Ivanova lay sprawled out in the dark. She was bored. No, she was beyond bored. Were she some sort of monk studying the art of boredom, she would have reached Nirvana.

But alas, she was neither a monk nor looking to find the perfection of boredom, so she was not pleased.

"What can I do today? I could run and frolic, but I hate to run and frolic. Perhaps a sport or game? No, I hate those too... If it weren't for this accursed condition that makes me believe I am in another world where I have no powers and no thorny trees follow me... What a curious place that is! The Emperor and the Lady are there, but they are different, just like I am different. So confusing... I wonder what the Emperor is doing now?"

So she got up and the black trees writhed and turned, and they formed a staircase up out of the blackness.

"Silly trees," she giggled, "You know I can fly!"

And Ivanova flew up and up until she reached the rocky plateau which she usually arose from. It had a wonderful view of the sea. She landed and skipped down a beaten path, humming a little tune to herself.

Finally, she came to the door of the Emperor's lovely little house under the sea. The crows crowed happily at her as she rang the doorbell. There was a thumping and then the door opened-

And there was a giant PIG. It snorted at Ivanova and called out, "What is it that you are here for? The Emperor's sick. There is warmth in between his eyes and his nose seems never to stop whistling."

Ivanova stood at the doorstep, astonished by the pig. How could there be a pig in the house? Pigs were usually dirty, and everyone on the Island knew the Emperor hated dirty things! So she replied to the rude pig, "What are you doing here? Aren't you dirty?"

"I had a buttermilk bath," replied the pig, and he smacked his ass. What a big slap it was, so loud. Ivanova's eyes bulged at the sound. She was disturbed and backed away slowly.

"I'll go visit Lady Syrenna then," she said to herself. But just before she began to walk off, the pig cried, "Aren't you curious to see what's there beyond this Island? There is something we call Reality... and I have a free train ticket for you. Do you want it?"

The pig held out the ticket.

"Reality?" Ivanova repeated. The word sent a strange shiver of terror racing down her spine.

"Reality is the place you really are. All this," the pig pointed around at the Island, "Is an illusion!"

Ivanova looked at the pig skeptically. "An illusion? If all this is an illusion, then how can I do this?" And with a swift motion she whipped out her sword and cut the pig in half!

"I don't like rude things!" She said, and then motioned for Sally.

"Yes?" The little faerie asked.

"The Emperor is not feeling well. Take these pig bits and whip up a delicious stew for him, and attend to his needs until he is healthy again. And don't turn the food into fabric!" Ivanova warned. Sally giggled and used her faerie magic to levitate the pig parts to the kitchen where she would cook up such a wonderful supper for the Emperor!

Ivanova was about to leave when she saw the ticket lying on the ground. "Well, it couldn't hurt to have a peek at this Reality!"

And grabbing up the ticket, she left for the train station.

Unfortunately, she had no idea if there even was a train station on the Island. She had never seen one! The only thing close to a point of departure was the dock that led to the lighthouse, so Ivanova decided to make her way there.

When she arrived, she saw Frenchling frolicking on the sun-warmed wood. And Frenchling saw Ivanova, and the ticket she was holding.

"An adventure to that wretched place," she sang, "Our dear Emperor hates it there!"

Ivanova was weirded out by the girl, but she asked, "Do you know where I can find the train station?"

Frenchling giggled and pointed to the lighthouse behind her. Giving her a wide berth, Ivanova made her way inside.

There she met a giant smiling balloon that told her to go up the steps to the platform to wait for the train.

"Make sure you have your ticket with you. The snatchers snatch your ticket and the person holding the ticket. You will be pulled into the train as fast as possible, so make sure you are quite ready. Have nothing loose or sticking out."

There were so many loud noises and yelling in the red train station within the lighthouse. Beeping and yelling everywhere. Ivanova was surprised to see it all.

"It's so busy here. I had no idea there was anything like this on the Island!"

Just then, a strange screaming noise began to sound in the sky. In the distance, a sort of glossy green long apparatus was nearing the platform.

"Is that the train?" Ivanova thought. "OH MY GOD! It's a caterpillar!"

In a second, the caterpillar screamed and shot out its light-orange spiky hairs. They were very sticky. They reached out to everyone who had the right ticket, and pulled them into their seats inside the caterpillar's body. Ivanova gasped with such a force.

Up in the sky, Ivanova looked down at the little Island that was diminishing quickly into the fog. Her stomach began to churn, and she felt a strange uneasiness.

"What will it be like in... Reality?"

And straight ahead, there shot out a giant sphere with skyscrapers and towers that reached up out of it. An unbearable noise started to surround her. It sounded like people, sounded like a mix of everything.

"REALITY. check. REALITY." Cried the caterpillar and shot out Ivanova through a soft, bouncy, turquoise-coloured chute.

