What’s Ashley Reading?: We Used To Live Here

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

First line: Description: Real estate listing for 3709 Heritage Lane-transcribed from the no longer operational www.seeking-home.net

Summary: Eve and Charlie cannot believe their luck when they purchase a large older home in the woods for a bargain. Everything is going smoothly as they start settling in until one day when a man with his family arrives on the porch telling Eve that the he used to live there. Rather than tell the family no, Eve invites them in to allow the man to show his family his childhood home. However, the short tour sets off a series of events that leave Eve questioning her every thought and memory.

My Thoughts: This book was recommended to me by someone who knows loves a spine-tingling story and it did not disappoint. From the very beginning, before much even happens, there is the feeling of something ominous in the lurking. Every interaction is more and more tense. This book proves that you don’t need gore or monsters to create horror.

In alternating chapters there are snippets of evidence from an investigation by an unknown character. It appears they are looking into strange happenings that may all be linked together. Each of these gives you a deeper sense of the strangeness that is taking over the house and the occupants.

As the main character, Eve continues to stay in the house things become stranger and stranger until everything comes crashing down. At the end of this book you may start to question if you understood what happened. I remember putting it down and just thinking for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts and try to put everything into place. But even now and after talking about this book with others, I still don’t know if or when things happened. Be prepared to be confused but completely taken in by this story.

I cannot wait to see what the author writes next!

FYI: Violence, language and scary scenes.

What’s Ashley Reading?: The Hitchcock Hotel

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

First line: The crow waits until the guilty one disappears; then he flies down the hallway.

Summary: Alfred Smettle has opened a themed hotel centered around his idol, Alfred Hitchcock and his works. On the first anniversary of the hotel’s opening he has invited his former college film club friends to enjoy his masterpiece. Having not spoken to his friends since the incident sixteen years ago, they are all surprised by his interest in them after all these years. Upon arriving they feel that something is off about the place and their host. Why are they here and what does Alfred really want from them?

My Thoughts: The cover is what drew me in at the start. It evokes some of Hitchcock’s most famous movies. I have watched several of Hitchcock’s films including Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo and enjoyed each one. They are masterpieces of the suspense genre. When reading Wrobel’s novel she includes lots of trivia about the director and his works. I have added several more titles to my watch list since reading this.

From the very beginning I could easily envision the Hitchcock Hotel. It would definitely require a certain type of clientele to stay there. As each character is introduced we learn that they are all hiding something from their past that could affect this little reunion. But unbeknownst to the guests, Alfred is planning something special for the weekend. As a reader you can feel the tensions between the friends. I could tell that the author was trying to do what Hitchcock did with his films. She layered the suspense and tensions while building the story. We know what’s coming (sort of) but the characters do not.

At the beginning it was a little slow but then as secrets are revealed and the final twist is introduced it is easy to forgive this. I did not even suspect how it was going to change at the end and really found it well done. This was a perfect read for the start of October!

Last, Current, Next: Jessie’s October Reading Shelf

Last Read :: “Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xóchitl González 

Format: Audiobook via Libby 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery 

Told from a split point-of-view from 1985 and 1998, Anita de Monte Laughs Last explores the desire to fit in a world that you don’t belong in with poetic writing that matches the art described. I will say, I feel that I would have enjoyed this more had I read a physical book instead of an audio, as the audio made it confusing to keep track of the split timeline. I took a lot into consideration while reading this, particularly the difficulties that minorities faced in both time periods that Gonzalez wrote with passion.  

Current Read :: “Daydream” by Hannah Grace 

Format: Physical 

Genre: Romance, Sports Romance, New Adult 

Daydream is the third and final installment in the Maple Hills series that follows a group of friends that play college hockey and their love interests. I have loved the Maple Hills series due to the large cast of characters and the witty banter between them. It feels like I’m a part of their friend group. Daydream is focused on Henry, the captain of the hockey team and Halle, the family chaos coordinator and aspiring author. So far, this book has kept me engaged and has showed great examples of mental health and neurodivergent characters in college while “figuring it out”.  

Next Read :: “She Gets the Girl” by Rachael Lippincott 

Format: Physical 

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBTQ 

My next read is the October book pick for the Wine and YA book club. My first experience with Lippincott’s work was Five Feet Apart which I absolutely loved. I loved how realistic the characters were written and I’m looking forward to see how character driven She Gets the Girl is in comparison. She Gets the Girl is said to be an enemies-to-lovers, dual point-of-view, with lots of banter written by Lippincott and her wife. Online reviews are likening this read to a teenage rom-com movie with a 90’s vibe, but with LGBTQ representation. 

What books are on your Last, Current, Next?

What’s Ashley Reading?: Buried Deep and Other Stories

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

First line: My house growing up was full of words; my mother read widely.

Summary: In this collection of thirteen stories, acclaimed fantasy author Naomi Novik, brings in several of her previously published short stories as well as two new ones. These stories range from historical to science fiction with appearances by Elizabeth Bennett and dragons. As well as revisiting some of her past works she introduces us to the new world which will be the setting of her upcoming fantasy novel.

My Thoughts: I really enjoy the work of Naomi Novik. She writes some outstanding fantasy novels with beautiful world building. My first look was in Uprooted and most recently with the Scholomance trilogy.

There were several stories in here which I really enjoyed and some that I skipped. I loved revisiting the world of the Scholomance after the events of the trilogy to see what life was like for the new students. I haven’t read her dragon series but I will definitely add it to my list after reading the dragon stories in this collection. I really enjoyed the short story that inspired her book, Spinning Silver. I think it was better as a short story than a full length novel. The one I skipped early on had a strong science fiction theme to it which did not hold my attention but there are many more stories to choose from making it easy to pass on the one.

This would be a good introduction to anyone who hasn’t read Novik’s work yet or someone who wants to expand on her work as well.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Lucy Undying

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White

First line: It starts the moment you look out the window.

Summary: Lucy Westenra was just a minor character in the story of Dracula. Or at least that is what everyone thought. Since she was changed into a vampire she has spent the years searching for meaning in her eternal life. From the battlefields of Europe to the streets of modern day London it appears that nothing will give her peace and the love she has long been looking for.

Iris is trying to escape her family legacy and the dark secrets of her past. In a bid to hide, she runs away to London in order to sell any family heirlooms worth anything for quick cash. However, she did not intend to meet the stunning and brilliant Elle, a local historian who gives Iris hope that there are good people still in the world.

As the women navigate the threats to Iris they discover that they have much more in common, including a mutual enemy. They create a plan to try and bring down the dark powers that are slowly spreading across the world in a daring chance to find their own happiness in the end.

My Thoughts: Dracula is my favorite of the classic gothic novels. I have read or watched many depictions or spinoffs from the original tale, so when I saw a book centering on Lucy I knew I needed to read it.

In White’s new take on the Dracula story we get a Lucy who is desperately in love with Mina and lures Dracula to her in order to save a woman who will never love her back. This is an interesting twist that continues to drive the story along. Lucy, through her remembrances and journal entries, shows us how she really felt about the men around her during her final days. And since reading this I will see these characters just a little differently.

The story does bounce around a LOT. Chapters alternate between Human Lucy, Vampire Lucy and Iris giving us all sorts of perspectives. It started out very confusing but as I got used to the layout I became more comfortable with it.

There were times while reading where it seemed the story had reached a natural end but then it continued on with a new revelation or event that pushed the narrative into new territories. At points it felt like the story was being dragged out and ran rather slow. I did enjoy the end when everything picks up and big reveals are made. It was a fun take on a classic story that many people are familiar with.

If you love Dracula retellings then this is the book for you as spooky season is upon us!

Meet Miranda, our new Youth Services Assistant!

This blog post was written by Miranda Lanier, our new Youth Services Assistant.

Meet Miranda Lanier!

Hi there! My name is Miranda and I’m the new Youth Services Library Assistant here at Derby Public Library. I will be helping out behind the desk in the Youth Services Department and with the Adventures in the Library program for K – 2nd Graders on Thursdays at 4 p.m.

I’m currently working on my Masters of Library Science at Emporia State and am thrilled to be learning so much through their program. I grew up in Douglass, KS and live in Rose Hill with my husband and two boys who are eight and three. When I’m not doing all the mom things or studying, I enjoy reading, going on walks, or making the occasional wreath.

Right now, audio books are my go-to because they are hands free! I can listen as I drive or do housework, and it’s the only way I can read a good novel. If you haven’t looked into the Libby app I highly recommend it! Currently, I’m listening to Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle.

Some of my favorite classic children’s books to read aloud include:

Some of my favorite children’s books written in more recent years include:

  • What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yamada. This delightfully animated story encourages young children to not give up on their ideas, but to let them grow. A wonderful book for nurturing the ideas of the young and young at heart.
  • The Moonlight Zoo by Maudie Powell-Tuck. This magical story will tug at heartstrings with the message of love for lost animal friends. But don’t worry, this tale has a happy ending! Every page has beautiful illustrations and fun cut- outs.
  • Beaky Barnes: Egg on the Loose by David Ezra Stein. This graphic novel is a favorite of my eight year old. A wonderfully weird story about humanized and human sized animals on a chaotic chicken run and is filled with age-appropriate slapstick comedy. It will have your child reading and laughing from cover to cover!
  • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. This book is only recommended for young adults. Written entirely in free verse, it tells the story of a teenage boy who seeks revenge for his older brother’s murder. He has a critical decision to make all within an elevator ride to the first floor. This is a great pick for the reluctant reader.

I’ll wrap up my introduction with a quote I came across recently that meant something to me, and I hope it does to you too.

“Whenever you read a book or tell a story to your kids, read it with enthusiasm and all the voices. It’s a gift that they will grow up and pass on to their own children. And in your own little way, you will have made the world a better place.” -Unknown

I am so excited to be at Derby Public Library, and I can’t wait to meet you and your child!

Miranda and her family meet Santa!

What’s Ashley Reading?: What Have You Done

What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena

First line: Early Friday morning, Roy Ressler drives his big tractor down the gravel road that borders his fields, his mind on his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

Summary: Fairhill, Vermont is a quiet little town where nothing ever happens until one morning when a local teenager is found dead in a field. Diana Brewer is the girl next door, pretty and popular. So when she turns up dead the town is shocked. How can this have happened here and who did it? As the police look for the murderer the townspeople realize that even quiet towns can have their dark secrets.

My Thoughts: I started out really enjoying this. The plot was moving fast and the suspect list was growing. It seemed like there was going to be lots of twists and reveals, which there was but I felt a little let down at the end. It almost seemed to come to an abrupt halt. And the final reveal just did not feel shocking. It is not that I was expecting it but it didn’t hit me like some of Lapena’s other books. There are unreliable narrators, multiple POVs and even chapters featuring the Diana’s ghost. I just didn’t feel as excited at the end of the story as I was at the beginning.

Writing Challenge Winner: Iason Whitlock and the North Star by Aine Strange

Aine Strange is fourteen-year old writer who participated in and completed the summer 2024 Hero’s Journey Writing Challenge. Aine’s short story tells of celestial characters and great adventures.

Read Aine’s short story below!

Iason

“Anyone can be a hero.” My English teacher said as he handed me a massive pile of paper and a pen.

“Choose a hero, write about them, and give them five trials. Most importantly, be original. I know you can do that Iason. Oh, and I don’t want to see you in my office again. This is the third time this week.”

“Mr. Martin, I didn’t do it. I was Josh Hanford and Johnny Hess. You don’t understand. They made me do it!” I attempted to explain.

“Enough. I know what you think happened. You never refrain from sharing your point of view. Evidence shows that you are suspect, and the evidence is better than you think.” Mr Martin responded.

Right, I thought, two jerks push you into a locker and leave you there with a school laptop, and then you’re in trouble. To stop myself from saying anything else that would get me into trouble, I grabbed the papers and left.

The next class was history class, my favorite (for real!). My teacher, Mr. Wilson was great. He did examples, and let us play with irreplaceable historical artifacts. Plus, when he played the educational films, he let me sleep through them.

After school, I went to meet up with my best friend, Tracer Orion. He’s this introvert who always wears this silly black blazer to school. He claims the ladies “dig it”. He told me that Josh and Johnny were planning something extra for tomorrow. I just nodded. When are they not?

We walked to my house to play the new God of War game, and when we walked in, we could hear the melodious sound of my Mom singing in the kitchen.

“Hey, boys! How was school today?” She asked as she ruf fled my honey-colored hair. I grinned at her. She is one of those sweet people who could make you happy, even after being pulverized by Josh. I went on to tell her how school was, leaving out the part about how my English teacher was a mega-jerk and Josh had almost killed me.

She smiled, patted me on the shoulder and went back to making dinner. As we left she stopped Tracer and asked him if he was staying for dinner. (Tracer has a rough home life. His mom left him with his dad years ago, and they don’t get along too well. Tracer stays at our house a lot.)

“Sure, I mean, if it’s okay with you.” Tracer said.

“Of course, that’s why I asked, Hon.” My mom continued making a pot of chili and started singing about cornbread. We decided it was a good time to leave, so we headed to my room and played God of War for the rest of the night.

Ione

I sat on a swing in the middle of the day and watched the stars dance across the sky. Had it been actual night, I would have loved to watch the stars, but that just wasn’t the case.

