Dark Everglades: The Rising Sun [BOOK ONE] {BEING RE-WRITTEN}

Liam

My eyesight clears and I cough as smoke billows from within the portal. Chang lazily presses the button and the door opens with all of us wheezing and coughing.

"What... The hell... Was that?!" Clara yells, crawling out of the portal and coughing.

Arina coughs a bit more, squinting her eyes in disgust while her cheeks flare pink.

"That's not important right now..." She whispers and Clara whips to her, standing shakily.

"Not important?! It only seemed as though you knew what that thing was!"

"Clara..." Chang mumbles and she glares at him, her shoulders sputtering with flames.

"No. I want to know."

I crawl out with Ethan and Alex crawling behind me.

Arina sits cris-cross on the ground, neck flaring purple. "... It was a demon," She mumbles and Clara crosses her arms.

Alex knee crawls over to Arina, flapping her arms that are now back to feathers uncomfortably. She sits down next to her, sighing.

"A demon?" Clara questions, impatient.

Arina glares up at her, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

"That thing that wanted to be the new and improved version of King Kong, just destroyed Panel's castle!" Clara yells and Alex tilts her head.

"King Kong? Was that some sort of forest god?"

Clara stares. "Close enough."

Clara faces Arina again who's fangs flash with anger.

"You can't be that stupid," She snaps and Clara glares.

"That was Aurora. She's a Demlion isn't she?" Arina continues and Clara doesn't respond.

"Clearly, you don't know the meaning of Demlion. Demon and Lion. A shapeshifter demon."

Everybody stays silent for a couple of moments until Ethan turns to her. "... So you can turn into... That?"

Arina glowers, smiling falsely. "Only if somebody that's annoying decides to talk to me."

Ethan closes his mouth and I glare. "Alright Arina, we get it. You're angry for us asking personal questions, but give us some slack. We could have just died."

Arina relaxes, facing the dirt with a fresh coat of pink on her cheeks and Clara crosses her arms, finally looking around the scene.

Her eyes turn attentive all of a sudden as she turns in a circle, completely confused.

"... Where even are we?" She asks and I slowly get up.

Chang gets up next to me and Alex squawks. "A forest."

Arina rolls her eyes.

"No... This isn't a forest," Clara mumbles, squinting her eyes and walking forward right into mud.

Her feet hiss and she curses loudly in pain, reeling back. "Ugh! A swamp! We're in a swamp..."

"A swamp forest," Alex whispers, looking around and Arina bristles.

"When my hands find your neck-"

"We need to find some sort of civilization," Chang interrupts, tapping his chin and I turn.

"You're... Coming?"

Chang laughs. "What? No. I'm just here to help and make sure you don't go off and do something stupid, that will leave you in bones."