BOOM!
I jump out of bed, my bare feet freeze at the touch of the frigid floor.
I can hear moans coming from downstairs. What was that? Is everything alright?
“Mom? Dad?”
I sprint downstairs and see Mom at the kitchen on the floor. Her eyes are closed.
“Mom!” I shriek running over, “what happened?”
She only moans. I can tell she is breathing, but she looks seriously hurt. What do I do? I look around frantically as though the answer is written on the wall. Tears well up in my eyes. Will she be okay?
I dart upstairs to find Dad. He is still in bed, so I shake him awake.
“Dad, Dad wake up! Mom is hurt. Wake up!”
When Dad finally gets up, he runs downstairs and calls 911 at lightning speed.
The ambulance comes, and Mom is rushed to the hospital.
I don’t go with them because the people who picked Mom up in the ambulance say that it isn’t too serious, just a broken bone or two. Dad still takes a day off from work because Mom has never broken a bone before, but Dad says that staying will only worry me more, and that going to school would clear my mind off things.
As I throw on my clothes, I wonder—why do I have such a busy life? Some peace for a while would be nice.
A bus doesn’t come because I live about a half a mile away from school, so I have to walk.
Along the way, there is a forest in which Ms. Willows lives. She is an elderly, yet active, kind lady who has been a family friend ever since we moved 3 years ago. She is the one who helped us get settled in and meet some other people who live near us. Let’s just say she is really close friends with the mayor.
As I walk to her house, I see an unfamiliar tree. As I walk around the tree, I see weird symbols engraved on it. While I walked and continue looking at the symbols (which is NOT smart to do at the same time), I fall into a hole that was dug right near it—who even does that?
I frantically try to grab something so that I can stop falling. That doesn’t work. When I get closer to the bottom, I realize that there isn’t a bottom. It's a giant swirl that looks like it belongs in the middle of space. But, what could this be? Maybe a really cool invention? Or maybe it’s...maybe...I don’t know! What else could it be—a portal? Yeah, right. Like that could ever happen.
But as I got as close as two feet away from it—I feel something powerful—something no human could make. Maybe it is a portal? When I did touch the thing, however, everything turns black.
When I open my eyes, the world is spinning in circles. My head and stomach hurt; I shouldn’t have had so much food this morning.
When all the nausea stops, I take in my surroundings. Wait a second—the sky is green and the grass is blue. There’s a pond next to me and it’s purple. Okay, that’s weird.
Anyways...
I’m in a valley with two huge hills on my sides. I get onto my feet and turn around. The portal is still behind me, but when I try to go through it, I bump right into it. Now that there’s no going back. I begin to climb one of the hills.
I can barely think straight and I’m taking everything surprisingly calm; it’s kind of scaring me. On a normal basis, I would still be sitting on my bottom pondering everything that happened and I would be completely dazed, but here I am climbing a hill.
Once I reach the top of the hill, I look to my right. I can see a lush green—sorry—blue forest with squirrels and birds chirping around. On my left, is an icy, purple forest, filled with polar bears and penguins. There is no sun and it’s still bright. How can that be?
“This way, guys!” I hear someone exclaim in the distance. Who is that?
Soon, I see a bunch of weird, purple creatures with eyes above their head. Some are even wearing sunglasses! They don’t look that scary, but I’m still scared. Some of their faces are scrunched up like they’re mad. That’s creepy.
I turn around to run away. Too late. They’ve seen me.
“You, over there!” the tallest one shouts pointing at me. They are now coming up the hill I’m on.
“Me?” I ask nervously.
“Yes, you!”
Now that I look at them more closely, they aren’t too terrifying, and—because there isn’t really any place to run and be safe—I walk up to them.
“Hello! My name is Celestia—”
“Of?” the tallest of the creatures interrupted.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Where are you from?”
“Oh, I’m from the human world.”
“Nice to meet you, Celestia of the Human World,” she says sticking out her foot.
I stare at her blankly.
“I guess you guys don’t hit feet in the human world, you know as a greeting,” the creature answered.
“Oh! In the human world we shake hands!”
“Interesting. We—Malrifs—do it like this.”
“Malrifs?”
“That is the type of creature we are. Like you are a human, we are Malrifs.”
