Emma being here with me. I felt like I was home, like I was finally complete. I never felt complete in the mortal world, and perhaps this is why; I never belonged there in the first place.
Emma decides to walk me back to my grandfather’s house, and I suggest she meet Midnight along the way.
“Is he really a horse-man?”
I laugh. “He’s a water spirit in horse form that can adapt into human form.”
We stand at the water’s edge. Midnight spots us and swims over but remains in horse form.
“Well, I thought he would turn human. Anyway, this is Midnight,” I introduce him to Emma.
“It’s wonderful to meet you Emma,” says Midnight kindly.
“You can talk when you’re in horse form?” I ask in shock.
“Yes I can. Only during the day can I adapt to human form,” he clarifies.
I smile, not knowing what to say next. But it seems nothing was needed to be said as I hear a scream coming from the wisteria tree.
I look back at Midnight.
“Go!” he yells.
“What? What’s happening?”
“Go, I don’t know what’s happening, but just in case, run and hide!” he demands, a note of urgency creeping into his voice.
“Stay safe please,” I beseech him.
He nods, urging us to make a run for it.
There’s that scream again. I grab Emma’s arm, and we run back to Grandfather’s house as fast as we can. In the opposite direction of the discord I see Ariel.
“Ariel!” I scream in panic, coming to a halt.
“Arabella, get back to your Grandfather’s house quick!” she urges, “You’ll be safe there.”
“What’s going on?” I ask in befuddlement.
“I don’t know, just go!” With that command she runs off towards the cacophony, which I just realise has stopped, though the intensity of the screams was still ringing in my ears. I see flashes of light sparking here and there from the distance.
Emma and I look at one another; we both knew what the other was thinking. We were intrigued, tempted and curious; we wanted to see what was happening. Instead of obeying orders, we follow the flashes of light, which led us towards the wisteria tree.
“The portal?” I whisper.
As we get closer there are several witches and warlocks using power lights from their hands to stop something entering our world from the other side. I couldn’t tell what they were trying to keep out. The tree was flickering, as though it was being powered from the other side, but from our side they were clearly trying to stop it.
Is this what Grandfather meant earlier? That I’m the one? Could I help with this? I thought. There’s only one way I’ll find out.
“Stay here, I mean it,” I tell Emma firmly.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“To help.”
“You need to let them do it, I don’t want you getting hurt,” she panics.
“And I don’t want you hurt, so stay here please.” I implore, squeezing her hands in comfort.
I slowly walk off in the direction of the tree. I still can’t see what is trying to force itself through the portal. I see Ariel using her powers, attempting to drive it back. I stare closely at the portal and gasp. In the midst of the fog, I see a werewolf trying to force his way in. In a panic, I use my earth ability and grow vines from the roots of the tree, wrapping continuous layers of vines around the tree trunk. Soon enough, the tree trunk is completely hidden beneath my tight layer of vines and the glow of the tree disappears.
No more witches or warlocks or elves were using their powers anymore. Instead, they were all staring at me with less than pleased expressions. My heartbeat thunders in my chest, and I have those butterflies in my stomach again.
“Arabella what have you done!” Ariel yells.
What exactly have I done?
The portal immediately shut down, the glow was lost. That’s when I realise I might have just made the biggest mistake.
“Arabella, what’s going on?” asks Mom, as she runs towards me with Grandfather by her side. Great.
“Father, Arabella here decided to use her magic, she’s ruined the portal!” snaps Ariel.
I feel terrible, I didn’t know what to do.
“I’m sorry.” I say, as mom hugs me consolingly.
“Arabella, I can’t believe you used your magic, without guidance you’re still learning!” yells Grandfather angrily.
I already felt so bad, I didn’t need him and Ariel rebuking me; I didn’t mean it, I only wanted to help and stop the werewolves from coming through. I glance around at all the unhappy faces glaring silently at me, making me wish I had the ability to undo time. I won’t be living this down anytime soon, I think wryly. What a way to make an entrance into this world.
