Regius was conflicted.

  There was no going back.

  He had tried to act cool in front of Deina and Laios, but frankly he wanted nothing more than to go back home, no matter how much he hated school. He couldn’t sleep that night- the possibility of more strange dreams scared him too much.

  Still, after flopping around for several hours, he drifted into uneasy sleep.

  Thank you, Regius.

  He had no dreams, just those words echoing in his head.

  “Regius,” a girl’s voice called, knocking softly on his door as he woke the next day. At first, he grumbled and tried to keep sleeping before recalling the events of the previous day.

  ‘I’m going to die,’ he remembered. A sigh floating from his lips, the brown-haired boy sat up, quickly combing his messy hair with his hand. “Give me a sec, Deina.”

  He quickly changed into some random old clothes he found lying around, tiredly walking out the door into the now familiar wooden hallway. Due to his lack of sleep, bags were visible under his eyes and the usually energetic boy could barely keep his eyes open.

  “Are you alright, boy?” Laios asked from his chair as Regius stumbled into the main room of the house. The boy sighed, putting on a slightly more cheerful expression. “Yep, just tired.”

  “We are setting off today, there’s no more time to rest,” Deina warned, a small bag slung over her shoulder as she sat at the table. “There’s a route that leads straight to the altar that takes only one day but it’s been so overrun with shadelings it’s physically impossible to pass through. We have to go the long way, which will take a few days.”

  Regius scowled, crossing his arms. “You people really didn’t design a backup route?”

  Laios smiled, surprisingly keeping calm. “Unfortunately so. There is a closer way but it passes through one of the land of fire villages that is the most hostile, so you cannot go that way.”

  “Are you ready? We’re leaving,” Deina announced, standing up and beckoning to her older brother. “I have everything we need, you just need to bring some water and clothes.”

  Laios helpfully handed the boy a clear wooden bottle of water with a cork, and one of the land of fire’s boring brown capes. As much as Regius didn’t really want them, he took them, throwing on the cape and pocketing the water bottle. “Um, thanks.”

  “It’s nothing compared to your sacrifice,” the elder insisted, giving Regius a last warm smile. “Deina, I assume you’ve memorized the ritual incantations?”

  “Of course.”

  For the start of a heroic quest, their exit was pretty boring. The two ran into some early waking residents- a messily-dressed boy poking a worm with a branch, a pink-haired girl dressed for school clutching a notebook, a teacher skipping class at a vending machine, and a tired blonde shopkeeper sipping at a can of coca cola. Interestingly, none of them seemed eager to approach Deina.

  Regius tried to keep up with Deina, before promptly tripping on a rock and crashing into the dusty earth.

  ‘I hate my life,” he grumbled internally, then frowned when he realized how ironic that sounded in his current situation. The boy gingerly sat up, and then returned to a standing position only to realize Deina was nowhere to be seen.

  At this rate, he wouldn’t even make it out of the village.

  “Excuse me, are you okay?”

  Regius whipped around, seeing the pink-haired girl from earlier. He noticed the text on her notebook was now visible- “Village Archaios”. Was that the name of this village? That meant there were others, right?

  “I’m alright,” he managed when he noticed the girl was still waiting for a reply. “But, uh, did you see Deina? Brown eyes, black hair.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Everyone here knows her. She’s the elder’s granddaughter after all,” the girl replied softly with a nod. She took a step towards one way on the path. “Are you Regius- Lord Caleo’s sacrifice? You must be headed to the west gate.”

  Regius wasn’t exactly sure, but since the pink-haired girl knew about the sacrifice situation, she must know the way. Finally, the brown haired boy nodded and followed her.

  “What's your name? Why do you know me?” Regius asked, trying to strike up casual conversation. The girl was silent for a moment, before responding. “Memoria. Everyone knows about Lady Logia’s prophecy.”

  She fell silent after that. She was probably another introvert, but at least she didn’t seem Deina-type mean, just kind of shy.

