Me and Yamma have been walking in the shadow kingdom for less than ten minutes now. Thankfully, I had some spare robes that I stuffed in my bag. That I brought along. Otherwise we'd get noticed within seconds. Due to our odd style of clothes. Yep. Def not because we're the ones that took their king away. Even if they did recognise us they'd be lucky to have guessed that. If you were to look at the wanted posters of us here—they don't look like us at all.
Just to make this clear—they're drawings of three ginormous muscled dudes and three regular size evil looking women.
Where on earth did they come up with those? Not from earth that's for sure. Ha, get it. Earth…ok, never mind.
Sometime after the shadow king's disappearance, someone found out we were involved with it and spreaded wanted posters all around the kingdom. It was probably the sorcerer.
Although I guess it would be weird, if they hadn't known what happened to their king. If I lived in a kingdom with a royal family, I'd definitely want to find out what happened to them if they ever went missing. Just saying.
The good thing is that they don't know who we are, or what we look like. Though I won't take any risks, on walking around so freely.
We are both wearing dark black robes with a hoodie. Covering our heads. Just in case we're accused for being the ELE guardians and unwillingly sent to that ginormous uninviting castle behind us. Although we are indeed the 'ELE guardians'.
And torture us until we give in, then killing us either way. To think—we'd die if we're caught. What have I gotten myself into. Making an enemy of this dreadful kingdom. Becoming a guardian.
I need to stop thinking. This is getting too negative. Good thoughts.
Happy-positive thoughts. We'll get out alive. Cute bunnies. Cute anime drawings. The sunset. The sunrise. Desserts. The sensation of writing a thriller in a mystery story.
The roads are narrow, some less, others more. They looked exactly how Bizro had described it—dark, greedy and ruff—colorness. The ground was concrete, though, the alleyways dusty. Street vendors, pushy. Their shops are small. People are sneaky here. Stealing at any chance they get. Families against a building begging for anything—to live off.
I hear the screams of girls in the alleyway a mile away. Screaming out of fear. A gruff voice chuckling beneath it. The screech of metal rubbing against another, coming from someplace else.
My stomach turns. It's so depressing. And sick. Absolutely sick of how they can even think of abusing the weak.
I look down, paying attention to the map in hand. Drawing my mind back to our plan. I had drawn before going. Rather than the path ahead. Praying it will distract me from my surroundings.
Yamma was ahead of me.
When I abruptly felt pain on the right side of my shoulder, knocking the piece of paper out of my hands. Before I turned my head to see the person who bumped into me.
I quickly kneeled down to grab the piece of paper before it blew away. As I was one second away from grabbing it, a gust of wind came my way knocking my hoodie down.
Amazing timing, Ember.
Revealing my light-colored hair and green eyes. Great. Now, I'm going to get looked at.
Just what I want.
A hand unexpectedly appeared in front of me. Reaching for the map, then swiftly placing it in front of me as the person held it. My eyesight on the map. I slowly retrieve it and when I do, the person suddenly gets up and passes me.
I briskly look back and find the person already looking back at me. As we locked eyes. I felt my heart flutter for some strange reason. He was half a head taller than me. With a strong build, dark jet hair, the darkest blue pair of eyes I've ever seen with a glimpse of purple flames inside. He seemed young. Around my age or a year older.
For a moment I thought he had looked a bit surprised but I guess it was just my imagination since all I can see now is a handsome face with no expression at all. Wait. Did I just think he was handsome? No. No. You didn't.
I abruptly hear a muffled voice calling out. The voice soon came clear. "Ember! Are you coming?"
Yamma was calling me. It's like I was in a trance. I looked towards her "coming!" I rapidly respond, then looking back. He was gone. Nowhere in the crowd to be seen. Just disappeared.
Was it a ghost? Ok, now I'm just letting my imagination get the best of me.
We soon took an alleyway that would soon lead up to an invisible door. "So where's the door you were talking about?" Yamma questions, "it should be here somewhere…" I say continuing on searching. "Ah-!"
I quickly turn around as I heard Yamma scream. She wasn't next to me anymore, "Yamma! Where are you?" I shout with a worried tone. When all of a sudden a hand popped out of the wall beside me. Waving at me.
"Over here!" Yamma's voice muffled coming from the wide orange brick wall.
"Are you going to come through?"
I take a big breath and close my eyes, un-shore about passing through a wall. Hesitantly moving forwards. I feel a tap on my shoulder. I open my eyes and begin to embrace the smell of old books and the glimlighted room.
"I see you found me" Yamma jokes, smiling. The shop had this warm, harry potter aesthetic.
With dusty old books, unique potions, wands and a bunch of unusual things you would find in an antique shop on earth. Except these antiques have a special touch to them. One that would be able to talk to you or move by itself, and do all unique kinds of stuff.
"What do we need?" Yamma asked, wandering around the small shop trying not to trip over anything, "we need a blueberry flower that only grows here, in this realm. They should sell it here" I wonder around. "Is that all?"
"Yep, but we can look around for some other things, if we need anything else we might find useful" I told, browsing through the plants section.
As we continued browsing the shop, we came across a section that seemed to be forgotten—as it looked completely disorganised with ancient scrolls. Our curiosity was piqued.
