Missing Trilogy Book 1: Finding Home

Chapter 2: Came From the Sky

"... He's only a kid! He can't be the wizard!" a voice came into Vella's thoughts. No... not her thoughts...

"Why can't he be? I mean, the prophecy never specified an age!" came another voice.

"You honestly think he could be the wizard? Don't be silly, sister. I suppose we'll just have to wait until he wakes up."

Vella groaned. The last thing she remembered was trying to catch Shay. She remembered both of them falling to their deaths. What happened? Was she still alive? Whatever happened, it hurt. She tried to sit up, but only succeeded in making the pain worse.

"Shh! I think she's waking up!" the second voice said.

Vella heard footsteps retreating into the distance and felt a hand on her shoulder. She sat up a little, but the hand pushed her back down.

"Woah, don't do that. You took quite a fall; just rest for now," said the second voice.

The footsteps came back. Vella felt her head being tilted up. She didn't resist, but she opened her eyes when she felt a warm liquid trickle down her throat. The hand on her shoulder belonged to a young woman dressed in red. Next to her was another woman, this one dressed in black. The rest of the liquid went down her throat and the second woman set the cup aside.

"Wh-" she coughed, "What happened?"

"We honestly don't know. You just... fell. From the sky," the woman in black said.

"Huh. Who are you?" Vella asked, still trying to find her normal voice.

"My name is Evanora," the woman in black said. She gestured to the other woman, "and this is my sister, Theodora."

"I'm Vella." She very slowly turned her head to the right and saw Shay. "Shay..."

~~~

"Shay..." He heard someone call his name. Mom? No... no, it didn't sound like his mom... What happened? Was he dead? No... he didn't feel dead. Then again, he wasn't sure what being dead felt like.

He opened his eyes slowly and found himself looking at... green. It looked like... ceiling? Where was he? Certainly this wasn't home. No... home was gone. Destroyed. Melted. Where was his mom? As much as he'd wanted her to go away before, all he wanted now was to hear her voice...

He closed his eyes and thought about her. About before. About home. When he opened his eyes again, a female face was staring down at him. He wanted to cry out in surprise, but his voice wouldn't comply.

He looked to his left and saw that girl- Vella. She gave him a weak smile. He tried to return it, but really, he wasn't sure if it was a smile or grimace. Her expression told him it was more of a grimace.

A gentle hand turned his face back to the right and tilted up his chin. He felt something being poured down his throat and he tried to resist, but the woman assured him that it wasn't poison or anything. It was merely a healing concoction she'd made.

And it worked. Vella was already sitting up (with some help from a second woman, who he later found out was named Evanora). Everything felt like a dream... where was he? Didn't they die? He tried to form words, but he still couldn't talk. When he tried, all he got was a bunch of garbled syllables.

Everything that had happened washed over him again. He was in just as much pain and shock as when he'd crawled out of his ship into the real world. These thought overwhelmed him again and he started to think out loud without knowing it.

"Comp- no... no mom... Dad? And... Vella... mogs... no... Bassinostra... gorge... Gary!" He bolted upright when he thought about his little robot friend who'd almost saved him. Gary must've gone down with the ship.

A wave of dizziness washed over him after he sat up and he found himself being lowered back down by the first woman, who he later found out was named Theodora. He lay there for a moment, just thinking. The dizziness cleared and he found himself able to think clearly. And talk normally.

"Where are we?" he asked as Theodora helped him sit up.

"Oz... Was it not your intention to come here?" she said.

"No. We really didn't intend to go anywhere. You see, he was falling down a gorge and I jumped after him and we sorta... hit the bottom. And then we woke up here," Vella chimed in.

"Weird," said Theodora. "When you came to us, you fell from the sky. And you were screaming. Maybe it's just memory loss? I mean, you did hit your heads when you landed."

"I'm Shay, by the way," Shay said. "Thanks for helping us with... well, whatever that was."

"Glad to help," Theodora said. "But really, we mainly saved you to see if you were the wizard."

"So, if you didn't think we- I mean he- was the wizard, then you wouldn't have saved and healed us? You would've just left us to die?" asked Vella.

"Well... no..." said Evanora. She changed the subject. "Where are you from? We will return you to your homes."

"I'm from Sugar Bunting," said Vella.

"Hm. Never heard of it," said Evanora.

Shay thought about the meltdown. Surely his ship was just a pile of melted sludge now. "I... my home... I think it's... well, gone."

"Gone?" asked Theodora.

"Yeah. It's a long story. You see, our home was what we thought was a spaceship in space, but really it a spaceship, and it wasn't in space. It was a monster that kidnapped girls. It recently melted into a pile of sludge," explained Shay.

"Oh, um..." Theodora said, not entirely sure what she could or should say.

"You left a lot of that story," Vella pointed out.

"Well, it's a long story and I really just want to get back to tell my parents that I'm okay," said Shay.

"That might be a bit difficult," said Theodora. "We have no idea where this 'Sugar Bunting' you're talking about is. And I don't think I've ever heard of girl kidnapping monsters. It might take us a while to figure out how to get you home."

"Oh..." Shay said, disappointed.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out soon," said Theodora. "You can stay here for now."

"Right," said Evanora. "If you do something for us in the morning.""Oh, sister, that hardly seems fair! They're only kids, and besides, they need to heal up after falling from the sky," said Theodora. Evanora shot her a look telling her to shut up.

The two sister led Vella and Shay to two rooms across from each other. Both were grateful for the sisters' hospitality, but something didn't feel quite right to Vella. Theodora was genuinely nice, but something about Evanora seemed... fake. It was like the Evanora they'd met that day was nothing but a mask, a façade hiding her true nature. But Vella was tired and she accepted it. She would think about it later. For now, she'd sleep and dream of home.