  “Regius, hurry up,” Deina called impatiently. Regius looked up, noticing Memoria had already led him to Deina. He hurried towards his sister, quickly turning back to thank the pink-haired girl. “Thanks, Memoria.”

  The girl nodded, then turned and walked away.

  Regius followed Deina in silence after that, being extra careful to not trip and fall on his face again. What was with his luck, running into all these silent introverts? “Uh, who was that Memoria girl?”

  “12 years old, parents are from another village but she lives here to go to patrolling school,” Deina replied simply. Regius had no idea what patrolling school was or why Deina knew so many details, but he decided to accept it.

  Deina didn’t look heavily armed- just her torch, and she wore only the usual plain white t-shirt and shorts under the land of fire’s signature brown cape. Still, she was absolutely relaxed despite the risk of shadelings.

  Still, with her personality, it made sense the people in the village didn’t really like her. Finally, the brown haired boy decided to ask.

  “Do the people in your village not like you?”

  Deina halted in her tracks, turning around to give her older brother a cold stare. “No, they don’t.”

  She resumed walking, and Regius was too scared of her to ask any more. Strange how much presence a short, unarmed girl has.

  “Shadeling here,” the black-haired girl suddenly announced as they walked into a small cavern. She gestured towards a dark clot on the ceiling, unslinging her torch and lighting it with a whisper.

  The shadow crept along the walls in silence, but vanished just like the one before as soon as Deina touched it with her fire. What they didn’t anticipate, though, was the second one that leapt out of the shadow- did shadows have shadows?- of the first.

  “What in the-?” Deina yelped as the shadeling latched onto her shoulder. Quickly, she jabbed her still lit torch at it, disintegrating it like the previous ones. However, a second later, blood began seeping through her cape.

  “Are you alright?” Regius asked, now much more afraid of shadelings. The thing had only touched Deina for less than a second, surely it couldn’t do this much damage.

  “I’m alright,” Deina muttered, though looking at the sweat trickling down her face she obviously wasn’t. She took off the brown cape, revealing the blood-soaked sleeve of her white t-shirt. Her sharp brown and amber eyes looked around their possessions, before she uncorked her own water bottle and poured some water over the injury.

  “Do you have any bandages?” she asked Regius. The brown-haired boy froze, quickly counting over the materials Laios provided him with. “No, sorry.”

  Deina scowled. Finally, the black-haired girl searched through her small bag and retrieved a spare cape. She expertly tore off a piece, before wrapping it around her injured shoulder.

  “I’m okay now,” she announced, quickly stuffing away her supplies and getting up. Pain was still evident in her eyes and ginger movements, but Regius didn’t know what else to do but get the mission over quickly.

  “Alright, let’s hurry.”

  Despite the underground nature of the cave world, it was possible to see small bits of the sky from miniature cracks in the ceiling that seemed too well-carved to be an accident. They were all in just the right places to see the upper world, but were probably invisible to a person from above.

  After an unknown while later, Regius noticed the sky stained orange through one of the cracks. Considering how tired he was, and how much Deina’s shoulder seemed to hurt, he decided it was time to collapse and fall asleep.

  “We should rest now,” he told his younger sister. The girl glared at him, but Regius didn’t give in. “Seriously, we’re exhausted. We have plenty of time.”

  They probably didn’t. Regius had checked his hand that morning- half of his finger was gone, meaning the burning was speeding up.

  Deina yelped as she accidentally bumped her shoulder against a stalagmite from the cave floor. Regius shot her a smug ‘I told you so’ look, and the girl sighed.

  “Fine.” She threw off her bag and cape and retrieved a pillow from the former, creating a makeshift bed and helping herself. Regius blinked. “Uh, what about me?”

  “Figure it out.”

  The boy scowled, but part of him was happy his sister still had a sense of humor. Maybe she had a social life after all. His cheerful mood was quickly spoiled when he noticed almost his entire finger had burnt away, but he was still happier than all the days he had been in the land of fire.

  With a final sigh, Regius took off his cape and tried to arrange it like Deina’s, poofing up one end to serve as a pillow.

  That night, he had no dreams.