People hustled through the dirty street of Poisoned Apple. It was summer, and mid-day, meaning the smell coming from the back alley dumpsters made me wanna puke. I fanned myself with my handkerchief and tied it back into my frizzy hair.
"Gwen," my mother climbed down the stairs. She wore a striking blood red gown, "What do you think? I think Madam DeVil did another wonderful job." Her sleeves wisped down to the ground and a slit went up to her mid thighs.
"Ah, it's lovely," I forced a smile which probably looked like a grimace, but it seems she didn't notice as she looked at herself in the mirror. Unlike me, my mother had straight long hair and a sharp shaped face. I, on the other hand, have dark frizzy for hair and a baby round face. Mother says I get my hair from my grandmother. I realized that my asking was futile whenever the topic of my grandmother came up, so I grew up learning from everybody else. They called her Mother Gothel. A woman who stayed youthful for hundreds of years
"I'll be taking my leave now," she started to grab her bag, "take care of the shop."
"I always do," I watched her walking out of the store and onto the busy street. For a busy day, I wasn't getting any business. We are one of the many herbalist stores in the Lost Isle and we just so happen to be the smallest one. Narrow walkway with a small space, no more than four people can walk through. Our herbs are stacked high to compensate for the lack of space, so we're also an inconvenience.
I nestled down behind the counter pulled out one of the thick books from the bookshelf behind me. The cover was a green turning to a moldy brown color and the pages were crusty with old age. Mother Gothel may have been an evil beauty, but her knowledge about herbs and flora were amazing. This book contained an abundance of herbs and flora not found on this ugly little island.
I flipped through pages sighing, wishing, that I could one day see all of these flowers in real life and not through these decaying pages. I stopped at the last page, about the magical flower that was born from the sun, and uttered a quiet chuckle. I carefully placed the book back onto the shelf. After the magical flower, there was nothing. There were many blank pages but it felt like grandma was consumed with this flower and stopped recording anything else.
"Flower and herbs, herbs and flower, nothing define me better than my brewing power," A pungent women in blue walked into the store.
"Evil day to you Evil Queen,"
"And an evil day to you too Gwen." She shuffled around and looked through the colored glass jars, which I found lying around on the streets. "Still no orange peel and dried lizard tongue?"
"Jafar got his finger stuck in a lamp again?" I opened a new jar of dried lizard tongue and took out some into a bag.
"Yes, crazy old man can't stop can he?" she sighed.
I shrugged, being buried under 1000 feet of sand for years would mess me up too. "We don't have any orange peel today the shipment from Auradon hasn't come yet."
The Evil Queen cracked a fake smile, "It's fine dear, I'll just go halfway across the island to Doctor's place." She tossed me a copper piece, which is probably not real, and slammed the door shut.
"Witch," I muttered under my breath. I bite the piece to find that it was real and put it in my satchel. After another 15 minutes of doing nothing, I flipped the store sign to close and skipped down the bustling street. I tried to sneak through shadows and hide behind tattered caravans to get to my destination. It would be the death of me if anybody sees my oasis.
A rundown cobblestoned building came to view. Ripped up yellow caution ribbons waved in the wind as I slinked away behind the building. Blue Ivy engulfed the back side of the building, but a certain patch of ivy was just thin enough for me to crawl through. Making sure my hair doesn't get snagged on the ivy, I tuck it under my shirt.
After squeezing my way through, I hurried down the stairs towards the basement. There wasn't a roof so it was easy finding the stairs. I placed my hands on the wall to guide my way. The light slowly started to fade away, but a blue luminescence light glowed softly down the stairs.
Water started to come up the stairs and I started to take off my shoes and my jacket. I found this basement six years ago after having a cheap argument with my mom. I cried on these steps before meeting my best friend. "Delphi," I called out. I folded my clothes and placed them on one of the dry steps. The water was cold when I put my foot in, "Delphi!" I called again.
This time a light blue dolphin broke the surface of the water and sprayed me, "Gotcha!" Delphi laughed.
"Why you," I splashed her back which didn't affect her at all as she kept on laughing.
"Sorry! Let's go!" She turned her back towards me as I grabbed onto her fin.
We jetted through the cold water and passed the underwater basement. Crustacean and sea creature gave a little life in the empty basement. A large hole leads out of the basement and out to open ocean. I took a breath once we reached the surface. Despite the dark looking water, it was actually clean, at least in this part of the waters.
"This is great," I started to float on my back as Delphi swam around me.
"You're earlier today, got into a fight with your mom again?"
"No, she left, so I left," I water shrugged. I started to swim really fast, "race you to the beach!"
"Hey!" Delphi followed but she caught up with me and eventually passed me. What can I say? I'm going to beat her one day. I climb onto the small beach, it was like its own little island. I kept my feet in the water and dug my toes into the wet sand. With my arms around my legs and my head on my knees, I watch Auradon from behind the magical barrier.
"Tell me what the flowers look like over there again Delphi."
"I could just bring you back one,"
"No, last time the flower lost all of its petals."
Delphi sighed, if dolphins could sigh, "I wish we could just swim over than watch from here."
"Me too," I plopped down onto my back, "one day, I swear I'll leave this dumpster hole."