The flower Amora had picked was a Nelix bloomer flower. Athil had tried to warn her from picking it, but she paid deaf ears to him. The Nelix opened it's petals and Amora thought it was just a regular tulip but with a weird color probably nature's defect. The flower had opened it's petals and she was amazed at such beauty but then, it was as if the flower had an opening at it's center, it spilled a sticky yellowish substance on her face which sent Amora jumping and throwing the flower away, as the sticky substance was hot on her face.
"Aahhhh get it off ! Get it off!! She cried as she tried to clean it off but it kept increasing. Athil tried to get her to stay still, but Amora's face was on fire.
"Would you stay still for a moment? I need to look for water" Athil was running after the yelling Amora now.
"Water? I have water in my bag" Amora pointed at the direction her bag lay. Athil thought that the bag looked weird with letters written on it that he couldn't understand. He toyed with the zip, finally getting the bag open, he began to look for the water but found strange clothes and things clustered in the bag.
"Why do you have strange things in your bag?" He asked as he held and examined a pack of sanitary pads.
"Can you just focus on getting the water?" Amora yelled as her face continued to heat up. Athil finally found the bottled water and was staring at it like he had seen a new toy. He twisted the cover, opening it,he handed it to Amora who washed the sticky substance off her face.
Athil began to laugh uncontrollably pointing at her face. Amora shot him a glare not knowing why he was laughing. "What are you laughing at?" She asked as she picked up her bag and zipped it up.
"Your face is all red and swollen. That's the aftermath of forcing into a Nelix Bloomer's privacy" He laughed some more. Amora searched her bag and took out her mirror to see what he was talking about. Seeing her face, Amora let out a deafening scream.
"oh my gosh oh my gosh my beautiful face" Athil was enjoying the woes that had befallen her, laughing harder at each time Amora touched her puffy face. " I can't go home looking like this, there must be some antidote" She said.
"hmmm, maybe there is, I don't know" Athil feigned being in deep thoughts as they walked on.
"come on Alebelly, please, I'll give you anything" Amora sounded desperate.
"hmmm well the Daeva's are quite rich" At the mention of her supposed family being rich, Amora's insides tingled with happiness.
"how rich?" she asked.
"very rich my dear, the family is about the third most influential family in the whole of Vadina and about like the fifth in the entire Mystia lands" Amora thought Athil was exagerating things but she was glad to know that this new family of hers, had cash to spend, if there was anything like that.
"but I want this" Athil brought out a pack of sanitary pad from his pants where he had hidden it all these while.
"what? No! You can't have that" Amora tried to snatch the item from him but he moved away swiftly.
"or you can forget about the antidote and carry your face looking like a fermented dough" Athil mocked.
"that's not...." Amora tried to argue further but he stopped her with a glare.
"alright alright you can have it, now let's get to the part where you go find the antidote" Amora rolled her eyes at him. She laughed internally wondering what Athil was going to do with sanitary pads. She was grateful that she had four extra packs in her bag.
Athil walked to a tree that stood a few feet away from them, Amora followed him wondering if he was going to climb up to get the fruit which was supposed to be the antidote.
"The Maropa fruit is the antidote to the Nelix" he said. "well go up and get it then" Amora said motioning him to climb the tree and get the fruit. Athil declined, insisting that she carried him on her shoulders to reach the fruit. After much arguments, Amora agreed to carry him, she stooped for him to get on her shoulders. When he got on, Amora struggled to stand as he was a bit heavy.
"how can a man so small be so heavy? You must have so much ale in your belly, gosh!" Amora grumbled as she finally stood up holding the little man up, who then grabbed the fruit. He handed the fruit to her. Amora ate the fruit and her face frowned at the taste of it.
"ugh! This tastes worse than my high school's pudding. It tastes like suffering"
"in that case, eat the suffering or carry your dough face" Amora could sense mockery in Athil's statement.
Her puffy face reduced immediately she swallowed the fruit and she was more than glad to have her face back to it's normal size.
"how much longer do we have to walk to this Vadina?" she asked suddenly feeling exhausted and famished.
"a couple more walks" he replied .
