Chapter Twenty Five

Caitlin and Vykal were ready. Even though they didn’t know how strong their spells would be, they knew that they would be able to make it through. Vykal went close to Caitlin, whispering in her ear. She nodded, moving behind him.

He knew that Shobai would be using more physical attacks than magical ones, although he wasn’t completely sure. Is Shobai still in there somewhere, or is he now just some mindless killing machine? he thought. Suddenly the creature leaped forward. Vykal prepared to cast a spell, but it had moved with incredible speed. It was now behind them, and swiped its sharp claws.

“Move!” Vykal turned around and pushed Caitlin out of the way, successfully avoiding the attack, but not by much. The creature recovered fast, and continually began snapping its pointed head and sharp teeth at the two.

They tried their best to dodge out of the way, and both of them called out the combination of the five spells to defend themselves. Shobai moved to the other side of the field quickly, avoiding the attack. The spells hit the dome but didn’t do much damage since it was so large and thick.

Caitlin groaned. “He’s too fast. There’s no way we’ll even be able to hit him!”

Vykal also had a feared look on his face. “Then what can we possibly do?”

Caitlin gasped. “Hey, wait a minute! Isn’t the Untenden spell officially called the reverse/mirror spell?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Duh,” Caitlin said. “Reverse! We’ve only been able to make a mirror-like shield but there has to be some way where we can somehow reverse something, like the derjentra spell that Shobai did.”

Vykal smiled. “Good idea. But how do we make sure we do that and not the shield?”

The girl shook her head. “No clue…”

“Well, we better figure it out quickly- he’s coming back!” Vykal yelled out as the creature made its way towards them.

The two teenagers called out the Untenden spell. But unfortunately, it only created the shield. The only good thing about their failure was that Shobai’s attacks were blocked by the shields so they were sort of safe for now. They were trying their best to run away but the creature kept following them easily.

“Let’s try Azuma’s spells again,” Vykal said, breathing heavily from all of the running they were doing.

Caitlin shook her head. “We tried that before. And it didn’t work. All he did was dodge it and it made some cracks in the shield. I don’t have the kind of energy to do more than a couple more of those…”

The teen boy thought for a moment, getting an idea. “Hm. Maybe one multi-spell isn’t strong enough. But two put together certainly must be,” Vykal planned. “Stay behind me and on my count, try your hardest to do it.” The teenage girl nodded, raising her hands up.

“Atrup-Zarell-Untend-Mestilk-Amlintin!” they both called out, with Caitlin’s spell being cast a little bit before Vykal’s was cast. Because he was in front of her, both five spell combos were able to combine into what could be called a ten combo spell now that Caitlin’s had fused with his. Caitlin and Vykal were blown backwards from the impact. The spells became more than just a ball. They expanded into a wall-like structure of spells, picking up speed as it neared Shobai. Since the spell was so huge, there was no possible way for the creature to leap anywhere safely. The spells hit him, sending the creature crashing to the ground. The wall-like spell combo folded in on itself, surrounding the creature until all of the spells had successfully done enough damage to hurt him enough.

There was no doubt about it. He was gone. Dead.

Vykal got up after watching the whole scene. He put his hand on his head. “I didn’t want to do it, but I had to, brother,” he said, staring at the creature’s body on the ground. Then he remembered Caitlin and ran over to her. “Are you alright?!”

The girl slowly got up. “Yeah, I am. I just thought, I don’t know…your plan worked, but I thought that if it didn’t then we would be done for,” Caitlin mumbled, wiping the dust off of her face.

Vykal breathed outward. “Heh, the scary thing is, I thought the same exact thing…”

“But, we beat him quickly. We fought through it,” she said, amazed.

The blue haired boy held his hand out to her, pulling her up onto her feet when she grabbed his hand. They stood there for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. “Well, um…” he mumbled, letting go of her hand.

Caitlin smiled. “Thanks for keeping me safe and for doing what you did for me.”

Vykal nodded, staring into her eyes. “Uh, yeah, don’t mention it.” He shifted a bit. “Listen, Caitlin…”

“Hm?”

