"I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride."

- A Whole New World, Aladdin.

~

AUGUSTINE

Oh I'm definitely dying over here. My life has been meaningless. And now I'm gonna die in a fucking desert.

It's hot. Very hot. My ears are sweating profusely as they are covered by my headphones, so I have to unwillingly take them off.

Though the glass like substance they use for decoration is nice and shiny...maybe I could take some souvenirs....

Control, August, control...

And now we have to battle some weirdos who really like sacrificing people to the Sun to get powers.

Like sacrifice the sand or something dude. You've got that in abundance. Why sacrifice Golden Boy?

According to the very helpful information that Pyros gave us, these Cinderella people are not supposedly good at combat and rely a lot on their healing powers and the small but deadly amount of powers they get from the Shadow orbs.

They don't have the other orbs of heat, light and whatever those violet ones symbolise, so they make up for it by using the good ole sacrifice method.

The best part? They will kidnap people from the Blaze tribe and sacrifice them. They won't sacrifice their own people.

At least they have a sense of loyalty to each other...I guess?

They get the most power if they make a sacrifice on the day of a Solar eclipse. They don't even need their orbs, they can get as much power as they want from the darkness of the shadow of the Sun itself.

And guess when the next Solar eclipse is happening?

If any of you guessed the next eight hours, I'll give you a cookie.

Because of course the universe would have to do us dirty like that and drop us into this cursed realm with these stupid cults who just can't live in harmony together. At the worst time possible. And risk the most important member of our group.

As much as I hate to say it, Golden Boy is a very important asset. We can't risk his fucking life all the time.

And now here we are, waiting in a tent near the massive tent as someone fetches us our transport. They are very eager to send us out there and try to destroy these people.

What if they capture and sacrifice us as well?

Won't that be a great way for all of us and the rest of Neraida to go?

Burned up in the sun by a bunch of Cinderella dudes dancing around a bunch of shadow orbs in the shadow of the Sun.

One of the red robed people walks in holding....Was that a roll of cloth?

If they make us wear capes I'm running all the way back to Aurelius and painting myself silver.

I just wanna go back to Neraida and work as a beetroot farmer. Life would be so much simpler.

I unintentionally glance at Zarren who has his gaze concentrated on the fabric, not giving a care about how he made me have an episode before. I feel the flame in my gut ignite as I replay his words in my head.

Ungrateful.

Heartless.

How dare he? He didn't know shit.

Oh no I'll lose control again.

I clap my headphones onto my ears again, no matter how hot. And I begin the breathing exercises Professor Igneous taught me.

In...Out...In...Out.

And I didn't pay attention to what Pyros was saying. Because Rachelle and Simba approach me looking at me hopefully.

"Will you be able to steer one of those?" Simba asks, those baby brown eyes staring into my soul.

Steer what? Cloth?

Rachelle rolls her eyes at me, "You weren't paying attention, were you?"

Simba bounds around excitedly, "Dude Pyros can enchant the cloth to fly like a magic carpet from those stories! So cool!"

"And well the driver needs to be bound to the carpet to help control so Pyros is gonna do some weird stuff to you as well," Rachelle finishes.

I raise my eyebrows at both of them, "What makes you think I'll be able to commandeer such a thing."

Simba shrugs, "Everyone already grouped up. We're the only ones left and I am not that confident."

Oh well might as well try something new.

I look at our companions and observe that Mikaello, Lia and Arbor have formed a group and are talking animatedly to one side.

Then there is Kaito, Zarren and Avalkyra as a group, standing silently.

And the final group has Meenakshi, Valerie and Coral who are again talking with each other, mostly pointing fingers at each other, most probably deciding who to steer.

Feels kinda bad that no one picked me to be on their group but Simba and Rachelle are pretty decent company.

We are led back to the tent of the flying balls (yes it sounds funny but I don't know what else to name it).

Pyros is standing there, and the lines on his red mask are glowing with a bright light as he beckons the drivers to come forward.

I clutch the piece of cloth I was handed earlier and take a step forward towards the flying balls.

Pyros holds onto my cloth, and then grabs my hand, rather aggressively, and his red-gloved hand has a firm grip on my hand as he chants something in a strange language.

When he finishes, my cloth as well as one of the purple orbs glow with an identical violet light just for a split second before Pyros rips the cloth out of my hand and throws the cloth up in the air.

I hold my arms out expecting it to fall back down, but it stays in the air.

Pyros speaks out in his outrageously loud voice, "Just imagine a path before you and your...transport will follow that exact path in front of it."

I do as he says, I imagine a glowing line in between me and the carpet floating above, and almost immediately it zips towards me and I close my eyes, only to open them and find it stopped right near my knees.

Pyros used the purple orb to do this.

What had he said for the purple ones?

Attraction...

Gravity!

Makes sense now.

The exact process was repeated three more times before everyone had their red pieces of cloth floating in front of them.

