I remember the day I met the Rachtopians as if it was yesterday. It was a cold rainy day, and I was watching my favorite TV show, Life As A Rachtopian. I soon then realized, my favorite character, the very commanding lawyer, was saying my name repeatedly. I got closer to the TV to see if I was able to respond to her, then I got so close, I fell in!
      I felt the cold thin air wisp by my sides. It was so dark, I couldn’t see a thing, and then I landed on something hard. It all of a suddenly became light out, and it had stopped raining. The first thing I noticed was that the sky was pink, and the grass was neon green. All I could think was this couldn’t be happening right now. I began to stand up when I noticed there were dozens of people watching me. I right away noticed I looked out of place. Everyone looked like humans, but they all had super tan skin, and dark brown hair. I stood out like a sore thumb with my bleach blond hair, and pale white skin. Everyone just stood there and stared at me until one boy, who looked about my age, said “that was a nasty fall that you just took. Does anyone have any ice?” I have never seen the boy on the TV show before, but he seemed important, because people of all ages started scrambling all over the place looking for some ice.  
      Everything looked different in person than it did on TV. No one looked like plastic. They seemed to be like real people. Someone else I’ve never seen before brought me some ice, and then the mysterious boy walked over to me, and told me to sit down. I did as told, and he squatted down next to me. 
	He asked me where it hurt, and I pointed to my right hand on the palm, then both of my knees, him it was because I reached out my hands and landed on them followed by my knees. He told me I would be okay, but to ice them so they wouldn’t swell up.  When I looked at him closer, I realized he was kind of cute. Then, out of nowhere, these loud horns started blaring all over the place. It sounded like the horns you would hear if the war were to be coming to your town. He stood up as soon as the horns went off, grabbed my wrist, and we ran into the nearest building with what seemed like the whole town.
	From all of the time I watched this show, I knew exactly what was going on, the nearby group of people were out for attack on us. They called themselves the Taylandians. The show was about a lawyer who fought against those Taylandians who crossed the border to Rachtopia. She fought for them to go to jail. The two groups were always battling because the Rachtopians believed in peace and fairness, while the Taylandains did not. They believed in slaves, and killing people when something was done wrong. Both had very strong leaders, and a completely different way of fighting. The Rachtopians were very bad at throwing, but good with technology, so they did many technical things like electronic bombs and other great attacks. The Taylandians were not so good with electronics, so they did many things by catapult. They were better at throwing things than the Rachtopians, so that came in handy for them.
      I was immediately expecting giant boulders to come crashing through roofs, but nothing happened. All of a sudden, it sounded like it was raining outside, and everyone in the building stared applauding, and hugging. I didn’t know what was going on, until the boy I met earlier said to me “the taps on the roof are really giant rocks. We recently redid all of our buildings with stronger material hoping to make it safer during attacks from the Taylandians. Our hard work paid off, and now we are able to celebrate.” The rocks stopped about 10 minutes later, and people began to exit the building. I turned towards the door and was about to leave, when he told me to follow him.
      He took me to the back of the building, and up two flights of stairs to a room I recognized very well from watching the show; it was the court room that my favorite character worked in. We were in the back of the room, and there was a big crowd in the seats. It was clear there was a case going on now. He motioned for me to sit down, and I did. He sat right next to me, and said “I’m Jake, and you are?” “Emma.” “It’s obvious you’re not from around here, so where’s home for you?” “I live in Manellaire. It’s nowhere around here. You’ve probably never heard of it.” He didn’t say anything after that, and neither did I. Both of us quietly just waited for the case to end, which only took about 4 minutes. People began to rise, and exit, but not Jake. He just sat there and waited until the only person left in the room was my favorite character, the lawyer. He finally got up, and did something I was not expecting at all, he walked straight up to the lawyer, and said nice job mom and he hugged her. 
