“Alvis!” Keelia screamed, shaking him.

                “What’s going on?!” Everie asked, but when he saw Alvis’s pale and unconscious body he immediately took control. “Guys, you go on, I’ll get him to Crecklington.”

                “But Everie,” Keelia objected.

                “Keelia, just go! I can do this!” Everie pleaded. Keelia felt a hand on her shoulder. Jililian nodded.

                “He can. Let him do this one thing for Alvis,” she whispered. Keelia relented and watched as Everie dragged Alvis away, back to the Silver Creek path. She felt a tear go down her cheek. A sad and angry tear. A tear of regret for ever coming to Nivara. Delisa, Jililian, Brinely and Keelia walked slowly down the tunnel.

One Hour Later-

                Keelia and Brinely led the way with Delisa and Jililian right behind them. They were ankle deep in water and it was slowly getting deeper. Before long they were about to jump in the water when a voice echoed behind them.

                “I thought that I would NEVER catch up to you guys!” Rachel was out of breath.

                “Rachel! I was beginning to worry about you! Where were you?” Keelia asked.

                “Getting yelled at by my mother and Counselor Jubilee! It was not pleasant, but I snuck out when the two of them were arguing about what to do about my absence yesterday. Wait! Before you go in the water, I stole some breathing gadgets from Jonathan’s desk. Don’t worry, he just made them this morning, nobody has used them yet.” She passed out a strange U-shaped piece of metal with a small tube in the front bending like an L and showed them how to put it on. It went in the inside of Keelia’s mouth, right behind her front teeth and latched onto her back molars. It puffed air in and caused the air breathing out to go through the small tube in the front. Breathing in it was so simple it hardly felt like she was in the water, other than the fact that her body went numb in the small time period of five minutes. Her body was just about to give up swimming when they surfaced. They were in an ice cavern similar to the one Rachel had first led Keelia into, but this one was smaller with at least eight different tunnels going out from it.

                “I don’t know where we are! I’ve never been this deep. We’re probably two hundred feet below the surface. The farthest I’ve ever been is seventy feet before! Brinely, have you been this deep?” Rachel asked.

                “Yes. But the problem is that you have to have two groups to be able to enter the main cavern. We’ll have to split up. I’ll go with Delisa, Keelia you go with Jililian and Rachel. When you get to the round bolted door, start turning the spheres until you hear them click twice. Delisa and I will do the same thing on a different door. That will lead us into a single passage and then we’ll meet up again. Everybody good?” They all nodded and Brinely directed them into which tunnel to go.

Brinely and Delisa-

                Brinely and Delisa made their way through the tunnel, paddling above water. Awkward silence loomed in front of them.

                “So… what was it like working with the Shen Drar?” Delisa asked. Of course she would ask that. But I guess I would too, Brinely pondered.

                “Well, mostly they wanted you to train with the other Crepja, that is the official name of what Fern has become. You would practice controlling the fire monsters inside of them and when they could control the monster themselves then you would watch the monster slowly take control of the victim. Although sometimes you would meet other kids in the Shen Drar, children of the leaders, and play games like normal kids do. That is, until Fern ‘died’. Then nobody wanted to talk or play with me. Only Isaac and Jonathan. They’re not so bad, you know. They just grew up without remembering having a good dad. His name was Bolsvar, the dad. Apparently, he wasn’t bad at all and had been giving information to people that he wasn’t supposed to and he got in trouble. I remember the day he was killed. It was an accident. He slipped on the ice on a trial round for the globes. The globe crashed on him and he was killed by the explosion,” Brinely paused swimming for a minute.

                “What is it?” Delisa asked.

                “I will never forget the look on Rachel’s face the day I told her that her father was dead. She didn’t stop crying for months. Then Fern died, and completely understood her agony. I don’t really want to talk about it,” Brinely said.

Keelia, Jililian, and Rachel-

                The trio also paddled their way through the tunnel. Keelia wondered how long they would have to follow the tunnel before they reached the door. Soon, however, they came to a fork in the tunnel. “Which one do we take?” Jililian asked. Keelia looked from one tunnel to the other. One had sunlight in different spots, and the other was dark and eerie.

