I’d love to tell you that Harry’s parents are blissfully unaware of the fact that I’m a princess from another world, collecting six pieces of a portal puzzle to get back home, and think we were taking a gap year to travel around the world - but I would be lying.
Harry told them when we discovered that the location of the second trinket was in Dublin, and their reactions had surprised me when we presented them with the journal. This was because they didn’t seem at all shocked by this news, and when I asked them why they simply replied, “we noticed early on that you were a little different to those around you – you could hear birds singing a mile away, see where a ball landed, even if it was miles away.”
‘Ellie, how do you feel about meeting your birth parents?’ Adam asked, taking a gulp of his coffee.
‘I’m not sure, excited I guess. From the picture in the journal they left me, I get the feeling that they are kind, loving parents even though they had to send me into the human world when I was only a few months old’ I answered, opening the journal on my lap and running my fingers lightly over our early family photo.
‘You’ll meet them soon.’
Harry whispered beside me, and I looked sideways at him to see a soft smile on his tan face.
I returned his smile, heart yearning to meet my birth parents for the first time in so long.
***
At half past eleven the next day, our parents drove us to the airport and saw us off.
Our fathers hugged us both warmly, tearing up and visibly fighting the urge to tug us back in, and break into sobs after releasing us. The same couldn’t be said for my mother. She hugged me tightly to her breast sobbing freely and unashamedly into my shoulder, reluctant to let me go for fear she would never have the chance to hold me again. Hannah, although she was saddened to see me go and tearful at the idea of not seeing me again, was not as visibly distraught as my mother as she hugged me.
Once we had said our final goodbyes, Harry and I passed through security and into the departures lounge to wait for our flight.
‘Something my mother murmured to me before she let me go stuck with me, Ellie. Do you think we’ll be able to return to the human world?’ Harry asked me just under two hours later as we sat in our seats, waiting for the plane to leave.
‘I expect you will’ I replied softly, pulling out one of my favourite books, the first in a non-fiction series: Greek Mythology: Magical & Mythical Creatures, and opened it up on my lap.
‘Why just me? Won’t you get to come back too?!’ he exclaimed, as the last few passengers took their seats.
‘I don’t know…though I suppose once they have me back, my family will want me to stay’ I answered.
‘Surely, they’ll let you visit the human world at least once a year?!’ he exclaimed.
‘Maybe…at least, I hope so.’
While the cabin crew demonstrated how to use the safety equipment, Harry leant towards me.
‘If you get sleepy during the flight, you’re welcome to nap against my shoulder’ he murmured, breath tickling my ear he was so close.
Thanking him, I returned my attention to my book, putting my earphones in to listen to one of my favourite bands.
Four hours later we were at the hotel we’d booked for the night, which was just over half an hour from Poseidon’s Cave, going through the list of things we’d brought with us for the wait until the portal to Elandrea opened as well as the journey to find my parents’ kingdom.
‘Okay, we’re down to our last few items’ Harry announced, having read out four things; two torches and apple, and one large bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate.
‘Two Kellogg’s Nutrigrain bars and bottles of mineral water, four packets of yogurt covered raisins, and the map of Elandrea.’
‘Check, check, check, and…check’ I replied, taking them one by one out of the large backpack we were sharing.
‘It’s already nine o’clock, and we have to be checked out by eleven tomorrow morning, so we should probably go to bed’ Harry told me as he pulled our pyjamas out of the bag, passing me mine.
I nodded. ‘We have a long day ahead of us, so we need to have a good night’s sleep.’
Taking my pyjamas from him, I went into the bathroom to change and brush my teeth.
When I came out, Harry was tugging his t-shirt off over his head; revealing a pair of lightly muscled arms, a broad chest, and well-toned abs.
He looked up as though he sensed my gaze. I felt my cheeks flush and quickly averted my gaze, ‘you-you can use the bathroom now.’
‘Thanks.’
Upon hearing the bathroom door close I climbed into bed, pulling the duvet up to my chin and turning away from the bathroom towards the window.
I heard the bathroom door open a few minutes later, and then felt the bed dip as Harry slid under the covers.
‘Goodnight, Harry’ I murmured.
‘Goodnight, sweetheart. Sweet dreams.’
I smiled at his reply and, ignoring my racing heart, soon fell asleep dreaming of what Elandrea might look like when I finally saw it with my own eyes.
Poseidon’s Cave
By quarter to eleven the next morning Harry and I had eaten breakfast, showered and dressed, and were now waiting outside the hotel after checking out for our taxi which the front desk had kindly offered to book for us ahead of time last night since neither of us speak Greek.
Soon, we were walking along the beach itself, following the map of Greece printed before leaving England, which was marked with a blue line from our hotel to Poseidon’s Cave.
‘How far are we from the Cave?’ I asked as we neared the end of the beach.
‘The website we checked told it’s only reachable by boat, but a friend of mine has been there before and told me there’s is an access point on the opposite side of the sea facing entrance, via a steep flight of stone steps’ he replied as we came to a stop at the end of the beach; warm blue-green waves lapping at our feet.
