Chapter 1
“Once you have completed the quest, then will you return. How long it takes to complete, will depend upon the hearts of each and every one of you…” “WHAT IS THE QUEST!?”
The Wizard’s smirk and glowing eyes held their attention as the neon green smoke from the cauldron instantly shot upward, slamming into the ceiling before settling down upon them, encircling them, obstructing their view from anyone and everything.
Each person stood alone, trembling as flashes of electricity lit up in every direction within the smoke, as if it had just formed into one giant storm cloud, and they were in the center of it. They weren’t exactly sure what was happening and wondered if they should hold their breath to keep from suffocating. They soon discovered they couldn’t move and even if they could, where would they go? The smoke, or cloud, seemed to stretch on and on into eternity. They couldn’t utter any words either, for no one would hear them. Time seemed to stand still in this…plane of existence or whatever it was.
Soon their eyes closed, just for a few seconds. When they opened again, the thick smoke began to clear. Colors were beginning to appear; revealing various different household objects and decor as they gradually came into view. Another room they found themselves in.
When they felt the ability to move and speak again, each one was so mesmerized at this very unfamiliar place they landed in. They took a look around for a split second before spotting each other. Mouths then dropped. They didn’t appear the way they had always known each other, or themselves, to look. In an instant they all screamed.
Once the initial shock passed, each girl naturally looked down and began observing herself, frozen in awe over how drastically different she appeared.
“How is this possible?” Maru asked in a barely audible voice.
“We look so…so,” Emily struggled to find the right word, “SMOOTH!”
“Yes!” Leah agreed. “Smooth and slim like a zucchini. This is strange!”
Haley kept uttering “OMG,” over and over again, and then lamented about how her beautiful body and clothes were ruined while the others made small comments about the differences in each other’s appearance. She was the first to speak for all of them by asking, “Where in Stardew Valley are we?”
“Uhh,” Abigail started, still gazing around the room in silence trying to piece this mysterious puzzle together. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re not in Stardew Valley anymore…”
Penny gasped loudly in the background, holding her hand to her chest. It was growing tighter by the second, her heart palpitating behind it. She could feel her face growing pale and the blood pounding in her ears. “We’re never going to see Pelican Town again?” she whispered in a developing panic.
Leah turned to her and assured, “Sure we will sweetie. Remember what the Wizard said? If we--“
“My mother will be worried sick when she finds I’ve disappeared!” Penny exclaimed, panting. “She’ll search and search and…I won’t be found and…she’ll drink herself to death!”
It was no mystery to the residents of Pelican Town that her mother, Pam, was a heavy drinker due to the woes of her past. Penny’s vision blurred as she trembled at the thought and before she (or Leah) could utter another word, her eyes rolled into her head and her body fell onto the floor with a loud thump. Leah gasped, unable to catch her in time.
“Oh! Penny!” Maru exclaimed, holding a hand to her mouth.
The other three girls instantly turned at the sound and stared at Penny’s seemingly lifeless body with concern.
“Oh my gosh is she okay!?” Emily asked, as Maru crouched down by Penny’s side and took her hand, patting it, hoping to wake her.
“She fainted,” Maru informed, even though everyone knew that. “We can’t leave her here on the floor. Leah, help me get her to a bed.”
“Of course!” Leah said.
Abigail promptly stepped past them to find a bedroom and keep the door open for them while they carried Penny in. Thankfully a large, nicely decorated room with two single beds was only a few feet away.
The two sisters of the group, Haley and Emily, watched in pity as the two carried the sweet and kindhearted tutor to the children of Pelican Town into the room. Both didn’t know her very well, but they knew she was a good person and hoped she’d wake soon and be alright.
“I’m surprised that’s not you passed out in there,” Emily joked to her ever dramatic sister, pointing her thumb in the direction of the room.
Hand on her hip, Haley scowled at her older sister and said, “Ha, ha.”
Emily’s bright smile then softened into a normal one. “So uh, that hug you gave me a few moments ago…that was quite…surprising.”
Haley’s cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment, but she tried to act casual by shrugging and saying, “Well, uh, you kinda looked a little freaked out so I thought I would, uh, let you know that I’m here too.” She tucked a bit of hair behind her ear.
Emily nodded, still grinning. “It’s almost like you were happy to see me here.”
“Oh shut up,” Haley said, lightly kicking Emily’s shoe. “I’m just happy we don’t have to keep the house clean while mom and dad are away for the time being.”
“We?” Emily corrected. “There was never any ‘we,’ when it came the housecleaning and you know it…”
Haley rolled her eyes and muttered, “Whatevs…”
Back in the bedroom, Maru and Leah looked down upon Penny with a sad look in their eyes. Abigail stood back by the door somewhat listening, but lost in her thoughts.
