Aquirya

She didn’t want to move not knowing what was behind her. “Niko.” She whispered. He didn’t answer back, since he was ahead of her making sure the route he had chosen was the correct one.

As she finished saying Nikos’ name, she felt a blow to her back, she fell forward and skidded across the bottom of the small cave in front of her. She was pushed so hard that she almost slid directly into the tunnel across from where she was standing. Niko heard the commotion and turned around with his sword drawn, he lunged toward a huge black rat looking creature. Niko stabbed the creature through the middle of his eyes and the creature fell to the ground. Aeyla was still lying on the floor trying to sit up when Niko came over to her aid.

“You have to draw your sword if you don’t want something to get you.” He said to her. She was annoyed at his making fun of her at a time like this. The wind had been knocked out of her and something on her back was stinging. He posed his sword over her body to check for injuries. He saw the slash on her back that the creature had left. He stopped, sniffed and looked around.

“Aeyla, you have to get up. There are more coming.” He helped her up. “Put your hand on your back.” He told her.

She looked at him angrily. “Why? What am I going to do? Feel blood? What’s that going to do for me?”

“No, you can heal yourself here. Like I healed you earlier. Although, I can’t do it all the time like you can.” Niko sighed. “You’re the healer. You’re the one with true magic.”

She wasn’t taking his lies any more. Now she was injured by some huge rat looking creature and he wanted her to do some hocus pocus and heal herself. He needs to stop with this fantasy stuff and healing and her being a princess it was really making her angry.

“Listen, Thanks for taking me on your little trip. I would like to go home now. I’m done here and I don’t want to...”

“SHH.” He sprang up, taking her with him. “Get your sword, Put your hand on your back and come on.” She did as she was told and just as she did three more of the rat creatures made themselves seen through the same tunnel Niko and Aeyla had just come out of. Now she had a better view of them. They were rat like, at least she thought so, she wasn’t sure. They were prowling, growling, grunting and she could see their breath in the air. She stood up then put her hand on her back, didn’t know how to heal herself, forgot the words Niko had said earlier, and gave up. She took out her sword and tried to prepare herself for an attack, her sword helped her. The first rat creature looked bigger than the other two and it was eyeing Niko. ‘Maybe they don’t see me.’ she thought. She backed up into the tunnel she was near and Niko had been sniffing out and had starting walking down earlier. She didn’t know how to fight, she didn’t want to be here, and this wasn’t where she should be. I can’t do this, she thought to herself. Fear came over her when the creature started coming at her. Her sword glowed and straightened itself in her hand. The vicious animals were bigger than her and running towards her with their teeth showing. It had red eyes that were piercing through her. She felt like she was going to faint right then. It jumped towards her but at the last second she put up her sword and it landed right on the blade. She dropped the sword when she realized it was too heavy and screamed. She had just killed something, she’d never done that before. She eyed the sword in a daze, “It really does help me.” She thought out loud.

She looked up and saw Niko struggling with the two other creatures slashing and biting at him. He yelled and fell to the ground. “Niko!” She yelled. I guess in that small amount of time she actually did care a little for him. She started to run towards him but remembered her sword and ran back just as the rats were zeroing in on her. She shook her head, I have to do this, she thought and just as she was done giving herself a pep talk she ran at the rats screaming. The rats stopped, shook their heads, and turned and ran the other way. She stopped and watched them running bewildered in the other direction. I guess they don’t like loud screaming, she thought to herself.

Niko groaned as he tried to sit up against the cave wall. She put her sword in her sheath and walked over to him helping him sit up the rest of the way.

“Are they dead?” He asked her sitting up.

“No they ran when I screamed.” She answered looking over him to see what damage may have been done. His sword lay beside him glowing in the dark and she could see some cuts from the light it was giving off.

“This healing thing.” She hesitated, not really wanting to believe any of this, but if she could make him better she would try. “How do I do it?” She put her hands in front of him

“Just place your hands over the wounds and think about it being healed then say, ‘Sanabit Nunc’.” He told her as he winced in pain turning so she could touch his wounds. “Oh, and it might feel hot for a few seconds. You’ll get used to it again.”

She put her hands over his side where the biggest gash was and closed her eyes. She thought about the wound closing and the pain leaving his body. She felt a warming coming from her hands and opened her eyes to see a glow around her hands and his wound. She pulled back a little then stopped, this was somehow familiar to her. She closed her eyes again and when the warming went away she opened her eyes again. To her amazement the huge gash that was once on Niko was completely gone. No trace of blood was even visible. She looked over him again with his sword still glowing for her to see and healed the rest of the wounds. He sat up more in the cave they were still in and took a drink of the water that she offered her.

“Well, we will have to regroup and figure out which way to go.”

“What about the way you started to go?”

