Anni ran after Zelda but it did no good. It felt like she was running in the same place. By the time Zelda reached the Orb, a door appeared, she walked in, and it sealed itself behind her. Zelda was gone.
On the cobblestone walk, Daphne and Squirt were jumping up and down, yelling and waving at Anni. Miranda stood by them laughing, as masses of Elementals congregated around them. Oliver was there, too, disapprovingly shaking his head, as he pulled off his jacket and shoes. She didn’t understand what they were saying, but she heard funny clicking sounds vibrating beneath her. When she looked ahead, she finally understood. The bridge was no longer connected to the Silver Orb; it was retracting.
“I see that you’ve discovered your own folly,” said Whiffle. “Beneath you lay ancient waters, which I can assure you won’t take pleasure in its embrace. A pity that we haven’t yet reached an accord; under proper tutelage you would not find yourself in these vexing situations.”
Anni spun around and raced back toward the village. “Not now, Whiffle, unless you want to tell me everything, like where’s Lexi?”
“You humans desire information like your fast food.”
The bridge was catching up. Noise from the village grew in volume. Even more Elementals of all shapes and sizes gathered at the water’s edge. Several complained, but the majority cheered—not for Anni, but for the bridge.
“On the bright side, look at how many you’ve inspired.” Anni ignored him. “Shall I commence with the formalities? Yes, I think I shall. I chose today to present you with a proposal, one that is dually beneficial. It is binding and permanent, provided you agree. However, only three requests will be made; this is the first. What say you?”
“Either tell me what I need to know, or leave me alone!”
Her legs were pumping hard. She was so close. The bridge port was within her grasp. Just. A. Few. More. Strides. Five. Four. Three. Two…
SPLASH!
The bridge disappeared and released her into the water. Deceptively heavy, the water was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. It gripped her body, making it impossible to stay afloat.
She paddled to the edge of the lake’s basin, but there was no ladder. Above, the orange afternoon skies disappeared and filled fast with flinty clouds. The air went crisp, and a chill flooded her bones.
Above the chorus of yells and laughter, Daphne and Squirt yelled, “Hold on! Help’s on the way!” But it was too hard. The weight of the water, combined with exhaustion and cold, paralyzed her, and she sank.
“As you wish.” Even under water, she couldn’t escape Whiffle’s strident tones. “But, while you contemplate your last breath, be aware of your obstinate nature. Upon my third proposal, there shall be no other. I will speak to you again in a few days’ time. In the meantime, have a pleasant soak.”
Her right hand grabbed at the air, then her eyes closed.
PITHY PURPLE PLUME BERRIES
When Anni opened her eyes, she thought she had been having the strangest dream. The pale yellow walls and beautiful upholstered furniture looked remarkably like Vivian’s office back at Waterstone Academy. Even the colored sky was pouring rain, but when she looked closer, it wasn’t the school grounds she was seeing. The window showed a bird’s-eye view of the Zephyr’s village circle, and Anni saw that the lake had been half drained.
“You had us worried,” said a gentle voice.
Anni hadn’t noticed that a woman wearing a beige tunic was sitting next to her, but when she peered into the woman’s face, she realized it was the kind young woman who had waved to her earlier in Krizia’s office. “And to think,” said the young woman, “you almost left us without even saying goodbye.” She smiled amusedly and, with a very gentle touch, she tucked a strand of Anni’s blue-green hair behind her ear. “Not to worry, we forgive you, even Oliver does. He jumped in after you sank. Do you remember falling into the lake?”
Anni rose from the chaise and turned around. The room was full of people. Daphne and Squirt were carrying trays and setting them down on the coffee table. Two Manor guards stood sentry by a door. Maeleachlainn the Leach Spongincork stood close to the two Moon Manor guards; the very sight of him made Anni shiver.
“Speak for yourself, Diana.” Spongincork’s lip curled up into his scarred cheek, as his angry eyes flashed at Anni, even the guards, Knox and Fort, scowled, too. “Oliver’s still DeFunkifying at Soak House Springs, and it’ll be raining for weeks until the lake refills itself. We’ll have a lot to answer for. Make sure that she reports to Spadu Hills before dusk. I will see to the other things.” He stormed out of the room, and his guards followed.