Vykal moved closer, leaning in and pressing his lips against Caitlin’s for a few seconds. A million thoughts ran through his head and he pulled away, unsure of what to do next.

The teenage girl stood there, a bit shocked. She was trying to say something but for some reason no words were coming out of her mouth. Her cheeks grew pink and Vykal was about to speak when the two heard voices calling to them from amidst the background sound of the crowd.

“You two did great!” West cut through the moment by shouting out, running towards them as the shield spell wore off.

“Yeah, ya guys did it!” Gezlin said happily as he neared them. “Although too bad we were left out, huh? It stinks that we couldn’t help but I’m still excited that it’s all over!”

Caitlin laughed. “Yeah, me too. And uh, Gezlin, don’t jump.”

Gezlin didn’t understand at first, but then he caught on. “Huh? Oh, right. My back,” he smiled sheepishly.

The last person to make it to the group was Sheriba. She hugged Caitlin. “That gave me quite a scare. I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Thanks,” the teenage girl said. “Vykal was really the one who saved the day,” she added modestly.

Sheriba nodded, also thanking the blue haired teen. “If it wasn’t for you, then boy, we’d be in a lot of trouble,” she said in an exasperated tone.

Vykal nodded. “Yeah, but in order to protect everyone, I had to end up killing my brother, or at least the creature that he had become…”

West’s smile faded as he stared at the spot where Shobai laid. “I…I thought that I’d be happier when all of this was over, when I would finally feel a sense of justice when the King and everyone else who caused harm got what was coming to them. But, I don’t know. I feel sad,” he sighed.

Gezlin nodded. “I agree with ya on that. I mean, it went farther then we thought it would. But there’s nothing we can really do about it. I guess when revenge comes into play, it can cause some problems that you never would have expected.”

Vykal slowly went up to the creature’s body. “I don’t want these people from Earth to mess with him. West, could you…”

The detective nodded. “Of course. When we get away from here, I will.”

“So, that’s why you didn’t want to come to school,” a voice broke out among the crowd that was gathering ever closer.

Caitlin turned around to see her best friend Jodie making her way through all of the people. “Hey, uh, what’re you doing here?”

Jodie finally was able to break through, and she went up and hugged Caitlin. “You failed to remember that Hot Shots is really close to here. I was about to go to lunch but then I saw a huge crowd of people and all of this commotion. And when I came to investigate, I saw you.”

Caitlin pointed behind her, to the creature. “So you saw the whole thing? You know what happened?”

Jodie shook her head. “No, I came near the end. But I did see that guy, who looks kinda familiar, finish off that monster and all, and then he gave you a nice little smooch,” she winked. “Why didn’t you tell me you got a movie job? Is that why you’ve been gone or something? Because you’ve been acting or whatever?”

Caitlin blushed a bit when her friend mentioned the kiss, but she decided not to address it. “No, that’s not it at all. If you’ve been watching the news, a lot of information will be there but mostly I’ll just have to explain it to you myself. You know that guy, Jack? Well, that’s him. He’s really named Vykal and he was the prince of this world called Ebbarria, and he took me there and…well, I think we’ll have to sit down and talk about it later. It’s a pretty long story.”

It was acceptable that Jodie gave her a confused look after she was done talking, but Caitlin reassured her that she was telling the truth and that it would all make sense later. Caitlin grabbed Jodie’s arm, pulling her towards the others. “Anyway, these are my friends and I’d like to introduce them to you. Of course, you already know Vykal aka Jack…”

Vykal walked forward and shook Jodie’s hand. “Hey, nice to meet you, uh, again.” His grip was firm at first but then it loosened, and he suddenly slumped forward into Jodie’s arms.

“What? Vykal, are you okay?” Caitlin asked. There was no answer, and her voice suddenly grew more frantic. “Oh my gosh- what’s wrong?!”

West and Gezlin came quickly to their aid. The detective took Vykal out of her arms and put him over his shoulder. The teen’s eyes were closed, but he was still breathing. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but he needs to get to a hospital, and fast,” West said.

