text: [Themes: fantasy, fantasy]
  
  These are the Footink Caves. Secluded away from the outer world, secret, safe in a mountain and reachable only through long, dark tunnels. It's been your home your whole life, and you love it dearly.
  
  Despite being at a marriable age, you live with your mother and father and help them manage their modest housestead. Today you harvest moss by scraping it away from the cave wall. Magic balls of light help you see.
  
  You manage to get a decent amount into your bucket. Enough to eat well tonight. The moss will grow back over the next few days.
  
  You bring it back to your house, which is essentially a sturdy tent. There isn't a single flat surface in the caves. Everywhere you go, you must be careful of your step. In many places, you must use your hands and knees to crawl and climb.
  
  Your mother, Rosimary, is weaving. "Thanks, Mary," she says as you lay out what you gathered. "We need water now."
  
  Sure enough, the water tub is nearly empty. You would like to take a rest, but what must be done must be done.
  
  "I'll go," you say. And you do.
  
  After a few minutes of walking, you arrive at a large cavern that opens up to the light blue sky. Big tents and clay houses form bustling tiers, and there's even a few green plants. High on the far side, there's a shining white building. The Temple. You feel awe when you see it, as you always do. It glints beautifully.
  
  A stream of water flows from high above. It forms a pool at the lowest point, and in the middle of that pool is a powerful whirlpool which, as far as anyone knows, spirals down forever.
  
  You make your way there and fill your bucket. The water's crystal clear and icy cold.
  
  "Did you hear 'bout the magician?" says a voice behind you.
  
  You turn around and see your cousin, Westerly. You don't know what he's talking about.
  
  He reads your quizzical expression. "The talkers are talking. Apparently, there's a magician in the caves. And not the one from the Temple."
  
  Only the Temple priests are allowed to practice magic here. Anyone else who does is evil. Terribly evil. That's what you've been raised to believe. You stand up fully. "That's impossible. The priests would never allow it."
  
  He shrugs. "That's what the talkers are talking."
  
  You refuse to believe it. Gossips are by nature often liars, after all. The priests would never allow a foreign magician to come into Footink.
  
  A girl runs up to Westerly's side. "Westerly!" she exclaims. She pulls him away, looking perhaps jealous of you.
  
  "See you at prayers tomorrow!" Westerly waves.
  
  You smile and wave.
  
  [Author's Note: Your home is the extremely cloistered cave city, Footink. When a foreign magician is rumored to be lurking within, you're afraid. You're afraid of anything strange. (Hi, this is the first choose-your-adventure I've shared. Hope you have fun with it!)]
  
  > go back.
  You climb through tunnels and tunnels, trying not to think about what Westerly told you. You don't like danger or conflict, or anything strange.
  
  Slowly, you become aware of a strange feeling - a feeling of something watching you. The caves are pretty full, so that's not unusual. But this is different.
  
  It's different here. It's different...here...
  
  Oh dear. It dawns on you you're in the wrong place. This is a dark, empty tunnel – so small, you have to stoop low. You must've been thinking so hard, you took a wrong turn. You have no idea where you are.
  
  Never mind, never mind. It's no big deal – you'll just go back. Your sense of direction is pretty good.
  
  Before you fully turn around, though, you glimpse something shiny and reflective. The magic lights, which here are dim and sparse, don't have a reflective look to them. It's the kind of reflective light that you only see in gems and eyes-
  
  And what you're looking at right now, you realize, is eyes. There's a person crouched in a dark corner, watching you, cloaked in a strange kind of cloak you don't see in Footink. It has a hood and long sleeves – too hot for the caves, too hot to come from around here...
  
  You hear a whisper coming from him – something in a strange language. He points a finger at you.
  
  Even though you know you need to run, your arms and legs are stiff with fear. Could this be the magician Westerly talked about? But how? And why you? You curse your stupidity in coming here. Why, oh why?
  
  "You. Will. Not. See." Four words, evenly spaced.
  
  You take that as your cue, and turn back and run. Within the first few steps, your footing comes out from under you and you trip and fall. Your head hits hard against the rock, but you don't lose consciousness.
  
  You start crawling. Fast, fast. You get your momentum again and run. He doesn't appear to follow you.
  
  You debate whether to tell your parents what just happened. If you were truly cursed, you might bring them harm by telling them. Not to mention you might be shunned for bringing bad magic. You get an awful feeling that, if you tell anyone, terrible things will happen.
  
  You think you should keep this secret.
  
  > keep it secret.
  Your head throbs, and it's obvious you've had a fall. Your clothes are also torn. Rosimary asks you what happened – and where the bucket is.
  
  "I fell and lost the bucket," you say. Technically, it's the truth.
  
