Graphite lines sprout from the tip of my pencil as it moves across the paper. I grip it tighter as I try to recreate what I envisioned. Freckles, big eyes, braided hair... I'm completely immersed in my work. Until I reach the hands, that is. No matter how hard I try, they aways end up looking like a messed up arts and crafts project and I always end up having to hide them behind my character's body. Terrible habit, I know, and one I'm determined to ditch. Just not right now.
As I move on to the dress, a gust of cold air make me shiver. I get up to retrieve a shawl, and when I return, I find my chair occupied.
"Hey Parker," I greet my cat as I lift it to reclaim my seat. The feline lets out an irritated meow, but relaxes once I settle it down on my lap. I pick up the pencil again and continue the drawing.
"Really? The cat gets a greeting and I don't?"
I jump up from my chair, causing my cat to fall of my lap and hiss in surprise, and launching my pencil across the room in the process.
"Who said that?" I yell. There wasn't supposed to be anyone in the house except for me. Well, me and Parker.
"I did, of course," the voice says. I spin a tree-sixty, but don't see a single person in the room who could have uttered those words.
"Up here, sugar!"
Now, I can clearly hear the voice is coming from above me. But that's impossible!
I slowly tilt my head towards the ceiling.
"Holy crap!" I lose my footing and stumble backwards as my eyes take in the speaker. I stagger across the room for a few meters until my but finds the floor on the opposite side of the room.
My eyes are still wide in shock as I look up to the creature in front of me. A long, snake-like physique, scrawny arms and a curly tail. Oh, and let's not forget the two, bat-like wings erupting from it's back. The beast is purple and about an inch or four in size.
"I..." I try to speak, but my throat seems glued shut.
"What's wrong, sweetheart, lose your voice?"
My eyes slam shut.
"This isn't real," I whisper, "This is just your imagination."
I probably shouldn't have had that much coffee at lunch.
Yeah, that must be it. Just a caffeine-induced daydream.
But when I open my eyes, the creature is still there.
"You're still here." I say.
"Where else would I be? It's not like I got such an exiting life. You know, you'd think that after centuries of hard work, I'd get invited to a party or two, but nooo-"
"Wait, what... Are you?" I interrupt.
"What am I? The better question is, 'who am I'?"
The creature twirls around in the air and starts moving towards me, in a way that can only be described as swimming, really. It twists its tail, seemingly using it as a propellor to create momentum for its tiny body to fly across the room.
He stops about an inch from my face and hands me a business card, which he appears to have pulled out of thin air.
My eyes scan the card. It's mint green, with gold lettering, and I have to squint to read the fine printing.
Lý Bao, ACSS. I make out after a few seconds.
"What's ACSS?" I ask the creature, Lý Bao apparently.
"Âu Cơ Secret Service, darling."
"What... Hold on, secret service? Why are you here? How did you get into my house? How-"
"Oh would you stop with the interrogation for two seconds? You're giving me migraines!"
I shut my mouth and Lý Bao smiles.
"There you go. Now, let's start by answering the first question. Do you know the legend of Lạc Long Quân?"
I nod.
"My grandma used to tell me Vietnamese folklore. She'd joke it was my heritage." I smile at the thought of my grandmother. She passed away last year, and I still miss her every day.
"Joke? My sweet darling, she wasn't joking! Âu Cơ, descendent of the fairies, is not to be joked about. She fell in love with Lạc Long Quân, descendent of dragons, and they formed a family. Their children carry the blood of the dragons and the charm of the fairies. You carry the blood of the dragons and the charm of the fairies!"
I'd been nodding of a bit during that first part. I'd heard it a million times already. But his last sentence caught me off-guard.
"Me? I'm sorry, you've got the wrong girl."
I'm half-Vietnamese, but that doesn't mean I'm some vietnamese-mythology-expert. Much less a mythological creature myself! I don't even believe in those things. Or, I didn't. Until one just appeared in front of me.
Lý Bao shakes his head.
"No no no. My fae-dar is never wrong! You're Nguyen Thi Yen, granddaughter of Nguyen Thi Anh."
"Well, yeah, but I'm not... I'm not...I'm not a dragon!" I scream eventually.
"Calm down, sweety, I never said you were. Though I do find your reaction a bit offensive." He pretends to wipe away a tear.
"I simply said you have dragon blood in you. And the charm of fairies, of course."
"Of course..." I whisper, dumbfounded. Two minutes ago I was peacefully drawing with my cat n my lap and now, I was talking to some sort of dragon-fairy-hybrid.
"Now..." Lý Bao continues, "as for 'why am I here?', well, it's quite complicated. Say, how much do you know about your grandmother's... occupation?"
I squint at the creature.
"Occupation, what do you mean? She was a grandmother. She was retired."
I bite my lip as I try to remember what she did before that.
"She used to be a painter, I think. I've seen the paintings in her hallway."
"Great. You know jack squad." Lý Bao sighs as he throws his arms in the air.
"Elders... They really should do a better job of informing the next generation... A painter..." He continues to mutter to himself for a few minutes, and then goes on to explain.
"Your grandmother was a tạo hóa."
"She was a what now?"
"A creator. She helped shape the world as it is today. Creators are very hard to come by, especially ones as good as her. That's why her passing was such a tragedy..." Lý Bao looks sad now. It takes him a few moments to realize he was in the middle of telling a story and gain his composure back.
