Fly to Sunrise

2
The Eidolon Forest


The clearing where the massive gate stood had been taped off with many ‘DO NOT ENTER’ signs. The gate had been covered with pictures of missing people and loved ones, with both fresh and dry bouquets of flowers lying on the ground below. Taped over a few of the trees were ‘Have you seen this person?’ flyers with phone numbers, etc. The place had been turned into a huge memorial site. No pictures of Ryder had been posted yet. Thank goodness.
I walked the length of the long wall and eventually found a board that had been sticking out of some thick bushes. Someone or something had pried it away trying to either get in or out. I shoved it aside and crawled through. It was just about sun down so the light was fading fast. I didn’t have proper hiking boots but I did have my sneakers. I wore khaki pants and a hoodie over a tank top with a backpack full of supplies and I put my brown shoulder length hair back in a ponytail and clipped my bangs back. I wanted to be prepared for anything. Once I crawled through the mossy brush and bushes I pulled out a spool of blue and white shiny rope from my backpack. For me it was pretty heavy but I didn’t know how much rope I’d need. I tied the end of the rope around a small tree and began to walk trailing the rope behind me.
The forest was very green, mossy, thick, damp, and straight out creepy. It was completely and utterly silent. That alone sent chills down my back. No slight breeze, no chirp of birds, not even a buzz of a bee. The air was thick with the scent of evergreen, pine, and wet dirt. There was no main trail if there had been the plants and moss had covered it a long time ago. It was like no one had been here in a century at least that’s what it felt like. What rays were left of the sun spilled through the netting of the treetops and glittered the forest floor. Those spots of sun on the mossy ground is where I walked, staying as close to the light as I could. But within five minutes of walking the sun had completely set and my rope had run out. I stopped and tied the end of the spool of rope around a tree. The only light was the light blue shroud of the oncoming night, everything that was green had now turned dark blue. It was getting darker fast and I was starting to panic just a little. So far there was nothing that looked out of place, no broken branches, no nothing, just trees, dirt, and plants. The only noise was the crunch of my footsteps and my heavy breathing. Someone could go crazy in here! I had to yell for him, even though the thought of it made my heart skitter with fear. I sighed.
“RYDER!!!!” I shouted slicing through the silence.
Then… rustling, a few feet ahead of me something small scurrying under the shrubbery. My heart stopped when I saw glints of light from the creature that was running away gleam through the shrubs.
“What in the?” I whispered to myself.
I quickly dug out a flashlight out from my backpack and a large zip lock bag full of red vines. I had to admit I was scared, it was going to get unnaturally dark and I couldn’t let my imagination take control. My mom always told me I had an over-active imagination. I took a bit of a red vine then dropped one behind me. I had to go further then the rope had taken me so a trail of red vines was all I could think of. I flicked on the flashlight and shined it ahead where I thought I had seen the creature but there was nothing, just shrubs. My mom was right; she had told me that she used to watch the forest at night from our back porch and saw flashes of light within the trees. I didn’t ever believe her although it would’ve been cool to see it myself but I never had until now. I pushed myself forward and kept walking. Periodically I’d shine the flashlight up into the trees trying to find the thinnest part of the canopy where I could see the stars. I wasn’t sure if there was a full moon or no moon, but any kind of light coming through was best to walk in. I slowed my breathing and kept it quiet. I was surprised how well I could control my nerves. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad?
After a few minutes I started to see shadows back in the trees. Or I thought I did, my eyes could’ve been playing tricks on me. Then a sliver of fear dripped down my spine,
“Jaaade….” A voice whispered.
I turned every direction with the flashlight and saw nothing… again. Someone had just whispered my name directly into my freaking ear.
“Who’s there?” I choked out.
I waited but there was still silence. I dropped another red vine and kept walking picking up the pace. Only a few more minutes of this and I had to get out! Where the heck was Ryder?
Another shadow moved in the corner of my eye and immediately I shined my flashlight at it. The creature froze and so did I.
“Oh Lord.” I whispered to myself.
The creature was on all fours, white skin tightly wrapped its warped body, it looked like a body of a dog but the head was a human skull… and red glowing eyes. I hadn’t known what real fear felt like until now. Warning sirens suddenly went off inside my head and the creature ran off. I hesitated and realized I couldn’t hear the thing’s footsteps, how could it walk around in complete silence? Hell, it could be floating for all I knew. That was it, I had had it, and I grabbed a hand full of red vines and ran as fast as I could without tripping dropping a red vine as I went. I wondered how the crud I wasn’t dead yet with those kinds of things walking around here.
