“I know everything about you, dear. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ander.”

“Ander? What kind of a name is that?” “It’s a very common name for where I come from.”

“And where do you come from?”

“That’s for you to find out later. But, let me show you something first.” Ander reached out to touch the amulet, but Maria, who thought he was trying to grope her, planted a solid punch on his jaw, honestly not expecting what happened next. When Maria hit him, he flew 30 feet in the air, landing on the other side of the street.

Maria looked down at her fist with amazement and back to Ander, who was lying on the ground. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Maria cried as she ran over to him. She knelt by Ander, who was slowly sitting up and said, “Here, let me help you. God, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s ok, I should have explained myself before reaching out for the amulet.

I keep forgetting how strong you are.”

“Yeah, that’s a good question, how did I make you wind up all the way over here by punching you?”

“That’s easy, you have superhuman strength.” “I have what?”

“Superhuman strength. It comes from being a mage.”

“What’s a mage?”

“A sort of sorcerer.” Maria laughed and said, “I’m not a sorcerer or a mage or whatever you call them. I’m Maria DeLuca, a normal, 16-year old, high school sophomore.” “You are very much mistaken, Maria. You are a mage, one of us, one of the strongest ever if not the strongest.”

“Look, buddy, I don’t know what your…” Maria was cut off short as she saw his hand hover over the amulet, making the emerald glow. Maria looked down in amazement as the light faded and said, “How did you do that?”

“I used my power,” Ander said, “Now you try.”

“But I can’t…”

“Just try.” Maria shook her head and said, “Oh, I’ll try.”

“Good, now place your hand over the amulet and picture it glowing like I did. When you get that picture in your mind, send your energy out of your hand to the amulet.” Maria did as she was told and suddenly, the emerald glowed brightly, even more brightly than when Ander did it. “See, I knew you could do it.”

“How did I…” Maria said breathlessly.

“You used your power. You’re a mage Maria, whether you like it or not. And I must say, a very strong one at that. I don’t know anyone who could pull that off on their first try. Now, come on, we have to go.” “Go where?” Maria asked.

“Somewhere where we can talk in private, somewhere where people usually don’t go.” Ander grabbed her wrist and after mumbling a couple of words in a language that Maria didn’t know, a soft light engulfed them and suddenly, Maria and Ander were in the middle of the desert.

Maria looked around at her surroundings and found that she in some sort of a basin, rocks surrounding her from every side, and to her left was a large, well, at least for the desert, body of water. Little did she know that she was standing near the cave where Michael, Max, and Isabel’s pods were and the spot where they still came frequently when they needed to talk. Maria looked around, dumbfounded and asked, “How did we get here?”

”I transported us here. I figured this was as good a place as any to train you.”

“Train me?”

“Yes, this is one of the only spots for miles where all four elements are placed: earth, air, fire, and water. The first three are easy to find in the desert, but it has a lack of water, except for a few parts. This one happened to be the closest.”

“No, wait. Train me?” Maria asked, still not getting the point.

“Yes, I have to train you so you can protect this world. I can’t stay here for long.” “What do you mean ‘protect this world’?” “You were born here, Maria. You are the only one of our kind to be born on this planet, which means you can stand the conditions of this planet and of you home planet.” At Maria’s skeptical look, Ander said, “You’re parents are not from this world, Maria.”

“No, my mother is.” “I’m not talking about the woman you live with, I’m talking about your parents. Do you see that star up there?” Ander pointed up to the sky at the small dot of light that was surrounded by a yellow aura. “Yeah,” Maria said, “You mean the one with the yellow around it?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. That’s your home planet. That’s where your parents are from.” Maria shook her head and said, “Your nuts, buddy. I’m from this planet. I’m not from outer space.”

“No, you were born here, but not your parents. Your parents are from the planet Zoran. They were taking a tour of the galaxy, or so they called it, when they were pregnant with you. You just happened to be born here. Your mother died during childbirth. Your father, heartbroken from the loss of his wife, stayed here and met Amy DeLuca. When your father died, he left you with her.”

“Wait, my father died?”

“Yes, but I still don’t know how. The cause of his death is still unclear. But, that’s not the point. You’re not of this earth, Maria and you need to protect this planet.” “Ok, say I’m not from this planet. What do I need to protect this planet from?”

“An evil mage from out planet was put into a deep sleep and imprisoned in a pod in the middle of space. Well, he’s about to wake up, and his primary target is the amulet you’re wearing.”

“Why does he want the amulet?”

“That amulet is a family heirloom, Maria. It was your father’s. It gives the wearer an incredible source of power. Add that onto your inherited powers from you parents, two of the strongest mages ever, and you’re the strongest mage ever. The evil mage, Luke, knows that you have it and is on his way to try to get it from you.”

“Well, if I’m the strongest, I shouldn’t have any problems beating him, right?” ”Wrong, Maria,” Ander said, “You may be strong, but you have no experience. Luke has centuries of experience.”

“Centuries?” Maria squeaked.

“Yes, that’s another thing I forgot to add about us. We’re pretty much immortal.”

“Cool, are all aliens like that?”

“Sort of. Those three alien friends of yours are, only they don’t know it.”

“Hey, are my powers a lot like theirs?”

“Yes, but much more so. You can change the molecular structure like they can, you can dream walk, and you can heal, just like they can. But, you can read minds, make stuff out of nothing and…” With a snap of his fingers, a large chest appeared. Maria asked, “What’s that?”

“Open it,” Ander said. Maria knelt down in front of the large chest and opened it to find books. A lot of books, each one identical on the outside and about 2 inches thick. “That’s your father’s collection of spells. Now, mind you, these spells aren’t like a witch’s spells that require ingredients. All you need is your power. This is what you can do but your friends can’t. You can perform a spell from any one of these books.”

