The Golden Hexagon

CHAPTER 2

Thirteen Years Later...

"Rory! Have you watered the plants?" Lavender called from inside the house.

"Yes Monna! Doing it," Aurora back, from somewhere outside the house.

It was a bright, sunny day. Perfect for gardening. The year had just begun, and the town was bustling with activity, and the markets were crowded with the womenfolk, who were haggling with the shopkeepers to the last penny. The men were at the fields, harvesting the wheat and plucking the apples from the orchard. The soil was fresh, the water was pure, the leaves a vivid shade of green and everything was quite cheerful that day.

Aurora and her mother lived in the middle of the town. Their house was large and spacious, their lawn ever green and healthy.

She loved her town. She loved the towering trees all around, the crisp, fresh air, the small cottages, and more than all, the massive library that was a few blocks away from her house. The library had hundreds of thousands of books, and Aurora had only read a fraction of those under the careful eye of her mother, who worked as a librarian there. The tall arches were covered with flowering vines, there were potted plants in almost every corner, and the cool marble floor provided the best surface where Aurora could lie down and read.

Aurora had spent many hours a day along with the town's other children learning Astronomy, Geography, various sciences and more from the teachers who came to the library everyday to tutor them.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Lavender asked her daughter, stepping out of the house.

"More of brunch, Monna," Aurora said, laughing.

To an outsider, the mother and daughter looked almost like sisters. Both were tall, with round faces, and honey brown, wavy hair. But the most striking feature of their appearances were their eyes - a striking green, which could change from a light jade shade when calm and happy to a dangerously dark emerald when angry. The sixteen year old and the forty year old were the most famous people in the town, always sharing the small harvest from their garden to their neighbors, always offering help to those in need, and always present in any celebration or event.

"How about sauteed vegetables with burnt butter?" Lavender suggested.

"Excellent, let me just get a few vegetables from the garden, it will be perfect," Rory said.

"I'll be waiting," her mother called out as she walked out of the door.

Rory grinned to herself. She pulled out a parsnip, cut a bell pepper from the plant, plucked a few stems of rosemary, basil and mint and walked inside.

Her mother smiled at her and asked, "How are the plants? Are they all right?".

"Positively good," she said, smiling back.

"Come! Taste the burnt butter!" Lavender said.

"Coming," Aurora called out, washing her hands.

She took a spoonful of the butter, and blew it for it to cool down.

She stuck it in her mouth, closed her eyes.

"Perfect," she said.

"Really?" Lavender asked her.

"Maybe a little bit more burnt than needed," Rory said, grinning.

"Really?" her mother asked again, smiling.

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies,"

"Right. Time to saute the vegetables," Lavender said.