Here's a story, that I wrote for English Enrichment.
Spoiler
Chapter 1
“Layla stop daydreaming!” Miss Nighting said. “I do not tolerate no-concentration in my class." I stopped looking out the window and focused on my teacher. She wore a long formal red dress with a jacket over it, and her long brown hair fell over her jacket on one side.
"Sorry Miss Nighting. I’ll concentrate more from now.”
"Thank you Layla. Now write this down; 527 years ago the Queen of Firehelm, also known as the Queen of Humans, was kidnapped. The Humans immediately assumed it was us and the Great War started, causing the Elvish population to be cut down. 469 years ago the Great War ended and the 2E, also known as the 2nd Calendar began.” She walked through the classroom gracefully to see what I had done, but stopped midway. “As the next Great Queen of Elves, you, Layla, will have to know all of the details about how the war started for future knowledge. The diplomatic relations between Elves and Humans may not last forever. I need to make sure you will make the correct choices as your future advisor. You cannot escape from this fate. The Elvish kingdom relies on majic to thrive, which can only be supplied by you. Majic runs in your veins. Only you have it.”
She paused, and then exclaimed; “Oh, look at the time. Your class is over. We have a test next week so revise.” She walked out of the room, but popped her head back in and said "And learn how to concentrate!” She chuckled to herself quietly, and then left.
As soon as she walked out of the room, I swiftly jumped out the nearest window, and ran into the forest. Not going anywhere, and not even sure where I was going, I still ran. Running helped Papa release stress when he was High King, and I used to run with him, so I do it whenever I’m bored or just need space. The smell of the trees, like moist bark; the sound of the birds chirping their hearts out; the taste of the wind that has picked up an essence of life, calms me. After an hour of strong running, I eventually reached the end of the forest and had to turn back to Castle and get ready for another Pareadae Royael.
I’m Layla, the Princess of Elves, and I’m 16. I have to take the throne in three months because Papa died suddenly from an unknown reason, while having a meeting with the Humans two months ago. My Mama got in a state of depression because of it, and currently she locks herself away in her room doing who knows what.
As I was walking back through the quiet forest, I heard three Humans talking to themselves about something (We Elves have very good hearing skills).
"I ‘onestly wonder why they wander why ‘ey wanna make peace with our coun’ry" said one human. His heavy accent made it very hard to understand what they were saying.
“I kno’. I mean, ‘ey killed our Queen, an’ everyone knows tha’ they’re gonna start anothe’ war” replied another one.
“How far ‘till we reach th’ castle – ‘till we kill the girl?’ My heart beat grew faster. They were going to kill me!
“We’re no’ gonna kill her – we’re gonna kidnap her. The Elvish kingdo’ withou’ a ruler to supply majic will collapse! You stupid idio’.”
“You know I’m no’ good a’ maths. And why are we kidnapping ‘er?” whined the third
“Oh my god,” said the second human with his face in his palms.
“We’re gonna kidnap her using our new technology. Majic is useless against it – we will finally be superior.” There was a slight silence, while I stealthily tip—toed away from them.
“Do you hear that?” The three humans stopped and listened. I continued to creep away.
“Aha! I see her!” The humans ran after me like a pack of wild dogs, all crazy to get their prey.
“Picioare viteza mare.” My feet started to move faster, and faster, until they were blurs on the forest floor. The humans started to shout, loudly and quietly at the same time. They seemed to be contacting someone or something that was involved with the dark arts. A shadow fell before me and made me freeze in my tracks.
“Hello, princess.” It said. It touched my forehead and I fell to the ground.
~
I woke up to the sound of birds. Not the chirpy kind, but the kind similar to nightingales. In Firehelm, they have vocalwings. Their name pretty much explains what they are, but no one or thing can compare their voices with the birds. Their voices are so beautiful they used to sing our national anthem a Capella style at the official ceremonies.
Oh no, I thought. ‘This is not good. I jumped out of the huge bed I was in and ran out of the elegant room into a hallway. It was around 30 metres long. The walls were red, the carpet was red - everything was red. I didn’t recognise the mansion at all, and that wasn’t good news. Eventually I reached the end of the hallway. A door stood at the end of the hallway, and it was strange. Strange because it looked different from the rest, as it had a circle with the symbols of life and death, and had the symbols of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth around it.
