Lower Grounds

There were too many of them that they couldn't possibly think about taking on them, they couldn't do it with Emric, and without Emric they didn't stand a chance.

When there was no hope left, they rushed toward the boat but the boat was stuck under the frozen river, they could try and fall on the surface but it was useless, they would probably slip and hurt themselves.

Jayden was looking everywhere when he realized that Emric passed out, he turned his face toward Swan, she had both her hands cupped against each other, her lips were moving when she quickly separated her hands and a little glowing sparrow made of paper appeared in between her hands, she blew it off, it flew toward the land across the river and disappeared.

"Come this way! I see a path!" Swan lead the way and Jayden again carried Emric on his shoulders.

Cannibals also followed them, and both Swan and Jayden ran as fast as they could, when she stepped on the pathway she saw earlier, the entire ground started shaking and breaking under their feet and then all three of them started slipping until they reached the surface again.

"We needed to get out not in!" Jayden groaned with pain while forcefully moving his neck while his muscle was pulled but the darkness started to spread around his neck.

He began to drift off, and that's when he saw the glowing sparrow coming back, Swan caught it and it absorbed in her hands like a light.

Jayden was fainting "I want you to trust me!" Swan said and took out the scale from Emric's bag.

She deeply inhaled and exhaled then she took out her belt and stuck it between Jayden's mouth, she made a deep cut around his wound.

As she cut out a big chunk of flesh from his body along with his skin, she felt that scale slicing through her own flesh and skin, she screamed and cried along, he bit the belt harder when he couldn't bear the pain, and he groaned.

When she was done she wailed so loud that her voice echoed through the entire island, her eyes closed as she drifted off with her head falling straight to his chest.

After a while Jayden's eyes opened and he saw his wound healing up by itself, he realized Swan was unconscious lying her head on his chest, he gently tucked her hair behind her ear to see her face, and he gently touched her cheek to wake her up.

She slowly opened her eyes and realized that her head is on his chest, she jerked back and blushed.

Jayden smiled "You saved us all!" He whispered.

She was facing the other side when she bit her lips to stop smiling.

"No actually… You didn't save us all!" Jayden's eyes widened when he realized Emric was unconscious all this time and was on the ground away from Jayden's feet, he had rolled down all this way.

He pushed himself off the ground and reached Emric who was a few steps away from where they fell, he pulled him closer and kept his finger under Emric's nose, then he placed his ear on Emric's chest, he wasn't breathing and his heartbeat was fading away.

"Come on!" He patted Emric's face to wake him up, but he didn't respond.

Swan was also calling out to him and shaking him, but then she lost hope, she knew he was not going to wake up.

"You were here to help us! You can't bail on us!" Jayden tried to do CPR, he pushed his chest with his palms multiple times, but nothing happened.

Swan held Jayden's arm "Jayden stop it!" She sobbed.

Jayden shook off her hand and pulled Emric close and bit him on his neck.

Emric woke up squirming "You son of…!" He moaned.

Jayden laughed with his eyes filled with tears, Swan jumped on her brother and hugged him tightly, right after she pushed him away and smacked him on his shoulder "Never do that again!" She gritted her teeth wiping her tears.

"Owh! You guys forgot that I am still poisoned and we are in... in….." Emric looked around "Where are we?" He whispered, "This place is dark!" He stood up.

"I think you should rinse your mouth I saw a pit with some water over there, Emric is poisoned and you bit him!" Swan saw pointed her finger toward a pit under the dark.

Jayden found her point reasonable, he reached the pond and cupped his hands, he took a lot of water in his mouth and realized it wasn't water.

"It was blood!" Jayden spitted the blood back into the pond.

Swan again cupped her hands and she made a big light ball, she separated her hands and slowly gave that ball a boost using her fingertips, as if she made it jump.

The light ball reached the ceiling and it got absorbed inside it, which made the entire place brighten up instantly.

Now they could see everything.

"Uh-oh!" Emric's eyes widened.

"What? What is it?" Jayden asked.

"Remember when Jinx said something about avoiding lower areas?" Emric asked when Jayden nodded "I didn't know she was talking about Blood Valley!" When they looked further they realized there wasn't just one pond filled with blood, but there were small pits carrying a large amount of blood.

It was like a cave made of ice, which was cold but it wasn't actually made of ice, it was big, and they were alone in there, but they couldn't avoid the fact that they were standing inside a place filled with blood.

And there must be a reason why the cannibals didn't follow them here.

"Since we've reached the Sleet Kingdom, this is the first place where I believed the word 'cursed'!" Emric pulled his collar downward "Either you become a blood vessel! Or pass the examination, then you can go home and you can take some clean water with you from here!" Emric fell down to his knees, he was feeling weak.

"What kind of examination do we have to pass?" Jayden asked.

"Not we just you!" Swan's voice touched his ears when he turned around and saw her standing under a pit.

When he again turned around he saw Emric was also under a pit.

Jayden reached Swan and tried to pull her out, but the ground opened and her feet got stuck inside the ground, now he knew that the harder he tried, the faster he would lose them.