"We found a message," I admitted. I wasn't lying, we did. I pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment with barely legible writing on it. It was signed M.Y
"A message?" said the dark-haired boy. I nodded.
"What did it say?" asked the blonde-haired girl who looked to be a little bit younger than me.
"You know, usually when you meet a person for the first time, you usually how they are, and what they're name is; you don't demand to know that person ran into them, and what their private message say," I responded. To be honest, I didn't really care; I just wanted to annoy them a bit.
"Very well," spoke the boy who had such a striking resemblance to the girl who was a little younger than me that I knew they must be related. "How do you do? My name is Iglande, and what does the note say?" He asked, extending his arm. Strangely he didn't extend it exactly at me, he was a bit off as if he was dazed. I also noticed he didn't exactly make eye contact with anyone. I raised an eyebrow at Angel, waiting for her to confirm what I what I suspected.
"Yes, he's blind," she said.
"Oh," Unsure of how to answer. Everyone (even Nudgelie!) was looking at me, waiting for me to place the note into Iglande's expectant hands. For some reason, I didn't want to. I don't know if it was because Angel was acting all superior, or if it was just the distrustful atmosphere enveloping us like a thick fart. Too embarrassing to point it out, but too pungent to ignore it. From the way they were looking at me, they could probably tell I wasn't going to hand it over. It was getting extremely uncomfortable.
Maxima was staring at the note, fear obvious in her eyes.
"Is-is that a Goren?" she gasped, horrified. A Goren is a very small type but very dangerous type of scorpion. If injected with a Goren's venom, the victim will experience a slow and painful death after 8 hours if not treated. Even the survivors had to deal with many unpleasant symptoms. I froze, trying not to panic. Goren's are very easily frightened. I brought my wrist to my eyes, looking for the Goren so I can very gently brush it off. I rotated my wrist in all different angles very slowly. That's when I realized Goren don't live in wet, green places; they prefer deserts.
"There aren't any Gorens on me," I said. Maxima breathed a very dramatic sigh of relief.
"Oh sorry, must've been a gnat or something like that," she shrugged. I realized while I was rotating my wrist, checking for Goren I prominently displayed the note. Max had seen it and began to recite it the message on it.
"Venture past the valley of suns
Where the trees cling to ground
Go barefoot to where lions fight
Yet they shan't make a sound
When they hear the voices afar
They will find ones like them
Strong, brave, able to fly
One will possess a saving gem"
-M.Y
I suppose I should've been mad. Most people would. I wanted to be, but I was impressed.
"Wow, who knew a dainty little princess like you could do something so devious?" I teased, knowing a dainty, little princess is the last thing Max would be.
Max's POV
"Thank you?" I said it like a question; unsure on whether that was a compliment or an insult. I decided it was both, an insultiment, or a complisult.
"Wait, you said you found the message," Iglande continued. "It wasn't personally delivered to you?"
"Well, there was the messagers were giving us the regular letters. Invitations to balls and all that," Gazzieur wrinkled his nose in disgust, making it clear that he never really cared for celebratory balls. "One of our guards took one of the letters, saying that it was his mail and the messager didn't mean to give it to us. But as the guard took it, I saw a glimpse of our names," He said, gesturing to Nudgelie and himself.
"Well we were bored and curious, so of course we snuck in there and took the letter," Nudgelie said, as if anyone would do that.
"And how did you manage that?" I laughed, slightly proud of them that they could perform such a task.
"I just set fire to one of the least important rooms in the house as a distraction," Gazzieur grinned, proud. Nudgelie huffed; clearly, she disagreed. "The etiquette room," Although Nudgelie was far from being conceited or ditsy, I could tell she liked being a princess.
"This is quite interesting, can you explain exactly how you found us?" Fang asked. I was curious to that too. The clues were quite vague and mostly sounded as if they could be a children's poem. Not a series of top-secret clues that lead you to powerful bird kids.
"Well, 'venture past the valley of suns where life the trees cling to ground.'" Nudgelie started. "That was easy enough, we found sunflower valley, where slightly past that a bunch of people were cutting down trees, making then 'cling to ground'. 'Go barefoot to where lions play' That was a bit harder so we just kept flying through the forest for several hours looking for something important until we found a long shallow river. We needed a drink; we decided to go barefoot through the water since that's what the poem said anyway. We were really scared now, looking for lions. I found a very shiny-looking rock amidst all the ones in the river. Stepping on it, made a tree shed its outer layer, showing a carving into a large tree of majestic lions playing. The carving was so beautiful; it must've been done by one of the most skilled artists in the land. Which would explain the "but they shan't make a sound," part. We walked in that direction until we heard a bunch of unfamiliar voices, then we heard you're voice Max, so we summoned up the courage to come here and find you or 'They will find ones like them, strong brave able to fly,' part," Nudge finished. "Still kind of confused about the whole 'one will possess a saving gem,' part though." Nudge said knitting her brows in confusion.
I risked a glance at Fang, knowing now was not the time to tell them about that the saving gem part meant that Fang had the Crystal of Life. We were all pretty impressed but then I remembered something. Someone knew how to find us, a certain "M.Y." That sent shivers down my spine. But then again that someone meant to give the message to Nudgelie and Gazzieur. Does that person know about Fang's crystal of life? And then there was the guard to worry about. He was the one that tried to steal the message. Has he already read the poem? Has he memorized it? Is a palace guard that somehow knows our secret hunting us down while we stand here and do nothing?
Like it? Thanks for reading this chapter and please review!
XOXO
Monique!