Through the Earth

I’m not sure how long the fall lasted, but it felt like an eternity. I was going so fast that my wounded leg stung with a searing pain. The round walls of the tunnel were pitch black and wide enough for me to somersault in without touching them, but whenever I accidentally bumped it, the pain burned like a thousand suns. I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything to distract myself, but the whistling of the wind made it hurt to think.

Right when I was thinking I would fall forever, I smacked into something hard, but I continued to fall through it. Except now it felt more like I was being sucked up. It was the strangest feeling, falling through this rock. I was able to breathe but felt like I was being suffocated at the same time. Rough rock surrounded me but I remained unscratched. It felt like my soul was being sucked out but I didn’t lose my strength. The only pain I really felt came from my throbbing leg.

Before I realized what was happening, a giant explosion engulfed me as cool wind blew against my skin. A loud ringing filled my ears as I laid there with my eyes open. I was vaguely aware that I was lying on the ground as a dark figure loomed over me. A sound came from the figure, but I barely noticed its presence. I looked past it and up at the stars. They seemed more sparkly than usual.

“Bright...stars…” I mumbled before everything went black.

#

While I slept, I seemed to have a vision. It showed me Ruby, who stood as she stared at the luminous gem that she used to throw me into that tunnel. A moment later, the glow left it making it look like a normal ruby again. The evil hint of a smile crossed her face as she dissolved the gem into thin air and replaced it with a flat silver circle. Silver!

The circle started glowing with an unnatural white light.

“My Queen,” Ruby spoke to the circle. “The ruby’s light just faded. Emerald has reached her destination.”

“You left her defenseless?” a calm voice questioned from the circle.

“Yes,” Ruby confirmed. “I took her sword. I’ll teleport it to you so Sapphire doesn’t find it.”

“Perfect. Emerald is the only goddess that is persistent in defeating one werewolf after another. It’s getting very annoying to make new werewolves every week.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll never see her ever again.”

#

I gasped as I sat up. I looked around frantically as adrenaline ran through my veins. A flood of emotions washed over me, causing me to lose awareness of my surroundings. Before I fully understood what was going on, a hand settled on my shoulder, making my head snap to the right.

“Woah, woah. It’s okay,” said the guy next to me. I stared for a moment in shock. I’ve read in stories that men could exist, but everyone in the core is a goddess, so that means I’ve never met a man in my life. For a second, I studied his short brown hair and white skin. He wore a plain black shirt and navy blue pants made out of thick material, and he appeared to be in his mid-teens, just like me.

Wait a minute. There is only one type of creature in the whole world that has a similar form to goddesses but has both males and females. Humans. If this is a human, then I must be on the outside of Earth.

“Stay away or I’ll cut you down here and now.” I know I didn’t have my sword, but maybe I could intimidate him.

“Okay, don’t shout,” he said calmly as he stepped back. That surprised me. In the books I’ve read, humans were described as evil barbarians that took what they wanted without hesitation, but this guy seemed very compassionate.

I let my guard down for a moment to observe my surroundings. I seemed to be in a white room and was in some sort of strange bed with a chalky-colored sheet covering the lower half of my body. When I looked at my clothes, I wasn’t wearing my favorite flowing, white dress. Instead, I was wearing this dull, short dress, if you even call it that. To me, it felt more like a disgusting bag.

A lock of hair slipped out from behind my ear and into my line of vision. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that instead of being green, it was dark brown. Somehow, being on Earth changed my hair color.

“My name is Liam.” I turned my attention to him as he spoke, and his friendliness made my shock disappear. “Now, I know you just woke up,” Liam said as his demeanor became more serious, “but I’m puzzled about what you were doing in that explosion.” For a moment I didn’t know what he was talking about, but it all came running back to me. I remembered the fall as clear as day, but the explosion seemed a little fuzzy.

“Why should I tell you?” I demanded. “I don’t know you and you expect my trust.”

“Please whisper,” he pleaded. “You don’t want the doctors to think you’re crazy.” I didn’t know what these “doctors” were, but by the look in Liam’s eyes, I could tell that whatever it was wasn’t good. His face softened again. “You can trust me. I’m the one that brought you here.”

“No…” I said slowly. “Ruby did.” As a look of confusion crossed his face, anger stirred up inside me. Because of Ruby, I’m now trapped in a place I know nothing about with no idea how to get back. As my anger subsided, it was replaced by an emotion I never truly felt before. Fear. What will I do now?

Liam spoke again, snapping me away from my thoughts. “I mean I brought you here to the hospital,” he explained. Now it was my turn to look confused.

