Prologue

"You've been cursed, my child. The Murakage blood coursing throughout you flows in dark rivers of misfortune. Try you may to infuse these rivers with the golden rays of the sun, yet no light by any means shall dispel the shadows."

There I was… My world was the same shade of deep blue as the cloudy sky just outside my window, silent and still as the dry, chilly air around me. Not even the bed little me was curled up in seemed to provide sufficient comfort. Those words of Celia, my great-grandmother, drowned all the comfort out.

Murakage… my surname, a name that implied the "family of shadows". I didn't know much about my family, but I did know one thing: Celia put that curse on me. Some people don't believe in curses, but I know mine is real. Why else did my father become poor all of a sudden? Why else did I live in poverty for nearly three years? Why else did the police take me away from my father one day? It was only three days ago when the last event happened, but I miss him already. Why'd I have to be separated from the one man who cared for me in the world in order to be placed in some orphanage? It stung my eyes to think about it…

All of a sudden, there was a knock on my door.

"Yamiko, breakfast is ready."

I recognized the voice as belonging to Ms. Takamari, the head of the orphanage, and who most of the other kids called "mother". But not me—I knew I didn't have a mother, and I knew that my mother was cursed to death.

Like a puppet, I rolled over on my bed, flopped over the edge, and trudged along out the door.

The dining room had the air of the cafeteria of a campsite, except we were obviously not out in the wilderness—more like the outskirts of the city. There were about sixteen children in the warm, spacious room, three or four to a table. Nearly all of them seemed to be conversing, and were grouped together mostly according to age. One table of three to five-year-olds, one of older boys, one of older girls, one of girls and boys, a few empty tables…

"Well, where you gonna sit?" Ms. Takamari asked me, leading me around the room and holding a tray of food.

As I walked, I gazed nervously at the other kids, remembering how several of them had been either indifferent or unfriendly to me the other day. And how could they be so happy when I was so sad?

"How about here, right next to Edwin?" Ms. Takamari suggested as she set my tray down on the table.

It was apparent that this was the "loner table", as it was in the corner of the room, far away from the other kids. Except I wasn't alone—the boy Ms. Takamari called Edwin was sitting at the same table. He looked to be quite a bit older than me, but he didn't jeer or leer at me like the other older boys. Then again, maybe the other boys made fun of him because he had long hair. But at least his was straw-coloured; mine looked like it was bleeding all the time, and because it was straight, it looked sometimes like it was dripping with blood. And at least he wore more normal clothing—if a red turtleneck sweater and dark green cargo pants are normal—while I must have looked unnecessarily girly in the light pink dress with a green sweater over it and a large sunflower on the front. (Why in the world did Ms. Takamari pick that out for me?)

I tried to avoid Edwin, just like I did with the other children, but of course there were moments when I peeked, and my deep blue eyes met his deep brown ones. Neither of us ate much more than a bite of our pancakes, however delicious they admittedly were. I didn't feel like eating much anyway—I was busy thinking about how I would cope in this place. I would be awfully lonely, that's for sure.

Feeling a bit bored, I began to glance about the room. First I stared for a while at a little screen above a doorway, which showed the weather and such. ("Weather Conditions for Lavinda, Nazumi. 44 degrees outside, overcast, might clear up later in the day.") Then I glanced at Ms. Takamari, who was cleaning dishes in the kitchen. Then I scanned over the other kids, coming to Edwin last. When I looked at him, I saw he was doing the same thing as me—in fact, he seemed almost as morose as I felt. After a while, he looked at me again, but I got so nervous I began to look away.

"Hm, I saw you in the park, didn't I?" Edwin mentioned. He sounded like he was not from Nazumi.

"Well, I remember seeing Ms. Takamari there, but…"

Edwin was referring to a day some weeks ago where I was sitting in the park with my dad, and I watched Ms. Takamari lead the children in some sort of game. I remember envying them, being jealous of their privileged, happy lives—with a motherly figure nonetheless. Then I saw an apple fall in my lap all of a sudden—but there was no apple tree overhead. Minutes later I saw…

"You were the boy running out from behind the bench!" I recalled.

