The Shadow's Wrath Chapter 2 Once seven o’ clock finally came around, Joleen had dark circles under her eyes and nasty looking bumps and bruises from falling off her bed a hundred times. Yawning, she sat up on her bed and looked out her window. The birds were singing beautifully, cheering her up a bit. Eventually, she gave in and smiled. The nice day and the singing birds always cheered her up. Laughing softly, she stood up and went downstairs for breakfast. She entered the dining room and said good morning to both her parents. When her mother noticed the dark circles under her eyes and her bruises, she just gave a “what can I do?” shrug and sat down at the table . “Had another nightmare?” her mother guessed. Joleen nodded, taking a sip of her orange juice. Her parents shared a worried glance. Sighing, her mother asked, “What happened this time?” Joleen looked around for any sign of her brother. “Where’s Samuel?” She asked. Her father took a sip of his coffee and answered, “He’s still sleeping. So are you going to answer the question or not?” Relieved, she leaned back in her chair and answered, “The Shadow’s Lieutenant sliced me right down the middle.” Her father grunted in disgust. After breakfast, Joleen left the dining room to go upstairs and get ready for school. She opened her closet and rustled through it for a few minutes, picking out a pretty plaid turquoise shirt with three-quarter length sleeves and a pair of white skinny jeans. Then she ran into her bathroom and took a fast shower, seriously needing it after her ordeal during the night. Being pretty good at multi-tasking, once she got out of the shower, she dried herself off and did her hair, pulling it into a tight ponytail. She ran back into her room, clutching the towel around her body, and threw on the outfit she had picked out. Once she was fully dressed, except for her shoes and makeup and earrings, she walked over to her closet again to pick out some good shoes. The shoes were pretty easy to pick out. She just grabbed her black stiletto boots. Her makeup was pretty simple too. So were her earrings. As she put in her dangly turquoise earrings, she looked at her ears. Ever since birth, her ears had always been pointed. Her parents had thought she would grow out of them, but she never did. The people at school would ask her what was up with her ears, and she would always reply, “I’m an Elf.” Most people didn’t believe her, and that was okay. She wasn’t serious about it. Once her parents left for work, Joleen left for her bus. Why she didn’t have a car, she had no idea. Her parents both had pretty good jobs. Her dad was a lawyer and her mom was a nurse in the maternal area of the hospital. They both seemed to love their jobs, but Joleen wished that they were home more often instead of leaving her with her brother most of the time. She walked along the side of the road, the birds’ singing escorting her. Not long after she left her house, she heard a rustle in the trees above her. She stopped walking and listened carefully, hearing nothing. At first she thought it was just her imagination, then she heard it again. When she looked up to see what was causing the noise, she froze. Something was descending towards her. She shrieked and covered her head, clenching her eyes shut. While her eyes were tightly shut, she heard the impact of feet hitting the ground. Panicking inwardly, she started shaking in fear. A new sensation for her. Then, she felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder. “Joleen,” she heard a lightly accented voice speak softly. Sensing she wasn’t in any danger, she looked up at the person. Standing before her was a tall, light skinned man, looking at least twenty. He had wavy, collar bone length brown hair that was blowing unruly in the wind. Her fingers twitched as they wanted so badly to just run themselves through the silky locks . He had blue eyes with green, brown, and dark grey spiraling within them. Her first thought was that she had died and gone to heaven. That surely this was a god standing before her. He was incredibly good-looking. “I am Elmas. Son of Elwin, and Lord of Rolandale,” he introduced himself grandly. She nodded in acknowledgement, her mind mostly consumed on how attractive he was. Elmas continued, “I must warn you. Dark times are upon us. You are wanted. It is my duty to see that you are prepared. So until we see each other again, I want you to take this dagger. Keep it with you at all times.” So saying, he pulled out a small dagger and handed it to her. It was no bigger than the length from her wrist to her elbow. Its hilt was encrusted with small rubies and sapphires. She took the dagger cautiously, now focusing more on what he was saying. “I must leave now,” Elmas concluded. “Beware of the Shadows.” He looked at her one last time, his eyes full of worry, then turned around and quickly walked away into the fog. Joleen watched him until she could no longer see him anymore, then suddenly noticed one strange thing. “That fog just appeared,” she told herself aloud. Then she thought of something Elmas had said. “What did he mean by ‘Beware of the Shadows’?” she wondered, starting to feel a little uneasy, remembering her nightmare. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her. Chills started running up her back as her unease grew more potent. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around to face whoever was behind her, gripping the dagger tightly. She could feel the color drain from her face as she saw who it was was. Right in front of her, was a cruel looking warrior in dark, beat up armor covered in a black, shredded cape. Glaring at her angrily were rage-filled red eyes, his pale white hair blowing in the sudden wind. Then she saw his needle sharp claws clench up, not feeling anything at all now. It was as if time was frozen. The warrior was glaring at her, she was frozen, not feeling anything at all, and not even the birds were singing. Suddenly, the warrior reached back and unsheathed a large sword that was about five times the size of her dagger, hissing viciously. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, Joleen turned around and ran for her #life. She couldn’t tell how close the person was, but she could hear the clanging of its armor. Suddenly, when she was two blocks away from her bus stop, she was perilously pushed off the road. Into the Forbidden Forest.