Age:
Middle School
Reading Level: 4.5
Chapter One
Valerie sat up and looked around, pushing her black hair out of her eyes. Where am I? she panicked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
She was in a small bedroom with deep pink walls and polished wood furniture. Her suitcases were the only familiar things in the room, sitting beside the door in a neat line.
She went to a mirrored vanity that sat against the wall and looked at her reflection. Her face was pale and pinched and her brown eyes were even duller than usual. Her curly hair was sticking up in several directions. She tied it back with a hair tie from her wrist and tried to tuck the loose curls behind her ears.
Maybe I'm in a hotel, she guessed, her heart thundering.
She crossed the room to a pair of windows and looked out, squinting in the sunshine. A large yard sprawled below her, dotted with trees and bordered by a simple wooden fence. A worn dirt path wound over the grass, leading out of view. No parking lot. No cars. No people.
Okay, not a hotel.
She walked over to the only door in her room and opened it slowly. Outside was a wide hallway with a staircase at the end. She crept out and looked down, but all she could see was a foyer and a door propped half-open.
"Hello?" she called, slinking down the steps.
The open door at the bottom led into a study with a thick carpet and bookshelves lining the walls. She jumped at the sight of a tall man with brown hair and glasses reading quietly behind a desk.
"Uncle Julian?"
"Valerie," he answered pleasantly, tossing his papers aside. "You're awake. Are you hungry? I've hired a new cook and she's been baking up a storm all day."
"I... I..."
Her uncle paused, concern showing on his face. "You don't remember."
Valerie shook her head. "Where are we?"
She remembered falling asleep in the back seat of her uncle's car. They'd been going... somewhere. Somewhere far, he'd said. Had it been a surprise? Why couldn't she remember? Was she still asleep? She scrunched her eyes shut and pinched her arm.
"Come with me," her uncle said. His voice was soft.
She was too confused to argue as Julian led her out of the study, through a large living room, and into a comfortable kitchen.
"Cara?" he called, leaning over a marble counter.
"Give me a bloomin' minute!" a muffled voice called.
Valerie raised her eyebrows.
Julian shrugged. "She comes highly recommended," he promised.
He looked young for an uncle, a fact highlighted by his boyish face and the way he fiddled with his watch chain. The first time Valerie saw him, she had immediately decided he looked like a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln.
An old woman came stomping out of a side pantry, carrying a large sack of potatoes in one hand.
"Cara, this is Valerie, my niece I told you about," Julian said, putting a hand on Valerie's shoulder. "Would you mind fixing her something to eat?"
Cara peered at Valerie with watery eyes. "I'll make a sandwich," she said. She set the potatoes down before going back into the pantry.
Julian coughed. "Our situation... Well, it's a little complicated."
Cara gave him a curious look as she came back out of the pantry.
He coughed again. "Why don't you eat your snack and we'll talk about it in the study?"
"Here you are," Cara said, setting a sandwich in front of Valerie. "Make sure you eat every mouthful. You're gonna need it."
Valerie picked up the sandwich and bit into it cautiously. Ham, she thought with relief. She ate quickly, feeling more awake as the food hit her stomach.
Her uncle was silent and patient until she finished. Cara came back to clear the plate. Julian motioned for Valerie to follow as he left the kitchen.
He stopped in the living room before a giant map that stretched over one of the walls. Valerie didn't recognize it as any place she'd ever seen. There was a name in faded script at the bottom left corner. She squinted to read it.
"Tyl— Tylwyth," she said, stumbling over the strange word. "What is this?"
"This is a map of Tylwyth, or most of it, anyway. What do you remember?" Julian asked.
Valerie ground her teeth together as she searched her mind for answers. "I remember... the social worker's office. I remember you taking my bags for me and stopping for snacks at the gas station. I think I fell asleep."
"Nothing else?" Julian asked.
Valerie shook her head.
"We drove to a mountain not far from the city. It was raining pretty violently." Julian took a deep breath. "I'm not sure if there's any easy way to explain this, but the gist of it is... we're not on Earth any longer."
Valerie blinked once. Twice. Three times. "I don't understand."
"We passed through something called a portal to get here," he explained. "It's not at all unusual to lose consciousness if you're new to portal travel. I still feel drowsy sometimes, myself."
Valerie shook her head. "That doesn't make sense," she whispered. "How can we not be on Earth anymore? Are you saying we're on another planet or something?"
"No. We're here," he said, pointing at the map. "We're on Tylwyth. Think of it as two sides of the same coin. Tylwyth is just another side of the plane Earth exists on. It obeys similar rules, like gravity and time, but there are a lot of differences, too."
