Elvaeda Chapter 8 1/2

                                            8

                                    DANICA

My eyes snapped open from a short nap, and my heart beat painfully against my ribs. I couldn’t sleep, no matter how sleepy I was, or I would never be able to wake up.

          The coldness of the space around me chilled my body to the bone, and I was desperate for some rest, but I knew I couldn’t sleep no matter what, or the coldness of space would freeze me to death, a nap I would never wake up from, and the devil would have my body forever. At least if I stayed awake, I would have SOME chance in getting my body back.  

            I struggled on keeping my eyes open, my eyelids slowly closing unintentionally every 3 seconds. I pinched myself real hard, screamed the place down so there would be enough noise to keep me awake, and thought about a lot of funny things so I could laugh instead of sleep. I tried all of these, but it didn’t stop my eyelids from closing.

            “WAKE UP, DANICA FORSYTHIA!!!” I screamed, my voice dancing off the invisible walls of space. I slapped myself and pinched myself real hard, muttering to myself over and over: “You can’t sleep, great god, PLEASE don’t sleep.”

            But it was not use. I grew sleepier every minute, until it was almost impossible to open my eyes. I thought, my heart sinking into my stomach: I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can fight it anymore…..

               I closed my eyes, and allowed myself to float in the void of space, my heart beat slowing down, the coldness around me dropping until it was as cold as the North Pole. Goodbye, my life…..Goodbye, my friends…..

Soon all that was left of me was a dead, cold body in the darkness of space.

                                            AVERY

              “Jackie, something tells me we have a long way to go,” I muttered, holding the pyramid in my hands as Jackie trekked well ahead of me in our journey to the ruins. I peered at the map and the red dot in the woods. “This dot’s barely moving.”

               Jackie stopped to look back, her whole face drenched in sweat. She walked back towards me, peering at the dot in the hologram. “Heh,” she said, sniggering. “Relax. You just don’t think it’s moving because you stare at it every 3 seconds, but for me, who hasn’t looked at it for awhile, I’d say its good progress.”

               I rolled my eyes at her. “Okay, Ms. Deforest,” I said, glaring at her. “How much have we moved in this map? Can you tell me?” Jackie blinked, her black eyes staring into mine. “Um, a few centimeters?”

                I pulled a face at her, a face that plainly said: “Are you kidding me?” Jackie slapped me on the shoulder and grinned. “C’mon, don’t be so negative!! It’s not like the whole world is waiting for us to finish this quest!! We can take our time!! Name at least ONE person who is waiting for us to finish this quest!!”

            I folded my arms across my chest. “Mercedes,” I said. “The whole of Elvaeda.” Jackie blinked, then said: “Um, I said ONE person.” I slapped myself and then walked well in front of her. “C’mon, let’s go.”

             Soon enough the dense forest disappeared into a hot and sandy plain, and only occasionally does the odd tree appear in the barren landscape. We had to preserve what little water we had saved in our rucksack, but that wasn’t easy as Jackie always had to rummage through her rucksack, draw out her water bottle in lightning speed, and gulp a whole bunch of it down every 3 seconds, and only did she realize how much water she wasted after she drank the whole lot down.

               After walking for what seemed like an eternity, we finally grew exhausted and had to rest for awhile. We sat atop the sandy landscape, catching our breath, sweat streaming down our faces. I took out my water bottle and drank a few drops, then put it back in my rucksack (Jackie, however, drank a whole liter) I stared up at the seven suns glaring down at us. We had walked the entire night.

             I massaged the cramp in my leg, but it just made it worse. I sighed, and rested my foot on the ground, and Jackie looked around, not sure of where we were. If it wasn’t for the map, we would be lost.

             I stared into the hologram, the red dot now on the edge of the plain, blinking at me mockingly. The arrow still continued to jab down far into the plains, and just looking at the map felt exhausting. It was going to be a long walk.

             “Maybe we should rest here for awhile,” Jackie said, her voice coming out in a strangulated gasp. Jackie might have been the best in PE, but I doubt even she had walked this far in her life. We were both exhausted. I pulled out the sleeping bag I packed neatly in my rucksack and spread it out neatly over the sandy ground. I watched as Jackie struggled with hers, in the end getting tangled within it in a way I had no idea of how she got in it.

             “Jackie,” I sighed as she tried to rip her sleeping bag in desperateness to get out of the pretzel she made with herself and it. I folded my arms and glared at her, but she didn’t notice as she was too busy strangling her sleeping bag. “Jackie, come one. You were the one who went off to camp at juniors.”

              “But I had a tent,” she grumbled, wriggling about the floor with a sleeping bag wrapped around her like a burrito. “Not this annoying thing.” She kicked at the sleeping bag with her sneakers, only succeeding in getting her legs tangled in the sleeping-bag-Jackie pretzel. She rolled about the floor like a wheel, stopping only when her back hit the face of a dusty brown rock lying on it’s side in the middle of the landscape.

               “Avery,” she whimpered, exhausted from trying to wriggle out of the pretzel. “A little help here?” I laughed at the mess she made out of herself, then set off to help her untangle the sleeping bag from her body. Finally, after some effort (That sleeping bag was stuck to her tight, so even sleeping bag experts like me have to take some time to untangle it, haha) I managed to pry the sleeping bag off the twisted body and tossed it onto the ground, sending dust and sand flying everywhere.

               Jackie stood up and stretched her fingers into the sky, then pulled at face at me when she caught sight of the messy heap of sleeping bag lying on the floor. She picked it up and started whacking it with the side of her hand to clear out the dust and sand stuck to it, like a karate master. Dust flew out of her sleeping bag and into my nose, sending me coughing.

             “Jackie! Stop that!” I said, pinching my nose to stop a sneeze, but with no avail. I sneezed so hard I actually felt myself fly off the ground and land back down with a thump. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and glared at her as she set her sleeping bag down daintily like I did, then smile at me.

              “Well, I’m hittin’ the covers,” Jackie said, and covered her mouth daintily with her hand, then crawled into her makeshift bed and in seconds, she was fast asleep. I stared into the barren landscape around us, the suns burning my eyes. I looked back down onto my sleeping bag, looking so appealing after a whole night’s walk. After some stretching and yawning, I slid into my bed and fell asleep.

