It was just a normal day in high school. We were going on a field trip to a nearby amusement park. There would be food, drinks (non alcoholic) rides and games that we could play, eat and drink.

The bus was on the road. That’s when a portal opened right in front of us. We were all scared as we entered the portal. Colours and lights were flashing everywhere. I looked to my best friend Caleb.

Caleb had medium-long brown hair but he always put it up in a ponytail because he wanted to look more like a guy than a girl. He also had silver eyes that glimmered and shined and could attract anything (yes, I had a crush on him). His skin looked as soft as a cloud, too. 

I’m not saying I’m the most attractive of girls, I’m actually pretty basic for a girl my age. I had long thick black hair, neon green eyes, and my skin was a very bright tan. I would constantly look in the mirror and wonder if other girls saw me as ugly as I see myself. 

Me and Caleb held each other tightly in the other’s arms as the bus flew around through the portal. We ended up in a mysterious land. An odd world unlike ours that looked like ours, but for some reason, I knew it wasn’t our world and was the exact opposite of ours.

School buses have been known to go missing recently, could this odd world have been the reason why? I decided to venture forward into what looked like a forest. It was different though. The leaves were in all the colours of the rainbow and the logs were brown as usual (unless it was a redwood tree.)

I held Caleb’s hand as we both went inside of the forest. Some of my classmates followed us. This world was a mysterious place. I found an axe lying around. There was something written in the dirt. It was written in Spanish. Luckily, Caleb spoke Spanish, German, and French.

“It says, ‘don’t destroy their homes or they'll destroy your life.” He said. 

“What could that mean? And whose ‘they?’” I asked.

“I dunno.” Caleb said.

I picked up the axe anyway and started to chop off some of the branches from a tree. As I was doing that, I felt like I was being watched.

One of my classmates, Jessica, screamed and then went silent. Me and Caleb ran over to where we heard the scream. When we saw her, horror came to our eyes. Her perfectly blonde coloured hair was covered in blood. Her un-naturally tanned skin was also covered in blood. Her eyes were closed so you couldn’t tell that they were green.

“Who did this?” I asked in horror, tears begging to break free.

“Ishiam monkahjiao makka nomlis omo na ba ragha.” I heard something said. With quickness me and Caleb turned back.

“What?” I asked.

It was a figure that looked like us, but it clearly spoke a different language. It stopped for a moment. Then it said:

“English? Your language has as much of a weird name as the last one, what kind of a name is Spanish?” The  man asked. 

“It’s what we call it.” I replied

“I know that.” The man said, “Well you clearly have an axe in your hand so you’re going to have to suffer.”

Caleb then picked me up and ran out of the woods. The man teleported in front of us.

“Oh, and by the way,” he said, “I am what you call a wizard, not a man.”

Caleb grabbed the axe from my hand and attacked the wizard. He started chopping at his chest.

The wizard smiled and said, “Ichia oppa polo barak”

He then turned to ashes and flew in the wind. Caleb helped me up. I still held his hand even after that, in case another wizard came. As we all remember, the Spanish person warned of more than one wizard.

His hand was soft, warm, and comforting. Even though we were the bestest of friends I felt more comforted by him than ever before. I wanted to hug him but I knew he’d think that I was crazy or weird. 

Just then, Elizabeth came up. Almost immediately I knew what she came here to do, she came here to flirt with Caleb. I hated her. She was blonde, ocean blue eyes, and perfect white skin. She was everything that I was not, she could pull Caleb any time of day. 

I held Caleb closer to me. I wasn’t about to let him become taken by this blonde-alec barbie.

We both told her what had happened and she acted like it was all her fault just so that Caleb could comfort her and they could get closer. Before Caleb could, I comforted her.

I saw the look of disapproval in her eyes. She tried to hide it but both me and Caleb could see that she had a look of hatred in her eyes. 

I and Caleb went to check on the bus. It was damaged pretty badly. Me, Caleb, and some others did what we could to try and fix it. That’s when I heard a language that I didn’t know but I knew who spoke it, though.

