บท 18: Come With Us To The Other Side, Decision To Make-I
Aryl heard the husky voice from the cat and guessed that it wasn't a normal cat but a werecat. Spinning her wings to turn her body, Aryl placed one of its bird-like legs behind one of another and excuse herself elegantly. "Since your friend is here now. Please excuse me."
Elise nodded and reached out her hand to pass the Amaryllis flower to the Sulix as a parting gift. "Goodbye, Aryl."
"Thank you. May the forest Queen's blessing be with you." Aryl saw the girl waving her hand with a wide smile before leaving the place.
By the time Austin arrived, he saw Elise looking far on the path that the Sulix took to leave with a smile and pawed her to gain her attention. "Elise, what are you doing here?"
"Talking to a friend." Elise replied with her clumsy little words to have Austin asking again. "Friend? Who?"
"Aryl" Elise replied but Austin couldn't remember any of the servants with the same name and decided to let the matter aside as they were now called for a later lunch in the dining room. "Let's go now, Maroon will nag at us again if we are late now." Elise hurried with his words. One more thing she learned from the White's Mansion is the fact that the Butler of the house are very stern whenever he was angry. One time Austin walked into the house with his muddy feet only to be sternly reprimanded by Maroon with his cold face.
The day for the little human girl in White's Mansion felt long and by the time she finished eating dinner in Ian's absence, Mila brought a heavy book of bed tales collection for the little girl. Opening the book in front of Elise, Mila asked, "Which story will we be reading today?"
Elise pointed at one story that had always got her hooked on. "This one? The Little Blue Cloak Of The Elf?" Although Mila asked, she knew that Elise will reply with her soft voice of yes and decided to proceed to read the tale.
Ten minutes passed and when Mila read the last sentence of the story, the little human girl had fallen off to her little imaginative wonderland. Mila smiled and brushed aside the little baby hairs sticking on Elise's forehead to wish her "Good night" and blew out the candle to leave the room.
"Elise!" A fading voice came through to her ears a little blurred along with a loud knocking on the windowpane that was right beside Elise's bed. "Elise, wake up!" The gentle voice coaxed her to wake up, bringing some voices to her ears. Elise rose up from the bed and rubbed her sleepy eyes to the window and saw Aryl smiling sweetly. "Elise." she called out her names again and was returned with a drowsy nod from Elise.
Elise gave a long hm and looked up to see Aryl hovering over the window. "Aryl?"
Aryl saw the little girl has gone awake and broke into a childish giggle at the girl's silly yet adorable just-woke-up attitude. "Yes, it's me. Can you open the window for me?" Aryl pointed down on the sash lock of the window frame.
Elise trotted down of the bed to the window and lifted the sash up to let Aryl flew inside the room. "Elise, are you free now?" The Aryl asked, but her eyes gave a sense that she didn't want Elise to say no. Being a considerate child, Aryl nodded to Aryl and have the Sulix flew around in happiness. She flew over near to the door and glanced down at Elise's bare feet with white lacy socks and remembered that she forgot something.
"You should wear your shoes, let's go somewhere now!" Elise hesitantly halted her movement looking at Aryl who was far more than delightfully ready to walk out of the room and bring her somewhere. "What are you waiting for?" Aryl flew over and stopped at her right cheek.
"I don't think I should go now. It's already late and Master Ian told me not to walk at night because I could fall." Elise replied to have the Aryl placing her both palm over the waist.
"That would be fine, we would only walk over the garden a few minutes before walking back home. Sleeping after having enough movement would make you freshen a bit. And you don't need to worry about not having a light." Elise tilted her head in confusion and saw Aryl pointing her index finger to lit up a bloom of fire. "I can help you with that."
Seeing the sparks coming of Aryl's hand, Elise asked in worries. "Doesn't that feel hot?" the end of her brows descended down into a slope.
Gaining an innocent question from the sweet child, Aaryl looked at her with slightly widened eyes and chuckled. "This is our power, so it isn't hot at all. You don't have to worry, my dear. Now would you come with me? My friends are waiting on the other side."
Elise couldn't understand what the other side that Aryl mentioned, but after the push she received from the back by Aryl, the little girl wore her shoes and opened the door to peek at the silent pitch-black hall. Aryl flew over her head with dainty steps as though she was dancing at the sky, making the little girl's fascination grew wider.
