I pressed my eyelids against eachother, too afraid to open them.
The loud crash stopped, A deafening calm. I felt a cool breeze brush past the locks of my hair.
Then, nothing.
Curiosity pushed my eyes back open. The wave had stopped - right on track.
But what's more? Everything had frozen right in place. No one was moving. Not even Jentil.
Everything with magic in it was perfectly still. Jentil had stopped too. I waved my hand over her face to confirm.
No response.
It was like hitting the pause button on a TV screen mid-finale of an epic showdown.
My face lit up, a surge of relief, of pride.
I couldn't believe I actually did it.. for a moment I thought everything had wiped off-- including myself.
I huffed. Now, the universe owed me a day-long sleep for this bittersweet heart pounding experience of an adventure.
My eyes paced around and stopped on Jentil's magical portal.
It stood there, stubborn as ever. The only element which still beamed and glowed admist the frozen world.
But it was my only way back, back to earth..
I dived through it and for the first time in my life, fantasy looked like a nightmare I badly wanted to wake up from.
And the gleaming portal with radial orange mirror stood as my last alarm clock.
I leapt through it, a free bird from my reckless imagination.
***
Narrative POV
Or so she thought..
Because the portal didn't take her to earth,
It definitely didn't return her to LoudeRealm where Jentil had teleported from.
The connection between space and time is intertwined. For one moment lost, a gap appears.
So, Elements, during the soaring magical wave shifted and interconnected.
And in the cause of such commotion, time itself rewound into the first day Nirit had major encounter with the magical world...
"Grab a torchlight!" Ms Anne yelled after her student, who was already on the run to grab all the equipments needed from the storage room.
Nirit Zarin paused, right on track.
She felt a glitch. Her memories filled her in on the adventures she was supposed to have in the next 50 second till date.
She blinked. Then again. And then continuously, like doing that would erase whatever was just revealed to her.
She laughed, a muffled one. "The kids at school are right.. ", she held up her palms to her face like they held the exact answer she was desperately seeking.
Then dropping them in despair, "..I've really lost it."
Someone familiar passed her by without saying a word. Nirit already knew who it was, 'Jentil'
"Jentil, wait!"
Jentil was rather surprised at the sudden call out.
She walked still, trying to ignore Nirit, or rather.. avoid her.
"I said--" Nirit appeared right in front of her, "--Wait!"
For a moment, they exchanged the 'WHAT?! ' look. Nirit had just teleported in the human world and that, without being an Osam.
"Hell, I didn't see what I just did. That's NOT supposed to be possible.. right?"
"I'm the one who should be asking the question here!" Nirit blurted.
" But you're literally the one who teleported," Jentil shot back calmly, "Not me~"
She paused, knowing and for certain that Nirit wasn't buying it.
Nirit folded her arms, her eyes glimmering with suspicion.
"Maybe you should just drop the act an fill me in on all the major 'incidents' lately."
"The storage room is this way, you're headed there.. right?"
"..."
"Let's go!"
Jentil dragged her to the only place where eavesdropping might actually be impossible.
The school's storage room, as unsuspecting as it looked, was actually enchanted with Jentil's magic which made it impossible for outsiders to hear any noises or see anything going on inside.
"Why did you bring me here?!" Nirit demanded, the moment the rusty iron door closed shut behind them.
Nirit's POV
She tried to shush me.
"I won't--" I tried to free myself.
"I promise, I can explain." Jentil insisted.
" Well you better start talking. " I warned her.
Before she could say anything, an eerie wave flowed past me. I looked at Jentil. She felt it too.
On instinct, I paced around, my eyes searching for anything left out of place that could possibly be the cause of it.
Then, I saw it.. the feather this wasn't supposed to be. My eyes darted towards Jentil, she was leaning on a pile of sack.
She wasn't supposed to be here. If that feather was here to take me to Whisper-Realm, then.. no one was supposed to be present to witness it.
Not even her. Or Cilicia.
***
Cilicia stared at the flute in her hand,
Moments ago, her mom had refused her permission to start up the Academy.
She scoffed,
"So much for being a 'Princess'!" She huffed, she stood up and opened her portal.
Nirit, found her.
But Jentil wasn't supposed to be there.
Nort was stuck between two crossroads;
Pick up the feather and live up the future, or Ignore it to rewrite history.
The time was ticking.
The rules where sharp and unfavorable. If she was one millisecond late into making her decision, it would affect the flow of the universe.
-----
The headlights above her soon looked like they were about to pick a fight with her. Yuna held her steering wheels, gripping them.
Traffic was slow. Too slow.
And Mrs Zarin was losing it. She took a sharp glance at the dim timer clicking right beside her. 6:45. Nirit hadn't come home.
Not only had she skipped curfew, but she had disobeyed the law of school timing.
The moment the headlights flicked green, Yuna hit the accelerator with full borne energy like she was auditioning for FastX.
She swerved past every vehicle, overtaking with maddening speed.
"Finally." The car screeched to a halt and up above her stood a massive building. Its peak stood bold like a midnight castle.
Yuna shut the car door, twirling her keys till the door gave a snappy sound.
She looked up at the building, flashing architecture and gleaming lights coming from just two windows out of the many of them.
Her voice shaky, but demanding. "Where are you, Nirit?"
Yuna's phone buzzed. She answered abruptly.
~"Public Healthcare Centre, I'm speaking with a Mrs Zarin?"
Yuna's hands shook but she maintained the tension and replied the person on phone,
"Y-es? "
"Your daughter.."