Sahara Ashdell: Threat to Malorsty (Book 1)

Sahara reads the words of the card as she glances over toward her elfictionary book. She had been studying every spare moment the past two months. She looks at the date of the ball on the card, knowing she only has until tomorrow to pass the test. Headoreon Shawdlortur had told her to come by his office at any time before the ball to take the test. The plorksol game was tomorrow so, she had to complete the test today. Carol’s words break her train of thought, “You have nothing to worry over. You are sure to pass.”

“There is no way you will fail with the amount of time you have put in on studying.” Marol sits down next to her on the bed.

“Want us to go with you and wait outside his office?” Carol asks sweetly.

“I can take a change potion and make myself look like you, then go take it for you.” Bularia says seriously.

“No.” Sahara laughs at her roommates. “I can take my own test and I do not need the company, even though the thought is appreciated.”

“You don’t appreciate the offer to cheating for you?” Bularia asks sincerely.

Sahara smiles at her. “I do, but I can pass my own tests without cheating.”

“Fair enough.” Bularia shrugs her shoulders as she turns to leave their room. “Good luck. I need to get my mail. My mother was sending my ball gown for tomorrow. I hope it fits.”

“Oh!” Carol and Marol jump in response to Bularia. “Our dresses.” They say in unison.

“Yes. We must get ours as well.” Carol says.

“We will come with you.” Marol says as she hugs Sahara.

“Good luck.” Carol and Marol say together as they wave toward Sahara and follow Bularia out of the door.

Sahara finishes changing from her plorksol practice gear. Tomorrow was their first match against Torrest Academy, which was the academy from the region to their south. She freshens up before heading down to Headoreon Shawdlortur’s office. She raises her hand to knock on the door but before she even knocks, she hears the door begin to squeak as it opens. “Come in Sahara.”

“How do you do that?” Sahara looks around for a camera. “Are there cameras hidden somewhere?”

“I can hear your nervous feet tapping.” Sahara realizes she does twitch her toes as she tries to calm herself. She had not realized the noise they made until now. “I am sure you have nothing to be nervous about.”

Sahara rolls her eyes. “Only that if I do not pass, I have to spend more time with the most aggravating and annoying person on the planet.” Headoreon Shawdlortur tries to hide his smile from her but fails. “I am glad you find my life so humorous.” She huffs as she sits down at his desk with her pen.

“Yes, well shall we begin?” He says handing her a brown covered booklet. He turns over a large hourglass with silver sand in it before he tells her to open the booklet.

She spends the next hour carefully answering each of the questions and feels her heart stop as he finally says the word “Time.” He waves his hand toward her, and the booklet closes before it glides through the air toward him. She had two questions left that she had not answered. She had run out of time according to the hourglass.

“You will receive the results tomorrow at the ball.” He says as he uses his thumb and pointer finger to shrink the test down small enough to slide it into his pocket.

“At?” Sahara stands to her feet from the chair she was sitting in. “Not before?”

“You have the match against Torrest and I am afraid I will be much too busy tomorrow to give you the results before the ball. All the visitors from Torrest for the match and the travel of the students to Holestroy’s ball means the security needs are at a higher level than your test results. So, I must attend to securing needs first.”

“Thank you, sir.” She says knowing he could have just forced her to learn with Brystol as her tutor two months ago. “I appreciate the opportunity.”

“Of course, Aranel.” He bows slightly toward her. “I will see you tomorrow evening.”

Sahara sees elleths giggling and holding packages as she makes her way through the halls. She remembers her roommates earlier telling her about getting their dresses in the mail from their mothers. It must be a custom because she sees every elleth and ellon bustling around the halls with packages. She never receives mail and she knows that she has no one to mail her a dress. She feels her skin warm with sadness as she passes two elleths holding up their dresses to compare the styles and color. Sahara makes her way toward the stairs hoping to avoid the crowds. “Oh,” Waizlynn’s voice makes her blood curl. The last thing Sahara needs right now is to be bullied. “Sahara?” She sounds overly sympathetic. “You have no mother to receive a dress from, do you?”

Sahara tries to keep walking and keep her head down. She hopes Waizlynn and her small group of friends do not follow her. She hears them all giggle as she continues walking down the hall. She sighs in relief as she makes it to the staircase. “Hey!” She hears an ellon’s voice say and it causes her to turn toward him. “You are Sahara, right?”

Sahara looks around to see if some of the elves are playing a joke on her. The ellon speaking is a third year, she can tell from his yellow-colored shirt. “Yes?” She did not mean to make the word sound like a question.

“I am Tyde Wiggins.” He bows slightly toward her.

“Hi.” She says awkwardly, curious on why a third year was interested in talking to her.

“It is nice to finally meet you.” He smiles cutely at her, and she feels her heart melt a little. “I have heard about you practically my entire life and the past few months I have seen you around campus. I just never worked up the nerve to talk to you."

