Rachelle is pushed to sit on her knees in the centre of some metal chamber that has no windows; a small ball of light at what she thinks is the top of the room. The door slams shut behind her with a loud thud, making her jump. In front of her is some stand made from some dark magic of some type. She counts seven people, three of them being females and four of them being males.
She sees a fairy in the centre with white transparent wings, blue skin, black eyes, and silver hair, to his left is some ogre, female, a male sun elf with his brown skin and golden long soft hair, and a female moon elf with its silver soft hair and sky-blue skin. To the fairy’s right is a changeling, she can’t quiet tell what their gender is but she can tell their skin colour is a light blue almost grey and that they have hair that goes down past their back, almost the same colour as their skin.
Next to them, in some male siren placed next to him, Rachelle could swear that anyone could fall in love with him. She looks up as a tall, lean, white skin male with only one eyeball on the centre of his face, his mouth closer to his chin. Stands up and leaves the room only to come back in a couple of seconds later. In his hands are fifteen scrolls each one labelled;
- ‘First Year,’
- ‘Second Year’
- ‘Third Year’
- ‘Fourth Year,’
- ‘Fifth Year’
- ‘Sixth Year’
- ‘Seventh Year’
- ‘Eight Year’
- ‘Ninth Year’
- ‘Tenth Year’
- ‘Eleventh Year’
- ‘Twelfth Year’
- ‘Thirteenth Year’
- ‘Fourteenth Year’
- ·‘Fifteenth Year’
Rachelle sits motionless as the floor transforms into a black mist. On her left, there is a gauntlet with armoured claws on a pedestal. The pointer finger of the gauntlet is raised with a blue flame emanating from it, some type of clear water below both of them.
The second armoured hand with claw fingernails holding its hand over a stone bowl filled with only something she can assume is water. To her right, a circle table slowly rises from the smoke. Once it is fully arisen, the ground forms back into a solid state. She relaxes her body a little. She watches as the tall male walks over to the table, only having to take two steps, placing the scrolls on it. He picks up one of them labelled: ‘Mortal 05-04-2001, Rachelle Lowanna Bugh’
“Rachelle Lowanna Bugh.”
The male fairy says grabbing a small pair of glasses from his pocket and putting them on his face. She watches as he scans over the scroll, each second passing by. She grows nervous as he says a mix of ‘I see’, ‘interesting’, ‘oh’, ‘hmm’, and ‘okay’.
The one-eyed male talks, his voice squeaky:
“Please state your full mortal legal name and your age in front of the Magical Council of Protecting Mortals” he says, his voice echoing off the chamber walls. She swallows the lump in her throat and speaks.
“My full mortal name is Rachelle Lowanna Bugh; I turned 21 on April 5th of this year”
She says as the good-looking one clears his throat and picks up a piece of paper in front of him. To Rachelle his voice sounds as smooth as butter and as calm as the winter’s rain. She sees his hair is glimmering in the small amount of light from the roof; it’s silky and surely must be soft.
She is brought back to reality and broken out of her day dreams by the voice from the fairy snapping his tiny fingers and saying her name;
“Miss Bugh, Miss Bugh, MISS BUGH, I’m sure this is all too scary, but can you please cooperate with us and confirm which location you studied at? Was it Allures North for everyone gifted, Saxon Magical College, Kazam’s University for the wicked, or Runite Academy?”
He sighs; sounding almost annoyed at the fact she was off in her own little dream land.
“Sorry... I went to Dragonia North for everyone’s gift- ”
She stops talking as the fairy cuts of her off with a question;
“Run by Lady Vandoe?”
“Yes, but- ”
“When Arch mage Merlin and Arch mage Ambrose made her one of the master wizards. She took an oath to follow the set rules and to never break them and she broke them...”
The fairy sighs, rubbing his eyes. Annoyed with the events that’s unfolded. He sighs, looking down at Rachelle, trying to work out how she went unnoticed for fifteen years. Why is he and the rest of the council only dealing with it?
A gem bag is soon placed in front of him; he opens it and sees there are three Emeralds, one sapphire, four rose quartz, one moonstone and seven pearls all in the main pocket. He quickly opens the value rising pocket to find two zircons, eight jade’s, one Ivory, one coral and one pearl. He takes a deep breath in as he looks into the goodies pocket, but to his surprise all that is in there are ten pearls.
“You have 973,300 worth of gems in your gem bag... Tell me, mortal... What is your job in our world?”
Rachelle takes a breath in and lets it out slowly, hoping it would calm her nerves. She watches as he is soon handed a piece of paper with some type of writing on it. He looks back into the bag and counts the gems again.