My name is Ione Beckett. I can’t even remember how old I am. Since I was a kid, I used to love watching the stars with my Dad, until I couldn’t anymore. When I was fifteen, I was taken by these men called the Spites. They are evil spirits who wait for someone to be happy, when you cross them, they use the thing you love to drive you mad. For me, that was the stars.

The Spites take that thing you love and make it your life. They use it until you don’t love it anymore. My case is extra spiteful though. Every time someone dies, they become a star, and every time there’s a new star another year gets added to my life. You may be thinking oh, that’s cool, you’re immortal! It is not cool. If some shady guy ever walks up to you and says what’s your favorite thing? Walk away…. No, run!

I was talking to Sagittarius the centaur ( and constellation), and he told me to look for a boy named Iason Whitlock, the healer of the world, who is being taunted by the Spites. Sagittarius made me a path and walked that way to warn him and bring him to safety.

Tracer

I woke up before Iason and walked out to the bathroom, but on the way I heard something weird. I saw a man taking Mrs. Whitlock out of the second story window. His face was changing as he turned and faced me. He started to lunge at me, and then I realized it was a dream or a vision. I woke up with a start.

“You alright, Dude?” Iason said as he       fluffed his curly hair.

“We need to leave now! Where’s your mom?” I said quickly, as my heart was about to beat out of my chest.

“What do you mean, we have to leave? School doesn’t start for another hour!” Iason asked.

“No time to explain! We need to get to your Mom now, before they come and take her!” I realized I’d said too much. He started to panic.

I ran over to Mrs. Whitlock’s room and banged on the door. It creaked open, and I could see the bad guys from my dream were already climbing out the window with her!

“The keys are on the table!”, she yelled to me. “Get Iason out of here. The truth will unfold itself in time; just run!” I could tell she meant it, because her tone was more serious than I’d ever heard her. I ran to get Iason, and he was right behind me and ready to go. He was scared and fighting back tears. He would drive because he had a permit. We got in the car and peeled out of the neighborhood.

We drove in silence, but I wanted to tell him that one of the faces I had seen was Josh’s.

Ione

I had been walking, following the stars along country roads for miles without seeing a single living thing or any cars. I saw some hazy headlights coming over the hill. The stars suddenly stopped the path they had been showing me, so I stood staring at the sky in confusion. The last thing I remember was getting hit, and falling against gravel.

When I woke up, two boys were looking down at me and one of them said:

“Is she dead?”

I blinked and looked up at them, confused at how young they looked. One of them said:

“What if she’s one of them?”

“One of who?” I asked, rubbing my throbbing head. They gasped in shock that I was still alive.

“These, like shape-shifting dudes that suck the happy out of you.” The dark-haired boy answered.

“Dude, shut up!” The blonde boy said.

“What is shut up?” I said in confusion at their strange way of speaking.

“She’s definitely not one of them. That was Josh’s favorite thing to say.” The dark-haired said.

“What are you talking about? It was just like a ghost!” The blonde boy said.

“Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you that Josh was the spirit dude the whole time!”

“What?!” The blonde boy and I said at the same time as I did.

“It was him?” The blonde boy asked in shock. His question would have to wait. I had to get them to safety. I tried to stand but crumpled to the ground. They looked back and agreed I “couldn’t be one”. The boys helped me to the car, and I told them everything. The weirdest part was, they didn’t question any of it. They acted like they expected it.

I asked the boys if either one of them was named Iason. The blonde boy’s eyebrows shot up.

“How did you know?” He asked in a fearful tone.

“There is so much I need to tell you.” I replied.

Iason

When we hit Ione I don’t know how, but she survived. The back of my mind was filled with weird medical stuff about what should’ve happened but I don’t know why. It was not only that, it was as if I could sense the whole world’s pain.

Ione noticed me drifting away to my thoughts and asked if I was all right.

“Yeah! Oh yeah, I’m fine. I just still have so many questions. I mean, this is sorta weird.” I said, half paying attention to her, half paying attention to the ongoing road.

“Iason, there is something…The stars, well, Sagittarius to be exact, sent me because he thought you were special; that you could fix the broken world. ‘Iason’ means healer. The Spites must have cursed you at some point. They must have been following you around your whole life, monitoring you. We aren’t the only ones who know you are special.” She said shakily.

“So, these guys you told me about, the Spites, have disguised themselves and followed me around my whole life in different disguises. They gave me powers, and you talk to stars and see the future. You expect me to believe this is normal and that a nerdy freshmen in high school can save the world. I may as well run the car into a ditch and save the whole world now, because it’d be better off that way. I am not a hero!” I said, fuming with rage and confusion.

“Go ahead and turn into the ditch.”she said calmly.

“What?” I questioned, now even angrier than before.

“The village is straight ahead if you turn right about now; go ahead.” She said, still calm, even after my mental breakdown.

Reluctantly, I turned and drove through a grove of birch trees to a small cave that couldn’t possibly be a village.

About a hundred feet away Ione said “Leave the car. They will be furious if I bring a fossil fuels car into the village. We hate pollution.”

“Well, at least there won’t be a Fossil Fuels Man.” Tracer said, after hours of silence. Humor was his way of hiding his fear.

Ione, however, ignored him and we walked into the cave. She felt the wall until she heard a little click then the ground below us disappeared. We fell for what seemed like forever, then we hit the ground. Instead of hitting rock, we bounced up as if we were on a trampoline. I felt the ground afterwards and it was still rock. Ione impatiently looked at me as if I shouldn’t be confused by this and she led us onward.

The further we walked the more breathtaking everything got. There were flowers that had a sort of glow to them, vines from the ceiling and moss that sort of made pictures on the walls. I was awestruck by the amazing scenery, but I couldn’t stay to look at it. The world needed me, so I kept walking. I had a feeling I’d be back later anyway.

We walked up to some giant gates surrounded by guards. Ione went up and talked to one of them. Without hesitating, they let us in, and as I walked through they trembled.

When we got through the gates people were waiting for Ione to arrive back from her quest. I figured she must be pretty important. All the people looked different, just like her, and they all had some kind of ability. One girl was talking to animals and another guy had plants sprouting from his hands.

A guy who seemed to be changing colors walked up to her with a clipboard in his hands and starting bombarding her with questions and requests from the village. She just waved her hand and said “Later, Gus. There’s more important things to do.” and she kept walking. Gus decided to follow anyway.

He looked at me,turned bright yellow and started smiling, I smiled back, even though it was weird. I pretended I didn’t see him staring. Ione led us into what looked like a throne room and sat down in a big chair.

“Welcome to the underground, the hidden village for victims of the Spites, Iason Whitlock and Tracer Orion. I am the queen, Ione Beckett, and I will appoint your quest, should you choose to accept it.” She said, regally.

Tracer laughed and said “What is this, ‘Mission Impossible’?”

“Silence! I am a queen. You are a cursed-child.” She snapped.

“No, I am not. Sorry to disappoint you, your Majesty”. Tracer said, refraining from a laugh.

“Yes, you are. You never thought about it. Your curse is to make others happy, but never yourself. You must go with Iason to keep him mentally strong throughout the quest. He will face many challenges, and he will always need you. Do not go your separate ways. Ever. Understand?” She stated firmly.

“Yes, your Majesty.” He said, now very serious.

“Now, Iason Whitlock, you will be appointed the task of finding the king of the Spites, stealing his crown, and bringing down his kingdom. Return the crown to me; the rightful owner.” She said, sounding full of spite herself.

“Right. Sounds good. When do we leave?” I said, trying to sound calm.

She summoned Gus, and he placed some backpacks on our backs, then she stepped forward and told us to hold hands.

“Eww….. gross!” we said at the same time.

She sighed in frustration, grabbed our hands, and put them together. Then, she placed two of her fingers from each hand on my temples. I heard her voice in my head saying:

“I am your guide; your North Star. Hold on tight.”

Then the last thing I heard was Tracer singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ before everything went bright. My stomach was tickling from the inside, and my body felt like it was folding itself backwards and inside-out.

Iason

“Iason, get up. You gotta see this, Dude.” Tracer said, shaking me.

I groaned as I got up, stumbling a few times. This place was weird. The air smelled like a stuffy basement, everything was hazy and dead, and had a gray hue to it.

Tracer walked on (which was surprisingly brave for him). We walked until we ran into a weird creature that looked like a bear and a chicken had a baby. It was walking in circles, screaming. Tracer and I stopped in our tracks and Ione’s voice filled my head

That is a Dolt. They are much like you and your friend. Brave, but stupid. As you may see, they are right outside the gate. Look in you bag and defeat them with yours wits. This is only one of many daunting tasks.”

Then her voice faded. Wits. I thought to myself. Of course it had to be wits. Just when I thought it would be something fun, like using a sword or a bow!

I unzipped the backpack and started digging around. I grabbed a spool of parachute string and a slice of watermelon that had a hole in its rind. Next, I grabbed a sharp rock and cut off a short amount of string, threading it through the melon for bait. Then, I saw two dead trees and tied string to each and stretched it between them, making the perfect bear-chicken trap. I totally felt like MacGyver right now! I handed Tracer the melon string and he walked to the opposite of the side the Dolt and held it up the watermelon. I grabbed a nearby rock and waited.

As the Dolt ran forward and tripped on the string, I came down on its head with the large rock, knocking the Dolt unconscious. Tracer and I marched on after giving each other a quick high five.

When we got inside the palace there was a large pool of lava (the only bright thing in the room) and there were wolves pacing around it. I reached into my bag and pulled out a large javelin; then I charged at the wolves, killing all but one. This lone wolf was now on top of Tracer ripping at him with its fangs. I ran over and stabbed the wolf as quickly as I could, throwing it off of my friend and inspecting the damage it had done.

I ripped up my flannel shirt, then searched in my bag for anything of use. I grabbed a thermos and poured water over Tracer’s wounds. Then I tied the pieces

of my flannel over the worst of his wounds. He winced when I helped him up but we both knew we had to keep going. Inside, I wanted to give up. We were high schoolers, not heroes.

We followed a line of stars along the ceiling into a domed room filled with wandering spirits. The only one who could see us was a small girl. She floated over and asked if she could come with us. She explained she could only leave the room if escorted by the living. We saw no harm, and invited her along; she may know the palace better than us, after all.

We talked to her and heard her story of the misfortune of how she had died and ended up there. She said the Spites cursed her and she joined their forces but betrayed them. The Spites immediately had her killed for treason and sent to their eternal prison.

I wanted to help her, really, but something was off. It was something in her tone. When we left the room she took a living form. I could usually sense people’s presence, but I couldn’t sense hers.

We walked into a room with a large strangely-placed arena. She said

“This is your stop, you stupid boys!” as she shoved us over the railing and quickly changed forms. She now appeared with a changing face, like Josh’s, but she was different: she wore a crown.

Why hadn’t Ione warned me? She said there were traps, that was kind of a warning, but she should’ve been like:

“Hey dummy, this quest could kill you guys!”

I hardly had time to react, however, because a gate on the side of the arena opened and a white lion came charging at us, baring its teeth. I looked around at my surroundings quickly and saw a chariot and helmets; there was also a javelin much like the one I had used earlier.

I realized it was like a Roman arena. This was what they did to the Greeks for entertainment. I told Tracer to follow me and we ran to the chariot. There was only one brown horse hitched to the chariot, but I led him forward. We were now circling the white lion in the chariot. Funny thing was, he had a collar on that said “Snowball!”

Tracer and I had put on our feathered helmets and I had given him the javelin. He was holding up surprisingly well for someone in his state, but I knew I still had to get him out of there.

I had an idea to bring Snowball down. Poking something as big as him would only make him angry, so I asked Tracer to cut the reigns off of the horse and the chariot. He looked puzzled but complied. When we came to a halt, I asked Tracer

to distract Snowball. I came up behind the lion with the reigns from the chariot and began to choke him. Snowball tried to shake me, but I was persistent. I held on until the giant creature hit the ground with a big thud.

I turned toward the horse, who apparently hadn’t realized the gate was open. I whistled to get the horse headed toward us. It trotted over and Tracer and I leapt up onto its back and raced out of the gate. We had survived this challenge, but I realized I had failed the most important one: retrieving the crown! Ione would probably be furious and disappointed. I was feeling the same way. I felt like giving up.

Tracer

I was sitting on the back of the horse we had named “Hope” when Iason collapsed and the horse started going from side to side. I seized the horse by his hair and rode to a nearby palace wall to set Iason down.

I set Iason down on the ground and noticed his eyes were glowing a bright gold. Then he started speaking in Ione’s voice, which was super weird, but not was weird as what he was saying.

“Tracer, the bag on your friend’s back has the required contents to defeat the king. You do not know what this means now, but read the names. I was not ignoring you while you were in need. The king dulls my powers. You are not forgotten. I have a gift for Iason, but the second gift is for you and you alone. Remove your bandages; you should be completely healed. Do not give up hope. You and your friend are true heroes. You must rest for tonight; the battle will be in the morning. Your future is bright; I see it in the stars.”

Then her voice was gone. I looked down at my wounds that were not yet healed. Then something weird happened: my skin started to glow and I removed the bandages to reveal healed skin. Awesome!

I looked over at Iason and saw his eyes weren’t glowing anymore but he was asleep. I tried to wake him and I called his name several times.

He woke up with a start. “What happened?”

“You got golden eyes, Ione spoke through you, and then you blacked out. It was super weird, but you’re back; that’s all that matters. Oh, and Ione sent you a gift. It’s in my bag.” I pulled out a bagged gift.

