A soft gust of wind kissed my cheeks, and a refreshing aroma of irises tickled my nose.
I gasped and opened my eyes, to find lovely spring clouds floating in the blue sky above me as they blew soft gusts of wind across the strange land, with warm playful sun rays escaping through it. I could feel the warm and gritty texture of the earth's soil and crushed irises beneath me.
Where am I?
I bent forward my head and sat up as slight pain pinned me all over my body as I glanced around the valley of Iris around me.
Did I die finally?
There were tall, green and bushy trees around the end of the valley, much more beautiful than the ones at Galena's cave.
Sounds of birds, squirrels, insects buzzing, and leaves shaking from the calm air that was blowing around, echoed across the strange land.
My mind drifted through a hoard of thoughts and questions when suddenly, I heard the familiar chirping noise.
I turned my head and saw the familiar red-yellow bird flying above a sprouting Iris before fleeing to the woods below.
Without a second thought, I followed the swift songbird, flying between the trunks and branches of trees.
I paused and looked at the bird quizzically as it flew in circles in one spot.
"What?" I exclaimed, seeing it turn into a bunch of gold leaves and fall onto the ground.
I took quiet-careful steps toward the strange stash of leaves. I was a foot near it when a wind took them off the ground into the air and flew them away.
My eyes followed them for a moment, watching them fly away before finding something much more intriguing.
In the middle of the crowd of magnificent tall trees stood a small cottage. Its walls were overgrown by leaves. Many flowers, berries and vegetables like carrots and cauliflowers were planted near it in a small kitchen garden. A narrow stream coursed near the garden and a wooden picnic table with pair of benches, on one of which sat a woman.
My eyes squinted and my brows furrowed, feeling like she seemed oddly familiar. Looking as if she was in her early thirties, she had honey-golden hair with dreamy and warm leaf-green eyes. A few strands of wrinkles sprouted near her cheeks and slight freckles covered her neck. She was wearing a white silky gown and a shimmering golden crown was placed on her head.
She must be a Queen or something...
She listened to two squirrels as they seem to fum and complain about each other to her. The one squirrel screeched at the other and the other screeched louder. The first one almost went to attack the other but the woman quickly placed her hand between them.
"Georgie, don't murder your sister," she said in a gentle-sweet voice to the squirrel, reminding me of Galena, "She just stole a nut, that's it."
The squirrels vented to her again as the other squirrel refused to give the nut back.
She sighed looking at the other squirrel in a stern-motherly way, "Bessie," she began, "Give it to Georgie."
The sister squirrel glared at the brother before moodily giving it to him.
The woman sweetly smiled, "Alright, we're good now," she said, petting both the squirrels' heads, "Off you go now and no more stealing nuts!"
She bid the squirrels bye as they both dashed away before sighing and turning her head towards me.
"Did you enjoy exploring this place, young sun?" she asked me, giving a warm ethereal smile like that of a shooting star.
I was so startled and awe-struck by the woman that I forgot how to speak for a moment. I hesitantly walked out from behind the tree I was hiding, "Umm...Yes-yes...It was-amazing" I stuttered.
"Oh, nice!", she beckoned me towards the bench, "Don't be shy, you may come and sit,"
I nervously went and sat on the opposite bench of her. "H-How do you know me?" I stuttered again.
"How could I not know the Younger Sunrise Sister?" she joked.
"No-Like...I meant that how do you know that I am the Younger Sunrise Sister?"
"Because I was the one who knew it would be you" she replied.
I tilted my head quizzically, before realizing what it all meant. "You are Queen Adela!" I exclaimed, my eyes widened from shock.
She was Queen Adela-The Mother of Galena-The Great Queen of Mikellar!
"Indeed, I am," she chuckled.
"So..." I murmured, "Did I...uh...die?"
"No-no," Queen Adela scoffed, "I called you here to talk to you,"
"Talk to me? About what?"
"About how your quest is going on?"
"It's going...alright...I guess..." I replied unsurely.
