Origin of a Hero

by Tracey West

  “I didn’t do anything!” Adora protested. “All I did was pick up the sword, and then … whoosh! I’m in a tiara!”

  “I don’t care how she did it,” Glimmer said. “We just have to make sure she NEVER DOES IT AGAIN!”

  Glimmer gave the sword another tug. Then …

  Aaaaiiiiieeeeeee!

  No longer calm, the giant robot bug stomped toward them.

  “We have to go!” Glimmer shouted.

  They ran through the forest, chased by the bug. They crashed through the underbrush and finally stumbled down a slope that deposited them into a wide clearing. For now, at least, they had lost the monster.

  Adora brushed leaves off her uniform and looked around. There were symbols carved into the forest floor, leading to the huge door of an ancient building.

  “What is this place?” Adora asked. The symbols on the door looked strangely familiar.

  Suddenly, the creature tore down the slope toward them.

  “No idea!” Bow said. He pointed to the door. “But in there’s got to be better than out here!”

  They tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Everyone grab on. I can get us in there!” Glimmer said.

  “Glimmer, no!” Bow cried. “You’ve never teleported three people before!”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Glimmer asked.

  Adora did.

  “This writing on the door looks like some kind of password,” she said.

  “You can read that?” Bow asked quickly. The robot was getting dangerously close.

  Adora nodded. “You can’t?”

  “What’s it say?” Bow asked.

  Impossibly, the symbols’ meaning popped into her head. “Eternia.”

  The ground beneath them rumbled. The door shuddered and then dissolved, revealing a dark passage behind it.

  Adora sprinted inside, and Bow and Glimmer followed. The door appeared again, right in the giant bug’s face.

  Thud! The bug hit the outside of the door. Then there was silence.

  All three of them collapsed to the ground, breathing hard. In the darkness, Adora’s mind was reeling. Had she ever seen writing like that before? How could she read it?

  Glimmer created a sparkle orb that added some dim light to the darkness.

  Bow looked at Adora. “So, Horde soldier. Have you always been able to read First Ones writing?”

  “Want to tell us exactly what’s going on here?” Glimmer added.

  Adora was just as confused as they were. “I told you, I don’t know. I just read the word on the door.”

  “Right, you just read a word in a language that no one’s spoken for a thousand years, and the door just opened into a mysterious ruin,” Glimmer said with a sarcastic laugh. “Sure.”

  Adora jumped to her feet. “You think I did this on purpose? You think I wanted to be a princess? Princesses are monsters!”

  Glimmer got up and into Adora’s face. “Monsters? You’re the monster!”

  Bow pushed them apart. “Whoa, Glimmer, she did save us!”

  “I don’t care!” Glimmer shot back. “We can’t trust her, Bow! Or have you forgotten everything the Horde’s done to us? The people we’ve lost?”

  She choked on the last word and turned away, and Adora realized she was holding back tears again.

  Her emotions are real, Adora thought. She’s not lying. The Horde must have done some terrible things. But it’s still so hard to believe …

  Glimmer turned to Bow.

  “We need to find another way out of here and get her back to Bright Moon as soon as possible,” she said. “My mother will know what to do with her.”

  Bow gave Adora an apologetic shrug as Glimmer marched ahead of them.

  Adora knew she could break away from Bow and run away. But where would I go? she wondered. If I go back outside, I’ll be fighting that creature by myself, with no weapon. I need to get that sword back.

  “Hey, so, thanks for saving us from that bug thing back there when you could have escaped instead,” Bow said.

  “Okay, well, I didn’t save you,” Adora replied. “I just wanted to get the sword, okay?”

  “Are you sure it’s not because you secretly like us?” Bow asked.

  “Wh—I don’t like you!” Adora protested. “You’re my captors!”

  “Sure,” Bow said, with a grin. “Thanks for saving us, anyway. I’m Bow, by the way.”

  Adora started to smile back but stopped herself. “Adora,” she said gruffly.

  They caught up to Glimmer. She was holding up the sword and muttering to herself, standing in front of a stone with more carvings on it.

