A Mythical Journey

Towards Centre

A rope helps us ascend to the top. Link climbs up first and then me.

Right hand out.
Left hand.
Lift.
Right foot.
Push.
Left foot.
Stand up.

I look down at my dirty clothes and sigh, then dust my myself. I'm thinking we should take another chance, we're close to the exit when I hear that annoying woman.

"You're going to love her," the woman smiled. "She's the most wonderful being alive!"

I guess I must look confused because she smiles at me as she says, "Oh, hun. I was just telling your friend about today's plans. You guys need to make up for the rude behavior earlier, remember?"

As she keeps on talking, I turn to look at Link and see his hands are tied up. "We are to take you to The Centere to meet our beloved Alpha, Pahaounna." The silent man grabs my left shoulder and twists my right hand to my back and then my left one and ties them up despite me resisting. "We were going to take you as guests, but do to your attitude we will take you as our prisoners and let her decide what shall be done to you. If you don't act stupid with her, the you have nothing to fear. So now..."

"Wait!" Link interrupts her, her fake smile fades and she looks at Link with irritation in her eyes. "Let the girl go."

"And why should we?" She asks cocking an eyebrow.

"Because she's done nothing wrong! She came here innocently looking for me. She is only a girl, she must go back to her family."

"That is a sure no, we can't have her leave and go snitch on us."

"Well that's not fair!" Link protested.

"It's not like anyone would believe me that this forest is magical or whatever you want your call it." I murmur, "there's no risk in letting me go."

The woman glared at Link, "I said no. And this will remain a denial unless otherwise stated by our Queen Pah." Her glare faded and turned into a grin, "but you needn't worry, Pahaounna is a kind person and if you behave well, she won't harm you. Now, get moving, we must be there quick before the sunrise."

We all ignore her and I look down hopelessly at my tied up hands. Link and I have no option but to follow this creeps. The lady is leading the way while the man is in the back making sure we don't try anything and Link and I just try to stay as close to each other as we can. For some reason I'm more scared of the man despite the fact that he hadn't said anything yet. Maybe it's the heavy stare he wears. I don't know, I just feel that he would be the one to take initiative in cutting us open if they had to.

It's somehow a really long walk towards the river. Were we really that fast, covering that much ground? When we get close to the river and hear the running water we start heading down in the same direction as the river. How could this happen to us? Why did there had to be a stupid hole in the g round!? What do these people want with us and who in the world is Pahaounna? I look up at the tall trees trying to think what to do and how to get away when I spot for a moment a bird in the sky that had beautiful long tail feathers of many colors, almost resembling colorful ribbons. It was gone quickly, disappearing into more leaves, so beautiful. I sigh, how could a place full of beautiful creatures be so bad? It must be these people taking us prisoners and their Paha Queen or whatever. I then wonder who is Pahaounna? I have a terrible feeling I don't want to know and an even more sishe won't like us.

The sunrays become golden with a hint of red through the leaves and from the distance we can hear the rushing sound of a waterfall, each time becoming louder and clearer. The air also becomes more fresh with an aroma of clean water mist. I am really tired already, I hardly slept last night and then all the pointless running. I'm also hungry as well, if only they would let us stop to eat a little bit.

We have arrived at the waterfall and the sun sets completely, shining it's red and gold colors brightly before giving the stage to the moon as our captors take out flashlights and illuminate a path I know leads to our doom.

The waterfall appears to be super tall like 25 feet down. The woman stops us and unties our hands and then ties them again but this time in the front, leaving a foot of rope between each of our hands. While she's doing this, the man is busy tying a longer rope to a rock and securing it. The woman takes out a container of water and offers us a drink.

We both shake our heads. She looks at us and grins, "Are you sure? You both look very thirsty and water would be the perfect thing for refreshment." We refuse one more time and she gulps it all down. "Your mistake."

Once the man finishes with the rope he starts to descend with it. He climbs down and stops halfways through. There are yellow stones located there that for a line into the waterfall and he uses them, moving closer to the waterfall and disappearing into it.

"Now it's your turn." The woman nudges us towards the rope and Link goes first. After nearly falling down he make it into the waterfall, disappearing out of sight. Then it's my turn.

I grab the rope and slowly climb down. I constantly look down to see where to step and I realize how far away I am from the from the ground, I hold on to the rope tighter. As I climb diwn, I become further from the woman's flashlight, making this the worst experience I've ever had. The rushing sound of the water makes my heart beat faster. I continue slow and steady. By the time I arrive to the middle my eyes have adjusted to the darkness and I stop to take a breath. With my right hand still glued to the rope I reach out for the yellow stone and hold on, it's long and steady, easy to hold. For a second I'm stuck there, not knowing how to make the next move. Then I notice that there's more stones underneath, and I try to reach the nearest one with my right foot and I barley even reach. Good thing I grew a lot this last summer. Once again I stop, not sure how I'm going to get all the way to the other side. I then let go of the rope and grab the same stone where my left hand is at. Then my l move my right foot towards the left one. I carefully and fearfully continue this slow process.

The wind feels stronger standing so close to the water and I feel as if the breeze could be strong enough to push me off. I could fall and hit a rock and it would be the end of me. I shake those thoughts aside and continue. As I near the waterfall the breeze becomes a refreshing mist. It feels wonderful but makes the stones moist and slippery. I gulp with fear and realize I'm shaking. I reach for the next stone but when I try to get my left foot to it, it slips off the rock and my left hand with out.

"Evelyn!" I hear Link's scream from somewhere in the waterfall.

My heart sinks and I feel as if my soul escapes from me but I'm still holding on with my right hand. "I'm fine!" I yell back. I reach out for a stone again, this time I hold on tighter. I take a deep breath, rebuild my confidence and continue.

Finally I get to the waterfall and see a light shining from within the cascade. I climb the rest of the rocks, and trying to stick my body as close to the rocks I go through the waterfall. I shiver and almost loose my balance again as water rushes on my back. I quickly reach out for the next rock and find nothing, no rock, no wall. It's like some sort of cave in here. I feel a hand grab my own and pulls me inside. I fall over this person and as the light flashes on us I see him. "Link!" I yell, standing up.

"Eevee, you made it!" Link smiles as he stands up.

"Barley" I point out. The light shines from the flashlight our male captor is holding. Three minutes later we are met by the woman and we continue into the cave. I feel exhausted and for a moment I wish I had never escaped from home and want nothing more than to lay in my soft bed back in Georgia.

Either the woman reads my mind or she's exhausted herself because she now suggests to sleep here tonight and finish the trip tomorrow. Either way, we happily agree and go to sleep.

After dreaming about the colorful bird I saw earlier, I wake up feeling lost and confused. For a second I forget all that had happened and I'm shocked to find myself inside of a cave rather than back home. I see everyone is awake and that's when I remember it all. I sigh as I stand up.

We walk deeper into the cave for about five minutes and then we see light shining through the opposite side of where we came from. We continue walking until we see an exit. We step out into a world I did not knew existed. The sky seemed to sparkle and it was color turquoise. Birds like the one I saw earlier glided through the skies. The clouds were a butter yellow color. I look down below us to see that even the plants weren't the same, they looked weird, exotic and colorful. In the distance I could see a palace atop a hill.

"Hurry!" The woman pushed us around. "We don't have all the day to get to the queen. Then she must assign you either your trials or your death."

Link and I both dropped our jaws and popped out our eyes at the last word, "death?!"