Young Redwyne Hood

Pronunciation Guide

Lynniville - LIN-uh-vill
Redwyne - red-WHEN
Uguay - U-guh-way
Yulong - you-LON

Prologue

     Before I begin this story, allow me to give some explanation as to the appearance and history of a species called the uguay. The uguay are shape shifters, but in this story, it's commonly known that their original shape is that of a wolf, albeit a very large wolf. Uguay can change into any shape, including a human, at any given time, except for when they're digesting, at which time they are forced to take their original form. Very often, in fact, in most cases, a uguay will change into their original shape when they are about to eat as well, since it's easier to eat something when in wolf form. However, uguay that are the result of a human and a uguay mating can only change between their uguay form and their human form. One or the other is their original, and that is impossible to call before said uguay are born. Another thing I should mention before moving on - like most animals, it is not the uguay's instinct to mate for life.

     Several years ago, the humans and the uguay were able to live together peaceably, even though the uguay were carnivores. The uguay realized that the humans were vastly more intelligent and aware than the animals, and certainly more fun to talk to, and so instead of eating the humans, they targeted other meat sources, such as wildcats, deer, elk, etc. However, they never touched anything that was recognized as a human's property, for that would be stealing.

     After seven generations of peace between the two, a band of humans disrupted this unspoken treaty between the two by beginning to hunt the uguay. Since tension between them had been rising for a while anyway, most uguay decided to fight back, reasoning that if the humans wanted to hunt the uguay, what was to stop the uguay hunting the humans? However, a few uguay decided that the humans hunting the uguay were only frightened of what they didn't entirely understand, and desperate to maintain at least a little peace, they shifted into humans and gradually slipped into human villages. A minority considered telling their neighbors what they were, but eventually decided against it, since nearly all the humans were beginning to get aggressive when it came to uguay, having heard a lot of stories about the uguay attacking humans.

     The following story takes place 24 years after the first few uguay settled down in human villages.

Young Redwyne Hood

     Theodore had lived in Lynniville for his whole life, only telling a few that he was, in fact, a uguay. Uguay were a little more accepted by this time, but he preferred not to be shot, or killed in any way, and was, therefore, rather cautious about who he told. He was 20 years old, and helped his father with blacksmithing rather often, although sometimes the metal supply wouldn't go through and both had little to do, at which times Theodore would often visit his young friend Redwyne, whom he treated like a little sister. The day this story begins is one of those days.

     Redwyne and her mother had been preparing for the last several days to go visit the fifteen year old's grandmama, who lived just on the other side of the Uguay Wood, which was filled with malicious uguay. However, on the day that they were planning to depart, Redwyne's little brother Peter, who was five, caught an unknown illness and the boy's mother reluctantly set back the day of departure until either later that day or the next. To everyone's distress, Peter did not get better that evening, and even got worse the next day. Redwyne's mother was determined to stay at Peter's side, for she knew that her husband would not be able to care for the boy on his own. However, Redwyne's mother had promised her mama that she would bring over lunch for the old woman's 72nd birthday, because she was bedridden and her physician had told her to try and remain in bed for as much as possible.

     After some thought and pressing to just 'send a letter to Grandmama' from Redwyne, Redwyne's mother, Mrs. Hood, decided to send her daughter alone to her mama's, for the girl was 15 and had taken the route needed several times before. On the morning in question, Mrs. Hood prepared the lunch, along with other needed supplies with care, and insisted on putting on Redwyne's thick red cloak for her, giving her daughter a long embrace afterwards.

     "Remember, Red," her mother said, while still hugging her, "do not, under any circumstances go through the Uguay Wood. I know it's a great amount shorter, but it's--"

     "--called the Uguay Wood for a reason," Redwyne finished for her mother, smiling. "I know."

     Mrs. Hood released Redwyne from her hug, looking at the young girl with a look of remembrance in her eyes. "Just... be careful, all right?"

     "Every day, mother," Redwyne said, and the two exchanged loving kisses on each other's cheeks, as well as one last hug. Mrs. Hood gave her daughter a picnic basket that was in addition to the leather bag that Redwyne already had hanging off her left side, and said, "I love you."

     "I love you, too," Redwyne said, smiling reassuringly at her mother.

     "See you in about a week, honey!" Mrs. Hood called out the door as Redwyne walked away, onto the path that led to her mama's somewhat secluded house.

     "All right, Mother!" The young girl called back, turning around for a moment to get one last glimpse of her house and her mother before leaving on her travels. Redwyne's mother was able to see the young blacksmith's son run over to her daughter before closing the door, smiling slightly to herself.

     "Hey, Red!" Theodore called as he ran over to the young girl. Redwyne stopped, turning towards the voice.

     "Hey, you," she replied, smiling, then continued down the path, Theodore following.

     "Where're you going?"

     "To my grandmama's," Redwyne replied. "She's not feeling well. Aaand it's her 72nd birthday," Redwyne continued, turning to smile at who she considered to be her older brother. "Or it will be."

     "Day and a half, right?" Theodore said, seeking to confirm how long the trip would be.

     "Yep," Redwyne replied, a bit of sadness in her tone.

     "You could go through the Uguay Wood," Theodore said, somewhat quietly. "I'm not sure anyone could be a safer escort than me."

     "Absolutely not," Redwyne replied. "Obviously, I know that you're a uguay, but Mother specifically told me not to cut through the woods."

     "I understand..." Theodore replied, then paused in his speech for a moment. "But your mother doesn't know I'm a uguay. If she did, she would almost more likely than not let us go through the wood."

      Redwyne considered it for a minute or two, then said, very firmly, "no. You can escort me the long way, though. For a bit, anyway."

     "Okay," Theodore said cheerily.

     "Your father won't mind?" Redwyne inquired.

     "Nope," Theodore replied. "We don't have very much metal to shape today, and the demand certainly isn't high."

     "All right," Redwyne said, smiling.

