Rachelle’s eyes open to the sound of bird singing, water running, and trees covering the sky. She feels the wind just blowing at a slight breeze, just enough for her to roll up into a ball and go back to sleep. But she can’t. She turns to her left as she feels something soft and wet touch her cheek. She sees is nothing other than a small brown bunny with yellow eyes. She slowly sits up as the bunny hops away and towards some path. She looks around, well aware that she isn’t in Australia anymore, let alone Hattah or Wemen.
The path is mainly straight with some roots from the trees out of the ground, the trees bent over almost like it is trying to form a circle. Flowers coloured various blues, reds, greens, and yellows are growing along the pathway. Mushrooms can be seen as she slowly stands up, brushing the dirt off her pants and shirt, butterflies landing on some flowers and bees pollinating others.
She is careful to step over the flowers, mushrooms and any small living creature that runs across the ground. Fireflies fly around, the end of them glowing a bright but soft yellow colour, one or two of them glowing a red and orange lighting up the surrounding area.
The bunny turns back to her, its ears perk up as looks at her. Rachelle’s body relaxes as she sees the bunny hop away. She follows the bunny down the pathway, trying to take in her surroundings as much as she can. As she walks her footsteps, she took in the peaceful landscape.
She couldn’t sense any danger, nor see it... It was strangely calm. Despite her confusion, she could not deny the serenity of the world before her, and she felt a slight calming effect wash over her. Every step she takes she hears a ‘crunch’ of a leaf, stick and some bark from some trees and possibly many other things that she can’t see.
The peaceful scenery sits still before her, the wind gently blowing against her — she oddly feels relaxed — she watches as the bunny does a circle around her feet before hopping off to a small hole which what she thinks leads into a tunnel.
She doesn’t get on her knees to get in it or even look into it as she watches the rabbit appear from the other side at an area which has a lot more wildlife and bush land. She looks around to see a thick and most probs deep river around the body of land she is standing on. She walks around near the edge of the land and water, trying to find anything, a bridge, a boat, anything she can use to get across the water.
After some while, she gives up, as there is nothing on the island she is on. There isn’t even a wooden sign she could destroy and use as a kick bored. She looks over at the rabbit who has a bright red glow around it. She steps back from the edge as roots come from the ground from both sides of the river and wraps around each other once they meet in the middle just above the water. She watches as everything is still that the bunny hops across it and stops in the middle, showing that it is stable enough to walk across. She takes one step on the root bridge.
Hearing no snapping or breaking sound, she slowly takes another step. As she slowly and hesitantly walks the cross the bridge, the rabbit turns around and hops back. As she steps foot on land, she makes sure she is far away from the water’s edge.
The water is clear, beautiful and fish, frogs, tadpoles and even bugs can be seen, but how safe is it? The Murray River is filled with fish peace’s that’s also a fish breeding ground. She gets on her knees to inspect a fish that has stopped in front of her. It’s green with yellow strips and blue dots in-between the strips — Its eyes an orange colour with gold in the middle — She watches as it swims away as the bunny sits next to her. Its red eyes staring at its reflection in the water.
Rachelle doesn’t move as the bunny moves into her lap, sitting there. She pets the bunny. The more she pets it the more she soon notices that the bunny is crying and not wanting to get off her lap.
She decides at this moment that she is keeping this bunny. All she needs to do is find a place nearby, ask for some type of room and money and buy some rabbit food and possibly even a vet to look it over for anything it could be carrying. She stands up with the rabbit in her arms and she walks. She doesn’t know which way she is going. She doesn’t who or what is waiting. All she knows is that she has to keep walking. As she walks, she sees this area has a lot more greenery.
This time the trees are points straight up, there are bushes in front of most trees almost like it’s creating a path and the flowers come in various other colours.
The rabbit jumps down from her arms as goes over to a patch of grass where it starts too nimble on it. It hops in front of her as it still has some grass in its mouth. Rachelle follows it as it takes a left and then another left before taking a right, which leads out too much open area of the forest.
