Specials

Chapter 14- Under the Lake

Chameleon woke up, both pleased and surprised to be alive, in a cold room bathed in blue light. She looked around, her team was in the room as well.

"Is everyone okay?" Chameleon asked. Her voice came out an octave or so lower, and Chameleon suddenly realized why she sounded so low as she tried to move one of her pink arms.

They were underwater.

"What the hell?" Sarah asked, standing up and almost floating to the ceiling.

"Aw, now you can all experience the joy of what it's like to be a ghost," Kia smiled. She was the only one who wasn't moving in a drifting fashion, and her voice sounded the same, if a bit echoing.

"How the f**k are we breathing?!" Sarah cried.

"I think it may have something to do with the little doo-dads around your necks," Dawn piped up. Chameleon realized that everyone had a thin piece of seaweed wrapped around their necks.

"Magic seaweed. Great. That explains everything," James muttered.

"You have hair made out of flames. How are you being doubtful about magical seaweed?" Jaina twirled a strand of her long, black hair around her finger as best as she could when it was floating in water.

James raised his hands defensively, "Alright, don't bite my head off... Or my throat." Sarah narrowed her eyes at him, but before a fight could break out, the rock wall at the front of the room that had been seamlessly attached to the wall swung out like a door, and whole horde of... of creatures swarmed in.

The only way Chameleon could describe the creatures was that they struck her as rather frog-like. They had huge, bigger than normal eyes that glowed like lanterns in the dim cave. Their noses seemed sunk into their faces, and they had big lips curving upwards, like a creepy smile. Their bodies seemed vaguely humanoid, and their long black hair floating in the water contributed to them looking female. Their hands and feet were webbed like a frog's, and their skin varied in shades of slimy green, speckled with black in certain places, almost like freckles. They were all wearing clothing fashioned from river plants, one was wearing a skirt of reeds, another a top of lily pads... One near the front was wearing a dress of lily flowers, and while the others were holding spears of sharp rocks and driftwood sticks, she carried nothing but a reed crown on her head. This one stepped forwards now.

"Greetings, my friends," The crowned one spoke, "My name is Sha'nae, and this is my Queendom."

"Hello, Sha'nae. These are my friends, Dawn, Chameleon, James, Jaina, and Sarah. I am Kia. Nice to meet you," Kia spoke, as she had the best charming speech, most likely to not inadvertently offend someone.

"Nice to meet you as well, Kia and friends," Sha'nae nodded in turn to each of them.

"If you don't mind me asking, Sha'nae, why are we gathered here?" Kia asked.

"We needed to protect you from the hot-biting-beast," Sha'nae smiled, revealing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

"And nearly all of them are girls with pretty hair and good Natiai!" A creature from the back of the room cried.

"Neriti, silence!" Sha'nae barked, her eyes flashing red for a moment, then faded back into calm lamps.

Chameleon was now thoroughly unsettled. Those sharp teeth, those red eyes... And what had that one creature, Neriti, she was called, what had she meant when she said that most of the team was girls with pretty hair and good Natiai, whatever that was?

"Pardon me, what is Natiai?" Kia asked. Sha'nae smiled, but not genuinely. It was more like a frightening grimace.

"Natiai is your life force, magic energy running through everyone's blood. Us Children of the Lake need it to survive," Sha'nae grimaced, tilting her head to the side.

Kia closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath as she trembled. Sarah came up next to her and grabbed her hand for reassurance. "Sha'nae," Kia began, "Why. Are. We. Here."

Sha'nae's eyes flushed with pink, then blood red swirled into the yellow lamps, and Sha'nae smiled with malicious intent. All around the cavern, the other Children of the Lake's eyes flickered the same. "I'm sorry. We haven't exactly been honest with you." All the Children spoke in unison now, "We wish to kill. You."