Realm of the Hidden Heritage||Book 1||

Chapter 13

>>>Leah<<<

As they walked farther into the woods, Leah started to hear weird sounds, like a weird growl mixed with a hiss. She didn't know what to do, so she moved closer to the group, "I hear something," she said.

"Weird," Kalley moved her hand closer to her dagger.

As they walked deeper into the woods, the hissing got louder, just ringing in Leah's ears. Along with that, she kept seeing shadowy figures slithering through the woods around her, or at least she thought she did. The others didn't seem to notice them, and if they did, they weren't paying them any mind.

"Do you guys see them," Leah asked.

"Hm?" Kalley looked at Leah confused.

"The shadowy figures in the woods," Leah said.

"Are you hallucinating?" Jeremiah asked.

"What? No!" She told him.

"We all could use some rest right now," Kalley admitted, "But we need to keep moving forward, until we find someplace safer to sleep. Like another town perhaps".

"Alright," Leah said, still staying close to the group.

But Leah still kept seeing the serpents, and she was starting to get worried. Soon her vision went blurry and she passed out.

She awoke in a strange place, Another dream, Leah thought. She saw the same lion thing from her last dream, but he looked taller, and younger this time.

"Hello?" Leah shouted.

"Oh, hello young one," The monster said in a thick French accent.

"Can you take me to france?" Leah asked.

"Wait what?" The monster stumbled back.

"Well I wanted to go to France, but no, I had to come to the U.S and get stuck on a quest to save my dad," Leah explained.

"So you don't want to save your father?" The monster asked.

"I mean, of course!" Leah answered.

"Then why are you acting like it's such a burden," The monster teased.

"Because this wasn't my plan for summer," Leah tried to explain.

"Sounds like excuses to me," The monster growled.

"I wanted to go to a big sporting event this summer," Leah said, crossing her arms angrily.

But Leah couldn't stay mad for long, because the monster let out an ear wrenching scream, and it seemed to blast the darkness out of the cave. In this new found light Leah was able to get a closer look of the cave. The rocks were still dark, and wet. She looked behind her, trying to see if she could see outside the cave. Luckily she could, but it was far away. She could barely make out a thick bunch of trees, with the front of the cave looking like a mouth with fangs. She turned back to the pit where her dad and Kalley's mum were. They looked pale and sickly, and very thin, like they haven't been fed.

"COME TO ME BY THE 8TH OF 6 OR YOU'LL FACE MY WRATH." The monster bellowed.

"What on earth," Leah mumbled, before snapping back to reality.

"Are you okay?" Kalley asked frantically.

"Um, Yeah, I think," Leah stuttered, "What happened"?

"We were walking in the woods, and you passed out," Jeremiah explained.

"Probably just tired, here have some ambrosia," Kalley handed Leah one of the cracker things she packed when she first packed her bag.

Leah took the crack and tried some, it tasted like caramel popcorn, which confused Leah because it looked like a plain old cracker. Demi-god magic, probably, Leah thought, finishing the cracker.

"How do you feel," Kalley asked.

"Better," Leah told her.

"That's good, now don't eat too much," Kalley told Leah.

"Why?" Leah asked.

"You'll explode into flames, similarly to Nectar," Kalley explained.

"Oh," Leah said.

"Yeah, not fun," Kalley admitted.

"Welp, we should take a break, I'm tired as shit," Jeremiah announced.

"Me too," Kalley said.

"We can't," Leah told them,

"Why not?" Jeremiah asked.

"When I was passed out, I had a dream, The monster said 'come to him by the 8th of 6 or we'll face his wrath," Leah explained.

"Wrong, he will face my wrath," Jeremiah corrected.

"We have till the 8th of June to find him," Leah told the others.

"It's the 4th of June right now, I think," Kalley said.

"So that means we have 4 days to find our parents, Kalley," Leah explained.

"Shit, I thought we had more time," Kalley admitted.

"I wish we did," Leah said.

"Well, if we're in crunch time, we should get going," Kalley told them, walking farther into the woods.