Chapter 23: Oro Encantandor

As I watched the sun finally make its set and the twilight night eventually took over the sky a sense of adrenaline took over my body. It wasn't the same type of adrenaline I got down in the training arena with Taylor, it was a different kind. It's hard to explain the feeling was great and I didn't want it to go away. As Crystal took flight in the air I watched as her scales glistened against the stars which shined down on her followed by her camouflaging against the deep blue night. She was remarkable in every single way and I loved her; from such a short time we have known each other I could feel that bond between the pair of us and I knew that she would do anything to protect me as I would her. She's already proven this me I just hope one day I can do the same. The higher Crystal would fly into the air the smaller the kingdom of Ivna would disappear below us and I would get a gut wrenching feeling tear inside my stomach. The candle light which passed through the village slowly dwindled into looking like small fireflies just like the castle did. The quicker Crystal flew away from the scene the better I thought because, as we tore away from the world I once knew the quicker the pain of guilt would flood out of my heart and the sense of betrayal to my father would fade away. Not to mention my siblings, as I watched the scene behind me disappear I felt pain for them...I am just like my father and I've left them in the dark like he left me. At least I can be slightly satisfied with the fact I gave them direction to go to Los Royaux because I wasn't lying, there they can find answers just not from me never from me. "Willow, you're doing the right thing?" just at the image of my kingdom disappeared below us Hayden' voice spoke up. I looked away from the water which now laid below and made eye contact with him instead.

I cocked my head slightly to the side producing a sincere look on my face "Am I though? Is this the right thing or was there another way to get around all this?" He laughed at me shaking his head "Willow, deep down you know there isn't. After everything you have heard from Yvette and from me you can't push it all aside. The only way to move forward is to fix everything, to fix everything we lost," I shook my head thinking about the stories I've been told and thought how not everything can be fixed. A friendship can't be fixed not when one us has already taken a long manipulation path to despair and hatred and I'm pretty sure Hayden could see what I was thinking on face "Okay so maybe Jayden can't be fixed but who cares about him. He chose his path now he has to live with it; we fix what can be fixed. We'll find Xira get your memories back and then move on from there just stick to what we know for now and don't look back look forward because what's happened in the past doesn't matter anymore, what happens is right now," I cocked my head back to normal and look at him pressing a curious smile on my face "How do you come up with things like that?" he shrugged his shoulders at me and sighed "I don't it just comes out," now it was my time to laugh; I paid my attention back in front of me to see Kai and Taylor far up ahead. Kai was a strange character to me; there was something about him that got me curious and I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I didn't like his sarcasm and his nature to thinking that he's all it and he knows what's best, I reckon that will creep up on him one day and get the better of him. At least I hope it will.

Though when I stared at him there was something there I couldn't grasp hold of, I watched as the flick of his hair blew backwards from the wind and when he turned his head to look behind at Hayden and I, I could see his eyes sparkling and he gave me this flirtatious look by raising his eyebrows twice at me and curving his lips into a mischievous smile. The way he was looking at me was a way of toying with me, a way to get under my skin and annoy me and from it I could feel my blood run cold but there was something else I could feel. When he looked at me with that look I could feel my eyes squint at him with a deadly glare as well as a small shake of my head. He looked away still smiling but instead of the mischievous smile he brought back the smirk as if to say he succeeded in what he wanted to do. However, when he looked away I could still feel my eyes squinting, piercing on his back as if I wanted to drill deep down through. "You're staring," I heard the echo of Hayden's voice come from behind me. I shook my head immediately and looked back round at him "No I wasn't," I tried defending myself back but with the look he was giving me, my convincing one probably wasn't as convincing as I probably thought it was "I wasn't staring," I spoke again almost sounding desperate in my plea to make sure he believed me. He threw his hands up in surrender at me laughing "Alright if you say so, but I know what I saw," immediately I elbowed him in the stomach just as he quickly hunched forward to protect it "Yea I rest my case," I looked back round with smirk on my face feeling quite accomplished with myself. "Just out of curiosity, how'd you know him?"

"Probably the same way you know Taylor," I didn't say anymore because he was possibly right and it was none of my business. "I have a question, where are we going? You haven't exactly given us clear direction to how we are finding Xira," Hayden asked with curiosity now attached to his voice rather than mine. It hadn't really occurred to me either and I wasn't sure where we were going. I guess to myself I thought that maybe we would be looking for a sign or just anything that might give us a clue to where she is or where she might be or better yet the water element itself. Now when I thought about it that probably isn't and will never be the case. Until it hit me, Xira is the ultimate clue herself after everything that I've been told it's been made known that no one has scene Xira for years, she completely disappeared off the grid so that's where you start. "Willow you aren't making any sense?" I had to cross my eyes for a second there because I hadn't realised that everything I just thought in my head actually came out of my mouth. "Think about it Hayden, she hasn't been around for years, no one has seen her where would have been the last place she could have gone to or possibly I dunno, the last place she lived," I turned slightly back round to look at him just as I watched a light shine in his azure eyes "Oro Encantandor," his speech sounded almost exasperated as he felt achieved at the knowledge he just found out. "Please tell me you remember where it is?" I moaned at him through my quick paced question and thankfully he nodded at me. I switched positions with him on Crystal carefully and replaced my hands around his waist like had done with me to stay on the back of her so he could take the lead. I wasn't in the mood to take instructions on which way to go so I thought better let Hayden take the lead.

