The Sky Realm

Chapter 11

Aaliyah was grumpy. Even though she wasn’t a morning person, she had forced herself to function at the crack of dawn. It was Grandmama’s rule. “Early bird gets the worm,” she would say, and Aaliyah would only grumble in response.

    When she was younger, she would force herself awake every morning just so that she could hear Grandmama say it to her. Then she would spend the entire morning pretending to be a bird, finding herself the best worm Shankshaw had to offer. As she got older and grew into her teenage years, sleep became precious, and she would dread the wake-up call at dawn, but Grandmama knew her well. The old lady used whatever tactic she wanted to wake her up, whether it was dousing her with cold water or surrounding her bed with smelly fishes. As Aaliyah grew older, she understood how essential mornings were for Grandmama, and so she had forced herself to become a morning person. But being woken up in the middle of the night and forced to follow instructions on three hours of sleep was merciless.

    Aaliyah shuddered and stretched her sleeves down to cover her bare hands from the cold night. She was following Mika, who somehow was happy about the entire situation. It didn’t bother her that they had to leave their warm, comfortable beds in the middle of the night and walk across the village to catch the ride Uncle had promised them just a few hours ago.

    “How much further?” Aaliyah grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

    “We’re almost there.”

    The night sky was going to fade into day soon, Aaliyah could tell. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her body, trying to trap what was left of her body heat. She was glad that they didn’t have to carry anything with them. Their necessities had already been sent ahead earlier.

    “Let’s cross,” Mika said, gesturing towards the creek. She rolled her pants up a few inches and began to wade through the relatively calm water. Aaliyah followed.

    “This water is freezing!” Aaliyah shrieked as she stepped into it. Mika shrugged and trudged on. Aaliyah felt goose bumps appear all over her body as she took her second step.

    The faster I move the sooner I will be out of the water, she told herself and found herself chanting a familiar mantra: one, two, one, two, one, two. She concentrated on the numbers until she was out of the water, her feet freezing.

    “I am so cold,” Aaliyah complained as she tried to wipe her cold feet on her trousers.

    “And to think I was almost impressed by that.” Mika rolled her eyes. “Come on; the wagon is right up ahead.”

    “Wagon? What wagon?”

    “After our journey here I had to invest in other means of transportation.”

    “Are you saying I’m slow?” Aaliyah stopped and crossed her arms across her chest.

    Mika raised an eyebrow. “Slow is an understatement. Now, stop wasting time and let’s go.”

    Aaliyah let out an annoyed growl and followed Mika through the dirt path and into the forest. Aaliyah was glad to see that the walk wasn’t as long as she had anticipated it to be because in front of her stood a wooden wagon with four wheels, a horse, and their designated driver. The man driving them introduced himself as Charlie and tipped his hat.

    Aaliyah climbed hurriedly into the wagon and all but collapsed on its wooden floor. The wagon was fairly comfortable and warm, but what surprised her most was the fact that the wagon was stocked with food, water, blankets, and spare clothes.

    Wow, Mika came prepared, Aaliyah thought as she assessed the abundance of the supplies around her. When does she have time to do all of this?