21. AURELIA

Chapter twenty-one

AURELIA

" H urry up!" I called out after him. Damian was lollygagging behind me. We had to quickly reach the egg. Time was running out, and I only had nine days left to complete my quest.

Sparse rays of sunlight filtered through the dense canopy of sprawling tree limbs, casting intermittent patches of warmth onto our cheeks. The haunted song of the wind and the faint light from the sun seemed to be the only movement and life in the Forbidden Forest. The wind changed tunes based on the area we were walking through. Some sounded like whispers, others sang songs that would match the darkness of a nightmare.

A tree branch snagged my pants, and I swore. Damian turned around, glancing at me as I walked behind him and just smirked from my displeasure. He then faced forward, hitting into a low-hanging branch, smacking hard into his face. I couldn't help but giggle at the irony.

We were heading northwest. The air immediately grew saltier, indicating we were getting closer to the fishermen's town, Evler. It didn't seem like a long journey, but who knew what else would come our way?

"What does the ‘S' stand for?" I asked, catching up and looking down at the silver locket placed gently on his chest.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, as he placed the locket inside his garment, next to his chest, out of sight.

"The ‘S' on your locket, silly."

"I don't know, make something up. Scaleborne, scales, Scalekind. You're obsessed with dragons, right? Something like that."

Right as I was about to retaliate, he interrupted my thoughts. "Do you hear that?" Damian said, walking faster.

"Don't try to get out of this," I yelled, frustrated, hating that he never wanted to speak to me, only wanting to walk on our journey in silence.He shushed me, and I was too embarrassed to fight back. Something must've been wrong. We paused, listening to the air. I only heard the cries of the trees, moving branches, and leaves in the wind.

"I don't hear anything," I responded.

We continued to listen, just in case. "It's the ground," he said, pausing what he was doing. The ground started to bristle. There was movement in the Earth beneath our feet. The sediment itself was shifting, slowly swirling beneath our feet, growing stickier to the second.

"What's happening?" I shouted.

The thickness of the soil started to pick up. We were standing in the same spot, but it was all around us. I realized what was going on, the memories of a passage from one of my books coming back to me. But it wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't expect it to look like this.

"It's a sinkhole," I said, answering my own question. "Don't move!"

"Why?" he asked, just as nervous as I felt.

"We will sink in deeper." I looked down and saw the umber dirt slowly starting to cover our feet more and more with the swirling of it. Vicious mud gradually pulled us in, sinking us deeper. Clinging to our bodies, we weren't able to brush it away or fight it back. Graininess from the earth wrapped around us, enveloping us tighter in its grasp. The hue deepened in color the further we were pulled down.

I became nervous as I frantically tried to move my hands, but the mud clung to me, compacting even more goop on itself. Oh, my scales. It had a mind of its own.

"If we don't move, then how are we going to get out?" He was right. How were we going to get out? The mud continued to fight me, sloshing in response. Growing nervous, I wasn't sure how to get out. The last thing that I would ever want to die by would be this pathetic brown goop.

"The branches!" I called out, looking at the odd hanging black tendrils drooping down. The trees were slanted, overlooking the mud pile that we were stuck in. We both went to grab the darkened flaky limbs but were unsuccessful. They slipped between our hands and bristled with noise, sounding as if they were laughing at our failure.

I attempted to reach for the branches again, but they swayed to the opposite side, unwilling to help us. The forest was against us. I read about this in my books but didn't believe it. I couldn't believe that the Forbidden Forest was forbidden for a reason. They wanted to keep anyone that ever wandered through it. It reminded me of my own souvenirs. Is that what we were? Souvenirs that it wanted to keep?

Our bodies kept slowly sinking. The mud was up to my knees now, the sloshy material the color of midnight, bubbling around us. I could vividly remember it being a brownish color, but now it had morphed into an onyx-blackened color—the color of death. I wanted to scramble and find something to help pull us out.

We started rapidly sinking at this point. Scrambling, we searched for anything to help us. I couldn't find any vines or anything to hold on to. The mud was now up to our waists, and continued to splatter from side to side, creating air bubbles that would burst, sending more muck around where we were sinking.

We were frantically searching for something. Beneath my probing touch, the absence of rocks or any other tangible anchors hinted at the void and the depth of the sinkhole. I cursed, not being able to find anything.

Was this the end of us?

"Damian!" I yelled, partly out of fear of death, and the other part out of guilt, feeling as though this were my fault.

The goopy mud was up to my neck. I heard wind swirling above me in the air. I looked up to catch a glimpse of something. A wing? A bird? I immediately felt the presence of an ancient creature. However, I couldn't pinpoint if it was a Scaleborne or if it was a dragon.

Blue Belle. The name rang through my head. "Wesh 1 ," I called out, begging for help.

Damian said something, but I didn't pay attention. I was so focused on what I saw, and the Scalekind that I felt the presence of. Damian's head had gone beneath the mud, and mine was slowly sinking as well.

We were going to die.

My attempts to lift my gaze were thwarted, the ruthless goop inching its way around my eyes, claiming me whole. Desperation guided my hands skyward, reaching out for an elusive lifeline. Surrendering to my fate, I closed my eyes, sensing my body being drawn further into the ominous sinkhole.

Something cold and firm linked under my fingers. I clutched hard, and it tugged me up. There was something sharp pricking my wrist as I started to get yanked up. It was a talon. It was a dragon saving me.

The tension of the mud continued to cling to my clothes, and Blue Belle ripped me away from the attachment of it. The mud had a mind of its own, and I could feel the war between the two.

Something released, and the dragon won. My body slid from the mud, and I began to be lifted into the air. Mud encased my eyes, blurring my vision. How far was I off the ground?

Reaching for the talon, I grabbed on, linking both of my hands together. Wiping my face along my forearm, I unveiled a clearer view. I was being lifted in the air by a… pink dragon. "Walamana 2 ," I thanked her. "Can I call you Belle?" I thought about how ironic it was that her name was Blue Belle, but she was pink. She nodded with her nose in agreement with her new nickname.

Glancing downward, I discerned that we were about ten feet in the air. A gasp escaped my lips, followed by a startled screech. "Oh, my scales. Oh, my scales." I turned my gaze toward Damian. His fingertips emerged only slightly from the mud, barely visible.

"Belle, let me down. We need to help him." She lowered me until my feet made contact with the ground, the descent gentle and controlled. As I touched the earth beneath me, my eyes caught sight of his fingertips disappearing beneath the muddy surface, prompting a gasp to escape my lips.

"Mis 3 tenimeii! 4 " she said, telling me she had a vine. Hearing her voice for the first time, I realized it was gentle, kind, and calm–and young.

She limped toward me and nuzzled her nose my way. A deep green and gray vine was hanging limp down from her mouth.

Muddy bubbles filled with air-popped as he was releasing his last breaths of life.

I quickly grabbed one end, tied it around my waist, and without another second of hesitation, I jumped head-first into the sinking mud.

1. Wesh: Help

2. Walamana (Wa-law-maw-naw): Thanks/Thank You

3. Mis (Miss): Here/There

4. Tenimeii (Tehn-i-mee): Vine