The tunnel wasn’t as long as it looked. After only a hundred feet or so, it curved to the right and opened into a small chamber, much like the one at the cave’s entrance. This one also had two stone pedestals set against the far wall, but these ones were topped by blue fire rather than green. And there was no circular drawing on the wall between them. Instead, there was a large archway cut out of the stone wall. Draped across the inside of it was a thick curtain made of what looked like dark grey velvet.

Erin walked over to the curtain and touched it cautiously with one finger. On closer inspection, it was really more like wool than velvet, but it did have a soft, slightly furry texture. It looked thick and heavy, but Erin was surprised when she took hold of it to feel that it was as light as fine silk. She hesitated a moment, rubbing the cloth between her fingers. Then she pulled up the curtain and ducked underneath it.

When she let the curtain drop behind her, Erin found herself in complete darkness. Her left hand, which had been holding the green fire rock, was suddenly empty.

Erin paused, feeling half perplexed and half exasperated. The laws of physics really didn’t seem to be cooperating just recently. She supposed she could have dropped the rock when she went under the curtain. But her grip on it had been tight enough that she shouldn’t have. And she ought to have heard it clatter on the stone floor beneath her.

She took hold of the curtain again and pulled it up. She could see back into the room she had just left, lit by the flickering blue flames. But there was no sign of the green rock anywhere on the ground.

Frowning, Erin turned her head to look behind her, still holding up the curtain. The blue light should have been strong enough for her to see at least a part of what was on the other side of the archway. But everything past the curtain was still pitch black. Erin couldn’t even see her hands holding onto the edge of the grey cloth. She bent down and went back underneath the curtain. Now she could see herself perfectly well, her skin colored pale blue by the firelight. She peered back through the archway. It was as dark as ever on the other side.

Letting go of the cloth, Erin walked over to one of the stone pedestals. Feeling the top, she found another small, egg-shaped stone and pulled it out, bringing the blue fire with it. She went back to the archway and ducked under the curtain again, making sure to keep the stone gripped tightly in her fist. But when she straightened up on the other side, there was no longer a blue flame shining from her hand. Her fingers were again clenched around nothing but air.

“Okay, I think I get the point,” Erin told the blackness surrounding her.

Abandoning the hope of a light, she let go of the curtain and started groping in the dark around her, feeling for a wall. What she found, after several cautious steps forward, was another curtain, directly across from the first one. She took hold of it and pulled it up to see what was on the other side. She saw another room with rock walls and floor, this time filled with a soft white light. Erin hesitated for a few seconds and then stepped past the curtain into the next room.

The first thing she noticed after the cloth had fallen back into place behind her was that the light in this room wasn’t just coming from burning rocks. There were more pedestals there, one on either side of her, with green flames rising from them. But the green firelight was weak and pale compared to the white light coming into the room from an opening in the opposite wall. Past this opening, Erin could see what looked like trees and sunlight. But it couldn’t really be sunlight, could it? Wasn't it still the middle of the night?

Out of habit, Erin looked at her wrist to check her watch, forgetting that it was still sitting on the nightstand back in her bedroom. But what she saw when she looked down made her completely forget about checking the time, anyway.

A few minutes before, she had been wearing a long blue nightshirt with red ladybugs printed on it. Now she had on a pair of loose, dark brown pants covered by a cream-colored tunic that fell almost to her knees. It had flowing, elbow-length sleeves and was tied around her waist with a thin woven cord that looked like leather. On her feet were soft, boot-like shoes that seemed to be made from the same material.

Erin stared down at her new attire. She liked that nightshirt, and she hoped she’d get it back eventually. But for the moment, she had to admit that this was more comfortable. The cloth had a texture similar to cotton, and it felt soft and light against her skin. She couldn’t imagine how or why her clothes had changed without her being aware of it, but she was beginning to feel like nothing would surprise her anymore. After a night full of shocks—including the fact that it seemed to suddenly not be night anymore—her whirling brain accepted this as just one more.

