Amora could feel the gentle heat of the sun warming up on her skin slowly. She could feel soft grass underneath her, and her nose could catch the sweet flowery fragrances in the air. She groaned and turned, enjoying her slumber, forgetting her dilemma. She could hear voices but it sounded faint as she was still asleep.
"do you think she's alive?" one of the voices asked.
"of course, she is indeed alive silly, can't you see the smile playing on her lips?" Another voice spoke, it was feminine and both had some kind of weird accent.
Amora's eyes began to open slowly, but was yet to adjust to the brightness of the environment. When she fully opened her eyes, she found two bright green ones staring down at her. Amora screamed and jumped up to her feet, this also sent the owners of the green eyes yelling and running around too. Amora noticed that they were rather small, and funny looking. They brought out their small swords and pointed them at her.
"Who are you and what are you doing slumbering at the boundary?" asked one of them who appeared to be female with rough brown hair. Amora burst into a round of wild laughter while pointing at the little company she had. They exchanged glances and were confused about what was causing the silly girl to laugh.
"What are you laughing at? Have you been caused by a sorcerer with the laughing plague?" The male one asked and then Amora stopped laughing but giggled as she heard them talk.
"Who are you, child? What are you doing here?" He asked again.
Child? Did the impish-looking man just call her a child? She asked herself.
"My name is Amora Jackson and I fell asleep here last night". This was when Amora looked around and found out that she was not in Willow woods but someplace different with lots of nice smelling flowers, weird-looking trees, and of course impish company.
When Amora mentioned her name, the dwarves exchanged glances having not heard the family name before. "Are you lost?" The female dwarf asked her.
"I, uh, I fell asleep under a Willow tree and I woke up here" Amora was also confused at her own words. She didn't want to mention that she had been chased by her mother by some demons, watched her mother die, and also abandoned her best friend for an unknown journey. Amora's heart broke as Louisa's screams played in her head, and Lesley's pleas to go with her also rang in her head.
" She must have crossed the realm border?" The dwarves were whispering amongst themselves now. Amora watched their lips move without hearing what they were saying.
"Did you summon an opening?" The female asked again. "No, I didn't, I just said I slept off under a Willow tree and now I'm here. Do tell me, is this a part of the Willow forest?"
"No, this is no Willow forest child, this is the realm border and we are the guardians of the border, we stop humans like you from entering here but you seemed to pass through which is very confusing" The female dwarf had a very intimidating character as she talked. Amora was looking around the place and it looked so ethereal with strange plants around.
The dwarves noticed Amora's necklace and asked her where she got it from. " Oh, this was given to me by my mother" She answered and her face dropped to a frown as she remembered the scene where Louisa had given her th necklace.
"must have been the key you used child, that pendant was carved from a Moon-gem. That is the only thing that can serve as key aside our realm openers" The female dwarf brought out a large key that was carved from emerald. The sun made the key sparkle, Amora thought she was losing her mind.
"What's this about realm openers? Who are you?" She asked.
" I am Kardelle Tinytoes" The female one spoke. " And I am Athil Alebelly"The male dwarf added. Their names sounded very funny to Amora, she couldn't hold in her laughter.
"Why are you laughing?"Athil asked with a frown.
"Alebelly and Tinytoes? Jeez what kinda names are those? Back in school, you'd be the joke of the school" Amora laughed some more and only stopped when Kardelle shot her a glare. "I'm sorry"
" My last name is Tinytoes because I have tiny toes , way smaller than the usual dwarf size and he is Alebelly because his belly is so big from drinking too much ale" Kardelle explained to the giggling Amora.
"We do not know the family name Jackson, so we will take you to the Dome of the lost where our guardian superior can figure you out" That was Kardelle speaking now as she brought out a crystal orb from her pocket.
"I can't believe this is real. This must be some kind of dream" Said Amora as she still looked around hardly believing everything she was seeing.
Kardelled stomped on Amora's toes really hard. Amora yelled and jumped when she felt the sting of Kardelle's small but surprisingly heavy boots.
"what was that for stubby-toes?" Amora asked as she limped from the pain.
"to make you see that this is not a dream and the name is Tinytoes" Kardelle shot her another glare.
"is she always like that?" Amora asked Athil who nodded in affirmation. The ord Kardelle held began to glow, and then a face appeared on it. The face looked feminine but the voice was very brash. " we have a lost girl here with us guardian superior, and she doesn't seem to know where she is from" Kardelle told the face in the crystal .
"Bring her to the dome" the voice replied. " Yes guardian superior" . The face in the crustal disappeared, and Kardelled pocketed the crystal. Amora still wouldn't believe what was happening around her. Kardelle and Athil held hands and muttered some words which made a portal open.
"Portals? Coooool" Amora said.
The dwarves motioned for Amora to come with them through the portal. Amora grabbed her things and stepped into the portal. They reappeared inside a building with high windows. Just then another female dwarf appeared wearing a different attire from Athil and Kardelle. Athil and Kardelle did a half now as the dwarf appeared.
"goodday Guardian Superior, this is the girl, she calls herself Amora and claims to have slipped through the realm boundary in her sleep" Kardelle explained. Amora noticed that they were different precious stones imbedded in the walls of the some which made it look like a jewel mine.
