The Awakening

Jelly

I landed partially on the back of my neck, a sick crack sounding from the area, as well as my upper back and spine region. I lay perfectly still in the water, stubbed by the paralysis that had taken over my body, until the water beneath me began to heal me.

I realized that I wasn't even trying, but the unsanitary water already seemed to know what to do. The sound of the steady stream of water was the only sound that filled my ears, whether it be from my connection to the element or not, I had no idea. All I knew is that I couldn't hear Jelly or properly function for a good few minutes.

Once I felt more healed, although the back of my neck and upper back were burning, I abruptly sat upright. My body was aching and injured, but my drive to get out of the maze was overpowering my laziness and tiredness.

I jumped up to my feet, finding the Great Sewer Monster nowhere in sight.

Surely, a being of that size could not have disappeared that quickly, but I hadn't realized its talents at the time.

Other than its insane mental defenses and pain tolerance, it could also . . . make itself invisible.

Lovely.

Of course, I hadn't known it at the time and cautiously proceeded forward in the water, unaware of the lurking presence behind me.

The exit was so close that I could almost taste the fresh air. There seemed to be a lovely spring of water that filtered out the putrid water of the sewer, just outside the opening of the massive tunnel. I didn't have a clue if I was in the Lost Cities or the Forbidden Cities, but I didn't care. Anywhere, but in the Neverseen's clutches, was fine with me.

I hastily began to pick up a small jog as I neared the exit, only about 15 feet away. My footsteps made the water slosh around more, bringing more attention to me, but that didn't register in my brain until too late.

But, when I heard bigger sloshing behind me all of a sudden, I began to speed up. Glancing over my shoulder, I realized Jelly was once again visible.

It was rapidly gaining on me, jumping a bit in the water out of the eagerness to catch its prey. Jelly went in and out of invisibility, like a newly manifested Vanisher with zero control.

I whipped my head back forward and tried to use some of my last strength to propel myself forward in the water without running. This resulted in me getting hit in the face with the sewer water many times, but I would take survival over beauty and total cleanliness any day.

With the help of the water, I flowed right out and over the narrower mouth of the tunnel, directly into the spring I had been imagining. I didn't let myself submerge in the water, keeping myself slightly out of the water with my ability. I turned myself around to face the tunnel, noticing a faint glow of the green blob sitting just inside the entrance.

It was stuck.

The opening was too narrow for Jelly to follow me. I mentally cheered and guided myself atop the water toward the grassy land next to the spring.

With a tired sigh, I let myself fall into a heap on the strangely soft blades of grass. Usually grass was too itchy for my bare skin to keep contact with for any amount of time. I wasn't allergic, or anything, but it made me feel uncomfortable, left the worst marks on my skin, and made me feel like something was crawling up my body.

My bare feet relished in the smoothness and softness of the ground beneath me, as well as the open air, on my overused feet. My shirt was torn and dirtied, as well as my pants, but I had removed the water from both articles of clothing. My hair was completely down, tangled in knots and probably in a jagged part if I were to look in a mirror.

After a few selfish moments of peacefulness, I brought myself back to a standing position, stretching out my sore limbs.

I looked around, trying to analyze my surroundings to clarify that I had indeed escaped the maze and was somewhere within my knowledge of places.

Of course, I had to be here of all places; Lumenaria.

Keefe's POV

I rushed out of the room faster than I had ever ran out in my life, with myself plastered to the ceiling of the hallways of the hideout.

Percy seemed like a good fighter and all, probably intimidating in battle, but he wasn't anywhere near as haunting and powerful-seeming as Nico. Percy was more nonchalant, laid back, and easygoing, while Nico was always tense, isolated, and emotionless.

After my mother, emotionless people tended to freak me out a bit.

So, when Percy and Nico both bursted out of the room after noticeably fixing their appearances, I flattened my back to the ceiling, rallying all of my concentration to focus my levitation ability to do so.

They walked a bit down the hall to where they had assumed I ran, then made a U-turn and went to knock on my door. Of course, my door was locked from the outside, with my key in my pocket, and I wasn't in there.

After no response, Percy and Nico started to retreat back to their previous method of searching, going down the hallway to the common room.

They had just started to make progress in that direction, when Nico stopped Percy with a barring harm in front of him.

Nico moved his head slightly over his shoulder to see behind him, titled his head slightly up and met my eyes directly.

I froze, actually petrified for my health and safety from that lethal glare.

"Nico? What're you looking at . .?" Percy trailed off as he followed Nico's eyesight to my painfully vulnerable hiding place.

Under the weight of both stared,
my concentration wavered and I dropped from my spot, able to stunt my fall a bit with levitation before I completed Fostered it.

Nico approached me darkly, with swift strides, while Percy tried to catch up and hold him back. I was a bit taller than Nico, but he came straight up to me, grabbed a hold of my tunic and yanked me slightly down to his level.

"You will tell no one of what you saw," he hissed in my face, daring me to object.

I nodded weakly in response, to which he released me with a satisfied expression. Percy caught up, slightly out of breath, and attempted to bring humor to the situation through sarcasm like he usually did.

"Did you enjoy your attempt at flying as much as I did?" he asked with a small smirk. I gave him a wide smile, glad to see him finding a bit of humor in the midst of our loss of Foster.

"Like you could do any better, Water Boy," I smirked right back.

"Touché," he retorted, seemingly amused by the whole conversation.

"Umm," I grew a bit uncomfortable with that word. "Is that a butt reference or-?"

I was cut off by the loudest sounds I'd ever heard in my life, more audible than a banshee when someone's gravely injured.

"Alarms?" Percy asked in confusion as we all starting to travel closer to the sound.

We had made it to the common room, finding no one, when a figure abruptly entered the hideout and rushed toward us. Said figure latched onto my wrist and began dragging me over to the girls' side of the treehouse.

"Mr. Forkle, what's going-?"

"We're under attack," he said shortly, continuing to pull me along as the others followed behind, with Fitz tailing behind them.

"Edaline and the rest of the Collective are holding off the rebel ogres as we speak."

A/N: guess who's back? lol i'm going to start writing a bit more frequently now because i have new ideas and more time on my plate :)