Eire flew through the woods, her wings beating faster than ever before. Her hand gripped Zemira’s wrist so hard it was a miracle her hand hadn’t fallen off. Despite the speed, Eire slammed into the barrier again, not making a crack. She was stupid to try. What hope did a pixie have if dragons had tried and failed to break down the barrier? 

Zemira floated to the ground to sit on a stone. “This isn’t going to work,” She signed.

“It’s going to. It has to.” Eire whispered.

The look of pity that Zemira gave her felt like it was burning through her skin. 

“It has to work because if it doesn’t,” Eire paused, looking at the horizon beyond the barrier. The sky was a color blue she rarely saw. She glanced back at her world. It was on fire and there was a faint screaming that Eire rarely noticed after years of hearing it. She could barely remember the time before they had been trapped there. “I don’t know what else there is to do. I can’t keep living like this. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of protecting you from getting killed every day, I’m sick of waking up not knowing if there will be any food, I’m sick of constantly being in war, and I am sick of not being able to leave.” 

“It won’t be like this forever.” Zemira signed. She lost her voice before Eire met her. Zemira was born with magic like a siren. Her voice was beautiful and had the power to control the thoughts and actions of others. According to Zemira, a witch had cursed her never to speak again. That curse made her completely powerless, but she never seemed scared. She viewed it as a tiny problem that they only needed to work through. That way of always having hope was part of what made Eire fall in love with her. She was a light in the never-ending darkness of their world, and that was one of the things that made her an easy target. 

Eire and Zemira returned to the same spot in the barrier every day, trying any method they could think of to break it. Eire tried every form of her magic she could think of, but none of them worked. Some girls Zemira knew from before she lost her magic attempted to shatter it with song. Eire even called in a gnome that owed her a life debt to try and cut it with a chainsaw. Day after day the two of them tried.

It had been nearly a month since Eire had learned it was possible to break the barrier and that if you went deep enough into the forest, you could find it. She had overheard some witches talking about it. Now, Eire fluttered back and forth while Zemira looked at the barrier. She had apparently made a decision because she found a wounded animal, took its blood, and painted a bright red x. She then began tossing rocks at it. Eir assumed it was some game to pass the time. Zemira silently cheered every time she hit the center, even though it was childish. After Eire decided to ignore Zemira, she started to think again. In the beginning, she thought there was something that would work to break down the barrier, but it didn’t seem like there was. 

Then Eire heard a noise. She turned to see Zemira grinning with another rock in her hand and a quickly growing crack in the barrier. Eire could’ve screamed, but she decided to keep her composure. The crack grew bigger as Zemira threw more rocks at it. Every throw had more force behind it than the last one. Eventually, the rock she threw went straight through and landed in the water on the other side. The two of them watched the rock disappear below the surface. They looked at each other as the barrier began to collapse in front of them.