A Journey To The Clouds, Escape From Cloud Castle - Book Two - ✓

Chapter Twenty-three

You'll be fine!" I push her. She looks into the crowd of giants and cyclops in the great hall. The one crystal white room is now full of decay and rust. The floors have scratches and dents in them, disrupting the smoothness of the other rooms besides it. They guard Hazel and Lily with hungry eyes.

"What if- what if i'm not fine." Ally protests. I grab both of her hands and I turn her head towards me. Even though it was her idea, she was intensely nervous about what we were about to do.

"You will be. I'll be only a few steps away." I reassure her.

"You're sure?" Ally asks, her eyes brimming with nervousness.

"I'm positive." I encourage in a silky voice. We look at each other a few moments longer before I let go of my gaze. She then laughs.

"How am I the one nervous. It was my idea!" She says. I laugh with her.

"Don't worry about it." I reassure her.

Ally takes a deep breath.

It's now or never, I think.

After a few deep breaths, Ally reveals herself from the doorway where they had been hiding. She then rushes onto one of the rustic tables, while I take a seat on the vintage keyboard that we luckily found in the storage closet that was miraculously untouched. Ally glances at me for a moment and I nod at her. She then begins to sing, her voice echoing among the growls of the cyclops and giants.

Catching the melody, I push my fingers into the keys. I then begin to harmonize in a sweet, low melody of notes fluttering in the open air of the hall.

I then notice the giants and cyclops at the corner of my eye. I recognize one. Bones. But all of them. They look. . . pleasant. Something I would have never expected from either species.

We finally close off the song with a seventh. I immediately let out a soft gasp at what I had just heard, still relishing the crisp yet smooth tune. Ally looks taken aback to, as if she hadn't expected such a beautiful song to come out of her.

I rush besides Ally, getting the feel of the static applause coming from Hazel, and Lily.

"Ally. . ."I trail off. Ally looks at me, her eyes shining.

"Connor I-" She says, unable to finish.

"You sounded beautiful." I finish for her. Ally smiles at me.

"Where did you get the song from?" I ask in a whisper. Ally looks at me, her cheeks turning red.

"I-uh-wrote it." She replies in a soft whisper. My eyes widen. I remember the nights when she would stay up late in the cold corridor of the Crew of Doom's layer and write in a notebook she brought along. She was always whispering words to herself. I had questioned her, but she had always ignored my pleas to know. Then, I begin to recite a lyric of the song in my mind.

I couldn't let you go without telling you first.

I feel my heart as though to burst.

It feels too heavy to hold on to.

But I must tell you something so special.

So true.

I love you.

She. . . loves me. I nervously run a hand through my hair. She had looked right at me when she said those three words.

"How-"

"I'll explain everything later." She says, warmly. We stare in each other's eyes in silence for a few moments.

"It's true though. . ." Ally say's trailing off, turning red. It's as if she read my mind. It's now I begin to realize how much I love her. How could I have been so blind not to notice? I wonder as I gaze into Ally's gleaming emerald-green eyes.

"It's ok if you don't, though." she says hurriedly.

"No, no I-"

"Ally, Connor!" Hazel screeches, interrupting my thoughts. We turn abruptly towards them to find the circle of the cyclopes starting to regain strength. We rush over in reluctance to save our friends.