“Don’t mind Maeleachlainn; he’s grouchy. We haven’t been properly introduced; I’m Diana,” said the woman in a warm and welcoming voice as she rose from her seat. “I apologize for your treatment at the Manor.”
A short man entered Diana’s sitting room carrying another tray. Anni recognized him from Krizia’s office. He wore the same glasses, but didn’t have his satchel and he was wearing a shamrock-covered apron over his work clothes, bright orange dish gloves, and was holding the largest tray yet.
“Yugi San will be monitoring your Funk levels, kind of like a doctor. He’ll prepare some tonics for you to take while you’re with us. He’ll make sure you feel better.”
“Hello,” Anni said.
“Konbanwa,” said Yugi and quietly went back arranging items on a large coffee table with Daphne and Squirt’s help.
“How do you feel?” asked Diana delicately. When Anni didn’t answer, Diana continued, “Falling into the Lake isn’t good for humans or Elementals. It can alter your memory, but it also absorbed some of your Funk.” Diana paused. “I’m guessing no one explained what that is to you, but the simplest definition for Funk is a bunch of heavy, unpleasant thought forms that attach to your physical body, weighing it down because they haven’t been properly released—kind of like psychic garbage. Yugi and I believe that the saltwater in the Lake absorbed most of it, which is why the lake’s being drained, but that’s not to say that your Funk is completely gone, and you can’t afford to lose too much of it too quickly, which is why we will have to monitor your health.”
Images flashed through her consciousness of long metal grates retracting and then Anni splashing into the water below. She looked down and noticed she wasn’t wearing the black jumpsuit as before. Instead, she was back in the clothes she had arrived in, but they were clean and dry. “I remember falling in, but how did I get here?”
“Thank goodness your memory is coming back. When they pulled you out, you didn’t know your name,” said Diana tenderly. “Some skurfers were in the area and pulled you out just in time. They brought you here. Daphne helped me get you into some dry clothes, and you fell asleep an hour ago.”
Anni grabbed at her chest, searching for Mabel’s key. It was there under her shirt, but something else was missing. She looked down and saw that she was wearing her black tank top, but the metallic thread from the velvet bee patch she had sewn inside it was gone.
“Is something wrong?” asked Diana.
“Um,” Anni stalled, starting to panic. “I’m missing my, my backpack.”
“It’s behind you,” said Daphne. She handed Anni her backpack from behind the chaise. “Everything’s inside, even that patch on your tank.” Anni thought her heart was going to stop right there and then, but Daphne winked at her. “It was hanging by a thread, so I put it inside your bag to keep it safe. If you like, I can sew it back on for you later.”
“Daphne, that’s a lovely gesture,” said Diana. “Anni, Daphne’s one of the Zephyr’s expert seamstresses.” The tips of Daphne’s ears went crimson. “Oh, don’t be so modest, Daphne. You should take Anni on a tour of Haberdashers later, when she’s feeling better.”
Anni was glad for Diana’s diversion. She felt her cheeks flush just as Daphne’s had done. Daphne knew her secret. There would be no way of avoiding that conversation; all the village shop windows had a similar image of the Bee on
it with the headline: Missing Elemental Artifact—contact Elofficium if seen. She unzipped the backpack and sure enough, there was the velvet cloth along with Lexi’s doll. Both were completely dry and safe.
Frowning, Squirt carried a food tray. “Leach isn’t coming back, is he?”
Diana grinned at him. “Hungry, Squirt?”
“Starving.” He put down the tray and raced to the plushest of chairs. A wonderful whiff of food met Anni’s nose and her stomach growled.
“Please start,” said Diana to Daphne and Squirt. “Anni, before you begin on this wonderful meal Yugi San prepared, he needs to check your essence levels.”
Yugi was at her side already, holding her wrist like he was taking her pulse. This went on for several minutes. She watched her reflection in his glasses as he stared into her eyes. He pulled a couple of purple bean-shaped berries out of his pocket and placed them on a small, empty dish in front of her. He finished by waving his arms around and above her head and went into the kitchen without a word.
