Hidden Paradise

Meeting {1}

After the attack last night, Elena came as soon as possible when she heard the news. Both Alex and Amaris were casually eating breakfast along with everyone as if nothing happened the night before. "Does the fire attack usually happen?" Alex tries not to stare at Marie as she nods her head. "It's been happening for quite sometime now but it usually ends for around 5 minutes or so. Sometimes, it rains and when it does, it ends a bit longer" Marie explains as she gets more food. They didn't use utensils as they munched unto bunch of fried food.

"Have you guys taken Archery lessons before? I mean, the shots were perfect" they all look at Chelsea as she turns away. "No, it was just calculated using maths and stuff. We're not really that much athletic" Amaris smiles at her, trying to give her a sign that is was alright to ask. "Oh yeah, your friends are already found and currently going to attend breakfast with us" Kira's mouth was a bit full while Chelsea offers her a glass of water before speaking again.

"Oh yeah!" Amaris turns around in excitement as she looks around "I think they'll arrive later on since its long journey" she happily sways her feet underneath the table. Alex smiles at the thought of seeing them again as he continued to eat more.

"There they are..I think" Hope looks at their back to see a group of confused people. "ATHENA" Amaris yells as she tries to carefully get out of her seat. "I guess I was right" Hope smiles proudly at herself as Alex slowly walks after them.

"I miss you guys so much" they hugged and greeted each other. "You uh, alright? You guys alright?" Oliver pulls his brother into a tight hug and so does Jason. "Yeah, we're alright"

"Come on, you guys must haven't eaten yet" they all follow each other to the table as they all took a seat.

"Plates are over here" Amaris hands them each while Alex hands out the utensils. "Oh yeah, by the way these are our friends. The ones that were lost" Amaris introduces them to the others as they shyly smiles.

"This is Athena, and this is Diana while those are Jason and Oliver" Amaris introduces them herself as they wave shyly. "You guys must have been hungry. Huh? My name's Marie" she pours each one of them a glass of water herself. "Thank you"

"Hi! My name is Kira and this is Hope and that one's Chelsea" she directly points at them "Hi" Hope waved and smiled at them first. Chelsea still had her mouth stuffed with food so she could only nod her head and look away shyly again.

"Did something happen while we were away?" Diana asked while getting some food to divert attention. "Well yeah, there was like a fire attack yesterday and it was so epic" Alex exaggerated while Amaris lightly hits him "It was like raining fire arrows and he crazy thing is, we were actually running through those fire arrows" Amaris explains while the others carefully listen.

"Did that really happen?" Jason turns to Chelsea while she quietly nods her head. "Some trust issues you have" Alex mumbles before he continued to eat. "But that's just it. Pretty much nothing happened. Oh, and Marie and the others did also cover for us while we were running. It was so cool! We also get to use to bow and arrows and my hits were perfect" Marie shyly smiles at them. Seeing both Amaris and Alex being talkative was a first, even for her friends too.

"What about you guys? Where were you even lost?"

"Oh, on purple's island" Everyone stopped as they looked at them. That made Athena stop eating too as she looked at them, confused. "Are you guys okay? Have you eaten anything from the Island? Did you drink waters from the rivers of it?" Questions kept flooding in from Marie as she looked very worried and concerned for them.

"Well, we didn't really eat any fruit cause they looked rotten and I think the water wasn't meant to be drank so, no" Diana answered calmly as she could. "Okay, that's good" Marie calms down as she drinks her water.

"How did you guys knew it was the Purple's island though?" Hope looked at the full of curiosity. "Well, Amaris and Alex was there and-..."

"We were?" the both looked at Oliver in unison as he calmly nods "Lemme explain first. Both Alex and Amaris was there but they weren't REALLY there you know. Just those small creatures that can shape shift. You know those things, right?" Oliver looks at them as they nod quietly.

"So, you guys weren't fooled by them? The creatures, I mean" they all shake their head at Marie's question. "The creatures were playing on the water and having fun by the river with full of smiles. Alex nor Amaris never acts like that. They would have already fought and yelled at each other that you could hear them a thousand of miles away" Diana jokingly explains as the two avoids their gaze.

"It's good to see that you guys are getting along just fine" Marie smiles at them "Elena also told me that a meeting is going to be held later to explain the events" she smiles again before leaving the table. "There's a lot of people you guys should meet later on" Hope tells them before leaving the table too.

"I'm glad you guys are safe" Alex voice sounded soft which made everyone's attention diverted to him which made him more shy. "Anyways, you guys should eat a lot since you've just arrived. Amaris and I should go ahead and return the bows and collect arrows" Alex tugs unto Amaris' sleeve as he stands up. "Oh yeah, we're going to collect some from the field. You guys should eat up more" Amaris washes her hands before walking away along with Alex.