     The two continued down the path for the next ten minutes, conversing about numerous things, and then, after a moment or two of silence, Redwyne mentioned that she wished she could see her grandmama for longer than just a day, because she feared that her end was very near, and a day didn't seem very long. Theodore then brought up cutting through the wood again, and after a couple minutes, Redwyne gave in, since she knew she was safe with Theodore.
     Before even getting within a yard of the wood, Theodore shifted into his original form, although he exaggerated his intimidating features to hopefully ward off any uguay, and since Theodore would visit the wood sometimes, knew a less frequented way to get to their destination safer. The two were luckily left alone for a couple hours, although unknown to them, they were being carefully watched by a somewhat small uguay, who was, in fact, Theodore's younger half brother, Yulong.
     Yulong was thirteen, and the fourth child of Theodore's and Yulong's mother, who was a uguay, although Yulong's father was a human. Since Yulong was raised by his mother, he was a very spiteful being who despised humans, seeing them as weak. This viewpoint was only enforced by himself being half human, so he was able to see firsthand that humans were not as powerful as uguay.
     After listening in on Redwyne's and Theodore's conversation, Yulong was able to pick up that the two were headed to Red's grandmama's house, the old lady wasn't feeling very well, and where the house was located. After getting this information, Yulong followed them for another ten minutes or so, but then put several yards between them and headed towards the old woman's house.
     See, not many uguay were able to eat humans since the humans hardly ever ventured into the Uguay Wood, and so being able to catch and eat a human was something of a competition that the uguay had amongst themselves, and Yulong was one of the worst. He figured that being able to get two humans (he had developed a plan involving getting Red as well) would surely gain him some points in the group.
     Redwyne and Theodore were about half an hour away from the house when Red spotted some beautiful wildflowers and asked Theodore if he thought it was safe enough to make a slight diversion. Theodore paused, then replied, "yeah, should be safe enough."
     Redwyne quietly skipped over to the patch of red and yellow flowers and began picking them. "I'm sure these will lighten up grandmama's house," she told Theodore quietly, who was pacing around Red, looking out for anything, even birds, although the wood was rather void of animals.
     Thirteen minutes later, Yulong made it to Redwyne's grandmama's house, shifting into his human form, and pulling together as much strength as he could, he did what he had been practicing doing for a while, which was shifting into a human form that wasn't in fact his, and his goal this time was Redwyne. After a couple of minutes and a few suppressed yells of pain, Yulong managed to get himself to look exactly like Redwyne (complete with her clothes), although he had much difficulty in retaining her shape.
     He quickly knocked on the door, and he thought he heard a shotgun cock before a feeble "who is it?" came out of the house.
     "Your granddaughter Red," Yulong said quietly, trying to hold Redwyne's shape.
     "You're gonna have tuh speak up," replied the grandmama. "My ears ain't as youn' as they used tuh be."
     Yulong cleared his throat, then repeated, "it's Red, Grandmama."
     "Oh, Red!" The old woman's voice cheered up. "Well, come in, then, Redwyne."
     Yulong opened the door, surprised that it was, in fact, unlocked, and saw the old woman setting down her shotgun beside the rocking chair that she was in.
     "Red," the old woman started, "where's your mother?"
     Yulong paused, stumped. "She... couldn't come. Other things to attend to."
     The grandmama nodded, then said with a smile, "you came quite a bit sooner than I expected. But I'm glad you did."
     Yulong faked a smile, and the old lady started standing up. "Oh, grandmama," Yulong said, rushing over to the old lady and grabbing her arms with pretend worry.
     "Aw, don'tcha worry 'bout me, youn' Red. I'll be fine." After standing up, Mrs. Hood's mama looked up into Yulong's eyes and saw the recognizable orange eyes of a uguay.
     Upon seeing the shock in the old woman's eyes, Yulong knew he was losing Redwyne's form and so, giving up, he changed into his uguay form and easily devoured the old woman, hiding in the woman's bedroom until he finished digesting.

     Approximately twenty minutes later, Redwyne and Theodore made it to the fifteen year old's grandmama's house, and Theodore changed back into his human form. Redwyne paused at the door, glad to have made it nearly before noon, and turned around, giving a grateful smile to Theodore.
     "Thank you so much for escorting me, Theo."
     "Absolutely no problem, my lady," Theodore replied, bowing.
     Redwyne giggled, then entered the house as Theodore left, changing back into his uguay shape.
     The very first thing Redwyne noticed upon entering her grandmama's house was that her shotgun was left unattended, as it was just sitting down beside her grandmama's rocking chair. Red set her basket down on the floor beside the door, and slipped her shoes off.
     "Grandmama?" She asked hesitantly.
     "Red?" Asked an old voice a room or two away. "Is that you, dear?"
     "Yeah, it is!" Red called back. "I'm afraid I don't have mother with me," Red continued, debating on whether or not to take the shotgun with her to her grandmama's bedroom. "Peter was doing dreadfully and she had to stay with him."
     There was a pause. "Oh, poor Peter. Do you know what he has?"
     Redwyne picked up her grandmama's shotgun, started walking up the hall, and replied, "No, we haven't been able to get a physician to look at him yet."
     "Poor dear," the impersonator replied as Redwyne entered the book-filled room. "Why, dearie," Yulong said, slightly nervous. "What are you doing with that shotgun?"
     "It's yours, Grandmama," Red replied, rather surprised at the question. "You had left it in the living room."
     "Oh, of course," Yulong replied with pretend recollections, and smiled. "So forgetful these days, you know."
     "Of course," Redwyne replied, forcing a smile.
     After an awkward pause, Yulong reached out his hands for the gun. "Giv't here, child," he said, wearing his best Grandma smile.
     Redwyne dropped her left hand down to pick up the end of the shotgun and started bringing it up, watching who she thought was her grandmama closely, unsure. When she brought the end of the shotgun up and the top down, making it horizontal, Red paused.
     "Red, dear, what is it?" Yulong said, then gave a small groan. His body was having a great amount of trouble holding a shape it wasn't meant to have.
     "Your... eyes," Redwyne said hesitantly. "They're orange. Like..." Red didn't have the courage to finish the sentence, and not wanting to let the impersonator know even more that he was found out, she cut herself off, aimed the shotgun at Yulong, and started to cock it.
     However, Yulong had realized that he had slipped up the moment Redwyne said 'orange', and had changed into his uguay form, leaping out of the bed at Red and pushing her to the floor as soon as she had put her hand on the fore-end of the weapon.
     Although Redwyne felt as though she could probably manage to kill the uguay, she screamed, so that if Theodore or someone else was close, she would have backup. That, and the beast's claws digging into her upper chest* caused a shout of pain. Then she quickly grabbed the gun that she was already holding in her right hand with her left hand, pointed the barrel at the beast's chest, and pushed up with all her might, so as to keep Yulong from biting her face off. In the meantime, Yulong was bringing his head as far towards the young girl as he could, moving his jaws quickly. Redwyne tried to get a better grip on the shotgun while simultaneously pulling the fore-end back in an attempt to cock it.
     While trying to cock her grandmama's shotgun, Redwyne's arm slipped and the weapon started going flat on the ground. Instinctively, Red promptly moved her head to the right, but Yulong still managed to get about half of the girl's left ear, which caused her to release another scream, at which point Theodore, still in his ugauy shape, entered the house, breaking the door down in his hurry.
     "Theo!" Redwyne cried out, nearly screaming, although she didn't need to, for Theodore hadn't paused a second. The moment he saw a uguay on his young Redwyne, he lunged at the creature, sinking his teeth into his half brother's neck.
     Because of the momentum that Theodore hit Yulong with, he pulled him about a foot away from Redwyne, and Yulong's claws left Red's body, and to Redwyne's relief, they came out quite smoothly and so didn't tear off too much flesh. Nevertheless, the young girl still cried out quietly, for the retraction hurt a considerable amount.
     The two brothers brawled together for a bit, and in the meantime, Redwyne picked the shotgun up off the floor, cocking it and waiting for the opportune moment to fire. She got her chance once Yulong stood atop the bleeding Theodore like a conquerer, and Redwyne immediately shot Yulong in the side of the neck, ran over to the fallen body, cocking the shotgun again. Once she reached Yulong, who was struggling to stand, she put the barrel to his head, looked in his bright orange eyes who were looking up into hers, seeking, it seemed, for mercy, and paused, hesitant.
     "Red," Theodore said in a groan.
     "Mm?" Redwyne said, acknowledging Theodore, but not looking away from Yulong.
     "Shoot him," Theodore said quietly. "Or else, if he gets an opening, he'll kill you."
     Knowing he had a point, Red nodded, put her finger on the trigger, and pulled her right index finger toward her, which released the bullet from the the gun's barrel, killing the uguay.

