Chapter 1: The Swamp
Earth confuses me in ways only the spirits could ever understand. Mother always told me I had more in life to live for when I was a child. Maybe I do have more to live for. Somehow I do not see myself doing anything of importance here on Earth. Only my brother and his queen rule Earth. We need more than one authority of stupidity. There was a reason we had other intelligent life back home. Balance.
~Princess Aura of EARTH BARANSU No Where
Link opened his ice blue eyes to the sunlit walls of his bedroom. He shielded the sun from his eyes while they adjusted to the brightness. Stretching out his arms, he kicked his feet sideways off the bed towards the floor. With a great night sleep and a new day available it looked like things were looking up, for once.
It had been planned that his friend, Allison, and him would walk around town. The two were close friends, but nothing more than that. Someone else caught his eye for the matter of more than 'just friends'. Across from his bed, on the wall, was a mirror and dresser. Link walked over stretching his toes and looked at his reflection. He noticed his hair was standing on end in every which way, “Oh well.”
With a back roll of his shoulders and a shake of his dirty blond hair, he walked over to his bed-stand. He gave a glare at the liquor bottle on the wood and tossed it in the trash. The bottle shattered and he cursed at himself for not thinking before doing what he did. Nothing could be done about it now and he made a mental note to take the trash out tonight. Quickly he picked up his cellphone of the bed stand and continued back over to his dresser. He randomly grabbed out a brown camo t-shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans jeans before slamming the drawer shut. Without a care in the world he sprinted down the stairs from his bedroom;jumping off the last few, he grinned to himself. It was the end of summer and that meant the last few minutes of adventure.
“Hey, where you going?”
Link looked behind him to see his younger sister, Lisa, sitting on her bed. Their house was fair sized, but with four kids and two parents bedrooms became scarce. That made his and his brother bedrooms upstairs and his sister had room bellow with just the staircase to separate the two rooms, “Going to hang out with my friend. Why you do care?”
Lisa flicked her long dirty blond hair with her hand, “Cause I asked.” The annoying sister-like teasing voice flowed from her pale lips
“Cause I can,” he mocked his sister as he went to grab something to eat. Before anyone could say anything he had grabbed the food and scarfed it down his throat. Putting the bowl and spoon into the sink he ran out the door. Barely off his street he got a text from Allison:
Can u hurry up? Waiting @ pool
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Allison sat outside the pool area and waited for one of her best friends. The grass was still a bit damp from the night left behind. Today was Monday and this meant it was the one day out of the week that the pool was closed. Also meant the one day out of the week her and her friends weren't at the pool swimming. This had made her decide to hang out with at least one of them. She needed to talk to him about basic things. Maybe not so basic things. “Sheesh, what’s taking him so long?”
The 4”9’ teenager blew her crimson red bangs from her face and leaned her back against the brick wall. She wore one of her favorite outfits, a black tank top with red skinny jeans and a black head band. The shirt had a collar to it that was white and just visible between was a black chain choker with a cyan crystal heart attached to it. A sudden urge came upon her. As she listened to her iPod she decided to make the day one to be with all her friends. Pulling out her cell she sent a text to her best friends Vanessa, Zavier, and Marcus.
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Vanessa was combing her dark brunette hair when she got a text from her best friend, Allison: She quickly set her hairbrush to the side of her dresser. Pulling on a pair of black skinny jeans and a navy, baby doll shirt she read the text.
Hey guys wondering if ya wanted 2 walk around town with Link and me?
The teen landed backwards onto her blue camo bed cover. Her radio was blasting Linkin Park music as she punched in a reply to her best friend.
Where you meeting @?
