Mysticity By Allie Cherin

Chapter One - Life in Avadan

Three months ago, me, Kismet Emluh was just like any girl on earth; have to get over school, pass my exams, be cool, and, well, you get the rest.

But just like any other stories, there is a change, and with me, the change is that I found out that my 'real' parents doesn't exist, there's a magical world called Avadan which is where I live right now.

I've also been told that I have a weird set of parents. No, seriously, they are different. My dad is Death who is in charge of taking souls away from all the living beings after their death; mum is Life and as you might have guessed she puts souls into bodies to give them life. I guess that explained why I could do both; at least that's what they told me anyway.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my friend's name is Nuala Remmus who is like me, just found out that she have to live in Avadan and can use magic except she still haven't got over it yet. She goes around the tree house (yes, we're living in series of tree houses, and I must say it's pretty awesome place to live, now back to the story) and learns spells and the equivalent of karate from Valeska, the priestess of Avadan, and to be honest, she's currently doing a pretty good job, well, better job than me anyway as I'm also learning magic and fighting skills so that I can defend myself.

'Ah-kem!' Coughed Nico, who is currently my instructor, and the most annoying person in the world. To make things worse, he is not much older than me but he gets the right to boss me around, whilst I just have to obey.

Still, I could just plot my revenge and strike when I get the chance.

'I swear I told you to do the plank for ten minutes not just lying there flat on the ground and day dream!' He folded his arms, looking down at me.

'Well, technically, I am doing the plank, and I'm keeping my body perfectly straight, except I'm also exercising my brain.' I replied, giving a smart answer.

Nico rolled his eyes, raised a brow, and said 'I guess that meant five hundred press-ups before dinner then.'

'But-' I tried to protest.

'No buts. If you don't do it, you won't get your dinner tonight. Now onto archery.'

I sulked and glared daggers at him before following him into the archer's court.

Archery was OK considering that it was my favourite sport, so it made up for Nico's bossiness. We shot flaming arrows at distant targets and I was pretty much getting on the hang of it.

Occasionally, I pretend to shoot Nico when he's not looking and pretend nothing had ever happened when he looked back at me. It was pretty fun actually, considering the weird face he gives me was hilarious.

After more training (more like torturing), it's finally dinner. My body was filled with exhaustion, but considering it's Nico, he 'reminded' me of my five-hundred-press-ups-to-dread-for.

I moaned like a typical teenager, and my stomach growled in protest, but hey, unless I want more press-ups and an empty stomach, this is what I have to face.

So I lowered myself on to the ground, and started the press-ups. One...Two...Three...

Another growl came from my stomach, followed by a couple more. Clearly my stomach doesn't like this and I strongly agree with it.

The smell of food came from the kitchen, and it's officially torturing me. It smelled like garlic bread, making my mouth water, but I'm still at seventy-three press-ups. Not cool.

After what felt like forever, I got to three hundred, gave up, lied on the ground and stared at the orange-grey sky. This is not a good day for me.

Then, a girl's head popped into my view. Her messy ginger hair flowed down her shoulders as she bent her knees looking down at me. Her face was upside-down from my view, she gave me a smile.

'Being ordered to do press-ups again huh?' Asked Nuala.

'What do you think?'

'I thought so.'

I turned around, then sat up so I'm facing my best friend.

'You are so lucky that you've got Valeska as your trainer! Nico is absolutely an ass, and all I'm doing is planks and press-ups all day whilst your get to cast spells, making things appear from nowhere.' I complained. 'I wish I could complain to my parents or even know how to take souls and put it back but I never see them and I never get taught how.'

'Yeah I get what you mean.' She sighed, taking out a box. ' which is why I bought you chicken soup and garlic bread. I thought you might like it!' She gave me a grin.

'Thank you so much! You're the best!' I hugged her tightly and kissed her on the cheek.

'I know I am.' She said mockingly and we laughed.

I opened the box and start digging into my food like I haven't eaten for weeks, she laughed at the how hungry I looked, and my cheeks turned red with embarrassment, but I didn't care. I'm happy when I don't have an empty stomach.

'So how did you get here? I mean Nico would have got suspicious if he saw you sneaking food out from the kitchen.' I questioned curiously.

'After telling Valeska that you've being starving again, she decided to get you some food first, and told me to tell you that you're no longer having Nico for training.'

'Seriously? That's the best news I've heard all day! No more press-ups woo!' I cheered, feeling the relieved.

'Yeah. And for the mean time, you are training Valeska and me, and we're gonna learn some magic!' she rubbed her hands together.

'Hallelujah! My life has just been changed for the better!' I did my victory dance on the spot and we giggled.

We went back to our rooms, and I lied on my hammock (the comfiest hammock in the world) before gradually falling asleep, sinking my dreams...