Richard John Fort, the philanthropist once said that the nature of positivity, lied in the series of negativity we faced in our lives. Had I not believed in that, I wouldn't have been here. The series of negativity, I called it the shards of misfortune.
My eyes opened to glasses reflecting off my face on each other. I screamed but my voice didn't reach the void. I struggled in silence like how Queen Baisha, the ruler of the Amethyst Era did when the order to give the crown to a man happened. My sides felt the pain of getting stabbed as Emperor Salaices did by his own true friend.
My skin itched and blisters popped on my body as freedom fighter Marcus John did in the Rebellion of thousand kingdoms. Had I lived all those lives? Each and every single one of them came to my mind like a projector. Faces changing on the mirrors, till it shattered and I fainted yet again.
The next time I woke up, I was tossed off in the mushy mud, with the roots of the trees going round me. I blinked and tried to focus on one thing at a time. I dared to stand up and fix my blurry vision but failed, injuring my ankle.
"Sobul!"
I yelled.
"Abhay! Ilira! Enin!"
Nothing. Either they were playing a sick joke or I was fucked real time. Some heads popped up from the tree trunks. I stepped backward and they fully popped out into the open. They were little people, coming up to my knee. I looked around and saw none of the trees were taller than me.
"What the fuck!"
They wore cloaks, colourful cloaks, each one different than the other.
"Abhay!"
Some of them flinched when I yelled his name.
"Bokaki!"
One of them slammed their staff on the ground at me with a glare on his face. I have come to notice that the males wore a hat while the females didn't. I bowed my head as a sorry and tried to calm my beating heart. I looked up and saw a mountain of giant trees at least ten metres away from here. Dark clouds hung on top as well. This part of the land seemed sunnier.
"Azo aki bakrusi ami kisi!"
I had no idea what those things meant.
"I- um…"
The man with the grey beard and the staff rolled his eyes and got close to me. I gave him my hand and he took me out of the forest trees to the open area and my jaw dropped.
The entire place was filled with beautiful flowers of different kinds. And on the other side, there were vegetation. I gasped.
"Earth"
He said and I nodded my head vigorously. Had I travelled through planets. Damn! That tunnel needs to be checked.
They whispered something amongst each other and blew the horn. I closed my ears. One of them walked towards me and poked on my thigh, seeing as I did nothing, he giggled and in the next second, I was down on the ground with half of them mounting over me. I felt like the nursery teacher and they felt like curious little babies at that moment.
I heard the thuds of metal before I saw the giant guards, here to pick me up. My fight or flight kicked in but I froze, making a decision that I knew nothing about this place to run to and seeing the reaction of the little people, it doesn't seem like a malicious attempt either. I could only wish for.
I was teleported to a castle. It was pure black with peaked ceilings surrounding the middle which pierced through the sky. It had tall windows reflecting the sunlight off each other. The surrounding was filled with well-trimmed grass and roses. The scent of which filled my nostrils. But I didn't get the privilege to enjoy the view as the giant door of the castle pushed open.
A man, handsome and tall, stood in front of me. He had blue hair wearing a red suit, with glitters a line down the jacket. He didn't look like a king, but his stance felt like one.
"How did you get here?"
I sighed and nearly jumped him if it wasn't for the guards holding me back. Finally, someone spoke English.
"A tunnel. I read a book. Well, the book was unreadable, it was written in a different language-"
He stopped my ramblings and ordered to bring me inside. It was more marvellous than the outside. The floor was checkered and the sides had two seats each with the throne in the middle. But the man never sat on the throne. I frowned. The guards took me to a different room which looked like his study and sat me down on the floor, in front of the man.
"Rixeley"
"Huh?"
"My name"
He stood with his back to mine, his hands on his back. From here we could see the dark clouds hanging over the forest, I never wanted to even step foot.
"You know, this place is curse"
He started. I frowned.
"Do you even know where we are?"
I shook my head.
"Yomi, that's what we call them, that book you said. But don't worry, I'm trapped here too, cursed to be here"
What was he trying to say?
"What do you mean? What is this place?"
He looked at me and chuckled.
"Somewhere we can never get out. Say, what is your name?"
It had only been a few minutes and I already wanted to heckle this dude.
"Anasa"