A garden full of tulips, all mainly blue, green and yellow, houses that look as if they were built inside of giant mushrooms, some yards having fenced off animals of sheep, cows, pigs and even bunny rabbits. Other yards having gardens that are growing fresh vegetables and fruits like as carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, apples, and even dragon fruit. She tries to stay as far away from them as much as possible, as she doesn’t want anyone thinking she is stealing. A Fountain made from mushrooms sits in the centre of town with a funny-looking bird on top. Shopping stalls made from brown mushrooms is placed around and full of various things and goodies, belong to them a wooden sign that has some strange markings carved into them - she sees the signs are also hammered into the mushroom stalls - The only part of it the signs she can read is the numbers.
She reads the first three signs she notices:
She pats her pockets to find out she left everything she owns either at home or in the tent with Mr. Smith. Even if she brought any money with her, she’s pretty sure she only had about $150 and if she guessed right, the numbers next to the diamond is how much the items cost. The bird on top of the Fontain chirps a tune of some type. She does like it, but it isn’t one she has heard before.
A bunch of doors fly open skinny people that have the head of a mushroom. Their body is the base of the mushroom, and their arms and legs are the mushroom’s roots. They come out of their houses, so going to their gardens and animals, others going to their stalls and many standing around Rachelle. Admiring her.
Most of them, with a high-pitched voice, say in amazement, wonder and curiosity even:
“new one”
“beautiful”
“friend”
“are you hungry?”
“Tall one”
“pretty”
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And many more compliments.
She watches as much smaller mushroom people run out, these giggling, laughing and even screaming about going to have fun on the ‘Funshroom’. She watches as they go over to a small playground of some type, they climb on bigger mushrooms, even plant small seeds of some type, she watches as a smaller mushroom person, plants one and blows on its hands, light blue dust comes from its hands and lands on the spot the seed was placed. Another one does the same but yellow dust. She waits and watches.
After a small bit, the seed shows as it works its way through the ground. She smiles, as she is amazed at how that works. “Friend likes!” one of the high-pitched mushroom people say, the rest getting excited. She gets down on one knee to speak to them, a lot of them move out of the way so they don’t get squished.
“I do like it’s so wonderful! Tell me is it used to teach the young ones?”
She asks, as one of them steps forward is a cheerful skip in its step. It does nod and hands up a piece of paper with the strange writing she can’t read. She doesn’t throw it away or hand it back, though. She keeps it as a thank you.
“Helps sprouts learn about Yum Yum”
It points to the garden she was just watching, but then it points to a much smaller market, this one the little sprouts waiting in line and playing pretend shop. She remembers that is something she and her friends would do when she went to Walpeup Primary School.
“Helps sprouts learn about living”
Rachelle nods, understanding what the mushroom person meant. She watches as two of the sprouts’ fakes argue with each other. She doesn’t know what about as they seem to speak an unfamiliar language — however the adult ones seem to speak a little of English, which makes her believe this little village is a bilingual place. but considering they are also living plants; she understands how they may not speak perfectly. — She looks to her right as one sprouting makes its way past everyone and holds up a small purple carrot for Rachelle. She smalls and puts her hand out flat so it can give it to her. It does so and scream happy, jumping up and down on the spot it is standing in.
Alot of the other ones do the same. Some even cheering: “Friend is nice!” “Friend is trusted” “Friend trust us!” and the main one that caught her heart “Friend is our Friend! Friend will protect us!“. She covers her mouth as she’s pretty sure it’s hanging wide open right now. Soon is calms down, and she ends up doing some jobs for the mushroom people, some include picking blue apples off of the hard-to-reach branches, hard to pull weeds out of the gardens, feeding some animals as most of them try to eat the mushroom and sprouts. Her pet rabbit gets a lot of hugs and cuddles from the sproutings which it seems to enjoy, as it doesn’t leave a lot of their sides.
