Inescapable

five

A gentle breeze sways the saplings around us. The sun has begun to set and it paints the sky with its red and orange hues. Within a few hours, darkness will set and it may be yet another day before I get out of this dream.

"Does time exist here?" I ask Nyree.

She tilts her head. "Not sure. If I don't like the way the sky looks, I just change it to another color."

I giggle at that. "So do you never let it get dark around here?"

"No, I like seeing the stars at night. They're really pretty. Sunsets and sunrises are the best parts of the day, though. I can never properly get those tones. I'm trying but it's like a special form of art."

"When I'm bored, I paint. And the sky is my favorite thing to paint," I say. "All those colors—they're so beautiful and getting a moment captured on a canvas is... It's like a photograph."

"Maybe you should paint me," says Nyree. "So you don't forget."

I give her a smile. "I don't think I could. You've befriended me, bought me a gift with your own money, and nearly got me killed—"

"Hey, that wasn't on purpose though," she objects.

"—but it doesn't matter because now we're on a mission to get that potion back," I finish. "I know this might be painful to hear, but once I get the potion back, I'm going to wish myself out of here."

"So soon? You'd better say goodbye," she says, choking on the last word.

"Aw, Nyree, don't make this harder than it is."

"Why do you want to get out of here so badly?"

"I guess I feel like an outcast. Everything is so unfamiliar to me. A minotaur just challenged me to a fight—which I lost. I don't know if staying here would help me. Besides, I like it at home. And I miss my parents and my sister. I told you about her, didn't I?"

"Yep. But how do you miss them so much? You've only been here for a day."

I face her, disbelief clouding my features. "A day? No, it's been more than that for sure."

"But we never slept. And it's the first time the sun is setting."

"What?" I look up to the sun. "That's impossible. Why does it feel so long? Is time twice as slow in this world or something?"

She shrugs. As we walk, I spy a lonely pebble and kick it without any second thoughts. It bounces once before coming to a stop. When I reach it again, I give it another kick and it rolls into the grass to the left of us.

"Didn't Ela say you have to sacrifice something?" Nyree questions.

"She did. But the lady who sold us this also said it will grant us one wish. And if that's true, I definitely can get out of here with it."

"Why didn't you use it before?"

"Not sure. But I will the moment I get my hands on it."

The sky gets darker and the clouds begin to turn gray. Within minutes, a few droplets of rain begin to splash around us. A blast of wind whooshes through the air, chilling me to the bone. With chattering teeth, I tell Nyree we need to find some sort of refuge to which she immediately agrees.

"Can't you make it go away?" I manage to ask, trying to keep my shivering to a minimum.

"Make what go away?"

"The rain!"

"No! I just control the colors. I can make the sky look golden for you if you want."

"No, that's fine." Trembling, I block the rain with my hand and search for shelter. "Can you see anything?"

"Nope. And Vonik lives at least a mile away from here. We'll never make it in time."

"Why is this so realistic? I feel like I'm going to die of hypothermia!"

"I'm freezing. What should we do?"

"I don't know."

"What are you two blabbering about?" says an unfamiliar voice behind us.

We spin around simultaneously and come face-to-face with a black cat that almost blends in with the environment. Its eyes are a vivid green, carefully calculating our every move. When a ray of light hits it, I gasp.

"Scratches?" I exclaim.

"Oh, it's you. Of course you're the one to disturb my sleep," he says, blinking once.

I shake my head at him. "You can talk?"

"Uh, duh."

"Actually, no, you can't really because this is my dream," I say slowly.

"Whatever. I don't care. What are you two talking about then?"

"We're trying to get to Koshmar," Nyree answers.

"The place where the minotaurs live?" he asks. "That's just asking for trouble."

"They have something of ours," I tell him, "and we need to get it back."

"Okay. I'll help you get it then," he says, almost reluctantly. He notices me staring at him. "What? You're my owner. Obviously I'm going to help you. And I don't want to see you get hurt," he adds.

"Aw, Scratches, I didn't think you cared about me as much as you seem to right now."

"Shut up."

I grin then sneeze when the cold from the rain gets to me. Scratches sees this then waves his paw and the rain stops. With another wave of his paw, all three of us are drier than the Sahara Desert.

"Wow, really? You're magical as well?" I roll my eyes. "So I really gave everyone around us special abilities and didn't think of making myself the most powerful one here?"

"You're stupid," says Scratches.

"Yeah, there's no need to point out the obvious," I snap.

"Alright, I'm taking us to Koshmar now. Grab onto my fur." We do and I feel as if I am being sucked into a vortex, the air around me getting thinner and my head gets dizzy as if I've been spinning in circles. Then everything goes back to normal and our view has changed. There is a hill in front of us, covered in rocks, with a bunch of houses on top of it. "The minotaurs live up there."

"Couldn't you have just teleported us up there?" I ask. "Now we have to climb this hill."

"Just climb it, fatty. You need the exercise."