Our little group seemed to have arrived in a park of some kind. Loki ran a hand through his short dark hair and narrowed his eyes at the absence of people anywhere. He turned to the rest of us. "I know the way to the Caves of the Light of Souls, which is where the Seer is."
"Why does everything have such extravagant titles?" Everett muttered.
"Because it's cool!" Gerard said as he jumped out of the van. He had the smile of a small child as he pushed his glasses up his nose so that he could see the landscape more clearly. A breeze blew and curled around all of us, rippling our t-shirts. Loki was halfway lost in the woods before we caught up with him.
The forest was different from the waist-high thorny, straggling plants of the bush that were anchored in the red dirt. Tall thin grey trees rose here, and caught the almost rain that fell onto their outstretched leaves. A carpet of thick green something (which I found out was moss) stretched as far into the forest as I could see. A winding path lay to our left, but we didn't follow that, nope. We followed Loki across the never-ending carpet of moss for almost an hour before he stopped at a rock.
This rock had a hole in it.
Loki went down the hole.
Then he reappeared once he realized we weren't following him.
"C'mon. This is the entrance to the Caves of the Light of Souls." We slowly followed him. I turned to see Cavendish staring nervously at the entrance.
"What?" I asked. She bit her lip.
"I- I don't wanna go in there."
"If it's the dark, then I guess you could change into an animal that can see in the dark." I said, then turned and kept on walking into the cave. The entrance tunnel took a sharp turn to the left and opened up onto a huge cavern. Cavendish was standing beside me before I could even blink.
She sighed at the soft light that diffused from the thousands of candles that lined the walls and shelves of the cavern. The candle flames flickered with her breath. She walked over to a shelf with unlit candles and matches and picked some up. She put a candle in a small niche and bent over it in a successful attempt to light it. She brushed her hair back and closed her eyes. The candlelight dramatized her features.
Gerard was doing the same, his glasses resting in his palms as he watched the candle flame flicker. Loki padded over to me. "Light a candle."
"Why?" I asked softly.
"When you light a candle, it helps you remember that the people you love are still alive, just like that candle."
"I thought candles were for the dead." I whispered back.
"Light is not dead. The candle flames are like the tiny bits of light in the souls of the people you love. Light in the darkness. A bit of light for others to see by." He walked back to his own candle.
I reluctantly grabbed a candle and a match. I set it down in an empty spot on the floor and lit it. I closed my eyes. For my dad. For my village. For everyone. Maybe I even lit this candle for me. Because I am still alive. I opened my eyes and stood by the entrance that lead out of the cavern and deeper into the cave system. One by one, the other joined me. Loki lead on through the deep passages.
"This is the Cave of Fire and Silver."
"Why not Fire and Water?" Everett asked.
"Because it's Fire and Silver that's why." Loki answered impatiently. "See, you can't touch any of the silver or else it sets off spurts of fire that will cook you alive, unless you're fireproof, which is unlikely for Midgardians, since I've cooked many of you."
"I'll only be worried when you eat Midgardians." Everett muttered. Loki chuckled.
"Step only where I step." He instructed, then began the journey across the stone floor. Webbings of silver wereinterlaced with the stone, and glimmered in the few candles that flickered on bits of stone across the floor. It took an hour to get through the cave, and my back ached from watching my steps so closely.
The next room was a single black pool, only visible by the single honeycombed candle that glimmered on the far side of the water. Loki glowered at the pool for a minute. "We have to dive in. There should be a tunnel down there somewhere... Cavendish... could you turn into a fish maybe? "
She nodded, then without a word, flawlessly dove into the dark pool. The water rippled, but nothing else moved for a couple minutes. She came back up, her hair slicked back, and her clothes stuck to her with the wet. "it's right down there, let's go." She slipped back under the water.
Stupidly, everyone decided to jump in the water at once. Thick streams of white bubbles rushed past my face, seeming to attack my eyes. I shook my head and swam downwards. A large white fish that I assumed was Cavendish was a beacon that I followed to a dark craggy opening. My lungs started to burn and ache as I pulled the water past me. A blue light above me signaled the surface and I swam towards, grasping with my hands.
I flung myself out of the water, heaving deep breaths into my lungs. Cavendish lay next to me. The others weren't long in coming.