If Only You Knew

Chapter 3

"Why is it so hard for you to wake up in the morning? Don't you live on the farm with those annoying roosters?" A loud voice roared into Iris' ear.

"What?" she said, shoving her head underneath the blanket. Suddenly, the blanket was whipped off in one quick motion and Iris rolled into a ball, shivering.

"I said why is it so hard for you to wake up in the morning? Don't you live with roosters?" Emma repeated.

Iris sat up and stared at her with sleepy eyes.

She waved her hand in front of her face, hoping to get more attention from her. "Good morning sunshine."

"Sorry, I stayed up all night finishing up the Shining Star 2, and it was so good. The book ended with Justin de la Rosa showing up out of nowhere from a portal. Katherine decided he is the ticket to her getting her true love," she said, stretching her arms.

She laughed, "Speaking of portals, we are going to find out how to send you home without the magic stick. The only other stick available is with the queen and she keeps it locked in a vault. So, there must be a way, and I'm pretty sure Andreas might know."

"Aren't you curious about who Justin de la Rosa is? Why his information is classified and how he connects to your family? Why was someone trying to stop us from finding the other three books? These books must hold some important information that someone doesn't want us to see. So these books have to be real. I know you believe me."

Emma couldn't bare to look at her sad face anymore. There was conflict inside her heart. "Listen, earthling. I've been training since I was a child to fight the Gorlin. I don't have time to deal with you or your books."

"Gorlin?"

She said,"The Gorlin is this hideous creature from the Dark Lords. It attacked the Bright Light many years ago. There is a prophecy that one day, someone from the Bright Light royalty will defeat the Gorlin. That person will be me."

"Ahh," Iris nodded in realization,"That's why you keep thinking about fighting, but you can't kill. You've got a heart. So are you sure that person is you?"

Emma gulped and twiddled her thumbs. She has always struggled with hurting another creature. Sally raised her to treat others with respect and love, no matter how they treated her. Thinking about striking the Gorlin or even the troll with a knife made Emma shudder with guilt.

"It's my dream to defeat the Gorlin."

Iris waved her fingers and said, "Nope. Your dream is to prove to your mom that you are good enough to receive appreciation. Your mom loves you, even if she doesn't say it."

Thoughts started to swirl through her head of how vain and self-centered her mother was. Emma wanted to hear her mom say those three words, even once.

The door opened and Antonia entered in. She noticed her best friend didn't look too happy.

So she asked,"Why is Emma so sad? What did you do?"

"Don't worry about it," she said,"She's going to send me home anyway. So let's go see Andreas."

They all got up and walked towards the door.

Meanwhile, Antonia whispered to Emma,"Good idea. That girl is sketchy."

As they trotted through the halls of the castle, Sally approached them.

She tugged on Emma's arm. "You need to start your training right now. Your mom requested we do training daily from now on. Child, let's go!"

"I'm 18, thus I'm not a child."

"Whatever, I don't want your mom to get mad at me," she said as she dragged Emma away, leaving the two girls together.