Grandma lived on a Lavender farm. She was getting old now, but she always kept busy. Her hair is gray with streaks of silver through it and her eyes are the same colour as mine. A deep blue. Grandma always knows what to do in any situation. She understands me and is always calm about everything even when everyone else is scared or worried. That is the main reason I decided to go to her for help.

My family is Cherokee. Well, most of my family is Cherokee. My mother divorced my father when I was five years old I arrived at Grandma's lavender farm. Almost immediately I could smell the lovely scent. I loved the way lavender smelt so good, especially when I am feeling worried. I pulled up in Grandma's driveway and walked up onto the front porch. I grabbed the door handle expecting it to be open, but the door was locked. That's when I noticed a pink sticky note stuck on the top of the door. It said'

Gone to the Finley Mountains to meditate.

Be back in a few hours.

oxox

Grandma always knew if I was coming. Lucky for me, grandma had always taken me up to the Finley Mountains when I was younger to explore. So I knew my way around the rocky surroundings. I started off towards the large mountains. It wasn't a long walk before I found grandma. She was sitting by the flowing stream. She liked this stream because it was a peaceful place to relax and meditate.

"Grandma" I asked.

"Oh, Zoeybird, I wasn't expecting you to visit me." She replied with a surprised reaction.

"What brought you here?

"I ….I…."

"What's wrong darling?" Grandma asked with concern.

"I have a BIG problem"

As soon as I said that, Grandma opened her eyes and turned around to face me.

"Oh my" Grandma gasped. She had to pick her jaw up off the ground

"You do have a problem don't you."

"Oh grandma, please help me. I have no clue of what to do?" I said desperately.

Talking to grandma and offloading my problems had started to calm me down and my voice had calmed down, but it hadn't solved my problem.

"Zoey, I can tell that you already know what is going to happen" Grandma exclaimed wisely after composing herself.

"I just didn't know who else I could talk to. Things wouldn't go very well if I went home and showed mum." I told Grandma.

"I understand what you mean."

Grandma had gotten out of her meditating position and was now standing beside me. She took my hand and it felt warm and comforting like I always remembered. We had just started walking back along the narrow path towards her Lavender farm when I felt something in front of me. I went to lift my leg to step over it because there wasn't enough room to go around it. That was about the moment when I tripped over the large rock in the ground and fell.

"You must be Zoey" said a voice that sounded like I was from the heavens.

"Am I dead?" I asked because I was now floating in mid air.

"No" laughed the voice "You have just separated from your body. That's all."

My mouth hung open in shock. The owner to the voice materialised in front of me. She looked so beautiful.

"I need you to do me a favour" she explained.

Then just as the weird guy in the black cloak did, the woman faced me and I felt the burning sensation on my forehead. This time it wasn't as painful.

"Now I must be going" She said as she began to disappear.

"Wait! What's your name" I called.

"My name is Nyx" she replied.

I was hoping that Nyx had made the mark disappear, but I highly doubted it. That was when I floated back to my body.

I was awake but I hadn't opened my eyes yet. I heard two different voices speaking to each other. One of which I recognised. That one was my grandma's. The other voice was like no other I had heard before. It sounded so beautiful, so intriguing.

"She has started to stir" exclaimed the strange voice with relief.

"Zoey, are you awake sweetie." I did recognise grandma's voice.

I slowly opened my eyes to see grandma and the owner to the voice I didn't recognise standing over the top of me. The woman I didn't recognise was beautiful. Her hair was a black that was darker than midnight when the clouds cover up the moon. Her eyes were just as intriguing as her voice. They were a dark brown with hints of gold. I had to stop looking at them so I didn't go dizzy. Instead I looked at the rest of her. She was very thin, but she looked very graceful. Even her smile was kind. Grandma was knelt down beside me.

"Zoey darling are you awake?"

"Yep" was all I could manage to get out of my mouth.

I tried to sit up, but the strange woman pushed me down.

"You need to conserve you energy Zoey. You will need it"

"Who are you?" I said weakly.

"I am Neferet. I am the High Priestess at House of Night. That is where you are at the moment. When Neferet said that, I looked around the room. It wasn't very big and it reminded me of an infirmary. This time I successfully pushed myself up so I was sitting on the small bed that they put me on.

"I must be in the infirmary."

"That's right" said Neferet.

I hadn't even realised I had said that aloud. That's when I remembered why I was here. My hand flew up to my forehead. Neferet got up and grabbed a small mirror from the cupboard underneath the sink.

"Here have a look." Neferet said encouragingly.

I took the mirror off of her and pushed my long fringe back into the bobby pins that were still sitting in my hair where I had left them. I held the mirror up to my face and gasped.

"Oh my, it wasn't like that before"

My mark had been coloured in a bright sapphire blue. It was just an outline before.

"She did it. She coloured in my mark." I said as it all came back to me.

"Who did?" Neferet said while looking totally confused.

"I thing she said her name was Nyx" I explained.

"Nyx is our goddess. We follow her." Neferet explained to me with relief on her face.

"Well that explains how she made me float out of my body and into mid air." I told grandma.

"WHAT! Are you ok? Did she hurt you?" Grandma exclaimed with concern.

"Don't worry. Nyx would never hurt one of our fledglings." Neferet explained to grandma while trying to calm her down.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." I said with a smile on my face. "And I am feeling much better too."

Oh my, look at the time" grandma said while checking her gold watch.

"I will have to get going. I still have to explain this all to your mother. I will come back later with a bag of clothes for you. Goodbye Zoey." Grandma bent down and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Bye" I said.

Grandma picked up her bag and headed out the door which I guessed led the way out.

"Now Zoey, I have to get back to my class so when you are ready you can go and have a look at your room. You will be sharing it with Stevie- Rae. You room number is 34. Walk down the hall and turn right. Then you will come to three doors. You need to go into the left door. That is the girl's dorm. The boy's dorm is on the right and the basement is through the middle door. Have you got that?" Neferet rattled off the directions like she knew this place like the back of her hand. For all I knew she probably did.

"I think so" I answered.

Then Neferet turned around and walked out of the same door that grandma did. The sound of her shoes clicking down the hall echoed throughout the room. Now I was all alone.