  She’s trying to see if it will work for her, Adora realized. But somehow … I can feel it … the sword will only respond to me.

  “Look at those carvings,” Glimmer said when Adora and Bow approached. “I think this might be a First Ones ruin.”

  “What’s a First One?” Adora finally asked.

  Glimmer raised her eyebrows. “You’ve never heard of the First Ones?”

  Adora shrugged.

  “The First Ones are the original settlers of Etheria,” Bow explained. “They disappeared a thousand years ago, but they left behind a lot of old ruins and technology. Like this place.”

  “So what happened to them?” Adora asked.

  “No one knows,” Bow replied. “They just … disappeared. The Horde didn’t tell you about them?”

  Adora frowned. “Seems like there’s a lot the Horde didn’t tell me.”

  “So how do we get out of here?” Glimmer asked impatiently.

  Bow gazed around at the maze of dark hallways around them. “Wanna turn on some lights, Adora?”

  “I don’t know how to do that,” she replied.

  “Maybe there’s a magic word!” Bow suggested. “What is the First Ones’ word for ‘lights’?”

  Adora threw up her hands. Who did these people think she was? “I don’t know! I’m not magic!”

  “Obviously,” Glimmer said. “Everyone stand back.”

  Glimmer began to form a sparkly orb between her palms.

  “Uh, Glimmer, maybe you should take it easy?” Bow said. “We’re a long way from Bright Moon. It’ll be a while until you can recharge.”

  “Bow!” Glimmer said, scowling.

  “You have to recharge your powers?” Adora asked. Glimmer couldn’t be that powerful or dangerous if that was the case.

  “Can we NOT talk about this in front of the Horde soldier?” Glimmer snapped at Bow. “Now, stand back!”

  Glimmer took a deep breath. She made a straining sound as she used all of her effort to light up the chamber.

  Immediately, Adora’s eye was drawn to a huge figure in the middle of the room—a statue of the warrior woman with flowing hair, holding a sword just like one she had found.

  “Oh, hey! That’s you!” Bow said, pointing to the statue.

  “What?” Adora asked. “That doesn’t look anything like me.”

  “No, I mean the other you,” Bow said. “The scary one in the cape.”

  Adora reached out and touched the inscription on the base of the statue. “That was … me?”

  “You can read that inscription, right?” Bow asked. “What does it say?”

  Adora looked at the inscription. “It says … She-Ra.”

  As she spoke, the inscription blazed with light.

  The light spread from the inscription through the base of the statue, then spread out across the floor of the chamber and up the walls. A ghostly image of a woman in a long gown began to appear in front of them. It flickered weakly.

  “What is that thing?” Adora whispered.

  “Greetings, administrator,” the figure said in a robotic voice. “What is your query?”

  Bow and Glimmer ducked behind Adora.

  “I think it’s some kind of ancient hologram,” Bow guessed in a whisper.

  “What is your query?” the hologram repeated.

  Bow spoke
up. “Uh, hi. What is this place?”

  The hologram didn’t respond. Adora considered speaking up, but her thoughts were still reeling with everything she had learned. Princesses might not be evil. First Ones disappeared a thousand years ago. Somehow I turn into a princess named She-Ra?

  Bow tried talking to the hologram again. “How do we get out of here?”

  The hologram flickered. “What is your query?”

  Bow sighed.

  The hologram flickered again. “Administrator not detected,” it said.

  Uh-oh, Adora thought. This can’t be good …

  The bright lights filling the chamber suddenly changed, becoming an eerie purple.

  Creeeeeeeeak!

  The sound came from somewhere deep in the ground. The whole room began to shake.

  “Lockdown initiated,” the hologram said.

  “No! No lockdown!” Bow yelled.

  The room around them began to change. The panels of the walls shifted and slid. The ground beneath their feet began to lower.

  Panicked, Adora glanced at the door they had come through. Now a panel of the wall covered it. There was no way out!

  “Adora, you gotta get it to stop!” Bow cried.

  “What makes you think I can?!” Adora asked.

  “Query not recognized,” the hologram repeated.

  “There’s got to be a password or something!” Bow said as the walls around them continued to move, groaning loudly. “You can read their writing!”