The brunette put the iPhone into her back pocket before lying her head back on her pillow. She let thoughts of food wonder through her head while she listened to music and waited for a text back. Her thoughts had just gotten to soda types when the text message came in:
@ the pool, see ya soon V
Standing up on her bed and causally walked off the edge to the ground. The floor gave a thump as she landed. Hollow floors made awesome sounds. Her mother yelled a complaint from the living room, but it was to mumbled to truly hear. Quickly she ran back to her bathroom mirror and grabbed a silver necklace with a rose pendant. She opened her front bedroom door to see her mother and two younger siblings watching television in the living room. “Mama, Allison wants me to go hang out with her. Can you drive me over to the pool?” Her mother agreed to do so, but grumbled the whole way in the car while Vanessa looked boredly out the window.
By the time she got there Link was laying down on the grass playing some Hollywood Undead music with Allison beside him on the brick wall. Vanessa ran to Allison and the two hugged each other, “Made it! My mother was being a bitch though. Where we going?”
“No idea,” Link said with a smile before he went back to mouthing the lyrics to his song. Which by now was 'American Tragedy' by Hollywood Undead.
The red-head shrugged, “Just walk around town together. We're still waiting for Zavier and Marcus, but that's it. It's been awhile since we've all walked around together anyways. Anyone remember the swamp? We should go th-“
“As long as we’re doing something worth wild who cares?” The three friends turned to the direction of the voice. Two boys were coming down the cobblestone road.
Vanessa smirked and folded her arms, “Speak of the devils. If those two were ever on time I'd throw a party.” Allison gave out greetings to the two said with grin and hug.
The shorter, tanner boy of the two put his hands behind his head. “Sorry it took so long,” he gave a look to Marcus, “but slowpoke here forgot his phone at home, again. We had to go back to get it, again.” He had on a black shirt with a white skull on it with purple skinny jeans.
“I ran, this time,” Marcus crossed his arms with an irritated grunt. The group chuckled at his boyishness. He had a pair of black sunglasses on his messy brunette hair and his chocolate brown eyes gave a sparkle from the sunlight. His shirt was a pale yellow with a Xbox controller and the words Gamer Nerd embroiled on it. Most of the short was covered by a denim vest with the sleeves cut off. “You know we could just walk around from one place to another. I say we start with the swamp. It's been awhile since we all went down there. As Allisson said before.”
Link turned off his music and sat up from the grass, “Sounds good to me.”
“To be honest,” Marcus put his left hand to his short brunette hair, “as long as I can get home to play my new video game, I’m game for anything.” The group all chuckled and began to walk up the road.
They walked through the uncrowded streets laughing and joking about stuff that would happen when they got back to school next week. Link had begun to play more music and now him and Marcus were singing the lyrics in their loudest voices possible. A few cars that went by glared at the two, but they kept being rowdy. The two had their arms around each other and walked as if they were drunk. Nothing could possibly bring down their high spirits. Allison lead behind Marcus and Link with Vanessa. The two were conversing about some new store at the mall and a new band they had gotten into from the music it had been playing. Yet, Zavier seemed content just to walk with the group. He followed in the back with warm eyes but a straight unresponsive face.
After about a mile of twists and turns they got to a right turn only in the road. A forest sat behind them that continued to the left side of the road. Near the end of the road and forest was a smashed down pathway. There were large stones and weeds that grew along the beginning of the path. As the group got farther along the path the undergrowth became more and more overgrown. The sound of frog croaks became louder as they got closer to swamp. Allison turned her head to Vanessa and the two ran through the leaves and branches. The boys followed quickly behind. What they never knew was fate was laughing at their innocence.
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SPLASH
“Hey, I didn't come here to get a bath Zavier!”
The boy laughed and then said apologetically, “Oops, sorry Vanessa. I didn’t mean to mess up your do.” He made a motion towards her nicely straightened hair. “If you were sitting farther away you wouldn't have gotten any water on you.” V just sighed and looked at the ripples in the swamp from the stones the boys were tossing. Link and Marcus had come to make a game of who could skip the rocks farther into the swamp. So far, from what Allisson could tell, the two were neck and neck with each other at reaching the middle of it.
“V, it’s just water you know,” the red head commented trying to reason with her friend.
