Shout out to The Queen of Valencia Torgue and Nightshade Writer for sticking by this story! For Fablehaven Fan, they never tell what color Gavin's eyes are in the book, but I guess I'll make them brown…that suits him. The Queen of Valencia Torgue, Lynthia is for you c:
The Enchantment of the Mermaid Whisperers
Chapter 13
Narrator's POV
"Come on Seth, just a little closer! You can't be tired already." Snow urged Seth further.
Little did Snow know that Seth wasn't used to swimming this far or fast. He was worn out by the time they got half way to wherever Snow was leading him.
"Snow," Seth panted, "where…are we…going?"
Snow smiled and rolled her eyes, "Were here…finally!"
One of Seth's eyebrows shot up in confusion, they were floating in front of the opening to a water fall. If he stopped flipping his tail, he could feel the current of the rushing water sucking him in. Despite being underwater, the roaring of the deadly looking falls could still be heard.
Snow faced him and explained, "Ok were going to go down it, but you have to make sure you stay behind the water at all times. Or else you'll get seriously hurt…maybe die, but don't think too hard about that!"
Seth could feel all the blood rush from his face and a tight feeling wind up in his chest. He was about to say 'no way!' but Snow had already locked a death grip on his hand and was saying, "One…Two…Three!"
With that, they were falling through the air, behind a thick wall of rushing water. The sun was almost completely blocked out, but a light rainbow could be made out in the mist. Seth was glad that he could somewhat see the whole experience, more thrill was added with sight. The chill was inviting and refreshing. Despite how peaceful the experience was, he was still panicked and was glad Snow was tightly gripping his hand.
"Close your eyes, or else they're going to hurt later." She said and Seth didn't hesitate to comply. In one huge rush, the water had enveloped their bodies and bubbles were in a flurry all around them. Sight was 100% restored, but Seth rubbed them again to be sure his eyes were working right.
About one hundred feet in front of him was a gigantic tan tree with multi colored branches. Hanging in the branches were various shells of many different sizes. There were too many diverse shells to count just from sight; it was all sort of overwhelming to Seth.
"Well, here's where my village is. This isn't actually a tree, it's a shell that has grown to look like a tree, and we live in the shells. We call the shell tree Tairel Ly, which means tree of life in my native tongue. If the tree were to be harmed or destroyed, every mermaid would die."
"You see, we sleep inside the shells every night and they nourish our delicate bodies…it's kind of like a baby in a mother's tummy only we come out in the morning. Eventually our bodies would deteriorate and wither away if the tree were harmed. Of course we could simply choose to leave the water and step onto the land, but no mermaid or merman would risk being undignified and humiliate themselves like that. My friends would be amazed to meet you; do you want to go find them?"
"Uh, sure why not I guess." Seth said, still staring at the shell tree in awe.
"Then follow me," Snow said with a small smile, "but Seth I have one question. Where did you come from?"
Seth bit his bottom lip in thought, not wanting to let it slip that he's actually supposed to be human, "That's a long story for another time."
Hermia's POV
Yes! I have found their weakness! The tree is the key to their undoing…now I simply needed to form a plan of attack.
I was still shocked at what Seth did to the mermaid girl. He did something called Soul Manipulation, which I don't poses the power to do. What he amazingly managed to do was absorb her lost soul with one single touch of her body, making his body hold two soul instead of one.
He could have done anything with her; killed her off for good, made her a haunting spirit, taken over her persona and much more, but instead he put her soul back in her body. Seth was too shocked to notice the harpoon disintegrate and her wounds heal right in front of his eyes.
Oh how I admire him. He's powerful, hansom, adventurous and funny. What more could a demon/dragon girl want? I shifted my gaze back to the creamy candle wax and watched in disgust.
Ms. Mermaid was clasping onto Seth's hand and leading him toward an abyss. The crack was pitch black and colorful coral bloomed along the edges.
"C'mon Seth, they're down here. Hey guys it's me!" Snow shouted down into the hole.
A smooth voice called back up to her, "Get down here, Snow, we've been waiting for you all day!"
