Chapter One: Another World
"You can't catch me! You can't catch me!' a little boy about the age of nine teased. An older girl, about the age of thirteen ran after him yelling, "I CAN TO!" The nine year old took off running, the thirteen-year old not to far behind.
The nine-year-old boy was tall for his age, about four feet, eight inches. He had short, black hair and bright green eyes. All who saw him could tell he was Asian. He was, in fact, Japanese. His name was Shino, which means Stem of Bamboo. No telling why his parents named him this but it doesn't matter anyway.
The thirteen-year-old was his older sister. She was about five feet four inches. She had the same eyes as her brother but she sometimes wishes that she didn't. Her name was Sakura which means Cherry blossom. Her hair is long and black. She doesn't put it up often.
The two were on a beach in Hawaii. They were on the island of Maui. Their parents were at work (like usual) and the two were just trying to find a way to entertain themselves.
Shino kept running away from Sakura. "Come on Sakura! Catch me!" he yelled. Sakura ran after him even harder. Shino just laughed and ran away. She stopped to catch her breath, not wanting to chase her brother any more. "Shino stop now please. I mean it's getting dark! There is a storm coming, I can feel it." Shino stopped and kicked the sand. "What was your first clue? It's the middle of the day and the sky is almost as dark as if it were night!" Shino said in a smart aleck like tone.
There was a flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder, causing both children to run for their lives. Luckily their house was close by. It was right on the beach. The poor children were scared to death. They got in the house and slammed the door. Shino huddled in a corner while Sakura got out a flashlight and some candles.
"Just in case the power goes out again." She told her brother, who was staring at her. He slowly nodded, unsure of what he was doing. "I sure hope it doesn't go out," He thought. Sakura read his mind. "It's ok Shino, we have a flashlight handy this time. We won't have to go searching for one in the dark." There was another crack of thunder and Sakura shivered.
The storm seemed to last forever. When it finally subsided, the children went outside to see if anything of value had washed up. Shino found an old bottle and a huge pile of seaweed. Sakura proceeded to look in that pile to see if there was anything in it. Shino had already run off when Sakura found something. It was about her height and looked like a walking stick. It had strange carvings in it but only near the top and bottom, where the wood sloped out and back in creating a triangle on each side. The carvings were in a circle, and they looked like they had three little carvings in them. The smaller carvings were swirled and almost touched in the middle.
"Shino! Come look! I found a walking stick!" Sakura yelled after examining the stick. Her brother hurried over. After looking at the stick he asked, "Can I have it!" Sakura gave him a dirty look. "No I found it and I want to keep it!" she told him. Shino sighed. "You're no fun!" he said. Sakura shrugged. "Oh well!" She sat down and put the walking stick in her lap. She moved her hand over the smooth surface until she hit something. She stood up and put her hand on the spot that she had hit earlier. She squeezed it and out of nowhere, glider wings came out.
Sakura was a bit surprised and she dropped the stick. She shook off the sudden surprise and picked the stick back up. There were wings, purple in color that was attached to a rod coming from each side of the walking stick. The wings curved down to the middle and then stopped. At the bottom of the stick was another, smaller, pair of wings that curved in a circle.
"COOL! A KITE!" Shino exclaimed. "Uh it looks like a huge glider plane, but without the cockpit." Sakura said in a curious tone. "Well, throw it!" Shino said becoming impatient. Sakura went as slow as possible just to aggravate her brother. Finally, she threw it, but it didn't go to far.
"That sucks!" Shino groaned. "It doesn't even work right!" Sakura shrugged. "Oh well, I'm still keeping it!" Without realizing what she was doing, she managed the get the wings back in. Then they heard their mother calling. "She must have just got home." Sakura said. "Yeah sure. Race Ya!" Shino said starting to run. Sakura groaned and ran after him.
"It was so cool Mom! The stick just like grew wings!" Shino said over excitedly. Sakura just shook her head and picked the stick up. "Watch Mom!" She said. The children's mother turned to Sakura. "Ok, I'm watching." She said. Sakura found the spot on the side of the stick and pressed it. The wings popped out and her mother jumped. She then started to laugh. "I see! Well that's great honey. Now, I'm sorry but I have to go back to work now. I just came to fix you guys something to eat. I'm so sorry that I couldn't stay, but hey! We have all day tomorrow to play with your new…kite glider thingy!"
