Her Mythical Warriors (Book Two)
Chapter Six: Desert Sands

“It’s beautiful,” Akira whispered as Zelious set her on her feet before the new portal.

It was the most beautiful blue and purple swirls she’d ever seen.

“Where does this one lead us to?” Jules asked, admiring the portal.

“This portal leads to a realm I haven’t been to before,” Wolfric said, watching Akira and Jules closely.

The two women were too close to the portal for Wolfric’s liking. He has never stepped through this portal, and neither he nor Malique knows what lies on the other side.

“I guess there’s a first for everything,” Akira said, holding her hand out toward the portal.

“I guess so,” Wolfric said, grabbing her.

Akira squealed as the wolf jumped through the portal with her.

“I guess we follow,” Malique said without looking at the others.

“I told you not to do that again!” Akira shrieked, punching Wolfric in the arm.

Wolfric chuckled as he grabbed her arm and pulled her from the portal as Malique landed on the ground.

“I’ve never been here before; I wasn’t letting you go through alone,” Wolfric said, looking into her eyes.

Akira sighed. She guessed she could forgive him—this time.

Julianne stumbled to her knees as she and Leviasen tumbled through the portal.

“Are you okay?” Akira asked, rushing to her friend’s side.

Jules grunted. “I’m fine. But Levi is going to get an ass beating for dragging me through the portal with him,” she said, looking up at the other fairy.

Jules gave Levi the harshest evil eyes Akira had ever seen the fairy give to anyone. Even when she’d thought Akira and her warriors were out to kill her dragon.

Levi chuckled and raised his hands in the air. “Sorry, Jules. Wolfric and the others had no clue what they would find on the other side of this portal. If Wolfric was in a fight when we appeared, I would rather you not be alone….”

Julianne stood with Akira’s help. Her eyes were softer—but still shooting daggers at Levi.

“You can punch me if it would make you feel better,” Levi said with a straight face, holding his shoulder closer to Jules.

Julianne scoffed and turned from him, mumbling something about men and their stupid asses, thinking women couldn’t defend themselves.

Akira looked at the men, then turned and chased after her friend.

Wolfric chuckled as he patted Levi on the shoulder. “They will get over it,” he assured the fairy.

“Where are we?” Stella asked, looking around the desert.

The four warriors looked at their surroundings, then up at the sky. It was mid-day, and the sun was nowhere to be found.

“A desert without a burning sun?” Malique whispered.

“Doesn’t sound like any desert I’ve ever seen or heard of,” Darius said, looking at the sand and lack of sun.

“I was so tired of trees—now I wish I could see one. Or something that showed life,” Malique said.

“I need to find water,” Zelious said, making everyone look at him.

“I thought you looked a little dry,” Wolfric said, examining his new brother.

“Akira was anxious to find this portal. I thought I could wait until we got on the other side.” Zelious looked around them. “But obviously, that was a mistake.”

“Will you be okay?” Malique asked, looking the merman up and down.

Zelious nodded. “I won’t die, just get weak, and my skin may peel.”

“We should find water,” Darius said, looking around the desert again.

“Where’s Nibbles?” Wolfric asked, looking around for their Havent’s pet.

“He ran after Akira as soon as he came through this side,” Stella said, not looking up from cleaning her sword.

“I guess we follow the women?” Darius suggested, pointing to where the women had disappeared.

The warriors looked in the direction their Havent had disappeared and frowned. Where in the world had they gone?

Stella frowned, “ah, man.”

She should have stayed with her friends. She is one of them, after all.

“There they are.” Malique pointed to a spot a distance from where they stood by the portal.

“Let’s catch up,” Wolfric said, taking the lead of the group.

Stella ran past the men and chased after the women. Fin snorted, watching his sister.

“Stella, watch where you’re going. We don’t know what’s out here!” Wolfric called out to the troll.

Just after Wolfric shouted his warning, the sand beneath the troll’s feet shifted. The men came to a stop as the troll screamed, disappearing beneath the sand.

“Stella!” Fin hollered, moving to run to where they’d last seen his sister.

“Fin! Stop!” Wolfric shouted.

“I need to get to my sister!” Fin yelled, fighting the men holding him back.

“It’s too dangerous. We can’t just go running up to the spot,” Wolfric said, watching the small troll fight with Malique and Darius.

“What happened?” Akira called from the other side of the hole, where the female troll was pulled into the sand.

“Not sure!” Wolfric responded. “Looked like the sand swallowed Stella!”

“No,” Akira whispered, staring at the spot in the sand Stella was sucked under.

“We need to make sure she’s okay,” Julianne said, staring at the spot the female troll had fallen.

“First thing we will do is move around the place she had fallen and make our way to you,” Wolfric said, his eyes on the sand as he led the men around the hole.

“Stop!” Akira screamed when she saw the sand shifting.

Everyone stopped and watched the sand as it moved toward the spot Stella had disappeared. The sand was slowly sliding into a hole that was steadily growing in size.

“I think we’re screwed,” Darius said, his eyes moving from the sand to his friends and back again.