I saw a shard of light, a faint silver glow through the darkened night trees. I turned off my flashlight and stepped through the clearing and found myself standing in front of a massive glowing tree. The tree shined brighter against the night even though only tiny silver moon beams shown through the massive canopy top of the great tree. I caught my breath and just stared. What kind of tree was this? I got this funny feeling though, that this tree was special somehow, that this tree was a tree of light. Mom never told me she saw a glowing tree. Maybe you couldn’t see it from the house?
I looked up where most of the thick branches grew out from the trunk and I knew that’s where I had to go. Dozens of small branches weaved up the tree looking like it would be easy to climb up. I stuffed the red vines back in my back pack and one branch at a time I made my way up the massive trunk, maybe this tree will lead to a clue as to where Ryder really was. Then the feeling finally hit of how stupid I really was for doing this. For all I knew I could end up dying out here, along with Ryder too. But I didn’t think Ryder would have gotten too far; I had only planned to search a short ways in from the entrance, which was also the exit. I hoped he was okay at least so we could make it back in one piece. I would be his personal hero, the thought of that made my heart flutter. I had to make up for hitting him in the face with the football anyway. The flashback re-played in my mind; how I smoothly caught the football and threw it right at Ryder and unfortunately hitting him directly in the eye. I giggled just a little.
As I climbed higher my anticipation grew, I was getting close to the top. I reached the large branches that grew out of the massive trunk. I had to be 30 feet up or so, this tree was tall and seemed even bigger now. I had to swing my leg up over a branch to get higher to see what was over the strange looking ledge. I grunted and pushed myself up.
I looked up to see Ryder’s face inches in front of mine,
“JADE?!” he yelled.
We both screamed and I suddenly lost my hold and started to fall. I reached up hoping my hand would catch something, anything! Then BAM! My head and body slammed hard into the tree. Ryder had caught my hand and held me there.
“Holy crap!” I squealed.
I looked up at Ryder; his face was full of surprise and relief.
“I gottchya.” He said trying to pull me up.
I grabbed the small branches that weaved in and out of the tree and climbed back up. I stood next to Ryder on what seemed to be the top center of the trunk where the cluster of thick branches grew out from. We were under the huge umbrella canopy of the glowing silver tree, a very thick layer of leaves and branches and only one or two moon beams seeped through. The only real light was coming from the tree itself, everything else was so dark blanketed by the night.
“This is really cool.” I murmured.
“Jade…” Ryder said, “How the hell did you find me? Did you come alone?”
I looked at Ryder, his hair was extra messy and his face was drained from his usual goofy expression, and he had patches of dirt all over with small scratches on his arms. He looked terrified and lost.
“Yeah, it’s just me.” I said,“You okay? You look like you’ve had the crap scared out of you.”
“You have no freaking idea! This is the shittiest idea I’ve ever had!” Ryder exclaimed while pacing in front of me. He sighed, “Well shit! Would you just tell me everything already? How long have you been looking? Does anyone else know you’re out here?”
I felt warning flags of fear go up in my mind with his language… out here.
“Ya know you really should watch your mouth, you are only twelve. And I wouldn’t be talking like that out here anyway, not during the night.” I warned him.
“How would you know?” he asked.
“Don’t you?! You’ve been out here longer then I have.”
“Yeah okay… I’m sorry, I’m alright, better now that your here.” Ryder surrendered, a little too easily I thought.
He looked at me apprehensively and I stared back waiting for whatever he was going to say. I wondered what kinds of things he had experienced out here. Had he seen the things I did? Then he stepped forward and pulled me into a hug and held me tight. I was caught off guard not sure what to do at first, then I freely wrapped my arms around him too. I felt his shoulders and back relax once my arms were around him. He smelled like dirt and wind, but then he still smelled good like he always did. I couldn’t tell if it was his shampoo or actual cologne. But I didn’t think twelve year old boys wore cologne.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” I said.
“Thanks…I guess.”
He let go of our hug and I looked at him confused,
“You guess?”
“Well… you don’t really like me do you?”
I laughed,
“Of course I like you. Wait, what do you mean? Like you as a friend or more then a friend?” I felt my cheeks get hot with embarrassment.
A smile curved into his lips. He put a hand on my shoulder,
“I’m glad you like me as a friend.” He said in monotone then took his hand away and looked out into the forest below in-between the intertwining branches.
“How did you find me?” He asked again.
“I followed the light and it led me to this tree. I had no idea you were up here. I felt like I might find something up here, at least it’s safer up here then the forest floor.”
“What do you mean you followed the light?”
“The light of the moon… I walked under the thinnest part of the canopy. The closer to the light the safer you are from whatever lives in the darkness. Remember the legend; the army of darkness and the army of light? Think of it that way. Or do you really not believe in ghosts? Isn’t that why you came here?”
“I…I wanted to see for myself.” There was an under tone in his voice, like he wasn’t telling me something.
“What did you see Ryder? I want to know what happened to you.”
“I don’t know how to explain it…” he turned and met my gaze, “I saw lots of moving shadows and eyes…”
“Eyes?”
