Ruby red.

Emma stone was a quiet girl when you first met her, but once you got to know her, you soon found out that she was so much more than quiet. Her friends knew her as sweet, funny, helpful, imaginative and so much more, but not even her 2 best friends had any idea how special Emma was, but they would soon find out. What was to come had already been set in motion, destiny had taken the first steps, the first threads of fate's web had already been pulled, and what was coming would change everything forever. It had to wait a bit, however, as this morning was just an ordinary morning like any other in a small town far away from most things, one of those kinds of towns where everyone knew everybody and privacy was something you could get if you moved to one of the bigger cities when you got big enough. Emma didn't know anything else and for once was quite happy with the way things were, she was a happy and content teenager of 16 almost 17, most of the time anyway and like most other teenagers regularly fed up with her parents on a regular basis, this morning was no exception. Emma had woken up 5 minutes before the alarm clock rang, much to her annoyance, because you could have slept a whole 5 more minutes, a quick bath after letting the alarm clock play snooze a few times, then dressed and down to the kitchen in search of something quick she could eat and preferably take it with her on the way to school when she was now close to being late for it. However, Emma's parents were of the opinion that she should sit down and eat something proper, so there she sat sulking and munching tiredly on a piece of toasted bun, which just grew in her mouth, as it removed everything that resembled saliva, while her parents looked at her questioningly, she mumbled: umm! before taking a sip of juice and swallowed. She grabbed the plate, brushed the crumbs off in the bin, stuffed it in the dishwasher and grabbed her bag and jacket, and she flew out the door with a: see you later , to her surprised parents who were left in the kitchen wondering if it really was it possible that Emma could move so quickly so early in the day as they exchanged telling glances at each other, little shakes of their heads. Safely on the other side of the front door, Emma made her way to her bike which was leaning against the wall of the house as she fumbled to unlock it, Deeks came by and stopped as he cheerfully said good morning, she mumbled slightly across the bike lock that she had definitely seen better mornings than this one… when Deeks asked what she said, she looked up briefly and replied good morning, I just said good morning. He tried to hide the smile that played at the corner of his mouth when he cheekily asked if it was one of those mornings? Her half-crossed look was more than enough answer, he burst into a laugh and said get on the horse with you or we'll be late. Deeks and Emma had known each other since 1 grade. and had been friends for almost as long, he was probably one of the few who would get away unscathed from making fun of Emma on a dull, dreary morning like this. The rest of this day, continued as it had started, giving Emma the feeling of being just right behind constantly. after school she was going to practice and met Sika before they went in to change for swimming. Their coach Tim was, as always, quick on the whistle and handing out extra lanes to those he didn't think were giving their best, so when practice ended the two girls tiredly pulled up to the edge and sat for a bit and chatted before going inside. and bathe and change. On the way home they met Deeks who was on his way home from his own training, football. The three friends talked and laughed and said silly things and lovingly teased each other all the way home to where Emma lived. There they all stopped for a bit and continued talking in the driveway, Sika suddenly asked if there were any new cracks in the asphalt, Emma stopped in the middle of a sentence and looked in the direction Sika was pointing. There were indeed some pretty deep cracks in the asphalt, Emma hadn't noticed them until she got a little closer and noticed a little steam coming from the deepest of them. Hmm strange she muttered mostly to herself. Out loud she said to Sika that it must be them, she hadn't seen them before, her thoughts were flying around a bit, maybe there had been a small earthquake during the day, she hadn't heard anything, she hadn't seen anything on the social media either media that there should have been one. She had to remember to ask her parents, then she remembered that it was Tuesday so they would be over at Betty and Kurt's and play cards tonight, well that would have to wait until tomorrow because she just wanted to go in now and have some food and do his homework and then head to bed. She said goodbye to Deeks and Sika, put the bike up against the house wall, found her keys in her pocket and went inside. When she later lay in her bed, she remembered the cracks, and it dawned on her that it wasn't just that steam had come out of it that had been strange, she had felt something pulling at her, not literally but still a move.. with that thought she faced a restless night as she quietly fell asleep. Emma didn't hear her parents come home and go to bed. She slept, a deep sleep, where more something kept pulling at her and when she woke up the next morning, she was almost tired than when she went to bed. Several days passed like that, and she caught herself yawning all day and trying to finish everything as quickly as possible so she could go to bed earlier. No matter how beside herself she felt, she found us that she wanted to sleep, she wanted to feel it again, that something pulling at her, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, she felt attracted to whatever it was there was at the other end the pull, without knowing what it was. . Friday evening, was a lovely late summer evening, warm and cozy and her parents had decided that they should have a barbecue that evening, she had been allowed to invite Deeks and Sika and they all sat together after dinner out on the terrace at the back of the house, overlooking the backyard and the edge of the forest at the end of the garden. Emma found it hard to concentrate on the conversation, her gaze kept finding a point down in the trees that caught and mesmerized her attention. Her mother had started to take off the table and her father had gone out onto the grass behind the house between the terrace and the edge of the forest, he had wrinkles on his forehead as he walked and looked down at the grass and occasionally kicked the ground and the tufts of grass a little. He called her mother and beckoned her to come to him. Her mother set down the bowl she had in her hand and went down to her husband. There they stood looking, pointing and chatting, now both with frowns. What is it she asked distractedly, her father flapped his hands and pointed again at the grass as he raised his voice so she could hear him up on the terrace, something with some holes in the ground, Emma shouted down to them that there had always been holes. somewhere in the lawn, but her father insisted that these were new, and quite deep. She could hear them mention something about earthquakes and thought of the cracks in the asphalt out front, when she mentioned it to them, they out front, to find that yes indeed there were deep cracks in the asphalt, but none of them had heard there was supposed to be an earthquake this week. it was all very mysterious, while her mother and father returned to the terrace and they were all sitting with their blankets and cups of coffee or cocoa, darkness descended and the terrace was lit only by a few torches along the stone at the edge of the terrace. Emma sat in the chair with the blanket snug around her and the warm cup in her hand and again she felt the strange draft she had felt all week, this time from the edge of the forest, where a light silvery mist billowed out between the trees and settled like a light blanket over the grass as it slowly crept closer and closer. That night was anything but calm, and when the light returned, Emma's life was changed forever. The night settled like an impenetrable veil over Emma's consciousness, the pull had gradually grown stronger and stronger over the course of the week. but when later they were all in their beds and asleep, the silvery fog mist crept silently into the house at no. woodtreeroad. 8, cm by cm, snaked across the floor, around the furniture and up the stairs towards the rooms. Emma was in a strange dreamless state, her body was both calm, relaxed and at the same time in constant fight or flight mode, mixed with a small twist of being excited about something you had been looking forward to for a long time. When the silver mist crept into her room and silently moved towards her bed, crept up the legs of the bed and laid itself like a soft blanket around her body, a series of events began that would prove to be the start of an adventure that would not once Emma had been able to imagine with her highly developed imagination. Outside, the forest had begun to stir, the cracks in the asphalt began to give way, the holes in the lawn seemed to widen, a transparent haze rose from both and made the air seem to dance. the moon was half full, but gave just enough light to make the whole scene in the far corner of the backyard look like an eerie shadow play, of twisted figures that moved in a strange kind of dance. It seemed as if the whole forest was slowly brought to life, and began to take part in this dance, these slow rhythmic movements, without any music. a strange whisper came deep within the tangled branches of the trees, in an ancient language long forgotten in this part of the world, something began to stir in the darkness, some kind of simmering energy, some ancient kind of magic that had not been on these edges for centuries, the kind of magic that could do things no one here could imagine, the kind that once created the world, and all its beautiful, strange beings, the kind of magic that ran in the veins and every nerve of elves, unicorns, dragons and their ilk. which oozed from the leaves of the trees right now, causing the branches of the trees to take the form of their long-extinct ancestors in this world. One of the hundred-year-old oaks, exhaling as if it had held its breath all the years it had lived, and stretching out its long branching arms and shaking its leaves lightly, rolled its great crowned head with its hooked nose from side to side, as to loosen a stiff neck before it stood up and pulled its roots out of the ground and straightened its entire gnarled old body to its full height. He was a magnificent sight as he stood there with his 17-18 meters stretched out, and long arms hanging down with the green leaves on them, he looked around and saw how everything around him came to life, little flowers in the forest floor, which had otherwise closed their crowns for the night, awoke and opened their leaves to see what was happening around them as they stretched their little stems. Mossy stones began to move and rub against each other as if to greet old friends and you could faintly hear the moss on the surface of the stones giggling as it tickled them. Several of the surrounding trees, big and small, began to wake up like the big old oak. The eerie whispers continued as a deep rumble began deep in the darkness, deep in the heart of the