I am Encrypted

Phoenix and Chrissy touch a heart-shaped key travelling to a different world gaining powers, Phoenix with teleportation, and Chrissy with telekinesis.

 Blessed, no, I’m not blessed. Cursed? Not exactly that either. How about superhuman? Nada. I am Encrypted.

  Chapter one: Falling out of the void. Chrissy tugs at my feet pulling me down to my knees and into a leaf pile, “I wanna go! I won’t let you, not unless I’m coming with you!” Chrissy complains. “Fine. Are you sure?” she kicks me in my shins, “That’s a yes,” I groan limping towards the gate. The sign says, Do not enter! Death may come beyond these gates! and I think, Yeah, and death may come beyond the gates of my neighbors’ house! How can you be that grumpy? I jump over the gates swinging one leg over then the other, bouncing off the gates onto the ground. I hear something break from behind me, a tree branch maybe? “I broke down the gate!” Chrissy beams with a huge grin on her face.

   

       The building is tall and gray, beaten down like someone went insane inside of it, the stone is indented with deep fists marks. The roof is flat, hooks hang in each corner of the roof with lamps hung over the corners of the building. Evergreen trees run from the gates to the building in a neat line on each side of me. We walk in, silver carpet is sunken into a spot in the middle of the floor. I pull the carpet out from sinking into a trapdoor room, the trapdoor itself is right beside the entrance to the trapdoor room, but broken off due to the hinges being rusty. “Oooh! Let’s go down there!” Chrissy exclaims jumping up and down making the building shake, dust drops from the ceiling. I climb down the ladder first, Chrissy follows after me, I slide down without my feet touching like in the movies. My feet throb as they hit the ground, I decide to ignore the pain and explore on. Bookshelves are knocked over in the room, the window is sealed shut with duct tape. In the back of the room is a dresser, I open it. A silver key with a heart handle is inside. Words are carved into the drawer,

       You will find the key once and again.

       Find it to go there. Find it to get here.

       Your item of power will bring you back to Earth.

        Let it shatter, it will prove of worth.

         We both grab for the key not making much of the carvings in the drawer…  

      

    I plummet from the sky, I spread my arms to slow myself down hoping to live a few seconds longer. Chrissy shadows over me and she hollers, “Weee!” I crash to the ground. I’m alive. I get on my knees and stand- Chrissy crushes me. “That was a softer landing than I thought!”  she hollers, Chrissy rolls off me and I steady myself. People stare at us, some scream that we’re aliens and call for help. I look over at Chrissy with a confused look and throw my hands up. “Take a picture, it lasts longer! Idiots.” Chrissy shouts.

     “Run!” says a voice behind me, I stand there staring, “Run, you idiot!” the teenager orders again, I grab Chrissy’s hand and run without hesitation.  The man springs in front of us and I ask him, “What’s happening?”  he stops and looks back for a moment checking for signs of people behind us and then looks at us, “You just fell out of the world, right?” I nod. “You’re Encrypted, on your arm, there’s a tattoo that we can only read, take a look at your left arm.” I glance down at my left forearm and it says reads, Wielder of Teleportation. “I’m the Wielder of Teleportation? O-kay...” I step back not wanting to catch the crazy he has. “Yes, and your friend, she’s the Wielder of Telekinesis. I’m the Wielder of Earth. We came from Earth too, but we don’t know how to get out. We came in here just like you, we touched the key, we fell through the Void, we like to call ourselves Encrypted. The humans here think we’re some sort of aliens or monsters. We’re in a totally different world.”

       

     “Who is we? Then why are we running? What’s your name anyway? I’m Christina and this is Phoenix.” Chrissy blurts out, Dang it Chrissy! We don’t know if we can trust him or not! “They’ll imprison us if we’re caught, I was caught once, my companion is the one that got me out. My name is Jace. You’ll meet my companion later.” the unsheathing of swords can be heard in the distance, they come closer, “Shoot, they’re here! Try to tap into your powers!” Jace hisses crouching, holding his hands to the ground, the soldiers fall over to his earthquake.