Jodie nodded and she pulled out her cell phone, calling for an ambulance. Caitlin’s heart pumped hard as she tried to stay calm. “I hope it’s nothing serious,” she whispered.

Gezlin began trying to make a path through the crowd. “Come on, let’s go.”

West took out his staff, yelling for bystanders to move out of the way. People began to back up, and the detective moved forward, with Vykal still slumped over his shoulder. When he had walked a decent distance, he pointed his staff at Shobai. “Ens Ensen!” The creature’s body burst into tons of tiny pieces that scattered in all directions. He turned to Sheriba, Gezlin, and Caitlin. “Follow me,” he said.

Caitlin knew that it must have been something that had happened when he had been trying to protect her, some sort of internal injury that he may have received. She cursed herself for not being stronger and possibly causing a lot of harm to Vykal since he had done most of the work. She clenched her fists and followed her messy-haired friend through the crowd. You better be okay, Vykal. Because if not, then I know that I won’t be okay…

--

It had been a few days, and Vykal was still in the hospital. Despite all of the commotion from the previous events, everyone tried to lay low and not be contacted by the press. Caitlin got a chance to fully explain to her best friend what had happened to her and why she had been missing for so long. West, Sheriba, and Gezlin took the time to try to look for jobs or places to live while they gratefully stayed over at Caitlin’s house. The days seemed to go by slowly as everyone waited and wondered what to do next. No one had any idea if Vykal’s injuries were serious or not, since the doctors were not letting any information out. But they had still announced that people could visit him, and that’s exactly what Caitlin and her best friend were doing.

Caitlin walked fast, ahead of Jodie. “Come on, hurry up. We have to visit him.”

“Hey, slow down lover girl,” Jodie said.

Caitlin brought down the pace a bit until she was side by side with her friend. “What’d you say?”

Jodie laughed. “You heard me. So, you got that stalker boyfriend after all.”

“What?” Caitlin brushed some strands of hair out of her face, shrugging at Jodie’s suggestive look. “No…no, he’s not my…I mean, I don’t like him…uh…”

Jodie rolled her eyes. “Oh, I can totally tell,” she grinned.

Caitlin crossed her arms. “No, it’s true. He’s just my friend, that’s all.”

“I’ve seen how you’ve been acting over the last few days. Come on, just admit it,” she said.

“Well…” Caitlin’s eyes became fixed on the ground. Do I really have those feelings for him? I just…She snapped out of her gaze when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Jodie poked her again, then began walking away. “Well first stop lying to yourself and then you can stop lying to me.”

Caitlin turned around abruptly. “Hey, where are you going?”

“You can visit him alone. I think it’s best that you do. Don’t worry- I’ll be waiting outside,” her best friend called out as she continued down the hall.

Caitlin sighed, shaking her head. “I’m going to make a fool of myself, I just know it,” she muttered under her breath as she gave a small wave to Jodie and then proceeded into the hospital room.

Vykal seemed a bit startled at first but then he smiled when he saw Caitlin enter the room. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said from his seated position on the bed.

The teenage girl couldn’t help but curl her lips up in response to Vykal’s grin. “Yeah, I know, but I had to visit you- just to make sure everything was okay. And here you are, looking just fine,” she said, hands on her hips. “And we were all worried that it was something serious.”

The blue haired teen chuckled. “Yeah, I know. The doctors ran some tests, and I’m not sure what they did or what they found out, but apparently I’m okay. Maybe their technology isn’t advanced enough to know what happened, but they just blamed my collapse on exhaustion or something. Let’s face it- I was ‘asleep’ for four days. They said it wasn’t a coma, but that it was weird because that’s not normal to sleep for so long. But I can leave soon, once the doctor comes back and confirms that I can go.”

