Chapter 1 - The Decision

Chapter 1

The Decision




I was running as fast as my four legs would carry me down the alleyway. Just a few more paces and I could pounce on that idiot of a man who thought he could get away with stealing a bank and killing five people in the process. We have become a bit accustomed to doing these types of things; that is, Jessica, Kemelly, Patty, Nick, Bobby, Andrew, and I have. Ever since we received our stones that allowed us to control nature our lives have never been so eventful. We used to have to fight demons bent on destroying the world as we know it, but we stopped them and now we are just a little group of vigilantes.

Jessica was coming right behind me and Bobby was flying overhead. This guy was running straight into a trap and he didn’t even know it. As soon as we passed the dumpster, he fell down with a big thump. A vine had come from behind the dumpster and grabbed his leg, no doubts thanks to Patty. Just as his head hit the floor, a wall of water appeared in front of us and another wall, this one of fire, appeared behind us. A shadow appeared behind the fire and Nick emerged unscathed from the flames of which he controlled. Through the water, Kemelly appeared without the slightest indication that she had just walked through water.

From behind the dumpster emerged Patty holding the vine that was tied around the murderer’s leg. Andrew walked over to the vine from behind the dumpster as well and touched it sending a jolt of electricity through the vine to the thief stunning him. “Good job you guys, that seemed easy enough,” said a voice from above, Bobby’s. He landed swiftly beside us, looked at me and said, “You could’ve taken him down yourself Stephanie you know.”

~I just didn’t want him getting hurt,~ I communicated with my mind, ~These panther claws can do quite a number on human skin and I’ve only used this morph a few times. Don’t want the animal instincts to kill to overwhelm me.~ I started to look around at the others.

Kemelly stood there with her long deep black hair swaying invisibly in the night wind. Around her neck lay her royal blue water stone which she had obtained from Atlantis almost a year ago. She’s the smart one, always ready to solve any puzzle that stands in our way.

Andrew was slouching up against the wall trying to look as cool as possible. He and Kemelly have always had a thing for each other but they really didn’t start getting close until we got into this whole fiasco. Around his neck was his bright yellow lightning stone. He got that one, shockingly enough, after being struck by lightning in the plains of Africa. Andrew’s the one that keeps everyone sane and keeps us from biting each other’s heads off.

Patty was in the process of tying back her long red hair and was laughing as always. Gees, I have never seen someone that can be so happy all the time. I mean I know she is captain of the cheerleading squad and everything, but how does she do it, especially with everything that has gone on this past year. She has these beautifully rich green eyes that just make you feel good when you look at them. She was our own little healer. I heal myself when I change form, but everyone else needs a few of her healing herbs. It’s a good thing she can control plants, thanks to her green stone, and can command them to grow wherever or whenever we need them.

Nick was standing tossing a small fireball in the air. He has curly brown hair and tan skin, just a little lighter than mine. He, like Patty, is always smiling; that is unless his team loses a basketball game which never really happens because he is on the team. He is the guy that always gets us to laugh and keep our sanity through everything we’ve gone through. The stone around his neck controls fire. It came straight from the mouth of a volcano in Hawaii right before it erupted which he was thankfully able to stop with the stone’s power.

Then there’s Bobby. He’s the typical guy next door with blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a great heart. He is kind of our leader and actually my next door neighbor. You see, we both found our stones a few months before everyone else did which gave us more knowledge about them. When the time came for someone to take the leadership position, it was either him or me, and I cannot trust myself enough to be a leader, not yet. He controls the wind and likes to let it lift him up so that he can just soar through the air like an eagle, which I must tell you is really a rush.

Me, I’m Stephanie and my stone is an amber color, just like the eyes of many animals. My power lies in the ability to transform into and control animals. I feel like I am the one that I think has been most affected by everything. I cannot take seeing anyone die whether they are innocent or they are guilty. No one deserves to be killed. That is my biggest problem with everything that we are doing. Everyone does have their breaking point, and I feel like I am getting pretty close to reaching mine.

