I walk for a day and a half. I marvel at the beauty of the forest. Half a day from my goal crystal begin to grow everywhere. I take breaks only to eat resuming my walk after a thirty minute break. I am able to drink water from the streams and luckily dad had taught me survival trick so I know when water is ok to drink.
I almost ran into wild creatures three times but the fairies in the forest warned me well beforehand so I could avoid them. Finally on the morning of the second day I find the crystal caves. They looked just as the head priest described them.
The caves were beautiful, made completely of black crystal. It looked so ominous that i was scared to go in. I took a deep breath unsure of what lay ahead. But I knew I had to do this for the people who had shown me acceptance that I never had before.
As I walk in I can hear the echo of my footsteps. My image was shown in the crystals. Some of the images looked like how i looked when I was younger. Some showed me as an old lady. I'm other I was me but angry and in others was sad.
I know that the queen said it was impossible to find your way her but it was almost as if I could a line drawn on the floor, telling me where to go. I followed this line until I can to a set of double doors made out of opaque white crystal.
There were no handles and no lever to open the door. I looked around the room for half an hour but still couldn't find anything. Just as I was about to give up hope I heard something. It sounded like something was whispering the words truth over and over.
Pressing my hands against the door I think of all my truths. Then I spoke. " I am Nia daughter of humans with the heart of a fae. I love my brother and I love the people who showed me kindness. It is my destiny to save this world"
Suddenly there was a large creaking noise and the doors began to open slowly. As I enters the room I saw a pedestal. There floating above the pedestal was a beautiful crystal.
Walking over to the crystal I pick it up. It's warm and smooth. Suddenly a light breez envelopes me. The crystal began to glow a bright light just like the first time I met other me. I felt a dull pain in my ears but the light just grew brighter.
Finally the light dimmed and I could see again. Walking over the the wall I could see that I had changed. My ears were now long and pointed and my shoulder length hair was now all the way to my navel. I even had the pointed canines that the other fae . I looked exactly like other me but my hair was longer as were my ears. Suddenly I heard clapping behind me as I looked at myself in the crystal
Looking behind me I saw other me. " you have now achieved your fae form. Congratulations" she said. I nod, happy. "Just like how you found your way to this room you will be able to find your way through the shrines and avoid all of the traps" she said. I smile glad to know I could help the wonderful queen. " now you must go back. They are waiting for you" she said as she began to disappear.
When she was gone I eat the rest of my food. I smile once more at my reflection. I felt confident with my looks. I begin the walk back to the entrance. After walking for fifteen minutes I can hear someone calling my name. It is the queen. The walls of the cave show me a image of her frantically looking around the entrance of the caves too afraid of entering herself.
I run to the entrance. But just before revealing myself I pause. Looking at the reflection I take a good look at myself and realize I look terrible. My clothes are dirty and torn and my face looks tired.
I almost decided it to go out but to hear her call my name so frantically nearly breaks my heart. I peek around the corner to see the king place a hand on the queens shoulder. The prince is holding Amari. They all look lost. Everyone but Amari.
He has seen me and he wriggles out of the princes arm and makes a mad dash for the caves entrance the queen tries to stop him but he is two fast. Finally the others see me. Amari tackles me knocking my to the ground.
The queen charges at me pulling me to feet and then enveloping me in a huge hug. " you did it." She say pulling away. I nod smiling. The king whistles putting a hand on my shoulder. The prince says " good job" while smiling. He has a wonderful smile.
The queen sighs pulling me close again. " please never do that again" she says as she holds me. I smile feeling like I have come home. Everyone joins us in a group hug.
Once we have all calmed down we start the long walk back to the palace. During this time I get to know prince jasper. At first I thought that he was cold but he is actually really funny. He tells me all about this world and what we are fighting against.
As we walk I tell Amari about all the little fairies around us and let his imagination go while. He asks jasper if they had dragons in this world and when jasper tells him yes Amari starts to run around us pretending he is a dragon.
While the others went to sleep for the night I pull jasper aside. I ask him what the time difference was between this world and earth. He says that time goes by faster in my world and that approximately while four days have passed here about eight days have passed back home.
This worries me. While my mother was never really attached to me as her first born she adores Amari and loves him to pieces. This often hurt but I knew that she stilled loved me sometimes. But I couldn't leave the fae realm as I felt that this was my home now but Amari was still young he had his whole life back home and all of his friends while I had no one.
I express this worry to jasper and he nods. " I'll talk to mom about this. We should be able to send him back without any problems since he is still young and kids have wild imaginations so no one will really believe him that he was actually her" he says. I smile. I will mis him but this is for the best.
As I get into my sleeping bag I think about how my new life will go. I'm so excited it's hard to sleep. It feels nice to have people who rely on me and people I can rely on.