"One!" Mom, dad and I placed our hands on the knife in the cake as everyone started counting down.
"Two!!...."
"Three!!" And like that we cut the cake, everyone clapped their hands together, food was already shared but others that wanted more and those that are yet to eat asked for food and were given including myself and my friends.
"This fried rice is delicious." Dinela praised as she put another spoon in her mouth.
"I know right, the chicken is my favorite, its so tender and delicious, hmm." She moaned in delight.
"You two are right, this is really good food, I hope there are foods like this there."
"There better be." Alero said as o gulped down my glass of non alcoholic wine.
"The sun is setting." Dinela said through a mouth full of food. I looked at the sky and saw she was right.
"We need to get to the hill fast." I said as I cleaned my mouth and got up.
"I'm not done eating yet." She moaned.
"Food is not important right now, let's go." I said as I scanned the crowd for mom, finally found her I got up and went to meet her.
"We're leaving." I whispered in her ear, the smile on her face faded but she quickly replaced it with a fake smile.
"Okay dear, take care, here have this," she handed me a bottle of perfume"as you can see it's a bottle of perfume, its so good it can mask any scent, and the best part of it is that it can't ever finish." She said with a smile.
"That's an exaggeration." One of her friend said.
"No it's not, go and be safe please." She whispered and I went back to meet my two friends, I spotted dad and I waved at him from where I was, he gave me a sad smile and a nod.
"Come on hurry." I saw Dinela stuffing three plastic containers, containing food inside our ancient handbag, I took it from her as she was done and put the perfume inside.
"Let's go!!" Alero said. We were on our way until Dinela's mom stopped her.
"Where are you going?" I heard her ask.
"You ladies should go I'll catch up."
"Go where? We are about to take pictures, come on let's go, and what's that you're carrying? Put it away."
"Okay." I did as though I wanted to put it was but as soon as she turned back I took it back, we rushed to where we'll take the pictures.
I took three personal ones, mom was holding onto the handbag, she passed it to Dinela when I had to take two pictures with both her and dad, Alero passed it back to her when we wanted to take a trio picture, a picture of just the three of us, mom handed it back to me and I had to the the last picture with it, then we took some family and friends picture.
One containing Dinela's parent, Alero's parent, mom and dad, my mom's best friends and dad's closet friend, then Dinela and Alero took personal ones and some with both her parent, there is no way we are getting away from this
So we lied we had to go to the bathroom and that's how we escaped from the party, but Dinela's mom called her.
"Come take a picture with your dad and I." Her mom said.
"But I want to go use the bathroom."
"First take the pictures and you can go."
"You ladies should go I'll join you." Alero and I both ran to the hill, the sun is almost down, what we need is the last ray of sun, I brought out the ring from the bag, ready to hold it up.
"Where is Dinela?" Alero asked impatiently.
"I don't know." I told her.
"Should I go fetch her?"
"No, you just stay here, I don't want to start looking for you too."
"Okay... I can see her." Alero said and I jumped happily.
"But she is not alone, some one is chasing after her.... Just like my dream, oh no, this is bad." I said shaking.
"The last ray of sun is setting." Alero informed me and I quickly raised the ring up making sure the sun is touching it.
"Dinela hurry!!?"
"I'm coming, wait for me!" She yelled as she ran faster.
The sun went down and the ring turned completely purple, I let go of it, but instead of falling it floated in the air, Alero and I placed our hands of each others shoulder.
"Don't go without me!" Dinela yelled and two loud bangs were heard, I froze, Dinela kept running and just in the nick of time, Dinela joined the circle, a purple mist covered us and like that.
Something pushed us making us hit the ground hard and I heard Dinela groan in pain.
"Dinela? Are you alright?" I scrambled to my feet almost falling to the ground 'cause was feeling dizzy
"No." She coughed out.
"Dario shot her, on both her shoulders." She was bleeding out.
