"Henry, do something!" I yelled, digging my heels into the ground in an attempt to stop myself from being dragged any further towards the ominous, blue, crackling black mass in front of me. I still had a firm grip on the girl's hand, but I could feel her being taken further into the vortex.
"Let go of her, Violet!" Henry yelled, his voice containing a hint of fear. "You're getting pulled in too!"
"What!? I can't just let her get sucked into there!" The heels of my shoes were beginning to leave deep grooves in the grass, and my black hair flew around my face, like a clump of seaweed being pulled by a current at the bottom of the ocean floor.
"You're not helping her. You'll just get yourself pulled in, too!"
"Just grab my waist and ah-"I screamed when my feet suddenly lifted off the ground.
Henry swore loudly and lunged forward, wrapping his arms around my middle in a backward bear hug, "Let go of her," he hissed, the strain of keeping both of us from being sucked in evident in his voice.
"But-"I made a heartbreaking realization, Henry was right. I wasn't going to be any help if I got taken in, too. I screamed in defeat and frustration and slowly, begrudgingly, let go of her hand.
I felt her disappear, and she was replaced by guilt. It wasn't like me to sacrifice others to save my own skin. This moment was going to haunt me for the rest of my days, just like the fact that I had sent Danny to his death.
The black hole began to shrink in size, and its pull became less and less powerful with each passing second.
I heard Henry sigh in relief from behind me before he began to slowly pull us back from immediate danger. But before we could get a safe distance away from the blue lighting crackling vortex of death, he tripped over something on the ground, and just like that, we were sucked into the black hole too.
I woke up on top of something soft and warm. Whatever that soft and warm thing was, it began to stir ever so slightly beneath me. I cracked my eyes open a little and saw that I was lying underneath a tree. Sunlight was filtering down in between long, twisted branches and sparkling green leaves, creating dapples of light upon my face. I could see that there was some kind of blue fruit growing on the tree.
I sat up, and as I did, I became aware of a soft breathing coming from somewhere nearby, accompanied by a deep purring. I inhaled deeply in fear, just what had I been taking my little nappy nap on!?
I let my eyes fall to the space in between my legs, and when I did, I saw that whatever I was sitting on had golden feathers, speckled with blue. A long skinny tail with a tuft of blue fur at its end flicked back and forth in the dust. Whatever I was on, I was sitting on it backwards.
Suddenly, the soft, warm, breathing, purring mass of gold feathers beneath me began to rise to its feet, taking me with it. Two spectacular bird-like wings unfolded beside me. Then the creature arched its back like a cat, before relaxing its muscles and moving towards a clump of bushes on four legs.
Taking a deep breath and biting my lip, I leaned heavily to one side and rolled off the beast and onto the ground. I coughed, inhaling the dust my fall had stirred up. I wasted no time in getting to my feet and sprinting in the opposite direction of the still unidentified beast I had unexpectedly found myself on.
I crashed through clumps of bushes whose leaves were also shiny like the leaves of the trees, and whose presence seemed to dominate most of the forest floor. I ran until the air started to refuse to enter my lungs, and I was forced to stop for a second of rest. This whole forest seemed to be made up of these blue peach, twisty-limbed trees.
I took a moment to peel off the jacket I had been wearing and tuck it under my arm in case I needed it later, which I highly doubted. It had been chilly outside when Henry and I had left to go to the missing girl's house, but this forest I now found myself in was hot and humid to the extreme! Sweat was trickling down my back in a steady stream, and my black hair had plastered itself to my face, but it wasn't all too terrible. Because ever since I had awakened, I had sensed something in the air that I had missed dearly, magic.
I was home, well, not home, home. Looking at the vegetation, it appeared I was on one of the Golden Fist islands, a cluster of islands just off the coast of a country's name, country's name. At least I was back in the right world, but I couldn't really enjoy that little fact at the moment, because I was kind of in the middle of a freaking crisis!
On the bright side of things, I was back in my home world! On the dark side, I had no clue where I was, where Henry was, or how I was going to find water because I was seriously thirsty.
My ears barely had time to register the sound of rustling leaves behind me when a sweaty hand was clamped over my mouth, and another gripped onto my arm with such force, I let out a little muffled cry of pain. Whoever it was, they dragged us closer to the tree with a trunk so wide that it could conceal us both once we stepped behind it.
"Be quiet, they'll hear us," a vaguely familiar voice of a girl whispered into my ear. The girl removed her hand from her mouth but kept a firm grip on my arm.
