Her World

o n e

Everything is in slow motion. It's like they're trying to send me a message, something is coming and they can't tell if it's good or bad. I watch slowly as the red and orange leaf falls into my hand. Nobody else can see the purple lines seeping into the leaf, telling me that they need to speak.

"Echo! Hurry up we have to go!" I snapped my head to my bedroom door which I could hear my mom yelling outside of who also seems is very persistent on me being a lady and taking me to therapy every Friday doesn't help with that image.

I quickly draw the secret pattern on the leaf, telling them that I am safe and I would talk to them later, then I threw my pen across the room and hid the leaf behind my back just as my mom barged through the door of my bedroom. She looked me up and down, sighed, then finally said, " Let's go."

I waited for her to leave my room then turned around, crumpled up the leaf and blew it out of my hand and into the chilly fall air, towards the forest. I ran down the stairs quickly so that I wouldn't get yelled at by my mom, who was already agitated with me.

My mom stayed silent the whole ride to Dr. Wes' office, just like always, plain silence for a whole thirty minutes. Just how my mom liked it.

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As we pulled up to Dr. Wes' office I kissed my mom on the cheek and told her I would see her in two hours. When I walked into Dr. Wes' office I saw him talking on the phone to someone. He nods at me telling me to come in and sit down. As I wait for him I begin to think about the message Whisper sent to me. What could possibly be coming? Why was there the need to tell me? And what's the deal with not knowing if it's good or bad?

"Ms. Cooper? Are you ready to start this weeks session?"

Dr. Wes says pulling my out of my thoughts, "Yeah, I guess."

"Your mom has been telling me that you have been talking to yourself a lot lately. Would you like to tell me about that first?" He asks.

"I wasn't talking to myself. I was sending a message to Whisper and Autumn." I said as I defended my best friends.

" Who is Whisper and Autumn?" He asks confused.

I look at him, wondering if it is safe for me to talk about my friends without giving away their identities, finally I told him, " My friends."

"Ahh... yes... well there seems to be nobody named Whisper or Autumn in Aeredale." He said.

"They don't really live here. They live close to the forest." As I told him that my friends live close to the forest he scrunched up his eyebrows and sat there for a minute.

"That's odd. Most people are scared of the forest here because of the wild animals, your friends must be very brave." I hear the honking of my mom's car telling me it was time to go home. I sighed and thanked time for being so quick.

"Well looks like time is up Echo. I'll see you next week."

I gather up my things quickly saying that I will see him next week also and that my mom would be on time, like always. As I rush towards my moms car I notice the gray rain clouds telling me that I would be in for a walk when going to the forest to see Whisper and Autumn. Oh well... this was important and I know that they would be annoyed with me if I bailed on them because of some rain.

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When I got home I rushed upstairs, telling my mom that I was going to take a nice, long bath so she wouldn't get suspicious of me being gone for so long. As soon as I get into my room I lock the door, put on my boots and raincoat, open my window then jump out into the cool rainy weather and down onto the wet grass. I look back to make sure my mom didn't see me, then run off to the woods. Half way into the woods I stop and turn towards the tree that has purple vines running down it and the blue blossoms opening telling everyone that I'm here. Suddenly I drop to the ground face first. I know that it has to be a guardian.

"I'm not an intruder. It's Echo!" I scream so that she can hear me.

"Echo?" I hear Fray's voice as she gets off of me, flies up into the air and pulls her bow out just incase I'm lying to her. I shoot up onto my feet and show her my face so that she will put down her bow. She puts it down slowly and lands onto her feet then asks me, "Who are you?"

Her eyes turn golden putting me in a trance, "Echo Cooper." I say robotically since I am basically hypnotized.

She lets out a deep sigh as her eyes turn back to her normal hazel color. "We thought that you were an intruder."

"Yeah, I can see that. Where is Whisper I need to talk to her." I ask her nicely.

"She needs to talk to you too, she thinks that Orilon is in trouble even Ashbourne." She says seriously.

Orilon is the forest where all of the animals, pixies, faye, anything that is a myth to the human world you can find it in Orilon, that's where they live, but humans don't know about it. Eastbourne is where all the good is on one side of the forest and Ashbourne is where all Dark Magic happens. I have never been there the stories you hear about that place creeps me out. Whisper is basically the Queen here. She is the last vision fairy out of all of us even the faye in Ashbourne, but she is also my best friend. Don't ask me how I came to know everything about the faye or Orilon, because honestly I don't know what happened for me to find this place. Whisper says that I just wandered into Orilon, but you can't get in unless you have faye blood or a faye with you. I have the suspicion that she is lying, but with no proof I don't know what actually happened.

"Echo? You've been staring at that tree for ten minutes. Come on, you never keep the Queen waiting, even if she is your best friend." She says as we venture to the center of Eastbourne to see my best friend, like Fray said, never keep a Queen waiting.

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