                                                 SAYSHA

               I stared into the darkness of my grandmother’s crystal ball, my reflection peering back at me. I sat cross-legged on the woolen matt of my Granma’s tepee, as my grandmother whispered in a raspy voice: “Saysha…..” she coughed as smoke winded it’s way into our tepee from the camp fire crackling from outside. I nodded at my grandmother.

               “I am ready, Gran,” I whispered back to her, and she nodded, and placed her wrinkled hands onto the smooth face of the crystal ball, muttering words too soft to hear. Light flashed from the ball, filling the tepee in light. I winced as the light burned my eyeballs, and when it settled down, I just saw my Grandmother humming to herself in the dim light, her eyes still gummed shut.

             Suddenly, after awhile, her eyes snapped open and she glanced at me, then said: “Saysha…..” she muttered, her voice a raspy whisper. “People…..two…..Zeyna….”

             I froze at the last word. “Z-Zeyna?” I muttered nervously, and my grandmother nodded. “Treat them well, Saysha….” She said, and the dim light glowing at the center of the crystal ball grew dark, shrouding the tepee in darkness. My grandmother grew silent, and I gulped down a mouthful of saliva. If they were Zeyna, I had no idea how to react.

Elvaeda Chapter 7 2/2

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                                         AVERY

  “Okay,” I said, walking around the rubber tree forest, scratching my head. “Now what?”

           I knew that our duty now was to find the Great Spirit, but where do we even begin? The forest we were in was huge as it was dense, and me and Jackie were pacing the forest floor until we could actually see a little rut.

         “I have no idea,” Jackie said, and gave a little sarcastic laugh. “Well, isn’t this just nice,” she said, sighing. “With all my big talk about finding the Great Spirit, it turns out it was just a waste of effort, wasn’t it?”

            I peered up the four gibbous moons shining in the night sky; the seven suns that hung in the darkness of the sky were dark, like light bulbs before someone turned them on. This was one strange world.

           Suddenly, I felt something wrap itself around my waist, like a thick snake and lift me upside down so that my hands were dangling about 10 meters above the forest floor, too dazed to scream. Fortunately, I didn’t have to as Jackie did all the screaming for me.

          “Great lord of Mercury!!” she yelped, her eyes wide in fear. A thick green vine with a small layer of fuzz around its skin had coiled itself around my waist and was lifting me higher and higher into the sky, and that was when I screamed louder than I ever did in my life when I caught sight of what the vine was dragging me to;

           The vine belonged to a huge tree which was as wide as it was tall. At the tip of each branch vines exploded from every direction, stretching themselves to the forest floor to grab more living creatures to swallow. At the top of the tree, there was a huge monster plant that resembled the piranha plant in Super Mario Bros.

           It opened it’s huge gaping mouth as I veered nearer and nearer to it. I heard Jackie scream, but I couldn’t tell if she really screamed as I was screaming too hard myself to hear. My arms and legs flailed in all directions when the vine that held me in its steely grip dropped me into the monster’s mouth and into the darkness of its throat.

                                                JACKIE

         As I saw Avery about to get swallowed by that monstrosity of a plant, I knew I just couldn’t stay and scream; I had to find a way to help her. I dropped my rucksack to the floor and began rummaging through it, searching for something-anything!-that might help me rescue her.

          After looking inside for some time, I found a mini pocket knife I took from my mother’s office desk, but my plan all focused on whether my aim and throw is as good as I hoped it was. I held my breath, and with my heart in my throat, flung the sharp blade towards the vine that held Avery fast.

            The monster plant screeched as the blade penetrated its skin, loosening her grip of Avery just the slightest bit, but not enough to make it loose its grip on her. She continued to scream and flail her arms about in fear.

            I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t have anything else left in my rucksack to help her, just useless stuff like magazines and comics (and right now I’m thinking: “Why the HECK did I even bring those?) I closed my eyes, not about to let my best friend die but didn’t know what to do either.

             Oh, how I wish I had a bow. I was way up at the top in archery class, but unfortunately I didn’t own a bow so I couldn’t bring one to the quest for searching for the Great Spirit. Thinking of a bow made me feel stronger suddenly, and I felt like I really was holding a solid bow in my hands. Without opening my eyes, I aimed my bow to the sky and where Avery was held captive, and released my grip on the string.

             The nest thing I knew was the plant shrieking so loudly that I was forced to open my eyes out of shock, and immediately realized I was holding a bow in my hands. Where did that come from? And where did I get the arrow to fire?

            Pushing these thoughts from my mind, I dropped my weapon gazed up into the sky, watching Avery fall from the plant’s steely grip and drop with a loud thunk on the ground next to me. Disoriented, she got up groggily and stared up at me, lowering her gaze until her eyes fell on the bow on the floor.

             “Wow,” she breathed her gaze still on the bow. “How the heck did you do that, Jackie?” I shrugged, saying that: “I’m not very sure either.” I gazed up at plant, still moaning in pain, its millions of vines flailing in every direction, dropping the living creatures they held captive. Every living thing that dropped from the plants grip chattered slightly and scurried off into the forest.

           “That was wicked, girl,” Avery said, grinning, but before I could grin back she clutched her back, her face etched with pain. “Whoa,” I said, my eyes wide. “Did the vine break your spine or something?”

              “Don’t be ridiculous,” she grunted, feeling the forest floor for something. “I think I just sat on something, and wow, is it giving me a bruise.” Soon afterwards Avery managed to draw out a small device she was sitting on in the shape of a pyramid. It was purple in color except for a rim of gold lining all around the edges.

                “Ouch,” I said, jokingly. “You sure sat on something, girl. I’m surprised it didn’t poke a hole in your back, with the spiky tip of that pyramid.” She just glared at me.

              “It has static,” she said, and pushed it in front of my face. “Here. Feel it.” I took it from her, and as soon as my skin touched the smooth, marble edges of the pyramid a short static shock entered my body. “Wow,” I said, flipping the pyramid this way and that as I examined it. “Nice. What is it?”

             “I dunno, but it looks pretty old,” Avery said, reaching out to take it back. She was right. Moss grew from some places while fungi grew from the other. Whatever this thing was, it was left here for who knew how long already.

              “Hey look!!” Avery said, pointing at something on the pyramid. And peered over at it, and immediately saw a gold button at where Avery’s finger was pointing to. “It’s a button! I wonder what it does.”

             We pondered over this idea for awhile, curious at what it might do, yet thought that it might release a crazy beast that would eat us up in one gulp or something horrible like that. We had to options; to press it or not to press it.

            Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of me and I pressed the button before I said anything to Avery. She gasped: “JACKIE!!! What have you done?” Luckily for us, it didn’t do anything but release a 3-D hologram of a girl that resembled Samantha, only much older. Static fuzzed over what she was saying.

            “Mer-phhhhft-des, I am wonder-phfft-you’ll get this-phfffffftt. I cannot he-phhhhhhffffft, but I can tell you this; the Great Spi-phhhhfffftttt- ruins. If you don’t-phhhhhfffftttt-where the ruins are, then I shall-phhhffft-map. Thank-phft-you.”

              That was all it said before the hologram dissipated and a map of the forest we were in shot out from where the hologram was standing just moments ago, a little red arrow pointing to somewhere in the map. Me and Avery stared at it in wonder.

               “I wonder what that was about,” Avery said, her gaze focused on the little arrow pointing towards a small plain in the map where the forest ended. “Was it some sort of message for Mercedes?”

                “Maybe,” I said, not taking my eyes off the little map. “But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is that we have a map right to the Great Spirit!!” I squealed, and jumped up and down. “Didn’t you hear the hologram? It said: ‘the Great Spirit is in the ruins!’”

                “We don’t know that,” Avery said, bursting my bubble and sending me down to earth. “There was static, so all we heard was ‘Great Spi’, and ‘ruins’.”

                  “Don’t be such a grouch, Avery,” I said, excited. “It definitely means that the Great Spirit is somewhere in these ‘ruins’!” And Avery sighed, putting her head in her hand. “Yeah, sure,” she said sarcastically. “Unless it really said: ‘The Great Spirit is not in the ruins.’”

                 I slapped Avery playfully on the shoulder, but a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach worried over what Avery just said. Perhaps it was true? Perhaps the ruins were some sort of terrible, scary place with devils and demons and creatures of the afterworld? And what if the massage really said: “The Great Spirit is in (somewhere). Whatever you do, don’t go to the ruins.”

                I pushed these thoughts out of my head. In this quest, we couldn’t afford to not take risks. I mean, suppose the Great Spirit really was in the ruins and we didn’t go? That would be a waste of good information!

                Avery still had the little pyramid wrapped in her hands, the hologram of the map still floating atop the tip of the pyramid, the little arrow jabbing its tip into the plains, like a finger saying: “Come, come!!”

              “This isn’t going to work out,” She sighed, her grip tightening around the pyramid in her hands. “We don’t even now where we are in this map. How are we going to go to the ruins this way?”

                As if it heard her, the hologram of the map fuzzed a bit and when the image cleared, there was a great big red dot in the middle of the forest, signaling where we were standing. Me and Avery looked at it and then at each other in delight. We had found the path to our goal, the Great Spirit.

Adventurous Skies-The realm of Imagination

  I love to daydream, and though daydreaming throughout the day is kind of like a bad thing, I still love to explore other lives. Sometimes I just lie on my bed and close my eyes, thinking of all sorts of things. I sometimes wonder were I get all my imagination from...
    ..and that's why I LOVE writing stories, especially fantasies. But as you see, I have loads of imagination, so I  just can't seem to finish a story without getting another idea and writing another story. So far, Elvaeda is the only story that has lasted this long and plunged this deep into the story.
       The reason I called this blog 'Adventurous Skies' is because I called my imagination 'Adventurous Skies'. Whenever I drift off into a world of day dream, I always think: "Heh, I have drifted off to the Adventurous Skies." The reason of 'Adventurous Skies' is because whenever I daydream, I always think of myself doing Adventurous things, and we use the words 'drift off' for 'sleep' or 'imagination' and drift off means sort of like fly, and that's what made me think of 'Skies.'
Come, let us all drift off the realm of imagination - The Adventurous Skies!!!

Elvaeda Chapter 7 1/2

                                                      7

                                             DANICA

It was cold, so cold.

            The last thing I remember was the devil ducking into my body and me screaming the place down. The next thing I knew when I opened my eyes was the dark void of space, the skies scattered with millions of millions of stars.

            I shivered, my breath freezing in the cold. I rubbed my hands together and blew on them, but none of that worked. I floated endlessly in the darkness of space, every joint in my body aching. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew I should’ve listened to Avery.

 Avery.

            Her name rang in my ears, and suddenly a creepy voice that sent tingles up my spine wafted out to me: “You were foolish…….Now you can never see any of your friends again….”

I doubted that was wrong.

                                           VANESSA

         I gazed down at the little elf town that shown out of my crystal ball and shivered. If this is what Elvaeda had become, I didn’t want to stay here for long. The faeries would definitely be coming.

          I snapped the open book at the side of my table shut and shoved it into the folds of my robe, then drew back the curtains. The sky above glittered with thousands of gleaming stars, taking my breath away, but I couldn’t stay for long. The stars were lucky; they didn’t have to worry about faeries or demons or the creatures of the afterlife.

          I opened my door hastily, and froze as the sight outside greeted me: Dozens of faeries surrounded my little brick house, holding spears and swords and bows to my face. A faerie at the front jabbed the tip of his spear to my face, and it sneered evilly at me.

           “Elder Vanessa?” The faerie asked in a gruff voice, and I sighed, putting my hands up. “Yes, you caught me, I surrender.” I said with a long sigh. What could I do? Fight through dozens of faeries with a book? I don’t think so.

           The faerie whispered to another one standing beside him, and they both nodded. Then the faerie shouted: “Madam! We have found the one you were looking for.”

          Footsteps could be heard at the back of the huge crowd of faeries, which drew back hastily to let their leader pass. I didn’t know who the leader was until she was right in front of me, sneering in my face.

          “Vanessa,” she said in a soft whisper. “Good to see you again.”

          I froze, my gaze frozen on the young girl standing in front of me, an elf in a faerie’s royal gear. “You traitor….” I whispered as a faerie bound my hands together tightly. “You…you are a disgrace to our clan!! You will never win!” The elf in front of me just smiled, her black-brown hair swooshing in the breeze.

 “We shall see,” Isabella said.

                                               AVERY

         The blast that made the hole in the wall must have been really loud, because just seconds after the devil made Danica jump off into the night Serene and Dennis crashed open the vault door and ran in, equipped with rifles.

         Jackie noticed them before they even came in and grabbed my hand, startling me. “Av, looks like we’ll have to make a quick exit before those two faeries blast our heads off with their damned rifles,” and before I could even reacted she pulled me forward and jumped into the dark night, me with my arms flailing, screaming like a maniac and Jackie going: “WHEEEEE!!!”