Iason unwrapped it, revealing a photo album full of pictures of happy people.

Each photo had a name next to it.

“Iason, Ione gave me a plan to read the names in your album to the king. Hope weakens him, that’s why she didn’t help us earlier. He blocked her. She healed me when you were asleep. When she spoke through you, she said tomorrow we will fight the king in the arena. It’s a little bit hard to keep track of time in the palace since there’s no light, but I’ll see if I can find a window or something, so that we can tell when morning comes. Until then, you need to get some sleep.”

Iason

I watched Tracer walk away and I laid on the ground to attempt to get some rest, which proved to be easier than I thought. My eyes became heavier and heavier until I was in a deep sleep. Then a feeling of warmth overtook me as a dream began to form.

I was walking next someone who I didn’t recognize at first, then I realized it was my mom. We were walking on a beach in California. She turned and looked at me and ruffled my blond messy hair.

You are my favorite person in the whole world, you know that, Iason? When I look at you it’s like all the pain of the past seems to melt away.”

I remembered this moment now. It was two years ago; we were on a trip to see my grandfather shortly before he passed away. We were discussing how he lived every day of his life looking for the highlights and shutting out the dark moments.

You remind me so much of him, you know that? When I was your age I lived with him and even though there was some rough stuff. We went through, it was as though just his smile could heal the pain. The world needs more people like that.” She said it softly, but I could tell she really meant it

But, Mom you are like that.” I said, as the cool wind hit my face. The memory was so sweet and so vivid it was as if the whole thing was happening all over again, the exact same way, and I didn’t want to change it.

Honey, I try, but it isn’t so easy for me. You naturally strive to help people. You are like a ray of sunshine in a big dark world. You are a hero, and I’m so proud to have you in my life.” She said that as she pulled me in for a hug. Then the dream changed from a memory to a vision.

My mom was sitting in a cage, in what looked like a dungeon. I remembered she had been captured by the Spites. I had been so overwhelmed by all of these tests and trials that I had forgotten all about her! I felt awful.

I tried to yell her name, but she seemed to be knocked-out or too weak to respond. I called to her “It’s me, Iason, Mom! I’m coming to get you. Don’t worry.

To my surprise, she looked up and said “I believe in you. I always have.”

My dream changed again to Ione. This time she said:

Get up hero; it is time to fight. Your friend is waiting on you with the horse. Remember: fight the king, not with hatred but love, he needs to be rescued just as much as your Mother does. The crown holds him captive because of his false motives. Once you take the crown away from him, the king can rest eternally, like he was meant to do many years ago.”

I woke up, stretched, and grabbed my bag. I walked over to Tracer, who, sure enough, had gotten ‘Hope the horse’ ready. We both jumped onto Hope’s back and rode to the arena.

When we arrived, the King of the Spites was already waiting, and he did not look like he was going to let it be an easy win.

Iason

We sat there awkwardly on Hope for a while until the king decided it was a good time to make introductions.

“I am the ruler of the Spites. My name is Malice, and you dared to return here after your victory. Explain yourselves and state your names, young heroes.”

“We are Tracer Orion and Iason Whitlock, and we did not leave victorious last time. We have returned for my mother and Ione Beckett’s crown.” I snapped at the pretentious king.

“You must be joking, Jason Wilson, since you are only a child and I am eons old. I live for suffering and will see you die of it.” He yelled. His eyes stopped changing and turned into a blinding purple fire, which I assumed was his true form.

“Wow, you are really great with names.” I said sarcastically. “How about I see if you can remember some of these?”

I looked over at Tracer, who had told me the plan. I would read the names from my photo album, and he would run up behind the king and steal his crown. Our confidence would literally crush him.

The king snickered and said “I have many names, so your stupid tricks do not scare me, boy.”

“We’ll see about that, you arrogant jerk! Do you remember Alice Crown? How about Duncan Ward, or maybe Caroline Stevens?”

The king was starting to buckle at the knees which was a good sign, but the fight wasn’t over yet so I had to keep going.

“Herold Miller, Margo Turner, Cathy Heath, Robert Crawford, Martin and Kira Hallows? All these people look so happy. The Hallows got married, and six years later had a son and a family puppy. How sweet. And Molly Adams… remember her? She met her father for the first time at the age of three because he had been deployed in the military. Patrick Strauss died last week of cancer at the age of ten, but met his hero through a locally funded project before he died; that’s so sweet.” The king was on the ground now, writhing in pain. Saying the names was powerful, but the stories the people were even better, and I was about to end this.

“How did you do that?” he wheezed from the ground, grabbing his sides.

“Easy. I used my gift. Since you remembered my name, maybe you’ll remember what my gift is.”

“I never gave gifts, I don’t know what you are talking about.” He moaned.

“My Name is Iason Whittlock, and you gave me the gift of healing. Trust me, I will never get tired of helping people, but no one will help you.”

Tracer reached to the the king’s head and snatched the crown. As soon as Tracer did this the king started withering and hyper-aging. The king’s face kept changing until it stopped on one that looked like an extra-ugly mummy.

“We have to go get your mom.” Tracer said as he wiped sweat off the bridge of his nose.

We asked Ione to lead us to my Mom. Ione showed us the way with the stars, but she said nothing to me in my head, which I figured meant she was either shocked or overjoyed by our success.

We followed the star trail on the ceiling, riding on horseback. We arrived at a double door with guards. When the guards saw Tracer carrying the crown, they ran away. We opened the doors and ran down a winding set of stairs. There I saw my mom in a cell, just like in my dream.

I ran over to her cell and reached into my bag for something to help. I guess Ione was feeling generous, because I pulled out an actual key, and simply unlocked the cell.

My mom was in the corner of the cell, and didn’t even notice we were there. I quickly ran over and shook her. She grabbed my hand and said “I knew you would save me.”

I carried my Mom over to Hope and I felt the same feeling I felt on the way there: a tingle in my gut. Suddenly, we were back at the village. Thankfully, Hope was with us, since I was touching her, but I had no idea Ione could teleport us without touch.

When we arrived, Ione ran to us and waited for us to get off of Hope, then she tackled us in a hug, football-player-style. She patted Hope on the nose and said “A fossil-fuel-free way of transport; yet another thing you two have done to impress me.”

Ione then gratefully received her crown and placed it on her head. She pulled out her sword, and for a second I thought she was gonna go rogue. Then I remembered as a part of our deal, she would make us knights in her kingdom.

Ione then went on to say, “I wish I could throw a feast for you two, but my powers and everyone else’s will be gone at midnight, so I will have to send you home soon.”

“Wait! Can we bring Hope back with us for my English paper presentation?” I said stupidly.

“There is no life for a horse in the city, but you may use him for your presentation, then you will have an excuse to return. Sure, it will be different, because we will be but a normal village, but you know where to find us. Oh, and one more thing, you don’t have to lose your power. Healing people is something anyone can do, but it seems to be your passion, so nothing stands in your way.”

Then Ione walked over to us and placed our hands together. The weird tingling feeling returned and we were home.

A week later, I was proudly riding to school (yep, riding!) to school on Hope with the finished paper I had written about our adventure. I rode right into the school on Hope’s back, and many heads turned at the sight of me. I couldn’t blame the kids for staring. I was gorgeous! It was surely not the horse they were staring at.

I was beaming with confidence as I entered the class, and great news: I was only half an hour late! My English teacher sighed and said,

“Hello, Iason. I hope you have a good reason for missing so many of my classes.”

“Uh….I brought a story….do you guys wanna hear it?” I replied stupidly.

The whole class prompted me on.

I began reading to the class about my adventures, and they all seemed to think it was a pretty stupid story. The class laughed at me and left the room. The teacher looked up at me and said,

“That is the worst story I have ever heard, and you brought a horse into my classroom. That has to be a B minus at best. And to think, I put so much faith in you.”

“Hey! Couldn’t you make it an A? You said anyone could be a hero.”

He snatched my paper, grabbed a red pen and wrote a big C minus on the top of it. I didn’t care; I had a feast to go to tonight.

Oh, and don’t listen to him, because anyone can be a hero.

The End

Writing Challenge Winner: West to Nowhere, East to Adventure by Layla Mendoza

Layla Mendoza is a thirteen-year old writer who participated and completed the summer 2024 Hero’s Journey Writing Challenge. Layla’s short story” West to Nowhere, East to Adventure” is a continuation of Layla’s story from last summer’s Teen Writing Challenge which can be found here. This short story follows the unlikely hero, Jane, as she discovers the secrets of a changed world.

Read Layla’s amazing short story below:

1.Night of Flame

Jane

The sky was coming alive with tendrils of smoke and flame, the houses creaking and protesting as fiery orange and red waves ate them up. Shouts and screams echoed around our small town, cries and crackling weaving together to make some awful, grotesque symphony. 

The hungry sound of guards and their mounts could be heard even amongst all of the chaos. But I wasn’t listening to any of it. I paid no heed to the little shack that stood in front of me alive with flames;the place I had once called home.

Instead, I stood in front of it all,  soot raining down on me, my attention on my brother.  He had just shoved a small, brass cylinder and compass into my hands.

“This map can change everything.” 

 My brother’s fingers were covered in soot; eyes puffy and red. Eyes that were full of panic. He glanced around us at the small town now burning in flame. A woman screamed. A man shouted.

“What do you mean?” I asked quickly, as panicked as he was. My heart was thumping at an unbelievable pace against my chest, making it all tight and achy. Soot clung to my fingers and hair, and smoke burned my eyes.
“I can’t tell you here. Not now. But if you just follow that compass, you should be fine. You’ll figure it out.” 

“Figure what out, Caden? What?” He took his eyes off of the burning buildings now, looking me straight in the face. 

“Something that could free us all.” I wanted to ask more. Ask “What do you mean?” But he was already gone, bare feet pounding across the debris littered ground. I looked down at the small brass cylinder in my hand. Caden had pushed it roughly into my hands as we had left our house, teardrops of burning debris falling all around us. Just before he had told me that what was inside was a map, he had told me, “When I leave you, you have to run. Understand, Jane?” I nodded, though inside I was quite confused. 

But now that he had left, I stood rooted to the spot, looking all around me. The town in which we had lived in-us humans, I mean-had been woken up in the middle of the night to loud shouts. Slowly, the town began to realize that some of King Bringleclaw’s henchmen had stormed our little village, setting it ablaze and setting a couple of Gropers on the loose. (Gropers were quite nasty creatures that looked something like an alligator and a deranged slug. They were really, really poisonous). 

The henchmen had disappeared for now, though they had left the Gropers, which wasn’t at all helpful given the fact that the citizens were now working to put out the fires. With the Gropers on the loose, they had to keep their guards up. (And, occasionally, a Groper would come padding about and have to be stopped with a couple of Red Beetles, the only thing that stunned them besides magic).

Suddenly, a shout rang from behind me. The henchmen had come back. They had come back with reinforcements-A few trolls and some more goblins sitting astride on Enfields.

Seeing all of the reinforcements finally set me into action.

 I bolted for the nearest exit out of town: an old metal archway with the words “Welcome to Kuzlt”.
“We’ve got a runner!” I heard a gravelly shout from behind me, and didn’t dare look back. I heard the pounding of claws, heard the shouts of the goblins from behind me. But I kept running. On and on I ran down the worn dirt path that led to the nearest bridge connecting the Dragon Lands (where I lived) to the Fairies, until finally, I came to a stop, panting in front of a lake. Kneeling down, I reached my hands into the still blue water and started cleaning up my soot covered hands and face.

Once I was done, I took a blanket out of the satchel I had and dried off. Now water free, I sat down with my back against a nearby rock, thinking. Thinking of everything that had happened in only the past few hours. And then, I thought of the Map that Caden had given me. Sitting up straighter, I reached for my pack which I had taken off. Rummaging around in it, I finally found what I was looking for: the brass cylinder. Pulling the sleek object out, I looked at it carefully. I was certain that the map was inside, but couldn’t see how I was going to open it; yes, the cylinder had a keyhole.

 But the problem was, when Caden had given me the Map, he hadn’t given me a key. I turned the cylinder round in round in my hands, the shiny metal glinting in the rising sun. Tiny inscriptions were emblazoned on the sides, and a symbol that looked like a circle with a triangle in it sat in the center of the brass instrument. Inside of the triangle, the small keyhole lay, as if teasing me. Frustrated and unable to open it, I thrust the brass cylinder back into the bag, leaning back again. I thought back to what Caden had told me, hoping it might help me open the cylinder. “Follow the compass. . .” I wondered what that meant. I could picture the compass that was currently sitting in my bag; I had seen it before sitting in my brother’s room back at home.

 It was about the size of my palm, and a shiny silver. Etched into the front was some golden symbol, but I couldn’t quite place it right now. . . . I wondered what it was and thought half consciously before I drifted off that I should probably find a book on symbols soon. . . . 

-*-

The next thing I knew, I was blinking wearily in the morning sun. Only, it wasn’t morning. As I looked around, I could tell it was most likely around midday.  It took a second for me to figure out that I was not, in fact, in Kuzlt. I was. . . . hang on-where was I

I stood up, grabbing my satchel and closing it firmly as I did. Finally, it clicked. The fire, the map, the compass. No key. 

I looked around again. This time, I saw a shaded area on the far side of the lake, a log sitting just beneath the canopy of trees. Quickly, I began to trek around the lake and towards the log. I was just about there when a voice stopped me. 

