The Voice, The Sea and The Sorceress

Chapter V

The trail we walked upon now seems to grow more and more discomforting, the air becomes thicker and thicker with a heavy fragments of steel on it. We passed the only tree living around the meadow. There, a few meters away were piles of huge stones, the piles looked more of like hills made of stones.

Sweats rolled down our faces as the sun was about to set at the grayish horizon, cumulus clouds were accumulated above. "By the way," I pause as the two girls stopped walking and looked at me, "why did we walk when instead we can just ride at Freya's back as a dragon." I put my hands still to my side, resting them from being clutched at the harness of my backpack. Freya shoots me a glare of death. "Uh, okay nevermind." I hastily took back my stupid question. "Yeah," I let out a heavy sigh as I heard Percabeth agreed over my statement. Freya just pouted her lips and continued on walking, we followed. "I get tired you know, and it is actually so hard to control yourself when you're in a morph. You get the instincts of the animal you have to turn yourself into and sometimes it feels so hard to control. Especially if you were to morph into a savage animal, you go savage yourself as well." Percabeth nodded in understanding. "I see." Was my short reply.

We've arrived at the piles of stones, as we stepped afoot at the stone pavement. The moment we've set afoot, the surroundings suddenly changed, everything feels so surreal, almost dreamlike. Trees grew around, rotten trees, lifeless, there were Stine pillars, broken debris, it is as if we were in a broken ruin. The air went heavy as it sweeps our sullen faces. The sky darkened as the surroundings continue to change it features.

Then a nerve wracking scenario happened, as the air sweeps colder and colder, and as stones build to pillars, bones sprouted from the ground, then fleshes form out from them but they were incompletely filled as thousands of maggots start to eat the flesh. Plants have started growing but withered the moment they sprout from the ground. It is like a scenario of instant birth and death.
"Is this the curse land?" Percabeth asked in awe, fear is crawling within her fearless eyes. 

It was eerie here in the land of the corpses and curse beauty. Everyone around was hopeless, they either are blistered to the core, hag looking, having faces that are contorted and skins with puncturing larvae. Percabeth's face even wrinkled, slowly, her appearance changes. "What is this hell?" Freya asked, she's glowing with red aura, it seems the blessings of Mars is protecting her, or was she just really immune to such crookedness since her mother comes from the underworld. Walking on, we meet scrawny figures, extending their hands for salvation, muttering "save me," over and over. Freya noticed the changes in Percabeth's features, her lips went dry, her face changes into that of a hag's, her flawless hair becomes dishevelled. Freya looked at her in awe. "Is there something wrong?" Her voice changed, she sounds old. "What's happening to me?" she seems to start to panic, her olden voice quivered. She looks at her hands, she almost blacked out when she saw them, her nails turned black, her arms were consumed with blackened varicose. "Only true love can heal her," a voice from an old hag spoke but she's nowhere to be located. "Who are you? And where are you?" I asked, my voice was shaky. The old hag merely chuckled softly, "you poor things," "How do we help her?" Freya asked in a forceful tone while supporting the helpless Percabeth. "Uplift the curse and cleanse this land." "But how?!" I bursted, almost yelling. "True love, nothing but true love," the old hag's voice was trailing off. "And where are we supposed to find this crazy little thing called true love?" Freya grumbled. A silly thought hit me, "should I kiss her?" I asked, motioning at the now wrinkled Percabeth's direction. "Do it, if you could dare to," Freya said forcefully. "Nevermind," I changed my mind, she hates me and I was feeling the same way towards her, and that isn't true love, they might say this phrase, 'the more you hate the more you love', but that wouldn't apply to us. We hate each others to the core. Freya looked me into the eyes questioningly. "We should try your idea," she said. "Eh...," I managed to squeak, "we should try something else first." I offered, gulping my saliva at the same time.
"Any ideas in mind?" She asks.