Free Realms

Chapter 1

"THAT'S IT!" I yelled, "I'm not going to take this anymore."

"Jade," my dad asked, "What on Earth are you taking about?"

"Every time you have guests over, you treat me like a slave!" I had exploded. After the two men had left my anger seeped out.

"That is not true!" My mother argued.

"Then why do I do everything for you?" I asked, "Is it because your RICH!?" By now I didn't even care how my parents punished me, I just needed to let it all out.

"Honey---"

"No Mom I'm not going to take this." I stormed out the front door, not even looking back.

I didn't even care where I was going, I was just leaving. I began running towards the forest behind our house. Within the trees was my sanctuary, secluded, empty, alone. The one place I could escape from life, the one place I felt safe. I ran through the woods dodging trees for a good couple of minutes. I stopped, leaning against a tree, and slowly lowering myself down. I rested by a large oak tree with a smaller birch in front of me. My eyes trailed up the birch tree until they hit a small carving in the trunk. I stood up to examine it. The carving was a picture of another tree. It had roots swirling out of the bottom of the trunk and large bushy leaves, like the kind a kindergartener would draw. I reached out my hand and ran my fingers over the carving. Suddenly my vision clouded over, I fell to my knees, my head screaming in pain, my vision went completely black. Then, nothing.

When I opened my eyes again, ever so slightly, I wasn't in a forest anymore. I closed my eyes again and silently groaned in pain.

"Do you think she's alright?" I heard a female voice ask, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings.

Strange, I thought.

"The better question is," a male voice said, "Where did she come from?"

I opened both my eyes and tried to sit up.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed, "She's awake!"

I looked to my left and saw a boy, probably around 17, my age, standing there, tilting his head at me. He wore orange high tops, blue cargo jeans, and an orange tee shirt with a flying squirrel on it. The more I studied the squirrel I noticed that it had human like eyes and a smile. It was also golden with blue stripes. Underneath the flying squirrel it said Camp Chatty. The boy had short brown hair and blue eyes. When I looked to my right I was taken by surprise at what I saw. A girl, who also looked 17, hovered about six inches off the ground. She wore red folded over high tops, a layered red skirt with leggings underneath, and a pink tank top with a red cardigan over it. The weirdest thing about her was the fact that she had long red wings sticking out of her back. She was short probably only four feet tall, but the fact that she hovered above the ground made up for that. She had long, dark brown hair flowing down her back.

"Hello?" The girl asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Jade," I said reluctant to share my name with these people, "Jade BubbleJumper."

"See!?" The boy exclaimed in joy, "I told you she was one of us!"

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "But, one of who, exactly?"

"The People of the Realms." The boy replied simply.

"The who?"

"The people who live here." The girl cleared up, "Oh, by the way, I'm Leila RoseEyes. This is Daniel ShadowBlade."

"How exactly am I one of you, I don't live here." I said in confusion.

"Well, that would explain the whole, falling from the sky thing..." Daniel said.

"I FELL FROM THE SKY?!?!?!" I practically screamed.

"Yes..." Leila said slowly.

"I touched a tree and fell from the darn sky." I said, trying to make sense of it myself.

"We should probably get you to a doctor..." Daniel said.

"Yeah, that'd be great!" I replied.

"This way." Leila said pointing forward. I looked the way she was pointing. In front of me was a large arch with the same tree as in the carving and a large sign underneath it that said SANCTUARY