Midnights: The Valley of Ogressia

Chapter 8

Nathanial and I drove to a very heavily wooded area a few miles past the gas station. The rain was starting to fall harder now, and it made it hard to see the road in front of us. I was starting to get nervous, I knew we had to meet Samuel in the Valley but I had no idea how long it would take to get there. In fact, I didn't know how we were going to get there, it's not like we could just drive there. I know Nathanial was reading my thoughts, because he starting laughing.

" Love, you are amazing. I plan to transport us there, I need a few things from the forest to help me perform the spell." Nathanial shifted his gaze to mine. I shifted my weight, and sat for a few moments, I was completely confused. If we are going to just transport there, why didn't we just do that in the first place? Why drive for 8 hours? Nathanial started to laugh harder, but stopped to take my hand. He had such a loving look in his eyes.

" I wanted to spend time with you, just you and I, if I had just transported us somewhere we never would have had a chance to talk. I also wasn't sure of the severity of the situation. You can trust me Cameron, I will keep you safe." Nathanial was smiling at me again, and I knew he would keep his word to me.

Nathanial left the car, and began running through the woods collecting all sorts of different things. I saw him grab different leaves, and a few twigs, He even climbed a tree to retrieve a birds nest. When he was done gathering the items he arranged them into a pattern on the ground, and motioned for me to come to him. It was colder then it had been at the gas station, and the wind was picking up causing my hair to fly in my face.  I started to walk towards Nathanial, but as I looked at him, his eyes turned dark, and his face twisted to that of anger. I didn't dare look behind me, I was scared to breathe.

" Cameron! Run!" I heard a low growl behind me, and I ran for my life. Nathanial had his arms outstretched for me, and as I reached him I turned,and for the first time caught sight of what I was running from. It had reddish leathery skin, and stood on clawed feet,it reminded me of the image of the devil. It was standing right before us, its red eyes were locked on mine, and through snarling jaws it spoke.

" You will pay for what you have done, Bragden will be your undoing." The beast was pointing at Nathanial, and just as it tried to reach for us, we were surrounded in a sea of blue twinkling lights, and everything was gone.

In mere seconds we were no longer in the wood, we were standing in the temple library I had seen in Nathanial's memories. I sat quickly, as my breath was only just returning to my lungs. I began to cough, and Nathanial let out a chuckle.

" Sorry love, I would have warned you, but situations being as it were, I could not." Nathanial had walked away from me and began taking in the sights of his home. It had been quite sometime since he had been here, and I could tell he was happy to be home. He walked back over to me, and knelt in front of me placing his hands on mine, " Welcome to the Valley of Ogresia, my home, I hope you will find it as wonderful as I do."  He was smiling at me, and meeting his gaze I smiled back, this place was wonderful.

Nathanial took my hand a led me out of the library, and down the hallway towards his sitting room. I felt as if I had been here before, as I had seen it in his memories. The sitting room was full of beautiful chairs made from some kind of dark red fabric, there were pillows on the floor that were golden in color, with silver and red accents. They were magnificent, and I could actually feel Nathanial becoming more calm.

The calm only lasted for a few moments, however, because Taylor came through the door covered in blood. As he reached the doorway he fell to his knees, and let out a cry of pain. Nathanial rushed to him, lifting his head in his hands, trying to get him to speak.

" Taylor, what happened?" Nathanial began looking him over, trying to see where the blood was coming from. Taylor was breathing very hard, and I could tell he was trying to speak. Nathanial was still moving his clothing looking for a wound so that he could take care of his injured friend. Taylor let out a cry of pain when Nathanial moved a hand across his abdomen, Nathanial moved what was left of his shirt to the side and revealed the source of the blood loss.