By the time she is done, an extremely old looking mushroom person slowly walks up to her. She gets down on both of her knees this time, so he doesn’t have to talk as loud or look so far up. In his hand is something small and shiny. She holds her hand out, and it carefully places it on her hand. He says some words, and it enlarges — It’s a moonstone — She tries to hand it back as she would feel bad to take away a gem this important.
But the old Mushroom person shakes its head, he opens his mouth to speak and to her surprise the elder sounds a lot more fluent in English than any other mushroom person in the village, its voice is also a lot deeper.
“It is a gift for all your hard work today and a thank you for helping us out... Not a lot of kind souls like you are seen every day, and few people come out this way.”
He explains he another old mushroom person slowly walks forward and stands beside him. She can only assume this one is his wife, as it has a bow on the top of its mushroom head and looks like the same age as him. Rachelle nods, unzipping a pocket on her pants, putting the moonstone in there and zipping it back up. She will keep it safe for as long as she can.
“It’s no problem, and thank you for this moonstone. I promise to keep it safe.”
She reassures them as the bunny hops away from the kids and hop back into her arms. She feels sadden by the fact it’s time to leave but she doesn’t want to oversite her stay. She waves to them all and they wave back as she walks out of the village with her bunny in hand. When she can’t see them anymore, a frown comes across her face. She thinks now is when she is feeling the home sickness kick in. She had fun helping them. She felt even more safe and now she has to leave them.
Deep down, she knows her parents and brothers would love that little village and would even try to move to it. She looks down in the rabbit in her arms who is climbing up her shirt to rub against her face, trying its best to cheer her up.
She knows she can always return and do some more work, the next time she goes she will work for free, maybe even buy something from one of the stands or find a mushroom house big enough to rent out and live in — Even if it’s for a week or two — But she honestly wishes she knew how this world works and why she was brought here. She remembers the deer and it somehow throwing her through the fire, which now she thinks was a portal. Did something attack the deer? How come she could see the deer? Is her friends and teacher alright?
She stops as the bunny in her arms is making its normal bunny sounds, but these sounds sound more than it are ready to fight, she keeps hold of it and doesn’t dare put it down on the ground, regardless how scared she is. She doesn’t want this bunny hurt or killed. She braces herself for whatever is coming, and the bunny is still ready to fight... The thing that jumps out from the bush is ... a frog that just hopped past into the bush opposite.
They should have stayed at that mushroom village; they know they shouldn’t have left... or at least stayed on the correct pathway. Rachelle doesn’t know how long she has been walking for, same with the bunny that is sleeping in her arms. After all this walking, she hasn’t once thought of a name for her new buddy. She’s had the time to think after all. She stops and looks around; the location looking like the same one she passed only hours ago. By this point, the rabbit wakes up and looks around, its air low, knowing not much progress has been made. It jumps down from Rachelle’s arms and goes in one diction. It sniffs the ground and goes over to a new spot, sniffing again.
Rachelle stands there watching. She wants to cry. She shouldn’t have left the village. She shouldn’t have left the path. It’s one of the key things her parents told her and her brother when they were younger is that if we are ever out of the bush or forest and there is a path, we are not to leave it, regardless the signs our body is telling us. Right now, her body is telling her that is it hungry, thirsty, tired, and sore. She sits down on the ground, her back leaning against a base of a tree. She knows she should keep walking, but she knows she is just walking in circles. The bunny hops back to Rachelle, holding some grass in its mouth. Rachelle holds her hand out, and the bunny drops it in it. She instantly notices that the grass is none other than wheat grass.
She grabs one strand and bites into it. As expected, it’s very bitter and leafy with an after taste of earthy that just isn’t going away. She watches as the rabbit eats a lot while Rachelle eats the small batch that the rabbit gave her. Once she has finished, she burps. The rabbit looks at her funny, causing her to chuckle a bit. She pats the ground next to her as the rabbit comes hopping over. It lies down next to her, snuggle close, soon falling asleep. She wants to do the same so much, but being in the strange world with no idea where she is, is a bad idea. At some point she passes out and when she wakes up, an old lady with the same red eyes as the bunny is looking down at her, looking worried. Rachelle holds the rabbit close to her as the old lady’s face is only a few inches away from hers.