  A sudden jolt of the floor tested their balance. A spray of sparks flew from one of the wall panels, along with a sickening groan of gears.

  “Stop it!” Adora yelled. “Uh … Eternia! Eternia!”

  But the password she used before didn’t work. Desperate, she turned to Glimmer.

  “Give me the sword!” she demanded.

  “What? No!” Glimmer held the sword closer to her.

  “We need the scary lady in the cape!” Adora said. “I don’t know how, but she’s the key to this place. So maybe she can get us out!”

  “You’re a Horde soldier! I’m not giving you the sword!” Glimmer said.

  Crash! A wall panel fell just feet away from them. The hologram flickered and disappeared. Adora shouted out every possible password she could think of.

  “Uh, Eternia! Cape! She-Ra!”

  A grinding sound came from above, and a portion of the ceiling groaned and started to plummet toward them. The three of them huddled in fear, bracing for the impact.

  “Hold on!” Glimmer yelled.

  “Glimmer, no!” Bow cried.

  Glimmer, Bow, and Adora exploded in sparkling pink light and vanished just as a chunk of the ceiling fell. They appeared outside—high above the Whispering Woods!

  Adora and Bow screamed as they plummeted to the ground.

  “Glimmer!” Bow yelled.

  Adora glanced over and saw that Glimmer’s eyes were closed. As they fell, Bow took an arrow from his quiver and shot it straight down. The arrow unfurled into a gossamer net that lashed onto the trees, forming a makeshift safety net.

  Whomp! They crashed through the branches and landed in the net.

  Adora bounced a few times. When the net had settled, she crawled over to Bow. He was kneeling over the princess, a look of concern on his face.

  Adora nodded. Together, they carried Glimmer out of the net and rested her body on the forest floor. They waited, anxiously, for a long time.

  I hope she’s okay, Adora thought, and then a moment later, What’s happening to me? I’m worried about a princess?!

  At one point, Bow went off to find some water and Adora realized she was alone with the sleeping princess. This was her chance—she could run, go back to the Horde, and report everything she’d seen and learned. But she had so many questions …

  Finally, Glimmer’s eyes fluttered open.

  “Glimmer!” Bow cried.

  “Did the teleporting work?” Glimmer asked, her voice weak.

  “Yeah, it worked. Barely. Are you all right?” Bow asked.

  “I’m fine,” Glimmer replied. She tried to sit up, but then she winced in pain. “Ugh. I think I used too much power getting us out of there.”

  “I don’t know who could’ve predicted that,” Bow teased. “Me. Like, an hour ago.”

  Adora smiled to herself. Their teasing reminded her of her friendship with Catra.

  But Glimmer wasn’t amused. “Bow!”

  “Sorry! I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said. “No more teleporting for a while, okay? You could really hurt yourself.”

  “I’m fine, okay?” Glimmer said. “Let’s just get back to Bright Moon so I can recharge already.”

  Then she noticed Adora. “Why are you still here? You could’ve escaped at any time.”

  Adora hesitated. She didn’t owe this princess an answer. It wasn’t like she was chatting with Catra, sharing her feelings with a friend. And yet, something told Adora that Glimmer was actually interested. That she cared.

  “I just … I want to figure out what’s happening to me,” Adora said. “And if I go back to the Fright Zone, I’ll never know.”

  She looked away from them. “I never knew where I came from—who my family was. Shadow Weaver says it doesn’t matter who I was before—that I was nothing before Hordak took me in. There’s always been a part of me that I just don’t know anything about. And all of this—it feels familiar, somehow. I don’t know how else to explain it.” Adora stopped. Had she ever shared something that important with someone other than Catra? It felt weird, but also maybe … good?

  Bow’s face lit up. “Glimmer’s mom knows more about First Ones tech than anyone,” he said. “She’ll know what’s going on with you and the sword for sure. So if you want your questions answered, stick with us.”

  He looked to Glimmer for approval. She took the sword and used it to prop herself up.

  “Let’s go,” she said. “There should be a village a few miles from here. They’ll be able to give us a ride back to Bright Moon.”

