Welcome to Felarya: Chapter 2

Welcome to Felarya: Chapter 2
The Lake

Gray’s eyes opened slowly. The bright morning sun shone through the seam in his curtains directly onto his bed. He looked over to his right and saw that Alexis was still cuddled up tight to him which, combined with the harsh sun, was a bit too warm for him. He wriggled and squirmed as he tried to free himself from her grasp without waking her. After a good while of struggling, he finally managed to sit up on the side of the bed with Alexis still sleeping soundly. He stretched his arms back and let out a deep yawn before he stood up and made his way out of his room. He rubbed his eye like a tired raccoon as he opened the door to the bathroom and stepped inside, doing his best to wake the whole house up. Gray was an early riser, and almost always the first one up in the family.

The bathroom was just a small room with wood walls, a crank sink carved into of the wall and wooden bathtub that had to be filled manually. There was a rather primitive toilet and on the back wall, a door that led to the backyard. He grabbed a bucket that was sitting next to the tub and stepped outside. He shielded his eyes with his free hand as the bright jungle sun assaulted his retinas. It was still pretty early, but the heat was already ridiculous. It was like that every day of the year, never really getting any cooler except for one day of the year when oddly enough it snowed.

He walked towards the well in the backyard. The soft jungle grass tickling his feet as he walked. He grabbed some water from the well and went back to the house to fill the bathtub, and repeated the process a few times until there was finally enough water to bathe with.

After he had washed up, he made his way into the kitchen. He opened the pantry to find several jars containing various spices and other ingredients. He looked towards the bottom of the shelves until he found a wood box with a written label saying, "wheat flakes - gluten free"

Gray stared at the box for a moment with a puzzled look before grabbing it.

"Sure, whatever," he said to himself.

He poured some wheat flakes into a bowl. Halfway through his meal, the door to the kitchen slowly creaked open and Alexis walked in wearing just a bra and underwear with her eyes half open, hugging a pillow to her chest.

“Good morning,” she said sleepily.

“Morning sunshine” replied Gray. "So what do you wanna do today?"

Gray and Alexis were both on a holiday break from the village school they attended and had a lot of free time to themselves for the next few days.

"You wanna go swimming at the pond?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah that sounds fun," Gray replied.

Alexis grabbed the box of wheat flakes and poured herself a bowl. By the time she finished she was good and awake. "You wanna go now?" she asked.

"How about you put some clothes on first".

Alexis looked down at herself and grinned, "be right back".

***************

The two teenagers walked along a trail cut through the jungle that led to the pond that the villagers used as a relaxation area. It was too early for anyone to be down working yet, though, and most of the villages younger citizens were still fast asleep. The two made their way along with the hot sun beating down on them. Sweat poured down Gray's forehead and down his body. By the time they finally made it to the pond, they were already sure they had both had a sunburn.

The pond was a pretty small body of water, only maybe as big a neighborhood pool, but it was very calm and had several trees growing overhead that kept it shaded and cool. Not to mention all the flowers and various other pretty plants growing around the area were really easy on the eyes.

Gray undressed down to his boxers and ran and jumped onto a large rock looking over the pond and did a backflip into the water, splashing Alexis on the shore. Alexis took off her tank top and shorts. Gray stared at her, waiting for her to come in. As he stared his eyes got progressively wider as Alexis bra was thrown into the water next to him, followed by her panties landing on his head. He shouted and quickly slapped them off. "What the hell?" Gray said angrily

Alexis simply smiled and giggled before jumping onto the same rock and cannonballing into the pond. She swam over to Gray and tried to hug him. He pushed her away, "what if someone decided to stop by the pond?"

"Don't worry about it?" she said in an overly casual tone for somebody who was totally naked in a public place. She looked over Gray's shoulder and a look of shock spread across her face. Gray looked back behind him and was instantly met with water splashing the back of his head. Alexis laughed as Gray turned around and smirked at her. He wound his hands back and splashed a wave of water at her. She wiped her face with her hands and lunged towards Gray to tackle him. He splashed back into the water as they collided and popped back up bearing his teeth in a playful smile. He went to lunge at her when a several bubbles rose to the surface a few yards away.

