So this is the official query post. When ya'll finish yours (cuz you are going to, course), you can just add on. :P
Thanks to Lauren who posted all that yummy info. I wasn't too happy at first because obviously it meant I had to stop sitting on my butt and get to it, but hey, you knew we'd all appreciate it in the end. Because you're smart like that. *sigh*
Anywho, here's mine! Please, for the first time in your lives, critique, k? :D
Dear Agent:
Jenna May Saundra thinks she knows what life is all about, but when her parents flip her world upside down, she escapes into the unknown world of theatre and has to learn what being an actress, and a woman, really means.
Jenna May Saundra is a normal 15 year old, despite being a little lonely, until her world falls apart when her mother suddenly has a break down and her father leaves them. She’s left alone to cope with her alcoholic mother, but instead of facing the truth and getting help she escapes into the world of theatre, where she meets the amazing people that will eventually gain her trust. It is them she runs to when her mother gets out of control and physically hurts her, but her conflicting emotions for the leading man starts to pull things apart, and she discovers that things are not always as they seem. Her inability to trust finally forces her away from those who love her, but a little girl who has even more to lose shows her the truth, and she sets out to make things right before it’s too late.
My young adult novel, REACHING FOR THE STARS, is finished at about 53,000 words. The full manuscript is availuble upon request.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Anna Ingraham
You may notice there is no bio... I just couldn't figure out what to put in it. I mean, there wasn't really any in the sample ones I read and I obviously have no experiance... so what ARE you supposed to put in it, anyone know? And here's another Hook, I couldn't decide which I liked better, so please tell me! Hehe.
The day her mother starts drinking again changes the life of Jenna May Saundra forever, but perhaps not all for the worse, as she meets the enchanting, but confusing people of Hartford, and steps into the unknown world of theatre.
That's alllll. I expect this post'll get longer soon. It better. ;)
<3
Annapants
All right all, this is my query letter. I OFICIALLY HATE QUERY LETTERS! They're so hard to do! If only someone else had done the challenge, so right now I could be steaming mad at them instead of pounding my head against the wall at myself. At least, it certianly WAS a challenge! And please give me your advice, I cant decide, should I take out the last sentance of the mini synopsis?
Dear Ms. Agent:
After Ember finds out she’s part fairy and magic is real, she determines to try to help those like her who are in danger; not knowing that doing so may cause the eminent destruction of Fairy World.
Ember lives a normal lonely life until her grandfather shocks her with the news; she’s part fairy. Her life is further changed when she decides to try to help the part fairies in the mysterious third world, part fairies who are hunted by the government and live a life of hiding. But the second time she goes back everything goes wrong. After getting captured by a spy pretending to be a part fairy, Ember knows they have to seal the gate between worlds or Fairy World may be overrun by two evil people who have both brains and power. It results in a battle between worlds, with light and dark come together to fight.
I have been writing since I was five, and in 2006 I received an honorable mention in a Cricket poem contest.
My young adult novel, Gates of light, is about 53,000 words. The full manuscript is available upon request. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Kelia Ingraham
There you go. Tear it up as much as you want, I have NO attatchments to it.
KrazyK
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
I Have Never Written a Query.
...
And I don't know if anyone else has, either.
So instead (AGAIN) of posting, I thought I'd give a couple cheats (found off the web, a'course) on how to do the danged thing.
--------------
The Basics
A query letter is a single page cover letter, introducing you and your book. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a resume. It’s not rambling saga of your life as an aspiring writer. It’s not a friendly, “Hey, what’s up, buddy. I’m the next John Grisham. Got the next best selling thriller for ya,” kind of letter. And for the love of god, it is NOT more than one-page. Trust us on this.
A query letter has three concise paragraphs: the hook, the mini-synopsis, and your writer’s biography. Don’t stray from this format. You won’t catch an agent’s attention by inventing a creative new query format. You’ll just alienate your chances of being taken seriously as a professional writer. A query letter is meant to elicit an invitation to send sample chapters or even the whole manuscript to the agent. It’s not meant to show off how cute and snazzy you can be by breaking formatting rules and going against the grain. Keep it simple. Stick to three paragraphs. The goal is to get the agent to read your book, not to blow you off because you screwed up the introduction.
Paragraph One—The Hook: A hook is a concise, one-sentence tagline for your book. It’s meant to hook your reader’s interest, and wind them in. The best way to understand how to write a hook is to read the loglines of the titles sold by agents in our database.
Here are a few examples of hooks for well-known novels:
House of Sand and Fog
When Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian military, sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, he unwittingly puts himself and his family on a trajectory to disaster; the house once belonged to Kathy Nicolo, a self-destructive alcoholic, who engages in legal, then personal confrontation to get it back.
Bridges of Madison County
When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience that will haunt them forever.
The Corrections
When family patriarch, Alfred Lambert, enters his final decline, his wife and three adult children must face the failures, secrets, and long-buried hurts that haunt them as a family if they are to make the corrections that each desperately needs.
The "When" Formula: As you can see, we’re a fan of the when formula: “When such and such event happens, your main character—a descriptive adjective, age, professional occupation—must confront further conflict and triumph in his or her own special way. Sure, it’s a formula, but it’s a formula that works.
However, be warned...everyone and their grandmother who reads this site will try using our "when" formula, so we recommend simply using it as a starting point. Write your basic hook, then try spicing things up as you get more and more into the groove of "hooking." And don't worry, it's legal in every state, not just Nevada.
Check out these very simple, yet very non-"formulatic" fiction hooks:
The Kite Runner
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present.
The Da Vinci Code
A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ.
Everything Is Illuminated
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, Jonathan Safran Foer—both author and meta fictional protagonist—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis.
Here are some non-"formulatic" hooks for a few nonfiction books:
Into Thin Air
On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world, and barely made it back alive from the deadliest season in the history of Everest.
The Perfect Storm
The true story of the meteorological conditions that created the "Storm of the Century" and the impact the Perfect Storm had on many of the people caught in its path; chiefly, among these are the six crew members of the swordfish boat the Andrea Gail, all of whom were lost 500 miles from home beneath rolling seas.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The memoir of Dave Eggers, who at the age of 22, became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers, leaving Eggers the appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher.
Other Great Ways to Start Your Hook:
• Give era and location: Three Different Examples:
1. Set in modern-day Jerusalem...
2. During the summer of 1889 in a rural Texas town...
3. Taking place in turn-of-the-century New York City...
• Set up your main character: Three Different Examples:
1. The tale of Una Spencer, wife of Melville's legendary fictional whale harpooner Captain Ahab...
2. A chatty cozy mystery starring 50-something college professor Bell Barrett...
3. Narrated by Cot Daley, an Irish peasant girl kidnapped from Galway and sent to Barbados...
• Variations on the "when" formula: Three Different Examples:
1. Following a botched circumcision...
2. While defending a drug-addicted prostitute accused of murder....
3. After years of abuse at the hands of her alcoholic mother and step-father...
There are literally scores and scores of hooks listed in our database, specifically in the past & present clients section of our agents’ profiles. We encourage you to read as many as possible, and learn what captures your attention in a single sentence. Then try to emulate a similar hook for your query letter.
Paragraph Two—Mini-synopsis: This is where you get to distill your entire 300 page novel into one paragraph. Lucky you. We’d like to offer advice on how to do this, but really, it just takes practice, hard work and lots of patience. Then, like we said before, get your friends to read it and if their heads hurt afterwards, go back to the drawing board. We don’t envy you. We really don’t. Summing up your entire book in an intriguing single paragraph is worse than a root canal.
So think of it this way. You had trouble writing the gist of your book in one sentence, right? Now, you get a whole paragraph. About 150 extra words. Here’s your chance to expand on your hook. Give a little bit more information about your main characters, their problems and conflicts, and the way in which adversity changes their lives. Read the back flaps of your favorite novels and try to copy how the conflict of the book is described in a single, juicy paragraph. You can do this. You really can. You just have to sit down, brainstorm, then vomit it all out onto the page. Afterwards, cut, paste, trim, revise, and reshape.
Paragraph Three—Writer’s bio: This should be the easiest part of your query. After all, it’s about you, the writer. Okay, so it’s a bit daunting, especially if you’ve never been published, never won any awards, hold no degrees from MFA writing schools, and possess no credentials to write your book. No problem. The less you have to say, the more space you have for your mini-synopsis. Always a plus.
If you do choose to construct a writer’s bio (and you should), keep it short and related to writing. Agents don’t care what your day job is unless it directly relates to your book. Got a main character who’s a firefighter, and that’s your day job? Be sure to say that. Otherwise, scrap it. Education is helpful because it sounds good, but it’s only really important if you’re offering a nonfiction book about A.D.D. children and you hold a PhD in pediatric behavioral science. If you’ve published a few stories in your local newspaper, or a short story in a few literary magazines, or won any writing awards or contests, now’s the time to list the details. Don’t go hog wild, but don’t be too modest either.
Your Closing: Congratulations! You’ve finished your query letter. As a formal closing, be sure to do two things. First, thank the agent for her time and consideration. Second, if it’s nonfiction, tell them that you’ve included an outline, table of contents, and sample chapters for their review. If it’s fiction, alert the agent that the full manuscript is available upon request. And in case you still don’t believe us, we want to reiterate: don’t query agents until you’ve finished your full fiction manuscript. Agents will want to read the whole novel before they offer representation to you and your book.
Other Random Tips:
The Do’s:
• Do address your query specifically to an agent. There are lots of greetings from which to choose. Here are your options in order of best to worst:
Attn. Ms. Shermanstein:
Dear Adrian Shermanstein:
Dear Ms. Shermanstein:
Dear Ms. Shermanstein,
Dear Adrian,
Yo Adrian,
• Do state the title of your book.
• Do mention the word count and genre of your book. Novels should be 80,000 to 100,00 words. Young adult novels can be significantly less: 40,000-60,000 words. Suavely insert word count and genre at the end of your first “hook” paragraph.
• Do mention exactly why you’re approaching Ms. Agent. Try to compare your book with other books that Ms. Agent has represented in the past.
• Do adopt a professional, serious tone.
• Do keep your query to one-page only.
• Do format your query using standard business letter alignment and spacing. That means: Single spaced. 12 point font. Everything aligned along the left margin. No paragraph indentations, but a space between each paragraph. One-page only!
• Do list your phone number, mailing address, and email address
• Do include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with all snail mail submissions.
• Do have a pair of "fresh eyes" proofread for typos and grammar mistakes.
The Do NOT’s:
• Do NOT start off your query by saying, "I am querying you because I found your name in 'such and such' writing guide or internet agent database" (like AQ!). Not only does this take up valuable query letter space, but it's also the sign of an amateur.
• Do NOT refer to your novel as a fictional novel. That’s redundant. Just call it a novel.
• Do NOT sing the praises of your book or compare it with other best selling books.
• Do NOT send gifts or other bribes with your query.
• Do NOT print your query on perfumed or colored paper. Use plain business stationery.
• Do NOT shrink your font down to 9 point so it all fits on one page. 12 point is standard. 11 point if you’re really desperate.
• Do NOT Fedex or mail your query in a lavish, signature-required fashion in order to make your query stand out. It will stand out, but in a very "annoying, over-zealous, bad first impression" kind of way. Not to mention, it's a friggin' waste of money.
• Do NOT apologize in your query for being a newbie writer with zero publishing credits and experience. Your goal is to write a tight, alluring, eye-catching query and sound like a professional. If you're worried about your lack of writing credentials, just keep quiet and let the writing speak for itself.
• Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel. Never send more than the first 5 pages with your query unless the guidelines say, "A-Okay!"
• Do NOT forget to list your email address or contact phone number on your query.
• Do NOT forget to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE)
Need to see an ACTUAL query letter before you'll know how to write one?
We've been getting a lot of email from some AQ users who believe that they must see a query letter before they can write one. And you've been relentless in your requests for examples of REAL, L-I-V-E query letters. Some of you have even offered us shiny trinkets in exchange for a glimpse at the elusive QL beast. Well, it ain't the ivory-billed wood pecker, but here you go: examples from agents and writers with agents. You can't get a better view than that.
• Published Author and AQ user, Heather Brewer's query letter that snagged her an agent, who later sold her book, THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD, to Penguin/Dutton
• Jenny Bent's A Terrific Query Letter
• Kristin Nelson displays the successful query letter of her first client, Jennifer O'Connell, in "What is an example of a good query?"
• Barbara Collins Rosenberg's Sample Queries #1, 2 ,3 at the bottom of the page.
The rest (it's so freakin' long) for NON-FICTION is at THIS SITE. It's amazing.
LOVE,
Lauren the Query-less Challenger who SENT THE NOTEBOOK ALREADY!
And I don't know if anyone else has, either.
So instead (AGAIN) of posting, I thought I'd give a couple cheats (found off the web, a'course) on how to do the danged thing.
--------------
The Basics
A query letter is a single page cover letter, introducing you and your book. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a resume. It’s not rambling saga of your life as an aspiring writer. It’s not a friendly, “Hey, what’s up, buddy. I’m the next John Grisham. Got the next best selling thriller for ya,” kind of letter. And for the love of god, it is NOT more than one-page. Trust us on this.
A query letter has three concise paragraphs: the hook, the mini-synopsis, and your writer’s biography. Don’t stray from this format. You won’t catch an agent’s attention by inventing a creative new query format. You’ll just alienate your chances of being taken seriously as a professional writer. A query letter is meant to elicit an invitation to send sample chapters or even the whole manuscript to the agent. It’s not meant to show off how cute and snazzy you can be by breaking formatting rules and going against the grain. Keep it simple. Stick to three paragraphs. The goal is to get the agent to read your book, not to blow you off because you screwed up the introduction.
Paragraph One—The Hook: A hook is a concise, one-sentence tagline for your book. It’s meant to hook your reader’s interest, and wind them in. The best way to understand how to write a hook is to read the loglines of the titles sold by agents in our database.
Here are a few examples of hooks for well-known novels:
House of Sand and Fog
When Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian military, sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, he unwittingly puts himself and his family on a trajectory to disaster; the house once belonged to Kathy Nicolo, a self-destructive alcoholic, who engages in legal, then personal confrontation to get it back.
Bridges of Madison County
When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience that will haunt them forever.
The Corrections
When family patriarch, Alfred Lambert, enters his final decline, his wife and three adult children must face the failures, secrets, and long-buried hurts that haunt them as a family if they are to make the corrections that each desperately needs.
The "When" Formula: As you can see, we’re a fan of the when formula: “When such and such event happens, your main character—a descriptive adjective, age, professional occupation—must confront further conflict and triumph in his or her own special way. Sure, it’s a formula, but it’s a formula that works.
However, be warned...everyone and their grandmother who reads this site will try using our "when" formula, so we recommend simply using it as a starting point. Write your basic hook, then try spicing things up as you get more and more into the groove of "hooking." And don't worry, it's legal in every state, not just Nevada.
Check out these very simple, yet very non-"formulatic" fiction hooks:
The Kite Runner
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present.
The Da Vinci Code
A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ.
Everything Is Illuminated
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, Jonathan Safran Foer—both author and meta fictional protagonist—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis.
Here are some non-"formulatic" hooks for a few nonfiction books:
Into Thin Air
On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world, and barely made it back alive from the deadliest season in the history of Everest.
The Perfect Storm
The true story of the meteorological conditions that created the "Storm of the Century" and the impact the Perfect Storm had on many of the people caught in its path; chiefly, among these are the six crew members of the swordfish boat the Andrea Gail, all of whom were lost 500 miles from home beneath rolling seas.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The memoir of Dave Eggers, who at the age of 22, became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers, leaving Eggers the appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher.
Other Great Ways to Start Your Hook:
• Give era and location: Three Different Examples:
1. Set in modern-day Jerusalem...
2. During the summer of 1889 in a rural Texas town...
3. Taking place in turn-of-the-century New York City...
• Set up your main character: Three Different Examples:
1. The tale of Una Spencer, wife of Melville's legendary fictional whale harpooner Captain Ahab...
2. A chatty cozy mystery starring 50-something college professor Bell Barrett...
3. Narrated by Cot Daley, an Irish peasant girl kidnapped from Galway and sent to Barbados...
• Variations on the "when" formula: Three Different Examples:
1. Following a botched circumcision...
2. While defending a drug-addicted prostitute accused of murder....
3. After years of abuse at the hands of her alcoholic mother and step-father...
There are literally scores and scores of hooks listed in our database, specifically in the past & present clients section of our agents’ profiles. We encourage you to read as many as possible, and learn what captures your attention in a single sentence. Then try to emulate a similar hook for your query letter.
Paragraph Two—Mini-synopsis: This is where you get to distill your entire 300 page novel into one paragraph. Lucky you. We’d like to offer advice on how to do this, but really, it just takes practice, hard work and lots of patience. Then, like we said before, get your friends to read it and if their heads hurt afterwards, go back to the drawing board. We don’t envy you. We really don’t. Summing up your entire book in an intriguing single paragraph is worse than a root canal.
So think of it this way. You had trouble writing the gist of your book in one sentence, right? Now, you get a whole paragraph. About 150 extra words. Here’s your chance to expand on your hook. Give a little bit more information about your main characters, their problems and conflicts, and the way in which adversity changes their lives. Read the back flaps of your favorite novels and try to copy how the conflict of the book is described in a single, juicy paragraph. You can do this. You really can. You just have to sit down, brainstorm, then vomit it all out onto the page. Afterwards, cut, paste, trim, revise, and reshape.
Paragraph Three—Writer’s bio: This should be the easiest part of your query. After all, it’s about you, the writer. Okay, so it’s a bit daunting, especially if you’ve never been published, never won any awards, hold no degrees from MFA writing schools, and possess no credentials to write your book. No problem. The less you have to say, the more space you have for your mini-synopsis. Always a plus.
If you do choose to construct a writer’s bio (and you should), keep it short and related to writing. Agents don’t care what your day job is unless it directly relates to your book. Got a main character who’s a firefighter, and that’s your day job? Be sure to say that. Otherwise, scrap it. Education is helpful because it sounds good, but it’s only really important if you’re offering a nonfiction book about A.D.D. children and you hold a PhD in pediatric behavioral science. If you’ve published a few stories in your local newspaper, or a short story in a few literary magazines, or won any writing awards or contests, now’s the time to list the details. Don’t go hog wild, but don’t be too modest either.
Your Closing: Congratulations! You’ve finished your query letter. As a formal closing, be sure to do two things. First, thank the agent for her time and consideration. Second, if it’s nonfiction, tell them that you’ve included an outline, table of contents, and sample chapters for their review. If it’s fiction, alert the agent that the full manuscript is available upon request. And in case you still don’t believe us, we want to reiterate: don’t query agents until you’ve finished your full fiction manuscript. Agents will want to read the whole novel before they offer representation to you and your book.
Other Random Tips:
The Do’s:
• Do address your query specifically to an agent. There are lots of greetings from which to choose. Here are your options in order of best to worst:
Attn. Ms. Shermanstein:
Dear Adrian Shermanstein:
Dear Ms. Shermanstein:
Dear Ms. Shermanstein,
Dear Adrian,
Yo Adrian,
• Do state the title of your book.
