Chapter 33
I run over to Sequoia, who, other than a few scratches, looks fine. Ash, on the other hand, has a steady flow of blood dripping from her neck, and the other dragons are fine.
“Harley! Can you get some cobwebs?” Anabelle asks. She nods, and runs off, and comes back in a few minutes with two handfuls of cobwebs. She places them on Ash’s throat, and gently applies pressure. Sequoia lets out a long sigh.
“It is good to see you, Everleigh. Didn’t eat anything poisonous, I hope?” she asks.
“No, don’t think so,” I say. Sequoia smiles.
“Good!” she says happily. Sequoia and I chat, while my friends chat with their dragons. “So, you’ve been doing okay?” Sequoia asks.
“Yeah, think so,” I say. “Did Raven say anything about future plans?” I ask, a look of curiosity forming on my face. Sequoia’s face hardens.
“No,” she says with a long sigh. My face falls. Ugh! I think, irritated. If only we knew more about Raven! She’s so...Mysterious!
“We’ll beat her,” Sequoia says, seeing the look on my face. We might not, I think, a cold wave of dread washing over me.
“Okay, let’s head out! Let’s not waste time here,” Anabelle calls, and we all jump on our dragons. They leap up, high above the trees, and I lean back on Sequoia, and close my eyes. The wind feels good on my face. We fly and fly, and I think I might’ve dozed off. I don’t think about much, which is surprising. I sit and do nothing for a little longer before I realize I haven't drank much lately. And I’m really thirsty.
“Can we stop? I’m really thirsty!” I call out.
“Yeah, of course, once we spot a stream or whatever from up here, we’ll land,” Anabelle calls. Good. I will not die of dehydration! We fly for about five more minutes, until Harley announces she has spotted a lake.
“Here!” she says. “Land on the shore!” The dragons easily land on the shore of the beach. We run over to the lake and drink as animals. Harley turns into an otter, and swims around. I turn into a wolf and go for a swim. Anabelle does the same as a tiger, George as a white tiger, and Emma goes in as an arctic fox. We swim for a while with Aqua, getting on her for rides, while the other dragons chat on the shore. We splash each other with tails, play tag, and it is super fun. We all go quiet when we see the raven, sitting in a tree, watching.
Chapter 34
“It's her,” Anabelle whispers, her voice cracking. She transfigures, pulls an arrow out of the quiver, but I stop her.
“Don’t. You’ll create a forest fire,” I warn. Anabelle sighs.
“Then you try,” she says. I give a nod, transform into a human, and take an arrow out. Pull back the string and let go. The arrow would have found the queen’s throat, if she hadn’t flown away. I give a growl of frustration, now as a wolf again. Great! Now I’ve wasted an arrow! Or so I thought. Harley runs up to my side.
“Press this,” she says, and turns over the back of my doe pendant. On the back, a green button is there.
“Why?”
“Just push it,” Harley says. I do, and the arrow comes whizzing back to me, and flies into the quiver. Wow!
“That’s cool! Thanks!” I say. But now the queen has flown away. And I think that we should get going. Emma says the words for me.
“Let’s go,” she says tightly. We all nod our agreement, and Harley hops onto Aqua. I pad out of the lake, my pelt plastered to my sides. I shake myself, spraying water on everyone.
“Sorry,” I say. As a human, I climb onto Sequoia. Everyone else climbs onto their dragons, except for Harley, she is already on her dragon.
“Okey dokey! Let’s go!” George yells, and the dragons leap into the sky. We soar above the lake, loop around it, and fly straight forward, and in a few heartbeats, the lake is out of sight.
As we keep flying forward, I notice a shift in the habitat. Instead of soft green grass, the ground looks wet, and muddy. All the streams that flow have gray water, and mud sits unmoving on the riverbank, wet, and soupy. The kind of mud that would suck you down, down, down, until you are bathed in mud, and dead. “Well it looks yucky down there,” George says, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Sequoia gives a small nod. “This is the swamp,” she says. I think we can all tell that. The trees are a lot taller, and it’s very dark. I hear the croak of frogs, and the gurgle and bubble of the mud. In real life, swamps would never gurgle or bubble as if they were alive-but this is magic, or so I’m told. Not a movie. I catch a glimpse of a long body, with sharp, strong jaws. Wow, this forest has everything, I think, as the alligator opens and closes its huge mouth. The swamp looks like it’ll go on forever. All I can see ahead is the marshy reeds, and more trees.
