Chapter 2
My eyelids flutter
open and see something strange. I see a fairy-like creature flitting in front
of my face.
“Who
is she?” I hear from off into the distance.
“Quiet!
You’ll wake her,” the creature hisses back. I gasp and sit up.
“Now
you’ve done it! What were you thinking?” the creature in front of me hisses at
the other one.
“What?
What are you?” I stammer.
“We
are Wanderers just like you. The more important question is ‘What are you doing
in Grimm?’,” the other creature says flying over. Their wings were translucent
and looked paper-thin. Both of them have shorter hair and had a bluish tint to
their skin. One had pink hair and the other had black. They both had the same
eyes as me which scared me a little. The one with pink hair, I’m assuming that
it was a girl, had a shorter tunic with skin-tight leggings and boots. The
other one, I’m assuming that it was a boy, had almost the same outfit on except
he had what looked like battle armor on top of his tunic.
“I
– I don’t know. What’s a Wanderer?” I ask.
“I
guess you’ll have to come with us,” the boy creature says sighing. I feel
myself being lifted from the bench and being put on my feet. I look around –
stunned. The sky was a purple color like what it looks like at sunset. There
were a ton of these creatures flying around, and the sound their wings made
filled the air with music.
“Wow,”
I say breathless. We start walking towards the woods.
“Yeah.
This is Grimm where most of the Grimm Fairytales take place,” the girl creature
says.
“Really?
I always thought that they made them up,” I say looking around.
“Obviously
not,” the boy creature grumbles. We finally come up to a big marble building
and stop. I look up and feel a wave of nausea come over me; I’m not that good
with heights. The building was immaculate and decorated in such a way that I
felt hurtled back into Ancient Rome. The creatures float forward into the
building first.
“Wait
here,” the boy creature orders me. I nod, a little frightened of what could be
in that building. They disappear into the building, and I turn around towards
what I guess was a town. There were little shops and cafés everywhere. It reminded me
of a picture in my French 101 textbook. I noticed then that these fairy-like
creatures weren’t the only ones around. I saw centaurs, archers, elves (and not
Santa’s kind I tell you), and trolls. It seemed that everyone was getting
along, not like in the fantasy novels that I’ve read. Just then, someone behind
me clears their throat. I jump and turn around. I gasp. It was my father.
“Dad?”
I croak. He wasn’t wearing what he had on at the house. He was in a long,
purple robe on top of an old-fashioned tunic.
“Hi
Sienna,” Dad says sheepishly. I open my mouth to start asking questions, but my
mind goes blank.
“It’s
okay hon. Come inside; I’ll explain everything,” he says gesturing into the big
marble building. He guides me into the building, and I look at him. He looks
the same. Maybe I’m just having a weird dream. We arrive in the grand hall that
had the same character as the outside. We enter a much smaller room with two
small couches facing a huge fireplace. Dad sits and I follow suit.
“I
bet you’re wondering a lot of things about everything. Hopefully this should
clear up everything,” he says folding his hands into his lap. I nod and sit
back a little; I have a feeling that this will take a while.
“It
all started when I was your age. Remember Grandma Annie? I used to go over to
her house every other weekend. She would tell me these stories about this world
called Grimm, and I always thought she made it up. One day, she took me into
the basement and showed me her true form. She was an elder elf. She was
beautiful, and I was terrified. She told me about her past and the gift she had
passed down to me. I guess I’ve passed it down to you now. We are a special
kind of people. We are Wanderers,” he says.
“That’s
what those creatures told me when I woke up here,” I say remembering.
“Sophia
and Daniel are like that. They always say too much before the time is right,”
he laughs.
“What
are Wanderers? What do we do?” I ask cautiously.
“Wanderers
come back and forth between Grimm and other worlds and help to “keep the peace”
as we say. That’s pretty much our code. “Servo pacis tamen servo pondera”, or “Keep the peace but keep the
balance”. We’ve translated it into English since the Dark Ages,” he says
crossing his legs and gesturing with his hands. Just then, Sophia and Daniel
fly into the room.
“Satraps,
we have a bit of a problem,” Sophia says out of breath.
