Coelum - Chapter 2 [Well, in that case, welcome to Eldarya.] - Nevra x Ayla
Chapter: 2 [Well, in that case, welcome to Eldarya.]
Pairing: Nevra x Ayla (my oc)
A/N: Hello! I am new here and I would like to present you my ff with Nevra from Eldarya! I spent a lot of time on it and I think it’s awesome (hihihi). It is a long story but I intend to post chapters regularly. I hope you’ll like it! Please leave some feedback! Also know that English is not my native language so there can be some mistakes. Love you all!
Voices. At least five different voices, male and female. At times they merged into one, but in general I was able to understand what the discussion they had was about. Something heavy laid on my chest, but to my surprise it felt like something helpful, not dangerous. My first instinct was to grab it, but I remained still. I tried not to move or open my eyes in order not to reveal that I was conscious. After all, I still didn’t know where I was and whether I was safe there. Judging by the reaction of the female fox to my presence, I was rather not welcome here. Only… where is it “here”? What was this place?
Every moment I felt more and more pain in the side of my head. Something was also placed on it, but it was lighter. It resembled a compress that is prepared in the event of a fever or head injury.
“She should wake up any moment.” Said one of the voices, feminine and melodious. "She hit her head on a fall, but I don’t see any signs of a serious injury.”
"Do we know why she is here?” Asked a second, masculine, very calm voice.
“No.” A woman whose voice I recognized answered. It was the fox lady. “She fainted before I could ask her anything.”
"Knowing you, Miiko,” Miiko? Is that her name? “You sent her to the dungeons before she could even think about the answer.” The third voice that I didn’t know, belonged to a man. After the way he spoke, I was sure he was smiling now.
“I don’t have time to deal with lost girls.”
"How did she get here?” Another voice unknown to me joined the discussion. This time it was a woman. She had a high and slightly high-pitched voice. She seemed young, or at least younger than the rest.
A strong throb in my head interrupted my eavesdropping. I winced, and then the conversation stopped. I had the impression that everyone was looking at me.
“We’ll have the opportunity to find out soon enough.”
Someone took what was previously on my chest. Suddenly I felt worse, as if my lungs had more difficulty breathing than before. I had to focus hard to be able to breathe normally. Instinctively I grabbed my chest.
"Oh, I’m sorry,” I heard and the item returned to my chest. Everything returned to normal then. “You are not yet used to the level of maana.”
With each passing moment I had more and more questions in my head, and I could not open my eyes to look around the room. Something told me that only then I would be confused.
I slowly opened my eyelids. I did everything carefully, after all I didn’t know what I was dealing with.
Above me was a ceiling lined with glowing stones - it looked as if someone had closed the bulbs in colored crystals. Fortunately, the light was not bright enough to blind me. Behind me there was certainly a window, because although I couldn’t see it, I noticed the orange light that came from the setting sun. It was a well-known view to me, because the windows in my apartment were facing west, so every evening I could see warm sunshine.
I turned my head to look at the direction from which the voices were coming, and then I saw several heads staring at me. Some seemed intrigued by me, which I deduced from frowning or wide-eyed eyes, while others didn’t care. My attention was caught by a boy whose head stuck out like a unicorn. He was smiling slightly at me, but his eyebrows were drawn, so I couldn’t clearly read his intentions. However, he looked the most accessible of all.
He certainly seemed nicer than the blue-haired man who stood a little to the side and looked at me as if I was just hurting his dog. He probably didn’t like my presence there. Welcome to the club, mate, I don’t like it here either. Next to him was another man, pale and muscular. He looked tense, though he had a swarthy smile on his lips. I couldn’t miss the band he wore on one eye. Pirate, huh?
“Welcome back among the living” at the sound of a woman’s voice, I turned my head quickly the other way and immediately regretted it, because the pain I experienced caused me to moan. I had a high tolerance for pain, but what I felt then was almost unbearable. “Slowly, don’t make any sudden movements.”
The woman leaned over me, and then I noticed that she had gray skin and pointed ears. Just like the elves my mother read about when I was little. Were these Halloween costumes? Or maybe I came to another dimension? If so, how can I come back?
She grabbed the compress that had laid on my head, then dipped it in a bowl next to the bed and put it back on my forehead. I felt immediate relief.
“Look, she speaks.” I heard and turned my head back to the cluster, this time I did it slower.
“Ezarel, you could control yourself for a moment.” The man who stood next to the fox admonished the blue-haired man. His clothing caught my eye, or rather that his shirt had a hole and perfectly exposed his stomach muscles. I scanned his body slowly, and when I found my face I saw that he was smiling at me gently. He looked friendly, although he was a bit intimidating. “What is your name?” This time he turned straight to me.
