DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 15 Angel's Halo
Akari pulled herself quickly to her feet, tugging Nyles’s heavy body up with her as he foolishly reached for the gray hand that was luring him back into the deadly water.
“But she is so beautiful!” He breathed, swaying in the breeze to a song that only found his ears.
Akari smacked Nyles hard in the head and tugged on his arm again, ignoring him as he waved good-bye to the siren. Nyles allowed Akari to lead him through the thick, pointy plants and soft sands, her crystal illuminating their way.
She was following the deep set of footprints left by Rumen, sighing as a light rain began to fall above. Akari cursed Valeena, wishing the girl would just stop being so emotional. Did she really need to cry so often?
Akari released Nyles’s arm and rolled her orange eyes as she spotted Rowan. “You have got to be kidding me!” She called out in frustration as she took in the scene before her.
Rowan was resting comfortably on a throne made out of vibrant palm leaves, coconuts, and rocks as a siren fawned over him, smiling a hideous smile.
Akari felt annoyance boiling inside her. She focused hard on the group, the light coming together to form a massive ray, that exploded violently like an electric bomb. The explosion startled even her, as she had never preformed it before.
The sirens cried out madly, covering their eyes and cowering from the blast. Rowan sat up quickly, cursing, shielding his face with his hands as the heat of the light washed over him.
“What the hell?” Rowan shouted, reaching for one of the fleeing sirens as it made its way back to the safety of the ocean.
“Don’t go!” He pleaded as he jumped to his feet, preparing to chase after the girl. But Akari used her boot to shove him back down, grabbing Nyles by the arm as he too, tried to rush past her.
“You two are impossible!” She nearly screamed, forcing Nyles towards Rowan who still had a dopey, dreamy expression on his face.
Akari wished she had thought ahead and brought along earplugs. This was getting to be ridiculous!
“Where did the beautiful red head go with the stunning blue eyes? She said she had rescued me!” Rowan sighed deeply, smiling bright, “She had the most beautiful voice!” He was saying as Akari shook her head, resisting the urge to smack him again.
She removed a lovely orange handkerchief from her bag and used her sai to cut it into small pieces. She then grabbed each of the fools hands, dropping several bits of cut cloth into their palms.
“Use this to plug your ears, both of you!” Akari demanded, watching as they did as they were told, each wearing a look of pure bliss of their faces.
“Close your eyes.” Akari waited until Rowan had stopped peeking and kept his eyes shut, giggling like a school girl.
She then waved her hand near their faces to check if they were able to see. Akari then wiggled her butt, waiting for them to laugh; to find out if they were truly blind.
When neither one made a sound, Akari ran as fast as she could back to the boat in search of some rope, forcing her legs to move faster than they ever had. She leaped swiftly over the edge of the stern, startling a siren that had been rummaging through the leather bag.
Akari paid no attention to the creature as she grabbed the water soaked rope off of the floor of the boat and carried it awkwardly in her arms. The siren slipped silently overboard, taking the bag with her.
When Akari finally returned to the fools, she discovered that only Rowan was still standing with his eyes closed and fingers in his ears, smiling.
Nyles had somehow escaped and was nowhere in sight.
“Dammit.” Akari cursed as she put one arm through the coil of rope. She pinned it to her body as she grabbed Rowan’s hand, tying a knot around his wrist. He opened one eye, clearly disappointed it was Akari and not the beautiful red head.
When she was finished, Akari tugged roughly at Rowan’s arm, pulling him in the direction of footprints that were still fresh in the sand.
“Maybe I should have brought Valeena with me. At least she would not have been captured by the sirens.” Akari groaned, leading Rumen deeper into the tropical landscape. “I would much rather deal with rain than this nonsense!”
She was not sure where the footprints might end, or what they might find up ahead. Akari was sure Nyles was alive still, as he was made of stone, making it difficult for the sirens. The hideous creatures had probably never encountered a man made of stone before.
Rowan kept his ears plugged, pausing often to inhale deeply, receiving a dark glare from Akari each time. She could only smell the salty sea air mingled with a hint of a sweet, succulent, tropical flower that was blooming in the trees.
She knew the scent Rowan was breathing was a toxin the sirens produced, it manipulated his mind to remember fond times making it easier to lure him to his death.
Akari stepped through the canopy trees to discover a hidden oasis behind them. The water was releasing small threads of steam into the night, and Akari realized that it was a hot spring.
She still did not see Nyles as she pulled harder on the rope, stopping Rowan from jumping into the water. He had opened his scarlet eyes a tiny bit out of curiosity and was pleased to see the smiling faces of the beautiful woman. What he failed to see, however, where the bones of their victims that were scattered about the area.
“No!” Akari yelled as she grabbed Rowan’s chin, forcing his head to turn towards her. “Close your eyes!”
“But-”
“Close them!”
Rowan reluctantly did as he was told, pouting like a two-year-old brat in the process. He had no idea how close he was to being left behind.
The springs ran beside the petrified remains of a giant sea creature, its massive body slapped up against the side of the mountain.
The jaw of the beast was open wide, frozen in its final call. Water ran down the body of the beast from above, giving the illusion it was melting.
Akari entered the mouth, doing her best to avoid the several rows or razor sharp teeth that lined the upper and lower jaw. A skeletal hand was wedged in between a few of the teeth to her left, a torch lying next to it.
Akari reached over carefully, picking the torch up, and keeping her arm clear of the deadly teeth. She held the torch out to Rowan, demanding he light it.
“No,” He said, turning his head defiantly away from her and crossing his strong arms over his chest.
“That is fine. It’s just, without the torch, we cannot see the lovely ladies-” Akari gasped and nearly dropped the torched as it burst to life, causing her to use her other arm to shield her eyes from the intense flames.
