Floravera; Where dreams become reality.

🔜 Chapter Sixteen 🔚

By Arabella
[December 5th]

"Sometimes it is okay to run. You won't win every fight. So if you can run, run. You can fight another day." - George Valente

Green. Green eyes stare into mine, as Liam shares the same look of shock on his face as me. Liam turns to look at her "he's adopted yet you don't know where his parents are?"

She shakes her head. "No. The baby was left on our doorstep. We don't know how or why. But the guard who was there... he fell asleep and when he woke up the baby was there. We searched for as long as possible to find who left him there but they were gone. So we took him in, and kept it a secret from the world."

She says stuffing her face with peanuts. She's obviously stress eating. She's an old woman. Possibly 60s. She's got wrinkles almost everywhere that her giant robe dress doesn't cover. Her hair is even fully grey. She would pull off an amazing Ms. Claus.

Liam speaks beside me, snapping me out of my thinking. "How do you think we would find her?"

"You won't. She will." She states then points at the ring on my finger. "I know that isn't an engagement ring. That's your wand, and I need you to use it and find out who his parents are."

I sigh before turning the ring back to the staff. "I'll try my best." I said then I stood up. "When is his birthday? Or the night he was left here?"

"His birthday the doctors believe is in January 1367. He was left on our doorstep only a few days old, it was January 10th, 1367" I raise an eyebrow.

"He's 8 years younger than me." Liam chimes in.

"6 years younger than me." I pick up the staff. "Weird he was left here only a few months after my dad left."

"You don't think it's his right?" She asks.

"No! No way." I chuckle, my dad would never. Plus there's only a 6 months difference between the two. So he would have had to cheat on my mom before he even left.

"You two do have the same eyes." Liam adds.

"Not true. My eyes are dark blue, his are light blue. He has blonde hair, I have black." I state.

"Your mom had blonde hair, and blue eyes." He states

"My mom wouldn't leave her baby on the doorstep with a guard who was asleep." I retort.

"Well I'm just saying." He raises his hands in a surrender then chuckles.

I sigh, turning back to the staff. I bang it on the ground. "Reveal to me what happened on January 10th 1367!"

My feel a surge of energy flow through the sand as it aims for my hand then stop. I tilt my head at the wand. A glow intensifies on it then I scream as I'm threw back the wand sending out a wave of power.

Liam and Ms Hillston immediately come to my side. "Are you okay!?" Liam questions, as I lay on the floor. I blink a few times. I think I lost my brain during that. "Ari! Can you even hear me?"

"Yes I can hear you dipshit quit screaming!" I scream back.

"Well then respond next time!" He yells at me, then helps me set up. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, I have armor on so it took most of my fall." He raises my jacket up, looking at the armor. It wasn't even dented. He breathes a sigh of relief as I am infact okay.

"What the hell happened?" Ms Hillston asks beside me.

"A wave like that means it's forbidden to see." She shakes her head, still confused. "It means someone specifically put a spell on it so no one could see it."

"Who would do such a thing?" She asks

"My mom. My mom would if someone asked, or my grandma, anyone that can harness Floravera power really. It could have been just a random woman that begged the tree not to speak, millions of possibilities."

I sigh, standing up. "You need to find out who it is. Please, I will be the woman begging you to make it speak."

I nod. "I'll try my best to see what I can when I get back to Floravera."

"Thank you." She hugs me. I secretly cringe as she does, not letting either see. My back is definitely bruised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Classical music played in the background, as we sat at the table. Mr. Hillston finally joined us approximately 5 minutes ago, he sat at the head seat. His wife sat to his left. Preston sat to the right. Liam sat beside Ms Hillston. I sat beside Preston.

The chefs bring out tons of plates of food, and sit it before us. My mouth waters. I am starving. We all dig in, to the ham. It's smoked ham, with macaroni, and meatloaf. I shoved a bunch on my plate, then down my throat.

A little while after everyone had stuffed themselves Preston speaks up. "So what did you guys talk about?" He eyes, me, his mom, and Liam.

I feel something grab my foot, I jump a lil then look at Liam he grins as he stares at his food. His foot is currently placed on top of mine. I move my other foot and put it on top of his. He moves his foot behind mine, then pulls it a bit as fall a little out of my seat.

"We talked about the funds." His mother states. Snapping me out of the foot game. I pull out of Liam's grasping feet and adjusts myself on the seat.

"You talked about the funds in your letter." He snaps at her, she was right, he was mad. He never showed it to me, he was always understanding and also scared of me. "I want to know what was said!" He slams his fist down on the counter.

"Preston! We have guests." His father warns. I watch him huff out before standing up abruptly then walking out of the dining hall.

"I'm sorry about him, he's... going through some things." His father says, I go to say something but I'm cut off as a scream rips through the palace.

We all give eachother concerned looks before running out to the hall to see who screamed, it was Preston who screamed. He stood before tons of guards bleeding on the floor.

His mom covers her mouth at the horror, his dad stands there bewildered. Liam grabs me and pulls me to him, like he's a shield. "Preston what the hell did you do!?" His dad asked in a rage panicked voice.

Preston looks shaken as he stared at the bodies. "I didn't do it! I swear I found them like this! I literally left the table 2 seconds ago!" He screams.

"Then who did!?" His dad screams back at him, grabbing him by the collar, getting in his face. Preston is terrified now.

My eyes flicker to something to the right of the 2 guys arguing. In doorway the man from the tree stands. "Oh shit" I mumble. Liam catches onto my gaze. He notices them. "Run!" I yell