Oliver and I walked through the forest exchanging small smiles every few moments. I felt a little strange walking next to him with his sword in hand. I felt like I had stepped right into one of my brothers video games.
“So…What area are you from Pandora?” Oliver asked.
“Well I live in Bushland Beach…but…” I answered.
“No I mean…Like what Main are you?” He laughed.
“What Main?”
“You don’t know what Main you are?”
“I don’t even know what a Main is,” I said shrugging my shoulders, “Care to explain?”
“It’s like whatever element you originated from. Like me. I’m a Fire Elf. And then you have your Water Nymphs, your Rock Giants and Wind Fairies. Technically Animal Tamers didn’t originate from an element, but they are highly regarded,”
“Um. I’m part of the Mathematics club? Does that count?” I giggled. Oliver stopped for a moment, meaning I stopped as well.
“Wait. Did you get here by a…door…of some sort?”
“Yeah I did. I walked through the door to my sisters room and ended up here which was really weird,”
Oliver looked as though he just remembered something that was crucial to life. He began walking again, faster than ever.
“What? What is it?” I questioned him, running to catch up.
“I must get you to Arthur. He might know how to fix this,”
“Fix what?”
“You shouldn’t have been able to come here unless you spoke to the Gatekeeper Beings. They control who comes here and who goes out. The trick is that they speak an ancient language that no one but them can speak. I once heard it was some type of….Italian? But I don’t know what that means,”
“These beings,” I began, stepping over a log, “Do they have long capes? And bald heads?”
“So it is said, Yes,”
“I met them. And spoke to them,”
“You did? Prove it,”
“Ti rifiuti di credere e cosi facendo si e testardo. Does that count?”
“Okay I believe you. We still need to get back to Arthur though. If the Beings let you through, then you must be here for a reason,”
I trailed along behind Oliver, wondering why the Gatekeeper Beings wanted me to be here. This was crazy. This sort of thing just didn’t happen to my family. We were way too ordinary. Deep in thought, I didn’t even realise that Oliver had stopped, so I moseyed on past him.
“Oliver…What’s up?” I asked.
“Shhhh! Get down,” He whispered, ducking behind a large log. I followed quickly behind him, when three men emerged. Between two of them was a very small boy. He looked like Oliver, only smaller. I guessed that they were brothers.
“Crap! They have Robby. Listen, Pandora, stay here and don’t come out until I say,” Oliver whispered. I began to protest, but he was already off. I watched him carefully. He moved out from around the side of the log, crouching down, sword ready for any danger. He quickly ran across the clearing, moving to the other side. He was inches away from the men.
“Sit down ya lil’ brat! We don’t want no funny business kay?” One of the men ordered. He was tall, but large around the waist. At his side he had a brown leather side bag and in his left hand he held a double sided battle axe. He had red markings on his face and black hair. The other two men were much the same. The smallest man had very large ears and he too had red markings on his face. I looked at the markings closely. On each man, they were different, but they definitely all belonged to the same group. The young boy, Robby, sat on a tree root, looking up at the three men.
