Nevaeh

By Jessica (Creative Writing Workshop RPI)

The sun rose in the sky once again. It was going to be another beautiful day in the village of Akiko. But I felt an uneasy feeling in the air, as if warning of a danger yet to come.

                                                                                        -Arianna               

A breeze stirred her long hair as fifteen year old Arianna stood on the porch of her house that over looked the village. The village was called Akiko and Arianna’s father, Aaric had been chief for as long as she could remember. She grabbed her leather bag and started towards the village farm. Akiko was built by a lake called White Water, for the pure white coral and sand that makes the clear water seem white. There is also a forest called Marriana Woods nearby and a mountain range called The Mist Mountains. The evening mist comes from the top of the mountains. Arianna leaned on the fence that protected the farm. One of the workers looked up from her crops.

“Good morning, Arianna,” She said.

“Good morning, Kaori,” Arianna replied. Kaori was the head farmer of Akiko. Her husband, Brayden, was one of the village’s hunters as well as Maddox, the head hunter, and his son, Cillian.

“Would you like me to get you Evelyn,” Kaori asked.

“I would be most grateful.”

Kaori got up and walked away. Evelyn was one of the four other farmers of Akiko. The others are Kaori’s twin daughters, Lilija and Anika, and the head hunter wife, Kaylee. An apparently fifteen year old girl in a leather hat walked up to Arianna

“Aren’t the crops growing lovely this year,” She said.

They’ve been growing better with you around, Evelyn,” Arianna said. Evelyn is one of the two people who stand out in Akiko. Her skin was black, her eyes were bright blue and her hair was blonde. The villagers were all slightly brown skinned with brown eyes and almost black hair. Another distinct feature Evelyn had was in addition to the typical village clothes, tunic with short sleeves tied at the waist, capris and woven sandals, she also wore a wide rimed leather hat that had a patch of newer leather that had been sewn on to the rim and a crimson ribbon that was worn towards the edges.

“I can take care of them easier,” Evelyn shrugged.

“Hey, Evelyn,” eleven year old Lilija ran up. “All the plants are dry.  Ma says if you water them you can go with Arianna.”

“Sure,” Evelyn replied. She put her hands close together and a white symbol that looked like a spiral on her left palm started to glow. A ribbon of water moved from the stream, which was next to the farm, and formed a ball above the farm. With just a squeeze of her hand, the ball broke, showering the farm. Soon after the symbol stopped glowing. Lilija and Evelyn started talking over something, but Arianna stopped listening. She was studying her own symbol. It was a serial in a circle with four lines coming out of a single point and it reminded her of a person. The symbols are called Tali. Tali give the person with it special abilities like Evelyn’s Tali to control the elements. People who have Talis are called Zaris. Talis are very hard to take care of. You can’t over use it or you will tire out and might lose the Tali, but if you don’t use it enough, the power will store up and you will lose control of it. Arianna’s symbol is different from Evelyn.  Her ability is different too. She is able to use animal like objects that contain essence called bodies, to summon beings. Essence is a special spirit gained by cared for. Being are the essences in physical form. Evelyn is a being. Her body is a doll made of burnt hide, hay and bright blue beads. The doll was made by Arianna herself when she was five. She has been active for only three years.

“Are you paying attention,” Evelyn demanded.

“Huh,” Arianna said.

“See I told you she wasn’t,” Lilija giggled. “I have to go. See you later.”

“I had asked why you wanted to see me,” Evelyn said.

“I thought we could investigate the hidden area in Marriana Wood.” Arianna replied.

“Sure, but we should get Bo. She wouldn’t forgive us if we forgot her. And send a message to your dad that we’ll be home late.”

“Right. Hey, Naomi!” Naomi ran over to Arianna. Five year old Naomi is the youngest in the village.  She was the messenger, and the spare helper that helped where needed.  She was the daughter of Asher, the village’s crafter, and Rhiannon, the village seamstress. Naomi has two older siblings. The oldest of the group and the village’s ‘kids’ her eighteen year old sister, Aliyah, who helps Asher with his work. Xun is the middle child and Asher’s only son. He is one of the fishers in the village, along with Zhou, the head fisherman, Lian, Zhou’s wife, Gavian, the son of Zhou and Lian and seven year old Kenji.

“Can you give a message to my dad that I’ll be late getting home,” Arianna commanded.

“Of course,” Naomi said.

“And do you know where Bo is,” Evelyn asked.

“She’s herding the goats. Bye.”

Arianna and Evelyn was half way to the herding field when. Arianna’s mom, Chiyo came running up.

