The old becomes the New

There weren't always dragons in the Valley but when a very bored and very curious twelve year old finds a magic spell book that seems to be older than the world itself, unexpected and seemingly impossible things tend to happen. At least that has been my experience.

Hi. My name is Raven. I am the twelve year old previously mentioned. Well I was twelve and this is the story of how I turned my boring world into a place full of magic and adventure.

As I said. I was twelve and extremely bored. In the moment I felt nothing was worse than a little girl with adhd being bored out of her mind in a small town. I didn’t have friends for two reasons. The first one is that I moved a lot. Mom and Dad are environmental scientists so we moved around a lot to be close to whichever forest or jungle they were exploring for science. I was alway curious about their work and would often ask about it but never understood a single thing. It sounded cool and everything but it all basically went in one ear and out the other. The second reason I didn’t have any friends is because kids my age made no sense to me. For example, the day everything changed, I was wandering around the town trying to find something to do when a group of kids my age were chasing chickens around. Well the boys were chasing the chickens. The girls were cheering them on.

“What are you doing?” I asked. Honestly I don’t think I could have sounded or been any more confused.

“We are chasing chickens!” One boy said, grinning wildly and panting out of breath.

“Obviously, but why?”

“The chickens got out so they have to catch them and take them back.” One of the girls said.

“Um. Ok. You do know there are other ways of getting chickens back without stressing them out” I said then walked over to where the chicken feed was. I grabbed a handful and tossed the feed. The chickens scattered at first then started eating the food happily. I grabbed another handful again and this time made a trail of food back to the gated area. The chickens followed then once they were all inside I closed the gate and locked it. “See?”

“That’s so boring.” One boy complained.

“You ruined our fun!” Another boy complained.

“Fun?” I asked. “How is that fun?”

“Because It is!” He yelled at me.

I just walked away. I was still confused so I just went to the library. “Hello Raven sweetie, how are you doing?” The librarian said.

“Hi John. I’m bored!” I whined and put my chin on his desk since that's how tall it was.

“Your parents left this box the last time they were in town. Would you like to go through it and organize it for me.” John asked.

“Ok. Where is the box?” I asked.

John led me to an old beat up box. It was wet and icky but it was something to do. I took out everything one by one and organized it in different piles. At the bottom I found a book. It had a dragon on the cover lined with tiny jewels. I opened it and looked through it. It was a spell book. It looked so cool. I found a spell I really wanted to try. I couldn’t read the words very well but there were pictures and I recognized some of the items that were in my house. So I decided to try it. I got up and went back to the front. “Bye John. I’m going home.”

“Did you finish going through the box?”

“Yeah. I left notes on what to do with the piles.” I waved and then went home.

I gathered everything the book said I needed for the spell. I made sure to check, double check and triple checked the ingredient list to make sure I had everything I needed. I put it all in my backpack including the book then I climbed onto the horse my parents rented. We took the path up the left side of the valley. There was a little grassy area before the expanse of the forest my parents were most likely blissfully lost in as they explored. I set up the spell as the book told me too. I muttered the words as I read them off the book. I kept repeating them over and over not noticing the items had started to glow.

Then next thing I knew, I felt myself fly backwards. Confused, I watched the sky. I heard a roar-like sound that shook the air around me and a large dark shadow passed over me then out of view. My body hit something but it didn’t hurt. I rolled over and found myself laying on scales a head before me, wings on either side of me, a long tail behind me. I squealed in childish glee then slowly stood up. There was enough space on either side of me that I wouldn’t have fallen off even if I did lose my balance. I walked to the head of the creature and held onto the left horn. We were so high up. The ground looked flat. I couldn’t tell where the river or mountain was. Ahead of us was nothing but greenery and behind us was the blue ocean. I let myself fall off the creature's head. Just as I thought. It was a dragon.

