"Good morning!" Ellete greeted Evelyn as she stumbled into the kitchen for breakfast.
Evelyn had been living with Ellete and Atler for two months and a half now, and she was getting used to them. Although, she did occasionally shut herself in her room, crying and mourning for the loss of her family.
"I made you waffles," Ellete informed her, placing a plate of steaming, stacked waffles with honey drizzled over it on the kitchen's countertop.
"Thanks," Evelyn mumbled as Ellete handed her a fork. Atler stumbled into the room as well, taking a seat beside Evelyn. Ellete placed a plate of waffles similar to the one Evelyn had received on the countertop in front of Atler.
Evelyn stared at the waffles-they reminded her of her deceased mother, Delaney, when she had given her a plate of waffles as breakfast the next day after knowing she was adopted.
Ellete sprinkled a pink-colored dust over the waffles, assumingly sprinkles. "What's the matter?" she asked, noticing Evelyn's long stare at the waffles.
"Just reminds me of my mother."
"You know," Evelyn said, tyring to change the subject. "At first I thought Celestara was going to be filled with princes, princesses, wizards and all the stuff I've read in my fairytale story books when I was little, but....it's surprisingly modern and evolved. It's kinda similar to earth-even the food's the same- except it's more...." Evelyn trailed off, thinking about the amazing thing's she'd seen, like watching the citizens of Celestara do magic and all the amazing and mythical animals she'd seen. "Amazing."
Ellete smiled. "Over the time, we've picked up a few things her and there from the humans."
"This reminds me of something-I think it's high time for you to get your obtusce." Atler interrupted and Ellete nodded, agreeing with him.
"Maybe we can get it today. I'm free later," Ellete said, looking to Atler. "Are you?"
He nodded. "I can spare some time."
"Obtusce?" Evelyn asked, twisting her tongue to pronounce it right.
"It's an object everyone needs to wear, or bring, in order to find their crystal." Atler explained, adding when he noticed at Evelyn's confused face. "Each and everyone of us has to touch a different crystal in order to get our different power, and have different obtusces. So far, there are eleven crystals: Mind crystals, fire crystals, water crystals, time crystals, ice crystals, nature crystals, solar crystals, gem crystals, electric crystals, sound crystals and dark crystals, meaning there are eleven powers. So, basically, you need to wear, or bring your obtusce anywhere you go to find your crystal. It glows and pulls you to the direction of your crystal when you're close to it."
Evelyn massaged her temples, trying to force the information into her mind. "Okay...?" she finally mumbled, confused whether to say it as a question or....
"Okay!" Ellete repeated, heading to the hall and slipping on her shoes. Atler did the same and Evelyn followed. "Wait...so what are your abilities?" she asked.
"I'm a gem user, which means I have the power of controlling gems and whatnot." she waved the subject away like it wasn't important. "Atler's a fire user."
"Ready?" Atler asked, digging the teleporting ball- which Evelyn had just learnt was a 'teleball'- from his pocket. Evelyn wanted to shake her head but nodded. She'd only teleported twice- once when Ellete and Atler took her out to get clothes and more stuff and twice when they took her out to pick some furniture to re-decorate the nursery to her liking. For the two times she'd teleported, she'd felt giddy and a little nauseous after, probably because it was her first times trying.
Atler flicked the teleball up in the air and muttered, "Nightingale."
Light surrounded them, wrapping them in its rays and bringing them away.
When the light cleared, Evelyn found herself in a fascinating place- a space-like room which made it look like they were in space, and there were millions of bubbles with objects in it floating around.
"Whoa." Evelyn mumbled, star-struck by the sight. Sure, her stomach was lurching and doing backflips, but the view totally made up for it.
"Hello, hello, hello!" a man dressed in a suit walking towards them. He stopped in front of them, greeting Atler and Ellete.
"Hello, Atler, hello, Ellete!" he said, taking their hands and shaking them hardly. He squinted at Evelyn and bent down to face her. "I'm sorry, but I don't seem to remember you. You are.....?"
"Evelyn." Atler answered for her. The man grinned. "Hello there, Evelyn!"
