the fall of greenoakes

this is half of the whole story, hope you like it

                  Theo & Thea

                 Ending                                        Book one:

Fall of Greenoaks

By

Jenna

Sam

Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theo and Thea Ending

Book one: the Fall of Greenoaks

           Book two: the siege of New Sparta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                          For

 Rita Goodson and John Clamp

 

 

   Theo and Thea ending book one the Fall of Greenoaks by Jenna Sam Johnson is a work of fiction.

   Beware the rizoranes; if any part of this book is copied they will bite your toes off.

Copyright © 2012 by Jenna Sam Johnson   of the Rizorane company.

Lulu.com self-publishing

ISBN 978-1-105-96529-6

 

 

 

 

 

Prolog

 

 

 

 

‘It’s just so awful’ thought an angry young woman as she trudged along a path in the rain. ‘Just because I am immortal and have these stupid extra-human duties, I’m not allowed to keep my own children!’ She stopped and starred down at the two infants that she carried on one arm, they were wrapped in cloth and stared back at her with sleepy green eyes. “Just because you aren’t immortal and your father wasn’t” she whispered, and stifled a sob.  Despite the rain and cold of the dark forest path the woman pulled back the hood of her dark black cloak revealing chin-length black hair and icy-blue eyes.

She was quite pretty actually, despite the constant essence of death that hung around her. “You both will have amazing skills and abilities anyway, you’re just about as good as invincible or immortal!” she fumed out loud as she trudged on through the night.

The two children were much too young to ever remember any of this or who their parents were, but what the lady was most upset about was that she would not be able to visit them or even monitor their progress, she would be completely alone.

Lady Death finally arrived at the place she was going, the forest cleared out and the path lead through a well-trimmed garden that was at least several square miles and in the center was a large 3 storied brick building connected to a smaller 2 storied building by an arching bridge. She trudged up to the grand door step of the larger building and crouched down over the doormat that said “Welcome to the one and only private boarding academy” Lady Death scowled at it and set down the two children, holding back tears she  placed a small envelope between them.

The envelope contained enough boarding payment for the children to stay till they were 18 years old, a letter to the headmistress of the school and a letter to the children.

“Goodbye my loves” she whispered and turned away as she walked the tears came, and she let them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter one

 

 

 

 

 

Thea and Theo had always known they were different, most the kids at GreenOak academy knew who they were and where they came from but this was even stranger (it’s also why Thea is on the floor right now!)

Theo opened his eyes slowly and peered around his room, it was tiny and dark but he could see everything quite clearly, he could even make out the nasty color of the red and green stripped wall paper that met wood paneling half way down the walls.

Theo looked down the bland brown blanket at Prowler, an ancient old tabby cat that was curled around his feet. He smiled at the cat and stretched out an arm to pet the cat awake, he stroked the cats head until it softly rolled over and opened its eyes “well good morning” the cat mewed quietly and stretched.

Theo stifled a scream and jerked away from the cat, which looked at him curiously. “Why so alarmed? I always say good morning”

Theo starred at the cat, mouth open. His hand reached out of bed and turned on a lamp on his bedside table, within the clear glass orb that stood on little wolf-like paws, a happy flame burst to life when he ran his hand over the glassy surface.

“I never understand what you’re saying” Theo said calming down.

“I don’t see why not? I understand you, and you should understand me! I’m speaking puuurrrrfectly clearly!” Prowler said indignantly.

“It’s not the grammar that I didn’t understand is, well, was that I don’t, didn’t speak cat” Theo said, wondering what had happened to him overnight or what had happened to Prowler

“You should speak cat! It’s a perfectly nice language, unlike dog, all they ever say is ‘squirrel or bone or gives to me! I wants them!’ and don’t even get me started on squirrel! All day its ‘oh nutz! Where am me nutz! Git away from me nutz! Gimme nutz………….’ Prowler rattled on like that for a while but Theo stopped listening, ‘clearly’ He thought, ‘if I am going to figure out what is going on prowler isn’t going to be any help!’

Theo hoped out of bed, knocking prowler off his feet as he went “how rude!” the cat exclaimed as he was cover by a flying brown blanket.

When Theo had something exciting to discover, he could get dressed fast, and in mere seconds he had exchanged his blue pajama’s for his academy uniform, long brown shirt, black jeans, dark brown boots, and a long red jacket, and stuffed the pajamas into a leather covered chest in the corner of the room.

Theo walked towards the slim brown door that led into the hall, but stopped when he glanced into the tiny mirror that hung on it.

His mouth hung open, Theo had always known that there was something different about he and his sister but this, was just plain freaky.

“I kind of like them” commented the cat looking at Theo’s eyes. They were dark purple yet bright in some way. To Theo, they were just plain weird.

“I wonder how that happened over night” Prowler said “there always was something weird ‘bout you and your sister”

All of the sudden Theo realized that the same thing had probably happened to Thea. Without a word he rushed out into the hallway, it was a small hallway with a brown and red flower pattern rug that stretch all the way to the end on both sides. The walls were simply panted brown and light orbs like the one in Theo’s room hovered in a line down the ceiling and through the hall, around twenty slim brown doors like the one in Theo’s room lined the hall, most of them were unoccupied only about 10 of them actually had kids living in them not including Theo and Thea.

Theo walked 2 doors down and 1 across and entered Thea’s room.

Thea’s room looked exactly like Theo’s except this one had a twelve year old girl sitting on the floor starring at the door mirror.

Thea was wearing her school uniform except she had a cloak instead of a jacket. Thea had the same purple eyes and a purple streak of color in her not-blonde-not-brown hair on the right side.