“Oh, ok.”
Two young Malrifs walk up and demonstrate the foot hit for me. They basically just pick their little, plump, purple legs up at the same time and then, hit them together. Then, I do it with the tallest Malrif.
“What’s your name?” I ask her. I really should have asked sooner.
“My name is Chief Alaïa of the Land of the Malrifs and I welcome you to our beautiful home.”
“Thank you! I also have a couple of questions.”
“Wait, before you ask. I need to tell you a couple of things which would probably answer most of your questions. I have a lot to tell you, so I should bring you to my house. Everyone else, you are dismissed,” Chief Alaïa proclaimed.
Alaïa starts walking me to her house. We are heading towards the blue forest.
“Oh, silly me,” Chief Alaïa exclaims. “We can take a pole!”
“A pole?”
“Yeah! I’ll show you,” she says, looking excited.
She takes out an object that looks like a whistle and blows in it. It makes no sound, like a dog whistle. Out of nowhere, a big, brass pole appears. It has a platform at the bottom to stand on.
“Climb aboard,” she exclaims.
“Are you sure this is safe?”
She looks at me with an expression that says, Seriously? I've done this a million times!
I get on and hug the pole so tight, it just might crack in half.
After a scary ride that seems like it takes forever, Alaïa shouts over the wind.
“We’re here!”
When we get off I see nothing. Just trees and animals.
“Umm, where is the house exactly?”
“Underground,” she says, pointing to a pile of twine.
She pulls the pile and all of it comes up at the same time. Underneath it is a hole. These people—uh, I mean—Malrifs, love digging! The hole isn’t normal though. It is tiled and it looks exquisite. Chief Alaïa gets in. Looks like the hole isn’t that deep! She motions for me to get in too. When we do, she presses a button and the floor starts moving. It lowers and lowers until it lands with a satisfying thump.
“Welcome to my house,” she says.
In front of me lies the most homey house I’ve ever seen. Everything looks so delicate and exquisite in the candlelight.
“You have such a beautiful and cozy house,” I exclaim.
“Why, thank you. Now, you should take a seat, I have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Okay,” I say taking a seat on the very comfy couch.
“Do you drink saro?”
“What is that?”
“It’s a really tasty beverage. It’s sort of like...um...what is it called? The beverage you guys drink in the human world.”
“There are many. Let me tell you a couple. Maybe that will help. Well, there is water, juice, soda, tea-”
“Yes! Tea! I’ve been studying human ways using our invisible bhilos.”
“Bhilos?”
“Yes, they are called...um...oh yeah, cameras, in the human world!”
“Oh, okay. Let’s get to the explanation now.”
“Right! Okay. The Land of the Malrifs is in huge trouble. The Dakai, a species of the dark, are trying to invade the Land of the Malrifs and steal our most coveted Light Stone.”
“If they are a ‘species of the dark,’ then why would they want a Light Stone? First of all, what in the wor—er universe is a Light Stone?”
“The Light Stone is sort of like the big fiery ball thing.”
“The Sun?”
“Yeah,” Chief Alaïa says, shivering. “The concept gives me the shivers. We, Malrifs, are very fire sensitive. We can handle heat but not any heat emitted by fire. Our skin would shrivel up and eventually turn to ashes.”
“Eek,” I say, cringing.
Anything like this usually gives me the creeps. Surprisingly, I want to become a doctor when I grow up. I wish I could skip all the disgusting stuff when I’m a doctor, but it’s not possible at all.
“Then how come you have candles?”
“Oh, those are pieces of the Light Stone,” Alaïa says. “Back to the explanation now.”
I don’t know why I am noticing this, but I can see a small scar against Chief Alaïa’s temples. In books and movies, usually scars represents torture and villains have them representing a scarred childhood. This isn’t the case with Alaïa, though. Here she is, Chief of all the Malrifs--I can’t help but admire her. Girls and women are strong. We are powerful. We are smart. We are capable. We are equal and beyond! But, we are also misunderstood. Even though in society, the prejudices against women have lowered, the way people view women and girls haven’t changed too much. We are still viewed as weak.
Chief Alaïa interrupts my thoughts and starts talking in a motherly manner, “Honey, stop your reverie. I need explain some things to you.”