I was about to ask her who, when my ears perked up at the sound of more rustling leaves, shortly followed by the sound of men's voices drawing steadily closer.
"Are you sure they got dropped somewhere around here? I know that one brat was, but what about the others she felt coming through? Is she even sure there was more than one?" One of the men asked, sounding extremely frustrated.
"For the tenth time, yes. More than one got sucked through the portal and totally threw off the expected landing site. Now, get moving, because we've got to search these woods before it gets dark outside!" a second man answered impatiently. "The griffons are most active after the sun sets."
Oh yeah, griffins did live on the Golden Fist. Then my mind wandered back to my napping companion, well, I guess I knew what it was now.
"No idea why we are the ones on the island looking for these kids. Trisha and Hannah should really be out here doing this, but they pulled the whole 'You have to stick to the target you were assigned' rule," grumbled man one.
"I think I heard a sound coming from over there earlier," the man said abruptly, "I want to check it out before we move on." Man, one said, and he and his companion began to move towards our hiding spot, their feet snapping the occasional stick.
Man two spoke up, "Hope it's that little brown head, blue-eyed troll, I would like to thank her personally for my bruised knee!" The man smacked his lips loudly together, "I'm going to pay back that favor with some interest."
The sounds of the men's footsteps began to grow steadily closer to us, " No! No! No!" the girl behind me chanted under her breath. The grip on my arm tightened painfully, and I was sure that when she let go of me, if she ever did, I would find little crescent-shaped indents on my skin.
Abruptly, with an ear-piercing screech that was high enough to make ears bleed, something gold and blue descended from the heavens, swooping past our hiding place a little too close for comfort. The men barely had time to yell in surprise before it was upon them.
First, there were sounds of a brief struggle, then shouts of terror and pain, followed by the sickening wet sounds of flesh being torn apart and the crunch of bones breaking, and silence followed that. Scary silence.
"What is this place?" the girl whispered under her breath and let go of my arm.
With my arm now free, I turned to face my capturer/ rescuer.
I recognized her in an instant. It was the missing girl's sister, then one whose hand I had let go. She looked horrible. Her blue eyes were puffy and red, tear trails stained both cheeks, her brown hair was matted to her skull, and her clothes were ripped and dirty, but she was alive!
"You're alive!" I said happily.
"Shh!" She said forcefully. Then, in a voice almost too low to be heard, she whispered, "I'm not sure where I am or how I got here, but I think you know more about this whole freaking nightmare than I do! Don't you!?"
I nodded my head.
She wiped some sweat away from her eyes with her fingers. "First, is this just a dream?"
I shook my head no.
She said a couple of swear words from her world and stomped her foot on the ground before looking at me again. "I was hoping you would say yes. People in my dreams usually tell me the truth if I ask," she said, her voice slowly beginning to rise in volume until I had to clamp my hand over her mouth to silence her."
"Be very quiet," I whispered, removing the hand from her mouth, before turning away from her and pressing my body against the rough texture of the tree, slowly peering out from behind its trunk.
The golden bushes were blocking most of my view, but I did see a pair of yellow eyes watching me from just inside them.
I pulled my head back around the tree, fighting the urge to panic. The thing that had attacked the man, and what I was guessing was a griffon based on the men's earlier conversation, had made eye contact with me.
"We need to make a run for it!" I said hurriedly, "On the count of three, we run in opposite directions.
"What!?" the girl stammered in confusion, and I knew how she felt. That had been me more times than I could count; the girl who was scared out of her wits with no clue what was going on.
"We need to run,′ I repeated more calmly, "One, two,-"
We both screamed when something leaped in front of us, and both clutched onto each other in an awkward and desperate embrace.
The griffon tilted its head to the side, its yellow eyes looking both of us up and down, before taking a step closer. It's gold, and blue speckled feathers glimmered beautifully in the sunlight.
"What is that thing!" the girl stammered.
"A Griffin," I replied, my body cold with fear, despite the hot weather. "They're extremely dangerous creatures that will eat anything they can catch, including people."
"My name is Santana." The girl said.
"What!?" was my reply.
"I want you to know my name before I die!" the girl stammered again. "I think you heard my mom say it, but I just wanted to make sure you knew it."
"Oh, okay," I took a deep breath, "my name is Violet,"
"I know, I heard that guy you were with saying it, and thanks for trying to save me."
"Sorry that I couldn't," I apologized.
"It's the thought that counts, right?" she said, her voice trembling.
I nodded.
We both tightened our grips on each other when the griffon suddenly lunged at us.