The temperature compared to yesterday’s heat appears to be worst I think, but being in the desert for my whole life, it may just be me. There hasn’t been rain in a few months which isn’t that surprising living here. I love the city I inhabit, compared to the rest of the world that had been affected by the war my city has become the most advanced in technology and architecture. Houses are made of metal and inexpensive material. We are rich in resources to dig up like iron ore and minerals, though we have that we have no greenery or water anywhere.

“Oh my heavens is that smoke? Is it coming from the west sector?” Danielle, a tall blonde with a bright electric blue dress on, questions “Marshal don’t you live over there?”
“Yeah I do.” I notice the blood drain from my dark tan skin. I feel like something has changed in the world. An unnatural shift in the balance in nature. “I think I should go Danielle. I hope nothing bad has happened to anyone in my neighborhood.” I stand from the chair at the café. As I turn the fear raises, causing my skin to freeze even in the boiling heat.
“Marshal what is it?” raising from her seat. She just about touches me when I break from my trance to an ungodly sprint. I take every shortcut I know of through the market, down that alley, up two flights of stairs. I just barely manage react to a car that through the rush appears out of nowhere by sliding over the hood of the car I keep my momentum and speed. Another alley goes by and I’m getting close to twelve blocks away from the bellowing smoke clouds coming from the death bringing light.
There is a straight path to my destination from the alley I just exited, people have been yelling at me to “Slow the hell down” every time I bump into a person or cause some stuff to be knocked down, honestly I don’t find care all that matters is who’s house is burning. I come to a halt in front of the burning structure I know all too well.
The structure in front of me is my home. Confounded by the sight my knees buckle, I don’t understand how could this have happened? My house was made of carbonize steel, concrete, and plaster. Not one of those can even burn. Yet regrettably to my misfortune I am homeless. It would take years from not for me to get a house anywhere close to this.
Marshal stop and think about what is going on. I start to slow my breathing down to a calmer state. What could have caused this? An ancient beast like a dragon, no there hasn’t been one sighted for thousands of years. That rules that one out, I regain my strength to stand. I look at grey and green light burning my house, which is an abnormal color for it to be. There is one factor other than this fire burning a different color and material, it is the energy that it gives off is strange.
A taller man about 6’4” walking next to a woman around 5’8” who stops besides me. She asks something I pay no heed to.
Clears throat “Excuse me sir. Was that your house?” I look at her, calculating her expression to be a leader of some sort.
“Yes it was my house” I tell her, “though now it is nothing more than ash and rubble. Why would you care though, so many already are walking by as if nothing is happening?”
“Well for it is my life work in the world, pasted on to me by my grandfather the late King Daniel Archenwing. I care because I fear this may not be the last time this happens.” She has a look that indicates she has more to say but not here.
“I’m sorry for being disrespectful Queen Katharina for I am moaning the loss of my home.” I lower my head to her. “My apologies” She makes a movement indicating I should follow her to a safer place. Following the Queen we go four blocks north then two block east toward the wall bordering the outside of the city. All of us enter a government access door to a room large enough for thirty people to stand in with plenty of room to spare. There is a scanner that runs over the three of us. With the sound of a light beep the door on the other side of the door opens. The next room is big in dimension. Only do I realize what I’m in, this building is a military siege base. We head down two flights of stairs, down a hallway and into a briefing room.
“Is this the only time this has happened so far?” is the first thing that I that burst through my mouth without thinking about it first. She gives me a fair look that indicates her concerns.
“There is nothing we can do physically to stop what is happening. War did many damages to the real world and the spirit’s too.” The man that has been following behind me says. I look at him confused as he heads to an opaque glass. At his touch the wall comes to life with programs running different things I can vaguely guess the reason behind. Then files of images and footage finally show up. “Many of the image in this file you will see are taught in history classes. What you were taught was that this is due to war.” There are image of ruins all over the wall with more appearing.
“Where are these from?” I look at him. I move to the other side of the table and sit in a chair.