It’s been two days, since I used my magic against the portal. Grandfather was not happy with me. Even if I was only trying to help, my magic is apparently quite strong and it turns out I had no idea what I was doing; when I blasted power from my hands, all four elements blended, causing the tree to die and the portal to cease to exist.
Since I was the one who cast the magic, I’m the only one who can undo this, but I’ve tried countless spells only to fail each time. I have no idea what to do. I could understand the anger, because some of the witches and warlocks have hybrid offspring in the mortal world, and now all because of me, they can’t travel back and forth freely. I really didn’t mean to ruin everything.
I remember what was trying to come through the portal in the first place, werewolves, and my mind decides to remember Riley. Great, I think in satisfaction. My mind was concocting a plan, leading me to ‘borrow’ my family’s Book of Shadows when Mom and Grandfather went to sleep that night; I wanted to see if it had any spells that could help undo my mistake.
The next day, as I lay in bed flipping the pages of the book in haste, hoping to find something useful, I hear a sudden knock on my door,
“Arabella, it’s me,” whispers Sebastion. Without waiting for an answer, he comes in uninvited. I quickly hide our family’s Book of Shadows underneath the covers.
“What is it Sebastion?” I ask, as I glare at his unwanted intrusion.
“I’m making sure you’re okay?”
Now I felt bad. “I’ll be fine,” I whisper.
“Everything will be okay Arabella, Mom made lunch if you’re hungry. She used her magic, it was so cool to see!” exclaims Sebastion gleefully.
“I’m not hungry, thank you though, Sebastion?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you please leave me alone?”
“Okay.” He says understandingly, smiling gently as he leaves my room.
I continue to flip through the pages once the coast is clear but I grow frustrated when I don’t find anything with each turn of the page; the book is hundreds of pages long, and I’ve only skimmed the surface of all the spells and information!
I feel helpless and decide that I need to grab Emma and head off somewhere, where I can flick through the pages without fear of getting caught, and hopefully find something that will help. I wasn’t ready to face my mom and grandfather, so I sneak out through my bedroom window.
“Hello Ray, is Emma here?” I ask as he opens the door with a smile
“Emma!” he calls out.
I can hear the running of her footsteps.
“You’re out of bed,” she laughs as she peeks at me from behind Ray.
“I am! Want to take a walk with me?” I ask hopefully.
“Sure!” she says easily with a smile, “Be back later dad.”
“You girls have fun,” he responds.
“How are you?” asks Emma, as we trek away from her house.
“I’m okay, I have this,” I say as I pull the book from hiding behind my back.
“Woah, what is that? A magic book?”
“It’s our family’s book of shadows or grimoire as Grandfather calls it. It’s full of spells and information, collected within our family o
ver hundreds of centuries.”
“That is so cool!” she exclaims excitedly, understanding why I have it with me.
As we walk further away from everyone, we pass the wisteria portal tree; it looks dead, brown in colour. I look down, saddened that I was the cause.
“Things will be okay, we’ll work it out,” says Emma reassuringly.
I half smile at her comforting words. I really hope so.
We find a spot in the meadows and sit upon the long length bright green grass, surrounded by a rainbow of glowing flowers. I open the spell book and flick through the pages.
“Attire transformation, no, Astral travel, no.” I mutter to myself as I turn the pages with a quick scan. It wasn’t until page 471 that I came across a page mentioning the four elements, and suddenly there was an entire chapter dedicated to the four elements; certain elemental spells, mistakes that were made and fixed, even dating back to over 1000 years ago. As I read on, there’s one in particular, an earth spell, to un-bind vines, and restore life. Perfect! I believe I’ve found the solution! I share my finding with Emma.
“Emma, it says I need a few things from the mortal world! How on earth can I get back to the mortal world, when the portal has ceased to exist?”
“Are there any portal spells?”
“I didn’t think of that, let me look.”
I quickly flick through the pages once more, hoping for a portal spell.
“Stop!” yells Emma, slamming her hand in between the pages as I turn them.
“This one here says you can create a temporary portal,” she continues.
My eyes follow her finger. I silently read: Temporary portal opening: choose your mortal city, only one portal can be created within one day. This temporary portal will last for only one hour, so make sure you’re