Diadem's Birthright

Chapter 10: The feeling

Ethiopia, a country located in the Horn of Africa, was considered to be one of the world's oldest countries. It was one of the oldest continually inhabited locations on Earth, which made the country's history particularly interesting. The capital, Addis Ababa, meaning ' New Flower', was located almost at the center of the country.

And it was there, at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, that Ashley and I had looked up information on the country we were currently in while we waited for the connecting flight that would take us to the city of Harlaa, where the remains of an ancient city had been discovered.

"I know you must all be tired. You can rest as soon as we reach the hotel."

Those who were awake nodded to the professor's words, but the majority were all asleep. After more than fifteen hours of travel, we all were beyond exhausted. Thankfully, there was no delay on our trip to Harlaa and now we were on our way to the hotel.

Ashley was fast asleep beside me, even though the seats on the bus weren't exactly comfortable.

I was unable to sleep, too curious about our new environment. My face was glued to the window, only occasionally turning to glance at Ramzan and Evan's sleeping faces in the seats behind us. They both had stuck to I and Ashley individually throughout the trip, blatantly ignoring all the girls that had approached them. Or more appropriately, tried to approach them, which made it difficult for me to continue ignoring Ramzan like I had first done or to remain mad at him.

My attention was drawn back to the window where I watched the places we passed by, though there wasn't much to see. It was the middle of the night, close to dawn in fact, so everywhere was quiet. Everyone would be in their various homes by this time.

Yet I still couldn't divert my attention from it.

Curiosity.

Most of my life was spent in Sun Valley. This was the first time I was travelling out of the country, and to a place so far away, a place with different people of different cultures. But that wasn't it. This went beyond curiosity but I couldn't place my finger on what it was.

This place.

There was something about it, something obscure, something mystical that kept on beckoning to me.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Ashley's sleepy voice "Are we there yet?"

I chuckled as she shifted into a more comfortable position against me then dozed off again.

We arrived at the hotel not long afterwards.

The check-in procedures and everything else was a blur to me. I collapsed as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up sometime later and upon looking around the four person room I realized that I was alone. It was dark outside. I checked the time to see that I had slept for more than ten hours, it was day time now. Too exhausted to change, I had fallen asleep still wearing the same clothes I had traveled in.

"Time for a very long bath", I thought to myself "Or a shower", I corrected upon taking a glance at the ensuite bathroom and noticed it only had a shower stall.

Stripping out of my travel worn clothes, I stepped into the stall, letting the hot water wash over me relaxing stiff muscles. I sighed in utter bliss.

By the time I emerged from the shower clad only in a towel, Ashley and the other girl had returned with a table ladened with food.

"Sleeping beauty's finally awake." Ashley quipped.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure you didn't wake up that much earlier than me."

"You're absolutely right," the other girl said, tucking a strand of curly red hair behind her ear. "We've been up for less than two hours."

I laughed smugly, while Ashley had her head lowered looking at the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"I'm Riley by the way, Riley Beckham" the redhead introduced herself. "You crashed as soon as we arrived. There was no time for introductions."

”Mirabel Graham" I said as I finish putting on my leggings.

"Oh I know. Your friend has already told me so much about you." Riley said.

We both turned to look at Ashley only to see she was already stuffing her face with food. She looked up at us with a massive grin, before she continued to eat.

Not wasting any time, Riley and I also joined in. I was famished.

I asked about everyone else as we ate.

"The professor, coordinator, supervisor and some of the students had already gone out to explore the city this early morning. While the rest are like us, lounging around in their rooms." Riley shrugged.

"The field trip start officially tomorrow after all, and very early in the morning at that." Ashley said with a frown.

"Yup, so we need all the rest we can get," Riley chimed in.

"Though I'm sure what you really wanted to know was if I have seen Ramzan." Ashley whispered to me. "We ran into them just as we left the room. They are staying a couple of rooms away from ours. They were the ones who ordered this menu for us from the hotel's restaurant" she gestured at the food we were almost done eating.

I nodded.

"Well I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight. I feel like I slept for 2 days straight." I said to divert the conversation from Riley's words.

"Me too," Ashley reiterated.

"How about we go out for a little stroll to wake ourselves up," Riley suggested. " And also to help digest all the food we ate." She added whilst patting her stomach.

"Now I have to change," I groaned as I looked down at my leggings.

"No you don't have to. They look okay. Just use your wrap around cloak atop it so no one will notice." Ashley said.

"And it's black, it'll easily blend in." Riley added.

I didn't really want to change in the first place, so I was easily convinced. I pulled on a cloak over my top.

"Okay, let's go."

We didn't bump into any of our classmates as we made our way down and exited the hotel. There was a stung bust of breeze blowing about, making me grateful I had added the jacket. The weather wasn't anything I was used to. Though it wasn't as cold as home during the winter, the cold here had an accompanying dryness that made lips dry and throats parched.

We strolled in one direction taking in the different sounds and smells. We passed by several stalls selling local delicacies, and the unfamiliar but savory smell was tempting enough to make me hungry for food again. Although there weren't much people about due to it being high noon, sounds of the local dialect, Amharic, filled the air.

We received a few stares as we passed by. It was obvious that we were foreigners mostly because of the level of fairness of our skin and our hair colours. Ashley's blonde hair normally caught the attention of people at home, what more to people who only had black hair and had probably never seen a blonde or a redhead before.

I had that feeling again. The same feeling I'd had on the bus, only this time it was more pronounced probably because I wasn't sleepily gazing out of a fast moving vehicle now. The stalls, the people, the music, there wasn't anything in particular that called to me. It was the soil, the atmosphere, the essence of the place as a whole that I was drawn to. The feeling only got stronger in the direction of the south where the mountain ranges laid.

"Earth to Mira," Ashley said. "Where'd your mind wander off to."

I shrugged, giving her a non-committal response.

"It's time we turn around I think."

Ashley and I nodded in response to Riley's words.

"Yeah we better get going."

"That's the way to the site we're going," Riley said when she noticed me staring off in the distance towards the direction I was facing.

I looked at her questioningly.

"The professor pointed towards this direction to us after we arrived at the hotel."

"Someone was too busy being a zombie to notice," Ashley teased me as we turned around and started heading back.

What is there that I am drawn to? is it just the anxiety of being near a site that is making me giddy? I noticed the feeling reducing the farther we walked. It seemed that I was the only person feeling like that so I chalked it up to the second reason.

I can't wait to go to the site tomorrow. I thought happily