I walked down the gravel-filled street, thinking of all the things I could learn from my father’s teachings, when all of the sudden a man in a cloak materialized in front of my ever looking eyes. I flinched as he appeared at the West while the sun was setting. He looked at me with his burning bright green eyes, and his raspy sharp breath caught me off guard; “They’re dead, they’re all dead.” I was surprised to see him disappear under his cloak and be replaced by a rabbit, which looked at me with helpless eyes, as if telling me to free it. Then it hopped away in panic. I continued walking when something caught my eye: where the rabbit had hopped away a bright red flash filled both the sky, and every building in sight. I was startled, but still was curious. I walked into the light. Right when I got the first glimpse of what was there, it vanished, swallowing up the two people I had seen. I looked around hoping that someone else saw them and could explain things to me, but all I saw was a couple of saguaro blossoming in the humid summer air. I walked over to the hotel, I knew the manager there, Sognolien, and maybe he could tell me if he saw something or not. I walked in, feeling lonely as I saw a whole lot of nobody. It was as if where I lived was a ghost town, nobody was here except for the two people I saw before, and the hooded figure that had said something to me. I was really confused now, until I remembered what the man had said: “they’re dead, they’re all dead.” I started getting scared and ran. I ran until my feet were aching and the town was out of site. Even then I ran until I was physically incapable. For what reason I ran, I knew not. I stopped to take a breath, and immediately spotted a wolf just standing there. The wolf looked at me and promptly got shot by an arrow that came from no where, and no one. It fell to the ground, not moving, not breathing. I fell to the ground on the wolf’s side and wept, for some strange reason I cried, I felt a huge gap in my heart where the wolf used to be. Then a black doe and normal fox came to my side, looked at the wolf and wept along side me. I felt comfort, but still didn’t feel all that much better. I looked up to see the same cloaked figure come to me, I looked around for the fox and doe but to no avail. He came closer, and I felt as if he was the one who killed the wolf, my only friend. I felt like running at him and beating him to death! But I decided not to as I knew that he was ten times stronger than I. I looked at him. We were face to face and I smelled the stench of rotting acorns. He looked at me from under his hood as I could not see his eyes or face, but I knew. He made one last glare from under his hood and departed by turning into that same helpless rabbit I saw before. I looked at that rabbit leave and felt pity as I didn’t know what made it so miserable. Then I had a sudden urge to go look at the cloak the rabbit had left behind. I did so and found a book; I looked into it but found only blank pages. I closed it, discouraged, but then opened it again and found writing. It was writing in a language I had never seen before. I looked at the first few letters trying to understand the strange writing:

Vantiebelan Aamyst vent.

I had no clue what any of that meant.
I put it in my backpack that I didn’t know I had, and kept on walking. I thought about what I had read. The only thing that made sense was the word “Aamyst”, because that’s my name. So it had to have something to do with me, and I had a sick feeling that it wasn’t a good something. I tried to think if I knew any language with that kind of writing, but couldn’t think of any. I walked and walked, and never got tired. I kept on walking, seeing snakes, lizards, and other creatures I didn’t recognize. Then one of the snakes started charging me; I ducked as it turned into a giant bird and flew over my head. It turned around for another attack, only this time it turned into a hallunest. This hallunest was light blue, which is a controlled righteous hallunest. But Before it charged me it gave me a look of complete sorrow and dismay, then rammed me in the gut. It’s horns both went to either side of me and I wasn’t hurt, even when I fell to the ground because of the impact, I didn’t feel a thing! We both got up. I looked at the hallunest and saw the hooded creature engulf it under its cloak. The hooded thing looked at me one last time, then, turned into that same helpless, hopeless rabbit. The rabbit looked at me with it’s huge shiny green eyes, then hopped away, and disappeared.
I felt drowsy and exhausted by what had happened today. I fell to the ground, but didn’t feel the impact. I heard my name being called, it was a familiar voice.
I heard it get louder, and louder, as if I were in a different world from the person calling me. Then, I woke up to someone shaking me and yelling.