“Ay—” I cleared my throat because my voice didn’t sound right. “Ayla.”
“Very pretty name.” The blond replied, and the vixen grunted. I wanted to roll my eyes, but at the last moment I controlled myself. She seemed to have power here, so I didn’t particularly want to offend her.
Right next to the two stood a girl with beautiful red hair, with rabbit ears sticking out. It was definitely she who owned the high-pitched voice I had heard before. She didn’t seem to be particularly interested in me, she was rather in her world of thoughts.
I gently rose to have a better position in case I had to run. Although I had a poor chance to get out of this room because they were standing between me and the door, I preferred to be prepared for a possible run.
“You don’t have to fear us, we won’t hurt you. We just want to know how did you get here.” Blond continued the conversation. That’s what serial killers say before getting rid of their victims. At least, that’s how they show it in the movies. His words did not calm me down at all. "We do not hide that your appearance is a surprise to us.”
“I don’t… I don’t know that.” I replied after a moment. I tried to sound convincing, but stuttering did not add credibility to me, quite the opposite.
“This conversation doesn’t lead to anything.” The vixen grunted, and the strange blue flame began to come out of her cane again. I instinctively shuddered and clung to the bed harder.
“We can’t stress her because she won’t tell us anything.” The man who stood behind the fair-haired man and Miiko spoke for the first time. He was tall and well-built, but he didn’t look friendly. He had a rather bored expression on his face, as if I wasn’t the first lost girl he had seen. It was rather suspicious.
“Maybe we should just use other methods.” Dark-haired pirate suggested, and my throat went dry. That smile didn’t leave his face, which worried me even more.
“We will not question her as if she was a criminal. She didn’t do anything wrong.” The unicorn spoke and I was grateful for that. He and the blond were the only ones who didn’t see me as a threat here.
"She appeared in the Crystal Room in the middle of the day, and now she is playing a fool and pretending she doesn’t know what’s going on. In my opinion, it is breaking some law.” Blue-haired said, but others seemed to ignore his comment.
"I really don’t know how I got here.” I took a deep breath and continued. “I was on the beach and… and… I-I… and I wanted to go home…” Lying was never my strong point, but now I didn’t have much choice. I had to tell them what had happened, but I also wanted to avoid some topics. “Then I heard a howl, and then I saw the blue light coming out of the cave. I went there and found a strange circle made of colorful mushrooms and fireflies flying around. This interested me, so I came closer, and when I got inside the circle… I… I came here. Wherever >>here<< is.”
"And then you passed out.” The light-haired elf added, and I just nodded. “Fortunately, nothing bad happened to you. You may only have headaches and breathing difficulties due to the content of maana in the air that you are not used to, but they should pass in a while.”
“Maana?” I asked, but my question was never answered.
“So you really don’t know where you are?” The unicorn asked after a moment of silence. I shook my head and he smiled gently. „Well, in that case, welcome to Eldarya.”
“Thank you for saving me from the cell. I don’t quite understand what this is all about, and it certainly wouldn’t be easier for me to find out in prison.” I murmured as Kero put a glass of orange juice in front of me and sat down in the chair on my right.
Immediately after the nurse announced that I was able to breathe on my own, Miiko wanted to lock me in the dungeons until my fate was known. Fortunately, the unicorn immediately opposed it and somehow managed to convince the rest of the company that I would remain free for a while.
Apparently I came here quite by accident. This mushroom circle was a portal, most likely left by the witch. Unfortunately, it was a one-sided portal, so coming back in the same way was out of the question. At least, that’s what I was told. I wasn’t sure I could trust them. They didn’t have a reason to lie to me, but I learned long ago that you can’t trust someone immediately after meeting them.
It meant that I had to acclimatize myself somehow, and it was really hard for me to do without knowing anything about this world.
"You don’t have to thank me.” The boy replied sipping what looked like apple juice from a glass. “I understand that it’s hard for you, and locking you anywhere won’t help you. After all, you’re not a criminal, are you?”
I smiled slightly because talking to him was really pleasant. Despite his strange appearance and the horn sticking out of his forehead, he seemed perfectly normal.
“No, I’m not.” I grunted between sips of drink. “Tell me .. What is Eldarya? Is this another dimension? Or maybe a lost city? Is it more like Atlantis or Wonderland?”
The unicorn frowned but smiled at my words. He probably thought that my questions were weird, though they were perfectly reasonable for me.
