Aquirya

They continued their trek through the caves and tunnels turning left, then right, then going straight. Aeyla was getting hungry and tired. She felt dirty. She felt like she was also going blind from not seeing the sun for hours. Maybe she was being dramatic but the moss that used to be on the side of the caves was now moving. She jerked back when she felt it try to wrap around her hand.

“Ah!” she screamed.

“What’s wrong?” Niko said coming up behind her.

“I think the grass or moss is alive.” She said with fear in her voice.

“It is.” Niko said pushing her along. “We have to move, if it gets agitated you won’t be able to get away.”

Now she was horrified. She could be stuck in this dark cave wrapped in moss forever. This place was a suicide mission. Every turn was something that could hurt or kill her. She was not liking this one bit. How could she have lived here and loved it as a child? She was about to stop, break down and just quit when the firefly, Flash, stopped and turned to her.

“We will be surfacing now. This is as far as the caves go in the direction we need to go to get to where the Castle has moved. You need to draw your sword and stay close to us. Craceeris has creatures and things on her side all throughout the evil forest. Hollyella, was a forest that had always been run by evil. It was north of the hostile lands of Aquirya and the tamer lands that the other kingdoms and Aeylas’ castle were located. It wasn’t safe but it was the only way to get to Treleskan, which was the forest protected from Craceeris, currently by very faint magic. Faint magic meaning the people of the castle didn’t have much magic themselves and they didn’t know the more powerful spells to ward off or completely bring the castle to be invisible to Craceeris. It was wearing off quickly.

“Move slowly, we don’t want to disturb any Tragens that may live around this area.” Flash put up his hands and a door opened to the outside above them. She was afraid to ask what Tragens were again. She was still hungry and she had to go to the bathroom. Were their bathrooms in Aquirya, would she be able to take a bath? “I don’t think I can let go of the luxuries of earth.” she thought to herself, then shook her head to get rid of the thought. “I was only there a few days according to Niko, why do I remember so much?” She told herself she’d ask Niko later.

“Um, how am I supposed to get through that, I can’t fly?” She said to Flash as he started to fly up to the door he just made.

“Jump.” Niko said as he jumped up to the door as Flash went through it.

“Oh of course, Jump, why didn’t I think of that?” She said out loud with annoyance in her voice.

“Yes, Jump.” Now Niko was in the forest looking down from the doorway, with his hand out for her to grab on to. She guessed he wasn’t being funny.

She positioned herself to jump, knowing she wasn’t a very good jumper in the first place. “You have wolf in you, you can jump this height.” Said Flash, from a distance.

“What?!” She yelled, she couldn’t handle that. Being a princess she could maybe get used to, but being part of an animal.

“Shh.” Niko looked towards Flash. “Shh.” then back down at Aeyla. “Come princess we can’t waste time. Just, Jump. We can explain all that when we are not in immediate danger.”

She repositioned, half squatting and half hands in the hair. Checked if she was under the door, closed her eyes, and jumped. She felt herself lift up off the cave floor, she felt a rush of energy surging through her as she flew through the air. How was she doing this? She felt herself growl a little and opened her eyes just in time to see Niko grabbing her hand as she came close. She grabbed his and lifted herself the rest of the way out of the cave with Nikos help. She landed on the floor of the forest and gasped.

“I’ve never felt a rush like that before.” She said aloud. “That was incredible. Can I do that all the time? Jump like that?” She was excited now. She had real powers.

“Yes. You can do more than just jump.” Niko said smiling at her and helping her up to a standing position.

“Like what?” She was curious now. Maybe she could get used to this after all. “How come I couldn’t do that stuff on Earth?”

“We will tell you all that when we get to the castle. Right now we have to stay alive and get out of this place.” Flash said motioning for them to follow him. “There will be markers that we can see for us to follow so we go the correct way.” He was walking a little ahead of them.

“What are these markers?” Aeyla asked stepping in behind Flash watching where she was going.

