Through the Star

Chapter Two

"The North won the imperial family to their side, the first prince is rumored to be betrothed soon"

"Only one more step, then he will be chosen as an heir to the throne"

Emuela quickly sits up and covers her mouth with her hand, she shrieks, "Then what does it mean? What will happen to the South? What will happen to us?"

Nova picks up her book from where she hid and sits down next to her sister.

"I am not smart enough to identify the decision of the Emperor", Nova, "But I can tell something is going on, not to jinx, but even the toughest stone can be broken into two, especially if it was rotten from the inside."

"Do you remember the duke's message?" Nova, "It just said, 'Brace for the upcoming storm, while plans for the ongoing hurricane', could you figure that out? Isn't it obvious, they told us to be prepared!''

Emuela slowly gets up, a sad expression clearly surfaces, and emotion is deeply shown within a pair of clear brownish orbs, it looks like she wanted to cry.

"Come on, Ella, let's get back and find out", seeing so, Nova pulls up to her feet, holding a broom in her left hand, clutches a book to her chest, and with her right hand free she gently grabs Emuela's hand in hers.

Hand in hand, both little girls step out of the blossoming tree with uncountable fallen leaves, the autumn scenery paints the sky orange in the middle of the day. 

Strange, the sun seems to be hiding in the unknown space of the universe, unseen to the naked eye. Even though the ray of our solar which is known to be the brightest amongst other stars in the galaxy, seems to disappear out of sight, even so, the sun's ray still makes every single soul feel it present, an empty unknown meaningful present. It seems like the firmament is aware of the motions of both little girls and decides to accompany them on their journey back home.

The places from where both young girls have left are pretty far from the town village, thus it makes quite a journey, because of the out-of-life scenery of the vast autumn view that is perfectly painted without flaws, only located on a small hill next to the endless cliff. The huge tree expanded at the center of the valley accompanied by thousands of greenery blossoms ascending beneath the hard-ground Earth. As the landscape turned charming orange, the circumjacent delightfully followed in the process, embellishing the whole scenery like a new painting just emerged from the former one.

It is way past noon by the time the two walk halfway back. The gushed wind blows past their faces, the wind turns out to be quite strong like a northern gate unlatches, sending one big wave of cold wind relinquishing every warmth within one's soul, the feeling of sending down a chill through one's bone. 

Emuela hugs her arms around herself, the wind makes her skirt blow, sending her body backward as she tries to walk up against their force.  Noviera helps push her behind. Suddenly, the whirling wind seems to bring something along, the muffled voices along the wave pass about our girl's ears, but only one of them seems to notice what is happening. Noviera swirls around to face the direction she came from.

"What's wrong?", Emuela stopped walking and started questioning, "You forgot something?"

"...", After a moment of contemplating, Noviera asserts, "I think I forgot something. You go back first, I'll catch up soon!", she left immediately after saying the last word, running backward from where they both came from. 

"Nova!!!"

"Gosh, this girl!", Emuela

Noviera runs back to the place they just left, as she is gasping with her hands on her knees, and looks up in the direction of the huge tree, the wind plummets their forces then suddenly dies down as it has always been this quiet, like the slight windstorm a moment ago never happens, even the autumn leaves remain still, just like the world is suddenly disconnected for a second there, everything is quiet like a music that suddenly stops in its tracks.