Sophia Birca is participating in the International Literary Creation Competition, 7th Edition, from Essex, UK and is 10 years old. We thank her for her participation and wish her success.

Moonflame

Chapter one

Luna strolled over to the enthralling academy of Moonflame, a secondary school only for those with magic burning, ready to run out of their hearts. Luna was one of them; she had only found out a week ago. Her blonde hair shone against the fancy, exquisite windows, and she sped towards the grand hall. When she arrived, she was welcomed by a small lady with dilapidated, ancient glasses and silver hair, with wrinkles and wisdom written all about her. She introduced herself as Mrs Winterfall and strutted over to the center of the grand hall, where she started to inform the students about the school.

The grand hall was ginormous; sprinkled with gold patterns and fancy ornaments. Its ceiling was filled with absorbing, detailed paintings, and the walls a calm shade of light cream. ‘In this school, you will be taught not only how to use magic, but how to control it, how to use it wisely, and how to mean it with no harm. You must not ever use it as a crime, or there will be consequences,’ declared Mrs Winterfall. ‘You each have a unique, hidden power inside of you. Soon, all of you will be taken separately for an exam to determine this power. Once you find out, revealing your power is your decision. She sighed. ‘Good luck, everyone!’ she span and trotted over to the gigantic brown doors and exited the hall.

Moonflame was one of the most extraordinary schools of all time, even though it was hidden from the real world. The male students had been taken to the garden outside for their introduction as the faculty thought it more comfortable for everyone. Whispers filled the entire hall as soon as the head of the school left, people pondering and hoping for whatever power they thought they liked. Luna was sitting rather uncomfortably between two girls snickering next to her on her right, and a tall girl with nut- brown hair and elegant glasses commenting to herself on her left. Suddenly, the doors of the hall swung wide open, and six examiners strolled inside, and began calling out names. ‘Holly Raine!’ one bellowed, and the girl on Luna’s left rose. ‘Eve Silverfloat!’ ‘Kamila Thorndike!’ ‘Amber Skyroar!’ ‘Luna Jayfeather!’ Luna stood up and walked towards the door. One of the examiners grabbed her elbow firmly and dragged her over to a large, white room, empty of all decorations. Luna stood in the center, fidgeting anxiously with her fingers and looking at the ground. A female examiner stood up from a table which was at the side of the room, tucked away from light. ‘Name?’ she demanded.

‘L-luna,’ Luna stuttered. ‘J-jayfeather,’ Luna looked up at the table and five chairs standing neatly behind it, and notebooks, feathers and ink scattered on the table, wide open; gracious handwriting displayed on the lined pages. The lady looked up from her notebook and adjusted her glasses. ‘Is there anything unusual… about you that you would like to share with us?’

N-no, not that I know of,’ Luna replied.

Thud. The sound echoed throughout the room, and Luna spun around to see a chair stood behind her, with a hat-looking object hovering above it. It had wires attached all around it, whirring mechanically, waiting for its next victim. ‘That,’ said the examiner. ‘Is a machine that helps awaken your power inside of you. Once you put it on, it will immediately start searching your brain for any clues about your power. After ten minutes or so, it should become obvious what it is. We will start the machine in a few minutes, so do go and sit in the chair.’

Luna did as she was told and nervously walked over to the chair. The machine seemed to be peering inside her already, its wires flickering and smirking at her. Two minutes passed, and suddenly she heard the whirring of the machine-hat as it sat comfortably on her head. A sharp pain dug into her ear, and she winced. In felt like a bug was crawling into her brain, poking it with sharp needles purposely to infuriate her. Luna was questioning the sense of this when suddenly, the bug reached something. Luna’s eyes started glowing neon blue, illuminating the entire room. Luna observed the female examiner who had told her about the hat-machine, sweating, when something new entered her head. ‘Wha-what’s happening?! What power- what power is this?! I’ve never seen anything like this before…’ heard Luna. No one had spoken; no one had even moved. Then Luna visibly saw something, perhaps an illusion in her head. It was her, from another point of view, sweating under the machine and her eyes glowing immensely. Then the person looked down and at her notebook, and started scribbling lines rapidly, aghast and frightened of Luna. ‘This is not normal procedure. What power is this?!’ Luna heard. Abruptly, she switched back to her own point of view and took in what had just happened. The hat lifted and her eyes went back to normal, and Luna instantly stood up from the chair. ‘Luna.’ She looked up to see the examiner she was studying during the inspection. ‘What did you see?’