           We landed on the ground below with a muted thunk and tumbled inelegantly down a small hill before resting to a halt. 10 meters was quite high and I was relieved that I didn’t break anything. Jackie stretched her arms and legs and we could hear the two faeries swearing from atop their house.

          I stared up at Dennis’s house, which seemed like a small hut when I first entered it but was amazed when I looked back up at it and it seemed like a palace. We were lucky we weren’t held captive on one of the higher floors or the drop would be way higher and far more risky.

           Suddenly a buzzing could be heard as the two faeries flew from the hole in the wall, out towards the night and right towards us. Jackie sprang into action and grabbed my hand, and together we went tearing down the rubber tree forest, unaware of where we were even going.

            After awhile of running Jackie ripped through a mini forest of rubber trees growing especially densely together, pulled me into it and jumped in herself, allowed the rubber trees to fall back in place and waited, our breath ragged, our hearts beating painfully against our ribcage.

          The faint buzzing grew louder as the faeries flew closer to our direction. I held my breath, thinking: Please go away, please go away. After what seemed like forever of waiting, the buzzing grew fainter, fainter and fainter still as the faeries flew to the other direction, until the noise disappeared altogether. Though the faeries were gone we still waited for five nerve racking minutes before we finally climbed out of the mini forest.

               Jackie breathed a sigh of relief before she crumpled to the floor, wiping her sweaty forehead with the back of her palm. I rested on a rock, my lungs gasping for more air. For awhile we just sat there, legs tired from running, lungs exploding in our chest. Once we got enough rest, we managed to stand up and stretch. I grabbed Jackie’s wrist and tried to pull her forward.

              “C’mon, Jackie!!” I panted, still quite tired from the endless running. “Danica couldn’t have gone far, so let’s hurry!!” But Jackie kept her ground, and I stopped too, glancing back at her.

               “Jackie,” I muttered, my grip loosening on her wrist. “What’s wrong?” Jackie looked at me, her face for the first time since I met her serious, which startled me, as she had always kept a happy-go-lucky attitude. “Avery,” she said softly, and a cry as gaggle of birds got scared by an unknown thing in the forest sounded through the air, as we continued standing there, doing nothing.

                Jackie sighed, then said: “Avery, we can’t go after her. Our duty was to complete our quest to find the Great Spirit and bring peace to the elves. We have to let Danica go, for now.” I stared at her, appalled. “Wh-what are you talking about?” I said, my voice cracking. “We’ll finish the quest as soon as we find Danica!! You know, the more, the merri-”

                “Avery!!!” Jackie shouted and shook me, and I was shocked. Since when was Jackie ever this way? “Avery, just think!! Just think for awhile!! Even if we find Danica, which is impossible, with us being in the woods and it being night, what are we supposed to do to free her of that devil? Tell me, because I darn right wanna hear it!! Tell me!!”

               I was visibly shaken, unable to get words out of my mouth. “I-I don’t know,” I muttered, Jackie’s eyes glaring at mine. “We’ll think of something when we find her!! But what matters right now is that we find her, and when we find her…..” my voice trailed off. I knew what Jackie said was true, and that we had no plan, that Danica’s body could be hers forever, just like in the chant: your body is mine, mine forever.

                 I raked my fingers through my messy hair, my fingers getting untangled in the multiple twigs and leaves stuck in my hair. I pulled a handful of leaves and twigs from my hair, throwing them onto the floor and sighing. Jackie’s words were right, all of it.

                “Okay, you win,” I muttered and stood up. Jackie’s face softened, and she sighed. “I’m sorry if I was being so harsh.”

“I’m sorry for being such a bore.” I replied.

                   Jackie grinned, and patted me on the shoulder. I looked up into the millions of tiny little stars twinkling in the night sky, gazing down on us; they’re little shining rays beaming onto our faces. Sometimes I just wished I was a star, or a cloud, or anything that was floating in the air, so I could escape my life’s problems.

            I lifted my rucksack onto my shoulders and looked back at Jackie, who was having a hard time untangling her rucksack’s strings and was just sitting on the ground, silently struggling to it herself. I liked a lot of things about Jackie, her undying enthusiasm, her happy-go-lucky attitude, and much more, but the thing I like the most about her is what she was doing now; when she had a problem, she didn’t like other people to worry about it for her. “It’s my problem, I’ll figure it out. Don’t want you to fret over it,” is what she would always say, but this time, I wouldn’t back out.

            I crouched down beside her and helped her untangle her now even more tangled rucksack strings and for once, she didn’t say anything, just smiled at me as we both pulled apart the tangles until the string was free.

Soon, we would do that for Danica too, even if it seemed impossible.

                                           DAVILA (THE DEVIL)

  I stared down the canyon as I balanced myself on the edge of the cliff, spotting what I was looking for; Elvaeda.

          I jumped down and landed just inches away from a Faerie guard, the impact of my fall causing him to loose his balance and stumble backwards, his spear sent flying. Picking up the spear, I pointed it directly at his face and glared at him, speaking in a harsh tone: “Bring me to your leader, faerie, or your death will be slow and painful.”

         He stared into my red eyes, his dark eyes clearly visible underneath his helmet. He knew I wasn’t just some typical girl trying to act tougher than she really was. I could sense his heartbeat, smell his fear. He knew who I was, and he wasn’t wasting another minute just lying there on the ground.

          He scrambled to his feet, and saluted to me. “Yes, ma’am,” he sputtered, nervous, and led me into the ground of Elvaeda. I smiled wickedly to myself. I love that effect I could do on anyone, no matter what body I was in; fear. I stroke fear into people’s hearts, and I loved every bit of it.

          Finally, after walking for what seemed like an eternity (My feet were already sore. Whoever this young elf was it seems like she didn’t do much exercise) the faerie led me into the palace that was supposedly built specially for the ruler of the elves, but now I knew what it was for.

           After entering the grand living room as soon as I pushed open the door, I spotted Isabella daintily sitting on the throne, trimming her fingernails. She paused when she saw me, a young girl standing at her doorway, and sneered at me in disgust.

           “Who are you, little girl? Get out of here, already! You’re dirtying up the place!!” She mocked me, and my heart burned with anger. So, she didn’t know who I was, was it? Well, I’ll make her know.

