Chapter 5

Arkkukari Islands, 2020

Sofya

I slowly opened my eyes. I looked around, I was on a jet, it was really nice. White leather seats, a buttler a few feet away, and a glass of bubbly champagne in the cupholder next to me. I noticed Wanda sitting in a chair across from me. I turned and looked out the window to my left. I gasped, I saw crystal blue water and little tropical islands dotted around. “Wow” I said stunned by the site. “Its beautiful isn’t it.” Wanda said. “This will be your home now, we have a lot to take care of once we land.” “Where are we?” I asked with wonder looking back out the window. “The Arkkukari Islands.” Wanda said. “Like we talked about yesterday.” “Oh, ok so I will train here with my fellow aemons?” I asked. “Yes, all the aemon’s in the world will be here, you are very rare, angels and demons don’t really get along, so most beings want you dead, none known have ever reached beyond twenty” Wanda replied. I gasped, well that was nice to know. “We will be there in a few minutes.” As soon as she said that the plane began to descend quickly. When we landed a stairway was extended to the ground. We walked over. I stepped down the stairs and a warm breeze blew through my hair. The sound of animals and crashing waves filled my ears. The ground was all pristine white sand. In the distance were collections of massive huts and buildings. I wouldn’t mind living in this paradise, I wouldn’t really miss anyone back home, certainly not my foster parents who had always seemed like they had never wanted me, I would only miss Enzo and Sara. “Follow me.” Wanda said going down the path to a grassy area. A woman with short red hair with a jagged scar across her right arm approached us. “Hello, I’m Ivanna the main trainer on the Island and leader. I will introduce you to everything. I am sure Wanda needs to get back to work, you can come with me now.” She said then turned gesturing for me to follow her. “Ok, bye Wanda.” I waved back to Wanda, as she turned back to go to the plane. “Come on.” Ivanna said. I followed her down the large dirt road passed the huts and buildings. We stopped at the largest building. We walked in and cold air greeted my face. We walked over to one of the elevators and went up to floor eight. There was long narrow hallway and we went inside office number two hundred and thirty one. “Have a seat.” Ivanna said gesturing to the chair in front of the desk as she sat down behind it. “Ok, so you are Sofyalisia Winchester right?” She asked “I have to fill out a report for registry.” “Yeah that’s me but Sofya is fine.” I said. “Alright Sofya, I just need to ask you a few questions and then we will get you settled in. First of all, How old are you? When is your birthday? Who are your parents? What caste are they? What can you do?” She asked impatiently. “I am 17, my birthday is July 10, my parents are Bryn and Galen Volkov, they are dead, my mother was korrigan and my father was gyo, I can communicate with animals, magic, breath underwater.” I replied listing everything I knew I could do. Ivanna gasped and shook her head in disbelief. “You’re the one in the legend, you will save us all!” She exclaimed with a huge grin spread across her face. “I guess so” I said smugly. She looked at me confused. “You don’t seem so happy about it, what’s wrong?” I looked at her tears gathering in my eyes. “What if I can’t do it? What would everyone think of me then? What if I die” I said my face falling thinking of all the things that could go wrong. “Oh honey.” Ivanna said softly. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, based on what you said you sound very powerful, I can’t wait to see what you can do. I am positive you can do it.” “Thanks” I sniffed, wiping the tears that had fallen down my face. I was usually not such a wimp. “Come on lets get your neria.” Ivanna said standing up. “What’s a neria?” I asked. “It’s a creature that only bonds with aemons. We are not exactly sure why but it’s a very special bond were you know each other's thoughts, sort of like a companion.” “That’s cool.” I said happily. “Lets go get your neria, it’s nice to see you happy.” Ivanna said smiling. We made our way back to the dirt road and started walking toward a really large barn looking building. We walked inside and I took in the scene. There were a bunch of small creatures, varying from dragon like to phoenix looking, they were all sorts of colors, I assumed these were the neria. “They’re so cute.” I gushed and scampered over to them and knelt down in the hay. I couldn’t believe creatures like this actually existed. “Awwwww.” I said as one jumped onto my lap. It stared at my face, its deep purple eyes gazed at me it sent little shivers down my spine. “Ezmia” I said out loud as if in trance. Then I shook my head to snap out of it. “This one is mine” I said glancing down at the little neria in my lap. She had dark purple scales like her eyes, a poofy black mane with feathers encircling her long neck and down her spine, golden designs painted on her scales, and little feathery poof at the tip of her tail. She was so cute. I could hear her thoughts. She noticed how I was observing her. She told me her name was Ezmia. “Sofya” Ivanna said interrupting my thoughts. “Huh?” I said still looking at Ezmia. “Come on we still have things to do” Ivanna said. “Coming!” I yelled back, scrambling to stand up. Ezmia jumped on my shoulder as I rushed to follow Ivanna. We made our way back to the dirt road. A few feet down we walked up to one of the massive huts. “This is where you will live, there is a maid inside to help take care of you. Report to the main office tomorrow at 8:00am for your first training session. Today you can wander around and meet others. Everyone should