The Fiery Empress
The trio’s journey extended for a couple more days, alongside the road that passed through the dense forest. In between the pauses, Lizzie was sharpening her magic spells for her encounter with the all-powerful Melissa, who she couldn’t wait to meet.
Each day, the tall trees and the forest humidity were giving their space to a flat terrain, with small plants and a lot of grass. The forest ambiance was gone when they arrived at a great plain of flat lands, hot and with a smooth breeze that emanated a soft smell of flowers. The paved road they were walking upon was the only thing that linked that magnanimous landscape to the cruel reality that men didn’t care at all for the beauty of the nature and only had eyes on the dirty future that machines had brought to them.
A few hours of walking on the land and it started to become steep upwards, like they were climbing a hill of some sorts and that forced Lizzie to use all of her legs lack of exercise at maximum, whereas Mello and Katherine were doing some sort of competition to see who was the fastest to arrive at the top. Ugh… Athletic people and their fit bodies trying to show off…
When she finally made it to the top, Mello came back running and shouting:
“Liz, quick! Close your eyes!”
Startled, she really did close them, thinking that he was trying to protect her from something that could hurt her eyes, but was soon taken off by the stupid comment:
“Nah, I’m just kidding.”
Said the man, laughing. She now wanted to stab him on the eyes, making that dagger he gave her somewhat useful, but when she finally opened her eyes, she saw a landscape that would make anyone smile from ear to ear.
The group had made it to a land blooming with hundreds of flowers, of the most unique and marvelous shapes, colors and aromas. With each breeze, lots and lots of petals danced around they, bringing with them all of the fragrance and freshness of those plants.
And, over by the great sea of Namerick and surrounded by these beautiful flowers, the big port city of Ventus was welcoming them.
Katherine punched the man’s shoulder for that little joke on the girl.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” – Spoke Mello, smiling.
“Yeah…” – Katherine smiled as well.
“And you, Liz? What do you think?”
The girl was fascinated by all of that splendor. Only a single word from her vast and deep vocabulary could describe that:
“Wow…”
“A big Wow…” – The man shook the girl’s head and started walking. – “Well, we won’t stand here just gazing at it, will we? Let’s find Melissa.”
The three went towards the city under the perfume of the flowers and the grand scenario of windmills that enjoyed the nice ocean breeze.
Ventus was so different from the cities that Lizzie met before. The city’s architecture was somewhat rustic and classic, with houses made of colored bricks and roofs and didn’t have any more than three or four floors and seemed comfortable even just looking at them. The streets were large and had a few cars passing by not very often. The people could walk on them peacefully. The stores, were vastly busy, especially the restaurants. The smell coming from them made Lizzie want to experiment all of them. And, over by the north of the town there was a big coastal beach whit lots of docks, piers and wharfs for ships of the most different types and shapes. “It is a city that you definitely need to know someday”, was on all of the tourists guides.
Even though Lizzie wanted to go inside every candy shop she saw, that wasn’t helping at all to search for Mello’s sister. Not a sign, not a hair string… nothing.
The sunlight was fading away already and a lighthouse some distance away from the city sitting on a hill, light up and started spinning, guiding all the ships on the sea by that region. The three decided that it was best to stop for the day, because the travel was very tiresome and Katherine was complaining that she wanted some new clothes and hadn’t slept in a bed for a really long time. Of course, Mello choose the most expensive hotel that he could find. Good location, big, luxurious and with a great ocean view.
Lizzie tried to notice when the man used his thieving techniques to steal, but it was impossible! They walked about what? Two hours on the town and he had stolen a lot of money already and nobody noticed it! Why he was so good at it, the girl wondered…
On the next day, Mello decided that was a good idea to divide and have three people looking for Melissa individually, because Lizzie was strong enough to protect herself and they had Katherine now, who would make the search three times faster. A very good idea, right?
