(This story is a winner for NaNoWriMo. Click to go to my NaNoWriMo page.)
Dream World Mirau by Josephina Mari
Day One of NaNoWriMo
My name is Mariam, but you can call me Mari for short. I have long brown hair that goes down to my waist and my bangs are cut just above my eye brows. My eyes are brown, like my hair, and I wear basic round glasses since I am far sighted. I have trouble seeing things at a distance without my glasses on. I have pale skin and often wear tee-shirts, jeans, and my favorite pair of black and white chucks wherever I go. During the day my life is just like everyone other sixteen old girls. I go to a local public high school and will soon be graduating into the big wide world beyond. What makes me different from those other girls is the dreams I have while I'm asleep at night. My dreams take me into another world unlike anything I've ever seen before. In Mirau, my dream world, I can do things that normally reality would forbid.
I'd like to begin by telling you about Mirau, because very soon this world could disappear forever. I need your help to save it. I want to show you the world I am fighting to protect from evil beings called Akuen who want to destroy Mirau and every living inhabitant of it. After you see what an amazing place this world is I will share with you my plan on defeating the Akuen once and for all. We don't have much time, and the Akuen grow stronger with the passing of each moonlit night. Please listen to my story and help me save Mirau before it's too late.
My first day in Mirau began rather unexpectedly. I woke up in the middle of a vast forest with the hot afternoon sun beating down upon me through the overhead branches. I was confused to say the very least, since I didn’t see any concrete buildings that looked like they could touch the clouds, nor any paved roads below my feet to lead the way. I knew one thing for certain; I wasn’t back home in my city of steel and concrete anymore. The eerie silence in the woods made me miss the sounds of cars rushing by me while I waited outside my school for the bus to bring me home. I slowly stood up, brushed off the dirt from my pants and my tee-shirt, and then I took a look around me only to find endless trees in all directions. “How am I ever going to find my way out of here...I don’t even know where to start.” I thought to myself as I felt the despair of being completely alone weighting on me. My knees suddenly gave out under me and then I found myself on the ground once more while the fear that I might not ever make it back home again began to sink in as I cradled my arms against my chest.
Just as I thought all hope was lost, a strange looking creature emerged from some shrubs about ten feet in front of me. It looked like a white rabbit with long fluffy ears that nearly touched the ground, it also had a long white curved tail almost like a wolf’s tail, in the middle of its forehead there was a small silver horn and its eyes were the color of the sky on a bight sunny day. As if all that wasn’t strange enough, the creature was bigger then my Scottish Terrier Frankie back home, and it even spoke to me in my mind thought I couldn’t understand it very well. It seemed that the rabbit only knew a few English words as he spoke to me for the first time “Mirau nesen arost kau. Come re tara.” (New to this world are you? Come with me.) The only word I understood of that was what sounded like “come” so all that I could do was hope that the rabbit was leading me to safety. I was a little weary about following the white rabbit since it never did Alice any good.
I tried my best to put the negative thoughts out of my mind as I tried to remember how to make my legs work again and ushered my body forward. After all, going with the rabbit had to be better, then staying in this creepy forest. I had no idea how much daylight I had left to get out of the forest, and surely worse creatures would come out after the sun had set. “What is your name? My name is Mariam. You can call me Mari if you want to.” I said once I had caught up to the rabbit. I wasn’t sure if he had heard me or understood me until he looked up at me and spoke in my mind once again “Ira Karou. Kau lesteon mor. Come cieku.” (My name is Karou. You are the destined one. Come quickly.) His voice seemed more urgent this time as I tried to make heads and tails of what was said. I picked up the word that sounded like “come” again in the mix of jumbled words. I nodded once to Karou and then began to follow after him through the maze of trees. “I hope he knows where he is going. I think I’ve spent far too much time in these woods already. I’m starting to miss home again. Maybe I’ll feel better once we get out of here. I wonder if there are more creatures like Karou here.” I thought to myself while I tried to imagine what other creatures I might see while I followed Karou blindly. Minutes passed by like hours as we continued through the forest and I was starting to think that maybe there wasn’t an exit up ahead at all.
“Kveman there, leen mardu farther.” (Almost there, just a little farther.) Karou said as he slowed his pace by half to allow me to catch up to him. We had been running for at least half an hour by now, and I was beginning to feel tried. I couldn’t be sure exactly how long I had been in this new world though since my wrist watch didn’t seem to work properly even since I woke up here. When I first arrived the time on my watch read 1:30 PM, but now it reads 1:15 PM almost as if time was moving backwards instead of forward. Even if I reset the time to what I thought it should be, there was no telling what the actual time really was or if the watch hand would move in the right direction. Karou looked back at me with absolute annoyance as I came to a complete stop to reach into my pants pocket for my cell phone. I halfway hoped it would work, but then again who would I call. Who would believe me when I tell them about I’m lost in a strange forest somewhere and I’m following a giant rabbit that talks to me in my head. Everyone would surely think I’d gone crazy and commit me to the next available psychiatric center for evaluation.
