They slaves were woken up with the harsh ringing of a bell, it's piercing sound drilled into everyone's brain and brought them back from dreamland to the nightmare that was their lives. As Mia left her cell she put down Ivory behind a haystack where she slept soundly although a voice in her subconscious told her not to do that but she did.
She could be a nuisance if she wakes up and finds herself in a strange place. She'll be fine. It's not like the movies here, she won't be killed. She's smart.
Mia petted Ivory and followed the line of half-asleep people. They were immediately led outside into the glare of the sun.
"I wish death upon whoever came up with the brilliant idea of sounding the bell," Mia grumbled, rubbing her aching temples.
"That'd be the Dark Prince. I fully support you on your wish," Kira rubbed her eyes.
They were led into an isolated forest faraway and given appropriate tools. Mia and Kira were handed identical cubic boxes.
"Slaves! Get to work! No fooling about! Ye get that?!," a guard said gruffly, pointing the metal weapon at the people."Men with the wood, women and children with the sowing! Start!".
The people trudged to do their jobs with tools and hopeless faces. Mia and Kira started walking to a desolate part of the forest.
"Kira, what are those pipe-thingies in the guards hand and what is Amberin and the substances coming out of it?," Mia asked curiously, stroking the plants as she went.
"Woah! Easy there tiger. One at at a time! Those thingies are Eleknons, they contain the essence of the elements. The Dark Prince has the essence of all the elements he stole and transferred them to the weapons thus giving the guards the power to control every element. The Amberin is the essence of the element fire and so it is molten fire and vapours and has the ability to bind everything it comes in contact with but once it is released it'll dissolve to vapors," Kira explained patiently as she shook the box as she walked.."There are many others like this too with different properties".
"Oh, everyone here has elemental powers right?," Mia asked and Kira nodded.
"So why don't they try to escape?".
"We are all weak and most of our powers have been absorbed to be put into the Eleknons, if we did anyways, the powers would backfire on us. There was this silly man who tried to direct fire on the exit guards instead he himself got burnt to a crisp. An unintended suicide," Kira replied, shaking her head.
"Did the guards kill the man yesterday? I hid and watched everything," Mia asked, shaking her head in sympathy.
"Oh nah, that's just Tuslan, he has a habit of spraying sweat everywhere and that annoys the guards. They just blasted him with Cerulin, which froze him. He's quite alright, although I doubt that he'll ever sweat again now. Just if you don't know, Cerulin in our language means To be encased in ice which translates to frozen in English" Kira laughed as Mia sighed in relief.
"You know a lot! What I don't understand is why you speak English when you have your own language?," Mia asked frowning.
"It's outdated- like wearing corsets is- it is very difficult to learn and so everyone preferred English over Elgrique -which is our language- I picked up a few words from the ancient books my grandparents had," Kira said.
"Oh," Mia said as she watched a young, starved child make castles out of the dirt before a guard trampled them over and pushed the child, ordering him to work.
"Why do they force us to do this when they could easily use their powers?," Mia sighed.
"I don't know that. Maybe he just wants to be all dominating and superior. Hoo hoo haha look at me! Fear the Dark Prince!," Kira mocked.
"Who's the Dark Prince by the way?," they reached a shady spot and crouched to dig holes.
"Ha! I always love to tell a juicy, ol' story! Listen my dear, innocent child. Today I will tell you a heart twisting tragedy, a chilling tale of death and mise-," Kira stopped as she saw the exasperated expression on Mia's face.
"Done? The story Kiraaa," Mia rolled her eyes good-humouredly and laughed as Kira joined in.
"Alright, alright. The Dark Prince is the owner of the scary palace we are captured in. He is this..thi..," Kira's face screwed up in anger and for a moment she remained quiet as she furiously scooped dirt out. She exhaled after a while and continued.
"This freaking animal," she scream-whispered." He is this idiot with a lust for power and a greed immeasurable. Killing people, torturing them is just like playtime for him. That insolent..," Mia dug her own hole as Kira launched into endless strings of grumbled muttering, ranting about him.
"I hate him so much!," she squeezed a fistful of dirt," he killed my parents and destroyed my home," she said softly, letting the dirt slip out of her grasp as her eyes became dull and void of any emotion but then she smiled her beautiful smile after a while.
"Anyways he even murdered his own parents! His parents were great friends of the King and Queen and were kind of like the advisors of them. They suggested and helped them in ruling the vast empire. They were also wealthy people, but then who wasn't? They had their own palace too," Kira levelled the hole she'd dug.
"Hmm," Mia urged Kira.
