The Power Within
By Vickie Winstanley
A/N: Hi. My name's Vickie (aka: Angel). This is my first fanfic on here. I have written another but it isn't up. Hope it is on soon though. Please say what you want about my fic. Complaints, suggestions, complements and comments all welcome. Thanks. (my trademark … a smiley with wings … hehe.)
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Chapter 1 An Eventful Day
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The sun rose on the small city of Kino, Japan. Angeline Itsuki (A/N: Pronounced: IT-SU-KI) would be waking soon; unaware of what the day would bring her way. Getting up to the sound of her alarm clock, she pressed the snooze button and got up. Unlike most 14-year-old girls, Angeline liked getting up in the mornings, mainly because she never knew what would happen. She got out of bed and went over to her wardrobe and opened the door.
A beautiful girl with silver hair and eyes looked back at her. Her skin glowed its usual white. She looked at herself for a little while then started getting dressed.
Today was the annual Dragon Flight Festival. It happened once a year in the month of July. There would be food stalls, games, fireworks and a parade in which a dragon lead. All the girls would dress in kimono's and the best looking girl would be crowned the Dragon Queen, something Angeline hoped would happen to her. Angeline only owned one Kimono but she believed it was the most beautiful. A silver silk backing with pink cherry blossom pattern. It also had matching pink sash and trims. She loved it. It had once belonged to her mother. When she passed away, she passed it onto Angeline.
Angeline's family owned a small vendor on the main road. Every day, Angeline and her two younger, twin brothers, Michel and Dean, would go to the vendor and work there from 4 to 6 when both parents were at their other jobs. Whatever they made within the two hour period was shared among them. Angeline, who usually works the most, got more than her two younger brothers. Today, she would be working on her own from 9 in the morning to mid-day. After that, she and her friend, Lucia, would walk around the festival, trying foods, playing games and buying things from the many small shops and vendors.
She got dressed in casual clothing of white strapless top with faded grey jeans and sneakers. She took the kimono out of the wardrobe, folded it up and placed it into a thin but broad box with the sash on top. She put the lid on and carried the box downstairs. She arrived in the kitchen to find her father near the stove, cooking, and her two younger brothers eating their breakfast at the table. Also at the table was a picture of her mother. Her mother had looked just like Angeline at her age.
"Morning all! Wonderful day for the Dragon Flight Festival, isn't it?" Angeline asked.
"Morning. Yes, it is a great day for the dragon festival, Angeline." Her father answered.
"Dad, I've told you. My names Angel. That's what everyone else calls me. Even the twins." Angel said to her father, pointing at he younger brothers.
"Yeah. Everyone does call her Angel dad." One of the twins said from the table, mouth full of food.
"Dean you little pig. Swallow before you talk." Angeline said in disgust.
The twin swallowed and said, "Dean? I'm Michel. And we call you our sister. Disgraceful."
"Yeah. Shame on you Angel." Dean said.
"Ok. You'd better eat fast." Angel said.
"Why?" Dean said, still chewing the bite of toast he just took.
"'Cause in about, I don't know, 10 seconds in going to strangle you both." Angel said, menacingly.
The boys looked at each other, grabbed a slice of toast each and ran upstairs to their rooms.
Sitting down in her own seat, she started eating her own breakfast of toast, rice and soup. Her father Sat down and joined her after 10 minutes of cooking. He sat down on her right and began eating his own breakfast.
"You know what you have to do with the shop this morning?" He asked her.
"Yeah. Are we going to have discounts today because of the festival?" Angel asked, picking up another piece of toast.
"Yeah. Let's say, 20 off. How's that?" her father answered, finishing his mouthful.
"Cool. I might start heading off dad. Get the vendor ready and stuff."
"Ok. I'll be there at noon to take over. After that, I want you home by 11. Got it?" her father advised her.
"Ok dad. Tell the twins to stay out of room and out of my stuff. Cya." Angel said getting up and walking towards the door.
Angeline picked up her bag, which contained her wallet, mobile phone, MP3 player, change for the stall and her make-up of lip-gloss, eye shadow and mascara. She also picked up the box with her kimono in it.
She made her way down the road and onto a tram, which lead to the main road. Getting off at the street next to the main road as to not be jostled by the crowd, she made her way down the usual alleyway that she always took to get to the vendor, mainly because it came out just before the vendor. But before she could open up, she had to go to a family friend to get the supplies, which included rice, seaweed, serving containers, a wok, water and tea.
Angeline took an exit from the alleyway and ended up in a narrow lane. She walked up to the third house on the left and knocked at the door. An elderly lady answered the door.
"Good morning, Mrs. Liao." Angeline said in a slightly louder voice than her usual tone.
"Ah, good morning Angeline. How are you?" Mrs. Liao greeted, offering to let Angel in.
"I'm good, thank you. I've just come to collect the supplies for the shop." Angel said, taking the offer and bowing politely.