“He’ll be back shortly. Please go ahead,” said Diana.
Anni was famished, but also glad she felt better than when she first arrived. She sat on a small poof next to the large coffee table, which was loaded with a variety of complicated teapots, steaming kettles, and a vast grouping of unusual dishes and foods. Each person had a contraption that held a smoking, small iron pot with a hot liquid inside. She watched Daphne and Squirt take two wide-angled soup bowls and deposit what looked like tiny capsules inside. Over those, they poured the steaming hot liquid from the teapots and covered them. Next, they set about making different drinks with a similar sort of process, this time using long, cylindrical copper vessels that emitted frosty mists.
“Try this,” said Diana, who offered her an impossibly thin porcelain teacup filled with a purple liquid, one of Yugi’s purple berries. “Yugi’s specialty, ApiumPassiflora.”
Anni sipped from the cup. It was delicious but not filling. Squirt uncovered his bowl, which was full of leafy greens and thick noodles that didn’t look real, but more like an impression of noodles. Nevertheless, Squirt slurped it up even though it was steaming.
When she finished her drink, Daphne held out a small tray stacked with two dried crisps of lettuce with splats of what looked a lot like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise between them. Anni took a crisp and popped it into her mouth, but this elicited surprise and a couple laughs, mostly from Squirt. Her lips puckered and kept on sucking inward. The wafer instantly sucked all the moisture from her mouth.
“Anni, that’s…that’s not how you…ha ha.” Whatever Squirt said after that was lost. He laughed so hard that he bent over and rolled onto the floor. It took him a while to regain composure, but by then, Yugi had returned to the room and settled next to Anni. He demonstrated the proper way to fix the dried lettuce crisp meal, which was the same process as with the noodle bowls and included her remaining berries.
Anni’s mouth was so dry, she could barely pucker. Diana whipped up another drink and offered it to her. It was pink, topped with misty lavender foam, and had hundreds of tiny, speckled floating balls inside. It looked too beautiful to drink, but Anni was desperate.
“Essence,” Diana answered. “Your taste buds now know the essence of Unda Viola. I’m sure you have many questions, perhaps too many to keep track of at first. But simply put, our diet is a little different from the one you may be used to. The one thing that sets Elementals apart from humans is our extremely developed senses. When it comes to nourishment, many of us can get by on Essences alone.”
“Oh,” said Anni, starting on her noodles. “So you don’t eat food like humans do?”
“It’s not so simple. Just as humans from different countries eat differently, so do we. A lot of what we eat depends on where we live and our Element. For example, I am classified as a Wood Elemental, many of us live on Zephyrs, and because of that we require a special diet to maintain our energy. There are other kinds of Elementals who live here, too, and they also require a slightly different diet to fulfill their energy needs.”
“Tell her how many Elementals there are,” said Squirt.
“We are just over 1 billion.” Diana laughed. “We’ve been around since the planet formed, and we live longer than humans. It might interest you to know that many Wood Elementals have permanent residences in the human cities—like your hometown, Chicago. There are five classifications of Elementals: Earth, Wood, Water, Fire, and Metal—”
“The Wood Elementals made LimBough,” said Squirt, unable to hold back his excitement. “They’re the most human-like of all the Elementals; experts at travel, philosophy, and creativity. Fire Elementals are usually leaders. Some people think Water Elementals are the most powerful because they can influence feelings. Earth Elementals are very strong; they’re master producers and planners, and Metals were architects but—”
“Thank you, Squirt,” said Diana, smiling. “And while they are all different, no one is greater than the others in terms of value or importance. Each provides a significant contribution to the whole.” Diana took a generous pause. “I cannot pretend Elementals are very different from humans, especially when it comes to addressing inequalities and certain biases. We Elementals have many of our own political issues and problems. Elementals and humans have a long history, but it’s my job to make sure things are easy for you, Anni.”
Anni couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to what Diana was saying, but a triangle pot started to steam and hiss. The aromas made her mouth water, and all she could focus on was eating whatever was inside.
“Dessert! Oh Anni, you are gonna love this!” said Squirt. “Bet you never tasted anything like the Pithy-Purple-Plume-Bean-Berries.”
