Curate, connect, and discover
Chapter One
I was at the smoothie bar sitting next to Iris as she told Nathaniel and I about her most recent babysitting fail. She stirred her coffee aggressively, talking about how every time she sang something weird would happen, this happened ever since she was a baby. I sat next to her drinking my usual smoothie order of mango and pomegranate punch.
“I don't think I was meant to be a singer.” Iris said dejected. “You kidding?” Nathaniel said placing his hand on irises, “You have a beautiful voice. Besides, I saw this on the cafe's bulletin board and thought of you.” he said, handing her a flier. I leaned over irises shoulder, "Wanted, lead singer for girl band. LoliRock. Auditions today." I read aloud. "this is perfect for you Iris" I said looking at my little sister, “I do love singing... But I can't. Something weird would happen.” said Iris, pushing the flier away. “So? There are two things I know about you. One, you're weird and two, you're happiest when you're singing.” said Nathaniel, "I'm with Nat on this one, singing makes you happy, you should go, and if something weird happens you can leave”. “Thanks guys, but I just can't.” Iris said standing up to leave but was stopped by Nathaniel grabbing her hand and handing her the flier. “Think about it. Promise me?” Nathaniel asked, Iris smiles and takes the flier, “I promise” Iris said leaving the smoothie bar.
“Smooth Nat, smooth” I said making Nathaniel blush, “shut up. Go after her, she's gonna need the support” Nat said waving me off. “Way ahead of ya” i said paying for my smoothie and Irises coffee, “see ya”. I walked out of the bar just to see Iris running the opposite way of the audition theater. “Iris?” I said, I sighed then ran after her. After running for a few minutes I caught up to her as she slowed to a stop at our house, “Iris!” I yelled once she stopped at the dock. “y/n?” she said, turning around out of breath. “Are you ok?’’ I said putting a hand on her shoulder, “I-I can't-” Iris started but i cut her off “yes you can Iris, remember what i said, if something weird happens we can leave at any time” i said holding her shoulders. Iris paused Nathaniel's words repeating in her head, “ok, let's do this,” she said with confidence, making me smile.
once we got to the audittions we were welcomed by the 'singing' of the girls in line. Iris and I groan at the singing, well screeching. “Maybe I'm not the weirdest singer here.” Iris said wincing at the off keys, “not by a long shot” I said covering my ears when one of the girls hit a high note. It took a moment for Iris' turn and we unfortunately had to listen to these girls' poor attempts at singing warmups, but finally it was our turn. As we walked on stage we overheard the judges talking to each other. "If they all sing this well, my eardrums will never recover" said a girl with long brown hair and a blue vest, sitting next to her was another girl with red hair tied up in a side ponytail. Both girls looked about ready to leave and I couldn't blame them. If I had to listen to what the girls outside called singing, I'd want to leave too.
"I'm here for the audition" Iris says, getting the judges attention, once she does I go and sit on the edge of the stage so I can have a better view and not get in the way. "Great! Go ahead!" The red head says, pushing the brunette back into her seat, "Oh, and use that microphone right there", the girl points to a pink sparkly microphone on the stage. Iris looks to me for reassurance and I give her a thumbs up and a smile in return.
Iris clears her throat looking down at the lyric sheet and starts to sing. "Oh, when I start the day I'm checking on my friends. To see if they're okay they can count on me." As I listen to Irises' voice, pink sparkles start to fill the air and float around the theater, "oh no" I say realizing what's about to happen. "And if I'm feeling down my friends will come around. We're going to make some noise, we'll be laughing”. As Iris raises her arm, getting into the music, a beam of pink light erupts from her pendant and shoots through the roof, Iris doesn't seem to notice and continues singing "Hey, there are the stars out in the sky." as she sings Iris is surrounded by the light which causes a magical explosion inside the theater.
As the dust settles the two judges are sitting at their table looking frazzled and shocked, I cough and wave the dust from my face. "Are you okay?" Iris says seeing the judges appearance then turns to me seeing that i'm also scuffed up, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." Iris starts crying and runs out of the theater, "Iris!" I yelled, jumping on the partially destroyed stage and running out the doors after her. "Iris, wait up" I yell running after, shoving past the girls on the staircase. Iris runs through traffic, finally coming to a stop at a lamp post to catch her breath, "Iris!" I yelled finally catching up to her. "Are you ok?" I ask, leaning on my knees out of breath.
