The bright orange sun was setting over the ocean; its reflection bouncing softly on the aqua colored water. The sky had turned a pink-peachy shade that highlighted the purple colored clouds. Near the top of the sky stars were beginning to appear and the sky was turning a lovely blue.

Riona, a peaceful woman, stood on her balcony from her bedroom. Her shiny long black hair was tied into a loose bun. Her dark mysterious eyes were deep in thought; she wore black shorts and a black tank top. Over top was a long sleeveless over-vest that was baby blue. She had just turned 20 years old a few months earlier and married a young gentleman by the name of Cid Loire. The two of them had met when Cid helped her out of a mess.

They were not normal people though; they were different in a different world of both magic and normal people. Cid was a warlock and Riona was a sorceress. Warlocks were common, as were witches who lived among normal people in peace. Sorceresses, however, were not common. If somebody suspected a sorceress then they would attempt to kill the suspected person, no trial involved. Sorceresses were considered to be evil, for all the sorceresses of the past were. There was one exception however, which was Riona. Only few people knew what she really was, and they didn’t care. She claimed to be a witch, and suppressed her powers to a point of exception so that nobody would suspect her.

When Riona and Cid met, Cid was a part of a mercenary force that he became a part of at the age of 17. He went on missions to keep peace between rivaling and fighting countries around the world and sometimes had to fight too. Cid, who was a master- swordsman, was assigned to a mission involving the liberation of a country, on the resistance was Riona. He helped them pull through and eventually the country was liberated. Riona and Cid stayed together and Riona joined the mercenary force knowing that if they found out her true identity that she would die, but she was wrong. Cid found out and was fully supportive for he knew that she had a good heart and wasn’t evil.

After some months an evil sorceress rose and tried to take over the world. She possessed Riona and made her temporarily evil but still she was safe, Cid would never let anything happen to her. After the evil sorceress let go of her grasp of Riona they took action, they found the sorceress and attacked. Cid ended up being the final one to kill her, his sword pierced her heart but when a sorceress dies she must pass her powers onto somebody else to die in any type of peace. If there is a sorceress nearby the powers will automatically go to her, and Riona was there. She received the sorceress’s powers.

Everyone saw but didn’t kill her immediately as Riona had expected, instead they respected her, the only sorceress in thousand’s of years who wasn’t killed. After the evil sorceress was defeated Riona and Cid were nearly 18 and they got engaged to be married. They waited almost two years until they were nearly 20 years old to actually get married and then Riona got pregnant and had a baby girl.

While Riona stood on her balcony she heard the faint cry of her baby girl, Aurora Loire. Her newborn baby from only a few weeks earlier. She turned to see none other than her beloved husband Cid walk out onto the balcony holding in his arms a baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket. Cid wore a long black coat with beige pants and a green tee shirt beneath. His light brown hair hung loosely flopped over by the wind. His brilliant blue eyes gleamed with joy as he looked down at Aurora with pride. He walked slowly over to Riona who had turned to look at their baby. Once Cid stopped at the railing he turned to Riona and smiled at her lightly then looked out into the sky that had grown darker now that the sun had disappeared into the distance and the stars grew thicker as they appeared in the darkening sky.

“Isn’t it beautiful!” Riona exclaimed while staring off into the stars, “I can’t believe we’re really doing this… starting a new life.” She stared off into what seemed to be an endless ocean then turned to Cid, “You’ve got to make me a promise…” she said softly and Cid nodded while listening intently. “You’ve got to promise me that Aurora will live in peace… you and I both know what will happen if…” she continued but stopped and shuddered thinking about whether it was right of her to have a baby and burden her with being a sorceress.

When Aurora was born Riona sensed some of her powers gone… she had accidentally given Aurora sorceress powers. It wasn’t ordinary powers though; they were the powers that Riona received from the evil sorceress. The powers were so powerful that Aurora would become even more powerful then Riona since she had sorceress blood in her already from Riona and had powers added to that.

Riona continued, “Just promise me that you… and both of us will never have to tell her what she is… she is never to practice magic… never to do anything of the sort…” She looked at Cid hoping that he would agree. He looked as if he was considering it with much concentration but seemed to reply quickly. “I promise.”

Riona looked at him with much appreciation; he must have known how much she wanted Aurora to stay safe, from the rest of the world and herself. She looked at Aurora and fiddled with her hands a bit and Aurora giggled lightly then closed her eyes and began to sleep. She looked up at Cid and smiled, thinking about what their lives would be like together, and where they would end up.

A shooting star streaked across the dark sky lit with thousands of stars and both Riona and Cid wished, they wished for a happy life with Aurora and that nothing would ruin that.

