Mariah was getting tired of waiting for her mom to finish the potion. Mrs. Whitto daily made an intelligence potion for all of her children to take, but today Mariah had other plans and was growing impatient with her mother's brewing. Mariah wanted to explore the cave that she and Hitomi Kanaki had found yesterday. The cave was three feet wide and five and a half feet tall, just big enough for the two girls who weren't quite fifteen years old yet to walk down single file. When they first found the cave, it was quickly growing dark outside and fear made them cancel their adventure, curiosity however, convinced them to reschedule.
Finally the potion was ready; Mariah drank it down faster than the rest of her siblings and bolted out the door like a tiger after its prey, managing to just grab her bag on the way out. The contents of her bag were the most important part of this journey, for she knew Hitomi wouldn't be as resourceful as her. Her bag contained many items one would need when exploring an unknown cave in Shwag Forest; the lantern she stole from old man Van, a knife her brother would never realize was missing, a change of clothes, and her wand, which she wasn't supposed to take out of the house. She also brought along some food and other items not necessary for exploration, but she liked to be prepared. She was going to turn fifteen soon, and having five older siblings, she was always being taken care of and this was her first adventure so she made sure she was ready for anything.
For Mariah, growing up in the little town of Dank Trees meant that life wasn't much of an adventure, and only she and her friend Hitomi seemed to want any. Everyone else was happy living a peaceful life where excitement was found in the normal duties of life. Today Mariah and Hitomi were going on the adventure of a lifetime: There was a cave in Shwag Forest that only they knew about, and though neither of them knew the danger that lurked there, that's what spurred them on. They didn't say it to each other, but they were both hoping the cave was empty and didn't lead anywhere. At most they wanted it to be a place where they could hang out and practice spells. Mariah was five minutes early to KB's Candy, the arranged meeting place before the trip that would change Mariah's life. Mariah bought 3 goobtuks, 5 triklebuns, and 7 regfurds. The regfurds were for Mariah and Hitomi, and the goobtuks were in case any wolfos were in the cave, and the triklebuns to ward off any waglbles. Triklebuns, although very snail shaped can scare off an entire clan of the five legged, 3 eyed, waglbles. It was a pleasure of young children to try and get one stuck in the sheep like fur of the waglbles until the accident with Allen Sheczar losing a hand to a ferociously enraged waglble. Wolfos, enjoyed goobtuks, but just as they did to children they made their teeth stick together for at least 5 minutes, long enough to escape Mariah reasoned.
Ten minutes later Hitomi showed up 5 minutes late wearing exactly the same outfit as Mariah; a red skirt with the right side hanging 6 inches lower than the left, a plain green shirt with the initials C.H.E.E.B on the front, and a black cape with a five leaf flower on the back also with the acronym for Central Higher Education Entry Building, in the middle of the flower. The only difference in their attire was the bag Mariah was holding, and Hitomi's empty-handedness.
"You're late, and empty handed" Mariah told her not surprisingly lackadaisical friend. "I got caught trying to sneak my wand out of the house my mom almost didn't let me out" Mariah could only shake her head and say "Well let's get going then" to her only friend.
They made their way through Shwag Forest on the path they had created to the cave, with a simple digging spell Mariah picked up from her eldest sister. On the way to the cave they passed many birds, including the one eyed black belly hartu, whose overcoat was beginning to turn a bright shade of blue to welcome the coming summer. Mariah took notice of the birds as a good sign; there wouldn't be this many birds around if there were any wolfos. One of those hairless, pig snouted, cow-like animals would be enough to scare away all birds, since they can leap to the tops of trees.
They made it to the front of the cave, and both stopped dead in their tracks, in the daytime the cave looked even more foreboding than at night. For at night they thought they couldn't see inside the cave because of the darkness, now even though the cave faced east and it was 10:2G r.t in the morning they still couldn't see into it. They decided to play wand, wolfos, mirror to see who would go first. Mariah lost, throwing out wolfos both times to a girl she knew favored wand. She gave Hitomi her bag, and only after taking her wand out, went in with Hitomi one step behind her.
