Chapter Four:

A World of Intrigue

Anna's house was beautiful. The architecture was Victorian and it stood on a large hill surrounded by flowers. It was two stories high and was painted a light azure color. Emerald had never seen a house like that before. She was used to the Roman-like architecture on Gaea and when she saw the house, she was completely amazed. Anna and Emerald walked up to the house's porch and stopped at the old wooden door. Emerald was looking very nervous, as Anna was about to open the door.

Anna noticed her anxiety.

"Don't worry! My parents are really nice people! I'm positive they'll just love you and let you stay with us!"

Emerald smiled slightly as Anna opened the door to the house and walked in. Emerald followed hesitantly, and unconsciously fixed her hair and smoothed out her Gaean dress. Anna walked to the living room where a well-built man in his late 20s was sitting on the couch watching television. Everything was so strange in this house! When she looked at the television, Emerald gasped as she saw people move around inside the screen.

"Oh my gods! THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THAT BLACK GLASS BOX!!!!" Emerald screeched.

Both Anna and the man jumped with surprise and looked at Emerald bewildered.

"Gosh, Emerald! Could you be any louder? I didn't even have a chance to say anything to me dad," Anna said and turned to her father, "Oh! Hi, daddy! This is my friend Emerald! But everyone calls her...uh...Emie!"

Emerald blinked and whispered to Anna.

"They do?"

Anna nodded and turned to her father who by now had stood up and was making his way to the two girls. Emerald looked up and got a good look at the man. He was a tall, and was pleasant looking. His hair was a dark brown color, his eyes were green, and they had a gleam of kindness. He wore a business suit, his necktie was undone, and he had a few buttons undone, obviously getting back from his job. Emerald tilted her head in confusion, since he had even weirder clothes than Anna.

"It's nice to meet you, Emie. I'm Suboshi Nakamura, Anna's father," He said and looked Emerald over, "Hmm, I haven't seen you around, did you just move here? I've never seen clothes like yours before."

Emerald opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted by Anna.

"Emie's from...um...up north," Anna's expression suddenly changed to a more serious one as she continued, "She came here all by herself, and her parents left her all alone! She has no family and no place to stay, Daddy. Can she stay with us? Please!"

Emerald gave Anna an annoyed little look. She didn't want to be known as an orphan or some poor wanderer. Suboshi on the other hand gave Anna and Emerald a concerned look. He excused himself for a minute and walked to the kitchen.

"My parents left me all by myself, huh?" Emerald asked with her arms crossed.

Anna laughed nervously.

"It was the best I could think of! Besides, my daddy went to go talk to my mommy and that always means a yes. While we wait, how about I show you around? I'm guessing from your reaction to the TV you've never seen one before."

Anna explained and showed Emerald everything in the house she didn't know [Which was practically everything]. Emerald understood vaguely and absently nodded at what Anna said. After a few minutes, Suboshi came back into the room along with a woman. The woman was very beautiful. She had blonde hair like Anna that came down to just past her shoulders that was braided back. She was very slender and she wore an apron and probably was cooking before Suboshi told her about Emerald. Her blue eyes were lively but also showed concern. Suboshi broke the silence.

"Emie, this is Hikari my wife."

Emerald bowed respectively, and Hikari smiled softly.

"Nice to meet to, Emie. Suboshi and I were discussing your problem and we think it might be a good idea if you stayed with us for a while. You know, just until we can figure out what to do. You can stay in Anna's room with her. She has an extra bed so there won't be a problem."
Emerald was overjoyed. She ran to Hikari and Suboshi and gave each one a hug. Her eyed filled with tears of happiness. She was so glad she had something somewhat like a family.

"Oh thank you so much! I'll help you around the house! I'll clean and cook and anything you want me to do!"

"It's no problem," Hikari said and noticed Emerald's odd-looking clothes, "How about tomorrow we go shopping and get you some clothes?"

~*~*~*~

"And what to you call this?" Emerald asked after they all had finished shopping and were sitting down outside in a little café.

"It's called pizza, Emie! It's really good you should try it," Hikari answered, "Wow, Emie! I've never heard just one person ask so many questions. How far north are you from?"

Emerald was stuffing her face with pizza and didn't hear Hikari's question. Emerald was amazed that they didn't have this kind of food in Gaea!

Anna answered her mother's question.

"She didn't get out much, mommy! You know how it is with her parents."

Hikari nodded and watch Emerald eat the pizza. Emerald was wearing a red sundress that Anna let her borrow. She also wore some red dress shoes and a red hat. All of which were Anna's. After today though, Emerald didn't have to worry about borrowing. Hikari bought Emerald a whole new wardrobe. Even though Emerald missed her old Gaean clothes, she thought her new ones were so cute!