Caitlin nodded, sitting down next to him. “Well, that’s good. I was talking with West, and he suggested that it was most likely a magical injury rather than a physical one. Like, you used up so much of your energy doing those spells, that it affected you more than you thought it would. And since this fight was not long after your two battles against Voddru and your father, it would make sense that you’d be so worn out. So I guess it basically was just exhaustion. Which I’m glad. I…I thought it was something more serious. Everyone was really nervous and wondering if you’d be okay.”

Vykal looked past her. “Uh huh. So, where is this ‘everyone’? They don’t want to visit me?”

“Oh, they do,” Caitlin said. “We were all planning on going later today, once my mom got out of work. School let out for the day so I decided to come and visit you a bit earlier.”

“Thanks. I can probably leave soon though, so you’re probably the only one who’s going to get a chance to,” he chuckled along with her. Vykal put on a more serious face when they had stopped laughing. “You know, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days, since I’ve been here all alone,” Vykal said, staring at the floor.

Caitlin nodded. “Yeah, me too...” she trailed off.

Vykal brought his gaze on Caitlin. “Um, I wanted to know if, well, you know, if you were upset at all, about the other day, after we beat Shobai. I didn’t get to know what your response would be, and I know it’s strange what with everything that happened in the past and how I used to treat you. But lately I had started to feel something more for you. It’s kind of hard to explain,” he laughed nervously. “What I mean to say is, did you mind when I kissed you?”

Caitlin looked away. “Uh…”

The teenage boy took her hand. “Did you?”

Caitlin locked her eyes with his, her heart going in a direction that it had never gone before. “Vykal…I…” She blushed. “No, I didn’t mind.”

Vykal grinned, his face flushed with relief. “Good. Then I hope you don’t mind if I do it again,” he whispered, bringing his lips close to hers.

This time she was ready. It wasn’t like the first one- just an unexpected kiss that left her speechless. This time, it was an expected kiss that left her speechless. It wasn’t before long though that the door to the room opened and Vykal and Caitlin pulled away.

“Um, Mr. Vykal?” It was the doctor, an older, more experienced man, who had entered the room.

“Yes?”

“Our last test did confirm that you are perfectly fine. Sorry we had to hold you for so long but we weren’t sure exactly what was wrong. But now we know that nothing is wrong,” he told them. “So you’re free to leave now.”

Vykal smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

The doctor left the room, leaving Vykal and Caitlin alone again. She laughed, repeating the doctor’s words. “Heh heh. Mr. Vykal….”

The blue haired teen shrugged. “Hey, what could I do? They asked for a last name. And well, I’m grateful your mother will be paying for the bill. But I’m going to need a better identity than that.”

Caitlin nodded. “We’ve got that all figured out, well, at least the first name portion. Sheriba says that she can be called Reba since it’s more Earth-like but it is still like her name. West and Gezlin don’t want to change their names. I can’t blame them, but it’s pretty funny that they’re keeping it. I was thinking that maybe you could be called Jack. And I guess your last name could be Vykal. I don’t know…”

Vykal nodded. “Sure, that could work. I’d rather try my best to fit in around here, but I’m not sure how it’ll work out. I mean, I don’t even know what I’m going to do. I’ll just go to school here and see what I want to do, just like you, Caitlin.”

“I’m going into college soon, but I’m pretty sure you’ll still have to go to high school and learn a lot. A whole lot,” the brown haired girl said.

“What’s West, She- I mean, Reba, and Gezlin going to do?”

“Well,” Caitlin began. “West was looking into getting a job being a policeman here. And Reba wants to be a cook in a restaurant. I’m sure she’ll get in with her great skills. And Gezlin, we all know, is still going to be working with the news station that first interviewed him. He’s apparently going to get a job reporting some of the exciting or paranormal things that are happening. I guess the viewers liked his far out and exciting attitude and wanted to see more of him, so he was hired. Which is a good thing since we thought that they assumed he was crazy. I mean, they must like him even though he still hasn’t changed his name to fit into our society,” Caitlin laughed.

“So, we’re all starting a new journey. I’m just glad that this old one is all over.”

