It was the morning of our first day of school.
12:47am to be exact. A few minutes later all us kids came , went to our rooms,
and fell asleep on the already brought in mattresses. I awoke from my mom
waking me 6hrs and 13min later. Dragging ourselves out of bed Johnny, Kate, and
I got ready, gathered our school supplies and trudged our way to the bus stop.
Not knowing anyone all three of us squished into one seat. It worked out fine
though since we were all pretty small.
When we got off the bus we all split up on
our way to our own classes. I
unwillingly stepped into the big school with the ‘Welcome to Foxhollow
Elementary’ sign. Now if I were still in Kansas I’d be starting middle school
so that sign wasn’t to appealing. I mean I was in sixth grade! Walking up the
stairs into Ms. Muir’s classroom I felt my cheeks reddening. When I walked into the room with my face
bright red, I found my seat. I got quite a few stares being new and all until
finally the bell rang for class to begin.
“Welcome,” said Ms. Muir. Ms. Muir was a nice
teacher around her twenties, and not yet married. All of us kids liked her. We
went over the usual first day of school stuff. The rest of the day was average
for a new school. I should know, I’ve been to three other’s before this move. I
hated moving, but life continues on as it always does.
After a
couple of weeks, I became good friends with this girl named Megan. She was
tall, sweet, imaginative, and great with everyone. For a couple of recesses we
had just played tag, but we got tired of that fast. So we decided to invent an
imaginary world.
In our
imaginations I was a magical, flying, elven guardian, named Yuri, and Megan was
a magical, flying, fairy guardian, named Umeko. We made a character for all we
knew. Most didn’t even know that in our
minds they were characters, but some like Hannah and Hailey knew who they were
and had picked their own characters. Hannah decided to be an evil witch and the
controller of all evil in the land of Mizu(I had a Japanese book)and Hailey wanted
to be Hannah’s pet, a little shape changing demon. Of course we had a king and
queen. Madi said she didn’t care what she was because we would make be in our
world no matter what, she was right, so we made the Queen, and the guy she
liked, Tannan, was King. Obviously we of course picked ogres, villagers,
princesses, knights, evil, creatures, etc. I was so excited I even drew a map
with a guide for my little sister!! When we had finished getting ready and
creating it, one week later, we promised each other and ourselves that we would
never forget our “Never Ending Kingdom”. That’s what we called it. In our kingdom each
day brought new surprises. I specifically remember the third day we played it.
After sitting down forever, recess had finally
come. Megan and I rushed out to the playground. Grabbing ahold of her hand I
led her past the tarred area, we ran up the grassy hill to the football field.
Winded we fell to the ground smiling.
“I’ve thought of another thing,“ Megan
panted, staring at me with those deer-like eyes. “I have a second sword, and I
fly and run so fast that it’s hard for you to keep up! Okay?”
Sure she could have what she wanted. Why not??
Now… What do I want???
“Okay, but I
get a dragon’s tooth dagger, and instead of fairy wings I want bird-like ones,”
I replied pulling myself to my feet.
“Today Yuri
we must reach the Evil Witch Hannah’s lair. The only way there is through the
ogres forest. Once we pass the ogres forest we’ll be in “Shi” the place of
evils works. “Sound good?” Megan ventured.
“Yeah,
sounds fun!” Jumping up into the air, we raced to the end of the football field.
“Now!” we yelled in unison. We were surrounded
by ogres, all sickening and putrid! Hundreds streaked towards us! Umeko drew
her sword, and I, my bow.
They were coming upon us, thousands in number,
against only two of us. Completely unfair! I let loose an arrow. It pounded
into the black leathery skin of a troll, the same troll that had angered me two
weeks ago. Looking back I noticed that
Umeko was doing just great! Swords dripping in slimy green blood, she cut down
two more ogres that were threatening to bind her.
“Yuri,” she yelled as an ogre grabbed my
feathered wing and yanked me toward the ground! Twisting to face the smirking
brute, I yanked out my dagger and attempted to stab him. He pulled to the side
and I ended up slicing my wing. As I shrunk back in pain, he grabbed ahold of
my wrist, in turn knocking the dagger out of my hand. His cold bloody hands twisted
my wrist around and yanked my arm behind my back. If I struggled and tried to
pull free it would break.
Twisting my head I glared at him. He was frustrating. His mouth twisted into a
half-witted grin. I grimaced.
“Aaahh!!” I screamed as his poison blue
fingernails crawled their way into my pale skin. Apparently he didn’t like what
I did to his friend. Attempting to kick him I slipped in the mud pulling both
of us to the hard barren ground. In an attempt to catch himself he let my arm
go. I pulled it close and braced myself for an impact into the mud.
