The Tale of Two worlds : Realms Unveiled - Chapter-: 4

          The Echoes of Memories

As the scent of freshly cut grass filled the air and the faint laughter of children playing in the background reached her ears, Celia slowly opened her eyes and discovered that she was standing right in front of an old, worn-out wall.

Colourful scribbles adorned the wall in front of her, looking seemingly meaningless to an outsider, but each scribble carried important memories for her.

As Celia scanned the drawings, tears welled up in her eyes.

As these portraits were not mere scribbles; they were masterpieces created by her and Jake, her childhood friend, during their time at the orphanage with Mrs. Anderson, Jake’s mother.

Among the many scribbles present on the wall, one particular drawing caught her attention—It was a wolf sketched by Jake himself, a symbol of his first independent drawing.

Seeing the wolf, the memories of that day flooded back to her—the stolen marker, the nighttime artistic escapade of Jake, and at last the warmth of Jake’s hug.

Moving her gaze, Celia also discovered a family portrait featuring a woman, a girl, and a boy holding hands.

The image of their last collaborative painting, a powerful symbol representing their unorthodox family at the orphanage, brought tears streaming down her face.

After this painting was created, the saddest day of her life occurred, taking two very important people very far away from her.

As she continued retracing the familiar scribbles, memories of laughter, shared secrets, and the promise Jake made to protect her when she had accidentally scratched her hand unfolded in front of her.

Celia closed her eyes, allowing the wall to guide her through a labyrinth of emotions and continued moving her fingers on the wall, her fingers lingered on the graffiti of a wolf she saw at first, and suddenly a
bright blue light emanated from its eyes and body.

In an instant, the scenery in front of her changed. One moment she was in front of the orphanage wall and the next moment she stood in the middle of the bustling courtyard of the orphanage.

In the courtyard, many children were running around, playing with each other, while laughing and throwing their toys all over the place.

By looking at those faces, a wave of nostalgia and sadness again took over Caelia’s emotions.

Some of these faces filled her heart and mind with the sweet memories she shared with them and gave her nostalgia.

Like the face of that freckled girl who used to play with her until she was adopted by a couple three years ago, leaving Celia alone.

There was also the chubby boy who used to chase butterflies with Celia and Jake until he was adopted by a single parent four years ago.

But within those nostalgic faces, there were many whose memories had already faded from Caelia’s memories.

Now their faces looked as blank as a white paper.

Unable to remember them, Celia felt a hollowness in her heart as she realised that, with time, she had forgotten so many people who once were like her family.

Then, with the sound of a muffled click, followed by the slow creak of wood against wood, the door of the Orphanage head’s office opened.

Little Jake, holding Mrs Anderson’s hand, came out of the office as they walked from the office to the courtyard

As Mrs Anderson turned her face, her eyes met with Celia.

A flicker of maternal love warmed Mrs Anderson’s eyes as she outstretched her arms, their silent welcome pulling at Caelia’s heartstrings like a forgotten melody.

Then suddenly Jake started running toward her, On seeing that Celia also rushed toward him.

With each passing second, the distance between them decreased, yet those same seconds felt like an eternity to Celia.

And at last, after who knows how many seconds, Celia finally reached him but then Jake stopped just a hand away, and yet like some invisible shackles were binding her hand, Celia’s hand never reached Jake.

Then, Mrs. Anderson’s mouth uttered an unknown whisper, and the scenery changed again to a world filled with trees.

Only flora and fauna could be seen for as far as the eye could see, making it a very familiar place to her again, but in a distinct sense. And in the middle of these trees stood an older version of Jake with a mysterious blue pendant on his neck in front of Caelia, with his lips twitching a little, forming an unclear sentence that reached Caelia’s ear clearly somehow.

“I am waiting for you, big sis.” [Jake]

With those words reaching Caelia’s ear, Celia’s dream was broken as she rose from a crouch with a single tear streaming down her face. The cruel reality shattered her peaceful dream as she heard some hooting sound from outside mixed with the deep voice of a man.

Celia’s POV

“Damn, where am I?” [Celia]

As I opened my eyes, I found myself facing an unfamiliar ceiling and hearing some unfamiliar voices from outside.

After I lingered my head around, I noticed that the room was a guest room, for its interior utilities were quite simple, with only a bed, a chair and,

” Seriously nothing else.”

The dim lights leaking into the room seemed to indicate that it was quite late in the day, as the distant chattering echoed into this space.

“And yeah, what happened afterwards?” [Celia]

That question nagged in my brain as my grogginess was slowly pushed away, unlike the blanket covering me.

Last I remembered, I was trapped by those gorillas from all sides, and then

“And then that man with an owl came. So, does that mean I am saved?” [Celia]

Remembering everything bit by bit that had happened, I slowly rose from the bed with my body hurting everywhere.

Slowly, I mustered up my strength and pushed away the blanket over me, looking at my naked body covered with bandages everywhere.

Third person POV

“Ahh” [Celia]

A sudden, piercing scream echoed through the quiet guest room, shattering the stillness and amidst the scream another noise resonated – The creaking of a door being opened.

The door slowly opened, revealing a tall middle-aged man wearing a lower and sweatshirt with an owl perched gracefully on his shoulder walking in through the door.

