My eyes opened to dim walls. Confusion swarmed my mind. I should've been in a forest, on soft green grass, under the ancient boughs of a pear tree. My palm pressed in loose dirt to maneuver me into a seated position. Brown walls curved into a tunnel that extended to a fuzzy light.

"Virgo?" I breathed. I was too afraid to yell, or even speak at a normal volume.

Her name echoed through the tunnels, my whisper magnified to a thousand. No response came. No words or footsteps sang through the tunnels.

Goosebumps mushroomed on my arm, and not just from the chilly draft that swept by. It's fine. She's probably going to return any second.

I hugged my knees to my chest. I could wait until she came back.

If she came back.

Surely she wouldn't abandon me down here. Although...she didn't seem too keen on helping me when I first found her. She could've told me she would get me home just so I'd stop talking about it, then stashed me down here. In fact, what was I doing in a tunnel in the first place? She told me to sleep in the clearing. If there was an alternate place to rest, she should've brought me there while I was awake, not asleep.

The image of the pear flashed in my mind, that beautiful, delicious pear. It had seemed fanciful, straight from a fairytale, and in hindsight, it was. She probably laced it with a sleeping potion that knocked me unconscious.

She probably wasn't even the real Virgo. She was probably an imposter who lured me into trusting her. I'd bet tons of "mortals" (as she called us) washed up on her shore every year, and her little trick worked on every single one. Well, every naïve one.

Like me.

How could I have trusted her? I barely spoke to her. At least with the mer-people, they built some confidence through their kindness toward me over the course of multiple days, no matter how fake it was. Yet here I was, believing what this random woman told me simply since she called herself a "Star Guardian."

What did she want to happen? For me to die a slow death of dehydration? Perhaps she was a serial killer who was banished to this island. Did she plan to finish me off later today? I let out an exasperated sigh. I was so tired of not knowing anything, even the mundane things like the date and time. It made me powerless.

I was powerless. Just like I was in the storm. Just like I was in Oamer.

Just like I was at home. Not the Bahamas—that was Lani's home. My home was in the rolling hills of South Carolina with my parents and a life I desperately wanted to escape. But I couldn't. How could I escape a life that didn't exist? I lacked purpose and drive. I didn't know what I wanted.

My eyes focused on the arched doorway, on the light beyond. I couldn't stay down there forever, and I didn't want to find out what the Virgo imposter had planned for me.

So I did something crazy, something compulsive, something I thought I'd never do.

I ran.

I tore through the tunnel, right into the glow of a single, fiery torch. I grabbed it from the wall and ran forward. The path bent and split three. I kept straight, the flame dispersing the darkness. Pebbles jabbed my pounding feet, but I didn't stop. Blood rushed in my ears over my footsteps, and I hoped Virgo wasn't around to hear them.

Another fork in the road. Another hollow passage. They widened in breadth, then shrunk until my shoulders brushed dirt from the sides. The earthen walls blurred together, impossible to tell new paths from traveling in a circle. My legs pumped me forward, along with desperation. I didn't want to die underground. I needed to leave the island.

My lungs grew tired. My heart was inflated with so much blood, it might pop in my chest. I slowed to a halt, drawing in jagged breaths of the musky air. Energy drained from my muscles. It occurred to me that I might be going deeper into my abductor's lair, as opposed to leaving.

I glanced around the monochrome space. There was no way I could go back. I'd made too many sudden turns for that. I forced my legs into a mini jog on the only route available—forward. They wobbled, muscles weak, threatening to collapse.

Just a little further. I had to believe that the next turn would take me to freedom.

An infinite amount of time seemed to pass. But at last, a ray of light glimmered in the distance. I sped up my pace, strength renewed by the hope it promised. Sunlight led me upward, the path narrowing into a hole barely larger than I. My breath snuffed out the torch, and I squeezed into the forest air.

Its earthy, decomposing scent was welcoming, no longer caustic. I searched the bushes for a place to hide, just in case Virgo discovered I was missing. My gaze traveled to the trees above. That had to be the best place to wait. The more space between Virgo and me, the better.

My hands gripped the bark of the nearest tree. I pulled myself onto the lowest branch, also the thinnest. It bounced up and down as I straddled it. Please don't break. I stretched for the next one, barely tall enough for my hands to wrap around it. My fingers laced together around the thick wood, and pushing off with my feet, I hoisted myself up. This one didn't budge under my weight.

I climbed my way higher and higher until the chunky boughs thinned from the elevation. I settled in a nook between the trunk and a branch. Leaves grew throughout the twists and arcs of the tree, providing a visual barrier between me and whatever lurked on the ground.

I leaned back, rough bark digging into my back. My hair and dress protected my bare skin from scratches, but it didn't alter the compression on my bones. Orangey rays seeped through the forest's green canopy, dull from the day's age, shining right on the holes in my dirt-streaked skirt. A sigh slipped from my lungs. It really wasn't the best climbing outfit. But it didn't matter if it was ruined. I had plenty of other clothes at Lani's.

Lani. Home.

It occurred to me that I had no way of leaving the island. The storm destroyed my boat long before, and I doubted the Virgo imposter had any to spare. Even if I wasn't in her lair, I was still trapped on her island. Unless I swam...

That was it. My options were die here or die at sea.

Stop thinking like that. There's still a shot I'll make it home.

I just needed some driftwood to float on. Yes, that was the solution. Surely there'd be a large, spare piece of wood lying around in the forest that would keep me afloat. And my belt would ward off predators.

