Back home I was taught that if you wanted to go somewhere you used your own two legs to get there. No horses, no chariots to drive you around and especially no transportation devices. So when Will told me that to get to this 'Great Hollow' I had to step onto a red platform and I'd be teleported there I merely looked at him with a face that screamed 'are you insane' and said in a dead serious voice.

"You've gotta be shitting me."

Will frowned. He raised his fist and slammed it onto my head with a reassuring 'THONK'. "Keep your tongue held. You've got the worst swearing I've ever heard."

I winced and rubbed at the sore spot. God help him if he made a lump grow there. "I'm not the only one who swears y'know..."

The historian shook his head and stepped away from me. He turned to the others and waved his hand. "Alright, everyone get onto the duct. We need to get this fixed quickly before the monsters attack the city."

"Right." Everyone agreed with him and as one they walked onto the platform. The green light began to kick in and I stood there, a good two metres away from the object. There was no way they would make me use that thing. Who knew where it would take us? When we went to the Waterways we walked and I was very happy about that. Why did this have to be any different?

From inside the light, Moses turned to look at me. He raised his eyebrows and motioned for me to hurry up. I shook my head furiously. Uh huh. No way. I would rather die.

"C'mon, Lexy!" Norma cried. She began waving her arms around and I was reminded of a chimpanzee. "What're you standing around for?! Get in!"

I shook my head again. "No thanks. I'll walk."

Senel scowled. Beside him, Shirley clasped her hands to her chest. "Please, Alex." She begged. "It's going to send us there without you if you don't hurry!"

"Oh what a shame that would be..." I muttered.

Fed up with my stubbornness, Senel stepped off the now humming machine. Chloe and Shirley cried out to him, wondering what he was doing, but their questions were answered when he stepped up to me.

He reached out and grabbed my arm. "You're coming whether you like it or not."

I jerked it back and put a couple feet between us. "No. I'm not."

"Stop being so damn difficult and get in the duct! It's not going to break or anything!"

"That's what they all say and then BAM they wind up in another dimension where animals rule the world and humans are slaughtered for feasts. I don't know about you, but I kinda like being at the top of the food chain."

Jay shook his head and sighed loudly. He shrugged his shoulders and spoke with a lighter tone. "Senel, the moron doesn't want to go so don't make her. After all, wild savages can't be controlled."

My eye twitched and I glared at him. "What did you say, Midget?"

"It seems you're delusional too. Poor thing. It must be the fact your brain is working too hard trying to figure out your true gender that it won't operate properly."

That was the last straw. In a rage I streaked towards him. Without thinking I entered the duct and grabbed his collar, shaking him back and forth with as much strength as I could. "You son of a—"

And just like that, I was engulfed in a blinding light. When I opened my eyes I found myself standing in a completely different area. We were on a beach. A pure white beach with water around us. Directly in front was what looked like a huge hole.

I tried to speak. Tried to talk. Tried to say something intelligent but all I managed to get out was a pitiful squeak. They tricked me. No, he tricked me. That stupid girly, purple wearing, marshmallow! The bastard twisted my mind around and lured me into the duct! "You!" I snapped my head around and wished with all my might I could blow up his head right then and there. "You made me go on this thing!"

Jay glared back but his amused smile gave it all away. "Did I? I didn't intend to make you come. I would've been happier if you stayed behind."

Grunting I let go of him. He was such an asshole. I suddenly realized I was on a duct still and yelped. Quick as a bullet I ran off of it, scared it would bring me somewhere else. My eyes large and my breathing lapsed, Moses laughed at me.

--

Alright, I'll admit I had a little fear of going underground. Tunnels of any sort, waterways, hell even going under a bridge sent shivers through me. Despite that I had gone through lots of them and lived. How the paranoia started, I don't know. Never have, never will. It was there one day and it never left, that's all.

The name Great Hollow gave me an idea that it was deep. Really deep, actually. I mean, c'mon, the Great Hollow? It's practically self-explanatory. The image I had in my head was nothing like the real thing though.

Coming up to the edge of it, I could see from between Moses and Chloe why the place got its name. I had pictured it as something like an empty tree stump deep into the ground but what I saw was completely different. A gigantic hole spread across the beach and down—really, really far down—into the ground. Strange looking leaf things were sticking up inside of it and I froze the moment I saw how far under it went. "No."

