SWNOVELS Chapter 3: Her True Self
She cannot stop her stomach from churning as she runs over to the ledge of the bridge they are on. She vomits into the water below before noticing that it is sparkling as if it has glitter all in the water. She sees small colorful fish-like creatures with small human-like top haves jumping away from the chunks she just expelled into their watery home. Though she cannot hear them, the creatures appear to be screaming toward her in anger as one shakes her fist toward Brooklyn. “I am so sorry!” Brooklyn waves toward the creatures remorsefully as she wonders if she is in some sort of dream. She turns back toward Verdiwild feeling much better now that her stomach is empty and points down toward the water. “Are those mermaids?”
“Those are aquatic elves.” Verdiwild waves his hand down at the creatures and the chunks disappear from around them. The creatures act grateful toward Verdiwild before looking over towards Brooklyn appearing annoyed by her.
“Aquatic elves?” She had never heard of there being water elves. “Are we aquatic elves?”
“No, your royal highness.” Verdiwild explains, “We are minder elves.”
“Are there other kinds too?” Brooklyn asks as she follows Verdiwild as he turns his direction away from her and begins to walk.
“Yes, there are many types. The high elves, star elves, wild elves, and others.” Verdiwild seems to be walking faster than her bare feet can manage as she stumbles over a loose cobblestone.
“Lest not forget the drow elves.” A younger looking ellon moves in front of Verdiwild.
“Drow?” Brooklyn asks in interest.
Verdiwild stops walking and points toward the young ellon, “This is Gill, your Royal Highness.” Verdiwild gives an aggitated look toward the young ellon, but Gill does not seem to notice as he suddenly bows in shock toward Brooklyn.
“My apologies, your Royal Highness.” Gill seems embarrassed as he looks at the dirt on her feet. “I did not realize you had returned.”
“Go tell Strumida to ready a bath and the Malorsty gown for the Aranel.” Verdiwild demands toward Gill before he looks toward Brooklyn as he explains, “The drow is the evil in our world.” She watches Gill quickly move away from them as she listens.
She recalls him speaking of the evil elf that killed her parents. “Is Patreek a drow elf?”
Verdiwild’s expression becomes authoritative and his voice changes to a scolding whisper, “We do not openly speak his name in our world. There are ears everywhere.” He looks around them in concern. “Yes, he is a drow, but a cast out drow. So evil, his own do not even claim him.” He turns to begin walking again and she follows. “Now, we will speak of him no more.”
Brooklyn wonders if Patreek was defeated why they should be concerned with being overheard but she knows she need not ask further questions. She remains silent as they enter through a large purple glowing pearl-like gate.
“Welcome home.” He says as she moves her head in the direction his hand points and she notice the large castle. It is the beautiful white castle she had seen on fire in the globe-like wind earlier. There are vibrant colored flowering vines flowing up the sides. She never dreamt a castle would be her home. She notices Verdiwild still moving toward the entrance, and she quickly tries to catch up with him, but she cannot help but look around at all the elves bustling about the courtyard.
A small group of children are playing some sort of game down an alley that catches her attention. They are jumping over a floating stick as if it were a jumping rope. Her attention is pulled away from the children as a flash of light flickers past her as if it was a moving car. The light is a type of floating advertisement sign with elves dancing in a video. It must be an advertisement for some kind of theater, she decides. Suddenly, she hears a strange animal noise and looks up to see a flying pair of dragons. “Are those dragons?” She asks in amazement as she trips over her own feet.
“Guardian dragons.” Verdiwild says. She notices the dragons have riders on their backs, one is a female elf and the other a male elf. She tries to remind herself of the proper terms elleth and ellon.
“What are they guarding?” She asks curiously.
Verdiwild begins to move up the stairs of the castle without looking back at her and she continues to try to keep up. “You.” He simply says.
She wonders why she needs protection if Patreek was captured. She notices the castle seems to glisten as if a curtain is draped around the bricked structure. Verdiwild stops and raises his staff causing the curtain to open around the doors as she asks, “What is around the castle?”
“Extra precaution.” He responds as he opens the door for her to enter.
She tries to straighten her dress from embarrassment as she notices a couple of elves looking toward her in shock from inside the castle. She knows she looks dreadful with the caked-up mud covering every inch of her.
They enter the castle, and he leads her up a quiet staircase to a room that has female elves standing around smiling toward her. She notices a large metal tub setting in the middle of the room with steam slowly rising from it. “This is her Royal Highness, Aranel Sahara.” Verdiwild says toward the small crowd.
They all curtsy toward her and she curtsies back in response. She hears snickering before hearing Verdiwild’s staff thud against the rock floor. “It is expected for her to be taught how to act without mockery.”
“Of course, Verdiwild.” An older elleth approaches as she speaks. “I apologize for the younger maids actions. Leave her to me and she will be ready within the hour.”
