The Enchantments: Book 2 - The Key of Gandar

Prologue: Remember

At the end street on Waddle Drive stood a very special house, in that house lived a very special lady. To the two little girls that were playing in the backyard she was only Nana and what a very special Nana she was. She lived a simple life but as was previously stated she was no ordinary lady.

The girls Nikki and Gina, Gina the oldest by one year gazed across from each other at opposite ends of the yard. The game of soccer they were playing had gone drastically wrong as competitive games with one's relatives often do. Nikki had claimed Gina was cheating and she wanted revenge in the worst way.

"You tripped me on purpose!" Nikki screamed from across the cool green grass.

"Not true!" Yelled back Gina, who now had her hands on her hips. The old lady sitting on an old wooden chair knew she was getting angry and the future consequences of her actions would either get them hurt or crying, maybe both.

The ball long forgotten sat a few yards away from the two screaming youths sitting in a long patch of grass slowly twitching. The old lady stared at the ball and with a slight flick of her wrist sent the ball hurtling towards the back of the fence. The sound startled the two girls out of their trance they ran to investigate where they noise had come from forgetting all about the disagreement they were having.

"I still got it." The old woman whispered to herself from the worn out chair.

"Nana, did you see what that ball did?" Gina squealed with delight.

"It flew right over the fence and we never touched it." Nikki chimed in.

"I do believe you two might be seeing things. A ball can't fly by itself, there would have to have been someone kicking it, since both of you were on opposite ends of the yard and I was in my chair, well you can see the logic." The old lady said walking by the two girls to go and retrieve the ball.

Gina looked at the old lady. "Come on Nana nothing moves like that unless by... by..."

"Magic?" Their grandmother finished.

The two little girls gawked, deep thoughts crossing their minds narrowing their brows.

"You didn't make the ball move did you, Nana?" Nikki asked suspiciously.

The old Lady looked from Nikki to Gina then back to Nikki, a slight smile appearing on her face. The girl's eyes widened in anticipation waiting for the answer but all they got was "Nah!"

Their faces dropped making them turn away from the old lady's smile, a smile revealing a secret only she knew.

Returning to her chair by the shade of the house she watched as her two blonde haired granddaughters began to occupy themselves with the great oak tree on the far end of the property. She had meant to put a tree house there, but after the girls were born they had shown very little interest in the tree until recently. She made a mental note to order the wood as well as the accessories to finish the small house.

The girls were now climbing up the trunk towards the first branch. Nikki being the smaller of the two reached the branch first and as most parents know, became fearless jumping along as if on a balance beam.

Gina reached the branch and watched as Nikki began to taunt her from a few feet away. "I got here first, you are slow." The look on Gina's face said it all; Nikki began swinging her hips back and forth teasing Gina for all it was worth.

"Stop it, Nikki... I hope you fall!" Gina screamed, no sooner had the words left her mouth when Nikki pivoted wrong causing her to miss on the landing. Nikki's face changed to terror the second she felt her self-falling to the ground.

Gina screamed loudly bringing the old lady awake. As if in slow motion, she watched as her youngest granddaughter left the top branch rushing helplessly towards the ground. The old lady with hands faster than her age concentrated on the grass below. Then with precision embraced with years caused the ground to rise two feet in the air with a circumference just the size of the small girl. The terrified child hit the ground as if balancing off a small trampoline; she submerged a foot and then was propelled up into the air landing harmlessly on her feet.

"Nikki! Nikki!" Gina screamed, climbing down the tree as fast as her little feet would move. Upon reaching the bottom she ran into Nikki smothering her in a blanket of hugs almost knocking her down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!"

The old lady ran over quickly checking Nikki out thoroughly without drawing attention to the fact that her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

"Nana, did you see the ground move? It turned into a trampoline." Nikki gushed quickly as her grandmother gave her the once over.

"It was the shock of the moment dear, hallucinations can run rampant under stress." The old lady said calmly.

"But I saw it...really. Nikki pleaded, "You saw it didn't you Gina?"

"Sorry the leaves blocked my view," Gina said with a slightly nervous tone.

"Shoot!" Nikki yelled.

"Come on let's get you back in the house, it's time to give you both a bath." She gently nudged the two girls towards the house, looking over her shoulder as the grass under the tree gave a slight bulge as if taking its final breath.

The bubbles wafted into the air as steam from the hot water bathed them gently the higher they climbed. Gina sat at one end of the bath and Nikki facing her from the end with the tap.

Covered in bubbles Nikki looked at her grandmother who had brought a chair next to the bath to watch them. "Nana?" Nikki asked pulling bubbles to her face to blow at her sister. "Remember the other day you told us about that little girl and her search for her parents?"

"Simeneon Enchantment, yes I remember." The old lady said as she made small eddies in the water with her fingers.

"Can you tell us another story please?" The two girls gave her their best puppy dog eyes and waited.

"You two are mean, alright where do I start?" "Where did we leave off last time?" She asked.

"Simeneon had just gotten the first key, the Key of Doultof." Gina chimed in.

"Right, so let me see the next would be the Key of Gandar, another very wicked wizard even worse than Doultof." The old lady sat back in her chair remembering the story and the best place to start. She looked up noticing the four candles placed around the room and smiled. With a slight wave of her wrist, she brought the room into complete darkness, smiling as she heard the high-pitched screams of the two young girls in the bath. Then with another slight twist, the candles began to illuminate as if on their own.

The two girls sat transfixed as the slight lapping sound of the flames filled the steam filled the air. "Simeneon was in trouble." The old lady spoke quietly, and by the looks of wide-eyed amazement on the girls' faces, she knew she had them. "Over the last few months the Doctor had got the two kids involved in rock climbing and on this particular occasion, Simeneon hung from her fingertips as the rocks far below her waited.