Erin;

 Chapter one Erin

              Artistic Wolves

Hi there, my name is Erin Hansen. If you’re reading this you’re probably expecting some boring story about my everyday life. Well there’s a little more

than that. But you’ll find that out later. I guess I should start from the beginning huh?   

It all started on a saturday morning. I had just almost stepped out of the apartment me and my dad live in. We don’t live in a necessarily big one but it’s big enough for the two of us. I had gathered two things which held the spots in both my arms. A Book of different floral patterns used in stained glass art, and a book on astronomy  and zodiac signs. I had to book it. Haha no pun intended. I was supposed to meet my best friend Amethyst(or Amy for short) at Sher Lath Avenue. It’s right next to the the local park. There are a whole bunch of artists who draw on the walls and it’s never ugly to look at.

Anyway, I went to the mirror in the living room and made sure I didn’t look like I had stood in front of a fan bigger than the twin towers. I kind of did though. I ran to the bathroom and grabbed a comb. I managed to calm down my pastel blue hair, so that my bangs were pushed to one side. After that I looked okay-ish, My hazel eyes were clear of bags under them so I started towards the door again. “Byee Dad!” I yelled as I left the apartment grabbing my keys on the way. I heard a muffled okay as I closed the door. I ran down the stairs which didn’t take long since the apartment building had only three short floors. Once I got into the lobby I waved goodbye to the landlord Jared. Jared’s pretty cool. He’s not serious like other adults, He tells the funniest jokes ever. I’ve learned some of my best material from him. He has a poster on the wall that says, who needs money? Not me. I just want jokes.  Which  I’ve always thought was funny. None of that that 1900’s style looking vintage decor. Just whatever he thinks fits. He always says sometime that first thought, is the one to go with. Pretty good advice if you ask me. Anyway, I had been running for three minutes and could already make out Amy standing at the corner with her huge bag of art supplies. Oh yeah did I forget to mention why we were meeting up? Amy has been waiting to do an art project in the park for a long time. Today she at four am she had gotten inspiration. She wanted to do a window that was kind of old looking in the middle of the wall. Drawn of corse, and A vine full of pink and white Clematis flowers. In the background there would be constellations. Hence the flower and astronomy books. Plus I love space. When people think of space some say it reminds them of emptiness and sadness. That makes absolutely no sense. I think the stars and a planets are beautiful. You know how saturn's rings are made of its moons? I think that is mind-blowing. Learned that last week in class. And how the sun is a star? And that everyone and everything just circles around it? So cool! From the street corner about thirty feet away Amy waved but stopped after a second to pick up her bag that had fallen off her shoulder. When I had reached her she had already started rambling about where the placement of everything should be. I don’t mind it when she goes on about a subject. It’s nice to just listen. Most of the time she doesn’t expect a two-sided conversation. She had picked the wall that was right next to the garden benches. This park was big on flowers. There were benched surrounded by plants of a random kind.  The walls were white but a little dirty so we’d have to paint over them with a light tan shade. Neither me or Amy were very patient so she had paint that was quick to dry. Maybe ten minutes or so? After that first layer had dried, Amy started on the window. I’m more of a writer myself, so i read her the astronomy book while she worked. When I looked up from the sun chapter, I saw that she had almost completed the window. She was an expert on realism and fictionalism. If fictionalism is a word anyway. It was bronze and had the windows shaded so that it looked like it was a real window. The inside glance of the window was a living room that looked like it had a window on the other side the size of the wall itself. There was a fireplace freshly lit and it held a frame on the mantle. There was nothing in it though because Amy decided it wasn’t necessary. She had started on the vines which were a pale green with curved ends. It curled and grew around one side of the window. Amy was starting to paint the Clematis flowers. They were white like lilies while some of them looked pink like tulips. I watched as she finished the flowers and asked me to skip ahead to the constellations. I was sitting right next to her so it was clear to see the images printed in the pages. Instead of black for space she blended purple and blue to make a better color. After she had painted that, she started on the stars. Everything she drew was beautiful and flawless. If Leonardo Da Vinci was alive he’d be jealous. After she’d finished, she stepped back to look at her work. The best part of doing this with Amy was how happy she’s after she’s done. Her face grows as she throws her arms up says on a scale of one to ten how it turned out. One is redo, and ten is time for the victory chant. She held a hand out for a high five and I did it. Effortlessly may I say. We always get happy when we land a high five. It’s silly but still. “I Think it’s a ten dont you?” Amy said gleefully as she turned towards me with a wide smile. “I think it’s the best one yet! Definitely better than any I’ve ever seen anyway.” I looked at the other art-ed walls beside hers. If you took a step back and looked at the walls that were outstretched next to each other, you could see Amy’s was slightly better. That slightly was good enough for us. Besides, there is only a slight difference between a bronze and gold olympic medal. When I looked at Amy, I saw she was still admiring her work. I went up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. “What do you want to do now?” Amy looked at her supplies and looked like she’d been struck by a idea. “Why don’t we return these books before the librarians turn into lizard monsters haha.” We started on our way to the library. Me and Amy loved reading, but were kind of slow, so we w were always returning books late. So you can get that we were used to the dirty looks the librarians. It was like a secret language between them. Like, “OH GOD. It’s those two again.”  When we got to the check in desk, because they’re old school,  they turned in the books with a gloomy expression lying across their faces. We went over to the fiction section and after a few hours, checked out about two books each. After that we said goodbye and both headed home. When I got through the door I saw that the lights were all off which meant that my dad was already asleep. After I changed and brushed my teeth, I was lying down in my bed when I heard a small howl. That was weird. I thought. We don't have any animals in the apartment building. They’re not allowed. It was then I realized it was coming from right outside. I got up as quietly as I could and opened my curtains. When i looked below, I saw a  weird animal thing on the street. It looked like a wolf, but it was made of lilac colored glass. But it was moving? What was going on? I turned towards my door and thought that I should tell my dad. I looked back to make sure the wolf was there, but it was gone. There were only shards on the ground that were amber in color. I could see very far from my window, but it wasn't there. Anywhere . I must be seeing things I thought. And just like that I layed back down in bed and tried to forget the little incident. I had other things to worry about. Like school.

