The Land of Etherio

The 1st Biggest Fan

"Stupid teachers!"

They gave me another F in writing class. They keep on telling me 'this is not the assignment' and tell me to write it over. It's not my fault I'm so talented that those prehistoric stuck-ups can't understand my intricate plot and story line.

I entered the asylum I called my home. My mom was busy making food in the kitchen and I could smell that it was going to be good.

"Welcome home, Rick" she greeted with a smile.

I detested that name but I didn't want to miss out on whatever she was making."Hiya, Susan".This was an inside joke we have, I once read her name when I was 5 and called her that for a week.

I slumped into the living room, threw my bag next to the couch and my torso directly on top of the couch. I didn't feel like telling my mom about the F. That very same week I had gotten a D for a similar assignment.

"Oh hon, there's something on the counter top for you" my mom said from the kitchen.

I hesitantly got up to go and see what it was.I wasn't lucky, it could've been my recent grades. My school was crappy like that.

But I noticed that this couldn't be my grades because 1 - it was a package and 2 - it was addressed directly to me, not Mom or Dad.

I had to hold in an excessively high girly squeal.

The 2nd greatest author in the world, Eric Armitage (second only to me) has sent me one of the first copies of his new series 'Land of Etherio'. The very presence of this book in my hands vibrated my being to he essence if my core.

"I'm going up to my room, Susan. Don't disturb me for the next two days except to send up coffee or Monster!" I shouted as I bolted up the stairs and into my room. I ignored the massive piles of fantasy novels on my shelves. THIS one is the only one I needed. My fingers trembled as I opened the book as if it were the holiest of scriptures. I peeked at the first page and turned ghostly pale at what I saw.

It was blank. I turned the next page.It was blank too. Again and again I turned the pages hoping to find a single drop of ink other than the page number. This was a troll. This was the ultimate troll. I had waited for this book for so long and it was just a troll. I put down the book, ridden with despair,  but as I put it down i noticed a black mark. On the last page, there was a single sentence: "Welcome to Etherio".

I stared bewildered at this,my vision diving into the page .Trying to figure out what this meant. Suddenly, I was REALLY diving into the page. My vision of my room was fleeting. I was falling through paper sky. There was no wind, just fleeting paper. I had no idea how I knew it was fleeting but I knew. As I fell, I noticed something. A tiny smidgen of black. It was getting bigger. I looked closer and noticed they were letters, forming words that visually had no meaning but in my mind they did; tree, rock, ground, river... on and they went, forming a landscape built of black ink. I started falling faster. I had a sudden realization, I now had a ground to crash into.

I tried to close my eyes before the impact but it felt like I didn't have eyelids. With the ground imminent, I realized the irony: when I opened this book, there was nothing i wanted more than words and now I had gotten them. When I hit the ground, they would it say 'Rick went splat'. I didn't know because before i could finish, the impact came first.

There was pitch black. My eyelids felt heavy. Wait, I had eyelids, or at least I felt I did. They opened slowly, like it was a Monday morning. I had trouble adjusting to the light. I started to register my environment. A wooden cabin of sorts, I lay on a bed with a green pelt like bearskin and a fairly cute girl at the bedside.

I tried to speak but I was still groggy, I managed to ask "Where am I?"

The girl smiled, she had short blond hair and green eyes. "Well duh, dummy, welcome to Etherio". She said.