Moon and Star - Part One

China

~Chapter Five~

Back with Xiala. . .

The guard beside her clearly couldn't get more bored. Perhaps. . . "Mr. Guard, sir?" Xiala said. He glanced at her. "What?" "I was wondering - cough - maybe you could - cough - untie me?" He laughed. "No way, missy. And why are you coughing so much?" "Allergic - cough - reaction. Medusoid Mycelium. My brain thinks peppermint is Medusoid Mycelium." He raised his eyebrows. "Please," Xiala begged, her brain already stirring up a thousand lies. "M-my sister - cough - is only five! And my mom and aunt must be so worried." Seeing that he wasn't moved, she suddenly had an idea. "Um - cough - sir, I think - cough - doesn't - cough - me coughing make you so very annoyed?" He rolled his eyes. "Duh." "Well - cough - perhaps you could - cough - give me the antidote," Xiala said. "I don't have any, stupid missy. And of course I'm not helping you." "There's an antidote. It's just in the kitchen of the - cough - cottage!" He shrugged and walked away, poking his head into the kitchen of Eve's cottage and grabbing some wasabi. "Is this good enough?" He asked. Xiala nodded. He didn't give it to her. "Are you going to - cough - give it to me - cough - or not, dork?" He handed her the wasabi. As soon as she was cured, Xiala broke free and sprinted into the distance. "Thanks, dingus!" She yelled, waving goodbye to him as he stood there, speechless. Suddenly a voice screamed in her head, NOOO! Was that Olivia's voice? But that was illogical. So that had to be - Oh no. MIRA!

Following the sound of the thought, she tracked down to the end of the river, where a huge ice cube was floating downstream, even though it was midsummer. She squinted. Someone was trapped in the ice. Surely that's where all the help was needed? But just as she was about to try and unfreeze the ice, someone jumped out at her from the water, surprising her so much she nearly fell into the stream. But it wasn't the sudden tackle that made her do that. It was the person who did it. "Mira! You're alright!" Xiala cried. At the same time Mira cried, "Xiala! You're alive!" They hugged each other tightly. Xiala's eyes burned and she did her best not to let the stupid wet thing happen to her eyeballs. She knew she didn't hold it back when Mira handed her a tissue. Wait a minute. So - who's the one in the river? Xiala glanced back at the stream. But the ice cube was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Olivia?" She asked. Mira pointed to the water. Then a confused expression passed on her face. "I froze her in an ice cube," she said slowly, hurrying to the edge of the water. "She was here a minute ago - I don't understand!" Suddenly Xiala saw a dripping wet figure across the river, running the opposite direction. "She's getting away!" Mira cried. "We need to catch her!" Xiala put a hand on her shoulder. "No. Let her go. You've done a lot today. We're both exhausted. There's no way we'll defeat her right now anyways - she's clearly too far away from the water. We need more training. And we need to find Mother and Aunt Moonlight first." Mira nodded. Then she hugged Xiala again. "Where's our next destination?" Xiala asked a little jokingly. To her surprise, Mira seemed confident. "China," she said.

"China? I thought that was a breakable material that Mother was obsessed with." Xiala said, confused. "No. China, as in the country, I think." "Country?" "Kingdom," Mira translated. "There's a lot of books on it in Eve's cottage." "Well, what are we waiting for? Do you have a map?" "Yeah, of course." Mira produced a scroll out of nowhere. She laid out the map and Xiala gasped. "Is this - all America?" "No. This part is America. This part is Asia. That's where China is. There's no way Olivia will find us there, across the ocean, especially now that I've taken this map." "Wait. All the way across this - this Pomegranate Ocean?" "Pacific," Mira corrected. "It will take approximately one and a half days, by airplane." "And I don't suppose you mean flyable vehicles?" Xiala snorted. "Listen. You aren't anywhere close to flying yourself over the ocean, without me on your back. But we could swim." "Swim!?" Mira yelped. "Are you insane!?" "I don't know," Xiala said sarcastically, "What do you think?" "Xiala, look at the words!" Mira cried, pointing to the map. "There are sharks, and piranhas! And octopi and - and-" She stumbled over the words as she cried out all the dangerous creatures in the Pomegranate - no, the Pacific Ocean. Xiala rolled her eyes and grabbed Mira's hand. "Come on. We're swimming. We're the daughters of the ocean. Get your swimsuit." She joked. Mira rolled her eyes. "Very funny." She sighed then walked toward the stream. "Let me show you what the words 'Water Heir' mean." She jumped in. Xiala jumped in after her. Mira created a water bubble around them, and using her powers she made it

swim forwards by itself. "Xiala, locate our location." Xiala nodded and unrolled a piece of parchment she'd pick-pocketed from Olivia during their face-to-face conversation. The Map Of All Knowing, created by Queen Adira of the Spell Kingdom. Her favourite aunt. "WHERE ARE WE GOING, MAP?" She yelled. The map grew a mouth and looked very offended. "How about a 'please' for a start?" "Can you please tell me where we're going?" Xiala growled through a fake smile. "Well, you're going a looong way. Over here," the map said. He showed them a growing red dot on the very side of the map. "And you're over here. This amount of ocean equals the same size of land of the Three Continents together, plus their oceans. So yeah, a long way." With that the mouth disappeared. Fortunately, the two red dots and the red line connecting them to form a route did not. Xiala sighed. The water bubble sped forwards rapidly. "A long time." She repeated. "Or - we could use something else to get there." Mira said. "As in?" "As in a portal. And I found some portal drops in Eve's room." "Well, what are you waiting for?" Xiala asked. "Let's go!" Mira took a drop of portal powder and sprinkled it in the air above them. Xiala held her hand as a portal appeared before them. "To - China!" They chanted, and disappeared in a swirl of green light.