Dearest Journal,

These last few days have been some of the strangest of my young life. I’m trying to keep my head held high and think positive thoughts still… but it’s hard. This whole awful thing started the night I went to give my collected bennevolance to the World Tree. We were expecting her to bloom that night, because we’d been collecting a lot of the stuff recently. After writing to you last, I climbed the stairs to Yggdrasil where Apus Major and Aquilla were awaiting me.

Apus Major turned his head to me and told me it was time to watch the fyggs bloom. I gently walked forward to the tree, bowed, and offered the bennevolance to it. The crystals floated into the air, soaking into the bark of the tree, making Yggdrasil glow beautifully. Then as we watched, the little yellow fruit called fyggs began to bloom, glowing with the rest of the tree. We stood, watching in wonder as it all occurred when suddenly we heard the same train whistle we’d heard in Angel Falls.

The Starflight Express flew by quickly landing on the observary, and then suddenly… it exploded! Pieces of the train flew in every which direction down to the earth, and where they hit, beams of purple light shot up from the ground, causing earthquakes and shaking the observary. One of the beams shot almost right next to me and I went flying into the air in the explosion. Through the madness, I saw Aquilla reach out for me but it was too late to keep me from shooting off the side of the tower, no longer in control of my wings in the craziness. All I remember after that was falling and falling and falling until I hit what must’ve been the pond my Angel Falls (ironic name, isn’t it?), and everything went dark.

A few days later I woke up inside a comfy wooden building with a purple haired girl putting some things in a drawer. I recognized her immediately as Erinn, the girl Aquilla and I saved from the monsters the other day. Sitting up slowly, I asked how I got here.

“Oh,” she smiled sweetly, “You’re finally awake. It’s amazing that you survived that fall! You must’ve been standing right at the edge of the waterfall when the earthquake hit.”

I nodded, realizing how much further than that I must’ve really fallen. ‘Wait!’ I thought to myself, ‘How can she even see me?!’ I jumped up and ran to the mirror to see that my wings and halo were gone completely. ‘Am I not a celestrian now at all?’ I wondered. ‘Or just partially?’

Erinn handed me a hairbrush as I realized how awful my choppy blonde locks looked after lying in bed for days. After managing to look decent, I threw on my clothes and decided to go out for a walk to clear my mind and maybe find some answers. Downstairs, I nodded to Erinn’s grandfather and scurried out the door.

‘The world looks so different walking as opposed to flying’, I thought. Everything looked bigger, but of course without my wings and halo I was simply a young, nearly human, teenage girl. It was a beautiful day, and Angel Falls was a beautiful little town to be in. The grass was bright green and the skies a lovely blue. I’d say it was like heaven on earth, but not quite because I’ve lived very close to heaven most of my life.

I strolled over to the Guardian statue in the corner of town, where at the bottom it clearly said, Arabella. “Aquilla...” I whispered. “What happened to me?” I starred at it for a while, wondering if I could ever be a full Celestrian again, when that rotten boy Ivor and his friend, Hugo, walked up.

“What’s your name?” Ivor asked.

“Arabella,” I said almost uncertainly now.

“You know, I don’t see why Erinn’s taken such an interest in this one.” He said snidely to Hugo. “Look at her weird clothes and that wooden sword. She’s a minstrel for sure, and they can’t be trusted."


"So sorry I’m a nuisance for falling off the waterfall.” I replied gently rolling my eyes and turning back towards the statue.

“You should be,” Ivor replied. “Falsely claiming the name of our town guardian just to get a free meal? You shouldn’t even be here.”

I had just decided to ignore him when Erinn walked up. “Quit being so mean to her! She’s a guest here in the town and you two need to start treating her like one!”

“Whatever…” Ivor mumbled, obviously not willing to argue with Erinn. “We have to go talk to my dad about something anyway.”

Erinn rolled her eyes as they walked off. “They’re idiots,” she shook her head. “Just ignore them.”

“Done,” I grinned softly.


“I heard you say your name was Arabella. That is kinda neat, it being the same name as our guardian. Maybe you were even meant to fall down that waterfall,” she smiled.


I nodded, worried if I spoke I would give something away to her. “Well…” she said awkwardly, “After your walk you can just come back here to rest, I suppose. It must’ve been a kinda strange day for you.”


“Thanks, I will,” I smiled. Afterwards I walked around the rest of the town and even bought some equipment at the local market, but at the end of the day I came back here no closer to answers than I was this morning. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have some news.




Love,
Arabella