The Free Writer's Board

[Morzone]

Hey You!
Do you like to create short or not-so-short stories, but feel like you won't be doing it often or even ever again? well guess what, That's what this thread is for. Also, It's a great place to put works for competitions and similar activities. Have fun!

Important stuff:
Always follow the Writer's desk and PXR rules.

Only double post if your previous post is either
the first part of your story or if it's at least a month old.

Do not re-post the same story unless it's been re-written sufficiently.


Pen names, personal phrases, and life mottoes welcome!
(Please make sure all three follow the Writer's desk and PXR rules)

[Suicune's Fire]

Hi. I see you're new to the forum. I'm not quite sure what the aim of this thread is. Usually people will post their stories in their own separate threads, and are required to for contests (such as WAR). It sounds like you're trying to welcome new writers, which is great, but multiple people posting their one-shots in the same thread seems redundant, especially when they could have their own thread just for their things. Again, I'm very puzzled by the aim of this thread, and its title does not give any indication of the point, and nor does the description. The yellow text burns my eyes, by the way, so I would recommend changing it to a more readable colour.

If you have any questions, please shoot me a VM or a PM. :] If you mean for this to be a discussion thread, it would be more suited to the Author's Corner.

[Morzone]

Its basically a thread for people who don't think that they will being doing enough writing to really need a new thread. Sorry about the confusion, neither my title nor my description were very useful. The title I will change for sure, but the description might take a bit longer depending on how I want to word it. Again I apologize for the lack of information.

Though admittedly, and as you you said yourself, I am new here. So I'm not actually sure how to change the thread's title.

[Morzone]

No Friend: No Future

A short story written by Morzone

Prologue

The leaves fell quietly around the small family, huddled before the small grave. An old man, standing next to his wife and son, began to speak:

"I wish to tell you a story. The story of how I nearly failed my friend." He gestured at the small inscription upon the grave.

"Those words there are actually the answer to a question I asked myself," looking as if he was admitting something painful, he continued: "It was at a time just before the First World War broke out, and farmers like me were being approached by larger businesses. It all began when a man knocked at my door."

The gifts of the Storm

George sat reading quietly with his Jolteon Marx curled up beside him, though in fact he was not comprehending the pages in front of him. The clouds had decided to rain that day, keeping the two from their berry farm. The book, which talked about the new railroad being built across the country, sagged in George’s hand.

"You know, I’m surprised none of these builders have shown up at my door yet." George said thoughtfully. "Bob down at the general store said Phil had bought a bunch of new machines to manage his farm. Supposedly they can plant the seeds five times as fast as our method. Next thing you know machines will take over the whole farming business and we’ll be out of a job Marx."

George laughed and Marx raised his head to give him a stern look, as if telling him not to joke about such things. Tossing the book to the floor, George stood up and stretched. He headed to the kitchen to cook himself a small lunch. Marx, who had grabbed the tossed book, followed him looking excited.

"Here I’ll take that from you," George said, taking the book from Marx’s mouth and placing it on the table. A smile crossed George’s face as he picked up two slices of meat.

"Hey Marx, thunderfang!" he shouted, tossing the two slices like a Frisbee through the air. Marx immediately jumped and caught both pieces of meat in his mouth and sending a charge of electricity through them.

"Very nice!" George said, taking one of the slices and wrapping it up in a sandwich, "You can have that one," he told Marx, who joyfully ate the snack. As George sat down to eat his portion however, someone knocked loudly upon his door. Somewhat surprised, he put down his food and went to open the door. A tall man with a large smile plastered across his face stood before there, holding a clip board.

"Good afternoon Mr. Heece, I am Rob from Future Farming Industries, or the FFI for short, I’m here to graciously offer a sample of what could be the future of your farm," the man said, so fast that it left George feeling disoriented. A small bump brought him back to his senses, looking down, he found that Marx had followed him to the door. Returning his gaze to the man before him, George thought he saw, for the briefest of moment, a greedy look upon his face as he too watched Marx.

"Ah, um, come in Rob. There's too much rain to do this on the porch.

"I agree," rob replied, stepping through the door.

As George closed the door behind him, he again say that greedy look in the salesman's eyes, despite the apparently warm smile he was still showing. Marx bared his teeth at Rob and growled quietly as he explored the room. Rob ignored this and after a moment turned to George, who had reseated himself in his chair, and said:

"As I was saying, I am from the FFI, and I'm here to give you a chance to a better future," Rob told him, still with that large smile. "The FFI has put together a large set of farms using the newest technology in the farming industry, and the benefits of that technology is incredible. However, the FFI has a shortage of berry farmers and has decided to give you a special offer."

"what do you mean by a special offer?" George replied cautiously.
"If you sign this contract, which will effectively join your farm into the FFI system, the FFI will grant you a free machine of your choice. What's even better is that you don't have to buy power for these machines either, since our newest models work off of a new form of energy." At this last comment, Rob again glanced toward Marx.

"And what do I owe the FFI if I join? and what do you mean by a new form of energy?"

"It's a simple system Mr. Heece, you give the FFI 75% of your crop yield to pay off any machines or Pokémon we give you to use on your farm, and when those are paid off, its 25%. As for the new energy, well, your pet here can provide that."

The chair creaked loudly as George shot to his feet, glaring at the salesman.

"Do not call him a pet! Marx is a fellow master of this farm, don't you dare call him a pet!"

Rob's smile only widened. He looked down at Marx, who looked as if he wanted nothing more than to give the salesman a thunderbolt to the head.

"Well, if he's really a fellow master of this farm, He won't mind running the new FFI machines now will he?" Rob said coldly yet still with that wide smile, pulling out his clip board and showing a machine diagram. "See that box on the side of this seed planter? That's where your Jolteon can do his part on the farm. All he has to do in crawl into there and produce as much electricity as he can muster. The machine only turns on when the machine is receiving electricity. Normally new FFI farmers have to buy an electric type Pokémon when they join, but you've already got one. An added bonus to an already special offer I'd say."

"You want me to lock Marx inside some tiny box and force him to exhaust himself just to plant seeds?!"
"The only thing I'm asking you to do Mr. Heece, is to consider your future. From what I've been told, your farm can't keep up with the new market as of late. Maybe the FFI can save you from losing your farm."

George fumed. How dare he enter his house on his land and tell him his farm isn't good enough? Even if it was true that he was having trouble fighting the price drops at the markets.

"I'm leaving the contract in the table by the door Mr. Reece. Just remember, this isn't about the work needed to run a farm, it's about the farm's future and existence in that future. Good day." and with that, Rob the FFI salesman swept out into the storm.

George looked at Marx, who whimpered and rubbed his leg. What am I going to do? he thought. I'm trapped between my future and the future of my partner. Which do I choose? Can I live a future if I have to give up my friend? As he tried to find the right path, he heard a small thump from the door. Marx was pushing against it, trying to get outside. He crossed the room and opened for him, grabbing the contract off the table as he passed. Looking it over, it seemed to follow what Rob had said almost to the letter.