“You sure have a loud screaming voice,” [unknown man]

The man grumbled to Celia, as he kept walking toward her and then as he reached her, he slowly sat on the chair right next to the bed Celia was lying on.

Celia, hiding herself beneath the blanket so as not to show her body to the man, inquired,

“Who are you? Why am I wrapped in bandages and where are my clothes?” [Caelia]

“Well, I am the man who saved your life and as for bandages, you had quite a collection of injuries–twisted ankle, broken hand, assorted cuts. So I had to wrap the bandages over your injuries for your speedy recovery.” [Unknown man]

“Lastly for your clothes, let’s just say that they didn’t quite had what it takes to survive from Sylvan screamers’ furry. As for some pieces that survived, I had to remove them to treat your wounds. Your panties, though, made it through unscathed. A miracle if you ask me,” [Unknown man]

The man replied to Celia with a straight face.

On hearing the man’s statement, Celia’s eyes widened at the man’s matter-of-fact explanation. She blinked a few times, processing the absurdity of the situation. Then, her expression shifted to a mix of disbelief and awkwardness.

” Anyway, before we continue, how about some name exchange? You are going to stay here for quite a while. It will be pretty awkward to call you girl all the time, or so he says. I am fine either way.” [Unknown man]

“Well, shouldn’t you give yours first before asking mine, its common courtesy and what do you mean for a while? And who is he?” [Celia]

“No, not really, and as for the rest of your questions, I will answer them one by one.” [Unknown man]

The man replied with a hint of care and amusement on his face as his lips formed a small grin.

“Well for starter, my name is Atul and this guy on my shoulder is Vayu, he is the ‘he’ I was talking about.” [Atul]

“As for your second question, you are too injured to move right now and even with the medicine and bandages it will take you days to recover before I can safely escort you to the nearest town” [Atul]

Caelia’s eyes narrowed slightly as she processed Atul’s words. After a moment of contemplation, she replied with a mix of skepticism and curiosity,

“Atul and Vayu, huh? Well, as for my name, it’s Celia.” [Celia]

Celia introduced herself with reluctance and tiredness visible on her face.

“I still want to ask you more questions, but I am feeling very tired, so I will ask only one question. Will you please answer it honestly?” [Celia]

“Am I safe here with you, from you?” [Celia]

“I promise you girl on the name of,….” [Atul]

Atul replied to Celia but then stopped midway with a look of nostalgia clearly visible on his face and then spoke again as his expression changed from one of nostalgia to one of deep pain.

“I promise you, Celia, can I call you that?” [Atul]

(Celia nods)

“you are safe here, from everything you consider dangerous to you,” [Atul]

As Atul promised this to Celia, Celia relaxed her body, laying on the bed with a blanket covering her entirely.

Seeing Celia now asleep again, Atul rose from his chair and walked toward the door of the room when he heard a low whisper from behind.

“I know I should have told you this earlier, but thank you, really thank you. I was so scared when they had encircled me from all sides.” [Celia]

“You are welcome and also, no need to be scared anymore. No one will hurt you here.” [Atul]

Atul replied, with a little smile forming in his mouth. Slowly he walked out of the room, closing the light of the room to let Celia sleep better.

Atul’s POV

After leaving the room, the girl, Celia was sleeping. I went back to the hall when a voice came from the mouth of the emergency food sitting on my left shoulder.

“huh, that girl got scared pretty hard,” [Vayu]

“What do you expect? She probably just got transferred, and a horde of Sylvan was already chasing after her. Anyone will get scared.” [Atul]

I replied to him as I again thought about the girl. One thing was for sure, she was one unlucky girl out of all the predators in these woods. It was Sylvan that were chasing her, well she was very unlucky as she was also the chosen one by the prophecy.

“Anyone?” [Vayu]

The emergency food asked again, reminding me of some old memories.

“Hey, we are talking about normal humans here and he is not a normal human by any standard.” [Atul]

“Well, forget about that. Tell me what do you think? Could they have located me in that mere seconds?” [Atul]

I asked him in a concerned voice, a question that had been nagging in my mind ever since that monkey threw me against that tree, making me step outside the circle.

“Probably not, it was only for a bit, but we may have to relocate anytime.” [Vayu]

He answered with a hint of guilt visible in his tone.

“Don’t sweat it so much. What happened already happened. Right now, our focus should be on planning our escape route, in case they showed up and how to keep the girl out of my mess. “[Atul]

“I don’t even know if being rescued by me was good for the girl,” [Atul]

I asked Vayu, in a low voice but deep down I knew that the question was not for Vayu but for myself and I also knew the answer was most probably no. Vayu also looked down, indicating that he had no obvious answer to my question too.

But now the answer doesn’t matter anymore. I had invited the girl into this mess, so the least I could do now was to protect this girl until I could find a way to have her escape this mess without her getting hurt.

With that thought filling my mind, I lay down on the couch, clutching the red pendant tightly as it shone brighter and brighter with each passing second, and before I knew I had fallen asleep.

                   Author’s note

So I know, I told you guys that I will post a three chapters this week but I had to postpone it to next week so sorry for that.

Next chapter will be from the point of view of Atul as we will be shown how he found Celia, and one more thing I am thinking of changing Celia’s name a little. What do you think should I change it or let it remain same.

Anyway this is the image of Atul in the jungle.