“Arianna! Wait” She cried. When she finally caught up with them, she started measuring Arianna.

“Mom can’t you do the dress later,” Arianna complained. Chiyo was a close friend to Rhiannon and Rhiannon was teaching her to sew.

“If not now, when? You’re always busy. The Talia Festival will be soon.” The Talia Festival is a celebration of when the first person received a Tali. It’s a time of good luck and happiness. It happens when the sun darkens and releases it’s white light and the moon turns red and rainbow colored lights ribbon the sky. All the Tali glow brightly all day and all night.

“Evelyn, help me out,” Arianna pleaded.

Evelyn was leaning on a fence watching it all.”I’m not getting involved.”

“Great teamwork.”

“There. I’m done,” Chiyo said, walking off. “And, Evelyn, try to keep her out of trouble.”

Evelyn smirked. “That’s easier said than done. I might as well fight a bear. I have better chances.”

“I don’t get in trouble that much,” Arianna said.

“Yes you do. Last time I had to fight the bear.”

“There nothing worse than that.”

“You’ll find something. You always do.”

The herding field is established on the Golden Hills at the base of the Mist Mountains. The Golden Hills contain golden grass that is a important part of the village’s silver goat’s diet.

“Do you see her,” Arianna asked.

“Nope. Just goats ‘n’ grass,” Evelyn said.

“Looking for Bo,” Zahra asked. Zahra is the daughter of Dakota, the head herder, and Skyla, Dakota’s wife. Her brother is Kenji. “She’s over there.”

Laying on the large, silver rock Zahra pointed out was the head herder’s adopted daughter from Caelan Village. Four years ago, the Caelians had to move after the village was destroyed by giant boars. With both of her parents gone, Bo wished to stay in Akiko to be with her friend, Arianna and the people she felt at home to. She had light brown hair, green eyes, and peachy colored skin. She also had a monkey tail that all Caelian had. When Arianna and Evelyn walked over Bo looked up.

“Hey Bo,” Arianna said.

Bo sat up and she smiled to let them know that they had her attention. Bo was a mute. Some say it’s because she had so many brothers and sisters that she never could learn how to talk. Others say it’s because of her eye shaped Tali, to be able to understand anything no matter what language or species.

“We’re going to the hidden area in Marriana Wood, want to come,” Arianna asked. Bo’s eyes brightened up as she got off the rock, ready to follow.

“Well let’s go,” Evelyn said. “The goats are looking at me funny.”

The trees in Marriana Wood were all in fall colors. They were always flowering and giving fruit. There was always snow on the ground even when it the hottest day of the year. Arianna, Evelyn, and Bo walked through the woods. The only sound was the crunch of the fresh snow under their feet and the sound of Bo’s cream apple being eaten. They finally came to an area where the trees became a wall. Arianna half walked, half limped over, leg sore where her bag was continually bumping to her leg. She fumbled at a clump of vines. Upon moving them to the side was a opening leading beyond the wall.

“Where do you think it goes,” Arianna asked.

“I don’t know,” Evelyn replied. “Maybe nothing. Bo what do you think.” Bo looked up from her cream apple, shrugged and went back to her apple. Arianna sighed. Why weren’t the others as excited? She looked at the cream apple. Cream apples were a delaci that had to be traded for to obtain. The crisp, creamy taste of the creamy colored apple was worth it. She sighed again and went through the opening. When the other two followed they joined her in awe and astonishment. Safely inside the circle wall, was a old stone temple. It was raised up on three giant steps. It had twelve large pillars holding up the massive square shaped roof. Above the roof was a thick canopy made from intertwining branches and vines. The cream apple fell from Bo’s hand and rolled to the closed corner.

“Amazing,” Arianna sighed, starting up the steps. The structure had five statues inside it, four were placed in a different corner and one was in the center. The one in the center had a circle with twelve notches inside it that covered most of the floor. The statue at the bottom left corner was a crib containing two small babies asleep. In the top left corner was a young girl and a young boy. In the top right was a man and woman. In the bottom right was an old man and old woman. In the center was of two skeletons. Each skeleton was holding a stone slab with symbols on it. Just as Arianna had finished looking at the statues Evelyn and Bo entered the temple.

“What is all this,” Evelyn asked after a quick look around.

“Statues of the same two people I think,” Arianna guessed.

Evelyn looked at the two of the statues.”I think you’re right.”

Evelyn looked at the center statue. She pointed at the slabs.”What’s this?”

“Slabs made of stone. I thought it was obvious,” Arianna teased.

“The symbols on the slabs,” Evelyn glared.