George knew what Rob had said was true. In fact, he couldn't remember a time when his berries had sold less. The last time he sold his food downtown, almost every shop had their goods at a third of his normal price. And every one of them had bought a new machine to work their farm. He was pretty sure one or two of them had mentioned a new electric Pokémon working their farm as well. He knew he'd go bankrupt if he didn't find a way to sell soon.

Without really thinking, he went back to his kitchen and looked around for some ink and a quill. Finding them, he began to fill out the contract in a blank, uncomprehending manner. He felt as if he had no choice, but to do as Rob had suggested. If there was a better path, one that was both moral and successful, he would gladly take it. He knew no such path existed and probably never would. So he finished writing in the details about his farm and lowered his quill to give his signature.

Just before he could sign the paper however, a defining crash of lightning sounded from just outside his house. Slightly panicking, he jumped up and ran to the front door to see his Jolteon running through the rain, his fur smoking slightly.

"Marx!" he shouted, running out into the rain as well. "Marx come back inside quick! The lighting is attracted to you!" Quick as a flash Marx ran into the house, leaving George alone in the front yard, drenched in the rain. He too began to run toward the house. Just as he neared his porch however, a slight tingling shot through his body and looking up he saw a black cloud, a bright flash, and then he saw nothing at all.

Yellow. Something yellow was floating just above his eyes. The yellow something moved and a bright light hit George's eyes. He felt blinded, all he could see was that all consuming light. surely this meant he was dead. Then the yellow something was back, and this time it nudged his head slightly. Blinking, George looked around. He was in his living room! The storm was still roaring outside the door, through which he saw a short track in the mud, as if something had been dragged toward the house. Then suddenly a large amount of yellow fur obscured his vision, it was Marx! He wasn't dead at all, but safe inside his home.

Sitting up, George looked carefully at Marx. The Jolteon was drenched to the skin like George was, and was covered in mud. That was odd however, because Marx hadn't had any mud on him when he went into the house. Then he remembered the odd track of mud in the yard, and looking back again he noticed two things that had eluded him before: the mud track led directly to where he had been struck, and imprinted in the middle of the track was a set of paw prints.

"Did, did you pull me back into the house after I was hit?" George questioned Marx, who replied by rubbing his head against George's chest. He looked again at the storm raging outside, if he had been hit again, he surely would have been killed, but Marx had saved him by bringing him to safety. Laughing, he gave Marx a warm hug and stood up. His attention was momentarily moved to the small chandelier hanging above his head on the ceiling.

"So that's what that light was. Not quite what I thought it was, was it?" he said to no one in particular. Slowly walking over to the kitchen, George again saw the nearly completed contract on the table. George remembered what Rob had said about Marx being able to do his share of the work by powering the machines. He also thought about how Marx had just saved his life from the storm.
"Without Marx, neither I nor this farm would have a future anyway." he stated, picking up the contract and folding it into a small square. He turned back toward an expectant Marx, who wagged his electric yellow tail expectantly. George smiled and said:

"Marx you're the best Jolteon a man could know, Thunderfang!" and with this command he threw the paper into the air.

Epilogue

"That's my story, and I don't think I could give a better funeral. Come on Kara, Mitchell, let's go back inside," the old man said tiredly. Silently, but with a small smile on his face, he took the hands of his wife and child and walked away from the small grave. Just before entering his home, he looked back, and whispered to himself the words upon the gravestone:

"There is no Future without a Friend to share it with you." And with that he turned his back upon his old friend, and entered his waiting home.

[Morzone]

War Creative writing story #2:

Spoiler:

CAPTAIN BEACON: ORIGINS
By Morzone

"It all started when I tested a new experiment," I told the young reporter, who had just asked how my life as Captain Beacon had began. "Of course, when I started testing with wavelengths and electrons, I had no idea that it would bring me to where I am today."

I was running late. Something that actually was not an unusual occurrence, but one I had hoped to avoid this particular morning. Work was a good thirty minutes away, and in my nervousness I had forgotten to set my alarm clock the previous night. So when I rushed into my office, my secretary appeared to be in full lecture mode, not something I was happy to find.

"Tanvir Zohar!" Her stern voice blasted my eardrums. "This is ridiculous! You're late three times a week, but even I thought you'd manage to be on time for your own scheduled full scale testing day. I don't care how bad New York traffic is either, so don't even try it!"

"Sorry Ms. Revvs, really sorry," I replied, hurrying past her before she could continue her tongue lashing. Inside my lab I found my assistant and a reporter, both of whom looked relieved that I had finally shown up.

"Everything ready for the first test?" I questioned.

"Everything that I know how to do on my own, Dr. Zohar," my assistant replied, glancing nervously at the reporter as he said it. The reporter stepped up importantly, a notepad and sharp black pen in his hand.

"Dr. Zohar, may I ask for a brief description of the experiment your about to conduct?

"Sure, it's really quite simple," I said, pointing at the very complex looking machine in the center of the room. "By maximizing all possible wavelengths, I plan to create contingencies between the electron behavior pattern between neurological conjunctions and-"

"In simpler terms, if you please Dr. Zohar."

I sighed, these reporters never had any respect for the fine details of subatomic science. "basically, I plan to see the effect of electrons that are trapped in the pattern that exists inside human brains. By infinitely moving them through a man-made system of neurons, I can test on them without needing an actual human brain. I have even connected it to an android to animate any bodily reactions."

As I spoke, the reporter wrote down each word I said, and I wouldn't be lying if I said I admired his ability to write so quickly. "I think that will be enough, thank you for your time, Dr. Zohar," He said shortly. He gave a small wink to Ms. Revvs as he left, she stuck out her tongue at his receding back in reply.

"Alright, let's begin," I said, strapping a pair of specially darkened safety goggles over my eyes as my assistant did the same. I examined the machine I had put together over months of hard labor, tweaking or tightening something here and there. After I was certain it was ready, something I had been trying to be certain of for quite a while, I took three hand sized objects out of my suitcase. They were three blocks of quartz, shaped perfectly to guide light in a certain direction. I placed each prism into its allotted places, and stepped back.

"All right, turn the power on, and slowly please," I said confidently to my assistant. He turned the switch, and bright light shot through the machine. "More!" I shouted, quickly activating the prism mechanism.

As the light reached max brightness, the prisms began rotating at high speed. That is, they were turning automatically to continue the flow of light. My design as clearly working, the machine was programmed to move the prisms on its own, imitating the way a brain can move electrons through itself .
Then things started going wrong. The light was continuing to get brighter, despite already being at max power. Smoke began pouring from where the prisms span, three small blurs going too fast to be defined by shape.

"R-Run! It's going to explode!" my assistant shrieked, sprinting for the door. I could hear Ms. Revvs doing the same. I however was transfixed, I couldn't pull my gaze away from the three prisms, where the light had seemed to concentrate. Even with my dark goggles on, the light was blinding. This surely was what it was like inside our brains, light and electrons moving so fast that it was incomprehensible. Zombie like, I reached out with a gloved hand, I would grab a prism and rip it out; I would have a piece of this miracle for myself.

I grabbed on to the spinning piece of quartz as hard as I could, and at the same moment the light stopped. All three prisms sat there, no longer spinning, but shinning brighter than even the sun could ever have done. Pulling out the one I gripped, I looked at it intently. Then, as I turned to examine the other two, my hand brushed the crystal with bare skin, through the smallest of holes in my glove.

