Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 317

His eyes trailed towards Jianyu and he growled. “What is this human doing here?” Silas asked, speaking for the first time.
Amara looked back and replied, “He is here for the treasure.” As Silas glared at Jianyu with icy eyes, he cowered back in the
corner. Just then, Jianyu remembered the sign that was by the door, ‘Don’t trust anyone but yourself in the next obstacle.’
He started to get suspicious of Silas as he dared to ask Amara, “Who is this?”. Amara took no notice of him and she
continued to gaze at Silas. Somehow, Jianyu felt uncomfortable around Silas, there was something suspicious about him.
Just then, he remembered what Rebeka had told him, “During the second obstacle, you will meet someone you cannot
trust.”
“Silas must be the one we cannot trust.” Jianyu thought.
As Jianyu thought of a way to convince Amara that Silas was not trustworthy, he sat in silence, watching the two talk.
During observation, Jianyu struggled to remember what Rebeka had said about defeating a changeling. The only thing
that he could recall was that changelings had the ability to transform into anyone their victims wanted to see, and in this
case, Amara had wanted to see her long lost partner-Silas. Then, he remembered. He needed a mirror. Jianyu dug in his
backpack for a small mirror that he always carried around with him. He then quickly pulled it out and walked up to Silas.
He gave Jianyu a cold look as he approached and wrapped his tail protectively around Amara. Unaware that Jianyu had
went behind him, Silas turned around and accidentally looked into the mirror that Jianyu had held up. Immediately, Silas’s
eyes had gone a bloodshot red, and his breathtaking scales had gone into an ugly lime green. Amara pulled away with
disgust. Within seconds, Silas had turned into a revolting creature with small berry-like eyes.
Amara snapped out of the trance and looked at Jianyu with confusion. “I had the most weirdest vision…”.
“Talk about it later okay?” Jianyu interrupted, “We’ve got company.” Amara hastily put on her warrior face and glared at
the changeling. As if the changeling was mocking them, it sneered and vanished into thin air. Alert, the pair looked around,
eyes carefully darting around the room. “Okay, we’re doomed.” Jianyu whispered. “I can do a tracking spell.” Amara
thought quickly. “You can do that?” Jianyu looked at her with amazement. Without answering, Amara used her scales and
cut a small gash on her palm, shook off a few drops of blood, focused her mind on the changeling and chanted a few
ancient words. Jianyu watched as the drops of blood that was on the floor, formed into a line and started to move towards
the next door ahead. “There!” Amara yelled, pointing toward the changeling. Without h esitation, Jianyu ran towards it and
took out a small pocket knife. He then took a flying leap towards the creature, stabbing the demon right in the heart. The
creature made an uncomfortable gurgling noise as black blood pulsed from the wound.
“This is it I think.” Amara sighed. At first, they couldn’t see anything, but they made out an outline of rows of
old-fashioned pillars along the sides. Suddenly, they heard loud clanging noises as if someone was playing cymbals. The
two jumped and hid behind the pillars, Jianyu squatted down and peeked around the pillar. Jianyu crept out from his
hiding spot and crawled to the front of the room. In front of him was a large marble slate with different drawings of animals.
“Wow, what’s this?” Amara cooed behind him. Immediately, steel arrows came shooting out of the walls. Jianyu’s eyes
widened with shock, desperately trying to come up with a plan.
“Why not I carry you over?” Amara rolled her eyes. “Oh right.” He replied sheepishly. Amara wrapped her tail around
Jianyu’s waist and pushed back, launching herself into the air. After a couple of seconds, they landed safely making their
way up the staircase towards the treasure. Upon arriving, they saw an old cupboard with carvings on the front. Jianyu
looked back at Amara who was waiting by the stairs. “I don’t understand.” muttered Jianyu. Suddenly, the box started to
glow a blinding bright red, Jianyu felt himself melting, being sucked into the box. Amara wailed as she tried to slither away,
but was drowned by the terrifying screams of agony from the box’s victims.