Chapter 18

"Why did you come to my room in the middle of the night like this? What are you looking for?" asked Elena as she tightened her power so that Amora could not escape easily.

Ah shit! Amora was caught by Elena. She couldn't escape. She was already caught like this, and it was all because Marie told her to.

"Amora, you haven't even answered my question. What did you come to my room for? Can you explain?"

Amora's eyes closed, then opened again. She let out a long breath, and Elena was still waiting for her answer.

"Alice is very evil, and she hurt my friend by using poison. I need your antidote now, before it's too late." Amora said honestly, but she still kept the witch a secret.

Elena certainly didn't believe her easily. The power of magic still ensnared her strongly. Elena's gaze was also always sharp at Amora.

"I'll never trust you again, Amora. Perhaps you were involved in Sandy's troubles and kept Alice apart from that man." Elena said bluntly in front of Amora.

Elena's suspicions were true, but she didn't want to tell the truth even if she was involved in this matter. She wanted to get Sandy completely.

"Amora, you just confess now!"

"Confess to what? I didn't do anything wrong! I only came here to ask you for the antidote, Elena." 

Amora's body was even more firmly gripped by Elena's magic power so that it couldn't move freely. That woman's power could not be underestimated. She deeply regretted helping the witch get the antidote.

"Damn it! Because of helping that old witch to get the antidote, I became like this in Elena's hands." Amora spoke softly so as not to be heard by Elena.

She met Elena's face. Elena's eyes were like those of an eagle, glaring at her. However, she didn't feel afraid of the woman at all.

"What happened to Sandy was unnatural. He suddenly changed so quickly and avoided Alice and got close to you instead. What have you done to him?"

Amora just laughed at Elena's question. She certainly wasn't going to answer anything. Let Elena be curious about what happened to Sandy. One thing was for sure: he would always be close to her. She just shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know anything.

However, Elena continued to press her for answers, not just lies. What was the point of talking to Elena? 

"I don't know anything about Sandy. If he wants to be closer to me, why are you angry? At least Sandy has a partner for later in life." Amora smiled widely at Elena.

Elena didn't accept it and was annoyed and further entangled Amora's body with her magic. "You must have done something evil to get Sandy, right?"

"That's none of your business, Elena! What's clear is that I can now stay close to Sandy forever."

Apparently Elena would never give her the antidote. Amora gave up on getting the antidote and didn't care about the witch's life anymore. She asked to be released from this grip and wanted to get out of Elena's room.

"Alright, if you don't want to give me the antidote, that's fine. I won't take it from you," Amora said.

"You're really good at hiding your mistakes, Amora." Elena immediately let Amora go.

She was finally free and immediately left Elena's room. She headed to her room with quick footsteps. When she arrived in the room, Amora did not see Marie anymore.

"Hey, witch. Where are you?"

There was no answer. Perhaps the witch had already left here.

"Damn! I've tried and struggled to get the antidote. But Elena won't give it to me." Amora banged on the wooden table to channel her emotions.

***

Elena and the others had gathered in the courtyard to have breakfast together. However, she did not see Alice and Chiki. She asked one of the people to see if Alice and Chiki were still in the room. A few minutes later, the person came alone.

"Alice and Chiki are not in the room."

"What? How can they not be in the room? Have you seen Alice and Chiki?" Elena asked this of the others.

No one had seen Alice and Chiki. Elena immediately became anxious and tried to find them.

"After breakfast, we should split up to look for them."

***

The sun had risen, and its rays were dazzling. Last night she and Chiki were under the tree sleeping. Chiki was on her chest in the form of a chicken.

"Chiki, wake up."

Finally, Chiki woke up and looked at Alice. She didn't know where else to go after this. Probably, this was already outside the borders of Vestinel territory.

"Chiki, you go back to Vestinel territory. Let me go far away myself. Elena must be worried about you if you are not there."

"I can't! I must always be with you, Alice." Chiki wanted to get angry at Alice. "Just let them look for me."

"Fine, whatever you want." Alice tried to stand up and clean her clothes because they were dirty.

There was a river on the road ahead. It just so happened that she was very thirsty. She invited Chiki to drink at the river, which was quite close.

Alice and Chiki arrived at the river. When she was about to take some water to drink, the color of the river suddenly turned red like blood. She immediately stepped back to get away.

"Why did the river suddenly change color?" Alice asked.

"I don't know either, Alice."

A few minutes later, Alice saw for herself that the river water changed color and looked clear as before. She began to hesitate to take a sip of water here.

"Chiki, let's just leave here. I'm afraid to drink the water in this river." Alice immediately picked Chiki up and carried her away.

Suddenly, from the river appeared a woman wearing a white dress with wide wings. Alice and Chiki were immediately amazed by her beauty. This was truly marvelous. Alice's mouth opened wide. With slow steps, the woman faced Alice while floating in the air. 

"I am a fairy who guards the river here," she said. "What do you mean by coming here?"

"We just want to drink the water in this river. We have no ill intentions." Alice answered the fairy honestly. "We feel thirsty."

"Very well. Please drink the water in this river, as you two are not people with evil intentions." The fairy invited Alice and Chiki to take a sip of water from the river.

Alice squatted down and used both hands to fetch the water. Then, she took a few sips of the water and found it very refreshing.

"Ah, the water is so fresh. It's good for quenching thirst."

The fairy floated over to Chiki. Alice immediately lifted Chiki's body and hugged her tightly. She was afraid that the fairy would take her favorite chicken.

"Apparently, your favorite chicken is a human cursed by an evil witch." The fairy said to Alice.

"How do you know that?" asked Chiki, who was intrigued by the fairy.

"You have come to the right place." The fairy said to Chiki.