Animalian

Chapter 10: Leaving Safety

Emily was back in Deception Forest.

She was standing in a misty glade, the sunlight shrouded by ominous-looking trees. She looked around, trying to get a bearing on her surroundings, and realized she was alone. Cinnamon, Ethan, Soraan, and Rowan had disappeared. From the start of Emily's journey she had been aided by Cinnamon except when she had first gone into Deception Forest, and even then she'd quickly found Ethan, so this feeling of solitude was completely new to her.

"Hello?" she called out in all directions, hoping a creature would hear her at the forest's edge, but there came no reply.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over Emily. She turned around quickly, hackles raised, and saw a giant beast with nearly iridescent black fur and a shaggy mane towering nearly a few feet over her.

"Hello, Emily Morning. Expecting me?" the creature laughed, a deep, ominous ringing noise that filled every corner of the forest. Emily turned to run, but found the forest had turned into a net, a huge net that encased her from all sides and grew tighter with every passing moment.

"Doesn't feel so good now that it's you and not me, does it?" Jacobita snarled. Emily heard a cry of a large bird and a falcon swooped down past her head, nearly grazing her hair with his sharp talons. Jacobita fced Emily, both eyes locked onto her, searing into her. "You will never win, human. Never. . ."

Emily felt a familiar tingling in her fingertips and a warm feeling filled her body. She suddenly found herself whispering foreign words. And in that moment the surrounding trees came to life. . .

Emily jerked upright, gasping for breath. Just a dream, just a dream. . . but this time, it had seemed so real that Emily could still feel the burning rope on her arms. . . could still hear the roar of Jacobita echoing in her ears. . .

Thin rays of early-morning sunlight flooded the room and Emily came back to her senses. She was in Soraan's cottage, in the magic room. Emily looked around and noticed for the first time a tall, purple wardrobe next to the bed. Emily got up, noticing with distaste how dirty her own clothes were. They were the same clothes she had gotten dressed in the day that she'd left.

Emily looked in the mirror and shuddered - though she'd never really cared about makeup and jewelry and all the 'trendy' clothes the popular girls at Oak Valley Middle wore, she had to admit - with her messed up hair, dirty clothes, and dark circles under her eyes due to multiple nights' loss of sleep, she looked like something you would fish out of a garbage disposal.

Emily noticed a small door in her room, and going in, found a private bathroom with a stand-in shower. Figuring it was rather early, seeing no one else was awake, Emily decided a quick shower would do her some good. It might take her worries off of her horribly realistic nightmare and the impending stress she felt of possibly finding her family - or worse - finding out her stay in Animalian to look for her parents had been a waste of time.

Emily looked in the wardrobe and found a light lavender tunic with a dark purple belt, looking like something you would see in medieval days but which Emily thought looked very nice. Seeing that it was her size and Soraan wasn't going to wear it, Emily brought it into the bathroom with her. She turned on the water, feeling the water grow warm at her fingertips. When it was the right temperature, she took off her dirty clothes and stepped into the shower, feeling the warmth envelop her.

After Emily had showered and dressed in the tunic, she found a hairbrush in the bathroom and pulled her hair back into a neat ponytail. Taking one last longing look at all of the books, Emily stepped out of the room and into the hallway. She walked down the hall feeling refreshed despite her terrible nightmare. As Emily walked through the living room, she noticed a glow coming from the adjoining kitchen. As she stepped into the warm room, she smelled something amazing coming from the warm griddle Soraan was cooking at.