BEAR

We finally made our way through the long line of advisors. What more obstacles could come to us than had already? We walked through crowded trees that seemed to whisper… only every time I turned my head, the sound would silence. We kept walking cautiously, stepping up the pace we were walking without communicating that with each other. Luckily, I was in a bout of wellness and did not need assistance from the others. A sharp sound of air whisked past me and stabbed an unsuspecting deer ahead. We all turned sharply in different directions.

 “Where did they come from?” Iris had her wings taut, ready to take flight. Before any of us could give her an answer, another speared past. “It’s the trees… We are under attack!” She took off into the sky with Violet as I ran as fast as my legs would carry me in zigzag motions, trying not to get hit by a straight-shooting arrow. Only they weren't arrows, they were branches. One got my clothing as I only just dodged it getting my side. Iris swooped down and grabbed me, whisking us into the air. 

“That was close,” I breathed. “It was only a matter of time before Sugarland residents tracked us down.” I shook my head. This was getting too dangerous. We needed this journey to end.

We flew in scared silence until it had been long enough that we probably wouldn’t run into those trees again, but who knew? Iris landed us by a lake that shimmered from the sun’s reflection. I kneeled down to have a drink, pooling the water in my cupped hands. It was fresh and cool. I let the overspill run down my neck and chest, cooling me. Violet kneeled next to me, looking at her reflection in the water. Her hair, white as snow on the mountains, trickled over her shoulder, dipping into the water. Her violet eyes looked up at me before quickly averting back to the clear stillness. I looked over to Iris, who was a little farther up the lake. “What’s the plan from here on out?” I asked, approaching her. 

“We are going to head to that tower the advisors had suggested and try our best to make it up in one piece and then…” she trailed off, her eyes on Violet. “How long has Violet been drinking from that water without a break?” She didn’t take her eyes off the beautiful figure. 

“Since I walked over here, I’m guessing. I don’t know, why?”

“Because it doesn't look like she’s really drinking…” We looked at each other in the sudden realisation that something more sinister was at play. Rushing to her side, I pulled her back from the water, bringing her to her back on the grass. Her mouth was covered in a dark purple substance. Iris quickly inspected the water before grabbing Violet’s face, searching her mouth for any reminisce of what this could be. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small, pointed-eared creature poking out of the water, just enough for me to see her face. She grinned before disappearing back into the water. 

“I saw something!” I shouted, gesturing to the disappearing creature.

“What was it?” Iris asked me in a panic. 

“I don’t know!” My voice cracked under pressure. 

“What did you eat?!” Iris yelled in Violet’s face, shaking her face vigorously, trying to get out any remnants, all the while Violet laid limp. 

“A berry,” she managed to say. 

“I didn’t think you would be the one of us to stray… It’s not safe to take food being offered from strangers, especially when we are wanted.” Iris sighed, letting Violet’s head sit in her lap, pushing her hair from her face.

“It was just so beautiful. I had never seen a berry.” Violet let out in a small voice. 

“I’m going to try some magic on you.” Iris held her hand over the small face on her folded legs and closed her eyes, concentrating hard. I watched as Violet's face went from limp to limper. I turned away, expecting the worst. Suddenly, a gush of air and Violet was sitting up, wide-eyed and restored. 

Iris let her hands fall to her sides in relief as she sighed. “She’s back.” We let the moment of relief settle in the air.

The collection of advice we were given as a whole led us to a tall tower at the end of Sugarland. I looked up at its great height. It would surely take a journey in itself to reach the top. The tower twirled around in a spiral pattern and disappeared into the clouds. We needed to reach the top to make it to the Isle. Iris had said it would take at least a week with mine and Violet’s legs to reach the top of the tower, and that even flying would take her days. She was right. We had journeyed for a week already, alternating between walking and flying, and though we could see the top, it was still far out of reach.

In a heated moment along the journey up the mammoth of a building, Violet had admitted that she had not actually put a spell on my home at all and that they would have known of my disappearance the moment I had left. 

“What’s on your mind?” I had asked her when she kept peering at me, biting her lip and then shaking her head like she was holding something back. 

“Please don’t be mad, but well... The thing is, I didn’t really put a spell on your village. I couldn’t spare the time to do so before we left.” Her words hit me like a knife to the heart. 

Rage had taken over my body, causing me to strike out at her with an open palm. Luckily, she had quick reflexes being otherworldly, and dodged it. I had let my morals go at that moment. Neither of us had spoken of it since, and neither of us was willing to apologize. 

Poor Sage and my poor father. They would be mourning the loss of me. The thought made me sick. I needed to get home, right there and then... only, I couldn’t.

We had made it halfway up the mountain and had not run into any other suspicious creatures--none that had approached us anyway. There was someone here or there that would go by but would keep their eyes to the road, just fellow travellers I assumed. That was until Iris met a familiar face.

A faerie from the Isle had shown up, claiming to be a traveller, unaware that Iris was here. It seemed to be a bit convenient to me, but Iris didn’t think so. He had light features--unlike Iris--and dressed well, like a prince. He walked with us up the mountain, talking with Iris about all of our plans. She trusted him, I guess, because he was from her home. She smiled at him and looked at him adoringly, which I had never experienced from her before. It was strange. She hadn’t asked him why he was here, so I took the liberty of doing so. 

“I am just a fellow traveller, seeking adventure.” He smiled at Iris, who seemed happy with his answer. “We should sit down to eat.” He gestured toward a stand with bread, which conveniently seemed to appear out of nowhere. 

