3
MERCEDES
“Are you sure you made the right choice, your highness?”
I looked at my town, a whole world unfolding as the orange-red sun rested behind the trees. I sighed, not facing Isabella. “Please, Isabella, I need to be alone. I need to think before I set off again.”
Isabella frowned, but walked away. She didn’t know. None of them knew that my time in this world would be ending quickly. I put a hand on my stomach, the faint ache in it becoming worse, but there was nothing I could do. I stared at the pink streaks forming in the sky and sighed. This was the time of day I loved the most: evening. But I couldn’t stay for long.
I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out a golden pocket watch, holding the watch close to my mouth. I breathed: “Sarah, I’m so sorry, my little star.”
I pushed the pocket watch deep into my pocket, where it sat, hidden from the world. The time has come for me to see to my three new stars.
AVERY
I had been waiting for who knew how long already.
Where was she?
I tucked my legs in and glanced at my alarm clock: 5 minutes to midnight. Still no sign of Mercedes. I picked up the now full rucksack onto my shoulders and waited on my bed. Didn’t she say she was going to come tonight? After all my trouble of getting ready!
My mobile rang suddenly, making me jump. I picked it up, pressed the answer button, and then said into the speaker: “Hello?”
“Greetings, Avery. I see you are still awake?”
I didn’t recognize the voice on the other end immediately, but after a split second of thinking, I recognized it as Mercedes voice. I stiffened. No-one told me she would be contacting us by telephone.
“Um, hello, your highness. Yes, I’m still awake,” I muttered nervously into the telephone. I heard Danica’s voice in the background: “Your highness, she’s still awake?” and then Jackie exclaiming: “Great god! No wonder!!” and Mercedes telling them to settle down and then she told me: “Avery, when I said to meet you, I meant in your dreams, like I always do. I need you to go to sleep, okay?”
I agreed, and we hung up. I felt stupid for ever thinking she would meet me in person, so I quickly climbed onto my bed and hid behind the covers, snuggling beneath the sheets, hugging my rucksack to my chest. I shut my eyes, but I was unable to sleep. I kept turning and twisting in my bed, trying to sleep, but I just couldn’t.
I opened my eyes wearily, exhausted from trying to sleep, yet I still couldn’t. I felt devastated, and hid my face beneath my blanket. Please, please sleep already, I thought, snuggling closer to my rucksack.
It was five minute past midnight and I was still looking up at the fan, long given up on trying to sleep. I stared out the window beside my bed, catching sight of millions of twinkling stars. If I couldn’t sleep, then would I miss out on my adventure of a lifetime? Would they just go without me?
I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again, all I saw was a white room, and I didn’t know where I was. When I turned my head, I saw Jackie and Danica standing just inches away, smiling at me, but the first thing I saw was Mercedes, her angelic blond hair blowing in the still wind, her hand outstretched, offering to help me up.
“Welcome, Avery.”
******
“Well, you sure are late,” Jackie said, stifling a giggle. I elbowed her, and Danica laughed. “Can’t be helped,” I said, folding my arms in front of my chest. “I honestly thought she was to meet me in person, not in a dream. How was I to know? How did you guys know?”
“Six sense,” Danica said, pointing to her head. “Aren’t we awesome?” Jackie and I laughed, but Mercedes came in mid way and we swallowed in our laughter. It was very rude to laugh in front of royalty.
“Well, girls, I’m sorry to interrupt your laughter,” she said, and sighed, rubbing her stomach. “But we don’t have much time. Soon, I will be gone, and no one will mend the kingdom. We need to choose an heir, fast.”
Immediately, we stood up straight, alert. She smiled weakly at us. “Well, I hope you all packed up all the needed items for your trip,” she said, and we nodded eagerly. She smiled at us again. “Well, right now, you know the rules, don’t you? If you succeed, the Great Spirit will decide who the elder is, and who the queen is. But if you fail-”
“Yes, we understand, your majesty,” Jackie, all hyped up. “You do not have to say anymore.” Mercedes smiled for a split second before crumpling to the floor, a look of agony on her face as she clutched at her stomach. We hurried towards her, but she pushed us away, saying: “It’s all right, I’m all right, and I can get up myself. It was only a split second of pain, it’s alright….”