My stomach gurgles. We’ve been flying for a good few hours. George notices this. “Hey, let’s eat lunch!” she calls.
“Okay, let’s stop here!” Anabelle says, waving her hands towards a patch of land that doesn’t look too soggy. We land, and Sequoia’s claws sink easily into the damp earth. When I walk, every step creates a sucking sound in the ground, and I cringe every time. Emma takes the weaved basket of food, and sets it down. “Where did you even get that?” Bella asks Emma. I remember the nicknames the dragons used for us.
“I made it. I got up early, found a stream, picked reeds, and made it.” That is impressive. As a chipmunk, Emma then scuttles up a tree, and picks five leaves off a tree, and carries them in her jaws. She spits them out, and turns back into a human. Ash opens her mouth to create flame, but I stop her.
“Let’s just all eat as animals,” I say. “It’s easier.” I turn into a wolf, Emma into the fox, Anabelle into a tiger, George a white tiger, and Harley an otter. Harley looks at the meat, and wrinkles her nose in disgust.
“I’m going to catch a frog,” she declares, and slips away from us, and comes back in a few momments with three dead frogs in her jaws. She quickly gulps them up, and the rest of us haven’t even started eating yet. Suddenly, a branch snaps up above, and a young girl falls. She lands on her side. She rubs her ribs, then stands up. Anabelle loads an arrow, and points it at the woman's heart.
“Who are you?” she demands. For a minute, the woman, maybe about 20, looks scared. But she clears the look from her eyes, brushes off her dress, and stands up. I have no idea how we’ve failed to see her. Her dress is long and flowing, and silver. Her hair falls loosely behind her, in a stream of the same silvery color. I can’t imagine what element she is. Silver is too light to be shadow. The woman bows, her hair brushing the ground.
“Greetings, queens. I come in peace.” Harley narrows her eyes.
“You were spying on us, why?” she growls. The woman bites her lip, and her eyes dart everywhere, frantically. As if she is trying to decide what to say. My eyes narrow, and I place a hand on an arrow, but say nothing.
“I...I...that...For Queen Raven,” the woman says. I feel a bright surge of fury. But George has beat me to it-she aims an arrow at the woman's neck. It misses, and sinks into her forehead. She yanks it out, and blood pools from the wound.
“No you don’t understand!” the woman says, the look of panic returning to her eyes.
“I understand perfectly!” Anabelle snarls, and aims the arrow for her heart. The woman turns to one side, missing it, and a tree bursts into flame. A burst of water quenches it. I whip around to see the dragons watching carefully. I look at the woman, and her eyes are filled with fear. I load an arrow, but Emma stops me.
“Stop! There is no need to kill. We’ll take her to a dungeon, but do not kill.” I remove my arrow from the bow, but hold onto it. I shoot Emma a glare, unable to keep myself in control.
“Wait wait, seriously, you don’t understand!” the woman says. George frowns.
“Understand what?” she asks. “I understand lot’s of things.”
“George, stop messing around!” Anabelle hisses through gritted teeth.
“It's true! I understand lots of stuff.” Goodness, we are making a bad appearance! We are supposed to be queenly!
“Let her say what she has to! And for God’s sake, stop bickering!” Emma snaps.
“Like I said, I come in peace.” The woman keeps one hand on her forehead, to keep the blood from flowing out of control. “It is very true that I am a spy for Queen Raven. That is what she asked me to do,” the woman’s voice flows smoothly out of her mouth. “But that does not mean that I give her true information. She thinks she is getting true information, but she is not. As far as she is concerned, you are in the jungle part of the forest,” the woman says. I narrow my eyes, unsure of what to make of all this. I think for a few seconds.
“So...Why did she attack us in the forest?” I ask coldly.
“She has more spies than just me, of course!” the woman says. My face falls. Of course. Of course she does. We need to outsmart them. But how? I sigh. Maybe we don’t need to. I’m sure it’ll all just work out the way it’s supposed to.
Chapter 35
“What’s your name?” Harley asks, her eyes narrowing.
