W.i.t.c.h. The Full Story: Part II Chapter 3 - Yan Lin

Hey guys!

Sorry for not uploading last week, this is the first time in over a week that I've felt healthy enough to work at ALL. I've been battling the flu, or a super cold, but it tastes like the flu. Ugh! *shudders* Anyway, I've gotten better a tiny bit each day, and today I've felt my best yet! Barely coughed at all!

So tonight, I decided to just work a little. I managed to get a chap of this done, although I'm stuck on Warrior (go figure). It's a short chapter, but I think it's good! Let me know what you think!!!

Chapter 3

Yan Lin

Earth

 

Yan Lin’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she felt the pull. She’d been describing their house lo mein to an elderly couple from out of town when she’d felt a tug on her heart, and a soft voice whispering over and over to come up the stairs. Recognizing it as the Heart, Yan flagged a waiter over to finish taking their orders, and then headed upstairs again. After tossing out some underwear and ancient clothes that’d hid the glowing jewel from her family, she gently removed the tiny, pink gem from the elegant box that kept it safe. Just before the whispering stopped and the vision began, she laid on her bed. Then darkness came and took her away.

 

           The last time she’d seen the young man, he was daring an angry customer to continue to push him. But he was daring no more. Slumped in the dark, full of too much pain to move, he watched the outline of the Passling as it sniffed here and there, wondering if there was anything to eat, rotten or not. Through the power of the Heart, she was able to see the terrible marks that covered him, and the farseeing stare that revealed he’d been tortured, and tortured extensively. He cradled his right arm carefully against his chest. Yan saw that it was a compound fracture, with part of the bone sticking out. If that wound remained untreated, he’d be disfigured for life.

This is a Bringer of Light.

The voice boomed from the center of the vision, deep in Yan’s mind. She knew that voice. She trusted it.

His world will fade and die in Darkness without him. They cannot help him. They cannot win without him.

She knew the rest before it even began. The new Guardians could never be convinced of their powers, their duty, in time. He’d die from thirst long before the girls would be strong enough to dive into the palace dungeons and get him.

But you can. You have powers still, and will until the new generation is ready. He must be saved.

He slipped into unconsciousness, hoping to never wake again.

 

Yan woke up feeling sick to her stomach. When she sat up, a drop of water on her hand startled her. That’s when she realized she was crying, had since she’d seen him in the dungeon. She knew that place. Knew it, and hated it. Too many close friends and good people had died there in the dark beneath Phobos’s palace.

Feeling emotionally drained, Yan got to her feet. She headed to the bathroom to wash the tears from her face, then almost jumped when she saw her reflection. The moment the Heart had called to her, she thought she was only nineteen again, since it hadn’t spoken to her in over fifty years. But her young face had lost its elasticity; her silky black hair had become wispy and gray. The Guardian of Air was nineteen no longer—she was seventy-four.

Unbeknownst to her, the Heart had placed itself around her neck. She stared at it for a second, and then whispered aloud.

“How can I do this?” Her Mandarin came out harsh, no longer the musical song it used to be. “I am not young. I have no strength. I can’t do this.”

The Heart simply glowed. The light and warmth that poured from the jewel into her chest comforted her in a way that nothing else could have. Yan gripped it tightly. Suddenly the warmth covered all of her body, and a purple light filled her vision. The aches from old wounds and living for far too long faded away, and the strength of youth swelled up from a long-forgotten life. Her crooked back straightened, her hair thickened, the arthritis dissipated, the ignored pains of old healed.

And then it was gone. The warmth had completely evaporated.

But Yan still felt incredibly strong. She’d clamped her eyes tightly shut to save her eyesight. Now, panting, feeling a deep fear, and an even deeper hope, the former Guardian opened her eyes.

It’d been a shock to see herself as an old woman. And yet it seemed only natural for her to look in the mirror and see herself as she had appeared so many years ago. She wore the purple and blue of the Guardians of Meridian in the style of a male changshan. Her high-necked, purple top had long, flowing sleeves and the blue, cropped pants had billowy, wide legs. The snow-white hair was no longer down to her knees; it was cut short and was now the same blue-black that Hay Lin had inherited. And on her back was a pair of glittering, green wings.

After studying her reflection for a few moments, the current Guardian of Air took a deep breath.

“You better still be alive, boy,” Yan sang out in her native tongue, gripping the Heart again.

Then she did something she hadn’t in a very long time. She flew.