“The royal emblem.” Flash said.

“Ok.” She looked at Niko. “Is that what’s on your hat?”

He nodded.

“It’ll be on fire.” Flash said swiping at a tall shrub of some kind with a machete.

The Forest wasn’t as dark as she expected an evil forest to be. It had light, from a sun perhaps. The trees were like the ones on earth but the leaves weren’t green, they were blue. She liked them blue. The ground around here was also blue, with sticks and different kinds of flowers. The air was moist and thick. It was hard for her to breathe in. She had to learn how to breathe in this or she would faint. She was getting a headache from the thickness and weird smells from this new environment. Flash noticed and came to her aid with some sort of mask for her to hold over her mouth and nose. He and Niko already had them on.

“It’s an air leveling mask. We have to wear them in here or we will collapse. It will form to your face, it’s magic. No one will know you have it on.” He helped her put it on.

“Thank you.” She said through the mask. It suctioned to her face and stayed in place when she put her hand down.

“Follow me.” Flash said. “Stay close and always have your sword drawn.”

They crept along the forest floor. It was filled with leaf droppings from trees and other bushes. They didn’t hear animals and she was hoping that was a good sign, it wasn’t. Every now and then both Flash and Niko would stop, look around, sniff, listen, and then continue walking. When a flaming sign of the royal crest appeared, usually out of the blue, they would turn towards it and walk that way. When they’d pass by these blazing signs all signs of the crest would disappear as quickly as it appeared. She was searching the woods for something to come out and eat them or kill them or ravage them but nothing came. Being in the Evil, forsaken wood was turning out to be not so bad.

“Night is when everything comes out and makes sure nothing leaves here alive.” Niko said, as if reading her mind. She shivered, this wasn’t night?

“When will it be night?” She asked shakily.

“In a couple hours.” Niko said. He was trying to reassure her that they’d be out of the forest before they had any real reason to be on guard or get attacked.

“I was really on earth for five years? It didn’t seem that long.” She asked Niko. “I was there for like two days.”

“Five Years our time Princess. It was merely a couple days on earth. I found you 5 years from now here but the same day Craceeris magically sent you to earth.

“I never saw this Craceeris.” Aeyla said as Flash came buzzing in behind her.

“You’ve seen her.” Niko said frowning. “Way too much, you’ve seen her. You used to be close to her. You know her.”

“That is why we need to keep walking.” Niko and Aeyla hadn’t realized they’d stopped and Flash had gotten a bit of a ways in front of them. So, to save time Flash had flown back to them and picked them up to get time back. Fireflies were not strong, they could only carry someone for a short time, let alone two people. He brought them about two miles before he had to stop and set them on the ground.

“That should make up for lost time, now let’s keep walking.” Flash said turning around pretending he was okay after carrying two heavy halfling’s across a forest. He was all business, trying to get the princess to safety, those were his orders. That’s exactly what he would do. Under his breath he said, “Why can’t she just remember and call Attar, already.”

Niko heard him and glared at him. Flash looked away quickly.

“Can I get something to eat? Drink? At least.” Aeyla said, since her stomach had been growling for their whole journey. It was about time to either eat or fall over. She was starving. A Bacon cheeseburger with ranch and some mushrooms all juicy and hot would be amazing right now she thought.

“We will eat when we get to the castle. Eating anything in this forest will certainly kill you, it is not safe to eat from anything in the Evil section of Aquirya.” Flash said. Business. Yup. She liked Flash. She liked that he got things done. Did what he was told to do, however, he wouldn’t kill himself to do it.

They walked for another hour or so and she saw a clearing ahead. She got excited, we’ll be closer to food, she thought. She was also hoping some sort of bathroom would be available.

“Okay princess, brace yourself, your kingdom doesn’t look like it used too.” Flash said as they neared the clearing. Then wincing he looked over at Niko remember she didn’t remember Aquirya at all.