This is like a dimension opposite to real life. Dinosaurs, Mythical creatures, extinct creatures, Magic. Here it is possible for men to give birth and woman to sire a child. Alicia online racing. Here all technology is run by magic. And that’s only stuff like clocks and watches, lights and kitchen stuff.

Here you have no last name, you are called by your race. You can transform into animal form and even hide  your extra appendages.

The main family of this story are Vargas. Cats with wings. A Vargas also has a curl of hair of some description. The curls are very sensitive. The Vargas family is mainly made up of 4 pairs of twin girls. If a Vargas’ curl floats, they have magic.

There is only one continent + many islands. There are many villages littered through it. The Vargas family live in a seaside one. Its decently warm and the surrounding scenery is breathtaking. Its surrounded practically by hills and mountains. Like a valley that ends with a beach and has a dead end. (AUSTRALIA INSPIRATION)

Almost everyone has a soul animal.

Everyone is practically immortal because there is only one way to kill each person. It differs from each person, but most the time it’s a combination of legit everything nearly impossible. Your more likely to die of old age. EACH PERSON ONLY AGES ONCE EVERY 90 CENTURIES OR SO. The more magic power you have means that the combination that kills you is a it easier.

Heads up, there is only one breed of normal horse. And it’s not even that normal XD.

Also SOULMATES ARE A THING LOL <3 (few bad eggs)

                                 Macca kills a would bee survivor

You’d think that hearing someone chewing obnoxiously loud in your ear would be annoying, and it is. Many people would agree. But when Macca, one of my soul animals, came up behind me as I was rescuing a drowning bee with a leaf to rest his head on my shoulder to see what I was doing. He had just uprooted a clump of grass and was still chewing it when he rested his head on my shoulder, blades of grass hanging out his mouth. Now I don’t mind when I hear horses chewing food, my point is, it tickled. It tickled a lot.

I tried my best to ignore it and continued to scoop up the drowning bee into my leaf. Once it was directly under the bee, I lifted the leaf out of the water. Macca pressed his body against my back and his neck extended so he could bring his face closer to investigate the leaf I was so interested in. As he did that he ended up pushing me towards the water trough the bee was drowning in. I hastily stepped around the water trough of death but in the process I dropped the leaf. Did you know it’s possible to trip on thin air? Great! Because now you do! And guess what I did? I tripped on nothing and went stumbling forward a few steps, but I managed not to step on the leaf.

I hurriedly turned around to see Macca staring at me with the cutest dopey expression ever. I could just tell he was thinking something along the lines of; what are you doing? His ears flicked to the sides and he continued to stare at me.

“You saw nothing Macca.” I told him.

Macca snorted and turned his head to scratch himself behind his withers. As he did that I looked at the leaf on the ground to see that the bee was crawling slowly out from underneath it. I decided that it should be fine from now on. I saved it from drowning in the water trough, and that was all I needed to do. It hopefully it will make it back to the hive and tell all it’s bee friends to resist the temptation to go for a swim inside water troughs. It was unlikely though. When I come outside to spend time with Macca again tomorrow I was most likely to spot another insect or another bee that was drowning and in desperate need of a leaf.

Macca finished scratching behind his withers and was now looking at me again. He stepped towards me with his left hoof, then again with his right. He was walking towards me.

“Watch out for the bee Macca! Macca the bee! MACCA NOOOOOOOOOO!” I wailed.

It was too late, Macca ended up stepping on the bee and the leaf with one of his front hooves. I watched as he continued to walk towards me, stopping right in front of me. I felt my bottom lip automatically slip out in a pout. With both hands I grabbed the sides of his face, both my hands on his cheeks. “Do you enjoy destroying what I work hard on?” I received no response from him.

“You monster.”

I planted a kiss on his nose. I would have kissed his forehead, but then I would have to go on my tippy toes and I was feeling lazy.

“My little monster.”

I let go of his face and looked around the paddock for my younger sister, Kanna. I saw her sitting on her soul animal, a handsome dapple grey horse named Brolga, reading a book with one hand and patting Brolga with the other on his withers. Kanna didn’t seem bothered at all by me freaking out earlier. She wore a grey short sleeved long shirt and a pair of shorts. Brolga also seemed to not care; he just stood there and ate his grass silently. Well… as silent as a horse could be while chewing and tugging grass out of the ground.

It made me look at what I was wearing, a modest simple blue waist band, button up dress with elbow length sleeves and a collar. I couldn’t see it, but I knew I was wearing an enchanted choker that changed colours, it was currently white. My mother gave it to me to hide a scar that went all around my neck. I remember she told me, ’Keep your head up. Ladies are never sad.’ Yeah. She was that kind of mother that forced you to be something that you weren’t. But I loved her. So I keep it as a memory of her. An enchanted bag that was made of both fabric and leather rested at my left hip, hanging by its strap over my right shoulder. Its strap was brown and so was the leather, asides from that however, the majority of the bag was blue. I wore a little silver bracelet with three little animal charms attached to it on my left wrist there was also and book and a pencil charm on it. I wasn’t wearing shoes, which was kind of stupid of me.

