A Secret In The Clouds

Chapter One

It was a cold winter evening when I, Bea Hurst, was walking back from the local grocery store when I heard a group of middle aged women talking about something called ´The Sky Islands´ or that's what I had heard. I hurried home to put my groceries away, then went straight to the library. I was eager to find out what they were talking about. I came here often, so most of the workers here knew me. I ran inside and the librarian greeted me with a smile.

¨Good afternoon Bea! How are you today?¨

¨I'm doing well, and you?¨ I replied

¨I'm doing fine. Any specific book you're looking for today?¨

¨Oh, well, I had heard a few women on my way back home from the store talking about something called the ´Sky Islands´ I think it was called.¨

¨Yes, I've heard of that. But I'm afraid we don't have anything about that. Sorry.¨ She says, ¨But you´re free to look around!¨

¨That's okay, Thanks anyway!¨ I call back as I scurry off towards the Fantasy section. As I walk along the shelves I come across a book called ´The Legend of the Sky´. Quickly, I took that book to go check it out at the front desk. As soon as I check out I go straight home.

    A few minutes later I arrived at my small house. The outside looks cozy. It's been built with bricks covered in render. It has tall, rounded windows which let in plenty of light. The house is equipped with an old-fashioned kitchen, and one half-bath and one full, it has a fairly small living room, 2 bedrooms, a snug dining area, and a big enough basement to have a couch, a desk and a small T.V.

The second floor is the same size as the first, it has a small balcony off the master bedroom, which has a couple hanging plants and a small chair. A full-bath, and an office roomThe roof is low and slanted to one side and is covered with dark brown wood shingles. A few large windows let in just enough light to the rooms below the roof.

The house itself has a well kept garden in front. Grass, flower patches and a couple small Demon Wood trees line the small garden. The house has a big backyard, it's very useful for multiple things, such as. The name might sound intimidating but the Demon Wood tree is a beautiful, but small plant. It blooms once a year, for 1 month. When it does bloom it has small, round leaves, which are usually a lime or dark green.

It also grows quite small flowers, which can be orange, dark brown and white. These plants grow in fairly small groups, but it's pretty simple to control and maintain their growth. Demon Wood might be pretty, but eating the plant will give you a high fever, and you will not survive more than 20 minutes of consumption. There is no cure for this sickness known to humankind. The leaves and flowers are extremely poisonous, and the roots are not edible.

I get inside and quickly take off my shoes, hat, coat and gloves and head to my desk. I sit down and open the book and search for the publish date. Looks like it came out about 30 years ago in 1974 I thought. I read the first sentence, ¨I always thought about the legends of the Islands in the sky.¨ This had been exactly what I was looking for! It was already pretty late and I was getting tired so I decided it was time to go to bed. That night I was laying in bed for hours just longing for it to be morning already.

It was about 1:00 in the morning before I finally drifted off to sleep. I woke up around 7:30 am, and I could hardly sleep since I was filled with excitement from the night before. As soon as I had woken up I took a shower, got dressed, put on a nice pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and went to her desk to continue reading The Legend of The Sky. 

As I started reading, more things about the island (possibly islands) kept coming up. Like the kinds of animals that might live up there, I saw one called the Copper-Striped Lizard. It's an amusing and incredibly rare creature that is a type of aquatic mammal. It's about the size of an eel, has two large flippers, a short, streamlined dorsal fin and a huge, powerful tail. 

There isn't much information on these animals, I mean they are just legends…… right? I thought.

¨But what if they aren't!?¨ I shouted out of excitement. ¨What if the islands are real? What if they aren't just a legend?¨ 

    I started blurting out all sorts of questions. Soon I decided that I just HAVE to do more research on this so-called ´legend in the sky´. I opened up my laptop and searched for ´Island in the sky´ and not to my surprise, only a few websites came up. The first one was Wikipedia, I just skipped that because that site isn't very helpful, any or all of it could be lies. The next site didn't have very much description so I clicked it, all that came up was things about other books that had things to do with a secret up above, or down below. There was one more site and I hoped that this would be about the islands, I clicked on the link… Nothing… Great.

¨Well that was no help at all.¨ I say with a sigh.

I shut my laptop and head to my room to grab a book. I picked a book called ´Eye of The Wolf´ then went to sit on my balcony. It was cold so I grabbed a sweater and a small blanket to wrap around myself. Not more than 15 minutes after I started reading, I fell asleep.

I woke up from the cold about half an hour later, and headed inside to make some hot chocolate. As I was sipping on the drink, I had just realized that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet and it was already lunch time. I made a bowl of ramen and went to the basement to watch tv.

I had forgotten to pick up some things from the store the day before so I got dressed and started walking. As I turned the corner I caught a glimpse of a person dressed in a dark and hooded robe, but they ran away down a long alleyway. I became curious about who, or what, this dark mysterious person was. So I followed them. I was running after the figure but as soon as I would turn a corner it would disappear around the next bend.

I had turned a corner for what felt like the millionth time. It was then I had realised that I was no longer in my small town. Where am I? I thought. I was out of breath, and tired. It looked to be about 7:00 to 7:30 in the evening. I looked around at my surroundings. 

¨Wow.¨ I gasped, my mouth gaped open.