“Poor girl,” Leah said. “I wish I had caught her before hitting the floor, or better yet noticed that she was having a panic attack!”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Maru said, “we were all a little preoccupied with our emotions in that moment.”
“Do you think she’ll wake up soon?”
“I hope so. I’ve never seen a fainting spell last this long…Outside of the movies anyway.”
“Her face sure is sweaty.”
“Yeah,” she observed too, chewing on her lower lip. “If you can find a cold compress somewhere, or even a cool wet rag, that we can place on her forehead maybe that might help her regain consciousness.”
“Hey,” Abigail piped in. “I’m gonna go do a little investigating while you two take care of her alright? Let me know when she wakes up.”
“Will do,” Leah said as she walked on past her heading for the kitchen.
Outside the bedroom Emily approached Abigail just as she closed the door behind her. “Hey, is Penny okay?” she asked her.
“I’m not sure,” Abigail replied with a sigh. “She hasn’t woken up yet and I’m getting this feeling something else is wrong with her…”
“Oh,” Emily said, an air of melancholy surrounding them. “Well how about I go outside and see what I might be able to find in nature that might help wake her up or calm her nerves. I read this amazing book back home about the healing properties of various plants and I’m sure all that Herbology stuff is the same here.”
Abigail tried not to roll her eyes as she said, “I doubt herbs are going to help her Emily. If anything she needs a Doctor.”
“Please just…allow me to help,” Emily pleaded with her eyes, longing for something productive to do.
“Okay…,”Abigail allowed with a sigh.
While Emily happily skipped away towards the back door, Haley had been studying her face in a mirror on the wall and asked, “Girl, do you know what in Stardew Valley this red spot is on my chin? It’s totally killing my flawless complexion!”
How am I supposed to know!? Abigail exclaimed in her head while approaching her. An investigation of this world and the town is definitely in order! And she was ready to do just that!
But then her stomach growled.
Meanwhile, when Leah returned to the bedroom with a cold rag, Maru sat on the edge of the bed and dabbed at Penny’s forehead with it.
“Why would the Wizard send us to an entirely different world than our own to go on some quest for him?” Leah asked her. “You think he was too chicken to do it himself?”
“No idea,” she replied, only partly paying attention. All she could think about was the well being of her dear friend.
“I knew he meddled with strange magic,” Leah continued, “but I didn’t know he had this kind of power! It’s rather frightening.”
“It really is. Something Mayor Lewis should—“
“Mmm,” the two heard Penny mumble. Their eyes lit up as her eyelids gradually began to open.
“Hey,” Maru softly greeted her with a smile. “You’re awake!”
Penny blinked at her for a second before carefully lifting herself up onto her elbows, groaning from the pain of the fall, to take a look around. Her heart started pounding again. “We’re still here?”
“Yes,” Maru answered.
“So it wasn’t all just a terrible dream?”
“…No.”
Penny then fell back onto the bed and began to hyperventilate again; her eyes darting this way and that. Maru hushed her while squeezing her hand. “It’s okay Penny. Just take some deep breaths,” she said. “You have nothing to fear. We’re all in this together and we’ll help each other do whatever it takes to return home.”
Penny closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, you don’t understand!” she said with a choke. “I can’t be here. I have to be at home!”
“We know honey,” Leah said. “Your mom will be just fine. Gus will take care of her.”
“No,” Penny said, squeezing the tears out of her eyes now. “It’s not just her. I’m worried about Jas and Vincent. They need me! What will they do without me?”
“They’ll fare just fine,” Maru assured, stroking her cheek. “Relax.”
“I CAN’T RELAX!” she nearly shouted. “That psycho Wizard threw us into this netherworld to go on some ‘quest,’ he didn’t even have the decency to give us any details about and now…I…” she panted, “I mean…we…may never see our family and friends…again. I can’t,” she stopped to catch another breath, “I can’t do this! I’m so…so scared!”
“We’re all scared,” Maru told Penny, dabbing the wet cloth on her forehead again, hoping it’d calm her, “but right now I’m worried about you. I don’t want you passing out again so you need to please try to relax!”
“I’m trying!” she whispered breathlessly, closing her eyes. “But I just…can’t…,” her voice trailed off as her rapid breathing suddenly stopped and her head drooped down toward her chest.
“Penny!” Maru cried out, immediately checking her neck for a pulse. She let out a breath of relief when she felt one, and then gently shook her friend’s shoulder a bit. “Penny? Penny? Oh dear Leah I think she passed out again.” She squeezed at her forehead with her forefingers and expelled a breath.
“Bless her heart,” was all Leah could say. “I didn’t know she had anxiety like this.”
“Me neither,” Maru said, gently brushing away a strand of hair from Penny’s clammy forehead. “I’m not leaving her side until I know she’s stable. If there’s something else you’d rather be doing please go right on ahead. I sure appreciated your help.”