“Jane.” I gulped, looking all around me. A laugh came from somewhere above me, yet somewhere beyond me as well. 

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” I demanded, still searching the nearby trees and brush for the source of the voice. Another laugh. 

“I? My real name is not for you to know. At least not now, but you may call me Ridge.” He didn’t answer my second question.

“Ridge? Oh-kay.” I said, a little wearily. “But what are you doing here? And how the heck do you know my name?” I repeated my earlier question, starting to feel a bit annoyed. 

“Now that,” The voice-Ridge-said, “is a long story. But for now, I need to tell you this.” A figure stepped out of the trees in front of me, and I took a step back. Ridge looked to be about my age, with short, dark brown hair and dancing blue eyes. His face lay expressionless as he stared straight at me.
“I have come to tell you that the map and compass you hold-” I instinctively clutched the strap of my satchel tighter, taking yet another step back. 

“Could change everything.”

“My brother’s already said that.” I replied, then quickly added, “But he only said that about the Map.” And then I narrowed my eyes. “But it doesn’t matter. How do you know about this all?” Ridge laughed, tossing his head back and causing something silver to glint at the base of his neck. But before I could get a better look, he moved his head to look back towards me. 

“I can’t answer that right now. But you have to trust me. You have to trust your brother. The two items that you are holding can be very dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands. But they can also be very, very powerful. Powerful enough to restore this world back to what it was before.” I didn’t need to ask what he meant by “before”. I already knew: when this place wasn’t under the rule of Bringleclaw. 

“How do I know I can trust you?” 

Ridge grinned.

“That’s exactly the thing. You don’t. You just have to trust your gut and hope it works.” 

Great. I thought. Exactly the answer I needed. Ridge had just shown up and started telling me about all these things that I had without even talking to me. I wasn’t exactly itching to say “Okay, bring me wherever I need to go!”, but somewhere in me, I was almost certain that trusting Ridge would get me to where I needed to be. 

“Fine.” I said, taking a step forward. “What do I need to do?” 

Ridge grinned even wider than he had before, holding out his arms wide on either side of him-

“I thought you would never ask.” 

2. The Void

Somewhere Unknown

Mae

It wasn’t exactly “dark” where we were. It was just a sort of place where light decided not to come quietly: small pinpricks let in gentle rays of sun, setting the space around us into some sort of shimmery blackness. All I knew was that it was cold and filled with rather unpleasant creatures. They slinked around the edges of our “cage”, I suppose it can be called, growling, snarling-narrowing thin, slanted eyes at us. Green and red glowing saliva dripped from their almost non-existent mouths. Me and the rest of our small unusual family huddled together nearest the largest gap in the black film above us. A few small sticks were gathered into a small clump, a small purple flame burning feebly and sending wispy gray smoke up, up, up. The smoke was what kept them away. The “things”. They stalked just out of reach, out of our small huddled clump. 

“How long till the next meal, do you think?” Therese inquired, looking around hopefully. I shook my head. 

“At least another half day, I think. They sent down that oatmeal only about a day ago. They won’t exactly be rushing to feed their most ‘valuable prisoners’, now will they?” I shook my head clenching my pale white hands into tight fists. The dim light of the fire created odd different shades of white and gray upon my hands-they looked like ghost hands. I shuddered, and wrapped my hands around myself, closing my eyes to this whole horrible place around me. We had arrived 10 years ago, and hadn’t seen the light of day since. The small slits in the ceiling hardly counted-they let in light the entire time and weren’t exactly the best view of light ever. I thought for the thousandth time of our adventures 10 years ago. They seemed almost like yesterday, yet as far away as eternity sounds. No matter how long we’d been in here, though, none of us had aged.

 All of us remained the same ages that we were upon that one fateful day long ago. . . . But none of it mattered now. Bringleclaw told us so. He had a plan. A plan to take Earth’s magic, too. A plan to “get rid of us once and for all”. So unless we could escape our blackened prison before then, it was pointless to worry about such little things like growing up-like when the next meal would arrive. After all, there was no magic left in this world, was there? There was no way somebody could take on Bringleclaw. . . . was there?

Carrier Field

            Jane

“Try again.” I glared down at the small, round piece of metal held in my palm, silently cursing it. I had been trying for about an hour now to “activate” the compass. Ridge had told me that if I activated the compass, it should guide me to where the Map key was. The only problem was, I wasn’t exactly the right person to activate a magical object. You actually had to have magic for magical activation to work. And seeing how Bringleclaw had taken all of the magic from the Kingdom, and I was a human. . . . .

Ridge, however, was not listening to any of my arguments. “There’s no way this is going to work, Ridge!” Ridge held up a hand.

“I know. But just listen to my theory for a moment, would you?”

 I sighed, looking down at the small compass in my hand, and finally gave in to Ridge. 

“Fine.” I sat down on the nearest large boulder, glistening with lines of silver and gold racing along its smooth surface. Ridge took his sweet time, walking slowly back and forth in front of me, hands behind his back. I gave him about a minute to bask in pleasure of baiting me again before bursting out, 

“JUST TALK ALREADY! YOU ARE ANNOYING ENOUGH WITHOUT ALL-” I gestured at him still pacing. “THIS!” 

Ridge just tipped back his head and laughed. Frowning, I began to fidget with the compass. Finally, though, Ridge began to talk.

“My theory is simply this-” Ridge stopped pacing and stood directly in front of me now, staring straight forward and not at me. 

“This world is sustained by nothing less than magic, correct? Well, if Bringleclaw really had taken all of the magic that is in this world we would have witnessed something I’m going to call World Collapse.

I shivered. “And what is that?” Ridge tilted his head down enough to look at me. 

“Exactly what it sounds like. If Bringleclaw had taken all the magic that had kept this world stable, we would have been smashed into another world by now. The magical barriers separating the different worlds would have been smashed. At least one of the walls would have been broken, I think.” I blinked at him. 

“So-so there really could be magic left here?” Ridge nodded. 

“Oh! I nearly forgot-how could I? If magic was truly gone, all of the magical creatures would be gone, too. Which means that I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you now. So, in conclusion, there is a very good reason to believe that there is magic.” Ridge finished off his speech with a sort of mocking bow in my general direction before walking slowly away, as if taunting me to ask more questions. I took the bait (I know-shame on me). 

“So there really is magic left? A decent amount, probably?” Ridge stopped his slow walk and turned towards me, grinning slyly. “Yup.” 

“Where do you suggest we go? I mean, if this place still has magic, some places are bound to have more than others, right?” Ridge’s grin widened. 

“Already a step ahead of you, my dear.” He then turned and began walking towards where the edge of this land was, not even caring to explain. 

“Ridge!” I yelled, exasperated. Quickly, I shoved the compass and all the other odds and ends that I had taken out back into my bag. Slinging the satchel over my shoulder, I hurried to catch up with Ridge. 

“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” I yelled as I came up next to him, panting. 

“Just be quiet, Jane, and look.” Ridge said, pointing out in front of us. At first, I was very, very confused because I thought he was pointing at the distant land of Dragons. But then I realized that he was pointing towards. . . . 

“The void?” 

Ridge nodded. 

“If you think about it, the void has most of the magical power here. Think of it this way-You have a bucket underneath a source of water. However, the bucket begins to overflow and the water falls onto the ground. Or, in this case, into another basin.” He turns to look at me now. “Make sense?” 

“So the void is just all the leftover magic from. . . . from before. The Black Pearl can’t really take all the magic from this world at all. This is proof.” But then I turned towards Ridge, something dawning on me. “But how are we supposed to use the magic in the void? We can’t exactly go down there. We don’t know what’ll happen!” Ridge turned to me and smiled.

“I know exactly the person to help us.” 

3.Keeper Jars 

Ridge

The place looked the same as all the other times I had come to visit: the same old, dusty wooden cabin that smelled like stale bread. The same jars hanging from the ceiling, clinking together gently in the wind coming in from the broken window by the front door. 

“This,” I said, turning to Jane with a flourish, “Is The Workshop.” 

Jane looked back at me with a very perplexed face. She seemed to do that a lot. “It doesn’t look like one.” I sighed. I didn’t exactly feel like explaining more than I already had, so I stayed silent. I quickly and silently led Jane through the whole mess of the front shop-past the boxes full of what I knew to be old rusted weapons, past the shelves stacked high with books from other worlds, past the door that led to the small guest room that I had only stayed in once before. 

“Gear?” I called into the room. “Gear?” 

“Ridge?” A tired female voice answered me. “Is that you?” 

“Yes! Where are you?” 

“In the back room, Ridge. Come on in.”  I quickly guided myself and Jane through the remaining mess of boxes, back behind the small wooden counter, and into a rather large back room. Inside the room it was dark, lit only by the light of a few candles dripping wax onto the floor from their rusted candelabras. In the middle of the room sat a woman I knew well-Gear. Her half metal arm glinted in the candle light, gray hair braided neatly. Long silver lines ran jagged around her neck, disappearing underneath her dark blue cloak. Her face was disoriented-covered in fat scars and more silver lines. 

“Ah.” Gear says, smiling as best she can with all the scars across her face. “Ridge. What brings you here in these troubled times I would think . . .” She trails off then, noticing Jane. 

“Who’s this?” She asks curiously. 

“This is Jane East. She’s the one I told you I needed to help-that’s why I left, remember?” But I know Gear won’t remember. She hasn’t been able to remember much since she was locked in the dungeons 9 years ago for rioting against the Castle. She hasn’t been able to do much since then, actually. 

Take one look at her metal arm and leg. Take one look at the silver weaved into her blood by one of the last magic-wielders. An elf who was working with The Agency-an elf who had betrayed them and had then proceeded to be thrown into the dungeons. No one had seen him since then. No one had seen the well-known Misfits, either. No one had seen anyone from the riots except Gear because Bringleclaw had found a “use” for her-making armor for his guards and fellow Agency members. 

I shake off the thoughts of the tales Gear has told me time and time again, coming back to the present in time to hear Jane say, “He’s not much help, really. His main goal seems to be 1)-” she holds up her index finger, “dodge all of my questions and be as unhelpful as possible and 2)-” she holds up her middle finger now along with her index, “to annoy me as much as possible,” she shoots me a wicked grin which I take to mean something much more than what it appears on the surface. Grimacing, I turn to Gear once more. 

“We’ve come because we need your help.” Gear turns to look at me. 

“Go on.” She nods. 

“We need some Keeper Jars.” 

“Some what?” exclaims Jane. I groan. 

“You humans are really ignorant, no matter how much something is waved in your face, do you realize that?” I burst out, turning to look at her. Jane just glares at me. 

“Well it’s not like anyone cared enough to come up to us and teach us what everyone else knows, is it? Do you even know how our race came to be here? Do YOU?” She shouts, fuming. She’s dead scary. 

I cross my arms and say stiffly, “As a matter of fact, no I don’t. But does it really matter?” 

Jane gives a cry of frustration. “Does it really matter what your background is, Ridge? Does it really matter that you have a whole life history? Does it matter that you have a personality just like anyone else? Apparently not. All we have to do today is look at a person and see the surface. And once we have, we’ve seen EVERYTHING. But that’s not true.” She’s shaking with anger now, and tears are dripping down her face. “As a matter of fact, Ridge, it was the ELVES who stole us from our home. They enlisted trolls to do their dirty work for them, but it was the elves. That’s why we’re here. And not. . . not home. We’ve been here for 14 years.” I stare in shock at Jane. I never knew any of this. 

“And. . . . and me and my brother haven’t seen our parents since then. I never knew them.” She trails off staring stony faced at me. And then she gives one more strangled cry before running out of the shop entirely. I gulp. 

“Well, Ridge.” Gear says softly. “It seems to me that you have not cared to learn much about her. You’ve just cared for-” 

“DON’T.” I surprise myself as much as Gear. Gear sighs. 

“Ridge. I know that you want your brother back. But you can’t do this without Jane. You need her as much as she needs you.” I stare hard at the wall in front of me. I can hear Gear rummaging around in a box behind me. 

“Here.” I turn around to see Gear holding out a small burlap sack. “You’ll need these.” 

I frown. “You still think she’ll want to work with me?” Gear smiles. “All stories have their rough edges. But all stories also all have amends.” I gulp. And then take the bag of Keeper Jars from her. 

“Thank you, Gear.” 

“Don’t thank me yet. Go pick up your mess. What have I always told you?” 

🠐🠐⮝🠒🠒

Jane

I can hear Ridge before I see him. He’s not bothering to be quiet and stealthy anymore. The gravel and sticks crunch and crack under his feet, building as he grows closer. He drops by me before plopping down himself. For a moment, we both sit on the edge of the land, staring out at the void. 

“I’m sorry.” Ridge speaks first-softly. I can tell he means it, but I still feel resentment towards him. I don’t answer. 

“I should never have said that your life doesn’t matter. And-and. . .” He pauses, drawing in a breath and I can tell that he’s on the verge of tears. “I of all people should have understood that feeling. I never knew my parents, either. They disappeared right after the first riot against the castle.” All of the anger and resentment I had been feeling towards Ridge vanished. “I’m-I’m sorry.” Silence struck once more. 

“I know you may not like me very much. I know I haven’t been a very big help-but.” He pauses. “This world needs your help. Other worlds need your help. I need your help.” I look up at Ridge and his face is dead set. Slowly, I nod. “Okay. What do I need to do?” Ridge grins. 

