It's pointless to believe what you see,if you only see what you believe
- Marie Lu
Location unknown.
March 15
If confused was a person, it would be River Ladiston over the past few hours. After managing to pull his friends out of the lake, he takes a stroll around the area in an attempt to find out where they are. He had memorized the map two days before the trip, he knew the location like the back of his hand and wherever they currently are...is not Forest Lake camping ground.
That aside he was more worried by the fact that he had managed to control his breathing underwater. Of course he tried not to think much about it, he kept telling himself he's just a talented swimmer.
He hears a ruffle and turns around to where his sister was on the floor, hovering over her. Her eyes pry open slowly and their blue eyes meet. "Thank God you're awake." He lets out a breath of relief. "Everyone else is still knocked out."
She looks around trying to assess the environment. "Where are we?" she manages to croak out "And why is it so..cold?"
'Were we kidnapped?' she thinks 'No no Skai, if we were kidnapped we wouldn't be out in the open.'
"We weren't kidnapped" River answers. "I said that out loud?" she asks him, and he nods.
"But to answer your other question...I have no idea" he pauses helping her sit up as she begins to cough out water. "But I do know that we are nowhere near camp. I studied the surroundings before the trip and this location" he motions around them "Was not on the map, it doesn't even feel like NYC"
"Well, we've got to find the campsite" she coughs out more water and River rubs her back. "Did I drown?"
"If you drowned you'd probably be dead, so no" he tells her "I remember waking up inside the lake, I pulled you guys out"
"Wouldn't we have all drowned?" She asks skeptically.
"Hell, I don't know, let's just be grateful we're alive" he looks over at the lake before his eyes glance to each of his friends "I have no idea how to perform CPR, so I just hoped and prayed you were all alive"
"A swimmer that can't perform CPR" Skai scoffs.
"I think we fell through that bright light" River says ignoring her little jab at him.
"River this is real life, if we fell through a bright light that would make it a portal and as cool as that would be, I don't think portals have been invented yet and if it had been why would they leave it in the middle of a forest?" She asks him getting up to have a better look at their surroundings.
"Just a thought" he stands up following her.
"And how can you even make that assumption so calmly?" She turns to face him, tucking her hair behind her ear moving it away from her face.
"What do you want me to do?" he asks her lifting a brow "Cry? Jump? Scream??"
Skai lets out a heavy sigh falling back to the ground in the middle of where Emily and Dexter lay. "Pinch me" she breathes out trying not to believe what he had just insinuated. He does so without hesitation causing her to yelp.
"Just end my life while you're at it" she narrows her eyes at him and he sits in front of her.
He lets out a soft hearty laugh "I pinched myself a dozen times already bubblehead, it's not a dream, I've been here waiting for about an hour?" he looks at his watch which he never takes off—Skai has a similar one, it was a gift from their father many years ago. "Maybe two, I've been doing a lot of thinking and nothing makes any sense."
They sat by their friends and soon enough they all began to wake up one by one. River and Skai did their best to explain their assumptions and keep them caught up, now they're currently walking through the forest aimlessly.
"Hey look!" Dexter beams pointing in the direction of a cabin in the distance. "It's a cabin!"
"It's giving Jack and Jill" Skai shudders.
"I think you mean Goldilocks" River says "Jack and Jill fetched water genius"
"It was an eerie fairytale" Skai retorts crossing her arms "That was my point."
"Disregarding the useless points either of you were intending to make, you're both wrong. This has more of a red riding hood vibe to it" Emily joins their conversation.
"Loud" Dexter emphasizes loudly before continuing "and wrong Ms. Solaris" he scoffs shaking his head. "This is clearly Hansel and Gretel."
"Well, Einstein" Emily mocks in response "If you haven't noticed we don't have any food" She rolls her eyes.
"But we are hungry" Dexter rubs his stomach.
"I don't think the story ever claimed that Hansel and Gretel were necessarily hungry" River tells Dexter.
"Did they or di-" Elijah cuts Dexter off.
"Sorry to burst all of your bubbles, but we didn't fall into any fairytale" Elijah shakes his head at their antics.
"Says who?" Skai says cheekily turning around to face him, walking backwards as they slowly approached the cabin "We'll never know unless we find out" she winks.
"Yeah don't do that ever again" Elijah spins her back around "I don't know what movie you think you're starring in" he shakes his head sarcastically.
"Before anyone thinks about it, there is no reason on earth why we should go towards the cabin" River warns them.
As soon as he says that a beautiful woman with gorgeous black dread locs that sweeps the floor, black eyes and flawless caramel skin steps outside of the cabin door.