I turned and looked at him, ‘how do we get to these steps?’
Harry frowned, checking the Google Maps satellite images of the Karpathos area.
‘I’m not certain…unless we find the road leading to the steps, we’ll have to rent a boat.’
I sighed and thought for a long moment before coming to a decision.
‘We’re going to look for those stairs.’
Through the Portal
Two hours later, and after asking for directions from those we came across as we left the beach, we finally found the steps leading to Poseidon’s Cave. They started at ground level, and then snaked down until they gave way to a dusty, stony path that was a little easier to walk upon and navigate.
Before long we rounded a tall, red stoned wall and there it was. The entrance to the Cave, facing us head-on.
The two of us stood there, staring in wonder at the sight of our gateway into Elandrea, and glanced at each other before heading towards the opening after pulling out our torches.
It turns out we did not need our torches after all, for there was still plenty of light pouring into the cave, and soon found our way to the back.
Harry slipped our backpack from his shoulders and, letting it fall to the ground, sat down with his back against the slightly eroded white wall of the Cave. I unzipped the front pocket of the backpack to take out the small drawstring bag Dad gave us and took out all of the trinkets; assembling them in seconds to form the portal mechanism before checking the time on my watch.
2:30pm.
‘What time did the weather app say is sunset would be?’ I asked, not looking up from the watch face.
‘Around seven.’
‘Meaning we’ve got four and a half hours until the portal opens’ I calculated, lifting my face now and tilting it back so I was looking up at the cave ceiling, which glistened like diamonds in the beams of sunlight that managed to reach the back of the cave.
‘Yep. Do you want your Nutrigrain bar?’
‘Yes please.’
&n
bsp; Harry took out his own bar after handing me mine and checked the air temperature reader clipped to his hip, ‘it’s still pretty warm in here, despite being the back of a cave. Fifteen degrees.’
‘You’d have thought it’d be cooler’ I noted with surprise.
Harry answered with an agreeing nod and leant back against the wall again.
As the hours passed, the temperature inside the Cave continued to drop and by a quarter to five I was sat with my arms wrapped around myself to keep warm.
‘Ellie, are you warm enough? You look a little cold’ Harry asked.
‘I’m fine, thank you.’ I smiled as I spoke, but I could feel myself shivering and I knew Harry could see it.
‘Come here, I’ll keep you warm.’
I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a second before crawling over to sit beside him - but an arm stopped me.
Turning to Harry I noticed his legs were now bent at the knee, and slightly parted.
‘It’ll be warmer if I have my arms around you.’
I looked at him questioningly, and then stood up; turned around, sat down between his legs, and leant back into his chest as he gently wrapped his arms around me.
I will not lie. I was a little embarrassed, sitting there between Harry’s legs, but I didn’t say anything: his arms and chest were so warm, I didn’t wish to ruin it by admitting to him how I felt.
‘Harry?’ I asked after a while.
‘Mhm?’
‘I’m a little tired, do you think I could sleep for a bit?’
‘Sure, go ahead and sleep, I’ll wake you in an hour so that we’re not in a rush when the portal to Elandrea reveals itself.’
‘Thank you.’
Making myself comfortable, and turning into Harry’s torso, I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep…
***
‘...Ellie, come on sweetheart it’s time to wake up.’
Harry’s soft voice roused me gently from my slumber, and I opened my eyes to find my unopened bottle of water held out in front of me.
‘You must be thirsty.’
Sitting up, I accepted the water gratefully and took several long gulps before asking Harry the time.
‘It’s just gone half six’ he answered as I crawled over to our bag to have a rummage around, my hand soon re-emerging holding our Cadbury’s bar, and broke off two rows for us to nibble on.
At seven on the dot, the last shafts of sunlight shone through the Cave, and onto the wall. As they hit the wall, Harry and I watched in awe as the mechanism started to shimmer; brightly coloured particles flowing up from the centre to form a sparkling ball that expanded until it was the size of a floor-length mirror.
‘Shall we?’ asked Harry, smiling and holding his hand out to me.
I took the outstretched hand and grinned back at him, ‘let’s do this.’
Gripping each other’s hands tightly, we stepped through the portal, and into the unknown.
The Ledoran Guard
As he looked around the large meadow of beautiful flowers into which we had just stepped, Harry posed a question.
‘Where are we?’
Taking the map out of the left front pocket of my jean-shorts, I opened it up and searched out the large black cross marking our location.
‘Ah! Here we are’ I exclaimed, pointing to the X marked in black on a section of the map labelled as The Southern Meadow, in calligraphy.
‘Well, that’s a start.’
I chuckled, and studied the path leading away from the meadow. ‘From looking at the map, if we follow this river ninety degrees and then head north, we should reach the location marked between these trees by nightfall’ I stated, running my finger along the map as I spoke.
‘Let’s get going’ he answered, a grin spreading across his face as he grabbed my hand, and we started walking.
‘Did the note in your journal say how your guides to the palace would know when you arrived?’ Harry asked as we stopped for a break beside the river, having already walked for almost two hours.
