Quest of the Dark Lands

Chapter Two

Chapter two

The next day was just like any other at Community Hall School, class started at eight o'clock in the morning. Seleina found to her great dismay that the first class was science.

Seliena wasn't bad at science, in fact, she was pretty good. What made her dislike the subject so much was because of the awful teacher.

Mr. Yucksonage cleared his throat 'Ahem, now that everyone is here, I would like to start. Today, I have prepared a rather interesting topic to share with you .'

Seleina's hopes soared, perhaps could it be?

'yes, now, today we are going to learn how cool I look.'

Seleina's heart sank, learning how cool somebody looked. That was what she had expected. She propped her head up on her elbows, her thoughts strayed then wandered away.

While Mr. Yucksonage lectured on and on about his stylish- American-Kungfu-cowboy-captain-baseball boots, Seleina was already forming a theory.

The walnut tree planted in CHS was an old one, nobody had ever successfully uncovered the mystery of how old it was. Never had a single walnut dropped from its branches and yet the tree seemed healthy all year round. In many ways, the walnut tree was one of the only interesting and mysterious things around CHS. Everyone had thought, like Evangeline, that because the tree was in the middle of a nowhere wasteland, it's poor soil nutrients and water lack kept it from growing and producing walnuts. But she wondered why the tree seemed so healthy.

Seleina thought of another possibility that others just may not have considered. What if the tree was planted before it became a wasteland here, what if, it was because of the tree that it became a wasteland? The tree, no, could it be that the legend was true?

Seleina sat back in her chair, her eyes turned misty. She was trying to remember something, the legend that her mother hadonce told her before.

And then, it all came rushing to her, yes, she remembered. That legend couldn't have been true, Seleina didn't really believe in magic, but in a time like this, she needed a speck of magic in her life, for all she knew, her parents may be tortured this very instant, and the faster she'd have an idea, the bigger possibility they would be alive when she reached them, if there was still time.

Seleina closed her eyes and recalled, 'once upon a time.' Her mother had said 'there was the land of fairies and magic, then humans walked onto the face of earth, fairies began to feel shy and afraid in the presence of such beings as us. So, one day, the mighty fairy king decided that the whole tribe live in trees, so it'd be difficult for us to spot. But, in winter many of these poor creatures would die of cold and hunger, so the more intelligent ones learned from squirrels and racoons, they hid in the tree trunk when it got cold. Eventually people began chopping down trees for wood, and the fairies had nowhere to go, so they lived in hundreds in walnut trees and secured them the best they could with magic, all the soil and water would be sucked in for the creatures and they'd live away, completely unbothered by us, the humans.'

Could it be that this walnut tree was magical? Could it be that her parents were really in the walnut tree? Seleina furrowed her brow, the mist in her eyes vanished, her stare became piercing. Yes, maybe the story was true, she was desperate and every idea needed a try.

Mr. Yucksonage was still introducing everyone to the expensive glow-in-the-dark hair-clippers he got from Germany, when the bell rang.

Children bolted for the door before the science teacher could dismiss them.

Seleina didn't realize that it was already lunch time. When she did, she prayed Fickleblow wouldn't come hunting down her again and that she and her best friend would be able to go over the plan and put it in action, if it wasn't too late.