Okay, so there's been a glut of "I've been Chosen from the real world and
taken to Valdemar" stories lately, but I do have to add mine in to the mix,
sorry. This story is more for me than for anyone else, but I do hope you
enjoy it. No flames please, but kind reviews are always welcome.
Disclaimer- Unfortunately, I do not own Valdemar, Companions, Heralds, etc.
Mercedes Lackey does. I do own Molly and all my original characters though,
so don't steal them (not that you'd want to).
Chapter One
I shuffled quietly into my sixth hour, holding my binder and Calculus book close to me and looking down at the ground as to avoid the worried glances and the concern of the other students. I really wasn't in the mood for their pity, no matter their good intentions.
~How could he say those things?~ I asked myself silently as I sat down in my desk at the front. I set down my books and attempted to find some way to lay my head on my desk and still be comfortable. ~I try so hard to make him happy and show him that I care about him.he doesn't care, he just doesn't care.~ I blinked rapidly, trying to hold back my tears as I remembered what had happened just a few minutes before.
I sat next to Chris, my ex-boyfriend, in fifth hour. We'd gone out for nearly a year and a half before he broke up with me about three months ago during the summer. We were still close. I was still in love with him. He said he still loved me, but he did so many things that he knew made me hurt.
My name is Molly. I'm a 17-year old junior in a high school in Illinois, and I'm also one of those people who always needs to be reassured, one of those irritating people that isn't ever confident with something they've done until people tell them it's good, one of those people who may sound like they're fishing for compliments but really need that encouragement or they'll feel worthless.
It doesn't help that I have no self-esteem, or that I can't stand to be rejected by people, or that I obsess about it when people don't like me, or.
I could go on all day about my faults. But at the moment, I was feeling like Chris, whom I still loved, couldn't stand to be around me, and it was making me miserable. It wasn't like the same thing hadn't happened before -- unfortunately, it was becoming more and more common. He feels like even though we're friends and he says he loves me, he can't let _anyone_ know about it - and I cringe at the thought that he's embarrassed of me, or just trying to fend me off by saying "Oh, I love you, don't worry." then not talking to me anymore except when he absolutely has to.
My relationships with people weren't doing well. I wasn't overly fond of my best friend Scott's girlfriend, and she decided to get all the people I was friends with (but not close friends with) to see all my bad points and start disliking me, as well as not invite me to things, etc. It made my best friend mad that I disliked his girlfriend and that there was tension between everyone. All because of me, or at least most people (including me) thought so.
I walked down the hallways of the school alone these days, and I tried not to be sad as I wished for someone that would be a true, honest friend and care about me just as much as I cared about them. It was really what I needed, but I was smart enough to realize that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
"Students and teachers, please excuse this interruption," the intercom said suddenly in the voice of one of our assistant principals. The administrators managed to interrupt class at least once an hour. "But can sophomore students with last names A through L please come down to the Commons for the PLAN test? They'll be gone the whole hour and will also be taking it first through third hour tomorrow. Thank you."
I curled up into a little ball in my desk, wishing I didn't sit in the very front so I could avoid everyone and my teacher wouldn't notice.
"Ok, everyone!" my Calculus teacher said cheerfully as she stepped up to the front of the room. She was a very youthful looking woman with gold- blonde hair that had a cute wave to it, and she dressed very well and always managed to look cute. We finally asked her how old she was one day. We expected that she was in her early 30's, but she was turning 40 this year!
"Section 4.2 today, but before we get started on that, check your answers for 4.1 with what I've got on the board over there-" she motioned to a large dry-erase board on the right side of the room next to the door, but I didn't bother to look. I hadn't done it, same as normal.
I rested my head on my desk so that my forehead and nose were flat on it and I was looking straight down at the fake wooden surface. I wished the school day would end so I could go home and sleep and try to forget about everyone, and daydream about leaving and going someplace wonderful and nice where I would always be happy. . . Like Valdemar.
Valdemar was a fantasy world in my favorite book series, and living in it was my usual daydream. That world had people called Heralds, who had magical horse-like beings called Companions. I dreamed and dreamed about going there, but mostly because of the Companions.
The Companions that bonded to Heralds would love them and support them and be with them forever. That kind of love and support was the thing I most desperately craved in my life, and for a while I'd thought I had it with my friends.
But I was slowly learning that people can't be trusted to do anything other than look out for themselves, and that fact depressed me more than I could ever say.
