Gawr Gura and Rescue of Poseidon

7. Road to Airtopen, The Land of Air

It was after our final test. Instructors were mad, and we thought we were supposed to die. They said if we couldn't kill each other, we had to cooperate and prove our usefulness together. They put black bags on our heads so we couldn't see anything except darkness. They tied our hands behind our backs with metal cuffs, and then they tied us together. After that, they led us through some forests and put us on the boat. I was scared, and others were scared too. We sailed for a while, and then they tied my tail to my legs. In the end, they also tied one sack of our weapons to each of us. We stayed there for half of the day without eating or drinking waiting for midnight. When the time came, they kicked us out of the boat. I felt how we started drowning. We knew we had to do something. I panicked a little, but it wasn't just me. Kiara couldn't use her power because of water, Ina didn't have her magic book, Calli couldn't grab her scythe, and Ame drowned slowly. I knew I had to do something, help everyone, try to get out of this situation. I couldn't move, so I could barely breathe. I tried to focus on creating a little ice sword, but it was incredibly hard to do in there. It took me nearly a minute before I could make it. Then I turned some water into ice, and then I grabbed the ice knife with my hand. After that, I freed our hands. Ina took the black bags off our heads, Calli started cutting ropes, and I took a breath, and then I exhaled into Ame's mouth to give her air. I bet our faces blushed like hell back then. When we got free, I grabbed my trident and made bubbles so they could breathe, and then we tightly hugged each other, and I started to swim upwards. Then, demons appeared from nothing, so I swam even faster. Ina incantated some magic and fought them. Calli could swing her scythe, so she protected us from near enemies. It took me a while until we got above the water. I looked around us and became speechless. We were surrounded just by water and nothing else. What's worse, the water was full of demons, and we were exhausted and hungry. I canceled my bubble magic and asked what direction we would go. We decided to swim straight. So we did. Kiara used her magic, and her fire wings grew. She was flying over the water, ready to help us at any moment. After two hours of swimming straight, we saw land far away. We were so happy, so we forgot we were hungry and exhausted. Additionally, the demons that were following us gave up. It felt weird. It was too calm there. I felt really weak, so Ame transformed herself into a huge dog so she could swim, and we could rest on her back. I napped for a half hour. When I woke up, we were already close. When we finally got to the land, Kiara flew to search for any civilization there, Ame was resting, Ina and I were searching for food, and Calli made a campfire. All of us were dog-tired, but we had to stay awake to survive. I created ice spears and spearfished. Meanwhile, Ina found some food from the forest. When Kiara came back, we sat around the fire and fried the fish over it. Kiara told us that she found a village around a two hour walk away. We enjoyed spending time by ourselves. We sang a couple of songs, and we did storytelling, and we ate fried fish. After that, it was already morning, but we all went to sleep. I was hugging Ame, and Kiara was hugging Calli. Ina preferred to sleep alone. When we woke up, it was almost evening. We prepared to continue our journey and went, being led by Kiara. She told us, people there didn't wear any shoes, so I guessed we were inside Desland, The Land of Earth. After two hours, we reached the village and were finally saved.

We knew Kiara is close to Aria, so she would probably live in a castle around there, but even so, we didn't know where it was. When we finally got to the river, we found a dark-dressed man in the boat there, and then we got into the boat. The boatman put his boat stick into the water, and we started sailing to the other side of the river. If we weren't together, it would be so boring because it took us about seven hours just to cross the river, but because of company, we could talk, joke, laugh, and so on, so it seemed a minute had passed, and we already were on the other side. We stepped on the ground, thanked the boatman, and said goodbye to him. As always, he never spoke, just turned the boat around and sailed to the city. I said, 'He could just say goodbye to us!' with anger.
'No, Gura. He couldn't,' Calli said. 'Stay calm.'
'What do you mean, Calli?' Ame wondered and asked before me.
'They took vows of silence cause it was necessary,' Calli responded.
'But why?' I still wanted to know.
'They are the only people who sometimes meet alive people. Vows of silence are necessary for them and the duchy because no one wants to reveal the secrets of the dead,' she said in a tone that marked the end of this topic. I got a little sad because I realized I made Calli a little angry.
As we expected before, there weren't any plants, or grass, or anything. There was just ash and dust. The good thing was that Ina didn't have to create and keep a magic barrier to keep us safe from the ghosts because we had the talismans given by the boatman before. We walked for two hours and decided to sleep because we were super tired. There wasn't any tree, plant, or anything with which we could make a fire, and it was a really cold night. We were lying on the ground, trying to sleep, but I was chilled to the bone. I wondered how I could get warmer, and then Ame got closer to me and said, 'Hey you, Gura. Tonight is so cold, isn't it?' I nodded because it was then too cold for me to say something. I felt shivery. 'I wondered,' her face blushed a little, 'why don't we hug? Just to make the night a little warmer.' My face turned red, but I grabbed her arm, pulled her to me, and hugged her tightly.
'Good night, sweetie,' I whispered in her ear and fell asleep. Then a freezing night turned into a warm night.