Aiyana

Chapter two - Stop the Wedding!

Coldovea, Forbidden Forest
Coldovea Castle
Ahren, Ahren Forest, Vinet Trail

           Lydia and Devan trudge through the snow, the places where they step breaking way and leaving footprints behind. A sharp wind cuts by their faces, red and numb from the cold. Devan groans, shuffling his wings again and again to shake off the cold snow starting to freeze his feathers. They walk for a while, starting to grow tired and cold, until Lydia spots two children in the distance, realizing they had actually been moving seeing the buildings and dimmed bright lights shining through the windows.
The closer they get, the more they can see the children’s features; they’re little girls, possibly sisters, and then the one seeming to be the eldest looks up at them.
“Are you two lost?” she asks, the warmth of her breath making fog in the air which disappears almost instantly. Her sister looks up and notices the two, covered in snow and exhausted.
“Wow, Amara look, he has wings!” the younger sister exclaims as she gets up and clings to Devan’s leg, fascinated by his freezing white wings. Devan shoots Lydia a tired look as he allows the child to play with his wings.
“Yes, um, we’re trying to get to the Coldovea Castle.”
The girl stands up, leaving their snowman half finished and walks to meet Lydia. “You can’t. The wedding is today.” Lydia smiled.
“That’s lovely. I’m happy for whoever is getting married, but we need to get our friend. It’s very important.” the girl smiles, as if explaining a basic fact to a child for the second time.
“The Princess is getting married. The Queen has requested that no one interrupt.” the words ring with alarm in Lydia’s ears as she turns to Devan, him having the same surprised expression.
“Lilly? Amara? Who are these people?”
A woman crosses her arms as she leans elegantly on the wall of her house.
“Oh ma'am, I’m-”
“Lydia Hollow and Devan Springs. Elara told us a lot about you two. Come in.”
The woman gives the four a small cup of warm lemon tea, all sitting at the table. “So, how do you know Ellie?” Devan asks, breaking the awkward silence.
The woman smiles.
“Lilly found Elara crying behind the house and brought her in.
She said she thought the snowstorm outside was loud enough to cover the sound of her crying. She told us that her mother had been treating her unfairly, and… well, I’m sure you two know, you’re her friends after all,” the woman’s words didn’t click in either of their minds.
“Um, actually, no. Elara never mentioned anything bad about her mother.” the woman gave them both a sad look. “Elara’s mother hurt her. She had bruises on her arms and was afraid when anyone raised their arm - even to grab something. She often ran here after that had happened, and we gave her tea, and comforted her as best as we could, but she eventually had to go home.”
She looked to Lydia and Devan to see if her information had disturbed them too much. She continued.
“We haven’t seen her for two months.” her solemn words hung in the air as the fire crackled behind them.
“Thank you for being such a good friend to her. We promise to help her.” the woman smiled at Lydia’s words.
“Save her, dear,” she whispered, tears lingering in her voice. Lydia froze, then smiled and nodded.
Within a few minutes, the woman had given them directions to get to the castle and they were at the door.
“Thank you, ma'am,” Lydia said.
“Please, call me Mary.” Lydia smiled.
“Mr. Wings~! You aren’t gonna leave, are you?” Amara looked up at Devan, beggingly. “Aw, I’m sorry kid. I gotta help out my friend.”
Amara frowned, but then her smile appeared again. “Then we can play more when you come back to visit!” everyone laughed quietly as Amara detached from Devan’s leg and attached to Lilly’s
Lydia and Devan finally made it to the castle after carefully following Mary’s directions, and marched up to the white gates.
“Lydia!... Lydia!” muffled callings came from Lydia’s bag over her shoulder. She opened it, and her small fairy friend, Elaina flew out and hovered one foot away from her face. “Elaina!? How did you get in my bag?” Elaina giggled.
“I snuck in right before you teleported to Azora. Great teleportation, by the way!” Lydia giggled, her cheeks blushing as Devan stood there, staring, in confusion.
“What is that?” Elaina glared at Devan, Lydia rolling her eyes at her small friends jealousy.