Before she could respond we heard a thud and both looked up to see a green crystal cut though the top of the lamppost. The top of the lamp started falling towards us, “Watch out” I yelled, grabbing Irises rist and pulling us out of the way of the falling metal. We jumped into the road as the light fell, destroying some of the sidewalk. “Ugh! you missed” said a voice, we looked up and saw two teenagers flying above us, one of them had his hand raised to us. The teens had matching mulberry coloured hair and some sort of green and red color pallet. The girl pointed her hand at us and some sort of red sigil looking thing appeared, the girl then started launching dark red crystals at us.
Iris and I dove out of the way of the crystals, trying to find cover. The two teens land as we dive into an alleyway behind a car, before we could even catch our breath the car was shot into the air by a green crystal. “What the heck!” I yelled as the car nose dived in front of us, Iris looked behind the green crystal and saw the mystery twins getting closer, Iris grabbed my hand and pulled me further down the alleyway. “I like this place! So much stuff to smash!” said the boy in green, as we ran the twins kept shooting crystals at us. We turned into a corner of the alleyway and tried to jump the fence blocking us but were shot into the air as a crystal was blasted beneath us. Iris and I landed hard against a garage door and before we could get up and run the teens landed in front of us.
“This is way easier than I thought it would be,” said the boy, a smug smile painted on his face. “Really?” said the girl in red “I expected it to be simple. She's completely untrained” she raised her hand to shoot us with a crystal, but was interrupted by a familiar voice above us. “Sing, if you want to live.” We look up to see the two girls from the auditions in some magical princess looking get up. They were riding on some kind of wired purple pegasus looking thing.
…This day really can't get any weirder can it.
“Trust us!” the girl with blue hair yelled, Iris reacted fast singing a single note that somehow created a pink crystal barrier just in time to block another spell from the twins. The girl in blue shoots her own spell launching the twins back into the rubble of the destroyed fence. Iris and I stood back up still in shock of what just happened, the pegasus thing landed behind us and the girl in blue extended her hand to Iris, “Iris come” said the girl in blue, Iris hesitated then grabbed my hand giving the girl a look. “She can come to” said the girl in orange glancing at me, Iris looks to me and grabs the blue girl's hand. Somehow she lifted both of us up with one hand, launching us onto the back of the purple pegasus. I'm sitting behind the orange girl while Iris is holding on to me for dear life.
The pegasus takes off causing Irises hold on me to tighten, we sit there for a moment trying to process what just happened. “Wait a second, how do you know my name? And who are you people” asked Iris, moving my hair to get a better look at the girls in front of us. the girl in front of me turns to Iris, “Oh, We've been searching for you for a long time.”.
…What the heck is going on today?
We fly over the ocean to a cave where the pegasus thing lands, the two girls get off gracefully and I manage to get off without falling on my face, but Iris on the other hand. Iris tried to get off but fell before i could catch her, thankfully she was ok and got up quickly. “Okay, what is going on? Who were those people attacking me? Who are you people? Why did my singing do... Whatever it did?” Iris said, reasonably confused, “and what is that?” she gasped, referring to the pegasus that just turned into the purple dog thing that was on the girls desk from before. The orange girl picked him up and practically squeezed the life out of the poor thing, “Im Auriana thats Talia and this is Amaru!”. “Well that's two questions answered… sort of” I said feeling sorry for Amaru.
“We brought you here to answer all your questions. It may be difficult for you to believe this, but you have a very great destiny. You must prepare yourself for-” Talia started but was interrupted by Auriana. “Ah, pff! Enough blah, blah, blah!” Auriana summoned this ribbon wand thing, “Let's just show her!” Auriana put the wand to the ground and these symbols appeared on the walls of the cave creating a projection of a beautiful castle. “Woah! Where are we?” I asked spinning to get a better look at everything, “This is a vision of events that have already happened.” responded Talia. “It's so beautiful.” Iris said in awe, “This is where you are born.” said Talia. Both Iris and I whipped our heads to look at her, “what? You're joking.” I said not believing her for a moment. I had known Iris for almost my entire life, I had known her when her aunt Ellen took me in when I was three. Ellen had just adopted Iris and found me when my foster parents kicked me out. Iris was one at the time and has been like a little sister to me ever since.
