Sand Girl: Sand Girl, #1

By Abernathy Quinn and William Bluestone

Aoa Cold is a regular old human, wandering around Perth doing regular old human things - like breaking into museums in the dead of night. However, Aoa Cold is about to discover that she is not as normal as she seems. Her family are Sand Wielders - an ancient order of oceanic magic users with ties to Old Atlantis. With her worrying mother, kooky aunt, studious sister and talking cat, join Aoa as she uncovers the secrets of a magical world that exists right alongside the human world! Who is the sinister White sand? And what is the mysterious time ring?

• Language: English
• Publisher: william stone greenhill
• Release date: Nov 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223192022

Book preview

Sand Girl

SAND IS A COSMIC SUBSTANCE that lurks in between one thing in particular, between the realms of sleep and wake. The cosmic sand stretched across the globe. Wherever there is life there is sleep, and wherever there is sleep there is sand. Every culture has its own kind of sand manipulation and wielders are long-lived beings who live between the realms of wake and sleep. I am in bed right now, sleeping. I heard something in the hall. I jumped up, and the storm outside rumbled. The world went fuzzy. I bellowed It’s Halloween, please keep the monster movie down big sis. I had a thought Has Kelly really been up this long? It’s midnight. Wait, a bunch of teenagers, plus a dark Sunday night at 1:00 AM, plus parents going out of town for the weekend, plus a horror movie marathon divided by a cheeky little tween with a monster costume equals. Cheeky thoughts rushed through my head. I giggled with craziness. I thought this is just too perfect as I put on a realistic werewolf mask. I had brought it at the Royal Show earlier in the year. I grabbed a staff from my bedside table and walked out onto the balcony. I slid down the drainpipe into the torrential pouring rain. I felt soaked and then I got the liquid nails I had taken from my cupboard. I crawled across the house to the window beside the TV. I felt wet and cold but exhilarated. Lightning flashed with an intense burning heat. Flame roared across the sky, and I began to attach glue to the mask. I shivered with cold and frost as sleet crawled across the window. My sister Kelly gave a fake smile as she said to Josh, I’m going to get popcorn. Her other friend KT replied, Don’t you dare leave. What if the Werewolf of Paris breaks from the screen?. I placed the mask on the window and walked towards the door shivering and readied to pull a sisterly prank. I walked through the front door. I heard Kelly’s friend ask, Why are you out in the storm?. I replied, I just wanted to explore the museum. KT then asked, At 1 AM?. Kelly responded, It’s absolutely normal. Well for her anyway. She's been doing this since she was 6. Kelly saw a look of fright on Josh’s face. My smile grew. Kelly saw the mask. Thunder struck the world and as it did light filled the air. Kelly flinched and all of a sudden sand shot out of her hand smashing through the window. This scared me so much silver sand shot out of my hand and hit the screaming teens. Josh bellowed AHHH, NO, NO, NO AHHH. Wait, how did you do that?. Then he promptly fell asleep and fell on the ground. I looked at my hand and stammered What, what did I do?. Kelly explained I think you just manipulated sand. Congratulations, you’re a Sand Girl. Meanwhile, in Atlantis, my mum and my aunt looked through a looking glass. My mum stammered Wow! Little Aoa has performed her first sand blast. Isn’t that nice. My aunt Emily replied, I know, now she can do awesome stuff like put her teacher to sleep or create tornados in the boy’s washroom. My mum responded, You were a little terror in the 18th century. You got into more trouble at Freo Sand Academy than any student in the next 6 generations. My mum Sasha responded, I think it’s finally time to pass on the time ring. She can make great use of it. Emily responded, She already breaks into museums. I can’t wait to see what trouble she gets into with sand powers and a ring that can time travel. It’s going to be awesome. Sasha shuddered At least we won’t have to worry about her not studying enough. But we will have to worry about her having my thirst for knowledge and you’re quenching for chaos. That will not be fun".