  "My dear, my dear," Rosimary says, kissing you on the cheek. "If bad luck once, bad luck again. So stay at home for the rest of the day."
  
  You do. You help make dinner, which is an earthy-tasting slosh. When the evening is done, you curl up in your blankets and, after much fretting and fretting about what you saw today, eventually fall asleep.
  
  Like most people, you don't realize when you're dreaming. You lose your eyes. This is the curse, you realize. Didn't the magician say 'You will not see?' An image of the cloaked magician's long fingernails reaching through the air, curling and twisting. You try to run, but you fall and your eyes are skewered on them.
  
  When your eyes open, you're disorientated for a moment. It dawns on you that was a dream, and you feel a wave of relief. You roll over-
  
  There's a figure with no eyes standing right next to you. Where her eyes should be, there's only shut skin, slightly sunken in. She stares ahead like a phantom, swaying slightly. She's has the stature of a child.
  
  Remembering the curse, you're gripped with terror.
  
  "No! No! Get out!" you scream. Thinking only about protecting your parents, you give her a hard push away.
  
  She raises her hands to the sides of her head, fists clenched tight, her tiny, toothless mouth opening and closing silently.
  
  Your father, Tolmerrie, is by your side fast. "What are you screaming about?" he asks.
  
  "Don't you see her?" you cry, pointing at the phantom.
  
  Rosimary runs to the girl and wraps her arms around her maternally, kindly. She kisses the eyeless girl's cheek.
  
  "Get away from it!" You try to pry Rosimary away. "It's a curse. It's a curse!"
  
  The eyeless girl crumples to the floor as if in a faint.
  
  "How dare you say that?" Rosimary says. "She's your sister. Look how you've upset her."
  
  "I don't have a sister," you tell them. "I'm your only child."
  
  "You've had a nightmare," says Tolmerrie. "Sap's been your sister for the whole ten years she's been alive."
  
  You stare horrified at the figure on the floor long dark hair and tiny hands. She writhes like a bug while Rosimary tries to calm her. You have no memory of her. None whatsoever. How could you not remember your sister?
  
  She has to be the curse put on you by the magician. But then, why would your parents remember her? Could the magician have deceived them in their sleep? To what end?
  
  "I don't have a sister," you repeat more quietly.
  
  Rosimary points to the door to the tent. "Get out," she says. "Come back when you have your senses again."
  
  Maybe you need time to think.
  
  > obey your parents and leave.
  You don't want to cause a scene. And how do really you know you weren't the one to have your memory changed?
  
  The magical lights dim by half for twelve hours a day. You can still see, but you have to squint. You start walking nowhere in particular to clear your head. After a little while, you realize you're on the path to the central cave with the waterfall.
  
  You sit by the edge of the water, watching the whirlpool spiral in the middle. It makes sucking noises, like a drinking mouth. You dip your fingers in the water and move them back and forth.
  
  "Can't sleep?" says a voice. Westerly. "Neither me."
  
  "Why do I keep seeing you here?" you ask.
  
  He sits down next to you. "I like watching the water," he says. He looks dreamily at the whirlpool. "It's said to go down forever, to the middle of the world. Which you know. I find it..." His voice trails off, and he never finishes saying that.
  
  "I'm in love with Molly," he tells you brightly before you can add anything. "The girl you saw today. That's why I can't sleep. I'm going to ask her to marry me."
  
  You smile empathetically, but say, "That's quite soon."
  
  "I love her," he repeats. You listen to him as he gushes about her without pausing, about how kind she is, how clever she is, how virtuous and beautiful. He makes her sound like the most wonderful woman in Footink. You don't know what to say, so you smile and agree.
  
  Eventually he pauses. "I never asked you why you're here," he says.
  
  You shrug. You find it hard to find the words. It sounds like it can't be real.
  
  "Do you remember how you told me about the magician from outside Footink?" you eventually ask, cradling your knees.
  
  And so you tell him how you got lost in the caves, and how you were likely cursed, and how you woke up to find the girl with no eyes in your room, who your parents said was your sister.
  
  "You mean Sap?" he asks.
  
  "So you know her?" you say, mildly surprised.
  
  He nods. "She don't go out much, but I've seen her once or twice."
  
  "Are you sure you think of the same girl?"
  
  "No eyes is uncommon enough, I think I'd remember."
  
  You think about this. So maybe it is you that's wrong. Maybe that was the curse.
  
  "But why would the magician make me forget her?" you ask.
  
  He doesn't have an answer.
  
  After a few moments, he speaks. "Do you think we should tell the priests?"
  
  You look up at the shining white Temple. This time the sight of it gives you a tinge of nervousness.
  
  > go to the Temple.
  It's early, early morning now. The magic lights are starting to glow brighter. You and Westerly trek the narrow, uneven stairs up to the Temple. The cave is whispery and echoes ethereally.
  