“What
is it Sophia?” Dad asks.
“A
flock of phoenixes has escaped from the blacksmith’s forge,” Sophia says with urgency,
“We
will need you at once,” Daniel buts in.
“I’m
on my way,” he says and they fly out of the room.
“What
did they call you?” I ask as Dad gets up.
“Oh
um… they called me Satraps. It’s Latin for ‘Ruler’. I’ll explain later,” he
says blushing a little. He rushes out of the room, and on the way he grabs a
crossbow and quiver. I follow after him. On one of the tables in the hall, I
see a small dagger. I pick it up and tie the scabbard around my waist. Zipping
up my sweatshirt to hide it, I run out the door. I see bursts of lights all
around me.
“The
phoenixes,” I say to myself. They were amazing and so majestic. They were also
creating chaos. They were flying around and creating bursts of heat and fire
which led to buildings catching fire.
“We
need some help over here,” one of the creatures yells over the screeching. I
run over and see an elf under a heavy beam.
“Don’t
worry. I’ll help you,” I say trying to push the beam off. I feel all the weight
disappear and I look up. A troll has picked up the beam with one hand and sets
it off to the side.
“Thanks,”
I say in a voice that I don’t recognize as my own. The creature nods and walks
away, looking for more people to help. I suddenly remember the elf that was
trapped. He stood up, with a little trouble, and looked at me. He had the same
eyes as me and dark brown hair.
“Hello,”
I say. He nods and runs off to help the others. I run after him and see a
phoenix trapped in some sort of net.
“Help me,” I hear in my mind. I whirl
around, looking for the speaker. Nobody made eye contact with me, so I
concentrate on the phoenix.
“Yes. I am the one who reached you,” the
voice says again. I suddenly realize that it had to be the phoenix.
“You are correct Sienna,” the phoenix
says. I nod and concentrate on helping the phoenix.
“You’re
hurting her,” I yell over the commotion. Dad sees me in the crowd and looks
over towards me. I try to send a message to all of the phoenixes and tell them
to come back to the forge. Just then, the chaos quieted and all the phoenixes
fly over to my friend and land. They all look at me, expecting another command.
“Thank
you,” I send and say out loud. They all take off and go towards a big black
building, which must be the forge. I walk over to my friend and take out my
dagger. Sawing away at the net, Dad comes over to me. He takes out his sword
and helps me. After a little bit, my friend is free. She takes off and hovers
above the ground about 30 feet.
“Thank you Sienna. My name is Ruby and my
clan thanks you,” she says to me. She flaps her wings and flies off toward
the same black building. I watch her go, amazed by how beautiful she is. After
she enters the building, I turn around. The entire crowd looks flabbergasted.
“She’s
a Phoenix Orator,”
someone whispers. The crowd parts and an older woman comes forward.
“Who is she?” I wonder to myself
“She’s Dianna, the elder of Grimm,” Ruby
says to me. It sounds like a tuned-out radio station though because she’s far
away.
“Sienna
Orator. You will have many a journey across this land, your own, and many
others before your end. Good luck Orator,” she says. Just then, she bursts into
flames, just like the phoenixes, and is scattered in the wind. The crowd gasps,
both in fear and in amazement. Then reality set in.
“Now
what?” I ask. Dad comes forward and takes my hand. He lifts it up like I’ve won
a wrestling match.
“Hail
Sienna Price -- The Phoenix Orator,” Dad yells. The crowd responds with a “battle
cry” type yell. I blush at all of the attention. Dad then leads me back to the
white building. The crowd separates like before but with a new-found
energy. I look at all of the faces in
the crowd. They all seem happy, but they also looked a little frightened. I
scan the crowd and see the elven boy that I helped. My eyes widen as he looks
up and smiles. His smile was like a new 100 watt bulb. His eyes glimmered and
he disappeared into the shadows. I blink a few times, but he doesn’t return.
Bewildered, I come back to what’s happening around me. We finally stop at the
white building and Dad turns me around. He bows and turns to go into the
building. I realize that I have to bow too. I bow, not very gracefully, and
turn into the building. Dad shuts the main doors and turns to look at me.
