Nine

When her eyes see what is in front of her, she feels like she's going to faint. The beauty she's looking at is extraordinary. In front of her is a lake, it's not that big but four times bigger than her house, she can see the other side of it. The lake looks to be deep, yet the bottom is glowing. Noticing grass, she takes off her heels, not caring for them anymore and slowly walking over the soft sea green grass. It's soft and feels like she's walking on clouds instead of grass and it is the softest thing she has ever stepped on.

The grass goes along the lake but a few meters on each side stops and walls take over. It's a cave, she realizes. A big cave with a lake. On the grass are rocks that sparkle. She looks down now noticing that these are in fact crystals in the ground. They're in so many colors. Light pink, light blue, light sea green, light yellow, light green. The colors are so beautiful that she can't stop looking at how they sparkle and shine. Each one of them seems to be glowing and lighting up the whole cave.

Lucifer watches as she goes near the lake and watches this cave in wonder. She really needed a place like this to see the beauty that the Underworld has to offer. A place she can go to when she wants and not be in the castle. This cave was made specifically for her and is only meant for her. Only those who posses magic are able to enter there and demons and other creatures and monsters of the Underworld have no magic ability and therefore are unable to go down there. He notices the smile on her face as she looks around in wonder.

The caves ceiling is high up, and when she looks up, she sees more of those crystals, only bigger and remind her of icicles when in winter, only these are much bigger. But, she doesn't feel frightened walking under them because she knows that they aren't going to fall on her. And somehow she feels safe being near him because she knows deep down that he will protect her from anything. Athena walks over to the lake and stands by the edge of it, and looks down. She doesn't see much, but the glow is there and she wants to know where it comes from.

She dips her toes into the lake and it's freezing to the touch, yet possibly the only thing cold in the Underworld. Shivers run down her spine when she touches the water, but she likes how it feels. She can't help it, she gently steps on a rock that is in the water by the edge. Then she puts both her feet in there and just stands on the rock, she looks at Lucifer, looking for his approval to go into the water. He nods his head, knowing what she wants to ask, and just watches her with a smile.

The girl he loves doesn't waste any time and slowly goes over the rock and into the lake where there are no rocks and begins to swim to keep her head up above the surface. She doesn't care about if she gets wet or even if she ruins the dress she's wearing, or anything else that she's wearing for that matter. It doesn't matter to her now. The water feels amazing on her skin and she loves being there. She can't help but laugh and giggle and just have fun.

She's needs this now, she needs happiness and fun. To forget the things that have been happening to her, to forget how confused she is at everything that has been going on. She swims and splashes the water. Looking like a child, but she doesn't care. She's having fun in the lake.

"Come, it's fun" She tells him.

Trying to get him to join her, but he hasn't moved from the spot he has been standing in, outside the cave opening. She finds that rather odd how he doesn't come into the cave and joins her in the fun that she's having.

What she doesn't know is that he can't go in there. That cave is alive and only allows only those of pure of heart to enter and of course the girl that it was made for. Even if she were to do an evil deed, she would always be welcomed in there. The crystals are also alive and they are alive because of her. She doesn't know it, but the crystals and the lake are feeding off her energy and magic. She doesn't feel it and it doesn't matter to her, she doesn't even know it. It doesn't even matter to her.

"No, it's all right. You have fun" He tells her.

She's having fun and enjoying herself there and that's all that matters to him. He brought her down here to make her happy and he has done just that and he will continue to do so after this trip down here. He will always try to make her happy and that means the world to him. She means the world to him. Her laugh in his ears is the best sound he has ever heard in his life.

He still can't believe that she's finally here with him, by his side and she will be with him for all eternity from now on.

She splashed and has had fun but now she is a bit curious of what is at the bottom of the lake and wants to know why it is glowing. Perhaps the crystals are also down there, but she doesn't know and wants to find out. Taking a deep breath, she goes under the surface and swims down. She can't see very well when she opens her eyes but she has gotten used to having water in them. Not far from her village, there was a lake that people swam in and bathed.

Under the lake is darkness, but when she looks down further she is met with a light, a glowing light. As she swims closer to the light, it grows brighter. Before she has a chance to see what it is or where the light is coming from, her lungs begin to burn in her chest. Realizing that she needs to breathe, she stops swimming down and goes up to the surface. Once her head is above the water, she breathes but she instantly start searching for Lucifer, but he's not there. She can't see him anywhere, not in the place that she last saw him and he was just there a few seconds ago.