“I know but it ain’t just water. It’s just... It's disgusting.”
A frog sat on log to the far right of Vanessa and herself. If Allison had been any less sure she would have sworn it caught eyes with her and bowed it's head towards Vanessa. To make sure she shook her head slightly, but by that time she looked back at the log it had hopped onto a boulder behind Zavier. It gave a loud croak and everyone snapped their heads toward the grayish green amphibian. The frog croaked again and dived into the water. It reemerged onto another log floating in the swamp. The frog paused for a bit and once again caught eyes with Allisson. This time there was no mistake of the movement as it bowed it's head towards Link. Zavier must have been just as antsy as the rest of the group for he threw another rock into the swamp. Their eyes reverted to the frog again as it dived into center direct center of the swamp. The ripples grew larger like waves on a beach. Ripples continued from the same spot. They left behind a light from under the water. A beam of some sort if Allisson could name it “What’s that?” Marcus’s hand was in mid-air the whole time. It seems he had been ready to throw another stone before the phenomenon had happened.
“Froggy!” Link responded squinting his eyes and smiling broadly. No one in the group laughed from the comment. Quickly he gave a shrug and realized no one had been unstressed from his humor.
“Link, I didn’t mean the Frog, look,” The long-haired blond rolled his eyes with a look of 'I realized that' from Marcus's reply. Marcus pointed right at the beam of light with his pointer finger. Allisson had barely missed a spark from the boy's hand. As he lift the finger to the light a lightning strike cracked from below them. It caused the water to crumbled to the muddy floor like glass. Allisson felt her throat burst and her scream echoed along with Vanessa's. Her nerdy friend only replied with, “I didn't do it!”
The other four friends breathed deeply and gawked at the crumbled water. All that was left were sheets of glass, frogs, and fish. The fish floated in bubbles within the air in front of the friends. Many frogs croaked loudly into the forest around them. There was no telling which one had been the one who starred at them when this had all started. Where the beam of light had first been now held a dark ditch. The rocks that the boys had thrown now sat in a perfectly enclosed circle around the ditch in the floor. If Allison was better at math she would say that the circle was at least 5 feet in diameter.
Suddenly, the wind picked up and the sunlit sky turned to night. Allisson felt herself gasp and grasp Vanessa's hand for support. Her friend squeezed her hand back as their hair blew in every direction. Ice crystals grew from the trees and melted quickly to the forest floor. They left tiny streams that came to make a moat around the rock circle. Vanessa gasped and stood up suddenly. As she rose fire blazed into pillars from the top of every rock. The fire rose from the pillars to make a ring parallel above the moat. The two circles had to be at least 10 feet above and below each other. Allisson stood up to stand beside her friend. Grass spread with abundance towards the friends from the moat. The stars aligned themselves to make the shape of a dragon and quickly they burst away from each other. The fire, grass, and moat evaporated as quickly as they had shown up. This left only the ditch and the rock circle to be left. The sky went back too daylight, but a crescent moon sat directly above the six teens.
“What the hell,” Vannessa's voice rang through the air. It pierced Allisson's ear with just enough surprise to make her jump.
“I say, that was the coolest thing I've eve seen!” Link looked at the group who were mostly in disagreement and then back at the ditch. Marcus and Zavier began to walk towards the circle of rocks. Without much thought of his own Link followed the two into the circle. When each one of the boys that stepped into the rock circle a veil seemed to fall over him. From afar a blue mist formed around Link, and as such a yellow and orange mist flowed between the other two boys.
The girls looked at each other with disbelief at the supernatural experience between them. Allison sighed at the typical curiosity of the boys. “We should probably join them before they do something stupid.”
The brunette nodded her head vigorously and walked forward clutching Allison's hand. ”This has to be the most stupid idea we have ever come up with.”
“Probably... but we can't just leave them to do something stupid alone. Can we?” The clutching girl shrugged her shoulders and Allison felt for her black chain necklace with the crystal heart. As she stepped through the circle she felt a mist cover her. A green color surrounded her and a purple one around Vanessa. She went to put her hand outside the circle and was left with the feeling of a wall on her finger tips. “Bad idea.”
