Peculiaris - The Jewel of Delphine - Part3

 

Chapter 11:

 Ammerylis exited the giant hallway, wondering about what to do next. She had never felt this curious before, not even about attending this magical academy! Something about the creature in the painting drew her to it, she wasn’t sure what, but the magnificence of it, in a way, made her hope to find it someday, to be able to meet it, and as childish as her desire was, she truly did long for it. As she reached the end of the hallway and exited it, she almost immediately found a library. Quickly speeding up, Ammerylis loosened her grip on the portrait and entered the giant building. The exterior as she had seen before was one that stood out from its surroundings a ton, as unlike the others, it wasn’t made of the crystal substance, but rather, a white marble. It seemed to consist of three main rooms, two were pushed back, while one stood in the front. There was a giant archway in the front, and the top of the room pushed in front was a glass dome, with a silver wave of energy shooting out. The entire structure as a whole was fresh and clean, and seemed to be new. But now that she had actually entered, the inside was a far different reality. There were wooden beams, with the white paint falling off of them. The tables and chairs were very limited, with only two tables in total, and one chair for each, again, completely bare of design. Though, there were hundreds of old bookcases, filled with more books than any norml library could hold. A lady sat in the corner behind a table, which was covered with gems, looking quite overworked. She went to the lady and stood for what seemed to be quite a while, before which she got her attention.

 “Excuse me,” she said, seeing that the lady had seen her, “but are there any books on horse like creatures?” she asked, assuming the creature seemed to replicate a horse.

 “Yes, there are.” she responded, not making any try at continuing her sentence or conversation.

 Ammerylis paused for a moment before realizing that the lady was not wanting to say anymore, and therefore decided to elaborate on her question more, “Do you know where I could find those books?”.

 The lady shook her head, “This place is huge! You think I know where the books you want are! And besides, why would I even want to know, none of the students come anyway.” she said angrily.

 Amaryllis quickly nodded and left the desk to search for the books herself, at least she knew they were there. She tried to search for signs to see if at least they could guide her, but she found none. She pressed her lips together, there was no way she could search the entire library. She looked at the portrait, why did she even have it? She should have asked the lady at the desk about it instead, maybe she could do that now. She looked behind, the lady’s face filled with rage and irritation, perhaps now wasn’t the optimal time. As she looked around more she noticed more paintings covering the walls, they were the only decor in the room, yet she hadn’t been able to notice them at the start despite them standing out so much. With not much else to do, she went to inspect them when she noticed a quite surprising thing, when in the middle was a painting with exactly the same things on it as the portrait she was holding in her hands. As she neared it, she felt the painting pulling on it, when suddenly it was flung out of her grasps into the middle of the painting. She immediately began to regret her decisions as the portrait seemed to swing open like a door, but with the overwhelming urge to enter, she stepped in. 

 Unlike the portal she had entered before, this one was a giant room of open space. There was nothing but light, except, it didn’t seem to hurt her eyes. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but saw a door far from her, and began walking towards it. As she walked forward, she began to realize that though it seemed there was an endless amount of space here, there was a sort of invisible barrier restricting her from diverting from walking straight to the door, like it was a path. Finally, when she threw open the door, she felt her eyes close and herself  losing control over her body, and she soon began to think she was being literally tossed into something, when she finally became unconscious.

 Ammerylis woke up, being greeted by a girl. Her eyes were a pale blue, with wavy  brown hair  and bangs. She looked startled and shook, but oddly very happy. 

 “How did you come here?” she questioned Ammerylis.

 Amaryllis hesitated for a moment, but eventually realized revealing this piece of information could only do good to her, or nothing at all, and eventually went on to explain everything. When she ended, the girl looked at her normally, like nothing abnormal had happened.

 “I’m Delphie, what’s your name?” she asked casually.

 “It’s Ammerylis.” she responded, and proceeded to ask her of her reason for being here.

 “That strange creature on the painting, it is what my family has been tasked to protect,” she paused and gave a sorrowful sigh, “we have been tasked with protecting it for years. Although, a few centuries back we lost it, and have been looking for it since. We live here now, exiled until we can find it again.” she seemed distressed with regard to  talking about the topic, and came to an end.

 Ammerylis on the other hand was completely  oblivious to her reluctance to speak of the issue, and went on, “What creature is this, what's the history?” she said quickly.

