The Anima [completed]

7.

7.

"Lyra!" I was shaken out of my daze, Alvar's voice loud in my ears. I groaned and shifted away from him to lie on the ground, beyond exhaustion. "What's wrong?"

Alvar's voice was distant, but I could still hear the unease in his voice. I would have smiled if I had the energy because it almost sounded like he cared.

"Water." I managed to mumble, the end of the word lost in translation.

"You idiot!" I vaguely heard Lucius insult his friend, his figure pacing before my fluttering eyes. "She is human, Alvar. She needs something called water! Do you even know what that word means?"

"Oh, so now you care!" Alvar shouted back, his voice muffled in my ears.

"No, Alvar," Lucius scoffed, "but we happen to be outside the city, with no time to turn around, and we cannot show up empty handed! You promised the King the best!"

"We promised him the best."

As they bickered, my hands slid around the grass and dirt, seeking the illusion of refreshment that came with the cool undergrowth. But, as I raked my fingers through the dirt, the water had been soaked even from its grasps as if it were suffering along side me.

"Just get her some damn water!"

Moments or minutes later, something cold and wet was sliding down my throat. My body immediately soaked it in and my hands came up to my mouth to grip the large leaf of water. When I was finished, I shoved the leaf back into Alvar's hands, my eyes opening, demanding more. By the third leaf, my body was satisfied, but my stomach was churning. Too much water on an empty stomach was leaving me nauseous. To me, nausea was one of the worst feelings in the world. After far too many bouts of carsickness as a young girl and overall motion sickness throughout my whole life, I was content with never throwing up again. My motion sickness had gotten to the point where even the scent of something in a car or the stuffiness of a room would set me off. I had enough of it in my childhood to amount to a lifetime of occasional stomach bugs, I didn't want any more.

"Welcome back." Sarcasm was laced into Lucius' voice as Alvar extended a hand to me.

I stared at his palm for a moment, the voice inside my head telling me I could trust him, before I was delicately pulled to my feet with his help. I stared into his dark eyes, captured by the purity of their darkness, and let my hand fall from his grasp. He had captured my fascination. The Periwinkle fluttered around my head, its action matching the feeling deep in my stomach, and landed in my hair.

"So, did you say we were near the city?" I asked, breaking eye contact with Alvar to raise a brow at Lucius. He was staring at us, specifically at the place our hands were touching moments before.

"Yes..." He said after a moment, "Actually, we are here."

And then, will a sweep of his arm he drew back the undergrowth to reveal a city of wonders. The forest ended in one perfectly straight line to open up a society of otherworldly creatures, bright colours moving between large building structures. The sun shone so brightly that it illuminated every building and surface of the civilisation, ancient architecture that mimicked that of the Greek Gods laid in clusters for as far as my eyes could see. Little houses, stalls and market places wove around each other to create a maze of colours and voices, together creating a beautiful scene that my eyes photographed as my lids blinked. And in the distance, towering over the city was a building so tall and magnificent that the tips disappeared into the fog. The palace ground stretched as wide as the city and at its centre was a tower that's diamond windows casted shards of rainbows over the city. It was everything and nothing like the descriptions of castle found in children books and terribly under budgeted Hollywood movies.