Atheria

I’ve always been that weird kid at school, always obsessed with fantasy stories and mystical worlds. Time after time, I’d let my mind drift and daydream about a better world, where I wouldn’t have such low self-esteem and be such an introvert. Since being a 14-year-old girl who still loves fantasy stories doesn’t exactly make you top of the popular list, I often get bullied and teased for it. Which over a long period of time has made it harder to open up to people. But I try not to let it get to me. Since I have something more important to focus on like my father’s birthday. He was a pilot for Dawn Wing which meant he often took the early shifts and I was often left alone in the mornings. This was good since it meant that I had more time on my hands to buy a father a present without him realising I was gone.

The next day I eat breakfast with my dad.

“ What are your plans today Crystal.” My dad asked.

“Oh, you know just some errands, ” I lied.

He nodded and continued to eat his piece of toast. After breakfast, I decided to head to the mall to get my dad’s gift. The mall was 5 blocks east right in the middle of Swallows Grove. After I arrived at the mall my phone dinged, it was another thunderstorm warning I didn’t think much about it since there were a couple of storms last week.

I was thinking of buying father a new set of track pants since he always liked wearing his black comfortable trackpants when he was piloting. So I headed towards the Men’s clothing store. As I did I saw hoards of people gawking out the window so I decided to run over and see what they were looking at. I looked up to see where they were looking and saw the sky had turned a blackish green colour and rays of green light had shot out of a cluster of clouds. Next, I saw a plane shoot out of the clouds and start to plummet towards the mall. I stepped closer to the window trying to get a better view of the airplane. I gasped to myself it was Dawn Wing, which meant dad was flying it ,since he began his morning test flight not too long ago. Hot tears began to stream down my cheeks. I began to tremble just to realise that if that plane crashed that could be the end of my dad. I glanced around frantically everywhere I looked people were running in all different directions. Screams filled the air; everyone was so petrified ,that they did everything they could to get to the nearest exit. They pushed and shoved and even trampled over each other. I gazed up again into the blackish-green sky I saw that the plane had fallen even closer. I felt like I should make a move but I was so reluctant. I finally stood up and took one more glance at the window. Suddenly, I saw a green light erupt out of the dark clouds and start to surround the plane from all sides. The plane stopped plummeting and seemed to just hover, it was like all time had stopped. The green light continued to surround the plane till it was completely enveloped in it. Then it disappeared into thin air. I ran outside as fast as I could.

“How could this even be possible,” I thought.

All of a sudden I saw a huge bird-like creature begin to fly towards me. It came closer and continued to flap its huge wings.

“I am the Theron, an Averent, the last of the guardians of Atheria," It said.

I shouted angrily at it, “Where in the world is my father?”

He said Netheraen, the beast of darkness has taken him.

“ Why!” I shouted

“He wants to stop the new guardian, you, by any means necessary," Theron said.

“Me a guardian, pffft as if I could ever be that. I lack enough bravery and patience to ever do that.”

“I need you to be the new guardian and defeat Netheraen, Crystal it’s the only way to save your father, Theron said frustratingly.

“Ok then, so how am I supposed to kill this beast anyway?”

Theron said, “You must find the sword of Atheria. I will show you how to find the sword, but I can’t wield it because it was meant for the next guardian. We must leave before sundown, now hop on my back and I will take you there.”

I nodded nervously and cautiously climbed onto Theron’s back. He began flapping his wings intensely, as he did blue light streamed out of his eyes and surrounded us. The light began to shine stronger I shut my eyes and waited for the light to fade. The blue light quickly faded and Theron landed.

I hopped of gazed in awe at this newfound terrain. There were plains and hills and streams and exotic creatures and flowers I had never seen before.

“I guess this is Atheria”, I whispered.

We flew for hours before taking a break at a saplia tree.

“We must gather our strength for this battle,” Theron stated

“Eat this sapa fruit it should given you enough strength to get through this battle,” Theron said.

He tossed a sapa fruit to me with his talons. I caught it and looked at it dubiously, I have never seen a fruit that looked like this before I thought. It was covered in small-scale-like shells. I reluctantly peeled back the shells and popped the green piece of fruit in my mouth. It was sweet but a little sour. Next, I felt stronger and more confident than I had ever felt before.

“I wish they had these on Earth” I chuckled softly to myself.

