Week eighteen(Feb. 9 - Feb. 15)Topic:Magic 

Winner: Sunny 




Angel of War 
By Sunny 


All of this would never have happened if it weren’t for the crazy old lady and her dog. If it weren’t for them I might not be walking through Bombay’s worst neighborhood at two in the morning! 

Let me catch you up. I’m visiting India over summer vacation. It was my first time traveling alone and I had barely been there three days when I decided to ride on an open-topped bus to get across the city. 

Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea because when I got there I found only one seat. So I crammed myself between a morbidly obese man who was fast asleep (and allowing his stomach to ooze over onto my seat) and a homeless lady. The woman’s eyes pointed in different directions and she was muttering constantly to a truly hideous terrier. I tried edging away from her because either she or the dog was letting off a strong aroma, but was stopped by the man’s stomach. 

After about half an hour I fell asleep. I awoke an hour later and got off the bus and started to walk around down town. It wasn’t until I tried to buy a bowl of soup that I realized that the old lady, whether she was crazy or not, was a pickpocket. She had taken my passport and my wallet. 

“Damn!” I swore. 

“What’s wrong?” asked the woman suspiciously. 

“My wallet’s been nicked,” I grumble. 

She seized the steaming bowl out of my hands and announced, “No money, no food!” 

“I guessed that!” I said irritably. As I walked down the street I realized that my vacation had just gone to hell, I was stranded miles away from the hotel I was staying at with no money to get back and no identification. I still had my cell phone in my pocket but who was I going to call? My parents, back in Maryland? That would do a lot of good! “Hi mom and dad, Bombay’s beautiful—execpt I’m stranded in market place with no money and I can’t leave the country with out my passport.” Yeah. 

I decided that I should start walking back in the direction of the hotel because it was already like six and it would take me hours to get back. I started walking when I heard a woman’s thickly accented voice calling my name. “Angelica! Angelica!” 

I turned to see a tiny woman sitting a card table on the street. I didn’t know enough Indian to be able to read her sign but I should guess what she did by the crystal ball and deck of tarot cards, a fortuneteller. 

“Erm, me?” I asked pointing to myself. 

“Angelica isn’t really an Indian name is it?” she asked. 

“Not really,” I conceded. “How do you know my name?” 

“That doesn’t matter!” 

I was about to contradict her but she started talking again. “You want tarot card or palmistry?” she asked, and then added in a whisper, “The crystal ball doesn’t really work, it’s just for show.” 

“I don’t have any money,” I said quickly. 

“Doesn’t matter. For you, it’s free,” she said. 

“Well, I suppose,” I said, dropping into the chair opposite of hers. 

“So which one?” she asked. 

“Palmistry,” I decide on the spur of the moment. 

She seizes my hand and I shiver, her hands are cold as ice even though it’s at least ninety degrees today. 

“I see, you have lots of spirit, you love adventure. But you don’t think things out very well, but….” She gasped. “Something important is coming! A big change and… you will find romance!” 

I tried not to, really I did, but a snort escaped me. 

“You doubt me?” she asked. Seeming quite annoyed. 

“Yeah!” I said. “Come on! Try making it at least a little bit original!” 

“Well then, if you’re dissatisfied, take this. Now shoo!” she said huffily and handed me a smooth black ring carved from what looked like onyx or hematite. 

I got up and shoved the ring onto my pocket and felt the crinkle of money. I pulling out the wad of money I realized it was one of my worst habits that had saved me. Whenever I bought something I never could remember to put the money in my wallet, instead I would cram it in my pocket and by now I had almost thirty dollars. Yes! Now I could get back! 

I arranged the money, put it in my pocket and pushed the ring on. Might as well wear it! 

The ride back was long and boring but I stayed awake to prevent being robbed again (not that there was much to take, now). 
When I arrived at the hotel I went up to my room and immediately ate a sandwich and what was left over of last night’s take-out. 