“I trust so Strumida.” The old man turns toward Brooklyn. “I will be down in the courtyard waiting to take you to the academy.”
Brooklyn does not understand what he means so she asks, “Academy?”
“But of course, you must learn how to manage your powers properly. It was planned for you to be here four months ago so that you would be more prepared and familiar with our world. But fate had alternate plans and studies begin tomorrow.” He says to her before bowing his head slightly. “I will have the carriage prepared for your travels, Aranel.”
“Now, you are a frightful mess your Royal Highness. Do let us clean you up.” The older elleth, Strumida, tries to unbutton Brooklyn’s dress and it causes her to jump backwards in defense.
“I am quite able to undress and bathe myself.” Brooklyn crosses her arms feeling uncomfortable at the thought of someone seeing her naked.
“But” Strumida sounds as if she is not going to take no as an answer but Brooklyn does not give her a chance to continue speaking.
“Please leave me alone in the room and I will clean up myself.” She looks around the room for some clean clothes. “Would there be a clean pair of clothes I could wear?”
“We have your academy gown. It is here aranel.” Another younger elleth in the room points toward a stack of clothes sitting on a small table in the corner.
“Perfect. Thank you.” Brooklyn nods toward the group. “You may go now.”
The group begins to shuffle out of the room but Strumida is just staring at Brooklyn in disbelief. “This simply is not the way things are done.”
“Does anyone help you get dressed and bathe you?” Brooklyn asks curiously.
“Well, no.” Strumida looks flustered. “But I am not royalty.”
“Well, I was not either until about twenty minutes ago.” Brooklyn feels overwhelmed with wonder of how much her life is about to change. “I can manage.”
“Yes, your Royal Highness.” Strumida curtsies quickly before leaving the room.
She feels odd wearing the beautiful green dress as she steps out of the room. The small group smiles towards her. “Do I look right?” She asks shyly.
“Yes. But perhaps we should prepare your hair and makeup also.” Strumida says gently. “If you would come this way Aranel.”
“Please call me Brooklyn.” She feels odd being called aranel and royal highness. Then the thought strikes her that Brooklyn is a stolen name of a dead child. It feels wrong to continue to use it. She looks up at the crowd of elleths and notices they seem confused. “Oh, sorry. I mean Sahara. Sahara is fine.” She smiles toward them politely before moving back into the room to be groomed further.
“It is not proper to address you so informally, Aranel.” Strumida explains politely. “I understand you have little knowledge of our world and ways. You curtsy to no one, aside from royals of equal or higher rank, such as other aranel or cundu, tari, and aran.”
Sahara interrupts, feeling confused by the words. “I know aranel means princess, but what do the others mean?”
The younger elleths in the room snicker at her question, but Strumida hushes them scoldingly before responding to Sahara’s question. “Yes, aranel is interpreted as princess. Cundu is what you know as prince, tari as queen, and aran as king.” Sahara mouths the words trying to memorize them. “You need not feel worried Aranel. No one will expect you to know much of our world right away.” Strumida’s words give Sahara comfort. “Your story is widely known, and I fear you will be more vulnerable to curious minds rather than that of judgement.”
After her make up and hair are prepared, Sahara exits the castle to meet Verdiwild, who is standing next to a royal blue carriage with two large cream-colored masses on either side expanding up toward the sky. They look like ship sails. She is confused to see there are no horses at the front of the carriage but only an ellon dressed in a matching royal blue velvety suit sitting in a glassed globe fixed to the front of the carriage. She wonders how the carriage is steered with no horses or even a steering wheel.
“Ah.” Verdiwild says sounding pleasantly surprised by her appearance. He moves toward her with his loving smile, and it comforts her heart. “You look the part now your Royal Highness.” He bows to her, and she cannot hide her smile. She feels beautiful and she has never felt beautiful before. She had only ever owned three items of clothing and they were nowhere close to looking as nice on her as this dress. Sahara begins to fidget as she notices a small crowd gathering next to the carriage. She knows these elves think she is their princess, but she feels far from adequate to be a royal, especially of a world she thought to be a fairytale only a few short hours ago. “You need not be frightened. The crowd is only curious.”
She nods politely toward the crowd of elves that bow toward her. She holds Verdiwild’s arm nervously as he leads her toward the carriage. She wants to ask so many questions, but she remains silent as they progress to the carriage. Verdiwild opens the door and Sahara can now see the inside that is a cream color matching the large sails on the outside. It is trimmed in gold and looks much bigger inside that it appears from the outside.
“Are those for me?” She points to the table in the middle of the carriage that is filled with small colorful candies, chocolate flowers, and a beautiful white iced cake. She had rarely been allowed to have such luxuries at the Craig’s house. They had cakes and candies often, but she was not allowed to partake in them unless some was left over after a party.