Pyros then stands in the center of our group and mutters more incantations in this weird Blaze language which just has a bunch of rumbly noises of different vocal ranges. Like they are gargling a bunch of rocks.

The orb in the center glows and... nothing really happens after that. But apparently that blessing will help us understand the Blaze language.

Now it was time to mount.

I put one foot on the cloth, and to my surprise, it feels firm like concrete under my feet, yet when I touch it with my fingers, it's surface feels smooth as silk.

Dang this place is weird.

I causally step onto the carpet and Simba follows my lead.

Rachelle looks a little unsure, but then Simba reaches out to her and holds on to her hand to steady her as she eases herself to sit onto the carpet.

Now all that is left is to leave. Kaito's group will go first because he has the pearl that can sense enemies.

With the Sun down, the pearl can work effectively, like the mirror, and so the pearl will sniff out the headquarters and then we can use my coin to track the place down without getting attacked.

My coin has been reliable so far and I'm proud of that, but we have not yet tested out the pearl given to Kaito, so yes I might be a little anxious.

Pyros steps in front of us, and I don't know why but I can feel excitement radiating off of him.

I can't help but speak out, "You seem happy to send us on this mission."

Pyros turns his masked head towards me and a bunch of chills run down my spine.

"You are trying to protect your people's lives, Child of the Flames. I am trying to protect the lives of mine. You are a chance for salvation for my people and I wish you the best."

"What if we are not able to save the orbs?" Rachelle asks boldly.

"Oh well then my tribe won't have to worry about being sacrificed for the Solar eclipse this time."

Just when I was warming up to the guy, he ruins it.

I turn to Rachelle and Simba who now look anxious as ever.

"Ready?"

~

Okay I don't know if I will jinx it or not, but this is way too much fun.

I can make the carpet go as I like.

I imagine a path with a giant loop in front of us and I can feel the carpet ascend up the imaginary loop, and at the highest point we are upside down with Rachelle's hair sticking out in front of us before we rapidly zoom back down and continue our ride.

Rachelle is thoroughly enjoying it, as she screams out in joy, tossing her hands up in the air.

Simba on the other hand....

"You need to trust him. He won't kill you," the dude is whispering to himself.

Wow thanks.

On that note, I imagine a turn and our carpet does a three sixty degree turn before continuing on the normal path.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Simba mutters.

"Oh stop it!" Rachelle cries out behind me, "Live a little!"

"I want to but I'm afraid I won't be able to during this ride!" He tells back.

Oh what a scaredy cat.

I imagine a new path, of the carpet swinging from one side to another like a pendulum.

We rock to the left, and I feel all my weight shift to the right side, and then we rock to the right, and I feel my weight shift towards my left.

Rachelle is again crying out in joy while Simba looks like he's regretting some life choices.

As he should.

"That was sick!" I hear Mikaello's voice call put from the other carpet and I give him a grin before imagining another loop.

"You're doing great!" Comes Lia's voice from the third carpet and I shoot her a grin as well, before making us turn in mid air for a second time.

I have made it a mission to make Simba's experience a living hell, and I'm satisfied with the outcome so far.

He's all curled up and holding on for dear life, asking I dont really know who, why they were doing this to him. It was great.

I on the other hand, have never felt such a rush. There's excitement buzzing through my veins and I feel more awake than I've ever felt. Its amazing.

And I know I've been complaining a lot about the place being hot and barren, but now that I look at it, the emptiness of the desert holds a certain beauty to it.

The vastness is overwhelming, it's immense and makes me feel like staying silent and just staring at the infinite amount of sand dunes in front of me, their golden colour of the grains contrasting so well with the unusual yet beautiful colours of the sky.

I would have never thought riding on a flying carpet with a terrified cook and a surprisingly daredevilish bookworm would make me appreciate beauty, but the night's still young. Who knows.

Suddenly Kaito's group stops in mid air. All of us gather around them and lo behold the pearl is shining brightly in the twilight.

Danger is close by. Just when I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

Wait how will the eclipse occur in the next seven hours if the Sun has finished setting just now?

Never mind this place is weird.

I toss my coin upwards, thinking of Augustus in my mind and the coin zooms forward, leaving a trail of golden light behind it, which apparently only I can see. Yes I've been experimenting with the coin.

Lia turns to me and I nod as I hop down the carpet.

~

So now we're freaking out while holding four black robes which belong to the Cinders.

Lia and I had gone invisible and I had very impressively knocked out all four of the patrol guards together with some white hot balls of fire.

But now the problem is that guards were about to swap duty. And we just left these ones unconscious. We can't afford to alarm these weirdos.

I can see the guards coming out from...nowhere? They just appeared out of thin air and are about to walk towards the stations to swap places.

What if they are cloaking themselves? Oh wow.

We came up with a plan to steal the robes and get inside. We need twelve robes, but right now we have four robes and four alive-slash-dead bodies.

