"It's Eldred right?" He gave me an approving nod. I can't believe it! Well, truth be told, I'm not that surprised. "but why? How?" I asked Jeremy who seemed to be lost in his thoughts after I mentioned Eldred. "Jeremy?" "He's a monster, he used a spell on our land! Now we can't be part of the outside world! We don't even know what's going on out there, we are nothing but mere servants, working for him all these years! Trapped! With no way out?" for a moment I could swear he was going to cry, he looked soo furious but at the same time sad. "Can't you stop him?" "We can't stop a mischievous Vampire kara. We are nothing without our powers" "But he can't use his powers also, right? You guys can stop him! You just need to believe in yourselves" I still don't know the details of their issues with Eldred, but one thing I know is they can't just shut their eyes to his mischief, they should fight! For their rights, for their future. He's out numbered, and no matter the number of spells he has, I'm sure he wouldn't be able to stop a town full of elves. "No! I shouldn't have mentioned it to you. Just forget we had this conversation" and just like that, he walked out of the room. Leaving me behind. But I wasn't going to just shut my mouth. This might be the only way I can leave this place. Following him to wherever he was headed, I saw that his parents were there, giving him a look of disgust. "We have warned you several times not to speak about this!" his mother said with disapproval. They must have heard our little conversation. But I don't care, still, I yelled! "So what? Are you guys going to spend the rest of your lives serving an undeserving prick? Last time I checked, creatures like you are immortal, which means living your forever with that prick! But we can stop him! I'll help, together we can do it, Jeremy!" "Stop it kara, we'll just make things worse! Just go and rest. You need to heal, you'll be staying in that room now" He said finally stopping in his tracks as he pointed towards a room by my left. He had a really stern look on his face which destroyed every hope I had. "one thing I've learned as a human is that we fight without super powers, we fight for what we love even though we don't have forever like you all. We believe and that has always been enough!" I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This is really it, they could fight back and destroy this guy, but they won't. I walked into the room Jeremy directed me to, it was very small but cozy and warm. I laid on the little rug which apparently is supposed to serve as a bed. There was only one thing that kept ringing in my head "how long until he finds me here" . "Kara, kara, wake up!" the unfamiliar voice mumbled slowly in my dream. What on earth does this person want? "Is it morning already?" I asked, opening my eyes slowly. it feels as if I have slept for only a few minutes. Jeremy was towering above me. "What the heck!" I yelled a bit startled. "Shhhhhh," he said, putting his fingers over my lips. "What are you doing here at this time?" I asked, this time around trying my best to lower my voice. "Look, kara, I need to stop Eldred, and you are the only one who can help" he whispered. "What? You told me to shut up a while ago, making me look like a fool" "I only said that because my parents were near, they would kill me if they find out that I still want to do this" his voice was really low, but it was audible. "So, you were pretending, you really agreed to what I said?" "No, I already had that in mind Kara, you aren't the only smart person around. I just can't do it alone, and no one in this town agrees with me. Hence, you are all I can rely on. Will you help me?" Of course, I will help him. technically, that means helping myself. "If you do, you'll be able to get home" he added, trying to convince me. "What's the plan?" I asked and his face lit up at my response. . "Okay, years ago, Eldred came to our land after his home, the white coven empire was destroyed! He acted like a nice person and we gave him refuge happily. He grew very fond of the land, especially, the sacred hall. the sacred hall is where all the elves' knowledge and of course, sacred things are kept. He would spend his whole day there, studying and learning about the elves and other creatures. One day, he found out about a certain defense structure that was invented by our ancestors. It is meant to protect the land from intruders, but it was only to be activated in desperate times. Once it is activated, no intruders can come into the town. And no one can leave the town or use magic in the town…" "…So, he activated it, rendering you all powerless and seized the opportunity to take over the land" I cut in, my eyes widely opened as though I wasn't sleeping a while ago. "Exactly. You really are smart aren't you?" He said, not feeling offended that I cut his story. "But, if no one can leave the place, how did he leave to abduct me," I asked "Well, when our ancestors created the spell, they made a stone called the escape stone in case someone needed to leave the town desperately. But to avoid trouble, only one was created. It was created so that they could check if there were still threats. That way, we can know when to deactivate the spell" "so what are we supposed to do, how do we deactivate this weird invention," I asked, feeling a bit joyous. I know it's too early to celebrate but at least Jeremy has brought hope. "Here, take a look," Jeremy said, making himself on the rug. He brought out a folded piece of paper from his back pack. I looked old and dusty, and he didn't need to unfold it fully for me to realize what it is. A map. A huge rusty old map. He laid it on the floor, using his hands to make it flat and straight. "Here, is where we are. And over there is the sacred hall" he said pointing to each place he was referring to. Heck, it looked like a really far distance, the thought of how we will get there was all I had on my mind. But I decided not to interrupt him. "getting there won't be too hard, Eldred is on his own, he doesn't have an army or a team, so he can't catch us. But if other elves find out that we are going in that direction, then that will be trouble" he said, his eyes still fixed on the map. "But why? Why won't they support you? after all, whatever you are doing is for their good too" "They believe if I try to stop Eldred, he will lay another curse on our land. But let's not dwell on that for now" he paused. "The challenge is going to start once we get there. His place is locked with a code, we will have to guess it open and then deactivate the spell" he said and I felt a pang in my chest. "How are we supposed to guess the code for God's sake!" "Don't worry, I have arranged a list of possible options that we can rely on. As I said, I have been planning this for years". He said with a sly smile. "Okay, when do we leave?" "Now" "Now?"