It had been foretold in the land of Beulah that a goddess from another world would come unto them to bless them, and save them from a calamity of fire and ash. And the inhabitants of Beulah would know her by the prophecies bestowed upon each one of them. To him for whom the prophecy is fulfilled, to him will the goddess be.

And a quiet thought came upon the young king. A still voice whispered in his heart the first of the prophecies concerning the goddess. A tear fell down his cheek as he watched the stars that night, knowing she was coming. Knowing he would never see her.

*****

"Maria!"

Maria turned from where she had been squeezing a small green citrus into a coffee mug, and saw her younger sister entering the community health center. "Ah, Rita!"

"Not yet done?"

"Not quite yet." Turning back, she poured a spoonful of honey into the mix and brought the mug to a child who was clinging hard to his mother's waist.

"I don't want medicine!" The child screamed in between coughs.

"You're sick, love," the mother, who obviously hadn't had any sleep, said. "Be a good boy and take a little."

"Don't want!" And he buried his crying face into his mother's skirts.

The very tired mother sighed and turned to Maria. "He's had his cough for several days now, but I just can't get him to take his medicine. He suffers so much in the evening, I can't understand why he still refuses!"

Maria kneeled down before the boy. "I didn't bring you medicine. It's just honey with lime. It's sweet. Here, see?" Maria dipped a pinky in the mug and licked the golden syrup. "Mmm."

At this, the boy ventured a peak.

Maria offered the mug. "You can try it."

The boy tentatively dipped a finger in the mixture and tried it. Still with his finger in his mouth, he looked up at Maria, satisfied.

With a smile, Maria took a spoonful of the honey mixture and offered it to the child, who, thankfully, took it. "Good boy. You'll feel better in a moment."

She turned to the child's mother and told her, "Heat a few golden limes, squeeze them in a glass and add a spoonful of honey. This will relieve him."

The mother turned to the child. "How are you feeling?"

The child took a deep breath, and exhaled. He looked at his mother and nodded. "I can breathe."

Turning to Maria, the mother sighed a sigh of relief and thanked her.

After the mother and child left, Rita commented, "That wasn't exactly prescription medicine, you know."

"It will get rid of the cough. I’ve used it on you many times." She turned to Rita. "What are you doing here? Don't you have class?"

Rita was grinning at her. "You only work part-time as an assistant here, and yet you act like the head nurse or something."

"I do not."

"Yes, you do." Rita laughed as she remembered something. "Then again, you've always been bossy ever since we were little, being the eldest and all."

Maria pouted as she crossed her arms. "I wasn't bossy. I was simply taking care of you lot. And you're evading the question."

"Relax, I didn't say it was a bad thing! School finished early. And I wanted to see you. I hardly see you anymore. All you do is work."

"Someone has to. We can't both stop school."

A momentary silence fell between them as the reality of their situation returned to them. Their parents and siblings had died in a car accident three years before. Maria had decided then to quit college so that she could work and put Rita through high school.

"You could have finished college first," Rita said after a time. "I could wait a few years."

"And how were we going to survive?"

"I could work."

"We've been through this. Stop arguing."

Rita gloomily sank on a nearby chair. "We used to hang out more. You, ordering us, younger siblings, about in one harebrained idea or other. And us following what you say like little ducklings. We used to have fun. Now, all you do is work."

Maria sighed. "We don't have much of a choice given our circumstances."

"Yes, we do. You could try relying on me. But it's like you don't want to get involved with me. You either push me to school, or run away to work. I wish we could be like how when there were still five of us siblings."

"They're gone, Rita."

"I'm not, though."

Maria stopped. She peered at the forlorn form of her sister and couldn't help but feel a little guilty. "I'm just about done. You want to grab a bite or something?"

Rita perked up. "Thing is, there's this thing I really want to check out! Remember that old abandoned house on the hill not far from where we live. I want to explore it!"

"Whut?"

"I was doing my investigation."

"Here we go with your investigating again."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Listen! It's interesting. According to the neighbors, there were some strange things happening in that house. Unexplained voices, things disappearing."

"Do you actually believe that?"

"Oh, come on. When was the last time you and I did something fun as sisters?"

"And this is fun?"

Rita pouted. "I want to be silly and not be a grown-up." Then added, "And don't tell me it's dangerous."

*****

"Not so fast!" Maria squeezed her way between the weathered furniture of the dilapidated house. "And aren't we trespassing?"

"Oh, you're such a worry-wort." Rita was already near the old staircase some feet away from her. She was inspecting an overturned wooden bookcase. She picked up several old envelopes and looked them over.

"Should you be touching those things?"

"I want to know more about the old owners."

Maria had to smile. "You really are a detective at heart."

"Mm-hmm," Rita replied distractedly.

Maria looked about her. The old house was mostly made of wood. It has been left alone for so long that part of the second floor had already fallen in, and the once-tastefully-papered walls had already been torn down by the fast growing plants that surrounded the property.

It looked to have been a very beautiful house.

"I wonder why the previous owner just abandoned this place," Maria mused.

"They said it was haunted or something. Sometimes they could hear voices. And sometimes things would even go missing. Rumor is the last straw was when the owner's son just vanished right in front of their eyes."

"Did he really?"

"I don't know. It was just a rumor. Besides, this place has been abandoned for more than fifty years. I don't know if people still remember what happened correctly." Rita looked up towards the stairway. "Ooh, is that a grandfather clock?" And she ran up the stairs.