              “Isabella,” I grinned evilly, making her immediately notice I wasn’t your average little girl, but it was too late then. In lightning speed I ran behind her, and held a shadow dagger to her throat. I heard her swallow, and say: “Who…who are you?”

             I sniggered, then said: “You are foolish, but of course, I was told that the elder of war wasn’t very bright.” I held the dagger closer to her flesh, so tempted to just slice her throat in half. I said: “If you should know, you impudent young elf, I am the devil of this world, and I am seeking a deal with you.”

            She gulped down a lump in her throat, then said in a quaking voice: “What k-kind of deal?” I smiled, and held the dagger away from her throat, and it dissipated into a cloud of dark smoke. I folded my hands over my chest as Isabella rubbed her neck, relieved to have that cursed dagger removed from her flesh.

              “I want to be the heir to your kingdom,” I said, sneering slightly as I did so. “If anything happens to you, if you die, missing, whatever, I will take over this throne,” I jabbed my thumb at the throne she was sitting on.

               Isabella folded her hands, slightly braver now that the dagger was removed from her neck. “And what if I say no?”

               “That is simple enough,” I half whispered, and drew a rock from my pocket. “If you don’t cooperate, you will be squashed-” and I demonstrated it to her, squishing the rock with my bare hand and letting the small pebbles that was all that was left of the rock drop from my fingers. “-like a grape.”

                “But if you do….” I stepped on the small pebbles sitting on the smooth marble floor, cracking them into dust. Isabella swallowed, her gaze focused on what was left of the pebbles. “I will do what you always wanted someone to do.”

                She looked at me, her black brown eyes glittering in the dim light. “And that might be……?”

                I smiled, tracing my finger down the ivory texture of the throne. Soon, all this would be mine, but I had to answer her first. “The death,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the handle of the gold throne, my greed for gold almost taking over me. “of the candidates for the new elf queen.”

      

            

Elvaeda Chapter 6 3/3

AVERY

I blinked. No, I must have been seeing things. The ghost didn’t turn into a demon. She was still there, her white blonde hair swaying in the breeze, her crimson eyes locked onto us. She spoke in a quiet voice: “Greetings, elves. I am a poor soul who died and is now roaming this world, unable to rest in peace. Can you help me?”

Jackie jumped right in. “Sure! Why not?” The ghost smiled, then said: “Wonderful, and thank you very much. All you have to do is say a chant, and then I shall be able to rest in peace.”

Danica nodded, but I had a strange feeling about helping this ghost. I couldn’t express this feeling, of course, but it was like a tendril of darkness creeping into my soul every time I stared up at her.

“Now,” The ghost said, clapping her hands together. “All you have to do is repeat after me. Now say: ‘Epitrépste mou na eisélthoun syneídi̱sí̱ sas’” We repeated it diligently, and she smiled. Was it just me, but did I see a twinge of satisfaction when she smiled?

“Good!” she said, and then said: “Now, say: ‘Afí̱ste ti̱n psychí̱ mou me ta diká sas eiságete’” Again, we repeated it. Danica and Jackie seemed quite calm, but the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach continued to wind itself up to my throat, allowing my voice to be all jumbled and quaky.

The ghost clapped her hands together and said: “Okay, now here is the last part of the chant: ‘to só̱ma sou eínai dikó mou , dikó mou gia pánta’” She said it in some kind of accent, so we had some trouble saying this last line. After we said the first word, I froze, not continuing. Now I knew why I had such a bad feeling!! It was Greek she was speaking, and, luckily a few years back, I had grown an interest for Greek and begged my mom to let me learn.

I had no idea where she got me a class for learning Greek, but she did and I spent almost two years there before I decided it was too difficult and had quit, but luckily I still remember a lot of the words I had learnt there, and if I was right, the last line of her mysterious chant had said: “Your body is mine, mine forever.”

I edged away from the ghost. That wasn’t right!! What kind of chant to send you to peace ended with such a line? Unless……..I stopped dead as it dawned to me. She didn’t want us to help her rest in peace!! We were just tools, tools for her to fulfill her wicked desire; She wanted to posses one of us!!!

“Stop!!” I screeched, holding my hand in front of my two friends before they finished their sentence. The ghost glared at me angrily, but Danica and Jackie didn’t even notice. “What?” Jackie said, her tone of voice clearly confused. Danica stared at me in bewilderment, but then the ghost screeched: “Please continue that line!! She’s mad if she wants you to stop! All I want is to rest in peace!!”

“You liar!!” I shrieked back at her. Jackie stared at me, aghast. Danica clasped her hands to her mouth. I had never been this fierce to anyone before, so I could tell they were shocked. “Tell me,” I said in a gentle but dangerous voice. “Tell me why your cursed chant ended with the sentence: “Your body is mine, mine forever!!!”

The ghost glared at me, her face the color of molten lava, her eyes glittering with fury. “You…..you….you mad witch!!!” She screamed at me, then turned back to my friends. “She is mad!! She is definitely mad!! My chant didn’t end with that sentence!! I’m telling you the truth! Please help me!!”

Jackie shook her head and edged towards me, and I felt tremendously relieved. Jackie was on my side!! She believed me!! We gazed back at Danica, still confused, still wondering who to believe. The ghost shrieked at Danica: “Please,” she pleaded. “Please. Your friend, she doesn’t know what she is saying. I…I truly want to find peace!! I really do!!”

“Danica!!” I shrieked back at her. “Don’t believe her!! She wants your body, she wants to posses you! That was all she wanted from the start!!” But Danica didn’t appear to be listening. She opened her mouth to say something, and to my horror and the ghost’s delight, she said this:

“Epitrépste mou na eisélthoun syneídi̱sí̱ sas,

Afí̱ste ti̱n psychí̱ mou me ta diká sas eiságete,

só̱ma sou eínai dikó mou , dikó mou gia pánta!!!”

When the chant was complete, I shrieked: “No, Danica, NO!!!!” The ghost then smiled wickedly, and then, with a blinding flash, she turned into what everyone would call a devil. Her white blonde hair darkened into black, her skin grew as pale as a ghost, thorns shot up from her head and her white angelic robe melted into a dark devil’s overall. She stared wickedly at Danica, who remained glued to the spot.

“You impudent fool!!” the devil laughed, and Danica shrank to the door, her legs gone to jelly. We wanted to run over to her and protect her, but we found we were paralyzed!! The devil towered over Danica and laughed evilly. “From now on…” she said in the same gentle but dangerous tone I used. “Your body is MINE!!!”