“Aamyst, Aamyst, wake up it’s time to party! WAKE UP!” I sat up with a violent jolt as Backleon tugged the covers off my bed completely-usually he just pulls them off my body.
“What? What, why are we partying?” I asked, not fully awake. Backleon looked dumbfounded.
“Because it’s your birthday, stupid. What else would you like to know, how old you are? Well you’re eighteen!” I thought about that question;
“Oh yeah. I can’t think, I’m too tired.” he laughed as he helped me not fall off the bed.
“C’mon! there’s presents and everything in the living room!” he ran out the door as I got dressed. Even to this day I can’t believe Backleon still acts like he does even though he’s twenty.
We have a small, yet humble, four-room house, with a kitchen, and one privy behind the house. Vensch and Backleon don’t actually live in the house, but they just came over because it was my birthday. Vensch, the oldest, lives in one room, Backleon, who really is in the middle of the family, lives in another room, my parents (Mr. & Mrs. Vilton) in one, and me, the youngest, in the smallest room. ‘Course I don’t mind, since being the youngest usually means you’re the smallest, which would be the case here.
One of the biggest ways we used to get money was we used to breed hallunests. But one day our house got robbed, and the robbers took the hallunests and all their eggs along with about thirty-three gold pieces. (a gold is worth ten silver, and one silver is worth ten copper.) (Hallunests are worth ten gold. At least that’s what we sold them for, and people didn’t mind.) Seeing a baby hallunest was one of the best experiences of my life! Seeing that little ball of fluff, and cradling it in my arms. When hallunests are born, they don’t have any color yet, (and that doesn’t mean that they’re invisible or white) that may seem impossible, but for a magical creature that’s a breeze. Then it just depends on if the hallunest wants to be evil, righteous, in between, or not any of those. So after we got robbed, dad has to be working almost twenty-four-seven to pay for the family. (he works at a hotel.) So that’s why we don’t have dad around much. So we’re really happy at birthdays even more than before, because it’s one of the only days dad stays home the whole day.
I got dressed and went down to the kitchen. Once I got down there, my family cheered, and my mom, and dad hugged me. Then they all sang Happy Birthday. Once they were threw, my mom brought in my favorite dish, goglons. I was hungry for some reason, I didn’t know why, I had eaten a good dinner just last night. We sat at the small, four-person table, and my family waited for me to take the first bite. Usually dad would, but right now, I was special. I took it, and hummed silently as I savored the taste. After it was in my mouth, my family started eating as well. After I swallowed to talk. everyone had already started talking to each other. Mom and dad talked to Vensch about her life, and how she was doing in her job-she was a trainer in the art of healing, while Backleon and I talked about my dream.
“Hey, when I woke you up, you looked like you were having another one of your visions. You were like, wiggling really weird, and talking. You never talk unless you’re having nightvisions. What was it about?”
“Well, it started out with me going down a street…” and I told him of everything I could remember of my dream. By the end, the whole table was listening to my story. I finished, and it was dead silent. As if we were at a funeral. Then my dad spoke:
“Well, I can tell you what some of it means. The word “vantiebel” means kill(ed), or death in the Elvin language. Which means that it has something to do with death, and you Aamyst. I don’t know what the ‘an’ at the end of it means, it’s probably just some conjugation of the elvin language that I’m not familiar with.” He looked at me with his hard, dark-brown eyes. I looked down, pondering the possible outcomes of what that note read. It scared me, but I had to except it.
“So do you have any guess of who the wolf might be, or the doe or fox for that matter?” I asked.
“Well, no, not really. Except for the doe.” He said as he helped the family clean up. (I got to just stay sitting since it was my birthday.) “The doe probably means Vensch because, as you know, she can turn into a doe because she went to that gigdallion when she was twenty. She chose to have it on her head, most people don’t survive it going into their head, they usually have head injury, or go crazy but no, Vensch is strong and she held through.
“Those things could give you their power from two, to ten years. She’s also lucky she has them now ‘cause she’s only twenty-three. So now that Backleon is twenty, he went to the gigdallion already, so it should take a while now.
Vensch chose a red gem, so she changes into a red doe. So naturally there’s a downside, she sticks out a mile. But it’s good no one can see the gem while in human form because of her hair. Except when she uses one of her powers, then the gem glows and it’s really easy to see. I started thinking; if she was the doe, then it would make sense that Backleon would have to be either the fox, or the wolf. And I hated to think that he was the wolf. But who was the fox? I thought.
Everyone got done cleaning, so we all went into the living room. I sat in the birthday chair to open presents: Vensch came to me first with a gift.