Battle of the Faeries - Chapter One

Chapter One

“Oh, please,” Evelyn muttered under her breath as she looked up from her book. “Not this again!” But her plea went unheard. She snorted in disgust and slowly got up from her seat on the sofa in the living room. Once more, one of her older step-siblings had done something “wonderful!” and her stepmom was ooo-ing and ahh-ing over it. This time it was Daniel, the oldest of the family. Apparently, he had written yet another poem.
“You should publish this one, Daniel!” her stepmom, Jacqueline, cried. Turning, she beckoned to Evelyn. “Come over here, Lyn!” she said. “Come read this!” Evelyn walked over slowly and read Daniel’s poem to herself. It said:

Forest of Thoughts
By Daniel D.

In my town there is a place I go;
Away from people pacing to and fro.
It is a quiet place, this place of mine;
A silent place among the pines.

In this place I sit to think,
Of wondrous things on my imagination’s brink.
Of fairies and dragons, wizards and more;
Of all things found in ancient lore.

Someday, perhaps, I’ll bring a pal,
And sit together and think we shall,
To imagine and dream of a magical land
With shining beaches of soft white sand.

So, if ever you need a place to rest,
If ever you’re feeling much too stressed,
And if ever complete silence is sought,
Then come, come to this Forest of Thoughts.

