The Endërland Chronicles: Book of Serena

It was barely daylight the next morning, when Junior woke everyone up and told them to get ready. Even though he knew he would not make it back before the war began, he was eager to return as soon as possible. Who knew how long the war would last; and if he could help his people, even if it was just by collecting rocks, he would, whether they wanted him there or not.

  They set out with the first ray of sunlight and flew non-stop all day long. He flew fast and hard, refusing to stop for even five minutes to take a break. Séraphin didn’t know whether he should tell him off, or be proud of him.

  By the end of the day, just before sundown, they finally reached the end of the line. The great river reached the point where the mountains from both sides met, and then disappeared underneath the loud noise and the dense fog it created falling towards the unknown. They hovered for a while at the precipice, trying to get a feel of what lay beyond, but the fog was too dense for them to see anything.

  ‘Well,’ Séraphin spoke first, ‘we came this far. We’re just gonna have to get our wings wet and follow the river; there’s nothing to it.’

  ‘I think it’s best you climb on to me and hold on tight,’ Junior advised. ‘I don’t want us to separate.’

  Séraphin didn’t want to say it, but he had a feeling that Junior was concerned for him. The wingman was much smaller, and he might not be strong enough to fight the current and survive the descent. Whether Junior was right or not, they would soon find out; either way, Séraphin was impressed with the young eagle. He climbed on and positioned himself behind Hëna, wrapping his wings around her and Nazir in a protective manner. Now, they were ready.

  Everyone held tight to him, including Nazir, who at this point was more scared of falling down into the unknown than he was of the eagle’s claws. Junior pushed himself farther over the precipice and headed down towards the white and dense fog. The sun had by now completely vanished from the horizon and everything around them was getting darker. This made the whole thing even more nerve-wrecking.

  Flying downwards proved of course much trickier for the three passengers to hold on than they had anticipated. Poor Nazir was almost crushed under the weight of Hëna and Séraphin, no matter how hard they tried to keep their equilibrium. Their freefall became even more difficult by the fact that there wasn’t enough space for Junior to circle down towards the bottom; he was forced to open his wings and use them to slow down the fall, as one would a parachute. But it didn’t work quite like that; the more they fell down, the more speed they gained, and after they finally went through the thick fog, they found even less space to manoeuvre.

  The walls kept on growing closer all around them and now they were practically riding the river down to wherever it went. Besides getting completely soaked, as well as tired from holding on ceaselessly, the four were becoming increasingly concerned with their surroundings closing in on them. If it continued like this farther down, they feared they might get stuck somewhere, unable to fly back up or go in any other direction. Lucky for them, though the dark forbade them from seeing it, the riverbed stopped shrinking around them. Still, they kept on falling down at great speed, with Junior now barely managing to keep his wings open, both from lack of space, as well as tiredness.

  They’d been falling down now for what felt like ten or more minutes and there seemed to be no light at the end of this dark tunnel. Everyone kept hoping for some sort of change in the dynamics of their current situation, but nothing was happening. They just kept on falling, the bountiful river water raining over them hard like an avalanche of tiny rocks. It actually hurt a lot and they weren’t sure how much more of it they could take. Talking to each other was also impossible; the noise of the underground river drowned out every other sound. So there was nothing left for them to do but to try and stay conscious and not let go.

  After a few more minutes of freefalling, they finally sensed the river changing direction. They were no longer falling vertically down; instead, very slowly but very surely, the waterfall seemed to be gaining a more horizontal direction. Still, it would be a few more minutes before theirs could no longer be considered “falling”. Eventually they felt the river carry their weight and the speed at which they travelled was greatly reduced. The noise of the river wasn’t as loud anymore either and they found they could finally hear each other’s voices, if they yelled loud enough.

  They were now practically swimming, well, Junior was; it turned out he made quite a decent lifeboat. They had a good feeling that their long fall was finally over and their trip was about to end. The river was still too large, and unless it suddenly decided to split into tens of smaller streams and bury itself and them inside the underbelly of the mountains, they would soon see the sky again and most likely find themselves chasing the river down another waterfall, an open one this time.

  As it turned out, they were right. Soon enough they witnessed the darkness slowly giving way to light ahead of them. The farther they went now, the better they could see. As their eyes adjusted, they almost missed a great opening before them. At the very last moment, Junior finally saw what looked to him like a starry sky and realised that the river was about to take another downward plunge as it exited the mountain. Calling on his three friends to hang on tight, he got ready, and just before the river departed from the mountain, he opened his tired wings and took to the air.

  All four of them were wet to the bone, but they couldn’t be happier to feel the wind on their faces again. They had finally made it; they’d reached the bottom of the river and they were actually in the next world.

  Junior circled down slowly and eventually landed on dry earth, just next to a small crystal clear lake that was formed by the falling water. Finally free to climb off the eagle, Hëna, Séraphin and Nazir dropped on the ground, refusing to move or even stand for fear of falling down or being taken away again.

  ‘Now I see why no one from your world likes to come this way,’ Séraphin said to Junior, who was breathing hard next to him. He was exhausted.

  ‘Yeah,’ seconded Hëna, ‘let’s never do that again.’

  They laid there for a long time, catching their breath and regaining their strength. The night seemed still young and the air was cool, even though it looked like a summer’s night. Eventually they got up, collected some deadwood and lit up a fire, gathering around it like chicklets around mother hen.

  They decided to take turns guarding the improvised camp, with Séraphin volunteering as the first watch. Then, the other three fell asleep next to the fire, happy that they had made it. Once the morning came and they had all rested, they would begin exploring this new world, or whatever it was that they had landed in.