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Emily slept through the night, tossing and turning, and as that all happened, something peculiar was happening with her ring. She even wore it to bed, because she was afraid she would lose it if she even took it off for a minute or too.

The ring at first, began to glow, casting a soft light on the surrounding objects, and then began to vibrate, at first very slowly and softly, but soon became very violent and loud.

People might have different theories about what it was about, and the few that think it is a warning, of something terrible happening, well they would be right.

Emily yawned, blinking her eyes sleepily. She listened expecting to hear Mrs.. Yarriz’s annoying shrill voice, screaming for everyone to be up. It was an extremely rude way to wake up every morning.

But, to her surprise, the place was silent. She checked the clock hanging on her wall, and squinted in confusion. Mrs. Yarriz always woke them up at 5:30 in the morning, and not a sane soul in the orphanage would wake up before that, who wants to getup that early?

So why was she up at 3:50? Emily squinted around, and reached for her ring, it felt oddly cold, bone chillingly cold. But, at the same time, it seemed warm, as if it was giving of an aura of power, the ring had always baffled her. Before her parents passed away, her mother had told her, if anything were to happen to her and Emily’s father, that she must take good care of the ring, she had seemed so serious. It was almost as if she knew she would not be around for very long, and there was some reason that the ring needed to be kept safe.

Emily sighed and rubbed her head. All this thinking was making her head hurt. Now, to tackle the reason she was up at this time. She checked the room to see if anything was out of place, nothing, as far as she knew. As she was heading back to bed, she noticed it. the door was slightly ajar, she always, always, closed, and locked her door. It wasn’t just that, the room felt empty, as if someone that was usually there, no longer was. Who else was ever in her room?

That’s when it hit her.

“Marmalade!” she cried in panic, scrambling to her knees, and pulling out the box. With trembling fingers, she lifted the lid. He was gone. The box was intact, even the grass she had laid down for bedding was the same, seemingly untouched.

Emily clenched her fists, her face growing beet red. “Jake!” she screeched, she stood up, tensing. Marmalade was the only comfort she had, the only companion, that wouldn’t criticize her if she said something, someone she could tell everything, after all he was a mouse. Why was it her life that was always ruined, her life that was so unfair. Well she wasn’t about to give up, oh no, Jake was not going to win this.

Emily restrained herself enough to return to her bed, and at least sit, waiting. Finally 5:30 came, and right on time, as if the caretaker had been staring at the clock, her sharp voice rang out.

“Up! Now! Time to get out of bed, and be quick!” Emily hurriedly got dressed, and exited her room. She was not just quick because she wanted to confront Jake, but also because every child was scared to be the last person, Mrs. Yarriz would always give a firm, one hour lecture to the last person, Emily had witnessed it in the first few days of her stay.

She entered the hallway, and scanned quickly, searching. She was not sure if it really was Jake, but he was the first person that came to mind.

‘Why in the world would he steal Marmalade? He’s just a little mouse…’ she sighed. She could not find him at the moment, and would have to search later. It seemed that whenever she was actually searching for him, he was nowhere to be found. But whenever Emily wasn’t looking, he popped up out of nowhere.

“Hey Em! Looking for me?” Jake’s voice rang across the hallway. Emily whirled around, searching. But at that moment, Mrs. Yarriz chose to herd them into the dining hall.

“Grrr.” she said in frustration, at meals, the boys always sat on one side, and the girls on the other. It was not a rule or anything, but the kids seemed to have chosen to do so.

Emily sighed and took a seat at the end of one of the tables, away from the other girls, who were chattering away, without a single care in the world. Usually Emily would be over there, being just as chatty, but today she wanted to keep Jake in her sights.

She watched him carefully, trying to pick up any little things that could suggest he was up to something. But he was his regular old self, goofing around with all his friends.

Emily glowered, and slurped at the watery oatmeal that was being served for breakfast. IT tasted terrible, but she ate it anyway. She was used to the terrible food. The cook’s did a terrible job.

Breakfast passed quickly, the whole time Emily kept glancing Jake’s way. Once lunch finally ended, after seeming to last hours, Emily almost pounced on Jake.

“Where is he?” she asked immediately.

“Who?” he replied nonchalantly.

“Stop playing games!” she growled in agitation, “You know who I am talking about. My pet mouse!” Jake already knew she had a mouse, and he was the only one. “You took him!” she accused.

“Huh?” he said in total confusion. “What are you jabbering about, I didn’t touch ‘im.” He shrugged, and pushed past her.

Emily stood, dumbfounded. If he hadn’t taken him, who had. Jake was the only kid that she would suspect. Nobody else knew about Marmalade, and no one would even think about snooping in her room!

Emily sighed, she wanted to ponder this, but she knew she had to get ready. After breakfast, all the children were brought on school buses, to the Orphanage school, a few blocks away. She ran up the stairs, and grabbed her school supplies, stuffed them into her backpack and took off for the buses, she was always late, and had been getting on the bus drivers nerves, so she wanted to be there as early as possible.

She got in line for the bus, and waited patiently, all the time her mind running over all the different possibilities.

One, Jake could just be lying, but as annoying and mischievous as he was, he sure wasn’t a liar. She sighed sadly, glancing out the window of the bus, and clutched her ring. She gasped and snatched her hand away.

A bright red marking was on her palm, the ring had been searing hot, as if angry. She glanced down at it, and gingerly lifted it by the chain. It was glowing, on and off, as if a heart-beat. She stared in amazement, and quickly covered it with the sleeve of her shirt.

She took a deep breath, and tried to calm her racing heart. ‘Am I going nuts?” she thought incredulously. Another glance confirmed her answer, nope. It had not stopped. She felt it again, this time with the tip of her finger. It had gone ice cold, like in the morning. What was going on.

All of a sudden, the pulsing stopped. It grew colder, and made a quick, small humming sound. Then words seemed to come out of nowhere, inside of her head.

“The mouse is….” every word was whispered, and raspy. “The mouse is at the school…. follow…..” it abruptly ended, and the bus noises, suddenly seemed muted.

“What just happened?” Emily whispered in shock. She was so surprised, it took a while for the words to register in her brain.

“Marmalade!” she said in fear. “How does he have anything to do with, with this?” she asked herself, staring down at the ring. She had a new respect for the small piece of jewelry. Actually, it seemed more like fear.

Scarsmiss smiled, happily. An ornate plate sat in front of her, the center glowing, playing out what had just happened. The girl stared in shock at the ring, a mixture of fear and confusion in her eyes.

Scarsmiss was indeed a Magical Being, and very a very powerful one at that, she was able to do things, like speak to the
Simple Beings of Earth, with just a small amount of Dust, when other Magical Beings, would spend half their life saving and storing enough for the difficult task.

She had done it, and was extremely proud. Scarsmiss narrowed her eyes in glee, and immediately tried to compose herself. Such a powerful being as herself did not have the time for happy commoner emotions, such as glee. IT was humiliating. She would continue to watch Emily, and see for herself, how a Simple Being, could enter another world.