Have you ever simply drifted off into a world of your own, where you would save the world, shift time, and do what is impossible on Earth? I would suppose that there is la-la land for all... But this is my world, of magic beyond magic...
(The Prologue is not yet complete.)
Chapter 1:
Two sisters and their cousin sat in a yard, munching on sweet, red apples. They enjoyed the sound of their teeth crunching through the hard fruit, so they made little conversation and stopped eating only if they needed to do something really important. Finally, the eldest of the two sisters, Violet, stood and announced, "It's getting dark, you guys. We ought to go inside." Christine's, the youngest of the sisters, face fell. "But it's just NOT fair! If we were in Hong Kong, we'd be waking up.!" she protested. Violet wound some of her long, dark hair around her finger impatiently. "Well, we're not, so-" Little Mimi, the sisters' cousin stood up and interupted, "Who says we aren't? We could pretend we are."
Christine gave her a look. Wasn't Mimi supposed to be at least slightly smart. "I'm serious," Mimi continued. "We all ahve imagination, so we might as well." Violet sighed. "Well, imagination or not, we might as well go inside." Christine glanced at Mimi, who seemed genuinely embarassed-not to mention sad. "Wait!" she yelped. "Maybe we can try it!" Violet stared for a second-then a warm smile lit up her face. "Oh, whatever," she murmured. Christine and Mimi held hands and jumped around, their shoulderlength brown hair lashing at their faces as they did. "We should dig a tunnel," Mimi decided, after she and Christine were done with the whole charade, "and pretend that we're actually digging our way there!"
Violet shook her head. Christine stifled a giggle, before saying, "Nah, let's just tie a rope to that pillar over there and swing into Hong Kong!" Violet and Christine exchanged satisfied and looks, and Mimi agreed. So tying a pink-and-magenta rope to the pillar, the three held on for dear life and swung-into the great unkown...literally...
Chapter 2:
The dark sky convulsed, and before the girls' very eyes, it muted, whitened, then brightened. The dark shades of black and blue and purples transformed to pale blues and soft whites. But the most amazing part of all was that the girls themselves were undergoing a transformation. Violet, who was usually so tall and lanky to a point that it was bad, felt her stretched limbs shorten. Mimi's mud brown hair intesified into a mahogany color. Chiristines dark hair paled as well, and she felt her limbs lengthening. All three girls gazed around, fear causing them to tremble.
Christine was the first to put their fears into words. "Where are we? Not in Nevada, that's for sure.......maybe not even on Earth! What if we never get back?!" Mimi shot her a reproachful look. But, then it crumbled. "We will! Won't we, Vi? Tell her! Won't we?" Violet cringed invisibly.
The girls stared ahead. A short, stout tower made entirely of gray stone loomed ahead. "Hey," Christine said suddenly. "I just realized. We haven'tseen a single streetlight or anything on the way here. Or a stoplight, or something." Mimi scanned the rugged terrain. "Needs a bit of work as well as electricity," she remarked drily. No one responded to her poor crak at humor. Violet extended her arm to hold Mimi, but yanked it back and gasped. Mimi's hand was so much bigger than it used to be. She lowered her gaze to it, and noticed that Mimi's hand was indeed as big as an eleven year old's, at least-and Mimi was only eight! christine noticed, too. She peered over, then gasped. "Mine too," she rasped, her voice low with terror. Violet studied herself. She saw little change-except for that uncanny fact that she was shorter than she normally was. Violet was tall for her age, and thin-bony and lanky with a wiry frame. But now-she was slender with curves in all the right places, and NORMAL sized limbs. Christine had shot up too.
"Something is going on. Something really bad," Violet muttered as the tired trio advanced towards the tire tower that sat in front of them. Christine snorted. "Thanks, Mrs. State-the-Obvious," she growled. "And why exactly are we going to that tower? What if the people in there just kill us or something?" Violet cringed. Chsristine was making it very hard for her to comfor the trembling Mimi.
"They wouldn't," Violet assured the girls firmly. "Remember: 'The only battle lost is the battle twas not fought.' We gotta at least try if we want to figure out what's happened. Chrisitne relented grudgingly and they picked up the pace. Up close, the tower was an even more dismal sight. It seemed to lean over in a tired, slanted poisition, as if it had been forced to stand for much longer than it could manage. Timidly, Violet advanced to the splintery wood door and knocked. It was a tentative knock that could barely be heard. Christine, who had always been rather blurtish and confident and "unregretful" gave an exasperated huff and rapped on the door herself-three times, and three times as loud. Mimi gave a high shriek of terror. She was the feminine, shy one and was scared rather easily. The old door groaned as it was thrust violetnly outward. The three girls held their breath, completely unprepared. What would great them, wondered Mimi. Some gross thing with three eyes? Or a massive blob with slimy tentacles? Any way, it'd be the worse second of their life.
