The Frog Collector

Chapter Five Part 2/2

For an instant, the princess thought the ground she was running on was shaking. "It must be because of the fright I got", she thought. The witch's voice became smaller and smaller.

"The witch cannot cross the invisible wall", reflected Agatha and stopped a little relieved.

Then, panting, she started to take out of her clothes the flowers she picked and count them.

"...Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight...", she stopped suddenly and looked for some more. "No, please...", she said, trying to find some, but couldn't.

Agatha was very sorry that she didn't have enough flowers and after a while she pondered:

"I can pretend that I am sorry and that I want to know more why she doesn't want me to give the flowers to Mirian and thus get the flowers when she is distracted. But I must be careful with her convincing magic!".

So the princess put everything away and went back to that other invisible wall.

Upon arriving near the place, the princess saw the witch who was a very beautiful woman, much younger than Mirian and seemed to have a familiar countenance. The woman said:

"You are back! That's great! It's very dangerous for flowers to fall into Mirian's hands. You're looking into my eyes... You can see me, can't you?".

"Yes", answered the princess.

"How nice! Then I won't need to remove the illusion magic that surrounds this place. Good because I don't remember the spell for that anymore".

The princess couldn't understand.

"My name is Lilian", continued the woman.

The princess almost said her name, but got to the point:

"Why did you tell me not to give the flowers to Mirian? How do you know about her?"

"Well, because she wants to bring back the age of magic. After all the problems we had with it and how hard it was to get rid of it. She wants to come back with that. Actually, she has never given up since that time", answered the woman.

"So the story I heard is really true. About Mirian being in that prison since Isra's time", reminded Agatha.

"Yes... But I didn't think you or anyone else was supposed to know about Isra", exclaimed the surprised woman.

"I... I heard all about it", said the princess gloomily.

Lilian smiled and invited her:

"Come on! Let's sit down. You don't want to stand there all the time, do you?"

"How do I know you won't attack me?", asked Agatha.

"It's true... Mirian must have spoken ill of me. Well... if I wanted to attack you I would have already done so with so many plants at my disposal", said Lilian pointing to the field of black flowers she had and continued: "But here's what we can do: Surely you know how these walls work, don't you? You can help me through the wall and see how I only have good intentions", said the woman extending her hand to the princess.

Agatha thought for a while, she was reluctant, but she extended her fingertips, crossed the invisible dome with them, held Lilian's hand and brought her out slowly. Lilian came out of the place sane and sketching a timid smile said:

"Did you see?"

The princess was impressed and was still trying to digest all of this. The woman took a deep breath looking at the trees.

"Wow... It's been a long time since I've been out here...", she said, but soon turned around and addressed the princess: "Shall we go inside?"

Then the two entered the invisible dome.

End of chapter Five. Nine to go.