Oasis: Zarah and Royalty

12: Leaving Earth behind

Finally he looks at me and says, "I decided, I'm taking you with me to Oasis as a peace offering to Lord Lox."

What the hell did I just hear? It must be a joke, but Vixan hasn't even been in a friendly mood since I woke up so I doubt that he's doing this as a joke.

"What? Are you crazy?!" I exclaim in a loud voice I move away from him,  "your Lord wants me dead and you're going to offer me to him as a peace offering?" I can not even bring myself to look at him, because I am so furious right now and I know only bad things will come from my anger.

This is what Daddy talked about in my dream, I'm going to die soon and I thought I could trust him.

"He's not going to kill you." he begins slowly, as he walks towards me.

My brow rises in utmost disbelief, "What makes you so sure."

"Because you're very special, unique even and no one can control or manipulate your mind so you're obliged to only yourself the future kind of oasis needs someone like that, you see things that other can't and you're also very beautiful," he add the past part in an honest tone of voice, but that doesn't deter my anger in any way. "and that can be an asset to the throne and so I'll be proposing that he takes you as a wife and makes you his queen."

I am unable to control my anger and I slap him across the face, but my hand suffers the consequences instead as pain shoot through it as it collide with his face, but I refuse to show the pain.

He grit his teeth hardly, but he there is no flicker of colour in his eyes to show if he's anger, "How dare you treat me like a common object?! I do not know how things work on your universe, but I am not a slave that you can treat like an offering and give me out as you please." I am about to walk past him when he grab my right arm and roughly pulls me closer

His eyes lowers and his words are slow and carefully picked, even when he looks at me, "This is for the best! You get to live and not die and I get to return to the service of my lord and get my freedom."

That's all he cares about, his service and freedom, I'm just a despensable human.

My eyes shutter closer briefly from he pain of that revelation and I ask, "Did last night mean anything to you or did you just kiss me because you felt like it or was there something more?"

"Zarah..."

My eyes flies open and I cut him off shoving him in the chest with my free hand, "Don't call my name, answer the goddamn question."

He let go of my arm and steps back from me his eyes still not leaving mine, but holding no emotions or expression in them. "I kissed you because I think you're special and I like you a lot and that's why I'm doing this."

I grit my teeth and my eyes stings as they grow glassy, but I blink the tears back, "Your plan is to give me to Lox in exchange for your freedom and position and you want me to believe you're doing this for me? Tell me why I shouldn't choose dying over letting you gift me to Lord Lox?"

"Because he has your parents Zarah and he's going to kill them if you don't work with me on this.."

My face becomes pale at his words and I don't know if he's telling the truth, but I know he hasn't lied to me yet, "How do you know that?"

"Elix, told me right before I ended his life yesterday and you don't have to believe me but it's the truth."

My heart leaps for joy a little, knowing there might be a little hope for them after all, but something didn't ie a little off and I asks, "You knew about my parents yesterday and you never bothered to tell me about it?"

"Telling you about it wasn't going to bring anything good out of it, you were exhausted and tired and afraid. You needed to eat, rest and regain your strength first."

"That wasn't your decision to make!" I exclaim and I want to scream it at the top of my voice until he gets it into his big thick head.

"I know, but I made it anyway." he answer in a strict and authoritative tone of voice, "you can waste your energy fighting and arguing with me or you could come with me and figure out a way to keep your parents from dying."

I move to the bed and sit down slowly, burying my face in my palm as I try to have a deep thought on what Vixan has told me. I want nothing more than to get back my parent, but the price to pay seem to be more than I can afford. In order to get them back I would have to marry the man I don't know, but already hate and hope to not lose my life in the process.

I don't really have much chance at survival if I stay on earth, I'll be a fugitive and Lox will never stop until I'm dead. I've survived this far because of Vixan and without him I'll be hunted like a wanted animal and eventually killed that I don't want that. As much as I hate the fact that he kept the truth about my parent's whereabout away from me his proposal might be the only way out of this mess my life has become.

There is no guarantee that Lox will accept me based on Vixan's words, he could ask for my execution on first sight, if he finds out who I am. I may be immune to the magic of obligement which he thinks is a special gift and I may be able to see Vixan's conscience and break his own obligement to Lox, yet those are just mere things that may not intrigue and draw Lux in to our proposal. We are still risking everything with what we are planning to do.

I would like to think it's only me, but I know we both don't have much choice anymore. Vixan broke his duty vow when he didn't kill me two days ago and also killed his fellow warriors, trying to carry out their Lord's orders so he is also risking his neck as well.

I rub my forehead slightly trying to remedy the small ache now present in my head, "What's the guarantee that Lox will buy into your convincing words and want to make me his Queen?"

"Lox wants power and knowing his power won't work on you might make him want to keep you close." He confidently explain.

"Might." I repeat the word that stops my heart dead, "that means all this is a probability, which also means I might end up dead." I asks, looking up at him my eyes growing glassy.

"Yes it does," he replies then his eyes grows soft immediately as they meet mine and he walks towards me and places his hand on my shoulder, but I don't fight against the feel of his hand, instead I remain silent, "but I'd die before that happens." He vows under his breath before withdrawing his hand from me, "I'm optimistic that you're going to live Zarah, you don't give up easily, you fight until the end and that's why I know you will live."

The decision has been made then, and this is a scary decision, but living everyday is a risk itself and we take even without knowing we are.

I get up from the bed, "Okay, how do we go about leaving?"

"I take you back to Oasis."

"What do we do with Ray?"

"You say your goodbyes and I'll handle the rest."

