Young Writers Society

Facts

• both magical creatures and modern technology exist in this world

Valencia Heartwood loved watching live-streamed quests.

Sure, most people used Oxygen to watch exciting highlight reels, but Val liked using the social media app to see all the parts of quests– both the highs and the lows. It was training, in a way, because she was practically a shoo-in for New Geode City’s Chosen One this year. With two heroes as parents, a flawless academic record, and hundreds of volunteer hours, how could she not be?

Val flicked down to a new quest video and shifted her position on the couch. “Ooh, Mira, look! Calyx is livestreaming.”

Her best friend looked up from where she was doing homework at the coffee table. “Who’s that again?” She brushed a lock of black hair from her face, tucking it into her neat braids.

“The Chosen One from Lily City in Florid!” Val thrust her phone at Mira, in the hopes that looking at Calyx’s pink hair and pale green eyes would spark her friend’s memory.

Mira gazed at the video for a moment, then shrugged. “They all blur together after a while.” She returned to her algebra problems.

“But-but!” Val spluttered. “She’s the one with the Sword of Nightmares. The one that, when it touches any living creature, traps them in a nightmare until Petal releases them with the Spear of Day.” Val’s expression turned dreamy. “What teamwork… Mira, you and I will be just like that this year. I’ll be the Chosen One and you’ll be Companion One, and together we’ll complete our quest in record time. I bet we’ll set a record for the whole world, and not just for Minera!”

“That sounds great,” Mira said lightheartedly, “although you know we’d have to have a Companion Two, too, of course. And you know the elders make unexpected choices sometimes, and there are thousands of people in New Geode City-”

Val laughingly swatted the air, as if physically waving Mira’s words away. “Let me dream, girl.” But that touch of reality was enough to make her close out of Oxygen, for now. She’d find another livestream after doing her homework.

As she joined Mira at the table, Val’s glance fell across the calendar on the opposite wall. September 1st was circled in bright red. Three days left, she thought. Three days until the elders announce the questing team for New Geode City this year. Three days until I’m either the Chosen One, or until the only taste of questing I ever get is the stories my parents tell me and livestreams on Oxygen. She took a deep breath and started her homework. Three days.

Valencia Heartwood loved watching live-streamed quests.

There was just something more real about them than the quest highlight reels that most people watched on Oxygen. When questers live streamed, Val felt as if she was transported through the social media app, through her phone, and was right there next to them, outwitting monsters and solving ancient puzzles. It was a great distraction. And Val was in dire need of a distraction.

◊ ◊ ◊

Finally, the feed cut back to the two announcers. Haly seemed to be full of even more energy than before, and Stal was practically beaming as he said, "I can't wait for our questers to discover this gorgeous historical location! Make sure to tune into Oxygen and follow the official account at Minera underscore quests (@Minera_quests), as well as your favorite questing teams, for real-time updates throughout the year."

◊ ◊ ◊

The next one would be New Geode City. Val unconsciously held her breath as the white letters came into view.

Mineral Metropolis. Chosen One: Mira Chalcedony, Companion One: Caleb Bornite, Companion Two: Valencia Heartwood.

Val froze. The words floated upwards on the screen, disappearing at the top. Then the questers for Niobite and Okenite were listed.

The room was silent. Val sat on the couch, motionless, just like the geodes her city was named for. She- she must have read wrong, or, or-

"Congratulations, Mira and Val." Val's mother's voice was slightly strained, her expression betraying her shock.

Val's dad and Mira were speechless. And so Val knew.

◊ ◊ ◊

Cautiously, Val turned to look at Mira. Val's crystalline blue eyes met Mira's wide brown ones, and they stared at each other for a moment.

Normally, words came easily to Val. They flowed from her just as endlessly and smoothly as one scrolled through posts on Oxygen. But now, it took everything she had to open her mouth.

"Congrats, Mira," she offered weakly.

◊ ◊ ◊

The next morning, the weather seemed to reflect Val's mood. Clouds coated the sky with a dusting of white and gray, giving the weak sunlight that filtered through a pallid cast. Val felt numb inside as well. She wished she could stay home watching livestreams and not thinking about her reality.

But, even through her disappointment, being a good student was a habit ingrained in her. And so she got up and ate breakfast and dressed mechanically and walked to New Geode Middle School.

Whispers followed her through the halls.

"...Valencia Heartwood?"

"Yeah…daughter of two Chosen Ones…"

"...Chosen One…Companion Two…"

Val stared cooly at the gossiping students until they shifted nervously and stopped. She sighed. Usually, she liked people knowing about her parents. Being the daughter of two Chosen Ones was nothing to be ashamed of, and she was always happy to share some questing stories from them. But now… Well, expectations were a double-edged sword.

