Eyes of Emerald

Chapter Twelve (2)

A WEEK LATER, KEIRA and I managed to reach the waterfall soon after everyone else had left. We carved another line into the rock. My name was still looking very new compared to the others', whose names were growing moss. But the number of lines below steadily grew, and I felt a rush of pride when I carved the fifth line, slashing through the other four.

                "Y'know, this reminds me of those people in jail who scratch the amount of days they've been in prison on the walls." Keira mused, standing back and looking at her name. I smiled and looked around for a reed to make into a pipe for Oberon. How did you even make a reed into a pipe, anyway?

                I groaned, not seeing any reeds that looked very good. "I miss Google!" I exclaimed, sitting on a rock. "If we had Google, and Wi-Fi, we could just look up how to make a stupid reed flute."

                Keira frowned at me like I'd gone mad. "What?" she asked. "Why the hell d'you want to make a reed flute? Anyway, c'mon, let's go, else we'll miss lunch." She held out a hand.

                I sighed. "Oberon wants me to make a reed flute so it'll help relax my mind, so I can learn to Shift." I ran a hand through my fringe, which had fallen into my eyes. "You go on ahead, save some food for me." My hand crept to the end of my braid and squeezed. "I'll follow in a while."

                Keira nodded, giving me a scrutinising look before sighing and turning away. "Don't be too long, we have to do the obstacle course after lunch." she called, beginning to jog down the slope. I watched her figure disappear down the hill and then reappear, far down on the cliff path.

                I sighed again and turned to the waterfall, the glistening drops of water falling and splashing down by my feet, wetting my trousers. There were no reeds in sight, there was only a lot of moss and slippery rocks. Maybe there'll be some above the waterfall, I thought, and began to climb out of the basin and up to where the river flowed over the cliff.

                Sure enough, reeds grew by the side of the river. I picked one from the grass and looked around me, taking a deep breath as I took in the amazing view. Behind me, mountains grew, pale rock and green grass blotting out the sky, with white snow caps that, if you looked directly at them, blinded you. Before me stretched endless ocean, pale turquoise changing to deep sea-green as you looked deeper. And all around me was green, alpine meadows with butterflies dancing all around.

                I closed my eyes and felt the sun on my skin. Only after a few weeks in Aldeari, where the sun seemed to shine all day long, my skin was beginning to darken slightly, and so far I hadn't burnt as I usually did whenever I went into the sun.

                A sudden caw from a raven made me stumble, open my eyes and fall forwards. A cry ripped from my throat as the world fell around me, into a blur of green and blue and grey, and I was falling, falling, falling -

                Until I stopped suddenly, like I'd been grasped around the waist by a huge, invisible hand. My feet had just left the ground and I was suspended in the air, a ten metre drop below me. My stomach heaved.