It did not burn me, instead the light spread up my arm like a virus. First my hand, then my arm, then across my chest I began to glow just as brightly as the crystal. Just before the light finished covering my whole body, an absurd thought came to me: "the prism is emptying its light into me!" Then I saw no more.

When I came too, the room was much darker. I was no longer glowing, neither was the crystal in my hand. Slowly getting to my feet, I found that one of the prisms in the machine had also stopped glowing. "Why would a second prism lose its light too? Did it break during the test?" I mused out loud to myself.

"No, I took it," replied a cold, metallic voice from the corner of the room. Turning quickly in surprise, I saw the large android I had created for the testing.

"I must have imagined it," I murmured, "The android couldn't have been talking."

"I disagree Doctor. You built me very well. The light has simply finished the job, I am as alive and as vocal as you are." The android said, pulling a jumble of wires out of the back of its head with its metal hand.

I stumbled backward in pure shock, bumping into a small metal cart. I grabbed the cart to steady myself, and a blinding white flash came from my hand. Turning in even greater surprise, I found the cart glowing white hot and partially melted where my hand had touched it. At this I practically fainted again, I had just shot a beam of light fro, my hand, a beam hot enough to melt metal in a second.

"Everything in the universe is made of light Doctor, your experiment has given you the power to control it. I too have been given powers by the light, but I still feel.. weak." The android said. Turning back to face him, he stood over the machine, retrieving the third and final prism. From his empty hand, a substance of pure darkness emitted, pulling the light out of the prism in his other hand.

"N-No!" I shouted, reaching toward the prism, despite being across the room. From my hand shot a beam of pure white, burning light which struck the android in his wrist. Dropping the prism he cradled his partially melted arm against his chest.

"No I need it! I am too weak, I need more power, more light! Inside me I can feel the darkness, I am darkness! I need the light to make it go away!" The android ranted, looking quite deranged. He dove at the crystal, his metal limbs screeching loudly on the floor. As he grabbed it with his hand of darkness, I covered my head ducked behind the cart. I expected an explosion of light, I expected the light to cover his artificial body just as it had covered my biotic one, I expected when I raised my head to his glowing body lying unconscious on the floor like I had done moments previously.

Yet nothing happened except the room became almost completely pitch black. The light in the prism had been sucked into the darkness produced by the android, leaving nothing left in the quartz. Then it clicked, I understood what had happened: the prisms hadn't given him power over the light like they had given me, but instead had taken the light from his living metal body, giving him power over the darkness.

"Why?! WHY?! Why am I still so dark? I need more light, yes that's it, I will take all the light in this world to make this shadow leave me!" He screamed, smashing the prism in his hands. "I will go where I can see it all, where no drop of light can be hidden from me! Then it will all be mine, MINE!" With that, he charged headfirst at the wall, smashing through it and running out if my field of vision.

Running to the hole, I looked just in time to see the android disappear into the crowds, leaving a trail of pure darkness behind him. Everything this Darkness touched seemed to wilt, even the people fell to the ground, no energy left in their bodies. I knew I had to stop him before he could steal all the light in the world. I looked carefully at my hands, I had the power of light and he had the power of the shadows; I was the sun and he was darkness.

Darkness, which felt like the best name for the android, had a good head start, so I headed after him quickly, following his trail of chaos. Every now and then I touched a person who had lost their light, and they seemed to grow again, regaining something in their soul that they had lost. This made me wonder what else I could do with my new powers. I willed the light under my feet to become solid, and suddenly I found myself walking on air! Testing it further, I found I could move the light around my body, as if it was some sort of super suit. I flew fast over the heads of the crowds, who all pointed and gasped as I went by.

I could see Darkness now: a line of pure shadow climbing a tall glass building. As I sped toward him, I realized where this was: the sight of the Twin Towers memorial, and the building Darkness was climbing was none other than the One World Trade Center: the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

"This must be what darkness meant when he said ' I will go where I can see it all, where no drop of light can be hidden from me.' Interesting." I murmured to myself as a came to a halt at the base of the 1.792 foot tower. I rose quickly past its many floors, aiming for the high roof where darkness had already reached. I tried to ignore the people gawking out of the windows as I passed.

I shot up past the edge of the roof, looking around quickly for where darkness was, yet I couldn't see him anywhere. Then a strong, cold metal fist collided with the top of my head, throwing me down on the cement floor. Rolling quickly to the side, I was able to avoid a second hit from darkness, who had clearly just jumped off the spire in the center of the roof.

"I realized that it's impossible. My power of darkness destroys light, I can't take it in." Darkness told me, icy cold in his voice as he glared down at me with his metallic eyes. "Your power of light destroys darkness. I've seen a world where my darkness is not feared, where light is what is evil. You are what stands in my way, I will create my world of darkness."

"Over my cold, dead body; robot," I snarled at him. Placing my palms flat against the floor, I shot myself into the air with two quick blasts of light. Darkness, who could not fly, ripped large chunks of stone from the floor and threw them at the spot where I floated. I waited for them to get close to me, then blasted them to bits with another beam of light. This however, was a mistake, as from right behind the stones came darkness, who had jumped up using them as cover. He grabbed me around the neck, and threw me hard into the metal spire. I crumpled to the ground, bleeding from the head.

"I thought light would be harder to kill, but it turns out that light cannot hope fight the power of darkness!" darkness jeered.

"The light will never fade. Not now, not ever." I retorted, struggling to my feet. Once I was steady, I began shooting beam after beam at darkness. Faster and faster I blasted him, the light streaking my eyes as I looked into it. I blasted him until I couldn't tell the difference between floor and sky, all was the blinding white light shooting out of my hands.

When the light faded I looked up, only to find Darkness standing there, completely unharmed. From his hand came that horrible darkness, only this time it wasn't formless vapor; the shadow had formed into a vortex, sucking in all light around it.

"There's no light in this universe that can escape a black hole, the pinnacle of all darkness." Darkness stated, a twisted smile curling his metal lips.
In a panic, I let loose several more blasts of light, each one getting sucked into his vortex when it came close. Taking a deep breath I forced myself to calm down. Clearly this wasn't working, I needed a plan. As I tried to think, Darkness took a step closer, his vortex doubling in size as he did it. I could feel its pull, even from a good eight yards away. His vortex would pull in light no matter where it was.

"No matter where it is.. wait! That's it!" I realized what would work, and Darkness would help me do it. I aimed my hand, not at Darkness himself, but instead high above his head, and shot a single, powerful blast of light into the air.

"Why you can't be that weak already, the man who shines for all to see would put up a better fight than that," he said, ignoring the blast as it flew past, too far away to be immediately caught by the vortex's pull. As he mocked me, I watched the beam fly high, then arc back toward Darkness as the vortex took effect. It hit him squarely in the back of the head, smashing him into the ground and making him release his vortex.

I ran at him, my fist clenched ready to strike. I put every ounce of energy I had into that fist, and it began to shine. Not like by blasts did, but brighter, brighter than even the prisms had when they took in the light. And I brought that fist straight into the face of the android before me, a shout ripping itself from my mouth as I did so:

"I am the man who shines brighter than the darkness! For everyone the see! I am Captain Beacon!" Darkness' synthetic head exploded in a flash of light, throwing his body back several yards.

