Thirteen

Thirteen - Chapter Thirteen

Naida pulled me to my feet and we stared around in wonder.

    Tall trees as far as the eye could see and rolling hills and high snow covered peaks in the distance. The sunlight coming through the trees was intense and the earthy scent surrounding me was the greatest smell I had smelt. The quietness was deafening and the coolness of the forest made me shiver slightly. Green moss was growing on the trunks of oak trees and droplets of water dripped from large thick green leaves splashing down onto the muddy floor and the light sound of bird songs echoed around.

    "Whoa..." I breathed.

    "Where are we?" Naida asked, repeating my earlier question.

    "I've no idea," I sighed truthfully. "I can't remember a thing... what happened?"

    "That guy sent us flying through the portal because Sebastian interrupted you," Naida explained. "I think we won't be going back to Nova" She pointed behind me and I glanced over my shoulder but then whipped round as soon as I saw what she was pointing at.

    The portal was a flaming red circle, with the edges a dense black. Sparks of electricity flew off it and when we got closer it started hissing. I extended a shaking hand towards the portal and the hissing got louder.

    "Be careful," Naida cautioned. I nodded and licked my lips. Snapping my eyes shut, I shoved my hand into it and a searing pain shot through my arm and I was thrown away from the portal and into the trunk of a tree. I groaned as I slid down to the ground. "Dani!"

    "I'm okay," I moaned, my joints aching. Naida ran over and helped me to my feet. "How are we gonna get back if we can't touch it?"

    Naida paused for a second, thinking carefully about what to do, then snapped her fingers. "Do you have any paper?"

    "Yes, I carry stacks of stationary for such an occasion," I retorted sarcastically but fished around in my pocket. What I pulled out was a stubbed pencil and a crumpled piece of paper. "That's weird. Where'd the pencil come from?"

    Naida laughed. "Next time you should think about what you say"

    I sighed, passing her my supplies. She smoothed out the paper, quickly scribbled something down and started folding it carefully. "What are you doing?"

    Naida patted down her last fold and grinned. "I'm sending them a message," She finished her paper airplane and aimed it at the portal. "Let's hope this works"

    I stared at the frail little thing and it felt as if our lives were in the balance of that paper airplane. Whatever happened, it was down to that piece of paper making it through that portal. I realized that we could be stuck in this forest for a while, unable to get back to Nova until we fixed the portal or until they could figure something out. But I didn't feel scared.

    I felt happy.

    Naida flicked her wrist and sent the airplane flying towards the portal. It went through without a sound but we still had no idea if it had make it to the other side.

    We let out a deep breath and glanced at each other. We tried to speak until our necklaces started shimmering and vibrating like mad. Our eyes scanned the forest floor, then up into the trees and then repeated, going around and around in circles trying to find whatever was causing our necklaces to go crazy.

    "I don't see anything" I murmured, slowly moving around again in a tight circle until we were back to back. Whatever it was, it was big.

    "I don't hear anything," Naida whispered. "What the hell could it be?"