"Some say he killed them to gain quicker access to the throne while some said he hated them and whatever, there are many theories on this subject but none have any evidence. The Dark Prince framed the King and Queen saying that they killed his parents since they were jealous of their wealth, which is a pathetic excuse by the way," Kira quietened as a guard marched past.
Mia nodded understandingly as Kira continued.
"The King and Queen, lovely..I tell you absolutely amazing people! Not a person slept hungry during their rule. No one was poor, no beggars, no homeless people. They cheapened the food, built free homes for people, free education and health care. Medicine was free too! They gave large sums of money to orphanages and old-homes and visited them too. They devoted their time to public meetings which were held every week so that they could listen to and solve the problems of his subjects and every month people were given large allowances and at the end of every year, a huge feast was celebrated. The empire was largely at peace. Happiness everywhere. The golden times,"Kira said, staring off into the distance, reminiscing lost memories.
Mia felt happy and her chest swelled with pride listening to the praise of her parents.
"Then the princess died and this asshole took over,"Kira rolled her eyes."Sometimes I blame the stupid princess for everything".
Mia stifled a laugh as Kira ranted on and on about,"stupid Princess Mia"
"Now I get it, hmm- what is this?," Mia opened her box of seeds to see that the seeds looked like they were made of glass. Mia picked up one, it had the same ragged surface of a normal seed but was transparent and in the middle of the seed was a tiny leaf.
"These are so pretty," Mia said and picked up a handful and let them slip through her palm into the hole, the sun filtered through them, making spectrums around them.
"There's something else too!," Mia put her hand in the box and found a small yellow and white glass vial." What is this?".
"Those are Terpsikor seeds and the liquid is a combination of Myrxes and Zolsys," Kira said as she put in her seeds." An incredible nurturing and healing agent for the Borshe Berries".
"Myrxes...," Mia repeated the word as she patted the soil above the hole.
So that's what the kind, old woman gave me!
Mia smiled as she opened the vial and brought it close to her nose to smell it when Kira yelled and yanked the vial away from her before the dark fumes lifting off from the surface could reach Mia's nose.
"What?!," Mia yelled as Kira shook her head and closed the vial.
"This can turn you into a walking-talking berry bush! Are you insane!?," Kira jabbered, furiously.
"No it isn't," Mia reached for the vial but Kira put her farther back, out of her reach," come on! This old lady gave me Myrxes when I almost died because of stupid rose petals," Mia explained.
"Rose petals? What's that? Anyways Myrxes alone is an amazing healing agent but when you mix it with Zolsys then you'd better get a spot for yourself in your garden, you wacko!," Kira said.
"Okay, okay! Roses are flowers by the way, now don't you ask what are flowers," Mia took the vial out of Kira's grasp.
"Nah, I'm not that dumb now, careful with that okay?, Just a drop," Kira warned.
Mia nodded and carefully tilted the vial. A perfect drop of the clear liquid fell atop the buried seeds and Mia gasped as immediately a shoot poked out and soon it turned into a plump bush with strange, furry pink berries.
"Wow," Mia whispered stroking the soft coat of pink fur on them.
"I know right, it'd be a great sight if you turned into a bush wouldn't it? I could have as many berries as I wanted" Kira grinned as her own bush grew, she picked one berry and popped it in her mouth."Hmm, I love these Borshe Berries," Kira sighed.
Mia picked one berry too and popped it in her mouth, letting her tongue explore the furry berry. It split open and a delicious, thick syrup oozed out, coating her tongue.
"Nice yeah? The syrup out yet? That's the best part!," Kira closed her eyes and made small, smacking sounds as she chewed the berry.
"This is divine!," Mia chewed the soft fleshy berry and swallowed it whole. She reached to pluck out a handful when Kira slapped her hand." We aren't allowed to eat more than two," she whispered. Mia nodded solemnly.
"Wanna see something cool?," Kira asked, her eyes sparkling in the sun. Mia nodded.
Kira quickly glanced to see if any guards were nearby before stuck her tongue out and Mia giggled like a child as she saw Kira's tongue was tinged a bright, neon pink.
"It suits you," Mia said. The burning pink complimented her rich brown skin and made her look even more beautiful.
"No that's not it," Kira rolled her tongue back in." Wait for it".
Mia waited patiently as Kira rolled her tongue to touch her palate and unrolled it quickly.
Mia gasped as she saw that floating above Kira's tongue was a tiny, pink fire that sparkled and shone. Mia slightly touched the fire in amazement and to her utmost surprise it was cool!
"That's so awesome!," Mia cried as Kira reached up and closed her fingers around the fire. She smiled up at Mia and put out her fist towards her.
