Young Writers Society

"True," said Sylvie. "Well here we go." With that, she ran them through a few more moves before ending on the dip. It somehow didn't end in disaster as she managed to hold the pose for just about long enough before she pulled Onni back up and into her arms.

"Drink time," she whispered into Onni's hair.

Onni hugged Sylvie as tightly as ey could. "This will work, and we're going to be fine."

Ey stepped back, opening the small potion. "Bottoms up, love. See you on the other side."

"Bottoms up," said Sylvie, closing her eyes as she let the liquid flow down her throat. The shudder that went through her body at that was so many things at once Sylvie could barely process it.

Onni chugged the potion as well, almost throwing it up immediately. Eir throat constricted painfully, making eir breath into sharp, wheezing gasps. Ey fell to eir knees, eir eyes blurring with tears. "Syl-" Ey choked.

Sylvie watched in horror as Onni collapsed to eir knees. Before she could think too far, it kicked in for her own body and she was joining Onni on the floor.

"O..." she tried by the pain was too much. Words were not going to be coming it. She just did her best to hold onto Onni and hope this was working as intended.

Onni held on tightly to Sylvie as ey spasmed. We're going to be fine. We're going to be fine. We have to be fine. Onni tried eir best to give Sylvie a pained smile, but they blacked out before eir face would cooperate.

Sylvie's final view was of Onni attempting something like a pained grimace before a blissful darkness engulfed her vision and she felt her consciousness fade.

Onni's eyes opened with a start. Ey sat up, eir lungs filling with sweet air. "Sylvie!" Ey stood up, only to tumble to the floor. Eir legs burned and felt just as stable as wet jello. "Sylvie."

Sylvie woke up to hear someone calling her name. It took only a second for everything to come screaming back to her and she opened her eyes.

"Onni," she called out, slowly working herself into a sitting position. The pain was gone but her entire body felt like it was too weak to be real.

Onni laughed, most of the tension leaving eir body at Sylvie's voice. "Thank God. We did it! Welcome to Naenia." Ey wrenched emself up enough to look at Sylvie. "I knew we would."

"We did, We did," repeated Sylvie, pinching herself once to make sure wasn't just dreaming after being knocked out by that potion. She held out a hand and gave her best puppy dog eyes in Onni's direction. "Help me up?"

Onni slowly stood up. Eir legs felt much too unstable, but ey pushed through. "Here." Ey offered a hand to Sylvie.

Sylvie took the offered hand and gently pulled herself up. Her legs felt like they'd give out any minute but with a hand on Onni she was able to avoid falling right back down. "So I guess we start?"

Onni nodded and turned towards Naenia. The buildings were all made of sparkling white marble, with twisting vines taking up most of the pillars. A fountain bubbled in the distance, and people wearing various styles of white clothes walked the streets.

Onni looked down at eir attire. "I feel a little underdressed."

Sylvie took in the view around her. It was certainly a lot more grand than she'd been expecting from the underworld although some of the buildings did look a little on the older side.

She patted Onni on the shoulder. "You look lovely, don't worry about being a little underdressed."