• Do mention the word count and genre of your book. Novels should be 80,000 to 100,00 words. Young adult novels can be significantly less: 40,000-60,000 words. Suavely insert word count and genre at the end of your first “hook” paragraph.
• Do mention exactly why you’re approaching Ms. Agent. Try to compare your book with other books that Ms. Agent has represented in the past.
• Do adopt a professional, serious tone.
• Do keep your query to one-page only.
• Do format your query using standard business letter alignment and spacing. That means: Single spaced. 12 point font. Everything aligned along the left margin. No paragraph indentations, but a space between each paragraph. One-page only!
• Do list your phone number, mailing address, and email address
• Do include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with all snail mail submissions.
• Do have a pair of "fresh eyes" proofread for typos and grammar mistakes.
The Do NOT’s:
• Do NOT start off your query by saying, "I am querying you because I found your name in 'such and such' writing guide or internet agent database" (like AQ!). Not only does this take up valuable query letter space, but it's also the sign of an amateur.
• Do NOT refer to your novel as a fictional novel. That’s redundant. Just call it a novel.
• Do NOT sing the praises of your book or compare it with other best selling books.
• Do NOT send gifts or other bribes with your query.
• Do NOT print your query on perfumed or colored paper. Use plain business stationery.
• Do NOT shrink your font down to 9 point so it all fits on one page. 12 point is standard. 11 point if you’re really desperate.
• Do NOT Fedex or mail your query in a lavish, signature-required fashion in order to make your query stand out. It will stand out, but in a very "annoying, over-zealous, bad first impression" kind of way. Not to mention, it's a friggin' waste of money.
• Do NOT apologize in your query for being a newbie writer with zero publishing credits and experience. Your goal is to write a tight, alluring, eye-catching query and sound like a professional. If you're worried about your lack of writing credentials, just keep quiet and let the writing speak for itself.
• Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel. Never send more than the first 5 pages with your query unless the guidelines say, "A-Okay!"
• Do NOT forget to list your email address or contact phone number on your query.
• Do NOT forget to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE)
Need to see an ACTUAL query letter before you'll know how to write one?
We've been getting a lot of email from some AQ users who believe that they must see a query letter before they can write one. And you've been relentless in your requests for examples of REAL, L-I-V-E query letters. Some of you have even offered us shiny trinkets in exchange for a glimpse at the elusive QL beast. Well, it ain't the ivory-billed wood pecker, but here you go: examples from agents and writers with agents. You can't get a better view than that.
• Published Author and AQ user, Heather Brewer's query letter that snagged her an agent, who later sold her book, THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD, to Penguin/Dutton
• Jenny Bent's A Terrific Query Letter
• Kristin Nelson displays the successful query letter of her first client, Jennifer O'Connell, in "What is an example of a good query?"
• Barbara Collins Rosenberg's Sample Queries #1, 2 ,3 at the bottom of the page.
The rest (it's so freakin' long) for NON-FICTION is at THIS SITE. It's amazing.
LOVE,
Lauren the Query-less Challenger who SENT THE NOTEBOOK ALREADY!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Jjjuuusssttt Kidddiing
Ugghhh. Okay. Sorry. I lied. This is not my Eclip. Fan Fic. Why? because I got totally-utterly SIDE-TRACKED! (sorry) The Eclip. one WILL be coming. promise. I really TRULY promise. HOWEVER. In the mean time. I was sitting in the doctors office today and started writing in my LOTR's stuff and well, got hooked. :-/ Sorry. Old fan fiction, new chapter.
This chapter was partially written in a doctors office, late last night and no procrastinating so it really stinks and it's majorly short for me which is kind of bugging me. My elvish translators won't work so all the words that SHOULD be elvish are in () those things.
Before I start: KELIA YOUR ENDING RROOOCCKKKKEEEDDDD!!!!!!!!
ssooo let's see where we left off. This is my original LOTR fan fic at the begining of the three movies so it's DURING lotr not the post-lotr's one. Make sense? Yes? No? Okay. So yes, where we left off: Lenia and Legolas had finally arrived at Rivendale and participated in the meeting. (not really sure WHAT they called it but you know the one that was like every race on Middle earth-pratically. Not really. Eh. you get it) We found out Lenia has a son and whoever his father is isn't someone anyone wishes to remember. We found out how Lenia's brother died and that she feels responisble, for obvious reasons, for his death. Legolas ticked Lenia off by accident causing them to be on temporary non-speaking terms. And, yeah, I think that's a pretty could cover of what happend last time.....right? Hope so.
Disclaimer: The only thing I own are my made up plot twists, made up charactors and places, other than that it's 100% J.R.R. Tolkien or the movie company that made it a movie (....erg not sure what it's called.....)
(By the way, I haven't read the book so, yeah, it's based on the movie.)
Fan Fiction Book: A Dangerous Journey
Chapter 7: The departure
By: Katherine LaGassie.
It was warm the next morning as the fellowship prepared to leave. "Who would have thought." Arwen spoke, looking at Lenia's sword. "You of all things, a ranger."
Lenia laughed merilly as she slung a bag onto both shoulders to bring to Aragorn. "I wasn't exactly a calm child when I was young." She reminded her cousin, mischief filling her cheery face.
"Yes, (my dear cousin). You were a terror." Arwen spoke with sarcasm.
Lenia rolled her eyes, crystellin blue oceans circling a snow-white background. "Sarcasm is not your tone (my cousin)." She took her sword from Arwen and placed it within it's case, holding it firmly in her hands as she locked eyes with her cousin.
"Tis true (my dear cousin)." She sat on Lenia's bed looking up at her, her own eyes resembling crystals. "Kadden's going to miss you something terrible, Lenia."
Lenia allowed a light sigh to grace her nearly parted lips, "And I him." She smiled sadly and the picked up her brothers quiver and sword. She ran her fingers down her brother's weathered blade, careful not to cut herself on it's all-too-familiar sharp edges. They felt as if they were brand new once again, like they always felt when Tripton took off with his fellow Rangers. Like she would always keep it.
A sword whizzed through the air and hit a target. "2 points." Tripton's voice said merrily as he patted another Ranger on his back. "Well done my friend."
The man laughed, "Your turn, Tripton." The ranger said, "Strider will want plenty of competition when he arrives, or will you not challenger your old friend?"
"Not on your life, Jon." Tripton smirked. "Him and I will challenge eachother until we both pass to valor." He spoke and then shot his sword at the target. It was a perfect hit, it hit the bullseye with such force that it nearly fell over onto the ground.
"I'm gonna be able to do that someday." A young girl with long black hair, blue eyes and an elven dress said coming out of the back of the castle into the safety of the walled city behind it.
"Oh really, Lenia?" Jon said, glancing at Tripton and back, "Perhaps so, but you may change your mind one day when you get older. Being a ranger isn't such a pleasant job."
Tripton laughed, his laughter sounded much like his baby sisters could at times, "I doubt she will, Jon. She's pretty stubborn and when she sets her mind to something-well-she sets her mind to it."
"Just like her brother." A slightly younger looking Aragorn said walking into the area.
"ARAGORN!" Lenia yelled, turned immediately from her brother and his friend and ran, full force, towards Aragorn. He scooped her up into his arms, spun her around and then rested her back within his arms. "Hello there, Lenia." Her blue eyes sparkled wild at his own adventure filled eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck, "I've missed you sooo much Aragorn!!! What happend while you were gone? What did I miss? What did you see? Where did go? What did you do?" Aragorn laughed as question spewed from the eight-year-olds mouth.
"I promse," He spoke, silencing the child, "I will answer them all at supper." Lenia pouted lightly but his answer seemed to surfice.
"Aragorn," Tripton said walking over to Aragorn and hugging him. "It's been far too long my old friend."
Aragorn laughed, causing Lenia to look at him with bright eyes cause from the jolly sound. "I'm afraid it has been my brothren, but at least we will be making up for that time soon. 10 times over, I pressume."
"Sooner than my parents liking I'm afraid." Tripton spoke, looking at Lenia carefully. He was unsure whether he should speak with her presence or not. Finally he decided that it was inevidedable that she'd find out anyway. "Sauron's eye is awaking. His presence is returning, both you and I know it. It's tearing places apart already." Lenia seemed to comprehend everything, especially when Aragorn tightened his protective grip on her tiny body, "And Nastar?"
"It rests in peace," Tripton said as they made their way to the castle once again, bidding his friends goodbye, "For now anyway," He looked at Aragorn before looking at the walled city around them, "Nothing of Sauron's evil has come to it."
"He rests in the forests." Lenia spoke thoughtfully, causing both men to look at her.
"And what makes you say that, Lenia?" Aragorn asked, pausing with Tripton, glancing at him and placing her infront of him so their eyes met. "I can see him and feel him. Sometimes I can even hear him." She said, as if it was nothing.
Tripton's brow furred, "Why haven't you said anything before?" He asked, trying to remain as calm as his friend beside of him was.
Lenia rolled her eyes, revealing a bright smile, "Because, no one ever asked me, silly." The response was enough to make the tension cease and cause both the men to go into a slight laughing fit. Tripton smiled, placing a loving hand on his sisters head and Aragorn kissed her head, "Of course." Aragorn said as they entered the castle.
"Oh Aragorn!!! It's so wonderful to see you again!" Ashanti said running over and hugging him. "I can't believe your going to be taking my son away from me again." Her tone was some where between joking, loving and distress.
Aragorn laughed, "You make such a thing sound criminal, Ashanti. I am afraid I cannot be sorry for such action, I love his presence far too much."
Lord Sryton walked out from the corner, "and he you." Both 'young' men chuckled and Lord Sryton took his daughter from Aragorn, however, Lenia protesed the entire time. "I wanna stay with Aragorn!"
"Let him breathe, Lenia, the man's been through a lot. He needs to rest.
Lenia pouted unhappy but didn't resist, "Yes, ada." Her eyes sank but still she said nothing. "Lord Sryton, it's not a problem, really. I just adore Lenia. She's as good as resting." Aragorn said and shot a wink in her direction, creating a perfect giggle to escape her.
Tripton laughed giving Lenia to Aragorn, "Of course, Cute, elven-wizard children are always the heart stealers." He kissed her nose and gave her to Aragorn finally.
"Ahhhh....much better." Aragorn said taking her and holding her in his arms, "I mean I only have to spoil her and spend every minute with her while I'm here."
"Yay!"
"Oh dear." Ashanti said, "What have you done, Aragorn, between you and Tripton I'll never see my child again."
"It's only our job (mother)." Tripton replied with a grin. Ashanti sighed, putting her hand on her husbands arm, "Why don't you three," She acknowledged, Aragorn, Tripton and Lenia, "get ready and we'll meet you at supper." With that, they all nodded and parted.
"And so, I told him the Orc did it." Aragorn concluded and laughter erupted within the group of rangers towards the end of the table.
"Please, really," Ashanti said looking at them, "Change the subject already before you drive ideas within Lenia's mind." She indicated Lenia how was seated, most happily, between Aragorn and Tripton.
"(Mom) it's not like she hasn't heard stories like this before." Tripton pointed out, sipping his elven wine as black, curley bangs, fell infront of his eyes.
Lord Sryton looked over at his son, "Tripton." His voice was stern and Tripton rolled his eyes. "Guys, let's tone it down before my parents throw a fit."
"I don't mind it." Lenia interject, causing smirks to cross the experianced rangers faces.
"Oh dear gods it's happend already." Ashanti spoke as she stood. "Fine. continue but if your grandparents hear-"
"Grandparents?"
"My parents are here and will be joining us momentarily." Ashanti said as Lord Sryton sipped his own wine and Tripton scrunched his nose.
"I'm sure they aren't that bad." Aragorn reasurred and Tripton laughed, tossing back his head. "Strider, my dear friend, don't fool yourself. They're witches."
"Tripton." Lord Sryton's voice was not hard to pick out as it boomed warningly.
"You'll see." He uttered and crossed his arms, leaning back into his seat giving Lenia a clear view of her grandparents entering and hugging her mother.
"Tripton," Alysia, their grandmother, spoke coming foreward, her voice sounded like nails against a chalk board. "Sit up straight, you'll get a hunch back, seriously-is this what they teach you when you become a ranger. And where's my hug of all things?"
Tripton rolled his eyes at Aragorn, black hair covering the movement. He smiled sourly and sat up, "I'm sorry, (grandmother)" He reached up, tapped her back and sat back down.
"Really, you two, I don't know what you did wrong with him." This time all the rangers gave Alysia and her husband, Garrett, an odd look. Lenia just starred at her. "Oh!" Alysia said reaching around Tripton to Lenia, "There's my grand daughter!" She went to hug her but Tripton nudged Aragorn and had him pick her up. "She's sick." Tripton said simply. "Oh poor-" Alysia said.
"Tripton-she is no such thing, behave yourself!" Lord Sryton warned. Tripton rolled his eyes and took Lenia, whispered sorry and let his grandmother hug her. Once all hugging was over they all sat down, behaving themselves and listened as everyone talked.
"So does Lenia still have those foolish dreams of being a ranger?" Garrett asked, "I mean, we know it's too late for Tripton but I'm soon he'll soon understand his mistake."
"If I were you, Ashanti, I'd nip this thing in the butt before it gets worse. It's bad enough to have one child living on impossible fantasies. Lenia is after all a girl and-" That was it. Tripton had heard enough. Red faced he stood up, slamming his chair to the ground. "And what?!" He roared, causing the room to look at him. "What's wrong with what SHE wants??? Huh? What?! And by the way, I don't regret being a ranger and never will and I don't care if you think it's the worst this I could ever be because at least I'm not a stuck up, over controling snobs who think their grandchildren can only reach certain levels. Lenia's going to be a ranger and a heck of one two if she wishes-JUST STOP INTEREFERING!" With that he kicked back his chair further and stormed from the room.
The room was dead silent, shock seemed to be on his grandparents faces and the rangers were looking at one another. "Well now..." Alysia said, clearing her throat, "that was quite the...uh...outburst."
The room was still silent and Aragorn stood, picking Lenia up, figuring this was not the best enviroment for her, "If you don't mind," He signled the other rangers to follow, "We'll go check on Tripton."
Ashanti met his gaze and nodded, appologies flooding through her eyes, "stop by the kitchen, grab the deserts and-"
"We'll cover, Tript, don't worry." Jon said and they exited the room. "That was uncomfortable."
Aragorn nodded, "You guys get the desert, I'll be in Tripton's room." He walked up the stairs, set Lenia in her room and proceeded in there. Lenia sat on her bed staring at her shut door. She didn't understand her brother's hatred towards her grandparents, she'd admit she wasn't comfortable around them and they were not nearly as loving as Galadriel and Celeborn, whom the rangers would be dropping her off at on their way out, but she didn't think they were that bad. Tripton reacted to them as if they were Sauron. She crawled up and looked out her window, curtains flawling around her. Sauron's eye watching her intently made her feel odd. There was a knock on her door, Tripton entered and she went back onto her bed. Tripton knelt back down and placed his hands on her knees. "Lenia," He said and she looked at him, "I love you." He kissed her head, his voice sounding as if something was wrong.
"You okay, Lenia?" Arwen asked looking at her. Lenia shook her head to clear her mind and put the swords in their holders and held them in her hands, "Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking you know." Arwen nodded understandably and Lenia looked out the window, "I should go, they look about ready to head out."
Arwen sighed, stood and hugged her, "Now I know how your parents must have felt-I'm not sure if I can let you go."
Lenia jokingly sighed, "I've already been through his with everyone else pppleeaasssee can be make this be normal?"
Arwen laughed, "Namarie (cousin)."
"No," Lenia corrected, "not farewell, Just see you later." She placed her hand on Arwen's arm and exited her nearly empty room.
"Take long enough to get ready?" Aragorn asked meeting her outside. Lenia laughed and smiled, "I was talking with Arwen." Aragorn nodded lightly and they began to walk to the horses, "What's wrong between the two of you?" She asked and he looked at her, "I saw you too this morning. You were arguing," She met his eyes,"Uncle talked to you-don't let him control you-"
"Lenia, this is none of your business."
"Yes it is, Aragorn, every bit of my business." She replied to him, eyes flashing, "You love her and she loves you don't let my Uncle intervine. Don't let him control you like my grandparents did me." Aragorn stopped and looked at her, silence falling between them, "She'd follow you to the end of the earth, Aragorn, no matter what you say she'll love you and you'll love her so I don't know why you're leaving like this."
"It's complicated." He said simply and took the bags from her, "Anita's ready and waiting for you."
She rose an eyebrow, "I don't need to ride a horse."
"Lenia, don't argue with me, you are my responsiblity at the moment-your lucky your family allowed your presence-you will take one of the hobbits on her with you are any giving time." Lenia crossed her arms and looked away staring at the elven kindom that already was feeling so far away. Aragorn took a deep breath, regretting his tone and everything he'd said, "Lenia," He touched her shoulder and she looked at him, "we just don't want anything to happen to you. I know what your capable of it's just.......Tripton was talented too, I'm not prepared to loose you both." She smiled lightly and put her hands on his and lowered it, "You won't, Strider," He smiled back. "We're lucky to have you, Lenia, it will be helpful to have some one with your talent and personallity with us." Lenia smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze releasing it, "You don't need to butter me up, Aragorn, I'm not going anywhere." Both laughed lightly and walked done to meet the others.
Lenia stroked Anita's neck and whispered gentle words to her. "Lenia," Legolas said, walking up behind her. She paused, swallowed staring ahead, "Come to insult my parenting again?" She hissed and he sighed, "I wanted to appologize," he spoke softly and carefully, "I came across wrong and I shouldn't have spoken like that-I should have said it differently. I didn't know...I...I'm sorry. Can we start out again? Fresh?"
Lenia smiled and turned around, accepting his appology wasn't hard, "Of course, Legolas." Legolas breathed relieved and smiled back. Aragorn looked over, raising his eyebrows at them and Lenia kicked a rock at his ankle. She held out her hand, "Lenia." She winked.
Legolas shook his head but returned the gesture, "Legolas."
"Pleasure." She said and got onto Anita with his help. "Hobbit?" She asked looking at the hobbits. Frodo offered to ride with her and she picked him up. Aragorn seemed hesitant but said nothing.
It wasn't long before they headed out, Legolas was right beside her the entire time and Aragorn just infront, Boromir on the other side, Gimli behind and the Hobbits scattered.
"I don't understand him." Legolas uttered, looking at Aragorn. Lenia looked at him with eyebrows rose, she was on the ground for once, walking Anita. "What don't you understand about him?"
Legolas indicated the necklace and Lenia rose an eyebrow, running a hand through her black hair. "Oh, so if you were given a necklace by someone you knew you wouldn't wear it?" She asked, blue eyes meeting his, looking deeply into them.
Legolas wasn't able to pull from her gaze, "I-I never said that." There was something about that gaze, he was uncomfortable with it but yet he loved it.
"Oh come on," Lenia teased, "You meant it."