Mia looked at it curiously as Kira slowly unfurled each finger, like a dainty flower opening. When her fingers opened, there on her palm was the fire! Dazzling beautifully in the sun.
"I know! They say these berries are really from heaven, that when the gods visited here, they'd bring these berries to find their way when they were lost in dense forests and with the gods frequenting land so much, the berries were permanently gifted to the Elementals. The syrup produces the fire and it even glows in the dark! Also Borshe actually means To illuminate in our language " Kira said excitedly and to Mia's surprise, Kira popped the fire in her mouth and swallowed it.
"Delicious," Kira smiled happily.
"Woah! Lemme try!," Mia exclaimed and repeated the same process and after a few tries there was a tiny fire burning on her tongue too.
"Aye?!," a guard approached them and Mia quickly shut her mouth, swallowing the fire which tasted like blueberry bubble-gum.
"You took less than two yeah?," he was the same guard who had ordered the other guards to stop mocking her on the day she was captured.
" Tell me", he said. Unlike the other guards he seemed kind.
"Yes sir," Kira said as the guard started counting. He looked nothing like the pot-bellied drunkards patrolling around instead he was tall and smart with cropped hair-graying at the tips, olive skin and deep wrinkles adorning the weathered skin around his mesmerizing hazel eyes.
"Yes sir only two," Mia said and looked at the guard only to find him staring back at her with a sympathetic expression, a sudden warmth flushed into Mia and she felt her cheeks getting red, she looked away to resume her work and the guard strolled away.
Mia continued and plucked one berry off for Ivory, ignoring Kira's questioning glare burning holes in her back when at last she turned.
"What?," Mia snapped.
"That was an intense round of staring going on," Kira wriggled her eyebrows,"Something's fishy," she wrinkled her nose.
Mia rolled her eyes," oh come on Kira, you can't be serious, he's like my father's age," Mia retorted and went to another spot to dig holes.
"So what? Still was handsome as hell," Kira followed, batting her big, black eyelashes."Oh whatever, Mia and the guard sitting on a tree, K-I-S-- wait where are your parents by the way?," Kira asked.
"Oh shut up, I just felt like I knew him, like I had seen him somewhere but I don't know where," Mia stated simply and shrugged, swiftly changing the subject.
"My friend is a wacko, total nutjo-," Kira mimicked Mia, but stopped, she lowered her eyes,"are you really my friend? Or do you also think I am weird and stupid?," she asked softly, raising an eyebrow and looking at Mia with big, questioning eyes.
Mia felt the hint of sadness in Kira's eyes tug at her heart, she thought of herself in Kira's place--no family, no home and no friends--before answering.
"Shut up! How can someone not be your friend? You are simply adorably crazy and to be honest you are my first friend and I'm already so fond of you!," Mia said enthusiastically, making a heart with her hands and batting her eyelashes. Kira laughed.
"Stop it, I'm inwardly cringing at this cheesiness," she laughed as Mia joined in.
"I'm complimenting you and you think it's cheesy? Ungrateful Kira!," Mia put a hand to her mouth dramatically as she laughed and threw a fistful of dirt at Kira.
"Oh you!," Kira threw the empty box of seeds at Mia's face.
"Hey! No fair! I threw soft dirt! Wait here, I'm gonna throw my box at ya" Mia whined, fumbling to find her box as Kira got up and slowly backed away from her, laughing all the while.
"Then catch me if you can!," Kira ran through the forest as Mia chased her blindly, weaving through the tree trunks as the soft, muted light of the setting sun filtered in through the leaves, illuminating their silhouettes. The guards were way too far to see them.
"You won't ever get me!," Kira said as she jumped expertly over a fallen branch," oh I will!," Mia answered and in that moment she felt invincible. Heart pounding, face glowing, hair flying, she felt like she could do anything.
The sun set and carefree laughter echoed through the forest as the girls made up for their lost childhoods, they realized that they had a bond between them, of lost innocence and of being forced to grow up too fast. At that time, there were no broken princesses, no self-conscious girls instead were two happy, little girls who had temporarily forgotten their troubles, enjoying in what was their right but circumstances had stolen that away. To be truly happy.
Like this, the morning slipped away while Kira and Mia revelled in the joy of the bond of friendship. The time fast-forwarded and unknowingly the hours of torture were over finally.
"Best day of my life!," Mia exclaimed as Kira agreed and Mia fed Ivory half of the berry and they settled for sleep. Sticking out their glowing-pink tongues momentarily and then bursting into laughter.
This was the day when both girls experienced for the first time something rare but beautiful.
True friendship.
A/N: I felt happy as I wrote this :)