Bits and Pieces

The Gate to Aeir

A fantasy story I wrote for school as a prompt.

In the year 3,675, the realm of Earth split into two dimensions, Terra and Aeir. The Chiberals,a race of beings that had fought humans numerous times over the control of Earth gained Terra, while the humans travelled to Aeir. Neither race had had contact in over four hundred years.

The steps of Actriel's clawed hind paws echoed over the wooden floor. She sniffed the air. Her room still smelled like rotting wood and bugs. To prove her point, a 6-inch long black centipede scuttled along the wall. She snorted in displeasure. This house was over 200 years old. Trees were rare on Terra, and the only ones left were the hundred-foot giant evergreens in the northern forests. Having a wood house was a status symbol since those trees were illegal to cut. Her parents were very rich, possibly the richest Chiberals on the continent of Lumera. Actriel didn't understand their lust for treasure. Surely, there was more to life than living in a big wooden house and counting gold coins and eating fish- real fish from the ocean, which was essentially a big vertical band separating the continents Lumera and Nykeria. Fish only lived in the bottom of this briny sea, and were incredibly hard to obtain. Actriel rolled her hazel eyes. Her pet Territh, Seed (who resembled a mix of a rat, a bat, and a bird; yet another one of her parents' status symbols seeing as Terriths were incredibly rare due to the fact that they only bred every 25 years) had woken up and begun to stalk a large hairy spider, feathered winged splayed to his sides. The spider ran for its life and disappeared into a crack under the closet's door. The closet was old and gross. Actriel swore a swarm of hornets had made a nest in there. And now, Seed was running straight into the closet. "Seed, get back here!" Actriel yelled. Too late. The Territh ran into the closet, which glowed with a flash of golden light. Actriel had never seen anything like that before. It wouldn't hurt to investigate. She stepped inside, and a golden glow enveloped her.

Actriel was somewhere new. The landscape didn't match the rocky plains of Terra, dotted with shrubs. She was standing in a large stone arch, looking out. There was a large glistening pool of water near her, and plants with flowering stalks swayed in the wind. The grass underneath her paws was a green she couldn't imagine, and when she looked up, there were floating islands mixed among the clouds, and the faint shapes of winged creatures soaring from island to island. This was a place she had heard in bedtime stories. The other realm, Aier.

One of the winged shapes begun travelling downwards. The creature seemed large and dangerous, so she was worried it would attack until she saw a saddle strung over its silvery, scaly back. The animal landed with a beat of its large, leathery wings, and surveyed her with irredescent eyes. It clacked its silver beak and swung its spiny tail. Its rider dismounted it. While the rider walked on two legs like a Chiberal, he didn't have scaly skin, talons, or a tail. A human. "You're a Chiberal, aren't you? The other race?" he asked. Actriel, lost for words, nodded. "Don't worry. My wyvern won't bite. All he eats are birds and fish. Small stuff." Fish. Actriel looked down in the large pond glistening next to her. Sure enough, she could see little streamlined shapes swimming through the shallows. Small fish, but still fish. "Also, speaking of fish, your little animal is over there catching some. He almost reminds me of a griffin, only a lot smaller and a lot less regal." Sure enough, Seed was hovering above the water, looking at the little fish. Back home, Seed never flew. He was lazy and hardly woke up. But here he was, diving into the water, and pulling out a little silver fish. He flew over to Actriel and offered it to her. "This place is wonderful, but how did I get here?" Actriel asked. "A long time ago, both races created seven gates so we could travel across the realms. The gates ended up abandoned. This arch you're standing in is one. The others are either broken or wild wyverns are using them as perches.. Chiberals and humans were meant to be apart, apperently." Actriel looked at the silver wyvern. Nothing like this creature existed in Terra. Nothing this magnifient, with those beautiful silver wings, coinlike scales, sharp beak, shiny horns, or sharp birdlike claws. No birdlike animals big enough to ride and soar through the clouds on. Everything in the world made Terra pale in comparison. It made Actriel wonder if Chiberals got the bad end of the deal. "By the way, Chiberal, what's your name?" asked the human. "Actriel," said the Chiberal. The human grinned. "Micheal. Now, before you head back to Terra through the gate, would you and your little animal like to take a ride through the clouds on my wyvern?"