CHAPTER FOUR: SONRICS OF ZERK

Either you run the day or the day runs you."

- Jin Rohn

✨🦋✨

My body felt numb. There were loud pounding sounds in my ears. I wanted to move but I felt like it was too dangerous to even lift a finger. I slowly opened my eyes as my hands started to move and grab onto anything nearby. My clothes were damp and felt heavy on me, making it hard for me to breath. I felt the heat of the sun on my bare face and it burned a little. When I could finally feel the rest of my body, I slowly sat up and felt sand fall off the sides of my arms. I looked around and saw I was at a beach.

"Where am I?"

I still felt a little dizzy so I held my head in my hands. Still squinting my eyes and flinching at the pain I felt on my sunburned face, I stood up. I wobbled a little and was about to fall back down when I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. They swept me off my feet in one swift motion and I was staring up at a man with icy baby blue eyes. He looked at me with a lot of concern and I just smiled awkwardly.

"H-hi?", I stuttered. He didn't speak up straight away so I thought he couldn't understand me. I cleared my throat and spoke up again asking, "Who are you and where am I?". He just continued to stare at me and answered, "You're at Hali Beach". My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Where in the world is Hali Beach?

"I don't think I've ever heard of Hali Beach before. Where are we exactly?"

We were nearing a gigantic castle and my eyes went wide in awe. The gates were huge and the walls were decorated with crystal rocks that looked exactly the same as the ones in the river. Then I rememebered everything that happened before I woke up at the beach.

I looked around for the butterfly but couldn't see it anywhere. The man continued to walk across the castle's bridge and past the enormous front doors. Once we were inside, he gently put me down and I thanked him. I dusted off the remaining sand off my shirt and watched the man call a lady to help me change into dry clothes.

He looked back at me and said, "I'm Kane. Kane Jones. Welcome home, Princess Lyrmie." He bowed and offered me the clothes that the lady brought to him. I accepted them with a smile. I was already confused as to how I ended up at a beach when I was literally inside a cave?

The same lady who brought the clothes to Kane went back and greeted me too. Kane looked at me and said, "You should get changed, Your Highness. Those wet clothes must be uncomfortable. Miss Ilo will show you to your room where you can get changed. I'll meet you again right here and then I will explain everything to you." I nodded and approached Miss Ilo. She led me to one of the rooms so I could change my clothes. When I got inside my jaw dropped again. Probably by the time I look around the whole castle, I would've been jaw-less by the end of the tour. I went straight for the bed and jumped on it. My body immediately sank into the foam and I felt like taking a nap but I knew Kane was waiting for me.

I was so ditracted with the beautiful furniture that decorated the room that I think I took around 10 minutes just to get changed. This place was not your typical fairytale castle that parents read from books to their children. It had a modern taste to it and it didn't look like the stone castles with triagular roofs on the towers. Instead, it had walls that were cemented and some parts had wood as decorations and the rest were glass. the inside looked so modern too. From the furniture, to the different appliances and even the people's clothing looked so futuristic. This place was way too big to be just a mansion. I tried pinching myself because this felt like a dream. It was just too good to be true.

Once, I was finally changed into the clothes I was given, I went back down to the same place Kane gave me the clothes. I saw Kane was talking Ms. Ilo. I approached them and cleared my throat to signal my arrival.

"Ehem," they both turned to look at me and acknowledged my presence. Kane smiled at me and Ms. Ilo excused herself and went to another room which I think was the kitchen. "Shall we go now, Your Highness?", Kane asked. I nodded in response.

While we were walking through the long hallways I had so many questions popping up in my head that I stop myself my blurting out a lot of questions all at once.

"How did I end up at the beach?", I asked, still puzzled. He smiled and simply replied, "Through the river, of course. You opened a portal back to Planet Zerk". Planet Zerk? I think this dude's messing with me. "What's Planet Zerk? Isn't this planet called Earth?", I asked him. "Nope. You're on Planet Zerk. We came here through the portal we opened. Don't you remember?". His replies made me confused. What did he mean by "we"? I was alone when I saw the water started to form this weird circle.

He was walking really fast, leading me into a magnificent library. It looked like it had hundreds of endless rows of bookshelves, all containing different kinds of books.

Wow...

Kane walked over at one of the sofas and motioned for me to have a seat. I sat down and he did so too on the chair across from the chair I was seated on. He smiled at me again and started explaining what he had told me earlier.