Don’t judge me, grass feels nice to walk on. And as a bonus, I can see my pretty rope woven brown anklet that has small rocks that were arranged in the colour of the rainbow on my left foot. Hi anklet!

“Hi Birdie!” A soft voice called out.

I would love to say that I wasn’t as dumb as people believe me to be sometimes and the thought that my anklet replied to my thoughts never crossed my mind but then I would be lying. Fortunately for me, instead of staring at my foot like an idiot, I glanced around to check if someone real was talking to me. Someone was. And that someone would be my older sister Madeline. I really liked how Madeline could sound like she’s yelling without even raising her voice. I thought it was super cool she could do that, and it’s really great for sneaking around and we always leave her on look out. AHEM! Look out where? We don’t sneak out. NOPE.

Madeline was standing at the open paddock gate, looking at me with a warm gently smile on her face. We never close the gate, because the horses would never leave Kanna and me.

“Good morning Madeline.” I raised my voice a bit so she could hear me. “Where is Min?” I asked.

“Having a cuddle session with Felicia, Mama and Dad. Lovina isn’t back yet. Amy is off in town doing gods know what with her friend Ivan. Stormy is asleep.” Madeline replied.

Madeline often gave a full report on what everyone was doing, even if you asked for only one person. Everyone loved my little sister Min; she was like a living teddy bear. She didn’t complain if you squeezed her too tight and she loves hugs. She was just the right size for a cuddle or a snuggle buddy. And with Lovina, well… if she wasn’t home we automatically assume she is in the ocean somewhere. Stormy was not a morning person.

“I’m going into town to grab some medicine for Felicia, would you like to come with me?” Madeline offered.

“What has she caught this time?” I asked, a bit sad that Felicia always got sick. It probably wasn’t as bad this time if Felicia was moving around the house and having a cuddle with Min.

“She’s got a sore throat, a sore stomach and a headache.” Madeline said.

“I’ll come; can I bring Macca and Sharley?”

I jogged over to the gate and leaned against it.

“Not inside the store.” Madeline nudged me with her elbow playfully. “They’ll knock everything over.”

“Sharley, wanna come to town girl?” I called out to a huge dog the size of a wagon that was dozing off under a tree on the opposite side of the path to the dodo coop, a lone brave dodo was scratching at the grass next to it. It was my other soul animal, Sharley.

Sharley lifted her head to look at me. She let out a sigh and dropped her head. I took it as a sign that she didn’t want to go. I looked back at Macca to see him slowly walking to me, taking his sweet time. Sharley was older than both Macca and I combined. But don’t worry. She’s not going down soon. Soul animals only drop out of being soul animals when the humanoid being dies.

“Let’s get going.” I told Madeline.

I grabbed her hand and started following the path to the well, tugging Madeline along. I glanced back to see that Macca started to trot to catch up. Once the path reached the well it branched off in two different directions. Left lead to the house, right lead into town. I went right and I didn’t have to pull Madeline along this time, she sped up and was now walking next to me, our hands still interlocked.

I looked to the left and saw our triceratops field. Their scales were all coloured green and a few had light brown patterns on them. Triceratopses were friendly in general but that didn’t mean it was easy to look after them. A lot of people refer to them as trikes. Farmers want them mainly to protect their free range wandering sheep or whatever. And there is that one paranoid person that doesn’t believe the magic shields around the town and surrounding area aren’t strong enough to keep the dangerous dinosaurs and predators out, and so they buy a trike for extra protection.

The triceratops field was close to the goat’s pen. Now some dumb uneducated people might think; is that wise to have the trikes close to the goat’s pen? Won’t they get hungry and break the fence to eat the goats? Well for one triceratops are vegetarians, they eat stuff like leaves, grass, moss, hay, etc. And that’s why it’s a pain to keep them. You can’t just go to town and buy a tree branch with leaves on it. Or leaves in general. Do you think most people are dedicated enough to go out every morning in search of leaves or to grow a tree farm for the very purpose to feed triceratops. They can eat hay, but it’s not healthy for them to eat it all the time because it’s not their natural diet.

Fortunately for us, we built the fence around a magic tree. The tree is actually responsible for all the good looking healthy grass around here. The tree magically and automatically grows back whatever disappears. It heals super-fast. And it’s healing magic expands all around it, so even our trees heal fast too. So therefore we had a cheat way of looking after the triceratops and all we had to do was clean out the water trough every once in a while.

Our farm was on the top of a hill, it was almost perfectly flat asides from the house, and the ground level the house was on was raised, so we had a view on everything from up there. The pasture that the horses spent most of their time in (we never shut the gate, they go wherever they choose) lead into a forest a bit. You could say our farm lies at the foot of the mountain, but in their pasture was where it really began. They didn’t have the whole mountain as their grazing grounds. The fence ended just a little ways in, before it started to get really dense in between the trees.

Madeline and I followed the path down the hill when Madeline noticed I wasn’t wearing any shoes. She didn’t say anything about it; she just stared for a while at my feet, just long enough for me to get the hint that she thought I was strange. Which to be honest wasn’t anything new.

