The path up to the cave was barely able to be called a path. It was overgrown with strange, green plants that looked like they belonged in the Jurassic era - they were huge, and had strange spikes and brightly coloured flowers, and for some reason Iris stopped when she saw them.
"What's wrong, Iris?" I asked -quickly. She turned to us, at about the same height as us as she was a few metres above us. Her brow was furrowed, like she was worried about something.
"I...we should avoid these plants. Don't touch them." she told us, squeezing past a fern and waiting behind it. I was fine with avoiding the plants. They looked carnivorous - and that would be a wonderfully gruesome end to our lives - Eaten by a plant.
"What are you thinking now?" Angel asked curiously. I raised my eyebrows, shrugging.
"Oh, nothing exciting...why d'you ask?"
She grinned. "You're smiling stupidly - like when you see Wynn." she grinned, crossing her eyes and doing an impression of me when I saw Wynn. It was terrible, she had never been good at impressions. I felt my heart twinge at the sound of his name...I felt quite guilty that we had been in the Obsidian Fortress and not tried to save him. I should have insisted, who knew what his father was doing to him. Who knew what my father was doing to him. I shuddered, then smiled to hide it.
"Shut up." I told her playfully. I would have shoved her, but I didn't want her to get speared on one of those dangerous plants.
"Are you coming?" came Iris' voice, filtering down through the leaves. I looked up, trying to dull the blush that heated my cheeks and squeezed past the fern and carried on up the path.
It was even harder the further up you went. It was like the plants and landscape was trying to stop us from reaching the cave, I thought as I ducked under an unnaturally big bramble.
Suddenly, the forest thinned and we were fifty feet below the mouth of the cave - fifty feet that could only be crossed by walking along a perilously thin ledge up to the cave.
"I'd rather not." Angel said, eyeing the tiny path. She did a good job of hiding it, but I knew she had always held a terrible fear of heights.
"It's okay. You don't have to go if you don't want to." I soothed, watching as a small rock was dislodged by Iris' foot and tumbled hundreds of feet down into the canopy of trees, scaring a flock of birds. I could see the camp, no bigger than a handkerchief, on the outskirts of the forest. We had gained a lot of height in the past...was it an hour? It felt so much longer, I thought as I leaned against a pinnacle of rock to catch my breath.
"No." Angel shook her head, looking slightly green. "I'll be fine. Just...go slow." she smiled, glancing down at the forest canopy far below and gulping.
"I'll go first. Angel, you come next - and Autumn, take the back." Iris instructed, sounding terribly like Ffi. I grinned, imagining Iris growing up to be the new Ffi - except much, much more demanding. I felt sorry for the people who would grow up with her as their Leader.
I nodded. "Okay. Let's go."
The path was even narrower when we were on it. It seemed barely big enough for one foot, and we had to hold onto the rock in places. Luckily the rock was pretty rough and made good handholds - just whenever we slipped, the rock would cut into our hands, leaving long gashes that stung like antiseptic had just been poured into the wound.
Angel was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, and I half expected her to pitch off the side of the cliff at any second. If that happened, I didn't know if I could Shift into a bird fast enough to catch her. Hell, I hardly knew if I could turn into a bird first try.
The rock crumbled beneath my feet and I slipped, one of my hands yanking free from the wall and almost letting me go flying.
Almost. If it wasn't for the good hold my right hand had on the rock face, I would be a pancake on the ground by then. I swung perilously over the void, feeling my stomach fall to my knees and my hand flail around madly like I was on some sort of fairground ride.
"Autumn!" screamed Angel and Iris, staring down at me as I tried to heave myself back up. My biceps had grown a lot over the time I had been in the Camp, but I was still pretty weak. I managed to find a foothold and found myself back on the ledge.
"Don't you dare do that to us again," warned Iris, who was looking pointedly up - away from the drop by our feet. It was pretty high, I have to admit.
And so we carried on. The ledge grew in size as we reached the mouth of the cave, and a huge looming shadow darkened the scene. I shivered, the temperature suddenly plummeting.
"Well," Iris said. "We're here." she looked up at the towering roof, hanging stalactites and the strangely glittering walls - on closer inspection, the walls were absolutely encrusted with tiny little crystals, reflecting light like diamonds. I ran my hand over the rough surface, feeling the cuts in my hands twinging slightly but I ignored it. The cave was amazing - by far the most isolated and yet most magical place I had ever been in.
I looked out at the sun that was beginning to fall beneath the hills, turning the sky to a sea of orange and gold. I smiled, my face bathed in colour.
"Maybe we should spend the night here," I said, seeing Iris yawn loudly.
"Haven't we got to be back by tonight?" Angel asked, gazing down at the camp where we could see torches flickering on. They would be preparing for the night, for the cold. I imagined Rania was worrying her head off, and sooner or later, if we didn't appear, she would go to Ffi, who would tell Celie's parents and when we appeared again, they would be furious.
But it would all be for a good cause, wouldn't it? We would come back with a way to defeat the dictator of the land - wasn't that a worthy excuse to be late?
"They'll have to manage without us," I decided, seeing that Iris was ready to drop and it wasn't a good idea to try and climb down from here in the dark. That would be the stupidest thing out of all stupid things we could do.
YOU ARE READING
Eyes of Emerald
Fantasy"The thing on top of Keira got up, slowly, and stood smaller than I thought. It stood on four legs, like a dog, and growled like a wolf. I swore under my breath as it leaped at me, claws extended, and I knew I was about to die." Behind the clouds on...