"No. I didn't." He said firmly, suddenly feeling intoxicated.
"Prove it." She said daringly, her voice sounding like soft velvet.
"I don't need to prove anything to you." Legolas defended, trying to regain some control of himself. She rose her eyebrow watching him eye the necklace resting on her bare neck. She wrapped her fingers around her necklace and took it off as he looked away. "Such a chicken," She spoke, dangling it infront of him, causing Aragorn to look at them. "I didn't know elven prince warriors were bred such a way but I must have been wrong..."
Legolas sighed and took it, some how not able to resist her any longer "Fine! Alright, I'll wear it-happy?" He took it and put it on. Leaving Lenia with a satisified look, eyes sparkling like diamonds "Very."
Aragorn frowned, unsure of how to feel about the way they were reacting to eachother. He eyed the two of them watching them talk, watching how Lenia's eyes sparkled and how she'd laugh at nearly any given moment. He sighed and lightly shook his head. She looked over at him and their eyes met and he knew, more than ever, she was in too deep. She'd already began to do what she'd sworn not to. Get too attached. He looked away and sighed knowing one thing. She was going to get herself hurt-in more ways than one.
Bam. Done. The endings crappy bbbuutttt oh well. I'll do my query later homework needs to be done :( :P
This chapter was partially written in a doctors office, late last night and no procrastinating so it really stinks and it's majorly short for me which is kind of bugging me. My elvish translators won't work so all the words that SHOULD be elvish are in () those things.
Before I start: KELIA YOUR ENDING RROOOCCKKKKEEEDDDD!!!!!!!!
ssooo let's see where we left off. This is my original LOTR fan fic at the begining of the three movies so it's DURING lotr not the post-lotr's one. Make sense? Yes? No? Okay. So yes, where we left off: Lenia and Legolas had finally arrived at Rivendale and participated in the meeting. (not really sure WHAT they called it but you know the one that was like every race on Middle earth-pratically. Not really. Eh. you get it) We found out Lenia has a son and whoever his father is isn't someone anyone wishes to remember. We found out how Lenia's brother died and that she feels responisble, for obvious reasons, for his death. Legolas ticked Lenia off by accident causing them to be on temporary non-speaking terms. And, yeah, I think that's a pretty could cover of what happend last time.....right? Hope so.
Disclaimer: The only thing I own are my made up plot twists, made up charactors and places, other than that it's 100% J.R.R. Tolkien or the movie company that made it a movie (....erg not sure what it's called.....)
(By the way, I haven't read the book so, yeah, it's based on the movie.)
Fan Fiction Book: A Dangerous Journey
Chapter 7: The departure
By: Katherine LaGassie.
It was warm the next morning as the fellowship prepared to leave. "Who would have thought." Arwen spoke, looking at Lenia's sword. "You of all things, a ranger."
Lenia laughed merilly as she slung a bag onto both shoulders to bring to Aragorn. "I wasn't exactly a calm child when I was young." She reminded her cousin, mischief filling her cheery face.
"Yes, (my dear cousin). You were a terror." Arwen spoke with sarcasm.
Lenia rolled her eyes, crystellin blue oceans circling a snow-white background. "Sarcasm is not your tone (my cousin)." She took her sword from Arwen and placed it within it's case, holding it firmly in her hands as she locked eyes with her cousin.
"Tis true (my dear cousin)." She sat on Lenia's bed looking up at her, her own eyes resembling crystals. "Kadden's going to miss you something terrible, Lenia."
Lenia allowed a light sigh to grace her nearly parted lips, "And I him." She smiled sadly and the picked up her brothers quiver and sword. She ran her fingers down her brother's weathered blade, careful not to cut herself on it's all-too-familiar sharp edges. They felt as if they were brand new once again, like they always felt when Tripton took off with his fellow Rangers. Like she would always keep it.
A sword whizzed through the air and hit a target. "2 points." Tripton's voice said merrily as he patted another Ranger on his back. "Well done my friend."
The man laughed, "Your turn, Tripton." The ranger said, "Strider will want plenty of competition when he arrives, or will you not challenger your old friend?"
"Not on your life, Jon." Tripton smirked. "Him and I will challenge eachother until we both pass to valor." He spoke and then shot his sword at the target. It was a perfect hit, it hit the bullseye with such force that it nearly fell over onto the ground.
"I'm gonna be able to do that someday." A young girl with long black hair, blue eyes and an elven dress said coming out of the back of the castle into the safety of the walled city behind it.
"Oh really, Lenia?" Jon said, glancing at Tripton and back, "Perhaps so, but you may change your mind one day when you get older. Being a ranger isn't such a pleasant job."
Tripton laughed, his laughter sounded much like his baby sisters could at times, "I doubt she will, Jon. She's pretty stubborn and when she sets her mind to something-well-she sets her mind to it."
"Just like her brother." A slightly younger looking Aragorn said walking into the area.
"ARAGORN!" Lenia yelled, turned immediately from her brother and his friend and ran, full force, towards Aragorn. He scooped her up into his arms, spun her around and then rested her back within his arms. "Hello there, Lenia." Her blue eyes sparkled wild at his own adventure filled eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck, "I've missed you sooo much Aragorn!!! What happend while you were gone? What did I miss? What did you see? Where did go? What did you do?" Aragorn laughed as question spewed from the eight-year-olds mouth.
"I promse," He spoke, silencing the child, "I will answer them all at supper." Lenia pouted lightly but his answer seemed to surfice.
"Aragorn," Tripton said walking over to Aragorn and hugging him. "It's been far too long my old friend."
Aragorn laughed, causing Lenia to look at him with bright eyes cause from the jolly sound. "I'm afraid it has been my brothren, but at least we will be making up for that time soon. 10 times over, I pressume."
"Sooner than my parents liking I'm afraid." Tripton spoke, looking at Lenia carefully. He was unsure whether he should speak with her presence or not. Finally he decided that it was inevidedable that she'd find out anyway. "Sauron's eye is awaking. His presence is returning, both you and I know it. It's tearing places apart already." Lenia seemed to comprehend everything, especially when Aragorn tightened his protective grip on her tiny body, "And Nastar?"
"It rests in peace," Tripton said as they made their way to the castle once again, bidding his friends goodbye, "For now anyway," He looked at Aragorn before looking at the walled city around them, "Nothing of Sauron's evil has come to it."
"He rests in the forests." Lenia spoke thoughtfully, causing both men to look at her.
"And what makes you say that, Lenia?" Aragorn asked, pausing with Tripton, glancing at him and placing her infront of him so their eyes met. "I can see him and feel him. Sometimes I can even hear him." She said, as if it was nothing.
Tripton's brow furred, "Why haven't you said anything before?" He asked, trying to remain as calm as his friend beside of him was.
Lenia rolled her eyes, revealing a bright smile, "Because, no one ever asked me, silly." The response was enough to make the tension cease and cause both the men to go into a slight laughing fit. Tripton smiled, placing a loving hand on his sisters head and Aragorn kissed her head, "Of course." Aragorn said as they entered the castle.
"Oh Aragorn!!! It's so wonderful to see you again!" Ashanti said running over and hugging him. "I can't believe your going to be taking my son away from me again." Her tone was some where between joking, loving and distress.
Aragorn laughed, "You make such a thing sound criminal, Ashanti. I am afraid I cannot be sorry for such action, I love his presence far too much."
Lord Sryton walked out from the corner, "and he you." Both 'young' men chuckled and Lord Sryton took his daughter from Aragorn, however, Lenia protesed the entire time. "I wanna stay with Aragorn!"
"Let him breathe, Lenia, the man's been through a lot. He needs to rest.
Lenia pouted unhappy but didn't resist, "Yes, ada." Her eyes sank but still she said nothing. "Lord Sryton, it's not a problem, really. I just adore Lenia. She's as good as resting." Aragorn said and shot a wink in her direction, creating a perfect giggle to escape her.
Tripton laughed giving Lenia to Aragorn, "Of course, Cute, elven-wizard children are always the heart stealers." He kissed her nose and gave her to Aragorn finally.
"Ahhhh....much better." Aragorn said taking her and holding her in his arms, "I mean I only have to spoil her and spend every minute with her while I'm here."
"Yay!"
"Oh dear." Ashanti said, "What have you done, Aragorn, between you and Tripton I'll never see my child again."
"It's only our job (mother)." Tripton replied with a grin. Ashanti sighed, putting her hand on her husbands arm, "Why don't you three," She acknowledged, Aragorn, Tripton and Lenia, "get ready and we'll meet you at supper." With that, they all nodded and parted.
"And so, I told him the Orc did it." Aragorn concluded and laughter erupted within the group of rangers towards the end of the table.
"Please, really," Ashanti said looking at them, "Change the subject already before you drive ideas within Lenia's mind." She indicated Lenia how was seated, most happily, between Aragorn and Tripton.
"(Mom) it's not like she hasn't heard stories like this before." Tripton pointed out, sipping his elven wine as black, curley bangs, fell infront of his eyes.
Lord Sryton looked over at his son, "Tripton." His voice was stern and Tripton rolled his eyes. "Guys, let's tone it down before my parents throw a fit."
"I don't mind it." Lenia interject, causing smirks to cross the experianced rangers faces.
"Oh dear gods it's happend already." Ashanti spoke as she stood. "Fine. continue but if your grandparents hear-"
"Grandparents?"
"My parents are here and will be joining us momentarily." Ashanti said as Lord Sryton sipped his own wine and Tripton scrunched his nose.
"I'm sure they aren't that bad." Aragorn reasurred and Tripton laughed, tossing back his head. "Strider, my dear friend, don't fool yourself. They're witches."
"Tripton." Lord Sryton's voice was not hard to pick out as it boomed warningly.
"You'll see." He uttered and crossed his arms, leaning back into his seat giving Lenia a clear view of her grandparents entering and hugging her mother.
"Tripton," Alysia, their grandmother, spoke coming foreward, her voice sounded like nails against a chalk board. "Sit up straight, you'll get a hunch back, seriously-is this what they teach you when you become a ranger. And where's my hug of all things?"
Tripton rolled his eyes at Aragorn, black hair covering the movement. He smiled sourly and sat up, "I'm sorry, (grandmother)" He reached up, tapped her back and sat back down.
"Really, you two, I don't know what you did wrong with him." This time all the rangers gave Alysia and her husband, Garrett, an odd look. Lenia just starred at her. "Oh!" Alysia said reaching around Tripton to Lenia, "There's my grand daughter!" She went to hug her but Tripton nudged Aragorn and had him pick her up. "She's sick." Tripton said simply. "Oh poor-" Alysia said.
"Tripton-she is no such thing, behave yourself!" Lord Sryton warned. Tripton rolled his eyes and took Lenia, whispered sorry and let his grandmother hug her. Once all hugging was over they all sat down, behaving themselves and listened as everyone talked.
"So does Lenia still have those foolish dreams of being a ranger?" Garrett asked, "I mean, we know it's too late for Tripton but I'm soon he'll soon understand his mistake."
"If I were you, Ashanti, I'd nip this thing in the butt before it gets worse. It's bad enough to have one child living on impossible fantasies. Lenia is after all a girl and-" That was it. Tripton had heard enough. Red faced he stood up, slamming his chair to the ground. "And what?!" He roared, causing the room to look at him. "What's wrong with what SHE wants??? Huh? What?! And by the way, I don't regret being a ranger and never will and I don't care if you think it's the worst this I could ever be because at least I'm not a stuck up, over controling snobs who think their grandchildren can only reach certain levels. Lenia's going to be a ranger and a heck of one two if she wishes-JUST STOP INTEREFERING!" With that he kicked back his chair further and stormed from the room.
The room was dead silent, shock seemed to be on his grandparents faces and the rangers were looking at one another. "Well now..." Alysia said, clearing her throat, "that was quite the...uh...outburst."
The room was still silent and Aragorn stood, picking Lenia up, figuring this was not the best enviroment for her, "If you don't mind," He signled the other rangers to follow, "We'll go check on Tripton."
Ashanti met his gaze and nodded, appologies flooding through her eyes, "stop by the kitchen, grab the deserts and-"
"We'll cover, Tript, don't worry." Jon said and they exited the room. "That was uncomfortable."
Aragorn nodded, "You guys get the desert, I'll be in Tripton's room." He walked up the stairs, set Lenia in her room and proceeded in there. Lenia sat on her bed staring at her shut door. She didn't understand her brother's hatred towards her grandparents, she'd admit she wasn't comfortable around them and they were not nearly as loving as Galadriel and Celeborn, whom the rangers would be dropping her off at on their way out, but she didn't think they were that bad. Tripton reacted to them as if they were Sauron. She crawled up and looked out her window, curtains flawling around her. Sauron's eye watching her intently made her feel odd. There was a knock on her door, Tripton entered and she went back onto her bed. Tripton knelt back down and placed his hands on her knees. "Lenia," He said and she looked at him, "I love you." He kissed her head, his voice sounding as if something was wrong.
"You okay, Lenia?" Arwen asked looking at her. Lenia shook her head to clear her mind and put the swords in their holders and held them in her hands, "Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking you know." Arwen nodded understandably and Lenia looked out the window, "I should go, they look about ready to head out."
Arwen sighed, stood and hugged her, "Now I know how your parents must have felt-I'm not sure if I can let you go."
Lenia jokingly sighed, "I've already been through his with everyone else pppleeaasssee can be make this be normal?"
Arwen laughed, "Namarie (cousin)."
"No," Lenia corrected, "not farewell, Just see you later." She placed her hand on Arwen's arm and exited her nearly empty room.
"Take long enough to get ready?" Aragorn asked meeting her outside. Lenia laughed and smiled, "I was talking with Arwen." Aragorn nodded lightly and they began to walk to the horses, "What's wrong between the two of you?" She asked and he looked at her, "I saw you too this morning. You were arguing," She met his eyes,"Uncle talked to you-don't let him control you-"
"Lenia, this is none of your business."
"Yes it is, Aragorn, every bit of my business." She replied to him, eyes flashing, "You love her and she loves you don't let my Uncle intervine. Don't let him control you like my grandparents did me." Aragorn stopped and looked at her, silence falling between them, "She'd follow you to the end of the earth, Aragorn, no matter what you say she'll love you and you'll love her so I don't know why you're leaving like this."
"It's complicated." He said simply and took the bags from her, "Anita's ready and waiting for you."
She rose an eyebrow, "I don't need to ride a horse."
"Lenia, don't argue with me, you are my responsiblity at the moment-your lucky your family allowed your presence-you will take one of the hobbits on her with you are any giving time." Lenia crossed her arms and looked away staring at the elven kindom that already was feeling so far away. Aragorn took a deep breath, regretting his tone and everything he'd said, "Lenia," He touched her shoulder and she looked at him, "we just don't want anything to happen to you. I know what your capable of it's just.......Tripton was talented too, I'm not prepared to loose you both." She smiled lightly and put her hands on his and lowered it, "You won't, Strider," He smiled back. "We're lucky to have you, Lenia, it will be helpful to have some one with your talent and personallity with us." Lenia smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze releasing it, "You don't need to butter me up, Aragorn, I'm not going anywhere." Both laughed lightly and walked done to meet the others.
Lenia stroked Anita's neck and whispered gentle words to her. "Lenia," Legolas said, walking up behind her. She paused, swallowed staring ahead, "Come to insult my parenting again?" She hissed and he sighed, "I wanted to appologize," he spoke softly and carefully, "I came across wrong and I shouldn't have spoken like that-I should have said it differently. I didn't know...I...I'm sorry. Can we start out again? Fresh?"
Lenia smiled and turned around, accepting his appology wasn't hard, "Of course, Legolas." Legolas breathed relieved and smiled back. Aragorn looked over, raising his eyebrows at them and Lenia kicked a rock at his ankle. She held out her hand, "Lenia." She winked.
Legolas shook his head but returned the gesture, "Legolas."
"Pleasure." She said and got onto Anita with his help. "Hobbit?" She asked looking at the hobbits. Frodo offered to ride with her and she picked him up. Aragorn seemed hesitant but said nothing.
It wasn't long before they headed out, Legolas was right beside her the entire time and Aragorn just infront, Boromir on the other side, Gimli behind and the Hobbits scattered.
"I don't understand him." Legolas uttered, looking at Aragorn. Lenia looked at him with eyebrows rose, she was on the ground for once, walking Anita. "What don't you understand about him?"
Legolas indicated the necklace and Lenia rose an eyebrow, running a hand through her black hair. "Oh, so if you were given a necklace by someone you knew you wouldn't wear it?" She asked, blue eyes meeting his, looking deeply into them.
Legolas wasn't able to pull from her gaze, "I-I never said that." There was something about that gaze, he was uncomfortable with it but yet he loved it.
"Oh come on," Lenia teased, "You meant it."
"No. I didn't." He said firmly, suddenly feeling intoxicated.
"Prove it." She said daringly, her voice sounding like soft velvet.
"I don't need to prove anything to you." Legolas defended, trying to regain some control of himself. She rose her eyebrow watching him eye the necklace resting on her bare neck. She wrapped her fingers around her necklace and took it off as he looked away. "Such a chicken," She spoke, dangling it infront of him, causing Aragorn to look at them. "I didn't know elven prince warriors were bred such a way but I must have been wrong..."
Legolas sighed and took it, some how not able to resist her any longer "Fine! Alright, I'll wear it-happy?" He took it and put it on. Leaving Lenia with a satisified look, eyes sparkling like diamonds "Very."
Aragorn frowned, unsure of how to feel about the way they were reacting to eachother. He eyed the two of them watching them talk, watching how Lenia's eyes sparkled and how she'd laugh at nearly any given moment. He sighed and lightly shook his head. She looked over at him and their eyes met and he knew, more than ever, she was in too deep. She'd already began to do what she'd sworn not to. Get too attached. He looked away and sighed knowing one thing. She was going to get herself hurt-in more ways than one.
Bam. Done. The endings crappy bbbuutttt oh well. I'll do my query later homework needs to be done :( :P
The end of my nano and a challenge!
Hi everyone!!!! So I'm posting the end of my nano. Probably none of you will get anything thats happening, but I just want to know, is the end silly? I cant decide.
The next day I was awoken by pattering feet, people were running through the building. "They're back!" Cardill shouted through the door, I jumped up and ran to the cafeteria with the rest of them. Kip and Enlil were already there, looking grim in the early morning light.
"Its all true," Enlil said soberly as the room filled up. "Everything Ember assumed is true." my breath caught in my chest, that was what I had been fearing to hear and now that I did it sounded worse than ever.
"We followed the car like she said, when they left for the night," Kip jumped in, not looking excited about the adventure they'd had like I thought he would. "They went to this tall building and there were all these security guards. We barely slipped in but we made it, they met in a big conference room with a long table."
"We looked through a window," Enlil added. "We couldn't get in there, there were so many security guards."
"They handed a report to a official looking guy, who was all bald." I took a sharp breath, they had made an alliance with the government. "he read it," Kip continued, "And he smiled. Then he said something that I couldn't hear but Enlil lip read it."
