Book 5: Chapter 26 (1/2)

Emile blinked and craned his neck forward in the sky. “Hey, Susan, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Susan flapped her wings and leaned closer to her brother. “What?”

“I said, are you seeing what I’m seeing!”

Susan furrowed her brow and stared at the ground. It was pitch-black. In fact, the air between them and the ground was pitch-black as well. “Are you seeing black? If you are, then yep, I’m seeing exactly what you’re seeing.”

“Squint harder, silly,” Emile said. He gestured with his talons towards the ground. “Even if you can’t see it, can’t you hear it?”

Susan turned her head to the side, pointing her ear downwards. “Is that…? Water?”

“It sounds like it,” Emile said and bobbed his head up and down. “Let’s hope it’s actual water and not some kind of poison.”

The two phoenixes swooped down, and after clearing a layer of black mist with their phoenix flames, a giant hole in the ground was revealed. They glanced at each other before nodding. “I’ll go first,” Emile said and took in a deep breath. He wreathed himself with a few rings of phoenix flames before plunging into the hole. A second later, Susan dove down as well.

The two phoenixes gasped. After spending who knows how long in this godforsaken land, they were actually seeing color again! Instead of the blackness that permeated everything, the hole in the ground was colored like a normal cave: the parts that were supposed to be gray were gray, and the parts that were supposed to be brown were brown.

“It’s water!” Emile said. Before Susan could say anything, Emile rushed forward and landed by a running river. It was moving slowly, but it was clear and had a fresh scent. Emile dunked his head into the river and took furious gulps, nearly forgetting to raise his head up to breathe.

Susan landed by Emile’s side. Instead of drinking the water, she watched her brother drink. After she confirmed he didn’t drop dead, she dunked her head into the river as well. The water was cool but not too cold. It seemed to fill up her mana as well. All the stress and fatigue she had accumulated vanished into thin air. She raised her head up and gasped, water dripping down her beak. “We have to bottle this stuff!”

“This is the best water I’ve ever had!” Emile said after he drank his fill. “It makes all the suffering we went through worth it.” He glanced around. “Let’s follow the river and find the source.”

Susan blinked. “That’s not a bad idea,” she said. “I’m surprised.”

Emile rolled his eyes. He ignored his sister’s comment and hopped along the side of the river, going against the flow. “I bet the water comes from a magic source,” he said. “There’s no way water this delicious and refreshing is just normal water. There has to be something special about it.”

“I wonder if we can take it home,” Susan said. “I hope it’s something small, like a crystal or a tablet.”

Emile nodded. The two phoenixes hopped and walked along the river, following it through winds and bends. However, there came a point where they couldn’t advance any further. “What’s this?” Emile asked and frowned. In front of him, there was a purple barrier. The water was freely flowing out of it, but it was clear it was a one-way barrier. Emile pushed at it a few times with his talons before blowing some phoenix flames on it.