A Story Come True

#5 Styfurdome

The fog that surrounded Cerah cleared, the sight that greeted her was beautiful beyond imagination. It was the statue of a striking young lady wearing a crown. The dresses and jewels that adorned her screamed royalty. She looked like she had stepped right down from heaven. As Cerah's eyes slid from her sculpted face to the rest of her body, her eyes caught on a shiny red velvet cloth that was lying at the towering statue's feet.

Cerah stepped forward and took the smooth material in her hand to find it wrapped around something solid.

"Elias Riase, The first queen of Styfurdome."

Cerah whirled around, startled on hearing a voice.

It was Angel, standing behind her, to her right. Cerah had completely forgotten that two others would accompany her in this dream. To her left stood John, and only today did she notice how handsome he was.

Scratch that he was sizzling hawt.

On feeling Cerah's gaze on him, John slid his eyes from the statue to her, smiled and said, "hey", his hands in his pockets. Cerah smiled back and turned to Angel,

"What were you saying?"

"The pedestal." Replied Angel, nodding towards the statue's pedestal that read 'Elisa Riase, The first queen of Styfurdome.'

"This village is called Styfurdome then?" Asked John looking around.

"I guess so." Shrugged Cerah.

"What's that you picked up?" Asked Angel, peering towards Cerah's hand. Cerah, who had momentarily forgotten that she was holding something, unwrapped the water like material. The cloth slid off to reveal a puzzle piece. On the puzzle piece was engraved,

'The seed is the centre of the fruit'

"Well, who's the Einstein that made this great discovery?" Asked John.

"I think it's the clue the old man was talking about." Said Angel tentatively.

"Oh yeah.. the clue." Said John nodding. He shifted his gaze to Cerah as though asking for her opinion. But before she could voice it out, his eyes shifted from Cerah to the ground behind her and a frown took over his features.

"That wasn't there before." He said.

Cerah and Angel turned to look at what he was talking about and there, at the statue's foot lay a brownish rolled up paper. John stepped toward it and picked it up, unrolling the ancient-looking, worn-out paper which was torn in some places.

"It's a map. Oh, a map of this village." Said Cerah looking at the title of the map that said 'Styfurdome'. John turned to face them both and held the map at both ends to prevent it from rolling back.

"'The seed is the centre of the fruit' was the clue. So I think whatever we're looking for, is in the middle of this village." Mused John directing their attention to the centre part of the map.

In the middle of the map was the drawing of a miniature garden with 'The Clock Garden' written beside it.

"Looks like that's where we should be right now." Said John looking at the two of them.

"Seems too easy to me." Said Angel looking at the puzzle piece in Cerah's hand thoughtfully.

"We'll only know that if we go there." Shrugged Cerah.

Angel nodded in agreement and so they set off in the direction of the garden.

-----

Upon reaching the garden they knew what the catch was. The garden looked like it could hold Cerah's entire school in it and still have some space left and that was saying something. Smack in the middle of the garden stood a humongous clock and Cerah, for some reason, imagined it saying in a majestic, boisterous voice, "now you know why they named the garden the way they did."