I stood there, the light from my still clenched fist fading, breathing deeply. The headless metal body twitched and sparked, but did not stand back up. I walked over and stood over my destroyed enemy. It was interesting to watch him die, instead of losing the life within him, he seemed to brighten, as if losing the darkness inside him instead.

"H-heh... Captain... Bacon..." the body managed in a static filled voice, as the last of the darkness faded and he became nothing, but the metal shell of what he once was. It was true, I had just given myself the name of a superhero. Therefore I must take up the responsibility of my powers. I had the power to control the light, and through it, the responsibility to protect the world from the darkness. It was a great responsibility, but I felt that with my new powers, I could do it. I would set out to become a beacon of light to guide the world away from darkness. My days as a Superhero had begun.

[Morzone]

My 3rd War Creative writing: deep fantasy prompt.

Spoiler:

The Star, the Flower, and the Jungle.
By morzone

I my story starts when I was banished from my homeland: the cosmos. The details of why and how I was banished is a story for another time, but for this tale the only important fact is that the magic used to banish me sent me flying to a world I had never heard of before. My name is William Brightshine, and I am a Starlet. What is a starlet? Well a Starlet is a small creature, though very few worlds had large creatures anymore, that are only about a foot tall. They come in the shape of five pointed stars, and have a sort of glowing thread as hair, though most starlets will wear a hat to cover its glow. Most are adventurous, but there are just as many more civilized ones who govern the In-Between. That is, the places between the worlds that were given to the cosmos to protect.

I myself am only eleven inches tall, something I was reminded about quite often as a child, and have an average amount of yellow shine, which is to say I have the normal haircut of glowing blonde hair. I do not wear a hat, but I do have a pair of blue tinted goggles that I keep on my forehead at all times. I was also more on the adventurous side of the spectrum, sometimes a little too much if you ask the elders, but now you know enough about me and about starlets, so I'll begin my story at the point that that particular adventure began. Which happens to be as I was flying through the air, just banished from the land of the cosmos.

The wind blowing past me as a flew was cold and uncomfortable. This is how I came to my senses: partially flying, partially falling through the air toward a layer of cloud. Remembering all the times I had done a gig as a shooting star, I quickly spread my points out as far as they could go, slowing my fall considerably.

"Typical," I murmured, as the clouds enveloped me in their cold watery vapor, leaving my hair soaked and rather uncomfortable. Luckily the clouds were thin and they passed quickly, but what I saw on the other side surprised me greatly.

Below him was a large, floating island sitting just below the clouds. What really surprised me however, was what was growing on it. A forest of massive proportions sat before him, with trees so large that that you could've walked for 20 minutes around a trunk and still not make it all the way around. I could also see many gardens and houses carved into the wide branches of the trees. As I got closer, I could see small plant like people moving around on the branches, gardening or going from house to another.

I did not get much of a chance to examine the plant people as I fell however, as I soon became surrounded by the thick branches and leaves. I tried as hard as I could to maneuver myself in the air, drifting left then right to avoid smashing into the wood. This however was very difficult and draining, and I soon gave it up, hoping I would just get lucky. For a time I was lucky, and missed several branches. Then my luck ran out, below me appeared a large, low hanging branch with a leafy covering like a roof. I curled up and prepared for the crash landing.

The leafy roof saved me from the worst of the impact, slowing down my fall when I smashed through its layers. Below the roof of leaves there turned out to be a large, amazingly beautiful garden full of thousands of flowers. This sight only lasted a second before I smashed hard into the earthen ground below.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded a haughty voice. Groaning, I rolled over and sat up, aching from head to foot. I quickly checked my goggles, they had survived the impact and were undamaged save for a few scratches.

"Tell me who you are, or I will call the guards!" the voice said angrily from right behind me. I turned around to see who it was, and felt my breath leave my lungs. Before me stood the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She stood on thin green legs and wore a long leaf green dress down to her knees. Her hands, which were made of leaves, were on her hips, and her hair was the most glorious I had ever seen. It seemed to be made of flowing rose petals that folded over each other and reached down past her shoulders. Even her eyes, which were a wooden brown color, shone beautifully in the partial light coming down through the trees, despite the angry and haughty expression on her face.

"M- my name is William Brightshine, and I am h- here because this is where I was sent," I replied, stuttering as she looked at me with her gorgeous eyes, "W- who are you?"

"I am Amia Rosery, Princess of Viridi Vita."

Normally when hearing this I would've bowed my head as she was royalty, but at that moment I was too spell bound by her beauty to remember my manners. "V- Viridi Vita? I've never heard of such a place. what- where is it? I am lost."

She seemed unconvinced with my claim at being lost. "Viridi Vita is the upper of the two Viridi sky islands, it is located in the third realm, and is ruled over by the royal Rosery family. Currently you have just crashed into one of the lower royal gardens of the palace," She stated. "Now, you will answer some questions of mine. What are you? and how did you come to be here?" As she asked the questions, a small note of curiosity and excitement came into her voice, as though he was something interesting that had appeared on an otherwise boring day.

"Well," I replied, my confidence coming back to me as I stood up, "as I said, my name is William Brightshine, and I am a starlet. I came from the Cosmo cities, but I was banished from my home and was sent flying here."

"A starlet! The Cosmo cities! Amazing! I've heard that they were only legends and myths, but here you are! amazing..." This time the excitement at the prospect of legends and myths being more than just that was clear in her voice, and her face had lit up with the kind of look I had seen on many adventurer's faces in the past. This princess was clearly not one of those who liked to sit and practice manners and the correct way to do things.

Just as I opened my mouth to ask her something about it, a voice came wheezing across the garden: "Princess! What do you think you're doing! You better not be trying to sneak off to the drop point again! If your father finds out about this- oh my, who is this?"

The voice came from a very old plant person, who wore an old brown-red tunic and had short, but smooth faded blue petals for hair. As he spoke, he came hobbling toward princess Amia and myself, using a small twig to steady himself as he went.

"This is William BrightShine, the starlet," Amia replied, "He is my guide and guard for my journey."

This got me very confused. "What journey-"

"Shhh," Amia whispered back at me, then directed her words to the old plant before her. "Raul, I know my father doesn't want me to go, but he refuses to listen to reason. Mother is dying from an illness, and we need that potion to heal her. No one else is prepared to go and find the ingredients, so I will myself."

"But Princess! That is Viridi Mortem, it is illegal to go down there, no matter the reason."

"So I should just sit around waiting for my mother to die?"

"You should be preparing to take her place, not going on some wild adventure for something that isn't there!"

I interrupted at this statement, feeling a little annoyed, "Hold up now, just because you've clearly never seen the more adventurous side of life, doesn't mean that nothing good can come of it. I personally believe many great things have come about because someone decided to go looking for an answer instead of waiting and hoping an answer would come to them."

The old plant glared at me, "You have some nerve talking to me like that. I used to be an adventurer myself when I was young, foolish and naive as well. The only thing that will happen, if the princess or anyone goes down there, is that they will be lost or killed!"

