The Realm of Secrets

Chapter 1

TW:// Blood

Where was I? Who was I? Oh that's right. Hi. My name is Ivy Sundown, and I'm a normal seventeen year old, living a normal life. Or am I? I can't remember. I think I hit my head.

The last thing I remember was a big flash in the sky, and my parents screaming for me and my sister. That's right. I have a sister. Her name is Aurora, and they are twelve years old. I love them a lot, though she can be annoying sometimes.

I shook my straight brown hair out of my face, and sat up wincing. I must've hit the floor pretty hard.

Where was I? In a large wooden room, no, not a room, a tree. I was in a tree. Like inside the trunk. It was lavishly decorated, with drapes, and tapestries, but everything was coated in a fine layer of dust, even the twisted roots running across the floor, and the knotted trunk, which looked several thousand years old.

Something fluttered behind me. I whipped around to where the sound had come from, but now it was on the other side. I looked over my shoulder and saw a glittery pair of wings on my back. Wings. I had wings. What the hell.

What was this? Where had that flash of light taken me? Was anyone else here? Was Aurora here? I scanned the room, and saw a bundle of clothes in the corner.

There she was, denim jacket, navy skater skirt and tied white t-shirt. Their white sandals were slightly scuffed, but she looked perfect to me. They had these odd wings too, though unlike my pale blue ones, theirs were a beautiful shade of lavender. I pulled her loose blonde hair away from her face, and saw blood trickling down their cheek.

'Aurora! Aurora! Wake up!' I shook her, but nothing happened. I looked around the room desperately. Was there a bandage, a plaster? A first aid kit? Something told me that you didn't get that kind of stuff in a land where people had fairy wings. The only thing that looked as if it might help at all was a dusty old table covered in dusty old bottles. They're probably potions I joked to myself.

I wrestled the cork out of a small green bottle and peered inside as a little cloud of green sparkles went poof in my face. Was it worth a try? This would either save my sister, or kill her. I grabbed the bottle and walked over to Aurora. I dribbled a tiny bit of the potion onto her wound.

Her blood turned black and solidified. Cracks spread across her face from where she had hit her head. Oh no. She was going to die.

'Aurora! Aurora no. Come on Sleeping Beauty, wake up.' I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I held my sister in my arms. She didn't deserve this. They had been through enough already, being bullied for being autistic, struggling with every thing in life, being told she was broken and wrong for being aromantic, experienced transphobia because of being a demigirl and and having she/they pronouns. She had to come back to me. I pulled them close to me, and whispered their name. I felt movement in my arms, I looked down and the cracks were sealed, the wound was gone, and my little sister's eyes were opening.

'Ivy.' They said. 'Where are we?'

'I don't know' I replied. 'Let's find out.'