EMBER

TRAPPED

I squirm in my chair. This isn't going according to my plan.

I thought we were free to go home but apparently the Elders don't think so. I grip Karim's hand tightly looking straight ahead as blankly as I can at the six robed men in high thrones and a woman on a large airy projection. Am terrified of the imposing presences.

The walk here had been an out of body experience. This pocket world is extraordinary. I wonder how they even live in harmony. I have never seen so many magical and mystical beings in one place but then again I have never seen one up until a day ago.

Fairies with their delicate wings flying every where, faeries with their dark personality and enchanting songs singing away in the trees with green eyes, naiads, dryads, horses whiter than well any white I have ever seen, nymphs, hunters, tree beings, so many green men, centaurs, even a manticore, well actually there are many more that Artemis named by sight but oh well I couldn't keep up.

Everyone co-existed peacefully, I even saw a couple of pixies  causing mischief with the sugar plum fairies. How could beings that small exist? I wonder if they taste sweet if I lick them....

The forest was lush and green though filled with different creatures of different colors making it quite a spectacle. This is stuff out of fairy tales leaving out this world being destroyed part or realm ughh whatever really. I still want to go home.

My eyes were almost popping out. They were too many wonders I literally wanted to scream but I was also very much scared of them. I looked over at Karim. He was turning around in full circles taking it all in. He didn't even blink. Amazing how he is still keeping his sanity.

"Pretty amazing right?" Artemis nudged me. I couldn't even bother to scowl at her contact. I was in bliss.

"Yeah, where did they all come from?" They were just so many.

"From the surface of our dying realm, it's a sanctuary and a home for them here. We didn't even know they were here until they just showed and followed us here. They were more scared of annihilation than us."
Artemis elaborates while I turn to look at a brown dryad watering her tree and another with moss green hair braiding pink flowers into blue hair of another dryad with a flowy white dress. They were so beautiful. They turned and waved at us, we waved back.

"Hello Lennie, and Orcha I love the new hair do." Jake compliments while winking at Orcha.

She giggles and Lennie slaps her playfully on the shoulder. I shudder when I catch on to what Jake meant to Orcha.

"Are we almost there?" Karim asks Jake who is busy puppy eyeing the giggling dryads.

"Yeah we're very close, the Elder Mansion is just through this forest." Artemis does the answering. We have been walking for almost a day now. A question swirls in my mind.

"Why did you bring us here? I thought the elders or what ever wanted only you, pink hair and grumpy boy over there?" My sarcasm is back. Thoren glares at me and the girl fidgets with her hands looking anywhere but at me and Karim holding hands. My ego soars, I hold it tighter.

"Yes but they also told us to bring you since you pose a certain danger to all of us, well not me but the others."
I remember how Emmeline cringed away from me and swallow.

"Originally they would have wiped your memories and sent you back but you are powerful and Karim isn't exactly normal either. Maybe the elders will determine what you are and what your power and mine is." Our powers seem to grow when we are next to each other. I muse.

She pushes a strand of her hair from her face looking unconcerned with what she had said. Karim and I had frozen in our tracks. It just confirms the "we" part I heard earlier. Taking us in? Like prisoner stuff? I don't want to be held captive.