“Well in that case, I don’t know. I can read very little. I think that the one on the right full of numbers and the one on the left is letters.”

“What do those symbols mean,” Evelyn pointed to some boxed off symbols at the top.

“No idea. What do you make of it Bo?” Bo walked in closer and tried to get a better look at the boxed off symbols in the right slab. Her hand leaned on the slab for support. The symbols that were touched glowed and appeared  in the boxes above in the order touched. At the bottom of the slab a group of glowing symbols appeared.

“What is it,” Arianna puzzled. Before anyone could do anything else there came a roar from outside.

“That doesn’t sound friendly,” Evelyn exclaimed. Bo gave her a Thanks-for-stating-the-obvious Look.

Arianna backed, up dropping her bag. She felt her hand brush up against stone. She looked to see her hand touched the recently appeared symbols. When she moved her hand, the glowing symbols changed from the silver color that was similar to a Tali glow to a more golden one.

“Um… Guys,” Arianna warned. But it was too late. The golden glow traveled the circle until it was entirely lit. The light became so bright the Arianna couldn’t see anymore.

Looking out you can see the changes in Nevaeh. There are more guards; more deaths and less freedom. Doesn’t matter if you’re in his prison or in his city’s walls, you’re Lord Kade’s prisoner.

-Laura

Arianna awoke to darkness. She sat up from the hard, stone floor she had been laying on. Her head ached. Just as she was going to rub her head, she saw her Tali dim. Her memories came to her all at once. She quickly stood. What happened to the others? She looked around in hope to find Evelyn and Bo. The only response was the quiet blackness. She sighed and walked forward She immediately hit her head. ‘Like my head wasn’t aching already,’ she thought. Backing up, She kicked her bag. There came a light from behind a corner. Two strangely dressed men walked by with a strange torch. She grabbed her bag and hid behind some pipes. Everything about this place is strange. Even the pipes. How do you make them the exactly same and out of metal?

“Why do we patrol here anyway,” Arianna heard a man ask. “It’s not like anyone can get down here.”

“We’re here in case someone gets down here,” the other man said. The light suddenly flickered out. “Hey. What’s up with the flashlight?”

“The batteries are dead. Don’t worry I brought spares.”

There was shuffling and scrapping sounds of metal against metal before the light came back on. Arianna could hear the men’s footsteps growing fainter and the light get dimmer. She looked to see if there was no one around. Suddenly a hand covered her mouth and she was pulled back. A few seconds after, she was restrained by the person. Another person walked in front of her. The dim lighting in the area was arranged so she could only see a silhouette.

“Where are we,” The person asked. The voice sounded familiar but Arianna couldn’t remember. The hand uncovered her mouth.

“I don’t know,” Arianna replied. She felt a tickle in the back of her legs.

“Ya right. Now tell me where we are right now or I’ll burn you to ash!” A Tali began to light up as it gained power.

“Wait I know you!”

“How could you know me?” The Tali got brighter.

“It’s Arianna!”

“What!” A fire ball formed in the palm of Evelyn’s hand.

“Please don’t turn me to ash. I don’t want to be ash. I can’t do anything as ash. I might even be allergic to myself as ash.”

“Yep that’s Arianna alright.” Bo, now clearly seen, quickly let go of Arianna. “And by the way, your foreheads bleeding. How did you manage that? We haven’t even been here for a few minutes.”

“Must have been when I bumped my head.”Bo bandaged Arianna up with the medical kid in Arianna’s bag.

Evelyn shook her head. “You can’t go anywhere without me.”

“I can go to the hills without you!”

“Not without being rammed by goats!”Bo gave the signal to be silent. Three men walked by just below them. Two of the men looked similar to the men before but the other looked more extravagant. The extravagant man had neatly trimmed hair that looked hard and stiff with a pointy goatee to match, pale skin that clearly looked paler because of the hair color and cruel brown eyes.

“The project is almost ready, Lord Kade,” one of the men said.

“Very good,” the extravagant man said. “I want it functioning as soon as possible.”

“What if the Wolf Pack tries to stop you, Lord Kade,” the other man asked.

“That’s why I have you guards here,” Kade roared. “I will get them, eventually. They can’t hide forever.”

Bo signaled to move away before they noticed. When Arianna moved away, her bag bumped against a pipe making an echo that follow through the room. Kade immediately looked around for the intruder.

“I want them found,” he exclaimed.

“Good job. Now they know we’re here,” Evelyn harshly whispered.

”Sorry,” Arianna whispered.

“Let’s move before they find us.”