He straightened his back to face Atler and Ellete. "Of what do I owe this pleasure?"
Ellete smiled. "Evelyn has to get her obtusce."
The man grinned and turned around, gesturing for them to follow him. "Follow me, please!"
They followed the cheery man and soon reached a pedestal on a high platform with steps leading up to it. "Pick a number." he told Evelyn.
"Any?"
"Any." the man confirmed.
"Twelve." the number slipped out of her mouth before she could think of what number to say. She clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Alrighty!" The man said, heading to the steps leading up to the pedestal. "Wait!" Evelyn exclaimed, running after him. "I don't want twelve! I didn't mean to pick it! I wanted to pick-"
The man turned to her and slapped a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, kiddo, I know what you're feeling. It's like your brain commanded your mouth to say 'twelve' before it got your permission, right?" the mimicked ordering someone to do something.
Evelyn nodded. The man patted Evelyn's back hardly. "Then that's the number you want."
He climbed up to the pedestal and shouted into the megaphone attached to it. "Bubble number twelve, please approach the pedestal."
A bubble shoved it's way to the pedestal and stopped in front of the man. He popped it with a finger and a necklace with a crystal dangled on it fell into his cupped hands.
He climbed down the steps and handed it to Evelyn. "Don't lose it," he advised. Evelyn stared at the necklace. "It's....." she was speechless-she didn't know how to describe it. Sure, the crystal was dim and gray, but the necklace was beautiful. Every inch of it looked like it'd been made with hard work and expensive materials, not to mention how beautiful-yes, she was repeating it again- and perfect.
She slipped it on her neck, delighted when it fit perfectly. "Thank you," she said to the man and walked over to Atler and Ellete.
"Remember, don't lose it, because if you do, there won't be a replacement for it." the man advised again, pointing to the bubble number twelve-which had materialized back-to show a new object, or obtusce, rather, materializing in it.
Evelyn nodded. "I won't," she promised. Atler revealed the teleball he was clutching in his hands and threw it up in the air, muttering for a place. "Thank you!" he called to the man before they disappeared in a flash of light.
Evelyn thought they were returning home- no, Atler and Ellete's place, rather. The word 'home' felt so foreign....
Instead, they appeared in front of what seemed to look like a combination of the most beautiful palaces she'd ever seen with towers that stretched into the blue sky streaked with white, fluffy clouds. A majestic fountain with statues that blasted water into the fountain's bowl sat dazzlingly in front of the palace and they were surrounded by beautiful greenery.
"Evelyn, Ellete and I have been debating and discussing over this matter recently and we've decided to enroll you in a school, as not only is it compulsory but we thought it'd help you with your.....past. You know, going to school like you used to." Atler informed her. "But....we still thought we wanted to give you a choice. We chose the best school possible: The School Of Magic. If you want to become a student here, it's your choice. If you don't want to, we can....well, sort it out. Maybe give you lessons at home-" he paused. "At our place." he changed.
"This is....a school?" Evelyn asked. She thought this was the king's- if he Celestria even had one-place.
Ellete chuckled. "It is. Now, about the whole enrolling-you-into-school thing, do you need time to...think about it? We don't need your opinion now."
Evelyn gazed at the 'school'. Surprisingly, she did miss school- she missed every single inch of the human world, from the traffic, pollutions and-she wrinkled her nose-cockroaches to ice cream, her house and bedroom and her....family.
"I....think I would like to give it a try."
Ellete clapped her hands excitedly. "Great! You can stay out here with Atler while I get and fill the forms to enroll you in and handle a bunch of other complicated stuff."
Evelyn nodded and Ellete headed for the double doors of the school. She fidgeted with her fingers, regretting her decision. What if going to school with Nyxes, elves and fairies- she remembered the lesson Ellete and Atler had given her, where a Nyx was born when an elve and a fairy mated, and how they lived together like a multi-special species- were....different. Sure, she was a Nyx and went to human school for ten years, but she was used to it. What if the change in environment was too much to handle?
"I can see how stress you are from your looks, and I assure you, Evelyn, there's nothing to worry about." Atler said, forcing her out of her trance.
