The Five Paralangua: Part Four (special preview)

My heart is hammering out of my chest. No. Beyond that. My heart is hammering in space and changing Earth’s rotation. I was wading in knee deep water, entering the depths of the labyrinth. Cold mud and stone greet my toes. Meanwhile, ahead of me, there is a vastness I cannot describe. The labyrinth is one of the greatest mysteries the Festival of Ash provides, and I am alone inside.

The paralangua will begin their hunt now. But I am the sole prey this festival. Usually, the five chosen paralangua will enter along with some other hopeful paralangua, hunting for their chosen mate. This year, my five will enter alone, and they will hunt me together, yet separately. The order of who leaves the labyrinth will determine…well, something very intimate.

I slipped and fell into the water, splashing down, loosing footing, and finding myself careening down a waterslide that shoots me out over a waterfall, below me is a vast depth with a faint blue glow.

I notice none of this beauty or splendor. I am far too busy screaming at the top of my lungs as I cascade down the waterfall like a ragdoll.

From the waterfall lunges a huge, imposing figure that rips me from the air. My heartbeat is such that now the moon is shaken from its orbit. I am tucked into large arms, one of which garbs hold of a vine and swings us towards a wall where he stops my careening.

“Easy now,” a calm voice whispers. “I got you in the nick of time.” There was a slight chuckle to his voice, but I was too busy trying to breathe to notice the sexy inflection.

“Oh my god!” I gulped in air. “Oh my god!” My naked body pressed into the scaly flank of Chandra. His white scales gleamed with that faint blue glow. He looked iridescent in the light.

“Took a tumble did ya?” Chandra laughed as he put me upon his back. “Was planning to sneak up on you until you did that.” He started climbing up the vine, heading towards the beam of light over us.

I clung to his neck, holding on for dear life as the pool below us grew even further away. “I didn’t even see that I was that close to a slide!”

“No worries.” Chandra started to laughed but was yanked from below.

Glancing down Venus was upon us, his hand wrapped tightly around Chandra’s ankle.

“Do you mind?” Chandra tried kicking, but found it upset his balance on the rope. “I’m trying to get our Stella out of here.”

“And let you be first?” Venus snarled. “Fat chance.”

Chandra eased me around to his front, holding me in the curve of his arm. “Excuse me, love.” He set me upon a ledge on the wall then leapt down, tackling Venus, and both of them dropped into the knee deep water I started in.

I yelped, quickly coming to standing. I watched them struggle for a moment, their bodies writhing and thrashing in the water, before I made my way along the ledge. The ledge led to an opening, which itself turned into a dimly lit corridor. Light filtered in through the ceiling, which was covered by vines and tree limbs. The floor was cold with settled patches of water that trickled down the walls. I was supposed to keep running, creating the chase that the labyrinth was made for. But I really didn’t want to. I wanted one of them to find me, it didn’t matter who. I just wanted to be found and taken out of here.

As I came to the end of the hallway, I peeked around the corner to see stairs on either side, and a drop off straight ahead. I stood there for a moment, listening for rushing water or something, not sure.

“There you are.”

I jumped nearly out of my skin. I looked this way and that before turning back around and seeing a massive shape at the end of the hall I just came from.

“Found you,” Solomon’s deep voice rippled through the air.