Creating Worlds Writing Camp - Project Six + #7 Story for AAWC + Lilah's Drawing Request

Hi everyone!:)

First up in this post is my sixth CWWC project/seventh project for AAWC. I included the prompt "silence", but I didn't use the mascot. Sorry.:(
I used fifteen prompts for CWWC!:)
 

I changed this to Here Be Ferrymen. If this doesn't count, that's fine.;) 

 

 

Alyssa sat in her hut, reading a book about the Ferrymen. The Ferrymen were the guardians of the other world's portals, mirrors. Only specific mirrors would take you to other worlds, and Alyssa had been searching for either a Ferryman or a portal mirror to take her away from the world that despised her for forever. For some unknown reason, everyone in the town hated her, which forced her into solitude. She didn't have any passion, friends, or spark to her dismal life. She was desperate to leave. She knew she had to find a Ferryman. They were her only hope of a happy life. She grabbed her bow, pulling it over her head. She draped her quiver of arrows onto her back and took a step toward the door. She needed a hero, to save her from this terrible life. She had had enough of waiting. She was going to be that hero. She threw open her door and slipped through the shady parts of the village, closing in on the border of the town. No one ever crossed the border and came back. She kept telling herself that she had nothing to lose, but she stalled as she waited behind a hut. All Alyssa had to do was cross the graveyard and past the border. Then she would search for the Ferrymen that she KNEW were out there. All of the books said that there was at least one Ferryman in the forest, past the border. That's why no one ever found a Ferryman. They didn't want to cross the border. They had lives in the village. But not Alyssa. She gripped the lantern in her hand. It was the middle of the day, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't get dark in the forest. She pressed herself up against the wall of the hut, squeezing her eyes shut. Taking a deep breath, she slipped out from behind the hut and raced across the cemetery, not daring to look back until she reached the border. She screeched to a halt at the edge of the forest, the edge of the border, the edge of a new world. She strained her eyes to stay focused on the border ahead, even though they begged to look back. She reached out her foot and leaped across the border. She couldn't tell that she dissolved from the sight of any villagers in the town. Alyssa felt a new emotion wash over her in the forest. Triumph. Happiness. She sprinted through the woods, on her hunt for a Ferryman. After the daylight faded, she started to feel hopeless. Her new found joy was rapidly being squashed by the fact that she hadn't seen any glimpse or hint that the Ferrymen were near. She felt her breath being squeezed out of her as the hope left her completely. Suddenly, she began to fall onto her lantern as a root caught at her foot. The lantern shattered and her dark cloak put out the small flame. The clumsy fall brought her over the edge with her feelings. She sobbed into the forest ground, not caring to get off of the glass. Alyssa craned her neck upwards and called out for the Ferrymen in the silence, like they would hear, like they would care about the black sheep of a whole village. 

She slowly staggered back onto her feet, dusting away the broken glass on her cape. She had been plunged into utter darkness, into utter silence. She stumbled farther into the forest, her senses being completely confused. Giving up for the night, Alyssa fell onto the ground and crawled to a tree. She stared out into the depths of the darkness. A tiny orange flame appeared from behind a far away tree and she gasped as a silhouette of a girl appeared.

"Ferryman..." Alyssa whispered, pushing her hands into the ground. She felt the grainy texture of wood in the ground and tore her gaze away from the flame to unearth whatever she had felt. She squinted her eyes at the board of wood and slowly read the white, painted words.

"Here be the Ferryman."

Alyssa jumped up and sprinted after the Ferryman, her legs pumping so quickly that she soon caught up to her. She slipped behind a tree as the Ferryman entered a small and empty flat of land untouched by trees or bushes. Alyssa watched her for a second then came out from her hiding place and up to the girl. The Ferryman looked at her.

"Who are you?" Alyssa asked her.

"You know who I am," the Ferryman replied. 

"A Ferryman," she guessed.

The girl nodded. "You come to ask me to take you away from this world. Don't you?"

This time it was Alyssa who nodded. "Yes."

"I'm sorry. But I can't take you to another world."

"Why not?" Alyssa asked, her voice breaking. She couldn't have come here for nothing. 

"For us Ferrymen, the world's not safe anymore. We are being hunted by The Olyprates. Tall, white creatures that are out for revenge against the Ferrymen, ever since we let an army go into their world. We were oblivious. The army destroyed almost all of the Olyprates, except for three, and those three are cunning, brave, brutal, relentless, and now they're hunting each Ferryman down to destroy us and get their revenge. I can not help you if I can not even help my fellow Ferrymen."

Alyssa stared in shock. "Please, Ferryman. I need to leave this world. I'm sorry for you, but you might be my only chance to leave this cruel world!"

The girl shook her head.

"I don't even have a mirror to take you somewhere."

"We do."

Alyssa and the Ferryman turned to face three little girls coming out from the forest. They were plain and ordinary, but in their eyes held confidence.

"Fellow Ferrymen!" the Ferryman cried. "You have a mirror?"

"Yes," the girls responded at the same time. "We heard everything. Just because we are being hunted by the Olyprates does not mean that we don't want to help others who wish to escape to other worlds. We will let you use our mirror."

Alyssa gasped as a smile broke out on her face. "Really?"

They nodded, bringing out a mirror from one of their backpacks. It was small but soon began to grow into a full length mirror.

"Wait, but will you Ferrymen be okay?" Alyssa questioned. The Ferrymen exchanged glances.

"That will be up to fate," the first Ferryman decided. The others nodded. "Go now."

The mirror began to glow blue around us and small blue butterflies burst out from the world in the mirror. They flew around them, and Alyssa cupped her hands together as one butterfly flew onto them. Such beautiful butterflies could only come from a beautiful world. A world where all of her bad memories here would disappear.

"Thank you so much," Alyssa told the Ferrymen and jumped into the mirror. She was ready for a new life. If only she knew that this wasn't the last time she would meet a Ferryman.

***

I hope you liked the story!
Now for Lilah's drawing request!  She asked for Harry Potter characters.:)

 

 

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. (I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce Hermione.XD) I made them cartoon-y instead of realistic, I think they're cute.;)

Lilah, I hope you like the drawings.:)

-Emma-