“Eldarya is the land where the faeries live. Surely you’ve heard of us from legends or fairy tales.” He explained, and I just raised my eyebrows. "You know… Vampires, elves, mermaids.”
“It’s hard for me to believe.” I gasped, but Kero didn’t seem to care at all about my attitude.
“Do you really think I’m a human considering this protruding horn and tail?” He knocked on the horn and it began to turn blue. I leaned back in my chair automatically. Maybe he was telling the truth. “I’m a unicorn.”
“So you are a horse?” I blurted out before I could think. Judging by the Kero’s expression, this question was rather inappropriate.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.” I murmured, smiling apologetically. I didn’t want to alienate the only person who didn’t think bad of me in this land. Well, I wasn’t counting the light-haired man. There was something strange about him and I really did not want to have anything to do with him for now.
Kero rocked in his chair and frowned, but then returned my smile.
„It’s okay. I’m not angry.” He took the glass from me when it was empty, then stood up and walked towards the counter, behind which stood the non-friendly man. It wasn’t that he had horns and an unusually hairy chest. His negative expression simply caused me not to want to greet him. Fortunately, he also did not have such plans, because as soon as I approached, he turned and left. “Do you have any more questions?”
“Yes, lots of them actually.”
„Okay, so maybe I will tell you the short version of what I know and if you have more questions, you’ll ask them after. Alright?”
The place where I was was called the General Headquarters of the Guard of El. Kero very proudly talked about what they do there and about the hierarchy they have. I tried to keep up with his explaining, but sometimes he would confuse me with things I didn’t know. Either way, it was amazing how quickly I absorbed more information about Eldarya. After a few minutes I knew the names of all the guards, as well as the names of their bosses. The rest of the details may have escaped me, but I already knew the general outline of the situation.
I was not mistaken, the boss of all the bosses was Miiko. She didn’t look friendly or act like that, so even despite Kero’s assurances that she was very nice and approachable, I preferred to stay away from her. Her right hand man was Leiftan, a light-haired man, but I didn’t learn anything about him except that he was a lorialet. Whatever it was.
Blue-haired man was Ezarel, according to the unicorn he was as mean as he seemed. He was the head of the Absinthe Guard and I don’t know why, but the name made me laugh. Maybe because the color of the head of the guard was the color of the drink that the guard had the name from. I didn’t know.
They dealt with broadly understood alchemy, of which I have heard only from legends. However, this has never been in a good context.
Nevra, the sexy pirate who was trying to get information from me by torture, was the head of the Shadow Guard. Kero immediately told me not to talk to him, because his attitude towards women was peculiar. And because I usually didn’t like such types, I just nodded and asked about the other guards.
Last was Valkyon - statue, not a person. From the story of the unicorn he seemed to be a friendly individual, not very talkative, but good at his job. He managed the Obsidian Guard. Its members were the strongest faeries of the whole guard. It certainly wasn’t the place for me.
"So Guard of El is keeping peace in Eldarya?” I asked Kero after a long lecture when we sat down by the beautiful fountain in the middle of the grassy square. Around us were many trees and flowers that I did not know from Earth. Everything here was so colorful and full of life. Everywhere I looked there was something that caught my attention. At the moment, they were water lilies, or at least flowers reminiscent of them, floating in the water next to us.
“Not only that. We also help faeries who don’t have a place in Eldarya.” The unicorn pointed to the houses we were passing by recently. "This is a village whose inhabitants are faeries. They are in a difficult situation. Usually these are political refugees, but there will also be a few faeries who came here after the crystal broke.”
Crystal. This big blue stone that had been the first thing I had seen after arriving here. I did not think that a piece of stone could be so important for the inhabitants of Eldarya. No wonder Miiko had gotten nervous when she had seen me.
"It’s our duty.” Kero adjusted his glasses before continuing. “We are somewhat responsible for the breakdown of the crystal, so we are also responsible for the faeries who suffered losses as a result of this catastrophe.”
“After all, I’m impressed.” I smiled brightly at him. “Not everyone could take that responsibility.” The boy nodded, letting me know that he appreciated my words. “If I can ask you something more…”
“What role do you play in guard?”
Kero blushed slightly and looked away. Apparently, he didn’t like to talk about himself too much. Or maybe just his position was not prestigious enough to boast about it? Still, I wanted to know what work has been doing.
“I run a library with Ykhar. I archive documents. Boring.”
“No, not at all.” I replied a little saddened at how he talked about what he was doing. “It definitely has its charm. Tell me more!”
