Chapter One:
I slumped further into my chair, all my hopes slowly dissolving, soon to disappear. A few days ago, my expectations had been high. We were going to be proactive. We were going after Abbadon before he came after us. After stopping Abbadon’s last attempt at mass destruction, our entire team had taken time to visit family and friends and put our affairs in order.
All of us said goodbye to those that loved us and promised them we would see them again. But no one was fooled. It was just as likely that most of us would never return. My father’s housekeeper, Berta, hugged me and told me everything would be okay. What else was she was supposed to say?
One by one we had returned to the Castle, rested and hopeful. We had been cheered by the signs of improvement all over the Kingdom. However, my father, the King of Zerenity, had not come back to the Castle with me.
When one of Abbadon’s monsters killed my mother, my father had returned to our hometown of Eiddwen, laid down on his bed, and hadn’t gotten up again until just a few weeks ago. And although he decided to live after we rescued him and all the villagers in Eiddwen, my father had not yet decided to return to being the King. I was hoping that once we defeated Abbadon, he would change his mind.
Although the title of Princess Kara Beth, future Queen of Zerenity, sounds good in fairy tales, in real life it is not a job that I wanted. Actually, I didn’t want any of this. But the choice was between letting my father’s evil brother, Abbadon, destroy the Kingdom, or stepping up and fighting.
We had all made that choice. To fight. Really, what other choice could we have made? But we needed a plan, and so far every idea we had come up with appeared impossible.
I glanced around the table at the people I had come to love and admire. They all looked as dejected as I felt. Everyone was there, except for Earl and Ariel. I assumed they were off somewhere bringing water and wind where it was needed. Whatever our plan turned out to be, I knew they would be there to support it.
It was hard to believe that less than a year ago I had been living what I thought of now as a normal life. Then with the help of Suzanne, a liaison between Earth and Erda, I had stepped through the portal between the two dimensions. I had left Earth as a pre-teen and returned to Erda as a young woman.
Let me tell you, that was a shock of a lifetime. But it was only the beginning of the shocks waiting for me. However, at that moment, looking down at a fully-developed body, it felt as if I was going insane. Then to make it worse, Suzanne had disappeared, and two beings that I had never seen before greeted me. One looked like a flower turned into a person and the other like a block of wood that walked. Beru and Ruta. Now I can’t imagine life without them.
I got over the age change pretty quickly. There were so many other things going on that it faded into the background. Besides, age is almost meaningless in Erda. Time is counted on a completely different scale than it is in the Earth Realm. And in Erda, everyone gets to choose when to stop aging. Or at least slow it down until it is barely noticeable. That was one thing I hadn’t decided to do yet. To slow down my aging. Or maybe I did before, but I don’t remember it now. Just add that to the list of things I still don’t remember.
What I do remember is my two short lifetimes in the Earth Realm as Hannah. I loved my time there. I had thought I was a human child. But once I stepped through that portal, I found out the truth. My Erda parents had sent me to Earth as a protective measure. Abbadon had started to threaten the Kingdom of Zerenity, and they thought it was better to send me away. Then things got worse, and my father and mother were no longer the ones making decisions, so the people I now call my team brought me back.
There was a problem, though. I couldn’t remember anything when I returned. And I had very little time to recall the magical skills I had once had before my first encounter with Abbadon’s monsters. Even now, so many things are still dark empty holes in my memory and no one has decided to fill them in for me yet.
Before we left to visit our families, Professor Link had promised us something new that would help with our plans, but so far he had made no mention of it.
Instead, the whole attack-Abbadon-first idea seemed over before we even began. At least that was how it felt to me. We had been at this for days and days, and a solution seemed further and further away. When we were on the defense, we were more successful. With a combination of skill, luck, and perhaps providence being on our side, we had managed to stop Abbadon’s monsters—the Shrieks, Shatterskin, and Deadsweep.
But we knew we would not be able to stop another Abbadon attack. Instead, we had decided that it was time for us to go after him first. At the time it had sounded possible, but now it appeared that it wasn’t going to be.
To begin with, we knew it would be the height of foolishness to think that he didn’t know we would be coming after him. And what he might have in store for us as we came his way boggled the mind. My father’s brother was brilliant.
But that wasn’t the end of the problem. How could we get to Abbadon without being seen? Abbadon had destroyed the entire western part of the kingdom. Shatterskin lived up to its name; everything that had been growing was dead, uprooted and barren. We would be moving across an empty plain with no place to hide.
Every tree, every building had been destroyed. It was a suicide mission which would accomplish nothing, which is why I have been waiting for someone to tell me a better plan.
Instead, we have talked over everything until I want to scream. Even the Priscillas, the three fairies who were usually full of cheer, were somber. They hadn’t even bothered to come to the meeting this morning. I couldn’t blame them.
