It all started when I saw the glowing cat, or rather when the glowing cat saw me. To be honest I thought I had cracked, that I had finally gone mad after all the stress and expectations had been pushing down for so long. At the same time I wasn’t that surprised, after everything that had been going on recently a glowing cat wasn’t all that crazy. I mean, after all, when a glow stick factory explodes and drenches your neighborhood in “glowy” juice, forcing you and all your neighbors to move into temporary shelter, nothing seems that weird anymore. It doesn’t help that I don’t know what happened to my dad during the explosion, none of the workers from the Glowy factory have even been seen for 72 hours… they’re presumed dead, but no bodies have been found. I decided I’d follow the cat… I mean, why not? So as I follow him I realize, He’s leading to the wreckage. The burned out building where a glow stick factory once stood. Now it’s the hollow remains of a once bustling business. I tried to warn him, “No! Cat, we can’t go in!” I plead, “They say it’s dangerous!” The cat looked back at me over his scrawny shoulder and said, “Meow?” but his eyes said, “They’re lying!” I made the decision to go, I don’t know if I would have knowing what was coming next, but I probably shouldn’t ask that since you can’t change the past, or can you?
It was a bad idea, I know, but what can I say? I did it, and let me tell you, it was a, well, curious experience. As I walked into the ruins with the glowing cat, he started grinning and suddenly, no questions asked, asked me something – in English. “I am a girl talking to a girl, and I ask if you are 15 year old Lizzy Bomwell.” “I am, and if you want to know, I want my Father back.” The cat laughed evilly. “Then follow you will.” The ground disappeared, and I fell, screaming and laughing and crying while cursing all at the same time. That was, until I hit another ground, on my feet somehow. “Come.” I did, what other choice did I have? Be hurt for no reason? As I followed, the creature transformed into a human. “Hey, sorry about th…” “Wait, sorry I didn’t quite hear you, can you explain? Is he in danger?” “Yes and yes. I am Delilah Jionas, who disappeared suddenly after following a glowing cat in our factory town, and learned the trade of hostages. See, the ringleader is a magician, whom wants revenge upon people stripping him of dignity. His name is Benedict Arnold.” I thought. He is a magician? Delilah continued, “I am part of that plot, having no choice in the matter. So, he chose you to come – you or your father stays. You decide.” I already knew my answer, being a think-ahead type of person. “What do you think of me, heartless? Let him out! I will stay and suffer for his sake.” I was not really feeling brave, but sort of wobbly and sick, for I needed hope – hope of my father's life. It would keep me alive for years, though I doubtless was clueless at the time. Saying this was not regrettable, however, and that you shall see. ֎ It was a glass hallway we turned into, and this included a servant, who knocked over an old Chinese vase, or so I thought, and he was hit by an arm coming out of the wall. Creepy and Freaky. I shuddered. If that had been me…. I walked on with Delilah, and was happy to at least not be alone in a jail cell for going into the ruins. “So,” I asked, “What is he like?” “Different then life. He changed his looks through magic, and now is unrecognizable. He is not to be seen often either, he is usually behind a screen. The vain id…” A hand grabbed her from the wall and pulled her through. Great, now I am alone. I sat on the floor, and did not see the hand until it grabbed me. It lifted me up, and I saw a guard, not the inside of a wall. “What are you doing here?” I gaped in amazement. Father! “We gotta get out of here, before traitor Delilah comes back. Follow me after I cuff you for effect.” It went well until the gate came into view. “What are you doing here?” The gate guard growled, and father replied smoothly. “Following orders. Dump this nasty baby imp, as he says, out. Too much trouble to keep around.” I acted all crazy so it was all believable. They let us through. “Do not get out of sight, guard!” Father sighed at the way they saw into his plan. He passed me a paper slip. “Go straight to the elevator and click the button ‘esc.’ for escape. The slip is my pass out, but you gotta get out!” “No Father!” I screamed it, and when they saw that I had his slip, which they had seen, they pushed him away towards the elevator. He rampaged, but tears fell from