Last but definitely not least is Jessica. I really cannot figure her out. She has had some issues. She was at one point possessed by the very evil that unleashed the eight demons that almost destroyed the entire planet. While she was possessed, she nearly killed us all with the full power of her stone. When that happened, she learned how to tap into the full power of her stone which none of us has been able to do. I will be the first to say it, she is without a doubt more powerful than any one of us. The one thing that really troubles me is that she seems to like doing what we do. Not necessarily stopping crime or stopping demons, but killing them and hurting them. Her hair used to be blonde, but has become a light brown ever since she was possessed by the darkness. She has light blue eyes too that match the color of her stone, the ice stone.

We used to have another member to our group. Jonathan. He was our only tragedy to date. When the demons were unleashed, we all split up to tackle the demons that controlled our same elements. He, however, was not able to tap into enough of his stone’s power to fend off the earth demon, so he was killed in front of his girlfriend in the mountains of Colorado. On her way back from defeating another demon, Jessica made short work of the earth demon. She like all the other demons left behind a bracelet which belong to the demons, but don’t do anything. Jessica decided to give it to his girlfriend, Brittney as a keepsake.

A few weeks after we defeated the demons we went back to Colorado to meet with Brittney and talk to her about what happened. In the middle of explaining everything to her, our friend Carla the fairy was taken away by the same mysterious woman that led Bobby and I to our stones. After that happened the police showed up and arrested Brittney for apparently murdering Jonathan. We all know she isn’t guilty, but who is gonna believe anyone who says that it was a demon that killed their boyfriend and that they in fact are innocent.

“So this is the jerk that decided he wanted to make a little withdrawal from the bank? I think that was a little bit cold hearted don’t you?” asked Jessica sarcastically. Her stone glowed and ice came up from the ground like a pedestal and lifted her up off the ground.

“What are you doing?” asked Patty.

“Giving this guy what he deserves for killing five innocent people, that’s all,” said Jessica with a twisted smirk coming across her face. Again her stone glowed and a spear charmed appeared beneath it. From the pedestal on which she was on sprang a spear with a blade made of ice. She grabbed it and threw it at the man hitting him square in the chest.

I demorphed as quickly as I could and stood there crying. You see, a panther cannot really cry and I felt like I needed to cry.

“I can’t take it anymore! I am through with this!” I shouted tears streaming down my face.

Bobby walked over slowly and put his arms around me and whispered in my ear, “Stephanie, we have been through this already. He is a murderer. We just stopped him from murdering or hurting anyone ever again.”

I put my hands up and pushed him away from me. “How many times do I have to tell you that it still is not right?!? It is not our job to punish people for the crimes they have committed! That is why there are police officers, and courts, and lawyers! They are the ones that have the power to decide what happens to people like this, not you, or me, or any one of us here!” I shouted at him. I couldn’t stop myself. It hurt. I had had enough of it. It needed to end.

“Stephanie, I know it is really hard to deal with, but this is what we have to do. Why else would we still have these powers?” Kemelly said obviously trying to comfort me, but it didn’t work.

“We don’t have to do anything! I don’t have to do anything! I’m done with this,” I said walking away with tears streaming down my eyes. It hurt to know that we had killed that man, but what hurt more was that no one came after me.
I morphed into a barn owl and flew off into the night, back towards my house. When I arrived I flew in through my open window on the first floor. I demorphed and put on my pajamas. Still crying, I hopped into my bed and went to sleep.


I was so exhausted when I woke up from the night before. As I started to open up my eyes I realized something. I wasn’t in my room. I wasn’t laying on my bed either; I was on a large pile of leaves.

“Oh good you’re up now too,” said a seemingly sweet voice from beside me. I swear, I must’ve jumped two feet in the air. I turned around to see a girl about my age sitting with her knees drawn into her chest. She had dark brown hair just like I did and also had tan skin. Her hair was much shorter though and completely straight unlike mine. Her eyes, strangely enough, were also a dark brown. She smiled sweetly and pointed off into the distance.

“Isn’t it just beautiful here,” she said in awe.

I sat up and stared into the distance as well. Then asked, “Where exactly is here?”

“Dunno.”

“And who are you?”

“Oh sorry, must’ve spooked you. I’m Gloria,” she said as she went and shook hands with me.

