"I'm fine," Ana said, although her voice stumbled slightly, from her chattering teeth. "It's not warm here, that's for sure."
She stroked after Laurel, doing her best to keep kicking, although her legs felt like lead. "I hope that's land," she said. "Or else I will die here. And I really don't want to die by drowning." She couldn't feel or see the bottom, and that made her worried. Down there, deep down, there might be something, some sort of creature, slowly swimming up from the black depths, reaching out it's tentacles or whatever to grasp her legs and pull her down, down, down-
She swore and swam a little faster, heart beating fast. She hated the water.
"Yeah," Laurel agreed. The glowing thing got closer and closer, and Laurel was becoming almost 100% sure that it was land. The land itself didn't seem to be glowing, but something on it. She swam a bit quicker, not wanting to stay in the freezing water anymore. After a few more seconds of swimming, Laurel felt something under her feet. They were still a little ways away from the land, but a few seconds proved that the floor of the pool had risen enough to touch. Laurel stood, finding the water was coming up to her chest now. She waded forward, each step bringing her more and more out of the water. "Oh, thank the gods," she sighed in relief, glancing over at Ana. "Now we just have to hope there's a way out." Laurel shook her head and emerged completely from the water. The beach was mostly little pebbles mixed in with some sand. The only source of light was the glowing thing, which seemed to a column of something.
When the ground rose up enough for Ana to touch, she felt like a weight had fallen from her shoulders. She still felt worried and panicky, but the fear was lessened. You're such a coward, she told herself sternly. She surged through the water to catch up with Laurel, and they made their way onto the land together.
"I agree," she said, shivering slightly. "Do you think this is where the weapon is?" With a panic, she realized that she had forgotten about her daggers, and checked her jacket. The knives were still there, which was lucky, but at least they came to her when she called, if she lost them.
"I don't know. Sure looks like it." Laurel frowned and wrapped her arms around herself. All thoughts except for the weapon were totally gone from her mind. She carefully approached the column, half-expecting something to jump out at her. But nothing did. As Laurel got closer, it became clear that the column was made of some sort of glowing white stone. She reached out to touch the column, which in hindsight was obviously not a good idea. The moment her fingers connected with the stone– it was freezing cold, almost like ice– a burst of power shot through the column, flinging Laurel back like a doll. She tumbled onto the smooth stones, flat on her back, feeling rather faint. The energy– or power or whatever it was– had coursed through her, leaving behind a slightly tingly feeling. "Um…" Laurel struggled into a sitting position and stared at the stone, still glowing brightly and looking annoyingly innocent. "So, don't touch that." She coughed and shook her head. Nothing hurt too much, but as she stood, her legs felt a little wobbly.
Ana was opening her mouth to say something about how strange it was down here, when there was a burst of light, and Laurel was flung back onto the ground. Forgetting anything she was about to say, Ana rushed over, concerned. "Are you okay?" She asked. She maded sure Laurel wasn't injured before letting her get to her feet. "What was that?" She asked, looking at the column suspisciously.
"Heh, yeah. I think so." Laurel shook out her hands and glared at the stone. "I have no idea. Maybe we should look for something else. I don't think this is what we're looking for." Laurel made to start walking away from the stone, but a shout made her turn right back around.
"Wait, don't go!" A figure suddenly stepped from the stone. It was barely there at first but soon grew to be almost completely solid. Laurel frowned, then gasped.
"Alina?" She exclaimed, staring at the so-called queen. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, you two managed to find the first weapon." Alina smiled brightly. "I'm very proud."
"What about the– did you have to zap me?" Laurel asked, crossing her arms angrily.
"Sorry about that," Alina said, not really looking that remorseful. "But the stone had to make sure you were the correct person. And you are, which was why I was able to appear. Look!" Alina waved at the stone behind her. Laurel looked at it and found that the white of the stone had turned almost completely translucent. Floating in the center of it was something that looked a bit like a staff.
When Alina appeared, Ana stiffened. She hadn't trusted the woman then, and she sure wasn't gonna trust her now. She almost pulled out one of the knives from Endor, and then realized that it would probably do no good against her. She chose to scowl at the woman instead.
"Oh, the stone had to make sure she was the correct person? Then why are you here?" She snapped, not even glancing at the staff that seemed to be floating in the now clear column.
"Well, yes. It was protecting me. I got… summoned, I guess." Alina shrugged. "Only the right person would be able to do that, and Laurel was the right person." She smiled widely at Laurel.