I suffered the rest of the way through math, trying not to draw any more attention to myself than need be. My teacher never called on people in class -- that was the way it was for me in most of my classes, actually. A teacher asked a question and whoever knew it answered halfheartedly, though sometimes it took some prodding on the teacher's part.
The bell finally rang for us to be let out of class, and I was the first one up and out the door, walking off to my locker with energy I didn't feel I had. I got there and opened the lock dispassionately and packed up my homework into my dark green bookbag (I really needed to clean it out). By that time, my locker-mates had arrived.
Scott was the first to see that I wasn't doing very well, and he knelt down next to me, concerned.
"Molly, you okay?" he asked, his sky blue eyes catching mine. His eyes somehow managed to change color all the time, between blue, gray, green, and brown, and most of the time combinations of those. I would catch his eyes sometimes and tell him that they were pretty today, and we would laugh.
"Yeah," I replied blandly, nodding and looking away from his eyes to zip up my book bag. I knew he'd know something was wrong. He always knew. But I didn't want to have to subject anyone else to my depression - at least, not at school, not in front of so many people.
He frowned in slight worry. "Will you call me and talk to me about it later?" he asked quietly, and I nodded again, still refusing to meet his eyes by keeping myself occupied with getting ready to leave. I stood and shouldered my backpack. It was heavy, as usual. One night it had weighed in at nearly 30 pounds -- quite a bit to my 100-pound self.
"I'm ready too, I'll walk with you," Scott offered, holding out his hand with a little smile to try to make me feel better. I gave him a small smile in return and I grabbed his hand and let him help me up. This was the way Scott was. He could always make me feel better, but he was careful not to let me get too dependent on him.
"Okay," I replied quietly. "My sister isn't here today, so we can just go." My little sister was a freshman, and I usually had to wait around for a little while to drive her home. She wasn't feeling that well today, so she'd stayed home with our mom to recover.
Scott and I walked over towards one of two sets of main stairways in the school, and as we did, I caught sight of Chris.
~He's way too attractive for his own good,~ I thought to myself as Scott and I walked down the hall. Chris was half-Asian, with tanned skin and black hair, but he had his American dad's eyes. He was tall and had that -look- about him that made people intrigued, had a beautiful baritone singing voice, and could play any instrument he picked up, though the ones he actually had experience player were guitar, drums, trombone, French horn, piano, and trumpet.
He was standing with a group of kids a year older than us -- they were his new group and he spent all his time with them now. He was popular for a "band geek" and everyone that knew him thought he was "cool."
Scott noticed which way I was looking and glanced over there himself. "C'mon," he urged after seeing who exactly I was looking at, and took my elbow and turned me towards the stairs. We walked down the two flights to the ground floor and exited through the door that went into the student parking lot and the chilly air outside.
I heard the breeze before I felt it, that soft rustling of the leaves in the trees being blown by an invisible force they could never comprehend, then the chilly winter air hit me and managed to find its way past my thick black coat and make me shiver. I loved the winter when it snowed, but before that, it was just irritating.
Scott and I walked towards the football field next to which my car was parked, but I heard Chris's laughter behind me as he and his friends came outside. I slowed down my walking speed -- I wanted desperately to look back at him, to see his smiles and wish that those smiles were for me, but I stopped myself before I did so.
"Want to go to Barnes and Noble or something?" I asked Scott quietly. I needed something to get my mind off Chris.
Scott smiled and nodded. "Sure. I'll give you a call later, okay?"
I nodded as well and gave him a small smile as well, and then the two of us began walking again.
Suddenly, a flash of something white and moving quickly in the corner of my field of vision caught my eye, and I turned to see what it was.
A. . . horse? Here? In the middle of the city? I blinked and reached up to rub my eyes, then shook my head slightly and looked again. It was still there. A pure white horse.
"What-" Scott saw it too, and looked just as confused as I did. I heard some commotion from behind me and I glanced back to see Chris and his friends jogging towards me.
"Is that a _horse_?" Chris asked me as he stopped his jog. We were standing in the parking lot nearest the school, and the horse was rapidly approaching us at a quick trot through the lot next to this one.
"I- I think so. . ." I replied dubiously. We were all in too much shock to say much else, and the creature got nearer and I got a better look at it.
It was the purest white all over, without a spot of any other color anywhere on its body. It had long legs and its mane and tail had been grown out, and they flared out behind it as it moved, the long white strands whipping back and forth in the breeze. There was practically no noise now except for the whining of the wind, for most activity had stopped as everyone outside noticed the creature there.
In the silence, I heard a quiet sound. . .
