Chapter 3: Suada (Marina) See previous chapters below

              We’re headed to Centresia, the main town of Magosia.  And, it looks like everyone else is too!   Apparently, as one women was telling everyone, all of the crops had gone bad!  And now everyone was headed into town to see if Old Man Ghur could answer any of these questions.  But he is so old…  Well, no one had any clue what else to do!  Old Man Ghur is the only person holding the kingdom together.  So no matter how old and feeble he is, there is no one else to look up to.  So that’s how the entire kingdom of Magosia ended up in the town square of Centresia.  It was complete chaos.  People were chattering nervously, and the rumors became more far-fetched: “I heard that someone turned back the clocks a season!“  

“Oh no! It must have been the  King and Queen! Come back for revenge on us for not finding their daughters!”  

“ Are you sure that they are still alive?”  

“Oh Absolutely!”  

“Well then that must be it!”  

“ Oh no! The King and Queen are mad at us!”  

“What are we to do?!?”   

I sighed.  I didn’t know much about how the royal family died, but if any of the rumors are even remotely true, there is no way that the three daughters survived.  

My mother squeezed my hand and said, “Stay close. In this mob you could easily get lost.” Then she added to dad, “Oh, we should have left Marina at home!”  

I rolled my eyes. I could take care of myself! I’m cautious enough on my own. I mean, I don’t run around like some maniac- “OOF!”  A tall athletic looking girl with short spiky dirty blonde hair barreled into me at top speed.  

“Oh!” my mom cried, “Marina! Are you OK!?”  She stooped to help untangle us.  The girl looked to be about my age, perhaps an inch or two taller than me, but I’m tall for my age.  

“Watch where you’re going would you?!?” The girl said angrily.  

My first response was indignation. “Hey! I was walking at a perfectly reasonable pace! You were the one running like a maniac!” 

“Humph.” She said. Then she sighed, “I’m sorry. It's just that you're not the first person I’ve had a collision with in the past two minutes.” 

“I’m not surprised.” I muttered. I didn't mean for her to hear me, but she did.

“Hey!” The girl said, “Well if it’s any of your business, I’m trying to go help that fellow over there who's about to spill that towering load of... things. Whatever those are." She pointed.  I followed her finger to an old man pushing a cart full of lumiras, stacked up to over six feet high! 

"Woah! You're right!" I shouted, already rushing forward. "I'll be right back!" 

"Wait!..." My mom shouted after me, but I didn't hear the rest of what she said. 

The other girl and I ran neck to neck towards the man.  But as much breath as I needed to run, I still couldn’t help saying, "Those 'things' are called lumiras. Duh!"  

"What!?" The other girl replied. 

"Oh come on! You must know! The things that light up your path! They're super helpful!" As I said this, the man's towering stack fell, just as I knew it would.  We sped up, and reached him in 3 seconds flat.   

While I reached down to help the man up, the other girl started picking up the lumiras.  

"Are you OK?" I asked the man. 

"Yes, Thank you. I'm selling lumiras, but I must have brought too many," the old man said. 

"Here," I said, "I'll pick up your lumiras." I turned around and saw the girl still picking them up by hand and putting them in the cart. It would take forever that way! 

"It'll go a lot faster this way!" I told the girl as I pulled out my Levira.  I shone the blue beam of light shining out of it onto one of the lumiras.  Immediately, all of the lumiras shot into the air and gently lowered neatly into the cart. 

I put my Levira away and said to the other girl, "Now that's, how to do it." 

To my surprise, she just looked annoyed! "Cheater!" She mumbled and stormed off.   

I was super confused.  What did she mean, 'cheater'?  I was just helping the man with his lumiras! What was so 'cheating' about that? 

I sighed, and looked around for my parents. Then I realized that I had no clue where I was! And what if it got dark before I found my parents?! It was still the middle of the day, but in this crowd, who knows how long it could take! 

I turned around and ran towards the man with the Lumiras.  

"Hey! Can I buy a lumira?" I asked.  

I pulled out three odirum, the price on his sign, but he wouldn't take them. 

"You were so helpful to me, you don't have to pay." Finally I managed to make him take one odirum for a Lumiras. Then, putting the lumira in my pocket, I headed off to find my parents. 

But it turned out, the crowd was bigger than I thought. And I wasn't having any luck. I guess I should have thought about the size of the crowd before running off like I did.   

I didn't like being alone. And, even though I was surrounded by hundreds of milling people, I felt quite alone and lost. 

Even though I didn't like talking to strangers, it seemed like the only way. But even when I plucked up the courage to ask people if they had seen my parents, the answer was always, "Sorry, I haven't seen them." 

