We walked past the empty clearing for several minutes before coming across a forest. The trees were much taller than the ones I was used to back home, towering into the sky and practically disappearing from sight. I wondered what would be taller, these trees or the skyscrapers we saw back in New York?

  “The ether feels different here…” Finn said.

  I felt it too. My skin felt more sensitive to the wind—its light, constant touch started to feel annoying, like a little kid tugging your arm for attention. The trees, too, felt different, like you could feel their very life. Closing my eyes only made the sensation stronger. I was half convinced I’d be able to walk through the forest without bumping into a single tree.

  “Something feels eerie…” Marge’s gaze shifted from left and right, as if she were trying to see something deep within the forest.

  “I don’t blame you. The ether is almost suffocating. Stay close,” Finn ordered.

  We headed deeper into the forest—leaves crunched beneath our steps. Whatever animals were in here would definitely be alerted to our presence.

  I gazed up at the trees that threatened to swallow us. They had to be at least fifty feet tall. I wondered how much sunlight would peer through during the day. It was getting progressively harder to see at night, even though the millions of stars lit up the clearing like street lights.

  “Look! Fruit!” Aidan pointed to bulb-shaped fruit growing from shrubs and ran towards it—a few twigs snapped as he stepped on them.

  “Wait! Don’t run off—” Finn was interrupted by a shrieking noise. An animal that looked like a mix between a boar and a rhinoceros came running straight towards Finn. He summoned his lance, holding it off, though barely. He was progressively sliding backwards as the giant creature kept shoving at him.

  “Aidan!” I ran towards the boy in question, wanting to make sure he was okay and also wanting to stay as far away from the pig-noceros as possible.

  Aidan pulled the orange glowing fruit off the bush, cradling it in his palms. He pulled a layer of the peel back, reminiscent of a flower petal. His eyes widened as he turned the fruit around for me to see. Inside was a glowing orange ball.

  “Uh, what part are you supposed to eat? Are you even supposed to eat it? What if it’s a flower?” I asked. Behind me was shouting and battle noises that I tried to tune out.

  Aidan held the bulb up to his nose. “It smells like food?”

  “Hit it in the eye!!!” I heard Marge shout behind me.

  “Let me smell?” I asked. He brought it up to my nose and it… kind of smelled like an orange? Of course it did.

  “You’re supposed to attack it, not me!” I heard Finn shout behind me. Suddenly I was grateful I sucked at magic and wasn’t expected to be part of this fight.

  “Maybe we should lick it?” Aidan suggested.

  “I’m trying to hit its eyes! Something you won’t do!” Marge shouted back.

  “Lick the peel,” I suggested.

  “I already told you! The fire will burn through its shell!” Finn’s deep voice rumbled. I’d never heard his tone like that before.

  Aidan licked the peel. “It tastes like nothing.”

  “You absolute moron!” Marge shouted, and for a second, I couldn’t tell if she was talking to Finn or Aidan.

  “Maybe we should lick the center?” I asked.

  “Do you want to try?” Aidan asked.

  “N-no!” I frantically waved my hands back and forth. There was no way I was going to try a mysterious fruit from another world when we didn’t even know if it was edible!

  “More for me, I guess.” Aidan shrugged, popping the center into his mouth. His whole face turned red—his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets as he spat the center out.

  “It’s hot!”His voice was hoarse and strained. Panicking, I summoned a small wave of water and aimed for his tongue.

  “What’s going on here?” Finn and Marge ran over to us. “Why would you eat the fire fruit?!”

  “You know what this is?!” I asked, Aidan still flailing around, his eyes tearing up as sweat poured down his face.

  “Yeah, it was in a book I read as a kid.” He yanked Aidan’s arm, pulling him closer. He shoved his hand onto his face, covering Aidan’s nose and eyes. I could faintly see a green light in the space between them. Seconds later, Aidan calmed down, his breaths heavy but slower.

  “No more eating fruit until all of us have had the chance to inspect it.” Marge crossed her arms.

  “What about these?” Aidan picked what appeared to be purple berries off another bush. They were reminiscent of grapes. Well… cartoon grapes. Real grapes never looked this purple.

  “I think we’ll have more than enough food with that beast over there.” Finn pointed behind him with his thumb.

  “If we can remove its shell, it’ll be a lot easier to carry,” Marge suggested.

  “B-but what about the berries?!” Aidan reminded.

  “Try them if you’d like.” Finn shrugged.

  “What are they going to do to me? Paralyze my tongue?” He narrowed his eyes, his voice full of suspicion and a hint of sarcasm.

  “Only one way to find out.” Finn winked, patting him on the back.