“It happened to you to!’ Theo said when he saw her. She looked at him slack-jawed, “I don’t know what happened but I don’t like it” she said “lady Truden is going to freak! She’ll think I dyed my hair!” Thea stood up and looked at Theo

“We need to find out who we really are” she said.

“Agreed” Theo said with a weak smile.

A small black bottle that stood on Thea’s nightstand beside the light orb flipped it’s lid of and screamed “get up all of you lazy kid, breakfast in the grand hall in 5 minutes then it’s on to your first class!” like it always did

“That thing is so annoying! I locked mine in the chest under all my clothes” Theo laughed

Thea nodded “we should go” she said quietly and the two of them left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

“So what happened when you woke up?” Thea asked Theo as the two of them traveled down a long set a spiraling stone steps.

“I had a nice conversation with Prowler” Theo said promptly.

“What!?” Thea laughed “that old tabby?”

“Yep and you know what? He just as stupid and boring as we though he was! He was going on about proper grammar and squirrels jibber jabbering!”

The two of them burst out laughing at the thought of a cat that didn’t even speak their language criticizing other animal’s English.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a large room that should have been the great hall but really was just a big cafeteria with fancy decorations and comfortable seats.

Theo and Thea sat by themselves, away from the other kids that were goofing around by the water fountain.

At exactly 9:05 the half-doors to the lunch-line opened and the kids filed in to get there breakfast, then it was on to their first class which lasted until lunch.

When Theo and Thea stepped out onto the big brick bridge that lead from the dormitory building to the main building they were struck by it all, the light, the smells, the sights, and sounds all came rushing at them in the blink of an eye.

“whoa!” they both said at the same time,  looking around the great expansive garden and the fields of lush green grass beyond them and the dark, think forest behind that!

The rushing bubbling water fountain in the court yard, the sun shining brightly around a small cloud that blocked it, animals rummaging around in the forest, smells of flowers from the garden and more natural smells of the forest combined with fresh-cut grass.

They took in everything and it was memorized instantly. All 365 days of all their 12 years of life Theo and Thea  had came through that same door and into this same garden and on into the same main building and it had always just been going outside, nothing special, but this was.

The first class for Theo and Thea was language and literature. The class was tough by Mrs. Rita Goodson who was a pretty lady and an even better teacher. The only kids in the class were Theo, Thea, Jane, Edward, and Lucas.

The rest of the kids were in math and science, but they all had history in 3^rd class because they were always playing jeopardy and other study games that required large teams of players.

After their first class the kids had a half hour break then went back inside the dormitory building for lunch.

“Uhg! Roman Empire crap again! It couldn’t have possible been a second longer or I would have died!” Thea complained as she and her brother roamed the garden before lunch.

Theo shrugged, kicking a stick that was on the brick path they were following, the stick flipped up and he caught it. “Well at least she didn’t notice the purple eyes!”

“Yeah she usually notices everything!” Thea scoffed as they walked.

“So…. how are we supposed to find out where we came from?” Theo asked

“I don’t know,” said Thea starring at the ground.

“We could always sneak into the main office at night and dig around in lady Truden’s documents, there as to be something on when we got here”

Thea looked up and grinned “that’s a start” she liked the idea of sneaking into Truden’s office at night.

Suddenly a small green creature with a banana peel on its head stepped onto the path, “you wanna banana?!!?!?!” it demanded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

 

 

 

“Uhh what did you just call me?” Thea asked the thing. Theo laughed “he asked if we wanted a banana!”

The little creature stood on two small spindly legs and held a little stick with one hand. It was a light green color and was just about as tall as the banana peel it wore on its head.

“Banana?” the little creature asked again. Thea crouched down in front of it. “No thanks” she said to it.

“What are you?” Theo asked sitting down on the brick path beside Thea.

The little creature rubbed his long snoot pondering the question, then finally he just shrugged, “I dun no, I like bananas” he looked from Theo to Thea “so what are you?”

“Were humans” said Thea “why are you here? Are you looking for something?”

The creature shook his head “I dunno that either, I was just wondering around and now I don’t know where I am”

“Well you’re at green oak academy now” Theo said

A plan started to form in Thea’s mind “hey, we’ll help you get back to where ever you came from if you help us with something” she said

Theo looked at her quizzically, she winked at him and his mouth formed a silent “ohh”

 “Deal!” the creature said, “so what are we doing?”

“Oh not much! Just sneaking into our head mistresses’ office after curfew!” Thea laughed sarcastically.

“You’re a strange bunch, I like you guys!”The little creature chirruped hoping onto Theo’s left boot. He sat there as the kids walked back towards the dormitory building.

“So what should we call you?” Theo asked the creature sitting comfortably on his boot.

“I donno, either I don’t have a name or I don’t remember it” the green creature laughed. Theo raised an eyebrow at Thea, who just shrugged

“Well we’ll call you Banana” Thea said.

“Sounds good to me! What should I call you kids?” Banana asked them.

“Theo” said Theo

“Thea” said Thea

“Oh ain’t that funny, twins with similar names! I bet you hate that!”

“Yes” the both said at the same time.

“we shouldn’t let anyone see Banana, it would be a mess” Theo said when they entered the dark stone hallway that lead either to the common room, the grand hall, or to the stairs that led up to the bed room.

“Yeah, and it would ruin our plan, he could stay in one of our rooms until were ready” Thea said

“In yours, prowler would be in mine taking a nap probably” Theo said.

“Ok, I’ll take him up there you can go on ahead to the office before the bell goes off” Thea said and without a word Banana (who had heard the whole conversation) jumped from Theo’s boot to Thea’s.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

          “Sooo… What do you remember about your life? I mean like before you arrived here at the academy. Are there more like you?” Thea asked. She looked down at the little green creature riding on her boot. Banana peered up at Thea. He thought for a moment.