 Delphie got up, as they had been sitting for quite some time and signalled for Ammerylis to do so as well, and they began walking through a pathway, with flowers lining either side of it. She reached out and picked up a flower, its stem was golden and so was its leaf, the petals looked like white marble, that resembled much of the creatures, and the pistil made of diamond, “You know, this flower  was named after that very creature, it was called Averius, there was always only one that lived eternally, and was born to serve Delphine, that one was lost by my ancestors, the biggest blunder of all times was caused by my them, makes sense why we lost our gift of immortality and were exiled.” she frowned, “There is also only one of these flowers, at least we still have that.”

 Ammerylis felt very confused, as she couldn’t understand a thing, and most of all, how did they know the horse was still even there, she went on to ask all her queries, “How do you know Averius is still alive, and it lived to serve you?” she said.

 “You really don’t know anything do  you,” she said, “Averius is alive for as long as this flower remains, when it dies, this dies. It lives eternally for as long as it remembers Delphine, and my name is Delphie, Delphine is the first mermaid, and princess. She-” Delpie looked at Ammerlis, “You’ll learn at school, it's not my job to teach you history. Anyway, it is said that Delphine had left all her powers for one to inherit, and that person would be able to retrieve the jewel of  Delphine, people suspect it would be an ancestor of her, they just don’t know when this ancestor will come, but I’m sure it's not much more that a rumor.”

 Ammerylis nodded, “But if your family is in charge, that means you’re the ancestor of Delphine?” she suddenly realized.

 Delphie replied, “Yeah. That's why I’m named after her. So is my brother, one of the two of us may be destined for it. All the blood descendants of her have been named with a form of her name, expected to be the one, it's sort of turned into a tradition at this point.” she said.

 “Cool,” she replied nonchalantly, “but everyone who goes to the school, do they all become princesses or princes?” she asked, surely not all the hundreds of people had the right to rule.

 “Well, no. There are only five chosen, one the protector of all, and the rest taking the job of the four protectors. The rest go on to not be the princes or princesses of  whole regions, but cities, villages, or towns. Some of the students who were really close to becoming a prince or  princess turn into ministers or advisors of the ruler they were close to becoming. At the end, it's really the rulers who get the most obviously.”

 Ammerylis suddenly felt anxious, what if she wasn’t good enough to go into one of the ranks. And she couldn’t help but imagine if Ari were to become a ruler, and she the minister or advisor, she would feel terrible, “What do the rulers get to do?” she asked under a false fantasy she had just concocted, “What type of power do they get to have over the people.”

 Delphie gave a stare, like she couldn’t believe how clueless Ammerylis was, “You really have no idea do you,” Ammerylis frowned how was she to have an idea when no one told her anything, “Princesses and princes aren’t rulers, they’re protectors. If the place decides that they want the protector to be a ruler, that is the region’s choice. The only duty you will most likely have is to protect the people from harm, and nothing else.”

 Ammerylis was now feeling that she needed to go,”It's been a bit too long, I think I might need to return, do you know how I could?” she paused waiting for a response, but all Delphie did was turn and walk back. When they finally reached where they began, she seemed to try to hold the air , when she suddenly pulled. An enormous amount of light seemed to come out yet again, and it took a few seconds for Ammerylis to realize the portrait door was opened. She waved gingerly and stepped in, ready for the same experience she had gotten before.  

Chapter 12:

 Ammerylis was flung out through the portrait door, hitting her head in the bookcase in front. She attempted to get up and steady herself, but fell down again with a great thud. As she attempted to get up again, she could hear footsteps coming towards her.

 “Where were you? I was looking for you. There is some really cool stuff out there.” she heard Ari say.

 “I don’t know how cool all that stuff out there was, but what I just did, that's cool!” she said excitedly.

 “Right,” the sarcasm in Ari’s voice was more than evident, “I don’t know if dreams count.” she said mockingly.

 Ammerylis irritatedly let out a sigh, “I’ll tell you on while we go to all of that supposedly ‘cool’ stuff”, whether she said it out loud or not, she was interested in seeing what she was talking about, Ari seemed truly fascinated by whatever it was.

 As they walked out the library Ammerylis continued her story of what had happened. Ari seemed completely unimpressed and simply nodded whenever she paused for a reaction. Finally, reaching the end, Ari finally appeared to have decided to speak.

 “So, she is probably who will find Averius?” she said in seemingly the most monotonous tone possible.

 “I suppose so. I also suppose I have found out everything concerning that creature that is known.” she said, joining Ari in her wearisome talk.