I felt a soft velvety nose bump into my hand. I glanced behind me to see that the strawberry roan coated horse had finally caught up.

“Took you long enough Macca,” I said. Macca just bumped his nose into my hand again and sped up his walking pace so that I was walking beside him, right next to his neck.

“This reminds me,” I looked at Madeline. “Where is Kuma?” I was referring to Madeline’s soul animal.

Madeline looked alarmed for a moment and glanced around hastily to find her lost companion. She seemed to remember something and relaxed.

“She was being impatient so I sent her ahead.” Madeline blushed, looking embarrassed.

I merely stifled a giggle at Madeline’s mental dilemma and patted Macca’s neck with my right hand, the one that wasn’t occupied by Madeline’s. Macca was a big horse. If he were to stand up tall and fully alert I would have to go on tippy toes to pat his nose.

“Is that her just there?” I asked Madeline, seeing a lump of white fur in the grass up ahead next to the path.

“Probably.” Madeline agreed. “Kuma, wake up.” She called out to the polar bear cub.

The lump of white fur uncurled and sat up. Kuma turned her head towards, her cute round ears twitched. Kuma got to her four feet and bounded towards us. “Marlo!” Kuma said. Kuma was an enchanted polar bear. Kuma could talk.

“I’m not Marlo. I’m Madeline.” Madeline let go of my hand to pick up the small bear cub.

One the bear was safely in Madeline’s arms it looked at me. “Who are you?”

The bear could never remember me; I always left to have adventures that often lasted for weeks or months on end. It didn’t have a lot of good memories to remember me by. Sometimes I take Min and Kanna with me adventuring as well, if the adventure isn’t too far from town. Kuma had difficulties with Kanna and Min too. The bear often nicknamed Madeline ‘Marlo’ as well.

“I’m Birdie.” I told it.

Macca made an impatient noise and leaned into me as if to say; forget that ball of fluff and let’s go. Macca angled his body and walked forward, cutting me off to stand right in front of me. He bent his neck around so that he could nudge my shoulder bag with his nose. He looked up at me with his ears flicked forward.

“No Macca. I’m walking with Madeline.” I pushed his face away from the bag.

Macca just got more persistent and took it a step farther to step towards me more, arch his neck around me and pull me into his shoulder. I could read his thoughts clear as day. Stay away from the bear. Macca had an instinctual hate for bears of any kind.

“Just ride him.” Madeline commented and continued to walk past, not bothering to help.

“Bad horse.” Kuma commented, watching us over Madeline’s shoulder.

I sighed and opened my shoulder bag. I opened it a grabbed a light brown tan coloured neck rope out of it. Macca flicked his ears back and his posture relaxed once he saw it. I put it over his head and let it hang loosely around the base of his neck. I closed my shoulder bag. I then jumped as high as I could and slung myself over Macca’s back. I felt him nudge my backside to lift me up more so I could swing my right leg over. Once I was sitting where I should be, I bent my knees so I could tuck my legs in. This was for better grip when we are going through all the gaits. It wasn’t comfortable for trotting though. No one likes trotting.

~(o.o~)

I loved going into town. I loved seeing the town, I love everything about it. The town was located inside huge walls that had five towers on them. Everyone exits and enters through three huge stone archways. Two lead to the beach and the other one leads to the rest of the valley. The whole entire town had cobblestone paths. The only places that didn’t have cobblestone on the floor were inside the buildings and on the small nature gardens. Not all towns were as fancy as Wisteria. Wisteria is the closest town to the royal family’s castle so it has to live up to expectations.

When we got inside the walls Madeline immediately went to the medical store with Kuma. I just stayed seated on Macca and looked around to see what was new today.

In the centre of town there were people almost everywhere and there was lots of noise. Because where their humanoids were, their soul animals will follow. Someone even had a Jerboa for a soul animal. It was sitting on their shoulder. Jerboas were very useful. They could detect dangerous weather including earthquakes a few minutes before it even begins and make different sounds for each one. There was two other soul horses, both of them were pinto.

Only a few faces weren’t familiar to me.

People were going in and out of the stores, standing around in groups of friends chatting and some people even had their own stands set up. Their stand signs read things like; Local farming produce, Spell books for the gifted, Delicious Goodies and Horse armour. What really stood out to me though, was a stand sign that said Taltacian Weapons. Now I’m not exactly a huge weapons fan girl, the only weapons I have is a long bow, arrows, and a shield. What drew my attention was Taltacian.

Now I’ve travelled just about everywhere in the south part of Shalvania. I’ve visited almost every town in the south. So, being the curious person that I am, I slid off Macca’s back and walked over to the stand.

“Hello.” I greeted the stands man. He looked really old. And believe me, when I say this; if someone looks old. They are old... ANCIENT-LIKE. His red beard was greying at the edges and his face was full of wrinkles. He wore an old bowler’s hat.

