Kidnapped to Ithrea

One day Tony Wyzek was visiting his good friends Rachel and Eric at their home. They had a full day of activities planned. First they were going to relax for awhile, then they planned to watch a movie together. Tony was downstairs playing with Eric and his airplanes while Rachel read a book upstairs. Just then, however, they felt a wind on their backs and turned around. That was when they saw a door on the wall of the cellar. The wind came from it and it pulled them toward it! "Get off!" Eric cried. "Someone help! What's holding me against... Let go of me!" There were no flames, but the entire cellar throbbed and blazed with crimson light. It was as if a great sunset had grown tired of the sky and burst into the house. By the time Rachel arrived, both boys had been pulled into the door on the back cellar wall. "Rachel!" Eric cried, seeing her. "Something is holding me. I can't get loose!" She ran down the cellar steps. "What is it?" "I don't know! I'm stuck! I can't say it!" Eric thumped the wall behind him. "Come on, get me off!" Rachel grabbed Eric's wrists, pulling hard. Tony grabbed onto Eric's feet and tried to climb out as well. Then they saw the claw.

It was an enormous black claw, the size of a dog. As Rachel watched, it sliced through from the other side of the cellar wall. The claw gripped Tony and one of Eric's knees and pulled them through the bricks, outside the cellar. "What's going on?" Eric wailed, noticing his sisters wild expression. "Can you see it? Don't just stand there!" A second claw poked through the bricks. It encircled Eric's neck with three ragged green fingernails, wrenching his head completely through the wall. Rachel leaped forward. She seized one of Eric's arms and heaved, inch by inch drawing his neck and face back into the cellar. "Pull harder!" Eric's muffled voice yelled. "Find something to fight it with!" Rachel's eyes darted about anything sharp. But whatever lurked beyond the seller was not about to let Eric or Tony escape. The black claws again smashed through the wall. This time they stretched toward Rachel. As she backed away, the bony fingers hovered in front of her face and slapped her hard. Rachel fell... and lost her grip on Eric. Instantly both claws tightened around his waist. They dragged Eric completely inside the wall. For a moment one his arms shot back into the cellar, his nails scratching the floor as he tried to hold onto something, anything... before that was ripped away too.

Not long after, Rachel was pulled into the tunnel after them. Somehow in the tunnel, Rachel managed fly toward them. Tony didn't know how she did it. She swooped toward them using her arms like wings and fell alongside both of them. She called Eric and brought them both to a stop, and then grabbed Tony. Eric was unconscious. The fall, or fear of falling, or the wind driving out his breath, had made him faint. For a long time she hugged Eric until he awakened, and then she let him cry deeply into her shoulder, soothing him. For several minutes he lay cradled in her arms, while she murmured gentle words and sounds, allowing him to recover. At last he turned his face sheepishly toward her. Atrail of vomit hung from his mouth, plastering his neck. He stared at her. "You're... shining, Rachel. What's...happening?" Rachel raised her eyebrows. "I don't know, but while you've been out cold, I've been experimenting. Watch this." She focused her mind, turning her hair red, and yellow, then back to black. "H-how'd you do that?" Eric stammered. "Not sure," Rachel said nervously. "But I haven't found much I can't do." She made her lips glint gold. Eric blinked several times. "Can I do it?" "Try," said Rachel. Just tell part of you to light up." Eric screwed up his eyes in concentration. His lips did not glow. He tried several more times, without effect. Eventually he gave up. "What's going on?" he asked seriously. "We are heading for the thing that dragged us in here aren't we?" "No. We are just hovering here." Rachel gingerly lit personally up. "I suppose we should try to go down, though. We can't hang around here forever." "Don't go down, you idiot," Eric said. "Fly up, Rachel! Take us back to the cellar." However, when Rachel tried, it didn't work. Apparently whatever had dragged them there wanted them to stay a while. With no way to fly up, Rachel allowed them to slowly descend. For a few minutes they stared anxiously into the gloom, expecting the black claws to reach out of the dark. They slowly began to drift down toward whatever was waiting. Rachel tried to stop them moving at Eric's urging, but they just continued to drift toward it. At last they fell so slowly that a feather would have passed them. A chill touched their skin, followed by a freezing gust of wind. The surrounding air was not only colder, started with plates of blinking light that looked like stars. Not moments later they landed softly on a blanket of snow.

