara just chuckled and began to explain.

"Don't worry, you're all not used to this type of bedding I use. It's called star grass."

"Star grass?" I said questionably with my words somewhat extending.

Amara nodded,"Yes, it puts people to sleep faster. Some have been using it for so long that they become resistant to it."

Teriana whispered something into Acorus's ear, then he turned his head to look at Amara. "How res-is-tant?" He asked curiously. It sounded as though he had never heard of the word resistant with how he said it. Amara turned her head and looked at Acorus.

"They can still go to sleep fast, but not as fast. It really depends on how much energy they have." We all paused for a moment in silence. I placed Covie's head down on the soft grass bedding and leaned up into a sitting position. My knees touching the ground, and my hands laid out on my legs. I stared blankly at Covie, wondering if she was dreaming. "You might want to wait to sleep on those if you are wanting to ask me questions."

I turned my head to see Amara staring at Aquilo, who had been silent the whole time. I hadn't heard a single word slip off his tongue. Not once. "Well, I think, uh, Stella, should ask you first." He said taking a step back. Amara then turned and looked at me.

"I know you do have some questions for me, don't you?" She said.
"Yes, I do." I thought for a moment about a good question to ask her. Silence filled the area for just that one minute. Suddenly, I came up with a question which I asked everyone, or at least most people, we met on our journey. "How do you know Stellina?" Amara turned her head away. Her eyes becoming saddened, and her pupils slightly narrowing, as if they were in the stage between having a cat's eyes and a human's.
"It's a long story."

"Can you tell us the short version of it?" I said, my curiosity rising. With a sigh, Amara continued. Her eyes narrowing fully down into small slits as she turned back to look at me.

"I was a warrior for Stellina long ago," she started, pausing for a second. "I wasn't just her warrior. I was a warrior of a god once too."

"The warrior of a god?!" I exclaimed, my other siblings looked in shock at her as they shouted the last part of my sentence along with me. She once again nodded.

"Yes, every God has their followers. Some chose not to follow any god at all. Each God has their followers, and then there are their champions."
"What are champions?" Acorus said quickly as Amara had paused to catch her breath.

"They are the strongest of the followers, they are also the most trusted by the god they follow." I could hear Acorus and a few of my other siblings gasp in awe. "I was the champion of Lady Wind."
"Lady Wind?" Glacia said.

"Yes, she was a god in this world, until a while back. She disappeared without a trace. After her disappearance, I went searching for her, and I found your mother, Stellina." With that, it seemed that the long, but short story had now ended. Amara's eyes quickly returned to normal, and the others stood quietly as they looked around. "Well, we should all get some rest." Amara laid down, her back facing toward us.

We all went to our own spots. I watched Acorus, Briar, and Teriana get into their beds and giggled a bit watching them with a smile. They had went and laid down on the hard ground, then rolled over onto the bed so they wouldn't pass out and hit their head. They were being creative, as they normally were. Though, it didn't seem like a bad idea to try it for myself. Plus, rolling on the ground would be way better than have a headache all, day. I pushed away all the rocks away and laid down on the ground close to the bedding. My hand accidentally touched the star grass and quickly became numb.

I took in a deep breath, then rolled onto the bed. Luckily, I was quick enough and rolled all the way onto the bed before passing out. I didn't realize for a while that I was sleeping until I heard nothing but silence and the pitch black image in front of me. Before I could do anything in my dream, I was awoken by the light of day. I sat up, bringing my head up and out of the sun light. I looked at the entrance of the cave and saw a stray cat sitting there. The pelt was an ebony color. In the light, it looked brown, but I was sure it was more Ebony.
The cat turned its head, and I saw its eyes gleam like gold. Wait, weren't Amara's eyes that color? I turned my head and looked at where Amara laid last night. Her body was gone, without a single trace left. I glanced back at the cat, then at the empty bedding. I suddenly realized something. "Amara!?" The cat turned and looked at me as if answering my call.

"Yes, Stella?" The cat spoke. I was beginning to freak out, but I shouldn't have with all the weird and crazy things I've already seen.

"Y-You're-" I could barely finish my sentence with my stammering.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you?" Thinking about it, I was pretty sure she was meaning about the whole 'I can turn into a cat' thing. I nodded my head. My mouth was gaping open at this point, and I wasn't really sure why. I closed my mouth, hoping Amara would explain it to me. "Yeah... A gift from the gods I suppose." I went over to her and talked with her. As time passed, my other siblings awoke and joined in our conversation.

"I think we can head off now." Amara said, stretching our her lean body. Her tailed raised high in the air as she walked forward.

"Shouldn't you be in your human form?" I asked her curiously. Amara turned and looked at me. I couldn't see it, but she was grinning at me.

"Well, we wouldn't want 'them' to find out I'm traveling with you, so I'll stay in this form so they don't know it's me." I shrugged. I guess that would be good, since she was the champion of a missing God and a warrior under Stellina's lead. My siblings and I stood up, ready to leave off to the next place.
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MLB998 has permission to use this chapter in her book.

Hi everyone! I am TimelessNickel! The writer of this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. It was requested by MLB998 that I do this chapter, rather than the original chapter which I was supposed to do because it had been a while since a chapter had been uploaded, so, here it is! I put my best effort into it, and I hope you all liked it! I can't wait to see how the next writer will continue the story!