"Be careful, Rita! The floorboards are so old, you might fall through!"

With a sigh, Maria weaved through the fallen furniture and climbed the stairs. But when she got to the top, she couldn't find her sister anywhere.

"Rita?"

No answer. She walked towards one of the rooms. She could hear the boards creak. She wondered if maybe her sister had fallen through. But there had been no crashing. In fact, there was no sound, not even footsteps.

"Rita?" She called out again. Her heart was beginning to pound faster. Where in the world was her sister? Could the rumors be true that things– and people!– could go missing in this house?

Nervously, she turned around to head back towards the stairs when the floorboards beneath her broke and sent her falling through. She screamed. But one moment, she saw the broken planks of wood, then the next, she was looking at the sky. And before she could react, she fell into cold murky water.

***

Valas, crown prince of Beulah, sat in silence as he watched his father's ragged breathing. Save for Ilac, his young adviser, the prince had told everyone to leave the king's room.

His father was dying.

"Sh-she's coming... She's coming, my son."

Valas held his father's gnarled hand. "Don't exert yourself, father."

"Don't be sad... my son... The goddess is coming... She will bless the kingdom."

"Don't tell me not to be sad, father," he said, doing his best to make sure his slight trembling didn't reach his voice. "And I don't care much about the goddess."

"Don't... Don't say that... Valas... She will help us."

"We don't need helping." He adjusted the blanket under the king's chin. "You should conserve your energy."

The old king chuckled amidst gasps. "I have lived... a long and fruitful life... Valas. I have been fortunate... And loved... I am ready."

"Aren't you even going to wait for Yves?" Was he the only one feeling sad about losing his father?

"Your sister... knows... I love her."

Something that flashed in the afternoon sky made Valas and his adviser look.

"What was that light?" Ilac moved to the window to take a closer look. "Something's falling from the sky."

"The goddess!" The king exclaimed. "Haha! She has come!"

"Could it be?!" Ilac exclaimed. "Whatever it is fell south of the kingdom, in the rice fields of Saba."

"And the goddess... will fall... from the sky... And her reign... is tied... to the old king's line... For as she... falls... so too, for the last time... will the lids of the old k-... k..."

A warm wind blew as silence fell within the room.

"King," Valas finished his father's last statement as he closed the late king's eyes.

*****

Someone grabbed Maria's flailing arm and pulled her out of the milky water. Maria coughed and sputtered on all fours. Her brain couldn't process what she was doing in a pond of water when the last thing she remembered was being in a creaky old house. She didn't remember passing out so, this couldn't be a dream. She didn't remember any bodies of water anywhere near the old house. So why was there a pond here deep enough to almost drown her?

She looked up from where she crouched and saw people surrounding her. They didn't seem hostile. But their white hair and grey-purple eyes looked very... unearthly. And it didn't help that they were all staring at her, especially the young man who seemed to have saved her. She couldn't help but let out a shiver.

"And you will know the goddess by the color of her hair," the young man whispered reverently. "For its strands are the color of the earth." He looked at his right hand, most likely the hand he used to pull her out of the pond, and stared at it like he had held something holy. The young man looked to be about the same age as her. He had short wavy hair and a lean build.

"Goddess!" A woman in the group exclaimed.

"The goddess is cold! Get a towel! A towel!" And chaos ensued as the current crowd tried running out to get things to dry her with, and new people tried squeezing in to get a glimpse of her. They all looked quite ordinary... but not. They all looked like common people of this world, but all with different shades of white hair and pale purple eyes.

"Make way! Make way!" A woman bellowed.

This seemed to break her young savior out of his trance. "Mother," he exclaimed as a plump jolly woman broke through the crowd.

"Goddess!" Upon seeing her, the elderly woman hurriedly threw a towel around her. But Maria noticed how she made sure not to touch her. "Forgive the people of this town for leaving you to freeze."

"No, it's... it's alright.” Though everything was still confusing, she felt that these were good people. And something inside of her wanted to reassure them. “Your son saved me so, I'm sort of indebted to him."

This caused murmurs among the crowd. Looking at the young man, Maria thought he would faint in happiness.

The mother smiled proudly at her son. "Barna really is a good boy, goddess." Turning back to Maria, she said, "Please allow us to extend to you our hospitality. I am Purn, a humble farmer. We don't have much, but we have warm water for you to bathe with and dry clothes to change in."

"Th-thank you, but I think I need to get back home," Maria said. The sun was beginning to set and she could feel the wind starting to get colder. A bath would certainly be nice, but more than that, she needed to find Rita.

Her response seemed to distress the people around her. They looked at each other with worried expressions, murmuring to themselves. “Have we offended the goddess?” Barna asked cautiously.

“Of course not!” Maria replied quickly. “You have been very kind people. It’s just that there’s someone I need to find.”

“Then… After you go find that person, will you return to us?”

His expression was so fearfully hopeful that she couldn’t tell him the truth that she didn’t think she would ever be back here after returning to her world.

“Don’t corner the goddess like that,” Purn interjected. Although, looking at the older woman, Maria could see that she was just as crushed. She turned to Maria. “Will you be returning the way you had come from, goddess?”

Maria quickly turned to look at the sky. It was an ordinary afternoon sky. She suddenly realized that she didn't know how to get back home.