Where it all began...

Chapter 2 *a new life*

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_-date: wed June 16th 2021

Jenna was tossed around as she traveled through the portal, but she was astonished at how beautiful it was. Glowing rainbow light rushing by, swirling and dancing and seemingly coated in a thin layer of glitter. Even so, they only took a few seconds to reach the end, and they fell out of the portal into an alleyway.

"Ow that hurt." Jenna said, holding their head and trying to stand. "Where am I?" she said walking out of the alleyway.

"Is this... Chrystalia City!?"

Indeed, they had been transported to a place called Chrystalia City. A place their mother had told them about as a child, a story about a place where magic didn't exist.

"Wow... it's even better than in the stories" she said, admiring the beautiful city with towering buildings made of metal and glass, parks with trees as if someone had picked up a section of the woods and placed them in the city, and shops selling all sorts of things lining the streets. People bustled around, talking into square communication crystals and carrying around brightly colored bags filled with their wares. It was so similar to home and yet so different.

What seemed to interest them the most was the music store full of instruments that they had never seen before, and technology everywhere they looked, they had to go to a few stores, of course. For the experience.

She was surprised at how hi-tech everything was. She didn't think people without magic could accomplish such amazing things. She kept walking past store after store in astonishment, but one store, in particular, caught her eye.

"Is that a boutique!" she squealed in excitement.

Jenna has always loved the idea of designing clothes but has never had the time for it. Whenever she had the chance she would draw up sketches of designs she would make if she had the time, but she never did, she was always busy with schoolwork, or training.

"What's this?" she said looking at a store.

She stepped inside to see what it was.

"Hello, welcome to AllMart, how may I help you?" A woman wearing a blue vest asked Jenna.

"AHHH!" Jenna shrieked. "Oh you scared me." she breathed, a hand on her chest.

"Oh I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can help you with?" said the worker.

"Oh, no no no, I just came in to look around... um..."

"Rocky, you can call me Rocky."

"Ok, Rocky." Jenna said with a smile.

"If you need anything just ask, okay?"

"Okay."

~

Jenna peers around the store a bit before exiting. Most of the things in the store were things they had back home, or had a variant of them, just made with magic. The most notable difference was some of the food, but that was likely just due to packaging and processing. The freezers were interesting. Jenna wondered a bit how they could possibly work without ice magic.

"Come back again soon!" Rocky yelled as she exited.

"I will, thank you!" Jenna hollered back.

Jenna walked out of the store, head buzzing with questions of the world, and onto the sidewalk. "Long time no see Jenna" a kindly voice said from behind her.

Jenna whirled around to see who it was, and threw herself into the arms of the woman. "Aunt Selene!!" she cried with joy.

"What are you doing here?" Selene said in a surprised tone.

"Well.."

Selene could see the sorrow on their face, already thinking about the worst-case scenario.

"Why don't we walk back to my house and you can explain everything on the way? How does that sound?"

"Ok," Jenna said, their voice shaking as they spoke.

Jenna and Selene start walking back to her house. Jenna fills Selene in on what happened at the palace, and Selene answers Jenna's questions about the city.

"... And then you found me."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Selene asked.

" No, I don't," Jenna said with a shake of her head.

"Well, you can stay at my place!" Her aunt told her happily.

"Really!!"Jenna squealed.

"Of course. I'm sure Ava won't mind."

"Ava? Is she your daughter?"

"Oh, no, Ava is not my daughter. I'm just her caretaker until her mom comes back and can get her."

"Alright."

~

Selene answered as many questions Jenna had as she could before they got back to Selene's two story house, in an older part of town. Before Selene could answer Jenna's next question, a girl came out of Selene's house. "You're finally home." she said warmly, before turning to Jenna. "Who's this?"

Jenna was astonished at the girl. She looked exactly like Jenna, except for her eyes and her hair. Hers were like light cyan diamonds, and Jenna's were like light blue zircons. Her hair was a more vivid blonde, and kept it in a low-side ponytail, whereas Jenna's hair was much paler blonde and spilled freely from her head.

"Um hi my name is Jenna-" She began nervously, before the girl cut her off. "I don't give a damn who you are. Why is she here?" The girl demands rudely, pointing at Jenna.

"Jenna this is Ava, and Ava be nice to our guest, she's my niece, and she is going to be staying here for a while."

"WHAT!?!" Ava screamed, outraged.

"She will be staying in our guest room until her- their family's situation gets back to normal." Selene said firmly.

"She's Chrystalian, isn't she? That's why she's staying here?"

"Well, yes."

"Fine, she can stay here, ONLY if she doesn't break my stuff with magic." Ava said childishly, crossing her arms with a huff.

"I won't, I promise," Jenna said.

"You damn well better keep that promise." Ava declared before marching back inside.

Selene guided Jenna inside. Ava had already ran upstairs. "Sorry about her, she's... well... closed off. She doesn't like people."

"That's ok, I understand."

Jenna headed upstairs to get settled. Her Aunt showed her the guest room, a plain white room with a grey-sheeted bed, a slightly wilted green plant on a wooden desk, and a bookshelf filled with titles Jenna had never heard of. A blank slate.

"I have a feeling things around here are going to change." Selene said with a warm smile.

~

if there is any info you guys want on characters so far let me know in the comments and I'll try and answer without giving spoilers to upcoming chapters. and sorry this chapter is also short but I promise the next one will be longer. Again thank you to my friend for helping me rewrite this chapter and Thank you all for reading this chapter and hope you have a good rest of your day/night bye.