Dlefen: A Wielder's Journey

Chapter 4- Well this wasn't what I expected...

Chapter 4

Well this wasn't what I expected... 

"I think this place here should be good enough to camp at," Zaphkiel said.

We had been walking and sprinting for hours, and now it was getting dark. We had both agreed to sleep in the two people tent Zach had brought.

I sighed, "Yeah, okay. I guess. I just want to sleep."

We set up the camp without saying much. He commented on how the scarf was a good idea, but other than that I guess he understood that I didn't want to talk. When we were finished we just went inside and I fell asleep immediately.

***

Next morning I woke up early as usual, feeling much better than the day before. I felt like I could finally take on the world and face every event that would come my way. Zaphkiel was still sleeping. He was in a very weird position, being on his stomach legs and arms stretched out. And drooling. I chuckled, even though I found it to be kind of gross.

I quietly got a toothbrush and toothpaste to go and brush my teeth by a nearby stream. It was surprisingly clean. I couldn't help but to wonder why there was such a clean stream of water here. I finished brushing my teeth, then went and made a campfire. And of course I used rocks to surround the fire for safety.

I looked into my bag that I brought and took out some foil and potatoes, which I had always had stored in my room just in case. At that moment I was really glad that I brought them with us, because without them we wouldn't have anything to eat. I wrapped the potatoes into the foil, and made sure that the fire was small. Then I put the potatoes into the ashes to cook. It was a survival hack I had learned at a camp.

An hour had passed and Zaphkiel was still asleep. In that time I just read the book that Zaphkiel gave to me. It was a history book about some bloodline of people who could control the spirit element. Almost all of them went evil through their lives for some reason. As unrealistic the story seemed, I was pretty into it.

I closed the book after reading three chapters of it and took out the potatoes. I then put six of them into my bag untouched and left four out for us to eat. They were all perfectly cooked. Then I decided to wake Zaphkiel up. I went into the tent, shook him, but he didn't wake up. I muttered under my breath about not knowing how he could sleep so long, but then smirked when an idea came into my mind. I quietly shuffled out of the tent.

I was back in the tent after five minutes and carefully poured some water on his head cautious to not let it spill anywhere else. He jumped up with a start but banged his head on the low tent ceiling. I fell down laughing really hard. So hard that I had to hold my stomach, because it felt like my insides were going to spill out if I didn't.

"What the hell was that for?" he shouted at me.

I wiped away the laughing tears from my face and look at him whilst smiling widely, "You didn't wake up and I made breakfast so I woke you up!" I exclaimed a little too cheerfully.

He glared at me and scrambled out of the tent.

"You should be thankful. Now you don't need to shower," I shouted at him. He grumbled something about me being evil in response and I grinned widely. I put together all the stuff in the tent and went out. I found him gazing around on the ground as if looking for something.

"Where's the breakfast?" He demanded. I simply got two potatoes which were still wrapped in the foil and gave them to him. I picked up the second one of mine too because I had already eaten the other.

He looked at them suspiciously and wrapped them open. Then he looked at me with an 'are you serious' look and bit into it. His eyes went big as he started chewing quicker and scarfed it down fast.

"Oh wow, I didn't expect it to be so delicious!" he exclaimed with his mouth half full. I just smiled and finished off my potato without a rush.

"Yeah it's a little easy recipe that I learned at a survival camp and I just changed it's bland taste with some herbs," I grinned whilst putting the leftover foil together and stuffing it into my bag.

"You're more useful than I thought you would be," he admitted and started putting the tent together.

"Gee, thanks," I rolled my eyes.

He eyed me warily and straightened his back.

"We aren't that far from our destination anymore, just an hour long walk."

"Okay, but then why didn't we go yesterday?" I asked him.

"I wanted you to see Dlefen in it's morning glory," he stated and slung the backpack onto his shoulder. I nodded and checked the campfire before I ran after him.

***

An hour later we arrived to a waterfall.

"This is the place," Zaphkiel said. I looked around in wonder.

"This is beautiful!" I said in awe. There were flowers and trees everywhere. The waterfall I had noticed earlier fell into a lake. From that lake started a small stream that most likely turned into a river the further it went. Zaphkiel simply marched towards the waterfall and then stopped right beside it.

"You coming?" he shouted. I shook off the admiration and ran to him to see a small cave behind the waterfall. How cliche, I thought, even though I don't really mind.

Zaphkiel then raised his hands at the entrance of the cave and chanted something whilst his eyes glowed a bright yellow-orange-red, just like yesterday. Over where he was pointing some red swirls started to form that extended outwards and revealed a very foreign looking land, that at the same time felt strangely familiar.

When he was done, Zaphkiel looked at me, smiling, "Go on," he ushered me forward. I carefully stepped through the thing I assumed to be a portal. I felt fuzzy for a second, but the sensation disappeared as quickly as it had come.

I stared in wonder at the just rising sun that was only a bit over the horizon. We were on a small hill, which overlooked a magically beautiful forest. It looked almost like Earth, but had a completely different feel to it. The patches of grass I could see were glistening purple in the sun. Birds were dancing in the air with no worries. Some parts of the forest stuck out, either because they were more or less lit than the areas around them, which I found kind of odd. I heard footsteps beside me and looked at Zaphkiel.

"Is this it? Is this the Dlefen you told me about?" I whispered, smiling. He nodded and I turned around to see the swirls disappearing from the outside to the middle and then disappearing altogether. I felt like I was home, strangely enough. I turned to the rising sun and stepped towards it. I closed my eyes and just breathed in the very fresh air. Definitely fresher than on Earth.

I relaxed, taking in the comforting feeling when I heard weird loud flapping sounds and Zaphkiel shouting, "Elizabeth, look out!" before I felt a grip on my shoulders by huge claws. Strangely enough they weren't hurting me. The creature swiftly lifted me into the air and flew on.

A feeling washed over me. Why does everything feel so strange? Or is it more of a familiar feeling?

I opened my eyes, then felt my backpack slip off and watched it fall towards the ground just some feet from Zaphkiel who was looking at me, panicked and confused. I looked up and saw a huge purple scaly tail and wings. My mouth fell open in wonder.

What the -?