Awakening and Doubt (6)

I look at what she's sitting on, and I feel chills run down my spine. A grave... Hewie is sitting on a grave.

I look around the clearing, now realising why it's called 'Haunted Glade'. There are graves all around with unreadable Elaris letters.

Rusty, old, and even broken swords buried in the ground near each grave. The earth is damp... the flowers all around are wilted and look almost black.

I glance at Merle before I feel an odd and chilling aura from somewhere. Suddenly, I hear Hewie shouting at me with a hint of urgency in her voice.

"Alaire! Protect yourself!" But before I can even reach for my dagger, I see shadows flying towards me, swarming me, making me realise that they're spirits.

They're dark, and their faces look creepy, a bit distorted even. They seem to be crying and weeping, bloody tears running down their angered, almost saddened faces.

Defeaning screams and cries of the vengeful spirits overwhelm me, making me stand there completely still.

Merle attacks them whilst I remain stunned, but his attacks don't do any damage at all. My body moves by itself, but I trip over a lump of dirt that's covered in dark green grass.

"Alaire! Snap out of it!" Merle yells at me, but it takes me a moment to collect myself, and my eyes widen a bit. I stand up, and I get an eerie feeling. I unsheath my dagger and attack the spirits to help Merle, but it doesn't do anything.

The spirits are slowly getting to me... My mentality is breaking apart slowly. I stumble slightly, closing my eyes in pain. My head feels like it's about to burst!

My eyes snap wide open, my pupils contracting when I suddenly experience an unfamiliar sensation running through my body.

Black and light lightning fills the whole Haunted Glade, destroying and killing off the vengeful spirits who cry and screech loudly, disappearing into thin air.

I see only darkness around me. My body hurts, and I feel like my heart is about to burst in my chest.

Hewie flaps her wings, flying around as she suddenly glows a bit, doing something as I feel calmer... 'I hope he feels better... I still can't use my powers fully, so one soul fragment should be enough.' Hewie thinks, looking over me from the air.

Merle gets hit by the sudden lightning, getting stunned and unable to move. He simply observes everything, his eyes wide open.

I faint and hit the ground once the magic in the whole area calms and settles down, only sparks flickering around. The whole Haunted Glade is now calm and completely silent. Not a single sound can be heard.

Once he's able to move, Merle rushes over to me, but the remaining sparks of the magic lightning hit him.

He quickly thinks of a way to wake me up, looking around. He rushes over to the nearby stream and uses his wind powers to snatch leaves and form a makeshift leaf bowl, filling it with water.

Then he runs back to me and splashes me with the water, but it only turns into mist and dissipates.

Every other method he uses to try and wake me up doesn't work. The magic sparks refrain anything from interfering with my unconscious self.

I remain unmoving on the ground, lying there as Hewie sits down on the ground nearby, and Merle picks my dagger up from the muddy earth and holds it, waiting for me to stir a bit. To show at least a little sign of life...