4th Author's Note. Hello once again my dear readers :-), I hope you are all feeling well.
In the second part of chapter thirty-two, we will finally discover the meaning behind Sapphire's vision (the one about the clock). What could it all mean? And what on earth do flowers have to do with it? Let me know in the comments what you think about this development.
Thank you once again for following and supporting my story I really appreciate it!
This chapter is dedicated to @silkfeather ma copine and fellow Frenchman (or Frenchwoman should I say haha). It's so cool to be able to interact with people who share the same native language as yourself, another reason why I love Wattpad and its community.
Anyhow, HAPPY READING and see you in the comment section (*cough cough*) ;-)!
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO (PART TWO)
Sapphire
I get up from my bed and make my way to the bathroom to have a shower. When I am done, I put on a clean pair of underwear and make my way back to our room quietly. I had left without my blue gown I had received on Christmas day, hoping to change in the bedroom, having forgotten that we were sharing it with the boys now. As quietly as possible I enter the room and open the large wardrobe clutching my towel tightly around me. I manage to exit the room with my gown without waking up anyone and feel a sense of pride. I quietly close the door and turn around ready to make my way back to the bathroom to change when I see a figure. I try to hold my breath to stop myself from screaming but let out a small whimper.
"Shhh! It's only me," Amethyst says.
"You scared the life out of me!" I whisper shout.
"Sorry!" she apologizes.
"It's okay," I say getting my breath back. "What are you doing up anyway? It's only like what...six in the morning?"
"I know, I couldn't sleep," she answers. "You?"
"Same," I reply. "How long have you been up?"
"About half an hour maybe," she says thinking. "Your towel is slipping by the way, do you want me to help you get changed. I had another look at our dresses and the look pretty tricky to put on?" I look down and see that indeed the grip on my towel had loosened. I tighten it and nod saying:
"Yes please!" We make our way to the bathroom and I put on my gown. Amethyst helps tighten the crisscross laces that run throughout the back whilst I hold my hair up and out of the way.
"Thank you," I tell her.
"You're welcome, turn to me!" she says. I turn around and she raises her eyebrows smiling saying:
"Wow you look amazing." I make my way to the floor length mirror and agree with her, not to sound vain but the dress fits so well. From my mid-thigh the material cascades in such an elegant manner. I'm impressed. I also love the way the dark blue integrates itself in the lace material on the shoulders, and parts of the front with the rest of the dress.
"This dress is beautiful," I say out loud.
"Very," she replies.
"You have to put yours on I want to see how it looks on you," I tell her.
"Sure but I haven't showered yet so I need to do that first," she says.
"Cool. I'll go and have some breakfast in the mean time. See you in a bit," I say walking out of the bathroom and making my way to the kitchen.
As soon as I enter the kitchen, I see dozens of A4 sheets of paper sprawled everywhere. Taking a closer look, I see that on each paper there are various drawings of clocks made out of flowers. I go over to the fridge and pour myself some milk before sitting down to inspect the drawings. Picking up a piece of paper, I see that the number twelve is written significantly larger than the rest. I wonder what it could mean but feel relieved that Amethyst is also clearly capturing some pieces to this puzzle. Waiting for Amethyst to come back, I take a look at the window and see that it's snowing. The majority of the buildings, trees and cars are already covered in a light layer of snow. The view was insanely picturesque and could easily be put on a postcard. I continue to drink my milk whilst thinking about the day ahead of us and feel my stomach churning. I put down my cup of milk and see one of the clock drawings coming to life. The numbers from one to twelve change into the numbers thirteen to twenty-four; then the clock hands move anti clockwise and after a full circular turn, the number twenty-four decreases into twelve, where the clock hands remain. At this point I am completely baffled. Luckily that's when Amethyst comes in, dressed in her purple gown.
"Wow you look amazing!" I tell her. The vivid purple really complimented her dark skin tone.
"Thanks, can you help me lace up?" she asks. I walk over to her and do just that.
"You know when I was in the shower I was wondering how we were suppose to fight in those dresses but surprisingly enough they've got enough room for casual movements," she says.
"I did think that, when we first got them as well but yeah they're comfortable to walk in although I don't think we'll be able to run very fast," I say.
"True, but if it comes to that we can always lift the dresses up to run," Amethyst says demonstrating and indeed there was a lot more freedom to move.
"At least we know that now," I say nodding. "By the way, do you want to explain your drawings to me?" I say pointing to the table.
