The Aurora Stone by G.S Tucker Page A

down?”
    Confused by the mouse like creature’s response, Eve decided to keep her mouth closed for the time being. Noticing, a movement to her left, Eve turned to see what her captor was doing. He had taken a strange looking curled reed from inside his vest, putting it to his lips he blew through the reed in three quick puffs, then paused and concluded with two shorter puffs, then one long. Eve hadn’t heard a sound.
    She was about to ask what that was all about when suddenly two things happened, the first was the whole gangway seemed to move clockwise. Eve felt she may fall so she lunged for one of the posts that made up the fence and held on tight, looking the way she was traveling so as not to feel nauseous. Eve saw that a few metres ahead the atmosphere seemed to thicken; the very air seemed to become opaque. Suddenly, the world around her became blurred. The section of gangway she was on had passed into the strange atmosphere. Becoming scared Eve closed her eyes, unsure if she was able to breathe within this heavy and strangely jelly like air. She began to panic as she was fast running out of oxygen. Then, with a slight squelching sound, she found they had passed through the viscous atmosphere. Eve took a deep lungful of air and then another, the mice like creatures chuckled at her. Opening her eyes, she was confused to see it was dark.
    I am losing my mind, she thought.
    It was then the owls appeared, like the mice, they were not normal sized, these owls were huge with jewel coloured eyes that flashed in the starlight. There were three approaching them, two were white with silver wing and tail feathers. The third was bronze in colour, its wing and tail feathers were blue-black.
    “Beautiful,” Eve sighed.
    The owls landed on the posts that were a few feet away from the opening in the gangway. Eve watched as the Owls extended their left wings to bridge the gap.
    “Come, let us find your friend, then we can begin our discussion,” the leader said as he placed a paw on the small of Eves back and guided her towards the bronze owl’s wing. Hesitating, Eve tried to back up. An exasperated sound came from behind her, and then she found herself lifted around the middle and carried along the wing to be deposited on the owls back. Heart pounding in her ears, Eve frantically looked around for something to hold onto. The mouse, who had carried her sat in front of her. “Hold onto me,” he instructed. She didn’t need telling twice; she wrapped her arms in a death grip around his middle. The owl then seemed to fall off the perch. Eve screamed, convinced she was about to die. The owl swooped upwards, then began gliding towards the horizon.
    After a while, Eve took her face away from the riders back and looked into the night. The view was beautiful, the moon full and fat, illuminated their path, lighting a highway across the lake they were soaring over. In the distance she could make out hundreds of tiny specks of light, assuming this was their destination, she settled into a more comfortable position and kept her eyes on the lights glowing in the distance.
    “We are about to do a bit of fancy flying, so hold on tight to me,” the rider instructed over his shoulder. Once again, Eve tightened her grip and buried her face in his back; she felt rather than heard his chuckle. The owl swooped down, then banked left, right, then left again, before soaring straight up. Eve could feel the panic rise.
    “I can do this, it will be over soon,” she told herself over and over again. The owl landed gracefully on another perch and extended its right wing to allow its passengers to alight from its back.
    “Thank you for the ride,” the mouse murmured. The great bird gazed at them both for a second with its huge eyes, the colour of smoky quartz and then took off, disappearing into the night. They were now standing on yet another gangway; this one, however, led to another more solid path. Gasping, Eve took in her new surroundings. She