The Earth's Secret - The Hidden Island - Book 1

Chapter 4 - The Treehouse

We all stood up, feeling refreshed and energized. "Our next order of business is to find a place to live for now," Charlie said. "Now that we have these things, and now that the original wands are gone, I think some of their power went into our weapons and some came into us."

I caught on to his theory. "And if we work together, we can make a perfect, safe place." Charlie nodded.

Sarah spoke. "I think we should all design our own rooms, but we should work together on the rest."

"I also think that we should do some of this by hand." Laura had piped up.

We talked for a while and decided that we would build our place across the meadow from the volcano. There were several tall, leafy trees that would make for an amazing tree house. That night, we slept near the base of the trees, but I couldn't sleep. I looked at the stars, the stars that were as bright as fires in the sky. I couldn't explain it, but I felt closer to my mom here. I fell asleep looking at the stars. The next morning, we woke up, mysteriously not hungry. We had already talked over the plan yesterday (at this point, we had all realized that some magic was helping us accept what was happening around us. Otherwise we would have gone mad).

Sarah sat on the ground and began pulling clumps of iron and other metals and shaping them into nuts and bolts, nails, and tools. The metal bent easily in her fingers, and soon, she had enough to build a ship. When she had finished that, she walked over to a tree and used her magic to pull already smooth wooden boards from the tree. The tree didn't lose any wood at all- it just gave Sarah supplies.

Laura was high in the sky- she had always been a pro at weaving (which didn't make sense with her personality), so she was pulling fluffy clouds from the sky and bringing them down. When she had enough, she began to form little strings with them. She wove these strands together, and soon she had some thread to weave with.

Charlie was making a rope ladder. After Laura had woven him a rope, and Sarah given him wood, he was burning neat holes in the wood and threading the rope through. He was searing smaller patterns in the wood and using some of Sarah's gems (she could summon anything under the earth) to make the wood decorative.

I was making a little stream to give us water. It came from a little collecting pool on the edge of the higher end of the meadow. I had coaxed the water this way, having it flow into a 9-foot deep pond of our own. It was fairly wide, and shallow on the edges. We could swim in the pool and use the water from the steam to drink.

After around 3 hours, we had all finished our first tasks. We tackled the 3 trees, going for the biggest first. Laura began to cut away some of the unnecessary branches with her spear, and Sarah healed the tree where Laura had cut it. Charlie and I hauled up some of the boards and began nailing them in place. We planned to have this tree be our bedroom tree, and although we would later personalize it, we needed a base. We clung to the tree with our legs and worked with our hands. We all seemed to have general powers, too, like being able to hang on with our legs while 20 feet above the ground.

Sarah helped after only large, necessary branches remained. When the four of us worked together, the work went by quickly. After only a day, we had successfully laid the base for our first tree house.

Towards the evening, I jumped into the pond and sank to the bottom, breathing slowly. My friends must have guessed my power because no one said anything. When my friends jumped in, I swam up and scared them. We splashed around for a while, cleaning ourselves and playing at the same time. The water was warm, and when we got out, our clothes were barely damp. Still not hungry, we went to sleep.

The next day was the same thing but with the other trees. Laura finished her weaving and hung nets and ropes in between the triangle of trees. Soon, we had zip lines, climbing ropes, nets to fall into, and a bunch of other fun stuff. We laughed for a while, toying with the fun stuff, but after a break, around noon, we personalized our rooms.

Sarah's was closest to the ground, being the earth lady. Charlie was next, I was after that, and Laura was at the top.

I walked into my room. There were no railings, but I felt safe. We had attached Charlie's rope ladder, so we could get up to all levels.

My room was a circle around the trunk of the tree, and there was a thick branch jutting out into the center of the three trees. I had brought my staff was with me, and I stood on the floor with it in my hand. I had an instinct of what to do next.

I slammed the butt of my staff into the floor. Blue mist spread across the floor from that point in a circle. It crept up the trunk, and I began to work my magic.

I studied the trunk and imagined a bed opposite the branch, a comfy, soft, inviting bed. The mist wrapped around the trunk. I felt the orb at the top of my staff shudder. When the mist cleared, I saw a bed just as I had described it to myself, lying on a wood slab that was connected to the trunk. I slammed my staff against the floor again and my bed melted into the trunk until there was nothing there. Perfect!

I hung coral from the ceiling- I don't know how it was alive, but I just called for it- and decorated the floor with smooth seashells and sand that didn't stick to your feet but was soft and easy to walk on.

I put my staff on my bed- I had unmelted it out of the trunk- and flipped through some of my books. The one that attracted me was an old, leather-bound one that had no name. It was in a strange language- one with odd symbols and such- but I imagined the symbols melting into English. That didn't happen, but the book glowed blue and the symbols made sense.

It was clearly a spell book, telling incantations and such. I studied a small group of icons that intrigued me. They looked somewhat like this:

ട്രൻസ്പൊർറ്റ്

I looked at the symbols below it and deciphered them. From what I understood, the spell would transport me wherever I needed to go. I closed the book and pictured the icon in my head. The orb on top of my staff blazed, and the same symbol appeared above it. I shut off my concentration- there was no need for foolish magic, not now. I picked up another book that must have been the newest, with a gleaming, solid silver cover and white, almost glowing pages, I flipped through the pages until I came to the pages that seemed to be giving off the most light. I sat down of the large branch with my back to the trunk and began to read- this book was in English, but it looked like it had been handwritten. I read:

'Of all of the myths and legends of the mortal world, this one is the hardest to find. Very few have discovered it, and those who do rarely ever speak of it again.

It is said that there was one goddess long ago- one whom the books never mention. Her children were the most powerful people in the world. This goddess was called many things, but her most common name was Haraka, goddess of the earth and all that was around it.

Haraka lived in a city of clouds with her immortal citizens, but to truly be in control of the world, she had to choose places to anchor herself to the earth. She chose several hidden places, including an enchanted island.'

I stared at the paper, which seemed to have gotten colder.

'Haraka had children with many mortals, as to not have to control the elements on her own. She used this island to call to them. Eventually, the four most powerful children would find it, learn to harness their powers, and use it for the good of the world.'

The myth ended here, but I continued to stare at the pages, which were just as bright as they had been when I had picked up the book. This put in the last puzzle piece. Why we had landed here, why we hadn't been able to stress out... she had helped us get over the shock. She was our mother.

I had never met my mother. She had left my father early on, but my dad always said that she was the best thing that ever happened to him.

And Laura and Sarah and Charlie... they were my siblings. We were the four most powerful.

Word Count: 1356

Total Word Count: 7429