"but you said that few hours ago Athil, why don't you just portal us there huh?"
Athil ignored her questions and kept walking which frustrated Amora more. Amora felt something hitting her head as they passed a tree. She looked up and saw two green impish looking beings with sparkling mischievous eyes staring at her , holding apples. One of threw one at her again but missed.
"hey! Stop that will you?" Amora yelled at them.
"ignore those two child, they are nothing but trouble. Ha! Green goblins, pestering creatures" Athil warned but kept walking.
The goblins had funny-looking hats on their heads and laughed hysterically when Amora tried to get hold of them despite Athil's warning. Amora stared at the apples on the ground and her mouth watered as they looked red and juicy. She picked one up and bit into it, only to find out that they were rotten.
"rotten apples" Amora spat out. "but they looked so ripe" Amora was at the brink of crying.
" of course they'd be rotten you silly girl, the green goblins are a notorious bunch. They must have performed some naughty magic on the apple for jokes and you fell for it ha!"
They kept walking until they came to a large wall with an arch for an opening .
"we are here" Athil announced as they approached the walls. Amora noticed that the walls had strange markings on them and the arch that was supposed to be the opening, had something like a force field or bubble covering it. Athil hollered at the two chubby guards who seemed to be his friends.
"stay away from some ale today, Alebelly" one of them said with a laugh. "you know I won't " Athil responded, also laughing. He disappeared into the bubble leaving Amora who was still looking at the high walls that seemed to be growing taller.
"are you coming or you are just going to stay out there" Athil popped his head from the bubble entrance. Amora put her hand in first and watched as it passed through. Athil pulled her in with so much force that she almost fell with her bag. " Save your looking for later child, I've got a duty post to go back to" Athil grumbled.
Amora was stunned by the entire place that she would call a fantasy medieval metropolis. She could see different people, different extremely beautiful people going about their activities. There were more winged people walking about from stall to stall.
"wow!" Amora kept exclaiming as she saw more strange beings moving about. "this is too good to be true" She said to Athil who was busy greeting every Tom, Dick and Harry he met on the way. Amora noticed that the females here, just like her, had extremely long hair but different colors and their outfits looked very strange to her, as hers looked strange to them too.
"Hello Alebelly" That came from a woman who was flying in the air on a carpet .She was waving at them, particularly at Athil.
"Hello Marabeth, have a nice day" Athil responded.
"was that a real flying carpet?" Amora asked still looking very much stupefied.
"of course it is real girl, do you go about thinking everything you see isn't real?" Athil was sounding sarcastic now.
"I, uh, it's just so unbelievable, Athil, back where I am from, we have aircraft do the flying and we pay huge amount of money to get tickets to get to wherever we wanna go. I usually have Lexi do the bookings for me and mum" She explained but Athil didn't understand most of the things she said, instead he just nodded his head in agreement.
"here in Vadina Mystia, witches and wizards fly on anything" Athil explained.
" I thought they only used broomsticks? That's what we were told in the stories"
"not only brooms, they fly in mortars, carpets, sacks, whatever so long they can put a hex on it" Athil grabbed an apple from a child's tray and dropped some coins into it. Athil gave Amora the apple, Amora gobbled it up like her life depended on it.
" The air elementals also do a bit of flying" Athil added.
"what about the force of gravity? I mean doesn't it pull them down?" Amora asked wide eyed as she saw another person flying on a silk gown.
"gravity? Who is that? And why would he want to pull them down?" Athil asked looking very confused at what Amora had said. It was obvious that he barely understood most of the things she kept talking about. Athil could perceive some fresh Morbory ale from a distance. He thought of giving Amora a map to the Daeva house and going to the tavern to get drunk on ale, but he decided against it thinking that she would get lost or get into some kind of trouble.
Amora saw a young boy who looked like he would be between ten and eleven standing on a ball of air that moved back and forth and immediately guessed him to be an air elemental. Just as they kept walking, Amora bumped into someone, a girl who looked like her age. The girl had long pink hair that was tangled in a messy ponytail. Her blue eyes held apologies as she helped Amora pick up her bag that fell when they bumped into each other. Amora thought the girl's outfit to be weird as she wore a green gown that stopped above her knees and some leather boots and what amazed Amora was the matching green cloak the girl had on.
