Branches of Life

I ran through the densely spaced trees, jumping over exposed roots and ducking under low-hanging tree branches. My breaths were coming hard and fast, pulling in the multiple scents of the forest with each breath: the damp wood of the trees, wet soil, grass, and rich moss. All scents that soothed my soul as well as my wolf.

A cramp had formed in my side, and my chest burned from the hour of sprinting through the Wilds, dodging the natural obstacles the forest had set in front of me. Even with my spirit wolf lending me strength and endurance, my energy was flagging. I really should’ve had a bigger breakfast this morning.

The typical sounds of the forest surrounded me, from the animals to the rustling leaves when a breeze blew through. I’d been paying special attention to the noises around me, listening to any slight change. My ears picked up the faint sound of rushing water. In a split-second decision, I changed my direction, heading straight for the water. I picked up my pace, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do.

When I came across a fallen tree in my path, I vaulted over it, stumbling on the landing and nearly losing my footing. Muscles in my legs throbbed and pulsed as I kept going. As I continued moving through the forest, the rushing water became louder and louder.

As the water became a roar, blocking all other sounds and hurting my sensitive ears, the trees thinned out until I eventually broke the tree line. I skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff. In front of me, the river winding through the forest poured down the cliff into the plunge pool below. With the unbearably loud cascading waterfall in front of me, I hadn’t heard any other noises. Say, for example, someone creeping up behind me.

I finally heard my attacker a second before they slammed into me, taking us both over the edge of the cliff and plunging us into the water a couple of hundred feet below. My shoulder smacked the water hard and stung upon the impact. All of the breath left my lungs in a harsh whoosh. The crystal clear water was cool against my overly heated skin. Sunlight streamed through the water, highlighting the colorful fish and other sea creatures living in the deep water. When my lungs started aching, begging for fresh air, I kicked toward the surface.

I burst through the surface, deeply inhaling the fresh and clean scent of the water. A fine mist sprayed my face as I trod water, whipping my head around as I looked for my assailant. Behind me, hands gripped my shoulders, dunking my head back under.

Sputtering water as I came back up, I spun around and faced my sister. Her green eyes reminded me of the color of an evergreen, alight with amusement. The upturned shape of her eyes added to the mischievous and amused look. Both dimples in her cheeks were on full display as she laughed. Dimples that I hadn’t been blessed with. Her pale cheeks were flushed from the hour of chasing me.

“You were doing so well,” Ari said, pushing her light blonde hair from her face, several shades lighter than my honey blonde hair. I barely heard her over the crashing water, and I frowned when she started to say more, but I couldn’t understand her. She inclined her head toward the sandy shore a hundred feet away.

Relief filled my body when I pulled myself out of the water, collapsing on the pink sand. Every muscle in my body ached and shook. A part of me hated myself for lying on the sand while wet and not crawling the ten feet to the wildflower-filled grass.It would have saved me the trouble of having sand caked to my clothes, skin, and hair. Damn me for being so tired and stupid.

Water splattered my face as Ari wrung out her hair directly over where I lay. “Artemis!”

More water hit my face, this time from her shirt, in retaliation for my use of her full name. Something I knew she despised being called. We didn’t have last names as they did in the human realm, and yet we rarely had any sort of name confusion. Then again, we didn’t recycle and reuse the same boring names as they seemed to favor. Don’t even get me started on the whole middle name thing.

“You bitch!” I kicked out at her.

“I was only gone for two minutes.” Harmony’s lilting voice came from behind me. Tilting my head back, I watched as she approached from the forest. With a wave of her hand and a rush of magic, mine and Ari’s clothes immediately dried. As an elemental, she was able to manipulate all four elements.

Harmony’s strawberry blonde hair was french braided back from her lightly tanned face, highlighting its heart shape. Rose gold eyeliner lined her round eyes and accentuated the color, green like a field of grass in the springtime. A sprinkling of freckles dusted her nose and cheeks, along with the glitter she added to her cheekbones, matching her lilac lipstick. Somehow, her white tube top remained spotless, as were her high-waisted lavender shorts, accentuating her long legs. As per usual, Harmony wasn’t wearing shoes. As an elemental from the Earth Court, she preferred to always be connected with the Earth. That and she complained about how restricting and uncomfortable shoes were. The only times I ever saw her wearing shoes were when we visited the human realm.

“Training is a fast-paced environment where anything and everything can happen,” Ari replied with a sly smile.

“Falling into a lake is nothing compared to the shit Ander’s put us through in training,” I muttered, pushing myself to my feet, groaning when I saw sand clinging to my clothes, arms, and legs.

“It took me half a day to heal from his last training exercise,” Harmony agreed.