Everyone stopped walking and turned to stare at me. "What?" Senel asked.

"No." I repeated. I stumbled backwards. "I'm not going down there."

Norma rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Lexy. Don't tell me you're afraid of heights?"

Moses snorted at the thought and I laughed with him. That was funny. Someone part of the bird clan in the Sandor family being afraid of heights? What a joke. "It's not the height." I admitted. "It's the fact it's below ground level."

From Senel's side Jay let out a chuckle. It was obvious he was mocking me and instantly I snarled towards him. "You're afraid of going underground?" He asked.

"Does it matter? You're the one afraid of little girls." I retorted.

His violet eyes darkened when the memory of me catching his feeble attempt of controlling Harriet flashed through his mind. He frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets. Before he was able to answer back Will stepped up.

"That's enough." The teacher said. He glared at me. "Alex you will stop being selfish and overcome your fear. I don't care if it kills you just hurry up." He then turned to Norma and told her to active the switch.

I made a face and mimicked his words in a quiet voice. Shirley giggled softly beside me and Chloe simply hung her head. The knight looked down at me with a disapproving stare. "How can you be afraid of going underground? Nothing can fall on you."

"It's like how people are afraid of water—" She froze up suddenly. "—you don't really have a reason. You just don't like it."

"R-right..." She nervously bit her lip and faced away from me.

I glanced at her and arched an eyebrow. Great, now she was acting weird too. What was with everyone and their issues? The ground under me gave a heavy shudder and I wobbled, my arms flailing. Thankfully Moses was behind me. He grabbed my shoulder and steadied me. As I straightened it dawned on me what was happening and I frantically tried to get back to the surface but it was too late. We were already forty feet from the edge.

My eyes stared hungrily up at where I saw the sky. It was so far away. How could I live down there?

"Lexy, hello?" Norma's voice cut through my panicked thoughts. Slowly I spun around to face her. She was standing with the others on a trail made of leaves. Oh, yippee. A path of hardened leaves. That made me feel so much better.

I sighed. There was no use in freaking out anymore since the way out was obviously not going to come any faster that way. "Yeah... I'm coming..." Slowly and without any energy, I dragged my feet over to them.

If you thought my nerves were bad on the first level imagine them when we caught the next elevator to the second. It would have made me much more at ease if the path wasn't a bunch of crystallized paper thin things. Hell, even if a monster popped up I would've been happy. That was the strangest thing. On our way to through the paths Norma had gone on about how many monsters they encountered here before yet we hadn't seen one yet. I was beginning to wonder if she was lying or they had simply mixed up the wrong place.

As if he could read my thoughts, Will spoke up. "This isn't right. We haven't encountered a single monster yet this whole time and we're almost there."

"Yeah, I was just thinking that." Senel said.

Jay crossed his arms. He placed his fingertips to his lips and began thinking aloud. "It's possible all the monsters have gone down below to the water if that smoke really is there. After all, it's supposed to draw them in, is it not?"

I glanced around, trying to catch sight of any movement other than ourselves. It was useless. Nothing but walls and decorated trails met my eyes. "I don't see anything. You might be right, Midget." I turned to Moses. "Can you smell anything?" I asked.

The red head frowned. "No. I already tried that but nothin' came up."

"Dammit." I swore. I clenched my fists and bent my head down. "If only I had my beast! This would be so much easier."

The others blinked and Moses put a hand on my head. "Al' it ain't yer fault. Y'jus' haven't found 'im yet. Besides, if it's as bad as you are at trackin' then it wouldn't be any use anyways." He grinned and I punched him in the chest.

"Shut up." I smirked.

"At any rate," Will continued, breaking our side conversation, "we should head further down to see if that's the case."

Norma jumped into the air, fist pumped. "Right! Charge!"

I tilted my head as everyone walked past and towards the last elevator. I lingered behind until I was with Shirley and Senel. I leaned towards the Merines. "Charge?" I quipped.

She smiled sweetly and I saw a hint of sadness in those large blue eyes of hers. "A friend of ours used to say that but she... she left a year ago."

"Oh." A girl, eh? I'd have to ask Moses later on more about her. He probably had a crush on her if she was pretty and her bust was big. The thought of my cousin drooling over an hourglass shaped woman made me grin. He was such a dog at times.

