The Netherling Curse

"What the hell?" Luke yelled.

Talon just laughed. "Sera, meet Aravut, a mighty warrior among the Netherlings. Aravut, this is Sera." He led Aravut into the moonlight that seeped through the trees. Luke and I gasped and stepped back as soon as he stepped into view. Standing on his hind legs, Aravut was over ten feet tall...and he was a lion. Well, sort of. You could see right through his skin. You could see the blue blood coursing through his veins, his heart pumping, and his lungs pulsating.

"Wait, you mean Seraph-," Aravut started.

"Yes, yes, that Sera." Talon gave Aravut a meaningful glance that shut Aravut up quickly.

Aravut fell back on to all fours and stepped closer to me. His black nose twitched as if he was smelling the air around me. He looked back at Talon for a moment before sighing. "It is nice to meet you, Sera. As Talon mentioned, I'm a warrior for the Netherlings. I didn't mean to frighten you. You see, I'm patrolling for Etherlings and I didn't recognize your scent." He sniffed the air again and then lowered his head with a look of disgust. When he did, I could see his brain. I took another step back. "And I smelled human..." Aravut growled and bared his teeth at Luke who backed up into a tree.

"Okay, nice lion-thingy. I'm not a threat or anything," he pleaded.

Talon scoffed. "Obviously." I glared at Talon. "What? He's not."

"Aravut, stop scaring Luke. He's not going to do anything bad," I said.

Aravut sneered at Luke once more with a growl growing in the back of his throat, then snorted and backed off, back up on to two legs, and stood next to Talon. Luke rubbed the back of his neck and glared at both Aravut and Talon. "I don't even care anymore. The sooner you get me out of here the better. With or without Sera. I've had enough," he yelled.

Talon's eyes were glowing purple. "Oh, that can be arranged." His wings stretched out behind him and he ran towards Luke. Flapping his wings, he grabbed Luke and took off into the air, disappearing in a shroud of black.

"Talon! Come back here!" I turned to Aravut. "Where's he taking him?"

Aravut turned away and at least had the dignity to look shy. "If I had to guess, the sea of blood. But he could just be trying to scare the kid."

"The sea of blood?"

"Yup," Aravut turned as if he was going to walk away.

"Oh, no you don't. Tell me what it is now!"

Aravut groaned and turned back slowly. "Fine. It's rumored that the Grey Queen disposed of the bodies that didn't take to the Etherling virus well there. It's highly contagious. If your blood comes into contact with the blood of an Etherling, the virus takes hold of you."

"Wait, I thought the Etherlings were bodies without souls?"

"Yes, but to do that, the Grey Queen had to infect the Netherlings with a virus to remove their souls."

"So, if Luke comes in contact with the blood...?"

"He would die. Human bodies can't take to the virus. It'd kill him in a matter of seconds."

"You've got to take me there! Now!"

Aravut looked sheepish and cleared his throat. "We don't even know if he's taking him there."

I glared at him. "Aravut, please. I know he's a human, he's not even the best human, but he doesn't deserve to die."

Aravut groaned and got down on all fours, leaning forward. "Hop on. Now, before I change my mind." I got ready to steady myself with my hand when I looked down and saw his blood coursing through his body. I gulped down vomit, closed my eyes, and placed my hand down. All I felt was soft, smooth fur. I opened my eyes in surprise. "Yeah, yeah. It's invisible. Get over it and get on."

"Okay, sorry." I pretended that he was a horse and straddled him like one. He took off running, faster than I'd ever gone in any car. I had to tangle my fingers into his invisible fur to stay on. I was surprised we never ran into anything or that Aravut never tripped. It was almost like he was gliding right over the ground. "How much farther?" I yelled.

"Not long. A few more seconds." And sure enough, the forest cleared away and we were standing on the bank of a red ocean. The blood red waves kept toppling over the blue sand. Something caught my eye in the sky.

"Is that Talon?" I asked. Aravut nodded. I hopped off of him right away and ran right up to the edge of the water.

"Careful, Sera! Don't touch the water!" Aravut yelled out. I glanced down and jumped back as a ripple of a wave came crashing on to the shore.

I could see that Talon was holding Luke over the water by his ankle, laughing as he did. He was pretending to lose his grip so Luke would freak out. It was working. The poor guy was screaming. Talon flew up higher in the air and as he did, Luke kicked him. And Luke slowly started to plummet towards the water. "Talon!" I shrieked.

Talon hovered in the air, looking shocked, then started his quick descent, trying to catch Luke. Luke screamed and Talon started plunging down faster. I swear to God that Luke's leg touched the water right as Talon grabbed him under his arms and hoisted him up into the air. They hovered above the water for a moment before Talon started to slowly fly back towards the shore.

Talon dropped Luke off far from the shore and then collapsed into the blue sand next to him. I rushed over and didn't know which to check on first. Luke moaned and I grabbed on to his leg, the one that looked like it had touched the water. It looked fine up close so I turned to Talon.

I fell to my knees next to him and felt for a pulse. He shoved my hand off his neck and sat up slowly. "I'm fine, but thanks for checking on that human scum first. Really. That means a lot to me."

"Talon! Seriously? You're going to be mad at me? You literally just almost killed Luke! And yourself! Are you insane?"

His eyes started glowing blue and he cocked his head to the side. "You know the answer to that already." He stood up. "Really, don't worry about me. I'm loving all the concern, but I'm fine." He started walking away.

I groaned. "Whatever, be that way." Luke turned then, starting to wake up.

"Sera? Where are we?" He asked groggily. He sat up a little and looked around, then fell back on the grass groaning. "Ugh, I was hoping it was all just a bad dream."

"No such luck there. Sorry." I stood up and started to walk towards the water, stopping right before where the tide was coming in and sat down. I glared at the horizon and tried to keep all my thoughts straight. Is it all just a bad dream? I mean, I've had them before. Maybe I really do have schizophrenia and this is all just a hallucination. Yeah, my life sucked, but all of this is just....weird.

I could hear Luke calling my name, but I couldn't bring myself to answer. I just kept pinching my arm, hoping I'd wake up. When that didn't work, I started slapping my arms, trying to wake up. I closed my eyes and prayed I'd end up back home. There's no point in being here if my only friend hates me.

I opened my eyes, only to see Lunar sitting on my lap, seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I sighed and ran my fingers through his fur. Nope, it's all real... I think.

Aravut came over and sat next to me. "What are you thinking about, Sera?"

"If this is all real or just some figment of my imagination."

He stared out at the horizon. "You already know the answer to that. Don't second guess yourself, especially here."

"I guess you're right. I just have to start accepting this." I sighed and looked over at him. "Aravut?"

"Yes?" He turned to look at me, then his jaw dropped. "Talon! You better come look at this!"

"What-what's happening?"

Talon kneeled down beside me in an instant and turned my face towards his. He started laughing a little.

"Stop laughing! What's going on?"

"Nothing is 'going on'. It's just your eyes."

"What about them?" I asked.