A New Realm

 

Hurricane

 

                                             

 

        We only spent a couple minutes in the iridescent lapse.  We immerged in front of a huge golden palace.  It was almost medieval.  Ulani immediately began walking towards the shimmering gates of gold. 

“Hey wait!” I yelled.  All the rest of us ran after her. 

Everything inside shimmered a bright gold.  We seemed to be drawn by an invisible force to some destination in the palace.  I didn’t look around too much, because I was so intent on reaching the unknown destination.  After a while of walking, we came to a set of huge golden doors.  They swung open in front of us.  As soon as we stepped into the bright golden room, we lost all feelings of gravity.

 “Cool, it’s like we are in outer space,” Levinia’s astronaut dreams were as close to coming true as they could be at this age.  She began to ‘swim’ around in the air.

 “I need to practice my breast stroke for swim team,” Estella joked, and then she joined Levinia in her ‘swimming’.

Ulani sat cross-legged facing the floor on the wall, and Heather and Tarana lounged on the ceiling.  Heather reclining with her legs slightly bent upward.  Tarana sat gazing curiously around the room, holding her knees.  Bruce was quite amused and began to walk on the ceiling.  Elyse made the best of the situation and started to annoy Phaedra by constantly floating by her.  I just floated there.  I was enjoying watching everyone else.

After enjoying the absence of gravity for a few minutes, we all started sinking towards the ground.  A whining “awe” was heard echoing about the huge golden room.  All of us landed softly in some cushy plush chairs.  No sooner had we settled ourselves into the chairs, when a beautiful woman with long golden hair that hung down to her ankles, appeared in an empty chair between Levinia and I.

“Well where did you come from?” Levinia was sarcastic and surprised at the same time. 

“I am Queen Efrit.  I am ruler of this island.  Where might you be from?” This lady was wearing an outfit that looks somewhat medieval and somewhat futuristic.

“Were from Maharara and Forring,” Tarana Spoke up.

“Where did you say?  I don’t believe I’ve heard of these places,” Efrit sounded confused.

 “How ‘bout The Twin Cities,” Bruce added.

The queen still looked confused.

 “Minnesota,” I suggested.

She still didn’t understand.

 “The US,” Ulani tried to help the situation.

 “The USA?” This time it was Elyse.

 “How ‘bout The United States of America?” Estella was sarcastic.

 “North America?” Heather fired.

 “Earth?  The Milky Way?” Ulani was impatient.

 “Earth, ah, I know that place.  That is in the 3rd realm,” The Queen began to understand.   “The Elemental Guardians were supposed to come from the 3rd realm.  They should have been here by now.

 “As for you, you must be warriors that will help this realm fight off the Elemental Wraths until the Elemental Guardians get here.  They must not have been available.  You are probably the second most eligible nein.  You will return home when they arrive.”

“So exactly why are we here?” This time it was Levinia that was confused.

 “Basically, you are all here as substitutes for the great Elemental Guardians.  They were apparently busy,” Efrit answered.

 “How do you know an Elemental Warrior when you see one?” Phaedra was curious.

 “The only way for you to tell is if a jewel appears in the forehead in the warp.  Of course that is for normal, powerless people like you.  I can tell by the energy you give off,” Queen Efrit sounded slightly stuck up.

          “We had gems on our heads,” Heather was unsure.

          “No, you’re just kidding.  You can’t be the Elemental Guardians.  You aren’t the right kind of people,” Efrit chuckled.

“We did have gems on our foreheads!” I abruptly stood upright.  I couldn’t believe that she thought Heather was just joking.  I couldn’t believe she didn’t think we were the right kind of people.

I was mad.

          Levinia gave me a sarcastically surprised glance.  I’m the most laid-back of our group of friends.  I don’t usually get mad like this.  Levinia was congratulating me, because she somewhat teases me about my lack of temper.

“Sit down child.  I’m not calling you liars.  The gems are the liars,” The queen tried to calm me.

I sat down, only for her sake, of course, because I was still fuming. 

