My Wish for You

A/N: Here's the deal. First of all, this is going to start out sort of like writing in a diary, and then switch to first-person storytelling, and then maybe back again mid-chapter. After a couple of chapters, I promise you'll get the idea. The character here is about the equivalent of a seven or eight year old. But in Lemuria time is different. But that means it's going to be like a seven or eight—ok, she's seven—year old is thinking and speaking.

This is a story about Lemuria. Lemuria the way it had once been. The way it should still be. It is told by a girl whom we (TLA players, anyway) all know…and yet we can never know. And it will follow her until present-day…which may just be a future.

Disclaimer: No, I did not just pluck some random Lemurian from the street. You know her. And I don't own her. I own her name, though. Her brother's name too. Several things in Lemuria here that are not in TLA-Lemuria are mine too, I suppose. That's about it though…oh. I do literally own her birthday. *grins*

Chapter One: Beginning

1 October, Year 94, Mars Century

            Winter will come soon, they say. I love winter. It's my favorite time of year. The Season of Mercury, winter's called. It's autumn now—Mars season. It's getting cold outside, and everyone keeps telling me to wear warmer clothes and not run so much. But they tell me that all year long. I get sick of it sometimes.

            My birthday was yesterday. This was my present. They said it was special, that the pages never ended, but I don't believe them. It has to end somewhere. Everything does. Except maybe the sky. I think that goes on and on until you can't go anymore, and keeps going after that.

            Leon took me to town with him today. It was fun. I even got to play in the leaves. I don't know what Leon was so nervous about…

            "Alright, you can go out with your brother, but come back before lunch. And take a scarf with you, for Mercury's sake, Marina! It's getting chilly!" I really didn't see why they added that part. They were Mercury Adepts, like the rest of them—it wouldn't matter much if I caught a cold.

            "Leon, you watch out for your sister," Papa said to my older brother. I don't know how much older. Not many people talk about their ages. I don't know why that is either. Something you find out when you're small is that you don't know a lot, but it seems like everyone else does, and they don't want to tell you.

            "Sure, dad," Leon said, smiling down at me. "Come on, Marina. Let's go." I happily took my brother's hand. We walked out the door and into the bright sunlight. I still loved looking at my home, even though I looked at it every day when we went out. The giant white pillars and statues were so beautiful, especially when all the pretty autumn leaves were blowing everywhere in the wind.

            We stopped first at the market, to buy food, mostly fresh vegetables and fruit. I picked up an orange, which was pretty big in my small hands, and then got another. I threw them together into the air, frowning when they didn't make the circle pattern they were supposed to.

            "What are you doing, Marina?" Leon asked me.

            "Juggling," I said.

            "Oh. Well, come on, we have other places to go." I didn't mind not being able to juggle anymore, though. I wasn't very good at it anyway.

            Outside the market, a bunch of kids had piled the leaves from the trees into a big hill, and were taking turns falling from a low branch into the big pile.

            "Leon! Leon! Come on! This is fun!" called one of them. I think his name was Iason.

            "I don't know if I should," Leon said uncertainly. "I need to get this stuff home."

            "Come on, brother!" I shouted, running toward the leaf pile. With a leap, I grabbed onto the lowest tree branch and pulled myself up.

            "Marina! Get down from there!" Leon called urgently. I looked down at him. His face looked scared. I wondered why. There was nothing to be scared of. A couple of boys younger than me, and smaller, had done this already, and nothing had happened to them.

            "What for?" I asked stubbornly.

            "It's dangerous! You could hurt yourself!"
            "If I weren't here, you'd be up here too! Isn't it dangerous for everyone?"

            "Marina!"

            I ignored him. Sometimes he was a real pain, the way he tried to protect me all the time. There was nothing dangerous up here except maybe the higher branches, and I didn't need those. I only needed that one right next to me. It was right over the leaves, and it would be fun to drop into them.

            I jumped to the next branch and balanced on it, grinning down at the kids around the pile. Laughing, I jumped out far, crossing my legs in the air and landing fwoosh right in the middle of the pile. Still laughing, I crawled out of the pile and helped build it again for the next kid. I was running back with an armful of leaves when someone grabbed my shirt collar and the leaves fell.

            "Hey!" I yelled, turning around. "Leon, what was that for? I was having fun!"

            "You'll tire yourself out if you keep doing that," was all he would say.

            "I will not! I'm not tired at all! How come you get to have all the fun all the time, and I have to sit inside and never get to play? Well? How come?" I was mad. Everyone was always telling me I'd get too tired, every time I tried to have some fun.

            "Marina…look, if I let anything happen to you, Mom and Dad would be very angry with me."

            "Nothing's going to happen! I was helping clean up the leaves!"

            "We have to take the food home, though." He said that in the voice that meant there was no arguing about it. With a long sigh I followed him up the steep hill to our house.

            "Lemuria's big," I said, looking out at how everything was in fall colors. "Pretty, too." Smiling at me, Leon reached down and picked up a star-shaped leaf that had turned a bright golden yellow. He handed it to me.

            "It's the color of your eyes, Marina," he said. I grinned at him. His eyes were darker, like a green with gold over top. His hair was the same light blue as everyone else's, except for four people. My mother and I had darker hair, the blue of the ocean rather than the sky. King Hydros has hair like that, but it was starting to go grey, people said. I guess that meant he was very, very old.

