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…