"He said 'Thank you,'" Enlil said. "Then, 'so the plan is set. We have everything we need. The troops will go through the gate tomorrow at midnight.'"
There were gasps from people all over the room, I was one of them. "Tonight?" Ylaii exclaimed, paling. "They're coming tonight?"
"How come it took you so long to get back?" Taran asked. "Did they see you?"
"Well, yes," Kip looked ashamed. "There were so many security guards, and no one going out, we had to make a run for it. Then we led them all over the city, the part fairy who was with us knew all the back streets so we lost them after a while. Then we came straight here."
"That's all right," I said. "We got the information we needed. And now, what are we going to do?"
"I think there's only one thing to do," Gerido held up a hand, calming the room which had almost burst out into hysterics. "We must seal the gate."
"Are you sure?" I quavered, but I knew that was the only way. Ylaii and Gerido nodded silently at me and I spoke again "Then we have to get Grandfather and Kimael and the rest out of there."
"They're already coming," Enlil said. "The other part fairy with us knew what we would decide, he was going to gather everyone there and get them over here."
"How long will that have taken them?" Gerido asked. "We have to seal it as soon as possible."
"An hour, he said," Kip supplied. "It's been half of that time."
"Lets go to the gate then," Gerido said. "We'll meet them there and seal it when they're all here." I nodded and we set off, quite a troop of grim people. There must have been a hundred of us going to seal the gate.
We waited silently there, I whispered to Gerido "Do you have everything you need for the sealing?"
"Yes its only a spell," he whispered back. "I'm ready."
And then Grandfather appeared, I rushed towards him but he put his hand up. "Don't, Ember," he whispered, a tight smile on his face.
"Grandfather?" I said, confused. I had never seen him like this.
"Go, while you can," he whispered. "Before they come."
"What do you mean?" I was beginning to get very worried.
"Go!" he was agitated, urging us on. "Go!"
"Maybe we should," Ylaii said slowly. "He knows something we don't." and so we started walking, up the air and over the trees. I had no idea what was happening, but as I watched grandfather watch us sadly I knew something terrible was going to happen. And when the next person arrived, it did.
Kimael arrived struggling, an arm was over her throat so she couldn't move much. And who was the arm attached to? None other than Retinus himself.
"What are you doing?" I stopped walking and ran a few steps forward, anger building up in my chest. "Let her go!"
"Stop walking, all of you," Retinus said calmly and took out a gun. "Or she dies." we all froze, waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to come. "Oh, I'd better move," Retinus stepped off the gate as the next person arrived, and then the next, and then the next, and then the next. I stared in horror as man after man arrived in the peaceful clearing, each holding a gun with the symbol of my country on it. An army was coming through the gate.
I glanced worriedly at Ylaii, what could we do? If we moved they would kill Kimael, if we didn't they would shoot us where we stood. I saw her lips moving silently and suddenly there was a clap of what sounded like thunder, there was a wall in front of us. It was white, made of thick glass, I could see Retinus's face through it but it was distorted.
"Its magic," Ylaii breathed. "They wont be able to get through it. I also put a shield on Kimael and your grandfather."
"So what do we do now?" I peered through the glass, the army was getting too big for the clearing and they were hacking through the beautiful trees to try to find room.
"We run," she told me. "As far away as we can." And so all of us turned and ran, the wall following us a few feet behind. I could hear Retinus's angry shout and they ran below us, not catching up but the wall tilted so they couldn't shoot us. We sped over the countryside, rolling hills and tall trees going by below. At last Retinus and his men gave up and they stopped running, we continued for a little farther but then stopped.
"So are grandfather and Kimael really safe?" I asked, panting a little bit for breath.
"Safe from guns and anyone wanting to kill them," Ylaii answered. "But we will have to rescue them as soon as possible. They most likely won't bother to feed them."
"How are we going to get food?" I approached that problem.
"We'll think about that later," Ylaii smiled thinly and said a few words, all of a sudden I saw a miniature glass wall in front of her. "They cant really stop us from taking them," she said. "Since they cant kill us. I'll go now."
"Shouldn't someone else go with you?" I was worried for her safety, even though I trusted the shield.
"I'll be fine," Ylaii said "I might wait for dark though. That way they wont even know I was there."
"Good idea." We lapsed into silence, I took a deep breath. I wondered how long we would be running, if Ylaii or Gerido had a plan to face them. But looking at everyone's tired faces I didn't exactly think they did.
Night came at last and Ylaii smiled at me and slipped away. I watched her go until the darkness swallowed up her body, then sighed. I couldn't do anything about it now. There was a motion besides me and I looked up to see Taran, his eyes following where I had been looking.
"She went to try to get grandfather and Kimael back," I explained. "She has her own shield but I'm still worried."
"Ember, I've wanted to say something for the past weeks," Taran said after a moment of silence. "But I never could make myself do it. Now, I may not have another chance."
I looked up at his face, the moon was shining on it. "What?" I asked. Taran opened his mouth-- sighed and looked away. He lifted his hands as if to explain something, but then he took a deep breath and bent down and I felt myself being kissed for the very first time.
"Ember!" Ylaii came running up, Taran took a step away but I was blushing furiously. "Ooooooh," she stopped short and winked at me and then continued excitedly "I was right! They couldn't do anything against me with the shield."
"Did any of them see you?" I asked, trying to regain my composure but my brain was whirring triple time. Did Taran really think of me like that?
"There was someone on guard but he couldn't shoot me," Ylaii said. "I just took Kimael and your grandfather and away we went!"
"Where are they?" I didn't see them.
"They're telling Gerido what happened," Ylaii said. "Come on, lets go listen. Unless, of course, you want to stay here…" I clapped my hand over Ylaii's mouth before she could tease me any more and marched her over to where I now saw grandfather and Kimael.
"The part fairy who went with you had just told us everything that happened and had gone off to get the others," grandfather was saying "When Retinus and his army showed up at the square. They threatened Kimael and told me to tell them if it actually was the gate, I said it was and they made me go ahead of them. Then you know everything that happened."
"What are we going to do now?" Kimael asked.
"I think we have to just keep running," Gerido said gravely. "We cant face up to them, we only have a hundred people they have at least double that."
"More," Kimael said. "They kept coming through the gate when you ran off, at least five hundred now."
"But we all have powers and they don't," I said, it may have sounded like I wanted to fight but I really didn't. But running wasn't going to accomplish anything. "And they cant attack us through the wall. Surely we have a chance."
"We do have a chance," Gerido said. "But do we want to risk it?"
"Where will we get food?" Ylaii asked tiredly.
"We can buy some." Gerido said. There was silence and no one knew what to say, finally I said something that had been bouncing around in my brain for a while now.
"Human World is very dangerous," I said quietly. "Combined with Third World, they could overtake Fairy World if they did it the right way. Shouldn't we try to shove them out of here now, when there's only five hundred to oppose us? If we run for a day, a week, a month, there may very well be thousands to fight. We couldn't do that by ourselves so we would have to tell all of Fairy World, that would take longer and then there would be more to fight. It would keep building up and up and up."
There was more silence and finally grandfather spoke. "As much as I don't like it, Ember is right. I don't want to see anyone die as much as you don't, but running is only going to make more die." Gerido sighed heavily and nodded.
"Then we fight," he said, it looked like it was hard for him to say it. "We fight while there is only five hundred, and if we do not succeed against those someone will go and tell all of Fairy World. For now I don't want to get them involved in this."
"Who will lead?" Ylaii asked.
"Enlil should," Taran spoke for the first time. "He can call down thunder and lightening and floods on their army."
"All right," Gerido said. "Enlil leads. We fight in the morning." We spent the remainder of that night telling everyone, at last I sank onto the air and put my head in my hands. I had argued to fight, but would it really be the wisest thing? People might die.
Taran sat next to me, I wanted to talk but I felt shy all of a sudden. I just smiled a bit at him and he whispered "It'll be all right." but he had said that before, when we hadn't known if anything was true, and it hadn't been all right. How all right would it be this time?
At last the sun rose, it was an amazing experience to see it from the air. I almost forgot everything that had happened and would happen as I stared down at the fiery ball making its way up into the sky, and the chill that had been with me all night disappeared.
We formed our army in an arrow shape, Enlil at the front. Taran and I stood next to each other somewhere in the middle of the slant, and at Enlils word we started marching forward. We got to Retinus's camp and I gasped, there were easily a thousand men there. They must have been coming all night!
"How are we going to do this?" I moaned to Taran. "There's so many of them! Ten for ever one of us!" Taran looked a bit stricken too as he looked down on them. Retinus saw us standing up there and waved cheerfully.
"Get in battle formation!" he told the men behind him and they formed a square, taking up the whole section of rolling hills they had camped on. I gulped nervously. What was I going to do in the battle anyways? I didn't know any spells by heart and my power was transportation. What could I do with that?
"Lets fight!" Retinus roared out when everyone was ready and the turmoil began. All the soldiers immediately tried to shoot us but their bullets bounced off the wall and came back to them. There was the sound of thunder in the sky and rain started pouring, gathering up in the bottoms of the hills and threatening to sweep part of the army away. Gerido was using his power to fling boulders through the air and Cardill froze ten soldiers at once with her stare, I began to feel hopeful. Would this work after all? But then there were the snipers. About fifty men had crept around the wall, it had to stay where it was to shield us from all the bullets so we were wide open when they got to the back of it. Someone cried out and Taran rushed away to heal them, Ylaii put up another wall and another but she was getting tired.
I covered my ears with my hands, the sound was getting to me. What could I do to help? I could feel anger building up, I couldn't do anything! People were dying and I was just standing here! Finally I strode to the wall and shouted through, looking down on a blurry Retinus,
"Why do you destroy?" I shouted through the wall. "Why do you only seek to destroy? Why do you not wish for light?"
"There is no light!" he shouted back, for some reason I could hear his voice through all the noise. "There is only darkness! How can there be light when people suffer so? Why did my parents and everyone I know die when I was a boy? Why was my country overturned? If I'm at the top of the darkness at least I cannot be hurt!"
"If there is no darkness," I challenged him, ignoring the mayhem around me, "Why are there flowers? Why is there the sun?"
"That is only the dark in disguise," he said. "Trying to fool you to thinking the darkness is gone, but it always comes in the form of night."
"Then why is there the moon? Why do stars continually pierce the darkness?" I shouted back. "There may be darkness, but you cannot deny the existence of light!" And that was when I saw it. I may have been crazy to be thinking all these philosophical thoughts in the midst of a war, but it felt right. Yes, there was darkness, the evilness of third world and human world, but there was also Fairy World. Fairy World was like a light in that, say the moon in the night. And us, everyone around me, were the stars. And what had part fairies been doing for the last thousand centuries? They had been protecting the gates. Making sure only few passed through them. But if the gates were mostly closed, how could the light get out? I straightened up, I knew what I had to do. Retinus was still shouting, unintelligible words that didn't make any sense and the noise of the battle was overwhelming. I whispered through the noise, and somehow my whisper carried over all the shouts.
"Gates," I said "be open." And suddenly there was light, a blinding light that pierced through my eyelids. It came from the clearing far away, I squinted and I could see that the gate had disappeared and now there was only a hole of pure light. There was another hole of light in the main building near the clearing, what looked to be the direction of my room. The gates were open. And all around me there was the sound of doors creaking open, a tree was suddenly emblazoned in light, a big rock was shining brightly. Other worlds were opening up.
The battle had suddenly stopped, all the part fairies were looking at me. Retinus and his men were crouching on the ground, shielding their eyes from the light. They had never seen anything like it. But I had, and I knew the goodness of fairy world was spreading through all the worlds in the universe and changing them for good.
Finally the light dimmed, still there around the gates but leaving us room to open our eyes. Retinus glared at me.
"What have you done?" he shouted, but his voice cracked. "What is all this-- light?"
"The gates are open," I called down to him. "and the light is free to go to all the worlds. Go back to third world, if you wish, go back and cower in a corner. You'll probably even try to take over your world again. But be warned, it will not be the same." And the wall in front of me crumbled away and I saw them clearly, Retinus and his men were creatures who had lived in darkness and come to be like darkness. But maybe they would be changed in the sudden light. Retinus stood up an glowered, he stalked through the countryside until he reached the gate. His whole army went through the gate then, disappearing one by one. Fairy World was back to the way it had been before, but it would never be the same.
I turned around to look at everyone behind me, they were staring at me with awe on their faces. "How did you know?" Ylaii asked quietly. "How did you know to open the gates? Our only thoughts, before, had been to close them." I shrugged, the feeling of soaring on clouds was leaving me and I was wondering that too. How had I known?
"Its because you're you," Taran spoke from the crowd and smiled at me. "You're you." I smiled back at him, a secret little smile and my heart was full of gladness.
The rest of that day everyone celebrated, cheering me on and not quite understanding everything that had just happened. I didn't understand it either. But I think it had to do something with the sparkles in the air, that feeling of good will that was always there in Fairy World. Could it be that one world, by mistake or just by the people who lived there, had gathered up all the goodness? Well not all of it, because there were places in Human world that were like this. But now that the gates were open and the goodness was free to spread I had the feeling that there would be a lot more.
That night I stood on the ground for the first time that day, I still liked that feeling of security. The night was dark except for a glimmer from a tree and a boulder, two new worlds that I would have to explore someday. I looked up at the stars they shone as bright as ever. My eyes widened as I followed a thick line of stars, they were straight for a while but then curved around. It almost looked like a doorway. The stars in that constellation shone brighter than others, it practically seemed like the light was from another place. I slowly smiled as I stared up at them. There was a movement besides me and Taran was there, he looked up at the stars with me. I watched his face as he noticed the gate, I saw his eyes widen and sparkle.
"I have a feeling," I said, all my insides feeling furry with happiness "That from now on there is going to be an adventure around every corner."
The stars glimmered and agreed.
The End
So with that said, we havent done a challenge for december yet! I know its a really busy month and all, but we still should do one. So here it is, we each have to write a query letter. I have nooooo idea how to write one of those, so it'll be good practice. And we just have to post it on here, not send it anywhere. That would be scary.
Everyone keep writing! And Merry Christmas!
Kelia
The next day I was awoken by pattering feet, people were running through the building. "They're back!" Cardill shouted through the door, I jumped up and ran to the cafeteria with the rest of them. Kip and Enlil were already there, looking grim in the early morning light.
"Its all true," Enlil said soberly as the room filled up. "Everything Ember assumed is true." my breath caught in my chest, that was what I had been fearing to hear and now that I did it sounded worse than ever.
"We followed the car like she said, when they left for the night," Kip jumped in, not looking excited about the adventure they'd had like I thought he would. "They went to this tall building and there were all these security guards. We barely slipped in but we made it, they met in a big conference room with a long table."
"We looked through a window," Enlil added. "We couldn't get in there, there were so many security guards."
"They handed a report to a official looking guy, who was all bald." I took a sharp breath, they had made an alliance with the government. "he read it," Kip continued, "And he smiled. Then he said something that I couldn't hear but Enlil lip read it."
"He said 'Thank you,'" Enlil said. "Then, 'so the plan is set. We have everything we need. The troops will go through the gate tomorrow at midnight.'"
There were gasps from people all over the room, I was one of them. "Tonight?" Ylaii exclaimed, paling. "They're coming tonight?"
"How come it took you so long to get back?" Taran asked. "Did they see you?"
"Well, yes," Kip looked ashamed. "There were so many security guards, and no one going out, we had to make a run for it. Then we led them all over the city, the part fairy who was with us knew all the back streets so we lost them after a while. Then we came straight here."
"That's all right," I said. "We got the information we needed. And now, what are we going to do?"
"I think there's only one thing to do," Gerido held up a hand, calming the room which had almost burst out into hysterics. "We must seal the gate."
"Are you sure?" I quavered, but I knew that was the only way. Ylaii and Gerido nodded silently at me and I spoke again "Then we have to get Grandfather and Kimael and the rest out of there."
"They're already coming," Enlil said. "The other part fairy with us knew what we would decide, he was going to gather everyone there and get them over here."
"How long will that have taken them?" Gerido asked. "We have to seal it as soon as possible."
"An hour, he said," Kip supplied. "It's been half of that time."
"Lets go to the gate then," Gerido said. "We'll meet them there and seal it when they're all here." I nodded and we set off, quite a troop of grim people. There must have been a hundred of us going to seal the gate.
We waited silently there, I whispered to Gerido "Do you have everything you need for the sealing?"
"Yes its only a spell," he whispered back. "I'm ready."
And then Grandfather appeared, I rushed towards him but he put his hand up. "Don't, Ember," he whispered, a tight smile on his face.
"Grandfather?" I said, confused. I had never seen him like this.
"Go, while you can," he whispered. "Before they come."
"What do you mean?" I was beginning to get very worried.
"Go!" he was agitated, urging us on. "Go!"
"Maybe we should," Ylaii said slowly. "He knows something we don't." and so we started walking, up the air and over the trees. I had no idea what was happening, but as I watched grandfather watch us sadly I knew something terrible was going to happen. And when the next person arrived, it did.
Kimael arrived struggling, an arm was over her throat so she couldn't move much. And who was the arm attached to? None other than Retinus himself.
"What are you doing?" I stopped walking and ran a few steps forward, anger building up in my chest. "Let her go!"
"Stop walking, all of you," Retinus said calmly and took out a gun. "Or she dies." we all froze, waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to come. "Oh, I'd better move," Retinus stepped off the gate as the next person arrived, and then the next, and then the next, and then the next. I stared in horror as man after man arrived in the peaceful clearing, each holding a gun with the symbol of my country on it. An army was coming through the gate.
I glanced worriedly at Ylaii, what could we do? If we moved they would kill Kimael, if we didn't they would shoot us where we stood. I saw her lips moving silently and suddenly there was a clap of what sounded like thunder, there was a wall in front of us. It was white, made of thick glass, I could see Retinus's face through it but it was distorted.
"Its magic," Ylaii breathed. "They wont be able to get through it. I also put a shield on Kimael and your grandfather."
"So what do we do now?" I peered through the glass, the army was getting too big for the clearing and they were hacking through the beautiful trees to try to find room.
"We run," she told me. "As far away as we can." And so all of us turned and ran, the wall following us a few feet behind. I could hear Retinus's angry shout and they ran below us, not catching up but the wall tilted so they couldn't shoot us. We sped over the countryside, rolling hills and tall trees going by below. At last Retinus and his men gave up and they stopped running, we continued for a little farther but then stopped.
"So are grandfather and Kimael really safe?" I asked, panting a little bit for breath.
"Safe from guns and anyone wanting to kill them," Ylaii answered. "But we will have to rescue them as soon as possible. They most likely won't bother to feed them."
"How are we going to get food?" I approached that problem.
"We'll think about that later," Ylaii smiled thinly and said a few words, all of a sudden I saw a miniature glass wall in front of her. "They cant really stop us from taking them," she said. "Since they cant kill us. I'll go now."
"Shouldn't someone else go with you?" I was worried for her safety, even though I trusted the shield.
"I'll be fine," Ylaii said "I might wait for dark though. That way they wont even know I was there."
