Excerpt Book #3 The Return- Alice,Franklin and Finola traveling blind

Alice, Franklin and Finola all walked together into the green light, their bodies quickly adapting to the thick and oppressive atmosphere as Olie promised. Alice could literally feel the weight of the air on her skin, pressing against her like a heavy blanket. She resisted the urge to turn and run back to the faint patch of blue that led back to the safe familiar world they had left behind. They were here for a reason and she wasn't about to let a little claustrophobia get the better of her. She kept a tight grip on her companion's hands and was reassured to feel them squeeze her hand in return, because right now, she couldn't see either of them. The green fog hung over everything, giving them a visibility range of zero. Great, how do you find something if you can't see anything!


The three of them stood absolutely still, afraid to shuffle their feet lest it take them over a cliff or into something equally hazardous. The stillness broken by Finola's voice sounding out of breath as if she had just run a several feet in two seconds, the heaviness of the air made talking a little bit difficult. Pulling in as much air as she could, Finola managed to keep her panic from transmitting to her partners. Standing as tall as her sturdy frame would allow, she spoke.

"What do we do now?" She stiffened as she heard the sound of rocks hitting a hard surface and felt a small object hit her leg. Moving closer to Franklin, she kept a death grip on his arm, as did Alice on his other side. "Is that an avalanche?" Her voice cracked and she shrank closer to her companions, prepared for the crash of falling boulders. Several harried moments passed in which they found themselves still uncrushed, so they slowly let out their collectively held breaths and thought of their next move. Hopefully, one of them would have a good idea, because Finola couldn't think of a single thing except not getting smashed by those hard grainy things Iam created.

There has got to be a way to get through here. Alice changed her mode of communication to their mental pathway to prevent any further rockslides. Franklin, do you think you can light the way for us?

I'll try, he replied using their shared internal speech. He let go of the girl's hands as he prepared to create fire. They transferred their grips to his waist, afraid of losing contact with each other. He shifted uncomfortably as Alice's fingers dug painfully into his side.

Sorry, her voice sounded in his head, she loosened her grip a bit and patted his back apologetically; but he noticed she still kept a firm grip on his side.

He raised his hands and shot two small fireballs into the air above them. The three of them fell backward into a spongy surface as the fireballs caused an explosion, blasting a large wall of flame back toward them. Alice was forced to let go of Franklin's waist as she hastily threw up an invisible barrier around their group to prevent being barbequed. He felt her leg wrap tightly around his as she struggled to maintain contact even as they began to sink into the soft ground. Finola maintained a tight hold on his belt loop as she dug her heels into the mushy ground. As soon as the barrier went up, the sound of flames ceased and they sat stunned waiting for a sign that it was safe to move again. Minutes ticked by without event and Franklin felt the need to say something.

"Apparently this atmosphere is flammable and that was not a good idea," Franklin said in a whisper. He clamped his lips together as he heard a low rumble sound from above them.