 
The Ethereal Wanderers

By Ariana Torres

Copyright 2015 Ariana Torres

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition,License Notes

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Ethereal:

ɪˈθɪərɪəl/adjective

extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.

Wanderer:

ˈwɒnd(ə)rə(r)/noun

a person who travels aimlessly; a traveller.

Ariana Torres Garcia

Colombia, Bogota

To Sebastian and Santiago, who in their short age have taught me to dream fiercely, dance freely, and love without limits.

We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.

Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmun

Contents

1. Fun Adventures with a Demon Giraffe! / Mya

2. The Delightful Screams of an Italian/British English Speaker / Mya

3. Patters and Colors / Nico

4. A Cheshire Cat Smile / Nico

5. Excitement with the offer of a guided tour / Mya

6. Happily (not really) chilling with a Rotten Corpse / Mya

7. The Sound of the Universe / Nico

8. Vegetarian Burritos and Meditation / Nico

9. Taking a peaceful midnight walk with The Lord of Darkness / Mya

10. We doubt the proper definition of a Jungle / Mya

11. The Stone of Feathers / Nico

12. Sea of Air / Nico

13. Meeting Mr. I Like Messing Up with Other People's Happiness / Mya

14. The Hidden Powers behind a Chocolate Donut / Mya
Epilogue

15. An Angry, Somewhat Teary Welcome / Mya

16. The Ethereal Wanderers / Nico

Glossary

Author's Note

About the Author

Fun Adventures with a Demon Giraffe!

**Mya**

Believe it or not, the problem was that those big gray eyes were never looking at me. Ugh, I hated that kid. I shouldn't have looked, I should never look. If I had learned something in my entire life, was never to look at him. Never to get my hopes up that he will be looking. And how to successfully evaporate a demon. But that skill doesn't come in handy on a daily bases. Actually, it kind of does. But more on that later.

So on this beautiful autumn day, I was trapped in the old and air-conditioned Theater de La Mars. Since the last 5 weeks, I had spent every day plotting to run away to the forest of Arden with my best friend, getting caught up in the extremely intricate web of lies of being Rosalind for two acts, being Rosalind as Ganymede for the other one, and being Rosalind as Ganymede as Rosalind in the next two acts. It was complicated to say the lest. But awesome, being another person (or three) for at least 4 hours a day was a blessing for me.

The day by itself started out pretty horribly. Waking up to a loud knock on the door wasn't exactly my idea of fun. "Mya". Darn it.

"Mya"

Oh god

"Mya"

Just ignore her, maybe do a snoring sound I thought.

"Mya! I know you are in there, don't play dead on me"

....

..

"MYA come on out, something horrible happened. Magnolia is dead and the fluorine exploded all over the floor, and Miss Janiza is screaming and cursing in who knows what language " Lia sounded exasperated, when she stopped using punctuation marks I knew something was wrong.

Plus, if what she said were true, Magnolia would be dead. I didn't even wanted to think that because I had cared so much for her, I had been cultivated her for at least 11 months. I put on some shoes, with my eyes barely open and my heart thumping, and opened the door.

"Dear god Lia what happened?" I asked. Lia was in front of me; her beautiful red curls both disordered and elegant. Her green eyes fierce and cold, but with that red tint that I knew she had been crying. Dear Lia, I didn't know how she did it.

"I came into the classroom very early in the morning, in fact nobody was there. I noticed the smell right away, then figured it was some kind of strange fragrance Miss J had put on overnight. I had forgotten about it, until I noticed that there was a long shadow in the wall, a long shadow that was caressing me. In the wall, the shadow of a giraffe was shown"

"A giraffe? Well I certainly didn't expect that " I said.

"However the giraffe was not exactly a regular giraffe-" Lia continued, ignoring my question-"he had a human face. He was a giraffe, but his face characteristics were of a human. A familiar one actually. The eyes were cold; the lips were surrounded by blood. He looked straight into my eyes, like if he was searching something there. A secret" she paused for a moment, her words had progressively gotten softer as she spoke, there was definitely something wrong.

"Before I even had the chance to scream, Miss Janiza came into the classroom, singing out loud a merengue or something. Then she noticed the beast, and as quickly as she could, she took a mixture from the cabinet and poured it all over the giraffe. The giraffe fell dead into the floor, and started turning white. Then he disappeared and left a little white tint on the wood"

"She used a demon disappearance potion" I said, concerned.

"She did"

"So you are saying that sweet Magnolia turned into a bloodthirsty demon that wanted to murder you?"

"Yes indeed. I am sorry Mya"

We ran into the left wing of Namitabia. I hadn't even changed my pajamas but honestly I didn't cared anymore. When we finally got into the Amaranth Moon classroom, the first thing I noticed was the great amount of people that were in there. It was probably the first time that I had seen more than ten people in the so mocked room of "plant geeks", that it seemed chaotic and as if something horrible had happened.

Shortly after, people started noticing that I was in there. Once they saw me they fell silent, looking at me with sorrow in their eyes. However, when Miss Janiza saw me, her eyes turned red and started screaming and cursing in probably ten languages all at once. "How on Earth were you supposed to leave fluorine next to Magnolia?" she screamed some times "It almost killed that little red headed girl that you seem to call your friend" she screamed others. "Wanga misempha!"

I told her multiple times that I hadn't put fluorine next to Magnolia, that yesterday I didn't even went into Amaranth because I had rehearsals the whole day; but she didn't listened.

Slowly but surely, people started leaving the room; their eyes being now full of anger and resentment than of sorrow.

"Good job, Strange" Andrew Delatu said, before leaving the room just for Lia and me.

Lia was sitting in one of the last seats of Amaranth and had her hands over her eyes. I was sitting in the front of the class looking at where Magnolia had sat for at least 11 months, where I had checked her and put all of my energy into her every two days.

"You know Lia, she had become more than a school project, she had been there for me through this 11 months, the suffering, the laughter, the anger, everything. I finally felt that I was doing something worthy with myself" I said, breaking the silence.

"Mya" Lia said after a long exhale, which totally indicated that I had just opened the door for Lia's typical mushy-mushy, weird pieces of wisdom. "Maybe Magnolia was meant for something else. Destiny probably knew you would learn more from bloodthirsty, psychopath giraffe Magnolia than from her just being a flower. Everything will come round circle Mya, I am telling you "

I couldn't help but feeling comforted. Lia always knew what I needed to hear; she always knew how to make people feel better. That's why she is such an excellent Earth user, among the best. She is one of the few Earthis that I hadn't heard complain about being a user, because she loved people and Earth and always wanted to help them. "You are such a dork Liapolis"

"Says the girl who observed a freaking flower for 11 months every two days."

I laughed. I was pretty pathetic. "Talking about dorks, where on Earth is Nicholas?"

"Probably in the Zagmo Door" Lia answered

I looked at my clock, and it indicated a time of 8:16 am. Today I had rehearsal in Mars at 9:30 am, and the walk there was of at least 20 minutes. I was late. I couldn't for Earth's sake be late, our show was on exactly three days from now; on December 21.

I said goodbye to Lia and she gave me a hug. A long one, something extremely rare with Lia.

I ran to my room and when I got in, a thousand flowers were in harmony doing the same song. With a flower-scent-do-it-all spell, I had programmed a single flower to do the harmony at 7:30 am, but if I didn't woke up to it-which the flower could sense with my waking smell-, a flower will be activated to join the sound every two minutes until I woke up. At the end, what was left were a thousand flowers doing the most powerful and beautiful sound I have ever heard. About 2 minutes after I walked into the room, silence reined it.

I got ready as quickly as possible, and then ran through the empty and old Cocoon's halls to the Zagmo Door. The halls wore old portraits of the wizards that had made history in Cocoon and in the world. I looked at Nell Merak, Fire, you had invented candles. At Sigmund Freud, Earth. At William Rae Annamarie, who had discovered the Cramson Adakite in an expedition in South America and therefore discovered Earth´s magic. He was probably the biggest figure in Cocoon; our hero and friend.

Zagmo Door is one of the many doors to come in and out of Cocoon. It isn't one of the house's four official doors and some people don't even know it exists, but it's our favorite door (Yeah, we have a favorite door). Nicholas and I found it when we were younger while playing the sophisticated game, popularly known as hide and seek; and it's the only door we use to come out to ever since. Even thought it's a pain to come to Zagmo Door, the door is architecturally stunning. Nicholas says that the door is approximately 350 years old, which is probably true due to the great and detailed accents in it. 7 feet tall, thick, and made of oak tree; you feel the power of Cocoon when you push Zagmo Door.

I came out of Cocoon, and right in front of the door was Nicholas' back. Tall, thin, blond curly hair, and his posture as stiff as a sculpture, Nicholas was looking straight out into the street. He was probably looking at the houses that here in front of Cocoon, oblivious of Earth's magic, even it's the energy that moves the world round. Nicholas has photographic memory. Looking at the houses, he was saving in his brain every little detail and characteristic of each and every house, each and every aspect of the landscape. It was truly incredible.

"You are late" Nicholas said blandly, not even looking at me. I hadn't even realized that he knew I was there. I hadn't made any sound. But that was one of Nicholas' many abilities, one of the many aspects that made him truly unique; he had this great sense of hearing, one many few humans have.

"Sorry" I said, "I had sort of an inconvenience"

"Well if you didn't set Cocoon on fire then I don't see any reason for you not to go to rehearsals" Nicholas said, reminding me of that time when... I don't really want to remember it.

"Ha.ha.ha. Very funny."-I said sarcastically-"Do you think creating a blood thirsty giraffe out of a flower that wants to kill your best friend can get a spot on the long and detailed list of 'Stupid things Mya does to get herself kicked out of Cocoon and shame the human race'?"

"Dear lord Mya! And I thought that I was strange".

The Delightful Screams of an Italian/British English Speaker

**Mya**

This is how a usual day in the theatre usually went. Nicholas and I would arrive five minutes late, and we usually got yelled at. Mr. Swindon Grilli would curse and yell until all of us got ready, which usually takes 20 minutes. Nicholas sat on the same seat everyday, five rows from the back and two to the left. I had remembered his strange coordinates, that even I was surprised.

While we did the rehearsal, Mr. Swindon will interrupt us not matter if we were in a monologue or a long conversation. With his mix of both an Italian and British accent, he usually said, "You are a disgrace for the beautiiiiful theatre world" "What a shame, you had the pergfect outfit today" "I can't understand anything you are saying piccola bionda brutto anatroccolo". I swear that Mr. Swindon one day is going to disembowel me.

Even though I am a decent actress, I have great difficulty concentrating on scenes. I sometime black out on what part of the scene we are, or I am so happy of being acting that I make weird dance moves even in the most tragic scenes.

"So I um... What was I saying?" I say at least 99 times in each rehearsal, in the middle of a sentence where I am not even aware of what I am saying. In the bottom of the stage, Mr. Swindon gets red as a tomato and massages his temples with his middle and right fingers.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGG GGGIRL HE IS PROFESSING HIS LOVE AND YOU ARE PULLING A DANCE PARTY?"

"I am celebrating Mr. Swindon," I answer, knowing that I had just messed up.

However, today wasn't a usual day in the theatre. Surprisingly, I hadn't been quarreled yet. Mr. Swindon had even stopped me in the middle of a monologue, not to inform me how bad of an actress and person I was (thank you very much), but he had praised me. "Finally ggirl you are taking on the role, I am not going to have to leave you without pranzo today" he said.

I was on fire, performing in the most beautiful and thought provoking way possible. Okay, okay, that's too much; but at least I hadn't forgotten my lines yet or hadn't thrown Georgie our prop chair. Yikes, that sucked.

Mr. Swindon was finally being nice, praising me with the occasional mid sentence "Bravo! Piccolo bionda brutto anatroccolo" "Finally something good" "Go Maya!". After the Magnolia mess from earlier today, I was feeling a little better.

But I couldn't help but notice that Nicholas wasn't looking at me. It came to my attention during scene 6, when I did the thing that I almost never do, and looked up to Nicholas' seat to see if he was looking. He wasn't. He never does. But I thought that maybe today that I was doing such a good job- he would be supporting me. Because I supported him, I went to his art exhibits in the museum; I went with him to buy his special pencils and paints. But when I was acting, he had his nose stuck in his sketchbook, and he sat in one of the last seats! He probably wasn't even able to see me from there.

Ugh, I hated that kid. I shouldn't have looked, I should never look. If I had learned something in my entire life, was never to look at him. Never to get my hopes up that he will be looking. And how to successfully evaporate a demon. But that skill doesn't come in handy on a daily bases. Actually, it kind of does. But more on that later.

Ever since my discovery in scene 6, I have looked up to where Nicholas is sitting approximately 20 times, each time with a little spark of hope that he is looking at me. Nope, he wasn't. I can feel this anger and resentment boiling in me, until in the middle of scene 10 it wants to explode, which ironically is when Orlando confesses his love to Rosalind.

"I love you, Rosalind" Georgie says as Orlando.

"That's not very poetic, you should knell," I answer as Rosalind, which shockingly is in the script.

Georgie then knells "I love you Rosalind".

I then look up to Nicholas. He isn't looking.

"You love me as much as a twin brother doesn't support her sister when she is doing the most amazing performance of her life. Yeah right, you love me don't you Georgie?" I say at a tiger's speed, and then I realize I am thinking out loud.

Georgie probably think I am insane, but that doesn't worry me.

"MAYA! Who is Georgie and why did you say that? SSStupid girls and their teenage problems. I am done I can'tttt do this anymore, youthhh will never understand Shakespeare, what a fool am I in accepting this stupid project" Mr. Swindon screams so loud people listens to him all the way up to Southern California.

Everyone is now looking at me, even Nicholas. He doesn't have his gaze directly at mine, but to a stage's corner. He seemed to be twitching, rocking back and forth. Please not here Nico, I think.

In that exact same moment, while Mr. Swindon keeps on screaming and cursing, intercalating his words between Italian and English, complaining about how horrible people we are and about his own life choices, something that I had never witnessed happens.

Marie, Cinnamon, and Lauri; the three main searcher fairies in San Francisco come into Theatre de la Mars. To imagine searcher fairies, you should visualize three young adults with a height of a pencil, delicate pale color wings in their back, and wearing colorful dresses.

Searcher fairies are the fairies in charge of looking for kids up until they are 15 years old that have one of the four wizard marks. If you have one of the four wizard marks, that means that you have the W gene, and therefore you are a wizard. You need to be trained, guarded, and mentored to be a wizard. So if a searcher fairy notices that you have one of the four marks, they drive you to the nearest Cocoon with their magic dust, where you have you wizard initiation, and get taught how to live being a wizard, but most importantly, how to help the world by being a wizard.

In 1726, British explorer Sir William Rae Annamarie undertook an expedition to South America to find the rare chameleon race Tres Meridica. In retrospect, his objective wasn't fulfilled. He never found the Tres Meridica, because it turned out it never existed, due that it was a trick from the English government. However, he did something greater than discovering the Tres Meridica. In the middle of the amazon jungle, he found this strange rock he later called the Cramson Adakite. The Cramson Adakite is a rock no longer than a chunky history book that engrained in it, has the four magic marks:

Water

Fire

Air

Earth

At first, Rae Annamarie dismissed the greatness of the rock, thinking it was a mere product of an Indian tribe. After 10 years of his expedition through South America, he returned to England. There he started noticing that there were some children under the age of fifteen that had one of the four marks he found on the rock. He thought himself crazy, until he started observing this kids closely, and realized that magic existed and that if a kid had one of the marks, he or she was a magician. The marks define which element you have a greater-ability with than with the others. So if you have the water mark, you can probably manipulate water; if you have the air mark, you can manipulate air, but if you have the Earth mark –like Mya and me- things are a little bit different. If you are an Earth user, even though you have great power of anything Earth related, you are specialized in something. I am specialized in plants which makes me of the fletcher family, Nico in animals which makes him of the oak family, Lia in people which makes her of the moon family.

However, the marks only prevail if you are correctly trained and taught how to use your powers before hitting the age of 18. If not, then after 18 years of life, the marks start disappearing, as well as your magic powers. Rae Annamarie, after years of observation, noticed this. So at the age of 92, he founded The United Kingdom Cocoon Academy for Gifted Children, an academy for wizards. The Academy started out by looking for kids that have the marks, but it then grew to be a magic sub-world with a great variety of species; including fairies, wizards, and a lot more.

Finding the "gifted" children is now the job of the searcher fairies. They can detect magic marks with their unique sense of smell. I have never seen them here. They are probably detecting Nicholas' and my smell. I shook my hand slightly at Marie, Cinnamon, and Laurie; trying not to get Mr. Swindon to notice that I am not listening to him.

I focus my gaze directly at Nicholas. I like to think that because we once shared a womb together for 9 months, I can telepathically transmit him my feelings, and he can transmit his to me. "Why are you such a cold brother? Sometimes I feel like you are not even my brother, nonetheless my twin" I would tell him if I could. But he is still not even looking at me; he is still looking at a stage's corner.

Suddenly, I feel a shock in my body. Sort of like water wave in my inner self. My Earth mark located in my left scapula is aching. I feel like little by little it is burning my body. I arch my back and take my arms back, trying to alleviate the pain. It sort of works, but for a minute I feel a cramp all over my body. I then look at Nicholas, and he is doing the exact same thing. He is also hurting.

I try to look for the three fairies, but now they are nowhere to be seen. Even thought Mr. Swindon is still talking, I run to the back of the theatre, to a row really close to where Nicholas is sitting. I look everywhere for the fairies, especially in the spots I saw them flying above. I feel Nicholas running to where I am.

"There's something wrong" he says, "we need to get to Cocoon".

"You think so," I answer sarcastically. The notice that I am still upset. "Marie, Cinnamon, and Laurie were here; but I can't seem to find them".

We start looking for them through the whole area of the last rows. However, the theatre is large and I am so nervous and angry that I can't think straight.

"Found them" Nico says, and I can see him holding something with his two hands. "They were in the bottom of this seat. P-12."

"How on Earth did you find them?" I scream from the other end of the row.

"I smelled them," Nicholas says. Obviously, I think. We are the Strange's after all.

I run to where Nicholas is, and what I see will haunt me for weeks.

In Nicholas' two hands, rest the bodies of three young adult fairies no longer than a pencil, with their wings broken, and wearing black dresses.

Patters and Colors

Nico

I see everything in patterns and colors. What I mean with this is that when I look at something, even if it's just for a millisecond, I will have its picture engraved in my brain for years and years. My mind is like a 600 terabyte hard drive, storing every single image I see. The images are scattered, without any type of order or assortment. This causes me to create patterns and associations easily, without any type of time and space influence. I don't know if I am making any sense. I am probably not. But don't worry, I am used to that.