"Good idea." We lapsed into silence, I took a deep breath. I wondered how long we would be running, if Ylaii or Gerido had a plan to face them. But looking at everyone's tired faces I didn't exactly think they did.
Night came at last and Ylaii smiled at me and slipped away. I watched her go until the darkness swallowed up her body, then sighed. I couldn't do anything about it now. There was a motion besides me and I looked up to see Taran, his eyes following where I had been looking.
"She went to try to get grandfather and Kimael back," I explained. "She has her own shield but I'm still worried."
"Ember, I've wanted to say something for the past weeks," Taran said after a moment of silence. "But I never could make myself do it. Now, I may not have another chance."
I looked up at his face, the moon was shining on it. "What?" I asked. Taran opened his mouth-- sighed and looked away. He lifted his hands as if to explain something, but then he took a deep breath and bent down and I felt myself being kissed for the very first time.
"Ember!" Ylaii came running up, Taran took a step away but I was blushing furiously. "Ooooooh," she stopped short and winked at me and then continued excitedly "I was right! They couldn't do anything against me with the shield."
"Did any of them see you?" I asked, trying to regain my composure but my brain was whirring triple time. Did Taran really think of me like that?
"There was someone on guard but he couldn't shoot me," Ylaii said. "I just took Kimael and your grandfather and away we went!"
"Where are they?" I didn't see them.
"They're telling Gerido what happened," Ylaii said. "Come on, lets go listen. Unless, of course, you want to stay here…" I clapped my hand over Ylaii's mouth before she could tease me any more and marched her over to where I now saw grandfather and Kimael.
"The part fairy who went with you had just told us everything that happened and had gone off to get the others," grandfather was saying "When Retinus and his army showed up at the square. They threatened Kimael and told me to tell them if it actually was the gate, I said it was and they made me go ahead of them. Then you know everything that happened."
"What are we going to do now?" Kimael asked.
"I think we have to just keep running," Gerido said gravely. "We cant face up to them, we only have a hundred people they have at least double that."
"More," Kimael said. "They kept coming through the gate when you ran off, at least five hundred now."
"But we all have powers and they don't," I said, it may have sounded like I wanted to fight but I really didn't. But running wasn't going to accomplish anything. "And they cant attack us through the wall. Surely we have a chance."
"We do have a chance," Gerido said. "But do we want to risk it?"
"Where will we get food?" Ylaii asked tiredly.
"We can buy some." Gerido said. There was silence and no one knew what to say, finally I said something that had been bouncing around in my brain for a while now.
"Human World is very dangerous," I said quietly. "Combined with Third World, they could overtake Fairy World if they did it the right way. Shouldn't we try to shove them out of here now, when there's only five hundred to oppose us? If we run for a day, a week, a month, there may very well be thousands to fight. We couldn't do that by ourselves so we would have to tell all of Fairy World, that would take longer and then there would be more to fight. It would keep building up and up and up."
There was more silence and finally grandfather spoke. "As much as I don't like it, Ember is right. I don't want to see anyone die as much as you don't, but running is only going to make more die." Gerido sighed heavily and nodded.
"Then we fight," he said, it looked like it was hard for him to say it. "We fight while there is only five hundred, and if we do not succeed against those someone will go and tell all of Fairy World. For now I don't want to get them involved in this."
"Who will lead?" Ylaii asked.
"Enlil should," Taran spoke for the first time. "He can call down thunder and lightening and floods on their army."
"All right," Gerido said. "Enlil leads. We fight in the morning." We spent the remainder of that night telling everyone, at last I sank onto the air and put my head in my hands. I had argued to fight, but would it really be the wisest thing? People might die.
Taran sat next to me, I wanted to talk but I felt shy all of a sudden. I just smiled a bit at him and he whispered "It'll be all right." but he had said that before, when we hadn't known if anything was true, and it hadn't been all right. How all right would it be this time?
At last the sun rose, it was an amazing experience to see it from the air. I almost forgot everything that had happened and would happen as I stared down at the fiery ball making its way up into the sky, and the chill that had been with me all night disappeared.
We formed our army in an arrow shape, Enlil at the front. Taran and I stood next to each other somewhere in the middle of the slant, and at Enlils word we started marching forward. We got to Retinus's camp and I gasped, there were easily a thousand men there. They must have been coming all night!
"How are we going to do this?" I moaned to Taran. "There's so many of them! Ten for ever one of us!" Taran looked a bit stricken too as he looked down on them. Retinus saw us standing up there and waved cheerfully.
"Get in battle formation!" he told the men behind him and they formed a square, taking up the whole section of rolling hills they had camped on. I gulped nervously. What was I going to do in the battle anyways? I didn't know any spells by heart and my power was transportation. What could I do with that?
"Lets fight!" Retinus roared out when everyone was ready and the turmoil began. All the soldiers immediately tried to shoot us but their bullets bounced off the wall and came back to them. There was the sound of thunder in the sky and rain started pouring, gathering up in the bottoms of the hills and threatening to sweep part of the army away. Gerido was using his power to fling boulders through the air and Cardill froze ten soldiers at once with her stare, I began to feel hopeful. Would this work after all? But then there were the snipers. About fifty men had crept around the wall, it had to stay where it was to shield us from all the bullets so we were wide open when they got to the back of it. Someone cried out and Taran rushed away to heal them, Ylaii put up another wall and another but she was getting tired.
I covered my ears with my hands, the sound was getting to me. What could I do to help? I could feel anger building up, I couldn't do anything! People were dying and I was just standing here! Finally I strode to the wall and shouted through, looking down on a blurry Retinus,
"Why do you destroy?" I shouted through the wall. "Why do you only seek to destroy? Why do you not wish for light?"
"There is no light!" he shouted back, for some reason I could hear his voice through all the noise. "There is only darkness! How can there be light when people suffer so? Why did my parents and everyone I know die when I was a boy? Why was my country overturned? If I'm at the top of the darkness at least I cannot be hurt!"
"If there is no darkness," I challenged him, ignoring the mayhem around me, "Why are there flowers? Why is there the sun?"
"That is only the dark in disguise," he said. "Trying to fool you to thinking the darkness is gone, but it always comes in the form of night."
"Then why is there the moon? Why do stars continually pierce the darkness?" I shouted back. "There may be darkness, but you cannot deny the existence of light!" And that was when I saw it. I may have been crazy to be thinking all these philosophical thoughts in the midst of a war, but it felt right. Yes, there was darkness, the evilness of third world and human world, but there was also Fairy World. Fairy World was like a light in that, say the moon in the night. And us, everyone around me, were the stars. And what had part fairies been doing for the last thousand centuries? They had been protecting the gates. Making sure only few passed through them. But if the gates were mostly closed, how could the light get out? I straightened up, I knew what I had to do. Retinus was still shouting, unintelligible words that didn't make any sense and the noise of the battle was overwhelming. I whispered through the noise, and somehow my whisper carried over all the shouts.
"Gates," I said "be open." And suddenly there was light, a blinding light that pierced through my eyelids. It came from the clearing far away, I squinted and I could see that the gate had disappeared and now there was only a hole of pure light. There was another hole of light in the main building near the clearing, what looked to be the direction of my room. The gates were open. And all around me there was the sound of doors creaking open, a tree was suddenly emblazoned in light, a big rock was shining brightly. Other worlds were opening up.
The battle had suddenly stopped, all the part fairies were looking at me. Retinus and his men were crouching on the ground, shielding their eyes from the light. They had never seen anything like it. But I had, and I knew the goodness of fairy world was spreading through all the worlds in the universe and changing them for good.
Finally the light dimmed, still there around the gates but leaving us room to open our eyes. Retinus glared at me.
"What have you done?" he shouted, but his voice cracked. "What is all this-- light?"
"The gates are open," I called down to him. "and the light is free to go to all the worlds. Go back to third world, if you wish, go back and cower in a corner. You'll probably even try to take over your world again. But be warned, it will not be the same." And the wall in front of me crumbled away and I saw them clearly, Retinus and his men were creatures who had lived in darkness and come to be like darkness. But maybe they would be changed in the sudden light. Retinus stood up an glowered, he stalked through the countryside until he reached the gate. His whole army went through the gate then, disappearing one by one. Fairy World was back to the way it had been before, but it would never be the same.
I turned around to look at everyone behind me, they were staring at me with awe on their faces. "How did you know?" Ylaii asked quietly. "How did you know to open the gates? Our only thoughts, before, had been to close them." I shrugged, the feeling of soaring on clouds was leaving me and I was wondering that too. How had I known?
"Its because you're you," Taran spoke from the crowd and smiled at me. "You're you." I smiled back at him, a secret little smile and my heart was full of gladness.
The rest of that day everyone celebrated, cheering me on and not quite understanding everything that had just happened. I didn't understand it either. But I think it had to do something with the sparkles in the air, that feeling of good will that was always there in Fairy World. Could it be that one world, by mistake or just by the people who lived there, had gathered up all the goodness? Well not all of it, because there were places in Human world that were like this. But now that the gates were open and the goodness was free to spread I had the feeling that there would be a lot more.
That night I stood on the ground for the first time that day, I still liked that feeling of security. The night was dark except for a glimmer from a tree and a boulder, two new worlds that I would have to explore someday. I looked up at the stars they shone as bright as ever. My eyes widened as I followed a thick line of stars, they were straight for a while but then curved around. It almost looked like a doorway. The stars in that constellation shone brighter than others, it practically seemed like the light was from another place. I slowly smiled as I stared up at them. There was a movement besides me and Taran was there, he looked up at the stars with me. I watched his face as he noticed the gate, I saw his eyes widen and sparkle.
"I have a feeling," I said, all my insides feeling furry with happiness "That from now on there is going to be an adventure around every corner."
The stars glimmered and agreed.
The End
So with that said, we havent done a challenge for december yet! I know its a really busy month and all, but we still should do one. So here it is, we each have to write a query letter. I have nooooo idea how to write one of those, so it'll be good practice. And we just have to post it on here, not send it anywhere. That would be scary.
Everyone keep writing! And Merry Christmas!
Kelia
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Boo-yahhh.
OKAY. I POSTED.
Happy, Anna? Haha.
So really, I don't have anything special to post, just some scrap writing that I've been doing because this story is sticking in my brain, eating it for every meal.
The only problem is that, while I get the general idea of the plot, I don't get how everything goes down and how badly things get twisted. Originally, the idea was pretty basic and low-key, with him just "going away."
And then, I pretended that he had to send her away AFTER they'd fallen all over each other (CHEESE, oh thy name thou beholdeth), and got the most recent thing that was posted on my blog - the prom night situation when he came back.
But what if she hated him... Because he'd forced her to go away until he was ready for her to come back (for reasons yet still unknown)? What if he showed up at some majorly important event with the intention of stealing her away, but she hated him enough for killing her inner self in the first place that she was trying to avoid him?
What if she was graduating?
SO, HENCE, another version of some wickedly weird part of my yet-way-not-unwritten Talon story. It most likely won't stick, and it shows how cruel cheerleaders are, but for now, I like it better than the "throw-herself-all-over-him" version of prom. Forget prom.
It was still cold, even for May, but the smile on everyone’s faces stayed put through Marie’s cheesy valedictorian speech. Figiting and whispering to each other, the entire group couldn’t contain their excitement. Nothing could bring us down today.
That’s why, when Mr. Rameriez finally stepped up to the microphone and yelled his presentation of the class of 2007, it chilled me to look up and see Talon’s face in the crowd, smiling grimly up at me, hands in pockets.
What was he doing back from Buletta so early?
Cecilia noticed me staring at him, and leaned over slightly towards me. “Hey, isn’t that the Taylor kid you were dating before Christmas break?”
I swallowed. “Yeah, but I didn’t think he’d be coming back until I was in college.”
Sam had obviously noticed, too – the stressed and urgent look on his face as he shoved through the crowd was apparent.
“Move, move, move, move, move- Ana! Tal…” I coughed pointedly as his eyes slid over to Cee, who was listening intently. “Taylor,” he corrected slowly “is back, and I think he may want to talk to you.”
Of course he would. The future lordship of Aremeda didn’t travel to this dimension just to watch someone graduate. And the feelings between us made me a little more than convinced of that.
“I know, and I’m going to.”
“But should you?” Colin interjected, his contact-sheltered eyes looking an unnatural shade of green. “He kind of completely betrayed you back there.”
“And since when has my brother been any of your loving business, Colin?” Isa said, bounding up beside him, excited that she’d graduated at all.
Sam looked warily at them all, his eyes landing on mine with amusement. He was the only person who hadn’t ever been to Belasara, the dimension that my whole life, for almost seven months, had revolved around.
But then I’d lost all connection with it by will and force of some demented kind of love, as Talon called it, and was sent back to this one, full time, meaning no dreams of the world at all – memories being the only way I had access to Belasara.
So I’d been sent back with Talon’s sister, Isa, my personal advisor, Madrid, and Talon’s two best friends, Colin and Jeremy. Jeremy was out on the conversation, but was frantically motioning over at Talon from beside Madrid, trying to get my attention.
The two of them had kind of gotten close, to say it in the more-than-just-business manner. Not that Talon had ever counted on that relationship making it.
“I still say that he’s betrayed you.” Colin threw in, shrugging.
“He did it because of love, Colin.” Isa spat.
“Maybe we should let Ana chose for once…?” Sam suggested innocently.
I sighed. “Alright, guys, I’ll stay away, but if he comes to talk to me, I’m not going to try and run away or anything.”
Jeremy and Madrid walked over in time to hear my decision.
“Right, because you so elegantly managed to stay away from him last time.” Madrid added for her own benefit.
I blushed furiously. “That’s none of your business, and it’s been a long time. He left me here without my wanting to, and I really would like not to be mad on graduation.”
“This makes graduation seem so lame.” Sam noticed dryly.
Jeremy shook his head. “Trust me, I’d trade the whole situation for a nice, humanly normal, graduation.”
I groaned. “Okay, quit it. Pretend to be carefree and graduating.”
Everyone mumbled something about how none of this was really real in the first place anyway and then scattered nearby.
It was hard to ignore the fact that Talon was there, and that he knew I’d seen him.
His eyes followed me as I talked to people I hadn’t talked to in months, congratulating them on something that I really didn’t even care about right now.
“Your mom wants a picture of us together for the scrapbook again.” Sam said, nauseated. “She obviously doesn’t know that going down there to take the picture could get you into some hard places.”
I shrugged. “I guess we have to… That stupid scrapbook.”
In first grade, when I’d met Sam and we’d discovered that boys and girls really weren’t as gross as we thought, my mom had started a scrapbook for when I moved away, full of pictures of me year-by-year. A whole section was reserved for pictures of Sam and I at the end of every year, and since this was practically it anyway, she’d loaded her camera with shots of every smile or look I made during graduation.
“Hey, mom.” I said, loudly enough for Talon to raise his eyebrow and stop approaching.
“Hey, sweetheart!” Mom exclaimed, racing up to hug me, her red hair thrown back into a crazy bun, her blue eyes turned red. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, I just wanted you to know that. I even cried a little, but really, what kind of mother doesn’t?”
Sam grimaced, and whispered “mine” into my ear, but I couldn’t smile at the joke. I felt like death had finally come to get me or something.
“Okay, you two get together in your hats and gowns… You both have grown up so much that it hurts my heart!”
“So what makes your Mom think that I need to remember wearing a ‘gown?’” Sam put his arm around me, not only to pose, but almost like he was trying to protect me, and we smiled like we supposedly meant it.
Mom noticed, and sighed dramatically. “Oh, come on! You two are graduating! How exciting is that?!”
Sam poked me, and I straightened up and smiled a little bit more. Sam followed suit for the picture.
“Better,” Mom crooned, snapping at least three consecutive shots. “You both will thank me for this in thirty years.”
I smiled weakly, dropping the pose, and broke off from Sam. “Hey, come on, let’s go mingle.”
“Mingle? Sure, if by ‘mingle’ you mean avoid a certain boyfriend that you hate beyond all belief.”
“Not that I’d ever admit it, but pretty much. Let’s go.”
I hauled Sam through the horde of people, trying my best to seek out the one group that could keep Talon busy enough to leave me alone. They were hard to handle and vicious at times, but I was certain that he wouldn’t see it that way.
“Hi, Lindsay.”
Lindsay Chapel, head cheerleader of the world, if it was possible, looked me straight in the eye, and pouted. “Who are you?”
“Ana, remember? The same Ana that tried to be friends with you in middle school and…”
“…and I told her to go blow the football team!” A smile dawned on Lindsay’s face as her clique laughed with her. “Congrats on graduating, Annie!” she said cheesily.
“Yeah, you too. But…” I lowered my voice and winked. “Okay, look, you can’t tell him I told you, but that really hot guy over there?” I pointed to Talon, who was looking at me quizzically. “He’s my cousin.”
A murmur went throughout the group, though it had nothing to do with the fact that we looked nothing alike.
“He said he’d love to take you guys on a date sometime, and just for kicks, his cellphone number is…”
They were already pulling out their phones, taking in the seven digits that I knew connected straight to his pocket.
I watched him as the first cheerleader called. He almost seemed smug, but when he looked at the caller ID, he didn’t have to search hard to find my face, confusion and annoyance scrawled across it, the phone frozen in his hand.
Barracaded by over-obsessive girls, he was lost.
Sam met me back over by the gate. “Smooth one, Densen. You got him other girls to latch on to.”
I snorted. “Unfortunately not.”
I think I like her better. Her attitude kicks... Butt. :)
TELLMEWHATYOUTHINK. :)
Happy, Anna? Haha.
So really, I don't have anything special to post, just some scrap writing that I've been doing because this story is sticking in my brain, eating it for every meal.
The only problem is that, while I get the general idea of the plot, I don't get how everything goes down and how badly things get twisted. Originally, the idea was pretty basic and low-key, with him just "going away."
And then, I pretended that he had to send her away AFTER they'd fallen all over each other (CHEESE, oh thy name thou beholdeth), and got the most recent thing that was posted on my blog - the prom night situation when he came back.
But what if she hated him... Because he'd forced her to go away until he was ready for her to come back (for reasons yet still unknown)? What if he showed up at some majorly important event with the intention of stealing her away, but she hated him enough for killing her inner self in the first place that she was trying to avoid him?
What if she was graduating?
SO, HENCE, another version of some wickedly weird part of my yet-way-not-unwritten Talon story. It most likely won't stick, and it shows how cruel cheerleaders are, but for now, I like it better than the "throw-herself-all-over-him" version of prom. Forget prom.
It was still cold, even for May, but the smile on everyone’s faces stayed put through Marie’s cheesy valedictorian speech. Figiting and whispering to each other, the entire group couldn’t contain their excitement. Nothing could bring us down today.
That’s why, when Mr. Rameriez finally stepped up to the microphone and yelled his presentation of the class of 2007, it chilled me to look up and see Talon’s face in the crowd, smiling grimly up at me, hands in pockets.
What was he doing back from Buletta so early?