                “Probably the darker one,” Keelia replied, but Rachel shook her head.

                “Believe it or not, but I’m pretty sure that it’s the sunny one.” Jililian sided with Rachel and Keelia assumed that the worst would be that they would bump into the Shen Drar. That’ll be fantastic! Keelia thought sarcastically.

                “Alright, but if we hit a dead end, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” They dove under water and swam into the light-filled passage. The only reason that there was sunlight in the warm passage was because there were tubes that went all the way up to the surface, allowing the sun’s rays to filter through the tunnel. Eventually they came to their destination.

“See,” said Jililian, “Rachel’s got us covered!” Rachel grinned with happiness. Come on Keelia, stop thinking that you’re the one who knows anything. If we had gone my way, we probably would have gone up against the Shen Drar by accident, Keelia’s mind thundered.

Brinely and Delisa-

                Brinely already felt bad about snapping to Delisa and he didn’t want to make things any worse. He liked Delisa as a friend and if he was going to get along with Alvis, he would have to gain her respect first. He was determined to show her that he could be trustworthy.

                “What really happened to make you want to join us?” Delisa asked. Brinely thought for a moment before answering.

                  I’m really not sure. It was probably the realization that, when I saw Fern, she said that she was ashamed of me. I’m honestly just trying to get her back, Delisa. You won’t believe how much I miss her.” Brinely thought that went well, until Delisa said.

                So really, once we fix Fern, you’ll just turn to the bad side again?” Brinely shook his head, Why on earth would she think that?

                “No! Why doesn’t anybody believe that I’m actually really trying hard not to go back to them! Sure, they made everything easy by telling you when and where to go! But I’m seriously trying to get away from them, Delisa! What do I have to do to get you to trust me?” Brinely pleaded for her to tell him.

                “I don’t know, Brinely! I don’t see how it’s so hard to understand why I don’t trust you! You lied to Keelia (my bestie!) and then dumped water on her! You’ve bullied me and my friends for years! Not to mention that you can find your way everywhere down here! I really think that you’re still lying to us! I’ll tell you when I trust you!” she responded with exasperation. Of course she will. Like anybody would tell me flat out ‘I trust you’. That would just be weird. They swam for a while. Minutes passed, andBrinely looked around them. None of these tunnels looked familiar to him anymore.

                “Delisa, did you turn into another tunnel at some point earlier?” Brinely asked anxiously. Delisa paused.

                “Yes, while you were talking a minute ago, why?” she asked.

                “Because I don’t know where we are anymore,” Delisa stopped swimming completely.

                “You mean that we’re lost down here? Are you kidding me?” she whispered. Delisa put her breathing gadget back on and sunk to the bottom of the cavern. Brinely was close behind her, his eyes stretched wide when he saw what she was doing. She was chipping away at the cavern wall. Slowly, she created some sort of pole coming out of the ice. She stretched out her hand and a small but firm vine came out from her hand and wound around the pole. She swam up to the surface, and Brinely followed.

                “You’re a Growther?” he asked, and she nodded.

                “This will help us find our way back to this spot so that we don’t get any more lost than we are right now,” Delisa explained. Smart, Brinely took note. “Do you remember where we turned?”

                “No,” he admitted, “but we should probably go back the way we came so that we don’t go any deeper into the caverns. She agreed, finally. See, Delisa I can think! Brinely muttered in his mind. They swam for a while once again and suddenly Delisa groaned and dove quickly into the water. Brinely quickly reattached his breathing gadget into his mouth and dove after her. The vine that Delisa had been using was drifting in the water and he hastily snatched it before it could float away. Why would she let it go? Then he saw her. She looked deathly pale and the palm that the vine had been coming from was dark red. He kicked quickly to her side. She was rubbing her palm and wouldn’t let him see it. He pulled her up into the air again.

                “What on earth happened?” Brinely stuttered, coughing water out of his mouth. Delisa sighed.