Now I was really angry. No adventurer would ever claim that taking risks would only lead to something worse, any true adventurer would gladly take a risk every day of their life.

"So you'll just sit around and watch as your queen dies, knowing that if you had dared to try you could've saved her? Your no adventurer, you're a coward."

The old plant seemed to suddenly deflate as I said it, a look of fear and loss came across his face. He stood and swayed for a moment, looking like he might collapse.

"Raul are you ok? What's wrong?" Amia said, taking his arm and supporting him.

The old plant sighed, "I- I suppose I am a coward, but how could I be brave after... No never mind, I need to be strong now, you're right." He stood up straighter again, and fixed me with a piercing look, "I will cover you, but you will have to leave quickly. And you, William Brightshine," he said as Amia and I turned to leave, "You are responsible for the princess' safety, if anything happens, you will be held accountable."

I swallowed and nodded, after my banishment I didn't like the idea of what might happen if something went wrong. Satisfied, the old plant turned and hobbled back toward the trunk of the tree, where several decorative doors and windows were carved. Amia gave me a small tug, reminding me that I had to follow quickly. We ran toward the other end of the branch, though I was really just follow Amia.

"Thank you for helping me back there, I've been trying to convince him to let me find the ingredients for several days now," She said as she ran, "at the end of the garden is a staircase to a drop point, we can get to Viridi Mortem from there.”

"I think I hit a sensitive spot with that guy. You're going to have to explain what in the world is going on." I replied.

"I'll explain everything when we get to the drop point, but right now we need to hurry before my father finds out I'm missing."

"You must have quite the father"

She didn't respond to that, so I decided not to push it. We arrived at a small door at the very back of the garden. When Amia opened it, it revealed a tightly winding spiral staircase leading toward the ground below.

"It's going to take forever to walk all the way down that." I said, trying to see how far it went down.

"we don't have too, we can take the pillar slide" Amia replied, reaching over toward the center pillar and giving it a slight push. A panel opened in its side revealing a chute going straight down. "It gradually levels off nearer to the bottom, so it's perfectly safe."

"Good enough for me," I replied, pulling my goggles over my eyes and stepping toward the pillar, "You want to go first or me?

She glanced into the chute at this and seemed to shudder, "uh.. you can go first."

Alrighty then! See you at the bottom.," And with that I jumped straight into the chute.

At first it was complete free fall, with nothing to slow me down, but soon I could feel it starting to slant into a slide, albeit a steep one. Eventually it leveled out and soon I found myself in a long horizontal slow-down chute, one that, by the time I got to the end of it, I had slowed to a complete stop.

Climbing out, I looked back up the tree, somewhat amazed at how high the branch had still been from the ground, despite its being one of the lower branches. Then I saw a flash of speeding green, Amia had come shooting out of the chute and was slowing down now as well. When she finally stopped at the end of the channel next to me, she didn't get up immediately, but instead lay there for a moment shuddering and shaking.

"Are you ok?" I asked, "You seem kind of shaken up."

This seemed to surprise her, as if she had forgotten I was here. "Y-yeah I'm fine," she replied, her voice shaking just slightly.

"Well come on, we better get to the drop point, which is just over there from what that sign says," glancing over at a nearby sign as I said it.

I helped Amia to her feet, I almost didn't let go of her hand afterward, and we walked over to the sign, which read:

DROP POINT
RING BELL -->

Glancing at me, slightly confused, Amia reached over and rang the bell three times. Ding! Ding! Ding! Then silence. We waited for a moment, then heard the sound of several pairs of heavy feet walking toward us. Up over the edge of a cliff, a cliff I had failed to notice, came not one, or two, but eight large, waxy legs. These legs belonged to a spider the size of a large dog, but that wasn't what creeped me out the most, it was the fact that its entire body had been waxed and groomed to a perfect shine.

"well howdy-do! My names Gerimia, your friendly drop spider!" the spider said, smiling a wide friendly smile at us. Amia and I glanced at each other, clearly stunned by the friendliness of the spider.

Uh, are you going to bring us to Viridi Mortem?" Amia questioned, looking as if she didn't think a spider could be a good way to travel anywhere.

"You betcha! Just climb on my back and I'll take you down there lickity-split!" Gerimia bent down and straightened three of his legs toward us: a ramp going up to his back.

I just shrugged and started climbing up onto his back, but Amia, who was still down on the ground, seemed hesitant to go anywhere near him. She seemed to get over it quickly however, and soon followed me up his legs and onto his back. Once we were both seated comfortably on his wide and sleek back, he began to walk back toward the edge of the cliff.

I didn't notice this however, as Amia's hands were clutching my shoulders to balance herself, and I was too busy trying to memorize everything about her soft hands for me to notice anything else. It wasn't until I heard a Amia give a small whimper and felt her clutch to tighten did I notice something was going on. Gerimia had not only walked toward the cliff, but had walked straight off it as well.

That's when the weirdness began, for Gerimia had not fallen, but was instead was walking quickly downward through the air, as if he was walking on an invisible ramp. Looking down, I finally discovered what Viridi Mortem was. A second island, much larger than the first one, was floating in the air directly below. A huge jungle spread across its vast area, except for the center of the floating island, where a lake of fire sat, churning in spirals and letting off puffs of steam every few seconds.

Looking back up, I saw another oddity: on the bottom of Viridi Vita was a second lake, this one of water, that sat upside down in the center of the island. None of the water fell to the second island below, but just sat there, not even a ripple to disturb its surface.

"So that's Viridi Mortem," I said, looking back at the jungle below me.

"Y- Yeah." Amia replied, her eyes shut tight. "Viridi Mortem is full of wild magic, so normally no one is allowed to go down there. The ingredients for my mother's cure can be found there, so I'm going to find them all and make a potion to heal her."

"Oh Yeah! Viridi Mortem's wild alright, there's always a party going on somewhere down there." Gerimia said in glee, "You plant people think it's really dangerous, but really it's just fun and weird!"

"Do you live in Viridi Mortem?" I asked the spider.

"Of course! You're not gonna find another spider with this beautiful of a body anywhere, but on Viridi Mortem!"

"Do all the spiders down there shine their bodies?"

"It's all to impress the ladies my little star friend! You either got to have the sleekest shiniest body, or you've gotta be a real good artist to catch the lady's eye."

This brought a horrible image of sleek, waxed spiders showing off their bodies in a competition. "What do you mean by artist?" I asked, trying to shake the image.

"Weaving! we spiders pride ourselves on our cloth paintings! Best in all the worlds I'll tell you! We're landing now by the way."

They had landed in a small clearing near the edge of the island, the ground and grass below them seemed to be changing colors in an endless rainbow.

"Welcome to Rainbow Circle, ladies and gents!" Gerimia exclaimed, letting us slide off on to the ground. "Good luck on your quest! Hope you find your poshun or whatever it was!"

"You're probably our ride back up to Viridi Vita," Amia said," Will we be able to find you here in Rainbow Circle?"

"Well I'll be in the circle, but I certainly won't be here," The spider replied, scraping some dirt off his shoulder.

"What do you mean? does the circle move or something?" Amia questioned.

