Disclaimer: I only own Astrella and Stardust oh and Snake Man, all the other characters are NOT (repeat) NOT mine. You have Rachel Robert's to thank for her wonderful stories that started my writing in the first place.
Writer's Note: okay, I am now reducing this whole thing, so if chapters disappeared, don't freak out. They'll be back and improved!
Overview
Four
years ago Emily, Adriane and Kara went there own ways after stopping
the Spider Witch and Dark Sorceress once again. Now coming back to
Ravenswood four years later (after not seeing or hearing from each
other only in infrequent letters). Will they like the change they
see?
Emily,
a young girl working under an Oceanographer's assistant and along the Pacific coast.
Adriane,
a famous young artist in Paris, renowned for her sculptures of ecological recycles materials.
And
Kara...wait...where's Kara?!
And who's this new worker at
Ravenswood that Gran hired?
Read more if you wish to find out...
Chapter One: Coming Home
Emily's Diary May 1 2008, On The Bus.
I took a boat, plane, train and now a bus just to get back to Stonehill. I'm going to meet Adriane and Kara at the Ravenswood Preserve. As my earlier entries indicate, I am now 17 and looking forward to 18. Sigh! Four whole years...has it really been that long? It seems just yesterday I was 14 and gathering the power crystals with Adriane and Kara. After that, Adriane's parents wanted her to visit Paris and work on their artwork together. She received an art scholarship and, well, she decided to stay. I left to see my dad and my step-mom not long after. I met an Ocean dude, as my dad calls him, and he let me work as his assistant in California. Especially after my 'show of affection to all animals, especially sea creatures.' And Kara? She never really said, she was in Peru last I heard. The bus is stopping... I can see mom waving. More later once I settle in.
Emily
Fletcher stepped off the bus and threw her arms around her mother,
who was now her exact same height.
"Oh, Emily how I've
missed you so," Caroline Fletcher embraced then held back her
daughter saying, "Let me get a good look at you!" Emily was
tall and slight; her wavy once dishwater red/brown hair now bright as
a sunset dyed by the sun. Brown freckles stood out against now warm
tan skin, and her smile shown like the sun. But her warm hazel/green
eyes were the real heart-breaker; they could make a man's heart
melt. And of course on her wrist that favorite rainbow colored stone
of hers; she had never thought to ask where she got it.
'There's
no doubt, my little baby's grown up,' thought Caroline sadly. She
smiled as Ozzie the ferret poked his head out from Emily's backpack.
Adriane's
Diary May 1 2008
5:00pm Paris time, On-The-Plane.
I'm in the air right now and everyone else is asleep. Tonight we'll land in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania around midnight; tomorrow it's a bus straight to Stonehill. I can't help but wonder what Kara and Emily will be like, will they have changed? How much? Mostly I'm afraid what they'll think of me, Kara will get a kick out of my French but I have a slight accent now. I've been trying to talk normal, but it always comes out wrong. They'll surely laugh, a half Native American speaking French? Sounds like a bad soap opera. But that's not all that's changed, besides growing eight inches taller (almost six feet now) I've rather strong arm muscles and my hair is down to my butt. I wonder if wearing my beret would be too much? Uh oh, we're getting some turbulence (where's that full of hot air ferret when you need him? lol) I better go now. Dreamer says goodnight from the cargo hold, poor guy hates cages.
Astrella's (Astra) Diary, May 1, 1:40, at Ravenswood
Hello
all, or Diary, as it is. Astra here and I am seething! I'm in my room
(used to be Adriane's, but Gran let me have it when i came to work
here) I've done all my chores' and the Fairimentals just banned
me from talking to Emily now. 'Let her settle in and remember who she
is,' Well I say kiss my foot; I've done their job for four years
while they play normal, free people. And I get stuck here without
even them knowing it, to replace them till 'they come to their
senses.' First of all, I don't think they have ANY senses or they
would have been over here instantly doing their job. But oh no, once
everything SEEMS fine they hop off to enjoy their little lives then
leave me to pick up the pieces. Don't they think I have anything
better to do? I used to hop all over the web with Stardust doing
little quests and swinging my sword, now I'm stuck here, healing,
fighting AND blazing to replace those IDIOTS!
Astrella
growled in anger and threw her diary across the room. Instantly as if
waiting for such a moment, Gran entered.
"What is it little
Starlet? You never get in such huffs for no reason," she asked
sitting on the orange coverlet on the bed. Starlet was Gran's
nickname for Astrella as they had become close as grandmother and
granddaughter over the years. Astra flopped face down and sighed
heavily, not wanting to talk about it, not that she could anyhow. Not
to Gran. Though Gran always seemed to know more than she let on,
Astra could never be quite sure.
"Did something happen at
school Friday? Are the children still being mean to you?" she
asked stroking Astra's bronze hair, knowing this soothed her.
"I
guess," she huffed. True school was one of the other things that
bugged her but the fact she couldn't go bang on Emily's door now and
shout at her for shirking her job was really annoying her.
"Patience
Astra, they will learn soon, and you'll meet Adriane tomorrow as well
as Emily and Kara. I'm sure you two will get along, you're a lot
alike," Gran said soothingly. Little did she know this was
exactly her problem, she touched her dragon claw jewel with its
rainbow swirling colors, ever changing in a gray mist and sighed.
"I
just wish tomorrow was today..."
Emily sighed and flopped down on her bed and she wondered at the fact nothing had changed in her old room. The rest of the day after Emily had taken a long hot shower she and her mother had done a LOT of catching up. They shopped and talked, ate and talked, walked and talked and...yes talked some more. Emily felt drained and her voice almost gone. Emily glanced around and found an old picture of herself, Adriane and Kara. She stared and marveled that her mom had kept it. A twelve year old girl with curly dishwater brown hair and smiling hazel eyes, a blue green healing stone at her wrist, beamed out at her. Kara, the pink clad, golden haired Blazing Star on her left, waving and flashing her million dollar smile. Dark, scowling Adriane at her right, golden wolf stone flashing, with Stormbringer by her side. Emily remembered Storm and her presence now in Ravenswood. And she thought of Ozzie, whom in the picture sat on her shoulder smiling a secret ferret smile. Looking over the picture frame, she saw Ozzie on his pillow stuffed with vegetable lasagna and fast asleep. She glanced at the magical leopard, Lyra, the first animal she had ever healed and smiled. Then she saw her own reflection and the smile faded. A girl with short wispy red hair (only a few curls left) looked out of her tanned skin through hazel eyes. She looked down at her rainbow jewel, shaped like a magic puff flower, all the colors striped through it, she almost cried as she thought of Indigo, the Heart of Avalon and her paladin. She had not thought or spoken of him in years, and thought 'What else have I forgotten?'
Adriane
let Dreamer out of his huge cage then stood and stretched, her
cramped back cracking.
"That was a very long flight, hmm
Dreamer?" she asked, her French accent bearly noticeable.
I
agree, he said stretching first his front legs then his back, wagging
his tail in the air.
Dreamer was huge; his head shoulder height,
and he weighed 175 Ibs. Strong tense muscles stretched under sleek
black fur. A white star on his chest and white on his paws shone
proudly in the light of the hotel room.
"Just be careful
Dreamer, and please don't make to much noise?" she told him
taking off her black beret and flopping on the silk covered bed. All
she wanted was to go to sleep but she couldn't, glancing down at her
gold and silver banded wolf stone, she thought of Storm for the first
time in years and was comforted that she would feel her presence once
again soon. But deep down she wondered, 'Why haven't I thought of her
for so long?'