"I'm sorry. Maybe you're right-maybe I'm over-thinking." Evelyn replied, taking deep breaths to calm her racing and nervous heart.
Atler smiled sadly. "Evelyn, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through everything you've went through, and I'm sorry I can't give you back your normal life. I'm sorry you had to lose your family and leave earth. I would allow you to go back to earth right now, but....nobody's there to look after you. You have no place to stay there. And I'm so sorry you have to describe your homeland as 'foreign'." he apologised, saying too many sorries for Evelyn to count.
She gave a sad smile, returning his's. "Atler, it's not your fault. I'm grateful you're here to help me- I mean, if it wasn't for you, I would've been dead-" Evelyn shivered at the thought. "Or even if I managed to escape that ordeal, I would probably be living on the streets, begging for scraps and pennies while starving."
Atler's mouth was about to from a word when they heard Ellete shouting for them. They turned to where the shout came from and sae Ellete walking towards them. They started walking towards her too, and they met in the middle.
"The first few papers have been signed and read through, but for some I need Atler's signature too, and for some I thought we should read through together, like the rules and regulations. For the rest, I figured it'd just be wise to finish up at home because..." Ellete gestured to the thick stack of papers resting on her right arm.
"Also, Evelyn, I, alongside with Atler, forgot to tell you one minor detail: You'll kind of have to pass a test to get in- you'll be tested three weeks later."
Evelyn flinched. Her heart started beating faster and she started pacing around. She groaned-sure, if she was in the human world there would be a chance she could pass a test, but they were talking about Celestria- she was sure she couldn't even pass a test for toddlers, never mind high-schoolers!
Ellete noticed Evelyn's frenzied state. "Don't worry, you can totally do this," she promised. "But maybe you might want to hit the books tomorrow."
Evelyn took Ellete's advice and decided to visit the library the next day. It was like a fascinating place Evelyn wished she could relax in, but she had no time for that. The shelves stretched as high as the ceiling went-which was admittedly quite high- and books flew and floated around. People were using books and stacking them up in a staircase matter to get the books they wanted from the high bookshelves.
Evelyn searched the whole place upside down and finally found the the books she was looking for. Slung around her shoulders to her waist was a sling bag- which was called an infinity sling bag due to the unlimited storage space it had- that Ellete and Atler had gotten her.
She slipped the books she wanted to read for information into the bag, and by the time she was done, she was certain there were at least twenty books in the bag. However, the bag still felt-surprisingly-light.
She checked the books out at the library counter and attempted to teleport home by herself- Atler had teleported with her to the library but had left because he had something to do. And now, Ellete and Atler were both equally busy, forcing her to teleport by herself. She went over to a corner and fished out a teleball- which Ellete and Atler had gifted her- from her slingbag. She squeezed her eyes shut and flung the teleball into the air. A flash of light surrounded her and disappeared.
Evelyn opened one eye gingerly and expected to be in the hallway of Ellete and Atler's home, but found herself still in the library. Laying in front of her feet was the teleball. Maybe she flung it in the wrong direction.
"Oops." she peeped, bending to retrieve the blue-and-glowing-line streaked ball. She threw it up one more time, looking up to make sure it was falling down to her. It was- and she'd better tilt her head back. She did and shut her eyes, squeezing them extra tight as a flash of light appeared once more. The light disappeared and.....
"Yes!" Evelyn cheered as she peeped one eye opened and found herself in the hallway of Atler and Ellete's home.
She picked the teleball from the floor and stuff it inside her slingbag, her finger brushing against a cover of a book.
She headed to her nursery-became-bedroom and plopped the slingbag on her desk. She tapped the table with her nails and the lamp flickered on. She turned the slingbag upside down and a stampede of books came running out, dropping on the carpeted floor with thuds. She stacked the books up in neat piles against the wall and took the first one, flopping onto the chair and hunching forward, nose pressed against the book.
It felt so good to read a book again, even if it was about power crystals and whatnot. She missed all her books painfully, but not as painfully as her parents and home.
A sigh slipped out of her lips and she flipped to the first page.
