When she was finally done, she leaned back in her chair, smiling contentedly.
Valerie had created a beautiful scenery she'd always dreamed about and even though it was so basic, Valerie had never seen it in reality before.
It was a meadow on a hill, filled with beautiful flowers so tall that if she was standing by them, they'd reach a little ways below her knees.
The sky was blue which was a rarity in Halsburg and she sun was shining but not too bright. She also threw in the occasional butterflies, a few grey fluffy bunnies since she liked them and the soft patch of green grass that covered the hill.
She had put some bubbles there too, just because she could and a nice little stream filled with clear water and round, smooth pebbles at the bottom.
Nicole had never taken her to a place like this, Nicole had never taken Valerie anywhere except the dentist's office!
Valerie had always wany to be in a serene, calm and beautiful place just like this one.
And so she would.
"Innemi ix dimenos" Valerie said with her fingers crossed, just in case.
She watched, with her heart rate increasing, how her room slowly faded away and just before it disappeared, Valerie grabbed her pizza box and fell through millions of colours.
She didn't dare open her eyes, she was scared of heights and always will be.
She kept her eyes shut even when her old Converses touched soft grass and the smell of lavender filled her nose.
Slowly, she peeled her eyes open and took in a deep breath of fresh air, something she hadn't breathed in for a while now.
"Wow!" Valerie gasped with a full grin as she dropped her box of pizza and twirled around in joy. "This is amazing!"
This place was more than what she had imagined or even put on paper, it was absolutely magnificent!
She was on a hill filled with so many flowers, some she knew of and some she made up, but they were all beautiful as they swayed gently in the soft wind.
Valerie went on her knees right there among the flowers and took a deep whiff through the nose, she felt like Rapunzel from Tangled when she stepped out of the tower for the first time in 18 years.
"This is amazing! Woohoo!!" She screamed excitedly, throwing caution to the cool wind, she ran downhill, her shoes stomping on the soft, beautiful green grass.
On the way down, she stumbled and fell, making her roll all the way down to the bottom of the hill, laughing hard.
She sat up when she noticed the clear stream right ahead and spat out the mouthful of grass that had accidentally entered her mouth.
"So cool" she whispered as she looked at her happy, wide-eyed reflection in the clear stream flowing with gentle current.
She even noticed some blue fish in there, swimming by and seemingly waving their fins at her.
Valerie took off her shoes and ankle socks and plunged her feet in the perfectly cool water.
"Ah, this is so amazing" she groaned as she leaned back happily. It was the perfect temperature, so soothing after a long, stressful day of school. It wasn't long before she decided to take off her clothes and go for a full on swim, the water was shallow enough to sit in comfortably and she spent most of the time trying to catch a small fish in her hands.
"Aha! Got ya!" She called, making a hard grab at a particularly small one but she missed and became submerged in water. Hair and all.
The fish she was trying to catch looked at her with a little interest before following the rest of his family.
"Bye Fishy" Valerie gurgled under the water before going back up for air.
When she wiped out the water from her face, grinning, her eyes met with a pair of brown ones and a pink quivering nose and long grey ears.
"Awwn" Valerie cooed. The grey bunny looked even more realistic than what she had painted. It was mind-blowing!
"You are so cute, look at your fuzzy face and your fuzzy tail, you adowable cutie!" She took the fat bunny in her arms before it could hop away, it's entire body quivered in fear but as she stroked it's head slowly between it's ears, it calmed down and seemed to feel comfortable.
Valerie and her new friend went uphill to get the pizza box, after she put her clothes back on of course.
The bunny apparently seemed interested in what was in the box, there were three slices of pizza anyway so Valerie let him have one.
"Let's hope it doesn't give you a tummy ache" She said to him but the little guy didn't want pizza. Well that was a waste.
After a while of enjoying the peace and quiet, the fullness of her tummy the lovely wind blowing and the warm ball of fur next to her, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
🌄🌄🌄
The funny feeling that she was being watched woke Valerie up from the best sleep she had ever had in a while.
She popped her eyes open and looked around, there were more than one pair of brown eyes staring back at her. Startled, she shifted backwards and away from them putting her hand over her chest like she usually did when she was startled.
"Oh" she sighed as she recognized her surroundings. There were four more bunnies gathered around her and staring with interest. "you brought your friends?" She asked the bunny with the pink nose, the others had black noses.
"How long was I out for?!" She asked getting up, quickly. The sky was still as blue and sunny as she left it, but she felt like she'd been asleep for hours.
"I have to go now" she said, looking around for the book since that was how she was able to get out the last time. She spotted in between the flowers, wide open with huge black words across both pages.
"There you are" she said taking it and looking at the bunnies with a shy smile. "Damn, I really need to stop talking to objects and animals" she said to them. They blinked.
