Aquirya
Chapter 3

Aeyla opened her eyes and looked around, she was on a cliff. It was hot, almost too hot. She looked out and saw another cliff, and an orange sky. There was red and black liquid flowing everywhere.

She panicked and quickly stood up.

“I am not coming with you, you are going to kill me or hurt me or something. Where am I, where did you take me?! Take me back to…” She started to back away as she screamed at him. She slipped on a rock and fell scraping her knee. She knelt down to nurse her knee and looked around still wide eyed and frightened.

Niko walked to her cautiously and knelt in front of her putting his hand over her knee. He spoke two words, “Sanabit Nunc. The scrap disappeared. She gasped. “Aeyla, I’m not here to hurt you. This is your home world. We need to get to your castle and we need to leave right away.” Niko said pointing out across the mountain range. Niko looked around them more closely. Sometimes there were tunnels inside the mountain ranges around Grazia. Why had they come to this point in Grazia though? His magic hadn’t been enough in that other world to bring them closer to Aquirya apparently. He sighed and noticed a rock at the edge of the cliff they were on and he walked over to inspect it closer as Aeyla started to yell out at him.

“Where are we really going? What is this place? Is this some sort of sick joke or something?” She didn’t know where to go but she certainly wasn’t going to let him kidnap her. She tried to look beyond the big gaping hole in front of her to see if she could figure out where she was. Maybe she could replace somewhere to jump or some other kind of escape. There was nothing though, nothing but an orange sky and fog. He grabbed her arm redirecting her and firmly but sweetly told her the way out was this way. She jerked her arm to try to get away but knew it wasn’t going to do any good, the world she thought she was from, Earth, was no longer in her sight. She was terrified, what was going on? These things don’t happen, do they? Niko had found a gnome cave with steps leading downward and started to lead Aeyla down the entrance of the cave. They were walking in some kind of narrow tunnel, now. The orange sky and blue grass from the top of the mountain was still visible a few feet above them. It was so pretty but she still didn’t recognize any of it. If Niko did drug her these were pretty good drugs. The cave they were in was warm, she felt the walls, they had a moss feel to them but it was comforting in some way. Although this place seemed very foreign to her it felt very close somehow.

“You said this was my home? When was I here?” She asked her “guide”.

“You’ve been here your whole life. You were born here. This is your world, your kingdom, and your lands. Well it’s actually your parents’ world, your kingdom, our lands.” Niko answered as he was stopping a second and looking slowly down a corridor. He took out a sword that glowed with a bright yellow essence around it, it gleamed like the sun was shining on it and then it quickly went back to a normal looking sword. As he pulled out the sword his clothes also changed from the earth style clothes to what looked like a royal soldier uniform. The uniform was Purple and Red with buttons down the front of it shaped like stars with a blue tint to them. A helmet appeared having a red feather and wolf/dragon like creature engraved on the sides of the helmet. She was in awe at how it just appeared and was so magnificent in color. It shone just as brightly as the sword in his hand had. As she was admiring the uniform, a shield having the same emblem from the helmet on it, appeared in his other hand, also purple and red.

“They are made with Dragon bones and their fire.” Niko said watching her be in awe of seeing the guard uniform come to life on him. “Come on, we have to keep moving, we do not want to get caught down here by goblins.”

“Goblins!?” Well this story was just getting better and better, she thought. Fear gripped her. How was she supposed to fight goblins? “Are you joking with me?” She laughed nervously.

“Your highness, I’m not joking with you. Your world is in shambles. I do not replace this funny.”

She choked back her laughter. She still wasn’t sure how to take all this, a couple minutes ago she had been laying in a cabin and before that she was in a hospital bed in another world. Maybe this was a dream, nightmare or some kind of vision. She pinched herself. “Ow!” Well guess she’s not dreaming.

“Well if this is so real, how come you get a sword, a uniform, a shield, and I do not? You have protection. If I am a princess, why don’t I have such protection?”

Niko turned to her, eyes rolling. “Princess Aeyla, You do have those things.” Niko sounded annoyed now. He pointed down at her. “Now come on lets go. We have to replace the way out of here.” He inched out into the cavern. There were three other paths to take and he had been deciding which one was the safest and correct way.

She looked down and saw her clothes had also magically transformed. She didn’t have on a uniform like Niko, though. Hers was a purple and red outfit, chain mail protected her. With a silver sword glowing purple at her side. ‘When did that happen?’ she thought to herself. She took out her sword and she thought she heard the sword say “Welcome back Princess.” No it didn’t she imagined it. “It’s been a long time.” The sword continued to say. What? She let out a “Thank you?” Niko turned and smiled at her knowing her sword had recognized her when she had brought it out of his sheath. Questionably. Aeyla stared at the sword for a few minutes. “It just talked to me.”

“What did it say?” Niko asked. Aeyla told him what the sword had said to her. “Yes, well it usually does speak to you Aeyla. You’ve been gone a while, it’s a good thing it remembers you.” He jested at her smiling. “Until you remember who you are it will.” As Niko talked he tiptoed towards the middle cavern and sniffed into it. He turned to her, “This tunnel leads to your castle, I can smell it. I’m part Cat, Lion to be precise.” She was still trying to take all this in. Human animals, different color sky, tunnels leading to her castle, Her Castle?! She needs to wake up or remember this world. Something! She stopped dead when she heard a growl In front of her. Without thinking about it she took her sword out and took a stance that made her feel like she’d taken this stance many times before. She heard the growl again. The animal was closer now, she felt hot breath on her neck. She Froze.