"I'm so so sorry, I didn't see you there, do pardon me" The girl pleaded as she handed Amora the bag.
"Clumsy you!" Athil said to the girl.
"it's alright, don't mind him, he's been cranky all day" Amora smiled at the girl.
"hi I'm Bloom" The girl shook Amora's hands.
" The name is Amora, but you can call me Mora" Amora said as she freed herself from the girl's grip.
" can we get going now? The Daeva house is still a long walk away. Save the chitchats for later, I've got somewhere else to be" Athil grumbled.
"oh I'm headed there too mister, perhaps I can take Amora from here and you can go attend to your affairs" Bloom offered. It sounded like a very good idea to Athil who desperately wanted to get rid of Amora and her unending questions and also get to take some ale before going back to the realm gates. Athil accepted the offer happily and went on his way.
"So long Red, don't bump into things, don't pluck Nelix bloomers and stay away from green goblins" Athil hollered at her as he went. " Thank you beer belly" Amora had called him beer belly on purpose.
"The name is Alebelly, Alebelly" Athil yelled and the two girls giggled.
"he's such a prickly little man" Amora said as she turned and saw Bloom staring at her outfit and more intensely at her face.
"uh, shall we head to the house now Bloom?"
" your outfit looks really different and your face, hmmm, can't really say, but you look a lot like my mother's bestfriend from the painting at hour home" The girl said as she examined the confused Amora. Bloom suddenly remembered the famous Vadina tale of Aura Daeva who died to keep her child away from the dark mistress and then she thought her mind was playing tricks on her but this girl standing before her looked exactly like Aura who had been her mother's best friend before she died.
"I uh, I'm not from here Bloom, or should I say, I am from here by birth but only just found out few days ago"Amora explained to Bloom who was walking beside her now.
"You are definitely Aura's child but your hair"
"my hair? What's wrong with it?" Amora asked.
"it's red and according to the legend of the essence, the last essence would be born of another essence, the gods would send essence bearers five times and the fifth, the last would be born of another essence" Bloom quoted.
"uh, I don't understand "
"your mother was the fourth essence and according to the legend, the last is to be born of another essence and all essence hairs are always black and white, but yours is red, which means you are a fire elemental which is strange" Bloom explained some more.
Amora didn't seem to understand what this girl was trying to say. "so you can deduce my powers from the color of my hair?" She asked.
"yes of course I can. Here, everyone's hair color is kind of like an identity. Most fire elementals have fiery red hair like yours"
"I don't have any powers Bloom, in fact, I do not know what my purpose of being here is. It just sucks, messy and all" Amora sounded broken as she remembered everything that had happened. Bloom felt sorry for her and decided to cheer her up.
" I am a naturite" Bloom announced.
"what's that?" Amora asked.
"naturites have the ability to make plants grow and can talk to animals and summon nature spirits " Bloom bragged.
Bloom demonstrated by stooping to a small patch of flowers by the road and her eyes turned green as she rubbed her palms together, Amora could see some green light slowly surrounding the flowers and they grew bigger and opened their buds. Amora was surprised to see what Bloom had just done and more surprised when Bloom's hair had taken the color of the flower she had manipulated to grow, which was purple.
"Your hair" Amora pointed.
"oh that! It happens when I make a plant grow and it changes to the plant's color. Don't worry, it'll wear off" .
Amora asked Bloom more about the essence and the house Daeva. Bloom said so many things at once that left Amora confused. Amora in turn told her how she had gotten into the realm, leaving the details of Louisa's death out.
"We are here!" Bloom announced in a singsong manner. They were now standing in front of a huge brick house that could pass as a multi million dollar vintage house in one of those house collection television shows she watched with Louisa back in San Geneva. The house had the same double interlocked diamond sign she had as a birthmark on her waist embedded into it's walls.
Amora didn't know what awaited her inside this huge mansion, she took in deep breaths and then Bloom proceeded to knock on the door.