My
breath went out as I pounded against the ground. Realizing the ogre right next
to me was pulling himself to his feet, I gasped and quickly rolled over. But
surprisingly he just started to race in the opposite direction, big rough feet
pounding.
“Yuri,” Umeko called as she cleared a way
toward me, avoiding a bloody carcass some ogres had been munching on. It looked
vaguely human like. Shivering I averted my eyes back toward Umeko. Her blonde
brown hair was streaked with dirt, her hazel eyes darted back and forth. One
cheek that was cut deep and long was bleeding down her neck, and wiping off in her
hair, scratches covered her, she was holding one arm close, blood was seeping
through her silken torn sleeve, still coming over, I noticed that she was
slightly limping.
Pulling myself to my feet I shuffled over to
her. I wondered out loud, “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. But what about you?? I’ve
noticed that your arm has been poisoned badly.” She was right, the spots where
his blue nails had been were puffing up and starting to puss. My arm felt numb,
and looked icy. I touched it. A cold shock ran up my spine.
“It’s icy. Your cheek! It’s badly injured,” I
continued grabbing a hold of Umeko, I started to chant. We glowed brighter and
brighter. Slowing we dimmed till I was finished. Both of us looked less beat
up, and the poison was starting to escape my arm in the form of a navy blue
gas. Umeko even had some of the rose returned to her cheeks.
“Thanks,” she said, “But next time I want to
use my healing chant. It works faster!”
“Fine,” I said hitting her arm lightly in a
teasing like fashion “Maybe next time you can get run over!” We giggled for a
second.
“Why do you think the ogres and trolls ran
away?” she wondered.
Why did they?
“I don’t know,” I was about to finish but a
sudden thud and a rush of wind, made me change my sentence, “But I think we’re
about to find out.”
We turned
around. A ferocious, malevolent, dragon glared down upon us with eyes of pure
evil. Breathing down on us I caught a whiff of blood, metal and magic. The dragon’s
metallic shadow colored scales rippled in the clouded light coming from above.
Leaning over Umeko whispered in my ear,
“Run!”
Swiveling to meet her, I opened my mouth to
speak, but she was already dashing away torn blue dress waving in the wind. I
started to race after her, but then I spotted a gleam on the dark ground. It
was a dagger-- My ‘dragons tooth’ dagger! Heart pounding, and hope rising, I
changed my course. When I was almost to
it my foot caught on a broken log. I sailed toward the ground. Sprawled out in
the filth of blood, dirt, and dust, my hand reached out attempting to swipe the
dagger and throw it at the beast. But as I was about to reach it a hand
snatched me up above the ground.
Ow! He started squeezing me tighter and
tighter until I was gasping for air. I hoped this wasn’t my last breath. Loved
ones, dear ones, and even people that I was just “Friends” with, all came to
mind. Would I never see them again???? Oh dear there’s a sad thought that I’ve
had to deal with before. My, my, my…
My vision was blurring, and my comprehension
of things was fading. A bright flash streaked across the forest. Then Umeko was
there standing next to my dagger yelling, “Catch!”
The dagger sailed through the air straight
toward me! Just for a second my breath came back and I caught the dagger.
Twisting around as much as possible I plunged my dagger into the rough, oily,
black scales of the dragon. He dropped me screeching out in pain, for one of
the only things that penetrate dragons scales are dragon’s teeth. Plummeting to
the ground by something other than my true clumsiness, I pulled myself to the
right position receiving quite a shock of pain through my legs and arms. Feeling
no guilt about poisoning a dragon with another’s tooth we started sprinting
faster than any regular being.
Although Umeko could run five times my pace,
she stayed with me. My heart pounded with every leap. We were almost to the
edge of this ghastly forest. Twisting my head our eyes met, and for each of us
a smile as wide as could be crept on.
Just two more feet!
One more.
We were out, onto a field full of light with
no trees to cover us. I sighed.
We fell to the ground, laughing, laughing
heartily. People were staring. I didn’t care. Usually I would blush, but if I
did, no one could tell for my face was already flushed. Sitting up panting I
glanced at Megan and let out one final giggle. All we really did was run
through a football field, narrating, and acting it out.
In our minds, not a detail was missed, and
it… It was real.
The end-of-recess-bell rang. We returned to
our class line.
I loved those recesses and playing in our
Never Ending Kingdom with Meagan. We were so happy, so carefree. Those times
are my favorite to remember, but they also make me cry to think of what
happened next.
