Chapter 2: 02
"Kinsley, oh Kinsley!" cried Dian as she flung the door open breathlessly. Hugging him for reassurance as she worked on catching her breath.
"Took you long enough, I was on my way to search for you." He continued, loosening her tight grip, enough for a breathing space, "What is the problem and why is the basket nearly empty, I …."
"Don't worry Kinsley," she brushed him off as she made her way into the room to change to another dry overall identical to the ragged wet one she tossed behind the door. "Where is Mum?"
"To buy some groceries, I think. She left a note."
"Read it aloud." Dian said as she sat on the stool close to the window."
"You know perfectly well that I find it hard to read." With an exasperated sigh, Dian snatched the piece of paper from him and read it aloud, confirming Kinsley's thoughts.
Kinsley took out his inhaler from his pants pocket to spray few times into his mouth as he breathed it in gently. He dropped his inhaler on the old wooden table in the middle of the sitting room where a candle stood sending dim golden light enough to light around the table where they sat. He rubbed his palms together trying to create enough friction as Dian proceeded to close the curtains of the single window of their house that is situated behind her in their incredibly small sitting room.
"Mom said she will be back soon." Dian assured as she notice his face fall. She walked the little distance to sit next to him, rubbing his shoulders to provide more warmth. "Help me set the flowers in the vase, will you?" changing the topic in hope to keep him occupied.
"It's pretty." Kinsley broke the silence, after long minutes of arranging the flowers into the vase half filled with water. "But do you know what will make it prettier?"
"What?"
"Glow flowers." He said enthusiastically.
"Glow flowers?"
"Yes, it's a type of wild flower, but it glows." Kinsley explained but was met with a blank amused pair of eyes. "I'll show you." He said simply, wasting no time as he dashed out into the rain.
"No, Kinsley!" Dian ran after him in shock. "Its too dark and dangerous!"
Oh, how she dearly wished Kinsley would stop and listen for once. Would he?
The only available tiny path she could follow is now swallowed by the erosion and the lightless sky did nothing to help but scream terror accompanied with slicing cold wind.
'Kinsley is going to have an ear full!' she couldn't be more frustrated, tiptoeing carefully with as much urgency to catch up with him. Situation couldn't be more ironic as she now almost leaping back eagerly into the path she has an hour ago concluded to be horror.
"Kinsley! What in the world….." she paused, partly out of breath for running the distance in the terrible weather and partly perplexed as she observed the plant in Kinsley's drenched palms who smiled proudly. "its…"
"Glowing, I told you so."
"What a strange plant." She gasped."I have never seen anything like it."
"I bet nobody has, that is why I got to name it."
"It really is 'glow flowers.'" She nodded. Her eyes quickly caught another of its kind, "look there is more of it over there."
"And look there is even more over there!" he giggled as they curiously picked and followed. Venturing deeply into the thick bushy path, snuffing the weather and everything that comes with it into oblivion, giggling and drenched. The angry sky did nothing but increased their thirst for wild adventure.
"Wait," said Dian stopping the bickering Kinsley mid-sentence, "did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That sound." They listened. "its coming from that way." She walked cautiously deep into the bushy path with Kinsley following behind.
They suddenly halt close to a less overlapped path, astonished.
Dumb folded, they walked quietly as if unsure if their next step would lead to their demise, heart in their trout and wild excitement vanished.
"Dian, is it just me or…"
"The tree is glowing." Dian Clarified just as quiet.
"That's. super. impossible." Said Kinsley, their jaws almost hitting the ground and eyes round as they watched.
Dian would have sworn she could no longer recognize the willow tree as it shimmers before them with leaves pure and golden. Each hanging on rather see-through branches. On the bed lies thousands of perfectly arranged flowers as bright as the ones they held mindlessly, encircling the large golden trunk into a shrine.
But the voices bothered Dian the most. Loud voices; four, perhaps twelve screeching in different pitches. She dared a step closer. "What are those horrible voices?" she turned abruptly to Kinsley. "Did you call my name?"
"No." he shrugged. "But I won't take any step closer if I were you."
Not minding him and a wet lock of hair falling to her eye, she walked confidently crushing a petal under her feet. Silence ensues as Dian observed meticulously.
"Finally you are here." Said an androgynous voice
"K..K..Kinsley!"
"Alright." Kinsley replied not moving from his spot. "could this get any spookier?"
"Fear is the last thing you need dear Dian." Said the voice again, "come closer."