“All of these are ruins of spiritual temples” Queen Katharina tells me, “that have fallen apart recently. I know that a jewel used to be in one of them before the war started. And I know there are no jewels now.” I rise my hand from my elbow respectful to ask a question.
“What do jewels have to do with the temples falling? Can’t you get new jewels for the temples, we have the most natural resources in the world right?” I question. They both smile at me.
“I’m afraid not Marshal. I know this is not the thing to ask you but would you take the challenge of finding the jewel lost in the war?” the Queen asks.
I look between them considering what I should say. I don’t have anything but the clothing on my back and the cash in my pocket. Finally I say tell them that I will. Not like anything better to do, upon accepting a bag with clothes, food, and equipment for hiking and hunt among other things.
“Marshal I hope the gods give you the safest journey.” The Queen exclaims as if saying something sad to me. I look toward her giving her a silent good bye before leaving. The man leads me back out.
“By the way my name is James Hartman. I’m the queens first in command.” He says this to me as I am leaving. I thank him for is help as I stand in the doorway. He nods a wishes me a safe journey ahead.
I start walking in the direction of the wall that towers over the highest buildings. The clouds nearly touch it on overcast days. I have only been outside that wall ten times in my life, all of which happen to be trip during school. My hand touches something I had forgot was in my pocket, my great grandmother’s compass which oddly enough never pointed north nor south either. But as I open it I notice its heading is the very path I’m on. I read the bottom of the compass:
The heart of the sea of time and space flows through the heart to be guided to the greatest desires.
“So that’s how she always could find what she wanted.” I begin to move rapidly toward where the compass points toward the wall. I move by a food venter which I know the owner. After ten block I see a transport railcar for people to ride on to get to the wall. I place my toll to get on and sit. Eighty blocks go by and this little one is staring at me.
“Sir, why do you have so much stuff? Are you going away for a really, really lot time?” A look of excitement and wonder fills the child’s eyes begging me to answer. I nod.
“Yep child I’m heading out of the city for a while. Something was lost a long time ago and I’m going to find it.” The child’s mother gets up with the child’s hand to leave. “Bye” I say as they jump off. The wall grows near as each block goes by. I have been the in the shadow of the wall now for the last thirty block and it’s five o’clock based on the clock the rail car has in it. Still the wall grows as the distance shrinks away. At this point the wall has become one with the sky and earth as there looks to be no end. I get off finally after two hours ride, I’m a block away from the unbreakable giant ahead of me.
The area is profoundly military barracks and supply storage. I receive worried looks as many well trained solders stop simple activities as I walk through the street. One even walks next to me then stops noticing the queen’s official seal on my bag. I arrive on time according to the man at the gate who lets me through to the inner workings of the wall.
It must be at least a quart to a half mile thick this wall, there was a military jeep that is electrically powered. Two minutes later we are on the other side. I get out and see a window, outside is low laying grass patches scattered around a barren wasteland. A serves door opens ahead of me, the guard throws the keys to me.
“Take the jeep as far as the boarder if need be then you have to go by foot” he tells me as he gets out and walks away. I look at the keys in my hand. Well at least this should make the expedition faster. I enter the jeep’s cabin the put the key on the magnet start. The jeep rolls out and I drive for what ends up being three days before I encounter something.
A woman is walking alongside the road I am driving on. I slow down as I get close to her then, pull over ahead of her. She walks up to the jeep and look in. “Hey can I get ride with you. I’ve been out here for a week.” I motion her to get in after unlocking the door. “Thank you … um what’s your name?”
I laugh a little that as I pull away the side of the road.  “My name is Marshal Harkcor and who might you be Miss?” I have my hand on the outside of the door enjoying the air. She smiles at me as though I’m doing something amusing.
