Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Slipped through a loop, the elven sisters hit the ground at the same time as each other. Lying side by side, they opened their eyes and tried to look through the darkness with their night vision. While Aria’s gaze was as dull as the darkness around her, Mel’s eyes were bright as a wild cat in the dark who’s hunting its prey.

Leaning against each other’s backs, they drew their weapons and started looking around to soak in their surroundings. Nothing but darkness and a semi-translucent film of some strange liquid from within, which they’d fallen onto solid ground.

“What is this place?”

“That bitch’s trickery would be a sound bet.” Taking a deep breath, Aria narrowed her eyebrows and looked up again. “How do we get out of here?”

“Let me try something.” Closing her eyes, Mel pressed her fist to her chest and tried to draw the powers of nature. Natura’s strength enveloped her for a brief second; however, right as she was about to summon a sprout to carry them skyward, their surroundings changed, and the sudden light nearly blinded them. “What in the hells…”

Opening her eyes, Melicia Phrodite found herself seated in a rocking chair on the porch of a farmhouse. Her body was rocking back and forth while she looked at the very farm that once belonged to Rose. Green, lush wilds had taken over most of her farm, and only a few acres of cornfields remained.

“Where am I–”

Looking down at herself, she was startled by the swell of her chest and the faintest hints of wrinkles on her hands. Bringing her fingers closer to her face, she pinched at her skin and pulled away. The mark remained and wouldn’t go away–a sure sign of age, but…

’How old am I?’ Touching her face, her skin felt a little loose, and her cheekbones were protruding more than they ever had. Concerned, the elf tried to get off the chair, yet the ache in her knees kept her from standing all the way up.

“Aghh..F-fuck, what the–” Swallowing her words, Mel settled right back.

Her back, her joints, and everything were hurting. And although she knew this was an illusion, the pain felt real.

’What is this goddess planning? Trying to break my spirit like this? As if I didn’t know that I would get old.’ Questioning the goddess’s methods, Melicia sat cursing her name for a while. However, as soon as she had gathered more strength, her body lifted, and she decided to walk.

Checking the house first, countless portraits of her youth alongside her friends and family were hung on the walls. Some of them she didn’t recognize, and others, she felt a strange ache in her heart as she looked at them. Inside her room–a scattered mess–there were clothes of children and adults spread alike. Some belonged to girls, others to boys.

’Are these…’ A framed portrait on her bedside table drew the elf’s attention. Walking over to it, she gripped it firmly in her hand and wiped the dust from its surface. ’My children?’

A pair of little girls was dangling by the arms of a much taller and masculine Raven, as for the boys, they sat by their mother, all prim and proper with a cute smile and their faces pressed against Mel’s.

’Well, wouldn’t that be nice…’ Smiling at the portrait, Mel moved her hand off the frame and noticed a few words written on the edge where her thumb had been. ’What’s this?’

The words read, ’Why didn’t you take me with you?’ It took Mel a moment to decipher what it meant, and as realization hit her, she was reminded of a conversation with the entire group under a starry night.

’They were half-elves and Raven…’ Exhaling sharply, the smile on Mel’s face quickly disappeared. Half-elves were notorious for inheriting the worst and the best aspects of both parents. And if such were their case with her and Raven, then… ’They died before me. They will all die before me, Raven, and my children.’

Though it was but a mere mirror to her future, an illusion, tears pricked at the edge of Mel’s eyes. Being young and full of vigor, she hadn’t put much thought into the matter, but at some point, she had to bury her children, her husband, her friends, including Aria, and still live long enough to see countless more generations rise and fall before her eyes.

“An elf,” a distant voice suddenly bled into Melicia’s ears. “I have seen many like you before. They think they can love whoever, but you are delicate creatures. The dark elves’ prey, the fascination of other races, but they fall in love with anyone outside their own, and heartbreak follows. You are not meant to love whoever, Melicia. He will die, and so will your children. But I can fix it all, give you the gift of a shorter life or extend that of those you love.”

Wiping her tears, the elf glanced up at the sky, but the only thing looking at her was the wooden ceiling. Even so, she smirked and then laughed. For a moment, she was uncertain about a deal, but then she was reminded…

“And you think death will separate me from my love, my children?” Laughing some more, Melicia felt the strength in her body slowly return. “They will be my children, stubborn as nails and as resilient as their father, who has already defied death again and again!”

“UGHHH!!” The floorboard underneath Melicia began to quake out of nowhere. Giving the quake some room, she watched as Aria crawled out of the dirt with her body recovering from what appeared to be death and rot. “She gets a glimpse into the future, and I get a nap in the dirt, tsk. How unfair.”

“Dark elves don’t live as long as the fair ones, sister,” Mel teased, having recovered from the goddess’s pitiful attempt at manipulation.

“Fuck you, Mel.” Hitting Mel in the arm, Aria glanced up high and curled her fingers around her lips to scream. “Even horrors give better nightmares than this, you goddess of disappointments! YOU HEAR ME!”

“Ughh,” feeling a shiver at the memory of her being turned into a piece of wood, Mel scratched her arm and tried not to think about it. “Whatever. We need to find a way to get out of here.”

Closing her eyes once again, Mel concentrated on Natura’s powers and on blooming a sprout, tearing through the seam between the present and the future. Standing on top of it, it was only a matter of time before the elves made their exit; however, even then, there were still others stuck in their nightmares. And to escape them, all they had was themselves.