“Your castle has moved by now, but we can’t go down the way the Rataskigs ran.” He gave back her water container, which was made of some kind of animal skin and had appeared when her clothing had changed. She stood up and instinctively started walking towards the other tunnel that the Rataskigs hadn’t gone down.

“So, I guess we’re going this way.” She turned to him as he was standing up and brushing himself off. Fixing his uniform and picking up his sword, which changed color in his hand, to red.

“We have to get moving.” He said suddenly when he saw his sword change color. He ran over to her and took her hand running down the one tunnel he hoped was safe enough for them to pass through.

She ran with him until they came to a lit-up area of the tunnel. She stopped short, something had caught her eye. She was an explorer at heart, she hiked, and researched at home until she was satisfied with answers that she got. She was always looking up the plants she found on her little hiking journeys. So, to stop and look at the lit-up plant that caught her eye was nothing new to her. It seemed new to Niko though because he was angry, or annoyed that she wanted to explore.

“We cannot stop my lady, let’s go!” He called behind her in desperation.

“Why are these lit up? How are these lit up?” She asked him. It still wasn’t sinking in that she wasn’t on Earth any more. That she was somewhere else. That she already knew why these were lit up, that they were supposed to be lit up.

“They’re tunnel flowers.” Niko said. “And they light up when there is a deadly gas approaching. Which is the same reason why our swords changed to red. Let’s go!” He took her hand again and ran.

She had no choice but to run with him and process what she just heard. She wanted to look at her sword to see if he was telling the truth but he was running so fast. How is he running so fast? How am I running so fast? She thought. Where is this energy and speed coming from she thought to herself?

They stopped. Niko sniffed. She smelt something too, but being new to this world she didn’t know what that was. Niko looked around, he knew something was wrong, even though their swords had changed back to their original colors. He crept slowly along the tunnel they were still in and when he heard noises he stopped. He knew some of these tunnels had many creatures in them, one of them being the Treleskan trogan, a cross between a troll and a dragon. They were mean, hard to kill, and very hard to stay away from once they knew you were around. Niko smelled the cave carefully, he didn’t want to miss the scent of this creature it could be their death. He saw a light coming from the right he backed up a little so they could hide behind a rock they were standing close too. He peered into the darkness and focused on the light, it wasn’t moving. Maybe it was the sign from his friends showing him it was safe for now.

The royal court had come together in the castle a couple days before Niko was to go to the human earth and recover the princess. Aquirya, the world they knew, was falling apart. There was almost nothing left of the world, let alone of their kingdom. They felt at a loss and this was their last chance to try again to get into the realm that Craceeris the viscous had sent Aeyla five years ago. They’d been searching every realm they could find. Craceeris had been the royal wizard and had let it go to her head. There weren’t many female wizards or sorceresses, most were more powerful than warlocks. Don’t believe the lies that they’re not powerful, they are. She had kidnapped Aeylas’ twin, her son, and banished Aeyla from Aquirya after an almost deadly fight with her. Craceeris had used one of the kingdoms’ protection spells against Aeyla that would’ve sent someone evil away if used by Aeyla. Craceeris had done a pretty good job of destroying things and keeping them from saving themselves. Until, of course, the royals figured out a way to hide the castle and hide all their immediate families and kingdom citizens out of her sight and out of the reach of her magic. At least until now, she was gaining on them and knew how they were hiding. She just had to figure out how to break the spell. Which, unbeknownst to her, was only breakable by one of the princesses. She had also kidnapped the son of Princess Aeyla, Falcoer. The castle folk’s first main task was to search for Aeylas’ son, he was young and hadn’t had training in any kind of battle yet. Their second was to find the princess and their third was to bring Aeylas’ sister Alierriaes back. This was all being put in to motion and Niko hoped all their plans were going smoothly, at least better than his part of the plan had been going.

It was a sign. It was a firefly from the castle, it had made it here safely. Fireflies in Aquirya were like flashlights on Earth. They lit up for travelers in the wilderness and helped find things in the dark castle at night. Niko turned to Aeyla. However, some of the fireflies had given into Craceeris and her wicked ways but Niko knew this particular firefly, Flash wouldn’t betray Grazia.

“That is one of your citizen’s right over there. We need to follow him.” Niko took out his sword and let the glow lead him over to the firefly. He was a larger firefly than she was expecting to see, but he spoke with a soft-spoken voice. “My lady, if you come with me I will take you to your castle.”

“What is the royal word?” Niko asked the firefly standing straight at attention.

“Shiyrya.” He whispered to Niko. Niko nodded and looked at Aeyla.

“Quietly.” He ushered her ahead of him so she would be in between the firefly and him. Fireflies in this world did exactly what their name says. They could throw fire as they were flying. Pretty easy yes, but sometimes things are exactly what they seem.