Epilogue

     After taking a little bit of medication that was available in Red's grandmama's house, Theodore shifted back into a human, and the two took the long way back to Lynniville.

     The night of the next day, Theodore and Redwyne made it back to their town, and Theodore accompanied Red into her house and into her brother Peter's bedroom where Mrs. Hood was sitting beside the bed, her head in Peter's lap. Redwyne sat down on the bed and started stroking her mother's hair lovingly.

     "Mm?" Mrs. Hood lifted her head up, looking around. "Red? Why are you back so early?"

     "Mother..." Redwyne paused.

     "What is it, dear?" Mrs. Hood took Redwyne's hand.

     "It's Grandmama, mother," Red said quietly. "She was eaten. By a uguay."

     Mrs. Hood gasped, and after taking a moment to calm herself, lead Red and Theodore to the kitchen, where she prepared a late-night snack and had the two explain what had happened, and the two told the story as gently as they possibly could.

     A few days later, after letters had been sent out to various descendants of Mrs. Hood's mama, and after Mr. and Mrs. Hood, Redwyne and Peter were able to get some closure about her death, Peter was finally able to be attended by a physician. This physician was from a well-equipped town that was quite a few miles away, and had luckily seen Peter's symptoms before, and knew how to treat him. Peter was at full health within the week, to the delight of the whole village, for Peter brightened up Lynniville almost more than Red did.

*I feel I ought to clarify that when I say upper chest, I mean roundabout half an inch below her collarbone.

---------------------------

Alternate Ending

     "Red?" asked an old voice a room or two away. "Is that you, dear?"
     "Yeah, it is!" Red called back. "I'm afraid I don't have mother with me," Red continued, debating on whether or not to take the shotgun with her to her grandmama's bedroom. "Peter was doing dreadfully and she had to stay with him."
     There was a pause. "Oh, poor Peter. Do you know what he has?"
     "No, we haven't been able to get a physician to look at him yet," Redwyne replied, going over to the bedroom unarmed.
     "Poor dear," the impersonator replied. "So, you came sooner than I expected." Red entered the book-filled bedroom as Yulong smiled at the girl. "But I'm so very glad you did." Redwyne smiled back.
     "Me, too." Redwyne sat down on the bottom of the bed. "How are you feeling, Grandmama?"
     "Better," Yulong replied, "But still rather awfully."
     Redwyne smiled sadly at Yulong and took his hand. Yulong let out a small groan, and Red quickly moved her hand back. "Grandmama," she exclaimed.
     "I'm fine," Yulong replied, letting out a smile. Unfortunately for Yulong, he was losing the form, and so one of his teeth was elongated, and his left eye had started turning orange. Redwyne stood up abruptly and took a step back.
     "Gran..." the girl started quietly, "Mama? There's something wrong with you."
     "What--" Yulong let out a small yelp, trying with all his might to retain the old woman form. "What do you mean?"
     "You. Are not my grandmama," Redwyne stated, starting to run out of the room for the shotgun.
     Yulong leaped out of the bed, simultaneously shifting into his uguay form, and grabbed Redwyne by her right shoulder with his jaws. Red let out the loudest scream she could muster and collapsed to the ground.
     A little more than a yard into the wood, Theodore heard Redwyne's scream, recognized it, and ran as quickly as he could back to the house. He broke through the door and ran up the hall into Redwyne's grandmama's bedroom to find his little brother, in uguay form, eating on Red's body, which was completely torn apart.
     Thinking more quickly than he ever had before, Theodore shifted into a bird, flew into the living room, shifted into his human form, picked up the shotgun, and shot the uguay that had followed him into the living room three times in the head, tears beginning to streaming down his slim, pale face.

     Mrs. Hood saw her daughter four days sooner than she had expected, in a way that she dreaded ever having to see. Her initial reaction was to blame Theodore, but, with help from her son, was able to recognize that he had little to do with it and had blamed himself anyway - he didn't need any help from the girl's mother.
     A few days later, a physician, who had traveled from a town that luckily recognized Peter's illness, and even better, knew of the proper way to treat it. Peter was up and about within the week, and continued to brighten up the village with his smiles, sweet heart, and marvelous stories. Theodore soon took Peter under his wing, refusing to keep his eyes off the boy for very long.

