Green Eyes

“Selene, could you hand me that bag?” Jared indicated to a saddle bag leaning against a tree stump a couple of days later.

They had been hiking through the woods, which was getting monotonous in its diversity. The trees and plants were constantly changing with seemingly no sense of pattern or design and that had Selene completely lost. Jared and Mara came across as confident but privately the Navi wondered if they were just as lost as she was.

Thankfully the pace hadn’t been as hard as their earlier treks, mostly because of Deborah. The girl was quite a trooper Selene had observed, often puffing to keep pace with Mara whose side she rarely ever left. Mara was the only thing left in Deborah’s world and she was not going to let her go. Not unlike how Selene felt with Jared those first two weeks after Brutus had murdered her father.

But she was slowing them down; after all her little legs could carry her only so fast. They might have gone faster with her riding one of the horses, but Deborah had insisted on walking. The twins, in a rare display of generosity, had allowed it. Selene privately suspected that they didn’t want to burden either animal with any unnecessary weight and as neither warrior had complained, Selene decided it best to let sleeping dogs lie.

She had gotten plenty of time to work on strengthening her powers. It was both frustrating and rewarding. Selene could now freeze or incinerate things at will, though the raw energy didn’t seem to increase much. Telepathy on the other hand was becoming a dead end, though she thought that to be more a result of her companionship than her lack of power. While she could get some images from Jared or Mara, they were mostly fuzzy and distorted, like they were intentionally blocking her. That was something Selene didn’t doubt. She didn’t try Deborah’s mind both because she didn’t want to accidentally damage it and it felt wrong to invade the mind of a child.

But that was it for her. Selene felt like she was plateauing, which given the results of her last confrontation with the Viceroy was something she did not find comforting. A big part of her problem, she had decided the previous evening when she had collapsed from exhaustion, was that she didn’t know what powers she was supposed to have. It was like knowing that she had more muscles she could use, but not where they were. Unfortunately the twins were of little help as all they would do was shrug their shoulders and tell her to wait until Jerel.

“While we’re still young,” Jared sharply cut into her daydreaming.

“Huh, oh right, sorry,” she apologized and reached down for the bag.

Suddenly she stopped, an idea beginning to form in her mind. Brutus had telekinetically grabbed her and then toyed with her like a marionette. Jared had told her that sorcerers were copies of Navi, the idea being that what Navi could do, the Adversary’s servants could counter. But didn’t that work the other way, too? What a sorcerer could do, shouldn’t she be able to do? In theory it made sense and Selene decided to test that theory.

Focusing on the bag, Selene reached out her arm and mentally imagined an invisible hand grasping at the large leather pouch. At first she didn’t feel anything except foolishness until her hand felt a sudden pressure. No, not her hand exactly; more like she had just grown a third hand and she was just now getting feeling it. Mentally she closed her fist around the pouch and tried to lift it.

Her movements were slow and clumsy, like she was using a hand that was completely numb. She couldn’t get a tactile feel of the leather, just a vague sense of pressure where the bag was. It helped that she could see the leather bend under the telekinetic pressure she was exerting; it gave her a visual reference to work from.

Unfortunately the bag was doing little more than bending. Concentrating harder and pouring more of her power into the task, Selene tried again. The resulting strain was not unlike what she often felt in her arms when lifting something that was too big or too heavy. Beads of sweat popped out on her forehead as she focused.

The added power seemed to do the trick and the saddlebag began to lift off of the ground and hover a couple of feet in the air. Like lifting anything else, once she got it up Selene found it easier to hold it steady than it was to initially lift. Easier but not easy.

“Selene what could possibly be—” Jared stopped short when he saw the levitating bag.

“Impressive,” he admitted somewhat reluctantly. “Can you move it? Like over here?”

“I’ll try,” she gritted, sweat running down her face now.

It took nearly all of her willpower and focus just to maintain a grip on the pouch. Selene honestly didn’t know if she could move it but of course she had to try. After all what was the point of being able to levitate things if you couldn’t do anything with them?

Releasing more of her power, which was already sapping her strength, Selene tightened her grip and tried to direct the object to her right. Ever so slowly it moved right until after nearly a minute had passed, she had lined it up with the mercenary. Then Selene started pushing it back towards him.

