Source: anime.goodfon.com

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Gina had been rescued by her brother Zack and an immense bird named Aviar. But now, convinced their arrival in Ismara was the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, Aviar confronted them:

“Do you have the Thirteen Objects?” The bird’s great basketball-sized eye probed for signs of deflection.

“Well, we’re not really sure,” Zack replied.

“You are the Two Strangers, so you must have the Objects!”

“Um, hello? What are the Thirteen Objects?” asked Gina.

“Well, there’s this prophecy,” Zack began, “and Aviar thinks it’s about us because—”

“Prophecies,” Aviar corrected, “and it is about you! ‘In the Time of an End and a New Beginning, during the double moon, Two Strangers from Another World will return the Thirteen Objects to Ismara, and when the Objects are brought together they will show who is the True Ruler.’ And that is the Prime Regent Melcarhassen now and forever!” Melcarhassen, he explained, was the only human who had ever been deemed a sheya (“real person”) by his great winged race, the Sheyar.

“The toys Aunt Aloysia gave us!” Gina shouted. “They must be the Thirteen—”

“Yeah, I know,” said Zack, “but there’s only twelve of them.”

“Well, what about the Map? It has to be one of the Objects. Remember how Aunt Aloysia said it was ‘time’ when she gave it to us? Before that, she always said—”

“That we’d know when it was time, yeah. But how can it send itself?”

“Just send the Objects!” Aviar growled. “The prophecies will take care of themselves!”

Zack and Gina agreed to return the Objects to Zshinia, the Ismaran capitol, although exactly how they would do this was unclear. Then Aviar lowered his wing and the Dores slid to the ground just a few feet from the pixies’ Sacred Circle. The winged warrior scanned the surrounding forest and said, “Go now!”

Zack turned to speak and found Aviar glaring at him, but then the creature turned his wing over, revealing a soft spot full of silvery feathers near the tip. Zack placed the underside of his arm against the spot.

“Fly straight, manlet!”

“You too, Avi—”

The great bird vanished with a single flap.  

“This is where I landed,” Gina said, stepping into the Sacred Circle, “so, I guess we should be able to—”

“Yeah, I flew home once before.”

“You did? You actually went home?”

“Yeah. I saw your note and knew you went looking for me, so—”

“So you were looking for me while I was looking for you?”

“Uh-huh.”

They burst out laughing. Then turning to the business at hand, Zack said, “I wish we could go home.” And they shot up into the night sky like a double roman candle. Thousands of Light Forest occupants looked up or awoke with a start at the sound of two humans screaming,

“Wooooooooooooooo…

oooooooooooooooo…

ooooooooooooooo…

oooooooooooooo…

ooooooooooooo…

Hoooooooooo…

oooooooooo…

ooooooooo…

oooooooo…

oooooo…

ooooo…

oooo…

ooo…

oo!”

It was a sound the Ismaran world had never heard…

Until the arrival of the Two Strangers.

φ

Thoughts: Have you ever been given a task, and not realized until later that it would change your life forever?

To read the next episode, click here.