 Raven;

Chapter two Amethyst

                suspicious shards

I woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about my mural, that I had drawn in the park earlier. I had worked so hard on it. What if something happened to it. It was silly but at the time it was worrying so much, that I got up, to actually go to the park and check on it. I got out of my bed and changed into something other than my pajamas. My dad was asleep so I didn’t have to alert him that I would be gone,because I knew I would be back soon. I slowly and quietly grabbed my dark green hoodie of the coat rack, and slipped my blue hair out of my face into a ponytail with my bangs hanging out the front. I slowly tiptoed out the door. I live kind of far from the from the park, and so it took me about thirty three minutes to get there. I climbed over the closed park gates, and started off toward my artwork.  I looked to the wall , and it was still there.When I got up close, I inspected it to make sure it was still in pristine condition. It looked like it hadn’t been touched. Except for a few shards of glass at the foot of it. They were purple shade. Maybe lilac. But there was a trail of them that led deeper into the park. The trails over there were quite dangerous. We'll not really, big it was a large rose garden. Not where you want to be in the dark.

I went to the large towering gate that blocked off the rose garden and began to climb it. After a while I finally made it across, but lost my footing near the top and fell off. Right into a huge cluster of roses. I got up slowly and winced as I looked at the scratch on my palm. I’ll have to bandage those up later, I thought. I realized that scratch had a section of it that had a shard of glass in it. I looked were I had fallen and saw even more glass that lead into a clearing  I’d never noticed before. I got up and sneaked over to the trees that mostly concealed the clearing. That’s probably why I’d never seen it before. I walked slowly through the clearing until I heard a yelp , at which I hid behind a tree.I peaked out and saw a girl surrounded by wolves.The girl had carmel skin and a scar across her left cheek. Her hair was short , and bright red, pulled into petite pigtails which were on the verge of becoming undone.  The wolves were made out of the same lilac glass that I’d seen earlier and the girl held a large metal staff with a amber stone somewhere in the middle, and it appeared scratched up on the entirety of it.. She’d probably shattered the wolves. I also saw her smash one of their heads into the ground. I watched as the wolves lurched at her and she struck them down one by one. She dropped her can while fighting the last one, and after a brief moment of hesitation, I grabbed her can, which had fallen aside the tree I hid behind, and used it to smack the last wolf’s abdomen. It shattered right before my eyes. It was terrifying and beautiful at the same moment in time. She looked at me with hazel eyes widened, as she took into consideration my eyes. Which wasn’t unusual for me since my eyes were a reddish orange.Not one you usually see.Her eyes narrowed last minute and she reached towards her midsection. She took something out of her bag and threw it on the ground. It was also made of some sort of glass, amber in color, much like the stone in her cane that I held in my left and right hand. I knew it was glass as it shattered at the collision. Amber shards turned to dust and next thing I knew, the girl was gone. And so was her cane. I looked around, shocked. I ran home as fast as I could. Lilac shards still tucked along the folds of my sleeves.