Crystal sped up after he tapped her on the side gently as she caught up with Taylor and Kai in front explaining the plan to the pair of them. We turned in the opposite direction to where we were heading and travelled for most the night. Through the passing time I could feel the rush of adrenaline fade from my body making me drowsy and eventually my eyes closed and I felt head rest on Hayden's back. Before I had drifted off completed I could hear a small laugh escape his mouth until I faded into the dark for good. I only opened my eyes once again when I could see the peering sunrise in the distance. It blinded me entirely as I watched it rise up from the sea letting me see the ripples spiral in its clockwise current. "Good your awake, we're here," Hayden's voice interrupted me from paying attention to the water "Have you been awake all night?" he shrugged his shoulders at me and paid attention forwards "It's fine we needed to get here and you needed sleep," it seemed after what Yvette told him whenever he could get the chance in letting me sleep he'd take it which didn't bother me, I'd just wish he'd get some as well. Up ahead of us I watched as a clearing came into view. However when you looked at what was in front of us you wouldn't say it was welcoming. Crystal sped up in her flight and I could feel the wind also pick up its pace as it hit us in the face at full force. Crystal lightly put her feet down on the ground; Hayden slipped off her first then I did we were soon joined by Taylor and Kai where we all exchanged looks with each other. I made the first move and walked up to the land which we stood on. The moment my foot made its first step the crunch of the dead land sent a shudder down my spine. I looked up to see the whole land dead. The trees no longer wore a grassy green material instead it had been replaced by dirt and decay not producing one leaf, not one strange of grass, not one piece of bark everything was just...dead. I looked further up and the whole land was covered in it.

The kingdom had crumbled to pieces. As I moved up from the hill away from what was supposed to be a heart warming place now turned into destruction killed me even further as I entered what was supposed to be the village. House upon house had been burned to the ground and all that lay around was rubble and ash. Everything had fallen apart and this land no longer looked like a home but instead someone's graveyard. "Who would have done such a thing?" Strangely enough I looked to my side and see Kai standing next to me looking down at the rubble with me. I shook my head with no words escaping. I stepped off the hill and entered the destruction taking in what was all around me, kicking some of rubble as went to get it out of my way. I found myself move towards one of the houses because amidst the rumble I run my hand under I pulled out a small ashen doll. I pushed away some of the ash found the doll to be of a small girl which had been knitted neatly together possibly for someone's child. I held the doll close to my chest with a sudden hollow feeling come with it and tears well up in my eyes. I felt an arm wrap around me as my head fell into their shoulder. "He did this didn't he? Alesandro..." I could even hear a crack within my voice because I hated what I was seeing right now. Inside it was killing me and I kept thinking to myself how this could have been my home. I looked up at Hayden to see the distraught look in his eyes but there was something else there when I looked at him. It was like he was having deja vu, or something like this had happened before but close to him. "Maybe it was, but we can't be sure," he tried smiling at me but it wouldn't entirely work.

"Hey guys! You might want to check this out!" I heard Kai call from the far side of what used to be the kingdom. We both made our way up to the hill to meet Kai and Taylor and in front of us we found bodies along bodies laid out front of the castle which stayed in one piece. The castle was the only in this whole kingdom which had not been touched which struck me as odd but that wasn't what worried me at the moment, instead it was the piles of what used to be bodies not decayed into skeletons piled on top of each other scattered in front of the castle. Looking down at all these innocent's lives made me feel physically sick and I stumbled back away from the scene. "Willow," I started to storm away out from the whole scene, away from the whole situation in front of me; "Willow wait," my body was spun round to see the three of them in front of me "How could he do this?! Why?! I don't understand!" Taylor wrapped her arms around me as I buried my head in her shoulder "Ow, ow, ow," I pulled away from Taylor immediately as she started tapping her chest. Kai looked down at it and then said "Is that a burn mark?" He lifted his gaze up to look at me and carried on "Did you burn her?!" his remark at me was sudden and almost aggressive which sent boils through my blood "No I didn't burn her! How dare you assume that?!" the answer was clearly present in my whole appearance and I could feel the magic burn back round my hands "Alright Willow calm down," Hayden pushed me back away from him as I didn't realised I went towards Kai as I spoke. "I don't think it came from you anyway," I looked at him and raised an eyebrow especially as he went and placed his hand round my neck.

