First Echo Draft
A shudder arose from the ground. Her lips parted suddenly in awe then closed and curled up into a smile. She was finally creating something. She had finally discovered more to herself that made her hard training and preparation all worth it. She was finally a somebody amongst her friends. She had finally succeeded in triumphing over her most difficult obstacle. She was now ready to perform her spells solo.
Echo drew a circle around her into the dirt and let her body relax as the dirt suddenly rose, creating a wall to protect her. She didn't need to see what was happening, pictures danced in the darkness and she waited for the right moment to continue. The room was shuddering loudly, she could her the various furniture bouncing up and down, the glass shaking in its frame, the silverware falling onto the floor, the pictures falling from the walls. She held her breath, too anxious to think she might kill herself if it took too long. She was so entranced with the spell she neither noticed nor cared that a minute had passed and still she didn't breathe out. Today she was succeed, today she would finally show her friends she could make it, she would finally be classed as a real witch and thus her training would finally end.
"Oracles, drawn from the purist blood of the wisest soul, grant me power through the watchtower of fire and creatures. I withdraw from humanity and rise up to you, driven by love and sent by fate. Bestow apon me the power to transfer from this body to the next, forsake I seek you!"
There was a loud gasp as the air of the room was sucked out. Fire swam around her, she couldn't open her eyes from the heat. She knew the guardian of fire was staring at her in the face. She knew what she would ask, but still the answer would not come.
"What purpose are you?"
A silence came for half a second and Echo had no idea how to answer. She bit her lip hard before the guardian disappeared. Echo cried out but still it vanished. Once again, she had failed.
The darkness came suddenly, the trickery and sorcery all but left the room and Echo was left alone in the grand room, feeling tears come to her eyes. She would never become a true witch, she would never complete her training. Once again she had failed the test.
"How did it go?"
Echo matched straight past her two best friends, pushing past people in the corridor as she stormed out of the building. The two of them looked at one another before running after her.
Echo sat down on the bench outside the High School of Qualifying Spells and White Magic, tired and still sore from the spell. She clenched her necklace tightly, trying to make herself calm down but was failing. She had failed, yet again, and had to study all over again. She knew the spell off by heart, she could recite any passage from her spell book and was always an advanced student in all of her classes, but she felt she would never become a witch.
She sighed as she looked at her necklace, her proof that one day she would join her friends in saying that she too was a qualified witch. She could perform all spells to her capacity without help from elders. She had the moral maturity to know what was the right thing to do and what was wrong, especially when dealing with magic. Despite only being seventeen, she was ready to become a real witch.
Her necklace became hot as her anger grew more. She saw the stone in her necklace, the very key to all of her powers, was a fiery red. Whatever her emotions were inside, her necklace would change colour to them. It was as if it had it's own personality, sending her powers to help her calm down, before she did something she'd regret.
"Hey."
Echo looked up to see her favourite friends in the whole world looking miserable on her behave. She shuffled over so they could sit down and they did, still maintaining an awkward silence to make her feel bad for ignoring them when inside. Despite wanting to talk she couldn't speak. She felt awful for herself.
"It's OK Echo, I mean, you'll get it soon. Besides, it took me three months before I got it." Zodiac said suddenly.
Echo looked up for a moment at him. "I'm on my fourth."
"Oh." He replied. He was also a year younger than her which made her feel even worse.
"Don't get so down Echo!" Pepper suddenly yelled. "He's only so advanced because he's an original."
"Yeah, I know loads of guys who haven't finished yet, so don't worry."
"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I'm destined to be a trainee witch for the rest of eternity." She got up and walked away.
Pepper stared at her for a second before she hit Zodiac around the head.
"Hey! What was that for?" He rubbed his head slightly.
"You had to tell her that??"
"I didn't know she had been trying that long."
"You might as well have a sign saying you're more powerful than she'll ever be!" Pepper growled at him.
"I'm sorry!" Zodiac looked at his distressed friend before running to catch up with her.
Echo turned around to see her friend running up to her. "Don't start again, just leave it."