“I’m Stephanie,” I said standing up. I looked around and realized that I was at the edge of a forest and in front of me was a large beautiful field sparsely planted with trees and flowers in bloom everywhere. “Wow this is spectacular,” I was in complete awe. It looked as though it had come out of a painting.

“Well now that you’re awake, how about we go take a look around. I didn’t want to go out looking by myself,” Gloria said standing up and dusting off her shorts.

“Where should we go?”

“Well if you look off in the distance I noticed that there was a herd of some type of animal. I can’t make it what animals they are though.”

“Sounds like a plan then, let’s go.” I started walking off towards the distance through the beautiful field. The grass went up to my knees and the flowers were enormous. Some of the flowers themselves were the size of a bush. I never in my life had seen anything like this. Gloria on the other hand had seemed very comfortable in this environment which was really strange. It was almost as though she had been here before. As we got closer to the animals, it seemed as though they were horses. When we were finally a few yards away from them I noticed the massive wings on the sides of their bodies. One of them lifted its head up from the grass allowing it to be visible for the first time.

It had the head of an eagle with the hindquarters of a horse. It had the tail of a horse a horse’s back legs with hair, but as soon as you reached its midsection, feathers appeared. At around the shoulder blades, the wings protruded out and lay on the sides of the beast. Its front legs were not exactly legs, they were talons like that of an eagle.

“Oh wow, these aren’t really animals. They can’t be,” I said in shock.

“Why do you say that?” asked Gloria seemingly insulted.

“They can’t exist. These are hippogriffs. They come from mythology. They are not real, they can’t be.” I began to walk up to them slowly with Gloria beside me. As I got close I mumbled, “Don’t hurt me.” I went up to a grey one and began to stroke its back without a problem. Then I stroked the area where the feathers meet the fur and the hippogriff swung its massive head around at me and knocked me to the ground.

Gloria immediately began to help me up and said to the hippogriff, “Don’t do that again.” The hippogriff picked up its feet and began to trot off to the other side of the herd. “Next time, you should pet the gold ones. They are the omegas of the group so they get pushed around a lot. Also, they don’t like to be pet in between the feathers and fur; it’s awkward for them.”

“How do you know this?” I asked in complete shock.

“I’ve been here before, but in my dreams. This time it’s special though. It has to be real. My dreams are never this real. I just don’t know what we are here for and you have never been in this dream before either.” Gloria began to walk over to a gold one and began to stroke it gently. It was amazing how something so big could be so gentle. They had to have been the size of the bigger than any horse she had seen by about a foot.

I started thinking. If they really are animals, then how come it didn’t obey me? Is my stone not working? I looked down at it and realized that it wasn’t there. My stone was gone! Suddenly, the hippogriffs started to run and one by one jump into the air.

“Stephanie! Hop onto the one, they don’t mind being ridden!” shouted Gloria hopping onto the gold one she was petting using the joint by the wing as a grip. I felt a rush of wind from behind me. One of them was running. I turned and grabbed the base of the wing, but it was running too fast for me to keep up so I was swept off my feet. I suddenly realized that it was the large grey female. She turned her head around and swept me up and onto her back.

I held on as tightly as I could to the base of her wings. She quickly started flapping and we were off into the air. I turned around to see where Gloria was and she was coming up on my right side on her gold hippogriff.

“Isn’t this amazing!” she shouted.

“I’ve never done anything like this!” I shouted back, “Where are we headed?”

“Can’t you see the mountain?” asked Gloria pointing up into the distance. There it was, a mountain floating in the sky. It was beautiful. I had never seen anything like it before in my life. It was massive. It made no sense it being up in the sky, but as I looked more carefully, it was situated atop a cloud. Thanks to Kemelly I know though that clouds are just condensed water vapor, so it made no scientific sense. But that didn’t matter anymore, I was riding a hippogriff and I was flying to a mountain in the sky. After a couple of minutes, we landed at the base of the mountain and we got off the hippogriffs. After we got off they ran up the slopes of the mountain.

I was looking down at the ground from the sky and was just in awe, but for some strange reason Gloria hadn’t said anything. “Gloria, look at this! We’re so high up!”
“Stephanie, I think you should look at this…” she said somberly. I turned around and rushed over to her, then was I able to see the massive building hidden from my view earlier behind a tree.

