Crises in Love (Zora and Jaylan)

I had been sitting silently for an eternity, lost in thought, and Hannah hadn't disturbed me once.

It wasn't until the light outside began to fade and darkness crept into the room that Hannah finally spoke up, offering a word of comfort. "Allie, shall we head back?"

Glancing out the window, I confirmed it was when street lamps lit up in the early evening.

My gaze inadvertently fell upon the windowsill, where two withered potted plants sat, their dryness contributing to the gloom of my mood.

One appeared to be a spider plant, a mere shadow of its former self. The other was unrecognizable, with only bare twigs remaining.

However, the second plant was odd. It had well-pruned thick branches, suggesting that Marilyn had taken good care of it. What was strange, though, was a thick branch snapped off harshly, drooping sadly then.

I stood up and approached, wondering how it could have broken like this.

People wouldn't treat a treasured plant this way.

Anyone passionate about plants knows they're like children. I could feel it. It nearly broke my heart to see even a leaf fall from the plants I nurtured before I got sick!

By the look of the pruning, Marilyn must have cherished it. How could a branch be broken, then? Could someone else have done it?

The broken branch hung limply, but oddly, its tip was in the soil. I was puzzled by this strange action of breaking it to plant it back inside.

Without thinking, I reached to pull the buried branch tip from the soil.

As the branch tip was out, it dragged up a clump of soil, so dry and hard it was almost rock-like, crumbling into chunks. Beneath that chunk of soil, I spotted the corner of a plastic bag tied up. Driven by curiosity, I quickly grabbed the corner of the bag and yanked it out.

It was an ordinary shopping bag people would use for groceries, seemingly wrapped around something. The middle was tied with string.

I took a closer look and squeezed it, feeling what seemed like a piece of paper inside.

My pupils constricted as I urgently found the end of the string and pulled it loose, and then I called out to Hannah.

Clueless about what I was doing, Hannah came over right after she heard me call. "What are you looking at?"

I showed her what I found.

She looked at the item in my hand with astonishment and asked, "What is that? Where did you find it?"

I pointed to the flowerpot in front of me. "I found it in here."

As I spoke eagerly began to unwrap the plastic. It was layered thickly, obviously wrapped with care,

lik protect the paper inside

from moisture.

Hannah watched curiously, saying, "It looks like it's been packaged up pretty heat. Must be something special. But why would it be buried in a flowerpot? How did you find it?" en.swhovels.net

I didn't have time to answer her questions and focused on peeling away the layers of plastic with care not to damage the contents.

After quite a moment, I finally got through the plastic to reveal a folded piece of paper.

I tossed aside the bag and pulled out the paper, my hands trembling as I unfolded it carefully.

The paper was marked with a rough drawing in black ink, clearly done in haste and without much attention to detail.

There was also a line of text with a

few letters below it. I didn't realize I was holding the paper upside down

until I saw the writing. I quickly

I

turned it around. The handwriting was sloppy and read, "The people

who took us have this symbol."

I studied the symbol closely and looked toward Hannah, staring back at me earnestly.

The symbol on the paper was rough, but it felt eerily familiar.

Still uncertain, I looked up at Hannah for confirmation, "Hannah, doesn't it look like the symbol of AzureEnchantress?"

Taking the paper from me, Hannah examined it, held it at a distance, and then nodded with conviction. "That's the symbol, no doubt about it!"