A Wish For Something More

Note: Please excuse the possible long wait for updates. I'll try to add new chapters as soon as possible.

Walking through the forest, a man and woman were carrying two children - one girl and one boy. They journeyed to the village where the Traveling Mirror had been hidden. Upon arriving there, they were attacked by trolls. The man desperately attempted to fend off the numerous trolls, trying to protect the young boy in his possession. As for the woman, she ran away with the girl tightly in her arms.

Some time after, the woman returned to the sight of the attack. She found the man on the ground, bloody and bruised. Within the clutches of his arms, was the young boy, crying hysterically. The young boy was slightly hurt and shaken, but otherwise fine. The woman soon discovered that the man died in trying to save the young boy.

Shortly afterwards, the woman found the mirror. She gathered her things and left with the two children for the 10th Kingdom, just as the children's parents has instructed. There the woman was to raise the children with care and maybe one day bring them back to the 9 Kingdoms.

... many years have passed since then.

xxxxxxx

Malinda lay on her bed listening to her one of her cds. Her bed was small, but comfortable. The sheets were made, but Malinda remained on top of them. She could often be found there, resting on her bed and listening to music. It had become one of the few pleasures she had. When she heard the music she could go off into another world - somewhere where all you heard was the music and all you thought about was the song.

It was 4:42am. Since the summer began, Malinda's sleeping habits had suffered. But Malinda was not awake just because she wasn't tired. Since she was a little girl, Malinda was always wondering about her infancy. She always thought about what happened to her real mother and father, and why Benjamin, her brother, had so many memories of them, when she didn't. Sometimes Malinda would stay up all night wondering why she was sent away so young, and what her parents might have been like.

As her thoughts continued, Malinda realized it was a full moon. Although she herself never had a strong connection to the moon, she knew that her brother did. He would always get so calm simple by staring at it. Malinda couldn't wait for her brother to get home.

Suddenly, Malinda heard the apartment door close. It was Amanda Gale, her guardian. Malinda was always told that Amanda used to be good friends with her parents, but whenever she would ask her about them as a child, she could never get a straight answer. Now Malinda rarely even spoke to Amanda, often showing a passive attitude towards her.

Shortly after her arrival, Amanda came into Malinda's room, noting that the lights were on. "What are you doing up? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I wasn't tired," said Malinda, rolling her eyes as she got under her sheets.

"Well go to sleep right now. I don't want you staying up so late. It's bad for you."

"Yes."

Malinda always hated it when she was treated like a child. She was probably the most mature 17-year-old in all of New York City. She had never even felt like a child, always worrying about getting to school on time and making sure her homework was always done. She would often feel like she had to do everything herself, and yet she was still considered childish.

x

Benjamin was on the bus on his way back to New York. He had spent nearly the entire day on that bus, and couldn't wait to get off. In addition, Benjamin would have to take the subway and walk about 5 blocks before he reached the apartment. All this just to spend a few days with his sister.

Benjamin remembered when they were kids, playing around and teasing each other constantly, and staying up for hours just talking. Malinda would always ask about their parents, knowing that he had a lot more memories of them than she. But Benjamin would often feel guilty because he himself hardly had any vivid memory of them, either. But he would often humor his little sister and sometimes lie to her about what he remembered. But she could never recall what he told her anyway.

He missed those days, when life was simple. Now, he was off at college, barely passing his classes and up to his neck in student loans. And Malinda had become so bitter over the years. She didn't have many friends, and was usually very quiet. Instead of going out on Friday nights, she would often stay home and watch some movies or get a head start on her homework. Although he would occasionally bother her about her poor social life, deep down he truly felt sorry for her. She never really had anyone to depend on, including him. Sometimes he thought of her as the older sibling. But he would be there for her for the next few days.

As he rode the bus, Benjamin saw that it was a full moon out. He could never explain his fondness for the moon. He could remember him and his father watching the moon together once when he was a todler. But there was more to his attraction than a simple childhood memory. Sometimes it seemed as if the moon was pulling him towards it.

As the sun came up, his ride was coming to an end. He was only a few minutes from reaching the station. He gathered his belongings and exited the bus.

After getting off the subway, Benjamin began his walk home. Although he usually walked along the street, this time he decided to take the route through the park. It was faster, and Benjamin wanted to get home as soon as possible. He could remember being advised not to walk through the park. Most people didn't, especially early in the morning or late at night. They were probably afraid of being mugged or something.