Merlin Fanfic Part 1

    As most main characters are in stories such as these, Katherine Taylor was far from extraordinary. She went to school as she imagined every other seventeen year olds in America did, and browsed the Internet whenever she was free and had nothing to do. She had, at the age of thirteen, started a blog, but she hadn't written on it often until the age of sixteen, at which point she decided that when she got older, she would remember very little of what she had done when she was younger, and so although Katie's days were filled with dullness, she did her best to summarize her days well in posts.
    In any case, I shall spare you and move on to the day of excitement. Katie was on her way back from school, her pink and grey backpack filled with homework, so she had both straps on her arms and had her thumbs coming in between the grey straps and her plain blue t-shirt.
    She was three blocks away from reaching her house when a cool breeze came upon her and she felt the need to stop, so she did. In addition, she started to feel nauseous, so she closed her eyes and knelt down, clenching her stomach.
    "You all right?" a male voice with a British accent inquired, Katie assumed the question was directed at her, and therefore opened her eyes, looking for a face to connect with the voice. She didn't have to search long before she saw a young man on her right, picking herbs. He had short black hair, and his ears stuck out a bit. The boy was not the first thing Katie noticed. She was in a field with many plants, mostly flowers, and a few trees. There was a medieval castle nearby.
    "Er, yes," Katie replied slightly faintly. "Just a tad nauseous."
    "Do you need to see the physician? I know him personally, and I'm certain he'd be more than happy to help."
    "No, thank you," Katherine replied gratefully, standing. "That's unnecessary."
    "Okay," the young man replied, kneeling down to pick a plant. "But if you need anything, don't be afraid to tell me."
    "Very generous, thank you," Katie replied.
    "Oh, it's no problem," he said, smiling at Katie. Katie returned the smile, and after looking at the city for a while, asked, "Sorry, but... what city is this?"
    The man stopped gathering herbs and looked up at her. After a pause, he answered, "Camelot."
    "Camelot?" Katie replied, surprised. "That," she said, pointing at the wall, "is Camelot?"
    "Yeah," the young man replied. "Are you lost?"
    "I don't know," Katie said faintly. "Um," she added, a bit louder. "I think I ought to see the physician, after all."
    The boy nodded, stood up, started walking towards the wall, then paused, looking back. "Do you need any help?"
    "No thank you," Katie replied, following him down the hill. "I'm quite sure I can walk okay."
    "All right," the boy said, and started walking again, Katie close behind. "I'm Merlin, by the way."
    Katie promptly stopped. "Merlin?" she asked, shocked. After a pause and receiving a short stare at her, Katie continued, "nice to meet you. My name's..." she paused again. Katherine had always introduced herself as Katie, but after thinking about it, she decided Katherine would be more suited to the time. "Katherine," she finished, and continued walking, which got Merlin to continue as well.
    "Nice to meet you, Katherine." Merlin offered Katherine his hand, and Katherine shook it, surprised they shook hands in that time.
    "Where did you travel from?" Merlin asked Katherine as they entered the walls.
    Katherine paused. "Derbyshire," she replied, after some thought.
    "Derbyshire?" Merlin asked, thinking. "I don't believe I've heard of such a place."
    "Really?" Katherine replied, trying to hide her nervousness, but her voice cracked, and she knew she had failed.
    "It must be a great length away," Merlin commented.
    "Yes," Katherine said, nearly shouting. She was bad at being deceptive, as she was aware of previously. "Yes," she continued, more quietly this time. "It is."
     The two remained quiet until they reached the door to the physician's room. "Here we are," Merlin said, opening the door.
     The first thing Katherine noticed upon entering was that there were a great many bottles around, most filled with strangely colored liquids. The second thing she noticed was that there were also a great amount of books, most ancient-looking, which was surprising to Katie since this time era seemed old in itself.  The third thing Katherine noticed was that the place was messily organized, and the fourth thing, or rather the first person, she noticed was an old man with somewhat long white hair and was wearing a red robe.
     "Gaius," Merlin said, "this is Katherine. I found her while gathering the herbs you asked for." At this, Merlin put the few plants he had picked on one of the two tables. "She's just traveled a long way and feels a bit nauseous."
     "Oh, well, sit down, Katherine," Gaius said, putting down a couple bottles he was holding and moved to pull out a chair for Katie.
     "Thank you," Katherine said gratefully, sitting down. She paused a bit as Gaius picked up the herbs Merlin brought, inspecting them. "Um," Katie said, getting the two's attention. "I'm also a bit light-headed and... may be suffering a little memory loss." She said the last bit fairly quietly.
     "Memory loss?" Gaius said, worried. "Do you know how much?"
     Katie paused before replying. "No... quite a bit, though... I believe."
     "Well," Gaius said, "I'm dearly sorry to hear that. I'll do what I can. Perhaps you'd like to lie down instead?"
     Katherine simply nodded, and Merlin touched up a nearby bed before offering it to her.
     "Thanks," Katherine said to Merlin before laying down.
     Gaius pulled up a chair and sat next to Katherine. "Could you tell me what you remember, dear girl?"
     Katherine paused. 'What should I tell them?' she wondered to herself. "Well... my name. My age, seventeen." Katie bit her lip, wondering what else she should say.
     "You're from Derbyshire," Merlin put in.
     "Yes, well," Katie paused again, then quietly said, "I kinda made that up. Sorry."
     "It's all right, don't worry about it," Merlin said, smiling a bit. Katherine returned the smile, glad to be forgiven so easily. "You did seem to recognize the name Camelot, though."
     "Yeah," Katherine admitted. "I... dunno where from, though."
     "Oh," Merlin said quietly.
     "You seem to have lost quite a bit," Gaius said, thinking.
     "Yeah, well..." Katherine started. "Could I take a nap? I am rather tired."
     "Of course," Gaius answered. "In fact, I recommend that."
     "Thank you," Katherine sighed happily, and closed her eyes. She had stayed up longer than she should have the night before doing free reading, and naturally had to get up early for school.
     Gaius and Merlin stepped away, talking amongst themselves, but Katherine was too busy thinking and drifting into unconsciousness to pay any mind. The last thing she thought about falling asleep was, "I wonder why they haven't commented on my clothes yet", but quite naturally, she forgot ever thinking that the moment she woke up.

A Wonderful Doctor Who Quote-Scene-Thing

SO. I watched an older Doctor Who episode today because I felt the want to watch all the episodes with The Master, and I was reminded of a scene of pure magnificence (I say “reminded” because I've seen this particular episode before)! I love seeing The Doctor and the Brigadier interact!! I’d post the scene, but I can’t find just that scene, SO. I’m gonna post the quotes. 

*Brigadier Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Captain Michael Yates, Jo Grant, and The Doctor are all gathered around a table for a briefing*

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: …Six, the Nestenes have landed a small bridgehead force. *The Doctor moves a bit away, and starts messing with his dematerialization circuit, facing away from the Brig* Seven, they’re operating from somewhere within this area. Eight, they’re being led by an intelligent alien known as The Master. *The Doctor starts walking towards his TARDIS with his dematerialization circuit* Nine, all their operations have, so far, been primarily directed at us here at UNIT. *The Doctor reaches his TARDIS doorway* Ten, what are you doing, Doctor?

The Doctor: Oh, I’m terribly sorry, did you want me?

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: I should like your attention, Doctor, until we’ve settled on a course of action. That is, of course, unless you have something of greater importance to attend to?

The Doctor: No, no. Of course not. *walks over to a wall support a few feet away from the Brigadier* No, do carry on, it’s most interesting.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Thank you. *pauses, then adds, to no one in particular* Where was I?

Captain Yates: Ten, sir.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Ten. The enemy intention.

The Doctor: The enemy intention is to occupy your planet. I should have thought that was quite obvious.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: To do that, they will have to land additional forces, in other words, this is no more than a diversionary thrust. Do you agree, Doctor?

The Doctor: I should have thought that was pretty obvious too, isn’t it?

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: We have, as you know, raided the circus and arrested Rossini and his thugs. *turns to Mike Yates* And what have we learned from that?

The Doctor: Nothing. Rossini’s just a tool. The Master used him and then discarded him.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: There was no sign of alien activity at the circus. This mysterious horsebox had vanished, so had the Autons.

The Doctor: Naturally. *starts walking towards his TARDIS again, then stops and turns around* Oh, you have finished with me now, I hope?

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Not quite.

The Doctor: Oh.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: I therefore propose that we double our security here, and concentrate on finding The Master’s headquarters.

*pause*

*still pausing*

*…still pausing*

The Doctor: Oh, well having reached that brilliant conclusion, how about getting on with it?

*skip a bit, after everyone but Jo and The Doctor has left*

The Doctor: Do you know, Jo, I sometimes think that Military Intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

So… I never tire of watching The Doctor and The Brigadier interacting!  Yeah… they’re friends. Or mates, to put it in English terms. 

Random Story I Thought Of Part 3

In case the title didn’t give it away, this is part 3. Here is part 1… and part 2.