          “Well, Um. Uhh. I dunno. I think I was on a mission. Or possibly exploring the world and traveling on a great adventure. Or maybe I was on the verge of uncovering a great unknown mystery. That would be cool.”

          “What about family and friends. You weren’t all alone, were you?”

          Banana hung his head down as he answered, “That I do remember.” Banana whispered, “My family died long ago when I was in my younger years. And I’ve never really had any friends.”

          “Really? I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anyone else like you?”

          “No. Ooh. Wait. I did have a very close friend. Her name was Swivel. We were together before I ended up here.”

          “Swivel? Cool name. Is she a creature like you or what is she if you said there was no one like you?”

“No, no, she’s not like me. She’s a brownie.”

“What’s a brownie?” Thea asked as she opened her bedroom door.

“Well, a brownie is a human with cat characteristics. They have a furry body. Most brownies have claws instead of fingers and cute, pointy cat ears. They’re very friendly and love to eat mushrooms. Well, most of them. I remember another brownie…”

“Not to be rude, but I’m on a time schedule. Here’s my home sweet home,” Thea told Banana. Banana hopped off Thea’s boot. Thea quickly closed her door behind them. Banana crawled around, inspecting, for a minute. Then, he climbed up on her bed and lied down on the soft pillow.

“I got to go, but there’s food and soda in the cabinet in my bathroom right over there.” Thea slipped out of the room as the small green creature fell asleep.

Thea retraced her footsteps and went back to where Theo and she met Banana. She walked down a hall. A few guys she knew passed her in the hall and stared at her purple eyes and hair. Thea rolled her eyes and kept walking down the hall. She veered to the left. A few steps later, she turned to the right and walked up a short, spiraling staircase. At the top of the stairs, a door stood. A plaque on the door read “Lady Truden’s Office.” Under the sign, a sign hung down that said “DO NOT DISTURB.”

Thea knocked on the door three times lightly. A moment later, Theo opened the door a sliver. Once he realized it was Thea, he opened the door all the way. Theo grabbed Thea, pulled her in, and silently, but quickly, closed the door the door behind her. Thea stumbled into Lady Truden’s large, square office. She gazed around the office floor, which was covered in files and papers.

“Did you find ours yet?” Thea asked hopefully. Theo’s head dropped and he shook it. Thea sighed and walked over to Lady Truden’s filing cabinet.

“Have you gone through these drawers yet?”

“Nope. But you can while I finish searching Lady Truden’s desk.”

As Thea pulled open the top drawer, Theo began to rummage through Lady Truden’s cabinets and drawers on her desk. The scanned the names on the files. All the last names started with A. Thea closed the drawer and opened the next one. All the last names in it started with B. Thea guessed the drawers and files were in alphabetical order. Since their last name was Clabegue, Thea pulled open the third drawer. She went through the files till she found hers and Theo’s files.

“Theo! Theo, I found them!” Theo looked up from trying to yank a hidden drawer in Lady Truden’s desk.

“Really?” Theo dashed over grabbed his file. Right when they were about to look at their files, the door to the office opened.

In the doorway stood a cat on its two legs that was as tall as Theo. Thea recognized it as a brownie. On the brownies’ shoulder sat Banana.

“Hi! I’m Swivel.”

“Swivel, we’ll introduce and mingle later. Theo. Thea. Lady Truden is on her way!”

“Guys, clean up now. Then, get in the closet,” Thea commanded. The brownie, Theo, and Thea shoved all the files and papers into drawers. Quickly, the four jumped into the coat closet and hid.

Lady Truden pushed her key into her lock as Theo closed the cabinet door. Lady Truden trudged into her office. She slugged over to her desk and laid her keys on her desk. She slid into her desk chair. She stared at the closet for a minute then opened one of her cabinets. She put one of her keys in the keyhole of the hidden drawer Theo had tried to open. The four watched as Lady Truden took a small, crystal pendant. She put the pendant around her neck.

Lady Truden stood up. She walked over to the cabinet. Banana crawled into Thea’s hair. Thea, Theo, and Swivel all held their breath. Lady Truden put her hands on the handles. She jerked the doors open. All four of them fell out onto the office floor. Lady Truden glared down at them.

She rubbed her crystal pendant and Theo and Thea rose into the air. Banana fell from Thea’s shoulder to the ground. Swivel backed up to the wall. Thea kicked and throbbed. Theo lashed out and tried to kick Lady Truden. Lady Truden just laughed horribly. She had caught not only two interesting kids but also a brownie and a green rizorane.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A couple of meddling kids, a brownie, and a green rizorane. Hmmm.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Chapter 5

 

 

 

Lady Truden stomped over to Thea, who hung upside down in the air kicking at the ground with her legs. Truden pulled back her red cloak and revealed her dark black dress with long sleeves and leggings underneath the rim. She untied the string that held her cloak on and it feel to the ground, now the crystal pendant was alone around her neck. Lady Truden reached up to Thea and pulled her down to eye level by her dark-strawberry-blonde hair.

Lady Truden starred at Thea’s purple eyes with her own wicked gray eyes. “You girl, Thea clabegue isn’t it?” she snarled.

Thea only whimpered in reply, she could feel the blood rushing into her head, she felt weak and helpless.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes headmistress lady Truden’ and last time I had to speak to you, didn’t you have blue eyes?” Sneered lady Truden running a hand though her oily dark gray hair.

“Yeah and my eyes were green so what are ya goanna do about it!?” Theo growled from where he was hanging in the air.