  When you get to the top, you knock quietly. You can hear the reverberation of the knock in the chamber on the other side.
  
  You wait.
  
  After a few moments, a robed boy barely older than a teenager answers the door. "What brings you here?" he asks quietly.
  
  "I think I saw the foreign magician," you tell him. You stall, nervous to say more.
  
  He searches your eyes, and then, seeing you tell the truth, turns around and calls. "Mother Larissa?" He opens the door wider and urges you inside.
  
  The main chamber is large – big enough to fit a hundred people. There's a curtained room at the front, behind which is the altar. Incense lingers in the air.
  
  An ancient-looking woman comes in from a door on the far side. She looks at you with eyes somewhere between kindness and suspicion, as she strides towards you. She is short and wrinkled, but her dark eyes twinkle.
  
  "Mary," she says, looking at you. She turns to your cousin. "Westerly." She whispers to herself. "Mary. Westerly."
  
  You have no idea how she knows your names. You're just little dwellers here, doing nothing of special note.
  
  "What brings you here?" Then, before you can respond, she continues. "You have seen something which frightens you, frightens you."
  
  Westerly speaks. "Mary saw the magician."
  
  "Mary saw the magician," she repeats, frowning. She waves. "Follow me, follow me."
  
  As a group, you walk to the altar. She kneels down, and you all follow suit. There, she says a prayer. You pray too. You feel a tingle in your hands and feet. The spirits imbue a special strength in you. You know you will be safe.
  
  After you stand again, she speaks to you, searching your eyes keenly. "Do you feel uncursed?"
  
  You reflect.
  
  She speaks again. "No, no. You are still cursed. The magician must be powerful, powerful indeed. Very powerful. Novitiate Murl, go with them to Mary's family, Tolmerrie and Rosimary and Sap. I believe they are in danger from the magician. Communicate to me what you see there." Then she kneels at the altar again.
  
  Novitiate Murl, who saw you at the door, gestures for you to follow him.
  
  As you come towards your home again, Rosimary rushes towards you looking frantic. "She's gone! She's gone! What did you do, Mary?"
  
  You don't know how to respond.
  
  "Who is gone?" asks Novitiate Murl.
  
  "Sap!" Rosimary cries. There are tears down her face. "You did this," she accuses you. "You know how your sister is. She was so upset by what you said to her, she couldn't- she couldn't- She never runs away for this long. Something awful has happened."
  
  Novitiate Murl raises hand. "Calm, calm," he says. "Where is the girl's father?"
  
  "He's gone out looking for her."
  
  You feel terrible guilt. "I'm so, so sorry," you plead. "I was cursed."
  
  "We think a foreign magician made Mary forget everything about Sap," says Novitiate Murl. "To terrify and confuse us."
  
  Rosimary stutters for a few moments, seemingly unable to put words together.
  
  "We'll find her," he adds. "After we find the magician."
  
  "Please find her," Rosimary pleads. "Find my baby." She turns to you. "And Mary, I'm sorry I was so angry at you. I didn't know you were cursed."
  
  > find Sap and the magician.
  Novitiate Murl asks you to take him to the place where you saw the magician.
  
  "Mother Larissa will come to our aid if we need it," he tells you. He also makes sure Westerly has a sword. You don't feel particularly safe even with these reassurances – but you trust the judgement of Mother Larissa.
  
  You guide them through the caves to the place where you think you became lost. It takes much going back and forth. You begin to wonder if it's even still there, or if you're totally wrong in your judgement.
  
  "Could the path be gone?" you ask.
  
  "Only the Temple priests have power to change the caves," Novitiate Murl tells you.
  
  You eventually find a tiny cavity in a high corner, positioned in such a way that it creates a powerful optical illusion. It looks as if it's plain cave wall, but only when you look very closely can you see it leads into a tunnel.
  
  "Wow," mutters Westerly.
  
  Novitiate Murl gathers a group of magic lights with a wave of his hand and ushers them into the cave. He climbs in first, then Westerly, then you. You wonder how you could've stumbled up here accidentally without realizing it.
  
  You continue to lead the way, looking around nervously. You feel as if you could melt into a puddle, you're so afraid. There's a feeling of intense malevolence in here.
  
  Slowly, you become aware of a soft sound. A sound of air gushing intermittently, with a high-pitched undertone.
  
  "Do you hear that?" you whisper.
  
  The other two stop and pause. You can't tell where the sound comes from. It seems to come from nowhere, and yet, everywhere.
  
  "I do," Novitiate Murl tells you. He closes his eyes and holds up his palm. With a slight frown, he moves his hand as if attuning it to the source of the sound.
  
  He snaps his eyes open and sends forward a ball of light.
  
