Aura

Chapter Four

  Rowan woke up in daze. He blinked at the roof of the fort above him, faintly wondering where he was, even though in the back of his head he knew. Slowly Rowan sat up and stared around him. Zoe was sleeping peacefully beside him, her long black hair flowing to the side. Her long lashes fluttered slightly. Rowan wondered what she was dreaming of.

  Her eyes opened suddenly but softly.

  "Good morning Rowan," Zoe murmured.

  Rowan smiled. "Good morning Zoe."

  They prepared for the journey without speaking to each other. It was not an awkward or angry silence, but rather one with an awareness for the unspoken future. It seemed as if the forest was destined to be misty, because today the trees were blanketed in a thick layer of silver fog.

  Zoe stood up straight and whistled softly. The forest shook with a quiet trembling, and out of the mist sprang a white horse with a long mane and a majestic horn. A unicorn.

  "This is Starlight," Zoe introduced quietly, stroking the unicorn's mane.

  Starlight was a beautiful creature, her legs strong and sturdy, her eyes sparkling with the visions of a thousand years. She seemed to hold an aura that told people she was powerful, the very voice of the woods and the sky.

  Zoe climbed onto Starlight's back, and Rowan followed. He wrapped his arms around her small waist, feeling only slightly awkward. Starlight quickly set off, swift as the wind and strong as the sea. Her legs touched the forest floor with a lightness that could only be described as nature. Leaves and branches whisked by Rowan, and he could feel faintly whispering, the magic and the power of the forest. The aura.

  The breeze brushed his face and weaved through Zoe's hair, so that it touched Rowan's cheeks. They went through a stream of rippling water, disturbed by the cooling splashes around Starlight's hooves. It was then that Rowan, following a sudden instinct, hopped off and met the ground with a soft impact. He ran alongside the unicorn, feeling the adrenaline flow through him, his ability as an Aardian pushing him forward, farther and faster than any normal boy could have gone.

  They soon arrived at the town that Zoe had said was home to Seraphina Sullivan. It was a busy, bustling town, full of street vendors offering their products, bicycles lining the cracked streets, and flashing lights. People, all with tails or whiskers or wings or occasionally colourful clouds, struggled to breathe in the stifling crowd. There was plenty of noise, and soon Zoe and Rowan found themselves lost in the sea of chaos.

  Squeezing past shoulders and having had to shove some aside, they popped out of the crowd to meet an alleyway, empty except for the occasional broken bottle or unconscious person. It gave Rowan the creeps, and he and Zoe kept close together as they tiptoed through the alleyway. In her hands, Zoe had papers and maps that were supposed to lead them to Seraphina's bar.

  The alley was quiet. Too quiet. Just as they were about to give up, Rowan caught sight of a flashing sign, reading "The World-Famous Purple Sip Club". Some of the letters had been broken, and the sound of crashing, drunk giggling, loud music, yelling, and clinking glasses burst out of the entrance. The smell of liquor and alcohol wafted through the air, making Rowan sick.

  "This doesn't look very reliable," Zoe remarked, shaking her head.

  "Yeah," Rowan agreed. "But you did say she was in there."

  "Here, you have a hood on your sweater, right? Pull that on over your eyes," Zoe instructed, and Rowan did as he was told.

  They walked cautiously through the door, and were instantly blasted by a wave of crazed laughter and loud music. Keeping his head low, Rowan held onto Zoe as they weaved through the crowd, being careful to not get hit by tails or wings.