2021 November

Mei's Book

Mei wrote a 20,000 plus word story during November.

Click here for a pdf. Or click here for a Word compatible file. Or read the entire book below.

The Battle of Time

By Meimei Bowden #4

Prologue

I run into the forest to hide. They got me good. But I have the clock. I’m now officially the Queen of Time. No one can stop me. All magical people are legally obliged to honor and respect me. I only have to find someone with extreme amounts of Luck, then I will be unstoppable. But I’m not in a rush. I have all the time in the world.

Part One: Belle

I slowly watch my feet move down the thin dirt road. They moved on autopilot, because if I had a choice, I definitely would not go to school. Why did I need to go? I don’t learn anything, and even if I do, it’s never useful. Why does Bob need 49 apples? Just get them by the pound.

I look up and see that finally, I’m out of the jungle. Thank goodness for that. I couldn’t dare reveal where I really live. But no one would check. No one cares about Belle Carvat. Carvat isn’t even my last name. I just picked one.

I hear the loud bustle and roar of children. I’ve finally arrived. And I’m right on time, I slide into my seat as the bell rings.

“Good morning class!” trills our teacher, Mrs. Gorge. She is old, but pretends to be young. No one thinks she is young. But she still tries.

“Today we will learn about geography, or more specifically, tectonic plates.” The world blurs out of focus and I prop my head up on my hand to keep from falling asleep. And slowly, I slip into Daydream and away from the bore of 6th grade.

Daydream is really beautiful. It’s how I communicate with the rest of my family, but they also have to be in Daydream. I can tell no one is here. I can’t see, or move, but I can communicate. There is no space in Daydream. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, I also can see what is going on past the jungle. I can take a birds eye view of the jungle. But nothing is different. The same green trees, the same huge family. Daydream slowly fades away from me.

Class appears back in front of me. I look at the clock. 2:45? School would be out in just thirty minutes! I had missed a full six hours of class. But I hadn’t seen anything in Daydream that would take that long...

“...Remember, today is a minimum day, so class will be leaving now!” says Mrs. Gorge. That really opens my eyes. The rest of my class streams toward the door, and I follow suit. I need to get back to the jungle, even if I didn’t see anything in Daydream, something was not right.

**********

My feet pound against the ground, I can’t get back to the jungle fast enough. I’m hungry, tired and really need to recharge. I twist and turn down the path, until suddenly, the path drops off and I’m standing against the edge of a cliff. A tiny piece of rock crumbles under my foot, and I turn to stand with my back to the wall. Then I see where I am. The biggest tree is around a mile from me, if I walk down in the canyon, like usual. But I must have gone where the adults do, when their Web is long enough. I think for a second. I didn’t use any of my Web today, so if I shoot it just right, I will have enough to zipline across.

I angle my hands right at an open part of the home tree, and shoot a thick rope of Web. White and glisteny, it gleams in the sun. I secure it to the rock behind me, and carefully weave a cloth of Web. I roll it and drape one end over the rope. I grab on tight and jump off of the cliff.

I zoom down the rope and soon, I am nearing the tree. When I practice, I usually let go at the last minute, and connect a Web to a branch above me, and lower myself down gracefully. But then, I have perfect focus.

Something blue and red passes me. As I turn to look, the tree gets closer, and I accidentally let go of my cloth. I blindly shoot Webs out everywhere, but none of them catch me. I realize too late that I used most of my Web making the zipline. I curl into a ball and hope I don’t hit the ground too hard.

Suddenly, I am not falling anymore. But I also haven’t hit the ground yet. I open my eyes and see that I am tightly wrapped in Web, and I am also hanging from a branch by another thick strand of Web.

The red and blue thing drops in front of me, and I finally get a good look at it. It is a person, in a tight suit with a lattice pattern of black lines. They have a black spider on their chest. I rack my brains for a second, trying to figure out who would dress like that. Then it hits me.

“Henry?” I ask. I can tell by the slumped shoulders that I am right, but I have no idea why he would be so disappointed.

“It’s Spiderman.” he says, quite clearly irritated.

“When did you get that fancy name?” I’m quite used to his shenanigans, but he has never done anything this crazy.

“I’m a superhero!” he snaps. “With legendary powers, protecting the innocent civilians from crime…” I nod my head and slowly lean down towards the Web. I take a huge bite, trying to be quiet as I chew. A bitter taste leeches out of the Web, unlike the usual taste of fruit, which is everyone’s main diet.

“Oh, ew!” I say, cutting him off mid sentence. “Where have you been recharging, this tastes disgusting!” He looks back at me from his monologue.

“I’ve been recharging in the city, you aren’t supposed to eat that! It could be poisonous.”

“Why are you recharging in the city? The tree will be much more efficient, and there is no chance that you reveal…” I realize what I’m talking about. “You’ve been in the city, showing off your powers? You could endanger yourself, the spider colony, even the entire spider population.” I am so furious. There are no words. But I can’t do anything about it. What would I do, brew a potion that makes him paralyzed? I would need a very specific poison that doesn’t come from around here.

“Now listen, I would bring fame, riches, we wouldn’t need to hide! All spiders would be equal with regular people! Maybe even everyone with a hint of magic could come out into the open! We would be so powerful!” he tries to convince me. It doesn’t work.

“AND WHAT IF THEY DON’T THINK THAT WE ARE EQUAL? WHAT IF THEY DECIDE TO KILL US ALL? EVEN THE SIMPLE SHAPESHIFTERS WOULDN’T BE SAFE! THEY WOULD COME WITH THEIR TANKS AND MACHINE GUNS AND EVERYTHING WE BUILT WOULD BE RUINED!” I am screaming now. I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop. “AND IT WOULD ALL BE YOUR FAULT! NO ONE WOULD CARE THAT YOU PULLED THEIR CAT DOWN FROM A TREE! NO ONE WOULD EVEN NOTICE THAT! EVERYONE WOULD DIE!”

“No they won’t!” He is also shouting now. “We would not, because we would be the rulers! We would control the world!”

“Is that what you want then? Power? Fame? Well guess what? No one is going to give it to you. Because nobody cares.” I snap. I stopped shouting. Good.

“I will get the fame. Then I will destroy anyone who tries to stop me.” he spits. Then he shoots a rope of Web into the jungle, and swings away.

“What on earth just happened?” growls a low, menacing voice. My eyes widen and I try to scramble away, but then realize I’m still wrapped up in the tree.

“N-nothing, Mother.” I whisper. I am totally paralyzed with fear. Out of the trees, emerges a huge spider. Bigger than a house.

“Then explain to me why your brother has left our home wearing a ridiculous costume.” she growls.

“Oh, that’s nothing, just a little quarrel.” I smile unconvincingly, trying to lie.

“What was the shouting for?” I can feel all eight of her eyes staring into my soul.

“OK, you win,” I wince. “I lied. Henry has been acting as a one man law enforcement, and now everyone knows he has powers.”

“Excuse me?” she says. “He did what?”

“I don’t know, I swear! I just got back and now he has a costume, new name, and he’s been recharging in the city!”

“What did you just say? Do you mean that my son is recharging on the city filth?”

“I don’t know! Please, I didn’t do anything!” I wriggle around in the Web. “Can you please get me down?”

Black pincers flash, and suddenly, I am on the ground.

“Thank you.”

“Do not disturb me again.”

“Of course not, of course.” I slowly tiptoe to the base of the tree, where a thick curtain of vines conceals a room underneath the roots. I jump down onto the lower ground and survey the room around me.

A circular room, with walls of roots and a base of earth. Shelves line the walls, all around, only leaving the entrance uncovered. Masses of food cover the shelves, fruits, nuts, vegetables. Some plants, like the fruit that grow on vines, creep and crawl along the walls. I carefully select a banana and delicately peel it. As I take a bite, a feeling of warmth floods through me. The magic of recharging. As I finish my banana, I slowly climb the tree to the highest habitable branch, careful not to disturb any sleeping spiders.

I carefully sit down on my branch, but realize something is missing. I slowly scan my surroundings, trying to find my siblings. Several hairy legs poke into my view from the top. Two tarantulas lower themselves with a piece of Web and onto my lap.

“So that’s where you are!” I say in delight. “How was your day?” The spiders just give me a glassy stare.

“Oh right.” I gently slap myself on the forehead. I slowly drift away into Daydream.

My eyes open gently. I can see my brothers, identical twins. These two are my favorite brothers, way better than Henry.

“How delightful.” says one. I look up, confused, but then remember that most thoughts, when unguarded, can be picked up by any talented mind. I shield my thoughts that swim around like fish. Some are better left unknown, especially to my family.

“How was your day?” I ask. I have waited so long to get home, see everyone in the colony.

“It was fine, thank you.” says Harry. Or I think it is. It might be James.

“Yes, yes, quite delightful, actually.” the other says in an airy tone. Ah-ha. I was right. This one is definitely James. He’s really into sounding posh and proper.

“What did you do?” I continue. They had informed me about some plan, to combine their Web or something.

“We have made some really positive conclusions with our experiments.” says Harry. He is the one who gets things done. Brutally efficient. Surprising, really, since he spends all waking and sleeping hours with James. I thought some of the elegance would have rubbed off on him.

“Enough about us, however.” James cuts in. “More about you. You mentioned Henry?” They must have overheard me. Actually, I think everyone in this world did.

“Oh, yeah, that. It’s nothing really.” I shrug my shoulders apologetically. “I don’t want to say much.”

“Of course, of course.” James looks around. “Where did Harry go?” I look around and see that he is gone.

“Probably went to get a snack. We should go, he probably needs some help.”

“As if!” James snaps. He hates being helped. Something about not being human. But he wakes up from Daydream, seconds before I do.

I blink blearily. I’m not used to being in Daydream for so long. I gently pick up Harry and James, who are tugging on my sleeve. I set them down on my shoulders, they’re really big now. I slide down off the branch I was sitting on, so I am carefully hanging. I look down towards the next branch, and let go. I fall for a quick second, and then I grab onto another branch, and repeat.

I land on the ground and check that my brothers are safe. Yep, safe and sound. I brush aside the vines and enter the tree room. I look around. Passion fruits are too small, they hate mangoes, I just had a banana, there aren’t enough grapes, apples are too hard, tomatoes are too soft, got it. Watermelon. Sweet? Check. Big enough? Check. Soft enough? Check. Hard enough? Check. I pull one of the smaller melons down from the shelf. I slowly climb up onto the first branch of the tree and drop the watermelon. It cracks and splatters everywhere.

“Whoops!” I shrug my shoulders and hop down to the ground. Harry and James scuttle away with two pieces each.

“Right! Leave me to clean this up!” I call after them. But I laugh and start picking up the pieces, eating the ones that don’t have any dirt on them. Mmm, I love watermelon.

I dump the bits of splattered, dirty watermelon in a corner. My hands are so sticky. I tiptoe around the tree and sneak past Mother and slink into the deeper jungle. It’s darker, and the trees are closer together. Vines and leaves now block the already thin trail. Several miles later, I reach a clearing, and the ground slopes down toward a raging, rushing river. The water is moving so fast that little droplets spray into the air, and foam bubbles along the top of the river.

I dart down to the bank and swish my hands along the top of the river, and splash a little on my face. I’m careful not to fall in. No one has ever been able to swim out of the river. If you fall in, you're a goner. I examine my reflection. Long, dark hair and pale amber eyes. I wonder what I would look like if I wasn’t a spider. Probably like the other girls in school, who are very short. I’m usually the tallest out of all the girls in my class.

I run back up to the trail and sprint down it, expertly dodging vines, leaves and stray branches. When I emerge back out of the thick jungle, it is already dusk. I know that one of my aunts or older cousins will be checking to make sure that everyone is in bed, so I need to hurry. I quickly tiptoe past my mother and to the base of the tree. I hear a snapping sound behind me. The other trees have been cleared!

I grab the lowest branch and heave myself onto it. Then I scuttle up the tree, past other sleeping spiders, humans, all in hammocks made of Web. I am careful to not wake any of them up. My arms feel like lead. I look down towards the ground, and for a second, I feel like I am about to fall. But then I pull myself up onto one more branch and climb carefully into my hammock, just in time, because my oldest cousin silently climbs up past me, checking that everyone is in bed. I stare through the tiny gap in branches above me and see one twinkling little star. I relax, and drift off to sleep.

The rustle of leaves wakes me up. Pink sunlight filters through the trees. The sun is still rising. I sit up and stretch my arms, feeling the warmth of the light. I elegantly leap out of my hammock and swing down to the ground, branch by branch.

As I land on the ground, I smell something delicious coming from a different tree. I run over, tracking the scent.

“What are you cooking?” I ask as I round the corner and see my aunt flipping something over on a pan.

“Pancakes! You want some?” She offers me a plate stacked with golden brown pancakes, lightly drizzled with maple syrup.

“Not if I get them first!” says a loud girl, shoving her way into my view.

“Hey, no fair!” I complain to my cousin, Julie. She is my favorite cousin, only a few months older than me, and I wish she was my sister sometimes. Not that I don’t see her a lot.

“You snooze, you lose!” she grins back at me, taking a huge bite of pancake.

“Hey girls, there’s always more!” says my aunt, giving me another plate of pancakes.

“Not if Julie eats them all.” I mutter under my breath.

“Hey! I heard that.” I laugh and shove the last of my pancakes into my mouth.

“Thank you so much, that was delicious!” I say before heading back to the exit trail.

