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Kyra: The First Book of Enchantus
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If you're interested in an ebook review copy or know anyone who is, feel free to email me at alex@bookbanter.net in the format your prefer and will get a copy right over to you.Thanks again!
Alex.
It was on an ordinary Southern California summer’s day that Kyra met a stranger from a strange world who changed her life forever.
Having gone through the ritual of laying out the towel, making sure no sand fell over the edges, and lathering herself in a second skin of lotion, Kyra was finally lying down on the towel and letting her skin absorb the wonderful hot rays.
She looked around, checking out the company like any self-conscious sixteen-year-old girl: all she saw were frying toothpicks, and some frying skeletons, achingly trying to crisp themselves an unhealthy but popular shade. It made her sick. Though it did help that her skin was already a tanned color to begin with, thanks to her mixed race: her father was black and her mother was white.
She started thinking about the boys she liked; it was hard competing with these excuses for teenage girls. The rest of her thoughts were set aside for where she truly wanted to be. Her only problem was she didn’t know where that was. Well, that wasn’t exactly true; there was the special place she dreamed about. She’d always had the feeling that she was in the wrong place, the wrong time; like a piece to a giant puzzle that fit perfectly, but was a different design and color.
So at times like these, she was able to totally shut out the world, disconnect; she would visit this imaginary world that only existed in one place: her imagination.
At some point in her dreams she’d been told that this magical place was called Enchantus. And Enchantus was a kingdom within the world of Aisis Lip. Another interesting fact about this world: she could speak the language, Aiso, like a native. Some of the people told her it was because she was born to live on planet Earth for a short while, and then to take this knowledge and experience and use it when she came to Aisis Lip. But then it was her dreams and imagination, so of course she could speak the made-up language.
The first dream of Enchantus and the world of Aisis Lip had come to her on her fifteenth birthday, that night, a little over a year ago now. And what was perhaps most strange about it was that she remembered every little detail to this day.
*
On the night of her fifteenth birthday she went to bed possibly the happiest she’d ever been, filled with lemon cake and joy. She was soon asleep and dreaming.
In her dream, she wasn’t at home; she wasn’t in her room, not Huntington Beach, not even in America from what she could tell. She was in a fantasy world, because there just wasn’t anything like this in the world she lived in.
It was green, so very green everywhere she looked. As her eyes took in the blinding sunlight and grew accustomed to it, she saw that not everything was green. Some of the trees were, but there was also red and ochre and orange. Not the dying colors of fall, but healthy colors of growth and life. The light grass at her feet was green, but a much lighter green than she’d ever imagined grass could be.
Kyra watched a bug with wings land on a blade of this bright green grass; it was blood red, like a ladybug. It took off and flew towards her, around her head, and up into the air. As it flew up, she heard “Hello!” squeak from what could only be the insect. She was too shocked to say anything, but shortly after wished she’d said something, just to see if that bug had actually spoken to her.
Kyra walked up to the nearest tree, which had an orangy-brown bark. She reached out and rested her hand on it and then quickly pulled it away. She hesitate, then gently touched it again. There, she felt it: a strong pulsing of life through the trunk. This tree was letting her know it was a living creature.
She bent down and touched a blade of grass, feeling the same pulse, only a lot weaker. She pulled at the blade and it broke free, the pulse immediately stopping.
This was amazing. What was this place? A dream? She knew it was, but it was still amazing. It all felt so real. So very real; nothing like any other dream. So much better. She knew what they were like; she could tell when a dream was just a dream and nothing more. But this was different. This place felt like it actually existed somewhere, and she was just briefly visiting, then she’d be returning to her own world.
But she didn’t want that. She didn’t know how long she had here, but she had to make the most of it.
Kyra looked around for something else that was alive and moving, another bug, anything! Then she saw about twenty feet away a little bird poking at something in between the blades of grass. She walked towards it.
