The Ugly Flower by Liza Mynx (highly recommended books TXT) 📖

Far away from the known world, off the coast of Asia, is a small island nation called Verimina. No one outside of this island knows it exists, for no one who has ever mistakenly traveled to it has ever returned. It is full of lush forests that contain wildlife not yet documented in any of our science books. There are high peaks that look over the clear blue water that thrashes mercilessly against the glistening rocks, and the island is filled with the strangest people ever to walk the Earth.
For one, their skin color is that of a pearl, perfect ivory in the dark, yet in the light they seem iridescent. All of them have eyes that look as if they were made to mimic the playful, dancing flames of a fire, except the young girl who rules this nation. Her eyes are the color of the ocean that surrounds her little island; her name is Stella, and she is said to be the most beautiful girl the world has ever known.
Her skin is flawless, like all other Veriminans, but hers shines even on the darkest of nights. Her hair is pure ebony, and it falls in ever so light curls down to her waist. When the sun hits it just right, people can see streaks of dark purple and blue shimmering throughout her luscious mane. She is tall and has a perfect hour glass shape; her head is the shape of a heart, with high cheek bones and amazingly arched eyebrows. Anyone who is within the same room as her can feel the pulsing aura that surrounds her; they can see the almost visible pure white light of power radiating from inside her. Whoever hears her speak can feel her velvety voice wrapping around them, comforted by its warmth, yet wary by its firmness.
Stella is loved by her all her people, adored by all the men and envied by all the women. Her life is perfect; she gets anything and everything she wants, and she has the power to make her will the law, so it seems she has no reason to be in the black mood she’s always in.
She never smiles, never laughs, and is never happy. Anyone outside of this island would wonder why she was like this, for surely anyone else in her position would be the happiest person to ever live. But, this is not the case, for her past is riddled with pain, anger, and tears. . .
Her past is not permitted to be spoken of on the island by any other person then her. The only reason she ever speaks of it is when an unlucky traveler is brought before her by the people who patrol the beaches of the island. You see, Verimina is surrounded by a very thick fog that is impossible to see through, hence the reason no one outside the island knows about it. Sometimes throughout the years, people will wonder through the fog on boats accidentally and crash onto the beaches of the island. How they are not able to miss the huge mass of fog in the middle of the ocean is unknown, but somehow they don’t and either end up on the beaches of Verimina or killed by the vicious creatures that also surround the island nation.
This, however, doesn’t happen very often, and other then the small disturbances from the outside world, life on Verimina is very peaceful. Of course, the inhabitants don’t have any choice but to remain calm because this is how Stella prefers it. And as you know, Stella gets everything she wants.


“I’ll be fine, Dad! I’m just going out for a little ride on the boat. I’ll be back before dinner,” the young girl says to her over protective father.
He looks over his daughter.
How did she grow so mature on the inside, yet look like this innocent, vulnerable, 18 year old on the outside, he wonders.
“Alright, Katherine, you have one hour to go ride around in the boat.” He reaches into his jeans pocket for his keys, and then stops before holding them out to her. “Please go easy on her. I’ve had that boat for 20 years, and I’d like to have her for 20 more.”
Katherine grabs the key ring from her dad. “Don’t worry,” she says as she runs down the dock from their vacation house on the beach, “I won’t go near any cliffs or reefs.”
Katherine’s family has been vacationing in Japan every summer since she can remember. As a child she would love running around the yard of the small house they owned right on the beach and then listening to the sounds of the ocean every night before she fell asleep. When she was about 13 she started going out on the family boat, the Aphrodite, with her father and older brother, Daniel. Every morning before dawn they would wake up and pack a lunch of sandwiches and fruit, and then they would walk down the small dock that stood right in their back yard to the boat. Once inside, her dad would start the boat and drive them around the island nation, stopping every now and then so they could hike up the mountains and walk through the different cities and villages.
Her father was the CEO of a major communications company back home in Atlanta, Georgia, and spoke fluent Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish. Therefore, he was able to speak to the different people they met on their travels around the island. Katherine’s mother was unemployed and much uninvolved in Katherine and Daniel’s lives. Her children considered themselves lucky if their mother spoke to them once during the day. She spent most of her time out spending her husband’s money on manicures, designer clothes, spas, and other things that seemed pretty pointless to her kids.