“Oh, yeah! Sorry.”
“Okay, all in one shot now. The Dakai want the stone because they are bored of the dark and they want a change. They don't mean harm because they don't know that we can't survive without it. They won’t listen to us. We have tried to send messengers, but they just silenced them off. We tried to send letters, but it didn’t change a thing. We suspect that they didn’t read it or they didn't believe us. We've tried every way, now there’s no way to avoid war. We need help because we can’t do this ourselves. We asked the prophet and he picked a random person on Earth to help us. That happens to be you, sweetie. You will become our apprentice sorceress.” Alaïa says.
She cups her hand to the side of her mouth and whispers, “The old apprentice has been a wreck! He did a spell this morning and nothing happened. Something must have happened because something always happens when you do a spell.
Hmmm, something did happen this morning.
“Wait, Mom!”
“What?”
“My mom, this morning, she fell downstairs in the kitchen and fell unconscious. I didn’t see her fall, so I’m not sure how it happened. Maybe the apprentice made my mom fall? Did you guys record the time because I woke up around 6:00.”
“Yeah, we did! The main sorcerer of the Malrifs always records the day, time, and what spell the apprentice did just in case. Let me see if he Malrifed the information.”
“Malrifed?”
“That’s our form of your...texting.”
Alaïa opens a satchel and pulls out a weird looking device—don’t worry I’m not a weird caveman who isn’t exposed to modern technology. It isn’t a phone. It is a really small circle thing with weird buttons. Chief Alaïa presses random buttons and when she does, a holographic image appears in front of her. She smiles at my open jaw.
“Much cooler than your phones, right?”
I nod in agreement. She presses a couple of things and then finally speaks.
“He did send me the time. The time is 6:13 this morning.”
“Oh my gosh, I remember it now. It’s like a sudden flashback. I remember myself jolting awake at the bang! and then hastily seeing the time. It was exactly 6:13,” I say involuntarily shivering. “Anyway, the doctor said my mom would be fine. We should really talk about this ‘me becoming a sorcerer's apprentice and saving your world.’ Sorry, but no can do.”
“WHAT?!” Alaïa screams in disbelief. “But you have to, you must. Our wonderful world must be saved! Please, oh, please do it for us!”
“Sorry, but I need to get back to my world. The people I love live there. I can’t stay here. Besides, I’m scared,” I say in a small voice.
“Oh,” Alaïa says softening up. “I see.”
“I’m just not ready. Plus I’ve got no talents.”
“Everybody has a talent. It’s in them all the time. You’ve just gotta find it.”
How in the world am I going to find what I can do. I can't save the world, I’m only 12! This is ridiculous.
“I know you are reluctant to do this, but think about this. Every single person in this world is in danger, family and friends. We need someone with different knowledge. Someone from a different world. We need you, Celestia. We need you.”
Oh, Lord. I’m putting millions of people in danger. Good job, Celestia.
“Oh, okay. I’ll do it,” I say reluctantly.
The training is stressful. Sorcerer Abuhone is a kind—but hardcore—man. He teaches me so many spells in a day, my head hurts so bad, I start to see things. Finally, when I master all the spells, he declares me out of apprenticeship and into a Novice Sorceress. A wonderful ceremony is held for me. Then comes the gruesome part…
“You have been training for a week, sweetheart. Tomorrow we will form a border around the Kingdom of Dakai,” Alaïa says.
“I don’t get it. I thought we didn’t want war, so why are we starting it? Also, why haven’t they attacked us yet?”
“Well, honey. It’s pretty complicated. So, a month ago we got word of the Dakai wanting to steal our stone. Since then, they have been facing difficulty. It sort of seems like karma. Every time they start to come to attack us, something happens: a flood, a hurricane, or anything like that. Even though these distractions are there, they will come out seeking the stone sooner or later. Instead of waiting and keeping you here, we decided that there’s no harm in starting the war. In fact, it may be better if we start it. Capisce?”
“Capisce,” I answer. “So, we are going out to war tomorrow.”
“Yeah.”
“That just reminded me—well, I mean I thought about it, but at the time you weren’t there to answer—my parents are going to be worried, I haven’t been home for a week!”