Christine peered in tentativley, then boldly. "Who's there?" she demanded, sounding a lot braver than she felt. And it was then that the trio absorbed this schokcing revalation-there was no one there.
********
"Hello?" called Mimi. "We're lost, and need help." Her voice hardly projected. It was little more than a squeak, which of course, caused the rash Chrstine to lose patience. "What she said!" Christine echoed, only about ten times as loudly. "We have, like, NO idea where we are! We came from Texas-in Plano-from the united states, in, uh, North America, on uh, Earth?" Violet nailed her with a skeptical, almost taunting look, but Chrstine thrust her chin forward in a regretfully familiar pout. This brief dreadlock was quickly broken. "Come in," a voice as unoiled as the door hinges sighed. It was an old man's voice, tired and frail and hopeless.
The girls exchanged brief glances before stepping in the wiry building. They tracked the voice to a creaky old staircase and trudged on up, every step they took causing it to groan and shake. When they reached the top, they tried to present themselves in their most dignified manner. "I'm-" began Violet, but she was cut off.
An old man, short for his age, with a peaceful face and long, white beard that trailed to the ground sat in a marble chair (probably the only grand thing in the entire establishment). "Why, who are you three? Girls? From where?" he asked them, not harshly, but in a demanding,I-mean-business tone. Mimi gulped and glanced desperately at her companions. Onbviously this question was being directed to her. Nobody came to her rescue. "Yes," she stammered at once. Uh-yeah, I guess we're from Earth and Texas, which is-uh, er- in the United-" The little man, who the girls had already mentally added as insane, burst into laughter. His face, which had before seemed so dull and hopeless, was alive with joy aas he jumped into the air-and stayed there. In a floating, meditating position he exclaimed brightly, "It's true! The prohpecy was true! Our three heroes have returned!"
Chapter 3:
Violet cocked her head. Until that moment, she hadn't yet made up her mind (entirely) if the old guy was for real. But now, she was really beginning to question his sanity. "Um.....maybe we should run," she suggested. "I think....w're, uh, late for.....something." The old man only laughed heartily. "Come, come," he demanded, "we've much to discuss for your future."
Christine grunted, and the trio reluctantly trailed the strange man to wherever it was he was leading them. Mimi's eyes were supiciously liquid, and Violet's brow was wet with concentrated sweat.. The still peculiar man led them through grand marble archways, marvelous silver corridors, vast, scarlet plushed halls, and finally onto a goregous marble balcony that was large as a room. The ornate railings made the girls feel as though they were in some sort of palace-but how could it be that only a few seconds before, it was a tired old tower?
As if the man had heard their thoughts, he said, "Your presence-arrival, more like-is doing all this! We have waited so long for the three that could save ths Island from the three witches!" Chrisinte snorted with laughter. Was this guy totally crazy? "There's no such thing as witches, idiot," she chided him. A slim, redheaded woman, who happened to be passing behind them, gasped. "Do not speak to Ehlion in such a way!" she scolded harshly. "And of course they are! The Three Ancient Witches have been toerrorizing our land for many moons now!"
The old man, obviously named Ehlion, sank into a rich plush chair and laughed. "Don't be so rash, Conelia," he said. "They're from Earth. Just as Slit-Skaya proclaimed!" Elion folded his hands together in a clasped position and smiled jovially. "Make the announcement! The whole Island must know, its saviors have returned!" Cornelia turned and ran down the spiraling staircase. Her sighs and murmurs of joy could be hear: "....They're here.......long....waited....many centuries......witches...vanquished....long last!"
In only a few heartbeats, a huge crowd had assembled below the balcony. Murmurs of excitement were clearly audible. Mimi cautiously peered down. Almost all the people were dressed poorly, with gray or blue ragged pants, and oversized blouses. Straw hats were their only shield from the angry sun. Some of the "richer" families could afford for their women or girls to wear pale, musty pink dresses, but they were ripped and ragged and torn as well. The very sight made tears spring to Mimi's eyes.
Christine's only remark was, "They don't have a general store nearby, do they?" She gave a snide smile. Ehlion looked shocked by Christine's words. He shook his head, and muttered something inaudibly. All you could hear was his scornful tone. "They're doing the best they can, young one. With the three witches, money and crops have been short. Chldren are dying. So are parents. Homes are being burnt. Have a heart!"