"Like what?" Valerie asked.
She couldn't believe the questions spilling from her mouth. This was ridiculous. She'd been told her grandmother had struggled with mental health problems. Maybe her long-lost and only recently introduced uncle did, too.
"Well, the biggest one is the people," he answered. "Many of them are not what you're used to."
He grabbed a book off a side table and handed it to her. It was titled Species of Tylwyth: Volume One. "Go ahead," he invited her.
Valerie cracked the book open and started thumbing through it.
"Dryad," she murmured. "Dwarf, fairy, griffin, pixie." She looked up at him. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No!" he said quickly. "There are many humans living in Tylwyth, too. We're just somewhat of a minority."
"I don't believe you," she said, snapping the book closed. "This isn't real. None of this is real. Please take me back."
"It is real, Valerie," Julian said gently. "I know it's a lot to take in, but I'm telling the truth."
Valerie sank into a plush armchair and held her head in her hands. "No," she said, "you're not."
"I can prove it to you."
She looked up to find her uncle holding out his hand.
"Come with me."
Chapter Two
Valerie looked out from the window of the coach. The countryside all looked completely normal, with rolling hills and dirt roads dotted with houses and fences.
"What happened to the car?" she asked, nodding down at their new mode of transportation.
"We don't have technology like that here," Julian answered. "Tylwyth has advanced in other ways."
Sure, Valerie thought. "Where are we going?"
"To town," he answered. "The market should still be open."
They rolled across a stone bridge. Valerie could indeed see a town in the distance.
"How is this supposed to convince me?" she asked, looking back at her uncle.
"Just wait," he said, smiling at her.
Valerie could do nothing else as the coach rolled on. Soon, she could hear the sounds of a crowd.
Julian knocked on the ceiling of the coach. "Stop here, please," he called.
The coach stopped and Julian climbed out onto the street. "Come along," he said, offering Valerie his hand.
Valerie ignored his help and stepped carefully on her own from the coach.
At first, everything seemed normal. Maybe a little old-fashioned, with the medieval buildings and dirt roads. But as the details blended together around her, it suddenly felt like she'd stepped three hundred years into the past. The townspeople's simple clothes made her feel out of place in her sweatshirt and jeans.
She turned, looking at the busy street and the many vendors lined up with their things to sell. When she saw a nearby flower stall, she gasped. Tiny, glowing figures darted around the colorful blooms. They were far away, but she could definitely make out human-like features on their small faces.
"Are those... fairies?" she breathed.
"Pixies," Julian corrected. "Fairies are actually similar in size and appearance to humans."
A group of people stopped near the flower stall, possibly a family. They shared many similar features, down to their very pointy ears.
"Elves," Julian whispered to her.
She watched as they walked on through the market, gathering around a woman selling roasted nuts.
A rush of air above her made Valerie yelp. She looked up to find two winged horses racing by, weaving around each other as they played above the crowd.
He's right, Valerie thought. Reality was sinking in. It can't be real, but somehow... somehow it is.
She turned and started walking away, trying to process this information. Her mind raced and her heart pounded. The colors of the market blurred and her vision began to go black at the edges.
I must still be asleep in the car, she thought. That's all this is. Just a dream.
She came to a stop between two buildings and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. It felt so real, though, down to the clouds of dust swirling around her feet.
Okay, Valerie. Think. Start from the beginning.
Chapter Three
Her mind took her back to the day she came home from school to find police cars and an ambulance outside her house. Paramedics were loading a gurney into the ambulance while the sheriff stood on the porch, waiting for her.
She remembered someone explaining how her dad had a heart attack while painting the outside of the house, and how he was gone by the time their neighbor found him. The only parent she'd ever known. Her only family. She remembered the social worker, the foster home, the overwhelming grief...
Don't go there, she told herself, shoving the memory away. Focus, Valerie.
The social worker had come back with her uncle Julian, a man she had never seen before. He'd offered her a home. After staying in the crowded and dirty foster home for a week, Valerie hadn't hesitated to accept. Not that the decision was really hers, as a minor.
But then what happened? she wondered desperately, trying to remember. How can any of this be happening?
She took a deep breath, then another. I just need to stay calm.
She walked slowly back up the street to where Julian paced anxiously by the coach.
"There you are," he said with relief. "I know you need time alone, but this is a new place and—"
"It's okay, Julian," she said. "I'm... okay. I'm okay."
Julian raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure?" he asked. "This is a lot for anyone to take in, you know. It's okay to not be okay."
Valerie nodded. She looked around the marketplace again. "I will be okay. Can we... can we head back?"