And with frightening suddenness dived into Danica’s body and stayed there. We watched helplessly as Danica screeched as the evil, wicked soul entered her body, squashing Danica’s soul into the dark depths of her own body. She crumpled to the floor and just laid there for a few minutes, until she stood up again, gasping.

As soon as Danica stood up again, we found out we could move again, and immediately rushed to her aid, but a dark force repelled us backwards, and in the same wicked tone the devil used, Danica said: “If your looking for your little elf friend….” she laughed, and glared at us, her eyes as red as blood, her hair darkening into the same shade of black as the devil. “She’s long gone.”

I stared in horror at what used to be my friend, what used to be Danica. How could I let this happen? First Jackie, now her? I had to be the worst friend ever. The devil that was once Danica stood and admired her new body, smiling as she did so. She pulled apart Danica’s neatly tied braid and let her dark hair spill down her shoulders, then stretched. Suddenly, dark devil wings exploded from her back, and she flapped them endlessly.

“Not the best body….” She groaned as she stretched her arms, pulling them high above her head. “But can’t be choosy, can I?” She looked around the room, and then caught sight of Jackie, tears spilling down her cheeks, bounding towards her with her hands balled into fists.

“Let go of her body!!” Jackie screeched, but the devil just yawned and flicked her away with her fingers, repelling Jackie into the vault door, knocking her out. Then she put her palm on the rough surface of a wall, and with a loud bang, blasted a hole right into the wall, three times bigger than Jackie. The devil gazed back at me, smiling evilly, waved, and then said: “Later. Thanks for the body, young elf.”

Then she leaped out of the hole and into the dark night, the ground at least 10 meters below. She disappeared into the night as soon as Jackie grunted and got up, looking groggily around the room. “Avery,” she asked, her voice quivering. “Where’s Dani?”

I slumped onto the floor, not even focusing my gaze on her. “Gone.”

MINERVA

I froze, and gazed back to the place I had come, my heart pounding in my chest. She’s here, she’s come.

As soon as I heard a girl scream, I knew it was her, and it was too late to save the girl now. She was a goner if she possessed her, and I knew she did. I swallowed, my heart raked with guilt for leaving those three girls vulnerable there. What was I thinking?

I turned back the way I had come, but was immediately repelled back by the same dark force I felt all those years ago. It was her, and there was no doubt about it. I knew I had no chance against her, so the three elves would just have to figure it out on their own.

Still, I hoped they were all right.

Elvaeda chapter 6 2/3

AVERY

Jackie.

Her name rang in my mind as I saw her standing in front of me, wielding a light sword in her hand. She looked exactly the same as when I last saw her, yet I still felt something was terribly wrong.

And then I knew; her eyes. Instead of the dark brown eyes she normally had, her eyes had transformed into a much lighter shade of brown, so light it seemed to be fading. She was glowing a brilliant yellow, like angels in movies do, and her expression was too serious to be one of Jackie’s.

“Avery,” she said, her voice soft and melodious, catching us in a trance, like when I first heard Mercedes talk in my dreams. I could actually see small glowing wings behind her. I swallowed. What had happened to her? How did she end up like this?

“Freeze!”

A voice rang out from behind Jackie, and she looked back, spotting Serene and Dennis, rifles in hand and pointed at her. “Don’t move, or we’ll shoot!!” Jackeie moved anyway, and to our horror, we heard the bang of the rifle shooting.

I couldn’t bear to look. I turned away, my eyes full of tears. It was Danica who poked me in the shoulder and told me to look that I turned my gaze back to Jackie, and was stunned, shocked and amazed when I saw her still standing, without a single wound!! It was until I spotted four halves of bullets on the floor only did I realize; Jackie used her light sword and chopped the two bullets in half!!!

Dennis and Serene stared at the two broken bullets on the floor, then gazed back at Jackie in horror. They lay their weapons on the floor, then put their hands behind their heads and knelt onto the floor, like they had been caught by the police.

“Pathetic,” Jackie whispered, the offered me a hand. Stunned, I took it without comment, and she pulled me up. I whispered, since my voice wasn’t working very well: “Jackie…..what, what happened to you?”

Jackie smiled and said: “Sorry, miss Avery Melissa, but I am not miss Jaclyn Deforest, if you must know,” Danica stood up and dusted herself, then said: “What….what do you mean you are not Jackie?”

Jackie sighed, then continued. “Look, it is true that I am not your friend, but merely borrowing her body. I am actually the soul of the goddess of this world, Minerva.”

Me and Danica were still too stunned to speak, and we just let Jackie(Or Minerva, whatever, I’m so confused now) continue: “When your friend was going to get swallowed up by the Koreuis Rakken, which is what you lot call ‘The kraken’, I managed to save her. When I told her the news of you two being kidnapped by these two idiots-” she stopped for awhile and motioned towards Dennis and Serene, still both kneeling on the ground. “- she offered me her body for awhile so I could save you.”

Danica and I stared at her in shock. We were standing in the presence of a goddess, and we didn’t even know it!! Minerva smiled. “Well, my work here is done. I shall go now, but before that, I hope you have a good journey.”

I nodded. “I do, too.” Minerva nodded, the closed her eyes, and then a ringing noise rang the air, also with a blinding flash. When we opened our eyes again, we just saw normal Jackie with her dark brown eyes and Avril Lavigne rucksack, clutching her head with her hand.

“Ouch,” She muttered. “I have a headache like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Jackie!!!” Danica screeched, and leaped out to hug her. For a few minutes we were wrapped around in a group hug, and a reunion has never been so sweet. After awhile we pulled ourselves apart, and Jackie smiled her widest smile at us.

“You could not believe what just happened to me!!” she squealed, her eyes as big as saucers. “First, I was falling, falling right into the mouth of the kraken, and then, with one blinding flash, I was teleported to this black room, and me and this goddess Minerva told me about you, and what happened, and then-” she stroke a pose, like an ancient warrior preparing to fight. “-ULTIMATE POWER!!”

Bang!!!

An earsplitting bang sounded through the room, like a rifle cracking. And then, did I realize, it was a rifle cracking!! Blood trickled through the bullet hole in Jackie’s stomach, and she looked up at me, eyes wide in fear, before she fell to the ground, her wound staining the floor red.

