I've always had an unusual love of the water. And swimming at least once a day has given me very strong arms and legs. So I had no problem at all swimming out towards the little island in the middle of the lake. My long, dark brown hair streamed out behind me as I swam with practiced ease until my fingers brushed the sand on the bottom of the lake. I stood up and waded onto the island wringing water out of my hair. Running up the hill I fumbled in my pockets until I found my Lyarol. I slowed to a walk and whispered, "rhyome." I was instantly dry. I returned the Lyarol to my pocket. As I approached a bush, half purple and half yellow, an elf jumped out of the bushes with a short Lyteknife, and growled menacingly. I bit my lip impatiently and recited quickly and excitedly: "Color and light are more precious than gold and jewels and should not be taken for granted." The elf's manner immediately changed.
"Hey Marina!" he said
"Leo, I don't know why you make me give the secret password every time we meet. You can clearly see that it's me."
The elf lifted a finger. "Ah. But, what if isn't you? What if you are a fortunate someone who has discovered one of the missing Baguses and can become any person?"
"Come now Leo. The Baguses are a myth. There's no such thing."
"There are many who would say the same thing about that Lyarol in your pocket," the elf said with a wink.
I put a protective hand on my pocket, then followed Leo as he turned and started walking straight toward a hillside. Suddenly, a section of the grassy hill faded away revealing a tunnel into the side of the hill. Leo went inside our secret hideout, and I followed. Behind me, the grass faded back into place.
We entered a large room, with roots holding up the dirt roof. A large circular table stood in the center of the room. A huge pile of odds and ends stood against a wall. Most of it was just junk: shards of glass, broken photoscopes, and a long metal rod that, with edges as sharp as that, could serve as a sword! But I wasn't interested in that right now.
I pulled out a tiny tube-like thing about as long as my pinky finger.
"So what is it this time?" Leo asked, trying to sound exasperated but clearly attempting to hide his own excitement. "What scribble do you want to show me today?"
"Look at this!" I pressed my fingers against either end of the small cylinder. It glowed bright blue and faded into a small piece of paper. This I unrolled, and placed on the large glassy table that swirled with mist, and flickered at my touch. As the paper unrolled, it became bigger and bigger, until it almost covered the entire table.
"My latest drawing!" I announced proudly!
"Wow!" exclaimed Leo. "How on earth did you find that?"
"Er... Mom let me use a water breath potion!" I said not meeting his eyes. Then remembering the things I'd seen, I added, "It was amazing! It took a lot of work but it was worth it! I did three total, but this is my best one!" I said, looking at it proudly.
"I'll say!" said Leo gazing at the sketch. It was a drawing of a huge sea dragon coiling around an intricately carved column in the water.
"Geez! How did you get that close to it?!"asked Leo in amazement. "Sea dragons are known for being very fierce!"
"I borrowed Dad's camoflyr." I answered blushing.
"And how on earth did you get the dragon in mid-motion, and still get the intricate design on the pillar?!? It seems like you would need to be down there watching him a LONG time!" Leo pressed, looking at the drawing in disbelief.
"I'm a fast drawer." I said. "I just sketched it in the water and added the details after I swam back to land." I hastily changed the subject. I wasn't willing to reveal my discovery yet. "Anyway, er... don't you want to check out the table?" I said excitedly. I began rolling up the paper. When it was fully rolled up I pressed my fingers against either end and the paper turned back into a metal tube. I quickly shoved it back into my pocket and turned to the table.
Placing my hands on the warm surface of the table, I took a moment to savor the feeling it gave me: Sort of as if I was rushing through water with bright light shining on me. I felt limitless.
"Um... Hellooooo?" Leo's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Are you going to do it or not?" he said impatiently.
"Oh! Yeah, right! Sorry!" I said snapping out of it. I pulled my palms away from each other, sort of in a swimming motion, and the mist parted revealing a miniature version of the whole kingdom.
"What should we look at today?" I asked Leo.
"Mmm.. How 'bout..." He lifted his hand, studied the map and pointed to a spot on the table. "There!" Leo always picked a new spot to explore on the aspectus. Some months back I had found this special table in one of my sea dives... Now, this table of sight let us explore the entire kingdom from our underground hideout.
"OK!" I swept away more of the mist, and the spot he had pointed to grew closer. As we could see more clearly, I saw a beach. Palm trees, sand, breaking waves.
"This must be the kingdom's northern shore! We've never seen this part of the kingdom before!"
"Oh yes," Leo said, "All the mermaids used to live up there."
I looked up, excited. "Are there any left?"
"Doubtful."