“My name is Janette McKinley. Happy to meet you Mr. Harkcor. How did you acquire a jeep if this? You steal it?” she says with suspicion in her tone. I look at her quickly then back to the road, she is sitting next to the window not sure to trust me or not. I switch which hand is holding the stirring wheel, then reach and grab some food surplus I have and give her. I shake my head
“No I don’t have the knowhow to steal anything.” I laugh “I am borrowing the jeep right now. The queen gave me an assignment to find some jewel from a temple. And the food is for the journey.”
“I wish the forest was still here, this all used to be thick, green rain forest with trees as tall as the skyscrapers. It looked beautiful according to my great grandmother stories” Now thinking about I realize that the war was only two hundred years ago. Though even in history classes they teach that this area has always been desert, which makes sense due to the fact that the ground has little to no growing capability for the past fifty years bare minimum and the ground acts like it too. “So many flowers too. My mom gave me a book on flowers that was dated in 2053. By gods I wish I have a flower call the Water Lily. They grow in water hence the name.”
“You seem to know a lot about plants from the past now don’t you. But how do you know all the plant aren’t from foreign countries? The land has been dying for a long time now. You know there is a lot of uncertainties about the past.” I glance at her quickly as I say this.
“Marshal I know what jewel you’re going for.” She says before taking a bite of the food I gave her. “It’s called The Jewel of the Plants. That jewel was the first taken in the war but it has been lost from the civil world since the end of the war.” She pull her bag in front of her and take a history book out that hasn’t been used in schools in years. I hear her flipping through the pages until she finds the page she wants to show me. I pull over so I can read the page. I frown as I read it, none of this was ever taught is school. “Yeah that shows how much the government wants us to know. I approve of the mission you’re on but that’s it.”
“Janette I was sent because my house burnt down and I nothing but what you see.” Janette frown at this statement. I sigh at he thought.
“They are the one who did it too. How dare they do that,” She is getting upset. Placing my hand on the wheel after giving her history book back, I look at her and shake my head.
“Unless they know how to burn metal, concrete, and plaster. They couldn’t have burned my house down.” I tell her. She looks at me like I’m crazy and says. “What? Metal and concrete that’s not possible they aren’t even flammable … no that’s not right.” I nod to confirm what I said to be true. I look at her and a chill runs down my spine. “Marshal if what you say is true then we need to burn rubber and hall ass because that isn’t good at all. One of the jewels has been broken by something or someone.”
I pull the jeep back on the road and floor it. I make sure the compass is still facing the same heading as the jeep speeds up. This is now more urgent than it was before to find that jewel and bring it home. The speedometer maximum is at 130. And that is where we are stay the rest of the way to the boarder.
The guards there see me pull up. I jump out and run to a command post. “I need to talk to the queen now this is urgent!” yell as I enter the building. The Commanding Officer looks at me.
“What is this about?” He more confused than upset at my tone. “And where did you come from?”
“I came from the capital and have news for the queen that she has to know!” I exclaim “we need to hurry one of the spiritual jewel was broken!! Get that message to her. I have to find it!” I run out and grab my gear. The Officer comes out after me “Keep the jeep you’ll need it. We have plenty” I nod and throw my gear back behind my seat. “Find that Jewel!” I drive across that boarder and see the defiance in how the land look. There is green, growing grass and trees patching the land now around us. The temperature is different too, the air is cooler here. It’s like there is a barrier keeping this away. Janette looks in awe as we drive on, not that I’m no different from her in amazement. The compass still points ahead so I gun it as fast as possible.
About fifty minutes into this land the compass wavers its direction westward. I look and see a mountain range in that space. I keep moving down the road driving fast. A town shows itself as the road bends. I slow down to a safer speed. I take the most direct path to the mountains. Cars are in the street and not one is a military vehicle. A few streets are for businesses and the others are for homes it looks like. The houses are two story buildings that have slanted roofs, there is grass in front and between the houses.
“Wow the people here have nice looking houses.” Janette says out loud. As we exit the town I speed up a little not wanting to waste any more time than needed. The road starts to get surrounded by trees as we head out.
