Elemental Empires

{Chapter 14}

Slanted rays of muted sunlight fell through the swaying leaves onto Mia's face, making abstract patterns. Nightingales sang softly harmonized by the euphonious chirping of other birds. A mellow breeze blew the roses beneath the bench and a silken petal landed on Mia's face.

Mia woke up and rubbed her tired eyes. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn't in her luxurious bed at Aunt Ruby's anymore but on a hard bench on an unknown road.

She petted Ivory who was sleeping against her arm and got up. The petal slipped off.
"It looks ear-", she yawned." It looks early to me." She observed the slightly dark sky as the sun was starting to rise.

Ivory woke up and meowed softly.

"Hey there, we have officially survived day one of operation runaway," Mia smiled at the little fur ball sniffing her cardigan."Alright, alright, here you go," she gave Ivory a biscuit which she munched noisily.

"Ow, my back," Mia cried out as she stretched her stiff back,"why can't there be beds instead of benches?." She stood up and stretched her aching arms.

"A new day it is," she said and inhaled the fresh scent of wood and the sweet musk of roses."let's go," she said coughing a bit, she scooped Ivory and her cardigan up and began walking.

"Woah the scent of these flowers is noxiously overpowering!," Mia coughed again and took a deep breath. The scent of the roses increased as she scaled the pavement."Damn, what flower is this?." She walked faster.

Mia took deep gulps of air but no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to breathe normally, she bent down and tried to steady her breathing.

Okay, okay, it's alright.

The scent seemed to follow Mia, choking her. Mia sat down, her lungs burned as she tried to take in air, tears laced her eyes. She felt nauseous.

Stop, stop.

She shut her eyes tightly and concentrated on her breathing.

In. Out. In. Out

But it didn't seem to be working, she opened her eyes as a stray rose petal landed on her arm.

No. Shit, shit.

Mia screamed as Ivory meowed and the birds chirped loudly. The noise drilled into her brain, she closed her ears tightly but the noise seemed to increase, she started to feel dizzy, the world spun around her and she started to blackout.

Damn allergies!

She fell onto the pavement as her surroundings melted into a sea of black.

"Take this, quick," a firm, feminine voice commanded suddenly and Mia -half conscious- felt something being poured in her cupped palm." Eat it, it'll help you!."

Mia wasn't in her senses and blindly trusted the stranger. She brought her shaking palm to her lips and swallowed the powdery substance. It tasted like raspberries and caramel.

"Drink this now," Mia opened her eyes slightly and saw a small, turquoise vial being thrust into her hands. She put the cold glass to her mouth and swallowed the chilled liquid in one go. It tasted like really sour lemon juice. She gagged.

"Are you better?," the voice asked sincerely. Mia felt the her strength rush back into her body immediately, she felt energy course through her veins and power surge through her whole body. She felt like she was on fire.

"hmm?," the voice prompted as Mia opened her eyes to look at the kind stranger. What she saw surprised her, Miia had expected to see a young woman according to the firm, sweet voice but in front of her was a really frail, old woman with myriads of wrinkles creasing her chocolatey skin, silver hair done in an intricate braid and blue eyes crinkling softly.

"Th..thank you," Mia gasped, taking in huge gulps of air.

"I knew the combination of Saphine and Myrxes would work," the lady muttered and took the vial out of Mia's hands." Take care of yourself dearie." She started walking away.

"Wait! What was that?," Mia asked curiously.

"What was what darling?," the lady smiled, furrowing her brows.

"What you just gave me..t..to cure me," Mia pointed to the vial in her hands.

"Oh just some plain old water and powdered herbs," the woman smiled and began walking away quickly when Mia noticed that she had dropped something on the ground.

Mia bent to pick it up. It was a thin card.
"Excuse m-", Mia started but was astonished to see that the woman had..apparently vanished into thin air.

Weird

Mia looked around her but she was nowhere to be seen. She stuffed the card in her cardigan pocket and started jogging.

Away from the stupid flowers..

She ran away from the plethoras of rose petals swirling amidst the trees, polluting the air Mia breathed. Her stomach rumbled.

"Breakfast time," she said and headed -reluctantly- to Miranda's delicatessen.
"I hope Miranda is sane now," Mia said to herself as she recalled Miranda's crazy tactics last night.

I haven't thought about the fact that why the owner of the shop is actually working? Maybe she just opened and needs workers? I could work there!

Mia hurried excitedly and hunted for the neon sign instead she saw another dusty sign."What..?." She squinted her eyes to read the tiny cursive.

"Tastee Treatz," it said simply in red paint.
"Am I at the wrong place?," Mia wondered but soon spotted the alley she had walked through."No, the place is correct but..".

Mia put her hands on her waist and looked all around her.
"Crazy shit," Mia muttered angrily and kicked a can which skipped noisily on the isolated road.

Whatever, it sells food doesn't it? That's what I need.

Mia stomped furiously to the shop's entrance and pushed open the heavy, wooden door of the diner. A horrible, pungent smell of mold and beer pervaded her nostrils. The cobwebbed diner was mostly empty void for a sleep-deprived man in a crinkly suit, chugging a tall mug of coffee and two exhausted workers trying hard to scrub the grime off the tables.
"Yergh," Mia muttered and went to the counter to order.

After a breakfast of burnt eggs and milk for Mia and some leftovers for Ivory, Mia paid for her meal and left the diner only to stand in the middle of the road with not a single notion of where to go next.

"Where will I find this damn portal?," Mia threw her hands up in frustration as passerby's gave her strange looks.
"Where do I go?."

For the next hours she kept roaming aimlessly until the sun melted into a sky of pastel colours before an inky darkness enveloped everything.

That night as Mia lay on the sidewalk, she stared at the many houses lining the street opposite her and wished with all her might that she get to her parents soon. And as the twinkling lights in each house slowly shut off,Mia closed her eyes and fell asleep immediately.

It was at that very moment that the clock struck 11:11 when Mia wished and believe it or not, these aren't just silly superstitions.