“This is Elaina, she’s a fairy. An Eirian fairy to be exact. I found her when I was little. She was hurt inside one of my favorite flowers in my garden back home. She’s also an excellent painter.” Elaina smiled, proudly. Devan shrugged.
“So do we just open the gates?” Lydia laughed as she nudged Elaina back into her bag. “No. see that speaker there?” Lydia pointed, Devan’s eyes following.
“We have to say open in Elvish to open the door.” Devan looked at her, shocked.
“I don’t know Elvish!” Lydia smiled. “But I do,” Devan’s shocked expression dissipated as she went over to the speaker and spoke.
“Ipar,” the gate suddenly swung open, revealing two curling staircases leading to the second floor. Devan looked at Lydia. “Elvish. You know Elvish,” he stated. “Devan, most of the people who work at my palace are Elves,” she reminds him, Elliot creeping into her mind.
“Let’s hurry,” Lydia rushed Devan in and they made their way up the right staircase, a big door meeting them.
Lydia pushed it open, two rows of people dressed in dark blue turned to look at her, and a man and woman dressed in white did the same, except one’s face was of relief. “Lydia? Devan?” Elara. Lydia could tell it was her by her voice. “Ellie! Come on, we gotta go!” Elara, without a second thought, leaped from the platform, leaving the man and her mother behind as she fled, holding up her dress as she ran. “Elara, you get back her right now!” her mother screamed at her, but she wasn’t listening. They ran until they arrived at the Coldovea Port. they paused, gasping for air and trying to laugh at the same time. “Ellie! It’s been… so long,” Lydia struggled to say as she gasped for air between her words. “I missed you two… a lot.” she replied, her voice more calm and put together than her friends, but still out of breath. Once they caught their breath, they attempted a conversation.
“So,” Elara started, “thank you for breaking me out of that stupid wedding, but why did you need me?” Lydia and Devan sigh. “The Dark Entity is back. The sages need to assemble and stop him.” Devan nodded, a serious look on his face.
“I will fight with you. The Dark Entity must die.” the three smiled, sighs escaping their lips as they all turned to Lydia. “You’re up, Dia,” Devan took her left hand, Elara taking her right. Lydia sighed and closed her eyes, thinking of Ahren. The ground this time! She spoke the words, the three glowing purple until they all disappeared. The three opened their eyes to tall trees surrounding them. They all stood, looking around. “Lydia… where are we?” Devan asked. “We’re in the middle of the woods connecting Eiria and Ahren. There shouldn’t be anything too dangerous, but the forests do contain Ahrenian creatures and animals, so be careful and stay close. There are stories about people going missing here because they wandered off.” Lydia’s information send Devan shivering with fear, as they follow her down the trail.
The three walk for what feels like 30 minutes, until Devan hears something, and clings to Lydia. “Did you hear that?!”
“Devan, relax. We’re in a forest, they make sounds.” Elara joked. “I’m sure it’s fine. Just keep going, we have to get to the Elf tribes.” Devan reluctantly let go of Lydia and continued walking, wrapping his wings protectively around himself.
A slithering sound comes from the right side of the forest, Devan hovering above the ground with a jump. “Okay, now I heard it,” Elara whispers, on guard. Lydia looks to where the sound came from, seeing nothing. “It’s probably fine-”
A vine wraps around Lydia’s right ankle, tightly. She screams as vines grab Devan’s dangling ankle, as he tries to kick it off and fly higher. Elara get’s grabbed by her wrist.
The three struggle as more and more vines wrap around their limbs, holding on tighter as they squirm. “Lydia! What do we do,” Devan shouts, thorns cutting and digging into his wings and skin. “We must be in the Vinet Trail! Vine monsters live everywhere here. They’re known for strangling people and then feeding the bodies to-”
“Lydia! Skip the horrifying history lesson, and get to the part where we DON’T DIE!” Devan interrupts, his voice cracking as he yells. Lydia thinks, but one thing doesn’t match with what she knows. “Lydia!” Devan shouts, his voice full of fear as more thorns cut into him. Elara grunts, trying to cut the vines with her pocket knife but she can’t reach it in her front pocket, thorns now digging into her as well.
Lydia thinks, desperately recalling everything she read about Vinet Trail and the Vine Monsters.