*Please share these chapters
She woke to the cold and darkness of the cave on the same night that she had died, and her brother and sister were taken from her. The half-man lay dead off to the side as a reminder of the skirmish that had taken place. Only now, Aliya could move her limbs. She threw the blanket off herself and stepped out into the open for the first time in presumably days.
She had not realized before the implication of the heights of the cleft. She turned and looked up at the slope which steepened as it rose high above the evergreen trees. It went up for miles until it pierced the clouds and entered a realm of eternal snow and ice.
Inanna had left her on the very slope of the Mountain.
She saw figures in the distance, too large to be human, marching up and down the sides of the mount, disappearing and emerging out of tunnels among the crevices of the slope.
If I'm to find my way to the top, I'll have to follow them, she thought nervously.
With no other indicators for direction, she climbed over the lip of the cave, scrambling through loosening boulders and briers reaching over her head until she came to a line of evergreen trees.
What she found when she crept through the forest walls was a wilderness glowing eerily with green light. The moon, the stars, the night sky—all were obscured by the canopy, underneath which a whole city could dwell, and its inhabitants might not discover the reality of the moon or even sunlight.
She continued to venture through the maze of colossal trees, realizing through sharp sounds cutting through the greenery that perhaps a city did live here. A city of frightful things, masked in trees and bushes that no one could see through.
Aliya saw one thing—a monster leaping from one hiding spot to another several yards away. It was the size of a large house. In its single stride across the clearing, she saw four legs whose limbs twisted in ways unnatural to any animal she knew of. Despite its immense size, it made no sound as it emerged or as it disappeared again into the maze of forest.
Her inclination not to die dissuaded her from going any further in that direction. But if I waste my time looking for paths without danger, I'll never reach Sarah and Michael in time.
If she cleared this forest, she would need to follow the throng of royal subjects who knew where the Palace was. Presumably that was where her siblings were being held.
The thought of them kept her on her way. She had expected the forest to rise steadily, indicating her ascent on the Mountain slope, yet the opposite came true. The ground on which she walked steepened into a ravine until she could no longer walk on her feet.
With her next step, a rock came loose beneath her, and she toppled headlong into the ravine. She rolled several times, each one she reached for something to stop her fall but missed as her speed accelerated. Lacerations formed on her skin through spiny branches and the jutted end of rocks. Her fear increased that something large and sharp was waiting at the bottom for her to impale herself on, making an abrupt end to her.
What she landed in was worse. It was soft and had the appearance and texture of moss, but upon impact, she sank waist deep beneath its surface. Her toes broke through the apparent bottom and submerged in ice cold water.
The moss was a layer of coating over a slimy pool of water with depths unknown to her.
Aliya struggled to tread and maintain herself above the surface and searched her surroundings for ground to safely walk on. What she found was the trunk of a fallen tree half-sunken in the marsh.
Perhaps the giant slug glaring at her from on top it would be willing to share.
She grabbed ono the lowest branch protruding from the side of the log and hoisted herself up. Her feet slipped against the bark, shaking the trunk slightly, and startling the creature that made its home on it. She caught herself from falling back into the marsh with one dry hand clasped onto the branch. She swung one leg up over the top, and by some miracle managed to sit upright, facing the ugly thing.
It snarled at her with clenched teeth, lifting its body off from the surface of the log, revealing its barbed, rippling underbelly. Tendrils draped invisibly over the sides of the log now lifted into the air, threatening to strike her.
"AAGH!" Aliya threw herself backwards off the log and splashed back into the stew of moss. She struggled to paddle until she found solid ground to stand on.
The opposite shore of this marshland was hidden from her; she could be navigating this for hours.
It was beginning to look like she didn't have hours to spend. The moss clung to her body, slowing each stride and weighed down on her as if trying to submerge her and drown her. Each stride of her arms and legs required more effort, and each time she had less strength to draw herself forward.
