Distant Lands

"Oh, who is that stud waiting for us?" I smile at Ivan, who wore the black leather jacket I had gifted him for Christmas. And I was right; he looks good in it.

Ivan smiles and shakes his head, "Ready to go? You and Emerald look very nice too."

"Thank you," Emerald gives a shy smile but composes herself quickly. She looks so professional in her black pantsuit. And yes, I wore what I usually wear. I just added my Military pin on the upper left side of my jacket.

"Thanks, Ivan," I say. "So, how do I walk into the doorway correctly?"

Emerald explains to me in detail how to walk into the doorway. Ivan inputs some numbers on his watch, and blue light begins to trace the shape of a door in the shed’s wall in front of us, and it gives me flashbacks.

“Okay, now are we ready to go?” Ivan asks.

“Alright," I look at both of them, "we’ll just go there, greet them, accept their thanks, and quickly return.”

Ivan walks forward, and I grab onto his left hand; he looks back at me. Then I extend my left arm towards Emerald. She holds my hand, and we walk in through the doorway.

"Okay, here we go," I say nervously.

I feel the electricity in the air. I take a deep breath, hold my breath, close my eyes, begin to cross the doorway, and get the free-fall feeling. I feel the electricity surrounding us, and I’m running out of air. I squeeze Ivan and Emerald’s hands. Then suddenly, I feel the sensation of floating in water. The solid floor underneath my feet signals that we have landed. Letting go of their hands, I gasp for air.

“See, that wasn’t so painful,” Ivan says.

“Well, my muscles are sore, but at least I didn’t pass out,” I say.

“That goes away quickly." Emerald looks straight into my eyes, "Alright, Elizabeth, just like we talked about. You need to follow our lead, okay?”

I nod. "I get it."

There is blue light still surrounding the doorway into Argent, which I learned the name means, silver.

We step out of the doorway, and right in front of us, we have a silver car with no top waiting for us. A man dressed in a black uniform stands in front of us. The older man with white hair doesn’t have any facial expression on his face. He looks like he’s been working greeting people through the doorway for years.

“Welcome to Argent, citizens from Azure,” he bows to us. I give him my slow nod and a smile. He motions to the car with no doors. Ivan steps in first, then me, and then Emerald. The man gets into the driver’s seat and moves the vehicle forward.

Ivan and Emerald remain silent. Sitting between them, I have the strong urge to start a conversation, but Emerald said to follow their lead, so I keep my mouth shut. They both are just looking at the scenery. The sky is a lilac color with hints of light gray. It must be late in the day in this world. The land surrounding this long road is rock and dirt terrain, with hardly any greenery, and off in the distance, the land is surrounded by high mountain peaks.

Up ahead, I start to see a huge castle. As we get closer, bushes that look like gumdrops begin to line the road, all the way up to the castle gates. I look up at the castle in wonder. It’s a rock building with hints of shiny silver lining some parts of the castle walls. As we get closer, we begin to hear music.

Two soldiers open the tall gates to let the car through. The large courtyard is full of people like we just arrived at a big party. When they see our car come in, they turn to look at us, and the music suddenly stops.

Okay, now things got real. My nerves start to eat at me, and I pinch my hand to get a hold of myself. Ivan squeezes my left hand, and I look at him.

“We can do this,” he says.

“All of this for a bracelet?” I whisper. He doesn’t say anything but smiles at the person assigned to greet us. Emerald exits the car first, and we follow. The lady welcoming us is wearing a long green dress, smiles at us, and bows.

“Welcome. We are honored to meet you. Please follow me,” She says, leading us up the ancient stone stairs. Two men open the tall white castle doors, and the lady leads us inside—the people inside the castle part when they see us, creating a path for us. I feel like I just walked into the lion's den. For some reason being in the presence of royalty scares me. It might be because of all the shows I watch showing ruthless royals, sentencing people to death unfairly, chopping their heads off, with no remorse. The many eyes are triggering my fight or flight response, but wait, I am the guest of honor, dammit, get a hold of yourself. I straighten up and walk with confidence, ignoring all the eyes. I pretend that the three of us are the only ones in the room, getting ready to meet the royals.

We get closer, and I see the royals. Both are wearing gray silk attire decorated with silver metal details. The king is sitting in a tall shiny silver chair, and next to him is a young woman, who looks like she’s in her twenties, sitting in another tall silver chair. The princess seems happy to see us. She puts a strand of her blond hair behind her ear, and I see she is wearing a diamond bracelet on her wrist. She looks so much like her father, with the same colored hair and blue eyes. It’s hard to read the king; he’s not smiling, but his face is relaxed, and his eyes look content.

We get closer, Ivan stands to my left, and Emerald stands to my right. I do my slow, nod bow. And I see the royals looking down at Ivan and Emerald, who did a kneeling greeting. Suddenly I feel Ivan reaching up and grab my hand to pull me down, and Emerald hits the back of my knee, forcing me to kneel as well. I hear the princess giggle. I kneel on my right knee and bow my head, feeling degraded. We didn’t discuss what type of greeting we would do. This is their fault; I’ve never met any royals before.

We look up when the king stands up, then the princess. They start to come closer, and we stand up.

“It is an honor to meet the young lady Elizabeth. She captured the thief that stole our prized jewel,” the king says, looking down at me.

“You see this, Elizabeth,” the princess shows me her bracelet. It has beautiful diamonds. “I carry this bracelet everywhere with me. This bracelet is the only thing I have left of my mother; she passed away. These diamonds are her ashes. If I lost this bracelet, I would be devastated. It is irreplaceable,” she gets teary-eyed and looks at the king.

“In appreciation, we present you with this silver pendant in the shape of a rose. It represents who we are,” the king says. Then the princess gets closer to me, pins the silver rose next to my double infinity pin, and looks at me with gratitude in her eyes. I smile at both of them and bow my head. Thank god this is over with. Then, the king looks at all the guests.

“We also prepared a banquet for our guests of honor; let the celebration begin!” the king says, smiling. The king and the princess walk back to sit down in their silver chairs. The music coming from a live orchestra suddenly starts, and people mingle with each other. Even though I know the night is not over, I feel relief. Ivan and Emerald look relieved as well.

"So much for just a quick meeting," I say.