She can smell her, and the old lady smells a mix of lavender, sunflowers, roses, and strangely enough the sweet quandong seeds. The old lady moves back so Rachelle can stand up with the bunny in her hands. It’s quiet for a good while before one of them speak. Rachelle sees the lady is taller than her — mainly because she is 11 — wearing a black dress that drags along the ground, a wooden basket full of mushrooms, flowers, bugs, a fang of some type and various other things. Her skin is a light blue colour, red eyes with green hair. She has a staff made from bones with a giant animal skull on the top of it.
“Why are you out here young one? It is not safe out here at all.”
The old lady asks, sounding concerned, worried even. Rachelle stares at her a while before answering. First the mushroom people and now an old lady with blue skin, red eyes and green hair and to top it off a rabbit that just knows what grass humans can eat. She has been struggling to understand it. The rabbit in her arms rubbing its face against hers brings her attention back to her.
“I... We got lost. We walked off the path when we shouldn’t have and now, we can’t find our way back.”
“Oh, that’s no good. Follow me. I will give you clean clothes, some proper food, and something to drink and a place to wash up in.”
The old lady says slowly walking in one direction. She is very hesitant. She wants to trust this lady, but she can’t. Trusting the mushroom people was different. They held nothing made from bones; they asked for help, they even gave her a moonstone as payment for all the work she did. But she follows, not full trusting the old lady. She follows the old lady. Her feet still hurt, but if she remembers correctly the old lady said something about clean clothes and maybe even a place to stay. They walk out of the forest and into an open area, this one filled with strange purple grass, purple, blue and dark pink butterflies with many flowers all mainly either dark blue, dark pink and light blue. The glow bugs have a blue light on the end of their bums, others having green and only one or two having yellow.
As they walk, the rabbit doesn’t dare jump out of Rachelle’s arms, even when the land around them turns from purple to black and dead in a matter of minutes. She knows they walked into a new area as whenever she looks behind her; she sees the same purple land that they were just in. She grows more and more anxious. She doesn’t know where this old lady is taking them, and the black and dead grass isn’t easing her worries one bit. The rabbit in her arms tries its hardest to hide its face. It even whimpers the more they walk. When the rabbit looks up, the old lady has turned around and looked at it. The rabbit goes back to hiding its face instantly. The old lady takes her gaze from the rabbit and looks back up at Rachelle.
“Tell me young one, what is your pet named?”
Rachelle looks down at the rabbit who is still hiding its face. She takes a moment to think. She really hadn’t thought of the name yet. She looks up at the old lady for a short while:
“Ringo”
“Oh, what a lovely name! Very different! Is it from the Avinae District? or its centre Salla? I also see your rabbit is a baby, blood-eyed bunny rabbit.”
The old lady’s face lights up with excitement on hearing the name. It surprised Rachelle, actually. She thought if there were mushroom people that struggle to speak English that made a lot of other or at least this lady would have said Ringo isn’t a real name as no one here is named that in this world. They stop as they soon come across a gate with a sign hanging down via chains. This sign feels different, however; she just can’t put her finger on it.
As the old lady walks in, Rachelle notices the number on the sign change from 4,900,998 to 4,900,999. She nervously takes a step inside the gate. She leans back to see the sign is now 4,901,000—It doesn’t count Ringo—She slowly follows the old lady into town, which looks as if it has abandoned. Food stalls look looted; other look burnt and destroyed most of them empty with half broken signs. She follows the old lady for a long while before turning left down an ally way which looks like it’s a criminal hot spot for all the drug dealers and crack heads. The house doesn’t look any better. A broken window with two wooden planks covering hammered poorly into the wall, the door which is half holding onto the bottom hinges.