They moved toward the source of light and came to an opening where the pipes bent around to make room for a metal man that was two times the size of a man. Several other men in white coats were working on the giant man. In the elevated ceiling was a hole that the light was coming from.

“Don’t see that every day,” Arianna said.

Evelyn glared at her. “You don’t get sent to another world every day.” She pointed to the hole in the ceiling.” Anyway, that’s our way out.”

A worker looked up and saw Evelyn. “Intruder!”

“Time to go,” Evelyn exclaimed. Arianna got up to run put tripped over her bag. The men that Kade called guards quickly surrounded Evelyn and Bo bearing oddly sculpted sticks and small swords.

Kade had a huge smug grin on his face like he won a great battle. “So, these are the best spies that Wolf Pack has. Pathetic. Just Pathetic.” He paused to examine his catch. “A Caelian. Didn’t think you sided with anyone. But I can never tell what you’re thinking,” He said, examining Bo. He move on to Evelyn. “And what are you. Some strange beast. I’ve never seen anything like you.”

“At least I act human and not a blood thirsty animal,” Evelyn sneered.

Kade glared at her. Then he turned and said an order to a guard before leaving. “Kill them.”

Arianna started to fumble through her bag. She when she pulled out a woven grass doll a guard was standing above her. “I found another one.”

“Lord Kade ordered u to Kill them. I guess it includes her too.” The other guard said. He took careful aim to her head. Bo suddenly jumped and did a flip of a guard’s shoulders. With one fluid motion she landed behind him and jabbed her hand to a presser point on the neck, knocking him out. In her hand was his sword. She flipped the sword playfully around playfully, beckoning the nest participant. In the background there was a shot ringing through the room.

The guard aiming at Arianna had shot her. But not in her head. The object fired grazed her ear. This gave Arianna enough time to place her Tali hand on the doll’s head and activate the essence inside. A young girl now sat on Arianna’s lap. She had pale yellow skin, and grass green eyes and hair.  The dress that she was wearing was too big. The green grass like material went well over her hands and spilled onto the floor.

The first thing she noticed was the grazed ear. She looked at the already terrified men.

“Midori doesn’t like it when you hurt friends” Midori said angrily. With a wave of her hand, her Tali that looked like a flower with a spiral in the middle lit up and vines grew out of the stone floor and wrapped around the men and pulled them up to the ceiling to hang. The only thing that proved that they were ever there was the stick that was left behind. Arianna picked up the stick. Two guards came to see what the commotion was about and saw Arianna.”She’s got a gun.”

“So that’s what this is called,” She muttered to herself. “How do you…” She accidently pulled the trigger and shot the guard in front of her. “Oh. That’s how. Sorry.”

 The guard that was left was lifted by vines and put with the others on the ceiling. Midori skated down a vine to join the action down below. Arianna was placed by Evelyn, who was going fire happy and burning every moving guard in sight.

“You summoned Midori,” Evelyn exclaimed.

“I was in trouble,” Arianna gasped.

“Oh no.” Evelyn looked around to see that the place was full of burn guards, guards that had been tied down with vine, a guard being brought to the ceiling, and the rest of the guards down had nothing wrong with them. They would probably have a head ache later by that’s it. “Midori and I are using more energy than your use to.” She walked over to Midori as she brought another guard to the ceiling. “Midori we need to get out of here! Arianna can’t take much more. Can you get us to the opening?”

Midori looked at the opening on the ceiling. “I think I can.” Several vines grew around the giant man and intertwined around it, crushing it. A few of the vines wrapped around Evelyn, who was carrying Arianna, and Bo carrying them out. Midori jumped on the vine carrying Evelyn. The hole led out to be a long tube that slowly shrunk.

“It’s too small.” Evelyn cried.

Midori looked at her. “We’ll just break trough.” She was right. The tip of the vine pushed through the thin wall leading them outside.

The vines dumped them at the nearby street before recoiling to the new opening in the roof, staying for all to see. Several bystanders stared at small group until they ran in to an alleyway, and were out of sight. Evelyn laid her unconscious friend on the ground. Bo sat down next to her.

“Will Arianna be okay,” Midori asked.

Evelyn poked Arianna. Arianna filched. “Evelyn, I don’t want to get up yet.”

Evelyn smiled. “She’ll be okay.”

Midori smiled before reverting to her doll form. Arianna woke up after Midori changed. “Where are we?”

“Safe out of where ever we were,” Evelyn replied. She picked up Midori and put her in Arianna’s bag. “I was right.”

 “Right about what?”

“You found something worse than the bear.”

Arianna smiled before going back to being unconscious. Evelyn let her sleep. They would all need their energy to survive in this new world.