My feet run down the trail, as I’m filled with energy. Soon, I emerge through the mist and onto the road, which has barely any cars. But this is different. It’s like it’s covered in shadow.

Suddenly, I’m jerked off the ground by something, lifting me by my shirt.

“Who are you? How did you get into my realm?” it growls.

“What?” I sputter. “I don’t know? Where am I?”

“Only someone with magical powers could enter. Tell me! What are you?” The words register. The thing wants to know what I am. Why am I magic. I cannot risk endangering the colony. I would be just like Henry.

“I don’t know! Please! Let me go!” I twist around, trying to free myself from the iron grip of this thing. Suddenly, something hits me in the head, and I black out.

**********

When I wake up, I can see what had grabbed me. It is a woman, who appears to be finishing off a bottle of some golden liquid. As she drinks the last of it, a huge force like a shockwave hits me and I black out again.

I wake up again. I’m on the side of the road, and now everything is back to normal. I can see all of the fancy cars rolling past, the people inside them decked out in the finest clothes. The kids in the back row playing on the newest iPads and iPhones.

I try to stand up. A wave of dizziness rolls over me, and I have to lean on a boulder. I turn and see a different, newer entrance through the mist, just barely 20 yards away. I slowly trudge each excruciating step. Just 3 feet away, I tumble down over my own feet and face plant on the ground. I can see the mist, right through it. I’m crawling now, the dirt and gravel digging into my arms and cutting them. I drag myself through the mist entrance.

The mist swirls around me and I land in a deep jungle valley. I look around and can see my home just up the hill. It’s at least a 3 mile journey. Suddenly, several shiny things flash by me and I’m thrown backwards into a tree, pinned there by several knives through my shirt.

A clan of people surround me, all of them baring unusually sharp teeth and slashing their claws through the air. Great. I walked through mist and into a colony of shapeshifters. None of them have shifted fully, which is a good sign. The largest one steps forward.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he announces in a deep voice.

“Not this again.” I mutter.

“Excuse me?” he growls. “How dare you!” Right. Shapeshifters and their touchy feelings.

“I’m Belle, from the spider colony up the hill.” I shrug my shoulders.

“There is no such thing! We are the only magic users in the area!” All of the shapeshifters advance forward. Their claws glint in the sunlight. In terror, I shoot Web everywhere, knocking several of them in the face, others in the leg.

“She does have spider magic!” cries out one shapeshifter who got hit.

“Very well. She will be escorted back to her colony. Tobias!” snaps the leader. One of the shapeshifters straightens up.

“Escort this girl back to her colony.”

“I’m not going to escort such filth as a spider.” he spits.

“Who will take her back to her colony?” the leader announces. All the shapeshifters look at each other and shake their heads.

“Make Scarlett do it!” cries a shrill voice from the back.

“Very well. Scarlett!” the leader shouts. From behind a tree, emerges a… squirrel? The squirrel shakes for a second, and slowly shifts back into a human girl, who looks to be about my age.

“Why me?” she asks in a snarky voice. “Why doesn’t Grace do it? Or Chrysanthemum? Or possibly… Lulu?”

“You have been nominated for this task. I expect you to do it!”

“Fine. Do you need me to fetch you a glass of water too?”

“Scarlett!” The girl walks over to me and yanks the knives out of the tree. I inspect my shirt. There were a few holes, but most of them were very small. She discards the knives on the ground.

“Do you know how to get back?” she asks me.

“I do.” I whisper.

“Lead the way.” I wind my way up the hill, which seems like a mountain, only using the rough glimpse of my colony to direct me. After a few minutes of hiking, my breath draws short, and I feel lightheaded. I lean against a tree, trying to regain my breath. Black spots swim in and out of my vision.

“Help.” I croak, even quieter than a whisper. I see Scarlett twitch, but she doesn’t turn.

“Get up. We need to get you back. This is a long journey, even longer for me.” I push myself up and off of the tree. Pain floods through me and I collapse to the ground.

“Please. Help me.” I choke. The black spots are getting bigger. Scarlett finally turns around.

“Fine. I call my mount.” She sticks two fingers in her mouth and emits a shrill whistle. Huge feet crash through the forest and above me, I can see what looks to be an ostrich.

“You ride an ostrich?” I whisper.

“It’s an emu. Get on.” she snaps.

“They don’t live anywhere near here.” I try to lift myself off the ground, but fall back down.

“I take good care of him.” she sees me lying on the ground. “Oh bother.” Scarlett hoists me up onto the emu.

“Which way do we go?” she growls. I point a feeble finger toward the colony. She gives a sharp kick to the emu, and he sets off. This feels like magic. So fast, she hadn’t seen a bird move like this before.

The emu reaches a ridge and I see the colony. My family, with no idea about where I’ve been. Scarlett dumps me off of the emu and dismounts herself gracefully.

“You!” she yells at Julie. “Do you know this girl?”

“Who-” Julie starts, then she sees me. “Belle? What happened?”

“This intruder came to our village!” Scarlett continues to shout. And I thought she was a nice person. “I was given the task of bringing her back.”

“Hang on, how do you know where we live? Where do you live? How did you get here? Who are you?” Julie replies.

“I am Scarlett of the shapeshifters.” Great. Scarlett has finally quieted down.

“You’re a shapeshifter? But we’re the only magical people in the county?” Julie states it like a question.

“That is what we believed too, however we were clearly wrong. Take this girl away!” Scarlett is shouting again. Julie runs over, picks me up, and takes me to a different tree room. This one is like the fruit room, but it is filled with spices, dried leaves, and jars of dead bugs.

“Shapeshifter Scarlett!” Julie calls. “Mother! You would want to come!” I see my aunt and Scarlett come in.

“Oh my! Belle! What happened?” she rounds on Julie.

“Don’t blame me, it’s her fault!” Julie says, pointing to Scarlett. Scarlett and Julie start bickering.

“Girls!” snaps my aunt. “I would hope you can quiet down, Belle is deeply hurt.” She proceeds to inspect me, and has me stand up. The black spots flood my vision, and I fall to the ground, again.

I wake up almost instantly, but I’m not in my own body. I’m floating in Daydream. I must have instinctively come. I move towards the spice room, trying to see what’s going on.

My aunt, Julie, and Scarlett are crushing spices, crumbling leaves, and boiling bugs in a pot. I see Scarlet throw in a handful of hissing cockroaches, and my stomach lurches. I watch my aunt carefully crush some unknown spices in a mortar and pestle, and dump those in the pot too. Finally, Julie shreds some leaves that look like mint, and you guessed it! Into the pot it goes. The conclusion of this is a disgusting looking black liquid. It’s runny, and has bits of black paste in it. It reminds me of the weird golden stuff the suspicious lady drank, even though they’re complete opposites. This concoction isn’t shiny, like the golden liquid. I see my aunt pour some of it into a bottle and carefully walk over towards what looks like my unconscious body.

Heck no. I am not drinking that. I would get poisoned for sure, even if my family made it. I tried to leave Daydream to stop them, but it was like trying to escape from a pond that had frozen over. Staying this long in Daydream wasn’t healthy, and my condition was worse enough. I had no choice, but to continue watching and hope that I wouldn’t get poisoned.

My aunt didn’t pour the mixture in my mouth. Instead, she dumped it all over my face! The black liquid immediately absorbed into my skin. The paste slowly smoothed around my face on its own, then it too absorbed in! And then, as if by magic, I felt like I was being hoisted up and out of Daydream.

My eyes shot open. I could see everything so clearly. It was like someone had healed every little flaw and imperfection about me. The scar I got after I tripped Julie and she tackled me. Gone. My ragged and dirty nails. Smoothed to a perfection. The bruise after being cut down from the tree. Vanished. I looked flawless.

“What happened?” I say in a smooth voice. Julie, Scarlett and my aunt looked at me in worry, as if I was about to pass out again.

“Hello? What happened to me?” I repeat.

“Oh, um yes.” says my aunt, looking a bit flustered. “You see, your symptoms indicate that someone stole your Luck.”

“My Luck? What does that mean? You can’t just take someone's luck, can you?” They look at me again.

“What is going on? Why are you looking at me like I’m about to explode?” Frustration begins to bubble inside me.

“Well, you know all that pain you were just in? The light headedness, the fainting?” says Julie.

“I did not faint! I merely passed out!” I say in outrage.

“Yeah, whatever.” interrupts Scarlett. “Those were supposed to be the mildest symptoms of having your Luck stolen. The physical ones.”

“Like when you have a cold, you might have a stuffy nose, but you also have a sore throat? This is the stuffy nose part.” explains my aunt. This is the best part? There was more? More pain and suffering?

“What’s the worst symptom?” I ask timidly. I don’t want to hear the answer, but it’s best if I know, and can prepare.

“No one knows for sure, but it’s supposed to be along the lines of this. Every little terrible thing that can happen to you, does. And it makes whoever stole your Luck, twice as lucky. That way it’s almost impossible to take your Luck back. The spell is so hard to cast, that you are one of the first few people to ever have it taken from you.” my aunt informs me.

“Then what did you give me? What potion was that?” I continue. I need to know every little detail.

“That was an unluck potion. It’s supposed to be a cure, to fill in where your Luck used to be. But the effectiveness depends on how long your Luck was missing.” Julie replies.

“So I’m hopeless.” I say in a deadpan voice.

“No you aren’t.” Scarlett says firmly. “We’ll find your Luck, even if I have to do it myself.”

“You’re confusing, you know that?” I say. “One minute you’re shouting at my family, the next you’re promising to help me cure the incurable.”

“It’s one of my many talents.” she says, and bows. A thought occurs to me.

“Where did your emu go?” I ask. I can’t see it anywhere.

“My what?” Scarlett says, confused.

“Your emu! You know, that’s how we got up here!” I say, frustrated. “Where is it?”

“I don’t have an emu. What on earth are you talking about?” I realize that I probably hallucinated the emu.

“Then how did we-” I start.

“That doesn’t matter, what matters is if you can stand up!” Julie interrupts. Oh, right. I push myself up and off of the ground, take a few strides on strong, steady legs.

“I can walk!” I gasp.

“Duh you can!” smirks Julie. “We cured you, remember?”

“Hey, after intense pain and passing out whenever I tried, this is a huge improvement. Also, you didn’t cure me. You simply gave me a glorified painkiller.” I roll my eyes at her.

“Ahem!” announces my aunt. “There is more information.”

“OK, tell us!” says Scarlett.

“That’s what I was going to do. I suggest you sit down for this, it’s pretty long.” Scarlett, Julie and I sit down.

“OK, so the last reported case of a missing Luck went terribly wrong. The person tried to get it back, but they vanished at the new moon. No one knows what happened to them, they might have died, they could have been consumed and reincarnated into another person, anything is possible.”

“So you’re saying that if I don’t get my Luck back before the next new moon, I’ll die?” I ask. This situation was getting grimer and grimer.

“Not exactly, there are a few ways to get your Luck back. Firstly, you could always attempt to cast a Luck spell and steal someones, however, if you’re low on Luck it would most likely blow up in your face. You can try to find a leprechaun and have them make a new Luck for you, but leprechauns are extremely rare, and making Luck takes time. There’s no way you could do that within the next new moon.”

“Then it’s hopeless!” cries out Julie. I recoil in shock. I had forgotten that Scarlett and Julie were still here.

“No. There is still one more way. You would need to track down whoever stole your Luck and give them an unluck potion.”

“That’s my best shot? I can barely remember what they look like, and the world is a huge place.”

“We have to try!” exclaims Scarlett. “When is the next new moon?” Julie looks at me gravely.

“It’s in 5 days.”

**********

Scarlett, Julie and I ran around the colony, panicking. Scarlett was worrying about what would happen if her tribe found out that she had run off to help me, Julie was worrying about what we would do, and I was worrying that I would die in 5 days!

My brain went into overdrive, and I ran as fast as I could, to the river. I ran and ran, and almost fell into the river. But I caught myself at the last second, and fell on my hands.

“What are you doing here?” said a familiar voice. I looked up and saw…

“Henry? What are you doing here?” I ask in surprise.

“Are you OK? I came as soon as I heard you were hurt. Please trust me, I can help you! You won’t be hurt anymore.” He reaches out to pull me up, but I recoil and slap his hand away.

“Don’t touch me! You ran off and almost endangered our entire colony!And now you try to help me?”

“No, please, I can fix this.” Henry begs.

“Definitely not. Why are you trying to fix this? Did you cause this?” I ask in horror.

“Ye- no! I didn’t! I’m just trying to help!”

“I can see right through you. I was right in shooing you away from the colony. You’re nothing but trouble!” I gasp in a very dramatic voice. I get up and turn to run, but realize I’m trapped, with my new arch-nemesis, with the only escape option being a river that you can’t swim out of. I feel someone push me.

“You’re too smart. I knew I shouldn’t have tried to make you trust me. Morana will kill me. I have no choice. Spiderman out!” Then I fell into the river. As the icy water rushed over me, one thought pierced my mind. Who is Morana?

Then the cold water closed over me and the river started pushing me forward, down towards wherever. I swim onto my stomach and struggle against the river. I know why Mother says to never go to the river. It’s impossible to go upstream at all, even a motorboat would get swept away. I get pulled farther and farther downstream. I stop struggling. There was no point. Spiders can’t swim. They just don’t.

