Chapter 1: 1. The Mysterious Book

I hesitantly stepped down the stairs to the ground, one step at a time. My head hung low and my eyes darted around my surroundings, wary but curious. City air. Hmmm. It didn’t smell very good. 

I looked forward, then sighed as I saw something. Or to be more exact, the absence of something. It was to be expected. I didn’t even feel disappointed. I hopped and walked on the pavement, then I let out the breath I had been holding.

So it’s not a dream, I told myself quietly, excitedly.

The city was filled with large buildings. You only had to lift your chin up, and it would feel as if you were in a concrete jungle. I could hear countless sounds, mostly of machinery and people. The sky was foggy. Accidentally breathing in the exhaust, I made a cute cough. And a small smile, which soon disappeared.

The station was loud. And filled to the brim with people.

“Faster!” I heard a yell. Startled, I obeyed and moved faster. Yelling was bad, I thought. It was a bad sign. A person walked past me. It was a tall man. The hem of his long coat brushed against my arm. I tugged my arms closer to my tiny body to prevent such a thing from happening again. The man must not have seen me. He didn’t react. He just kept walking. I looked at him for a moment before turning back to the station. I let out a breath. There were no problems to be seen. Yet. The crowd got bigger.

I shrank away from anyone I saw, but in the end, I realized it was a stupid thing to do. It didn’t work. Everyone brushed past me anyway. I straightened my back a little.

It’s okay, I told myself. Nobody looked like they were paying attention to me. Who would pay attention to a random little girl on the street? Just to be safe, I unslung the worn backpack from my shoulders and carried it with both my arms instead, hugging it to my chest.

I remembered the scene I saw from the car, moments before. I had sat next to the windowsill, so I could see the landscape move past me. I saw flat land, working men and women, and I also saw the tall buildings I had only seen in books up to this point. It was a peculiar feeling. When I laid eyes on them, I knew that I would eventually walk in the crowds with the other people, I knew I would pass the towering buildings, and so I had tried to be prepared.

I tried to prepare my mind, I mean.

The world was different from my imaginations. My steps automatically slowed as I stood on the street.

The grownups all looked rich and flashy, I thought. And there were also students. Real, actual students. There were students around my age, older students in uniforms, and even students I guessed were high schoolers. There were even some old-looking people with uniforms and backpacks. How bad at learning were they, I wondered, to have to keep at it until they were grown up?

Or maybe, I thought, those people really loved school. It must be one or the other. I looked up at a pretty teenager wearing a school uniform. She had a black backpack and a pair of glasses.

She didn’t notice me. I was small. Would I grow up to be like her, I wondered. Would I grow up to be tall and smart? Would I go to school? Maybe my parents would let me, though I wasn’t sure. They didn’t seem to like me. The car was gone, and I wasn’t certain I would be able to meet them again, too.

Maybe I could live on my own.

I read a lot of books. Grandma being the one who taught me, I couldn’t be stupid. Even though she wasn’t with me anymore, she had told me I was smart. She had told me I was special. That I could do this. Grandma told me that I was the smartest kid she had ever seen. She said that when I grew up, if I ever went to the city to learn more, I could be the smartest person ever.

Oh, who was I kidding, I would probably starve to death on my own.

Tall buildings were in every part of the city. Bright neon lights and signs flashed, making me wonder how anyone could possibly afford so much energy. And what was the point? I could see the signs without them glowing, anyway. It was fancy. City people must be rich.

There was a cafe, several stores and even hospitals that were right next to each other. I looked in the opposite direction to see towering creations that I had only ever seen in books and on TV. I stopped. My heart started to beat as if it wanted to jump out of my chest. It was so big, I thought. And so round. It was a ferris wheel. I watched as the construction spun in a circle, surrounded by several other buildings I had no idea of.

I couldn’t ride it, of course. That was a foolish and very pointless pipe dream.

There were none of the mountains I was used to. No plants. No trees. Just people, and everything they made.

I suddenly felt very small.

I slung the backpack back on my shoulders. It was too heavy for me to carry without the support of my body. Enough looking around. It was time to go back.

“Where’s the police station?” I muttered to myself anxiously. It was becoming a habit that was most unbecoming- speaking to myself like this, but it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t know the way. I didn’t have a map either. Should I go right? Or left?

I shouldn’t have wandered off, I thought. I should have stayed in the station bathroom. Even with all their faults, my parents couldn’t have left me there on purpose. They must have forgotten I was there. Silly new parents. I did think it wasn’t a very good sign when my new parents firmly declined my need of a map and proper instructions about my relocation- no handybook, no explanations, no nothing.

So either my parents were idiots, or they disliked me. A lot. Neither option sounded very good. I wished my parents were replaceable.

