The Oracle: Chapter 3

“Haylin….”
The voice calling her was hoarse. It reminded her of a voice in a horror movie. Wondering what it was.. she turned around to find the source of that voice.
“Hello? Who’s there? Where am I?” Haylin looked around; everything was white and she didn’t remember wearing a white knee length plain dress before going to sleep. Her white complexion mixed perfectly well in the white dress and her long black hair looked even darker.
She looked around, and before she took one step forward, suddenly, the place ignited with piercing red lights and everything was on fire.
In fear, she screamed, panicked and tried desperately to put out the fire in her dress only to realize, that the fire didn’t hurt, it didn’t hurt at all.
Wide eyed she looked at the palms of her hands and thought to herself. Is this a dream?
“My apologies for summoning your soul in this place.” The hoarse voice is back, Haylin got up and looked around. Shaken, panicked, and cold.
“Who’s there? What is this place? Why am I here?” She was about to cry when the voice reassured her.
“Don’t fear child, I have just transported your soul from your world to mine, time stopped for a moment in your world and you are here. You might be wondering why I summoned you here.”
Haylin squinted her eyes, the fire was just too intense.
“It is because, over 2000 years, I have never felt a soul quite as powerful as yours my child. You might be the one who might save our world. I have been watching you from my world and indeed, I have never seen such a soul that drew me in like magnet.”
The voice grew even louder but this time, it isn’t hoarse.
“My name is Fire. I am known to be the God Prince of one of the four realms that used to be called Mystica. Since the advent of that curse bestowed upon us, it has been divided into four worlds. I am the sole ruler, the king of this world. The world of fire, the world known as Etheros Mystica.”
To Haylin, this wasn’t making any sense. King? A world that was once whole? A curse? What does this all mean? “I must be dreaming.” She reassured herself and made herself believe this way, but it’s quite evident that she was shaking, everything feels so real, she can feel the touch of her dress, her cold skin, her white bare feet touching the cold ground. Even though there was fire, she wasn’t burned.
“In time, you will understand, and that time, is near. This is not a request child, you are destined to save this world. My brothers and sister combined the last of our remaining powers to create a loophole. Something that will save us or.. someone. We concentrated our magic to find the strongest soul in the galaxy, and over the past two millenniums, that power has originated from a human 2000 years ago, but, it wasn’t powerful enough. As time passes on, that body served as a vessel, absorbing natural energy from your world and passing that to the next generation. Your ancestors, and finally, to you.”
“No! I am dreaming.” She still refused to believe and broke down crying.
“I’m just an ordinary girl, I am! And it’s my birthday tomorrow.” She said hysterically.
“Your birthday, the day you turn 16, you will awaken your powers. The powers of a powerful entity, the power of a true.. Oracle.” The voice was getting smaller, the fire was getting weaker.
“Noooo!!!!” Haylin screamed in fright and disbelief and then… everything went white.
“Haylin! Wake up!” A familiar voice. Who could it be? I know this voice so well. It sounds nice and warm.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. The light coming from the window was so bright, I squinted my eyes.
“It’s already 2 in the afternoon. You slept for 2 hours. What did you do last night? Stayed up and watched Friends?” Her mother was a little cranky because she was up early to cook and bake the food for tonight’s party.
“It’s 2 in the afternoon?!” I was surprised, I haven’t slept in this late before. What happened? She thought to herself. Her mother groaned and dashed out the window telling her to freshen up and suddenly she stopped and turned around to look at her 16 year old daughter.
“Happy Birthday darling and.. Happy New Year.” Her mother smiled, anger forgotten and went straight out the door. She was born on the 1st of January after all at 2am. Her mother delivered her naturally; she went into 6 hours of labour and hasn’t had problems with giving birth to her.
“Happy Birthday dear, her Grammy stopped by her room and greets her smiling. It was unusual to see her Grandmother not wearing her hair into a braid. She thought to herself, Grammy has pretty white silvery hair. I went downstairs and helped mom out all afternoon. Linda came and Mao and she had finished setting up the decorations like lightning. Elie came afterwards with the cake that she had ordered. It was all good. The cake, the decorations, the music, the presents. Dad took off his time at work, it’s the New Year’s after all and it’s the only time of the year that we get to spend time together as a family.
I opened presents firstly, since, it’s sort of, our tradition to open presents first above all else. Shiro was right next to me and I was surrounded by everyone. Linda got me a cute dress. As always, she has a sense of style. Although, I rarely wear dresses, this one was so pretty. It was a one piece light blue dress with laced sleeves and tiny ribbons at the collar. It was simple, yet elegant. Elie gave me a novel of my favourite author. I happen to love fantasy novels from David Breck and this book is one of his latest work. I can’t wait to read it. Mao gave me socks.. hmmm… he is a boy after all, so it’s understandable. Mom and dad bought me… a stuffed bear. Oh my god. They still treat me like a child. But, okay. It’s the thought that counts. Grammy already gave me her present yesterday, and I’m proudly wearing the necklace and ring. Though, it would be nice if the stones were complete. I hid the old leather diary behind the ugly painting in my room for safe keeping although there’s no entry yet. It was quite fun. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I jumped from where I was seated and rushed to answer the door.
