Chapter 10

I stared at everyone suspiciously, taking in each of their facial expressions as they watched me too. Aden looked ashamed, his eyes averted away from mine while Adalynn looked me straight in the eyes, guilt consuming her usually confidant façade. The other humans all seemed a little discomforted by their ancestor's ignorance; even Archer seemed to shrink his shoulders down with indignity. I turned back to the mother octopus and she gave me a hopeful, beaky smile.

I reached out my hand to Adalynn and waited expectantly until she curiously took it. I carefully brought her hand closer to the mother octopus until they were a few inches apart. I felt Adalynn's wrist lock like she didn't want to go any farther and the octopus seemed to mistake this as a hostile gesture because she shrank back. A long silence seemed to stretch on, the only sounds I heard were mine and Adalynn's breathing as we tensely watched the unsure cephalopod slowly break through the surface again. She swam up to the very edge and slid out one of her long red appendages towards Adalynn, looking at me warily. They finally touched, her tentacle resting lightly on Adalynn's knee as she placed her hand on the creature's soft head.

The mom let out a muffled squeak, gave a beaked smile, and then the little ones surfaced beside her. The littlest pink one hopped out again, seeming overly friendly as it scuttled over to Adalynn and happily suction cupped itself to her palm. She giggled as it tickled its way up her arm and buried itself in her neck. The other two reached out, wanting some attention from this human girl too. She lightly petted their heads, slowly becoming less intimidated by them as well. I reunited two species, one point for the savior.

While the others started to set up camp for the night, Adalynn and I continued to play with the octopuses. They were very playful and energetic. They reminded me of puppies, only squishier. It was nice letting my guard down and actually laughing with Adalynn. It made her seem like a normal fourteen year old girl. I think this was the first time I've seen her actually laugh and not look like a haughty warrior.

"If you two are done fooling around, we have some more serious business to attend to," Anadar said impatiently. We sighed and said goodbye to our new friends, who left and went back down to the bottom of this little water body.

"So, what's this business we need to get down to that's way more serious than reuniting two species after hundreds of years? By the way, you're welcome." I plopped down on the ground beside Aden.

Anadar shot me an un-amused grimace. "We couldn't have gotten someone with a larger attention span to be our savior?" He tapped his tail impatiently, making the ground vibrate slightly.

"Nope, you're stuck with me." I grinned.

"Unfortunately," he added mordantly.

"Okay, I'm focusing. What's the plan?" I sat cross-legged on the floor and I folded my hands patiently in my lap, giving him my full and undivided attention.

"For this quest, you are searching for the crown of Ha'alele, correct?" he questioned, and I nodded. "Well, if you don't mind me asking, do you know where it might be exactly?"

"I thought it was out here in the desert," I answered, questioning my thoughts after seeing the knowing look he had given me. "Isn't that where you're taking us? To the crown?"

"I do not know where in the desert the crown is located, I am simply here to escort you through the perils of the land. We have a lot of ground to cover, and now that we're out of Dead Valley, I need to know which way to guide you next. Did you expect me to figure it out for you?"

I shrugged. "Kind of, yeah. I have no idea where it might be. It's not like I know my way around this place, I just learned it all existed like a week ago."

"Well let's just think for a moment, shall we? What gave you the idea to come out to the dry lands in the first place?" Anadar asked.

"It was Aden's idea, he said that Ha'alele meant 'desert' in some other language, so we thought it was worth a try to come here," I said.

The giant possum nodded thoughtfully to himself. "Good thinking, this is probably the first place I would have gone myself with such little lead to follow."

"That's all we've got," I sighed glumly.

"Does anyone have any other thoughts about where we might go next? Where this crown might be out here?" the possum looked around carefully.

Everyone was quiet, everyone looking in different directions.

"If the princess had been wearing her crown, than it must be where Ha'alele died…" Adalynn trailed off, sending all eyes her way to stare curiously.

"Where might that be?" Aden asked, joining the conversation as everyone just looked at each other, blank looks on their faces.

"Do you not remember the song, cousin?" Adalynn raised an eyebrow. "Have you forgotten how we used to mock it as children, believing it to be a mere ridiculous nursery rhyme?"

Aden nodded, a playful smile spreading across his lips until that dimple in his left cheek stuck out. "I never thought it to be more than a child's song."

"The oldest of the sisters runs, far away and not for fun. Po'ele teeth will start to snap; soon she will be in their trap. Atop the cliff where she must end, down below she'll break and bend…" Adalynn said, adopting a sing song like voice.

"The drum in the cage will quick be still, so all of us they cannot chill. Her sacrifice, it is quite grand. Remember her in the land of sand." Aden finished in a monotone voice.

"Well, I'm guessing we're in the land of sand, but now what?" I said staring curiously at both of them. "What's the cliff where she must end?"

"Ha'alele was said to have been killed by falling to her death from atop a cliff into a deep pit where she was buried alive by the Po'eles," Adalynn said.

"There are many cliffs out here in the dry lands," said Anadar. "She could have fallen from any of them."

I shivered at the horrible thought of being buried alive. She'd just laid there terrified in the dark as it got harder and harder to breathe, dirt filling her mouth and lungs until her heart finally stopped beating and left her underground forever to be alone.

"This hole she was buried in will be near impossible to find, considering it was filled in over five hundred years ago!" Anadar growled, biting the rock he was chewing on into rubble.

"No one knows where she is…" Adalynn sighed, tucking her knees into her chest.

"Wait, you mean no one ever found her body?" I shivered.