About midway through his walk, Benjamin noticed something strange up ahead. "What the hell?" Benjamin stopped. The strange enigma appeared to be in the shape of a rectangle.

"It looks like a wall... or maybe a door..." Benjamin continued to examine the figure further. It had a blue color to it, nearly see-through, closely resembling water. He moved closer and closer to it, almost to the point of touching it.

The alarm on his watch beeped. It was 10:00am. Benjamin should have been home by now, and getting ready to spend the whole day with Malinda. "You've done it now, Ben. She's gonna be real pissed off at you for being late." As Benjamin began to walk away from the figure, he quickly glanced back at it, still wondering what it could be. Benjamin eventually proceeded to walk to the apartment.

xxxxxxx

Within the 4th Kingdom Castle, King Wendell was pacing back and forth through the hall, awaiting word of the Traveling Mirror's whereabouts. He worried that it had been broken or taken by thieves and used for all kinds of evil purposes. He had been searching for that mirror for years, and still no word of where it could be.

Off at the other end of the hall, a soldier walked toward King Wendell with word from the General.

"Have you heard anything?" Wendell asked urgently.

"No, my king, we have heard nothing so far. But searches are continuing. I trust that the mirror should be found within a few months at most." The soldier tried to sound as optimistic as possible, but noticed that his tone of voice wasn't helping. Letting his curiosity take control, the soldier spoke.

"My lord, if I may ask, how did the mirror get lost in the first place? If it was hidden for reasons of safety, wouldn't someone know where it is?" The young soldier almost instantly regretted the question, thinking it a silly one. The soldier was new and always wondered how the mirror could have been misplaced. But he never got up the courage to ask his officials, or any of the other soldiers for fear of being teased for being so clueless.

"Well it's actually a very interesting story..." As the King spoke with a sense of comedy in his voice, the soldier was relieved and payed close attention to King Wendell."... At first the mirror was taken to small town just along the border of the 4th and 3rd Kingdoms. Obviously it was placed there for safety reasons. After all who would dare enter the troll kingdom for a slight chance of finding the mirror. With several territories under seige, and Kingdoms under attack, the Council decided it best to remove the mirror from the extremely war-like 3rd Kingdom. However, because of much larger concerns over the war, the mirror's safety became somewhat... unimportant. The mirror was taken off to some distant place by some peasants hired by some of the Council members. But the peasants were never heard from again, and no one knew where the mirror was relocated. And now here we are, looking endlessly for it. So, does that answer your question, young man?"

"Yes, my lord. Thank you. And not to worry. We'll find the mirror." The soldier ran down the hall, disappearing into the shadows. King Wendell hoped that the soldier was right; that the mirror would be found soon. Wendell himself had little interest in it being found, but his friends - Virginia, Wolf, Anthony - wanted to go back to the 10th Kingdom, in hopes of seeing their home again, and finally meeting the children that had been sent away so long ago.

xxxxxxx

By the time Benjamin arrived at the apartment, he was practically dragging his bags. The elevator broke down, and the stairs were unnecessarily steep. As he rang the door bell, Benjamin prayed that he would be welcomed with loving arms and not yelled at for being over an hour late.

Once the door was opened, Benjamin was happy to see that Malinda had a huge smile across her face. Letting his bags hit the floor, he hugged his sister as she welcomed him home. "Hey! How are you?"

"Fine. The ride here was awful. I lost so much sleep riding that damn thing. But I'll be ready to go in a few minutes." As he made his way towards his room, Malinda continued to speak.

"Did you catch a later bus? Or did you come here so late on purpose?" Benjamin had hoped she wouldn't mention him being late, but if there was one thing he count on, it was his sister's inability to forget.

"Ah, about that. Look, I'm real sorry, but the bus got delayed a few stops before mine, and the subway was taking a while, and..."

"Hey, I'm just kidding. Just try to make it on time every once in awhile." Malinda slightly smirked, knowing Benjamin had to go through quite a lot to see her. "Oh, and please try to hurry up. I kinda wanna leave here early, okay?"

"You got it."

Within a few minutes, Benjamin was dressed. He went on to brush his teeth and fix his hair, and was done in record time. "Okay, I'm ready to go."