“So, why are you giving them to me again?” “You have to memorize every spell in those books.”

”WHAT??” Maria asked.

“It’s not that hard. Half of those are simple basic spells. Pick up the one of the left.” Maria picked it up and opened it to encounter a strange looking set of symbols. “I can’t read these. How am I supposed to memorize these if I can’t read them?”

“That can be easily remedied.” Ander walked over to Maria and put his forefingers on her temples, sending a surge of power into her. When Maria looked down at the book again, she found that she could read the symbols like they were every day writing. “How did you do that?” Maria listened to her voice and said, “Why does my voice sound different?” “Because you are speaking the language of your people, Maria,” Ander said in the same language. Maria noted how musical the language sounded. Maria concentrated on English and when she spoke again, she found that she was speaking English again and also found that English paled in comparison to the other language. “How did you do that?” “Do what?” Ander asked.

“Make me able to read and speak a totally different language?”

“I awakened that part of your brain, the part that had forgotten your language. I just opened it up again.”

“Oh,” Maria said. Lapsing back in to her “original”, musical language, she said, “So, do you want to get started?”

“Sure,” Ander said in the same language, “Now, how about we start with the first spell there, a fire conjuration.” “Ok,” Maria said. Reading the words in the book out loud while holding her palm straight out in the air, she almost jumped back when she was the fire floating in her hand. “Wow,” she said, “I did that. I guess being from a different planet isn’t so bad.” Smiling over at Ander, she said, “Shall we continue?”

“Yes, let’s.” Over the course of the next few hours, Maria and Ander went over three of the books, three out of the 20 that there were. Maria was amazed that she had automatically memorized the spells that were in the books. When she asked Ander later that night, he said it was because her brain automatically entered them into her memory, since they were part of her history. When Maria said that she was too tired to do any more, he said, “Ok, now you can go home.” “Yeah, good, but how am I going to get the trunk home? I can’t carry it. It’s too hard.”

“That’s easy, transport it to you bedroom?”

“And how do I do that? I didn’t see a spell for that.”

“That’s because you don’t need a spell to do it. It’s one of your powers. Now, where do you want the trunk to go?”

“Under my bed.”

“Ok, now, close your eyes and picture the space under your bed.” Maria closed eyes and followed Ander’s orders. “Do you have your picture?”

“Yes,” Maria said.

“Ok, now picture the trunk there.” Maria did. “Yeah, ok?” Maria asked.

“Open your eyes.” Maria opened her eyes and found that the trunk was gone. “Where’d it go?”

“You transported it to you bedroom,” Ander said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Did you feel the power flow through your body, even if it was slightly?” “Yeah, I did, but I was too concentrated on the picture in my mind to notice it. That is so cool. Now, how do I get home?”

“The same way you made the trunk disappear.”

“You mean, transport myself?” Maria asked.

“Exactly,” Ander said.

“Ok, here it goes,” Maria said. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the outside of her house, where she last was with Ander.

She didn’t even notice the soft light surround her as she transported herself to the spot outside her house. When she opened her eyes, she saw her car in front of her and she smiled. She liked having super powers.

Moments later, Ander appeared next to her. “Good, you’re getting very good. We’ve come a long way in such a short amount of time. Now, I will train you once a week on Sundays, according to your calendar. So, our next training session is in three days and after that, every week until you memorize those spells and perfect your other skills. But, practice while I’m gone. Ok? I’ll see you in three days.”

“Bye Ander.” Although she had only known him for a few hours, she felt really close to him, like he was a brother or something. She gave him a quick hug and stepped back to watch him disappear from sight. Shaking her head at the absurdity of the past few hours, she walked into her house and into her room. As she sat down on her bed, she wondered if the trunk really was under her bed. Looking under her bed quickly, she found that it indeed was under her bed. She smiled and got up, doing a small victory dance in her bedroom. “I did it, I did it!”

She got interrupted by a tap on her window mid-dance and she jumped, startled by the sound. Walking over to the window, she found Michael standing outside. Opening her window, she said, “What’s up space boy?” making sure that she was speaking English, not her native language, as she now called it. Then, she realized the irony of calling him space boy when she wasn’t from this planet either and laughed when he said, “Nothing, Earth girl.” When she started laughing about the fact that he called her Earth girl, seeing how she’s not exactly an earthling, he said, “What, what’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she said, “So, what’s up?”

“I came by to see if you’re ok. You ran out of the Crashdown in a rush. I though maybe something was wrong.” Maria was touched that he actually worried about her, but decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, treat him badly.

“Well, thank you very much for caring. Bye-bye now,” she said nastily. The concerned look in his face faced into a scowl. “You know, I come by, worried, to see how you’re doing and you act like a total…” he trailed off, seeing the amulet that Maria wore. “That’s nice, where’d you get it?” Michael asked totally forgetting his insult. Maria picked up the amulet and said, “I found it in my closet. My mother let me have it. I think it belonged to my father.”

“You mean, the guy who walked out on you when you were little?” Michael asked. “Yeah,” Maria said distantly, knowing that he didn’t walk out on her; he died. Noticing the sad look on her face, Michael said, “You ok?” Maria snapped back to attention and said, “Yeah, just tired, that’s all. Good night, Michael.” Maria closed her window and sat down on her bed, leaving Michael outside, watching her through her window. Maria sighed and pulled the trunk out from under her bed. Opening it, she pulled out the 4th book of spells and began to skim them for a spell to put her to sleep.

Michael watched with confusion as Maria sifted through the book. < It looks really old. I wonder what those books are? Whoa, those are weird words. Looks kind of like the symbols we found in the cave. I wonder…>