Is it all right if I fit in a side charrie?  

Name: Sterling Wytte

Pronouns: she/they

Age:uhh 12!,14!16! It doesn't matter choose for me! 

Appearance: short,silver hair /w gold tips.teal eyes.pale skin. Freckles. Short.has a scar on her neck.

Personality: bright,happy,extrovert, sassy.can defend themself fairly well.a little oblivious and airheaded.kind.

Favorite of the10 elements: love and hope.

Shipping: open to anybody( she's pansexual)

Slots are closed! @Spring Calamity, I think I can fit in Sterling - she might not narrate that much, but she'll probably find a place in there :) @Scuttles, I know you're not on here very much, but could you submit your other charrie soon? And @everyone, thanks for submitting!! I'm looking forward to starting this solo write :^)

Alright, I've decided to go ahead and start this, as I don't know when Scuttles will check the Inkwell again - @Scuttles, I can probably still fit your other charrie in if you submit the form within the next few days, or Sterling Wytte could maybe take your charrie's place?

~\\/\/\//~

Part 1~Kalisse

Kalisse was sitting on the hilltop.

It was something she often did nowadays; remembering, waiting, wishing. She was glad to still have occassional fleeting visits from Luna - yes, she was, she told herself, brushing back a strand of black hair - but sometimes she wanted to forget Luna's favorite theme, what was, and focus instead on what had been. It was more worth thinking about. The three wise pine trees growing by her palace, the open forest full of deer and pools of still, clear water, and the gatherings of the Guardians out in the courtyard of her palace - she had even gotten Sol and Ros to come, usually. There would be lights strung up overhead, and sometimes the ethereal lights of fireflies too, and they would talk and laugh far into the night about anything and everything. For six hundred years Kalisse had been a part of that, heart and soul - a happy 17 year old for all that she had first appeared so long ago. Guardians never got older.

She sighed. Everything had changed so suddenly. It had been one of those times for letting go, but this time for letting go of everything she had ever known, of her whole life as she had known it. This was so different. All because of an enchantment; one that Myrka, the old wise woman, had warned her about, certainly, but one that Kalisse had never really expected to come. Now it had come, and Kalisse was sick of it. Not that that seemed to matter...

There was a quiet step behind her and she felt more than saw another presence standing beside her. Turning, she saw that Luna had dropped by again. The other girl settled down next to her with a quiet, "Hi, Kalisse," her dark eyes roving the sweep of landscape dropping away below them.

"Hi," Kalisse responded softly. Theoretically she was older than the Guardian of Night by a good three hundred years, but Luna's actual age was 21, and she was more like an older sister to Kalisse than anything else.

"I miss the pines," Kalisse said suddenly. "Without them - I don't know - I don't feel like me."

"I miss the night," Luna said with a small, quick smile.

"There's night here," Kalisse pointed out.

"No, not real night. Not my night." Luna shook her head. "It's hard to explain."

"Do you think the spell will ever break?"

There was silence for a moment. "There's always Idyrn," Luna suggested briefly.

"Will Idyrn ever come? If she did, could she fix it?" Kalisse was fairly sure that if Idyrn hadn't come yet, she never would.

"I don't know. But maybe she could speed up other prophecies - you know the companions could -"

"Don't say it," Kalisse said swiftly. "You can't say it."

Luna shrugged. "I suppose not. But she might be able to do something."

"Maybe or maybe not, but what matters is, she isn't doing 'something'. And we're stuck here for who knows how long. And just you and me, besides; no other Guardians, no elements."

"Don't give up on the idea of Idyrn quite yet," Luna warned. "I was thinking about it. And couldn't we - call her? ask her? bring her?"

Kalisse hesitated, startled. Could they? Then she shook her head reluctantly. "You and I could never do that," she said softly. "It just isn't possible. Maybe if we were all together - all us Guardians - but we don't even know where the others are."

"Then we'll have to find out, won't we?" Luna said in a very low voice.

~

It was Kalisse who discovered it. It was several days later, and she was perched on a ladder in the dim, lofty library stuffed with books. She spent almost all her time here when she wasn't out on the hilltop; they weren't the books she was used to, but they were books, and that was enough for her. And more than that, maybe, it was the library itself: something that reminded her of the old days, where she could forget that she was hundreds of miles away from her palace and her land and her pines and the other Guardians.

