The Hope Of The Three (Book 2 of the Hidden Trilogy)

Chapter Twenty-One: Among the stars

Eliana

We slept because that was all we could do. We could rest up and wait until we saw Aswa. Maybe we could try to kill him there? No, he's too smart for that, and the prophecy calls for the three celestial guardians, I needed Tsuki and Alena. For the first time I wondered how they were, maybe they were already at the meeting spot, getting worried about what was taking us so long. We hadn't even seen the Sun Woman yet. But maybe they weren't there, maybe they never even left camp. We left them to deal with the Nortoches, maybe they couldn't. Who knows, they could have been dead by now. Wow, that was optimistic and by optimistic, I meant not at all optimistic in any way, shape or form. But it was the truth.

I had a well-needed nap, although I wasn't sure for how long I was asleep. Umair was still asleep when I woke up, I couldn't help but giggle at his snoring. This trip was taking an awfully long time. I dozed off yet again.

Umair woke up and had given me a small smile I was just about to doze off yet again when cage bars that supported our backs disappeared. Well, disappeared was exactly the right word for it, it was blasted off the rest off the cage. The unfortunate part, was that I was leaning on it, more so than Umair. When the wall was blasted away, I fell. Now, a fall from the hight and speed were travelling at would mean certain death, in other words, I was done for. I felt the air rush up my back, fear pulses through my veins. My back was the first thing that fell and my legs followed, falling over my head. I literally did a backflip in the air, I was falling and then I wasn't. I felt a big rough hand gripping my tiny one. Umair was holding on to me, and I was holding on to him for dear life.

"Don't let go," he yelled the most stupid and cliche thing anyone could say at the moment.
"That's a great idea! I would never have thought of that!" I was surprised that I could manage sarcasm considering the circumstances. Umair looked at me helplessly and desperately, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He couldn't hold my weight for long.

I started to swing my feet, still gripping to Umair as tight as possible. I was sure I was cutting of his circulation. My feet kept on swinging, to the point where at the highest point I was almost vertical. I could tell Umair was running out of strength. On my next swing I hooked my leg over the edge. My core cried as I tried to pull myself over, even with Umair's help it was to much of a struggle and I fell again. Once again dangling. I tried again, this time even more tired before, I didn't have as high a chance of making it. I swing and hooked my leg of the ledge. Umair backed up to one of the remaining three cage bar walls, my arm in tow. My muscles ached as I pushed myself up to a height where I could roll over and into the cage. One more centimetre. And then I was over, I rolled in the cage and quickly stood myself up to make sure I didn't roll back over. Umair wrapped in me in a weak embrace, half a hug, half to make sure I didn't fall again. I couldn't say any words, we were both exhausted.

What had blasted the wall off? And then we saw. The second carriage cage, pulled up beside us and we saw the strangest sight. The cage was being led by shadows, just as a carriage would be pulled by horses, exactly like our cage. Except that the chains that kept the shadows attached to the cage was now replaced by Ali. He had somehow managed to bend the bars enough for him to wedge through and unchain the Nortoches. Adira, had then take the chains, somehow thrown and attached them to I our cage bars and pulled the entire wall off our cage. Of course, if they let the Nortoches go, then their cart would free fall into the terrain and they would die. So they somehow had to hold on to the Nortoche leaders and the cart at the same time, acting as the chain. Ali managed to gripped the shadows and held himself to the cage by wedging his feet between the bars, therefor acting as chain. It was the oddest and most surreal sight.

"Incoming," Ali shouted to us and led the Nortoches so that they were so close the could have jumped right in. Although I think that was the idea. Adira got ready to jump, I put my arms out to be sure to catch the little girl, I didn't want her to fall. She leaped through the air and I would like to say that Adira landed gracefully in my arms. Nope! She fell on me, cause me to fall and get winded by the new pressure on my chest. I have a slight heave and cough and pulled myself to my feet, then helped Adira. Then it was Ali's turn. That was going to be a problem. The second he let go, the Nortoches would dash into the distance and the cage would fall to the ground, and if he wasn't careful enough, so would Ali. I made my way to the edge of the open cage, Umair stepped forward and wrapped his arm around my middle, preventing any hazard of falling. I reached my arm out as far as possible, in case we had a repeat of my incident.
"3...2...1," Ali counted down from three and then jumped. It seemed to happen in slow motion, he unhooked his feet, let go of the Nortoches. And what I predicted happened, the cage fell and the monsters sped away. Ali flew through the air and landed safely in the cage, not even needing my hand. A breath of relief I didn't even know I had built up escaped.