Here it is, my loyal Compass lovers and newbies alike! The first chapter of the Hourglass! Just an FYI: This does start off a teensey bit slow, so expect their trip to Middle Earth to happen, like, in the next chapter or something. But don't give up hope!
Liz - December 2nd - Colorado
The Shadow tattoo is still there. On my left shoulder. Usually, I'm not very fond of tattoos, but I guess I'm fine with it, because even though it comes with memories of a jerkface and bad decisions, it reminds me that Middle Earth wasn't a dream.
Not that I need reminding. I'll never forget what happened in Middle Earth. And my tattoo and castle token are proof enough for me. I also have my very magical Lord of the Rings book. Plus, we all still have our powers. At the beginning of the summer, I went to a lot of Hallie's fencing tournaments. Eventually, she quit fencing, because her room was getting kind of cluttered from the number of awards. Now she just practices.
The four of us went to the Renaissance fair in July. It was really hot, but we still had a lot of fun. While we were there, we watched an extremely skilled archer. He was really good, shooting things behind his back and all. Eddy decided he wanted to challenge him. And of course, Eddy won.
Iris helped out at the hospital all summer. She did discreetly use some of her healing magic on some of the patients, but there were some who she couldn't save. Instead, she tried to make their lives as painless and happy as possible before their time ran out. She also practiced some of her spells when there were only the four of us around, but not much of the explosive ones.
As for me, I decided to take kung fu classes (I'm half-chinese), because I wanted to improve my close-combat fighting skills. I'm definitely not as good as Eddy is at taekwondo, but I'm getting there. I mostly practice my shadewalking at night time, although sometimes it's fun to sneak around invisible and freak my brother out.
Even though Gandalf assured me that shadewalking wasn't going to have any... disastrous side-effects anymore, I'm still kind of iffy about it. I've only been practicing things that I already know, and none of the stuff I would normally use in combat. I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
Anyways... our summers were pretty exciting. But it was nothing compared to our time in Middle Earth. Even though it was filled with a lot of betrayal, fighting, etc. Even so, it was a great experience. I hope that next time we go there... we can actually enjoy it. Going to Middle Earth was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
Which is why I sighed when I walked through the doors of my high school. Another dull day. The weather matched my mood as well. Wet, snowy, and bleak. It was almost Winter Break (thank goodness), so that meant that second semester was almost over (yes!), which meant... finals (not so awesome).
Junior year hadn't been all that bad so far. I turned sixteen in August, so I could finally drive myself places. But junior year also means standardized tests and college prep. Fun...not. Everyone has been pushing me to choose a major, college, blah blah blah. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it. I can't think of anything. My friends are practically set on what they want to do in the future. Iris is going to medical school, Eddy's doing aerospace engineering (he's got an internship too!), and Hallie's thinking about going into bioengineering or nuclear weapons design- she can't decide.
As for me... I haven't the slightest idea.
I groaned, plopping my stuff down on my desk in first-hour AP Calc, slumping down in my seat, which was right next to Hallie's.
"What wrong with you? Did you stay up all night doing homework?" Hallie inquired, blue eyes looking at me quizzically.
I nodded. That wasn't the only reason I was feeling particularly gloomy today, but I didn't feel like elaborating. Hallie decided to leave me alone and the bell rang.
Our teacher, Ms. Tait, had us pass in our homework, and then she handed out the tests that we had taken last week. I held my breath. The test had been really hard, and even though I had studied as much as I could, I still didn't know the material very well. Alright, so I didn't study as much as I should have. But I seriously can't sit down and study. It's really hard for me.
80%. Great. I had just managed to get a B. I was barely holding on to my overall B in the class. I was going to have to get a really good grade on the math final if I wanted to keep my grade above a C. I took a look at Hallie's test, and she got a 92%. She was lucky... she could probably fail the math final and still get an A at the end of the semester.
After that, gave us a huge review packet that was due by the end of the week.
This day couldn't possibly get any worse, I thought.
AP Lit was alright. Except for the sense of impending doom that came over me when the teacher explained what the final was going to be like. A huge essay, plus a big multiple-choice test over all the books we read that semester. Ugh. I didn't even remember a lot of the books that we had read that year, except for Beowulf, because it was the inspiration for The Hobbit.
I had third hour off, so I tried to tackle my 10-page Calculus review packet. I worked on it until my eyes got tired of looking at numbers and I wanted to bang my head repeatedly on the library table.
So as you can imagine, I wasn't in a good mood when lunch rolled around.
As usual, Iris and Eddy strolled up to our table holding hands. Hallie plopped down a second later, looking exasperated. When I looked questioningly at her, she held up a huge AP Chem review packet. Yikes.
"I hate finals," Hallie moaned.
I rolled my eyes. "Who doesn't?"