~Princess Aura of EARTH BARANSU No Where
Link opened his ice blue eyes to the sunlit walls of his bedroom. He shielded the sun from his eyes while they adjusted to the brightness. Stretching out his arms, he kicked his feet sideways off the bed towards the floor. With a great night sleep and a new day available it looked like things were looking up, for once.
It had been planned that his friend, Allison, and him would walk around town. The two were close friends, but nothing more than that. Someone else caught his eye for the matter of more than 'just friends'. Across from his bed, on the wall, was a mirror and dresser. Link walked over stretching his toes and looked at his reflection. He noticed his hair was standing on end in every which way, “Oh well.”
With a back roll of his shoulders and a shake of his dirty blond hair, he walked over to his bed-stand. He gave a glare at the liquor bottle on the wood and tossed it in the trash. The bottle shattered and he cursed at himself for not thinking before doing what he did. Nothing could be done about it now and he made a mental note to take the trash out tonight. Quickly he picked up his cellphone of the bed stand and continued back over to his dresser. He randomly grabbed out a brown camo t-shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans jeans before slamming the drawer shut. Without a care in the world he sprinted down the stairs from his bedroom;jumping off the last few, he grinned to himself. It was the end of summer and that meant the last few minutes of adventure.
“Hey, where you going?”
Link looked behind him to see his younger sister, Lisa, sitting on her bed. Their house was fair sized, but with four kids and two parents bedrooms became scarce. That made his and his brother bedrooms upstairs and his sister had room bellow with just the staircase to separate the two rooms, “Going to hang out with my friend. Why you do care?”
Lisa flicked her long dirty blond hair with her hand, “Cause I asked.” The annoying sister-like teasing voice flowed from her pale lips
“Cause I can,” he mocked his sister as he went to grab something to eat. Before anyone could say anything he had grabbed the food and scarfed it down his throat. Putting the bowl and spoon into the sink he ran out the door. Barely off his street he got a text from Allison:
Can u hurry up? Waiting @ pool
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Allison sat outside the pool area and waited for one of her best friends. The grass was still a bit damp from the night left behind. Today was Monday and this meant it was the one day out of the week that the pool was closed. Also meant the one day out of the week her and her friends weren't at the pool swimming. This had made her decide to hang out with at least one of them. She needed to talk to him about basic things. Maybe not so basic things. “Sheesh, what’s taking him so long?”
The 4”9’ teenager blew her crimson red bangs from her face and leaned her back against the brick wall. She wore one of her favorite outfits, a black tank top with red skinny jeans and a black head band. The shirt had a collar to it that was white and just visible between was a black chain choker with a cyan crystal heart attached to it. A sudden urge came upon her. As she listened to her iPod she decided to make the day one to be with all her friends. Pulling out her cell she sent a text to her best friends Vanessa, Zavier, and Marcus.
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Vanessa was combing her dark brunette hair when she got a text from her best friend, Allison: She quickly set her hairbrush to the side of her dresser. Pulling on a pair of black skinny jeans and a navy, baby doll shirt she read the text.
Hey guys wondering if ya wanted 2 walk around town with Link and me?
The teen landed backwards onto her blue camo bed cover. Her radio was blasting Linkin Park music as she punched in a reply to her best friend.
Where you meeting @?
The brunette put the iPhone into her back pocket before lying her head back on her pillow. She let thoughts of food wonder through her head while she listened to music and waited for a text back. Her thoughts had just gotten to soda types when the text message came in:
@ the pool, see ya soon V
Standing up on her bed and causally walked off the edge to the ground. The floor gave a thump as she landed. Hollow floors made awesome sounds. Her mother yelled a complaint from the living room, but it was to mumbled to truly hear. Quickly she ran back to her bathroom mirror and grabbed a silver necklace with a rose pendant. She opened her front bedroom door to see her mother and two younger siblings watching television in the living room. “Mama, Allison wants me to go hang out with her. Can you drive me over to the pool?” Her mother agreed to do so, but grumbled the whole way in the car while Vanessa looked boredly out the window.
