Chryslaria

Marina sat on the highest branch of an oak tree. Her long dark red hair blowing in the wind. Marina and her father lived in a small house, just perfect for them. Marina had play practice really soon. They only had three days until the play and her father hadn’t been doing too well at work lately. So bad that if their next play didn’t have enough tickets sold, they would lose their house and Marina would go to a home for girls whose parents couldn’t take care of them.

Ever since Marina found out she was amazing at acting, she had to come to every play practice. The people who didn’t have as big of a role went to only a few, but Marina got one of the lead roles right away. The other lead role was taken by a boy named Devin.

She checked her watch. Practice was in two minutes! She jumped off the branch she was on despite the height of it and ran as fast as she could. The theater was close and Marina made it with plenty of time.

She walked in through the hallway that they usually sell tickets in. Down through all the aisles of chairs. Then behind the stage. She sat down on a box of props and sighed. I need to study my lines, she thought. But in her rush to get out of the house she had forgotten her script! She knew who always had his. Devin!

After searching for a little she found him. “Devin! Do you have your script? I was in a rush to get here and forgot mine at home.”

“No I forgot mine too, but we could look for the book,” Devin said.

“Of course!” Marina cried. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

They looked and found it on a table with props on it. It was a big scarlet book that was worn-down. It had the title of the play on it, Chryslaria, because it was a script. Marina and Devin took the book and sat down on a crate. They opened it, and it was blank. As they sat there pondering why this was, words started forming in the book. It read.

The one who is captured is hidden

The one who has taken them has disappeared

When the two who are looking have gotten near

One will head for the cliff so shear

The two who have entered should only fear

When the one who has brought them here has appeared

They wish they are gone, they will be soon

Unless one can look up to the moon.

Then the book folded into itself, taking Marina and Devin with it.

Marina was lying in a forest. She tried to move her head to see more, but a barrier was holding her back. Her clothes had also changed. She was now wearing clothes more fitting for adventure, like a tunic.

Somewhere far away a booming voice could be heard, “Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, our heroes awakened, ready to start their journey. Maria and Devon, two famous adventurers, have been searching for adventure for five days now. Soon, they will find it.” (It was a crazy coincidence that the names of their parts were really similar to their names in real life).

Marina tried to sit up, but the barrier still wouldn’t let her move. Then a lightning bolt of realization struck her. This was the play! The only way to go through it was to do her part. Luckily, Devin figured it out and out of the corner of her eye she could see his head, as he walked to a cliff ledge. Behind him a hill led a safer way down to the valley. Marina sat up and rubbed her eyes as if tired, just like in the play. Her eyes scanned the world around her.

Then a messenger mouse came. It did as every messenger mouse does when delivering a message. It started clearing the ground until it was fully clear, a perfect space for writing a message.

“Devon!” Marina cried, “Look!”

Devin turned around, startled, then started watching the mouse very intently with Marina. It started writing in the dirt with its tail. The message read, ‘Danger is coming. You must help us! They are coming down the tunnel. I don’t know who they are, hurry!’ – Chryslaria of the Diamonds.

“Thank you for this message,” Devin said, nodding slightly.

The mouse looked into its bag. All messenger mice have bags, enchanted by the diamonds. He reached in and pulled it out. It was the book that brought them there. When Marina opened it up, it had the book that brought them there, with the prophecy as well.

“Your bidding is done! Maria, could I see that book?” Devin asked.

But Marina didn’t want to show him it. In the play she did, but she wouldn’t now. She would have to outsmart the world she was in. Showing the book to Devin, Marina flipped through the pages making sure to avoid the page with the prophecy. Sure enough, Devin saw nothing, but did he seem a little surprised at the lack of words? Usually it would have the play inside.

A darkness seemed to fall over them and it was like the curtain had covered them. Marina felt like she could move freely. She tried. Before, there was an invisible shield that blocked her, but now there wasn’t. She stood up and looked around her.

“I think we have to go on with the adventure,” Devin said.

“How do you know that though?” Marina asked. Something seemed off.

Devin ignored her. “We better start for the river. We won’t have to get boats because we don’t in the play. They should already be there.”

But now how do you know that? Marina thought, but didn’t say out loud.

They started for a winding river at the bottom of the hill. That was where the boats would be. They had three days until the real play. If they weren’t there, they would not be able to get back to real life.

Bob paced in front of his crystal. It was focused on Marina and Devin’s boats drifting silently down the river. “So close yet so far away, to falling into my trap.”

“They will never fall for it!” a voice yelled from the hallway behind him.

“Ah yes. Another reason they will come here. You’re the bait for putting my plan in place. Without you my plot would never happen. Thank you for that, Chrystlaria.”

“Your plan will never work,” Chrystaria cried as she hopped from the hallway with her hands in handcuffs and her ankles tied together. Her light blond hair was matted and tangled, and her dress had dirt smears on it in some places.

Bob shook his head. “Who knew you could hop that far.” He waved his hand and she fell and slid back down the hallway to her cell.

The river rushed by, spraying water into Marina and Devin’s faces as they neared the bank. The boats were rowed up onto the shore, as they thought they would be. They were small, just big enough to carry one person each. The backpack full of food and the gear pack they discovered they had would come with too. The backpack was full of food such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which surprised both Marina and Devin. They also were given one pack of gear each. Marina had wood and flint, along with a sword (don’t want to use that). Devin’s had a pickaxe and water bottles. They pushed them into the river and jumped in, ready to start the long drift down the river.

