Chapter 4

Rafe's staring at Amanda and they mumbling like I'm not three feet away from them.

"Hey!"

The breeze around me whirls and I can feel the heat when I lose it, so Rafe proposes that since I have the expertise, he calls it, to deliver parcels on the earth realm, I'm going to pass this timeless void being a mailman, again.

"Hold up, it's safe, right?"

"Absolutely," Rafe says with confidence but Amanda has this look of amusement that has me giving this offer a second thought.

"As long as you sign this contract, you won't be a foreigner to any one of us"

"Not me" Amanda taps out and I roll my eyes, the words are too heavy on the eyes so I reach down to scrawl my name and gasp when the signature lights up with fire and all that. Rafe rolls it up and puts it in his pocket.

"It's sealed, welcome to the team, fellow SAP agent"

"Call me that one more time"

I stand by the end of a cliff and Amanda passes me these visors.

"What are these for?"

"Good luck to you," She says and gives way for a patron with three pairs of wings and he's staring at me funny, am I the only one not wearing body armor? So I stare at the depths and swallow.

"What happens if I fall? Ain't there any rescue team?"

"Amanda will catch you"

"Ain't there any other person on the rescue team?"

I swallow holding a small box with these handles on the sides like an arc.

"What's in this? it's freakin' heavy"

"You need to get this acreage to the Magma Mines, the fighters had a hard time exploiting the tot dragon orb from the earth's core, it's dangerous and very fragile"

"I wonder how you put dangerous and fragile in the same sentence"

"Just deliver the package on time and you'll be alright"

I flop at the jab I take to the back and scream falling to the void, these glasses come on and I'm still plummeting and trying to get hold of the Acorn or whatever Rafe calls it and swim up the wind currents, I kick my legs out and yell at the boost.

"Did you have to push him like that?"

"If you can't make him fly, you use influence"

I hear Six wings say to them and grumble when a portal opens. The navigation system on the visor is set to the basics, this arrow turns and I'm flying into another kaleidoscope for a gateway and I blink at the overpowering colors, somehow I wish I saw it in black and white because it looks like I just took LSDs.

I'm still scared shitless by the possibility that a tot dragon might pop up like a weasel and bite my head off, no turbulence, what's the worst that can happen? With the wind blowing in my face, I see a gateway open and it sucks in me. I'm tapping on the visor and it's dead.

"Hello?"

...

"Just keep walking Adams"

I hear the voice and exhale at these flying saucer jellyfish and their tentacles are all over the place. With spheres up ahead and mushroom trees that form a not-so-covered floor and I'm looking at the darkness deep below.

"What do you see?"

"You tell me, there are saucers_"

"Those are air mites, don't get too close"

"No shit" I hog the box walking through the fields with trees that have glittery pins for leaves, I feel like I just stepped into a Sonic the Hedgehog game and I step on a mushroom floor and shudder at what looks like a camera bug with metal spider legs.

"Mushrooms too"

"You are in Venom Void"

"Right," I say as I inch around a mushroom to get to the other side and hop to another mushroom dome, it's thin and it lurches, my wings flap to steady me. My heart just gets caught in my throat when the floor snaps.

I fall into the depths and drop on the dirt, I get up and shudder at the crawlies that look more like Tomatoes with blight and buds for feet scurrying off. I can't find the package anywhere and my hands at lit to see where I'm going, the air's breathable but it still smells like wet gym socks and the place is murky.

"Uh...Rafe? I lost the Acorn"

"You dumbass"

It's Amanda talking, I gulp at the even deeper darkness and curse at the growling sound and two flashes and thin pupils, what did I get myself into? I feel like Woody and this beast drooling on me is Sid.

"Did you find the orb?"

"No, but I found the dragon!" I spiral to avoid the tentacles and the dragon with scales like dry magma and fiery tears spews a whole wave of burning hot lava at me and the Air mites hovering out of the way and it causes a stampede. Out of control, I roll into a tangle of tentacles.

"It's on me, oh shit!"

"It's not the tentacles you should look out for," Amanda says while I'm trying to cut the tentacles off because most of them are tangled spiderwebs and I'm that dumb fly that got stuck in the middle.

The dragon is flying at me and spits hot lava again and my wings stir charring the tentacles forcing the Air mites to separate, the largest one spots me and its head turns and I see a mouth with spikes in the middle.

"Any tips on how to not get eaten?"