By the time she got there Link was laying down on the grass playing some Hollywood Undead music with Allison beside him on the brick wall. Vanessa ran to Allison and the two hugged each other, “Made it! My mother was being a bitch though. Where we going?”
“No idea,” Link said with a smile before he went back to mouthing the lyrics to his song. Which by now was 'American Tragedy' by Hollywood Undead.
The red-head shrugged, “Just walk around town together. We're still waiting for Zavier and Marcus, but that's it. It's been awhile since we've all walked around together anyways. Anyone remember the swamp? We should go th-“
“As long as we’re doing something worth wild who cares?” The three friends turned to the direction of the voice. Two boys were coming down the cobblestone road.
Vanessa smirked and folded her arms, “Speak of the devils. If those two were ever on time I'd throw a party.” Allison gave out greetings to the two said with grin and hug.
The shorter, tanner boy of the two put his hands behind his head. “Sorry it took so long,” he gave a look to Marcus, “but slowpoke here forgot his phone at home, again. We had to go back to get it, again.” He had on a black shirt with a white skull on it with purple skinny jeans.
“I ran, this time,” Marcus crossed his arms with an irritated grunt. The group chuckled at his boyishness. He had a pair of black sunglasses on his messy brunette hair and his chocolate brown eyes gave a sparkle from the sunlight. His shirt was a pale yellow with a Xbox controller and the words Gamer Nerd embroiled on it. Most of the short was covered by a denim vest with the sleeves cut off. “You know we could just walk around from one place to another. I say we start with the swamp. It's been awhile since we all went down there. As Allisson said before.”
Link turned off his music and sat up from the grass, “Sounds good to me.”
“To be honest,” Marcus put his left hand to his short brunette hair, “as long as I can get home to play my new video game, I’m game for anything.” The group all chuckled and began to walk up the road.
They walked through the uncrowded streets laughing and joking about stuff that would happen when they got back to school next week. Link had begun to play more music and now him and Marcus were singing the lyrics in their loudest voices possible. A few cars that went by glared at the two, but they kept being rowdy. The two had their arms around each other and walked as if they were drunk. Nothing could possibly bring down their high spirits. Allison lead behind Marcus and Link with Vanessa. The two were conversing about some new store at the mall and a new band they had gotten into from the music it had been playing. Yet, Zavier seemed content just to walk with the group. He followed in the back with warm eyes but a straight unresponsive face.
After about a mile of twists and turns they got to a right turn only in the road. A forest sat behind them that continued to the left side of the road. Near the end of the road and forest was a smashed down pathway. There were large stones and weeds that grew along the beginning of the path. As the group got farther along the path the undergrowth became more and more overgrown. The sound of frog croaks became louder as they got closer to swamp. Allison turned her head to Vanessa and the two ran through the leaves and branches. The boys followed quickly behind. What they never knew was fate was laughing at their innocence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPLASH
“Hey, I didn't come here to get a bath Zavier!”
The boy laughed and then said apologetically, “Oops, sorry Vanessa. I didn’t mean to mess up your do.” He made a motion towards her nicely straightened hair. “If you were sitting farther away you wouldn't have gotten any water on you.” V just sighed and looked at the ripples in the swamp from the stones the boys were tossing. Link and Marcus had come to make a game of who could skip the rocks farther into the swamp. So far, from what Allisson could tell, the two were neck and neck with each other at reaching the middle of it.
“V, it’s just water you know,” the red head commented trying to reason with her friend.
“I know but it ain’t just water. It’s just... It's disgusting.”