Inside Mrs. Liao's house was old fashioned. Old sliding doors, wall scrolls with Japanese characters on them and bonsai tree's here and there. But her house was also modern having a dinning table and chairs, television and lamps.
Angeline's family had known Mrs. Liao since Angeline's mother had been young. She was just like a aunt or grandmother, Angel and her brothers could go to for advice or help. They were always welcome. Most of the boys Angel's age, and sometimes older, made fun of Mrs. Liao because of her walk. Mrs. Liao's feet had been bound when she was young. Mainly because it was all the rage and fashion when she was born. Angel didn't care how people looked on the outside. What she cared about was what was on the inside.
Angeline walked through the second sliding door on the right and into a narrow but long room with shelves on both sides. On the shelves were different boxes, ranging in sizes from very large on the top shelves to very small on the bottom shelves. Each box had a different colored label. On the back of the door was a sheet of paper with the nine different colors on it and their meanings. Angeline took out a list and then looked at the sheet of paper on the back of the door.
The first item on the list was rice. Looking at the paper, she saw rice had the color 'blue' labels. Looking on the many vast shelves, she saw a medium sized box with a blue sticker on it with the words 'RICE' written on it. Putting the box on the floor near the door, she went searching for the next item on the list, seaweed. Consulting the paper on the door again, the color 'green' was for seaweed. Kind of fitting, Angeline thought to herself looking for the box with the green label on it. Finding it with a bit of trouble since it was at the back of a shelf, she put it with the other box on the floor. Looking at the list again, she saw containers had a red label. She knew where these were, getting them would be the hard part since they were on the top shelf. Deciding to get it last, she looked at the list again and saw she needed a wok (A/N: A wok is an Asian fry-pan used for cooking fried rice in.). Again, she knew where this was. She walked over to a shelf at the far end of the room and took out a thin but large and heavy box off the shelf. Carrying it back to the place where the other boxes were, she saw water was next on the list. 'I'll get that when I leave' she thought. The last item on the list was tea. Once more consulting the paper on the door, she saw it was purple. Angeline knew where it was but didn't know what types to take so she just took a small box of each. Reading the labels, she saw she had taken 4 different types of tea, 'Green tea', 'Lemmon tea', 'Peppermint tea' and 'plain tea'. Remembering that she still had to get the containers, she took a stepladder from the far corner, set it up and climbed onto the top step to get the large box down. A little unbalanced from the height, Angeline managed to get the large box down and put it on the ground with the others.
Stacking the boxes in order of size with the biggest at the bottom, Angeline picked up the pile and walked out the door. when she got to the door, she dropped the boxes and went into the lounge room where Mrs. Liao was doing her Tai-Chi (A/N: Tai-Chi is a Chinese system of physical exercises designed especially for self-defense and meditation).
"Um … Mrs. Liao? Would I be able to take the water container (A/N: The kind of water container I am talking about is a large, cube shaped keg thing … I just don't know what it's called … )?" Angel asked from the door of the lounge room.
"Of course you can. Bring it back though." Mrs. Liao said, not looking at Angeline but continued her Tai-Chi movements.
Angeline thanked Mrs. Liao and walked back to the store room (A/N: the store room was the room that she got all the things out of) and took the clear container and a kettle. She took the container into the kitchen and filled it with water. The container was very heavy, which didn't help since she also had to carry the high pile of boxes and the kettle. Not wanting to disturb Mrs. Liao, Angeline put the water container on the bottom of the pile, picked the pile up with both hands, tried to balance the pile with one arm and picked up the kettle. This was a lot harder done than said. Angeline walked out of the old house, after saying goodbye to Mrs. Liao of course, and made her way back to the alleyway. Because of the high pile of boxes, visibility ahead was restricted. This led to her running into something, knocking both her, the boxes and the thing down. After opening her eyes, she saw the something was actually a someone. A very good looking, male someone.
"I'm so sorry." Angeline apologised over and over, rushing around and gathering up her boxes.
"Here, let me help you carry these." The stranger said picking up a couple of boxes.
"No, I couldn't ask you to do that." Angeline said behind her smaller pile.
"You couldn't ask, but I'm going to still going to help you." He said.
For the first time, Angeline got a good look at the stranger. He had black hair, green eyes and fair skin. He was wearing a dark blue button-up shirt and dark grey jeans with joggers. Without realizing it, she was staring at him.
"Um, are you ok?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah. Just thinking. Um, I'm not going far. Just around the corner. Ill show you."
The two walked together down and out of the alley, into the main road. Talking along the way, Angeline found out that the stranger's name was Eric Tomoe. He was 15 and went to a boarding school 'not near here'. Asking why he was here if he was at boarding school, he said he had to find a new pupil. Not questioning him further, they walked on. Totally unaware that they had walked past the vendor Angeline was meant to be working, they both ran back to the main road, Angeline totally embarrassed about what happened.