Tony noticed the snow was black as coal and looked creepy. A small figure was walking beside a woman through the snow toward them. Rachel, Eric, and Tony stared at the woman in awe, not knowing quite what to make of her. She was beautiful and wore only a thin black dress despite the bitter cold. She greeted them and welcomed them to the planet, which was called Ithrea. Tony wasn't that impressed with Ithrea, since it seemed so desolate. The woman, who called herself Dragwena, gave them coats to keep them warm and tried to tempt them with jellybeans that suddenly appeared from the pockets of the jackets. Tony was almost tempted by them at first, but then saw them for what they were, spiders rushing back towards Dragwena, and was disgusted. Dragwena asked him if he wanted any and Tony was able to say he wasn't hungry after seeing the spiders. Tony realized that Dragwena was looking at him suspiciously because he wasn't tempted by the illusory jellybeans, so Tony pretended to scramble after them. However, Dragwena realized that she might need to keep an eye on him along with Rachel and Eric since she didn't know the full extent of their powers yet.

The three of them slept that night in Dragwena's Palace in rooms of their own and the next morning each discovered they'd been provided a magical wardrobe in which every outfit magically fit perfectly as if it had been made for them. They then went down to the room designated as the Breakfast Room, where they learned they had to create their own breakfast by imagining what they wanted. Rachel could create her own breakfast easily and much more besides. She could turn herself into other things, create illusions, and even shrink herself! In fact, there wasn't much she couldn't do. Tony was able to create his own breakfast, but not much else, which made him rather jealous of Rachel. However he could still do more than Eric, who appeared to have no magical talent at all. Soon Rachel was summoned before Dragwena for what seemed to be an innocent game of Snakes and Ladders, but turned out to be a test, a test that so far only Rachel had passed. Soon Morpeth was summoned to carry Rachel back to her room because she was in a deep sleep, which Dragwena instructed she shouldn't be woken from yet. However, she now had a new wound on her hand, which according to Dragwena would slowly turn her into a witch. Morpeth left mysteriously later and didn't tell either Tony or Eric what he was up to.

That night, while the three slept, Morpeth carried them to a mysterious cavern deep underground and safely away from Dragwena and her guards. When Tony awoke and found himself in unfamiliar surroundings, he wanted to know what was going on. So Morpeth explained it and decided to find out what powers, if any, the young boy possessed. Just then Eric awoke and Morpeth had to repeat himself again. They soon discovered something remarkable: Tony could see through illusions and sense magical traps, as well as make people see what he wished them to see, while Eric could destroy spells so they could never be used again! This would make both boys a threat to Dragwena, although not as big a threat as Rachel. Rachel woke not long after and discovered what the boys could do. She was amazed at Ericsson talent and realized Tony's would come in handy as well. Unfortunately they soon discovered that Dragwena had placed a tracking spell in Eric's mind that would lead Dragwena to them. Fortunately when Dragwena's troops arrived, Morpeth was able to trick her by shouting, "See you at Hoy Point!" This meant she thought they'd be in the mountains instead of where they actually ended up: by the shore of Lake Ker.

They continued to practice their powers and were soon accomplished enough to mount an attack against Dragwena. However it was Rachel who truly won the day by defeating some of Dragwena's strongest spells, including the Doomspell! They still hadn't defeated the witch, though, so Rachel summoned Larpskendya to their aid. With his help, they were finally able to weaken Dragwena. Then Eric used his power to cause Dragwena to pretty much fall apart. They were free! They could return to Earth! So after asking which of Ithrea inhabitants wanted to return to Earth with them, Rachel sent them all back to Earth thanks to a gift given her by Larpskendya, the same gift he gave to Tony. All were allowed to keep their magic while on Earth! For Tony it wasn't such a big deal, since his power wasn't that big a deal, but he was glad nonetheless because he knew losing it would've been like having a missing leg. They went through the portal back to Earth and saw Rachel and Eric's dad waiting for them. They were glad to be back. Rachel and Eric embraced their father, while Tony went home. Apparently it hadn't been as long on Earth as it had on Ithrea, since Tony's mother hadn't even heard he was missing. However she did eventually discover her son's newfound talent and it somewhat unsettled her. Riff wasn't happy either to discover Tony had a new talent he didn't have, but eventually he got over it and when he developed powers too as a result of Larpskendya releasing the magic of all the children of Earth, he helped them defeat the army of High Witches (and misled children who were helping them), then later helped defeat their Warrior counterparts, the Griddas, who had been bred to fight since birth for generations. Eventually the Griddas were at peace with Earth's inhabitants and Calen (Heebra's daughter and Dragwena's sister) was defeated in a battle over the Wizards' homeworld of Orin Fen. Then Tony and the others were allowed to see Orin Fen and all its inhabitants before at last returning to Earth.

The End