“It is a long path to the academy, and I thought you might be hungry.” Verdiwild smiles at her as she steps up into the carriage and sits on the seat. He climbs into the carriage and sits across from her.
Sahara watches the door close but sees no one touch it. Then, she watches as the sails on the outside begin to rotate downward and the carriage begins to move forward. As the sails spread out, she realizes they are wings. She feels speechless as the carriage begins to lift from the ground and the wings begin to flap as if it were a bird. She leans up against the glass of the window and watches the ground grow smaller as the carriage ascends higher and higher. She suddenly sees the two dragons and riders from earlier fly up from behind and settle on either side of the carriage.
“I’ve a gift for you.” Verdiwild says pulling Sahara’s attention back toward him. He lifts a long golden chain with a large green colored pendant dangling from it up toward her head wanting to put it around her neck. “This will protect you until you learn to control your magic. But you must keep it secret. No one must know you possess this gem.”
She tilts her head toward him giving him permission to place the necklace around her neck. “Are you sure I have magic?”
He smiles lovingly toward her again as he leans back from her, “Oh, yes aranel. I assure you. Magic runs in your veins.” She picks up the pendent from touching her chest and notices it is now a dark blue color instead of the green color it was moments ago. “You will come close to other ellons and elleths, but you must promise to let no one know you have this gem. Not even your roommates may know you have this in your possession. Do you understand?”
“Roommates?” She had never shared a room before and the idea of her having friends distracts her.
“Of course, you have been placed in a room with carefully selected elleth from trusted families of the realm. Yet they are still not to know. Tell me you understand.” Verdiwild sounds demanding in his response.
“Yes.” Sahara nods her head as she opens the neck of her dress and slides the pendent down inside to hide it. “I understand.”
Verdiwild looks intrigued toward her as he asks, “As for your magic, I never noticed you doing anything before Brooklyn’s birthday. Aside from the warming globe this morning, have you noticed any strange occurrences in the past four months? Or had something happened you thought or wished for?”
She shakes her head not remembering anything strange.
Verdiwild continues, “That is good. It means your powers are not controlled by your emotions. Emotional magic is hard to learn how to control.” He hands her a small plate before she sees him wave two of his fingers toward her and a slice of cake suddenly appears on the plate, startling her. She looks over at the white cake on the table noticing a slice is now gone. He continues to speak, “If you do not have emotional magic, you most likely have command magic. You simply use your hands, staff, wand, or something of your choosing to cause what you want to happen.” Sahara sits down the slice of cake eager to try magic as she listens to him continue, “Some things like portaling requires you to know spells but simple everyday moving of things is...”
Before he can finish Sahara waves her hand trying to move the plate of cake off the table and on to the seat next to her. She gets distracted by the thought of the last white cake she had seen a few months back at one of the Craig’s parties. There had been one small slice left over and she was biting her lip in anticipation of getting to eat it, when her cousin Trina stopped in front of her and smiled evilly just before pushing the slice of cake off onto the floor. As her hands stops waving toward the seat, Trina suddenly appears next to her. Trina looks just as panicked as Sahara feels as she speaks. “What is this?” Sahara looks toward Verdiwild, who seems shocked by Trina’s presence. Sahara looks back at Trina who is looking inquisitive toward Sahara, “Brooklyn?”
“Olor!” Verdiwild yells as he stands to his feet pointing his staff toward Trina. Trina looks startled by Verdiwild for only a moment before her eyes close and she falls onto Sahara’s lap. Verdiwild is yelling toward Sahara as he speaks, “What have you done?”
Sahara feels confused by Verdiwild’s anger. “I just was trying to move the cake to the seat by me and I remembered Trina pushing a piece of cake onto the floor a few months back to keep me from eating it. And then she just appeared.” Verdiwild looks astonished as he sits back down in his seat before Sahara asks, “Can you just send her back?”
Verdiwild shakes his head before quickly closing the curtains to the carriage so that the riders on the dragons can’t see inside. “You teleported a human into our realm and through multiple protective walls of magic, the strongest walls of protective spells ever created,” He looks at Trina briefly in concern before continuing, “by way of thought.”
Sahara wonders why he is so concerned. “Can you not do that too?”
Verdiwild stares at Sahara as he responds, “No. I can portal by way of spell and teleport by way of spell. I can’t teleport myself or someone else from one world to another by myself. It takes at least two elves to manage such a task. And even then, you must know the exact location of the individual being teleported. I can’t teleport through a single wall of magic without the unlocking spell, but you managed to teleport a human from an unknown location in the human world by thought through seven protective walls.” She feels her heart beating faster as she wonders how she was able to make such a thing happen on her first try at magic. “You have to keep your mind clear of distractions when doing thought magic.” Verdiwild moves over to Trina checking her pulse. “You must not ever let anyone know you have this ability.”