Daphne started preparing several tiny mugs and saucers, just like the kind Anni had seen espresso served in, but only a bit smaller. Yugi carefully held the pyramid-shaped pot and poured lumpy, mud like liquid into each cup.
Anni felt a little out of place being served. After all, that’s what she had done at Waterstone for so long, so she had forgotten how nice it was to be the recipient. Everyone settled back into their seats with their cups to their lips and sipped. Anni raised her cup under her nose and smelled a combination: something like fresh-cut grass, lilacs, chocolate, and almonds. She watched Squirt’s face turn bright red as he drank.
She brought the cup to her lips and sipped. Surprised that it tasted nothing like mud or freshly cut grass, her mouth tingled with a complex combination of all her favorite things wrapped up into a tiny drop of nectar.
Another sip, this time breathing in all the aromas, made it taste different. Good, but somehow different. And so it went on until the last drop. The aromas and tastes satisfied all her cravings, leaving her nourished, while her taste buds sang with delight. She enjoyed the meal so much, she didn’t notice the table was cleared and that Yugi had left.
The Omninav on Diana’s wrist blinked, and a faint silver image about the size of an index card appeared. For a second, a touch of displeasure tightened around Diana’s face. It was then that Miranda entered the room, acting as if she didn’t see Anni, Daphne, or Squirt. She marched up to Diana and whispered something in her ear.
“Forgive me, Anni, this is Miranda. She’s training with me.”
“We already know one another,” said Miranda politely. “From Waterstone Academy.” It was one of her two tones: the one she used for authority figures, while the other, which she used for Anni, was that of pure loathing. Anni wondered if Miranda’s distaste for her ran deeper because she was a human, or because of Mabel.
“Well, we have covered very important issues today, food and culture, but unfortunately, we need to cut our visit short. Anni, Daphne and Squirt will take you to Spadu Hills, where Fortensia is expecting you. Tomorrow afternoon, I’d like you to meet me here to discuss your stay.” Diana smiled. “Oh, and try not to fall into the Lake before then.”
Anni slung her backpack over her shoulders and followed Squirt and Daph
ne down a set of stairs and out onto the deserted cobblestone walkway of the village. The lake was fully drained now, and the dark skies were pouring rain. She didn’t know what to say to Daphne about the velvet bee patch, but she knew it had to be on her mind because all the village shops flashed pictures of it from The V.O.I.C.E. article.
Daphne pulled out a three-person-sized umbrella. They made it to the end of the village circle without speaking until, just before a dirt road, Brat flapped under the umbrella and perched on Anni’s shoulder.
“Either I’m going snozdoolally or you were going to leave the Zephyr without me!”
“Hi, Brat,” said Anni. “No, I wasn’t leaving you. I was following Zelda. I didn’t know that bridge would drop me into the water.”
“Moppins, you’re lucky. You could’ve lost all your memories.” Brat made a sniffing noise. “Have you been drinking ApiumPassiflora? I could use a cup of that right about now. Anyway, did you see the news?”
“What news?” asked Anni, Daphne, and Squirt.
“Elofficials made a public statement in the case of Teddy Waterstone’s death, Lexi’s kidnapping, and the missing Golden Bee Artifact. They have charged someone who they believe is guilty.”
“Who?” asked Anni.
“I absolutely disagree, mind you, but they have charged Egbert Frode Moon.”
FECTUS UNDERGROUND
Lexi emerged through the mirror and doubled over. Her eyes watered as her stomach and head seared with pain. It took several minutes before the feeling subsided to a dull ache. She wiped her eyes and turned around to see if her captor followed. He didn’t. All that remained was a giant old mirror propped up against a wall. She raised her hand to touch it, but it wouldn’t pass through; it had sealed itself.
She was trapped.
Lexi inched down a gray stone hall that led to a vast room filled with a dozen teens, all about her age or older. Four of the most repulsive-looking creatures were herding them into a line. A girl with long, brown hair stood at the end of the line until Lexi joined.
Anni Moon & The Elemental Artifact: An Elemental Fantasy Adventure Series: Book For Kids Ages 9-12 (Anni Moon Series) Page 13