I began to get scared. OK. I told myself, stay calm.  

I asked an old lady, "Have you seen my parents anywhere? My mother has red hair and my father has brown hair."   

"Oh dear!" She replied "Are you lost?" 

I nodded. 

"Oh dear." She said again. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen them. But if I do I'll tell them you're looking for them." 

I sighed. "OK."  

The old lady hobbled away into the crowd. I was getting discouraged.  

I turned to look for someone else to ask when suddenly the ground started to shake and rumble under my feet! 

People started backing away. I looked down at the ground and shouted out in alarm! A vine was wriggling out of the ground right under my feet!  

Suddenly the vine shot out of the ground, growing bigger and bigger! I tried to jump out of the way but my shirt caught on a stub growing out of the vine! 

I shot up, up, up, into the sky! 

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" I shouted, terrified! A man below snatched his daughter out of the way, but got caught in a similar way that I had. 
I hung there panicking! What was I going  to do?! Suddenly, a glimmer of light caught my eye. A droplet of water was about to splash onto my face. Great. Now on top of everything else, I'm about to get wet.  I squeezed my eyes shut as the droplet fell, expecting to feel a little splash on my face.  But it didn't come! I opened my eyes and gasped: the droplet of water was hovering in the air right above my face! As I gasped the drop of water swerved to one side, and disappeared from my sight. Did it just swerve to avoid me?

Then shouts from down below pushed the drop of water right to the back of my mind. The shouts signaled something was wrong. I quickly realized what it was. Even though it was the middle of the day, it was getting dark very quickly! 

I looked up and gasped! A dark circle was covering the sun and plunging Magosia into darkness! 

Shouts and screams of panic from below let me know that everyone else was as terrified as I was. The darkness enveloping Centresia made it seem like it was night! I could barely see my hand in front of my face! As my eyes started to adjust to the sudden darkness, I saw the scurrying, panicking shapes of the people below.

Suddenly, a huge leaf sprouted out of the vine about five feet above my head, and over to my right about six feet. The leaf got bigger, and bigger, until I could have used it as a blanket. Then, on top of the leaf, a huge cloud of purple smoke exploded! The smoke wafted down onto me. It was awful and made me feel sick and sleepy. But as the smoke blew away on the wind that was now kicking up, my senses cleared. I craned my neck to see what had created the explosion of smoke. To my surprise, and apparently to everyone else's too, because the shouts of shock from down below increased, I saw a women standing on the leaf! She had a long glittering black dress with long swirling grey ribbons flowing from the edges of her sleeves and from her long black hair which, though the wind had stopped soon after the women appeared, was still blowing and swaying in an entrancing, and I thought slightly menacing, way. Though it was dark, there seemed to be a eerie glow surrounding her so everyone could see her.

Then she spoke, in a sweet, soft voice, yet it was heard by everyone,  "Greetings, people of Magosia." She said. "I am Suada." 

I heard murmurs of confusion, that matched my own. Nobody had heard of her.  

Then she continued, "For many years I have stayed hidden away. But then I received word that the beautiful kingdom of Magosia, whom I have always admired and watched, is in deep trouble." 

I heard questioning voices from below, wondering how she knew that, along with murmurs of agreement: we were in trouble. 

"Then, after pondering this I realized that a terrible famine was to befall this beautiful kingdom!" She said, dramatically raising her voice. 

I heard gasps from everyone below me. A famine! We hadn't had a famine for centuries! But it wasn't hard to believe, seeing as all the crops were rotten! 

"And then," a hush fell over the panicking citizens below me because, though she had lowered her voice again, everyone heard her, "And then, I realized that only  one could save the kingdom. Only one had the strength, the stamina, and the power, to save Magosia and all of it's people!"  An eerie silence had fallen over the people. No one, in all of those numerous crowds, no one, said a word. 

"Only one can save Magosia!" She repeated, louder.  

"Only I can save Magosia!" She shouted, raising her arms,  

"Only I, Master of Plants!"  She finished dramatically with a shout!

She brought her arms down in a sweeping motion.  

"I give you light!" She shouted, and the circle that had covered the sun moved on.  Light spilled into the town square! The silence was broken by the joyful, and amazed, even fearful shouts of the people as they lifted their arms to the sun as it reappeared!  

Then, again Suada shouted "And now, the answer to all your problems, I give you life!"   

Out of the ground, all around, scattered throughout the people, bushes erupted out of the ground! As Suada lifted her arms higher and higher, the bushes grew leaves and began to bud. Before my eyes, the buds bloomed into flower showering petals onto the people and when the swirling petals cleared, the bushes were sagging with fruits of every kind! Blueberries! Grapes! Raspberries! Fleekberries! Strawberries! Maraks! And many more! Then all the bushes, plants, and vines bent in unison, then flung upward showering the fruit down on the people! 

