Chapter 17
The Awakening
Bella sent her watch dogs to keep a close eye on Sam,
and report back to her. Wherever he went and whatever he
did, Bella wanted to know. But there were more important
things on her mind. Now that the seven wizards were all in
good health, it was time to finish the ceremony and attack
Baja. Bella flew back to the temple to meet with the other
wizards.
The ceremony had begun, and standing in the center of
a white outlined circle was the youngest of all, Cilus. He
was the wizard of soul snatching; a dark-skinned wizard
with long, black leather-like hair. The tips of his hair
were like razors that would slice anything by a simple
touch. Cilus was between the age of ten and twelve, but he
was not a child. Cilus was estimated to be anywhere from
one million to one and a half million years old. The more
souls he sucked in, the younger he looked and the longer he
stayed alive.
Cilus was the missing piece of the puzzle; the wizard
world could not work without him, just like the elders
couldn't be awakened without each other. Then to be
sacrificed were three of the men in David's army. They
stood in the circle with the wizard, trembling at their
knees. Their legs were shaking uncontrollably; one bowed
down to the ground and begged Cilus not to take his life.
But Cilus was a cold-hearted wizard.
Cilus stood over the three men as they were being held
down by heavy stones, and pressed his fingers into each
man's skull, ripping out their brains and devouring their
souls. Cilus ate the men's souls up one by one as the souls
came floating out of the men's lifeless bodies. It was a
grotesque sight to see, but for the love of power, everyone
was willing to turn their heads away.
It had been many years since Cilus had tasted another
soul; he roared out to the heavens, and licked the blood
off of his lips like a wild animal. Then Mirus approached;
he was the twin brother of Patric Stewart. Mirus had no
special skills, and neither did the others. They waited on
Cilus to bestow on them their greatest fantasies of power.
Mirus was tall, slender and well fit; he always
carried in his back pocket a golden boomerang. He was a
well cut and well groomed wizard, nothing was out of place.
He had shaved his head bald, and had a tribal symbol of a
star on his head. Approaching Cilus, he asked him to grant
him the power of invisibility. Once Mirus got his power, he
immediately tested it out, disappearing and reappearing.
Mirus was thrilled and excited; he wanted to go to war
right now, he wanted to use his powers right away for evil,
but was quickly calmed down by Bella.
"You fool, slow down, the elders would eat you alive,
it's going to take all of us to defeat them," said Bella.
Mirus quickly kept his excitement under control, and
pushed Bella as he walked by. Next in line to be crowned
was Marcus, the brother of Sam. Marcus did not need any
powers, from the last encounter with the wizard Cilus; he'd
got all the powers and abilities that he could handle. The
meeting was just for old time sake, to catch up on what had
been going on while Cilus was asleep.
Cilus wanted to see if Marcus was still the young
angry man he had met many years ago. Marcus did not
disappoint him; he professed his hatred for his brother and
for Baja. After this satisfied Cilus, he kissed Marcus on
the hands and told him that he was free to go. But Cilus
was still not sure about Marcus; his blue eyes glowed as if
something was truly wrong with Marcus.
Hoyle the card thrower was next. Cilus just smiled at
him and gave him a new deck of cards to throw. Hoyle
quickly tried them out; out of a golden box he pulled a set
of cards that glowed with red symbols. His evil face gave a
big grin; he snatched the cards out of the box and threw
one directly at Bella. She never budged or made the
slightest move. A card glided across the room with an eerie
silence, and snipped off a lock of her hair. Bella watched
as her hair fell to the floor, but never made a move.
With an angry tone she mumbled, "I will meet you in
the court yard to settle this."
Hoyle just laughed his wicked laugh, which echoed
through the temple. Cilus noticed that an animosity among
the wizards had developed while he was sick, and demanded
that it stop. Cilus reminded the wizards that they were not
the enemy; the enemy was Baja and its elders. But the
wizards were jealous of Bella and Marcus, fearing that they
would try to take over. Bella quickly resolved that issue
with Cilus and told him that the other wizards were just
jealous. If it wasn't for her, he would not be alive.
