Chapter Forty Two
“Darrel!”
I could hear myself groan. The voice became clearer with every passing second.
“Darrel! Please . . . Darrel!”
I opened my eyes to a clear, blue sky. Air whipped around my body. The sun’s intense light burned the corner of my eyes. I squinted to find that a young girl with long, black hair, was looming over me. Her cheeks were flushed as salty tears brimmed the corners of her eyes. She smiled and hugged me. “Darrel!”
I moaned at sat up, rubbing my eyes as if I had just come out of a deep sleep. “What . . .”
The girl looked up at me with a frown. “Don’t you remember me?”
I looked around to find that I, the girl, and a nerdy looking kid, were riding on top of a massive, purple dragon. I looked below and saw that we were above a vast, blue ocean.
“No . . . I don’t . . .” Then, everything came back to me in an instant; Efaque City, the Empress, the Tascaque, the sky serpent, the island, the physical form of my nightmares, Seremon, and, of course, Ellie. “No, wait, I do.” I widened my eyes.
Ellie smiled and looked back at Seremon. “He’s fine!”
“Did I . . . die?”
Ellie looked up at me and nodded solemnly. “That creature stabbed you right in the heart. We immediately left the island, carrying you on board, of course. We knew that this world would eventually fade away while you were dead, but right before that happened, you woke up.” She hugged me again. “I can’t believe you’re okay!”
I pulled myself away from her, almost as if I was irritated. But there were more important things to discuss. “How long was I . . . dead for?”
Ellie sighed and looked down pensively. “The entire night.”
“Oh no,” I shook my head. “We need to make it to the center of my dream today!”
Ellie held my shoulder and smiled. “We are at the center of your dream.”
I stared at her, frozen. Already . . .?
I looked around in confusion. “We’re in the middle of nowhere!”
“So?” Ellie said. She smiled and looked down. I followed her gaze and saw a giant hole in the ocean, water falling into it like a circular water fall. It faded into a soft, white light, as if it were the entrance to heaven.
The sky serpent nose-dived toward the ocean, crashing into the water. We were now approximately twenty meters away from the hole, the exact center of my dream-world. A stone pathway began to form in between the serpent and the hole, as if it were greeting my arrival.
I looked at Ellie with hesitation. “I don’t have to go right this minute.”
Ellie smiled solemnly. “No, Darrel. You’ve been through enough hell.” She pulled me in close and hugged my tight. “Say hi to the real Ellie for me.”
I could feel tears gushing from my eyes. “No . . . not yet.”
We hugged each other for another ten minutes, though it felt like ten hours. When I pulled back, I noticed that Seremon was crying as well.
“What’re you crying for?” Ellie laughed.
Seremon wiped his nose. “Because, when Darrel leaves, this place won’t exist anymore!” He hugged the sky serpent’s neck. “And neither will we.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “He can be overdramatic.”
I looked over at the nerdy kid and grinned. “Don’t worry. I actually know who you are in real life.” When Seremon looked up at me in surprise, I said hastily, “You’re just as much a nerd there as you are here.”
He knit his brows. “Thanks.”
I hugged Ellie once more and stood up, ready to hop onto the stone pathway. Before doing so, I turned around and smiled. “Good-Bye!”
Ellie smiled.
That’s when an unusual propelling began to resonate throughout the air. I looked towards Ellie for clarification, but she only shrugged. Seremon looked just as confused.
I shaded my eyes and looked towards the sky. There, not far from the area I was standing, was a giant hot-air balloon, powered by a large, brass propeller. Its basket was a solid box of metal, steam rising from its center.
The sound of a megaphone turning on projected from the balloon. “You thought you’d get away that easy?!”
I couldn’t help but curse when I heard the unmistakable chirpy voice of the ten-year-old Empress.
