“I’m brewing one of the other potions.” Katherine stirred in the kettle. “Since that last one you took seemed to work, if only a little, maybe one of those will fight off the shrine’s curse.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes, trying to will her body to release the pain and tension it still held.
“Did this Jonathan go in there to fight the monster too?” The boy asked.
Elizabeth opened her eyes and turned to look at him.
“Um, no, I don’t think so. He never said anything about the monster.”
Katherine brought her a bottle with the new potion.
“Thank you.” Elizabeth smiled up at her and drank it. A velvety feeling spread through her body, getting rid of all the remaining pain. “Oh, that one felt good. All the pain is gone.” She sighed.
Katherine gave another bottle to the boy.
Tapping her fingers on the ground, Elizabeth frowned, thinking about the monster the boy said about. She pulled out her brother’s notebook and started more carefully reading about it. She found a paragraph that there could be a monster and some descriptions pulled together, but it clearly wasn’t her brother’s main reason for this quest. She did find a lot of pages filled with the promises of the power of the amulet to grant whatever a person holding it wished for.
A shadow fell on the notebook and Elizabeth snapped it close.
“Thank you for taking me out of there.” The boy kneeled beside her. “And thank you for the potion.” He nodded at Katherine. “I’m Leopold.” He stretched his hand to Elizabeth. “And I’m going to be the greatest knight ever.”
“I wonder if this potion will work to keep the pain away once we cross the barrier.” Katherine looked critically at the liquid in yet another bottle.
“And how long it will last.” Elizabeth added.
“I can go and check!” Leopold offered and walked across the barrier without a second thought. “So far so good!” He yelled after a few steps.
Elizabeth held up both her hands and shrugged. Katherine responded by shaking her head and laughing, then she started gathering her supplies.
Picking off grass blades of her dress, Elizabeth took her time to get to the barrier. The memory of pain made her feel like willingly walking into fire. She closed her eyes and imagined Jonathan laying somewhere ahead, screaming in pain, with her as his only hope. She sighed and stepped through.
Nothing happened. A grin stretched her lips and she walked faster to catch up to Leopold. It wasn’t that hard, because he stopped, looking blankly ahead with a silly smile.
“Are you all right?” Elizabeth shook his shoulder.
“Better than ever.” He responded, still with a dreamy look in his eyes.
She shook her head at the silly boy.
“So, anyone knows where exactly the shrine is?” Katherine adjusted her bag as she stopped beside them.
Elizabeth pulled out her brother’s journal and flipped through the pages.
“Here’s the map.” She adjusted the notebook to the surroundings.
As they walked through the forest, she thought she caught a few glimpses of a girl who looked just like her. Besides that the other girl was wearing a fancy dress she could never afford just from the sales of her paintings.
But before she could get a better look, the girl disappeared into the forest.
They stopped to eat. Elizabeth sat by a tree and bit into an apple, but her thoughts were far away. Or maybe not that far after all, with her brother.
“Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about Jonathan?” She heard her own voice. The girl in the fancy dress was leaning on a tree nearby. She looked exactly like her. Apart from being slightly translucent. “The amulet can grant you whatever you wish. It could make you so rich that he’d never have to go on another quest ever again… and maybe, you’d be reunited with not only your brother, but your parents as well.” The girl played with her pearl necklace. “Just something to think about.” She smiled and disappeared.
Elizabeth looked back at the map. They were so close! But where was Jonathan? If he reached the shrine, wouldn’t he be able to wish himself safely back home? Maybe they will find him on the way… if not, using the amulet to find him would be her best option.
She got up.
“Let’s go, we’re almost there!” She called to her companions. She could barely stop herself from jogging the rest of the way.
The path turned rapidly, revealing the canyon, and on the opposite side - the shrine.
Elizabeth gasped. But… wasn’t it too easy? She looked around. Still no sign of her brother. If it really was that easy to reach the shrine, he wouldn’t have needed her help.
“I guess that would be where we need to watch out for the monster?” She turned to Leopold.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I can find the way to the shrine from here,” he winked at her, “so I might as well lead the way from now on.”
Leopold checked his sword and started on the path down the cliff.
With the monster freshly on her mind and the nervousness caused by how easy they got this far, Elizabeth was jumping up at each sound coming from the bushes. Judging by how Katherine grabbed her arm at one of the louder rustles, Elizabeth wasn’t alone in her anxiety.
When they reached the bottom of the canyon without a monster attack, she was almost surprised.
They rested on the boulders surrounding the wide but shallow creek flowing through the middle of the canyon.
Leopold kept looking around and his hand didn’t leave the handle of his sword.
“We might as well get going and be over with it.” Katherine suggested, but her voice trembled.
Elizabeth wasn’t convinced either, but she nodded when Leopold shot her a questioning look.
They crossed the creek and started climbing. The path was steep and sandy, making them slip and use their hands to climb.
A growl sounded from above and Elizabeth slipped.
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