A few minutes later, I was back inside, staring out the window at the field. However, not too long after I had gone inside, my stomach had started growling, and since the only food I had seen since arriving were the interesting-looking fruit in the bedroom, I decided to attempt eating some of those. I walked over to the table in the center of the room, and hesitantly picked up a large round white fruit.
“Here goes,” I murmured to myself, and took a small bite out of the albino fruit.
Oddly, it tasted like a pear that had been sprinkled with sugar. I finished the fruit off, hoping that it wasn’t as unhealthy as it tasted, then decided to try a different fruit,  this time a purple one, shaped like a pomegranate. Again, I started with a small bite. This one was also sweet, but instead of a pear, it tasted like a peach, mixed with apricot.
It was just when I had finished this particular fruit when a boy, one who looked about my age, appeared at the window facing the cliff. He had straight chestnut hair trimmed above his ears, with eyes matching the color of his hair, although curiously, his eyes were not shaped like DeLane’s.
“Hi!” He said enthusiastically, with a deeper voice than I had expected, and an accent. After a pause, he asked, “may I come in?”
“Um,” I said, frozen in place. “Sure, why not?”
The boy disappeared from the window, but was inside my room within moments. He stood at the door awkwardly for a moment, then poked his head through the door to the main room. “Lyanna,” I heard him say quietly, then add something in the foreign language.
He turned around, looking back at me, and grinned nervously. Soon after, Lyanna stepped into the room, looking at the floor.
“Hey, Lyanna,” I said to the young girl, remembering how she had left earlier. “How did you disappear like that?”
The boy immediately turned to Lyanna for a translation, waving his hands around a little to emphasize what he was asking for. A little frustrated, Lyanna told the boy what I’d said, then turned back to me. “It matters not,” she replied, and after some coaxing from the boy, repeated to him what she had said to me, in his language. “This,” Lyanna gently told me, gesturing to the tall boy, “is Sanum Levi. He desperately wanted to meet you,” she said, then turned to the boy and added something in his language with an upset look in her eyes. The boy smiled nervously and backed away from her a step.
They conversed in their language for a little, so I licked my fingers to clean them from the fruits I had eaten, while awkwardly watching the two.
After about a minute, Lyanna stormed out, Sanum pulled out my desk chair, and slumped down in it, staring out the window facing the meadow.
“Um,” I said, and stepped towards him. “Hi.”
He sighed. “Hi.” After a pause, he exasperatedly added, “May I come in?”
I stared at him a moment, confused, and then Sanum started laughing. He stood up, repeated the words I had first heard when I arrived, and left the room. Taking it as ‘come here’, I followed him into the field and found him leaping onto a grey horse.
“Whoa.” I said quietly, and soon after, the grey horse Sanum was on trotted up to me.
“Okay,” I said. “You’ve convinced me that these are not, in fact, wild horses.”
Sanum laughed, almost making me feel like he could understand me, then gestured to the horses, saying something in his language.
“Me?” I asked, pointing to myself.
“Ze,” Sanum replied. “Me.”
I smiled at his language mistake, and climbed on the nearest horse, the brown one that had had the habit of following me from the beginning. It was easier than I had expected. As soon as I was up all right on the horse, Sanum took off toward the waterfall, shouting, “chaaalaaa!”
I laughed, and followed him. That wasn’t my first time riding a horse, but it was my first time riding one without a saddle, so although I had a foundation, I still had trouble riding the horse, and so had difficulty keeping up with Sanum, who had nearly made it to the waterfall already.
“Hey, wait up!” I called after him, but his only response was to turn around, and I thought I could see him grinning.
A few minutes later, I arrived at the waterfall, where Sanum had been waiting a while, and where he had cheered me on.
“Fijana!” He cried impatiently, with a hint of a smile on his face.
“Um, sorry?” I said hesitantly, and dropped off of the horse, who immediately started grazing. I stared at the horse for a moment, puzzled, then turned around, but Sanum had disappeared.

Zombie Story! *creepy music plays*

*takes a deep breath* ZOMBIEEE… NESS… STORY… THING… AMAJIG!!! *pant, pant*
Here I go!!

————

I was on the flight from Japan with two of my friends. We were ready to be home after taking a two week long ‘field trip’ to expand our Japanese knowledge. Well, Emily and I were ready, anyway. Jennifer was already ready to go back after only half an hour on the plane.
“You know,” she started, in Japanese. Emily groaned.
“Jen, I've been hearing Japanese nearly non-stop for two weeks. English, please?”
Jennifer sighed. “But you’re forgetting. You won’t hear Japanese again for a long while. Probably years!” She was speaking English again, to both mine and Emily’s relief.
“No, you’re forgetting. I’ll be hearing you. And we still watch Detective Conan together, so we’re good!”
“Okay…” Jennifer said, giving in. “You know,” she started again. “We’re going into the past.”
This time, it was my turn to groan. “Jennifer, I’m tired. I don’t want to think right now.”
“You can’t be tired,” Jennifer said, reaching over Emily and pulling me off the window I was leaning on. “It’s only thirty minutes ’till noon in America. Well, Colorado, anyway.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m still in Japan,” I replied, leaning back on the window.
Jennifer sighed, put her elbow on the arm rest, chin in hand, and looked out at the other passengers.
Emily and I were content that Jen was leaving us alone, Em lay on me, and within minutes we were asleep.

