Two Worlds, One Girl (on hold)

{C h a p t e r 6}

"You, you are the chosen one,

No other person but you, none...

I don't know what you are to do

But soon, you'll know out of the blue!"

Fawaz sang. His voice was beautiful and mellifluous, a voice that was better than anyone else’s in the place I just came from - Earth. I still did not believe him, because a song will not make me believe something that is simply ridiculous. Yes, ridiculous is the perfect word for it. 

He then said, "You are to follow me out of this forest and to our kingdom. Follow me."

He started to turn away, as if to start walking, and then noticed that I wasn’t making any move to follow him. He looked at me questioningly.

"I still do not believe I'm the person chosen to save your kingdom, why me? You have no proof to show me that I am indeed this kingdom's savior person." I stated, obviously still not believing anything this man was saying. He could be kidnapping me for all I know. 

"Your notebook. The one you are holding right now, that's my proof," the man said with a frown on his face.

My notebook? Maybe it was really a magical notebook, I opened it simply to look at it. A gasp escaped from my lips - across the first page of the notebook was written: "Thou art the chosen one, the one to save the Amerash Kingdom from upcoming disaster. Thou, Mia Jones." in perfect cursive handwriting that was not mine.

I stood rooted to the spot, transfixed for a moment, lost in thought.

I was starting to believe this Fawaz guy now, what other thing could I do other than believe him? The notebook proved it all to me. The thing is, I still did not want to follow him into the forest because he may still be a kidnapper for all I knew. My mother had given me this book, but she had also taught me to never follow strangers into their houses or cars…I guess that applies to forests, too.

I looked closely into his eyes and only saw honesty in them.

Why would I open a notebook to see if this man is good or evil? Yes, it is kind of magical, but how would it ever know about this man? This is a weird situation...

"Because this notebook is a notebook that will guide you through all the things you'll go though in this world. You are to never lose it because it is the bridge between the world you are in now, and the world you were in a few minutes before." the old man replied. He was getting a little impatient.

I tried to stop myself from believing this man's crazy words and did not open the notebook for a few seconds. I could not stop myself from looking at it for long and finally opened it to the first page.

The weirdest thing happened.

I witnessed the erasing of the last message on the first page and then the writing of the second message:

"This man is the keeper of the forests in this place and can be trusted with everything. He will lead you through the forests and tell you all about this place, don't forget anything he says. Follow him." These were the words written across the first page in dark red; what was weirder was that the words seemed to shine! I've never seen anything of that sort in my life, except in a past movie I've watched.

The shining words intrigued me and also confused me, because of the sheer weirdness of this situation.

Maybe the magical world often portrayed in books and movies had some truth in them after all.

I finally decided to follow this Fawaz guy simply because I did not know how to get out of this forest place anyway and I kind of trust this notebook for some weird reason - there was like a bond between me and my notebook. I wondered if my mother had known this notebook was a magical one and purposely gave it to me. I finally heaved a big sigh and turned to the strange man in defeat. "Fine, I'll follow you. But don't try to do anything, I sleep with a knife under my pillow daily." I informed the man.

The old man laughed; he would probably have laughed more if he had known I actually sleep with a flashlight and book - perfect defense weapons - under my pillow. He then told me to stay where I was and went to stand right in front of me with a perfect posture, a little weird. 

Fawaz muttered a phrase in a language I did not know, "Ashika t rjda gwo da odoc go di ciudaz!" Right after he finished this weird sentence accompanied with some movement with his hands, and a deviation from the norm happened.

The trees moved.

They seriously moved, not just the way they sway in breezes. They moved in a way that made a beautiful dirt pathway between them that was lined by beautiful begonias of all sorts of colors-meaning that the flowers moved too.

The pathway made by the trees was beautiful, too beautiful to be real, but it was real. Or was I dreaming? Surely I would have woken up by now, but still I was skeptical.

Fawaz said to me, "Now, here's the road out of the forest and into the kingdom. You'll be living in the kingdom until you figure out what you are to do and do it! After you finish with the thing you were sent into this world to do, you'll go back to your world for real. Although I think you'll often go back to your own world, the prophesy concerning you is not very detailed."

"And how may I know how to go back to my world?" I suspected it was my notebook, which was supposedly the bridge between the two worlds.

"Your notebook. Now, follow me very closely," Fawaz said quietly.

Fawaz had started walking towards the pathway when I asked, "If you can use magic, why don't you use magic to transport us directly to the kingdom? It's obviously easier to just snap your fingers and appear at our destination than walking for hours or days until we arrive."

Fawaz frowned at me and said, "I would if I could. This forest is not of our kingdom and is something that attracts  evil, so if I use magic too many times I'll attract our enemy to us. That would not be good, because you are our only hope of defeating them."

"Why in the world am I in this dreadful place and forced to go to that dreadful kingdom of yours? And how would I help defeat an enemy of your kingdom if they can kill me in a second?" I asked, unable to stop myself and getting more annoyed by the minute about the situation I was in.

"Because you are you and you were assigned by the heavens to save our kingdom. Our kingdom is not dreadful! It was one of the greatest kingdoms in the world but isn't now. You are the one appointed by the heavens to prevent this kingdom's downfall by being overtaken by evil. I don’t know how you are to do this, but I am hoping that you’ll figure it out, and I am trying to have faith in you. You should do the same.”

Fawaz was not looking so happy now, with a deep frown between his eyebrows, he is actually looking pretty frustrated. He continued his speech soon after looking at the pathway he made, "Also, this journey will help you learn many things about this kingdom and also this earth of yours, so it is essential for you to go on this long journey out of this forest. If you refuse to follow me, stay where you are, and whenever you feel like following, just go on the path. Understand?"

This was a rhetorical question because as soon as he finished talking, he began walking on the pathway he made. I decided to go after him because I had nowhere to go. So, I ran behind him to catch up and yelled, "Sorry! I did not mean to annoy you, truce?"

"Truce. Now let's go now, time is ticking." I wondered how he knew time ticked if he wasn’t from this world. Had they invented clocks too? They must have, or else he wouldn’t know that term. Or did Fawaz travel in between the worlds, too, and had picked up the phrase that way?

It was then that a bird’s song broke my trance, and I looked up to see the old man Fawaz far ahead of me, glancing back to see how far I had fallen behind. I remembered what he had said about this certain forest being evil, and looked around, suddenly getting a creepy feeling. I sprinted to catch up with him.