"Your Highness, centuries ago, our ancestors were not aware that Zerk was not the only planet that had people living in it. They didn't know of the many versions that Zerk had in different universes. One day, when a mysterious meteor hit a town where most of our ancestors settled, it released an air that was full of the stars' magic along with the waters in the galaxy. This was because the galaxies look like oceans that spread vast and had many crystals in it because of the stars. When they awoken, they noticed they could control the time of day, the weather and the growth or death of every living creature on Zerk. From then on, this planet has been known to have magic living among the people."

"What kind of magic are you talking about?", I asked with curiosity.

"The magic that comes from the stars and the waters. The magic from the waters controls the life or death on Zerk. It is also what helped our ancestors discover that they could create portals to other versions of Zerk in different dimensions. The magic that comes from the stars are what keep the circle of life in balance and peace. People who mastered in any onr of these magic were usually from royal blood. People who mastered the magic of the stars and water are called sonrics. You're parents were the last reign of the Ang-Lin dynasty."

"What happened to them? Why did they leave me at an orphanage on Earth?", I asked Kane while I watched him get up and get a book from a nearby shelf. He opened to a page where there was a picture of me as a baby. I was wearing the same bracelet that Mrs. Rethers found me wearing when I was left at the orphanage. I looked at him and he explained, "Yes. That's you. You were the first sonric heir that was born with both the ability to have magic from the stars and the waters. Most sonrics had to learn how to summon and control their magic. It was just there after you were born."

He turned the page and continued explaining. "Your parents didn't know you could already control the weather not until they saw you at Hali beach creating thunderstorms while making sand castles. You were not even more than a month old but you could already control not only the weather, but also the growth of the plants around you."

"It still doesn't explain why I was on Earth when I belonged here," I said to him. He looked at me with understanding and simply said, "With such great magic, many envied you and even tried to take you away and experiment on you. Your parents were afraid that you were too gifted to stay here."

Gifted? How am I gifted? I only witness water turning a portal once and here I am with some stranger telling me I have "magic".

"When the word got out about you who was to take the throne someday to all the people all over Zerk, many were envious and believed it was unfair for the rest of them that needed to spend almost their entire lives just to become a sonric. So, your parents decided to bring you to a different dimension and hide you there until they knew it was safe. After they left you on Earth, nobody knew where you disappeared to. Your parents closed all the portals to the different dimensions and forbid anyone from travelling to other universes. The people found that outrageous and so a mob came after your parents. They broke into the palace and unfortunately, your mother got shot and by the time people realized what they had done, she died."

Even if I never met my mother, it still pained me to know that all this time that I've been complaining that they took too long to come back for me, one of them died to protect me. Tears started to form in the corner if my eyes and they fell onto my cheeck. They felt warm against my skin and I couldn't help but cry even more. Kane went over to my seat and offered his handkerchief. I gratefully accepted it and wiped my tears away.

"My mother... died?", I asked in between sobs. He only nodded with a frown on his face. He started rubbing small circles on my back, trying to comfort me.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Your Highness. The queen loved you very much. She would've been so happy to see you all grown up. Zerk needs you, Lyrmie. We have fallen into great tragedy ever since your mother died."

"What do you mean? What happened to my father?"

He looked away and sighed. "When he lost his wife, his anger rose and he ordered everyone who broke into the castle into execution. All those who were in the castle were executed the following day. That moment made everything change. Ever since Queen Tiara died, the rest of the royal family of the Ang-Lin dynasty died one by one. Up to this day, nobody knows where your father is and what he has been up to. He left the castle one night and never returned."

I thought I was useless before all this happened but now I think I liked it better when I didn't know anything about my life before being left at Mrs. Rethers' orphanage. This family is really messed up. I stayed silent because I was processing everything Kane had just told me. Everything just seems like it won't sink in.

"What tragedy has Zerk fallen into after all the chaos that happened? What did you need my help for?", I asked him as I was wiping away more tears.

He smiled sadly and replied, "We need your help in finding your father."

My eyes went wide. "It's almost 18 years since you last saw him according to my calculations based on your story, Kane. How do you suggest we even find him?"

"You have the most powerful magic in all of Zerk, Lyrmie. If anybody were to find your father, it would be you. You will have to stay here and learn how to master your magic and become the sonric heir of the Ang-Lin dynasty."