Christine's face twisted from her smug smirk to an almost sympathetic expression (ALMOST). She gave a shallow dip of her head, and Ehlion's lips rose ever so slightly in acknowledgement. Then he proceeded to the balcony's side, and roared in a great, thundering voice: "My good people, the time has come-for the witches to be vanquished, for I hath found our saviors! The very ones, whose arrival was foretold in the prophecy! Rise thou arms, in a gesture of glory and praise and gratitude, to the peoples that have come and gone, before us!" Fists sailed into the air, and great cheers could be heard. Had all the teares cried been collected, they could have created a river. However, Violet noted that many faces still remained hopelessly desolate. For this she consulted Ehlion.
"Ehlion," she whispered, boldly, "if our arrival is suppposed to bring such joy, why are some people still sad and dull?" Ehlion turned to face her, his grin fading, to be replaced by a couded expression.
"Well, you see," he began in a rushed, quiet tone, "as I explained, you three-"
"No! You haven't explained anything!" Christine cut him off hotly. "I don't get what the heck is going on!" Ehlion nodded patiently. "Come then. I shall explain," he ordered with gentle firmness.
Once more he sank into his soft chair, and ran his fingers through his wisps of old white hair. He thrust his hands into the air, and immediately, a shower of white sparks, tinged with a pale blue, clustered together in his palms. They attained the shape of a majestic creatre-something that appeared to have the peerless body of a lion, the grandoise wings of an eagle, and a river like mane-that should have been from a horse, but seemed so much more beautiful, so much bigger. The spark creature released a thunderous roar, and great ripples of palce blue energy emmitted from its body, in the form of unwavering ovals that faded as they hit their target. Sparks fell from the ripples, and as they did, whatever they touched froze-not encased in ice, but as if time itself was frozen.
"You see," explained the strangely serene man, "I must freeze time, or the people will grow restless. You do want to hear the whole story, do you not?" The three girls were too frightened to knock. Mimi's face had obtained a bluish color, Violet's eyes were wide as ever, and Christine had stood up to run far away. Ehlion chuckled. "Do calm down," he pleaded, "for you three have powers almost exactly like these, deep inside YOU. Now, shall I begin?"
The three girls nodded empphatically, so he began.
********
"Long ago, a dying wizard used the last of his magic to create a world where all could live in peace and harmony. He left his young son in charge-however his son was hard-headed, stubborn, and foolish. It took only a few moons for the young boy to lead the island into chaos. One day a witch came to the island and used her powers to transform the wizard-in-training into an owl. She had hopes of permanately destroying the island!But just before he was trapped in the lowly form of an owl, he quickly uttered the magical words of a prohpecy-that three human girls would discover the island and save it from the impending doom. Today, some suspect the island may indeed be real...and I suspect that now, the prophecy may be referring to you three girls.
"I know this does not explain the sorrow in the peoples' faces. Allow me to continue. You see, there were many perils before this one. There was the time, that a great oracle from a distant realm came, intent on claiming the island in his name. It was proclaimed that a team of five-three boys, two females-would arrive many moons later, to save the island. However, when the promised came, they were unable to do anything. They were killed, encased forever in stone, while the oracle died by natural causes, the only reason the island was liberated.
"As a matter of fact, never has the prophecy ever been rightfully been fulfilled. That is why, few people have authentic hope today. But I get a new aura, around you girls-I think that this time, you might fulfill what the owl has dreamed for you."
"I don't believe you!" Christine cotradicted, scornfully. "Look, I'm getting out of this-this-whatever this is."
Mimi, and to Christine's surprise, even her older sister, Violet clutched her forearm. "We blieve it," they whispered in unison, and yet that was not what made Chrisinte stay-but what did was a peculiar sight she was absorbing. On her very own fingertips, sparks, resembling Ehlion's, only in shades of purple and black, were glowing and fighting and sparking and hot.
Magic.
And it was in her-in all of them.
Chapter 4:
Ehlion repeated the same procedure as before-a mass of pale blue sparks gathered together, the rippled through the suspended air. The people below began to stir; and eventually they were back to their normal selves and eager to hear about their new saviors.
"Allow us to continue!" he roared. "As I was saying, the prophecy recently proclaimed that three earth girls would come and save us from the ancient withces' wrath-a fate too horrible for words. Today, they have arrived!" The islanders cheered, but their cries sounded only half spirited. Violet cringed. She glanced