The Raven Flame [The Crown Saga III] (First Draft)

People of the Whispering Sand

I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath as the world turned into a dark, silent pit of sand, pressing my body from all sides.

I couldn't move — not even an inch. I barely had any energy left, leaving me with no way of rescuing myself from the sand, still pushing me toward Heliac's deadly center.

The rough grains abraded my skin as they found the cracks between my flesh and clothes. It hurt, but not as much as the scorching fire burning my breathless lungs.

How I wish I'd accepted Tarkan's offer to join us. Having an Earth Iridis who could wield sand could have been really beneficial at the moment.

My limbs suddenly felt cold, and I struggled to keep my mind bound to one thought, the world turning into a jumbled mess of faces and fears.

I would lose consciousness in a few seconds, and I did not want Tarkan to be the last face I remembered. So, I forced my frightened mind to imagine Caiden before my family appeared beside him. Then Piper and Alia. Art too.

The pain subsided. I felt at ease imagining the faces of my most loved ones. Even the memory of Oakley and Calla had made its way to the canvas of my final thoughts.

Then a bright light burned through the still picture, its rays warming me from the inside. It felt peaceful. It felt right. However, as I reached out to touch it, a high pitch sound penetrated the silence, pulling me back to the cold, painful, and very real world.

I hadn't fainted yet, despite the lack of oxygen. Instead, my body instinctively tried to adjust to find a more comfortable position or search for air in a vain effort to breathe.

My logical mind had not anticipated any change in contrast to a few minutes ago, but by some miracle, my foot moved without facing any resistance.

I moved it again to check if my mind was playing tricks on me. It happened again.

Hope bloomed in my chest like a flower in the first morning light. I wasn't sure if it was freedom teasing my exposed skin or a small pocket of air, but it was something.

I called forth the remaining reserves of energy from the depths of my soul to wiggle my body the few inches the new space allowed me. Hopefully, it would help my body move downward faster.

Suddenly, I could move my entire leg. Not the other, though, which meant the sand must've turned me sideways when it pulled me down.

Seconds later, my hand broke free too. I desperately gasped for air when my head finally breached the sand, but my lungs couldn't yet expand the way they needed because of the unyielding surroundings still crushing my chest. However, small breaths were better than no breaths.

Then I opened my eyes, and a new kind of panic spread from my chest as the sand let go of my torso.

All I could see was darkness. Even when I tried to listen for my heaving breath being reflected from the bottom or absorbed by the sand, I couldn't map the place. It was either bottomless or as deep as the Galactic Trench outside between the Wave and the Marine Regions.

To die by being suffocated by the crushing sand or being flattened by gravity; I didn't know what would be worse, but I instinctively reached for the sand ceiling in a futile attempt to find something I could hang on to.

I inhaled sharply when the sand crumbled in my hand before finally letting the rest of me go to fall to my death.

Fear tore my lungs apart, and terror made air lodge in my throat instead of passing my lips as a mighty scream. Tears stung my eyes as I frantically flailed my arms in the air, searching for anything to save me from my fatal fall.