 

          “Now then, it’s getting late.  I have some rooms you could sleep in.  My servants will show you there,” The queen sent us off.

 

 

 

***

 

                                              

 

          The next morning we were woken early and summoned to the large room with the plush chairs again.  Everyone, except Heather and I were a little grumpy, to say the least.

          “Good morning, my warriors,” Queen Efrit greeted us lightly.

          Apparently, she’s a morning person, I thought.

On a darker note she began, “The Elemental Wraths have struck all corners of the island. You, being my warriors, will fight them off, and scare them away.  Whatever you do, don’t let them come near here.  Go to the armory, and pick out some weapons.  Then, exit through the front gate, and jump through the portal.  You will appear in the sky and float down.  It will take you where you are needed.”  She seemed edgy and nervous.          We went to the armory.  I chose a bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a nice sward.  The others chose similar things.  We went out the front gate as instructed. (Since when do we fallow instructions exactly?) 

          “What are you waiting for, Janelle?” Elyse grabbed my hand and jumped.  Of course I went with her.  We jumped through the portal and appeared over the island.  We let go of each other and soared over the island.  After a while everyone soared in different directions, for the most part.  We generally were heading for destinations in twos. 

          I was with Bruce.  Why?  Well, anyway, we seamed to be heading towards the ocean, and some cliffs of some sort.  We landed safely after about five minutes of floating.  We had landed on the cliffs.  There was obviously a waterfall near by; we could hear its thundering wake.  We were both mesmerized at the ocean.  It sparkled in the sunlight.  And then it hit us, the huge wave, I mean.  Despite its force, we remained standing tall.  In fact, we were suddenly lifted off the ground.  I hung in mid air, and I started turning.  I was in my normal clothes, one minute, and, after a flash of gray-blue light, I was wearing an outfit similar to the one in the warp, except it was radiating a grayish blue light.  Could I be one of the Elemental Guardians?  If I am, this must be by transformation.  Small wisps of clouds began materializing around my waist.  The soon became a small hurricane, and then it folded over to be a gray shirt with a hem.  My legs stopped shimmering, and became periwinkle colored pants.  At the same time some leather gray, leather shoes where the top folded over appeared on my feet.  These were the type that I drew on Tiervana.  The collar was the best part; it was made of a lightweight crystal, and was blue on the bigger part and gray on the small triangle part that was in the middle.  There was an iridescent, sparkling, gray cape attached to the back of the collar.  I love capes.  I thought I must be done, wrong.  My blue and silvery hair started flowing strait up, then it gathered together in a high ponytail on my head.  Now I was done. 

          I’ll make this short and sweet.  I got wet so I changed into a funky dude with strange powers.  I got qua colored pants, a dark blue shirt, some blue elfy shoes, a funky blue and greenish collar, and a sparkly, blue and green cape.  Hey cool, I thought, I must be one of those Elemental Guardians. 

          I felt like imitating my favorite TV character; “I am an Elemental Guardian, fear me!”  Sure that was lame.  Suddenly I saw two really strange creatures, probably evil, most likely the Elemental Wraths.  “I think.”  I added this out of being unsure what side these guys were on.

          “So, we’ve come to the right place.  We are the elemental Wraths.  There is one of us for everyone of you,” The one with huge wings spoke up, “We can find you, as long as you are in the first realm.”

           “Bite me.”

Sure Bruce that was real smart.

          “Don’t mind if I do,” the one with fins advanced on Bruce.

          “I didn’t mean literally!” For one short moment I was panicked.  I put my hands in front of my face for protection, but as soon as I figured out that I was shooting ice bubbles with drops of water inside them, I was no longer panicked.  But, that must be what I call these strange bubbles.  The sea serpenty thing was frozen right in its tracks.  Ha, ha, I beat it.

Well, if Bruce can do bubbles, what can I do?  I held my hands just below my chin then shot them outward.  A strong wind came out of my hands.  I blew the evil cloud drake (with huge wings) about 10 feet back.  This is cool!  I’m a super hero!  Well, sort of.