“I was beginning to think that you would never ask.” 

I grin back. 

Five minutes later, I’m kneeling at the edge of the void, holding a large green, blue, and gold jar firmly in my hands. Ridge told me that these jars are designed to specifically capture stronger types of magic, and that to test and see if the user was worthy enough to use the magic, once inside, the magic inside of the jar would either burn or cut. Let’s just put it this way-I would be bleeding either way. 

I could feel the magic clustering inside of the jar, growing hotter and hotter the more magic collects inside of it. Ridge is next to me, doing the same, except he is holding an opaque white and blue jar streaked with silver. 

“Remember,” Ridge says, not looking up from his jar, “the magic will test you. But whatever you do-” He turns to look at me now. “Don’t let go.” I nod. I can already feel the magic almost growing hotter with excitement. Anticipation. I turn to ask Ridge how long it usually takes for the magic to “test you” or whatever, when a searing hot pain slices down both of my palms. I shriek, and lose hold of the jar. 

“Don’t let go!” Ridge shouts. Too late. The glass falls from my grasp-down, down, down. 

“NO!” I shriek. But the jar is long gone. It’s disappeared down the void. I turn to Ridge, hopeful that he at least got a jar of magic. But when I look down at his hands, I see nothing. Only red blistered hands. No jar. I look down to the ground and see a smashed jar, faint wisps of white twirling up into the air and disappearing. 

Ridge slowly looks up from the smashed jar. His face is unreadable. “Jane-” He starts. But a loud, shrieking roar echoes all around us, cutting off the rest of his sentence. We both turn to find a huge Geode dragon flying only yards away from us. Sitting on his back was a man. The man was shrouded in a black cloak, and staring at the two adventurers. Ridge moved to stand in front of me, pulling out a sword from his belt as he did so. (How the heck had I never noticed that?) 

“What are you doing here?” Ridge shouted over the loud wing beats of the dragon. The figure didn’t answer. Instead, he pointed. At me. 

Ridge glanced back towards where I was standing, rigid and looking up at the man. 

“What do you want with her?” Ridge yelled, slowly inching closer to the silver dragon. 

Again, the figure did not speak. He pointed to me again. 

“WHAT do you WANT with HER?” Ridge shouted louder than the last few times, now a few yards from where I was, and only inches from the dragon. This time, the figure did not point. He bent down low on his dragon, and after a second, the dragon blasted a large fireball, which landed at Ridge’s feet. He was blasted off his feet, and before I could even run forward to see how badly hurt he was, the dragon darted forward at an incredible speed, sinking its claws into my shoulders. “RIDGE!!” I screamed, my satchel slipping an inch down my arm. “RIDGE!” Though I was yards above the ground now, I could see Ridge lift his face from the ground. His face was covered in blood from the fire. Though I couldn’t hear much over the wingbeats of the dragon, I could see his mouth form a word. Jane. Blood was drizzling down my shoulders where the dragon’s claws were digging into skin, and my arms ached. But I knew one thing: Wherever I was going-whoever I was going to meet-they couldn’t have what was in the satchel. 

“RIDGE!” I yelled, my voice weaker than it had been the last time I had shouted. “Ridge. . . take it. . .” 

I don’t think he heard me say the last sentence. But I know he saw my satchel fall to the ground. Know he saw the blood dripping down my shirt. Know he saw as my head grew limp against my shoulders as my mind went black and still. Utterly still. 

4.The Black Pearl

Jane

When the world came into focus again, I found that I was lying on a carpeted ground. I also felt on both of my wrists the cool sensation of metal. Slowly I blinked and looked around. I was in a small room that had a red, dirty carpet and smudged white walls. The cuffs that my hands were locked into were attached to a small metal loop in the ground where the carpet had been cut away, revealing a gray cement ground. I stood up, walking as far as the chain allowed me towards the only way out of the room-a gray painted door that had a single glass semi-circle set into it. The chains allowed me to get close enough to see out the small glass window-where I saw nothing short of a gray stone wall and a single torch to light the way. I guessed that beyond the door was a hallway. I had just come to this conclusion when I felt something hot and sticky trickle down the side of my arm. 

I looked down to find a long line of red blood slowly oozing down a path of dried blood. Ridge. Dragon. Keeper Jars. I gulped as I remembered what had happened at Gear’s place. Where was Ridge now? What was he doing? Did he get my satchel? 

Deciding not to torture myself more by thinking about him, I worked on the slow process of tearing fabric from the bottom of my shirt to mop up blood from my shoulder wounds where the dragon’s claws had dug in. This was already hard enough with metal cuffs on, made harder when you have blistered and slightly bleeding hands. I decided that wrapping my hands was a good place to start. I had just finished wrapping my left hand-getting ready to start on mopping up blood from the shoulder wound when I heard footsteps. 

Voices accompanied the footsteps, and they steadily grew louder and louder. One voice was raspy and gravely-and I was certain that the voice belonged to a goblin. The other voice had a cold sort of feeling and was smooth and stretched out-an elf.  I gulped. A key turned in the lock of the door. The voices had ceased talking. 

In walked two people. One of them I could put a name to straightaway, though I had never seen him-the goblin. Bringleclaw. I don’t know how I knew, but it couldn’t be anyone else.

The other was an elf as I had guessed-tall with flaming red hair and piercing green eyes. 

I backed up slowly as far as I possibly could from the pair. The man with red hair laughs when he sees me retreating. “Scared, are we?” he barks, pulling something out of his pocket. It’s too small for me to be able to see what it is, but for some reason I can’t explain, I can sense it. I can feel odd ripples dancing through the air-like waves in water. My eyes darted from the man’s hand to Bringleclaw’s face. Bringleclaw grinned a wide, toothless grin, turning slightly towards the elf. 

“Are you ready, Avian?” He asks, and I’m hardly able to distinguish his words for how gravelly his voice is. The elf-Avian-slowly nods his head, grinning. He passes the object in his hand to Bringleclaw, and I realize what the object is with a jolt-it’s the Black Pearl. It’s smaller than I imagined, but no less powerful. It’s taken nearly all of the magic from this kingdom, and I can feel the full power of the magic as it is uncovered. It’s like being hit with something considerably hard over and over again. I gasp and stumble forwards as the sheer force of it hits me. 

“We have the right one.” I hear Avian speak, but I can’t see. All I can see is black, white, red, blue-a whirl of colors swirling past my eyes. 

“We can put the plan into action tomorrow, Bringleclaw. I think-” but I can’t hear anymore. The colors are all melting together, swirling round and round, faster and faster. And then I can see a face. For a second it’s just a black silhouette of a face. Then it comes into focus-and its Ridge. I think I say his name out loud, but I can’t be certain. His lips move, and for a second, I feel like screaming, crying-I can’t hear him. But then- “Jane. Jane-you’ve got to hold on. I don’t know how I’m seeing you, but you’ve got to hold on. But, Jane. I’ve opened the map. I was wrong. It didn’t necessarily have to be you. I just had to-” But I don’t get to hear “what he had to”. I feel a sudden jolt of pain on my shoulders and realize that thin fingers are clasped over the open wounds. I cry out in pain, and then try and move the hands off, only to remember that my own hands are in the metal bands. 

“Who were you talking with?” Demands Avian, tightening his grip, knowing it causes me more pain. “No. . . one. . .” I gasp. “WHO?” He shakes me, and I let out a small scream. Blood is dripping down my arms again, and my head is beginning to feel light-dizzy. 

“Who?” I grit my teeth and refuse to respond. My knees buckle beneath me. 

“Bringleclaw!” Avian barks. “The Pearl.” I hear shuffling, and then I see a green clawed hand holding a small, black pearl above me. Pain shoots through my veins. 

Aaahhckk!” I scream. “STOP! Stop.” I moan. 

“Then tell me what you did.” I shake my head. I feel something close to fire sear through my head, arms, legs. 

AHHGGHHH!!!” Black is seeping in on the edges of my vision, and the pain is nearing the point of unbearable. I can see the pearl clutched in Bringleclaw’s outstretched hand above me. I can hear Avian still talking to me, Bringleclaw cackling. I can feel pain, fear, sorrow. But I can also feel something else. It’s more powerful than the two sensations earlier. Much more powerful. It’s like being able to feel the sound waves in the air-like being knocked over by a large Groper, like being overwhelmed with emotion so great you could be knocked off your feet. I cling to that sensation, and slowly, the black recedes.

 Slowly, I can see Bringleclaw’s hand clearer. See the Black Pearl in his outstretched hand. The Black Pearl . . . the Black Pearl took away all hopes of having a safe life in this world. The Black Pearl took away the majority of magic. The Black Pearl caused so much pain to this world. . . . Before I can think about what my next action is, I am reaching up my chained hands. Reaching them up, grateful that they reach high enough, reaching up stretching out my bound hands. . . . Bringleclaw doesn’t see them in time. 

SMASH! The Black Pearl hits the ground with an incredible force. The strange sensation that I had been feeling quickly evaporates once the Black Pearl has smashed. Black starts dripping into my vision once more. Silence hangs heavy in the room. I can see pieces of smoky black glass scattered across the floor. 

“No.” It’s Avian. “No.” He lets go of my shoulders, and I slump to the ground, the scene quickly starting to blur before my eyes. 

“What have you done, girl?” I hear Avian’s voice. Hear Bringleclaw’s scream of fury. But all I can see is blurred colors. Black smudges. No. Not again. I couldn’t. . . .let. . . . go. . . . 

Ridge

Screams. That’s all I could hear. Pain. That’s all I could feel. Smoke. That’s all I could smell. 

 I looked down at the map. Then I looked up to where Gear was studying me anxiously. “I have to go. But not to Jane. At least, not first.” 

5. Sacrifices 

Jane 

Black smoke filled the tiny room. The smell of burning wood tinged my nose, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. Glass shimmered through the unnatural black and blue blaze that lit up the tiny prison. My head and heart, breaths and arms were working together to create some deranged symphony of thump-thump, hhhhhh-in-hhuuuhh-out-, clack-clack as my heart thumped against my rib-cage and my arms pulled on the burning metal that bound me to this room. Smoke burned my eyes. “Jane! Jane! Get out!” Caden.  “Someone’s still in there!” Our neighbor, Lucy Mae. “We need to move to the East Quadrant! If we don’t stop those fires, it’ll spread farther than it already has!” Mr. Bowing, from Town Hall. Mr. Bowing, when I had last seen him, was running straight into the burning house of the Blacks to save their 9-year-old, Terry. 

 NO. No. Tears dripped down my cheeks as I remembered that night. The horrible sea of flame eating up our town with no end to its hunger. Screams. Hhhhh-in-huuuuuhhh-out-. Guards screaming. Children crying. Tears falling to the dry, damaged earth. Caden handing me the capsule.  The map. The compass. Ridge. Ridge. The Black Pearl. I looked back to where the glass was. I was certain that the Pearl had been what had helped me connect to Ridge. But how? I yanked on the chains again, sweat dripping down my face. Come on, I thought desperately. Break. I looked back towards the shattered glass and then to the quickly advancing fire. The fire that had been set shortly after I had smashed the Pearl. The fire that had woken me up. The fire that would either cause me to end my fate or. . . or. . .

I looked back at the Pearl. Then I looked down at my hands. The metal towards the bottom of the chain was red hot and was slowly creeping up the rest of the chain. If I didn’t work fast, my hands would be burned. I closed my eyes and listened. Crack. Pop. Fire. But beneath it, I could hear a soft hummmmmm. I focus on that sound, and after a bit, can feel vibrations in the air. I focus on the vibrations, and a couple of minutes later, I can hear a crackle-crackling instead of the humm. I open my eyes-which I had closed earlier-to find a glowing white around my hands. I don’t need to think about what to do next. I know. 

A second later, the chains that were around my hands have snapped in half. The flames are closing in now, close enough to burn. But I don’t flinch. I don’t need to. With a flick of my hand, the white glow moves to form a path through the fire. I quickly walk through-with one goal in mind:

Getting to Bringleclaw and Avian. And making sure that they would never harm this world again. 

It took longer than I would have wanted to get up into the actual Castle and out of the underground network. Due to a couple of guards and a few wrong turns, it probably took me somewhere around an entire half hour to get up to the main Castle. The only reason I actually knew that I was up in the main Castle was because of the appearance of windows. Down in the underground levels, there were only windows set in doors, or in between different cells. Up here, the windows actually let in light. 

I was careful as I walked down different corridors, and up different sets of stairs. The only thing that gave me a sense of direction was the same kind of hum-ing sound from earlier. Except this time, I also feel a slight tug into a direction, as if connected to an invisible string. 

Following this invisible “string” I find myself in what I think is a sort of study: bookshelves line the walls as far as I can see in every direction-up, down, left, right-and a beautiful oak desk stands in the middle of the room, a single book perched upon a gilded book holder. I walk towards the desk, curiosity pulling me forward. I creep slowly forward, cautiously. I’ve already been through a lot in the past day or two, I don’t need more. 

But nothing happens as I walk behind the desk to see what book it is. Except, it’s not a book. It’s a journal. Forest green, leather bound and worn, the journal is open to two pages somewhere in the middle. The pages that are open are ripped slightly on the edges, and look as though they were stained. 