  You almost jump out of your skin when you see there's a person there, near the ceiling, clinging seemingly impossibly off the ground. Where her eyes should be, there's only bare skin.
  
  Your sister, who you still can't remember.
  
  "Sap!" you cry, running over. "Sap, it's going to be okay."
  
  Just as your hands reach to her, there's a strong gust of wind, and you're blown off your feet, falling onto your back.
  
  "No!" Westerly shouts, coming to your side. "Mary, are you okay?"
  
  You nod. When you look up, you see the cloaked figure again. The magician, wearing orange, a wicked smile on his face. You look around and can't see Novitiate Murl.
  
  "You know what I am, don't you?" says the magician. You see a metal pendant swinging from a chain in his hand. It glints of gold. It takes you a moment to see what the shape is. A triangle with the point upwards. A leaf flattened against it, as if from a gold tree...
  
  The imagery you recognize. It's the emblem of the Pandrians: the nation that kept your people slaves for hundreds of years, until some of you fought your way out and founded Footink. They used to carve away the flesh of your ancestors as offerings to their idols. The thought that this is one of them in front of you sends fear through you like you've never felt before.
  
  > Fight.
  You scramble to your feet. Westerly clasps his sword. "Your people are not welcome here," he says, stepping forward.
  
  The magician waves a hand, and the sword flies away from Westerly. The magician waves his hand the other way, and Westerly flies to the other side, down into a cave out of view.
  
  "Westerly!" you cry, starting toward him. Then you remember Sap and pause in your tracks.
  
  The magician steps towards you. You try desperately to think of something to do. Where are the Temple priests?
  
  There's a flash of light. For a second, you're almost blinded. As it clears, you see the walls of the cave moving. Rock is growing around the magician, reaching towards him, like hundreds of long fingers.
  
  And, you're surprised to see, standing a few steps away is Mother Larissa, looking small and bent. Next to her is Novitiate Murl. Their eyes are both turned to the magician.
  
  "It's curious that one who claims to be so powerful didn't see me when I came here invisibly," Mother Larissa says lowly. "We will always be a free people, and that makes us powerful." She casts a spell at him
  
  At the same time he hurls a powerful wind at her, throwing her fast through the air.
  
  "Mother!" Novitiate Murl cries. He uses magic to halt her.
  
  You turn back to the magician and see Mother Larissa's spell has made rock wrap around his feet. He stumbles for a moment and breaks free. His eyes turn back to the priests, who are both incapacitated for the moment. He has an opportunity to destroy them, you see.
  
  You have to do something. You sprint towards the sword which was thrown from Westerly's hands and grab it, and sprint back to the magician.
  
  Without hesitating for a moment, before he can cast another spell, you drive the sword through his back, through his heart.
  
  He growls gutturally and snaps back to glare at you, fury in his eyes. You let go of the sword and step back.
  
  A second passes, and his eyes stop moving, become still. He collapses. The rock moves over him, and he disappears into it.
  
  There's a long, heavy silence.
  
  Suddenly you see Westerly's head pop up off the ground. His eyes glance over the scene. "Did you get him?" he asks.
  
  You turn to the priests. Mother Larissa lowers herself to the ground.
  
  "He cannot fight anymore," she says. "We will see to it that he dies, and whomever brought him here – whoever in Footink sides with him – they will see the same fate, the same fate."
  
  Sap moves again, and you turn to face her. Memories of her flood back into your mind with such force you gasp. You remember how she grew up with you, all the trouble she caused, and all the love she brought. She is you sister. Your little sister. And you've always loved her. How could you possibly forget?
  
  "It's going to be okay," you tell her, helping her down. "We're going to go back home now, my sister."
  
  "You remember me now," she says with her hands. With your memories of her back, you know how she talks.
  
  "Yes," you tell her. "And I'm sorry the curse was put on me. I didn't see that you're my sister."
  
  When it's apparent that everyone is okay, Sap tells you how she was so distraught by what you said, she had to leave to be alone. That's when the magician found her, and, for some reason, kidnapped her. He didn't hurt her in any other way.
  
  "I sense you are powerful magically," Mother Larissa tells Sap. "Perhaps he took you away to absorb your power. That's how his people increase their magic power. Through murder, murder." Then she pauses. "If you want, Sap, perhaps you should train with us in the Temple, when you are older."
  
  "I will consider it," Sap replies.
  
  A few days later, those who assisted the magician are caught. It turns out a family contacted the magician in the hope that, by selling out their people, they might make material gain.
  
  Meanwhile, Sap agrees to be trained at the Temple, with the blessing of Tolmerrie and Rosimary.
  
  You hug Sap. "I love you," you tell her. "We will always be safe."
  
  "So we will be," she tells you with her hands. "I will make sure of it."