“Darius, shift and take to the skies,” Wolfric said, looking at his fellow warrior. He looked at Leviasen and nodded. “Call for your mount….”

Wolfric didn’t get to finish as the ground swallowed him and his friends whole.

~⚔~

Akira coughed and opened her eyes to pitch blackness.

“Akira?”

Julianne’s soft voice had Akira reaching out to her friend. The two women took hold of each other’s hands and sighed with relief.

“Nibbles?” Akira whispered.

The Al-Mi’Raj bumped his head against Akira’s arm. She sighed with relief and picked the creature up into her arms.

“What happened?” Jules asked, sitting up.

“The sand ate us,” Akira whispered.

“But we’re alive,” Jules said, trying to look around them in the dark.

Akira nodded. They’re alive, indeed. They must have fallen into a cave of some sort.

“We should find the others,” Akira said, moving to get to her feet.

“Right.” Julianne nodded in agreement. Not that Akira could see her nod.

“I think they fell that way,” Akira said, pointing in the direction she figured they would find her warriors.

“I hope they’re okay,” Jules said, reaching for Akira’s hand.

The two women held hands as they blindly walked through the cave. They walked through passages, walked into walls, and hit their heads more than once. After what felt like two days, they finally found another cave.

“Anyone here?” Jules whispered into the room.

A moan from the other side had both women moving forward.

Akira knelt beside the moaning body and smiled when she felt the troll armor.

“Stella,” Akira whispered.

“Akira?” Stella whispered as Akira helped her sit up. “What happened?”

“You fell through the sand into a cave,” Jules said, kneeling beside Akira.

“How did you guys get to me?” Stella asked, rubbing her head.

The fall had given her a goose egg behind her right ear. She must have been knocked out—because she didn’t remember anything.

“We all fell after you….” Akira found the troll’s shoulder and squeezed. “I was worried about you.”

“So was I,” Julianne admitted.

Stella smiled. She was happy to know her new friends cared.

“Let’s find the men,” Akira said, helping Stella to her feet.

“I think we should continue that way,” Jules said, pointing the way they’d been heading when they found this cave.

Akira shook her head. “They were the other way from Stella. That means we originally went the wrong way.”

Akira and Jules looked down at the troll and smiled.

“Or did we?” Jules asked, knowing they wouldn’t have found Stella if they hadn’t gone this way.

“Let’s go back the way we came here and find a way toward where we’d last seen the men,” Akira said, leading her small group out of the cave.

~⚔~

Wolfric grunted as he sat up, his hand on his head.

“Good to see you awake, Brother,” Darius said from Wolfric’s right side.

“What happened?” Wolfric asked, looking at the Pegasus through the darkness of the cave.

He has never been more thankful for his wolf vision.

“Well, you were calling orders for us to hit the sky, and poof,” Darius said, using his hands as an explosion.

“Poof?” Wolfric asked, looking the man up and down.

Had he hit his head?

“Yeah, everything collapsed,” Malique mumbled from his place—not two feet from Wolfric’s right.

“Are you okay?” Wolfric asked his longtime friend.

Malique nodded, knowing that with the wolf vision, Wolfric could see him.

“Where’s Zelious?” Wolfric asked, looking around them.

“Not doing very well.” Darius pointed to the merman lying close to them.

“Is he…?”

“He’s beyond dehydrated,” Malique said, moving closer to the merman.

“We should have thought about water before we left the other realm. He is a fish, after all.” Darius watched Malique check the Warrior Fish’s pulse.

“I’m not a fish,” Zelious grumbled as he sat up, coughing.

Darius grinned, “could have fooled me. Scales and tail equal fish, right?” he joked.

Zelious grumbled, then coughed up more sand.

“Not good,” Malique said, watching the sand spray from the merman’s mouth.

“He sucked in too much sand in the fall,” Wolfric said, watching the merman cough up more sand.

“We need to find the women and get fish-boy out of here,” Malique said, watching the merman.

Darius laughed, and Zelious snorted.

“We need to find my sister.”

The warriors looked up and found the troll standing at the entrance to the cave.

“Did you find anything in the tunnels?” Darius asked of the troll.

“Yeah, lots and lots of tunnels,” Fin grumbled.

“Well, let’s find all the women of our group and get the fuck out of here.” Wolfric got to his feet.

The men nodded, and the group of warriors headed through the tunnels in search of their lost females.

~⚔~

“Shh, stop; I hear something,” Akira whispered.

“What is it?” Jules asked, coming to a stop beside Akira.

“Footsteps,” Akira whispered.

“I hope it’s our men and not someone out to kill us,” Jules whispered back.

“I smell my brother,” Stella said, bouncing on the souls of her feet.

Akira nodded. “That’s a good sign.”

“Should we hide or go toward them?” Jules asked.

“Hide,” Akira answered.

She looked for a place for the three of them to hide while they waited to see if it was their men coming their way or an enemy.

“Here,” Stella said when she found a big enough place for the three of them to fit.

“And now—we wait,” Akira said once they were hidden.

Akira set Nibbles on the cave floor and pulled out her dagger.

She was not going to be caught off guard.

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