"hmmm, I see! Alebelly!" The guardian superior yelled. Athil moved closer to him shaking and lowering his little head.
"someone is in trouble now" This was Kardelle making mockery of Athil's situation .
"you were supposed to be guarding last night weren't you? How did she get in?" The guardian superior's voice thundered in the dome .
Yes, no, i" Athil tried to defend himself , but he was stuttering.
"let me guess, you were out drinking ale into that stupid belly of yours weren't you?" The superior asked Athil with a very scary look.
"I'm, no, i, yes " Athil kept stuttering and Kardelle laughed at him.
" Ah! My dear, pardon me" The superior smiled at Amora.
He asked Amora a couple of questions that the other dwarves had asked her first. "I haven't heard such name before, perhaps the I could find out what family you are from and send you on your way"
"please do" Amora's tone had a note of plea and tiredness in it.
"Step into the light child" The superior urged Amora to step into what looked like a beam of Sunlight cut out on the floor. Amora stepped into it and then she heard a twinkling noise coming from above her. When she looked up, she saw a symbol floating right above her head. The symbol was a double interlocked diamond, which matched with the birthmark she had always had on her lower back.
"That is the Daeva family sigil child, you are of the house Daeva" The dwarf man said to her. Amora had heard Louisa mention that name when she had told her of how her mother had dropped her. A part of her was ready to go to house Daeva and a part of her just wanted to go back to San Geneva and forget about everything, continuing with her normal teenage girl life, probably visit SouthPrisford again with Lesley and meet up with Darren.
"Alebelly, you take her to her family and get back to your duty post. Tinytoes, you are free for the day" The guardian superior said. Little Alebelly began to make some grumbling sounds , not liking the idea that he had to take the strange girl to her family. He wondered how the Daeva had this particular one wandering away from them.
"Did I hear grumbling Alebelly?"
"No Superior, that was just er, nothing superior, I'll get to work now" Athil forced a smile. The guardian superior walked away and then Kardelle began to laugh at his fate for the day.
"Run along Alebelly, and don't go around sniffing for ale taverns, you sure do have a lot on your hands today" Kardelle teased.
"Shut up Tinytoes" Athil spat at the laughing she-dwarf. Kardelle blew raspberry at him and then with one spin, she vanished.
" I guess it's just you and me" Amora said trying to cheer him up but he wouldn't even look at her. He simply conjured a portal and entered while Amora followed him, dragging her bag. She wondered why Lexi hadn't come on since she got there. "Perhaps she's observing" Amora thought.
"So where are we going?" Amora asked the frowning dwarf as they kept walking and walking in what seemed like an endless garden of weird plants to Amora.
"Home" Athil sounded uninterested in Amora's talks and endless questions that began to suddenly bore him out.
"where is home?" Amora asked again.
"House Daeva , Vadina. Could you please stop asking questions?"
"ha! I still can't believe this is all real Mister BeerBelly"
"Alebelly, the name is Alebelly. If you want a reminder stomp on the foot, I'll gladly do that" Athil was trying not to snap at the girl, she wasn't really the cause of the day's fate, if only he hadn't sneaked off to get some ale, and if only that tale teller dwarf Kardelle hadn't told on him, he would have gotten away with it. He still blamed Amora for everything regardless.
"I'm wondering what's gonna happen next or what you are gonna say next. Probably tell me that the fairytale Queen of fairies, Queen Àine is real" Amora began to laugh at what she said.
"of course she is real, she is the queen of Idyll fairyland and you think it's a lie? How long have you been in the human realm?" Athil couldn't believe that Amora was making a joke of the Queen of fairies.
"all my life" Amora replied.
Just then, Athil pointed towards a glowing thing in the air, flying towards their direction. He made a whistling tone with two fingers inserted in his mouth and then the glowing thing stopped. To Amora's surprise, it grew bigger and Amora could see that it was the most beautiful male she had ever seen dressed in a really queer outfit, with real fairy wings attached to his back.
"hello Alebelly, where are you off to?Hello mi lady" The winged man took Amora's hands and kissed it. Amora could perceive flowery fragrances around him.
"I'm off to Vadina" Athil replied.
"I have to run along along now Alebelly, the Queen is in need of me" The winged man said as he noticed his flower-like bracelet glowing. The winged man grew smaller again and then went on his way. Amora's face held a bewildered look and Athil was just satisfied to see that.
"That was Aldric, Queen Àine and King Osmanthus messenger to the lands. Do you still think you are asleep ?" Athil asked with a smirk on his face.
"he, he, he is a real fairy? Oh my gosh! Why is Lexi not capturing this? I thought fairies were always small, I didn't know they could be big" Amora was going wild with excitement now.
Amora saw a purple flower growing by the road, it looked like a tulip but it's buds had streaks of yellow. She moved towards it, looking mesmerized by it's ethereal beauty, She moved to pluck it.
"No, stay away from that plant" Athil warned but his warnings came out too late, as Amora had picked the flower. He sighed and shook his head, knowing the repercussions of plucking that flower. He concluded in his head that it was going to be a long and tiring walk to Vadina with this mischievous new Mystian.