The Sleeping Beauty's Prince

Chapter Nine

It had been the woman-creature's plan to make Owen fall over the edge of the cliff to die when he hit the bottom, then scrape his remains off for a meal. That was at least what he had figured out, and it made him mad to think that even though he had broken through his trance, the woman was still going to win.

Thoughts like these took less than a second to flash through his mind as he fell. He also thought about his inevitable death and the failure of his quest. He had been a fool to think that he could make it through Etherea when Lumbia had make it clear how impossible it was.

His heart beat faster and faster as the rocks came nearer. They approached more quickly now; it would all be over soon. Owen only had time to think absently about the amount of magical fog floating around him before he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impact.

It never came. Owen tried to open his eyes to see what had happened, but he couldn't move them. He couldn't move at all, actually. He was completely frozen.

"Am I dead?" he thought. "Is this what it feels like to die?"

But he could still feel the pain in his clawed shoulder.

He wasn't dead.

He was only...stuck.

~*~

Owen had no idea how much time passed. He was only aware that whatever force had held him before had let go, and he was falling again. His eyes flew open, and he saw that he was headed for a slab of rock. He fell on his side, straining his arm and likely pulling a muscle, but otherwise he was unharmed.

Whatever had stopped him before he had hit the ground had shortened the distance he had to fall. Rolling onto his back, he looked up and saw that his benefactor had come in the form of a yellow cloud that was floating, stationary, over his head. Because of the magical properties he had already discovered in Etherean clouds, he didn't doubt that it was what had held him suspended in the air.

"Thank you, cloud," he whispered hoarsely. He then pushed himself up and slid off the rock, happy to be in good shape on solid ground instead of being broken.

Owen hurried to find a way to go anywhere but where the woman could find him. To his relief, the other side of the cliff from the one he had stood on gradually tilted downward until its slope was gentle enough to climb. He scrambled up as swiftly as possible.

The forest continued on the other side of the cliff, though it was different than the part he had been to before. The defining feature of this section, instead of birds, was rain. It had not been raining the moment before he stepped past the first tree at its edge, but as soon as he did it began to pour. Just to test this, he stepped back out of the forest momentarily. The rain stopped like a snuffed out candle. As soon as he turned back into the forest for the last time the sky was dumping buckets, but he moved forward because he knew he had to.

He was glad that at least he wasn't hungry anymore. Although eating the berries had obviously cast some spell on him, they had filled him.

The walk was cold and miserable. Owen didn't like the feeling of his clothes being completely soaked through, or of his boots sloshing through water and mud. Shivers coursed through him, his teeth chattered, and his nose ran slightly.

"Wouldn't it be funny," he mused, "if, even with all the dangerous things in this land, I ended up dying from a cold?"

The rain didn't last forever. After walking for about half an hour, he came into an area of forest that was more similar to the first, yet darker because of how late it was. He pushed through this, too.