    Chapter Two: We meet a potato. About twenty men in black metal suits surround us, Jace blocks them out with a wall of stone. “3… 2… 1… Go!” a man yells from outside. The wall is blasted open with a cannon, the men run at Chrissy, she falls back flailing around backwards trying to flee, I feel my powers activate.

       I teleport in front of her and spread my arms. Jace throws me a pack of sheathed knives. I grab the black, shiny, knives inside and I throw one of them at a soldier and it hits his shoulder. “Stop, we will not hesitate to kill you!” one of the soldiers commands. I teleport to him and stab him with a knife. Another of them carries a sword, I grab the hilt of the sword and throw it down, I punch him. The soldier gets back up and charges at me with his sword. Chrissy floats in the air and kicks the soldier in the face, “Loser! Phoenix, this is so much fun having telekiwhatsit!” Chrissy giggles, she floats back down swinging her legs back and forth. She’s crazy in a good way, I decide. I collect the knives on the ground, the soldiers retreat. We come across a creek, Jace steps one foot on the bridge to make sure it will hold us, and crosses.

   “How much longer old man?” Chrissy looks up at Jace with big eyes and he replies, “I’m only seventeen... ” he puts his face in his hands in shame. I nudge him gently, “She’s insane in a good way,” I tell him, she giggles, “You bet!” and continues skipping. “Hey, wait Christina! We’re here!” Jace declares, I look around for some sort of house, nothing. Jace taps his foot twice on a branch of a large tree, and a potato falls out of the hole in the tree, seizing us with his dagger.  

    “What….” a potato?  “Spud, they’re not dangerous, I just found them out of the Void, they’re trustworthy.” “And how am I supposed to believe that?” Spud challenges. “They helped me fight against twenty soldiers!” Spud folds his arms glaring up at Jace. “Fine. I believe you. What are your names?” “Phoenix and Christina,” I mumble. “Well, Jace trusts you, so I do too.” He waves us forward towards the tree that he fell out of, “What’s with the tree?” I ask him, “You know we can’t get in that hole right?” I laugh. “You’ll see.” Spud assures us.       

     A small door appears in the tree and he opens it and we follow him in. Inside is massive, there are six rooms, the first one is the front room, a light hangs in the middle of the room, and there are four cupboards lined up on the right side of the room with silver handles. Chrissy stares at the potato in awe, “This is a big treehouse!” and Jace laughs. “Is there any way out of here?” I ask them, and they both turn glum, “My wife was the last Wielder of Teleportation, you can teleport wherever you’ve seen, and she died trying to teleport back to Earth, that didn’t work.” Spud looks down with a frown. “Anyways, you guys go to bed, because we’re going to start training tomorrow.” Spud orders.

    “You guys can have the two rooms on the left.” and Chrissy pouts, “We share a room.” pointing to me and I blush. “Yeah, we only need one room if that’s fine with you. Chrissy hates to be separated and will throw a fit if we are, we’re family.” I shrug. “Well, goodnight guys, thanks for saving us.” I give them a thumbs up. “Same.” Jace admits and Spud looks up at him giving a look that says, Seriously? Chrissy drums her fingers on my head until we get into the room Spud leads us into, “Here’s your room.” and I thank him again before shutting the door.

   I set my glasses onto the nightstand and curl up by the bottom of the bed. Chrissy hops onto the bed and crawls down onto the bottom beside me, her red hair brushes over my shoulder, “Goodnight!” she closes her eyes, “Goodnight!” I say back. I hear Jace come in and peek at us, Chrissy is already fast asleep and I look up with one eye at him, “What?” He grins, “Oh nothing, I didn’t know you two were that close. Are you siblings?” and I shake my head, “Nope. We’ve been family to each other since we were four. I’m the only one who’s still been there for her, others have come and gone, and her parents are dead. I have a thing for crazy girls.” he smiles, I smile back, he shuts the door slowly to not make a squeaking sound that the door made when he opened it. How are we going to get out of here? Will we ever leave? I mean, at least Chrissy is here. Whatever, I need sleep.