****

We get out of the theatre immediately. Mya has her face red, and she is doing that twitching thing her mouth does in some occasions. Occasions like when Miss Janiza told her she wasn't doing her best in the plant assignment. Mya is probably feeling like when that happened, which means that she is stressed out. Through the streets of San Francisco, Mya is walking carelessly and really fast, probably at the speed of a Sumatran Tiger. Seeing Mya walk like this, I remember the Sumatran tiger I saw in that 2006 documentary about Sumatra. I remember the tiger in the left, which had his eyebrows arched and his lips stiff, his hair standing tall. Yeah, he resembles Mya.

"We need to get to Cocoon" Mya says, and I wonder how she is able to talk when she is walking so fast. I can barely keep up with her pace. Especially because when I walk so fast, images come much more quickly to me, and my head feels like exploding.

Luckily I know this street by hand, I have walked through it so many times, that I don't need to have my eyes open to know where I am going. This helps to prevent my head from exploding. I close my eyes; I don't need their help.

I make a mental note of what I need to do. Walk ten steps to the left, then go to the right, then right again and walk 27 steps, then pass the grocery store, then the coffee shop, then the flowers market, then 16 steps more, and the Zagmo door is right there. See I don't even need hel-

I suddenly hear the piercing and disgusting sound of a car engine roaring, the screeching sound of the wheel into the pavement. I feel the car right next to me, probably 2 meters away from me. But I keep my eyes closed. I know that opening them will make me feel a lot worse. Because right now my ears have this constant penetrating and excruciating sound in them. I can't hear anything, just that. It feels like it is happening for years and years. I take my hands up into my ears; it helps a little bit, but not that much. Having my hand up in my ears, I nudge down to the ground; it helps a little bit, but not that much.

After a few minutes, I start hearing my sister's voice, but in a very distorted and wring way.

"NICO, OH GOD, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" she sounds like she is whimpering.

"I am so sorry, he sometimes does this. He is too overwhelmed" she is saying to someone else.

"I didn't notice he was not looking. I am sorry"

I am sorry

I am sorry

_I am sorry,_ she keeps on saying.

I now feel the cold and bleak pavement under me. Its numbness is comforting. I feel like I am here, present, in the moment. I open my eyes, but my hands are still in my ears.

The first thing I see is my sister. She looks like she always does, with her blonde hair and grey eyes. With this description, you will probably think that she looks like me, but to me we are polar opposites. Her face is pale and her lips lack that red tint they always have. She is talking with a man and a lady. The man has his left arm in the woman´s shoulder, and I remember a time 9 years ago, when I was 5, that my father had his left arm on my mother's shoulder, right after they got the news that Pippin had died. I realize that at that time my parents were sad, so the man and the woman are probably sad.

Then I see that a car is 2 meters away from me. It is situated in a very strange position, its head directed not to the front of the street, but about 70 degrees to its right. In the ground, there is a line of a liquid that is visible to me since 6 meters away. The liquid is probably gasoline, because it smells like gasoline.

The first person that notices that I have open my eyes is Mya. She comes close to me and I stand up. She hugs me, and strangely I don't back away, like I normally do. I need the hug, and she is my sister. I am familiar to her smell, so I don't feel overwhelmed by it when we hug. Like it happens when I hug any other person. Not that I do it frequently, but some people are hug-addicts. I still have my hands in my ears.

"I caused this accident, didn't I?" I ask.

"It doesn't matter Nico"

"I am sorry Mya"

"It doesn't matter Nico"

Mya goes back to the man and the woman and tells them something I can't hear. Then they look at me very shortly, but I keep their faces in my mind forever. Then they jump into their car, and go away.

My sister comes close to me, and I am now ready to release my hands from my ears. When I do, the sounds come all at once. I hear the passing of the cars, the wings of the birds fluttering, Mya´s breathe.

We get close to a sidewalk and I sit in it. Mya then seats next to me, but with about a meter of distance from my body.

****

The sky is beautiful. I can't seem to find any other adjective, its just beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. The word resonates with me.

****

A trolley is going to pass next to us. I hear the trolley like it's next to me, but it will probably pass in 4 seconds.

"Nicholas and Mya Strange, where on Earth have you been? The world is ending and you are watching the sky in Pacific Height's San Francisco? Come on, I need to get you two to Cocoon right now. You two are the intricate piece to complete the puzzle of saving the world" a familiar voice says. I then notice that this is Professor Livius Jorick Esme, the director and maximum Dark Magician in Cocoon San Francisco.

After 40 minutes of having looked at the day pass through the color of the sky, I look directly into the street. Mr. Livius is up in a trolley, and I suddenly find this whole situation hilarious. The maximum Dark Magician in Cocoon SF, a person- not even a person-, a luminary that can incinerate you with a blink of an eye, up in the transport method used in a kids television show. I laugh, and Mya and Mr. Livius look at me.

"The world is ending? Wow, I have always said you are an optimist sir" Mya says, and jumps into the trolley. I follow her.

The trolley is empty and surprisingly, the person driving it is Mr. Livius. Mya and I sit in the third row of the trolley. I visualize the puzzle that Mya and I always used to do when we were five, the Amazon forest one. It was a big puzzle, with very small pieces. The pieces were all the same, which is why imagining now an irregular piece is hard, but I do it.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

No answer.

"Why are you saying that the world is going to end?" I ask.

No answer

"Why are you in a trolley?"

No answer.

"How exactly is the type of puzzle you are imagining?"

Nothing.

Sir. Livius Jorick Esme is old, which is why he probably doesn't answer anything I am saying. He has grey hair, and is very thin. So thin that I sometimes think his piercing green eyes are going to slip from his eyelids into my hands.

People rarely see him; due to the fact that he is always stuck in his office. Mya tells me that when she is taken to his office: he is usually reading or writing or drawing in a sketchpad larger than a TV. She says that when she gets into his office, he immediately closes his book or his sketchpad, and starts touching his nose or scratching his head; and gets her out of the office in less than two minutes, with nothing more than a "be good kid" or "Mya Strange we are lucky to have you". To say the lest, he was a strange dude.

"The only thing I can tell you kids is that you are the intricate piece to complete the puzzle of saving the world" he says, with his back looking towards us.

Then he turns around, and looks at me with his piercing green eyes. I feel like they are going to fall off his eyelids.

A Cheshire Cat Smile

**Nico**

"Get down, quickly" Mr. Livius Jorick Esme tells us.

We do as he says, and I immediately notice that the sky is dark, dark, dark. It's not black per say, but its gray and it has little black and green speaks floating in it.

"Wait. I am totally missing the part with the serial killer" Mya says.

"Cereal Killer?" I follow her game.

"Yeah, those damn Froot Loops are the reason for all disgrace in the world, they should be banished, BANISHED!!" Mya does a low accent, sort of like a mix between Professor Achim when he is saying that everything is a conspiracy and the human race is playing the government game and Sam, our favorite homeless neighbor that works in a construction place.

We are in a place I have never been in before, so I look at it for two seconds and then turn my head to my side. I usually turn my head to my side because if I look directly into things, I look at so many details at the same time and start making associations to them, so I have information overload. And let me be honest with you, it's not pretty for me to have information overload. So I look out of the corner of my eye. I can still look at things, but at least I am not processing so many details at once.

"Did we time travel?" I ask.

Ahead of us, there is a big circular pergola, kind of like a hollow upper part of a sphere kept together up in the air by six columns. This main structure looks extremely intricately done, with a lot of symmetric and thought out details in its every inch. I get reminded of St. Peters Basilica, an ancient roman dome. However, this temple dome isn't the only thing in this place; behind it, there are about 84 columns guarding the dome, each with an asymmetric style and details resembling the ones from the Greek Ionic Order, like the ones in the Erechtheion temple and in the Acropolis of Athens. Before the temple, there is a big lake, which is kind of cool because you get to see the reflection of the temple in it. We take the right turn, and start walking in direction to the temple.

"No kid, we are still in San Francisco." Mr. Livius replies.

"Where are we?" Mya asks.

"The Palace of Fine Arts" Mr. Livius replies after a good 30 seconds of silence.

"Why are we here?" Mya asks

"Shhh kid, you don't want to be taken by the spirits of Meditation."

"Meditation? What on Earth are you talking about?" Mya asks, wondering.

Before getting to the dome, there are about 6 or 7 lose columns welcoming us. They don't have any order, they are all sort of scattered, and have their own style. There is one that is broken in half, other one that looks slighter chunkier than the other ones, and another one that in the top has a lion sculpture.

Stepping into the dome, I feel like I have traveled back in time. I fell all of the scents, all of the feelings, all of the battles and history that have been fought here. The power of the temple is overwhelming. I go to the center and look up, and I see the big circular pergola in its maximum magnificence. The pergola has a circle in the middle, and then little crystal-like shapes unwind from it. The columns keeping the pergola up in the air are big and chunky; each of them with an extreme amount of details and particularities. In the superior part of each column, there is a sculpture of a woman. These women have long flow-y robes and fierce looks. I figured they are greek godes-

"Hey you asshole, for all I know, you could be secretly a serial killer trying to murder us in a Greek temple or whatever this is. So if you are not telling us at least what we are doing here, I will go and you will be sure this 'intricate piece of the puzzle' small talk is going to the trash" Mya says in a speed that doesn't even let me grasp what she is saying, coming each time closer to Professor Livius, who had a tiny witty smirk on his lips.

I look beyond where Mr. Livius and Mya are, and notice that we are now surrounded by a group of people that make a circle before the columns. They have black and red robes, which means that they are the Cocoon Council. What are we doing here? I wonder. All of them have a triangular cap covering their heads, and they are all looking at us three so fiercely -so directly- that I fell they are looking at my bare soul. I shiver.

Professor Livius Jorick Esme then looks at Mya, and walks to where the circle of the council is formed. Before getting to the circle, he puts on a robe in a blink of an eye. I wonder how he changed so fast, and where his past clothes are; and then I realize he used magic, which was absolutely forbidden to use in the outer world in the exception of voyages, especially for such a mundane thing as changing clothes.

When he finally gets to the circle, he turns his body towards us, and the first things I notice are his green eyes. Those green eyes that create an illusion they are going to fall from his eyelids, that make you feel like if you we are being haunted by all of Cocoon's magic. His robe isn't the same as the rest. It's completely black, except for the gold ornaments it has on the shoulder pads. Two on the left side, two on the right side, each an element mark.

"Mya and Nicholas Strange, Earth Users, both from the family of oaks and fletchers, welcome to the Council of Cocoon." Professor Livius says, and then the rest of the council bows.

Okaaaaay, I think

"We are here reunited to assign you to the Oak & Fletcher voyage, the voyage that will save Cocoon's magic" he says, and then the rest of the council claps.

"Why does Cocoon's magic needs to be saved? "I ask

"You will undertake a voyage to South America, and as oak and fletcher you will find the Cramson Adakite, and defeat the person that has taken it" Professor Livius says, completely ignoring my question. Then the rest of the council claps twice.

Then they proceed to do the voyage ritual that any wizard in Cocoon has heard about a million times, but never really explained how it is. Describing the ritual will be violating the Cocoon Code, but lets just say it involves a lot of spells, 14 magic potions, and the voyagers getting wrapped up in a sweet and sour invisible web that feels like red vines. Yeah.

"Mya and Nicholas Strange, you have 7 days to carry out your voyage. You have the blessing of the Cocoon Order. In your return, you will obtain your first Earthling. Which if I am not mistaken, its the first one for both of you" Professor Livius says, and with that the rest of the council claps, and disappear.

Then, from up in the sky; two backpacks come down, one into Mya's hands, the other one to mine. Mya's backpack is green, while mine is black.

"Your backpack totally resembles you. Black: like your soul" Mya says.

"Wow Mya has anybody ever told you how joyous you are?" I say.

"All the time, little brother"

"Little Brother? We are twins!"

"But I am older"

"For eleven minutes!"

We then inspect our backpacks. Mine has my sketchbook, and Mya's has her book of plant spells.

"So you are giving us this gigantic backpack for us to only hold one single item? I was expecting seven bags of chips and badass hammers" I say.

"You are magicians, what do you expect? You can create chips and hammers all the time. And to be quite honest I expected you to have bigger goals than creating chips and hammers, Nicholas Strange"

Mya has been feeding anger and resentment since being ignored in the trolley. I can feel she doesn't like him. Mya finally explodes with this comment.

"So, you know, this is done? Like we are now driven into this voyage to freaking South America without any instructions or even our consent? I am not going to help you get your precious stone if you ignore our questions and mock my brother" Mya says.

"Dear Mya, I have always known you are a troubled soul. But smart, very smart. Ever since you were born, you have always had this air of determination and ambition. But don't let it make you impulsive. You are wise dear Mya, after all you are a Strange" Professor Livius says.

"Oh cut the nonsense and talk to us about the voyage"

Still in the temple, he proceeds to tell us that the Cramson Adakite has been missing for seven years, but that the Cocoon council has been keeping it a secret to preserve calmness among the community. He tells us that in the Cramson Adakite, Earth's magic is guarded. With the things that have been happening in the last few days, the magic mishaps and unusual behaviors, the council suspects that someone that hates Cocoon is manipulating the Cramson Adakite. Someone that wants magic's Earth to end.

"Why do you think the Cramson Adakite is in South America?" I ask.

"Colombia, to be more precise. When William Rae Annamarie found the stone, he found it in the in Colombia's side of the Amazon jungle. We suspect that he is there, especially because the Cramson Adakite can only live in a tropical zone, in a climate where there are no seasons, or abrupt changes in the temperature" Professor Livius says.

"Wait a minute, so you are telling us that Sir William Rae Annamarie is the person that stole the Cramson Adakite and wants Earth's magic to be put to an end?" Mya asks

"We don't know for certain kids, but if you can keep a secret; I am sure that scoundrel has the Cramson Adakite"

"But didn't he died like 300 years ago?" Mya asks.

"Gibberish. Do you know the precise day he died? Do you know why he died? Neither does the council, or anyone in Cocoon to be exact. I think you are sub-estimating the power of the Cramson Adakite. It isn't just a stone, but it is the source of magic and of energy, of everything around us. Sir William Rae Annamarie was so infatuated with the magic of the Cramson Adakite that he probably made himself immortal with a piece of magic of said stone. That's how powerful it is"

"But he must be very powerful then. Why chose us as the ones to carry out the voyage?" Mya asks.

Professor Livius sighs, and after a good minute of silence, he speaks "Mya and Nicholas Strange, you are not giving yourselves the credit that you deserve. You two are siblings, and you share the same element. Do you know how rare it is for siblings, especially for twins, to share the same element? The only pair of twins that have shared the same element in the history of Cocoon have been Tyrese and Mathilde Anatoli, Fire users born in 1866, and they saved Cocoon Athens from getting overpowered by the demons of the Yuna witch. You two are destined to do something greater. We have the fletcher family from Mya, and the oak family from Nicholas. Fletcher and Oak, finally together.

"Mya Strange, Earth user, Fletcher family; you are determination and love, creating the most astounding and important combination in Cocoon. You have the gift of the Viridiplantae, of the sole of the foot, of what is around humankind and what makes us live and think.

"Nicholas Strange, Earth user, Oak family; you are curiosity and creativity, innovating the things that humankind needs the most. People may think that you don't understand them, but in reality you create what humankind needs the most. Closer to animalis, closer to breathe and feelings, your sensitivity makes you the unique individual that the world needs the most.

"Fletcher and Oak, finally together" Professor Livius repeats again.

****

"The San Francisco council assigns the voyages here, in the Palace of Fine Arts, because it's easier to Shadow Travel in historical landmarks. Its infinite wiseness and calmness, the ancient ubiquity and presence; makes traveling through time and space lighter" Professor Livius Jorick Esme tells us.

Mya and I are right in the center of the temple, each of us with the backpacks in our backs. In a couple of minutes, I am going to have to draw the destination in Colombia that we need to travel to.

"So, Colombia?" I ask.

"The land of coffee and flowers, the land of diversity, both cultural and biological. A land that has suffered a lot through the years, where battles and struggles have always been fought, but their people keep on having their immense smiles and loud laughs."

"What should I draw?" I ask

"You will arrive first in an architectural and historical landmark in Colombia's capital, Bogotá. A place that resembles the same spot we are standing right now. A place built with brick and stone, with domes, arches, and columns, with a Greek and Roman feeling. Built in 1823, you will arrive to the entrance to archeology and ethnography, of emotion and thought"

I sketch a museum, its facade made out of brick and stone. I draw twenty-seven stairs before the entrance of the museum, which is delimited by a door made with black iron sticks. Above the door, there is a coat of arms, which Professor Livius helps me draw by giving me the description of Colombia's coat of arms. While I am doing this, Mya prepares the Shadow Travel potion, made with ingredients she conjured.

Once my sketch and Mya's potion is ready, we adieu Mr. Livius and he walks towards a side of a temple, next to the column with the Meditation goddess above it. He has a smirk in his lips that even thought it's tiny, its impossible to dismiss because of how creepy it is. I visualize the Cheshire cat smile in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a movie that I haven't seen since I was 5 years old, when our parents were still alive.

Mya then proceeds to spread the potion in the paper where my sketch is, and we then chant the Shadow Travel spell together. I focus my sight on the Meditation goddess, and in a blink of an eye, everything starts getting distorted.

Then the only thing that I see is darkness.

Excitement with the offer of a guided tour

**Mya**

I wake up to coldness.

At first I can't see anything. Everything is blurry, but I hear all of the sounds at once. People screaming in a language I can't recognize, the horn of a car, the horn of a bus, the horn of a bicycle, a human horn. What did I get myself into? I wonder. Oh right, its kind of my obligation to save the world. Being the fletcher and all.

After a couple of minutes, I can finally visualize where I am. The first thing I see is Nicholas. He has his hands over his ears, his face is hot, and he is screaming. He is audio filtering, which is his way of sorting out audio input, which he gets because of his sensorial sensitivity. He has been audio filtering for years now. When I was learning to ride the bike, he was mastering the ability of audio filtering.

I know better than to bother Nicholas when he is audio filtering or having sensorial hypersensitivity episodes, so I decide to investigate where in the world we are by myself.

We land in a set of cold and rigid stairs. They are outdoors, guiding us to a door made with black iron sticks. The building in front of us is big and thundering. It looks like it's made out of sand, stone and bricks; its color a mix from both yellow and brown. The building, which looks more like a colossal home, has the appearance of being ancient, of being from the Victorian era.