“The elements… of Majic…” A voice whispered behind me. I turned around quickly, but no one was there. I was freaked out but I investigated the door further. A Blood-lock (a panel which needed blood to unlock) was placed next to the door. I was curious to what it led to so I cut my hand using my pocket knife and placed it on the lock. Suddenly there was a click sound so I opened the door and there were swirls of purple and black.
“What is this…?” I said. Suddenly I was pushed into the swirls by something cold and fell unconscious again as I fell.
“Bye- bye♪” Chapter 2
“Where am I…?” I asked myself. I was standing on dirt. Not the soil kind, but the gravelly dark kind that crunches when you step on it. I looked up to see a swirly purple/black sky and everywhere around me were hills of grey. I scanned through my memories and remembered that I went through a portal.
“You’re in the Shadow Realm, elf.” I turned around and saw a ghostly figure staring at me. “Sorry for pushing you. Hope you’re not injured. I’m Xavier.” He briefly paused, and then asked, “You?”
“I’m Layla. Get me out of here. I hate it.” I replied.
“Well, you’re an elf. You can’t not hate it.”
“Get. Me. Out. You were the one who pushed me in.” I said with force.
“Look, you have to go all the way to the Duke and Duchess’s castle and ask the Oracele, a prophet who is always right, where the portal is. I’m on my way there, so do you want to come with me?” Xavier replied.
I thought about his offer for a moment, and replied,
“No. You pushed me in here; you probably want to kill me!”
“I don’t want to kill you. I want you to save the Shadow Realm”
“And make me die trying! Get me back into my castle!” I shouted at him. His figure emerged from the darkness. He was an elf, like me, but had something… dark in him. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I certainly didn’t like it. He had dark brown hair which covered his forehead and his eyes, which had dim sparkles in them, and elves always had that special glimmer in their eyes. His clothes were shaggy and dirty, but had an Imperial aura around them which made you want to obey.
This is a work-in-progress, if you hadn't noticed. It isn't going to go on for ages like Harry Potter.
Comments are appreciated and typos and whatnot being pointed out are greatly appreciated.
Read partway through chapter 1 before getting fed up. The plot's somewhat alright. Here are some notes I was taking whilst reading:
Posted by notes
"She walked through my classroom gracefully to see what I have done, but stopped midway. "<- bad grammar
"The Elvish kingdom relies on majic to survive – Majic is necessary for the power in it."<- could be worded better
"As soon as she walked out of the room I jumped swiftly out of the window next to me into the forest and ran."<-WHAT!? when did you enter the story and why are you running with yourself, also bad grammar...
Lol sorry for the bad grammar, I'll have to fix it. I wrote this 1-2 years ago and only started writing it again when school started again.
Fixed No.1:
"She walked through the classroom gracefully to see what I had done, but stopped midway."
Fixed No.2:
"The Elvish kingdom relies on majic to thrive, which can only be supplied by you. Majic runs in your veins. Only you have it.”
Fixed No.3:
"As soon as she walked out of the room, I swiftly jumped out the nearest window, and ran into the forest."
His long ears hadn't much hair to cover them and stuck out vulnerable which is very dangerous for all kinds of elves.
"Then I won't help you. Your loss." He sneered, than turned around and left me, standing in a dark world where I had no idea what could happen to me. His bare feet crunching against the gravel started fading away as I spotted a dark shadow in the sky. A feeling of shock shivered down my spine, if that makes any sense. There were no visible weapons around me, and I hadn't even learned any spells, so I was doomed!
"HEY! XAVIER! HELP!" I screamed, even though the darkness and mist around me couldn't let me see him. He had seemed to ignored me, so I screamed again, "XAVIER! HELP! UP IN THE SKY!" Again, there was no answer.
The shadow swooped down at me causing a rush of wind and dirt to travel by me, almost like a hurricane. The ghostly figure missed me and went up into the purple mist again, and flew down again, only this time in a torpedo glide. I'm done for, I thought to myself as I was glued to the ground by my fear. Suddenly a human-like figure jumped in a hit the shadow with a ball of pure darkness, making the shadow bounce off and be pushed the the ground. Now that it was still, you could see that the shadow seemed to be an eagle sort of thing, just lying on the ground. It glowed for a second and started shrinking, taking a more solid shape and bird-like form. The shadow - or bird - started shrinking until it became a tiny little sparrow just lying there on it's back, dead.