“No, I’ll stick around for a bit,” Leah said. “I need to be sure she’s okay too.”
Maru smiled and turned her gaze back toward Penny.
Meanwhile, Abigail knew she couldn’t go investigating on an empty stomach. It took about 20 minutes for her to raid the refrigerator, which was miraculously stocked with enough food to last them a few days, and prepare a meal for everyone: chicken salad full of various healthy vegetables and sprinkled with cheese and spices.
Haley, upon catching a whiff of it, expressed feeling “uber famished” herself and promptly grabbed a plate, while her sister returned “home” from the back door.
“So I got nothing from the plants out there!” Emily disappointingly informed, wiping the sweat from her brow with her arm, “but did you girls notice the garden we have out back? Many of the plants are growing in this giant greenhouse and there’s like every fruit tree you can imagine out there!”
“Gardening. Great!” Haley sarcastically said with a mouth full of food. “I was hoping we’d get away from that…”
“Interesting,” Abigail thoughtfully said while gripping her chin; fascinated by the Wizard’s unimaginable powers and knowledge that he kept so cleverly hidden from the residents of Pelican Town. She started to wish she’d actually gotten to know him back home. She always had this strange desire to, but her parents, Pierre and Caroline, forbade her to make any contact with him. They said it was for her own safety, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some other reason they were keeping secret from her. Her intuition was unlike any other and no one seemed to take notice of her special gift. Oftentimes she preferred it that way.
In five minutes time Abigail wolfed down the delicious salad and made her way into the bedroom where Penny lay before departing.
“Hey,” she greeted Leah and Maru. “Wow. Penny’s still not awake yet?”
“Oh no, she woke up briefly about a half hour ago,” Leah informed, “but she immediately started panicking again and we tried to calm her, but…she passed out again. Sorry we didn’t tell you.”
“Oh my gosh!” Abigail expressed. “Is that even normal, for someone to pass out twice like that?”
“I don’t know,” Maru replied, coming up from the bed and approaching her, “but something’s wrong with her Abigail and I’m getting really worried. Her pulse is erratic and her face is so pale and sweaty. I’m not sure what to do.” She’d been wracking her brain for minutes trying to remember what the good Doctor Harvey, whom she worked for back home, would do in this case.
“That’s it!” Abigail declared, throwing one hand up and opening the bedroom door with the other. “I’m going to go find help! There’s gotta be a Doctor around here somewhere. No one is dying in this world. Not on my watch!”
Leah’s eyes widened. “Would the Wizard really allow that to happen?”
Abigail froze in her tracks as she met eyes with Leah, and then to Maru, within such a depressing silence. “I want to believe he wouldn’t,” she paused, “but we don’t know anything about him, and I don’t think he has any control over here. It’s all up to us to fend for ourselves and make it back home in one piece.”
Leah lowered her head. “Why did he do this to us?”
“I dunno, but we’ll have to discuss all that later,” Abigail said heading for the front door. “I’m going. Y’all stay here and don’t go anywhere until I get back!”
“What?” Maru exclaimed, following after her. “Surely you won’t go alone? Take someone with you!”
“Yeah,” Leah agreed.
“Not me!” Haley declared with a shake of her head.
“I’ll go with you!” Emily cried out, holding up her hand.
“No!” Abigail snapped. “I appreciate it Emily and no offense, but you’ll just slow me down. I can better search if I’m not worried about someone else to keep track of. I’ll be as quick as I can. Bye girls!”
When the door closed, all the girls stood in silence except for Hailey who was leaning against the bar picking at a fingernail. “Five pieces of Gold she doesn’t make it back before sundown,” she bet them.
“HALEY!” they all cried.
“What!?” she asked, turning towards them. Their face expressions rather surprised her. “Oh c’mon girls, we all know she’s a freak! I bet the first thing she finds is a Graveyard and won’t be able to resist waiting until sundown at the chance to see a ghost, especially one from this mysterious new world.”
Maru folded her arms and shook her head. “I didn’t get the freak vibe from her at all,” she voiced. “She’s worried about Penny just as much as we are and is acting on it. And as I recall you didn’t jump at the chance to venture out there and find help.”
Emily’s eyebrows rose at the audacity.
“Whatever,” Haley disregarded, “y’all know I’m right,” and turned around to pick at her nail once more.
The remaining three girls shot glances at each other with pursed lips. They’d certainly heard all the gossip in the past about the strange, young, purple haired daughter to the local store owner and all the odd things she’d been seen doing – nibbling on gemstones as one example - and expressing belief in. They could only hope Abigail would not be tempted by new fascinations and stick to the task at hand.
They may have all resided for years in the same tiny town together, but there was still so much they didn't know about each other.
🙂
