𝓑𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓭 - 𝓛𝓾𝓴𝓮 𝓒𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓪𝓷

𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏, 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓

αυяσяα turned her head abruptly to face what she thought looked like a dementor. Its dark aura radiated off him. Aurora sooted back, the light seemed to disappear. It was only her and the monster.

A fog surrounded the two. Aurora was sat on a velvet throne with chains across her body. The throne was way too big for her size, rose thorns ran along the frame of the structure, lining the velvet. The chains were wrapped with iron and a magic aura laced within. There was some sort of spell tied to the chains. Her body was aching. Her feet were bare and cut.

"He calls for you daughter. Do not be fooled by his manipulation. Use your strength to defend what you stand for." The shadow spoke in a deep voice.

"Who are you? Who is he?" Aurora called after him. She struggled against her chains, trying to let herself free.

"Erebus. God of darkness. No futher may I say, I come to warn from time to come." Erebus informed the girl.

The shadow spun, Erebus aura shrinking away. Aurora awoke to shaking of her body.

Connor had his hands on the girl's shoulders in panic. "Aurora. AURORA. Please wake up!"

Aurora looked up at him, then her surroundings. The intervals are becoming shorter. Her shadow dreams are occurring more frequently. She didn't know what or who to believe. Aurora knew better than to be deceived. To the extent she would be taunted, was something she didn't anticipate. She rubbed her plans over her arms, where the chains restricted her.

"Hello can you hear me? What happened to you?" Connor sat down next to the frozen still girl staring at the wall in trance.

"Bad things are coming. We have to be prepared and cautious." Aurora managed to get out and back to full reality. "I think this quest is bigger than we think."

"Castro what do you mean by that?" Luke interrogated.

"I don't know but I have a weird gut feeling." She attempted to explain.

They all brushed it off, falling into an anxious silence. Knowing if they went back now they would just be failures. Each of them had a motive to prove.

It was about 12pm, all three of them deciding they needed to get some sleep for the next few weeks or however long they would be gone for the quest.

Aurora lied on the bottom of the bunks, Connor on the top, and Luke on the single bed.

The Stoll boy was snoring and breathing so loud. The blonde girl growing agitated from his sounds, sat up and sighed. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep without another nightmare. Luke's arms were propped behind his head as he stared out the window of their compartment.

"Castellan?" Aurora quietly sounded to the boy.

"What Castro? Can I get any peace?" Luke grogged back.

"With me? Never. I can't sleep." She admitted, pulling the sheet over her thighs.

"Does it have to do something with your antics a few hours ago?"

Aurora contemplated on telling Luke. They were going to be stuck with each other but she couldn't risk him finding out who she was. After a minute of silence she replied. "I had a dream. I think i'm in trouble."

Luke untangled his arms from under his head and sat up as well. "Nothing will happen. Me and Connor will protect you."

"I don't think it's the type of trouble I can be saved from Luke." Her green eyes darkened as she looked at his puzzled face.

Silence fell upon the pair as he processed what Aurora said. I wouldn't know how to respond to that either, she thought.
__________________________________________

That night Aurora fell asleep after talking to Luke. This time she wasn't cursed with a nightmare. She was thankful that they let her get some sleep for once.

Connor brought all three of them some breakfast at this cafe area in the train. Aurora sat at her bed, toying with her sun necklace. She stared out the window at the arising sun, wishing that she could see her brother right now. He always knew how to cheer her up.

Today they planned to map out how they were going to take the golden apple. It was tricky and needed to be done very strategically if they wanted to succeed.

Aurora loved battle strategies and studied them with Athena sometimes when she was free. The book. Aurora remembered the book Athena gave her along with the sword. She reached into her black bag, pulling out the gold lined book. The other two looked at her oddly, waiting for her to explain.

She explained that she needed time to read through it, claiming it was a battle strategy book. She honestly didn't know what it was. But whatever it contained, it would be important for this quest.

Aurora carefully unfolded the book, scanning over the margins. Athena's greek written over some of the words.

They drew up a plan to execute. It took the whole day, having to change it a million times so that it would actually work. Once proud, Aurora shoved her book back in her bag along with their final product of a plan.

Maybe she would have a chance and the prophecy would be wrong.

Maybe.