“I am working as a Soothsayer... Where I come fr- ”
“Yes, I know on the mortal world they are called future tellers... Soothsayers are very rare in our world and very sacred while in your world... they are at every corner, some if not a lot claiming they know yours and everyone else’s future for a certain amount of money.”
He states as he flips over the page, reading another one. Rachelle could get a glimpse at the cover marked ‘Gem Add-ups’ which, if she remembers right was this world Taxes. She can tell it is at least three pages long.
She looks up as the fairy clears his throat; the tall troll grabs a scroll and puts it in the dragon hands above the gauntlet the flame already lit. The scroll burning away and falling into the water below it, the room’s black colour vanishing.
“Let’s start at the start, shall we?”
The fairy asks.
Rachelle gets in the passenger seat next to her sports teacher Mr Smith as he looks back at three other class mates, popular transfer student from Japan: Naomi Chinen, who is sitting in the middle seat. She is popular because she actually helps people from bullies, listens to everyone’s issues without complaining and admits to her faults. Rachelle thinks Naomi is the only one in the grade with common sense some days, but then she remembers everyone is only 11.
To her left just behind Rachelle is Naomi’s adopted Cousin Caleb Suk-Suzuki. If she remembers right, Naomi’s mother has a sister who married a Thai-Japanese man who has two last names. All everyone really knows of Caleb’s biological parents is that they have an Italian origin, which his original birth name was Giovanni, which is now his middle name, and like his adoptive father he is born and raised in Canberra.
Now he is one of the famous students on the school’s junior football team. She looks to see who sitting right behind Mr Smith and it is a new student that had not long moved here from Scotland because of his parent’s job. She listens to him as he tries to explain what Vegemite tastes like. Because of his Scottish accent, many of the kids in her grade have developed a puppy crush on him. Mr Smith clears his throat, getting everyone’s attention.
“Lachlan, how do you say your last name? It is Scottish Gaelic, right?”
Mr Smith asks as he starts the car when everyone gets in and does up their seat belts. He drives out of Mildura and down towards what she believes to be is Hattah, where he turns left up the roundabout and drives down Hattah-Robinvale Road.
“Ambarsan, but you can say Anderson I won’t get mad or upset! Heck, I’m not like Jenni.”
He says as Mr Smith as he follows the road; she tries to look out the front window as her stomach is doing several types of back and front flips. ‘It’s only twenty-three minutes; it’s only twenty-three minutes. It’s not that long until we get there,’ she tells herself, winding the window down.
“That’s not nice, Lachlan. You know very well why Jenni corrects people on her name. You have even corrected many people on your name.”
“I know, we have Emily and her bullying to thank for that”
Rachelle blocks out the conversation and tries to not throw up. When they stop, they are at the Wemen shop. Rachelle uses this moment to take some deep breaths while Mr Smith goes into the shop with Naomi, Lachlan and Caleb for some drinks and some snacks. Once they are back, Mr Smith puts a drink in the cup holder;
“We brought you a purple power aid, a packet of chips, and a box of tissues.”
“Thanks”
She says, doing up her seat belt and opening the drink. She takes small sips as Mr Smith drives them to their little camping spot at the Murry River. They take a moment to relax before they even think about putting up the tents. Mr Smith points to the right side of his tent and then the left, saying that’s where myself and Naomi will be sleeping while Caleb and Lachlan have the other side. He explains as because it’s a big tent he will sleep in the middle.
As they set up the tent, Mr Smith grabs some wood and set up the fire. He pulls some water bottles out of the esky for the four of them as today has been hot. He passes them some ice packs to keep them cool, which they all gladly accept as they drink the water after the finish putting the tent up. Mr. Smith sets up the portal toilet as they rest and recover from setting up the tent. Rachelle sees Caleb’s eye light up like a light bulb. He turns to Mr Smith and put his water bottle back in the esky before asking.
“Mr. Smith, aren’t you just some paid baby sitter right now?”
Mr Smith just chuckles before answering. They know they can joke around with Mr Smith, as he is one of the nicest teachers in the entire school. He lets the students get away of handing in their homework a day or two later.
“You could say that”
He says as he finishes his task. He moves to the back of the car and pulls out some fishing rods, one for everyone, all of them different sizes and colours. Rachelle was handed a purple one with yellow lightning bolts on it. Naomi gets a blue one with green apples on it, Caleb gets a white one with blue berries on it and Lachlan gets a red one with yellow and orange flames on it. They look up to see Mr Smith has a rod half the size of everyone else’s, a tiny kid size rod that is grey with clown faces printed all over it. They all find it a little funny.
“We have two choices, cooking or fishing”
Mr Smith says as they all look at each other, discussing what should be done first. They agree that learning about how to fish now while Mr Smith cooks is the best solution. He agrees and goes to grab some fire lighters and a bucket. He put some of the water from the river into the bucket, he then walks around gathering more sticks and rocks, forming a stone wall around the location the fire will be.
