Xufera

“Aria! Have you found them yet?”, Xavier says with a sore throat. He has been screaming around the town for about four days now. Nobody knows where they are. They couldn’t be gone, they wouldn’t leave… right? A tear rolls down Aria’s cheek. “It’s going to be alright; we’ll find them. Don’t worry.” Xavier tries to calm his little sister down, while he has the hardest time holding his own tears. Scared, alone, no one to help. Can you imagine?
Xavier and Aria ask everyone for help. Where could their parents be? They couldn’t have gone far, and if they did go far, their children would go even further to be with them. No one in the town has seen anything, or knows where they are. Xavier and Aria go home without their parents for the 5th night in a row… they are more afraid than you might think. They’re clueless. Until, they suddenly see something. It’s a note. A note from their parents. “Don’t look too far, we’re closer than you think. Love, Aileen and Andrew.” Aria runs to the balcony to see if there is anyone outside who could’ve left the note. Tears roll down her cold cheeks. The tears are different, they’re yellow, they’re sparkling, they’re shining. The shining keeps getting brighter and brighter and Xavier and Aria feel like they are becoming blind. They close their eyes and hold each other’s hands. What is happening? What is wrong with Aria’s tears? They hold each other so tight they can barely breath.
“You can open your eyes now.” Xavier and Aria open their eyes after the strange voice said so. Where are they? What is this place? It’s a place full of beautiful flowers, green trees, waterfalls that brighten up the whole view and people that don’t look like people, but in some way they do. “Who are you?!” Xavier immediately puts his arms around Aria to protect her from this place, this place that makes him feel like home, in a weird and scary way. “Hello Xavier, hi Aria. It’s so pleasant to finally see you again! My name is Saphira and I welcome you again to the kingdom where you are both born, Xufera.” Aria walks up to Saphira and looks into her fascinating orange eyes. “Are you a fairy? Because you have wings…” Aria asks. “I am indeed a fairy Aria, good of you to notice!” “I want wings… They are so pretty! I wish I could fly, then I would fly to my parents and give them the biggest hug ever.” Aria says. “Your parents…” Saphira’s smile disappears and she looks the other way. Xavier now also walks up to Saphira in a steady way. He grabs her by her shoulder and says: “Do you have any idea where my parents are?” Saphira looks at him with a discouraged face. “No, unfortunately I do not. I wish I knew.” Saphira looks away again. “And what do you mean with the kingdom we were both born? We weren’t born here! I’ve never even been to this place! We were born at home, where our parents are supposed to be and where our whole life is!” Then Xavier bursts out into tears. He is angry, gloomy and wants to go home. “Xavier, it’s okay. Your parents left a message for me… they need you and your sister to find them. And as you may not remember, you have been here before. Multiple times. But you forget as soon as you go “home” again. You will notice that the longer you are here, the more you start to remember from the past times you were here. I need you and Aria to stay strong and stay with each other the whole time. You will find your parents, I’m sure of that.” Saphira slowly flies into the sky seeming like she disappeared in the clouds. “Saphira! Saphira come back please! Don’t leave us here!” Xavier cries and cries. Aria tries to comfort him and is fascinated by everything she sees around her in the meantime.
