The Elements

Chapter 12 - Emerald's House

The world fluttered into view as I forced my heavy eyelids open. Upon seeing the ceiling, then feeling the fluffy white bed I was on, I was confused. Where in the orphanage am I? Then, all the events of the previous day rushed into my mind. I jolted out of bed, not wanting to waste a second in finding the girls.

Scanning my surroundings, I found that both Aura and Olivia were still asleep. What time is it? I wondered, making my way to the window. A ray of golden sunlight seeped in, making me wonder how light could get underground. I saw an opening leading upwards, and something at the top. Curiosity caught me by the arm. Well, they're still sleeping anyway, I told myself, and crawled out from the window.

I squinted at the tunnel above me, then made out a ladder leading upwards. I grasped onto the rung of the ladder and started my ascent. As I pulled myself up each rung, I nearly expected to hear the creaking of the ladder or feel it crack under my weight. But nothing happened. It seemed like the ladder was very strong - maybe Emerald used it often - and supported my weight fully. All those exercises in my Physical Education class paid off when I finally reached the top, panting and all.

In front of my eyes lay a cute, dainty garden. Lush greenery sprouted from every corner, healthy and bright, while flowers decorated the area, adding their own shades of red and blue and orange and yellow to the beautiful mix. A large glass dome overlooked the garden, which, I theorised, must be to let the light in for the plants while preventing outsiders from barging in. Everything looked so bright and lovely that my eyes could barely adjust to the sudden burst of light from my momentary underground experience.

Suddenly, I felt something pulling at me. Following that tug, I found myself staring at a small, circular pond. The crystal clear water was adorned with floating plants of all shapes and sizes, including some elegant lilies, while multi-coloured fish roamed freely underwater. Below them, I could make out shapes of other fully-submerged plants down in the water. I stretched my hand towards the pond, feeling the invigorating water, as the ripples blurred away my reflection in the pond. For one moment, as I looked into that one window of truth, I felt all my troubles melt away, into the water.

"Pearl! Are you here?" Aura's voice cut through my train of thought. I immediately jolted out of whatever I had been doing, wiped my wet hands on my sleeve, and ran back to the entrance of the garden. I found both Aura and Olivia standing there.

"Hey... What's up?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Well, we totally didn't wake up, find you missing and start panicking while desperately searching for you," Aura rolled her eyes at me, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"Oops... Sorry. I just woke up and didn't want to wake you guys up, so..." I gestured around the garden.

"It's fine," Olivia said, "Thanks to Aura's genius, looking for you wasn't all that hard." I raised an eyebrow at Aura, who gave me a smile.

"Follow me," she said, bringing us back down the ladder. When we crawled back into the living room, Aura pointed at a small bracelet on the windowsill. "I remembered you wore this, so when I found it here, I realised you could only have went into Emerald's garden."

"You're quite the Sherlock Holmes, eh?" I joked, and both Olivia and I laughed, but Aura just gave us a queer expression.

"Who's... Surlock Home?" Aura asked, doing a wonderful job of pronouncing his name.

"Oh, I forgot you don't know him. He's a popular fictional character who's really good at solving mysteries, from a book in our world," I elucidated.

"Oh, cool. Anyways, any of you feeling hungry?" Both Olivia and I nodded eagerly. "Well, looks like there's only one thing we can do," Aura said, as if about to announce a grand plan, "We steal from Em's garden!"