Wait! I’m a spider! I can use my Web! I turn to face downstream, and view around me from under water. I spot a sturdy looking tree. I lift a hand and line it up perfectly. The river is moving faster now. I shoot a perfect line of Web. It sticks on to the branch several inches off. How did that happen? But I have no time to think, because as I pull myself up, the water drops off away from me. I’m dangling over the edge of a huge waterfall! I can barely see the river below. I’m hanging on to one of the smallest trees ever. The water must have distorted my vision!

I grab the Web and try to pull myself to the edge of the river. Crack! The branch that I’m hanging onto breaks slightly. Crack! I close my eyes and wait for myself to hit the ground, but nothing happens. I’m still hanging onto the Web. I open my eyes and look around. I see that someone had emerged from the forest and was running towards me. It looked exactly like the person who I met in the shadow dimension! The lady grabs a necklace and dials something on it. Suddenly, time seems to slow down, and the lady seems to speed up! I realize too late that she is coming for me. She leaps over the river in an unhuman jump and continues running towards me. I know the only way out. I wouldn’t let this crazy lady get me. I slowly open my fingers and let go of the Web.

“NO!” screeches the lady. But I’m already falling. I can see her face peering over the edge of the waterfall. I’m still moving really slow, but the ground is rushing up towards me all too fast. I shoot Webs everywhere, and crash into the river. The impact shocks me, and my vision blacks out for a second. I open my eyes and see that I’m lying face down in a gentle river that’s barely 2 feet deep. I stand up and realize I can move quickly. I’m just so fatigued, that it seems like I was still very slow.

I look around and see that I’m standing in the river that leads through a forest. I wander downstream, staying in the stream so I don’t leave footprints. I have a sneaking suspicion that the lady running at me wasn’t trying to help me.

I walk for a very long time, floating downstream on my back occasionally, taking drinks whenever. The water tastes pure, just like the river that leads to the waterfall. Nothing I’ve ever drank in school or in the city ever tasted as good as this water.

I continue to walk for about 30 minutes before I realize something isn’t right. I feel fine, but something is off. I stop and think. Then I hear it. Or more specifically, I don’t hear it. I can’t hear anything. When I snap my fingers, I can hear that fine, but I can’t hear any wildlife. Then I look at the river, which I can’t feel moving. It’s a murky brown, and I can’t see my own legs. Or whatever might be in the water. I scramble out of the water and fall on the shore.

I see what’s on my legs. My legs are covered in leeches! I shriek and frantically brush them off, feeling the slimy, blood-sucking things. None of the leeches move. I grab a stick and scrape them off, each tiny leech by tiny leech. Finally, most of the leeches are gone, but 5 huge leeches remain. I try to scrape them off my legs but they don't budge. The slimy things are strong! I close my eyes, grab the one on my shin, and pull as hard as I can. I jerk my leg up and fall. Oh my goodness! There is no way those blood-suckers are that strong. Then, as if by magic, all five huge leeches fall off my leg and slide their way back into the water. The little leeches follow, like ducklings following their mother.

I inspect my legs in relief. I have seen enough of those things! But my legs aren’t bleeding. Instead, round purple marks show where the big leeches were. My legs aren’t cut. In fact, it looks like instead of drawing blood, the leeches injected me with something. I rub the marks with a finger and see that the purple stuff is gooey. I brush it off my fingers and take a deep breath. I walk along the river bank.

I see that the forest I’m walking through is nothing like the one I entered. I entered a lush green forest with a clear, slow moving stream. The forest I’m currently in is dead, the river isn’t moving and it’s murky.

Around 90 minutes later, I feel a sharp pain in my legs. I look at them and see that my veins turned purple! The shade of purple is awfully familiar. I remember that they are the same purple as the remnants of the leeches! The world around me begins to spin, and I barely hear the light tread of footsteps behind me. I whirl around. It’s the same lady! I yell and back away as fast as I can.

My foot hits something and I trip and fall. The lady advances very carefully, as if trying not to spook some wild animal.

“Don’t touch me.” I choke on my own breath.

“I’m not going to. I just need a favor.” says the lady in a smooth, syrup-like voice.

“I know what you did.” I spit. “I’m never going to give you a favor.” I know the legends of favors. If you give someone a favor, they can call it in at any time, when you’re sleeping, when you’re working, in rush-hour traffic. And if you set zero boundaries for your favor, they can ask anything of you. And you have no choice.

“Then I will take a favor from you. I have the power to do so.” The lady takes another careful step towards me.

“I know about favors. You can’t take one without my permission. I have to give it to you.”

“Do you not know who I am?” she roars, going from calm to raging in an instant. “I am Morana! A feared sorceress! I am the Queen of Time!” The last words ring in my ears. A queen? All royalty was to be honored and respected. Then her name sparks a memory. Henry. He mentioned Morana. So this is who he is working with.

“So you are Henry’s accomplice!” I say in triumph.

“What?” Morana asks in shock. “But he never- I never-” Then her face turns tomato red and she starts yelling again.

“That stupid boy! Curse him! He is the bane of my existence! He can’t even fool his own little sister!” That hits home. I’m his sister. His family. He had no right to push me in the river! Older siblings protect the younger ones!

I look up and see that Morana is gone. I squint and see that a small figure is standing around a mile away. Good. I don’t need to see her for a million years.

I crash through the trees running as fast as I can. I sprint and sprint and don’t stop. My legs feel like they’re on fire and my breath is in short gasps. I can only think of running out of this forest, getting away, getting back home. Snap!

I glance behind me and see nothing. Then I turn and look back. There he is! Henry! I’m about to shout at him when I remember that I’m still running. Then I trip on a root and fall right on my face. Before I can get up, Henry ties my arms behind my back.

“Now don’t you think about running away.” he says in a pained voice. “I don’t want to be doing this.”

“You don’t have to.” I snarl. “I know about Morana. If I tell the Royalty Council about her, they’ll take her title away! You’ll have no power!”

“I’m still bigger and stronger. Please, you don’t have to struggle. I can fix this. Don’t worry.” he says in the same voice. “Just work with me.”

“Never.” I growl. “You betrayed me, our family, everyone. I can’t stand to even hear you.” I hear him step back, as if genuinely hurt. I don’t care. Let him be hurt. He has hurt me so much. I look up and see that there is a doorway of Mist. I glance back quickly. Henry isn’t looking at me. He’s looking at the sky, as if trying to summon a lightning bolt and zap him into dust. I roll over and jump up.

“Hey!” Henry shouts. He runs after me, but I have a good head start. I sprint into the Mist doorway and hope that Henry doesn’t know where I went. The Mist swirls around me and I land back home. I take a deep breath and look around, clearing my head of the Mist.

“Scarlett? Julie?” I call out. “Anyone?” I see Julie jump out from behind a tree.

“Oh my goodness, Belle! We were so worried! Where were you?” she cries out.

“What happened?” says Scarlett, emerging from a tree-room.

“I got lost, then Morana came, and there was this forest…”

“Slow down!” Julie says. “Start from the beginning. Why were you gone for so long?”

“I didn’t mean to, I got lost.” I reply.

“Lost for 3 days?”

“What do you mean, 3 days?” I’m genuinely confused. “I’ve only been gone for a few hours, tops.”

“No you really haven’t. You’ve been gone for a long time.”

“Wait, how much time do I have before the new moon?” I ask.

“It’s almost midnight. You have just over 24 hours.” says Scarlett in a grim voice.

**********

My eyes droop close as I flip through the pages of an ancient looking book. I had researched so many different things. How to cure missing Luck. What happens to people with no Luck. Where to find leprechauns.

“Belle!” someone says, startling me out of my daze. “Breakfast!” I look up and see Julie holding four plates stacked with waffles.

“Who’s the fourth person?” I ask sleepily.

“You mean fourth and fifth.” Julie says.

“Wha-” I start, but then, as if on cue, two tarantulas crawl up the side of the table. Scarlett shrieks and leaps backwards. Right. She probably thought that all spiders were human.

“Why are those here?” she gasps.

“You know, there’s a reason we’re called spiders.” I point out. “Not all of us have this lovely human form.”

“Scarlett, meet my cousins. That one is James and that one is Harry.” Julie introduces them.

“Wrong.” I make a buzzer sound. “That one is James and this one is Harry.”

“Argh! Why do you always know?” she fake growls at me in anger.

“Wait,” Scarlett says. “Are you three, siblings?”

“Yeah, and I’d like to have a quick chat with them.” Then I fall into Daydream.

I see Harry fade in a second after I do. James is already here.

“So, older sister,” says James. “What’s the matter?”

“Shh!” I gesture at them. “Watch!” And I pull them down towards Julie and Scarlett, watching Scarlett freak out.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to them?”

“Don’t worry, they’re just in Daydream. They’ll be fine.”

“But she just left! Her consciousness isn’t here!”

“She’s fine.”

“But her Luck, and, and everything!”

“This is a thing that she’s been doing since she hatched. Her mom and my aunt had to bring her out of Daydream.”

“What? Is?! Going! ON?!”

“Please just calm down. They’ll be back in a minute or two.”

“OK, OK, I’m calm.”

I look away from the girls and look at my brothers.

“Something happened to your Luck?” asks Harry.

“Yes, we heard. Are you OK?” says James. Dang. These boys were observant.

“I’m fine. I need your help.”

“Now what would you need our help with?” asks Harry.

“Your experiments!” I cry. “The experiments! I need them! Or anything!”

“What do you need with our experiments?” questions James.

“Can they help?”

“Yes, they would.” replies Harry.

“How?” James turns to his twin.

“Remember, the correlation between Luck and strange happenings? We can track down whoever stole your Luck!”

“Wait, how did you know it was stolen?” I ask. I have no idea. Scarlett didn’t say anything.

“Scientific guess. Luck can’t be affected by most things, and spontaneous fainting is a symptom. If that girl thought you were hurt, and knew about your Luck, all we had to do was put the pieces together. Simple, really.”

“Huh. You guys are really observant.” The fact that they did that was amazing. With such little information.

“Now, tell us everything that happened. We might pick up something you missed.”

I tell everything. About the shadow dimension, about Henry and Morana, every little detail.

“Hmm.” James says. “Leave Daydream. I’m sure your friends need you. Harry and I will get you if we find something.” I wake up from Daydream.

“Belle!” Scarlett says. “You’re awake! I was so worried!” I laugh.

“I know, it was hilarious to watch you freak out!” I say. I stand up to stretch my legs when a sharp pain courses through them. I cry out in pain and collapse. I look at my legs and see that the purple veins have spread up and everywhere, covering my legs in a lattice work. Looking at them hurts, like icy fire is being pulled up through my veins.

“Wait!” says Scarlett. “I know how to fix this!” She grabs some sort of powder and sprinkles it over my legs. Then she grabs a handful of leaves and sticks them into her mouth. I can hear the leaves crunch as she chews them. The thought makes me feel ill.

“Ugh! That's disgusting!” I say.

“You know what’s more disgusting?” says Julie, as she gets a bottle that Scarlett motioned towards. “Blood poisoning. It’ll be much worse if you don’t treat it. This is really bad, what happened?”

“There were some leeches. I didn’t think that they would poison me.”

“Oh dear. You really are a case aren’t you?” Scarlett sighs, spitting out the now chewed up leaves. I feel something tug on my arm and see that James is back from Daydream. I nod and slip into Daydream.

“Did you find anything?” I ask immediately.

“Yes. Those leeches were probably poisonous.” replies James.

“Yeah, I noticed.” I say sarcastically.

“That’s not all.” says James. “Harry, what did we find?”

“You say that you could walk after your Luck was stolen?” When I nod he continues.

“This means that probably, your Luck hasn’t been consumed by another being. It’s being stored for later.”

“That’s impossible,” I say. “I saw Morana drink it.”

“There’s a high chance you didn’t.” James informs me. “You had weird visions, remember? Your vision was probably not the best.”

“What does that mean?” I say, but as I finish my sentence, a paralyzing pain hits me and I collapse.

“What’s happening?” Harry says in a panic.

“I don’t know!” replies James. In the pain, I see Julie and Scarlett, and my body. Now all my veins are purple, even the ones on my head. My eyes have a blank, glassy stare.

“What time is it?” I choke out.

“It’s midnight!” says James quickly. Oh no. It’s the new moon. Whatever’s happening, is happening.

“I need to stay here. Daydream has kept me alive while that poison makes its course. Julie and Scarlett will help me. Find out everything you can!” Then I close my eyes and hope I stay in Daydream.

**********

“Belle?” says a soft voice. “Are you awake?” I open my eyes to see that I’m still in Daydream. I see that Harry and James are gone, and now only Julie is here.

“Julie!” I say excitedly. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. First we were treating you, then you came to Daydream. Only a couple seconds later, the purple veins spread to your head. Scarlett didn’t have enough leaves, so we only put them on your head. It got rid of the color, but I don’t know if you’re fully OK.”

“Good. Wait, why are you here? Did I infect you guys?” Fear shocks me.

“No. Scarlett and everyone are fine. It’s not contagious.”

“Then why are you here? What’s wrong?”

“The problem is… We can’t wake you up.”

“What? I’m stuck here?”

“For now.”

“Can you find Harry and James? I want to know if they found anything.”

“Will do.” She fades out of Daydream and a few minutes later, Harry and James fade in.

“Hi.” the two say in unison.

“Have you found anything? Please, I’m stuck here. I have nothing to do! I need help, as soon as I can!” The desperation in my voice is clear.

“Of course. We have found so many things.” says James.