It's weird that he could just disappear like that, completely out of the blue. Then again, he might just have gone up the stairs. The girl doesn't care about him at the moment, she's too busy having fun, not remembering when the last time she ever had fun in a lake. And the wonders in that cave are marvelous. Each time her eyes go over the cave, she sees something new that her eyes love. Taking a deep breath, and a desperation of knowing what is down there and making that light, she goes back under the water.

This time, she notices that there are no fish around her or any sea creatures that she was used to seeing in the lake by the village. There is also no plant life there, she kind of frowns at that. In the lake that she grew up with going to, there are some sorts of flowers under the water and she loved seeing them, and wonder how they can survive under the water, and not breathe fresh air or get sun light. Plants would make this place even more beautiful than it is.

Going back up to the surface, the crown on her head slips sideways and then falls down before she could go above the water. On instinct, she turns around and tries to catch the crown but as it is gold and heavy it's quick to fall down to the bottom. She follows the crown and tries to catch it, but she isn't that a good of a swimmer, she is swimming slower than the crown is sinking. Her lungs are burning her, screaming for fresh air but she doesn't care. Somehow all she can think of is getting that crown.

As she gets nearer to the bottom she sees the light grow brighter and brighter and before she knows it, she's at the bottom. Her eyes widen when she sees, through her blurry vision what is on the bottom. She had expected the bottom to be rocks or dirt but she could never believe in all her sixteen years that she would be looking at something like this. The bottom is a flat surface that is made out of crystals, they sparkle and glow by themselves. The beauty of them has her compelled to touch them. Swimming deeper, not caring about oxygen anymore. Her finger graces the bottom.

As soon as she makes contact of the glowing crystal glass bottom, her vision turns white. She doesn't feel like she's in control over her own body anymore. She can't feel a thing, she can't see or move a muscle. Everything is white. Her lungs aren't hurting anymore and she doesn't even know if she's breathing or not, she can't feel it. The only thing she's in control of are her thoughts. Athena is confused and doesn't know what is happening to her now. She doesn't feel the water anymore.

The white over her vision starts to fade and she can see again, she's above the water. Her eyes look down and she sees the water surface. She's floating above it, in midair. Noticing Lucifer in the spot that she last saw him in, she looks at him, her eyes asking for help. But, as he can't enter that cave, he's unable to help his future Queen. However, he does know what's happening to her and isn't as panicked as she is. Though, if he hadn't known, he would be even more freaked out than she is at the moment and would do everything he could to get into that cave and save her from all danger.

Athena, wants to get down, yet she can't. There is this frightened feeling inside her, yet being there in that cave makes her feel less frightened. Like something is taking her fright away from her and replacing it with something that she doesn't know what is... confidence? She doesn't know. She notices that the crown is on top of her head once again, yet she never got to the crown as she was too busy looking at the beauty of the bottom of the lake she's now floating above.

Slowly she begins to go down to the surface of the lake and she breathes a bit better knowing that she's going down, and not crashing down. Her feet make contact with the water and now she feels like she's in control of her own body. But, her feet stand on the water surface, not under it, on it. The future Queen of the Underworld is literally standing on water. She looks down to see if it's really the water she stands on, and it is. She can also feel the vibrations of the lake and a heartbeat.

She starts to feel a steady heartbeat under her feet, and it goes through her body and fills her with warmth. But she's unsure if it it's her heartbeat or someone else's but and she doesn't care. Lifting her dress a bit up, she goes down and kneels. The water surface is able to carry her weight on top but as soon as she dips her finger into the water, it goes down like normal when a finger or anything else is dipped into water.

"What's happening?" She asks, not asking the man that brought her here, no she's asking the water.

As silly as it sounds, she believes that the water is a living breathing thing and that heartbeat proves it, and the fact that she can walk on it. She plays with the water with her fingers and watches as her knees and legs don't even go into the water. She doesn't even get wet from being on top of the water. Her red dress is dry, as if she never even went down there in the first place. The water feels different to her now than it did before when she was in it.

"My dear, Athena, the water feels your spirit and has accepted your innocence" He tells her, trying to explain to her what is going on, but she still doesn't understand it.

She feels something run up her legs and through her body from the water, a good feeling and she loves it.

"What does that mean?" She asks, her voice is just above a whisper but is heard by him.

Her fingers love to feel the water, yet this reminds her of when she had fire dancing on her skin on her birthday. Somehow she liked that feeling better.

"Poseidon has granted you the gift of water, it will give you the ability to breathe underwater and see as you see now and the surface doesn't break unless you want to" He says to her, but she doesn't seem to understand what he's saying.