“Hello young one.” The man responded positively. “Anything caught your eye?” He gestured at a heap of gorgeous miniature animals carved from wood. Don’t be fooled though. Most weapons can turn into little charms, or inconspicuous trinkets. All of my weapons are charms that were attached to a bracelet that was on my wrist. My bow was a little silver horse charm; its quiver was a little megalodon (shark dinosaur) charm, and my shield was a wyvern charm.

I looked over all the beautifully crafted wooden animals. I could see that they were all put into labelled rows. Bows, quivers, scythes, swords, daggers, shields, magic staffs, whistles and much more. Each wooden animal had a little piece of paper leaning against it with the price written on it. They were all above <>20.

“They’re all beautiful.” I told the man. “Where is Taltacia? Is it up north? I can’t say I’ve ever seen weapons that turn into carved wooden animals.”

“It’s on one of the islands; I’m visiting all the sea side towns in my little dinghy down by the pier.” The man said with a smile.

I put both my hands on the table excitedly. “What is it like on your island?”

The man smiled and grabbed my left wrist and held it up to examine the charms on my bracelet. “Our weapons don’t turn into charms for starters.”

“Our island is mostly all beaches, trees and mountains. Our houses are up in the trees, and for some reason all our soul animals have wings and can either glide or fly.” He continued, turning my wrist so he could investigate further.

“I’m selling Taltacian weapons and buying your Shalvanian ones.” He gently places my left wrist on the table.

“Taltacian’s have taken a liking to Shalvanian weapons. You can just reach for a charm a twist it and a weapon appears in your hand. Taltacian’s have to rummage around in a bag just to find the right carved animal.” He explained. “So I go home, sell Shalvanian weapons, buy Taltacian ones and then I come back to Shalvania and I repeat the process. It’s an endless cycle.”

“That sounds pretty straight forward.” I grinned.

“Oh it is. The perfect job for an old timer like me. I love travelling by ocean. I love seeing new lands and all the glorious sights they all hold.” He smiled and leaned back in the old chair he was sitting on.

“If you love the ocean that much, you’d get along great with my older sister Lovina.” I voiced out loud.

“Ah, you think? She likes the sea does she?” He chuckled.

“The word ‘like’ is an understatement. She spends five hours at the very least in the ocean every day.” I giggled. “She always smells like seaweed, it’s truly remarkable!”

“She is the best big sister ever though.”

“Sounds like a nice young lady.” The man commented, his attention seemed to be elsewhere though.

I twisted around to follow his line of sight to see two huge brontosaurus’s down at the beach. They were both lying down in the shallow water. I had no idea what they could possibly be doing and it seemed as if the man I was talking to was totally stumped about it to.

“We don’t have those.” He muttered to me. “We don’t have a lot of creatures with no wings.”

“Do you have wings?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m a Kirkland.” He replied.

“Oh…” Was my oh so smart response. Vargas and Kirkland’s don’t get along too well. There was a feud a LOOONG time ago between the two races. To sum it all up the Kirkland’s were jealous that we had cat limbs AND bird wings. They were jealous that they were more clumsy then us because we had a cat form and they didn’t have an animal form. For the sake of how well we were getting along previously, I didn’t mention that I was a Vargas. A winged feline.

“There’s a Kirkland family just outside of town.” I told him.

“I know, I’ve already met dear Alice.” The Kirkland man pointed at a lovely long blonde haired green eyed girl named Alice. Everyone knew Alice. She was nice, but she was known to get mean real quick whenever Francis was pestering her.

“She’s quite lovely. I’m afraid I don’t talk with her much. My other big sister, Amy, does though. They get along great.” I smiled. Even if all Amy does is annoy Alice to the point that Alice becomes enraged. I’m surprised Amy isn’t dead yet.

“That’s good; it’s hard for young Kirkland’s to make friends. Especially Vargas friends.”

I turned my head so fast and so hard I could have got whiplash. He just smiled and pointed to another girl who was standing next to Alice. This girl had short blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes and a wide happy grin. The girl had round cat ears and a cat tail. At the end of her tail the fur was bushier and you could tell what kind of big cat this Vargas was. She had sandy coloured wings that neatly folded into her back. It was my sister, Amy.

“I’ve met Amy too.” He smiled.

I smiled back. It was clear that he didn’t care about the old feud between the two humanoid species. It made me happy that some Kirkland’s were like that.

“I thought Madeline said she was hanging out with Ivan.” I looked at Macca, to see that he was watching me interact with the stand man.

“My name is Birdie, what’s your name?” I asked the man, looking at the Medical store. I watched at Madeline came out the door holding a glass jar of something. I watched as she put it in her pocket and picked up Kuma, who had followed her out of the store.

“Kevin.” He answered.

“It was nice to meet you Kevin, I’m afraid I must go. I wish you luck with your weapon selling.” I waved goodbye to him as I walked to Macca, and once again went through the difficult process of getting on top of his back. Once I was up, I waved once again as I directed Macca in Madeline’s direction.

“I thought you said that Amy was hanging out with her friend Ivan.” I said and pulled up Macca right beside her. I pointed at Alice and Amy.

“That’s what she told me.” Madeline said after looking at the two girls for a while.

