Realm of Omens

Chapter One:
Breaking the Barrier

Alena sat by the pond, watching the birds and sprites fly by. Everything was so peaceful here. It was comforting, relaxing, delightful. However, it was also purely and utterly boring. Nothing exciting or new ever happened here and she longed to cross the barrier over to the 'bad' side of this world. In the world she lived in, good and evil were seperated. Anything remotely monstrous was not allowed to be where she was.

Yet, she envied those on the 'evil' side. What thrilling things must happen over there everyday. She was sure they did whatever they wanted on the other side of that wall. Why wouldn't they? Nothing to lose, for they were already regarded as monsters. Rumor had it that her father had been on the other side once. He refused to tell her anything about the evil Omens. This only made her curiosity grow. Surely there must be something thrilling on the other side of the shield if her own father refused to say something about it? Alena had to know.

Alena was an air fairy. When she was seven and starting to learn how her powers worked, it was quite exciting. Now, she was sick of it. Her older sister, Mona, controlled all things related to earth and she was still learning new things. Whereas, Alena blew a breeze here, made a little tornado there, and felt completely limited. Her father told her she would soon be able to shape the air around her into weapons, but that required amazing skills and she didn't have the attention span to practice. Mona was still in shock that she had the power to lift boulders above her head, but Alena preferred daydreaming about the evil Omens. On occasion she was scolded about her lack of power, but it wasn't like there was anything to fight in this realm! It frustrated her just thinking about it.

"Mona is so amazing. . ." she mocked her father, "Mona just learned a new trick." she said in a high-pitched sing-song voice. "Who cares? It'll go to waste unless the evil Omens somehow break the barrier!" she shouted to nobody in particular.

"Who are you talking to, Miss Alena?" a small voice came from behind her.

It startled Alena. She didn't realize the sprites were listening in on her. It turned out to be Iris, an animal sprite. Quite the annoying, nosy little sprite she was, too.

"I was talking to myself, Iris."

"That's strange. Where is your sister? Iris thought she was the one you were speaking to, but Iris did not see her around." Her wings fluttered faster, and started glowing a pale blue. A common sign of nervousness in sprites. Some of them knew Alena had a slight temper.

"No, no. I was just complaining about her. How my father's always swooning over some new power she's discovered while scolding me. So I think, 'What's the point'? We're protected by a barrier, after all." Alena explained to her.

Iris' wings became brighter. Something was bothering her. "A-actually, Iris heard there's a little crack in the barrier. Fortunately, none of the bad omens have found it yet." she calmed herself and sighed.

Suddenly, Alena became very excited. A crack in the barrier? As dangerous as that sounded, she felt a sudden urge to find it. "What? You mean the barrier is weakening somewhere? Where, where?"

The little sprite realized her mistake too late. "Nowhere, Miss Alena! Iris did not say a word!" she started to take off, but Alena had quick reflexes. It was not uncommon for air fairies. She had Iris in a tight grip before she could fly off.

"C'mon, Iris! Tell me!"

"No, no, Miss Alena! You mustn't know. I know you, Miss Alena, and Iris certainly knows about your curious nature." The sprite tried to wiggle her way out of Alena's hand, but she had a tight grip on her.

"Please, Iris. I at least have to know where the weakened part is. I could warn somebody if anything evil ever broke through."

Luckily, sprites hated being held, and Iris was no exception. They became impatient and claustrophobic because they felt trapped in a grip. Catch a sprite and it will tell you everything it knows. Alena knew this was her chance to escape the boring rut she called her life.

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"This is it?" Alena spoke up only when they arrived, and then let Iris go.

"Yes, yes. Iris must leave you now. Please, Miss Alena, stay out of trouble!" she flew away without another word.

She was right. Normally, the barrier looked like a light blue fog, shocking any evil creature that dared to break through. However, this part was faded, colored a pale white. It was quite the trek for Alena and Iris. This was one of the farthests corners of the barrier. Nobody on the other side could have possibly noticed yet. Suddenly, she knew her father was looking for a way to fix it. Therefore, this was probably her only chance to slip through and explore.

This is wrong. Her gut feeling told her. You're going to get hurt, Alena. Turn back before you regret it forever. You don't know what's out there, or how powerful some of the things might be. So many things raced through her mind, trying desperately to explain to her that going through would be a mistake. Alena swallowed and stuck her hand through.

Ouch! The barrier stung her slightly, but no damage could be seen. Without a thought, she covered her head in her arms and dove through. A shock went through her veins, but she got through. "Oh, God. . ." Alena wondered. "What did I just do?" She swiftly turned back toward the barrier and reached out.

This time, it actually had power and burned her hand. That meant it had been weakening from the inside. . .

And she was stuck here.

Her first instinct was to scream 'Help!', but she kept her mouth shut. She instantly realized she was no longer in her little sanctuary she called home.

A loud bird-like noise startled her. She whipped around to see one of the most hideous--no, the most hideous--thing she ever laid eyes upon. A hude black bird with a wrinkled, pink head. Was it even a head? Beady black eyes followed her every move. Its huge talons warned her not to mess with this creature, whatever it was. Alena felt so afraid, an emotion she was not used to, that she ran. She sprinted so hard, after only a few seconds, she was out of breath. However, Alena kept going until she was on the verge of collapsing.

The forest here was no different from her own, yet there was a eerie atmosphere to it. When she stopped, she slumped under a tree. Only then did she take the time observe the surroundings.

Up ahead, she noticed a river. It reminded her of the river she had been sitting by only hours ago, except for the creatures surrounding it. There were ugly, scaly things that looked like dragons. That couldn't be; Dragons were supposed to be beautiful and majestic, with sparkling scales that were always--somehow--clean and huge bright eyes. These abominations had awful teeth, some even had their mouths sewn shut, and bony wings. How they could remind her of the brilliant creatures she knew from home, Alena did not know.

However, there was a gentle nature about most of them. In the distance, she could see one female nuzzling her deformed baby, enouraging it to take a drink from the river.

Suddenly, Alena starting helping herself up off the ground. What made her do it, she didn't know. She had to see that mother dragon up close, no matter how ugly she may seem. Not realizing the creatures were shy, they backed away from Alena, extremely defensive. She could hear them whispering to each other.

'Who is that? I've never seen her before?'

'She's pretty. Do you think she's a banshee?'

'If you ask me, she's rather plain. What is she doing in our territory, anyway?'

It was true. Alena had dark brown hair and greenish-brown eyes. While she was easy on the eyes, she wasn't the most beautiful fairy out there. That title probably went to Mona.

Dragons were usually found in groups, gossiping with each other. These guys were no exception, even though it was obvious some of them couldn't talk. She and the mother dragon made eye contact. Protectively, she wrapped her tail around the younger one, who seemed more interested than afraid. "Hello." Alena simply told her.

For some reason, this horrified the others. They were obviously expecting some sort of screech or scream from her, assuming she was, in fact, a banshee. A simple 'hello' was not exactly something they were waiting for. The younger dragon peeked over his mom's tail and giggled at Alena. She couldn't help but giggle back at him.

This baffled the mother, but she finally responded. "Hello there. May I ask why you're here?"

This made Alena realize she had no reason for coming over. "I. . ." she looked up at the other dragons, who were still readily prepared for an attack. "I don't know." she truthfully admitted before breaking down into tears.

tbc. Trust me, it gets more horrifying. We've only met the dragons and a vulture.