Child of Earth

20

Author's Note:

Filler chapter alert!

Trust me when I say, something big is coming.

- Em

-X-

As we entered the tunnel, Ebony took hold of my hand and I looked over to see how she was handling things.

She was wearing a loose turquoise hoodie with the hood down, black skinny jeans, black and white DCs and a white leather belt. With no make-up and her hair was tied back off her face she looked really nice but her expression didn't match the image.

It was an expression I've never seen on her before. Even when she was fighting the Manticore and the newly named Colossal Axolotl she had a look of fierce determination cutting across her features, but now she just looked scared, and that made me feel absolutely terrified.

She gripped her full length, fully collapsible iron staff with her right hand and her left was holding onto mine, she was biting her lower lip and her palms were sweaty.

That's when I realised that this was way out of her comfort zone. She liked the warmth and dryness that a fire had and that the outside world had on a sunny day, this cave had neither of those things that her element made her comfortable with.

I gave her hand a squeeze and glanced behind her shoulder to see who else was struggling. Krystal and Georgia were outside, holding each other and refusing to come in.

I sighed inwardly and handed the map to Nick before dragging Ebony along with me until we reached the girls.

Hmm Nature and Light in a cave... yeah no.

"Hey guys," said Ebony "I get it, you don't like caves, because it's outside of your comfort zone, but we have to do this,"

"Yeah," I said agreeing with her. "And we're the children of Gods, surely an empty cave can't be much of a challenge for us!"

When Georgia saw Krystal nodding she sighed. "Yeah but that's what we thought about the shopping trip and look at what happened to you guys." She looked at each of us in turn and I ran my tongue around the inside of my mouth remembering how painfully dry it had been.

"Yeah but nothing can hurt us in the caves." Said Krystal "Monsters can't come here because it's sacred to the Gods, and no human who has found this place has remembered it. If you have no essence in your blood, you forget about the entire valley as soon as you look away, all you remember is more mountains and if you take a photo or video it gets destroyed, irreparably blurred, burned, dropped or just disappears."

And with that Krystal took in a deep breath, clenched her fists and said "There is nothing in there to be afraid of and I refuse to be intimidated by a hole in a hill!" She snorted once more before marching into the cave like she was about to storm a castle.

Ebony raised an eyebrow at me and when I shrugged she turned around, took hold of Georgia's hand and dragged her into the cave.

I jogged after Krystal and held her hand so she wouldn't charge in the wrong direction.

As soon as we had entered the tunnel I had felt my senses sharpen. I could see every crack and crevice lining the tunnel, I could smell the musky, stale air we were breathing, and feel it prickling my skin, I could hear every footstep echoing on the walls, ceiling and ground and I could sense every heat signature in the entire mountain like a second vision overlaying my sight, like wearing 3D glasses for real life.

I focused on the eight large warm bodies ahead of us and eventually we had caught up to them. We stood in a semi-circle around the black portal I had seen in my dream.

"Holly do you know which portal this is?" asked Krystal as we took our places in the semi-circle.

"Umm, should I?" said Holly flicking her black hair from out of her eyes.

"Your dad Jaquo," Krystal said letting go of my hand to begin yet another history lesson on the Gods. "He made the portals for the academy with concentrated electrical pulses, so you, as his kid, should be able to see what's on the other side of the portal, or maybe hear at least..."

"So Holly" said Martin rolling his eyes dramatically, "Can you tell what's on the other side?"

Holly focussed her gaze on the portal but after a few moments she closed her eyes instead.

"Yes" she said after a few seconds "I can hear the voices of only a few Cores... but then it's like there's a really long echo, like there are others who have none."

Then just like in the dream she turned to me and said "What do we do?"

"That was the end of my premonition" I said "What you just said, that was the last thing, but I guess that this would be the portal to the underworld, so Ebony Nick and Nathan have to stay here with me while the rest of you have to keep on going through the tunnel."

The full meaning of what I had said hit me, there was no longer eleven other students, only my three mates and I.

Many hugs were exchanged and I got one from all the girls except Dakota who only gave a quick hug to Holly before Nick handed the map on to Martin as they continued down the tunnel.

Soon it was just the four of us standing alone in front of a glowing black hole in the cave wall. We stood in silence for a while before I broke the silence. "I'll go in first..."

They all looked at me silently and nodded, so I took a deep breath and walked slowly for the portal.

I put my foot in first and it disappeared as soon as it touched. I took my foot out and put my head in with my eyes closed.

The air on my face from the other side was warmer than the air of the cave but it wasn't unpleasant so I dragged the rest of my body into the warm dry air, hoping that I wasn't about to be swallowed by something before I even saw it...

I opened my eyes and all of the breath in my lungs disappeared. This was not what I had expected. I don't know what I had thought the real Heaven/Hell looked like but this definitely not it.