Edwin nodded. "I'm surprised you thought I was a boy. Many people have thought I was a girl at first glance."

"Everyone thinks I'm too much of a girl… a frail, weak little crybaby…"

"That's not a girl, that's a…" Edwin paused. "Well I don't know. Hm, I'm surprised. You're the first person here who hasn't commented on my accent yet."

"…But an accent is just a different way of speaking," I pointed out. "Why should it make a difference?"

"Usually it indicates a foreigner, something to make fun of."

"Oh." So this was why he was at this table. Still, it couldn't have been as good—I mean bad—a reason as mine. "So… are you a foreigner?"

"If you consider England a foreign country."

"Why—that's halfway across the globe! How… interesting, and I'm from plain old around here. I don't think Ivory Marsh is a foreign country."

"No, that's just a nearby city," Edwin clarified.

"How'd you get here?" I asked.

"By boat." Edwin paused, as if thinking whether he should expand on it. "Hitched a ride on a ship."

"Oh. Well, at least that's not as bad as being torn away from your family by the police. Even though mine was just a father."

Edwin shook his head. "The police," he grumbled. "Just a father. Ruddy folk they be."

For the next few moments, I sat still as Edwin slowly ate his breakfast. I noticed that Ms. Takamari was nowhere to be seen, and that some of the other kids were walking away. Seconds later, Ms. Takamari appeared in the doorway.

"I know it's hard to adjust," Edwin commented, "but they kind of expect you to eat here."

I remembered that I had breakfast in front of me and thus started to eat. A few minutes passed.

"How old are you by the way?" I asked Edwin as Ms. Takamari took the trays from us.

"Twelve," he replied. "I'm the oldest one here."

"Yeah, well, I look five but I'm eight actually. And my name's Yamiko."

Edwin and I looked at each other for a while after that, thinking of nothing else to say. But this came to a halt when Ms. Takamari made an announcement.

"All right kids! The school bus is here! Grab your backpacks and move on out!"

It was raining the whole time I was on the bus. As I initially expected when I first arrived here, I had the whole seat to myself, and I had been pushed to the back of the bus by groups of snooty older kids or naughty kindergarteners. A boy a few seats in front of me was talking animatedly to Edwin, as if he were explaining why he shouldn't be around me. That figured… So I was left to watch the rain fall and people's umbrellas turning inside-out due to the wind. Oh well, I seemed to identify more with the natural world anyway.

Later in the morning, when I was in class, the weather looked a bit clearer—the sun even came out for a few seconds once. I was seated at the front of the classroom, watching the teacher look for something behind her desk. When she retrieved a marker, I asked her for a hall pass—this particular one looked like a mermaid with dog ears. As I did, I could swear I heard some of my classmates snicker at me, so I left the room without looking at any of them.

As I walked down the hallway, I looked through the windows of other classrooms. One contained a bunch of students with topographical maps in front of them. Another looked empty, but then I spotted all the children huddled in the corner for story time. Boring, boring, boring… But then, in one classroom which I knew contained the sixth-graders, I saw a funny-looking man in a jester cap talking to the class.

But this isn't April Fools, I thought, so why is that… wait a minute, isn't that Jack the Jester?

Jack the Jester was a clown/storyteller who appeared on some TV shows. (I remember watching excerpts of that show with my dad on TV's in store windows. We never had a TV of our own.) And I think I heard someone mention that he lives in Nazumi and occasionally makes presentations in schools and such. I had no idea what those presentations were about though… so I peeked in the window and decided to check. As I did, I noticed Edwin sitting in one of the desks…

"…towns that appear to come from all around the world, towns that appear to come from storybooks even…" Jack described, pausing so the students could ooh and ahh. "You can explore them all, and if you're a Keeper, you can stay in specific lodges in these towns for free!"

