Eldera Akademus

Chapter 3

“Is that your decision?” Aunt Cara asked Kristel to make her sure of her decision made.

Because her Aunt knew she was terrible at decision-making, and she often asked her for advice. She was sitting on the bed while Kristel was sitting on the floor as her Aunt gently combed her waist-long hair.

“I am sure of it, Aunt Cara.” Kristel drew a broad smile on her lips and leaned back on her bed, seeing Aunt Cara smile in her peripheral view.

Would her mother be like this, like what Aunt Cara does? Will she be this caring? Does she love her as Aunt Cara gave her love? In truth, Kristel does not know, she had not embraced her mother once, even in dreams, not even seeing her face, only hearing her angelic voice of her, and it was just a dream. Dreams she wished to become a reality.

“I am pleased, so are you leaving tomorrow?” Even though Aunt Cara’s face was happy, Kristel could hear the sadness in her voice.

“Yes, Aunt, but this home will be my home. Once it is done, I come back here, for this is where I belong,” Kristel remarked, grinning.

In the world Kristel came from, they did not accept that she had the blood of a mortal. When she was young, no nobles played with her nor had friends, with her being half-mortal. Only Astra and Jhensy played with her and became her friends. Kristel tried to hate her, but they did not. Only they truly understand her. Nobody of royal blood or even in the upper class made friends with the two for being lower class and poor. She started to hate the place and all that lived there.

“Everything changes, Kristel, you know that. You can’t live hating anyone and acting like you’re a beast that they should despise you. It’s you why they’re moving away from you, not them,” Tita Cara explained softly. Kristel sighed. It appears she was wrong in her words.

“There we go again, Aunt. I don’t want to hear it. I am not interested.” Kristel can’t help but frown. She heard Aunt Cara’s soft laugh. It didn’t make her pissed, but it made her smile.

“What’s so funny?” Kristel wondered, unable to remove the smile from her lips.

“You,” Aunt Cara answered.

“Am I funny?” Kristel raised an eyebrow at what she heard. Though she expected Aunt Cara’s answer was different, it surprised Kristel how she responded.

“Think about it, Kristel. You are so heartless for some people the way you act, do, and said things,” Aunt Cara explained.

Kristel nodded. And there was nothing so humorous about that.

“But you were hurt because the person you thought you liked wasn’t serious. Heartbroken, as you said.” She laughed even harder, wrinkling Kristel’s forehead further as she did not understand what her Aunt trying to convey.

“It seems like liking is just like love too, sweetie. But I tell you this, you are young, and one day, you’ll understand that it’s not the same.”

Kristel was stunned by what Aunt Cara said.

Is that so?

****

Kristel rolled in her bed, wanting not to wake up and continue her sleep. She wants to stay again with her mom in her dreams. A guttural inarticulate sound came out of her when light struck her face. Aunt Cara opened the curtain of her window. Kristel groaned, she hated it, and she wanted to sleep again.

“Kristel, the food is ready on the table. Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind again?” Aunt Cara’s voice came out of the door.

Kristel sleepily sat in bed, peering at the round the clock above the bookshelf. 6:30 am, it’s too early. She drowsily yawned and stretched her body, then dropped back on the bed and looked wearily at the ceiling with one eye open.

“Do you have the plan to leave or not?” Kristel screamed in no time when she saw Jhensy at the end of her bed with his arms folded.

“Why are you here?” Kristel yelled. Jhensy’s long slender human-like hands covered his ears.

“The king is sending you to me,” he answered.

“In my room? Did I tell you to come here?” Kristel shouted, veins in her throat visible and glaring at him.

He turned his head in the door direction. Kristel covered her face with the soft blanket and inhaled the fabric’s rosy scent.

“Because your aunt told me to pick you up here if you don’t come down,” he reasoned.

Still, Kristel had not removed the pillow from her face. She closed her eyes, wishing to sleep again. Just another hour, that’s all she needed. She won’t listen to Jhensy’s mumbles, and she is drawn back to the memories of her dream. She and Mama went to the garden together to pick a red rose; they were happy, and she seemed alive. Kristel hugged her so tightly that she could still feel her warmth. Mama sang a lullaby at her, and she was sleeping in her lap. Then slowly, Kristel fell asleep, and her mother said something to her, but she could not hear it well. That’s what she wants to know what it was. Why her mother’s voice was sad? Why was she crying? Why was she hurting? Questioned Kristel, had no answer for her own to fill.