             

    Chapter Three: I’m faster than a really fast potato. I wake up with Chrissy laying on top of me and I nudge her a bit, “Don’t you dare Phoenix, I may act like a five year old sometimes but you will not move me, I am cold. Night night again.” Chrissy gives me a cold glare and then rests her head on my shoulder and falls back asleep. Jace and Spud walk in the room tip toeing and Jace taps me. Spud cups his hands and whispers to me from below, “Teleport over here, she won’t notice.” “Spud, if you make him teleport, you will be a mashed potato.” I press my hand against her cheek and kiss her, “Wake up my Sleeping Beauty.” She wakes up and says, “But I’ve got 99 years and 364 days to go!” she rolls over me and sits up. “Got any food? I’m starving.” Chrissy whines. Jace hands me two apples, I pass one over to Chrissy and she chomps into it.

     I eat my apple and Spud leads me outside and picks up his dagger, “Let’s start training, Jace will train Chrissy, I’ll train you. Try and hit me.” I hesitate for a moment, I grab a knife from the pack of sheathed knives that Jace gave me and I teleport behind him, but he’s gone. Jace comes outside with Chrissy, they start her training lesson, “Okay, lets see if you can keep up with my stone steps with your telekinesis.” she bounces up in the air trying to catch him and he makes a path of stone steps in midair, Focus, Phoenix, she’s fine. I teleport in front of him this time falling forward to catch him, my head smacks into the tree. I rub my head and try to ignore it.

  “What, can you not catch a potato, are you afraid you’re going to burn yourself? Hot potato! Hot potato over here!” he taunts. I teleport behind him, in front of him, and finally I shadow over him and cup my two hands. “Almost!” Spud says, “I guess you’re just not that good at this yet, or at all.” I laugh hysterically, Ugh, I look insane. I will catch him!  I teleport mid-air and return over him. He squirms in my hands, trying to run away. “Gotcha!” Spud looks pleased, “Good job!”

   I overhear Chrissy yelling at Jace, “Stay put!” Chrissy slams Jace down and I hear someone else slam into the ground, “There’s someone here. If you take one step closer without me telling you to, I will not hesitate to kill you, come out and reveal yourself!” Chrissy orders.

   Chapter Four: Wielder of Light and Chaos.  A boy in a blue cloak about Jace’s age comes out from the shadow and unhoods himself, “I only want to offer you a truce, you see, the humans here hate us with a passion, they think we’re aliens for god’s sakes! I want you to help me kill them! Kill them all!” Jace stands in front of us with his arms spread, “No, they’re still human, we’re not going to help you kill them!” I teleport into one of the trees, readying a knife. “My name is Ariel, Wielder of  Chaos, that’s fine also, it was just an offer, I might as well kill you as I’m here then.”

   Spud holds his hands out, “Wait! Why are you doing this? They didn’t hurt you!” Spud shouts. Ariel pulls out a sword and points it at Spud, “They took my sister! She was all I had and they imprisoned her!” his eyes shine redder than before. “We can help you get her back okay, we can save her!” says Chrissy fully understanding him.

  “How do you know what it’s like? You’re only a little girl! Anyway, my sister is dead!” he steps on a mine, Chrissy was the mine, and he just set her off, I smile. “How do I know what it’s like? My parents were killed! I had to live on the streets until I was found.” Chrissy slams him into the ground with her telekinesis strangling him, he struggles to get up, Chrissy starts crying and lets him go. I teleport down and hold her close to me, out of the ground comes two identical swords each with a bony handle and a black blade, inside the blade it swirls and taps at the metal, like it was trying to escape. I let go of Chrissy, “Let’s go.”

    My left arm illuminates, it says Wielder of Light. I feel a sword materialize in my hands, the blade brightens. Black holes tear open the ground, black figures rise out of them and the holes seal shut. The black figures lack a face, they stride toward us and begin to attack. Jace attacks one of the black figures. The figure’s arms change into fire, it swings furiously at Jace while Jace forms boulders around him, Chrissy smashes the figure with a rock that Jace made.

