{A Wattpad Featured Book}
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Her heart or her people. Only she can decide.
Hated, cursed, outcasted. It was Eleena Asterin's life ever since she was blamed to have betrayed her village. So when she is offered a task to earn back her honour and prid...
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It hadn't been long before my second task arrived.
Lightheaded and woozy from the venom coursing through my veins, I'd nearly fallen headfirst into what looked like quicksand after turning a sharp corner. It had been camouflaged against the rest of the muddy ground, and I'd been lucky enough to catch myself on a wall of ivy before nearly slipping into it.
The path was wide and short, no more than around ten paces to reach the other side. My throat closed up as a faded memory of sinking in quicksand during a hot and sunny summer afternoon clouded my mind. I'd been teaching myself how to swim in one of the boggy marshes near our cottage and hadn't realised that those grounds were scattered with sections of quicksand.
Screaming. Flailing. Pleading. Sinking. I remembered that day all too well and if it wasn't for Aslan who heard my screams, I would have eventually been submerged, lungs filling with sand and mud as I sank deeper and deeper and deeper—
I snapped my attention back to the matter at hand, keeping my breathing as steady as I could despite the burning of my lungs. I rubbed my eyes, trying to draw as much exhaustion as I can from them before grabbing my bow, fingers numb as they squeezed around the calloused feeling of drying blood.
The tip of my bow sank a little as I tapped at the ground in front of me, and I could feel it pulling my bow deeper towards its depths. A firm tug managed to set it free and I sighed quietly in relief. Relief—had never been fully an option in my entire life.
It would hurt—the sandy ground was coarse and thick. It wouldn't be quick. It would take time to fill my lungs. Sweat slid down my neck, my back, and I could feel the effect of the venom spreading like a wildfire. I repeated the process of tapping and tugging for various spots on the ground, at the different patches of muddy, sandy ground that had somehow become one of my greatest fears. A wrong choice would doom me—a right one would allow me to cross.
However, it was only a matter of seconds before my hopes were crushed like the lives of those snake-like vines. Nowhere safe. This entire path was a pool of quicksand.
Realisation dawned on me later on and I sucked in small, frenzied breaths. I could always retrace my steps and take another turn, or try to climb to hedge to cross over to the other side, or maybe—
I stumbled and tripped sideways, my feet thumping on solid ground.
Wait.
My eyes flicked to my feet, firmly planted onto packed mud. I held my breath as I stood still, waiting to feel the rush of grainy sand engulfing my legs and my body but nothing. Nothing came and I stood still before fumbling for my bow still clutched tightly in my right fist, tapping lightly again at the ground in front of me.
A light thump met my action.
Solid ground. It was solid ground. I could gladly, willingly, fanatically believe in a Mother and Fate if they would take care of me. I believed in the solid ground that lay before me. Solid ground.