The welcoming commitee we got when we finally (finally meaning eleven hours) arrived in Colorado was, to say the least, not what we expected. There were little employees when we got off the plane, the few there not saying anything much, and there was an awful smell in the air that I couldn’t place. What was more was the employees gave us all our luggage saying that the rails on the first floor were not in operation.
As we walked around the airport, all we saw were ruined displays, and tiny groups of people every now and then, packed with guns. To ease our nervousness, Emily, Jennifer and I all held hands, Emily in the middle, since she was the youngest, which made it difficult to drag along our suitcases, but we got on all right. When we reached the elevator, we saw the were doors open, and the shaft exposed. Emily wanted to keep going, but Jen and I just stared, trying to figure out what was going on.
Emily was walking toward the escalators as hard as she could, but refused to let go of our hands. “Come on!” She said, trying in vain to drag us along. “Bianca, Jennifer, please, let’s just go!”
I covered Emily’s mouth instinctively, shhing her. “It would be unwise to leave this building before we know what’s happening,” I told her calmly, and she stopped fighting. I took my hand off her mouth.
While I was talking to Em, the elevator had raised an inch or two, and we all stared at it in worry. After a small amount of time, a pair of eyes could be seen in the crack.They were a lovely green, and they made me miss my friend Timothy more than I already was.
“Aha, I thought I heard you, Emily!” Said a voice that came from the elevator. My heart pounded. The voice sounded like Timothy, Emily’s older brother.
“Tim?” Emily said hesitantly. The elevator raised another few inches to reveal Jennifer’s father, and my older brother, Jonathan. Jonathan, my genius of a twin, had set up a pulley system in the elevator so he could control it. However, the first thing I noticed was each person was holding at least one gun, as well as skinning knife at their hips.
“What’s going on?” I asked Jennifer’s father, Mr. Drew.
“What I’ve always said was going to happen.” He replied seriously.
Naturally, I was quizzical. Mr. Drew had always believed that the zombie apocalypse was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon.
My brother recognized the look on my face. “It’s true,” He said, rather quietly. John and I always used to make fun of how Mr. Drew believed there was going to be a zombie apocalypse, and Jonathan’s face showed that he regretted doing it. “We would be dead if it weren’t for Mr. Drew.”
“Get in,” said Timothy, backing away from the entrance and gesturing to us.
Before I knew it, we were all armed and in Mr. Drew’s ‘Black Van for the Apocalypse’. Out of all of us, Jennifer was the most confused. She always thought her Dad was going just a little insane, since he started going on about it a week after her Mom died.
Mr. Drew put us in the back of his van so ‘we would be safe from the horror’, as he said. In other words, he didn’t want us to see where we were going, but of course I knew already. He had turned his basement into a safehouse years ago.
Timothy and Jonathan were in the back with us, telling the story of how it happened, but I wasn’t really listening. All that I absorbed was that it started, to their knowledge, 9 hours ago, and that the two of them were together at the time. They didn’t know exactly how it all began, just that the already dead weren’t coming out of their graves, but that the living became undead. They also told us not to trust just anyone, because there were some who would look alive and would turn out to be fresh undead.
I was staring at Jonathan. I had a question on my face, and no one could read my face like Jon could. However, he was avoiding my gaze. He probably was anticipating my question, and didn’t want to answer. Eventually, when there was a quiet moment, I looked right at Jonathan and said, “Jon?”
Naturally, he looked at me, for a just a second. No one could read my face like Jon could, but no one could read Jon’s face like I could. He had heard nothing from our parents and little sister. Devastated, I went into a corner in the back and started crying, as quietly as I could.
Less than a minute later, I felt someone hugging me. At first, I believed it was Jonathan, but this hug felt different, and it wasn’t a girl. After a while, I dried my eyes and turned around. I was faced with Timothy. My Mom probably would have told me not to hug him, but I was depressed and he was offering comfort. I grabbed him and held him tightly, sobbing into his arm. He rubbed my back silently. After a little while, he started whispering; “I know, I know. Let it out, it’s okay.”
I started crying harder. He wasn’t telling me it was okay, like he always said in my dreams when something bad happened. This wasn’t a dream.
When we arrived at the safehouse, Mr. Drew looked back at us saying; “Okay, we’re here! Jonathan, Timothy, go out first and cover the girls!”
We all put on mufflers Mr. Drew had provided and left the van to find a hoard of undead surrounding the house. Tim and Jon led the way, shooting as many zombies as they could with their machine guns.
I was out of it, as if everything I heard and saw was unreal, or my mind wasn’t with my body. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the couch in the Drew’s basement, my eyes red from crying.
Jennifer was sitting on my right, her face blank and her body disconnected. Timothy was sitting on the floor on the other side, holding my hand, asleep. Emily was sitting on a chair with her knees tucked under her, reading Harry Potter. My brother was rocking in a rocking chair, staring at mine and Timothy’s hands, still holding his machine gun.
Seeing an almost violent look in Jonathan’s eyes, I quickly pulled my hand out of Tim’s. Jonathan looked up at me.
“You’re here,” he said.
“I wish I weren't.” I replied.
“You know, Bi… you didn't murder it.”
I looked at him, confused. “What?”
Jonathan stopped rocking. “I know you were traumatized, but I didn't think you’d block it out.” He leaned forward. “You shot an undead, Bianca. Soon afterwards, and before we got down here, you kept saying you weren't a murderer, since it was already dead. I kept telling you, though, there was no way you’d killed it. The bullets only stun them for a while, you have to cut out their hearts to murder them. Well, as soon as we got down here, you rolled yourself up in a ball and rocked back and forth for an hour or so. I  kinda thought you’d never stop.”
“And Jennifer?” I looked over at Jennifer.
“I’m here,” Jen replied. “I’m just turning everything over in my mind.”
“‘Kay.” I looked around. “Where’s Mr. Drew?”
“He went to bed. I was surprised he was willing to leave us here, but he assured us it was safe,” was the reply from my twin.
“Believe me,” Jen said, “Dad made this place practically impossible to get into.”
“We’re gonna need it,” Jon said.
Suddenly, I stood up. “Our bags!”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Drew got them,” Jon said, smiling slightly.
“They’re all in our room,” Jennifer said, gesturing to the left, where I saw a small space for three doors, all facing different directions.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The left one,” Jon answered. “Mr. Drew’s room is the one straight across, and apparently, Timothy and I are sharing the last room.”
“Oh,” I said. “How many beds each room?”
“One king sized bed,” Jennifer replied. “ I've never been down here before, but I've certainly seen Dad move stuff here, and now that I’m seeing everything, it’s all coming together.” She paused, then added, “oh, Tim might be disappointed by the lack of video games.”
“He certainly will be,” I said grinning, then looked down the side of the couch to see Timothy hugging his gun in his sleep. “You know,” I said, starting to mess with his brownish hair, “when he wakes up.”

————

Let me know of any typos, please!! :D

A (Possible) Doctor Who Fanfic

Prologue

In the earth year of 2729, a species called Nagoran, of whom had been observing the earth for some time, took over the planet, and within three years had set up a system, making the entire planet a place of entertainment for other species, keeping numerous alien civilizations in the dark when it came to the facts.
They turned all the pleasure palaces into breeding houses, only allowing the intelligent and the physically fit to procreate, and training the humans’ offspring to be prepared for games which took place each year.
After the sixth year, the Nagoran decided to start a new numbering system for the years since they had a strict no religion policy and the years didn't help. Two years later, in the year 8 Lah Gorabs (The Games), the Nagoran started to eliminate any human that reached the age 65.
The Nagoran took great care in the raising of the ‘participants’. It is as follows:

The women were to get pregnant in January and February, thus giving birth around October. Any children with disabilities or deformities of any kind were disregarded, but the children left were immediately given to the caring female Nagoran to be looked after until they reached the age of two, at which time an electronic chip would be put into their head to store information (such as every nanosecond of memory). The participants were then sent to a school to learn reading, writing, what the Nagoran called common knowledge, and mathematics for the brightest among them.
At four, they were informed of the planet’s situation, that they would be entering a dangerous game at the age of 14, and then released into a vast library, where they were allowed to read whatever book they liked for six years. Few attempted to make friends at this time.
At the age of ten,  they were sent into a large gym, which, among other things, had monkey bars, an indoor climbing wall, a swimming pool, and there were numerous training programs for anyone wanted to learn martial arts.
Four years later, they were entered into the year-long games, split into teams.
At the end, when one team won, the Nagoran took the one individual with the most personal points, and named them the absolute victor. They would take this one, put them in the ‘the Converter’, then had them put into chronic sleep, in case the Nagoran would ever need to transfer the organs to valuable humans.
The Converter was a machine that took every bit of information out of a human’s chip, duplicated them, created a hologram form of them, and put them in a holoroom where the individual believed that they could live forever as a 15-year-old, although the humans of that age were never told that they were, in fact, a hologram.
The rest of the winning team were sent to the breeding houses, as well as any of the other participants of interest, while everyone else was eliminated.
There is something else of interest worth mentioning. Dreams. Every night, it seemed to the children that they would close their eyes at night, and then it would immediately morning, but in actual fact, their dreams were linked by the chips. For the first hour of unconsciousness, they were in a forest, and they could do whatever, either interact or wander the forest. For the seven hours after that, the chips would break their link between them all, giving the children tests to work their brains, and then, the moment they awoke, the chips would archive all the memories from their dreams, not allowing the participants access until they were asleep again. So, to break it down, when the children were awake, they would only remember the waking hours, and when they were asleep, they remembered everything.

