Two Worlds

Chapter 16

The bright light of the sun blinds her, her feet skidding across slick stone as they continue forward, her eyes closed to the new world before her. Her ankle rolls as she slips onto soft sand, she stumbles forward, testing her stinging eyes, trying to see where she is. One heavy foot in front of the other, a few blinks of the eye-lids and soon she can see again. Taking in a deep breath she accepts the mist of salt water that brushes her face. The sea.

Opening her eyes properly Kiada takes in the gorgeous, endless expanse of ocean that ripples out before her. Small waves waft up the sand beach, the sound of crashing against and around rocks echo from her left and right.

The portal opens up out into a small secluded bay amongst the boulders of a beach line, very well hidden. Kiada takes in another cooling breath, the sea breeze refreshing, to a point where small relieved tears start to well in the corners of her sapphire eyes.

William and the others are not far behind her and all stumble onto the sand blindly. Sophie falls to her knees at Rodney's side, her feet not recognising the sensation under her feet. She stares at the sand and lets her fingers brush across the grains.

"Sophie?" Rodney tries to crouch down beside her, awkward with his still stiff leg.

"What is this?" Sophie asks, her eyes rising from the sand to the wonderful blue expanse before her, she breaths, unsure on the smell of the ocean.

"It's the ocean." He takes her hand. They share a look, Sophie still unsure and Rodney the steady support. "It's ok." He helps her to her feet and the two of them stay close together as Sophie tries to take in this new world.

Samuel sighs and leans against a rock, relishing the feeling of the salt air, the mist from the water and of being back in this world.

William comes up behind Kiada tentatively, taking in her changing features as recognition dawns on the princess. "Are you ok?"

"I've been here before." She mutters.

"When?"

"With one of the families I stayed with. Years ago." Her head swivels around, her eyes scanning the familiar rock formations. "I got lost..." She trails off and starts towards the cluster of rocks that seem to wall their right.

The others watch her as she passes, all at varying stages of exhaustion. None want to move from this peaceful spot, none want to power forward, they just want to take a break.

William follows her to the edge of the first boulder, Kiada doesn't think twice. As if possessed by her memories she climbs the rocks and continues up the precarious mounds.

"Kiada." He calls after her.

Kiada doesn't listen, but continues up to the summit and straightens herself, looking out before her, a smile creeping to her lips.

"I knew it." She says under her breath.

Before her lays a large flat bend of beach, littered with towels and umbrellas, people sunbathing and swimming in the shallows. Expensive looking beach houses line the long street that borders where the ocean and sand meets the human world. At the other end of the stretch of beach sits a similar rock pile as the one Kiada stands on, kind of like gate posts to the holiday location.

Kiada's memories blur the present with the past as she remembers the day she marched away from her foster family, getting tired of the young children she stayed with, always wanting her to play. She had been at that difficult age, not too long after she had first joined the foster system, not long after she had been whisked away to this world. She remembers herself walking up the beach, climbing the rocks, almost getting stuck in the little cove where her friends now stand, waiting for her. She also remembers the scolding she received when she finally returned to the beach house hours later. The beach house.