15 years later

Aurora stood silently on the balcony. The light from the house bounced off her waist length black hair. Her beautiful blue eyes were deep in thought as a small breeze came in and made her white ankle length skirt swirl, her blue tank top ruffled and her green shawl waved back and forth. Several stars lit up the pitch-black sky. From behind her she heard her mother call her back in, telling her how late it was, nearly midnight. Aurora had stood out on the balcony lost in an ocean of dreams for nearly 3 hours. She turned around slowly and yawned widely then walked into the house and closed the doors behind her. Sitting at the table were her mother and father looking quite tired and Aurora kissed and hugged them goodnight.

She walked up the stairs to the second story where her bedroom was and opened the door. From the window moonlight filled the darkened room and she changed in the darkness into her pajamas and climbed into bed. She thought about why she had barely any friends, it seemed whenever she made a new friend her family always moved away, she wasn’t sure why though. She stared out her large window into the sky and drifted off to sleep.

The sky was a dark purple color; the clouds had turned green. Aurora walked silently down her town’s street and saw that nobody was around, she was alone. Nothing but utter silence filled the streets and buildings. A whisp of wind came in and Aurora’s skirt and shawl waved. Her long black hair swirled around her face like a sheet of silk.

She looked around and then up into the sky. She shivered slightly and noticed how cold it had become, as if winters wind swept over her. When she looked back down into the street she gasped and stopped dead in her tracks.

Before, all the streets were empty, but now, they were filled with people who were covered in stone. They all looked as if they were going about their daily lives but weren’t moving. Suddenly, all around her she heard whispers and she saw several men, normal sized men wearing black robes. They walked out onto the street and surrounded her in a circle. All of them looked like human robots. There was no life in them whatsoever, it was as if they were hypnotized. They all stood around her, closing in tighter and tighter until there was only about 10 feet on either side of her. She looked around frantically, trying to find away out but there was nothing. She tried to yell “Go away, Leave me Alone!” but no words came. She looked around becoming more panicked but before she could start to try to run, out of nowhere there was a loud cackling. It was as if it was all around them, it became louder and louder until all of a sudden there was a bright flash of white light.

Aurora awoke in a cold sweat, she wasn’t sure what just happened. She looked out her window and saw daylight break over the ocean. The sun was rising rapidly. She looked down at her bed again then quickly looked up and out the window. She rubbed her eyes hard and stared out into the sky.

The normally white clouds had turned bright green; the originally blue sky was now purple. She stared out into the sky in shock. “Oh my…” she thought to herself while getting up slowly and walking over to the window, she looked outside in awe. From her side of the house she couldn’t see the streets, only the ocean so all she saw was the sky… which shocked her enough. She walked backwards to the door then turned and ran downstairs to see where her parents were and if all of her dream was true, or if she was still dreaming…

On the kitchen table was a note. “Aurora, We went out… STAY IN the house… please, whatever you do, stay in the house. Your grandfather, Alemos, is coming soon, he should be there around 7 o’clock am, so wait for him to come, please. We’ll be back… Love Mom and Dad.”

Aurora stared at the note, wondering why her parents would leave her there, alone. She dropped the note onto the table and turned it over. She thought for a moment, “There is no way I’m going to sit here and wait to see what happens…” she muttered while scribbling down a quick note telling her grandfather that she had gone and not to go after her.

She glanced at the clock and it read 6:45am. The sun had rose and was beginning to shine into the kitchen. Aurora ran upstairs as quick as she could and then got dressed in her white skirt, tank top and green shawl then ran down the stairs. She looked out the window; their family lived pretty secluded from the village so she couldn’t see any other houses. She went outside and headed towards the town, wondering what she’d see.

Once she arrived in the small village of Tika, what she saw was somewhat like her dream, but not quite. The people that she saw at first, they were turned into stone, solid and not moving which scared Aurora nearly out of her wits but then she saw movement. Several people were walking out from houses and buildings. Over their mouths and noses were white cloths, like filters that they could breath through, as if something poisonous was in the air.

She quickly thought to herself that if they had to use those then why didn’t she? What was going on? To not attract attention to herself she put the edge of her green shawl over her nose and face and walked over to an elder lady.

“Excuse me?” she said politely to the lady who turned to her and she saw the sides of her face rise, like she were smiling a little. “Could you tell me what’s happening here?” She stared at the old lady who looked sort of taken aback by the question, like Aurora was some foreign creature that was talking gibberish.