We are outdoors; the house sits in the wholeness of a street that's facing a roadway. I see all types of vehicles; cars, buses, taxis, vans, even a metro bus. I get to the conclusion that its about 5 or 6 pm, the sky being a dark shade of grey. It's raining. The people crossing the street walk fast, not even minding other people or the places they are walking by, that I imagine they are trying to arrive to their home as fast as possible. Everything is so loud and I sense so many scents, it was kind of given that Nicholas would get one of his episodes.

Walking with their umbrellas, people look at us weird. We are two 14 year olds, sitting in a cold set of stairs while it is raining, and while one of them is screaming, the other one is trying to figure out where she is. I don't blame them for looking. We are a pair of strange kids. Always have, always will. I am already used to it anyway.

I stand still right next to Nicholas, on the set of stairs we started our journey. I look at the people walking, and I get surprised at how oblivious they are to magic, how oblivious they are with the fact that such as important part of our planet could disappear in a matter of minutes, how oblivious they are that life will never be the same. Its incredible how such an important piece of your life, how the ruler of your heart, and gives you the drive to get out of bed every morning can be oblivious to others.

"So, Colombia has been all ponies and rainbows" Nicholas says, and I am surprised because I had not even realized he had calmed down.

There you have a perfect depiction of my brother, who even in the most desperate and miserable times, manages to get a genuine smile out of you. I can't fathom how he even does it.

"I bet it has, especially with this beautiful weather" I say sarcastically.

"Hey, don't mock the beauty of Colombia. Look at that sunset" Nicholas replies, and points to the horizon. Surprisingly, he is right. In the depths of the horizon, I can see a breathtaking yellow and orange sunset, which has an extremely cool effect with the black pigeons flying in it.

"Mam, Sir: are you coming to the guided tour?" a trembling voice asks.

We turn around, and less than 50 cm away from us, we barely see a tiny, thin man with trembling hands. He is wearing Nicholas' statement outfit: opaque pants, a collard shirt underneath a rhomb sweater, and simple shoes; but while Nicholas' outfits always look put together and elegant, his, looks disheveled and graceless. He has big brown eyes, but his big frame glass dazzles them.

"Guided tour? Where are we?" I ask.

"Mam, you are now in Bogota's Museo Nacional. The guided tour is starting in" he then looks at his clock "two minutes", he says, trembling so much that I fear for his life.

I laugh. "Oh dear, I knew where we were, I was just tricking you. Bogota's Museo Nacional. Yeah, beautiful historical and architectural landmark" I say, remembering what Professor Livius said, "I am excited to see the mummy's".

"What are you talking about?" I hear Nico wonder in a very low voice.

"Come on then" the man says, and without any warning shakes my hand. "Cleitus, to you orders".

I start walking towards the museum door with Cleitus, when suddenly I feel a hand grab me from my back.

"What are you doing?" Nicholas asks.

"I-We- are going to see the mummy's" I answer, grabbing his hand toward the door.

"I don't like him" he says, pushing his hand free.

"Oh come on Nico. He may be a little.... Interesting, for lack of a better word, but he seems nice. Look at him" I say, while pointing at Cleitus, who is rubbing his nose.

"Mya. His smell... There is something wrong with it "Nicholas replies.

"Don't be so melodramatic Nico"

"Says who?" he asks.

"Look, my motto is 'if life gives you a free guide tour, you accept the free guide tour, especially if the person offering it to you has soft hand. And Cleitus has soft hands '" I tell Nico

"And doesn't it seem a little suspicious that he has soft hands?" Nicholas asks

"Hey, there is nothing wrong with personal hygiene" I answer.

"Excuse me Mya, but don't you remember that we have a little, non-important mission of preventing the end of the world?" Nicholas asks sarcastically.

"There is nothing wrong with a little guided tour. We need to experience Colombia's beauty. Plus, I am telling you Nico; don't be so melodramatic" I tell him. And with that, I take Nico's hand and we walk towards the museum door, where Cleitus is doing this mix of a Scottish country-dance and mambo... Don't ask.

**Happily (not really) chilling with a Rotten Corpse**

Mya

Have you ever been in a drinking soda can, trying desperately to come out but failing every-time by drowning in the bottom metal?

Me neither, but walking through Bogota's Museo Nacional with one tiny, weird, shaky man and a boy uncertain by his smell felt like it.

It turned out that we were the only ones in line for the guided tour. Great I thought now we are not going to get bothered by tourists. But after five minutes of walking through the museum I immediately regretted this decision. Being in between a man who can't stop doing a weird Scottish country dance and making remarks about Viking culture and another one that can't stop making passive aggressive remarks, I wanted to crawl in an underground whole.

"When are we getting to the mummies?" I ask.

"We need to go in order of opening date!" Cleitus yells, with a slight wisp and a shaky voice. He had been taking us from one extreme of the museum to the other extreme of the museum, showing us the exhibitions in the order of the day they were displayed, when in reality I only wanted to see the mummies.

"I am pretty sure there aren't mummies here Mya" Nicholas says in a very low voice behind me.

"There are. Right Cleitus?"

"Did you know that the name 'Viking' means 'a pirate raid' in the Old Norse language?" Cleitus ask us, ignoring my question.

....

..

..

"No you didn't, just as I imagined" Cleitus shouts.

"Can we just get to the mummies?" I ask

Right now we were in the Latin American indigene artifacts display, which was interesting, but I kept getting distracted by Cleitus remarks not about Latin America, but about Vikings.

"Did you know that 'Berserkers' was the name of some terrifying Viking warriors who wore bear or wolf skins and howled in battle like wild animals?" Cleitus asks us.

"So, I thought that in Colombia people spoke Spanish?" Nico asks, ignoring Cleitus.

After a minute of silence, Cleitus finally answers. This time, I notice that his voice gets a lot more shakier and his wisp is more noticeable "We do, but.. I... umm.. I am not from here"

"Then where are you from?" Nico asked, and I realized he was confronting him.

"Just... from, a beautiful place" Cleitus answered. "So, it turns out that the mummy exhibit is the one that comes after this one. Lets go".

****

"Holy moly" I say, walking into the mummy exhibition.

"This is the Mummification Funeral Practices exhibition. I saw it once in the funeral practices documentary." Nicholas says. I remember said documentary, we had watched it when we were 9 years old, and Nico had grown morbidly obsessed with it.

"Yeah, um cool" Cleitus says. His voice is shaking like an earthquake.

"Are you okay Cleitus?" I ask him.

No answer.

Okaaaaay I think. The exhibition is probably one of the most interesting things I have seen. There are about 15 bodies of rotten mummies in the room, each and every one of them in which you can perfectly see their skull and their bones. All of them are kept together in an extremely layered and hard crystal box, but walking into the room, its inevitable not to feel the scent of death and human suffering. If Nicholas wasn't so fascinated with funeral practices, I would fear him being here. But Nico is more than okay; he is looking at every rotten body meticulously, extremely close to their crystal boxes. That weirdo.

Suddenly I see a box that it's located in the bottom of a wall. The box is right in a corner that the corpse is nearly invisible to see. The body is cowered in a corner, like if he is hiding from somebody or protecting himself from the cold. The box nearly fits him; he has his arms huddled up and his right leg up against the other one. Why on Earth would they keep this corpse so hidden, in such a humane position? I wonder.

"As you said, people are morbid Mya" I hear a strong, imposing voice say. I turn around, and what I see is a creature with the body of a lion, a tail of a Scorpio, and a head of a man. I scream, to say the least.

"And who are YOU?" I ask.

"That's a manticore, a bloodthirsty quadruped that supposedly sported the head of a blue-eyed man, the auburn body of a lion and the stinging tail of a scorpion. The legend of this deadly hybrid first began with Greek authors such as Ctesias, who chronicled it in a book about India. Ctesias and others described the manticore as having three rows of teeth like a shark and a tuneful bellow that sounded like a trumpet. Most terrifying of all, it had an insatiable appetite for human flesh. After using its blistering speed to chase down its prey, the beast was said to slash at them with its claws or sting them with its tail before devouring them bones and all. According to Ctesias, the manticore was even capable of paralyzing or killing its victims from a distance by firing stingers from its tail" Nicholas says. We both look at him. "I watched the History documentary on mythical creatures. Don't look at me."

"You watched it once and you remember all of that?" I ask "The real question here is, who are yo-"

Oh god. At first I couldn't recognize it, but now, depicting the big green eyes and the tiny face, I notice this is Cleitus. Oh god.

I hear him laugh. "What a shameful surprise, Mya Strange. The retarded kid figured who I was way before you did. What a surprise indeed"

I look for Nico, and I see that he is right in the corner right next to where the invisible corpse is. He is as pale as a piece of paper, rocking back and forth, and opening and closing his hands. If he wasn't so scared, I am sure he will be crying, having one of his tantrums. However, what he has is fear. He is fighting with his own self. Because Nico, being an Earth animal user, is incapable of hurting any animal, or at least anything that looked like an animal. It was in his nature, the same as I am not capable of hurting plants or doing any good decisions, Nico couldn't hurt animals. Period.

The manticore laughs again. "The person that chose you two for this voyage was certainly out of their mind. The Holy Eye is never going to be found and let alone with a dumb naive girl that the only thing she does is say senseless remarks and a retarded boy that guides himself by what his senses tell him" he laughs again.

"Hey and what do you tell me? That you are such a smart manticore by having a shaky voice and getting caught the moment my brother first saw you. My brother, Nicholas Strange, is the most intelligent and human person I have ever known and if you say anything about him I swear I will—" Suddenly, I feel my body moving and before I know it, I am looking straight into glass. Somehow, I have end up inside the almost- hidden glass box, with a dead mummy beside me. I scream for a little, and then wonder how that smelly manticore achieved to put me in this box.

Outside of the box, I see Nicholas standing still in a corner of the exhibition and the manticore in the other side. He is still pale.

"Now, for you; your sister, obsessed with mummies, will see with her own eyes how I kill you" The manticore says.

My brother keeps standings still for a while. Then, he moves towards the manticore.

"Oh! What a beautiful lion you are." He says, caressing the beast's body.

"What are you doing?" Cleitus asks, concerned.

"You are such a beautiful lion Cleitus, I have never seen such strong teeth and felt such soft fur. You don't even feel like a lion. Mister, I have the great pleasure of informing you that you are a kitty."

"Kitty! What are you saying half-witted insane wizard? Do you even have a mark? I am a manticore, you should be afraid of me," Cleitus says.

Cleitus keeps insulting Nicholas, Nicholas keeps caressing and complementing the beast's hair, and I am scared out of my mind, confused about what is happening, while I am chilling with a dead corpse.

Suddenly, I understand what's happening. When Nicholas caresses animals, like when he caresses the cats and dogs he has in his room, or when he caresses the dolphins and pandas and giraffes and monkeys and rats in Cocoon's animal conservatory –a place also known as Nico's second room-, his hands go a certain way. I know, I know, that sounds pretty weird; but when Nicholas caresses animals his hands go stiff, caressing with only his palm while his finger stretch out like a star and go completely still. He trespasses his loving energy and calmness to the animals. Nicholas loves animals. And if there is someone that loves intensely, without any boundaries, without any limits or rationality, is Nicholas.

Nicholas magic specialty is Earth, but more specifically animals.

Suddenly, the big beast, the manticore with the strong and imposing voice, starts shifting into a little lion, a little lion that could easily be mistaken for a kitty. His scorpion sharp tail morphs into a soft lions tail. His strong voice deviates to the same shaky, wispy voice we first met. The manticore becomes Cleitus, and Nicholas, without any resentment, keeps on caressing the sweet little cat-lion that once threatened to murder him.

An hour passes, and this is getting kind of ridiculous.

"Nicholas, stop hugging that creep. We need to keep on moving. We have a little task of saving the world waiting to be accomplished," I say.

"Mya, if I remember correctly, you were the one that was so eager to see the mummies "Nico replies

"But pass a minute in a box with that rotten corpse and the exhibition wouldn't be as exciting" I say.

"Oh right. Sorry about that, but I needed a way for Cleitus to be certain that he had already won, being with a "retarded" kid and all" Nico says, revealing that he was the one that put me in that box.

"Oh Nico, you were amazing out there. Retarded himself that sub estimated our power. Well, your power. You handled everything so beautifully Nico. You didn't hurt Cleitus, but you morphed him into his better self. And now I am getting cheesy, so please stop me".

Nicholas laughs, "Don't worry Mya, I am used to people calling me that. Let this episode show that in reality I am the bigger twin" he says, referring to what I said earlier today, which feels like a lifetime ago.

"Anyway Mya, prepare a Shadow Travel potion" Nicholas says.

"Where are we going?"

"The Satyananda Temple in Chiquinquira"

"What are you talking about?"

"Cleitus referred to the Cramson Adakite with another name, the Holy Eye. Now, I remember reading a book, the Mazon Grunnel, in which the author says Holy Eye means Satyananda in Sanskrit. Coincidentally, the Satyananda Temple is the biggest spiritual temple in America; a place where in 804 A.D, the masons where founded by a group of wizards that discovered magic way before Sir William Rae Annamarie found the Cramson Adakite. The Satyananda Matsafa are the founders of magic"

"Gee Nico, the Mazon Grunnel was a book our mom used to read to us 9 years ago!"

The Sound of the Universe

**Nico**

Hiking in the Sorrow Mountain reminds me of the time my parents where still alive, when my mother, jumping up and down, clapping her hands, having the brightest and most beautiful smile a human being could ever have; couldn't contain her happiness when while walking in the Muir Woods, found the uncanny and out-of-place meadow with bright lilacs and daisies. At that time, Mya and I were at the bright age of five. But we were already big. Mya had just landed the lead role in Matilda, and I already had a 68 GB memory card in my brain.

Mom jumped up and down, bringing her arms up into the air and shouting, "Nico and Mya I love you". Mya and I stood in the corner, eating sunflower seeds and laughing even though our bellies hurt. Dad was in the other corner, taking photographs with his most beloved gift, a camera Pippin -our grandfather- had given him. Dad loved capturing moments; he loved portraying raw emotions and the nature of being through art.

Our mom, telling us in our ears how extraordinary and beautiful human beings we were, telling us to follow our dreams and be kind. Our dad, capturing the moment for us to never let it go.

****

The Sorrow Mountain, in Chiquinquira, where the Satyananda Temple is supposed to be, is a lot like the Muir Woods, a hiking trail we used to visit with our parents. Looking at the skyscraper-tall trees, with their solid and vivid brown trunks that make an amazing contrast with the unbelievable greenness of the trees' leaves; I can't help but remember the Muir Woods. The Sorrow Mountain has the same crisp and fresh odor the Muir Woods had. In this moment, I can only feel the smell of the clean trees' leaves and the moist soil. But with this memory I not only remember the imagery of the place, but I feel drained with the emotions and with the feelings those hikes used to produce in me.

I remember the happiness I used to feel; experiencing for the first time limitless love for nature and animals, and the peacefulness and affinity I felt with my own senses and with the world. Going to the woods with my twin and parents gave me the needed break of being with people that screamed and cursed, of being in a city that never sleeps, a city drained with disturbing sounds and overwhelming scents.

I feel that right now.

"You are being disturbingly quiet" Mya says. She is right, we haven't spoke since we took off after eating breakfast this morning. Through Shadow Travel, we got here in the middle of the night; so Mya and I conjured two tents and slept until Mya's alarm flowers woke us up.

"Aren't I always quiet?"

Mays eyes go up, and after a long time she says, "I suppose that's true. But your silence feels much stronger in a forest with unbelievably tall trees, and where we walk and walk but can't seem to find anything".

We had been walking for over more than three hours, and the Satyananda Temple was nowhere to be seen. The only things that we've seen are tall tress and the occasional bird. With the passing of time, I feel Mya's feeding desperation and I was feeding my doubt of having chosen the correct destination or of been a good choice to carry out this voyage.

Focus, remember what Professor Livius said. If he believes in you, you can do it Nicholas Strange I told myself, but I can only see the flashes of Cleitus, and of Andrew Delatu, and pretty much everybody I have ever met telling me I can't do anything and that I am useless and of me not being a wizard. I feel like putting my hands over my ears, when suddenly I see an African goldfinch in the floor, next to a bush in the corner of the trail.

I can't help it. If I devise an animal, there is a 99% chance I will go and observe it, that I will go and caress it. But especially with this bird, I feel a force pushing me to go near the bird. He needs help and I can sense it.

"Hello, you beautiful feathers" I salute the bird, and then start caressing him.

I immediately notice his wing is broken. Not completely, but it is four centimeters disintegrated from his body. His left claw is bent and his peak is smudged with dirt. I can see a blood smear in his body and I feel my eyes getting wet and my hands starting to move. I caress the bird, trying to console him, and trying to console myself.

"Beautiful feathers,

Beautiful feathers,

Beautiful feathers" I keep on saying.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Mya looking at me. More than a confused look, I can see she is pondering, she is thinking something about me. She comes close to where I am nestled, caressing the bird.

"Is he okay?" she asked

"His wing is broken and he is bleeding and his left claw is bent and his peak is smudged" I say, and I notice that my voice is shaky and broken "I am trying to heal him. I need to help you, little bird" I tell the bird.

Mya looks at the bird for a little while, and then turns around and I lose her from my sight.

"Who would ever do this to you?" I ask the bird.

Gradually, my hands do their magic that sometimes I cant even fathom, and the bird stops shaking, and with that I stop crying and shaking. His wing is now completely connected to his body, and the blood I had seen is now this gold substance that little by little starts covering his body. His claws are now strong and vigorous, just as they are supposed to be.

"Thank you Nicholas Strange" the bird tells me, his voice is like a melody.

"I am sorry" I tell him.

"I am the one that should be sorry; you spent your time of your voyage trying to fix an old bird that was supposed to die a long time ago" he tells me.

"If you live, you have the right to do so happily. Helping animals is my passion and job anyway". I tell him

"You are a good soul Nicholas Strange. Being unique is important, always remember that". He tells me and with that he flies up in to the air, and smears in me the gold substance I had seen in his body. I look up to him, and I see a little smirk on his face. He is trying to tell me something. I swear I am not crazy.

I shout Mya's name, but she is nowhere to be seen. I run, which I don't do very often. I am getting out of breath and the trees start to look distorted in my mind. When I finally find her, she has a bunch of plants and flowers in her hands. She is softly chanting a folky song, and walking in zigzag, not really putting attention where she puts her feet. She reminds me so much of Mom; her long blond hair over her shoulders, her flower dresses, her love for art, her love for everything and everyone.

She then looks up and sees me "Nico, why are you running? Is it the end of the world? Beware the aliens are coming" she shouts.

"Come on Mya, I think I know where the Satyananda Temple is"

"Finally!"

We run until we find a place where the African goldfinch should is flying above our heads. Once we get there, Mya gets also smudged with the gold substance.

"By the Earth, bird be polite!" she says.