          “You can’t beat us that easily,” the cloud drake announced confidently.

          “Yes, a little ice can’t hurt a sea serpent,” the sea serpent shook off its coating of ice.

          This wouldn’t be as easy as I thought.          

Suddenly, I sparked an idea.  I ran over to Bruce.  “We both transformed with water, so we both must have some sort of water in our powers.  Why don’t we work together on this one,” I explained so the Wraths couldn’t hear.

          “How do we go about doing this?”

          “I think the only way is for us to hold hands.  Some sort of attack will come to us.  Just like a few minutes ago.”

          “Fun, but, if we absolutely have to, I guess we might as well start.”

          We grabbed both hands.  As soon as we did, we raised slowly off the ground.  A dark black cloud formed above the Elemental Wraths.  Powerful sleet and rain fell on them. 

          “You may have beet us this time, but we’ll be back!” one of them yelled, and then they disappeared.

          “Yea we beet ‘em!” we both yelled.  No we could return to the queen and prove we were the Elemental Guardians.

 

 

***

 

                                               

 

          I’m surprised the landing didn’t hurt.  Well, there sure is a lot of magic here, so that can be my explanation.  Levinia is here with me.  I don’t know why, but at least it’s not Elyse.  We could never beat a pair of monsters together.  Levinia and I could do pretty good.  In fact, we would kick butt. 

I heard Levinia yell my name, so I turned around.  There were two monsters.  One looked like a fairly large drake, and the other looked like small dragon.  They were hissing and conning towards us. “Oh, crap,” I said, for a lack of better words.  Levinia also said something.  (I’m not going to repeat it because you know what I’m talking about)

These things were making me nervous.  The little dragon breathed lightning, and zapped me. For about 25 seconds I was floating in mid-air surrounded by a neon yellow light.  What in the world did that thing do to me?  “Cool I’ve got a cape now.  Thank you, little dragon thing,” I said, not thinking.

      “I am not a little dragon thing, I am the Lightning Elemental Wrath!” the little dragon thing was angry.

“Ooh, I’m scared,” I was heavily sarcastic.  Let’s get rid of this thing.

           The little drake started breathing fire, and I floated in mid air for about 30 seconds.  I was mad. This little thing was really annoying me.  I charged at it.  It tried to stop me by breathing more fire.

      I went at the little dragon with my best crescent kick.  I zapped it and kicked it at the same time.  Oh yea, I rock!

      “You haven’t seen the last of me!” the little dragon thing yelled as it disappeared.

I held my hands out in front of me, and ran faster.  I was goanna hit that thing soo hard! Fireballs that were about the size of a bowling ball came out of my hand.  If I have this power, I must be some sort of a super hero.  I must be one of the Elemental Guardians!

      “As long as I’m an Elemental Wrath, I’ll be back for you again!”  The drake disappeared. 

      I gave Phaedra a high-five, “Alright!  We beat ‘um!”

“Wait ‘till the queen hears this; we’re the Elemental Guardians!”

      “I can just see the look on her face.”

 

 

***

 

 

      I happened to land by myself.  There were nine of us, so someone would wind up being alone.  And yet, why me?  I’m the oldest of the group, so, go figure.  I just kinda stood there at a loss of what to do.  I was bored, so I drew a circle in the air in front of me and a warp appeared. Cool!  Thinking the queen wanted me to come back to the palace, I jumped in.  Intertwined beams of navy blue and golden yellow light spun around me and surrounded me.  My clothes felt slightly different, and I had a cape.  In fact, my whole outfit had changed.  Although, strangely, I was wearing blue and yellow.  This was cool, either I must have some power or that warp had some power.  A few minutes after I got out of the warp, a strange creature appeared.  “So Rhythm, we finally meet.  I am the Time Elemental Wrath.  Fear Me!” somehow the wind-like thing managed to talk.

