The Golden Caverns

The Golden Caverns
By Elefante 
“Wait!” Winter called, her already thickly accented voice thickening some more, but she was already too late. “No!”
   “I’m sorry.” Her mother put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but it wouldn’t do.
   “That’s not good enough!” She tore away, running as fast as she could to get to the Traveler.
   “Winter! Wait!” Her mother called.
   “I’m not waiting anymore.” Winter replied, slamming the door.
   Her mother opened the door, and reached to grab Winter’s midnight black hair, but Winter ducked and rolled until she hit something hard.
   She uncoiled jumping up. “Thank you.” She told the marble floor. She had hit the staircase. 
   The Traveler was on the fifth floor, but the stairs often helped her. Legend has it that the house was alive and could help them in small ways, but most didn’t believe it. 
   She crouched down, speaking in a language that only she knew. “Help.” 
   The stairs launched her upwards so fast she was certain that her stomach was still on the first floor. 
   She knocked on the door to the Traveler’s room. Or at least that’s what she tried to do. As soon as her fist collided with the door it went directly through it, instead of making the hollow noise she was expecting.
   The Traveler looked just as surprised as she was when she walked through the door. 
   He regained his composure quickly asking, “Where do you wish to go, Miss Skylinh?”
   She stared at her feet as she said, “The Golden Caverns.”
   “The Golden Caverns?” He shouted, his short brown hair seemed to stand on end, “Do you not realize how dangerous that is?”
   Winter stood tall and kept her chin up despite the fear coursing through her veins. The Traveler was so powerful that he could send people places with his magic and Winter did not want to know what else he could do with that power. She dragged herself out of her musings and said, “I do. But, this is something that I need to do.”
   “If you say so.” He said the words in a warning tone. 
   He whispered something in some sort of clipped language then gathered some of the lavender scented air, bringing it into a tight ball. 
   He opened his light orange eyes then handed the travel sphere to her. “May your travels be safe as they ever will be.” He told her, laying on the sarcasm nice and thick.
   What I’m doing can’t be that dangerous, can it? She wondered. 
   Her mother burst into the room, screaming, “Don’t you dare do that, Winter! You have no idea how much I will make Lord Balthazar punish you!”
   “He won’t be able to punish Miss Skylinh if he won’t be able to catch her.” He turned to Winter. “Now go!”
   She threw down the travel sphere as hard as she could, causing it to shatter on the floor that was now stone.
   Her mother stared at the Traveler. “You’re okay with this?” 
   She said something else, but Winter couldn’t hear it over the roar of magic in her ears. 
   Winter barely managed to keep herself together through the jump. Every muscle in her body felt like it had turned to orantium, the legendary explosive from Lyrian. 
   “For the legends!” She screamed as loud as she could, then everything faded to black.
----   “Wyn, wyn wake up.” A gentle voice told her.
   She opened her eyes. “Papa?” Hey watery eyes spilled over when he nodded. She ignored the pain that tore through her body when she lunged to hug him. 
   “Wyn,” He pulled back to study her. She had grown so much…
   A sharp gasp pulled him back to reality. 
   Winter screamed when she saw the woman standing behind them. She had long blonde hair, which had black streaks all through it. Her eyes were a stunning blue with specks of gold scattered through them. 
   “Wh-ho are you?” She stuttered.
   “I’m Eyo. I’ve been working with him since you were a little child. Do you not remember?”
   Papa shot Eyo a look. 
   “What?” Winter asked when Eyo paled.
   Her old tutor stalked into the room. His midnight colored eye looked even more ancient than she remembered, his eye patch worn and thinning. His wrinkled face did not seem to be there for a happy conversation. “Monsieur Spoon?” She asked, her bright green eyes widening.
   He ignored her question and turned right to Eyo and Papa. “It seems that there has been magic laced through her song since she was a little girl.”
   “How did the Traveler not know?” Papa asked.
   “I suspect that was not the case.” Monsieur Spoon mused.
   Winter’s eyes narrowed. “Did you search my memories without my permission?” He couldn't, could he?
   “You person,” Eyo muttered when he nodded, and Winter definitely shared her sentiments.
When she focused she felt a presence in the back of her mind. It felt small and hidden, but it was definitely there. “I can feel you in my mind, you know.” She scolded Monsieur Spoon.
He gasped. “No! The magic is too strong, too strong, too strong.” 
Winter smiled when she remembered how he used to repeat some things three times at the end of sentences.
She looked down at her gloved hands. Then she noticed how they had lace on them. “Nuts and berries.” 
Winter knew that having magic laced through you was a legend, or at least extremely rare, but it couldn’t happen to her! To have laced magic you have magic from birth and that was something that the Traveler would be able to sense so there is no way that she had magic unless….
“Oh no,” she whispered, “how could he?”
“Who?” Papa asked, worry etched through his rough feature. She could see his mind spinning into a million horrible scenarios.
Monsieur Spoon’s eyes stretched wide, then he shook his head. “You kids are such good story spinners.” 
“No, you don’t understand.” This time the words didn’t come from Winter, they came from Eyo. 
“Darn you, Monsieur Spoon.” Winter grumbled, her mind seemed to cramp under the weight of the blank stares of all of the people around her. 
Monsieur Spoon flinched.
“All right,” Eyo said, “What other identities do you have?”
“What makes you so sure I have other identities?”