“Ichian mo bisk no fro klo ca ca beanik tra op kin dertor bilm” a male voice said.

I looked behind me to see a tribe’s worth of wizards behind us. Me and Caleb sprinted for our lives, most of everyone just screamed and stood there.

Me and Caleb ran and ran til we couldn’t go any more. I wanted to cry, we left them alone, all alone to die. But I knew that if I didn’t want to be just like them I would have to continue on tearless. 

Some did make it out, others didn’t. We had to hide from the wizards. They wanted to kill us and tear us to shreds. We were human, we were smart so they wouldn’t be able to do anything to us unless we let them, hopefully.

We built a secure fort and found some guns lying around. We went around gathering materials and chopping down trees to make our fort more secure. Surprisingly, there was a young female wizard who helped us. Her name was Tikalia (Tee-call-e-uh). She had bright orange hair, pale skin with tan patches and she had eyes that kept changing colour.

We made our fort look kind of like the first British settlement in the Americas, Jamestown. We covered the logs in mud and other stuff to make it more secure. 

We then used stones that we found and quickly stuck them to the mud that way the fort would look more tough and secure.

We then dug a secret bunker within the settlement. Soon, we’d look for others who fell victim to coming here and start our own army. This was my history class by the way, and we’re all European except for Danner who had Aztec skin, black hair, and dark eyes. His family were slaves in the 1600s to Spaniyards.

The first night was the hardest, we all had to stand guard in case a wizard came and tried to hurt us. Wizards kept coming and attacking, or they just watched you creepily.

I’m surprised we survived that night, only one of us died. We began upgrading the fort the next day. We built a roof and everything. The wizards only seemed most active at night.

“Micha ack ichia oko monka.” Tikalia said. We still didn’t understand her because she didn’t know how to use her magic to translate our language into hers

She then ran outside of the fort at top speed. I raced after her. We ran through the forest which felt like running through an open field since we obliterated most of the trees. We were now in a field full of flowers.

Tikalia kept looking behind her and in front of her, probably making sure that I wasn’t following her. Her eyes were changing colour rapidly, I kept chasing her in my ripped jeans, white crop-top and nike tennis shoes.

That’s when I saw a village. It was full of wizards. She grabbed a cloak and threw it over me. I put it on. We then went into the village.

I heard her voice in her mind, for some reason I understood her.

“Mikka no bolo, Ichia harp tramn no poll (don’t worry, I will translate for you)” She said

I decided to trust her, she was the only one on our side who spoke the language of the wizards, she’s my only hope of blending in. She went inside this really big house. It was like a cafeteria, feeding everyone.

“Ichia hon mockish ba mono shellia.” She said, I couldn’t translate anymore, maybe it was only when her voice was in my head.

The wizard at the counter handed her a bowl of clam chowder. I found that strange that they had the same food as we do in the human world.

“No pollishia makko ashie ashol, eh? Ichia alon moko no she.” The person at the counter said to Tikalia. I just stood there saying nothing.

“No omni charro mick asha? Ichia no comat.” Someone behind me said.

“He said, “Who are you? I haven’t seen you here before.” Tikalia said to me, “Just say, Ichia monk bo Herbshiani makko elenorai.”

“Ichia monk bo Herbshiani makko elenorai.” I told him.

“Core naomia ackien marshio comonsh nue.” He told me.

“He said it is nice to meet you.” Tikalia said in my head, “Say, Core naomia ackien marshio comonsh nue nashom.” 

“Core naomia ackien marshio comonsh nue nashom.”

After that, we headed back to the fort as Tikalia ate her clam chowder. She got out some sort of weird green rice that I didn’t even know that she had and sprinkled it all over her chowder. 

“Ichia wonkia molia tolmiak no pollur trop” She said.

“No poll wonkia molia Ichia trop?” I asked her.

She looked at me with her eyes slightly widened. I was shocked too.

“You wish you could speak my language?” I asked in English.

“Oh, core naom gront.” she said.

“That must mean; Oh, that’s great.” I said.