“What have you found?”

“We believe that Morana is storing your Luck for some unknown later use. However, since Morana is a Queen, law dictates that tampering with someone else's vital organs is illegal.”

“Wait,” I interrupt. “I thought vital organs were like, your heart and lungs and kidneys and liver.”

“Yes, they are, but a magic user has others, such as Luck, Second Thoughts, and Daydream. Only a few different magic people have Daydream.” says James.

“Anyway,” Harry says. “Since Morana can’t do that, she must have an accomplice.” I think about this for a second. Then I realize it.

“Henry!” I say with a snap of my fingers. “He must be the accomplice!”

“That’s what we were thinking too.” says James in a grave voice.

“Hold on, if Morana couldn’t mess with my vital organs as Queen, how did she steal my Luck? I know Henry didn’t.”

“We believe that Morana stole it, became Queen, and then she would be immune to any punishment that the Royalty Council might give her. She would be immune, but she couldn’t keep the Luck. That’s what Henry’s for.”

“So how do we stop her?” I ask in fear. How could we defeat someone who’s a Queen?

“I don’t know.” Harry says in a grave voice. “But we may as well have a plan.”

I relax near everyone planning, still in Daydream. Julie drifts in and out of Daydream with Harry and James, asking my opinion on everything. It was a convoluted plan, with many variables and things that could go wrong. So much of it was based on Luck, and Luck was something I didn’t have.

After staring at a map of the jungle, trying to make sense of the plan, I feel tired and frustrated.

• “Belle!” says Julie, coming into Daydream. “Should we use vines or rope for the net?” The question makes all the frustration bubble over inside me.

“Argh!” I scream. “Why is this so complicated! Why can’t it be simple!”

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to know.” whispers Julie.

“Fine. Here’s what I think. We trash this complicated and sloppy plan for something simple.”

“What? We worked so hard on this!” Julie says in outrage.

“I don’t care! This is about me! I’m the one who we’re dealing with! This is what we do…” I explain the plan I had been working on.

“You’re right! That is really good!” I can tell by her voice that she is still hurt by my harsh words.

“I’ll let the others know.” She starts to leave.

“Wait!” I call out. “I’m… sorry for what I said.”

“It’s OK.” Then she fades out. I watch her explain the plan to everyone, and see their nods. I watch Scarlett mouth, ‘That is a good plan’ and see my aunt, who must have shown up when I was in Daydream earlier, say ‘Great idea’ . I'm glad to know my plan is a success.

I move down towards where my body is. I sit in the same position, and take a deep breath. Then a blinding white light fills Daydream and… I wake up out of Daydream.

“You’re awake!” cries Scarlett.

“What?” I ask, confused about what just happened.

“It’s a miracle!” says Julie.

“I couldn’t see you, everyone kept fading away and they would come back with what you said, but I never saw you!” Scarlett says.

“I thought you could bring others into Daydream?” I ask Julie.

“We can, but Mom only showed up a few minutes ago. It’s hard to bring others into Daydream.” she replies, nodding her head towards my aunt.

“That’s true.” confirms my aunt. “Your mother is one of the best at it.”

“Great.” I mutter. My mother was supposedly one of the most skilled spiders there was, but all I had ever seen her do was sleep, eat, and tell me and my siblings off. I suppose it’s hard being a giant spider, but she might at least try.

“Anyways,” I continue. “Do we have everything we need for the plan?”

“Yes, all we need is the right time.”

I watch the plan get set into motion. My aunt had heard that Spiderman had shown up again, and we thought, with James’s and Harry’s opinion, that Morana would be close. The trap was about to be set up.

We all left for the city, knowing that’s where Henry and Morana would be. Scarlett shifted into squirrel form and my aunt carried her up to the top of the biggest skyscraper, and waited for Spiderman to pass. I was watching from the ground, my eyes on the skyline, waiting to see him. Finally, the figure swung past a building, and I gave my aunt the signal. Scarlett shifted back, and my aunt secured her with a strong, but spindly looking Web. Then she climbed onto the top of the building, and out of sight, where she and Julie waited.

“Help!” screamed Scarlett. “Please! Somebody! Help!” From the ground, it looked like she was actually about to fall! And from the side, it looked like she had been trapped there. The perfect bait for a “superhero”. Henry swung by, saw Scarlett, and immediately decided to play the hero. As he swung by to save her, Julie and my aunt struck. They blasted him with Web, wrapping him up like he did to me, the day before Morana stole my luck. They pulled him up onto the top of the building, and I watched Scarlett shift and climb up too. Then something grabs me from behind, and I feel rope being tightened around my arms and body.

“I got you, little girl. So foolish, to believe that I wouldn’t know. I always know.” I hear Morana hiss in my ear. I silently gasp. How would she know? I summon up the courage to speak.

“But I know things too. I know about your plan-” I say before she cuts me off.

“Little one, do not speak another word. Wouldn’t want your other friends hearing. Not until my henchman finishes them off.” I gasp silently again. Henry? Would he really do that to his own family? I take a deep breath, and fall into Daydream. As I fade in, I pray that someone will be here. When I open my eyes, I see that one of my first cousins is chatting with Harry and James.

“James! Harry!” I yell. I see them turn to look at me.

“Oh, hi, Aither.” I add hastily. He watches me wait for a moment.

“Should I go?” he asks tentatively.

“Yes!” I say a little too eagerly. “Oh, um, I mean, if you want to.” He nods and fades out of Daydream. I sigh and run towards my brothers.

“James, Harry, I’m being held captive by Morana. I need your help getting free.” I grab them and close my eyes, picturing where my body is. I open my eyes to see us in the city. I float towards where Henry is, and see that Morana was lying. Henry is still wrapped up, and Julie, Scarlett and my aunt are peering over the edge of the building, looking at me. I drift back down towards myself.

“Please come here. Everything depends on it. Bite her or something!”

“Always.” says Harry. I hug the little tarantulas.

“Remember, we don’t have much time!” I call as I fade out. When I open my eyes, Morana is now yelling up towards my family and Scarlett.

“Release the boy and your girl goes free!” she shouts.

“We have the advantage! We have her Luck! One drop on her and she’ll be healed!”

“Do you really? Have you checked, or has your plan failed?” As she says this, she pulls out a necklace with a gold clock attached to it, and a small vial of golden liquid. As the people on the roof gasp and widen their eyes, I decide to scream.

“Don’t do anything! Don’t make the trade! We can still go to the Royalty Council! Just don’t make any deals with Morana!” Morana slaps a hand over my mouth, silencing me, but merely a second later, she collapses to the ground, releasing me. When I turn around, I see two tarantulas climbing over Morana and coming towards me.

“Hey! You made it!” I say, knowing they can’t hear me. I spend a few minutes wriggling out of the ropes. I tie up Morana’s feet and wrap her hands in Web. Then I grab her necklace and my Luck. I unstopper the bottle and drink it all in one gulp. A feeling of warmth floods through me and what little of the purple veins was left is now gone.

“Come down here!” I call the people on the roof. Scarlett jumps off the building, and at the last second, shifts into a squirrel and saves herself. She shifts back and walks toward me. Julie and my aunt lower themselves and Henry down. Once everyone is over with Morana and I, I start to talk.

“So,” I say, looking at Henry. “What is the meaning of this?” He only glares at me. I sigh and step away so someone else can speak.

“You are a danger to society!” snarls Julie. Wow. I didn’t realize she was this angry.

“What do you have to say about yourself?” my aunt says in an interrogating way. Still, he only glares at us.

“OK, you won’t talk. Let’s try something else.” Scarlett says, stepping forward. “You don’t have a choice. You’ll either talk here, and go to the Royalty Council for trial, or you’ll go to the Royalty Council for trial and then the King of Truth will force it out of you.” Sheesh. Intimidation %100. He only scowls. I knock on his forehead, trying to tell if there are any brains left in him.

“Royalty Council it is.” I conclude. Then I round on Morana. She woke up from the spider bites. Good. She needed to explain a lot.

“I won’t tell you anything.” she says immediately, as if reading my mind. I sigh.

“Fine then. I’ll just call the Royalty Council.”

**********

I sit in front of the Royalty Council, awaiting their judgement. They had already convicted Henry and Morana, but they still had one more decision to make. Since Morana couldn’t be the Queen of Time anymore, they had to choose a new one.

“Who made this plan?” asks the King of Life.

“I did, sir.” I stand up. “However, it was these two who saved the day.” I pick up Harry and James. The King of Life and the Queen of Death murmur to each other for a moment.

“The decision has been made.” announced the Queen of Death. “Since we cannot appoint a non-humanoid to the throne, you shall be made the Queen of Time.” A warm light surrounds me and I see a golden pocket-watch forming in front of me. I delicately pick it up and bow.

“Thank you. It is an honor.” Then I pick up Harry and James and quietly leave.

Part Two: Scarlett

I stare at an old history book. My dad rushes around me, fretting over everything.

“Will they like flowers? Or a minimalist style?” He asks, waving two wallpapers in front of my face.

“Dad, the whole of our tribe lives in yurts. You can’t put up wallpaper. Anyways, we had the Olana’s over so many times.” I say in exasperation.

“But still, what will they like?” He takes a few decorations and shows them to me.

“If you don’t know what they like, I’m not telling you. Please let me finish reading.”

“No, we don’t have time!” he says, shutting the book. “They’ll be here any minute!” I groan and start cleaning up. My dad removes the heat covers off the dishes. The door opens and the Olanas come in. As the leaders of the tribe, the Olanas were pretty high on their horses. And rightfully so, they ruled a tribe of small mammals, when they shifted into tigers. They were the only tigers since Mother. They discredit my mother, though, saying she wasn’t a real tiger. Right. White tigers were way more powerful, they just didn’t want to admit it.

“Mr. Oyang.” Mr. Olana says in a clear voice. “How are you and your daughter?”

“Very good, Mr. Olana. Yes, we are prospering in such an amazing tribe with such good leadership. And how is your family?”

“They are doing very well. Now, we have business to discuss that isn’t for young ears.” He glances at me. Cut right to the chase. Obviously.

“Of course, Scarlett, go play with Lulu.” I sigh quietly. I had hoped that Lulu wouldn’t come. But she never misses a chance to annoy me.

“Come on Lulu.” I lead her outside and away from everyone else.

“What do you want to do?” I ask. I know what she’s going to say, she only plays one game, and anything she talks about will make your ears fall off.

“We can play predator and prey!” she suggests, but before I reply, she says, “I’ll be a predator!” Then she shifts into a tiger cub. I grimace and shift too. She immediately runs at me, and I scamper up a tree, hiding on a thin branch. Lulu claws her way up the tree, inch by inch. I slowly back up, knowing the way she plays. Lulu will look for you, then once she’s found you, she’ll slowly approach, pretending to still be looking for you. And she’ll finally pounce, catching you. But I knew this, and had made an escape plan.

Lulu is finally on my branch. It groans under her weight. I back up more, waiting for the perfect time. She leaps, and I jump away to another branch. She clutches onto the branch, barely staying on. As I land, I dart over to the starting point and wait. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 8,9,10! I shift back into a person and wave up at Lulu.

“Good game!” I call up towards her. She leaps down and shifts back.

“How did you win?” she asks, in shock. “I swear I had you!” I think for a minute. If I told her my secret, I wouldn’t win as much and it would be more fun, if I didn’t… Yeah, that’s easy.

“I dunno, I just felt it.” I shrug my shoulders innocently.

“Fine, we should get back.” she storms off huffily. I run after her, and we get back home just as my dad sticks his head out.

“Kids!” He starts. “Oh, you’re already here.” He ushers us inside and we sit down to dinner. My dad eats in a stony silence and I look at the Olana’s, trying to read their faces. They simply are wearing a smug smirk. Oh dear. What did Dad do now? Mr. Olana clears his throat.

“Well, that was a wonderful dinner. Don’t forget what I said, Mr. Oyang.” Then all three of the Olanas leave. I flop down on my bed and look around our little house, fearing the worst. I see the small twin beds and the tiny closet. The kitchen, spilling into our “bedroom” My mind thinks of the worst things. Soon, the silence is unbearable.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. My dad takes a deep breath.

“The King of Darkness has stepped down from his position. They know what you did with Morana, and they nominated you to be the new Queen!” He exclaims.

“What? Me? Oh my goodness! That’s great!” I say in joy. “I need to tell Belle!” I rush out and sprint as fast as I can to the spider colony.

“Scarlett? What are you doing here?” Julie asks me.

“Please, can I talk to Belle?” I ask in desperation.

“Sure, I’ll find her.”

“Yes!” I say. She runs around for a minute, then leads me to a room underneath a tree, made with roots. Julie opens a curtain of vines, and leaves.

“Belle!” I say excitedly. I run over to her to hug her, but stop short. I see that she’s currently staring at her clock, which controls the time. She lifts her hand up as if to snatch a piece of paper out of the air, and groans.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, worried.

“Another kid wants more time on a test. I get about a zillion of these a day.” She makes a tearing motion and grabs another invisible piece of paper.

“Oh, this is a new one!” She says, straightening up.

“What is it?”

“This lady wants more time with her really old mom. Sorry, but I can’t do that. That’s up to the King. Or possibly Queen. But I’ll make the time seem to last longer, even if it doesn’t.” She grabs her watch and turns one of the many, ever-changing dials on it.

