Flicker

The fog now hung in the air like a continuous stretch of gray cloud that encompassed the whole planet. We followed Alati in mostly silence. Since we would all weigh too much for Alati to carry at once, Merlin and I followed on foot while Edgar rode Alati with his head held high. Sometimes I feel Edgar gets a big head from all of the knowledge he feels he has aquired. If he was anymore egocentric I would have thought him to be royalty instead of the farmer he said he was before he was a rabbit.

Merlin glanced at me, then over to Edgar, then back to me again. "You know... I hear humans have this odd idea that if you carry around a rabbit's foot it would bring you good luck." He said.

"Oh, you know, I have heard that." I responded. "All though I think that only works if you cut it off the rabbit."

Merlin and I then turned and looked at Edgar, whose ears had turned towards us as we spoke.

"You don't say!" Merlin exclaimed. "I have always pondered if it would work or not..."

This time Edgar looked back at us, glaring quite unhappily. "Yeah, uh-huh, laugh it up, but who gets to ride the griffin? Oh, that's right, not you two!"

Merlin and I smiled as Edgar scoffed and turned back forward. There was not much discussion after that. We knew full and well now that any questions me and my brother had would not be answered by our fluffy companion. Our only hope was to find our parents and hope that they had held out this long. After a short while we found ourselves climbing a steep hill where the stone bellow us began to appear more maroon colored as opposed to the dark blackness of it before. Just before we reached the peak of the hill, Alati stopped and proceeded to lower herself to the ground. Edgar hopped off and he, Merlin, and I peered over the top of the hill.

Over the hill was a steep valley filled with scattered bones and dark monsters fighting over bones, or just not moving at all. And, just behind all of that, sat a small dome built into the ground, looking like it might be made of clay.

"Not very impressive." Merlin commented.

"So... what do we do now? Waltz right on in?" I asked.

"No." Edgar said pointedly. "You will do no such thing, to do that is suicide!"

"Well then what do we do?" I asked, growing frustrated.

Edgar looked back to the dome, ears drooping. "I fear we may just have to do something drastic." Edgar sighed. "As a matter a fact, waltzing right in there could be our only option, but not without a distraction first." Edgar looked to Alati, then back to Merlin and I. "We will distract the monsters, since Alati can fly we should have a pretty good advantage. Once you see your opening you run for the entrance, and do not stop for anything." Edgar lay his paw on my hand. "Do you hear me? I can't distract them and keep on eye on you, so you have to careful. If anything were to happen to you..."

"We'll be fine,  Edgar. After all, we are destined for this stuff, right?" I said.

Edgar nodded. "Yes, of course." Edgar hopped back onto Alati. "We shall see you once you have succeeded in finding your parents." And with that they were off, swooping in and out of the valley.

Merlin grasped my hand. "Are you ready, sister?"

I nodded. "Yes, brother. Let's find our parents."

It didn't take long for all of the creatures to be on Alati's tail, excited by the prospect of a fresh meal. Once Alati had led them all to the left of the dome we raced down swiftly, covering ground quickly with the momentum from going downhill. Once inside, things began to grow dark, but with our new bodies, everything about three feet from us was lit up by our flickering glow. We raced down one make-shift hallway, and turned to go down another corridor which seemed to reach down into the ground, but as we turned to make our way several creatures reached out from the dark. I tried to fight them off, but before I knew what was going on my arms and legs were being grasped, and all in what seemed like a brief moment I was jerked away and tossed into something wet, leaving me gasping briefly before even my own glow flickered out.