“Sheysha?” She said confusingly.

I’m just going to assume that she said yes.

Tikalia looked at the campfire we set up. She looked sad. I sat by her to hopefully cheer her up.

Caleb came to sit next to me. Just then, another girl that looked like Tikalia but as old as me came in here. 

“No poll awamiko Tikalia!” She said, picking Tikalia up.

“Who are you?”

She paused for a moment.

“You get away from Tikalia.”

“Core naomia okaon!” Tikalia yelled.

“Fine, if she says it’s okay she told us.”
“Are you her mother?” I asked

“No, our parents died in a fire, I am her older sister.”

“Oh.” I said. 

I didn’t really know how to empathise with that, I’ve never lost my parents. She had dark red hair, dark eyes and brown skin so I assumed that they got their appearance from a different parent. 

“How come you haven’t killed us yet?” I asked.

“Well for one, Tikalia trusts you guys and second, I’m unmotivated to actually hurt anyone unless they hurt Tikalia first.”

“Oh.” I said.

“It’s dangerous being parentless, you know.” She told me.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they believe that parentless children should be on their own and so they kicked us out of the village but we sneak in from time to time.”

“That’s horrible.” I said.

“It is, but everyone’s used to it. I actually just now looked into your history and I don’t mind if you colonise us, of course, the others will.” She told me.

“My name’s Herbishia by the way.” Herbishia told me.

So that’s why Tikalia wanted me to use that name.

“My name is Karina.” I said.

“Karina?” Herbishia asked.

“Yeah, Karina.” I said.

“You humans have weird names.” She chuckled.

“So do wizards, at least for me.”

“Yeah, getting to know the other culture is DEFINITELY going to take some time.” She chuckled. We all laughed.

That night, Herbishia and Tikalia did some weird dance around the fire. I guess it must be a cultural thing. Hardly any of us watched because we didn’t want to be rude. We all just kept on doing what we were doing. Me and Caleb were tasked with a dangerous job. We were supposed to go out and look for water or survivors to make a well and a farm. 

Tikalia stopped dancing and volunteered in Makioniashianian (their language) and went with us. She had a fireball ready in her hands. We were scooping up water when a portal opened up. 2 full buses came flying through, crashing into some stone. We all raced towards the scene.

We got everyone out of the buses safely and back to camp. We got them all inside safely.

Me, Caleb, and Tikalia went back to gather water. Instead of going back, Herbishia just used her magic to duplicate the water and help grow our crops. The next morning, Tikalia came back with some bees. The farm was outside so it was fine. Tikalia was talking to the bees with her magic.

“All wizards can communicate with animals, since insects are animals, she can communicate with bees too.” Herbishia told us.

That’s how I knew she was talking with them by the way.

The bees put Tikalia’s down, straight hair into pigtails. Tikalia giggled and thanked the bees (I assume). It was nice having Tikalia around. Just then, a wizard came flying around. We all gasped and raced inside. Herbishia and Tikalia just teleported inside though.

The wizard came in from the roof. We were all terrified.

“Oh don’t worry,” he said, “i’m only here for them… for now…” he said looking at Herbishia and Tikalia. Herbishia put her arm in front of Tikalia.

“They are traitors to their race and shall be dealt with as such!”

“NO!” I yelled.

Everyone fell dead silent.

“I won’t let you hurt either of them!” I yelled. 

The wizard teleported right in front of my face. I backed up a little bit. 

“You dare talk to me like that?! I am the greatest wizard of all! Everyone obeys me, even humans!”

“Well I don’t!” I said.

“Live your life in danger then!” The wizard yelled as he gripped on me tightly by my throat.

Caleb picked up a large stick and hit the wizard with it. The wizard went flying to the ground. 

“You humans never know when to quit!” He yelled.

Everyone started joining in on the fight. So did Herbishia and Tikalia. We all battled the wizard with our lives. The wizard knew he was outnumbered so he teleported away. We all cheered and celebrated. Herbishia and Tikalia stood there quietly for a moment.

