The Verdant Mark

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"Well..." Sam put both hands behind the back of his head. "I don't want to brag or anything but I am pretty amazing aren't I?"

"Pretty amazing at being a drama queen."

"Don't say it like that!" Sam poured.

"Let's get going then!" Mikyla sprang to her feet.

"Yeah." Sam agreed and again Mikyla couldn't help but smile at his positivity. He really was just like Sade but she hated to be around him.

She hated it because he was too familiar yet too different. She hated him because as much as she wanted to loathe his guts for all the slander, incompetence and transgression, she just couldn't. She hated him because he made her purpose for being.

Shaking her legs, Mikyla felt the blood start to circulate once again throughout her body and wash away her harbored thoughts. Mulling over the riddle hadn't given her any clues and like Sam said, if they could get to the portal without it then it was still a win. Nonetheless, she was certain there was more to it than a hiking trail, after all, the first trial was being almost burned alive and the second was being plucked as food for flying beast. She just hoped whatever it was, she would survive. But then again- that was the whole point of the test.

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Streaks of amber flooded across the sky as if burning the blackness that swallowed it soon after. A raging battle with cries of thunder fueling the fight, Mikyla felt that the more they climbed the mountain, the closer they got to the nexus of the war between gods. Lightning bolts struck the earth more often than not and Mikyla was only thankful for what seemed to be Sam's impregnable luck. How they had not been electrocuted so far was anyone's guess but as sparks caused geysers of molten rock to decorate their path, Mikyla crossed her fingers that the natural world was their only danger.

As the duo slowly ascended the obsidian mountain to the portal that seemed ever out of reach, Mikyla's fear wasn't the only thing that manifested itself as hazardous weather and sporadic terrain. The land had remained barren and desolate for the majority of their quest, the only company being the remnants of what used to be a forest, the ashen wood a reminder of the first fiery realm.

Thirst gradually became a threat, physically and mentally where Mikyla had more than once mistaken a patch of molten rocks to be an oasis that haunted her. Each time the same figure arose - a shadow of her past, yet not. The same ebony skin tone that encompassed the hollow-prosaic eyes. The same unsnarled hair that framed the cold hardened face. The same person she was but not the same. The person she had hoped would lay dormant in the crevices of her nightmares.

Despite Sam's detached yet reassured manner to the trials, his confidence in the test as a healthy part of life was something that more than ruffled Mikyla's feathers. As they delved deeper into the lightning realm, he didn't fail to point out the chilling figures that posed as shadows whenever they sky was benevolent to illuminate their struggle ahead. It was as if the surroundings were pruned to create ghoulish silhouettes and the more Sam brought them to light, the more Mikyla's unease rose to the surface. It wasn't that Mikyla feared the shadows themselves; it was what Mikyla feared they could become. It wasn't the angst of being alone- it was the fear that they weren't.

On cue, another fork of lightning stabbed the earth just to the side of Mikyla, showering her in ashen debris. The fizzling light caused Mikyla to cower behind shaded eyes but as the static afterglow subsided, Sam was quick to point out yet another fiendish obscurity.

"Look Mika, that one looks like a snake!"

Mikyla frowned. "Sam will you just stop with your shadow watching? Besides it looks more like a lion than a snake."