Julian nodded and opened the coach door. "Yes. But there are still some things I need to tell you."
Chapter Four
"You're opening a school?" Valerie asked.
Julian nodded. "The first of its kind, actually. It's taken a lot of effort and patience, but I believe it will unite all of Tylwyth as never before. I'd like for you to attend."
"Um..." she mumbled, and her uncle waved his hand.
"I'll still teach you subjects like math and English, but there are other things you should know. You can learn everything you need, all in one place: Damaris."
"Damaris?" Valerie asked. "You're calling it Damaris?"
"Damaris Academy," Julian said proudly. "Damaris was my mother's name. She's the one who encouraged me to pursue an education, so I felt it was only fitting to name this first school after her."
"She must be honored," Valerie said.
"I think she would be," Julian said, looking out the window.
"Oh," Valerie whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," said Julian. "She lived a full life. She was married three times, you know. First to an elf, then to your grandfather and my father, and lastly to a fairy. It made for an interesting family, let me tell you."
"I lost my mother, too," Valerie said. "I barely even remember her."
"I know," Julian said. "Your father and I were never able to meet in person, but we wrote letters back and forth for several years. He always spoke of your mother with great tenderness."
Valerie leaned back against her seat. "If you were born here and my father was born in Maine... Well, how..." she trailed off, unsure of how to word her question.
"It's a little complicated," he said. "See, Tylwyth and Gaia are twin planes, two halves of what you know as Earth. They are connected by portals. People living in Gaia, your side of Earth, haven't used them in millennia. But we in Tylwyth still do, sometimes."
"Two sides of a coin," she murmured, remembering what he'd said to her before.
"Correct. You can think of Tylwyth as another country if that makes more sense. But rather than travel to it by boat or plane, we use portals."
"So you can just travel back and forth whenever you want?" Valerie asked
Julian shook his head. "Far from it. You see, there was a war hundreds of years ago that involved both planes. We were allied against a great evil. But when the war ended and the Gaians saw how many they had lost, they wanted no further part of Tylwyth."
"What happened?" Valerie asked, her interest growing.
"A powerful wizard, along with many other skilled people, locked the portals connecting the two realms. But portals are... alive, in a sense. New ones happen naturally, meaning that if you destroy them, others will pop up from time to time. Usually it takes several years."
"And that's how you got to me?" Valerie asked. "Hang on, how did your mother get to Earth if the portals were locked?"
Julian sighed. "After the death of her first husband, Rigna Hveiti, she was in such pain that she asked the leaders for permission to leave Tylwyth. It's highly dangerous to use portals, since there's not always a guarantee of where they will lead. Each one is under heavy guard and you have to go through months of official processes to be allowed to use one. She had to convince the leaders, but eventually she got permission and ended up somewhere near Boston."
"That's where my father was born," Valerie said, the dots connecting rapidly in her mind. "But she left him there."
"She met your grandfather there and became pregnant with your father, but soon after realized that she missed her home," Julian said. "She wanted to bring your grandfather and father back with her, but your grandfather didn't believe her. He thought she'd lost her mind, so they separated and she returned alone. To my knowledge, they never saw each other again."
The coach pulled up to the front gate of her uncle's home. They got out together.
"So my dad... He never knew," Valerie said.
Julian shook his head. "He was only four or five when she left, and your grandfather never ended up believing."
They walked inside and Julian hung his jacket on a hook near the door. Valerie followed him back into his study.
"I didn't know about your father, Jake, until my mother's death," he said, sitting behind his desk. "I found a diary and some letters among her things. I went to Boston, then tracked him down to Maine. I didn't see him, but I sent him a letter telling him who I was and how to contact me if he wished to. I included a letter in our mother's handwriting to prove I was telling the truth. I told him that I lived very far away, but would like to stay in touch."
"He wrote me back almost immediately, wanting me to tell him everything I could about our mother. From there we became friends, writing to each other every few months. He would send his letters to a postal box I kept in San Francisco, near the portal I was able to use. I would send a reply. When the last letter didn't arrive, I... I knew something had happened." He paused to gather himself. "When I learned of his death, I knew that I couldn't let you go into the foster system. So I came to Maine."
Valerie sat in the chair across from him, thinking over his story. "I remember the letters," she said finally. "I would mail them on my way to school. Why didn't he ever tell me who you are?"
"I don't know that he ever believed me. I wondered, more than once, if he wrote back simply because he was lonely. Either way, I can understand him not wanting to bring confusion and chaos into your young life."
"So... What now?" Valerie asked.
Julian leaned forward. "Now, you have the whole world in front of you," he said. "The real, true world. All of it."