The Girl in the Woods

Chapter 2

Apollo, Ildor and Isidre were waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. Apollo was wearing his long green cloak, and with a pang I remembered my dreams and his weakness in the sunlight. I pushed it impatiently to the back of my mind.

"What's that?" I asked Ildor when we reached them. The elf was holding a little crystal vial full of blue liquid.

Ildor smiled happily, as if my curiosity pleased him. "This is water from the Vita pond in my dren. It helps us travel, heal and do magic."

"Oh." I said, looking sceptically at the pretty bottle. That was gonna help us travel?

Ildor chuckled and drew back the sleeve of his white cloak. His wrist had beautiful blue lines swirling all over it; at first I thought they were tattoos, but upon closer inspection I realized that the lines were moving, shifting in a strange dance over his silvery skin.

"Wow." I breathed, looking closer. Ildor and Apollo laughed at my reaction, but I thought I saw Isidre roll her eyes in my peripheral vision.

"Are we all ready to depart?" She asked, sounding almost bored.

"Yes." Apollo took my hand and nodded over at Jannosh and Myrnah, who were watching inconspicuously in the corner. Jannosh lifted a hand in farewell, his violet eyes bright, and Myrnah smiled tightly at Apollo. I felt slightly bad for leaving them; the two had become, in a way, my adoptive parents.

"Very well." Ildor drew out a crystal kind of instrument that resembled a thermometer, unscrewed the cap of the vial, and dipped the crystal instrument in once. I watched in fascination as he traced one of the many lines on his wrist and forearm; once the crystal touched his skin the lines stopped moving immediately. The line he had traced turned white, and Ildor murmured something under his breath.

Suddenly, the world was illuminated with a blinding white light. Freezing air whipped at my face and hair, and I held on tightly to my duffel bag with one hand and Apollo's hand with the other. I gasped at the rushing, pulling feeling tearing at my limbs, but before even a couple seconds had passed, it had ended. I blinked and looked around wildly; we were now standing among towering trees, but they weren't the trees I was used to. It was strangely chilly for this time of the year, and a strange, dreamy kind of golden light seemed to reach around the tree trunks.

"Where are we?" I asked my companions.

None of them responded. I looked around in alarm, afraid I had lost them somehow, but they were all there, staring in front of them as if they'd seen heaven or something. I looked around again, but all I could see was forest as far as the eye could see.

"Apollo? Ildor?"

The elf looked at me when I spoke his name. His eyes looked slightly unfocussed, but they cleared up as he took in my confused face. "Forgive me, child. I'd forgotten that you couldn't see. Come closer to me."

I walked over to him, watching eagerly as he pulled out his vial of Vita water again. I wanted to see what they could see; Apollo was smiling at me indulgently now, but Isidre was still staring dreamily into the distance.

"Close your eyes." Ildor  told me gently, and I did as he asked.

I felt his cool fingers touch my eyelids with something wet - probably the Vita water - and then his hands were on my shoulders as he gently turned me around again.

"Open them now." He said quietly.

My eyes fluttered open, and I gasped at what I saw. Where there had been trees and golden light before was a sprawling city that even the most imaginative couldn't have dreamed of. There were crystal buildings that seemed to sparkle like stars and reach out eagerly to the sky, and there were floating lights in millions of colours floating in what a first seemed like a random pattern but whose paths were actually intricately planned. The streets seemed to shift and glow like winding rivers in the moonlight. Jubilant music seemed to float on the air itself, and the city was a hum of activity that almost seemed to breathe.