  “Y-you try!” Aidan shoved the berries towards Finn, the latter backing away. Eventually, Aidan shoved one into Finn’s mouth.

  “Not bad,” Finn said while chewing the berries.

  “Really?” Aidan eyed the berries suspiciously before popping one in his mouth. He made a face. “Too sweet.”

  “I want to try!” I quickly snatched one from his hand. Like he said, they were sweet. Almost like a pear.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Aidan began gathering more and shoving them into the pocket of his hoodie. The rest of us tried to find a way to get the shell off the animal. Finn resorted to using his lance to slice the skin off beneath the shell. Blood splattered everywhere, and Finn quickly pushed me out of the way, standing in front of me.

  “Are you okay?” His voice was filled with an unusual amount of concern.

  “Y-yeah,” I answered. “It’s just blood, right? I mean it’s still gross and I appreciate you not wanting me to get covered in it but—”

  “It’s not the blood I’m worried about. It’s what’s in the blood," Finn's voice was dangerously low.

  “Ghula…” Marge mumbled.

  “Eeeeeek! Are we all going to die?!” I began panicking.

  “We need to heal each other. Fast.” Finn turned his attention to Marge, who nodded. He began healing me while Marge healed him. I wished that my magic had awakened enough to where I could heal Marge… Once Finn was done with me, he moved to Marge.

  “How are we going to carry that thing back when it’s covered in blood?” I asked.

  Finn paused for a moment, looking lost in thought. “Ella, try freezing it.”

  “O-okay.” I focused my magic on the animal from a safe distance and reminded myself I didn’t need a full blast of power this time. The animal was covered with a thin layer of ice.

  “Now what?” Marge asked. It’s not like we can carry this thing.”

  “We’ll just have to do this the hard way.” Finn sighed. The animal disappeared and reappeared twenty feet behind me. Had Finn teleported it? “Come on, guys, this is going to be a long trip back.”

  Finn had to slowly teleport the creature across the forest and clearing until we made it back to our makeshift camp. His aim was slightly off, and he managed to drop the animal directly above the campfire, melting the ice and waking Maverick up.

  “What in Alina’s name are you— Oh, you found food,” Maverick said, uninterested.

  “Be careful—it’s infected with ghula,” Finn warned.

  “Didn’t any of you think to purify it?” Zephyr’s tone was unusually harsh.

  “Purify it?”

  “Use your healing magic on it.” Zephyr crouched next to the animal, a blue stream of light—that I could only see because Maverick started another fire—emitted from his hand. “It should be safe to touch now. But not to eat. I suppose you want help with the cooking part?”

  “Please,” I said. Not trusting any of the others to cook.

  “H-hey! Why didn’t you guys w-wait for me?” Aidan ran towards us, out of breath.

  We had completely forgotten him, hadn’t we?

  Zephyr cooked the animal that none of us knew the name of, and Maverick begrudgingly provided spices. It made me wish that I could fully use my magic. I wanted to be useful in ways Maverick often refused to be. Wasn’t the point of having magic to help others?

  “Why are you two eating when you didn’t help gather the food?” Aidan asked, his tone filled with spite.

  “I believe I’m the one who cooked the meal, so I should get a piece, no?” Zephyr asked.

  “Besides, I don’t remember you or Ella contributing to the fight.” Finn smirked.

  “I-I was gathering these berries!” Aidan shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of berries.

  “Then maybe you should eat those and leave the meat to us.”

  “I won’t say no to more meat,” Maverick answered with his mouth full.

  We finished a meal and went to sleep. Or were supposed to sleep, anyhow. The ground was uncomfortable. And here I thought sleeping on my carpet floor was uncomfortable…

  “You can rest your head on my chest if it would help?” Finn whispered to me, nearly scaring the crap out of me.

  “W-what kind of offer is that?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat up.

  “I-I didn’t mean it like that! Y-you were too uncomfortable to sleep, right?”

  “I think I would be more uncomfortable intruding on someone’s personal space…”

  “You’re not intruding. I offered.”

  I turned to Aidan, his eyes closed and his mouth gaping open. I could’ve sworn I heard a snore, but it could’ve been any of them.

  “Don’t worry, he’s fast asleep," Finn assured me.

  I really didn’t want to, but I had been awake for what felt like an hour with no sign of falling asleep anytime soon. Stupid nature not being soft.“F-fine, but just for a little bit.” I crawled over to him, careful not to wake the others up. I hesitantly leaned my head on top of his chest. I could hear the pounding of his heart racing so fast it threatened to leave his chest. “This is weird…” I mumbled.

  He chuckled, the vibration of this action feeling slightly comforting. “You can get off if it’s making you that uncomfortable.”

