Emerald Moon

By Amy

People have heard of fantasy before. Fantasy is imagination mixed in with human beliefs. And sometimes in this world, a fantasy can become a reality... but what would happen if a reality becomes a fantasy...?

Chapter One

Whole New World

One calm morning, I was walking to school. The wind brushed through my hair and I smelled the fresh air. I closed my eyes and started daydreaming. Sometimes, I just don't want to do anything but think. Think about how my life could be different from the way it is now. My friends often tell me that I'm too much of a dreamer. "What's wrong with dreaming?" I would always ask myself. Sure, most of the time my mind's somewhere else besides reality, but what's wrong with dreaming? You don't have to be a kid to read fairy tales, right?

"Arina! Let's walk to school together!" I heard my friend Seina call from a distance. Now broken out of my daydreaming state, I turned around and greeted her. With her short, dark brown hair fluttering through the wind, Seina smiled widely and asked "Hey, Arina. Did you read a book called ‘Emerald Moon' yet?" After hearing the words ‘Emerald' and ‘Moon' my mind flickered.

"Argh, no I haven't! I heard that it was a really, really good book! So I'm saving up my money to by a copy. I wanna to read it soo badly..."

"Oh, really? It is a great book! Here, you can borrow my copy." Seina dug through her bag and pulled out a thick hard cover book.

"S-seriously? Are you sure?" I was already reaching out for the book.

"Yeah of course! Anyways, my friend, Koru is going to take me to go see the movie this weekend."

            As I clutched the book, I was humming to myself happily. For I just received the fairy tale that I, a fantasy fan, was looking forward to reading ever since it was published. "Thank you, Seina! You're my best friend!" I cried.

            "Ha ha. Well that's nice to know, but it's no big deal. Keep it in tell you're done with it." I smiled. I was lucky to have a good friend like Seina.

            I arrived at school and went straight to my classroom. Eager to read the book I just received, I quickly sat down in my desk and pulled out ‘Emerald Moon'. I decided to first flip through to see how big the words in it were, but I didn't mind big words actually. I had a pretty good vocab. As I was flipping through, it surprised me that it was printed out with large text. The book was big, but the story was short. Then, something baffled me even more. There were a few pictures in it. This story must really be meant for kids... but that didn't really matter to me. Just because I'm a middle school student doesn't mean that I'm too old to read this kind of stuff. I looked closely at one of the pictures. A round, white creature with long arms was what I saw. "Mr. Toko..." I read the name under it quietly out loud. It appeared strange, but it was cute. I looked up and saw Hayashi-sensei coming into the classroom. I quickly placed the book back into my bag; if I didn't, Hayashi-sensei would've probably confiscated it...

            As Sensei was teaching math, I was looking outside of the window, daydreaming once again. I stared at the trees with their thin braches flowing in the breeze. I saw kids playing soccer outside for gym class. It was cloudy, so today the sun hid behind the clouds, making the world dimmer. I enjoyed looking at the scenery outside the window. I could see so much just by glancing through the shiny glass. Then, something floated by. My eyes widened. A small, round, white creature with long arms floated in front of me outside the window. It smiled and waved at me. I stared for a bit. Blinked a couple of times. It was still there, smiling. "Oh... OH MY GOD!!" I screamed.

            "I-is something wrong, Miss Kurosaki?" asked Hayashi-sensei.

            I flew out of my desk and waved my arm at the window. "Th-there's a flying egg thingy with long arms right there!! What was his name?! Mr. To...ki...?" I looked at the window. Nothing was there. I looked around the classroom; I could feel my face warming up. Then I looked at Hayashi-sensei with her hands on her hips. "Umm... uh..." I didn't know what to say.

            I could hear people around me laughing at me as I walked home. I just made a total idiot of myself. Well, lots of people already made fun of me before that, but it still felt so embarrassing. I must've been hallucinating or something. There's no way that the Mr. Toko character could be real...

            I plopped onto my bed when I got home. I stared up at the ceiling. I wanted to forget everything that happened today and just daydream. I closed my eyes. It's not that I'm unhappy with my life right now. It's just that I'm not really sure of who I am. Sometimes, I think that I'm a different person... it's just a feeling I have in the back of my mind. Sometimes, I feel like I don't even know who I am anymore...

            I heard something tapping against my window. I opened my eyes and sat up. I looked at window and pushed the fluffy blue curtain aside. My eyes widened. Floating right there was the round creature with long arms, Mr. Toko. "ARGH!! It's you again!" I pointed straight at him. He looked completely real; what in the world was going on? Then, very suddenly he disappeared into then air. I paused for a bit and peeked out my window. I didn't see anything... was I hallucinating again? Have I gone nuts? I started to regret borrowing the ‘Emerald Moon' book from Seina. I think it's driving me insane!

            I felt like something was in my room, but I looked outside the window again to make sure that I wasn't seeing anymore crazy egg shaped monsters. I didn't see any; I just saw tress, people, and houses. That's how it's supposed to be. I took a deep breath and prayed that I wouldn't see anymore wacky hallucinations. But I should've known better. I had a thing for bad luck; my prayers were never answered. I looked over to my left and saw the bizarre creature once again.

