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Chapter 10

Hello! Thank you for continuing to read my rough, unedited story. I really appreciate it; just being able to put my thoughts on paper (or in this case, on a computer screen) is awesome. Enjoy!

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"Wait, what about them?" I gestured to my three other friends.

"I can escort them back to the surface," Star replied.

"Can I talk to them separately first?"

"Yes. Angie?"

Angie nodded and the vines receded into the hard ground, although I could still see the prints that covered their skin.

"Jasmine! We need to talk," Hazel hissed in my ear.

I nodded and turned back to Angie and Star. "Can we have some privacy? Please? I mean, I don't know when I'll see them again."

Angie nodded and she and Star walked into the other room, talking in that strange language again.

"Jasmine! What are you doing! You don't even know them-that girl is crazy." The words came tumbling out of Hazel's mouth as she glared in the direction that they retreated into the wall.

"Hazel. Calm... down. I have to figure out what this is about. I'll be back tomorrow probably." I put my hands on her shoulders.

Claire looked petrified. "No, really Jaz. This is witchcraft. You're gonna get killed." She rubbed her arms, shuddering, as if she was trying to get off the remains of the vines.

"You guys, I'll only stay for a couple hours. I'll be back before campfire songs. Okay?" I reached out and gave them all a hug. "I mean, I'm not gonna go far in an hour. Trust me. I'll survive. And if I do get killed or something, you know where I'll be."

I don't know what convinced the others to finally make up their minds to let me go with Angie to discover who I supposedly was, or used to be, but several minutes later Star had taken them back to the surface and Angie was digging through the same chest, looking for some clothes for me.

"Here, put these on." She handed me a loose pair of sweats, a v-neck t shirt, and a pair of leather boots; an outfit (if I could even call it that) similar to the one she was wearing.

I pulled on the clothing over my bright orange bikini and struck a pose. "How do I look?" I asked dramatically.

She smirked. "Much more normal than you looked in that skimpy, whatever you call it."

"Bikini?"

"Yeah. Does everyone wear those?"

"Well, most girls, Obviously not the guys."

She shuddered. "I should hope not. We just wear shorts when we swim."

"Huh. Okay. Well, I promised Hazel I'd be back before the campfire tonight, so can we get going?"

She laughed. "I promise you'll be back before nightfall. But yes, we should probably be on our way."

We'd probably been walking for an hour; it had been a bit awkward but I'd had plenty of questions about where we were going, how they knew my grandma, and why we were even here. Aijet followed along behind us, obediently walking right behind me.

"I mean, wouldn't the camp counselors have already known about this cave? Or at least someone?" I asked, tracing my hand on the stone wall.

"You'd actually be surprised how little mortals actually know," she sighed as we turned yet another corner. We seemed to be in a maze; going down staircases of all sizes, turning left and right, and occasionally Angie would stop and look off into the distance like she was thinking, and then say "No, no, that's not right", and turn and we would go the other way.

"Uhhh, are you sure we're going the right way?" I asked, "We've probably been down here for a while."

"Oh, don't worry about it."

I stopped walking. "Uh, this is actually an issue. I went to the camp to go to camp, not be dragged underground by some girl I don't even know."

Angie, realizing I'd stopped, turned and gave me a pained look. "You do know me, you just don't remember. I promise. Hopefully it'll all come back to you when we get to the camp."

I stood with my arms crossed. "Sure it will, but that's not the current issue. Right now I'm more worried about getting back to camp before sunset, and at the rate we're going that's not going to happen."

Angie sighed. "Time here isn't the same as in the mortal world."

"What do you mean?" I asked, thinking I had an idea.

"Well, let's say a week passed in their world. I mean the mortal world. I'm not sure how long that would be in Isador - probably a couple months."

I frowned. "What does that mean?"

"You can stay as long as you want in Isador and hardly no time will pass in the mortal world."

I had to let out a laugh. "So like Narnia?"

"No, that's over in the East. Wait, how'd you know what that was?"

My mouth dropped open. "Hold on a sec, that's not an actual thing, is it?"

"Where do you think those ideas come from? You really think someone just decided, 'Hey, I'm gonna make up a creature like a giant lizard with wings.'"

"Well..."

"They used to live in your world too, but long before there was a huge meteor that wiped them all out and somehow allowed humans to live instead."

"Wait, you mean the dinosaurs?"

"They used to be dinosaurs. Anyways. They died in that world - oh, by the way, we call it Dorium, which means universe in Ancient Omm - but they continued growing and evolving. The most dominant

She shook her head and looked back, to where we were facing yet another dead end.

"Great. Do we have to turn around again?" I groaned.

"No, this is it." Angie rolled up her loose cloak sleeves and reached out a hand, pressed her palm against the center of the smooth stone wall. Aijet sat on my foot and I smiled.
"What are you gonna do?" I asked, confused.
She didn't reply, just held her hand there. A few seconds later dark green glowing lines splintered across the stone like broken glass, stretching towards the edges of the door. As soon as the last light crack touched the edge, the thick stone seemed to dissolve like a wall of sand, disappearing in the air like magic. Which it probably was.
"Wow, um, how did you do that?" I asked, jaw dropping.
She laughed and shook her head. "First impressions are always the best."