by Kaiya Adgie (7th)
Chapter 2
When I stand up, my first reaction is to scream for help. But when I do, it’s almost like my voice stays in the cave, going nowhere near the small hole at the top. I scream again, and dozens of bats rush in from nowhere. The flurry of bats overtakes my vision; all I can see is a cloud of flapping black wings, leaving me blinded.
When the cloud clears, I wonder what else is hiding down here. I take a look around the roomy cave, and sure enough, the hole I fell through is at the very top of the ten-foot cave. No way I’m getting out that way.
I see a faint shimmer on the cave wall. A symbol is painted in what looks like paint made from diamond—three triangles facing different ways, with a circle in the middle. I reach out to touch it and realize it’s not painted at all; the triangles and circle are three-dimensional. When I press the circle in the middle, it expands, and it seems that everything is being pulled into it. Some loose rocks—gone.
I take a step back, but soon enough I can’t resist the pull and go tumbling through the hole. And then it all goes black.
Chapter 3
The first thing I see when I wake up is green. Gone is the damp cave, replaced with valleys filled with every color of flowers growing. Where am I? And how will I get back… back to where exactly? I can’t remember.
I turn around and find the exact opposite of the green valley: a dark, grim city inhabited with people. Civilization! I run toward the people, but they don’t even acknowledge me. I go right in front of one of them.
“Hello?” I say.
They just keep moving the other way.
A woman appears behind me. “It appears you do not know how things work here, little one. Nobody will talk to you unless you have the stamp of recognition.”
She shows me the stamp on her wrist. It has the same symbol as in the cave.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Peggy,” I respond. “Where am I?”
The woman’s smiling face suddenly becomes grave. “If you do not know where you are, then you must have fallen through the tear. You must come with me. We cannot let them find you and kill you.”
“What? Who?”
The woman does not respond. Instead, she takes my arm and drags me through the streets, ignoring stares and dirty looks. She brings me to a huge building and says, “You are in the City of Forgotten Truths. You need to get home fast, before you forget everything about where you came from… or before they get you.”
I’m speechless.
“Go across the Valley of Weeping Willows, and make sure none try to grab you. Then navigate to the tear.” She starts drawing a map. “It shows up in many different places, but if you get there before sunset, it should appear in the middle of Grimstone Ocean.” She pauses. “And… be sure to watch out for sharks.”
She hands me the map.
What? What am I supposed to do now? There are a million questions racing through my head, but I decide to ask the most obvious one.
“Who are you?” I manage to get out.
She smiles. “Oh, don’t worry. This isn’t the last time you’ll see me.”
And then she disappears in a cloud of smoke.