It was chaos! People were scrambling all over picking up and eating fruits. Joyful shouts and praises resounded from below! 

Finally, Suada interrupted the celebrations below to say, "Well, people of Magosia, I see that I was right." Smiling she continued, "I am willing to stay and offer my services to the beautiful kingdom of Magosia. And Magosia will rise again!" Then she added "That is, if you want me to." 

The shouts from below were deafening, even from my perch, about 75 feet above the ground. 

"Very well, very well." Said Suada raising a hand for quiet. "I will stay, and make Magosia mighty again" 

The cheers again resounded from the ground, almost blocking out my thoughts. But I couldn't help thinking, what does she mean by 'again' does she mean like it was a week ago? Or, perhaps something long, long ago, that none of us would remember? I don't know why that thought came to me, but something about Suada bugged me.

Then a ripping sound and a slight drop snapped me back to the reality that I was hanging 75 feet above the ground by my shirt, which was obviously not meant for that purpose, and wasn't going to hold out much longer. 

Slowly, and being careful not to make any sudden movements, lest the rip that had already begun tearing my shirt, should finish the job, I began to search my pockets for anything useful. All I had was a pretty rock I'd found on the way here, the lumira I'd bought from the man, and my levira. The rock and the lumira wouldn't be much help, but my levira? I'd never tried using it to pick up a person, but there's a first time for everything, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to shimmying down the entire huge vine. So I decided to try.  

I flipped the levira around and shone the blue beam onto myself.  

I had the strangest feeling of being upside down. And then I felt the pressure on my armpits and neck lift as I lifted off of the stub of vine my shirt had snagged on. Then I started lowering down. It wasn't fun. It wasn't jerky or shaky, but it swerved me all over the place! Twice I almost hit the vine again, but swerved out of the way just in time. I had no means of controlling my decent. So I just had to wait it out. I passed the other man who had  gotten snagged like me. 

"Hey!" I called to him, "I'll- Woah!" I was going to say 'I'll get you down from there.', but the levira swerved away from him and down at that exact moment. 

Finally, I managed to make it to the ground. I couldn't see very well. There were flower petals swirling all over the place and people were rushing all over gathering fruits.  

I squinted upward and saw a person on the vine. The man! I thought. But then, higher up I noticed the man, still hanging there. I aimed carefully, and then shot my blue beam of light at him. I adjusted it so he was right in the light. Then, controlling where he went with my levira, I lowered him down. His descent was a lot smoother than mine, because I had complete control over where he went.  Then, once he was safely down and went off to find his family, I aimed at the other figure. It appeared to be a girl. As I lowered her down I tried to recall seeing a girl on my descent. Then as she got closer, it was the girl who didn't know what a lumira was!  Her face looked pink as one of the fleekberries lying on the ground at my feet. She was struggling and glaring at me.  

When I set her down in front of me she immediately said, "Who do you think you are?!?" She kept her voice down, she probably didn't want to call more attention to herself, but she was clearly angry. I couldn't understand why! "I didn't need saving!! I was trying to help that dude up there but again, you CHEAT!"  

I glared back at her. "It's not 'cheating'! There's nothing wrong with using a little magic now and then!!" 

"Ugh!!!" She sputtered for a moment and then stomped off, fists clenched. a mangy looking yellow dog followed her. The dog's uneven lope looked familiar somehow. Then I remebered three days ago, when I was looking in the aspectus, I had seen a dog! This must be the same dog! I thought he was kinda ugly looking.  It suits the girl just fine. I thought angrily.

I glared after her, wondering why she had to be so rude. Then, remembering Suada, I looked up at the leaf where she had perched, but she wasn't there!
As I wondered where she had gone, I heard my name screeched,

"MARINA! Oh Marina!!" I turned just as my Mom and Dad came running up.  Mom flung her arms around me and squeezed me until I thought I would burst. I must have looked like I would, because Dad put his hand on Mom's shoulder and said, "Now Serah, let the girl breathe." 

Mom pulled away and put her hands on my shoulder looking me over. 

"Oh, Marina! We were so worried! We didn't know where you'd gone! We looked everywhere and then we saw you get pulled up by the vine! Oh Marina! I told you not to leave! What if..." She broke off sobbing. 

"OK." Said Dad. "Let's go home." 

Mom sniffled and then stood up, gripped my hand very tightly, and followed Dad through the crowds back towards home. 

Boy was I going to have a story to tell Leo! And lots of questions too!  

Who was that lady?