The Lost Girl

Chapter Thirteen

Skylar's Perspective
We were stranded. We walked by foot along a thin trail. The dark forest loomed ahead of us.
    "Mozale!" James and I screamed into the afternoon air.
   We continued to scream her name as we ventured into the darkness. We traveled through the dark murky forest by its thin trail. It seemed to seethe with evil in its veins. My body shook as I trudged along. It started to get darker the deeper we went. It was like staring at a black sheet. I tried to look upwards to see the sun, but I couldn't. Dark branches blocked my view. I reached forward and found James's hand. It was sweaty as usual. I clamped down on his hand. We'll be safe, I reminded myself.
   I heard a branch snap behind me. I screamed. I wondered if I had grabbed James or not. Then I saw her. She was extremely pale with unfriendly black eyes. Mozale popped up. She looked extremely annoyed.
   "What do you want?" She questioned. "Barkin my name like a dog hunter."
    She rolled her black eyes as she waited. I cleared my throat. I wouldn't let her scare me.
    "We need your help to find Princess Luna." I said.
     "And our horses." James interjected.
      "You guys are kidding me right?" She groaned. "I already fed your horses to Bean."
      "What do you mean?" I cried out.
     "It means they're horse meat. They're dead and gone." She said.
I began to sniffle. I didn't want to cry in front of her, but Stella was my favorite animal. I began to wail. It annoyed Mozale. The wails came out of me harder. Eventually she waved her hands and made Stella and Prince Snow appear. I gasped like a child.
    "Can you tell me how you did that?" I asked.
     "No. Do you know absolutely nothing about magic?" She asked me. "It was a simple teleportation trick for objects."
    "No. I don't. I don't understand any of this. Is that surprising?" I asked.
    "Not really, but it's odd when magic runs in families."
     "My family doesn't have magic in their veins."
     "And you're the expert?" Mozale questioned.
     "Yes. Indeed, I am!" I replied with sass.
   "Well, I wasn't planning on visiting Luna anytime soon." She muttered. "But now I want to."
    "Are you suggesting that my sister knows magic?" I asked.
   She nodded. The plot thickened. I figured that many people believed in Luna being like Jesus because she helped everyone. Now I heard that she was a magical being. A hero. I couldn't imagine it. I wanted to, but wasn't she scared of everything just like me? I wondered what was going on. I felt anxiety shudder through my body. I heard footsteps crunch over leaves and then James appeared by my side.
"What are you saying?" Prince James inquired.
"Mozale knows where Luna is!" I exclaimed.
   Mozale pushed me aside. She threw her hands up into the air. She looked over her shoulder at us. Magic began to tingle through her fingers. Somehow I could sense the energy.
   "I'm not going to explain!" Mozale snapped, "We're all going to ride Bean!"
   The green dragon, who's name was presumably Bean, flew down into the dark forest. Mozale nimbly hopped up onto the dragon. She did it quickly and gracefully. I could tell that she had ridden Bean many times before. I sighed. If I had been asked if I would ever ride a dragon two days ago I would've easily said there was no such thing, but now I wasn't sure.
   "Let's go!" Bean roared.
  "Are you two ready to ride a dragon?" Mozale asked.
   I shook my head no. She pointed towards a river nearby the black forest. Bean moved so fast through the air that they arrived at the river in seconds. I patted Stella on the neck. I could tell what Mozale meant. If we travel by dragon it would be faster.
"I'll teleport your horses to Luna's camp when we get there. Just let them be free in the woods for now." Mozale said.
"How can we trust you?" James asked.
"You can't," she said, "but I know where Luna is."
I wouldn't trust Mozale would teleport Stella back to me, but I knew she could. Maybe if Luna knew magic, Luna could save our horses. I let go of Stella and watched her race off through the trees.

Bean landed in the river. He pulled up mouthfuls of fish. My stomach rumbled loudly. Fish sounded good. I watched Mozale collect 3 fish and hold them out for her dragon to cook with his flames. I was amazed at how Mozale's hands didn't get burnt. James jumped up onto the dragon. I followed behind him. He grabbed me with his hands and heaved me onto the dragon. Mozale passed us each a fish.
"At least we're not going to be in the Death Forest anymore." James said.
Mozale waited impatiently on Bean. My stomach rumbled loudly. Mozal squinted at us suspiciously. My stomach rumbled again as it invited James' stomach to roar too.
"Pardon us, please," Prince James explained, "We haven't had a meal in the two days that we have travelled. We are famished."
"Time for more fish." Mozale said.
The scaly beast flew up into the air. I squeezed James for safety. The dragon swooped into the river and brought up another mouthful of fish. Mozale pulled fish after fish out of his mouth. She jumped off of Bean. She ran backwards until she was standing beside us. Bean breathed in and breathed out fire. It cooked the fish and burnt the grass around the food. I gasped and slid back in time, he could've burnt me, but he barely missed me. I enjoyed the taste of the fresh cooked fish. I thanked Mozale and her pet dragon for our food. In my head silently, because they both scared me.
I was a little apprehensive of eating fish that a big reptile with wings had put in it's disgusting mouth, but my appetite won out. The savory taste of fish filled my mouth. It was my first real meal in days and it appeased all of my hunger. We followed the river until another river stopped us. This river swirled with every color. It looked like a rainbow bridge to the other side. The woods on the other side were also rainbow colored. I gasped. I wanted to explore it below. I had never been to a rainbow colored forest. I wondered how many magical places existed on Maia. Did Luna run away to somewhere magical? I looked at James. He was staring at the mystical land below us as well.
"Well I guess we should cross the river to Rainbow Woods." Mozale sighed and shuddered.
Bean let out a doggish whine.
"It must be better than Death Forest." Prince James muttered.
I glanced at Mozale. She was getting ready to fly Bean again. I noticed she used reins on him similar to my horse. I leaned over to James.