I let out another childish squeal, giggled and squirming in delight. The dragon caught me in his claw and I looked up to see it looking down at me. I heard it growl then looked back at where we were flying. It landed and gently set me down. The dragon had black, gray and white scales which were really pretty. “What do you think you were doing child?” The dragon asked

“OOOH! You can talk!?” I asked in excitement.

“Yes, I can. Now answer my question. What do you think you were doing? Why did you do this and why did you purposely fall off me?”

“Because I’m bored.”

“And?” The dragon asked.

“No and, Just bored. Really, really bored.”

“Let me get this straight. You released all the creatures in this book simply because you were bored.”

“Is that what I did?” I asked looking back at the book.

“Yes. That’s what you did.”

I grabbed the book and looked at the different creatures. I couldn’t stop my next squeal. “That is so cool! I wanna meet them all!” I jumped up and danced around with excitement.

The dragon let out a heavy sigh. “Dear goddess, why me?” He mumbled. “Where are your parents?” He asked.

“They are working in the forest.”

“Alright.” He said. Then his form started to get smaller. He turned into a human. He was tall. He had black and white hair, tanned skin and dark clothes. “Take me to your home. We will wait for your parents there.”

“Ok!” I bounced and led the way after getting on my horse.

“You can ride a horse. Yet you look so young.”

“I’m twelve. Is it really so weird?” I had asked him.

“Hmm. I guess times could have changed from before.”

“How long have you been in that book?”

“I won’t know until I talk to your parents.” He said, calmly.

“Oh. Ok.”

I took him to my home and let him. I asked him to sit down and turned the tv on for him to watch while I made him a snack. We then watched Tv while we waited for Mom and Dad to finally come home. When they did, they definitely weren’t expecting to come home to what I told them. Both my parents sat on the couch across from us and just stared in shock. My dad rubbed his face, then left his hands over his mouth.

“So you're telling me… You found a spell book… Found the ingredients for a spell in that book… and cast that spell?” My mom asked.

“Yup~” I giggled.

“Is that really a hard thing to process?” The dragon asked.

“Magic does not exist.” My father said slowly.

“It did and now it’s back. Humans got rid of us and now a human has brought us back.”

“The way you said that. It isn’t a good thing.” My mom stated.

“Well there is a reason to fear all these creatures. It will be chaos for a long time before everything gets settled. I will need to try and calm things down but it may take some time. The humans screwed over many different powerful creatures. If I don’t fix this soon your race will very quickly become extinct. Though my main concern is my citizens”

“I wanna come!!” I begged excitedly

“Absolutely not, it is far too dangerous for a child let alone a human child” he said.

I was about to complain very loudly when a scream from outside interrupted me. I ran out to see what’s wrong and people were running around screaming. Being chased by black horses with their tails and mains looking like different collared flames. “Awesome!!” I said excitedly.

“Not awesome.” The dragon said from behind me. “These are sun horses. They can burn a town like this down in a matter of a few hours.”

“Then stop them!” My mother said with fear in her voice.

Looking back at it now she probably meant the dragon but at that moment I didn’t notice. I ran off and found a horse with a flaming blue main and tail. I got in front of it causing it to rear up in surprise. It tried to get past me but I got in its way. It neighed in complaint, its flaming main burst with frustration. “Shhhh.” I said gently and held my hand out to pet its nose. It was breathing heavily but when I started petting it. It seemed to calm down at my touch. Its friends gathered and watched. They seemed to be talking to each other.

“You calmed them? How is that even possible?” The dragon said as he walked over. “They are untameable.”

The horses backed away from him; they looked nervous and ready to run. That's when I noticed the world got blindingly bright. Everything turned white and I had to close my eyes because it was hurting. “What the hell is going on here?” A new voice asked. I blinked so my eyes could adjust properly and looked around to find a tall man standing in the middle of the herd of horses who seemed happy to see him. He was REALLY tall. He had dark skin and even darker hair. His eyes blazed like the golden sun above and he looked both irritated and confused. “Ladon.” He said looking at the dragon. “A man I actually respect. Please tell me you know what's going on?”