"What was that?" Alexis asked.

"Maybe a fish" Gray replied.

"There's never been fish in the pond, and that was a lot of air for a fish".

They waited a few moments and suddenly the water began bubbling rapidly as if it were boiling.

"Get to land now," Gray said sternly and they both began trudging towards the shore.

Halfway there, though, one massive bubble erupted through the surface and a large whirlpool began to form until it covered nearly all of the pond. Alexis slipped back into the water and started to get pulled back by the whirlpool. Gray tried to grab her hand, but she was swiftly pulled away until she was spinning around towards the center. Gray dove into the water after her but found himself quickly overwhelmed by the suction. it wasn't long before they were both spinning around, inching deeper and closer to the center until they were finally pulled under and everything went dark.

Gray held his breath and shut his eyes tight. He was completely turned upside down. He didn't know which way was up or what direction he was traveling. The only thing he remembered was a bright white light shining through his eyelids. The next thing he knew he broke the surface and inhaled deeply and began panting. He looked around but saw nobody else.

"Lexi!?" He shouted. "Alexis!?"

He floated there in the middle of the water. Everything was eerily silent. It was as if he was in a cave, but there were trees all around him. They were different, though. They had extremely dark leaves and were all wrapped in vines that glowed a bright neon blue. The same glow was emitted from several surrounding plants and even the mosses on the rocks.

Gray took deep breaths to try and keep himself from panicking. He jumped when he felt something brush up against his leg. He backed up and fell totally silent. Fear overtook his body thinking about what might be in the water with him. He looked around and saw a hazy shoreline about 20 feet away. He figured if he made a mad swim for the shore, he might have a shot. Suddenly something wrapped around his leg, though, and he grit his teeth and shut his eyes tight. He opened them again when he heard something break the surface and gasp for air.

Alexis pushed her wet hair out of her face and sputtered and coughed trying to get the water out of her lungs. Gray grabbed onto her and held her above the surface. Once she finally stopped coughing, she looked around in terror before looking at Gray. They stared directly into each other eyes and Gray wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close.

"Oh gods I thought I'd lost you," he said in a voice of relief.

He let go of her and they both swam to the shoreline. They stumbled onto the dark sand of the shore and looked back at the lake they'd just emerged from. It was pretty huge, much bigger than the village pond, with beautiful sparkling blue water and gushing waterfall all over. Once they'd begun to get over their initial panic, they realized how actually beautiful the whole lake was.

Gray stared at it in awe. He didn't know such a beautiful landscape existed in Felarya. He didn't recognize it from any pictures or books from school. He had no idea where they were. But the serene peacefulness of the lake sort of pushed that thought to the side. Alexis sat next to Gray, also awestruck by the gorgeous landscape. She was still naked and covered in sand and dirt, just as Gray was, still in his wet boxers.

Without fully realizing it, Alexis slid her hand over onto Gray's. He didn't really think either, and they interlocked their fingers. Alexis looked over at Gray. It took a moment for him to realize she was staring at him, but he eventually looked back at her too. Their eyes met and Gray saw something he'd never seen in her eyes before. He wasn't really sure what it was. It was a sweet look, but also one of endearment.

Gray shyly looked away but Alexis put her hand on his cheek to stop him and turned his head back towards her. Without hesitating she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. Gray's eyes widened in shock. He was taken completely by surprise. He didn't know what to think. He never knew Alexis felt this way about him. All the confusion in his head though, sort of began to melt away by the second, and he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her neck. She laid back, pulling Gray with her as they continued to kiss. They pulled away for a moment to breath, but quickly locked lips again. Alexis wrapped her legs around Gray's waist and he leaned more into her. Gray felt his knee suddenly becoming wet, and realized that his knee was pressed right in between Alexis' legs.