I walk out of the room. Of course Belle would be too busy to talk. She always is! Her and her new Queen status. She can’t even pay attention to me for a second! Anger boils up in me. I run in a new direction, as fast as I can. I look behind me for a second, making sure I’m not heading back home. Then I trip, and fall through a Mist doorway.

I roll forward and spring upwards, ready to defend myself.

“And who would you be?” asks an all too familiar voice. I look up and gasp.

“Morana?” She looks at me and groans.

“Of all the people to bring, it has to be her?” She turns and looks at a man I don’t know.

“Her anger was the strongest. She was especially furious at a Royal.” The man talks in a low voice.

“But why?” Morana exclaims. Then she shakes her head.

“Scarlett Oyang. Welcome to the Forum of Beasts.” My jaw drops. I look around and see that I’m in a sort of court. Not too different from the one where Belle was made Queen.

“What? But I thought the Beasts were those who hated the Royals? The rebels.”

“Our Empath has tracked down the emotions of those who have a special anger for Royals. Such as myself.” Morana informs me. “We place a Mist doorway and bring them here.”

“But my best friend is a Royal! I can’t betray her like that!”

“Is she really your friend? She’s too busy to talk to you!” Morana really seemed outraged for me.

“Join the Beasts, and you will receive power beyond your wildest dreams,” says the unknown man.

“We have Empath, Vampire, Mage, Sorcerer, Werewolf, Invisible, Seer…” Morana whispers to the man. It’s a shame I can hear her. I’ve studied the Beasts. They have all of the Beasts, except one. My eyes widen as I realize what it is.

“We only have one option.” the man says.

“It’s too dangerous! If she goes rogue, she can take all our powers!” hisses Morana.

“It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

“Scarlett Oyang. Do you wish to join the Forum of Beasts, and join the cause to destroy the Royals?” the man declares, turning back to face me.

“I will.” I say. “But I want to be the Mimic.”

“Very well. You may come out now!” I see that around me, five other Beasts emerge from the shadows. One of them keeps on flickering out of sight, that must be Invisible. Another has ghostly white skin and unusually sharp teeth, she would be Vampire. One has pure white eyes, probably Seer. The fourth one’s face keeps on changing, one second crying, another angry, and finally settles on confused. That’s Empath. And the last one is a true Beast, it has to be Werewolf. The tall, serious-looking man must be Mage and Morana is Sorcerer.

“Mimic, I declare that you are the head of espionage. Collect as much information as you can while using your powers. But be warned, if you break your oath, the punishment will be unbearable.”

“Thank you, Mage. I won’t disappoint you.” Then I exit through the Mist. I come out in a different place than where I came in, but quickly figure out that I’m a short walk from the spider colony.

I review the events from the Mist court. I had become a Beast, started working with people I barely knew, and Morana. Morana! She had gotten out of prison! I realize that she probably got there the same way I did. Empath must have sensed her rage. I gasp quietly. I’m working with Morana! I had just spent hours trying to defeat her! My rage about Belle not being able to talk to me blinded me, and I didn’t even give this whole ordeal a second thought! Anger makes my eyes cloud over and I stop to silently rage. Then logic pours through my mind, calming me down. This was a good idea. I had joined the winning side. Yeah. I had become a part of a new world, one where magical people didn’t have to hide, the Royals didn’t control everything, where Belle would finally talk to me. I sigh as I know that I’m just convincing my unhappy mind. I was angry and didn’t think. Typical of me. I kick myself. Why was I so angry? Why couldn’t I think?

“Scarlett? Scarlett!” says a voice, snapping me out of my thoughts. I look up and see that I have strayed into the spider colony.

“Oh, hi.” I say to an unfamiliar face. “Who are you?” I shake my head at my rudeness.

“I’m Aither. One of Belle’s first cousins. She and Julie talk about you all the time. I saw you wandering around and thought I might say hi.” I survey who I’m talking to. He looks like Belle and Julie, only a boy, and a decent amount taller. His smile is completely clueless. I grin and wave, walking by. I feel his spider power. My hands feel like magnets, and they quickly absorb all of his power. So this is what the Mimic power feels like. I slowly feel what Belle must feel. I try to shoot some Web. A thin Web flies out of my fingertips. Wow!

“Uh, bye.” Aither says, confused. Ha! Looks like this wouldn’t be too bad after all. I stroll into Belle’s tree-room.

“Hey Belle.” I say accidentally shooting a Web onto the floor next to her. Oops.

“Hi…” she says, rather distantly. She turns and sees the Web. Shoot. Should have grabbed it.

“You’re a double power? Why didn’t you tell me that?” What on Earth is she talking about?

“I'm what?” I would have played it off as confused, if I wasn’t really confused. Argh! Why didn’t I know about double powers? I shake my head slightly and focus back on Belle.

“A double power. You know, when someone is born with two different powers from two differently powered parents. If you can use Web, one of your parents must have been a spider. Being a double power is really dangerous. Sometimes, you can absorb other powers, and it makes you go crazy. All you can think about is getting more powers.” I think about telling her that I’m a Mimic, and destroying the Forum of Beasts, but I remember the punishment. I settle on just acting confused.

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, I won’t take anyone’s power! You can trust me on that.” I wince inwardly, knowing that I have betrayed her trust just by becoming a Beast.

“OW!” yells a familiar voice. Belle and I run outside to see Aither lying on the ground, a huge gash along one arm.

“What happened?” Belle says, running over to him. I see that he’s bleeding pretty badly.

“I was swinging around, but then I lost all my Web!” he cries in agony. I stand off to the side, feeling guilty. I imagine all of the power I took from him flowing out of my fingers, and before long, it does! It flows out in a green fog, and slowly, it moves toward Aither. I watch him breath it in. Suddenly, the gash on his arm magically disappears. Belle stands up in shock.

“You’re cured!” she says in amazement. “How did that happen?” Aither just shakes his head and swings away. I see him look at me very suspiciously. Belle stares at the spot where he was. Soon after, she walks back into the tree room and I follow. We sit down and I breathe a sigh of relief. I had gotten a basic control of Mimicry. I look around the tree-room for the first time. It’s pretty basic, a desk and chair, and a black notebook. A floor of earth and walls of tree roots. I haven’t seen her bedroom, but I know it’s not like this. With all the people, they simply couldn’t fit everyone in a tree room. Easy logic. Not a moment later, Belle shoves the notebook in my hands.

“What’s this for?” I ask in confusion.

“Time log. You just write down every request I get, and what I do. I need to show the Royalty Council that I’m qualified and responsible enough to be Queen.” I roll my eyes and think about how the Forum of Beasts would never do that. No! I can’t keep doing this. I can’t trust them so much. I open the book to see a neat grid, filled with time logs. A pencil appears on the book in a gold shine.

“First request, more time for sleep.” I quickly jot that down. “Action, none.” I write down all of the requests she has, and soon, my hand aches from writing. I shut the book and the pencil vanishes.

“I’m done.” I say huffily. “My hand hurts and I need to get home.” I walk out the door as soon as I finish speaking.

“Ugh. What a friend. Can’t even help me!” I hear as I leave. I suppress the urge to turn around and backhand her into next Tuesday. How could she say something like that? When she doesn’t even have time to chat? What am I? Her servant? Anger hits me, but I’m prepared, and already running. Only when I reach my home, is when I realize I forgot to tell her that I’m going to try for the spot of Queen.

I dart into my house and see my father whip around.

“Scarlett!” he says angrily. “Where were you?” I remember that I was supposedly telling Belle about my nomination. I fidget for a few seconds, thinking of a lie.

“I, uh, was there for a long time.” I say. Of course that’s the best thing I can think of.

“That’s obvious.” he spits at me. Whoa. I have never seen him this angry.

“Are you OK?” I ask bluntly. Great. Not only am I incapable of telling a good lie, but I’m also an insensitive idiot. Typical me.

“The Royalty Council visited. They were clearly displeased about the fact that you weren’t here, but also told me that you would have to leave if you were to compete for the spot of Queen.” That stops me. Compete? I’m terrible at any competition, even one for the worst liar! I can’t compete!

“Just perfect. You didn’t even ask me! Just great.” Then I turn on the spot, and leave. Soon after I leave, dread seeps into my mind. I just ruined everything! Not only did I become a Beast, the complete opposite of what I just got nominated for, I destroyed my friendship with Belle and was a heartless jerk to my dad! Anger at myself fuels my will. I turn to run, but something catches my attention. Lulu! The perfect punching bag for my anger. Soon, I stroll by.

“I just wish I was something more than a squirrel. Maybe something majestic, like a tiger!” I drawl, vying for Lulu’s attention. She turns slightly.

“A tiger? Well, you’re nowhere near powerful enough to be a tiger!” She smirks.

“Oh, no!” I pretend to say in sadness. Then I slowly take all of her power. It looks like an orange fog this time.

“Yeah, I’ll show you just how amazing tigers are. Shame you can’t shift into something like this.” She pauses as she tries to shift. And fails. I can see her straining to become the “majestic tiger”. It’s quite funny, really.

“No!” she cries. I can actually see the tears. She darts into her house and before long, she and Mr. Olana come back out.

“What is the meaning of this?” his voice booms. I can see Lulu giving me a sly look from behind him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.” I say in my most innocent voice.

“Lulu says her powers are gone because of you!” He says.

“Really? Well, I know I didn’t do anything.” I feel her powers move back out through my fingertips.

“Stand here.” He says to Lulu, grabbing her and placing her in front of me. “Now shift.” I watch her breath in her power as she tries, then suddenly, she shifts. She quickly shifts back to see an enraged Mr. Olana.

“You lied!” he bellows.

“No!” says Lulu, “I wasn’t!” Mr. Olana didn’t believe her. He literally dragged her inside their house and I could hear his shouts from through the walls. People passing by stared at me, then the house. I simply gave them a little shrug and walked back towards home, now calm.

A few yards from my house, something invisible grabs me, and pulls me behind a tree. The thing flickers back into view, and I recognize Invisible.

“What are you doing?” I exclaim a little too loudly. He claps a hand over my mouth and shushes me.

“Beast meeting.” He whisper-hisses in my face. “I’m supposed to bring you there.” I can tell by his expression that is quite displeased with this, just as I didn’t want to bring Belle back to the colony. Invisible drags me along through the jungle, and soon, he reaches a Mist door. He practically shoves me in. I stumble through, and not a moment later, he comes through the door. It closes behind us, and I see we’re in the same room where I became a Beast.

I notice new things before, how it’s different from Royalty courts. Instead of the King and Queen being the judge, there is a circular sort of arena, and all of the Beasts have a seat. A vote from everyone. I also see that instead of having assigned seats, all the Beasts mingle around, feeling which view is the best, and which chair is the most comfortable. I turn around and find that the chairs are in a 360 degree circle, closing me in. A feeling of claustrophobia overwhelms me, and I’m desperate to escape.

“We know. We all feel this.” an airy voice says. I turn back to face the Beasts and see that Empath is speaking. Of course, she would know. She’s Empath. I silently groan as I realize that there would be no chance of anything escaping their notice.

“Report.” Mage says in a curt voice, nothing like the one where I joined these people.

“Uh, I can take people’s powers.” I stammer, making it sound more like a question. “And give them back.”

“Anything else?” says a slightly distant voice. I look and see Seer talking. He looks tired, as if keeping one half of his mind in the future and one in the present. I rack my brains, trying to think of anything else. Then it hits me like a battering ram. The reason they’re so hostile.

“Oh!” I say in surprise. “Right, I got nominated to be a Queen.”

“Sacrilege!” cries out a shrill voice. I see Vampire baring her teeth at me. I shrink away, only to see Invisible pop up next to me and make a move to slap me. By pure reflex, I grab his hand, stopping him. I didn’t expect to steal his magic, though. I feel it, it’s like a goo instead of fog. It’s invisible, of course, but I can still feel it. I blink out of existence, and in terror, send all of it back. Werewolf howls and snarls, and I leap backwards. Soon, all of the Beasts are screeching and howling and roaring and screaming and I’m frantically running around, trying to escape.

“Silence!” roars an unexpected voice. The Beasts sit down at the shout.

“Can you not see the advantage to this? This gives us an edge. An insider who’s friends with Royalty? Good. An insider who could be Royalty? That’s our best shot. The only chance we have. We need this, and I won’t let you animals destroy our only hope.” Mage stands up.

“Sorcerer speaks sense.” He says. “Mimic, I value your amazing strategy skills. I believe you are sincerely dedicated to our cause.” He looks around and the others nod in agreement.

“This is a token.” he says, conjuring a bottle of mist with a snap. “When it turns black, simply drop it into the nearest shadow, then step in yourself. If you are incapable of doing so, drop your token in, but do not go in yourself. This is how you get into our meeting room. Understand?” I nod and catch the bottle as he tosses it to me.

“Meeting dismissed!” Morana calls. All the Beasts leap towards the nearest shadow, and I see them carefully drop their tokens into the shadows, all of the tokens being personalized to the individual Beast. I suspiciously drop my token into a sliver of shadow, then seeing disappear, leap in myself.

I see that I’m back behind the tree where I entered the meeting. I look at the sky, trying to get some sense of time, and see that it’s already dusk! I race back to my house and practically leap through the open door. My dad turns around, and starts shouting.

“Scarlett!” He yells. “How can you just leave like that? What am I supposed to do? I can’t just fill in for you all the time! The Royalty Council needs you to be more responsible! A Queen would never leave like that! Belle would never leave like that!” What little self-control I had left shatters like glass.