After a while Xavier gets up and tells Aria that they should go into the mountains to look for their parents. All the fairies they saw before were gone and Xavier wanted to find a fairy to ask if they might know where their parents are. Aria, silently focused on the new world around her, follows her brother and together they walk up to the mountains. There is no path they can take; they have to walk in the direction of no destination. Well, there is a destination, their parents. But no one knows where they are. Literally no one. “Hey Aria, you know that stupid fairy or something? Saphira, I think her name was, I think she knows where mom and dad are but she just wants us to find them. I mean think about it, this is probably just some test or something to see if we fit into this weird world.” “Please, Xavi, if this was a test, you don’t think I would’ve noticed? Saphira said so herself, I notice things. I would’ve noticed this too.” “Sure you would.” Xavier is annoyed and doesn’t have any idea which way to walk anymore. “I don’t know anymore! We don’t even have a simple clue where they are! They could be anywhere and we are here in the mountains while they could be in that stupid forest on the other side of this stupid kingdom!” “Xavi! Don’t be so negative. We will find them, Saphira put her trust in us, we must find them!” Suddenly they hear a noise. It’s a growl from an animal. They hear the animal running through the mountains and Xavier immediately wants to run away. “Xavi! Don’t run! It will probably still catch us if we do so.” Aria starts to climb in a tree instead of running like her brother. Xavier sees what Aria does and hides himself behind a rock. Then, the beast has arrived to their hiding spots.
It’s big, dark blue and it looks like a monster. Xavier’s heart couldn’t have beaten faster. “This is it! I’m dying! This is it!” Xavier can’t control himself. He runs away from the rock and keeps repeating the same sentences. He is afraid off his life, afraid for his sister, whom he just left with a monster. He keeps running and running until he sees water. Water. He hasn’t drunken anything this whole time he was here. He jumps into the river without thinking and starts to swallow a lot of water until he has had enough. He climbs up to the riverside and lays down. He is so tired, so tired that he closes his eyes and dreams about where his parents could be.
In the meantime, Aria is still up in the tree. The beast started to look around and smell everything. Aria tries to stay quiet but her foot slips away. She grabs the tree tightly and hopes she doesn’t fall. By her foot slipping away, she accidentally made some noise because a couple of branches fell of the tree. The monster quickly turns his head around as he heard what happened. He strides to the tree and looks up. There, the monster sees a little girl, with long brown hair, big blue eyes and a remarkable smile. The monster doesn’t know why the little girl is smiling, he has never seen someone look at them that way. Everyone is always scared of him. “Hi I’m Aria, you don’t seem scary to me at all.” Aria climbs down the tree as she sees the monster. “I know you won’t harm me. Do you have a name?” The monster nods and starts writing in the sand. It says: “Haku”. “Hi Haku, I’m Aria. I’m here to find my parents, is there any chance you know where they are?” Haku shakes his head. “Oh, that’s okay. I will first have to find my brother anyway. He ran away from you, which I specifically told him not to do. Will you help me find him?” Haku nods again and Aria climbs on Haku’s large back. Together they run through the mountains trying to find Xavier.
“Aria! There you are! Wait, why did you bring the monster?!” Xavier already tries to run away again but Aria stops him. “This is not a monster, this is Haku. He will help us find mom and dad.” Aria pets Haku as Xavier slowly does the same. “And what have you done all this time?” Aria asks. “I drank water, Aria you should taste the water, it’s honestly delicious.” Xavier starts to feel a bit dizzy and he tries to sit down in the grass. “Xavi, are you okay? You’re all red! I don’t know if you were supposed to drink the water… how much did you drink?” Xavi wants to say something but his head dazzles and he passes out. “Xavi! Xavier! Wake up!” Aria thinks her brother isn’t alive anymore and cries more tears then ever. The clouds spread and a glowing fairy lands on the riverside, it’s Saphira. “Aria calm down, your brother was just irresponsible, he has not passed away.” “Saphira! I am so happy to see you! Xavier, I don’t know what he was thinking…” “It doesn’t matter Aria, it’s not your fault.” Saphira pours a drink in Xavier’s mouth and Xavier wakes up. “Xavier, don’t try and drink from a river again, if you need something, you can always call my name and I will try to help you.” “What I need are my parents!” “I believe that’s the only thing I can’t help you with, I’m sorry…”.  “Of course you can’t… the one thing I ask around here and you can’t help me.” “Instead of mumbling negative things you could also be looking with me and Haku for mom and dad.” Xavier ignores the commentary and follows Aria to Haku. They get on his back and start to run through the mountains in search of Aileen and Andrew.