Selina

3

I walk towards the flowers, surprised to see myself finding my way back to the peak. The blue roses captivate me and I can't help but run towards them. People love red and pink flowers but blue, blue is such a magnificent colour, its peaceful, like a cool breeze on a hot summer day and on roses its like a treasure, something to be adored and kept safely, not plucked and given as a gift.

I can't help but look at a particular rose closely that has petals that look like a royal blue shaded from bottom to top, dark to light as if representing the fact that you can rise from darkness to fly in the vast horizons of the sky.

I bend a little closer to it, to smell its fragrance but as soon as I close my eyes, a sound makes me freeze.

Buzzzzz-buzzzz-buzzz...

Slightly opening my eyes, I see a huge bee coming out of the flower that suddenly doesn't look as pleasant as it did a few minutes back. Wherever the bee has touched it, it's turning a sickly shade of green, letting out a pungent smell. I try to run, but my feet don't move, I try to scream but no sound comes out. I have never been afraid of bees but it's different when you are paralysed.

My body is there but it just doesn't listen to me like my soul has been detached from it and I am seeing a slow-motion film where I am going to be bitten by a huge, wild, poisonous bee.

As I prepare myself for the sting, something pushes me and I land in the forest. I look around for the force, struggling to get up when I am pushed again. I land in front of a castle this time. It's huge but well hidden by the trees.

As I try to stand up again, looking around for what has brought me here, I hear a whooshing sound and bend down just in time to avoid an arrow. A young girl, about my age, comes out running, her short blonde hair sticking to her face, her orange tunic too short like a men's shirt, and her trousers bunched up on her feet. She runs past me to pick up the arrow.

Either she doesn't notice me or just doesn't care because as soon as she collects her arrow, she runs back without sparing me a glance.

As I contemplate whether to go back or not, she returns, this time accompanied by two other girls. One has dark skin, like people of Greog village usually have, and long black hair tied in a pleat. She is dressed in a grey tunic similar to the blondie and trousers that actually fit her while the other is pale with red hair. Her appearance makes me freeze. No, it can't be her. It's not Rosa, no! But everything stills when I look at her face because she is indeed my best friend, my Rosa, the girl I have been searching for all this time, refusing to believe that she is dead.

They walk towards me but it's like I am invisible.

'Rosa, look at me, I am here. I am here to take you back.'

I try to scream but again no words come out. As if sensing my presence, she turns towards me with a frown but before she can contemplate more, I am pushed again and this time the place is not so happy. Fire flows like a river beside me, the heat making me flinch from the intensity. Sweat pours down my forehead as I wonder what I am doing here when I hear a chant.

'Long live the King, Long live the Master!'

How do people live here? I move forward, wondering at my luck, I can move here but a few minutes back my body was refusing to obey my brain. The rebels have now surrendered and I can walk normally, what even is going on?

As I walk closer to the sound, the chants become louder and there is a vibration on the dusty, semi-cemented road that goes all the way up to my head.

From my position, I see huge walls with fresh leaves hanging out. How in the world did they manage to get fresh leaves in this place? I can hardly see anything past about a hundred-two hundred meters and there is definitely no vegetation. When there is no water how will there be plants? I am pretty sure I am deep inside a mountain but how and why would someone choose to live here? Even the air is polluted and it's getting harder to breathe by the second.

'End of Earth, end of nasty humans, revenge from the Gods!'

Suddenly the chants change and I am left even more shocked. What do they mean by end of humans?

I run towards the walls, and seeing a small opening that is big enough for me to enter, I crouch down and crawl past it to land in a big veranda with hundreds of guests and a stage only the guests are not humans. I mean they are humans but they are huge. Even the smallest ones are at least ten times larger than the tallest humans I have seen.

They are eating trees and some sea animals that no humans would ever touch with a glass of what I hope is wine.

On the stage, there are just two creatures. One is a giant who seems like the king due to a huge chunk of a gold bar on his head that is supported by pearls that have been used like pins and a shiny red robe that can cover an entire village. The other looks like a human from my position, considering he is really small, like an ant next to an elephant, how I can see him is a wonder in itself.

Wait, I can't assume the gender of these creatures, maybe I should just use it till I find out.

The human-like creature is wearing a bright yellow robe that hurts my eyes and its face is not visible under the robe but despite this, it has a dangerous aura.

The other giants are dressed in everyday human clothes and have long matted hair that is decorated with colourful beads. It's funny to see so much colour in a lifeless place like this but how can I even comment. I live in a colourful world where bright clothes are not allowed and they live in hell where they use an extra dose of colour.

'We will attack in exactly twenty days. Our first target will be-'

What? Right before I can hear the name of the place, I am jolted out of the veranda once again to land in my village. It's quiet despite daytime and though it feels good to come out of a hell-like place full of weird creatures conspiring to take revenge, the eerie silence bugs me.

I move closer to the houses but there is no one in sight. Step by step I move closer to my house, in hopes of asking my mother where everyone is but there is no one in my house too.

I run out to the center of the village, to the meeting point and my eyes pop out by the blood bath I see. My neighbours, classmates, even my parents are lying there, their heads bleeding profusely. Even the elders, the people supposed to protect us, govern us, the very ones I hated for the cruelty, are lying there, their eyes wide open like whatever they saw shocked them beyond measure.

I run to my mother, cradling her body in my arms, trying to wake her up, but nothing happens. She is dead. How did this happen?

'Selina, this is just a glimpse of what may happen if you continue to ignore your responsibilities. I have shown you where you need to go to stop the incoming war. Wake up and fulfill your destiny.'

I still on hearing the voice. It's feminine, soft, and angelic-like music.

'Who are you? Reveal yourself.'

I say standing up and looking around.

'In time, but tomorrow, you will have to clear your first task to prove that you have been rightly chosen by the fates.'

The voice says and before I can probe more, my eyes open and I find myself in bed, the first rays of sun coming through my window, proving the fact that it was all just a dream.