Young Writers Society

How's this for a beginning? It ends sort of abruptly since it's just an excerpt, but I want to know how it sounds.

There was a land on the farthest eastern border of the known world which had accumulated many names. Travelers who were familiar with the place called it the Sea of Green Whales for its hills covered in an endless blanket of ancient sunsigh trees. Those who grew on its outskirts and were raised with an eye single to its strange atrocities dubbed it the Neverwoods. Mystics and scholars who only began to scratch the surface of its more disconcerting secrets called it the end of the world.

Those who lived there simply used the name it had been given from before the recollection of time. They called it Terra Rhune.

The inhabitants of Terra Rhune knew better than anyone how to live in harmony with the land. True, they could not even begin to unveil every secret tucked into its rich green twilight, but they accepted this peacefully, and so Terra Rhune accepted them. They spaced structures generously so as not to clear too many trees in one spot. All over certain parts of the forested hills one could find small clumps of buildings, randomly distributed and rather imaginative in architecture.

In one of the many dispersed neighborhoods of Terra Rhune there sat a girl named Marjory Lonway looking out the grand windows of her living room upon the forest floor far below. Or, so it appeared. With her chin resting on the arm of the couch, she flicked through a leather-bound booklet, waving her feet in the air behind her. She giggled with pleasure at one of the pages and sighed at another. So immersed was she that it took her more than it usually did to notice her brother snooping over her shoulder.

“Cole!” she screeched. “Dull Cole. Get your snoopy little…”

“Margie Moo Cow thinks that Lan has lovely eyes!”

“Who knew Dull could read a sentence in five minutes.” Marjory humphed and marched up to her room.

“Moo Cow loves her Lanny Lan!” Cole called after her.

“You of all people should know that I only make pet names for boys that I’ve fallen completely in love with or boys that I positively can’t stand. You fall under the second category, if you didn’t know.”

Cole ran to the kitchen making gagging noises, and Marjory considered it a victory.

After making sure her journal was thoroughly hidden, she danced back down the stairs and past Cole as quickly as possible. But just before closing the front door behind her, she shouted, “Don’t hurt yourself, Dull.” He didn’t have time for a retort.

The sun was high in the sky, which meant that the leaves filtered in a soft green glow that danced between shadows on the cobblestones. She stood on the tips of her toes, already feeling herself grow lighter, and allowed the breeze to flow through her until she became the wind. Leaves picked up from the ground and fluttered after her, forming around her body until it was possible to see the faint outline of a girl traveling with the wind.

She whistled through the boughs of great sunsigh trees until she reached Dassa’s division high on the crest of Marjory’s same hill. Dassa’s house was big and lovely, and the trees around her division were thin enough to give a grand view of Terra Rhune. Dassa and Lloriera were sitting on the lawn in front of the white-trimmed house. They both watched in envy as Marjory rematerialized before them.

“I still can’t get over how beautiful your powers are. It can be so dull just being a canary. They say it’s a secondary wake, but sometimes I wonder,” Dassa sighed.

“I can’t imagine you with any other wake, Dassa. Besides, canaries are lovely. At least you don’t have some sort of monkey-man wake like my brother. It’s better to travel in style than to travel jumping from tree to tree,” Marjory said as she sat down next to them.

“Yes, and be glad you don’t have a tertiary wake like those poor girls being kidnapped by the Wizard Orpheus,” Lloriera shivered.

“I don’t know. I think it would be rather exciting. They say that Orpheus is quite young and handsome,” Marjory said. Her friends laughed.

"Honestly, Marjory. I believe you could fall in love with... well, actually, I can't think of a more outrageous person to fall in love with than an evil wizard."

"A sly, handsome, evil wizard. Perhaps I will have a tertiary wake. I'm just about the right age to discover it."

"But really, it's absolutely terrible to think of those girls locked up in his castle, being used for their powers and who knows what else. Why is it that only girls have tertiary powers? If only some strong young men were kidnapped, they could keep those girls company." Now it was Dassa's turn to have a dreamy look in her eyes. Marjory made a face.

"Even if I came to find out that Orpheus wasn't my type, he would not have an easy time of keeping me captive. You can be sure of that."

"Oh, I don't doubt it, Margie. Honestly. But it makes me terribly sad that all this is happening. Five girls have gone missing in just a few months! I knew poor Oni. She was in my herbology class. No one with a powerful wake has felt safe since Wizard Orpheus showed up," Lloriera said. "We can't even figure out how to get past his wards. I only hope they can find that mage in Riordina before..."

Marjory put a hand on Lloriera's shoulder. "Don't worry. Orpheus doesn't strike me as the murderous type."