be here by tomorrow, ok?” Ivanna said as she ushered me toward the door, opened it and pushed me inside. Then slammed the door shut leaving without a reply. I looked around, the floors were dark hardwood, expensive china decor were dotted around and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. I would not mind living here. Standing about a foot away was a woman with tanned skin, dark hair pulled into a bun, warm dark brown eyes, and she had a maid uniform on. “Hi, I’m Mary” she greeted me with a cheery smile. “You’re Sofyalisia right?” “Yes, that’s me and just Sofya’s fine.” I said. Then Ezmia gave out a little yip. “That’s Ezmia my neria.” I told Mary. Mary looked at Ezmia, her smile getting wider. “Aww she’s so cute, I’ll make sure to take care of her to. Come on I will show you the rest of the house.” Mary said to me. She waved her arm motioning for me to follow her. Then went to go follow Mary. First she showed us my bedroom. It had a huge bed puffy sheets and silk pillows. There was a walk-in closet to the left and an attached bathroom to the right. There were also many, many guest rooms throughout the place and a huge living room with a 6 by 6 foot tv. Awesome! In the next room over there was a bed and many toys and treats for Ezmia. Ezmia yipped happily. She jumped off my shoulder and scampered over. “I’m sure you are hungry from your trip.” Mary said. “Yes, please.” I said delighted at the mention of food, I hadn’t eaten anything in about a day I was starving. I followed her to the kitchen leaving Ezmia to play with her toys. “Thanks” I said as Mary handed me a glass of lemonade and a sandwich. I quickly gobbled it up. “Ah you were starved” Mary laughed fetching me another glass of lemonade. “Would you like anything else?” She asked. “No thanks.” I said “You can go rest if you want, I’ll be fine.” “Um ok, are you sure?” Mary replied startled. Probably not used to people being this nice. “Yeah.” I smiled, as she left I slipped off the stool I was sitting on. I walked back over to my room then peeked into the room over. Ezmia was still playing with the toys. She turned to see who it was then scrambled over jumping at my legs. “Yes, good to see you to Ez.” “Come on let's go meet others.” I scooped her up placing her on my shoulder and walked out of my room and out the front door. I walked down the little path from my door to the dirt road. As I walked down the road towards the main center. I saw a girl and her neria walking towards me. She looked nice and friendly. She had curly blond hair, light brown kind looking eyes, and a huge smile on her face. The neria on the ground next to her had yellow scales and orange fur like a sunset. “Hi.” I said as she approached. “Hi.” she said “I’m Lucy!” She said all bubbly. “This is Ana.” She said pointing to her neria. “I’m Sofya and this is Ezmia.” I told her. “When did you get here?” I asked politely. “Just an hour ago.” Lucy replied smiling. “Did you meet anyone else like us yet.” I said wondering who else was here, maybe Ash was. Wanda had said all aemon’s were going to be here, and I wanted to see Ash, to give him a piece of my mind for not telling me about the legend, and also just to see him. “Um, no I didn’t but I’m sure others will be arriving soon or have already settled in.” She said. “What’s up with your clothes.” Lucy asked gesturing at me. “Oh, um.” I said getting embarrassed. I looked at my clothes all tattered and mud spewn across them, how did I get mud on me? “Well they sort of kidnaped me to get here so….” “I didn’t really get a chance to change.” I mumbled. “I know right!” Lucy exclaimed. “They freaking kidnaped us, I was handcuffed to the car door and knocked unconscious.” I smiled, I liked this girl, we were going to be good friends. “Yeah that’s was they did to me too, it was so rude.” I said. I really should probably change before anyone else sees me like this, I thought to myself. “Bye!” I said quickly, then turned around and started walking/running back to my hut. I most definitely didn’t want anyone else seeing me like this. I even realized i didn’t even have shoes on. “Bye! See you tomorrow!” Lucy called out. I dashed down the dirt road and back to my hut. I soon as I got inside Ezmia hopped off my shoulder and scampered off. Then I went to the bathroom to get cleaned. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like a tornado hit me. My hair was matted and in knots, mud was plastered across my face down my neck and all over my clothes, my shirt had a massive hole in it, and to top it all off there was a huge purple and blue bruise on my forehead from where I had been hit to be knocked unconscious. “Wow.” I said out loud taking in my appearance. Thank god Ash hadn’t seen me, or anyone else for that matter. I turned around and started the shower then ripped my filthy clothes off and threw them in the trash. I stepped into the shower the cool water rushed over me. I grabbed a bar of soap and started scrubbing my body. By the time I was done my whole body stung, but at least I was clean. I grabbed one of the fluffy towels and wrapped it around myself. I went into my room and spotted the huge walk-in closet. There was so much clothes and shoes. I found the pajama section after about a minute of looking, it was a bunch of silk slips. I frowned, are you kidding me, seriously no sweatpants, what was wrong with these people. I looked through the selection and settled on a bland gray one. I tugged it on then crawled into the luxurious bed. The soft blankets felt so good and the puffy pillows. I almost moaned, Ezmia jumped onto the bed and snuggled in next to me. Her scales were nice and warm, heating my chilled skin. I sighed then closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.