“Nightfall is coming soon. We must take cover for the night and start our journey again in the morning. By night Nethraen continued to gain his strength when he steals the souls of local Atherian creatures.”

We decided to make camp on top of the sapila tree. My eyelids drooped as I put a pile of leaves together to sleep on. As I finished putting the pile of leaves together I fell asleep. After breakfast, we flew some more until Theron spotted the ruins where the Atherian sword was. I hopped off and made my way through the ruins there were statues of bird-like creatures that resembled Theron.

“Were these the other Storm Bird guardians?” I asked

“Yes.” He said.

“Each one has tried centuries to defeat him, but everyone eventually died in battle because of Netheraen,” Theron said.

We kept walking till we found the sword. It was wedged into the floor of the ruins. I looked at Theron and said, “ I don’t think I’m ready for this.”

“You must channel your courage to wield it,” he said.

I walked up to the sword, wrapped my hands around the hilt, and closed my eyes, focusing all my courage on saving my father. I felt the sword begin to pulse. I continued to focus, sweat poured out of my forehead. All of a sudden I started to hear thoughts of cruel words the bullies would say to me.

“ Dumb, ugly, nerd,” my thoughts boomed in my head.

I tried to push those thoughts away and continued to focus on my father.

“ I’m not any of those things, I’m so much more than that, and I’m glad that I’m different,”

I focused on these thoughts and I felt the sword begin to pulse more intensely now. I continued to shut my eyes and pulled the sword out. I opened my eyes to see the glowing in an orange-red light. I gazed at it curiously and realised that I felt so much more courageous now.

Now it was time to defeat Netheraen and I was ready. Theron said I was the only one who could unlock the true power of the sword. We headed to Netheraens lair. It was a huge cavern covered in bones. I gasped when I saw his army flying towards us. There were penetroxen and monothila. The penetroxen looked like big dragon-like creatures and the monothila looked like mutant-like moths. The huge creatures soared towards us Theron would do everything in his power to protect me, plus we weren’t unarmed. We both slashed at the creatures furiously. We continued to battle the creatures till one by one they fell from the sky. After that battle, I saw that both of us were covered in scrapes and cuts. I knew this was preparing us for the real battle that was yet was still to come.

"Now it was time to defeat Netheraen,"I said.

We swooped down into his lair which was covered in jagged bones. Theron landed and I hopped off and waited for Neatheraen. I felt the ground shake as I saw Netheraen step out of the darkness.

Netheraen’s fangs dripped with saliva as he said in a grave voice, “I see that you have defeated my army, you are stronger than I thought you'd be”.

I shouted at the top of my lungs, “I have come to defeat you and save my father.”

“Is that so”, Netheraen said grinning. Then Netheraen snarled and leaped into the air he was heading right towards me, but instead he grabbed Theron and pinned him to the wall. Theron thrashed at him with his talons and shouted for help.

I charged at him with my glowing sword as I did his giant tail came out of nowhere and smacked me against the wall and knocked the wind out of my lungs. I heaved heavily then I clutched the sword in my hand and pushed myself off the ground. I thought to myself "how much more could I take this."

Netheraen turned around to face me while Theron lay weakly on the ground. I gathered my strength for the final attack, the last one I could take. I leapt at him in mid-air, I could feel like time had slowed down. I could see over Netheraen’s shoulder that Theron had got up. He flew up to the same level as was, blue light shot out from Theron’s wings. At the same time, Netheraen’s claws pierced my shoulder. I plunged my sword into Netheraen’s mighty head ,an explosion of light was all around us and I shut my eyes from the blinding light.

As I opened my eyes I was on the ground outside the mall and my dad was standing over me. He asked me if I was alright, I answered, yes. I was still holding the sword in my hand while my dad didn’t realise it was there. I guess I was invisible to him. I looked in the sky to see the storm was gone and it was sunny. I asked him if he remembered the storm. He said no ,as we drove back home I looked to see if everything went back to normal. As we arrived home I went straight to my bedroom and shut the door. I poked my head out the window to see Theron perched in my tree!

He said, “Now you are the guardian of Atheria and whenever you want to visit all you have to do is say “For the light of Atheria” and you will be sent there. Then Theron began to glow and then he was gone ,just like that.

Grace Gaebel