                “Sometimes that happens when we grow too much vine continually.  But it’s fine now, see?” she held up the sickenly still red mark on her palm.

                “That still looks pretty painful, Delisa, we should hurry up and get you back to Crecklington. What if the cold water infects it, or something else happens to it?” Brinely said urgently. Alvis is going to kill me when he finds out that I hurt his sister! His brain told him.

                “No, the cold actually helps a bit. It kind of numbs it. I’ll use my other hand, but we’ll have to tie it on,” she told Brinely. She grew a bit of vine from her palm and he helped tie them together. “There!” she said, “Come on!” 

                It took them half of an hour to trace back their steps until they found where their mistake was. Once they had found their mistake they swam rapidly toward the door. The door was heavy and had at least ten difficult locks on the outside. Brinely did most of the unlocking because Delisa’s palms were sore from all the vines she had made. Her palms were red and beginning to swell, and she was very pale. Mental note, Brinely. If you like somebody, you shouldn’t agree to letting them do something that will hurt them. But, there was no other way we could find our way back to that spot if we needed to get back! You know what, Brinely, just do what Delisa says, Brinely told himself firmly. Thankfully, once he had undone his locks, the door on the other side was open. Hopefully Keelia was the one who opened it.

                Everie struggled to hoist Alvis’s lifeless body up the slopes in the forest. The sun was hot, regardless of the countless feet of snow beneath him. Everie pulled out his Breaking Whistle. He clung to his best friend’s unconscious figure, like it was the one thing keeping him from breaking down himself. Alvis didn’t just go down like this. Especially out of the blue. It didn’t make sense. Ever since he and Jililian had been adopted by Master Brinalds, Alvis had been family. Alvis was supposed to be the strong one. The one that could keep Everie to have the strength to keep on living. Clearly, something had happened, and he was going to figure out what. Counselor Tentriark. She teaches medicine. I need to get him to the hospital by the palace.  He blew the whistle. The forest around him blurred as he sped swiftly through the scenery. They came to a gentle halt in front of the hospital. He pulled Alvis through the gate. “Help!” Everie said, quietly at first. Then he shouted it when he saw how pale his friend really was. A woman came through and opened the door.

                “What is the meaning of this! We’re not open till-” she gasped when she saw the lifeless body in Everie’s trembling hands, “what happened to him?”

                “I don’t know! He just collapsed! Can you help him?” Everie let the tears run when the woman called nurses from the hall they pulled Alvis in and had Everie wait in the visitor room. An hour passed until Tentriark came out.

                “The doctor can see you now, Mr. Everie,” she said kindly. Everie jumped up and dashed to the door and burst in. Alvis was awake but didn’t look up. He was breathing still, but still pale.

                “Is he going to be OK?” Everie gasped, catching his breath. The man nodded, smiling, but it was a forced smile. “Did you find out what happened to him yet?”

                “Yes, we had Counselor Alie come in and search his memories and… well. He ran out and wouldn’t say anything to us, but the best guess we have is that he saw Plydis,” the man whispered the last part. Plydis, the Plydis curse. I’ve seen him before. That’s why I hate myself and my power. He killed my parents and he made me a flareon. Everie kept his composure and acted like he didn’t know what the man was talking about.

                “Plydis, like the old myth?” he asked, but his voice cracked.

                “Yes, unfortunately. The best thing for you to do is stay here. Are you a family friend?”

                “Yes, sir. I’m Everie Wackson,” he replied. The man left and he sat down on the bed next to his friend. Alvis looked frozen and Everie spoke.

                “Alvis, I’ve seen him too. His red eyes. His long-hooked snout. His flames. I’m sorry you had to see him, too,” Everie burst into tears at the memories that the dragon had haunted him with for so many years. He looked at the scars running along his friend’s arm and back. His eyes widened. “Alvis. You haven’t just seen him. You’ve met him.” Everie shook Alvis by the arms until he looked into his eyes. “Alvis. How are you alive?! You should be dead!”