She turned and ran out the door in a hurry. Shino sighed. "Sometimes it seems like she doesn't even care about us." He said tears coming to his eyes. Sakura hugged her brother. "Don't say that! She and Dad both love us…they just work a lot for our sake! They want us to have a good life. Why do you think we moved to Hawaii? I mean I talk to a girl in Kentucky who would LOVE to move here!" Shino sighed again. Sakura groaned and put her new glider away.
She started to move her hand in circles over her glass of water. She was trying to make a squeaky noise that always made Shino laugh. Shino's eyes grew wide. "SA SA Sakura! H..How…are…you…doing…that?" he stuttered. "Doing what? It hasn't made any noise yet!" She said. Her brother looked paralyzed. He slowly pointed to the water in her glass. It was moving! It was following her hand! Sakura screeched and stopped. The water also stopped.
"Sakura? Are we dreaming?" Shino slowly asked. Sakura didn't say anything for a minute. "I sure hope so Shino." She finally said. The two stood there is silence until Shino said, "DO IT AGAIN!" Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I don't think it will work again, but ok." She put her hand over the glass and started to make circular motions. Sure enough, the water did too. Sakura's eyes got big. "I did do it!" she stopped moving her hand and the water stopped. "Whoa! You're magical!" her brother said. Sakura shook her head. "I hope we are just seeing things." "Let's forget about it for now. Let's go make words out of the washed up seaweed!" Shino said running out the door.
Sakura went back to the pile she had found the glider in. "Hey if we find anything else in here I claim it! It may have belonged to the same person who owned this stick thingy!" Shino shrugged. "K." Sakura and Shino started to pick up seaweed and place in other places on the beach. Eventually, Sakura spelled Japanese Pride! and Shino spelled out Asians Rule! Sakura then went to the water and soaked her feet. A huge wave came up and was about to hit her. Out of instinct, Sakura put her hands in front of her face. The wave suddenly stopped and just stayed there. Shino yelled and Sakura put her hand down. The wave dropped, splashing her.
"Sakura! Move your hands back and forth! I want to see what happens!" Sakura did what her brother wanted. After a few minutes of doing this, a wave of water started following her hands. The wave was small in size but it was enough to convince Sakura that she was indeed magical. She soon got the hang of it. She moved her whole body with the water and the wave got taller. It didn't, however, go over her knees. She stopped and stared at her brother. He stared right back and for a while they had a stare off.
Sakura finally started to move again. "I can't believe it! I couldn't do that earlier!" She stared at the glider on the ground. "Could that have something to do with it?" Shino shrugged. "Yeah sure. It's a magical glider. I bet if you held on to it and jumped it would fly you around." He said sarcastically. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Here Mr. Smart one! I'll try it!" Sakura picked up the glider and made the wings pop out. Then she put her hands on the top where the wings attached to the middle stick. She gulped.
"Here goes nothing." She said nervously. Shino crossed his arms. "I'm waiting!" Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. She took one last look at the ground, closed her eyes and jumped. She didn't fall as she had expected. Instead she rocketed of the sand and flew straight up. Then she managed to turn the glider so she was on her stomach. It took her a few minutes to realize how to steer it, but once she got the hang of it, it was easy.
"WOHOO!" she screamed as she flew around. Shino was following her on the ground. She flew over the water and dove down so she could touch it. She was amazed at her own reflection. Then she heard Shino yelled for her. "He probably wants to try now." She thought. She turned toward the beach. Her landing was choppy but she didn't expect anything better.
Her brother laughed. "That was great!" he managed to say in between each laugh. Sakura put the wings down. "Yeah and I'm hungry now. Lets go eat!" she said. Shino nodded. "Yeah me too!" he said starting to run towards the house. Sakura beat him there and started to warm up the food their mother had left out for them. Shino walked in the door covered in sand. He had Sakura's glider in his hands.
"I can't fly it like you can!" he said throwing the glider on the floor. Sakura shook her head. "Go get all that sand off Shino. I'll finish fixing the food. OK?" she said. Shino muttered something and walked away. Sakura chuckled. "He can be so weird sometimes," she thought.
"You are SO gifted! You can control the water! You can control the glider! What's next? I mean next you'll be shooting fire out of your hands and pulling rocks out of the ground!" Shino groaned pacing the floor. The two had just finished eating lunch and Shino was obsessing over Sakura's newly founds "powers". Sakura just ignored him and practiced her karate. She took a deep breath and punched the air. Suddenly fire came from her hands. Luckily it vanished in the air and didn't hit anything.