We finally reached the lowest level of the Great Hollow and as we stepped down I gulped. It was dark and gloomy, a disgusting smell in the air. What made matters worse was that there was a roof above us. A roof meant weight. Weight meant a chance it could fall and kill us. I shuddered. How comforting.

"I don't see anything." Jay said as he surveyed the area. Everyone was holding their nose to try and block out the putrid smell. I felt bad for Moses since he had a sensitive nose.

Norma turned to me. "Hey, Lexy. You've got really good eyes, right? Can't you see clear?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But there isn't anything here except..." My voice trailed off and I squinted. Was that really what I thought it was?

"Except what?" Will probed.

I pointed towards the end of the river where it came out near the left side. "It looks like there's something over by the water." I said.

At the same time everyone headed towards where I had indicated. The closer they got the easier it was for them to see what I was talking about. When we were merely a couple feet away from the wall each of us stopped dead in our tracks.

"Wh-what is that?" Norma cried.

Chloe frowned. She furrowed her brow and tried to concentrate on the animal. "It looks like a bird that's letting mist out of its mouth!"

Indeed that's exactly what it was. A shadowy figure of a large feathered beast stood by the river's edge. Its beak was open wide, almost horrifyingly so, and thick, black smoke rolled off its tongue like dancing fumes. It touched the water and I watched the liquid turn an even darker shade of grey.

Senel formed his fists and slid his feet into position. "Alright, let's take it!" He cried.

All at once we brought out our weapons. My hand clenched and the claws flew up. The bird, hearing our warrior-like cries, flicked its eyes towards us. It didn't move an inch but the smoke irrupting from its mouth twisted away from the water. It broke off and began forming a figure. A large, human-like shape.

Moses froze. "Whoa. What the hell is that?"

"Does it matter?" I asked. I spun my rod and brandished my claws in front. "If it came from the bird it's gotta be an enemy."

"Right."

The figure was large, about Will's size. It might've been male, or it might've been female. I wasn't sure at the time. The only thing on my mind was to defeat it and get the hell out of that underground death bed.

With as much energy as I had I lunged to the creature. It didn't use a weapon. Instead it guarded my attack with its arms. My rod smacked hard against its forearms and I took the chance to swing my right hand through the air. I brought it down into the beasts' shoulder. It let out a grunt and pushed me back with so much force I was sent flying through the air and into Shirley.

She cried out as my body landed on top of her and I groaned. So much for gaining the upper hand. "You okay?" I asked from above.

Shirley nodded, although wincing slightly. Her fair hair was splayed out all over the ground and I noticed for the first time how it seemed to nearly glow in the dark. "Y-yeah, I'm fine..." Her eyes snapped open. "Ahh!"

I spun around. There was a large ball of fumes coming at us with rapid speed. It didn't look like it could harm us at first, but then it started to circle us and over time my eyes began to lose their ability to see. "D-dammit."

"Shirley!" I could hear Senel screaming outside the black abyss. "Shirley can you hear me!?"

"Al!" There was Moses, calling out for me.

My eyes unable to work, I reached down to where I knew Shirley was. I grabbed her arm and yanked her up to her feet. She was coughing and gagging, the reeking smell of rotten corpses too strong for her senses. I had a plan. I knew there was one thing to do. If it was going to capture us then not only was I not going to let it take two of us together, but it was easier to escape if I was alone.

So what did I do? I did the typical heroine thing. Okay, the way I did it wasn't typical, but the whole concept was. I grabbed Shirley around the waist and lifted her up into the air. I did a ninety degree turn on my heel. "Sorry if this hurts." I grumbled to her. She probably didn't hear me but I didn't care. Using every last muscles in my body I threw her past the smoke and listened intently until I heard her land hard on the ground. She let out a cry and I sighed. One down, one to go.

My mind was so keen on trying to get out I didn't notice a hand behind me reach in and grab my collar. I choked on my spit, turned and gapped. "Wh-what the hell—?" There was no time to finish my sentence. In the moment I blinked, shocked to see Jay leaning into the darkness to pull me out, the shadows spun and whirled around in such a fury I was forced to cover my head with my arms. The breath in my lungs left me, I was gasping, and I heard cries from Jay as the over whelming power forced us to collapse.