After Happily Ever After

Amity Blight

'Heya, mittens!' Dad greets, walking off the airship ramp to hug me. 'I've missed you.'

I reciprocate the hug, smiling. 'I have missed you too, Dad. How was the  expedition?'

He firmly places his hands on my shoulders, smugly grinning. 'Maybe you should ask Darius.'

As if on cue, the former Abomination coven head trudges down the ramp. His air is unusually messy and he is covered in abomination goo. He carries down a grate, a small army of abominations following after him, coping his task. Seeing our humoured expressions he hisses. 'Not. A. Word.'

I sniffle a laugh. 'What in Titans name happened to you?'

'Yeah, Dari.' My dad smirks. 'What did happen to you?'

He glares. 'Don't you start Alador. I'm already as tired and messy as it is. I will decapitate you if you keep going on about it.' He grunts as he heads towards the house. 'Amity, can you please grab the remaining boxes from the ship.'

I nod. 'Sure thing.'

The coffee machine hisses as Darius returns, fully bathed. Pour the coffee into three cups, serving the two older men. 'So, did you fine anything?'

'Yes, we did actually. It's been a long voyage but once we started heading up the north bounds we actually found a whole other civilisation, tucked right under the mountains, all in the outskirts of the northern islands.' Dad says.

'Really?!' I say.

Darius nods. 'As far as we are aware of, they're friendly. They have their own defence systems and armies but they seem to be rather peaceful people. They won't attack you unless you attack them first. Violence is against their nature and they won't fight unless they feel threatened.'

'What are they? Witches? Demons?' I ask.

Darius shrugs. 'We're not exactly  sure. I've never seen anything like them before. They have witch like features but the speak in a different tongue. Another language that we couldn't decipher. They welcomed us in there and we got to see their land's beauty. The whole inside of the mountain looked like a glowing coral reef. And the people glowed with it!'

I raise an eyebrow. 'People glow there?'

Dad nods.. 'Even their wings and feathers glowed.'

'So they can fly without having a palismen?' I ask.

'Well, it's more like gliding.' Dad replies. 

'Yes,' Darius adds. 'And their plants have this sort of healing ability. It produces this substance that not only automatically heals any wounds straight away, but numbs the pain from the injured person.' 

I smile. 'That actually might be useful. We could sell that to healers. They would kill to have something like that.'

'Exactly.' Dad nods. 

'We've always been aware of the possibility that there are more civilisations across the world, but Belos had restricted us with his laws and his beliefs that no one was able to explore the possibility. Other than Salty and his crew and Luz, of course. Speaking of which, are you seeing her soon? I'd love to ask her about what she and King saw on the Island of the Titan Trappers,' Darius enquires.

I stiffen. 'No. I will not be seeing Luz any time soon.' 

Darius' smile fades. 'Why not? Has something happened?'