my face as I walked back inside. Delilah was waiting on a bench. “So,” she glared at me warningly, “you already tried to escape?” “No, I was only arrested by my father in disguise to help me get out… I wouldn’t allow him to.” “Oh, so lying is part of your plan too, huh?” Delilah kicked me down, and I never woke up – alive. ֎ My spirit floated away from my body, and from my view in the air, I could see her walk away from my body. Your time is not done, a mental voice said. I ignored it. It refused to be ignored. You will be on an important mission. Wait, what? Me? I laughed inside, and my spirit went through a wall right then. A palace wall. King’s orders. I shook what would have been my head, had I a body, but was nothing at the time. It was, to be blunt, a very surprising shock. Of course, in thinking this, I entered the Chamber of Kings – where the kings are buried. I saw the first king’s spirit in front of me. Now, was this honoring or what? A king was never in my mind, but it still happened anyway. So, then I heard his voice. Hello. I was surprised I heard – actually heard it. I have magically found out the way to speak when dead. And I am going to give you back your body to you to complete a mission – into the past. I was processing this, well, until I disappeared and felt breath fill my lungs again – how glorious! I found I had trouble walking and such without some practice, so I practiced some in the ruins. You will need to go to the workers room. I started that way, picking paths that avoided the largest rubble patches. When I got there, I looked around at the corpses and counted out, hoping to end with 100 workers. When I finished, all I found were 99 – of which neither were my father. Go to the bathroom. I smiled at the request, but went, and suddenly I was not on Earth – but I was watching father running from robots on a turquoise-colored planet. Father saw me and started yelling at me. “Get away! He is behind y…” He was stopped by a robot that caught up to him. I was also lifted by a very large being, but mine was even larger then his (which was about four times Father’s size) and mine was, even worse, angrier. “You should not have come.” The way it intoned it made me laugh, and he hit me – let me say that I did not talk, or barely think, for a straight week. I learned that I cannot overpower the forces of this planet, and I was very upset by the fact that I was in what seemed like a trap. Say the words, ‘Thou half of thou blue paper planet half tis nigh to destruction by Driponsers (dry-pawn-sirs) in milly sockets.’ I said this, knowing not anything better to do. Nothing happened except another smack that put me out for a week, not mentioning the two days they never found me in the self-made crater. That was, I found, because the giant weeped because I had done something that had been foretold by his grandfather 77 years before. He forgave me, as if the years were all he needed to know. I must also admit that I was shocked by this revelation that He was helping me, the Lord cared, and that I was supposed to save the world through the magic of the world I was thus placed in by His wise hands. ֎ Over the next two years, in which our (Father’s and my own) accommodations drastically improved. They schooled us on their magic and their ways, and being very grateful, I gave them a battery as a prank, because they would conduct it in their odd bodies. The giant, whom I learned to be named Junigabe, was chasing me around, and I am very grateful it was for fun and that I was not truly running, for I would have died had he not saved me from falling off the cliffs. It was, as I should say, a very odd time for me. I did not understand how I was supposed to be on a mission to save the world by going into the past – I did not understand, that is, until Biblionis (bib-lee-eon-iss) arrived. He arrived under mysterious circumstances. For Juni (as I called him) to say a royal giant was coming, I assumed that the visitor would be dressed richly – at least they were not naked. I did not expect the ragged and lonely giant that arrived. Yet, as Juni later told me, the royals were the ones who were ragged, to show there is no problem with not looking nice. That the inside mattered, not our outsides, even though that is what the world thought. God’s thoughts were what mattered. This was true so much at home I laughed. We thought looking nice was necessary, and yet, when we were not, we created sadness to make others feel sorry. Rags and a relationship with God are more important then a rich man set to go to