 Ari suddenly came to a halt, catching Ammerylis by surprise.

 “You couldn’t have given me a bit of a warning.” she shrieked half whispering.

 “I just stopped walking, it's your fault you weren’t aware of your surroundings.” Ari replied.

 Ammerylis ignored her comment and looked up at the building Ari had brought her to. It looked much like the others, with the same crystal glare, and the same diamond like architecture. Ari threw the giant golden doors open, when suddenly, Ammerylis felt astounded. There were hundreds of different items, clothes, stationary, books, candy, except everything seemed to be enchanted. Ammerylis stepped in and began to look around. She walked to the aisle with the books and began to look around at what they were. None seemed to be for study purposes, but rather more for entertainment. As she walked past, looking at the covers, and reading what they were about, she began to drift away from reality entirely, and began to be unaware of her surroundings, and sure enough, the one time she dropped a book, was on someone else's   foot.

 She looked up to see a boy, who was now wailing in pain. She couldn’t exactly blame him, it was the seemingly biggest book she had seen in this shop. She quickly apologized, wasting no further time.

“I’m sorry. I guess my mind just drifted off somewhere else.” Ammerylis said trying to sound as sorry as possible, which she found hard to do looking at him jumping one legged, which she found almost comical. Nevertheless, she could see he was hurt, and felt terrible for being the cause of it.

“Who wants to read something that long!” he complained, finally finding a bench to sit on, “That’s better.” he said finally letting go of his leg, but just immediately  held it again and winced, Ammerylis frowned, she didn’t know it hurt that much.

“Uhh, you must be attending-” she scrunched her eyebrows as she had forgotten the name, “Peculiaris, right?” she said after a moment of thought, while  attempting to shift the conversation, as she felt it rude to just leave, but was not sure what to say.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, “that is literally the only reason all these kids are here.” he stated while looking side to side at all the people in the shop.

“Uh Huh,” she replied, “ and I’d just like to say, the length of a book doesn’t matter the littlest bit as long as the reader finds joy in reading it.” she added.

“Okay”  he said, obviously not paying attention, and put his foot down and gave a sigh of relief, and got up and began to walk away.

“ I’m sorry again!” she yelled.

“ Whatever!” he bellowed back.

Amaryllis shrugged, he didn’t seem to care much. She looked around a bit to see where Ari was, and finally found her standing near a small terrarium of sorts. She walked over to her to see what she was doing and went straight towards her.

“What are you doing here?” she muttered.

“ Stop cutting in line!” she announced so loudly that practically everyone in the store could hear her saying so.

“ Huh?” Ammerylis looked behind her, “ there is no line.” she stated disgruntledly, all the people were crowding on around the terrarium, including Ari, there was absolutely no sense of order, let alone a line. She attempted to get inside the cluster of people to see what was going on. She eventually realized that reaching the front would be a futile effort put in from her side, and instead, stood on the tips of her toes to look. This was also proved useless, as it was what the surrounding crowd was doing as well, and she not being particularly short or tall, was a part of a majority of the group, meaning that even on her toes, she was the same height as many. She turned to look at Ari, who was almost at the front, and followed the large gaps she had made while squishing through.

“Why are so many people here?” she mumbled to Ari.

“ When I came before, I saw a sign saying that the school would be allowing pets, and all the types would be displayed here, so I saw the time it would open and came here.” 

They ultimately reached the front, and were astonished by just how beautiful these creatures looked. They were hybrids of different normal creatures, or had weird features, and therefore, felt very special. There was a parrot with the wings of a butterfly,  a cat with the tail of a bunny, a rabbit with the eyes of an owl, and many more things that would be considered extremely absurd back home. But what caught her eye was a butterfly, with wings made what seemed to be a thin, flexible glass. It wasn’t nearly as different as the other creatures, but that's what made it different from them. It also seemed to isolate the poor thing,, as no one seemed to care about its  presence. She saw an employee standing by its side and wasted no time in asking him about how she could get it. He responded saying that human money would work, and that it was the only item that could be bought before school. She nodded and squeezed out of the crowd, how could she possibly get her parents money now. Ammerylis walked out the store and amazingly saw all the parents exiting the clock tower. She took a moment to spot her mom and Ari’s mom walking together  and ran over to them.

“The school allows you to have pets,” she gasped and took a deep breath in, “I saw a butterfly, super pretty, need money.”

