Confrontation

"Why did I agree to this?" Jasmine crouched down behind an overturned piece of stone, her hands weaving something with the light strings from her fingers. Rose peeked to the floating ground and the two people sitting there. 

"HAHAHAHAHA. Come at me you piece of ****!" Kefi shouted but she didn't move, just glancing around with an excited look on her face. 

"Spirits are something else," Rose said, turning back to Jasmine. "You ok?"

"Yes. But … who are you exactly?" Jasmine turned to Caris, who just stood there with almost as much of an excited face as Kefi had. 

"Me? I thought I already introduced myself."

"You did but … where you really serious about that?"

"Yes. Are you about to be done?" He asked, looking at whatever it was that Jasmine was making. 

"Yes. I'm done." Jasmine stood up, holding a net made from her magic. "It harder to make a weak net than it is to make a strong one." 

"Why not just make a strong one then?" Rose asked, scoffing.

"Rose. Remember, we aren't here to harm her. Why you agreed to indulge in a child's tantrums will never make sense to me, nor will the fact that you managed to convince me to join in this. So, I am going to make sure you don't hurt her."

"Spoilsport." 

"Right. Should we see if you can survive without me?" Jasmine asked hands on her hips. 

"No. Since you are already here then let's just get it over with. I won't hurt her."

Just then, a vibration spread in the air. 

Twenty seconds.

"Are you ready, Rose?" 

"Of course. What about you guy?"

"I'm ready," Caris said, grinning. He jumped up and made his way to Kefi through the trees. 

"Hello." He greeted her, before throwing something to her direction. As they were about to reach her, they exploded in a cloud of green smoke and surrounded her. 

Kefi grinned back and took in a deep breath, sucking all the smoke into her lungs as Rose jumped out of nowhere and was getting ready to attack her. 

In a deep exhale, she released the smoke in her lungs at Rose, covering her in them. Unable to see, Rose fell to the ground in front of Kefi. 

"Are you ok?" Kefi asked, mockingly, green smoke still coming out of her lungs. 

"Shut up." Rose coughed out, covering her nose from the smoke. 

Caris appeared behind her again and kept throwing more smoke bombs to Kefi. This time, she waved her hand to the left and a big gust of wind blew all the smoke away. 

"Come on, this is too easy. At this rate, will you even be able to get near me?" Kefi taunted. 

"Don't be so cocky, Snake," Rose said, standing up.

"We aren't one of the best at the Society for nothing."

Kefi froze, feeling something at the back of her head. She closed her eyes and exhaled, feeling the ground beneath her. There was no one behind her. 

Quickly opening her eyes, she grabbed Aurora and jumped barely missing Rose's hand. Recovering instantly, Rose was in front of her in a second. 

Kefi had no problem dodging her but with the extra weight of Aurora and the fact that she was in a child's body made it a little more difficult than she would have liked.

"We have ten seconds," Meraki said, whether it was a warning or a heads-up, Kefi couldn't tell. 

"Have you need counting in your head?" Kefi teased. 

"Pay attention to what's going on right now." She scolded. "And be careful with Aurora."

"Geeze, ok. Ok. Don't think of taking over."

"I'll do whatever I wish." 

Kefi laughed while still avoiding Rose, "Sure, Meraki." 

"Are you so confident that you think you will win without having to take this seriously?" Rose started taunting. 

"Perhaps. You haven't given me a reason not to think that way now don't you think so?" She said, landing on the branch of a tree. Aurora still slept on her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. 

Rose stood on the branch opposite to her.

Watching her closely. 

"Well, we might just be trying to make you lose your guard in order to win. Don't you think so?" Rose smiled at her. 

"Hmmm …" Kefi tapped her face with her finger, "You are right about that. And I have thought about it. Where do you think that guy is?" 

"Guy? Caris?" Rose suddenly realized that she hadn't seen him since his last attack. Trying to look around her, she realized that she couldn't move anymore. 

