Faery Island

The Trails

Chapter XXII - The Trails

Dian

Silence.

That's how the crew, the ship, and everything surrounding Dian could be described. After the Kraken had been slain everyone sobered. People died.

But it wasn't just that. When the Captain returned, storming off in to the living quarters, the crew stared at him like he died.

Ruza had ran after him, pulling at his arms and calling for him.

After that the Captain was barely seen.

That was until they docked at Amarathine.

"Dock the ship! I want everyone to stay and keep watch. Zelroth could be anywhere on this side of the walls. Byranthan, you're in charge in my absent."

The ship halted and Gyrin was admittedly escorted out by Ruza. He looked small, and fragile hunched up like someone's grandmother. As soon as his feet made contact with land, his skin got its color back, he smiled and straightened.

"Well aren't you guys coming?" He asked, sounding normal again.

It was a huge relief to see Gyrin healthy again, though it was a usually quick processes that Dian hadn't seemed to get wrapped around her head. Humans never felt better that quickly, even with the best medicine. Just seconds ago he had looked like death, and now he was making faces at her as she starred at him in disbelief. "Dian?" He rose his eyebrow at her in questioning.

"Um, ah, sorry." She scrambled off the ship, feeling light headed and dizzy. The motion of the ocean seemed to swipe her off her feet. Gyrin quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and steadied her.

"Hey, careful."

"I'm trying; I just need a moment." He sat her on a rock on the side, and she ducked her head between her knees feeling as if she'd be sick.

"Take your time," he softly rubbed her back. "The Captain might be a while anyways."

He was right, it did take a while for the Captain to show up. He still didn't look just right, his face was paler than normal and didn't have a friendly glow to it anymore. It was like the switch she had seen in Anthony, he went from the playful older brother to a mourning, depressed guard.

She didn't like what she was seeing and Anthony's last words still haunted her. Needless she still took the small vessel of green liquid from the Captain and drank it. As soon as it hit her stomach she felt admittedly better.

"Thanks, what was that stuff?"

"Sea Sickness Cure, literally what it called. I wouldn't want to know what's in it though." His nose wrinkled up thinking about it.

The three of them followed the stone path, it seemed like forever till they reached Amaranthine. Two guards, both elves with golden and bronze skin stood on either side of a massive gate. The gate was nothing compared to the size of the wall that towered above the tree tops and blocked out the sun.

"Who goes there?" One of the guards asked.

"I, Pyry Auburn, Captain of the Poseidon's Storm. Gyrin the Ghili Dhu and Dian Fleece occapanies me," The Captain announces professionally, straightening his poster looking overly proper.

Pyry. She faintly remembers Ruza calling him out by the name.

The guards both bowed to him, down on one knee and heads tilted towards the ground. "Welcome back Prince. The Trails await you all."

"Prince?" Dian squeeked, looking at Pyry like she never had before. Somehow that made sense, his authority, his noble presence, but at the same time it didn't match his laidback personality and why he was a pirate.

Gyrin eyed Dian and shook his head no warningly.

"I'm not a Prince," Pyry said, the air getting colder as he spoke. "Not anymore."

The gate opened, inside was a massive dark hallway, on the other side was another gate, and it stayed close.

"Remember, these aren't real. There a test, and you can pass them," Pyry said and squeezed her shoulder, walking forward.

"You're going to see your worse fears. I hope you're ready. . ." Gyrin said and hugged her.

They were thrown in complete darkness. Fog crawled across the ground. Gyrin and the Captain was gone.

"Hello?" It was quiet, all but for the sound of running water and the distant moaning.

She had been there before. "No. . .No," she franticly looked for a way out but there wasn't one. Tears rolled down her face, she didn't want to be there, not again.

"No, this isn't true!" A voice shouted in the distance behind her.

Whirling around the Captain was on his knees, the fog had parted around him.

"Pyry?" She said but no answer. "Captain!" He didn't seem to hear her. It was like she wasn't even there.

"That's not who I am!" He shouted, spit spewed from his mouth, tears had rolled down his face too. "I am not like him, I am not my father," he gasped and wrenched over.

A painful shiver erupted from him. Aqua and black ink exploded around him, crawling and slithering like angry snakes. The same type of mist that had surrounded the ship while it was attacked. "I AM NOT MY FATHER! I AM NO KING!"

The fog around her froze and he disappeared, swallowed by the inky mist.

"No! Come back! What is happening?" She shouted but no one answered.

"Dian," A voice called. "Dian."

"Who is it?" The voice wasn't recognizable to her.

"Doesn't matter. I am no one."

"No one? You have to be someone."

"I am no one."

"Tell me!"

"You can't know everything, Di," the voice laughed maliciously. Dian didn't like this strange voice, she wanted away from it but it seemed to surround her. "That's your flaw. You can't stand not knowing. You seek knowledge, you seek to know. You hate secrets, you hate that your own brother has kept this life from you. You hate him."

"What?" She began crying again thinking about her brother. "No I don't! Take that back!"

The voice snickered. "How childish."

Anthony suddenly appeared infront of her. His hands were bounded and his eyes were wild, his face covered in dirt. He looked just like how he did when she last saw him. When he was weak. When he died.

"Anthony?" She spat out and reached for him, but he was not close enough no matter what she did.

"Don't you want to see what drove him mad? Drove him to become a stranger? Killed him? Don't you want to know?"

She found herself shaking her head yes. She found that Anthony disappeared and he was replaced by a girl. The girl wasn't much older than herself, maybe even the same age, but she was much more beautiful. She had dark blue eyes and long, silky black hair.

"Leenah!" A young boys voice called. The girl was crying, she held a seal's skin in her arms.

The boy was Anthony but younger, and he awaited her.

"Wait," Dian said realizing what was happening. "No, he wouldn't want me to see this. He wouldn't want me to know. . . Don't!"

"Don't what?"

"Don't show me this, please," she cried. "I don't want to know."

She was ripped from the darkness. She found herself on her knees in the hallway of the walls of Amarathine.

"Dian?" Gyrin asked, his eyes rimmed red as if he had been crying. He held out his hands.

She took them shakily. The Captain stood away from them, starring out, his jaw clenched. She had seen his trial. . . In her hand Gyrin trembled. She hadn't seen his though, why?

"Congratulations, you passed your trial."