Lady Truden caught sight of Thea’s purple streak of color in her hair and her eyes grew to the size of sauce plans. She dragged Theo out of the air by the arm; her sharp mails dug into his arm and drew blood.

This had made Swivel angry, and before Theo had even touched the ground she threw herself at Truden, claws unsheathed.

“Cruel abusive witch!” swivel screeched, clawing at Truden in a flash of swirling sulfur yellow fur.

Theo hit the ground and stood up shakily as Truden was backed up to the door by the brownie. Banana leaped from the closet and charged at Truden with his stick pointed at her, shrieking “die! Die you nasty gangly witch!”

The distraction broke the spell. Thea, who was now unconscious due to the blood swelling her head, crumpled to the ground. Theo bent down and pulled her up on her feet, she opened her eyes again in mere seconds after leaving the air.

Theo looked at Thea.

 Thea looked at Theo.

They ran.

They ran straight passed Lady Truden in the doorway, grabbing swivel and banana en route.

Swivel dropped Theo’s hand and ran alongside them. They sprinted down the hall, the main door was unbearably close, and they were almost free!

“I’ll kill you all before you escape my school!” Lady Truden screeched, not far behind them.

Theo reached the door first, he yanked it open but lady Truden screamed a word in a different language, it slammed shut and locked.

Thea spun around and starred at Truden, once upon a time when Thea and Theo were little Truden was a kind lady but now, she really was a witch. Thea started to panic, lady Truden was getting closer and closer.

“Grab hold of me!” Swivel cried.

Confused, Theo took one of her hands and Thea took the other. Banana jumped off of Thea’s shoulder and climbed onto swivel’s head, hanging on to her left ear.

And then, darkness complete darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was not long before the darkness faded. In a desert, dry and full of sand and hot sun, a ripple of black and blue light erupted from the ground, and out of it was thrown a boy, a brownie, a rare green rizorane, and lastly, a girl.

Thea’s eyes had stayed open the whole time, it felt like hours but had been mere seconds. She had backed against the door, holding the brownie’s arm when the darkness had wrapped around them like a large cloak, and even in the new surroundings she could almost feel lady Truden’s hand reaching forward and…and… reaching towards her…her...her eyes?

Everything seemed so messed up. Why was she so scared of lady Truden, why had lady Truden gone at her eyes? Why her eyes were purple, why was her hair purple? Why could she see in the dark, why could she understand the rizorane and the brownie, and WHY most importantly, was she in the desert!

Thea jerked her head around, and screamed. Theo stood up and looked at Thea; she had screwed her eyes up and rapped her arms around her knees.

“Thea, it’s alright” He said offering his hand.

She took it and pulled herself up. “No, it’s not alright, where are we?”

“In the desert of course!” chimed in swivel walking over to the pair, with Banana on her shoulder.

“Yes, I can see that! But why are we here?” Thea almost hissed.

“You see, Swivel here is not just a brownie but she’s an accomplished adventurer, a shape shifter, and a space shifter, she’s working to be a time shifter, fate shifter and other shifty thingumabobersys” Banana said.

Swivel bowed and banana tumbled of her shoulder and hit the ground with an indignant huff. Banana picked himself up and climbed onto Theo’s boot, it was safer there.

Thea gaped at swivel, “how can you...” she started.

 “Oh ha-ha! You still think all those things are just born, right?” Swivel said.

Thea said nothing; Theo just looked at her, confused.

“Wrong!” Swivel cried happily, “you become those things by lots of vigorous, painful training, and rare magic rings, acquiring one form or area after another until you’re completely fluent in shifting!”

Swivel raised a furry yellow fist and for the first time Thea and Theo saw her many multi-colored rings. Swivel peered around the desert, disappointed. “Oh! Drat! Excitement always puts my aim off! I was going for the oasis! I have no clue where it is! Oh well can’t be far! And oh marvelous mushrooms I almost forgot!” Swivel chattered while looking around, then she stopped and turned to Theo and Thea, She gave them a mischievous grin and held up 3 manila files.

“You got them! How did you….?” Thea trailed of; the files didn’t mean anything they were still just two confused kids stranded in the desert with nowhere to go.

Swivel was about to say something, but stopped, starring at something over Thea’s shoulder.

Thea wondered why Theo hadn’t said anything this whole time, she turned and looked at him but he had his back to her, she was about to tap his shoulder, but stopped when she saw what he was staring at.

There, sitting on a nearby mound of sand sat a huge lion looking at them curiously, while swatting sand flies with his big tufted tail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7

 

 

 

 

 

“A lion… in the desert?” said Thea.

“I know, it makes no sense at all.” Theo said quietly. “But, I think we should get away from here, it looks a little put-off at us”

“I might have enough power to get us out of here, but something is at the back of my mind, something I need to tell you two…” swivel said slowly.

“Oh me too!” said banana, a little too loudly from Theo’s boot.

The lion rolled his eyes and plundered through the sand, right up to them. “All right so what the heck is going on! What are you? Guard demons, Imps, spies! GRAH!” it said angrily.

Thea stepped back in alarm.

“Yyyeeeeaaaaahh that’s right! You know you can’t handle a 17^th level djinn!” it growled mockingly, and suddenly the lion was gone, leaving a huge red, three horned dragon that was the size of 2 houses staked on top of each other, in its place.

Theo was dumbfounded. He stared up at the dragon with sparkling scales and claws as big as swords. He wondered what it would be like if it was flying, and how long did the wings stretch out.

Thea stepped back again hastily and dumped into Swivel, she looked at swivel questioningly, but Swivel just gave her a mischievous wink.

      The dragon snorted at them and bent down its head to peer at them. Banana squealed and leaped off of Theo’s boot, he dashed under the dragons legs and jabbed its tail with his stick.