"Now what is a Keeper, you ask? Well, those magical creatures I mentioned before can be kept as pets by a Keeper. And because they live in Mystrica, they are called Mystripets! Now, as you know, some Mystripets can be big or may be unable to travel on land. Therefore, if the Keeper so desires, they can be contained in one of these…"

At this point, Jack rolled out a scroll, upon which was a picture of some sort of cell phone-like electronic device.

"This fun little gadget is called a Scanner. A Scanner can hold up to five Mystripets. But don't worry—thanks to Vi Willow, the genius who invented the Scanners, the Mystripets are not confined to a tiny little cage; instead, they have their own virtual world to frolic about in."

What in the world is a Mystripet? I thought as I listened to this presentation. Is it some sort of magical creature or something? Where is this land of Mystrica? Hmm, the name rings a bell…

Just as I was about to reach into my pocket, something Jack said got my attention:

"Fortunately, Mystrica is not very far from here. In fact, it's not very far from anywhere! It's just one train ride away from this island of Nazumi—and from many other places in the world as well. And not only is it easy to get to Mystrica—it's easy to become a Keeper! All you have to do is attend the Mystripet Academy, located in Seaport City, Mystrica. Of course, you need permission from a parent or guardian to attend, but once you graduate, you get your very first Mystripet! And, if your grades are good, you could get two or three right off the bat! There are a wide variety of Mystripets to choose from, and while in the Academy, you'll learn all about them and how to take care of them! Now, let me tell you about a few…"

At this point, Jack went over to the projector and put a slide on it. When he turned the projector on, the whiteboard showed an image of a cute chipmunk-like creature.

"This is a Chiplet," Jack explained. "He's highly recommended for fun-loving Keepers, especially young ones like you. He's nuts about exploring too!"

Then he replaced that slide with another; this Mystripet looked like a shaggy little sheepdog puppy, only its eyes looked like they came off a cartooney stuffed animal. I saw Edwin raise his eyebrows at this one, whereupon several boys around him snickered and pointed at him.

"This is a Shagtie, for all you dog lovers out there. You'll find this one to be very loyal, but it usually requires a lot of attention. But don't worry; as Mystripets are more intelligent than ordinary animals and can even talk, you won't run into too many barking problems, and you can get one to do lots of fabulous tricks!"

The third slide Jack showed took me by surprise: it was the same mermaid-like creature on my hall pass! Yes, dog ears and everything, with a fan-like tip on its tail.

"This is a Finnow. It mainly lives in the water, of course, but it can travel on land as well by walking on its hands! How many of you can walk on your hands like a Finnow, I wonder? But Finnows have nice strong arms to help with that of course, so they can throw good punches as well!"

So that's what this is, I thought as I looked between the slide and the hall pass, a Finnow… a Mystripet…

As Jack continued on, I walked down the hall towards the restrooms. As I did, I took out a picture from my pocket: a page from a magazine. This page described one particular Keeper, who had one Mystripet. This Mystripet was a purple cat with a diamond-shaped gem on its collar and a tail that looked like a leaf. Its name was listed as "Geraldine Munato", whatever that meant. Munato sounded like a funny last name to me. The article went on to describe the relationship the Keeper had with Geraldine, some boring stuff about traveling to a place called Alpenhaus and encountering things called "mecha" and running into some sort of gang… But of course, I was only curious about the Mystripet—all Mystripets even. I kept thinking about them as the day went on, even after I got back to the orphanage from school and well into dinnertime. What were they all about? How could I get one?

Then I remembered what Jack said about parental permission to attend the Mystripet Academy. This saddened me, because I didn't know where my father was anymore, after the police took me away from him. And when I asked Ms. Takamari after school if she would give me permission instead, she said that I must wait until I turn thirteen first. But that's five years away! That meant that lucky Edwin could attend in as little as one year. Psh, and I thought he was my friend, yet I didn't see him at all that afternoon. It looks like I'll wait here all alone for five years… five years of bad luck and unhappiness…