Paradise: Birds Fly at Sunrise

Chapter Eleven: *Chapter Title TBC

            It feels good to be back in Paradise. The headache isn’t too bad just yet, luckily. We’ve been here around an hour, Kaston and I, mostly touring the shops. After a brief visit to say hello to Mama Namu, we’ve decided to explore other worlds today instead of visiting the Parasis, meaning, this is what she told us we had to do, and you don’t argue with her: she knows things.

            But first, we stopped in a little bakery near the end of the main street, since the smell wafting out was too tempting and we’d not had lunch. I inspected everything on view to try and choose something but it all looks too good, so in the end, I turn to Kaston.

“I can’t choose.”

“Just pick something.”

“I can’t.”

“Anything – no, you can go in front of us, don’t worry.” He stops to let a young girl with black spiral ringlets running to the bottom of her back reach the counter. I only catch a quick glimpse of her, but I notice how hard it is to tell how old she is. She’s tall and the way she walks has an older confidence about her, but a child-like roundness lingers about her features. Given what I know about Paradisians maturing, maybe...ten years old? It’s so strange to label a girl who’d look maybe seventeen back home as this age.

“Kaston, please pick for me. I honestly don’t know, I’ve never tried any of these.” I said.

“Okay, fine.” He sighs and pays two Fimos for a circular loaf once the girl hurries out. It appears crunchy, but tears and practically melts like butter in my mouth. It somehow tastes better than it smells, with a hint of something like cinnamon and small berry-like fruits inside. We finish the bread on the way to the Door Corridor.

            It’s like walking into an air-conditioned room on a hot day, the relief I feel from my headache. I can’t see the door back to Earth, but I know roughly where it is towards my left, further down. Kaston tells me to pick a door, any door.

            Since Earth is to my left, I head right. I examine every door I walk past, the gems that form the tunnel occasionally dazzling me. Each door is more incredible  than the next, but I want to find one which really catches my eye. We’ve been walking around ten minutes before I do, but it seems like no time. I like the echo of my footsteps in here.

            The door is so simple and plain, I almost miss it, and that’s what draws me to it. It is so inconspicuous next to doors that demand to be noticed that I want to enter it. It’s plain white wood, almost glowing, and if you notice it enough to pay attention, you feel it: the power. Like nothing else I’ve ever felt, stronger than Mama Namu, a million times so. At first glance, it is nothing special at all, but the more you look, it becomes slowly the most perfect door you’ve ever seen. But there’s no reason for it.

My curiosity swells so much that my hand’s already on the curved white handle before Kaston’s footsteps stop.

“This one.” I say.

“That one?” It sounds like he’s insulting the door, which for some reason I find incredibly rude. I try to tell myself it’s only a door, but it doesn’t feel like it.

“Yes. Is it safe?” Mama Namu gave us one of her rings before we left and told us to place it to the keyhole. If it turns the indigo of her Waters when I do this, I can breathe there and the atmosphere – if there even is one - is safe for me. Because of his Parasis Waters, Kaston can survive almost anywhere. He hands me the ring and I do as instructed. Immediate from white to indigo. I grin and look at him.

“Come on, let’s go!” I’m practically jumping in excitement.

“No, wait a minute, Vi.”