"No one knew where to look," Aden sighed, "According to Adoniia's vision, each of his daughters was to be hidden with her encrypted crown to wait for the 'Anela to find her, no matter how long it took..."

"Why was she way out here anyways?" I questioned.

"Because they were the keys to freedom," Angie whispered, "Each of the daughter's crowns contained a piece of the puzzle to end the war. Adoniia saw the answer in his visions and he had the secret engraved into each of his daughter's crowns. He sent each of them away to protect their crowns and to wait for the 'Anela to come for them and respond to his message."

"He just shipped all of his daughters away like that?" I cried, "He didn't care what happened? How could he do that?" Did he really believe that his city was more precious than the lives of his children? I would never forgive my dad if he did that to me.

"It was not done out of hatred, Shelby," Adalynn said, "Adoniia loved his daughters, they were very dear to him, but it was their destiny to save the kingdom. Adoniia had a vision which told him to do so, it was the only way to save us all."

"This guy sounds insane!" I growled, "He was probably some crazy person who thought he saw things when he didn't and his daughters had to pay the price!"

"Most of his visions have come true though," Angie said softly.

"Well what about his vision about the world ending?" I frowned. "It hasn't ended, I would know, I actually live up there and everything's fine!"

"He never told when it would end, it may not happen until even further into the future," Adalynn said.

I scoffed. "I'm still not too impressed with this guy."

"He predicted your arrival, and even what you would look like," Aden added.

"I still don't like the idea of going off on some wild goose chase because of what some guy who's been dead for hundreds of years claimed he saw in a vision," I said roughly, crossing my arms over my chest. "How do we not know he just didn't eat some bad meat or something and hallucinate?"

"We can discuss your skepticism later. It has been a long day for us all and we need rest," Anadar said, lazily slouching back against a wall and sliding down onto his back.

No one was hungry so we didn't bother with dinner; we all just curled up and went to sleep within minutes. I wriggled in between Adalynn and Aden and closed my eyes, feeling the events of today suddenly crush me like an anvil dropping from above. My body ached from nearly drowning, and my feet were sore from all this trudging through the desert. All I craved was rest and a moment of peace.

Before I fell asleep, I peeked open one eye and looked around the cave. The walls up above were encrusted in these glowing crystals that dimly lit up the whole cave in a blue-ish glow, making it possible to see, even in a cavern so deep below the Earth's surface. I let my eyes fall shut, knowing I'd sleep peacefully under the light of the crystals.

I was standing with that beautiful girl with the dark hair and the almond shaped eyes. She took my hand in hers and I saw that we were high up on top of a cliff, the ground below me spiraling. When I looked over at her for an explanation, I saw that she was crying, glistening tears sliding down her cheeks. I followed her gaze to see what she was staring so intently at, and I saw there was a mob of fanged creatures hissing and chanting things at us. They crept closer, their knife-like teeth dripping with saliva and their claws glistening at the sharp points.

"We must fall to save them all," the girl whispered to me, and for the first time I noticed she wore a crown on her head. It was a thick gold band with a glistening ruby in the center.

"No!" I cried as she tried to pull me closer towards the edge.

"Queen's Cliff summoned us, and we are no longer needed," she said, "We must fall to save them all…" She tightened her grip around my hand, dragging me closer and closer to the edge as I tried to break free. She pulled us both over so we went free falling, dragging me with her down into the dark hole that awaited us at the bottom. I screamed and closed my eyes just before we hit.

I woke up drenched in sweat, screaming at the top of my lungs, feeling like I was still falling. I sat there trembling as everyone jumped up in surprise, reaching for their weapons. They all looked around in confusion until their eyes stopped on me. I cried harder than I had with my other nightmares, this one seemed the worst somehow. Maybe because the fall felt so real; I could actually feel that swooping feeling you got in your stomach whenever you dropped. Adalynn wrapped her arms around me and lightly patted my back to calm me.

"Was it the same nightmare?" she whispered in my ear.

I shook my head. "This was worse…" I could remember the actual feeling of my body bursting apart as I hit the bottom, my bones breaking and my organs smashing around as I exploded into nothing. The heart wrenching pain and then the sudden nothingness that seemed even worse than the pain.

"I don't suppose we'll need a wake-up call with you around," Anadar said, giving a cat-like stretch before crawling over to me on all four paws.

I narrowed my eyes bitterly at him, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand.

Adalynn spoke softly to me, telling me that I was safe and everything was fine. Everything wasn't fine though, I wanted to go home. I wanted Mom to be holding me right now, comforting me and telling me that things were okay. If I were home I wouldn't be having these nightmares, I'd be sound asleep on the top bunk in the room I shared with Ava, dreaming about being on a picnic with Dominic at the beach.

"You had good timing at least. We need to get moving again," said Anadar.

"Where are we going?" Aden asked.

The possum shrugged. "First we should get out of the tunnels and back into the desert. Then we can try figuring out the cliff we need to find."

The word cliff kept running through my head, echoing somewhere deep in my brain like I'd just heard it and the sound was returning to the surface of my memories.

"Queen's Cliff summoned us and we are no longer needed…"

"Wait!" I shouted. "Is…Queen's Cliff a real place?"

Everyone seemed to be staring at me strangely.

"It is far north here in the dry lands, why do you ask?" Anadar questioned, his deep black eyes staring intently at me as his nose quivered.

I felt my heart swell and everything from my dreams suddenly seemed to become real. Princess Ha'alele really had fallen to her death. If my dream was true, than that would mean…

"I know where she died," I said.