"Right. So are you going to give us some wisdom and tell us a cool fact, or are you just going to float there?" Laurel asked, not very impressed with Alina at the moment. "And is that the weapon we're looking for?" She nodded towards the floating thing.
"I'll give you some wisdom, not to worry. And yes." Alina turned towards the stone and rested a hand on it. Her gaze was almost longing as she stared at the staff. "This is one half of the weapon. Come. Grab it!" She turned back to the pair, eyes eager. Laurel wasn't very excited to touch the stone again. And Alina being so excited for her to grab it made her even more hesitent. She glanced over at Ana to see what she would do.
Ana didn't want to see Alina, but she didn't really have a choice. One of the woman's words made her consider something, though. Alina had said that "only the right person would be able to do that, and Laurel was the right person." Did that mean Laurel was the "chosen one" or some other bullshit like that? If so, Ana was relieved. She didn't want to be anyone special, and Laurel need something powerful to protect her.
At Laurel's look, she smiled slightly. "Do you want me to grab it?" She asked.
"I…" Laurel looked back at Alina, whose expression had turned from excited to slightly nervous. "I think it'll be fine. Since Alina is already here, it probably won't hurt me anymore." She smiled at her friend and stepped up to the stone. With how Alina's expression changed, she guessed something bad might happen to Ana if she tried to grab it. She didn't want to be the reason Ana got hurt. Laurel slowly reached towards the staff, taking a quick breath before letting her fingers brush against the stone. Except they didn't. Instead, they went right through like the stone was simply an illusion. Laurel gasped in surprise, her fingers wrapping around what must be some sort of metal. Alina let out a little sigh.
"Finally. Finally," She breathed. Laurel glanced over at her, then tugged the weapon out of the stone.
"What is this supposed to do? Are we just going to have to whack the monsters on the head with it?" The staff was surprisingly light, but didn't appear to be anything other than pretty.
"Finally, finally." That woman unnerved Ana. Somehow, she didn't think that Alina was just helping them out with pure motives.
There was something in her look that Ana didn't like.
She gazed at the staff. It didn't appear to be much, although she knew that sometimes, the most deadly weapons - or people - looked pure and innocent. But this staff… she couldn't feel any power coming from it, and so she wasn't sure what it would do. "No, since it's a magical weapon, there's sure to be some really useful thing it does." She said this in a dry voice, sending Alina a mocking look. "Maybe it's a boomerang?"
"It is not a boomerang," Alina grumbled, looking very annoyed that Ana had come up with that idea. "It's missing a part. The part that makes it powerful."
"So we really are going to be hitting the monsters with this?" Laurel twirled the staff around a few times, feeling rather let down. After everything that they'd had to go through to get here, the staff wasn't even complete?
"The stone– the thing that makes that staff dangerous– isn't far from here," Alina said, nodding into the darkness around them. "Just go that way and you'll find a way out. From there, your map should be able to tell you where to go."
"Wonderful. Another treasure hunt." Laurel looked over at Ana. "I guess we should go get that." She shot Alina a rather annoyed look. "Thanks for all your help, by the way. It's been really awesome." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Of course. Because it would be too easy to just let us have the whole weapon, wouldn't it?" Ana asked, rolling her eyes. From the look that Laurel sent her, it was clear that the other girl felt the same way she did about the over-complicatedness of the quest.
As they started off to look for the other part of the weapon, Ana spoke. "Do you think that there will be more than two parts that we'll have to find?" She asked. Her voice was filled with annoyance. "Why do you think that they're making us do all of these complicated searchings when they could just give the weapons to us, like Endor did with the knives? It would be so much easier, and waste so much less time."
"Hmm. Based on how this has been going so far, the weapon probably has about seven thousand more parts we'll have to find. We'll probably have to spend the rest of our lives looking for all the parts." Laural squinted into the darkness Alina had pointed her towards. "Honestly, I don't know. You'd think, if they wanted us to do something and help them, they would make it slightly easier for us." Laurel reached the end of the light and stopped. "Um… should we hold hands or something to make sure we don't get lost in the darkness?" She glanced over at Ana. Laurel was getting tired of all the uncertainty and sketchy places they had to walk into. Ana was right. Why couldn't it be easier?
"Hah. Imagine things being easy." Ana laughed shortly. It had barely been a day since they had found out about the Shadow King, and yet the quest for finding the weapons were already incredibly difficult and overly complicated. She was not happy about this. She needed a nap.
She felt a strange twinge at Laurel's question, then shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not. I don't want to lose sight of you again." She sent the girl beside her a crooked half smile.
