Screw It, Let's Be Magic

Chapter eleven

"AAAAAAHHHH!"
We charged out of the portal, fully weaponized, and started swinging wildly. Fennec stabbed anything that came close to him with a rusty old sword lent to him by Pine, Adrian was throwing rocks, Sam somehow had been carrying a shotgun the whole time (who knew!), and I was using my charm to hurl logs and rocks. I must say, however ragtag our group was, we had one amazing battlecry.

We moved back toward the 'door' (really a wall of rock that went on for miles around) at a slow pace, fighting off the shade spies and an occasional redcap as we went. Now, redcaps are little gnomes with red hats dyed in blood that would eat you if given the chance. No surprise, they were taken care of by Pine and Heather, our two best shots. The Darkworld was already burning. You could smell the smoke coming from fires at the edges, spreading fast.

"Only a couple more meters!" Called Adrian, dropping a rock on a redcaps head and knocking off its hat. It grumbled, and tossed one back, hitting me in the cheek. We sped up as much as we could, and hit the wall with our backs. Kaliah smashed the vial against the side, pressed the charm into the stone, and muttered a spell that no one quite heard.

Then we all fell backwards through the wall into our world.

Returning was a whole lot easier to do than getting there was, although it still felt like swimming through honey. The door split behind us, crumbling in flames, which was a bit of an incentive to move a little faster. Once we were all through, we spent a few minutes lying on the ground panting. Then came the laughter. Fennec started it.

"Heh. We're alive. Heh heh. Hahaha! Ahh... Pphfft. HA! WERE ALIVE!"
"Haha! Oh my gosh! We're not stuck anymore! HA! Take that! WE'RE NOT STUCK ANYMORE!!"
"Hahahahahahaha! HAHA! Haa...ohh.. Aye, I'm hungry. What's food like here?"
"Really Fern? You escape after fifteen years of being trapped, and the first thing you think about is your stomach?!"
"What? I'm hungry."

"Hey Pine," I said once we stopped laughing for a second, "Have you taken a look at your eyes?" He raised an eyebrow, and Sam sat up.
"Wait a second," she said, digging through the pockets in her pink shorts. "I've got just the thing!" She stretched across me to hand him a pocket mirror she had somehow kept a hold of through all the stuff we'd done. He flipped it open, and stared.

"They're... Colorful." He whispered. They were a light greenish blue, the color of a mixed elf. He sat up suddenly, and shoved the mirror at Heather. She took it, and her eyes widened as well.

"Brown! My eyes are brown! They're not black anymore!!" She held one hand to her cheek, and gave a small laugh. "I haven't had eyes like this since they sealed the door."
She passed the mirror to Fern, whose eyes were the color of, well, ferns. He chuckled, and held it up for Juniper. She buzzed over to Heather, and whispered in her ear.

"She says that her eyes are silver now. Thorns eyes are the same though." said Heather.
"Yeah, well I wasn't expecting anything different." Kaliah said. "I am a demon."
"Yeah."
We sat in silence for a long while after that, just sitting for the sake of sitting. It was quiet, but for onece it wasn't awkward. I noticed that the cracks in the cave floor were gone. The Darkworld was gone. Everything was fixed now.

"Hey Jess." Said Adrian, poking my shoulder,
"What?" I asked, pulling away from him.
"Jeeeesss!" He grinned wider and wider.
"What?!"
"Can you hear thosefootsteps?" He asked raising his eyebrows.
"Why?" He stood up, and looked through the caverns, and grinned.
"Good luck explaining to mum and the others why we were gone!"

I mentally face palmed, and hauled myself to my feet. Looking over Adrian's shoulder, I saw groups of adults running towards us.
"Oh shoot."
I looked back at the others, and they just started laughing again.

"Yeah Jess!" Shouted Pine. "Good luck!" Kaliah smiled, and tossed Adrian's charm back to him. He caught it, and grinned back.
I turned back to face the adults. My mum and Fennec's dad ran faster than the rest, catching up to us in no time. Mum's dirty blonde hair was falling out of its bun, and the dark circles under her eyes were larger than usual.

"Jess! Adrian? Why aren't you with the others? You don't just get to leave, you can't, just, ugh!" She pulled us both close to her. Fennec's Dad was doing the same to him, and he was struggling to push away from the red fox that was smothering him.

"Uh, Mum?"
"What now Jess?"
"Well, we kind of broke the Darkworld for you... So... Yay!"
"What?"
"We broke it for you! Yay?" I repeated. She put her fingers to her temples, and sighed.

"We'll talk about this later. And who are those other kids? Where'd they come from?!"
Adrian glanced at me, then saved me by answering. "Ummm.. Heh heh...We'll talk about that later."