“Most were red some where white, but I couldn’t see their face’s or it’s face’s… I couldn’t tell if it was human or not.”
“That’s creepy.” I said.
“What are you saying?! You seem to know more about this place then I do. Have you been here before?” Ryder said, not pleased with my reaction.
“No, course not! This is my first time! Don’t get mad just tell me what happened.”
“Geez! Okay… Well first I felt like I was being watched and then when I actually saw real eyes and I booked it. I’m telling you Jade, I’ve never ran that fast before in my life. I ran until I saw this tree, I thought I saw a light up here….”
“An actual light?” I asked.
“It was more like a shimmer of something… but there’s not anything up here.”
“But those things went away right?”
“Yeah…”
“How long ago?” I asked.
He sighed and looked away,
“It’s been a long night, that’s all I’m gonna say okay.”
“Alrighty then?… Do you want some food? I’ve only got granola bars and licorice.”
“Yeah! Let me have some of that!”
I slipped my back pack off and opened the big zipper. I handed him a couple of granola bars and a water bottle.
“Thank God.” He said happily tearing into the wrapper.
I sat down and Ryder sat down too and I noticed we were completely hidden from the forest floor; all we could see was the umbrella of leaves above us. I pulled out a rope of licorice and generously took a bite.
“You were serious! You consider licorice a survival food?” Ryder laughed.
“For me I do! Didn’t you come out here with anything? Where’s your bag?”
He looked away again,
“I had one…” he said.
“You had one? You mean you haven’t told me everything?!” I paused remembering to keep my voice down, “Ryder… What the hell happened to you? You can trust me you know. I won’t tell anyone…”
He looked at me for a long moment.
“Well?” I said impatient.
“Gimme this.” He said pulling my bag over to him.
I let him rummage through my stuff, I had nothing to hide. I’d let the subject drop for now but this wasn’t over.
“Let’s see here, you’ve got a couple flashlights, batteries, water bottles, matches, band-aids, neosporin, and candles. Candles, really?” Ryder said.
“Just in case something happens to the flashlights! Duh!”
“Right.” He said as he continued shuffling through my things.
“Whoa…what the?!” He pulled out a knife with his pointer finger and thumb, holding it like it was dainty.
“Jade?! Were you plannin on killin me too!?” he yelled still wide-eyed.
“Would you shut-up?!” I laughed, “It’s just a knife.”
“This is a big knife though!”
He pulled out the blade from the sheath and held it up so the blade reflected the silver glow of the tree.
“This looks like Rambo’s knife! Did you have to kill him get this?! Damn girl…”
We looked at each other for a moment. I honestly didn’t know what to say but I did like the attention he was giving me. He looked from the knife to me and back to the knife again.
“What?” I said blushing but a little irritated, “Stop looking at me like I’m a psycho!”
“No no, not that… You’re now officially the coolest girl I know.” He said pointing at me with the knife.
I smiled,
“All because I have a Rambo knife huh?”
“Do you actually know how to use this thing?” Ryder asked.
“If the situation called for it I think I would.” I replied.
“That’s bad-ass.” Ryder said pleased.
I laughed. I liked that he saw me as a bad-ass. I giggled feeling the sudden rush of giddiness.
It was quiet except for Ryder chomping down the second granola bar and pulling out some red vines.
“I think we should start heading back.” I said, looking over a branch down at the forest floor. It seemed like the night had gotten a pitch darker. The trees bent and twisted in and out of the darkness like the branches were trying to reach out to us in an ominous way.
“Do you know how to get back?” Ryder asked.
“Just follow the light… and the licorice.” I replied.
“The licorice?” he asked confused now standing next to me looking down into the blackness.
“Once I ran out of rope I left a trail of licorice.” I said.
“What if the monsters ate them up?” Ryder asked.
“Ghosts don’t eat food.”
“I guess we’ll find out won’t we?” said Ryder.
“Yeah we will.” I agreed.
I reached my hand out for him to hand me my bag but he swung it over his shoulders and slid his arms through the backpack loops,
“I’ll carry this.” Ryder said and smiled just slightly.
“Oh…” I said not expecting the sudden favor especially from Ryder, “Okay… that’s fine. Just don’t loose it…ya know like your last one.”
“Look I’m just trying to be nice here, kay?” he said with his hands up surrendering.
“No… you know what, we’re not leaving until you tell me the full story. The whole truthful story, specifically why you wanted to come down here in the first place and every single thing that happened to you since you’ve been here. It’s been a whole 24 hours for you so far!”
I pushed him lightly back away from the large branch ledge and more into the center of the trunk.
“No, I don’t want to tell you everything!” Ryder countered.
“Why?”
“Why do you want to know so bad Jade?”
“Cause, believe it or not I care!”
