Moon and Star - Part One

The Cottage - Part One

~Chapter Three~

Xiala was dead. She was, wasn't she? She was having a hard time distinguishing life from death right now. Either way, she wasn't feeling anything. She was frozen in place, listening and unable to ask Mira for help. After five agonizing minutes, she heard something she swore she'd never take for granted again: her heartbeat.

Xiala sat up with a gasp, her cheeks flushed. Mira quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and signaled to Xiala that she needed to hold her breath. Xiala puffed out her cheeks and let Mira lead her away from the M&M, meaning Medusoid Mycelium, and to the light of the Crystal Cove. Memories came rushing back and so did the blood. Xiala felt dizzy and stopped for a moment, then took a deep breath and kept going. When they got to the Crystal Cove Xiala's eyes widened. Quite a few people were waiting at the exit. And not all of them looked friendly. For example, Queen Olivia of the Air Kingdom in the lead, snarling as she held a bow-and-arrow straight to Mira's forehead. "It's okay. She can't shoot," Mira muttered under her breath. Then the twelve soldiers behind Olivia stepped out. They were all heavily armed, and were detailedly picked as the most loyal, strongest warriors in the Air Kingdom. Xiala coughed again. She was in no shape to fight, and Mira couldn't defeat all the Air Kingdom Twelve on her own, nevermind Olivia, who was almost as equally as powerful as Eve. Unless she did that again, which Xiala was never going to let her sister do, even if it meant that they would be caught again and possibly never escape. Well, of course she couldn't tell Mira that. She wouldn't listen anyways. Xiala ducked behind a large stone as the first warrior started acting unevenly. "Get Olivia first!" She coughed through the dust. She couldn't see what was happening, but as her vision slowly returned, she saw Olivia walking toward Mira with a sour expression on her face. The Air Kingdom Twelve were officially knocked out, sprawled on the stone floor with large bumps on their foreheads. But so was Mira. "Mira!" Xiala gasped. She coughed again; Olivia clearly hadn't found her before, but she turned in the direction of her voice. Xiala caught her breath. She wouldn't be able to defeat Olivia right now, in this condition. And the warriors would wake up at any time. As she watched with horror, Olivia advanced on her sister. She waved her hand and produced a magic gold rope that automatically tied itself around Mira. The Magic Rope. When did Aurora give it to Olivia? There was no time to lose; without thinking Xiala burst up from behind the stone and yelled with all her might left, "Leave her alone!" Olivia snarled and turned to her. Suddenly Xiala caught a movement by the side of her eye. Something shimmering appeared beside Mira. It was . . . a portal. I need to distract Olivia. Then I'll take her and run in. She yelled some threatening words and ran to the side of the cavern. Olivia ran after her with surprising speed. A gust of sharp wind blew past Xiala's ear. If she hadn't ran as fast, it would have chipped half of her face off. Suddenly Olivia gave a cry of pain and stumbled behind her. Xiala caught her breath and turned, not daring to glimpse an extra peek. Her aunt was sprawled on the ground, knocked out. Mira had woken up and was sending another tide of wind towards Olivia, go make sure she was thoroughly knocked out. Then she motioned to Xiala and lifted into the air, vanishing behind the portal. Without hesitation Xiala followed through. The portal closed behind them. As soon as they'd passed through and into America, Xiala collapsed. She'd only just barely survived and already she'd breathed in another breath of Medusoid Mycelium, when she'd woken up. Having less than two hours to live, she wanted to see Mira happy, unless her little sister could - conveniently - conjure up another chocolate bar. Mira turned to Xiala and put her hands on her hips. "You shouldn't have-" "I know, ok?" Xiala snapped; she didn't know what was making her so angry, unless you could count the hormones of being a teenager, which you couldn't, because Xiala never got mad at Mira, no matter how much her sister deserved it. "But-" "Shut up for a moment and think, would you!?" Xiala practically screamed. "I am, Xia, but-" "NO BUTS! YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO FIX THIS!" "But-" Listen, Mira! I'm not going to be around forever because we're kilometers away from the nearest chocolate factory - away from ANYTHING, really! So shut up already and start planning!" "I will, but-" "JUST DO IT!" "Xia, I-" "NO! SHUT UP AND START PLANNING!" "YOU SHUT UP!" Mira shot back. "SHUT UP AND START RUNNING BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVE TWO HOURS AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO SPEND IT ARGUING!" Mira yelled. Xiala paused then gave in with another cough. "Xia, I know you want me to start planning, but you need to rethink this!" "I said yes now let's please get going I think I'm going to faint!" Xiala snapped, then took a few shallow breaths. "Yes yes of course COME ON!" They ran and ran and ran having no idea where they were going except for when Xiala found a stray phone, hacked it and used Google Maps, having absolutely no idea what she was doing in this unfamiliar place. She took a look at it and nearly fainted. "Where are we?" Mira asked. "America, no doubt." "Thanks, that's a way of saying it," Xiala replied faintly before fainting on the spot.