“Eliza. But just call me Ella, please,” the woman says. Seems like people have pretty normal names here. I didn’t know what to expect, really.
“If you really are on our side, what’s some information you can give us?” Anabelle asks coldly. Ella looks at Anabelle calmly. Anabelle is looking at Ella with her head high, eyes narrowed, and a thin smile, like she knows Ella will never be able to betray Raven. I’m not so sure though.
“I can tell you that she is alive, in the jungle, the next part of the forest, and she has set traps- covered holes with leaves, and when you fall into them, you slide on into a pit of shadows. It may not seem like much, but the shadows are alive, and will kill you,” Ella says, and puts her hands on her hips. Anabelle looks taken aback.
“Okay, then. Um, well, tell us if we’re about to die. Uh, see you around,” she says.
“Thanks SO much! Now we definitely won’t die!” George says.
“Yeah thanks,” Emma says. Harley and I give a nod.
“Bye!” Ella says, and moves easily up a tree, higher, and higher until she is out of sight.
“Well. That was interesting,” Harley says, gazing at the tree where Ella disappeared.
“Um, yeah,” George agrees, frowning up at the tree.
“If Queen Raven has spies, we need to be on the lookout,” I say, staring around.
“And Emma,” Anabelle starts. “Queen Raven is out to kill us. Her spies are giving her information about where we are. So she can kill us. It is sort of like the spies are the ones killing us. So don’t stop us when we try and kill them,” She says. We all nod in agreement-except Emma. She puts her hands over her mouth, and looks horrified.
“What?! No! Can’t we throw them in the dungeon?! And what if there’s more like Ella?” she asks, her gaze fixed on all of us. Her eyes glitter furiously. George narrows her eyes.
“So they can turn into a worm, or something and go through the bars? No way!” She says, putting her hands on her hips. Emma sighs.
“Why does death have to be the only solution?” she grumbles angrily.
“Emma, there is a point in what they are saying,” Dove points out. “They are on Queen Raven’s side. And somehow, I have a feeling that they will continue to pass information while in a dungeon,” she says. Emma gazes sadly at the ground.
“Yeah, I guess so. Fine,” she grumbles.
I run over to Sequoia, who, other than a few scratches, looks fine. Ash, on the other hand, has a steady flow of blood dripping from her neck, and the other dragons are fine.
“Harley! Can you get some cobwebs?” Anabelle asks. She nods, and runs off, and comes back in a few minutes with two handfuls of cobwebs. She places them on Ash’s throat, and gently applies pressure. Sequoia lets out a long sigh.
“It is good to see you, Everleigh. Didn’t eat anything poisonous, I hope?” she asks.
“No, don’t think so,” I say. Sequoia smiles.
“Good!” she says happily. Sequoia and I chat, while my friends chat with their dragons. “So, you’ve been doing okay?” Sequoia asks.
“Yeah, think so,” I say. “Did Raven say anything about future plans?” I ask, a look of curiosity forming on my face. Sequoia’s face hardens.
“No,” she says with a long sigh. My face falls. Ugh! I think, irritated. If only we knew more about Raven! She’s so...Mysterious!
“We’ll beat her,” Sequoia says, seeing the look on my face. We might not, I think, a cold wave of dread washing over me.
“Okay, let’s head out! Let’s not waste time here,” Anabelle calls, and we all jump on our dragons. They leap up, high above the trees, and I lean back on Sequoia, and close my eyes. The wind feels good on my face. We fly and fly, and I think I might’ve dozed off. I don’t think about much, which is surprising. I sit and do nothing for a little longer before I realize I haven't drank much lately. And I’m really thirsty.
“Can we stop? I’m really thirsty!” I call out.
“Yeah, of course, once we spot a stream or whatever from up here, we’ll land,” Anabelle calls. Good. I will not die of dehydration! We fly for about five more minutes, until Harley announces she has spotted a lake.
“Here!” she says. “Land on the shore!” The dragons easily land on the shore of the beach. We run over to the lake and drink as animals. Harley turns into an otter, and swims around. I turn into a wolf and go for a swim. Anabelle does the same as a tiger, George as a white tiger, and Emma goes in as an arctic fox. We swim for a while with Aqua, getting on her for rides, while the other dragons chat on the shore. We splash each other with tails, play tag, and it is super fun. We all go quiet when we see the raven, sitting in a tree, watching.