She found a little extra might within herself upon hearing something large plop into the water behind her. The last thing she needed was to be pursued by that horror on the log.
Whatever made that sound was now on her heels. With her head briefly turned back to see what it was, she caught it slicing through the water toward her from the log. And the log was bare.
She paddled fiercely but did not get any further. In front of her, a large patch of moss rose as a mass from within the depths emerged.
The creature behind her stopped splashing and vanished. Perhaps it knew better than to hunt while this new behemoth was awake and active.
"To your right, your Highness! To your right!" came a voice from nowhere. It almost sounded like a man, but it gurgled and hissed like it came from beneath the surface.
Aliya felt something long and scaly slide against her legs, and she screamed and threw herself over the opposite side the voice told her.
Meanwhile, the beast continued to rise and moan, filling the wilderness with its war cry.
And the slithering entity from beneath her burst out from the water in the path of the giant creature.
"Princess, to your right! To your right!" Its backside was turned to her, its tendrils flailing about defensively against the colossal mass before them.
Was this another one of the Mages?
"I can't help you, if you won't listen to me—go to your right!"
Aliya obeyed and swam as far in that direction as she could. She was shocked to discover that a solid patch of ground lay within reach, camouflaged by the moss which layered over top the rocky surface.
It was when she drew herself upon the rock that it happened. The behemoth shook itself loose from the debris that covered its true form and poised itself with a threatening gesture.
It was armored in spine-riddled, salmon-colored plates. Multiple jagged limbs propped its mass above the surface of the marsh. Its reptilian face flared down at the smaller thing which stood to protect Aliya while she stood off to the side.
The giant's maw parted, revealing rotted animal bits as well as human ribs wedged between its yellowing fangs. Two claws extended from its neck, snapping like the hands of a crustacean.
Aliya did not know if her new ally was a Mage or not. The fact remained; he did not appear equipped to face this opponent.
"There are more patches of ground like it. If you follow them, they'll lead you out of the forest.
"Then you'll come to two cave entrances. Take the one on the left—do not take the one on the right!"
Aliya did not move. Images flashed through her mind of her fallen subjects. The knights who were killed in the storm. The dragon who died attempting to rescue her from the witch. The half-man who did the same. Each time, she had been powerless to help them. What was the point of dying for her, if she contributed nothing to saving lives herself?"
"Princess, go!" The smaller creature readied himself as the behemoth advanced toward him.
Aliya considered the possibility that he had a secret power that would save him. Her friend gave no indication that such a thing would happen. The monster was going to kill him, and he knew it.
How did that song go again?
Aliya thought back to her out of body experience. She visualized the Queen and her Spirit Realm. The trees and the ocean waves and the glowing clouds. The invisible symphony. The first song she ever learned. She began to hum.
Aliya picked one note and felt around for other notes to fit what she remembered. The song began to form on her lips. Both the way she remembered it, as well as an undiscovered part. Power surged through her while she sang.
The behemoth shifted its focus from her ally to where she stood. Its eyes flashed with rage as though it understood what was happening. Then it charged at her.
Aliya threw her hand forward against her opponent.
At first nothing happened, and the monster raised its armored limb to strike her. But then the air began to hum and crackle; Aliya hair lifted as currents ran through its unkempt strands.
The colossus threw its arm down.
Then lights formed in her palm and burst into an aurora of fire.
Upon impact with the flames, the monster's arm tore cleanly off and blew away from the force of the explosion. It screamed with pain as well as outrage and collapsed before her. Aliya dropped her arm in shock at what she had done. This was the power she inherited? Would this work every time?
I need to get out of here.
"Sir," she called out to the strange, tentacled, amphibious slug who tried to save her. Yet there was no response. She could no longer see him wriggling in the marsh. There was only the behemoth who thrashed and stumbled away from her.
I did all I could, she thought and then turned and walked away in the direction the stranger had pointed out. Michael and Sarah, hold on. I'm coming for you.
