The Red Sun

Chapter 7

We walked in silence for a while, us being too scared to do anything for he definitely had some sort of magic, whatever that may be. I recognized the part of the forest we were in, though. I used to play up here when I was younger, and I got to know every inch of this place. We were walking in the direction of a sheer cliff, though, it being a valley into the river that eventually ran next to our village. The waters were too rough here, so no one ever really built anything here.

Eventually, we had walked to a sort of makeshift encampment. There were teepees covered with twigs and hay with beds of grass in each one. He took us to the other side where there were some prisons, also makeshift. I saw that there were lines of cells along a row, on each side. There was about a foot in between each cell, yet each one was haphazardly strewn across the dirt ground. As he shoved us in one, I saw that they were more glorified boxes with bars on one side then prisons.

"I'll deal with you later," He said with eyes that sent chills running down my spine, then slowly walked away.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! What was that? What is happening?," Thalia basically screamed, "Is this jail? I can't go to jail! I'm too young for jail! AAAAHHHH!"

"Thalia. It's fine, "I replied grabbing onto her shoulders, "This is too rough to be a jail, and we can get out of this because of that."

"Hey, I wouldn't count on that," A guy from the box across from us remarked, not daring to show his face. "Every poor soul who ends up in this hole never comes out. They're keeping us here in case we can do magic, apparently. Well, I ain't know of no one who can use magic, or I'd use em to bust outta this joint."

"Why are you telling us this?" Thalia asked.

"In case you can do magic and bust us outta this joint. If you can't, well, for fun." He laughed a sick laugh. Thalia looked disgusted and such outpour.

I didn't know if I should tell him that I could do it. It could be a trap.

"Are you sure there was no one who could use magic?" I asked.

"Well, there was one person," he seemed deep in thought, "A while back, they told us if anyone could do magic, they'd set em free. This person, who actually had shown me a little before, came forward and the next night, we heard screams. He never came back." He laughed, "I guess he's either free or dead that lil' bugga. Why, is there something you'd like to tell me?"

I looked at Thalia and she nodded. "Well," I replied and closed my eyes. I started creating a ball of ice suspended just above my hand. Although I couldn't see him, I could still tell his eyes got wide with excitement.

"Oh, yes yes yes yes yes!" He whispered, his voice suddenly getting very quiet, "Freeze through the wood, it'll shatter like ice if you get it cold enough!" I dissolved the ball and concentrated more. A steady stream of blue started projecting from my hands onto the wooden box. It felt so hot, even though I knew it was cold. It was so hard to keep projecting the blue onto the wood, yet I did it. After a while, I opened my eyes, but as I did this the stream got harder and harder to control until it was finally lost. Yet, in its place was a frozen panel in the box, mini icicles hanging off of each indent. I rose my foot up and kicked it off, the pieces shattering like glass.

"Yes!" Both Thalia and I said, running through the hole. We ran onto the main path, looking for a way out, but we then say the line of boxes was positioned on the edge of the sheer cliff of the river valley. The only way out was through the camp. We started walking, hoping there'd be a miracle when from behind us the man called,

"Hey! Aren'ch ya gonna let me out too?" I ran back, mersey besting me. Thalia stayed a bit back, though. She did not trust that man, and I didn't really blame her. I pressed my hands against the wood and started to think again, freezing the wood. I quickly kicked it down, but no faster did I do that then I felt a piercing pain around my neck. He grabbed around my adam's apple and held me there. I grasped for his hand, trying to pull it off, but it just hurt my throat that much more. I coughed, gasping for what little breath I had. I was terrified.