“Don’t worry, we froze time.”
“You did WHAT!”
“We froze time. Everything in your world is frozen, so nothing would happen when you’re gone.”
“Okay, then…”
“Anywhos, you should get rest, you have a huge day ahead of you.”
I go to my bedroom in Alaïa’s house. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. I, Celestia, am going to war tomorrow. I am going to be doing something that I have only read out of Social Studies textbooks. I. Am. Going. To. War. Ahhhh!
I can’t sleep.
I’m tossing and turning and trying to sleep, but I can’t. I’m too nervous. Too scared out of my mind.
Finally, at around three, I fall asleep.
“Honey, honey, wake up! Come on, wake up,” a voice called getting louder and louder.
Finally, I open my eyes to see a blurred version of Alaïa.
“Hola,” I say groggily.
“What?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Anyways...Hi!”
“Hi honey. Okay, you should get dressed. Here’s your armor and wand,” she says handing me the stuff.
“Thank you. And, can you repeat the battle plan.”
Alaïa repeats the whole thing: the formation, when we have to say the spells, and why the Dakai will be forced to surrender—they don’t believe in magic.
“Ok, I think I got it…”
“Oh, Celestia,” she says looking a bit too sarcastic.
When we get into our formation, I can feel myself shake. I’m so scared, that’s all I can think about. After everyone gets in position, we. Start. To. March.
After an hour’s worth of walking (oh, my legs hurt so bad) gloom and darkness started to shadow upon us -- no wonder they want some light.
Sorcerer Abuhone nudges me and points to a forming group of Dakai. We say our spells and soon, the entire field of Dakai are frozen and sleeping. In the distance, I can see the chief walk out. He surrenders and they have a wonderful reunion.
Seriously, who does that after a war?
Anyways, out of everything, I am longing for home. Alaïa says she’ll send me back after the war. I don't want to bother her, but I mean come on, I wanna go home, people!
After a bunch of chatter, Alaïa finally comes to me, takes out a crystal, and says a couple of words.
For a moment, all I can see is darkness.
When I open my eyes, I am back…
I jump out of bed, my bare feet freeze at the touch of the frigid floor.
I can hear moans coming from downstairs. What was that? Is everything alright?
“Mom? Dad?”
I sprint downstairs and see Mom at the kitchen on the floor. Her eyes are closed.
“Mom!” I shriek running over, “what happened?”
She only moans. I can tell she is breathing, but she looks seriously hurt. What do I do? I look around frantically as though the answer is written on the wall. Tears well up in my eyes. Will she be okay?
I dart upstairs to find Dad. He is still in bed, so I shake him awake.
“Dad, Dad wake up! Mom is hurt. Wake up!”
When Dad finally gets up, he runs downstairs and calls 911 at lightning speed.
The ambulance comes, and Mom is rushed to the hospital.
I don’t go with them because the people who picked Mom up in the ambulance say that it isn’t too serious, just a broken bone or two. Dad still takes a day off from work because Mom has never broken a bone before, but Dad says that staying will only worry me more, and that going to school would clear my mind off things.
As I throw on my clothes, I wonder—why do I have such a busy life? Some peace for a while would be nice.
A bus doesn’t come because I live about a half a mile away from school, so I have to walk.
Along the way, there is a forest in which Ms. Willows lives. She is an elderly, yet active, kind lady who has been a family friend ever since we moved 3 years ago. She is the one who helped us get settled in and meet some other people who live near us. Let’s just say she is really close friends with the mayor.
As I walk to her house, I see an unfamiliar tree. As I walk around the tree, I see weird symbols engraved on it. While I walked and continue looking at the symbols (which is NOT smart to do at the same time), I fall into a hole that was dug right near it—who even does that?
I frantically try to grab something so that I can stop falling. That doesn’t work. When I get closer to the bottom, I realize that there isn’t a bottom. It's a giant swirl that looks like it belongs in the middle of space. But, what could this be? Maybe a really cool invention? Or maybe it’s...maybe...I don’t know! What else could it be—a portal? Yeah, right. Like that could ever happen.
But as I got as close as two feet away from it—I feel something powerful—something no human could make. Maybe it is a portal? When I did touch the thing, however, everything turns black.