A frog sat on log to the far right of Vanessa and herself. If Allison had been any less sure she would have sworn it caught eyes with her and bowed it's head towards Vanessa. To make sure she shook her head slightly, but by that time she looked back at the log it had hopped onto a boulder behind Zavier. It gave a loud croak and everyone snapped their heads toward the grayish green amphibian. The frog croaked again and dived into the water. It reemerged onto another log floating in the swamp. The frog paused for a bit and once again caught eyes with Allisson. This time there was no mistake of the movement as it bowed it's head towards Link. Zavier must have been just as antsy as the rest of the group for he threw another rock into the swamp. Their eyes reverted to the frog again as it dived into center direct center of the swamp. The ripples grew larger like waves on a beach. Ripples continued from the same spot. They left behind a light from under the water. A beam of some sort if Allisson could name it “What’s that?” Marcus’s hand was in mid-air the whole time. It seems he had been ready to throw another stone before the phenomenon had happened.
“Froggy!” Link responded squinting his eyes and smiling broadly. No one in the group laughed from the comment. Quickly he gave a shrug and realized no one had been unstressed from his humor.
“Link, I didn’t mean the Frog, look,” The long-haired blond rolled his eyes with a look of 'I realized that' from Marcus's reply. Marcus pointed right at the beam of light with his pointer finger. Allisson had barely missed a spark from the boy's hand. As he lift the finger to the light a lightning strike cracked from below them. It caused the water to crumbled to the muddy floor like glass. Allisson felt her throat burst and her scream echoed along with Vanessa's. Her nerdy friend only replied with, “I didn't do it!”
The other four friends breathed deeply and gawked at the crumbled water. All that was left were sheets of glass, frogs, and fish. The fish floated in bubbles within the air in front of the friends. Many frogs croaked loudly into the forest around them. There was no telling which one had been the one who starred at them when this had all started. Where the beam of light had first been now held a dark ditch. The rocks that the boys had thrown now sat in a perfectly enclosed circle around the ditch in the floor. If Allison was better at math she would say that the circle was at least 5 feet in diameter.
Suddenly, the wind picked up and the sunlit sky turned to night. Allisson felt herself gasp and grasp Vanessa's hand for support. Her friend squeezed her hand back as their hair blew in every direction. Ice crystals grew from the trees and melted quickly to the forest floor. They left tiny streams that came to make a moat around the rock circle. Vanessa gasped and stood up suddenly. As she rose fire blazed into pillars from the top of every rock. The fire rose from the pillars to make a ring parallel above the moat. The two circles had to be at least 10 feet above and below each other. Allisson stood up to stand beside her friend. Grass spread with abundance towards the friends from the moat. The stars aligned themselves to make the shape of a dragon and quickly they burst away from each other. The fire, grass, and moat evaporated as quickly as they had shown up. This left only the ditch and the rock circle to be left. The sky went back too daylight, but a crescent moon sat directly above the six teens.
“What the hell,” Vannessa's voice rang through the air. It pierced Allisson's ear with just enough surprise to make her jump.
“I say, that was the coolest thing I've eve seen!” Link looked at the group who were mostly in disagreement and then back at the ditch. Marcus and Zavier began to walk towards the circle of rocks. Without much thought of his own Link followed the two into the circle. When each one of the boys that stepped into the rock circle a veil seemed to fall over him. From afar a blue mist formed around Link, and as such a yellow and orange mist flowed between the other two boys.
The girls looked at each other with disbelief at the supernatural experience between them. Allison sighed at the typical curiosity of the boys. “We should probably join them before they do something stupid.”
The brunette nodded her head vigorously and walked forward clutching Allison's hand. ”This has to be the most stupid idea we have ever come up with.”
“Probably... but we can't just leave them to do something stupid alone. Can we?” The clutching girl shrugged her shoulders and Allison felt for her black chain necklace with the crystal heart. As she stepped through the circle she felt a mist cover her. A green color surrounded her and a purple one around Vanessa. She went to put her hand outside the circle and was left with the feeling of a wall on her finger tips. “Bad idea.”