The Temple Unleashed (Book 1) | ONC 2024

Chapter 5

"Hello? Katherine? Wake up!" a hazy voice brought Kat back from the shadows. "Katherine? Hello?" Kat heard herself mumble something unintelligible and brought her hand up to rub her eyes. Her hand felt as heavy as lead and gave up the attempt and resorted to squinting.

"She's up. You can quit your useless attempts of trying to bring her back," Kat heard a female voice coming from the right of her.

"Whats, what's going on?" the barely conscious girl muttered.

"You're up! Thank goodness...I thought for sure you were a goner." A vivid image of a boy, drenched to the bone in water with dirty blonde hair looking concerned became clearer to Kat's eyes as she blinked.

"Charlie?" Kat asked. Her mouth felt like she swallowed a mouthful of sand and her lips felt parch.

"Here, give the girl some of this. It should help a little." There was that mysterious voice again. Before she could get a good look of the owner of the voice, the mouth of a leather flask was pushed up to her lips and the feeling of a cool liquid washed into her parched mouth. It had a slight sweet taste to it but as it went down her throat, a small tingling sensation, which turned into a burning sensation made her cough and sputter.

"Are you trying to kill her?" Charlie asked accusingly, glancing at the stranger.

"Oh trust me, if I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it a long time ago." the female voice scoffed.

Despite the pounding headache in the back of her head, Kat struggled to sit up to take in her surroundings. She was laying on her back in a little open field. A few trees casted a much wanted shadow under the blazing sun. Behind them, Kat noticed a blue lake, its surface sparkled as the sunlight hit it. Behind the lake stood mountains. A few were capped in white but the majority of them were bare.

Beside her sat Charlie, sitting on his heels, still holding the flask of the mysterious drink. He had a cut across his brow bone, the blood already dried around it. His shirt was torn a little on the sleeve and his elbow sported a new scrape. She then averted her attention to the stranger.

Kat gasped as her eyes fell on the most prominent physical appearance of the stranger. The ears of the stranger were pointed.

Like an elf, she thought, holding in a gasp. Where am I?

The female had her long black hair down with braids that adorned her head. She had a guileful glimmer in her forest green eyes and her lips were pursed in suspicion.  On her left cheek was a scar, a deep scar, showing the signs that the girl has seen what a knife can do. She was wearing a loose tunic with wide sleeves that were bunched up at her elbows. She wore a corset of leather, with a sharp knife sticking out from a belt around her waist. An empty scabbard hung loosely by her side and Kat's eyes widened when she noticed the rather sharp and very dangerous looking sword in the elf's hands. She wore a pair of soft leather boots, another knife on display this time stuck inside her left boot.

"You done staring?" the elf scoffed, testing the sharpness of her sword. "Chill, I won't hurt you," she said when she saw Kat's eyes widen.

Charlie cleared his throat nervously before saying, " Um...Katherine, meet Alora...Alora, meet Katherine."

Alora glared at Charlie before turning her gaze at Kat.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked, her eyes flitted to the prominent bump on Kat's head.

"I...um...I remember being in a temple, touring it with my best friend, and a couple of people ... Charlie and his family were there I think."

Charlie nodded encouragingly as Kat continued.