“Then how are we going to get her back?” Sahara asks as she sits down on the other side of the carriage. “If you have to have help getting her back?”
Verdiwild stays silent for a few moments in thought. She sees Trina begin to stir and Verdiwild turns toward her as he speaks, “The sleeping spell is wearing off. You have to send her back, it is the only way to keep anyone else from knowing.” Sahara begins to feel nervous and shakes her head toward Verdiwild. He continues, “Concentrate on sending her to her house. Stay focused and you must not get distracted this time.”
“No.” Sahara continues to shake her head toward Verdiwild. “I can’t do it.”
“You brought her here, so obviously you can do this.” Verdiwild pulls out a small round marble looking ball and flattens his hand out. The small marble rises from his palm and casts a glow above it displaying an image of her uncle’s home, she once lived in. Verdiwild uses his other hand to move the picture and zoom inside the house. He guides the image until it is displaying Trina’s room. Sahara sees Trina begin to sit up. “Now.” Verdiwild says, drawing her attention back to him. “Concentrate and send her back to her room, now.”
She feels the carriage land and tries to keep her balance. Trina is now rubbing her eyes and Verdiwild sounds less patient. “Now!”
Sahara takes in a deep breath before closing her eyes and holding out her hand toward Trina. She pictures Trina’s bedroom and Trina setting on the bed as she waves her hand, feeling the cool breeze brushing against her skin. She opens her eyes to see she and Verdiwild are now alone in the carriage. Verdiwild is looking at the image quietly. “Did it work?” Sahara asks nervously.
Verdiwild looks up at Sahara seeming scared of her before holding the marble out further towards her so that she can look at the projection of Trina’s room. Sahara notices Trina standing next to her bed looking around the room. “It worked!” She says excitedly. “I did it!” She cannot fight the smile from spreading across her face. Verdiwild stays silent as the marble falls back down to his palm and he closes his hand. Sahara notices his expression has not changed as he continues to stare at her. “What is wrong?” She asks in response to his fearful stare.
Verdiwild breaks his eyes from her finally and the door to the carriage opens. “We are in the double protective wall of the academy.” His words grow to a whisper. “You accomplished that through nine protective walls. His head turns toward the carriage door and the door yanks shut as he closes his hand. Sahara jumps at the loud sound of the slamming door. Verdiwild’s voice immediately changes to a deep sternness, “Never do it again. Keep your ability to do that hidden along with the gem. That ability in the wrong hands would be the ultimate weapon against our world and the human world.”
She remembers Patreek stealing other elves magic and realizes if he can steal magic, other elves must be able to also. “I promise I will not do it again. And I will not get distracted from my thoughts when doing magic.”
“Do not even let anyone know you know how to teleport.” Verdiwild moves over closer to her and places his hand on her shoulder. “I can no longer keep watch over you here at the academy. These walls are too strong to get through, well for all the other elves I know aside from you. The only way the two protective walls of the academy can be opened is from the inside. You will be safe here as long as you do not use your teleporting ability to breach the walls.” He moves his hand from her shoulder as he asks, “Promise me you will not do that?”
She nods anxiously, “I would never.”
Verdiwild’s hand moves slightly, and the carriage door opens again. “Then off you go. And always remember to focus when you do your magic.”
“You are not coming with me?” Sahara asks nervously as she looks outside of the carriage door noticing a large castle like building. It is a larger building than the castle she saw earlier at Kinderton.
“No. I must return to Aran Rayterbay and tell him of your arrival.” His loving smile makes her feel the need to hug him, so she lunges toward him and wraps her arms around him. She had never been hugged before. It feels nice. After a moment, Verdiwild wiggles from her arms and speaks again, “You will be late Aranel. Tonight, is the welcome banquet. No one knows of your arrival, so keep your guard up because there are some who will betray you and others that will only be interested in seeking notoriety of knowing you. Select your friends carefully.” She nods her head not completely understanding what he is meaning before she moves towards the door to exit.
As she steps down to the stone ground, she hears the door of the carriage shut behind her. She turns and watches the carriage roll away and the large wings begin to move. The carriage rises toward the sparkling dome that encases the academy. Sahara notices the wall open slightly. She wonders how the walls are opening and looks down the road toward a large gate with two watch towers on each side. She sees two elves in each tower waving their hands toward the sky where the carriage is headed. Their hands all clap together at the same time and the opening to the magical walls suddenly closes just as the carriage clears them.
She hears laughter behind her that draws her attention back to the large grey rock building. As she tries to turn and face the building, she feels her feet stuck in place and it causes her body to fall to the ground. The laughter of teenagers increases as she thumps against the ground and she feels pain. She looks up seeing a group of elleth and ellon laughing at her. She realizes her hands feel stuck to the ground now. She looks down at the ground noticing bubbly colorful slime. She feels embarrassed at the thought of this being her first impression.