forest, so deep that the sound was tangential to the infrasound level below 20 hertz, the ground opening into an uneven c***k to begin with , deeper and deeper, finally getting wider and wider, but not so wide again… just wide enough to let something through, something that had been calling Emma for a long time now, that had longed for her, something that would move heaven and earth to be near her, something so old and full of this ancient magic that was now infecting the entire forest with its presence. Infusing the otherwise speechless, alive though not the kind of alive like the way it had now become, with life, the magic seeped out into every nook and cranny in a great circumference from the c***k, touching everything around it. The strange quiet whisper, rose to a quiet form of melody, with otherworldly voices entwined in each sublime note, so that even the music came alive, and each note danced into the night like beautiful, elegant ballet dancers who could do the most acrobatic moves, all the while everything around was waking up and looking around after hundreds of years of sleep… small stones, dancing just above the ground in beautiful harmony, and completely in sync, the animals and insects of the forest were running scared in all directions to get away, a tiny bit of the world was reborn, the forest was changed, the way to a completely different place was paved, the gate to adventure now stood wide open, right in the heart of this vibrant magical piece of forest, the silver haze formed a winding path all the way up the divide at Emma's backyard, showing the way to the gate, that gate which was now blown open by an unbreakable band between the small ruby ​​red light slowly moving towards the other end of this band At the end of the leash Emma lay sleeping, restless now, every nerve in her body was awake, her skin quivering more and more the closer the indeterminate red light creature came to her. If she had been awake she would probably have been scared out of her wits by it all, but in her sleeping state, she heard a soft voice speak soothingly to her. I've been looking for you for so long, we belong together, you and I. I could immediately feel how special you were, in that second the fox appeared in my world, I have searched and searched for the gate, it was really hidden well, it has not been open for several centuries either, but I found it, I have opened it for you, I am on my way to you. It's so beautiful here, it feels like seeing and meeting really good old friends, they are all waking up now, I really didn't know they had fallen asleep for so long, think it was because Scalah closed the gate so long ago , the magic couldn't find its way through, so they all just fell asleep. There are so many at home who will be happy to see them all again, they have been so missed. How I've missed you, Emma, ​​without knowing what it was I was missing. Now I'm ready, the two of us are going to… oh I'm not going to think straight here at all, I'm just rambling .. it's just because I'm so excited to finally meet you. Emma heard it all in her sleep, she was not aware of what was happening, in her dream state her brain perceived it all as a dream. osse when it seemed as if everything that was going on in the backyard suddenly appeared in her head, as if she herself was watching it, but still no, there was like a different filter on what she saw, she saw the oak tree that greeted new waking up suddenly heard the moss's giggle and all her senses were awakened to maximum capacity and far beyond what was normal for a human, had she been awake she would have wondered, but now she just took it all in, while the little soft voice, wildly happy, described the whole thing, and told here and there about everything, so that sometimes it was really difficult to try to follow the little one's train of thought. The small ruby ​​red light had now slowly reached the stairs up to the rooms, the silver mist carried it undulating up the stairs, step by step, until it was now right next to Emma's bed, the mist gently lifted the small glowing being up to the bed and out of the mist rolled what most looked like an elliptical ruby ​​red stone like object with a rough and nubbed surface which in some places glittered in others was more matte, it was quite large approx. 25-30 cm from top to bottom with a diameter of at least 12-15 cm. It rolled all the way and if you didn't know better you would probably have sworn that it sort of straightened up on Emma's side, right up to her body, the second it touched Emma's sleeping body, came into contact with her skin , it was as if an electrically charged energy discharge connected the two and for a moment Emma's body lifted a few cm above the mattress to land gently and softly again still in deep sleep, the air in the room quivered for a few minutes, her digital watch waddled all the way a few minutes, just like everything else electrical in the house. Then it was as if it all settled down, the silver mist, landed where it was and was almost absorbed by floors, carpets and the like, the quivering magic landed like an invisible layer of dust all over, almost like a transparent film all over the house, even the creatures in the forest, the cracks the holes, and the pulsating gate deep in the forest fell still, as if they all held their breath to see what would come next, meanwhile Emma slept peacefully on, even the red stone looked like an object by her side, at last shut up and made only contented emissions like one who was really happy and snuggled up to her well and truly under her covers and fell asleep until the sun began to rise and it and everyone else was awakened by a very loud outburst coming from Emma's room, from Emma herself.