With that Snow plunged into the darkness and Seth quickly followed behind. Like every time I spy on Seth, I tore my eyes away from the wax and blew out the candle. I hated Snow with a burning passion and I would make sure that she physically felt my scorn.
Soon…very soon.
Kendra's POV
My eyes turned wide as saucers and I exclaimed, "You've found him…where?"
Robin grimaced and said slowly, "When I found him, he wasn't looking too hot…if you know what I mean. He's on the North South side of the preserve."
I frowned in confusion, "He's on the what?"
You see, here in Wyrmroost, there are two sets of Cardinal Directions. One is for the land and one is for the sky. It's fairly simple, you just add north (for going straight up into the sky in case you were confused) to every cardinal direction. Like if you were a dragon and you took off in the North West part of the reserve, you would be North North West. Usually only the dragons use these separate directions, which wasn't a good sign when I was looking. He's in a dragon's layer high in the clouds, being….toyed with by a strange dragon.
Horror enveloped my mind and gnawed at my nerves. Gavin was trapped in a dragon layer…with one easy swipe of a claw he could be dead.
Birds chirped around me and sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves as I melted to the ground.
Hot tears started running down my face and drip off my chin onto the soft dirt. "Kendra," Robin soothed, "We will rescue him and he will be fine. I promise you, remember who we are." He knelt down beside me and lifted my chin until my blue eyes met his liquid grey eyes.
Then he gestured toward the ground where my tears had met the ground and I gasped. Tiny white flowers had breached the surface and were blooming right before my eyes. "You are Fairy Kind, and I am a Twilight Elf…one of the strongest of my kind. We can make it."
A gentle smile alighted on my face and I steadily stood up. "We're going to need to wake up Abcd."
Cascading brilliant colors of pink and purple throughout the sky, the last rays of sun kissed Mailrow Mountain. Rocks slipped from under my feet as I hiked the loose mountain behind Robin and in front of Abcd. The mountain was bare and colorless…nothing special.
Suddenly Robin stopped and faced the sun. The last rays of sun littered the horizon and quite abruptly, Robin crumpled to the ground.
"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed in horror, "Robin, are you ok?" I shook him, but got no response. Moments later the light disappeared over the land. Robin started to change and morph in an array of distortion. Just as suddenly as it happened, though, it stopped and Robin groaned. Slowly, he sat up and said, "I'm ok, don't worry."
"Are you sure what the heck happened to you?" I asked in a worried tone. His hair had shortened to a cropped do, he grew about a foot, his eyes literally swirled in a grey mesh and he over all looked like he had gained more muscle.
"Since I'm a Twilight Elf, I'm strongest at…well twilight. That's why I changed."
"Oh." Abcd and I uttered in unison.
"We're almost to the cave, I promise." Robin said assuring. It was the truth too; right around the next turn was a dead end into a cave. Robin let out a shrill whistle and waited attentively.
Out of the wide mouth of the cave emerged a beautiful beast; a huge phoenix with blazing white irises inside a ring of gold and a delicate arrangement of golden feathers.
"This is Lady, my Phoenix. I know it's not a very original name but I like it. She can fly us to the dragon's layer."
In one fluid motion, I was scooped up into Robin's arms and being carefully set on the back of Lady; Abcd follow closely behind. Lady kneeled down so that Robin could swing his leg over her neck and settle easily. Quicker than my stomach would have liked, we took off into the dark, looming sky.
It took no time at all to gain altitude as the wind brushed my hair back and caressed my face. I closed my eyes and soaked in the amazing feeling of flying. "Kendra, Abcd," Robin called over his shoulder, "open your eyes!"
We obeyed his command and stared in awe; surrounding us were tiny, shimmering stars of various colors and brightness. I didn't know how this was possible, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
I leaned close to Robin's ear and whispered, "Can I have one?"
At first he was confused, but quickly realized what I was talking about and nodded his head. At first I was hesitant, but I swallowed my fear and outstretched my hand into the sky.
A moment later my palm connected with a warm ball of light and I clasped my hand around it. I could see the star's light slipping through the cracks in my fingers and I slowly unclasped my fingers. A shimmering soft indigo star was gently hovering in the palm of my hand and Abcd gasped.