There was a small, thick book hidden between two larger ones that Kalisse hadn't noticed before. Curious, she pulled it out.

It looked very, very old; the leather binding, which once must have glowed with crimson and gold and green, was faded, and a musty smell floated from the pages when Kalisse riffled them. There was no title on the cover; or maybe there had been one once, a long time ago, and it had rubbed off.

Kalisse turned a bit so that the little light there was fell on the book, and lifted the cover. A Book of Spells: Useful in Life, she read, in an ornate calligraphy. How in the world did this get here? she thought wonderingly, opening it to a few pages further on.

For almost an hour she read, enthralled and interested. The spells were mostly very small ones, such as How to Turn a Red Rose Blue, and she doubted they'd work if she said them anyway.But they were interesting, radiating magic and reminding her of Myrka. That old woman would have loved such a book as this one, she thought with bittersweet memory.

Then she turned to the last page, and there, much more new and brightly-colored than the others, was another spell. How to sumon any Guardian from any place for two hours.

She drew in her breath sharply. Anyone may use this spell... not exactly a spell, but a link between people... Kalisse scrambled down the ladder and ran out of the palace and through meadows to where Luna was living.

"Luna!" she exclaimed, dashing onto the little flower-covered balcony where the Guardian was sitting. "Look at this."

"How to summon..." Luna read it through, then lifted her dark gaze to Kalisse's. "Kalisse, how do we know it can bring all of them? How do we know it will work at all?"

Kalisse sighed impatiently. "We don't know. But the only way to know is to try it. In fact... does Idyrn herself count as a Guardian?"

Luna was silent for a moment, staring into space, the book still open on her lap. "No," she said. "And even if she did, just two hours wouldn't do anything. We need to summon her fully. I don't think this spell has the power to summon her at all. But we could try for the others -"

"We will try for the others," Kalisse said, a strong light shining in her green eyes. "We have to." And Luna, after a moment, agreed.

A moment later, Ros was staring at them. "What in the - elements, it's Luna! How -"

But Luna, her eyes shining like midnight stars by now, was murmuring the spell again, this time calling for Ji. Irtana followed, then Wylie, and finally all ten Guardians were together again, together for the first time in almost a year.

Kalisse left most of the explanations to Luna. She was too happy to dwell on the How and Why and What of the whole thing, too joyous at finally seeing all the faces crowding round her again, all talking at once. She wondered a little where they had been all these months, and what had happened to them, but she would have to ask them later; they were all agreeing to call for Idyrn.

Then someone was hugging her, and Baiji was exclaiming, "And you, little cousin; how have you been?"

"Yes, how?" Wylie asked quietly, joining them.

"Missing you all," Kalisse said simply, her gaze sliding from one familiar face to another. "But that can wait. We only have two hours, and calling Idyrn is more important." She wasn't really Ji's cousin; it was a figure of speech among the Guardians.

"Can't you call us back again later, though?" Sol asked.

"No," Luna told her. "Kalisse and I have both used the spell, so after this we can't anymore."

Then the ten Guardians gathered into a circle, and Kalisse said softly, "Idyrn, from the past and from the future, from the sunrise and the sunset that you'll always rule, help us now. Break the enchantment or help us to break it; for it must be broken."

~

This is great! lovely

Ty, y'all! @Lyric, I'm amazed you're reading along - I'm glad you're enjoying it :)

~\\/\/\//~

It all gets so complicated that if I thought about it too much I'd tie myself up in knots. Luna and Kalisse think about asking me for help, Kalisse finds a spell to get the other Guardians together so they can ask me, they do get the other Guardians together and they do ask me, I get Alyssa and Sonya and the others, all so that they can - you get the point. Yet it all seemed so simple while it was actually happening. --Idyrn

Part 2~Daniel

Everything was going wrong. For the past year, nothing really had been - quite right. And Daniel wasn't sure why. The world seemed shattered - a heap of broken promises, of broken love, of broken hope, and of ruined earth. The majestic forests he had walked in since he could walk were being cut down. The world was in shambles. And the thing was, it had never been like this before this year.

