Discovery
The Forest of
EMMITAENU
* * *
Antonia L. Arcella
Text Copyright © 1999 by Antonia L. Arcella
Cover illustration © Illiyana Omareva
EMMITAENU, characters, names and related indicia and publishing rights are © Antonia L. Arcella
All rights reserved. Emmitaenu and all associated logos are trademarks of Antonia L. Arcella. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the authors consent.
First Lulu printing, 2010.
ISBN 978-1-4457-6669-0
www.EMMITAENU.com
Kindle Book Design and Layout by
www.integrativeink.com
Dedicated to all the authors whose novels and series have had an impact on my life and how I write, thank you!
To my mother for being so supportive and my family and friends who’ve been there through thick and thin, I truly appreciate it.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
PROLOGUE
The round plastic clock on the wall had ticked its way to three twenty. Ten minutes to go before the final bell rang. That’s when all the students would race out of the room, dash to their lockers to stow away all their books (out of sight, out of mind) and push their way to the waiting buses.
A note slid across a table in the third row on the left side of the classroom. Lara Eliza Liam, a pretty sophomore girl with medium length red hair and bright green eyes, discretely concealed it under her hand. The French teacher went on lecturing from the front of the room completely unaware. Peeking under her palm, Lara could read the letters TGIF scrawled across the paper in classmate and best friend Eli Roger Williams’ chicken scratch. He had decorated the acronym with a rudimentary smiley face. Lara bent her head over the scrap paper to write back.
Thank goodness, she scribbled neatly. I have the house to myself this weekend, its mom and dad’s anniversary and they’re flying to Fort Lauderdale for three days. She pushed it across the desk to him with her eyes innocently locked on the chalk board where Madam Francis preached first year French to them. Lara had already done the assignment that was being given to them as weekend homework. Eli read the paper and watched their teacher for an opening to write back without getting caught.
When the note came sliding back into Lara’s possession, Eli had written a silent suggestion that she throw a house party. He even offered to help set up. Lara didn’t write back since the bell rang at just that moment and everyone was on their feet before she could completely crumble the paper in her hands.
Together Lara and Eli left the classroom, half shoved out the door by eager students behind them trying to escape. Lara pitched the crumpled note in the trash bin by the water fountain in the hallway. “No,” she told Eli at last.
“Lara, are you sure? You know most kids are just dying for opportunities like that.”
“Which is probably why they never happen to most kids. My parents trust me Eli, because they know I wouldn’t blow it doing something ridiculous like that.” She rolled her eyes at the idea.
Lara and Eli navigated their way through the halls to their lockers. The frenzy of underclassmen racing around like a flock of panicked geese gave away their status in the high school hierarchy. Every freshman and sophomore was rushing around trying not to miss their buses.
Lara and Eli would behave the same way if it wasn’t for Christopher Raven-Cooper who always offered them a ride home with minimal teasing at their expense, which would only last until next year when they would be driving their own cars. Chris dropped Lara off first since she lived the closest to Darby Dale High, the home of the Dolphins. A cab was waiting in front of her driveway and Lara tripped over one of her parent’s suitcases at the front door.
“Oh good! You’re home,” her father David commented as he walked down the stairs with another suitcase, this one smaller than the one she’d fallen over. “Lara sweetie there is a list of emergency contact numbers on the fridge, okay? And you have our cell numbers if you need to reach us.” He kissed her forehead and continued past her out the front door to put their luggage in the cab. Triauve, her mother strutted gracefully through the living room into the foyer.
“Lara princess, we have to go or we’ll miss our flight. If you need anything just call. Phones were invented for a reason,” she said as she beamed a smile at Lara. A kiss on the cheek, a hug, and one I love you later; Lara was left in the house by herself.
She hadn’t budged a single step from the entry since the moment her father picked up the toppled suitcase and scooted past her out the front door with her mother close behind. I hope they catch their flight, Lara worried after them. Slinging her empty backpack over one shoulder, she started up the stairs to the second floor of the house.
On the landing Lara had the option of two doors to the right, one to the left, and one more situated above the first floor entryway. No sense in her going there, unless she wanted to wash her backpack, so Lara walked through the first door on the right which led to her bedroom. She dropped her backpack beneath the wall shelves that held her framed photos. On the top was an old collage capturing years of friendship between her, Eli, and Chris. One shelf down had a pretty silver metal frame featuring her favorite close up of her parents from their wedding.
Against the wall at the far end of her room, wedged in the corner by the foot of her bed was her computer desk. The screen glowed as the screensaver of dancing shapes changed colors and spiraled across the monitor. She wasn’t in the mood to play games on her desktop so instead she left her room and went back downstairs.
