The pool

She was chaos

And beauty intertwined

A tornado of roses

From divine

~Shakieb Orgunwall

Once upon a time there was a queen. She was in America 2023. A huge war was going on. The queen was rushing, trying to save as many people as possible. Breathing heavy she dashed up the stairs of the castle there was a meeting upstairs to decide what to do with everyone. The queen broke into the room and dropped into a chair at the golden table. "Any ideas on what to do with the citizens?" Someone at the table inquired. This was her chance the queen took a deep breath and brought up her idea. "Boundaries. Put the innocent and the pure in there they've done nothing to deserve this.And then eliminate the rest of the world" She said. Everybody nodded their heads and one farmer asked the fatal question. 'And what if we want to end the chaos." He asked. The queen smiled. " We'll make a key."

It all happened that one fateful night. Gloretia was with her friends and they were joking around as usual. And walking as usual in their usual town, at the usual time, and the usual conversations. Nothing ever changed in the magical land of Zantiff. Ever since the magical borders went up in 3500 A.D blocking them from the rumored death and chaos of the outside world everything was the same. Everyone grew up in their family house, went to magic school, developed their powers, were sorted into jobs at age 15, had kids and died. That's the way it always was ever since Gloretia was born. She was about to be sorted since she had just turned 15. Herr and her friends had been celebrating the new changes when her friend Zizzy decided they should play truth or dare.

"Gloretia truth or dare." He raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. "Dare." Gloretia said feeling brave. Zizzy drummed his fingers and smiled. "I dare you to look in the pool." He said smirking. There was a collective gasp. The pool was forbidden. Ever since they were born they had been warned to stay away from the pool. Gloretia scrunched up her nose thinking. "I accept," she said slightly meeker. Zizzy grinned. "Ok let's go." He said. All their other friends had begun backing away murmuring excuses about having things to do.

Zizzy and Gloretia made their way down the path to the indigo pool in the middle of town. Soon it came into view. The beautiful marble pool was deep violet and the water was sparkly and indigo. Zizzy nudged her forward. Gloretia huffed. He could be so PUSHY sometimes. She took a deep breath and stepped up to the pool and peered into the water. Glinting in the water was a face it was green and wrinkled. Gloretia screamed and tried to turn around it was to late she fell into the depths of the inky water.

She was falling and falling everything kept getting darker and darker and darker and darker and darker until she could see nothing at all. And then it came. She couldn't breathe. She began struggling to find the surface. She could see white dots from lack of oxygen. Just as she was beginning to black out her head broke through the waves. Gloretia pulled herself up gasping for air. "Zizzy-" she started rubbing her eyes. She pulled her hands away and didn't see Zizzy. Or Zantiff. Where was she? She absorbed her surroundings. There was fire everywhere. She took in a breath and smelled the scent of burning wood. I can't stay here, she thought. But when she looked up the pool was gone. She screamed. She COULDN"T be trapped here. Gloretia stood and decided to walk around. She barely made it 12 feet before she was stopped by a girl who was wearing black pants and a black shirt. She was carrying arrows. She pulled one and aimed it right at Gloretia's head.

"Friend or foe?" She asked. Gloretia had a feeling it was supposed to be menacing and was confused. What kind of a world brought on this violence. Friend or foe!?" she demanded again bringing the arrow closer. "Friend..... Friend!" Gloretia yelled having a feeling this was the best answer. "Ok." The girl said with allayment as she withdrew the bow. " I'm Jessamine the girl said smiling and sticking out her hand. "Gloretia....." Gloretia murmured cautiously offering out her own hand. "I'm sorry if I scared you. Times being how they are you can never tell with people. Sometimes they'll offer you a little bit of bread sometimes they'll take you to the sorcerer." Jessamine said shuddering.