Sight

Chapter 6 - Alvenia

   I wake up with an elf in my face.

I blink my eyes open sleepily, only to come face to face with a pointy eared, blonde haired, teenage girl. She waves her hand in front of my face a few times before clapping, and when I respond with a groan, she squeaks in delight.

"Oh my stars! You aren't dead!"

   "Ugh, I feel dead."

   She runs back over to me, wagging a finger in my face. "No more of that talk, young Skylar! You didn't die, and you won't die either!"

   The girl has a sharp, crisp accent that I can't place, but the other elf I spoke to years ago had a similar accent. There's probably some secret elf country out there somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised at all.

"Oi. Where am I?"

I look around, seeing that I'm in a round, wooden room, with unpainted, sparsely decorated walls. Garlands of dried flowers, yellow, blue and purple, hang from the ceiling, which is covered in leaves, like we're sitting under a tree. Windows, made of stained glass and with golden panes, are situated at intervals around the room, too high for me too see out of. There are six beds, one between each two windows, each with a sky blue sheet and white fluffy pillow. I'm in one of these beds, and it's probably the most comfortable bed I've ever been in.

I don't know how she does it, but the girl manages to smile wider than she already is.

"Welcome to Alvenia, young Skylar! And you're probably wondering how I know you, your friend Jaime told me about you!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Jaime? Jaime Colton?"

"That's the one!"

"Ooookay," I say. "So he definitely knows more than I do about this unseen stuff. And Alvenia? Is that a secret country or something?"

"Absolutely!" The girl claps loudly as she shouts this, and I wince at the loud sounds. "Alvenia, the secret country of the elves!"

"Alright." Too tired to question it. "So... next question. How the heck did I get here?"

For the first time since I've woken up, the girl's smile fades. "Jaime brought you here," she says, hesitantly. "You were passed out, your eyes had turned grey, and you were smoking. Like, smoke was coming from your skin."

"Huh? Why?"

"We have no idea. Jaime said that one of your friends was driving a car-"

"He's not my friend."

"-and it blew up. Jaime got your... not-friend out of the car before he could be harmed, but something happened to you that caused you to collapse. It almost looked like... no. It couldn't be."

"What? What couldn't be?"

"I thought of something, an ancient curse, but there's only two ways it could've been caused, and both causes are highly improbable."

"Try me. I've been living the improbable since I was six years old."

"Well, there's an extremely difficult spell that can only be cast by the most highly trained elven wizards. Highly unlikely. The other option is an ancient beast that causes an outburst of the spell when it dies, but it's almost impossible to kill, and it's only found in one place in the world, nowhere near the pier where Jaime found you. The wizard option is far more likely, and it's still so improbable that the idea is laughable."

"Okay then." I think about the dragon creature I saw at the pier, and wonder if I should mention it, but I decide against it purely out of nervousness. I don't really want to know if I'm cursed. If there's a limit on my lifespan, I'd rather not know about it. Besides, the girl said that it's pretty much an impossibility, right?

"Anyway, we should probably get you home as soon as we can, but you still need to rest. If you stay here for another day or two, you should be just fine, and we'll send you home, alter your family and friends' memories, and it'll be like nothing ever happened. Jaime's staying a little longer, too, so you'll have someone you know to hang around."

"Alright. Can I- look around?" I ignore the part about altering memories, too much to think about at the moment. It'll be nice to get away from my crazy life for a few days.

The girl smiles widely, gesturing at the door, which is just a hole in the wall covered in ivy. "Of course! Just don't go beyond the giant lupines at the borders, you'll end up back in the human world and won't be able to get back in."

I nod, then head towards the opening. I take hold of the ivy, but before I push through, I hesitate. I turn back to the girl.

"Hey, I never got your name."

She grins another one of her infectious smiles. "Alegria," she says. "Pleasure to meet you."

For the first time that day, I smile. Then I turn, push through the ivy, and just about plummet to my death.

I let out a small screech as I step out of the door, and find myself against a waist high, golden railing spanning around the length of the room I was in a moment ago. I grab it to keep from tumbling over the edge, looking down over a massive hundred foot drop to the ground below me.

That's when I realise that the room I was in was the inside of a huge, hollowed out tree.

I step back, leaning against the bark of the tree, breathing hard. Oh my God, a warning would've been nice! I think. Eventually, I peel myself away from the tree, and edge my way alone the side, finding stairs carved into the bark on the other side of the tree. After about fifteen minutes and a lot of clinging to the tree, I step onto the ground, and look around clearly for the first time.

A clear, sparkling stream, bubbling joyfully, winds its way away into a ravine nearby. Beautiful, towering trees reach away to my right into a peaceful looking forest, though the tree I came from is by far the tallest around. Birdsong fills the air with its sweet sounds. To my left, a huge meadow stretches to the edges of the horizon, beautiful bright green grass rippling in the wind. Wispy clouds fill the sky, a cool breeze blowing and keeping the temperature nice, as it is a warm day. In front of me, large purple mountains, capped with snow, reach into the perfect blue sky.

I decide right then, this is what Heaven is going to look like. It's perfect.

"Am I dead?" I wonder aloud.

"Nope. I wondered that too when I first saw this place."

My heart jumps into my throat, and I spin around to see Jaime leaning against the tree. I notice something different about him immediately, and that's his clothes. He's now wearing a robe of some kind of cloth, embroidered in dark brown leather and tied to his waist with a leather belt. A grey V-neck shirt under the robe let's the wind blow over his neck and chest, keeping him cool. He wears black boots, as well. His hair is brushed back off of his face, and I can see both of his silver eyes clearly for the first time. He reminds me of Kirito from SAO, and I curse the image of Jaime skipping through the fields of Aincrad with giant anime eyes that bursts into my mind.

Suddenly, my plain clothes, ripped and dirty from the pier incident, seem bland and simple, and I feel extremely out of place in the perfect world. Jaime chuckles a bit at my discomfort, before jerking his head behind him, towards the meadow stretching away into the distance.

"Come on," he says, pushing off the tree. "Let's get you a change of clothes."

I hesitate a moment, then begin to follow him away into the grassy fields.

...

Alrighty then
That took way too long to write
I hate finals
They keep me away from my fictional families 🤣
WELL
I'M BACK
AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS BRAND NEW CHAPTER
BE SURE TO VOTE AND COMMENT IF YOU DID
WHY AM I SCREAMING WITH CAPS LOCK
IDK
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FELLOW HUMANS, HAVE A GREAT DAY, AND I WILL SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!
BYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... *E's continue for miles*
~ MineCat57