"Are you little ones lost?" She asks them, looking concerned.
"This is the part in the movie that the dumb kids usually get kidnapped" Skai whispers to them and River responds skeptically "No, we'll find our way" he lies.
"Oh no, you all look cold. Why don't you come in and warm up a little?" She offers.
"I mean she does seem a little nice" Skai mutters.
"Maybe we could use her phone to call the teachers or our parents" Dexter adds.
"I don't know about this, guys" Emily mumbles to them "She's a complete stranger."
"Yeah but when Dexter puts it that way, we have no idea where we are, and a phone would be really helpful right now." River starts to give in. "I mean what's the worst that could happen?"
"No one eats or drinks anything she offers" Elijah whispers to them and they began to walk towards the woman.
When they step in confusion, amazement and awe wrap their minds.
"This is so not a cabin" Emily whispers to herself taking in the beauty of what seemed like the inside of a mansion. The voices of children echo through the walls of the beautiful house, everything in it made of glass, marble or gold.
"I swear this was a humble cabin a moment ago" Dexter blurts out what was going through all their minds.
"This is far from humble Dex" River looks around in awe
"A cabin" the woman giggles "Oh yes, I believe you did see a cabin, we try to be humble" As little sense as her explanation made to them. They all nodded.
"Still" River says under his breath "Far from humble."
"And you said we didn't fall into any fairy tale." Skai nudges Elijah, her eyes glistening but Elijah wasn't listening in fact he had zoned out again walking mindlessly with them.
"Memory loss air?" He finally responds confused and Skai looks at him even more confused.
"Huh?" she asks.
"Memory loss air" he says again in confirmation this time everyone turns to him.
"What are you talking about?" Emily walks closer to him asking him.
"I have a feeling we've got to get out of here...immediately" he looks at the woman his expression hard.
"Let's just make the call first, Lijah" Dexter suggests but Elijah shakes his head grabbling Emily and Skai.
"We won't be warming up" he tells the woman calmly "But thank you"
River and Dexter follow behind as they exit the house quickly confused.
"What was that about?" Emily asks as Elijah lets go of her and Skai scratching his head.
The woman steps out staring at Elijah weirdly.
"Who are you?" She asks muttering something else incoherently under her breath.
"I should be asking you that question" His hand drops from his head.
"What's going on?" River asks Elijah.
"I just think we should leave" Elijah tells him turning around.
"Wait!" The lady calls out stopping them. "I'll clear the air and come clean...just give me a moment." She hurries inside doing as she told them and arrives back outside.
"I'll explain everything" They all look at each other uncertain.
"Why exactly should we trust you?" River asks.
"Because I have the answers you're looking for"
........
"How did you know?" The lady asks Elijah, and he looks away. "Just a hunch" he shrugs "Are you sure it's gone?"
"Yes, it's gone. Who are you?" she asks.
"You said you would give us answers" Dexter cuts in. "We're waiting"
"Yes, yes" she composes herself on the couch opposing them in the discussion room of her house. "But to do that I must know what you were doing coming from the lake of life "
"The lake of life?" she asks.
"It's the only thing in that direction besides the SDMS, and it's impossible to get in and out of there, wait" she pauses "You're not escapees are you?"
"We have no idea what you're talking about" Skai shakes her head.
"Not escapees, not earthlings, what are you?" she asks and the five all do a double take.
"What do you mean earthlings?" Dexter asks "We are on earth"
"No, no no" she shakes her head "If you were earthlings the portal would have opened." She informs them.
"Can you stop being so vague and cryptic and just tell us what is going on?" Elijah asks, his voice calm and smooth but he could feel his heart in his throat.
"I'm Yesani Bolvera" she introduces herself to them "I live here with my husband and two kids. My husband and I work for the great council as the guardians of the lake of life. This period criminals from all over Ardeneon are seeking to go there. The moon is gone for rest so the portal to earth is open. That's why it's forbidden, everyone knows that. My job as guardian is to bring any earthling that happens to arrive in Ardeneon to my home cause them to lose memory of here and then send them back home through a portal that only humans can pass through, a portal that only opens when humans are present. I tried to open the portal when I believed the human memory loss air would have started to kick in, but it didn't work and you five have your memory intact" she tells them.
"Nothing you are saying makes any sense" River mutters.
"We're humans, this is earth, and we have to get back to our camp site" Dexter tells her trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince her.
"Okay" Emily speaks up "Let's assume what you are saying is true, how do we get back to earth?"