Akari shifted the weight of the increasingly heavy, soggy rope and traveled further into the smooth belly of the beast. She was sure that Nyles had traveled this way, as he had not been at the springs.
“I hear her,” Rowan said, pushing past Akari as he rushed ahead, nearly knocking the tiny girl over.
“Wait!” Akari cried out as the rope rapidly uncoiled from her arm as Rowan continued to move deeper into the shadows. The fibers of the rope were covered in sharp, grains of sand that rubbed painfully on her skin.
Akari grabbed for the end of the rope as it slipped off of her arm, nearly dropping the torch. She had to keep up with him whether she liked it out. Akari was running now, wrapping the rope around her own wrist to keep a tighter grip on it, ignoring the red marks on her arm.
The passageway narrowed as Akari entered the tail of the dead sea creature, emerging out through a tear in it that had been made before it was petrified. Akari gasped as her body fell into waist high water from the river that spilled down the beast body. The tip of the tail that they had emerged from was bent upwards, preventing the water from entering it.
Akari waded through the slow moving current, releasing the rope as she made her way towards a crumbling temple up ahead. From a distance, it appeared to made out of some sort of limestone with various sized bits lying in the sandy grass.
As Akari approached the building, she was horrified to discover that the temple was constructed out of hundreds of thousands of bones. Two skulls sat on either side of the entrance, a fire burning inside them gave the empty sockets a demonic appearance.
Akari reluctantly entered the morbid temple, doing her best to ignore the icy hands of fear that were tracing their fingers up her spine. The hairs on her arms were standing, and she absently rubbed at them, keeping her eyes on her feet.
Akari could hear faint laughter up ahead mixed with a horrible screeching sound. She crept low, leaving the torch behind so she could keep hidden. Akari covered her ears as the screeching grew louder, Rowan and Nyles laughter joining in the din.
Her eyes saw a hazy, green, glow emitting from up ahead, the smell of the sea growing stronger. Akari emerged from the hall, keeping to the shadows as she entered unnoticed into the grand room.
The elaborate temple floor had been crudely ripped apart, forming a murky pond in the center. A waterfall was feeding salty sea water into the room, flowing freely via a spout in the wall. Spiraling pillars of bones were stacked around the room, their points reaching for the sky.
Several sirens, that were flipping their tails playfully in the hazy waters, were fawning over the two boys, causing Akari to roll her eyes in disgust.
Akari scanned the room once more, spotting the Angel’s Halo floating above them in the sky, the moon shining beautifully in the center of it. The halo looked like the ring of light that sometimes appeared around the moon on cold, winter nights. Her people liked to say that it meant a storm was coming.
Akari hoped that Rowan and Nyles could fend for themselves when the sirens grew bored and decided to cease playing with their food.
Akari focused her attention on the halo, using her crystal to try and increase the amount of light it was emitting. She became increasingly frustrated when nothing happened.
‘Oh, it’s an Element, of course, I can not manipulate it.’ She thought, shaking her lovely head, feeling a bit foolish. Akari darted quietly to one of the spiraling pillars in the center of the room. She reached out for the side of the pillar finding it had been eroded by the salty waters, doing her best to ignore that it was also made out of bones.
Her hand accidentally dislodged a loose skull, sending it crashing to the floor with a thunk. Akari held her breath as she ducked, watching as a siren slithered over to investigate the source of the sudden noise.
The ugly creature sniffed the air, hissing softly as it neared Akari, its eyes blind in the dark. Akari resisted the urge to strike it in its ugly snout, knowing she needed more time to finish her plan.
Another bout of laughter caused the siren to retreated back to the party, leaving Akari behind. She waited several more minutes before releasing her breath and sliding her back up against the side of the spiral, doing her best to keep the noise volume low.
She cautiously peered around the edge of the pillar, spying Rowan and Nyles sitting in the center of the pond, the sirens swimming around them. They both had dreamy expressions on their faces, bobbing happily in the water.
One of the sirens grew bored with the pair and grabbed Nyles’s right arm. She bit down on it hard, crying out in pain as her pointed teeth chipped on the stone surface.
“Hey!” Nyles called out, snapping out of the trance he had been placed under. “Why did you-” He splashed around in the waters, horrified, seeing the creatures in their true form for the first time.
“Oh, ew!” Nyles yelled, spreading his wings quickly, striking Rowan in the head, as he lifted his body high into the air. “Why are you all so ugly now?”
Angered by the insult, the sirens began to screech, throwing rocks, bones and other objects at Nyles, who removed his spear swinging madly. He struck the objects back at the creatures, hitting them here and there.
“Is that all you got?” He shouted, watching as the sirens slipped into the safety of the waters, leaving Rowan behind.
“Well, that’s one way of doing it,” Akari said, hugging the pillar as she ducked, Nyles swinging the pointy spear at her.
“Sorry,” He said, reaching out to help steady her body.
Akari swatted at his arm, she was still extremely angry at him. “You get the Halo and I’ll get Rowan.” She said, pointing to the ring of light above.
“And then, we all will get the heck out of here!” Akari jumped swiftly back to the floor and stared at Rowan. The Reap had exited the water, looking like a child who had just dropped his ice cream to the ground.
“Rowan, the girls said to meet them back on the boat-” Akari was unable to finish her sentence as the foolish young man tore off in the direction of the temple entrance, giggling.
Nyles landed with a thump beside Akari, holding out the brilliantly glowing Halo out to her. His eyes widened as he watched Rowan skipping away, singing off key for the girls to wait for him.
“Please don’t tell me that I was being that stupid,” Nyles said in horror, glancing at Akari, who merely rolled her eyes, trudging after Rowan.