“I do too, but there’s just something that I don’t understand about it all,” Caitlin said. “Did Azuma know that all three of us would succeed in freeing the human servants from Ebbarria? Everything happened for a reason. My downfall of becoming a servant led to a greater good. And Vykal, well, your downfall of running away and betraying your family led to a greater good. And West’s downfall of being imprisoned also led to a greater good. Were things supposed to be this way? Did everything come together on its own, or was it predetermined somehow?”

Vykal shrugged. “Who knows? But all we do know is that it did happen and that somehow fate brought us together.”

Caitlin smiled. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“But I’m still so nervous about how everything’s going to be and what’s going to happen now that this adventure is over. I mean, what are we going to do if things don’t go our way?” Vykal asked as he stood up.

Caitlin grabbed his hand as they exited the room. “The same thing we always do. We do it together. And hey, we have love. And that’s all we need to move forward.”

Months Later…

…And they were back at the hospital…

Caitlin’s stomach dropped as she heard another scream come from Reba. Caitlin closed her eyes, hoping that it would all be over soon. Suddenly, Caitlin felt a tug on the sleeve of her shirt. She opened her eyes and looked up, seeing Jack standing in front of her.

“Come on. It’s almost over now.”

Caitlin nodded, a painful look on her face. “I know,” she said, getting up. “But I’m just thinking about when I have to go through that someday…”

Jack scratched his head. “Ah, heh heh. Looking ahead, I see.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Caitlin said, smiling.

The both of them began walking out of the room, the noises getting louder as they approached the place where Reba was being held. Jack cleared his throat. “Uh, so, you think you will…um, you know…”

Caitlin thought a bit, smiling inwardly from Jack’s nervousness. “Of course I do.”

Jack nodded his head slowly. “But uh, not for a while, right?”

The teenage girl laughed softly, grabbing Jack’s hand. “At least not until I’m out of college.”

Jack squeezed her hand gently, and was about to speak when the door in front of them flew open, a very flustered man rushing out.

“Hey, West, where are you going?” Caitlin asked.

West’s face was all red. “I tried to stay in there as long as I could. But…but I don’t think I can take anymore of it. I’m too nervous.”

“Aren’t we all?” Vykal asked, giving a weak smile.

Another man, clothed in white poked his head out of the door. “Where are you going, daddy?”

West covered his face. “Huh? I’m not the- I mean, oh yeah, sure sure. Okay. I gotta go back in there?”

Caitlin laughed. “Yeah, we all will. Reba needs our support.”

Jack and West nodded, following Caitlin into the room. Caitlin immediately went up to Reba’s bed, grasping her hand. Reba opened her eyes, giving a weak laugh.

“Ah, so you’re taking West’s place because he couldn’t handle it, huh? I wish I could swap places right now…”

“Well, it’s almost over,” the teenage girl said, smiling. West and Jack stood behind Caitlin, looking excited and scared at the same time. Caitlin shook her head, laughing.

“Hey, I don’t see Gezlin? Come on, where’s the love?” the blonde asked.

“Apparently I heard he’s doing some news thing in another state right now, so he couldn’t make it, unfortunately. But he said that he wished he could be here. He even told me he’d jump if it made you feel better,” Caitlin said.

Reba groaned. “It won’t make me feel better right now, that’s for sure! What makes me feel better is knowing that that certain Ebbarrian guard died when the core blew up the world…”

“Okay, now, just one more push should do it!” the nurse told Reba.

Reba obeyed, and before everyone knew it, it had happened. The baby had been born. At that moment, everyone let out a sigh of relief. Everyone that is, except the nurse that was holding the baby. The woman let out a small gasp as she and the doctor cleaned off the baby and did the proper procedures with it.

“W-what’s wrong?” Reba asked, frowning.

The nurse tried to feign a smile. “Oh, um, it’s just that, well, the baby is so beautiful that we just had to gasp in loving affection for it….”

Caitlin, West, Jack, and even Reba knew right then and there what the real case was. The nurse was lying. Which meant only one thing. The baby had taken after it’s father’s looks. When the nurse brought the baby, wrapped up in a blue blanket, to Reba, she smiled.

