CHAPTER: 7 On the way

At the hotel

The hotel was quite crowded. Beatrice, Elaine and Umid were sitting at a circular table with wooden chairs situated near the middle of the hotel.

As they started eating Elaine chose to break the silence with her unwavering curiosity and excitement.

“SO, where is this village exactly? What is its name?!”

“You will see when you get there.” Umid calmly replied while silently munching on his food.

“UGH, come-on at least tell me the name of the village!!”

Umid doesn’t respond and continued to eat his food.

Beatrice nervously stared at both of them while knowing very well that Elaine wasn’t gonna stay quiet after that. Elaine lunged out of the chair so fast the chair fell over and she slammed her hands on the table, not paying attention to the fact that food spilled over. Beatrice flinches in surprise and looks at Elaine.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO IGNORE ME YOU IGNORANT FOOL!”

“You might wanna recheck on who is the ignorant fool.” Umid calmly replied while still not looking at her and eating his rice.

“WHAT ARE YOU TALK-” Elaine looked around, all the people in hotel including the servers were staring at her while some were even giggling. She immediately tried to sit back but stumbled badly over because she didn’t notice the chair fell over earlier.

“PFFFT” Beatrice immediately covered her mouth ‘no you shouldn’t laugh Beatrice’ she thought to herself.

“DON’T LAUGH” Elaine said with an embarrassed face as she pulled the chair and sat on it, and harshly grabbed her fork and stuffed the food into her mouth.

After their meal, Beatrice and Elaine started walking towards the forest following Umid’s lead

The sun was setting as they had started walking deep into the strange forest. The sky had taken beautiful shades of violet and pink; birds had started taking shelter back in their nest and the temperature was slowly cooling down.

“OH, hey Bliss can you tell me more about that dream of yours? Like what it looked like and stuff?” Elaine asked in excitement as the three of them continued to walk.

“Hmmm, I don’t remember the dream clearly but as I recall the evil queen’s face was not visible at all and the queen in the blue dress had a bright aura around her, shining blue eyes, and the most unique thing was some kind of tattoo on her forehead and hands-”

Elaine looked zoned out.

“Elaine, something wrong?”

“No, it’s just that the description that you gave of Mawiya is exactly like the woman I saw in my dream like 10 days ago I guess.” Umid stopped in mid tracks, Elaine bumped on him and Beatrice spoke in surprise.

“WHAT?! ELAINE WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!”

“'Cause the dream was weird, DUHHH” Elaine said while rolling her eyes.

“DON’T make that face at me, you should have told me!”

“HUH? You didn’t tell me either you pea brain!” Elaine spoke in sarcastic voice.

“OH I AM WAY SMARTER THAN YOU” Beatrice spoke in a confident voice.

“UH HUH, Let check it out then, HMMM” Elaine gave an angry smile.

“YEAH LETS DO THAT.” Beatrice and Elaine both were trying to push each other down. “Sigh, I should have gone alone.” Umid said in a low voice with a tired frustrated face.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY ???!” Elaine and Beatrice spoke in unison with similar anger on their faces.

“Bunch of idiots” Umid said while looking back at Elaine over his right shoulder.

“UGHH DAMN IT YOU STUPID FOOL SO IRITATTTINGGGGG AHHHH” Elaine screamed as the voice echoed in forest.

After a while

Grumble ~~ “augh I am hungryyyy” Elaine complained with a hand on her stomach and the other taking support on Beatrice’s shoulder.

“Elaine, you are heavy…you know that?” Beatrice said in discomfort.

“I am sorry, just for a little longer augh I chukdawixnxsam” Elaine’s words were sounding like meaningless mumbling.

“Hey um Umid, can we stop by for a while to eat something? Elaine seems hungry.”

Umid looked behind by his shoulder at Elaine tossed an apple towards her and continued walking.

“We have to get there by dawn” Umid said while wiping off his sweat.

After few hours they reached near a large entrance gate. The door creaked and opened on its own as soon as Umid touched it.

All three of them entered the village. The village was actually big enough to be called as town. The streets were absolutely clean, fresh grass and lots of trees made the surroundings even more refreshing, the houses had similar constructions. The strange thing was that all the people were awake before dawn.

“Hey, don’t you feel like they are staring at us?” Elaine whispered to Beatrice.

“Gulp, yeah it’s as if they know us.” Beatrice felt nervous. In no time they reached near a large bungalow and Umid stopped.

“I am done here. Go ahead on your own.” Umid spoke and disappeared in wind.

“HUH????WHERE DID HE GO?” Elaine shouted in surprise, still not used to the disappearing part.

“Shush, don’t shout! We are in middle of a/the village!” Beatrice whispered while keeping her right hand on Elaine’s mouth.

Creak~~ the gate of bungalow opened as they could see a lady who appeared to be the maid.

“Welcome, Mayor is waiting for both of you inside please follow me.” The lady spoke with a polite voice to which both of them smiled and followed her inside.

“WELCOME GIRLS! We have been eagerly waiting for you!” A lady in her early 50s spoke.

Chapter ends

Writer : Manasa

Editor : Black Beary