I make my way out of the room to the parlor where I meet Ray aready dressed for work in his white long sleeve shirt and black Ankara trouser and a pair of black cover shoes on. His currently putting his long notes into his bags.

Raymond sees me and straightens up before walking towards me, "Good morning, your night wasn't good? What's wrong??" He asks with a dimming eyes after they settled on me and studied me.

I shake my head, but I can't fight the feeling that I might never see him again, which is saddening and heartbreaking. "It's nothing Ray."

"Your eyes are betraying your words Zarah. What did he do to you?" He asks glaring at Vixan who's standing a bit away from us

"Why do you think he did something?"

"Because I'm your friend and that guy smells of trouble and I don't know what the deal is with you two but I'm having a feeling it won't end well. I love you and care about your well-being."

I hug him immediately and he in turn, wraps his arms around me, "I'm leaving Ray, I'm going to get my mom and dad."

He pulls away and his brows are lifted and his eyes wide, "They are alive? Where did you find them?"

"They are on Oasis Ray, and Vixan is taking me to there to try and rescue them."

"You've gone crazy Zarah, there's no such thing."

I raise my hand and slowly touch his face and smile at him, "I knew you were going to say that, but I still had to tell you anyway. Please look after Sean his South Africa's phone number is in this paper." I explain to him, handing him the small white piece of paper even as he looks at me with the look of pity.

He probably thinks I've lost it and to an extent, I have. I just hope I make it out of this madness with my sanity.

"You take care of yourself Ray, I love you." I tip toe and kiss his cheeks before walking out of the room and leaving Vixan with him.

I hate myself for allowing Vixan to temper with his mind as well as his free will again, but Raymond is as stubborn as he is loyal and he will not rest until he figures out what has happened to me and where I've gone to and I do not want him dying in the process. If this all goes sour, I need someone to look and take care of Sean for me and Ray wouldn't be able to if he dies while searching for answer he doesn't need to know.

The door opens and Vixan walks out of it and without looking at him, I ask, "Is it done?"

"Yes," he replies.

I have a deep sigh, "Where do we go from here." I ask looking down at the wide street before us.

I will take you with me he answer and moves towards me, but I move back, I didn't want him coming close to me or even touching me anymore. "Do you have to, you took your conscience and I away from those warriors without touching me yesterday, why can't you do that now?" I demand with a frown settling in.

"I'm taking you to Oasis, not another area. I know where I'm going and just bringing you with me, besides it will save us time. There is an earthly portal a few miles from the city."

"How long will it take us?"

"A few hours, but you won't notice it."

I don't say another word nor do I object when he possessively wraps his strong arms around me and pulls me closer to him. "Hold on to me," he instruct as if there's a spot on his armour that's soft enough to hold on to so I just wrap my arms around him and he elevates into the air and together we fly off.

The wind strongly blows over my face and if not for how strong Vixan's arm is around me, I would have fallen off. Right now I can't even think of falling off because that would be a sure death and I'm torn between burying my face in Vixan's chest as he flies off or looking down at the earth. I decide to take a look at what is underneath us and I've never been afraid of heights before, but the sight how far up in the sky we are and yet standing on nothing scares the hell of me and I bury my face into Vixan chest, my heart hammering heavily against my chest.

I head him chuckle and I cannot even bring myself to be mad at him. I am a scared little chicken and there's nothing wrong with that.

After a while of silence Vixan speaks up, "You can look now, we are not so far up in the sky anymore." He says with an assuring voice and I turn from him and realise we are now closer to the ground than we were a few minutes ago.

We are now about a hundred feet in the air, a reasonable height though my fear still remains because at the back of my mind I'm reminded that the only thing holding me up is Vixan, but I would put faith in the fact that he still needs me.

I look in front of us and I realise where we are in front of the magnificent and alluring Zuma rock and I turn to look up at him in confusion but he begins to speak before I can ask my question.

"There are many portals between Oasis and Earth and this is one of them."

Over the years I've read content and heard story about how the Zuma rock possessed some mystical powers and how the Rock housed the most powerful spirits around its

environs and also how there were cases of disappearance around it, but like always I just thought that those were stories told to scare little kids and young adults. This mean those were not just stories, they really did happen, but we didn't believe in it because it was unnatural and unusual to what we see in our world.

"Zuma rock?" I skeptically blurt out.

Without answering me, Vixan elevates a little higher so we are almost the the top of the rock which is covered with dews of the morning and I would be freezing because it is very cold up, but Vixens body is so warm that I can barely feel the cold and then he flies us even closer to the rock and as we get closer, instead of hitting a hard block like we are supposed to, we fly through the Rock without any hindrances and I am beyond shocked that we don't.

The inside of the rock is warmer than the outside of it and I remember Vixan referred to it as a portal earlier which I still don't understand how the rock has been a portal since the creation of time and everyone not knowing about it.

I take my time to carefully study the portal I'm being flown through and though we are moving fast I notice the portal wall seem to be made of white shiny crystal-like material and it is so alluring and I immediately feel drawn towards it and though still being held by Vixan I reach out my hand to touch it and only stop when Vixan takes hold of my hand so I don't touch the walls. I look up at him with my head fill of questions.

As though reading through my mind he says, "You touch you get trapped here forever."

"Oh," I say quietly, before looking up at him. "Thank you for once again saving my life."

He doesn't as he keeps flying us on and after a long moment he announces as he begins to decend, "We are here?"

My brows furrow in skepticism, "Here's where?" I ask not seeing any more passage in front of us and not knowing what out next step is going to be.

"The gates of Oasis."