“Hi.” It was Dan. I was so happy to see him. He was wearing a leather black jacket and a white shirt underneath. It was cold. And he had to dress up in a few layers. On the contrary, I am wearing a dress. But, there’s heater here so, yeah.
“Sorry, it took me longer. I’m two hours late.”
He has the cutest boyish grin I have ever seen in my life. I reassured him that it’s okay and I invited him in.
“Oh, by the way, I got you something.” He pulled something out from his pocket and handed it over to me. It was a cute phone strap with a metallic bear and a gold ribbon around its neck. I was so happy I wanted to hug him. No, I shouldn’t, I must restrain this overwhelming happiness. Instead, I simply said thank you and showed him in.
The party was nice. We ate, we talked and we ate some more. It was 11:57am. I… didn’t feel so well. Maybe it was something I ate.
“Are you okay?” Dan was the first to notice.
“Must be something I ate.” My head was pounding. I don’t know if it was something I did ate. The food was okay, I trust mom’s cooking. Or is it because, I helped out? No matter what the reason, my head seem to hurt in each passing moment. Grammy was looking at me. But, she doesn’t seem worried, she just, looked at me while taking a sip from her tea.
11:59pm.
I can’t take it anymore. I was sweating, shivering, and everyone seemed to notice, except for my Grandmother, what’s wrong with her? No, what’s important is, what’s wrong with me? Why does my head hurt so much?
“Hey, seriously, are you okay?” Dan asked worriedly, and everyone stopped at what they were doing and approached me with a worried look, everyone, except my Grammy. She is still sitting at the corner drinking tea. I screamed of the pain. It was pounding like crazy. It’s as if, thousands of tiny needles were piercing through every nerve of my brain.
12am.
It hurts even more. I couldn’t take it. I screamed and everyone looked worried, they asked me what’s wrong. My mom reached for the phone to dial 911. Then suddenly….. The pain stopped. But, that’s not the only thing that stopped. Everyone stopped. I approached Dan, he isn’t moving. What? I slowly approached Linda and Elie.
“You guys?” I touched them, but they weren’t moving. The same with Mao, Mom and Dad. They’ve completely frozen. In complete shock, I turned to my Grandmother. She was moving, still drinking tea.
“What happened to everyone? Grammy?” She asked in a terrified voice and was about to cry.
“You have awakened. Oracle.” The voice, it was so familiar, where have I ever heard that before. I tried to remember, and suddenly, I remembered the dream.

“You! From my dreams! How is this possible?” I clasped my hand to my mouth in disbelief. This man, creature, God as he claimed or whatever, is inside my grandmother’s body. I can’t believe this, what is he doing?
“Do not be alarmed child. I mean your grandmother no harm. I just transported my soul to her body, because of the curse; our physical bodies are sealed away in the Gates of Histore.”
What does he mean by that?
“As I have mentioned, I am Fire, I am the God king of my world known as Etheros Mystica. I will tell you more about this curse. But, you might be wondering why your loved ones remain immovable.”
This God is in the body of my grandmother, using my grandmother’s voice. How terrible.
“Rest assured that they are fine. Time stopped in your world. But these people will come with you to your journey in my realm. Dan, Linda, Elie, your parents, and Mao. Your grandmother is too frail and weak. She should remain here.”
“What are you saying? I am not going anywhere.” I was firm with my decision. I am not going anywhere; I don’t want to put my family and friends in harm’s way. There’s no way.
“You don’t have a choice. It’s your destiny to save us from this curse.”
“A destiny, you created.” I spat back angrily. I hated this.
“We had no choice, this is the only way.” The voice was pleading.
“The power you have now is too great for you to bear, your human strength, speed, and emotions will be amplified in a hundred folds, you have powers yet to be awaken, and this is why you cannot remain in your world in another minute. You must be transported to our world so that your body can handle the power that will be fully awakened.”
What, this sounded like nonsense to me.
“If I don’t?” I asked, this is crazy.
“If you choose to remain here, you will die. Your current body will not withstand the amount of power and will explode taking everyone else with you to your death. A power so strong, it will cause a tremendous explosion that would cause a quarter of damage in your earth’s surface.”
That powerful huh, it sounds crazy, I couldn’t believe it. Yesterday, everything seems normal. But now, I just don’t know.
“Don’t involve my friends and family in this!” I shouted in tears. I don’t want them to die.
“Then transport your body in my world.”
“And how would I do that?” I can’t believe this, I’m actually considering on going.
“Cilantrio, I summon thee.” Using her grandmother’s body, he raised a hand. Cilantrio? Who in the name of heavens is that supposed to be, another God who will ruin my life?”
