House of Memories (Book 2)

Chapter 9- Riding down a hill

Ruby leaned on her sister as the group walked for more countless hours, sighing in exhaustion.

"Please, can we take a break?" The redhead pleaded, feeling immense pain on her feet. "It's been ages. Probably millenias."

"Ruby's right, Layla. We've been walking for hours." Sky agreed. "Are we lost?"

"Yes." Ruby said, once the girl hesitated. "I think that was pretty obvious after the first two hours."

"Wait, I remember this passageway." Layla said, running forward.

"Come on, Bea." Bloom said, grabbing her sister's hand and running after Layla.

"No, my feet." Ruby whined. "Why couldn't I have stayed in the dream?"

"Because real life is so much better." Bloom told her, as they came to a slower pace.

"You have no idea how much I doubt that." Ruby said. "How could it be better?"

"For instance, listen to this beautiful sound." Layla said.

The redhead listened with a confused expression on her face. What she heard was the soft melody of water falling rhythmically on the rock ground.

"It's amazing." Bloom said. "Musa would love it if she were here, wouldn't she?"

"Yes, it's music to my ears." Sky said in delight.

"Hmm." Ruby hummed. "I like my dream better."

Bloom rolled her eyes and didn't respond.

Suddenly they heard some roaring coming from behind them and then, some Shadow Creatures appeared, growling at them.

"Oh, no. More monsters." Layla gasped.

"Quick, let's get out of here." Bloom yelled and the four immeidately started running the opposite way.

"I swear to God I'm going to murder that Copycat dude." Ruby shouted angrily.

They ran for long paths, trying to throw the monsters off somehow. Unfortunately, they weren't having much luck.

"Bloom, Ruby, can you transform?" Layla asked, panicked.

The sisters tried to focus on switching to Fairy form, but they were still too weak for that, specially Ruby.

"Sorry, we need more rest." Bloom said.

"Me too, we'll never be able to fight them off." Layla cried in fear as the monsters almost caught up with them.

"Look, there's a cave." Sky said, pointing to a hole in the wall.

"Excuse me, aren't we in a cave already?" Ruby asked, entering the hole along with the others.

Suddenly, one of the monsters threw some of its back spikes towards them. It didn't hit any of them but, as Bloom dodged the spikes, she lost balance and fell to the ground. The others stopped and Sky drew his sword as Ruby ran to her sister's rescue, pulling her away from the creatures.

One of the two beasts tried to bite Sky, but he jumped to the side and dodged the attack, however that gave the Shadow Creature a perfect opportunity to strike him with its tail and throw him against the wall harshly, making him fall unconscious.

"If only I could transform." Layla said, backing away from them fearfully. Her face turned into one of relief once she remembered something. "Faragonda's seeds." She took a bag out of her pocket and dropped its contents into her hand. Layla threw them at the monster's feet. "Take this you monster." Once the seeds fell on the ground, nothing happened and so the Shadow Creature stepped on them, crushing most. "Oh, no there's not enough light for them to grow."