The Falling Kingdoms: The Hidden Coffins

Chapter Six: The Veil

Nick and I have been walking for twenty minutes now. For all I knew he could be taking me alone to the woods and could be planning to bury me till I rot to death. But I didn't know. And I did not dare ask him.
Since I saw him flying above the ground, blazing like a star I didn't have anything to say to him. I was extremely frightened, fascinated and intimated by him all of a sudden.
First, he took me out of the Fell Villa and in his car. We drove to the highway and then got out of the car just to travel further in the woods.
Now, it's been a while since I saw any clearing. I was just following him quietly, watching my feet considering I was a super clumsy person.

"You know how to swim?" His voice seemed alien to me for some unknown reason. Maybe it was because I was hearing someone's voice after a lot of silence.

"Yeah, pretty much." I replied, hopping over the huge rocks coming in my way. "Why?"

"Cause we're going for a swim." He said, stopping in his tracks.

"What—" before I could complete my sentence, I bumped into his back.

My eyes automatically moved where his sight was already set. There was a lake in front of us, a beautiful and huge lake that could have sharks and crocodiles and alligators in it.

"Yeah...I'm not gonna get in that water. Especially, not in this dress." I gestured towards my blue dress and uttered.

"You've no choice." He looked at me with cold eyes, his lips rolled into his mouth. "We'll both swim across this lake to that side." He pointed the opposite end of the lake from where we were standing. I could see the end of it led into woods too.

"Listen, if you just wanna kill me in the woods secretly, do it in this one. We don't have to swim all the way there." I thought I could use some humor, but as soon as I saw his furious face, I shrugged and prepared myself for a swim.

"I'll wait for you," saying this, he dived into the water swimming away like a toad.

I exhaled in fury, keeping both my hands on hips watching him swim away.

"Well, I guess I really don't have a choice." I muttered before jumping in the water myself.

Holy mother of God, it was cold!

Holding my breath I swam forward in haste. I didn't want to get left behind. As I reached closer to the opposite end, I felt the water getting warmer. The feeling was nice, but there was something wrong. I leaned my head out of the water to take another breath but what I saw shocked my senses. I stilled myself in the water, staring into the sky with widened eyes. The sky had the sun up there. The night was gone. All I could see was daylight.
For a moment, I doubted myself. Nick could be doing some magical joke on me. This could be my hallucinations.
But then my gaze fell towards my front. There were no woods in front of me. In fact, there was a massive open place filled with grass that was as green as in any fairytale. I was not too far from the field. I turned my head back to find nothing but the same grass field on the other side.

And then I realized. This was a whole other place. Gathering some courage, I held my breath again and got inside the water, swimming forward again. My hands came in contact with a rock and I understood I was there. I pulled myself up the water. There stood Nick drenched in water as well, wiping off the wetness of his face.

"Where are we?" I questioned him. Not only him, I questioned my sanity too at the moment.

"Welcome to, how do I put this — The land of the Nadine's." He said aloud. I saw him smile like that for the first time, like he was actually happy that he got to say that.

"And what would be that?" I asked, my hands folded across my chest.

"A kingdom, one of the four." I resisted the urge to punch him in the nose for telling me "one of the four".