“Run! Run as fast and as swift as the wind Larissa!”

Tolk screamed at his sister as she ran through the forest and tried to avoid the onset of arrows that were landing in the trunks and flying past their heads. The trees leaves and branches impeding their forward progress with each passing moment. Tolk knew if they didn’t reach the weak point soon, their running would be useless.

“Where is it,” Larissa screamed out. Just then a familiar sound awakened her finely tuned elfish senses. The very familiar smell of wood burning. She quickly moved her head as flaming arrow exploded into the distance. Turning and looking back only for an instant, revealed that their five pursuers had turned into ten. And one was igniting another flaming arrow. 

“Tolk!”

“I know… we are almost there!”

They quickly made a quick exit to the right, as more arrows and flames exploded all around them. Their senses almost alerting them to their impending doom. Their fast reflexes reacting on impulse alone. Tolk and Larissa ran on toward the cliff and the sound of the sea.

“There! Do you see it,” Tolk asked his sister. She didn’t have time to answer, but she did… the forest was ending and the cliff was visible a few short yards away.

The pursuers’ unrelenting pressure made Tolk and Larissa acutely aware that they should be always be on the move. And move they did, straight toward the cliffs and…

JUMP!

Tolk quickly grabbed his dagger and thrust it into the side of the cliff face, hope against fail that it found some type of purchase. As one hand held on to the dagger, the other held closely on to Larissa. Larissa failed to grab Tolk in time, but a last minute grab by Tolk of her forearm saved her for the rocky waves below.

After what seemed an eternity, the dagger finally found a grove and held their weight against the cliff side. The waves below crashed in the jagged rocks, as Larissa looked on in awe and fear. 

But something was different… the waves and the cliff looked to bend and move in odd ways. As though the very air around them was creating a wave and was distorting the light. But the wave pattern was towards their right… not below them, which was clear and dangerous.

Tolk looked up and could hear the footsteps of the pursuers coming ever so closer. Surely in this position they would both be finished.

Tolk looked at the wave pattern then down at Larissa. He could feel his grip weakening on both the dagger and his hold of Larissa. “I have to swing you,” he shouted. And began the laborious swinging action.

Larissa started to protest. She didn’t want to leave her brother! “But what about…” she tried to shout but the swinging was making it harder to concentrate. Finally, with her brother looking down at her, he let go…

And Larissa exited the world.

Chapter 1

“WAKE UP!,” her father shouted as he looked through open the door. Ah, another wonderful school morning. Tessa buried her head beneath her pillow not ready to greet the day. “Wakey wakey,” her father said again.

“I’m up!”

“Just making sure,” her father said and left the door to her room open as he went to the boy’s rooms. How she hated when he did that. 

Tessa got herself out of bed and looked into her mirror. She was not ready, and it was clear by her appearance in the mirror. Hair and pajamas were completely unpresentable for the day. Time to make her appearance the best in the school! Shower time!

Tessa quickly moved to the bathroom, and shoved her hand into one her little brother’s faces. “Too bad… age before ugliness.”

She heard her brother protesting… but started to get ready for the day.

After she was presentable and more awake, she headed down to the kitchen for some breakfast. The usual din of noises and language could be heard as she came down the stairs. She could see her father quickly making everyone’s lunches, as her step-mother made the breakfast. Her four brothers seemed lost in their cereal boxes and their own little conversations, while her parents quickly discussed the day’s events. The sweet sound of the family in the morning.

“So you remembered Charles’s appointment…”

“Of course, and Max’s practice…”

Tessa drowned out her parent’s litany of things for the day. Max, Charles, David and John were ignoring them too. Tessa grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, just as her step-mother knocked over the milk from the counter. Tessa quickly grabbed the bottle before it hit the floor and without spilling a drop. As she looked down at the bottle and the floor, she felt the eyes of her parents on her.

“Did you…”

“Yes.”

“Bill, you should…”

“I know.”

Tessa didn’t bother paying attention to what they were saying and couldn’t really care. She sat down at the table and looked straight into her brother, Max’s, wide stare.

“What!” Tessa stated.

“You just caught that bottle,” her brother stammered out in awe.

“So. It was just lucky,” she said with customary eye roll. And with that Tessa, started her breakfast.