“You care? Why?”
“Because you….” I stopped myself luckily, from saying that I though he was special and chose different words instead,
“Because you’re my friend and I like my friends to be truthful with me! Why are you so afraid to tell me things?”
“I’m not afraid to tell you things!” Ryder spilled.
“You’re not?” I asked lowering my voice, “Then –”
“I don’t know! It’s personal, I don’t know if you…” He stopped and stared at me as if he just realized something.
“What, you don’t know if I… what?”
“You might understand… you might be the only one who would actually.” Ryder answered, bewildered.
“Okay…” I said. This was interesting, “I wanna hear it.” I said.
“Wait a sec… do you feel that?” Ryder asked.
“What? Feel what?” I felt a cool chill shiver up my spine.
Ryder walked past me and looked down the trunk below,
“A shadow…” he whispered.
“You can feel it?” I whispered and stood next to him looking down.
“Can’t you?” he asked.
“No.” I said.
“Get out your knife.” He said suddenly.
I hurried and opened the pack on his back and pulled out the knife. I buttoned the sheath to my belt loop and pulled out the knife.
“What is it?” I whispered to him.
I was going to hand the blade to him when a shadowy mass thickened on the forest floor right below us.
“You see that?” Ryder whispered to me.
“Yeah…”
The mass grew darker, black as the deepest night. The shadow morphed in and out of shapes and finally I could tell where the head was, it’s shoulders, and bumps of its spine on its back. An eerie chill spilled down my arms and warning bells were going off in my head. The hairs on my arms and neck stood up in fear.
“This is bad.” I whispered.
“Very bad…” Ryder added.
We watched in horror as it looked up at us and all I saw against the black holes of its empty eye sockets were red glowing eyes burning into my soul.
“Shit.” Ryder cussed sharply.
“No, don’t say-” I was cut off.
The creature had already started clawing its way up the tree toward us, faster then I thought possible.
“NO!” Ryder yelled turning into me, tackling me backwards.
My reflexes reacted as the red eyed creature leapt up toward us as we fell back. I swiped at it but missed just barely. We had fallen too far out of reach and I had moved my head just enough to feel the wind from its slicing claws centimeters from my face. The creature let out a horrible screech; it was nothing I had ever heard before worse then nails on a chalk board. The creature disappeared over the other side ledge of the tree and I felt pain shoot from my elbow and head as we slammed into the trunk. We both yelled in pain as we hit.
“Gah! My arm!” I said as more pain shot from my elbow to my shoulder.
“Did you get it?” Ryder breathed in my ear lying at my side with arms around me.
“No… that was too close!” I huffed.
Then I felt tiny cracks from under me.
“Oh no.” I said.
There was a gigantic CRACK and the trunk surface shifted under our weight.
“Oh dear sweet baby Jesus…” Ryder said staring wide-eyed at the long cracks that webbed out from under us. I didn’t have time to laugh the cracking noise wasn’t stopping.
“Hold on!” I screamed as the trunk gave way from under us.
It wasn’t as easy as it had looked in my mind. Ryder’s weight was heavier then I thought, but I tried anyway. I flung my left arm back, along with my body as hard as I could stabbing the knife into the side wall of the now hallow trunk. The sudden stop of falling made Ryder lose his grip of my shoulders,
“Ryder!” I screamed.
And miraculously as I had hoped I caught his hand in mine. He slammed into the mossy damp wall of the trunk,
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Ryder spat in a high pitch tone and grabbed onto my wrist with his other hand so both hands clung to my free arm. Luckily my bruised elbow didn’t hurt with the weight of Ryder dangling from it.
“Shut-up!” I demanded, “Stop it!”
“Alright, alright!” he replied, “This is insane! You are insane!”
“Not now Ryder!”
“I can’t believe you caught us!! Don’t let me go!”
“I won’t you moron! Try to climb up!”
“You’re like Tomb Raider, what’s her name? ... Lara Croft! You’re just like her!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle but a little breathless,
“That is my favorite game.” I said.
“You play video games too?” Ryder asked looking up at me shocked.
“Yes, you idiot! I’m not a total loser!” I shot back.
“NO! I know your not! Not anymore!”
“Great! I’m glad we got that covered! Would ya get a freakin move on it!? I don’t know how much longer I can just hang here with all your weight on me!”
“Okay!” he said.
He tried catching his foot on the wall somewhere but kept slipping against the wet moss and wood. Amid his struggling I started noticing the inside of the tree. It wasn’t pitch-black like I would have thought, the damp walls of tree emanated its own light; a silver bluish color a little more intense then what it was on the outside of the great tree. The silver bluish light got even more intense towards the bottom but the light was shrouded by the million black silhouettes of thick silky strands of spider webs making it impossible to see what was at the bottom. I saw round black shadows some bigger then others and the tiny spider legs that surrounded the tiny bodies. My skin began to crawl and itch,
“Oh my God!! Look at all those spiders!” I shrieked.