Of course it was. For both of them who knew who she is, obviously. Lizzie didn’t had any idea to begin her search. They didn’t tell her the girl’s hairstyle, eye color, physiognomy, nothing.
“Well, they’ll find her somewhere. I’ll have fun around here!” – She said.
What a good excuse, right?
With a bag full of stolen money, the girl began her city exploration tour. She bought new clothes, a pair of shoes, eat on restaurants, read some new books of her favorite series, but the bag’s size diminished considerably all the times she entered on a candy store or a dessert shop, and went out carrying a lot of stuff made mostly of chocolate.
In her little adventure on the city, she came across with a small bookstore. In comparison with the surrounding stores, this one was a lot smaller and had a mystery aura around it. With was more than enough to pique her curiosity, of course.
She opened the door and a little bell rang on top of it.
“Hello?” – Said the girl, without answer.
The shop was small, but the amount of books not only on the shelves, but on top of tables, on the floor, piles and mounts of them were focused on the same topic: magic. A couple of titles like “Highly Flammable Fire”, “The Many Shapes of Water” and “Shocking Thunder!!” were some of those which caught the girl’s attention, rising her levels of curiosity to the maximum level.
She approached one of the dozens of piles of books that were taking half of the store’s space, took one book of it and almost died of a jumpscare: one hand came out of the books and grabbed Lizzie’s arm! She stepped back, trying to take that thing off, but she then realized that someone was buried on the bottom of that mountain of books. As a good and helping person that she was, Lizzie carefully removed the books on the top of the person and soon discovered the owner of that hand in question.
It was a semi-unconscious girl with bent glasses that was almost twice the size of her face and long, braided brunette twintails.
“Hey.” – Lizzie shook the girl’s head. – “Are you alright? Hellooo…?”
“Huh…?” – The girl finally recovered her senses. – “Who is it…? Mom…?” – Or not.
“Whew… I’m glad. And no, I’m not your mother. My name is Lizzie.”
“What…? Lizzie?” – The girl came out of the books and approached Lizzie, somewhat curious. – “Is that by chance a shortened name for Elizabeth?” – She got up, fixed her glasses and came to not so safe distance of Lizzie.
“Er… Not that I know of. Why?”
“Eh? Oh, nothing really. Just… curious.”
Now that she was out of her book grave, Lizzie could see that the girl was using a baby pink dress with a small lilac shrug on top. She also had a curious necklace with a blue shiny stone on it.
“Ooookay… So… You like magic, is it?” – Lizzie looked around the store.
“If I like it?” – The girl crouched near the books and started to sort them on the shelves. – “See these ones? I’ve read them like ten times. That ones over there? About twenty times already.” – She said, proud of herself.
“Yeah, okay. But you only read? Don’t you know any spells?”
“If I know how to make spells? – She puffed her chest. – “Look at this.”
The girl touched the shiny stone on her necklace, making it sparkle. Soon after that, water dripped from it and she used it to make a big bubble and blast it.
“Eh…” – Lizzie wasn’t impressed.
“What?” – Said the girl, upset.
“Oh, nothing really. It’s just…” – Lizzie put her hand in front of the girl and a big flame was made. It danced around her arm, slid through the other and made a small explosion with little sparks on the other hand, looking almost like if the fire was alive. – “I know how to use it.”
“Woooow…” – The girl was fascinated.
“A big wow. Hehe.” – Lizzie had a big smile on her face. – “What’s your name?”
“I’m Karen.”
“Finally I’ve met someone to talk about magic!”
Lizzie ended up helping Karen tidy up her store while they talked about all kinds of magic and stuff related to it. Amidst their conversation, Lizzie asked the glasses girl:
“Hey Karen, I’ve noticed that you did your magic with that… crystal there.” – She pointed to the necklace’s pendant.
“Yep, that’s it. I don’t have the same gift that you have to use magic like you do. I need to use these beauties energy to help me use it.”