‘This is good,’ she thought, and with that thought came a feeling of despair. ‘How am I ever going to match up to this?’ She sighed and handed the poem back to Daniel. “Nice work,” she said, forcing a smile. He grinned back, then turned and walked back to his bedroom. Evelyn turned quickly to Jacqueline. “Hey, um, Mom?” she said. “I’ve been thinking, and I was wondering if-“
“Hold on, Evelyn,” Jacqueline said quickly, putting up a hand to stop Evelyn mid-sentence. She was clearly very excited. “I have to e-mail my favorite magazine and ask if they’ll publish Daniel’s poem!” She flashed a bright smile at Evelyn, and then hurried over to the phone.
“- I could take horseback riding lessons,” Evelyn finished, now mumbling under her breath. Jacqueline, of course, didn’t hear her since she was completely absorbed in an enthusiastic message to yet another editor. “Thanks, Mom, you’re the best,” Lyn finished with an exasperated – but soft – sigh. With a sigh, she turned and trudged up the stairs to her bedroom. “Hey, Johnny,” she muttered, flinging herself face-down onto her bed and staring up at the large poster she had of Captain Jack Sparrow. “How was your day?” She heard a faint whine from over to her right and moved over to look down at Coco, her black Pomeranian. “Hey, you,” she said, smiling and reaching down to pick up the little fluff ball and set it down on the bed beside her. Coco immediately crawled over and curled up next to her. Evelyn couldn’t help but smile again, but it soon slipped off. “What now, Coco?” she said softly, her sadness returning. “I can never measure up to Daniel’s poems, Tia’s speeches are better than anything I could ever do, and Felicia’s grades… I’m barely scraping up a B-plus, and that’s with extra credit. Life really stinks. And I fail at it. I fail at stinky life…” Coco whined sympathetically, starting up into her eyes, which brought a small smile to Evelyn’s lips. “You don’t understand anything I’m saying, do you?” she said, scratching the dog fondly behind the ears. “Oh well, at least you’re a good listener.” She let her head drop down onto the pillow with a sigh. “Why was I put in this family? I’m just a normal girl, struggling through life like the average person. But I’ve got all these… overachievers around me, and it’s like I’m constantly walking in their shadow. Why couldn’t I just be born into a normal family with normal people who live normal lives? It really doesn’t help that I’m the youngest… now I’m expected to live up to their greatness. Oh, how disappointed everyone will be.” Tired and depressed, she gradually drifted off to sleep, her arm curled tightly around Coco, who at that moment seemed to be her only friend in the world.
She had an odd and very frightening dream that night. She found herself, at first, in what seemed to be a blank white room. Nothing surrounded her but white, all around. She didn’t even have a shadow, even though there was an almost unbearably bright light shining from above. The light, coupled with the sheer whiteness of everything nearly blinded her at first. She shielded her eyes, blinking about fifty times before her pupils finally adjusted. She tried to speak, but somehow she’d lost the ability. Her mouth opened and formed words, but no sound came. ‘What’s happening to me?’ she thought desperately, and then jumped as a loud voice echoed her thoughts. It took her a few seconds to realize that this was her own voice, magnified to a hundred times its normal volume. ‘Where am I?’ she thought cautiously, wincing and clapping her hands to her ears as the thundering voice spoke again. ‘What am I supposed to do here?’ Quite suddenly, as if in answer to her question, all the white around her disappeared. At first she thought she was just in complete darkness now, but as he eyes began adjusting, she found she could discern colors. To her left was a mass of black, to her right a mass of white. These two lines, seeming to be solid, were separated by a strip of green. A movement caught her eye and she looked closer at the black. It was… rippling and cheering? ‘That doesn’t make sense…’ she thought, confused but slightly relieved that her thoughts weren’t shouted out as words. ‘Then again, since when do dreams have to make sense?’ As she thought this, she noticed that the masses were beginning to take shape. Eventually she could make out what they were and she gasped and stumbled backward as a frightening scene appeared before her. A humongous battlefield stretched out, farther than she could see. Both men and women stood to fight. One side, a seething mass of black, moved constantly, like rolling, boiling water. Everyone on that side had their mouths open in a furious scream of defiance. Clapping her hands over her ears, Lyn turned to the other side. To her surprise, she found it to be completely silent. All the warriors were dressed in pure white armor that shimmered and gleamed in the bright son. They stared calmly at the black horde, never flinching and barely blinking. Lyn took an immediate liking to this side, and moved towards them.
But quite suddenly, everything started to go wrong. Before her eyes, the first row of Light – nearly 20 people – just collapsed, dead. All the screaming stopped immediately on the Dark side, and they stood still, as though waiting for something more to happen. Evelyn caught an evil, knowing glitter in their eyes, and felt despair rise in her heart. Then the chanting began. She could barely make out what they were saying, it was so loud, but finally it shaped itself into one word. “Sycorax! Sycorax! Sycorax!” Over and over and over again they chanted this word. At first Lyn thought it to be a war cry, but it didn’t take her long to realize it was a name. Somehow that very name struck a note of fear in her and an involuntary shiver ran through her body. “Sycorax! Sycorax! Sycorax!” Their ranks parted and a figure wearing a long black dress moved slowly and arrogantly through. Strangely enough, her hands were empty, save for an ornately carved black scepter with a faintly glowing black orb in the middle. Lyn glanced over at the Light army and saw a flicker of fear in all their eyes as they watched the figure advance toward them. Sycorax – as Lyn supposed she was – stopped walking and held her empty hand up. The mob behind her silenced automatically, and she turned to face the Lights, her completely black eyes gleaming with malice.
“Ah, what is this?” she said, clearly amused by the gathering of now stony-faced soldiers. “You pathetic mortals dare to defy me?” A slight hint of anger entered her voice, and the black sphere in her scepter glowed brighter. Her eyes swept over the army, searching for something… someone. “Who is your leader?” she finally demanded, raising the staff and moving it slowly along the second line of warriors. No one moved forward, though a few flinched as the scepter was pointed at them. Sycorax’ lips twisted in a silent, cruel snarl. “I said… Who is your leader?!” A jagged bolt of black lightning-like energy shot out and struck a man standing in the front row. He cried out and fell to the ground. His comrades shifted ever so slightly away from his body, as though afraid some of the energy would leap out at them. But still no one stepped forward.
“They have no leader!” Lyn shouted abruptly, surprising herself and, apparently and unfortunately, everyone else. Sycorax whirled to face her at her, face contorting suddenly and mouth opening in a cry of rage.
“You!” she shrieked furiously. “What are you doing here?” Evelyn took a step back, raising her hands defensively.
“I-I have no idea. This is just a dream!” she said quickly. Sycorax stared at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing.
“This is…a dream? Ha! This is no dream! This is real life, Evelyn, so stop pretending and fight!”
“Wh-what? Fight? You? You’re insane… I can’t fight you!” Evelyn continued backing away as Sycorax advanced.
“Then die!” the lady in black roared. She swung her scepter up over her head, and then brought it in a vicious downward stroke. A giant ball of black energy erupted from the tip and flew towards Evelyn. She tried to jump out of the way, but her feet felt like they were glued to the ground. Everything began to slow down as it came closer and closer. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of white light, and she heard a terrifying screech of rage which she guessed came from Sycorax. The next moment she sat up in bed, shaking and sobbing with relief mixed with horror. It had all felt so real, like she had actually been about to die…
Coco whined and licked her hand, and Evelyn collapsed back onto her pillow, still shivering and still scared. She pulled the covers tighter around her and hugged the fluffy dog closer. Closing her eyes, she began to pray, trying to calm down enough to go to sleep. She didn’t quite know exactly why, but she thanked God for saving her life.
It had all seemed much too real…

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