We both watch as Amy suddenly pulled Alice into her arms from behind, and gave Alice a big kiss on the cheek.

Madeline and I looked at each other and just started giggling in unison.

“We are so telling Lovina.” Madeline said.

“Yep.” I agreed.

                                          Amy races weird

Dogs are usually really playful and are practically bundles of energy right? Sharley is one of those special cases. Meaning that she’s old. She’s tired. She’s lazy. Sharley and I only ever really bond when we’re both dozing off under a tree somewhere in the midsummer sun. Sharley would shrink down to the normal size of a dog and lay her front half over my midsection. I would always rest my hand on top of her head and pat her occasionally. Sharley might be old, tired and lazy but don’t let that fool you. I’ve seen Sharley run faster than a cheetah for hours on end. She’s just a delicate old girl.

From where we were I could look over the field that all the horses that weren’t currently racing were in. Macca was with Brolga, standing apart from all the mare horses. A stallion soul horse had rounded up all the mares into a herd and had claimed it as his own. The stallion was a dark dapple bay soul horse. Macca and Brolga didn’t seem too interested in any other horses; they ignored the stallion’s piercing glares and grazed in the little area they claimed for themselves.  Not all of the horses were soul horses.

I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Lovina and Kanna were sitting beside me and Sharley. They were both tossing a ball to each other. A lot of the race contestants were also just hanging out around the horses, not doing anything in particular. Alice and her sister were on the opposite side of the field. Alice’s sister, Alyssa was pointing and us with a disturbing look on her face. She seemed to be giving Alice a pep talk on how to beat us. That’s a typical Kirkland for you. Amy was walking towards the speed racing horse she uses when I saw my twin, Stormy, speed walking towards her with a sheet of paper in her hand and her soul animal, a small parrot on her head.

“You should be ready by now! The race is almost over! Yours is next!” Stormy huffed, looking thoroughly annoyed. I could hear her all the way from over here. I saw Stormy thrust the sheet of paper into Amy’s face. “Get moving!” Stormy yelled.

Army had a mortified expression on her face as she easily swung herself up onto the horse she uses for speed racing. Amy had made sure to put a neck rope on the horse previously. Usually Madeline would be speed racing with Amy, but she wanted to just watch the race with her soul mate, Georgina.

“I’m going, I’m going! Stormy calm down!” Amy cantered the appaloosa mare towards the racing track, navigating through the spectators that were standing along the fence carefully.

“DON’T FORGET TO PUT HORSE ARMOUR ON HER!” Stormy hollered loudly after Amy, referring to the mare.

“THEY DON’T NEED IT, IT’S ONLY FOR DECORATION!!” Amy hollered back twice as loud.

“JUST DO IT!!” Stormy shot back. I have a feeling Amy pretended to not hear her.

Stormy turned to us and walked over to me. She sat beside me and started playing with my hair. It felt nice so I didn’t complain. Stormy wasn’t Stormy’s real name.  If I were asked what her real name was, it would take me a good five minutes to remember. Our mother nicknamed her Stormy because of how much she would kick and wriggle around inside our womb. Even when we were outside the womb she would still call her Stormy because compared to me it only took the slightest discomfort to set her off in a baby tantrum. And even now she’s as fiery as ever.

“You lot better get ready too,” She said eventually. She looked at Kanna and Lovina. “You all have a single magic race after Amy’s speed race.”

Magic races were for those who had magic. It was to make racing a little extra fun for magic possessors. It was super fun for the spectators to see too. As you race transparent boxes appear around the race track, these reappear almost instantly after racers run into them. They’re like illusions, they aren’t actually there but you can see them. Each box has a symbol, a symbol of a certain spell, it changes each time a box gets run into and has to reappear. Depending on what box you run into, you can only use that spell that the symbol clearly indicates. There are also black boxes, where the choice of spell is random. An illusion of the symbol flashes in front of the racer so they can see what spell they’ve picked up from the random box.

Each form of racing (magic and speed) can either be single racing or team racing.

“Yay, single racing…” Kanna said sarcastically.

“You guys be careful, okay? Use horse armour. And leave those silly Kirkland’s in your dust!”

“Sure thing!” Lovina said. With that as reassurance, Stormy walked off towards the racing track once more.

“Quick Sharley! Follow her.” I commanded Sharley. Sharley let out a long sigh and stood up. She took off at a sprint and was soon walking beside Stormy. Stormy’s parrot jumped off of Stormy’s head and landed on Sharley’s back.

I sat up and watched Kanna and Lovina continue to toss the ball to each other. When Kanna threw it at Lovina again I snatched it from the air.

“Come on. Let’s get ready and put on all the armour and stuff.” Kanna said and stood up.

“We really don’t need armour.” Lovina said.

“Do you really want Stormy to be mad?” Kanna asked.

“Lovi and me are apart of the Electric Bubble Trio AND the Trouble Trio, we don’t really care whose mad at us.” I said to Kanna. “And we’re all in the Adventure Squad. People have been mad at us before.”

“If we get there early, we can watch Amy race.” Lovina said. “Armour takes too long to assemble.”

