My mother often told me stories about a brave little girl who found a magical willow tree that turned out to be her father. She said this story was true and that I would one day go and find the willow tree of my father. I thought that she was crazy. As it turned out, I was wrong. I am Ember, and this is my story.

It all started about in the middle of 8th grade. I'm thirteen years old, and in the stories, this is usually when kids get their gifts, or as my world says, "They become one with the spirits." It usually means that you discover your power, your guardian animal finds you, or both. Very rarely do people get both. I am one of those people.

Usually when people get both, it is called illegal, dangerous, and uncalled for, or simply put Shadow Masters. Wow. I guess I'm all of those things. They also usually get banished from Skorlote (our lands) to Coslandsor (where all the banished people go). Let's go to my thirteenth birthday, the day I got my powers. (Yes, powers, as in plural. Now I'm even MORE illegal and dangerous. Pure Joy.)

I poked my head into the kitchen, watching my mom baking a cake for, "that girl across the street." She is so bad at lying. Even if she was that good, I would know. After all, I have brothers.

"Heeeey, mom! That cake couldn't possibly be for that girl across the street, could it?" I asked, walking into the kitchen.

"E-Ember, didn't see you there, and of course this is for the girl across the street," Mom stuttered.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe 'cuz it's my birthday today?!" I asked.

"Oh, um, I completely forgot about that!" she said.

"Uh, huh. Sure Mom," I walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs, to my room. I thought about all the banished people in Coslandor, and what it was like for them.

Thunk, thunk, thunk. Something was tapping on the window. I turned to see a small, tressym clawing at the window. A tressym is a mythical creature that resembles a cat, and has wings. This one was a mixture of blacks, blues, and purples flecked with silver. I opened the window and it flew in.

It looked at me with it's striking green eyes and meowed the most perfect meow I have ever heard.

"Aw, aren't you cute!" I said.

"Grufgle sorcrt," It gagged and barfed up a hairball on my carpet. Not a big deal. We have vacuums.

Something sparkled inside the hairball. Without hesitation, I reached in and grabbed it. I shuddered at the feeling of saliva and cat hair on my hand, but I pulled out a scroll with a shining gold ribbon.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Open it and find out."

"Who's there?" I asked, looking around, but the only person, okay, animal in the room with me was the tressym.

It grinned, (or tried to) and flicked its tail at the scroll.

"It's you!" I shouted. It nodded and "grinned".

I opened the scroll and there was a message inside. It read:

To my dearest daughter

If you're reading this, that means I'm not with you. I understand you might not know me, and that you never have seen my face before.

Please know that I still love you. But I have a quest for you. First of all, it should be your 13th birthday, and you are receiving a magical gift. The tressym's name is Anai. She is a special type of tressym. She is the Starlight kind. She is your spirit animal.

You my dear, who knows what your power will be! But I know that whatever it is, it will be wonderful.

You must find the seven parts of the Spirit Key to retrieve the Spirit Waters. It was foretold that only one could drink the Spirit Waters, and I believe that person is you. But beware. There is one you cannot trust. That person is

I glanced up.

"Where's the rest of the scroll?" I asked.

"How should I know? I was just told to deliver the message!" she said defensively.

"Ember! I have a surprise for you! My mom shouted from downstairs.

"Coming!" I shouted. I turned to Anai. "Are you coming?" I asked.

She jumped up from the floor. "Yes! Birthday party!"

I headed downstairs, Anai right behind me.

I came downstairs to find the cake Mom was working on earlier, atop the table with all five brothers greedily eyeing it.

"Surprise!" she said, turning to me from fiddling with something. "The cake's actually for you, not the girl across the street."

I rolled my eyes. "I know that, Mom! You're not very good at keeping secrets!"

"Am I?" she said, with a sparkle in her bright green eyes.

"Can we just cut the cake now?" whined my little brother, Stephyn. He had brown hair and green eyes like my mom. I on the other hand, had stormy blue eyes, and blonde hair with pink tips.

Aaron, Brayden, and Cameron, the triplets, all had black hair. Aaron had glasses and brown eyes. Brayden has really dark brown hair, green eyes, and a purple sweatshirt that he wore all the time. Cameron has really dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and freckles.

My last brother, my older brother, Andrew, the red head, with green eyes, and lots and lots of freckles.

The screaming of the doorbell alerted us that someone was at the door, obviously. Andrew teleported to the door. That's his power. He also has a spirit animal too. It's a baby hydra, growing everyday. It set fire to Cameron's car collection. Yeah, he was not very happy about that. Andrew is also dangerous and illegal. That's why he stays in his room most of the time, windows closed.

The door opened to reveal men in tuxedos with F.L.E.A. in purple thread embroidery, stitched into the collar. Little wing-like things were also patterned in purple across the tuxedo.

There were about eight people. The one at the door grabbed Andrew by the collar.

"Is Catherine Lighthand here?" he growled.

Andrew teleported to the kitchen.

"Mom, there's someone here to see you," he reported nonchalantly. Just then, the baby hydra burst through the door and jumped on Andrew. The F.L.E.A. people looked at Andrew like he had just barfed the rainbow.

"He's a Shadow Master!" one of them screamed. Another man with thick glasses and a bushy mustache pushed to the front of the group.

"These Shadow readings are detecting at least TWO Shadow Masters!" He was holding something that resembles a metal detector and a gas gauge mashed together. He pointed it towards me and gasped a little overdramatically. He ran to the tallest man out of the group and whispered something in his ear.

The man turned towards me. His eyes were a fiery red, and he had a long scar down his face on the right side.

"Your father did this to me," he said, pointing to the scar. "I'll bet you're just like him. Being magical and having a spirit animal. You know we can't trust you now! Seize the mother and the Shadow Masters!"

The baby hydra let out a humongous roar. He leaped onto the nearest F.L.E.A. and started snapping. Andrew grabbed a knife and lunged towards a random guy.

"Back up! We need back up!" shouted a man with messy hair and a crazed look.

The men grabbed Andrew and stuck some sort of cuffs on him, which looked like it prevented him from using his powers. An army of men stormed in through the back door and down from the roof (don't ask me how) and surrounded my family.

"Take them all," the tall man with the scar said. He looked at me with his red eyes and smirked. "Let's see if you really are the prophesied."

Then, as I turned around to see Anai race to help me, I blacked out.