Feeling better I decided to take a better look at the ring, the only thing I had brought back from the day’s adventure. I was perfectly smooth and reflected the light, the more I looked at it the more I liked it. I turned it again and suddenly it felt slippery and cold and it tumbled through the air and landed on the concrete floor with and echoing crunch. 
I woke several minutes later to find myself lying on the floor. That was weird, why had I collapsed? Heatstroke maybe? I got up and pulled the black hood of my sweatshirt over my dark pixie cut. 

I looked up and realized my window was open, “Great! That just fantastic! God! Why does all the bad stuff have to happen at once?” I stomped over and shut it feeling stupid. First I had been robbed, then I collapsed and now I found out that me window had been open the whole time! I stopped. But it hadn’t been open, this window had been impossible to open ever since I had gotten the room. What was going on? 

I walked into the bedroom and nearly shrieked, because sitting on my suitcase, looking cute was a little girl! She had long blond hair and blue eyes that matched her dress with her bare feet just visible under the hem. 

“Hello, my lady,” she said sliding off the suitcase and curtseying. 

“What are you doing in my bedroom?” I demanded. 

“I’m sorry. I came in your room because it smells nicer than the kitchen,” she said, smiling at me. 

That was very true, the kitchen stank. “How did you get in?” I asked. 

“But you let me in of course,” she said, confused. 

“What?” 

“When you opened the portal.” 

“What?!” 

“The black rings control them, you must have one.” 

“I used to, but I broke it.” 

“Oh, we’ll have to find another one then to send me home,” she decided brightly. 

I was starting notice some things about the girl, like she was too beautiful to be natural and ears were rather… pointy. 

“Are you an elf?” I asked incredulously. 

“No! I am a fey!” she sounded hurt. “Aren’t you?” 

I laughed, “No! Of course I’m not!” 

“Then, your.,…. a human?!” 

“Yeah, what did you expect?” I asked, flopping on the bed 

“But you opened the portal! Humans don’t control the power, and humans are really, really rare! Nobody I know except the elders have ever seem one!” she said, climbing on the bed too and pulling the hood back to see my face more clearly. “May I, er, poke around?” 

“Sure,” I said assuming she meant looking at my stuff, but instead she placed her hand on my forehead, I felt an odd buzzing in my scull and the fey’s face swam in and out of focus. 

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “You have it! You have the power!” 

“The power?” I asked, snapping back to reality. 

“I guess humans would call it..” she hesitated, searching for the right world. “Magic.” 

“I have “the power”?” I asked. “That is stupid. I’ve read tons of books about humans with magic; they all have weird stuff happening around them. I never have, I’m your average American teenager. Besides, I thought you said humans don’t have magic.” 

“The reason your power’s never acted up is because it were never needed.” 

“And it is now?” 

“Yeah, duh! The war, we need as many fighter as possible!” 

“What war?” I demanded. 

“There’s this war going on back home. Which means I have to get back home at tell them there are humans we can recruit! I need you to open the portal again and come with me so they can see you!” she said, bouncing with excitement. 

“I told you, the ring’s smashed,” I said. 

“Well, were did you get it them?” 

“Some crazy old fortuneteller. Her stall was way across the city and she’s not going to be there any, more, she’ll be at home.” 

“Let my see her,” she demanded, reaching across and placing her hand on my head. 

After several seconds she removed her hand, “Well that’s easy. The sign on the table said her address and another thing, she wasn’t human, she was a goblin.” 

“Oh gross, no wonder hand was so cold!” I said in disgust. 

“Alright, lets go, we’ve got to get there as soon as possible!” 

I got up and pulled some more money out of my sock drawer, pulled on some sandals, flipped up my hood and took the fey’s hand. “What’s your name?” I asked. 

“Beoncia,” she answered, smiling. “But you can call me Bee.” 

“I’m Angelica, you can call me Angel,” said replied. 

“Angel. You are one, I think you’ve won our war for us,” said Beoncia. 


* * * 
The bus would take us only so far after then we had to walk; which is how I ended up walking in the worst part on Bombay at two in the morning, looking for a fortuneteller who’s really a goblin without passport or vary much money. 

After all this I only have one piece of advice. Stay away from crazy old ladies with ugly dogs. 



Sunny's other writing: 
http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/1814...



Read other stories from this contest here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/109944.Week_18_Feb_24_March_1st_DONE

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