I broke out of my thoughts when Auriana appears next to me, “Oh, she's not. For one, she never jokes. Plus, she really was born here! It's a land of magic called Ephedia!” The projection shifted to a throne room, “That's where the King and Queen of Ephedia sat.” We walked deeper into the cave and the illusion got darker as a man with green hair and a menacing mask was shown. “Or they were king and queen. Before Gramorr showed up.” Auriana said with clear disdain for this Gramorr dude. “He's that mean-looking guy?” Iris asked, “Yes. He betrayed the rulers and took the throne for himself.” Talia explained. “Ugh! What a jerk!” Iris said, even though she'd never met the guy she already did not like him, “i second that” I said agreeing with Iris' claim.
“No one knows what happened to the king but when Gramorr tried to take the Queen's crown, he found it was magically protected. The Queen's crown was possessed of great magic, stored in oracle gems. It would have been disastrous if Gramorr had been able to use them for his evil purposes. These oracle gems were scattered, and sent to Earth to be kept safe from Gramorr. But they were not the only things sent away to be kept safe.” Talia said as the projection showed a beautiful woman holding an adorable and familiar baby girl, “Iris... My adorable baby.” the queen started. “That's me?” Iris said holding her pendant, “Yes, Iris. It is you.” said Talia, one of her hands resting on her hip giving her this cool and calm demeanor, this was immediately destroyed by Auriana walking in front of her holding Amaru gushing over baby Iris. “You were so cute!” she said, squeezing the life out of poor Amaru again. “It breaks my heart that you'll grow up, and I won't see it but it must be done, for your safety.” the queen said sadly, “If that's me, then that means…” Iris said. “You are the princess and heir to the throne of Ephedia. You were sent to Earth to keep you safe from Gramorr, until you were old enough, and strong enough, to use your powers to defeat him.” said Talia confirming Irises suspicions but also making her head spin. “We were sent to train you!” said Auriana, not noticing that Iris was in disbelief and distress, “I'm a princess from a magical land…” Iris whispered looking at the ground. “Yes!” Auriana exclaimed in happiness, hugging Iris from behind “We've been looking everywhere for you! And now we've found you!” she giggled. “I'm a princess,” Iris said, removing Aurianas arms and walking towards me, “My parents were a king and a queen. My real parents. I was adopted by my Aunt Ellen, but my real parents were royalty.” she looked at me then turned towards Talia and Auriana, “What happened to them?” she asked. “Nobody knows. All we know is that now that we have found you, we can concentrate on training you to use your powers to defeat Gramorr.” said Talia, “what powers” i asked, shure Iris was wired and magical things happened whenever she sang but she doesn't have power-... oh. That explains a lot.
“You mean, my voice?” Iris said, holding her neck, coming to the same conclusion as I just did. “That's merely one aspect of your powers, perhaps the first to manifest. You need to learn how to control it properly.” said Talia seriously, “Yeah, and we figured out that on Earth, the easiest way to find you was to set up auditions for a band. I thought it would be super fun!” said Auriana happily. “The oracle gems that were sent to Earth will allow us to return to Ephedia and defeat Gramorr, when you're ready. You are the key.”, iris kneels down on the ground clearly overwhelmed by all this sudden information, i kneel next to her puting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Your goodness and sense of justice will help us discover them.” said Talia finishing her explanation. “What am I supposed to tell my Aunt Ellen?” said Iris putting her hand on mine, “Nothing. You can't tell anyone about your true identity. It must remain secret.” Talia said, putting her hand on Irises' other shoulder, “Nobody? Not even my best friend?” said Iris, overwhelmed with this sudden responsibility. “Nobody you want to keep safe.” said Talia who walked over to Auriana who was getting Amaru ready for travel. I looked over at Iris, her gaze was distant and foggy, “hey, whatever happens i will always stick by your side. Alien princess or not you're still my little sister” I said trying to give Iris some sense of normalcy to ground herself. Iris smiled and held out her pinky “sisters?” she said, “sisters” i said , linking pinkies and knocking my forehead to hers. it was an old handshake I had come up with when Iris was young and would get upset.
“Come on” I said standing up, “let's go back home, we'll figure out this whole magical princess destiny after some lunch” I held out my hand for Iris. As Iris stood up Auriana waved us over, I slung my arm over Iris's shoulders and gilded her towards the girls. After giving them directions we set off back to Aunt Ellen's house.