Was this really it? Was his first time going to be with the girl he'd called his best friend ever since they could talk. It sure seemed that way until Alexis screamed in pain. They both quickly sat up and Gray saw a small creature burrowing into the sand. he quickly dug in and grabbed it. It was a plant, but it moved and hissed at Gray attempting to bite him. He slammed his fist on it and yanked it out of the ground and threw it into the lake. He looked over at Alexis.

"You ok Lexi?" he asked.

He didn't get an answer and instead noticed that Alexis was breathing funny, and was having trouble keeping her eyes open. She looked up at him with eyes full of fear. He helped her stand and they began walking away from the lake, but stopped when the sky over them went dark. Gray looked recognized that the darkness around them had a humanoid shape. It was a shadow. Gray took off running, trying to helo Alexis who was only able to powerwalk. Gray looked up and saw a large figure approaching them in the sky. He picked Alexis up bridal style and took off running.

He ran as fast as his legs would allow through the dim jungle, tripping over roots and twigs as he tried desperately to lose their pursuer. He looked over and saw a tree with large roots sticking out of the ground and took a sharp turn towards them. He leaped in-between the roots and ducked down.

He looked at Alexis who's eyes were barely open. She had drool dribbling down the chin and her head swung from side to side in a dizzy matter. Gray forcefully opened one of her eyes and he saw her it was a sickly yellow color and her pupil was dilated. A rush of fear flooded over Gray as he sat back against the tree. He took a deep breath and began looking over Alexis more carefully until he heard the loud thud of something landing right beside him. He shut his eyes tight and expected at any moment to be lifted off the ground and put in some things mouth.

He wasn't though. He was curious, but didn't dare open his eyes. He figured whatever the creature was it was just toying with them.

“Hello” Gray heard a soft pleasant voice say.

His eyes popped open and he looked at him. Standing onto of the root, was a lady no taller than Alexis. She didn't have many clothes on. Just a loin cloth and leafy chest piece. her face was covered in freckles and she had sharp green eyes, with red hair in the most puzzling style. Gray was intrigued at first, but his fear quickly returned when he saw two antennae protruding from her head and glowing dragonfly-like wings attached to her back.

"A fairy" Gray said under his breath.

The fairy jumped down into the nook between the roots where Gray sat with Alexis and kneeled down over her.

"Oh no, she's been bitten by a gypa," said the fairy with a concerned tone.

Gray pulled Alexis away. "Stay away from her".

The fairy looked at him in confusion. "What's the matt- oh right, she smiled at Gray and let out a small sigh. "Look, I know I'm a fairy, and you have every right to be scared of me, really you do. But if you don't let me heal your friend, she's going to die".

Those words made Gray's heart skip a beat. Was a fairy seriously asking him to trust her? Of all the stories he'd heard about fairies, the vicious predators that shrink you down to an inch tall and swallow you alive to be left to a painful death in their stomach, how was he supposed to trust her.

"How am I supposed to know you won't eat us after she's healed" he asked.

The fairy looked at Alexis worriedly. She was obviously getting worse by the minute and Gray was wasting time. The fairy was becoming impatient.

"Look I wanna save your friend! You either have to trust me, or let her die here!"

Gray was silent and looked over at Alexis. Foam began to trickle out of her mouth and her skin was beginning to turn gray.

Alright just save her! Please!" Gray shouted. "I don't even care if you eat me afterward just save her!"

The fairy smiled slightly. "Alright, give me some space. I need to work quick. What's her name?"

"Alexis, or Lexi," Gray replied.

The fairy leaned over her and began working. "Alright Alexis, if you can still hear me I need you to do everything you can to keep breathing. You're throats going to try to close, do your best to fight it!"

"What's your name young man?" The fairy asked.

Gray was busy watching Alexis and took a moment to respond. "Oh... uh.. Gray".

"Alright Gray, my name's Temi. "Now if I wanna save your friend, I need to go find something very important.

To be continued...