Rainbow Magic (Dragon Rider #1) {EDITING}

Chapter Eighteen: Sky, Storm, and Idiotic Salamanders

Silver's eyes narrowed, heart pounding as ground continued to crumble under her feet. She was going down. How far, she didn't know. She didn't particularly care. All that mattered was passing the test... proving herself... She'd get the damn cloak. She wouldn't be a failure. She couldn't be. Earth became hardened rock, mercifully smooth, the steep tunnel-like structure slowly levelling out as she continued to fall. It was like riding on a slide, only she had no idea when her descent would be ending. She had no idea what was waiting for her at the end of her ridiculously long slide. It could've been anything, but she wasn't scared. She would be fine. She'd trained enough for it, anyway. No matter what happened, she'd make it through. She'd make Sienna proud.

Light came into view only seconds before the end of her slide, smooth rock vanishing from under her, and then she tumbled down onto ledge underneath. Her knees slammed into the hard ground, drawing a wince, and she stood up slowly, curious as to where exactly she was. Silver blinked, stumbling back until she hit the wall behind her. Though it'd have been more accurate to call it a cliff face.

She was on the edge of a cliff ledge. What the hell was she doing there? Wasn't she supposed to be underground? Silver peered down, eyeing the mist concealing the area below, listening to the skittering stones tumbling down. From the looks and sounds of things, it'd be a long fall if she lost her footing. She'd never lost her footing though, so it wasn't too pressing of an issue. She'd lived in the mountains... Sienna had taught her to climb. The real problem was she had no idea where to go.

"So... what are you going to do now, sis?" Acrid green eyes bore into her own, staring down at her like they had before the day everything went wrong. "You going to let this stop you?"

Silver shook her head, chasing away the image of the ghost haunting her. "No. I'm not..." she muttered, taking in her surroundings once more, turning to stare at the cliff face. There were only two real options for her: up or down... and the handholds she could see in the cliff led upwards, so that direction it was.

It was likely a good thing she'd never been scared of heights. She'd had plenty of practice climbing too. In fact, she'd pretty much climbed the cliffs around her home as often as she could... until Sienna's accident. Scowling, she ran a hand through her silver locks, tying them back out of the way. It wasn't the time or the place to be thinking about things like that.

Her fingers dug into the rock, testing the strength, head nodding at what she found. She was good to go. She could climb. She wouldn't lose her way. Her teeth ground together. She'd be fine. Her hands grasped the rockface, strong arms pulled her up, feet soon finding purchase on the uneven stone, wind rustling in her hair, and then Silver started to climb. It was soothing, wind buffeting the silvery locks tied behind her head, the silence all around her aside from the howling of the wind in her ears. She felt like she was back at home... before the accident had changed everything. Silver could almost picture Sienna at the top, waiting for her with that small smile of hers.

But Sienna was gone.

The sounds of stones skittering had her glancing up, wincing as dust and small pebbles rained down on her face. She spluttered, rubbing her face against her sleeve as she tried to get rid of the taste of stale dust and peppery dirt. It wasn't a nice combination. Not in the slightest. Peering upwards, she paused, mid-climb, eyes widening as she spotted a familiar mop of blonde hair on the rockface above her. Raelynn... but what was she doing there?

"Sil!" the familiar obnoxious voice sounded. "What you doing down there?"

Silver scowled, pulling herself up until she was level with the idiot. "I could ask you the same thing," she hissed, glaring into those doe-brown eyes. "What are you doing up there? Climbing like this is dangerous, and somehow, I highly doubt you have much experience with it."