 So this is the Elemental Wrath I’m supposed to beat.  How was I going to beat a blob of very fast wind?  Then, it came to me.  I must have made that warp.  I could make another.  I put my fingers together as high as I could go then brought them down in opposite directions in a perfect circle that touched the ground.  I ‘pulled’ the air in front of me.  The wrath was sucked towards me at an incredible rate.

“I’ll find you again, Rhythm!  And when I do…” the Elemental Wrath was sucked into the warp, and the portal disappeared.

             The Wrath called me Rhythm.  I wonder why.  Wait, I must be the Rhythm Elemental Guardian.  I just have to.  Now I have to go tell queen Efrit. 

 

 

***

 

                                                 

 

      “So, Heather, it’s just the two of us, I guess,” I looked at the empty forest surroundings we had landed in.       

      “Yea, Estella, I wander how that happened?” Estella and I could become pretty wild and crazy when together.  I leaned against a near by, vine-covered tree.  Before I knew what was happening, I was lifted off the forest floor.  My body was an iridescent green.  Vines twisted around my legs, then flowered the flower was a pale pink color.  Then, instead of pink flowers I had pink stretch pants. The vines coiled around my upper body forming a green shirt.  Then they coiled around my feet creating green moccasin-like shoes.  They draped about my neck forming a pink and green collar. The vines hung down my back, flowered, and fused together to make a sparkling, pink and green cape. 

      “That’s a handy way to change.  How’d you do that?” I was fairly amused. 

      “I don’t know.  It just happened,” I was just as perplexed as she was. 

      A small orange and green butterfly landed on my nose.  It tickled.

      “Estella, don’t move.  You’ll scare it away…” I watched astonished as Estella transformed.

      The butterfly unfolded its wings so they lay across my face like a mask.  Suddenly, I was turning, and in a matter of seconds I had changed a lot.  I had an orange shirt, green pants, a circlet with a paw symbol on it, a green cape, orange shoes, and an orange and green collar.  I could hear animal calls all around me as I turned. 

      “So you figured it out,” I watched Estella as she inspected her new outfit.

      “More like, the butterfly figured it out.  We must be the Elemental Guardians,” the thought suddenly hit me.

      “Hey you’re right.  Now all we need is some evil villains to defeat and we’re heroes.”   

      “Heather,” I looked behind her and paused, “you spoke too soon.”

      I turned around, and shrieked.  A huge panther like monster, and an old gnarled tree creature stood behind me.  I whipped my hands in front of me for protection.  Thick vines shot out of my hands and wrapped around the two monsters tying them together. 

      “Good going Heather!” I was surprised.  “Now it’s my turn.” I grasped at the air, and a nine-tails appeared in my hand.  I advanced on the monsters.  I whipped the nine-tails at them and said “Creatures Be Tame And Obey Me!” they glowed and started changing.  The Huge panther turned into cute, little, black kitten and the tree creature looked at me obediently, waiting for instructions.

      “That’s more like it,” Estella’s powers were somewhat amusing.

      “Now leave, both of you!”  The tree walked away, but the kitten paused. 

      “You haven’t seen the last of us Paw and Ivy!”  It tried to be fierce, but all it could muster was a tiny, harsh voice.  Then it reluctantly followed the happy-go-lucky tree.

      “C’mon, let’s head back to the palace,” I was amazed and tired.

 

 

***

                                                 

 

 

      “Well, here we are.  No what are we supposed to do?” This warrior thing was, of course, new to me. 

      “Ulani, the only thing I can say is get rid of the Elemental Wraths,” I pointed out the obvious. 

“I know that.  Duhh!  I’m not stupid, Elyse,” I was slightly sarcastic.

      “I never said you were.  Humph!” I glared at Ulani.

      I smiled like an idiot back at her, and scratched my head.

      “Ugh!” I sighed.  Ulani always does that.  At least, she doesn’t laugh like Janelle does.      

      “Now, about the wraths,” I teased Elyse.  She didn’t know she ha two hideous creatures had just appeared behind her.  I grinned and stared over her shoulder.