The bird stopped what it was doing, turned and looked up at her. It didn’t fly away, didn’t even move except for turning to face her. It seemed unafraid of her.
Kyra knelt down and looked at it closely.
It was covered in teal blue feathers with streaks of red. There were two silver rings circling its eyes. It seemed to be looking at her just as studiously as she was at it.
Kyra took a breath. “Hello?” she said in a whisper.
The blue bird tilted its head and then squeaked a high-pitched “Hello!” right back at her.
She smiled, then laughed a little.
The bird said “Hello!” twice more then took off and flew away.
It seemed in this world the animals could speak, at least one word. Everything here was letting her know it was alive, and the reason she hadn’t heard anything other than “Hello!” was because the animals’ brains just weren’t that big. A greeting was all they could do, more than she ever expected. At least that’s what she figured.
Kyra didn’t know how much time she had left, before she woke up, but she needed to find someone, a person who could tell her where she was.
She looked around, searching for some sign of settlement, anything that would indicate there was a town or village nearby, even a house. She had no idea whether there was anything like that here. Then she saw over the hill behind her a spiraling column of smoke reaching up into the periwinkle sky.
Was that what she thought it was?
She ran for the hill, quickly reaching the top and heading over the other side. Yes! It was smoke coming from the chimney of a little cottage. Outside she could see a short man tending a vegetable patch. She ran down the hill and came to a halt in front of him, out of breath.
The man looked up at her and frowned.
“Hello, can I help you?” he said as he stood up.
Kyra was expecting him to be something like a hobbit – just like in one of her favorite books – but once he stood up she saw he was the same size as her father, though he wasn’t as dark skinned as her father, but there was a strong tan that gave him an ethnic look. His accent was strange, a blend of Eastern European and something else she didn’t recognize.
“Yes, y-yes,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Where am I?”
The frown grew.
“Where are you? Why you’re just on the outskirts of Byrka of course. Silly girl.”
“Byrka,” she said, savoring the sound of the word on her tongue, rolling the r and feeling the hard k. “Is that a town? What . . . land is this?”
“Well, you are a foolish girl, aren’t you? Did you hit yourself on the head? Forget a few things?”
“Yes . . . yes! I fell on the other side of that hill, fell and knocked my head something bad, and now all I remember is my name, but I don’t remember where I am or what land this is. I expect it will come back to me, but I need to know where I am now. It might help me remember.”
“Very well, very well,” he said, the frown clearing. “You’re near the hamlet of Byrka, in the great Kingdom of Enchantus, in the land of Aisis Lip. There, does that explain it for ya?”
Kyra repeated these new and strange words in her head, whispering them on her lips. She looked at the man and could tell he was getting impatient with her.
“Yes, yes, very helpful. I . . . I remember where I am now, and where I live, so I’ll be going along then. Bye.”
She waved and walked swiftly away, heading back up the hill, hearing the man grumble to himself: “Strange girl.”
She reached the top, looked back, saw him still staring at her, not moving; she walked over the top and lost sight of him. She stopped when she reached the spot where she’d “arrived.” She looked around, but didn’t see anything flying around. She looked down and saw she was in her pajamas with the little yellow ducks on them. That man must’ve wondered what she was even wearing. At least her light brown skin had been the same as his.
Then she saw that her hand was becoming transparent. Soon she could see through it, see the bright green grass behind. She looked at her other hand and saw the same thing happening. She was disappearing. She was waking up! This never happened in her other dreams. She looked around and then ran for the tree and reached it just as she fully disappeared. She felt one strong life-filled pulse shoot up her arm and then she was gone.
Kyra woke up little by little; opening her eyes and moving her arms, feeling them ache as if they’d been overworked recently. She looked at her right hand and saw nothing, then she looked at her left and saw a little nick in her palm. Snagged in the cut was a splinter of wood. She got up a pair of tweezers from her dresser and gently removed the splinter, bringing it close to her eyes. It was wood, orangy-brown in color.