"Bells," I whispered, and glanced at the horse's hooves. Silver. Clean and shining and perfect silver hooves tapped against the asphalt as it trotted closer. "Could it-" I asked myself, and I looked.
"Blue eyes. . ." I whispered, then louder. "Blue eyes! It has blue eyes! And silver hooves, and it's pure white! It looks just like a Companion! Isn't it beautiful?" I was shocked out of my trance and, my eyes wide in delight at seeing such a beautiful creature so much like the ones in my stories, I approached the horse as he trotted closer, walking cautiously. The creature must have been frightened from all the cars and people, but he didn't seem like it. In fact, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing as he stepped closer to me and we both stopped moving.
:I came here for you,: I heard a masculine voice say as I reached out tentatively to touch the horse's soft nose. I would look back later and realize that I hadn't really _heard_ the voice -- and that none of my friends had moved or even looked like they heard when the voice spoke.
:But I do realize that these aren't really the normal circumstances, seeing as I was Gated here to find you. You grew up in a place wildly different from where I come from -- but your good heart and soul Called me to you. But-: the voice paused, and I reached over to slide my hand along the smooth white neck. I noticed for the first time the blue bridle and saddle that the horse was wearing. :But I will not take you away unless you wish to. Will- will you come back to Valdemar with me, Molly?:
I could hardly believe my ears. I hoped that it was a wonderful dream that I would never, ever wake from, because it was beyond belief that it could actually be real. "I will," I replied, my voice shaking and scratchy. I cleared my throat. "Yes, I- I will go with you, Nyoka." Somehow, _somehow_ I knew that Nyoka was his name -- and that he truly was a Companion of Valdemar that had come to take me with him.
I finally found the courage to meet his eyes, and when I did, it was more, so much more than all the Valdemar stories had said. It was a joy beyond anything I had ever experienced, a happiness that I would hold in my soul for the rest of my life, a joining of two creatures destined to be one. All the holes and hurts in my heart were healed in that one blinding, precious moment, and tears sprang to my eyes. Then, at last, I heard the words I had dreamed of hearing for three years, ever since I had first picked up "Arrows of the Queen."
:Then I, Nyoka, Companion of Valdemar, have not traveled so far and so long in vain. I Choose you, Molly, and I am happy beyond words that you have decided to come with me!:
"So am I," I whispered through my tears of joy, and I buried my face in his smooth neck and wrapped my arms around him, unconscious and uncaring about the stares I was receiving from all the people around us.
Chapter One
I shuffled quietly into my sixth hour, holding my binder and Calculus book close to me and looking down at the ground as to avoid the worried glances and the concern of the other students. I really wasn't in the mood for their pity, no matter their good intentions.
~How could he say those things?~ I asked myself silently as I sat down in my desk at the front. I set down my books and attempted to find some way to lay my head on my desk and still be comfortable. ~I try so hard to make him happy and show him that I care about him.he doesn't care, he just doesn't care.~ I blinked rapidly, trying to hold back my tears as I remembered what had happened just a few minutes before.
I sat next to Chris, my ex-boyfriend, in fifth hour. We'd gone out for nearly a year and a half before he broke up with me about three months ago during the summer. We were still close. I was still in love with him. He said he still loved me, but he did so many things that he knew made me hurt.
My name is Molly. I'm a 17-year old junior in a high school in Illinois, and I'm also one of those people who always needs to be reassured, one of those irritating people that isn't ever confident with something they've done until people tell them it's good, one of those people who may sound like they're fishing for compliments but really need that encouragement or they'll feel worthless.
It doesn't help that I have no self-esteem, or that I can't stand to be rejected by people, or that I obsess about it when people don't like me, or.
I could go on all day about my faults. But at the moment, I was feeling like Chris, whom I still loved, couldn't stand to be around me, and it was making me miserable. It wasn't like the same thing hadn't happened before -- unfortunately, it was becoming more and more common. He feels like even though we're friends and he says he loves me, he can't let _anyone_ know about it - and I cringe at the thought that he's embarrassed of me, or just trying to fend me off by saying "Oh, I love you, don't worry." then not talking to me anymore except when he absolutely has to.
My relationships with people weren't doing well. I wasn't overly fond of my best friend Scott's girlfriend, and she decided to get all the people I was friends with (but not close friends with) to see all my bad points and start disliking me, as well as not invite me to things, etc. It made my best friend mad that I disliked his girlfriend and that there was tension between everyone. All because of me, or at least most people (including me) thought so.
