Butterflies

  My name's Stephanie and I can communicate with animals. Nobody knows about this, not yet, at least. I was only seven years old when I realised this “curse”, so I hid it down to this day.  Four months ago, I turned sixteen.  At the moment, I'm seated in my bathtub covered breast-length in lathered soap. My brown, curly hair skedaddles above the surface of the bathwater around me. I relaxed, even though I knew I needed to be fast so that I could get dressed and be downstairs right in time.  Yesterday, I was told I'd be going to live with my Uncle Ramsey the great. Yeah, I actually think he's wonderful, despite never having to meet him before. Although, mum and dad claimed that he spent a month with us when I was newly born.  Uncle Ramsey lived in a far, far away land. Like those types you see in fairytale stories. He has a daughter who — I was told — was just three years older than me. That makes her nineteen.

  Dorothy held my tattooed hand in hers. She smiled warmly at me, like she always does. Then she looked down in my hand. Suddenly, it was as if a thought struck her, then her countenance changed to that of puzzlement. I could tell from her searching eyes that something was really wrong.  “Is something wrong?” I finally asked.  She raised her eyes and looked into my face, then back at my tattoo.  “Stephanie, I've never seen anything like this. How come you have your Arerat symbol inscribed on your palm?”  “Huhn?”  Could things be any more eccentric? Here I am trying to understand why I have this on my hand, and here you are asking me the same question.  I quickly had an idea, so I said, “That reminds me. Let's ask Uncle Ramsey. He should be able to explain this right? His chariot is just right in front of ours.”  She nodded.  “I'm sure my

  I couldn't make any sense of why this weird old man in a gray robe was acting all frenziedly. Was he trying to act a sarcastic drama or something, just to lighten the air? Even if he had to do so, couldn't he at least give some respect to his reputation? If there was one thing I despised the most, it was a clown! Oh, those horrible fellas!  I don't know how he was expecting me to react, but I wasn't going to fall for this.  As I watched the old man raise a finger at me, a memory flashed into my head. I remembered when I was just five years old and my school had to go to the circus for an escortion. We had a wonderful time there, but no one expected what would happen next. A clown showed up. Standing some metres from me, he made a quick scream that made everyone's heart skip a beat. He stared at me as though I was a demon and began running. The other kids, seeing this, were so afraid that they had to run away from me. The teachers seemed to have fallen for th

Unlike I expected, the kingdom of the Acorn Valley was divided into different smaller villages. It was amazingly beautiful — even more than I'd noticed it from above when I was on Roy.   Soon, led by my uncle, we arrived before our apartment. It was nothing like I'd ever imagine. Something like those ancient Chinese compounds in some movies. It had beautiful carvings here and there on the walls of both man and beast.   The compound housed several spare rooms that could house ten guests, each. In no time, I was shown the room that I'd be sleeping in. It wasn't luxurious, but was comfortable and pleasing to the eyes, nevertheless. There were empty shelves in the room, a big bed (much bigger than mine back home), and a toilet — gracefully — with a large bathtub.   I had pleaded that Roy stayed with me in the same room, of which my uncle concorded with, after much, deep contemplations. I feared that something bad might happen to my Roy; this place

Knock, knock!’  Before the door, I ran my eyes around to see anything that could draw in my attention for the moment, but gave up on it, after looking around.  It seemed like Bright was not contented with the silence from within the Acorn Master's office, so he made to knock on the door, for a second time. And just as he was about to do so, a young-looking man opened the door with a frown, as his head corked out.  This young man seemed to be around my age. But unlike any other boy from back home, this one had horns on his head like some kind of. . . ram.  “Young master, Jaiden. We seek an audience with the your father.”  Furrowing his eyebrows, Jaiden declared, after observing us both, “The Acorn Master is busy right now, and wishes no one disturbs him!”  Bright's eyes widened. From the look of things, he really revered this arrogant fellow.  So instead of draggin