She feared that she had wasted too much time.
Perhaps it was not my business to save that man. Another one of those unwelcome thoughts. It seemed no matter what she did, Aliya could not free herself from a heavy conscience. Did Father have to deal with choices like these? Her ancestors?
Her train of thoughts was interrupted by silence.
For several minutes the behemoth had howled, hissed and chattered from the agony of his wound. What startled Aliya was how abruptly it stopped. She turned back to face it, hoping yet doubting that it had died.
Perhaps it simply left to nurse itself and would reemerge, only to discover she had gotten away.
There was no sign of it: not its mass, not a ripple of marsh water—nothing to suggest that it had even been there.
Though it haunted her, Aliya pressed on in the direction she was told, taking advantage of the absence of her predator.
Then a howl rose from within the moss water, reverberating through the eerie green of the wilderness. Then the ground began to shake underneath her bare feet and cracks started to form webbing through the soil, and the island began to break apart.
Aliya ran, spotting the next island of solid ground in the marsh and dove to clear the water as quickly as she could.
A giant, fleshly wall burst out in front of her, crowned with scales and sharpened teeth, caked with bones and muscles from hapless prey. Aliya spun around to swim away from it yet was blocked by a second wall identical to the first.
They both rose, shielding her surroundings while closing in on her. While she thrashed in the water, it began to sink down like a drain had opened into a bottomless pit.
Abruptly the water dropped, and Aliya reached out for the one thing that protruded from the side wall she could grasp on.
It was soft and slippery; she almost lost her grip and plummeted into the abyss. The mouth chamber of the monster shook violently as yells rose from within the depths of its throat, throwing water and half-digested animals against the cavernous walls.
In front of her, one of those walls began contorting and flexing like a muscle, resembling a tongue.
She felt a quick drop as her handhold pulled downward and started to tear. The entire mouth tilted forward, making her wall a ceiling, and she dangled high above the spongy floor.
What she held to was the uvula. Tearing on it caused the behemoth's barred teeth to part momentarily for him to yell in protest at the thing that was snapped in its throat.
Then it closed again. All the muscles contracted as the beast attempted to swallow. Aliya held tightly as a tidal wave of marsh water rushed back into its throat.
Inexplicably, the uvula tore in her hands, and Aliya plummeted into the flood.
She was about to be swept back and thrown down into the pit of the monster's belly, when the entire head of the beast lurched forward, and its mouth swung open.
Aliya struck a patch of solid ground and rolled away from the beast. As she struggled to pull herself up to her feet, she caught sight of the predator neck deep within the marsh. Its one remaining claw thrashed in all directions as the eyes in its reptilian face rolled around, widening in anguish. Aliya backed away from it slowly, remaining fixated on the monstrosity which did not advance toward her.
It surprised her once. She would not let it happen again. Still, she marveled as it hollered and roared, and began sinking beneath the marsh. In its last moment before completely disappearing, it glared at her, realizing the full weight of its defeat.
Aliya resumed her trek and followed the solid patches out of the wilderness toward the two caves the stranger had pointed to her. When she reached her destination, the stranger's warning was fresh in her mind, Do NOT take the one on the right.
But she stopped and thought it through. Would following his directions get her to where she needed to? Did he know that she was trying to reach the Mountain King?
Perhaps he instructed her not to go right, because he knew it would lead her there. Maybe he was trying to lead Aliya to safety and fulfill his duty to her.
Or maybe he's a traitor like Inanna, and the one on the left leads to certain death. Did she trust him? She searched herself and thought back to the vision of her ancestor.
She trusted him to do what he felt was right. A knight or a royal Mage would not endorse this adventure of hers. Allowing his King's fifteen-year-old daughter to scale the Mountain on her own would be an act of treason. That almost certainly meant that the cave to her left led her away from her destination.
She took a deep breath, bracing herself for the unknown, and with her brother and sister in mind, she took the cave on her right.