Over the Mountain (Book One)

Chapter Twenty One: The Magical Creaures

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Chloe

"Can I try now?" I ask, determined that I can surely do better than Olivia. No offense.

"Of course."

I channel my thoughts into the lightning, imagining the potential in just one strike. Now I don't need weapons anymore. I grin and rub my hands together. Lightning is my weapon.

Tiny white sparks flicker across the grass making it smoke. I wave my hands to successfully cut off the power, having absolute control.

Gretel smiles appreciatively, and beckons for the others to go. Everyone does well.

Hale turns to Gretel. "So how do we save the world with this tiny amount of power though?"

"Like I said earlier, it will grow in time. Now, let us go into the forest. If you are to be staying here in the magical land, you must be familiar with everything and everyone here.

I see how Gretel avoids the subject of how we're going to save the world exactly. I take a deep breath as I follow the group into the forest. It's not my responsibility to tell the others what she's planning or my opinion about it. I wonder if she's actually ever going to tell them.

Hale steps back beside me and walks behind me. I looks back and raise an eyebrow. "What are you doing back there?"

"Hey, I'm looking for potential bandits. You know what happened last time."

I shake my head. "Don't remind me. That seriously damaged my ego."

He laughs. "You were amazing."

I roll my eyes. Something tickles my neck. "Are you doing that?" I ask Hale.

"Doing what?" He asks.

It must have just been a loose hanging branch or something. The forest is very wild, different kinds of plants hanging and growing everywhere that I've never seen before. It is very dark in the forest, the thick plants above obscuring the sun.

"There's something on your neck." Hale says, catching me off guard.

"What? What is it?" I say, reaching back.

"Uh, I think it's a spider. It's pretty small, so I don't think it would be harm-"

His words are interrupted by my shriek. I desperately hit the back of my neck, trying to get the terrible, disgusting little monster off of my body.

"Get it off! Get it off!" I scream.

I feel fingers reaching behind me and plucking the bug from my skin. "Is it off? I whisper turning towards Hale."

He nods, looking at me oddly. "So you're afraid of spiders?"

I feel my cheeks go red as I hear Malik and Meg chuckling ahead of us.

"Chloe are you okay?" I hear Olivia say.

"Y- yeah."

We then continue walking, and the forest seems to get denser the further we go in.

Suddenly, Gretel puts her hand up to stop us, and then puts a finger to her lips while pointing into the underbrush.

There sits an animal that I have never seen before. It looks like a cross between a mouse and a cat. It is about as tall as my ankle and has pointy ears with a long naked tail. It sees us and hisses, a long green tongue jutting out and spitting green liquid into the forest floor. It scrambles beneath the bramble, out of sight.

Gretel turns to us. "That was a Laushoo. It is an almost harmless creature, though its saliva is used in many potions by witches. It can also bite you, but it will only pull up a bit of skin."

"Aww it was so cute."

"Everyone watch out for that patch of ground right there." Gretel points to an oddly placed mound of dirt and moss.

"Why?" Malik asks.

Gretel lifts an eyebrow and bends down to pick up a stick. She throws it at the mound, and to my shock, the lump is a giant mouth that swallows the stick in one gulp. "Watch out for lumps like that."

We slowly trek through the forest in silence, and a clearing soon shows up ahead. It has a small pond with all sorts of colorful plants surrounding it. Something falls in front of me, and I look up. The branches shake as an animal flies through the branches. A monkey like creature with huge purple eyes, a beak, and wings stares down at me and tilts its head.

"That is a Haya. The Haya roams the branches and skies. They are not dangerous, though they will steal your valuables. They never touch the ground. Literally. Long ago they were cursed to where if they touch the earthen floor, they immediately die."

"Harsh life." Hale says.

"Well, it is easy for them. Over the years they have learned how to adapt. They are really curious creatures and this one will probably follow us around for a while. Humans rarely are found in a magical forest." Gretel starts toward the pond. She reaches into her pocket and brings out a small item wrapped in a cloth.

"It is called faerie bread. It attracts different types of faeries."

Olivia smiles. "Cool!"

Something moves in the corner of my eye. "What is that?" I watch as a tree branch moves and a leaf on the end grabs at Olivia's hair. She jumps foreword, out of the tree's grasp.

Gretel chuckles. "That is a Shóu Tree. It is sort of like a bunch of hands and arms. It grabs its food and eats it. You shouldn't be worried about it harming you. If you were smaller though, it might have been a problem. Lets wait here for the faeries."

We sit by the pond, and I look into the waters. It is a deep, dark blue, almost purple. "What kinds of things live in there?"

"All sorts of peculiar creatures like water nymphs, gal-" Gretel's face goes pale. I look back toward the water and see a smooth black fin break the surface of the pond. It goes back under without making a sound.

"What was that? It was so eerie." Hale's eyes are trained on the water.

"That," Gretel swallows her surprise quickly, retaining a steady composure. "Was a Heian Linghun. It is also known as a water demon. Its bite can kill a man, but the thing is to look out for is its stinger, as it has the power to darken the soul of any being. They are extremely rare."

"Creepy." Hale mutters.

"One thing you should also know about all bodies of water in the magical lands. There really isn't such thing as a bottom. You see, there is a portal under each one. It might look like a regular ocean bottom, but when you touch it, you are transported to the bottom of any other body of water. It is random, so you could end up on the other side of the world."

"The land of magical creatures is so much more interesting than the human world," sighs Olivia.

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