G's Chapters

          That Saturday, Shankar called me up. I missed the call, but he left a message asking me to come over to the ice cream parlour two blocks away. He sounded a bit urgent, so I flew. I met Lyria outside the parlour.

         “Hi!”

         “Hey! Did Lucy call you too?”

         “No!  Shankar left a –”

 

         A scream suddenly ripped out of the parlour, followed shortly by a small explosion that caved the roof in.

         “WHOA! Do you think they were still in there?”

         “I hope not… Oh, Luce…”

 

         I kicked the door in with a bit of Force, and we ran in. The room was a mess. Concrete slabs – what was left of the roof were scattered everywhere. The room smelled of gunpowder and smoke. There was a largish circular hole on the far wall, which looked to be the source of the explosions. We ran over. There was a stairwell, propped up on scaffolding leading down. It didn’t look too stable, but Lyria was already rushing down, so I followed. Halfway down the second flight,  the structure collapsed, and we fell with it. I managed to get over the shock and open my Wings, swooping up, grabbing Lyria, but I wasn’t able to slow us down into a glide. We just hit the river flowing underneath at a slightly shallower angle.

It turns out my wings were just as good for buoyancy in water. They kept us floating until we washed ashore onto a pebble beach that sloped gently upward. I don’t know how I had enough strength to keep them up, but I managed, just barely. I passed out as soon as we hit the beach.

 

         When I woke up again, I was staring straight into Lyria’s eyes. She was flushed, and was staring at me shocked.

         “Let me go.”

         “What?”

         “Let me go.”

 

         I looked around and saw – well, suffice it to say we were in a quite awkward position. I hurriedly let go and rolled over, getting up.

         “Sorry.”

         “Don’t sweat it. How – How long were we unconscious? We’ve got to find Lucy!”

         “Yeah… But where –”

         “Hey, you two! Over here!”

 

         Shankar was standing at the top of the rise, waving at us. We ran over. He was standing in the mouth of a tunnel, gesturing wildly at us to hurry.

         “Where were you?”

         “Where’s Lucy?!”

         “Whoa, whoa. Lucy’s deeper in. We seem to be in the Labyrith, somehow. She’s unconscious.”

         “The Labyrinth exists only as long as Lucy is concentrating on it. How can she be unconscious in it?”

         “I don’t know! These monks shot  her with this dart gun, and dragged her away.”

 

         He turned and ran back into the tunnel.

         “They took her this way, come on!”

 

         So we followed. The tunnel twisted and turned about, finally leading to this large cavern, with an altar in the very middle. Lucy was strapped to an ornate granite throne on a pedestal in the other end of the cavern, with a group shod in hooded habits kneeling in prayer before her. As we approached, what appeared to be the head priest looked up and took his hood off, staring straight at us.

 

         “Hello, Young Ones. Glad to see you made it here. We have seats for you too. Goodnight.”

 

         Time seemed to slow down. I saw a dozen monks step out of the shadows, with guns trained at us. They fired in unison, and a swarm of darts flew at us. I summoned up a wall of shields, but they cut through them like a hot knife through butter. However, the darts slowed down enough that they fell to the ground before they hit us.

         “Reload! Quick! They cannot escape!”

 

         The priest leapt off the pedestal and landed in front of me.

         “You certainly have some power, Young One. It’s not nearly enough to resist us, unfortunately.”

 

         He made a slicing motion toward me, but fell to the ground, writhing from Lyria’s Taze. She looked at me and grinned.

         “Not so tough, was he?”

 

         I felt a prick and blacked out.

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