Many years before Embra was born, her father, Angus Walter, was a student studying

abroad for a semester at the University of Edinburgh. He admired Edinburgh's castle and

cobblestone streets and was charmed by the cozy pubs where he and his classmates

enjoyed endless discussions over "hunners o' pints."

It was in one of these pubs that he first heard the word "Embra" spoken with a lyrical

Scottish accent, and was captivated by this simple word. When he asked a classmate,

he was surprised to learn that "Embra" was local slang for Edinburgh.

He recalled that word the moment his baby was born, delivered by his wife, Sally, who

smiled when he suggested they name their little girl Embra. To them, it had a soft, bright feel,

and oddly, it was unknown as a girl's name, or anyone's name, for that matter. And thus

begins little Embra's adventures.

Embra's first adventure started when she was five years old. Her and her parents lived in a rural cottage inside of a magical forest - at least, her parents told her that it was magical- so there wasn't really anyone around apart from a postman and the regular squirrel. Embra was aloud to play outside alone as long as she didn't go out of sight from the house. So, you could say she had a pretty peaceful life. She did. Until today.

Embra was playing outside with her toy aeroplanes just as she usually did, when she heard rustling coming from the bushes just a few steps away. She didn't know any better as she was only little, so she let her intrusive thoughts get the best of her and walked over to the shrub. Her parents were inside their cottage working, so they probably wouldn't notice if she was gone for a couple minutes... would they?

She took a peek inside the bushes and was pushed into a tunnel by what looked like a fairy! It couldn't be. Or could it?

Embra pushed her brown curly hair out of her eyes and looked up to face two keen curious pairs of eyes. She recognised one of the hazel eyes to be the lonely boy called Marcus from her school. What was he doing here?

"It's nice to finally meet you," said the fairy with a cheerful smile.

"We've been watching you play and talk about your aeroplanes, and we were very impressed with what you know. We were wondering if you would like to be the pilot for our adventures to the Fantasy Lands?" asked Marcus.

"The what?" I replied, puzzled.

"Every day, we climb through this tunnel and we have a board that lets us imagine any land we want to go to and it creates it. Then, our pilot will fly us in the plane to the new land for one hour and we have fun." the fairy answered.

They could obviously tell from the confused look on my face that I had no idea. "How about we show her around first?" Marcus grinned.

"Follow us!" They clambered up the wooden tunnel and I followed close behind.