"And may I know, why 'alright'?"
"I don't...know"
"There must be something?"
"Well...I guess it's because of that"
"What?" She asked.
"Well...there is this boy, Cepheus, Toivo's Brother. And he is well strange-strange in the sense of 'suspicious'-and...we are supposed to follow his plan because we have no other safer option."
"Do you really have no option"
"Yeah, 'cause Toivo says that we need a safe base to carry out our plan and Cepheus's place was the safest, but...I don't think it is a good idea. There's something strange in this whole agreement he made us agree to-something feels...off around him..." I explained.
"What does the majority say?"
"Not a good idea to trust Cepheus, but it is much more logical to agree with Toivo."
"Was the boy like this from the beginning?"
"No, Toivo says he wasn't even an inch like he is now-he says he has changed,"
"Well...Why do you think he has changed?"
"He says because of the negativeness of the Main Land."
"That means the negativity has gone into him," Queen Adela began, "That means...not-"
"-The Safest Option," I completed, "So, what should we do?"
"Kyrah, there is always another fruit on a tree, you just need to look for it to find it."
I paused, confused, "Sorry, I couldn't-" but before I could say another word, my visions got darker and I fell unconscious once again.
"Kyrah! Kyrah!" A familiar voice shouted as they shook my shoulders.
My eyes opened and my visions slowly got clearer and better, and I could see in front of me the familiar faces of Galena, Toivo and Cepheus. They were looking at me worriedly as if I just came back from an encounter with Death and most surprisingly, Cepheus's face also had the clues of anxiety for me. I groaned and stood back up from the ground with Galena helping.
"What happened to you?" Toivo spoke, sternly.
"Me?" I questioned, rubbing my head.
"Whom else you may think we were finding for almost half of the day?" Cepheus replied.
"What are you all talking about?" I questioned, still not able to comprehend anything that was happening,
"Guys, give her some space!" Galena came to the rescue.
"Fine, you might get a little rest. I don't want anyone else randomly passing out in these missions, we don't have time" Cepheus replied coldly, taking us out of the room.
We were back in the grilled ceiling room and he turned back towards the library door, as we followed behind him with no idea what he was doing, "Romar Wens", he said turning the door knob and taking us instead inside the library into the gloomiest room my eyes has seen after Aunt Abbey's smoke-filled room.
The room's ceiling was tall-very tall. The walls were the scowliest grey. The ground was hard and cold like a frozen tortoise's shell and the only light source was a single candle dimly lit in the corner of the room above the table near a triple loft bed.
"It's amazing, Right? This will be your room for now...
No, We will not.
... You can decide who will sleep on which bunk, Quick get rest, We don't have time" Cepheus left the room, slamming the door behind his back.
We looked at the door with absolute horror on our faces.
"Is this a prank or something?" I exclaimed.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Toivo stuttered.
"Billie's cake!" Galena exclaimed, rushing towards the bed with Toivo as they fought for the top bunk.
And then I realized what all this was...
"Top Bunk's mine!" Toivo shouted excitedly sitting on the top bunk.
Galena groaned and frowned, "Middle's mine." she droned.
...But it was too late.
"Bottom's mine then," I said, bending my head below the middle bunk and sitting on the bottom one as it made a creaking sound and a spring jumped out from one of the corners. I looked at it roll to the corner of the room with a shocked expression before tucking myself into the cold bed and pulling the rugged blanket over me. The bed was not too comfortable but the suffocating tiredness was so drooping that nothing could have stopped me from going to sleep.
But strangely, it was gone-the uncontrollable feeling of exhaustion that made me wanna drop on the floor and snore was...gone.
I turned my head towards the sombre wall and I remembered the strange meeting I had with Queen Adela.
Perhaps it was just a dream?
But how could a dream be so vivid?
Was it just a Dream?
"Galena, Toivo," I called them.
"What?" They peered their heads out of the corner of their bunk, their faces were as tireless as mine.