Neat, thin handwriting fills the page, and I begin to decipher what is written:

Avian is getting stronger every day. I don’t know how-he won’t tell me. He won’t tell anyone except for the elves in his little order, or his little goblin friend, Bringleclaw.

Just because Avian won’t tell me how he is getting stronger, doesn’t mean I don’t have a guess, though. I do believe it has something to do with Void Magic. He was always the one to play with fire, that one. Void Magic is strong-powerful. I don’t know how he managed to harness it, though. Keeper Jars are normally used to capture magic and transfer it to a different object. Or focus the magic and use it to accomplish something that would be hard with magic found around the Realms. Not that there is any, though. 

But I don’t think Avian used a Keeper Jar of any sort for a few reasons-his hands are not scarred, for one (there are no cures to the tests of Void magic). On the second hand, if Avian really DID use a Keeper Jar and obtained scars, I do believe he would be wearing gloves to hide them. But he isn’t doing any of that. 

So how is he gaining Void Magic? I am almost certain that it is Void Magic-I can hear the songs of it very faintly-like a cold whisper and a warm sunny day all intertwined. It isn’t pleasant. Especially with the events of 9 years ago still lodged in my mind. Parts of the event still lie as silent reminders on my face. On my hands. 

But that silent reminder won’t matter much longer. I can’t sit here and watch as this World is led to a fate that we will never be able to turn from. And I can most certainly not let this world collapse into Earth. Earth may have magic of its own, but not nearly enough to create a barrier of its own should our world collapse.

I only have so much longer before I believe Avian will act. Before I believe Avian will take what he needs from Bringleclaw and make a grab for his own greedy desires. 

But there is one thing I need to complete my mission. Since I believe that ARROW will need a little bit of help,I need to contact Zephyr. I can trust him, and I know ARROW will, too. I’ve finally figured out how to contact him. It shouldn’t be too hard. But I think I can manage. Zephyr will know what to do and how. 

The journal page ended here. My heart beat fast in my rib cage, and I ended up sitting down in the red armchair behind the desk. I didn’t know what to think. Avian? Trying to double cross Bringleclaw? How? Whoever had written this had also written that Bringleclaw has something that Avian wants. What was it? And who was…. I looked back at the page. “Zephyr”? Why did this person need to contact Zephyr? Why did they need to contact him? I didn’t know. I also had no clue who “ARROW” was, or why this person had written their name in all caps. Maybe it wasn’t their real name? 

I decided that I didn’t have time to worry about the journal page. Since I now knew that Avian was going to be more dangerous than previously thought, I had to be careful. 

I left the study with more questions than I had started with. It didn’t take me long to find Avian, though. I had been walking close to the kitchens when I heard a soft laugh from behind me. I whirled around to find Avian, face streaked with blood, black dust clinging to his hands, silver cloak torn and barely managing to cling upon his shoulders. 

“Jane.” He only said my name once. He only said it as a whisper-but it was enough to make my whole body tremble with fear. 

“What do you want?” I ask, gritting my teeth and clenching my hands, ignoring the pain from where the Keeper Jar left its mark. 

“Oh, Jane. Do you really not know? You saw what that traitor Gate wrote. A part of the resistance. To speak to you the truth, we had believed that we had taken them down, squashed all of their hopes out when they struck 9 years ago. All the riots. All the battles fought. But we were wrong.”

“How do you know I looked at-” I started, but Avian quickly shouted, “SILENCE, YOU FOOL!” I gulped. Avian regained his posture, and began to speak once more. 

“We found out about their plans to lead an attack on the castle. It didn’t take long to find the people involved. Let’s just say, Gate will not be having a very pleasant time where she is. Neither will those annoying misfits!” He spoke fast, his green eyes piercing me with a gaze that sent daggers at me. 

“Jane, think. Think about what your little friend told you about our world. About our world and the other worlds.” 

“How do you-” I started. But Avian cut me off.

“THINK!” I flinched, but didn’t say anything more. What had Ridge said? This world would have collapsed into Earth if all the magic were really gone. Did Avian want this world to collapse into Earth? “…Earth may have magic of its own” What did it mean? 

“You don’t want Earth and-and here to collapse upon each other, do you?” Avian laughed again. 

“You really don’t get it, do you? Earth has magic. This world has only so much magic left-but magic nonetheless. My plans were always going to involve taking Earth.”

“But-but why?” I ask, even more confused than when we had started. 

“Because,” Avian starts, now circling me like a lion to its prey, “Because Earth has what I need. What I need to gain the powers of the 7 worlds we know to exist-” I gasp. He doesn’t mean. He can’t mean-

Siet Pontentiea. The Seven Powers.” I gulp. The Seven Powers are actually sustainers for each world-

It was said that each world in our galaxy had a different type of magical item. Our world had two-The Black Pearl (which was now smashed into oblivion) and The White Pearl. The only other one that I knew of was Earth’s-The Glass Rose. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was supposed to do, but I knew it was powerful. 

Anyway, all of the items were supposed to help the world that they were in. But, if removed and combined, they were said to create some sort of portal that could end up destroying ALL of the worlds. Which was why no one had dared mess with them. Until now. 

“You can’t!” I shout. “Do you know what you’ll do?” Avian grins-an evil, twisted smile. 

“Oh, I know. But I don’t think you do. All of the worlds were taught wrong. When the items are combined, they won’t destroy the worlds. No. They will simply cause something I am going to call world collapse. Each and every world will crash into each other, forming only ONE world. ONE.” 

“But how do you know that?” I ask. 

“That,” He says, “Is not for you to know. But what I can tell you, is that to accomplish my goal, I needed the Black Pearl.” I sigh inside. Well, he can’t exactly cause destruction any more-the Black Pearl is gone. 

“But then I realized-I don’t necessarily need the Black Pearl.” He grins, pulling something out of his pocket. 

“I can also use the White Pearl.” There, sitting in his hand, is a smoky white pearl, power radiating from it in all directions. 

Before I can think-before I can move-Avian places both hands around the Pearl. A second later, it begins to glow bright white. The vibrations in the air grow to where I stumble back by the force, bracing myself on the frame of a door. I shield my eyes from the light, and when it dims enough to where I can look at Avian, I see white smoke. Lots of it. Flames dance around on the floor, in a circle around Avian. But the flames are not spreading. They stay where they are. Avian, who is half shrouded by smoke, grins slyly at me, green eyes glowing through all white. 

He doesn’t say anything, but he creeps closer and closer to me, hands stretched out.

“I may have needed the White Pearl and Void Magic to start my plan. But to really set it into action. . .” He pauses speaking, creeping ever closer. “I need you.” A second later, a white blaze of fire is twisting towards me, speeding through the air at incredible speed. I scream, thrusting my hands up by instinct, knowing that they won’t really help in the end. 

But there is no impact. I look up, and to my utmost surprise, I find. . . 

RIDGE!!” I shout, happiness and relief blooming inside of me. He is standing only a few inches in front of me, arms raised, a silver barrier holding off the white flames. He turns his head slightly, so I can see that the right side of his face is covered in a metal plate-like the one Gear was wearing.

“What, you think I would leave you here to fight by yourself?” I can see part of a smile despite the copper plate hiding the part of his face. 

“But how-” I start to ask, but can’t finish my sentence due to a sudden shout from Ridge, who is still looking towards me. 

“WATCH OUT!” 

I turn just in time to duck a dagger from behind. I follow its path, and am relieved to see that it misses Ridge. Barely. I turn towards the direction it came from, and find an elf, all clad in black standing there. Avian must’ve contacted some friends of his, for more elves-all wearing either black or silver-are all over, now. Up and down the hall, they stand, weapons at the ready. Some are even up above, poised in the rafters. There must be around 20 of them. I gulp, pulling myself into a defensive position. An elf up in the rafters aims an arrow towards me, and I quickly dodge, wishing I had something to chuck at him. An instant later, I feel a slight buzz in my hand-a soft yellow glow is lighting up my hand. Without thinking about it twice, I fling my hand in the direction of the elf. A silver arrow shoots out of my hand, and hits him square in the chest, causing him to fall backwards off of the wooden beam. 

I grin. I’m not positive, but I think I can draw magic from the Pearl. Quickly, I thrust my hand toward the nearest elf. A jet of silver and white shoots out towards him, freezing him. 

I fight with the magic from the Pearl, and Ridge fights with his sword and whatever that silver barrier was. But it isn’t enough. 

The elves seem to be growing in size-every time we manage to knock out one of them, another five appear. The next thing we know, Ridge and I are back to back, surrounded in every direction by elves. 

“What….do….we….do?” I pant, thrusting another arrow at an elf that is too close for comfort. 

“Don’t worry,” Ridge says, glancing back at me and grinning. “I’ve got backup. Cover me.” 

“But what-” I start, before he cuts me off. 

“COVER ME!” He shouts, crouching down, the silver barrier surrounding him. I don’t know why he needs me to cover him when he has the barrier, but I listen to him anyway. 

I fire arrow after arrow, white and silver flame after white and silver flame, fighting to keep the circle of elves at bay. 

I had just fired a silver arrow at an advancing elf with a very large sword when pain shot up my right leg. 

I gasped, looking down to find a long gash going all the way from the back of my knee to the start of my ankle. I looked up to see a female elf with two black braids and bright yellow eyes bouncing back from me, dagger in hand. Staggering towards her, I quickly fired another arrow. It hit her in her arm, and she stumbled backwards, dropping her dagger. 

My leg wasn’t going to hold up much longer. Sinking down, I placed both of my hands in front of me, and a bright white light burst from them, sending the circle of elves flying. Except for Avian. He strode slowly forward towards me, White Pearl still clutched in his hand. 

“Jane, did you really think you could stop me? You-a human?” He grins slyly, striding ever nearer. 

“No….but…..I….did…..take….your….plan….A…” I say in between breaths. His smile turns into a twisted glare. 

“The Black Pearl was not my plan A-” 

I grin at him, despite everything. 

He glares at me.

“You will pay.” He says softly. “But that will have to be after you have served your purpose.” He bends down now, and I try moving back, but hands push me roughly forwards. Avian bends and with a single finger touches where the female elf got me earlier. He pulls his hand back, my blood now on his finger tip. He quickly puts the blood on the White Pearl. For a moment, I think nothing will happen. And then. . . .The White Pearl shimmers gold and silver. A sound like a thousand people screaming, crying, singing rings through the hall. . . . and then silence. 

Where the White Pearl was, there now lies a sword. A long, magnificent sword with a beautifully engraved handle. Avian grins. Reaches for the sword. And then screams as bright blue fire suddenly hits him in the back. 

The hands that were holding me in place quickly release me, and a moment later, the fire on Avian is put out, doused by an elf batting it with another cloak. 

“What the-” I whisper, looking past Avian. A girl with dark purple wings and wearing a tattered brown dress stands behind him, looking extremely pleased. 

“Always wanted to do that to him.” She says with a smirk on her face. She turns to me, quickly striding towards me. 

“Not exactly the time for introductions,” she starts, pausing as an elf chucks his mace at her to blast flames at it from her mouth, “but my name’s Mae.” She dodges another attack, chucking a nearby dagger at the elf. 

“And over there,” she nods to where five other people are now battling-two tall half-elves with swords, another girl who had wings and the back legs of a dragon, and two girls both with wings that were chucking stones- “are my siblings. We’re-” 

“The Misfits.” I finished for her, astonished. She grins, nodding. “How did you get out? Where were you?” I pelt her with questions, completely lost. 

“Now really isn’t the time!” She shouts as she dodges a swing from a sword. “Fight now, talk later!” I nod, and the battle re-commences. We fight for hours-I only stay alive due to the fact that Mae stays close to me. My leg is too painful to stand on, but I still chuck things at the elves.

Finally, we manage to subdue most of the group. The only one left standing is Avian. He now has the sword clutched tightly in his hands, one of his eyes shut entirely, and one of his boots scorched. 

We-the misfits, Ridge, and I-all advance on him. He backs up down the hall away from us.

Mae snaps out her wings, shooting flames at him. He blocks it somehow with his sword, grinning. 

“That won’t work on me, Mae.” He backs up a few more paces. “You may have me cornered -” He stops, back against the stone wall now, “But you’ll regret crossing paths with me.” We advance a few more steps. He doesn’t move. “But for now. . .” He bows mockingly at us. “I bid you farewell. And good luck. This world-” He pauses. “-is about to meet a worse fate than I or Bringleclaw.” He glances up at us, grins, and. . . .he’s gone. 

We don’t even have time to ask questions. For the next second, the ground underneath our feet rumbles, like a massive earthquake. 

“What the-” Ridge starts. The wall in front of us falls. Shouts can be heard from outside. Our group slowly creeps outside. The place where the Castle gardens should have been now has a large gold sphere sitting in it. But the sphere is not like a ball-it’s more like a sphere of wire. There are gaps in between the pieces of wires, and in those gaps we can see the vague outline of a person. We all stand stock still-our small group as well as a group of stragglers and bystanders-watching as the gold sphere slowly rises into the air a few feet, emits a soft bang! and then sinks back to the ground. A second later, the glow disappears. For a moment, there is only silence. But then, a hole opens up in the sphere. Where there had been nothing for the previous few seconds, a figure now stood. A figure wearing khakis, a light white shirt, boots, and a red scarf steps out. He had light brown hair tied up in a ponytail, and a single gold earring hanging from his left ear. 

