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

possible. . .
As they drew closer to her, Katherine found that all she could do was stand in that spot, with the sand scorching her feet and the sun beating down on her back. They finally stood in front of her, and she could only guess that they were both male. One had long curly blond hair that fell down to his broad shoulders. He towered over Katherine and his companion who had short, straight brown hair.
“What is your name?” the one with the blond hair asked. Katherine was surprised to hear his perfect English spoken with an inimitable accent, sounding a little British.
When she could finally find her words she answered the strange, handsome man. “I’m Katherine. W-Who are you? Where am I?”
“Be calm,” he said. His voice was enticing, and she found herself relaxing, almost as if it were by force. She stopped questioning them and stood there almost without a thought at all. “I am Remises, and this is my friend Oberon. Do not be afraid. Come, we will take you to our city where all your questions will be answered by the Lady.”
He smiled at her, and she felt her body move forward and walk with the strange men who she just met on the beach on the land beyond the fog.
As they walked through the forest in the direction of the smoke, Katherine couldn’t help but feel ridiculous walking with these men who were so graceful as she stumbled over every fallen branch in her path. She tried to control herself and walk casually, but there was something about being in the presence of these people that just made her feel like her head wasn’t in control of her body.
“So, um, Remises and Oberon, huh? Not exactly common names, though you aren’t exactly common men either.” She felt her face heat up at the embarrassment of what she just said, but they didn’t seem to be angry. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, Katherine would say they were amused by the comment.
“Do not worry,” Oberon said to her once he saw her ashamed look, “Others who have found their way to our island have said worse things to us. There is no need to be so shy and embarrassed.” His voice had the same unique accent that Remises had, and when he smiled at her, she felt her heart melt. “Our names are names that were given to people high in power, as are all the names of our people. Remises was an Egyptian pharaoh, and Oberon was the King of the Fairies.”
The mention of fairies brought Katherine back down to Earth. It felt a little odd to her for a moment, for here she was, on an island surrounded by fog with people who were so pale they shined in the sun with orange eyes taking her to a woman they called “the Lady”, and the mention of fairies was the thing that seemed odd.
“Fairies? Surely you must be joking?”
This stopped the men. Remises turned around and had this look on his face that said if he could have made her burst into flames, he would have. In fact, his eyes had turned from the bright orange of a lily to the death orange of a raging fire, and she could actually feel her body temperature rise. Oberon, on the other hand, looked more disappointed then angry. He rested a thin hand on Remises’ shoulder, and that seemed to cool him down a bit.
“What do you mean, Katherine?” Remises asked her in a very strained voice.
She found that she was too scared to speak, and Oberon sensed this.
“Tell me, madam,” Oberon started, “Have you ever heard of a man by the name William Shakespeare?”
That broke her spell of speechlessness to the point where she felt like laughing. “Of course I’ve heard of him! He’s the most famous playwright in the world!”
“So then, can you name some of his plays?”
“Yeah! Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello. I can name more, but those are the first that came to my mind.”
Remises scoffed and turned away from her.
“Come on, Oberon, there’s no use wasting our time like this. The Lady would like to speak with her, you know.”
“Be still, Remises,” Oberon said with command and power in his voice. Katherine could then tell that even though Remises was scarier then Oberon, it was Oberon who was in control between the two. Remises turned back, crossed his arms, and stood there like he’d been carved of stone; as if he were made to stare Katherine down. Oberon turned back to her. “There is one in specific I would like you to recall. Have you ever heard of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?”
“I’ve heard of it. That’s the one with the four people wondering through the forest with fairies right?”
He smiled again. “That’s the one. You see, Shakespeare wasn’t just a playwright, he was also a historian. He wrote three different types of plays: tragedies, comedies, and histories. But, his historic plays weren’t the only ones that were based off of something that really happened.”
“Right. Like Julius Caesar, it was a tragedy. Some of the things in the play didn’t really happen, but it was based off a true story. And Antony and Cleopatra, also a tragedy, they were both real people in love.”
Katherine’s sub consciousness was the only part of her that felt it strange that she was in the middle of a rainforest talking about Shakespearian plays with a complete stranger. The part of her mind that she was conscious of was just thinking things like “Wow, he is really cute!”, and “I love Shakespearian plays!” To her, it seemed completely natural to be talking to him about this.