                                                                             Chapter two

Holly Raine walked out from the white laboratory and shuffled over to the dormitory assignments. She placed her finger on the dusty paper and dragged it down until it found her name. ‘Holly Raine and Luna Jayfeather.’ She muttered under her breath. She had seen Luna before, but only under the glimpse of an eye. She recalled Luna as the girl with silver-blonde hair and icy blue eyes, the same eye colour as Holly’s. ‘Room 29,’ Holly read. The first day was all about getting to know the school (where you would be staying for six to eight years) and finding all the classes and dormitories. Holly hiked all the way to section C, where the dormitories were kept. She crept to Room 29 and left her travelling bag on the white, shiny tiles on the floor. Her and her roommate’s room was like one you would find in a palace; every corner of the room dusted until it shined. The beds were king-sized, and the mattress a soft, luscious, extraordinary thing; Holly was tempted to lay down right there, but she didn’t. She started unpacking and looking around the room, so she would get to know it. Suddenly, Holly heard banging on the door. When she opened it, a sweaty, panting Luna huffed in. Her hair was all messed up, and her uniform already crinkled and had sweat dripping from under it. ‘Wh-what happened? Asked Holly politely, worried.

‘Nothing, I’m fine; It’s just my power,’ Luna explained. ‘I-I don’t want to share it… So, how’s the room?’

‘It’s alright,’ Holly commented.

 As Luna settled in and unpacked her things, Holly wondered what her power might be. ‘Obviously, it is something rare, something undiscovered,’ Holly thought.  She didn’t comprehend Luna looking at her right then…

Holly and Luna went on exploring the school, the majestic, stunning rooms, making them awe with amazement. They sauntered all over the school until noon, and then their exhausted legs carried them over to their king-sized beds and they rested there until the bell called for dinner. All three meals were served in the academy, at different times each year. The first year’s dinner was served at precisely 17:00. The meals were all served in the grand hall, as it was clearly the largest room of all. Five tremendous tables were spread out the entire hall, silver cutlery and china plates balancing on them. Holly went over to one table at the side, where there seemed to be less commotion. A girl with long, golden hair and light, misty green eyes sat next to her with her friend, who had petite glasses, vivid ginger hair and light-brown eyes. Holly saw the girls close their eyes and think of something, and then food appeared on their plates. Holly stared at them, confused, until the girl with golden hair looked at her and said, ‘Just shut your eyes and think of what you want to eat and it will appear. But think about it clearly.’

Holly took notice of her words as she saw someone with who-knows-what on their plate in the shape of potatoes. Holly shut her eyes and imagined an entire chicken, all for herself. As soon as it appeared, she wolfed some of it down hungrily and dug for more. The girl who had told her about the magical summoning of food came up to Holly after dinner. ‘Hey, what’s your name?’

‘Holly. Holly Raine,’ Holly said.

 ‘Mines Amber Skyroar,’ announced Amber. ‘And this is Mia Calestern.’

The girl with ginger hair came into sight from behind Amber’s back. She adjusted her glasses and waved nervously. Holly waved back, eager to make friends. ‘So, do you want to hang out?’

Luna finished her plate and then licked off the remains. She thought of doing a last walk around the school before she went to bed. She started off by visiting the philosophy corner, then walked to the psychic area, then to the control classrooms and all-around Section A. the control classrooms (for example,) contained all subjects for control, like mind control, body control, and more. The future classrooms had everything about future, like telling the future, seeing clips of the future and then seeing it in real life, telling prophecies and more. The entire school was split into three sections: Section A, for the more advanced and difficult powers, Section B, for the basic and easy powers, and Section C, for the dormitories. The Grand Hall was located in Section C, to make it easier for the students. Each Section was a whole new building, but built in a circle, around a stunning, beautiful garden, full of flowers and fruits and everything was a vibrant green, healthy and appealing. Each Section had a set of stairs; everyday they changed into a theme, like flowers growing from the steps and stars hanging from mid-air to create two different themes: the flower theme and the night sky theme. This day was a snow theme, real snow hailing down on the poor children’s heads and the steps a crunchy, soft sound you could hear as you stepped on them. Luna walked up to another set of stairs and bumped into a small girl with mahogany brown hair and matching brown eyes. She had two companions, one girl who looked like her twin and one girl with lighter brown hair and jade green eyes. ‘Sorry,’ apologized Luna. ‘I didn’t see you there.’

‘Me either,’ said the small girl. ‘What’s your name? My name is Eve Silverfloat. This is my sister, Lilith (Lily for short)’ she presented the taller girl that looked like her twin. ‘And this is my new friend, Kamila Thorndike.’

‘My name is Luna Jayfeather,’ said Luna politely. ‘Would you all like to be friends with me?’

Holly walked around with her new-found friends and they introduced her to the school, telling her all she needed to know. In the school, you would not only learn about your power but learn about basic and sometimes advanced magic as wel. This magic was taught on the left side of Section B and was available for all students. More advanced magic was available for students who passed an exam in Year 3 of Moonflame. The magic was vastly different from the powers, as it was summoned from emotion and faith, not focus and the belief from inside your heart. Magic was summoned by chanting a spell, which then caused your hand to shoot a beam of light focused on the emotion you were feeling (red for anger; yellow for happiness and so on) at your aim. Basic spells were spells such as stunning, illuminating light sources, lifting objects from their place and either holding them or moving them for a matter of seconds and more easy spells of the same difficulty. The advanced spells were things like teleportation (but within a limit) summoning things from afar, flying but for only several minutes, and for the incredibly unique people, dark magic. Each of the spells had limits of to which you perform them, so powers consisting of them were more efficient and had more freedom. Holly looked forward to those lessons as they happened more often than your power lessons, but lessons such as history and magic control were included in the school as well.