"She must be a pain-the bird tells me-you have all of my blessings to have her as your twin sister."

I laugh, and Mya looks at me weird.

He is slow for a bird, but he is still flying; so we need to run to keep up with his pace. Mya keeps asking questions of where we are going and why we are running with a bird.

After ten minutes of running (finally), the bird starts slowing down and settles himself in a nest up in a tree.

"Oh no Nicholas, we are now in the same spot we started in" Mya says, pointing to the tents we had slept on that night, after getting in pitch darkness to the forest from the Museo Nacional. We decided to leave them there in case a lost person or a hiker needed a place to sleep.

This means that we have walked for 5 hours in circle, without any purpose. That what we had looked for all of this time was right in front of us, or that in actuality this bird isn't giving us any sign.

Look closely Nicholas Strange the bird tells me and with that he flies away, and in a blink of an eye he disappears.

"So, dear brother, what should we do?" Mya asks me.

"What do you think?" I ask her, and I notice she wasn't expecting the question.

Mya then, without any preparation or warning, starts chanting something. I first think it is a spell, but then I notice that it is a song. The song, it exudes love, its soft and touching. It reminds me of my mother.

"... _.And in the naked light I saw_

Ten thousand people, maybe more.

People talking without speaking,

People hearing without listening,

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence..."

Suddenly, with the progression of the song; the trees start moving side to side and the flowers start oozing different colored smoke. The bushes start trembling and I feel that a thousand animals are in the forest. A soft drizzle even starts happening, and I am really confused.

Mya stops singing, and silence rules the forest once again.

She then walks 6 steps until she is in front of eight trees, that as all of the trees in the forest, are skyscraper tall, but that unlike anything I have ever seen in the forest; are weaved in together. I walk to where Mya is, and in a little gap between the trees I notice a circular badge with a sign.

"What is that sign?" Mya asks.

"The Om symbol".

"Excuse me?"

"A Hindu mantra that represents a mystical sound. The sound of the universe" I say.

"Huh?" Mya says with a dazzled look, and once she says so; a strong, potent, and harmonizing sound starts rumbling from the inner depths of the forest. It feels both far away and close.

" _aaahhh_

ooohhhh

Mmmmm" I listen to thousand voices singing this sound. All of them with different tones of voices, with different accents, with different volumes; together like one voice. Beautiful, disorganized, compelling. Everything all at once.

Om.

The sound of the universe.

The symbol in the badge then glows with a gold accent, and three seconds later I can no longer see it. Because there is an open door framework, and I can see a big room; with nothing but a great number of orange colored circular cushions, and on top of them people with all-white clothes and white turbans covering their heads; all of them in silence.

Silence.

64 people in complete and utter silence.

I know.

Crazy.

Vegetarian Burritos and Meditation

**Nico**

After a big conundrum that involved Mya screaming in the temple, and then almost punching a Matfasa that had been for 335 years and 11 months meditating, we were driven to the Satyananda's Temple backyard by an invisible hand. When we finally got out of the temple, and we saw the brightness of the day; a light skinned man with a yellowy saffron robe and dark black eyes was in front of us. He seemed old and young at the same time.

"¿Quienes son ustedes?" he asks.

"Umm, we are-" I start saying, but the man interrupts me.

"Americans! What a delight to have you here, excuse me for my use of Spanish" he says in a perfect English.

"We come from pizza delivery, right from the bright land of sunny San Francisco" Mya says. As she usually does, she was playing a character.

"Pizza?" the man wonders, clearly confused with what was pizza. I figured he hasn't gone out of the temple in a long, long time.

"Yes. Will you pay with credit card or cash?" Mya asks

"We didn't order anything of that madness!" the man says.

Mya then laughs, and laughs, and laughs. The man's eyebrow is up and his mouth open, clearly confused.

"My name is Mya Strange and this boy over here is my twin, Nicholas. We are Earth user wizards from Cocoon, and we have been sent by the council to find the Cramson Adakite, which has been stolen. After a series of interes—" Mya starts saying, but the man interrupts her.

"The Holy Eye has been stolen?" the man asks. I notice that even though his voice was calm and wise, his eyes had gotten bigger and his hands started shaking. This image reminds me of Cleitus. Of how shaky and nervous he had suddenly grown to go when we entered the mummy exhibit. Which means that this man is trying to keep his composure. To hide his fear.

"Unfortunately so, mister" Mya answered.

"Since when?"

"Seven years ago" I answer, speaking for the very first time since we got into Satyananda.

"By whom?" the man asks.

"We don't know sir, but said person is trying to stole the Holy Eye's magic and with that, all of Earth's magic and energy" Mya answers, blinking five times over the spam of three seconds. She was lying, trying to protect the secret Professor Livius had told us. Mya then proceeds to tell him about our voyage; since being unexpectedly chosen in San Francisco by the council to find the Cramson Adakite, the mummy exhibition and the manticore, and the bird with the golden substance and the opening song.

"Come over here kids; if the Council chose you, you need to be guarded and helped. Over the course of your trip you have proven your intelligence and creativity, you deserve a warm meal and I deserve a conversation with you two. My name is Finaan Marteen, and I am the head of the Matfasa. I am very happy to meet you" he tells us, and then shook Mya's hand, when he comes to shake mine, I shook my head and he nods his head and smiles. He understands.

We start walking back to temple's entrance, when a man with his face as red as a tomato and his hands up in fists comes out from the door.

When he sees master Finnan, he puts his hands like if he is doing a prayer and bows his head down "Master Finaan Marteen" he says.

"Ludwig, what a delightful surprise! You had not woken up since 1973" master Finaan says, and I noticed that every-time he speaks, he radiates sunshine and love, an uncanny comprehension and support that I have seen in very few people.

"Well, I wouldn't have if this whippersnapper hadn't disturbed Satyananda" Ludwig says with a very strong Swedish accent. His face is very red and he is pointing his finger at Mya.

"Ludwig dear, Mya here is a ball of sunshine and amity" master Finaan says, and Mya nodded her head.

"She disturbed Satyananda's 809 years of silence," Ludwig says, his Swedish accent stronger and stronger every-time he spoke.

"Dear Ludwig, remember that we work service in to others and that means being kind to everyone. I am sure Mya is sorry for disturbing the silence but in the grand scheme of things this disturbance holds very little importance, after all I don't see any other Matfasa awake" master Finaan said.

"The last 41 years of my life have gone to waste by that scoundrel"

"Ludwig, respect!" master Finaan says, "Excuse us Mya and Nicholas".

"So you are telling us this dudes are supposed to meditate for their whole lives?" Mya says, and I have never seen her more concerned in her life aside from the day she couldn't find for the life of her the doll Pippin had given her.

"No, I have said it many times girl; they are in an spiritual trance" Ludwig tells Mya, and by his tone of voice; I notice he is annoyed.

"Spiritual trance more like breathe with your eyes closed for your whole lifetime and waste the amazing opportunities that life has to offer like smell flowers and eat vegetarian burritos" Mya says. Mya did indeed love burritos, and flowers. And pretty much anything else.

Ludwig then opens his mouth wide open and for a lifetime the only thing I hear is the chipping of the birds and the wind rumbling in the trees and bushes.

"Is she serious? I don't understand anything she is saying" Ludwig asks me, clearly concerned with Mya's mental state. I find it funny.

"Mya is never serious. For her, all the worlds a stage. She doesn't go with the norm, she experiments," I say, and I notice that I had just gotten into profound territory that none of them where expecting.

"Which is what this monk-people don't do." Mya says

"That is enough Ludwig and Mya! They are not monk-people, they are Matfasa; the founders of magic and the most wise and human wizards ever to walk on Earth" Finaan tells us.

Everyone is now silent, until Finaan talks again. "Less arguing and more eating, that's my motto" he says "Lets go".

"I like this guy" Mya whispers in my ear while Finaan guides us three into the temple, once again.

****

Apparently in the Satyananda temple there was another door aside from the one that led to the backyard, but if there was, I didn't saw it the first time.

Ludwig, Master Finaan, Mya, and I enter the mysterious room, and the first thing I notice is nothing, because the room is pitch dark. Then Finaan lights up the room, but just a little bit; so it is still very dim and murky. The strong smell of cinnamon and apples of the room immediately overwhelms me. I start rocking back and forth and when I am almost about to scream so I can input the smell, Finaan moves his hand and the scent is gone.

"Is that okay Nicholas?" master Finaan asks me.

"Yes" I answer, not really sure why he had just asked me exactly. Anyway, wizards and their madness.

"Take a seat, and Ill be right back" Finaan says, and goes back into the temple. We then proceed to sit down on the floor, because in the room is empty except for three paintings that are on a wall, but that are not even hanged.

10 minutes later, and master Finaan comes with a platter that has four plates and four mugs in it. All of them are the same exact type.

"So, Mya, you said you like burritos?" Finaan asked Mya.

Her face immediately brightens and she does this little dance with her hands she always does when she is happy, images of the time when she first got called back for the her current role in As You Like It come to my mind. "Thank you so very much master Finaan"

Finaan then passes each of us a plate with a vegetarian burrito and a mug that has warm water with lemon. My throat screams with happiness. The meal is completely silent; Mya and I haven't eaten since the fruit salad Mya did this morning with some fruits she found on the Sorrow Mountain through her plant radar ability, right before starting our journey through the forest.

"What time is it?" I ask.

"5:30 pm" master Finaan answers, not even checking a clock. I am completely surprised, because we started walking the forest at 8 am and just now had gotten into the temple. We need to start speeding up; Sir William Rae Annamarie won't take long in trying to steal the magic from the Cramson Adakite.

"Why does the Matfasa spend their whole lives in the spiritual trance?" Mya asks, trying to discover one of the biggest mysteries she has had since she was a little kid; meditation.

"We, the Holy Eye, believe that through the spiritual trance, wizards are able to unravel the universes secrets. Mya Strange, wisdom comes from within, we just need to look really hard for it" Finaan answers

"How are people able to become Matfasa?" she asks.

"Only wizards can become Matfasa. And for the conversion, the wizard needs to go through an intense and profound process of self-discovery and inner strength to convert into Matfasa and go in the spiritual trance safely. The process is one of the most important and guarded secrets of the Holy Eye, so me telling you them would be a violation of the code; but one very intense aspect of the conversion is that the Matfasa need to give up their wizard powers."

"But why would wizards give up their magic powers for being in a trance where they are not even living for the whole eternity?"

"Mya, magic powers can sometimes get into the head of some wizards. They stop having attributes that make us human and become monsters, that through arrogance and ambition do things that are sometime unthinkable. That's not being a wizard. So a lot of this people with the Magic gene become Matfasa because it reconnects them with their genuine and pure self. They stop seeing beyond themselves but unravel the beauty of the whole universe. Its truly a blessing for us" he tells us, and I remember Sir William Rae Annamarie and how his ambition for immortality got him to take a piece of the Cramson Adakite's magic.

"If you find the trance like being a blessing, why aren't you doing it?" Mya asks. She is very curious about this stuff its almost impressive.

"Because I am the Master of the Matfasa. We need a representative in Cocoon, and the spiritual trance can sometimes go very wrong. That's what the master takes care of. I was woken up of my trance when the last master dismissed, and chose me to be his successor" master Finaan tells Mya, and with that we stop talking for a very long time.

"Who are those?" Mya finally says, breaking the silence. She is pointing at the portraits that are in the wall. Surrounding them, there are lighted candles.

"Those are the past Masters of the Matsafa order," Master Finaan tells Mya. There are 7 portraits, each of them of different men. Physically, there are all different. Some are white, some are light skinned as Finaan, and some are black. Some are tall, some are short, some have big noses, some have curly hair and others straight or non-existent hair. There is a similarity though; they all exude love and compassion. Is it their eyes? Maybe.

There is one portrait that calls my eye. This man has brown eyes, a tiny mouth, and a mushroom-like haircut. He is skinny and small, like most of the other man; but instead of having the usual saffron robe; he is wearing an elegant vest and a sweater and a bow. His eyes seem very familiar; that I start scratching my head hoping my brain switch would turn up.

"Who is that? And why is he not wearing a robe?" Mya asks, pointing at the man. I swear we have telepathy or something.

"Sir William Rae Annamarie" I answer quickly, not even processing it at first. Mya's mouth drops, and she looks at Finaan with her big, gray eyes.

"Nicholas... Whoa... How do you even know that?" Mya asks me

"There is a portrait of him at school"

"But he looks young in it. Here he looks like a 90 year old" Mya says.

"I recognized his eyes".

"Incredible" Master Finaan says very softly.

"Wait a minute, so was Sir William Rae Annemarie a master of the Matsafa order?" Mya asks Finaan.

"No, no, no Mya. He never even converted into a Matsafa" he says. I turn my view to his hands and they are shaking.

"Then why is his portrait here?" Mya asks

"Because he discovered Earth's magic source, the Cramson Adakite. He founded Cocoon; he is probably one of the biggest wizard in the world. When he was 92 years old, after founding The United Kingdom Cocoon Academy for Gifted Children, he traveled back to Colombia, and came to us. He wanted to rest; he wanted to purify his soul. So he spent his last few days here"

Mya looks at me; but doesn't even dare to mention anything Professor Livius told us. Good I think we are at the right place.

"So is he buried in here?" I ask Finaan.

"He is, in the backyard garden, where we met earlier today, his tomb is right there" Master Finaan says, with his normal calm and soothing voice. But I smell a substance, he is hiding something.

"Can we go and visit it?"

"Oh no Nicholas Strange, its now dark and the clock strikes the time where ghosts are more aware of reality. You don't want to disturb a ghost, don't you Nicholas Strange?"

"No sir"

"Come on then, I will show you your rooms. Have a good night sleep, and tomorrow morning you will part into you voyage" Master Finaan finally says, suspiciously closing the theme of the night. He then leads us back to the temple, and there he opens another door I had not seen before, yet again, and that opens up a corridor of dormitories. He assigns one to Mya and one to me, and then turns off the lights.

Taking a peaceful midnight walk with The Lord of Darkness

**Mya**

Everything is pitch black. I think of turning on the Medea flowers glow, but I am scared that Master Finaan will know I am in the backyard, trying to look for sir William Rae Annamarie's tombstone. It's already a risk that I have slippers on, but I am not going to risk for a spider or serpent to come near my feet.

However, I can't see anything. Literally anything. Everything is dark; I can't even see the door to go back to the temple.

What if this is another one of your bad, bad ideas Mya I think you should have learned by now. This is stupid, Mya, stupid.

I even consider going back to my room, the warm, and almost comfortable monk's bed. This people are certainly insane, with their non-meditation spiritual trance, and their search for the meaning of the universe, and their eating on the floor. Which is why I am so interested in them. So interested in them, but also scared.

They are clearly hiding something.

Suddenly, I feel the wind breeze cold and hitting. I remember that I am far, far away from home. In Colombia! What was I even thinking? The bushes start rumbling and moving, I quickly move away but I can't see the door back to the temple. The only remedy I have is to turn on the Medea flowers, so I do the spell; and two flowers turn on, with a dim and relaxing glow.

What I see next makes my heart stump. There is a person (I think it is a person), with their back against my body, looking for something in the floor, next to the bushes. They have all black clothing that I can only see their silhouette. Were the ghost stories true? I think. No way. I notice that the person has a thing in their hand and that it looks pointy. And then I feel like screaming, but before it happens the ghost turns around and because of the glow of the flowers, I visualize a pair of gray, gray eyes. Sort of like mine.

****

"What are you doing here?" I ask Nicholas

"The question is what are you doing here?" Nicholas responds.

"I just felt like having a peaceful and beautiful walk in complete darkness next to seven tombstones" I respond "Wow, stunning outfit by the way, that black hoodie really represents your black soul".

"Mya lets get working, Finaan is suspecting, and if we get caught, Earth knows how this trance-lovers will punish us" Nicholas says.

"Dismiss Finaan, I am suspecting about him" I say.

"Maybe sir William Rae Annamarie really is in that tombstone" Nico says, pointing with a pencil to a rectangular stone in the ground that is covered by a big and heavy watermelon bush. "Help me".

Nicholas and me are very different people in a lot of aspects; I am clearly the smart one and he is clearly the one that loves to talk to people. Right? Right. (Not really) But if there is something that characterizes us both, if there is something that truly shows we are the Strange's, aside from both of us really being strange and having blonde hair and gray eyes; is that for the life of us, we are not strong.

Tell Nicholas to cure an animal struggling in the cliff of death and he will, tell me to tell you the funniest joke ever (not really) or at least create the most delicious tea with plants you don't even know exist and I will; but tell us to move a rock or do a single push up and I guarantee you; we will end up sore for weeks.

I find a thyrse and wrap it on each side of the tombstone, so that Nicholas and I only need to push the thyrses to take away the tombstone outside bidding. We try and try and try to remove the cover of the tombstone, but we don't even move it a centimeter. It is a lost case. While I try to drain my forehead's sweat (I know, gross), Nicholas is still looking at the tombstone, and I know he is up to something.

Suddenly, he puts his both hands up and then to his sides, like if trying to conjure all of the evil spirits of the universe to go away. Similarly, about ten crows fly at the speed of light and settle themselves in Nicholas' arms. I prevent myself from screaming. Yep, even though my brother is an animal lover, even though his specialties are animals; I don't trust them. I am not scared, I swear. I just don't trust animals.

"Scared?" Nicholas asks, noticing the big jump I just did.

"No. I just don't trust them," I answer.

"Beware Mya, you don't want your nose to grow" He has bothered me with my animal paranoia since we are little toddlers. I grin at him and he then closes his eyes, which is what he does to concentrate better for communicating with his animals.

I don't know how they do it, but the crows settle in the outside corners of the tombstone, and push the tombstone outside bidding by taking the thyrses and pulling them. I want to clap and dance, but I am aware of the trouble- of the death sentence- we could wrap around ourselves into if you make any sound.

The crows then settle once again on Nicholas' arms.

"Nicholas if you don't believe you have a dark soul then how can you explain this?" I ask him.

He then laughs.

I am grateful for the crows, so I make a Soja Viridis spell, and in less than 4 seconds I have soybeans in my hand left hand. Then, I start launching them with my right hand right into the crows' mouths.

When I am left with any soybeans, the crows immediately disappear. I can only not see them because they are flying in the cold and dark night but also because they are incredibly black.

Nicholas and I are left alone once again, so we approach the tomb.

****

"We need to leave now," I tell Nicholas.

"Where to?" he asks, his voice cold and his sight very far away from mine.

"Excuse me? Are remotely inferring that we should stay here, with a group of twenty humans that have been in a trance for more than 200 years and that look barely twenty; that literally lied to our faces and then drove us to a dark room" I am now mad.