Lachlan, Caleb, and Naomi work to put worms on the hooks of the end of the rods. Rachelle walks alongside the river to find a suitable spot for herself. She doesn’t get far as she stops in her traces to see a deer drinking from the river. She watches it clearly as it doesn’t look like any other deer she’s seen.′
Blue fur, a neck twice its height, its fur shaped to certain markings, certain markings that can set off trypophobia, eyes fully white with no other colour to them, and antlers that are much bigger than the normal male deer. Her heart stops as it stops drinking and looks up at her. Her body refuses to listen to the signals her brain is sending. The glare from the deer’s white eyes stare at her, she can feel them almost drilling into her soul.
“What are you looking at?”
Caleb asks her as the deer walks back into the bushes, trees, and shrubs. By the time she looks back, the deer is gone. She looks back at Caleb, confused to why didn’t see it. It was out in the open and a strange thing, something anyone would notice, something which everyone will fear if it can kill. Caleb gives her a confused look.
“It was nothing. Just thinking that was all”
She lied. She isn’t the best at lying, but what else could she say? ‘I saw some strange-looking deer that has antlers three times the normal height, a neck as thick and twice its height with a bunch of markings that look like holes oh and it had blue fur,’ - He wouldn’t believe her and even if he does how do she explain it to everyone else?
“Okay. Did you find your spot yet?”
He asks as she turns around to see Naomi teaching Lachlan how to put a living worm on the hook. Mr Smith has built the small stone wall around the fire fit, breaking up sticks, leaves and working to start the fire. Caleb and Herself are the only two not doing anything.
“Just here will do”
She points to the spot to her right, not that far from the water, not that close. She doesn’t have to worry about being pushed in or slashed by the fish. She sits down, puts a worm on the hook and throws it into the river. An hour goes by and no one catches anything besides seaweed. By then, Mr Smith built the small stone wall around the fire pit, got the fire going and even cooked the food, which was sausage.
They put their pajamas on, got into their sleeping bags and get to sleep... The entire night Rachelle couldn’t sleep as she feels someone or things watching her. She tosses and turns many times, shutting her eyes as tight as she can. She even zipped up the tent flap to make sure no creature can get in. If there is a person around, then she would have no choice but to wake up Mr Smith. She stops in her place as she sees the same white eyes staring into her. That feeling is back. She can’t move. Her brain isn’t letting her.
Her heart speeds up as the zipper has a strange light around it. She watches as the zipper moves on its own and slowly unzips the tent when it is unzipped. The deer, which looks different, sticks its head inside and sniffs everyone inside the tent. It sniffs Naomi first, then Mr Smith, going to Caleb and then Lachlan, Rachelle being the last one to be sniffed by the giant deer.
She follows the deer as it drags its head out of the tent. She watches its antlers regrow back to its original size. She watches as the deer looks at the small fire pit, which still has a bit of smoke coming from it. The deer looks at it, studying it before its antlers glow a light blue. Some water from the river floats up into the air and lands on top of the small fire pit. She follows the deer as it walks away, looking almost proud that it stopped something that could’ve turned bad if it wasn’t around to prevent it.
She follows the deer into the bush land of the mallee; she drags a stick on the ground behind her, leaving a line she knows she will follow to find her way back. The deer walks, walks, and just keep walking. Rachelle doesn’t know how long they have been walking for. All she knows is that her feet hurt from all the walking.
They both soon stop as they come face to face with a giant wall of trees just compressed together, making it look almost impossible to walk through. She steps off to the side to watch the deer’s antlers grow even more. She watches, amazed, as the ground rumbles and shakes beneath her. The wall of trees moves in two separate directions. She watches as they move more into each other and form some type of arch way that turns from wood into stone.
A light in the middle of the arch way appears. Rachelle looks at it astonished at the sight before her. Never in her life has she seen anything so strange but so beautiful before. The deer closer watches as she approaches the arch way.
“So, you can see me”
A deep but calming voice said, startling Rachelle, causing her to jump and step back from the arch way. She looks around, worried, stressed even. The deer stands in front of her, his white eyes glowing a soft blue colour. He watches as her body relaxes just enough for him to speak to her.
“Do not be scared mortal. I am not here to hurt you”
He speaks, he thinks before he says his next words. He knows the mortal is in some kind of shock. He doesn’t want her in danger... He looks behind him as the wind suddenly picks up and a roar is coming right towards them. He sees two purple feet with sharp claws on them. He looks back at the mortal, his antlers growing the light blue again.
“Mortal, please forgive me for what I’m about to do”
A light blow glow appears around Rachelle, slowly lifting her off the ground.
ns 18.68.41.175da2