“Lord Helios. Unfortunately you are not going to like what I tell you. I’m not sure how long. Maybe a few thousand years but from what I can gather we were locked away in a book by the humans. Most likely out of fear of death and Greed to live as long as possible.” Landon continued. “This human child.” he said, gesturing to me. “Released us out of boredom and curiosity.”

Helios looked at me then back at Landon before letting out a heavy sigh. “I feel like I simply took a nap and the entire world was thrown into chaos.”

“I’m sure that’s how everyone who was sent into that book feels.” Landon said.

“I have a feeling it's worse than we think. Apollo is a teen again on his hunt to kill python and I just saw Hades admiring Kore from a distance as if he forgot they were married.” Helios said

“Maybe because this child is so immature she didn’t cast the spell right.” Landon stated.

“HEY!” I said I was very offended. “I am smarter then all the darn idiotic kids in this stupid town!” I snapped.

“Raven language!” My mother scolded me. I simply crossed my arm.

“Obviously still not smart enough.” Landon said calmly before looking back at Helios. “As much as you gods have an Inferiority complex, my first concern is my kind. I have alliances and bonds with other kinds but until I’m certain my citizens are alright and have calmed I will not help anyone else.”

“And how do you expect to do that when I can almost guarantee that your citizens are scattered all over the world in hiding from fear and uncertainty of what’s happening.” Helios said calmly

Landon rubbed his face as he thought about the gods' words. “Fine. I’ll determine who to help and how on my journey to find my citizens but that’s it” He said firmly.

Helios smiled. He was about to say something when I interrupted. “I still want to come.”

“I said it was too dangerous. I am not babysitting a child.” Landon repeated his earlier statement.

“I am not a baby and I just calmed the really cool ponies so I can handle myself just fine!”

“You have no Idea what you released out there!!” Landon snapped but then froze. After maybe a minute of silence he got so angry he let out a deep growl that scared the horses into a frenzy before he calmed down again. “Fine.” He said in defeat. “I will even put a spell around the town so no one here gets hurt while we are gone.”

I screamed in excitement, danced around and hugged my parents. The next day was the start of our adventure. I wasn’t sure why but Landon insisted we walk. I think he said something about not wanting to carry me around everywhere but why he had a problem with it back then when his claws are bigger then I was is beyond me. We walked for many days. I honestly have no idea how many exactly. I didn’t really pay attention. Landon would teach me what he knew about the magic and creatures I released into the world while I told him about what I knew of the world before I brought the magic back.

“So this is called A?” Logan asked, holding the phone my parents had given me.

“It’s called a cell phone. There are many different types and brands but this one is the newest version that came out. It’s the Starlight M27.”

“What does that mean?” Landon asked.

“I have no Idea but I love it.” I said as I gently took it out of his hand. “It’s lightweight. It has a cooling system in the phone so it’s actually cold in my hand, It’s thin so it can fit in my tiny pockets and the screen is amazing it’s so clear its like i’m not even looking at the screen there are other features I haven’t played with yet but it’s fine”

“And you can talk to people with this?” Landon asked

“Yeah, SMS is texting or what you would do back then is writing letters here watch.” I open my texts and choose my mom and text her. “She might not Reply since she still has to work but” My phone buzzed. “But It can also happen instantly.” I texted back. “We can also make phone calls and talk to someone who is very very far away.” I told him and called mom. We had a short conversation then we hung up. “See?”

Landon looked at my phone curiously. “You can also search the internet, most of it is true but not everything is true so be careful.” I gave him my phone.

“Hm.” He studies it. Then gave it back. “I will look at it later, let's finish eating then we can go to sleep.”

We did so and in the morning we kept walking. I noticed things were flying around. At first I thought they were just butterflies but when one flew right across my face. I noticed in that short amount of time that. It was a tiny human with butterfly wings. “Fairies!” I said in excitement.