“What in the core is a hospital?” This made Liam give me a strange look when I was only asking a question. Do humans think looking for answers is rude?

“A hospital is a place that takes care of you when you’re sick or injured,” he explained. “I brought you here so you could get your leg bandaged, but I didn’t tell the doctors about the explosion because they’d probably think I’m crazy. No one else was out in the forest with me when it happened so there’s no one to back me up. Instead, I told them you got bit by a dog and passed out from fear. I think they bought it, but it’s a little strange that you’ve been asleep for a week.”

“A week,” I gasped. “There is no way they’d believe your story.”

“It’s okay,” he assured me. I didn’t know what the word “okay” meant, but his comforting tone settled me. “The doctors saw you had a bruise on your head and assumed you got it when you ‘fainted’.”

As relief washed over me, I threw the sheet off of me and bent my right leg towards me, which now had bandages wrapped around the calf. “My leg should be healed by now if it’s been a week.”

As I started to remove the bandages, Liam reached out and clamped his hand around my wrist.

“Those are really deep cuts,” he said frantically. “The doctor said they wouldn’t heal for maybe a month.”

“That’s ridiculous.” I shook his hand away and peeled the bandages off. I gestured towards my leg as Liam looked at its skin. “See? Only faded scars are what’s left of my injury. If you knew anything about skin, you would know that cuts as deep as mine would form a scar a week after being formed and fade away a few days after that. Soon I will have flawless skin and it would never seem like I was attacked.”

“Wait, attacked?” Before Liam could say more, another man that looked way older than us came through a wooden door on the left. He wore a long white coat and held a piece of paper.

“Oh good. You’re up,” the man said. “I’m Dr. Phathler. May you tell me your name.”

This man said he was a doctor! Liam implied that they would do something bad to me if I sounded crazy. I know nothing about Earth and anything I say might make me sound unstable, but Liam also told me that they help people. If I say simple things, then maybe I could get through this without coming across suspicious.

“Emerald,” I answered.

“Okay, Emerald,” Dr. Phathler said without looking up from his paper, “your friend, Liam, told me you fainted after you were attacked by a…your leg is almost fully healed!” He pointed at my calf with confusion in his eyes. If Liam and Dr. Phathler both think it is weird that I’m almost healed, it must mean humans heal much slower than gem goddesses. I’m going to be discovered and taken away to humans that aren’t as nice as Liam if I don’t do something.

Just then, an idea hit me. Maybe I could do an influence spell on Dr. Phathler.

“It’s alright,” I said I stretched my hand towards him. “This is normal.”

“Don’t you understand how deep those cuts were?” Dr. Phathler was totally freaking out now. “Something strange is going on with you.” I closed my eyes and tried to tune out everything that was going on. I formed my words in my mind and repeated them with more authority.

“It’s alright. This is normal.”

“No, it’s not. Stop repeating yourself.” As I opened my eyes, Dr. Phathler started to head for the door, but Liam jumped forward.

“Wait a minute,” he stuttered. “Maybe we should talk this over.” I closed my eyes one more time and really concentrated on my command. As I spoke, I didn’t think about anything else, just my words.

“It’s alright. This is normal.” My energy depleted faster than it ever had before. Opening my eyes, I watched as the fear left Dr. Phathler’s eyes and he straightened his posture.

“It’s alright,” he repeated. “This is normal. You’re all healed and ready to go home. A nurse will bring you your dress.” With that, he left the room like nothing strange happened at all. I fell back on my bed feeling terribly drained.

“What was that?” Liam’s jaw dropped and he looked completely bewildered. His face irritated me but I felt too weak to let anger creep into my voice.

“An influence spell,” I muttered. “It’s very easy to cast, but it drained me more than any spell in my life. I guess Earth has some magic, but not enough for me to use over and over again.”

“Spells. Magic. If I didn’t just see what happened I would think you are crazy. Wait a minute, you just spoke about Earth like it’s a new place. A-a-are you from another planet?”

“No!” A microscopic bit of my strength must have returned if I could speak with anger. “I’m from inside the Earth!”

“Like in the core?”

“No, the mantle,” I said with heavy sarcasm. “Of course it’s the core! It’s the only place inside the Earth that is cool enough to sustain life.”

“But...the core is as hot as the sun. Scientists have figured that out.”

“And have these scientists ever traveled below the crust?”

“No.”

“That’s what I thought.” There was a knock at the door, and a lady wearing a plain turquoise shirt and pants came in holding my dress. The long skirt had a few rips at the bottom but other than that it was fine. “Liam, wait outside,” I said. “I’ll need my privacy.”