Cecilia noticed me staring at him, and leaned over slightly towards me. “Hey, isn’t that the Taylor kid you were dating before Christmas break?”
I swallowed. “Yeah, but I didn’t think he’d be coming back until I was in college.”
Sam had obviously noticed, too – the stressed and urgent look on his face as he shoved through the crowd was apparent.
“Move, move, move, move, move- Ana! Tal…” I coughed pointedly as his eyes slid over to Cee, who was listening intently. “Taylor,” he corrected slowly “is back, and I think he may want to talk to you.”
Of course he would. The future lordship of Aremeda didn’t travel to this dimension just to watch someone graduate. And the feelings between us made me a little more than convinced of that.
“I know, and I’m going to.”
“But should you?” Colin interjected, his contact-sheltered eyes looking an unnatural shade of green. “He kind of completely betrayed you back there.”
“And since when has my brother been any of your loving business, Colin?” Isa said, bounding up beside him, excited that she’d graduated at all.
Sam looked warily at them all, his eyes landing on mine with amusement. He was the only person who hadn’t ever been to Belasara, the dimension that my whole life, for almost seven months, had revolved around.
But then I’d lost all connection with it by will and force of some demented kind of love, as Talon called it, and was sent back to this one, full time, meaning no dreams of the world at all – memories being the only way I had access to Belasara.
So I’d been sent back with Talon’s sister, Isa, my personal advisor, Madrid, and Talon’s two best friends, Colin and Jeremy. Jeremy was out on the conversation, but was frantically motioning over at Talon from beside Madrid, trying to get my attention.
The two of them had kind of gotten close, to say it in the more-than-just-business manner. Not that Talon had ever counted on that relationship making it.
“I still say that he’s betrayed you.” Colin threw in, shrugging.
“He did it because of love, Colin.” Isa spat.
“Maybe we should let Ana chose for once…?” Sam suggested innocently.
I sighed. “Alright, guys, I’ll stay away, but if he comes to talk to me, I’m not going to try and run away or anything.”
Jeremy and Madrid walked over in time to hear my decision.
“Right, because you so elegantly managed to stay away from him last time.” Madrid added for her own benefit.
I blushed furiously. “That’s none of your business, and it’s been a long time. He left me here without my wanting to, and I really would like not to be mad on graduation.”
“This makes graduation seem so lame.” Sam noticed dryly.
Jeremy shook his head. “Trust me, I’d trade the whole situation for a nice, humanly normal, graduation.”
I groaned. “Okay, quit it. Pretend to be carefree and graduating.”
Everyone mumbled something about how none of this was really real in the first place anyway and then scattered nearby.
It was hard to ignore the fact that Talon was there, and that he knew I’d seen him.
His eyes followed me as I talked to people I hadn’t talked to in months, congratulating them on something that I really didn’t even care about right now.
“Your mom wants a picture of us together for the scrapbook again.” Sam said, nauseated. “She obviously doesn’t know that going down there to take the picture could get you into some hard places.”
I shrugged. “I guess we have to… That stupid scrapbook.”
In first grade, when I’d met Sam and we’d discovered that boys and girls really weren’t as gross as we thought, my mom had started a scrapbook for when I moved away, full of pictures of me year-by-year. A whole section was reserved for pictures of Sam and I at the end of every year, and since this was practically it anyway, she’d loaded her camera with shots of every smile or look I made during graduation.
“Hey, mom.” I said, loudly enough for Talon to raise his eyebrow and stop approaching.
“Hey, sweetheart!” Mom exclaimed, racing up to hug me, her red hair thrown back into a crazy bun, her blue eyes turned red. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, I just wanted you to know that. I even cried a little, but really, what kind of mother doesn’t?”
Sam grimaced, and whispered “mine” into my ear, but I couldn’t smile at the joke. I felt like death had finally come to get me or something.
“Okay, you two get together in your hats and gowns… You both have grown up so much that it hurts my heart!”
“So what makes your Mom think that I need to remember wearing a ‘gown?’” Sam put his arm around me, not only to pose, but almost like he was trying to protect me, and we smiled like we supposedly meant it.
Mom noticed, and sighed dramatically. “Oh, come on! You two are graduating! How exciting is that?!”
Sam poked me, and I straightened up and smiled a little bit more. Sam followed suit for the picture.
“Better,” Mom crooned, snapping at least three consecutive shots. “You both will thank me for this in thirty years.”
I smiled weakly, dropping the pose, and broke off from Sam. “Hey, come on, let’s go mingle.”
“Mingle? Sure, if by ‘mingle’ you mean avoid a certain boyfriend that you hate beyond all belief.”
“Not that I’d ever admit it, but pretty much. Let’s go.”
I hauled Sam through the horde of people, trying my best to seek out the one group that could keep Talon busy enough to leave me alone. They were hard to handle and vicious at times, but I was certain that he wouldn’t see it that way.
“Hi, Lindsay.”
Lindsay Chapel, head cheerleader of the world, if it was possible, looked me straight in the eye, and pouted. “Who are you?”
“Ana, remember? The same Ana that tried to be friends with you in middle school and…”
“…and I told her to go blow the football team!” A smile dawned on Lindsay’s face as her clique laughed with her. “Congrats on graduating, Annie!” she said cheesily.
“Yeah, you too. But…” I lowered my voice and winked. “Okay, look, you can’t tell him I told you, but that really hot guy over there?” I pointed to Talon, who was looking at me quizzically. “He’s my cousin.”
A murmur went throughout the group, though it had nothing to do with the fact that we looked nothing alike.
“He said he’d love to take you guys on a date sometime, and just for kicks, his cellphone number is…”
They were already pulling out their phones, taking in the seven digits that I knew connected straight to his pocket.
I watched him as the first cheerleader called. He almost seemed smug, but when he looked at the caller ID, he didn’t have to search hard to find my face, confusion and annoyance scrawled across it, the phone frozen in his hand.
Barracaded by over-obsessive girls, he was lost.
Sam met me back over by the gate. “Smooth one, Densen. You got him other girls to latch on to.”
I snorted. “Unfortunately not.”
I think I like her better. Her attitude kicks... Butt. :)
TELLMEWHATYOUTHINK. :)
Saturday, November 24, 2007
YAY BLOGGER DIDNT KICKED ME OFF TODAY!
Omg. I completely just guessed on the password in a last attempt at procrastinating my bedtime and it worked! [I am seriously in shock right now. lol]
OK so blogger has not been letting me on because my computer is malfuntioning horrifically so i'm so behind in everything on WR and i promise i'll read and comment on all the posts i haven't read ASAP now that i can actually get on LOL anywayy so this is a quick post because i'm not supost to be on the computer
I dont have any of my nanowrimo story on the computer because i'm doing it by hand so i'll give the basic outline
[It started off as sort of a sequal to KW taking place with a sister who wasnt born yet during KW but then i changed to a toatal fantasy because it started to bore me and i'm trying to keep KW as a non fantasy so it can be a little diffrent then every other story i've written.
So this girl Rylie is sent to a camp because she has dont something bad {which i cant say now because i'm thinking of keeping it a secret} and her family is going to paris for the year well it starts out normally as an "education" camp (which is basically a boarding school with classes) but then all the kids go home exept for about a hundred (and this is a BIIGGG camp) and it turns out its acutually a camp for kids with"powers" like telepathy and the ability to start fires etc etc and she was put there by mistake but they cant send her home because no one is at her house so she must be one of the kids, which means takeing classes that are extreamly dangerous to a "normie" and of course the end of year exam but something goes wrong and the exam gets more dangerous, the fire actually burns and the cuts actually bleed, it turned real and she and her friends (who do have powers) have to survive and then find out what happened and who did it.]
OK the plotline sounds alot better then what i've written LOL and Katherine, you have to be proud, i'm thinking of killing of one of the main charectors (which is a big Jessie no-no. Jessie hates when charectors are killed because it makes Jessie very very depressed) But i'm thinking about it :-P
Well i reallly have to go now, i'll try to get on tomorrow and see what i missed
Before i go though i'm gonna post something i wrote while i was folding laundry.. in the words of anna "Ahh the poetry jeans inspire" :P
To all those who make me smile
To all the inside jokes we share that leave people stareing
To all the fun times we've had and the laughter that made everything ok for just that little while
To all the times where i just had to rant and you were there listening
To all the conversations that shouldn't make sense but do to us
To to all the weird nicknames we have for eachother
And to knowing that no matter what, i could never find better friends.
I love you guys <3
So that is my attempt at a heartfelt sortofbutnotreally poem that i thought while folding laundry :-P
Anywho its almost midnight and i truly am procrastinating now :D
Nighty night
-The still nicknameless Jessie
P.s OK thats not really true because i have a buttload (especially from Anna and Lauren) but i dont have a WR one :-P Hmm what about.. JEssie (with the capital E :-P)
Hehe yeah i'm tired. Night all :)
OK so blogger has not been letting me on because my computer is malfuntioning horrifically so i'm so behind in everything on WR and i promise i'll read and comment on all the posts i haven't read ASAP now that i can actually get on LOL anywayy so this is a quick post because i'm not supost to be on the computer
I dont have any of my nanowrimo story on the computer because i'm doing it by hand so i'll give the basic outline
[It started off as sort of a sequal to KW taking place with a sister who wasnt born yet during KW but then i changed to a toatal fantasy because it started to bore me and i'm trying to keep KW as a non fantasy so it can be a little diffrent then every other story i've written.
So this girl Rylie is sent to a camp because she has dont something bad {which i cant say now because i'm thinking of keeping it a secret} and her family is going to paris for the year well it starts out normally as an "education" camp (which is basically a boarding school with classes) but then all the kids go home exept for about a hundred (and this is a BIIGGG camp) and it turns out its acutually a camp for kids with"powers" like telepathy and the ability to start fires etc etc and she was put there by mistake but they cant send her home because no one is at her house so she must be one of the kids, which means takeing classes that are extreamly dangerous to a "normie" and of course the end of year exam but something goes wrong and the exam gets more dangerous, the fire actually burns and the cuts actually bleed, it turned real and she and her friends (who do have powers) have to survive and then find out what happened and who did it.]
OK the plotline sounds alot better then what i've written LOL and Katherine, you have to be proud, i'm thinking of killing of one of the main charectors (which is a big Jessie no-no. Jessie hates when charectors are killed because it makes Jessie very very depressed) But i'm thinking about it :-P
Well i reallly have to go now, i'll try to get on tomorrow and see what i missed
Before i go though i'm gonna post something i wrote while i was folding laundry.. in the words of anna "Ahh the poetry jeans inspire" :P
To all those who make me smile
To all the inside jokes we share that leave people stareing
To all the fun times we've had and the laughter that made everything ok for just that little while
To all the times where i just had to rant and you were there listening
To all the conversations that shouldn't make sense but do to us
To to all the weird nicknames we have for eachother
And to knowing that no matter what, i could never find better friends.
I love you guys <3
So that is my attempt at a heartfelt sortofbutnotreally poem that i thought while folding laundry :-P
Anywho its almost midnight and i truly am procrastinating now :D
Nighty night
-The still nicknameless Jessie
P.s OK thats not really true because i have a buttload (especially from Anna and Lauren) but i dont have a WR one :-P Hmm what about.. JEssie (with the capital E :-P)
Hehe yeah i'm tired. Night all :)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
My turn!!!!
So, obviously, this is my nanowrimo. I told you all the plot before, but I probably should tell you what happened before this. So Ember found out she's a fairy, went to fairy world and was trained, and found out that there were part fairies living in third world in extreme danger cause everyone wanted to kill them. So she found the gate and went there, rescueing Taran and people, then went a second time rescuing more. This happens about then, when she just got back to fairy world.
It was sometime in the middle of the night when I heard a sound near my room. I forced open my eyes and listened carefully, yes there was someone walking by. Who would be up at this time? I shook my brain awake and tiptoed to the door, looking out. There was someone going in the room next to mine, it looked like the man who hadn’t smiled. What was he doing?
“Hello?” I called out, and he paused. “What are you doing?”
“I just remembered,” he said. “I left something back in the other world and I really need it.”
“Well you’ll land in the city next to Hertun,” I said, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “I’d better go with you. Can you wait a minute?”
“Oh no you don’t need to…” he trailed off as he thought it over. “All right, you can come.” I went back in my room and got dressed, then joined him in the hall.
“What did you leave behind?” I wondered as we walked in the marshy room.
“A picture of my parents,” he said shortly, and I didn’t ask further questions. I touched the drawing and we were off to the third world. As soon as we got there, I transported us to the head quarters in Hertun.
“The head quarters are one room, with a tall open ceiling, in the city of Hertun. There are beds all along one side, and on the other there’s a big table and rickety chairs. The walls are unpainted and the building is almost falling down.” I opened my eyes to see the head quarters, and the man exclaimed,
“Oh, I forgot! Its not here, its out in the street.” I followed him out and through the streets, weaving around in the back streets until we reached a bigger one.
“Shouldn’t we stay in the shadows, so the guards won’t see us?” I asked as he stepped forward.
“I doubt there would be any guards around at midnight,” he said and hit me over the head.
I regained consciousness in a very uncomfortable position, I was being dragged along the cobbled streets by my tied hands. The man had hold of them, grunting with the effort as I bounced over the rocks and stones.
“Ow!” I cried out as I hit a sharp one, and the man stopped. Quick as a flash he had a gag over my mouth, and I stared up at him in surprise. What had happened? He jerked me to my feet and pushed me in front of him, I stumbled dazedly and started to walk.
I had come with him to the third world in the middle of the night-- very bad idea, my now fully awake brain told me, a bit too late-- to get something he forgot. Why had I believed him? The part fairies here didn’t own anything! Then when we got to Hertun he hit me over the head
and now was dragging me somewhere. What could I do? He had me gagged so I couldn’t transport myself elsewhere, annoying as it was that was all it took to disable me. Panic rose in my throat as I thought over the situation, I could do nothing, I didn’t know where he was taking me, and no one knew I was gone. What a fool I had been to go with him in the
first place!
I was interrupted from my distressed thoughts by the man stopping. We were in what I thought by the dim light was a slightly better part of the city, and he was unlocking a door. He pushed me inside and down a flight of steps, the house looked like a regular house so I was
surprised to see shackles on the wall of the cellar and grated bars forming a cage. It was a dungeon. He pushed me inside and locked the door, then turned at a sound.
“Who do you have there?” A shadow detached himself from the wall and stepped forward. I could make out a man in a dark cloak, but there wasn’t enough light to tell anything else.
“This is the ringleader,” the man who I thought was part fairy said proudly. “She may cause trouble but she sure isn’t smart. She didn’t have any idea what I was doing.”
“The ringleader of what? Why didn’t you report to me yesterday?” The voice was still devoid of all emotion.
“I couldn’t! I was in--” his voice dropped mysteriously. “Another world.”
“You aren’t the kind to lie,” the dark man said. “Explain yourself.”
“Its true! You know how all the people from the city just over disappeared two days ago? Well this one was spiriting all them away to fairy world. That’s why they all have powers! They’re part fairy.”
“And the group you were in are now in fairy world too?” the other man asked.
“Yes. I came back to report to you, and caught her on the way.” he grinned wickedly. “I thought you’d be pleased.”
“I am,” the other man moved forward to inspect me, I felt caught in his gaze like a moth on a board. “And if you are lying about all this, you know you will suffer.”
“I’m not lying!” the definitely not part fairy man protested. “I can show you the proof! They got a book from some library that says it all.”
“I remember reading that legend sometime,” the man said thoughtfully. “I thought it was nonsense. Are the part fairies powerful?” he asked.
“Sure are. This one transported me from the city over to here in the blink of an eye. That’s why I have her gagged, so she wont transport herself away.”
“That may be a problem,” he paused to think, and his voice grew. “We’ll need everyone in Fairy World back, of course. This gives us just the opportunity we need, now we can get the government to help us--” he broke off and glanced my way. “She may not be as stupid as we think,” he said and beckoned for the other man to follow. They went up the stairs
and I could hear the low murmur of their voices all the way. Then the sound was gone and I was all alone in my fear and dismay. What had they meant by everything? What had I set into action?
I hurled myself at the bars. I know, it was really immature and silly because it couldn’t possibly help anything, but I did it anyways. I wasn’t angry often so I wasn’t used to the feeling, a hot lava like substance bubbling up in my stomach and threatening to drown me. I
didn’t like it.
After being alone for hours upon hours, probably six hours of berating myself and delving into despair, my anguish turned to anger. Who were these people anyways? Did they think they could lock innocent people up and get away with it? And what did they mean by they needed everyone in fairy world back? And now they could get the governments help-- were they planning some kind of invasion or something?
I drew in a sharp breath and sunk to the floor. Were they planning an invasion? Why had the man been spying in the group anyways? Were they planning to recruit them? That would explain why the other man had said they would need all the part fairies back. But why would they?
My life felt like a blank page, except for question marks. First I hadn’t known if the government was keeping the part fairies separate on purpose, now I didn’t know if the people who imprisoned me wanted to recruit the part fairies and invade fairy land, with the governments help. But I knew something for certain. I had to find out.
I stopped my frantic hurling at the bars for good, and instead inspected the jail closely. The iron was rusted but strong, with my hands tied behind my back I couldn’t reach the lock to pick it. I obviously couldn’t transport myself elsewhere, or say a spell. So what was left? With some divine inspiration or genius hidden in me, I looked up.
There, just a few feet away from the jail wall near a corner, was an air duct. My first thought was that I could climb up into it, but that was quickly ruled out as I saw that the barred iron wall went all the way up and into the stone ceiling. Would it be like all those books where the
heroine overheard the evil plot through the air duct? I’d have to find out.
For a few more moments I stood surveying the jail wall. It was made of iron, that formed squares about as big as my two hands put together. It would be very easy to climb except that my hands were tied. How would I
do it? Experimentally I tried climbing it the regular way, using an elbow instead of a hand, but I couldn’t even get started. My balance was all off and I couldn’t support myself. So there was only one way to climb it-- and that was backwards.
I turned around and grasped an iron bar with my hands, then lifted my foot and stuck the heel in a square. Here came the test to see if this crazy idea would work. Slowly I lifted my other foot, teetering between falling forwards and staying where I was, and put the heel in a square.
I was still leaning forwards, my hands already burned from the effort, but I was up here. With strength and balance and a lot of luck, I could do it.
The climb up was excruciatingly hard. Once I was all balanced I had to lift my hands higher up, only taking one off at a time so I wouldn’t fall forward. Since they were tied together they couldn’t lift up by themselves very far, so my progress was slower than a snails. I hated that sickening feeling of swaying, whenever I was supported only by one hand the world below me swirled. It didn’t help that I was facing forward, only by closing my eyes would I not see how far up I was and how far I would fall.
Finally I reached the top, my head brushing against the stone ceiling. Now I would find out if my whole climb had been in vain. I couldn’t see the air duct but I listened attentively to the silence, the way the rusted iron creaked under my weight, the way stone shifted underground.
But I could hear no voices. With each passing second of silence, my hopes sank. So it wouldn’t turn out like a book after all. What was I going to do now?