Ryder immediately looked down and noticed just how many tiny dots of them there were,
“Oooooh man! I hate spiders! You gotta get me outta here Jade! Now now now!” Ryder said squirming.
I grunted and huffed trying to pull him up with one arm,
“I can’t! You have to climb up! I’m not strong enough!” I breathed.
Ryder reached up and pulled on my pant leg and I heard the tiny rip of my khaki pocket,
“Ah crap!” I yelled.
“Let’s hope that belt of yours holds your pants up or this is gonna be real awkward.” Ryder said.
I grunted and strengthened my sweaty hand that gripped the knife handle. Good thing I didn’t bring a dinky pocket knife or else we’d be dead.
“Just put your feet around my ankle like a rope and try to pull up.” I panted.
I flexed my feet out and held them there while Ryder pulled his legs up and his shoes cut into my ankles.
“Now what?” Ryder asked.
“I’m going to pull up at the same time you’re gonna pull up, from your feet, understand?”
“Kay, then what?”
“You’re gonna reach around and get on my back, got it?” I took a breath, “This has to be quick okay I need my other hand.”
“Okay ready?” Ryder asked.
“Yeah, go!” I breathed.
I flex my feet as hard as I could with all his weight on top. With the help of his strength he popped up and quickly wrapped his arms around my neck letting go of my hand. I gasped with relief and reached up and held the knife handle with both hands.
“That’s loads better…” I said taking deep breathes.
“Ya know I feel like this should be reversed. I should’ve saved us and you should be dangling from my back. I am the guy after all.”
“Yeah well I was the smart one who brought the knife.”
“I guess I owe you now.” Ryder sighed.
“Heck yes you do! Sheesh! After all this! Holy cow!”
“Okay! I got it!”
We breathed while we dangled.
“Now what?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t know,” I cried, “Can you see anything above us to grab a hold of?” I asked.
Suddenly Ryder shrieked a horrible girl scream right into my ear making me grimace. He breathed fast,
“SPIDER!!! BIG! SPIDER!”
“Where?! Get it off!” I yelled back at him.
He screamed again and hit my back repeatedly.
“Owe! Owe! Owe!” I screamed.
“Sorry, that thing was huge!”
“Holy moley Ryder, you scream like a girl.” I said annoyed.
“I do not!” Ryder snapped.
My laugh was cut short when I felt the knife’s sturdy hold in the tree’s bark begin to feel not so sturdy. It slipped out of wall just a little but still held us making us gasp.
“Ooooh no.” I groaned.
“I can’t die like this!” Ryder cried.
Without anymore time to think the knife lost its hold. All I felt was ice cold terror as we fell backwards into the web covered glowing abyss of the hallow tree.
“I’VE GOT YOU JADE!” Ryder screamed wrapping his arms around my waist from under me.
I tried to stab the tree wall once, twice, and the third time the knife caught and flipped out of my hand,
“NO!” I screamed.
Automatically I clutched Ryder’s hands around me and closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry Jade!” Ryder cried above the loud air passing our ears.
All I could think of was that I was happy to have his arms around me before I died.
I expected to slam into solid earth with nice dark brown dirt scattered with rocks and tree roots to break us when we hit but the impact was soft, like hitting a mattress. We hit with a loud, “OOF!!” landing on our sides. It felt like the wind got knocked out of me but that was it, I was okay! We had landed on a huge pile of moss! I turned over to see if Ryder was okay but then realized I was covered in spider webs… and spiders, a lot of spiders. Ryder shrieked his girl scream and we both scrambled to our feet hitting and brushing our bodies clean of creepy crawlies. The spiders scurried away and disappeared into dark crevices of the tree bark. I caught my breath and looked around. It was like we were standing in a huge glowing room! There were random patches of moss everywhere, cob webs, roots, branches, and funny shaped shadows in the bark walls.
“Whoa.” Ryder whispered.
My attention was brought back to him. We had just survived a free fall that was at least 25 feet up. Maybe we wouldn’t have died but would have definitely broken something. Ryder noticed my staring and returned the stare and smiled. I couldn’t help myself and pulled him into a hug.
“WE’RE ALIVE!” I cheered feeling a little over whelmed.
Ryder laughed and squeezed me tight. It felt so good to have him close. I was surprised when he pushed me away leaving his hands on my shoulders and gave me a serious look.
He cleared his throat, “I am sorry I got you into this. I would’ve felt really bad if you died, even though I’d be dead too. I’d be a really guilty dead person.”
I smiled, “You didn’t ask me to come out here. I came on my own. You don’t have to feel bad, you don’t have to say sorry either.”
He dropped his arms to his sides and cleared his throat awkwardly,
“Why did you really come out here?” he asked.
