After the reunion of Nabu. The three of us , Nabu , Flora and I had a talk about things. Flora kept giving me the death glare since we told her about me being able to see him for all those years. Then I told her it was Nabu's idea and her deathly gaze was sent to him instead. Her hormones make you think twice before you do anything , that's for sure.
It then took convincing to call Layla. Nabu was so nervous to see her. He didn't want to bring up her past for her. But I told him she isn't seeing anyone, that she loves him and an hour later we called her.
Flora and I watched the whole scene of Layla's face when she saw him. That's before she burst out crying and hugged him death. He hugged her back and we decided to give them some alone time.
When we got home, my mum was upset but it turns out dinner was ready as soon as we go back, such was a hungry Flora. So now we are around the dinner table. And for now I push all those horrible thoughts and feelings aside and enjoy the laughter and memories shared around the table. That's what Christmas is all about after all.
"So Flora when are you due?" My mum asks before taking a sip of her red wine. I notice Flora put a hand on her growing stomach.
"About 6 months, I'm getting nervous though about the whole mum thing." She says it with a nervous smile.
"Flora you'll be a great mum, what are talking about." I reassure and she sighs and nods.
"Flora sweetie, listen to Bloom, you will be. But like everyone says, no one is ever really ready for a child… but once you hold that little bundle of joy in your arms you'll be fine. I know, I was like that once with Bloom."
I look at my mum and she wears a soft smile, indulging in her memories and her third glass of wine.
"Was Bloom a behaved child?" Flora asked and I am curious about that answer as I turn to my mother and father across the way.
"Oh Gosh, no." My father says and my mum agrees, my jaw drops.
"That's not true." I rebut and my parents share a glance before laughing. Flora joins along.
"Honey, every time you got, you caused trouble, not on purpose god bless, but you did cause us some misfortune." My mum informs with a smile.
"What did I ever do that was so bad." I know after the words slip out of mouth I am regretting it.
"Well let's see." My mum leans back in her chair across from me and takes a look at my father before starting ."The time when you were little you did something with the TV remote and locked the language to Italian for two months. Your father was so mad" She laughed.
"OR how about the time you tried to reach the cookie jar from the top of the fridge. You opened the fringe door and by climbing on it and broke the compartment wear we kept all the eggs. So you got covered with two dozen broken and smashed shells and yolks. " My dad says , joining into the stories. My parents are having a blast telling them my embarrassing moments of life.
"Oh No, Mike." My mother gets out between laughs." Remember before Kiko, those fish." My mother starts laughing her head off.
"Oh yes." My father laughs along, and I take a glance at Flora beside me enjoying herself." You see Flora, before Kiko, We got Bloom two fish which she named Gypsy and Pompom. I have no idea where the names came form but I remember one day Vanessa and I had to clean the fish bowl we normally kept in the middle of the dining table when Bloom decided to clean the tank herself."
My father pauses to catch his breath, I don't think I heard this story before. I was too young to remember any of this.
"So Bloom's way of cleaning the tank was like normal, she emptied out the water and basically cleaned the agley off the bowl, But then we ask her where she kept the fish. But she didn't say anything but just had her cheeks puffed out and looking a little strained by it."
"Hang on" Flora stars to laugh." She kept the fish in her mouth."
My mother Laugh and nods." When we realized 5 minutes later, from Pompom's tale sticking out of her mouth we made her put them in a glass of water, but by then it was too late." The laughter dies down a bit.
But then a memory slips its way into my mind. "I remember… You said you gave Gypsy and Pompom to Mr and Mrs Hamilton who lived in Long Island…" My sentence falls short when I realize.
"Oh sorry sweetie, I can't believe it took you till now, to know that we really took them down the toilet." My father's says, slipping a chuckle out.
"Mike!" My mother says trying not laugh also, while slapping my dad on the chest. I find myself laughing to. Gosh I was a funny kid, I had my quirks.
"But seriously I don't think I kept them in my mouth. I might have been young but I couldn't have done that."
"oh you did, Mike took a photo before we realized, we thought you were just being silly with your puffed out cheeks." Mum says with a small laugh, taking another sip of wine. Then she smiles, before starting to get up." I'm going to show you with our photo album."
"While you do that I need to go the bathroom, after all that laughing." Flora says whipping a tear from her eye. I direct her to the loo and come back to find my mum carrying an old think and heavy photo album. It's light purple with paper and photos sticking out. As my mum carries it to the other end of the table a photo drops out.
"Ah, mum you dropped one…" I say and crouch down to pick it off the floor.
"Ah, Sweetie don't look…" My mum warns but it's too late.
You see every year my father likes to take photos or videos of our family. It's his hobby and he loves it. He especially loves the holidays and every Christmas since I was one year old he takes a picture of me sleeping on the couch near the warm fire after we have finished eating dinner and pudding. He calls it my food coma.