I walked down the hallways of the school alone these days, and I tried not to be sad as I wished for someone that would be a true, honest friend and care about me just as much as I cared about them. It was really what I needed, but I was smart enough to realize that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
"Students and teachers, please excuse this interruption," the intercom said suddenly in the voice of one of our assistant principals. The administrators managed to interrupt class at least once an hour. "But can sophomore students with last names A through L please come down to the Commons for the PLAN test? They'll be gone the whole hour and will also be taking it first through third hour tomorrow. Thank you."
I curled up into a little ball in my desk, wishing I didn't sit in the very front so I could avoid everyone and my teacher wouldn't notice.
"Ok, everyone!" my Calculus teacher said cheerfully as she stepped up to the front of the room. She was a very youthful looking woman with gold- blonde hair that had a cute wave to it, and she dressed very well and always managed to look cute. We finally asked her how old she was one day. We expected that she was in her early 30's, but she was turning 40 this year!
"Section 4.2 today, but before we get started on that, check your answers for 4.1 with what I've got on the board over there-" she motioned to a large dry-erase board on the right side of the room next to the door, but I didn't bother to look. I hadn't done it, same as normal.
I rested my head on my desk so that my forehead and nose were flat on it and I was looking straight down at the fake wooden surface. I wished the school day would end so I could go home and sleep and try to forget about everyone, and daydream about leaving and going someplace wonderful and nice where I would always be happy. . . Like Valdemar.
Valdemar was a fantasy world in my favorite book series, and living in it was my usual daydream. That world had people called Heralds, who had magical horse-like beings called Companions. I dreamed and dreamed about going there, but mostly because of the Companions.
The Companions that bonded to Heralds would love them and support them and be with them forever. That kind of love and support was the thing I most desperately craved in my life, and for a while I'd thought I had it with my friends.
But I was slowly learning that people can't be trusted to do anything other than look out for themselves, and that fact depressed me more than I could ever say.
I suffered the rest of the way through math, trying not to draw any more attention to myself than need be. My teacher never called on people in class -- that was the way it was for me in most of my classes, actually. A teacher asked a question and whoever knew it answered halfheartedly, though sometimes it took some prodding on the teacher's part.
The bell finally rang for us to be let out of class, and I was the first one up and out the door, walking off to my locker with energy I didn't feel I had. I got there and opened the lock dispassionately and packed up my homework into my dark green bookbag (I really needed to clean it out). By that time, my locker-mates had arrived.
Scott was the first to see that I wasn't doing very well, and he knelt down next to me, concerned.
"Molly, you okay?" he asked, his sky blue eyes catching mine. His eyes somehow managed to change color all the time, between blue, gray, green, and brown, and most of the time combinations of those. I would catch his eyes sometimes and tell him that they were pretty today, and we would laugh.
"Yeah," I replied blandly, nodding and looking away from his eyes to zip up my book bag. I knew he'd know something was wrong. He always knew. But I didn't want to have to subject anyone else to my depression - at least, not at school, not in front of so many people.
He frowned in slight worry. "Will you call me and talk to me about it later?" he asked quietly, and I nodded again, still refusing to meet his eyes by keeping myself occupied with getting ready to leave. I stood and shouldered my backpack. It was heavy, as usual. One night it had weighed in at nearly 30 pounds -- quite a bit to my 100-pound self.
"I'm ready too, I'll walk with you," Scott offered, holding out his hand with a little smile to try to make me feel better. I gave him a small smile in return and I grabbed his hand and let him help me up. This was the way Scott was. He could always make me feel better, but he was careful not to let me get too dependent on him.
"Okay," I replied quietly. "My sister isn't here today, so we can just go." My little sister was a freshman, and I usually had to wait around for a little while to drive her home. She wasn't feeling that well today, so she'd stayed home with our mom to recover.
Scott and I walked over towards one of two sets of main stairways in the school, and as we did, I caught sight of Chris.
~He's way too attractive for his own good,~ I thought to myself as Scott and I walked down the hall. Chris was half-Asian, with tanned skin and black hair, but he had his American dad's eyes. He was tall and had that -look- about him that made people intrigued, had a beautiful baritone singing voice, and could play any instrument he picked up, though the ones he actually had experience player were guitar, drums, trombone, French horn, piano, and trumpet.
He was standing with a group of kids a year older than us -- they were his new group and he spent all his time with them now. He was popular for a "band geek" and everyone that knew him thought he was "cool."