  I shook my head, something that only made his heart race faster. I began regretting this action for more than one reason. I closed my eyes, trying to forget where I was.

  I woke up the next morning to a wolf whistle from Maverick. Miraculously, he somehow didn’t manage to wake anyone else up besides Finn. “Did I miss something last night?”

  My cheeks flushed. “Yeah, the ground being an uncomfortable place to sleep,” I retorted as I quickly moved myself off of Finn’s chest.

  “Next time, sleep on mine.” He winked, and I couldn’t tell if he was serious or just trying to get a rise out of me. I assumed the latter.

  “You might have a point there. Less muscle means more comfort.” Finn smirked.

  Maverick’s eyes widened as his lips sputtered words that never came out. Wow. That's a new one.

  Once everyone else woke up, we continued our walk, stopping for berries every once in a while as our makeshift breakfast.

  “What’s going on between you and Finn?” Marge whispered to me while everyone else was distracted by some bird.

  “N-nothing!” I quickly replied.

  “Oh, come on! I saw you lying on his chest last night!”

  “Because the ground was uncomfortable.” I crossed my arms, willing myself not to blush. I had no reason to blush! It’s not like we had secret feelings for each other.

  “The ground,” Marge said, like she didn’t believe me.

  “You can blame Maverick for not supplying us with any pillows.”

  “Girl, if the ground is that uncomfortable, you should be sleeping on my chest. It’s way softer than the boys’.” She winked.

  I just stared at her and blinked. I wondered if Rose would have offered me the same. “…Noted.”

  I wished people would just leave me and Finn alone about what happened last night. Had I known this would be the aftermath, I would’ve just stayed up all night. I wasn’t surprised that Maverick had filled the others in on what happened. Or at least I assumed he did. Aidan had been glaring at Finn all day and keeping his distance from him. He also seemed to walk closer to me than usual. I might just have to take Marge up on her offer tonight.

  “There’s nothing going on between you and Finn, r-right?” Aidan asked.

  “No. Nothing at all.” I had to fight myself from rolling my eyes.

  “Y-you’d tell me if there was, right?”

  “Yes, Aidan. And if I didn’t, you can bet Maverick would.”

  He nodded, seemingly satisfied with my passive-aggressive answer.

  All of a sudden, everyone stopped. The air entered my nostrils and choked my throat. My hands rose to my mouth as I fought for another breath.

  “Breathe, Elaina,” Finn demanded.

  I calmed myself, taking a much slower breath and finding the muscles in my throat relaxing. “Is this… the ether?” I asked.

  “Yes. Look up ahead.” Zephyr pointed to the foggy forest in front of us. You could barely make out anything past the first set of trees. “Whatever is responsible for the chaotic ether is likely in the forest."

  “S-should we turn around?” Aidan asked.

  “Not yet. Whatever’s ahead is likely no match for the six of us,” Maverick answered.

  We entered the forest, the mist making it darker than usual. I was reminded of our journey last night. Except… the trees in this forest had an unusual blue glow to them, slightly illuminating our path.

  “H-how do we know when we’ve found what we’re looking for?” Aidan asked. He was holding onto the sleeve of my shirt. It didn’t particularly bother me, considering how scared he was.

  “Trust me—we’ll know,” Maverick said.

  Every little noise caused Aidan to jump. Every tree branch snapping, every sudden breeze, and every crunch of leaves.

  I paused, nausea rising up my stomach. A giant creature almost similar to a frog and a lizard towered over us—at least twenty feet tall. What was even more concerning was the purple mist that surrounded it. Even from where I was standing, I could tell it was ether. With this much ether, would I be able to look into its past? Did it even have a past worth noting?

  “We have to stop it.” Zephyr’s words were serious.

  “This isn’t our fight. It’s secreting ghula! We won’t even be able to get close to it!” Maverick shouted back.

  “We have to try! This isn’t normal! If we don’t stop it, who will?”

  “Uh, the empress?” Maverick shrugged casually. He really didn't have any intention of fighting, did he?

  Zephyr clenched the top of his head, looking exasperated.“Wouldn’t she have done so by now? There must be more to it.”

  “Which is exactly why we should get out of here!”

  “We should at least try,” Finn seconded.

  “Ella, Aidan, Marge, what do you think?” Maverick turned to us.

  “If we kill this thing, will it stop the ghula in the other animals too?” I asked.

  “Maybe. We can’t know for sure until it’s dead.”

  “Then I think we have to try," I answered. I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of knowing innocent lives were lost because of my fear.

  ”Yeah, I agree.” Marge nodded.

  Maverick sighed. “I was worried you’d say that. Prepare yourselves!”