"Look Mya, I am not saying we should not leave. The Holy Eye is sketchy and lying is definitely the biggest red code alarm for danger, but it isn't a good decision to leave without yet again thinking it twice" Nicholas responds, and his calmness rages me.

"They are covering up the man that wants to steal Earth's magic!"

"What if sir William Rae Annamarie is not the one that stole the Cramson Adakite? What if the Holy Eye wasn't even aware of his disappearance?" Nicholas asks almost immediately, and then he shuts himself silent.

"This isn't good Nicholas. Lets leave now, dawn is approaching"

"Wait a minute Mya," He says calmly, still not looking at me. He then approaches the tomb, the cold and empty tomb. The tomb doesn't even smell bad, which shows that it probably hasn't even been used. There is something wrong about this whole or-deal I think, and bit my lip. Nicholas is looking directly at the tomb, moving his hands compulsively and rocking back and forth. This signs either show that he has either sensory sensitivity or he is working his brain in the magical ways he does to come up with something extraordinary. He is doing probably the latest.

While I am still thinking of an escape plan, probably make Nicholas draw a warm bed in a hotel in Guadalajara or a traditional Mexican restaurant; Nicholas does something that I wasn't expecting. He jumps into the grave.

****

"Exhibit J of why Nicholas Strange is the lord of darkness" I joke, but secretly I am glad to have him with me in this voyage. Without him here, we wouldn't even be able to walk two steps without getting hit by a bicycle. Desperate times call for desperate measures; he just got into that grave because he has an idea. That's probably what I admire most from my brother, if he has an idea he will do anything and everything possible to achieve it, he executes it without letting anybody's opinions or actions holding him back.

Nicholas doesn't say anything, but rather snuggles in the tomb. He may be smart, but one really can't deny he is strange. Its so dark in here, I can't see anything. I just sort of see Nicholas' shadow snuggled up in the tomb. And for a long time, nothing happens.

Suddenly, something moves in the grave. I feel the nights' wind a lot colder and harsher on my skin; I hear a pair of wings fluttering; relentless, strong. I then feel something land in my both my leg shoulder and in my right shoulder. My first instinct is to go completely still and hold my breath.

"Nicholas... What. Do. I. Have. On. My. Shoulders?" I ask very softly.

"Who is laughing now Mya?" Nicholas says, in between giggles "Turn on more flowers".

Trying not to move too abruptly, I hold my hands up and chant the spell for Medea flowers to glow. Five flowers then exude a light vapor. I turn my head to my right shoulder, and looking back at me is a 50 cm bird with green eyes, red body, blue and green wings, a hand's long peak and black bony hooves that will rip your face off in 5 seconds. Or at least I imagine that.

The bird then flutters its heavy wings and hits me in the face.

I turn my head to my left shoulder, and looking back at me is the same bird species, only that this one has a yellow body; and much colder eyes. He then does the same thing as his friendly buddy, and hits my face.

I am too scared to think of clever remarks.

"Speechless at last" Nicholas says "Come on Mya, we are going to the Amazon Jungle. Jump"

****

I stay still for a long moment, trying to process what has just happened.

"Excuse me?" I ask.

"I know which will be our next destination; the Amazon Jungle" Nicholas responds.

"Yeah I got that. But why?"

"Because those birds -which are called Ara macaws- live in the Amazon Jungle"

"Therefore?" I ask Nicholas, not really making the connection.

"We are trying to follow sir William Rae Annamarie, right? Trying to catch him and recover the Cramson Adakite"

"Yeah..."

"So whenever a wizard needs to Shadow Travel to, we need to do it through a historical place, so for example a grave" Nicholas says "However, sir William Rae Annemarie doesn't has the gift of magical sketching, like I do, so to travel, he needs to use some other mechanism" he continues "one of those travel mechanisms, one he talks about in the 'Wizardry advice' book, is the sly exchange, which consists in magically attracting a representative object from the place you want to travel to, and then carry in your hand a representative object from the place you currently are. Then you chant the Shadow Travel Spell, and when you get to your destination, you leave the object you carry in your hands".

I look at him for a while; trying to process the rainstorm of information that has just fell on me.

"So, tell me if I am wrong. Sir William Rae Annemarie wanted to travel to the Amazon Jungle, but his only possibility of shadow traveling was though sly exchange. Consequently, he got into this old grave, because it is easier to travel in a historical place. So he magically attracted this two birds, representative animals of the Colombian Amazon Jungle, and he had in his hands a representative thing from this place, like a cut hand or something. So he then chanted the Shadow Travel spell, and got to the Amazon Jungle, where to have the mechanism work he then left the cut hand in there".

"Exactly! Well, I am not sure about the cut hand offering, but that is exactly what I think Mr. Rae Annamarie did"

"So now we need to travel to the Amazon Jungle to follow and defeat Sir. William I Steal Magic Stones to steal Earth's happiness"

"Exactly"

"Lets go then" I exclaim, excited.

Nicholas then tells me that we should travel inside the grave, because of its historical drainage. I suck up my pride and yen for making a joke; and get inside it. We do the regular Shadow Travel preparation ritual; I prepare the magic potion while Nicholas' sketches a place from the Colombian Amazon Jungle he saw in a documentary about wild animals, another documentary we saw millions of times because he was obsessed with it. At least those hundreds of hours watching the same documentary were worth it I think. When we are both done, we spill the potion in the paper and chant the magic spell.

We doubt the proper definition of a Jungle

Mya

I wake up to a cold and hard floor. This time, I am not dizzy or disoriented, but I am a little bit confused on where we are. The only thing I perceive is that we are in a big closed space and four blackish walls are surrounding us, it feels cold and lonely.

"I thought that the Amazon Jungle was greenness and wild animals," I say.

Nicholas, who had already stood up and was observing something on the wall, says "It is, but we are in a cave on the Amazon Jungle, this is where Tom O Neil found the homo erectus hieroglyphs in his 2003 documentary, remember?"

"Do I remember? I think I have memorized the whole end credits. Sound editing: Martha Raymond and Jon Lech" I say, "Why didn't you draw a location in the jungle?"

"Because I remembered this better and a piece of the jungle would be inaccurate to travel to, the Amazon Jungle is very monotonous".

Then silence falls on us.

"Why are you crying?" Nicholas asks me in the most rigid voice, and I hadn't even noticed I had my eyes damp and I was shaking.

Why was I crying? I think, long and hard.

"I guess I miss mom and dad," I say

"Me too" Nicholas says

"I miss mom's classic Sunday pancakes and dad's orange juice after his morning run. I miss going hiking and eating ice cream in that little organic shop. I miss living with them instead of in Cocoon and doing movie nights while eating donuts. I miss when mom and dad used to accompany me to the stupid 'Snow White' rehearsals and sat on the first row and mom used to laugh and clap and dad had his camcorder covering his face. I miss them."

"But I go with you to your play rehearsals" Nicholas says, still with no distinguishable tone in his voice.

"Do you really Nico? Because it seems that you are more interested in your sketching notebook than with the fact that I am pouring my heart and soul into each performance" I say, in a defensive tone; and immediately feel terrible.

"I do get interested in you Mya" Nicholas says, and he is doing that ugly crying thing I have only see him do twice in his life. He is talking really fast, and I am not even able to understand some words he says "It may not seem like I am not listening or watching you but I am; you perform beautifully I have seen you. I am sorry for being this way but I swear I am li-" he suddenly stops, and stands up quickly without any previous heads up.

He walks to the end of the corridor.

"Oh man!" Nicholas exclaims, his voice is far away but it persists with an echo. I run to where I seemed to hear him, and because there aren't any flowers in here, I create a little ball of light in my hand to see at least where I am going. The only thing I see is Nicholas' shadow. He is grabbing his hands.

Nicholas then proceeds to tell me that someone moved a big rock in front of the cave, which seemed malicious to him; as if they were trying to keep us locked up "I swear that when I drew this cave, I did it with a hole to get out of it. I swear I did, why didn't I looked? Now we are both locked in this cave, how are we going to get o-" he keeps on saying, desperate, not even trying to catch his breath.

"Nico, breath in, breathe out. Everything is all right. I have an idea"

****

"Are you sure this will work?" Nicholas asks me, his hand still moving, which is a sign that he is still agitated.

"Yeah Nico, trust me" I say, and we both get bundled up in the widest corner we found in the cave.

I then make the attachment spell and conjure all the flowers and tress I hope are out there. I cross my fingers and then the rock starts moving toward the inside of the cave. At first it starts out slow, then extremely fast. The sound of the rocks is extremely loud and trembling, I look at Nicholas and he has his ears shut with his hands while he is screaming.

The image that I see is one that I have never thought I would in my whole life. A hard, heavy rock getting pulled by a bouquet of flowers and tress and plants engraved in it. Attached.

When the rock is inside the cave and we have a space to get out; I run outside, carelessly and happy. I dance, I scream, I make some moves that would probably scared everyone in Cocoon. I recite one of Rosalind's' "As you Like it" lines.

Minutes later, Nicholas finally comes out of the cave. His hands are still in his ears, but he is no longer shouting. He is winding down. I hug him with happiness "We did it Nicholas!"

When we release the hug, Nicholas has a huge smile on his face, falls down to the floor, and looks at the sky. This is something Nicholas does quite frequently; the sky and the shapes of the clouds are fascinating to him. He still hasn't said anything, until he says, "Where do you think Rae Annamarie is?"

"I have no idea. But I figure that is our next quest"

"Do you think he will try to steal the Cramson Adakite's magic here?" he asks.

"Maybe" I answer, and I realize I am being of no use.

I look at our surroundings, and we are at the textbook definition of a jungle. The trees are unbelievable tall, their leaves big and with a tint of green that looks fresh and pure. I breathe in, and I feel an air I have never felt before. It feels pure. It feels refreshing.

I wonder what Finaan is thinking of us now I think, and I am secretly glad we got out of that crazy place. For the beginning of our stay I felt safe in there. Sure, I was really confused about the lifetime trance thingy, but being in that temple made me felt a lot calmer and protected. However, the thing with Rae Annamarie was getting sketchy. They had a portrait of him right in the eating room!

Suddenly I feel a cold breeze hitting my body. There is something beside me but after today's macaw's scare I don't feel like looking at any other animals. Pathetic, I know, especially because we are in a jungle. But I am determined to avoid crossing ways with any other animals until I am able to.

"Hello Grin and Mim" Nicholas exclaims, and I automatically turn my head hoping another human is here with us.

However, a big scare creeps on me when I don't see a human, but 2 eagles, each about 3 meters tall and having their long wings extended as if being about to give me a big, painful hug. I sometimes forget that my brother can communicate with animals, which is insane and ironic. How can two people so similar looking, can be so different? I wonder It's out of my mind.

"Mmmh"

"Yes"

"What a shame"

"Thank you very much"

"Yes sir, oh sorry! Mam; we are looking for another human"

"That's great"

"Thank you so much"

"Mmmhhh"

"Nicholas Strange"

"She is my twin sister, Mya"

"Yes she loves animals, especially big furry ones that fly, like you" I hear Nicholas say, and open my eyes with terror when I see the biggest, deadliest eagle approach me. This eagle has its dark brown wings wide open, a sharp and hard peak, and his yellow eyes deadly and daunting.

"Mya Strange, your majesty, how has your day been so far?" the eagle asks with a deep and melodic voice, but I quickly dismiss this fact when I realize again this is an eagle. I have never had an animal talk to me before, but I figure Nico did a spell on him. Then I look at Nicholas, and he is already up in the other eagles back, caressing him and therefore light comes out of his hands. They are giggling together and I hear Nicholas is telling him facts about eagles. He looks majestic on top of that eagle. He looks like a Greek god with his curly blond hair and gray eyes. "Mya, get on top of Grin, they will take us to the Stone of Feathers, where they saw a man a couple of hours ago.... I swear he is nice," he says, referring to Grim.

"I am, dear rare and exotic Katahum" the eagle says, and I feel his voice is luring me to sleep.

"Rare and exotic Katahum? Cool" I say, and very carefully get in the eagles back. The eagles immediately take off, and at first I close my eyes. I feel the cold breeze in my skin, the empty feeling in my stomach. I peak a little and beneath us I see umbrella like, green leaves. Next to us there is a herd of black pigeons, and I feel like they are scolding us. I close my eyes again, and only thing I listen is Nico's laugh and happiness screams.

Right in that moment I figure that I need to confront my fears, that we will not be able to save the world if I have such an irrational fear as animals, that we are fletcher and oak; working together. We are invincible.

The Stone of Feathers

**Nico**

"Thank you Grin and Mim" I tell they eagles while feeding them both soybeans Mya had just created "If you are ever in San Francisco, please come by for a visit."

I then caress them a little bit more. Once they finish their soybeans, Mim tells me with her sweet, loving voice "Nicholas Strange, you are a very special human being. Don't ever forget that and keep following your dreams, because the world needs you".

"Your sister smells nice. Bye Nicholas!" Grin says, and with that I give them a last hug each; and they fly away. I look at them fly freely, with tears streaming down my cheek. Animals have a big soft spot in my heart. They are loving and kind, and much easier to understand than humans.

We then inspect the place the eagles left us in. When I first talked with Mim, she told me that Grin and her had seen a new young man's face in the forest, and that he was with the Alcatros (whatever they are), worriedly looking for something. She told me that they could take us to the place the Alcatros did their night rituals, a place called the Stone of Feathers. In which we are right now.

Now, I am not really sure why this place is even called the Stone of Feathers or how they conjugated such contrasting concepts, but whoever inaugurated this place did. The Stone of Feather is a ring of 5 meters standing stones. The stones are standing in an elevation of the soil. I calculate about 27 standing stones, each of which look similar at sight, but when you look at them very closely they have illustrations and symbols engraved in them. I see a small Flower of Life engraved in a stone, and immediately get shivers because I remember the necklace mom always used to wear.

The Flower of Life

" The Stone of Feathers. That's what I call a unique name," Mya says.

"I like it actually, it makes you wonder if the name has a right sense" I say "You wonder 'are they messing with me?' or 'is there truly a deep inner meaning?' We will probably never know. That's what makes it fun"

"I hate uncertainty" Mya says "Oh look! They have my symbol" she says, pointing with her left hand to the stone that engraved in it has the Flower of Life and touching with her right hand mom's necklace she has had since they died.

Then I hear loud stomp sounds behind us, and I immediately know there is someone -or more accurately, many someone's- looking at us. Getting here called for trouble, and we definitely got it. Mya is still looking at the stone, not even noticing the loud sounds I am hearing. That's how it usually goes; I have a bigger sensorial sensitivity than most people, which includes sounds. I turn around, and I see ten 7 meters man-like creatures, but that have horns and a toucan's peak. Instead of human skin, they have little fur, each with unique patterns and colors. Some Alcatros have simple brown fur, while other ones have black fur and green dots, and some even have pagan runes.

"Are this the sacrifices for tonight's moon?" one of them asks, he has white fur and a rune in his belly.

"I hope so Moor, tomorrow is winter's solstice. We need a good sacrifice for the last autumn day", another one says, and I notice that we have been 3 days in our voyage, since we left San Francisco on December 18.

"But they are alive" Another one says, looking at Mya and me.

"We have never had a human sacrifice, or even a breathing one" the Alcatros that says this has pastel pink fur.

"Oh shut up Bini, if Mina sent them then they are meant for sacrifice" an all black furred Alcatros says. I notice he is upset.

"As long as I have known, we Alcatros don't hurt any breathing things. They are friends," a big yellow fur one says.

"We are meant to do what Mina says," another Alcatros says, and he has runes all over his arms.

"We are not sacrificing our integrity Bolm" the last Alcatros says.

Then they all get into this big argument, some saying that we should be sacrificed, others saying that its forbidden in their culture, other saying that they have never liked Mina or that she was probably mistaken. In a weird sense, I admired them. All the eight of them spoke equally; there was not one that stood up more than others. They each gave their points of views, and even though it was evident that they had different personalities, they each were strong but kind. In their own unique way, at least.

"Mina did sent us, dear Alcatros" I hear a familiar voice say, and I get the same feeling I got when I was gifted a puppy for Christmas in 2011: surprise. "She sends you her deepest regards, and her explanation to this...unordinary circumstance is that tomorrow is winter's solstice, and she sees that you will need luck for the upcoming season" Mya continues saying without any hesitation or doubt in her voice. She either lost her mind with the eagle's ride or she will win a Tony I think.

The Alcatros eyes get wide as a balloon and their mouths drop. They are surprised. "How do we know you were really sent by Mina?" The first Alcatros that spoke, the one his mate called Moor, says, his voice shaky but his face completely straight.

Mya doesn't even hesitates, its incredible "Its your choice if you decide not to carry out Mina's wishes" her voice is imposing and strong.

"What about the boy?" the Alcatros named Bolm asks me. I feel all eyes on me. I am looking out of the corner of my eyes, as I always do; but nonetheless I feel intimidated and judged.

"I.. Uhmm..Miiina.. She.. I.. Me-" I start saying, not really having a clue of what I am trying to formulate, until Mya takes my arm and interrupts me. Thank you Mya I think.

"Can you excuse us a minute? My brother here suffers from a heat phenomenon and I need to give him his medicine" the Alcatros then nod their heads, but they have a suspicious look in their eyes. Mya takes my arm and we walk away from them.

"Follow my game," she says

"What are you doing?" I ask

"Just trust me"

"The last time I trusted you, I had to throw you in a mummy's box and a manticore tried to kill me right in front of you" I say.

"Nico; we need to get as close to them as we can so we can figure out where Mr. I steal magic stones and run around the Amazon jungle is. They were with him, you heard the eagles".

"I don't want to be sacrificed," I say

"The world is ending, and we need to do something. We are oak and fletcher, we can this Nico"

A long, long silence breaks between us.

"What should I do?" I finally say, she is my twin, we shared a womb; I need to trust her. Because if I don't, I would be mistrusting my own self.

"Nothing, I will do the talking" she says "You will know when the correct time to do something is when it comes".

"Sometimes you confuse me Mya," I say.

"Nico, are you really talking about me?" she jokes, and with that the conversation is over and we approach the Alcatros again. They are all in a group, giggling with their strong voices. Its funny.

"Alright little boogers. You should be honored that you will be the first breathing things sacrificed in our lunar nights" the black furred Alcatros says, and then they proceed to tie us up together with a rope, and leave us in the middle of the standing stones ring. Mya and I are back to back, and I see that my backpack is 50 centimeters away from me "Did you heard that little booger?" Mya says, and with the tone of voice she used I can feel a smirk on her face. She is all happiness and bubbles, we are tied up and she is not even scared.