Hours went by as the books pulled Evelyn into their history and works, and Evelyn happily accepted sinking into them. By the time she got up, her legs were sore from sitting and she'd already finished three books- one about magic crystals and the other about how teleballs and telegadgets- little, hidden gadgets implanted and hidden all over Celestria to enable teleporting- and she'd just finished her third book.
She'd learnt that there were seven major cities in Celestria- the capital being Celestara, Silverfall, Everforge, Elysium, Luminescia, Evergreen and Starhaven. There were two villages: Willow brook and Aurora Reach, and finally, four forests: Greenwood, Oakheart, Mistwood and Darkwood.
All she'd seen out of the places were beautiful except Darkwood- there were no information, no pictures and no description. On the page labeled 'Darkwood' was a single sentence- no information gathered.
Evelyn was about to start on her fourth book when she heard Ellete calling for her for dinner. She headed to the dining room, where Ellete was placing three plates of pasta on the table. Atler shuffled in, and he took a seat alongside Evelyn.
"So, Evelyn, what did you learn today? Atler told me you went to the library to pick up some books- any luck finding the ones you were looking for?" Ellete asked.
Evelyn nodded. "I found plenty of useful books. I just finished three- one about magic crystals, one about teleballs and telegadgets and one about Celestria." she paused, slurping on a string of pasta. "By the way, when I read about Darkwood, it showed totally no information. Any idea what that's about?"
Atler chuckled. "No book ever has information about Darkwood."
"Why?"
"Well, mainly because it's dangerous and the few people who've been there came back badly injured. There's beasts and deadly plants in there, not to mention the amount of wanted criminals hiding in there. Honestly, I don't even know how they survive there."
Evelyn shuddered and decided to change the subject. "How's Zak doing?"
Evelyn hadn't seen the obnoxious grimmy in weeks and kind of missed him.
"He's holding up fine. I heard he took up baking- he's giving out free pastries to people who want them, although I do hear the people complaining about his pastries. I heard one say it blew up in their face and my friend, who got a free macaron from Zak, ended up with pink skin for a week." Ellete informed her. "I think I'll have a talk with him soon to shut down this 'giving away free food as pranks' frenzy."
Evelyn held back a giggle. Of course Zak would use baking and giving out pastries to make an excuse to prank.
"Sadly, I don't think you can ever stop a grimmy from pranking. And even if you did, I guarantee you can never stop me!" a giggly voice echoed through the room.
Evelyn recognized that voice. "Zak!"
The grimmy fell from the high ceiling and landed perfectly on the floor with two feet. "That's right, rookie! Zak in the fresh!"
He grinned and Evelyn got to her feet. "Why are you here?"
"Just stopping by for a visit. Any leftover pasta?"
Ellete disappeared into the kitchen and came out with a warm plate of pasta. "Yum, thanks!" he exclaimed as he sped off to get the plate and plopped it next to Evelyn's place on the table. He slipped the backpack his was wearing off and plopped it onto the floor and opened it. He reached a hand in and kneeled down, making his whole elbow disappear. He bent lower and his shoulder sunk into the backpack.
"Infinity backpack?" Evelyn asked, and he nodded. "I...need...to...find...my...refrigerator...." he mumbled, sinking his head into the backpack.
"Refrigerator?!" Evelyn exclaimed. "Yes! I found it! Evelyn, a little help please!" Zak announced, peeking his head out of the backpack to look at her.
Evelyn got closer to the backpack and reached her hands in. Her fingers brushed against a metal object. "This?" she asked, feeling Zak's fingers.
"Yup! On the count of three, pull it out!"
Atler and Ellete rushed over, reaching in the backpack and wrapping their arms around the medium-sized object. "One," Zak begined the countdown.
"Two,"
"Three!"
The four pulled with all their might, lifting the object out of the bag. They flew backwards when the object was pulled out.
"Yes!" Zak cheered and got up, skipping towards the object- a mini refrigerator. Atler got up, helping Ellete and Evelyn up too. "Geez," he mumbled. "All the fuss for this."