The following story took place in the year 57 LG.

Random Story I Thought Of Part 2

If the title didn't give it away, this is part 2. Here’s part 1.

At first, I just laid back on the door, sighing, but then I realized that Lyanna left through a different door than DeLane, which made me wonder where it led.
I stood up, slowly made my way to the door on the opposite side of the room, and hesitantly opened the wooden door.
There was a comfortable-looking bed on the right of the room, a small desk with a large bowl and a pitcher on it at the end of the bed, a table in the center of the room with several unrecognizable fruits in a small bowl, and a small wardrobe on the left. There were also several windows, but none I could fit through, although Lyanna must have, because she wasn't anywhere in sight.
The first thing I did upon opening the door was climbing up on the bed to look through the small window. I was on ground level, and I was facing a rock wall, making it impossible to see where I was, so I rushed to the other side of the room where there was another window beside the wardrobe.
I could see a lot more through this window, but not of what I was looking for. There was a huge field with beautiful grass and several trees, a large river running through it originating from a gorgeous waterfall running off a cliff about a mile away, and in between the hut and the mountain were hundreds of horses, most likely wild, since they weren't fenced in and there were no saddles nearby.
Since the hut seemed so deserted, I decided to attempt to leave, and so I quickly left the bedroom, and entered the main room. The moment I reached the front door, I hesitated. The man said it was safer for me to stay here. Did ‘here’ mean the hut, or this area?
I pondered for a moment, but I decided that even if it were safer inside the hut, I’d rather go outside where there was danger than stay inside where it was safe, so I opened the door and stepped outside, shutting the door behind me.
There were no people around, nor were there any other buildings of any kind. But only moments after I stepped outside, a brownish horse came running up to me and stopped inches from my face.
From far away, everything about this creature screamed ‘horse’, but I knew that horses’ faces were not exactly pretty. This creature’s breath smelled purely of vanilla, and its face was perfection, much like the stereotypical horse’s face would look like.
“Hi,” I said flatly.
It backed up a bit.
“Is it dangerous around here?” I asked the horse.
In response, it pawed at the ground a little, then shook its mane. I stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out if it was trying to say something or not.
Deciding that there was no way a horse could communicate with me nor I with it, I turned my attention to the cliff face that the small house was only four feet away from.
It was huge, so tall that I couldn't see the top from the angle I was at. Trying to see the top, I started stepping backward while looking up. About thirty steps later, I found myself backing up into the side of a white horse with a few light and dark brown patches. Behind her was the river, and it looked like the horse had just stopped me from stepping into it.
I turned around, staring at the horse, and she looking at me. After a moment, I thanked the creature, and she neighed, almost nodding.
“Where are all the people?” I asked, mostly to myself.
At this, the horse trotted off, almost in response.

It took me a while, but I managed to back up enough (without falling into the river) to see the top of the mountain. Well, sort of. It was a bit foggy, and therefore hard to see the top, but it looked rather tall, perhaps a 14er. I also saw the lake that I had come from. The river came from a wonderful waterfall that was coming off of the cliff, wound through the field between the previous mountain, the one I was right next to, and a few others,  and went down to create a huge lake, which ran off in four different directions.
“Well,” I said, to nobody in particular. “At least I’m stuck somewhere beautiful.”

An Extremely Geeky Post

When I was little, about 8 or 9, I loved this book series called The Magic Tree House series, and one thing I really loved was that Jack, one of the main characters, had glasses, the same as me, and whenever he needed to push his glasses up, I would need to do the same. Looking back, I wonder if I deliberately pushed my glasses up whenever the book said ‘Jack pushed his glasses up…’.
But anyway, after a while, I stopped reading the series. I moved up to bigger books such as the Book of the Stars, Deltora Quest, Harry Potter, ect., and The Magic Tree House was pushed to the back of my mind. When I was 12, I was introduced to a wonderful TV show called Doctor Who. I became obsessed with it, watching every episode I could. Even now, about four years later, if (almost) anyone wants to know something about Doctor Who, they ask me. (And I’ll admit that more than several times, I won’t know the answer, especially if it has nothing to do with the episodes, like ‘who directed Tooth and Claw?’)
So today, I was looking at one of our numerous bookshelves and spotted a Magic Tree House book. I began thinking about it again, and I realized that there were many parallels between Doctor Who and the Magic Tree House books.

In MTH: When Annie (Jack’s little sister) found the tree house, Jack mentioned that he had never seen it before.
In DW: The TARDIS comes and goes. Even if it stays in one place, you don’t see it until someone points it out.

In MTH: The tree house is a time machine that always looks like a tree house. (Weird shape for a time machine, right?)
In DW: The TARDIS is a time machine that always looks like an English Police Box from 1963. The Chameleon Circuit stuck, so when the TARDIS disguised itself as a Police Box, it stayed that way through all time and space.

In  MTH: When the pair would time travel, they would point to a book and say “I wish we could go there”, and the tree house would be on its way.
In DW: Although in Doctor Who they didn’t just say where they wanted to go, it is true that the TARDIS  is psychic. In one episode, Rory and Amy wanted a door in the TARDIS opened, and the password was "Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor", so Amy opened the door by thinking about what those words meant to her.

In MTH: Whenever the tree house would transport, the book would say, “The wind started to blow. The tree house started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still. Absolutely still.”
In DW: When the TARDIS materializes and dematerializes, on the outside, there’s wind. You can always tell because hair, paper, or anything else will fly around, and even though you can’t visibly tell that the TARDIS is spinning, you can certainly tell that there’s a lot of movement inside.

Thaaat’s all I can think of right now, but I’m sure there are more. Of course, I’m not saying that Mary Pope Osborne is guilty of copyright or anything, because the two have very subtle similarities, but I think it’s super cool that a couple of things I love are so very the same. My preferences haven’t seemed to have changed. 

Random Story I Thought Of

I was never a fan of camping, even though my Father had me go with him every year. Being stuck outside for two weeks was not enjoyable, and being stuck outside for two weeks with cousins was torture. Especially when they were Uncle Gregory’s kids.
Lance was 14, the oldest, and loved being the one “in charge”. He pictured himself as a mob boss, and his three little siblings were his minions. Janice was the second oldest, a twelve-year old who seemed to worship Lance and loved doing “his will”. Next was Jaylee, who was nine, liked to do things her way, and disliked that Lance bossed her around, but knew she couldn’t do anything about it. Last of all, there was Lucas. Lucas was at the bottom of the chain of command, and hated it. Although he was only seven, he was nearly constantly fighting Lance and questioning his authority. However, at the end of every fight, Lance won without fail, resulting in Lucas being at Lance’s beck and call.
Of course, the very oldest, and the only one of Uncle Gregory’s kids that I liked, wasn’t there. In fact, Uncle Gregory often pretended that his oldest daughter didn’t exist. I don’t know all the details, only that Uncle Gregory made some mistakes in college, but I knew that Elizabeth was my very favorite cousin, and the one closest to my age.

