Chapter 23

The house was rather quiet when Mia entered, "Greta?" she called out but no reply came, she approached Greta's room hesitantly, and twisted the door knob, only to find it locked. "Toby? Toby? Come out boy," she said again but it was not around.

Toby would have been here by now after

sensing her. 'Oh well, Greta must've gone out with him.' she thought to herself.

She ascended the flight of stairs to her room and shut the door. Switching on the lights, she found a pair of red eyes a few inches away staring at her. She almost screamed but Xander muffled her scream in time. She was pushed against the door, standing so close to each other.

"Shsh, don't wake Toby up, I want you to come with me," without waiting for an answer, he clutched her wrist and headed towards the window. He opened it and jumped down, almost 7 feet away. "Jump, I'll catch you," he spread out his hands, ready to catch her.

"No way, I'll use the front door," she protested, but Xander was quick to act. He suddenly jumped up, and yanked her through the window, cradling her as if she were light as a feather. It was so fast that she realized after landing on the ground. "What the.. Xander, w.., what if I fell,"

"Am in a hurry, I'll never let you fall, let's go," he said with his low husky voice, still carrying her. "I will walk Xander, let me down before people see us," she said as her face burned with embarrassment.

With a quiet sigh, Xander put her down and took agile strides ahead of her. She scurried behind him like a toddler trying to keep up with the father. They headed into the woods outside the estate and Mia immediately knew where she was being taken.

Without warning she was lifted up and she was quick to hold onto his neck, he leapt high further into the forest, and Mia shut her eyes since she was scared of heights. They landed beside a big dark tree with dark leaves which were not wilting. 'Has this tree always been here?' she asked herself.

He put her down and took out the green necklace that lingered on his neck. Mia gasped as the once glowing green necklace was darker, with its color fading.

"Something is terribly wrong in our universe, so I couldn't open the portal with the necklace. I need you to open it before all the magic in this necklace oozes and becomes completely black. You know that if that happens when am still on earth I will... die," he said with no expression on his face.

Most of the time, Mia could hardly read him, he was always void of emotions and seemed somehow lost in his own world.

He gave her the necklace, before she could ask what to do with it, it started glowing, as its magic replenished. Its green color was now glowing. Mia stared at it, dumbstruck, was she the one restoring its magic? It was beautiful.

Xander took it and the portal started opening slowly...slower than ever.

After opening, he held Mia's palm and jumped in with her. She expected to see a bright world with green environment, birds flying and chirping melodiously, streams and fountains flowing but everything was the complete opposite.

It was a dark starry night, with all the vegetation dark, bats in the sky, houses initially made of flowers mushrooms and leaves were now thorny. Mia stood still, with her heart plummeting thunderously. She shivered at the cold that seeped through her bone marrows, and the fear of being there.

"Uh..h..X..I...go...home," she lacked the words to say. She hoped this was a dream.

"Come, we need to find queen mother," he stretched out his hand out for her but she didn't even move.

He sighed silently, "Look, please trust me, you are my only hope to find her now,"

"No... enough. Am tired of this okay, am not involved in any of this, I need to go back home right now. Its best if we stop all this. I..I better die with Greta and Zane, my only family close to me. If all that golden saki stuff start happening, its best if am with Zane and Greta. Right now Clyde is missing and I need to find him before he does something crazy. I give up, for now please let me live my life. I've gone through a lot," tears welled up in her miniature like eyes and wetted her long black eyelashes. She started sobbing . Xander has never been in such a situation to comfort a crying human girl, he just started at her in silence.

"Fine, its goodbye then" he held out his necklace to open the portal but it churned and became dark. He gave it her to replenish the necklace's magic but nothing was happening, instead, it broke and turned to ash. He stared at it for a while and then looked at Mia.

"Am afraid that you won't be going back," he said calmly, still maintaining his composure, as always. Mia suddenly felt the world crumbling and turning upside down,she felt her head light, and blacked out. Xander was quick to catch her and carried her to the nearest homestead.

He knocked on the door and a little girl opened. "Mommy, we have visitors," she said, staring at them.

"How many times have I told you to keep away from the door and opening for strangers, get inside Sophie," a woman yelled and the girl ran inside as the woman approached the gate.

She was about to close it when she saw a beautiful young boy carrying an unconscious girl. "Oh my, what are you two young pyrexes doing outside now? And what happened to her?" she asked looking concerned. Xander could tell that the woman meant no harm.

