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Chapter 10

As Chase and I flew closer to the tower, I noticed there was an opening, like a black hole, on its side and a ledge that jutted out above the sea. Chase was heading right to it.

Chase stepped onto the narrow ledge, and I landed right beside him. A gust of wind blew past and pushed me off balance, but Chase caught my arm to steady me. I sent him a grateful look and folded my tired wings behind my back, shaking off a few white and green feathers.

"Hailey, before we go in, be warned that this tower can play tricks on you. I know the way for the most part so you need to follow me, all right?"

I nodded my assent and steeled my nerves.

"Stay close to me," he ordered, before stepping through the black hole.

I followed right behind him into the darkness. It struck me as odd that it was so dark, especially as there should be light filtering from the outside.

I bumped into Chase, who had stopped without my noticing.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Not your fault, I wanted to be sure you were following."

I felt his hand close around mine, and instantly felt a bit safer in the surrounding darkness.

We walked for a bit until a bright light reached us, hurting my eyes. As we got closer, I heard whispers and shuffling noises.

We entered a brightly lit room, and instantly the noise stopped. Three little men with palmed feet and green hair stared at us.

"I think I recognize you, now, don't I?" the first one cackled, inspecting Chase with his small protuberant eyes.

Chase cleared his throat. "Yes, I have been here before. I want to go to the door to the Kingdom of Aeolus."

One of the little men, who wore a yellow hat, squealed and scurried away in the shadow. I shifted my weight on my right foot uncomfortably.

The first one was still inspecting us curiously, and the second one just looked bored .

"The door to the Kingdom of Aeolus, is that right? I guess I can show you to it, can't I?" The first one mumbled, tugging his dirty green hair.

The other one jumped to attention. "Follow us!" He squealed.

Without any more warning, the two strange creatures dashed out of the room.

I was about to run after them, but Chase tugged my hand to stop me from leaving. He rubbed his face with his free hand tiredly.

"I followed them once. They ran around for an hour and ended up telling me they forgot where the door was."

I couldn't help a giggle at the thought of Chase running around trying to keep up with these funny little men. Even though they had palmed feet, they could run really fast.

"What a wonderful sound!" a voice piped up from below me. I looked down to see the third creature peeking from behind my leg.

Surprised, I let out a scream and hid behind Chase.

"That sound, not so much," the strange man said, rubbing his ears.

"Sorry," I said a hand on my furiously beating heart. "You... Surprised me a bit here." I moved away from Chase, not too proud to have hidden behind him at the first sign of possible danger.

Another of the little men popped out from where he had ran out. "Well, aren't you going to follow us?" he asked Chase with his high pitched voice.

"Not today," Chase muttered with a murderous glance his way.

The two creatures squealed and dove away.

The one that had spoken to me peaked out cautiously from a corner.

"Are you going to pull out your knife again? Your knife made me ouch." He whimpered, pulling his little yellow hat down on his big ears.

My gaze softened as I looked at the poor creature. They might be strange, but, in their own way, I had to say they were at bit cute. Chase didn't seem to share this view, and he answered sharply,

"It's not a knife, it's a sword. And if you don't show me to the door to the Kingdom of the Winged, I'll make you 'ouch' again." He threatened, flicking his brown wing in annoyance.

"Chase!" I gasped. I turned to the frightened little rascals. "Of course he won't do that. He's just kidding."

"You do think that, don't you?" the first creature looked at me suspiciously.

I jumped. When did he get here?

"He won't hurt you." I assured him.

"I like her," the little man with the yellow hat said.

"Oh, please," Chase muttered, aggravated.

I ignored him. "Well, I like you, too." I answered the creature. "But I really do need to get to Aeolus..."

He stood up straight, although he didn't go much higher than my knees. "I can show you." He assured me.

"Great!" I said with a smile.

He grabbed my free hand and pulled me behind him. Chase, who was still holding my other hand, looked dumbfounded and followed us without saying anything. The other two little men walked behind him.

We walked a little way, when Chase stopped.

"It's that way." He said, pointing to a hallway going in the opposite direction the green haired man was pulling me.

"No... No, it's not!" He squealed.

Chase glared, and he cowered.

"Come on, Hailey," he said, walking away briskly. I wanted to ask him if he was sure of what he was doing, but I didn't want to worsen his mood.

"See, here we are!" He said as we entered a room with a high ceiling. Little balls of light floated around the room.

"Ah, welcome, um... Blake, isn't it?" An old man with a long grey beard and hair sitting in a corner asked. I jumped. People here really needed to learn to make their presence known.

"Chase," The winged boy holding my hand muttered, "Really, with the number of people that go by here, you could at least remember that."

"Is this where the portal to Aeolus is?" I questioned.

"Oh, um..." The wrinkled old man trailed off, looking around him. "Why, yes, this is the door to the Kingdom of Aeolus. Is that where you want to go?"

Chase dragged his hand across his face. "Kings of old give me strength," he mumbled. Then, more clearly, he told the old man, "Yes, why else would we be here?"

"Well, I don't know the answer to that riddle." The old man answered, looking at Chase curiously.

"Well, it wasn't to enjoy the company of your weird little frog men," Chase said. "Now, the door?"

"By the way, why would they do that? Lead me the wrong way, I mean. They seemed nice enough." I asked.

The old man made a sound that was between a laugh and a choke and shook his head wisely. "Nice? Who knows what goes on in those little heads of theirs. No ones knows where they even come from. They're supposed to guard the tower against evil forces, but they don't appear to know the difference between an evil monster and a benevolent person. They're a bit crazy, if you ask me."

Chase scoffed, "And you aren't?" He muttered.

"What was that? Another riddle, I'll bet my hat." The old man said, oblivious to the fact that he wasn't wearing a hat.

"Just... Just open that stupid door!"

"Oh, all right, all right."

The old man waved his arms around and all the little balls of light gathered to form a big one. The sphere stretched out in front of us until it was bigger than me.

"Don't let them escape!" A high-pitched voice exclaimed. I didn't have to turn around to know it belonged to a small green haired man. I have to say, I didn't find them that cute anymore.

"Hurry," Chase said. He grabbed both of my hands and we stepped through the portal.

There was a bright flash of blue light, and I felt all the air being sucked out of me. My legs turned to jelly, and a queasy feeling formed in my stomach.

Suddenly, I felt myself being propelled away, and I fell to my knees on a hard stone floor.

Besides me, Chase got up with a groan.

"Well, that was fun," I muttered.

Chase scoffed. "You know, you won't believe me when I say this, but very few Winged like to use the tower to travel."

"Well, if this is the only way to go to the human world, I'm surprised any Winged bother to leave Aeolus at all," I said, getting up and looking around me. We were in a cold room made of bare grey stone. A lone window, which was more like a slit in the wall, let a dim ray of light in the room.

"There's the Traveling Cave in Europe that's a bit better to go back and forth between the two lands, but to be honest I think the transportation modes have been made so spare and uncomfortable to discourage Winged to go to the Human world."

Chase motioned for me to follow him and climbed up a narrow stone staircase that was hidden in a corner of the room.

The stairs led us to a gazebo-like room. The domed roof was supported by six round stone pillars. A warm wind flowed through the room, gently nudging our wings. Around us, the sky stretched out like an ocean, streaked with a few clouds. There was no land in sight, and it seemed like the tower itself sat on a base of clouds. Stars twinkled all around us.

"Wow," I gasped.

"Beautiful, right?" Chase asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Welcome to the Winged Kingdom of Aeolus. You haven't even seen anything, yet." he smiled.