    Spud jumps on the flying boulder and slashes it with a final strike with his dagger. Ariel runs towards me and swings with his sword, our swords cling, the sword flies out of his hand and sticks into a tree. I thrust with my sword, he knocks the sword, I hold on tightly with both hands so it doesn’t fly out of my hands. “The potato’s faster than you!” I laugh, “He’s a fast potato.” I teleport behind him, he spins around looking for me, I teleport and hang above him on the tree branch with one arm, holding my sword in the other. I drop down swinging downwards. I cut his shoulder, he retaliates, he slits my arm and grunts dropping his swords to clutch his arm. Not the sight of blood, not now, not now! I will not faint to the sight of blood! I will not!  My arms are heavy as I swing my sword sideways into his arm… I faint.

   Chapter Five: Sizzle and Winona. Chrissy is curled up beside me, “He got away.” says Spud kicking dust on the floor. “We can track him though, we’re lucky he left a track of blood behind, you cut him good. You need to rest for now, it’s the middle of the night, go back to bed.” Jace adds in, Jace and Spud leave the room. “Hey Phoenix,” Chrissy whispers next to me, “We’re going to get that guy. We’re going to get out of this place.” Chrissy curls up closer to me, she puts her back against mine. “We will, I swear on it,” I promise to her, she pats me on the head and says, “Goodnight.” I glance at my arm, it’s not shining anymore, the words are jumbled and I can’t read them. I figure it’s just my dizziness and go back to sleep.

       Chrissy looks over me, “You okay?” I wake up wincing, “Yeah, you’re just kind of, on my shoulder.” I laugh as she waves her hands up, “Sorry!” “It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt much anymore, I just have to be careful.” we walk into the main room, Jace waves us over to the table, Spud sits on a chair that is tall enough to see him while sitting at the table, we sit down across from them. I take a pear from the bowl of fruit and take a glass of water that Jace passes over to me. I sip my water to clear my throat, “My arm, it’s changed, the words aren’t clear anymore, they’re jumbled.” and Jace nods and holds his cup with both his hands, “How could you have two powers? It makes no sense, you could have more for all that we know. We’ve gotten up early and packed for us. Soldiers might be in the area, so we’ll have to watch out, I believe he went into The Mountain of The Hidden.” Chrissy gives two thumbs up, I stand up and slip my shoes on and I shut the door on our way out.

    “You can only teleport where you’ve seen before on this planet, my wife figured that out,” Spud murmurs the random fact as if to remind himself of his wife. I teleport from tree to tree, I put a slit in each one as I go just in case all else fails to get back here. The trees begin to disappear the farther we travel out of the forest, I hop down from the last tree onto the rocky path, the forest ends and follows down into a wide valley, Chrissy lets go of the rocks she and Jace had been sitting on to avoid drawing attention.

  I hear a yelp from the large cave that is in the side of the valley, I wander off walking toward it. I step back not wanting to get hit, a pig flies out of the cave screaming, “Help! It’s gonna get me!” a tiny white wyvern flies out of the cave breathing fire at the pig playfully, Chrissy points at it in awe, she darts after the pig, the wyvern’s fire ignites the pig’s hind leg, the pig flutters its wings to put the fire out, after a few seconds the fire goes out.

 Without thinking I teleport onto the wyvern’s back, it tries to throw me off, I hang onto it’s neck, I fly the wyvern towards the ground. The wyvern flies down to the ground back into the valley, Chrissy stops the pig and it flies down calmer than before, still keeping its distance from the wyvern, “Thanks! How did you control that wyvern? It’s been chasing me all day!” the flying pig says, the wyvern snorts happily. “It seems like it only wanted to play with you.” I say stroking the dragon softly. “Yeah, trying to turn me into bacon!” the flying pig shouts.

  “Calm down Sizzle! Can we call you that?” says Chrissy patting the pig on the head. The pig roars with laughter, “I’d like that, well, my home was just destroyed. I’ll get over it eventually, I just want to go back to Earth. Where are you going?” Sizzle asks us scratching the burnt spot on his right hind leg. “We’re after someone, you can come if you want, but the dragon’s taken a liking to me. I think her name’ll be Winona.” Winona nods and breathes fire up in the air approving of her name. Winona gestures me to get on, I climb up as she bends down for me so I can get on. My hands sweat as I grip her scales, I wipe them off on my pants.