“Why is it always about Belle? I am not Belle! All we hear about is Belle! I went to tell her about my nomination, but she had me write time logs instead! She’s a terrible friend and can’t think about anything other than the Royalty Council! The fact that I have a chance to join her, and she still can’t think about me is crazy!” I spit at him. My dad just looks at me in shock. But I wasn’t done. Not even close.

“And you! You always need me to be everything! Be the smartest, the most powerful, the prettiest! Well guess what? That title goes to Lulu, because she is the daughter of the tribe leaders. And stop comparing me to Belle! She’s never had anything wrong in her life until the past few months. But I’m the one facing tormenting, a terrible parent, and literally everything! I don’t care about the Royalty Council anymore! I’m done!” Then I whip around and storm out of the house. Or, I try to. My dad lunges forward and grabs me by the collar.

“Wait! Please, wait!” I turn to face him. “It’s not easy, you know.” I stare at him in confusion.

“Everyone was hoping you would be a white tiger like your mother, but since you aren’t…”

“The Olanas view us as inferior.” I finish for him. All the pieces click together, and all my anger vanishes as I realize. The Olanas had really needed my mother, and needed something to hold the tribe together. But since she died, all of that hope landed on me, to be a tiger. To make sure they weren’t alone. Because I’m not, they had to completely separate themselves. The real question is, why?

“Just, please, go. For one day.” I look at my dad. The answer is clear.

“I will.” I say, really meaning it. Then I collapse on my bed, tired from the day’s drama, and drift off to sleep. My dreams are filled with distorted images of Belle fighting someone, who? The person snarls and shoves Belle back and I suddenly realize it’s me!

“No!” I cry out loud, waking myself up. My dad sits up and looks at me groggily.

“Whassamatter?” He asks, blinking.

“Nothing.” I murmur. “Go back to sleep.” I start to roll over, but my dad simply yawns and gets up.

“May as well get up!” He says in an unusually cheery voice. “Today’s the big day!” I wonder what he’s talking about, then I realize that today, I’m going to compete to be Queen! I leap out of bed and shake myself awake.

“You’re right!” I run around the house, trying to think of what to do. I settle on finding an outfit. I pick up a mostly clean shirt and some jeans, but my dad shakes his head.

“They sent a specific outfit.” He rummages around for a moment, then hands me a pair of brown sweatpants, and matching t-shirt. I groan.

“That looks terrible!”

“You have to. You need to go, and they specifically requested you wear this.” I roll my eyes and take the clothes.

I look at my reflection in the mirror. The greenish-brown clothes do not go well with my auburn hair, pale skin and light gray eyes. The garish colors clash, and I sigh. The Royalty Council says, Scarlett does. That’s how it works. Or so they think. Something bumps my foot. I look down and see the bottle of mist. I gasp and stick it in my pocket. Whew! If I had forgotten, that would have been a disaster.

“Scarlett!” My dad calls. “Come on, we need to go!” I run to the door and lace up my sneakers. I step outside with my dad and look around. No magic chariot to take me there. I start wondering if I need to walk.

“They said transportation would be provided…” My dad seems to reflect my thoughts. As if on cue, a Mist doorway opens up in front of us. My dad steps forwards to go in, but the Mist ricochets him off.

“Looks like it’s just me.” I say, then step through the doorway.

Mist swirls around me, and spits me out in a beautiful field. Soft green grass, colorful wildflowers, tall trees. I can smell some scent, maybe honey? A light breeze rolls through the field, and the sun shines brightly.

“We do ask you to take off your shoes.” says a voice next to me, and I leap in the air.

“To preserve the wildlife.” the man next to me elaborates. I take a good look at him. Tall and old, with rich velvet robes, it’s obvious that he’s the teacher. I nod and slip off my shoes and socks. I notice that where my shoes were, the grass is flattened, but I step forward and it simply shakes in the breeze.

“It is to help keep Relandia beautiful.” the teacher says.

“Oh, um, of course, Mr.?” I realize I don’t know his name.

“You may call me Scholar.” He says. I raise my eyebrows at him, but bite back a witty comment. This man would help me be a Queen. If I won, of course.

“Um, Scholar,” I ask tentatively. “Am I the only one here?” He smiles at me and shakes his head.

“No, the other competitors will arrive… Now!” The Mist doorway opens and spits out three other people. The other competitors stumble around for a bit, dazed.

“Shoes, please.” Scholar tells them, but they have already taken them off.

“Good. Please come with me, and I will tell you why you are here.” He walks farther into the field, and we follow, falling into a single file line.

“Now, you are here to compete for the title of King/Queen of Darkness. My job is to train you in most general subjects, and test your abilities. Your job is to complete each task and challenge as well as you can. You will learn many different skills, some ranging from animal handling, other in things like stealth and perception. For every skill you learn, you have a task. With every task, there is some challenge to it. Complete the task the best, and you earn a point. Once we have completed all the skills, whoever has the most points wins.”

“Yeah!” says one of the competitors. Scholar gives him a death glare, and continues speaking.

“I must let you know that you are to address me as Scholar, and any insubordination will result in consequences. The first thing we will do is introduce ourselves. I have already done this, so we will move on to the next person.” He looks at the person who said yeah.

“I’m Hunter.” The boy says. He smiles smugly. I can immediately tell that he relies on his physical strength, and probably wasn’t the best in the mental area of expertise. Scholar points at the next person.

“Hi everyone!” trills the girl. “I’m Erin, and I’m so glad to meet you all!” My stomach lurches at the sweetness of it. Add any more sugar and you’ll get yourself a cavity just from speaking.

“It’s Xander.” says the next boy, and seems to fall asleep standing. He looks familiar, but I can’t figure out why. I pause in the silence and realize everyone is expecting me to introduce myself. I square my shoulders and calm my nerves.

“My name is Scarlett.” I say in an even tone. Hunter seems to laugh to himself. My blood boils, but I refrain from hitting him.

“Good, good, very good.” Scholar says quietly. “Now to begin the first skill. Animal handling. You are to go into the forest,” He points to our left. “ And bring out a rabbit. Alive is preferred. Quickly also would be nice. You may use any method you like, magic, physical tracking, traps, anything, just do not stay in the forest after dark. Go!”

Erin, Hunter, Xander and I dart into the forest. I see Erin make some sort of birdcall, but when nothing comes, she runs off into the distance. Hunter starts crashing around, yelling for a rabbit to come to him. Xander whispers something and starts tracing some invisible pattern in the air. I run in a separate direction than all the others, and shift when no one can see me. Then I scamper up a tree, and wait. I hear a rustle to my right, and see a pair of fluffy white ears vanish into the brush. I leap to another tree and spot a fat rabbit. I leap from the tree and shift, landing on top of the rabbit. I quickly get up and gently pick up the rabbit, with a firm but not harsh grip. It struggles, and I pat it softly.

“I have no idea what I’m doing, but I know squirrels. Rabbits can’t be that different, can they?” I whisper in a sweet voice. The rabbit stops struggling and I run in the opposite direction as I came. I emerge from the forest only 500 yards away from Scholar. I quickly run to him and show him my rabbit.

“Good, very good. So calm. So gentle. Very good technique. You are good with animals.” I smile proudly. Erin pops out of the forest just a few minutes later, carrying a thrashing rabbit.

“No, no. Calm down!” she says in a less sugary but still sweet voice. Her once perfect blonde hair now is all messed up and has twigs in it. She finally wrangles her rabbit and presents him to Scholar.

“Hmm. Hmm.” Scholar inspects Erin’s rabbit. “I dislike the way it is so uncalm. Look at Scarlett’s.” I freeze as he points at me.

“Her rabbit is completely calm. However, the speed was nice and it is still alive. Let us wait for your other classmates and we will see where you place on the leaderboard.” Whoa. Leaderboard? We would be ranked? I blink to process the information. Then I calm myself. Just place in first or second. No lower, no higher. OK, got it.

At least 20 minutes later, Hunter crashes out of the woods, carrying a thrashing, writhing rabbit. It bites him, and he drops it. The rabbit runs off into the forest, and Hunter starts to run after it, but Scholar stops him.

“Hunter!” He says in a loud whisper. “You do not need to pursue that animal anymore.” Hunter comes to stand with us, empty-handed and ashamed. And so the three of us wait for Xander. And wait. And wait.

After several hours of waiting, Xander finally comes out of the forest, just before dark, carrying a sleeping rabbit. He shows Scholar the rabbit, and after a minute of quiet murmuring from him, we finally get our scores. He lifts his hands in a flowing motion and green numbers appear over our heads. I look up in shock to see that my rank is 1! Erin is 2, Xander is 3 (didn’t expect that) and Hunter is 4.

“You all need to follow Scarlett’s example in animal handling. The animal should be calm, and well taken care of, Erin. You should also not need to go to extreme measures to catch one, Xander. Also Hunter, brute force shouldn’t be used. Today’s class is over. I suggest you put your shoes and socks back on before returning home.” I look down at my bare feet in surprise. Relandia was so beautiful and well-taken care of that I had forgotten! I see the Mist doorway open, and I

quickly slide my shoes and socks back on, release my rabbit, then step through the door, waving good-bye. The Mist swirls around me, and I land back home.

“Scarlett!” My dad says excitedly. I turn to see him and hug him.

“I’m home!” I cry.

“Whoa. Where did all this excitement come from?” my dad asks.

“You do not know how much I want to be here.” I say.

“So you aren’t going back?” he asks in disappointment.

“No!” I say quickly. “The classes are great!”

“Hold on, classes? Slow down!” he says. I laugh and pull him inside to tell him all about the day. I lie down on my bed, exhausted.

“Don’t worry Dad. I’m going back to Relandia.” Then I fall asleep again.

In my dreams, it’s the same thing. Belle, falling to the ground, hurt and screaming. I thought we were friends! No! Please! An axe of gleaming silver, shining like the sun on water. The sound of pain, as bad as the pain itself. It’s all part of the plan! Someone screeches like a bird. I try to see who, who would be hurting my friend like this. The voice is too familiar, way too familiar. I hear Belle scream again. No! Please! Wait! Stop! Scarlett! The word burns through my dream, shocking me awake. I gasp, wondering what they mean. They couldn’t mean what I think they meant, I couldn’t possibly fight with my best friend!

I roll out of bed to start getting ready. There isn’t much to do, since I fell asleep in the brown clothes they gave me. I brush my hair and wash my face. I take a deep breath. The air isn’t great. Can’t breathe, not the kind that makes you feel secure. And security is what I need. I step outside to take a few breaths, but suddenly, I feel an eerie chill float through me. My hand moves into my pocket on it’s own. I snatch the bottle of mist and see that it’s black.

“Make it quick.” I say, as I drop it into a nearby shadow. As I step in myself, I see Lulu come out of her house sleepily. My eyes widen, but all I can do is hope she doesn’t notice me.

I emerge from the shadows in a really cold place. I shiver and shake, wondering what would happen to me if I wasn’t wearing the warm sweatpants.

“Cold, huh?” Vampire says, appearing out of nowhere, grinning at me. She’s wrapped in thick jackets and a warm, wool cloak. I roll my eyes at her, and she drags me into a cave. Stepping into that cave, which was warm, was like stepping through a portal. I stop shivering and can finally think.

“Sure is nice in here.” I say, looking around the room. “Where are we anyways?”

“Himalayas. The Royals found our last meeting place.” says Seer, quite simpler than his usual form of speech.

“Couldn’t be anywhere colder?” I ask sarcastically.

“Let’s just get this meeting over with.” Morana snaps. I look at her. Her face is gaunt and pale, as if the worst has happened.

“Today, I have called you here to talk about Mage’s disappearance. We need to split up the Forum of Beasts, as he could have gone to the Royals. Continue whatever you were doing, however these meetings will become more and more sparse.” Morana says.

“Everyone, hand me your tokens.” Werewolf growls. Although I suppose it’s not personal. He’s a wolf.

“Excuse me!” says Morana, outraged. “I was the one leading this with Mage!”

“And I was the first person to make this. Mage may be the leader, but I’ve dealt with this before.” He says with as much ice as the outside of this cave. We all hand him our tokens.

“Step into the shadows. You will know if we need to meet again.” He says. And for the possibly last time, I step into a shadow and leave the Beast meeting room.

Mere seconds after I step into the light, my dad looks at me and sighs in relief.

“Scarlett! Where were you?” He asks me. I think of a slightly true lie on the spot.

“I was out for a morning walk.” I say quickly.

“Well come on, you need to eat breakfast before leaving again!” He ushers me inside and I wolf down a quick breakfast.

“I need to go.” I say through a mouthful of egg. I step outside and see that the Mist doorway is back. I smile and step through the door.

I enter Relandia, but as I’m about to take off my shoes, Scholar stops me. I look up and see that I’m not in Relandia. I’m in a ballroom, big enough to fit 100 people.

“Early as always, Ms. Scarlett.” A voice says behind me. I turn and see Hunter standing behind me, a way too smug grin on his face. It's a bit surprising, really, since he got 4th place yesterday.

“Yeah.” I say in a flat voice. I have no trust for this boy. None at all. He seems to be the type to act all nice in front of everyone, but really is a bad person. I need to be careful with these people. It’s obvious what Erin and Hunter are, but Xander, he could be anything, anyone. I can’t let my guard down. Erin and Xander come out of the doorway and Scholar starts the lesson.