"Of course it does! Can't expect it stay still forever now can you? It'd get bored of the view pretty quickly." He laughed at the surprised looks on our faces. "Man you two don't know nothing about Viridi Mortem do you? Well, just try not to walk straight ok?"

This made absolutely no sense, don't walk straight? what did that even mean? Judging by the look on her face, she was just as confused about it as I was.

"I.. guess we should start looking," she said uncertainly, Gerimia gave her an encouraging smile. We walked slowly through a gap in the trees, leaving the clearing and the spider farther and farther behind. Looking back, I couldn't see a trace of rainbow anywhere, even though I knew we hadn't gone too far.

"So, what ingredients are we looking for? You said they could all be found on this island." I asked Amia, glancing sideways at her worried expression.

"We need three things: leaves from a sunflower, a bottle of liquid fire, and a piece of reverse coral."

"Leaves of a sunflower? Aren't there any sunflowers on Viridi Vita? You had practically every kind of flower in that garden from what I saw."

"I don't know why there aren't any sunflowers on Viridi Vita, but I do know that they are down here on Viridi Mortem," she said, a little annoyed. "We'll get the leaves first I think, should be the easiest."

After that we walked in silence for a while, trying to climb through the dense undergrowth as best as possible. Every now and then I thought I heard an odd scuffling noise, but when I turned there was nothing there. We continued in this state for quite a while before I decided to break the silence.

"I think we're lost, we've been going in circles this entire time."

"Oh of course your lost! This is Viridi Mortem! You can't find anything here without being good and lost first." said a high, squeaky voice. I spun around to discover a small mouse sitting on a branch behind me. When it saw that I had noticed it, the mouse jumped clear over my head, suddenly growing wings and feathers. It landed in front of Amia, now a large bird with red feathers and a long beak. She stumbled back in surprise, bumping in to me as she went.

"W- who are you? How did you just do that?" She stammered at the bird.

"My name is Samuel Winksy Heirit blugart vonford quangle viske yisme jonatsa Overgrowth!" Though most people just call me Sam. I am a shape shifter." He replied happily in that high squeaky voice. s if to prove the point, he stepped forward, growing suddenly into an exact copy of myself, so that there were now two William Brightshines standing there. Amia stumbled away from the two of us, looking seriously freaked out.

"William, and William?"she said, looking between the two of us.

"I am William." I said quickly, "The other me is Sam."

Sam gave out a high squeaky laugh and transformed again, this time into a smaller creature with a long and pointed nose, large bat like ears, small pointed horns, and long spindly fingers. He seemed to be enjoying our reactions to his shape shifting.

"This is what I normally look like, boring right? I much prefer to be something else."

"How about you stay like that for a bit, ok Sam? I think you're going to give one of use a heart attack" I said, glancing at Amia, who was taking deep breaths to steady herself. "What did you mean by having to be lost before we can find anything?"

"You have to believe in the forest Mr. Star, it knows where you want to go, here, I'll show you, follow me!" He took off running between the trees, Amia and I looked at each other, unsure of whether or not to follow. We just shrugged at each other, we didn't have any other ideas on how to find a place with sunflowers.

"Are you two coming or not?" Sam had peeked his head back around one of the trees, looking impatient.

"Yeah yeah, we're on our way," I said, hurrying to catch up with him, Amia followed close behind. We ran between trees, taking random turns, following Sam blindly. Several times I could've sworn we went past the place we had started, but I didn't question his methods. He clearly knew the forest better than we did. At one point, I ducked down to avoid a tree with low hanging branches, and looked back up just in time to see Sam suddenly stop just before the edge of a cliff: the edge of the island.

Planting my feet hard in the ground, I leaned back and tried to stop myself before momentum pulled me over the edge. I barely managed it, stopping inches before the fall into nothingness. Luckily, Amia had seen me attempt to stop, and had slowed down in time to avoid crashing into me, something that would've sent me over the edge. We stood there for a moment, gasping from our run and our near miss with the fall.

"Well there you go! I'm assuming you were looking for some sunflowers, considering how many there are around here." Sam said, fluttering above us as a bird once more. Amia tapped me on my shoulder and I turned to see what was behind me.

A large field of nothing, but large sunflowers had materialized behind us, right where the Jungle had been seconds before. There was no sign of any of the trees we had just ran past, not even the last one with the low hanging branches. The sunflowers flowed lazily in a nonexistent breeze, fanning their leaves out beside them. I just sat down at the sight, completely overwhelmed by the sudden change.

"But, the forest! Where did the forest go?" I asked to no one in particular.

Amia wasn't listening, she had forward joyfully, "Sunflowers! They're so large! This is so amazing, now we can get the leaves for the potion!" She grabbed a leaf of the nearest sunflower and pulled, but suddenly fell back with a cry of pain, massaging her hand.

"Hey now little lady... Don't go pullin my leaves now. The sun's up little lady, just sit here and warm yourself with us..." The sunflower spoke in a relaxed voice, as if there was nothing it wanted to do more than just sit there waving back and forth absorbing the sun's heat.

"I need one of your leaves though! It's really important!" She retorted angrily.

"So is soaking up this wonderful warmth my little lady, and I need all my leaves to do that, just sit here and relax little lady, just relax..."

"Maybe we can find a way to block the sun, then they wouldn't need their leaves as much," I suggested, before Amia could give another retort. This just made her anger turn toward me however.

"And how are we supposed to do that? Just sing a little song and do a little dance the sun will go away?"

"Sam laughed and squeaked at this, "Why that's a great idea Ms. Plant! let's all do a rain dance to make the sun go away!"

But- wait, what? I was kidding? Why would that work?"

"Oh the clouds love a good rain dance, if you can do it right, here I'll show you how to do it." He landed next us and turned back into his normal impish self. "This is how it goes," he said, moving along with his words, "It's a jump to the left, then a slide to the right, you put your hands on your hips, jump in the air and twirl like so, then finish with the rain slide." The "rain slide" turned out to be taking your hands off your hips, putting them by your feet, and wiggling your fingers as you raised your hands above your head. Then he brought his hinds, still wiggling his fingers, down back toward his feet, imitating the rainfall.

I looked at my hand at this, I didn't really have any fingers, starlet hands were very flexible and could curl around a handle with ease, but they weren't good if you wanted to do the "rain slide."

"You're going to have to do it Amia, I don't have any fingers." I told her.

"I cannot believe I am doing this, you look away Will, Sam make sure I'm doing it right. Let's get this over with."

I turned away from Amia as she walked over toward Sam. I didn't mind being told to do this, when she had called me Will, my insides had become all fluttery and alive. I loved the way it sounded when she said it too, much friendly than William. While I waited I thought about her gentle touch and the softness in her leafy hands; the way her beautiful rose petal hair rustled in the breeze, casting a beautiful spectrum of light and shadow. I remembered the cute way she held her arms when she was nervous or unsure.

"Keep going, the cloud's aren't gonna notice if you only do it once, just keep dancing until the rain starts." Sam's voice squeaked from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. Then with a flutter of wings, Sam had this time become a small blue bird, he flew over and landed on my shoulder. "Can you come with me for a moment? I want to talk to you about something," he squeaked into my ear.

"S- sure.." I said, rubbing my ringing ear. He took off and I followed him to the far edge of the flower field. When he stopped, he turned and gave me a piercing look.