"I need to tell you something," I answered.
"WHAT?!" Toivo and Galena exclaimed, jumping out of their bunks after I finished telling them 'bout the strange meeting.
"Why did you see her?" Toivo questioned.
"How would I know? She wanted to talk or something about our quest!" I blurted.
"'Felt like heaven'?" Galena quoted as she went past us, biting her nails, buried in her thoughts. "Hah! It must be a Vistrowler!" She shouted, jumping away from her place.
"A vice-bowler?" I exclaimed out of bewilderment.
"Vistrowlence-It's a special thing-like a superpower, it's a rare genetic thing, not all people in a family could inherit the gene." She explained as her hands shooked and lips trembled from excitement, "It helps one to create a place-a safe place but it's not like a real place-more like a place where you can't go to unless you have that power-that gene-but for that, one must be in a place really terrible but gene-related-home! And that could only mean..."
"She's in the Main City!" We exclaimed in unison.
"She could help us!" Toivo added.
"But she didn't say anything about finding her," I muttered.
"What else did she say to you?" Galena asked, urgently as she swiftly brushed away her fallen hair strand from her hair.
"There is always another fruit on a tree, you need to look for it to find it" I quoted, "And NOT TO trust Cepheus."
Toivo scoffed, "And may I know why?"
"Well, Isn't it obvious? Cepheus is SUS, he is acting sus" I replied.
"And what in the world is SUS?" he asked bewildered.
"Sus-suspicious? Isn't that a thing in your world?" I questioned.
"Certainly, such a weird word isn't in existence here," he answered.
"Hah! She must be meaning to look for another way!" Galena exclaimed who was standing once again buried deep beneath her thoughts.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Toivo scoffed.
"First, we need to get out of this 'sus' place," Galena said as she paced towards the door. She tried opening the door but it seemed as if it was stuck, she tried once again pulling it with all her might but it wasn't opening.
"It is locked, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes," She sighed.
"There is no way," Toivo confidently muttered as he paced towards the door. And just like Galena he tried opening the door, as he tried his best to show that he was not struggling to show his brother's integrity but eventually, he sighed and stopped.
"So, that proves another innocence of your marvellous-trust-worthy brother doesn't it, huh?" I sarcastically said to him with my arms folded.
Toivo rolled his eyes from annoyance, "Well we could pull it open all together?"
"It will make too much noise," Galena replied.
"Perhaps, make a hole in it?" he once again tried to give good advice but.....
"Sorry, but we don't have anything that will help us do that and too much sound" Galena once again politely proved Toivo's idea wrong.
...he failed
Toivo sighed, he once again scratched his nose trying to use the rest of his degenerating brain cells to try to find at least one good idea to get us out of there.
And after some more scratching, he yelped "I have got an idea!"
He rumbled his hands through his pockets and took out a tiny wooden box. He opened the hard wooden lid of the box and gawked fascinated at the thing that was in it.
We peeked bewildered into the box to find an egg-a tiny egg in it.
What?
"What's and how is that going to help us get out of this doomed room?" I questioned.
"A Tuneskoo bird" Toivo began calmly, "Also known as the quietest and the most charming bird species ever lived, and said to have gone extinct after the grey revolution by the new king Greg's Ecology minister two years ago. But as always they were wrong. It is mostly known for its voice, no chirping or cawing sound, but a strange frequency it emits when it opens its mouth and is led to make anyone near it feel as if they are at a place they most dear, a place even better than home.
But the most useful part is in its feathers. If its feathers blow on anything, it makes it lose its weight, meaning, that if the Tuneskoo blows on the door it will lose its weight and we could open it with the flick of our fingers without even making any sound!" Toivo described.
"Great! But how is that bird going to get out of that shell?" I questioned.
"Umm...well I tried to do it before but I failed, I guess I just don't have that great of instrumental skills," Toivo chuckled nervously.
"Toivo!" Galena said sternly.
"It needs music to get out." Toivo blurted out.