“Um… I’ve always wanted to come here and I… I do like you Ryder,” I took a deep breath trying to control the sudden mass of butterflies in my stomach, “Maybe I like you a little more then a friend.”
Oh man, I couldn’t believe I had just said that!
“Oh.” Ryder said, taken back.
I twitched at my pant pockets and he pulled at the back-pack straps nervously… very awkward. He said ‘Oh’? That couldn’t be good I dreaded. My stomach suddenly felt like a bottomless pit of despair. What if he didn’t like me like that?
“I… I didn’t think you felt that way… Ever, actually,” Ryder admitted, “I like you too Jade, you are really cool. I didn’t realize how much stuff I didn’t know about you.”
I smiled. Thank goodness! My heart suddenly soared out of the bottomless pit of despair.
“Thanks.” I said trying to control another wave of giddiness.
What else should I have said? He was my first real crush; I didn’t know any other boy that was more gorgeous or more fascinating then Ryder.
“So…” Ryder said looking around embarrassed.
“Right..aa..” I said taking few steps around the moss patches.
“Now what?” Ryder asked.
I walked over another mossy patch to a shadowy corner with funny shaped shadows.
“Ryder, come over here.” I said.
“Wow, it really smells like rotten dirt down here.” He said and looked over my shoulder,
“What is that?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, looks funny huh?” I said.
I reached out into the shadows through the cob webs and gripped what felt like a handle.
“Yuck so many cob webs.” I squirmed wanting to pull back my hand but I resisted the urge. Instead I tried to pull the handle but it didn’t budge.
“I can’t pull it out…” I said trying to pull again.
Ryder stood next to me and gripped his hands around mine.
“One, two, three, pull!” He said.
We pulled and huffed together finally feeling it loosen from the ground. What sounded like tree roots breaking, the ground let go of the object we were trying to resurrect. We had pulled so hard we fell back. Well, I fell back onto Ryder and Ryder onto the ground. I could here our gasps echo all the way up the tree hallow.
We stared at a large sword I held up, the hilt and blade was engraved with tiny detailed designs.
“Wow…” Ryder whispered from under me.
I got up off of Ryder and we stood together staring at this amazing looking sword. I brushed my hand over the flat of the blade dusting it off. The blade began to glimmer from the intense silver glow of the tree hallow.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” I said in an excited disbelief.
“This is one serious sword.” Ryder said.
“Do you think this belonged to the king of light?” I asked.
“You mean the commander of the good army?” Ryder asked.
“Yeah, or maybe his general or something?”
“That would be way cool if it was.”
I looked at the spot where we pulled it from,
“I wonder if there’s more over there.” I murmured.
I handed Ryder the sword and walked over to the shadowy corner of the tree hallow. I brushed away cob webs and pulled out dead branches, clearing out debris until the shadows were gone and the silver light shined through. Then I saw two shimmery lights lying in the dirt and moss right next to the deep hole the sword had been stuck in,
“Ryder come here!!” I shouted in surprise.
Ryder ran over quickly,
“What is it!?”
“Rings…” I whispered.
We gawked at the two massive stone rings.
“Wait a minute, are those diamonds?” Ryder asked.
“I think so.” I answered.
“But they look untouched, like someone placed them there not too long ago.”
“No way, we have to be the first ones down here in centuries.” I said.
“Yeah but look at em,” Ryder said.
The rings had thick silver bands inlayed with one large clear-cut diamond, bigger then my thumbnail.
“Why are there two?” Ryder asked.
“Yeah… good question.” I said in awe.
What if the king had a queen that fought along side him? She must have been glorious and beautiful. I wished I could be a queen of light fighting off the darkness.
“Jade…” Ryder whispered.
“What?”
“I’ve got a really weird feeling.”
“Another shadowy thing?!” I said with a sudden rush of fear.
“No! No… this is different. It feels like these rings are meant for us.” He said.
“What? Don’t be crazy…”
Then Ryder reached down to pick up a ring but I grabbed his wrist,
“No! Don’t touch them!”
“What? Why?” Ryder asked.
He knelt down and slid the backpack off his shoulders and shifted closer to me. I noticed just how messy his hair was and his face and clothes were covered in dirt. He looked at me with his eyes filled with excitement. He looked so cute I couldn’t help but giggle.
“Why are you laughing?” he said seriously.
“Nothing, its just you’re so dirty.” I laughed.
“Ha ha, so are you Miss Bossy. Aren’t you going to pick one up?”
“No we shouldn’t touch them!” I said.
“Stop being a sissy pants.” He said and pulled his wrist out of my hand.
“They could be booby-trapped!” I said quickly.