 Students in the school had an age-range of twelve to seventeen, as you would graduate at the end of the school year on your seventeenth birthday, which afterwards you would trek into a magic university. Holly and her friends waved goodbye as 8pm crept in, as they wanted to have a good rest before the next day’s lessons. When Holly arrived to find her shared room deserted, she quickly changed into her pajamas and laid down on her luxurious bed and tried to sleep. Her anxiety of the next day woke her repeatedly until she relaxed her mind and thought of her happiest memory of a child, which always seemed to calm her down a bit. She fell right into a peaceful dream, of tranquil plants and turtle doves circling her and tickling her with their feathers. Holly chuckled as she lifted one up (she has always loved birds; especially turtle doves) and stroked it gently. She had never had a pet, but she loved birdwatching and gazing at animals from afar. At home she went to the zoo every day to admire the caged animals and write down things she observed about them. She had begged for a bird when she was younger, but her parents had frantically refused. That left her heartbroken, so after school each day she went to the zoo, as it was quite close to her school, and watched.

Holly laid on the clean tiles of her dream and sighed. How she wished to have a pet to take care of… Holly looked up and saw she wasn’t outside, but in a room. The walls were plain white, like the ceiling, and the floor shiny white tiles. The room looked like a small office, though Holly had no clue where she even was. Suddenly, Holly heard the door creak open, and she quickly hid behind a plant pot in the corner. A man and women entered the scene, arguing about something Holly didn’t catch. The women grabbed the man’s collar and said strongly, ‘The powers are more dangerous this year, Rowan. We don’t know what would become of the pupils; what we might let out into the world. We do not want a repeat of…’ She looked into the man’s eyes, anxious. ‘Well, you know. All I’m saying is that you should beware of the students, Rowan. Because we do not need more worry haunting these innocent people. These people need freedom.’ She let go of the man. ‘Make sure you don’t teach a monster. Make sure you teach them to use magic in the right way.’ She stormed out of the office, the man right behind her. Holly crept out of her corner, her eyes wide and her heart beating rapidly.

She tucked all her thoughts away and just sat there, petrified, waiting to appear somewhere else, waiting for the conversation to disappear out of her memory. But it stuck there, frozen, until Holly woke up the next morning in her dormitory shaken and sweating. Luna yawned in the bed beside her peacefully, but Holly’s alarmed expression startled her and she took her uniform and plodded into the bathroom. Holly shook her fragile body and reminded herself it was just a dream. ‘Then why was it so real?’ why was it so she pondered before changing into her sapphire blue and grey uniform.

                                               Chapter three

Luna was insecure after she noticed the change in Holly’s eyes. She pondered of all the possibilities where it may occur, but it made no difference. Holly had seemed more… secretive and quiet after the night. Luna was afraid it wasn’t her business, but clearly something had happened the last night. Holly’s eyes had changed from an icy blue to a misty mint green. Luna’s first class was about to start in five minutes; she had already had a splendid breakfast of maple syrup-covered pancakes and an omelet. Her first class was basic magic skills, applied with a note of her lesson schedule. In brackets next to basic magic skills, it said:  animal summoning today. You will summon your first animal and take care of it throughout your time in Moonflame. This lesson is obliged: every student will participate. Please proceed to classroom 3 in Section B at 9:45.  Luna wondered what that meant as she stepped into the classroom. Everyone was standing in a straight line behind a glass door. Mrs Willow at the front, she instructed everyone to stop talking and to follow her instructions. ‘One by one, touch the door, while closing your eyes and fully relaxing. Try not to think and no talking. If you feel a chill, that is normal, and continue the procedure, but, if you feel flaming hot, go stand on that side of the room. Once you’re done, the door will open itself to you and reveal your soul-matching animal. Start now.’

The first girl walked up to the door and placed her palm on it. She jumped back with a shriek of pain and went to stand on the other side of the room. The following three people did the same, but then it was the boy in front of Lunas turn. Calmy, he placed his hand on the door, his eyebrows softening and his shoulders slumping. Suddenly, the door started illuminating the room, turning heavenly white. Everyone stopped in shock as the door opened and a beautiful tawny owl emerged. The owl flew up to the boy, (Kameron) and placed its claws on his shoulder, shifting to get to a comfortable position. Kameron smiled brightly and declared its name to the class, ‘Ash.’ He then walked to opposite side of the people who got rejected by the door and started playing with his new-found pet. Then Luna walked up, nervously. She let out a breath of air and placed her palm on the door.