Elemental Empires

{Chapter 24}

"Ohh," Mia groaned, putting her palm to her forehead,"Oww," she winced, rubbing her throbbing temple.She sat up slowly and opened her eyes, her surroundings were a monotonous, hazy blur as she blinked to clear her eyes. Everything came into view as she looked around.

"What happened?," she mumbled, standing up and dusting herself.
"This place-" she observed her surroundings.

To her surprise, nothing had changed. The books were untouched, their pagers intact, the liquids stirred gently in their beakers and the quills quivered as a gently zephyr danced in. Nothing was disturbed.

"I must have had a relapse of the fever or something. Must have hallucinated," Mia rubbed a hand over her face,"the exit is not here, ought to get going".

She moved quickly, to get out of the creepy room, the only thing that changed was that the first part of the room seemed as if it had been through a dust storm, a thick coat of dust covered the ancient tomes and shelves and Mia's footsteps printed into the dust coating the floor as she hurried out of the room.

"The exit must be in the other room," Mia said, wondering that why Kira and Cathy hadn't bothered calling her when it way past ten minutes. A horrible thought struck her then.

"Did Kira and Cathy abandon me?," Mia asked no-one, her anxiety level rising." Nah, Cathy would do that but never Kira!" She reassured herself," what if Cathy did something to her?," Mia shuddered and slapped herself. "Stay positive!".

She thought of a reasonable explanation as she entered through the other door, already open. She found herself in a wide passage with clear flames lining the walls.

"Kira? Catty?", Mia cupped her hands around her lips and called out." Where are you?". She advanced through the passage when she saw something that made her dance with joy.

Big, bright, silver letters floated up in a corner of the wall. They spelled out:

Emergency Exit ----->

The arrow pointed her to go straight. "Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air and forgetting all about the whereabouts of her lost friends, ran forward happily.

After a few seconds, she came across a polished, door.

"The exit is here- Kira? Cathy?," Mia wondered,"Deceivers! Liars! Tricksters! They abandoned me..the..the-", Mia spat as rage enveloped her and she kicked the door." At least I'm free! I hope a guard caught them!".

As if Mia had accidentally summoned them, there was the heavy pounding of boots and burly guards came rushing straight for her.

"No, please!", panic choked me and she gulped as her heart pounded and her forehead throbbed.

The guards didn't listen to her but headed straight for her.

"Noo!", Mia closed her eyes and screamed as the guards rammed into her. She was still screaming when they left.

"What the-", Mia cried as she realized that the door behind her was open and the guards had vanished." Where'd they go?" Mia pondered, the only way they could've passed her was to go through her.
"Maybe I fell and did die on the stairs?".
The door swung shut, jolting Mia to her senses.

She took a deep breath -pushing Cathy and Kira and the vanishing guards to the back of her mind- tightened her palm on the knob and turned. The door opened slowly and Mia emerged from the dark palace, blinking in the soft sunlight and when she saw what lay before her, she had to blink multiple times before she could believe it.

What she expected to see was the same ransacked milieu, the same wrecked surroundings but instead what she saw was the exact opposite of ruined.

In front of her was a beautiful place. The sun shone softly upon the painted white roads and the marbleized footpaths gleamed. Translucent cube-shaped houses in soft colours lined the roads, shimmering under the light. Plethoras of trees with fresh purple and blue leaves rustled as the wind carried the mellifluous songs of lone birds and the delicious scent of rain.