"Follow me." Aryl led the way and escorted her with the orange light on her hand, giving light to the places they passed on. The White's Mansion was wide, and at night there was barely anyone still walking on the hallway, as they were afraid that something would pop out of nowhere. Ghosts are rare to see by naked eyes, but at the house where many people have lost their lives, it was normal for anyone to fear something transparent would walk on the hall between the stillness of the night.
Aryl led her out of the house from the main entrance, but they didn't stop till there and continued to walk to the garden where the first met. Elise looked over the branches and glanced at Aryl who were trying to push the bushes away to show a small hole in the Mansion's wall. "Could you walk out from here?"
Elise crawled over the small hole, wiping her dress from the dust and mud in a great consideration as it was something that she borrowed and turned her head back to ask, "Where are we going?"
"It's just a walk." Aryl comforted her but didn't replied to her question and flew over by her side again as they exited the outer gate of the Mansion. "The place we are going wouldn't be too far from here."
"But-" Elise glanced back at the brown wall that was covered by vines but Aryl didn't want her to keep looking at the wall and pushed her back with her little body and coaxed. "You don't have to worry. It's near, it's near! My friends are already waiting for you, we can't have them wait for us, can't we?" Elise felt a little pressured and in the end followed Aryl.
บท 19: Come With Us To The Other Side, Decision To Make-II
They passed to the green path, hiking up to the small hill made out of a blanket of weeds. It had been more than a few kilometers after they exited the mansion and at the spot from where she stood, the mansion's shadow had become fainter making an uneasy feeling creeping to her heart. "If we go any far than this, I will forget the way back to the mansion."
"You don't have to remember. " Aryl whispered faintly so the girl couldn't hear what she had just said. Pulling Elise's long sleeve to lead her into the small forest beside the green path. "Come here, a little bit more walk and we'll arrive." Elise felt a little relief hearing Aryl's words if she had to walk a little further and arrived at the place where Aaryl wanted, she could go home faster.
Mila, Cynthia, and Austin would be very worried that she didn't come back home and to her, they are very kind people who played with her. She had been very careful about managing her good behavior and followed whatever they told her as she didn't want to make them disappointed. She had done good things in her previous houses but they still threw her out of the house.
Just by imagining Master Ian's or the other people's in the house disappointed expression made her heart break.
"You could walk pretty far. Don't you feel tired, Elise?" She heard Aryl talked and brought her back from her reverie.
"I often walked." Aryl replied with a long interested oh. She had walked even further than the distance they walked. The furthest she ever walked was when she needed to walk over from one village to another three villages, it was the hardest walk for her as she couldn't eat or drink anything other than the water in the river that she passed on the way. The day on the slave building she couldn't walk due to her fever, but now she could walk even further than before.
"We arrived." Aryl flew over her eyes to hide the view and greeted. "Welcome to the Sulix's Lake." she stepped over to the side to reveal the beautiful place they arrived at.
The place she stood at was in the middle of the forest, although the path which she walked before was dark, the silver moon sparkling right above the lake brought a very bright light on the place. As though the stars from the night sky landed on the bushes and trees, Elise's eyes were stuck at the glittering golden sparkles scattering over the surface of the Lake.
Other Sulix with pale-colored skin flapped their feathery colorful wings over and crowded around Elise's head with cheerful giggles. "This is she?" they sprung up to her eyes.
"She smells good!" the other one laid on Elise's red hair to sniff. "So sweet!" another one commented.
Aryl snapped her finger to allocate every other Sulix's attention, "Let's stop here, shouldn't we? We have to go now, or else that De-" Aryl cleared her throat knowing that she shouldn't call Ian with his usual name and corrected. "-Lord Ian came back."
Elise cocked her head to the side, showing her clueless look at the Sulixs around her. "What are you talking about?" Aryl didn't reply at her words and instead cued her friends to pull Elise's nightgown sleeve toward a gate that was made out of living branches from the ground. Elise tore her gaze from Aryl to the lake's surface that had begun to produce bright light as though it was beckoning her to enter.
Feeling a bad hunch on her heart, Elise stopped her movement making the Sulixs surprised ber her abrupt stall. "I think I need to go now." Elise's turned her body to the back and walked but hear Aryl spoke. "Where are you going? Elise, come with us to the lake. If you enter now, we could come to the Sulixs' land. Our bright, fun, and exciting land that would never make you sad."
"I can't go with you, I have to go home now." Elise took more steps behind but Aryl and the other Sulixs didn't back down easily. Their voice changed into a seducing tone, giving a sweet approach to little Elise.