"Why are you here? Starlets do not appear outside the cosmos lightly." he questioned, still hovering in the middle of the air.

Well I, um.." I said, not sure exactly how to answer the question. Figuring I should just tell him I had been banished without giving any real details, I opened my mouth to reply. However, before I could get a single word out, a large, pink, scaly tale whipped out from the trees and smashed Sam to the ground.

"Sam!" I shouted, rushing forward to where he lay on the ground, twitching slightly. As I knelt down next to him, a large, pink scaly foot stomped the ground inches to my side. Looking up in shock, my mouth fell open. A dinosaur, a five-foot, hot pink dinosaur stood over me, wearing a humongous red bow on its head and a large amount of red lipstick on its mouth.

"M- Mr. S- Star! Be c- careful, that is a T-Rexie! They h- hate anything that is p- prettier than themselves." Sam murmured, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Protect the g-," but this was as far as he got before the T-Rexie squealed in delight above them.

"Yay! I got the birdie! ha ha now the pretty birdie isn't pretty anymore! ha ha ha ha ha ha! Huh?" the T-Rexie stopped laughing, catching sight of Amia dancing in the distance. "Nooo! That Girl is so pretty! Prettier than me! oh nooo!"

For a moment, it sounded like she might burst into tears, but then her voice changed from despair to anger. "I won't let this happen! No one can be prettier than me, I am the prettiest in all the land!" And with that, the she began to stomp toward Amie, who was to focused on her dancing to notice anything.

" You are responsible for the princess' safety, if anything happens, you will be held accountable." This memory flashed through my head as I watched the T-Rexie get ever nearer to Amia.

"N- no!" I said, my voice cracking. I sprinted as hard as I could, pushing flowers aside, leaving them scattered and grumbling. When the T-Rexie was near enough, I took a might leap and landed on her foot, driving my shoulder hard into her toes.

"Aaaaagh!" She screamed, flailing around and nearly squashing several large sunflowers, who just ran out of the way in time. During her confusion, I climbed up her leg and onto her back, where she tried to grab me with her too-short arms. I grabbed hold of one of her talons ad bit down on hit hard. Her scales tasted like rusty steel.

"Stooop it!" She screeched, this time successfully shaking me off. I landed hard on the ground next to Amia. Rolling over, I saw the T-Rexie massaging its hurt finger and glaring daggers at the two of us. "You're both gonna get it now! You meanies!"

I looked back at Amia, who was slowly wiggling her fingers above her head, a look of terrible fear upon her beautiful face. She looked at and seemed to communicate without words a plea for help. I stood up, facing the dinosaur, I quickly moved to one side, so that Amia was no longer behind me, but was instead a good distance to my side.

"Hey reptile! Hey you! yeah you're the ugliest dinosaur in the world! Even a pile of mud looks better than you!" I shouted maddeningly, trying to get the T-Rexie's attention. It worked, she turned her toward me with a look of complete loathing, and charged. I wasn't ready for that, I had simply hoped to keep the T-Rexie from giving any attention to Amia, but now it was charging head first at me, gaining speed all the while.

I looked frantically for something to protect me, I noticed a long stick lying on the ground. Picking it up, I made a plan, though it was rather risky. Holding the stick over my shoulder like a spear, I waited, and waited, then when I felt I couldn't wait any longer, I threw. The stick flew through the air and poked the dinosaur directly in her eye!

With a great roar she fell to the ground, rolling and tumbling over and over, stopping just before falling off the cliff's edge. I gave a great cheer at the successfulness of my plan, but the sound died in my throat. The T-Rexie was getting up, and this time I could tell it wouldn't stop trying to rip me to shred no matter how many times I poked her in the eye. I was out of plans, I had no more options, so I stood there, arms outstretched, blocking the dinosaur's path to Amia. I had made a promise, not only to that old plant, but also to myself, that no harm would come to Amia. I would protect her until my dying breath.

Then suddenly, a great rush of white birds, no, birds made of cloud came rushing in from every direction, from the trees, from below the cliff, from between the sunflowers. Every cloud bird soared high above the sunflower field, coming together and forming one large, dark, storm cloud. I felt a drip, then another, then suddenly it was raining hard and fast!

"Noooooo my make-up is ruiiiiined!" Cried the T-Rexie, turning suddenly and running toward the cover of the trees, and then out of sight. I collapsed on the ground, exhausted from the fight, before remembering that Sam was still injured and laying under one of the trees. Getting up slowly, I walked over to where we had been talking.
"Aw dude... the sun's gone away man, my leaves are all wet now, can't be a sunflower without any sun..." grumbled one of the sunflowers as I passed. Eventually I reached the place where Sam sat, perched on a branch and watching me.

"Nice going Mr. Star! You really showed that dino who's boss."

"How are you? will you be ok?"

"Oh I'll be fine, it'll take some time to heal, and I can't shape shift until then, so I'm stuck as a bird for a while."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah it's A-OK, beside, I always liked being a bird."

Amia came up behind me at this point, holding several large folded leaves in her hands.

"I got the leaves! You ok Sam? I saw you get hit back there."

"Oh I'm alright Ms. plant, you did some mighty fine dancing out there, I've never seen the cloud birds so happy in my entire life!"

"Thanks Sam," she said, then turned to me, "We need to get going to find the other two ingredients, liquid fire can be found at that lake in the center I think, so let's go there first." She looked into the forest after saying this and sighed, "I wish we didn't have to try and find our way through the forest again, that was a nightmare last time."

"Oh there's a much faster way you know, you just have to ask the right tree." Sam replied, pointing to a tall oak tree standing not too far off. Looking more closely, I saw a pair of bright, shiny metal doors in its trunk, almost like...

"An elevator tree! that's what you need now, just ask the tree to bring you to the lake, and off you go!"

Amia looked confused, "What's an elevator? I've never heard of one."

"An elevator is a device that can move objects and people vertically, its like a little moving room that can go up and down. I've seen them on this one planet that has this species called humans that-" I said, but stopped quickly when it came clear I was only confusing them more when I mentioned the humans. "Anyway, we better get going."

"I'll sit this one out, you two have fun! This is Samuel Winksy Heirit blugart vonford quangle viske yisme jonatsa Overgrowth signing out!" Sam called as we started toward the elevator tree. When we had come up right before it, I cleared my throat and said in a loud and clear voice:

"We need to go to fire lake in the center of Viridi Mortem!"

The tree opened up at once and let us in, we stepped in quickly, and the doors shut. Inside was a beautifully wooden paneled room, about the size of an average elevator, though it was much too large to have been able to fit inside the tree. The floor suddenly vibrated under our feet, and the elevator began to move upward, though how it was doing so inside a tree that was rooted to the ground was beyond me. Amia however, was more worried about the sudden movement, and grabbed my arm, looking afraid. She seemed to realize what she had done though, for she released my arm quite quickly.

"Um, Will?" She said, her voice a little shaky.

"Yeah?"

T- thanks for protecting me out there," She said, not looking at me, "you were really brave."

"Oh.. thanks," I could feel myself turning red, and I avoided looking at her.

