“I’m Sierra Miles, age sixteen. I live in a small town called Miral. I have no father, nor do I have any siblings. The class I will be majoring in is Mythology. I’ve gotten into this college on a scholarship.”
“Child who in the world are you talking to?! You’re worrying your dad and I!” Of course mum’s the first person to say anything. I roll my eyes and yell, “Nobody mother! I’m just reading over my college application!” I add under my breath, “That loser is not my dad.” When she responds, I hear the annoyance in her voice, “Well get to school, you’re going to be late!” I just sigh in response. I walk over to my mirror to fix up my hair. I look myself in the eyes through my reflection. My eyes are green and my hair is long and brown. I run my brush through my hair. After I’m satisfied with my hair, I turn on my heel and grab my bag while walking over to the window. Casually, I jump out and start walking to school.
By the time I get to school I see Michael, my gay bestie, pacing around messing with his short blonde hair. When he looks at me his blue eyes are full of tears. He asks frantically, “Have you heard from Layla? She wasn’t at dads house this morning and I haven’t heard from her.” (Allow me to explain. Layla and Michael are twins but their parents split up when they were five.)
I give Michael an odd look and say, “Weird. Give me a minute, I’ll call her.” I take out my phone and dial her number. It rings several times and goes to voicemail. “She didn’t answer. I don’t know-” I’m cut off by my phone ringing. “Oh, it’s her.” I click the accept button and put it on speaker. “Layla!”
The voice on the other end sounds nothing like her. He states darkly, “Sierra, is it?” I blink, confused. “Um. Possibly. Who are you and where is Layla?” He laughs emotionlessly. “No need for introductions. You’ll know me soon enough. I have your pink haired friend, by the way. Surrender the Kritonialis Stone to me by the end of the week or pinkie here dies.” I open my mouth to respond but the line cuts off, the last thing I hear being Layla’s blood curdling scream. Utterly speechless, I look over to Michael who looks extremely mad. The first words spoken were of him, “That jerk kidnapped my baby sister. We need to find him, Sierra..” I mutter under my breath, “Yes well I’m more concerned about the fact that he thinks I have some rock or whatever it was.” He raises an eyebrow and corrects me, “Actually it was a stone. Close enough.”
When I get home, I get out my laptop and search up “Kritonialis Stone.” Oddly enough, nothing pops up. I sigh dramatically and say loudly, “Pathetic. You can Google the exact parameters of a fruit but when you search something like this, you get nothing.” I then walk over to my window and jump out, heading towards Michael's house. Him being the normal one, he walks out the front door of his house. “Hey Se. What’s up with the urgent text?” I just shrug, grab his wrist, and start walking. After him calling my name a few times I finally respond. “We’re going on a mission to save your sister.”
His mouth forms an “o” shape and he says, “Oh yes, speaking of that. I have some information about that stone.” He looks down at a paper I didn’t realize he was holding and recites, “The Kritonialis Stone is a magical stone which holds the power of the four elements. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.” I raise my eyebrows and say, “Sounds like a bunch of legends. Let’s get going.”
As we’re walking I hear the bushes rustling every once in a while. Every time, he jumps and turns to see what it was. Not looking at him I say annoyedly, “Calm down, it’s probably just a bunny, genius. You ever leave your house?” He groans and says, “Well sorry that I’m not a crazy person with a death wish like you.”
After about eight hours of exploring random towns, we arrive at a city called Kritonial. Looking at the sign I say sarcastically, “Huh I don’t know dude. I don’t think it’s here. The name makes it so obvious that it’s not here. Should we even bother checking it out?” He ignores my sarcasm and rolls his eyes. Frowning, I say, “Okay Michael. Go sign us in at the Inn. I’ll check out the library. I walk around for a few minutes and I see a display with a stone in it. A sign on the case states that it is the stone of which we are looking for. I just shrug and walk over to it. When I get to it, I punch the glass case and grab the stone. “Huh. That was easy enough. Now to get to the Inn.” After I receive directions from an old guy I head over, stone in hand.
I get to my room, which is connected to Michaels by a door. Opening it, I look around. “Hey Michael! It’s me, I got the stone. Where are you dude?” The voice that responds was not of him. It says slowly, “Yes little girl.. You have.. The stone.. Give it to me now or.. I’ll be forced to incinerate you.” I just blink and say, “Um. Yeah so about that. What if I just don’t?” Not waiting for an answer, I turn on my heel and sprint down to the lobby. Seeing Michael, I grab his arm and yell over my shoulder, “Sorry desk lady, there’s a monster upstairs. We’ll be leaving now.” Michael looks at me like I’ve gone crazy, “What the hell do you mean monster? And did you get the stone?” I don’t answer, I just keep running and the screams of people can be heard in the distance. After a few minutes of running, my phone goes off signalling that I have a call. Coming to a sudden halt, I answer the phone, putting it on speaker. “Hello?” The other voice responds, “Yes, Hello again Sierra Miles. Have you collected the stone yet?” “Yeah, I did. Now where are you?” “I’ll give you four hints. Coast. Park. Purple. Sand. Tootles now!” He hangs up on me. Blinking, I look at Michael. “What the hell could that mean?” He closes his eyes and thinks for a minute. “Well. Let’s see. Coast. Park. Maybe a boardwalk of sorts? And sand. The closest boardwalk around here is Vic Boardwalk. Let’s check there.”