“You are correct, the Lady will be pleased to know how knowledgeable you are, my dear.”
Katherine blushed. “Thanks, but really I just pay attention in class. I’m not that smart you know.”
“Let me continue. What most people don’t know is that all of Shakespeare’s plays are based off of something that really happened. The story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is real, as are all the characters that were in it.”
All she could do was drop her jaw. “Come again?”
“King Oberon and his Queen, Titania, were real fairies. Puck was a real boy of mischief, and those four people wondering through the forest were real, too. Every single one of his plays was real, no matter how unbelievable it might seem.”
“I’m sorry, but this is just too much,” Katherine whispered. She went to go sit on something that she thought was a log, but when she sat on it, it made a weird noise and sprouted two legs and a tail. She screamed when it bumped her off and ran toward the beach. “What was that thing?!”
Both of them looked at her as if she were the one with orange eyes and ivory skin. Oberon reached down to help her off the ground and lead her to a fallen tree trunk. She waved her hand in front of it to make sure it wasn’t going to sprout wings or anything before she sat down.
“It was a stumpfry,” Remises said as though he were trying to keep from bursting out laughing.
“What in the world was that?!”
“Well, it’s something that just knocked you on your butt,” he replied with a snide grin that made it almost impossible for her to be mad at him because it made him look super hot. He sat down on the ground in front of her and Oberon sat next to her. “We can take a quick rest, but you know She can’t be kept waiting. She’ll send the guards out soon.”
Katherine barely paid attention to what he was saying because her mind was on the fact that Oberon was sitting next to her. He was so close that she could feel the raw energy that was pulsing in the air around him. She was looking at Remises to make it seem like she was paying attention to him, but it was really because she was afraid to look at Oberon, for fear that he might be able to see through her eyes and read her mind when they’re this close.
“I agree, friend, but I would just like to explain this to her because entering the City of Verimina without this basic knowledge wouldn’t be wise. That’s why the others were,” he hesitated and looked at Katherine, “Obmutescere.”
“Intelligo. Oportet festinare.”
Oberon nodded then turned back to Katherine.
“What did you guys just say?”
Oberon smiled a little nervously. “It was nothing, just something that we needed to say to each other privately. Forget about it.”
All the sudden, she felt a huge wave of calmness washed over her, and she felt that as it pulled back, the conversation between Remises and Oberon was slowly drifting away from her memory. In a couple of seconds, she couldn’t even remember what she had been thinking about.
“So, as I was saying, Shakespeare was given a piece of information that only a very few humans were ever allowed to know, and that was what inspired him to write his plays. They were all true, the information he was given told him everything he wrote was true, but when he was entrusted with the knowledge he had to promise he wouldn’t tell a living soul about it, so he had to classify his different stories to make sure there was no doubt that anything like fairies were real.
The information was only entrusted to a very select few that showed the capability of being able to truly understand it; in fact, only five humans in the world were ever allowed to know of it: William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vince, and Dante Alighieri. Each of these men are some of the most famous men in all history because of their talent. If you asked anyone these days about these men, no doubt they would say they were true geniuses, but they wouldn’t know how these men became so enlightened. Well, here on Verimina, that is the name of our nation, we do know their secrets.
Dante, he was famous for his poems and books. One of his more famous writings was the Divine Comedy in which he wrote that he went down to Hell and saw the nine different circles of it. He was guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and he described Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Some historians doubt that he really went through this experience, but we know he did.
I know you know Shakespeare, so I won’t go into him that much. All I will say is that he had more insight on the world then anyone outside our small nation will ever give him credit to. He was incredibly gifted, no doubt of it, but without a little help, he wouldn’t be the most famous playwright in history.
You must know Leonardo da Vince; he’s the greatest artist that ever lived. Some might say Michelangelo was, but his knowledge of the way things work in the world was far less superior to that of da Vince’s. He was greatly talented, and not just in the arts. He was also an astounding mathematician and scientist; he created the blueprints of the first flying machine as you probably know.
Einstein was no doubt one of the most brilliant men in all of history, even though some might argue believe it or not. But, yet again, we know something that no other people on Earth know about him. He, like the others, was given a special piece of knowledge.”
Katherine held her hand up in frustration. “Okay, before you go any further, what are you trying to do?! Give me a whole school