"Hey," Iris said, as if she'd had an idea, "how about we get together this weekend and study?"
"That sounds great, Iris!" Eddy replied enthusiastically, squeezing her hand and smiling at her. Hallie and I mimed gagging. Those two were constantly giving me oogies.
"Yeah, how about we get together at the library on Saturday? We can get a study room and go get food when we're hungry," Hallie said.
"Sounds good to me," I muttered, still in a slightly bad mood, "What time do you want to meet?"
Iris finally looked away from Eddy. "How about ten o'clock?"
"That works for me," Eddy said, checking his phone. We all replied that it would work for us too.
During lunch, both Hallie and I tackled our review packets with pencil in one hand and a sandwich in the other. I knew that I was going to be getting a lot more review packets later today. Why had I decided to take so many AP classes this year? It was practically suicide...
I hate finals.
Iris - December 4th - Bleh.
I gave a long sigh. "You have defeated me, review packet," I said.
"Hey, don't be like that," Eddy said. "Here, let me help you." He looked over my trigonometry packet. "What do you need help with?"
"Everything," I said, leaning back in my chair and closing my eyes in frustration. It was fourth hour, and we were in the library.
"Use your notes to help you," Eddy said.
"Ugh, I don't even understand my own notes. I don't get any of this." I felt slightly guilty for taking out my frustration on Eddy. It wasn't his fault that today had been terrible. It was mostly because of orchestra today. I was the concertmaster (the best in the orchestra), which meant that I had a solo for the upcoming concert next week, and Ms. Palmer (the orchestra director) had been pointing out every little mistake that I made. It was really frustrating.
Of course, Eddy was there, so he understood. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend. "Well, how about we go to Starbucks after school? Not to study or anything. I think you just need to relax. It'll help you focus."
That sounded absolutely amazing. I could use a mocha. "That sounds great...thanks."
The rest of the day passed quickly. After a quick stop at my locker and telling Liz that I didn't need a ride home from her today after all (I usually drive myself to school, but my mom needed my car today), I hopped into Eddy's car and we headed to Starbucks.
When I got my peppermint mocha, and Eddy his cup of tea, we sat down at a corner table. It was really nice to just relax and not have to worry about the reason why my backpack was so heavy.
"Thanks Eddy," I said. "This was just what I needed."
He smiled. "Yeah, I figured."
"Sometimes I wish I could just go on vacation and not have to worry about finals."
"We could always pop back to Middle Earth," Eddy joked.
We fell silent for a moment. I subconsciously reached for my token, which was always in my pocket. "Do you...think we're actually going to go back?" I asked.
"I honestly don't know. I mean... we have these tokens, but we don't even know how to use them. I don't even know how many years have passed in Middle Earth, but I know it goes by much faster. It's only been nine months since we got back."
"You're right, but I wish we could go back," I said sadly. "I never got to see Arwen, and she and Aragorn have a son. And I want to know what happened to Haldir!"
"Same... but the only one who knows how to bring us back is Gandalf. I'm sure that Aragorn would have brought us back again if he knew how."
I was half afraid that they had already forgotten us. "Didn't Liz and Hallie go to Middle Earth a couple times this summer?" Liz and Hallie had apparently found out that they could visit Middle Earth by touching the pages of Liz's enchanted Lord of the Rings book. They would show up at the event that they pointed at, like the battle at Helm's Deep or Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday party. I still wasn't quite sure if they had been lying or not.
"That's what they said. I'm not sure I believe them. And even if what they said was true, they only went to the time during the War of the Ring."
"Good point." I sighed. "It's disappointing. Although... I'm not really sure if I actually want to go back."
"Why?" Eddy asked, making me a little hesitant to continue.
"Because... well... last time we were there, we had to save the world, and there were so many battles, and you almost died, and well... it wasn't exactly the magical visit to Middle Earth that I had imagined before."
"It might not have been what we imagined, but I think that we became better people because of it."
"That is true..." Our friendship had grown stronger. Eddy and I discovered that we cared about each other. But... I still wasn't sure. What if we were only called back because the world needed saving again?
"Look at the time," Eddy said, getting up and picking up his cup of tea. "I'd better get you home, or your mom will have my head."
Before I got into the car, Eddy gave me a hug. He was a lot taller than me. Seven inches taller, to be exact, at 5'7". But I felt safe in his embrace. "Hey, don't worry so much about everything."
I looked up into his eyes. I loved his eyes - they were such a bright blue. "Thanks Eddy. You're the best." We stood in the snow, which was beginning to come down again. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head, and I wished I could have stayed there forever.
Oh my goodness. #EdwirisForever. So, ya know, review and such. Remember, the Untold Tales is still going on, so make sure you tell us where we should go and who we should see!