“Don’t think we’ve won just yet,” Herbishia said, “he’ll be back soon, next time with an army.”

“Then we better start preparing for them.” I said.

“Do you know anyone else who has been a victim of parental loss?” I asked.

“I do, but I don’t know if they’ll be the in it for helping humans against their own kind.” Herbishia said.

“Well we better try!” I said, “We have to survive! We have to make it back to our home! Where we belong.”

“What is your home?” Herbishia asked.

“It’s on a planet called earth, it’s a pretty big planet and we have buildings as tall as trees or smaller all over the place.

“I want to see those things, when you return to your world, take us with you!” Herbishia exclaimed.

“I dunno…” I said, “Humans can be… hateful, they judge others if we don’t look like the other, they can judge you based on your gender, and they most certainly might try and only use you as some military weapon against who they deem their enemies.”

“What’s a military?” Herbishia asked.

“A military is something that fights for a country.” I said.

“What’s a country?” She asked.

“A very, very, very big piece of land where up to millions of people live, they also represent cultures.”

“Your world sounds almost just like ours.” Herbishia said.

“Considering my experience with it, not really.” I replied. 

Caleb came in.

“So, how’s everything been?” Caleb asked.

“Good.” Herbishia replied.

“I’ve also been good.” I replied.

“That’s good.” Caleb replied.

We all sat by the fire together. 

“Ichia wonkis molisha porlor sevorina…” Tikalia said.

“Wisk ono molisha porlor, wisk nomo onka partisha.” Herbishia said.

“What?” I asked.

“She wants to go outside, we can but it’s dangerous, especially with that wizard after us.” Herbishia said.

“It would be nice to step foot back in my old world.” I said.

“We’ll help you get back there, even if it means that we can’t.” Herbisha said.

“I sure hope we can get home.” I said.

“Yeah, I would love to see what your home looks like.” Herbishia said.

“Menka pro ook!” Tikalia exclaimed.

“She said; me too!” Herbishia translated.

The next morning, Tikalia and Herbishia both left towards the village. Me and Caleb followed them. We all got our food there and headed back to camp. The crops were starting to grow. I ate some clam chowder (seafood was really all they had there) and watched as the bees pollinated.

Tikalia came and sat next to me. She asked, “whank mo bo human masha char olo co?” 

“I don’t understand, sorry.” I replied to her.

“She asked what it was like being a human when you didn’t know any concept of magic.” Herbishia said, practically spawning right behind me.

“Oh, we’ve always had a concept of magic, we just didn’t think that it was real until now.” I said. To Herbishia, who looked me in the eyes and then chuckled.

“You humans are quite odd.” She said.

“You wizards are too, no offence.” I said.

Herbishia looked at me confusingly.

“What does offence mean?” She asked.

“You don’t know what offence is?” I asked.

“No, we don’t have a word for that even in our language.” She replied.

“Well offence can mean two different things, in one definition it could be a type of attack on someone or a group, or it could be making someone feel like there’s something wrong with them in a bad way.”

“There’s nothing like that around here.” Herbishia told me.

“Well you guys are lucky creatures then, an intelligent species would always find a way to hurt one another.” I said.

“I still want to see your world.” Herbishia told me, getting closer. 

Me and Herbishia gazed at the stars above us. Unlike our planet, they were all yellow. I found that strange. There were three moons in the sky and the trees were as dark as ever. I looked at Herbishia who was still gazing at the stars. I looked back at the stars.

“One day, I plan to travel the universe, maybe one day I’ll see your planet, earth, but only the master wizard’s magic is that strong. He only bestows upon his magic to his children, you’d have to kill one of them to get their powers.” Herbishia told me.

“Then why don’t you?” I asked.

“Because he actually loves his children and protects them from anyone willing to cause them harm.” Herbishia told me. I looked at her and then back at the stars.

“Do you think if a human could kill those wizards, they’d get powers too?” I asked her.

“Yes, actually, and I know it for a fact.” Herbishia told me.

“How?” I asked. 