"Don't be so embarrassed. It could have happened to anyone." Eric said running just behind Angel.
Even though she was younger than Eric, she sure was faster. They both ran along the road and eventually came to the small street vendor. Panting heavily, Angel dropped the boxes behind the vendor ad looked at her watch for the time. 8:45 AM. Shoot, Angel thought to herself, I only have 15 minutes to get the place ready.
Turning to Eric, she said, "Can I get you anything? I have to repay you somehow."
"Um, sure. Why not," Eric said blushing slightly, "Here, I'll help you set up. I'm a pretty good cook. After that we can get something"
"Just what I need, competition." She said sarcastically, punching him in the arm.
"Oww, that hurt." He said back, rubbing the spot that Angeline had punched. Angeline just smiled mischievously.
Angeline put the wok on and started getting the ingredients out of the boxes while Eric was boiling water and cooking rice. Looking at her watch again, Angeline saw that it was 8:55 AM. They still had 5 minutes till she officially opened.
"How about I make us some tea?" she said to Eric.
"Sure. OK." He said back.
"What type do you want, peppermint, green, lemon or plain?" Angeline said, remembering the 4 types of tea she had picked out.
"Green tea please. Need any help?"
"Come on Eric, I'm not that dumb. I can make 2 cups of tea you know."
A little annoyed, Angel made 2 cups of tea, green tea for Eric and lemon tea for herself. Bringing the tea back to where they were sitting, Angel found that Eric had left leaving a note on his seat that read:
Dear Angeline,
I'm sorry I left. I had strict orders to find the person I was looking for and if I got distracted, I would be punished.
Whoa. What kind of school does HE go to. Military school? Angeline thought to herself after reading this bit. She continued on.
I can't see you again as I will never be coming back to Kino. I just wanted you to know that when I was with you, it felt like I was alive again. You made me happy and myself, something I haven't felt in a long time.
Goodbye.
From,
Eric Tomoe
XXXOOOXXX
Angeline had never felt like this. Her heart was broken. Why am I feeling this way about him? I mean, I only just meet him for Christ sake. Shaking this thought from her head, she got up and went to the front of the vendor to start serving the customers that were coming.
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"Hey, Lucia. I'm almost done here. Dad should be coming soon." Angeline said to her best friend across the counter.
"ok. Need any help?" Lucia asked her friend.
"No, I'm good. I'll meet you by the fairest-wheel (A/N: Yeah, that's right. I don't know how to spell fairest-wheel. ARGHHH. I spelt it wrong again.)."Angeline said serving a customer peppermint tea and rice balls.
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Angel got off work at 12:15 quite annoyed at her father for being late. She went back to Mrs. Liao's house to change into the kimono she had taken with her. She walked back to the vendor and left her normal clothing with her father. Angeline walked through the streets towards the enormous wheel that loomed in the distance. Walking through the busy streets, she could hear short snippets of other peoples conversations. She heard one man talking to another about the latest soccer match between Japan and England. She herd a group of girls talking about the latest CD of someone called 'Liam Harrison'. The next one she heard was very strange.
"Have you found her yet?" a voice said out of nowhere.
"Not yet Professor Helenia (A/N: Pronounced: HELEN-IA). Soon though." A boy said in a voice Angel remembered well. It was Eric.
Angeline turned to find Eric talking to what looked like a phone but it was larger.
"Eric? That you?" Angeline asked.
The boy turned to reveille that her guess was correct. The boy talking on the phone was Eric. He caught sight of her and ran for it. Angeline just raced after him. The crowd wasn't helping the chase either. Angeline repeatedly shouted out his name to try and get his attention but failed. Having no choice but to follow and find out what was going on, Angeline pushed on.
"Can you please just stop and talk?" Angeline said, still running after Eric.
Eric didn't reply, he just kept running, dodging the passer-bys. He turned into an alleyway and continued running. Running after him, she saw that there was a fork in the road. Not know which way he went, she started to cry. She fell to her knees and started to do something she had never done before. She began to glow a silver color and the world around her began to shift and move. Angeline wasn't aware of this because she had her eyes closed. She then opened her eyes and found herself in a place she had never been before. It was beautiful. She was in a clearing of pine trees. She started to panic. She didn't know how she had gotten there. Getting to her feet, she looked around, trying to find a pathway or hear a car or truck pass by. There was no sound or no path. Just the sound of her feet on the green grass below and her breathing. She then saw something in the corner of her eye. A person. It cant have been because they were glowing. Well whatever it was, it was gone now. Angeline then heard a voice. It wasn't out loud, but in her head.
"Welcome Angeline." It said.
"Welcome to where?" she replied.
"To the realm of Magix of course."
TO BE CONTINUED …
A/N: Well, that's it. Chapter One. I will be uploading the next chapter soon hopefully. Rate and Review. All reviews welcome, no matter what they are.