Lusaya's+Quest

Lusaya woke up early, earlier than her family and friends. She woke up early to clean up around her family’s home, and find something to eat for when her siblings and mother woke up. She didn’t have to do this, she just liked to do nice things for the people she cared for. Lusaya grabbed her pack on the way out of the door. Through living in Escovia all of her life, she found that there was a fantastic spot to find food in one of the underwater channels leading out into the open ocean. She knew exactly where it was. She came upon it on accident a few years ago. The place was not too far away from the safety of the town, but it was still a bit of a swim from her home. The spot had lots of tasty seaweed and algae, sometimes you could even find some coral for a special treat! There was a downside to these channels though. You never knew what could be lurking within them. It was dangerous, and you could get attacked or swept out to sea and never seen again. Lusaya’s thin body easily swam in and out of the rocks and coves, and around some fish swimming about, even a few fairies from Raziela. Lusaya waved and smiled at them and continued on her way. She was getting towards the outskirts of Escovia.

In a matter of minutes, Lusaya was face to face with the opening of an underwater channel. It was dark, rocky, and frankly, quite scary. Many mermaids and mermen never dared to even go near them. They were dangerous. Lusaya sighed momentarily, and swam in. She had to avoid the sharp rocks that were jutting out of the walls of the cave-like channels. She had to be extremely careful not to bump into one, as they would be very painful. It’d happened to her more than once. The further she swam on, the darker the channels got. She was having a hard time seeing. Lusaya used some of her magic from within herself to light the way a bit better. Her hand started glowing a pink, like the color of her tail. All of her magic was the color of her tail. Of course, using magic hurt, but she had her magical crystal that she wore around her neck constantly. The crystal took away some of the physical pain. Lusaya looked down at it. It normally is a blue colored crystal, but when she uses magic it glows pink, the same pink her magic is. It wasn’t very long until Lusaya was nearing the spot she had gone out to find.

The spot had barely any food. It wasn’t nearly enough to feed her entire family. She looked around but saw very small amounts of even the simplest foods, that grew in lots of places, never mind the algae that her picky sister liked the best. Lusaya sighed and brushed some dirt away from the ground with her tail fin. What looked like a piece of parchment caught her eye.

“What could that be?” Lusaya reached down and brushed away the rest of the dirt to reveal what was a piece of parchment. She picked it up, one side of it was blank. She turned it over and it seemed to be a map of sorts. It was really faded and dirty. Lusaya tried to brush some more of the dirt off of it. There was a big spot in the center. Suddenly, Lusaya recognized it. She had seen it in one of her magic books before. She didn’t remember what it was for. It looked like a map. Lusaya had a much more important thing to do now than gather food that her family already had plenty of.

Lusaya swam back home as quickly as she could. She bumped a few mermaids on her way there, and apologized quickly. When she got home, she locked herself in her room and looked through all the books on her shelves, trying to find the one she had seen that map in. She had just about given up, when she remembered the books she kept under her bed. She pulled them out, and looked through them. The first one she looked through, had the map on the third page. It looked exactly like the one she had found in the dirt. She furrowed her eyebrows at the page in the book, trying to figure out what the map was for. It showed a large tree, that looked like the tree that held up the island of Raziela and Escovia. That’s where it seemed the map stopped. What would be in the tree? Lusaya doubted there would be anything in it. But why would there be a map leading to it? There had to be something in there.. Something important.

Lusaya put the book in her pack, opened her window and swam out of it, she didn’t want to have to bother her family again. The tree wasn’t far from her house, so she swam there pretty quickly. It was around work time, so not many people were around it. She inspected it closely, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She had seen this tree hundreds of times in her life, and she never noticed anything weird. Lusaya opened the book again and read the caption beside the map

In the darkness of the night, the tree glows and the door will make itself known to those that know where to look.