I remember Mavery gave me healing potion, maybe it can heal her, I brought out the potion and gave her to drink, Alero held her head up as she drank little out of it.
"Ew, that's disgusting, what is it?"
"Healing potion." I simply said, we heard two clicks and Dinela's face morphed from one of pain to her usual expression.
"I feel much better." She said with a smile and we examined her shoulders, no more blood, and the bullets were now on the floor.
"How did that thing do that?"
"I have no idea." I said as I put the potion back into the bag. We helped Dinela up and took in our surroundings.
"Where are we now?"
"I have no idea, all I see are mosses and trees."
"Great we are in the forest in a strange world." Alero said.
"So what now? Where do we go from here?" Dinela asked as she looked around.
"We are to go to a village called, The Sea In The Sky."
"And how do we get there?"
"I have no idea."
"Let's see if there is anyone to help us, we may not be alone in this forest." I said and we started walking.
I felt something run past me, we definitely are not alone in this forest.
"This forest is really thick, I can't see the sky because of the canopy of trees covering it."
"Which direction are we to go in?"
"Let's just go to that direction." Dinela pointed to the right.
"Do we know what's in that direction? What if we get into trouble."
"Its better than standing around here."
"Totally." Alero said and we kept walking.
"Three months ago I was enjoying myself, if anyone had told me this would happen I would not have believed the person." I said wiping my face with my hands.
"I know right, your good days are over, this is what happens after the Better Days come." Alero said.
"If this was a novel or a movie, I would totally call it Days After."
"Stop joking around Dinela."
"I'm serious, now the Better days has gone let's see what will the Days After has installed for us."
"Yeah, let's see." I said as I tripped over a tree stomp.
"Are you alright?" They both asked in unison.
"Yeah I am," I got up and dusted my gown "let's eat the thing Mavery gave us so we can blend in.
"A wardrobe change would be nice at a time like this." Dinela said. Her and her sarcasm, I brought out the cheese like thing, I took a small bite, Alero and Dinela also did the same and in a blink of an eye....
"Ladies?!" I called out in shaking voice.
"Yeah."
"What are we wearing?" I asked in dismay.
"O sweet fudge!" Alero exclaimed.
"What?"
"I'm totally Rocking my new look." Dinela cheered.
I was wearing a nude top and brown pants, black boots and a sword was strapped at my back, while Alero was dresses in a brown short gown and matching short pants and she had an arrow strapped around her back.
And Dinela had a long grey pants and a tight top with a short thin brown jacket, she had no weapon.
"Hey why don't I have a weapon?"
"Maybe you have good fighting skills." I said as I took in my new look.
Dinela tried what I said and swung her fist at Alero.
"What the fuck!!" Alero moaned holding her now bleeding nose.
"I'm sorry." Dinela said looking at Alero, her nose was broken.
"I didn't even see it coming."
"Yup you definitely are one quick and good fighter." I said confirming my earlier theory.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Its fine," she said as she put her nose back in place "oh fuck."
"Sorry."
"Its fine." She wiped her nose with her clothe.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I'm good."
"Let's keep moving."
"Shall we sing a song, it will lighten our mood." Dinela said.
"Okay, which song do we sing." Alero asked.
"How about sorrows of the myth?" I suggested.
"What song is that?" Alero looked at me weirdly.
"Who sang the song? I've never heard of the song before in my life." Dinela said.
"Why don't I sing it then?"
The pain of the land, soils the peace at heart, the void yet to be filled, don't forsake us now, we are your children, the children of the unseen.
We plead and we're at thou mercy, wash away our sins, in pain and agony we wright, the sorrow of the myth, goes down really deep.
There is no cure to our illness, our grief and pain knows no bound, we are sinners, we know we don't deserve forgiveness but we'll mend our ways.
We are in pain, save us, forgive us, save us, don't let us remain this way, our savior, save us, don't abandon us.
"There's no way I'm singing that."