Chapter 4
Shaking, I slowly stepped forward through the hole dumbstruck. Eyes not focusing on one thing, it swept from side to side to take in as much as possible. I didn’t know where to begin to describe the place. The sky was a bright blue with puffs of pure white clouds and colourful birds soaring freely. The only place that we could walk was a path that led far beyond while surrounding the path was clear water that reflected the sky. The path was a fresh green of grass with little flowers here and there that never seemed to get crushed even though we walked on it. Spread all over the water was little islands of beautiful ribbon trees and more flowers.
There were people walking about and sitting in boats, all dressed up in elegant clothes that I’ve not seen before. Each and everyone one of them was either beautiful or handsome; smooth skin and silky hair, they all seemed to look alike yet they still look unique. Some of them, like Winter, had eyes of swirling colours, and again they were looking at me. It took a moment for me to realize that whenever they saw me, they never stopped gazing at me. Was there something stuck in my teeth? I swore I brushed my teeth this morning!
“Is something wrong? Why are they all looking at me?” I asked, not particularly to anyone.
“It is like I have said, everyone has hoped for this day to come when you, sitera munité, come home.” Answered Winter.
“Why do you keep calling me that? And what do you mean home? I’ve never been here my life and I certainly remember that the only home I had was the orphanage house.”
“There is so much more to you than you can remember sistera, but this is the place where you belong. Everyone knows of you here, and you will come to understand once we get to the palace.” He offered me his arm with a smile and with a nod and another smile from Alta, I took it, and continued walking.
To a sudden surprise, someone started shouting. “Sistera munité! Sistera munité! Sistera munité sa inuet! Guita!” and like a start of a fireworks, everyone started cheering and shouting about the same thing. They were all beaming at me, clapping and jumping and I was sure that I caught a glimpse of tear in an elderly woman’s eye. I felt myself giving them all a smile back, unsure of what to do. A little girl even ran to me and handed me a flower which I took with a grateful thanks.
Still moving forward, we were suddenly like a parade marching down the path. Deeper into the place, the trees grew thicker and I saw little lights hanging on them. Under each light was a door. Houses? These people lived in trees? Further up ahead, a building towered over us. It must be the palace. Lighted up, the palace looked like a Christmas tree. Building made of marble; it had towers shooting up towards the sky and waterfalls coming down from certain parts of the wall, flowing into the lake that surrounded the palace. It felt like I walked into a fairytale story where things are always pretty and bright with multiple rainbows in the sky and a prince charming by my side.
We entered the palace through a huge wooden door polished till it shined and was greeted by a large fountain in the middle with an hour glass sculpture. The same words on Winters arms were also engraved at the base of the fountain which made me really itching to find out what it meant. We made our way through a few more doors and finally came to a long hall with three thrones at the end.
A woman in a shiny blue gown stood up from the middle throne and started walking towards us. More beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen, she had her golden brown hair up in curls, rosy cheeks that matched her lips and the figure of a model with probably long legs under the skirt and graceful long fingers. She broke into a run which still look impossibly graceful and I stumbled when she flung herself at me, hugging me closely like a mother who has not seen her daughter in years.
It was then when she touched me that it happened. I was in my usual state when I looked into people’s past but this time I did not start it; it just came flashing in front of my eyes. I saw three little girls playing around a garden and chasing butterflies, then an older woman coming down from a house to greet them with a smile, joyous laughter rang as they went chasing each other enjoying the sun. The scene suddenly flashed and the same garden I was just at was now burning in flames, the whole situation was completely different from before. Now there was fear and darkness as a shadow slowly crept towards the four of them. A male figure stood between us and yelled for them to run. The girls were screaming and crying not wanting to go but were then dragged away and separated. The last thing I saw was the man being consumed by the shadow and everything went black.
I jerked back into reality and looked into the woman’s face. It was her. She was the lady playing with the 3 girls. And. And I was one of the three girls. Who is she? Did I really see her past? Our past? Somebody please wake me up!
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