The Life Of A Franz Ferdinand Reference

5

GLASIE:

"I know of places other than Deliria... It's a place called Planet Earth. Are you from there?" Man Man asked.

"Yes, actually." I answered politely.

"A few people have opened wormholes accidentally... And some are chosen. That's how I ended up here. And Granny. And the animals."

"Are the animals friendly?" Strawberry asked.

"Depends on who it is." Man Man laughed.

"Thanks for the advice, we better get going." Alex thanked Man Man and Granny Jan.

"Don't forget ta take a map!" Man Man handed each of us a map of the region.

"Thanks!" Nick said excitedly.

"Good luck out there!" Man Man exclaimed.

Once we left Man Man and Granny Jan's house, we had to make a decision.

"Wanna head to Dragon's Glen?" Bob asked.

"Nah, what about Emerald Forest? We could find somewhere there to get out of this place..." Paul suggested.

"I'm up for that!" I cheered.

"Sounds less violent." Strawberry rolled her eyes.

After cutting through a few fields, I saw the outline of a massive rainforest.

"Man Man was right! Fields and rainforests just seconds away!" I said in awe.

"This place is amazing." Nick smiled.

"Or just the Midwest." Alex laughed.

"It went Ohio to Amazon in 10 seconds." Strawberry corrected him.

"True."

Emerald Forest was beautiful. There were giant birds swooping in between trees, deer with giant antlers that carried birds nests and other animals, and trickling streams that cut between fallen logs and boulders. We wandered around the forest for a few hours before it thinned out to a rocky beach that had a cave system running along the coastline.

"WELCOME TO CRYSTAL COVE!" A badly made sign read.

The back said: "CAVES! BREATHE UNDERWATER! CANT GET WET!"

"Believable." Strawberry laughed.

"Wanna explore the caves?" Alex asked excitedly.

"YES!" I cheered. I was only scared of one thing about caves... False air. And water in general. I've always hated water, for some reason.

False air caves are underwater caves that seem like they have air in them... But don't. It's really just a second layer of water and so many divers have lost their lives to them because they can be poisonous.

I doubt there would be one here. It's another dimension... They probably wouldn't have any here...

Then Nick cannonballed into the first cave.

"YOU CAN FREAKIN BREATHE UNDERWATER!" Nick laughed and disappeared under the surface.

"I'll go get him." I sighed and dove into the water. Surprisingly, I didn't feel anything, and I could actually breathe underwater.

"NICK! COME BACK!" I called. I caught sight of him entering a cave. I dolphin dove down and tackled him to the bottom of a cave.

"Glasie! What was that for?!" He laughed.

"Reasons." I shrugged and followed him through the cave system, occasionally finding air pockets.

I noticed that in one particularly small cave, there was a particularly large air pocket. Then the opening to the cave started crumbling in.

"NICK! DONT GO UP THERE!" I called from the bottom of the cave.

"Glasie... I have to find a way out." Nick sighed and floated down to the bottom to meet me.

"It could be false air..." I whimpered.

"Who cares?! It's just water."

"Don't leave!" I looked up worriedly.

"Alright... I'm gonna have to go now..."

•••NICK'S POV•••

I looked down to see Glasie hiding in the corner of the cave.

"Please don't go up there..." She said quietly and looked up.

"Glasie... I have to." I smiled.

I reached up to the surface... Which wasn't really the surface. And of course it was poisonous and basically started eating my hand. I noticed a couple layers of skin were gone.

"NICK! COME BACK!" Glasie pushed off the bottom and held onto a rock formation a few feet below the second layer.

"Come on. You'll be fine." I scooped Glasie up from the side of the cave and looked quickly into her panicked eyes.

"Just hold your breath... that stuff is poisonous."

•••GLASIE'S POV•••

Nick power hugged me and carried me through the second layer of my worst fear. I held my breath as long as I could, because he said it was dangerous to breathe in the poisonous substance.

For some reason, he just kept telling me it was all going to be okay, even though he said not to say anything. And of course I could tell he was in a lot of pain. Luckily I was completely covered by my sweatshirt and not being eaten alive by the acidic liquid. I felt bad for Nick. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and had no armor from the acid.

"Hey Glas, you okay?" Nick asked.

I looked up at him and nodded silently, because in my head I was thinking "HOLD YOUR BREATH! OH PLEASE JUST FREAKING HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

"Good. We'll be out of here soon. The surface is about 15 feet up..." Nick pushed off a rock, still holding me as close as possible. But his grip was weakening by the second...

Nick collapsed about 10 feet before the sandy area outside of the cave and was around 3 feet underwater.

I swiftly jumped down into the poisonous water and pulled him to the shoreline.

"Thank you so much." I whispered.

Nick then opened his eyes.
"Oh.. It was no--"

"You okay?"

"I can't freaking breathe, Glasie!"

"I thought you said not to breathe down there?!"

"I had to--"

I then heard footsteps from up the beach.

"GLASIE! WHY WERE YOU IN THE DANGER CAVE?!" Strawberry shouted.

"I KNOW WHO'S BUNKING UP TONIGHT!" Paul laughed and finally perfected his superhero slide in.

"There is no bunking up! Glasie blew up the bus." Bob hissed.

"Everyone calm down. And what happened to Nick?!" Alex always established some order.

"We went through the danger cave." I sighed.

"There has to be a small town or something around here... We can get him some help."