“Julian!” I turned just in time to see Ridge streak past me, towards the boy standing in front of the gold sphere. 

“Ridge?” The figure asks, and a second later, the two are laughing and sobbing all at the same time. 

As we watch, Ridge leans back from the boy, suddenly dead serious. “But if you’re back that means. . .” The boy, Julian, nods grimly. 

Ridge stumbles back and mutters-just loud enough for us to hear-

“Oh. No.” He turns back to us and everyone else around us and shouts- “EVERYBODY GET DOWN!” 

The second I’ve ducked behind the nearest statue, I hear feet. Presumably, from the golden sphere. 

“We need to get out of here.” Ridge’s voice is full of a fear I haven’t heard before. His eyes are wide, and his breathing is fast. 

“They’re coming. Avian set us up. They’re coming.” 

“What? Who’s coming? Avian-” 

Shhh!” Ridge hisses, glancing around the statue, before settling his gaze on me. 

“Avian’s brother. He’s coming. But I can’t explain it now. We have to move. We need to-” But he pauses, eyes growing wider than they already were. He speaks so softly now that I have to lean in- “Jane, whatever happens, you have to get the sword from Avian. You understand?” 

“Yes but-” I start, fear clutching me from all over. 

“You have to, Jane. You must if you want to save this place.” He leans forward now, so close I can feel his breath on my cheek. 

“Promise me. Promise me you’ll do that?” I nod, tears streaming down my cheeks. 

“But where are you-” 

“Promise me.” And then he gets up. He gets up and runs behind the statue. 

“RIDGE!” I scream, standing up and abandoning all safety cautions. Ridge, who is now only a few yards away from the statue, turns and gives a sad smile. He is surrounded completely by odd creatures that have the tall, slender forms and pointed ears of elves, but great big feathered wings like the bird. 

“Take care of Julian for me, Jane.” The next thing I know, Ridge is surrounded by the creatures. I can’t see him in the mass of them all. 

“RIDGE! RIDGE!” I shout-scream, face wet with tears. And then there he is. He has his sword out now. He gives one last look towards me before bringing it down hard. On the sphere itself. 

For a moment, nothing happens and the mass of elf-like creatures start closing in on him again. And then, in a mass of gold and more white flames, the entire sphere explodes. 

“NO!” I shout, trying to run forwards. Hands hold me back. I can barely make out the figure of Julian. 

“Don’t, Jane.” He chokes out. “It’s pointless.”

The place where the elf-like figures were previously stationed is now a blaze of fire. But there’s also something else-a deep black hole that’s big enough to swallow a man whole standing in place of the golden sphere. 

“No. No.” I whisper, sinking down to the ground. I ignore the throbbing in my leg and in my hands. 

“We have to go.” I hear Mae say softly from behind me. “Ridge may have saved us from the worst of it, but it’s not safe here.” 

I don’t move.

“Jane.” Mae says gently. “I know you liked Ridge. But there’s nothing we can do for him anymore. He didn’t-he didn’t die just for us to land ourselves in more trouble. He would have wanted us to move on.” 

As much as I would like to stay-to argue- I know she is right. So I don’t struggle when Anne helps me up onto Mae’s back so I don’t have to hobble around. 

I don’t turn back to look at the place where Ridge should be. Instead, I let the group guide me forwards, tears still streaming down my cheeks. 

Ridge may have been a sketchy traveler partner to start out, but he proved himself in the end. 

He had died to save us all from our own deaths. And I wasn’t going to let him die in vain. 

Avian wasn’t going to obtain the Seven Powers. He wasn’t going to get away with causing the death of one of my closest friends. 

And he most certainly wasn’t going to ruin the lives of the people and creatures of all seven worlds.

Because I was Jane East. A human, yes. Tattered, broken, and imperfect. But I had a goal. 

And I wasn’t going to stop until it was complete.

Earlier on Earth-

The citizens and tourists of Eureka Springs, Missouri, U.S thought that July 9, 2025 was going to be a perfectly normal day-

The shops would open. 

The tourists would see the sites-

They would be amazed 

                                Awed

                             Wowed

They would buy all the souvenirs their suitcases could fit.

Eat all the food their stomachs could hold.

The sellers would greet customers

Sell products

And be

Delighted with

Today’s income.

But today was certainly not a normal day-

Instead of waking up to another wonderful sunny day, the people would wake up to the sky filled with an odd black smoke. 

They would wake up to see a crack in the sky. 

The crack that was spewing black smoke. 

The crack that would start it all.

The collapse of the Seven Worlds.

The End…For Now…

Writing Challenge Winner: The Quest of Magic by Bella Johnson

Bella Johnson is a fourteen-year old writer who participated and completed the summer 204 Hero’s Journey Writing Challenge. Bella’s short story, “The Quest of Magic” tells of friendship found and lost with the sprinklings of magic present throughout the tale.

Read Bella’s epic short story below:

Splash! Went the water as I dived into the pool. I came up from the bottom and saw my two best friends waiting by the pool’s edge and Matilda looked sad so I swam over to them.

                        “Hey, what’s wrong Milly?”

                        “Her mom just called.”

                        “It’s no big deal,” sniffed Matilda

                        “Lue, can I speak to you for a minute?”

                        “Sure, Milly we will be right back,” as I was giving her a hug.

                        “What’s up Haz?”

             Hold up, you’re probably confused about what is happening. My name is Lucille, I am 15 years old. I have brown hair, blue eyes and I have tan skin. My two best friends are Matilda, who goes by Milly and Hazel, who we only call Haz. Milly has blond hair with green eyes. Hazel has red hair with brown eyes. They both had lighter skin. Now that I have broken the Fourth wall let’s get back to real life importance.

“Milly, is having some… uh… family issues and she is trying to… deny her feelings.”      

                        “Oh no, do you know what happened?”

            “I don’t know. All her blood drained when she answered the call from her mother. Whatever her mom was saying was pretty bad.”

                        “Guys, we need to talk,” Milly whispered.

                        “Milly, is everything…” I started until we heard a scream.

            I didn’t know who screamed but it seemed to be coming from the kiddy pool. We all ran in the direction to which the screaming was coming from. Once we got close enough the screaming died down and there was my brother and a little boy in his hands. He was talking to some of his lifeguard buddies he sometimes guards with. We got close enough to make out what they were saying.

            “This boy needed help. I couldn’t watch it any longer.”

            “He… touched my boy and… he…went out… COLD.” Sobbed the lady.

            “Felix, what’s going on?”

“Sis, this is not a great time! We have to evacuate everyone before the manager…”

            “Too late Felix, she’s already making her way over here as we speak.”

They went back to whispering and one of the lifeguards was trying to comfort the woman sobbing. We should really speed things up so while everything is happening while we wait for the manager my brother is actually my twin. He looks kinda like me but with brown eyes, not blue. Alright here we are with the manager.

                        “FELIX, what have you done?”

            “This kid was struggling swimming and when I touched him he went out cold. We need to get air into him. I don’t know if he could last much longer in his condition.”

                        “Felix, why don’t you give him to me and I can start compressions.”

                        “Thanks sis. You’re a lifesaver.”

            He handed over the kid to me and when I got him, he opened his eyes and looked around.

                        “Where am I? Mom! Mommy! Where are you?”

The sobbing lady looked around confused. The boy jumped from my arms and ran to his mother. When she turned around there he was. She looked so shocked that she fell back and started crying happily to have her son back.

            “How… how… Did you do that?” said Hazel when I walked over there.

            “I think what Hazel is saying is how did you heal that little boy right after you touched him.”

            After Milly stopped talking I heard a mysterious voice. It started faint then got louder and louder.

            “Sister… Sister… SISTER!”

            “Lue, is everything alright. I want to know if you are ready to go home?”

            “Yeah, I’m… I’m…”

            What’s wrong with me? I thought. Why can’t I finish my sentence?

I tried to form words but no sound came out of my mouth.  

“Lue, let’s get you home. I think you need to rest. Haz, let’s go.”

“Felix are you coming?” Shouts Hazel.

“You guys can go ahead and go. I will catch up.”

As we were walking I couldn’t help but notice that my friends were quiet. We are never quiet when we are together. I opened my mouth to make a sound. But I couldn’t hear anything.

            “Milly, why don’t you tell Lue and me what is happening…”

            We heard an explosion, it was coming from our neighborhood. Milly’s face drained from color. She was saying some words but we couldn’t hear over the sirens of firetrucks and ambulances. Milly started running and it took us a second to realize that she took off and we started to follow her. 

            We stopped short when we saw that Milly’s house was up in flames. We looked around frantically for Milly. 

                        “Matilda! Matilda! Where are you?” Shouts Hazel.

                        “Matilda!” I shouted.

                        Yes, I thought. I can talk again.

                        Crash! The building started shaking and the roof was sliding off. Crash! The whole building started coming down. My vision was getting blurry and my eyes got prickly. What if Milly was in that building? My phone buzzed and I looked and saw a mystery text from a number.

                        We have your sister. The things that you need to do is get the venom of a giant spider, horn of a unicorn, tears of a siren. If you don’t complete these tasks in 4 days then you will never see her again.

As soon as I read the text, I turned around to run home. As I got home I saw no break in entry.

“Mandy! Mandy!” I shouted through the empty house.

 “I’m here! I’m in Deliliah’s room.”

“Oh my… you’re both okay.”

I ran into Delilah’s room and saw them sitting on the floor reading books.

“Lucille! Lucille, are you okay?” Screamed Hazel.

I ran to Hazel tripping down the stairs. Hitting my head on the floor. Hazel screamed but I shushed her. I showed her the text.

“They must have Milly. We have to do it or we will never see her again. 

“Lue, what should we do?”

We both started crying. I hesitated to tell her what I thought.

She noticed my hesitation right away.

                        “Milly is our friend! Why won’t you go?”

                        “I just don’t know if I am the right per…” the doorbell interrupted us.

                        We didn’t answer. We were afraid that it would be the police asking us what happened at the pool or what happened to Milly’s house. 

                        “If you girls are not going to answer it I will.” shouts Felix.

                        “How did you get home? We live 5 minutes away.”

                        “I dunno, I just started running and I got here in 30 seconds.”

                        That’s weird! He must have… I pushed the thought away. I have enough to worry about with Milly gone and making sure her family is okay and know that Milly is gone. Oh no her family. What if her sisters and brothers were in the fire. No, they are resourceful kids. I heard Felix talking to someone. Wait Felix answered the door. I don’t remember him walking over to the door.

                        “I’m sorry sir. She is not up for company.”

                        “But I need to talk to both of you.”

                        “Our parents are not home. We aren’t allowed to let people in. So you can’t talk to us. Please leave our property or we will call the police. You have been warned.”

                        “I told you I need to come in and talk to both of you…”

                        I walked over to the door and saw an old man. He was wearing a green shirt with jeans with holes in them. He had white hair but he didn’t look like he was that old like he was in his 50’s. By this time Felix went into his older overprotective brother mode. Even though he is 15 minutes older than me. 

                        “Felix, who is this man?”

                        “Lucille get back.”

                        I pushed my way through to the door. Felix started to call my name. I pushed the man over and I started running. I felt like time was slowing down. In no time at all I was in front of what used to be Milly’s house. Her younger brothers and sisters were out in the back. 

                        “Lucille! Help us. We don’t know where our parents are.” said Gabe.

                        Gabe was Matilda’s younger brother. So that made him the oldest when Milly was away. Just thinking about her is making me so sad. He was holding Annastia and Beatrice the babies of the family. Annastia is only 2 and Beatrice is 4 months old. There was another kid running around named Payton and he is 5.

                                    “Can you take Annastia for a minute?”

                                    “Yeah, sure!” I took Annastia. “Do you guys need a place to stay while you wait for your parents? You’re more than welcome to wait at my house.”

                                    “Yes please. Wait, where’s Matilda?”

                                    “That’s the thing I guess I have to give you the story. It began at the pool…”

                        By the end we made it to my house. His face was so pale so I took Beatrice and made him go sit down. The old man was still at our house arguing with my brother. We made our way into the house and I got another text from the same number.

                        Looks like you’re not going to come easily. How about we told you we have your parents too? Would that change your mind?

                        I started getting dizzy and so many thoughts were running through my head. How did they know that I wasn’t going to do it? What do they want with my parents?

                        “Feli…” I started to yell but everything went black.

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        I woke up in a room that I don’t remember going into. I felt something on my wrist. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. I was bound to a cold metal table. I started to scream.

            “Stop screaming!” Said an Old man. “My name is Charles Kingsly, and I am a part of an organization that will help you get your family back.”

            “Why am I like this?”

            “Well I was talking to your brother and we heard you start to say his name and he turned and started running towards you. I heard him screaming and little kids crying. I came into your house and found you floating in your living room and saying stuff we could not understand. So I was wondering if you would like to join our organization and go and find your family.”

                        “What about my brother? Did he agree to join? I am not going to join if he is not present to help me make my decision.”

                        “Your brother is in the other room, he has already agreed to join only if you are okay with it.” He said something over his radio and Felix walked.

                        “Lucille, are you okay? You told me you would unbound her after she woke up.”

            “My apologies.” He started undoing the bounds.

“So Lucille, do you think we should trust them? I mean I will only join if you want to join.”

“It’s okay! Felix, you don’t have to protect me. First we need to get our parents back and my best friend. Charles! I would like to join your organization.”

“So would I.”