      “What?  Waaahhhh!”  Ohh, I hate that Ulani.  She purposely didn’t tell me.  Out of reaction, I jumped and hid behind her.

      The creatures were shapeless blobs that gave off yellow light. The only difference between the two was, one gave of a dimmer light than the other.  They fused together and shot a beam of light at us.  I took the hit because Elyse was still hiding behind me. 

      I was surrounded in bright yellow light.  I could feel myself rising upward, and Elyse’s desperate hands slipping off my shoulders.  The light flashed and I was wearing an outfit that was many colors of yellow.  I now had a cape.  This was cool.  I landed, and Elyse stared, mouth wide open. 

      “Wow Ulani!  I wish I could do that!  But in the mean time, could you get rid of those things. They’re scaring me,” they really were, otherwise I wouldn’t have admitted it.  I don’t like to tell people when I’m scared. 

      “Let’s see what I can do,” I wanted to try my new powers.  I grabbed at the light they gave off and sucked it into my hand.  I had just sucked all of the light away.  The wraths were no more than dark powerless blobs. I turned around and gave it to Elyse.  The blast of light might make her transform. 

      I’ll have to thank Ulani for that later.  I transformed similar to Ulani, except my light was weaker.  My yellows were paler.  I immediately went into action.  Two throwing stars appeared between my fingers in each hand.  I flung them and sent the blobs off angry and defeated. 

      “Revenge will be ours.  It will be!” the two strange creatures left us fuming at their defeat. 

      “I think we better head back.  It’s getting dark,” anyway I was exhausted.

      “Who needs to worry about darkens when we’ve got you around,” I pointed out an obvious fact to my observant, glowing friend.

 

 

***

                                                 

 

      We all met each other outside the Sun Palace gates.  We shared stories and laughed.  After a while, everyone got tired, so we went to our rooms and went to sleep.  This is when I got caught up on what went on with everyone else.  (How else would I report this story)

 

 

 

***

 

 

The next morning we were all up bright and early feeling refreshed.  All of us, that is, except Phaedra.  She was the last one up, by a long ways.  She stumbled into the room and yawned a huge yawn. 

      Elyse leaned over to me and said, “Look at Phaedra and laugh.  Pass it on.”

I leaned over to Levinia and repeated what Elyse had said, “Look at Phaedra and laugh.  Pass it on.”

Levinia leaned over to Ulani, and Ulani to Estella, Estella to Heather, Heather to Tarana, and Tarana to Bruce.  Soon the whole room was filled with laughs and everyone’s eyes were on Phaedra.

Phaedra plopped down in her chair next to Elyse, and glared at her.  At the same moment, Queen Efrit entered the room.  “What’s so funny?!?”  They both asked angrily at the same moment.

           Estella managed to tell them stifled through loud fits of laughing.  “Look…at

Phaedra…and…Laugh…”                                              

Efrit burst into laughter. 

            Phaedra glared at us all.  This only made me laugh harder.  The way people contort their faces when they’re mad is soo funny!

      “Delirious Cantaloupes!” Phaedra demanded us to stop laugh through this phrase firmly.

      “That’s just not funny,” Ulani said in a serious tone.

      This stopped everyone from laughing except Estella, Efrit, and I.  I think that phrase is funny.

      Phaedra glared even harder at us.  I laughed even harder.

      “Look.  Janelle’s turning purple,” Elyse pointed out.

      After a while Estella and I got tired of laughing.  My jaw got soar.

      Suddenly Efrit started laughing harder. 

      “What’s so funny,” this time it was Tarana.

      “I just thought of something…” Efrit broke off laughing.      

      “What?” Bruce asked.

      “Sssss… Soggy… Cccuu… Cucumbers…” This made everyone laugh.       

      Despite their appearance, Efrit and Phaedra are extremely alike.

      “Nnnow, what ddid you what mme fffor?” The queen attempted to act dignified and not laugh.  Her attempts had, so far, failed. 

       “Yesterday we discovered we are the nine Elemental Guardians,” Heather spoke up.

