Part 1 of Untitled Novel, Day 20 - Words to go: 6,890

Part I

It was in the making of this castle that the open spaces they were crawling through remained open. The dark fairies did not close up the wall around Dark Fairy City before they made the castle, so when the trees were being twisted spell after spell into the castle walls and rooms, the areas lowest in the castle where the branches were the thickest left cracks. These areas in the castle were not regularly used. They were below even the servants quarters, above the dungeon. The dungeon itself was made from stone so it had a doubled wall that made the dungeon area nearly impenetrable from directly outside the dungeon.
Now, of course, if you walked directly into the castle, down steep staircases, and through dark, foreboding rooms, it'd be easy to get to the dungeon. But, Floyd and Goldie couldn't do that. So, here they were, crawling... well, Floyd was lucky, actually, he could still prance through the thicket tunnels without hitting his head on the walls that to Goldie felt like they were closing in tighter and tighter.
Goldie was slowing. She was running out of breath, she couldn't keep up the pace anymore. She felt like she was slithering like a snake. She could barely get her knees underneath her to pull herself forward anymore. She whimpered when she looked ahead into what became just pure blackness ahead of her, she covered her mouth with her hand to try and calm what wanted to become a scream. Why did it have to be so dark? She couldn't see Floyd anymore. She collapsed on the tunnel floor and rolled into a fetal position, covered her face with her hands.

"I want to go home," she kept repeating. Tick, tick, tick, tick.

"Goldie! Why'd you stop?" Floyd called urgently into Goldie's mind. She could hear time go by with his footsteps. Tick, tick, ticking as he moved closer to her. Or maybe it was his claws against the tunnel floor. "What's the matter? We need to keep moving."

"I don't fit," she wailed, louder than she meant to. "I want to go home!"

"Quiet!" Floyd urged.

Goldie wouldn't be calm. She was hyperventilating. She was beginning to think that she wouldn't ever be able to get out of this fairy world. She'd never see her mom again. She knew it wasn't a dream. She knew she was stuck here with no way home. Plus, a Goldie from a different reality in her world had already been stuck here for days. How in the world was she going to do any better than the first Goldie?

"Goldie! The fairy blessing. It can do whatever you wish," Floyd said.

"I wish to be home," she cried.

"We have to keep moving forward for you to go home. Keep moving forward. If you want the tunnels to seem bigger, all you have to do is think it and it'll happen, but we have to keep going. If we keep going, we'll get you home. The fairy blessing doesn't recognize when you're in distress, it only recognizes threats. But, think what you want to happen and it will try and help you with whatever resources it can." Floyd sat beside Goldie and stared at her. She didn't move for quiet a while, but she quieted. After a minute or two of mostly silence, a few sniffles here and there, but that was understandable, Goldie stretched out her legs and rolled onto her stomach again. In her mind, she wanted the tunnels to be big enough she didn't have to crawl. She also wished they had the oil lamp with them. Had it been left in the halfway world, she wondered? No, she didn't think so. It had come through the esoteric door with Kiffen, she was pretty sure. That probably meant it was just laying out in a meadow somewhere, lost. As Goldie thought about those things, she started to walk again down the dark tunnel.

It grew lighter as she went, and wait. She was walking, not crawling like the had been before. The tunnels had widened! Incredible! Plus, she could see. She felt a light tickle in the palm of her hand and quickly flicked it, thinking a spider or whatever else might live this deep in a dark forest might have found its way onto her hand. But, after she shook it a few times, the tickle was still there. She lifted her hand to her face and jumped in surprise when she saw a glowing ball of light in her hand. Was something attacking her? Maybe there was a spider and it had been trying to bite her and now the fairy blessing was holding it captive. The compact had created a ball of light earlier, when Kiffen had tried to touch it, but that was rainbow colored. This was pure white light.
Had the fairy blessing given her its best try at an oil lamp? This was much better than an oil lamp. It was amazing. Goldie caught herself giggling, she felt so magical at the moment.
She heard steps in the distance. Hahaha, she laughed silently, Floyd is coming back again to tell me to hurry.
He'd disappeared farther ahead in the tunnel once he could tell she was doing alright, because, just like the dark fairy, Kiffen, Floyd the Light Sprite was no good with crying children.
Goldie hurried along until she noticed that the steps were a lot louder than she'd expected Floyd's to be. She put her hand behind her back, hoping the light would go out, it did, she pressed herself against the tunnel wall and listened as the approaching steps slowed. They stopped.
She could hear it breathing. It was way too big to be Floyd. It could probably smell her. She could hear it sway back and forth between it's feet and paw the ground. Where was Floyd? Had he hidden when the creature made its way past?