"I didn't mean to make you feel worse, I'm sorry."
"That's OK Zodiac, I forgive you." She walked on again. She didn't sound very sincere.
Zodiac ran beside her as she got faster in her pace. "Wait, dudet, don't you wanna talk about it?"
"I'd rather not." Echo replied.
"Look, I'm sorry you failed, I really am, and I'm sorry I'm stronger than you, but you're a better witch than I'll ever be."
"Yeah right..." Echo mumbled.
"Really Echo, I may have loads of powers but I don't know what to do with them! Remember my food spell? We had to replace the furniture in my house when it all turned to hamburgers!" Zodiac grabbed her shoulders and stopped her from walking on, staring into her eyes. "You're the best at what you do. If I could give you my powers you can have them but I'm stuck with too much and you're stuck with too little. The oracles wanted to piss us both off. So how about I treat you to all the ice cream money can buy back on earth and you can hit me as many times as you like until you feel better?"
Echo tried to stay mad but she gave in and started smiling.
"That's better. Now, lets blow the Other Realm and go to some really fancy restaurant in LA."
"You're on." Echo smiled.
They sat in one of the most exclusive restaurants in LA, staring at the menus, admiring the views and just breathing in the atmosphere. Echo was ready to indulge in bitching conversations and a lot of fattening food. With her best friends she already felt better after such a bad day.
Zodiac was once a human being until his thirteenth birthday where he was changed into a witch, as one was every generation to start a family of witches. He was sixteen years old and still lived on earth, being the only witch in history to break the spell that if any human found out about them, they would die. Only his very supporting family knew about him and one day his wife if they truly loved one another. His only fault was that after breaking the spell his immortality was taken. He would grow up and one day die, before his witch life had barely begun. Echo and Pepper both knew this, but never said anything about it. He seemed happy enough, living a half life of witchcraft and a normal human teenager.
Pepper was a descended from a tribe of forest fairies on her mother's side, so she was half witch, half fairy. She had wings and was really only an inch tall, but she always changed her height to a regular witch size. She was an Earth fairy, knowing all herbal spells and lived with a lot of animals. She was one of the most popular witches, being very pretty with her short blonde hair and always positive attitude. She was a real hippie; stopping deforestation, raiding animal testing labs and protesting about many things. Pepper even lived in a tree, when her actual size, depending on an all natural lifestyle. It was no surprise when she had no clue how to screw in a light bulb, never using modern technology.
Echo was both grateful and happy to have such different friends. She too was a witch, but nothing else. She was very tall with short black hair that shined green in the light, purple eyes and was in actual fact very famous in the Other Realm. She was a part of a royal witch family, her mother being one the last remaining warrior and her father helping to run almost a quater of the Other Realm. Her grandfather was even on the Witches Council, holding the six most powerful witches known- Zodiac would have joined them when he was older but having such a short life span was declined. Echo was happy to be known as a good witch but not a part of her family. There was too much to live up to. Her mother had fought in many wars against the demons that lived amongst them in the Other Realm, and her father had solved many spells that had been locked centuries ago. Despite all of that Echo thought she had to be a sorry excuse for a daughter, having failed her final test yet again.
"...and that is why you and Zodiac should get married."
"Huh?" Echo snapped out of her daydream and looked at Pepper who had obviously been talking for a long time but Echo wasn't listening.
"You wanna at least look interested when I speak?" Pepper asked.
"Sorry, I was just thinking." Echo mumbled.
"About what?" Zodiac asked.
"Just stuff. Family stuff. About how I'm going to hear the speech about studying and messing about when I should be practising spells."
"At least you have no brothers or sisters where they can compare you to them." He replied. "Just last week I got the 'why can't you be more like your brother' speech. Those ones are the worst."
"Since when have your parents wanted you to be more like your slobs for brothers?" Pepper asked.
"They were talking about my little brother. Apparently he's nine years younger than me and already knows how to tidy his room. I have six siblings, so it gets confusing."