"I wish I could," Laurel grumbled, throwing an annoyed glance back towards where Alina was. "Oh, good. Me neither." Laurel returned Ana's smile and reached out to grab Ana's hand. It was nice, holding her hand. Very comfortable, and very– she shook her head slightly. Focus was needed for this quest, and focus on where she was going. Not on Ana's hand. The darkness closed in around them, making Laurel feel very uncomfortable. She couldn't see anything. There might have been one of those shadow monsters right next to her and she wouldn't be able to see. Laurel unconsciously squeezed Ana's hand to reassure herself that she wasn't alone. The more they walked, the more nervous she got. Would the darkness ever end, or had Alina tricked them? Finally, she saw a sliver of light ahead of them. "Oh, thank everything." Laurel let out a breath and quickened her pace.
"It would have to be somewhere in the middle of the dark," Analaya observed dryly. While she wasn't afraid of the dark, this darkness was thick and unfriendly… not the kind she'd prefer to walk in during a nightly stroll. She returned Laurel's squeeze, and hurried faster towards the light.
"And of course, we wouldn't have anyone to help us, and no tools except for a few daggers," she said, a sneer evident in her voice. When she was freaked out, it came out in sarcasm and mocking words.
Laurel nodded in agreement, then realized that Ana wouldn't be able to see her and hummed as well. As they got closer to the light, Laurel saw that it wasn't a doorway or an exit, but a strange rectangle of white. "This is not an exit. How are we supposed to leave?" She stopped in front of it, let out a sigh of annoyance, and kicked the thing. It felt like stone, which probably meant Alina had lied to them. Laurel didn't get the chance to complain to Ana, however, because the next second they both appeared on the shore of the lake, right where they'd entered. Laurel blinked in confusion and glanced around, but it really seemed like they were out. "That… that was a weird way to get out."
"And we don't even have the other part of the staff," Ana said, voice tinged with annoyance. She let Laurel's hand go, not letting herself think about how cold she felt without the contact, and looked around, scanning the area. "Nothing seems to be the matter," she said doubtfully. She pulled out a knife just the same, feeling the heavy weight in her palm, how welcome it was, how much more secure she felt because of a piece of metal. And because of Laurel, her brain said, before she shoved the thought away.
"Yeah, unfortunately." Laurel kicked at the ground, giving the staff in her hand an accusing glare. "Yeah… whoever made that thing needs to put a better explanation about how to get out. I'm uncomfortable now." She glanced over at Ana when the other let go of her hand, slightly disappointed. But she understood. Fighting things would be hard if they were holding hands. "Um… how are we supposed to know where the other part of the staff is? Will it be on the map like this place was?"
"If I've learned anything about Alina and Endor, probably not. They'll want us to find it through some sort of inner revelation, or maybe use the part of the staff we have to locate the part we're missing." She glanced doubtfully at the object in Laurel's other hand. "Not sure how well that'll work, but whatever."
"Great." Laurel groaned, tapping the staff against the ground. "Show us the way, you useless piece of metal!" The staff, predictably, did nothing. "Where is the other part?" She waved the staff around a little, hoping that it would point towards somewhere. It didn't. "This is stupid. We'll die of old age before we can do anything." Laurel turned to Ana. "Are you having any inner revelations?"
"Unfortunately not," Ana said, fighting a laugh at the other girl's frustration. "Unless it's waiting at the jeep, I think we should probably look around a bit. What do you think?"
She realized how much she had been deferring to Laurel, when she was usually a person to never listen to anyone's opinions or ideas, no matter how important or intelligent they were. It was a weird feeling, but she liked it. Or maybe she liked Laurel… as a friend, of course.
(Sorry this is so late, life happened all at once and way too fast. :)
"Right. Okay. Treasure hunt it is." Laurel nodded, snickering a little. Monsters were everywhere and they had to go on a hunt for the thing that was supposed to kill them. This was ridiculous. "Let's, uh…" Laurel paused. "Didn't Alina say something about the map? Maybe it'll be able to make this less a hunt and more a… uh, an easy search?" She glanced at Ana, a grin on her lips. "What do you say we have a look?" Laurel raised her eyebrows. She was really hoping that the map would at least tell them the direction to wander. Otherwise… this would probably take a while.
(You're good lol, I know exactly how that is.)
"We should probably do that," Ana agreed. "Although, if I know anything about Alina, she's gonna make this as difficult as possible. There's going to be a small clue that no one with human eyes could ever see, and then she'll mock us for not seeing the clue and being stupid." She shook her head and gestured ahead of her. "Lead the way."
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