“Excellent, I am glad that both of you are willing to join the organization. The first thing I must tell you is that I have been in this organization for a very long time and I am your mentor. I will be aiding you on this quest.”

A guy that we barely know is coming with us to find my best friend and my family. Not weird at all.

“We are leaving first thing tomorrow morning! Rest up, children, you’re going to need it!”

 As soon as he left the room I got up and started walking around replaying the information I just got in my head again and again.
                        “ Lucille, do you think we should trust this guy and his organization?”

That stopped my pacing and I didn’t know who to trust. So I hesitated to answer Felix’s question.

Some random guys with white masks on came in and gave us cots to sleep on. We laid there and sleep didn’t come easy for me. Felix was out in a matter of minutes. I just kept thinking about how my life is just the worst. First my friend and now my parents. Oh my… I forgot to ask about my sisters. I hope they are okay. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my leg and the world started to dim and everything went black

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            I sat straight up. My hands felt something soft underneath it. I looked around the room. Strange. The room had pale blue walls and I was laying on a soft blanket. There was a backpack on a chair right next to the bed. My head felt like something was chewing on the inside of my brain. There was knocking at my door.

            “Time to get up and find the unicorn to get its horn!” sang a voice through the door.

            The old man walked into the room.

            “Good morning, sunshine! I see you slept well. Here is some tea. We have a big day ahead of us. Felix went out with a friend of mine to go collect the spider venom this morning. They should be returning tonight.”

            “Wait, Felix left this morning? What time is it?”

            “Well… it’s 12 O’clock right now and your brother left at… 9.”

            “Why didn’t anyone wake me up?”

            “Well…we gave you a sleep draught and your body didn’t react the way we thought it would. Again you did the floating thing and we had to take you to another facility where you would be safe before the scientist started poking you. Then when we touched you, you went limp into our arms. No time for questions anymore we need to go find that unicorn!”

            He went out of the room so then I could change. As soon as I got into some clothes I grabbed the backpack because it seemed important and went out the front door. We started walking and I saw that we just left a ranch style house. There were no other places for a 50 mile radius. What felt like a long time we finally made it to this really big garden and we saw bunches of unicorns. We had to be careful with which unicorn horn we needed to pick.

            “Here is where we keep all our best unicorns and to harvest a horn you have to get to know a unicorn and it has to know you. If it knows the person and the person cares for them then they will be able to grow a new horn that is bigger and better than the one that was before. So I would suggest taking a medium size horn.”

            “So no unicorn will get hurt right?”

            “Yes, even if the person doesn’t care for the unicorn it will still be around but as a horse and it loses its magic forever. So I would suggest getting to know your unicorn before taking its horn.”

                        Hey Sis, Um… So we are having a little problem with the venomous spider, it bit one of the people and we started running…

                        “This is no time to be looking at your phone. We need to get the unicorn horn.”

“Right, sorry.’
             I started walking over to the unicorns and the herd started moving away from me. I started speaking softly towards them telling them I am just a friend. One of the bigger unicorns decided to come over to me. I knew that I had a chance to try to bond with this creature.

Its beautiful brown eyes with silver specks with them were telling me something. It was like it was reading my soul and warning me about something. Then all of a sudden it fell to the ground and the unicorn started transforming. First the tail and then its body covered in oozing black goop then it reached its neck then its beautiful eyes until the gold horn was covered.

I heard screams and heard hooves reaching. Another big unicorn started charging at me. Like it wanted to fight. I understand that it wants its friend back but I have no way of bringing it back. I just kept getting closer and closer. I noticed at the last second I shot up into the air and was floating.

Wow! I didn’t know that I could do that. I thought. What else can I do? 

My hands started to glow and my hands started heating up with all the power. I started to freak out. I didn’t know what was happening. I pushed my hands out and light shot through my hands. The unicorn jumped out of the way and started charging at me again but this time I was ready. I pushed the light a little bit just enough to direct the unicorn away from me. 

It was surprised and it too started to run away. It wanted to get away and I wasn’t going to stop it. All the power that I had in me started to drain and I started falling from the sky. I landed on the ground with a hard thud. I laid there on the ground starting to sob.  I didn’t get the unicorn horn and we only have 3 days left to find the supplies and get them to wherever they need to go.

“Are you alright Lucille?”

“Yeah, it’s just that I just realized that I might never get to see or hear from my family again if we don’t get the stuff we need.”

“Shhh! You’re alright!” He started to hug me but I pushed him away. 

“I might never see my family again.” I cried 

My phone started to buzz.

Hello Ms. Lucielle, I have bad news to tell you your brother was bitten by the spider and is getting rushed back to the house. 

I curled up in a ball and started to cry

The old man just looked down at me with disgust. He opened his mouth to say something when we heard a scream. We ran towards the sound and we stopped and saw a girl fighting a griffin.

“Stop! You’re hurting it.” cried the old man.

“Well I am just trying to help my friend, when this griffin got in my way. The sirens are on the other side of this cliff.”

            “Well… Hazel I thought I knew you better than this. The griffin would not attack people out of the blue unless they smell a bad aura around someone and I would have been notified if you had one.”

            “Don’t be mad at Hazel. She must have accidentally stepped on the nest and it was defending the nest.”

            “Yep! Absolutely! I was not looking where I was going and must have accidentally stepped on the nest.”

            “Hmmmm!”

            “Hazel! Have you heard about my brother?” She shook her head no. “My… brother… was bitten… by the spider.” I was practically sobbing at this point.

            She came in for a hug and she and I started walking back to the house to check on my brother. When we got in the house we noticed that it was quieter than usual. Nobody greeted us and nobody to see if we needed anything. It’s like everyone was worried about my brother. We walked into Felix’s room and noticed right away that if they didn’t heal him he could die in the next couple of days. I broke down again not wanting to look at him. I started running towards his bed but somehow I couldn’t get there. It’s like his bed was protected by a force field. I looked at him and for the first time I looked at his hands, they were glowing a dark purple and I noticed that some of the purple was surrounding his bed.

                        My hands started feeling hot again and I looked down and saw that my hands were glowing a gold color. My head started spinning again and I tried to fight the force field and go to my brother.

                        “STOP!” A voice yelled. I ignored them. I felt something touch me but I didn’t react. “You’re only hurting him, his power is trying to protect him from you.” The voice was quiet and hard to hear like it was in my head.

                        I decided to stop trying to get to my brother.

                        Maybe I should stop on my story… This is a painful memory.

                        You want to know what happens next. Will my brother live, will I get my parents? Oh all right.

                        Next thing I know I feel a sharp pain in my arm and the world starts to go dim.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        Ugggg! They really need to stop drugging me. I woke up in my bedroom and I tried to get up but a huge creature was laying on me.

                        “Oh, good you’re up!” it said in a singsong voice.

                        “What are you?”

                        “Hahaha, you silly human.” It cocked its head. “You really don’t know what I am? Wow, do they not teach you in any of those… um… what’s the word I’m looking for?”

                                                “School?”

                        “Yes! School! Do they not talk about sirens and how to find them or catch them and how they are just chatty creatures.”

                                    “Ummm, no. We learn how you all like to sing a song and then you crash boats and start laughing and all the people on the boat die.”

                                    “Hmmm, we don’t do that. Not even the mermaids. Well anyway, are you really the girl from the prophecy?” I shook my head. “Oh! I thought we found her! Has anyone disappeared recently?” I nodded my head. “Goody! That means you are the girl from the prophecy. You had people taken by other people and then you need venom of a giant spider, horn of a unicorn, tears of a siren. Correct.”

“Yes, but why are you here? Where’s my mentor?”

“Well, what has happened to your brother. I have to take over as your mentor and besides he can’t become your best friend. My name is Sea Shine! You can just call me Cece. The one thing is that where we are going is a place your magic can’t go. Sirens hate being beaten by humans when it comes to magic and most humans don’t have magic. When they do, they get mad at the humans and ban them from their home and hospitality forever.”

“Wait, I have magic?”

“Yes you and your brother both. You think it was a little weird that there was a purple force field around your brother or that somehow you heard my voice in your head that was faint. It’s magic. Your brother and you have the best magic that I have ever seen. Here I want you to wear this.” She handed me a necklace with a locket on it. “If you get over emotional it will help you control and channel your magic on one thing like that unicorn battle you had. I should have been with you to give you this but I went with your brother and let’s just say one thing it was not fun.”

“Really, I could get the unicorn horn again! I thought the unicorns hate me.”

“Well… I talked to them explaining the situation and they agreed to give up their horn under one condition. That you were that to show that you are doing the right thing and going to use your magic for the right thing.”

“Oh my gosh… Thank you. I want you to be my friend forever. I have one last thing to ask you Cece.”

“Name it kid whatever it is.”

“Can my friend Hazel come and see the world of sirens? She never believed that you all were as mean as the legend says.”

“All right but we are leaving first thing…

We heard knocking on the door. When we reached the door we saw a unicorn horn. 

I tried to pick up the Unicorn horn but it was just a hologram.

            “Hahahaha, you fell for the Unicorn trick. Don’t worry they do it to everyone that upsets them. I have upset a unicorn before and she started doing tricks on me and it was hilarious. Once we were friends again we laugh about it all the time.”

“Wait, Unicorns can transform into humans?”

“All magical things here can transform into something. It takes a lot of magic to do it so most of them stay the same. Some of the unicorns were actual humans and decided to become a Unicorn. They came on a similar quest as you and they decided that they wanted to stay here.”

“That’s so cool. I kinda want to go home with my family.”

Cece’s face fell. “Yeah, I guess you should go back home with your parents when we save them.” she sighed.

“I can still come back and hang out with you. And who knows maybe I could find a way to hang out here during the summer and you can show me your awesome swimming moves.”

“You’re right. That would be so cool.”

Hazel came bounding down the stairs in her running shoes. She looked like she was ready to change the world.”

“I am so glad you decided to come with us Haz. You’re the greatest!”

“Yeah the greatest.” Her face fell and she looked a little uncomfortable. 

“Well let’s get going! If we don’t start now. We might not make it there before the light fades away.”

“WAIT!” Charles was running with something in his hand. “Take the venom we were able to extract from the bite. Then you can give it to them after you get the tear and horn.”

“My…”

Charles interrupted me. “We have him, he will be in good care while you’re gone. As you are there, learn how to use your magic.”

“Thank you for being an amazing mentor.” Cece was gesturing for me to follow. They must have started walking. “Goodbye Charles!”

I put the venom carefully in my backpack and we started. We walked into the woods. It seems quieter now that we are not running through the woods. Then I started to think that it was too quiet.

“Were nearly to the Unicorns!” Cece called. “We just need to get over this hill and…”

She stopped dead in her tracks. There was a figure dressed in all black just standing there.  He had a hood up so I couldn’t tell who he was or what he looked like.

“Get out of the way!” Yelled Cece.

The hooded figure just started smiling. All I could see was his smile and it looked like he had fangs. Weird. He started walking toward us.

“Stop! Leave my friend out of this, Rarnib.”

“Why should I?” said a husky voice. “You were the one who wanted this job. Don’t you remember you were only 5 when we let you get this job and you did it. You finally brought the girl we need and… Where’s the brother? We need both twins of power.”

“Hazel, what is he talking about?”

“Rarnib, I already told you the brother could not come but she is just as strong. She might even be stronger than you with the proper training!” Hazel started smirking.

“Watch that tone with me, Synthesize.”

“I told Rarnib, my name is Hazel. I don’t go by that name anymore.”

“What! What have they done to our shapeshifter and the best of the best. You’ve gone soft, your “best friend” has made you soft.” He said it in air quotes.

“Hazel, what is he talking abo…”

“You!” He pointed at me. “You are coming with me. Your time is up, pretty thing. The only way to stop us is to fight me!”

 He started summoning up some black cloud and it started coming right at me. I got hit by it. My hands started to get hot and sunlight started to come out of my hands. I started floating. I blacked out.

———————————————————————————————————————

                                                            Cece

          She started to float. Lucille’s eyes turned white. She summoned a big ball of white energy and started throwing little chunks of the light at Rarbin. He kept dodging and he would always throw back his own magic back at her. I felt defenseless. She looks like she can stop him by herself. She doesn’t need me.

                        She hit him square in the chest and he fell back looking really scared. Hazel ran up to him and tried to protect him.

“Hazel, move out of the way.” Lucille said.

“No, you’re hurting him.”

“He took my parents and Milly, do you not care.”

“Yes I do care but I was the one who took everyone. I was the one to give the command and I am really sorry. I was just jealous at your and Milly’s friendship that I did a very bad thing and taking your parents was not right either. We just want your power to finish the invention we were making.”
            “You mean an invention to destroy the world.”

“Yeah, that could be a side effect of us using the invention. We are trying to make a better world where people with magic don’t have to hide so Lue. What do you say? Will you join us?”

“Lucille, no don’t listen to them. They just want to get rid of the human race.”

“I’m sorry, my dear friend. I can’t trust you or your people.”

Lucille lifted up her hands and summoned the biggest light and she threw it. I had to turn away from the scene.The world went very bright and there was screaming. When the light died down there was gold dust flying around.

“I am so sorry, my dear friend,” whispered Lucille.

———————————————————————————————————————

                                                            Lucille

                        I woke up back in my room, with my brother by my side.

                        “You did it Lucille, you saved everyone!”

                        Milly and my family came in for a big group hug.

The End