Gifts

Chapter Six: The Dark Forest

I picked Marcus up and peered at him. He looked exactly the same, just smaller. He was blushing furiously, obviously ashamed he was a hand-held mirror.
"Now," the Fairy Queen started, "To get to the Seer you must go through the Octahave portal, which leads to the Dark Forest. The Seer lives in a cave towards the middle of the forest. You should be able to find him pretty easily.
"The Dark Forest?" I said, frightened.
"Yes, but as long as you get to the Seer and out of the forest before nighttime, you should be fine. The...."creatures" don't come out until it is completely dark." The Fairy Queen explained.
"Isn't always dark in the Dark Forest?" Marcus said, attempting to lighten the mood but Eska and I just glared at him, while the Queen didn't seem to notice he said anything.
"Now, you better get going before it's too late. Come on, follow me." The Fairy Queen led us to a door that I hadn't even noticed before. Unlike the other door that was elaborately decorated, this door was just a plain dark wood. Even though it was plain, it was still elegant in its own way.
The Queen walked in and we followed her. I was clutching Marcus tightly, not sure what we were getting ourselves into.
"Ease up, will ya?" Marcus said uncomfortably.
"Oh, sorry." I muttered.
When I got in, I noticed six boxes sitting on a long table. Each one was a different wood and had a different sized lock. They all had a similar gold and silver trim, but each one had subtle differences. The Queen pulled a key out of thin air and grabbed it. She put it into the fourth box and turned it. Almost instantly, a bright light filled the room and a hazy gray hologram came out of the box and formed a large rectangle that stretched from the floor to the ceiling.
"Wha-" Eska started to ask, but she was cut of.
"This is the portal to Octahave. You will arrive at the Dark Forest. Do not go to any surrounding towns, Octahave is a dangerous realm." The Queen kissed both Eska's and my head and then disappeared out of the room.
"Well, here we go." Eska said, trying to grab my hand so we could go together but I pulled away. I was scared to get through this portal, but I wasn't going to go through it with a liar.
"Fine." She said as she walked through the portal.
I tooled a deep breathe and walked through the portal.
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Walking through the portal felt like walking through jello. Once I moved farther into the portal, the space behind me filled up again. At first, the "jello" was just gray, but as I walked farther I noticed tints of white swirls. There were also purple and blue swirls in the distance, that almost made the portal look like the nighttime sky from a distance. I saw Eska, but then it looked like she fell off the edge of a cliff. She wasn't there anymore!
"Eska?" I shouted but no sound came out. I tried again but nothing came out. This scared me so I started walking faster to where Eska disappeared. Luckily the "cliff" just looked like the end of the portal. I looked at Marcus and he pointed and nodded, seeming to know what I was thinking. I jumped down and landed on a patch of dead grass. I looked around and saw Eska staring at a looming forest. The trees seemed sinister almost. It was very unnerving. Especially since I hated the dark. And right now I didn't really like forests either.
"C'mon," Eska said confidently.
I looked at Marcus and he was as pale as a ghost. "You ok?" I asked him and he nodded. I tried to give him an encouraging smile, but I'm not sure if it worked because I was scared myself. Slowly snd hesitantly I followed Eska into the forest.

A note from me:
Hello! I hope you are enjoying the story! I changed chapter five, but it was literally just two sentences because it didn't add up to what I wanted to say in this chapter. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please enjoy the story and comment. Thanks for reading, i will update soon.
~percy33