Disappointed, I looked back at the scene before me. Loping down the shoreline, was a dog, yellow, thin, and mangy. He seemed to be chasing after someone.
"Who lives on the northern shore?"
Then I noticed that Leo wasn't listening. He was looking up at the ceiling of our hideout. "Leo?"
I looked up and gasped! The roots that held up the ceiling had suddenly grown wild!
"What's going on?" I shouted.
But Leo didn't hear me. He was busy fighting off a huge root that was snatching at him like a huge hand! I started towards him to help, but something grabbed my right arm! Two overgrown roots had shaped themselves like hands. One was holding onto my arm, while the other made a snatch for my leg! I leaped out of the way just in time, but the root holding on to my arm stopped me from retreating any further! While I tried to wrench my arm free, I dodged the other root.
My bare foot struck something sharp. "Owch!" I glanced down while dodging another swing from the root. It was the long metal rod with sharp edges from Leo's trash collection!
Perfect! I reached down to grab it, but as I did, the root managed to get a hold on my leg! "Aah!" I shouted! I grabbed the rod and held it in front of me. I swung it at the root clutching my leg. But I wasn't very good with my left hand, and the root swerved and dodged my blow easily. My second attempt went much the same way. I finally managed to get a blow in and sliced the root holding my arm! I immediately switched hands, giving me a better chance! I swung at the root holding my leg, but it kept throwing me off balance by yanking on my leg. It was no good!
I looked up at the ceiling and saw the main root that held up the dirt that proved as a ceiling. It was snapping at Leo. I had an idea! It was a slim chance, but I had to try! Stabbing one more time at the root, I finally got a strike! It recoiled for a moment, which was all that I needed! I threw the rod at the root holding up the ceiling! It flew surprisingly straight and hit almost dead center! A huge chunk of dirt came crashing down on the root holding my leg. The root let go and I struggled onto my feet.
I ran over to Leo and snatched him away from the huge root and ran for the entrance! "We gotta go! This place is-" But as I spoke, the entryway collapsed! A glare of sunlight blinded me for a moment as sun rushed in through the gaping hole in the ceiling.
Leo grabbed my hand, and pulled me up the rubble and out the hole towards the sunlight. We scrambled out and rushed towards the shore as the entire cave collapsed behind us!
We sat on the shore, panting for a while. Finally, Leo spoke, "Uh, that was weird!"
I nodded, still struggling for breath. "What do you think happened?"
He shrugged. "Maybe it was a magic pocket. Finally woken up after all these years."
I thought about that. Was it a magic pocket that had given me my sudden new ability this morning?
"Our hideout?" I said sadly looking at the gaping hole in the ground.
Leo shrugged. "It was mostly junk. Maybe we can come back sometime and dig around for the important things."
I sighed. I had collected all that stuff, and it was all important to me!
"It'll be okay, Marina," Leo said, and punched my arm, in what was supposed to be a light tap. But Leo is strong! His punch sent me falling backwards. I massaged my arm as I sat back up.
Leo smiled sheepishly at me. "Sorry. Well, you should be getting back," he said, helping me up.
I looked back at the crater where the cave had been.
"Will you be alright?" I asked.
"I'll be fine," he answered. "You should use your Lyarol to clean yourself up! You're a mess! Your parents will freak out!"
"Oh," I said, looking down at my dirt-stained shirt.
"Will you tell them about today's little adventure?" Leo asked.
I had to think for a minute. Was he talking about the plants attacking us, or my secret discovery this morning. But then I realized, he still didn't know about my discovery. "I don't know," I answered. "It might bring up more questions than I'd like to answer." My parents didn't know about the hideout, the aspectus, they don't even know about Leo.... nor my other secret.
The swim back was uneventful. I thought of my discovery, and whether or not I should have told Leo. That morning, in my rush to sketch the water dragon, I had jumped in the lake without the water potion. But I still could breathe!!! I had been able to stay under the water for two hours, sketching that dragon to my heart's content. I hadn't realized that I had forgotten the breathing potion until afterwards.
Leo would have been more understanding about this crazy discovery than my parents. They would FREAK out. "But the people of Magosia no longer have magic," they would say in high squeaky voices. "Only objects! What's wrong with you!?" But, Leo would understand. He's one of the few magical creatures left in the kingdom.
I climbed out of the water on the willow tree I always used, and ran back to my house. I sighed when I got inside, glad to be home. My parents might freak out at the slightest gust of wind, but they were pretty great.
As I walked into the living room I caught my parents talking in low worried voices.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned. My dad turned.
"Honey, our entire crop has gone rotten!"
