Anastasia left me inside the ring of mountains and flew away, even though it was night time, the garden that I was in was bright and warm. I wandered around feeling devastated until I just collapsed on the bank of the river and cried. After I dried my tears, I looked around. A magnificent waterfall poured out of the central mountain the river spiraled out and away from it. Luscious fruit trees abounded and a golden wall surrounded the garden, which in turn circled the mountain. I could just make out the sight of an angel descending from Caelum. I hoped it was Ananassa so I could apologize to her. It wasn't. This angel also had blue eyes and blond hair, but she wore her light blond hair up in a twist and her white wings were tinged golden at the tips.
"Hello Scarlett Rose. I am Anna Lise." Anna Lise. Hadn't I heard that name before.
"Are you Alexander's mother?" She looked way too young to have a teenage son. I would ask Alexander about how angels age next time I saw him, but then I remembered he was gone.
"Yes. I appreciate what you have tried to do for my son. But there is one more thing you can do," she answered in a flowing, melodious voice. I nodded vigorously; I would do anything to save Alexander.
"I want you to go to Infernum, find Alexander, and bring my son back."
"I will." Anna Lise waved her hand over me and told me to look at my reflection in the river. I gasped. My wavy dark brown hair was gone. In its place was a short bright red pixie cut. Small red wings sprouted from my back. My brown eyes were rimmed with heavy eyeliner.
"You won't be able to go to Infernum unless you can pass as a demon," she explained. "Now, it's just an illusion so you won't actually be able to fly..." I flapped my wings and hovered a few feet off the ground, surprising myself. "Or maybe you can. You have been blessed, Scarlett Rose. I wish you godspeed on your journey." Waving goodbye to Anna Lise, I rose up on my new wings and flew over the mountains.
Flying through the cool night air, I had never felt so alive. The feeling of actually flying with your own wings, controlling your path through the starlit sky was invigorating. On the far horizon a faint red glow pointed the way to Infernum. I looped around, flew upside down, dove toward the ground, and pulled up at the last second. Then I just concentrated on flying to Infernum as fast as possible. I had no idea what was happening to Alexander there, or what motivated me to go all this way to save him. After all, I just met him yesterday and we barely knew each other. But I felt this attraction to him that was both physical and spiritual. After a while, the air became hotter and the red glow burned brighter and Infernum came into view. A cluster of black mountains stood together. Fire burning from the rock itself lit up the sky. Demons of all shapes and sizes cirled around and flew into caves in the mountains. Even though the heat began to feel unbearable and a sense of raw terror came over me, I forced myself to continue flying forward and headed to a large cave entrance. I landed on a ledge and checked out my new appearance in a piece of reclective black rock outside the cave. I bore almost no resemblance to my human self now. I looked like a punk looking, though pretty, demon girl. Just then I heard someone land on the rocky outcropping behind me. I turned around fearfully, wondering if they could tell that I wasn't a demon.
"Hey Kitronella! Wait up!" the demon behind me said excitedly, rushing toward me. I recognized him as Alexander's friend Philip who had come to warn him. Wait, who was this Kitronella? Philip hugged me tightly and wrapped his black dragon wings around me in a warm embrace. "I missed you, Kit," he murmured into my hair. I felt really awkward. I needed to do some fast thinking. Maybe Anna Lise had given me the appearance of an actual demon named Kitronella who just happened to be Philip's girlfriend. That was the most plausible explanation I could think of. I hugged him back, so that he hopefully wouldn't be able to tell that I wasn't actually Kitronella.
