Chapter 2

Pink-White opened his mind to the surroundings. The colors had taken on a brighter tinge. He tried to recognize the place, had he been here before? It looked like a place that one could only dream about. The flowers were brighter as though more color had been splashed on their petals. Everything was radiant. The sky too had a life of its own, vibrant with color. The clouds were breathing, churning as the wind turned them.

His mother's voice snapped him out of his daze. "There is something you must know and I thought to myself that what better day to tell you this than today when your heart is open and warm." As if to answer him, his mother swished her hands over the leaves on a tree standing in front of her. "Beautiful is it not, my son?"

"Yes, it is mother. But where are we?" His patience was running thin because he was not sure why she was here. If it is his life that had come to an end, he needed to know that early enough. Maybe he could make a bargain with darling fate. "Why here mum? Where are we?"

His mind was working backwards asking the questions that had to be asked first last and those that should be last first.

"I did not want anyone to listen to our conversation so I brought you here. You do not know this place. Maybe you have visited it before in your dreams, I know it seems familiar to your eyes. It was your father's and my safe place. We would go into each other's minds when we wanted to be private about our thoughts and plans depending on who called out the other. This time I invited you. We are in your mind Pink..."

He was dumbstruck. Since that fateful night, his mother had never made any appearances not suddenly or foretold, ever! It was now that it occurred to him that he still felt hurt by what she had done. He asked the most logical thing that his mind could conjure up at the moment.

"Is everything alright mother?"

"Yes, son it is. Everything is alright, at least it still is," she looked out thoughtfully before bending down to pluck on a red rose. The flower responded to her petting. It bloomed in her hands as she simpered. She continued to walk to the tree in the far end. It was as though things and objects glided across the surface effortlessly not under the influence of wind but of their own volition. Pink-White found himself mindlessly imitating his mother's movements.

Next thing he knew they were sitting beneath a huge tree shade that swayed with the wind. The daffodils spread to pave way for clear land where Terese and Pink sat.

"What do you mean mother when you say 'at least it still is'? What are you trying to say? What is going on?"

"Oh my son, too many questions and to them only a few answers can I give thee." She knew Pink-White was terror-stricken by whatever she was telling him. Uncertainty and confusion marked the features of his countenance. She could see the way his throat bobbed up and down.

His glassy eyes gave away the fears he never voiced. 'Poor thing,' she thought. If he only knew what lay ahead. She was not in the place to tell him the whole truth which is why she went for a warning instead. Darkness was lurking in the shadows, their lives in danger but there was little she could do to save them, she had already done her sacrifice and where she was her hands were tied. A warning would suffice, so she settled for that. Better half a loaf than no bread at all, right? It still didn't feel right.

"I do not understand Mother. What is all this? What are you trying to tell me?"

"It is why I summoned you here," she paused and scanned the encompassing mountain ranges, then looked back at her son, "Here... in calm unknown serenity, because a storm is coming."

"But the sky is clear mother; surely there cannot be a storm coming. By far, not today. It does not look so."

"Just like your father, for a king so wise, you adamantly ignore the pain because it is better to look at the bright side." She lifted her skirts as she got off the ground. "Calm before a storm my child but like all storms, this too shall pass."

She strode away from him into the cotton clouds and faded away with them, poof! He was a wise man, her son, he would figure it out at some point. Pink-White returned from his reverie, he confirmed what his mother had meant when she said they were in his mind. His heads hurt from such exertion and power usage.

*Snap! Snap! Snap!*

"Papaaa, papaaaa... the banquet..." his daughter, Shinja was standing right in front of him clicking her fingers upfront in his face.

She mentioned a banquet, which banquet? Pink-White was still coming to from his encounter with the mother. Had it been a day already? It appeared to him that time had not passed for even a second. The encounter he had with his mother seemed to have frozen time on the other end of the world, in his mind, that is where it (the encounter) had occurred. In other words, it had been like a thought so no time had passed.

"Come on dad, the guests will be here soon." When she mentioned guests, Pink-White's mind came back to the events that preceded his encounter with Terese, today is the day for the Elixir of Life celebrations. He was in charge of the banquet preparations and today they would receive the guest batches from different kingdoms meaning that the Silver kingdom would be in attendance soon. He had to get his head in the game otherwise he would mess up work he had put so much effort into.