Gateway to Druidia

Book 1: Envy’s Tale

Chapter 1

Have you ever had one of those days when everything just seems to go wrong? You begin the day by stepping on something sharp that your cat dragged into the middle of your room, find that your little sister’s eaten all the cereal, miss the bus, have three…not one, not two, but three pop quizzes, and to top it all off, get sucked into a big ugly book into a bizarre surreal world and wind up having to trudge your way through a swamp, dodging the flesh-eating lily pads and hoping that the objects floating past you are just logs and not three-headed crocodiles?

No? Just me, then?

But maybe I should back up a bit. Explain a few things.

My name is Envy…and before you ask, yes, that is my real name. Envy Sinclair. Though Sinclair is just my adoptive name, of course. I’m 15 years old and female. As for how I look…well, I’ve been told that I’m pretty, but I’ve never really believed it. My hair is all limp and stringy and colorless, my eyes are a revolting shade of green, and my body is just…blah. Okay, so maybe I’m prettier than I think I am, and just have self-esteem issues. It wouldn’t really surprise me. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you name a child Envy.

I’d love to chew my parents out for that. I really would. Problem is, I have no idea who they are. I was adopted when I was less than a year old, and the only thing I have to remember them by, besides the horrible name, is this really cool necklace. More of a pendant, really. It’s gold…and I mean real gold, I’ve had it checked…triangular, with an oval-shaped gemstone in the center. The gem is purple, this really dark, rich, vibrant purple, and it shows through both of the flat sides of the pendant, so you can hold it up to the sun and watch the light shine through. Really pretty. The narrowest side has an angular little loop, so you can run the string through and wear it as a necklace, the triangle pointing down. That side is also curved, and the two longer, straighter sides…one of them has three tiny pegs sticking out, and the other has three tiny holes, making me almost certain that the pendant is part of something bigger, like a wheel or a disk.

I compare it to a wheel, anyway. Toni would compare it to a slice of pie or pizza.

Toni? She’s my best friend. Great girl, but she NEVER stops eating. At the cafeteria, she buys two lunches to go with the three she brought from home. And she eats them all. Somehow, despite her freakish, garbage-disposal diet, she manages to remain the skinniest person I have ever seen. She’s as tall as I am, about 5’2”, but she can’t weigh more than 98 pounds. SO not fair.

Did I mention that she’s adopted too? Or that she has a necklace just like mine?

Okay, maybe not JUST like mine…the gem in hers is blue. But apart from that, they’re identical. And they fit together perfectly. Those necklaces were what brought us together in the first place, way back in first grade, because neither of us had ever seen another one anywhere before. We figure they’re probably some sort of antique version of those “best friends” necklaces that come in sets, and sometimes wonder if our biological parents might have known each other.

Toni was also the only person who did anything at all to try to cheer me up that day. True to Toni-style, her idea of cheering me up was to offer me a big, chocolate cupcake that she’d baked herself and brought as part of her dessert. Never mind that just looking at it made me gain about six pounds.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the cupcake as she offered it to me, standing in front of my locker and trying to cram in two or three of my oversized textbooks while removing two or three other oversized textbooks.

You know, if they just assigned two science textbooks a year, one for the first semester and one for the second, then neither would have to be the size of a mini-fridge. Common sense, school. Oil and water.

“So, you coming with me to check out that new bookstore today?” Toni asked.

I smiled, the first real smile I’d smiled all day. Books were my friends, and she knew it.

“I’m SO there. Something pleasant should come out of today.”

She made a pretend-pout. “What about my cupcake?”

I grinned, holding it up and licking off some frosting as I shouldered by backpack.

“Okay. TWO good things should come out of today,” I conceded.

She smiled perkily, turning to her own locker, which was of course next to mine, and exchanging her own absurdly heavy books.

Once she was done, the two of us left campus, the final bell finally having wrung, and started off towards the bookstore that had just opened down the street.

As we walked down the street, I tried to ignore the inane babbling of the birds that were perched in the trees. I usually tuned it out, but today they were being far louder…and more annoying…than usual.

See, there’s one thing that’s kinda weird about me, something that I’ve never really told anyone before. No even Toni.

I can talk to animals.

Of course, anyone can talk to animals. But unless those animals happen to be human, most people can’t understand it when they talk back. But I can. Plain as day, just like they were speaking perfect English. I know they’re just grunts and whistles and squeaks and barks and whatnot, but somehow I understand the meaning behind each and every one of them.

Maybe I was crazy, but not so crazy that I didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t. I’d long since learned to tune out whatever anything non-human said. Not a big fan of the straight-jacket, me. Besides, I wasn’t missing much. Most animals, birds and fish especially, don’t have much worth saying. Pigeons, like the ones in the trees that day, tend to gossip about relationships, who’s cheating on whom, whether they think they’re fat, the weather, and berries. Soap opera crap. Nothing worth listening to.

So anyway, we get to this store. It was a nice place, and I mean NICE. The building itself was huge, made of lead-gray brick with gargoyles on the corners of the roof and a really ornate knocker embedded in the center of the huge, solid-oak door.

The gothic-looking lettering on the sign above the door read Animaria. Nothing else, nothing to imply what might actually be sold there. Just the name. The only reason I knew it was a bookstore was that Toni, curious as ever, had ducked in one day on her way home from school.

The inside of the store was simply amazing. The door opened onto an atrium. It was round, with a glittering gold compass rose painted on the ground. If you looked up, you could see a stained-glass skylight displaying a number of constellations, suns, moons, and stars. A number of planters full of lush, leafy-looking plants stood against the walls.

A single, closed-in counter stood against the back wall. On either side of it was a staircase leading up to a second level, the stairs lined with rich red velvet.

As we walked in, a small gold bell above the door signaled our presence to the man behind the counter. He glanced up at us from the book he was reading.

Okay, another little secret of mine, I, umm…prefer girls. But even so, I could tell this guy was cute. His hair was long and dark brown, his eyes glittered a beautiful emerald-green, not like the dull olive-green my irises had. He smiled, and though it had little effect on me, I could tell it was one of those heart-stopping smiles…partially because of the way Toni started to swoon.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said in a voice that seemed not quite to fit him. It a little higher than on would expect from someone his age, though not unpleasantly so.

“Oh, um, good afternoon,” Toni replied. She seemed at a loss for a moment, then made a tense little bow.

I sniggered. “Did you just curtsey?” I teased in a low voice.

“Shut up,” she hissed, elbowing me.

“Make yourselves at home,” the proprietor said. “Oh, and if you’re planning to shoplift, you should know I keep a crossbow back here.”

“Oh, no,” Toni stammered. “We would...I mean, we’d never…”

“He’s joking, Toni.”

“Oh. Um. Of course. I knew that.”

“Ignore her,” I said to the man. “She’s suddenly developed a massive crush on you.”

“Envy!’ she cried, gaping at me.

I snickered, and she mock-kicked me.

“I’m gonna go peruse now,” I said, making for the stairs.

“Go!” she yelled, hands on her hips. “And I want my cupcake back!”

I giggled as I climbed the stairs to the right of the counter…then gasped in astonishment as I reached the top, unable to believe what I was seeing.