Anyway, that could all wait until I was safely back in a car heading towards my new home with people who knew what they were doing. So I did the only thing I could. I started to ask questions.

“Excuse me, can you please tell me the direction to the police station?” I tried to be as polite as possible so that the person would answer me. I saw it on TV. Sometimes people slap others when they ask questions, though I don’t know why. It seems like a stupid thing to do, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances.

“The-” It was a short, pretty dark-skinned woman who I had struck a conversation with. Her voice was different from what I was used to. It sounded weird, like she had something stuck in her throat. I wondered why.

“I don’t know.”

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Oh. What was I supposed to say in this situation?

“Thank you!” I made a little bow, hoping the woman wouldn’t mind. She didn’t mind. Luckily she didn’t yell at me, she just looked at me funny. Maybe it was because of my voice? I was eight years old, so my voice was smaller and higher than what was normal. Or maybe she was just upset because I wasn’t that pretty. According to Grandma, I was a ‘plain ugly creature. 

It was a good trait. Stranger danger. Not being very cute or pretty, with dark skin and nearly white hair, I would deter criminals.

I couldn’t give up. I went in front of another person and asked them instead.

“Can you tell me the direction to the police station?” It was a taller person this time. They had long hair, so I guessed they were a woman, but I wasn’t sure. Sometimes men had long hair too, and this person confused me. 

They turned around. They had been walking very fast, so I hadn’t expected they would stop when I asked them a question. I shirked back a little, nervous and wary. My hands tightened around the backpack straps around my shoulders. Uh oh. They had a large smile on their face. They looked kind, but I wasn't sure.

Smiles were usually bad. 

“The police station?” The person asked me curiously. “You want to go there, little one?”

I’m NOT little. I mean, I guess I am little, but I’ll grow up to be bigger and stronger. I know it. That’s what the books say, and books are never wrong. I haven’t shown any symptoms yet, but I will! I wanted to say that out, but I knew I shouldn’t.

I bit my tongue instead, to hold it all back in. It was something I was used to. I opened my mouth to answer them, “Yes. Do you know where it is?”

The person’s smile didn't disappear. I felt uneasy. If there was anything fishy, I just had to run, I told myself. They couldn’t catch me, especially with all the people around. It would be difficult.

“Hmmm…” The person pointed to a building. I brightened up.

“It’s behind that building. Ask for Skyway Building if you have any trouble, the station is just next to it. Have fun, little one.”

I didn’t relax. I hoped the information was correct. Only after they turned around, did I finally let out my breath. I was in the clear. For now.

The person, I still didn’t know whether they were a man or a woman, walked away. They were very fast. It must be because they had long legs. I sighed. It was hard not to be envious of such traits. I watched the person go, then saw something fall. The person almost collided into a woman with a pale pink hat, then they, without apologizing, moved very quickly to wherever they needed to go.

They had dropped something.

It looked like a book.

The city was not a safe place. The place where the book had landed was a striped section of the road, where cars occasionally roared past. I could still walk across it. Probably. Green lights meant ‘go’, but I couldn’t see any green lights. There were many people walking on the road, blocking my view.

Well, if those people could walk on the road, I probably could too, I reasoned.

“You left your book behind!”

I stumbled my way to the edge of the sidewalk and stepped onto the striped piece of road, heaving deep breaths. I picked up the book. There were less and less people on the road now, and I heard the sound of car engines. Bad, I sensed.

The person must have not heard me. Maybe they weren’t paying attention, or maybe my voice was too small. It didn’t matter.

I ran back to the sidewalk as fast as possible. I was short, so I wasn’t very fast. The other person was lost in the crowd on the other side of the road, outside my sight. I was left behind with a small, pale book in my hand.

I didn’t steal it. It was the other person who lost it, therefore my conscience was clean, I told myself. The book was shiny and new. I stopped shouting for the person and instead touched the book curiously. It was small. And clean.The cover was completely brown, and was without a title. I sniffed. The book smelled of dirt.

I opened the book. The title was on the first page instead of the cover, which was peculiar, but even more peculiar was the title itself:

It said, ‘ʀᴇᴀʟᴍ ᴏʙꜱᴇʀᴠᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴀʀᴇ ᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ.’’ Realm observation and care. I wondered what that meant. I flipped to the next page.

‘ʀᴇᴀʟᴍ ᴅᴇꜱᴛʀᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ - ᴘʀᴇᴘᴀʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ.’ I frowned. That didn’t sound good at all. Destruction. Realm. Was this a fictional novel?

Confused, I flipped over more pages in an attempt to see what was happening, the police station having left my mind.

The contents were worrying.

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