  Glimmer slowly limped down the path. Bow smiled hopefully at Adora.

  Adora looked behind her. She could go back to the Horde. Become a force captain, like she’d always wanted. Convince Shadow Weaver to let Catra be on her team.

  She looked ahead at Glimmer. Or, she could go with a princess, the enemy of the Horde, and try to find out what the sword meant. Who this She-Ra was. And her place in it all.

  It would be an easy decision if it weren’t for one thing, or rather, one person: Catra. How could Adora leave her behind? But a few days ago, when Adora had shared with Catra that she wanted to find out more about Etheria and herself, Catra had understood, right?

  From down the path, the sword glinted in Glimmer’s hand, and Adora felt a pull from it.

  She jogged up to Bow and Glimmer.

  “I’m coming with you,” she said.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next She-Ra adventure, Island of Magical Creatures!

  “Swift Wind, circle back!” She-Ra yelled.

  “Why are we going back?” the flying horse asked. “There’s nothing there!”

  “I thought I spotted something moving,” She-Ra replied. The princess clung to his orange mane with one hand and held her sword in the other. Her long, blonde hair streamed behind her.

  Swift Wind snorted and then quickly changed course, his rainbow-colored wings pushing against the air currents. Then he soared across the Whispering Woods, the thick forest surrounding the kingdom of Bright Moon.

  She-Ra scanned the trees, searching for signs of a Horde robot. Just a few days ago, the Horde had attacked Bright Moon and had almost won. But the princesses of Etheria had banded together and defeated the Horde army. The army had retreated, but some of the Horde robots were still roaming the woods.

  “Down there!” She-Ra cried. “Can we get closer?”

  “Does a duck quack?” Swift Wind asked, and he dove down toward the treetops.

  “I don’t know,
does it?” She-Ra asked. “A duck is a furry—no, it’s a bird, right? The kind that swims on ponds? Is quacking like swimming?”

  Swift Wind snorted. “Didn’t they teach you anything in the Fright Zone?”

  She-Ra wanted to point out that it wasn’t her fault that there were no cute animals in the Fright Zone and that she was doing her best to learn about them. But there was no time for that. Now she could clearly see the robot they’d been pursuing.

  Horde robots had always reminded her of giant, four-legged spiders. The robot’s brain and weapons center was a metal globe perched on top of the legs. This one crashed through the underbrush, the red eye on the globe moving back and forth, searching for humans.

  “We need to get closer,” She-Ra said.

  “I’ve got to stay above the trees,” Swift Wind countered.

  “Why?” She-Ra asked.

  “I need room to flap my wings,” he reminded her. “That helps with the whole flying thing.”

  “Fine, we’ll flush it out,” She-Ra said.

  She aimed her sword at the bot. Blue energy shot down and zapped it. Its eye swirled up and saw She-Ra.

  “Fly ahead, to the clearing!” She-Ra instructed Swift Wind.

  The horse obeyed, speeding over the woods, and the robot followed in pursuit below. They reached the clearing at roughly the same time, and the bot began barraging She-Ra and Swift Wind with red laser blasts.

  “Hey, watch the tail!” Swift Wind complained, flying up to dodge the blast. “She-Ra, can you do something about this guy?”

  She-Ra aimed her sword at the robot again, and this time she had a clear shot. She aimed right for the robot’s prime target: its laser eye.

  Zap! The blue blast from her sword hit its mark, sending sparks shooting from the robot. One of its legs collapsed.

  “Finish it!” Swift Wind cried, swooping down over the robot. She-Ra reached down and sank her sword into the top of the dome. As she pulled it out, more sparks flew.

  “Nice!” the horse said.

  Sparking and smoking, the Horde robot collapsed. The laser eye dimmed and went out.

  “Yes!” She-Ra cheered.

  Swift Wind gracefully landed in the clearing, and She-Ra climbed off his back. She transformed into Adora, her usual form. While She-Ra was an eight-foot-tall legendary princess with superhuman powers and epic hair, Adora was an average-sized young woman with sharpened battle skills and hair pulled back in a sensible ponytail.