"arianna!! i need you to have the kitchen spotless by the time i come home tonight. im going out to dinner with lisa." my dad yelled up the stairs. i sighed, switching off my music and breathing deeply, slowly started to come out of my deep meditative state. i opened my eyes and slowly stood to my feet. with the utmost care i walked to the door, and down the stairs. "yeah, it'll be done when you get back." i replied, entering his office. "all right, thank you sweetie." dad turned and glanced at me. "are you okay? you've been very distant ever since we moved to Creekside." i winced. "yeah, im fine, i just havent made any new friends yet and i get pretty bored. its hard to meet people when you live on the edge of a 50-mile forest and the closest thing to civilization is the 20,000 population town thats not even within walking distance." dad nodded. "dont worry, you'll get your license soon and then you can cruise around in that old 70's mustang we've been fixing up. all right, i have to go, lisa's waiting." dad put on his coat, gave me a hug and walked swiftly out our solid oak front door, into the cold evening air that was the norm for montana.



all right, i know you're wondering what exactly is going on so let me start from the beginning. we moved to creekside because my mother passed away about 6 months ago in a dreadful car accident and my dad and i just couldnt bear to live in our old house any more. dad started looking for better jobs and finally found one as a contractor here. we just barely finished unpacking everything.

anyway, let me tell you a little bit about myself. my name is arianna riddler. i am 17 years old, i love music and any and all things artistic; i love to paint and dance and sing and have a great passion for mysteries and adventures. that is why i didnt mind moving here; the energy of the place feels different, like i've been caught in an ancient legend, like a dream, a dream that some long-lost goddess or god is having. one who needs to be woken up.

at first i was taken aback that we were moving so far away. i hated leaving all my old friends and our relatives, especially only a few months after mom passed away. but when i got here i felt like i belonged in this old country house on the edge of this beautiful forest. i may not have made any friends, well, at least human ones, but the animals and even the fairies that dwell and mingle beneath the trees seem to like me. yes, fairies, they are real, and if you meditated and worked with the energies of the universe you might be able to see them too. anyway, back to my story. i think something is about to happen; i think my presence here is going to awaken something strange, mysterious, and magickal. what this may be i have not a clue; however, i do know this: i feel that something amazingly vast and ancient is about to unfold. and i am right here in the midst of it.



i strode back into the kitchen with bare feet on the cold, hard wood floor and fixed myself a PB&J before heading back up to my room to finish my meditation. climbing the old, rickety stairway i made my way up to my room. however, just as i placed my foot on the top stair and was about to walk down the short hall towards my bedroom door, something shiny and gold glinting between the floor boards caught my eye. i bent down and slid my thin fingers through, managing to grip the lustrous object. what i pulled out from between the stairs was a very old, yet somehow still quite bright, key. the bottom part was all spirally with a heart woven in the middle, and the stem was unusually long. the part that goes into a long just had three oddly-shaped teeth. as soon as i picked it up, the key started glowing, and an infinite amount of energy began to emanate off of the key. i frowned; how in the world did that get caught there?? amazed, i took the key and set it in a small glass box i kept in my room, right next to my vial of the purest salt in the world.



i turned my soft instrumental music i used for meditation back on and sat down to continue. however, the more i tried to concentrate the less it seemed i could. every time i shut my eyes and tried to keep going i could see a silvery blue light coming from the box i had just put the mysterious key in.



i decided to stop trying to meditate, as it was not going well at that moment, and instead rose to go practice my acoustic guitar. however, just as my fingers closed around the fret board, what sounded like a tiny, creature tapping on my window startled me.



i peered outside the frosty glass and immediately saw the face of a familiar creature who had not visited in a long time; it was a former fairy friend named bella who i had not seen since before my mother died.