Angélio looked around the forest as he followed Roende. The trees and bushes were thinning in some spots, revealing shimmering turquoise waters in the distance. Angélio took a deep breath. How he missed the beach.

Memories from bygone days washed over his mind like a blue wave frosted with white foam. Laughter echoed in his ear as he remembered splashing in the sea with his mom and dad.

Papá used to come home early from work on Fridays, so we could go straight from school to the beach. Mami's freshly made fish empanadas in the back made the car smell delicious. She always turned up the bachata songs too loud when they played on the radio.

After we had swum all our food off, Papi would get the Tres Leches cake he made the night before out of the ice box. And we'd sit on the shore with our toes in the sand, eating cake and watching the sun sink into the ocean.

"The sun's going to bed now," Mami would whisper in my ear like she was telling me a secret no one else could know.

"Whatever Mami's saying about me isn't true," Papi would say...

Angélio exhaled as the memory faded. "Can we have my birthday party on the beach?" he asked Roende.

The maralujo turned around. "Of course. A birthday party on the beach sounds like a perfect idea," he smiled.

Angélio beamed from ear to ear. "¡Genial! (awesome)—and can we have fish empanadas and Tres Leches cake too?"

Roende frowned. "Unfortunately, I don't have any fish in the castle at the moment--I'll have to go catch some another day." Castle? Angélio thought. Did he say castle? "I don't have any milk ingredients to make a Tres Leches cake either."

Angélio's smile melted like an helado (ice cream) on a hot day.

"But" Roende quickly added, "I know just the place we could get those ingredients, but we'll have to hurry."

Roende started walking faster. Angélio had to almost run just to keep up. The maralujo crouched low as he went under a tree, which his human amigo didn't have to do. Angélio held up his hands in front of his face as he pushed through bushes. Rustling leaves roared in his ears.

Stumbling out of the forest, Angélio planted his feet on the sandy shore to find his balance. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the glaring beams of the golden sun burning high in the sky.

The sight in front of him took his breath away. An elegant castle with grey hexagonal towers stood atop a tall and steep cliff far above the crashing waves at the hill's base.

Each tower varied in height; many had blue cone-shaped roofs that flew identical long and narrow flags. The colours on the flags were a gold stripe at the top, a fiery stripe orange in the centre, and a thick white stripe at the bottom.

Near the middle of the castle was a wide, strong-looking tower. It featured parapets shaped like slender stepped pyramids, which also ran atop most of the walls between the towers.

"Take my hand," Roende said, holding out his arm.

"Why?" the boy asked.

"It'll be faster--just trust me," was the reply.

Angélio looked at Roende's outstretched hand for a moment, wondering if he should take it. He did promise me a cake, Angélio thought.

Hesitantly, he took Roende's hand. The maralujo threw the boy onto his back like he was a feather.

"Hang on tight," Roende said.

"Okay." Angélio locked his arms around his friend's neck.

Roende bent his knees slightly, spread his stunning wings, and shot up into the sky like an arrow. Angélio worried about choking Roende because he was clenching his arms so tight. But who could blame him? It's not like he wanted to fall to his death.

The pair flew across the long and narrow island towards the castle. Angélio opened one eye to take in the view as the wind rushed at his face. Behind them stood the forest with the Guanacaste tree right in the centre.

Curiously, there were also four strange silver trees with glowing blue flowers or fruits--Angélio wasn't sure from that height--poking out above the other trees in the forest.

If he had a pencil, Angélio could have drawn a line from the tops of each silver tree and made a square, which would have left the Guanacaste tree smack in the middle of the box. I've never seen trees lined up so perfectly--two on each side like that, he thought. Strange.

Roende dove down. Angélio sucked in a huge gulp of air, holding his breath once again. Although his arms were shaking, Angélio opened both eyes to glance below. The castle was coming up fast.

There were two smaller hexagonal-shaped structures down the hill; they were made from the same stone as the castle itself but had shorter towers in each corner.

A set of stony steps zigzagged up the cliff face, connecting to each of the smaller structures, and finally ending at the plateau atop the hill where the castle stood proudly.

As they descended towards the courtyard with an ornate triple-tier fountain sitting on the backs of four crowned deer statues, Angélio caught sight of two gardens within the walls.

One was open to the sky. The other was covered by a wooden, hexagonal pattern structure that looked like the geodesic dome he had made in Minecraft once. But unlike that one, this dome was crawling with emerald-green vines. That's weird, but also kind of cool, he thought.

When Roende's feet touched the cobblestone path, he let Angélio down off his back. "This way." He gestured to an entrance under a beautifully etched pointed arched pavilion with a blue-tiled roof held up by slender columns.

Angélio's jaw nearly hit the ground as he glanced around. He followed Roende down a path hugged by neatly trimmed rectangular hedges. Before stepping under the arch, he looked around to admire the spraying and splashing fountain near where they had landed.

Once he stepped inside the pavilion, row after row of those pointed arches stretched out in front of Angélio. The tops of the walls had beautiful patterns carved inside countless hexagons. On the lower part of each wall, colourful hexagonal tiles with floral symbols covered the space.