"It's me. Floyd. Where'd you go?" Goldie's brain spoke up.

She tried not to yelp in excitement. At least he was alive! But, she couldn't reply. The creature might hear her. She heard the scatch of something sharp against the wood floor, and then, nothing.

"Is that you right there, Goldie?"

She still didn't reply. There was nothing she could do. She heard the creature move closer to her. "I'm going to come stand next to you. Don't freak out and scream." Goldie heard him say. Then, the whole tunnel started shaking with the sound of a purring cat. She stayed pressed to the wall because she still had no idea what to do. She turned her face as far away from the fast approaching creature and sucked in her breath.

Suddenly, brushed past her arm.
Fur.

The sound was eminating from whatever was attached to the fur. She reached down and felt for the compact in her pocket. She felt it, and a lot of mud from the spring bed. If the compact is here, I'm not in danger, she thought, so she drew her hand up and wished for light. Suddenly, the tunnel was filled with light. Sitting to Goldie's left, was Floyd. A gigantic Floyd. What the...

"Floyd, you scared me!" She studied him for a moment. He took the opportunity to chew on one of his claws. "Why are you so big?"

It was funny. Floyd never broke a smile on his expressionless face, but Goldie could tell he was laughing when she heard his voice in her head. "I'm not big," he said.

"Of course, you are. You're huge compared to me. Can't you feel that you've grown?"

"Quiet down. We're too close to Dark Fairy City. Talk in a whisper."

Goldie put her hands on her hips and frowned. She was tired of people not answering her questions. Well, cats... and wyverns, uhm, dark fairies. There weren't any people here. It was kind of sad. In some ways, she felt super alone out here in the midst of these dark tunnels, battling evil, saving herself from a kidnapper she thought was her friend. It was all so weird. "I haven't grown, you've shrunk!" Floyd still laughed.

Goldie looked around the tunnel. The tree branches did seem like they'd gotten bigger, but she just assumed that was because they were getting closer to the city and new trees were growing into the tunnels. There was nothing else to compare against, except for Floyd, who was definitely a lot bigger than he used to be. She had wished to be able to walk upright instead of crawling, maybe the easiest way for the fairy blessing to grant that wish was to make her small and leave the tunnel alone.

"Maybe the best thing now would be for you to ride on my back since you're so small. Then I won't have to wait for you while you have your little bouts of depression once every two minutes. Plus, you're even slower now that you've shrunk. No offense," Floyd added on a whim.

Goldie brushed off the insults. She didn't care too much. Plus, she'd never ridden a cat before, they were too small. It was now or never. She walked to Floyd's side and said, "Let's do this! I don't know why I'm so excited."

"I'm glad YOU'RE happy about this," said Floyd. "Cat's aren't like horses. It hurts when my fur gets pulled. It's like sensitive scalp, except all over my body. So, be careful."

Goldie climbed up onto Floyd's back and smiled as they started to trot down the tunnels. The breeze blew through her, probably, matted hair. It was still braided up, but strands were falling out all over her face. She wasn't sure what sort of shape she was in since she dove into the mud, earlier, but it stood to reason that she wasn't looking so good. She patted her hair down as well as she could. If this is what she looks like when she finally gets back to her own world, mom was going to kill her.

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