 Emerald soon got full of pizza and she looked around and watched the people go by. She still had no idea where she was. Everything was almost scary to her. There were smoky machines zooming by that Anna called "cars" and she didn't spot a single beast man or a Guymelef. She wondered where they were or if they even had any. She was so confused because nothing on this made any sense. Emerald wondered what village she was in.

"Um...so where are we anyway? What village is this?" Emerald asked.

Anna looked at her funny.

"Village? This is a city! We're in Furenchi Kisu, F.K. for short! How did you get village?"

Emerald shrugged and smiled happily.

~*~*~*~
Emerald has been staying at the Nakamura's for over two years now. She's been going to school and has gotten used to almost everything here. She still missed everything about Gaea. Most of all she missed her parents. She hoped that they were alive and okay. Emerald had gotten her own room now. Suboshi had moved his study so Emerald could have a room to herself. It was as if she had been in their family for years. And yet, it wasn't.

Emerald sighed and stared out her window. She longed to be back home. She hadn't really started her quest yet. She didn't know where to begin or even what to do and Gaea's spirits hadn't done much to help her. They haven't even talked to her. It was as if they weren't even inside her. Emerald didn't care really. She was homesick for her old ways and her old clothes. She gazed at the stars and the heavens wishing she were sitting in the Sea Dragon shrine with her mother and father healing the sick or practicing spells.

 Something high in the ski caught her eye. It was something bright white and was flickering revealing the hidden clouds. It wasn't lightning it was more magical. The white light poured down and shot the ground. It was the same light that blanketed her and carried her off to Earth! Emerald quickly opened her window and jumped out and started running. She hastily unfolded her wings and flew to the now fading light. The light had not diminished but there was still little sparks of light. Soon her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she searched for anything. Emerald was just about to give up when she tripped over something large.

"Ouch!" She winced and turned around and looked at the object. It was a large trunk and quite heavy since it didn't tip over when Emerald fell over it. Emerald stood up and walked to the trunk. She gasped as she made out what the markings were.

"It...it's from Gaea! Sweet Sea Dragon! It can't be! But it is..."

Emerald took the handle at the side of the trunk and started to drag it. She was quite aware this would take a long while until she could get it back to the house and then to her room, but she didn't care. Emerald wanted to know what was in the trunk.

After an hour and a half Emerald had gotten the large trunk into her. Luckily no one saw her and she did a good job at not making a sound. She turned on her bedside lamp and turned to the trunk and stared at it for a while. She kneeled down in front of the trunk and examined the intricate designs carved into it. At once Emerald could tell what it was.

 "It's definitely Gaean. It's from the time of the birth of Gaea and I'm almost positive it came from Asturia...probably Fried. Amazing! I can't believe it's a trunk from times of old, and it's from Asturia," she mumbled excitedly to herself.

She unlatched the trunk and lifted the top. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped in disbelief as she opened the trunk all the way. Inside it was all the things Emerald held dear. There was the emerald sword given to her by the king of Asturia after her parents heals his advisor. She unsheathed the sword and looked at it for a moment and then put it back. She also saw the dagger the young prince of Fanelia gave to her after she beat him at mortal combat. She picked both the sword and the dagger out of the trunk and put it to the side. She slowly picked up a dress that belonged to her mother. Emerald's eyes filled with tears as she clutched the dress and hugged it to her body. It still smelled of her perfume. She silently sobbed as she put the dress next to her the other things. Next, she pulled out a staff that was to be given to her on her 17th birthday by her father. The staff was encrusted with emeralds and rubies with designs surrounding jewels. The staff was about half the size of her and was molded out of pure gold. The top of the staff curved into almost a heart like shape and in the middle of the heart was a large emerald. The workmanship of it was excellent and it took years to finish it. She gently ran her fingers around it and placed it in the pile with the rest of her memories. The last thing left inside the trunk was a dusty old book that was extraordinarily heavily and thick. Emerald picked it up, coughing at the dust that had unsettled and now was fly around her room. She cleaned the book off and read the cover.

"The Ancient Texts of Gaea and Atlantis," She read out loud overjoyed that she could still speak and read Gaean. She opened the book and flipped through the pages without really reading anything. It was too late to start the book anyway she was already tired. She put everything back into the trunk except for Aki's dress and the book, which she put into her closet. She pushed the trunk against her wall near her bookshelf and closed the latch. Emerald, overcome by slumber walked to her canopy bed, got underneath her blanket and quickly fell asleep…