But that year, When Sky came I wasn't alone in the picture. Sky sat on the red couch, and me sitting on his lap with my legs sprawled out on the length of the couch. My head rests in the crook of his neck, and my arms around his waist as my eyes are closed, resting. I obviously don't remember these picture being taken but Sky was awake, his hand resting on my hip and his other on my cheek as he kisses my forehead. The nice warm glow of the fire being the lighting on that snowy night, I had a soft smile on my face when things were happier it seemed.
I am stuck looking at that picture for god knows how long, I told myself I wasn't going to think about him today but that's now a bust. I get up from my crouch and my mum and dad have a guilty face as I hand my mum back the picture which she takes, has a quiet look before slipping it back into the bottom of the album.
"I'm ready to see these pictures." Flora cheers while coming back into the dinning room. I turn to see her and put a big smile on my face.
"Yes, mum do you have it." I ask my mum, who caught the lingo of moving on from that incident, as she would call it and flicking through the pages of the front of the album.
"Here we go" We all crowd around the end of the table, laughing at the one where I look like chipmunk holding the fish in my mouth. After that we stay there going through all my pictures of my childhood. Flora laughing and enjoying herself, finding out more of who I was before the magical dimension.
Then she wanted to see me as a baby and my mother turned to the first page of the album. It was the picture my mum had just bought me home and she had me in her arms with a yellow and blue blanket. I was asleep with my wisps of red hair and button nose and my tiny fingers smaller then match sticks wrapped around her pointer finger as my mum smiled at the camera.
But in that photo there's something that I notice that jogs my memory. Around me in the picture is a medallion . It's a thin chain that holds a large round wood like pendent with embellishments of gold and blue. And then something hits me.
"Mum, you said that medallion was left with me when they found me." I state while pointing to it on the picture.
"Uh Yes, honey I never understood what it meant… I guess it was from your birth parents." My mum says slowly, knowing the mention of anything to do with Sparks is fragile for me, especially now. But to me it's a ray of shining light, I have my answer to my map to guide me to bring my home back.
Without an announcement, I bolt out of the dining room, up the stairs skipping two at a time and dive into my room. I scrabble to my cupboard on the far right of my bed room walls and find my old colour shoe box containing the things I kept form my child hood. I bring it to my bed and open it. I have some old coins, my busted old elephant toy, a yoyo and in the bottom lies my medallion.
"Bloom?" My head shoots up to a puffed Flora I hadn't even noticed who had come in to the room. I ignore her and look back down at my medallion. On one side on the rim is the etched names of my birth family, Miriam, Oritel , Daphne and my name, Bloom. Then I flip it to the side where is as a pine wheel shape of blue and yellow, an in the centre is a picture like emblem with writing underneath it.
"Bloom, you're scaring me." Flora says approaching me cautiously . And I look up to her again.
"They left this for me…" I mummer to myself and study the picture more carefully. Its looks like an old ancient city of tall buildings, it's not that detailed but it looks so familiar, I swear I have seen that exact same picture before, just in a different form. I then look to the words under it.
"Nor my Eatha, jwa kan Dimna." I say under my breath, finally later learning the language of Sparks at Alfea, knowing what it means. "Bring the Light, to the Darkness."
" Bloom." Flora nearly yells, getting annoyed with me now." What are you talking about?"
"Have you seen this symbol before?" I ask and hand her the medallion as she now stands in front of me on the bed. She studies it and I see the wheels turning in her head.
"Yes…. I just can't…" she drifts off, furrowing her eyes brows and it's on the tip of our tongues but can't place the picture."… Bring the Light, to the Darkness … what could that mean?"
"Well I am going to find out." I say shortly, feeling that determination seep through me again and I see the small smile on Flora's face recognising it to.
"Hey!" she says, having an idea." Ask Tecna to put it through image recognition on her laptop, she of all people could find where it's from."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
I did what Flora suggested and Tecna is now putting the image through her special computer device thing. She says it might take a while considering she is tracing the galactic web. But now I am dropping off Flora at Linfea. I have got to say it's been an eventful Christmas.
After that, I am about to go back to earth when I get phone call from Tecna. I am just outside Heilia and Flora's place when I take it.
"Hey Tec, any luck." I say firstly, not meaning to be rude but I need to know.
"Well yeah, I scanned every possible picture that could be it, but the computer couldn't really find a match that would make sense putting it through an algorithm I created for possibilities relating to Sparks. But I ask the guys and girls about it and someone recognised it… Bloom you're not going to like this." She says it with doubt and a swallow.
"Who recognised it?"
"Brandon… Do you remember those big stained glass windows in the throne room of Eraklyon…" She drift off, and the image of them pop into my mind. It's the picture of the stain glass window above the throne. Of course Brandon would recognise it working there since a young age. And I have seen more times then I can remember.
"It's in Eraklyon." I say, clarifying.
"Yes… Bloom don't do anything rash, going there isn't the best of things to do right now-" Techna tries to reason, but I but in.
"I've got to go Tecna." I say before hanging up the phone making sure to turn it off so no one else will ring to try and stop me. I grab my portal maker and I am off to Eraklyon. Not really knowing what to expect.
Hey guys updated as promised.
Next update I will do the Ask the Author so send in your questions. Don't worry I will also put a new chapter next update also.
Love you guys .