Chapter 5 - Yvandir

After a moment of silence, my thoughts became clouded with all the positive and negative agenda this woman has for me.

Trust is something precious for me.

She wouldn't save me without an agenda.

"Why did you save me?" I blurted out the words in my mind as I moved away from her embrace.

"Huh?" she looked around as if struggling to find an answer to the question.

"You need something from me." I concluded and walked further away from her.

"No it's not like that...." she tried to approach me but I stood defensively to show her my distrust.

If she won't answer with all honesty I may as well jump over that cliff to be with my friends...

I need her to be honest with me or else I won't be able to trust her.

I promised to value this life but not in the hands of the wrong people.

After showing signs of being troubled by her thoughts, the lady finally sighed and looked at me with clenched fists.

"I need to know how you activated your gemstone."

I was taken aback by her sudden confession. It was straight to the point and I did not expect it! But what did she say? My gemstone? What's with my gemstone?

And where is my gemstone!??

"My necklace! Where is it?!" I stood defensively again.

"Whoa! Calm down. Here. See? It's right here." she said while trying to calm me down. She pulled a necklace from her pocked and showed it to me.

"What's that? That's not my necklace." I said and prepared myself to jump off the window this time.

The stone in the necklace she's holding was glowing in cyan which mesmerized me a little bit but I know for a fact that the stone in my necklace was not this!

"My necklace is not green!" I shouted when she tried to come near me. And when she did step back a little bit, a familiar pendant from beneath her shirt popped out.

The both of us looked at it and when I stepped forward to grab it, she stopped me, "This is not your necklace. I know it looks very the same but believe me, this is not yours. This necklace is mine and as absurd as it may sound, I think our gemstones were connected at one point in time."

"What are you saying? My gemstone is gray not glowing."

"This is yours. Your gemstone had activated." she simply said which confused me even more.

Why is she lying to my face?!

"Liar! That's my necklace you're wearing!"

I was prepared to force the necklace out of her but was dumbfounded when she calmly took the necklace off her neck and offered it to me.

"Here, j-just move away from that window please."

I blinked and stared at her for another moment before finally deciding to move away from the window and grabbed the necklace from her hands swiftly. My eyes were still wary of her but her expression was just too friendly to ignore.

"Can we talk?" she said and sat down on the couch.

I followed to sit on the chair beside her while putting on my necklace but she suddenly stopped me from doing it. "Why?" I asked with piercing eyes.

"Nothing." she said and pulled her hands back to her lap.

I continued putting the necklace on more carefully in front of her very concerned look, feeling uncomfortable so I caressed the gemstone on my neck but felt even more uncomfortable when I realized that this texture is different from what I was used to caressing. My gemstone's edges were sharp and rough unlike this smoother texture.

The lady tilted her head while watching me carefully.

"T-This feels different." I confessed.

"Of course, it's not yours." she said and handed me the cyan gemstone.

I took the gemstone with doubt and closed my eyes to inspect the texture and was shocked when I felt the texture that I was looking from this other gemstone.

"Do you now believe me?" she widened her eyes at me, probably asking for her necklace back so I gave it back to her reluctantly.

"B-But how?" I raised the cyan one to my eye level and almost jumped from my seat when she carefully held my hands and the gemstone together.

Her hands were soft and warm. I kind of like it.

"I don't exactly know what happened but I saw your gemstones powers while you were unconscious."

"Powers?"

"Yes powers. I believe that our gemstones have a connection and they have powers! My ancestors wouldn't pass this on to their descendants as a tradition for decoration purposes only after all." she whispered the last sentence which I still heard.

"And I need to know how you activated it's powers." she added.

I was just nodding the whole time with furrowed eyebrows as she described everything that happened from the time she saw me and witnessed my necklace's powers and why she decided to bring me here to this floating island.

"So, will you help me activate my gemstone like how you activated yours in exchange for living here? I heard you came from outside the borders so I'm guessing you have nowhere to go, right?"

Her question made me think deeply about this situation and her offer. She's right. I don't have a place to go and she needs me.

She saved me.

This should be more than enough reason to trust her. I guess...

"Okay." I said in a low voice... and then she hugged me.

"Okay!!" she said excitedly which made my heart swell a little.

It was awkward for me but she seemed so comfortable with me already.