“Shhhh.” Landon said in a gentle quiet tone. “Fairies are sensitive to the volume of our voices. At least they are sensitive when they are that small.”

“Oh.” I said softly and looked around. “It’s ok. I won’t hurt you I promise.”

A few fairies fly out of hiding. Some have shimmering see through wings, others had wings similar to bugs like ladybugs or dragonflies while others had wings like butterflies. “So pretty.” I said in awe.

“Yeah they are. They are gentle creatures. They hate violence and hide at the first sign of a confrontation.”

“That’s why we are so protective of them.” A tall guy walked out from behind one of the trees. He had light brown skin, dark green hair and pastel pink eyes.

“Oh. You're an elf!” I said excitedly.

His eyes looked at me and studied me slowly. “And you are a human child,” he said coldly.

“Oliver.” Landon said calmly. “It’s good to see you again.”

Oliver smiled at Landon. “It’s good to see you too. Things have been so strange lately, the world is so different.”

“That’s because of her.” Landon said before explaining everything.

“Are you kidding?” Oliver asked in disbelief.

“I wish I was.” Landon sighed heavily.

“This is already hell and it’s only going to get worse.” Oliver said “There’s a town nearby. We tried to introduce ourselves and ask if there were houses we could stay in and they chased us out.”

“You need money and to apply to rent or buy a house” I said. “According to my parents it costs a lot of money.”

“Probably a currency we don’t have.” Landon said calmly.

“Hm. Maybe I can help with that. Let go” I said “Lead the way to the town.” I asked.

They led me to the town as we walked through the forest, more elves came out of hiding and followed behind us. Fairies would also come out of hiding and also followed us. When we got close to the town the fairies hid again. When we walked into town everyone watched us as we found the mayor.

“What are these freaks doing here?” The mayor said.

“I was hoping to rent some houses for my friends,” I said calmly.

“You're just a child.” The mayor said appalled.

“My parents are good for the money.” I said calmly. “I have the documents in my backpack. They made sure I’d be able to have the money and resources to take care of myself on my travels.”

“Even if you do have the money I’m not housing these freaks”

“What makes you think these people are freaks?” I asked.

“Look at them! Green hair, brown skin, pointy ears.” The mayor snapped.

“Why does it matter? Are we back to four hundred years ago? So what if everyone looks different?”

“It means they are dangerous.” The mayor said.

I looked at him as if he was crazy. I was about to start screaming at him about how crazy and stupid he was being when I noticed Landon wasn’t saying anything. Shouldn’t he be trying to defend his friend? He is friends with Oliver right? When I looked at him. He was staring at the sky. I looked at the sky and tried to see what he was looking at but I couldn’t see anything. Then I heard a gasp. I looked around then at Landon, his wings spread from his back and launched into the air. Around the same time a loud roar shook the sky. All the elves that followed us spread out and used their abilities to cover the entire town in tree branches and vines creating a dome. There are a lot of sounds of explosions, screams all around from the other humans and more loud roars. After a while. The tree branches and vines came down. The sky was empty. Everything was quiet. Then I saw Landon walking back to us smiling. It was my first time seeing him smiling. He had a little boy on his shoulder who was holding onto him and a girl was hugging Landons arm.

“Anastasia!” Oliver said excitedly and ran over before hugging the woman.

“Oh Oliver goodness it’s so nice to see you again.” Anastasia said and hugged him back.

Anastasia looked completely different then Landon. So my first guess was that she was Landon's wife and the boy on his shoulders was their son. “You guys need to get out of here!” The mayor screamed. All the smiles faded away. “These disgustion beings nearly killed us!!”

“I am sorry for the noise but a group of my kind got into an argument over fear and confusion” Landon said calmly.

“And it's not like there is any damage and no one was hurt. We protected the entire town.” Oliver said.