"It’s better to learn your limits in a controlled environment." Ari deepened her voice in an impersonation of Ander while walking down the well-worn path through the wildflowers and to the tree line.

"You won’t know your limits until you reach them," I added in my own impression.

“Or how about when he says this.” Harmony paused, clearing her throat. ”You don’t want to be the kind of Mythic that relies on others to protect them, unable to protect themselves.”

During our walk back to the Convergence point, the neutral district where we lived, I regretted how deep we ran into the forest. It took us nearly twice as long since we weren’t sprinting like before.

If one looked at a map of our realm, they’d find a land basically shaped like a star. Four of the points belonged to a different race. The point on the left used to belong to the necromancers but now was neutral territory. At the tip of the land was the forest we were in, also known as the Wilds. The inner half made up the Convergence point.

We were nearing the edge of the Wilds when all three of our wristband’s crystals lit up a dark red as a long and shrill beep came from them. Every Mythic wore a wristband with a small round crystal—basically, it was to us what cell phones were to humans. The crystal would light up every time a message was received. If the message was marked urgent, it would beep. Normal messages gave off a white light. But this wasn’t a normal message. It was from the council.

The crystal glowed a luminescent white when I tapped it, projecting an opaque holographic screen above it, roughly the size of my hand. To anyone else, all they would see was me staring at a glowing rock. It was all a part of its genius design, created by a couple of elementals, a blood mage, and a sorceress.

A video popped up on my screen of Councilor Griffith—a dark-skinned blood mage with dark eyes and a lean build—his handsome face solemn, hands clasped in front of him. I already knew something bad must’ve happened. The council didn’t make a habit of sending out district-wide messages for just anything.

“Mythics of the Convergence point, this morning before sunrise, vampires made it through the rift.” Griffith paused for effect; he had always been on the dramatic side, loving his theatrics. Or maybe he did so because he knew Ari, Harmony, and I would gasp in disbelief and horror.

“We will be having a council meeting in thirty minutes to discuss the details and our plan of action. Stay safe.” The video ended, and I just stood there staring at my screen in shock. Only Mythics were able to access the rift to and from the human realm. No one else. It should’ve been impossible for the vampires to find it, much less use it. It was one of those things we had known to be certain, and now that certainty had been tainted by doubt.

Were we no longer safe in our own realm?

“I can’t believe they got through,” Harmony whispered, still staring at her wristband, even though it was no longer on.

“I can’t believe neither of the guys thought to send us a message,” I griped, powering down my crystal when I saw neither had sent a message. It was still early in the afternoon, and while there was the slight chance that neither Ander nor Reed didn’t know about the attack, it was highly unlikely.

“Ander is probably doing his overprotective I didn’t want to worry you, bullshit,” Ari said, rolling her eyes.

“Well then, let’s get to this damn council meeting so I can kick their asses,” I growled, powering down the slight incline leading out of the forest, with renewed energy.

In the central part of the district, a cobblestone path wound between the shops, restaurants, and homes. The buildings weren’t uniform like many of the towns in the other courts, following themes of building style, color palette, or materials. Instead, it was a hodgepodge of architecture and materials. One was rectangular and built from bricks. While the house next door was a wooden structure with a peaked roof.

There was something beautiful about the chaos of having all these buildings right next to each other, fitting almost. Why shouldn’t each building have its own personality in an area made up of all of four races?

The pathway was crowded with Mythics rushing out of the buildings, following the path to the council chambers. I picked up on hushed conversations full of speculations and gossip. Some were worried we’d become too complacent over the years. They thought we didn’t train as hard as we should’ve. Apparently, we were too reliant on the fact that we were the only ones able to go through that rift, and we didn’t take our job to protect it—as well as the other two rifts we had to protect—as seriously as we should’ve.

No joke, I actually heard one start their sentence off with, “When I was a kid.” I quickly tuned out their rant in favor of listening to the wild theories thrown out, needing all my willpower not to laugh out loud.

Over five thousand years ago, Mythics never had to worry about vampire attacks. We didn’t have to worry about anything coming through the rift to the human realm. For one simple reason: they didn’t exist. Back then, Mythics had five races, not four. But that was before the necromancers were exiled and created a whole host of creatures, such as vampires.

Unfortunately, since the necromancers were still Mythics, they could still access the rift back into our realm. We couldn’t magically block them from using the rift without closing it completely. Because of this, it was the most important of the six rifts in our realm and was constantly guarded.

It had been over a thousand years since a necromancer had been spotted. Most believed them to have died off.

In my twenty-three years of life, I had never met a necromancer, and if I had it my way, I never would. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go the way you planned. Sometimes, it went in the opposite direction.