I shook my head as I drank the last drops of my water. ‘I don’t remember it mentioning anything, I guess that when we came through the portal, it let them know somehow.’
‘You’re probably right’ he agreed with a nod as we returned our bottles to the backpack. ‘How far do we still have to go?’
I consulted the map – but before I opened my mouth to answer him, I spotted some fast-approaching mounted figures less than a league from where we were resting.
‘Harry, do you see that?’
He turned his attention to where I was pointing and nodded. ‘I see them. It appears your guides home have arrived before we reached the meeting point’ he observed, stretching his arms and crossing them behind his head.
‘Are you sure? I have no idea what the Ledoran flag looks like’ I answered.
Soon a rider astride a tall, proud dark brown stallion, followed by several other men astride bay horses, came into view and closed the distance between us so quickly that within a minute Harry and I found ourselves standing between two lines of six, and looking head-on at their leader who gracefully dismounted his tall steed and made his way over to us.
He had to be at least twenty, for he was several inches taller than Harry – who at nineteen, was a foot and a half taller than me - and had relatively short raven black hair, shaved a little at the sides, and deeply tanned skin.
‘Good afternoon Princess Oraelia. I am Jaron, Captain of the Ledoran Guard. We have been sent by your parents, our beloved King and Queen, to bring you home’ he announced, bowing at the waist.
‘How did you know we had arrived?’ I asked, my calm demeanour surprising Harry as well as myself.
Jaron smiled knowingly and went on to explain.
‘When the trinkets were created, some of your DNA was enclosed within each stone, as well as a fully formed mechanism that your parents have always kept with them. As you collected each adornment the corresponding section would glow…’
‘Today a symbol at the centre of your parents’ glowed, and your own materialised beside it. When that happened, the Ledoran Guard were sent out and…here we are ’ finished a young man with similar features to Jaron, his hair a soft shade of brown with a red hue, rather than raven black, and pulled into a low hanging ponytail.
‘What is your name?’ I asked softly but loudly.
‘Kenton, Your Highness; Jaron’s younger brother.’
I smiled at him and then turned my gaze back on Jaron, who had a look of unsuppressed brotherly pride on his face.
‘Shall we be going then?’ I suggested kindly. ‘I’d hate to keep my parents waiting.’
He bowed again, ‘of course, Your Highness. We have brought two extra horses along with us. Can you ride?’
‘I can – but Harry has never been confident on them’ I replied as Harry’s cheeks reddened, and he nervously scratched the back of his neck.
Jaron smiled, ‘that’s okay, he can ride with you.’
‘Are you all right with that Harry?’ I asked.
He nodded, cheeks still a little red.
***
As they escorted us to Ledoran, Jaron, Kenton, and their friends asked Harry – sat behind me on the silver mare, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist – and myself questions about life in the human world.
‘So…you use phones, computers, and laptops to communicate with others – even if they don’t live very far from you?’ Tarrent, who was the eldest of our party with fair skin and spiky reddish hair, asked in awe.
‘Yes. Unfortunately, pen and paper aren’t such a popular method of communication anymore’ I replied, chuckling at the expression on his face.
‘What type of sports are played, where you’re from?’ Kenton asked Harry as he spurred his horse, so he was riding alongside us.
‘Well, there’s football and basketball, tennis and badminton, swimming…quite a few.’
‘Which sports are played over here? Are they similar?’ I added.
‘I’m not sure,’ Jaron replied turning to his brother, who shrugged.
‘I’m guessing sparring, jousting and fencing aren’t popular past-times amongst the common folk anymore – I mean, those who are not knights and such?’
‘People do go to fencing classes nowadays, but no one spars or jousts anymore unless it’s at a medieval fair – and a knighthood is more honorary these days’ Harry replied, gripping my waist tighter as the horses trotted uphill.
‘We do play things like football and cricket’ Tarrent offered proudly.
‘Really? We should play some time’ Harry grinned.
‘Plus, I think we’ll need to spend at least an hour to discuss the ways of the human world, since you guys aren’t going to have learnt about any of them enough on this short journal to really understand them - especially the technology’ I suggested, glancing around at them all.
‘Sounds like a good idea, I definitely need more informing on human world technology’ Jaron replied, just as we rounded a tall oak tree and bringing a large town surrounded by trees coming into view.
Standing tall and proud away from the bustling streets of the town was a magnificent palace, shimmering brilliantly - yet curiously - in the fading sunlight.
Upon seeing my amazed expression Jaron smiled, swept his hand across the view in front of us, and announced, ‘welcome home, my lady.’
Síosa
As the horses crossed what the Guard had told me was the border into Ledoran, I let out a breath of wonder.
‘Wow Ledoran is so beautiful and big, but - don’t kingdoms usually have a wall built around them, to protect against enemy attacks?’
‘The wall is there. It simply shows itself when we are faced with an enemy’ Kenton explained.
‘How does it know when an enemy is approaching? It would have to be a very smart magical wall to know when to appear.’
Descendants of Erodis Page 4