      “You have to be kidding.  You are nowhere near the right type of people for that,” that statement stopped Efrit’s giggling abruptly.

       “If you don’t believe us, you can be amazed!  Just watch,” I stood up at this remark.  The thing that offends me most is when someone calls me a liar.  I raised my fingers to my forehead. The Jewel appeared.  I transformed.  Everyone else followed my example.

      “Well you did amaze me.  I can be wrong, but it is rare” the queen was surprised and unbelieving. 

      “So, you can sense the Guardians?” Estella was sarcastic.

      The Queen opened a beautiful black and gold box that was lined with black velvet.  Inside were 15 different colored glowing crystals.  “You probably already know your power and will be naturally drawn to one of the crystals.  You will Know witch one is yours,” the queen explained. 

      Everyone dove for the crystals.

      “Be careful!  Those are very old!” the queen was frantic by our abruptness. 

      I grabbed one that was light blue and gave off a silver light.  After everyone had chosen a crystal, things calmed down, with the exception of a small spectacle between Ulani and Elyse. 

      “That crystal is mine.  I was drawn to it!”  Elyse was, for once, loud and strait forward.

      “I was too!  It’s mine!  I want it!” Ulani tried to wrench the crystal from Elyse’s hands.

      “BE CAREFUL!” Efrit could see the crystal was going to give.

      Suddenly there was a there was the sound of a twang on glass.  The crystal had broken in two.  There was silence.

      “Oops,” Elyse said quietly.

      The pieces grew into whole crystals.  Beams of light were emitted from them and surrounded their owners.  Elyse’s colors changed.  Her shirt was gray, her pants were blue, and her cape and shoes were a pale yellow color.  Ulani colors were limited to a golden yellow and a bright yellow.

      “What’s with this Elemental Guardian thing?  That name is sooo boring.  Why can’t we be the Killer Elementals?” Phaedra broke the silence.  “I mean who’d want to be the Flame Elemental Guardian?”

      “Phaedra has a point,” Bruce pointed out.

      “Yea there’s n reason why not,” Tarana chimed in. 

      “Yea, Elemental Guardians is kinda boring,” Ulani agreed.

       “Although, Killer Elementals is kind of a mouthful,” I pondered.

       “We could be the Killer Pixies.  That’s what Annie used to call us back at home,” Ulani was a genius.

       “Yea, I like that.  The Killer Pixies?” Elyse played with the sound of it.

      “That sounds cool,” Estella agreed.

      “Yea, I like it,” Heather also agreed.

      “Your Highness, from now on, we will be called the Killer Pixies,” this was a surprise.  Levinia never used that amount of politeness all at once.

      “Well, if you insist,” the queen reluctantly agreed. 

      “I am Hurricane Pixie!” our crystals let us know our titles.  How appropriate; I’m the person who is absolutely fascinated by weather, especially hurricanes, and I’m the one who reads the weather page every morning, and only that page.

      “I am Flame Pixie!” This is good.  Ms. Pyro-maniac Phaedra was Flame Pixie.  I guess being the flame at my last birthday party went to her head.

      “I am Sun Pixie!” I don’t know where Ulani got that one.  The only thing I can relate that to is the fact that she has a sunny disposition.

      “I am Liquid Pixie!” That is so Bruce.  It’s cool sounding and sleek. 

      “I am Lightning Pixie!” Great, This is dangerous.  Levinia with karate, lightning, and an attitude is definitely dangerous.

      “I am Moon Pixie!” Ok, this is where the crystal split comes in.  I think that was the light crystal.  Ulani is Sun, Elyse is Moon; they are going to have a lot of powers in common.

      “I am Rhythm Pixie,” Tarana announced.

      She turned her attention to us, “Now you know witch guardian, I mean pixie you are, you can visit your palaces.”  Efrit close her eyes, concentrated on something, and waved her hand gently around in front of her face.  She looked up at us again, “I have made portals in your rooms to your own palaces.  You may visit them whenever you wish.”

      We all left the room eager for the start of new day of adventures.