Princess of the Silver Ocean - Chapter 107

Davitt smiled and watched as Astoria took out a piece of the puzzle from her belt bag. She showed it to the treant, and it nodded. The treant slowly stretched its large branch hand at them.

In its hand was another piece of their puzzle. She took the puzzle piece and thanked the treant, putting the puzzle piece safely in her bag. Now, they had just one more puzzle piece to collect.

“We better get going now,” the fairy said, “We have one more place to go, and that’s the Anthousai Museum.”

They all nodded and waved goodbye to the treant. It shook its head, causing a few of its green leaves to drop to the ground. They then left the Heavenly Spruce Forest.

“Wow,” the fairy said as Astoria hailed a cab, “That was amazing. Seeing a treant for the first time felt like I was dreaming!”

Laojin turned to face her, a confused look on his face.

“I thought you said you came here when you were younger,” the troll said, “So didn’t you see a treant back then?”

The fairy shook her head ‘no.’

“At that time,” the fairy explained, “There were no treants here in Ashen, and this forest did not exist.”

“Ah, I see,” Laojin said, nodding in understanding.

“Let’s go,” Astoria said, getting into a cab.

The cab drove to their last destination, the Anthousai Museum. Although it was a museum, it had the appearance of a massive castle. Eleven narrow, square towers were scattered in a seemingly random pattern, but had been bulit for an ideal defense against thieves. It was connected by huge, massive walls made of obsidian.

Simple windows are scattered thinly around the walls in fairly symmetrical patterns. They stared at the vast pink gate with broad metal doors and the guards standing at the entrance.

Small bushes grew close to the Anthousai Museum gate. This museum looked very new, but without knowing its history it is impossible to tell if it is a newly bulit museum or a well kept one.

“Umm…” Laojin stared at the castle-like museum, “A-are we sure this is a museum?”

Laurelai glanced at the troll and shrugged.

“He’s right,” she said, looking at Davitt, “Are we at the right place? Did I read the map wrong?”

The fairy began to look at the map in her hands.

“Is this really a museum because it looks more like a castle to me?” she mumbled to herself as she stared intently at the map.

“Yeah,” Davitt said, giving her a quick glance, “This is the Anthousai Museum.”

“It is so beautiful,” Astoria said, staring at the museum Infront of them.

“Agreed,” the fairy and troll said in unison.

Davitt began to walk to the entrance and there was a witch who was near the entrance. She smiled upon seeing them as if she was expecting them.

“Hello!” she said cheerily.

They noticed that she was wearing a work uniform.

“Is she an employee of the museum?” the fairy whispered to Astoria who just shrugged.

‘Judging from her work uniform,’ Astoria thought, pressing her lips together, ‘I think she is.’

She wore an almost school-like work uniform. She wore a navy coloured paneled skirt. The skirt reached down to just above her ankles. The skirt was paired with regular socks and Mary Jane shoes colored in scarlet and navy respectively.

She wore a fairly short sleeved shirt, which was neatly tucked into her skirt and covered with a short navy jacket. A navy tie that divides the middle of her barely buttoned up jacket was worn. The ties broadly striped in the same colors. Her jacket had colored lines around the sleeves.

“Is she a student?” Laojin asked Davitt.

The witch laughed, her hands placed on her waist.

“No, no,” she said, waving her hands frantically in the air, “I am not a student.”

“Then why are you wearing a school uniform?” Laojin slowly asked, raising his eyebrow as he felt both weary and skeptical about the witch standing in front of them.

The witch grit her teeth and squinted her brown eyes.

“I told that ass of a boss that wearing a work uniform like this one would give the wrong idea,” the witch mumbled to herself, clenching her fists, “But he has such a wierd taste and insisted. Tourist do not take me seriously.”

She sighed and looked at the people standing in front of her. She smiled apologetically and shrugged.

“Believe it or not-” she began to speak in a clam manner with gritted teeth.

It was funny how everyone, except for the troll who was completely oblivious, could tell that the troll made the witch angry with the question he had asked her.

“I think you made her angry,” Laurelai quickly whispered to Laojin.

Laojin blinked in surprise.

“Angry?” he quietly asked the fairy who nodded vigorously, “But I was just asking. It was not my intention to anger her. I thought she was a student.”

“-this is my work uniform,” the witch continued as she watched the troll and fairy whisper to each other, “My boss has a…peculiar taste.”

“Oh,” was all Laojin could say.

“Anyway,” the witch quickly said, “that is beside the point. What brings you to the Anthousai museum?”

Everyone looked at the group leader, Davitt.

“We are doing the Riddle Race and this is our last stop,” Davitt told the witch whose face suddenly radiated with happiness.