            The fourth person, I didn't even remember being from Lemuria. I think he came from somewhere over the sea, maybe from the continent of Gondowan, because his hair was not blue at all. It was a sort of orange-yellow, and his eyes were yellow too. Not gold-yellow, but fire-yellow. He followed the king around a lot.

            "Marina! Don't just stand there! Come inside!"

            "Coming, Mama," I said sadly. It was too nice a day to be stuck inside again.

            "Did you have fun?" Papa asked. Grinning, I nodded.

            "I got to climb the big tree and jump into the leaf pile and I even tried to help them clean it up, only Leon stopped me, I don't know why, it wasn't like I was trying to do something wrong…Mama? Papa? Why do you look mad?"

            Mama's face was white, and Papa's was very red. But both of them looked mad at Leon, not at me. And Leon looked scared.

            "Papa! Leon didn't do anything! He didn't even climb up in the tree!"

            "Leon, we told you not to let Marina do anything dangerous," Mama said. Leon looked at the floor and nodded.

            "I know, Mom, but—"

            "No buts, young man!" Papa screamed. I backed away. Why were they yelling at Leon? He tried to get me to come down. I didn't listen because I didn't want to. "Your sister could have gotten seriously hurt!"

            "I know, Dad. I'm sorry." Leon sounded like he wanted to cry. Before Papa could say anything else, I stepped in front of my brother and held my arms out at my sides.

            "DON'T YELL AT HIM!" I screamed. "He didn't do anything wrong! Besides! You're all Mercury Adepts! It wouldn't matter if I got hurt! You could fix me! Leave him alone! He even tried to get me down! I'm the one who didn't listen! Yell at me if you want to yell at somebody!"

            "Marina, that was uncalled for," Mama said quietly.

            "But it was true. You said I should always tell the truth." When I said that, Mama got a strange look on her face. I didn't know the word for what it was. It kind of looked like she'd swallowed something nasty.

            After that, Leon promised me that when the first snow came, we could go sledding and build a snowman. But it would have to be a secret. He couldn't tell me why, but he said it would be fun, to have a secret spot where we could play.

            It rained for the rest of the day anyway, so I didn't get to go back outside. Everyone was real quiet at dinner, like they were supposed to be saying something but they forgot how. Leon left most of his food on the plate and just walked upstairs. I heard him say something about telling the truth, but I didn't hear it all.

            "Leon?" I asked quietly. His room was dark. He must have blown out his lantern. "Leon, are you asleep?"

            "Yes," was the answer.

            "If you were asleep you wouldn't say that."

            "Fine, fine, no, I'm awake. What do you want?" Leon sat up and lit the lantern again. He looked very sad. I walked over and hugged him. "What was that for?"

            "You looked like you needed a hug," I said.

            Leon smiled. "Thanks, sis. You really are something, you know that? We're lucky to have you around. Who else can keep Mom and Dad in line?"

            "Why do they get angry when I play?"

            "Mom and Dad are overprotective, that's all. Before…don't tell them I told you this. Before you were born, they had another baby girl. But she…she didn't live, Marina. So when they had you…you were so little. I remember. And you won't be a kid for a very long time, you know. You'll grow up fast."

            "But I haven't even ever fallen over. Unless I did when I was very little. And…can you keep a secret?" If I told Leon this, he couldn't tell anyone. I knew it would make Mama and Papa angry again.

            "Sure, sis. What is it?"

            "I'm a Mercury Adept!" I said happily. Leon laughed. "It isn't funny!"

            "Everyone's a Mercury Adept here, sis."

            "I mean I'm a real one! I can make waves in the spring water! Bubbles too!"

            Leon stopped laughing and looked down at me. He seemed so tall. He looked like he was thinking very hard about something. Finally he grinned at me again.

            "I bet you'll make a great Adept, Marina. You're so kind, and gentle. I won't tell Mom and Dad. I promise. Now go to bed. It's getting late."

            I smiled at him and walked back to my bedroom. The kitten was there, asleep on top of my quilt. I scratched her behind her ears and pulled down a book from the shelf. I couldn't read some of the words in it yet, but it had pictures, and maps, done in bright colors. One of them was Lemuria. It was big.

            Looking at it, I found our house, and the King's Palace, and the Senate House. The fountain was right in the middle of Lemuria, and there were stores that sold everything you could think of. There was the old abandoned house up on the hill on the other side of Lemuria; the one everyone said was haunted. The doors were locked from the inside, though, and no one could figure out how to get in.

            I just yawned. Maybe it is late after all. I should go to bed. Even though I know the pages have to end sometime, I still think this is a great birthday present. I even found a good hiding place for it. Mama and Papa would be very angry if they found out I knew how to be an Adept, so they can't read this and know. Good night.

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Well? Things are so simple when you're just a little kid and you don't have to worry about much stuff. Marina's a smart girl, though. She knows that there's something people aren't telling her. If you're wondering, or really to prevent you from wondering, no, I am not going to cover every single day of this Lemurian girl's long (and yet short) life. The next few will still be when she's small, but she'll get older. And you'll know who she is once I give away the giveaway detail. But not yet.

Enough of my ramblings. Go on. Leave a review!