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When I woke up the next morning I was still in the clothes I had been in previously. My green hoodie and black pants. My dark blue hair still in a messy low ponytail. I knew what had happened last night was just a dream. I mean, stuff like that just isn’t possible. Right? I was sure I had imagined everything until I pulled on the sleeves to the  hoodie and heard a tink on the floor . My eyes widened as I looked to the floor and saw five petite shards of lilac glass lying at my feet. That’s when it hit me! That crazy dream, was not a dream. I picked up the glass shards(or at least one of them) and examined it. Too bad I didn’t know how to examine things. I’d have to see if I could find anyone at school. We have a pretty big science lab, that has a lot of fancy stuff(but let’s be honest, I don’t know how to use them) which is probably a good at examination junk. I was so caught up in the petite glass, that I almost didn’t notice the repeated knocking aimed at my door. “WHAT?” I yelled a little louder than I’d meant to because I heard a slight sigh from the other side. “WAKE UP!! YOU’RE GONNA BE LATE!” The voice said angrily. OH shoot! I looked at the clock and saw it was 7:45am. The problem with that is school starts at 8. And I walk to school, which takes 15 minutes or more. I decided that what I had been wearing was good enough school attire. “THANKS! I’M ON MY WAY!” I yelled as I bust through the door, glass in side pocket, as I ran to the school.

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When I ran through the doors of my high school, I was surprised to find no one there at all. I walked towards my classroom to see no one there but Erin, And the girl I had seen yesterday night. They were both looking at each other as If they’d been expecting someone different. Erin stared at her with a confused look, and she stared at him with a mixture of doubt and something I couldn’t define just yet. I didn’t like it. I coughed a little louder than what was considered polite, implying I wanted to interrupt. They both switched their attention towards me but said nothing. They both shared a suspicious look, kind of like, “hey which one of us is gonna explain the bad news.” Erin spoke up first. “Hey Amy, have you by any chance had any acquaintances with any glass wolves.” He glared at the girl. “Yes actually,” I started. “Last night. I met her during it as well, speaking of which, who the heck are you anyway?!!” The girl rolled her eyes, and before she spoke I already knew I wasn’t too fond of her. “My name is Aris, and I have come to bring you to the ostium ignis fatuus.” “The ostrich in fatness?” Erin said loudly, furrowing his brow. “No. The ostium ignis fatuus. It means opening wisp. It is the only portal in this world that leads to mine. You are not only human. You both only live with one parent correct? There is a huge chance that your other parent was captured by The shattered. I have come to help you retrieve them.” Me and Erin both looked at her, and then each other was this this lady crazy?! What was she talking about I mean,. We had both had a hard time as kids, growing up with one parent. no one would talk about or knew about it. We both somehow knew what they looked like. Cemented into memory.  My mother had Grey blue flowing straight hair and red eyes exactly like mine. She had the brightest smile. And when she did her eyes sparkled like the shine of the night stars. I knew what she looked like but no one else did. Erin told me what his mother looked like as well. She had light almost white, blonde hair and icy blue eyes. Her eyes had a metallic shine and seemed to shift snake like. And she seemed always filled with worry or concern. Like she was waiting for something terrible.

Aris saw what I was thinking somehow and motioned for us to follow her. She led us to a dark corridor that was locked twenty four seven, to prevent student access. Erin knew this , as did the entire student body, so he looked at me  with a doubtful look. “Why are we even following her? I mean like, she keeps rambling on about this crazy stuff. Maybe she escaped for some sort of asylum and is bringing us here to kill us an-” Erin tried to continue, but was stopped by a large THUNK  as Aris threw open the door. The door had not been opened for a long time. Me and Erin coughed harshly as she turned on the lights. She went to the back wall and stared at it for a minute as if measuring it. She took one of her hands and  started searching through her bag, which I had not noticed before. “Hey, did you see her carrying that bag earlier?” I asked Erin as I nudged him . He shrugged and I was going to ask Aris but stopped myself as I saw Erin’s eyes widen as he yelled “OH GOD AMY I WAS RIGHT  I TOLD YOU SHE WAS GOING TO KILL US OH GOD OH GO-” “ God will you shut up!!!” Aris yelled sharply, as I spun my head to look at her. She was holding a dagger thats blade was a glowing an amber color.” She was pointing it at us waving around as if telling us to watch ourselves carefully. We watched with wide eyes as she carved an arch into the back wall. And it started glowing.white. The inside of the arch glowed blue and it turned into a kind of whirlpool. She grabbed me and Erin by the arm and jumped into it, taking us down with her.