“We’re getting closer to the jewel I think. The compass isn’t pointing north anymore.” I say to Janette. She looks at me then at the compass, reaching in her bag she pull out one then sets in next to mine.
“Marshal your compass doesn’t point north.” She looks at me shrugging. I tell her about the compass to best of my ability “Well that is some compass then” she smiles. I see an opening in the trees like somebody had cut a path through the wooded lands we are traveling. I slow down for the turn, the path is made up of packed down dirt and short grass. After roughly five miles of bumpy road it ends at the base of the mountain’s hills. I put the jeep in park then kill the engine and get out.
“Well I guess we hike from here.” I look around “Is it me or does it seem like the plants here overly larger than the ones near that town?” Janette nods in agreement.
“They are larger by a lot. I can’t image the soil on a mountain being very deep.” She grabs her stuff and I do the same. As we walk up the mountain vegetation starts getting thicker. We have to stop after a hundred yard of walking through it. I look at the stuff I have, there I found a long, thick blade. The edge of the blade turns a milk cream white as it cuts a walking path for us.
A clearing comes evident as we get close. I can tell that it will be dusk soon based solely on the color of the orange sky above. “We should set up camp it’s getting dark out.” I put down my bag in the middle of the clearing “I’ll start getting burnable branches for a fire. There should be a tent or some sort of shelter in my stuff. We may need that.” Janette bends over with one hand resting on tree and the other on her frayed jeans. This is truly the first time I’ve gotten a better look at her. She has well-worn clothing that has small holes speckled throughout the cloth, her leather boots have no hole and go to her mid-shin on her. Her hair is either a dark red or a shade of brown that hints at red being in it, I can tell that she has a family heritage that don’t tan much from the olive skin tone she has.
“I think it’s a good call to do that. I’m tired of walking right now. I’ll get whatever you have set up.” She digs in the supplies to find shelter material. I go back to the path and cut died undergrowth for the fire. I pile the material for ease of carrying to the camp site. I get enough for a fire to burn until we fall asleep then head back to camp. Janette has two hammocks up and a tarp hanging over both to keep the rain off if it does rain. I set the fire material up then look in the stuff to start a fire with. I find a bottle of lighter fluid and a box of matches after two minutes. I put some of the lighter fluid on the pile, after the fire is going well I put some more sticks than I collected.
We get in our hammocks go to sleep, after an hour of starring into the woods I fall asleep. I find myself in the woods not really knowing how I got there. Janette is ahead of me picking flowers from the ground. An uncomfortable feeling rising up in my stomach. I look away from Janette to see an animal of some kind. It has muscles and skin that look like the tree’s surface around us. The creature’s limb are thin and elongated. Its movements are irregular for each time a part of the body moves it waits for the weight to balance before moving again. I look away from its single green eye that looks like a light bulb. Then in a split second the thing jumped and trapped Janette beneath it making a cage with its body.
I run at it with nothing to fight it but my own two hands. The thing lifts its arm and what looks like branches spicks out. I get knocked back with a mighty blow across my body and I wake up the next morning. My mind is still swimming from my dream as Janette is working on breakfast.
Do you really care about somebody you meet two days ago? “Yes I do” I whisper to myself. “She is someone I want as a friend” I swing my legs over the side and look at her then around for anything abnormal. “So how’d you sleep Ms. McKinley?”
She smiles “I slept great Mr. Harkcor, aside from the strange dream I had. You were in it” She turns over a slice of meat that was cooking.
“I feel special now” I saw jokingly “Thanks for breakfast.” She nod indicating a ‘you’re welcome’ back to me. I stand up and notice that there are branches under my hammock that weren’t there when I fell asleep. I shrug at it and proceed to the fire where food is being cooked. I look at my compass and it seems to be going haywire over the direction of north is at. I look at the woods and follow the compass’s arrow. A faint green glow circle is walking the edge of the clearing. “Umm … ok that’s not cool.”
