Animals: Land Of Fire

Chapter Eight

Juliet Pov:

  I felt my chest slow down as the head rolled at my feet. I heard a odd, strangling cat noise. I turned my head and saw Sophie having a mix between vibrating and twitching. I had heard of people doing that before (I think it's called a seizure?) but it was clear that wasn't what was happening. She sank to the floor and began to mumble something. I got closer. "Not again, oh goddesses not again..." I thought for a moment, then something from a few hours ago came to mind. "Sarnr kamak irn ai kasr..." She looked up at me. "W-what did you say?"

  "Freedom comes at a price," I looked down on Sophie, but the moment didn't last, because two seconds later she was over me, towering over my 5"2" height. "What do you know?" I cocked my head. "About what?"

  "About the queens, about being a hybrid, about everything!" She seemed even more angry than usual. I rolled my eyes. "Well, I know that there are three queens, one to rule sky, one to rule surface, and one to rule cave. I know that the one that rules cave is evil, and wants to kill all hybrids because they are the only ones who can take her throne, and as long as she's queen she's immortal," I paused "At least, immortal to age."

  "How long have you known you were a hybrid?"

  "Since last night," I said. "Oh goddesses," I heard Sophie mutter. Then she stood up, picked up the head, and said, "Alright, do any of you have water magic?"

  "Um... we don't know..." Said Chrissy, who at this point was drawing animals in the dirt. "We just found out we aren't human yesterday, remember?"

Sophie sighed. "Well, there was more to your trial, but it seems we have to prioritize. Come on, I should take you to leader." She put the head next to the rest of the man, kneeled, and spoke some words in her language. She then took a handful of dirt and sprinkled it on the man. "And, Juliet was it?" I nodded. "You're right." For a second I was puzzled right about what? "Freedom does come at a price," Sophie smiled, a single tear coming down her cheek. She stood, composed herself, them walked down a tunnel, gesturing for us to follow.

I shrugged, wondering if the school missed us yet, and climbed down.

 The ladder seemed to go on forever, wearing me out by the 15th step. I jumped the rest of the way, and grabbed on last moment, the friction burning my hands. I met Sophie looking at me like I'd just tried to commit suicide. "Are you crazy?! You had NO idea how long that ladder was going to last!" I shrugged. "Maybe I am."

 Chrissy came sliding down the ladder, her feet in the air while her hands gripped on the side bars. 10 minutes later Kimmy came climbing down carefully. "Finally! I was getting impatient. 'Aight maggots, I'll only do this once, so watch and learn." She stepped towards a rock, looking around until she found a spot completely coated in dirt, before knocking a simple knock. Knock, Knock, Knock knock, knock.... Knock, knock.

 To our surprise the rocks moved, and I saw a person with black beady eyes and a snake tongue that occasionally popped out of his mouth. ".... Oh! General Sophie! Glad to have you back, do you need anything?"

  Sophie barley hesitated before saying, "Food delivered to my room, 15 minutes, tops,"

  "H-how much food,"

  Sophie gave a sideways smile. "A Sophie meal amount,"

  He gulped.

  We walked on, and moved aside some leaves to reveal an underground city. Not even kidding, it was a literal city, full of hybrids.

  Sophie stuck her hand out. "Welcome to the rebellion!" She said, before leaping up inhumanly, pulling me up with her, onto a ledge above us. I gasped as I found my footing on the unstable stone. She leaped down two more times to grab my friends before she let out a large caterwaul.

  People began pouring out of the makeshift houses, glancing up to the ledge to us all, and I watched as curiosity took over there faces. "New recruits," The words spread around the crowd like wild fire, and I felt my anxiety rise.

  "As you may have guessed, the three I bring with us today are new recruits, and must meet leader."

  A young girl with long, curly blue-green hair and a large horn coming out of her forehead was the one who answered. "Leader is away, said he had business to attend to," Sophie nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you Allyssa, but now we have much more... shocking news to here about."

  A few people looked at each other, not expecting more news.

  "While I was assessing these three, we were stopped by the evil queen not at from the sanctuary." several people let out shocked gasps, and Sophie had to caterwaul again to quiet the crowd. "We were able to fend her off, b-but before she left, she..." Sophie paused, reaching for words. "She killed my father," The crowd broke off into sympathetic murmurs, before yelling commenced. "What are you going to do?" "We should Attack!" at the second comment made yowls of agreement fill the air.

  "No!" Sophie said, shushing the crowd. "We can not attack, not until we are ready. They outnumber us 50 to 1, an most of us have not yet completed our training," She looked down at the hybrids fire in her eyes. "But trust me, when we are ready, our revenge will satisfy the most picky of tongues." Her response made cheers explode from the crowd, even though I , personally, thought the analogy was very odd.

  "Now, we must focus on the task at hand," She scanned the crowd. "Jaliyah, Allyssa, please take our guests to leaders cave,"

  I watched as the crowd dispersed and two girls walked up. One I recognized as the girl who spoke earlier. They both had horns on there foreheads, and, now that I look, tail fins petruded from there lower backs.

  We walked down the citys paths. It was small and seemed poor, but it was a city. We stopped at a large cavern overlooking the city.

  "Go ahead," I spun around to face Jaliyah, who was talking. "Leader will be here shortly," and then she left.

  Me and my friends remained silent as we walked in and sat down on an old couch in the middle of the room.

  It had been at least an hour before the boss came in.

  And it was not what I expected at all.