There was only blackness, the kind of blackness when your mind awakes from sleep before your eyes. The kind of blackness you wish would send you back to that lovely dream you had just lost. Reyna tried to shut her eyelids tighter, but it was too late. Once you are aware that you are trying not to wake, it's all over. You can still 'rest your eyes' if you so desire, but it's not the same.
Just to be obnoxious, a beam of light began to flicker in her eyes. Fat drops of water began to fall on her skin and some creature far off, hopefully far off, lit her ears up with its cackling.
"Oh please…geez shut up already. I'm opening my eyes."
Two eyes peeled from skin like a cabbage. They opened and saw green. When did her grandparent's ceiling become green and…wet?
"Crud, don't tell me I fell asleep."
Reyna snuck out last night to watch the stars again. The six stars that formed the Archer always had shown the brightest this day of the year. She had the perfect spot, free of tree branches and on the edge of "…Soaring Cliff! Double crud."
Reyna turned her head ever so slightly to the left and there was nothing. Not like nothing on the ground…nothing. More like there was no ground…nothing. While her body and head rested on rock, one of her braids dangled over the side of the cliff. The ribbon tied to the end blew in the air like a red flag, literally. Panic set in and her face puffed up holding back a scream. Cheeks washed apple red until she released her breath.
"I'm too young to die," shouted Reyna as she rolled away from the cliff. Her heart raced like it was Baker's day in town, just substitute excitement for a dash of frantic. Her body settled a safe distance away from the rock edge.
Air pumped out of Reyna like the blacksmith's bellows. After a few salvos, her breaths got longer and deeper. She took one deep gulp of air and released it. As quickly as the panic subsided, the first chuckle came. Her lips were so tight that it started out more like a spit. A few chuckles later with her head bobbing up and down the laughter became thunderous. Reyna wrapped her arms around her stomach as she vibrated.
"Oh, it hurts…it hurts, the laughing pains. Oh god I have to stop." Reyna wiped the tears from her eyes, most were from the overzealous laughter. Deep down she was still slightly terrified. Instead of waking to see green she could just have as easily woken to blue…fast approaching blue.
Reyna sat up. The Soaring Cliff overlooked the Red Sea. Her grandpa, Merwin used to tell her stories of his days as a sailor on the Red Sea, days long past. Merwin was a hard man wrapped in a soft package. She could hear his stern voice in her head, "Reyna if it wasn't for all the dumb you'd be a smart girl."
Speaking of her grandpa, she may have survived the Soaring Cliff, but if she doesn't get home in time, she won't survive his scolding. Reyna looked out to the sea. The sun had just wiggled free of the horizon. She still had a little time.
Reyna looked down at her locket. She cradled it in her hand. "You know old people they are always getting up early. I'd better get home or I'll have to sit through another long and boring speech from grandpa and we both don't want that."
Reyna kissed the quartz embedded in the silver locket with a smile. Before she let it drop to her chest, she shook it to see the liquid inside swish around its crystal chamber. With determination edged on her face, Reyna looked into the dense forest. She tied back her raven-black braids and bit down on the bottom of her lip like she always did when she got serious.
"Ok let's do this," the let's meaning her legs.
Reyna began to run towards the opening of the forest. She reached the end of the rock and took a step into the green. She rushed right into a broad leaf brimming with morning dew. The wetness startled her for a moment. She swept the beads from her forehead.
"Oh come on Rey, Rey wake up, what's a little water when you just almost fell into the sea, for crab's sake."
With that, Reyna charged into the forest at a run for her grandparent's cottage.
#
Time was running thin, but Reyna thought she could still make it to her covers before grandpa ventured into her room with hot oatmeal and cinnamon apples. She bunny-hopped a few stones bearded with moss. Fought her way through some pushy vines and ducked under a gaggle of bushes with only a little more to go.
She was racing though the forest faster than ever before. Motivation ran high to avoid yet another one of Merwin's 'I thought you were smarter than this' speeches. To which her only answer was 'Well one of us in this room was very wrong. Raise your hand if you are that person. Grandpa this is the part where you raise your hand.' Of course, he stopped laughing at that like five years ago and twenty speeches later.
If Reyna kept up her pace, she might have made it to the warmth of her covers long before the scent of cinnamon wafted through the cottage. However, thanks to some billowing smoke and the focus of a foggy mirror, Reyna got distracted. She could smell the smoky hickory-flavor in the air. It always reminded her of roasted meat. Her mouth grew wet with saliva.
The dirt ridge Reyna ran across overlooked the forest floor. She followed the finger of smoke with her eyes to the bottom where much brighter colors outdid the natural browns and greens of the forest. Half a dozen tents sprouted up around the trees. They celebrated the orange and red colors of House Randal. Reyna spotted a knitted flaming axe flapping in the wind. She always thought that flaming anything was a silly symbol when you lived on an island that was mostly wood. Either way the camp was enough to make her stop dead in her tracks.
She had been around long enough to know that these men were on a hunt. Reyna loved to see knights in their metal suits, but they never hunted in them, too much clanking. She also loved seeing horses, which were a rarity on the island. Normally the hunters brought a litter of Rasher hounds with them, not horses. No the thing that made Reyna stop in her tracks and risk a scolding sat nestled in the far corner of the camp. The yellow and green tent of House Brighton. Could he be in that tent right now just waking up stretching for the sky? Reyna thought it was worth a look.