Zak pulled the refrigerator upright and flung the door of it open. He reached for the top shelf and pulled out a bar of cheese. Hopping onto the chair, he fished a grater out of his pants' pocket and grated the cheese with it, leaving cheese flakes on the pasta.
Atler gave a slight frown- he was not amused. He threw his arms into the air. "All the fuss for cheese?!" he emphasized the word.
Evelyn giggled. "Cheese is nice."
Zak grinned. "Finally, someone with common sense! Hear that, Atler? Cheese is nice!"
Once Zak was dont grating cheese on his pasta, he Zak grated Atler's, Evelyn's and Ellete's pasta as well and pushed the refrigerator back into the backpack. Once they had settled down, Evelyn slurped on the cheese-covered pasta.
"So," Zak interrupted the slurping of pasta sounds. "How are y'guys doin?"
"Well, Evelyn got her obtusce today, and we visited the S.O.M today and settled some stuff and now Evelyn's going to be tested three weeks later." Ellete updated him.
Evelyn assumed the S.O.M was the School Of Magic.
"I didn't know you'd get your obtusce so early. What'dya get?" Zak asked.
Evelyn held up the necklace, the crystal gleaming under the dim light.
"You're lucky you got that, rookie. I have an elfen friend who got a bowling ball- the poor guy. He got it WAY before infinity bags were created and had to lug the ball around with him all day. Imagine how sore his hands were! Luckily, the infinity bags were created and I bought him one for his birthday. You should've seen how happy he was."
The slurping of pasta returned.
Finally, Zak hopped to the ground and slipped back on his backpack. "Well," he grunted. "I gotta go. G'night, everybody!"
He flicked a teleball into the air and the three watched the light take him away.
After Ellete cleared the plates, Atler gathered them in the living room. Evelyn plopped onto a couch as Ellete and Atler went to get something. There was a tiny box in Ellete's fragile hands when they returned.
The box was wrapped in a purple wrapper, tied with a yellow bow. "Here," Ellete said, handing it to her. "A little present from us."
They took seats next to her, sandwiching her between them. She carefully untied the yellow ribbon, peeking inside the box.
Inside sat a white earpod- or she assumed it was an earpod. It looked like the earpod she had to use when listening to music.
"Thanks!" she exclaimed, grinning.
Atler gave a slight frown. "You don't know what that is, do you?"
She shook her head.
"I believe it's what you call an 'iphone' in the human world, except it's less.....well, it's not as improved as the human's iphones and it's not as nice. It's called a holopod, or you can just call it a pod." Atler explained. "And it's sort of like a hologram."
He dug through his pockets and pulled out a similar pod. He unlatched the lid and a white, hologram-y screen flickered out. He took Evelyn's and unlatched the lid too, revealing that her holopod had the same screen.
"Whoa." Evelyn studied the screen. On it were four button-like icons like the ones in her iphone. Atler pointed to the first icon. "I've helped you to download three apps- this one is called Connecter. It's kind of like what you call 'Skype' or 'Call' in your world. Or at least I think it's Call. You can use this to call people, obviously."
He pointed to the second icon. "This one is called Picure- it's what you call 'Camera'. It can capture photos." he moved to the third icon. "This is called Doodle. You can draw or write anything in here, but it's only incase you don't have a paper or book to write or draw in." Finally, he pointed to the fourth. "This is called Notification. I'm pretty sure you already know it- if you send somebody who's not online a friend request, it will go straight to their notification."
"So it's basically like a phone?"
"Exactly." Atler answered. "Oh, and one last thing-" he said, turning his holopod upside down to reveal a tiny button. "If you're tired of holding your pod or need to use both of your hands for any reason whatsoever, you can press this and it will-" he pressed the button. "Levitate."
True to his words, when he let go of his hold on the pod, it sunk a little lower but was floating in the air. "It pushes air from the holes underneath it so it won't fall." Atler explained.
Evelyn did the same to hers and watched her ipod float-or levitate, as Atler had explained. Atler clicked onto his Connecter app and clicked on the 'Search' bar on the top, typing Evelyn's name.