"Well, I’m not the head of the guard, but in fact, my work has its charm. Yesterday, for example— ”
“Keroshane!” A high-pitched boyish voice interrupted the unicorn half-sentence. After a while a boy appeared before us. He was panting heavily, and on his cheeks there were stains caused probably by tears. It effectively distracted me from the ram’s horns sticking out of his head. “My companion has disappeared!”
“Yes! He was my friend!” More tears began to gather in the boy’s eyes with each passing moment. "I want my friend back!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Kero was slightly irritated by the boy’s loud behavior.
"Hi.” The child turned towards me. “Maybe I can help you, huh?”
“Who are you?” The toddler asked suspiciously looking at me. He looked cute when he frowned slightly.
“I’m Ayla. I came here from a very distant land and I will gladly help you find your friend.” At my explanation, the boy grinned and the unicorn looked at me strangely. He was probably surprised that I immediately wanted to help this child. "You just have to tell me what your friend looks like.”
"It’s Crylasm!” The boy replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I smiled though I had no idea what that meant. Was it some kind of companion? If I had to stay here for a while, would I have to learn it all? “I am Mery, by the way.”
The boy smiled, showing a row of white teeth and at the sight of it my stomach squeezed.
"Nice to meet you, Mery. It looks like I am going to look for your friend.”
"Cool! Do you promise to find him?” When I nodded in the affirmative gesture, the boy squeaked, then ran away as if nothing had happened. His behavior was not at all different from the children of Earth. If it wasn’t for these horns, I could easily compare him to the kids I used to work with in the theater.
"Crylasm, huh?” I grunted when Mery was far enough not to hear us. “What the hell is this Crylasm?”
Kero burst out laughing, and after a while I was laughing too. Who would have thought that when, after many days of bottomless sadness, I was grinning and smiling, would it be in a magical land I came across while entering a mushroom circle? Definitely not me.
Sheep with wings, huh? Where should I look for a sheep with wings?
Armed with something that looked like cream ice cream on a stick with sprinkles and a small map of the Headquarters, I went in search of Mery’s familiar. The task may not have been difficult for an ordinary Eldarya inhabitant, but someone like me, a foreigner, could have many problems with it.
The first was that I didn’t know what Crylasm looked like at all, and the term “sheep with wings” was not very helpful. Kero didn’t tell me anything but “when you find him, you’ll know it’s him.” It wasn’t enough for me to at least imagine it.
Another difficulty I encountered was the search area. The Headquarters was huge, and it was not said at all that the companion could not go beyond it. The unicorn wanted to make the task a little easier for me by drawing a makeshift map of the area, but I had to admit that I had never seen a more useless plan in my life.
There was still the ice-cream that I had to walk with, because it was supposedly Crylasm’s food. It didn’t look bad, it also smelled quite nice, but it didn’t seem like food, but rather a snack. However, I wasn’t the specialist here, Kero was, so all I did was shut up and got this ice cream from a strange flying cat.
Along the way, I pinched myself several times to make sure it wasn’t a dream, but instead of waking up, I only had a few red marks on my hand. I could believe everything - a magical land, talking unicorns with glasses on their noses, glowing crystals that give power. But flying cats that can talk and run their boutiques? Seriously?
The first place I looked was in the village, which was definitely a mistake. Almost immediately I was noticed by Nevra, a person with whom I did not want to have anything in common. Honestly, with most of the Light Guard members, I didn’t feel like talking in that moment.
“Are you visiting the area?” He asked before I could turn back and escape. Although he would probably be able to catch up with me anyway. „Or maybe you’re trying to escape from here?“
The man put his hands in pockets and leaned against the tree, next to which I stood, completely blocking my vision.
"I’m looking for someone.” I replied. “Something.” I sighed. „A Crylasm, I mean.” I folded my arms. Talking to him wasn’t as easy as talking to Kero.
Nevra laughed nonchalantly, revealing his teeth, and two clearly visible fangs among them.
“Not me, Mery.” I replied briefly and, wanting to pass him, I took a step to the side, but he again blocked my way. I reflexively tensed myself and withdrew. The situation in which I found myself began to please me less and less with each passing moment.
Smirk came off his face, but he didn’t change his position.
“That wasn’t a question.”
“And that wasn’t an answer but a refusal.”
He squinted his eye, and then a slight wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
“Which places have you already searched?” I guess there was no refusal with him, because Nevra continued as if nothing had happened.
I sighed and looked around to find something that could help me get rid of him, but after a while I realized it made no sense.
“Great, so we’re going to the glade.”
“Because if I was a Crylasm I would have fled there.”
origamiaround
ellievsbear
vaporwave
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