Chapter 34
“It's her,” Anabelle whispers, her voice cracking. She transfigures, pulls an arrow out of the quiver, but I stop her.
“Don’t. You’ll create a forest fire,” I warn. Anabelle sighs.
“Then you try,” she says. I give a nod, transform into a human, and take an arrow out. Pull back the string and let go. The arrow would have found the queen’s throat, if she hadn’t flown away. I give a growl of frustration, now as a wolf again. Great! Now I’ve wasted an arrow! Or so I thought. Harley runs up to my side.
“Press this,” she says, and turns over the back of my doe pendant. On the back, a green button is there.
“Why?”
“Just push it,” Harley says. I do, and the arrow comes whizzing back to me, and flies into the quiver. Wow!
“That’s cool! Thanks!” I say. But now the queen has flown away. And I think that we should get going. Emma says the words for me.
“Let’s go,” she says tightly. We all nod our agreement, and Harley hops onto Aqua. I pad out of the lake, my pelt plastered to my sides. I shake myself, spraying water on everyone.
“Sorry,” I say. As a human, I climb onto Sequoia. Everyone else climbs onto their dragons, except for Harley, she is already on her dragon.
“Okey dokey! Let’s go!” George yells, and the dragons leap into the sky. We soar above the lake, loop around it, and fly straight forward, and in a few heartbeats, the lake is out of sight.
As we keep flying forward, I notice a shift in the habitat. Instead of soft green grass, the ground looks wet, and muddy. All the streams that flow have gray water, and mud sits unmoving on the riverbank, wet, and soupy. The kind of mud that would suck you down, down, down, until you are bathed in mud, and dead. “Well it looks yucky down there,” George says, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Sequoia gives a small nod. “This is the swamp,” she says. I think we can all tell that. The trees are a lot taller, and it’s very dark. I hear the croak of frogs, and the gurgle and bubble of the mud. In real life, swamps would never gurgle or bubble as if they were alive-but this is magic, or so I’m told. Not a movie. I catch a glimpse of a long body, with sharp, strong jaws. Wow, this forest has everything, I think, as the alligator opens and closes its huge mouth. The swamp looks like it’ll go on forever. All I can see ahead is the marshy reeds, and more trees.
My stomach gurgles. We’ve been flying for a good few hours. George notices this. “Hey, let’s eat lunch!” she calls.
“Okay, let’s stop here!” Anabelle says, waving her hands towards a patch of land that doesn’t look too soggy. We land, and Sequoia’s claws sink easily into the damp earth. When I walk, every step creates a sucking sound in the ground, and I cringe every time. Emma takes the weaved basket of food, and sets it down. “Where did you even get that?” Bella asks Emma. I remember the nicknames the dragons used for us.
“I made it. I got up early, found a stream, picked reeds, and made it.” That is impressive. As a chipmunk, Emma then scuttles up a tree, and picks five leaves off a tree, and carries them in her jaws. She spits them out, and turns back into a human. Ash opens her mouth to create flame, but I stop her.
“Let’s just all eat as animals,” I say. “It’s easier.” I turn into a wolf, Emma into the fox, Anabelle into a tiger, George a white tiger, and Harley an otter. Harley looks at the meat, and wrinkles her nose in disgust.
“I’m going to catch a frog,” she declares, and slips away from us, and comes back in a few momments with three dead frogs in her jaws. She quickly gulps them up, and the rest of us haven’t even started eating yet. Suddenly, a branch snaps up above, and a young girl falls. She lands on her side. She rubs her ribs, then stands up. Anabelle loads an arrow, and points it at the woman's heart.
“Who are you?” she demands. For a minute, the woman, maybe about 20, looks scared. But she clears the look from her eyes, brushes off her dress, and stands up. I have no idea how we’ve failed to see her. Her dress is long and flowing, and silver. Her hair falls loosely behind her, in a stream of the same silvery color. I can’t imagine what element she is. Silver is too light to be shadow. The woman bows, her hair brushing the ground.
“Greetings, queens. I come in peace.” Harley narrows her eyes.
