Round 1 Nisreen

Nisreen struggled to her feet. The fall had taken more out of her than she thought. The world started to spin around her, the colours melting together, and Nisreen thought that she might vomit. She tried to steady herself, reaching for something, anything, but the vertigo disappeared. The colours of the forest around her had changed slightly, and instead of being almost purely greens, shades of purple and pink accented the foliage with large, strange blossoms and fragile insects. Words came into her head that were strange to her, but yet, seemed as familiar as the suns around Kanarrah, the planet she called home.

"Flowers…" She whispered in a language strange to her. "Butterflies…" She soon found that everything she saw had a name in this new, strange tongue that she was suddenly fluent in. A ball with feathers and wings flew by, and the new language told her it was a bird. She noticed a tiny mound of fur with a long, skinny tail scurrying beside her feet, and knew it was a mouse. Her eyes widened as she twisted her body around, trying to take in the new sights around her. That was when she saw the creature.

It was probably the most beautiful thing in the forest. Nisreen's jaw dropped slightly in awe. Soulful eyes stared back at her, filled with compassion. Nisreen didn't dare move. She did not know if she felt fear of the long, ivory horn protruding from the creature's forehead, or if she was afraid of scaring it away.

The creature appeared to be staring right into Nisreen's soul. It felt like ages to Nisreen since she first saw the creature when it started to move towards her. She noticed that the creature had hooves, like her, and felt a kind of kinship with the beautiful animal. Within an instant it was in front of her, near enough to touch. Nisreen slowly, carefully, reached out her hand, when the creature spoke.

"Do not be afraid, love, I am only here to help."

Nisreen fell backwards, trying to get away from the creature. Her eyes were wide with fear, her body trembling. She had never encountered a beast that could talk.

The creature came closer and kneeled beside Nisreen. "It's alright to be frightened. We unicorns are very rare creatures. But as rare as we are, I have never seen a maiden like you."

The unicorn laid her head in Nisreen's lap, and an overwhelming calm came over the alien. Her eyelids drooped, her shoulders sagged, and she laid her hand on the mane of the unicorn. She relaxed, and felt that nothing could harm her while the unicorn was near.

"What is your name, love? You may call me Amethyst." The unicorn asked softly.

"My name is Nisreen." Nisreen stroked Amethyst's fur as she answered.

"Nisreen." Amethyst said, dreamily, her own eyelids drooping. "You're a Princess, aren't you?"

"Yes, how do you know?" The alien eyed the unicorn suspiciously.

Amethyst stared back at her, a grim expression on her face. Her lilac eyes filled with tears. "Then it's true, the book is unraveling. You're not the first stranger to this land; you're just the only one I've seen."

"What do you mean?" Nisreen's eyes widened with fear. Was the book that Amethyst spoke of the one that pulled her through that tunnel? And if it was unraveling, what would happen to Nisreen?

Amethyst's muscles were tense. Her eyes narrowed on something in the distance. Her long tail, which had before been twitching casually, was now ridged. It was as if Amethyst had become a statue. "The stories of all realms, yours, mine, everywhere, they're being unwritten. We're losing our stories."

Nisreen's heart pounded, her eyes widened with fear. "What's going to happen to me?" She cried, tears forming in her eyes. "Will I die?"

Amethyst lowered her head. She was afraid of losing her home, but this poor, lost soul that she found in her forest, she had nothing to do with this problem. But the unicorn needed her.

"Nisreen, I'm sorry, but in order to get you home, I must ask you to do something. If not, this world and others will disappear."

Nisreen struggled to her feet. "What do you want me to do?"

"Follow me." Amethyst set off into the forest, leading Nisreen through a maze of trees, bushes and flowers. The further they went along, though, Nisreen noticed that pieces of the area around them were flying up into the sky, turning black, and vanishing into the sky above, forming large, black holes in the heavens. They then came upon grey mist.

Amethyst stopped, she couldn't dare approach the mist. No creature of this realm could. But Nisreen, she wasn't of this realm. She could approach the mist, and finish the story.

"Nisreen, I need you to go into that mist. A story will play out, I don't know what will happen, but whatever does happen, you must finish that story." The unicorn narrowed her lilac eyes at Nisreen, hoping that she understood. Nisreen nodded, and carefully, slowly walked up to the mist. She reached out her hand, and the moment it touched the grey fog, she was transformed. She was still her, as far as she could see, but when she looked into her reflection in a shimmering pond, she saw a different being. She had a long, dark blue hair, pale blue skin, but she was human. She had heard of humans, but she never thought she would see one, much less be one. She heard a small croak, and looked down. There was a little green creature there, a frog, and in his hands he held a golden ball.

"Princess, I have rescued your ball, as you asked."

Nisreen was overcome with joy, so much that she wanted to take the ball and run away, never to see the frog again. But she stopped. Instead of running, she picked up the frog in her hand, raised him to her lips, and kissed him. Immediately, he turned into a handsome prince, and the mist all around vanished.

Nisreen looked all around, and saw the unicorn. Amethyst's eyes were wide, her lips curled in a smile, and she dashed over to Nisreen.

"You did it! You did it, Nisreen! We're saved!" The unicorn leaped through the air, happier than she had been in a long time. When she stopped and saw Nisreen, she realized that Nisreen needed an explanation. But Amethyst didn't know what had happened either, and had only taken Nisreen to the story on a hunch.

"What exactly did I do?" Nisreen folded her arms in front of her, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

Amethyst gazed deep into Nisreen's eyes. "I'm not sure, myself. All I know is that you finished the story of this realm. Look! There's no more darkness! Everything's normal again!"

It was then that Nisreen felt the same vertigo that she had felt when she had first arrived. The only thing that was constant was Amethyst, and she was the last thing that Nisreen saw when she fell to the ground.