I look up, and I see that the sky looks like a blue sapphire stone I observe see in the Greek San Francisco Museum, which I go visit every three months. I then notice that its probably 4 or 5 pm, remembering that my father taught me the sky color scale in accordance to time in our 2004 Savage Jungle hike in Chile.

"The ceremony will start at 7 pm," the Alcatros that was initially hesitant to sacrifice us says, and his voice is shaky.

****

"The holy sacrifice starts out with the Moon and Cancer song. We will listen to the gracious tambours and maracas joining together in harmony and love. Then the fire will complete its deed, and your remainders will be left right where they are left, until they fly away with the pure sounds of melody and soul"

"So the plan is that you are going to put on some music, burn us to death, and then play some more music until our ashes fly out"

Nobody responds. The air is somber and sad and the silence is mind-boggling. The only thing I can hear is the sound of the harsh cold wind and some birds flying over us. I wonder where this place is for me to have never heard of it before from my documentaries and books, and for this place to have no signs of any other living soul -animal or human- to have passed through here.

Then the Alcatros start playing this song, a Caribbean folky rhythm, with the help of maracas and drums and other exotic instruments I don't even know. The rhythm is overwhelming, as well as the odor of the bonfire next to us. The song has no lyrics, but they are chanting some syllables and short words that are probably in an Indian language.

Then, still having the music playing, they each start saying their names, one by one. I can't see their faces because it's very dark, but through their voices I can perceive some sad and empty Alcatros.

"To the Stars, Bei"

"To the Sun, Bini"

"To Destiny, Bolm"

"To Fire, Rami"

"To Food, Sau"

"To Love, Zel"

"To Eart-" Moor starts saying, when suddenly land starts roaring and moving violently. I look at the sky, and everything is the same, I look at the fire, and everything is the same. Everyone gets silenced; there is no longer the chanting, or the sound of the drums.

We failed I think for a moment Rae Annamarie has just stolen Earths Magic.

However, with the land rumbling every time even stronger and stronger, I look up behind my shoulder, and Mya's hands glowing. Even though she is sitting the exact same way she was before, her hands and back are so tense I feel she is going to break.

The leaves of flowers and trees surrounding us suddenly start flying, to the point that they are above our heads, and start twirling from one side to another. Some of this leaves and other little scrambled parts of the plant; such as little rocks and roots start getting poured into the giants, and they start screaming and roaring. There are a lot of confused and scared shouts and questions.

"Wait" I tell Mya, knowing that she has a final bow for this madness, but figuring out that I need to contribute a little bit before she does so.

My hands start glowing, and shortly after, I feel the strength of Grin and Mim's wings flying above my head. I swear I then see Mim winking at me and Grin having this huge smirk on his face. Without me even noticing how and when this happened; the whole sky gets covered with all types of birds, and surrounding us there is now a huge army of mammals. There are over 100 birds; parrots, macaws, eagles, harpies, hoatzins, osprey, kingbirds; all of them fluttering their wings with strength and vigor. There are over 100 mammals surrounding us; monkeys, jaguars, rodents, ocelots, javelins, mountain lions, bears, capybaras; each of them frowning and having the most intense and cold eyes I have ever seen on an animal before, directed to the Alcatros.

Then I hear a voice really close to me say out loud "Alcatros, you have played with Earth and Life, your morals have been put to risk by a belief of destiny and luck. You will now have to revamp yourself with Earth and Life, or your own life will be put at stake by Earth's playback" Mya is really, really good. If there is an aspect that she absolutely nails it in acting, is creating characters and accents. What she has just created is this Hippie yet angry and harsh Mother Earth.

The Alcatros are now crying and shaking, probably upset that they had just angered their mother, Mother Earth. They then untie us with absolute delicacy and tenderness. They don't seem angry with us lying about what Mina supposedly said.

"What can we do for you, honorable guests?" One of them asks, in between sobs.

"Has a young human boy been with you in the last couple of days?" Mya asks, while the land is still thundering, and leaves and roots are all over the sky, and about 200 angry animals are surrounding us.

They all look at each other, and hesitate about what they should or shouldn't tell us

"That's none of your business," one of them -the one that is called Bolm- says.

"You almost tried to burn us to death, now you need to clean your name" Mya says, still determined and fierce.

"Yes, a man was with us two days ago." Moor says.

"What did you did together?" Mya asks,

"We walked from the west side of the Forest to the Mirmide Waterfall" Moor replies.

"Why?" Mya asks.

"He wanted to get there for some reason unknown to us, and we have been friends of him for centuries. We haven't seen him in about 50 years"

"Take us there" Mya says, and the land stops roaring and the leaves and roots all over the sky come down to the ground.

The ten Alcatros then head to the North Direction of the ring, and we start walking in the midst of the darkness of the night to the Mirmide Waterfall, having 200 wild animals escort us and listening the sobs of big, human-like creatures.

****

Three hours later, and we get to the waterfall.

Once again, this is a place I have no knowledge of. The Mirmide Waterfall is a place hidden in the inner depths of the Amazon Forest, a place where probably less than five species has stepped on. Which is a shame because the place is beautiful, it having one of the most pure and cleans smells I have ever felt.

Before getting to the waterfall, you first need to walk a two hour-long hike in-between tall and jammed trees. We barely saw anything, having Mya turn on the flower's glow every 10 steps we walk. However, when you get to the waterfall everything is worth it. I sense the smell of the clean water immediately we get there, and even in the dark, you can see the crystalline color and the fishes inside the water.

We then goodbye the Alcatros, Mya hugs them and I hear she says to Moor's ears "Thank you Moor, you will have the most prosperous winter in your lifetime. Be kind to the Earth".

"He got inside that cave," Moor says while pointing to the middle of the waterfall drop, where there is a hole that looks like an entrance. With that, he makes a signal to the rest of the Alcatros and they start walking back where we came from. Then the birds fly far away and the mammals are out of our sight in a blink of an eye.

In an act of gratitude, Mya prepares some curing spells. She creates a protection barrier for the forest and the animals in it, a feast full of fresh fruit and vegetables, and plants 10 trees. I ask her whom she is doing this for, and she responds with a single word "Earth". I then draw in the air with my air pencil some protection and prosperity symbols, including the Flower of Life. The Amazon Jungle will have love and life prominent at all measures.

We then jump inside the waterfall, and somehow we go inside the cave entrance in the middle of the waterfall drop. The cave feels moist but clean, and it's completely dark, so Mya creates light in her hand. Contrary to the other cave we 'visited' today, this cave is small and cozy; being even smaller than Mya's own dressing room. We soon then realize that there is another difference with the other cave. This one, at the exact center of the cave, has a rectangular piece of metal about the length of my palm with a cut hand engraved in it.

"I win a point!" Mya tells me excitedly.

Sea of Air

**Nico**

"The thing with the cut hand was true?" I ask.

"Obviously it was, dear brother" Mya says, "I never joke"

"Where did you saw it?" I ask Mya.

"Are you kidding me? It was all over the Satyananda Temple. The eating room, the temple, the backyard, the grave, the rooms they gave us" Mya tells me, and I notice in her the tone of her voice she uses when Lia tells her she needs to talk to her. Which means she is worried "Didn't you saw it?"

"Not really" I answer, wondering. After a moment, I finally know why.

"Its engraved in gold!" I exclaim, feeling like I have just unraveled the biggest secret in the universe.

"I guess it was, the engrave always had that tint of gold. Oh.. Right, you have that weird thing with gold" Mya says

She is true; a long time ago I had accepted that looking at the color gold made me anxious and that I didn't for one bit liked it. I grew out a mechanism where I could not pay attention to anything gold. Remember, we are the Strange's.

"This one is engraved in silver," I say, looking at the piece of metal in my hands. In it, it has hand engraved, with an eye in the pal and decorations on the fingers. "The Hamsa"

"Excuse me?" Mya says.

"The Hand of Fatima" I explain.

Mya then looks at me with her big gray eyes. Is she expecting something from me? I wonder. Then, after a long silence she says, "I think I need more explanation than that Nico"

"Oh right" I say, finally figuring out why she looked at me for such a long time "The Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima is a Middle East talismanic symbol that its said to protect harm against the evil forces and bring goodness, success, luck, and protection from the Ayin Ha'ra. It's said that it brings peace and healing powers"

"Ayin what?" Mya asks

"The Evil Eye. You see Mya, the evil eye is a symbol said to inflict harm, suffering, or some form of bad luck on the person that it is cast upon"

"Then why does the Hamsa have an eye if it's supposed to be a symbol of bad energy and luck?"

"Because by the evil eye being in the palm of the Hamsa, it is catching and blocking the evil it represents."

...

..

..

"Whoa.. So, the Evil Eye and the Holy Eye. Coincidence?" Mya asks.

"Coincidences don't exist Mya" I say.

"What does this tells you then?" Mya asks me, and I perceive she is looking for a piece of my completely innate wisdom (yeah right).

The thing is, I don't even know what all of this connections mean. I supposed that Rae Annamarie was going to steal Earth's Magic and do the Cramson Adakite ritual here, in this cave, but its completely empty. Now Mya and I are in here, oblivious of where he is and where we should go next. He is probably already doing the ritual I think. From the smell I perceive, it has been days since a soul has been into this cave. If he has left this cave, then where is even the exchange Shadow Travel object from his destination?

Tomorrow is December 21, the winter solstice. The longest night in the year. To my mind come the images of 2007, the smell of laughter, and joy, and hot cocoa, and fresh pine tree, and burning trees. That day, all of Cocoons' students and staff spent the night out in a magical forest near San Francisco. We played music and danced over the fire; but we were prohibited to use magic. This same day repeats itself every single year, on December 21. Because on winters solstice, magic is even more powerful, more deadlier. I figured that Mr. William Rae Annamarie had decided to do his tricky business on the winter's solstice. What a perfect opportunity!

The cave has a scent of human, but it has slowly been vanished. This is how I know the cave has been human-free for a couple of days. This means, that even though William Rae Annemarie was here, he left a couple of days back to another place to do his ritual, not doing Shadow Travel exchange because there aren't any other objects in this cave. Now the only thing we need to know is where he went. Perfect.

We stay silent for a very long time. I perceive a death odor, a battle odor. This place is indeed moist and somber, probably because we are literally behind a waterfall. This is insane. How did we even get here? I wonder. Professor Livius is going to be upset and angry if we let Earth's magic be stolen. He was the only person that has believed in us, we can't let him down.

This is a moist place. Abnormally moist I wonder.

I look at the ground, trying to look for any sort of substance or liquid in the ground. Voila! There is a trail of a substance in the ground that is linear shaped, pointing to the opening of the cave. I go towards the front of the cave, where the trail of the substance doesn't even seem to stop in the limit the cave ends and the waterfall is. I then crouch down to take a look at the substance. The only thing I can perceive is that it's dark and liquid-y.

Then I smell it.

Moments and emotions come all once. I can perceive a smell with iron, an odor of death and suffering. Blood. However, the iron-y smell of this blood is kind of acidic, and it has a greenish tint. Elfish blood. However, this liquid substance is not only elfish blood, but there is another part. Sweet and sugary, I perceive human sweat. Yes, sweat. I figure that there has been a battle between an elf and a human, in which they both fought hard; but the elf was killed by the man. And not only any man, Sir William Rae Annamarie.

But there is something more

In the human sweat, I can perceive preoccupation and hurry, hate. An idea. A fixated idea. The San Luis de Bocachica Fortress. The San Luis de Bocachica Fortress. The San Luis de Bocachica Fortress.

Outside the cave, I can see the waterfall each time getting more and more visible. Behind it, there is a yellow-y sunrise tint. December 21 is starting, and we need to go before Earth's magic gets destroyed.

"Mya, prepare a shadow travel potion. We are going to visit the Queen of the Caribbean Coast"

"Excuse me?" Mya's says her catch phrase with her distinct dazzled look that I have already seen 27 times today.

****

This time, we Shadow Travel violently. When we land in Cartagena, we both have our eyes opened and our bodies land hard on the pavement. I hear Mya wail for a moment, and then she immediately stands out.

"It didn't work" I have never heard her more serious.

"It did, its just that today its December 21, magic is much more deadlier and powerful" I say.

Mya then touches her neck and closes her eyes, while exhaling deeply "You scared me half to death".

I look at the scenery, and I am sure we are in Cartagena. I don't know where, but we are in here. I see millions of people, that while they walk they have their cameras and maps out. Tourists. This is definitely Cartagena. The architecture is probably what strikes me the most. Unfolding in front of my eyes; I see one house after the other one, all with different colors and details, but each with the same structure. A classical colonial style. It reminds me of San Francisco, but while in our hometown the houses are classical and have pastel color; these houses explode happiness, there is a vibrant red house, a vibrant yellow one, a completely white one, and a sapphire blue one.

We are in a plaza; in the middle of it there is a statue.

"The Queen of the Caribbean Coast?" Mya asks.

"Cartagena, Colombia; a city known for its beauty and happiness. The Spanish built their first defensive fortifications here. One of which is hopefully our last stop in this trip. The San Luis de Bocachica Fortress"

"Lets go then" Mya says, and her fear has just passed. She is now glowing with excitement, jumping up and down.

"The problem is, I don't know where we are"

"Lets get a map then"

"I also don't know where we are"

Then I explain her that about 4 years ago I watched a documentary about the inquisition and a shot of Cartagena was put in it. I remember very distinctly that 3 second shot because it had caught my eye. So I drew it, not even knowing how it's called. Mya then suggests going inside a shop and asking for help. I nod, not only because we are lost, but also because I was starting to get anxious looking at such an active place that I have never been in.

We get inside a little yellow house that makes a really unique contrast with the three and two floors' houses. While we are opening the door, Mya whispers something in my ear "Don't worry, little brother, I got this". This sounds like trouble. And it was only eleven minutes!

We go inside the house and the air conditioner immediately hits us. I see books stacked upon books. This is a bookstore. However, this is not a normal bookstore because there isn't a shelf. The books are literally stacked from the floor up to the ceiling. How on Earth are people going to grab a book? I wonder. My preoccupation goes away immediately when I notice there isn't a single living soul in here.

"Good Morning" Mya says with a French accent to a woman sitting down in a chair, reading a book. I am about to laugh but she hits me with her elbow.

"We are closed" The woman says. He white pale skin and green eyes make her look like a Scandinavian ghost.

"But the door is open" Mya says

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT?" The woman shouts. Wasn't it a crime to talk, nonetheless shout in a bookstore? I wonder.

"I am looking for this book: The Ethereal Wanderers" Mya says, and I wonder how she came up with that name.

"Finally you say something smart! Marie Curie-look alike" The woman tells Mya, and I am surprised because apparently The Ethereal Wanderers is a real book " Unfortunately Marie, that book hasn't been printed for ages. It is a masterpiece, but this stupid and ignorant society never seems to accept uniqueness and difference. It only got 7 prints"

"Oh that's a shame!" Mya says with sorrow "The world doesn't know what they are missing. Anyway, my little brother and I are looking for the San Luis de Bocachica Fortress. Can you tell us where it is?"

Her eyes then widen and she smirks.

"I will, but I have a copy of The Ethereal Wanderers in my bedroom. Let me get it for you and then Ill tell you. My name is Loralai," the woman says.

"Thank you Loralai" Mya says, still with a French accent. Mya pats her in the shoulder, and then she assures us that she will get the book fast and then we will be on our way immediately.

However, Loralai takes a lot of time looking for the book. I count one hour, and she still hasn't come. Mya assures me that if in five minutes she isn't back, we will go to another shop. I nod and go look where the books are stacked, looking at what Loralai has.

"Whoa" I exclaim, looking at The Dead Invention of Gria D. One of my favorite books, but that unfortunately stopped circling 2 months after the release date because only 87 people had bought it "Loralai seems to be an underground books enthusiast".

I continue browsing the book collection, and suddenly I see a book with a red and yellow spine; while all of the other books Loralai haves are black, dark green, and brown. My natural need of uniqueness makes me grab the book. And then everything falls down.

Books, tumbling down. The only thing I see are millions of white and yellow pages flying in the air; then coming down.

"Its a book-pocalypse" Mya says, giggling.

Fortunately we go back to the entrance of the bookstore, so no books hit us; except this Thai Cooking with your Child book that hits me in my shoulder. All jokes aside, this really was a book-pocalypse. And all books aside, there is a little brown door that was hidden in the bare back of the bookstore. It has a little inscription in it that says, "Don't get in. There are Knives and broken glass".

"Knives and Broken glass? Oh, then we shouldn't get in!" Mya says sarcastically.

Because we are the Strange's, we open the door, and go inside it.

****

The change from the little cozy dark bookstore to this next new room is drastic. This next new room is as big as a supermarket has tremendous amounts of lighting. At first, I feel like I am in a TV set, so I partly close my eyes to input the light.

"Nico, this isn't right" Mya says with the same voice she always does a minute before a potion of hers explodes.

The first things I notice are the cages. Cages upon cages. One over the other one, all of them side by side. The whole thing is covered by cages, even thought this is three times as big as the Theatre de la Mars. Then, the animals; and I break out in an ugly and snotty cry. Mya gets beside me, caressing my back. She is shaking, but oh dear Mya. Even though is the most kind and loving soul in the whole universe, she is always pretending. Not only on stage, but pretending to be the strong one. Mya is the strongest person I have ever met.

After a while, I get up and walk towards a cage. In it, there is a tiger. I can see his bones, and his eyes look tired and lonely.

"Who are you?" the lion asks me.

"My name is Nicholas Strange. Nice to meet you" I answer him back.

"I am August Miner. What do you want Mr. Strange?" the lion tells me. He is incredibly kind.

"I am your friend. And I want to get you out of here" I tell him.

" I am afraid Miss Loralai won't allow that" he tells me with a soft, tired voice.

"What does she want to do to you?" I ask him.

"She takes us to the Dark Magic realms, and in there, witches and wizards make potions with us try out their spells"

"I am getting you out, August, and the rest of your friends. I promise" I tell him and go back to Mya.

"You can't promise that" Mya tells me.

"Mya it's my duty, being an Earth user and the oak"

"How are you going to free all of these animals?" Mya asks, and I calculate there are about 500 animals in here.

"I have an idea," I say.

"Lets do this! Fletcher and Oak, we are going to nail this" Mya says, and I am happy with her excitement and support. We then shake our hands, and I tell her my plan.

****

I breathe in, breathe out; as Mya always tells me to do. This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

"Good Morning everybody. My name is Nicholas Strange, I am 14 years old, and my sister and I are here to save you. We are both wizards, and I promise you that in the next few minutes you will be free in your ecosystem of choice. Dear beautiful friends, I am going to unlock your cages; and once Mya sings her song, you are all going to run outside that door, and you will be free. Free at last" I say at the center of the room, screaming with my heart.