Upon arriving at the boardwalk, I command him to look for anything purple and near sand. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of purple buildings. But narrow that down to the ones near sand and there’s only a couple. Me being the lazy person I am, I walk over to the closest one. Opening the door, I see Layla tied up to a chair. Hastily, Michael unties her and pulls her out of the building. Exactly as I expected, the guy that was on the phone says, “Tsk tsk tsk. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? Now, hand over the stone girlie.” I laugh and say, “Oh my gods. Is that you? Mr. Mase? Oh my, what an unexpected turn of events. Math teacher kidnaps and tortures a student. I can already see the headlines.Oh and I’ve been thinking. I’m not handing over the stone. It might prove to be useful in the near future.” He smiles wickedly and stalks towards me. I clutch the stone and it turns into a small ring and forms onto my ring finger. “Huh. That’s weird.”
Shrugging it off, I step forward and punch him. The instant I touch him, flames cover him. I scream. “What the heck did I just do?” Layla laughs and says, “Se, it’s the power of the stone. As long as you are wearing it, you have control over the elements.” Laughing maniacally I respond with, “That’s freaking awesome.” I kick towards him and rocks from a nearby hill roll down and topple him. “Ooh. Neat.” I punch him repeatedly, setting him on fire. I get distracted by looking at a bird and he launches a stone at me. It hits my head and blood starts flowing down my face. I glare and say, “Oh come on. This is going to be such a mess to clean up.” I lift my left hand and clutch the air staring at his throat. Within a few seconds he collapses. After a few minutes of silence, Michael speaks. “Sierra. You killed him. Great, now you’ll get arrested for murder.” I just shrug and walk back towards Miral, with them following close behind.
When we arrive at town, Layla asks the question they all were wondering. “So what are you going to do with the ring?” I think for a moment. “I suppose I’m going to keep it.”
“Child who in the world are you talking to?! You’re worrying your dad and I!” Of course mum’s the first person to say anything. I roll my eyes and yell, “Nobody mother! I’m just reading over my college application!” I add under my breath, “That loser is not my dad.” When she responds, I hear the annoyance in her voice, “Well get to school, you’re going to be late!” I just sigh in response. I walk over to my mirror to fix up my hair. I look myself in the eyes through my reflection. My eyes are green and my hair is long and brown. I run my brush through my hair. After I’m satisfied with my hair, I turn on my heel and grab my bag while walking over to the window. Casually, I jump out and start walking to school.
By the time I get to school I see Michael, my gay bestie, pacing around messing with his short blonde hair. When he looks at me his blue eyes are full of tears. He asks frantically, “Have you heard from Layla? She wasn’t at dads house this morning and I haven’t heard from her.” (Allow me to explain. Layla and Michael are twins but their parents split up when they were five.)
I give Michael an odd look and say, “Weird. Give me a minute, I’ll call her.” I take out my phone and dial her number. It rings several times and goes to voicemail. “She didn’t answer. I don’t know-” I’m cut off by my phone ringing. “Oh, it’s her.” I click the accept button and put it on speaker. “Layla!”
The voice on the other end sounds nothing like her. He states darkly, “Sierra, is it?” I blink, confused. “Um. Possibly. Who are you and where is Layla?” He laughs emotionlessly. “No need for introductions. You’ll know me soon enough. I have your pink haired friend, by the way. Surrender the Kritonialis Stone to me by the end of the week or pinkie here dies.” I open my mouth to respond but the line cuts off, the last thing I hear being Layla’s blood curdling scream. Utterly speechless, I look over to Michael who looks extremely mad. The first words spoken were of him, “That jerk kidnapped my baby sister. We need to find him, Sierra..” I mutter under my breath, “Yes well I’m more concerned about the fact that he thinks I have some rock or whatever it was.” He raises an eyebrow and corrects me, “Actually it was a stone. Close enough.”
