Chapter 3 - The Realms
It had been at least three weeks since I'd been in this house. Everything replenished themselves, except for the garden stuff. But that was alright, it gave me something to do. I'd gotten used to the silence that surrounded me in this house. It was comforting in a way. No one was yelling at me.
I was out in the garden, picking a few apples for the fruit salad I was going to make tonight when I saw something strange. Not just strange, but downright scary. I dropped my basket of apples and stared out the back gate at what used to be more and more forest.
Soft, rolling green hills covered the distance as far as I could see. The normal cloudy sky was a pale blue color with fluffy blue clouds floating about like lazy lambs in the gentle wind. A few great weeping willows dotted one or two of the hills like tasteful decorations. Small figures were running amok out on those hills, giggling wildly.
I set down the basket and went out the white gate slowly. This couldn't be true. Sure, I can understand a house that magically replentishes itself, but this...no. Entire forests didn't just up and poof. It didn't happen!
Before I knew it, I was standing on one of the rolling hills, looking down at a group of teenagers about my age, joking around on a few boulders stuck into the hill. They were laughing loudly at something. One girl with pale blue hair looked up at me and gave a loud shriek of surprize. She fell backwards off her boulder and the others jumped up, looking at me.
"Hey!" One guy called, quite aggressively. "Who the hell are you?!" He started to climb up the hill towards me. The closer her got, the more gorgeous he became. He had a tangle of black hair on his head with startling blue eyes. It wasn't so much the color, which was a dark sapphire blue, but the personality of the eyes themselves. It seemed as though they were made from snake scales, the edges of them a lightish green-blue. His personality shined out of those eyes set in his tan face. One eye was slightly lazy, but it didn't seem to take away from them at all.
"Hi," I said, finally remembering that breathing kept me alive. "Um, could you possibly tell me what's going on?"
He scoffed and stood in front of me. He was about three inches shorter than I. His tan arms were slightly muscled, what I called muskeley. He wore a blue tank top over black jeans and black nikes.
"What's going on is you pop out of nowhere," Said the blue haired girl, walking to stand next to the boy. "And crashing our party! Who the hell are you, anyways?" She crossed her arms over her chesty chest and glared at me, popping out one hip to the side.
"Chill, Sam," Said another chick, walking up. "She looks like she's seen a ghost." He gave me those blue eyes again. "I take it you've moved into the house just over there."
I nodded, possibly a little too fast and frequent.
"Well, hun, you've just walked through a portal."
I blinked.
"Exscuse me, what?"
"A portal, hun." She did a few hand gestures, seeming to look for the right word. "Um, a warp thing. You're in a different universe. The one you come from is the realm of Homo Sapien. Here, you're in the Realm of Fae." She seemed to think for a second. "Hey, Thaniel, didn't Emyline come from there as well?"
The boy shrugged, picking a weed from the grass and chewing on it's end. The others joined the original three atop this hill. I was feeling positively outnumbered.
"Yeah, Emyli came from there," Sam spat. She looked me up and down, apparently not pleased in the least. "I thought the girls were supposed to be freaken amazing sexy. She's so....mousy, Beth."
Beth, the other girl, smashed an open hand into Sam's chest, knocking her over. Everyone laughed at her. Thaniel, Mr. Gorgeous, even smiled. My god, he was ******** sexy.
"s**t," beth said. "Emyli gave us the powers..." She eyed me gently. "You know anything about magic, hun?"
I blinked at her. Dreaming. I had to be dreaming. This didn't happen. People didn't switch Realms. Hell, different realms didn't exist...except in book.
"Hun?"
I pinched myself hard. All I succeeded in doing was making a dark bruise on my arm. Damnit. This just didn't happen to people!
"Woah! Hey now," Beth said, grabbing my wrists. My body jumped with a hot, gentle rush I got from her palms. "Don't be hurting yourself hun." She looked up at me with cat green eyes that seemed to be made of leaves. Her eyes were shaped like that of a cat's as well, with a smooth mane of golden blonde wavy hair reaching her shoulders. She wore a pair of orange shorts with a matching tank top.
"Dreaming..." I whispered. "I've got to be dreaming."
She gave me a gentle smile. "No. You're not dreaming. Here, sit down." She took me down to the boulders they had been sitting on. I sat down and just stared off.
A large valley, surrounded by hills on each side, lay ahead of me. A lake sat in the center of what seemed to be a large town. It looked just like the towns back home, but everything was made out of these pale, pearly pink stones so that they shimmered in the sunlight. The lake was a bright, happy blue, waiting for people to go swimming in it. The tiny *ding ding ding* of churchbells rang off in the distance.
"Wow," I whispered.
"Yeah," Beth said, sitting next to me. "That's our town. We call it Letalla. Translated into your speak it means lake of beauty." She gave me a warm smile.
I shook my head. "I'm really not dreaming?"
"No, hun, everything you see is very real." She laced an arm around my shoulder. "Here, let me give you a little background. You'll need it.
"A few hundred years ago, a girl named Emyline stumbled out here. Our seer found her and was overcome with a prophesy. Simple stated, it said that Emyli would grant everyone here powers, without even meaning to. Everyone's lives that she touched would be 'Saved.' Sadly, back then, not many people wanted to have anything to do with your realm." She looked off in the distance. "Those who didn't allow her to touch their lives, died in a plague a hundred year ago. There's only about three hundred of us left.
"Now, Emyli gave us the powers, but we never were able to use them." She looked over at Thaniel. "There was a reason for that. Thaniel's ancestors were touched, but only by accident. Emyli saved Thaniel's great-grandfather from the plague. Our version of the plague. I believe your world calls influenza or something similar. He was one of them that refused to let her touch them. So, Emyli did something to prevent us from being able to use the powers." She shrugged lightly. "Because if Thaniel was able to use the power...well, our mortality rate would sky rocket."
Thaniel looked uncomfortable. I looked at him.
"Do any of you know what they are? Your powers, I mean?"
"Sure," Beth said. "I've got an earth-like power. Sam over there has ice. Gabriel has some sort of sky, Ashers got fire covered. Elaina has water. Thaniel, though...." She bit her lip.
"Death," He whispered, looking at me. "Spirit, in all actuality. But untill It's under controll, it's death."
I nodded. "And how am I supposed to help you get these powers?"
Beth gave me a bright smile. "Touch our lives, of course!"
I sighed and hid my face in my hands.
Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
"No, Dorothy," Thaniel said. "You're not in Kansas anymore."
I looked up at him. "How did you know that's what I was thinking?!"
He shrugged and looked out at Letalla.
"I'm really not dreaming, am I?"
He shook his head. "Get ready for a tough ride, Kid."
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