When I open my eyes, the world is spinning in circles. My head and stomach hurt; I shouldn’t have had so much food this morning.
When all the nausea stops, I take in my surroundings. Wait a second—the sky is green and the grass is blue. There’s a pond next to me and it’s purple. Okay, that’s weird.
Anyways...
I’m in a valley with two huge hills on my sides. I get onto my feet and turn around. The portal is still behind me, but when I try to go through it, I bump right into it. Now that there’s no going back. I begin to climb one of the hills.
I can barely think straight and I’m taking everything surprisingly calm; it’s kind of scaring me. On a normal basis, I would still be sitting on my bottom pondering everything that happened and I would be completely dazed, but here I am climbing a hill.
Once I reach the top of the hill, I look to my right. I can see a lush green—sorry—blue forest with squirrels and birds chirping around. On my left, is an icy, purple forest, filled with polar bears and penguins. There is no sun and it’s still bright. How can that be?
“This way, guys!” I hear someone exclaim in the distance. Who is that?
Soon, I see a bunch of weird, purple creatures with eyes above their head. Some are even wearing sunglasses! They don’t look that scary, but I’m still scared. Some of their faces are scrunched up like they’re mad. That’s creepy.
I turn around to run away. Too late. They’ve seen me.
“You, over there!” the tallest one shouts pointing at me. They are now coming up the hill I’m on.
“Me?” I ask nervously.
“Yes, you!”
Now that I look at them more closely, they aren’t too terrifying, and—because there isn’t really any place to run and be safe—I walk up to them.
“Hello! My name is Celestia—”
“Of?” the tallest of the creatures interrupted.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Where are you from?”
“Oh, I’m from the human world.”
“Nice to meet you, Celestia of the Human World,” she says sticking out her foot.
I stare at her blankly.
“I guess you guys don’t hit feet in the human world, you know as a greeting,” the creature answered.
“Oh! In the human world we shake hands!”
“Interesting. We—Malrifs—do it like this.”
“Malrifs?”
“That is the type of creature we are. Like you are a human, we are Malrifs.”
“Oh, ok.”
Two young Malrifs walk up and demonstrate the foot hit for me. They basically just pick their little, plump, purple legs up at the same time and then, hit them together. Then, I do it with the tallest Malrif.
“What’s your name?” I ask her. I really should have asked sooner.
“My name is Chief Alaïa of the Land of the Malrifs and I welcome you to our beautiful home.”
“Thank you! I also have a couple of questions.”
“Wait, before you ask. I need to tell you a couple of things which would probably answer most of your questions. I have a lot to tell you, so I should bring you to my house. Everyone else, you are dismissed,” Chief Alaïa proclaimed.
Alaïa starts walking me to her house. We are heading towards the blue forest.
“Oh, silly me,” Chief Alaïa exclaims. “We can take a pole!”
“A pole?”
“Yeah! I’ll show you,” she says, looking excited.
She takes out an object that looks like a whistle and blows in it. It makes no sound, like a dog whistle. Out of nowhere, a big, brass pole appears. It has a platform at the bottom to stand on.
“Climb aboard,” she exclaims.
“Are you sure this is safe?”
She looks at me with an expression that says, Seriously? I've done this a million times!
I get on and hug the pole so tight, it just might crack in half.
After a scary ride that seems like it takes forever, Alaïa shouts over the wind.
“We’re here!”
When we get off I see nothing. Just trees and animals.
“Umm, where is the house exactly?”
“Underground,” she says, pointing to a pile of twine.
She pulls the pile and all of it comes up at the same time. Underneath it is a hole. These people—uh, I mean—Malrifs, love digging! The hole isn’t normal though. It is tiled and it looks exquisite. Chief Alaïa gets in. Looks like the hole isn’t that deep! She motions for me to get in too. When we do, she presses a button and the floor starts moving. It lowers and lowers until it lands with a satisfying thump.
“Welcome to my house,” she says.
In front of me lies the most homey house I’ve ever seen. Everything looks so delicate and exquisite in the candlelight.
“You have such a beautiful and cozy house,” I exclaim.