I saw Dennis and Serene behind her, holding their rifles, smoke pouring out from Dennis’s rifle. Danica screeched, and I just stared, aghast, at my friend, lying, bleeding on the floor. We watched helplessly as Serene and Dennis backed out of the vault, nod at us, and say: “Goodbye, future majesties….” Before the vault door closed with a screech, locking itself into place.

JACKIE

I opened my eyes, pain streaking through my entire body. I winced as I got up, rubbing my injured stomach, until I heard Danica say: “Jackie, it’s best if you lay down for awhile. We just managed to get you bandaged up.”

I looked to my left and caught sight of Danica stuffing a first aid kit into Avery’s bag, and she turned up to look at me. I smiled at her groggily, and she smiled back, focusing her gaze back onto Avery’s bag and the annoying kit that didn’t seem to fit, no matter how much she squashed them in.

Avery walked over to Danica and helped her squash the kit amongst her clothes, then looked back up at me. “How’s your wound, Jackie?” I rubbed at my stomach, which was thickly bandaged. I felt a sting as my hand touched the sealed wound, but that was all.

“It’s okay,” I said, then stretched. I had no idea how long I had been out. The bandages around my wound were stained red with my blood, and I shuddered to think how much blood I had lost, especially when I saw a huge blood stain on the floor were Dennis shot me.

“Check it out,” Avery said, holding up a bloody metal bullet. “This was in your stomach before we pulled it out. I slapped her playfully on the shoulder, and she almost dropped the bullet. “Please,” I said, half-laughing. “Do not show me the reason half of my life’s blood spilled out of me.”

“Actually,” Danica said, wiping her bloody fingers with her handkerchief. (Her fingers were bloody because she helped with my ‘surgery’ if you must know) “That’s not half of your blood. In an average human body you have at least-”

“Whoa, Dani!!” I said, holding my hands in front of my face. “Please don’t start with the sudden education, or my wound will be worse!!” and then me and Avery exploded into laughter, with Danica smiling and giggling. Suddenly, somebody knocked on the vault door and Dennis’s voice rang out: “Keep quiet, you pathetic elves!!”

“Shut up, no-sense-of-humor faeries!!!” I barked back to the door, and heard Dennis grunt, and shuffle off the way he had come. I felt Avery poke me in the shoulder, and hand me a bun. “You should eat to regain your energy,” she grinned, then said: “Or will this food just leak out of the hole in your stomach?”

“Oh please,” I said, slapping Avery on the back while biting into my bun. The bread felt soft and sweet and I savored the taste in my mouth for awhile before gulping it down. Danica walked over to the vault door and gazed at it. “We have to find a way to get out of here before our food sources run out and they take over Elvaeda.”

I nodded, and Avery agreed, so for the next few minutes we were hammering on the metal door, trying to punch a hole in it before Dennis came and barked: “SHUT THE **** UP, YA STUPID ******** ELVES!!”

“Ouch,” I said, finishing my last piece of bun. “Looks like mister Grouch have used the four letter words.” Danica scratched her head and stared at the small dent we made in the door, but that was all. She probably felt foolish for ever thinking we could bust the door down.

“I wouldn’t be surprised he screamed at us,” Avery said, stuffing her hands in her jeans pocket. “According to the little alarm clock sitting on the bedside table, it’s 2:00 a.m. in the morning.”

I laughed, then stared up at the huge metal vault door. Nobody could bust this door down any day. Suddenly Danica shrieked, her scream loud and piercing, that I could feel the metal vault door in front of us shake. Me and Avery whirled around, and saw Danica looking at something hidden in the air, her eyes wide with fright.

“It’s….its a ghost!!!” she screamed, and me and Avery looked to where she was pointing to. True to her word, there was a ghost, silent, hovering about ten meters off the ground. She resembled Minerva, but her eyes were red. Blood red.

She smiled delicately at us. “Hello there, my little elves. Can you help me?”

We just stood glued to the spot. We watched in terror as the ghost started to changed form, until it was nothing but a demon standing in front of us. “Answer me, my little pretties, OR ELSE.”

Elvaeda chapter 6 1/3

6

AVERY

Dennis’s house was more like a lab, with white, rubbery tiles pasted onto the floor and the walls painted white. In each corner of the room, there was a big tank fill up to the brim with water, and in the tanks were all sorts of different life forms. In the middle of the white living room stood a long, steel table that stretched from the left side of the room to the other, and was piled with files and beakers filled with different colored liquid.

Danica gazed at the room in wonder, while I stared at Dennis and he smiled. “Sorry,” he said, trying to organize the files scattered on his steel tabletop but not making a very good job out of it. As soon as he piled a huge stack of files into one small stack, the exhaust fan on the ceiling just kept blowing them off. After some time, Dennis gave in and just left to let the papers and files fly.

Danica gazed into each one of the giant tanks, totally and fully absorbed in them. In one of the tanks, there was a huge, and I mean HUGE Tyca squid in it with multiple tentacles sloshing about in the tank. Its rock shell was brown and dappled yellow, like paint had fallen on it. It’s tentacles were dark blue in color and it’s red eyes shone out of it’s rock shell. It breathed out dark purple ink, staining the water purple.

Another tank had a Jasmine bug in it. The Jasmine bug was bigger than the ones we saw in the forest, and was at least the size of a 10 year-old. It’s wings were neatly folded behind it’s back, and a trail of white-blonde hair spilled from atop it’s head. It’s skin was grey and slightly wrinkled, leaf-like clothes plastered to it’s body. It hammered on the glass with it’s hand, desperately trying to free itself.

Dennis caught me gazing at the room in wonder, and he grinned. “I love to examine the animals here,” he said, going over to another tank in the far corner of the room. Inside it, there stood some sort of weird plant that looked like the ones you would find in the sea. It’s trunk looked like coral and on top of it, were the leaves and branches would be, stood multiple tentacle-like branches, swarming around the tank in a frantic fashion. Dennis hammered on the glass, and the tentacle branches settled down, falling to the bottom of the tank where it stood.

Danica walked about the room, stopping at each tank to look, like she was a visitor in a museum. I yawned and stretched. It had been quite a day and I was exhausted, and felt like it had been hours since I last rested. Dennis caught sight of me yawning and said: “Well, Miss Melissa, would you and Miss Forsythia like to rest for now?”

