Chapter 24

Mia remembered she was trapped in a strange dimension, but the girl feeling her temperature made her feel comfortable without overreacting. She sat up, wondering what had happened to her.

"Hey there cutie pie, what's your name," Mia softened her voice, smiling at the little girl. She lifted her up to her laps. "My name is Sophie, you were brought here unconscious by your boyfriend," she answered and Mia now remembered fainting.

"My boyfriend?" she asked herself, but the child heard heard her. "Yes, that one, the one with blazing red hair and red glowing flaming eyes," she pointed her little finger towards Xander's direction, who was looking at them blankly.

"Oh wow! An interpyrex. Beautiful greenish-blue eyes, Is it blue or green or.. Wow! Just wow! I thought she'd match the color of her hair. You are even prettier than I thought. So your parents are interpyrex? You must then have special powers. What's your name," Mia looked at a woman with orange hair, orange eye color, she look like a replica of young Sophie, the woman's face didn't look young or old, and seemed friendly.

"My name is..." she was about to say when Xander interrupted. "Her name is Mayana, or you can call her Maya, beautiful name, isn't it?" he said in a low sexy voice. Mia wondered why he had lied, but maybe because this was a whole new environment, and they had to fit in. Though she hated the name Mayana.

"As for me, my name is Xander," he added.

"Oh wow Mayana, even your name is pretty, so, would you want to eat anything? Its been long since we've had visitors and spoken to people like this. Oh well, my daughter and I need some sleep, make yourself at home and leave at dawn if you want to. You two can share the big beg Mayana was sleeping on, we shall head to our room, and Mayana, my name is Kora, goodnight," with that, she held Sophie's arm and they both went to their room.

"Aww, they are so nice, I'll sleep on the floor, but I'll have the blanket," Mia suggested, but Xander knew well how weak humans were.

"Sleep on the bed, I won't be sleeping," his voice came out as an order, and Mia knew not to argue with him. She climbed on the bed and said a goodnight to him, but he didn't respond, she drifted off to sleep.

**********

Next morning, Mia woke up to find food and some clothes beside her. Little Sophie who was taking breakfast stood up and went near Mia. "Mayana, your boyfriend brought this new clothes for you and ordered you to change into them after taking breakfast. He's out for a while and coming back for you," she said with her cute voice.

"Thank you, where's your mom?" Mia asked after looking around to find only the two of them there.

"Mom is in the room, she's preparing to go to work, she works at a plantation in order to earn some gold for our meal," it shocked Mia that it required them some priceless gold in order to afford food.

After a while, the door was opened and Xander stepped inside. He looked like someone new. He had worn a sleeveless shirt exposing his muscular torso and taut biceps. The shirt was of many colors, with rubies as buttons and diamonds surrounding its edges. He also had arm bands on both his hands, and a temporary tatoo of a red falcon on his chest and above his wrist.

Mia knew he didn't have the tatoos before because she had already seen his hands before. He wore five shiny signet rings on each finger, made of emerald. On his neck, was a herringbone necklace dangling.

He wore pants Mia has never seen before in her life. It looked like a bedsheet, but translucent and lighter in color, wrapped around his leg and tied at his waist. It was black in color. Lastly he wore sandals golden in color.

Mia observed what little Sophie was wearing. Her clothes looked faded, she had a long red tunic with a lace tied around her waist,without any jewellery on it. The clothes looked traditional, and Mia guessed that what Xander had put on only belonged to the people in noble families.

Kora came out from her room, and stared at Xander wide-eyed. "Goodness, these fine clothes. I guess you two are attending the ball held by Dracula, aren't you? Mayana, you can change in my room," Kora sounded disappointed. Mia was too distracted by Xander's clothing to hear what she had said about Dracula.

After changing, little Sophie gasped when she stepped out. She wore a pink crop top covered with blue transparent glitter, with netted sleeves that reached her wrist. On both her wrists, she had bracelets decorated with silver flowers. On her neck was a multi-strand necklace made of pearls. Both ears had been surrounded by different types of earings, from the ear lobe to the helix.

A well designed red sarong skirt was tied around her ant waist. It reached just above her knee. It had rubies and crystals attached to it. The crop top and skirt revealed her hourglass body, which made her feel uncomfortable. Her thick long curly hair cascaded down to her hips, covering them. Lastly, she had worn high-heeled golden shoes, which added to her tiny height, though did not yet surpass Xander's height despite the shoes. She felt nervous under their gazes, but luckily, Xander was not looking at her.

His mind seemed to be occupied, as he looked through the window.

"Am so jealous of your youth, old me...hey Xander, don't you see how beautiful your girl is? Say something boy. Darn, now some other boy is going to steal her from you, she's so irresistible," Kora said playfully.

Xander averted his attention towards Mia and just said, "let's go."

Suddenly, little Sophie burst into tears, holding Xander's leg. "Please don't leave like the way papa did," Mia felt like crying for the little girl's pain, she carried her and kissed her on the cheek. Xander gave them some time to see each other.

"No, don't cry, I promise on my life that we'll come back soon okay?" she assured Sophie until she stopped crying. Kora looked a bit glum, but forced a smile.

Outside seemed strange to Mia, and fear started gripping her again. Though it was in the morning, presumably thousands of bats were hanging on trees. She also noted the trees were black in color yet not wilting.

"Is this Saki Dimension?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes," was all he said.

"Where are we going?"

"To the palace," he clearly didn't want questions

"Why does it look so different?" she was clearly not giving up asking him questions despite his indifferent behaviour.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at her.

"I know you want to get out of this dimension. You will soon but you have to do what I tell you. Obey everything I tell you, this is an order, got that?" his voice was not the same gentle voice, and it scared Mia.

He walked ahead, his pace faster, "When we reach the palace, act normal, like you belong here. From now on your name is Mayana, and you are a sphinx. Don't get scared of anyone, no one is going to know if you are a human. All sphinixes and phoenixes together are called pyrex. Just as women and men are called humans. When someone says you look unique, just say that you are an interpyrex. This means that your parents, who are from different towns intermarried. Normally, pyrexes usually match the color of their hair and eyes. We have black, white, blonde, green, orange, brown, yellow, blue, purple hair color. So don't get scared if you see someone with natural blue hair, this is not earth. When someone asks you to use your powers, tell them you are on your hibernation period. This is a time when pyrexes powers are inactive, because of being used a lot, so it is replenishing itself." Xander noticed Mia's keenness and she stared at him as if he were narrating some interesting fairytale.

"Okay, so what powers do you people behold?" she was just so eager to learn.

"We can jump so high into the sky but we can't fly. Humans say we change into a bird, which is just a myth. We can breathe fire through our mouth or nostrils, we have a lot of strength, the ones I've mentioned, everyone has. Apart from that there are individual different special powers. You can't know unless you ask the person."

"Oh wow, so what's your special powers Xander?" she asked determined to receive an answer from him.

"To kill you I guess, no one else can murder you. Yes you will be greatly injured but that won't kill you. Some other powers of mine you'll know about them later. Let's hurry." He felt like he was moving his slowest.

The small village they were walking through was eerie. No one was outside, just bats and Mia thought maybe they could transform into vampires. She chuckled silently at that ridiculous thought.

Suddenly, a bat with no sense of direction passed above Mia's head and she quickly hugged Xander's arm to protect herself.

"Seems like I'll have to carry the tiny buttercup," he said lifting one eyebrow, looking at her.