From the stairwell to the living room, Lara sifted through their collection of DVDs sorted on racks inside the entertainment center. When she had rifled through the entire collection and none of the movies had appealed to her, Lara sat back on her heels and pursed her thin pouty lips together. It was barely four o’clock. She needed something to pass the time.
Remembering her father’s VHS collection, she knew she would find some of her favorite classics and they would keep her entertained. Maybe she’d even find a copy of Monte Python! Bouncing to her feet, she cut a ‘U’ shape walking through the dining room and kitchen to get to the garage. If she could find the right box in there she could find her favorite VHS tapes.
The garage was not an organized area. It could shelter one and a half cars, but since they didn’t really expect to store an extra half-car in the garage, the rest of the space was free storage. There were shelves all along the back wall to organize everything, but things had gotten so out of hand that they didn’t even put the car
in here anymore.
Boxes were stacked from front to back in no particular order. The shelves held random tools and supplies. A box of light bulbs sat next to a wrench, and next to that was a fishing box. Leaning in the corner was the fishing rod, sharing space with a push broom and a weed whacker.
With nothing but time on her hands, Lara got to work searching through the rubble to find the object of her desire. It became four-thirty before she maneuvered her way back toward the shelves where she’d started. Giving a longing glance toward the kitchen door, and then an equally longing glance toward the unlabeled mass of forgotten possessions, Lara resolved to give it one more shot. Climbing on top of a mountain of stacked boxes, she reached for the top shelves along the back wall. If she could get her hand on just one tape it would all be worth it.
Leaning precariously into the shelves, Lara balanced the best she could on the uneven boxes. Her hands scanned the top shelves where her eyes couldn’t see. When she bumped something with her wrist that was overhanging the edge, it fell off the shelf hitting her hard on the shoulder.
“Ow!” Lara shouted and reflexively yanked her arm back which made her teeter off balance. She started to pinwheel her arms in large circles and less than a blink later she was twisting in the air. She didn’t have time to adjust feet first before she was hurtling right for the hard concrete floor with nothing to break her fall!
CHAPTER 1
“The spirits, apparitions, ghosts, whatever you want to call them, they’re so very lofty. They know everything but it’s like catching unicorns to get them to tell a teardrop’s worth,” whispered the gypsy. She had been the first person to find Lara and had been rambling nonsense ever since.
The last thing Lara remembered, she was searching through her garage before taking a nasty dive off a shaky stack of boxes. Now, she was wandering around an unknown tropic jungle, led by a rambling elderly gypsy woman. Lara would think it was all a dream, but the scrapes on her knees from the fall were real and painful. Looking down again, Lara re-registered for the hundredth time the torn holes in her jeans at the knees.
“I knew the moment I saw you, and gypsies, darling can sense these things,” the woman continued, “you are something else! You are too pretty to be a witch, you’re certainly no fairy-you’re far too big, and angels glow…you don’t my dear, at least not in the angelic sense.” She began absentmindedly tacking off the possibilities on her fingers. “You’re two legs short of being a centaur, genies wither into smoke, immortal women don’t wear trousers, wouldn’t even consider a mermaid out of water, no vampire fangs when you speak, werewolves are hairy, and let’s face it,” she said as she turned pinning Lara with a serious stare. “Gnomes…are just plain ugly.”
Lara was tempted to smile, but she was feeling lost and confused and growing more irritated with each step onward. “Please tell me, ah-Ms. Gypsy, what it is you’re trying to say.” Lara hardly felt like encouraging the woman, especially considering she seemed more and more batty by the moment, but she didn’t know what else to say.
She was only fifteen years old, stuck with a woman who looked to be in her mid-forties with long black hair streaked grey throughout, wearing a blouse tucked into a long and wide airy black cotton skirt and enough silver necklaces to open her own accessory store in the mall. They were lost in the jungle and all they had was each other. The gypsy looked taken back.
“Dear me, I should have introduced myself. I am called Jade. It’s obvious to me what you are, though any more very few would believe me.” Jade glanced around before continuing in a low voice, “Lara… you are a mortal.”
“Yes. I knew that,” Lara said with reinforced calm. “What else would I be?” She was feeling fidgety on the inside, uncertainty eating away at her. She didn’t like being lost with an insane person. It was starting to really scare her and she was getting tired of the nonsense. The gypsy started to dance a jig in the middle of the dirt and pebble path. At this point, Lara just rolled her eyes and walked on alone.
When Jade noticed Lara had already left, she scampered to catch up. Sighing, Lara whirled to face the elder woman. “Listen lady, I don’t mean to be rude, but if you really want to help me then tell me something useful. Forget about where the unicorns live or when gargoyles do their kidnapping and just tell me how to get back home. Otherwise,” Lara huffed, “you’re no help at all.” She crossed her arms below her chest and waited impatiently for a serious response.