"WHOA! I'M PSYCHIC!" Shino yelled. He started to bounce around the room singing a weird song. Sakura could only understand half of it. It sounded something like I psychic love me wow pull from ground "OK stop flattering yourself Shino!" Sakura yelled. Her brother stopped bouncing around the room. "OK but pull a rock from the ground!" "I can't do that!" "Yes you can!" "How do you know?" "Cause I'm psychic!" "No you're not!"
The two argued on forever. Finally Sakura went outside to prove to her brother that she couldn't pull a rock from underground. She stood with her feet shoulder width apart and her hands out in front of her. She thrust her hands upward but nothing happened. Shino looked puzzled. "Try again! I'm sure something will happen!"
Sakura stared at him. "I CAN'T DO IT! I DON'T CARE THAT I CAN DO ALL THESE THINGS! I WANT TO BE A NORML PERSON!" she yelled stomping at the ground. From below, a rock flew up and landed in front of her. Shino laughed. "I TOLD YOU!" he yelled rubbing it in her face. Sakura kicked the rock and it went flying. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt.
"Well good for you." She mumbled under her breath. Shino started to dance around again. "YES! I'm psychic! I knew it! WOHOO! GO ME!" Sakura just stood there watching him. Shino stopped when he heard Sakura sneeze, but his sister was nowhere to be seen. He could hear her yelling but it was very faint. Her screams started to get louder and louder, like she was coming closer. He looked up and saw his sister falling! She was falling out of the sky!
Shino started to run around and around. "What do I do? What do I do? I can't catch her! But if I don't she will get really hurt!" he thought. Sakura was almost to the ground now. Shino braced himself as he stood under her. He was going to try to catch her. He closed his eyes but he never felt her land on him. Instead, she was floating towards the ground. She landed gracefully, and started to grin.
"Sakura! What happened?" Shino asked. Sakura laughed. "That was so much fun! I sneezed and flew like fifty feet in the air!" Shino's eyes got big. "That's why you could fly the glider! You can control the wind too!" he exclaimed. "No duh Sherlock!" Sakura said sarcastically. Her brother stuck his tongue out at her.
Sakura turned away and saw something glinting it in the sun. She ran towards it and found that it was a mirror. It had symbols on it that looked like the ones on the glider. She took it back to where Shino was standing. "Was is that Sakura?" he asked. "It looks like a mirror." Sakura answered. Shino grunted. "Nothing cool about a stinky old mirror." He said walking back towards their house. Sakura ran to catch up with him. "But it has the same symbols that are on the glider!" Shino opened the backdoor. "Yeah and?" Sakura rolled her eyes, picked up the glider and went to her room.
"What a day. I found a glider. I found out that I could control water. I found out I could shoot fire from my hands and pull rocks from underground. I also found out that I could control the wind. What's next? I highly doubt this mirror will do anything special."
Sakura thought as she sat on her bed. She had the mirror in one hand and the glider in another. She looked at the mirror. It started to glow!
Sakura almost dropped it. She blinked to make sure she wasn't imagining things. Nope, the mirror was glowing! She put it down and touched the glass. She suddenly felt funny, liked she was being sucked in. Wait! She was being sucked in! She tried to scream for help but nothing came out.
There was a blinding light and then she was dropped on the ground. "Where am I?" she thought. She looked around. The glider was on the ground next to her and she was in a forest. She could hear the sound of hammers pounding in the distance. There was a pond next to her. Ducks with turtle shells were playing in it! "Turtle shells on ducks? That can't be right!" she thought. A man walked by, and seeing her stopped. "Need help miss?" he asked. Sakura got up. His clothes were different! She looked down to see if she had any dust on her. Her clothes were different too! "Miss?" the man asked again. Sakura had completely forgotten that he was there. "Oh uh sorry." Sakura said. The man laughed. "Where are we anyway?" Sakura added. The man stared at her. "What did the Fire Nation capture you or something? We're in the Earth Nation! Our town is a simple mining town but we have been taken over by the Fire Nation. They use our coal for powering their navy war ships. One of these days we'll fight back!" The man walked away shaking his head.
"Fire Nation? Earth Nation? This has to be a dream!" Sakura thought. She walked a ways and found the mines the man had been talking about. Men were moving rocks with their hands and feet, just like she had done at home! Some other men were yelling at the workers. They were in army uniforms. They could shoot fire out of their hands too! "This has to be a dream. If it isn't then I found another world!"
