I run towards all the children and tap a little orc boy on the shoulder.
‘Tag, you’re it,’ I giggle and runoff.
He chases me, laughing.
‘I’m going to get you,’ he yells.
Ember comes running up to me, leaps onto my chest, and knocks me to the ground. I playfully grab him and lift him into the air above me.
‘Ember, I think everything is going to be okay now,’ I smile.
Sparkles begin to swirl around Ember. He is suddenly too heavy to hold. Different colour swirls engulf him, then two arms appear, then two legs and long red hair. Ember falls flat onto me as my arms can’t hold his weight anymore. Our foreheads bump together on impact.
The girl before me is very pretty and around my age with beautiful long hair like mine, but in a lovely shade of red. Her skin is fair, with cute freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her eyes are green, and she has a cute little nose.
‘Maia!’ She yells in excitement and wraps her arms around me.
‘Ember, is that you? I thought you were a boy this whole time?’ I say in shock.
‘Yes, it’s me,’ Ember smiles.
She grabs my face and playfully rubs her nose against my nose. I giggle and wrap my arms around her.
‘Ember, I had no idea you were a… what are you, Ember?’ I ask.
‘I’m a witch, Maia! I’m here because the last of the witches cast spells to save all these children, including you and me, over a thousand years ago! You broke the spell, Maia, you and Damon. We would only become free again once the world was rid of war and hatred,’ she explained.
Ember is up close to my face sitting on my lap as if she were still a fox.
Damon approaches and sits next to me.
‘Ember, please, tell us what happened and how all of this came about?’
Ember stands up and begins to tell us the story as loud as she can so as many children, soldiers, and warriors can hear the tale.
‘After many years of peaceful coexistence amongst all our species, the witches accidentally opened a portal to another world inhabited by people called humans. Although we resembled each other, humans lacked magical or shapeshifting abilities.
Over time, the witches travelled in secret between realms, but some never returned to Mysteria. Witches had been caught casting spells. Out of fear of becoming cursed, the humans bound and burnt them at the stake.
The vampires, werewolves, fae and mages were amongst those who eventually discovered the witches opening the portal. Intrigued and curious, many entered the human world to live, where they began new packs, covens and nests for their kind. They knew they could not show their abilities to the humans as they did not want the same fate as the witches. The world was vast, giving them plenty of land and places to reside away from humans.
When travelling to human villages, they did not shift or use magic and found that they got along well with humans. Some became the best of friends and shared each other’s secrets, including the portal to Mysteria. The humans begged to be taken there, and the witches and werewolves agreed.
The humans fell instantly in love with the land of Mysteria and chose to stay there.
Orcs were one of the few species who refused to enter the human world, warning other species that allowing humans into Mysteria might prove to be a detrimental mistake.
More humans and supernatural beings began to inhabit each other’s worlds. Mysteria was a peaceful world until half a century passed, and it descended into war. Humans desired more territory and a king and queen of their own.
The supernaturals desired no more deaths in Mysteria, so they granted the humans additional land and chose a married couple, Asher and Merith, as King and Queen.
Even though their requests were granted, they were fearful that the other rulers would turn against them, and so, after meticulous planning, a second war erupted. Humans hunted and slaughtered many elemental sprites, leaving their corpses on orc territory and blaming the orcs for the deaths.
After this massacre, King Pyrus and Queen Lydia, the rulers of the sprite kingdom, consulted the leaders of all realms for help. It was agreed that all realms would protect any remaining elemental sprites from the orcs.
King Asher agreed to help protect the sprites and convinced the alpha king, the leaders of the other realms, and King Pyrus and Queen Lydia that the orcs needed to be eliminated before the orcs killed them all.
The strongest of all species, the orcs managed to wipe out half of the realms throughout the war before being obliterated in reprisal for being accused of a crime they did not commit.
The Midnight coven of witches believed the Orcs were innocent, but the realms would not listen to them. The Orcs entrusted the coven of witches with the safety of their young, hiding them in their Covenstead to save the species.
In the aftermath of the war, every species was at its most vulnerable since every realm had suffered significant losses and many injuries needed time to heal. The humans took advantage of the opportune timing, knowing realms were ebbing at their lowest and attacked the realms, successfully wiping out the last of the mages, vampires, sprites, fae and orcs except for the few that managed to escape to the human world through the portal.
Humans gathered witches and vampires in droves before burning them alive on stakes. They captured werewolves and locked them up with heavy chains of silver before torturing them to death.
The werewolf realms realised too late that the humans, not the orcs, killed the sprites. With all the orcs dead and with a population much larger in number than the other species, werewolves were the next strongest species.
The witches of the midnight coven, humans and werewolves were the last to remain in Mysteria. After the Midnight Coven used spells to hide as many children from different species as possible in the trees of the forest, a few managed to escape through the portal and lived out their days on earth, while the other two witches, Lou and Prunella, remained in Mysteria in hopes of finding more children to save before their demise at the hands of humans.
Werewolf King, Alpha Dominic, and King Asher agreed to an indefinite truce. The humans knew the werewolves were much stronger in strength and number. They agreed to keep to themselves and avoid each other’s territory. The land was surveyed and reallotted to both rulers, precisely and identically halved. A large forest between the two halves became a no-man’s-land that neither party could lay claim to.
King Asher ruled West Wallow, and Alpha Dominic ruled Moon Crest Valley.
Over the years, knowledge of this great war and the existence of other supernatural creatures dissolved into fairy tales for children.
The last witches had cast a spell that the Moon Goddess would free Maia into the world again at the perfect time where she would find her one true love and retake what was rightfully hers. The spell also turned me into a fox to stay by Maia’s side as her friend and help guide her over the years.
The rest of the children and myself would remain spellbound until Queen Maia and Alpha King Damon broke it by ending the last war and bringing peace between the humans and the werewolves,’ Ember says and smiles at me.
