Flower Gleam and Glow

Chapter Six

An OC technically appears in this chapter, though he's an antagonist, and it's brief.

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Tolys tried not to panic as water poured into the cave at an alarming rate. First it was at his ankles...then his thighs...

"Alfred! Alfred! Where are you?" Tolys cried.

"Right here," Alfred's voice sounded from somewhere next to him.

Tolys blindly felt around in the dark for an exit, but it was no use; without any light, there was no getting out.

The water was up to his waist. He plucked Eduard from his shoulder and placed him on top of his head—for all the good it'd do.

They were going to drown here; if only he hadn't insisted on seeing the lights, if he'd just listened to his father, none of them would be in this situation. His father had been right, after all--he couldn't handle himself, even with Alfred with him.

Tolys felt tears stinging in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alfred," he said. "I shouldn't have made you do this. Father was right, I should've just stayed in my tower, and now we're going to die and it's all my fault—"

"Don't apologize," Alfred said. "I'm the one who has the entire Royal Guard after them." He paused for a moment. "You know, Jones isn't even my real last name. I have no idea what it is."

"What?"

"Yeah, Mattie and I were just assigned the last name Jones because our mom was from Anglia," Alfred said. He let out a strangled sound, sounding close to a sob. "Oh, God, Mattie..."

"Well, I have magic hair that glows when I sing," Tolys said, partly to take Alfred's mind off the fact he'd never see his brother again, and partly because they seemed to be sharing their secrets.

"What?!" Alfred demanded.

Tolys blinked, realizing what he'd just said.

"I have magic hair—that glow when I sing," he said. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten. He took a deep breath; the water was up to his neck now, and he was treading water. "Flower gleam and glow—let your power shine—" he sang.

It was enough; a golden glow illuminated the cave as Tolys's hair began to glow.

"See anything?" Tolys asked, looking around.

"No," Alfred said.

There was no other choice than to swim down; they did so, but there was nothing there, either, except for a pile of rocks.

It was better than nothing.

They got to work on moving them, Alfred doing most of the heavy lifting. They didn't stop, not even when blood floated from Alfred's hand, startling Tolys.

Finally, when they got a few rocks moved, a force sucked them towards the rest, and the rest of the rocks gave way, creating a hole. They were sucked through the hole and were spit out into another body of water; Tolys and Alfred reached the surface, gasping for air.

They were in a river.

Tolys kicked, and hauled himself onto the riverbank, then checked on Eduard. He looked rather disgruntled—and Tolys couldn't blame him—but other than that, he was fine.

Better than Tolys himself, who was now nursing a stomachache and trembling, wondering how this had even happened to him in the first place.

Behind him, he was aware of Alfred pulling himself out of the river.