Slowly she reached her hand out as well and captured a star. Hers was shinier and peach, but it wasn't as big as mine.
Robin hollered, "Hold on!" over his shoulder and the phoenix took a huge dive. A huge current of air blasted the three of us like you wouldn't believe and Abcd let out a little shriek.
We leveled out and landed softly in the middle of the sky. "What the heck?" I said utterly confused, how did the phoenix land in the middle of the sky?
Robin laughed and explained, "The lair is invisible to the human eye. Therefore only magical creatures can see it." He hopped off the back of the phoenix and caressed her beak.
Once I got inside the lair, it became visible but I wished it was still invisible. The inside reeked of decay and a foul rotting. Blood was smeared in the sickest ways against the walls, but what freaked me out the worst were the handprints. The whole place was emitting a gloomy blue glow.
"I don't like the feel of this place," Abcd whispered frightened, "where is Gavin?"
"He's locked in a room somewhere…I don't know where exactly, sorry." Robin explained with a frown.
There are rooms in here? I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by a massive roar, "We've been detected. Stay calm and don't look it in the eyes!" I whispered to Abcd.
The cave around us shook fiercely and stalactites fell from the ceiling. Robin abruptly thrust his arms around Abcd and threw her to the side; a stalactite fell and shattered right where she was standing. Abcd deeply blushed and muttered a quick 'thank you'.
"What humans dare enter my cave?" Rumbled a deep, female voice.
Robin took one deep breath and shouted, "Robin, Prince of the Twilight Elves, Kendra Sorensen, the Fairy Queen's second and Abcd, a former fairy. We wish to collect Gavin Rose, the human Dragon Tamer, from you."
"Ah Robin," A smooth voice sliced through the air, "long time no see. How is your father?"
"Hello Lynthia." Robin greeted flatly, "I wouldn't know at the moment." Into our sight came a very average looking dragon; silvery looking scaled glinted off the blue lighting making her look metallic. She had black eyes that immediately froze Abcd in her place and I was just about there. I wasn't a Dragon Tamer without Seth.
"Who is this Gavin boy you speak of? Do you mean my human?" She asked cunningly.
Robin looked offended, "Yes, you have no right to claim him or anyone as yours. Do you forget that you have a notorious record with the Twilight Elves?"
Lynthia roared, "Must you bring up that touchy subject!"
"Where's Gavin?" Robin demanded.
"If your friends can look me in the eyes, then you may take him." Lynthia offered with finality.
Robin immediately spat back, "No that's not a fair trade. Think of something else."
Lynthia pondered for a moment, thinking through what she wanted carefully. Finally, she proposed, "Well I do like the girl, Kendra…I would trade him for her. If you aren't willing to trade her then I want something from her."
"What do you want from me?" I asked carefully avoiding her cold gaze. "I want blood." Lynthia demanded firmly.
I hesitated for a long time and thought about what this strange dragon could do with my blood. I was going to ask what she would do with it but I knew I wouldn't get a straight answer, so I decided to ask Robin something instead, "Should I do it?"
A look of hesitation crossed his face and he asked carefully, "How bad do you want this guy back?"
I understood what he meant and made my final choice. Quickly, I reached down and picked up a shard of rock; before I thought about what I was doing I jabbed it into my arm and yanked it back out. Crimson pulsed from the deep hole and Lynthia inhaled in excitement.
Swiftly, Lynthia carved a small bowl from a hunk of rock and collected my blood as it dripped down my arm. Once the bowl was half full she gazed into the pool in the bowl, "He's down the hallway, take your first right then follow the hallway all the way down until you're forced to turn left. He's behind the last door."
"Thank you, I guess." Abcd's small voice traveled through the cave. Then as if we were running out of time, the three of us sprinted past the weird dragon and down the hallway. It took us no time at all to reach the final door and with one swift kick from Robin, it was split in two.
I prepared myself to face the person who haunted my dreams for what seemed like forever.
You see, this is what happens when I leave Gavin alone for a few chapters! He gets himself into trouble :D R&R my lovelies I hope you liked this chapter.