“Okay, okay. Geez.” Kanna gave up on trying to convince us.

“Macca!” I called, and got to my feet once I put my arm though my bag’s shoulder strap and raised it over my head so that the strap was on my left shoulder and my bag hung at my right hip. My bag was enchanted, so it’s storage space was unlimmited.

As soon as Macca heard his name he looked up and turned his head around to look at me even if his rear end was facing towards me. While he was looking I gave him the ‘come here’ gesture and made sure he saw it. He turned his whole body around and started trotting to me, his neck rope bouncing up and down his neck. Brolga noticed Macca’s absence and turned around too. He started trotting towards us too, not wanting to be too war away from Macca. Brolga was also wearing a neck rope and it was also loosely bouncing around.

“I’m off to go catch my noble steed!” Lovina exclaimed and rolled forward over her own head and ended her wacky manuver in an upright standing position. She threw both her arms up to the sky before dropping them and walking off towards the herd of mares. She singles out a sweet chestnut mare that had a gold coloured neckrope around it’s neck. That was Lovina’s racing horse, Hazel. Lovina was quick to mount Hazel and trot her back to our tree.

Macca stopped trotting only a few steps away and was now just staring at me with his insanely cute dopey expression that just said; I’m here! I’m here! Notice me! He stood at his full height, his ears perked forward towards me. He gradually lowered his head into a more relaxed pose. What is it? I could almost hear him think.

I walked to him and stood next to his withers. “Can you help me up again Macca?” I asked.

I jumped as high as I could and flopped my front half over his back. I felt him push me up a bit more and with his help I swung my right leg over his back and sat up straight. I got myself comfortable and got myself into the usual position.

“Shorty.” Lovina snickered at me as she slowed Hazel into a walk, then a stop.

“Your shorter than Felicia, Amy and Madeline.” I shot back.

“At least I don’t need my horse’s help to mount her.” Lovina giggled.

Lovina and I settled into a comfortable silence as we both watched Kanna manage to swing herself up onto Brolga’s back with no difficulty.

“She’s shorter and younger than you. She doesn’t need Brolga’s help.” Lovina smirked.

I groaned.

Kanna walked Brolga over to us with a cheery smile, “Let’s go now.”

Lovina made Hazel swing around and nudged her into a canter towards the racing track. “Get up!” Kanna commanded and got Brolga into a trot.

“They’ve left us behind.” I sighed to Macca.

I then nudged him into a canter. Just as we were passing Brolga and Kanna, Kanna made Brolga change into a canter. So in a way she was kind of waiting for us.

“Slowpoke.” Kanna muttered.

“You won’t be saying that in the race.” I assured her with a grin.

I saw that up ahead Lovina had slowed Hazel down to a walk and was trying to get through the crowd of spectators. Lovina was cursing up a storm at the crowd, trying to get them to move out of her way. Unfortunately all that got her was a few looks of disapointment and probably only one person actually moved out of the way. You see Lovina was really shy around people that she doesn’t know or like very well. But she doesn’t act how your normal shy person does. She’s learnt that if she needs strangers to do what she wants she has to be assertive. And kind of rude. Kanna is a similar case, only that she isn’t shy, and it’s just her personality.

Kanna and I stopped our soul horses and stood next to Lovina.

“Oi, you stupid dodo birds! We need to get through!” Lovina yelled. Nobody payed her any attention.

Kanna didn’t hesitate to start walking Brolga through the crowd. “Move or Brolga will trample you all to death and your gravestone will have the funniest caption ever!” Lovina and I glanced at each other and quickly followed her path into the crowd, I went first. “Move lady! Do you want me to kill you!? Is it your death wish to be trampled? Move out of the way!” I felt myself cringe, but I didn’t tell Kanna off because it was working, she was getting us through the crowd. I even heard Lovina swear at someone behind me. I had two violent sisters.

We eventually got out of the crowd and walked our horses over to where our family was. Amy was in the waiting pen that you can wait in for your race. She was on top of her speed racing horse, Jessie. Everyone that she was competing with was waiting around in the fenced off area too. Stormy, dad, and mama were leaning on the fence next to the waiting pen. Sharley sat next to Felicia, who was sitting on a chair, wrapped up in the fluffiest sweater ever with a scarf around her neck. Min was standing behind Felicia’s chair and had her arms hanging around Felicia’s upper body in a hug. Mama was actually our step mother, but she managed to get us all to call her mama in a short amount of time.

“You uys were ere early.” Felicia said through her hoarse throat. She started coughing and mama walked over to make she wasn’t dying. Min was oblivious to it all.

“You three were quick.” Stormy turned around and leaned backwards on the fence, looking at us with a smile. She frowned in disapproval once she saw we didn’t put horse armour onto our horses. She closed her eyes as if she was in pain and took a deep breath.

“Where is your horse armour?” She snapped icily.

“In my bag,” I patted my shoulder bag.

“Why did you not equip it,” she growled.

“’Cause we don’t need it. Horse armour only exists to make horses look fancier.” Kanna growled back.

