The Ugly Flower - Liza Mynx (ebook reader android TXT) 📗

lesson?! I thought you were just trying to teach me the basic information for whatever reason, I don’t know! But this isn’t basic info on any level of learning! I mean, I already knew most of the stuff you said, except the crap about ‘they were given knowledge no one else in the world was given’. A) What is it that they knew, and b) you only named four people and you said that five people were given this ‘knowledge’! What are you talking about?! And you better tell me now, because otherwise, I’m not leaving this spot! You can go tell ‘the Lady’ that I couldn’t care less about her need to speak to me!” She then crossed her arms and legs to emphasize her point.
Oberon and Remises looked at each other, and then started bursting out laughing. Katherine knew why; all three knew that it would only take one of these men to be able to drag her the rest of the way to the city. Still, though, she knew she’d gotten her point across because as soon as they stopped laughing, it was Remises that spoke.
“Okay, Oberon purposely left out the fifth person because the Lady explains that to everyone before. . . ” he stopped there and looked at Oberon as though he needed help because he didn’t know what to say.
“Before?” Katherine prompted.
“Before she decides what to do with them: either let them become a member of our civilization or not,” Oberon said quickly.
This was good enough for her, but she still had one more question. Well, actually she had about a thousand more questions, but she knew she didn’t have enough time to voice all of them.
“So what is this ‘knowledge’?”
“It is a prophecy,” Remises said simply.
She sat there quietly, and all of the sudden, the shock of where she was and what was happening finally caught up with her and buffeted her right in the face with such a force she actually flinched. She fought for breath and felt Oberon’s hand rest firmly on her back, cold as ice. She turned to look into his eyes, those brilliant eyes, and she felt a little air escape into her lungs.
“Madam Katherine, are you well?” Oberon asked with true concern.
Once she could breathe normally, she brushed his hand off of her back and stood up. She started backing slowly away from them both, shaking her head.
“Am I well? Am I well?! NO! No I am not well! I’m on and island in the middle of the ocean that is surrounded by fog with freaks like you trying to take me to ‘the Lady’, all the while telling me stuff about famous people in history knowing some prophecy! At first I was going along with it, but when you started talking about fairies, I started suspecting you were insane, and now I’m sure of it. And to top all of that off, my boat was attacked by some thing and it crashed onto the beach so I can’t get home and I was supposed to be there a while ago! So you know what?! Just stay away from me, and I’ll go try to make a boat of some sort to get me the hell off this island asylum!”
She turned to walk back towards the beach, but she felt a hand grab her elbow with a weird mixture of softness and firmness. She looked back to see that Oberon had moved behind her with lightning fast speed and was now looking at her with sad eyes.
“Please, we will help you. I will do anything I have to to make sure you will be comfortable and not harmed. As soon as She is done with you, no matter what her decision may be, I will arrange for you to be given one of our fishing boats so you can travel wherever you may wish. But please, my lady, do not leave us now.”
She could almost feel this force pushing her towards him; and she was sure he felt it too, for he momentarily had a surprised look in his eyes. Her mind was almost completely changed, but then Remises spoke.
“And it’s not like you have any other type of protection, and you definitely need it. So what do you say?”
That was it.
“I’ll take my chances with the stumpfry!”
With that, she ripped her arm out of Oberon’s grip and walked back towards the beach as if she were a model on the catwalk.
Part of her was hoping that Oberon would run after her and plead with her one more time to stay; she was sure that if he had, she would have done anything he asked of her. But a bigger part of her wanted to get away from all of this and forget it all, even the strange feeling she got whenever Oberon was near her. Her mind knew she needed to get away, but her heart felt that if she left she’d never feel those strong feelings again.
She’d found her way to the beach and stood there looking at the crystal clear water that expanded before her. She saw her boat, or at least what was left of it, and broke down into tears. How was she going to get home? Even if she somehow managed to create a make-shift raft, how would she be able to navigate through the fog that loomed in the distance? What about all the strange creatures in the water and on the island? If the raft she made wasn’t big enough, she was sure there would be some type of animal in that water that could swallow it whole.
She hardly paid attention to the sound in the distance that somewhat resembled a bell, but when she heard the sound of feet pounding in the forest behind her, she turned around to see at least two dozen men running towards her. They had the same strange, unique physical features that Oberon and Remises had: they were all pale beyond belief, and their eyes were bright orange.