I’d have to climb down now, I thought numbly. My whole terrifying climb up had been for nothing, after all. I just wanted to close my eyes and give up, I didn’t want to face the climb down looking at the hard ground. I didn’t want to face my climb down at all.
There was a noise from the stairway and I started, nearly losing my
balance. The bars moaned and I leaned back into them with all my might. At last the horrible rocking stopped, and I was very still. I couldn’t see the stairs, but I could hear someone coming down them.
“I know you’re there,” It was the spy, probably looking into the cell. “Somewhere. Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. I just want to take you upstairs, so my master can ask you a few questions. That’s all.” He paused, a frown creasing his forehead as he searched the shadows. “Where are you?” He didn’t look up, thankfully. I was just a dark shape near the corner, too far above to catch his attention. “Come out now.” His tone was no longer playful, it was stern and worried. “Come out now!” He paused, then pounded up the stairs. “She’s gone!” He yelled to the other man. “She’s not there!”
The other man came down with him, slowly and calmly. He inspected the jail, and when he saw I was not in it he was not confused or astonished, he was angry. He took the keys and threw open the door, stepping through every shadow and searching every corner. “She’s gone.” he announced when he was done, his eyes smoldering but his voice quiet. “Come. We must
search for her, she has heard too much already.” With that he strode out of the room, the spy following behind him. I waited until the door of the building was slammed shut and their footsteps receded into silence, then I gave a long shuddering sigh.
They had left the jail door open.
Aaaaah I'm just going to stop fixing it. Whatever.
Slowly, cautiously, knowing my freedom would be worth nothing if I had a
broken leg, I made my way down the wall. It was just as frightening as I
had feared, because this time I did not keep my gaze fixed in front of
me. I kept it on the open door. There were moments where I was sure I
was going to die, I was sure my whole life had been for nothing. But
before I knew it I was down. It was over. I took a deep breath and
walked out the open door.
Once I was out of the jail, I looked for something sharp. Hopefully I
could rub it against the tie around my hands, so then I could take off
my gag. I found exactly what I needed in the kitchen, a long knife. It
was sharp but not too sharp, so I wouldn’t cut my hands through it. It
was harder then it sounded to cut your way out of a rope, especially
since my hands were behind me and I had never done it before. But that
was nothing compared to what I had just done. Finally I got the knife at
the right angle and started sawing away, and then my hands were free. I
quickly unknotted the gag, I could just transport myself out of there
right then, but I wanted proof that the man wanted to attack fairy world.
So I ran up the stairs, I soon found the mans office. It was
meticulously clean but the drawers of his desk were unlocked as he
hadn’t known he was leaving right then. I flipped through the papers,
there was a list of men who I assumed were loyal to the one in charge,
and a lot others that I didn’t need. Finally I found the one that would
be the most use to me, a letter the man had almost finished in the time
that I was imprisoned. It read,
‘To the royal King of this land,
This is your faithful servant Retinus. I know you have had some trouble
in the past with me, trying to take over the world and all’ I paused for
a moment to think. Had the man, Retinus, originally wanted to recruit
the part fairies to help him take over the world? ‘but I have changed.
Now I only wish to help my country.’ Yeah right. ‘Through certain
sources, I have come to the knowledge that there is another world. This
may ring a bell, as five thousand years ago someone discovered the same
thing. Fairy World. But the last time, the ruler of the land foolishly
formed friendships and allowed citizens to travel there. You probably
know the rest and so I will simply say that our world has had no love of
magic since. So when I came upon this news, that there is a portal that
other evil fairies could travel through, there was only one course of
action that occurred to me. War. We must unite our whole world and go to
war with fairy world, to ensure that no evil fairies will rampage our
world again.
Your faithful servant,’
Then it didn’t have the signature, which was the only part missing. This
letter proved all my thoughts and suspicions, I had to show it to Ylaii
and Gerido as soon as possible. Who knows what the King of the land was
like, if he believed that all fairies were evil like that one five
thousand years ago, we would be in for trouble.
I tucked the letter in my pocket and closed the door, sighing and
closing my eyes as I did so. Yes, it had been very foolish of me to come
here with the spy, but I had found out things of utter importance. I had
to get back now, before Taran and Ylaii started worrying. I said the
words, “It’s a narrow alleyway, in the city next to this one. The bricks
are caked in mud but there’s one place where its been scraped clean.
Along the wall there is a drawing of a tall gate made of stone,
overgrown with roses. The lines seem to beckon, and you reach forward.
As you touch the rough brick you suddenly fall forward into darkne--”
and was on my way.
I arrived in the marsh/ room, and was overcome with a dreadful
weariness. I had woken up in the middle of the night only to be hit over
the head, then spent five or so hours in jail and then climbed up the
wall. No wonder I was a bit tired.
“Is anyone there?” I called down the hall. I didn’t see anyone, but
suddenly Taran poked his head around the bend.
“Ember?” he said, surprised. “What are you doing in that room?”
“Long story,” I sighed. “Can you please get Ylaii and Gerido?” he must
have sensed my urgency, because he ran off and was back in a flash with
Ylaii, Gerido, and Enlil.
“Ember what’s wrong?” Ylaii asked as soon as she saw me. A pounding
headache was beginning at my temples, so instead of speaking I simply
drew out the letter. Ylaii and Gerido read it in silence and then looked
up, faces aghast.
“How did you get this?” Gerido asked solemnly.
“I woke up in the middle of the night,” I explained tiredly. “A part
fairy was about to go through the gate, he said he’d forgotten
something. I was still asleep and offered to go with him to transport
him to Hertun where he’d need to go. As soon as we were there he hit me
over the head and dragged me to a building where he threw me in jail.”
Everyone’s eyes were wide as I told them, my voice was too tired to have
much emotion in it but everyone around suffered for me.
“He gagged me so I couldn’t transport my self out. There he told another
man about Fairy World, and he said they would need everyone in Fairy
World back, now they could get the governments help. Then they left for
about five hours, and towards the end of that I noticed an air duct a
little ways away from the jail. So I climbed the wall which was iron
bars to see if I could overhear them through it, but I couldn’t. It was
a good thing I was up there, though, because just then they came down to
interrogate me. They didn’t notice me up there, and thought I had
escaped so they went away to search for me, leaving the jail door open.”
I smiled briefly, I was thankful for their stupidity right then. “I got
out and got my hands untied with a knife, then took off my gag. Then I
searched the building, and found that letter.” I nodded towards
Retinus’s letter in Ylaii’s hands. “Then I came home.”
“You poor thing,” Ylaii took me by the arm and led me gently to my room.
“You’re tired, aren’t you?” I nodded, a hand pressed to my throbbing
head. “Well then, we wont bother you,” she gave Gerido a look and pushed
me into sitting position on my bed. “Have a rest, then you can come join
us.” the door clicked shut softly and I fell into the oblivion of sleep.
As soon as she was out of Ember’s room, Ylaii strode briskly to the
cafeteria. “We’ll need everyone assembled,” she called over her
shoulder. “For an emergency, emergency meeting.” Taran ran to catch up
with Ylaii as the rest of them dispersed to gather everyone they could.
“Is Ember all right?” he asked worriedly.
“She’ll be fine,” Ylaii said. “With a bit of sleep. I’m more worried
about our safety here. Now that those men in third world know about the
gate, we could have another war on our hands.” People were already
running into the cafeteria, looking around with alarm.
“What’s going on?” Cardill asked as she saw Ylaii. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ll wait until everyone’s here,” Ylaii said grimly. “But in the
meantime, you can read this.” she threw the letter on a table, Taran
Cardill and Kip gathered around to read it. “That man, Retinus,” she
hissed his name, “Also mentioned needing all the part fairies here back.
It appears he has a fascination with taking over worlds, he’s tried with
his and now wants to take over ours.”
Taran looked up in alarm. “Would the King really do that?” He asked.
“Try to take over fairy world because one fairy was bad five thousand
years ago?”
“That’s what we don’t know,” Ylaii said. “Hopefully not. I don’t think
Retinus would be fool enough to try to take over it on his own, all of
us here can do magic and he cant.” She lapsed into silence, hoping. Yes,
everyone in Fairy World did have magic. But if he took back all the part
fairies who originally lived in third world like he said he would, and
then attacked them before they had time to tell regular Fairy World
everything, they would be doomed. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The room was filling with part fairies, some with green hair some with
brown. They all looked worried and alarmed, and waited for Ylaii to
speak. When she saw Gerido slip in the back with the last of them she
started. “Fellow part fairies,” she said gravely, “You all know of Ember
and her quest to help the part fairies in third world. Well this morning
she discovered something that involves us all.” She scanned over the
crowd, of the last people from third world one was missing. “Did one of
your people join you fairly recently?” she asked Cardill.
“Um, I think a man came to us about two weeks ago. Why?”
“That man,” Ylaii announced, “Was a spy.” there was the sound of breaths
taken in sharply. “In the middle of the night he tried to go to fairy
world, Ember heard him and offered to go with him to transport him to
Hertun. So they went, but the man hit Ember over the head and put her in
jail, telling his master, Retinus, about fairy world. He mentioned
getting the part fairies from third world back, so everyone be on your
guard. If you see anything unusual, come straight to me. After Ember
escaped she found this letter.” Ylaii held the letter up and read part
of it aloud.
“ ‘To the royal King of this land,
When I came upon this news, that there is a portal that other evil
fairies could travel through, there was only one course of action that
occurred to me. War. We must unite our whole world and go to war with
fairy world, to ensure that no evil fairies will rampage our world
again.’ The evil men who captured Ember know about the gate. They are
planning to get the Kings help and try to take over Fairy World.”
There was absolute silence from the room. Not a person stirred. Finally
Dagnios spoke up, saying, “Well, we cant let them do that!”
“No!” Other people joined in, saying their piece. “We must tell the
rulers of Fairy World at once!” “We must fight back!”
Ylaii raised her hand, silencing the noisy room. “I was thinking,” she
said, “If it might be better if we just seal off the gate. That’s what
we did five thousand years ago, and it worked. No blood would be shed,
no one would die.” There was silence again, and people started nodding.
“That would work,” they said quietly amongst themselves.
“No!” Ember stood at the doorway, looking pale. “We cant do that!”
“Ember!” Taran made his way towards her, but she continued speaking.
“What about all the part fairies still there? If we did that they would
continue living in danger and misery. Retinus might even use them to
take over his world.”
“But Ember,” Ylaii reasoned. “The risk is too great. If you or any one
of us were to go back there, Retinus and his helpers would know about it
and try to capture you again.”
“I know,” Ember said firmly. “But everyone there is living in a lot more
danger than that. We could just make it one trip, ten or so of us going
to different towns. I would transport them all to where they needed to
go, we would convince all the part fairies there, and bring them back to
Fairy World. Retinus and his men couldn’t possibly be in all ten towns
at once. Then when we’ve got everybody, we can seal the gate.”
Ylaii thought about it. She would feel horrible if she left all the part
fairies there, but could they afford to endanger everyone here? “All
right,” she decided at last. “We will go one last time to Fairy World,
to rescue everyone there. And then the gate will be sealed off.
Forever.” And then Ember fainted.
I was so embarrassed when I woke up. I mean, who faints? Really faints,
with the whole falling backwards only to be caught in Tarans arms and
sleeping for six hours thing. And it wasn’t even that I was sick, I was
just tired. Which wasn’t half an excuse in my mind. Of course, Ylaii and
Gerido and everyone fussed over me when I woke up, insisting I eat lunch
(far overdue lunch) and drink tea and have a bath. I didn’t mind the
bath though.
Relaxing there in the bath let my mind catch up with everything that had
happened, giving me a chance to think things over. My stand in the
cafeteria had been the right thing to do, and it was a good thing I
wandered in before everything was all decided, but we would have to make
a quick job of it. Retinus and his spy didn’t seem like the kind of
people to let anything go, and my escaping would definitely have set
them off. I hoped they wouldn’t take it out on the people here while me
and everyone were gone.
Going to sleep that night was not very successful. Thinking about
everything that had happened today, everything that would happen
tomorrow-- my mind was a whirl of thought that could not be chased down
and stuck somewhere far away. Whenever my eyes managed to close and my
thoughts trickled to a slowly moving stream, I would think about how I
wasn’t thinking anything at the moment and they would start up again
like a flash flood.
Finally I fell into that half sleep state, where you think something
normal like ‘Tomorrow could either go really good or really bad’ and it
takes on a life of its own and turns into something really weird, like
‘Tomorrow could either eat tigers or fly away.’ So it was in that state
that I found the memory. It was tucked way back, so far into the
recesses of my brain that I knew I wouldn’t be able to find it unless I
was semi-unconscious. I was just thinking about my parents, wondering if
they had died in a train crash or an airplane crash, when I saw a face.
Thinking about the train had probably triggered it, there was a busy
train station around the face. It was like watching an old black and
white movie, people walked by and talked but there was no sound. The
face was smiling at me and holding me in his arms. Now there was a
sound, a voice floating down softly as if a long way away.
‘Ember, my darling,’ it said, and somehow I knew that the voice was
coming from his mouth. The baby me lifted its fingers and tried to stick
them in, the man who I dared to think was my Father, smiled and took
them in his hand. ‘You may not see me again, and I doubt you’ll even
remember this. But if you do, make your grandfather tell you how we
died.’ the voice went on whispering lovingly but I was still aghast over
that last sentence, they knew they were going to die? I came back to my
senses and listened before I lost too much. ‘keep it from you, he’ll
want to protect you from the sadness of knowing. But when you’re a
teenager you’ll need to know. I do hope you’ll remember this, because
you also need to know that we love you. Your mother isn’t here right now
to tell you, but she loves you as much as I do.’ then the face came
closer and kissed baby me on the forehead, and I was handed to someone.
My view spun around and now I could see grandfathers face, looking
younger and very sad. He held me up so I could see my Father one last
time, so I saw him board the train and turn to look at me, not waving
but those eyes staying on mine the whole time as the train chugged away.
And then the memory was gone. I blinked back tears, all thoughts of
today and tomorrow gone. I could only think about the memory. My Father
and mother had known they were going to die? Why couldn’t I have grown
up with parents, and such loving parents like those? Why did they have
to die? Now I was downright sobbing, my tears soaking into the pillow. I
wanted to pound my bed at the unfairness of it all, but the moon shining
down through the window stopped me. In its calm sereneness, the silvery
beams danced alone. The moon and the hooting of the owl outside stilled
my tears, the night seemed melancholy for my sake. I sat up and stared
out the window, not starting when I heard the door open.
“Ember?” It was Taran. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I said after a moment, not quite able to keep the quiver out of
my voice. I looked down and my hair fell about my face, hiding the
tears. Taran slowly came forward and sat sideways on the bed, looking at
the moon and me silently. “It was just a memory,” I shook my hair back
and smiled, or tried to. “One of my Father. I didn’t think I had any
memories of him.”
“Did they die?” he asked quietly, his voice low. I nodded and looked
straight at the moon, pretending its brightness was making my eyes
water. “I’m sorry,” was all Taran said and we sat that way for a long time.
So today was really awful for writing, I was naughty and cheated :D I put in author comments, which were very despairing and silly. But I decided I'm just going to put in author comments instead of just writing horrible stuff, because I dont want to ruin it.
There you go! Hope it wasnt too horribly confusing. :D
Kelia (KrazyK)
It was sometime in the middle of the night when I heard a sound near my room. I forced open my eyes and listened carefully, yes there was someone walking by. Who would be up at this time? I shook my brain awake and tiptoed to the door, looking out. There was someone going in the room next to mine, it looked like the man who hadn’t smiled. What was he doing?
“Hello?” I called out, and he paused. “What are you doing?”
“I just remembered,” he said. “I left something back in the other world and I really need it.”
“Well you’ll land in the city next to Hertun,” I said, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “I’d better go with you. Can you wait a minute?”
“Oh no you don’t need to…” he trailed off as he thought it over. “All right, you can come.” I went back in my room and got dressed, then joined him in the hall.
“What did you leave behind?” I wondered as we walked in the marshy room.
“A picture of my parents,” he said shortly, and I didn’t ask further questions. I touched the drawing and we were off to the third world. As soon as we got there, I transported us to the head quarters in Hertun.
“The head quarters are one room, with a tall open ceiling, in the city of Hertun. There are beds all along one side, and on the other there’s a big table and rickety chairs. The walls are unpainted and the building is almost falling down.” I opened my eyes to see the head quarters, and the man exclaimed,
“Oh, I forgot! Its not here, its out in the street.” I followed him out and through the streets, weaving around in the back streets until we reached a bigger one.
“Shouldn’t we stay in the shadows, so the guards won’t see us?” I asked as he stepped forward.
“I doubt there would be any guards around at midnight,” he said and hit me over the head.
I regained consciousness in a very uncomfortable position, I was being dragged along the cobbled streets by my tied hands. The man had hold of them, grunting with the effort as I bounced over the rocks and stones.
“Ow!” I cried out as I hit a sharp one, and the man stopped. Quick as a flash he had a gag over my mouth, and I stared up at him in surprise. What had happened? He jerked me to my feet and pushed me in front of him, I stumbled dazedly and started to walk.
I had come with him to the third world in the middle of the night-- very bad idea, my now fully awake brain told me, a bit too late-- to get something he forgot. Why had I believed him? The part fairies here didn’t own anything! Then when we got to Hertun he hit me over the head
and now was dragging me somewhere. What could I do? He had me gagged so I couldn’t transport myself elsewhere, annoying as it was that was all it took to disable me. Panic rose in my throat as I thought over the situation, I could do nothing, I didn’t know where he was taking me, and no one knew I was gone. What a fool I had been to go with him in the
first place!
I was interrupted from my distressed thoughts by the man stopping. We were in what I thought by the dim light was a slightly better part of the city, and he was unlocking a door. He pushed me inside and down a flight of steps, the house looked like a regular house so I was
surprised to see shackles on the wall of the cellar and grated bars forming a cage. It was a dungeon. He pushed me inside and locked the door, then turned at a sound.
“Who do you have there?” A shadow detached himself from the wall and stepped forward. I could make out a man in a dark cloak, but there wasn’t enough light to tell anything else.
“This is the ringleader,” the man who I thought was part fairy said proudly. “She may cause trouble but she sure isn’t smart. She didn’t have any idea what I was doing.”
“The ringleader of what? Why didn’t you report to me yesterday?” The voice was still devoid of all emotion.
“I couldn’t! I was in--” his voice dropped mysteriously. “Another world.”
“You aren’t the kind to lie,” the dark man said. “Explain yourself.”
“Its true! You know how all the people from the city just over disappeared two days ago? Well this one was spiriting all them away to fairy world. That’s why they all have powers! They’re part fairy.”
“And the group you were in are now in fairy world too?” the other man asked.
“Yes. I came back to report to you, and caught her on the way.” he grinned wickedly. “I thought you’d be pleased.”
“I am,” the other man moved forward to inspect me, I felt caught in his gaze like a moth on a board. “And if you are lying about all this, you know you will suffer.”