"Okay." Sahara says cautiously.

"Anyway.” He holds out a package toward her. "I work in the mailroom, and you received a package." Sahara looks at the package before looking back toward him in shock. "Everyone else had picked up their mail and this was the last one left. I know you are not use to..." He pauses and looks flushed for a moment before he continues, "I thought I would deliver it to you."

Sahara looks back down at the package still curious if this is some sort of joke. She had no one that would send her a package. The writing on the package has her name written in beautiful curly letters. She runs her fingers along her name and then slowly takes the package from Tyde. "Thank you." She wonders why there is no name on the outside saying who sent the package. "Do you know who sent it?"

"It will tell you after you pull the cord." He points to a small blue cord dangling from the side of the package.

"Alright." Sahara says as she tucks the package underneath her arm and smiles politely at Tyde.

"Would you," Sahara notices Tyde seems nervous with his words. "Tomorrow, I mean." She sees him twisting his fingers as he tries to speak. "At the ball. Want to dance?" He pauses before clarifying quickly. "With me."

Sahara feels surprised by an offer to dance with someone, because most of the time she has been in the elf world she had been avoided and ignored by ellon. Mainly because they all knew she was betrothed. "Yes." She blurts the word out far too quickly that it causes her to blush.

Tyde smiles happily toward her, and it again makes her heart jump slightly. "Alright." He looks behind him, toward a group of students running playfully past them. "Then, I will find you tomorrow night.”

"Yes." Sahara says before she turns and proceeds up the stairs. "Yes?" She whispers to herself as she shakes her head. "You could not think of any better response?" She scolds herself still whispering.

"A better response to what?" Bularia's voice makes her jump. "Who are you talking to?"

"Myself." Sahara says not feeling the least bit ashamed. "Do you know Tyde? He is a third year."

"Mailroom Tyde?" Bularia squints inquisitively toward her.

"Yes." Sahara responds, "I forget his last name. But he..."

"Who's last name?" Marol asks and Sahara realizes the twins moving up the stairs behind them.

"Mailroom Tyde." Bularia says. "We don't know his last name."

"Oh." Marol says understanding the conversation.

"Does anyone know Mailroom Tyde's last name?" Carol laughs.

"Wait does everyone call him Mailroom Tyde?" Sahara says stopping the group from moving up the stairs.

"Well, yeah." Bularia says flatly.

"Great." Sahara sighs in anguish realizing that Tyde must be an outcast to have a name like that. The last thing she needs is more of a reason to be made fun of.

"So, what about Mailroom Tyde?" Carol insists.

"Well, he asked me to dance tomorrow night." Sahara says as she grits her teeth. "Am I going to commit further elfdom suicide by dancing with Mailroom Tyde?"

The three elleth laugh at her question. "No." Carol moves up next to her as they continue up the stairs. "Mailroom Tyde is a nice ellon. Everyone likes him."

"And maybe it will finally change your nickname from pukey to Mailroom Tyde's elleth." Bularia teases.

"That actually sounds better than pukey." Sahara admits as she opens the J floor door.

"And he is really cute!" Marol blushes at her words.

"He is adorable." Sahara agrees.

"Hey!" Bularia snatches the package Sahara is carrying. "Did you get a package?"

"Yes." Sahara says proudly. "I have no clue who would have sent it."

"There is one way to find out." Bularia points toward the dangling blue cord. "Here." She shoves the package back into Sahara's arms. "Open it."

"I will in the room." Sahara says excitedly.

“Oh! How was your test?” Carol asks.

“Yeah, did you pass?” Bularia asks.

“I for sure missed the last two.” Sahara says continuing down the hall toward their door. “I ran out of time. But I think the others I knew.”

“He didn’t tell you the results yet?” Marol asks as she opens the door to their room.

“He said I would get the results tomorrow night.” Sahara says feeling worried.

The four of them enter the door room and Sahara quickly moves over sitting down on her bed. "Open it!" Marol pleads as she points to the package.

Sahara pulls the blue cord, and a swirling small tornado rises from package. The tornado turns into a holograph of the Tari. "Is that Brystol's mom?" Carol sits down next to Sahara on the bed in interest.

The small holograph begins to speak, "Hello, Sahara. I wanted to be sure you received your gown for the ball tomorrow night. I hope you will also accept an invitation to join us for Christmas this season, as you are our family. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Bye Elfie."

"Elfie." Bularia asks in interest, "Your future mother-in-law likes you more than Brystol?"

Elfie is a term of endearment to the elves, such as dear or sweetie is to humans. Sahara had never been called elfie before by anyone. It gave her warm tingles inside, "His parents seem to adore me, and they are very nice." Sahara says as she pulls back the brown paper revealing a beautiful sparkling green gown. She excitedly lifts the dress up from the package and smiles at the color, knowing it would not clash with her red hair.