"You know my name."
"Who?" Kinsley enquired, "what is going on Dian?"
"Who are you?" Dian asked the mysterious voice as she exposed her face more to the rays of light
"A mighty storm has emerged from the west taking everything and crushing everything in its path; love, peace, joy, lives and even things you cannot fathom. The world is about to crumble.
"Lo, something contrast must rise and stand a chance out of selflessness and swift perfection to bring balance to the world."
"So, where do I come in?"
"Pick a branch, my dear." It stated simply. 'But there are lots of branches to choose from,' Dian thought as she considered which branch to take. She reluctantly broke off a twig from an overlapped branch above her head close enough to her reach. "Excellent Choice Abiodun Chiamanda Dian. The wand you posses can grant your three great desires. But it demand pure perfection to will it.
"Now you must be on your way to the far side of the world, there you shall find what your heart bleeds for."
"Dian, what is going on?" Kinsley asked daring a step closer
"What my heart bleeds for." Echoed Dian, more to herself as she observed the delicate twig with two young leaves in her hands. "But….But….. I am clueless and what about my mother and my brother."
"The world need you Dian."
"I have this feeling that you are mistaken, you must be appointing the wrong person. For something as big as this, a little girl like me getting on the way is just as laughable. I wouldn't know what to do."
"And again I say; there you shall find what your heart bleeds for. Look, the portal is growing thin. Lives are at stake. You alone have the potentials it takes. Are you ready Abiodun Chiamanda Dian?"
"I…I think so."
"First, you need to find Jazo, he will lead you back to me."
"Dian!" called Kinsley as he bravely ran to pull her out of the sudden whirlwind of light. "what is going on?"
"Please stop Kinsley," Dian continued as she disintegrated into tiny pixels. " I want you to go home, tell mother that I will be back as soon as possible and-"
"-I am coming with you."
"No, it could be dangerous. I need you to be safe." She continued, "go home and pass my message to mum."
He gave a quick nod as he watched Dian feather rather quickly. The whirlwind increased in momentum, golden and mesmerizing. Enveloping her into itself and smiting cold air into his drenched red shirt and blue shorts.
"No!" he quickly jumped into the whirlwind which eloped them in the last minute into photons.
*__________________________________________****______________________________________*
The starless sky roared bitterly as it violently rammed gigantic globs of rain at the old unsteady truck which groaned in protest as it unbearably wheeled through the high-water covered path.
"Could today ever get any worse?" Abigail's words were drowned by the thunderstorm which lighted the gloomy sky but vanished just as quick.
The flickering headlight of the truck continuously reflected the stray dry roots, shrubs and both live and dead animals and insect alike which the muddy water flooding in through the bad hinged door held. The engine knocked and quacked while Abigail prayed silently that the old tuck doesn't bail on her at such ungodly place at an ungodly hour. She struggled with the staring wheels while the windshield swapper tirelessly swiped from side to side to give her a bearable view of the road.
"Thank goodness." She exclaimed with relief when she made it through and the dim headlight caught the silhouette of her lonely home in the distance.
"I'm home!" Abigail called through roaring engine of the car as she drove in over the unsteady bridge which quaked loudly, amplified by the quiet night.
"Oh God." She gasped as the week bridge gave up, trapping the car's rear tires in the gutter way.
"Silly big good-for-nothing clumsy trash of a car!" she cussed, venting her frustrations on the staring after failed trials to zoom it out of the gutter way, "I guess you are literally old after all."
Slamming the car door behind her with hands full of grocery bags, she stumped her way to the front door. "Oh Dian." she sighed when she found the door ajar. With her wet worn-out boots echoing aloud as she dragged her feet on the wooden floor into the kitchen to drop her grocery bags, taken aback by the uneasy silence that enveloping the house except the rain shower on the zinc . 'They must be asleep by now.' She brushed off the dread as she made her way to their only room, the flowers on the sitting room table briefly catching her attention.
She cracked the noisy door open enough to peek through into the single worn-out mat at the other end, close to the small crocked window which allows just enough light and air into the incredibly small room.
Unsatisfied at the emptiness of the mat, she walked in, ignoring the agonizing door.
"Dian, Kinsley." Her voice quavered. "are you there?" she called as she checked the wardrobe before speed-walking out with her breath hitching and her throat visibly bobbling. She broke out without a second thought into a run straight to the first place that came to her mind. The garden.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone