My Not-So-Boring Day

I grab my backpack as the bus pulls up to my stop. I walk down the steps. Today was pretty boring. We didn’t learn anything new or interesting in any of my classes. I wish my life was more exciting. I walk up my driveway to my front steps and am about to open my front screen door when something shiny catches my eye. I look around but there is no one else around, no cars are driving around either.

The shiny thing catches my eye again. I walk down my steps and set my backpack down on the walkway. I spy the shiny thing in the grass under my front yard birch tree. I walk over to it and bend down to get a better look. What is that? It’s reflecting the sun too much for me to get a good look at it. I nudge the thing with my toe and the light from the sun stops bouncing off of it. It’s a crystal of some kind.

The crystal is a bright, beautiful blue color. I’ve never seen one like this. It is light in shade and cut into the shape of an octagon. I wonder what kind of gem this is. I know that gems don’t grow naturally cut like that so someone must have cut it. What is this thing even doing in my front yard anyway? It shouldn’t even be here. I reach down and pick up the gem. It’s bottom and top are flat and smooth. It’s pretty light but has a nice weight to it.

The gem starts glowing! Why is it glowing?! I’m tempted to drop it but something inside me tells me not to. I clutch the gem in my hand. I can still see the bright blue light through the cracks in my fingers. I feel the ground under me start to shift. It can’t be an earthquake. Minnesota doesn’t get earthquakes. I try to fight my growing panic. I have just enough time to look down and scream as a blue swirling portal opens up under my feet. I start to plummet into a swirling blue and white chasm. I scream as my heart shoots into my throat and my stomach starts to do cartwheels.

One of my fears is falling from heights. Combine that with my bad depth perception and you have me, panicking, screaming and falling into a blue and white mass of nothingness. I bite my lip to keep from screaming more as my mask falls off my face and floats away. There’s no gravity in here.

I glance down and spot another swirling blue portal. I shoot through the second portal. I can hear wind whistling in my ears as I fall. I start screaming again and I squeeze my eyes shut. If I’m going to die, I’d rather not have my eyes open for it. Granted I’m also way too young to die. I wait for the impact of the ground and my death, but nothing ever comes.

By all accounts I should be dead. I open my eyes and look to see the grass. I glance at my arms to see that I’m surrounded in blue light. What? Why am I glowing? I look at the hand still holding the crystal. The crystal’s bright blue light is still glowing through my hand. It must be magic if it’s keeping me in the air like this. Wait, no, that’s crazy! Magic doesn’t exist, even if I want it to, more than almost anything. But on the other hand, I just fell through a weird portal thing, fell through the sky, and am now floating. Maybe magic does exist. Maybe it’s just kept hidden from non-magicals, like in Harry Potter. Maybe the crystal I’m holding is a magic artifact.

The glow from the crystal goes dim and I’m falling again. This time I only fall for five seconds before I hit the grassy ground roughly. I groan and roll over onto my back. I lay staring at the sky for a minute letting the pain ebb away from my body. When the pain is gone, I sit up and check myself over for bruises, cuts and broken bones. Huh, I’m okay. That’s good. That’s very good and lucky.

Where am I anyway? I stand up and brush myself off. I frown at the absence of my winter coat. Maybe the portal threw it off like it did with my mask. I stare at the now not glowing blue crystal in my hand.

“Where did you take me?” I ask the crystal. This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t be talking to an inanimate object. It’s not like it’s going to answer me. If it did, I’d probably have a heart attack.

The sounds of the birds singing and chirping to each other finally register in my ears. That’s good. If it was dead silent, I’d probably go crazy. I hate it when it’s too quiet. I tend to freak out if there’s no noise around.

Let’s see where I am though. It might give me an idea of how to get home before my family freaks out. I look around and what I see takes my breath away. I’m standing in the middle of a large clearing in a forest. The trees are large and look like they’d belong in a fantasy forest in a movie. The leaves in the trees are green but they ombre down to other colors the farther they get from the branch. Sprouting from the ground at the bottom of the trees are large, glowing, pink, purple and blue crystals.

I hear a screech overhead and look up in time to see a large, golden eagle fly over my head. What in the heck is going on?! I can’t be in some magical forest. They don’t exist in my world. Unless…

“Did you send me to another dimension?” I ask the crystal. Of course, I don’t get a response. Other dimensions don’t exist, do they?

