Creating Worlds Writing Camp - Challenge 3 - Part 1

Hey everyone!

 

I have two parts for this challenge. It turned out really long!XD So, here's the first part, the next part will be up tomorrow.:)
These are the prompts I'm using-

 

Loren, I am also using the third one, but for some weird reason it won't let me upload it!:(

***

“Where are we going again?” Myka asked, glancing over to her care agent, Beatrice, in the driver's seat.

“Sandy Peaks,” She replied, her eyes glued on the desert road.

“And you said that the person who wants to adopt me is here?” Myka questioned, glancing around at the barren land. “I don't even see anything around.”

“Please be quiet, I am trying to focus,” Beatrice ordered and Myka slouched in her seat. Her gaze darted about the scenery, but there was nothing but dust, sand, rocks, and more sand. In the distance, Myka spotted a road sign swiftly coming closer. Too bored to do anything else, she read it.

You've actually been here before. We just made sure you forgot.

“What?” Myka cried and stared at the passing sign.

“No shouting, Myka!” Beatrice demanded, speaking quite loudly herself. Myka gawked at the sign that was now much closer.

You are now in Sandy Peaks! Watch out for rattle snakes!

“N-no way,” Myka whispered, her brown eyes wide. “Have I ever been here before?”

“No,” Beatrice replied, her lips pursed and eye lids drooping, making her look tired and done with Myka's questions.

“Okay,” Myka muttered, but she couldn't shake that sign. Maybe it was a prank. Myka contemplated the idea. It was probably an electric sign that changed the picture.

“It must be,” Myka snickered as she thought about how she had believed a silly prank.

They drove down the bumpy path for another hour until Myka spotted a dirt colored town at the top of a hill. Nerves built up in Myka as they drove up to a massive, towering gate that surrounded the town.

“Why do they need such a huge gate around the town?” Myka asked Beatrice as she rolled down the window to speak with the man at the gate.

“I am here with the 'package' for Yvette. I need to deliver her,” Beatrice explained to him and he nodded his head with a beaming smile and opened the gates for us.

“What's he so happy about?” Myka asked and Beatrice rolled her eyes. “Is this where I am going to be living?” Myka questioned. Beatrice stopped the car. Dread, fear, and excitement mingled inside of Myka making her want to jump out of the car and making her want to hide under the dashboard.

Beatrice clicked her seat belt off and opened the car door. Myka rushed out of the car in a great burst of speed, feeling that if she didn't do it quickly, she might not do it at all.

There was no one there.

Myka didn't know if she was more relieved or worried.

“Where is everyone?” Myka inquired. Beatrice dialed her phone but then grimaced.

“What?” Myka asked. “What's wrong?”

“No service,” She grumbled a reply.

“S-sorry I'm late!” A woman in a head wrap and long gray dress raced up to them. “John had some trouble with Hannah-”

“Who's Hannah?” Myka asked.

“Well, she's our cow!” The woman replied with a smile and pulled down her head wrap.

“You have a cow?”

“More than one! And chickens and pigs and one very stuck up rattlesnake!” She continued.

“You have a rattlesnake as a pet?”

“They are good protectors.”
“Of what?” Myka continued to drill her with questions, but the woman only smiled at this one.

“I am Athari,” She said and shook Beatrice's hand. “Myka, how about you go get your things. I am going to deal with the papers and you'll find it very boring!” Myka nodded and retreated back to the car and grabbed her bags, but not before she heard the hushed whisper of Athari.

“Thank you so much for bringing her back to us.”

Back? Myka couldn't help but think back on the electric sign. She grabbed her bags and thrust them towards the two woman.

“Everything's settled! Come meet the rest of the family!” Athari guided her to a large dome shaped house at the edge of the city and pushed her inside, grinning the whole way.

“So, this is it? This is home?” Myka questioned Athari as she glanced around the ordinary house. It had a kitchen and a set of stairs that marched up to a second floor. A sitting room full of gray brown furniture was to the right and it had a couple of offices and such rooms sprinkled about the house. And it was completely ordinary. Honestly, she had been expecting more.

“John!” Myka yelled and an older man came hobbling from the back door.
“Is this her?” He asked.

“Yes!” Athari cried, grinning broadly. John's dry lips twisted into a smile.

“You're going to save our town, are you?” He questioned.

“What?” Myka asked, her eyes widening.

“Oh, hush, Jo!” Athari grabbed Myka's bags and gestured for her to follow her up the stairs.

Myka walked up after her, wondering if she had heard John right.

Save their town? Why was it even in need of saving?

“Gracie is up here. Gracie!” Athari shouted as they reached the top.

“What?” A voice asked.

“Come meet Myka!” Athari ordered and a sulking girl stomped over to her. She was just a year or so younger than Myka herself.

“So you are what everyone's talking about? I don't see it. Have you ever even seen a normal sized snake?” Gracie asked, her eyes accusing.

“Um, no,” Myka replied, wondering what that had to do with anything. “But I heard you guys have a rattlesnake.”

“Yeah, stay away from him, he is venomous. He may get rid of the mice and other pests but he would sink his teeth into you in a minute,” Gracie remarked.

“Enough of that. Gracie, go check on the animals,” Athari said and Gracie nodded and went down the stairs.

“So what was she talking about with snakes?” Myka questioned as she followed Athari into a bedroom.

Athari sighed.

“I don't want to alarm you, or overwhelm you, but you're going to find out sometime. Sit down, Myka,” Athari sat down on the bed and Myka mimicked her.

“You- you were born with great purpose. You were born to defeat the Slyght. The Slyght is a monstrous, huge snake-like creature that comes every summer and destroys and kills whatever it can lay hands upon. Livestock. Structures-” Athari's jaw clenched, “-Humans.

“And now...tomorrow is the beginning of summer, and the prophecy says you are going to kill it, if it doesn't kill you first.”

Myka gazed at Athari, her mouth shut, her eyes as round as saucers.

“You're kidding right. I don't even know all of you! I'm just an orphan-”

“An orphan who has been restored to her true family. Myka, you are my daughter.”

She stared at Athari.

“You-you're my...mother?” Myka clenched her jaw as she scrutinized Athari's face. The same cheekbones, the same lips, but her eyes were a pale blue, completely opposite from Myka's deep brown.

“Explain,” Myka said, “everything.”

“I was married and we were having a child. My husband, your father, had always been a target of the Slyght, as was I. We could tell that the prophecy was going to be about our child. So we followed the prophecy's rules. When you were born, we had to send you away. We had to make sure the Slyght didn't kill you before you were ready. Then we-I called you back. And now you are going to kill the Slyght and bring back peace to Sandy Peaks,” Athari finished.

“You have to be kidding. How do I not know about this place? The sign! It was right. What happened?”

“We made sure that you were sent away as quickly as you could be. You were gone within the month you first came here. I'm sorry.”

“What happened to my father? Is John my father?” Myka held back a gag but was relieved when Athari laughed.

“No, no! John is your father's father, your grandfather, my father-in-law,” Athari explained.

“What about what happened to my father?” Myka pressed. Athari's smile crumbled and she looked to the ground.

“He was killed by the Slyght.”

“What?” Myka questioned, her expression blank. “So, I'll never know him, my true father.”

“I'm so sorry, Myka,” Athari sighed, a tear slipping out of the corner of her eye.

“Athari, I need to rest and process this...stuff...um, I'm going to bed.”

Athari nodded, tears still in her eyes, and clicked the door shut. And although it was midday, Myka cried herself to sleep.

***

I hope you liked it!:D I also have a post of more of my guy drawings I did so, I think that will probably be up on Monday.:)

-Emma-