“Oh yeah right! You’re not going all Indiana Jones on me now are ya? Wait… don’t tell me you’ve got a whip in that bag? You are kinda like a girl version of Indiana Jones. Maybe I should call you Dr. Jones” Ryder said with a smile.
“Ha ha very funny. Twelve year olds don’t use whips.” I answered.
“What is it with you and our age? We’re twelve so what?” Ryder asked.
“Don’t you ever feel like a sixteen year old stuck in a twelve your olds body?” I asked.
“A… yeah, all the time.”
“See what I mean?”
“I guess so…” Ryder said, “Come on Dr. Jones; don’t fail me now.”
He went to reach down again and suddenly pulled his hand back,
“Holy!!” he shouted echoing up the long tree shaft.
The ring he went to grab had floated up a few centimeters from the dirt and remained floating in place when he drew back his hand.
“Is this really happening?” Ryder whispered.
A sudden whirl of flashbacks of our adventures so far hit me like a ton of bricks. Was this really happening? Yes, of course it was!
“Seriously?” I said, “Yeah this is happening! We were attacked by a shadow monster, the tree is literally glowing, and now we’ve found floating rings and a sword! I think this is only the beginning!”
“Well okay! Geez woman! Then take the dang ring why don’t chya and see what happens.” Ryder half smiled. I think my freak out was entertaining him.
I looked at him for a moment both of us still crouched down in the dirt against the intense glowing walls of the tree.
“Fine.” I finally said.
I snatched the ring from out of the air then immediately I heard a sizzle at the same time I felt the ring burn my palm.
I let out a high pitched scream, “Owe!” dropping the ring.
The ring fell but didn’t hit the dirt, instead it floated up and stopped a few inches away from Ryder’s face.
“What the?” Ryder said curiously looking at the ring.
I rubbed my thumb over the fresh burn on my palm. There was a ring of red skin that was raised up; it wasn’t too bad of a burn.
“Geez, it burnt me!” I said holding up my palm facing him so he could see the red ring of skin.
“Oh yeah, hmm I don’t wanna touch it now.” Ryder replied.
“Why is it floating in front of you then? Maybe that one was meant for you and the other for me. Let’s see.” I said putting my burnt hand over the other ring.
Sure enough the ring that lay in the dirt began to rise slowly up to my hand. I closed my fist around it and felt sudden warmth. But there was more to it. I felt safe, stronger somehow, and that this was extremely right.
“Wow.” I whispered.
“What?” Ryder said anxious.
“Take yours!”
He did and I could tell he was feeling the same as I did from his expression, but what came next surprised me.
“What in the hell is going on here!” Ryder blurted, “I don’t understand!”
He shook his head holding the ring in one hand and the sword in the other, point down in the dirt,
“Jade we should get outta here.”
“But this is where we are supposed to be.” I said.
“That’s what’s freakin me out! It feels almost too right!” Ryder exclaimed.
“Just calm down! It’s going to be okay.” I reassured him.
I fumbled with the ring in my hand and automatically put my thumb through. It fit my right thumb perfectly. I noticed Ryder had put the ring on his thumb too.
“Does it fit?” I asked.
“Yeah. Aa… Jade?”
“What?”
“How the hell are we getting out of this log?”Ryder asked.
I looked up the long hallow tree and saw only the leaves and branches illuminated by the glowing tree through the small opening 30 feet above.
“I don’t know… but we’re going to find a way. We have to.” I said.
I saw another glimmer over in the dirt; it was my ‘Rambo’ knife that I had tried to stick in the wall of the tree when we were falling. I walked over, picked it up, and slid it into the sheath that was still buttoned to my belt.
Ryder had stood and walked over to me, I didn’t know what for but at that moment there was an insanely loud cracking noise. We both gasped and instinctively moved closer to each other. The noise came from the place we had found the sword and rings.
“Do you have one of those feelings?” I asked Ryder.
“No… this is different… I have no idea what this is.” He said.
The cracking noise continued, like the bark was coming apart and small branches were breaking.
“You think one of those monster things is trying to dig through the tree?” I asked.
“No way, this sucker is thick.” Ryder answered.
“What in the crud is that then?” I asked.
I took a step closer,
“No!” Ryder snapped grabbing hold of my arm.
“It’s okay!” I said, but he held a firm grip around my forearm.
“Just wait.” He said.
I stepped back to him and he let go. The cracking and breaking of wood got louder. Ryder held up the sword in a ready fighting position,
“Maybe you should get your knife back out.” Ryder suggested.
I went to unbutton the sheath when I noticed the ring on my thumb was glowing, bright and white. I looked to Ryder’s ring and it was glowing just as bright as mine,
“Look at your ring!”
Amid the noisy crunching and breaking Ryder noticed and his eyes went wide,
“Seriously! What in the hell is going on!?”