When she woke up it was nighttime. Everywhere on her body was sore. But she was still alive! And breathing steadily. And not sure how she'd survived, or where she was. She seemed to be in a cottage. A fireplace sat at the base of the house, and a round wooden table stood on the wooden floor. She was lying on a fur-mattress bed by the window. It's panes were closed, and outside was pitch-black. A few candles were lit all around the room, enveloping her in a warm yellow glow. The fire crackled merily in the fireplace, heating the room with a gentle flow of warmth. Xiala edged closer to it. The cottage was filled with the smell of roasted rabbit and bread and delicious butter. As she watched someone walked out of the other room to the left, which must be the kitchen. She laid the dishes on the table and walked toward Xiala. "You're awake!" Moonmira cried gleefully, flinging her arms around her older sister. Xiala blinked. "I don't get it. How am I still alive? Where are we?" "Well, you'd probably be dead," Mira said, "If I hadn't found Eve's cottage. Luckily, she'd planted some horseradish here, which saved you. I caught a rabbit and roasted it, and found some flour in the cupboard and a chunk of heavy butter, so I decided to make dinner while you recovered." Xiala's head was spinning. "But horseradish only cures my allergies! How did it. . ." She realized the answer after she remembered how whenever she was having her allergic reactions her chest would tighten and her breathing would become ragged. "My body takes peppermint and garlic as Medusoid Mycelium." "Wow, it took you a long time to realize that." Mira laughed. "Any longer would be like saying 'First I'm going to retrieve a pot of tea, then I'm going up to get the Medusoid Mycelium, then I'm going down to poison everyone, then I'm going up again to escape the authorities for poisoning everyone. It's a lot of ups and downs but hey, so is life." Xiala said. She breathed in the fresh air, free of pollution and the deadly fungi that had nearly cost her life two times in two days. Then she realized what day it was and jumped up, running to the kitchen and grabbing a ruler, then running back and measuring Mira's height. She did this every time at Mira's birthday, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's day and Day Of The Dead. Nodding in satisfaction, Xiala was rolling up the ruler when she noticed: Brave. Courage. Life. "Weird words for a ruler. I wonder why. . ." "I don't know." Mira shrugged. "All I know is that it's a ruler." "How very observant of you." Xiala said sarcastically. "Maybe Eve left it here. Maybe it's an ancient object. Maybe it's enchanted! Maybe -" "That's enough! Maybe you should stop talking and start breathing!" Xiala cried. Then she calmed down. "Is there anything else here that will help? What is our plan now? Should we stay and train?" She wasn't talking to Mira, but her little sister piped up anyway. "I figured that all out while you were gone. You see, we do need some training. And there's a lot of useful tools here. I even found an air-training scroll that Eve probably left behind." Or was forced to leave behind. Xiala thought. "Also, there's this script on metal-controlling that I found. It's pretty interesting. I think you'd like it. There's also a library with all these cool techniques and history articles, though it seems like no one was interested in them for a hundred years." "That's probably because no one was interested in them for a hundred years." Xiala said. Her stomach growled, reminding them she hadn't had dinner yet. "You go to the library and I'll bring you dinner." Mira said. Xiala nodded and walked away. Then she walked back in and asked, "Where's the library?" Mira pointed with a giggle and Xiala walked in that direction. Seating herself in a beanbag chair, Xiala used telekinesis, a gift most royals had, to flip through the books. "No, no no, no no no, not this one is about candy, no no no and NO!" Her soft, melodic voice grew louder and angrier with each frustratingly useless book she flipped through. "What's wrong?" Mira asked as she walked in carrying a tray. Xiala snatched the bowl of soup and slowly sipped it as she ignored Mira, looking at more of the books. "No no no no no no no no no!" She stomped her foot. "Everything here is USELESS!" Hot tears stung her eyes as she thought about the new baby sister she might never have. "We'll find them, Xia. We really will." Mira promised softly. "But for now, let's call it a night." Xiala nodded silently. Her voice wasn't working and she was afraid that if she tried to talk she'd start crying. They lay down to sleep and Mira was the first one to be snoring softly. Xiala couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned for at least an hour before giving up on sleep and standing up to make some tea. As soon as she'd walked back into the library, where they were sleeping, Mira sat up with a gasp. "Nightmare?" Xiala asked grimly. Mira nodded and Xiala sat down beside her, singing softly the lullabye Moonlily used to sing, and Crystal had sung, and Eve had sung. Within seconds, Mira had fallen asleep again, a look of peace on her face and Xiala kept humming, finding herself tired and worn out from the day. She fell asleep not long after.