RACHEL
*
Rachel hadn't realised until now how big Terra actually was. He seems to tower over Mistress Sephne and the Nymphia Healers, neither of whom appear to be scared of the golden beast, unlike Caroline. Both the Healers wear green garbs and a band made of vines and roses. Their dark pink irises focused on the forest in front of them with green-tinted hands by their side. They look like a mysterious meadow themselves.
She entangles her fingers with the lion's hair, her bronze sword swinging as she shifts herself on Terra's back. He is calm and composed, the claws in his paws tucked in, almost like he is already trained around other spirits.
"We are here," Ferrine breaks the silence and waits for Rachel to climb off the lion. Terra instantly stops and fixes his eyes on the large groups of tree houses in front of them. A number of burrows lead up to the large wooden fortresses where tiny heads peak out the holes.
Rachel recognizes Pikani, the female nymph, with a spear in her hand. "I am surprised to see you here, Your Majesty."
Rachel straightens her green cloak and says, "I just wanted to help." She notices more nymphs appear of different shades of green skin behind their leader, her bark band circled around her head.
"Very well," Pikani takes a look at the Nymphia Healers. "Follow me."
The nymphs around her continue to stare at her and Terra, who has now laid down, licking his body to clean himself. Rachel responds to their curious looks with a few 'Hello's' and 'Hi's', which seems to surprise the spirits. "What is happening?" She whispers to Ferrine.
"There has not been an Earth Queen for quite a long time. Your selection is responsible for the rejuvenation of their land. You are the special gift given to us by Earth itself." She explains.
"I don't want to imagine myself like that." She thinks about Ferrine's words again. "Wait, 'us'? Are you also a nymph?"
"Some part of me is," she continues, "I am mostly a thorn spirit but my mother is half-nymph. However, I did not grow up inside a forest. Thorn spirits live in separate communities."
Pikani stops in front of a twisted tree and starts climbing it. She twirls her arm around a thick branch and shouts down, "Do you require a ladder, Your Majesty?"
Rachel looks around in confusion when Ferrine states, "She is just jesting, Your Majesty. There is a path built connecting to the Healer's Cove. Come,"
The nymphs around her awkwardly shift. They want to laugh at her. She is supposed to be the Earth Queen and she can't even climb a tree.
"No, I can do it. Don't worry, I have climbed a tree before." She remembers her eight-year old self clawing her way on the apple tree in their backyard. All she has to do is to ignore the fact that she fell off and banged her head against the ground.
"Your Majesty..." She could hear the hesitation in Sephone's voice. She could see the Healer's rosy lips tightening. And she understands why.
Rachel unclasps the sword from her waist and hands it to one of the Nymphia Healers. She wraps her hand around one of the lower branches and tries to pull herself up. And suddenly, the bark stitches itself into her skin. Its leaves coiling around her fingers under a mist of green.
She grabs another branch. Then another. And another. And another. There is a rhythm to it, like a perennial flower dancing to the sound of gusting winds. But her melody breaks when she hears, "Are you fine there, Your Majesty?"
She opens her eyes and stupidly looks up. The blue-green sky hovers over her like it's about to fall on her head at any time. Carry had once told her about the story of this guy named Atlas who is forced to hold the sky above him for eternity and if he doesn't, the sky would crush him like a bug. And it will definitely do that to her.
YOU ARE READING
THE MYSTICAL MIRROR (THE MISTRESS OF MAGIC)
Fantasy"The sea is not impulsive. It slowly raises itself and then attacks. The sea is smart. That is why I like it." Water has always been an element that Caroline Skye has had a close affinity with, and so did her Dad. So, she is baffled when she starts...