“Just call me Avery,” I said, half yawning. “And yes, I would love to rest, Dennis.” He smiled at me and beckoned me over to a little hallway at the side of the room. As me and Danica stepped into the hall, we realized we were in some sort of Aquarium, a tunnel digging through a world of aquatic life forms. All kinds of fishes and aquatic plants nestled here, their fins batting the water as they swam freely. Me and Danica gazed at the life around us as we walked deeper into the tunnel.

As the tunnel grew deeper, the aquarium around us ended, fading into a zoo type of room, tons of cages scattered around the small area. Inside the little cages, all sort of animals lay. I was enjoying myself until Danica tapped on my shoulder. I whirled around, and Danica looked at me in horror, and pointed to a single cage that stood, alone, away from any other cage on the far side of the room.

At first I couldn’t see what was in there, but when I did, my heart stopped; in the cage were at least two little human boys snuggled close to each other, frightened out of their wits. Dennis caught us staring at them and slapped me in the back, startling me. “Yep,” he said in a cheerful tone. “Those are my little prizes, the humans!! You had no idea how hard it was to catch them!! Sneaky little creatures, humans are!!”

I couldn’t speak. My mouth had gone dry. Dennis bustled me further down the hall and away from the cages, and soon we were standing in front of a huge vault door. We watched as Dennis punch in the combination and unlock the door, then push it open. Inside, we saw a little room, furniture arranged to look like a hotel room. It looked cozy, but I immediately grew afraid. What was with this vault door anyway?

Fortunately, Dennis didn’t give me or Danica any time to think, just pushed us into the room so quickly we stumbled onto the floor of the tiny room. Dennis smiled back at us and said: “Goodnight, your majesties.” We heard the bottom of the vault door screech against the floor as Dennis pushed it closed, locking itself into place. Me and Danica exchanged fearful glances when we as we realized the terrible truth: We were locked in.

*******

That night, locked in Dennis’s Hotel room vault, me and Danica had no choice but to sleep on the beds we had there. We were lucky that on the bed side table there was a big tray of buns and biscuits and a huge jar of water so we wouldn’t thirst or starve, but how long would one dinky little tray last? How long would we even stay in here?

I pushed the thoughts from my mind as I snuggled into the duvet, pulling the sheets up to my chin. I could hear Danica snoring softly on the bed beside me, and I sighed. I didn’t know how she could sleep so easily when we were stuck in this situation.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eating for who knew how long already. I grabbed a bun from the tray and slowly nibbled on it like a mouse, trying to conserve our food. Gulping down a small mouthful of bread, I wondered why Dennis locked us in here. Perhaps this was the only room for guest in his crazy lab house, and he accidentally locked the door?

That made sense. I shook the blankets off and headed towards the steel vault door standing in front of our beds, putting my ear close to it. I could hear Dennis’s muffled voice at the other side, but the vault door was just thick enough for me to not be able to hear his words. He was talking to someone, a woman judging by her soft voice, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

I leaned against the metallic door, hoping that elves had sharp hearing. Luckily, the door wasn’t as thick as other vault doors, and I was just able to hear their words, though some words were still unclear, I could make out their conversation:

“Serene, I’m glad you managed to make it today.” That was Dennis’s voice.

I heard Serene grunt, then said: “Well, what is it then? What is so important you have to make me leave my work?”

Dennis chuckled, then continued: “Well, my dear, I have two elves locked up in my vault.” I stiffened. He was talking about us!!! I listened closely as the conversation continued.

“Hmmm, intrephie,” Serene said something, but it was muffled and all I could hear was: “Intrephie, very intrephie.” Dennis chuckled again, and Serene said: “Well, then,” she said, and I heard her knock on the cold metallic vault door, and I froze. “If that is the case, we faeries might emerge victorious in this great war if these two are the heirs.”

“Oh, but they are!!” Dennis said, his voice sounded far away. I could hear their footsteps as they left the vicinity of the vault, and it was harder to hear the conversation. “It would be phice is we maphage to fake over Felpharda.”

Serene said something, and laughed, but they were too far away to hear. I leaned my back against the steel wall that cut us off from the outside world, my heart pounding hard against my ribcage. Dennis, and that Serene person were both Faeries, and they plan to take over Elvaeda while they leave us to rot!! We can’t allow that!! We must find a way out!!

I hopped onto Danica’s bed and shook her. “Danica, Danica, wake up!!!” She stirred slightly, but to my annoyance just fell back asleep. I tugged at the duvet she was hiding under. “DANICA FORSYTHIA!!!” I roared, and Danica immediately shot out of bed, staring at me with her big green eyes.

“What?” she asked groggily, stretching. After explaining to her, her eyes grew big and round. “Oh god,” she muttered, clambering off the bed in lightning speed. “We have got to get out of here!!!”

She hammered on the door, but it didn’t budge. As she was going to pound the door again, I stopped her. “Danica, that won’t work,” I crossed my hands over my chest and sighed. “This is hopeless….”

Suddenly, an alarm sounded, startling us. A red light that mimicked a police car alarm blinked off and on in warning, and a mechanized voice said in a calm tone: “Alert! Alert! An intruder has breached the lab! Alert! Alert!”

Danica and me exchanged fearful glances. What kind of intruder? Suddenly, Dennis’s voice ran out, shrill and alarming: “Serene!! It’s headed towards the vault!! Serene!! SERENE!!!”

Me and Danica froze. The intruder was coming here? We watched helplessly as a sword, shining radiantly like it was made out of light penetrated the thick metal door, slicing it in half.

The two parts of the door fell to the floor with a metallic clang, and we could hear Dennis swearing. Me and Danica looked up, and we gaped in shock and disbelief at the wielder of the sword. She had black hair, brown eyes, the familiar Avril Lavigne rucksack slung over her shoulder.

Jackie.

MERCEDES

“Mercedes?” a soft voice said my name, and I looked back. There stood Aria, her long fringe falling across her face, her long blue dress trailing behind her. It had been a long time since I saw her, and I smiled.

Aria smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I thought it was you,” she said, heading over to me. I focused back my gaze on the sky, the fluffy white clouds rolling past. Was heaven honestly this perfect?

Aria’s white-blonde hair swayed in the breeze as she said: “I never thought I’d see you here, in heaven. What will become of your town?”

I frowned, and buried my face in my hands. That was one of the questions I wanted to know too, whether my town, my people, will be alright. I never expected the curse to end my life so soon.

Aria gazed back at me, her pale blue eyes boring into mine, expecting an answer. I sighed, then said:

“I hope it’s alright.”