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She watches as the old lady’s bone staff lights up a red colour, ripping the door off its remaining hinges and resting it against the wall of the house. She walks inside first. Waiting for Rachelle to follow and come in before she does anything else. Rachelle watches the old lady pick up some clean clothes and place them down on the table. Ringo is looking up and sniffing the air, sniffing something cooking. She slowly steps inside. Once inside, she sees an open fire with wood burning, a chair with a blanket and some pillows and some type of pet bed made of grass, hay, and sticks. Ringo jumps down and goes over to sniff the pet bed.
She looks over at the old lady who is throwing some things in a giant witch’s cauldron on the other side of the room with shelves all around it, filled with various things and items ranging front wild mushrooms and berries to creature parts like wings, fangs and even eye balls and tongues. She turns to the table on her right and picks up the clean clothes that have been neatly folded; she unfolds them and sees the shirt is a simple black colour with white stars around the waist part of it. The pants are black with a white star around the ankle parts. They both are glowing a light yellow which isn’t too bright and doesn’t hurt her eyes.
“Change in this room, darling”
The old lady opens a door near to the chair. She walks in to see the room has a single bed, the bed frame made of stone, boulders as the ‘wheels’ of the bed. The bed head rounding off at the top, making sure the pillow doesn’t fall off. She shuts the door and changes into the cloths, first they looked big on her but the light yellow around it magically changed it to fit her. She grabs her dirty clothes and walks out of the room. This time the old lady is dressed in a night like dress. White with silver flowers on it. She grabs a small wooden bowl full of feathers of some type and puts two of them in the cauldron.
Rachelle sees Ringo is already asleep in the pet bed. Now a lot calmer and relaxed Rachelle sees most of the shelves are made from tree roots that are wrapped around each other. On one shelf, she counts seven roots which look thick and sturdy, clearly strong enough to hold glass bottles filled with different things, a skull head from an animal of some type and some wings. On another shelve is just layered books onto books, each other thicker and thinner than the other. Another one even filled with extremely old paper that has things written on it. She picks one up, being able to just read ‘Alia Gold’ in cursive. She reads more to see the name ’other students in this group: Caroline DuneForge, Brooke Broom, Lail Sun, Elijah Orge’.
She reads more to find out it was a homework group project on Runes of Kodhell. Some ink is faded and rubbed off while other parts of the writing looking almost brand new:
“Oh yes, Runes of Kodhell. I remember writing that. I am the rest of the students was only 11—Our first piece of work at school—For such a small piece of paper everything down to reading history to writing it took a month.”
The old lady, who Rachelle now knows is Alia Gold, says as she smiles at the old piece of schoolwork. She hands it back to Alia as she picks up a feather with the end of it cut open; she instantly understands that it’s a quill that is dipped in a small puddle of ink. Another item on the shelf is some wands, all many shapes, colours, and sizes. She picks up one of them which are mainly white with some brown spots on it. The handle has the initials CDF carved into it, and the other end of the wand is sharpened like a pencil. Another one coloured a dark brown on the outside, but the inside is a bright-almost neon orange. The handle has a lot of rings carved into it; she counts about seven of them.
She makes sure she is careful as the third wand is dusty and already broken into three parts, just being held together by small vines wrapped around it. She carefully slides her fingers down the vines; the vine has a soft green light around the vines. She has witnessed enough magic the past day alone that it doesn’t surprise her anymore... it just amazes her now. Humans, to animals to people with blue skin can use magic, even mushroom people that are alive. She can only assume how much more is alive that can weld magic.
She watches as the green light around the vines become more and brighter, the green light around the vine, soon the wand has the same green light around it. She carefully slides her fingers down the vines; the vine has a soft green light around the vines. She has witnessed enough magic the past day alone that it doesn’t surprise her anymore... it just amazes her now. Humans, to animals to people with blue skin can use magic, even mushroom people that are alive. She can only assume how much more is alive that can weld magic. She watches as the green light around the vines become more and brighter, the green light around the vine, soon the wand has the same green light around it. She watches as the green around the vines leaves the vines and floats around the room, weaving in and out of, around many objects and items. Going through bottles and changing the colour of the liquids inside of them.