She froze there not knowing what to do, and the strange men surrounded her. She searched their faces to find Oberon or Remises, but neither was in this crowd.
“Woman, stand your ground and speak your name!” the man before her said. He was absolutely stunning, and Katherine felt all the breath in her body leave her. His hair was the color of the midnight sky, and it fell in ringlets around his face that reminded her of statues of Greek gods. His voice, though, scared her. It wasn’t like Oberon’s, kind but firm, or Remises, sarcastic but gentle. His voice was just filled with raw power that grated against her nerves, making her skin itch.
“Look, just because I am a woman doesn’t mean you can shout orders at me and just except me to do them. I don’t even know you, but you should know that I’ve had the worst day of my life and I just want to go home! So if you all would just excuse me, I’ll be on my way then.”
She turned to go down the beach, but the men on that side withdrew long knives from sheathes on their sides that she hadn’t even seen. They held the tips of their knives inches away from her skin, and she felt waves of heat radiating from each one. She backed up and turned back to the man obviously in charge.
“Alright, what are you going to do to me? Take me to ‘the Lady’? Because I really don’t have time for this,” Katherine said with all the strength she could muster, which really wasn’t a lot at this point.
The man glared at her. “How did you know about our Lady?”
She hesitated before she said anything. The way he asked the question made her feel nervous, like she wasn’t supposed to know about anything or anyone on the island. She quickly fastened a lie in her head.
“I’ve been here for a while and I have been able to observe your little civilization for some time. I know a lot of things. Now listen to me, I am tired, hungry, frustrated and very much in need of a shower! So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home!”
God I hope these guys can’t read my mind or else I’d be DEAD!
He stared at her for a long time, then turned and whispered something to the man next to him. Katherine couldn’t tell whether or not they bought her lie, but when he spoke, her heart dropped and buried itself in the sand at her feet.
“Madam, we know what you speak of is false. Our ‘little civilization’ is very technologically advanced, and when your boat passed through the fog, we were alarmed.” He took a step closer to her, and now he was inches from her face. As he spoke, she could smell his sweet breath; it smelled like a fresh, spring rain. But, she knew she couldn’t get caught up in his smell, because even though the words had a sweet aroma, they were spoken with ice and cut through her security. “Tell me now. How did you know?”
She was scared. That’s all there was to it. This man, his voice, those weapons, they terrified her. But she had a feeling in her gut that told her she mustn’t tell them that she had already met Oberon and Remises. She couldn’t explain it; she just knew she shouldn’t say anything.
So with new found courage, that she had no idea where she found from, Katherine said, “You’ll have to kill me before I tell you anything.”
He smiled at her. It wasn’t filled with kindness or even humor. To call it a smile at all seemed unthinkable, but it was the only way to describe the expression on his face. It was cold, dark, and made him ever so gorgeous!
“That can be arranged.”
He turned to his men and gave a signal, and then two of them grabbed a hold of her arms and pulled her towards the forest.
“Wait! What are you doing?! Get your hands off of me!”
Katherine was ignored, and the men just walked on, not saying anything. At times, to Katherine, it seemed like they weren’t even paying attention to where they were going; it was as if they were in a trance. Their eyes were glossy and the lids of them seemed heavy. All of them stared straight ahead the entire walk. Katherine tried to fight to get out of the men’s hold, but their hands wouldn’t budge. They all just walked through the trees, not even seeing where they were going.
Within minutes, a small city was in Katherine’s view.
It wasn’t like any city she’d ever seen before. It kind of reminded her of pictures of Aztec cities, but the style was different. In the center of the city was a giant step pyramid that kissed the clouds in the sky. It was open at the top, but she couldn’t see much of what was inside from where she was on the ground. There were different levels on the pyramid that had small little buildings connected to it. Just about every inch of the whole pyramid was covered in blue, purple, green, and orange paint.
The rest of the city was basically centered on one main street that led from the breaking of the forest to the pyramid, then to a harbor behind the pyramid. The other buildings ranged from one to two stories, and they were plain colored like sand. She could see small openings in the buildings that she guessed were windows, and bigger openings with pieces of cloth over them that were supposed to be doorways.
I thought he said they were “technologically advanced”. This