I look around again. This place is beautiful. I wonder what kinds of magical creatures live here. It looks like this place would be inhabited by fairies, but it is another dimension so anything and everything could live here. I can’t be here! I have to go home! I love that this place is magical, but I don’t belong here. I should be careful around anyone I meet because of “stranger danger,” but whoever I meet could help me find my way home.

I start walking. I walk into the tree line and feel my skin tingle as I walk past a cluster of crystals. It wasn’t a bad tingle though. It was more of a good tingle, like when you get excited goosebumps.

I continue to look around as I walk. The trees are very tall here. I step over a log and almost jump out of my skin when I hear a twig snap. I glance down and see that I stepped on the twig. Phew! Nothing dangerous is coming. I keep walking but stop when I hear the bushes to my left start to shake. I freeze and my heart starts to beat faster as I try to hold down my panic and not scream or start running. What is it? Please don’t be a bear or a moose or a pack of wolves. Please don’t be something dangerous. Please don’t be something dangerous. Please don’t be something dangerous.

My hand tightens around the gem and I ready myself into a stance to run if I need to. The bushes rustle again and out of them steps a woman. The woman is as tall as my mom with pale skin, violet eyes and black shoulder length hair with purple ends. She’s wearing brown hiking boots, black pants and a white shirt with wavy, loose-fitting sleeves. A black cloak with a golden clasp is hanging from her shoulders. Attached to her belt is a 12-inch wooden stick with a five-pointed star and the initials K.P. carved into the handle. She has a satchel slung over her shoulder. The woman looks at me and tilts her head to the side, a puzzled look crossing her face.

“Hi,” I say. She doesn’t look very dangerous or mean for that matter. She has soft, kind-looking facial features. The woman raises an eyebrow at me. Maybe she speaks a different language.

“You are not from here, are you young one?” asks the woman. She has a thin British accent. Our styles of clothing are drastically different. Hers are old fashioned and fantasy-esk and mine are modern and casual.

“No. No, I am not,” I say. I have a feeling lying to her wouldn’t work anyway. She has very inquisitive eyes.

“What is your name?” asks the woman.

“Zariah. Zariah  DeBerry. Who are you?” I ask.

“I am Kaisa Persevel, but you may call me Kaisa,” says the woman.

“Okay, Kaisa. It’s nice to meet you,” I say holding out my hand. Kaisa reaches forward and grabs my hand and shakes it. Her hand is soft and gentle, but she has a firm grip.

“Now tell me Zariah, what are you doing here? You are clearly not from this world based on your clothes alone. Why are you here?” asks Kaisa.

“Truthfully, I picked up this crystal, it started glowing, and I fell through a portal. I thought I was going to die because I was falling through the sky. Then I realized I was floating. I fell, then started walking, and met you,” I say holding up the crystal for Kaisa to see.

Kaisa twirls her left pointer finger and the gem floats over to her hand. Oh my gosh! She’s a witch!

“You’re a witch! That was cool!” I say.

Kaisa raises an eyebrow at me.

“Sorry, magic doesn’t really exist in my world. It’s just stories where I come from. We have books, movies and TV shows about magic, witches, wizards and magical creatures. People can’t do magic where I come from and most people don’t even think it’s real,” I say.

“What are movies and TV shows?” asks Kaisa.

“They’re forms of entertainment. But that was cool,” I say. Magic exists in this world, that has got to be the coolest thing ever!

“Oh well, thank you. This crystal that brought you here is radiating a very large amount of light magic. It is definitely powerful enough to send you to another dimension. But magical objects only send people to other dimensions if they are actively being used by that person or if that person has some magical destiny connected to them in some way. The magic will send you to somewhere you should be or are needed. You clearly don’t know what you’re doing so I’d say you have some kind of magical destiny,” says Kaisa.

“I have a magical destiny! That is so so cool!” I say excitedly. I can’t believe I have a magical destiny. I could be the chosen one like Harry Potter. I wonder if I’ll have to sacrifice myself like he did to defeat an evil person.

Kaisa chuckles at my excitement and hands the crystal back to me. “I’d keep that crystal close, you’ll most likely need it,” says Kaisa.

“Wait, if I have a magical destiny shouldn’t I learn some magic. Will you teach me magic?” I ask.

“Well, I don’t see why not. I could use an apprentice. You can help me out around my home doing various tasks and I’ll teach you magic. Does that sound good?” asks Kaisa, holding out a hand.

“That sounds awesome!” I say, shaking her hand.

“Follow me Zariah,” says Kaisa, gesturing to me before beginning to walk away.

“Okay,” I say. I begin to follow Kaisa through the enchanted forest towards my magical destiny…