"Don't worry, they'll be back soon. For the meantime, I could give you guys a tour around if you'd like?" Chelsea offered which made them immediately say yes as they nod their head. "Well, I'm glad you guys are getting along well" Elena approaches them as they shyly nod their head again. "Meeting's about to start in a few so hurry up and tell the others to clean up as well" Both Kira and Chelsea quickly stood up as soon as Elena left the table.

"You guys can continue eating, we'll just start cleaning up and tell the others about the meeting" Kira smiles widely at them before she and Chelsea went off to the other side of the table. "I guess we should hurry up" Diana says before she and the others drink water to finish their meal off.

Chelsea soon was the only one available as she guides them to the meeting room. The walk through the hall seem to be always quite. "As if something shouldn't be disturbed here." Athena thought as she looked around "Their voices always seem to change tone too"

Chelsea then opens a double door as they arrived on the meeting room where both Alex and Amaris were already waiting for them. "Great, now that everyone's here, we should get started" Elena clasps her hands as they all took a seat. She was wearing a dress that was styled like a Greek goddess still in the color of Red.

"Now, like I've said when I picked you guys up, you guys are on my team. And our mission involves with the Apoy community messing with it. To be precise they will be trying to ruin our mission" Elena stood before them as she continues "And like I've mentioned, we'll have to please the Chroma leaders.

"Our mission, specifically means that we'll have to go out and visit Island after Island and try to collect each Chroma Leaders' timepieces. Another mission given to us was to find the Time tower and form the complete hour to save Paraiso. Now- yes?" Diana raises her hands.

"Well, how is that suppose to save Paraiso?" she sounded a bit wobbly as everyone stares at her.

"Great question. Well, the Apoy is also doing the same. They're going to start collecting each timepieces from the leaders of Purple, Orange, and Red then also try to find the clock tower. No one knows why they're doing it so. But it's been rumored that they're trying to turn back time and destroy Paraiso"

"So, this mission isn't easy, even for me who's been training for more than 200 years already. But you guys have the choice to go or not. Of course, since you're in Paraiso, it's also your duty to serve IN Paraiso. So, you've got two choices. Either you go out in Island hopping or stay here and try to figure out where the clock is . OR you could also attend the training for the upcoming predicted war" The last sentence caught their attention as whispers and murmurs filled the room.

"Ah, I guess I forgot to mention" Elena lets out a nervous laugh as she cleared her throat "The Elders have predicted that a war is going to take place here in Paraiso. The prediction was made hundreds of thousands years back, near to when the first war began. The thing is, the now Elders have looked at the scrolls again and it perfectly lined up with the events of Apoy starting to steal timepieces" Elena sighs as her hands runs through her tied hair "It's a bit hard taking it all in, even for me" another sigh came from her before grabbing a chair and avoiding anyone's gaze.

Elena knew it was too harsh for them to handle. They even haven't reach 50 years of life and they're already going through these types of things. She didn't know of they were going to accept the mission or not. She's already lied to them about not having a choice when they could easily back out. She took a deep breath before looking again "So, what do you guys think?" she asks full of hope.

"I think I'd be going with Island hopping" Marie smiles

"Me too! I'd be fun" Hope says as she clings her arms with Marie

"I think I'll be attending the training for war"

"I can be in the locating the tower clock mission"

"I'm good at solving problems too"

Elena wanted to cry in the moment as everyone kept announcing which mission they wanted to partake and Marie noticed that. "Okay, everyone" Marie claps her hands as they all kept quite.

"Why don't we group ourselves already, okay? Now anyone who wants to attend the training, go to the left side of the room while the ones that are going to track the clock tower go to the right side of the room . No wait, YOUR left and right side" Marie tries to organize the room while Athena didn't knew which one to choose.

Everything has been too sudden for her and she still couldn't come up with how it all happened. "What are you choosing?" She looks at Amaris but she also simply shrugs. She looks at the rest of the group but they all seemed clueless too.

"You guys are going to do Island hopping?" They all look back at Marie "That section is going to be Island hopping" she explains.

"Yeah" Athena answers confidently as the others just follow. "I mean, at least we get to visit the main Islands, right?" Diana tries to lift up the mood as Elena starts to talk.

"Well that's good because mission starts tomorrow. You guys should make sure to get good sleep tonight. I'll be discussing and reporting to the Headquarters" Elena says before leaving the room.

"Since it's still early, I think I could give you a small tour before leaving for island hopping tomorrow, if you want that of course" Chelsea offers as she shrugs her shoulders

Diana looked at the others as they simply shrug their shoulders too.

"Sure, we'd love that" Diana smiles at her as they all went together.