       The dragon barely noticed the persistent poking and glared at the other three of them.

       Swivel walked around Thea and stood proudly in front of the dragon. “So you’re djinn you say?” she said accusingly, pointing at it with one hand while the other rested on her hip.

        “Yeah! And you are?” It spat tauntingly.

       “A brownie, shape shifter, and space shifter, who also knows allot about you djinn so don’t push it, slave!”

       Theo and Thea shared an odd, bemused glance.

       The dragon recoiled, appalled. “Who are you calling a slave, you little fur-faced mushroom-muncher!”

      “You, Y-O-U! I know your working for someone!”

       “Am not!”

       “Oh yeah?!? Well what are you doing out here?”

 “Uh... I like it out here, and its none-ya-buisness!”

 “Oh come on! Spit it out! Who are you working for?”

“Me myself and I!”

“I don’t believe it!”

“Well yeah, you brownies don’t believe anything unless its mushrooms!”

“Oh! Met many brownies have ya?”

“For the record, yes, I have!”

Swivel rolled her eyes. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means whatever it does”

“What?”

“Hmph!”

“Ohhhhhh just! _ uhhhgggg just tell us who you working for already!”

“No thanks, and no proper introduction first?”

“Nope, none for you, and if you don’t spit out who you’re working for I’ll- HEYYYY!”

Swivel was cut off; the dragon had flung Banana up into the air with his tail. The little green rizorane flew up and up and up until they could barely see him.

Thea dashed several feet to the left and starred up at the little green figure hurdle ling down, one more step left and she was directly under him, she reached up and caught him as he feel, the force of it knocking her down.

“You would be good at football” the dragon said pointing his tail at her. Then stopped suddenly.

“You-y-your one of those purple eyed-people!”He now seemed quite scared

“What do you know about the purple eyed people?” Theo said suddenly as if waken from a trance.

“Oh ha where do I begin? But obviously you and your freaky friends here don’t get out much, say if you can help me out, I’ll tell you all you want to know about anything, or everything” the dragon said, not frightened in the least bit anymore.

Theo glanced at Thea. She gave a quick nod. He turned back to the dragon that had shrunk down to a normal house size.

“We’ll accept your deal” he said cautiously

“Oh good in just enough time too! I feel I’ve just been summoned” the dragon started to shimmer and fade “oh and by the way my name is Trilogy, I work for this nasty little dork called prince Cade, he hosts the annual Fall Blood Games in a big city called New Sparta, its far away across the sea, maybe a month’s journey.” the dragons voice became quieter as it disappeared “oh and I must warn you the seasons there ch-”

 

 

 

 

                     Chapter 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

They stood there silently for a moment, deciphering what had just been said. Then finally Thea spook up “was that a mirage?” she said disbelievingly.

“No, it was much, much too real” said swivel

“You can put me down now!” yapped Banana indignantly.

“Oh, yeah, sorry” Thea set the squirming rizorane down on the sandy grown.

Theo opened his mouth to say something but swivel stopped him “you’re about to ask what to do next? Well I for one don’t think you should go to that new fart-a place”

“Why not, we need to learn who-what we are, and we don’t know where to go or what to do next sooooooooo why not? A little adventure might be fun like in some of those fantasy books I’ve read!” Thea reasoned

“Yes, your right but that Trilogy tried to warn you about something, I need to warn you about something-”

“OOOh yeah, it’s been drilling at the back off my head like a saw! Man! Whats wrong with our memories, it’s like they were temporarily wiped!”

“Still, I think we should go, would you want to live life not knowing who you were?” Theo said. Thea nodded agreeing.

“No, I wouldn’t, but I don’t want you kids running off to some unknown land, and those fall blood games sound kind of shifty to me! SO I THE AMAZINGLY BRAVE SWIVEL WHO NEVER BACKS OUT ON ADVENTURE, am coming with you” swivel grinned.

Theo and Thea grinned back.

 “I say we head to the nearest shipping dock! We could probably catch a peaceful ride to new Sparta and you guess could get some new clothes to blend in with the crowd, then we can’t come up with a game plan and crake open those files on the boat! And her, I know a guy who could give a ride, captain Sandar!” swivel suggested.

“But swivel; how else would we get to the nearest ship yard besides traveling by your magic, no one’s ever space traveled twice in the same hour before, your energy is too low! You could die!” Banana worried

“Well then, there a first time for everything, we’ll just have to try!” swivel chirruped optimistically. She reached out and took one of Theo’s arms and one of Thea’s. Banana hopped into Thea’s boot and held onto her sock.

And then the darkness raped around them. But this time it faded almost immediately. They were still in the desert. Swivel was unconscious and slumped on the ground. She had worn out her energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9

 

 

 

 

 

          Thea looked down at Swivel. Theo searched the desert. Banana climbed onto Swivel. He lightly jabbed his stick in Swivel’s back. She didn’t budge. Thea looked up from kneeling beside Swivel.

          “What are we going to do?” Thea asked her brother.

          “I don’t know. We need to find shelter though. Swivel, well actually all of us, need to get out of this desert and find food and shelter.”

          “I say we search for a jungle or forest. I mean there are trees on the African plains. Right?”

          Thea and Theo nodded. While Thea stood up, Banana hopped off of Swivel. Theo walked over to Swivel’s limp body. He bent down and hauled the furry brownie over his shoulder. Thea’s hands formed circles over her eyes, creating binoculars. She searched the vast desert.

          “Over there!” she shouted.

          “What?”Banana and Theo asked at the same time.

          “Trees! There are trees a few miles north.”

          “Alright, let’s get going,” Theo commanded. Banana crawled onto Thea’s boot. The 3 began the trek to the trees.