Rachelle stares at the green light amazed as the old lady watches as well. She has a smile on her face, almost like she is remembering some memories from her childhood. The light then goes back into the vine. Alia sits up in her chair, talking about how she got it and what was happening the day she got it. Rachelle smiles as she enjoys listening to stories from the elderly.
“Ah yes. Magic from the Ukire vine... it holds such incredible power that just wants to come to life and be free. It is often used to keep broken objects together. I found it growing on some roots from the Xosse tree. Lail had not long gotten on Saxon’s swim team as the junior captain. Brooklyn had a score of gotten seven-hundred and ninety-two on her rune lore test. She wasn’t happy that her grade was an SS-. Caroline, sweet Caroline had been sent to the healer’s wave because she had eaten a bad batch of roasted griffin cone and had fallen ill with griffin throat — She caught it again barely a week later — Elijah, my wonderful husband Elijah... Oh how I miss him daily.”
Alia moves her sight to a small painting in a frame that is a mix of fire and smoke. She can only assume some type of magic is used on the photo and flame to prevent the photo from turning to ash. She doesn’t pick it up same with Alia as the photo looks as old as Alia, maybe even older by this point. However, everyone in the painting looks much younger. She finds a date just barely visible on it: 5th May 929bce. She turns to Alia, unsure about today’s date. She is sure it would differ from her world. Alia looks at her, noticing the look of Rachelle’s face. It’s almost like she has been asked that question a lot.
“Today’s date is 2nd January 1013. Just take the mortal world’s date and replace the two with a one... My mother was from the mortal realm her, and she used to struggle with time and dates of this realm a lot. In return, my father couldn’t understand mortal time and dates.”
Mortal times and dates? Alia’s mother is from the mortal world? Is Rachelle a mortal from the mortal world? Just replace the two with a one? Is her world the mortal world? She stands there for a moment trying to work out how that date system even works; the only answer she can come up with is that this world is behind. She then looks around the room, trying to find something looking even the smallest remembrance to a clock. The closest thing she found was a cone with some numbers on it, water on the inside of the cone only reaching the number eight. The small bowl just under the cone full of water.—Two metal posts are keeping the cone up right.—She looks at it, then looks out of the window to see the sun setting.
It’s eight o’clock, it has to be. What else could it be? Some rare language in elfin? Maybe even gnomish? She’s played enough role-playing games to know those would have different numbers or at least a unique symbol of some type. She looks at the object again. She vaguely remembers her history teacher talking about it last year, saying something about it being a water clock. She remembers reading how that clock is surprisingly accurate because of the earth and its gravity. She looks over at Alia to see her smiling like her granddaughter has just slowly worked through a hard math problem all on her own.
She watches as Alia grabs a wooden bowl from on top of the fireplace and holds it out to her. It’s filled with various things from water lilies, coals with some smoke coming from them, something’s wrapped up in leaves that are many shades of green and something white and fluffy that looks a lot like cotton candy. She nervously grabs one object—which she can only assume is candy of some type and open it—Inside is a small light brown acorn which surprisingly doesn’t feel hard to touch, it’s softer and smoother.
“You have worked out the time. I am proud of you young one. Your hard work is admirable... You remind me of myself.”
She smiles, she gets complements from her classmates and teachers all the time, even her friends and family. She nods and puts the soft acorn in her mouth. It melts the second it touches her tongue, and she tries not to pull a face, as the taste of it is very bitter. She isn’t a fan of bitter nor is she a fan of acorns now. She swallows it. She believes it’s rude to spit out some food that someone has given you but need to if you don’t like it. Alia says that she could’ve spit the acorn out of her mouth in the leaf and she would have understood as she doesn’t like the acorns herself, she only had them there as it was her late husband’s favourite.
She does however wrap the gem she was gifted up in the leaf wrapping, keeping it both safe and clean at the same time. She watches as the moon rises high in the night sky, star sparkling around it, one or two shooting one’s flying by the moon. Alia grabs her staff and taps the ground three times. A glow appears around the door. She watches as it floats back up, fixes the hinges and shut the hole up, looking like a normal door again.
