The Seelie's Mirror

Chapter 21 Petroglyphs

Chapter 21 

I recall the last piece of location that we have to go through in order to get to the book of Joanah. For some reason, I feel really excited. I always feel excited when there's a book that I want, but somehow, I feel extra giddy at the thought of that specific book. I can't explain it, but it is similar to the feeling of getting your hands on something that you have waited so long to get.

Does that make sense?

I led the path after we descended the book boat. Klovis is right behind me while Gem and Jade, in their smaller form, are running around and chasing each other. I envy how those two still has all the energy to play.

We are following a path that soon begins to narrow. The forest also starts to thin out the closer we get to the walls I felt like we were headed into a barren dessert with tall, giant, jagged walls surrounding us.

No. Not walls but Petroglyphs—carvings on giant rocks. They are all around us.

Klovis is now beside me. Although he isn't saying anything, the glint in his eyes tells me how excited he is to see the carvings. He always has this weird fascination for historical writings. Petroglyphs are basically the same.

Before the Unseelie Prince could wander off and leave my side to inspect the rocks, I held his hand to keep him in place.

"I don't think that it would be wise to touch them." It's kind of weird that I am the one telling him this when he is the resident fairy between us. Well, his love for knowledge knows no bounds.

"Oh, sorry." He smiles briefly before managing to recover from his embarrassed state. "Are we looking for something here or are we simply going to pass through?"

I close my eyes and try to remember what I saw in the crystal ball. "A smiling petroglyph." I tell him. Klovis quirks his brows.

"A smiling petroglyph?" He repeats it and questions it slowly. "That's awfully vague. It could be any of these carvings." He points at the one that's closest to us. "Look, there's one with a smiling sun. There's another with a purely smiling face." He points to another rock.

I was already thinking about it before, but when Klovis voices out my concern, I start to worry more. This is really a dilemma. I never really considered how vague it was.

"I'm not sure which one. It's really what it says. We have to look for a smiling petroglyph." Doubt begins to settle in me. Could I have missed something in the crystal ball? Did I fail to read an important clue? I can be careless at times. I just hope that this isn't one of those days.
I felt Klovis staring at me for a while. He places his hands on my shoulder and gives me a little, but firm, shake. "Livia, why don't we take note of all the smiling petroglyphs for now and decide later?" He suggested.

After agreeing to his plan, we head in separate directions, looking and searching for any smiling petroglyphs. There were a lot of them, which I may have lost count of. It's becoming more and more agitating that I have a hard time remembering them all. There are even a few that obviously fit the bill; however, those things really don't give me the striking feeling that they are the ones that I am looking for.

Reuniting with Klovis and seeing his equally troubled expression tells me that he has the same dilemma as me.

"I found duplicates of every smiling petroglyph on my side. I don't think that those are the ones you are looking for."

"If they have duplicates, then probably no." I did not even consider that probability. Maybe the ones I have seen also have duplicates, but since I don't have the same memory as Klovis, perhaps I have missed it.

"Kreee! Kreee~!"

Our attention goes to Gem, who seems to be hiding behind one of the farthest stone pillars. We start to rush over to where we heard Gem in a haste. We found Gem and Jade standing and looking over at the ground, specifically at the puddle.

"You guys better not think about jumping in the water." I give the two beasts a warning because it seems like they are particularly interested in the puddle.

Klovis walks ahead of me, heading and crouching over to check what the two beasts were looking at. I see him furrowing his brows.

"Livia, can you come over here?" I have no idea what he sees in the puddle but I am curious enough to check what got the Unseelie prince so interested. I look over his shoulder, squinting my eyes. I blink, making sure that I hadn't imagined what I was seeing.

It was a rough drawing of a couple—a fairy and a human are smiling at each other.

I settle beside Klovis. My eyes were completely glued to the petroglyph in the water.

"Livia, do you think that this is..." Klovis whispers, but I was already reaching for the water and touching the rock. I felt like something was compelling me to touch it. The picture on the rock reminds me of a dream, which is why it heightened my desire to touch it.

As soon as my fingers made contact with the stone, the water burst up like a geyser. Klovis's arms wrap around me protectively, trying to protect me from the water.

Water starts pouring down on us nonstop, drenching us to the skin. Both Gem and Jade sprinted over to us in an attempt to hide under us. The moment the vapor turns to fog, my attention is piqued.

"Klovis, look!" I point at the vapors starting to take shape in figures. To my astonishment, the more the figures start to become visible, the more I realize that they are the fairy and the human that I saw in my dream. "How can that be?" I murmur shakily. Weren't they just dreams?

Now that I think about it, my dreams have been a little zany lately, especially with Klovis always lurking in the background. This dream might not be so different considering how clearly I remember them.

"Joanah." I whisper, staring at the girl playing by the edge of the lake and kicking her feet joyously. I remember the male fairy calling her that in my dream. Suddenly, it all comes back to me. Seeing her this clearly made me see how beautiful she was. Her hair is so dark and long that it sits on the ground with her. When she looked sideways, I saw her silver eyes almost reflecting the glitter from the lake. She is absolutely breathtaking! I turn to Klovis, my heart racing with excitement at the prospect of having found Joanah. "Klovis, that's Joanah. That's..." I stagger when I see Klovis looking at the figures with his mouth hanging open. "Klovis? Are you still there?"

It takes him a while to find his voice, but when he speaks, he doesn't look at me. He is still looking at the beautiful fairy smiling adoringly at Joanah.

"That's Kvahein." He utters the words in a whisper, filled with wonder. "He's the first fairy and the one who created the fairy realm."

~*~*~*~END OF CHAPTER~*~*~*~

Thank you for reading! Please like and comment if you wish to read more. I'll be updating 'He's not A Merman' in a while. 

If you love pirates and sea creatures, perhaps you'd like to give it a try? :)