“Don’t you know, dear… it’s happening again. 17 years later, its happening again… the evil sorceress is back and is after normal people who don’t know what’s happening, are you a non-magic person?” she said testily. Aurora ignored the last question and instead said, “The evil sorceress? Who’s that? Why do we have to wear cloths over our mouths?” She looked at the old lady whose eyes spread with surprise.

“My… my… if you don’t know then you should be stone too, how did you know to put a cloth over your face in the first place? As soon as you went outside you would have breathed the jinxed air… the air that Sorceress…” the old lady stopped and shuddered just thinking about how the evil sorceress affected her. Aurora thought quickly and said that she looked out the window and saw people wearing the cloths and assumed that she should too.

“What’s the sorceress’ name?” Aurora said after explaining to the elder lady how she knew to put the cloth over her mouth. The old lady shuddered again. “Sorceress…. Arianna” Aurora looked at her, sort of confused and looked out in to the street and saw several more people walking around… what this lady called magic people. When she turned back to talk to the old lady she was gone, like she vanished into thin air.

Aurora walked out onto the street and began walking, just outside of the town was a path; she’d never been down that path. Maybe her parents went there, she thought to herself. Just as she was about to head towards the path she stopped and ducked into a building. She saw her grandfather, Alemos. His distinctive tied back dark blond hair and brown eyes made him clear to see. Aurora had always loved her grandfather, she liked his personality, it was so carefree and adventurous, and much like herself she supposed. He was most unlike her father who was more careful and only adventurous when he had to be.

She looked at him as he passed by her, with a black cloth over his mouth. He passed by her and continued walking towards her house. It must have been 7’o’clock by then. Aurora ran quickly towards the path and slowed to a walk and started off on her journey to wherever the mysterious path lead.

After walking for what seemed to be forever she started seeing the faint outline of a mountain range, one she never knew was there like many of the other things she missed in her lifetime. As she walked, rather slowly, she saw some funny looking creatures. Many of them looked like half horses half men. Once they saw her they ran back into the forest quickly but she could tell that they were watching her. She continued walking and saw some other interesting creatures that somewhat resembled small devils but they were purple. Unlike the horsemen, these creatures didn’t hide; instead they hurried onto the trail and ran along side her. They made several funny noises that sounded like giggles.

Aurora looked up at the sky; it was beginning to cloud over with the funny green clouds. The sun that she could see had drifted to mid sky, it looked to be around noon. A storm was coming in; it looked to be a pretty vicious one too, as the purple sky became shaded with green clouds.

She continued walking, just hoping that she would find something. Once over the large hill that was in front of her she saw a huge castle off in the distance. Over top of the castle were several swirling clouds, both purple and green. She stopped in her tracks and looked off into the distance at the magnificent castle that stood tall at the edge of the beautiful mountain range. As she began walking once again it began to rain, but the rain wasn’t normal either, it was black. Like small pellets of hard lava bits were falling but felt like water. When the black rain fell onto her skin it turned clear. Like normal rain, it didn’t affect her.

She increased her pace so she would get there faster, thinking that her parents may be there, but she had doubt. As she got closer to the castle the rain stopped but the sky remained cloudy with its green clouds and the purple highlights of the sky around the clouds.

As she got closer and closer, to the point where she was so close that she could see some details on the castle wall she stopped. She heard several movements around her, but couldn’t see anything. Out of nowhere several small dragon like creatures surrounded her, like they were camouflage, then turned themselves back to normal. She looked around, but she was completely surrounded except one small hole. Just as she attempted to reach the hole, a dragon creature pounced on her and knocked her off her feet. The tail of the creature was a long blade and it cut her arm deeply. Her head had hit the ground hard and she lay there disoriented.

Just as she was about to admit that these creatures would kill her she saw a silver sword swipe down on the creature that was about to pounce on her once more. A white blonde boy with brilliant green eyes and a long black robe stood over the creature, sword in hand. The creature that was hit ran off squealing in pain but they were still outnumbered. Aurora lay and watched in pain as the mysterious boy tried to fight away the creatures but it wasn’t working. The boy fought hard and finally landed hard on the ground next to Aurora, he looked at her and whispered, “Concentrate… concentrate hard on fire… just do it…”

Aurora looked at him both confused and surprised, “What?” she said as the boy shook his head. “No arguing, just stand up and do it!” Aurora looked at him for a second as the creatures moved in closer ready to pounce again. She then used all her strength to pull herself up and limped a bit. She looked at all the creatures while holding her injured arm tightly. “Fire? Fire? FIRE? FIRE!” she murmured still slightly confused. Out of nowhere a sudden blast of red flames shot out from her hands in a large explosion, all the creatures either died or were badly injured and ran off squealing.