Once she managed to get back on her feet, she sighed, and stared back at us, her clear blue eyes staring into ours. “I’m sorry, but you must go now. I do not have much longer. The curse-” she clutched her stomach again, and when she spoke again, her voice was pained: “The curse will eradicate me soon, and if I’m gone, while you three still are going to face the Great Spirit-” she gasped, holding her stomach. “No one will be there to…to take care of the town…..to…..ergh..” she fell to her knees, gasping. We ran to her aid.
“I’m fine,” she said, forcing her lips into a smile. She stood up, her hand still on her stomach. “You’ll have to go now….but..” she inhaled, then let it out in a big whoosh. “…but if you manage to find a girl called Sarah during that quest, please…bring her back.”
We nodded, and she nodded gratefully. “Thank you,” she said, and snapped her fingers. We looked around in shock and awe as the world around us disappeared into nothingness. “I hope you succeed and make it safely back home….” That was the last thing she said to us before the world around us disappeared into a place we never saw in our life.
“Where….” Danica said. “Where are we?”
DANICA
We were in the weirdest world I have ever been in. The grass we were standing on was a bright yellow color, and the trees of the woods close to us were made of rubber. There were seven suns and four moons. We were taken aback at the sight of this weird land.
“Well,” Jackie said, scratching her head. “Where do we begin?” Avery shrugged as she bounded over to a big, rubber tree. She stared up at it in amazement, and then motioned us forward to join her. “Hey! Come over here, guys! Look at the bugs on this tree!!”
Curious, I and Jackie both started over to the great rubber tree taking a pride of space on the land to join Avery. We peered closely at the rubber-like structure of a branch on the tree and stared in wonder at the tiny insect crawling on the branch. It was as small as a pinkie finger, slowly crawling up the rubber branch, with its silk-like wings neatly folded behind it’s back. It was humanoid, with a small little round head and wrinkly grey skin. It looked more like a fairy than an insect, with a small dress made of flowers and a small bit of hair on its head. We gazed at it in awe. As soon as it noticed us staring it gazed up at us and flew away.
My eyes followed it as its wings buzzed in my ear as they hit the air around it, like a bee’s buzzing. Suddenly, Jackie leaped forward, hand outstretched, trying to catch the little creature. The fairy, noticing it was to be caught, it stopped midway and spat out an icky green substances that splattered Jackie in the face, causing her to fall back. Seizing it’s chance, the fairy flapped it’s wings and quickly flew away. Jackie remained on the floor, trying to wipe away the substance that remained, oozing, on her face.
At first, I and Avery just laughed, expecting her to wipe all the ooze from her face and slap us on the back playfully. But after about a minute of trying to wipe it all away, Avery and me was sure something was wrong. Suddenly, Jackie shrieked: “Help! Help!! This stuff is hardening! I can’t breathe!!!”
Once we heard that we immediately leaped into action, with me trying to find something that could help scrape the hardening substance off Jackie’s face and Avery just simply trying to pull it off her skin. Jackie was whimpering and wriggling about like a dog in the water, clawing at her face and the green sticky stuff that remained.
I finally found a rock on the grass and picked it up. Immediately, squid like legs emerged from the rock, and it just lay there, wriggling in my palm, thick black liquid oozing from the shell. I shrieked, especially since the skin beneath the liquid started to sting and the black liquid that lay on my palm started bubbling.
I shrieked again, and smashed the rock onto the floor, but it was more fragile than I expected, as it smashed into a gazillion pieces as it hit the floor. The squid like creature that was inside it lay in the middle of the cracked pieces, looking around at the world around it. It had dark brown skin and a single eye in the middle of its forehead, like a Cyclops. An antenna jutted out from the top of its enormous head, and it just lay there squirming like a fish out of water.
Suddenly, it caught sight of Jackie and the fully hardened liquid that was still stuck hard to her face. The squid suddenly jumped, shocking me, as it jumped higher than a frog or a grasshopper, and landed on Jackie’s green hardened face. There was suddenly a loud noise that mimicked someone sucking juice out from the straw, only ten times louder. I and Avery watched in shocked silence as the squid started to drain the green substance very rapidly from Jackie’s face. When the substance was all gone, the squid jumped of and hid itself beneath another rock, hidden in the grass.
Jackie sat on the ground, gasping for air. Avery sighed in relief, and I did too, until I remembered the black liquid that stung my palm. I lifted my hand up, and when I saw it, I almost fainted.
My palm was all red and throbbing and was freckled with green specks.
“Avery!!” I yelped, as sparks started to fly across my vision. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Jackie and Avery running towards me, calling my name, a call I just couldn’t answer back, no matter how much I wanted to.
*****
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