      He then turned to me and said “Mom this is Emma. She fell earlier, so I helped her, and well, now we’re here.” I wasn’t sure what she would say to this. I’ve never been in a situation that was anything like this before. I started thinking she would get mad and start yelling like she does in the court room, but she didn’t. She stood there and said “I’m Julie, Jake’s mom. It’s very nice to meet you.” Then she reached out and shook my hand. She then turned towards Jake and winked. Next she turned towards me and said “We better get you suited up. We don’t have much time, and we’ve been waiting long for this day to finally happen.”  Next thing I knew they were leading me up one more flight of stairs to a room I have seen on the TV show only once before. The room looked different this this time though. There was the one table like before with maps all over it, but there were also suits of armor on all three walls, and swords on the one other wall. They then told me we were going to war, and they need my help to win.  They then showed me their plans for the war.
	I’ve been watching the show for years, and never thought I would be the one that was to lead them to victory. On the show, they have been planning a battle against the Taylandians. They have been waiting years for one noble person to come along and lead them in the battle. I’m not very tech savvy, so I was very nervous, and was thinking I was going to die in this battle. I have seen them on the battlefield before, so I know what it looks like, but I also know how they fight. It’s very technical and I can’t understand it. I was hoping my style of fighting would throw the Taylandians off guard. 
	        I got suited up like I was told to do. Jake had a white board out and was showing me pictures of people that would be helping us in battle. “This is Andy and he has the power of invisibility. This is Amanda, and she has the power of flight….” He had many more to go over. When he was done, Julie helped me look at all the maps and place people on there. It was completely different from what they usually for do, but I knew that’s what we had to do to win. After I found places for every single fighter, I went over all the weapons that will be used in battle. I made sure I gave each fighter the correct weapon, and I made sure they knew the plan. The very last thing we did before going into battle was we went over what people on the other side usually do in battle. It was things like; how they usually fight, where they usually are, and what they can do. Finally, we made our way to the battle field.
	We all rode our horses to our battle places. All of the children were safely inside a building. By the time we all got in our places, the other side was just coming out to the field. I was on top of a cliff at the far left corner of the field. I could see everyone on both sides of the fight perfectly. All of my people were behind trees and rocks, and the other side, all coming out on horses with catapults attached to the back. No swords, just rocks. Everyone was in position, but no one was moving. Finally, someone on my side screeched “CHARGE!!!” and everyone began to fight.
	I watched as the people that were able to fly. They flew overhead and dropped rocks on people on the other side. 9 opponents died just then. The invisible people snuck up behind some others, and 14 people died by sword. The other side launched 18 catapults, but our side used a force field machine to block them. Three people lost their shield, and they died.  Then we used our electric bombs. These killed 47 people. It was now 82 on 70. They started using bow-n-arrows, and only one person died. I had one more trick left. All of the people that could fly, swooped down, and grabbed every living person on my side. The other side thought we gave and they won. They all ran in a huddle in the middle of the battle field, and Jake threw a bomb that exploded killing all but 3. They ran off the field, and were later arrested. The final count was 81 to 3.
	We went back into the town square, where I first fell. We honored the 116 people that died that day with a moment of silence. We then launched fireworks in the sky to symbolize victory, and ended the day with a feast. Both lands will never be the same. There is no more slavery, killing, or greed. The lands are a happy place now. They have agreed to come together every anniversary of this date and have a moment of silence together as one. They will always have something to bring them together. 
	Taylandia had to find a new ruler since the old one died in the war. The winner this time is a girl named Taylor who happened to end up with Andy from our side of the fight. Taylandia turned out to be a happy place, and is always asking Rachtopia for advice. The two lands are almost exactly the same now.
	After the feast, I went to the square where I first fell. Jake came out after me, and asked me “Do you plan on staying here with us, or do you want to go back to your home?” I said “I want to stay here, with so many of my new friends, but this isn’t home. I don’t belong here. I need to go back home, back to my family. They are probably worried about me.” Then Julie came out with a small bag in her hand. She said “this is a special dust to go back and forth between the two lands. You can sprinkle this on your head and go home, but at home, you sprinkle it on the TV, and step through it. It will only work on rainy days though.” We said our good byes and I left.
























I still go back every chance I get.
Time With The Rachtopian’s, 6-8, pg. 5


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