 

 

          By sundown, the three passed the first tree. They stared at the upcoming trees and kept moving. The moon was out when they finally came to the edge of a forest. Theo slid Swivel on the ground. He laid her up against a large canopy tree. Banana slithered off Thea’s boot, and the 2 slumped onto the tree.

          “That was a long and strenuous walk,” Theo stated.

          “Uhh, huh!” Thea breathed.

         

 

          The next morning Theo and Thea woke up at dawn. Banana still slept. Swivel still lay against the tree unconscious.

          “We need to keep moving. We’ve got to find water.”

          “Well, we’re in a jungle. There’s got to be water nearby! Trees can’t grow without a water source,” Thea reminded Theo.

          “True.”

Thea gently roused the sleeping Banana. He blinked open his tiny, beaded black eyes. Thea told him that Theo and she were going to search for water. Banana was to stay and watch Swivel.

          Theo and Thea trudged into the trees and left Swivel and Banana. As they went deeper into the jungle, Thea heard many animals. Before long she picked up the roar of a waterfall.

          “Theo, I can hear a waterfall.”

          “We must be near a river.”

          They broke into a jog. Pretty soon the roar of the waterfall was the only sound to be heard. Theo began to sprint. Then the siblings found themselves running towards the sound. They burst through the trees and stood at the bank of a large river.

          Thea fell to her knees. Theo ran and jumped into the refreshing water. Thea ran back to Banana. She half dragged half carried Swivel while Banana followed her back to the river.

          Back at the river, Theo was still swimming in the cool, calming water. Banana climbed out on a branch and stuck his tiny paws in the water. If he got all the way in, he’d drown. Thea pushed Swivel’s dead-like body into the water.

          “Do you think the water will give her extra energy?” Thea asked as she slipped into the river.

          “I dunno.”

          As if on cue, Swivel’s head twitched. She coughed then sat up in Theo’s arms that were holding her above water.

          “Welcome back!” Theo said enthusiastically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

 

 

 

          “Where in the mushrooms’ land are we?” Swivel asked looking at the surrounding jungle.

“Well, we got out of the desert after you became unconscious,” Banana explained as he sunbathed on his branch.

          “Oh…Well, I’m hungry. Got any mushrooms in the forest?”

 The other three shook their heads. Swivel swam over to the shore and climbed out of the river and onto the bank. Theo and Thea went back to floating soundlessly in the water. Banana fell into a nap while Swivel sniffed the air for mushrooms.

          “Why don’t we go and search for food and shelter?”Swivel said, finally breaking the silence. Theo’s head popped up out of the water.

          “Good idea.”

          “It’ll be dark soon anyways. We could use a better place to sleep than on the ground. Especially when we have no idea what kinds of creatures live here,”Thea said without lifting her head.

          Theo and Thea climbed out of the water. They took their clothes of down to their undergarments. Theo lightly tapped Banana and woke him up. After debating a while they decided to split up into two groups.

          “Theo and I will walk towards the right which should be south at the way the river is flowing,” Swivel announced.

          “Okay. Banana and I will go north to the mouth of the river then.”

          “I say we should meet back here at dusk.”

          “I agree with Theo. Just in case we find something we’ll be able to get there before night fall,” Swivel agreed.

         

          Swivel led the way into the forest as Theo followed. Theo marked every couple of trees so they could find their way back. Swivel would keep an ear out for creatures and to make sure the river was always on their left. Suddenly a lager tree, larger than the rest, came into view. Swivel took another step forward.

          “Don’t move!”Theo warned.

          “What? What is it?”

          “Slowly step back to me.”

          “Why? Theo you tell me what’s going on right now?”

         

    Thea ducked under an overhanging branch. Banana, with Thea’s shoelace tied over him, sang a fairy song in a strange language. Thea tried to make out the tune. Hummmm Bumm Tummm Hummmm Bumm Tummm.

          “What song is that?” Thea asked as she carefully climbed over a fallen tree.

          “Well, it’s an old fairy song. I picked it up on one of my many adventures.”

          “Can you teach it to me? It sounds wonderfully beautiful.”

          “Yes, of course. It goes…”Thea had stopped walking. Banana looked up at Thea and found her staring forward. Banana followed her gaze and saw a shed up ahead. Thea looked down.

          “Let’s go find out what’s inside!”Thea squealed.

 

 

          “Swivel, just look down without moving.”

          “What?”

          “Just look in front of you.” Swivel bent her head down and saw it. Her eyes grew big. Right in front of her a wire stretched from a tree to her left to the nearest tree to her right. Swivel lifted her leg but became unbalanced.

          “Theeeeoooo!!!!” Too late. As Theo launched to help Swivel, she fell face forward onto the wire. A hidden net came up from the ground and snatched Theo and Swivel up… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

 

 

 

 

Theo squirmed around, scrapping his hand on a rope, “ahck! Get your foot out of my face!” Swivel snapped, he look over at the brownie girl who was trapped in the net with him.

“Sorry” he mumbled scooting his foot around. He looked at the ground; it was a good distance down, just as he was about to look back up he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He peered more closely at one of the fine ropes of the net they were stuck in, it reminded him allot of a thin flexible branch.

To his astonishment three thin needle-like thorns slowly slid out of the ‘rope’!

“Swivel! Look at this!”He cried

“No need, there all over the place!”

Theo turned and looked at her, her eyes were wide with fear and a thin scratch ran down her shoulder where a thorn had been, she starred down, horrified by what she saw.

Theo looked down too; a couple drips of bloods were lying on the ground, which seemed to be rising up under the drips.