“Why aren’t we in Relandia?” Hunter asks.

“Ah, I will tell you about that. It is because this lesson is on social skills. All of the Kings and Queens will soon be here.” My stomach growls in worry. All the Queens? There’s something I need to know.

“Will the Royals in training be here?” I ask nervously. I could not face a conversation with Belle, especially when we needed to be formal and public.

“Yes. All people with the title King or Queen will attend this event. It’s tradition to meet the candidates for the new position. It would be wisest to greet all Royals, as they are the ones deciding who becomes the next King or Queen.” My stomach lurches and I feel nauseous. Not only do I have to greet everyone, including Belle, but they decide who becomes King or Queen? Belle would just tell them everything and my chances would be ruined! I stop thinking when I realize that Scholar is still talking.

“...You’ll go into those rooms to be made presentable. There is a certain formality to this occasion and that uniform simply won’t do.” I stand around for a second like a dummy while I wonder what to do, but then Erin grabs my arms and leads me to a room on the left.

“Did you not hear? We have to go this way!” she says in that sweet voice of hers. Ugh, that voice was going to drive me insane! I step into the room, and my eyes break at the overwhelming sight of pink. So much pink. Hot pink, pale pink, salmon, coral, anything. I have to blink several times to adjust to the color. I look towards Erin to see if I’m not the only one reacting this way, but she’s completely in love with this place.

“Oh my goodness!” she squeals in delight. “It’s so pretty in here!”

“I know, right?” says a voice.

“It’s been so long since someone has said that!” says another. I leap into the air and see two young women stand up from the fuschia armchairs. They had been dressed in so much pink that I hadn’t even seen them.

“I’m Peony.” says the first one.

“And I’m Lavender!” the other one says.

“We’ll be getting you ready for this big day!” says Peony. I groan. I wouldn’t be surprised if Erin, Peony and Lavender were sisters separated at birth.

“Erin?” Lavender asks. “Is that you?” Oh no. They actually do know each other!

“Oh my goodness! Yes! I knew you two were familiar.” She and Lavender start chatting with each other. Peony and I look at each other awkwardly.

“I guess I’ll get you ready.” she says, patting the hot pink chair. I walk toward her slowly, and sit down. She starts running around, getting makeup and hair tools. I groan again, knowing what’s about to come. Peony grabs a mirror, and looks at me like I’m a piece of clay to sculpt.

“I could try curls,” she mutters to herself, picking up a hair tool. She glances over at Erin and Lavender, who was styling Erin’s blond hair into a wavy mess. They clearly didn’t think that it was a mess, though. I saw Erin cooing over it. Peony whispers something in Lavender’s ear, and they switch places, Lavender now trying to make me look nice. She stares at my hair for one second then snaps her fingers. She grabs a pair of hair scissors and my eyes widen as I think about what she’s going to do. But she simply trims the unevenness that comes with your dad cutting your hair for 12 years. I sigh in relief.

“Sorry about Peony.” she says abruptly. “ It’s not that she doesn’t like you.She sometimes doesn’t know how to start when styling someone.”

“I wasn’t worried.” I smile at her. Like I cared if they liked or didn’t like me. She smiles back at me and goes back to brushing my hair and trimming it.

“Lavender!” Peony says sharply. “We’re running out of time, we need to finish soon!” I look at Erin to see that she’s been turned into someone else, at the hands of Peony. I sigh. Lavender hadn’t done much. Just made my hair OK instead of it’s usual messy.

“OK, come on! We need to get your outfits!” They lead us into a changing room and present two pink dresses. Huge ball gowns. My stomach rumbles in anxiety, while Erin practically jumps in joy. I resist the urge to forfeit and just live with Dad.

I step out into the ballroom to see it packed with people, milling around and dressed in their finest clothes. Scholar came up to us with Xander and Hunter, who both looked rather uncomfortable in tuxedos.

“Everyone, you are to greet all the Royals in pairs. You may pick who you’re paired with. One rule. Be back to me before midnight, or you may never leave this place.” The decision was obvious.

“Xander.” I say before anyone could open their mouths. Erin and Hunter looked overjoyed to be paired together, but Xander glared at me as if I was his mortal enemy.

“Come on.” I say, motioning towards the Royals. He does nothing. I roll my eyes and grab his arm, half dragging half leading him around.

I have never seen so much power in one room. So much Royalty, way more than the people at Morana’s trial. I walk around with Xander, looking at people and trying to see what King or Queen they are. I spot one that’s covered in butterflies and millipedes and cockroaches, who must be the Queen of Insects.

“Well aren’t you two cute!” exclaims a voice from behind me. I whirl around, nearly knocking Xander over with my massive ball gown. I see a tall, elegant looking Queen, holding a staff with a skull on top. I gasp quietly and bow.

“Your highness, it is such an honor to meet you.” I say in a breathless voice. Xander doesn’t stop glaring, but he bows too.

“Oh you are just so polite! You’ll have to meet me later, but one of my Queens in training is calling!” she walks off to meet someone else. I nudge Xander.

“That was the Queen of Death! One of the most powerful Royals!” I say in excitement.

“I know.” He says dully. “Why are you so excited?”

“Because these are the people who make the magical laws! They control what happens in our lives!”

“Say they’re unfair and unjust. What do you think now?” His negative mood makes me unhappy.

“Say we go meet some more Royals.” I say in a flat voice. Why couldn’t Xander be just a little more positive? What was his deal? We walk around for a minute and greet several other Royals.

“Scarlett!” shrieks a sickly sweet voice. Oh no. Not this pink monstrosity. I turn to face Peony.

“Hey, Peony.” I sigh. Just get this conversation over with, and we’ll be done!

“Oh, I was talking to a Queen in training, one of my best friends! I’m the Queen of Flowers, by the way.” That’s new. Hmm.

“So, she was talking about her life, and she mentioned someone named Scarlett and I was like, omg I just met one! So I came to find you and… Oh! Who is this friend?” She eyes Xander curiously.

“That’s Xander. He’s also competing for the title, and Scholar insisted that we walk in pairs.”

“OK so I should totally introduce you two to my friend!” She flounces off, and I shrug at Xander and we follow. We walk around the room, winding past people and occasionally stopping for Peony to introduce us to random Royals.

“I found her!” She trills, introducing us to a very familiar face. Too familiar. If I wasn’t expecting her, I probably would not have recognized her in her fancy dress and hair style. I see that she’s shocked to meet me, but I don’t care. I would have told her if she gave me a chance to speak.

“Scarlett? Why are you here?”

“Hey Belle. Did you know I’m competing for the Queen of Darkness?” I spin around and walk off, dragging Xander with me.

“Who is that?” He hisses in my ear. I smile at him.

“An old friend, but Peony took her.” Somewhere in the room, a clock strikes 11:45.

“We need to get back!” Xander whispers in my ear.

“One second. I just need to meet one more person.” I walk around the room at a near run, trying to find just one King. I turn to see if Xander is following me, but he’s talking to someone. I sprint back at him, but when I see who he’s talking to, my jaw drops, and I bow.

“Your majesty, I am so sorry for interrupting you. It is an honor to be here. I see you have met my friend Xander?” I blurt, trying to fix my mistake.

“Of course! He is such a polite and thoughtful boy!” The King of Life says. Xander? Polite? I smile and drag him away.

“Xander! What time is it?” But my question is already answered. A clock strikes 12:00 and I feel the ground shake and crack.

“Scarlett!” Xander says, grabbing my hand. “Don’t fall!” I turn and see the Royals disappearing, and massive cracks in the ground shoot everywhere. And then, we both vanish from sight. I gasp and turn to where Xander was.

“Invisible?” I say.

“Yes, now be quiet. Do you still have your powers?”

“I do, why?”

“Good. Follow me.” We run towards where Scholar was. He stands there, waiting for us to show up with Erin and Hunter.

“Take his power.” Xander hisses in my ear. I try, but I only feel Xander’s power.

“I can’t.” I whisper. Xander growls and blinks us back into sight.

“Where were you?” Scholar cries. He snaps his fingers and the shaking stops and the cracks seal themselves. Xander opens his mouth, but I stop him.

“I was looking to greet the King of Life, but I lost track of time and I didn’t realize how late it was. Xander told me, but I didn’t listen. It’s my fault.” Scholar eyes me up and down.

“Very well.” He snaps his fingers again, and our ranks appear. 1 for Erin, 2 for Hunter, 3 for Xander and a big, ugly 4 floated over my head. I sigh. Scholar forms the Mist doorway. Just before Erin steps in, Scholar waves his hands around, replacing our fancy outfits with the brown clothes we came in. As Xander walks toward the Mist door, I pass him.

“You owe me one.” I mutter in his ear. He scowls, but gives an almost imperceptible nod. I smile and walk through the door.

“Scarlett!” My dad says excitedly. I walk past him and fall down on my bed, eyes closed.

“Hey Dad.” I barely whisper before falling asleep.

I wake up the next morning to Dad screaming in my face to get up. I roll out of bed to see that the Mist doorway is slowly inching towards me. I shriek and leap through it, not even bothering to eat breakfast or put on shoes. The Mist swirls around me, and the doorway closes behind me a fraction of a second after I exit into Relandia.

“Ah, Scarlett.” Scholar says disapprovingly. “How nice of you to join us.” I shake my head in embarrassment.

“Today we will not only review your scores, but you will also learn fighting skills.” Ugh! I had totally forgotten about the scores the Royals would give us! Belle was totally going to give me a terrible score, and my most likely mediocre reviews from everyone else would never make up for it.

“Everyone’s scores are at least mediocre, and I do believe that you have made some good impressions. Xander got the highest score, followed by Erin, then Hunter and Scarlett. So, Xander, do you want to tell us why you think you achieved so much?” He looks at Xander. He simply shrugs.

“Fine. Erin?”

“Oh!” She looks up in joy. “So, all I did was tell them about how much I had worked for this and how much my parents needed this. I also talked about how much I respected them and how much my family respected them.” Scholar looks at her and nods.

“I do believe that this would be a very good way to leave a good impression on someone. Now, I do have a very interesting case here, with Scarlett. She received a stunning score from every Royal she met, except one. The Queen of Time. Do you know why she might leave such a bad review?” He looks at me inquisitively. I stare back at him, not wanting to talk.

“Very well then. She says that you were rude, improper and disrespectful. Do you believe this is true?” My palms start to sweat and I get the feeling that I’m being interrogated.

“No, I don’t believe so.” I say quietly.

“Fine. Moving on!” He turns around, and as we look, several straw scarecrows rise from the ground, as does a stand of several weapons.

“We will be learning about fighting. Please, select a weapon and get a feel for it.” We stride over to the stand and Hunter immediately picks a massive axe, swinging it around like it is nothing. Erin, Xander and I look at each other, then select our weapons. I take a neat staff, made of hard, polished wood. I hold it in my hand, looking at everyone else’s choices. Erin picked a set of knives, handling them with agility and dexterity. Xander holds a sword, almost as tall as me. I realize for the first time that I’m the smallest in the group. Erin and Xander are the same height, about 3 inches taller than me. Hunter is a full 6 inches taller than both of them! Ugh! I would suck at this. And I picked the most useless weapon! What was I supposed to do with a stick when everyone else was handling blades like they’ve been doing it for their entire lives? I groan and start spinning the staff around, trying to feel what I could do with it.

It’s pretty light, and I can spin it around and swing it through the air quickly. In a matter of seconds, I’m spinning around the field, slashing it through the air. The scarecrows suddenly come to life, and I bat them away and knock them to the ground. One of them reaches towards me and I send a flying kick through the air, taking its head off. The last scarecrow charges at me, and at the last second, I step to the side and smash my staff into its back. Tired, I use the staff to support myself.

“Well, it does seem that size isn’t everything in combat.” Scholar says. I look up and realize that everyone has stopped testing the weapons and are looking at me. Of course. Just my luck. Now everyone was paying attention and my element of surprise was gone.

“You managed to start the class without me. Good work, Scarlett. Next!” Hunter steps forward confidently. Scholar brings the scarecrows back to life and fixes them.

They start moving toward him, and he just stands there, smiling like he was the best at this. Well, one of the scarecrows lunges toward him and grabs his leg. He yelps and cuts it in half with his axe. By then, all the scarecrows had gathered around him, slowly advancing and attacking. Hunter seemed to be lacking a break, as everytime he chops one of the scarecrows to the ground, another is close enough to need destroying. He takes forever, hacking at the scarecrows until they are nothing but bits of straw and twigs. Finally, the last scarecrow is demolished. Xander and I are propped up on our weapons, and Erin stifles a yawn. Scholar is completely asleep, and Erin taps him on the shoulder when Hunter finishes. He straightens up instantly, and looks at the scarecrow carnage.

“Ah, yes. Next.” He yawns, fixing the scarecrows. Erin walks forward, and the scarecrows come to life again.

Erin holds her knives and waits for the scarecrows to come. One gets close to her, she leaps for it, slicing it with extreme precision. Erin moves with methodical grace, dancing around the scarecrows, each one meeting its fate. She’s done in a minute. Scholar nods and raises the scarecrows. Xander steps forward, and I get a chance to see his real strategy.

As the scarecrows lurch towards Xander, he lifts his sword and traces an intricate pattern in the air. In one powerful motion, he brings his sword down and the pattern becomes visible with black light. I gasp, and see that I’m not the only one in shock. Xander drops his sword, and shoves his hands toward the black pattern. It zooms to the center of the scarecrow crowd, and rotates to become horizontal.