“You could have killed us! And that boy is a disgusting freak! Both of them are!” The mayor said, pointing to Landon and the boy on his shoulders. The boy had scaly skin, little wings behind his back and the rest of his features made him look like a little copy of his mother. This man's attitude was pissing me off. My anger rose quickly and I acted on the anger. I kicked him in the knee. He screamed loudly and collapsed then I grabbed what little hair he had and pulled hard.

“You need to shut your mouth! If you have a problem with them you’ll have to go through me.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” He crooked through the pain. “You're a child.”

“Because I am the one who released these creatures!” I snapped. “Every single one of them! I brought them into this world and if you have a problem with that then too bad!” I pushed him down to the ground.

All the other humans gather around. “It doesn’t matter what people look like or if they have magic powers or where they came from you should accept them for who they are!” I kicked his other leg. “People like you shouldn’t be in power!!”

The crowd of people start cheering and chanting for him to be removed from his role as mayor and to let the elves stay. Eventually Oliver calms everyone down and gathers the people to talk calmly “Dear child.” Anastasia said calmly “Is what you said true?”

“Yeah what she said is true sis.” Landon said. “She’s the one who set us free.”

“Oh dear child, thank you so much.” Anastasia said before hugging me.

I was caught by surprise but hugged her back. “So you are Landon's sister?”

“Yes I am and this is my son. Drake.” Anastasia said calmly

“He’s adorable.”

“Thank you dear.”

“Sis you and Drake should go to the town I sent the others to. It’ll be safest for you two there. I’ll come see you as soon as I find the other citizen so we can rebuild our home.” Landon said calmly.

“I know. I’ll miss you.” Anastasia said before hugging him then took Drake from him. She kissed my cheek then left.

After that we spent a few weeks there. After those few weeks Landon and Oliver explained that they were figuring out who would be the next mayor and other details like that. They wouldn’t tell me anything else. Probably because it was political stuff. After that Oliver followed me and Landon as we continued to walk. He said that he wanted to find more of his people as well as his queen.

“The world has changed into the weirdest place I could ever imagine.” Oliver said as he sat next to Landon while they both looked through my phone.

“Oliver needs to learn about what the world has turned into so he isn't walking blindly," Landon said.

"So where exactly did you send your family and friends?" Oliver asked.

"Do you remember the valley that was created when Priscilla first showed up"

"It's a barren wasteland. The last time I was there the earth was still so hot I couldn't get close to the area to even consider starting to heal the earth there." Oliver said with confusion in his voice.

"Not anymore. It's stunningly beautiful. Healthy greenery, a shimmering river streaming down from a waterfall on the mountain." Landon explained my home.

"I would love to see that"

"Who's Percilla and how is she involved with the creation of my home?" I asked.

"A long time ago. I was just a child." Landon started.

"For reference. Dragons can live a long time. So can us Elves but-"

"Statistics don't matter. The point is there was a war. World wide. The best description is a World War. Like what you humans had but instead of two countries fighting and other countries picking sides. It was a war between every race. Over miscommunication. That's why Percilla was born or created. She communicates between all races, religions and everything in between."

"Like Hermes and Iris. The messenger of the Greek and Roman gods" I asked

"Yes, except. Hermes and Iris only communicate between the Greek and Roman gods. Percilla communicates between everyone. When she showed up in a bright shining stream of white light that scorched the earth and cut straight through. Turning a large field into a valley."

"There you go, cutie, that's the story of how your home was created." Oliver said.

"Honestly. I only wanted to know who Percilla is. I didn’t really want to know about the town we’ve only lived there for three months.”

“Then why do you call it your home?” Oliver asked.

“The home is where the heart is. My parents live there so it’s my home because I love my parents.”

“I guess that’s true.” Oliver said calmly. “If you need something to do I can teach you how to use magic.”

“Is that even possible? I’m only human.”

“Your human yes but because you were the one who set us free. You must have some magical energy so you should learn to use it and control it just to be safe.”

“I think Oliver is right. You should start training in the morning.” Landon said.

Just like they said. I started magic training first thing in the morning.