“He’s a precious baby boy. Congratulations.” She smiled at the other three standing there, then hurried off as if she had something really important to attend to.

Yeah, right, Caitlin thought. She moved closer to see how bad the child’s looks really were.

“Ah!” the trio cried out as they saw the baby’s face. His father was the palace guard, and he had been quite the ugly one. And just like Caitlin had remembered, their faces were pale white and bulged out slightly in several directions, looking slightly alienish.

Reba started to cry. When asked why, she responded, “Because…because he has to be born this way. He has to live this way for the rest of his life…I would’ve changed it if I knew, but the doctors said that he looked normal…”

Caitlin hated to see her friend cry, so she tried to cheer her up. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. At least you gave him life, right? Maybe not intentional I guess, but you did. And, he still needs a name too. We can all think of one right here, right now!”

West pursed his lips. “Hmm…that’s a hard one.”

Jack put a hand on West’s shoulder, chuckling. “Hey, how about we name him East? Or maybe South or North?”

“Hey, that’s not funny!”

But everyone else began bursting out, laughing. It cleared away a lot of the previous tension that they all had. The blonde nodded, looking down at the baby. “Sure, okay. His name will be East.”

Caitlin couldn’t stop laughing. “Hah hah. Really funny, Reba. Good one, Jack.”

“No, I’m serious,” Reba said, and her tone of voice meant it.

West opened his mouth in surprise. “Really? You’re naming it semi-after me?”

“Yessiree,” she spoke.

“But…but that’s such a strange name. That’s why we changed our names in the first place, since they aren’t very common, so that we could fit back into society here on Earth, instead of standing out,” Caitlin stated.

“Well,” Reba started. “West and Gezlin refused to change their names. It won’t hurt if we have one more oddball into the mix, right?”

Caitlin nodded. “I guess you’re right. But I’m not getting any crazy looks from the doctors. You’ll have to tell them what his name is.”

Reba laughed. “Alright, deal.”

“Well, he’s just another addition to our huge family,” Jack smiled.

West nodded. “Yeah, he has three uncles and an auntie,” he chuckled.

“Aw, you think of us as all family?” Reba asked.

“Of course. All of you are my family,” Jack said.

West nodded. “Yeah, even though we’re living our own lives it’s still nice to spend time with all of you. I couldn’t imagine life here without you guys.”

“That’s true. I don’t want to forget any of you, or anything that has happened to us. I want to make sure that we stay together forever,” Caitlin said in a serious tone.

The others nodded. “I agree,” Jack said. “Everything that we have been through…it seems like we will never be able to forget it. We’ll never be able to forget the events and people that have changed our lives…”

Caitlin smiled as she grasped Jack’s hand. “Yeah. I’ll never forget Ebbarria.”

I’ll never forget Ebbarria…

--

The End

--

AN: Hey everyone. Gosh, I just hated to have this story end, but it just has to- it can’t go on forever, right? Ebbarria has been a big part of my life over the last almost two years of planning and then writing it. And even though it’s been a bit bumpy at times, I’m very proud of how it has turned out. I had practically everything already outlined out for Ebbarria, but I’m still glad to have received the helpful advice and great reviews. You guys have really given me more confidence and advice for when I continue to write future works. So, here’s to all of my reviewers, but especially the loyal ones: Rozovian G, aliasfan, and Ryena. Thanks so much! I am trying to use a site called Lulu to get it published, and I will definitely send out e-mails to let you know if I do once I edit and fix any mistakes! :) I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading Ebbarria as much as I have enjoyed writing it. But this is not the end of me. I have tons of ideas for other stories but also fanfictions. My next piece will be a shorter story than this one, but I already have almost everything planned out for it. It is called Three Words, and all I’ll say is that it will be very different from the type of genre that Ebbarria is in, even though I still have many other fantasy story ideas (so check out my profile every so often to see any news or information about my future works that I’ll be putting up). But whether you review for me in the future or not, thanks again to all of you for reviewing for Ebbarria.