Orange Shadow Magic: Awaken. Book 1

Chapter 24: A Final Greeting

 "Mattzew, I think I have a confession to make," Coral told him, puzzled why Mattzew didn't remember what happened in their combined childhood.

"What do you mean? Have you done something wrong?" Mattzew asked, suspicious of Coral's odd behavior.

"I mean that I was your childhood friend, remember? We were raised together and my mother would tell us a bunch of stories about her past and her home-world of Exeria," Coral announced in triumph, getting straight to the point. Instead, Mattzew looked only confused. "Oh come on, you've got to remember! Stop playing your games with me! I know you just had a vision!"

"You're the one who's playing games with me," Mattzew argued, wondering what Coral meant when they were raised together.

"Coral, Mattzew, stop with your petty squabbles! We've got to go! I promised myself revenge, and that's what I'll get! King Expella won't get away with taking Mally away from me, and he won't go unpunished for killing my mother either! And that isn't the only reason. Sphinxes deserve freedom and justice anyway!" Gala finished and brought her fist up in the air. "Let's do this!"

"Fine," Matthew glared at Coral, rolling his eyes. Coral giggled lightly and Gala rolled her eyes.

"Mattzew and Coral, you'll ride on Pegasus. Mally, Lily, and Parker, I'll take turns super speeding you to the castle. Malaxy, you'll fly." Lily and Parker's faces were a mask of confusion as they processed what Gala had just told them. "Yeah, that's right, you lazies are coming too! Anyhow, who's first?" Gala welcomed them into a group hug, but then they all refused with a shake of their heads. Then Pegasus flapped it's mighty wings and lifted into the great wind, soaring above Gala, Mally, Lily, and Parker and flew out of Gala's range of sight. "Okay seriously, who wants to go first?"

"I will!" Lily bravely volunteered. "Because unlike you two, I don't get motion sickness!"

"Haha," Mally and Parker both said dully in unison.

Gala picked up Lily, and appeared back in front of them a couple of minutes later.

Mally immediately shoved Parker in front of her, saying, "Actually, he wants to go before me!" Parker whimpered, and Mally giggled at his misfortune.

"I never said th-" Parker's eyes widened as Gala grabbed Parker and sprinted with him faster than Mally's eyes could follow.

Gala came back, speeding through the trees, causing leaves to fly everywhere.

"Okay Mally, there is no denying it now. You are going super speeding with me," Gala interjected, grabbing Mally's waist before she could counter-argue against Gala's decision. Mally landed feet first in front of a slyly grinning Avery and disgusted Lily.

"What was that?" Lily screamed in agony and made the most disgusted face she could muster. Lily was wheezing on the ground, vomit all over the dirt. "I do not like you, Mally's sister number-one."

"I'm not 'Mally's sister number-one', thank you very much. I am Gala," Gala corrected cooly, seeing her childhood self just flickering for a second within Lily's outer bundle of spunk.

"Hmmmm..... I'll think your name over," Lily teased, and Gala was about to retort a nasty comment, when Coral interjected.

"Guys, stop chatting and look behind you! - We're finally here!" Coral exclaimed excitedly. The maliciously dark castle loomed behind the tall evergreen trees as Coral could slowly make out a muddy moat surrounding the castle and a drawbridge going across it. Tall black turriffs rose straight into the sky and seemed to challenge the birds as they flew past. Smoke clogged the air and thunder boomed overhead. Overall, Coral could sense a rather dark presence inside and wanted to stay as far from it as she could. Every instinct in Coral's young body told her to run. She could tell by how the city was absolutely dead quiet. How there were no guards posted outside the crumbling castle. How the drawbridge was carelessly left open, as if King Expella had expected them to come back to him the entire time. None of this reminded Coral of the times when Malaxy would come running back from this same castle towards Gala and Coral, who waited impatiently for their mother to come back home to them. None of this reminded Coral of the crowded streets of Markers Alley a mile away from the capitol, where shouts and laughs filled the air, and the wafting smell of buttered bread drifted through the air. None of this reminded Coral of the large bunches of people that reached all the way to the moat. None of this reminded Coral of Servenmoor at all. Instead, Markets Alley was like a ghost town, and all the people from the streets had vanished. There were no shops or stands or tiny children running about. No. The capital of Exeria was dead quiet, as if King Expella had cleared the town out just for them. In fact, Coral shouldn't even have been there. Coral should've been back at the bat tree, cooking sweet foods, and sewing new clothes. Her mother would've been back home with her, singing tales with her, and Gala would've been outside, screaming wildly and testing out her new powers, all the while playing around giddily with the wildlife and talking to the trees like she used too. Mally would have been happy as could be, talking crazily to Malaxy, also while pranking Gala and them holding their grudges against each other at one second, and then the next second, they would be getting mud on their faces and laughing so hysterically that Coral would go and join them. That's what should've happened. Mattzew wouldn't be here to break Coral's heart. Avery wouldn't be here to steal her sister's heart. Gala wouldn't have been cursed. Mally wouldn't have been stolen. Coral wouldn't have to have been born in Coranne. But all of this, all of this was because of King Expella. If King Expella wasn't here, then Gala, Mally, and Malaxy wouldn't have been outcasts. The prophecy wouldn't have to have been invented, and Avery would've never been born, which would leave no one Gala could have been best friends with besides her sisters. Then if Avery wasn't born, the Pegasus lords would still be alive, and Mattzew wouldn't have been given his powers, and he would have never come here. That is how Coral wished it would have all happened. Then maybe, just maybe Coral would know who her dad was. Coral didn't remember her dad. Gala didn't either. In truth, Coral never thought about her dad. But her mother would have been a whole lot happier if he had been around. Coral almost stumbled over a branch as she came back to her senses and the task at hand, ready to rid the world of this evil man that Mally once called her "father".