Universe

Chapter 1: Introduction

2011

Sunday, 3rd July

SLAM.

SLAM.

"Come on, Grass, give it another," Rowe, my instructor, yelled at me. I grunted and swung again.

SLAM.

"That's good! One day you won't have me here to tell you when to punch. You need to trust your gut!"

I rolled my eyes and swung another hit, earning another SLAM.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Alright, that's all our time today," Rowe said, straightening up. I tripped over to the bench next to the punching bag and grabbed my drink bottle, downing the contents quickly.

"You did good, Demi," Rowe continued. "Honestly. You've got strength beyond all your classmates."

I frowned. I didn’t like attention like that – Rowe knew that, too.

"Yeah, because I have a tightass instructor," I muttered, eager to steer the subject away. I grinned as Rowe swatted me – my plan had worked.

"Go on, you, get," he said, waving me off to the girl's showers. I did as he asked, pushing open the door and collapsing gratefully underneath a mountain of water.

Demi - that's me. My full name is Demetria Rosalinde Wyldgrass. I'm sixteen years old and live in Brisbane, on the continent Australia in the Cassiverse, one of the ten parallel worlds, or Verses. I assume that if you're reading this you must know about the ten Verses, but just in case, I'll tell you anyway.

                                                              ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The ten Verses are: the Cassiverse, the Sessaverse, the Tryllaverse, the Jaceverse, the Araverse, the Willahverse, the Hebelverse, the Diliverse, the Rayeverse and the Universe. From each Verse come specific species of life (or death) that are native to that Verse. For example, the Sessaverse is the Water Verse, so creatures like mermaids, kelpies and naiads have habitats there.

Humans originate from both the Universe and the Cassiverse, which is not surprising, seeing as both Verses are identical. Continents, cities, countries, flora, fauna; they're all exactly the same. The only differences are that each Verse dresses differently, governs differently, and, the big one: only the Cassiversian people know about the other Verses. The people of the Universe have no idea about any of the Verses or their creatures, and it's our job to keep it that way.

Because the humans of the Universe have been mutilated. They used to be kind, caring and loving, and way back in the olden days, people would go freely from the Cassiverse to the Universe to see friends and have good times. They knew all about the other Verses, and often went to them to see some of the other creatures. Many even believed in our religion, which our whole lives are ultimately centred on. Everyone was having a right good time.

But then, slowly, a band of Universian humans started to form together and spread rumours. Rumours about how the Cassiversians were actually evil. Rumours about how our gods were actually the Devil, an evil figure in a Universian religion. Rumours, from the subtle to the downright outrageous, spread through all Universians and caught fire. People started to pull together in bands. Universians began to come to the Cassiverse less frequently.

Then, one day, the Universians attacked us. There was a huge battle, which could not be won, because everyone knew what everyone else knew about fighting. So the Cassiversians were forced to emergency portal all the Universians back to their Verse, costing us one thousand years of the Universe-Cassiverse Portal being locked.