"IllumiConcentra" cried Mariah, and a bright light hung just in front of her face. Though bright, the light didn't do much in the cave and allowed Mariah to see just inches in front of her, Hitomi could only see the light and a silhouette of Mariah. Mariah didn't take two steps before she felt herself falling, right as she saw the ground coming swiftly up to hit her in the face, she found herself standing again.
Unknown to Mariah it was a normal day in the halls of the south wing of Clifton High School. Hundreds of students filed by the double paned window Mariah was looking through. Yet they were all so absorbed in themselves none of them took notice of the attractive and strangely dressed girl standing in the office.
Although they were almost all dressed differently (most boys were wearing blue jeans, and a t-shirt while most girls wearing a skirt Mariah so short Mariah would never imagine being able to wear and an unusually obscure or revealing shirt) Mariah thought they all looked alike. Not only looked alike, but it also seemed like they all walked alike, or had the same air, or manner about them, that she would be able to know they came from this strange place no matter where she saw them. They rather reminded her of sheep all being led by some unknown shepherd and none of them cared that they were being led. As Mariah still stood at the window astonished by what she was looking at, she noticed few exceptions to her sheep observation. One such exception was a young man whose hair was spiked higher than any prikleruis rodent Mariah had ever seen, and although he was also wearing a t-shirt, he had on black pants and an air about him that separated him from the rest of the sheep, or so Mariah thought. As she eyed up the attractive young man she noticed his shirt said TOOL across the front and had the familiar Lateralus eyes on the back. This astonished Mariah, because she knew who Tool was, and loved their music. What she didn't understand was how they somehow how managed to transcend to this world. She knew they were great, but didn't know that they also infiltrated this strange world and brought their music to these sheep looking people. She also knew what a talented mage the lead singer Maynard James Keenan was but she never imagined he was talented enough to travel to different worlds. She wanted to go and talk to "Mike" as she had heard an attractive brunette call him, but she was finally talked to by the secretary.
"Where's your I.D?" the mid-50's looking lady asked her.
"I don't know where this place is or why I need an I.D." (As far as Mariah knew an I.D. was a pet some people kept that rather resembled a cross between a cat and an eagle).
"Where are you from?" was the secretary's next question,
"Dank Trees" Mariah answered, "I don't know how I got here but I would like to back if that's o.k.” Mariah didn't know what to expect next, but the secretary asked her name and she gave it, and then Mariah was issued what the secretary called a "temporary I.D". Mariah being a quick learner figured an I.D was what they simply called a pichogi in Dank Trees. What she didn't know, was that the latter half of her conversation with the secretary was a code that the Clifton Police and the school had come up with to say the person (in this case the unknowing Mariah) was an undercover cop coming in to infiltrate some illegal activity within the school.
Mariah was also issued a book bag, a map of the school, computer codes, a set of four master keys, that could open all doors in the school and all the lockers, a schedule, and a locker which she was told would provide her with all the books she needed for the classes on her schedule. Mariah didn't understand this but thought it better not to ask the secretary any more questions, she looked at the map and her schedule, and realized she didn't know what period it was, so that was the final thing she asked the secretary and was off.
As Mariah walked through what seemed more and more like an endless sea of sheep, she wondered what had become of Hitomi and her bag. She still had her wand, but thought it better not to use magic in front of people who didn't seem to have a clue about themselves let alone magic.
She finally made her way through the sea of people and to her first class she was disappointed to see that Mike wasn't in the class and even more disappointed when she realized they were learning things she had learned two years ago. Mariah sat inattentive to the tall black haired man in front of the room that seemed to know little more than the people he was trying to teach. She was trying to remember a return spell her second sister had taught her in the hopes it would return her at least to Shwag Forest. Mariah's next class did not go so well; it was gym, and not only were the clothes provided for her too small none of the girls took a liking to Mariah. She couldn't understand why they were all making comments about her, but what the usually oblivious Mariah didn't notice is that she and her tight fitting clothes were drawing the attention, of every young man in the gym, and even the male teacher were finding it hard to remind themselves she was a student.