It didn’t really matter though since the only thing I could see on the display screen of my cell phone was a box containing the following message “Searching for signal...failed. Try again?” I pressed a few buttons trying to catch even the tiniest signal so that I could at least let everyone know I was okay, but over and over the box continued to appear as if mocking me for relying on technology so much in the past. “You’re no help at all. I guess my roaming plan doesn’t cover outer planetary travel...” I thought as I laughed to myself trying to lighten up the mood a little bit. Suddenly I felt something warm and furry brush up against my leg and so I looked down to see Karou weaving between my legs as if he was trying to wake me from my day dream then he repeated the one word I seemed to understand “Come” and then we were running into the forest again. This time Karou kept a more moderate pace so I could keep up with him, and for that I was thankful. “The first thing I’m going to do when we find a town is take a bath. I’m going to smell like the wildlife pretty soon.” I thought to myself and for a moment I thought I saw Karou look back at me and smile. Could rabbits smile...and could Karou read my mind as well?
Suddenly a cold shiver ran down my spine as I heard a deep growl echo from the trees around Karou and me. A nervous squeak came from Karou as he stopped in front of me taking a defensive position. Out of the trees and shrubs in front of us came a black furred creature twice Karou’s size that resembled an oversized wolf. The creature gave me a bad feeling as it spoke to Karou in a harsh tone “ Sen nai kau teain e human eun Karou? Iru cesreid nomularu korieed outsiders. Akuen wies cedroi nomularu eumen kau teai e human. Karou esa Traitor!”(Why did you bring a human here Karou. This place is sacred and forbidden to outsiders. This is our birth land and that human will draw the Akuen here to destroy it. You are a traitor!) I heard the black wolf speak in partial English as Karou did for me. The last part I recognized to be “Karou is a traitor!” and then I could hear snarls coming from all around me in the forest.
More of the large wolf like creatures emerged from the forest surrounding us in all directions. I looked down at Karou confused as to what was going on. He stood his ground in front of me, although he was shaking, he looked like he was ready to attack at a moments notice. Something in the back of my mind was telling me I shouldn’t be here and that I should run. Where could I go? I couldn’t abandon Karou, my only friend, in this world either. I thought I heard Karou speak in clear English to the wolves “She is the chosen one.” Right before the wolves became even more enraged and then all at once the wolves charged at Karou and me from all directions. Fear swept over me as I tried to back up and shield myself from the wolves coming at me from the front. I felt one of the wolves charge at me from behind, ramming its head into my back pushing me forward to the ground. Karou was no where in sight and all that I could hear was snarling and cries all around me. I coughed once releasing some of the blood from my punctured lung before I felt my body grew heavy and my sight began to lose focus. As I hit the ground my vision faded to complete darkness and slowly the sounds of the battle around me began to fade into silence. I wondered if I was going to die there and what would become of Karou as the darkened swallowed me up.
As I fell asleep in Mirau, I woke up in my own bed back in the real world confused. I wondered if what I saw was real or not while I muttered to myself “I hope Karou is alright.” Then I swung my feet over the edge of my bed, I got to my feet, and then I stretched my arms over my head for a moment trying to wake up. I made my bed and then hastily got dressed for school in one of my many pairs of blue jeans and one of my graphic tee-shirts. Oddly enough this shirt had a group of wolves on it that kind of looked like the ones in my dream. I tried my best to forget about it as I ate a quick breakfast and then I put on my shoes and jacket, grabbed my backpack, and then I dashed out the door to catch the bus to school. I tried my best to keep my focus on school, but every once in awhile my mind would wander back to that strange world. Back to that forest I woke up in where I meat Karou and also where those giant wolves appeared and attacked us. Once school was finally over I was relieved to arrive home after a short twenty minute bus ride. First thing on my agenda was a nice hot meal and then a warm bath. After I had crossed those two things off my mental “to do list” I took my backpack into my room and placed my homework and textbook on the study. “I may only have a year and a half to go, but I can’t afford to start slacking off now. Time to hit the books.” I thought to myself as I began to work on my homework assignments for the day. The homework assignments took about two hours to complete and once it was finally finished all that I could think about was climbing into bed to put an end to my long day. What I didn’t know was that while one day was coming to an end here, another day was just beginning in Mirau.
“Karou come quick! This girl is waking up!” I heard a young woman’s voice speak with both relief and excitement as my eyes slowly opened and my new surrounds came into focus. At first, I could only see the wooden peaked roof over head, then my eyes traveled down the wall as I felt my body be gently lifted up into a sitting position by a girl with long white hair almost like snow and sky blue eyes that seemed familiar for some unknown reason. “Give her some room the breathe Claria...Here drink this. You’ll feel a lot better after.” A boy, with the same snow colored hair as Claria only his was cut short and he also had the same sky blue eyes as her, who was wearing a green tunic style shirt with matching pants, a leather breast plate for protection during hunting and battles, and basic leather shoes, said to me as he handed me a glass with a clear liquid inside that a presumed to be water. I drank the liquid slowly then when I finished I handed the glass back to the boy and said “Thank you...wait a second. You two know my language right? Everyone I’ve meet so far has been speaking all funny...and you mentioned Karou right? I hope I’m not dreaming. Karou is my friend. Is he alright?” I said frantically searching for my rabbit friend who I thought was killed by the giant wolves along with myself in that forest.