"I wonder what's so bad about Rainbow Woods." I whispered.
He looked thoughtful and then shrugged. My smile dissolved into a frown. I didn't want you to answer, it was rhetorical, it looks like paradise. I thought to myself. I was frustrated at him again. I clung tightly to Bean as he went knee deep into the rainbow river.
"How much longer?" James groaned.
Mozale replied flatly, "However long it takes, James."
She patted Bean and they flew higher and faster above Rainbow Woods.
"Don't forget us!" James screamed as he clung to Bean's scaly side.

Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead, his forehead was beaded with sweat. We were both terrified. I looked down to try to make myself smile. I wanted to explore the lands. I told myself that a good princess didn't get scared. She took new opportunities as a good thing. Maybe this is how Luna thought when she ran away.
"Can we please land? I want to see this beautiful place." I asked Mozale.
Mozale pulled back on Bean's reins. She steered him back down to the earth. Rainbow Woods was a good choice to name this colorful place. The trees had turquoise and pink leaves with orange trunks. There were red bushes with yellow berries. The animals had colors that swirled together when they moved. At the edge of the woods stood a startling white horse with a golden horn. My jaw dropped as I realized it was a unicorn. It blinked it's beautiful blue eyes at me.
Hello Skylar. A peaceful voice whispered in my head.
"Come on you two, hurry up!" Mozale yelled down at us. "We don't have all day to stare or care."
"Mozale, but there's a unicorn!" I exclaimed. "I didn't know they were real!"
"Disgusting creatures. Bean usually eats them." Mozale sneered.
"What? You let your dragon eat rare magical animals?" I gasped.
"They're not that rare."
"What makes you call them disgusting?" I said with an annoyed tone.
"Telepathic beasts. I find it an invasion of privacy. At least dragons require a soul bond to speak to you telepathically."
We rode across Rainbow Woods, all the while I kept an eye out for more unicorns. I wondered if they were reading my mind. I wondered how all of this was possible. I had thought all of it to be pure fantasy a few days ago. Until the beings started staring me in my eyes. I wondered if elves were real. We came to a stop at a blue river. Bean caught us some more fish and Mozale insisted we eat it to keep up our strength. A small green creature walked out of the rainbow woods. I screamed and James pulled out his silver sword.
"A goblin! You foul beast!" Prince James yelled as he leaped off the dragon..
"Stop that!" Mozale said and she pushed James away from the goblin.
"Mazaale, our Evilness." It roared.
"Champ, you know there's no need to call me the Evilness anymore."
Mozale stared at the ground. I briefly saw her cheeks flush red. The goblin walked closer to her. She bent down to the goblin's level. It started roaring and groaning. She roared and rumbled back. James and I watched them communicate for a few minutes like this.
"I am heading that way, of course I'll help." Mozal said to the goblin.
"You can talk to goblins?" James exclaimed, his face lit up like a happy child's. "What did it say? Do you know other foreign languages? I didn't know you were a multi-language speaking witch!"
"Slow down," I warned James, "let her answer."
"Well Chaamp said, 'Mozale. The warriors are attacking my tribe of goblins again. The warriors keep attacking. Please tell them to stop. I agreed of course, then he said, they're probably seven forests away, but he meant seven miles." Mozale told us, "Duh."
"Do you know the whole language?" Prince James questioned eagerly.
He looked so excited by the fact that Mozale could speak to goblins. As if goblins were useful to talk to. Goblins weren't friends with civilized people. No king or queen made negotiations with goblins. I rolled my eyes.
"James, you're getting ahead, again." I warned him.
"Yes, I know other languages, dragon language obviously, ogre language, the ancient runes, Navajo, French, the list goes on and on." She smiled, "Of course, I know the whole language. Now come on, we have warriors to talk to."
"Oh, so you know warrior language too!" I retorted.
"Warriors speak the human language." Mozale replied flatly.
My cheeks flushed red. Of course Luna and her warriors spoke the same language. I got so heated by this woman. She scared me and frustrated me. I had to be glad for her help. She was taking me to Luna. I needed to be more thankful to her.