She watches as the magic then moves to the cauldron; the magic putting me many items. She watches as it takes over the stick to stir everything together. She doesn’t need to guess that it is dinner time and being made is some soup. She doesn’t know what type, nor does she care, as she hasn’t eaten in almost a day now. As the soup cooks, she can’t help but feel grateful. She turns to Alia who is now reading some old-looking book; the pages look almost brown with burnt and torn edges. She sees some word’s but she can’t read them.
“Are you hungry, dear? Dinner should be ready soon... How do you feel about yakkeashew soup? It has yaks’ milk, the horn of a unicorn, boiled water, ilulle, moccili, pojinde seeds, and some brine meat from the Zathya district.”
She is excited to try something different. She isn’t sure how much food from this world she can eat but if Alia’s mother survived some time in this realm, then Rachelle can do the same until she gets back to her realm — Or at least find someone in higher power — She watches as the magic throws in some more stuff and stirs it all together, after an hour she smells, the soup is smelling like beef, roasted at most. Alia stands up, grabbing some bowls this time made from stone, spoons made from stone as well, but carved into the form of a spoon. Alia puts some soup from the cauldron into the bowls, soon placing them down on the table. She picks up the spoon made from stone and uses it to drink the soup.
The soup is soft and warm but not too hot, thick but not too heavy. The cut-up brine meat does, in fact tastes like beef. She ends up eating it all and then asking for a second bowl, which Alia is happy to give her bowl a refill. She finishes that as well before helping Alia clean up. She does however see Ringo has been fed some purple carrots with orange leaves — Which he seems to trust as he is eating it — She pats Ringo as she looks out the window, the sky visible from where she is. Stars shining high into the night sky, the air as still as a leaf. Crickets can be heard, the buzzing from fireflies is not that far away, and who knows what else. Everything is still, quiet, something she likes.
As the water clock drips down to ten, Alia stands up from her seat, going over to a cupboard which has roots for the doors and pulls out a fluffy blanket, made from clouds. She hands it to Rachelle. She accepts it with a smile and takes it to her temporary bedroom. She makes the bed and comes back out to alia, she still sees all the artifacts, items and other things she can’t make out all over the shelves. She sees a wooden sign with crystal like magic shimmering on it. She can only assume it keeps the sign fresh and looking new. It is a little hard to read, but she sees that Alia has three certificate’s three, two certificate’s two, and three diplomas.
“When did you have time to earn all this?”
Rachelle asks not touching the sign. Just her luck: the magic would wear off and it would break. Alia grabs another cloud from her cup bored, Alia thinks it’s a pillow. Alia places the pillow on the bed before she speaks. A lot of things take a lot of energy from Alia who is looking quite old, Rachelle doesn’t know how old but old enough for her to remember her husband, which could mean she could have some children and maybe even grandchildren.
“Here in this world, our schooling goes for fifteen levels. More when you go to starter schools, starter schools are normally from the ages of four to ten and they are about seven levels.”
Rachelle does the math, seven plus fifteen equals twenty-two. Her mouth drops open. She has maybe done it wrong, but twenty-two levels of schooling. She and her brothers can barely handle one year. Her friends and classmates just complain about one hour. She would hate to see their reactions if they had to do twenty-two levels of schooling. Just the thought of herself having to get up to go for school that long sounds and feels tiring... She does also have questions. Do the twenty-year-old and older get detention? Do the schools have intern programs to get work experience? What about work experience? Alia must have caught onto Rachelle asking herself questions in her mind as she picks up a big and thick book with a brown cover on it, the worlds sewn into it: Beginner’s Guide to Merlin and Ambrose’s realm, Dragonia.
Rachelle grabs it and opens it to the first page. It explains how Merlin and Ambrose wanted to break away from other magical worlds and form their own, make one that is different, some even say that Dragonia was the world where classic fairy tale characters came from and turned into stories for the mortal people to enjoy. As it is the only world or realm that breaks off from the mortals, many say and agree it’s the only realm that protects mortals and its realm where Earth is. More down the page it explains merlin and Ambrose’s childhoods.