“The armour is designed to enhance the horse’s strength, agility and speed.” Stormy retaliated.

“All it does is slow us down.” Lovina cut in.

“Everyone calm down and just watch the race.” Mama said. “It doesn’t make a difference if a horse is wearing armour or not.”

Everyone fell quiet, not wanting to disappoint mama. Dad chuckled from where he was leaning on the fence, as if he’d heard one of the funniest adventure tales at the pub. I started patting Macca’s neck, stroking down his cute fluffy fur. I can never understand how he was so fluffy all the time. I can just place my hand on his shoulder and my fingers would almost completely be engulfed by his fur, you couldn’t even see my fingertips. I kept patting Macca’s neck as I turned my attention to the racing track.

“Girl, what lap is this?” I heard Amy ask one of the other speed race competitors.

“The 3rd lap, they should be around the water area by now.”  A familiar voice said.

I looked over at the waiting pen. When I looked earlier I wasn’t really paying any attention, I just spotted Amy and that was it. But looking now, I could see some familiar faces. Two of my friends were also waiting in the waiting pen. There was Jess with both her soul animals, a horse named Boon-boon and a grumpy little koala. She was a Kirkland and she was nice to me. She was a lot like me too, she loves adventure and getting into trouble, we were friends, but not close friends. And there was Maddy, one of my best friends on her soul horse Tharwa.

I watched as Maddy and Amy began to chat together, talking animatedly with their hands. I decided to play a guessing game about what they were talking about just by watching their hands. Huge explosion. Sea waves, swimming, swimming. There was a pause. Aw yeah, THIS BIG. Can you believe that? I gave up and looked towards the racing track; I could hear a faint distinct rumbling sound coming from the right that could only mean one thing. The racers were coming.

I looked to the right expectantly and saw that two racers were just coming around the final bend, they were so close together. I found myself thinking what kind of race was just about to finish. I didn’t have to wait long to get an answer fortunately. A third racer turned the bend, a sparkling ball of red energy in her hand. It was a single magic race, the horses didn’t have coloured ribbons tied in their tails to indicate green team, purple team, pink team or yellow team. I watched as the third racer jumped to gain more momentum behind her throw and launched the spell right at the racer that was currently in 1st place. It was my personal favourite spell. It knocks down the horse of whoever your aiming at and gives the opportunity to pass them while their down.

I felt a twinge of sympathy as the spell collided with the 1st place racer’s horse, all the hard work going into 1st place was going to be set back a few metres. The spell collided with the horse in a small explosion, and as you can expect, the horse tripped and fell forwards, the 2nd place racer quickly taking the lead. The horse collapsed onto its front knees, the rider leaned back and placed both hands on the horse’s withers so that he wouldn’t fall off. Almost as soon as it was down, the horse got up and started galloping again, now both the racers were competing for 2nd place. The first racer crossed the finish line, followed by both the other racers. It was hard to tell because they were so close, but I was pretty sure that the racer that fell over ended up in 2nd place miraculously.

I looked back to see the rest of the racers coming around the final bend, none of them seemed to be holding onto any spells so they call crossed the finish line with no setbacks. I think by now it’s not hard to tell. The horses on Shalvania are more resilient than those on the islands. The area in the middle of the race track was raised up high, and made it impossible to see anything beyond the final and starting stretch of the track.

“Well that finishes that single magic race; next up is a speed single. Sit tight for our team races later on in the day! Single magic racers; come to me to receive your rewards!” Announced the voice of Wisteria’s guest of honour. A famous herbalist all the way from the royal family’s castle had come to oversee the horse races today. But I don’t think anyone had really heard of him until today. He was using a spell to enhance his voice so that all the spectators scattered around the racing track could hear him.

Amy, Maddy, Jess and all the other single speed race competitors moved their horses over so that the previous single magic racers could exit through the waiting pen.

“Good luck Amy, Maddy, Jess!” I called out to them after the single magic racers exited the pen.

Jess gave me a huge grin and thumbs up. Amy waved in acknowledgment. Maddy gave me a smug smirk and nodded her head once at me. I felt myself hold my breath, my stomach clenched and I felt like there were tiny little sparrows dancing around inside of it. A grin worked its way onto my face. I hoped they would end up happy with whatever rank they finished the race in. They walked their horses and lined up at the starting line on the track.

I glanced around and found myself curiously watching Lovina. Her body was twisted around and she was leaning on her left hand that she had placed on Hazel’s rump. She appeared to be watching someone very intensely in the crowd that we came out of. I scanned the crowd. Madeline was there with her soul mate, Georgina. Georgina was resting an arm over Madeline’s shoulders and was talking to her two friends, Francis and Anastasia. Madeline’s soul animal, Kuma was sitting on the ground next to them, seeming uninterested in anything they were saying. Anastasia had her three soul turtles with her. Once was sitting on her head, the other two were peeking out of a pocket on her shirt.

I would have thought that Lovina would be glaring at Georgina for invading Madeline’s personal space, but she seemed to be watching Anastasia. I looked at Kanna and saw that she was slouching over, her head propped up on her hand with her elbow resting on her knee.