As all of us are arguing about what to do with the bodies, Minakshi casually steps up and thrusts her hands out, green bolts of light zapped out of them and towards the bodies we left, and immediately the sand around them rose up and swallowed those bodies into itself.

I'm a little scared of what just happened. So if I ever piss her off, she can just bury me alive?

Not the time for such thoughts August! I tell myself.

I throw on one of the robes and hand the others to Kaito, Coral and Rachelle (one of the bodies was really short). As soon as I put it on, my body seems to cool down. The heat and sweat accumulated on my beautiful skin and even more beautiful hair sort of just vanishes.

What the-?

I'm gonna ask for one of these robes to take with me when I leave, these are freaking awesome.

All four of us put them on and Rachelle whispers, "Don't utter a word. And don't attack them until I give you the signal."

We rush to the next patrol. The leader looks us up and speaks in the irritating deep voices that the blazes have, "I assume you were doing the final perimeter sweep. Sol told us that those prisoners could have rescuers, we need to watch out."

Oh damn we can understand their language! Pyros knew Faerie so that was a relief but the blazes spoke in this rumbly sort of voice which is just plain weird. He had told us he had blessed us with translators in our minds, but I didn't really trust them to work.

I follow Rachelle's lead and nod.

"A different breed we got here. Faeries. Ha! And all my life I thought they were those critters that steal your teeth!"

I let out a breathy laugh without making sound to assure the leader.

"Now go! Maybe take a look at the prisoners! They have actual wings! Can you believe it?"

Why is this dude solely addressing me?

I feel a bead of sweat trickle down my face behind the mask as I shake my head no.

"Why ain't you speaking Lore?" I feel a hard pat on my back. Oh my that is gonna leave a bruise.

One of the other guards speaks up, "Lore hardly ever speaks Gage! Leave him be! Go on, have your dinner." The other guard points to the place where they appeared from.

Can we take these guards out already?

I turn to Rachelle with questioning eyes, and she seems to understand, but she shakes her head.

We walk forward, more and more. And as we reach the opening, Rachelle nudges my side.

I whirl around and send out six Holt bolts of fire to the back of each of their heads and they are knocked out cold. Don't worry this won't kill them. But getting buried alive in sand might have a more destructive effect.

But ten firebolts drained a shit ton of my energy nonetheless. I place my hands on my knees and huff out while breathing. Now I don't know if it is Mikaello or Coral who hands me a bottle of nectar but I accept it gratefully. Minakshi and I down the bottles in record time.

We then rush to the positions the guard were about to take and take their robes. The Blazes have a dark tanned skin with a million red, violet and black coloured swirly tattoos which look like flames; all over their bodies which, I'm gonna admit, look really freaking cool.

And all of them that we have undressed till now are ripped. The muscles, man.

They conform to all the toxic masculinity standards that the females used to have in Mediocris. Buff bodies, deep voice...

Though yes they are characteristically shorter than the average faerie. One advantage I have over them.

I shake my head, avert my eyes from the Blaze in nothing but underpants, and take the robe.

Next, Avalkyra, Minakshi, Mikaello, Simba, Valerie and Zarren put the robes on, leaving Arbor and Lia without a robe.

Oh they'll just get into Lia's invisibility shield. With only two people behind the wall, Lia's energy will be preserved.

We huddle together and Simba takes off his mask, "Okay, so all of us can't go in together, only four of us are expected inside."

We don't know what's inside though.

"Okay, let's send in four to find Gus and Rey, and then the rest of us will enter later when the guard duty is swapped again, and maybe get robes for Gus and Rey as well?" Rachelle asks.

I nod, "Sounds good."

"Then the rest of us can enter, and we'll search for the orbs. Let this guard lookout be the rendezvous point?" Simba speaks out.

"Perfect," Valerie replies, and Simba goes all red again. That dude is a bit too whipped and we need to do something about him too, right after we deal with Mikaello.

"Who wants to volunteer?" Rachelle speaks up again.

I'm a bit exhausted to go into that place, plus I'm not even that eager to see Golden Boy or Rey.

Mikaello immediately volunteers.

Of course.

"We'll need some destructive fire powers to open those cages," Kaito finally speaks up. One person whose advice I completely rely on is Kaito.

"I'll go," Avalkyra says, fiddling with the arrow bracelet of hers.

"I will go with them lest they make some rash decisions," Rachelle says, eyeing Mikaello. Good idea.

"I'll come too," Zarren says in the most nonchalant sounding tone. Look at him being considerate.

I trudge back to one of the places that was occupied by the guards we just knocked out and watch as Mikaello, Rachelle, Avalkyra and Zarren make their way towards the enemy encampment.

~

Hello hello! Any compliments? I would love to read those.

I've been giving such a stream of updates because I have the idea very clear in my mind so I  just keep on writing :)

Anyway next chapter is Rachelle's POV!

Until then, toodles! :D