Beneath her, the tree had intertwined its branches around her ankles and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't break free. 

"Oh~? Would you look at that? Five seconds left. Looks like I wo-" Before she could finish her sentence, Kefi felt herself being pulled in another direction with immense speed. 

She clung onto the sleeping Aurora's body, trying to cover her from the trees that hit them on as they are being dragged away. 

Before long, she was hanging upside down in a net from a tree branch, still holding Aurora close to her. They were in a relatively tall tree. 

"Wow. If we fell, we could break our necks." Kefi remarked, looking above her which was where the ground was.

"I'm sorry." Jasmine appeared behind them, her hands outstretched to touch her. 

"Aurora!" Meraki shouted as the net broke and she grabbed the edges of the net with one hand but she wasn't fast enough to grab Aurora and she started to fall to the ground. 

Jasmine quickly turned and caught her inches from slamming onto the ground as the countdown sounded. Time is up and they won but, Kefi wasn't smiling as they climbed up the broken net to the branch it hung from. 

"Aww~ we lost?" Rose teleported herself there watching Jasmine sit at the base of the tree then turned to Kefi sitting on the branch of the tree with a solemn look on her face and net in hand. 

"Hey!" She shouted at them and smiled, "Good game!" 

Kefi looked at her but didn't say anything, she didn't even offer a smile. She jumped down and landed in front of Jasmine, inspecting Aurora. 

"Hey! Are you ignoring me?" 

"Is she ok?" Kefi asked as she continued to ignore Rose. 

"Yes. I wonder what happened. Maybe I made the net too weak? I'm sorry about that. I endangered both of you." Jasmine looked down, swallowing back her frustration. 

"No, don't worry about that. I'm sure it was just a mistake. No one got hurt right?" Kefi tried to reassure her.

"I'll have to keep training, I need to be more careful. You are kind to forgive me." Jasmine said, smiling at her.

Kefi turned away from her and looked at Rose approaching them, fuming with anger. 

"You-" She stared but paused when she saw her expression and quickly took a step back, "What trick do you have up your sleeves now?" 

"Rose." They heard the crying voice of Jasmine behind them and Rose quickly ran to her side.

"What happened?" 

"It's my fault. I should have been more careful. I was too caught up with everything." She sobbed. 

"What? What are yo-"

Unwilling to hear anymore, Kefi ran into the forest, away from all of them. She continued to run even when her lungs felt like they were about to burst. 

Kefi. Stop. 

Ignoring the voice and the pressure in the body she inhabited to stop running, Kefi pushed on.

Kefi.

In a split second, she lost control of the body and almost fell forward. Meraki came back into control of the body and steadied herself, breathing heavily.

Anger filled her entire being as she took control of the body again and released a spell on herself. As the spell washed over her, there was a bright light and warm stinging pain all over her body, making it hard for Meraki to breathe as she collapsed to the ground. 

Something felt like it was being ripped out of her body and she wrapped her arms around her chest to try and stop whatever it is from coming out. 

Her skin stretched and her eyes became blurry from the pain she felt all over her body. Hot tears rolled down her eyes uncontrollably as the pain continued to spread all over her body. 

Why does it hurt so bad?

It wasn't just her body that felt this pain, it was her mind and soul as well. 

She couldn't cry out or even move, only gasps of shallow breath could be heard and the unsteady ground beneath her. All she felt was pain. Mind-numbing pain. 

Then, as quickly as the pain came, it slowly disappeared but she still felt the deep emptiness in her body and soul, clutching the cloth in front of where her heart felt like it stopped beating. 

"Meraki." She heard this voice before, but it sounds so odd at the moment. Why is that?

Looking up as tears flowed down her eyes, she saw a snake's tail and as she continued to raise her eyes, she could finally make out the person looking down on her with rage-filled eyes.

"Kefi?" Her voice was barely a whisper as she called out the forever familiar name.

"You." Kefi hissed out, a murderous rage growing in her.