            "GYAA!! Out! Get out! GET OUT!!" I screamed and threw my pillow at him. He swiftly dodged my cushion and smiled brightly. Before I could have any more reactions, he quickly floated over and licked my lips with his big tongue. I screamed and punched him. Oh my God! That was my first kiss!! I didn't even know that thing had a tongue! The egg shaped creature patted his head where I had hit him and smiled, not seeming to mind what I had just done to him.

            "I'm Mr. Toko! It's nice to meet you, Princess." He was cute, but I was scared of him. I didn't know that he could talk. And what did he mean by ‘Princess'?

"Now if you don't mind I will now be kidnapping you."

            "Hey! Wait!! But I do mind!"

            "Hmm, then that's too bad." His long arm touched the ground and little ripples appeared on the ground. My feet then started to sink into the ground. I was terrified to find myself falling into my bedroom floor like quicksand.

            "You stupid egg!! Let me go!"

            "Sorry, but no can do."

            "N-no...!" My head then sunk under the floor and I was in a clear open space with no boundaries. I looked around the empty area. I noticed that I was floating, but then I started to drop downward slowly. Suddenly, I wasn't floating anymore so I was falling. Falling down into the empty dimension...

            I wasn't sure of how long I was falling, but then the dimension was changing. I started to see walls around me, like if I was inside a house. I was knocked out of my dreamy state when I suddenly fell straight into a sofa. I quickly sat up and looked around. I was in a room, a very messy room that is. There was an old wooden table in front of me, and a couple of drinks; one of the drinks was tipped over and spilling into the carpet. There were random miscellaneous items everywhere. I don't think that I would want to know just what was in the junk piles anyway. Mr. Toko looked around and sighed.

            "Aww, Veon's not here..." Just then, the door clicked open and in came a young boy wearing strange clothing. Well, actually his clothes weren't really that strange... if compared them to his cat ears and tail that is. I stared at the bizarre boy. Was he even human? Maybe those ears and tail are a costume I thought. The cat boy grinned.

            "Mr. Toko! What the heck did you bring back this time?" He gave me a funny look, but I think I was giving him a pretty strange look too.

            "Oh, her? I thought that we could sell her. She's pretty cute; I think we'll get maybe around 2,000 Flowers off of her."

            "Eh? Flowers? What are you talking about?"

            "Y'know, Flowers. Our currency!"

            "No, Toko... Flowers are not a currency."

            "Oh... really?" Mr. Toko sniffed sadly to find out the harsh reality.

            "Yeah, yeah. Now just tell me the real reason why you kidnapped her. Cause you would never go through the trouble if it wasn't worth it..."

            "That's because she's the princess."

            "What...? The princess?!" The cat boy came close and swept my bangs aside. "Whoa! The legend really is true!" He jumped in the air for joy. "Yes!! We're gonna be rich!" I felt annoyed and confused.

            "Wait! Can you guys at least explain to me what's going one?!"

            "Hm? What do you mean? We're gonna sell you and become rich."

            "No! I mean why is Mr. Toko ‘real' when he was in a fairy tale?"

            Mr. Toko eye's seemed to light up. "Sweet! I'm in a book?"

            "I didn't know that..." the clueless cat boy said.

            I did a small frown. These guys were really getting on my nerves. "Okay, then just tell me about the whole princess thing."

            The cat boy's ears twitched and he started to walk away "You're explaining this one, Toko."

            "What?" Mr. Toko seemed surprised by the cat boy's laziness. "Okay, fine. I'll tell what I know..."

"So, a long time ago, there was a princess who had magical powers that came from the moon. Her powers could destroy a whole kingdom, but she lived in peace and never tried to cause anyone harm. But then a dark colony came to her kingdom that tried to destroy everything. The princess wanted to protect her kingdom, but she refused to fight... instead she prayed for hope. In the end, her kingdom was saved and both kingdoms lived in peace because of the princess's power. But the princess died shortly after from using too much of the moon's power. It was said that the princess said that she would be reborn in another world, and that her reincarnation will have the same powers as her. And she also wished for her reincarnation to live in peace. After the princess died, the moon turned into an emerald green color and it has been like that ever since. The princess was then treated like a God, and that's how her birthday became a special holiday for this world..."

            I paused for a bit, thinking about Mr. Toko's whole story. "But wait, how do you know that I'm the princess?"

            "Cause you have the moon mark on your forehead." He held up a mirror. "Look for yourself."

            I stared closely at my refection. "On my forehead?" I swept some of my bangs aside and saw a green crescent moon shape, almost like a tattoo. "Aah! How long has this been here?!"

            "Probably not very long. Cause the myth says that the reincarnation is supposed to receive that mark at a certain age or something." Mr. Toko took a deep breath and flew over to the cat boy who was reading the newspaper. "Veon! I'm done explaining so give me a reward!"

            Veon looked up and took out a ripe banana. "Okay, here's a banana." Not upset with his prize, Mr. Toko gladly took it and shouted for joy.

            I looked down at the ground, not knowing what to think or how to feel anymore. "So are you guys going to sell me?"

            "Hmm?" Veon turned around and looked at me. "Well if you have such a big problem with being sold, then instead..." He came closer and placed his hand by my face. "...How bout you marry me?"

Chapter One End...