She opened a drawer and showed Lizzie a small box full of those crystals. All of them were a bit translucent, but some of them had a small tone of blue or red on them. They all had different shapes and sizes too. Lizzie was enchanted by the beauty of those gems and wanted to know more about them. But moments before she could ask Karen about them, the shop’s door bell rang another time and a feminine voice echoes on the place.
“Hey, Karen. I’ve found the book you’re looking for and… Hey! You’re showing them to strangers again?”
“Huh? Ah! It’s not what… You know… She… Erm…”
Karen stumbled upon her words while the other girl came closer. She was very gorgeous. Her hair was dark as Lizzie’s, but hers were a lot more vibrant and shiny and they were long until her neck, where they rolled up again. Her eyes were like two big and beautiful polished amethysts, a very attractive and vivid purple color. She was wearing a white button shirt, almost semi-transparent, closed only on two of the buttons, making the top of her black lingerie bra that was probably a c-cup, and from her belly button downwards visible. She also had a red-checkered pattern skirt and a loose belt on her hip. The last piece of her fashion was a pair of long buckled boots with heels of the most expensive leather that she could afford. Besides all that, the piece that drew most of Lizzie’s attention was a red ribbon with black letters on her neck that went all the way to her back.
Looking carefully to her face… She noticed a resemblance with someone that she knew…
“How many times I must tell you to not show this to anyone?” – Said the new girl, closing the box and looking at Lizzie furiously.
“Hey! I’m not ‘anyone’! I know what they do.” – Spoke Lizzie, trying to confront the girl.
“Well, good for you. But these ones are not for sale!”
“Whatever. I don’t need them anyway.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“S-she knows how to-” – Karen tried to speak, but was abruptly cut off.
“Shut up!” – Shouted both girls, making the poor clerk shrink on the counter.
“I can use magic without these weak little crystals.” – Said Lizzie, full of herself.
“You have a lot of courage, girl. But you wouldn’t last a second on a duel with me.” – Spoke the other girl.
“Heh. You’re challenging me?”
“It’ll be my pleasure, honey.”
The pressure on the store was so high that was literally on fire. Like, really. Around the two girls, flames were coming out of their bodies.
“Erm… Could you please not set fire to my store…?” – Said Karen, peeking over the counter.
“Of course, Karen. Hey, you! Let’s go to a more open space so I can smoke your ass.”
“Yeah right. Not if I bury you first.”
“Wonderful.”
“Great.”
Both girls walked out of the store, followed by Karen, who wouldn’t miss that crazy duel.
The black-haired pretty girl walked on the beach until she found a spot far away from the peeking eyes of someone who could bother them. The tension between the two was so intense that you could literally see the sparks flying on their gaze.
They stopped and looked at each other fiercely and silently, analyzing their opponent. Until Lizzie broke out and made the first move: a fireball towards the girl, who stepped back and launched a counterattack with another flame ball. Lizzie was the only one moving herself to avoid the attacks, whereas her opponent only took a few steps, but was constantly attacking.
“You’re not half bad.” – Said the girl.
“Heh… I’m just starting.”
Lizzie united two flames on both hands, making a fireball two times bigger than the others and launched it at the girl, who stood still. That powerful magic hit her completely, exploding upon contact and making the beach’s sand scatter all over the place.
The girl was feeling almost victorious, but when the sand dropped and the smoke went away, her opponent was holding her hand in front of her, absorbing all of Lizzie’s magical fire.
“It seems that I have to go all the way.”
What? Absorbing magical energy? Why is she doing something that only a black katana could do? And who the hell was that person anyway? Her thought process was cut short, because the girl was already preparing her magic on her side. On one hand she had a water sphere and on the other, a fireball. She united both hands together, but nothing seemed to have happened… Until the girl take a step back and disappear behind a thick cloud of fog, which enveloped Lizzie on a humid and heated fog dome and she couldn’t see anything anymore. From that point forwards, she knew that they weren’t fighting as equals. Her defeat was imminent… Unless she could quickly dissipate the fog.
