Chapter 2 World of Magic

The sky was sunny; the air was fresh. The forest spoke with its enchanting tranquility. The deep green forest was wrapped around by the soft sunlight. Birds chirped gingerly, crickets sounds hissed in the background. Brilliant green plants and mosses perfectly blending in with the dark wood and the yell sunlight. A figure slept peacefully leaning protectively on the trunk of the tree. Everything felt like it was at one with itself, everything was as it should or was it…

Slowly and lazily, Kukuru opened her eyes. She felt rested, comfortable, almost willing to go back into blissful sleep, it was normal for her to do that after all; that is, before her conscious mind finally woke up. Then pain came as she tried to get up much too quickly for her sore body. At least she was saved from further pain as she had enough instinct not to hit her head on the trunk of the tree.

"Owie-owie-owie…" muttered a slowing rising girl.

Struggling up she examined her surrounding, dumbfounded until her resent memories caught up with her. *Wow... What happened?* Taking in her surrounding she knew something was wrong. Something told her she was not in the park anymore. Kukuru had remembered falling then a long walk in the darkness of the park, then there was a light. That was the extent of what her memories told her, now she was here. Where ever she was she was definitely in a different place unless her memories had deceived her.

She felt her whole body was slightly sore, probably from sleeping on the ground, so she stretched a bit. Then it caught her; her clothes had changed, drastically. Looking down she was wearing metal. She registered it as a breastplate of some sort and also realized finally the extra weight she wore. There was more of course, she had on a silvery-white cloak, and under the breastplate was a white blouse of some kind, long sleeved from the observation of her arms. On the side was a sword sheathed, clasped on her belt. Her lower section was also white, fairly comfortable pants with some leg guards. The last item of clothing were some well-worn boots, she had to blanch at the clashing of dirt brown with everything else she wore.

A few things trailing behind a ton of other things rolled on her mind. *Ok, stay calm, this must be a dream. But could also be real, at least it felt real. Someone could be playing a trick on me* Giving it a second though she crossed that one out. Then something happened.

"Hey, so you’re finally awake, it been forever since I had to watch over you," Whirling around startled she found the source of the voice. It was her, or at least an image of her. Faint and misty, but it was the image of herself, clothes and all, standing there with a determined expression.

Unable to help herself she stumped back and landed on her rear. "Who… who are you?"

"I can ask the same for you. What are you doing in my body, and why. But before that, give me back my body!" She could clearly see the anger in her face now, controlled, but it was still there.

"Bo–body?!"

Her misty image bend down as if to clasp grab her by the neck, when to her amazement when right though. She let out a startle gasp. Standing back up she folded her arms under her breast and closed her eyes in deep concentration, but still with a clearly angered face.

Quickly Kukuru stood back up all the while moving a couple of steps back. It actually looked fairly graceful.

Taking a deep breath, her image opened her eyes again. " Alright, I can see you’re as surprised as me, So I’ll go slowly. Who are you? My name is Kukuru, Kukuru Kimi,"

"But-but my name is Kukuru Kimi! You can’t be me, I mean we both can’t…" her words died off. Startlement became puzzlement, then deep thoughts. "Well it is possible to have the same name, I mean...well you’re a...and ....humm that doesn’t make sense..." It was amazing how fast her mood changed.

"Forget that! Alright, this is odd, but I think this has to be the work of magic." Also as she was sure of the explaination, her image muttered something she couldn’t make out.

"I guess since you don’t know what happened either, I’ll tell my side of the story. I was trailing behind my group when I suddenly saw a bright flash of light. Next thing I knew I was looking down on myself. At first I thought I was dead, but then I saw some occasional mutter and myself breathing. That’s when I knew something was wrong. I saw myself all misty and in some odd clothes. I tried to wake my body up, but it went right through. I think I’m a spirited of some sorts, pulled from my body. Also I can’t seem to leave my body very far, so I stayed and hoped something happened."

