The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 2 Lucy

Lucy this side! So, I got the interesting part.

When the light was gone, we were standing on a grassland. The air was fresh and the sky blue. It took some time to get adjusted to the light. When my vision cleared, a small ball of fur ran past me. Colorful winged creatures flew over our heads. Another kind of creature was eating fruits from the trees. Everywhere I looked, weird animals were roaming around. We were in a completely different world.

"Whoa," I said, amazed. "Where are we?" How could a place like this exist? I started to walk around to explore but Liza grabbed my hand.

"What're you doing? Are you not scared at all? We just teleported to another world." She shrieked.

"Yeah, we just teleported. I want to know more about this place."

A girl about two years older than us appeared beside me. She had Liza's eyes- amber. Her long brown hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her big, round eyes bored into ours, looking exhausted. She was wearing a red plaid skirt, white leggings underneath, and a white shirt on top. It seemed like it was her uniform. She stared us up and down before rolling her eyes.

"I was expecting children. How did 12-year-olds get lost? Anyways, just follow me to your cabins."

"Wait," Liza cut in. "Is this some kind of prank?

"No? See, don't waste my time. I have much better work than escorting lost havens like you. Jerks."

What did she call us? Havens? And jerks? And, we were lost? Does she know us?

We exchanged looks but followed her.

The girl started walking towards a group of winged creatures. Up close, these looked a bit terrifying. They had long grey beaks and large, bulging eyes. They came in different colors.

"Get on one of the friksens." The girl ordered.

We stood there with our mouths open. The girl was shimmering.

"What is that?" Liza asked.

"Oh, it's for our safety, or the friksens will attack us. Havens start to shine so that friksens think we are friends and not enemies. You didn't know? See, you are also shining. It's proof that you are havens."

We frowned at our hands. They were shimmering but that was fine. At least, better than being eaten by a friksen. Then I noticed what the girl was calling the pegasus. "What are friksens?"

"These creatures, duh." She gestured at the winged creatures. "Will you choose a friksen now? And stop staring at me? There is not a movie playing here, right?" She was in a hurry.

I sat on an orange friksen while Liza was on a blue one. It was strange to see creatures in bright colors. At the same time, it was weird to see an unrealistic creature in real life. The girl told us that she would meet us at the fire continent and asked the friksens to take us there.

Turns out, friksens are very fast because we crossed a long distance over a large body of water in about 10 minutes. It was evening when we reached what we guessed was the fire continent. It was gorgeous. Fairy lights were hanging everywhere. The cabins were a dark shade of red. There was a fountain. A statue made of red marble of a man and woman- twins -stood in the middle of the fountain. Trees lined the boundary of a nearby lake.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" I asked.

"Yeah, these people have an obsession with red?" Liza said.

"No, all these have the same eye color- amber."

She glanced at the people and saw what I was talking about. That was strange.

The girl chose that moment to appear beside me again.

"Will you ever stop scaring me?" I yelled, a little too loud.

"I can't do anything about it," She grumbled. "So you know the way to your cabin, right?"

A lot of questions swarmed in my head. What is this world? Why is she acting so casual? And now we have designated cabins?

We stared at her, so damn confused. She was going to yell at us when she stopped herself. Or maybe her voice just didn't work. She switched her gaze between the two of us and her eyes widened.

"What?" She started roaming around in circles, muttering "Oh no no no no no, they're here."

"What happened?" We asked calmly, or as calmly as we could with her worried expressions.

I put my hand on her shoulder. She swatted it away. "Leave me alone!" And she walked away.

"Should we be worried?" I asked.

"More important. Where are we living tonight?" Liza pointed out.

Now a real-life centaur appeared beside me. He had black, messy hair and dark fur. His golden eyes searched for someone. A choker covered his neck. "Olivia! Please could you...Who a-are y-you?" I gasped in astonishment.

"Call me Tyrek." The centaur replied. "Where is she?" He muttered to himself. "I gave her the duty to take care of you both."

"She left without saying anything but she was worried."

At that, he directly stared at us. He searched our faces for something and his eyes widened. "Oh no," He said with the same expression the girl had made. "You are coming with me."

He tried to get ahold of us but we didn't allow him to.

"Why are we talking to strangers, Lucy?" Liza said, scowling. "Twin meeting please?"

He nodded.

We took some steps away from Tyrek and started discussing.

"You think we should stay here? This all is so weird. We should get away from this place." Liza warned.

"Mom and Dad wanted us to be trained here," I explained to her.

"You are kidding, right? You are talking about those people who abandoned us. For all in this world, we don't even know if the letter was from them."

I was getting furious. Didn't she have some kind of sense of adventure? "Don't you want to understand about these weird things? About our parents? This is the only place we can get answers."

I turned back to Tyrek. "Let's go."

He didn't say anything for a second. Then he closed his eyes and we all vanished.