Continent of Lemila

Chapter 1 - Jaye

I don't know how to start this. After the week I've had, I thought it would be good to write down what's been going on so if I ever go missing, or if any of us go missing, my mom will know where I went. She won't be able to do anything about it, but it might put her at ease a little. I hope it never comes to that point and I can lock this away somewhere. This entire thing feels like a dream, but I know it's not because people can see the injuries we've collected and notice when we seemingly disappear for periods of time.

I believe this all started when I found a strange necklace out in the field. I was mindlessly messing with one of my rings when I noticed something almost radiate light from outside. I figured someone lost an earring or some other piece of jewelry so I went out to try and find it to put in the lost and found. It took awhile to find it and I had to use my phone flashlight, but I eventually found the thing. A carnelian crystal wrapped in silver wire, strung on a leather string.

I picked up the necklace and a feeling of warmth flooded over me. As I was standing up, someone seemed to whisper behind me: Home.... I whipped around to see who it was, but no one was there. I was standing alone in an empty field. I tried my best to forget about it.

I walked back into the building and dropped off the necklace at lost and found. The bell rang shortly after and I headed to my next class. I forgot about the necklace for the next few hours, and got on my bus at the end of the day. I turned on my favorite mythology podcast and tuned out the ride home, with thoughts of the mysterious necklace popping up, specifically questions about where that voice came from.

When I sat down at my desk to start homework, I rummaged around in my bag to find my homework, but instead I found a leather strung necklace with a wire-wrapped carnelian pendant. The same one that I put in the lost and found earlier. I decided to deal with it later and started working on my homework.  I set down the necklace on the corner of my desk and put on lyric-less music to help me with my work.

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After about two hours, I finished my homework and checked to see if my mom was home yet. There was nothing in the kitchen and I didn't see her car in the driveway. I took some time to prepare dinner and write a note for my mom before heading out to my local bubble tea shop. It was within walking distance and I wanted to visit the used bookstore on my way there, so I grabbed my jacket and headed out into the chilly autumn night.

At some point during my walk I slipped my hands into my pockets, and my hand bumped into something in my right pocket. I pulled it out to find the same necklace that I left on my desk.

"Okay this is getting weird. I don't want to be followed by a magic necklace," I attempted to throw the necklace but the leather string wrapped around my hand, super glued and tangled. "What the Hel?!" I tried to shake it off and the leather loosened a little bit before the carnelian pendant started levitating and glowing faintly. I could've sworn I saw a dragon eye glint briefly on the surface.

The pendant seemed to stare at me before tugging on my wrist toward the nearby forest. The pull got stronger and stronger, dragging me into the forest, causing me to run after it. Light was pulsing from the carnelian, and it would barely swerve around trees, causing me to slam my shoulder into trunks and nearly fall over dodging branches. After a while of sprinting and dodging, the pendant stopped glowing and dropped, now lifeless.

The sudden stop made me trip and I tumbled to the ground, severely out of breath and sweaty from running in my binder. I looked around to see if there was anyone around, and after making sure I was completely alone, I took off my jacket and shirt to squirm out of my binder. It took a couple minutes but I eventually got out of it and took deep breaths. 

A few minutes after, I yanked my binder back on and pulled my shirt over it. I picked up my jacket and tried to pull the leather necklace off my wrist. It came loose and I looked at my surroundings a little more closely. I was sitting on the edge of a clearing with a misshapen circle of mossy stones. Looking closer at one of the stones, I noticed there were weathered engravings on each of them. They were also in the same shape as the type of stones used for stone arches in Roman times.