Ravissant - Chapter 2

Neonella, Milos aand Olethea appeared at an empty alley. It was starting to get dark and luckily, not a single soul was in that alley when they appeared.

“We’re here, we are finally here.” Olethea giggled in delight as they adjusted to the darkness. The portal behind them immediately blended with the environment surrounding them.

Neonella tried to touch the other side of the portal. Her hands went through. They can still get back inside. She was pulled by Milos who was already following Olethea who was walking towards the street.

Olethea peeked and saw a few people crossing the street and walking by the hallways of the shop. She took something inside her dress, a closed pouch tied to her neck like a necklace. She took a few gold dust and placed it over her head. Her dress suddenly changed to look like the one from the lady crossing the street. She saw two more girls walking from afar, took another set of dust and sprinkled it on top of Neonella and Milos’s head. The two were already standing beside Olethea, and were already peeking from the edge of the alley.

“Now, we can get out to explore more.” Olethea, proud of herself, pulled Milos who pulled Neonella.

“The portal might close,” Neonella warned them.

“You don’t know that.” Milos contradicted.

“Maybe I do.” Neonella replied.

“You’re lying. I know it when you lie.” Olethea told Neonella, raising her finger and wiggling it in disagreement, but was smiling at her.

“Just a few minutes. Let’s atleast enter one of those tall things.” Olethea was pointing towards a tall building.

They three of them were already out of the alley. They were standing opposite the building Olethea was pointing at. Their heads were lifted, looking at the surroundings. Their eyes were sparkling in curiosity, amazement, mystified by the new world they are in.

“This does not look like the old world in the stories from the scrolls in the castle’s library.” Neonella said, her eyes fixed to a building with a high antenna a few blocks away.

“It has been thousands of years, I guess the mundane have changed, their world has changed.” Milos said. “The old world that we knew is far gone.”

“Maybe you can update the scrolls when we get back.” Olethea teased Neonella.

“You know I can’t. They will know what we did.” Neonella grumbled.

“Kidding. Come’on, it's our birthday, let’s just enjoy and explore a little bit of the old world.” Olethea urged them.

Olethea took Milos’s hand while Milos took Neonella’s. They walked hand in hand as they crossed the street. There were very few cars so they managed to pass without worrying about the vehicles.

The tall building Olethea was pointing at was a residential building. However, the first three floors were commercial establishments. A gym was on the third floor, a flower shop on the second floor and a bookstore on the first floor.

The three of them stood at the entrance of the bookstore. It had a revolving door so they had no idea how to enter.

“What now?” Milos asked Olethea.

She pulled Milos who was pulling Neonella to the bookstore window. People were standing by the aisles, pulling books from the shelves, opening them and scanning its content.

“Look, they are reading it like how we do it with our scrolls.” Neonella pointed out.

A woman entered the bookstore. The three of them looked at how she passed through the revolving doors.

“There, we go in like that” Milos pointed to the woman to her two companions.

They had to let go of each other’s hand and entered the bookstore one by one. Neonella went in first, whose interest was caught by the mundane version of the scrolls they had at home.

Neonella kept her eyes open as she entered the revolving door. She walked slowly and tried to balance herself as she pushed the door wings while the central shaft moved. After two turns, she was already in. She stood there and waited for Olethea to appear. Olethea giggled when she entered the book store. Milos followed shortly.

Neonella pulled Olethea then looked at Milos. She wanted to touch those mundane scrolls.

The three walked towards the aisles of the book. There were three aisles.

“There’s three aisles here.” Neonella said. “We can enter each aisle and then meet at the end.” She suggested. “So we do not end up getting lost.”

“It’s a straight path Neo,” Milos said. “How can we end up getting lost in a straight path.” She raised one of her eyebrows.

“Just to be sure.” Neonella said.

Each of them entered one aisle.

Neonella carefully touched the spines of the book that were neatly placed in the shelves. She gently pulled one of the hardbound books on the shelves. It was white with a splash of red on the cover and the spine. Neonella could not read it completely. She was just beginning to learn about the old languages and this one was far from what she had learned from the old scrolls in the castle. The book was a novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Neonalla gently turned the pages of the book. Although she was unable to read the print, it had the same aroma that the scrolls in the castle had.

Her imaginations were stunned when books fell on Milos’s aisle. She quickly picked it up and put it back on the shelves. Milos didn’t even bother to place them in order. She was always the one who was not careful. She shook her head and tried to look for Olethea. She was browsing through the books, grabbed one and gently smelled the pages like she did. Olethea looked at her and winked. She clearly saw her smelling the book she had in her hand and was teasing her about it.

Neonella placed the book back to the shelves and went over the other books in her aisle.

After a few minutes, she was just halfway through her aisle while Milos and Olethea stood at the opposite edge of her aisle, waiting for her to finish.

She wanted to continue scanning the books there but she remembered the portal. They had no idea how long it would stay open. According to the book, it can stay open for a day in their world. She was not sure how long a day in their world would take in the mundane world.

“Can we get back now?” Neonella asked the two.

“Not yet. Let’s go up and see the flowers there.” Olethea said and started to pull them towards the door.

They were about to go outside the bookstore when they heard two people talking. “Come,let’s go upstairs to buy Mom flowers.” Olethea heard a girl tell her companion.

Olethea looked at Neonella and Milos and pulled them to follow the two girls. They stood at the elevator. Although confused, the three of them waited together with the two other girls.

They were surprised when the steel door suddenly opened. Neonella jumped a little causing the two girls in front of them to look back.

Neonella looked down and the two girls in front didn’t bother anymore and entered the elevator. The three of them silently followed.

When the elevator door closed and they began to move, Neonella held Milos’s hand tightly. She held her, slightly panicked but slightly smiling too. They looked at Olethea who was nervous too, but was smiling as well. It was another new experience for the three of them.