   I hear feet dropping heavily towards us. Soldiers. The soldiers run at us, “Do not move or we will kill you!” says one of them in the front looking scared. Winona wheezes fire at them. Jace grabs Spud, Chrissy levitates them up onto Winona. We take off from the ground, arrows ricochet off of Winona’s scales as we take off, her wings flap in a steady beat. Chrissy leaps from Winona to Sizzle and we fly Sizzle flies beside us and Chrissy waves smiling, “Pigs are so much fun to ride!” I laugh and charge ahead, the soldiers finally retreat when we’re too high in the air to be shot at. We fly down closer to the ground now that they’ve stopped their attack on us, I feel a pang of anxiety, what if Ariel kills us? Kills Chrissy? I shake my head, that won’t happen.

   The mountains are flat, four tall mountains stand in the corners of the village. I get a glimpse of the peaks, archers are fenced in so they don’t slip down, I notice they’re aiming at something around us, I realize they’re aiming for us. Before I can shout out an silver arrow pierces my leg. I yell in pain and clutch my leg, Jace rushes Winona rushes down to the ground and I scream as I hit the ground falling off of Winona. I close my eyes and count to three, I pull the arrow out, blood soaks my jeans. I shriek at the top of my lungs, I squeeze the tears out of my eyes that I had been holding for a minute now.

   Chrissy jumps off of Sizzle and walks towards Jace, Jace hands her a set of knives knowing what she’s about to do, Spud stands over me, “Hang in there!” he encourages me to stay alive as Jace and Chrissy float up on an even stone platform that Chrissy holds up. The archers fall one by one, Chrissy flings the knives, the first archer is struck in the knee, the second and third time she is more accurate, she hits them both in the stomach, enough to hurt them but not kill them. An arrow shoots back at her, she stops it in and turns it back at him, she snatches the bow with her telekinesis and throws it over the gate, she shoots the arrow back at him like she had an invisible bow, he falls over and Chrissy catches him setting him down gently, levitating him down. “You got what you deserve, but no one deserves to be murdered, no one.” Chrissy spits, she turns her back and walks away.

     Chrissy leans over me, “Is there anything we can do for him?” she asks Jace looking up at him. I roll up my red stained jeans determined to not faint this time. Winona licks my leg, I wince expecting it to hurt, the pain goes down to a numbness. “What…” I’m speechless. “It helped. Winona licked my wound, and it helped. It’s gone down to a throbbing and it’s stopped bleeding! It doesn’t even hurt anymore! Here, Winona, if you would please, lick these guys.” I point to them and I laugh, I clutch my stomach to stop it from hurting.

  I stand up and steady myself, “I just realized there’s no people here, what’s up with that?” says Jace looking around, he knocks on one of the doors. No answer. He knocks again a little bit louder. No answer. He knocks louder one more time.

   Chapter Six: The Village of the Hidden. The door opens, a woman in a red velvet dress opens the door, “Oh, come in, come in, please if you will.” her eyes sparkle, the woman is pretty, her eyes match her dress and her hair is black and curly.  Chrissy slaps me, “Seriously? It’s not nice to stare!” she gives me a cold glare. “She’s not as beautiful as you.” I say back to her, I lean in and kiss her, Chrissy pulls me forward after I pull away letting the woman know I’m taken, I laugh when she lets go at the fact that Chrissy would think a woman would want a twelve year old. “Why is there no one else here?” Jace points out hiding a knife in his sleeve. She doesn’t answer and Jace forms a spiky rock and throws it at the woman’s head in the red velvet dress, “Wait!” I shout, but it’s too late, the woman fades away. “I knew it. I could feel it.” Jace mutters.

