The ancient myth about Pollando, a great wizard, starts like this. Alatar, Pollando’s apprentice, was an evil warlock that was training under Pollando. Pollando was training Alatar when he walked away for a second. When Pollando walked away Alatar made an evil potion. Something was created from that potion, but what it was is still unknown to this day, two centuries later. Pollando started running, but whatever was created, chased him to the evil wizard that gave Alatar his orders. The evil wizard then cursed Pollando, he lost his powers and was not able to leave the hidden forest until somebody found him, fell in love with him and left with him. One day a mermaid, Avalon, was swimming in a river when she hit an invisible barrier. She wanted to figure out what the barrier was blocking people from. She found a cave that the barrier did not reach, so she swam through. She got up to the other side and saw amazing creatures she had never seen before and a giant house that was covered in plants that made it blend in. She got out of the water and walked in the house. There was Pollando, sitting inside the house, reading ancient spell books like he always did. Avalon walked over to Pollando and asked him who he was and why he was there. They talked for a long time, and Avalon never left. Pollando made a pool for Avalon so that she did not have to leave him. They talked and Avalon asked Pollando if he wanted to leave the forest and go to her waterfall home. Pollando explained what happened to him three years ago and that he could not leave unless someone fell in love with him and they left the forbidden forest together. Avalon liked Pollando but she did not think she liked him enough to be in love with him. They spent a long time together in the house and eventually Pollando fell in love with Avalon, but Pollando knew that Avalon was not in love with him and most likely never be. As time passed Avalon became more attracted to Pollando, Avalon thought she might be in love with Pollando. She talked with Pollando and told him that she loved him. They prepared for five days to leave and devised a plan to capture the evil wizard that cursed him. It was the sixth day and they were getting ready to leave, so they gathered the materials they needed and left the house. They got to the barrier and were holding hands, they started to walk to the barrier and when they got there they could not get through together. They wondered why it was not working so they went back to the house and tried to figure it out. Avalon left through the cave and went to her house to ask her very wise father if he knew anything about this. When she got to her house, her father was not there so she asked her sister were he was. Her sister said that their father was at his secret shed, and that he had mentioned that someone had broken into our old hidden house. Avalon went to her father’s shed. She was talking to her dad and asked why he was there, and he gave her the same response that her sister had given her. He explained that he had a hidden house in a forest before she was born and he had locked it up so no one could get to it. She asked where the house was and if he could take her to it, but her father said that they could not go to the house because it was forbidden to go there. She got suspicious about her father. She knew that her father was not always a merman, he used to be a warlock and he made a potion to be a merman and then he met her mother and had her and her sister. They were not born with powers, but they still hope that when they hit a certain age they might get some powers. She asked her dad why the house was forbidden but he refused to answer. So she asked her dad to follow her, she took him to the house she had found but not inside the barrier and asked if this was the house that was forbidden. He did not know what to say. He asked how she found the house but she refused to answer any questions until he asked her if she had been past the barrier. She finally answered one of his questions and said yes and that is where I have been for the past three weeks. She asked her father if he was the one who had trapped Pollando in that house. He said yes and he needs to stay there forever. Avalon asked her father why he did this but her father refused to answer any questions. Avalon jumped in the pool and swam home. She started to rummage through her father’s stuff until she came across the potion he had used to turn himself into a merman. She stole the potion and swam through the cave to Pollando. She explained to Pollando that her father was the warlock that locked him in the hidden forest. She also explained that she had a potion to make him a merman and to get him out of the hidden forest. She started working on the potion, the potion had to sit for two days and then it would be ready. Two days had passed and Pollando was ready to take the potion. He drank the potion and had to find out if he was a merman by getting in the water. He jumped in and all of the sudden he grew a tail. Avalon jumped in and showed him the way to the cave and they left the hidden forest. They got to her house and she packed her things and they were going to go live with Pollando’s sister. They got to Pollando’s sister’s house and decided they were going to live there forever. They had children and when they were sixteen they sent them to the hidden forest for them to live safely. If you are wandering they were mermaids too, and yes they were both girls. That is the wonderful story of Pollando the wizard that fell in love with the mermaid Avalon. The legend is that if you go to where Pollando’s sister lived, they buried a map to the hidden forest where their children supposedly live. Who knows you might be the lucky one to find it. Have fun finding us, oh did I forget to mention I am Annabel, Pollando and Avalon’s oldest daughter. See you soon or not.