Elemental Empires

{Chapter 20}

Mia woke up abruptly in the night, she tried to go back to sleep but now it felt like sleep was as rare a luxury as a soft mattress and scheduled food in this godforsaken prison.

She got up and started to pace the prison, fanning herself. It had suddenly gotten very hot as if the room had transformed into a kiln and she was baking inside of it. Beads of cold sweat poured from her forehead as she exhaled slowly. She thought she was about to turn into a fireball. She blew out her breath in a failed attempt to cool herself.

Mia felt so hot, she thought that she wouldn't be surprised to see smoke rising up from charred hands. It was if someone had set her on fire.

"What is wrong with me?," she whispered to herself, glancing at the soundly asleep Kira. Mia scaled the room when suddenly she couldn't breath. She gasped to inhale but couldn't, as if her lungs had stopped working. Tears laced her eyes and suddenly the prison lurched to the side as she blindly grabbed the wall for support, to her utmost surprise the walls were deliciously cool. Mia sighed in pleasure as she moved her hands against the wall.

As she moved her hands farther, she could feel the wall getting cooler. She moved forward to the very end of the prison and put her steaming cheeks on the cold surface. To her astonishment it felt as if she was lying on a block of ice. She smiled as the cold seeped into her, cooling her scorching body, she closed her eyes and felt the icy chill course through her body when a sharp voice brought her back to her senses.

"Mia? What the hell? What are you licking the walls in the middle of the night for? Are you hungry or insane!?,' Kira's voice felt like a sharp slap bringing her back to reality from her delirious state.

"No, don't. Cold," Mia replied drowsily and put her cheek to the cold again, she felt as if the walls were an icy ocean in a burning desert. She moved farther but maddeningly, a hole in the wall surprised her as she became dizzy and with nothing to hold, toppled to the floor.

"Are you alright?," Kira asked, concern and a hint of fear lacing her voice." Mia?".

Mia ignored her and lay on the floor, closing her eyes as Kira crossed over to her. She put her palm on Mia's forehead.

"Mia! You're burning up!," Kira cried and at that moment Mia felt icy fingers brush her back and up to her neck, Mia groaned as the fingers clutched her throat and tightened. Mia shivered and let out an anguished cry.

"Mia, get up. Mia lie down on the hay," Kira's soft voice crooned from somewhere far off. The fingers choked Mia, the walls melted around her into an inky ocean and just as she feared, she drowned in the rising tide with Kira's voice calling out to her from a faraway coast. She drowned deeper and deeper as the sirens sang their song, luring her to them before the sky fell on her head like a velvet blanket. The ripple of waves. Mellifluous lullabies. Screaming Silence.

                                       ***

A paling, waxing crescent adorning the shimmering sky. A gentle zephyr rippled the clear, calm water, making lucent waves which lapped softly against the golden coast. When suddenly the crescent fell in the water, as it's shiny surface touched the surface, the water swirled angrily like a tornado and then vanished in rivers of steam to the sky. The crescent was smaller now and there were walls around with holes in them. The crescent drove itself into one of the holes, there was a soft click and the wall split open to reveal a glass phial with a purple substance in it. The room melted.

                                    ***

A sweet mermaid's voice gently lured her back to the coast. Mia opened her eyes slowly to see Kira's concerned eyes staring back at her.