"That is beautiful." Marol sighs in jealousy.

Carol runs her fingers along the glittery hem of the dress. "You will look good in green."

"What do your dresses look like?" Sahara asks looking around the room at the three dresses hanging next to each of the other elleth’s beds.

"Ours are always the same." Marol says disappointedly.

"We once loved dressing the same, but mother does not seem to realize that we now like to show our individuality." Carol says sounding annoyed.

Their two purple dresses are identical. Sahara tries to remember the color change spell she learned in class earlier in the year. "Ahyaquile." She says with a small smile and one of the dresses colors changes to a silver color.

"OH!" Marol runs over to the silver dress and takes it down from the hanger. She spins around and hugs the dress in excitement. "Brilliant Sahara!" Marol runs over and hugs Sahara as she squeals, "I love it!"

"Do mine." Carol runs over taking down the purple dress. "Can mine be yellow? I adore yellow and have always wanted a yellow dress."

Sahara thinks the spell ahyaquile to herself as Marol releases her from her hug. Carol gasps in glee, "Yes! Thank you, thank you!"

"I like mine the way it is." Bularia says flatly laying down on her bed. "Unless you can add some spikes along the edges."

Sahara laughs at Bularia as she glances over at the black dress dangling from the side of her bed. "I don't know the spell for that."

"Have you ever been able to do a spell without the elven language?" Carol asks in thought toward Sahara.

"That is not possible." Bularia says sitting up in interest. "Well, for us normal elves. You are the only elf I have ever known that can do thought magic without directing your magic though. Can you cast spells with out our language?"

Sahara remembers teleporting months ago without elven words. "I have before."

"Try it." Carol says laying down her dress on her bed and moving over toward Bularia's dress. "See if you could put spikes on Bularia's dress."

"What?" Bularia grabs her dress in defense. "No. What if you mess up my dress?"

"Alright." Carol looks around before picking up a dirty night shirt that is laying on the floor next to Bularia's bed. "Try it on this first."

"No!" Bularia grabs the night shift from Carol. "Why not let her test out your clothes."

"Here." Marol brings over a dress from her own closet. "You can do it on this old dress, I don't care what happens to it."

"I can't." Sahara finds a hanger in her closet next to her bed and places the dress on it before hanging next to her bed.

"How do you know before you try?" Carol takes the dress from Marol and lays it down on Bularia's bed. "Here. Just try."

"I am not supposed to be experimenting." Sahara sighs thinking of how she could get in trouble with Headoreon Shawdlortur if he found out. "It is against the school regulations. Elves are to."

"Only practice the spells and magic they learn in class, and not to experiment with the unknown." Bularia says annoyed.

"And to never do magic that will harm another elf. Magic can only be practiced in good faith, for the good of elves." Marol and Carol recite in unison.

Sahara rolls her eyes in annoyance of them teasing her with the rules. "Well, it is true."

"Don't you ever tire of following the rules?" Bularia straightens Marol's dress out on her bed.

"Not really." Sahara responds.

"No one will even know, besides us." Carol pleas.

"Just see if you can?" Bularia smiles toward her.

"Fine." Sahara scuffs before saying aloud, "Add spikes to the edge."

Carol screams in slight pain as she jumps back from Bularia's bed. Sharp silver spikes grow around the edges of the bed. Bularia jumps up to her feet in surprise as spikes surround her. "Oh no." Sahara tries to think of how to reverse the spell. "Go away." She says in a panic waving her hand and Carol suddenly disappears.

Marol cries out in fear. "Carol!"

"No. I didn't mean her!" Sahara feels herself further panic.

"Fix it!" Bularia demands trying to avoid touching the large spikes that are rising toward her.

"I didn't want to do this in the first place." Sahara says backing away from the spikes that are growing out of Bularia's bed toward her. The spikes seem to be growing down into the floor also. Sahara jumps up on her bed and closes her eyes tightly. She tries to focus on the spikes and thinks about them disappearing. She opens her eyes and still sees the spikes growing out. She remembers the last time she was panicked when the glorman was attacking her. Brystol's voice enters her head, Focus Sahara. She takes a deep breath and blocks out the panic she hears from Bularia and Marol. She thinks about the spikes disappearing and Bularia's bed going back to normal. She hears Bularia calm down before she opens her eyes and sees the spikes have disappeared from the sides of the bed and it looks normal. Now, she just needs to figure out how to get Carol back.

"Where is Carol?" Marol sobs in fear. "Why is she not back?"

Sahara knows she can teleport Carol back from wherever she went. She thinks about Carol being back in the room with them, but Marol's crying is extremely distracting. "Stop crying!" Sahara says angrily. "I can't focus." Marol does not seem phased by her request and continues to sound distraught. "Marol." Sahara says sharply. Marol tries to be quiet finally and Sahara closes her eyes trying to focus all her thoughts on Carol coming back to the room.