I relaxed into the tree, my gaze settling on the distant blue ocean. The view was so much better from above, always better from above, just like it was in Oamer. It was so peaceful, removed from the cares of the forest. I could sit for hours, watching as a sunset burnt the sky red, painted just for me.

Perhaps I did sit there for hours, for the sun lowered under the horizon. Dusk slunk into the forest, enveloping every rock, twig, leaf, and crevice. I shifted my head, so it lay against the branch. It made a hard pillow, but offered some support for my neck. My eyelids shut against the rising moonbeams. Crickets pulsed a monotone chorus below, drawing me into sleep.

My stomach joined the drone with a few earth-shattering rumbles. I groaned quietly. To climb all the way down in search of food was too much effort. I tried to ignore it, but it grew more insistent, the emptiness more prevalent. Finally, I willed myself upright. I had to eat sometime, and night was the best camouflage.

I swung my leg from around the trunk, my tired hands on a thin branch. My foot stabilized on a sturdy lower limb before the rest of my body slid onto it. I waited a moment as my chest heaved. I felt sloppy with tiredness, like I might dissolve into glop and fall to the ground.

Footsteps crackled below.

That made my muscles stiffen. I peered into the darkness below. A silhouette traveled, barely illuminated by the moon. It stopped under a tree—the tree I hid in. I froze, air in lungs, stomach tensed to keep from growling. Only my heart kept pumping, and I swore it was loud enough to be heard on the forest floor.

There was only one person who could be under me. I didn't need to glimpse her shiny brown hair, nor her white tunic. It was Virgo's imposter who stopped below. Was she waiting for something?

Waiting for me?

A whimper threatened to squeeze from my throat. She had found me. At any moment, she'd call up to me with crazed eyes, evil laugh echoing off the trees, knife in hand. My fingers wrapped around my dagger. If she attacked me, I'd be ready.

She lingered too long. I grew anxious, even impatient. I couldn't keep my stomach quiet forever. It was just a few seconds away from ripping a grumble so loud it'd wake the trees.

A moment passed; a century passed. At last, her figure ducked into the cave. Relief washed over me, though part of me worried her disappearance was a trick. She could've manipulated the shadows so that I assumed she was gone, but was ready to pounce the moment I stepped from the tree.

Then again, if she were in the forest all day, she wouldn't know that I escaped. In that case, how could she know I was in the tree?

My head spun from the options. I wasn't in the right frame of mind for life-changing decisions.

A pinch nipped my shoulder. I frowned, glancing around. Milky light bathed a tiny white spider scurrying across the tree branch.

Anxiety sparked in my chest. There were insects in this tree. In fact, there were insects throughout the forest. Larger animals, too—snakes could inhabit the surrounding branches. I climbed down the tree as fast as I could, which was actually rather slow, given my weary state. And by the time my feet landed on the leaf-coated ground, fatigue overpowered all my senses. Bushes rustled and undergrowth crunched as I stumbled along a semi-cleared path. I didn't know where I was going. I just had to get out of the forest before something got me, whether it be a human or beast.

The trees parted to the beach—the glorious, open beach. And the ocean lay beyond, the way home.

Home. I must get home.

I dragged myself toward it. I could make it back to Lani tonight, before Virgo-imposter woke, before the animals got me. They were going to get me, all of them. Even the mermaids and mermen. If they didn't, the lightning would.

My feet grew into bricks, too heavy to lift. I started forward, but they planted in the sand. I collapsed face first into the fine granules. It was soft, like a bed. Like pancakes.

Mmm, pancakes. With strawberries. No, bananas. Bananas and walnuts.

Hunger seared my belly. But my eyelids dropped, and I plunged into the abyss of the subconscious.

***

The crash of ocean waves roused me from my dreamless sleep.

Ah. The perfect alarm clock. This was the way to wake up during a vacation. My eyelids fluttered open to a hazy, yellow glare on the Caribbean. I didn't want to move from my fluffy nest of sand.

But something wasn't right. I felt...heftier. My mental awareness sharpened, noting red in my peripheral. An itch crept up my arm, and when I scratched it, my skin felt drier and thicker than before. I heaved my massive body upright.

Every inch of me went still.

What the...?

I couldn't finish the thought. I didn't know what to think. This had to be a dream.

A dream so realistic, I'd mistaken it for reality.

Red scales replaced my skin. My hands had transformed into giant claws with three-inch spindly nails. The ground dipped under me as I rolled onto my side. An imprint of my body dented the sand, and in the center, my white dress from Catilli lay in shreds. I grasped for my waist until I felt the rough belt under my fingertips.

At least my belt is intact.

Upon glancing down at it, the belt seemed more than intact. It had expanded and now wrapped around my circumference without only the slightest tension.

Something moved on my back. I turned my head, eyes falling on two scaly appendages that fanned out from my body.

Wings. I had wings. I shut my eyes.

I must be dreaming! There's no way that this is real! There's just no way!

I willed myself to wake up. I slapped my face until it burned, pinched my skin until it screamed in pain. Desperate, I threw myself onto all fours. My body rocked in the mushy ground, but I planted one arm forward, then a foot, then another arm, another foot.

I staggered right into the sea. Ice water splashed over my face and skin. I dropped into the ocean over and over, water submerging me, my weight dragging me to the sandy bottom. The rest of my mental blockage cleared. I was still awake, more awake than before.

My frenzy slowed, and I dropped into the waves. A chill ran down my spine, unrelated to the chilly water. Nothing could be done. This wasn't a dream. This was a living nightmare.

In the waxing light, I caught a fractured glimpse of myself in the turbulent sea. The image of a dragon stared back.