"You aren't far wrong, at that." It was a girl's voice, or maybe a woman's; an ageless, timeless voice, clear and distinct, yet sounding as if it came from very far away. Daniel whipped around.

No one was in sight.

"No, don't look for me. You'll never find me," I told him. "But listen. Do you care about - those things you were thinking about; the forests, and the earth, and love and promises and hope and all the things that you once treasured and are gone now? Do you care enough to spend I don't know how long searching for their keepers, maybe for your whole life? Trying to break an elusive enchantment that could change your life forever? Risking everything you have for the ten Guardians, and maybe failing in the end?"

Daniel didn't understand half of this, but something in the voice stirred him, made him think of adventures and danger and something that he had never really believed in before - magic. But he believed me. And that was enough. "I think I could do that," he said.

"Good," I said. "Then I think you will not fail. Go eastwards, and you'll come across the Fernglade Inn on the border of Eriltar; you can't miss it; a few other people will be waiting for you there. From there you'll learn where to go and what to do, and you'll learn more of the Guardians and the elements as you travel. I think, indeed, you're one of the - people waiting for you. Another prophecy has been fulfilled."

My voice faded away, and Daniel was left alone on the high, windy ridge. He wasn't sure what to make of it all, but the strange sounds of the names and the mere mention of Guardians made him oddly exhiliarated, though he had no idea who the Guardians even were. What the voice had said fired his imagination, and he was glad of a chance to help set things right.

All the same... "Go eastwards, and you'll come across the Fernglade Inn". It was so vague, and also so improbable. How far away was this inn? And how many cities and forests and towns would be have to go through before he got to it? He had never heard of Eriltar, and though he knew that it was probably some magical land, it was also probably far away. How would he travel? what would he eat? where would he sleep?

I could have set him straight in a moment, of course. But I was far away by then; and besides, I was fairly sure he was a companion, and so I trusted to his instinct.

And in the end, he did what I had hoped: decided to just set out for the inn as he was, and leave the rest to fate. He wasn't usually so rash, but the strange magic in the voice had gotten into him; and since it was all so unreasonable, he thought, why should he try to be reasonable? Who knew what would happen; but as he couldn't see what was coming, he could scarcely try to be prepared for it. He spent a minute or two in trying to figure out which direction was east, and then set out.

Fairly soon he knew that something wasn't normal; magic was at work. He should have already hit a house or two, which he hadn't, and the landscape was changing. He could see low blue hills around him now; the sky was like a banner of silk, light, pure blue, and now and then he passed through stands of rustling trees golden in this lovely light. His land was shifting, sliding, merging into this one.

For a while Daniel wandered on, amazed by the beauty of this land - vibrant, strong beauty that called out to him, laughing. He was careful to keep his course more or less eastwards, but he couldn't help feeling uncertain. It was all very well for the Person to have said "You can't miss it", but without a road to follow and with all these hills, it would be all too easy to miss it. (Of course, he should have trusted magic with this too; but after all, it was only the very beginning of the whole thing, and he didn't know how magic worked very well.)

Time was drifting onwards. The shadows of the trees (which were starting to become more sparse) and his own shadow were long, and the light was far more golden. Daniel noticed suddenly that the hills were smaller.

And just as he thought that, they opened out suddenly in front of him and ended. He somehow hadn't noticed before that they stopped, but now, as he came out from them, he saw another land spread out in front of him. It had a few rises in its terrain, but very slight; there were pine trees here and there, and a stream, and a building rising in front of him with Fernglade Inn written on a sign, and a picture of a curving green fern beneath the words.

He had found it, somehow. What sorts of strange magic were in this land? And was this Eriltar, then?

Another thought occurred to him as he went towards the inn - one that he wished he hadn't had. What creatures might live here? Monsters, even?

As he got closer to the inn, though, he saw a girl coming out of it. She looked pretty and intelligent, with wavy brown hair and stunning blue-green eyes that looked directly into his.

She half-turned, and Daniel heard her say in a low voice to someone behind her, "Hey guys, I think another one's come." Then she stepped out through the door and came over to him; he realized suddenly that he had stopped walking. How did that happen? "Hi," he said with a smile.