There was one more loud SNAP and there was an explosion, and with no time for reflexes I caught a mouth full of bark right in the face. We coughed, spit, and waved the dust particles away. The bark dust settled and I saw what looked to be carved into the wall of the tree, a carving of a small creature. Where the face should’ve been looked like a mask, an ancient mask, from I don’t know which era. The body looked like it belonged to a monkey.
“Whoa…” Ryder whispered.
“It’s a monkey!” I shouted surprised. I loved monkeys.
“A monkey?” Ryder said confused.
Then another crack,
“Oh no…” Ryder said, “Please tell me that monkey isn’t going to spring alive out of the tree and eat our brains.”
I whimpered as a vision of a crazed monkey eating our brains had uncontrollably popped up into my imagination. My stomach turned. The crack split wider right down the middle of the creature’s carved mask and a burst of light splintered through. I covered my eyes from the sudden bright light and Ryder had taken a step in front of me like he was protecting me. Was he trying to? If he was, that would be totally okay with me. I was already liking him more and more by the minute, and at that thought I knew it was bad I had these feeling already. I sighed.
Shadows of movement broke through the crack and started breaking away the rest of its wooden tomb. Ryder gasped and put his arm out in front of me keeping me behind him, it made me smile (even amid all this craziness). The creature had made a hole in the head of the tomb and jumped out from it and landed a few feet in front of us on all fours. Four of its paws, paws with claws I should say. It definitely wasn’t a monkey that was for sure. The animal body looked like it belonged to a lion, and the head of a… dragon? The dragon head looked like the ones my mom and I used to watch on TV, in those Asian festival parades, but its head was completely white. The creature looked completely symmetrical and proportionate somehow. Ryder took a slow step back and me along with him. It stood there frozen staring into our souls it seemed. A deep and intimidating voice erupted from the creature,
“Humans?” it said but its mouth didn’t move when it spoke,
“How did you enter this sanctuary?” It boomed.
Ryder didn’t speak so I used my courage,
“We fell.” I said taking a breath after realizing I’d been holding it for some time and I was squeezing the heck out of Ryder’s shirt clinging to him.
The creature took a step, stealthily and methodically closer.
“Stay back!” Ryder said pointing the sword at it.
“Do not be afraid human, I am not here to harm you.” It said.
Ryder lowered the sword but he was still very ridged.
“How is it you are able to wear the rings of light?” The creature asked.
We looked down at our rings that were still shining brightly; obviously they were the rings of light he was talking about.
“I don’t know,” said Ryder, “They came to us.”
“They came to you?” said the creature of white curiously.
“They floated to us…” Ryder added, not knowing how else to describe it.
The creature stared in silence a few moments longer and it moved carefully pacing in front of us, turning its head curiously.
I looked at Ryder; he had sweat on his brow and looked like he had to take a humungous dump. I stifled a sudden urge to laugh.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
“Do you know what those shadow creatures are? It tried to kill us!” Ryder blurted.
I guessed he was holding back the urge to ask, how terrified was he I wondered?
The creature stopped and sat down like how a dog would sit and answered Ryder,
“Those shadow creatures as you call them are known as Rakshasa’s.” It answered carefully, “better known to you as a demon.; a demon of the darkest kind, very powerful full of illusion and tricks.” It finished deep and low.
I felt the hairs on my arms stand up and sprout goose-bumps.
“Great…” I muttered.
“Jade and Ryder…” It said loud and enunciated very well, but also sent chills up my spine to the fact that he knew our names without us telling him. He continued,
“You are young but I see your souls are old and wise. It seems that the light has chosen you for an important mission, one that has lain dormant for more than a century. Please step into the circle.”
My eyes went wide. Did he say mission?
Then a lump of moss began to slither and move down into the dirt and disappear beneath the ground revealing a glowing circle full of intricate designs.
“Shit.” Spat Ryder under his breath.
I nudged him hard. The creature spoke again,
“Be careful young Ryder, you must learn from your mistakes quickly here because your second may be your last.” Its voice boomed, “Listen to Jade’s warnings and act on them.” The creature moved his attention to me. I felt my body freeze up. He had something to say to me?
“Jade,” The creature said, “Never stray too far from Ryder; you’ll need him in times of great danger. Remember these things. Now please…. Step into the circle. You’ll now meet my master.”
Oh man, oh man, oh man…. His master? I was freaking out inside. Ryder was frozen and definitely not going anywhere and held the sword so tight his knuckles were white. I pushed him,
“Go!” I said.
Ryder moved and we stepped within the glowing circle. Ryder looked at me,
“What?” I asked annoyed.
“Pinch me please.”
I took a bit of flesh from his arm between my pointer and thumb finger, the one with the glowing ring and pinched as hard as I could adding a little twist.
“OWE!” he shrieked.
Just then the circle we stood on gave way and once again we felt the weight of gravity hit us as we free fell through the ground and into darkness.