The End of the Horizon

V - The Fiery Empress

The trio's journey extended for a couple more days, alongside the road that passed through the dense forest. In between the pauses, Lizzie was sharpening her magic spells for her encounter with the all-powerful mage Melissa, who she couldn't wait to meet.

Each day, the tall trees and the forest humidity were giving their space to a flat terrain, with small plants and a lot of grass. The forest ambiance was gone when they arrived at a great plain of flat lands, hot and with a smooth breeze that emanated a soft smell of flowers. The paved road they were walking upon was the only thing that linked that magnanimous landscape to the cruel reality that men didn't care at all for the beauty of the nature and only had eyes on the dirty future that machines had brought to them.

A few hours of walking on the land and it started to become steep upwards, like they were climbing a hill of some sorts and that forced Lizzie to use all of her lack of exercise on the legs at maximum, whereas Mello and Katherine were doing some sort of competition to see who was the fastest to arrive at the top. Ugh... Athletic people and their fit bodies trying to show off...

When she finally made it to the top, Mello came back running and shouting:

"Liz, quick! Close your eyes!"

Startled, she really did close them, thinking that he was trying to protect her from something that could hurt her eyes, but was soon taken off by the stupid comment:

"Nah, I'm just kidding."

Said the man, laughing. She now wanted to stab him on the eyes, making that dagger he gave her somewhat useful, but when she finally opened her eyes, she saw a landscape that would make anyone smile from ear to ear.

The group had made it to a land blooming with hundreds of flowers, of the most unique and marvelous shapes, colors and aromas. With each breeze, lots and lots of petals danced around they, bringing with them all of the fragrance and freshness of those plants.

And, over by the great seashore of Namerick and surrounded by these beautiful flowers, the big port city of Ventus was welcoming them.

Katherine punched the man's shoulder for that little joke on the girl.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" – Spoke Mello, smiling.

"Yeah..." – Katherine smiled as well.

"And you, Liz? What do you think?"

The girl was fascinated by that entire splendor. Only a single word from her vast and deep vocabulary could describe that:

"Wow..."

"A big Wow..." – The man shook the girl's head and started walking. – "Well, we won't stand here just gazing at it, will we? Let's go find Melissa."

The three went towards the city under the perfume of the flowers and the grand scenario of windmills that enjoyed the nice ocean breeze.

*

Ventus was so different from the cities that Lizzie met before. The city's architecture was somewhat rustic and classic, with houses made of colored bricks and roofs that didn't have any more than three or four floors and seemed comfortable even just by looking at them. The streets were large and had a few cars passing by not very often. The people could walk on them peacefully. The stores, were vastly busy, especially the restaurants. The smell of seafood coming from them made Lizzie want to experiment them all. And, over by the north of the town there was a big coastal beach with lots of docks, piers and wharfs for ships of the most different types and shapes. "It is a city that you definitely need to know someday", was on all of the tourists guides.