At 6:00 AM my mum got home. She replied Aoa, we have something to tell you. I replied I know, I’m a Sand Girl. And I have been reading up on the concept all night since 1. Emily asked, Why are there two teens unconscious on the floor?. I replied, They’ve been up until 1. Let them sleep. Sasha replied On the topic of sleep, there are two realms. The realm of the wake, and the realm of the sleep. You are a Sand Wielder. Sand Wielders live in between these realms. But you don’t know how to control your abilities. Kelly took over as she got out of bed Sand people can only make their transformation during a storm. When the forces of nature work together in destructive unity. You should get hungry soon. Such transformations require time and energy. Emily replied your mother wants you to have this. It’s a family heirloom. She passed me a ring. It was a wooden ring coated in half red crystal and half blue crystal. It had a purple gem in its centre. I replied Thanks, I appreciate this a lot. So, is there a museum for Sand People in Perth?. My mum replied, More like a school. It is underneath the Freo Bridge. Just remember, you now live between the realms of the sleeping and the awake, so you don’t need to sleep because you are half asleep half the time. My cat Snuggles approached us. He was on the kitchen table. He looked at me and said I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be able to talk around you. Now you are meant to say AHHH, A TALKING CAT. Say it, say it. I replied I didn’t see it coming but I’m not even remotely surprised. I remember the prank call you sent to me after school at the Black Cat in the Moon Café. My cat replied I’m a black sand cat. Specially bred to help young sandmen. Aren’t you at least a little bit surprised?. Kelly walked in and replied We just got a letter from the High Council. You got an invitation to Under Bridge Academy. I’m going there next week. I guess we’ll go together.

Chapter 2

It was difficult, waiting for a week to pass before I could attend the academy. I had taken my invitation and tucked it under my mattress, so I could check back on it when everything started to feel too crazy.

I didn’t need my bed much anymore, at least not for sleep. It was a change I wasn’t used to yet, and one I probably wouldn’t be used to for a while.

The first night after my discovery had been filled with wonder and excitement. I had researched as much as I possibly could, with the help of my mother’s books and Des’ feline guidance.

This power I had now, was incredible. There was so much I could do with it. So many places I could go, so many things I could see.

And I was excited. I was.

But the second night was difficult.

I had spent my life wishing I didn’t have to sleep, wishing I could stay up deep into the night reading without suffering the consequences the following morning. But I had never appreciated how important sleep could be, how it put a full stop between your days, how it consolidated your memories.

Kelly stayed with me the second night. She was snarky and rude and dismissive the whole time, as older sisters are want to be, but she stayed by my side and kept me company.

On the third night, we talked until three in the kitchen, drinking hot cocoa and arguing about astronomy and video games and everything in between, and the thought of never sleeping again seemed a little less overwhelming.

On the fourth night, sitting under moonlight in our backyard, she told me about how she discovered her powers.

It was after maths class, she had started, and her voice was as loud and obnoxious as usual, but I could see her fingers trembling. I was walking to the canteen, and – and I saw Cathleen.

I knew Cathleen. Everyone at our school had known Cathleen. She was tall, and frail, and looked like a breeze would blow her over, but she was mean down to her core.

She’d pushed my friend Sophie down a flight of stairs when we were in year 2. Sophie’s mum had pulled her from school after that.

But then, when I was in year 4, and Kelly was in year 7...

She started going at me, Kelly had continued, her voice turning strained, about how I didn’t do her English assignment well enough, and everyone was staring, and it was raining stupidly hard...

In year 7, Cathleen had fallen down hard in the middle of a busy hall. It had been the start of recess, and no one had clearly seen what had happened.

And she grabbed my shirt, and Aoa, I was so scared and I felt sick, and I grabbed her shoulder, and...

The ambulance had been called immediately, and they’d strapped Cathleen in and rushed her to PMH. The rumours had flown through school – that Cathleen had had a stroke, or a heart attack, or had drank so much Red Bull that her brain had popped open. The last one had been my favourite.

...I felt something spark down my arm, you know, and I just pushed it out, all this sand flowed straight into her...

Cathleen had been in hospital for three months, and in Occupational Therapy for nine months after that. She’d come back to school eventually, to whispers and rumours and excitement and fear, but she hadn’t been the same. Everyone who saw her agreed – whatever had happened to Cathleen, it had left her different. Her eyes blinked slow, far slower than normal, her movements, once sharp and violent, were sluggish and sticky. Her face, once pale, was instead ghastly, the only colour remaining was the purple bags that hung permanently beneath her eyes.

...and I knocked her out, Aoa, Kelly finished. She had wrapped her arms around herself at some