“I think we should go in,” I said walking towards the entrance. It was strange, one half was completely white and the other half entirely black. I heard Gloria’s footsteps behind me.

“Stephanie, I have never been here before in my dream. I usually wake up after I ride the hippogriffs. I’m not so sure we should go in.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t in your dreams either and nothing bad has happened. Just stick close to me.” I walked slowly into the building and realized that it was painted completely grey on the inside. It seemed like a maze. There were brick staircases going up and down without railings and there were doors in random locations. It was really weird.

“Where do we go?” asked Gloria. When she finished speaking I noticed that a walkway and a group of stairs leading to a door turned white.

“Let’s follow the white. It’s always a good color,” I said following the white path. As we started walking up the stairs, I noticed a brick was a little loose so I avoided it. I figured Gloria did the same, but I heard a scream and a crash. I turned and saw that the part of the stairs that we had already walked on had fallen to the ground beneath us.

“Stephanie! Help me!” Gloria shouted hanging on with all her might to the bricks that still were intact. I turned as fast as I could and thought as hard as I could of a gorilla. I then realized that I didn’t have my stone so I couldn’t morph into one. I couldn’t borrow the strength of an animal, I had to use my own. I reached over and very slowly and carefully pulled Gloria up. Once she was back on the staircase, we both rested for a few moments.

“That was close,” I said. Gloria stayed quiet though, she just looked out into the distance and breathed deeply. She suddenly stood up and started walking up the steps again. I got up quickly and walked beside her. We finished walking up without speaking at all and then stopped when we reached the door.

“I’ll open it,” I said and I did. As I opened the door I began to peer in. It was a very dark room. I was able to however make out two figures seated in the middle of an engraved pentagram.

“I have been waiting for you two,” said the voice of a woman, one of the figures in the room. We both walked in and suddenly the door shut behind us. It became pitch black. I grabbed Gloria’s hand to make sure she was still next to me. Then seemingly out of nowhere a pair of yellow eyes appeared and began coming closer to us.

“Don’t,” said the voice, “They are important guests.” The eyes disappeared. Slowly the lights began to come on. I was then able to make out a woman in a long fur coat and a black panther sitting beside her. Suddenly, she stood up and turned to face us.

“So we meet again,” the woman said with a wretched smile. Again? What does she mean again? Then I noticed the grey stone hanging around her neck.

“You! Where is Carla?!?” I demanded to know. It was the very same woman that gave Bobby and me our stones and the same woman that kidnapped Carla.

“Relax my child, she is safe, but she is not here in this room and neither will you for much longer.”

“What do you mean?” asked Gloria.

“Oh a new face,” said the woman, “How refreshing. You both share a gift. Only one of you however has ever really tapped into. Gloria, you still have yet to learn what this gift is. Stephanie, you want to give this gift up? Are you sure? If you give it up, then you will be taking that same gift away from Gloria as well.”

“What is she saying?” asked Gloria very confused, “What gift?”

“It is both a gift and a curse. I cannot continue to use it anymore. Too much life has already been taken,” I said somberly.

“Well I have been able to live my entire life without this gift. I think if Stephanie wants to give it up, then it is alright with me,” said Gloria.

“Then it is settled. You will lose this gift. You may however take the seal off of your power if you must, but then I will not be able to take it away again. You will be stuck with it and without a way out. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I replied hesitantly.

“Very well then. The stone will remain with you; it will just not have any power for the time being. Farewell to you both,” she said.

It turned black and I could no longer feel Gloria’s hand. I screamed. The floor was no longer there and I was falling, falling faster by the second. Then it stopped. I opened my eyes and saw my alarm clock by my bed.

“It couldn’t have been a dream,” I said to myself. I sat up in my bed and looked around at my room. No sign of Gloria and I was definitely in my room. I looked down at my chest and saw my necklace still there and I was also wearing the bracelet that had belonged to the demon.

I stood up beside my bed and thought of my dog. I focused my mind as hard as I could, but nothing. I did not change into anything. I turned to my cockatiel cage and lifted up the towel covering it. The bird was sitting there sound asleep. I ordered her to move to another perch, but again, nothing. My stone didn’t glow and the bird didn’t move.

The decision was made, the decision was final.