Malinda waited until Benjamin was outside, and quickly thought if she forgot anything. After realizing she had everything they needed, she locked the door, and the two made their way towards the stairs.

"You know you could have told me that the elevator was broken. Then maybe I wouldn't have brought so many bags."

"No one asked you to bring all that junk. It's no one's fault but you're own. Why did you bring some much stuff, anyway?"

"Because I can't trust my roommate. I can't even trust him near my stuff for 5 minutes, so imagine an entire weekend. No, I prefer to break my back then have him rummaging through my things." Malinda laughed. She could only hope her college experience wouldn't be as horrific as Benjamin made his sound.

"So where's the wicked step-mother" Malinda knew he was referring to Amanda Gale. Benjamin disliked their guardian with a passion. When he was in high school, she always treated him rather unreasonably. Whenever he disobeyed her, she would scream at him until her point was made. Benjamin also despised her absence. She was never around when they needed her, but somehow she always conveniently there to scold Benjamin for every little thing. "...you're barely around! Maybe if you weren't at your 'job' all the damn time, you would have some right to yell at me like some child. But you aren't, so shut up and leave me alone!" Malinda remembered Benjamin saying that to Amanda during one of their arguments. It was first time she had seen Amanda cry, and the first time she saw the pinnacle of Benjamin's anger.

"She went off to work a few hours ago. You know, you should really try to be a little nicer to her."

Silence.

"All you need to do is ignore her. It's really not that hard." Malinda noticed that he wasn't paying much attention to her. She stopped walking to show she was serious. "Please. Try to act decently around her. For me."

"If it means that much to you, then... okay, I'll try. But if she even mentions college..."

"Okay, I got it. Thanks."

As they made their way outside, Malinda looked at her watch. It was 11:17am. Still plenty of time to enjoy themselves. Malinda was very excited to have her brother around. She missed spending time with him; talking to him. Sure she couldn't really tell him everything she wanted to, but she still needed him around.

x

It was 4:26pm. Malinda and Benjamin had spent nearly the entire day roaming around New York City, having done nothing. Malinda had spent all her money on breakfast and lunch for the two of them. Benjamin had been broke for some time. Needless to say, Malinda wasn't too happy about the way things turned out.

"You didn't bring any money. Typical."

"I didn't bring any money because I had no money to bring. How many times do I have to apologize?" Malinda didn't respond. She knew that a small lack of money was no reason to get angry. Still, she had hoped that everything would have gone as planned.

"Whatever. It's getting late. Maybe we should--"

"I've got an idea. I've got to show you something. Come on." Benjamin thought of taking Malinda to the park, where he had seen that strange figure earlier that day. Maybe it wasn't the best way to make up for his mistake, but it was all he could think of at the moment.

"What," said Malinda, with her arms crossed and hip slightly to the side.

"You don't see it?"

"No. Look, couldn't we just go home?" Malinda examined Benjamin. He seemed more excited than usually. Too excited to be joking around. Malinda soon joined in her brother's search. "What's this about?"

"I saw something here before. When I was walking home earlier today, I saw something. It looked real funny. Here! Look, here it is."

"I don't see --" Malinda paused. She had spotted it. Benjamin was right. It was funny looking. Malinda had never seen anything even remotely like it. Although extremely curious, she knew better than to further investigate what it could be.

"Well it is very... unusual."

"Oh it's more than unusual. I mean have you ever seen anything like it. At first I thought it might be like a wall, or a door. But it looks more like water. What do you think?" Benjamin couldn't keep his eyes from it. Ever since morning, Benjamin had been wondering about this mysterious shape before him.

"I think we should leave whatever it is alone and go home. So, come on, let's go." As Malinda began her walk home, she noticed that Benjamin was still fixed on the object. "Benjamin?" Benjamin continued to search it. He looked at it from all angles, but still had no clue what it could be.

Malinda was growing impatient. She made her way back to where Benjamin was standing. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and slightly tugged him away, but was of no avail. "Benjamin, come on..." Then Malinda noticed that her brother's hand was moving toward the shape. He was going to touch it. "No, don't!" It was too late. Benjamin placed his palm in the middle of the strange object.

Within mere seconds, Malinda and Benjamin found themselves in a completely different surrounding. Both in awe, neither one had the slightest idea what just happened. They had just entered the 9 Kingdoms.

"What Did You Do?"