"Ok, Ennemi ix dimenos!" She called and waved at the bunnies before closing her eyes and letting the millions of colors take her away.
When she was back in her room, she took one more look at her painting and realized something was different.
There was an open box in the grass with a lone slice of pizza hanging out from it and they weren't there before!
➿➿➿
Valerie was stuck.
In a tree for that matter.
At 8pm.
To make matters worse, she was stuck in a tree right next to Mrs. Seamus' room window in the dark night.
How did she get there when only a few hours ago she was in her room doing homework?
Well she walked there, duh!
Anyways, after the whole inside-the-painting scenario, she decided to share this wonderful gift with her best friend, so she took the book with her and walked over to Sophie's house and since there was a good old sturdy tree right next to Sophie's bedroom window, she climbed up it. But she got caught by the belt hoop of her jeans in a spot where Mrs. Seamus could just look out her window and see her. She was stuck.
Valerie looked around with the aid of the tree lanterns the Seamuses loved to hang up there and noticed that if she was careful enough, she could land on a thick tree branch which was right below her.
So she started wiggling and putting all her weight on the branch she was hanging off of. It moved slightly but showed no signs of snapping anytime soon.
"Jeez can I just be fat for a few seconds?" She asked whatever entities were listening and could probably be of help.
The light in Mrs. Seamus's room came on suddenly and Valerie could see a female shilouhete coming closer to the cream curtains.
Valerie wiggled faster and even tried bouncing "come on! You stupid tree branch!" She hissed, sweating with anticipation and exertion.
Suddenly, Mrs. Seamus's curtains flew open and the branch snapped loud and clear into the night air. Valerie landed on the lower and stronger branch, immediately shuffling into the shadows.
"What the hell is that?!" Mrs Seamus called and Valerie put a hand over her mouth.
They both stayed very still for about a minute before Mrs. Seamus left the window, murmuring something about evil cats. It was still surprising to Valerie, the way she changed so quickly.
Anyways, now that the coast was clear, Valerie continued climbing, choosing strong branches and finally she was right outside Sophie's window looking in through the parted curtains.
Sophie was in her bed, the covers over her legs, she was braiding her vibrant red hair, something she always did before bed. Apparently she ate her hair in her sleep and that ritual was to avoid it.
Valerie tapped gently on the window and Sophie bolted, startled.
Grinning cheerfully, Valerie opened the window and hopped into her friend's room as noiselessly as possible.
"Dude! No way! What if my mom saw you?" Sophie whispered excitedly as Valerie sat on the bed next to her friend.
"She didn't and that's all that matters" Valerie replied with a wink. "How are you holding up? Is your ankle that bad?"
"Yeah" Sophie sighed "I think I broke something and the cut was infected, you know how sensitive my body is."
"Yeah, you're the one who gets ticklish easily," Valerie made to tickle Sophie and the redhead started laughing without Valerie even touching her.
"See?" Valerie said.
Sophie yawned and sank into her fluffy pillows, Valerie's pillow was some old, flat thing on her bed so she thought Sophie's pillows were heaven. "My mom gave me sleeping pills so I'll be gone any second now," Sophie said.
"Oh, well I wanted to tell you about this book!" Valerie said bringing the brown and gold item out of her hoodie pocket.
"This thing?" Sophie said, eyes drooping, "you've found out what's special about it?"
"Yeah, I used it for my paintings today and it turns out it's actually..." Valerie looked at her best friend and realized she had already slept off, snoring lightly "...magical."
With a small smile, she dimmed the lights just like Sophie liked it and climbed out the window, shutting it after her.
🎨🖌️🎨
The rest of the week passed by slowly, school was the worst because Mr. Knight went on some sort of leave so she couldn't pester him, Sophie was still healing at home and Marina Ferry was still the most annoying nerd ever.
She didn't touch the book till Saturday, there was just too much homework to catch up on and Nicole kept giving her house chores.
But Saturday afternoon, when she was free, she sat at her reading table and took out the book, set to have another adventure, maybe she'll go to the moon this time! Yeah, that seemed like a good idea.
She saw something flash at the edge of the page she was about to draw in, just like the first time, it was another spell, still in silver, but different.
Without a second thought, she read the spell out. "Inem wa ix Oscavia"
Suddenly a huge, molten gold "O" appeared on the page, it was so bright she had to shield her eyes and just as the room started to fade away, she passed out and fell, through millions of millions of colors, into a world completely different from her own but also very similar in many ways.
🔊🔊🔊
Who's ready for the real deeeeealll!! Ok so, I shortened this chapter because I don't want to put Valerie's entry into Oscavia here just yet...oops, mild spoiler.
Anyways, fasten your seatbelt sweeties, don't forget to vote/like/comment/share!
Rhodes.