Like a Sister to Me

      The young Earth Faerie opened her brown eyes sleepily. Her mother was shaking her awake again.

      "You have to get up or you'll be late for school!" Illusen cried, finally letting go of her daughter.

      Adamina yawned. "Why couldn't Faerieland Academy start at nine instead? I have to wake up at three o' clock in the morning every day! Why couldn't we live closer to Faerieland, or actually on it?"

      "You wouldn't understand," Illusen answered for the one-millionth time.

      "Yes I would! You've been repeating that to me for my entire life!" Adamina protested. "Why don't you tell me?"

      "The Dark Faeries live there. I never want to be near any of them and their evil, especially Jhudora. Now hurry up, or you'll be late for school."

      Adamina hurriedly brushed her short leaf-green hair in front of a mirror, pausing to check her appearance. Though she wasn't vain, she wouldn't want to look ridiculous at school. Her leaf-green hair grew stopped just at her neck, and under her bangs were sparkling brown eyes. She wore a short green dress with vine decorations climbing up to her shoulders.

      Adamina slowly packed up her lunch and spell books. She knew her mother had a dislike for that Faerie and could easily guess that was a broad answer, but even she never knew why Illusen hated Jhudora. And that was what she wanted to know. Adamina absentmindedly left Illusen's Glade and flew towards Faerieland.

     ***

     "I have to buy ingredients for some spells, so Layla is in charge," Jhudora said, staring at the four younger Dark Faeries in front of her.

      "Mom, but Layla, Melaney and Ebony just pick on me while you're gone!" the youngest protested.

      "We do not!" Layla, the oldest, replied. Her golden hair was cut so it stopped at her shoulders, and she wore a silver dress whose hem stopped at her light knees. Her blue eyes shot glare at her little sister.

      "Kiora, I know you don't always agree with them, but Layla is the oldest and most responsible. She is a good example of mischief, and so are your other sisters," Jhudora replied, leaving her mini-castle. The door closed, and their mother was gone.

      "Now, Kiora," Ebony, the second youngest, began, rubbing her hands together menacingly. Her bright red eyes were filled with greed. She wore a long-sleeved purple shirt with a matching smooth skirt. "I have this huge pile of homework to do. You're a nerd, so you'd better get to it!"

      "And Mom told me to clean up the place a little," Melaney said darkly. She wore a long black dress with a belt that down to her feet, though she never neared tripping over it. Her black hair was tied into a ponytail. "You'll have to do it for me."

      "And since Mom said I'm in charge, you have to do what I say," Layla added. "And while you're doing their to-do list, you'll have to give me all of your potions, because I was too tired to do it for the month we had to make it, and our teacher will fail me this year if I don't have it!"

      But Kiora wasn't listening. They had learned many things about successful scheming in a class special for Dark Faeries, and while Kiora had little interest in applying that knowledge to creating mischief, she was an attentive listener and did well in school. One thing the Dark Faerie had learned was to have a plan in case anything went wrong with the original. Her mother still didn't believe her, so Kiora did what was the only choice left. (Aside from doing what her sisters had ordered.) She turned towards the door and ran as fast as she could.

     ***

     Adamina grunted in frustration. She had left her map of Faerie City under her bed, and she was lost. Every week she would secretly take her time to get to school, and spend the time before that exploring Faerie City. She especially liked to go near where there was a Dark Faerie. This time, she had decided to spy on Jhudora's Cloud. She knew it was dangerous if the Dark Faerie caught her, but the Earth Faerie was confident of her ability to hide.

      The door to Jhudora's home opened and a young Dark Faerie who resembled Jhudora in some ways ran out. Her flowing violet hair, green eyes, and gray shirt and skirt instantly gave away her identity. Adamina knew her to be Kiora, one of Jhudora's daughters. Like all of the students at the Faerie Academy of Learning, Adamina had at least heard about Kiora's sisters and some of their friends picking on Kiora, but no one said a word. The Dark Faeries loved it. The other faeries, mostly Light, had convinced themselves that the teasing aimed towards a Dark Faerie was okay, because "all Dark Faeries were evil". Adamina never said a word of it because, the way she looked at it, she would be helping the daughter of her mother's enemy. How would Illusen feel about that?