That was more difficult than she had anticipated. As the bag got farther away, it got harder to maintain mental control over it. It was like she was trying to hold something and stretch out her arm parallel to the ground. Even light objects seemed to get heavy when you did that.

The bag fluttered in the air as she felt her grip weaken. She was getting tired and Selene knew she couldn’t keep hold it up much longer. Biting her bottom lip, Selene opened the floodgates and poured the rest of her power into the bag.

In retrospect, that was a bad idea. Had she not been so focused or so worn out already, Selene might have seen the inherent stupidity of doing so. But alas she did not.

The bag rocketed forward like an arrow from a bow and right at Jared. Quick as the mercenary’s reflexes were, they were not that quick and the stuffed leather pouch slammed him full force in the chest. He was lifted completely off his feet and dropped straight on his back, driving the wind out of his lungs with an explosive gasp.

Selene was so shocked that she completely lost focus on controlling the bag which continued its trajectory until colliding with a tree twenty feet beyond. Deborah yelped at seeing Jared go down so violently and instinctively started running over to him. For her part, Mara laughed hysterically.

“I am so sorry. Are you okay?” Selene worried as she ran up to Jared, who was still lying on the ground, gasping and coughing as he desperately tried to get the air back in his lungs.

“I suggest you avoid levitating sharp objects until you have that under better control,” Jared wheezed.

Clearly he was fine.

“Now go get that bag and tie it on to Barack,” the mercenary ordered coldly as he sat up with another cough.

*******

Selene couldn’t quite place when it began but for much of the last couple of hours, she had this feeling like she was being watched. Every now and then she thought she heard the leaves or bushes rustle but whenever she stopped to listen, there was nothing.

Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. Unlike when she and Jared had hiked through the Ra’anan a month and a half previous, they weren’t following some sort of path. Then they had gone alongside the Trickling Creek which gave her some sense of direction. Here with no sun or path to guide them, they seemed to be just ambling aimlessly.

The dreariness of the forest certainly didn’t help. For the hundredth time the Navi wished it was spring or summer; then the forest wouldn’t feel so bleak. Now most of the trees stood naked and gray against the gray sky while dead, brown leaves crunched underneath her feet.

There wasn’t even any wildlife around, though she knew there had to be because Jared or Mara always brought back some sort of kill for supper. But it wasn’t showing itself, leaving the forest eerily quiet and cold. No wonder her mind was playing tricks on her.

Except there it was again. Selene instantly froze, listening for the soft crunching of leaves that she could’ve sworn she had just heard. Again everything went quiet. But that was the problem; it was too quiet.

Briefly she debated telling Jared and Mara but decided against it. They would probably dismiss her concerns as being the result of endless trudging through the trackless Harosheth and they already mocked her enough as it was.

Still she decided to be on high alert, her ears practically straining to pick up any unusual sound. It was not long before Selene picked up another faint crunch.

This time she was ready for it and whirled around in the direction of the sound. It came from the base of a large oak tree to her right and a bit behind. Just as Selene turned to look, she thought she saw the edge of something gray slip behind the tree. She stared hard at the gray trunk of the tree but saw nothing.

“You with us?” Mara called to her from ahead

“Yeah,” Selene turned back to face the others. “I thought I saw—”

The words caught in her throat. Just as she was answering Mara, the former slave suddenly twitched and grabbed her neck. A moment later she fainted.

“What the—” Jared started when he suddenly tensed up and fainted. Deborah collapsed almost simultaneously leaving Selene alone and terrified.

A soft crunching sound behind her drew her attention. When she turned to face it, her heart nearly stopped.

Suddenly standing there was a figure about her size in a gray cloak with a black cloth wrapped around her face, masking it. A scimitar was on her hip and a long bow in her hand. The figure didn’t move or speak; instead it just stood there, staring.

The abrupt appearance of the person was so sudden and so unexpected that Selene didn’t know how to react. She had been so completely caught off guard that she froze in panic. Then, just as her wits were starting to return to her, Selene felt a sharp sting on the back of her neck. Reaching up she felt a small needle or dart stuck there.

All of a sudden her fingers and toes began to tingle and then go numb as she lost control over her limbs. The world began to spin as she collapsed to the ground and then nothing.

*******