She tried to launch some fireballs around, but the air was so humid and hot that the fire died as soon as she made them. Her last resort was to launch any magic aimlessly, hoping to hit something, anything! But she was received with a powerful wind blow on her face, making her float backwards and hit the ground with her back.
The fog was dissipating while the girl approached bearing fire all around her body and an evil smile on her face. There wasn’t anything else to do but to admit… Wait. Her hand touched something cold near her waist. It was the dagger that Mello had given to her. Chance!
She waited the girl to come a bit more closer. When she crouched near Lizzie, she pulled out the dagger…! But it was soon thrown away.
“You need to be faster than that, little kitty.” – Said the girl. – “You could have taken out the dagger while I was still far from you. And why exactly you didn’t try do attack me when I appeared again?”
She kept commenting Lizzie’s mistakes one after the other like a subtle and irritating man did not so long ago… Wait…?
The girl stood up and reached out her hand to Lizzie.
“I want to fight with you another time.” – She said, smiling.
“Who… are you?” – Asked Lizzie.
“Well, well! Who would guess!” – Spoke a masculine voice somewhere around.
“MELISSAAAAAAAAAAA!!” – Katherine came running and flew towards the girl, hugging her.
Lizzie, Karen and Mello approached both girls lying on the ground, but the man soon realized that it wasn’t a very good moment for them to be there.
“Whooooa…!” – Said the man, turning around and shoving his arm on both girl’s necks. – “What’s up, Liz? How are you doing?” – He was kinda nervous, sweating a bit, but still managed to drag them with him. – “And you are?”
“Karen…”
“Hello there Karen! How did you met Melissa?”
“Well…”
“Good, good! Keep telling us.”
Mello dragged the girls far away from two people who had their share of love to give each other.
Annoyed by being dragged out from the scene, Lizzie couldn’t do anything else but choose a restaurant near the beach where they waited for the girls to come back from their “reminiscing” session.
After a while, Katherine and Melissa came back and the group was whole again.
“Did you find each other tongues? Were them on the right places?” – Said the man, ironically.
“Ha ha. You’re a funny guy, you know that?” – Melissa kissed her brother on the forehead and sat down with Katherine. – “Was it hard to find me?”
“Well…” – Mello remembered all the stuff that happened until then.
“Er…” – Katherine did the same.
“No, why?” – Said Lizzie, eating a chocolate dessert and the only one having fun until then.
“Bad memories…? Well, anyway, how did you manage to escape from that maniac on Moonriver, Kat?” – Asked Melissa.
“These two saved me.” – Katherine smiled at both of her saviors.
“Really now?”
“And Luke.” – Completed Mello.
“Ugh…” – A sigh of somewhat disapproval and disgust came from both Melissa and Lizzie.
“But I’m glad that you’re safe here. I couldn’t be able to live if you was the one taken by that man.” – Said Katherine.
“Oh, my sweetie… It’s alright. I’ll thank you as many times as you want later, okay?” – Melissa kindly touched Katherine’s cheeks.
“So if you’re her brother… And you’re her girl… erm… friend, what about you, Lizzie?” – Asked Karen.
“Me? Well, someone tried to murder me, but he found me before they could do it and my grandpa asked him to take me away from that city. But when he told me about you, I’ve been preparing myself day and night to meet you.” – Lizzie turned to Melissa.
“Heh. You’ll have a lot more to train if you want to fight me again.” – Answered Melissa.
“So. What about that subject?” – Mello turned dead serious on the table.
“Yes. The Dragons. I’ve located their whereabouts.” – Melissa became serious too.
…
The hard silence made everyone look awkwardly towards the smiling siblings on the table.
“Er… Excuse me. What now?” – Asked Lizzie.
“Dragons, dude.” – Said Mello.
“Yeah, I get it! But why the hell are you talking about Dragons?”