"Anyway, that's your answer to the second question. Now 'how did I get into your house?'. Have you ever seen the show 'Prison Break'?"
I shake my head.
"Oh, it's on Netflix, you really ought to-"
"Wait, you didn't answer the second question. Why are you here?"
He gave me a surprised look, as if he couldn't believe I hadn't figured it out on my own.
"Well isn't it obvious?" He says, "You're the new tạo hóa!"
"What? But I don't know how to do the whole 'world building' thingy! I don't even know how to pay taxes!"
"Sweetheart, of course you know how to do it. You were doing it just a second ago."
I stare at him dubiously.
"Drawing, darlin', drawing! With the pencil and the paper and the hiding hands behind backs... By the way, you really need to work on that, it's a terrible habit."
"I know. Wait- you just want me to draw? That's all?"
I'd been fearing some big responsibility, something that would require me to risk my life in order to safe the magical fairy-dragons.
"Well..." Lý Bao's voice suddenly gets really high, and I get a feeling I'm not going to like what he's about to say.
"Well what?"
"You kinda need a magical brush in order to shape the world. And, well, we sort of misplaced it?"
I rub my temples. Of course.
"So what do you want me to do?"
" Uhm, you see, we've looked everywhere for the past year and we didn't find it. The only place we haven't looked yet is...you."
"What do you mean? I think I'd know if I had a magical brush in my possession."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Do you remember what your grandmother gave you for your 18th birthday?"
I frown as I recall the memory of her present. It wasn't a paintbrush. It was a pendant. A necklace I wore every day. I take it off to show Lý Bao. His eyes turn as round as disks and he looks at me as if I just killed all of his dreams.
"What?" I ask.
"This is not a magical paintbrush."
"I know. That's what I said."
"Oh, this is bad. This is very bad!"
Lý Bao starts frantically twirling his tail.
"Calm down."
The tail only starts twirling faster. I grab it to stop the creature from having a mental breakdown.
"Focus, Lý Bao! You said you looked everywhere. Does that include my grandmother's attic?"
"I suppose it does, I mean we did checked the entire... Wait! The house was sold before we got there. We wanted to go back and check, but it had been renovated."
Lý Bao was right. Grandma's house had been sold to a young couple. The stuff that hadn't been claimed by any relatives had gone to the thrift shop downtown. When I tell Lý Bao this, he turned a pale green color.
"It's fine!" I reassure him. "We'll find it."
"You sure about that, sweety? How many boxes were up there?"
My heart sinks as I remember the maze that was my grandmother's attic.
Lý Bao sees the look on my face.
"I thought so. Luckily, I am prepared for situations like this."
Suddenly, he hands me a pencil and again I wonder if he pulled it out of thin air.
"What's that?" I ask.
"Well, it's a pencil, see. You use it to draw pictures or write down stuff-"
"I know what a pencil is. But why are you giving me one?"
He smiled deviously.
"Sweetheart, don't you know me better than this by now? It's not a regular old number two pencil."
I sigh.
"Of course it isn't."
"It's a magical pencil."
"What? Like the magical paintbrush? Why do we even need that one then? If we've got a magical pencil-"
I go to reach for the pencil but Lý Bao pulls it away from me.
"Woah, slow down, sugar. You think you're the only tạo hóa there is? This isn't yours!"
"Well, then why did you show it to me?"
"It's a spare. You can use it for now, until we find your grandmother's paintbrush."
I put out my hand but Lý Bao still looks skeptical.
"This artifact has been around for centuries."
"Okay."
"It's very powerfull."
"Yeah, sure."
"Do not break it."
I smile smugly.
"Lý Bao, don't you know me better than this by now?"
Slowly but surely, he hands over the pencil.
I twist it around between my fingers.
"Cool. So what does it do?"
"Just about everything. Your creativity is the limit."
"It's a good thing my creativity has no limits then." I say, and I run over to my desk.
Taking out a new piece of paper, I start drawing my grandmother.
Lý Bao looks over my shoulder.
"Yen," he says, and I can hear the sadness in his voice, "It's not that simple. You can't just draw people back to life."
I feel tears stinging my eyes now.
"Why not? You said my creativity was the limit."
"It just... It doesn't work that way."
"Why can't it?"
"It's complicated. The tạo hóa-"
"Shh!" I interrupt him. From the corner of my eye, I see movement.
I turn my head and squeel. On the page, the lines I just drew are moving.
I can see my grandmother, her hand moving towards her neck, towards the locket she's wearing. My locket.
"I didn't draw that," I say.
"I know. That's the magic of the pencil."
I look back at the drawing. My grandmother takes off the locket and opens it. Suddenly, it morphes into something different, something bigger.
I watch in disbelief as the locket transforms into... A paintbrush.
"What the..."
"Yen? Have you ever tried to open the locket?"
I shake my head.
"She told me not to. Until the time was right, she said. She said I'd know when that would be."
Lý Bao stares at me with a meaningful look on his face.
Hands trembling, I take off my locket. I wiggle my nails in between the clasp and open it up. Just like in the drawing, the locket transforms and morphes into a paintbrush.
"It was the locket." I say.
"Jup. Congrats, Yen. You're the new creator. Now go on and create. The world is at your feet."
"Thanks," I smile at him and spin my chair to face the desk. I grab a blank scrap of paper and start my new piece.
