▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 10║▌║▌║█│▌

We walked through the forest of enchanting lights and fairies. I am thankful that I am partnered with someone I am familiar with, but at the same time it was as awkward as it would be as if we weren’t acquainted. Sasha and I were both too focused on looking for John and Giselle to talk much at all which led to a painful air of awkwardness between us. I suddenly had an idea. Sasha was a vampire which meant, “Hey, Sasha. Do you think you can transform into a bat and fly around to look for them? We could cover a lot more ground that way I think.”

She looked at me with annoyance in her eyes and told me, “You shouldn’t assume monsters powers based off of what your world thinks they are. It’s rude, but yes, I can transform into a bat. I can’t transform in this forest though. The fairies won’t allow anyone but the gods and themselves to fly in here. I would hate to be the one caught by the fairies disobeying their wishes. Sorry I can’t do it, but I value my life.”

I nodded in understanding and told her, “It’s fine. I’m just trying to find every way possible to find them.”

“They seem to mean a lot to you. Were you all good friends in your world?” Sasha questioned me with her eyes hungry for information.

My face scrunched up in disgust as the thought of being friends with that red-haired bitch crossed my mind, much less good friends. I corrected her saying, “The girl and I are NOTfriends. I’m only trying this hard because John has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. He has stuck with me through thick and thin, and he has also helped me in so many ways. I can’t just not try my best to help him when he is in need.”

Sasha moved her red eyes, scanning the landscape, as she said, “I understand. I have also had people like that in my life. I had a friend that I would do anything for, and I also had a person who I absolutely despised. I just thought you all were fine with each other because you all walked together everywhere.”

I turned my focus from searching and turned my head toward Sasha in bewilderment. I wonder just how long she has been alive and how much she has seen? The light illuminating from the nature around us painted a light glow on Sasha’s body. She had her jet-black hair tied in a simple three strand braid, and her pearly white skin glowed in the light. She looked beautiful. She caught my stare and asked annoyed, “What?”

Thinking of a way to save myself, I told her, “Nothing, I was just thinking how this world may not be so different from mine after all.”

She nodded and said, “I guess every society is always going to have some similarities with others.”

My muscles relaxed when I heard that she bought my excuse. Right now, I can barely have a regular conversation much less a conversation involving me staring at her. We continued our walk through the forest in search of the missing people when all of a sudden Sasha tackled me to the ground. We slid about 5 feet from where we landed on the ground, and before I could ask what was that for, I heard the thud of something large land on the ground. I looked up over Sasha’s shoulder and saw what looked like a griffin. I heard about this kind of monster from a person in my history class who particularly liked ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology. Sasha rolled off of me and as she did the griffin opened it’s mouth and let out an ear bursting screech. I writhed on the ground in pain from the screech as my hearing was knocked out for a couple of seconds. Sasha picked me off the ground from my shirt and screamed at me (though I could barely hear it from the griffin’s screech), “Go behind the tree beside us and stay there! I’ll handle this okay?!”

I did all I could to nod my head, and stumbled my way to the tree. I looked back at the griffin and Sasha, and I saw Sasha speed her way to the griffin. She went and punched the griffin in the side of the face, and I could feel the shockwave of the punch resonate in me and my surroundings. What the hell is going on? Sasha continued to hammer the griffin with punches, and the griffin reacted to the punches by moving away from the punches. The punches landed on the griffin, but from what I could tell, it wasn’t affected at all by the barrage. Finally, the griffin made it’s move. When Sasha went for another punch to the griffin’s head, the griffin bit Sasha’s arm and started to rag doll her. The griffin shook and shook it’s head until finally, he let go of her and sent her flying. She slammed on the tree I was under, and fell down right beside me. Feeling a little better, I crawled to where she was and examined the extent of her injuries. She was out cold. I looked at her arm, and it was bleeding badly, and the bones were also shattered in it. I turned back toward the griffin, and I saw it’s menacing body walk toward us slowly. It clearly realized it has won the battle, and now it is coming to claim it’s prize. I was petrified. I don’t want to die here. I closed my eyes just to somehow calm myself, and I reached out my arms to cover my face and body. All of a sudden, I could feel the energy in my body leave me, and I started to black out. Before my mind went out the world, I thought I could hear a faint shriek of the griffin. I then succumbed to the darkness…

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