Her mom looked at her, “You really think we’re going to say yes that quickly?” she shook her head, “No way.”

She huffed, “It’s the only thing that’ll keep me company though!” she said indignantly.

“You have all your friends to keep you company, and not just one or two, you have six friends to keep you company, I could even suppose you’ll ignore the poor thing at this point.” her mom responded.

She looked behind her mom and saw her dad and Ari’s dad, “Okay.” she responded and simply walked towards them.

“Daddy, they're giving pets out for school, can I have one?” she said as sweetly as possible.

Her dad looked at her for a second wondering what she was talking about and asked her to take him so he could see if it was needed. As they reached he understood what she meant, and felt it was fine for her to get it. 

While he was paying for the butterfly she stared at it with a soft smile on her face. She couldn’t wait to get it. The employee standing beside it before picked it up and handed it to her. She tried to restrain from ferociously grabbing it, and thankfully, succeeded in doing so. The butterfly looked so delicate, she was almost afraid of going near it.

“You can pet it,” the employee said, “it looks delicate, but it really isn’t.” she completed with an encouraging smile.

Ammerylis  nodded, but then looked oddly at the terrarium the butterfly was in, how was she to touch it, when she couldn’t reach it. The terrarium was completely enclosed, and by opening it, she would risk the butterfly flying away.

The employee took off a circular cut piece of glass from the wall of the terrarium and signaled for Ammerylis to put her hand in. She gingerly placed it in and stroked the wings of the butterfly, the feeling was practically indescribable. It felt soft and flexible, but still like a glass. Like if you were to scrape your hands on it it would hurt you like for glass, but just touching it would feel soothing. She took her hand out and tried to shake out the tingly feeling it had caused.

“ Delighted with your purchase?” he asked her, turning around after completing the purchase.

 “Sure am!” she said as excitedly as possible.

 Her dad told her he would be going out, and that she could explore a bit more, and afterwards, they were going home. She agreed and went in search of Ari, to show what she had just gotten.

 “Hey Ari!” she yelled after spotting her still looking at the types of pets.

 Ari ignored what she said and continued gazing at the exhibited creatures.

 Ammerylis irritatedly grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled her so that she would face her, “Look at what I got,”she eagerly displayed the terrarium, ‘It's so magnificent isn’t it.” she said.

 Ari seemed to have gotten into a fit of jealousy, “It’s not, it's just so normal,” she said in a disgusted tone, “I want a creature that is beautiful, and special, something that  isn’t the least bit common, it just has to be perfect.”

 “Okay…” Ammerylis said unsurely, “ but at least I think it's magnificent, it being different makes it beautiful.”

 “ All these creatures are unique Ammerylis, “ Ari said, “the only thing that isn’t is that butterfly.”

 Amaryllis began to feel unsure of her choice, she quickly shook it off and replied, “Well I like it,and don’t care the littlest bit that you don’t” she paused as she felt she came off as too stern, she was after all the one who asked for her opinion, “your opinion is your’s, I’m sorry we don’t agree,  but I made the choice of getting this butterfly, and I couldn’t love it more.”

Ari shrugged,” I guess I could like it less.” she said detachedly.

Ammerylis frowned, and left the entire shop, she searched for her parents and ran over to them. As she neared closer, her mom suddenly seemed to be frightened, as her mouth hung open.

“I can’t believe you got that for her,” her mom remarked to her dad almost immediately after seeing the terrarium in her hand.

She gave an uneasy smile, for which her mom gave a severe look.

“This is the last time, you're going to have to learn how to earn your own money in a bit anyway.” she said, shaking her head.

 Ammerylis’ smile grew into one far more sincere than before, she didn’t quite understand exactly what her mom was saying, but if it was what she thought, she was more than ready to follow whatever it was, “What do you mean?” she asked.

 Her mom took a deep breath in,” I’ll tell you on the way back home.”

Chapter 13:

 Ammerylis  followed her parents to a place where all the other families were gathering. It was where they had landed before, when they were thrown by the portal. They walked around a bit, attempting to find something, when they finally went towards a pedestal with her name on it. 

 So, what do we do now?” she asked.

 Her mom looked around and asked,”What are they doing?”  perplexedly.

 Ammerylis responded quite instantly, “Why don’t you ask someone?” she said.