I looked at the mirror in front of me, my cheeks are all red beside her short and unruly black hair under the cap and the purple aviator goggles.

She then held me to face her. Her maroon eyes shining from the sunlight as I saw my own reflection in them.

"I want you to live here, with us. You're still young and there's still a lot for you to learn and to look forward to. I don't want seeing your talents go to waste. And besides-" She went closer to me for a whisper "you're actually wanted at the city."

I didn't really get what she meant by that, and then she realized it as quickly as she grabbed me again to get closer to her "I mean they want you dead." And then her smile turned upside down.

Before I could say anything, she started talking again with a tone that seems like she's really confident "But don't worry. I won't let them find you here. There are only dozens of my people here who can fly and they are the only ones who can go in and out of this island, and besides, they respect my rules here, those who won't follow the rules and if caught coming in and out of this island illegally will immediately be" She lifted her right thumb to slide it across her neck. "Dead."

I was supposed to respond but I've got no reaction to whatever she's saying. "Just kidding, we just throw them in jail. Come on, I'll show you something." She's really talkative. I could tell that from the amount of information that I already gathered in the short amount of time that I was talking to her.

She jumped from the bed and went to the balcony before me.

I trailed behind her and was caught off guarded when she suddenly scooped me and carried me, bridal style, before flying towards the sky and showing me the entirety of the island where I will live.

"Go on, take your time. This will be your new home now. Welcome to Yvandir Island, one of the great ten islands in the sky."

The island's shape was like a palette, a surface with plains stretching from the middle into the opposite side of the elevated lands where stone buildings are usually found, similar to the ones we were in a minute ago but only more cramped with people.

The stone building acts like the first line of defense after the mountains where the land ends. There's also a woodlot that was designated between the buildings and the mountains in an elevated land.

Looking at the plains, there are three villages, each on their own separate locations. One near the lake, one nearest to the farmlands and the other one which we came from is near the castle and the woodlot..

The castle, the most eye-catching part of them all. Built just below the elevated land near the two separate villages that's sitting on the plains, the castle was a colossal feat. It is made of stone with a subtle mix of advanced technology especially on the topside where beacons and radars are patterned formally.

"The castle is called Frida. Named after my great great great grandmother who made this floating island possible. Even when no one belived her crazy idea, she still pursued her dream and look at this, a crazy success. I guess having crazy ideas and bringing them to life really flows in our blood." She giggled at her thoughts.

"Dr.Lectric is also my ancestor." She whispered in my ear that made me shiver a little, thinking that I got to spend time with the descendant of the great Scientist, and also because of the cold air that's surrounding us from up very high.

"Are you cold? Oops I forgot, you haven't got flight and resistance yet. I'm sorry." She said while we go down slowly.

When we reached the ground, I finally muttered the word that I was meaning to tell her all this time.

"T-thank you." For saving me, for giving me a place to live a new life, for being good to me, and for making me feel everything else that's nice.

"No biggies" She probably thought that I was just talking about the cold judging from the big and carefree smile that she has on her face. Even her eyes look like they're smiling.

We landed beside the fountain that's located in front of the manor where the garden is.

The workers stopped momentarily from their work to greet 'Miss Dette' who was still carrying me, which I was totally ashamed of so I told her to let me down.

"But you don't have slippers my dear, your feet will get dirty" She denied my request before asking one of the workers to bring us a pair of slippers.

"You know, you're actually lighter than I thought. I also carried you all the way from Mascarene to here. But you were in a jade cocoon then, so I expected you to be lighter than that, but you're even lighter than what I expected!" She said in a loud voice, almost hurting my eardrums.

"Are you usually this quiet?"

A female servant approached us with a pair of expensive looking sandals, she placed them in front of Venedette in which she told me to put them on. "I don't know a lot of words." I replied delatedly to her question after making a few steps on the stone path with my slippers.

An old man in tuxedo and white gloves approached Venedette as some of the older girls fixing the garden said 'hi' and waved at me.

"Welcome to Yvandir" The one older lady who's working close to me said, patting my back for a few seconds as I smell the fragrant scent of roses from her maid dress before going back to work.

They all seem so friendly and happy with their lives here, and I'm starting to get why they feel like that too... all except for the guy who approached Venedette.

"What's the problem Sir Fred?"

"The young master had gone missing again Miss Dette, I don't know where he went and how to find him this time."