Chapter 3

     

I walked after Andrea, finding her standing in the doorway. She was frozen in her place, and I looked into the room. Inside was a band of thieves! I moved Andrea out of the way and walked inside. "Aria!" She hissed. I scowled and walked toward the bandits. They saw me, and their leader came forward. "Leave." I said. "Hi girlie. How are you going to make us leave?"

I realized right then that we had been outnumbered. The leader, marked with a crescent moon on his cheek, walked closer. "Stay right there!" I commanded. He just laughed. I said something that I'd never heard before, and the man looked at me, surprised. He was frozen in place, the soles of his boots seemingly glued to the floor with a strange white glow.

"Let's get out of here!" The other bandits said. The leader struggled free and looked at me darkly. "We will meet again, child. And next time, you may not be so lucky." Then he jumped out the window of our one-story house and ran after his followers. I went over to the window. "My name's Aria! You big jerk!" Andrea looked at me in amazement. "How did you do that?" She demanded. "I don't know." She nodded, unsure if my answer was false. "As I said before, Andrea, it's your turn to make breakfast." We walked to the kitchen, grinning.

After breakfast, I went outside and started toward the woods. I felt something tap me on the shoulder and spun around. I was face-to-face with Zack. "Hi Aria." He said, flashing me his nice smile. "Hi." I grumbled. "Something wrong?" He asked. "There was a band of theives rummaging around my room earlier." I said. He looked worried. "We scared them off, though." I continued.

"Where are you going?" He wanted to know. "Into the woods. You want to come along?" He nodded and we walked into the dense forest. It wasdark, but not too dark to see. I heard a little water dropping from the trees. No big deal, just water. I was a little jumpy after those bandits tried to steal everything I own. Not to mention what happened in there. "Zack?" I said. "Yes?" "Did I tell you how I scared the bandits away yesterday?" I asked him. "Um...I don't think so. But now that you asked, how?" I slowly started to explain the whole thing.

"Maybe it was coincidence." He suggested. "I don't think so. Either Andrea made his feet freeze, or I did." He grinned. "Wait till I tell Malai! She'll be excited." I told him not to tell, and he promised. I looked at the sun, and it was getting close to right above our heads. "It's about time for lunch. We need to get back." I said. We walked back out of the woods and went to our houses. Lunch was already on the table and I sat down. Afterwards, I decided to read in my room. I was just about into the book when I felt a little tired. I realized how little sleep I had gotten the prevoius night and slowly drifted off.

I was in a dark room, by myself. "Andrea? Malai? Zack? Anyone?" I said, but no one answered. I saw something moving away from me. I took a breath and ran after it, gaining distance each step. "Hey, wait!" The thing seemed to glow and it froze in place. "You are the one!" It said. There was a strange glow under its feet, and I realized it was the same thing that happened to the crescent man.

"One what?" I asked crossly. I turned and looked at the person, an old man. "Just...the one. The one who will change things. You have great power, but let me go please." "How?" I asked. "Well, this is nice. The young one doesn't even know how to use her power." I looked up at the man. "Power?" I asked excitedly. "I have power? But...but how?" "You'll see." I saw something else appear beside the man. It was Zack. "Zack! Do you know what's going on?" I asked. I looked for the man, but he had disappeared. "What the...where did he go?" "Who? Aria, there's no one here." Zack said. "I know! There was someone here a minute ago!" Zack looked at me worriedly. "Are you okay?" I nodded. "Of course. Why?" He sighed. "No reason." I stopped paying attention to what he was saying then. "Aria. Aria? Aria!" I sat up in bed. I was home, in my bed, not in a dark room. It was a dream. But it must have had meaning. I just had to find it.

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