      Adamina looked up from her thoughts to see Kiora's sisters chasing their sister angrily. Kiora tripped, and Layla, Melaney, and Ebony were soon surrounding her before the younger girl had a chance to stand up.

      Melaney created a ball of darkness, and aimed it towards Kiora. Adamina felt a pang of guilt for not have ever thinking about Kiora's wellbeing, followed by rage towards the other three Dark Faeries, and soon, her eyes glowed emerald green, and the Earth Faerie sent a wave of magic into the ground. She, being an Earth Faerie and the caster of the spell, was the only one who could see the line of earth magic creeping just below the surface of the ground. Soon, it stopped and vanished, and a small green vine slowly grew and twisted tightly around Melaney's ankle.

      The Faerie shrieked in pain, and as Layla ran over to help her, the vine branch and spread rapidly across the ground and grew around Ebony's leg. Layla spotted the vine and tried to destroy it with her spells, but the vine twisted around, looped, and dodged the dark magic. Layla panicked and grabbed hold of the vine, trying to rip it apart, but the vine thickened.

      Adamina smiled as she watched her trick do its work.

     ***

      Kiora was staring at the vine, but she soon realized what she should do, and ran past her sisters.

      As she ran she was wondering who had cast the spell to save her -she knew it was an Earth Faerie, but not which one- until she spotted the unmistakable leaf-green wings and long dress of the same shade of green of an Earth Faerie she knew. Kiora turned towards her, running in that direction. As she neared, she could make out the Faerie's long green dress, Faerie Back Pack, and face. It was Illusen's daughter, Adamina.

      "Thank…you," Kiora said breathlessly. She leaned on a nearby building for support.

      "You're welcome," Adamina replied. She turned to walk to school. "Do you want to walk with me? I'm going to school."

      "It's a little earlier than I usually go, but okay." Kiora ran for a moment to catch up with her new friend.

      "It's her! Adamina's the one who did it!"

      Kiora turned around.

      Ebony had picked herself up and managed to ignore the vine long enough to spot the cause of their trouble. "Get her!"

      "Run!" Kiora yelled, spreading her bat-like wings. She grabbed hold of Adamina's arm and took to the skies, flying as fast as she could.

     ***

     Adamina allowed Kiora to pull her far into the sky. She looked down to realize that Layla, Melaney, and Ebony were flying after them, their speed increasing. "I'm slowing you down, Kiora," she said. "We'll split up. Sure there are four of them, but they'll have to go separate ways."

      "It'll weaken their combined strength a little," Kiora finished. "We should split up. Hopefully, we'll be able to fly faster, and no one will see or tell about Jhudora and Illusen's daughters being friends, or at least flying together."

      "That would make our mothers, or at least mine, think we were friends and actually spoke to each other," Adamina agreed.

      Kiora let go of Adamina's richly tan arm, and the Earth Faerie flew off in the opposite direction.

      Adamina resisted the curiosity screaming at her to look back at the Dark Faeries, constantly mentally telling herself it would merely slow her down. After several minutes, her curious side of the mental battle told her she was slowing herself down with raging battle in her mind. It would only end when she looked back. Adamina shut her eyes in frustration, and turned her head to the side, her eyes sliding to see Ebony and Melaney chasing after her angrily.

      Adamina turned her attention back to her own flight. She folded her wings and dived through the clouds. She was an expert flyer, with all of the flying she did on a daily basis to and from Faerieland. She curved through an alley and flew upwards, straight into the sky. She hovered in the air for a moment, surveying the city below her, and then searched the sky for Kiora. "Kiora!" she called, hoping the Dark Faerie would hear her. "Kiora! Uh…go to somewhere that has books, teachers, and…super…super…agh! The word used to describe adults watching kids!"

      "Supervision?" Kiora asked, flying towards Adamina from behind her.