Out of the ground popped a pale with root that split into three hair-like tentacles at the end, the sickly stringy thing flopped down and rolled around, absorbing the bits of blood then disappeared underground once more.

Theo and Swivel’s eyes met, but neither of them screamed, just starred in terror.

Theo’s eyes slowly inched upwards, he gasped.

The main ‘rope’ of the net led straight into one of the cherry tree’s branches.

There was a quiet groan and the net drew closer around them, Theo and swivel slid closer together.

“What are we going to do!!!!” swivel panicked.

“Couldn’t you just spaceshift use out of this?!?!?!?!?!?” Theo asked urgently.

“No I couldn’t not for a while still”

“How long do you think we have?”

“How long do we have till what?” swivel seemed to be afraid of the answer she might get

“Till this thing kills us!”Theo snapped starring franticly around at the trees surrounding the clearing then at the ground. He wanted so badly to be safe on the ground, then suddenly with a strange pop he was sprawling on the ground, he blinked and leaped up, whirling his head around, Swivel was still trapped in the branch net.

“How did you do that?!?!!?” she gasped, the net tightened again, swivel screamed, a few of the thorns poked her back and side.

“I don’t know!!!!!!!!” he said bewildered. A root snapped around his ankle, he gasped and threw himself sideways, yanking the root off.

As if they had sensed his escape several roots shoot out of the ground and slowly reached towards swivel.

“TTTTTThhhheeeeeooooo hhhheeeeellllllllppp” Swivel screamed.

Theo leaped up and looked around wildly, he saw a shining rock sticking out of the ground and lunged for it.

He pulled it up and felt the edge, sharp enough. He swung his arm back and threw it at the top of the net, it missed by a foot. He ran around the patch of roots, grabbed the stone and threw it again, missed.

He was about to run after the stone again when it zipped back and sliced completely through the net.

The bottom half of it and swivel came tumbling to the ground.

With no time to think about what just happened, Theo leaped into the fray of roots and yanked Swivel out.

A root caught around her but the stone zipped through the air and cut her lose, but this time Theo somehow knew what was about to happen.

Swivel looked up at him, “I suppose you did that too”

“did I?” he replied almost cockily, in just these two short days he had grown used to crazy things happening to them.

 

 

 

 

       Chapter 12

 

 

 

 

“Oh it’s wonderful!” Thea gasped running forward towards the cute little shed.

“Hold on! It could be dangerous!” banana squealed from Thea’s boot even though he was equally delighted by the discovery.

Thea stopped in front of it, it was small and wrapped around a large oak tree, it was made of smooth pine wood and had several mint green ivy vines scrawling over it.

It only had two windows on either side the door that were made of smoky blue glass.

Thea had to duck low to get inside, and surprisingly the door was unlocked and swung open easily with a faint swishy sound and a twinkle of a wind chime that was hung inside.

Thea, once again, gasped when she walked inside the little place. It was very tidy and octangular shaped with the oak tree growing straight up the middle and out of view out of the top!

A blue glass wind chime hung in between the door and the tree. A bench ran all along the wooden wall and the dusty dirt floor was swept smooth, not a single cobweb could be seen and to Thea’s delight there was a door in the oak tree!

Banana untied Thea’s boot shoelace and hoped around the place. Thea was glad that she was alone with banana and not Theo or any other person; she would feel awkward being in just her pink ‘n’ blue striped girl boxers and short camisole. She was glad she wasn’t wearing her smaller underwear, and when she got to think about it, she was just glad to be away from the school with friends and her brother, she felt…..free.

Thea gazed happily up at the wind chime when suddenly she heard a voice

“How the heck did that happen?”

Thea gasped, it was like a window had opened in her head, and she could see in the forest, walking, swivel was by her side. Thea wondered where the voice had come from and looked at banana, but he hadn’t noticed anything.

“What the heck……..” she thought

“Whoa!” said the voice in her head “Thea……..”

“Theo……”

“Thea, what are you doing in my head!?!?!?”

“Nothing what are you doing in my head”
“nothing but I can see everything you see, that’s a neat place, but Thea! Do you realize what this means! We have telepathy! We can talk in our heads and see through our eyes!”

“Holy cow…..”

“Thea! You’re not going to believe what just happened” Theo replayed the memory of the tree in his mind and Thea saw the whole thing as if she was right there next to Theo

“Whoa how did you do all that?”

“I have no clue…”

Suddenly the door in the oak tree flew open and out trotted a stout woman with black hair wearing a heavy, baggy brown dress and a belt of rope.

“Oh hellllu darlin’, and rizorin’, come to visit ol’ Midori have ya?” she asked with a warm toothy grin.

“Oh uh, im sorry, I didn’t think anyone lived here” Thea said backing toward the door out. Banana hastily jumped onto her boot.

“Oh no no, you made it just in time for lunch!”

“What did she say? I know enough dwarf language to know it had to do with food!” Banana hopped up.

“Shush Banana” Thea nudged him with her boot.

“She doesn’t seem so bad…” Theo thought to Thea.

“Excuse me, do you speak rizorane?” the dwarf lady asked Thea

“Do you speak dwarf?” Banana asked Thea.

“Yes” she answered

The lady looked Thea up and down, “My your and interesting character” she chuckled “Please, you must come in, wet, filthy and in your underwear is no way to be prancing about fangline forest!”

The dwarf motioned for Thea to follow and trotted back through the door in the tree.

Thea looked uneasily at Banana who waved at her encouragingly and skipped into the tree after the dwarf.

Thea slowly stepped into the tree and looked around, it was dark and small, soon she realized the tree was hollow and bumped into a ladder, she looked up and saw Banana jumping up one rung at a time, and she started climbing up after him.

