LIGHTS OF THE OTHER WORLD

Chapter 23: The Stranger

"Fleur?" I say, surprised. I see her looking at me with guilt in her eyes.
"Cal, I'm sorry. Our intention wasn't to scare you. We just came to ask for help."

"We? The others have come too?" I ask. Just then I see another person walking towards me, wearing a black hoodie and a mask. She removes her mask herself and looks at me.

"Violet?" I say.

"I'm sorry. It was Luke who insisted on scaring you for a while." She says.
"Cause you deserved it for leaving us helpless!" A voice says. I look around but I see no one.
Then a small, cute rabbit jumps right in front of her.

"No ways! Luke?"

"Yes. Looks like poor Luke will have to remain cute and fuzzy for a while." Violet says as she strokes Luke's white fur. He's the size of a normal rabbit now.

"Am I supposed to laugh now? You guys have no idea of how much you freaked me out! And all this time...all this time I thought it was Zina who was troubling me!" I exclaim.

"We are sorry. We knew that you would never agree to come back to Bellendis, so we came into this dimension to clear a few things and ask your grandmother to convince you." Violet says in a hurry.

"Well, you've surely wasted your time. I don't even want to see the lights of the other world!" I say and walk towards the door but Fleur blocks my path.

"I know you've been through a lot. All I can say is that you aren't the only one who has lost someone dear to you. We have too. Violet lost her elder brother when she was four, Luke got separated from his whole family when Alaric turned him into a rabbit forever and I...well, I lost my parents too when I was five. If Rhiannon hadn't raised me, I would have never been a true warrior. Look at us, Cal. Do we look like cowards to you? Haven't we lost people too?" Fleur asks.

I look at her. She gets teary. Luke looks gloomy and Violet lowers her head.
I turn away. I can't see them hurt.

"Your right. I am a coward. And I'm never going to go back to that place." I say.

"Not even for Evanthia?" Violet asks.

"Who's Evanthia? I don't know of any Evanthia." I say sarcastically.

"Please Callidora. Bellendis is in a lot of trouble. Your sister is in a lot of trouble." Fleur said.

"Well, she should have thought of it before she shook her hands with that terrible Alaric. " I say.

"That's the point. She never did. She lied to you, Cal." Luke says, after listening to the whole conversation.

"What nonsense! If this is another trick into convincing me to go back, it clearly isn't working." I say.

"Believe us, Cal. It's true. I saw it with my own eyes. That day when I saw you cry by the riverside, I couldn't control my anger. I flew back to the castle to confront Evanthia. When I came by her window, I couldn't believe what I saw." Violet says.

"What did you see?" I ask unaware of my sudden curiosity.

"I saw her, fallen on the floor and weeping continuously as though she had lost someone so dear to her. She kept saying 'I'm sorry Callidora.' I flew through her window, into her room and transformed back to my original form. My anger had turned into sympathy. I wiped her tears, hugged her and asked her the reason for her sorrow but she was so hesitant to answer. She kept saying that she was a monster and told me to go away. But I stayed and persisted her into telling me and she finally did. She said that she had to tell those mean things to you so that you would stay away from her. She told me that during the war, Alaric was going to attack you from behind, when you were fighting the soldiers. She stopped and pleaded him to spare your life. She had to make a deal with him in return."

"What deal?" I ask.

Violet continues, "The deal was that he would spare your life and never hurt you or any of us ever again if Evanthia joined him and helped him to become the most powerful. She agreed because she couldn't see you die. You meant so much to her. It was so difficult for her."

"Really?" I ask as my vision gets blurry and teary. "Why would she..why would she do that for me?"

"Because you are her sister. When you told her that, she made up her mind that even though her words might hurt you so much, you would be there somewhere safe. She loves you so much. After she spoke to me, she made me promise that I wouldn't tell you. When I came to the riverside, you had disappeared." Violet says.

"Then we spent most of our time finding another dimension ball in the Pura Concilium. We had to go through a lot of trouble too. That's why we couldn't make it earlier." Fleur continues. I wipe my tears.
"Yeah. Also, that Pura Concilium isn't pure anymore. Alaric claimed it too. Now, he has control over everything- All the dimension balls, the spell chanting books, the potion making books and all our secret weapons too." Luke says in his squeaky voice.

"Oh no! What about the mentors and the learners? What about all our soldiers?" I ask.

"The mentors and the learners are all locked up. But our soldiers are still with us, hiding in the forbidden forest, waiting for our princess's commands." Violet says.

"We don't have much time Callidora. Come quick, we have to leave." Fleur says.

"No. " I say.

"What? Why?" Violet asks.

"This time, we can't lose. To win, we must have a solid plan and for that, I'm going to need grandma's help too. So, until we come up with a good plan, I am not going anywhere." I look at grandma who's been sitting on her bed, and who hasn't uttered a word till now. She smiles at me.

Just then, mom comes inside. "Honey, why don't you ask your friends to join us for supper?" Mom asks me.

"Come on guys. I bet, you would love your first meal in my world." I suggest.

"Sounds interesting!" Violet says and then all of them follow me to the dining room.

Cuddles sees a wide spread of food on the table and gets excited. He starts barking and wagging his tail.

"No cuddles, bad boy! Can't you see we have few guests today? Please behave now okay?" He looks confused.

"Such a cute thing! Is he your brother?" Violet asks.

I laugh. "No! Well, he is like my brother but he's called as a pet."

"What's a pet?" Violet asks.

"A pet is a tamed animal you keep for company and pleasure. " I answer.

"Oh! You mean, like Luke?" Fleur asks as she takes a seat beside me.

I start laughing uncontrollably when I see Luke's annoyed expression. He's sitting on violet's head.

"Hey! I'm an animal but don't you dare call me tamed! At least, I was a warrior before I turned into this creature!"

Luke squeaks at Fleur. "Okay, squeaky!" Fleur answers and all of us start laughing.