   “Wha…” The black figures from before come out of the ground and surround us, Spud jumps up and strikes one right through the chest with his dagger. Chrissy knocks one back and it hits her into me knocking me over. Ariel stands over me, “Having fun? I heard you guys wondering why there were no people here, well, you see, I can bring out the hate in a person. Ya know what I mean? And it just might so happen they turn into these things,” he points at a black figure fighting Jace, “I like to call them Familiars, nice name, huh?” His arm darkens and his swords appear. I throw a knife at him and teleport behind him. It misses.

    Sizzle kicks at a giant dog about five times my size, Winona flies in and sinks her teeth into its neck. The giant dog throws Winona over on her back, Sizzle bashes into the mutt’s leg and it stumbles into Winona. She blows fire out of her mouth, the mutt claws at her, blood smears on her scales, Winona tackles the giant dog, it skids down the mountain into the grass below. The dog gets up and barks, Winona charges into the mutt again.

   I refocus my attention to Ariel, my arm lights up, the scrambled writing unscrambles itself, my arm says Wielder of Light. My sword gleams in my left hand. Out of Ariel’s sword comes a cyclone heading towards me, I run from it and it follows me, I teleport behind him, it follows me. Homing missile type situation, I think. It consumes us taking us to the middle of the cyclone, I bash Ariel with the hilt of my sword knocking down one of his swords, he swings at my left arm, I push my sword against his, I let go, a Familiar grabs me and tries to swallow me with its body, I shove my sword into the darkness and it fades, at the same time Ariel swings with both swords forward, I block it.

    I teleport onto Winona, she stares at the giant mutt in the dirt. Is it dead? Ariel stops the cyclone and the mutt turns into a Familiar growing five times its size, he climbs atop and announces, “I’ll name you Howless, how does that sound?” Ariel asks the wolf, it raises its head howling and charges at us. Spud stands on Sizzle as vultures that came out of Ariel’s sword peck at them. Jace smashes the ground underneath Howless, “The rest of this is your battle! We’ll keep the Familiars away from you! We’re not strong enough to beat Ariel ourselves! Only you can!” Jace thunders.

    Howless dashes towards us, Winona runs as fast as she can into Howless, I jump onto Howless when they collide, he tries to shake me off but I hang onto his rough and ragged fur. I pull myself onto his back as he nips at me. I clutch a handful of fur in one hand and my sword into the other, I punch Ariel in the knee and he trips down stabbing both of his swords into Howless to hold on. Howless yelps in pain, I bend down and yank one of his swords out and throw it down onto the ground, Ariel grabs my foot, I tug out his other sword, he catches it as I toss it to the ground, he jabs my leg. “Is that all you got? You’re cruel, you don’t care about the consequences!” I grit my teeth so I don’t scream. I sink my sword into Howless, with one final howl the wolf fades away into the air.

       Ariel starts laughing hysterically, “Oh, you haven’t fought half of my power.” Darkness spins around his swords, he aims them at me, a black energy pulse spits out of his swords toward me, I roll sideways, the black energy pulse hits the mountain, rocks fall down onto the village crushing the houses, I sigh in relief that no one is here. “Have a good afterlife. I wonder what the afterlife is like in this world.” Ariel smirks. “I never asked to be here! We never asked to be thrown out of the sky! I didn’t ask for this!” I growl angrily, it’s like someone took a needle and injected a shot of anger into my blood.

   He shoots another pulse out of his sword, I block it with my sword and it strikes him, he brushes it off like it’s nothing. I teleport behind him, he turns around and blasts me with a pulse, I cut the pulse in half causing it to almost hit me, I teleport to him, I kick him and send him soaring across the mountain, he skids when he hits the ground. I hear Chrissy cry out, I turn around to see her laying on the ground. The pulse that I had cut in half had hit her! Chrissy lays on the ground holding her chest, I stand over her as Winona licks her, Chrissy goes unconscious “You’ve done enough, you’ve hurt Chrissy. You hurt the most important person in my life! I will defeat you, even if you try to kill me, you will never kill me, I will defeat you, I swear on my life!” I promise him.