Kukuru took all this in. *Ok, this is weird, and I hurt too much to be a dream* Then it hit her, magic, swords, her clothing… *Oh no, this can’t be happening!* She had some flights of fantasy about playing the role of something she watched on her TV, of an medieval world of swords and magic, but this doesn’t seem like a dream, yet rather than afraid, she was strangely curious.

"Umm… well, I was with my class when the road was blocked and we where stuck at the park and was at this hotel and then umm I heard something and fell down a hill…I think and then I walked a little and there was this light… and now I woke up here. Oh yes and you’re wearing my clothes…I think."

Her image seems confused about that almost as if to ask a question, but stopped and thought some more.

Kukuru wondered about the many questions to ask too. Where was she, what is it like, is it anything like what she fantasized about… the list kept growing longer in her head. She was also looking for anything that could be used to see her reflection when something rustled. All fears faded and in place, excitement. She couldn’t wait to see what it would be like.

"Something is behind those bushes…" her image coolly said, before it burst out. Kukuru gasped as it was hideous. She Stumbled back as if to run.

"Get out your sword, it a goblin, kill it before it kills you!" but she ran. Back to fear again.

*Ahhh, this is not happening!* Kukuru ran for her dear life, stumbling blindly into the stretch of the forest. She didn’t know where she was going, but she ran anyway. Suddenly her misty image was right next to her, running with her.

"Why didn’t you take out your sword, oh wait... you can’t fight can you? Great, I’m going to lose my body from a stupid goblin"

"I…am…not helpless, I just…I don’t know why I’m running," Though in reality she had almost no experience in combat skills. Oh she could mimic moves after seeing it so many times, but little else besides that. Though for the record, her mother did repeated say she was good at mimicking things.

But things happen oddly and something that didn’t happen often in a forest did. She stopped at the side of a cliff, with surrounding posture that there was nothing she could hide in. Backtracking was out of the question as her pursuer was already closing in.

"You better kill it, because I want my body back and in one piece."

Kukuru clumsily drew out her sword, careful not to cut herself. Not a bad start, but not a good one either. It was a long slender blade, and was fairly easy to handle in her hands to her surprise. She shifted into a mimicked defensive stance. It was a surprisingly good stance, stable, and balanced.

"Alright, looks like this goblin is alone, and only wielding a club. It can do a lot of damage still, but it’s not balanced very well. It doesn’t have armor so a good hit should kill it, even an amateur can win"

Kukuru amost shot her misty figure a glare, but decided against it. She really was an amateur. "Can’t you do anything?"

"It doesn’t seem to even see me…" her image replied. Kukuru sighed.

The goblin came rushing in lunging directly at her. She parried the blow effectively only stumbling a little, but everything became downhill from there. She was doing a fairly good job with her mimicked skills, but the goblin wasn’t getting hit.

Not knowing what to do as her attacks wasn’t working, she backed away, which proved to be her mistake. She tripped and dropped her slender sword. Twisting she rolled and scrambled back to her feet moving away from her opponent and her back was pressed to the cliff, cornered.

"No! You idiot, don’t move back, get the sword!"

The goblin sensed her blunder and now, to her point of view almost smiled, as it slowly positioned itself from her weapon. Now she was in trouble. *Think! Think! I’mgonnadie--I’mgonnadie!* Then Kukuru was cautious, a mask of calm that surprised even her, focused for a moment to spring and hope to reach her sword. *Need a distraction…*

With a mocked confidant voice, "I’m warning you! I know magic!"

She waved her hand and cupped it together.

It was too late to hear her image call out, "NO you idiot, it can’t understand a word your saying! Just get…"

"Source of all power

Light which burns beyond crimson

Let thy power gather within my hand

FireBALL!!"

Her hand felt a warm and a blazing ball shot towards a surprised goblin followed by a big BOOM. And she ran for her sword hoping to catch the goblin by surprise, but there was no need. *Wha….* She stared at the smoking at the charred hole, but she wasn’t the only one.

"You’re…a Mage?" her image whispered.