“We
have a lot of talking to do,” he says ushering me into the same room we were in
before.
“I
have one question first,” I say hesitant. He nods.
“Who
was that boy elf that disappeared when we were coming back?” I ask.
“He’s
Erro. He’s our messenger to the other Wanderers in other worlds,” Dad says
sitting down on the couch.
“Oh.
I was just curious. He looked a little different than everyone else,” I say
sitting down too.
“He
is. He just appeared here one day and he’s been a little bit of an outsider to
the locals…but enough about that. We need to talk about you,” he says crossing
his legs. I nod and he begins to tell me the history about past Orators.
“It’s
just remarkable that you have this gift. It has never been seen in humans.
Ever. I was also surprised that Dianna openly spoke to you. She hasn’t made a
public appearance in over 30 years. Dianna was the last Orator. She was part of
the elven race, but she had a little human in her. I believe her mother was
from elfish decent and her father was a human. Anyway, she started talking to Ignis,
one of the older Phoenixes, when she was about 16. He told her so much on the
history of Phoenixes that she grew to love them. So much in fact, remember how
she exploded into flames? She asked Ignis to give her the gift of fire so she
could try and live like them. She lived with the Phoenixes all her life and
loved every minute of it. Until the very end, well, you saw how it happened.
Usually Phoenixes are reborn from the ashes, but because Dianna wasn’t a
Phoenix, she died and will never come back to us,” Dad says with a solemn look
on his face. I had a feeling that he looked up to Dianna, even though she
hadn’t been seen in 30 years.
“Did
she ever keep a journal of all of this stuff she was learning?” I ask.
“It’s
rumored that she kept a diary of everything Ignis told her. Nobody has ever
seen it though. Maybe tomorrow we can go over to the forge and take a look
around,” Dad says getting up again. Just then, I thought of something.
“How
long have we been gone?” I ask worried about Jessie.
“Don’t
worry. When we pass through, we make a copy of ourselves so that it doesn’t
look like we ever left,” he says smiling. Just then, Sophia flies into the
room.
“I’ll
take you to your room Sienna,” she says politely.
“’Night
hon. See you tomorrow. If you need anything, just call for Sophia,” he says
giving me a hug, just like when I arrived at his house.
“Good
night Dad,” I say back. I don’t really hug him. I just put my arms around him
and pat his shoulders. He lets go and leaves the room. Sophia gestures towards
the door and we leave the room. We climb up the staircase and enter into a long
hallway. She flies ahead of me and stops in front of a door. To my surprise,
the door opens with no problem. My face must have shown my surprise because
Sophia laughs a little.
“Haven’t
you ever read a fantasy novel? We fairies have magic silly,” she says almost
giggling. I blush a little by my stupidity and then look into the room. It was
amazing. The four poster bed had sheer curtains surrounding it like one a princess
might have. The floor was plush carpet and the walls were painted a light blue.
The window looked out to a glittering lake surrounded by trees on three sides.
In front of the window was one of my favorite things.
“A
window seat! I’ve always wanted one,” I exclaim sitting down on the plush
padding upholstered in a dark blue floral pattern. I smile a little, but I
start to remember Jessie.
“She would love this room,” I think to
myself. My thinking got interrupted by Sophia.
“We didn’t know that
you were coming so naturally we don’t have anything of yours. There are however
some clothes in the wardrobe that might fit you. There are some towels and
things in the bathroom if you need them,” Sophia says rather formally.
“Thank you Sophia.
You’ve been really nice to me since I’ve gotten here. I really hope that we can
become friends,” I say really meaning it. I think that Sophia would be a really
nice friend to have in Grimm.
“You’re welcome. I
hope so too,” she giggles. She gives a little wave and leaves the room,
shutting the door behind her. I get up and walk over to the wardrobe. Opening
it, I see that there isn’t any clothing from this century, maybe not even the
century before that! I take out what seems to be a nightgown and carry it into
the bathroom. I take off my dirty clothes and put on the nightgown. I get out
of the bathroom and crawl into bed.
“Good night Ruby,” I send.
“Good night Sienna. Sleep well,” Ruby
responds. Smiling, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