“Long, long, long, long, long ago, about a few million years ago, humans and wizards lived in peace, that was until the humans became selfish and killed the wizards for their magic and to destroy their land and turn it into what they wanted. So the wizards banished the humans to a planet far away in a galaxy far from ours and left them there. They thought they sent them to a planet that would make them extinct but they were wrong. Since then, humans have forgotten this world and only covered it up with a fake being they called God.”

“God is fake?” I asked.

“Yes, he is.” Herbishia said.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Neither could Caleb after I told him the truth about god. I couldn’t believe that we were all lied to our whole lives. 

I got up and started wandering around. It was dangerous to do this at night because more of the dangerous wizards nap a lot during the day and by night they’re fully rested and come out to hunt. For humans, especially now that they know that we’re here.

I took a breath of fresh air. The moment didn’t last long before I got captured by the enemy. I was teleported into this tower that had strange bricks painted purple, a large window with a lectern, lanterns everywhere, bookshelves and books all over, and one large table in the middle. I tried to get up from the floor but it came to pass that the wizard had chained up my leg.

Just then, the master wizard came in. I backed up. I was scared of this master wizard. He just grinned as he gave me a sideways glance.

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, trying not to sound fearful.

“Oh, you’re just bait for now, I haven’t figured out the rest…” He said walking towards me, “...not yet at least.” He said holding up my chin even though I’m sure he’s over 1,000 years old.

All I hope is that my friends and classmates will be okay.

I woke up before everyone else did, I’m naturally an early bird at this point. Usually Karina is too, but she wasn’t anywhere to be found.

I thought that maybe she was outside like she usually is so I went to check, just in case. I went outside. I saw trees, bushes, grass, bees, and everything but Karina.

I started to get worried, if she wasn’t near the fort, then where was she? I tried not to think that something could have happened to her overnight, but unless she was blending in with wizards in town, then I’m pretty sure she could have been taken.

I decided to use my magic to find where she was at. I knew how to do the spell, I just really didn’t want to because it takes up a lot of energy. When I did, I found her with her leg chained up in the master wizard’s tower. I knew it was just a trap, yes, but I didn’t want to imagine what would happen to her if we didn’t go to save her. We had no choice but to go and save Karina.

I woke up the others. A lot of the humans backed away. I wasn’t surprised based on my knowledge about other humans. 

We immediately set out on a journey to go save our friend from the evil wizard. Nobody knew for sure what he was capable of, especially with his children being extremely loyal to their father, not to mention that he probably has his own army to protect him. We all pretty much knew that what we were doing was going to be a death wish, but it was worth it for when we’d see Karina again.

We were able to sneak past the guards and into the guards’ clothing room. The girls went first to change then the boys went inside to change.

When we were all done, we went in search of Karina. We decided to split up and look for her. Caleb came with me and Tikalia We finally found Karina after an hour of searching. 

“Guys no! It’s a trap!” Karina yelled.

Just then, we were in another room. I hid Tikalia behind me. I could tell that the room was full of weapons just waiting to kill us. I knew he’d put mine and Tikalia’s magic and Caleb’s natural survival skills to the test.

(Karina’s POV) I was hoping that they would just never find out and never come to save me, but to my horror, they did. Immediately as they entered the room they were teleported to another room and the master wizard came out of nowhere.

“Where did you teleport them to?” I asked, trying not to let tears come out of my eyes.

He held up my chin with his finger and replied and said while smiling; “Just a room where they may never return from.”  

I paused for a moment.

“Let them go!” I demanded

“Under one condition…” He said, getting closer.

By how he was looking into my eyes, I knew what he wanted from me. I didn’t want to give him it, though, for all I know it could be illegal (based on the laws where I’m from) for a high schooler and a probably one million year old wizard to marry each other. But I couldn’t think of myself right now, in my eyes, my freedom and rights were less important than the lives that would be taken if I hadn’t 

I knew what I had to do so I accepted it. He smiled and came closer then stopped. He did a spell to which I assumed that the others were teleported back to the fort. 

There were strict rules that I had to follow like not being able to speak unless I was given permission to or I was asked a question.

