• My name is Joanna. I’m not going to tell you my last name because I don’t have one. Really. I thought that I had one for the longest time. Five years to be exact. But that was a lie. My mom’s name is Amber, Amber Kellner. My parents divorced when I was three and dad visits when he feels like it. I thought that he was a lawyer or something but that was also wrong. I lived pretty normally until I was five, and mom walked in while I was floating in my room. “Mommy, look what I can do!” I said.

    She kinda freaked out and started crying and screaming. I got real scared and came down and hugged her. “Mommy, did I do something wrong?” I started to cry too and she looked at me.

    “No, pumpkin you did nothing wrong. You just surprised me that’s all. Hey why don’t we keep this our little secret?” she proposed.

    “Okay.” I agreed.

    At school we learned about the Animorphs and the lives of these kids that saved our world. I never liked how one of them had to sacrifice her life to end the main war. And the others had vanished in a final war about ten years ago, so it’s an old history but I don’t like it. They should have had Rachel to fight in the final war. They may have come back if they had that extra person to fight in the final war against Aximili. The Andalite teacher was explaining in thought-speak about the dangers of Z-space. My mind began to wander as the discussion became more and more boring. I looked out the window and focused on a small tree that had been dying for a loooong time. It was supposed to be a Japanese cherry tree, but like most things in the world, it was dying from lack of love. I kept looking at it, and soon it felt like I was connected with it, so connected, that I could feel its heart ache. I felt it dying, and it hurt my heart too. Tears rolled down my face as I felt it crying out for something to save it, for someone to save it. My teacher, Kir’il, walked over to me and saw what I was gazing at. He put his blue, fuzzy hand on my shoulder, <Joanna, are you feeling well?> He asked privately.

    I looked into his eyes, or at least tried to. He does have four of them where I only have two. “Make the hurt stop. Please, just make it stop.” I begged him pitifully, crying.

    He looked at me oddly and said, <What hurt?>

    “The tree, it needs love, it’s hurting. I can feel its hurt.” I told him sadly.

    Kir’il looked around the room with his stalk eyes, and noticed that all of the other students were staring at me. Thank god for the lunch bell, which chose that moment to sound. The other students filed out, watching me with a strange fear in their eyes. <Can you stay for a while Joanna?> He asked me once everyone was gone.

    I nodded, barely noticing that the less I thought about the tree, the less I hurt. He leaned back on his four hooves, and gave me a long look. He looked as if he was considering telling me something, but then my father walked in and said, “You will not tell her, I shall.”

    I looked at him in genuine shock. He was not intended to be back from his trip to Russia for another month. Kir’il looked at him in fear. <Sir, I was-> he began.

    “Relax, old friend, I will not erase you from time. You were merely trying to protect her, which is exactly what I assigned you to do. It’s just that this is not the place to discuss such delicate matters. I thank you for doing what I have asked of you, Kir’il, but now I must inform you that she will be coming with me to talk about these matters alone. I have already erased her from the minds of everyone here, and now I must do the same to you. Farewell, old friend. We shall not see each other again.” He simply replied.

    Time seemed to slow as my teachers’ eyes went blank and glassy. He seemed to not move, not breathe. “Daddy?” I asked half panicked.

    “Fear not. Time has merely stopped, as I have willed it to.” He responded far too calmly.

    I thought that he was out of his mind. I mean, who can make time stop? And why had Kir’il been so scared of my father? And what the heck was that about erasing things for minds and time? He grabbed my hand and walked me out of the room, walking me down the corridor. As we passed other students and teachers, I noticed that they too were unmoving, still, blissfully silent. Father walked me to the doors, but when he opened them, I stepped into an entirely different world. I could see stars, planets, universes. My father placed one tanned hand on my shoulder and smiled. His short cut salt and pepper hair moved in an unseen wind. His light blue eyes seemed to sparkle. Off to the side was a web of what seemed like silk strands made of pure silver. They weaved together in some places and some of them were dark. Two of them were golden and one was purple. Those three seemed to stretch on forever. The gold strands were connected and the longer one was connected to the purple one. I walked over to the web and reached out to touch it. “Ah. I see you have found the Web of Time. It shows the lives of people who are alive and those who have passed.” He said casually.

    He pointed to a connected pair of silver lines. “This is where they met and became connected to each other. The thin part is when they have a child, and then the child is connected to both the parents.”

    Then he pointed to a dark portion of a line. “This is where they die. They then go on to the afterlife.”

    Father pointed to the purple line. “Now this is the Crayak. He and I are locked in a combat that has lasted millennia. He is evil and eternal. That is why he is purple.” He explained.

    I pointed to the golden lines. “What are these daddy?” I asked.

    He smiled and looked at them happily. “Those are our lines. We are Ellimists. Also eternal, but we are the good ones. We are destined to fight the Crayak until the end of time.”