"Hi," she responded, smiling back; a bright, cheerful smile that made Daniel want to be happy. "I'm Alyssa. Sorry, but... why are you here? We're waiting for someone."

"I'm Daniel," he told her. "And, well, I'm not so sure why I'm here." He laughed. "Okay, that definitely sounds weird. But -"

"Um, not so weird, actually," the girl interposed softly.

Daniel paused. The voice had said, hadn't it? - "a few other people will be waiting for you there." "So, why is it not so weird?" he asked cautiously.

"Because none of us - me and my other, um, friends - are exactly sure why we're here either," Alyssa said.

"Are you from - not from Eriltar?" Daniel asked.

"No, I'm not," Alyssa said. "Then you're also here because of the Guardians."

"Yeah, I am," Daniel agreeed. "I was, like, told that there would be people waiting for me... I guess you're them?"

"We're them," Alyssa confirmed. "We were waiting for someone else to show up - we weren't sure who it was going to be. And 'we' is - come on in, and I'll introduce you."

She turned and led the way towards the inn, and Daniel followed, pausing at the door for one last glance at this new world stretching away from him. Day was starting to sink into sunset; the sky was a perfect, delicate blue, and the few clouds were a swirl of rose.

He closed the door gently behind him and found himself in a short hallway, with two longish windows set into it on one side and a few candles flickering gently, lending a slight glow to the air. Daniel noticed a soft red carpet with intricate designs underfoot, and that the hall was paneled wtih lovely light-colored wood, and that the whole place had an air of peace and welcome; and then he didn't notice much else because Alyssa was hurrying him into a larger room beyond the hallway. There was a glow of real firelight here, and Daniel caught a confused impression of several people (people, thank goodness; not strange creatues). Alyssa was saying, "Guys, he's also here for the Guardians. There are eight of us now."

"I'm glad you've come," someone with odd green clothes and very faintly challenging eyes said. "I'm Sonya."

"Hey, great to meet you," said another boy, probably slightly younger than Daniel. "Rowan."

"I'm Robin," said a girl, with a quick smile.

"Sterling Wytte here," another girl told him, laughing. "Like, so glad you're here."

"Avi," said a girl, glancing at him with an expression in her dark eyes that Daniel couldn't quite decipher. Was it distrust?

"And lastly... I am Ronald." A dark-haired boy with a laugh in his eyes turned from the fire.

"Okay, great to meet you guys," Daniel said. "Except that I really have no clue as to why I or you are here... so I'm Daniel."

"Yeah, well, not so many of us know why we're here," Rowan said.

Alyssa had sat down on a stool close to the fire, and now she glanced up. Her eyes found Daniel's face and rested there. "What we really need to do is talk, I think," she said. "I mean, who's to say we all heard the same story? All that I know is that there are ten Guardians - okay, I think we all know that much - and that we need to help them in some way, because that would solve a lot of problems. And she - whoever it was - also told me that I should just 'go eastwards', and I'd find this inn, and I should wait here until there were eight of us."

"All right, that's basically my story too," Rowan said. "But I think there was something about companions in there too, and elements...?"

They talked for a while, eventually all drawing into a circle around the fire as it grew darker. Fairly soon a man came in to light more candles, and tell them they could have supper whenever they wanted, and generally disrupt their coversation; but eventually he went away again, and they went on talking. Eventually what they put together was this: that a strange Voice had told all of them to go eastwards to Fernglade Inn to meet up with the others; that several things, such as love and the earth, had ceased to be protected because of an enchantment affecting their Guardians, and that they themselves were looking for the Guardians; that there was something about "companions" in the whole thing; and that none of them knew who the voice was, or how they had gotten here, or where here was except for some magical land called Eriltar.

Sonya and Robin had been there longest, and Sonya told the others, "The inn seems quiet. We're the only guests, and aside from you all I've only seen the landlord while I've been here. I don't know what we'll do if we have to pay."

"There'll be some way out of it," Robin said confidently. "So... what was that about supper?"

Daniel, who was starting to feel tired, agreed with her, and they went into an adjoining room to eat. After supper the landlord showed Daniel to his room; he flung open the window and looked out at the moonlit, magical land, feeling very sure that more adventures were coming...