Fabled

Chapter 1- The Song

Amerisa's POV

I closed my door after I stepped up each stair, crossing into the bedroom directly across from them. I hopped onto my blue rolly chair, sliding a bit before putting my phone on the window sill. The window was open, and I put my plant I had just gotten from the farmer's market yesterday. It was a lavender, and it was good I was used to opening my window because I wanted to let it have constant outside air like it was used to. Well-as close as I could to constant.

I grabbed my phone and started scrolling through YouTube. I saw videos on my recommended like random nightcores I haven't listened to, shorts by Jacob Colvin, and the occasional strange ones like "Rumors Of A Glowing Orb In Hampstead, NC- Perhaps A Fortune Teller's Nearby?" I didn't pay them any mind. I went to my history and clicked on my playlist titled "My Jam".

I was listening to Nightcore Wolfie's version of Colors by Halsey. The song was almost up and I was scrolling down to see what else was there. Soon, I saw something. It had been on my watch later for a long time-much like many other videos. (I had over 3,000. Seriously.) It was a nightcore, titled Tir Na Nog. This version was by QueenofMagic42, and the original was by Celtic Woman. Hey, I've wanted to listen to that for a while, I thought. So I clicked on it, unlike the fate of many others in the poor watch later category.

It was beautiful- I loved it. It started out in a different language, which, after scrolling through some comments, I discovered was Irish. But I also found something I found more intriguing- it's story line. There were multiple people who had written about it, but this is a version of the most common things I see:

 There was a great warrior, Oisin, part of a group of people called the Fianna. He was Irish, and he fell deep in love with the flame-haired, eternally young maiden Niamh. She belonged to the land of Tír na nÓg, where which her father reigned as king. 

Tír na nÓg was a land of youth and eternal beauty. You wouldn't grow old there, and there was no pain and no sorrow, only happiness. 

Tír na nÓg was a place just beyond the realm of man, in the realm of the Otherworld. The Celtic Otherworld, to be more specific. 

Together, Oisin and Niamh rode on Niamh's white mare to this land. There, they lived happily for 300 hundred years. Some people say there's no time there, and others say three hundred years in our realm was three years in theirs. 

Although there was eternal joy in Tír na nÓg, Oisin began to miss his homeland; began to feel a strange longing to return back. Though Niamh tried to stop him, there was nothing she could do. He, on the white mare, returned to Ireland. But when he did, he found that all his family and friends were dead. On the way back to Tír na nÓg, there were multiple ways I found he happened to touch the ground, but the one I'm going to write is his horse tripped on a stone. Oisin thought that if he grabbed the stone and took it back with him, it'd be a bit like taking a piece of his homeland with him. 

When he leaned over though, he stumbled off the horse. As soon as he touched the ground, he instantly aged 300 years. Some fishermen had been watching on the shore, and had never seen a man age so fast, which made sense. Some say he died right there, and others say he came to a man called Saint Patrick, and then passed. Another says he made it back to Niamh, but she did not want him anymore because of his age.

Perhaps, since I'm writing this after my journey, I should start using present tense. It is a land where people like the Fae live, and heros visit on their quests, and is a earthly place for me and you, not an afterlife. 

                                                                                 ***

That was it! I was finally finished with it. It was due on Monday, and today was the end of Friday. I walked out of my room, hugging the well-done foldable to my chest, about to show it to my family downstairs. When I walked down the first section of stairs, I heard, "...Jamie and Cooper."

I stopped on the stairs before I reached the turn where they could see me. Why are they talking about Jamie and Cooper? Jamie and Cooper were some of my cousins, and I had last seen them two years ago, when we went to a pool party at a nearby water park.

I walked the rest of the way down the stairs, and as soon as Mom saw me she said, "Oh! Sweety! There you are. Start getting packed. We're leaving tomorrow."

"Leaving? Tomorrow? Where?" Far enough to need to pack? What about my school assignment?

"To North Carolina, of course. We're going to go see Cooper and Jamie."

"Yeah, where've you been? Mom and Dad have been talking about this all week and it's driving me crazy," my little brother, Colton said, only looking at me for a second before turning back to his handheld switch. Who knows how long he'd been playing on that after school.

I was about to ask why, then realized that could be taken rudely, so I asked, "for how long?"

"All week," Dad said, giving me his sturdy smile he had.

"But what about my project?" I asked, voicing my concern. I don't wanna turn that in late. Mr. Brekner won't be happy, even if it's not my fault.

"You'll have to turn it in next week," Mom said.

"But-" I started, then realized it wasn't worth explaining. I huffed quietly, and said, "OK." I headed back up to my room silently, for some reason feeling too hurt to want to share my project with them even though they meant no harm. It was odd the way human emotions work.