Chapter Two.

[I have no proofread this yet, and I may add more at a later time, not quite sure yet.]

Chapter two.

 The feeling that touched me was unreal. It felt as if I was dreaming again, yet I had never felt so awake before. As I walked through the perfect green grass, the sun shined down on me and its warmth surrounded me. The sky was a breathtaking shade of blue and the trees around me were large and full of beauty. As I walked a little farther, I came across a path that had roses and lilies all along side it. The beauty around me was just so wonderful that I wasn't even a little afraid. So I decided to take the gorgeous path, where ever it may go.

The farther down the path I went, more beauty emerged. There were little cottages up and down the path. One house even had numerous little lawn gnomes with large smiles across their faces. I came across a stunning house that literally was made from the trunk of a tree. The branches, big and brown, intertwined to make part of the roof, as blue jays sat snug on top. Behind the, in lack of a better term, tree house, was a vibrant lagoon. I strayed off the path to go look at the water. It was an even more gorgeous blue than the sky, and it sparkled all over. I saw something swimming at the bottom, but I could not tell what it was. There were big rocks surrounding the lagoon and lawn statues all around it as well. I inhaled the lovely aroma of the water and then walked back to the path.

About five minutes down the path, an even more stunning picture came into view. Smack dab right in front of me was a castle. I had never seen a castle that even came close to how amazing that one was. It wasn't gated in, nor did it have a moat. What it did have, though, was an aura that filled my mind with nothing but good thoughts. It made me feel like I had finally found my place in life. I felt so ridiculous being so happy about this dream world, but what could it hurt? Nothing bad could come from this place. Or so I thought.

I felt drawn to that castle, I can't even explain how or why, but I was drawn to it. I took a few steps towards it, but then I was quickly stopped by a familiar sound. The screeching from my dream, the one that came from that big black blob. It grew louder and louder, and I looked all around me to try and figure out where it was coming from. There it was. The big black blob. Only, it wasn't coming as fast as it was in my dream, so this time the big black blob appeared much differently. The blob now looked like a sort of animal. I had never seen animal like this one before though. It was big, and black, with fur all up and down it's body. It had a very large tail, and arms equally as big. The creatures body was quite small compared to the rest of it though. The thing stopped running and stopped to look at me. The noise it was making also stopped. Its eyes grew wide and then it ran off.

Once again, confused like I was in my dream, I watched it run off. I then heard a man laughing behind me. As I turned to look, the man continued to laugh. “His name is Mrahl,” the man said, “the screeching you hear is him crying. He was probably coming to complain about something, as usual, but you seemed to have scared him off.”

“W...What is he?” I studdered.

“You live in Rithermit and you've never seen a Brackel?” 

 “Rithermit...No. I must be dreaming again. Rithermit is the place that my mother's journal spoke of in my last dream. This can't be real. It's all just a dream. That explains why this place is so perfect. My crazed mind made it up.” I put one hand on the tree next to me to stop me from falling. I looked up at the man and he stood there with his eyes wide open and his jaw dropped.

“Your mother's journal....Tell me, my dear, what is your name?”

“I'm Kiaree. Kiaree Naruse.”

The man's eyes grew wider, and then he spoke, “Will you please come with me?”

 Before I could even answer, the man turned around and began walking towards the castle. I waited for my dizziness to fade and then I ran to catch up to him. He walked with a quick pace and it was very hard for me to keep up with him.

The inside of the castle was even more breathtaking than the outside. The floor sparkled as if it had just been cleaned. The chandeliers above my head glistened from the sun light that peaked through the ginormous windows that filled the room. The man was much farther ahead of me, so I kept up the best I could.

Examining the hallway we had ended up in was like going to a museum. There were pictures up and down the walls of mythical be creatures, and even some, what appeared to be, humans. The faces in each of the pictures appeared sad and distressed. Like they had every reason to be happy, but something had been preventing them to be Each person had on the familiar amulent I had seen before. On the floor, were seven foot tall statues. Each different in its own way, but some how also the same.

Once out of the hallway, we were in a type of atrium, it seemed. Above me on the ceiling was a beautiful mural of an aged woman in a long blue gown, and in her hand was a wand. The woman appeared just as the other pictures did, with a very distressed look upon her face. When I realized that I had stopped walking to gaze up at the ceiling, I noticed that the man was gone. I looked around but the man was no where in sight. There weren't any maids or butlers or anyone around for me to ask where he went, so I decided to go look for myself.

I found a set of stairs around the corner and thought maybe he had gone down there. I began to descend down the stairs, but an eerie feeling swept across my body. I no longer felt the happy feeling I had felt when I first entered my dream world. I now felt unhappy, and afraid. I finally reached the end of the long staircase, and there stood a door. This door wasn't like the door that I had encountered earlier, though. This door was unfriendly. It was very unwelcoming. My curriosity once again got to me, and I slowly opened the door.

Inside, it was very dark, so I felt around for a light switch. Nothing. I remembered I had passed a candle on the wall when I was going down the stairs, so I ran back up a few steps to grab it. Now with the candle, it would be a lot easier to see in front of me. I entered the dark room once more, and the unwelcoming feeling grew. Inside the room, there were chains up and down the walls. A little futher in, I noticed some iron cages. As I neared them, the unwelcoming feeling dissapeared and turned into fear. I realized that I was now in some kind of jail. Inside of each cell were tiny men. Each of them glared at me, and some even grinned. At the end of the row of cells, there was an elderly woman. “Hello young lady,” she spoke slowly. “I do believe you have made a wrong turn. This room is for me and my men only. Unless you would like to join one of us.” Her voice turned into a cackle. My eyes grew wide and I found myself running in the opposite direction. “You'll be back, you'll see.” I ignored the woman and ran back up the stairs.

The man from before stood at the top of the stairs, glaring down at me. “Miss, I must ask you to never go down there again. Those are not the Rithermits you want to accosiate with” without another word, the man turned around and began to walk away again.

“Can you tell me where we are going please?!” I said anxiously. The man did not respond but instead just kept walking. I tried to keep up, but once again, it was no use. He was much faster than me.

Once I finally caught up, the man was standing in front of two thrones. There were many other people in the room, and not a sound escaped anyone's mouth. They all looked at me in awe. There was a man sitting in the throne in front of us, and he just stared at me. The man in the throne stood up and began to speak. “Miss Nuruse. My name is Hamand. Do you know where you are?”

“I am dreaming, of course.” I said with a smile. Might as well have fun with this, I thought to myself.

“If only that was the case, Kiaree. You see , you are in a world that you were not supposed to find. Your mother, bless her soul, lost her life trying to keep this world from you. Apparently the Landraya have located you and your father, otherwise you would not be here right now.”

“Okay, enough!” I yelled. “This is all just a stupid dream, and I want to wake up now. HELLO, KIAREEE. Wake up!”

A smile formed across the man's face and then he began to laugh. “You will understand soon enough, my dear granddaughter.”