Then madness ensues.

At first I hear excitement and happiness, some starting singing and dancing, others shout and talk to their friends, other thank me among the madness. Then, a strong, attention-grabbing voice talks, and the room goes silent.

"Don't make fake promises boy" An eagle in one of the tallest cages says, and I sense he is a leader among these animals.

"Don't be negative Shi, this boy is doing this from his heart" an old female cat says.

"You are all forgetting he is a wizard, like her".

"Not all wizards are like Loralai. Some of us love with our heart. I will protect you, I promise" I say.

"Don't believe this wizard, he will take us out of this cage and Loralai will kill us all. You are all forgetting what Loralai did 7 years ago"

Then everyone falls silent.

"This is a ray of hope Shi. If we die, at least we are going to die as heroes" the old female cat says.

Then I proceed to unlock all 653 cages. There are all types of animals; from elephants to mice. There is something I wasn't expecting to be here. The sea animals are in a big aquarium-like vase. I sort of had to change my plan at the last minute. They are also getting freed.

I sense the time is coming; so I go over to the old female cat that had defended me. She thanks me and gives me a pat on my back. She then tells me that she is from Switzerland and I told her I am from San Francisco "The Guiradelli place?" she asks me and I nod my head. "I have always wanted to go there. I love chocolate. Actually" then she puts something around my neck. A necklace. I then look at it, and it has a chocolate donut pendant "You seem like someone that also like chocolate" and then she winks at me. She is trying to tell me soothing else.

I then promise to take her to the Ghirardelli Square in the Fisherman's Wharf, and then I ask if she could make me a description of the San Luis de Bocachica Fortress. While she does, I sketch it on my notebook. Then I ask her if after defeating Loralai, they could take Mya to the Fortress. She nods with excitement, and I feel grateful for them. I have one of Mya's potions in my back. I am good to go.

Then I go to where Shi is.

"I don't trust you kid," he says.

"Shi, mister, hope is what keeps the world round".

"I have long lost hope and faith in humanity" He says.

"I am sure that after today you will be a free and happy eagle," I say, and then Mya starts singing.

" _But I'll be brave I'll be brave I'll be brave_

When the timing comes around I'll be brave

yeah I'll be brave

Just let me go now

Let me go now"

While Mya is singing her soft song, 520 animals come out of that door in less than a minute. I hear Loralai curse and Mya laughing.

Classic Mya.

I now have 133 animals left to free.

****

I can breathe underwater. Its one of my favorite powers, because I love the feeling of water on my skin, and I love sea animals. I am one of the few people that can enjoy both of these at the same time. In the water is where I feel more like myself, where I feel more happy and free.

I jump into the tank, and even though there are sharks and Moray Eels. None of them even smell like hate or hunger. They thank me, but I stop them before it has advanced to long.

"Thank you so much, but first comes the fun part. Say goodbye to the aquarium" I say.

I hear hundreds of voices coming together like a song, all saying goodbye.

I have my sketch paper embalmed with Mya's potion in my hands, and then I start chanting the spell.

Meeting Mr. I Like Messing Up with Other People's Happiness

**Mya**

Each time, the elegant silhouette of a boy with cashmere pants, a striped sweater, and a button up shirt is more and more visible. He is standing still, looking at the sky. He is thinking, coming up with ideas, analyzing, wondering. Even thought he is completely alone, with a giant stone and iron fort behind him, standing in the middle of the big entrance made of wood and iron beside the water of the giant Atlantic Ocean, where there are billions of animal species and plants, where the deadliest deaths go unnoticed and the most colorful fishes and plants are not even known by us; he cant seem but have his special quality of making you just look at him, like if there was nothing more in the world. Nicholas is a wonder.

"Is the world ending?" Nico shouts from the platform that joins the ocean to the door entrance of the fort. I then notice that he has a necklace on.

"Not yet".

"You being in a humpback whale's back is not necessarily a sign of the world being ordinary" he says with a straight face and tone of voice, but I know that inside he is laughing. Is that a chocolate necklace?

"I was trying to imagine that I was magically floating in the water, thank you very much," I say, with my eyes still closed. And it was true, when us - all 520 animals and me- arrived to the Cartagena's marine port by running, an old woman cat that Nicholas had charmed with his innate and charismatic personality (yeah right) immediately called friendly Humpback Whale Jonah to take me to The San Luis de Bocachica Fortress. When we were just about to take off, about a group of other 20 humpback whales joined us. All of these whales were basically escorting your majesty.

I then feel Nicholas' hands on mine, so I know the ride is fortunately over. I open my eyes and behind Nicholas, there is an old, rusty, and gigantic fort made out of iron and stone. So this is it I think we either beat Mr I like messing up with other people's happiness and have a British accent or the world is ending. Great.

I jump out of Jonah's back, and tell him bye, thank you, and that I will definitely come back to Colombia and greet him. He is so kind I want to cry.

"If you want we can wait you out here until you come back" Jonah says.

"I think we will be here for a while, and I don't want you to be bored when you can be swimming and eating things!" I answer.

"Its okay I want to wait for you"

"Plus, we will probably cause an explosion" I say.

"Will we really? A guy who cries every-time an animal dies and a girl who sings songs and does hippie signs" Nicholas asks sarcastically.

"Please go Jonah, I don't want to hurt you" I tell him, he insists more but finally goes.

We then go into the castle, and everything is dark.

****

The fort feels vast. Huge.

We walk a couple of steps, but I feel like we have walked for ages.

The only thing I see is darkness, and I hear our loud steps in the cold and hollow stone below us. Aside from that, I don't know where we are. I can't hear anything, I can't see anything.

"This is giving me the creeps," I say, and I receive no response. But that's comforting because I know Nicholas is thinking. Probably to get us out of this mess. Definitely to get us out of this mess.

"There is nobody in here. We are wrong Nico. We have been tricked." I continue saying.

"Have we?" Nicholas finally responds with a subtle tint of sarcasm. He then starts walking and I walk right beside him while having colored smoke in my hands. The only thing I can perceive is that we are walking in a cold and dark corridor. In its walls, there are signs and marks engraved. The air feels wet.

The corridor ends in a two-door entrance. It's locked.

Nicholas then comes close to the lock. He inspects it for over 2 seconds, then -as usual- explains.

"This is a lock of Battle. Wizards and Necromancers have used it since the beginning of time to lock important castles and rooms. Usually castles guarded in the middle of a battle, but also when important, life-or-death rituals were going to take place. The person that does the lock spell usually used a sign to lock it, which was also used to unlock it".

"You must be kidding me," I say. We are so close, yet so far away. For all I known, right now the Earth could be near brink of extinction and we are right outside of the tipping point trying to get into a door. All the bows go to you Mya Strange.

"The Evil Eye" I say, remembering the Satyananda Temple. "I mean, the Holy Eye would be an obvious choice. Sir William Annamarie went to the Holy Eye, but we all know he was really an Evil Eye groupie. Choosing the evil sign for a truly evil cause is a distraction".

"That's very clever" Nicholas says, and he starts sketching the evil eye with his air pencil outside the doors' lock. I start singing.

" _Then the Earth shook, that was all that it took for the dream to break_

All the loose ends would surround me again in the shape of your face "

The doors suddenly disappear, and unraveling ahead of us is a roundabout. It looks like a mural painted on the floor. But it just has this yellow-y brownish color to it. In the four cardinal points of the circle; north, south, west, and east; there are gems, and surrounding them symbols. Each correlate to the gems of the elements and their symbols. There is a man sitting cross-legged right in the middle of the roundabout. And he has a circular stone in his lap. I can't see his face, but I know he has his eyes closed and his lips are chanting something.

"Long time no talk. Isn't it?" the man asks, still with his eyes closed. He has a familiar accent.

We came right in time for the ritual I think.

Great.

****

"To be perfectly honest, I thought that you were still in that pathetic trance of yours. Matfasa are out of their goddamn minds. They say that they are finding the secret of the universe" the man then soars out laughing "Gibberish. Complete and utter gibberish. They are just pathetic whinny babies who can't handle the world," the man sitting in the middle of the circle says, or more accurately; screams.

"Oh dear brother" a soft and tender voice says, it has...a British accent. Sort of. "You more than anyone know that my holy duty with humanity and myself is to protect the order of the world and uphold peace and love. Which is something you, dear brother, are threatening with this game of yours. I will do whatever it takes to do my holy duty, even if it is interrupting my 3,596 year spiritual trance to make you reassess your actions that will only do harm to animals, and plants, and humans, and the sky, and the Earth, and love, and-"

"Cut the drivel" the cross-legged aggressive man interrupts the soft and tender British accent. I can't help but giggle. Mya Strange, always crying or laughing in the worst-case scenarios. That should in my grave "3,596 years since we last saw each other. Aren't we quite old for these games?"

Nicholas is beside me, and even though I can't see anything, I can notice he is rocking back and forth and moving his hands. He is thinking.

"I suppose we are, but I have two little someone's that can help us out with that" the British accent articulates.

Before I can get this whole mess straight, Nicholas pushes me to a side, and we are now behind a stone column. I realize we were dumb, standing right in front where the cross-legged man is. Fortunately he has his eyes closed, but it wont be too long until he opens them. I can feel it in my bones.

"Mya we have been tricked" Nicholas whispers "But not by who we think".

"Nico talk English" I whisper back.

"A certain someone started an expedition to South America on 1726, when he has 23 years old. Which means that that certain someone was born in 1703. In 1798, that certain someone vanished from the Cocoon records, and therefore, from the breadth of the Earth. We are now ending the year 2014, which means that a certain someone has been banished for 3,596 years ¿Where has he been all of this years?" Nicholas says softly, in a tone that seems to be unraveling a lifeguarded, intricate secret.

"The Sorrow Mountain, in the depths of the heart of Colombia. Chiquinquira. The Satyananda Temple" Words come right out me, and they can't seem to stop.

"Exactly".

"William Rae Annamarie has been 3,596 years in Satyananda, until now".

"And he has a brother".

"Who is sitting right in front of us" I say.

"And stole the Cramson Adakite. And wants to steal Earth's magic" Nico says.

"A certain someone that needs a spiritual trance himself" I say, this time, with a tiny bit of irony.

"Mr. I steal magic stones and run around the Amazon jungle" Nico says, referring back to a lifetime ago when we stumbled upon the Alcatros and they tried to make a sacrifice out of us. It's out of my mind how he can remember all of these things.

"Who is this guy?" I am completely lost, but I am completely certain Nicholas has a name up his sleeve.

"The only guy we have met that says things like scoundrel and gibberish" Nicholas replies.

"Seriously Nico, what in the world are you talking about?"

"Remember back in San Francisco, green eyes and pale skin. A trolley. The piece in a puz-" Nicholas starts naming memories, not names. After few remarks, I start to get it. And I can't help it. Mya Strange, the textbook definition of determination but impulsiveness.

I jump out of the column, and before I know it, I am in front of a man sitting cross-legged with a circular stone in his lap. The Cramson Adakite. It has each element engraved in the four cardinal points, all the four marks shining. Red for Fire, Blue for Water, Yellow for Air, Green for Earth. In the middle, it has a circle. And I remember Nicholas telling me that the circle means that life is a cycle. The world never ends, it continues. Everything comes full circle, as Lia said a lifetime ago when Magnolia had become a bloodthirsty giraffe with the eyes of a man.

Everything comes full circle.

Everything.

"Hey you, asshole. Long time, no talk. Isn't it? What a delightful surprise. I bet you chose us to your little misguided adventure because you thought we were not going to put up the fight. 'Throw them to the weak manticore and that will do' right? Well, you were wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Don't even ask me how we got here. But we are here. And we WILL put up the fight. You will not steal Earth's magic. You and your green eyes, you are the Evil Eye. Sir William Rae Annamarie is your brother, and he is trying to stop you from doing the most inhumane and selfish thing in the world. And we will help him. And we will win"

Professor Livius opens his eyes, and then bursts out laughing. I want to punch him. But I can't. Being an Earth user and all.

"So this is the trick under your sleeve, William? Two pre-teen kids that can't seem to get anything right but singing songs and drawing and acting and calling animals to their help. Pitiful" Professor Livius says, looking directly to my eyes. I feel my body weighting me down.

Suddenly, out of a column in the right side of the stone room, a thin tall body comes out of the dark. He has a yellowy saffron robe, as Finaan. I suddenly see how similar yet different he is to his brother. They both have the same type of face. The same nose, the same mouth, the same arch in their eyebrows. But while William Rae Annamarie has black, stone-like eyes; his brother has green, piercing eyes. While Professor Livius has his 'You are so ugly I want to murder you' face, his brother expresses wiseness and peace.

"I need help Livius. But the only help I could possibly need is love. I don't need physical strength. But this two, since the moment they willingly helped that fragile little bird; demonstrated they have the attitude and mind to help the world become a better place. To me, Nicholas and Mya Strange are old, old souls. Wise enough to know that strength doesn't come by the edge of a sword, but by following their values and heart"

Professor Livius bursts out laughing again. This time, I don't even have the energy to come up with insults. My head feels heavy. I feel the whole world moving round and round. Round and Round. Round and round. Sounds start getting distorted, the only thing I see are patches of color.

I hear soft steps ahead of me, coming towards me. The cold stone feels alone, except for the thumbing in it. Suddenly, I hear the only voice that makes me feel like home.

"Beautiful Feathers. He was meant to guide us to Satyananda if we helped him" Nicholas says softly, as if chanting a song.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see William Rae Annamarie smiling, then he says something.

"Nicholas Strange, what a pleasure indeed. Sanne is the loveliest little bird, most carefree creature you will ever meet. I can't even count with my own fingers how many times he has fallen from a branch trying to look for colorful flowers or flied until the brink of exhaustion because he was so happy he couldn't even notice it.

The morning I first noticed the Cramson Adakite was being manipulated, December 18 of I can recall correctly, I had had an early morning when I had seen Sanne in the floor, hurt. So when latter that day I decided to undertake my search for the stone, I went to Sanne and gave him a magic potion; if somebody came and healed him, he would take them to Satyananda. Otherwise, he would magically heal himself if nobody came in December 21's time.

I knew Cocoon's council was going to assign a voyage to look for the stone, and I knew that I was going to be blamed for the theft, therefore the voyagers will look in the Sorrow Mountain for me. However, I had a feeling in my heart that the voyagers assigned will be looking to do the correct thing, even if the council said otherwise. A good heart displays selflessness and empathy. I needed good hearts, and good hearts needed to succeed; and I knew that arriving at Satyananda would give the goodwill voyagers an idea where to find the Cramson Adakite, and therefore help me. So me, being the current master of the Matfasa, needed to wake another Matfasa to do my duty while I was gone. So a couple of hours before going, when sundown was coming to an end I woke Finaan up and he became my successor. I bet he enjoyed your visit. "

"I mean... We kind of sort of disturbed Satyananda's 809 years of silence, and broke into the middle of the night to open your supposed tomb" Nicholas says.

William then laughs, then he sights. "Master Finaan loves children, and he is what I have come closer to recognize as a saint. He is a joy",

An evil and uncontrolled laugh rumbles in the stone room. At this point I can't even see straight, I just hear disorganized sounds coming all towards me. "Pathetic, utterly pathetic. This scoundrel, this -can you even call her a girl? - thing that talks and talks and sings with that horrendous voice of hers. She doesn't think with her head. Pathetic. But you should actually be more ashamed with this one. This diseased and damaged animal that in the first place should have never been born. He is a disgrace to humanity, a failure, a retarded, a useless piece of tras—"

I fall down into the floor, the cold, hard stone floor.

The Hidden Powers behind a Chocolate Donut

**Mya**

Besides the distorted, evil laugh of the devil in flesh and bones, I hear Nicholas' footsteps coming towards me each time closer and closer.

"Mya. Don't you worry about me. I am fine, I am okay. If I have learned something from his trip, is to trust myself and not what others think of me. Having self-strength means loving yourself and trusting the amazing things you can do with your body and mind. Without the self-strength of people like Gandhi and Mother Theresa and Stephen Hawking, humankind would have never succeeded. Today, we have the challenge of guarding Earth's magic from being stolen, and for us to succeed we need to be strong, and love ourselves and others. Come on Mya, we are fletcher and oak, oak and fletcher. We are the Strange's, misunderstood and misfits after all, but we have a big heart. We do. If we have come all of this way, we can beat this douchebag's ego"

After a few minutes, I feel my head lighter and lighter. I am in complete control of my senses, and my body, and my mind.

"Can you please be quiet? If you don't mind, I am trying to become Earth's master" Mr. I am the worst human being in the world says, with his eyes still closed, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the circle, as if he was a saint. Mediating for the devil I think.

When he says so, I feel my throat getting heavier and heavier. I notice all this time he has been manipulating me with his spoken word. With magic.

"Nicholas, Professor Livius is an Earth user, right?" I ask Nicholas very softly.

"He is"

"And his specialty is people"

"It is"

"He charms people with his words" I whisper.

"He does"

I then look directly to Professor Livius and Nicholas looks at him out of the corner of his eye, and we know this is it. Lets recover the Cramson Adakite!

****

While William Rae Annamarie is looking at the stone room's roof and chanting something, Nicholas is snuggled in a corner of the room while rocking back, and I am in the other corner of the room taking a daisy's and Joshua tree's essence I have just conjured. We are indeed a weird mixture.

When there is vapor flowing above the plants, I point my finger to it, and then point it to my right eye. It doesn't hurt. These are plants we are speaking of.

Here goes nothing I think.

"Mr. Livius" I say, crouching down to where a certain someone I want to punch in the face is.

"Shush stupid girl. I am in the middle of something important".

"Mr. Livius I need your help" I say, with a panicky tone of voice.

"I. Don't. Care" he replies, his eyes still closed.

"But Mr. Livius, I don't think I can be able to survive this" I say, and I do that thing with my throat which makes me seems like I want to cry.

"Do not cry you stupid thing. I hate the smell of human emotions," he says.

Oh, what a surprise! I think, and wonder how sarcastic I am that I think sarcastic.

"But Mr. Livius you all mighty master of the world are the only person that could help me" I say, swallowing back my hate for this awful man.

This time, he opens his eyes. What a self-absorbed human. "Quick girl, what do you want?"

"I need your help"

"I already know that"

"My eye" I start saying. Then I get uncomfortable close to his face, and after 2 or 3 seconds he abruptly pulls himself back with horror and disgust. It worked.

"What happened to your face?" he says.

"It happened in the Amazon river. A giant beast cornered me and took my eye with his bare hands. You just couldn't see it because of the dark"

"That's what happens when you are stupid" he says, and then bursts into an awfully loud laugh.

