Chapter 2
The girl ran. The ground was cracked and dry, no plant life in sight. The early morning light made it easier to see the jagged boulders that dotted the terrain. The only problem was, so could the man chasing her.
He was a sorcerer and she had the thing he was after, the Snake Cross Amulet. Its power was great, greater than any other magical item she had ever encountered. And if this bad guy got it, the world would be toast.
She looked at the amulet she clutched so tightly. It was like a cross necklace, but the cross was made of two snakes slithering across each other. The snakes were light blue and glowed in the dim light. A black chain protruded from the mouth of the longer snake.
She had been running for hours, hiding when she could, but always being found by her enemy. But at last, she was almost to the meeting point where her friends would help her. She could not fight the sorcerer on her own. He was too strong. She had barely managed to get away with stealing the Snake Cross Amulet.
She skidded to a stop. She had lost her way in the dark. She had almost run off the edge of a cliff, which had been invisible in the morning light.
Where had she lost her way? How far off course was she? She could not worry about that now. She would have to continue running until she could find a safe hiding place to contact the others.
As she looked for a way down, she heard a thump behind her. A knot forming in her stomach, she turned around. The beast had landed. It was massive, five times her size. Its body was like that of a lion, except for its black fur. And its head was like that of a bird with black feathers. Huge bat wings sprouted out of its back, allowing the creature to fly. Around its neck was a silver collar with reins attached. But it was the man holding the reins that had formed the knot.
Everything about this guy was white, from his hair, to his eyes, to his robes. He had changed his appearance to appear more pure. In fact, purity was the cause of this whole thing. He decided that the world was not pure enough and must be destroyed and recreated in his image. The Snake Cross Amulet would give him the power to do so. The girl hid the amulet inside her shirt. She put the chain around her neck so she could avoid loosing it easier.
"Give me the amulet and your death will be quicker and less painful." the man said.
Without warning, the girl stretched her soul at the man and hit him with it. She'd had the power to fight with her soul for as long as she could remember. It did not damage to the body, but to the soul instead.
The force of the blow knocked the man off his steed. He stood up and shot a blast of lightning at the girl. She ducked and mirrored the blast at him. While he was distracted, she ran at him and kicked at his head. The impact made his neck pop and caused him to stumble backwards. She stole the opportunity to put her hands on his shoulders and pull him into her raised knee. Then she pushed him away and ran along the edge of the cliff to find a way down.
It was a moment before Tempistus could straighten himself and shoot another blast of lightning at the girl. He was dizzy and his aim was off, causing the bolt to hit the ground next to the girl's feet.
The ground exploded next to the girl's feet, throwing her off the edge of the cliff. There was one thing she could do to save herself, although it would take the rest of her energy. She would have to hope she landed safely when she passed through. A purple beam shot from her outstretched hands and stopped somewhere between the girl and the ground. A portal opened up and she fell through, going into another world. As the gateway was complete, she lost consciousness. As she fell through the sky of a new world, the black chain slipped from around her neck and the amulet was separated from her.
Tempistus looked over the edge of the cliff to make sure his enemy had fallen. Instead, she merely created a portal to another world.
Damn. He thought. He'd have to go in after her. No time to remount his beast. The portal was closing. He jumped off the cliff and into the portal just as it closed.
Pain cut through his right wrist as he passed through. Tempistus cried out in pain and grabbed his wrist with his good hand, only to discover that his right hand was no longer there. The portal had closed up on his hand, leaving it behind.
---
A teensie was inside the fairy Counsel, sweeping around the heart
of the world. The giant orb of energy glowed brightly and small orbs of magic circled around it like planets around the sun.
He paused from his work to look up through the roof. There was a hole the size of the heart to let the energy leak through and keep the room from overflowing with it. Dawn's first light could be seen in the pale sky, but the sun was not yet high enough for any other light in the room.
A black speck appeared in the sky. It got larger and larger until the teensie was able to make out the form of a sleeping humanoid girl falling towards the heart. Before he could react, the girl fell directly into the heart. The light intensified until no shadow existed in the room and immediately restored itself as the girl was shot out into a wall.
---
She opened her eyes. What happened? Where was she? She sat up and leaned against a stone wall. A wall? She looked around. She was in a room with stone walls, stone pillars to hold up the ceiling, and a giant, glowing orb in the middle. In the middle of the ceiling was a hole to reveal the midmorning sky.
Also in the room, were little, green men with black eyes and noses bigger than the rest of their heads.
"She's alive!" one of them exclaimed.
"What happened?" the girl asked.
"You fell into the heart of the world. You're lucky to be alive right now." one of the men said.
"What?" the girl asked, trying to make sense of what they were saying.
"What is your name?" asked another.
"I'm..." she stopped. She could not remember what her name was. She couldn't remember anything. "I don't know. I can't remember."
"Can you remember anything?"
She shook her head. "No."
The man pushed forward another man. "You saw the whole thing, you tell her what happened."
The third man approached the girl. "We are the teensies. I saw you fall into the heart of the world" he pointed to the glowing orb in the middle of the room, "while you were sleeping. You were flung out and your physical form was changed in the process. The heart does this when someone touches it. It turns them into either a random form or a particular form it wants them to be. We don't know which. But most people die when they hit the wall. Only one in every thirty is predicted to survive."
"You've let thirty people touch that thing?" the girl pointed to the glowing orb.
"No, that's just what has been predicted. If it helps you to remember at all, you used to have limbs." the third teensie said.
"What?" the girl looked at her hands only to see that they were unattached to any arms and her feet were unattached to any legs. She felt for a neck but there was nothing there either. Her nose was now as big as the noses of the teensies. She couldn't remember what it used to look like, but it felt wrong now.
Her heart pounded, but she tried to stay calm. "How do I change back?"
"We don't know." the teensie said. "But when you fell, someone sensed a magical item fall into another area. We think it might be yours. But they also sensed an evil fall as well, seeming to move in the direction of the magic item. If you beat him to it, you might be able to use its power to change yourself back to your original form."
"Where did it fall?" she asked.
"In the Desert of the Knaaren. We would take you there personally with our transportation system, but it has been under construction for a few weeks and won't be ready in time. You'll have to find another way."
"Okay." Still shaken and confused, the girl stood up and made her way to the door that opened up in the wall.
"Good luck...um...what should we call you?" a fourth teensie asked.
Instinctively, her hand went to her chest, where it touched a charm. She took it in her hands and saw a golden "D" hanging from a golden chain around her neck. Maybe it was the first letter of her name. Though what it could be, she couldn't imagine.
"Call me 'D'." She said. "At least until my mind has cleared enough to think of something better."
"Good luck, D." the teensie said.
With her new, temporary name, D turned and left the room, embarking on her quest to find a magical item she didn't know anything about or what it looked like in a place she didn't know how to find, before an evil that she didn't know how to stop.
---
It was noon now. D had been walking for hours. She didn't even know if she was going in the right direction. She had forgotten to ask the teensies about that one little detail before leaving. Too late to go back now. She was completely lost in the middle of nowhere.
She stopped and sat down against a tree. At least the weather was nice. Warm, but not too hot. Giant trees scattered as far as she had been walking and God only knew how much further. The branches swayed slightly in the cool breeze, making the leaves brush against each other in a soothing rhythm.
Her eyelids became heavy as she realized just how tired she was. She felt as if she had
been running the whole day. What happened before she fell? Her mind stayed on this thought
until it finally slipped into a deep sleep.