The moon was full and the only source of light as the boats kept floating down the river Marina lay in her boat, but wasn’t sleeping like Devin was. She pulled out the book. Devin still didn’t know about the prophecy. She reread it. The two who had entered should be her and Devin. They should also be the two who are searching. There was a part two to the play that they didn’t know. That should explain the things she didn’t know like, ‘one will head for the cliff so shear’ or what looking up to the moon meant. She was getting more and more tired by the second. ‘I hope I get home’ was her last thought before she went into a peaceful slumber.

Marina woke up to the noise of running water. She sat up. ‘Oh please don’t be this part,’ she thought. It was that part. The part where their boats went over the edge of a waterfall.

“Devin! Devin, wake up! Devin!” Marina cried. The light was reappearing, like water spreading into an empty lake.

Devin woke up, looked around and quickly went into his position for that scene. Marina did too, right as the light went over her. Marina really did not like this scene. She was supposed to scream with her eyes open when they went over. Marina was more of a ‘close-your-eyes-and-hold-your-breath-until-it-is-over’ person. She would have trouble with this.

“Oh no! Devon, there’s a waterfall ahead!” Marina cried, saying her lines and slowing the boat down so it was lined with Devin’s.

Devin’s boat sped down the river, ahead of Marina’s. Dodging the rocks jutting out of the speeding water. Marina didn’t try paddling forward like Devin. It was part of the play that Devin went down first, but even if it wasn’t in the play she still wouldn’t be rowing. Her biggest fear was heights, and she was really not looking forward to rowing a boat off a really tall waterfall.

“Ah!” Devin cried, the sound of the scream disappearing down the waterfall.

Marina started paddling, but not very fast. The stream and the story made her boat go faster than she wanted. She dodged rocks, quickly getting the hang of it. The waterfall got closer and closer. Marina forced her eyes to stay open. She screamed. Then her boat went over the edge. Marina’s boat fell into the spray of the waterfall hitting the river below.

The light stayed on and Marina’s boat hit the water with a crash and broke. Devin’s boat was already broken and he was swimming to the river bank. When they both were back on shore Marina said with a smile on her face, “We made it. We’re halfway through our adventure. There’s no turning back now,” and the lights dimmed around her.

Marina and Devin had been in this world for 36 hours. That left them 36 hours before they had to go back for the real play. Their biggest challenge was probably getting there. A snowy mountain was coming up. Marina hadn’t shown Devin the map, but he still led the way. This wasn’t something that Devin did. He usually held back in the shadows until he was needed.

And this is way too much to just be lucky guesses. It’s been happening since we entered this world, Marina thought. Devin had been acting strangely for a while, and it was kind of obvious. Something told Marina that she shouldn’t trust him. Marina decided to be careful about what she told and showed him.

They were both silent as they started up the mountain. They couldn’t go around because the next scene happened at the peak, so they wrapped their thick cloaks around them tightly as their boots sank into the snow. They took it one step at a time, and for all they knew five hours could have passed. They just kept walking. As the clouds started to dim a little, Marina forced herself to try to look up and see through the blizzard for a cave or anything for shelter. It was impossible to see clearly farther than two yards away. Then she saw something, a big dark hole in the side of the mountain, and the silence was broken.

“Devin, I think I see a place where we could stay for shelter!” Marina shouted at the top of her lungs toward Devin.

Devin hollered back his response, “I see it too! It’s the cave, right?”

“Yeah. Let’s stay there for the night,” Marina said, getting a mouthful of snow to go with it.

The cave was damp, and the wind blowing in made it chilly. They ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and when they checked how much water they had, they each surprisingly had about half of their water left. When it got a lot darker they each found the driest parts of the cave, and curled up in their cloaks to sleep, or at least Devin did.

Marina’s eyes were wide open as she pondered everything that had been happening. Devin kept acting stranger and stranger, and Marina had learned nothing about the parts of the prophecy that she was clueless about.

She started thinking about home and wondering what was happening there.

Bob stared at his Crystal. “They’re hurrying up now.” He smiled grimly. “They just need to get to the peak of the mountain and everything will go faster, easier, and a lot better. They just need to keep walking up the mountain for a little longer. Then my evil plan will fully begin.”

Marina woke with a start, sitting straight upright. Devin was sitting silently against a wall. “Took you long enough to wake up,” he said standing up. “Come on. We’re almost at the summit.”

They kept going as fast as possible. The blizzard had stopped and they got to the summit quickly. The summit was a flat area, as though the top of the mountain was cut off. The light came on yet again as they stepped over the edge. Now Marina learned how they would continue without knowing the lines. Everything that she would need to know came into her mind and she didn’t like it. Lines like ‘Devon, no!’ and the plans for a sword fight were there.

“Maria, do you remember the messenger mouse that came to deliver that message that made this adventure begin?” he said, looking away from Marina.

“Yes, why do you ask?” Marina said, dreading the moments that would come.

“Well, because it was colored brown it meant that a reward was involved,” Devin smiled slyly. “And I think that you would agree having all of a reward is much better than having half of one. So I’m afraid that you will have to stop your journey here, whether I make you or not.”

To Be Continued