“What makes you think we do?”
While they were having their rather aggressive staring contest, Winter decided that she should pull Papa aside.
Winter bit her lip. Should I do it? She thought. 
“I can see those whe…” Papa started, but a loud scream cut him off.
Winter bolted outside, and… she stopped in her tracks. The Golden Caverns were in chaos, demons running free, though they were kind of adorable, for example, there happened to be an Ice Cream demon running by, it had smooth blue skin with a pink tutu, it’s head shaped like an alien’s, it’s horns were twisted into a small heart just above a large scoop of ice cream. But, there were more important problems at hand. She had to find the truth. It couldn’t be him. Is that why he had left in the first place?
She could hear Monsieur Spoon’s voice in the back of her mind No! The magic is too strong, too strong, too strong. It played in her mind over and over until she thought more about the past. The Traveler pulling his arms into an x, then threw them out behind him. Him teaching her the basics of magic. You can find the truth with your power, Winter. The Traveler was the closest thing she had. He couldn’t do this to her! 
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in front of her, solving her current problem. But, she could feel that aura anywhere. It was true. 
“Osgood!” Winter called, hoping that it was all a mistake, it couldn’t be him. But, sure enough, when the figure whirled around so fast that his hood fell off, the rough features bore into Winter’s soul, cutting through all of the hope that she had carried, snuffing out the flame. She couldn’t take it anymore. “You can’t do this to me!” But, it was too late. She sobbed for him to come back and help her. 
He crouched down next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder, “I did it all for you, Wyn, and here you are breaking everything that I ever did for you into a million pieces that can never get pieced back together.”
The words sliced through her thoughts, silencing everything around them, the demons stopped screaming, the other animals turned to stare, and Winter just buried her face in her hands. 
Minutes passed, maybe even hours, but when she finally looked up she found Osgood studying her like he could see all of the emotions coursing through her veins. Then, he noticed that she was back to reality and nodded to someone, something, behind her, and when she turned to look, a sharp pain on the back of her head made everything fade to black.
A loud wail woke her. Winter was about to scream, but a sour cloth was shoved into her mouth. She couldn’t see, thanks to the extremely vexing cloth, so she decided to test her luck. She gathered a little bit of energy from the corner of her mind, imagining it tearing through the cloth and it fell off of her face. It was then when she noticed that she was hanging upside down by her feet.
“Look who finally came back to reality.” Osgood teased.
Winter gritted her teeth so hard they looked ready to crack. She reached into her secret pocket to grab her knife, but she dropped it.
Osgood picked it up, “Were you really going to use this?”
Winter screamed as she dropped face first towards the hard concrete floor. About three seconds before she would’ve died she jolted to a stop. 
There was so much anger that it seemed to erupt out of her. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. The rage was the only thing that mattered. Getting it out. 
Osgood screamed. How could she do this? The Traveler couldn’t have corrupted her could he? 
“Winter! Stop!” The power in his voice was unmistakable, but it didn’t seem to be working. “Winter!”
For the first time in his life Osgood felt pure terror. “No, no, no, no.” She couldn’t do this to him. “Wyn!” He tried again, but his voice was no more than a whisper. Tears spilled over. How could she do this to him?
Heat shot her upward, bringing her back to reality. “Winter,” there was a soft voice in the back of her mind. 
“Maya?” She asked, wishing for it to be true, wishing that her sister could come back. Winter shuddered when she remembered the way that Maya had landed, her body broken, bent in impossible ways.
“Winter, come home.” The voice told her.
Winter was going to ask how, but before she could get anything out the voice told her, “homeward bound.”
Winter was gathering speed as she fell back towards the ground. She fought against the wind and reached into her pocket grabbing a small travel sphere. She purposely dropped it, shattering it gathering her up and sending her home.
The Traveler felt a huge magical presence and raced outside. He was not expecting to find Winter out there in a sobbing heap. 
“Your magi…” he started, but Winter cut him off.
“I know.” She whispered, “It is laced through me.”
“Wyn!!” 
“Maya!” 
Her mother stormed out of the house, “You better explain yourself, Maya!”
“Mother!” Winter said, rushing to embrace her, “it’s all my fault.”
“Osgood has lo…” Maya started, but mother cut her off.
“Oh! You’ve talked to Osgood? How is my dear boy doing?”
“He did this!” Winter hiked up her pant legs to reveal thick purple and blue bruises on each of ankles.
“Stop trying to get your brother in trouble!” Her mother scolded. Wagging a long finger at her. 
“Mother it’s true,” Maya told her.
Mama reeled on Maya, “You agree with this scandalous story telling?”
Winter let her memories pool up, then shoved them out of her mind. She opens her eyes gasping when she sees the memories projected there, playing on repeat. 
Mother fell to her knees. He couldn’t do this to her. “No!”
A loud noise came from behind them. It sounded like a million waterfalls cascading down from the sky. 
Papa stalked out of the magic, “Osgood could have had you!” He shouted at Winter, “That’s why we sent him away yesterday! Not on some wretched mission to find the fairy king. How could you be so oblivious?”
Winter kept her calm remarkably well, saying, “I will not apologize for what I have done. I just did the next right thing.”
“She’s right.” Maya agreed. 
That night Winter was more grateful for her warm bed than ever before. She would never forget the chaos of the Golden Caverns.