To Come Home

Chapter 1: To Leave Home

I think I'm about to attempt something crazy, something really crazy. Something I've never tried before, something I don't think anyone has ever tried before, but these are very desperate times, and I must get innovative under such circumstances. They are almost here, I need to hurry up. Quick, what do I need? I need a jar of wind, some dirt, some water, and light. I'm definitely going to need my wand for something like this. Oh Lordess, I feel like I'm missing something, but what? Something that travels! Of course, I need a bird.

I run to the window and whistle the Song of the Birds, I hear some call back to me. I sing louder, and a Blue Walopee finds its way through my window and to my hand. What a beautiful creature it is, with its bold, neon blue feathers and mossy green beak. They sing some of the most beautiful songs in the forest, it's a shame that I must do to it what I'm about to do. I put it in a box and pull my mirror out of my pouch, "to the mirror that tells all, please tell me, how long till they make me fall?"

The mirror replies, "to the master that gives me all, I'll tell you, you have but minutes till you crawl." Oh Lordess, the twisted ways you test us.

I quickly grab a jar and head outside, I open it and hold it up to the sky,

"with this jar,

I call to the sky,

To where the clouds reside up far,

I wish to trap those winds from so high."

I feel the wind tunnel into the jar and close it quickly. I grab a handful of dirt and head inside. I have everything I need.

I put the jar of wind facing north. The dirt facing east. The lit candle facing south. The cup of water facing west. And the box with the Blue Walopee goes in the middle of it all. I pull my sapphire wand from my pouch and begin the most dangerous thing I've ever attempted; at this very spot, at this coming moment, I either succeed or fail – I live or die... here I go...

I face the north, pointing my wand to the jar of wind, " I call the skies to me,"

I face east, pointing my wand at the dirt, "I call the earth to me,"

I face south, pointing my wand to the fire, "I call the sun to me,"

I face the west, pointing my wand at the water, "I call the waters to me,"

I take the bird out of its box and hold it tightly in my hand. I slit its throat with my wand. Its vermillion blood soaks over its feathers, slowly darkening all that was once bright and alive. I squeeze the blood from its body and pour it all around me, creating a circle of its blood around myself, connected to all four elements.

"To the four Elements of Life I call,

To You I give this offering.

This is a traveler that is small,

He is who I wish to be honoring:

I wish to travel as he,

In this place I no longer can be.

Bring me to a place with Your skies,

Which will always absorb my cries.

To a place with Your earth,

From which You bring birth.

To a place with Your sun,

From which I shall never run.

And to a place with water,

Where I can live on as Your daughter."

I can hear their voices nearing me. I grasp my wand tighter, and squeeze the bird tighter, and try the chant again, but with more power. I close my eyes, focus all my energy into the wand, and chant my words once more.