"You...can't" Yesani Bolvera looks at the floor. "The moon will be back tonight that means the portal closed at noon. I would advise you find your parents and have a talk with them"
"What do you mean find our parents?" Elijah asks "Our parents are at home, actually forget it, just let us put a call through on your phone"
"Phone?" she asks.
"Yes, like your cell phone? Mobile phone?" Skai says.
"We don't have those here" She answers.
"We are screwed" Dexter sighs leaning back into the couch.
"So, you are from earth" Yesani concludes.
"Are you saying we aren't on earth?" River asks biting his lips grabbing onto his sister's hand.
"I-" Dexter cuts her off.
"Does that mean we're in another dimension?"
"We-" Skai cut her off before she could answer.
"Wait...we're not humans?!"
"You're all just asking the same question in different ways, maybe you should let her speak" Emily shuts them all up and Yesani smiles at her appreciatively. A smile which Emily does not return.
"To answer your questions Yes, not necessarily and no I don't think so"
"You don't think so? What are we then Ogres?" River asks.
"No" she shakes her head in response amused by his question "Assuming you are from Ardeneon that would make you sprites."
"Like the soda?" Skai tried to crack a joke, but Yesani clearly didn't get it as her response to Skai's remark was a face full of confusion.
"I don't think she means the soda Skai" Elijah mutters.
"Look" Yesani begins to suggest. "I don't know how to get sprites out, but I do know someone who might be able to help you find your families"
"My family is on earth" Dexter tells her pain evident in his voice. "I don't want to find anyone else I just want to get back to my mom" he raises his voice a little.
River wraps his arm around Skai noticing her begin to cry "Does that mean we'll never see Dad again?" She sniffs wiping her tears trying to stop herself from crying hysterically.
"We will" He rubs her back. "Promise"
"If you can find your families it's possible that they could be the same as you know or different and help you go back to earth, I'm not meant to advise sprites to leave Ardeneon given my position on the great council but if it's what you really want, I know someone that could be of help."
"Why are you helping us?" River asks skeptical.
"I have children of my own I can't imagine them going through this. I'll give you five time; I don't want to overwhelm you" She stands up leaving the room.
About 3 hours later she walks back into the room with a plate of snacks that they hadn't seen before.
"You all must be hungry" she sets the tray on the coffee table in front of them. They had all begun to accept that they weren't in some sort of fever dream by now and were more focused on how to get out.
"Our 'families' how do we find them?" Dexter asks placing air quotes on 'families'.
"Having skills would be really helpful if you want to get these people to help you" she tells them.
"You're going to need to be explaining everything you say because we are new to everything here" Elijah says.
"My apologies, Skills are abilities that sprites possess for example" she opens her palm a ball of ice forming over it. "I'm from Nefeli...I live in Thairo city for work purposes, besides flying I can do that"
"Can we fly?" Skai asks interested.
"I don't know, only air sprites and some...chorlings can fly" she tells them "I personally don't know much about skills but like I said I know someone that could be of help."
"Can you direct us to this person?" Elijah asks.
"Of course, but you'd need to enroll" she says.
"Enroll?" Dexter asks, "What do you mean enroll?"
"Enroll where?" Emily asks quietly.
"At the scire, Lucrari South" she answers their questions, noticing the blank expressions on their faces she proceeds to explain "It's an institution where younglins are required to attend to gather information about their world, who they are and how to be better."
"So...a school?" Skai huffs voicing all their thoughts.
"Let's look on the bright side-" Elijah cuts Skai off. "There is no bright side, we have nowhere to stay, no food to eat and we're lost in another world we know nothing about."
"That is the bright side, we should be asking ourselves questions like 'Why are we here?' 'What are our skills?' and realizing that this is a new adventure, I mean what are the odds that out of five close knit friends none are humans, and they all arrive in the dimension they are from at the same time?" Skai says.
"1 in a billion" Emily answers quietly.
"Hate to break it to you Skai but that is so not the bright side" River shakes his head with a sigh.
Yesani interrupts "Also not another dimension, it's like two sides to a shifling, there's earth and there's Ardeneon." she explains. After noticing Skai's confusion, she answers "Shifling is currency" She answers.
"We have a lot to learn" Dexter looks down at his fingers pulling at them anxiously "And we're homeless"
"Well, you could stay here till you find your parents, and I'm truly sorry for the awful first impression, you little ones have been through a lot" Yesani offers
"Really?" they all in unison full of confusion. A recurring feeling in their lives for the past couple hours.
"Yes, like I said I have kids of my own and I can't imagine them being out in the woods alone with nowhere to go" she sympathizes with them, pity lingering through her every word.