Mariah thought she had made it through well enough and was heading to her next class when she suddenly felt a shove in the back. A young girl named Calla, an overly jealous, good looking Asian girl had pushed her and was now standing face to face with Mariah after she recovered. A crowd gathered around expecting a fight but Mariah wanted nothing to do with it and walked through the people somehow managing not to burst into tears from all the obscenities being called behind her.
"If only I had taken out my wand," Mariah thought "I could have turned her into a slithering little runtyo and made her pay for embarrassing me.
In her next class Mariah was ecstatic to the point that she would’ve forgotten all about Calla if she had not also been in the class. The source of Mariah's happiness was Mike, who was not only sitting next to her, but also talking to her. Most people had left Mariah alone, because of the way she dressed, and she wasn't like them at all; didn't have that aura about her that they all had.
Mike sat next Mariah and they immediately began talking about Tool. Calla, again upset to see the most attractive boy in the class only paying attention to Mariah, decided to launch more attacks at her new nemesis, namely a few notebooks, and a pen. Mariah was now furious; the red in her face was deeper than a Macintosh apple. She reached into her bag to grab her wand and just as she felt it at the bottom, she heard Mike say: "Why don't you leave her alone c***". The class was in an uproar, never had Calla been so embarrassed in all her life; she was now the furious one. She sat down quietly, and then quietly made a deal with one of the larger boys in class, Albert who always sat next to her, to attack Mike in class, in exchange for certain favors Calla would perform later.
Albert agreed to Calla's terms as he didn't think Mike would be much of a fight and more importantly, the reward was worth it. He walked right up to Mike and picked a fight by pushing him off of his chair. They began to fight; Mike had leaped on Albert and was now attempting to strangle him with one hand, while punching him in his too soft belly with the other. Albert was at first startled by Mike's quickness and couldn't react, but now he had recovered, and was forcefully removing Mike's hand from his throat. Before he knew it Mike was thrown hard into a wall, so hard that he blacked out for 2 seconds, when he came to the first thing he heard was "Release him".
Mariah had had enough; she was now standing poised with her wand ready, pointing at Albert. Albert paused for one second laughed and punched Mike in the face with a blow that would’ve knocked him to the ground had Albert not been holding him up. Albert made ready to strike again but before his blow fell, he found himself hanging from a light fixture that could not support his weight and was soon back on the ground with a sharp pain in his ankle.
One look around the room and Mariah could see she was in trouble; not only was everyone astonished, but friends of both Albert and Calla were surrounding her, and she wasn't skilled enough to take them all on. Suddenly, and almost violently the words of the return spell came to her she raised her wand, and in some premonition before she uttered the spell, Mike called out "Take me with you". Without thinking Mariah grabbed Mike's hand and yelled "PreviosInhabiti".
When she came to, Mariah was back in the cave with Hitomi standing over her.
"Are you o.k., are you o.k.?” Mariah couldn't understand why her friend was asking such a silly question.
"How long was I gone" Mariah asked.
"Gone? You didn't go anywhere, you fell, and you’ve been lying here not answering for about 15 seconds. I was just about to go get a doctor."
Mariah's heart sank to the pit of her stomach, it had been a dream, Mike had not come with her, and she was still going to only have one friend.
Slowly she rose to her feet and the two of them left the cave, and started making their way along the path, suddenly, they heard a great deal of rustling behind them. Mariah quickly threw her head up, peering into the trees, and she now noticed too late she that all the birds were gone. Her whole body shaking with pain and fear she turned around to meet her enemy, she took some goobtuks and triklebuns out her pocket and readied her wand. To her surprise neither a wolfos, nor a waglble came from behind the bushes, instead came seven of the most beautiful words she ever heard:
"You weren't going to wait for me?”
It was Mike, she had been too hasty to dismiss it as a dream. Hitomi was frightened by his presence and ran all the way home, and that was fine with Mariah. On the way back to her house she explained as much she could to Mike, and to her surprise, and happiness, he took almost all of it in, and they lived as happily as they could together.