She was surprised when the pillow she had covered her face disappeared. Kristel would have shouted at Jhensy, but it was not him who took it but AuntCara. What was that expression on her Aunt’s face? Was she mad?

“Aunt Cara ...” The word reached out of Kristel’s mouth.

“Will you stand there or not!” She was furious, and irritation in her voice was visible in her ears.

Not a minute wait, she quickly got up, went to the bathroom, locked it right away, and leaned against the door with her thumping heart.

Whenever Aunt Cara was angry, Kristel got scared. She doesn’t want to see her mad because of what she did. So as much as possible, she doesn’t do anything that irritates Aunt Cara or upsets her. Kristel’s knees were shaking when she felt the coldness in her skin as she opened the shower.

She hated bathing early in the morning!

Kristel was eating quietly. Jhensy was in the living room watching a show on the television while Aunt Cara was in her room preparing her things.

"Jhensy!" Kristel called him.

He instantly moved toward the kitchen with a wondering face, and she pointed the chair in front of her and motioned him to sit down; without a word, he followed it.

“Why did you come so early?” Kristel raised her eyebrow, seeing his Adam’s apple move as he gulped nervously. Jhensy realized she was not in the mood.

“The king said so. I just followed his command,” he replied, looking into her eyes seriously.

Kristel put rice in her mouth and looked at the door to see if Aunt Cara would come. Her Aunt was against what she was doing to Jhensy. She was so harsh sometimes it was not suitable for a friend, and he was not her servant. The reason she was mad at Kristel for that specific reason.

“Psh! Right? I’m expecting 10, and you’re not the one to pick me up. I wrote there that we would meet at the train station. When did he follow what I wanted?” Kristel snorted again, swallowing her resentment about what she ate.

“That’s what the king ordered, so I just obeyed,” he said with a look of apology.

“I know. Have you eaten yet?” Kristelasked looking at the food.

“Thank you, but I’m done,” he replied politely. Kristel just nodded and continued eating.

Afterward, Kristel hugged Aunt Cara tightly before leaving. Using magic dust, they came to the big Agortha tree, the only tunnel into the world of Eldera. Jhensy carried her oversized white-wheeled suitcase. She then went in first, and in a blink of an eye, she was in the other world, in the wilderness of Hevrana. The forest was dark and mysterious. Mortals cannot enter here. If anyone accidentally enters, they will disappear into the woods, and she does not know what happened to them, whether they were alive or will leave this place.

Kristel felt Jhensy was behind her. Why he took so long to get in here?

“What took you so long?” she asked with irritation.

“I’m sorry, prin—”

Kristel gave him a kick in the leg, and he yelped in pain.

“Why did you do that?” he asked, anger masking his visage. Kristel could see the annoyance and anguish on his face.

“How often do I have to say that you never say that word because I don’t want to hear it!” Kristell yelled. He always forgot the rule from her that mentioning her as the princess was forbidden. Even though they were here in this world, he had no right to say that term.

“I’m sorry, I thought it was possible in our world?” He bent down, rubbing his right leg.

Consequently, Kristel took the suitcase from him and opened it. She looked to see if Aunt Cara had worn the dress and boots. When she saw it, she took it outside, slung it over her shoulder, put aside the shoes, and closed her suitcase. Glancing at him and she motioned him to turn around.

He did so reluctantly. Kristel went to a nearby tree, and there she outfitted. She wore a pair of black leather boots, fitted black silk jeans, a black long-sleeve shirt, and her leather knee-high coat. She twisted her hair in a bun and tied it.

When done, she walked straight in Jhensy’s direction, which turned his back to her. Now she just noticed that he was not wearing his messenger dress, just an ordinary lower-class outfit. Boots, a blue polo with a unique style inserted in his brown pants, and a dark blue coat up to half its foot.

“Come on, let’s go straight to the train station,” Kristel said seriously. She had no intention of visiting her father or seeing him when she was here.

After saying that, Kristelwent first. Even though it was dark in the forest, she knew the way around. Jhensy just followed her, still carrying her suitcase.

“This is not the road to the city,” he said, realizing their path.

Did not he notice that it wasn’t? Kristel did not give him a reply. She continued walking until she reached the river, whose water was light blue and a bridge made of stone in the middle.

“Where are we going?” he asked as they crossed the bridge. Kristel just shrugged her shoulder for an answer.