Putting a hand on her left leg, Erin was relieved to feel that her leg brace was still in place. She wouldn’t be able to get very far without it, not with her knee still in only partially healed pieces. She had no idea how whatever had replaced her nightshirt had known she needed to keep the brace, but conveniently enough, there it was. It had even been dried out when she went through the curtains.

She turned her attention back to the cave’s exit, taking a few steps closer in order to see better what lay outside. It looked like the cave opened onto a forest, just like it had at the other end. But the forest around Kirchel’s house was mostly evergreens, and the trees Erin could see through the opening in the rock were definitely deciduous-looking. The air felt different, too. It was thicker and warmer.

Erin frowned slightly. She didn’t know exactly how far she had walked through the caves, but it could only have been a few miles at the very most. That wasn’t even far enough to make it to the other side of the mountain range, let alone to another climate zone. Was this some kind of extra low mountain valley? It was the only logical explanation she could think of.

Not that logical explanations seemed to matter very much just lately....

But whether the scene in front of her was logical or not, it looked wonderfully green and inviting. And, thanks to Wraith, Erin was now pain free, full of energy, and ready to go exploring. She walked out into the sunlight.

After the dim light of the cave, it took Erin’s eyes a moment to adjust to the bright sunshine. The warm air felt wonderful after spending what felt like weeks being cold and wet coming through the storm and the cave. Once her eyes had stopped smarting, she looked around her.

She was indeed in a forest, right where the trees met up with a rocky mountain wall. The mountains around Kirchel’s house were mostly granite, but this cliff seemed to be made of something like sandstone. It was streaked with a mixture of reddish-purple and light brown. Looking up, Erin could see that the cave she had come out of was one of many in the rock face. It was covered with shadowy openings and strange, twisted formations, presumably carved into the stone through centuries of wind and rain. She hoped she would be able to find the right place when she decided to go back home, and as a precaution, she hunted around the base of the trees until she found two large branches, which she arranged in an X against the rock wall next to the cave entrance. Then she headed into the forest.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She had never seen trees quite like these ones before. Their trunks were straight and tall, with deep, vertical grooves in the pale bark. The branches were also unusually straight and had large, fern-like leaves hanging from them. Other than the light chorus of birdsong coming from overhead, the forest seemed still and peaceful.

From what Erin could see of the sky through the overhanging branches, it looked like it was either midmorning or midafternoon, depending on which way the sun was moving. She had known where east and west were back at Kirchel's house, but the route she had taken through the cave had twisted around so much that she couldn't be sure of any directions now. She tried to keep the sun on her left as she walked so that she wouldn’t start wandering in circles.

After walking for what felt like half an hour or so, Erin came upon a small brook winding its way through the trees. It ran off to her left, and she could hear a splashing sound coming from where it disappeared around a bend. Following the water's path, she found there was a steep incline of six or seven feet in the forest floor, and the stream ran over it in a small waterfall and formed a pool at its base before running on through the trees again.

Erin climbed carefully down to stand next to the little pond. As she pushed her way through the tall, thick grass at the water's edge, she startled a small brown bird, which rose in an indignant flutter and disappeared into the trees. She watched it go and then looked down into the water, wondering if there were any fish in it.

There were indeed small dark shapes flitting about near the surface of the pond. They looked like tiny fish or maybe tadpoles. The little swimming creatures and the splashing of the waterfall reminded Erin of the fish pond with the fairy fountain in Kirchel's greenhouse.

She shifted uneasily. Kirchel was probably back from delivering the flowers by now. What would she do when she got to the house and found Erin gone and the back door hanging open? She couldn't have stopped Wraith from forcing her out of the house and through the cave, but surely the sensible thing to do, now that he was gone, was to try to get home. There in the sunlight, away from the dark otherworldliness of the cave, Wraith's plea for help suddenly seemed far away and feeble. Erin had no reason to trust him or to help him. She didn't have any idea where she was. And there was no telling what kind of trouble she might get herself into by wandering around alone, even in a seemingly harmless forest.