“COVER YOUR EYES!” Xander screeches, and my hands fly up to my face. In between my fingers, I see the black pattern explode in a shockwave with a burst of surprisingly bright black light. I uncover my face to see all of the scarecrows obliterated. My eyes widen and I carefully pick up a piece of nearby straw. It crumbles to dust in my fingers. I stare at where the straw was. This was terrible news. Terrible and good.

Xander was a sorcerer. Sorcerers were powerful people. Able to use all kinds of magic, they were practically unstoppable. One of the worst parts was, they were born, not made. You can’t learn to be one. Xander must have come from a very powerful family to be able to do that. This explains everything. Magic is hard, and it makes you tired and grumpy. Notice any familiar traits? Sorcery also takes a long time. And I mean long. Which would also explain why it took him so long to find one rabbit. Xander was probably the person in line for King of Darkness. Also, someone who is that powerful would be a good ally. I just have to hope that Xander doesn’t mind having a new friend. Scholar clears his throat, jolting me out of my thoughts.

“Congratulations Xander! That’s spectacular!” He raises our scores. 1 for Xander, duh, 2 for me, cool, 3 for Erin, good job, and a 4 for Hunter. Oof. And the person I thought would do the best did the worst.

“Now, there are many different parts to fighting. Strategy is an important part of it. To do this, we shall play a game of capture the flag.” Scholar conjures two flags, one red, one blue. Hunter whoops and Erin smiles. Xander scowls.

“Here are the rules. There is no permanent damage. If the injury lasts longer than a few days, it’s not allowed. Use your brain. Second, there will be a flage area with the flags in them. Only the opposite team is allowed to take the flag out of the flag box.” He conjures these things as he speaks. “There will also be a boundary. The object of the game is to take the opponent’s flag and bring it over the boundary. The opposite team is allowed to stop you, using their weapons, magic, traps, anything as long as it does not wound you. If you have a question, ask me. I will be refereeing the game. You are allowed to pick your own teams. Who wishes to be team captain?” Hunter’s hand shoots up, and surprisingly, so does Xander’s. They pick the teams, with Hunter practically begging for Erin, while Xander shrugs his shoulders. Hunter leaps onto the red team's side, while Xander and I calmly walk onto blue’s.

“You may have 1 minute to discuss strategy.” Scholar calls out to us. I look at Xander.

“What’s the plan?” I ask.

“Let’s look at them.” I glance at the other team. “No, you idiot. Think about their weaknesses and strengths, don’t physically look at them.” I think about the two.

“They’re strong and fast.” I say. “They’ll be relying on that. We’ll have to outsmart them. You can become invisible!”

“No. I can’t do that. I’m not Invisible here. I’m Xander. We need a better plan.” Thoughts circle through my head. One plan sticks out like a sore thumb. I look at the grass. It’s about 6 inches tall. Perfect.

“Listen.” I say to Xander. “I’m a shapeshifter squirrel. I can sneak to the flag. I’m small enough to hopefully dodge any traps.”

“Yeah. They aren’t going to notice their flag sneaking away. Anyways, a squirrel can’t carry it.” I scowl.

“Listen to me. I’ll transform back when I reach the flag. I can take on the two of them. I just need you to take the flag from me before they do.”

“And leave our base completely undefended? Not a chance.”

“Just be quiet!” I snap. “They’ll have their hands full when we steal the flag. Anyways, we’ll be running to the same spot.”

“Fine. But if this fails…” He looks at me in suspicion.

“It won’t! If you’re that worried, set some traps. We need to be allies.” He sighs and gets to work setting the traps. I smile in triumph.

“Is everyone ready?” Scholar calls. “Ready, begin!” A gunshot sounds out of nowhere. For a minute, nothing happens. We just stare at each other, wondering who would make the first move. I look at Xander, and nod.

I shift, dropping from 5’ 4” to 5”. I scurry through the grass hoping that I’m going in the direction of the flag. A loud pop echoes over to my left, signaling where I should go. I run over in that direction, and stumble through some white grass. The flag area! I shift back and seize the flag, running with it. Hunter and Erin move to block my path, but Xander zooms through, snatching the flag from me. We all run to the boundary, but Hunter suddenly sprints ahead and grabs our flag! He charges to the boundary, Xander closer, but Hunter quickly catches up. Then, the unexpected happens. A trap springs right where I am. Out of pure reflexes, I shift and narrowly avoid getting snared. I shift back to see that Xander isn’t so lucky. His leg is caught in a trap. I run to him, and grab the flag from his hands. Erin runs in front of me, but I grab my staff and get locked in a furious battle with her. Hunter nears the boundary. I quickly disengage from the fight and duck around Erin, running for the boundary. Just as Hunter gets too close for comfort, something passes me in a blur, taking the flag from my hands. Suddenly it’s just Xander and Hunter, racing to the boundary. Erin runs to stop Xander, but I quickly trip her and throw her knives off to the side. She grabs my leg, and I scrabble at her hands, dragging her along to the line. Hunter reaches 4 yards to the boundary, with Xander at a full 7. I watch him get closer and closer, as if time slowed down. Xander was still nowhere near the border. In a burst of speed, Xander passes us and Erin tries to slow him down. I take the chance and pry her hands off my ankle and get up. Hunter is now only 2 feet from the boundary. In desperation, I grab my staff and throw it as hard as I can towards Hunter. It misses him, but hits the flag out of his hands. For a split second, he freezes and has to pick it up, giving me the exact amount of time to run across the boundary. Xander realizes my plan, and throws the flag as far as he can. It soars through the air, and it lands perfectly in my hands, the second Hunter leaps over the boundary. We all just stop and breathe for a second, exhausted. Then we all look to Scholar. He takes a deep breath, as if preparing himself for what he’s about to say.

“I was watching very carefully.” He pauses. “The blue team wins, as the red flag crossed the boundary before the blue one, even if it was caught at the time the blue flag came onto the red side.” Hunter and Erin practically explode in outrage.

“She cheated!” Hunter accuses me.

“I did not!” I say, aghast. “Magic is allowed, and I used it!”

“The teams were unfair!” Erin whines.

“Be quiet!” Xander bellows. “Scholar told us what happened. Live with it.”

“You agree with him only because you won! This whole thing is unfair!” Erin cries. Xander glares at her and she shuts up quickly.

“I believe my judgement is fair. You all showed good strategy. Let us move on.” As he says this, someone’s stomach growls and rumbles, making it clear they were too hungry to move on.

“Ah. I had thought of this.” Scholar says serenely. He waves his hands and a table with chairs appears, full to the brim with snacks and refreshments. At the sight of that, I realize how hungry I am.

“Race you there!” Hunter says, and we all make a mad dash for the table. I sit down and see fruit, vegetables, some sort of salami like meat, skewers of green berries. My mouth waters and I look at Scholar.

“You may eat. This is your reward for such excellent fighting skills.” I grin and delicately pick up a skewer, sliding off all the berries into my mouth.

**********

After the filling and delicious meal, we all sit, somewhat re-energized for our next skill. However, it doesn’t come from Scholar. The shadows around us swell, and Xander and I look at each other in worry.

Out from the shadows, step 5 out of 8 Beasts. Xander and I leap to our feet, while Erin and Hunter look around, confused. Scholar looks at the Beasts, and casts a huge ball of light which explodes like a firework. Everyone looks at the firework, wondering what it was supposed to do. But our answer comes in less than a minute.

The Queen of Death, King of Life, King of Air, Queen of Earth, King of Water and the Queen of Time rush into Relandia and stare at the scene. And someone bursts into battle.

The people around us charge at each other, in real combat this time. No one is training, everyone is trying to defeat the other side. Erin, Hunter, Xander, Belle and I just stand there, dumbfounded. I look around to see if Scholar was just casting this up and we were just training, but he isn’t there. I see in shock that Mage has appeared out of thin air. I see him wearing the same velvet robes as Scholar and something clicks. I look at everyone else and see that they figured it out too. Then all of a sudden, time freezes. The Royals are stuck in place. So are the Beasts. Only us five can move.

“Everyone stop.” Belle says in a powerful voice. “We have four people here who are innocent. For now. You can pick your sides, or leave.” She looks at me, then freezes me too! Gee thanks. Just what I wanted. Erin and Hunter join the Royals. Xander looks at both sides, and steps onto the Beast's side then blinks out of view. Belle freezes them.

“So, Scarlett. If you join the Royals, you’d win. Join the Beasts, and you lose. The choice is obvious.” She unfreezes me. I think about what I’m going to do. I look at the Royals, confident about the outcome of this battle. I look at the Beasts, the people who listened to me. The people who might become my friends. I step onto the Beast’s side.

“No!” Belle shrieks. “You weren’t supposed to do that!” Suddenly, everyone unfreezes and the battle resumes. Each person is against another. I watch Morana clash with the Queen of Death. Xander charges against Hunter. Seer battling the King of Water. Vampire attacking the Queen of Earth. Empath struggling against Erin. Mage advancing on the King of Life. Werewolf fighting the King of Air. Soon, everyone is locked in a raging battle, until only two people aren’t fighting. Me, and Belle. I look at her, then two voices scream the same thing.

“Stop!” Everyone freezes again, and I see Belle put her watch in her pocket.

“This isn’t your fight.” We say in unison. I pick up my staff. She snatches a sword off the ground.

“No magic?” I ask.

“A fair, clean fight.” She agrees. We stare at each other. Then she yanks out her watch. I gasp and lunge for her.

“Wait! I’m just unfreezing everyone.” I see all the people stand straight, watching. Belle looks at me. I look at her. Then she sprints at me.

I look at her coming, slashing her sword through the air. 10 feet, 9, 8. I watch her move, getting faster and faster. At the last second, I step to the side, and trip her. She hits the ground, and roars.

“Thank you, Scarlett.” A voice says. I turn and see Xander holding an axe, moving to finish Belle off.

“No!” I scream, lunging in front of her, holding my staff to stop the axe. The staff shatters and the axe hits my shoulder, leaving a huge gash. I fall to the ground as Belle gets up.

“Scarlett! Please!” She says. Good, my friend is back. But there’s still one thing left.

“I thought we were friends.” I choke at Xander. He turns away. Then the pain floods through me. I lie down, motionless, too hurt to even cry. Belle screams, in more pain than me. I stay where I am, hoping not to get trampled by anyone. A minute passes. Then two. And if by magic, the pain vanishes. The gash seals itself, and I sit up suddenly. I look at Xander, the only person who would do that.

“We are friends.” He mouths, then continues fighting. I stand up and look at my staff, magically repaired.

“Let’s finish this.” I growl at Belle. She looks at me.

“Fine. Have fun dealing with doom.” She picks up her sword and slashes it and my face. I dodge and run at her. She blocks my staff, then grabs someone by the neck. Erin.

“Move one more step and she gets blasted into the past!” Belle screeches.

“Really?” I say. “You’re that petty? Bringing someone else into this? Just because you’re afraid that someone is better than you. You’d send someone into the past, ruining their life. I can’t believe you. How could you do that? What kind of monster are you? Let her go.” Belle stares at me and lets Erin go. She drops to the ground and runs away.

“I’m sorry.” Belle says, her voice breaking. I see tears welling up in her eyes. I laugh, cold and cruel.

“That’s OK. Because I’m not.” I smash my staff into her chest, knocking her down. I grab the watch from her.

“I told you my plan. Everything I’m going to do. It’s easy to manipulate you. Because of your big, soft heart. Oh, no. I’m wrong. I messed up a part. I’m not afraid that you’re better than me. You might have been, but I fooled you. It’s a shame, really. We could have been friends.”

“Wait,” she gasps. “What are you doing?”

“The time for good to always win is over. Change is coming. You can’t stop it.” I take all of her power, then snatch the watch away from her.

“It’s over. Maybe you can come back some day. Goodbye, Belle.” Then I twist the watch at her, and she implodes, sent into the past. I let go of her power. But she’s gone, and it dissipates into the air. I crumple to my knees. I look at the Royals.

“Just take me.”

Epilogue

I sit in my office, viewing all the time requests. One waves in front of my face, and I look at it.

Please go to 6th Street, Olana Iowa. It’s a red apartment building. Room 236. Tell the inhabitant, Belle, that I’m sorry. And if she ever comes back to our time, that I want to be friends.

I stare at the request. It’s so odd, I just have to do it. I take a deep breath, and make my time go faster.

I arrive at the building a few hours later, which is good, considering I came from Tokyo. I walk up the stairs, and knock on the correct door. A young woman opens it, and immediately curtsies.

“To what do I owe the honor, Queen Alina?”

“You recognize me!” I gasp.

“Of course! I study the history of all my predecessors.”

“I’m your predecessor? That means you’d be the Queen of Time!”

“I was, in the future. I got sent back in time. I got into a battle, and this is how it ended.” Her eyes glaze over as if reliving a memory.

“Oh. Well, I have a message for you. It says that I’m sorry, and that I want to be friends. It’s anonymous. I can take you back to your time, if you want.” She looks at me, then smiles.

“Yes. I would like to see Scarlett again.”

About the Author

Meimei Bowden is a 11 year old 5th grader at Kensington Hilltop Elementary. She lives in Kensington with her mother, father and 13 year old brother. She enjoys reading, baking and eating her bakes. She chose to publish The Battle of Time because she thinks that a story where the “good” lose and the “evil” win is a unique idea.