Once Cilus heard this, he graciously thanked Bella and
ordered the servants to adorn her in the finest gems. Bella
kissed and rubbed Cilus' face; she even played with his
razor-like hair, enjoying the pain she got when his hair
cut her skin. Bella already had her gift from Cilus, the
gift of poison, and no matter how Cilus offered to give her
more, she only wanted that gift.
Cilus then went to the wizard Louis, a tall, humongous
white giant. His skin was so pale and scary looking; white
flakes of skin fell to the ground every time he walked.
Louis had no hair on his head; he was a filthy creature
with bugs and rodents crawling all over him, in and out of
his ears, nostrils and ears. He had a bull-like ear ring
that was pierced through his nose. His teeth were yellow
and sharp, and his paw-like feet and hands were built up
with calluses and dried up, dead skin. No one wanted to be
around Louis, not only because of his flaky skin, but
because Louis had a terrible odor; everyone had to hold
their breath as he passed by.
Mirus whispered to Marcus, "I hope Cilus gives him the
power of freshness."
The two wizards laughed at the joke, and that
disturbed the ceremony. Cilus ordered them to stop right
away, and when Cilus spoke, everyone listened. Cilus gave
Louis the power of leadership in the army; he would be the
first thing people saw when they were going to war. Cilus
gave Louis the ability to stretch his hands for miles to
catch a moving target before it hit, or to catch a prisoner
from a distance.
To test out his powers, Cilus ordered the guards to
bring in another prisoner, and demanded that the prisoner
run. When the prisoner ran, thinking that he was set free,
Cilus then ordered Louis to reach out and grab the prisoner
who was yards away, somewhere in the court yard. With a
stretch of his hands and new found powers, Louis captured
the prisoner, drawing him in like a fish on a line. Louis
loved it; he quickly bowed down to Cilus, thanking him for
his powers.
Then there was Horitio the wizard with no face.
He hid
from the world, and spent most of his life scaring people
in the forest and the countryside. Horitio had no powers
either; he was one of those children who was born with no
powers and was cast aside by his parents; left in the
forest to die. Horitio was a disgrace to his parents, who
had sons and daughters that had powers and were chosen by
the elders of Baja. This made Horitio very angry and upset,
and this is why he sought out the help of the wizards.
Cilus loved the fact that Horitio had no face, and all
Horitio ever wanted was a face. But Cilus did not grant it,
this made Horitio angry and upset. Horitio was an average
size young lad, with the spirit to go to war constantly. He
was not afraid of anything; his hair was blue, and his skin
was covered in tin. Horitio was a tin man, yet he never
knew it. After a childhood accident, Horitio was severely
burned, no part of his skin could be saved, and the only
thing that would heal his pain was the feel of tin on his
skin. So his parents applied tin, and it grew over his skin
as if it was replacing the real skin.
Cilus took one more look at Horitio and decided to
give him eyes and the ability to snatch people's faces.
Once Horitio was blessed with his eyes, he looked around
the room and saw colors and people for the first time. He
saw what he looked like for the first time. Even though
Horitio had only eyes, he was happy to be able to see. He
looked around the room over and over again, and saw that
everyone was not the same, that they were different and
that it was okay to be different.
His real power was the fact that he could snatch
people's faces. Once again Cilus called in the guards to
bring him a prisoner to test out the power. The prisoner
came in with a fearful fright on his face. While the guards
held the prisoner down, Horitio walked over to him, put his
hand over the prisoner's face, and with one wave of the
hand, the prisoner had no face.
The prisoner screamed and shouted, but his screams
fell on deaf ears as Horitio held the prisoner's face in
the air. It was like a picture; one could see the
prisoner's face moving and screaming. Horitio then put the
face in a jar to keep; even while doing so, the prisoner's
face kept screaming. On the floor lay the prisoner, still
alive but faceless, searching and scouring the floor for
his missing face. All the wizards laughed and chanted to
Cilus, but the prisoners cursed them and told them that the
elders were coming and would soon be awakened to defeat
them all.