“You were spying on us, why?” she growls. The woman bites her lip, and her eyes dart everywhere, frantically. As if she is trying to decide what to say. My eyes narrow, and I place a hand on an arrow, but say nothing.
“I...I...that...For Queen Raven,” the woman says. I feel a bright surge of fury. But George has beat me to it-she aims an arrow at the woman's neck. It misses, and sinks into her forehead. She yanks it out, and blood pools from the wound.
“No you don’t understand!” the woman says, the look of panic returning to her eyes.
“I understand perfectly!” Anabelle snarls, and aims the arrow for her heart. The woman turns to one side, missing it, and a tree bursts into flame. A burst of water quenches it. I whip around to see the dragons watching carefully. I look at the woman, and her eyes are filled with fear. I load an arrow, but Emma stops me.
“Stop! There is no need to kill. We’ll take her to a dungeon, but do not kill.” I remove my arrow from the bow, but hold onto it. I shoot Emma a glare, unable to keep myself in control.
“Wait wait, seriously, you don’t understand!” the woman says. George frowns.
“Understand what?” she asks. “I understand lot’s of things.”
“George, stop messing around!” Anabelle hisses through gritted teeth.
“It's true! I understand lots of stuff.” Goodness, we are making a bad appearance! We are supposed to be queenly!
“Let her say what she has to! And for God’s sake, stop bickering!” Emma snaps.
“Like I said, I come in peace.” The woman keeps one hand on her forehead, to keep the blood from flowing out of control. “It is very true that I am a spy for Queen Raven. That is what she asked me to do,” the woman’s voice flows smoothly out of her mouth. “But that does not mean that I give her true information. She thinks she is getting true information, but she is not. As far as she is concerned, you are in the jungle part of the forest,” the woman says. I narrow my eyes, unsure of what to make of all this. I think for a few seconds.
“So...Why did she attack us in the forest?” I ask coldly.
“She has more spies than just me, of course!” the woman says. My face falls. Of course. Of course she does. We need to outsmart them. But how? I sigh. Maybe we don’t need to. I’m sure it’ll all just work out the way it’s supposed to.
Chapter 35
“What’s your name?” Harley asks, her eyes narrowing.
“Eliza. But just call me Ella, please,” the woman says. Seems like people have pretty normal names here. I didn’t know what to expect, really.
“If you really are on our side, what’s some information you can give us?” Anabelle asks coldly. Ella looks at Anabelle calmly. Anabelle is looking at Ella with her head high, eyes narrowed, and a thin smile, like she knows Ella will never be able to betray Raven. I’m not so sure though.
“I can tell you that she is alive, in the jungle, the next part of the forest, and she has set traps- covered holes with leaves, and when you fall into them, you slide on into a pit of shadows. It may not seem like much, but the shadows are alive, and will kill you,” Ella says, and puts her hands on her hips. Anabelle looks taken aback.
“Okay, then. Um, well, tell us if we’re about to die. Uh, see you around,” she says.
“Thanks SO much! Now we definitely won’t die!” George says.
“Yeah thanks,” Emma says. Harley and I give a nod.
“Bye!” Ella says, and moves easily up a tree, higher, and higher until she is out of sight.
“Well. That was interesting,” Harley says, gazing at the tree where Ella disappeared.
“Um, yeah,” George agrees, frowning up at the tree.
“If Queen Raven has spies, we need to be on the lookout,” I say, staring around.
“And Emma,” Anabelle starts. “Queen Raven is out to kill us. Her spies are giving her information about where we are. So she can kill us. It is sort of like the spies are the ones killing us. So don’t stop us when we try and kill them,” She says. We all nod in agreement-except Emma. She puts her hands over her mouth, and looks horrified.
“What?! No! Can’t we throw them in the dungeon?! And what if there’s more like Ella?” she asks, her gaze fixed on all of us. Her eyes glitter furiously. George narrows her eyes.
“So they can turn into a worm, or something and go through the bars? No way!” She says, putting her hands on her hips. Emma sighs.
“Why does death have to be the only solution?” she grumbles angrily.
“Emma, there is a point in what they are saying,” Dove points out. “They are on Queen Raven’s side. And somehow, I have a feeling that they will continue to pass information while in a dungeon,” she says. Emma gazes sadly at the ground.
“Yeah, I guess so. Fine,” she grumbles.
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