The first thing I felt was the blanket laid on top of me. The only sounds present in the house were the fridge and its motor trying to keep the food cool and the birds' loud chirps coming in from the outside. I tried to open my eye a tiny crack only to have the sun obscure my vision. Reaching up, I rubbed the sleep away from my eyes and blinked a couple times, trying to see around me.

There was popcorn everywhere and the pillows from the couch were on the floor. And Juniper was a mess. There was popcorn in her rat's nest hair and she was barely hanging onto the couch, slowly falling onto the floor, making me suppress several giggles.

I pushed myself into a sitting position and swung my legs over the edge of the couch and stretched, yawning. Then started to clean up. I also tried to wake up Juniper several times but she wouldn't budge.

When I just finished cleaning up, Juniper shot up into a sitting position flinging popcorn onto the couch.

"What happened?" She asked. I smiled.

"I just cleaned up a bit. Don't worry," I explained.

"Oh. Sorry. I just go into deep sleeps a lot that I-"

"No, it's okay. I don't mind," I reassured her. She gave me a tired smile and exhaled. "Anyway, what's for breakfast?" Her smile widened.

"We make our own,"

We paraded into the kitchen and made scrambled egg sandwiches with bacon, talking and laughing while we cooked and ate. After breakfast, she suggested that we go to the backwoods and I agreed immediately.

Both of us got ourselves ready. I took a quick shower and pulled on a turquoise t-shirt and my black sweater with jean shorts and my sneakers. I combed my hair and kept it down, making it reach the middle of my back.

We raced down the huge expanse of grass to the trees lining our backyard. The weird thing was, I couldn't see past the trees. The trees were so densely packed together that branches seemed to block out all sunlight.

When we finished catching our breath, Juniper was grinning from ear to ear.

"I would've taken you here last night since it's better, but you need to get used to the forest and its... inhabitants first," She said, rather mysteriously.

What did she mean she would've taken me here at night? Wouldn't her mother get a bit worried? And what did she mean by 'inhabitants'? Isn't it just animals in the forest? What did she mean by all this?

"What-"

"No questions, yet. They'll probably be answered afterward but then a bunch more might pop up so just try to keep the questions in until then," Juniper cut in.

Then she waved her hand. I saw a light green glow appear at the palm of her hand as she waved it in front of the trees. Then the whole crowd of trees literally moved creating an aisle.

When Juniper turned I must've looked idiotic and confused because she laughed softly.

"Don't worry. It gets weirder," She grabbed my wrist and pulled me in. When we were about a third of the way down the aisle, the trees rustled behind us, moving again and closing the entrance.

Well, no going back now.

After a few more steps, we reached a clearing.

"Welcome to Terra Arbor,"

It was beautiful. There was a fountain in the middle of the grass filled clearing. It had a tree made of stone on a pedestal. Some of the branches had water spraying up then making an ark into the basin below.

I saw a few little creatures flying around and leaving trails of colorful sparkles. They looked to be tiny humans with wings, reminding me of stereotypical fairies.

Behind the fountain there were five arches that went into hallways, that would probably lead to more crazy stuff.

Three of the little, flying creatures dove down to me and Juniper and circled her, which probably meant they met before. She laughed, happily.

"Good to see you, too. Yes, she's my friend. No, I'm not ditching you," I heard her mutter, making me smile, amused.

When Juniper looked back at me, she seemed a little embarrassed.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" Juniper asked. "And, yes, these are Fairies,"

"Uh, sure," I turned to the Fairies. Considering that I did believe in all of the myths and fairy tales, I knew then that I could handle this pretty well. "Hi. I'm Idaline but you can just call me Ida. And this is a cool place you got here. It's beautiful," They seemed to perk up when I complimented the place, Terra Arbor. When they flew up close to me, I could see their tiny little features.

Their ears were pointed and their faces looked impish and a little human. I could see their wings which looked like they were made of crystal, but were still fragile. The Fairies also had their own color themes, with their clothes, hair and eyes revolving around one color. One was lavender, another was sea green and the last one was a cyan.

They looked at me for a bit, and I could tell through their little tiny eyes that they were questioning whether to trust me or not. And I got that look before, from my own parents.

Then they finally broke out into smiles and circled me, like they did Juniper.

"Yay! They seem to like you!" Juniper clapped her hands. "Girls. Introduce yourselves, please,"

"Silena!" the lavender Fairy perked up.

"Tessa!" the sea green Fairy smiled.

"Azure!" the cyan Fairy waved.

I smiled at them.

"It's nice to meet you three,"

They formed a line and bowed showing their beautiful wings.

"Well, I'll need to introduce Terra Arbor to Ida now," Juniper said.

"Oooh! Can we come with you?" Tessa asked, excited.

"I mean if you want to..." Juniper shrugged.

"Please?" All three of the Fairies begged her. Juniper smiled.

"Alright, you can," She decided. Then Juniper turned to me. "Pick a hall, any hall,"

I stared at the row of doors behind Terra Arbor's fountain and pointed to the middle one.

