The Moon Spawn #1 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

Chapter Twelve

The journey down the stairs got boring rather quickly. The pit seemed to go on forever. It had enough stairs to reach the earth's atmosphere if it were built skyward. Waverly did not remember seeing any stairs in her dreams but she did not think much on it now. She was rather thankful for the steps because the stench from the pit made her almost double over the edge from queasiness. It smelled of rotten eggs, bad salad (Waverly knew a lot about salads that went bad) and wet skunk. The air was incredibly hot. The walls were black and jagged, smeared with the thick slime of an animal she did not wish to discover.

The lower she got, the stinkier the pit became and hotter.

The air was foggy and black and more often than not she was forced to stop whenever a strange lurking figure formed in the fog. But it was always a tremendous relief when nothing jumped out of the fog and the feeling almost made Waverly glad each time. She took care whilst walking down the steps but still ended up tripping more times than she could count.

Her grunts echoed off the walls for the first few hundred steps. Farther down, the pit became hollower until the echoes gradually faded. Waverly did not know how to describe it but whenever she made a sound, it drifted off and just disappeared. There were no walls for it to echo off of. Waverly guessed the pit was a lot wider and larger than she had given it credit for.

She walked carefully now more than before since the walls had suddenly vanished. The edge of the stairs were free of barriers and dropped off on either sides into absolute nothing. Waverly thought of jumping down as a way to get to the bottom faster but then again she had no idea what was down below or if it was safe. She just had to climb a myriad of hot stairs.

She could not tell how long she climbed for - it could have been hours or days but suddenly the clouds began to disperse in wisps as if someone was blowing them off. The air remained foggy and Waverly could not see anything still but she sensed she was near ground. The clouds parted and here they looked so dense and black that she was tempted to touch them. She believed they were solid.

Her feet went a few inches downward and she realized she had come to the end of the stairs. She inhaled sharply out of relief and almost vomited in regret. The pit still stank worse than worse. She knew she had gotten closer to the source of the foul smell. She cautiously took another step forward and felt nothing underneath her feet. The void extended farther down than the bottom of stairs. Her legs throbbed immensely as though it dreaded going down another eternal flight of stairs.

The black clouds made it difficult to see and Waverly did not understand how but this did nothing to stop the faint light that illuminated the pit.

If only the pit were much brighter. She thought.

Waverly instinctively shut her eyes and called to the moonlight from above. It was hardwork to channel that much energy but she cared nothing for it. She tilted her head and winced in pain as her very soul reached for the moon and guided it to her. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the moon descending the pit at top speed. She watched it travel rapidly like a falling star.

When her eyes opened, the pit was bright with moonlight. It was incredible. The moon was nowhere to be seen but Waverly could feel its presence all around. The light touched everything and cleared out every inch of cloud until they were soaring twenty feet above her head. She could see the pit now. It yawned as far as her eyes could follow. Inside it, a blood red glow illuminated more clouds thicker than the ones above. Mixed in between was another kind of light she immediately recognized.

"Mother!" Muttered Waverly who now subconsciously moved a step forward and dropped into the pit with a loud yelp.

Her hand quickly caught on to the edge of a jutting rock so that she was left dangling above the void. Her fingers burned against the overheated ground and threatened to scorch her flesh to ashes. Her skin seared and her hair was off to a great start already smelling like burnt marshmallows. The great gash on her leg begin to sizzle. She did not even remember she had obtained such until it began to sing. She cried out in pain and desperately tried to move her legs but there was no place for footing.