• Chapter 2

    My eyelids flutter open and see something strange. I see a fairy-like creature flitting in front of my face.
    “Who is she?” I hear from off into the distance.
    “Quiet! You’ll wake her,” the creature hisses back. I gasp and sit up.
    “Now you’ve done it! What were you thinking?” the creature in front of me hisses at the other one.
    “What? What are you?” I stammer.
    “We are Wanderers just like you. The more important question is ‘What are you doing in Grimm?’,” the other creature says flying over. Their wings were translucent and looked paper-thin. Both of them have shorter hair and had a bluish tint to their skin. One had pink hair and the other had black. They both had the same eyes as me which scared me a little. The one with pink hair, I’m assuming that it was a girl, had a shorter tunic with skin-tight leggings and boots. The other one, I’m assuming that it was a boy, had almost the same outfit on except he had what looked like battle armor on top of his tunic.
    “I – I don’t know. What’s a Wanderer?” I ask.
    “I guess you’ll have to come with us,” the boy creature says sighing. I feel myself being lifted from the bench and being put on my feet. I look around – stunned. The sky was a purple color like what it looks like at sunset. There were a ton of these creatures flying around, and the sound their wings made filled the air with music.
    “Wow,” I say breathless. We start walking towards the woods.
    “Yeah. This is Grimm where most of the Grimm Fairytales take place,” the girl creature says.
    “Really? I always thought that they made them up,” I say looking around.
    “Obviously not,” the boy creature grumbles. We finally come up to a big marble building and stop. I look up and feel a wave of nausea come over me; I’m not that good with heights. The building was immaculate and decorated in such a way that I felt hurtled back into Ancient Rome. The creatures float forward into the building first.
    “Wait here,” the boy creature orders me. I nod, a little frightened of what could be in that building. They disappear into the building, and I turn around towards what I guess was a town. There were little shops and cafés everywhere. It reminded me of a picture in my French 101 textbook. I noticed then that these fairy-like creatures weren’t the only ones around. I saw centaurs, archers, elves (and not Santa’s kind I tell you), and trolls. It seemed that everyone was getting along, not like in the fantasy novels that I’ve read. Just then, someone behind me clears their throat. I jump and turn around. I gasp. It was my father.
    “Dad?” I croak. He wasn’t wearing what he had on at the house. He was in a long, purple robe on top of an old-fashioned tunic.
    “Hi Sienna,” Dad says sheepishly. I open my mouth to start asking questions, but my mind goes blank.
    “It’s okay hon. Come inside; I’ll explain everything,” he says gesturing into the big marble building. He guides me into the building, and I look at him. He looks the same. Maybe I’m just having a weird dream. We arrive in the grand hall that had the same character as the outside. We enter a much smaller room with two small couches facing a huge fireplace. Dad sits and I follow suit.
    “I bet you’re wondering a lot of things about everything. Hopefully this should clear up everything,” he says folding his hands into his lap. I nod and sit back a little; I have a feeling that this will take a while.
    “It all started when I was your age. Remember Grandma Annie? I used to go over to her house every other weekend. She would tell me these stories about this world called Grimm, and I always thought she made it up. One day, she took me into the basement and showed me her true form. She was an elder elf. She was beautiful, and I was terrified. She told me about her past and the gift she had passed down to me. I guess I’ve passed it down to you now. We are a special kind of people. We are Wanderers,” he says.
    “That’s what those creatures told me when I woke up here,” I say remembering.
    “Sophia and Daniel are like that. They always say too much before the time is right,” he laughs.
    “What are Wanderers? What do we do?” I ask cautiously.
    “Wanderers come back and forth between Grimm and other worlds and help to “keep the peace” as we say. That’s pretty much our code. “Servo pacis tamen servo pondera”, or “Keep the peace but keep the balance”. We’ve translated it into English since the Dark Ages,” he says crossing his legs and gesturing with his hands. Just then, Sophia and Daniel fly into the room.
    “Satraps, we have a bit of a problem,” Sophia says out of breath.
    “What is it Sophia?” Dad asks.
    “A flock of phoenixes has escaped from the blacksmith’s forge,” Sophia says with urgency,
    “We will need you at once,” Daniel buts in.
    “I’m on my way,” he says and they fly out of the room.
    “What did they call you?” I ask as Dad gets up.
    “Oh um… they called me Satraps. It’s Latin for ‘Ruler’. I’ll explain later,” he says blushing a little. He rushes out of the room, and on the way he grabs a crossbow and quiver. I follow after him. On one of the tables in the hall, I see a small dagger. I pick it up and tie the scabbard around my waist. Zipping up my sweatshirt to hide it, I run out the door. I see bursts of lights all around me.
    “The phoenixes,” I say to myself. They were amazing and so majestic. They were also creating chaos. They were flying around and creating bursts of heat and fire which led to buildings catching fire.
    “We need some help over here,” one of the creatures yells over the screeching. I run over and see an elf under a heavy beam.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll help you,” I say trying to push the beam off. I feel all the weight disappear and I look up. A troll has picked up the beam with one hand and sets it off to the side.
    “Thanks,” I say in a voice that I don’t recognize as my own. The creature nods and walks away, looking for more people to help. I suddenly remember the elf that was trapped. He stood up, with a little trouble, and looked at me. He had the same eyes as me and dark brown hair.
    “Hello,” I say. He nods and runs off to help the others. I run after him and see a phoenix trapped in some sort of net.
    “Help me,” I hear in my mind. I whirl around, looking for the speaker. Nobody made eye contact with me, so I concentrate on the phoenix.
    “Yes. I am the one who reached you,” the voice says again. I suddenly realize that it had to be the phoenix.
    “You are correct Sienna,” the phoenix says. I nod and concentrate on helping the phoenix.
    “You’re hurting her,” I yell over the commotion. Dad sees me in the crowd and looks over towards me. I try to send a message to all of the phoenixes and tell them to come back to the forge. Just then, the chaos quieted and all the phoenixes fly over to my friend and land. They all look at me, expecting another command.
    “Thank you,” I send and say out loud. They all take off and go towards a big black building, which must be the forge. I walk over to my friend and take out my dagger. Sawing away at the net, Dad comes over to me. He takes out his sword and helps me. After a little bit, my friend is free. She takes off and hovers above the ground about 30 feet.
    “Thank you Sienna. My name is Ruby and my clan thanks you,” she says to me. She flaps her wings and flies off toward the same black building. I watch her go, amazed by how beautiful she is. After she enters the building, I turn around. The entire crowd looks flabbergasted.
    “She’s a Phoenix Orator,” someone whispers. The crowd parts and an older woman comes forward.
    “Who is she?” I wonder to myself
    “She’s Dianna, the elder of Grimm,” Ruby says to me. It sounds like a tuned-out radio station though because she’s far away.
    “Sienna Orator. You will have many a journey across this land, your own, and many others before your end. Good luck Orator,” she says. Just then, she bursts into flames, just like the phoenixes, and is scattered in the wind. The crowd gasps, both in fear and in amazement. Then reality set in.
    “Now what?” I ask.