Life Changer

Chapter Five: Vala

"So, you are our real mom?" Ivy asked her after our hug ended.

"Yes, I'm your mother," She began. "I'm so sorry that I didn't send someone to get you earlier in your lives. There wasn't enough information on where you could be, until now."

"How did we even get separated from you anyway?" I wondered.

"You were both very young. You were four, and Ivy wasn't even one," She replied, "All four of us were on the surface of the Earth, doing our annual trading with the trusted humans who knew of our existence. They were acting rather strangely when we were exchanging goods. Then, out of nowhere, we were ambushed by Sea Dwellers. They took you both, from us. Injured your father. They took him too, once he couldn't fight. I managed to escape, though I lost all of you."

I shook my head in disbelief. Why? Why would someone do such a thing? It's cruel. I hesitated to ask the question that was nagging at me, afraid of what mom might say, "Do you know if dad is still alive?"

Mom looked at us for a minute, probably thinking of how to respond, "I don't know if he is or not, but I've heard rumors about the Sea Dwellers keeping him locked up somewhere on the surface."

"Then we have to go get him!" Ivy shouted.

"I don't know where to begin to look." Mom sighed.

Someone cleared their throat behind us. I turned to see Klaven, who held a piece of paper. "Your majesty," He started. "While you were speaking with your daughters, I went up to the surface to see if I could find any useful information from the Sea Dwellers whom Vala and Ivy were staying with."

"What did you find?" Ivy asked before mom could reply.

"I found an address, and directions for the Sea Dwellers to follow." He held up the paper. "It says you should report back to the Cave, at four in the morning on November 2nd. You should bring the Pyro Residents..." He trailed off.

Mom looked at him expectantly. "Well? What does the rest say?"

He looked at me and Ivy, before reading again. "You should bring the Pyro Residents dead, but fully distinguishable, so the so-called king will know how serious we are. Those are the exact words."

"Well their plan didn't work, we're still alive at least," I said, hopeful that will lighten the mood a bit.

"What's the Cave?" Ivy asked.

"Probably this place," Klaven pointed to the address on the paper.

We looked at it. 24430 CR 49 Punta Gorda FL.

"That's about forty minutes from where you were staying," He told us.

"Yep that settles it," Ivy said nodding. "We are going to save dad."