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Chapter 3

Merianna

I woke up in a daze. After not having slept in days I was drained, wobbly, weak and starving. Something was nagging at me in the back of my mind, but I couldn't make out what it was. When I opened my eyes I saw a ceiling I didn't recognize, the stone and wood was a far cry from the plain wood and straw roof I was used to. I frowned and slowly sat up, all my joints were aching and it felt like I had been through a rigorous exercise session with Mother.

The bed I was in was messy, but nice and warm with fine fur blankets. I looked around the room and when I saw the toppled chair on the floor along with a pillow not far away from it, I remembered that there had been a man in this room the last time I woke.

I looked around the room a little more, feeling panic rising like a wave in my gut. My heart was thumping achingly, and tears were starting to brim at the corners of my eyes, making my vision blurry. She's not here ... She must be!

Desperately a scream built its way up my throat, choking my tears, anger was welling up now, I was so angry. Why didn't he bring her? Why didn't I go look for her first? I gripped he pillow that I had lifted off the bed and pulled it taunt, making my muscles ache, making my head clearer.

"WHERE'S?! MY! SISTER!!!!!!!!!?" I screeched in the loudest voice I had, enunciating every word with its own lungful of air. Then I heard the fabric of the pillow I was holding shred in two. I smelled ozone lingering in the air as I gripped the two halves tightly enough to strangle them.

It felt like all my nervous, frantic energy was crackling inside me wanting to come out, but I had no target to direct it at.

Suddenly someone burst into the room and I saw it was the same man that had brought me here in the first place. My anger riled up again as I finally had a target. "Where." I said heaving up the one half of the pillow over my shoulder first. "Is my." I said throwing it at him. "SISTER!?" I chucked the other half at him too. Both halves smacked him right in the middle of the face, the one following the other perfectly.

"You have a sister?" Asked someone from behind him. He looked old but also at the same time he looked surprisingly young, white hair, pale skin and a grey beard that hung almost to his belly button for some absurd reason.

"YES!" I fumed and turned back to the man with the black hair that had brought me but not my sister. Who was busy pealing the pillows off from his face. "Why didn't you bring her too?!"

"I didn't know you had a sister!" He yelled back defensively looking at his shredded pillow with dismay and just let it drop to the ground, down spilling out all over the floor. Then he turned back to the white haired man.

"I should go have a look." He said simply and started walking out the door again. The white haired man agreed and followed him out.

I stood there for a second. Blinking. "Hey! Wait!!!" I hollered and ran down to intercept them on the stairs. When I managed to shoot past them I skidded to a wobbly stop at the bottom of the stairs in front of the guy with the black hair. "I'm coming with. No way am I not going." I said solidly planting myself in front of him like a tree.

He looked at me with an amused expression then picked me up by the shoulders, lifting my feet right off of the floor and then put me down again behind him in front of the guy with the white hair. "You can barely stand let alone run when you need to." He said simply and then proceeded to the exit of the building.

I fumed. The hairs on my arms standing on end. "Oh no." I growled and marched after him. I caught up to him and then grabbed the back of his long jacket and pulled with all my might, but my socked feet didn't find any kind of grip on the smooth tiles. I ended up skidding behind him all the way to some doors leading to another hall in the surprisingly massive building. He was big, okay.

He stopped once he swung the door open which revealed a wide hall with polished tile and a carpet stretching its length. He threw a snide smile like I wasn't making any kind of difference at all. And that just made me even angrier.

I stomped around until I was in front of him again. "I'm coming with. I can fight. My Mah and Pah taught us." I declared. And I was definitely not budging.

He looked at me for a second time, cocking his head to the side, like a different angle could make me more amusing to look at. Then his eyes narrowed and he made a derisive huff, like he had just made up his mind about something.

Through the whole staring contest I did not dare move or budge, my jelly legs were just going to have to keep holding me up for as long as I needed to stay planted there. I couldn't let Nelia stay out there with that monster. I had to go and get her as quickly as possible, she was my responsibility, I had to look out for her. We may be as different as night and day, but we are family, not to mention twins.

"Alright then sparky." The guy said smiling mysteriously.

"It's Merianna. Not Sparky." I declared with a black glare.

His smile deepened to an almost feral glee. Then he snapped his head up and barked out "Heral!" I jumped in surprise at his sudden outburst.

A man burst out from another door somewhere from behind me, he had blond hair and stubble on his face. He turned towards us standing to attention, not really approaching where we stood. "Bring me the Rune Reaper!!!" The black haired man demanded.

The guy jumped and moved so fast that he practically disappeared through a wall. Or did he really just run THROUGH a wall??? I was a little disoriented.

What on earth is a Rune Reaper? How did that guy run through a wall? There wasn't even a door. And why the hell was this dark haired guy looking at me like he had won our argument already and I was still not going to come along?

The guy he called Heral suddenly came back again holding a wickedly stunning scythe. It was all in shades of silver and dark grey. It almost felt like it was pulsing with life even though I hadn't even touched it yet.

It was a stunning weapon, much taller than me, if it were a person it would stand at 6 foot 6, and it's gracefully bending blade looked smoother than a still lake. The middle of its blade seemed to have engravings on it. As I moved closer to the Reaper in complete entrancement I could see that more intricate runes were engraved in the shaft and around the bottom end of the shaft as well. By the way this Heral guy was holding it, it seemed to be extremely heavy.

"Alright then Merianna." The black-haired guy said making my name sound like a mocking word, snapping me out of my trance. "If you can wield the Rune Reaper, I'll allow you to come along with me." He gave me a snarky look. Obviously he knew how heavy this weapon must be, and also obviously he was hoping that it would be too heavy for me to hold, not to mention wield. He was hoping to win by default.

I glared at him again then turned back to Heral and braced myself for the weight of the weapon I could see his bulging muscles were now shaking with effort to keep holding on to.

As I reached out my hands to take a hold of it, the engravings jumped out at me and my hands stilled, hovering just above the shaft. Suddenly every rune had its own colour, every rune had its own vibration. Its own breath, but they were all in perfect harmony as well. It was beautiful, just as beautiful as the blade itself. I didn't know what the words were for each rune, but I just knew what they would do if I touched them.

My left hand glided up the shaft towards a bright light blue rune that reminded me of the sky and clouds, weightlessness, and my right hand glided a little lower to a rust brown rune that felt heavy in its essence and reminded me of the ground and its stability. Their sleepy glow intensified as they activated. I took the scythe fully away from Heral who let out a grunt, and felt its heaviness evaporate as it got transferred to my palms. The one that activated it.

I lifted it with my right hand like it weighed nothing, as light as a cloud in the breeze, I gave it an experimental twirl, its blade whistling as it cut the air and I felt the stable rust red rune kick in, balancing out the weight between the tip of the shaft and the heavy blade.

I smiled at the feel of the runes underneath my fingertips and the feel of the scythe in my hands. For some very odd reason, it felt comfortable, it felt right.

Twirling the scythe first over my right then my left, I turned back to the man with the black hair and slammed the point of the shaft into the ground as I looked at him. The scythe was tall, especially for me but if I just kept altering my hand holds when I used it, I should be able to fight without much fuss. My jelly legs had disappeared with the activated runes, I was calm.

And the look on his face was priceless.

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