We stood there in silence until the room suddenly gave out a loud: BING! and the doors opened. Both of us quickly stepped outside, and the metal doors closed behind us, though when we looked it was just a plain oak tree, with no metal doors or hidden elevators in sight. In front of us however, was a large writhing lake of liquid fire. It wasn't magma, it was as if someone had taken actual fire, and compressed it into liquid form, then filled the lake with it. The lake churned endlessly, giving off a blast of steam every now and then.

Amia stepped forward, taking out an empty glass vial as she went. Reaching the edge, she very carefully filled the vial full to the brim with the liquid flame, sealing it off with a small cork.

"Well, that was easy," she said.

This was a very bad thing to say, even at the best of times, and sure enough there a disturbance could be felt. The ground trembled, forcing us both to fall to our knees. Then over the edge of a hill came fifty large stones of varying color and texture, all rolling toward them. This however wasn't a landslide or anything like it, these rocks knew exactly where they were going, and while the moved: they sang songs of joy.

"Oh we will roll! roll the day away, away, away! Nothing will stop our roll, today! Into the lake we go, singing songs along. We are the singing rocks, the rocks of glorious life and love and liberty! let us sing, let us roll, let, us, liiiive!" Sang the rocks as they rolled toward us. And then they were all around us, knocking us around like rag dolls, until finally the last of them had past. Looking after them, I saw that they appeared to be rolling on top of the fiery lake, instead of sinking. I could still hear their song as the retreated farther and farther away.

"No! The Vial! They took it, those rocks took the vial!" Amia suddenly shouted, jumping up and pointing after the singing rocks. Looking carefully, I saw that she was right: bouncing on top of the rocks as they rolled along was a gleaming vial full of the red firewater. Then in horror, the two of us watched as the vial bounced high, high in the air, then fell with a splash right into the lake.

"First that dinosaur and now this," Amia growled. She suddenly ran straight for the lake.

"Wait, No!" but it was too late, before I could stop her, Amia dived into the fiery lake and swam pell-mell toward where the vial had dropped. When she reached the point, I saw her turn over and dive straight down into the lake. Horrified, I ran to the lake's edge, trying too see her, but she was out of sight.

Cursing the bad luck, I strapped my goggles back over my eyes, and then jumped head first into the firewater after Amia. The fire water was hard to see through, as it gave of an endless bright red light, though my blue tinted goggles seemed to help my vision capabilities somewhat. As I swam, I noticed that the firewater moved more easily than regular water, as if it was carrying me toward my destination instead of me pushing through it like real water.

When I had made it to the point where I had last seen Amia, I took a deep breath, and dived straight down. As I pushed myself downwards toward the lake bottom, the firewater seemed to e cooling down, as if it had decided it didn't need to give off heat like it did on the surface, which had been rather hot. Then something else strange happened, the firewater stopped giving off light. Before where it had been pure reddish glow of the fire, it was now and inky blue-black color. I continued to swim in the same direction, not daring to go back in case Amia needed help.

Then suddenly my head broke the surface and I breathed fresh, moist air. I looked around, I was in a lake of normal water, no fire water to be seen anywhere, except... I looked up, and nearly fainted. Above me floated Viridi Mortem, with the fiery lake centered right above my head. I was in the upside down lake on the bottom of Viridi Vita! This realization nearly made me faint again, not because I was afraid of heights, but because I could no longer tell what was up and what was down. If I had swam downward in the firewater lake to come up in the upside down lake, which let me look up at Viridi Mortem, which was below me, I gave up thinking about it, my head couldn't take it.

"Hey Will! Over here!" a voice called.

Turning in the water I saw Amia by the side of the upside down lake, sitting on a large amount of faintly glowing coral, and she was upside down. Or was I upside down and she up side right? I didn't know anymore.

"Will I got the vial before it fell, and guess what this is!" she gestured to the coral she was sitting on, "It's reverse coral! the last ingredient that we needed, so we did it!" She sounded so happy and so excited that I couldn't help but smile.

"Now we just need to get back up to the top of Viridi Vita!" I called, swimming over to her.

"Hmm." she said worryingly, "I don't know how we're going to do that, if you get out of the water you'll turn back upright again and fall down to Viridi Mortem, I just barely caught myself on the coral beforehand."

"I'll stay in the water a bit longer then, until we have a plan." I replied, "let's just look around and see what we can find."

There wasn't much to be found, the lake was completely flat, despite my swimming through it, and around its edge reverse coral grew, but didn't go far enough for us to climb back to the surface. In desperation I looked up, or down whichever it was, at Viridi Mortem. That's when the answer to our problem became clear.

"Hey Amia! look up there! next to the fiery lake, do you see that?"

She looked down, or up to me, "It's just jungle I don't see any- wait! is that!?"

"It is! It's the rainbow clearing! Gerimia if down there!" And so it was. Just peaking out between a dense patch of jungle trees was a small clearing if bright proportions, and in the middle of it sat a large spider. I looked at Amia and we both nodded. Taking deep breaths we shouted together:

"DING, DING, DING, DROP POINT!" and up shot Gerimia like a firework, running through the air like his life depended on it. He came to a halt next to us with a joyous laugh.

"Hey ya you two! Didn't think I'd see you up here in Reverse lake! ready for a ride home?"

"You bet we are," I said, but Amia interrupted.

"Is there any faster way then riding on your back? I want to get there as soon as possible."

"Sure there is Ms. Rosery, I could always fling you with my thread-a-pult." Gerimia replied, gleeful at the idea.

Amia looked at me for a moment, so a said quickly: "We should take the fastest route back up, let's try it."

She looked relieved at this, "alright Gerimia, what do we need to do?

"Just hold onto this thread you two, and I'll send you right up there."

We both grabbed a piece of spider thread, it was sticky, so holding on wouldn't be too much of a problem. Amia and I nodded at Gerimia to show we were ready.

"And awaaay you gooo!" Gerimia shouted, suddenly pulling the threads hard and whipping us away from the island in a wide arc. I seconds we had cleared the edge of the island and were soaring toward the nearest tree, on I recognized quite well. Feeling the thread go slack, I quickly pushed it off my hands, letting it fall to the ground, I saw Amia doing it as well next to me. Then we started falling as well, toward a large branch with a leafy canopy.

"Brace for Impact!" I shouted, curling up to protect my head. I landed with loud crash and a roll as I hit the ground hard for the third time that day. We were back in the royal garden, mere feet away from my original crater I had made when I had landed here earlier,

I got to my feet and looked around. Amia was standing up as well, the ingredient clutched safely in her arms. She seemed surprised to find herself back in the garden where we had started, and for a moment she put the ingredients down at her feet.

"We better get those to your mom quickly," I told her, "you go ahead with the ingredients, I'll wait here."

"Y- yeah," she said, but walked over to me quickly without picking any of the ingredients up. Then to my utter surprise she gave me warm hug, and whispered in my ears: "thank you, thank you for everything, Will." And with that she let go, gave me a radiant smile, and walked back over to the pile of leaves, the glass vial, and the coral. Picking them up, she hurried back into the main tree without a backward glance.

I myself just plopped down and laid in the grass where I was. It had been a very interesting adventure, and I felt like a good long rest would be perfect right about now.