Aurora looked around, shocked and horrified. “Did… I… just… do… that?” she said quietly and then fell to the ground unconscious.

Aurora opened her eyes slowly; she lay on the ground in the exact spot she fell before. The mysterious boy was gone, she didn’t know where. She got up and looked at the ground beside her, a small note was carved in the dirt. “Don’t go in the castle… Just stay out… for your own good.” Aurora looked at it confused and figured the boy had written it, but why? She stood up, now stronger, her arm still bleeding heavily so Aurora ripped a part of her shawl and wrapped it around her arm tightly to stop the bleeding. She ignored the note and walked straight to the castle and opened the huge doors.

Inside was a huge room, with several doors leading off them. Straight ahead was a hallway leading to stairs. She walked to the hallway and looked up the stairs. At the top was a large portrait of a woman with aqua blue hair and black eyes. Aurora looked at it, not sure who or what the portrait was. She walked up the stairs and looked around, there were more doors around her so she used the farthest one to the left and went through it. Inside was a long dark hallway. She began to walk through it but heard voices, she hid in the shadows but it would be no use. Several men in long black robes were walking down the hallway, talking like robots. She was about to run for it but from behind her the wall disappeared and a hand went over her mouth and she was pulled in. The wall reappeared; it was only a secret passageway. The one who pulled her in was the mysterious boy that helped her earlier. She stared at him as he pulled his hand away. “I told you to stay away, to stay out.” He hissed at her. Aurora stared at him, surprised. “Do you know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Aurora.” He said more softly. Aurora’s look of surprise increased. “How did you know my name? Who are you? What do you want?” she said backing away slowly but bumped into the now solid wall.

“My name is Sirus Lennias… I’m 16. I’m supposed to be a supporter of Sorceress Arianna… and I know your name because I know what you are.” He said hastily, but quietly. “Look, I’m not actually a supporter, when Arianna hypnotized all of us men from the small town of Oceania it didn’t work on me for some reason. I didn’t say anything though because I knew I would be killed. After being here for awhile I learned of Arianna’s plan. It is to once again try and take over the world, and she wants the other two living sorceress’ powers so they will die too.” He explained when he saw Aurora’s face turn to fright.

“What do you mean, once again? Who are the other two sorceresses? Aurora asked quietly as Sirus looked around the empty corridor they were in and quietly said, “Well… you and your mother…” Aurora looked at him, her eyes widened. “You’re crazy… you are crazy.” She said while trying to walk away quickly but Sirus grabbed her arm and held her back. “Please listen…” he said softly.

Aurora looked at him uncertainly but stopped and waited for him to say what he had to say. He started to tell her about how nearly 17 years earlier a mercenary force got involved in the killing of an evil sorceress, being Arianna. One of the mercenary members became possessed, Riona Loire. After the sorceress let go of her they attacked the sorceress and killed her, or so they thought. Sorceress Arianna became too weak to fight, so she faked her death and duplicated her powers to be passed on so she still had hers. When she disappeared she just transported herself elsewhere, and she was safe.
“She’s been waiting years to try and take over the world again. She was angry when the magic people knew about the purple sky and green clouds. Her plan was to freeze everyone so nobody would stop her but they knew better from the last time…” Sirus said quietly after explaining everything to a very thought stricken Aurora.

“So… you mean, she wants me dead? She wants my mother dead? She want’s our powers? We’re sorceresses?” she said in disbelief and Sirus nodded. “Wait… I had a dream, last night…” she said quickly then explained her entire dream to Sirus who listened quietly.

“Hmm” he said thoughtfully. “It’s common for sorceresses to have pyshic-medaphoric dreams, I believe. I imagine your mother had the same dream being why she was gone early and got here early…” Aurora stared at him. “She’s here… is my…” she began but stopped when Sirus nodded. “They’ve been in hiding, both your mother and father, I saw them… I imagine anytime now they’ll be reaching Arianna.” He said solemnly.

Aurora stared at him then turned on her heel and ran blindly down the dark corridor. Sirus was calling her, telling her it was too dangerous… but she just kept running. Eventually he caught up to her and told her if she was going to do this, he wouldn’t let her go alone. He’d be with her.

They made their way through a series of hallways until they reached a long corridor with doors at the end. “That’s it…” Sirus said pointing at the door and Aurora began walking towards it slowly with caution. Just as she put her hand on the door-handle she heard a scream…from her mother. Aurora’s eyes widening and she threw the door open. Inside was a large room, heavily decorated, and at the very end of the room was a throne. She looked around quickly and saw her father lying on the floor unconscious; the back of his head was bleeding. Right in the center of the hall was a woman with knee length, aqua blue hair. Her eyes were black and she was very tall, much taller then her. She looked like the woman in the portrait but very young, like maybe 20 years old even though she was at least older then her own parents. Her clothes were weird and de-ranged.

