Chapter 1

What happens next?

My eyes were open. I floated in midair. Looking around, I recognized the familiar landscape of my dreams. My pointed ears twitched. The dense forest of trees with beautiful light pink leaves all year round, the lush valley where animals roamed freely, the lake that sparkled blue in the sunlight.  It was only a dream, but the powers in it were real. I did have powers in my dream, and they remained when I awoke. My stomach flipped upside down as gravity returned to normal and I flopped to the ground. I groaned and sat up. My silky golden brown hair was messy and tangled but flowed over my shoulders just the same. I looked down. I had on a pair of old blue jeans, a red t-shirt and matching shoes. My army green backpack was slung over my shoulder. I flung the backpack in front of me, and started to frantically dig through it in search of a comb. Throwing various animal treats, steaks, fish, fruits, and veggies over my shoulder, I finally found a comb that conveniently had a red silk scrunchie  wrapped around it. I untied the scrunchie and ran the comb through my hair. In no time, my hair was pulled up into a neat ponytail and I turned around to see bunnies, horses, deer, birds, cats, wolves, tigers, and bears, snacking on the delicacies that came out of my bag. “Hey!” I scold playfully. Some of them continue to devour the rations on the ground, and some ran over to me and started nuzzling me. As a thank you probably. Usually, I stay in the dreams as if I travel there like I’m visiting to another state. That day, the nuzzling animals started to fade early. I didn’t even notice until I woke up and I heard someone in my room, talking to themselves. “She should be awake by now. Should I wake her up? Would she even come with me?” His voice was that of a boy, not gruff like a man. I slowly peeked from under my blankets. The boy had golden brown hair spiked up, he wore a rugged green outfit, complete with pointed green shoes. His cheeks and nose were practically covered in freckles. His hazel eyes were squinted and his eyebrows creased in confusion. I had no idea who this kid thought he was, but he wouldn’t be in my room for long. I counted to three and burst from the blankets, twisting my body towards him. I saw his eyes grow wide. He shrieked and threw out his hand. A beam of purple goop shot out of his outstretched palm and engulfed me. I was floating in midair, in a blob of disgusting jelly. “Who are you? An elf?! A young wizard?!” I growl, kicking and punching the blob. The boy bowed gracefully and said, “I am Jacob Snow. You may call me Jake. I am an elf. The queen wishes for me to accompany you to her castle, where she will tell you of your quest”. I was outraged. Nobody could march into my room, encase me in a smelly blob, and than try to take me out of my will to a queen that I didn’t even know of. My hands shook. The air in the room could have burnt to a crisp if not for the stupid smelly purple blob surrounding me. The blob turned red as it heated up, but it didn’t break. Looking over at the boy, I could see he was straining with effort. “The queen warned me that you could do this, but she didn’t specify that you were this powerful!” The boy said in awe, sweat rolling down his forehead. As I calmed down and the blob returned to its purple color, I asked, eyes narrow, “Give me one good reason why I should come with you.” The boy thought for a moment with a glazed look in his eyes and replied “Well, have you ever heard of that story where the girl with long hair is trapped in a castle with her evil mother keeping her there and the hero guy has to save her?” I nod. “Rapunzel.” “If you are the rescuer, a dragon is the evil mother, and a magic mirror that can show you anything is the long haired girl, would you want to embark on the quest?” Suddenly this quest sounded a lot more appealing. “Anything?” I questioned with a smirk. “Anything.” he said. “Like a million dollars? A notebook?” I say, the smile dropping off of my face “A home?” I felt sick. I’ve never really had a home. A pond would be fine. A swamp would be fine. A forest would be fine. My shack is fine. Anything would be fine. But a real home, with friends and… family, would be the best thing anyone could give me. He nods, smiling. “Fine, take me to your queen, Snow.” He withdrew his hand, releasing me from the smelly blob and letting me fall on my face. Jake held out his hand and to help me up. “Ok, the queen is in Pinland which is about a three day walk so we should probably pack supplies for the-.” He hadn’t finished his sentence before I closed my eyes and tuned him out. Calling on my inner animal, I reached out to my furry friends around me and asked them to get supplies for a three day trip and pack it in two backpacks. Seconds later, the whole house was a buzz with animals running around in haste to collect supplies. Jack’s eyes widened as a flock of blue jays came in the room struggling to drag two army green backpacks through the door. I thanked them and asked a question in a few short tweets. “What did you say?” Jack said, jumping up and down in excitement. “I told them to spread my thanks.” I pause for a dramatic effect. “Than I asked them if they packed my paintball guns.” Jake stopped jumping. The flock of blue jays returned with two small paintball guns in holsters that I attached to my sides. I opened the bags to see one filled with my books and a few fruits. “Ready when you are, Snow.” We linked arms, and marched out of the house, with a parade of animals waving us goodbye from the shack. “Hey Snow, wanna see something cool?” I said with a smile as we walked toward the forest. Jake smiled but frowned when I went down on all fours and said “Hop on my back”. He looked at me like I had finally gone mad. “Just do it Snow.” He shrugged and mounted me. I started to clumsily run on all fours. My silly sprint started to form a familiar pattern when my skin was replaced with a coat of pure white fur, I sprouted a pearl white tail and replaced my hair with a mane of the same shade. My legs grew taller while my feet turned to hooves. I grew a golden horn and pure white wings that I outstretched in triumph. A whinny escaped my lips and I started flapping my wings as my clumsy run transformed into a mighty gallop. As I ran I turned around and looked at Jake. His face was of pure exhilaration and I lifted a wing as if asking for permission. His smile widened and he nodded his head viciously. I started flapping my wings to the rhythm of my gallop. It made music in a way man-made instruments could not. Just the rhythm of my hooves hitting and scraping the ground as the landscape changed repeatedly. We passed through the savanna and the marsh which added their own spin on our music. Why am I calling it our music? I guess because as I was pounding and flapping a rhythm, Jake started to sing. He couldn’t have been singing a song that he heard on the radio, for the rhythm I created was so unique. He was forming words and a melody on his own. As I heard him hit the chorus, I changed the rhythm. I slowed my pace so it would sound like a heartbeat, and sped up my wings. As he ended his song, I rose from the ground, leaving my wings to the soft beat of the outro. It was amazing. His voice was amazing. He could switch from soft as a cloud, to hard as diamonds in a heartbeat, and from quiet as a mouse to louder than a lion in a blink. “That… How…” I was speechless. Turning my head to look at him as I started to decline, I was surprised to see him looking down at the ground, slightly blushing. I landed at the entrance of the forest and as he hopped off of my back, my body shrunk and shifted into my human form. I turned around and looked at him again. He looked as if his green shoes were the most interesting thing in the world. “That was amazing! I have never heard anybody sing as good as you just did! I couldn’t top that if I tried!” I cried in awe “Wow! That was just amazing. Your song was amazing. You are amazing.” I slapped my hand over my mouth. He looked at me in surprise and I could feel my face heating up. Suddenly I too had an immense interest in the ground. “We should probably go” Jake mumbles. As we start to walk through the forest, I knew I heard the forest whispering to us, “Even a fool could see that your interest is in something, or someone else besides the ground.”