"Right, yes I was wondering if you'd seen them!" she says smiling.
"A bit hard to miss!" I say laughing.
"Yeah. Well I don't really know how to explain it. I was just inspired to draw them and so I did," she explains.
"I see. Well I'm not sure if this will be much help but I did have some sort of vision," I begin.
"Go on," she says prompting me to carry on.
"Your clocks. Well one of them changed the analogue set of numbers into the full digital ones, so the twelve changed into a twenty-four," I begin.
"Right..." she says seeing if I'm going to add anything more.
"Well the interesting thing is that after that happened, the clock hands moved anticlockwise and after it had done a full circle, the twenty-four changed back into twelve and the clock hands stayed there," I finish.
"Hmmm...interesting," she says thinking deeply. We remain in silence for a minute or so as we both try to figure out the meaning of this, when Amber comes in.
"Good morning girls!" she says cheerily. We both look up at her and then look at each other as we both figure out the meaning of my visions and Amethyst's drawings, all thanks to Amber's Gift of Illumination, which she involuntarily provided us just by her presence. I guess her pregnancy has adjusted itself not to interfere with her powers anymore.
"Good morning!" I say quickly. "We need to wake everyone up."
"Why what happened?" Amber asks.
"The battle is starting sooner than I thought," I tell her.
"Really how do you know this? Have you seen the sign already?" she questions.
"We're still waiting for the signal..." Amethyst begins. "But we know it's going to come earlier because the battle will commence at midday rather than in the evening."
"But how do you know this?" Amber repeats.
"My drawings and Sapphire's visions," Amethyst says pushing the papers towards Amber. "You see how all these clocks read twelve? That's to tell us that the battle will commence at twelve. Not only that but I now remember something interesting, I'm sure you both remember that we were told that our enemies did not want us to see the New Year don't you? Well, the New Year obviously begins a second after midnight. Now as you know the whole world celebrates the New Year at different times, most commonly every hour. Well I know from studying Geography that this placed called Apia in Samoa, is the first place in the world to go into the New Year, and guess what? Geneva, along with France and other countries are exactly twelve hours behind!" she explains.
"Meaning that when it's the New Year in Apia, it will be exactly midday here – well a second past midday!" I say understanding where she was going with it.
"Precisely!" Amethyst says nodding.
"Right. So where is this battle taking place?" Amber asks.
"Across from here, over the lake, there's a bridge that we need to cross to get to the park," I say.
"Are we supposed to walk that bridge? It's not a short one and isn't there lots of cars?" Amber reminds us.
"We know but as it's New Year's Eve, I'm pretty sure it will be more or less empty," Amethyst concludes.
"Plus it's snowing!" I add.
"True," Amber says nodding.
"Guys did we bring the laptop with us? Something inside me is telling me to do some research on your drawing Amethyst," I say.
"Yeah, it's in the bedroom, I'll go get it whilst I wake everyone up as well," Amber says making her way to the bedroom.
"Good idea, it's nearly seven and we need to all be ready by half eleven I reckon," Amethyst tells her before turning back to me. "How exactly are you going to research my drawing by the way?" she asks.
"I'm not sure, I'll just type 'clocks in Geneva' and see what comes up I guess," I say unsure.
"I see, well hopefully we find something!" she says. Amber comes back in with the laptop and places it in front of me.
"I switched it on, so you didn't have to wait for it to load," she says.
"Thanks Amber!" I say gratefully. I quickly open the browser and type in 'clocks in Geneva' praying that something useful comes up.
"No way!" Amethyst says in disbelief, taking a closer look at the screen in front of us.
"Click on the pictures then!" Amber says impatiently.
"Right sorry," I say coming out of my trance caused by my shock. The search results were incredibly similar to Amethyst's drawings. Clicking on one of the images to enlarge it, we see a large clock made out of flowers with the title:'L'horloge Fleurie'.
"Amazing!" Amethyst says in awe.
"Open the link page, we need to know where this is," Amber says in my ear. I click on the link provided and quickly scan over the page. Although the page was in French I pick out the essentials bits, including the words 'Jardin Anglais', which means English Garden. I open a new tab and type in 'Jardin Anglais L'horloge Fleurie' in maps, and voila! It gives us the exact location, which is the park by the bridge 'Pont du Mont-Blanc' that we need to cross.
"Perfect!" Amethyst says smiling. "It's only a ten minute walk."