“Why, thank you. Now, you should take a seat, I have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Okay,” I say taking a seat on the very comfy couch.
“Do you drink saro?”
“What is that?”
“It’s a really tasty beverage. It’s sort of like...um...what is it called? The beverage you guys drink in the human world.”
“There are many. Let me tell you a couple. Maybe that will help. Well, there is water, juice, soda, tea-”
“Yes! Tea! I’ve been studying human ways using our invisible bhilos.”
“Bhilos?”
“Yes, they are called...um...oh yeah, cameras, in the human world!”
“Oh, okay. Let’s get to the explanation now.”
“Right! Okay. The Land of the Malrifs is in huge trouble. The Dakai, a species of the dark, are trying to invade the Land of the Malrifs and steal our most coveted Light Stone.”
“If they are a ‘species of the dark,’ then why would they want a Light Stone? First of all, what in the wor—er universe is a Light Stone?”
“The Light Stone is sort of like the big fiery ball thing.”
“The Sun?”
“Yeah,” Chief Alaïa says, shivering. “The concept gives me the shivers. We, Malrifs, are very fire sensitive. We can handle heat but not any heat emitted by fire. Our skin would shrivel up and eventually turn to ashes.”
“Eek,” I say, cringing.
Anything like this usually gives me the creeps. Surprisingly, I want to become a doctor when I grow up. I wish I could skip all the disgusting stuff when I’m a doctor, but it’s not possible at all.
“Then how come you have candles?”
“Oh, those are pieces of the Light Stone,” Alaïa says. “Back to the explanation now.”
I don’t know why I am noticing this, but I can see a small scar against Chief Alaïa’s temples. In books and movies, usually scars represents torture and villains have them representing a scarred childhood. This isn’t the case with Alaïa, though. Here she is, Chief of all the Malrifs--I can’t help but admire her. Girls and women are strong. We are powerful. We are smart. We are capable. We are equal and beyond! But, we are also misunderstood. Even though in society, the prejudices against women have lowered, the way people view women and girls haven’t changed too much. We are still viewed as weak.
Chief Alaïa interrupts my thoughts and starts talking in a motherly manner, “Honey, stop your reverie. I need explain some things to you.”
“Oh, yeah! Sorry.”
“Okay, all in one shot now. The Dakai want the stone because they are bored of the dark and they want a change. They don't mean harm because they don't know that we can't survive without it. They won’t listen to us. We have tried to send messengers, but they just silenced them off. We tried to send letters, but it didn’t change a thing. We suspect that they didn’t read it or they didn't believe us. We've tried every way, now there’s no way to avoid war. We need help because we can’t do this ourselves. We asked the prophet and he picked a random person on Earth to help us. That happens to be you, sweetie. You will become our apprentice sorceress.” Alaïa says.
She cups her hand to the side of her mouth and whispers, “The old apprentice has been a wreck! He did a spell this morning and nothing happened. Something must have happened because something always happens when you do a spell.
Hmmm, something did happen this morning.
“Wait, Mom!”
“What?”
“My mom, this morning, she fell downstairs in the kitchen and fell unconscious. I didn’t see her fall, so I’m not sure how it happened. Maybe the apprentice made my mom fall? Did you guys record the time because I woke up around 6:00.”
“Yeah, we did! The main sorcerer of the Malrifs always records the day, time, and what spell the apprentice did just in case. Let me see if he Malrifed the information.”
“Malrifed?”
“That’s our form of your...texting.”
Alaïa opens a satchel and pulls out a weird looking device—don’t worry I’m not a weird caveman who isn’t exposed to modern technology. It isn’t a phone. It is a really small circle thing with weird buttons. Chief Alaïa presses random buttons and when she does, a holographic image appears in front of her. She smiles at my open jaw.
“Much cooler than your phones, right?”
I nod in agreement. She presses a couple of things and then finally speaks.
“He did send me the time. The time is 6:13 this morning.”
“Oh my gosh, I remember it now. It’s like a sudden flashback. I remember myself jolting awake at the bang! and then hastily seeing the time. It was exactly 6:13,” I say involuntarily shivering. “Anyway, the doctor said my mom would be fine. We should really talk about this ‘me becoming a sorcerer's apprentice and saving your world.’ Sorry, but no can do.”