But now, their sweetness plunged down to a chilling cold tone. "Even though you don't have a home?"
Hearing that, Elise's feet stopped immediately and Aryl noticed she had probed the right words. "Rather than living in sadness where everyone always hurt you, while waiting for their love. Why don't you come with us? To the place where happiness would always bath you in. We will always be your friend, having fun together isn't that what you wished for all along, Elise?"
Aryl's words were right on the money. Her blue eyes lost its light making it grew dull as she walked over to the gate to see Aryl reaching out her hand for her. She lifted her hand to take her hand, but a moment when her fingers were about to graze Aryl's hand, she stopped. The light on her eyes that dissolved in the darkness grew alight again. "What are you doing, Elise? Come with us now."
Elise shook her head holding her arm over another. "I will not go. Everyone is waiting for me. I have to go back home."
"But that isn't your house and there's no family with you there." Aryl's face shadowed by the darkness gave a chilling look as she spoke.
"Master Ian let me have a place to stay. Cy, Mila, and Austin are also very good to me. They're my friend."
Sadness always hovered around her and Aryl's words were true. All this time she had been wanting a place to call home, parents to share warmness and a house where she would belong. She hasn't yet get acquainted with Ian, but he had never once beaten her or starve her to hunger. Instead, he saved her from the slave place, he never forced her to work and told her to play, the food in the house was delicious and she didn't have to sleep while bearing with a hungry stomach in the cold. The people she knew always treated her well and always prepared her warm bed to sleep.
Elise looked at her fiddling hand and glanced up with a smile and sloping eyebrows. "Until they throw me out, I will stay there. Thank you for your worry, Aryl."
They had been very kind to her, unlike her aunts and uncles. The little girl knew that paying their gratitude would be difficult for her, the least that she could do is to stay at the mansion and helped around the place.
Aryl didn't expect the girl would reply to her in such a way and looked down in sympathy. "Elise-"
A raven flew over to Elise's shoulder, marking the arrival of Ian who suddenly appeared out of thin air, pulling Elise to the back with his red eyes fixed greatly on the Sulixs who took his puppy. "May I know what business you have with her?" Elise looked over her shoulder and saw traces of red mist hovering on his arm that laid over her shoulder. Feeling guilty that she had breached his order, Elise hung her head low.
Aryl took a step behind, her adorable peculiar face turned sour with detest voice she exclaimed, "Demon!".
He tore away his eyes that were examining any wound from the little girl to the Sulix and grinned coldly. "That's me." Ian agreed rather quickly making the Sulix to be taken aback by him for a moment. To him, he couldn't be arsed about such a little opinion from the Sulix.
"Curse you! How do you know about this place?" Aryl raged, looking at him with a tone of disgust.
"She's my puppy and do you think I would let her go that easily?" His hand pulled a red strand of Elise's hair that connected to the middle finger of his left hand. "My puppy here has a connection with me. She's my property, you could go home now." He ordered coldly, sending shivers to the people who heard his voice.
All the Sulixs could never like a mythical being such as Ian who they deemed to be imbecile and disgusting. Every air around him brought the smell of rustic iron, the scent of blood, and the fragrance of death. They couldn't stand back, eyes still glaring, Aryl hissed. "Do you think we would let go of you this easily? That girl is the sweet child, she's not someone a being like you should ever dream to touch of! Take your hands off the girl!"
A chuckle came out of Ian's lips, bending his back toward the Sulix, his red eyes grew brighter in color warning how blood-thirsty he was feeling at the moment. "Since I'm feeling quite generous tonight, I will forgive you this time. However, there's no next time. Turn around or you'll be Cerberus's dinner menu tonight."
Hearing the name of Hell's dog with three heads in one body that would love nothing more than to eat a living fresh faerie as their menu, chill ran down to their blood. All the other faeries had an expression as though they could see the Cerberus's hungry saliva drolling out of its three mouths while glaring at them. Walking over to a dead end, Aryl humped loudly, throwing her fist to the air. "Tch!" She clicked loudly and turned around to enter the gate where Elise identified as the gate to the Faerie Land.
Her face turned gentle again to wish the little girl who was currently feeling a little anxious. "I'll be going now, Elise. Let's play again next time. Good night." Aryl broke her gentle gaze from Elise and scowled to Ian. "Remember, even if we go now that doesn't mean that we approve you Demon!"
With that, Aryl flew to the lake with all her friends and disappeared along with the bright light.
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