Every five hundred years it would happen. That was what the scholars said. It’s what all the scrolls predicted. But it didn’t happen last time, and now everyone scoffed. The words swirled in her head as she tugged on her pants.

Excited for the day, Juniper ran down the hallway of her house. “Mom, I need to meet Tanis early for school.”

Her mother redirected her to the kitchen with a gentle shove. “Sit, child, there is always time for breakfast. A hungry mind can’t focus.”

Grumbling, she sat for the bowl of warm cereal, nuts, and fruit. She started to stand after a couple of bites, though her belly still felt empty.

“Juniper, you are a growing girl, eat your fill.” The snap in her voice had Juniper’s butt slapping down on the wood chair.

After bolting down her food, she grabbed her bag and ran out the door. The path to school was a quick run. Tanis waited for her outside the doors. 

His dark amber hair glowed in the sun. “Are you ready? Are we going to do it?”

Her heart beat wildly in her chest and she suddenly forgot to breathe. Sweat dripped down her back and she shook out her hands. She tried to hold a blank face, play dumb, but a smile split her face, growing bigger and bigger, matching Tanis’s gleeful expression. Finally remembering how to inhale, she nodded vigorously and said, “Yeah, we are.”

Hazel eyes dancing, he grabbed her moist, tense hands. He led her away from the school and towards the woods. The night before, she’d switched out her school bag from books and notes to a couple of water bottles and granola. 

They ran for a few minutes, gaining distance from the school, before slowing to a walk. Tanis searched the trees and the distant mountain. “Do we know the way? Do you have the map? Did you talk to the old crazy scholar?”

Digging deep in her pocket she pulled out the map. It led to an old city, lost in time. The scrolls spoke of an old citadel where the power used to bubble up from a fountain in the center. Any who drank from the fountain would gain their own special powers. 

The scrolls, old and crumbling, could be lying, but Juniper hoped.

After hours of walking, a decrepit, yet beautiful building came into view. The tall windows, colored in a style lost to time, presented images of people creating magic that Juniper could only dream of doing. 

The two carefully approached the door and entered. The fountain stood in the center, just as the scrolls foretold. They ran to it, but it was empty. Juniper jumped in, crawling on her hands and knees, but found nothing. Every inch of the bowl was dry as old bones. Falling on her butt, leaning against the side, a tear burned down her cheek. A bubble of hope that had been building over the days, weeks, years exploded in her chest, and she began to cry in earnest. 

Tanis knelt in front of her. “I’m so sorry. I know you felt this in your soul…”

“Let me…just…I need…” She got up and stumbled away from the fountain and Tanis. 

Uncertain how she got there, she found herself in a long hallway. Tanis had not followed her, and all seemed quiet. Walking down it, she felt a phantom hand grab her gut and another grab her mind. She was lifted off the ground as power, oh the power, filled her body. A voice spoke and it vibrated in her bones. “Emissary, you will be my familiar. You will hold the power to do my bidding.”

Eyes wide, she saw a dragon, horns about its head like a crown, a long majestic beard, white glittery skin that glowed in the starlight…her master…the one whom she’d represent in all the lands.