Chapter 2: Arerat

  We had spent a whole day inside the chariots, still heading for my uncle and cousin's home town.

  The journey was fun with the likes of my cousin. She was so fun to speak with. When I would talk about school, she would listen patiently, and excitedly. She would pose all sorts of questions I'd never have imagined anyone would have loved to hear from my mouth. She asked me if I had any crushes, if there was a boy always poking at me during maths class, or if I drew caricatures of my teachers.

  We discussed all sorts of girly stuffs and filled ourselves with lots of laughter. At a point I was almost tempted to tell her I could talk with animals, but I restrained myself after second thoughts.

  Did I remember to mention that Roy had been seated all along on our chariot? It was not until the following morning that I found out. When it was dawn, I began to hear his wonderful morning song, and of course, the whistle was unmistakably Roy's.

  Since my cousin was yet to rise from sleep, I poked my head outside, struggling to see if I could get a glimpse of him. Then I said, “Roy, is that you?”, of which he began chanting his favourite song:

  If it is not Lord Roy, oh who could it be?

  His voice rings above the heavens, and makes the angels free!

  With glamour and strength and vigour, I soar the southern wind

  They yearn to see my face, making a horse stand on its hind!

*

  I couldn't help but chuckle and beckon him over to sit on my hand. He swooped down and perched on my wrist, pecking at my cheeks, here and there.

  “Ou-ouch, that hurts!”

  Roy chuckled and began to boast again.

  “You know, I have one of the finest beaks in the whole of earth. Even the queen wishes I could give her a peck.”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, and get holes drilled into her magnificent cheeks.”

  “Humph,” said Roy. “That is an insult against my dignity.”

  “Oh, forgive me dear sir, but it is fairly the just truth — if you could get close to her cheeks, that is.”

  “I'm hungry, Stephanie,” Roy finally said, letting down his pride and making himself look like a fledgling, after struggling not to argue with what I'd just said.

  “Oh,” I said, reaching for a bag and drawing out a slice of bread. He reached for it with his beak in complete gratitude. And just then, Dorothy seemed to have stretched as though to rise from her sleep.

  Roy quickly flapped away with the bread slice and returned to his former position on the top of the chariot.

  “Good morning, my dear Stephanie!”

  In perplexity, I quickly shot a glance outside to see if Roy had totally left before returning back the greeting, trying hard not to attract any suspicion from her.

  Once in a while, as we spoke, I would hear Roy's voice screaming: “I'm with Ste-phaa-niee! Everybody knows that! Squirrels know, the horses know, I know!”

  I would try hard to suppress my laughter, but sometimes Roy just seemed to know this then add some nasty jokes that would make me burst into laughter.

  I don't know what went through my cousin's head, but I'm sure she was gradually getting to understand what I meant when I said I was a creep.

  In the afternoon, I heard Roy saying something about going ahead of us to rest in a shade before our chariots could meet up. He was sure I heard him, so he didn't bother to ask me to give him a sign if I did. He only passed by my window and whispered, “Au-revoir, mademoiselle.”

  Anytime our chariot reaches Roy's resting spot, he'd say, “Aww, horses! You call yourselves horses? Even a chick could run faster than you all joined together.” Another time, he said, “It is an advantage to being slow, anyway. I could sleep enough before gathering more strength for flight.” Then finally, he complained that the sun was too hot. He went to the horses and asked for directions to their destination, but none said anything to him.

  In the evening, Dorothy and I played chess while eating some biscuits. She was so good in it that I lost five times straight. She only managed to let me win once. During all the games, she would teach me where I was wrong and how I could better have played it. Yet, no matter how well I played it, she still ended up winning.

  Finally, when the moon had chased the sun to its rest, I began to feel so many presence around me. It was something I'd recently discovered how to do by closing my eyes and opening my heart. Due to the fact that I wasn't very knowledgeable in animals, I could only identify the birds. I could even tell that Roy was deep asleep. The rest presence around me carried some obscure aura.

  We had our evening meal, and just as we were about to turn off the lantern, Dorothy paused and parted the dropped curtains by her side of the window. A strong light seemed to seep in which I could not make sense of. It was actually supposed to be night, in fact, the interior of the chariot was dark.

  “Arerat,” she mumbled then smiled excitedly.

  “Arerat?” I repeated, confused.

  “It's home, we just arrived Arerat,” said Dorothy.

  I parted my own side of the window and what I saw next made my eyes almost fall out from its sockets.

  “This. . . this is impossible!”

  Blue phosphorescence poured into my eyes and it seemed to have had an imposing presence. It seemed to have been living. It seemed to have been searching my soul. All of a sudden, I seemed to understand its form of communication. It went into my head and discovered my greatest secret.

  It filled me with sudden peace, surprisingly. I could feel something burning in my fist, and so I gently opened it. Inside my hand was a beautiful butterfly. It glowed better than the best fireflies. It looked like something sketched out from fairytale. I tried setting it free, but I didn't expect what I saw next.

  The butterfly floated into the sky amongst the different bulbs of mystical lights that hung all around in the empty space. Then it flew into the heavy phosphorescence and grew as big as a magnified butterfly in a camera, covering a vast majority of the empty space. Its colours shone brighter and more beautiful than any rainbow I'd ever seen. It flew back to face me, then burst into little, pebbles of sparks, engulfing my whole being.

  At a point, I'd already accepted what I was seeing to be only just a dream, however, turning back to see my cousin, I began to contemplate.

  “You-you too!”

  As she said those words, I could feel the strong ecstacy behind them. She was so excited that I had to pinch myself severally.

  “What is this place?” I asked her, turning to look outside once again.

  “This is Arerat, the gateway of the gifted.”

  The words sunk in, although I'm not sure I could actually seem to understand what I just heard, or all that I'd just seen. I pinched my hardel, again.

  “This dream is getting too long, when do I wake up?”

  My cousin shook her head.

  “No, Stephanie, this is not a dream. Everything you see is real. This place is called Arerat, and was built by our ancestors billions of years ago. We and only we could locate this place, and it is simply impossible for mankind to find it here.”

  She looked at me with wide eyes then pointed to my palm. I looked down as well. My heart skipped a beat. When did I get a tattoo?

  On my palm was a wonderful drawing of a butterfly, exactly like the type that had been in my fist some minutes ago. Then from the base of my palm towards the long part of my arm were imprints of claws (actually claw prints, but much tinier).

  Dorothy slapped her forehead as if to say I-should-have-known.

  “You've already undergone mutation, Steph! How come your parents never said anything about it to us?! How come you never mentioned it?!”

  “Mutation?”