"I hate this," Nettle muttered, crossing her arms. After an hour of tense driving, Aris felt exhausted, as did the pixie lying on her shoulder. Raven, however, appeared like nothing was out of the ordinary. It had begun to get on Aris's nerves, though her sharp temper also had to do with how Nettle had positioned her back against her shoulder, legs and feet leaning straight upward on her neck. It made the human more uncomfortable than the pixie.
"So... do... I," Aris grumbled. "Why haven't they done something already?"
Raven didn't offer any words of explanation.
The girl sighed in exasperation and slammed her head back into her seat. "This is killing me."
"... Ouch," Nettle said in a dry voice.
Aris's eyes widened when she realized the pixie's foot was caught between her head and the headrest. Quickly jerking forward again, she said, "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"
"Fine," Nettle sighed, taking her legs from Aris's neck and letting them dangle off her shoulder. The pixie slipped off her shoe and turned the hurting ankle in circles. Aris leaned back more carefully in her seat.
"You know, if we were traveling in the day, we would probably be a whole lot more safe with the whole let-no-human-see-you rule," Aris said.
"Shadow creatures hate the sunlight," Nettle spat, obviously disgusted. "My brother used to tell me tales of how they cowered in caves all day."
Aris noticed Raven roll his eyes, but he didn't say anything.
"What's your definition of a woodland creature?" Aris asked, crossing her arms. She was hoping a conversation would get her mind off what was going on around her. Besides, the subject sounded interesting.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... I mean, you're a woodland creature, right? But you're also a pixie. So is the term 'woodland' used as a category to describe a wide variety of creatures?"
"Yeah. But it's more complicated than that." Nettle slipped her boot back on.
"But there has to be something that makes you different from a shadow creature."
"Woodland creatures and shadow creatures are extremely different," Raven interrupted. "But, trust me, you don't want to broach this subject."
"Of course," she muttered. "Getting shut down again."
There was a moment of silence. Aris kept her eye on the side mirror, nervously twiddling her fingers. Every part of her body begged her to get up and do something, but she held herself back. She snorted. For a girl who was terrified of the dark, slightly claustrophobic, and didn't know how to fight (well, usually), she sure wanted to head into a battle she surely couldn't win. It killed her to wait. It reminded her of exams at school when the teacher would give her the paper and she wouldn't know a single answer on the sheet. How did she even remember having exams at school?
"Wait a minute," Raven said, repositioning his hands on the steering wheel. "They're falling behind."
"What?" Aris asked.
"So we spent all this time in complete tenseness for them just to drive away?" Nettle whined.
Raven sighed and rolled his eyes. "I wasn't tense until you started talking. Your voice is the most annoying sound I've ever had the misfortune of hearing."
"At least my voice has personality," she defended. "Yours sounds like a zombie's!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, but who here can one, squash you like a bug, and two, give you to the Amaldian men?"
YOU ARE READING
Finding the Rift (The Traveling Rifts Trilogy: Book One)
Fantasy"If you were looking for... answers to something, and this random stranger approached you, saying he knew where to find them... would you follow him?" ~~~ Aris lost her memory as a sixteen-year-old. Aris's parents lost all their memories of her at...
