Enchanted

Hazy

My eyes felt glued together.

The tiredness in my bones forced my lids to stay shut, despite the fact that my brain was wide awake. Or maybe half. Or one-third. I groaned, turning towards the side as I rubbed my bleary eyes and forced them open.

I squinted at the sunlight shining in from the curtains. God, did I forget to draw them yesterday? My head throbbed as I turned away from the bright light, mind reeling. Then I blinked.

Wait, those weren't my curtains, were they? Mine were a lovely shade of lilac with daisies and sunflowers all over it. And these were... stripes. I cringed as my head throbbed more at the dizzying pattern.

Looking around the room, I saw that everything was exactly the same as my room. But who changed my curtains? Anxiously, I jumped out of bed - which was a bad idea, I realised, as I became dizzy for a moment. As it recovered, a million thoughts raced through my mind.

Who changed my curtains? Did someone break in? What happened last night? Why are my curtains different? When did I get home? Why don't I remember anything? Did I drink? I didn't, right? What in the world is going on?!

All of a sudden, a cheerful feminine voice spoke, "Oh hello, you're awake!" I jumped in fear as I turned around, seeing a middle-aged woman with an apron around her. A scream escaped my lips. Who was she, and why was she in my house?!

Her hand waved, and my mouth snapped shut, sealing the scream in. My eyebrows drew together in panic and confusion. What did she do to me? Was she a witch? Oh my god, I've been kidnapped by an evil being! Horrible thoughts of disturbing scenarios ran through my mind as my heart went into overdrive.

"Dear, I'm not here to harm you. Welcome to Enchanteur Academy!" She smiled. Seeing the look of pure horror on my face, she laughed and continued, "I'm Martha, and I'm your dorm mistress. Let me explain to you all of these - I know it's a huge shock but after my explanation, I think you'll get it."

House Mistress? Enchanteur Academy? I gestured to the curtains, wiggling my lips as I tried to speak. Her hand waved again, and my mouth felt as though it had just been unglued. I looked at her thankfully yet warily. She was going to explain everything, so I would let her. Screaming wouldn't solve the problem - but I had one very important question: "Where am I? These aren't my curtains. They're lilac, and full of flowers. Y'know, just saying. If you're trying to mimic my room decor, you aren't doing a very good job."

She sighed. "I knew I had something wrong here. I was trying to make you feel more comfortable here in your little house at the Academy, but apparently I didn't do a very good job of the curtains." With a cock of her head, the curtains vanished as my lilac, flowery one flew to take its place. Wonder infiltrated my mind. What was going on?

"For a formal introduction, I'm Martha Stormberg and I'm your dorm mistress for this year. You're currently at Enchanteur Academy, where magic and wonder enchants. More will be explained in," she blinked as a golden booklet appeared out of nowhere and dropped onto my hands, "the Booklé. Basically, you were blessed by the hand of our god, La Aria, who is known as Lightning to human beings. Let me demonstrate."

Fluttering her fingers, a piece of glass as tall and wide as the wall appeared. I stared in amazement, noticing her every move. As she put her hand out, a spark danced through the glass, as though in it. With a smacking gesture, the spark glowed and shined as it grew bigger and bigger, erupting into flames. I jumped back instinctively, but not before water was splashed at the fire and it sizzled as it vanished.

"The Enchanteurs in the Academy are blessed with an element each that they are strong in - either fire, water, or wind. We are put in this world to protect the Earth and its beings from any ill-treatment. We have magical powers that help us heal our Mother Earth, but most of us are merely descendants of our gods, La Aria and El Ezra - the lightning and the wind. As we go further down the family tree, our magical powers are weaker and there will come a time when we will no longer have magic in our soul and stardust in our bones. Being directly blessed by La Aria, causes you to have extremely strong magical potential, and that, is extremely rare.

"Now, those two elements were fire and water - let me show you my strongest element," Martha said proudly. "Wind."

A strong gust of wind blew in from the open windows as I gripped tightly onto my bedside table to prevent from flying away. Quick as a flash, the water left on the floor evaporated completely. As the wind died down, I shivered from the coldness while taking it all in.

"At eight twenty-seven last night, you were very fortunate to have been bestowed the hand of Aria, the lightning strike--"

"Wait, hold up. Do you mean I just got struck by lightning?" My voice rose at the last word. I rambled on, "If I was struck by lightning, I should be brought to the hospital! Not this weird place where you're trying to do magic when I could possibly die from the electricity in me! I should have died, right? Wait, why didn't I? Wait, what?"

"Niña, you may want to calm down. Our Enchanteurs are twenty times better than the common hospital doctors you have. Plus, the electricity in you is powerful - giving you your magical powers and not harming you in any way at all."

I took a deep breath and sighed. "Can I, uh, have some time to myself to, like, process all of these please? Thank you, really, for your help but I just need some time to take it all in."

Martha smiled at me, "Take all the time you want. Let me know if you have any questions. Your Booklé contains special information about how you were 'turned' and such, so it has practically everything. Take a look, okay?"

I nodded, giving her a small smile in gratitude. Everything was so overwhelming. So... I was an, what do they call it, Enchanteur? And I was... struck by lightning. That's right. And how did I get here? Where was Scott?

I sighed again and opened the golden booklet, caressing the smooth cover. Here we go.

***

Light flooded the room - not by electricity, but by fire. The flaming sparks crackled and danced along my white walls. Heat pulsed through me from head to toe as the energy ran through my being. I watched the wall erupt in flames in fascination, eyes unconsciously widened in excitement.

I, Lily Crawford, could do all of these? Disbelief took over me. I was stunned. The water I had made appear from the ceiling so I could rinse my dishevelled hair and tame it, the wind I had conjured up to dry my hair and the fire that spread across the wall to provide heat after being drenched by the cold water... how was it even possible?

That was a stupid question.

The sparkling book adorned with gold details lying on my bed had told me everything I needed to know. The number of times my jaw had dropped, or said, "It's not possible" was difficult to count with my fingers and toes even if I had twenty arms and twenty feet. It was unbelievable. Yet, it was happening right before my very eyes.

A wave of dizziness washed over me. I stumbled, closing my eyes as I fell back onto the soft bed. Exhaustion - I could feel it in my veins. Inhaling, I waited for four counts before holding my breath for seven. Eight counts later, I exhaled and felt sleepiness take me away. The magic I had done had exhausted me - the Booklé said as much, and as I practised, I would have more power.

As I fell asleep, I felt myself unconsciously touch the lightning bolt mark on my shoulder before I dove into unconsciousness, welcoming it with open arms.

***
another short chapter that I wrote ages ago but didn't publish! i hope you liked it and have a really great day :-) do vote and comment so I know if you like it so far! thanks for reading y'all!