Janette follows my line of vision and even her skin drains of blood at what we see. I have a feeling both of us had the same dream. A daunting voice emanating from every direction says “YOU HAVE COME FOR ME AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.” The glowing stays in one spot then vanishes from view. Janette closes her eyes and tucks herself into a ball, praying that the god of protecting, Jofellic, to keep her safe from all harm ten times. My compass locks on to the direction again. I mutter a prayer to the goddess of courage, Tadela.
“We should get everything packed Janette ok. That jewel needs to get home. It mad because it’s been so long.” She looks up at me fear etched into her eyes and face. “I know that wasn’t natural and the spirit of the jewel made that creature. If we can get the jewel this will end. I will protect you at all cost ok.” I smile at her and extend my hand to help her up. With soft and bright amber eyes she looks at me. Taking my hand she stands up.
“I’m so scare Marshal. In my dream you died trying to save me,” her voice trembles, she presses her body against mine and cries on my shoulder. I hold her there with my arms wrapped around her shoulders letting her cry until she feels better. “You fall on your knife.” We stand there until she is calmed down.
“You feeling better now?” I ask as she move away.
“Yes much better,” She goes over to the hammocks and takes them down and rolls them up. “I’m still worried though about the dream and that … thing” I smile even though I myself am worried too.
‘We are getting close to finding the jewel I think. It shouldn’t take long now and we’ll be heading first to where you want to go then I’m head back to the capital to give the Queen the jewel,” I scan the woods for the creature. She nods at me as I say this. We get the camp packed up and get ready to follow the compass again. We stay in the clearing for as long as possible before I have to cut a path in the dense overgrowth. Slowly we head higher up the mountain.
I stop and look back at Janette. A confounded look is being expressed on her face. I then look around to see what is so confusing. All the plants appear normal to me. “Janette what’s wrong?” I whisper.
“These plants shouldn’t be growing here; that flower right there,” she points to a white with red stripes that run the length of pedal on the flower that appears to be growing around a tree, “that doesn’t grow in a mountain range. It grows in semi flat rain forest areas.” She that turns to another flower that has silver color with a blue centers on each pedals. “This one should be growing in a swamp.”  Another clearing opens up. I get a flashback from my dream. I move forward a little and feel nervous about what could happen here. “Marshal this is amazing wow. These flowers are so beautiful!”
My compass is calmly pointing straight. She runs around looking at the flowers. I follow her cautiously looking around for the creature. I see a stone hedge about fifty yards away. I hear the brush move with some force; I see the glow again moving at breakneck speeds. My compass points towards the stones, I have a gut feeling that if I go to the stones that something will happen to Janette. The glowing green light is close to Janette, but there is something different there isn’t a body from this morning. The source is something else, it could be an insect of some kind maybe. I turn back to the stones and walk through the pillars of stone. The stone is metamorphic stone that only can be found in deep mines back home.
I see the creature standing in front of me. Green leafs are growing out of the wood that makes its body. The creature seems to be dead or more likely in a more nature state for the plant. I touch the skin of the creature which of course is bark from a tree. Walking around I see that the stones are placed in a perfect circle surrounding the creature, well, more so surrounding the thing the creature is standing over. The arrow points to the center of the hedge, at the creature or what rests beneath it. I move away from the creature and try to exit the hedge. In the middle of passing through the pillars, I hit a flat object that stops me with a bloody nose. I push my hand on the surface; it has no visible structure that I can see, it has a smooth texture to it.
A crunching sound starts behind me. There could only be one thing making the sound, dirt spills to the rocks under it sending my skin crawling. I turn to face the green glow of the single eye and the wood frame holding it.
“WHO ARE YOU?” The stone vibrates the sound of the voice, the eye gets closer to me, the wood twists as the movement is being made. There is something that is green just under my nose and it smells moist.
“I … I am … I am Marshal Harkcor from the capital city of Hindor Mir.” I frightfully say back. My hands tremble at the proximity of the creature.
