Serai felt herself be submerged in cold water as she sank deeper into the pool she fell in, but she was still too in shock to try to swim up to the surface, but when she did, she opened her eyes to see the crystal pool that she went to with everyone the other night.
'I'm back! I found the way out!' She thought but then it hit her, 'no it can't be, the crystal pool isn't in this cave.' And as soon as she realized the truth, the illusion faded and she started to see the differences.
'This cave has red crystals not blue and purple crystals. Wait a minute, that's the trick! if you know the truth the illusion won't work on you and it fades! I gotta find the others and tell them!' but as soon as she was stepping out of the pool, she felt an urge to look back at it one more time, and when she did, she saw a little girl, the same little girl that she saw underwater at the real crystal pool, Serai blinked but when she opened her eyes the girl was still there.
'what does she want from me?'
"Hello? can you hear me?" Serai asked.
"yes, I can" the little girl responded,
"what do you want from me!?" Serai asked once more
"I want you to be my play budy" the girl answered, giggling. Serai felt a shiver go up her spine when the little girl giggled.
"I'm sorry but I can't, I have to find my friends, they're probably looking for me right now." Said Serai.
"there not looking for you, they don't care about you, I'm the only one that cares about you, so stay with me forever and ever and ever, what do you say, we'll always be happy, and play together, so follow me," the girl tilted her head. 'This girl is starting to creep me out!'
"I know you just an illusion so go away" Serai responded and the girl's skin started to become pail as snow, her eyes and mouth became black, and she opened her mouth wider than humanly posable, then the girl disappeared with a loud screech that sent shivers down Serais spine.
'Now that she's gone I need to find the others fast, or they might be tricked by the illusions!' Serai thought.
After what seemed like hours of searching she started to lose hope, but before she gave up completely, she saw something at the corner of her eye.
'What was that?' she thought to herself, then she heard footsteps coming from the same place,
"Hello?" she asked, then the sound stopped
'no I can't let it get away!' she thought, running after it. But every time she went around a corner, the person disappeared behind the next turn.
"Stop! wait up!" she yelled after it, but it didn't stop. Just when she felt like she couldn't run anymore, she bumped into something headfirst and fell to the ground.
"Ouch," she said, rubbing her head.
"Serai! are you ok! I've been looking for you everywhere, have you found anyone else?" Lunar asked helping her up.
"Lunar! I'm fine, and I haven't found anyone yet, we should find them as soon as posable, this place is full of illusions and weird things." Serai explained,
"I know, I saw them too. We should probably rest for the night or whatever time it is right now, we don't want to exhaust ourselves" stated Lunar.
"But what about the others?" Asked Serai.
"They'll be doing the same. Now, let's find a place that we can rest in," he replied. After a bit of walking, they managed to find a small cave with a deep, sandy floor,
"This should work to sleep in for the night, It's the best we'll get" announced Lunar, and they dug out a hollow in the sand to rest in, just big enuff for the two of them to comfortably sleep in.
"I hope we locate the others tomorrow," Serai said, snuggling closer to Lunar.
"yea, me too," Lunar said as he wrapped his arm around her. Serai stayed up for a bit thinking about how they could find the others, 'This cave is huge, they could be anywhere.' she thought 'I'll worry about it tomorrow.' In the middle of the night, Serai woke up to see someone standing right in front of her.
"Lunar?" she called out, but when she cleared her vision, she could see that it wasn't Lunar at all, it was the girl she saw in the crystal pool.
"Uhg, what do you want? I already told you I won't leave my partners for you, so go away" but the girl stayed there
"It was not me who tried to convince you to stay, but nearly an illusion of me," the girl said.
"So your not gonna try to make me leave my partners?" Serai asked.
"No, I came to warn you that they are in trouble, you must find them quick or the illusions will get them" the girl explained,
"what do you mean?" Serai asked in panic.
"Come with me and I'll show you" replied the girl, Serai hesitantly looked back at Lunar.
"Don't worry about him, we'll be back before he wakes up," the girl told Serai.
"Ok, lead the way," the girl led Serai into a small cave a little ways off from the cave where Luner was sleeping, and the girl sat down in the middle of the cave and explained everything to Serai
"so what I mean is that you might not be able to be fooled by the illusions, but your companions still can, and if you don't hurry, something bad might happen," said the girl.
"What do you mean when you say something bad might happen?" Serai asked.
"Well, one of them might want to stay here, or one of them might not remember you. That's all I can say I'm afraid. you should go back to your friend now" explained the girl.
"Thank you for telling me, I promise we'll try to find them as soon as we can," Serai said as she went back to the cave Lunar was in. 'we really got to find them, but first I, need to rest' she told herself as she got back into the hollow that Lunar dugout, and laid down next to him, and fell asleep. When Serai woke up the next day, Lunar was still sleeping by her side and she thought about what the girl told her last night, that something bad might happen to the others. She woke up Lunar, and they started looking for the others once more.
"What will we do if the illusions get to them before we do?" Serai asked.
"I don't know. We'll worry about it if it happens" replied Lunar.
"Plus I don't thin-" Lunars sentence was cut short by Serai,
"do you hear that?" She asked.
"hear what?"
"Listen" she whispered and as they both stopped talking she could hear it clearly, people talking, not too far off either
"It's them!" she said, starting to run towards the noise.
"Be careful, just in case their illusions," stated Lunar, starting to run too. and when they got to where the noise was coming from, there they could see, Birk and Aster standing around Rose.
"Guys!" Serai yelled as soon as she saw them.
"Serai! Lunar! You got to help us man, somethings wrong with Rose. She keeps talking about weird things, like why am I back, or how did I get here." Birk said, running towards them
"We tried to explain to her how we got here, but she won't listen," said Aster.
"I'll talk to her," Lunar walked over to her.
"Hey, what's wrong Rose?" he tried to ask her, but as soon as she saw him, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, causing him to fall to the ground.
"Lunar!" she yelled as she hugged him.
"It's ok now, we're all together again," he said, but suddenly she pushed him back.
"What's wrong?" Lunar looked confused.
"You can't be my brother, you're just another illusion," she scooted away from him.
"What do you mean? Why?"
"Because," Serai felt herself get her breath taken away from her as she heard what Rose said next,
"because my brother is dead!"