hell. Their world was so similar, in fact, that I actually gave them Bibles, after teaching them English. It was, to be blunt, the best time of my life – physically, mentally, and spiritually. For now, you shall see what happened in the world of my birth at this time, broken from the beginning, but forgiven forever. ֎֎֎ Mr. Bomwell looked around in the ruins, and realizing he was the only worker alive, kneeled down, crying and praying. Lord, show me what to do at this moment. My daughter is in a hell somewhere at this time, and I am responsible. What should I tell my wife? At this exact moment, he saw Mrs. Bomwell coming towards the ruins. “Lizzy!” His wife’s voice was hoarse by this time, searching all over the town. He stumbled toward her, and she fainted from the shock of the knowledge that he was still alive, and not even badly wounded. This was, of course, a surprise to him, and he fainted as well from a shock - he had just been fallen on by an uninsulated wire. It is a different type of shock, I understand, but it was a shock nonetheless. When they woke up, tears flowed for what must have been half an hour. Then a man came along and found that one of the workers was still alive, and they escorted him to a hospital, solemn and not accepting that he was uninjured. This, to everyone’s shock but his, proved to be right after all and he went home happy, or at least as happy as can be with his daughter enslaved to what you might call a tyrant, or a dictator, or a rich fool, or you might just find worse insults, as Mr. Bomwell did. However you think of that tyrant, fool, or whatever you thought of against that being, shall you again see my predicament? ֎ Biblionis was a kindhearted giant, and would not even kill a fly – he would kill the fly instead of me, though. Not that he would have to, it didn’t seem like something that might happen, how would it? Father had left, as you just found, but I will tell you how we both met twice (in his words): I had been carried away and sent through the elevator, and was flying through space when it disappeared from around me; suddenly ground sprang up to my feet and I was standing in the bathroom, where I promptly disappeared again onto this colorful paper ball of doom. Father always was the negative one, and I was always optimistic. I, as you may see, was tired of not doing anything except learning magic, but it worked out… eventually. Of course he had gone back home a second time, and for the next few days, if you can call them such, were miserable, and that was when, as I was saying, Biblionis arrived. Biblionis became a fun companion and teacher. Being taught by the king is somewhat interesting and odd, as he is always under guard, so I never learn with him in total 1-to-1 interaction. But, he was the most knowledgeable person around, if you could call him that. He acted fully and totally like a human person, so giant people may be exactly that – giant people. Biblionis aroused me during this daydream thought. “When in the history of Shoh Gizl (show giz-ul : Biblionis’ people) did the noasn (nao-sin : the people of Shoh Gizl’s worst enemy) attack and get defeated by an konow (caw-now : army) half their size?” He rumbled. “Year 14 of Hobins Uora (Hobbins Your-a : old king), year 1274 of known kings.” “Good. So, when did his magic come out into the open?” “Same year of Hobins, next of known kings.” “True. What is his greatest use of his magic?” “Drowning 7,204 naosn in the river Hoeha.” “Also True. Now, what is the Owquenioniosin [o-quinn-e-a-sin] Spell?” I was stumped. I had memorized all of the names of the spells in the books, and this was not one of them. Or at least, not in my assigned literature. “It was not given in the assigned literature, sir.” He smiled when I said this. “No, it was not. You did well, now go take a break.” He heaved onto his feet and lumbered off to the tavern, which served soft drinks – which, it should not need to be said, was the best thing ever for him. Those drinks were his life blood, almost literally in the fact that he always felt better after drinking one – or a hundred, as in many cases. I followed him, not knowing what was to come. This was, of course, a horrible idea. I knew this - as I had known everything before had been - but I followed anyway. When the door opened and I ran inside, a giant suddenly picked me up and tossed me into a bucket.“GOAL!!!” I shook my head to get rid of the ringing in my ears, but that doesn’t help when giants are tossing you around a room. Why, oh why, am I so darn… My thought stopped. “GOAL!!!”