CHAPTER 11
TWO MORNINGS LATER
I felt a hand shake my shoulder.
Still half asleep I grabbed the arm that was shaking me and pulled it to me.
I turned over, still cradling the arm, and mumbled, "I'm goin' back to sleep."
Then, with much difficulty, the arm pulled away from me, and I cracked one eye open. And then I saw Lancelot smirking above me.
"Did I really just do that?" I asked.
He nodded, grinning harder.
I nodded and flopped back on my bedroll.
"It's time to get up, Lily," Lancelot said, "We're waking up Sarina now."
I shot to my feet, "No don't do that!" I cried.
But it was too late. Percival was shaking Sarina awake.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Sarina shouted as she sat straight up in bed.
Then she opened her eyes. Every knight, and Merlin, was staring at her with those strange faces they make, while Erin and I were laughing our lungs out.
"Well that's embarrassing," Sarina said.
We rode straight through the next couple days in grim silence, not stopping to sleep, and eating in the saddle.
Things were looking bad. Thunderclouds gathered, like purple bruises above us. Though it never rained, thunder rattled the dark sky. Plants were dead and shriveled on the side of the rode, and we barely saw any animal life throughout the entire days.
On the third day we reined our horses up short. Right in front of us was what could only be described as…. as, well, a tear in the air. It reminded me of the crack in the wall in Doctor Who.
The tear was just there. We couldn't see through to the other side, but there was glowing light shining out. I assumed that it was light from wherever the crack came out in our world.
Sarina and I jumped from our horses. Without a word, we both went around it. We could walk around the tear. It looked the same from the back, but from the side, it was like looking down it.
We came back around to the front, where the others waited. Sarina and I looked at each other. I raised an eyebrow and she nodded, solemnly.
We each reached forward.
"No!" we heard someone say from behind us but we didn't listen.
My hand got to the tear. I stuck my hand through. It had disappeared. I wiggled my fingers to make sure they were still there: they were. But my hand could not be seen from the other side of the tear.
I glanced at Sarina out of the corner of my eye: she was discovering the same thing. She looked over at me. It was by silent agreement that we decided.
"Someone, spot us, please," Sarina said over her shoulder. Someone, Percival to be exact, slid off his horse and came over to us.
Sarina and I each pulled on the sides of the tear and it got a little wider. I reached my leg through the tear. It disappeared. I grabbed onto Sarina's forearm as I put my other leg through the crack.
"Back in a sec," I said, trying for a light mood. Obviously, it didn't work. Then I stuck my head through the crack. I pulled part of Sarina's arm with me. I looked around and took a step.
And I fell of the cliff.
I screamed. I still had a grip on Sarina's arm but I started pulling her through. She was pulled out all the way to her torso before she stopped short.
"Percival's got a grip on my leg. He's going to pull us up," she gasped, her face a few feet above mine.
"Well tell him to hurry the bloody hell up!" I screeched, "My fingers are slipping!"
It was true. My hands were getting cold and sweaty, and my grip on Sarina's forearm was slipping. I screamed again as I fell more, my fingers sliding down to Sarina's. Now, we were holding hands, and this was all that was keeping me from falling.
I looked down and saw water crashing up against the cliff. When I looked straight in front of me. I was face to face with white rock.
Well, I though to myself, at least, if I fall, I'll die somewhere beautiful and famous.
"Hold on!" Sarina shouted down at me.
"I am!" I shouted back. I laboriously lifted my other arm and grabbed onto Sarina's other hand, which she was reaching down to me. Finally, I felt us being lifted and suddenly, Sarina disappeared in front of me. Then, I was pulled through the tear.
I landed on top of Sarina, who had landed on top of Percival. I groaned and rolled off, landing hard on my back. It knocked the breath out of me.
Then Lancelot's face filled my vision. I smiled and leaned up to kiss him.
When we pulled apart, I sat up.
"Sarina," I pulled her attention from Percival to me.
"Yea?" She looked over.
"We were just hanging off the White Cliffs of Dover," I said.
I panted and then chuckled. Then Sarina burst into laughter. Then I did, too. We couldn't stop. We just kept laughing and laughing and laughing.
"The White Cliffs of Dover," Sarina shook her head and chuckled one last time before we sobered.
That night Sarina and I sat apart from the group talking and trying to come up with a way to close the tear. But try as we might, we just couldn't come up with a solution.
Finally we rejoined the others. Before they could even ask, we shook our heads sorrowfully.
"We tried as hard as we could, but we couldn't think of anything. We'll try again in the morning." Sarina said.
And with that, we snuggled into our bedrolls and slept.