“Don’t you the legends? I think you must’ve read about them sometime.”
“Yes, I know the legends. I know that a long time ago, existed all kinds of monsters, including your ‘Dragons’ on these lands.”
“And variations of those legends also said that some of these monsters could also become humans.” – Told Karen.
“But you know what they all have in common? These are legends made by the King and his lackeys.” – Said Melissa.
“Made up? You’re telling me that they are lies?” – Said Lizzie.
“Wrong, kitty. They’re true, but that’s not all. Some of the monsters found places to hide from the mankind that hunted them, like the Dragons.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Liz, we’ve not wasted half of our lives leisurely walking around.” – Said Mello.
“We’ve been traveling from one research library from another, collecting information about the truth behind the monsters and more specifically, the Dragons.” – Spoke Melissa.
“Wait. So all those times that we were stealing books and notes from the kingspeople wasn’t for fun? You two are really serious about this fairy tale?” – Said Katherine.
“Not only fairies, but mermaids, harpies…” – Mello started counting on his fingers.
“Dead serious, honey. But we’ve promised to look together, and now that we are hand by hand again, we’ll start looking for them again.” – Told Melissa.
“And this time no one will stop us, Mel!” – Mello clenched his fist, determined.
“Wait a second!” – Lizzie was extremely confused about the sanity of those two. – “Are you mad? Monsters doesn’t exis-”
Melissa took from her pocket a scarlet scale hard as a diamond and shiny as a ruby. Recording what she read about the Dragons on her books, their scales were explained exactly as that on Melissa’s hand.
“Convinced?” – Melissa put the scale on her pocket again.
Lizzie was speechless.
“It always does.” – Said Mello, laughing. – “So, Liz. What about now?”
Lizzie still wasn’t sure about all that, but that scale was irrefutable proof.
“Eh…? What?” – Lizzie was lost in her thoughts.
“I know, I know it’s really dumb. ‘Ha, Dragons. Yeah, sure. Whatever.’ But we’ve been studying them a really long time. They do exist. And we’re gonna find them. So? Do you wanna join us?”
“I…”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to, sweetie.” – Said Melissa.
“Can I think about this…?”
“Sure! And you know what? While you think, I’m gonna give you some magic training tips. Free of charge.”
“So, what do you guys wanna do?” – Asked Mello.
“Hm… I want to eat something and rest.” – Said Katherine.
“I’m craving for some meat!” – Spoke Lizzie.
“That fancy one?” – Mello smiled at Lizzie.
“Yep!”
“With the broth and spices?”
“That’s it!”
“Is it okay for you, Kat?” – Mello and Lizzie were almost drooling over the table.
“Sure, why not.” – Katherine was hiding it, but she also wanted that one they were talking about.
“Let’s go, then!”
“Wait.” – Melissa stopped them.
“…what?”
“You’re going to eat a fancy dish… with costs a lot of money, is that right?”
“…I guess?”
“And may I ask where that money came from?”
…
After a brief silence, Mello started sweating bullets. Cold, frightened drops of sweat.
“Erm…”
“Why, he stole it! He’s very good at it!” – Said an innocent and smiling Lizzie.
“But don’t worry, Mel. He divides it with us, so it’s an equal share between us three.”
“Is that so…?” – Melissa grabbed Mello’s shoulder so hard that it almost broke. – “Then I suppose it’s fair enough to give your part to your needing little sister, right?”
“W-well… I-I m-mean…”
“Right?” – She gripped a lot harder and made a face of some kind of demon, making him grab his bag of money and give her all of it in an instant.
Lizzie had never seen that man put on the spot like that, neither did see his lose his cool self so quick like that. When he gave Melissa the money, she grabbed the bag and let go of his shoulder, turning back to her normal self.
“Thanks, bro. We’ll talk later, ok? We’ll have a loooot to talk about.”
“Ok…” – Mello had lost all of his strength and his normal pale face was even whiter, making him look like a ghost.