When I get home, I get out my laptop and search up “Kritonialis Stone.” Oddly enough, nothing pops up. I sigh dramatically and say loudly, “Pathetic. You can Google the exact parameters of a fruit but when you search something like this, you get nothing.” I then walk over to my window and jump out, heading towards Michael's house. Him being the normal one, he walks out the front door of his house. “Hey Se. What’s up with the urgent text?” I just shrug, grab his wrist, and start walking. After him calling my name a few times I finally respond. “We’re going on a mission to save your sister.”
His mouth forms an “o” shape and he says, “Oh yes, speaking of that. I have some information about that stone.” He looks down at a paper I didn’t realize he was holding and recites, “The Kritonialis Stone is a magical stone which holds the power of the four elements. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.” I raise my eyebrows and say, “Sounds like a bunch of legends. Let’s get going.”
As we’re walking I hear the bushes rustling every once in a while. Every time, he jumps and turns to see what it was. Not looking at him I say annoyedly, “Calm down, it’s probably just a bunny, genius. You ever leave your house?” He groans and says, “Well sorry that I’m not a crazy person with a death wish like you.”
After about eight hours of exploring random towns, we arrive at a city called Kritonial. Looking at the sign I say sarcastically, “Huh I don’t know dude. I don’t think it’s here. The name makes it so obvious that it’s not here. Should we even bother checking it out?” He ignores my sarcasm and rolls his eyes. Frowning, I say, “Okay Michael. Go sign us in at the Inn. I’ll check out the library. I walk around for a few minutes and I see a display with a stone in it. A sign on the case states that it is the stone of which we are looking for. I just shrug and walk over to it. When I get to it, I punch the glass case and grab the stone. “Huh. That was easy enough. Now to get to the Inn.” After I receive directions from an old guy I head over, stone in hand.
I get to my room, which is connected to Michaels by a door. Opening it, I look around. “Hey Michael! It’s me, I got the stone. Where are you dude?” The voice that responds was not of him. It says slowly, “Yes little girl.. You have.. The stone.. Give it to me now or.. I’ll be forced to incinerate you.” I just blink and say, “Um. Yeah so about that. What if I just don’t?” Not waiting for an answer, I turn on my heel and sprint down to the lobby. Seeing Michael, I grab his arm and yell over my shoulder, “Sorry desk lady, there’s a monster upstairs. We’ll be leaving now.” Michael looks at me like I’ve gone crazy, “What the hell do you mean monster? And did you get the stone?” I don’t answer, I just keep running and the screams of people can be heard in the distance. After a few minutes of running, my phone goes off signalling that I have a call. Coming to a sudden halt, I answer the phone, putting it on speaker. “Hello?” The other voice responds, “Yes, Hello again Sierra Miles. Have you collected the stone yet?” “Yeah, I did. Now where are you?” “I’ll give you four hints. Coast. Park. Purple. Sand. Tootles now!” He hangs up on me. Blinking, I look at Michael. “What the hell could that mean?” He closes his eyes and thinks for a minute. “Well. Let’s see. Coast. Park. Maybe a boardwalk of sorts? And sand. The closest boardwalk around here is Vic Boardwalk. Let’s check there.”
Upon arriving at the boardwalk, I command him to look for anything purple and near sand. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of purple buildings. But narrow that down to the ones near sand and there’s only a couple. Me being the lazy person I am, I walk over to the closest one. Opening the door, I see Layla tied up to a chair. Hastily, Michael unties her and pulls her out of the building. Exactly as I expected, the guy that was on the phone says, “Tsk tsk tsk. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? Now, hand over the stone girlie.” I laugh and say, “Oh my gods. Is that you? Mr. Mase? Oh my, what an unexpected turn of events. Math teacher kidnaps and tortures a student. I can already see the headlines.Oh and I’ve been thinking. I’m not handing over the stone. It might prove to be useful in the near future.” He smiles wickedly and stalks towards me. I clutch the stone and it turns into a small ring and forms onto my ring finger. “Huh. That’s weird.”
Shrugging it off, I step forward and punch him. The instant I touch him, flames cover him. I scream. “What the heck did I just do?” Layla laughs and says, “Se, it’s the power of the stone. As long as you are wearing it, you have control over the elements.” Laughing maniacally I respond with, “That’s freaking awesome.” I kick towards him and rocks from a nearby hill roll down and topple him. “Ooh. Neat.” I punch him repeatedly, setting him on fire. I get distracted by looking at a bird and he launches a stone at me. It hits my head and blood starts flowing down my face. I glare and say, “Oh come on. This is going to be such a mess to clean up.” I lift my left hand and clutch the air staring at his throat. Within a few seconds he collapses. After a few minutes of silence, Michael speaks. “Sierra. You killed him. Great, now you’ll get arrested for murder.” I just shrug and walk back towards Miral, with them following close behind.
When we arrive at town, Layla asks the question they all were wondering. “So what are you going to do with the ring?” I think for a moment. “I suppose I’m going to keep it.”