Maginearia's Magic: Book Two Of The Cursed Series

Chapter 1: Nightmares ✔️

I'm running terrified, something is chasing me, wanting to kill me, he's chasing me in the woods, wanting to devour me. I run screaming and trip falling onto the ground, I'm roughly flipped over and suddenly I'm in another room, this room is dark and filled with black marble.

A figure cloaked in darkness is sitting on a throne, waiting for me, I see a flash of red in the shadow of his throne and even though I couldn't see what it was, that mere flash of blood red sent chills of fear down to the very of my being. I thrashed as some invisible force flung me this way and that, ripping me into thousands of pieces trying to........

"Iris, sweetie wake up. You're having a nightmare again, you gotta wake up or you're gonna get a magic surge and that's never good." Magnolia wakes me up gently, looking at my panting and sweat covered body that was tangled up in the sheets, with immense sympathy.

"I just don't know why this keeps happening?" I say confused as I sit up and Magnolia pats me motherly on the shoulder "Why does this man chase me through the woods trying to kill me, why is this cloaked figure waiting for me , why does a flash of blood red in the shadows scare me so much?" I pull at my hair with immense frustration.

"Oh, sweetie, it's just nightmares. Things your brain is trying to tell you or things you're afraid of, they might even be memories from before we found you" I flinch as she mentions finding me, they found me lying bruised and broken, with all the bones on the right side of my body shattered. It took a week with the magic of many Magineara elders to heal me completely, yet I still get twinges of pain from time to time, when it's really cold or too warm.

"Yes, but what is my brain trying to tell me? Why does it happen every single night, even with potions and charms to ward away or all together stop nightmares? What is so important for me to know that it can't even let me rest soundly for a single night!" I say and huff, as tears start streaming down my face without my permission.

"Dry your face dear, you're going to go through the ceremony soon, most witches take years to get up to this stage, but you did it in a few weeks. You should be proud my dear, now wash up and get ready for the trip of your life!" Magnolia says happily and walks out of the stone room with a skip in her step.

I wash my face in the stone basin and try to find anything that feels familiar on my face, for example there's a small scar on my cheek, but I have no memory of how or when it got there. It's unimaginably frustrating to see your face and know it's your face, but to not remember if you look more like your mother or father, or even a mix between the two. To see a scar or marking and not know how you got it, for example I look at the white dragon that was almost cleverly mixed in with my Magineara markings, but when I touch it, it goes pitch black and an almost tickling like sensation starts in my mind. Like it's looking for something and it's not there or it's blocked, it's like an itch you can never scratch and it's very irritating.

I pull on the white ceremonial robe and look at my face, bare of make up and all natural, my hair, completely wild and free, left to do what it wishes. I look wild but when I'm like this I feel free and a spark starts in my eyes when I think of how free I would feel if only I could fly high in the sky. I walk to the ceremonial room, barefooted and bare of everything save for a white robe, I go through the stone tunnel which was in the mountain most of the Magineara have decided to make their home, if you were a Magineara you lived in or on the mountain or at least very close, this was a very tightly knit bloodline, nothing like the other bloodlines I've read about who all kill each other for sport, or over a stupid throne.

It was a waste of life, for nothing more than pride, power, or riches, though most think they don't need anything else. They're wrong you can be pride-less, poor, and weak and still have enough love in your life to be happy, it's all about who you're with and where you are, after all home is where the heart is and even though this is my new home, it doesn't feel like it. My heart always seems to long for something far away from here.

I reach the ceremonial doors and think back to why I'm here, what I'm about to do, what I get to do. When a child of the Magineara bloodline reaches a certain level in magic they get to do the ceremony, they are to have nothing but what nature gave them when they enter the pocket realm, their body is the only thing nature gave them, so they enter naked and bare of all necessities. They were then blessed by the elders before touching the only relic that the Magineara bloodline has, Magineara's wand, it transports the children of the Magineara bloodline to another realm, a pocket realm.

This pocket realm was dedicated to one single very important thing, the gifting of a wand. The young witch would touch the wand and be transported, where they would then wander around the everlasting Forest of the Sprigs. The young witch will wander around until they see a tree branch that glimmers to their eyes, they will then either be able to reach it or have to climb to get it, but when they touch it the heart of the tree, usually an animal will go into the new wand as the power core, their spirit serving as power and since a body cannot live without a heart, the tree will die. Leaving a black spot on the earth where no tree will ever grow again until the previous owner of the wand dies and the wand is broken to release the spirit.

I take a deep breath as I stare at the beautiful metal work doors, full of flowers and pictures of nature, I take a deep breath and open the doors, finally accepting my fate.