Chapter 1
Wizards, Magic and Evil Beings, do you believe in them, well neither did I.
I suppose I had better introduce myself first before I tell you my story. My name is Francessca but everyone calls me Franny. I am nine years old and I live in the countryside. I do not normally have adventures nor does anything exciting happen to me, or even anyone I know, but as I said before this strange event happened in the summer holidays.
I woke up early on a Tuesday morning, it was August, the sun was bright and not a cloud was to be seen. It was the school holidays and I had the whole day to myself. After breakfast a few of my friends came to call for me, Sarah, Tracy and Jenny. We were all in the same class but Jenny was my best friend, she had been since we went to nursery school, we did everything together. People said we were more like boys than girls because of the things we would do, we loved to climb trees, go fishing and play football, but this time it was the fishing that started the whole adventure off.
Tracy and Sarah had to go home at 11am, so we decided to play a few games of football. I was in goal and we thought we would see how many we could score against each other. Jenny took her shot and missed, Tracy tried and scored and so did Sarah. Jenny went into goal and managed to save all the shots. Sarah began to moan about how Jenny had cheated by moving before she kicked the ball, which was a load of rubbish. Sarah and Tracy decided to go home early and to tell you the truth I am glad they did. Jenny and I thought that we would go fishing, so we packed a picnic lunch and got my fishing gear, then we went to Jenny's and got her things together and set off to the river.
The walk along the edge of the wood towards the river was a lovely one, and we chattered as we walked along. The trees were full of birds singing and the flowers which grew at the side of the path were being visited by bees and flies. The whole place was so busy with nature that it made me feel quite insignificant. The air smelt wonderful with the scent of the different plants, that I realized how lucky I was to be born. This was going to be the best of the summer holidays I was sure. Who would of thought this would be the started of an amazing adventure.
We always went to the same place and usually we would catch a couple of tiddlers but we always threw them back. After we had settled down with all our fishing gear we began to eat lunch, as we were eating our sandwiches I pulled a piece off mine and threw it into the water, after a few seconds there was a tug on my line and I began to reel it in. Jenny and I were talking and laughing while I pulled in my catch, and as the small fish broke the surface I grabbed my net and scooped it up. As I landed the fish I tried to pick it up to get the hook out of it's mouth, when a voice said "Please don't hurt me", Jenny and I both looked around to see where the voice had come from. No one was there. We looked at each other and then down at the little fish flapping around in the bottom of the net. "No, it can't be" I said, then the little voice said "Yes, it's me the fish, please release me". I jumped back, I could not believe what was happening. I looked at Jenny and she nodded her head, she had heard it as well. I took the hook from the fishes mouth and put it back in the water and as I did this I stood back with Jenny and we began to talk about what had just happened. Suddenly there was an enormous blue flash, and a loud bang. Jenny and I both fell over backwards and landed on our bottoms. "What was that?" shouted Jenny. "Don't be afraid", a voice said "You were kind to me when released me as I asked, I will not harm you".
As the blue smoke disappeared there stood a tall figure dressed exactly how you would expect a wizard to dress. He wore a long cloak of purple with yellow stars all over it and a large purple pointed hat also covered in stars, he carried a gold stick which I presumed was a wand. He had a long white beard and bushy moustache and shoulder length white hair. He had a very kind face and he seemed friendly. "I had to test you to see if you were kind and fair hearted", said the wizard. "Test us for what?" I asked. "I need your help, my name is Trusey and I am from a land a long long way away, our kingdom is in great danger", he paused and looked so sad then he carried on. "In our kingdom we have three good wizards, while we are together ruling everything is easy and straight forward, but if we are split up over different worlds our kingdom will turn to darkness and evil." his voice seemed to trail off. "The dark underworld wizard Gralthair is always trying to defeat us but we are stronger than he when we are together, somehow he has banished me and maybe the others from our world, he will have taken over and if he is not stopped in one week of your time, he will rule forever, and we will never be able to go back. I must find the other wizards. Will you help me? or all will be lost in Carthon."
Jenny and I talked about what we should do and we decided we would help in what little way we could. "What can we do?" I asked him, you are a wizard able to do magic, and we are just two girls." "Two girls with kind hearts, who gave a little fish a chance to live, this is a wonderful quality to have." Trusey said smiling. "We will do whatever we can to help." said Jenny. "If I know Gralthair he would have been so impatient to banish myself and the others that he would not have thought it through properly." Trusey said thoughtfully. "If we are all together in this world, we stand a chance." "You mean there are other worlds?" Jenny asked. "Oh yes", Trusey answered. "There are many all living at the same time, but never interfering with each other, until now." "We wont be able to help very much as we will have to get home to our Mum's or they will worry." Jenny said. "I can still do a small amount of magic in your world so I will freeze time while you are with me, so hopefully we can stop Gralthair." "Right then, what's first?" I said.
"First I must become a fish again, when I was thrown into your world the top stone from my wand was lost and landed in the river, that is what I was looking for when you caught me. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I saw that piece of bread." he said this smiling at me, which made me feel a little guilty. "The stone will give me stronger magic powers, which should help us trace Fexlar and Solmar the other two wizards." Trusey began to pace up and down looking really worried, and we both felt sorry for him. "Instead of becoming a fish again to find the stone, why don't you become something like a heron which can stand in the water with it's head underneath and search for the stone, that way your big enough to pick it up." I said. "What a wonderful idea." Trusey exclaimed. "You have been really helpful already, thank you." "My pleasure." I said feeling rather pleased with myself, although I did think to myself things are going to get a lot harder before all this is sorted out. As this thought faded a strange whizzing sound, and a puff of yellow smoke appeared where Trusey had been standing, in his place stood a beautiful heron with a long neck stretched upwards and its wonderful blue/grey feathers shimmering in the sunlight. Quick as a flash the bird rose into the air and landed a few feet into the river. His head dove under the water and he had obviously started to search for the missing stone. Jenny and I stood on the river bank and talked about everything that had happened so far. It seemed so unreal and yet there was the heron which was really a wizard searching for his stone. About five minuets would of passed if time had not been frozen, when the heron pulled his head up straight carrying something in his beak. The sun glinted off the object and it shone bright green, the bird rose up again and landed next to us on the bank. There was another flash and puff of yellow smoke and Trusey was back with the shinning stone in the palm of his hand.
