A Dark Destiny

Chapter 14

"I hope Mr. Ngandu doesn't give us a hard math assignment this time around," said Amanda. Her eyes fell on me as I approached her and Christine. "Hey, Diana, you're back."

"Hey, what did I miss?" I asked as I threw the ball mid-way into the air and caught it.

"Nothing much," said Christine as she shrugged her shoulders. "We lost the relay race, by the way. We came out third."

"Huh. Better luck next time."

I wanted to ask if I had been gone for too long, but I realised that it wasn't worth it. My friends didn't ask why I took so long and it looked like the ball games hadn't even started yet. It's either time moved differently where I was or all that I went through didn't eat up much time at all.

"Ah, thanks for bringing the ball," said Chileshe as she came to join us. I threw the ball in the air and she caught it with both hands.

"You're welcome," I said. "Do we really have to have ball games?"

"It's only just football. And besides, the dorms won't be going against each other. It's only for those who want to play."

"Whew!" Christine, Amanda and I muttered in relief.

Chileshe laughed as she knew why. Our dorm was awful at football, and I mean, really awful. We didn't have many football players, so we always had to make due with what we had. And what we had was awfulness through and through.

We all went to the football pitch right next to the race track. A lot of us didn't like to participate in football, so all we did was watch. Many preferred to leave and head for the showers before supper. But even then, no one was allowed to leave or else, punishment as usual.

Groups gathered around the pitch as the teachers facilitating the match, the sports prefect and a few other prefects were on the pitch, obviously discussing over the game. The game couldn't last a whole ninety minutes since we only had an hour and a half till the sports period was over.

My friends and I sat at the south end of the pitch. There weren't many trees around, but luckily, the sun didn't hit us much as it was going westwards.

Those who wished to play gathered in the middle of the pitch and divided themselves into two teams. Christine and Amanda were talking about some hot topic that had been going on around school. I contributed as much as I could, but I soon lost interest. I found myself drifting off into space. I had a lot to think about. Especially with what happened to me earlier.

A little while ago:

"Where are we?" I asked as I looked up. Was I still underground?

I was looking up at a clear blue sky with a few white clouds here and there, but the blue sky nonetheless. And there was the sun too. Was all of this real? Did I just travel to another place?

I stood at the top of what looked like a mountain with Stella and the other five. It was here that I could see the beautiful land below me. We seemed to be on some sort of island because of the clear blue waters that surrounded the land.

I looked down on the island. I could see the trees and also make out human settlements. For a moment, I thought those were huts. But it was quite the opposite. I made out stone brick buildings, almost like the place was some kind of town. At the centre stood a large white building that was bigger than any of the others. It reminded me of one of those ancient buildings built by the Romans that I only got to see in books and movies. Around the white building stood six others, slightly smaller, in the six colours: red, blue, orange, green, purple and yellow. The place looked tempting and I was dying to go down there to look around.