“WHY ARE YOU SO DARK? MY PEOPLE WERE NEVER AS DARK AS YOU STAND BEFORE ME.” The stone under and around emits the sound just loud enough to make the hair on my skin to shake. An aura from the creature feels pure in every way to me. It look up and over me to where an insect with wide wings colored a beautiful, reflective blue as the sunlight glittered off it.
“I live in a desert where no plant grow to produce food and the earth moves with the wind. The sun beats the ground, the people, and what little plant life try to grow.” The creature backs away from me and the barrier dissipates from behind me causing me to fall. I hadn’t realized that I had been pushing myself so hard against the barrier. It shakes its head side to side.
“LIES!!! YOU ARE LYING!!! MY LAND CAN BE THAT WAY!” It looks passed me and I see the target of its look. “FOR YOUR LIES I WILL MAKE HER ONE WITH THE FOREST!!” It moves around the stone with no effort. I attempt to grab something that is part of its body, I only get air in my hands.
“NOOO!!! Don’t hurt her” I jump up from the ground and run fast after it. I go to grab the blade I set down with my stuff. Roots are consuming it into the ground, wrapping it under the grass quickly making it disappear. I then run towards my dream this morning. It jumps so fast that I had I blinked I would have miss the movement. Janette only hears my warning too late to do anything about the damager of being trapped. The body of the creature makes a cage at such a speed that the dirt flies up. Some sprays in my face as I run to the two of them. It swings its arm at me, I trip before it has the chance to hit me. I get back up and a vine hits me knocking me back to the ground.
“IF YOU CAN NOT PROVE TO ME THAT YOU ARE TELLING THE TRUTH TO ME NEATHER ONE OF YOU WILL MAKE IT OUT OF THESE WOODS EVER.” The trees all around shake violently. Threatening to break them into millions of pieces.
“I don’t how to prove that without you being brought back with us.” But just then I feel the sand that had blown into my boots and are now shifting around my toes. “Here, here, here’s proof.” I pull off my boots and pour the sand out to produce a small hill off sand in the grass. I look up to see the reaction of the creature. It at first does nothing more than stare at the sand knowing not of what to do. The grass under makes a nest to cradle the sand without losing a single grain, which then moves to the creature.
“I RECOGNIZE THE ENERGY FROM WHICH THIS ORIGINATES. YOU REALLY ARE FROM HOME.” Only a few trees shake with these statement. It looks down at the sand. Slowly the cage that surrounded Janette breaks apart. The color of the eye changes from green to a blue that could be just darker than the sky. “I WANT TO GO HOME. IF THIS ENERGY IS EMANATING LIKE THIS, THEN I NEED TO BE HOME TO FIX WHAT HAPPENED. I CAN’T LEAVE THIS FOREST ON MY OWN TERMS.” It moves back to the stone hedge and looks around. Both Janette and I follow it to the stoned area.
“We can bring you back home.” I hold my compass out “These compass helped me find what I desired to find and I’m here with you. I was sent to bring a jewel home knowing it could bring back balance it the land, but I now see that I’m bringing home more than any jewel with special qualities but a spirit hurt by a war and lost from the world.” I touch its head.
“THANK YOU CHILD FOR THESE.” The stone pillars vibrate lightly. The plants making up the body separate to the pillars and leave a pattern of roots leading to a tree on top of each pillar.  The only thing left is a blue gem in the shape of a tear drop, about a foot long by six inches wide and three inches thick; gold interlaces in and around the smooth jewel. It floats in the air pointing up waiting for one of us to grab hold of it. Janette steps up to the jewel and grabs it bringing it to her chest like one would do a book.
“Let’s go home,” I say. We get back to our stuff. I pick up both bags and my blade that came back. Then we make our way down the mountain and hills to the jeep. When I get in Janette tell me that she wants to stay around me and keep me safe. I turn the jeep around and start for home the way came.