◊ ◊ ◊

The quester training room was about twice the size of a usual classroom. Along one wall, there were weapons and training weapons of various types, as well as exercise equipment. Another side of the room was a climbing wall, and there was a VR headset in a corner so questers could practice confronting various kinds of monsters. Half the floor was covered in mats. There was even a widescreen TV on the third wall and a computer on a podium, presumably so questers could watch previous quests and analyze the questers' strategies.

Clearly, a significant portion of the budget had gone into this training room. Which made sense, Val supposed. Questers were always from the same school, and there were ten schools in New Geode City, so each school got to train questers approximately every ten years or so. If the questers either succeeded or became hugely popular on Oxygen, it reflected favorably on the school. So, naturally, schools wanted their questers to do the best possible.

An older woman was doing one-handed push-ups on a section of the mat. When she became aware of Val's presence, she jumped up and strolled over, not even breathing heavily. She graced Val with a confident smile. "Valencia Heartwood?"

Val nodded.

"My name is Eileen, and I am one of the elders." Eileen's salt-and-pepper hair reached her shoulders in a bob, and there were smile lines at the corners of her eyes. Despite appearing to be middle-aged, she was obviously in great shape.

◊ ◊ ◊

"What do we do during team bonding?" Caleb asked.

"Glad you asked. It's Friday, so why don't we just start?" Eileen looked at them with a twinkle in her eye.

Val got a feeling that Eileen didn't intend for them to simply play two truths and a lie or answer icebreakers.

The elder pointed to the ceiling. Val followed her gesture and saw a blue ball hanging from a string. "I've taped that ball-on-a-string up there. Your job is to work together to get it down." Eileen grinned wickedly. "You may use anything in this room, but you may not damage the ball, or the ceiling. Questions?"

◊ ◊ ◊

"Alright then." Eileen reached for a whistle that was hung around her neck, then paused. "Oh, one more thing. You have ten minutes. Ready?"

The questers froze.

Eileen blew the whistle, the shrill sound drowning out the students' exclamations. "Go!" The elder displayed a ten-minute timer on the TV. Eileen started to do jumping jacks at the side of the room, looking enormously pleased with herself.

Val scanned the room frantically. "Okay, the ceiling looks to be about ten feet above us, and I don't see anything we can stack to stand on. So, the weapons are probably our best bet. I see a bow-and-arrow."

Caleb looked amused. "You're going to shoot the ball down? I thought she said not to damage the ball."

Val rolled her eyes. "Of course not."

"Then are you gonna cut the string? Do you happen to have years of practice with archery?"

"No. It was just an idea, chill." Val frowned at him, then deliberately turned to Mira. "Do you have any ideas, Mir?"

Mira gazed at the ball intently. "I... I'm not sure. I need to think."

◊ ◊ ◊

As Mira and Caleb grasped Val's ankles, Val stretched an arm upwards. "Almost..." Someone below staggered a step. Val's swipe missed the ball. "Could you stay steady, please?"

"We're trying, but you're not the lightest, you know."

Val huffed, "Rude, but okay, I'll be quick." She reached for the ball again, and this time managed to grab it.

She pulled. The ball didn't budge.

Val pulled harder, still mindful of Eileen's warning not to damage the ball or the ceiling. The ball swayed slightly, but it didn't come loose from the ceiling.

"How strong is this tape?" Val complained.

"Could you hurry up?" Caleb's voice was strained.

"I'm trying!" Val yanked on the ball with all her might. "It's not coming off!"

"Five minutes," Mira called out faintly.

"Ugh. I think we need to cut the string with a sword or something." Val released the ball, then clambered down. Caleb and Mira massaged their shoulders with a sigh of relief.

Eileen grinned. “Try not to destroy anything, of course, but otherwise? Go wild.” She was about to turn to Mira, but then she stopped. “Oh! One more thing. The other elders and I have judged you all ready to gain access to New Geode City’s official questing account on Oxygen. That means you can make posts, videos, livestreams, etcetera about your experiences. I hope I don’t have to remind you that all content should be appropriate and favorable to New Geode City. Now then, who would like to be in charge of posting?”

Val brightened up and raised her hand immediately. Mira and Caleb exchanged a glance, then shrugged, neither of them eager to volunteer.

“Well, that was quick.”

◊ ◊ ◊

A small red dot blinked in the corner as Oxygen notified her that her livestream had started. A number next to the dot increased as some of New Geode City’s many followers tuned in.