“Competitors ready?” Wisteria’s guest of honour asked.

I turned around to see all the sing speed racers showing positive gestures, such as thumbs up.

Soon after a word flashed in front of the starting line. Ready

Everyone got into their usual riding position. 3…2…

On 2, all racers ordered their horses back on their hind legs, their front legs raised in the air. It looked ridiculous, like all the horses were squatting, and in a way, that’d exactly what they were doing.

1…START

Immediately after the 1 all the horses launched forward past the starting line. You could hear the horse’s front hooves hit the ground in unison after the big leap. I felt my fringe fly black from the breeze they created as they whizzed past. In no time at all, they were out of sight, disappearing around the first bend.

“Birdie.” I heard Min’s child-like voice say. “Have you seen Birdie?”

I looked at Felicia and Min. Min still had Felicia trapped in a loose hug, she hadn’t turned around yet. I frowned, I would have thought that she would have turned around to watch Stormy yelling at us, or hear my voice and turn around.

“Birdie’s right there.” Stormy pointed at me.

“Birdie’s right where?” Min repeated.

“Look at Stormy,” mama said.

Min lifted her head in Stormy’s direction. She then twisted around to follow where Stormy was pointing and saw Macca, but she didn’t look high enough to see me on Macca’s back.

“Macca is there. Birdie’s not there.”

“Look up more,” I giggled. I leaned to the side so she could see me better past Macca’s head.

“Birdie! Hi Birdie!” Min started jumping, making Felicia’s chair rock with each joyous bounce.

Min was my little sister and Kanna’s younger twin. She has a strange mental disability that she was born with. It was really cute because it made her act like a toddler.

Stormy smiled at Min as Min kept jumping, and Felicia was having a hard time trying not to laugh for the sake of her sore throat.

“They’re coming around again.” Dad said. He got off the fence and stood with Mama, pulling her in close with his left arm and kissing her on the cheek.

I looked to the right and listened, sure enough the distinct rumbling sound of hooves hitting the ground was getting closer. Amy and Jessie slid around the corner, Jessie launched off of her back hooves and shot forward, her head was lowered to get less wind resistance. Amy had a similar idea. She had changed position so that her body was closer to Jessie’s hind quarters and had lowered her chest onto Jessie’s back, she was looking up, and since Jessie’s head was lowered down she had a nice view of where she was steering Jessie. Both her hands were holding onto the neck rope tightly. I had no idea how she had survived all the jumps along the track, but there was a possibility that she avoided all of them.

That was Amy for you. She had the most hilarious ideas, only some actually work; her ideas are risky and look weird. But if they worked she does them if it meant getting what she wanted. And what she wanted was 1st place. I didn’t bother cheering for Amy; I knew that with that ridiculous riding posture that Amy had already won.

Amy and Jessie were already past the starting line and were going around the first bend for the second time when Tharwa slid around the bend with Maddy, another racer and their horse right on their tail. Maddy and the other racer, unlike Amy, were riding like normal people. Maddy’s weird spikey fringe that usually defied gravity was pushed back on top of her head by the wind resistance. She glanced over and our eyes met briefly. Her eyes were a bright shiny blue, blue as the sky and distant mountains. I felt my ears and cheeks warm up. She looked at the race track ahead again.

“GO MADDY!” I yelled.

As soon as I cheered out her name she looked over her shoulder and smiled at me. I felt sparrows flap around in my stomach again and turned my attention to the right once more. Jess and Boon-boon slid around the corner, neck and neck with three other racers. They were also riding normally. Jess looked like she was having a tough time.

“Keep it up Jess!” I cheered.

I started patting Macca’s neck again.

“Oi, Vargas. What are you doing waiting around outside the waiting area?” Alice’s sister, Alyssa called out.

I glanced over to the left to see that Alyssa and Alice had come over from the field on their horses. They did the smart, more intelligent thing; they went around the crowd of spectators. Alice was riding a tall fluffy bay gelding named Prince. Alyssa was riding a tall handsome black horse named Rocky. Rocky was wearing dark red horse armour that looked really foreboding. Despite being sisters, Alice and Alyssa didn’t look too alike. Alyssa had bright red hair and Alice had blonde hair.

“Waiting for you slowpokes! Kirklands first.” Kanna retaliated.

Lovina sighed and simply trotted Hazel into the open gate of the waiting pen, Alice joined her, not wanting to get involved in the fight her older sister was starting.

Kanna and Alyssa started throwing insults at each other with some very strong language I would rather forget that I ever heard it.

I walked Macca into the pen and lined him up next to Hazel. I looked at Lovina and shared an eye roll with her.

“Girls,” dad said to us. “Don’t bring out our tails okay? You wouldn’t want to fall and squash it.”

Stormy had joined in on Alyssa and Kanna’s verbal fight, yelling her lungs out at Alyssa. I turned to Alice with what I hoped was an apologetic smile.

“Let’s have a blast Alice,” I said, trying to sound positive.

“No hard feelings at the end of this?” Alice responded.

“No hard feelings,” I agreed.