“Ah! The Riddle Race?” the witch said, clapping her hands together.

Astoria nodded, watching the witch who she felt like had multiple identities, jump in excitement.

‘She is quite a temperamental one, this witch,’ Astoria thought with an amused look on her face.

“That is great,” the witch said, clasping her hands behind her back, “because I am your last stop.”

“You are?” the fairy asked with raised eyebrows.

“But you are not wearing a whit-”

“-I do not like that boring t-shirt,” the witch said, interrupting Laojin and shutting him up with a brown-eyed glare, “But I will prove it to you.”

The witch placed her hands in her jacket pockets and pulled out two puzzle pieces and a scrunched up white t-shirt with a hyacinth flower.

“I see our puzzle piece,” Astoria said, staring at the witch’s palms.

Astoria then looked up at the witch’s brown eyes.

“Do we have a challenge to complete or…”

The witch shook her head, ‘yes.’

“Firstly, I will give you four entrance tickets so that you can enter the museum,” the witch began speaking, staring at each of them except Laojin who avoided eye contact, thus averting his gaze from her.

The witch ‘hmphed’ and continued speaking, pulling out four entrance tickets from the inside pocket of her navy jacket.

“When you go inside,” she continued, “Go to the gem section. There, your challenge awaits. Once you have successfully completed your challenge, come back here to me. I will then give you your riddle.”

Everyone nodded and the witch smiled.

“Here are your entrance tickets,” she said, handing each of them a ticket, “Please make sure you do not touch anything once you are inside.”

The witch then crossed her arms and fixed her eyes on Laojin, the troll.

“If you break anything,” she said, changing her tone into a serious one and not blinking her eyes at all, “Anything at all. You will be liable.”

Laojin looked to the left and right, feeling her menacing gaze on him. He gulped and pressed his lips together.

“Okay,” the witch said, fisting her hands in the air and smiling, “Good luck!”

They all nodded and stepped into the castle-like museum.

“Aaaah,” Laojin groaned, letting out a long sigh in the process once he stepped into the museum.

“What is wrong?” Astoria asked him, raising her eyebrow as they made their way to the gem section using the arrows and labels for directions.

“I thought she was going to cast a spell on me or something,” the troll replied, rubbing his neck in distress, “Like turn me into an ant maybe and then step on me.”

He let out a half-hearted laugh and pressed his lips together.

“She cannot do that,” the fairy said to him with a smile.

“Yeah,” Astoria added, “Wouldn’t that be considered as murder?”

Davitt stared at the label above the wall and turned to a hallway, the rest following closely behind him.

“She had a murderous look on her face,” they heard the gargoyle class president say as he looked around as they walked, “It was directed at Laojin though.”

“What did I do!?” the troll exclaimed, shaking his head, “All I asked was why she wore a school uniform so…Oh.”

Astoria and Laurelai laughed in unison when the troll realised that the reason the witch seemed to dislike him was because of that question.

“She must get asked that question a lot so she was probably angry at you because of that,” Davitt said, coming to a stop, “Also, we are here.”

They stared at the gem section of the Anthousai Museum. Multiple gems were on display. Gems of different colours glistened in the lighting.

“This looks like the challenge,” Laurelai said, pointing to gold engraved writing on a silver plaque.

Astoria nodded and bent her head, slumping her shoulders in the process. She read the challenge.

“It says here,” Astoria began to explain to them, “that we have five gems and among them is a fake. We have to find which is the fake gem based on the descriptions and clues given.”

“Seems easy enough…I think,” the fairy said, pressing her lips together.

“And if we have the correct answer?” Laojin asked, “Do we have to go to the witch to see if we are correct?”

Astoria and Davitt nodded in unison.

“But if we are wrong,” Astoria sighed, feeling irritated all of a sudden, “We will have to come back here to a new set of gems.”

“What?” the fairy exclaimed, earning a few looks from other creatures walking by.

“That is insane,” Laojin groaned, slumping his shoulders.

“Agreed,” Astoria nodded, “So, let’s be smart about this, especially since this is our last stop.”

The fairy sighed and nodded.

“How will we get new gems though?” the troll asked, “Will the witch make these ones disappear with her magic?”

“Probably,” Astoria and Davitt both said in unison.

“Okay!” the fairy exclaimed again, clasping her hands together in front of her chest, “Let’s do this. We can do it. It is our last stop so let’s do our best as Nexi said.”

They all nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” the fairy said to them, “I will read the descriptions and clues given. You, guys, pay close attention, got it?”

They nodded and began to listen to her as she read the descriptions of the gems.