Val beamed at the camera. “Hello, New Geode City! My name is Val, and I’m one of the questers this year.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to introduce herself as Companion Two.

She turned the camera to Caleb. “This is Caleb, another quester!” He waved at the camera and smirked.

Val turned the camera back to herself and said, “Our Chosen One, Mira, is currently picking out her artifact. She’ll show us if she finds anything neat. But for now, how about I show you all some of the artifacts I can choose?”

Val swept the camera across the room, showing viewers the shelves of artifacts. As she walked slowly along the shelves, reading out the names of some artifacts that caught her eye, she felt her spirits rising. She might not find a Sword of Flames here, but surely there was something else in this treasure trove of artifacts that could be nearly as cool.

"Hmm… Letter Opener of Languages, Boots of Bad Breath… Prism of Precognition?" Val examined a small prism. Its label declared that it could be used to predict one random event that would take place each day. "That seems pretty useful."

“But you know, predicting pieces of the future isn’t what I’m most interested in. How about we check out the Fighting section?” Affirmative comments floated up on Val’s phone screen. “Awesome.”

“Okay, here we have the notorious Cucumber Club.” The green weapon was leaning casually against one shelf. Next to it was a variety of throwable objects: ninja stars, daggers, explosives… Val's eyes glinted. She quickly skimmed each of their descriptions, then turned to the wall where more weapons were displayed.

“Alright, guys, do you think a dagger that reveals invisible objects is more useful than a sword with singing that can make your enemies go deaf?”

Val laughed as she read some of the comments out loud. It seemed like half the city was watching the livestream at this point. She could get used to this.

◊ ◊ ◊

Suddenly, there was a faint sound of knocking. Val paused and cocked her head to listen better.

Caleb emerged from a nearby row of shelves, carrying an armful of enchanted jewelry, and asked, “Did you hear that too?”

Val nodded. “Think someone’s knocking on the door of the Artifact Museum?”

“Could be.”

Val turned the camera back to face herself and Caleb. “Okay, let’s go check it out. It’s probably just a confused tourist, but you never know!”

The knocking sounded again, louder this time. Quickly, Val and Caleb crossed the main space of the museum. Val flung open the doors, aiming the camera to show the viewers what was outside the doors.

It was… air.

Val frowned. “Did we get ding dong ditched?” She panned the camera to show the empty steps of the museum.

Then she felt a breeze waft by to her right, blowing her blonde hair in her face. Val’s eyes narrowed as a suspicion entered her mind.

Without saying anything, she dashed back to the artifact room and hunted for a specific artifact.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

Val shook her head as her eyes landed on the weapon she was looking for. She grabbed it, then stood still as she waited to see if she could sense any more breezes.

There! A faint feeling of movement to her left. Val whirled and sliced blindly with the Dagger of Revelation.

For a moment, the air wavered, and then a gray form appeared. It was about five and a half feet tall, and it had dusty blue eyes that blinked at Val. Its eyes looked down at its gangly limbs and widened as the creature clearly realized it was visible.

Val gasped. Caleb froze. Her phone, which was still aimed to show viewers whatever she saw, blew up with comments.

“A… a monster,” she breathed. But- but that was impossible. Monsters were hardly ever sighted in cities. And since when could monsters turn invisible?

◊ ◊ ◊

Val realized she was still livestreaming. She looked back at her phone and gave an apologetic smile. “Well. I… I think that’s enough for today. Make sure to tune in the next time we livestream!” As she stopped streaming, she noticed the follower count increasing. Well, she supposed the appearance of a monster was pretty exciting, at least for those safe behind the screen.

Then she rushed to Mira, just in time to catch her best friend as she fainted.

◊ ◊ ◊

Val carefully laid Mira down on one of the couches in the elders' offices. They’d taken the elevator to the second floor of the Artifact Museum, which apparently was where the elders worked.

The two other elders there at the time, who’d introduced themselves as Braden and Frederick, hovered nervously in the background. Well, Braden hovered. Frederick leaned against the wall and munched on a donut.

◊ ◊ ◊

“So, what was that about? After you recovered from fainting?” Val asked. She and Mira were sitting on a plush carpet on the floor of Mira’s room.

“I…" Mira shook her head. “You’re going to think I’m crazy. Maybe I am.”

“Hey, I already know you are. Who else would go along with me and willingly eat sriracha on chocolate chip cookies?” Val smirked. But when her attempt to lighten the mood failed to bring a smile to Mira’s face, she said, “I promise I won’t judge. You can tell me anything. You know that, right?”

Mira nodded. “The thing is…" She paused, then blurted out, “I heard the monster. In my mind.”