"What did you do?! You killed a small creature! You're despicable!" I exclaimed, right in his face.
"Typical elf, always caring for animals. It was his fate. It was all I could do to save you." He replied.
"Aren't you an elf!? Why didn't you just help me escape!?" I insisted.
"I do not have the power. Look at me - What do you think I am?" He exclaimed. I surveyed his body, and replied; "A dark elf...."
"Exactly. I got degraded into this form ever since I was thrown in this evil place. This is why you need to get out here before you start to rot like me."
"I don't get it. Can you explain better? I'm really confused." I asked.
"This place was consumed by evil, long ago. When we first met, I called this place the Shadow Realm, correct?" Yep, I thought.
"Your realm is the Light Realm. Your realm is consumed by Light. With light comes happiness and joy, and with darkness comes pain and sorrow. Anything that crosses over will taint that realm, turning the pest into one of it's own. For example, me. I was once that of Light, and now... Look at me. The only part of me that is left of the Light is my soul, my will. It is only a matter of time before the Shadows consume them as well." He paused, and everything was silent for a moment, until he continued; "That is what will happen to you if you do not find your way out." I interrupted him and said,
"Wait what? If YOU do not find your way out? I thought you were helping me!"
"You are not helping me, so I am not helping you. You will perish."
Short Addition: He is such an ogre!, I thought. "Fine. I'll help you with your 'quest'. In return you will help me get out."
"Deal" He replied, with a grin on his face. Chapter 3
"SO where are we heading?" I asked.
"To the dwarfish mines. The dwarves are a neutral party, so they won't hurt us." Xavier replied.
"How can they be a neutral party? I thought you said this was the Shadow Realm." I asked him.
"Do you not know anything about this world, Layla? Dwarves are resistant to all types of magic, so they usually try and keep some order here."
"Where are they exactly?" I asked.
"Over those mountains." He pointed to a space in the purple mist. I gave him a quizzical look, so he explained; "You are just not used to the mist. You will be able to see through it soon enough. Although, at that moment in time the clock will start ticking for you rotting."
"Ugh...." I complained
Surprisingly, in the Shadow Realm there are some very beautiful places. Waterfalls of blood falling down cliffs, although they had a horrible smell and aura, were astounding to watch. Canyons, abandoned fortresses, everything seemed to be around.
"What's that?" I asked Xavier, pointing to a weird statue of a deformed man.
"That, my comrade, is the Duke. His hate for everything pure made him appear how he does." He paused, then continued, "The more of these we see, the better. The Duke is so obnoxious he plastered these down along the path to his castle."
After about thirty minutes of walking, we eventually met a plain. It was peculiar by the fact that there was a single, lone, flower, standing tall in the center, and it was flat unlike the rest of the realm. The ground was the same gravel-dirt though.
"Where are all the plants...?" Xavier muttered. He made a face which made him look deep in thought and told me; "Stay close behind me and walk cautiously. If you hear anything warn me".
"Roger" I replied. We crept into the plain stealthily until I heard a moan behind me. What was that?, I thought to myself, scared. I looked back and saw nothing and said; "Hey Xavier..." I turned back around to alert him I heard something but he was gone. I heard the moan again, and quickly turned around to find myself face to face with a giant three-headed Venus flytrap.
I ran across the plain - even though it seemed to go on forever.
"Igni zjarr!" I shouted, directing the spell at the three-headed monster. It blew up in flames, and ashes fell to the ground and sunk.
"Well that was easy." I said to myself feeling victorious. Suddenly the ashes rose back up molding back into the form of the Venus Flytrap. It had brought some dirt along on its reforming journey and grew twice its original size
"Kore!" I screamed, so scared I was going to be eaten by the demonic being. My legs felt swifter as I bounded around the plain, but the flytrap was too fast, and quickly caught up. It bent down the middle head and caught me in its mouth. The mouth was weird as there wasn't more leaf in the mouth, there was a portal. The portal was a cloudy grey and looked the same as the one I took to get to the Shadow Realm. This is it, I thought, This could be my way out! I struggled out of the teeth of the flytrap and fell into the portal.