There was something off about him…

We sat down to eat, and Iris and Violet happily partook in the food, whereas I held my loaf, picking off small pieces but not eating. The three of them talked as I just watched, nodding with suspiciously slanted eyes when someone would try to include me in the conversation. After hours of uninteresting chatter, I started to drift off. 

A terrifying laugh woke me up. My arms were bound, and so were the girls. Iris looked horrified, struggling to get free. The faerie she trusted was gone, in his place was a shrieking creature, thrilled that he had tricked and bound us. “Who are you?” Iris demanded, horrified.

“Don’t you recognise me?” The creature grinned with glee, flashing back and forth between the faerie she knew and its other form. 

“Free us at once!” Iris shrieked, but the creature just paced back and forth.

“Now that I have you, I will be coming into a big fortune.” He rubbed his hands together, contemplating what to do with his earnings. “You see, the reward for you couldn’t have come at a better time. When I saw the posters, I knew I had to be the one to catch you and bring you back to the witchy lady.” He leapt up onto the wall of the tower and walked back and forth. All the while, I saw that Iris had been rubbing the rope enough to free one of her hands. She waited until he turned around for a split-second, then she pushed him off the ledge. She watched him fall to his death, wincing when he hit the bottom and rushed to free us. 

“I am so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. He just seemed too real. The exact appearance and personality of my friend.” She shook her head in dismay. “How could I have been so stupid?” I placed my hand on her back, despite my irritation in her lack of judgement, I could see she needed the comfort. 

We kept on the journey up the winding tower, its architecture spiralling all the way up, not mentioning the event until we reached the top. I breathed in the frosty air. It was so fresh and clean, untouched. We all collapsed at the final level, exhausted. 

“We will sleep here for the night and regain our strength. We are going to need it,” Iris stated. Violet still didn’t say anything, she only sat down and leaned against the brick wall. I thought we should talk, seeing as we would probably be changed forever after going through the portal, but I couldn’t find the words, so I said nothing. 

“I need time to think about our next move. If we go through the portal, the hierarchy will be expecting us and will greet us there. We need to enter a different way.” Iris spoke when no one else did. 

When the sun came to light up the sky, it beamed upon us, shedding its warmth upon our skin. Being so close to it hit me differently, and it was something I would always remember. I looked at Violet. The sun reflected on her skin, causing it to glow. She was beautiful. I looked at Iris, her ivory skin also had gleams of light thrust upon it. Her dark hair was placed softly over her shoulder and across her chest. She was also beautiful. I wondered if either of them ever thought of me as more than a human. I knew they thought I was weak--they talked about it often. I was considered strong amongst my family, but this was different. I was placed between two goddesses. Two unhuman, unworldly creatures who both possessed enough strength and power to take down an army of men. 

I stood, ready to shoot into the unknown, get a cure, and get back home where I belonged. “Well, we should get going.” I cleared my throat and made the suggestion, waking them both. Violet groaned and pushed herself up to a sitting position, while Iris jumped up, shocked not to be the first one awake. She hated people to see her vulnerable, like when she was sleeping. She always had to be the alert one, the one watching everything. 

I looked at Violet, double guessing whether I should apologize or not--not that I felt I really needed to, but more to make things right and a little less uncomfortable. 

Iris started going over the plan, taking the thoughts away. “I was thinking, and I believe that the safest route is to try to fly us through the clouds, separate to the portal. We should still make it, but it will just be a bit of a rougher journey. We should leave now while we have good weather.” She stretched out her magnificent black wings, which resembled leather--a different kind of leather then we had where I was from, but leather nonetheless--and she stretched her arms above them. Violet was still getting into a standing position and combing through her pearlescent long hair with her fingers. 

I sighed. This would be the only chance I had to make things right, and now it was about to be over. “Listen...” I reached out to Violet, touching her arm. She looked at me, her hair falling across her shoulder in waves. 

“Let’s go,” Iris interrupted, her stance ready to take us on her back. I crawled on, holding the bones in her wings to steady myself, while Violet did the same. Before I had too much time to think about the lift-off, we were in the air, soaring through pink and blue clouds. My stomach dropped as we catapulted; my body clenched, and cool chills ran up my spine and left its mark on my arms. Our position on Iris's back was rocky. I felt myself come close to falling to my death more times than I felt comfortable with. At one point, I lost a shoe. Looking down at where it went, I felt very lucky at that moment that it was just a shoe and not me. 

We suddenly came to a halt. The trip was fast, too fast for me to think about losing my life for too long, though when we landed, the sickness in my belly didn’t shake. Shimmers were all around us in the air, clouds still fogging my vision, and the most perfect sunset sky I had ever seen. I would never admit it to anyone, but I did enjoy a rippling sky full of colour. It made me feel like there was life outside of my small home, that other people in other places were also seeing the same vision. 

We walked through the foggy scene until things became clearer. It was only a split-second that I got to enjoy the breath-taking views before something more sinister took place. When we had only just walked a few steps, enough to be out of the clouds, three men in black were waiting for us. 

“There they are!” one called as they all marched over, cornering us. “Seize them!” They each took one of us, grabbing us by the arms and roughly forcing them behind our backs, directing us forward.

“You won’t get away with this, handling me this way. Wait until my mother finds out how you manhandled me!” Iris retorted angrily.