"We lost our way and she fainted, and I don't know how to take care of a sphinx like her," he said.

"Come inside, I understand you are a phoenix with good character, not trying to take advantage of the situation." After entering, she motioned for him to sit down, but Xander said he would stand instead. She took Mia on a huge bed that was in the living room, and stared at her first, then glanced at Xander. She seemed to be suspicious of something.

"Sophie, get me a bowl of cold water and a soft towel," the woman said, and the little girl emerged from the kitchen, hurrying. "Here mother," she handed her the bowl of cold water, and stood there, watching her mother.

"I guess you two are not from around here, are you two from the city of Shama?" she said, as she rolled the towel on her forehead.

"Yes," came his short reply.

"Huh, I guessed correctly, you two are from such a rich city, wearing developed clothes I have never seen before in my life," the woman was talking about the humans' clothes they were both wearing, and leather shoes.

"So rare to find a pyrex with hair white as snow like this. Such a beautiful sphinx we have here, is she your girlfriend?" Xander found her questions annoying, but answered her because the woman was kind enough to them.

"No," came his other short reply.

"I bet she is not your sister because members of the same family inherit the same hair color."

"She's just... a friend," he answered.

"So cute, date her instead, she's so beautiful. Honesty, I've never seen a more beautiful sphinx like her before, with this mass of curly white hair, and beautiful pale skin. Can't wait for her to wake up so I can see her eye color. I bet its pretty."

Little Sophie approached the stranger and tugged at his jeans, "Boy, do you want to eat the food left? Right now food is not plentiful since the invasion, its not free, we have to work for it. Are you perhaps hungry?" the little girl asked.

Xander stared down at her, "Am good thank you, I'd not want to eat the food your mom worked for. Speaking of working, uh.." he didn't know what to call the woman.

"Kora, call me Kora," she said smiling.

"Kora, pardon my ignorance, what has happened to the kingdom, my friend here and I went to drink and have fun, we drank heavily and remained unconscious for four days. What happened." Xander lied so as to not become more suspicious.

"Did you not hear? 3 days ago, something unusual was drawing power from Queen Mother, she was aging again. We soon realized that outsiders had access to the Saki dimension, and cast a spell on Queen Mother. The sceptre was broken by the invaders, everything turned dark, and all magic was sucked from her. Right now she is chained awaiting her demise. First, they are working on opening the portal to the human world to find the golden saki. I can't believe the golden saki has been born. They will find he or she and keep the golden saki, then kill the chosen one. Hmm, they want to find who the chosen one is, to kill him because they don't want him fulfilling his duty of killing the Saki. You know the chosen one is the only one who can finish off the Golden Saki. They want The Saki by their side to have all powers," she said, still patting cold towel on her forehead. Xander did not at all feel scared, he lived knowing he will die some day, he was only born with a purpose, to kill the Golden Saki, not to enjoy life.

"And who invaded our dimension?" Xander asked.

"My my my young phoenix, you know nothing, can't you even guess by the look of the eerie background? You are lucky I love talking sooo much, its the wizards and witches. They behold great magic and power than us, so evil and dark. It was so dangerous for you to roam with your girlfriend this late. They now all live among us, what if you knocked on their door." The woman shipped them together, but Xander didn't seem even slightly disturbed.

"Oh, forgot to mention, the witches and wizards are being helped by Dracula, they own the kingdom now. There are rules governing us all, no fighting with witches and wizards as they are now citizens of Saki Dimension, no free food, one has to work in the market, or at Dracula's palace or anywhere else to earn currency to pay for food and services, in short, its just like I heard of the Earth Dimension, you work to meet your needs. There is a ball

tomorrow, every pyrex, witch and wizard id allowed to join. Dracula is doing this to enjoy the taste of sphinxes and witches. He wants pleasure, he is looking for a mate, and concubines. Make sure your girlfriend doesn't go over there, Dracula might salivate over her." Xander didn't need to argue over her saying girlfriend, because he cared less, just then, Mia's eyelashes fluttered and she slowly opened her eyes.

Little Sophie quickly approached her, and stood close to her. She placed her tiny hands on her forehead, feeling her temperature. She seemed to really like strangers.

Mia found a cute little girl, with orange hair, orange eye color, orange eyelashes and orange eyebrows standing in front of her. At such a young age, she was the definition of beauty. She was quick to realize she was not a human, since she had extraordinary looks.