The three of them held their breath when the elevator stopped. In a few seconds, the door opened. They immediately smelled the flowers when the elevator door opened.

Olethea let go of their hands and went to the flower shop. She swiftly went around to smell the flowers. She stopped when they suddenly realized that all the flowers were dead.

As kids, they were always thought to appreciate nature, but never to disturb it. They believed that everything around them was alive. Picking flowers is like killing them. You are tearing them from their source of llfe.

They were equally amazed by buckets and buckets of flowers in one area. They were used to seeing and adoring them in the fields, close to where the fairies lived in Omnia. However, although the flowers smelled sweet, they also had the aroma of death.

There were mundanes there, smelling and adoring the flowers. The three of them slightly felt sickened with the idea of these people unknowingly adoring dead things. Olethea pulled Neonella and Milos back to the elevator.

When the door closed, Milos assumed to press the number three. It was the closest number to number 2, the floor they were in.

When the elevator door opened, the air was filled with the smell of war. It smelled like the Elvin army after patrolling the regions.

As they entered the gym, they saw men and women, carrying heavy metals, pulling ropes and pushing their bodies to their limits.

The three of them slightly felt aback when they saw plenty of men inside. Some didn’t have their shirts on. They were raised to be dainty young daughters of Omnia. They decided to leave the floor too.

The three of them silently went back to the elevator, disappointed. Milos pressed the ground floor button.

``That's no fair, Neonella was the only one who enjoyed this tower.” Milos said. “Let’s go someplace else. She suggested.

“But the portal…” Neonella said.

“The portal will be there when we get back.” Olethea interrupted Neonella.

It was two against one. Neonella had no choice but to keep up with the two. The two were eager to get out of that place. Neonella gave a last look on the aisles of books in the store and followed the two outside.

It was completely dark when they went outside. The city lights were already up. Neonella looked at the alley where they came through. She barely saw the portal that was hiding in plain sight. But it was still there.

She followed the two who were walking towards another building. They were standing on the window of a pizza shop when Neonella caught up to them.

Olethea saw a man pull money from the back of his pants to get money. He handed it to the cashier. She pulled out the pouch where she had her fairy dust and took a few. She sprinkled it to her hands where a few hundred dollars appeared.

Milos took Neonella’s hand and pulled her while she followed Olethea who entered the pizza restaurant. They sat at one of the tables while Olethea went to the counter. She pointed on the pictures of the food that were displayed just above the wall behind the cashier.

“That one, that one and that.” Olethea pointed at the cheese pizza, the salad and the potato wedges.

“Is that all?” The cashier asked.

“Olethea nodded.

“Drinks, do you want to have any?” The cashier asked.

Olethea looked at her side. A customer was drinking Coke in a can while talking to the cashier. She pointed it out to the cashier.

“Coke then. How many?” The cashier asked.

Olethea raised three of her fingers. “She didn’t know how to speak mundane but her magic somehow allowed her to understand what the cashier was saying.”

“Ok then, that would be 85$.” The cashier told her.

She excitedly pulled a few hundred dollars from her sweater pocket. The cashier took one and returned the rest of the money to her. She then gave her change for her hundred. “Please kindly wait for your order to be delivered to your table.” The cashier pointed out the table and gave her a cue number.

Olethea walked back to her friends who were looking at her as she walked towards the table.

“How was it?” Milos asked Olethea.

“I interacted with the mundane and we’ll get to experience their food.” Olethea said, proud of what she did.

“Do you think it’s safe to eat it?” Neonella asked.

Milos was about to say something snarky but the waitress brought their order to their table in a tray. She placed the cheese pizza in the middle, the salad and then the potato wedges.

When the waitress left, Olethea and Milos grabbed the pizza. It was still hot but it did not stop tem from smelling it. “Burnt caseus on bread.” Milos said and took a bite.

Ummm…”This tastes great.” Milos said, looking at Olethea who was already taking her bite of the pizza slice. She looked at Neonella who was eating the lettuce from the salad. “Neonella, you should try this.” Milos told her. She placed the pizza in front of Neonella’s mouth.

“Take a bite Neo,” Olethea urged her.

Neonella closed her eyes and took a bite. The pizza was hot but the taste of burnt cheese in her mouth tasted great. Milos gave her the slice and she took another one from the pizza tray.

The three of them enjoyed the food. They were talking with each ther, describing how the food tasted but mostly in a hush to prevent anyone near from hearing them. They had a different accent and they knew a few mundane words. They still had to be careful.

They went outside the pizza parlor full. Olethea and Neonella still had Coke in cans in their hands. They were walkinng towards the alley to get back home when they walked past a boutique. They stopped there to adore the clothes displayed on the mannequins.

“We will wear that next time.” Olethea told them. Taking note of the design and colors of the clothes on display.

“Olethea,” Neonella warned her.

Olethea simply smiled at her, trying to be charming.

Milos took the Coke from her hands and drank it. “Don’t be such a spoil Neo.” She told her and took her hand. “Come, let’s get you back to your favorite castle walls.” She teased.

The three of them walked hand in hand to go back to the alley. It was still empty.

They held each other’s hand and stepped inside the portal that slightly expanded to be able to allow the three of them to pass through at the same time.

They appeared back at the Golden door that immediately started shut down as they entered Omnia. They had to remove their mundane clothes while Neo magic them new ones to wear, the same ones they did before they entered the mundane world.

Milos hid the clothes up the tree. They noticed that they were just gone for a few minutes. They almost spent an hour in the mundane world but it was just a few minuntes in Omnia.

“Let’s go home,” Neonella told the two.

“Sleep early and prepare, we are going back tomorrow.” Oletha told them. Milos agreed. Neonella shook her head in disbelief.