Shiro went down the stairs and in his mouth, the diary my grandmother gave me. He dropped the diary in front of my grandmother and bowed.
“Lord Fire, you summoned me?”
What the? Shiro can talk?
“Shiro? You… can talk?” Wait cats can’t talk, I must be going crazy. Oh wait, everything is already twisted so how’s this any different.

“Yes, your highness Haylin, I can talk, my name is Cilantrio or you can call me by the name you gave me, Shiro if you want to.” The cat said as he bowed in front of me.
“Cilantrio will be your aide, I want you to listen carefully, I transported my soul to your grandmother a few times because of the 2000 years’ worth of accumulated power you possessed drew me towards you. I was the one who gave you these three relics. The necklace, the ring and the diary. These relics are 2 millennium old. I have kept them safe waiting for the day they would be in the hands worthy to possess them. Now that the time has finally come, over 2000 years of waiting in captivity, I present you these gifts. The necklace is a relic we made out of the remaining trace of power from our father and the ring was made out of the remaining powers of our mother. They possess incredible powers. Use those relics to come to our world. I will explain more about the curse and power once you’ve transported in our world. You are running out of time. Your power will be fully awakened soon”
I picked up the book and looked at my grandmother’s face and everyone’s faces. With tears in my eyes, I nodded.
“Alright, I accept this quest.” With determination, I wiped my tears away.
“Very well. I want you to say, ‘kai! Aries’. Without hesitation I said the words he wanted me to say.
“Kai, Aries.” All of a sudden, everyone in the room disappeared.
“What the heck happened? Where are my family? My friends?” I was hysterical again.
“That is the incantation you use when you decide to transport yourself or something or someone. The white stone, is responsible for that power. I will teach you more about your power once you reach our world.”
“Transport them where?!” I asked. “Their physical bodies are already in the entrance of our world. The place where you go before dusk, there is where their body is present right now.”
The place, the garden? “You mean.. the garden? How…. How did you know?” Oh wait; he’s a God, why did I ask such an obvious question.
“As I have said, I have watched over you. Your power drew me in. Now hurry.. Cilantrio will go with you. As promised, your grandmother remains safe and I will leave her body once you have entered our world.”
The voice suddenly became small as if it was fading away.
“What about the people in my world?” I asked, I wanted to know more. Don’t go yet!
“The time in your world will stop, and everyone here remains frozen.” The voice then disappeared.
“Wait! What do you mean, time stopped!?” But it was too late, the voice left. I was shaking with fear mixed entirely with anger. When Shiro approached me and said.
“People here will be fine, it means to say that time in Mystica is faster than the time here. Lord Fire mentioned about 2000 years of history, but, this is in your world, in Mystica, the curse is already alive for 20,000 years.”
It’s a tenfold?! Baffled by this revelation, I stood there like a fool.
“We must commence the journey miss Haylin.” This is weird, just weird, time stopped, everyone transported to the garden and my cat is talking. What could be worse?

“Miss Haylin, please hold my head. Do you remember the incantation Lord Fire taught you? If you want to do a transportation spell, say that incantation once and think of a place where you want to be transported which will be at the garden where we met.”
Shiro, is talking. I still can’t believe it. But, I did what my cat told me anyways. I placed my hand in his head.
“Kai, Aries.”
Everything went white, and without even a split second, I opened my eyes and found myself in the garden. My friends and family were already here, standing, and waiting for me. But, they aren’t saying anything at all. Without a word I approached them and whispered my apologies, I felt completely responsible of their situation now. But, I need to be strong, for them.
“Miss Haylin, please go near the spring and stand there and concentrate. Everyone please gather around Miss Haylin and touch the Diary.” Everyone moved towards me and did what Shiro said. Wait? They’re robots now?
“Miss Haylin, are you ready? We’re about to enter the world of Mystica. This garden is only visible to you and you were destined to find it. This is the entrance towards Mystica.”
“If I go, I can never come back right?” I asked, with a voice so trembling.
“Perhaps so. Your body cannot take in all that power. But your friends can go back anytime.” Shiro reassured me.
“Alright then, I’m all set.” With the last look, I looked around the garden that I loved growing up as a child after I found it when I was 5. I looked at it for the last time, remembering my memories here in this world, as a child, in 6th grade where I liked Dan, and there was one time, when we went to Portland for vacation. So many memories pouring right in, when a tear rolled down my cheeks.
“Kai, Aries!”
Everything went white for a millisecond and suddenly, like my dream, there is fire everywhere. From a distance I can see a huge tree. It was the biggest tree that I have ever seen in my entire life! Bigger than the ones in the forest with a century old trees. The tree was in the color of ashes and the leaves were on fire. It was too hot. I approached the tree with everyone around me and Shiro.
“Welcome, to Etheros Mystica.” That voice again.
“I welcome you…. Our saviour, our…. ORACLE.”