Cilus just laughed, and said, "No one can awaken the
elders without the key, and no one knows were the key is."
The room got quiet and the prisoner belted out loudly,
"They found a little boy who will save and awaken the
elders! Haven't your wizards told you that?"
The prisoner was escorted out of the room by the
guards. Cilus was very upset that everyone had been keeping
this secret from him, but Bella quickly assured him that
the child would be killed. Bella told Cilus that the child
was the nephew of one of his wizards, Marcus Carrot-Top.
Marcus was upset that Bella had put him on the spot,
and he was called to the throne of Cilus. Marcus explained
to Cilus that by some freak accident Peter Carrot-Top, his
nephew, was the key to saving the elders. Peter was the
first ghost born outside of Baja, in the land of the
living, and was born with special powers to create holes of
any size, and sometimes the holes lead to other worlds.
Cilus was very interested, and told Marcus that it was
his duty to capture the boy. If he did not, he would be
his custody before the war. Marcus mentioned that they had
captured Peter's father, and Bella had turned him into some
type of flying creature who still had a heart of love for
his family.
"Is this true?" asked Cilus to Bella.
"Yes it is, but I am working on him," said Bella.
Cilus was not pleased with Bella or Marcus, and
ordered them to stop fighting each other, and take care of
the problem at hand. Marcus was so upset that Bella told on
him and made him looked incompetent in front of Cilus; he
told Cilus that Bella had a secret crush on Sam Carrot-Top
and that she was not to be trusted.
"Neither can you!" shouted Bella as the two fought.
Bella used her powers to throw Marcus into the wall of
the temple, causing the temple to shake and crack. Marcus
used his powers of strength to throw her into a glass
window, causing it to shatter into pieces. This did not
stop Bella, she was a tough young lady, and had more power
and strength that even Marcus knew about. Bella flipped and
attached herself to the wall of the temple and threw
daggers at Marcus, hitting him in the shoulder.
Finally Cilus put an end to all the fighting and
fussing between the two; but from this moment on, Bella and
Marcus had bad blood between them. Yet, they had to come
together to form the army that would take over Baja. Once
the bickering and fussing had ended, Cilus sat at the table
to discuss plans to take over Baja.
Suddenly watch dogs came in, whispering in Bella's ear
that something was going on with Sam. He was now changing
back into his original form; the poison Bella had place in
his body was wearing off, and Sam might escape. Bella
ordered her watch dogs to find him.
Meanwhile, Sam was in the forest near the temple
wandering around in a daze. He did not know where he was or
who he was; he stumbled and fell to the ground, calling out
for his family. He slowly changed back into his original
self; either the poison was not strong enough or the love
Sam had in his heart outweighed his hatred.
Slowly Sam lost his wings and monstrous features; he
was now becoming his old self again. His memory slowly came
back; from a distance he could hear the heavy breathing of
the guard dogs from miles away. He knew he had to get out
of the path and find a hiding place, but he was weak and
stumbled and fell. Sam stumbled into a lake and wasn't seen
again. The water from the lake covered him from head to
toe, and the waves took him away.
Sam's scent was soon lost by the guard dogs, as they
searched for hours and then days. They went back to their
master, telling her that they had lost Sam. Bella was not
happy, and beat on her guard dogs like a wicked master
would. The dogs whimpered and cried. Although they were
huge stone dogs, they couldn't or wouldn't dare to attack
their master. Bella had them under a powerful spell, one
that she thought she had Sam under, but her spell did not
work on him.
Sam was gone forever and Bella got nervous; for the
first time, she feared their leader Cilus. Bella pretended
to
take care of the problem in front of him, but she had no
idea where to find Sam. Nevertheless, there was a war
ahead, and Bella wanted to be a leader of that war.