The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 3 Lucy

We landed in an office that we guessed was Tyrek's. All the walls were covered with wallpaper. The floors were overlaid with deep red carpets. Many wooden bookshelves filled the room. There were posters hung on the walls. Tyrek opened the window and cold wind rushed in which caused the posters to move. It revealed some words written on the back of it.

I started to read what was written on it. Tyrek saw me glaring at the back of the poster and quickly blocked my view. "I think you should take someone's permission before reading their stuff, eh?"

"And I think," Liza said, pushing ahead of me. "You should take our permission before teleporting us anywhere, eh?"

"Liza," I warned her. "Let's hear what he is saying, shouldn't we?"

"Olivia told you about you being havens?" Tyrek questioned.

So the girl's name was Olivia.

"Yeah, and also about us being jerks," Liza answered, a look of disgust on her face.

He sighed before saying "Okay, she can be difficult sometimes but she has a kind heart."

Olivia burst through the door yelling, "Will you please kill the guard, Tyrek? He has been stealing my money! I want him dead now!"

She looked like she had been sobbing. Her eyes were red as blood.

"But she has a kind heart." Liza mimicked Tyrek.

He glared at her like she was the guard who stole Olivia's money. "Olivia, come here." He squeezed her tight in his arms. The centaur acted like her father. "Why did you leave them alone?"

"You don't know? They are the ones. The message was true."

Again he glared at us like we are going to kill him.

I interfered with his glare by saying "Hey, we didn't do anything wrong."

"Correction," said Tyrek. You both shouldn't have been born."

"Pardon?"

Olivia and Tyrek exchanged glances. A sense of understanding passed between them.

"See, there's something about you two." Olivia said, trying not to raise her voice. "A haven left to check for something and he never returned. After a few days, we got a message. About you two."

Liza stepped one step towards Olivia as if wanting to punch her but thought better of that. "What was the message?"

"We will talk about it. For now, you should rest." Tyrek said.

He closed his eyes and said one single word. Two security guards materialized from the files kept on Tyrek's bookshelves. They picked us up like we were rice sacks and took us to another cabin. I don't think you want to hear what Liza said on our way but if you do, here it is-"Lucy, isn't this cool, huh?" You probably know what I replied with. A very ugly face asking her to shut up, which I use very frequently.

This is what we were, two pairs of rice sacks who wanted someone's help to go to their room.

When the guards threw us on our bed, we were tempted to throw them in the dustbin. Well, actually, after their task was completed they turned back into paper.

The cabin looked exactly like the other ones. The wood was painted dark red making it feel dangerous. The boundary was fenced with sticks which were lit up with fire for light. The porch area outside had two chairs facing each other. The first thing that caught our eye was the large fireplace that covered an entire wall. The room had a wooden bunk bed which was guess what color? Red. A cupboard stuffed with clothes was placed before another wall.

We didn't do anything special after that. Just the usual you do after being thrown like trash.

After a half-hour or so, Tyrek knocked on our cabin door.

"I've brought some food for you. I'm sure you're hungry." He said, entering.

As we sat down at the small table in the corner, I peeked into what was our food. The plate was filled with stuff I had never seen. I picked up a piece of something that resembled jalapeño. I broke it in half and an orange filling poured out like choco lava cake. But this wasn't choco lava cake. I missed my choco lava cake. I took a bite into it and it melted in my mouth. A sweet and sour flavor pleased my taste buds. I took that back. I'd prefer this over choco lava cake anytime.

"What is this?" I asked. It was honestly the best thing I had ever tasted.

"Elphanal. It's a popular dessert on Aresten." Tyrek replied, plopping a small, brown cube of delicacy into his mouth.

"Aresten. That was mentioned in the letter." Liza noticed. She looked hesitant, but she picked up an elphanal and took a bite into it. A smile crept into her face but she quickly covered it.

"What letter?" Tyrek asked. I explained what was written in the letter we had gotten that morning and how we reached here.

Tyrek thought about it for a moment and then spoke, "This planet is called Aresten. That letter was definitely from your parents. They wanted to keep you safe and so they hid you on Earth. I don't know why they changed their mind and sent you here but now you need training." He shifted his gaze to look at us. 'Lucy, Liza, your parents are havens. You are havens."

Well, we discovered a new planet, found out we are not humans and our parents who we have never seen in our whole life want to protect us all of a sudden. And this was coming from a centaur.

"You said we shouldn't have been born. Why?" I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table.

"There is a rule- One can not marry a haven from another group. Your parents broke the rule. They ran away to Earth for hiding. And you both were born."

Liza raised her brows. "What groups?"

"Havens are divided into four groups- fire, water, air, earth. These groups are differentiated from eye colors. Amber is fire, silver-blue is water, grey is air and emerald is earth. Your mother was fire and your father was water. And you are a mixture of both groups. This is why Lucy has her father's eyes and you have your mother's. This is the first time something like this has happened."

"That means I'm from the water group and Liza is fire," I concluded.

"Yes, but you shouldn't be from different groups. You are sisters. Every haven has a twin brother or sister." He stood up from his spot on the floor. "Now, I should leave. Olivia will escort you to sword practice tomorrow morning."

Now, when you've seen so much magic, is it possible to be shocked to hear we need to learn to use a sword? Yes, at least for Liza and me. We finished with the food and grabbed a bed. Liza took the upper bunk while I was on the lower one. *Pout*

There was a moment of silence when Liza said in a hushed tone, "I miss mai and abba,"

Mai and abba. That was a sensitive topic. They had died in a car accident when we were only 8. After that, we lived on our own.

"It's okay," I assured her. "I miss mai too but as she used to say 'Stay strong till you can or there's a dead-end.' Also, we now have a new start. We have Tyrek and Olivia who will help us in this new world."

"Why do you trust them so much? Especially Olivia. She has done nothing but annoy us. I know someone doesn't find a new world every day and all. But if you get a random letter from your mom and dad who you have never met, start to teleport, a centaur tells you that you aren't human, and see magical creatures roaming around all in one day, you surely won't be calm."

"Liza...Can you please trust me on this? I know this is difficult. For me too. But this is something special. We can't just ignore this. We need answers."

There was a long pause when Liza said, "Okay, just for you."

She didn't say anything after that and started snoring. I didn't know what tiring work she did to fall asleep so fast. I couldn't complain about it. I started dreaming in the next two minutes.

As soon as I fell asleep, a nightmare haunted me.