Part 1: The Chase

Reaching out Lynia grabbed the tree limb above her as she jumped, and used it to fling herself toward a branch on a neighboring tree. Her legs found their calculated mark as she dropped to a kneeling position to absorb some of the shock of her landing. Her long pointed ears pointing out of the side of her head twitched up and down as she listened for her pursuers making chase on the ground below her. Her breathe was heavy from fleeing her relentless hunters, and her mind was filled with fear. Why were they hunting her? They were the monsters who murdered innocent miztan! Despite these atrocities, she had spared them and in return they now hunted her.   

This confrontation occurred many sun cycles ago, when they had encroached on a nearby miztan settlement in the outer perimeter of the Nitareri, or Luminous in the terran’s language, Forest. The terrans had claimed the land as theirs, when it had belonged to a miztan treetop village for many generations. The miztan offered to show them different lands along with tribute to allow the miztan to keep their village in its current location, but terrans were not interested in negotiating. The taller terrans told the miztan’s elders they had a single sun cycle to relocate, or their village would be destroyed with them in it. The chief miztan elder had grown impatient with the invaders and told the terrans to leave, and that the miztan would not forsake their homes. The terrans’ response was brutal, the group of ten soldiers immediately began to opened fire with their powerful weapons on the miztan.

Lynia arrived just in time to witness the terran’s beginning their massacre. Solid metal spikes launched at supersonic speeds had torn through the miztan with ease as they tried to flee. Lynia was shocked by the ruthlessness of the invaders, but she did not allow the shock to prevent her from acting. Focusing her spiritual energy, Lynia had quickly conjured ten darts of fiery energy, and launched them toward the murderous terrans by flinging out her arm toward the targets. The small seven centimeter bolts of pure energy danced among the heartless soldiers, but not a single soldier was harmed by them. Under Lynia’s careful guidance these power bolts of energy burned through their weapons, rendering them useless. Walking toward the murderers her eyes ignited in power she demanded they leave and she would not be so merciful if they tried to harm anymore miztan. The shocked terrans did as she commanded, and retreated with haste to their ground crawling vehicle. That was the last and only interaction with the terrans until now.

By leaping from branch to branch in the upper regions of forest, the nature attuned faelin afforded to keep ahead of her hunters. Her swift movements among the canopies of the trees were unhindered by the thick underbrush and roots that slowed her hunters. However their flying machine was impossible to outrun. The whine of its engines could be heard as it passed overhead once again, and hovered ahead of her. Thankfully the thick canopy hid her from that metal beast, but the canopy also blocked her view so she could not see that it had dropped off another terran soldier.

As Lynia started to leap to a nearby branch the air was filled with the sounds of an electrical crack from one of the terran’s weapons. Suddenly a sharp pain drove through her right leg as a metal projectile drove straight into it. Yelping in pain, she continued forward faster her adrenaline allowing her to ignore the quickly fading pain. Lynia did not realize that her leg was quickly beginning to numb as she continued to flee. She would soon realize it when the leg lacked the control for her to make a simple jump. Her three fingers and thumb reached out in a desperate attempt to grab the branch she had leaped for when she realized her jump had been short. She was barely able to grab a hold of the branch, but her grip quickly failed. Feeling the smooth branch slip from her fingers, her mind quickly turned to fear as she realized she was falling toward the hard ground below. Closing her eyes she focused the best she could as her body pummeled from the vast height of the forest’s great tree that stood almost a 100 meters in height.

Summoning a field of invisible energy below her faelin attempted to shield her body from the hard impact with the ground, it was the same technique she used to levitate, but she didn’t have time or focus to form a levitation field. When she slammed into the hard forest floor, the field dampened most of the impact saving her from death. However the shield was not enough to completely protect her, the faelin’s left arm was the first part of her body to strike the ground as she reached out with to break her fall and it broke like a twig, the severed bone jutting out of her skin. Following her arm her left side struck the ground, and the impact instantly cracked four ribs. Tears formed in her eyes as she gasped in pain, but she would not give up now. Using her still good right arm she half crawled across the ground toward a tall thick patch of blue and purple La-La flowers that stood a little over a meter tall with their long elegant stems. These flower stood next to the remains of a fallen tree, whose large trunk and the uneven earth created a small crevice she could hide in. Crawling under the tree and behind the thick cluster of flowers, Lynia wrapped her purple hair covered fox like tail around her tan skin with elaborate emerald green patterns on it. Looking down at the leg that had lost all feeling she saw a metal device sticking out of it. She grabbed the metal object and pulled it out of her skin revealing the point of it was like a needle. She inspected it as the drugs contained in the projectile spread into her torso causing a numbing sensation that creeped across her torso. She tossed the object as far as she could away from herself as she curled up the best she could in order to hide.

                Lynia took her still good right hand and began to summon energies to heal her shattered left arm. A soothing blue light slowly repaired the broken arm. Lycia was focused on her healing and fighting the numbness that was slowly encroaching on her mind, to notice the approaching terran. Suddenly the sound of a branch breaking made her look up. One of her pursuers was looking at the dart she had tossed aside. The figure’s armored right boot stood on top of a broken branch that had announced its arrival. The figure’s helmet hid its face and made it look like a faceless monster. Holding her breath, Lynia pulled away her right hand slowly as she transformed the healing energy into powerful burning energy. Fear gripped her mind as the helmet suddenly turned and faced her. She realized her energy change had caught its attention.

Lynia’s fear and anger mixed the haziness caused by her drugs made her act without thinking. Her right hand dart up as the terran’s weapon turned toward her. Time seemed to slow to Lynia unleashed five magical darts of searing light, at the same time she heard the electrical crack of the figure’s weapon discharging. Horror suddenly gripped Lynia’s mind as she realized she was about to take a life. A sharp pain stabbed her shoulder as the terran’s weapon struck her and the additional drugs began to cloud her senses even further as her energy projectiles surged toward their target. No, she could not do it, she would not turn into a killer. She would not be like these heartless terrans. Closing her grip all the darts converged together forming a burning orb that hovered a few centimeters away from her attacker before slowly fading away. The figure just stood there staring at the dangerous yet beautiful orb until it had completely faded. Right before the darkness swallowed Lynia’s mind she afforded to whisper a single word, “Mercy.”