I already knew what I was in for when I agreed to this. The master wizard introduced our future predestined marriage to the public. 

He whispered in my ear, “You have permission to speak as long as you don’t mention anything about those outcasts.” I slightly nodded my head and pretended that we both ended up falling in love and now we shall once again unite our kinds together again.

Everyone cheered and we both went inside. We both also shared a bed. I’ve never done this before. I was kind of hoping that the first guy that I’d ever sleep in the same bed with would be Caleb and not some ancient evil wizard but here we are I guess.

After fighting off and surviving everything for what felt like hours, we were teleported back. So was everyone else that was there with us except Karina. Nobody was in the mood or the right zone to go back. But I had to. I had to go save Karlie. I ran outside the fort. Herbishia tried to chase after me.

“Caleb! Don’t!” She called out.

“I have to! She’s my best friend!” I called out back.

I ran towards the tower. It had even more guards this time. I was able to sneak past the first few guards but the rest would not allow me to pass. While running away from the guards I bumped into Karina.

“You shouldn’t be here.” She told me.

“I came back for you.” I said.

“Caleb…” She said, picking up my hand, “I do love you, but in order to free you guys from the room, I agreed to marry the master wizard.” 

“You can’t, he’s much older than you!” I said.

She turned her head around the other way. I could tell that she was crying. She said, “I have no choice.”

“You do.” I said, hugging her in a comforting hug, “Choose me, please.” 

“I…” She said, looking down at her hands.

I held up her chin towards me. We both looked each other in the eyes. With almost no hesitation after that, she quickly pulled me in and we both kissed each other on the lips. I gently closed my eyes and held her close.

Just then, we both heard slow clapping. It was the master wizard. I put Karina behind me and put my arm in front of her. 

“What a touching romantic scene, but I’m pretty sure she already told you her choice.” He said.

“It wasn’t a choice if she was forced to do it.” I scolded him.

He teleported me to him, his hand grasping my neck.

“I make the rules here, if I want something, I get that something and NOBODY has a say or do in it!” He yelled. Karina stayed quiet and just stared at the floor.

“You force her to be silent, don’t you?” I asked.

“Clever boy.” He said, “Yet stupid enough to come here.” He said, shoving me down towards the floor. Karina was still silent as she watched. 

I got out the axe from the first day and tried to attack him. He grinned and asked, “Who do you think that wizard was?” Both me and Karina looked at him in shock.

I got closer to Karina to protect her. The wizard just stood there grinning until he teleported behind us. I once again put Karina to the side of me. Karina held close as we both bread for impact as the wizard was flying toward us.

The wizard grabbed me by the neck and broke through the wall. We were now outside on the third story of the tower and the ground was far below me.

“Leave him alone!” Karina finally said.

The master wizard towards her and simply said, “I told you to be quiet.” 

I then punched him in the face and he let go of me. I gripped onto the floor with both hands. The wizard looked at me and was about to step on one of my hands but Karina came and pushed him to the side. She then grabbed a bucket of water and splashed it on the wizard to either confuse him or melt him like in The Wizard Of Oz.

Of course, he was only confused as this isn’t as confusing as the wizard of oz but she was able to drop kick him and finished the job with a dagger. This time, the master wizard didn’t come back. But something else happened, Karina now had powers and a lot of them too. The guards rushed in and saw her with the powers that she did have and looked at her with complete shock. We were all speechless. She came towards me and helped me up. Just then Herbishia and Tikalia came rushing in.

“What did we miss out on?” Herbishia said, almost out of breath.

“A lot?” Karina said confusingly.

Both Herbishia and Tikalia’s eyes widened as they saw Karina in her purple witch-like clothes and hat. Karina smiled as we all celebrated the death of the master wizard.

Karina and I looked at each other and kissed in front of all the guards and everyone else under the gentle glow of the moon from outside.  Despite this looking and sounding like a happy ending, we couldn’t help but feel that this was only the beginning of a much larger journey than we think it is, almost as if we were nearby other worlds…