The Quadbrid

Chapter 1

I'm Nyra. I'm 22, and this is my story. But before we start, u should know a little about me. I live in a very small town, on the edge of a very small state, on the edge of the largest island on earth. That's right. Australia. Bicheno, Tasmania, to be exact. I was adopted by great parents; Susan and Greg.

They loved me from the moment they saw me, when I was about 6 months old. There was a necklace around me with my name on it. Looks almost like it was made out of a foreign material and it has these strange symbols on it.

The first one looks almost like a target, if a target was triangular. The second one was a dash at the same height as the top point of the triangle. The next symbol was a circle with a triangle inside it, and the last was another dash, but at the bottom.

The necklace is shiny but it wasn't silvery grey like most metals, it was PURPLE. I'm pretty sure it's stained to look that way. But I can't be certain. I wear it every day. I NEVER fake it off. Its a clue to who I was, maybe who I belonged to, before the adoption.

I'm the basketball coach for my town. I know—I look about fourteen. Most people are surprised, but I'm good at what I do, and everyone in town knows it.

Growing up, my parents tried to give public school a shot. It didn't go well. I was weird and unpredictable, and no matter how hard I tried, I never really fit in. Always seen as the outcast

It was obvious I was never going to fit in, so when I was 10, Susan and Greg decided it would be best to homeschool me. I learned A LOT from them. Math, English, science, French, Spanish and even a little Japanese! I also learned that every life matters, no matter how small. And when they passed last year they gave me their cabin which was placed smack bang in their nature reserve, which I've been tending ever since.

There are beehives and birds and a pond, with the forest being more alive than I've ever seen it in childhood. I've always had a green thumb, but this is almost… magical. Anyway, let's start this story!

It's the last week of autumn. The wind plays with the fallen leaves, and it's the time of year things start to get colder. I hold my hand out and the wind dances between my fingertips. I walk towards the pond and a wave of calm washes through me.

I walk past the many manmade beehives my reserve has, and make sure all is in working order. I talk to the koi, who I named after my childhood heroes Belle and Mulan. I'm assuming they are both girls. Otherwise one of them is a boy with a girl's name. Not that it's such a big deal these days.

Mulan, the orange one, rushes to the surface to greet me as Belle, the shy and green one, stays below. “Hello! How are my favourite girls!” I say, Mulan seems to understand, Belle looks up at me, and I almost think she's finally going to surface, when she actually dives down deeper.

I feel a little hurt, rejected, when Mulan steals all my attention. I give them both some flakes and, as usual, Belle takes that opportunity to rise to the surface and snatch all the food for herself.

I continue on as I walk past the trees, as the wind whispers past them, swaying large branches from way up high. I climbed one once, when I was younger. I ended up with a large scar on my knee. I stopped climbing after that.

I spotted a white owl. I named her Hedwig a few years ago. She seems to really like this reserve. Her white majestic feathers spotted with brown down her back. I wish I could see her flying. It's beautiful.

I continue the path I've made from walking the track every day, when I accidentally walk into a spiderweb! I apologise profusely to the small jumping spider, “OMG IM SO SORRY! I didn't mean to break your home!” I start crying. I feel horrible.

The small spider begins repairs immediately and I remove the broken web from my hair. I'd offer to fix it, but I can't spin webs. I just have to be a lot more careful next time! I wait and watch to make sure the spider will be ok before moving on down the rest of the trail

Before I knew it I walked back to the pond, it was getting late and I decided I wanted to start a campfire. It had been an ordinary day. I got up, went to work, came home and I'm now sitting by a fire I made next to Belle and Mulan.

I'm still sitting at the campfire, pondering my mundane thoughts and planning my basketball coaching for tomorrow. Will Billy ever learn to pivot properly? Why does Gus always travel with the ball? How can I make the littlies lesson fun? Oh how I miss you Mum and Dad. You always knew what to do

I was so focused on those thoughts when SNAP! It felt like a giant rubber band breaking. It felt like something broke within me, like something was finally freed

Suddenly, the wind picked up, it felt like it was strong enough to lift me up off my log, and it looked as though the trees were going to snap in half.

The trees seemed to scream like they just lost a loved one. I know how that feels. The trees kept crying, the wind got stronger and I heard a tree fall!

I rushed to make sure nothing was harmed when suddenly all the animals started running in my direction. Then they stopped.

Everything stopped. The wind halted, almost like it was holding its breath, the trees stopped their screaming, the animals just kept staring at me, into my soul, then they just casually walked away. “Weird,” I said, peering out at the, now calm, body of water in front of me, tadpoles darted between the rocks in the shallow corner of the pond, as if hiding from the natural phenomena, and dragonflies skimmed the water, and as the koi seemed to glide under the surface as if they were dancing. All was well, nothing was harmed.

I shrugged, got up, and rebuilt the fire as the wind blew out my old one.. I collected twigs, moss, larger branches, and a piece of newspaper lit by some matches. And soon, the fire was roaring again.

I sat there, alone, roasting marshmallows, playing with my necklace and warming up when I noticed something strange about the fire. I couldn't figure it out at first. But then I moved my head, as I do when trying to figure something out and the fire moved too!

I moved my head in the opposite direction and it seemed to follow me. I got up and the flame shot higher, like it was challenging me, I sat back down because if it got any bigger it would burn the whole forest down.

Then it took my shape. Not just a rough outline, but I could SEE myself in the flames. Then a feeling of recognition hit me so hard I thought I'd fall from my log. This was a missing piece of… me.

The fire wasn't just looking like me, it WAS me. I understand it was fire, but it was a piece of me I didn't have before. As I sag on the log, the wind played with my long yellowish green hair, brushing into my clear blue eyes. I put my hair up and put out the fire. That was weird enough for tonight i dont want to focus on it anymore, and I went to bed. I fell asleep almost immediately.

My dreams have always been vivid, but it was like someone flipped the switch to 100. I saw images, a necklace resembling mine, someone looking at a baby, and a disembodied voice saying “Find Out Who You Are!” Before my alarm started blaring