Right in front of Sorceress Arianna was her own mother, the sorceress was holding her by the wrists and Riona was struggling. They were rising into the air, a white mist surrounded them. Aurora began to run over but there was a burst of light and she was thrown backwards. She got up and tried again but was once again thrown backwards. Sirus had run over to her father to see if he was alive and it looked as though he was trying some sort of healing process.

Aurora watched helplessly as the sorceress made eye contact with her mother and a beam of white light attached them by the eyes. Riona lay quite limp as a quick beam of red light flashed through the white one and both were gone. There was a bright flash of red light and streams of energy went from Riona’s body into Ariannas. The evil sorceress stole her powers… Riona was dead; her body lay limp on the floor.

“NOOOO!” Aurora cried as she ran to her mother’s side. “I told her I’d be back…” said a cold and harsh voice from behind her. Aurora stood up and turned around. Arianna stood behind her with a smirk spreading across her face. “You heartless… evil…” she began but stopped. She felt her body became weak, Arianna was going to steal her powers and kill her.

She saw Arianna grab her wrists but was powerless to stop it; it was as if she paralyzed her. Aurora felt herself become light as they rose into the air like her mother had done with Arianna before she died. She looked down to see that Sirus had cured her father who was standing next to him, both had an expression of complete horror on their faces. Cid stared from Riona to Aurora with tears in his eyes. Sirus stared up at Aurora, she could tell he was scared for her life.

Aurora looked back at Arianna who was staring right at her, just waiting for that moment to connect them and she did. A white beam of light and energy went from Arianna to Aurora. Arianna cackled again. Any second the red beam would come and it did. In the split second that the beam passed through, Aurora’s entire life past by her eyes but she came back, something in her mind seemed to click. “NO! I won’t die… I won’t accept this… NO!!!” she screamed, so everyone would hear. Suddenly, the red beam that went to Aurora backfired. It was sent into Arianna with a beam of blue light following it. Time seemed to stop, they stopped in mid-air, and there was complete silence.

Aurora looked right into Arianna’s eyes, she seemed to be gone, like she wasn’t there anymore and they dropped. She landed next to Arianna and there were several fast flashes of light and beams of energy that went from Arianna to Aurora. “No… I can’t… NO!” Arianna whispered looking at Aurora with horror then a blood-curdling cackle erupted from Arianna’s mouth. “I’ll be back… I promise you that, sooner than you think.” She hissed at Aurora. There was another bright flash of light and Arianna was gone.

Aurora stood there shocked and confused and looked up at the roof. It was clear glass and Aurora could see the sky. All the green clouds and purple sky had disappeared leaving the stars and the moon was shining bright.

1 month later…

Aurora stood looking up at the faint outline of the large moon. Right outside of the village, Tika, was a small graveyard surrounded by forest with only a narrow trail leading back into the village.

The now normal sky had turned cloudy and several drops of rain fell down. Aurora stood at the foot of her mother’s grave. Tears streamed down her face as she set flowers onto the grave bed as did her father who stood next to her. On the other side were Sirus and her grandfather, Alemos. All of them had several tears streaming down their faces, all wearing black.

On the gravestone read, “Riona Loire, Beloved Wife and Mother. Brave and Respected Sorceress.”

Aurora looked at it sadly. After her mother died, all Arianna’s powers went to her and she became the most powerful sorceress of all time. She had the powers of three sorceresses, her mother, herself and Arianna.

Aurora held Sirus’s hand tight. After everything that happened they grew very close and started a relationship. Her father had been in so much grief and depression that he barely talked, to anyone. He mostly watched the stars, waiting for that one shooting star that he would wish Riona back with but nothing ever happened. Sometimes Aurora stood with him, trying to comfort him, but it never worked. She even wished with him sometimes.

She let go of Sirus’s hand and walk to the gravestone and knelt down beside it. “I love you, mom.” She whispered and kissed her fingers then put them onto the gravestone. As she was standing up she felt a weird sensation in her body and she lost total control. Her hair turned aqua blue and her eyes turned black. She let out a loud and vicious cackle that startled everyone, and they all backed away.

“Hahaha, I told you I’d be back…” she said still cackling then moved past them and headed away, down the trail towards the village of Tika. Aurora had no control and Sorceress Arianna was back.

The End