I watched him cautiously with a very uneasy feeling to what he was doing until he pulled out the locket around my neck. When he pulled it out we all looked at how it was emitting a bright white glow all the way around it with small little white sparks which came off it. Hayden immediately let go of the locket as it was too hot for him to bear, I could tell by the way he shook his hand afterwards. The strangest thing out of all this was I couldn't feel the heat coming from it nor was there a burn mark on my neck. "Willow, I think that locket is more than just a locket which belonged to Xira. I think it's a tracker, the brighter it glows the closer we are to her," my eyes lit up immediately because as we all looked at the locket around my neck it shone extremely bright "She's close," we all looked around the area and the only sign of life that was in the area was the four of us no one else was around. Hayden and I climbed back on Crystal while Taylor and Kai got back on the Sentry. Each of us took off back into the air and started flying in the direction where the locket was taking us. As we carried on heading north it got brighter and brighter I started to feel the burning coming off it. If I could start to feel its heat I thought that maybe she must be getting closer. Suddenly I had to pull the necklace off my neck because it became unbearable to wear and at the same time Crystal halted in her flight. Whether or not it was a coincidence I think we'd found the area where Xira was but the strange thing was that we were surrounded by water. "This can't be it, why would the locket take us here?" I mumbled looking around the area finding nothing but water "Unless she's..."

"Don't think like that, I'm sure she's fine if she wasn't it wouldn't be glowing still or as a matter of fact it wouldn't have glowed at all. She's alive," I nodded at Hayden as I knew he knew what he was talking about but it still didn't make any sense. "Well she may not be in water, but there's a chance she could be on that ship," we all followed the direction Taylor pointed at and there sailing across the water was a ship. It seemed to be made out of deep obscure wood with bright sails and they seemed to be travelling at a quick consistent speed. "She has to be there," and just as I said it, just like a sun flare the white light from the locket shot down towards the ship which gave us the final answer. However, we weren't the only ones who seemed to notice the bright flare; sounds from the ship started yelling up at us and at the flare and they didn't seem too pleased. "Okay, you guys distract the men on that ship while Hayden and I head underneath and see if Xira is down there," Taylor and Kai nodded at the pair of us and we both shot off towards the ship. Hayden and I halted back for a while the closer we got so that the men could be distracted by Kai and Taylor once they had their full attention, we hoped off Crystal and headed below deck before any of the men could watch us. I followed the flare which was coming out from the locket until it pointed to one of the dark areas of the ship. I exchanged looks with Hayden as he just shrugged his shoulders cautiously and we both wandered to its direction gradually. The inside of the ship was covered with cells by the looks of it and I could tell from the light coming from the locket otherwise this place would be completely pitch black. But why did they need so many cells on a ship it didn't make sense to me. Though let's be honest here, what does make sense to me nowadays?

As the pair of us moved closer to the corner cell we noticed a figure standing at the far back and I had the urge to say "Hello?" I rather questioned it. The figure slowly stepped forwards just as the light began to die down until there was no glow at all. Out from the shadows of the cell a woman came up to the bars, she had long auburn hair which fell nicely down her back and I was surprised that it still looked quite neat. She had amazing emerald eyes and I recognised her to be the woman from the recent dream I had so I said "Xira?" she looked surprised at me when I said her name because it was clear that she didn't recognise me nor did she Hayden but this didn't much surprise me, the last time she saw us was when we were kids. "How do you know who I am?" I was expecting her voice to sound quite harsh because she seemed like she had a strong and threatening demeanour but that didn't seem to be the case, her voice was actually quite gentle and soft which seemed welcoming. "My name's Willow Ivaleen and this is Hayden Vale, my aunt told us to find you, her name's Yvette," the woman laughed at us and almost walked into the shadows "You're brave telling me that, how much did Alesandro pay you tell me that? What's he up to this time?" I exchanged a look with Hayden as his eyes widened in shock at the circumstances which were before us so he barged me forwards to carry on speaking. I glared at him quickly before paying attention back to Xira "We aren't spies for him, I'd kill myself if I ever worked for that man," I kind of said it to myself rather than I did her and I rolled my eyes while saying but before I could even carry on her figure stepped back out of the shadows to let her eyes land back on me.

"I only knew one person who had sarcasm like that," she looked at me carefully for a few seconds so I decided to have this chance to carry on "Yvette told us that the only way you believe we were telling the truth is by giving you this," I held out my hand with the locket placed there and her eyes glistened when she saw it. She gently took it from my hands and caressed it carefully before opening it up and when she did I watched a small tear fall from her eye before she wiped it away and looked at the pair of us with her voice soft and gentle holding back even more tears which she didn't want to fall, "Hayden...Willow."