Animegas (Editing)

Run Run as Fast as You Can

Everyone was silent during the trek to the dungeon. Calypso cracked a few jokes, but stopped when she saw it was pointless. We dodged trip wires, hidden buttons on the floor, sticky steps and more. Once we reached the dungeon, everything turned to chaos.

The ceiling shook, they had found the first bomb. Max and Sara hovered near me. The shaking stopped and Thomas and I went to work. We looked around one wall where the entrance had been last time. "Found it!" I called. My fingers shook a bit as I yanked out the loose stone and pressed the button. The door flew open. "Everyone inside." I ordered. No one protested, they all ran into the dark passageway.

We ran fumbled through the tunnel until we found the pit where Calypso had been held. I saw her shiver at the corner of my eye. Last time we were here, she was badly beaten and I was almost dead. Walking over to the, now alive, roots, I pressed my hand against one. My eyes closed and I concentrated on making the ladder. The roots moved and twisted around each other. I felt the energy radiating off of these alive plants. I felt the dull tug of the dead ones. "Alright, everyone up." I shouted. My hand stayed on the root as everyone climbed up. My thoughts flickered to Calypso, and how she almost plummeted to her doom last time. My eyes closed and my mind merged with the roots.

Every foot on the rungs I could feel, every hand pulled on my nerves. It wasn't painful, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Like if you hit your funny bone, or move your foot after it had fallen asleep. There was a sharp, quick pain in my side where Greg's hand was; or was if I was the ladder. "Greg, cracked root!" I called. He stopped and allowed me a second to mend the crack. "Okay, keep going!" It was slow work, but the pain only returned 3 more times. Once they were all up, I started to climb.

"You are an excellent leader." Alex commented. I gritted my teeth.

"Back so soon?" I asked.

"Your plan isn't going to work. The Guardians aren't stupid, they wouldn't send in all of their people. Even for you."

"They don't have to be stupid. They just have to slip up once." I retorted.

"All I'm saying is that you should have a plan B. They know your weakness. They will target your friends." She said softly.

"I don't care." I muttered. "I'm not planning on getting out alive. So I will die to protect them. I know it will come down to that."

She stayed silent. Good, I was already getting a headache from the stress, don't need one from a voice in my head. My hands found soft grass, I hadn't realized I had already reached the top. We all started walking towards the castle. What I had told Alex was true, I wasn't planning on getting out alive. One of us was going to die, and I'm going to make sure it is me.

"Sam," Katie asked. "You okay?" Her greyish- blue eyes looked at me with worry, her eyebrows knit together

I nodded and kept walking. My fingered wrapped around the the bow that was slung on my back. It felt reassuring to have some form of weapon. Especially one I was so familiar with. The entrance of the castle came into view. Something was wrong. We had set up the bombs to let off smoke when they were set off. But no smoke billowed from the open windows. The castle was fully intact, it was only the one in the beginning that had been triggered. I pulled the bow from my back and notched an arrow onto the string. Something was very wrong.

My hand went up, signaling for the others to stop. My fingers wrapped around the string tightly and pulled the arrow back to my face. The Guardians were here, and they had either gotten stuck or they knew what our plan was. Experimentally, I shot the arrow into the nearest window. Something came flying out, something small and green.

"Grenade!" I shouted. We scattered just in time. I could feel the heat of the explosion on my back, chunks of dirt buried themselves in my hair. A piece of the grenade cut my cheek. I fell forward, narrowly avoiding falling on my own weapon. Dust filled my lungs and I started coughing uncontrollably. The floating pigments minimized my vision.