The Crystal in the Chasm

chapter 37

The crystal was playing a game of hot and cold, humming more or less the further I wandered into the forest. Trees swayed in the wind around me, the leaves rustling together with unspoken secrets. They seemed to whisper, turn back now. There was a pit building in my stomach, a feeling I couldn't pinpoint that made me feel like something terrible was about to happen. Something irreversible. Picking up my pace, my feet pattered against snapping twigs and rolling pebbles as I weaved around gnarled tree roots protruding from the dirt.

"Come on, come on. Where are you?" I spoke aloud to myself.

I needed to find Sea Legs. Gods, my heart was being plagued with anxiety. His smiling face flashed before my eyes, his laugh and the way he always cared for me so delicately. I thought of him dancing with the parrot Gracie and arguing with Onyx. I thought of him emerging from the waters surface, his blonde hair slick from the salty sea and his green tail glistening in the shining sun. He was unlike anyone I had ever met. I owed it to him to save his life, to protect him from the bastard Blix.

This way, the crystal hissed as an entrance to a cave appeared ahead. It was overgrown with dead trees, an aura of darkness ebbing around it and hanging heavily in the air. Without thought, I charged through as the branches nicked and clawed at my skin. I was practically running now, shoving my way into the dark stone entrance. I emerged into a dimly lit cave, a vast body of water stretching within. The water was dark and endless and dreadful. My heart dropped into my stomach when I saw what lay ahead.

Across a narrow pathway hovering over the dark water, Blix was smiling a villainous smile with an otherworldly glow illuminating his figure. His silvery white hair was shining around his face, his feet barely touching the floor as if he were levitating slightly. He had a blade in his hand, the metal dripping with dark red blood. Behind him, Merlin was strung up by each wrist, dangling with his head slumped over and his tail in full form barely touching the ground. My mouth dropped in horror, a scream escaping my lips and echoing off the cave walls. "No!" I shrieked with pain and terror.

Blix had been plucking away at his scales, a large pile of dried bits flaking across the floor. Merlin's tail was practically fully skinned, a puddle of blood beneath him. The tip of his tail was resting in the crimson red, his torso bare and revealing jagged cuts. I was running across the narrow pathway, the crystal ball clutched in hand when something struck me from behind. I cried out in rage and agony as something splintered right through my stomach. It ripped and tore at my flesh, burrowing deep within until it emerged clean through the other side. A jagged piece of wood was sticking out from my gut, my entire body frozen as I tried to remember how to breathe. My feet were slipping as pebbles fell to the waters below. I shuffled and scurried, the pain far away and blocked from my senses as I fell onto the same platform that Sea Legs was strung upon.

Blix stared down at me, still grinning. I looked down at my bruised and scratched hands still bracing myself, droplets of blood pooling beneath me from the jagged wood protruding from my stomach.

"An eye for an eye," an angelic voice hummed behind me.

I gasped and whipped my head around, my eyes meeting with a predatory gaze. One of the most beautiful women I had ever seen was hovering over me, a shimmering glow around her figure. Her eyes were strikingly purple, her hair of the same dark shade. Her skin was a soft brown, her figure like that of an hourglass. Large twisting horns protruded from her head. A sharp grin spread across her face as she shook her head, her purple hair bouncing around her face. Her facial features vaguely similar to that of Blix.

"Shame you put down my pet. How did you manage to do it, by the way? Hawk was one of my more well-trained dogs," her voice was deep and full of a dark grace, her expression unamused.