The Broken Myth

Chapter Eighteen

                                                         Collin

My legs feel like noodles by the time I take a break to breathe. I don't think they're following me. I put my hands on my knees and take some box breaths. I don't know how long I was running for but I don't recognize where I am. Defiantly not in the City. I can hear the faint noises of traffic but just barley.That's also because of my hyper hearing.  I straighten up after I catch my breath and look around at my surroundings. 

Theres just gigantic tall oak trees everywhere I look. Then there's a flash of something glistening that catches my eye. It looks as if it has words marked into the trunk of a very large oak trunk. It doesn't look to be carved with a knife though. It doesn't looked carved at all. It looks as if someone painted on it.... just not with paint. I take a step closer and it looks like...blood- Human blood. 

I think I've found where I need to go, It looks old though. I Wonder why it hasn't flaked off yet. The words aren't in English either but Greek. Thankfully I'm self taught while admittedly a little rusty. Translating it to English so I can better understand it, it says 

'Nature is Beauty, Beauty is pain. Cross through the path of the Beautiful Nature and you will feel Pain.' 

I roll my eyes, such a fairy thing to say. Ignoring the sign I continue  past the tree. 

Suddenly the ground starts to shake. Is this an earthquake?! I pull one of my swords out from its sheath prepared for whatever's to come. Nothing jumps out at me though. Nothing armed or ready to attack which is Odd. Just a random earthquake then? Looking around I hear a noise. A light 'tip tip tip' noise. I strengthen my sight and out of the corner of my eye I catch a sliver of something yellow with spots. I slowly sheath my sword trying to figure out where it went. The shaking ground has gone away  and now so it's easier to focus. 

 I hear the noise again but this time its coming from one of the trees. Looking up slightly, I see the yellow creature again. Turns out it has white and black splotches over its yellow body. It looks to be a gecko of some sort. It also seems to be staring straight at me. It's on a tree branch above me looking down with big blue eyes. I have to admit, it's kind of cute. 

Then I start thinking, since I'm in the fairies land and they're all magical, maybe this creature can talk!

"Hi" I say. All I get in return is a goofy smile. Its tung comes out and gets stuck to it's eyeball. Okay so maybe I'm wrong and this is just some harmless Gecko, would've been cool though. I can't help but grin at it. It's so cute and harmless. It cocks its head at me and it seems to like me. I don't know why me of all people. I cock my head back in return and before I know it, its dropped down to my shoulder. For some reason I don't have a reaction.

"Whats up little dude?" I ask, secretly hoping it will talk. It doesn't. I'm getting tired of calling it 'it'. I need to give it a name. I turn my head over to look at him and tell him "Blink once if I can name you and blink twice if I can't." It looks at me for a while and doesn't do anything. I think I'm losing my mind. 

Then it blinks once and smiles its goofy smile. I'll take that as a yes. "How about...Rex?" I ask. I don't know much about geckos. By his reaction of running in small circles on my shoulder, I would say he likes the name. 

I didn't think I was going to have company on my journey to find Max but I guess I was wrong. It'll be cool to have a little dude chilling with me along the way. Plus if he's from this forest then he can show me how to get to the dimension of the fairies colony.

"Do you know how I can get to the fairies Colony by chance?" I ask him. He stops smiling at that and dips his head down and up repeatedly. I'll take that as another yes. Then he gives a questioning look. I can't believe I'm making friends with a Gecko.

"I'm looking for my friend. Her name is Max. She was taken by the fairies and I need to get her back home." I state. 

His face lights up and his tung dangles out of his mouth again. Before I can realize he isn't on my shoulder anymore, he's already on the ground and speeding away glancing back at me for me to follow. I chase after him. He's fast for having such small legs! 

He comes to an abrupt stop and crawls up my armour, back to my shoulder. He sticks his tung out straight pointing directly in front of us. Looking to where his tung is pointed, I realized there was this circle shaped thing built from sturdy vines and twigs. The top of it looks destroyed though. I don't understand the point of bringing me here. 

I give him a confused look and he rolls his eyes at me. He jumps down again and crawls up the stairs leading to the platform where the circle is. I follow hesitantly not sure what he's doing. He looks at me proud meanwhile I'm confused. 

Suddenly the rumbling comes back from earlier and Rex's eyes changed to purple. I hear the sounds of light sparks and looked over to the circle. Before I know it there's this swirling purple abyss inside the circle. Rex crawls up my shoulder once again and pointed his tung at the portal looking thing. 

Without looking back I walk through the portal with my fingers crossed that this isn't a trap and it will lead me to Max.