"Oh yes sir. I now know that I need to follow your wise advice. Which is why you are the only one that could help me fix this"

"Oh you've come to the right person. I obviously don't know how to do this," he says. "But" he pats me in the head "that would do to fix such a stupid mind as a Strange's".

"Don't you think I need a new eye?"

"You do. But who will giv-"

"Oh you are right. I need an eye. An eye with four colors!" I interrupt him, and I feel like the queen of the world.

"Those don't exist," he says.

"They certainly do. In the depths forests of Ethiopia and the Arctic. And they also have four symbols in them".

"No".

"They do. I want one of those. Don't you think I need one of those?"

"I don't. Stupid people are still stupid with healthy eyes," he says.

"But I want one! And you, all mighty master of the universe, can give me one" I say.

"I cant".

"Then you are not the master of the Universe" I say and start standing up.

"Girl wait" he says.

"What"

"I cannot give you the eye," he says. Then I start crying. Long, horrible sobs.

I am such a pro.

"Don't," he says, trying to get me to stop.

"Then give me an eye".

"I cant".

"Then just say so. You are the master of the universe, your lackeys will then take care of carrying out your orders" I say.

"Lackeys!?! I like the sound of that" he says, caressing his hands. "Universe! I advise you to give this horrible girl an eye with four different colors and symbols in it. Quick" At first, nothing happens.

It didn't work I think.

Then, Professor Livius' eyes get dark as a cold, hard stone. In a roaring silence, he hands me the Cramson Adakite. I can't believe it. The stone is heavier than I expected it to be. I feel energy flowing right through me. I then smile from ear to ear.

Before I know it, Professor Livius' eyes get green again, and he moves his arm towards me with the most horrifying expression I have seen in a living, breathing thing. For a moment, I think he is going to choke me. Then- I am not kidding-, I hear a lion's roar. While Professor Livius turns to uncover where the unusual sound comes, I hug the Cramson Adakite to my body and stand up.

I straight my face up, and beside me I see a majestic eagle with yellow fur and fierce eyes leading a five hundred animal gang. I see elephants, reptiles, eagles, cats, and even rats. This has to be Nicholas I think.

I turn to look at the same corner he was cowered a couple of minutes ago. He is still in the corner. Still is the same leg-hugging position he was. But he has a half bitten chocolate donut in his lap. A half eaten chocolate donut in his lap. A chocolate donut.

What on Earth?

****

"I think I owe you an apology Mister Strange," the head eagle says, and then -to the extent an eagle can- bows down to Nicholas.

"Oh Shi, please don't. This is my sister, Mya" Nicholas says.

"Oh I recall her" Shi says, and I remember he was one of the animals we rescued. He seemed kind of mad when he was finally free. Kind of concerned. But now, with his shining eyes, he seems happy. Free at last.

I notice that I can hear the animals talking, and Nicholas talking back to them. Nicholas did the animal tongue spell. And weirdly, I am glad. I still don't love animals, but I don't distrust them anymore. If anything, animals are kinder than humans.

Now. Do you know how in movies and books animals always have this heroic deadly part in the end battle of the story? How they start ripping the knights' clothes and skin, and some of them get killed? Well, this is certainly not the case.

As if they had agreed on this previously, the animals start getting close to where Professor Livius is. Cursing, yelling, crying; he indeed seems like the devil. Yikes. I get back into a corner of the room, still hugging the Cramson Adakite close to my body. I start singing a song, but rapidly get distracted by the madness ensuing in the front.

As I said, Traitor Livius is cursing, yelling, crying; sometimes in languages I am pretty sure he is making up. Meanwhile, the lovely cat that helped me get here starts talking to him about Ghirardelli chocolate and her numerous trips to Canada, Shi is advising him how to find the freshest lagoons, and a giraffe with a flower crown in her head is telling him jokes about fruits. "What do two banana do when they meet each other?" dramatic pause "a banana shake". I can see that Professor Livius gradually stops forgetting the Cramson Adakite, and starts getting overwhelmed by the amount of voices talking to him.

Nicholas then gets close to him, and before I know it; he starts caressing the Professor Livius' back as he usually does. Not with his whole hand, but only with his palm. His fingers stretch out in the weird way they do since I can recall and from his palm light is set free, and I understand what he is doing.

First, I notice his feet disappear for claws. Then, the black peak. He starts shrinking, while his arms are no longer arms but brown and white wings. He opens them up, and I see the magnificent pattern they have. From his claws to his head, his body starts gaining fur. Feathers. Brown, black, and white feathers cover his body.

He is an owl. Professor Livius is an owl.

Then, he starts crying. Uncontrollable, ugly, sorrow cries.

For a moment, nobody speaks. Then, he manages to get a few words out of him "I became the rotten thing I have always hated"

While Nicholas comes to stand beside me; a thin, tall man with a saffron robe comes out of a corner. His British accent is still soft, but he is stuttering "An owl?"

"A selfish and ambitious man that dismissed his values and turned against his family and only created suffering for humanity. I am sorry Will, I am deeply sorry"

"But you have the chance to become the sweet, sensible man who you once were. You are now free Levy. Free. You became the wisest, most mysterious animal on Earth. In your heart, you are wise, and you are curious. You just need to find yourself. And you will do it dear brother" William Rae Annamarie says.

"You are to kind" the owl says, in between cries.

"And you as well. I promise you we will see each other again. And you will finally have a free soul" William says, and he is looking straight into the owl's eyes. I notice his bright green color eyes are now dark emerald green. The evil eye; changing.

The owl then turns his head to us. Nicholas and I. Nicholas shifts his view to the roof, but I know he is looking. He is always looking.

"Nicholas and Mya Strange. What a pleasure it was to know you. I am sorry for the harm I have done. There is nothing in the world that could repair it. Please take care of the Holy Eye. The Cramson Adakite holds the energy of the universe. Its power is what rules love and empathy, but also ambition. Don't let it fall into the hands of the wrong being. I am not worried about you two. You really are the intricate puzzle to figure out the mess our humanity is. When I said that I wasn't joking" and with that, the owl takes off, leaving a feather in the ground. We will probably see him again.

After a moment of deep silence, I am meant to talk.

"What a ride" I say. And then, Nicholas hugs me. One of those honest and love-filled hugs that he does when he needs it. When we both need it. I turn to look at William, and he has tear-filled eyes and a feather in his hands.

Once we break off the hug, Nicholas goes near William and draws the Flower of Life with daisy scent in his hand. I hug Shi and the cat lady and the giraffe and August Miner. Nicholas then draws the Flower of Life in the Cramson Adakite with his air pencil and in the middle of the room, where the circle is engraved. I then notice he smiles at the cat lady, while holding a half bitten chocolate donut necklace with his right hand.

"Prepare a Shadow Travel potion" Nicholas says, "We both have somewhere to go". Before I take off to conjure the plants, I see Nicholas' sketch. I see a lonely, light filled theatre stage. Home.

Epilogue

An Angry, Somewhat Teary Welcome

**Mya**

To be perfectly honest, after 5 days of your lead girl randomly disappearing from the phase of the Earth, I expected hugs and ugly cries. Nope.

"What is that?" Mr. Swindon Grilli wondered out-loud once he saw us three in the bottom of the stage, right when we had just Shadow Traveled into the theatre. He then came closer to us, and when he saw us; anger was immediately displayed in his face "you piccola bionda brutto anatroccolo. How dare you abandon me 5 days before opening night? Right in preview night! Those are the shows of... Actually they are horrendous. But who cares. I had already gotten a replacement for you. Alexandra. She is awful. My head hurts. I need a pill. Go you stupid girl; in three hours you shall be in the goddamn forest of Arden. And I shall need to fire a lot of people in return. Louise!" and with that I knew I was dismissed. Mr. Grilli had spoken with the thickest Italian/British accent I have ever heard in my entire life. I now feel that I somewhat missed his strange insults and mid-life crisis attacks. They are so routinely they feel like home.

I am a cheese ball.

****

An hour before show time, I hear a knock outside my dressing room. Probably Mr. Swindon has to yell at me just a tiny bit more.

"Come on in" I yell.

Mr. Swindon has gotten a killer redhead wig. And green eyes. And the body of a 14 year old.

Lia and I both run towards each other, and we bond in the most nurturing hug I have ever had.

"I really hate you Mya" Lia says once we break off the hug, while throwing me a tangerine.

"Wow, great gift Lia. You know my bizarre love for fruits and tubers!"

"Oh right. Sorry about that, but I was about to eat that tangerine when Nicholas came into my room and told me you had just arrived. I was so excited I immediately ran over here".

"In 45 degrees and those killer boots. Great job Lia!" I high-five her.

"It was an interesting experience that involved a homeless man dressed as Santa Clause and free donuts" Lia says "Anyway, you just got your first Earthling!"

"I suppose I have," I say, remembering that after a magician successfully completes a voyage, they get a reward in accordance to their element.

"Aren't you excited?" Lia asks me.

"I am, but Lia this last few days have been emotionally draining"

"You do seem tired Mya. But you also have this aura of wiseness and love. I can see you have learned a lot these past few days," Lia tells me, looking straight into my eyes.

"Like how to distract an evil witch and talking with eagles without being in the verge of tears"

"Fun, fun, fun! You don't know how confused I was when the council told us you were in a voyage in Colombia"

"Did the council told you guys what we were doing?" I ask.

"They said the Cramson Adakite was being manipulated by someone and you needed to find them. That was the reason why the days before the voyage things had been energy-wacko. Like Magnolia" Lia says, and I remember how upset I was with the fact that my flower, Magnolia, had morphed into a bloodthirsty demon overnight.

"A wise person once told me everything happens for a reason," I tell Lia. "I got you a gift".

I then open my backpack, and hand Lia a metal engraved with an open eye in a palm and doodles in the fingers. "You have healing powers of your own Lia, but I know you have a lot of evil forces surrounding you. This is to protect you and bring you peace" I proceed to tell her about the Hamsa, but Lia naturally knows all about it already. Nonetheless, because she is Lia, she nods her head and asks questions.

****

"...I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell."

And with that, after being Rosalind as Ganymede, and Rosalind as Ganymede as Rosalind, I finish my act of being Rosalind. Ambitious, and feisty, and deep; I am ready to interpret such a complex character for the next few months.

Mr. Swindon is in the first row, chanting something for himself while he claps. Good enough for me.

I look over to the first row, and Lia is up in her feet; applauding cheerfully with tears in her eyes. Very few times I have seen Lia cry.

Then, even thought I know I shouldn't; I look over to the seat five rows from the back and two to the left. The big gray eyes are looking towards the ceiling, but for the first time in my life; I am not upset. If he is here, it means he cares; and even if not directly, I know he is looking at me. Cheering for me. Always.

The Ethereal Wanderers

**Nico**

Coming out of the Theatre de la Mars feels like a warm hug. I visualize a hug I had with my mom in a cream parlor when we were 4 after I had gotten admitted into the Wanderlust Art Institute, and how happy and loved I felt. That's how I feel right now.

After days and days of running and doing spells and unraveling mysteries in places I have never been to with people I have never met; I am finally back in the street I have been in my whole life. Just now I realize how drained and tired I fell from the irruption of the routine, of having an unknown destination for so many days. The next few weeks are going to be extremely fun for me; spending day and night hibernating in my room, looking at my ants, and my cats, and my dogs. If I spend one day more in an unfamiliar place I am going to explode like an excess-filled air balloon, and we all know the screeching and sickening sound they do when they pop.

I know this street by heart. I remember in 2003 when our parents took us to our first play: the Lion King, and I cried after the thirteenth song because I couldn't handle the bass in the symphony, and mom took me out into the street to calm me down. I remember in 2005 when Mya got her first role in Matilda and we were waiting outside the theatre and the door popped open and she came running to hug us all. I remember in 2009 when Mya and I got in a fight for a pineapple. I remember when five days ago a car almost hit me, and a green-eyed man came to us in a trolley. Memories and feelings come all in at once, and they can't seem to stop.

I hear the flapping of the doves' wings and I hear friends chattering, and the opening of the Theatre door. I hear someone sipping their hot drink, and another person sipping their jacket.

"I never thanked you Nicholas," a British accents says, and I remember that I was watching the play with William Rae Annemarie and that we got out of the Theatre together.

"For what?"

"For helping my brother go back to who he once was".

"We did that together" I say "Why did you decided to become a Matfasa?"

"Because I needed to become who I once was. You see, after years of having found the Cramson Adakite, I realized the great power and energy it holds. I envied the stone, and I envied magic. After all, I wasn't born a wizard. So I did horrible things against my values, and grew apart from my family, and hurt a lot of people to become a wizard. When at the age of 95 I traveled back to Colombia to see if I could find anything magic-related, I came across the Satyananda Temple. I was overwhelmed by the giving and humble lives the Matfasa undertake, and I realized that I was broken and needed insight, that my purpose was helping humanity. So I cut any connections that I had to Cocoon to go on the spiritual trance that ended up changing my life"

"You are not a magician?"

"Not even a little bit".

"Then" I started saying "How did you di-"

"Nicholas, your life doesn't depend on how you are born, but with what you decide to make out of it. Insight and love are even greater forces than magic. I don't have the magic gene, but that doesn't hold me back from being strong and having the desire to change the world for good. I want to help humanity and I will change it, even if I wasn't born with the magic gene, or if I was homosexual, or if I was born in a poor family, or if I was born with a disease. The only things that you need for success are love and drive, and if you have them, nothing else can hold you back"

****

I walk back to Cocoon by myself.

After our 11-minute talk, William walked off to the airport, after telling me that he needed to sort some things out with the Matfasa because he wanted to involve himself with Cocoon again. "I want to teach a meditation class," he said while holding his hands.

When I arrive to Cocoon, I sit down at porch of the Zagmo door, and look up to the sky.

****

I hear Mya's scratchy voice and Lia's laugh two blocks away.

"But then, believe it or not, after my obviously celestial melody, the trees move and unravel a secret door. A SECRET DOOR. And then, I am not kidding you Liapolis, a hundred and one voices erupt into an OMMM, it was a magical, magical sound. I am now kind of craving meditating"

"You? Meditating? You can't even go to plant potions class without erupting into a dance break" Lia says, and then both of them laugh. Friendship is awesome, I think.

Then they arrive to Cocoon, and when they find me; both of them go instantly quiet.

"Nico, what are you doing?" Mya asks me.

"Thinking" I reply.

"Aren't you cold?" Lia asks.

"No. Mya, you were great. Congratulations"

"Thank you Nico. I am starving, do you want to grab chocolate cake with us?"

"I think I will go to my room. Thanks though" I say, and stand up to walk towards the door.

"Wait" Mya screams, and starts scrabbling inside her voyage backpack. After a few seconds, she takes something out, and hands it to me.

The book is yellow and it has no name in the cover. I sort the pages out, and they are wrinkled, and yellowy, and feel like they are going to break. I look the spine and it says The Ethereal Wanderers; Mya's favorite book. The one that Loralai had.

"Turns out, Loralai really had the book. And I sort of borrowed it. But it's for a good cause. This book only has 7 printed copies, one of them being the one dad gave me when we were younger but I dismissed it and can't find it anywhere. This is my favorite book in the whole wide world and I want you to read it Nico. There are only 7 copies of it in the universe. Limited amounts of people have read the book. I feel like its a little secret within the readers, a connection that goes way beyond space and time. The book is strange, I'm not going to lie; but among that it is unique. It is wonder. It is love"

Glossary

**As You Like It** Shakespearean comedy.

**Cocoon** Wizarding World. This is also the name given to the worldwide academies for wizards are called.

**Cramson Adakite** powerful and mystical stone that holds Earth's magic.

**Earthling** a physical reward an Earth user receives when he/she achieves a voyage.

**Flower of Life** geometrical figure composed of several overlapping circles. It's said to be one sacred geometry symbol due to the fact that it's a figure from which multiple other figures spring.

**Hamsa** Middle East talismanic symbol that it's said to protect harm against the evil forces and bring goodness, peace, and luck.

**Holy Eye** spiritual organization created in 804 A.D by a group of wizards that wanted to gain insight and peace in their life.

**Manticore** mythological beast that sports the head of a blue-eyed man, the auburn body of a lion and the stinging tail of a scorpion. The manticore is violent and bloodthirsty.

**Marks** tattoo like distinctions in any part of the body of a carrier of the magic gene. Each wizard has one, and this one defines their element.

**Master** head of the Matfasa.

**Matfasa** wizards from the Holy Eye.

**Meditation** the act or process of spending time in quiet thought.

**Om** a mystical sound that by the Hindu culture is considered the sound of the universe.

**Shadow Travel** a travel through space that can be achieved by a wizard through multiple ways.

**Voyage** a mission assigned to a wizard/wizards by the Cocoon Council with a defined objective.

**Winter Solstice** a day in the year in which the sun's daily maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest.

Author's Note

I wrote this book after a 6-month research project I did on the autism spectrum disorder. I grew an uncanny fascination and love for autism since 2012, when my younger cousin who had been 8 years considered as a medical enigma, got diagnosed with the condition. Both my personal experiences and my research have made me passionate with the amazing contributions an autistic mind can bring to humankind, and that anyone, no matter their age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical and mental limitations; can build a happier and better world.

However, during my research I noticed that society's belief system has made autism a dreadful and shameless disorder. The complex and fascinating minds of autistics get neglected and mistreated, difference is not celebrated in a society as ignorant and narrow-minded as ours. Discovering this made me sad because I have grown up knowing that difference is important, I had researched extensively that the different mind, and the unique abilities and cognitive functions that people with autism have are the ones that can bring incredible and valuable contributions to society. I needed to change at least one person's ideas on what autism truly is and its importance it has for our society, which is why I decided to write this novel.

As my cousin, Nico is an autistic kid. With my research on autism, I tried to portray through Nico's voice the cognitive functions, abilities, and experiences autistics usually have during their childhood years. Through Mya's voice, I wanted to portray a sibling relationship between an autistic and a non-autistic kid, and the connotations of having a loved one think and perceive the world completely different than how you do.

However, this is a work of fiction and Nico, Mya, and the rest of the characters in the book were made by myself. Furthermore, this is not a book about autism, but a piece of writing about the importance of difference in society, and of loving and accepting yourself and other living, breathing things. This is a story about changing the world even if you are an unusual hero, a story that portrays that magic comes from within.

About the Author

Ariana Torres Garcia is a fifteen-year-old Colombian student passionate for reading and writing. As Mya, she breathes for acting and vegetarian burritos. As Nico, she enjoys her alone time but has a big heart for nature and people. Ariana decided to write a book about autism due to her close relationship with her cousin. With her book, she wishes to spread the message that difference and uniqueness is essential to the development of humankind, and that we should all love and support each other.