Angélio glanced ahead, but Roende was nowhere in sight. Where did he go? He thought and hurried forward. His footsteps echoed throughout the long corridor.

Soon, he reached a square room with three other archways in front of him. Angélio walked into the centre of the space and looked up. A dazzling sight made him forget to breathe again.

Sunlight poured in from the arched windows beneath the ceiling with a stunning array of carved shapes that were blue and white; their edges were lined with gold. Angélio rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Was it moving? He thought. The ceiling danced and shifted like a kaleidoscope.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Roende said, appearing in the archway on the left. "You'll have to get used to that, or your neck will ache from constantly looking up," he smiled.

"All the ceilings in the castle look like that?" Angélio pointed upward.

"Most," was the answer. "Put these on." Roende handed him a folded dark blue cloak and a wooden mask with green symbols and knotted patterns painted all over it.

Angélio knit his eyebrows together. "What are those?"

"Let's call them travelling clothes," Roende said before sliding the other wooden mask over his face.

"Wow," Angélio said, hardly believing his eyes.

Roende's face was completely changed. He had cool sky-blue lines in elaborate patterns around his eyes and his cheeks. A green and red headdress wrapped around his head from which a long ponytail hung down his back. The cloak he put on also changed the appearance of his wings.

"We have to hurry, remember?" Roende reminded his young amigo.

Angélio put on the cloak first, and to his smiling surprise, he sprouted a pair of clear, crystal-like butterfly wings. "Will they make me fly?" the boy asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Roende replied. "They'll just make you look like a maralujo that's around your age."

"Young maralujos can't fly?" Angélio asked.

Roende shook his head. "Young maralujes have those alas de leche (milk wings) that the cloak gave you, which don't work. That is, they can't make us fly. On the evening before we get our alas verdaderas (true wings), the old ones fall off."

"Then you can fly?" Angélio asked.

"Not quite. We endure great pain the whole night, and from that suffering, we obtain the wings that give us flight in morning's warm light," he replied. "Now put on your mask and climb onto my back."

Angélio did as he was told, sliding the wooden object down over his forehead. For a few seconds, it felt like hundreds of tiny feathers were brushing against his face, which made him laugh. And then, the tickling stopped.

"There," Roende said, smiling. "Now you look like a regular maralujito." Then he crouched down and gestured for Angélio to hop on.

Just like before, Angélio held on tight as Roende ran down the arched corridor at blinding speed. The maralujo soared into the sky.

They glided through the air at an eye-watering speed. Angélio glanced back just in time to see the island and the castle fade in the distance. To his right, sapphire blue waves rolled on into the horizon.

On his left, mighty mountains, covered in lush green trees, reached up into the clouds. At their base, grassy plains ran along the length of a sandy coast, which gradually turned to rocky cliffs that rose higher and higher above the sea the further they flew.

Suddenly, the biggest tree Angélio had ever laid eyes on appeared in the distance. It was colossal and stood taller than some of the mountains! A roaring waterfall poured down the tree's towering and wide trunk, creating three turquoise rivers, which flowed into a city with rose-red stone buildings topped with green tiled roofs.

Thousands of trees lined streets and filled parks. Leafy vines, blooming with purple flowers, covered countless structures, and two tall pyramids stood high above the other buildings. One of them was further towards the back near the gigantic tree while the other was closer to the sea-facing side.

The three rivers cascaded down the step-like sections of the city until they flowed off cliffs as breathtaking waterfalls, tumbling into the sea far below. Atop the five towers looking over the edge, waved long flags with vertical stripes of deep purple, gold, and white.

"What's that city called?" Angélio asked. "It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen."

"Carcoel," Roende replied.

"I can't wait to see what it looks like up close," Angélio said.

"We're not going there," Roende said.

"Why not?" Angélio wrinkled his forehead. "I'm sure they have milk--or we could just get a cake--"

"We are not going there," Roende said in a dark tone.

"But why not?" Angélio insisted.

"Stop asking stupid questions!" the maralujo said crossly.

"Okay." Angélio's heart sank into his stomach like a stone. I just wanted to see the city, he thought.

"What I mean," Roende began more calmly, "is that there's a much better place to get what we need. It'll be the best Tres Leches Cake you've ever had. I promise you that. Friends only give their friends the best, right?"

"Yes," Angélio nodded. It sounded right, but he wished Roende hadn't yelled at him.

"Hang on tight," Roende said.

Angélio tightened his hold.

Roende took a sharp turn to the left. It was too much for Angélio. His grip broke. A chill ran through his body. Above him, Roende and his outstretched wings grew smaller by the second.

Angélio's eyes grew wide as the world started spinning like a hurricane. His heart pounded in his chest.

If I hit the ground... he stopped himself from finishing that thought.

He knew what would happen in a few seconds. His blood froze. His muscles tensed, bracing for the final impact. Visions of his mother and father flashed before his eyes.

♧♧♧

If you're enjoying this ONC novella, be sure to check out "Take a Chance" by faerie_nellas .

The odds are stacked up against him. 2 out of 3 options mean certain death. The third option comes at the price of his heart. Watch Blake defy the world when he is moved from one prison to another. Will he earn his freedom or stay shackled forever.