      "Yeah…that's the word." Adamina leaned close towards Kiora's ear. "School."

      Kiora nodded and led her new friend towards school. "Do you want to sit next to me during some of our classes?"

     ***

     "Well, that was an interesting day," Kiora concluded as the two Faeries walked out of school.

      "I'll never forget the look on some of the other Faeries' faces when we sat down next to each other!" Adamina laughed.

      Kiora joined in, but stopped giggling when she spotted someone. Two someones. Standing there, both Faeries with her hands on her hips, stood Illusen and Jhudora.

      Kiora was shocked. She knew her mother would have been against their friendship, but why now? How could she have found out so fast? As Jhudora pulled Kiora by the arm back to Jhudora's rather small castle, Kiora glanced over her shoulder, she spotted Melaney watching them go, grinning at the sight of her little sister being caught.

     ***

     "How could you do that?" Illusen asked, pacing.

      Adamina sat on a Leafy Bench, her eyes facing at the floor. "Do what?" she asked in a much quieter, but unusual for her active personality, voice than her mother's.

      "Making friends with a Dark Faerie, let alone Jhudora's daughter!" Illusen asked.

      "She's my friend," Adamina repeated. "Ever since I started going to school, you've been const- cons- co-"

      "Constantly," Illusen said, but she was still angry.

      "Constantly bugging me about making friends!" Adamina finished. "And now that I have one, you don't want me too. Why don't you make up your mind alre-"

      "When I said friends, I did not mean Dark Faeries!" Illusen interrupted.

      "And now you're interrupting, which you told me never to do," Adamina said, feeling slightly proud of her answers. "Not to mention the fact that it is only ONE Dark Faerie, and what's wrong with our friendship?"

      "She is a Dark Faerie!" Illusen yelled, scaring away the forest petpets within a mile of the glade's edge. "They can't be trusted. No one wants to be friends with them. They are evil."

      Adamina closed her eyes, pretending and appearing to be listening, but in her mind, a plan was being formed.

     ***

     Kiora walked into her next class. From what she could gather from memory, this was the first class today that she and Adamina were both in. Surprisingly, the Earth Faerie was already sitting at her desk.

      As Kiora passed her recently lost friend to get to her desk, Adamina's hand put something into hers. Kiora clenched it in her fist, not daring to even move her hand until she reached her desk, in the corner of the small classroom.

      As the teacher, Ms. Sahye the Fire Faerie, walked in, got the class to settle down, and then began teaching the history of Faerieland, Kiora quickly read the note silently. She didn't want to miss a word of Ms. Sahye's class, but she could not resist the overwhelming curiosity of what Adamina had to say. "Kiora, I have a way around our mothers," Adamina had written. "At night, sneak out. Meet me at Kiko Lake. It is nearby both of our homes, but there are no known Faeries there. There might be Water Faeries, so we'll meet in the forest, where we can be friends with imp-… whatever the word is for being able to do stuff without the fear of being punished."

      Kiora smiled towards the Earth Faerie, and then went back to listening to Ms. Sahye's lecture.

     ***

     Kiora walked through the forest, looking around for another shadow. But she saw no one.

      The Dark Faerie's foot landed on a piece of paper. She picked it up, curious. It was a note, saying:

      Dear Kiora,

      I can't be here tonight, or any night, for that matter. I'm running away from home. I won't tell you where, but I promise we'll see each other again, in a few years, when we're both old enough to leave home and be free from our mothers. Drop by this place every once in a while, I might leave a note. You were the best, first, and only friend I ever had, but that doesn't change the fact you ARE a good one. And I know you CAN overpower your sisters. Don't do what they tell you to do, unless it's something for your benefit, and you'll be fine. You have a lot of potential, I can tell. Just don't be afraid to be afraid, and if you are, still fight back. One day, I'll return, but even before that, and also afterwards, you'll always be like a sister to me.

      Adamina

      Kiora smiled and flew home, a new courage rising within her, but her mind focused on her true sister, her first friend, Adamina.

The End