Mistica Chronicles


Welcome to Issue 47

Xeiana Winning Entry

A sound similar to a sonic boom echoed throughout the lands of Mistica. Although many would never know what had caused it, those who found themselves near the Quarry would be able to fill them in. Somewhere above the mining entrance something fell through the rather cloudy sky, a small dot of black hurtling down through a cloud like an oversized raindrop. It didn’t pick up any attention from the ground until a loud scream pierced the heavens. Miners, Gurahdi, and gargoyles alike instantly found the source of the ruckus, right as it was about to collide with the rocky sands outside. As quick as the wind, a small Gurahdi swooped in and grabbed the legs of the poor creature, a human it looked like. Flapping her wings, she flew over to a guard of the Quarry and landed, carefully placing the strange human onto the sandy surface.

With a start, said human sat up, rubbing his head. Blearily looking around, his eyes fell upon the proud bird. The piercing scream resonated with the air and he crawled backwards to get away from her, only to run into something that felt like two pillars of stone. Hesitantly, dark green eyes drifted upwards to see a rather tall black skinned creature. Screaming again, he attempted to get up and run away, but a strong hand gripped the back of his shirt, lifting him into the air.

“Will you be quiet, human? Did you fall off from your Belragoth friend or something?” The tall figure was a Gargoyle, a rather new guard in the area. The human looked terrified clutched in her hand, trying to pry the hand off him but finding it absolutely impossible. He also had noticed a lot of the other miners in the area, ranging from what looked like tiny people with fairy wings, short pointy eared thing, humans like himself and also of the being holding him, and even strange aquatic people.

“Ah! Let go of me, you! Where am I?” Arching an eyebrow at the raven haired teenager, the gargoyle shrugged and let go of his shirt, watching the human land on the sand. She dismissed the Gurahdi, named Windbreaker, but the bird had decided to stick around just in case. Luckily most of the miners decided to go back to working on finding items, many of them leaving and new individuals entering the area.

“You’re in the Quarry.” The guard said, holding the glaive she wielded in one hand, the other on her hip as her wings folded behind her.

“You must be kidding me, I’m from New York, there’s no sand around there at all! Who set this up, was it Ricky? Oh I’m going to get him back for this.” The human, David, said, talking to himself near the end. The gargoyle had no idea what to do about this strange kid. What was New York? This must has translated onto her normally stoic face, for David stopped talking and was staring at her.

“… This isn’t a joke, is it?” The gargoyle’s face remained, well, stony to be honest. She barely ever joked around, even with the few younglings of her clan. To have this human think this was strange, since to be a guard, one had to remain calm in all situations, of course having a human falling from the sky with no idea where he is wasn’t something she was trained in.

“No, you are in the lands of Mistica. Are you sure you weren’t headed towards Kingdom Village?” The shaking of David’s head was a quick answer to her question. She sighed and pointed to where the shops lay so he could get out of the sun, a hint that the human was quick to pick up. She began to walk and he followed behind her, looking around to examine where he was.

“No, I don’t even know where that is. Now mind telling me how I can get back to New York, um…. What was your name?” David was suspicious of these strange characters. In all his history lessons, he had never heard of ‘Mistica’. Though honestly how he got here was kind of strange, and he thought it had to do with his friend Ricky who had sent him an email with a link to this strange interactive video.

“Akelia.” Sweet and to the point. Since it was obvious she was a guard, she left that title out. Due to the minute it took to walk down to escape the blistering heat, the Gurahdi from before circling above them to keep an eye on them, she explained that there was no place called ‘New York’.

“Great, Ricky’s stupid video sent me to La-La Land…” This mumble from David didn’t go unheard, as a soft voice traveled down from a nearby house’s ceiling.

“There’s something odd about the energy from above where he fell Akelia. Tell me, young human, what happened?” Both looked above to see that Windbreaker had joined them again. David frowned. He did compliment himself on not freaking out too much at the strange bird creature, or this tall ‘Akelia’ person who both had wings and a tail. Thinking back, and sitting on a rock, he remembered the video from before.

“Well, not much, other than there were whispering and static. The screen was black and green and to be honest, I thought my friend had sent me a hacked video of some sort. I couldn’t make out too much of the words, but I know when I leaned in, something said ‘Valyr, there’s someone here.’. And then there was an answer and the video let out a loud screech. I closed my eyes and wound up falling from the sky.” The two guards looked interested and maybe even slightly troubled. Was it possible for those strange toadstools that had been appearing to be the cause of this?

“Windbreaker, send another one of your guards up to check on that energy before it disappears, and then go talk to the chiefs about this. I doubt that this will be the only incident, and I have a feeling on what might be causing it.” With a small smile and nod, Windbreaker pushed off the building, her wings sending her spiraling upwards and away. Akelia turned around and began to march away, with David sitting there with a clueless face.

“You’re coming with me to get settle in, human. Keep up!” The stern tone broke David out of his confused daze, racing to catch up to the gargoyle’s large strides.

“The name’s David!”