My Love Triangle: Choose Werewolf Or Demon Prince

Luna shut her eyes and tried to focus on pulling the energy she needed from the air, energy thrummed between her fingers but the most she got were sparks.

No big bright light capable of eliminating shadowlings.

“Oh forget it!” Luna scoffed and stood up from where she sat to head further down the road.

Arcadia had quickly turned from the garden of the Gods to their battleground as the darkness ate at it's beauty. The once clear blue skies were now streaks of red permanently painted on it and the sun had rescinded it's beautiful yellow color and was now blood red. It's heat that once caressed the skin and gave live to Arcadia now threatened to be it's undoing as it burned away at the soils, causing the once beautiful green grasses to die out. Life was slowly slipping away from Arcadia with each second that passed.

Even the birds no longer chirped and sang, their once melodious voices now replaced by the hissing of vultures as they circled around looking for any carcass they could feast on. The air smelled like burnt sulphur and it made breathing very difficult. It wasn’t just Arcadia that suffered, Luna looked like life was being sapped from her as things in Arcadia worsened. They needed to get to a safer part of the kingdom.

Through out their journey and their battles with shadowlings, Luna had tried severally to summon light, but it was almost like the talent eluded her out of spite.

They had been wandering the forests for days with no where in mind as a destination. Her tummy twisted in hunger as she walked. Her last meal was yesterday when they came by some wild fruits which she ate with no care in the world. Helios had tried to convince her that the darkness could have infected the fruits but she threw caution to the wind. They could be damned if they ate, but they were most certainly damned if they didn't. Her fear and pain slowly grew with each passing second as she walked and she knew even Helios wasn't enough to help hold her hold the reins.

“Is something bothering you?” Helios as he hopped beside her.

“It’s nothing,” She muttered, more to herself than to him.

“Come on, talk to me. Are you still bummed that you can’t channel?”

“No—I mean I want to learn to channel, but that’s not what’s bothering?”

“Come on, talk to me. Do you want me to kneel? Might be a little difficult with this paws but I will if you say the word.”

Luna sighed, she knew Helios was only trying to cheer her up but it wasn’t working.

"I'm scared, Helios. I know I don’t show it, but I get really scared sometimes. I just… I just—I want to go home," Luna cried out as they made their way down the forest with trees that had lost their leaves, leaving them naked and exposed.

"Home? You mean the meadow?"

The meadow wasn't home and she knew it, her instincts and guts told her so. She felt she had a past, she had to have one but the memories seemed so distant and it caused her head to ache every time she tried to remember.

"I don't know, I wanna be anywhere else but here. Everything here gives me the creeps," she said as she stopped walking, afraid that if she took another step, the darkness will creep out of the skies again. She hated that she was scared. She wasn’t supposed to have fears. Warriors don’t have fears, right?

If only that could be true.

“Do you hear that?” Helios asked as both his ears perked up.

“No,” Luna answered but she gripped the dagger beside her waist. Helios could always sense whenever the shadowlings were around, it would be foolish to brush off his senses even though she couldn’t hear anything. She was scared, yes. But for now, her fears would have to wait till later. She had a job to do.

“Listen closely,” Helios said.

“Forget what you’re seeing.”

She closed her eyes abs listened closely, that was when she heard it, the sound of women wailing and rushed footsteps as people scurried around for safety.

“I hear it,” She breathed out. Her eyes scanned the empty forest, “But where’s it coming from?”

"There!" Helios said, pointing forward. "The noise is from over there," He added as he raced through the forest, urging Luna to keep pace with him.

"Wait! Helios," she screamed as she struggled to keep up.

They ran a small distance forward and came to the edge of a cliff.

"Woah! Careful Luna!" Helios yelled as manifested a wall of light to keep Luna back, preventing her from tripping over the cliff by her momentum.

"Thanks Helios,” She muttered as the construct shimmered away. “What's going on down there?" She asked. Ignoring the jealous pinch in her stomach at how easily Helios could manipulate light.

"I can't make any sense of it, it's all chaos," Helios replied.

"Let's go find out. But how do we get down there?"

“ We jump,” Helios said, giggling as he spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Are you nuts? That would be the end of us. What’s the point of running from shadow monsters if we’re just going to end it all on a cliff?” Luna yelled.

“You want to learn how to channel, right? Trust me,” He yelled as he jumped off the cliff.

She could hear him giggling as he fell. Luna gulped hard as he tried to make sense of what she was about to do. Stranger things had happened in Arcadia and at this point she was certain nothing could surprise her anymore. She walked closer to the edge of the cliff and dared herself to look down. The distance to the bottom seemed so far away as she looked around and tried to locate Helios’ gray fur.

“Stop looking for me and just jump!” he yelled, the wind seemed to carry his voice over to her making it feel like he was standing right next to her.

“Are you in one piece?” She yelled back.

“Hurry and join me, you're asking too many questions,” Helios scoffed, amusement softening his tone.

She took few steps backward as she prepared herself to follow Helios’ lead. She was certain that Helios wouldn’t do anything that could harm her and if he made it down safely, so could she.

“Trust me, Luna.” He yelled again, urging her on.

Luna increased the distance between herself and the edge, muttering to herself in inaudible words that even she couldn’t make sense of then she paced off, allowing her momentum and adrenaline push her, drowning out her fear and sense of reasoning.

She screamed as she fell freely, the wind slashed at her face forcing tears to well up in her eyes. She shut them to relief herself and when she opened them she was on the ground, standing. No broken bones or torn skin. She examined herself as Helios stood before her, chuckling slightly at her bewildered expression.

“How did that happen. How am I not…?” she trailed off.

“Dead?”

“Yes, I should be a lot more dead right now.”

“That’s easy. You trusted me.”

She checked herself again to put away her doubts then pinched hard at her wrists to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. She had seen her life flash in her eyes as she jumped, the precious little remembered of it. Not that there was much to remember.

It made no sense. How was she still alive? How did “trust” save her? And how did Helios know she could make it to the bottom alive if she jumped down.

She exhaled and let her thoughts fly with the air.

Stranger things had happened to her in Arcadia, and there was action to get to.