“WHAT?!” Alaïa screams in disbelief. “But you have to, you must. Our wonderful world must be saved! Please, oh, please do it for us!”
“Sorry, but I need to get back to my world. The people I love live there. I can’t stay here. Besides, I’m scared,” I say in a small voice.
“Oh,” Alaïa says softening up. “I see.”
“I’m just not ready. Plus I’ve got no talents.”
“Everybody has a talent. It’s in them all the time. You’ve just gotta find it.”
How in the world am I going to find what I can do. I can't save the world, I’m only 12! This is ridiculous.
“I know you are reluctant to do this, but think about this. Every single person in this world is in danger, family and friends. We need someone with different knowledge. Someone from a different world. We need you, Celestia. We need you.”
Oh, Lord. I’m putting millions of people in danger. Good job, Celestia.
“Oh, okay. I’ll do it,” I say reluctantly.
The training is stressful. Sorcerer Abuhone is a kind—but hardcore—man. He teaches me so many spells in a day, my head hurts so bad, I start to see things. Finally, when I master all the spells, he declares me out of apprenticeship and into a Novice Sorceress. A wonderful ceremony is held for me. Then comes the gruesome part…
“You have been training for a week, sweetheart. Tomorrow we will form a border around the Kingdom of Dakai,” Alaïa says.
“I don’t get it. I thought we didn’t want war, so why are we starting it? Also, why haven’t they attacked us yet?”
“Well, honey. It’s pretty complicated. So, a month ago we got word of the Dakai wanting to steal our stone. Since then, they have been facing difficulty. It sort of seems like karma. Every time they start to come to attack us, something happens: a flood, a hurricane, or anything like that. Even though these distractions are there, they will come out seeking the stone sooner or later. Instead of waiting and keeping you here, we decided that there’s no harm in starting the war. In fact, it may be better if we start it. Capisce?”
“Capisce,” I answer. “So, we are going out to war tomorrow.”
“Yeah.”
“That just reminded me—well, I mean I thought about it, but at the time you weren’t there to answer—my parents are going to be worried, I haven’t been home for a week!”
“Don’t worry, we froze time.”
“You did WHAT!”
“We froze time. Everything in your world is frozen, so nothing would happen when you’re gone.”
“Okay, then…”
“Anywhos, you should get rest, you have a huge day ahead of you.”
I go to my bedroom in Alaïa’s house. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. I, Celestia, am going to war tomorrow. I am going to be doing something that I have only read out of Social Studies textbooks. I. Am. Going. To. War. Ahhhh!
I can’t sleep.
I’m tossing and turning and trying to sleep, but I can’t. I’m too nervous. Too scared out of my mind.
Finally, at around three, I fall asleep.
“Honey, honey, wake up! Come on, wake up,” a voice called getting louder and louder.
Finally, I open my eyes to see a blurred version of Alaïa.
“Hola,” I say groggily.
“What?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Anyways...Hi!”
“Hi honey. Okay, you should get dressed. Here’s your armor and wand,” she says handing me the stuff.
“Thank you. And, can you repeat the battle plan.”
Alaïa repeats the whole thing: the formation, when we have to say the spells, and why the Dakai will be forced to surrender—they don’t believe in magic.
“Ok, I think I got it…”
“Oh, Celestia,” she says looking a bit too sarcastic.
When we get into our formation, I can feel myself shake. I’m so scared, that’s all I can think about. After everyone gets in position, we. Start. To. March.
After an hour’s worth of walking (oh, my legs hurt so bad) gloom and darkness started to shadow upon us -- no wonder they want some light.
Sorcerer Abuhone nudges me and points to a forming group of Dakai. We say our spells and soon, the entire field of Dakai are frozen and sleeping. In the distance, I can see the chief walk out. He surrenders and they have a wonderful reunion.
Seriously, who does that after a war?
Anyways, out of everything, I am longing for home. Alaïa says she’ll send me back after the war. I don't want to bother her, but I mean come on, I wanna go home, people!
After a bunch of chatter, Alaïa finally comes to me, takes out a crystal, and says a couple of words.
For a moment, all I can see is darkness.
When I open my eyes, I am back…