  I teleport in front of him, I swing my sword sideways, his sword breaks in half. I stare in awe as the darkness disappears into the wind, sparkling dust catches in the wind and wisps away. Our swords clash and I tumble backwards, he stabs into my chest. I pull the sword out of me, I will defeat him. I point my sword up to him, a light pulse shoots out of it, “Winona…” I gasp. She looks over me confused and starts to lick me. “Thank you.” I whisper to her, I pat her on the head. Ariel swings at me from the ground, I step back so he can’t reach me, “It’s over Ariel, stop. If you keep trying, you’re going to kill yourself.” I advise. “I don’t care, even if it does kill me, you’ve insulted me, stopped me from killing the humans on this planet, now I will kill you!” Familiars surround Ariel sucking him dry of his blood, they consume him..

  He’s dead. The Familiars connect hands, they grow into a massive Familiar, they start to talk, “You thought he was the enemy? No, no. We are the real enemy. We are the Wielder of Chaos. We are Familiars.”

           Chapter Seven: Familiars. Chrissy stands up and stumbles, I catch her and she leans her head over my shoulder, I kiss her. Spud nods to us, Jace forms rocks around us as a barrier, Winona snarls at the Familiar. Sizzle gnaws into a knife and holds it in his mouth. We charge at the Familiar, Jace causes an earthquake and makes the Familiar trip, the Familiar knocks over a tree, the tree rolls down into the lake behind him. Sizzle slashes with the sword in his mouth at the Familiar’s leg.

   The Familiar rages back at us shooting us with the pulses that Ariel had shot at us. Blood pours out the side of my mouth and I spit it out, I start to laugh hysterically, I teleport above the Familiar, it opens itself wide trying to devour me, it catches me and closes the hole in its stomach, the Familiar wraps me into the darkness. I squirm to get out but I can’t move. I notice where my arm is shining, the light in my arm pokes a hole through the murkiness, I swim towards the transparent way out. I plunge to the ground, Chrissy catches me from falling.  

  Chrissy strikes the Familiar with floating arrows from the archers, the Familiar falls off the mountain rolling towards the lake right outside the village. The Familiar picks itself up and shoots at us with dark pulses, I block a dark pulse and shoot a light pulse back at the Familiar, it hits it’s heart.

   It falls into the lake, it shoots a final pulse at us. I hold my arms out in front of me protecting Chrissy, a blast generates from my sword to combat the dark pulse. The dark pulse gets through and shatters the light pulse, “Let it shatter, it will prove of worth.” I whisper to myself. I teleport above the pulse coming at us, I throw my sword into the pulse along with myself as a last resort.. It shatters and breaks into pieces. The dark pulse is destroyed. The Familiar is dead. I stare down at the shattered pieces along the river, I see a silver object, the key with a heart handle.

  “The key! It was in my sword all along! Wait, nobody touch it yet, we’re going home!” I bend down to the key, Chrissy holds her hand out to mine, as does Jace, Spud, Winona, and Sizzle. I speak, “ You will find the key once and again. Find it to go there. Find it to get here.Your item of power will bring you back to Earth. Let it shatter, it will prove of worth.” we touch the key.

  I fall through the ceiling into the room with the dresser. We’re home. “Wait, where’s Spud? Jace, that guy beside you, is Spud?” asks Chrissy, Spud smiles at her. A woman enters the room, “It’s really you! You got my carvings in the drawer! Oh, and these kids and an iguana and a pig, oh Spud! You’re home! I made it back, it’s me Spud, I didn’t die, I made it back by touching the key!” I then realized that this was Spud’s supposedly dead wife, and she was alive.

  Tears came down Spud’s face and he hugs his wife, “We’ve got a whole family now. What do you say guys, will you come and live with us?” Spud weeps. Chrissy starts to cry, I pat her on the back, someone who finally will take us in. “Phoenix, we never knew that you had parents, do you?” I shake my head, “No, I don’t call them that, they’re alive, they left me three years ago, they didn’t think I was worth it. We can live together, I’d be glad to.” Chrissy holds me tight, “Finally,” she says. “We’re home.” I finish blowing my blonde hair out of my face, rubbing my glasses on my sleeve.