‘Merlin, a wizard with very few words, from Wales, the twin to Ambrose, a powerful wizard and one ruler of Dragonia. Merlin specialises in all ten of the elemental magic: — faxis, istrea, kebis, maffyn, geronin, rhovia, choxone, ludrisse, thixary, zilin — He also specialises in care of magical beasts, monsters, and creatures. He studied rune lore and got his diploma in alchemy, and herbology.’
‘Ambrose, a wizard with many words, twin to Merlin, also from Wales, a powerful wizard and one ruler of Dragonia. Ambrose specialises in all ten of the elemental magic — faxis, istrea, kebis, maffyn, geronin, rhovia, choxone, ludrisse, thixary, zilin — He also specialises in mortal cultures, mortal history, rune lore, and much more. He has a diploma in spells, and extra elementals studies.’
She reads a couple of pages before Alia walks in, tapping the page of the book. She smiles before saying that it’s time for bed. Rachelle doesn’t fight or argue. After all, she doesn’t leave here. She is just a guest. She gave the book back to Alia and entered the spare bedroom. The bed has a massive cloud draped over it with a smaller cloud at the pillows. She knows this will be the best sleep she will have ever had. She brings up the blankets, feeling how soft they are before she gets under them. Ringo jumps up on top as well and go to sleep between her legs at the end of her feet. Alia tucks her in and kisses her on her forehead before smiling and leaving the room.
As she had hoped, she slept like a baby. She had pleasant dreams, nothing bad. When she had woken up, she woke up feeling refreshed and recharged, something which hasn’t happened since she was seven. But for a moment, she forgot where she was. It wasn’t until Ringo sat on her chest and sniffed her. She would be lying if she said didn’t hope it all wasn’t a dream. She wants to think it’s all a dream, but so far; she has fallen asleep twice and both times she has woken up here, here in this world named Dragonia. She looks at the door as a knock is heard; she watches as Alia walks in in a plate of food and a cup of what she only thinks is milk. She sits up with Ringo, hopping onto the floor.
“Good afternoon my darling, I thought it was best to let you sleep in, I can only imagine the adventures you’ve had and well, you needed the rest... Today you have some cooked bread with some milk from the Fetidwing beast, warmed up in the caldron with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries at the bottom of the cup.”
She looks at her surprised, her mum would get her and her brothers to wake up way before the afternoon, dad would blow up the toaster trying to make the toast and the fruit would be mouldy and thrown in the bin by the time someone even remembered about it. She also feels grateful. She feels like Alia is making her feel like she is one of her own children or grandchildren... Almost like she knows Rachelle isn’t from this realm... She thanks Alia before she eats some of the toast and drinks the Fetidwing beast milk. She can only describe the milk as creamy. The toast or cooked bread has butter already melted on it. She bites into it, and she hears the classic ‘crunch.’ She tries not to make a mess and any mess she makes she will clean up. She looks up to see Alia has placed new and clean clothes on the end of the bed, coloured grey with a mix of grey and silver rims. The first part is a dress with long sleeves. There is a yellow star on the chest of the dress and a crystal tied on by a sting around the waist. The shoes looking more like socks but with extra padding in the bottom of them. They aren’t too tight but they make her feet, ankles and legs warm. A hat is placed on a wooden chair next to the window, a beret, black with silver stars all over it.
She puts them on, make the bed, clean up any mess she made and goes to the main area of the of the house. Alia is opening windows and opening the front door, following Ringo out to keep him safe while he goes out to do his business. Rachelle follows them. The sun is high and to her shock the streets are full of people, the houses and shops are now full of colour and magic. The buildings don’t look so haunted and destroyed anymore. The stands don’t look broken and stolen from. In the sky is the sun and some clouds, many sizes. She looks to her left to see a wooden sign, this time having English written on it with the same writing from the mushroom village right under the English writing. She smiles at the name and even chuckles a little.
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