He never expected his brother to do this, yet when it comes to his brother you never know what he might do next. The girl he loves doesn't understand these things, yet he does love to watch her have fun on that water.

"How do I do that?" She asks, referring to breaking the surface as he said.

As much as she loves being on top of the water and everything but she knows that this is impossible for a human to be on top of water. She wants to go back into the water, where she can get wet and play in without standing on it. she doesn't even understand what's happening to her.

"I don't know" He says.

For the first time in a long time, he doesn't know what to do. Water isn't his specialty and when it comes to water, he knows nothing about it. Fire is all he knows. The King can't help his queen.

As she heard his three words that he doesn't know, her mind begins to panic a little. It's finally understanding what is happening to her, she's literally walking on water. The thing that should be impossible for a human being, she has to accept the fact that she might not be a human being like she had always thought, perhaps she has never been human. When thinking back to her childhood, strange things have always been happening around her. Like candles lighting up on their own or how she always felt like she saw creatures in the dark, like monsters and was never afraid of them.

"It's getting late and you must be starving, we must get back" He tells her.

He doesn't want to leave, as he loves watching her have fun and see her smile and her eyes sparkle with wonder, yet not touching her is making him feel this desperation and sadness and anger.

He needs to have her in his arms, the only place she will ever be safe and protected. Even when he knows that she is in no danger in that cave, he still wants to be sure that she is safe.

Slowly she stands up and like if she were walking on the ground, her feet stand on the water. The crown high on her head and she takes one testing step on the water. Still unsure if it's safe or not, she's cautious of it just in case. The water surface might break at any time and she might fall and hurt herself. Her legs reach the edge and she's on the grass. Athena doesn't want to be off the water, and as soon as her skin looses its contact with the water, she wants to go back to feel it again.

She takes her heels and goes to lucifer and together they make their way up those long golden stairs in the darkness, this time she holds her heels in her hand. Not even sure if she will be able to walk in them up those stairs or anywhere.

"Can we go back here again?" She asks him after a uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

They had been walking for a few minutes up those stairs and she has gotten very tired. Being down there had drained her energy, yet she still has some and but then again she has to walk up stairs that never seem to end.

"Of course, the cave is yours and yours alone. If you wish to go, we shall go" He tells her, he's just happy his plan had worked.

She managed to get her mind off of things that have been happening to her and have fun. That's all he wanted, for her to have fun and smile. He couldn't ask for more. He looks at her with love in his eyes and all he wants is the same in return, in time that will happen. She will fall in love with him, eventually.

When they finally reach the top of the staircase, he had to carry her the last steps since she was so tired of walking them, the carriage they rode in stands before them. As soon as their feet are off the golden staircase and on the deep red ground of the Underworld, the ground shakes and goes back over the staircase. Like it was never there at all. She doesn't know how Lucifer knew where they had to stop, since the ground looks exactly the same everywhere. They go into the carriage and sit down and it rides off to the castle.

The ride back to the castle was smooth and eventful, she wasn't as afraid of him or nervous to be around him. Slowly she's beginning to trust him yet is still in denial about it. It would take a lot for her to admit it to herself and others. When she's out of the carriage and in the stables, she realizes that even the stables that should be dirty are beautiful. Only eight horses are in those stables, yet it's so big. Each stall for each horse is bigger than her house. She can admit that her house might not be the biggest but she grew up there and always felt like it was big.

All the horses are black in color and their eyes deep crimson red, and while looking at them from a distance they look more of a dark shade of brown. To her she feels as if those horses are bigger in size than normal horses that she has seen. She walks to one of them, that is still attached to the carriage, going in front of it, she allows the horse to see her and she puts her hand out for it to smell her and see that she's not a threat. Her fire eyes meet the deep crimson eyes of the horse and as if she understands it, she reaches her hand and lightly strokes the horse.

"His name is Nightmare" Lucifer tells her, as he watches the girl bond with the horse.

She had picked the strongest and most trusted horse that he owns, normally he never allows anyone but him near him. Perhaps he knows that she's his future bride to be.

"He's beautiful" She whispers.

If he had a saddle on, she would want to ride him but as he must be tired and doesn't have a saddle, the ride will have to wait.

"Come, there's something I want you to see" He says, getting bored at this.

He doesn't want her to bond with the horse, he wants her to bond with him and be calm with him as she is with this horse.

"I promise, I'll be back" She whispers to the horse and as if understood her, he nods his head.

She follows behind Lucifer as they enter the castle through the doors that lead from the stables to the castle. He takes her to a different part of the castle, one that she has never seen and when they stop in front of a door, he turns around.

"In here is something you'll like" He says and opens it.