Chapter 9: Find The Key

The group had arrived at a hazy looking wall Inferno landed in front of it. Emlyn jumped off of him and walked over touching the wall which glittered and waved then fell down and shattered like glass. When they saw what was behind it, they looked horrified. There was nothing but darkness.

Emlyn stepped into the darkness and looked around as hard as she could, but there was nothing. She came back and faced her group. "I can't see anything. Anyone have a flashlight?"

"What's a flashlight?" Stella asked and a few people murmured among themselves the same question.

Emlyn rubbed the space between her eyes but suddenly Bob piped up, "It's a device they use in America to produce light with a thing called batteries."

"How the hell do you know that Bob?" Stella asked with total confusion which everyone seemed to have.

Bob grinned, "I know things."

"Right so anyone have a light of any kind?" Emlyn asked thinking it was crazy that only one of these people knew what something so simple as a flashlight was.

"Anyone have a light of any kind?" she asked instead, and they looked at each other before Mystic stepped forward.

"I got it." Her horn lit up with a bright light and she started walking into the darkness. Emlyn followed and they looked around seeing what they could only comprehend as horror.

There was a graveyard, and dark forests surrounding them. Above them shone a pitch-black sky. There was no light except for the one that came from Mystic's horn. Emlyn walked over and touched the very similar wall from before, but it didn't budge. Instead words appeared in it, "Find The Key." Then they faded and Emlyn turned and glanced around.

"We have to find a key," she said and suddenly the wall opened at the middle forming a small circle. The key Emlyn assumed was a circular object they would fit in the hole to shatter the wall. Mystic walked around with Emlyn providing light until she stopped, and her eyes widened. Emlyn had walked a bit ahead of her and only stopped when she heard the unicorn call to her.

"Emlyn what's your last name?" Mystic asked, and while Emlyn thought it was a silly question, she turned, facing the unicorn who was staring at the headstone of a grave.

"Lovet... why?" Emlyn walked over and looked the headstone and her mouth opened in shock. There was a headstone and it was one that made chills run up her spine

"Here Lies Emlyn Lovet, Their Failed Queen," she read aloud then looked at the others, "She expects me to die this quickly? Well she's terribly wrong," she said with a slight smile and the others shared one with her.

One of the earth dragons named Aarde stepped forward and rose up into the air sucking the dirt from the grave into his chest. When he found the end there lay a white circular object, the key. Emlyn picked it up and walked over placing it into the hole in the wall and it shattered like before.

When everyone had gathered in the dark room a solid wall came up behind them, there was no going back. They looked ahead of them to see a bright room, a well-lit room. "Dark, then light? How many are there?" Emlyn asked aloud but mainly to herself.

She walked over to the wall again and touched it. The same thing happened, and it opened up at the center waiting for a key. She turned and looked around at the sandy beach look this room had. Palm trees surround them, and they stood on sand that they had no idea how deep it went. There looked to be a deep lake, the only thing they couldn't see the bottom of.

"The key's down there," said a voice and they looked over to see the blue dragon from before who she had learned was named Waves.

"There's no way I can get there... I'll die trying. It's most likely too deep and too cold for me," Emlyn said sighing. She was worried they wouldn't be able to get out. To her surprise the water dragon dove into the water creating huge splash that splattered all of them. A few minutes later she came back up bursting through the middle of the water and her wings were spread wide. She looked magical when she rose from the water like a water goddess.

She handed Emlyn the key that was in her mouth and Emlyn headed over placing it in the hole and the wall shattered. Once they had all entered the light room now that there was more room another wall came up and stopped them from going back to the dark room. In front of them though stood a maze and Emlyn cringed back a bit. When she was younger, she had gone into a corn maze and had gotten lost, she later was rescued by a helicopter after being stuck in there for three days.

Now she had to face one made by Camilla. There was God only knows what, but she had to face it. They headed into the maze one at a time, Emlyn and Mystic, who was providing the light, were in the lead. As they neared deeper into the maze, things only felt creepier. The vibe in the maze was terrifying and it was terribly cold in there. While trying to find the end of the maze, they also looked for a key, but didn't find one.

It felt like forever, but they arrived at the end of the maze and there was the key. But there was no wall. Instead there was a straight beam of ice leading across a deep pit that was so far down you couldn't see the bottom. Emlyn turned to face all of them, an idea forming. "I'll go across and open up the wall. I have a feeling this is the end and everything's going to start crumbling. Ice dragons, I'll need you to make a solid ice ground for the ice to connect to. Once the wall is open, everyone run across, quickly. Make sure no one is left behind. Are we ready?"

They all agreed, and the ice dragons set to work on making a solid platform of ice while Emlyn was about to walk across but was stopped. A pure white ice dragon named Snow began giving something to Emlyn. White magic traveled from her claws to Emlyn's hands and feet. "It will protect you from falling off the ice or sliding," she said, Emlyn nodding in appreciation, beginning her journey across the beam of ice.

She knew better than to look down, but she couldn't help herself and glanced down every so often. Normally she would have slipped when she freaked out about the height, but she didn't because of the gift from the ice dragon. Emlyn eventually made it across, right as the ice dragons finished making the platform. She pushed the key in, and the wall shattered revealing the outside, but it wasn't clear.

Everyone ran across into the beginning of the bad part of the badlands. "What is this place Inferno?" Emlyn asked him and he sighed.

"This is the land of Fire, but it looks like it's been edited to be worse than what it is," he said, and they knew they were in for an extremely dangerous game. Camilla would stop at nothing.