"We have registered you in as Evelyn Ambrose, too, and have handled all the complicated stuff of having a holopod." Ellete added.
Ellete and Atler both were called Atler and Ellete Elsher, but Evelyn had insisted her last name to be Ambrose. She wanted to hold on to something that was her family's, and plus, she had learned somehwere that Ambrose meant 'immortal and god-like' in greek, which made her last name something to be proud of.
Evelyn answered with yet another thanks and a speech appeared on the white screen. {Atler Elsher has sent you a friend request.}. There were two buttons underneath the speech- a {Accept friend request} and {Deny friend request}
Evelyn looked to Atler for an explanation. "A friend request is, like, someone asking if they can be in your contacts. So, basically, if you accept my friend request, you'll have my contact in Connecter."
Evelyn pressed the accept button and another speech appeared. {Atler Elsher is now in your contacts.}
After the speech disappeared, yet another speech appeared and stretched across her screen. {Ellete Elsher sent you a friend request.}
She clicked on the accept button again and the same speech from before- accept it had Ellete's name on it now- appeared once more, telling her Ellete was in her contacts.
"Great! Now you can call us when you need help or whenever you want." Atler said, tucking his pod back into his pocket.
Before Evelyn could walk back to her room, Ellete asked if she needed help to study. Evelyn immediately accepted her offer, racing to her room to fetch a few books and racing back again.
Ellete and Atler led her to a medium-sized room she hadn't been before. How could she have not noticed it?
They called it the Workroom and explained it was where they went if they needed peace and quiet to work, to study or to just relax. It was relaxing- the room gave out 'Chill' vibes.
It was the perfect type of cold and comfy. A tv was set up at the back of the room with pastel beanbags and plushy, comfy-looking chairs relaxing in front of it. In the middle was a wooden table with pillow-padded and comfy chairs.
Evelyn plopped the books on the table and Ellete offered her a seat. Evelyn sank into one of the cosy chairs.
"Okay," Ellete said. "It's time to get to work."
For the next few hours, Evelyn learnt about various things- she learnt about ogres, grimmies, tricksters, goblins, dwarfs, trolls and more about Nyxes, elfens, elves and fairies. She aslo learnt more about the N.E.E.F history and citizens, as well as more about Celestria. She learned about creatures like Lily leapers, pink, glossy and tiny frogs able to jump-or leap- as far as twenty metres, peakcocks, which are similar to peacocks accept they only lived on the tip of snowy mountains and had pastel, winter-y colors for their feathers, some common ones, like phoenixes, alicorns, unicorns, red dragons and dragons. Her favourite creature had to be the myth mare, unicorns who were space-like, had wavy, flowy, dark and space-like manes and tails, dark hooves and a dark horn, as well as a dark, starry and dreamy body. Unfortunately, there were currently only seventeen of them left.
Finally, after the interesting study hours and the additional hour of filling out and reading the forms from S.O.M, Ellete announced it was time for bedtime. She hustled Evelyn into her room, leaving a good night in her trail.
Evelyn changed and got under the covers. She tried to sleep, but ended up tossing and turning around.
She still felt like something was missing. Her mind replayed the 'friending Ellete and Atler on Connecter' thing and realized she hadn't yet to friend Zak.
Her hand went deep into her pajama's pocket, where she had tucked the pod into. She fished it out, unlatching it and clicking into the Connecter. She searched up Zak's name on the search bar and a contact appeared. She clicked onto it, hoping this was the way to 'friend' somebody.
{You have sent Zak a friend request.}
{Zak is not online. Your friend request will be sent to Zak's notification.}
She waited for a few minutes and was about to tuck back her holopod into her pockets when a familiar speech appeared.
{Zak is online}.
{Zak has accepted your friend request.}
{Zak is now in your contacts.}
She grinned, tucking her pod back into and expecting to fall asleep since she accomplished what she felt like she had to do.
But she still felt like something was missing. She reached a hand out to her nightstand which stood by her bed's side and felt the photobook she placed there.
She pulled it closer, tucking it under the covers with her. It felt better- way better.
With that, the worried knots caused by the S.O.M test untied, and she gratefully fell asleep.