“Let’s go eat that meat, girls.” – Melissa took Katherine by the hand and asked Lizzie and Karen to tag along.
As she walked, Lizzie saw Mello crouching on the ground and making small circles on the sand. Poor guy…
When the night came, the city started to light up the streets and the houses, and the commerce stopped almost entirely, with only a couple of restaurants and bars open for the people who worked on the docks. Some ships set sail on the great ocean and some arrived quietly, bringing people along with them.
Mello was sitting on a pier, eating some fish on a stick that he bought on a nearby joint that served them as fresh as they were fished from the ocean. He was gazing at the horizon and the moonlight shining on the water as the ships left towards the dark ocean while the lighthouse’s lights spun around the entire area.
While he ate, he began to concentrate further, trying to feel the ocean breeze, to hear the waves crashing and the people far away talking. He could feel and hear it all… And even something that started creeping up within himself. Something that was always with him. A dark presence. One of his biggest fears coming closer… He could feel the creature’s claws upon his neck, ready to finish him…
“Can’t sleep?”
Said someone around him, breaking all his concentration and making the presence go away. It was Melissa. Hearing his sister’s voice always calmed him down when he was being tormented by that… thing.
“You know I can’t.”
“Relax… I’m just kidding.”
“Where are the girls?”
“We choose a hotel to sleep. They’re there.” – The girl pointed at a big hotel near the docks, sat at his side and took one of the fish sticks.
“Hey.”
“What? I’m hungry.”
“I’ve bought them with stolen money, just so you know.”
“…after all the times I told you not to. Damn… What have you become, bro?”
“Well… It wasn’t my fault. It was-”
“The Blue Eyes Red Phoenix, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well… At least you’re back now.”
“I’m glad to see you again.”
“I’ve missed you so much.” – Melissa hugged her brother.
“Me too, Mel… Me too…” – Mello also hugged her, patting her head.
“When we got separated, I was so lost without somebody to guide me around and support me… I even thought that I was too weak to keep moving forward…”
“Until you found Kat?”
“Actually was quite the contrary. She was the one to find me. And we soon found out that we had… similar likings.”
“Mom would be proud of you.”
“That’s true. Fufu… Damn, how long is it been since we left our home? Sometimes I miss her food.”
“A long time Mel. A looooong time…”
The two stayed some time there eating the fish, remembering stories and always laughing about the things that they did together, now on a distant past.
“And what about the Mystics?” – Asked Mello.
“Hm… I think they’ll still be a pain in the ass. The last time I’ve found them wasn’t a very pleasant meeting.”
“And why did you want to train Liz out of the blue like that? With them on your back, this will only cost us time.”
“Maybe. But bro, that girl have many secrets about magic and she also has an immense potential. You must’ve realized that when you started traveling with her.”
“It’s true. She asked to train with me almost every single day since we’ve met each other. She wanted to become better at it when I told her about you. Hm… That makes me remember of a certain someone.”
“Oh, you’re so funny. I’m gonna teach her some stuff so she can do a little better on her training.”
“You’re gonna ‘teach her some stuff’…? Poor Liz… She was so innocent…”
“Ha ha. You’re a clown. I’m talking about magic, you idiot.”
“I know, hot head. But let’s not waste more time like we have already.”
“Nah, it’s cool. I’ve left the Mystics so confused that they must be looking for me on the other side of Gaea.”
“One week then.”
“Ugh… You and your deadlines… But I’ll see what I can do. *yaaaawn…*”
“Sleepy?”
“Yeah…”
“Want a body pillow?”
“Well… I guess Kat can wait a bit longer for… You know what I mean, right?”
“Sure. Now help me sleep, will you?”
“Remember all those times we had to sleep on the ground, with leaf made beds?”
“Because you didn’t want to sleep on big hotels with stolen money? Of course I remember.”
“Ugh… C’mon! The girls are waiting for us.”
The End of The Horizon 