The way homeward was more relaxing to me. I play with the wind using my hand. As we pass through the town there seems to be more people outside than before. As we head to the boarder birds of different colors and sizes line the skies, the land, and trees. They seem to be waiting for us as so many watch as we pass by a mile worth of birds. I stop at the gate, the jeep gets scanned before they let us in.
As we enter small plants grow to maturity in seconds. The commanding officer hands me a slip that says to head to the capital. The farther we went going to the capital, the more the tree burst forth of the ground with a verity of other plant that would make up the underbrush, the earth darkens with the plants with each making the ground healthy for any plant to grow. Flowers take hold brightening the dark woods with color. Bird flocks follow us finding the growth that suits them. After a little bit rain starts falling lightly. For day I see the rapid growth of a forest that only was desert moments before. I look in awe over the difference.
“I really missed this land,” the spirit says through the radio suddenly after four days, “the forest that I remember will grow and new plant will make the land whole again.” The voice sounds like she would cry if she could. It is soft and frail. I look at the now soft blue centered jewel and Janette strokes it to comfort it. “I can’t wait to see what the city where all life started in. I want to my heart to be at its center.”
“You won’t be able to see your forest for the center I afraid. Over the years we made a wall to protect us from the outside world.” I say that just as the wall comes into view. Janette looks around at the wall and forest that grows to full maturity as fast as we can drive.
“This is amazing that so much is able to grow here after so much time” Janette says to nobody in general. I nod in agreement. I see water crashing through an area lower than most of land forming a wide stretch of water, violently taking plants from their growth in a rush to wherever the water leads.
“Life will grow now and stabilize the land to health.” The radio chimes. The land changes as we speed toward the great wall, as we near the entrance vines climb the wall going to some distance that is out of my sight. The door opens for the jeep and which we enter, I’m about to leave the vehicle when a soldier walks up to me.
“Sir, you can drive right to the palace. The Queen has asked that you drive there, seeing that you have cared to handle it this fall.” He motions to drive farther and continue on through. I hop back in the jeep. As I pull forward a path is cleared, where everyone looks at the three of us. As I look around at the people I see the green growing even in this metal hallway. Another door opens and then I drive to the palace again as I pass through this giant city people clear a  path for the jeep, all staring at us. We reach the gates of the palace I come to a slow.
The gate waits a minute to open. After the gate is fully open to I proceed. Vines and other greenery grow in our wake. The palace looks nice. Gold details, silver siding, marble stairs and pillars all show the act the queen is in authority. Queen Katharina is standing at the top of the stairs with two rows of well uniformed soldiers standing next to a rug leading to the Queen. She’s wearing a copper dress with a crystal crown on a chignon hairstyling. I stop next to the rug. We get out of the jeep, then the soldiers salute us as we walk by them. As we climb up the stairs grass grows in the dirt around the palace.
“The people will know of your efforts for long into the future. I thank you for take the journey to bring back this jewel to its homeland.” The queen announces as Janette and I are within five steps of her. She smiles showing her white teeth. A woman walks up next to her holding a box. From the box the queen reaches in pulling a set of jackets for both of us then she places a ring of several gold fiber twisted together. Janette hand over the Jewel with the spirit in it to her.
“May the plants grow freely!!” the radio blares from the jeep over fifty feet away. Vines grow around the pillars and one set reaches up as if asking the queen for the jewel. The queen places the jewel on the vines which flow around her and up to the top of the palace. A temple forms out of vines for the jewel to rest in.
The Queen smiles at Janette and myself, “You two have made history by bringing home the jewel and the living spirit within.” We follow the queen in the palace to have a meal cooked for us. Most of the stuff cost more than what I could ever pay for in a restraint with my salary, but it is great to eat food made by someone with fine skills like this. At the end of the courses of the food offered, Queen Katharina announces that I will be known as a hero to this nation and city, plus I will never pay for taxes on anything I own. This is the first thing she says, she then tells me that I have a new house and occupation that I can start going to within the week. After all that I leave with Janette to my new house. I start my new live and happier day begin in the days to follow.
Plants make an area what it is never forget that.