Alcingeria

Chapter Twenty Five: Into The Ruins

Chapter Twenty Five Into The Ruins:

Saturday June 26th 1690

We all ran after Walden. He wasn't flying very fast, so it wasn't hard to catch up with him.

"So Walden. What kind of magic can you use?" I asked him.

"Manipulation and destruction." He answered swifter than he was flying. "You mentioned that you have a witch with you, so I assume you know what all the magic types are and how they work."

"She took a little time to explain it," Don said. "We got the gist."

"Yeah, fairy magic and witch magic are pretty much the same. Well, except for the fact that fairy magic is cooler." He snickered.

"That's neat." Macalister said. "Right, Robert?"

"Darn right it is," Walden said. "My destruction magic will come in handy down in those ruins."

"So where are they, anyhow?" Raymond asked. "We've been following you for a while. Do you even know where you're going? Martha will be worried if we get lost."

"'Course I do! Not too much farther," he assured us. "The one that we're going to is the biggest one of them all. Should be interesting, eh?"

"Yes, but like we said, we need you to help us fight the monsters down there." Robert reminded.

Walden scoffed and swatted his hand in the air.

"Yeah, yeah I got it."

After a few minutes of running through the forest, the sunlight faded. I looked up and saw that the canopy here was thick, thick enough to block out most of the sunlight.

"Alright fellas, we're here." Walden said.

"Eerie..." Francella breathed.

"About time..." Robert muttered under his breath.

"You say somethin', Bert?"

"Bert!?"

"Didn't think so."

I looked around. All I saw were rocks sticking out of the ground and fallen trees everywhere.

"Where's the entrance?" I asked.

Walden looked around. For a second, I thought he was pulling our legs about the whole thing, but I should have had more faith in him.

"Hmm, not sure... oh! Here it is."

He walked over to a mass of fallen trees. I walked closer to him and I heard the others behind me as well. I looked through the cracks between the entangled limbs of the trees and saw that there was a stone staircase leading down into blackness. The entrance was covered by a few fallen trees. They were big, too.

"Can you clear this?" Raymond asked Walden.

Walden laughed in his high pitched fairy voice.

"Can my grandpappy toss a bull end over end?"

No one reacted, causing Walden to rethink his analogy. He just shrugged, as if slipping something from his shoulders.

"No problem, pal. Stand back."

We all did as we were told and we took a few paces back. Walden rubbed his hands together dramatically.

"Here we go," he drawled, mostly to himself.

There was a moment of silence as he concentrated. He looked to the ground. After a few moments, he looked back up at the fallen trees and held out his hand.