She reached out to pick one up. Only to have it disintegrate in her hands. "Oops…" she muttered, looking sheepishly at me.
I sighed. Although, I couldn't help but smile at Yamma's clumsiness.
"Maybe we should stick to the less ancient items," I suggested, dragging her away.
We continued our search and eventually found the rare flower I needed. Along with a few other magical tools and trinkets that caught our interest from browsing the shop.
I walked up to the register. Unknowingly, how this will go down. I either obtain the items I currently have or get kicked out. Empty handed. "Excuse me, hello?" I swallow down hard.
"I'd like to buy something." I place the items we retrieved on the counter, waiting for someone to show up. "What if there's no one working?" Says Yamma.
"There is," I assure her. I hear them. Roustling about. A rustle comes from an open door way behind the counter. "Coming," a tired voice announces after yawning.
It's coming from the other room. White hair swishes past the doorway to the register. A head pops up from beneath. Wrinkled skin around the eyebags and forehead. His hair is a snowy white. As for his eyebrow they had strikes of pale blond. An elder. "How may I help you two?" he asks slowly, inspecting us with his eyes. His eyes were like a grey clouds. "We want to buy these," Yamma pointed to the items we chose. "Alright," he opens a notebook reviewing the prices.
This will take some time. Five million years later…
Nevertheless, it was only five minutes later.
"Anything else?" He looks up after reviewing all the items. Quicker than I anticipated.
"No." I replied being aloof.
"Where are you two ladies from? I haven't seen you around before." Yamma and I both look at one another. Signaling her a 'what should we say' look. I wait for her to speak but she doesn't. I guess it depends on me. What a joy.
"We're not from around here" He gives an 'ahh' impression. "Which kingdom are you from?" He takes out a calculator. Tapping away.
Shoot. What were the kingdoms called, again? Mythania? Plave? An…
Think. Come on, you can do this. Think at least of one name other than the shadow kingdom. And-and-under. Andere. That's it. "Andere" I pronounce without hesitation. "You come from Andere," he repeated my answer for himself. We both nod. "The land of terror," he proclaimed, as a reminder.
Andere–the land of nightmares and illusions. The land of terror suits it just right. Bizro and Daniel only briefly mentioned the name of the lands here and part of their history. Nothing more.
Last year, I searched the library in the hideout till it turned upside down. Since then I came to the conclusion that there were no books carrying the history of the shadow realm.
Just Zania–the elemental realm. The short old man examines us. "How did you make it out alive?" his tone was suspicious. Alive. Can you not leave the country easily? It must be deadly.
"I mean for such defenseless girls. There's no way you'd make it out of the mist forest, unscratched at that." He refers to our unscratched skin.
My cloak wasn't revealing any sort of my skin other than my face. My gaze drifts to Yamma.
You can see her arms are crossed, above the fabric. I gulp once again.
Does he know?
"Got lucky, I guess." I shrug, as if it was nothing.
The mist forest. That's knew information.
"We're not as weak as we look," Yamma proclaims, still held up by his comment. She steps closer to the register. "Don't." I advise her, my forearm wineds up in front of her. Halting her from walking any further. The man chuckles. "Sure." His tone is sarcastic.
He did not just laugh. Fine, so be it. He brought this upon himself.
My arm falls to my side. Yamma looks at me taken aback. I nod. A smile crawls up her cheek.
She leaps forward, now clenching the old man's shirt by the collar. The man shrieks.
"Now, do you think I'm all cute and sunshine?" Her voice is confident.
"No. Can-you-let-me-go-now? " She releases him. Currently fixing her clothes.
"My mistake," his breathing is quick, though slowly decreasing.
"Can I give you anything for free?" He's frightened. "We're good" I shake my head.
"Then how about when you visit next, I'll give you anything you like for free?" He enlightens us. "What do you think?" I ask Yamma, "why not." She shrugs without a care. "Great. I'll also brief you up to date with any gossip, if you like?" He seems to enjoy gossiping about others–for his age. "Sure" I agree without a thought. I doubt it will harm us from hearing gossip around here. Yamma taps my shoulder "we better get going." She displays her watch.
It's twenty past six. Shoot. I said I'd be back home at seven.
After we made our purchases, Yamma and I made our way back safely. Without any complications to the hideout. Where Oceane was waiting for our appearance.
We assured her that nothing happened. Just for Yamma accidentally destroying a scroll that could have been generations old. Which made both of us giggle apart for Yamma, only making her feel even worse about accidentally destroying something that was around for hundreds of years.
We assured her it was nothing to worry about and soon cheered her up with some hot chocolate as it was starting to get chilly around this time of the year.
While we were having our hot chocolate we showed her all the things we bought there.
We didn't dare tell the boys or Daniel, and Bizro since they'd probably over react and might keep an eye on us, if so. So, we decided not to.
Half an hour before seven, as the sun began to set, we all gathered in the forest behind the hideout to practice our magic. The forest was covered with giant oak trees and a small open yellow field in the middle, where we would practice, as it was isolated there from the public view.
Like always we took turns casting spells and refining skills, the air was filled with the crackling sounds of energy and sparks.