Today, day four of camping, something… unexpected happened.
Almost every year, we (my Dad and I) go to a different place to set up a campground and spend a couple weeks at, and in the summer of 2016, we picked a large island that was in the middle of a large lake. Naturally, as we rowed toward it, my Father made a joke about it being very Calvin and Hobbes and proceeded to say that camping builds character.
In any case, this morning, Dad and Uncle Greg got a fire started and sent us kids out to start fishing. I didn’t want to go fishing and instead, walked a few yards away into the forest, where I found a pond. Happy to be away from the others, I pulled off my socks and shoes, pulled up my pantlegs, and stuck my feet in the surprisingly clean water. I was there for less than ten minutes when Janice entered the clearing.
“There you are!” She cried. “You’re supposed to be helping us fish.”
“Yeah, and aren’t you supposed to be fishing?” I asked, still staring at the water.
“Lance told me to fetch you.” Janice said, crossing her arms. “Oh…” she said under her breath, and grabbed a walkie talkie that was clipped to her belt. “Lance, I found her.” Janice said into the device.
“Okay, where?” Lance replied.
“There’s a pond about three yards Northwest of the campfire.” Janice replied, and clipped her walkie talkie back on.
“You’re in trouble now,” she said, crossing her arms again.
“Oh, I’m so scared.” I replied sarcastically.
“He may be three years younger than you, but he’s bigger and stronger than you.” Janice retorted.
“Bigger, yes, but stronger can be disputed.” I replied.
Janice didn’t say anything, and in about a minute, Lance was also in the clearing. “Well, look who’s dumping the work on everyone else.” Lance said, and I could feel him staring at me, but I didn’t even fidget.
“Fishing isn’t work,” I said flatly.
“It’s work enough!” Lance replied. “Point is, you left when we had to catch fish.”
“Whatevs,” I said dismissively. As expected, Lance picked me up, set me down standing up, and turned me to face him.
After pausing a moment, he said, ”fine, if you wanna stay in this pond, go ahead!” He shoved me, sending me shooting into the cold water.
“Lance Jason Lockhart, you jerk!” I screamed at him, but he left, followed closely by Janice.
I never was a very adept swimmer, but something in the pond weighed me down, making it even harder to stay afloat. I tread water as best I knew how, but the more I tried to stay floating, the more I sunk. I kept staring at the sky, almost like I thought that that would bring me out of the pond, but instead, it just seemed to quicken my sinking. Too soon, I was seeing the sky through the surface of the water, and I’d forgotten to hold my breath.
Miraculously, I was still alive when I regained consciousness. I was laying on a glass platform that I could barely see, and although I could tell I was still underwater, I could breathe.
I slowly stood up, and realized that there was a glass staircase as well. I went up the stairs almost bouncing, since I felt lighter from being underwater.
It didn’t take long for my head to make it above the surface. When I came out of the water, I half expected to be magically dried, but (quite naturally) I remained wet.
The first thing I noticed when my face came out of the water was that I was definitely not still on that island. The water I was coming out of was a very large lake, with a beautiful river running into it, and several streams running out. I was coming out in the middle of the extraordinarily pure lake, and when my feet reached the top of the lake, I expected to fall through, but I didn’t.
“You should stop expecting things, Kira.” I whispered to myself, and decided it best not to move forward.
I didn’t have to stand on the surface of the lake very long before I saw two or three horses with riders coming toward the lake, and so I started waving my arms to attract their attention, but after a couple of seconds, I thought better of it, and immediately sat down, hoping that they didn’t see me, and that they were taking a route that didn’t pass near me.
However, the three saw me and were taking a route nearly exactly where I was.
When they reached the lake, the three men, most likely warriors, since they carried many swords, stopped at the edge of the lake and stared at me for a moment. The three men looked Asian.
“Hi,” I said nervously.
One man started speaking a language I didn’t recognize, pausing every now and then, as if waiting for a reply. Every time he paused, only to get no verbal response, he seemed to get more upset, and eventually, he made a hand gesture that I understood. He was asking me to walk towards him. I stood up, but shook my head, afraid.
“I’m frightened,” I told the man. He just gestured more widely. I sighed, and started walking towards him. I took the first step very slowly and carefully, but upon moving my first foot forward and finding it land on a hard surface reassured me. As I moved closer, I moved more confidently, and thus, quicker. When I reached the end of the lake, I shouted for joy, and jumped into the air.
When I shouted, all three of the men flinched, and one grabbed the handle of his sword. “Sorry,” I murmured.
The man that had made the hand gestures dismounted his horse, picked me up as though it were one of the easiest things he’d ever done, and set me on a horse behind the youngest of the three men, who was possibly twenty.
I wrapped my arms around the man and had my right hand grab my left wrist, locking myself. Suddenly, I was blindfolded, and the horse promptly took off again.
I was on the horse for possibly 10 minutes before it slowed down, and eventually stopped. The man slipped off the horse, and I sat on the horse alone. A few seconds later, I was carried like a sack of potatoes, and gently set down somewhere, most likely inside, since the light didn’t shine as brightly through the blindfold.
Suddenly, the blindfold was pulled off my face, and although it wasn’t very bright, I still had to squint until my pupils adjusted. I was in a small room, with two doors, a man, and a girl. The man was the strong older man I saw at the lake, and the girl, who was standing on the man’s right, looked no older than thirteen.
“Your daughter?” I asked the man, head gesturing at the girl.
The little girl said something quietly to the man, the man shook his at me, and said one word. The little girl looked at me and said, “no.”
I straightened up. “You speak English?” I asked the girl.
The girl whispered something to the man, then nervously said, “talk to him, I’m only interpreting.”
“Oh,” I said, then looked at the man. “I’m Kira Lockhart.”
The girl translated, then the man gently said something in return. “Hello, Lockhart. My name is DeLane Jon. How did you float on the water?” The girl said, translating for me.
I didn’t argue the name, not thinking it was a big deal. “Wow, so direct,” I whispered to myself, which the girl translated before I could stop her. “I don’t know, it just happened.” I told the man.
“I am sorry, I should have been more welcoming. I am the leader of this small tribe of Kelats, and since we found you in our lake, you are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you need. You do not seem to have much.” The man replied, through the girl.
“Thank you, but I really must be getting back.” I said.
“Back?” The man asked. “To the lake?”
“Yes. Please?” I replied.
“No,” the man answered. “It is safer for you to stay here. Good day,” he said, and promptly left, leaving the girl.
When DeLane left, he closed the door immediately behind him, making it impossible for me to leave, although I had tried to follow him as closely as possible. After he had left, I sat at the door, and stared out the window.
“I’m sorry I did the names wrong,” the girl said nervously. “This is my first time interpreting English.”
“You did a marvelous job.” I told her. “Where did you learn English?”
“I didn’t learn it,” the girl replied. “I was born with the talent to understand any and all languages.”
“That’d be nice,” I said under my breath. “So what’s your name?”
“Lyanna,” was the reply.
“Well, what’s your last name?” I asked, then paused. “Or… your first, I guess.”
“Lyanna is my first name. I don’t have a last. I was adopted by this… very small tribe.”
“It isn’t really a small tribe, is it?”
“I must go,” the girl said, leaving through the second door, the one I wasn’t leaning on.
“But–” I said, reaching out, but it was too late, the girl had already left.