Marol suddenly sounds relieved as she shouts, "Carol!" Sahara opens her eyes and sees Marol's arms wrapped around Carol before falling to her bed in exhaustion. "Where were you?" Marol asks Carol as she wipes her tears.

"I don't know." Carol says sounding shocked. "Some wooded area. There was a strange animal like elf."

"What do you mean?" Bularia asks. "Like half elf half animal?"

"I had to hide behind a tree. There was some creature I had never seen before or even heard of with an elf top half and the bottom half was the body of a dragon." Carol falls to the floor as she speaks. "It was able to breathe fire and it was talking to a group of glorman in a strange tongue I did not recognize."

Sahara finds some strength to sit back up on her bed. "Glorman? It was talking to the glorman?"

"Yes. And I was so afraid they would see me." Carol begins to tear up as her eyes meet Sahara's. "Why did you send me there?"

"I didn't mean to." Sahara moves down to the floor next to Carol feeling bad for sending her into danger. "Were the glorman glowing?"

"Glowing?" Carol seems confused by the question.

"Yes, like green." Sahara specifies.

"I don't know Sahara." Carol sounds upset. "If they had seen me, they would have probably killed me!"

"She said she didn't want to try the spell and you both made her." Marol tries to defend Sahara.

"I am sorry Carol. I panicked and tried to make the spikes disappear from Bularia's bed, not you." Sahara hugs Carol as an apology. "I lost focus and I guess the spell caught you instead."

"They did seem to have a green tint to them." Carol says a few moments later. "It was day light though, so I could be mistaken."

Sahara feels her heartbeat faster knowing the glorman must be controlled by the half elf and half dragon creature. "Do you know anything else about the half elf creature you saw?"

"It seemed sick." Carol says adjusting the way she is sitting on the floor. "It kept coughing and said something about checking on Frazor."

"What is Frazor?" Sahara tries to remember back over the many terms she had learned over the past months but does not remember that word. The other three elleths remain silent as they each express nonverbally that they are unaware of the meaning of the word.

"Is that someone’s name?" Bularia asks.

"I think it might be a name." Carol says finally rising to her feet. "The creature yelled - Hurry up Frazor. Where are you? - after he had a weird cough attack."

The loud gong of the clock tower begins to sound in through their windows. "Maybe it was just one of the glorman's names." Sahara says as she rises from the floor and moves over to her trunk to retrieve pajamas.

“It wasn’t.” Carol responds, “I heard an ellons voice on a telecall or something before you brought me back. I accidentally stepped on a stick and they heard me. The creature was coming over toward me.” Carol tears up again. “I was so scared.”

"You’re safe now and we need to get in bed before the lights go out. I will ask Headoreon Shawdlortur tomorrow about the creature you saw." Sahara says slipping into her pajamas.

"If you do that, he will know what you did and then we will get into trouble." Carol says in concern. "You cannot tell him."

Bularia agrees, "That is a terrible idea Sahara."

"I can leave you all out of it somehow." Sahara tries to think of a way to ask without getting anyone in trouble. "I could just ask if there are any evil half elf creatures in a way he would not suspect. If those are the glorman that attacked me a few months back, then this creature may be the key to stopping them if it happens again."

"If he suspects anything," Marol says in concern, "I cannot lie. You all know I am a terrible liar."

"I can say I had a dream or vision." Sahara turns quickly toward her roommates and smiles at her thought.

"Then he will think you can see the future or something." Bularia shakes her head in disapproval.

"So." Sahara shrugs her shoulders, "Why would that be bad?"

"I don't know." Bularia says retrieving her night clothes from a pile on the floor.

"You really should wash your clothes Bularia." Carol snarls at the dirty clothes laying in the floor around Bularia's feet. "It is getting gross."

"I will tomorrow before the ball." Bularia huffs. "I wish I knew the spell to instantly clean clothing. It would make life much simpler." She holds up her hand in defense toward Sahara, "And no I do not want you to ever try and practice on anything again." The elleths all dress for bed as they laugh.

“I won’t bring it up if you all think it is a bad idea.” Sahara says as she crawls into her bed.

“I think that would be best.” Carol says.

“I agree.” Marol nods.

“Yeah.” Bularia agrees as she too crawls into her own bed. “It could get us in trouble.”

The nightly curfew dings and the lights go out. Sahara suddenly feels panic seep into her thoughts as she sits straight up in bed, "I don't know how to dance!" She had never been dancing before, she had only seen others dance at the Craig's parties.

Bularia laughs in response, "Won't Mailroom Tyde be excited to have bruised toes."

"Ignore Bularia. You will be fine." Carol says consolingly.

"Yes. You just let the ellon lead and it isn't that hard." Marol says sweetly. "We can practice after your game tomorrow."