Ivanova landed with a thump onto a bed. Somehow she was wearing different clothes than she had been before. They looked like pyjamas!

"Wow, you're already up!" A voice said from behind her. There was a man standing there. He had a beard and the same colour hair as her. "Hurry up and get dressed then, you don't want to be late for school!"

And with that the strange man went down the stairs and left the house.

"So this is Reality..." Ivanova thought as she got out of the bed. She went to the dresser and picked out something to wear.

"I need to bring that..." she said, picking up a backpack that was lying on the floor. She left the room and travelled down the stairs, and there was another person there.

"Good morning, crazy sister!" The boy greeted in a very annoying voice. Ivanova did not like this boy.

"Piss off!" She said and then left the house.

She did not know how she knew, but she knew the way to this school the man had spoken of. Down a hill and then straight across a long stretch of road where what looked like a younger Moody shouted greetings to her. All the while, noisy cars blew fumes past her, while unwashed children cackled amongst each other as they wandered by.

What a smelly and dirty place this Reality was! The Emperor would hate it here, as would the Lady, what with all the harming to wildlife that was going on.

Finally, she reached a large building, which she assumed to be the school. She began to walk up to the front door, when who should appear out of a white house but the Emperor himself!

"Hello! I thought you weren't feeling well?" Ivanova asked as the Emperor caught up to her.

"I told you that yesterday!" the Emperor said.

"No you didn't! I came to your undersea dwelling not long ago and a pig came and said you were ill! I killed it and had Sally cook you up something tasty, then I took the train here to Reality!" Ivanova explained.

The Emperor looked shocked.

"Then you aren't Steph at all, but you are really Ivanova!" He said.

Ivanova gave him a puzzled look, "Of course I am Ivanova! Though the name Stephanie does sound rather familiar..."

But she was cut off when the Emperor grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the glass doors.

"Come! We must show you to Serena!"

Ivanova had a strange feeling bubbling in her stomach. She did not like this area. In her midst, she saw people dressed alike and talked in the most annoying manner.

The Emperor said, "Don't you agree that you have the urge to kill them?"

Ivanova happily nodded.

Inside the dome-like building, they went up the stairs to greet this Serena, who turned out to be Syrenna! Emperor and Syrenna definitely looked different from how they usually dressed. The crown was gone, and Syrenna had no magic. Everything seemed to be dark, a not nice sort of dark, and inside Ivanova... she began to feel really pissed and depressed.

"EVERYTHING IS DEPRESSING!" She thought.

Before she could ask them more about this strange hell realm, a bell rang, and they quickly separated.

It was hours and hours it felt like, in the horrible building. Ivanova did not like it one bit. When the hours ended, she walked home in the bright sun, passing through the loud people that talked as she walked. Her eyes grew red and she became very negative. When she arrived home, she did all her little things and went to bed after the stroke of midnight... She wasn't really sure when it was.

Then the sun rose up and her eyes, unable to open, felt like they had been glued shut to her face. She forced them to open and a woman's voice called by her door, "Stephanie! Time for school!"

"AGAIN?!" Ivanova yelled out. "AGAIN?! I HAVE TO LIVE THROUGH THAT HELL AGAIN?! OH MY GOD!!" And with that, Ivanova took out a knife and looked at it immensely.

"I will kill and kill and KILL!! Then there will be no more noises and no more school! Everything in this Reality pisses me off so much!" She said as she leapt out of bed and opened the door.

But the knife fell from her hand at what she saw. "Mother of God! There I am!"

And there indeed stood someone who looked exactly like Ivanova!

"Who are you?" Ivanova asked when she had finally found her voice. The Ivanova look-alike giggled and said, "I'm the one who's supposed to ask that question, and you answer it!"

"What is this?" Ivanova asked, shocked at seeing herself.

"Well, y'see, I'm the real you... I'm Steph!" The girl said.

It all made sense; this was the Steph she kept getting mistaken for! This was like another dimension or something!

"So what are you doing here?" Ivanova asked.

Steph shrugged, "The ticket was only for one day, and since you slept in, you forgot to catch your train back!"

"You mean I'm stuck HERE!?" Ivanova yelled, horrified at the prospect of staying in this hell one more day.

"No, you have to get to the station and catch your train. Another one leaves in an hour!" Steph explained.

So Ivanova ran out of the house, calling goodbye to Steph and thanking her for the map to the station. Soon enough she arrived and caught her train home.

"Where have you been! We could not find you in the darkness!" Lady Syrenna said as Ivanova descended the stairs from the station.

"I was in Reality!" Ivanova said smugly.

"What? That's crazy! You shouldn't talk crazy! Stop with all this craziness!"

So Ivanova and Lady Syrenna left to find the Emperor and bring him gifts of soup.

The End

Part II:

And the Emperor became healthy again and quite fit to run on a jog with them the next morning.

The End II