But they were ok because their father, though very busy with work at times, was very close with his kids and made up for his wife’s negligence.
This summer, Katherine was to turn 19, and she was going to be going back to college in the fall. She was studying to be a veterinarian, much to her father’s dislike. In his dreams when his kids were younger, he had always seen them being business partners working with his company. Daniel, however, was an intern at his father’s company, and was unable to vacation to Japan with his family this summer. When his father offered to have his schedule altered, Daniel argued and said that he has been to Japan for 25 years, his entire life, and he was okay with missing this one summer.
Katherine was in the boat and starting it as she thought back on past summer vacations she had here, wishing her brother had come with. When they were younger, Katherine and Daniel had been very close. They had to be, with their father at work and their mother never paying attention to them. As they grew older they grew more protective of each other and when her older brother wasn’t around, Katherine felt somewhat vulnerable; even though she knew she was safe and was very confident in herself.
Katherine has always had an adventurous attitude and was as fearless as she was beautiful. She had curly, auburn colored hair that reached halfway down her back, and sun kissed skin that glowed no matter where she went. Her eyes were grey, the color of clouds on a rainy day, almond shaped, and she had a smile that could melt all the snow on Mt. Everest.
Her adventurous and fearless attitude, though, were what would get her into trouble on this fine June day.
When she saw the mass of swirling grey fog in the distance, she became curious and directed the Aphrodite closer.
“What in the world is that? I’ve never seen anything like it, and surely if I had, I would’ve remembered. It’s so strange, like stallions leaping, turning, and chasing each other in the wind,” she said to herself as she neared the grey mass.
It seemed though, that the closer she got to the mass, the harder it was to see it. In fact, it became hard to see anything at all! When she realized she’d probably made a mistake by journeying closer to the fog, she tried to turn the boat around and directing it back to the house, but she didn’t know where anything was. She couldn’t even see the steering wheel anymore.
Then she felt the boat rock, as if something huge brushed up against the side. At first she thought it was just her imagination, her subconscious creating it out of the fear that she felt, but when the boat jerked to the left, she knew it wasn’t anything her mind created.
Something was in the water, and it was enormous. She could tell by the way the boat was rocking and wrenching in the water.
All the sudden, there was a big splashing noise, and she felt the boat literally jump out of the water. She screamed and the Aphrodite hit the water again, making water pour all over Katherine.
Salt water found its way down her throat, burning her inside, and she started coughing and trying to spit it out. The temperature had dropped and she stood there shivering, not knowing what was going to happen to her.
As if that weren’t enough, she then heard a god-awful howl coming from the water. It was like nothing she’d ever heard before; no animal she knew of could make such a nerve grinding, painful sound as this. It was like nails scratching a chalkboard and the horror of a ghost’s wail combined. And it wasn’t coming from just one spot, it sounded like it was everywhere, filling her whole world with ear bleeding pain.
Just as suddenly as it happened though, it stopped. She looked around and saw that the fog was thinning, and she could see a stretch of white sand in the distance. She was still shivering from both the cold water that clung to her clothes and out of fear, so she couldn’t move towards the steering wheel to direct it safely onto the beach. When she reached the beach, the boat lurched forward and sent her flying onto the floor of it.
When she got up, she realized that it was warm again, and that the Aphrodite had found its way through the fog and to land. She knew right away though that she was not on Japan, for she had been around the island many times before and this stretch of land was very unfamiliar.
Beyond the sparkling white sand was a vast tropical rainforest, filled with all sorts of birds and wildlife that she couldn’t see, but she could hear. She couldn’t see much else past the luscious, green trees, but she could see smoke rising in this distance.
There must be people over there. I’ll find my way to them, hope they speak English, and try to get this whole mess figured out.
She had just stepped off the boat when she saw two of them. At the time she didn’t know they were Veriminans, all she knew was that they were so exotic, unique, and beautiful in their own way.
They were running towards her and the Aphrodite, and their steps were so lithe and graceful it was as if she were seeing them move in slow motion.
Who are these people? There skin is so pale it’s almost translucent, yet it shines in the sun . . . and their eyes! They look like orange lilies in full bloom! I must be dreaming! This isn’t