Scott noticed which way I was looking and glanced over there himself. "C'mon," he urged after seeing who exactly I was looking at, and took my elbow and turned me towards the stairs. We walked down the two flights to the ground floor and exited through the door that went into the student parking lot and the chilly air outside.
I heard the breeze before I felt it, that soft rustling of the leaves in the trees being blown by an invisible force they could never comprehend, then the chilly winter air hit me and managed to find its way past my thick black coat and make me shiver. I loved the winter when it snowed, but before that, it was just irritating.
Scott and I walked towards the football field next to which my car was parked, but I heard Chris's laughter behind me as he and his friends came outside. I slowed down my walking speed -- I wanted desperately to look back at him, to see his smiles and wish that those smiles were for me, but I stopped myself before I did so.
"Want to go to Barnes and Noble or something?" I asked Scott quietly. I needed something to get my mind off Chris.
Scott smiled and nodded. "Sure. I'll give you a call later, okay?"
I nodded as well and gave him a small smile as well, and then the two of us began walking again.
Suddenly, a flash of something white and moving quickly in the corner of my field of vision caught my eye, and I turned to see what it was.
A. . . horse? Here? In the middle of the city? I blinked and reached up to rub my eyes, then shook my head slightly and looked again. It was still there. A pure white horse.
"What-" Scott saw it too, and looked just as confused as I did. I heard some commotion from behind me and I glanced back to see Chris and his friends jogging towards me.
"Is that a _horse_?" Chris asked me as he stopped his jog. We were standing in the parking lot nearest the school, and the horse was rapidly approaching us at a quick trot through the lot next to this one.
"I- I think so. . ." I replied dubiously. We were all in too much shock to say much else, and the creature got nearer and I got a better look at it.
It was the purest white all over, without a spot of any other color anywhere on its body. It had long legs and its mane and tail had been grown out, and they flared out behind it as it moved, the long white strands whipping back and forth in the breeze. There was practically no noise now except for the whining of the wind, for most activity had stopped as everyone outside noticed the creature there.
In the silence, I heard a quiet sound. . .
"Bells," I whispered, and glanced at the horse's hooves. Silver. Clean and shining and perfect silver hooves tapped against the asphalt as it trotted closer. "Could it-" I asked myself, and I looked.
"Blue eyes. . ." I whispered, then louder. "Blue eyes! It has blue eyes! And silver hooves, and it's pure white! It looks just like a Companion! Isn't it beautiful?" I was shocked out of my trance and, my eyes wide in delight at seeing such a beautiful creature so much like the ones in my stories, I approached the horse as he trotted closer, walking cautiously. The creature must have been frightened from all the cars and people, but he didn't seem like it. In fact, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing as he stepped closer to me and we both stopped moving.
:I came here for you,: I heard a masculine voice say as I reached out tentatively to touch the horse's soft nose. I would look back later and realize that I hadn't really _heard_ the voice -- and that none of my friends had moved or even looked like they heard when the voice spoke.
:But I do realize that these aren't really the normal circumstances, seeing as I was Gated here to find you. You grew up in a place wildly different from where I come from -- but your good heart and soul Called me to you. But-: the voice paused, and I reached over to slide my hand along the smooth white neck. I noticed for the first time the blue bridle and saddle that the horse was wearing. :But I will not take you away unless you wish to. Will- will you come back to Valdemar with me, Molly?:
I could hardly believe my ears. I hoped that it was a wonderful dream that I would never, ever wake from, because it was beyond belief that it could actually be real. "I will," I replied, my voice shaking and scratchy. I cleared my throat. "Yes, I- I will go with you, Nyoka." Somehow, _somehow_ I knew that Nyoka was his name -- and that he truly was a Companion of Valdemar that had come to take me with him.
I finally found the courage to meet his eyes, and when I did, it was more, so much more than all the Valdemar stories had said. It was a joy beyond anything I had ever experienced, a happiness that I would hold in my soul for the rest of my life, a joining of two creatures destined to be one. All the holes and hurts in my heart were healed in that one blinding, precious moment, and tears sprang to my eyes. Then, at last, I heard the words I had dreamed of hearing for three years, ever since I had first picked up "Arrows of the Queen."
:Then I, Nyoka, Companion of Valdemar, have not traveled so far and so long in vain. I Choose you, Molly, and I am happy beyond words that you have decided to come with me!:
"So am I," I whispered through my tears of joy, and I buried my face in his smooth neck and wrapped my arms around him, unconscious and uncaring about the stares I was receiving from all the people around us.