Instead of answering Jade just skipped ahead and waved Lara on saying she knew someone who could help. Lara threw back her head in resignation and followed.
For the most part, they never deviated from the path except in the beginning when they came to a fork leading in two separate directions. After Jade finally decided which side they wanted to be on, it was a one way road from there. The path wasn’t paved. It was more of a dirt trail that weaved through and around the forest like a corkscrew with no beginning, middle, or end.
They had walked for nearly an hour when they came upon a tiny hut along the wayside. Lara’s first impression of the hut was in comparison to a pioneer’s cabin in the first American era. It was a wonder to her that something like that was still around, unscathed by modern industrialization.
It had the feel of a log cabin with a simple but sturdy roof supported by beams thick as tree trunks. The side they were facing when they approached the dwelling didn’t feature any windows, but in the very center of the flat faced wall was a heavy wooden door which looked as thick as a drawbridge in the Middle Ages. Effectively it was one intimidating, heavy duty, how-in-the-world-to-push-it-open kind of front door.
Lara stood a few paces behind Jade as she mused under her breath. Jade shushed Lara’s mumbling so she could hum a mellow little tune in front of the front door. Lara didn’t understand at first why the gypsy was singing to the hut, but then again there wasn’t much that Lara did understand when it came to insane Jade. Nothing all afternoon had made any sense at all. Though on the optimistic side of things, this was a man-made dwelling and that meant they were getting closer to civilization after all. So, at least the gypsy had been right about one thing.
With renewed patience and trust in Jade, Lara quietly stared ahead, waiting for the door to be heaved ajar to let them in. Next thing Lara saw, to her utter shock and disbelief, was a man coming through the wall…like a ghost! He was tall with sandy blonde hair and a complexion as pale as the moon. Lara’s eyes grew wide as she watched him walk up to Jade, who was completely unperturbed, and hug her familiarly. Her mind reeled out of control, and unable to understand what she had just seen; she fainted.
CHAPTER 2
Lara awoke indoors. As she sat up to inspect her surroundings she noticed the beautiful hand woven rug beneath her on the floor. It was round and intricate, infused with tiny little details that she could only see when she took a closer look. In the weaving she thought she could make out tiny unicorns patterned in sandy beige on top of a midnight blue ring, which was caught between two violet rings broken by ruby red spirals.
Directly in front of her was a heavy wooden door, what looked to be the other side of the front door she’d been staring at from the outside of the hut. Shuffling around so that the sturdy door was to her back, she looked over the rest of the room. There was only one window, on the wall to the left facing inward. Directly across from the front door was another door. This one looked to be half as thick if even that much. There wasn’t any furniture.
Slowly Lara started to remember her afternoon from the time that she fell in the garage to the moment she fainted outside. Lara had to give Jade more credit, when she thought about the shocking vision of a man coming through a wall; perhaps the old gypsy had been right about more than one thing after all.
On the heels of Lara’s latest revelation, she looked up to see the same man walking toward her from the direction she faced. Instinctively she stiffened, but was inexplicably relaxed just by watching the door he’d entered from swinging back into place after he
had walked through it the normal way.
He was carrying a smoothly sanded wooden mug containing water. He kneeled down next to her and offered her the drink. Peering up at him Lara noticed how youthful and handsome he looked. How had I missed that before? She wondered. If she hadn’t fainted as soon as she saw him the first time, she would have noticed his face was smooth and unburdened by a beard or mustache.
When she looked into his eyes she saw that they were different, instead of one color they were many, with every shade of the rainbow whirling and melding together in a collage of lively colors. He was still holding the mug out to her and she felt rude for staring. A blush started to work its way across her face and she tried to hide it by reaching up and French braiding her hair into a single plait, blocking her face from view with her elbows.
He sat the mug next to her, easily within her reach, and took a seat on the rug just behind her back. It was a curious thing to do, and Lara was confused, but only momentarily until he gently removed her fingers from her own hair and picked up the braid where she left off. Lara occupied her now vacant hands with picking up the mug.
“Hello, I am called Zeftx,” he introduced himself in a gentle voice over her shoulder. “Jade tells me you are a mortal. Is it true? I had rather mistaken you for an Immortal Princess at first glance,” he questioned and confided in the same breath. His voice was light and relaxing like a lullaby. Lara turned to face him once the braid was finished and admitted as much was true. The look of awe on his face mirrored the one Jade had given her and she found it very perplexing. Taking a deep breath, Lara realized she had some questions she wanted answered too.
Discovery the Forest of Emmitaenu Page 1