Starheart

Adventure

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday. An adventure that would relight my spark and eliminate the hollowness I'd been feeling ever since I graduated. A fresh start in theory even though it was mostly my idea I doubted it would be as easy as that. 

My aunt lived way out in the countryside and I was currently being driven to her house to spend a week somewhere that wasn't the county I'd spent 99.9% of my life in because despite being the nicest people on the planet my parents simply couldn't afford to leave. The different households of my family mostly kept to themselves but out of the blue my aunt and uncle had arranged this trip out.

I'd spent most of the 5 hour train journey staring out the window at the scenery like an overly excited child on their first trip to the seaside ignoring the books I'd brought with me specifically for the journey. 15 minutes before the train stopped the view changed into this vast forest that bordered the town where my aunt and uncle lived. There was a small sliver of woodland up the hills from my house but I'd never seen anything like that in person before. A forest half the size would make you think of fairy tales but one this size made you wonder how humanity had ever overtaken nature at all. It would be the perfect place for an adventure and I instantly wanted to explore it.

I met my aunt who had come to collect me from the train station. "So is there any plans for the week?" I asked. "There's the castle and we got a camper van recently so I thought a camping trip would be a good think for the last few days of the holiday but you'll have plenty of time to explore the town on your own." 

I unpacked my bags and went into town looking for a cafe as I was feeling pretty hungry after the trip. I eventually found a beautiful place that had been built to look like a tree stump. I originally thought the place would be too expensive but they had the menu posted outside and it was pretty average. I took a seat and ordered a bacon sandwich, chocolate cheesecake and a vanilla milkshake.

After 5 minutes of waiting I heard someone say "Hello." I assumed that she was talking to someone else and kept reading my book. "Hello!" She said again louder. Oh so she was talking to me. I sighed a little internally and closed my book. "Uh hello." I replied. "What book is that?" She asked. "Mythic Heart." I answered "It's about these 5 people who find out they are turning into cryptids and have to make a new society in the woods." It was my all time favorite book series that one of my online friends had introduced me to about 5 years ago now.

My order turned up and there was a little crown icon on top of the milkshake in silver edible glitter. I stared at it. "Oh that's just Juniper. They are supposedly psychic and can just tell stuff about you. Maybe you're secretly part of the royal family." She grinned. "You believe that stuff?" I asked carefully. "Eh. They're always right but normally vague so it could be multiple things I guess. I'm Pyrrha by the way." She finally introduced herself. "I'm Alya. I'm on holiday with some family." 

Pyrrha grinned "You do believe it though don't you Alya?" If truth be told I wanted to. I did consider myself a witch and had gotten results from spells before but there was always just something holding me back from believing totally in the supernatural and myself. Pyrrha had clearly decided that it was time to try and spook the new person. "Of course Juniper isn't the only unusual character in this town. There's the witchcraft shop in town" I immediately made a mental note to check the shop out. "and Henry the cryptid hunter." Pyrrha nodded in the direction of my Mythic Heart book. 

I heard a "ugh" from the back of the cafe when Pyrrha mentioned Henry. "Everyone round here knows Henry. He's been in the shop and the cafe trying to get them both shut down for 'supernatural activity.' When he's not doing that he's combing the woods looking for cryptids and trying to get the police involved." I made another mental note to do my best to avoid him. 

"Hey how did you know I was interested in this?" I asked. "Everyone around here knows all this and I like telling the story. Besides your crystal necklace kinda gives it away. They sell similar at the witch shop." She answered. I held the green hexagonal crystal. No. While they might sell necklaces that looked similar they would probably never find one like this.