She was just about to turn around and walk away from the pond when she felt an impulse to look back down at the water. She did, frowning slightly, but saw nothing unusual. There were the little fish, darting in and out of the moss on the bottom of the pool. The water here away from the waterfall was calm enough that she could see the wavering reflection of the sunlight in the leaves overhead. She could even see her own reflection there when she leaned over the water.

Or was it her own?

Erin bent closer, staring at the dark figure on the water's surface, even though she already knew, in the back of her mind, what she was going to see. The image of Wraith's face looked back at her. But it was as though it were just a shadow—even less real than when she had seen him in the mirror. And though Erin felt a faint shiver run through her as she looked into his eyes, it was replaced almost at once by a flash of anger.

He was asking her to stay, reminding her of his request for help—she knew that, though she wasn't sure just how she knew. But she wasn't going to listen. He had no right to ask her for anything after all she had been through because of him.

"It's not glass this time," she told him icily.

She put out both her hands and hit the water as hard as she could, sending droplets flying and fish scurrying for cover. The reflections on the surface were broken into fragments as the ripples crossed back and forth over them.

Without waiting for them to return, Erin stood up and turned back the way she had come.

From this side, the drop in the ground seemed much sharper and higher than it had coming down. She frowned at it, not sure whether she wanted to chance climbing back up with her bad leg. Looking to her right, she saw that the ground sloped gradually upward. After a second's hesitation, she started walking in that direction, thinking maybe she could circle around the area of the drop, taking a longer but easier route back up to where she had found the stream.

It seemed to work. The incline on her left gradually lowered as she walked. After she had gone about a hundred yards, the top of it was nearly level with her head—about five feet above the ground beneath her. Erin also noticed that the trees around her were starting to thin. She must be near the edge of the forest.

Sure enough, by the time the earth had smoothed to a more gradual incline of only a couple of feet, she had reached the outermost trees and was looking out on a grassy meadow which stretched in front of her for several miles. On her left, some distance away, she could see the rock cliffs rising above the trees. The cave she had come out of was somewhere behind her and to the left now. If she went to the cliff and then followed it back, it shouldn't take her too long to find her way to the right spot.

Erin walked out past the edge of the forest and started following it in the direction of the cliffs. Walking in the tall grass was quicker and easier than trying to work her way through the trees and shrubs of the forest.

She hadn't gone very far when she heard something that sounded like hoofbeats coming from behind her. She turned around, looking for the source of the noise. The forest line curved out into the meadow a short distance away, and the sound seemed to be coming from just around the trees.

As she watched, a horse and rider suddenly came hurtling into view. They raced along the edge of the forest, passing close enough to Erin that she could feel a light breeze in their wake, though neither of them seemed to notice she was there. She barely had time to register the man riding on the chestnut colored horse.

Or...was it a horse? It was about the right shape and size, but how it was galloping looked strange somehow. And why were they going so fast, anyway? The animal—whatever it was—seemed to be running at top speed. Erin watched the retreating pair, feeling a little bemused.

Then she heard another sound behind her. A much louder sound—large, heavy footfalls, followed by a roar that seemed to echo around the entire meadow and cause the nearby trees to quiver.

She turned back just in time to see a huge creature charge around the trees. It was the size of an elephant and had a low-slung head and massive shoulders. It was covered in thick, brownish-black hair, and even at a distance, Erin could see lethal-looking teeth and claws and hungry red eyes. The creature ran with a kind of ungainly trot that covered the ground at an alarming speed.

She stood there, staring in numb horror at the monster in front of her. It was obvious now why the rider and his animal had been going so fast. She watched as the huge dark beast tore after them, snarling and snapping its jaws murderously.

Then, as it came nearer, the creature suddenly slowed, lifted its head as though scenting the air, and altered its course.

Erin felt her blood turn cold. The rider might not have noticed her, but the monster definitely had.

It was heading straight for her.