Part IX - Hazel's Tea Cup
Once through the Turquoise Door, the travelers found themselves on a narrow dirt street with many passageways leading off in different directions. The passageways were marked by archways lit with hanging lanterns that glowed a warm orange-yellow glow in the smokey night. The moon was a Blood Red orb in the starry night sky and the sun had never set. To their right, a long, stone staircase faded away in the distance - its eventual destination unknown. Ahead they saw stone brick buildings with windows lit by dim, yellow candlelight and gated, iron doorways. Hazel held up their lantern and glanced back at the way they had come. The Turquoise Door they had traveled through was gone. In its place Sagittarius, the Archer was aiming his Arrow at an invisible enemy high in the sky above them. Levi had disappeared and all Hazel saw was Ruby's glittery, sparkly wings flit through an open doorway on the path ahead. Hazel hurried to catch up.
The girls found themselves back in the same room as before. The small window in the turret room was open and a breeze was blowing the window's white curtains back and forth in the sunlit room. They wondered what had happened to their Wheel-Turning King and remembered the Pink Lotus Flower from their Tea Party with the Egyptian Girl. Ruby still had her Udumbara Flowers in her purse, but so far no one had seen any sign of a Gold Wheel-Turning King.
Hazel was still holding onto her lantern and she set it down on a small end table in one corner of the room. The tall, thin girl tossed her cape over an old, dusty chair and looked thoughtful.
"Maybe the King got lost on their way here. Where were they coming from again?"
Zoe looked out the window, her eyes staring out into an empty space. "We don't know for sure, but it's possible they were traveling from India and got lost on the way here."
"What happened to the Blacksmith?" Hazel remembered the story about a Blacksmith who had made pieces of iron in the shape of Chrysanthemum Blossoms in order to brand the soles of a passing stranger's feet.
"Why did the Blacksmith want to brand someone's feet with the shape of Chrysanthemum Blossoms?" Ruby asked. The small girl yawned as the sun started to set in orange, red and yellow hues that streamed in through the alcove's window like so many brightly colored ribbons in the dusty twilight.
Zoe looked thoughtful, "Perhaps the stranger was an imposter, and wanted others to believe they were the Gold Wheel-Turning King, when in fact the King was busy someplace else. The stranger must have asked The Blacksmith to brand a spoked wheel on the soles of his feet using iron because this was one of the kingly markings he was missing. He wanted to take back his throne from the current King!"
"Let's see if we can look into Hazel's Tea Cup and figure out what happened in the past." Zoe put the kettle on the fire and Ruby set out their Tea Cups they had brought with them from the Blue Lotus Tea Party. Hazel pulled a few old sugar cubes out of her Travel Pack and then examined a jar of Honey that had somehow ended up with Zoe's belongings.