"Oh that's the King and Queen's Throne Room. I suggest we do that last. Other than that-"

"To the left of it then," I chose.

And we were off.

It was a little dark since the entryway was an arch along the entire hallway but a little bit of light managed to make it through the gaps, since the arch itself was made out of trees.

It led us to a huge clearing with a building standing in front of it. It looked like a castle made of wood which was covered in vines and leaves. The building was standing on the crest of a grassy hill and looked to about half a mile away. Juniper and I were standing on a hill in front of it and were able to see that kids of all ages were running around in the front, which looked to be like a courtyard.

I couldn't even understand how all of this was in my backyard, but I did believe in it since the proof was right in front of me.

"This is the school. Terra Arbor is the home of all people who come here to train and learn the ways of Tsunachi Magic, which is just a fancy term for Elemental Magic. And the terms themselves are interchangeable. I know it does sound stupid but this kind of Magic is a powerful thing. If you do choose to learn here then you'll see what I mean. The building is just known as The Academy. The full name is the Academy of Terra Arbor: School of Nature and Magic,"

I stared at the kids running around in the courtyard.

"Yeah. Since today's a Saturday, the younger kids love to stay in the courtyard and play around since there isn't a really open space anywhere else here," She paused while I tried to comprehend everything.

Seeing this building definitely meant that there was some meaning in an organization that was in my backyard. I could tell, after seeing this, this was a cause for teaching people about Nature and the Elements, which was most likely the Earth as a whole, and Magic that can manipulate Earth's Nature in a good way.

"So. Shall we choose the next hallway?" She asked to which I nodded in response.

***

We walked back to where the fountain was and I immediately decided the entryway to the right of the King and Queen's Throne Room.

Walking around the fountain, we entered.

It led us to what seemed like a community or neighborhood of sorts. There were houses everywhere. And I mean houses, as in modern houses. But they seemed eco friendly. And there were people here, too. They glanced in our direction and gave me a welcoming smile while waving at Juniper.

"This is the Neighborhood. Or basically the homes of Terra Arbor. This is where all the kids that were orphaned and stumbled upon us or chose to live here to train with us or just need a place to crash for the night, stay," She gestured to all the homes. "If you want to stay here then you're welcome to. But if you just want to come here everyday from Grandma Abby's, it's up to you," She added. I nodded in understanding.

"You sure you're keeping up with this?" She looked at me with concern. I laughed then nodded again.

"Don't worry. I'm surprisingly taking this very well, even for me. But you know that I've read a lot of books and some of those stories include stuff like this. To think it's real... it is kind of like a story but I believe in it 100%," I said.

She smiled with relief.

"Alright. Just making sure," She let out a breath. "Anyway. Onto the next hallway, shall we?"

***

Once we walked out, I chose the hallway at the far left.

This time, it led us to a huge garden. And I mean huge as in having every flower in existence. There was also a pond in the middle that held all of the water flowers.

The whole area was surrounded by various trees, like oak, birch, maple, spruce... the list can go on for all of the types of plants there were in the garden.

But at the very left I spotted a mysterious door, that I wanted to walk to but one look from all three of our Fairy friends and I stayed rooted to my spot. Instead, I kept looking around.

"It's so beautiful," I said. Tessa, Silena and Azure nodded, proud, and then went off to some of their Fairy friends.

There were also some people here too. They, with the Fairies, used their Magic and nourished the plants, keeping them alive and strong. I even saw Tessa, Silena and Azure helping out.

"Yeah. Some of the people here are the Gardeners. It's their actual job. Sierra, over there-" She pointed to a brunette that was tending some of the garden beds. "She's been a Gardener since she was nine. Now she's fourteen,"

I was in awe at all of the obvious dedication that all of these kids were putting into learning about this Magic.

"Alright. Last hall?" Juniper looked at me. I gestured to our Fairy friends. "Girls! You coming?" She called.

Tessa nudged Silena and Azure and they flew over to us.

***

The last hall was the best, in my opinion.

A Training Arena.

Boys and girls of all ages, wearing nothing but the clothes on their back, were fighting.

Training.

Some had swords. Others held bows with quivers of arrows slung post their shoulder. Magic of every color was being flung everywhere.

"Ah the good, old Training Arena. The name speaks for itself. Terra Arbor trains all of these kids and teens for one purpose: to protect the Earth and keep it alive for the future inhabitants. But, of course, where there are people like us, there is the Enemy. The Terra Osores. We've been battling them for ages. All the years that Terra Arbor has been battling them, we've always been able to make them retreat. But, of course, they always manage to come back with the help of the constant pollution of the Earth," Juniper explained, then sighed. "I can understand if this all sounds scary to you and the idea of it is kind of pushing you back. I mean the first time a friend of mine explained it to me-"

"Are you kidding me? Helping people save the Earth? I live on this planet. Of course, I'm in,"