Planteria

Chapter 1

As I put my ear to the door, the voices inside got louder.

"The only other thing you can do for her now is make her comfortable, or somehow find an Angel Dew," I heard the doctor saying.

"But, those are a myth!" My father protested, his voice so deep it was more vibration than the actual sound.

"Some think so, and some don't. It's up to you to decide what risks you are willing to take," the doctor replied. Then, after a long pause, I heard my father speak.

"Say the Angel Dew did exist. How and where would I find it?"

"That is difficult to answer. The Angel Dew is said to grow by a mountain top stream, but only those worthy of its power can find them and bring them back safely."

"How does it, or people, know who's worthy?"

"People don't. As for the flower, that is one secret I don't think Mother Nature will ever share with us."

"Then maybe I need to talk with Mother Nature," I heard Father grumble.

I tuned the rest of their conversation out as I tried to remember what my mother always described an Angel Dew as. She said it is a star-shaped, pink flower with black edges. One drop of its dew can cure any illness, but it has to be directly from the flower; you can't just collect the dew and bring it home for later. One of the families in the village learned that the hard way. Mother also said they only grew in the Skydreamer's part of the Never Mountains. From what I've heard about them, they aren't very friendly to the other races. The only other race they treat as their own is the Saph, mainly because you never want to get on the wrong side of the Saph. I yanked myself out of my thoughts, away from the door, and around the corner when I heard the doorknob rattle.

"How is she?" I asked Father when he came into the room. I decided pretending to be oblivious to what the doctor said was the best way to go.

"She's getting better!" Father told me, a fake smile plastered onto his face. "Though I may need to take a trip soon for work, I'll know the details by the end of the week."

The doctor gave my father an odd look but took his payment and left without saying anything.

"Good!" I said, "It's about time Mother started getting better."

I could see the pain and guilt my father hid from me on his face. Even a blind illiterate could read his face like a book. Finally, after a few minutes of awkward silence, I couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm going for a walk; I don't know when I'll be back," I told Father. He looked like he was about to protest, but all he said was, "have fun."

As I quickly went outside, I breathed in the crisp air. We were right next to a mountain, so the air is colder here than it is anywhere else in the world, not that I've been anywhere other than Planteria. I didn't know where I was going, but apparently, my feet did because I ended up in front of Old Man Wilson's house. He's the town storyteller, and he always has the best stories, whether they are true or not. I walked up to the door and was about to knock when it opened.

"Ah, I knew you'd be coming," Old Man Wilson said. "Come in, I have a pot of water brewing for hot chocolate."

Old Man Wilson is a Foz, one of the three primary races. The other two are the Saph and the Skydreamers. The Foz is the most friendly and social of the races. My family and I are Foz, and we always had lots of people over before mother got sick. The Saph mostly keep to themselves, but there are always a few in town, trading goods or visiting a friend. The Skydreamers are kind of stuck up, but they are the foremost inventors of our world, so we try to ignore it. The Skydreamers main village is about midway up the Never Mountains, and it's about a 5-day journey from Foz Forest to Kyanos. Foz Forest is where most of the Foz live, including my family and me, though as the same as the other races, we are scattered throughout various places.