The Portal Soldiers

Chapter XXXI

XXXI

James' Warning

———

The moist of the two water containers dripped on the sand of the desert as the Juniors made their way through the desert of Jayreenn. It's been a snaillike hour of midnight in the desert, and all of them were somnolent.

"I need to sleep, guys," Tom whispered, while his heavy eyelids were dropping down to completely cover his childish and innocent eyes. His body dropped on the camel he rides on. Amy saw this and made a longer glance at Tom, who shivers.

"Goodnight, Tom," Amy said, trying to keep her eyes wide open. "You can sleep, everyone."

When Amy was halfway in believing her teammates were all trying to sleep, Lance told her, "I'll stay awake with you."

Amy made a swift gaze at Lance then at the sky. She said, "You know, it's late—really late. I know you wanted sleep, so you can sleep."

"Yes, I wanted to sleep, and thank you for caring about my eyebags' health," Lance said. "But I will keep my eyes unclose, like what you're doing."

Amy only nodded then looked at the rest. Elise, William, and Sally sat still, not showing a single evidence of a will to sleep.

"You'll not sleep?" Amy asked as the wind tenderly blew on her face.

"Tom is younger than us," Elise said, "so expect better sleep control from us."

"I'm not nocturnal. At the same time, I'm not diurnal," Sally explained. "I don't feel sleepiness unless I lie down."

Amy stared at the youngest, Tom. Without any command, Elise, Sally, William, and Lance also looked at Tom.

"A Kininva," Tom mumbled while snoring. "A Kininva!"

Tom jumped while sleeping, and his actions made his five friends look at him. Slowly, he opened his eyes and screamed, "A Kininva! Look! Look!" while pointing at a distant place. All of them noticed Tom was pointing at some place, but none of them bothered to let their eyes visit that place.

"Where? Where's the Kininva?" Amy panicked.

"There, there!" Tom screamed then pointed at the same place. Almost perfectly, the five of them looked at that place.

"No," Tom said. "I'm sorry, there's no Kininva there."

He had a dream in that fast? William thought.

Then, Tom continued, "It's just the spot in my dream where a Kininva i—"

"Tom, there's something where you are pointing at," Lance cut him off. Everyone of them made way to see what Lance was saying. When their eyes are all on a common denominator, they wholly had the decision to go to that place. Without a word, the camels slogged through in order to reach the peculiar and tenebrous place. As they come nearer with Amelia's camels, the cynosure became more pelucid.

A murky basalt gate with a height of fifteen feet became larger to their sight. The Juniors became nearer, fifteen feet away, just like the height, from the wall-like gate of basalt. Amy first jumped down the camel, and the rest followed.

"Tom, your dream has a good purpose, not to only scare you," Elise said. "It probably tells us to go to somewhere else."

"I agree with that, Elise," Amy and Lance spoke in a stupefying manner, but it didn't make them look at each other. Amy thought, it doesn't matter to be surprised right now, while Lance thought, it would be only too awkward if I looked at her. In order to keep these thoughts away, Amy sprinted nearer to the gate then transformed her bow into a cutlass. She tried to smash the gate with her almost scythe-like cutlass, yet it only moved a little. She, who is being stuck between embarrassed and not, moved away.