Pepper stared at him. "Confusing? I have seventy brothers and eighty two sisters! You ever been to my family reunions; it's like the size of a football field, when we're all fairy sized!"
Zodiac low whistled. "Jesus, I don't wanna see the line for the bathroom in the morning."
Echo smiled, seeing they had trailed off the subject. "I hate all speeches, they all mean they've put aside their busy schedule to discuss how to tell me off. As if I need more pressure from them two."
"Just ignore them, its a stressful time of the year, what with spring and everything." Pepper said. "All the animals trying to mate up, the trees blossoming, its a wonder we can get any spells done."
"I wasn't exactly thinking about it like that, but yeah, I suppose you're right." Echo replied. She stirred her now runny ice cream in its bowl, starting to daydream again. Both of her friends were used to her daydreaming, she was known for having an over active imagination.
"They wont disown you." Pepper suddenly said.
Echo looked up. "Stop reading my mind!"
"Sorry, but they wont."
"Pepper's right, you've got to think of this as a good thing. At least they're paying attention to you." Zodiac said.
"They only pay attention to me when I'm screwing up though! When I saved those kids from going into that collapsing building, they didn't say a thing. When I found them the flower of Karroini to help them fight the demons last year, they just told me to get out of the way. I could destroy the last original vampire and still they will tell me to concentrate on studying."
"And yet you still have us," Pepper grinned, "so I think it balances out."
"Yeah right." Echo smiled back.
"I think it is safe to say we can handle any ghoul, goblin and demon thrown at us, just as long as we have friends," Zodiac paused, "and alcohol."
"That's unanimous." Pepper agreed.
"Well, I have to get back home before seven or else I wont get to pick the movie for tonight." Zodiac got up.
"Where are you transporting? I'll come with you." Pepper said.
"Probably in the subway, there's less people there at the moment."
"See you later Echo!" They called back.
"Oh thanks, just leave me with the check!" Echo yelled after them, then sighed. They were right; she knew she shouldn't care about what her parents thought. She barely even saw them so they had no right to say she was a good daughter of not, not knowing where she was twenty three hours of the day. She lived in the castle feeling alone so she never stayed there. It was just a place for studying and being the royal witch that she was. The people there treated her as a princess and she hated it. If she hadn't insisted on going to a normal school of witchcraft, she would have never met her friends and had a social life. She depended on Pepper, Zodiac and all her other friends to make her feel normal. Now that they were all graduating and becoming full time witches, it seemed she would become lonely again.
Echo got up slowly and decided to walk to an official portal, located mostly in subways and back alleyways, places nobody would ever find. They were the places the magic took place, where all definitions of logic and science were cleaned away to a whole new world of the unimaginable. It was amazing how much mortals didn't know about their own world, let alone the others that surrounded it. Echo loved the mortal realm for its innocence and naive nature, thinking everything could be explained somehow. The amount of times things had been covered up with a quote from some random scientist, that the government paid to keep quiet the fact that he or she was baffled, was hard to count. Echo and all others that could cross over to the Other Realm knew that but they knew it was sadly true. Humans are bad at accepting the truth, thinking that they know everything when they know so little.
It was amazing how much they all learnt to accept the truth, once it was thrust into their hands all at once...
There was a sound from behind her. Echo turned around to see nothing. She was sure she had heard it. The feeling of cool air playing her face suddenly meant somebody had to be nearby in the stuffy tunnel. She waited for them. The seconds ticked passed and Echo scorned herself for being paranoid, until she heard the sound of a blade escaping its belt. A demon raised his sword and swung it down onto Echo. She jumped back and knocked the sword out of its hands. She stabbed the demon forcefully into its stomach and pulled it out again just as a fast. The echoying screams filled the tunnel and she heard the slam of the demon hitting the floor. Echo stared at the sword in her hand and dropped it in shock. It was starting. She was becoming a warrior, just like her mother. She didn't want to fight, witches were no longer needed to fight against the demons. It was a peaceful time. It meant danger was coming, she knew it. She left no trace of her ever being near the demon and transported herself home.
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