 Her mom nodded and left in search of someone to question. Ammerylis glanced around, when she suddenly spotted the boy she had bumped into before. He stepped behind the pedestal when suddenly the ground turned into the same thick, gold liquid she had been spit out of before. He sank down and completely disappeared out of sight. Another girl followed him, perhaps his sister, and continued on to do the same thing, repeating the same process. She looked behind the pedestal and wondered if she should just do it as well. She stepped towards it when her dad asked her to stop.

 “ Ammy, stop! We should wait for your mother before doing anything.” he said.

 She shook her head, “They did it, and I swear it worked ! All I have to do is stand here, I’m sure nothing can happen.” she stated rigidly and stepped behind the pedestal. She stood for a few seconds when she could feel herself being sucked in. The thick liquid pulled her in, and she felt the same emotions as before as she slowly drifted in the massive amount of light. She held the butterfly terrarium close to her, checking to see if it was alright. She could see the light making the glassy wings of her butterfly shine in the colors of the rainbow, which made them look ever so beautiful. As she reached the end she held it even tighter, due to the massive amount of force being exerted upon her, which she found to be a great discomfort, and in what seemed like forever, she was pushed out once more.

 Ammerylis pushed herself up expecting to find herself somewhere around her bathtub, but rather found that she had been lying on the front of her doorstep.  Feeling confused on how she mistook her doorstep for her bathtub, she patiently waited for her parents to arrive as well, so she could enter the house. After waiting for about ten minutes, she began to feel frustrated and therefore started to search for the spare key. She looked almost everywhere before she remembered that it was placed behind the potted plants at the front. Amaryllis pulled the key out and opened the door, just to find her parents in her house already.

“Where were you?” her mom asked, startled by her sudden appearance.

“I was transported to our doorstep,” she replied monotonously, “perhaps if you had opened the door and checked there you would have found me and I would have been saved of the several minutes of wait I had to endure.” she said obviously agitated.

“Perhaps we would have done so if you had simply knocked to see if anyone was in the house.” her mom responded.

Ammerylis groaned, “Could you at least tell me about whatever you said you would tell me about before?” she asked.

Her mom nodded, “One of the biggest projects in the school requires you to take a building from the place we just visited or start a new one, and transform it so more people would go to it. While you will be a protector I believe she had said, you might be expected to take charge of the economy depending on what the people of the nation decide, and will be expected to do such things. In simpler words, you have to manage a business, and earn all your money from it.”

“That honestly sounds amazing!” Ammerylis replied enthusiastically, “I can’t wait!”

Ammerylis’s mother paused and continued, “One more thing, you’re going to be going to the school next friday.” she completed.

Ammerylis stared at the wall, “Right,” she turned to look at her mom, “I’ll be going to my room then.” saying so, she ran back up the stairs and threw herself onto her bed, and grabbed a book, she was too excited for her own good.

The days had passed quite quickly, with Ammerylis simply splitting her time between her books and technology, there was no reason it wouldn’t have. Friday was tomorrow, and for once, she felt completely unprepared. While she normally had this feeling before almost anything new began, the feeling had seemed to multiply, and she didn’t appreciate the fact that it did. Despite this fact she was excited, more than she was nervous perhaps, and couldn’t wait  to arrive at the school.

She pushed in the last stack of books, and looked at her suitcase to check if she had everything. Her parents had apparently bought everything for her when they had gone to the meeting, though she didn’t really know what to think of it. It mostly consisted of  textbooks, and strangely enough, stones made of crystals which had tips that were quite extended, and stones made of marble that were more flat. She honestly felt very confused and eager to find what they were supposed to do but thought it to be better to just wait for school to begin.

She turned around to turn off the lights when she heard footsteps coming closer to her room. Her parents were coming, and for some reason she felt like crying, she knew she would, what she didn’t know was if they would be tears of happiness or tears of sadness. Her parents hugged her goodbye, though she wasn’t going just yet. They seemed emotionally prepared to leave her, she just wasn’t.

In half an hour, they left, stating That Ammerylis  needed to sleep and that she needed rest. She went towards the bed, her eyes wandering around her room, wondering if her dorm room would ever be as good as hers right now. Amaryllis threw herself onto her bed, her head slowly pushing down into the soft pillows around her. Closing her eyes, she tried to put herself to sleep, not think about anything, so much was happening, and as much as she liked it all, she needed to go to bed. Perhaps she didn’t know what the next day was going to have in  store for her, she was sure it wasn’t going to be normal nevertheless.

 To Be Continued ...