The Eternal Flame

Chapter 11

I was sitting on the water. Not in water, but on it. I could hear the clashing of the water from the waterfall behind me. The water was so crystal clear. I looked down. I was wearing a simple strapless dress that came up to my thighs. My legs were under me. Dipping my finger into the water I watched as it rippled. I did it again and again until the ripples collided with each other. It was quiet. Peaceful.

"Someone sure was angry a few days ago," I heard someone say. I turned my head to the sound of the noise. Kida was sitting in a tree, the same dress as me, only hers was black. Kida. She was my Splooku. She is the darkest part of me; yet also the wisest. Kida had developed when I was just a small child. When I had been kidnapped by the slavers and taken to a prison. I would have a nightmare so terrifying that it left me shaking and heaving. I could sometimes still feel the whip cutting across my skin. My father said that Kida was a protector. She was like an unknown power; that came out to me as a small child, taking the form of Kida. She would come out when I was unable to protect myself. The only differences between me and Kida were our hair, mine different shades of blue, hers snow white, and of course our personalities. Where I learned to control my anger, Kida did not. She was ruthless and angry, living only on one emotion to the next. Sometimes that would make her more dangerous even when she would get angry and seemed wise beyond our years.

Kida would often do this. Contact me in my dreams; because I kept her in a cage in my mind. So, that she wouldn't take over my body by force. She did it so often when I was just a child that I thought that I would never get my body back. But now she only does it when the Moons are one.

"Why am I here Kida? What do you want?" She glared at me. It was so unnerving to see my own face glare back at me with so much anger.

"Why did you run stupid girl?" She demanded. I glared hotly at her. Did she just call me stupid? I didn't answer. Instead, I stood. Surprisingly my legs and the dress were not wet from the water. I looked at my surroundings. I was even more surprised to see that we were in the Garden. The Garden was built many moon cycles ago when my ancestors decided to make this place a palace. The Garden was made for the Goddess, because of her love for flowers and water. They say that if you're lucking enough, the Gods well come and pay a visit to the Garden. The Garden was truly a beautiful place. It was still inside the palace walls, just deep beneath it. Trees everywhere, with rare fruits and flowers, especially one flower, the Codalcoo, or Lunar Rose, it is the rarest and most beautiful flower on the whole planet. Once the flower hits moonlight, it glows with such a shin that it could have easily been a falling star in your hands. And when the wind would blow just right, the pollen from the flower would twirl around you, almost like magic. I've never seen it happen, but some say that it does if you're lucky enough to find one.

We were only in one small portion of the Garden. It stretched on for miles and miles. Each generation of royals contributed to the Garden, adding new things once they became King and Queen. Hanasi told me that whenever my parents would argue my mother would come down to the Garden and just take in the beauty and peace to calm her nerves. The Garden had been built underground, but there were passageways to get here. They had even used spirals that could harness the power of the Sun and moonlight and placed them down here. So, that nothing would die.

There were many things down here, flowers, rivers, streams, springs, waterfalls, caves, trees, etc. Everything you could imagine and so much more. It was simply in one word: Paradise.

"You haven't answered my question," Kida said lazily. I turned back to her; she was no longer sitting on a tree branch, but a swing. The vines were coved with flowers and the bottom made of wood. The flowers on the vines were Lunar Roses, one of which was in Kida's hair, gently tucked behind her ear.

"Why should I? You of all people should know the answer to that question." I retorted. She cocked her head to the side. She reminded me of a bird whenever I saw her do that.

"Your point?" I frowned at her.

"My point?! Are you truly that insane that you will have us killed? What are you playing at? Answer me!" She focused her, my, our eyes on me once more. But there was a cold fury in those eyes that made a shiver trail down my spine with fear.

"Do you think you can order me about? Do I look like one of you little subjects? I am you, you are me. We are one. Yet we are separate. Don't think I will bend to your will because your will is my will and my will is yours. That is unless; you wish to bend to yourself." I didn't respond.

She began to move her feet, swinging slowly, eyes no longer held their cold fury but amusement. I hated when she was amused by something, well not something, more along the lines of me.

"Did you know that souls met on lover's lips?" I snarled at her. I was in no mood for her games.

She laughed. It was always weird hearing my own laugh. It was like the sound of a thousand waterfalls. Did I really sound like that?

Then the dream shattered, and I was awakened by a blinding light. I hissed and turned away from it.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic, it's time to eat," Ula said as she moved away from the window. I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the light. I felt Ula jump on the bed.

"What's that?" She asked. After my eyes adjusted, I looked around the bed and found a flower petal on one of my pillows. It was white, but not the kind of white you would think, like the moon glowing in the darkness of the night kind of white. There was only one flower that could give off that kind of glow. A Lunar Rose. But how did that petal find its way to my bed? It would be impossible for it to have come from my dream, right?

"A flower petal," I said as I climbed out of bed. She snorted at me, but not too close to me, which made me think she was still lying on the bed waiting for me to get ready for the day.

"I know that. But what kind of flower would have this kind of petal?" She asked her voice far away as I looked through my huge closet. I didn't answer her. I didn't need to; she would figure it out in a moment anyway.

"Wait... did you go down to the Garden?" she asked. I told her no.

"Then how does a rare flower, only known place found in the Garden, just come find its way to your bed? With the windows closed?" She asked.

I told her about my dream and what Kida had told me.

"Souls meet on lover's lips? What is she a poet now?" I shrugged coming out of my closet and laying my clothes on the bed.

To say that breakfast was not awkward would be a complete lie. The tension from yesterday had not simply vanished like a thief in the night, but instead, it grew. Father had not said a word to me as Ula and I sat down for breakfast and spoken to everyone. But then again, I wasn't really in the mood to talk to him anyway.

"So... what is everyone doing today?" Hanasi asked a little too loud. Was she trying to break the tension? Or was there something else she was trying to do?

"I'll most likely be training today," I said. Hanasi nodded. Then she looked over at my siblings.

"And what will you three be doing?" They all shrugged not really knowing what to say.

"Kenalie?" He didn't answer.

Suddenly Hanasi clapped her hands, startling everyone at the table.

"Good that means we all we be going to the Opa home today."

"I have too much-" Father started to say, but Hanasi wasn't having it.

"Well, maybe you should have said that in the beginning then. We'll be going shortly so, finish quickly and be ready to go when I come to get you." She said before getting up and walking out of the dining room.

We all looked around the room at each other. There was nothing we could really do about it anyway. If Hanasi wanted us all ready, we were going to be ready. And if we weren't... No one wanted to face her if we weren't. Not even my father. When Hanasi was angry, no one dared to mess with her.

I looked over at my father, who was still eating his breakfast. He must have noticed me staring and looked up at me. We just stared at each other, not knowing what to say, finally, after the long awkward silence, I simply got up and when to my room and wait for Hanasi to come and get me.