“I’m not lying!” the definitely not part fairy man protested. “I can show you the proof! They got a book from some library that says it all.”
“I remember reading that legend sometime,” the man said thoughtfully. “I thought it was nonsense. Are the part fairies powerful?” he asked.
“Sure are. This one transported me from the city over to here in the blink of an eye. That’s why I have her gagged, so she wont transport herself away.”
“That may be a problem,” he paused to think, and his voice grew. “We’ll need everyone in Fairy World back, of course. This gives us just the opportunity we need, now we can get the government to help us--” he broke off and glanced my way. “She may not be as stupid as we think,” he said and beckoned for the other man to follow. They went up the stairs
and I could hear the low murmur of their voices all the way. Then the sound was gone and I was all alone in my fear and dismay. What had they meant by everything? What had I set into action?
I hurled myself at the bars. I know, it was really immature and silly because it couldn’t possibly help anything, but I did it anyways. I wasn’t angry often so I wasn’t used to the feeling, a hot lava like substance bubbling up in my stomach and threatening to drown me. I
didn’t like it.
After being alone for hours upon hours, probably six hours of berating myself and delving into despair, my anguish turned to anger. Who were these people anyways? Did they think they could lock innocent people up and get away with it? And what did they mean by they needed everyone in fairy world back? And now they could get the governments help-- were they planning some kind of invasion or something?
I drew in a sharp breath and sunk to the floor. Were they planning an invasion? Why had the man been spying in the group anyways? Were they planning to recruit them? That would explain why the other man had said they would need all the part fairies back. But why would they?
My life felt like a blank page, except for question marks. First I hadn’t known if the government was keeping the part fairies separate on purpose, now I didn’t know if the people who imprisoned me wanted to recruit the part fairies and invade fairy land, with the governments help. But I knew something for certain. I had to find out.
I stopped my frantic hurling at the bars for good, and instead inspected the jail closely. The iron was rusted but strong, with my hands tied behind my back I couldn’t reach the lock to pick it. I obviously couldn’t transport myself elsewhere, or say a spell. So what was left? With some divine inspiration or genius hidden in me, I looked up.
There, just a few feet away from the jail wall near a corner, was an air duct. My first thought was that I could climb up into it, but that was quickly ruled out as I saw that the barred iron wall went all the way up and into the stone ceiling. Would it be like all those books where the
heroine overheard the evil plot through the air duct? I’d have to find out.
For a few more moments I stood surveying the jail wall. It was made of iron, that formed squares about as big as my two hands put together. It would be very easy to climb except that my hands were tied. How would I
do it? Experimentally I tried climbing it the regular way, using an elbow instead of a hand, but I couldn’t even get started. My balance was all off and I couldn’t support myself. So there was only one way to climb it-- and that was backwards.
I turned around and grasped an iron bar with my hands, then lifted my foot and stuck the heel in a square. Here came the test to see if this crazy idea would work. Slowly I lifted my other foot, teetering between falling forwards and staying where I was, and put the heel in a square.
I was still leaning forwards, my hands already burned from the effort, but I was up here. With strength and balance and a lot of luck, I could do it.
The climb up was excruciatingly hard. Once I was all balanced I had to lift my hands higher up, only taking one off at a time so I wouldn’t fall forward. Since they were tied together they couldn’t lift up by themselves very far, so my progress was slower than a snails. I hated that sickening feeling of swaying, whenever I was supported only by one hand the world below me swirled. It didn’t help that I was facing forward, only by closing my eyes would I not see how far up I was and how far I would fall.
Finally I reached the top, my head brushing against the stone ceiling. Now I would find out if my whole climb had been in vain. I couldn’t see the air duct but I listened attentively to the silence, the way the rusted iron creaked under my weight, the way stone shifted underground.
But I could hear no voices. With each passing second of silence, my hopes sank. So it wouldn’t turn out like a book after all. What was I going to do now?
I’d have to climb down now, I thought numbly. My whole terrifying climb up had been for nothing, after all. I just wanted to close my eyes and give up, I didn’t want to face the climb down looking at the hard ground. I didn’t want to face my climb down at all.
There was a noise from the stairway and I started, nearly losing my
balance. The bars moaned and I leaned back into them with all my might. At last the horrible rocking stopped, and I was very still. I couldn’t see the stairs, but I could hear someone coming down them.
“I know you’re there,” It was the spy, probably looking into the cell. “Somewhere. Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. I just want to take you upstairs, so my master can ask you a few questions. That’s all.” He paused, a frown creasing his forehead as he searched the shadows. “Where are you?” He didn’t look up, thankfully. I was just a dark shape near the corner, too far above to catch his attention. “Come out now.” His tone was no longer playful, it was stern and worried. “Come out now!” He paused, then pounded up the stairs. “She’s gone!” He yelled to the other man. “She’s not there!”
The other man came down with him, slowly and calmly. He inspected the jail, and when he saw I was not in it he was not confused or astonished, he was angry. He took the keys and threw open the door, stepping through every shadow and searching every corner. “She’s gone.” he announced when he was done, his eyes smoldering but his voice quiet. “Come. We must
search for her, she has heard too much already.” With that he strode out of the room, the spy following behind him. I waited until the door of the building was slammed shut and their footsteps receded into silence, then I gave a long shuddering sigh.
They had left the jail door open.
Aaaaah I'm just going to stop fixing it. Whatever.
Slowly, cautiously, knowing my freedom would be worth nothing if I had a
broken leg, I made my way down the wall. It was just as frightening as I
had feared, because this time I did not keep my gaze fixed in front of
me. I kept it on the open door. There were moments where I was sure I
was going to die, I was sure my whole life had been for nothing. But
before I knew it I was down. It was over. I took a deep breath and
walked out the open door.
Once I was out of the jail, I looked for something sharp. Hopefully I
could rub it against the tie around my hands, so then I could take off
my gag. I found exactly what I needed in the kitchen, a long knife. It
was sharp but not too sharp, so I wouldn’t cut my hands through it. It
was harder then it sounded to cut your way out of a rope, especially
since my hands were behind me and I had never done it before. But that
was nothing compared to what I had just done. Finally I got the knife at
the right angle and started sawing away, and then my hands were free. I
quickly unknotted the gag, I could just transport myself out of there
right then, but I wanted proof that the man wanted to attack fairy world.
So I ran up the stairs, I soon found the mans office. It was
meticulously clean but the drawers of his desk were unlocked as he
hadn’t known he was leaving right then. I flipped through the papers,
there was a list of men who I assumed were loyal to the one in charge,
and a lot others that I didn’t need. Finally I found the one that would
be the most use to me, a letter the man had almost finished in the time
that I was imprisoned. It read,
‘To the royal King of this land,
This is your faithful servant Retinus. I know you have had some trouble
in the past with me, trying to take over the world and all’ I paused for
a moment to think. Had the man, Retinus, originally wanted to recruit
the part fairies to help him take over the world? ‘but I have changed.
Now I only wish to help my country.’ Yeah right. ‘Through certain
sources, I have come to the knowledge that there is another world. This
may ring a bell, as five thousand years ago someone discovered the same
thing. Fairy World. But the last time, the ruler of the land foolishly
formed friendships and allowed citizens to travel there. You probably
know the rest and so I will simply say that our world has had no love of
magic since. So when I came upon this news, that there is a portal that
other evil fairies could travel through, there was only one course of
action that occurred to me. War. We must unite our whole world and go to
war with fairy world, to ensure that no evil fairies will rampage our
world again.
Your faithful servant,’
Then it didn’t have the signature, which was the only part missing. This
letter proved all my thoughts and suspicions, I had to show it to Ylaii
and Gerido as soon as possible. Who knows what the King of the land was
like, if he believed that all fairies were evil like that one five
thousand years ago, we would be in for trouble.
I tucked the letter in my pocket and closed the door, sighing and
closing my eyes as I did so. Yes, it had been very foolish of me to come
here with the spy, but I had found out things of utter importance. I had
to get back now, before Taran and Ylaii started worrying. I said the
words, “It’s a narrow alleyway, in the city next to this one. The bricks
are caked in mud but there’s one place where its been scraped clean.
Along the wall there is a drawing of a tall gate made of stone,
overgrown with roses. The lines seem to beckon, and you reach forward.
As you touch the rough brick you suddenly fall forward into darkne--”
and was on my way.
I arrived in the marsh/ room, and was overcome with a dreadful
weariness. I had woken up in the middle of the night only to be hit over
the head, then spent five or so hours in jail and then climbed up the
wall. No wonder I was a bit tired.
“Is anyone there?” I called down the hall. I didn’t see anyone, but
suddenly Taran poked his head around the bend.
“Ember?” he said, surprised. “What are you doing in that room?”
“Long story,” I sighed. “Can you please get Ylaii and Gerido?” he must
have sensed my urgency, because he ran off and was back in a flash with
Ylaii, Gerido, and Enlil.
“Ember what’s wrong?” Ylaii asked as soon as she saw me. A pounding
headache was beginning at my temples, so instead of speaking I simply
drew out the letter. Ylaii and Gerido read it in silence and then looked
up, faces aghast.
“How did you get this?” Gerido asked solemnly.
“I woke up in the middle of the night,” I explained tiredly. “A part
fairy was about to go through the gate, he said he’d forgotten
something. I was still asleep and offered to go with him to transport
him to Hertun where he’d need to go. As soon as we were there he hit me
over the head and dragged me to a building where he threw me in jail.”
Everyone’s eyes were wide as I told them, my voice was too tired to have
much emotion in it but everyone around suffered for me.
“He gagged me so I couldn’t transport my self out. There he told another
man about Fairy World, and he said they would need everyone in Fairy
World back, now they could get the governments help. Then they left for
about five hours, and towards the end of that I noticed an air duct a
little ways away from the jail. So I climbed the wall which was iron
bars to see if I could overhear them through it, but I couldn’t. It was
a good thing I was up there, though, because just then they came down to
interrogate me. They didn’t notice me up there, and thought I had
escaped so they went away to search for me, leaving the jail door open.”
I smiled briefly, I was thankful for their stupidity right then. “I got
out and got my hands untied with a knife, then took off my gag. Then I
searched the building, and found that letter.” I nodded towards
Retinus’s letter in Ylaii’s hands. “Then I came home.”
“You poor thing,” Ylaii took me by the arm and led me gently to my room.
“You’re tired, aren’t you?” I nodded, a hand pressed to my throbbing
head. “Well then, we wont bother you,” she gave Gerido a look and pushed
me into sitting position on my bed. “Have a rest, then you can come join
us.” the door clicked shut softly and I fell into the oblivion of sleep.
As soon as she was out of Ember’s room, Ylaii strode briskly to the
cafeteria. “We’ll need everyone assembled,” she called over her
shoulder. “For an emergency, emergency meeting.” Taran ran to catch up
with Ylaii as the rest of them dispersed to gather everyone they could.
“Is Ember all right?” he asked worriedly.
“She’ll be fine,” Ylaii said. “With a bit of sleep. I’m more worried
about our safety here. Now that those men in third world know about the
gate, we could have another war on our hands.” People were already
running into the cafeteria, looking around with alarm.
“What’s going on?” Cardill asked as she saw Ylaii. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ll wait until everyone’s here,” Ylaii said grimly. “But in the
meantime, you can read this.” she threw the letter on a table, Taran
Cardill and Kip gathered around to read it. “That man, Retinus,” she
hissed his name, “Also mentioned needing all the part fairies here back.
It appears he has a fascination with taking over worlds, he’s tried with
his and now wants to take over ours.”
Taran looked up in alarm. “Would the King really do that?” He asked.
“Try to take over fairy world because one fairy was bad five thousand
years ago?”
“That’s what we don’t know,” Ylaii said. “Hopefully not. I don’t think
Retinus would be fool enough to try to take over it on his own, all of
us here can do magic and he cant.” She lapsed into silence, hoping. Yes,
everyone in Fairy World did have magic. But if he took back all the part
fairies who originally lived in third world like he said he would, and
then attacked them before they had time to tell regular Fairy World
everything, they would be doomed. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The room was filling with part fairies, some with green hair some with
brown. They all looked worried and alarmed, and waited for Ylaii to
speak. When she saw Gerido slip in the back with the last of them she
started. “Fellow part fairies,” she said gravely, “You all know of Ember
and her quest to help the part fairies in third world. Well this morning
she discovered something that involves us all.” She scanned over the
crowd, of the last people from third world one was missing. “Did one of
your people join you fairly recently?” she asked Cardill.
“Um, I think a man came to us about two weeks ago. Why?”
“That man,” Ylaii announced, “Was a spy.” there was the sound of breaths
taken in sharply. “In the middle of the night he tried to go to fairy
world, Ember heard him and offered to go with him to transport him to
Hertun. So they went, but the man hit Ember over the head and put her in
jail, telling his master, Retinus, about fairy world. He mentioned
getting the part fairies from third world back, so everyone be on your
guard. If you see anything unusual, come straight to me. After Ember
escaped she found this letter.” Ylaii held the letter up and read part
of it aloud.
“ ‘To the royal King of this land,
When I came upon this news, that there is a portal that other evil
fairies could travel through, there was only one course of action that
occurred to me. War. We must unite our whole world and go to war with
fairy world, to ensure that no evil fairies will rampage our world
again.’ The evil men who captured Ember know about the gate. They are
planning to get the Kings help and try to take over Fairy World.”
There was absolute silence from the room. Not a person stirred. Finally
Dagnios spoke up, saying, “Well, we cant let them do that!”
“No!” Other people joined in, saying their piece. “We must tell the
rulers of Fairy World at once!” “We must fight back!”
Ylaii raised her hand, silencing the noisy room. “I was thinking,” she
said, “If it might be better if we just seal off the gate. That’s what
we did five thousand years ago, and it worked. No blood would be shed,
no one would die.” There was silence again, and people started nodding.
“That would work,” they said quietly amongst themselves.
“No!” Ember stood at the doorway, looking pale. “We cant do that!”
“Ember!” Taran made his way towards her, but she continued speaking.
“What about all the part fairies still there? If we did that they would
continue living in danger and misery. Retinus might even use them to
take over his world.”
“But Ember,” Ylaii reasoned. “The risk is too great. If you or any one
of us were to go back there, Retinus and his helpers would know about it
and try to capture you again.”
“I know,” Ember said firmly. “But everyone there is living in a lot more
danger than that. We could just make it one trip, ten or so of us going
to different towns. I would transport them all to where they needed to
go, we would convince all the part fairies there, and bring them back to
Fairy World. Retinus and his men couldn’t possibly be in all ten towns
at once. Then when we’ve got everybody, we can seal the gate.”
Ylaii thought about it. She would feel horrible if she left all the part
fairies there, but could they afford to endanger everyone here? “All
right,” she decided at last. “We will go one last time to Fairy World,
to rescue everyone there. And then the gate will be sealed off.
Forever.” And then Ember fainted.
I was so embarrassed when I woke up. I mean, who faints? Really faints,
with the whole falling backwards only to be caught in Tarans arms and
sleeping for six hours thing. And it wasn’t even that I was sick, I was
just tired. Which wasn’t half an excuse in my mind. Of course, Ylaii and
Gerido and everyone fussed over me when I woke up, insisting I eat lunch
(far overdue lunch) and drink tea and have a bath. I didn’t mind the
bath though.
Relaxing there in the bath let my mind catch up with everything that had
happened, giving me a chance to think things over. My stand in the
cafeteria had been the right thing to do, and it was a good thing I
wandered in before everything was all decided, but we would have to make
a quick job of it. Retinus and his spy didn’t seem like the kind of
people to let anything go, and my escaping would definitely have set
them off. I hoped they wouldn’t take it out on the people here while me
and everyone were gone.
Going to sleep that night was not very successful. Thinking about
everything that had happened today, everything that would happen
tomorrow-- my mind was a whirl of thought that could not be chased down
and stuck somewhere far away. Whenever my eyes managed to close and my
thoughts trickled to a slowly moving stream, I would think about how I
wasn’t thinking anything at the moment and they would start up again
like a flash flood.
Finally I fell into that half sleep state, where you think something
normal like ‘Tomorrow could either go really good or really bad’ and it
takes on a life of its own and turns into something really weird, like
‘Tomorrow could either eat tigers or fly away.’ So it was in that state
that I found the memory. It was tucked way back, so far into the
recesses of my brain that I knew I wouldn’t be able to find it unless I
was semi-unconscious. I was just thinking about my parents, wondering if
they had died in a train crash or an airplane crash, when I saw a face.
Thinking about the train had probably triggered it, there was a busy
train station around the face. It was like watching an old black and
white movie, people walked by and talked but there was no sound. The
face was smiling at me and holding me in his arms. Now there was a
sound, a voice floating down softly as if a long way away.
‘Ember, my darling,’ it said, and somehow I knew that the voice was
coming from his mouth. The baby me lifted its fingers and tried to stick
them in, the man who I dared to think was my Father, smiled and took
them in his hand. ‘You may not see me again, and I doubt you’ll even
remember this. But if you do, make your grandfather tell you how we
died.’ the voice went on whispering lovingly but I was still aghast over
that last sentence, they knew they were going to die? I came back to my
senses and listened before I lost too much. ‘keep it from you, he’ll
want to protect you from the sadness of knowing. But when you’re a
teenager you’ll need to know. I do hope you’ll remember this, because
you also need to know that we love you. Your mother isn’t here right now
to tell you, but she loves you as much as I do.’ then the face came
closer and kissed baby me on the forehead, and I was handed to someone.
My view spun around and now I could see grandfathers face, looking
younger and very sad. He held me up so I could see my Father one last
time, so I saw him board the train and turn to look at me, not waving
but those eyes staying on mine the whole time as the train chugged away.
And then the memory was gone. I blinked back tears, all thoughts of
today and tomorrow gone. I could only think about the memory. My Father
and mother had known they were going to die? Why couldn’t I have grown
up with parents, and such loving parents like those? Why did they have
to die? Now I was downright sobbing, my tears soaking into the pillow. I
wanted to pound my bed at the unfairness of it all, but the moon shining
down through the window stopped me. In its calm sereneness, the silvery
beams danced alone. The moon and the hooting of the owl outside stilled
my tears, the night seemed melancholy for my sake. I sat up and stared
out the window, not starting when I heard the door open.
“Ember?” It was Taran. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I said after a moment, not quite able to keep the quiver out of
my voice. I looked down and my hair fell about my face, hiding the
tears. Taran slowly came forward and sat sideways on the bed, looking at
the moon and me silently. “It was just a memory,” I shook my hair back
and smiled, or tried to. “One of my Father. I didn’t think I had any
memories of him.”
“Did they die?” he asked quietly, his voice low. I nodded and looked
straight at the moon, pretending its brightness was making my eyes
water. “I’m sorry,” was all Taran said and we sat that way for a long time.
So today was really awful for writing, I was naughty and cheated :D I put in author comments, which were very despairing and silly. But I decided I'm just going to put in author comments instead of just writing horrible stuff, because I dont want to ruin it.
There you go! Hope it wasnt too horribly confusing. :D
Kelia (KrazyK)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
