The Moondrops

~One~ Another Realm

I open my eyes to find myself in a very large arena. Every person and thing, such as the arena embelishment, look grotesque and fantastical. The arena itself is oddly shaped, like an amorphous circle.

The people, who look quite surreal, have shimmering skin and are adorned in colourful clothes with designs and patterns that I have never seen before. I could see people with similar colours but of different shades scattered across the arena, so it appears like sprinkles on a desert. Those with the same colours, I notice, have similar symbols drawn on their right cheek. The place has an earthy and natural smell and feel, but looks only partially like earth.

The crowd cheers excitedly; they sing chants in a strange language and make all sorts of supportive - I'm guessing - gestures with their arms.

I am a few rows away from the topmost part of the huge arena and quite far from the bottom. I look around the ground floor, wondering what all the commotion is about. There is nothing there. But just when I am about to decide the people have to be crazy, the black double doors at the ground level open, and a young man emerged from them.

He is wearing a shirt that appears to be made out of thin threads of real gold and a white trouser that reflects the light as if having the gold threads woven into it. His skin seems to shimmer the most. His hair, which is ebony and reaches about the base of his neck, has gold-tinted ends. He had no armor on, only held a silver sword and shield.

A sphere of multicoloured swirls with all the symbols I've seen on people's faces -- five to be precise -- surrounding it, is engraved into the middle of the large, oval-shaped shield. I couldn't quite make out his facial features from where I sit.

The crowd cheers louder at his arrival and soon after, the large gate at the other end of the arena is lifted. From it, emerges an enormous creature. It has thick, rough and slimy looking skin of a beige colour. And is appalling with it's one black eye, two pairs of arms and a long, thick tail with spikes that ran along it.

How uncanny of a place did I end up in?

The monster charges towards the man opposite him, a sign things were about to get chaotic. They get into an intense combat with the monster starting off really strong, it appears the man had no chance. But surprisingly, after a few hits and misses, the man overpowers the monster who is at least six times his size. He is much more swift than the beast; evading and striking him as quickly as he could, his sword glows with every strike.

Soon enough, he wins with a deep strike of his sword to the middle of the beast's torso. Bright rays of light seep through the monster's body as it bursts into nothingness. A small twinkling crystal appears where the beast once stood.

The man takes the floating crytal from mid air, claiming it. The crowd, who's cheers had turned to a low seethe for a while, goes wild after that.

I, for one, am completely overwhelmed by the activities of this foreign place. Though that fight was impressive, I must say, I still couldn't help wondering why I am here. How did I go from sitting on a dirty old bench to sitting in an arena in the middle of who-knows-where?

With the crytal in his hand, the man exits the arena. The people get off their sits and start filing out as well and I, having no other choice, follow suit. After bumping clumsily into people more times than I could count, I finally come out of the odd arena and what I see is nothing other than magical.

The scenery is beautiful. Sure, it wasn't exactly like earth but there is a lot of greenery. Vegetation of different shapes, sizes and colours. I observe how the people have weird modes of transport. And the looks they give me didn't pass me either. My clothes and the fact that I am not shimmering must have divulged me.

"Right," I breathed as I started walking again, I hadn't realised I stopped. Hopefully, I'll wake up from this dream soon.

"Hullo!" I hear someone call from behind me. I stop and turn to meet hazel eyes with blue fleeks along with a friendly smile.

"Excuse me for asking, but what phrat are you part of?" The girl asks. She has short brown hair with green highlights, and is dressed in brown and green colours.

"Phrat?" I've definitely not heard that word before.

She nods, "Yes, as in phratry? Your clan? You know, who's your antecedent? Cause I've never seen clothes like those before."

She gestures to my body and I gaze down, looking at the ankara top and Jean trousers I'm wearing. I certainly look out of place.

"Look, I'm not sure what you are talking about, I don't even understand what's happening anymore. All I know is that I have to find a way back home," I say calmly, still mentally hoping this is a dream.

"You are not from here, are you?" She asks with a look of realisation on her face.

"Isn't it obvious?" I wave my hands around myself.

"Hmmm, your mannerism seems awfully familiar..." she trailed off thoughtfully, scrutinising me as she tapped her right index finger on her cheek. I find her symbol is of a deep green colour; a leaf over a line that arrows upwards slightly.

"Ay!" She suddenly exclaims, "you resemble one of those humans I've heard stories of! But I thought they were just that. Stories." She looks vaguely to the side, eyebrows draw together in thought. "I was wrong after all."

I simply watch her.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter anymore, how about I take you to Akriath? She's had a lot of experiences and is considered the wisest among us. She would know how to get you back home."

I merely nod as questions go through my mind; How did I get here? Is this really a dream? Is this an alien planet or something? Was I abducted?

She loops her arm around mine, snapping me out of my trance as we start walking, "I'm Zeeta by the way."

"Oh," I gaze at our arms and then back at her, "um, I'm Blessing."

"Nice to meet you Blessing. You're actually friendlier than I imagined humans would be, and I'm glad you're not a fairie," a leery expression crosses her face as she turns to look at me. "You aren't a fairie in disguise, right?"

"A fairie?" I ask in disbelief. I also wonder how inimical she thought humans to be, because I am certainly more confused than friendly right now.

"You know, those horrible creatures with sparkly wands and wings who think they're better than us," she rolls her eyes, clearly irked by fairies.

"No, I know what they are, though I would not describe them in that way, I just can't believe they're real."

"Oh, they're real, really full of themselves that is," she shakes her head, "they always take the spotlight, it's like we don't exist. Though it's better than toadying to them like the elves do."

"Elves? Wait, what are you people then?" I ask.

"We are Moondrops. We're divided into clans and I'm a part of the Tirrfema clan, we work with nature, watch," she says, bringing us to a stop as she waves her hands in the direction of a patch of weeds.

I watch as they weave together, forming what appears to be a . . . carpet? Then it detached from it's roots and hovered over the ground.

"Come on, we'll get there faster this way," she climbed onto the floating carpet.

"You people have magic too?"

"Of course."

"You know," I say as I climb onto the carpet, "where I'm from, there are a lot of stories about fairies, how come I've never heard of Moondrops?"

"Probably because the fairies want it that way. Now hang on tight," she holds onto the edge of the carpet and we zoom off.

Woop, so another character has been introduced. Any thoughts on Zeeta's character so far?

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