The mermaid didn’t really understand the part about the door, but she would just have to come back later when it got dark. She wasn’t supposed to go out during dark hours, as it could be dangerous. The night wasn’t the time of the fairies and mermaids. It was when other creatures came out. Lusaya just had to know what this door was, and what could be hiding inside of it. She would have to sneak out. She definitely didn’t like the idea of putting herself into danger, and having to trick her parents. Lusaya went to the shop to get some food for her family. She traded a few pearls to the shop keepers in return for some purple coral. It was her sister’s favorite. She slowly swam back home, far too eager to venture out later that night

After what seemed like an eternity to Lusaya, it was finally getting dark. After saying her goodnights to her mother and sister, she went up to her room. She readied herself for the potential danger that could be getting herself into. She grabbed her pack again, the book was in her pack, and made sure she had her necklace around her neck.

Even though she was scared, Lusaya couldn’t wait to figure out what this map meant. She opened her window again and swam out towards the tree. On her way there she saw horrible creatures of the night. Creatures with extra arms or hands, large teeth and scary looking claws. She made sure she had put a dark cloth over her tail and hair, so any night lurking creature below on the sea floor couldn’t see her bright colors in the dark. She got to the tree, and it was in fact glowing. She didn’t really know where to look for the “door” that the book had mentioned. She swam around it and found a certain spot where the glowing looked like it could be a door of some sort. She put her hand to the surface of the tree, and it felt oddly warm. She felt around it some more, placing her hand on a spot that sunk into the tree, and a spot of the tree opened as if it were a door. It shined brightly into the darkness of the light, momentarily blinding her. Lusaya looked around and noticed that the creatures that she had seen on her way here were no where to be seen. This was a bit weird. No time to turn back now though. Lusaya went into the light of the tree. When her eyes adjusted to the brightly lit room, it seemed as though all there was, was a large staircase spiraling downwards. She started swimming down the tree, it went down a lot farther than she thought it should. She finally got to the roots of the tree. It was like a maze inside of it. She didn’t know where to go. Lusaya was not a mermaid to make hasty decisions, but she feared she had a limited amount amount of time. She decided on one path that was to the right of her.

She went through all of the pathways, and all of them seemed to lead into other pathways, or back to the room where she started. Lusaya was stumped. She got out the book and looked to the next page, but it changed to a completely different thing. She skimmed through the rest of the pages in the book, but saw nothing on the subject. Not knowing what to do, Lusaya sank down to the bottom and sat on the floor. Her fin laid down on a handle that she hadn’t noticed before. She moved over and opened it. It led down even farther, but there weren’t any stairs down there. Good thing she could swim. She swam straight down, and ended up out of the bottom of the island. She didn’t think anyone had ever been down there, and she didn’t want to be either. It was dangerous in the open ocean.

Lusaya saw the slight figure of another tree down lower in the ocean. It seemed to be at the bottom. She swam down to it. It looked exactly like the one in the middle of the island Lusaya called home. As she got closer, she even noticed the colors of the trees were basically the same, except that the one down here was less bright, and frankly, it was less beautiful. Maybe this was the tree the book and map were talking about? They did seem extremely old, and this tree seemed extremely old. How would she get in though? She looked closely to the bark of the tree, and noticed the gold inscriptions were the same as the tree in Escovia. She went over to the same inscriptions that had the door, and pressed onto it. A door slowly opened, and water rushed into it. She swam in as quickly as she could and closed the door. She looked around, but it was dark. Lusaya looked into herself to pull out some of her magic to light the room. Her magic was a pale yellow color, like her eyes. It lit up the room so it was bright. In the center of the room was a chest. Lusaya walked over to it and opened it. In the bottom was a book. She grabbed it, put it in her pack and started the trek back home. When she got back it was still night, and she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, Lusaya opened her pack and took out the book she had found. She cleared the dust away from it. It seemed to be a magic book. Just the thing the young mermaid loved! She spent her day poring over the pages. They consisted of spells and remedies for all kinds of magical things. In the back of the book was a necklace. Lusaya picked it up and felt magic surge into her body through her fingertips. She felt more powerful, just from that brief touch. She picked it up and pulled it over her head, and felt strong magic go throughout her whole body. She felt to be a more powerful magician, and she couldn’t wait to try out these new spells with her new found power.