It seemed like ages before Thea spotted a light up ahead, she climbed faster and soon came to landing; she crawled onto the wooden floor and stood up

“Where did she go…?” Thea asked Banana

“I dunno! Ohhh I found a door!” he squeaked opening it.

They walked out into a cozy wooden cabin with wood floor, walls and ceiling. A big fluffy blanket stretched over most of the square room’s floor, there was a fire place in the far left corner with 2 wooden rocking chairs on either side of it, a wicker basket filled with knitting things leaned against one of them.

On the other side there was a wood table with wooden chairs around it and a wooden counter next to a big wooden cabinet.

Thea turned slowly in a circle, behind her was the tree, with an open door in it, and on either side of the tree was another door, the one on the left was simply a curtain, and the one on the right was a ladder leading up into an opening in the ceiling.

Thea walked to a window and peered out, and nearly leaped back, they were hundreds of feet up, all she could see was branches and leaves.

“I bet you didn’t notice the stairs were moving you up while you climbed” Midori chuckled coming down through the opening holding a pile of clothes “we are exactly seven hundred and fifty feet in the air! The stairs climb fast! Hmmm dwarfs living in trees and elves living underground, strange times were in, very strange indeed”

Midori set the clothes down in the rocking chair and turned to Thea “so why were you tromping about the forest yourself?”

“Oh I wasn’t, I was with Theo swivel and Banana” seeing Midori’s confusion she explained “My brother, a brownie and the rizorane”

“Oh, a little camping trip into the fangline forest, hmmhmm of all the dimwitted things” Midori chuckled, she picked up some things and handed them to Thea, “go and change in the closet ill get lunch ready and you can tell me everything over a nice pot of stew”

Thea thankfully took the clothes and walked behind the curtain, when she came out she was wearing a long heavy purple dress that the very same color of her eyes. Midori looked up from the stove and smiled, then stopped a worried expression crossed her face and dark memories swam in her eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                           Chapter 13

 

 

 

 

 

“Telepathy, huh?” Swivel said skeptically as the two of them trotted back along the river.

“Yep” Theo said surely

“How do you know you have the power to open and close this ‘window’?” Swivel asked.

“Well I opened it to begin with when I was wondering what Thea was doing”

“How did you close it?”

“I don’t know how I just know that I did when Thea went in the closet to change”

“Why did you close it?”

“Because im pretty sure Thea wouldn’t want me to see her changing clothes,”

“You might not be able to open it again”

“Oh well, it might have gotten annoying anyway”

“Ok, so where’s this hidden tree house/shed anyway?”

“I don’t know for sure let’s just walk the way they went”

“Alrighty, but are you sure this place really exists?”

“Yep, id bet my life not it”

Swivel and Theo stopped talking for a little bit, the only sound to be heard was the rushing of water and the occasional call of miscellaneous animals.

They soon reached the spot where Theo and Thea had left their clothes. Theo pulled on his shirt and pants and carried the rest of his and Thea’s things.

“Come on, it shouldn’t be far now” Theo said and quickly started off towards the shed.

 

 

Thea looked at Midori, concerned “is something wrong?” she asked

“No, no it’s just that the last time someone wore that dress was when Lidy Trudel-” Midori stopped mid-sentence.

“Excuse me, but did you say Lady Truden?”Thea asked.

Banana squeaked in alarm from where he was sitting on the table admiring a fruit basket. “Pleeeeeeeeease don’t talk about that evil witch!”

“Oh no no, I said Lidy Trudel, an old guest of mine, she, well it was a nasty story maybe I shouldn’t tell you”

“TELL ME”

“Well it was maybe it was a little more than twelve years ago, a young lady came through, and spent a while here, she said she was on her way out to an abandoned field to start a school, with her were two terrified children, twins, a girl and a boy, they looked just like you. she said she needed a crystal pendant made only by a dwarf and she threatened to kill my grandson Toby if I didn’t do it for her so I did then sh-she put it around her neck and her hair and nails grew out long, black, and sharp. she tied the children to a tree and that’s when I realized they weren’t her children, she drew a pentagram around them and the tree, I didn’t know what she was going to do to them but I knew it was not good so I ran at her but she froze me before I even got there with just a wayward flick of her hand. I was stuck there to watch as she stole every drop of power and life from them with that wretched crystal! Then as they were gasping for breath she threw a pile of branches on them and lit a fire, then she murdered my Toby and knocked me unconscious with a branch”

Midori started to wail “and when I woke up all that was left was a pile of ashes, a dead tree and poor Toby’s body”

Thea rushed over to Midori and laid her hand on her shoulder

“Im so sorry” Thea said and realized that her heart had been pounding hard through the whole story, and that there was no difference between lady Truden and Lidy Trudel.

“Don’t you be sorry for me, you are in grave danger, she is after the power you posses and nothing will stop her”

As if on que that very second a huge black lion with magnificent bat like wings burst through the window exploding most of the wall too.

Thea and Midori screamed.

  It immediately targeted Thea; she backed into a corner as he slunk closer to her.

Banana let out a screech and leaped at its tail, it ignored him and banana swung there dangling from its tail.

Thea turned her head and held up a hand to block it. The black lion suddenly started scraping backwards as if Thea was pushing it yet she wasn’t but was at the same time without knowing it.

 

 

 

“Try opening the window again” Swivel said to Theo as they walked

“Okay” he cautiously slid the window open then shut it with a gasp and raced ahead of swivel to get to Thea.

“Wait, Whats happening?” swivel called.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the lion struggled to get at Thea, Theo burst through the door. Swivel came running after him breathing hard. Theo looked around the small shack taking in his surroundings. A long wooden bench braced itself against the shack wall. Although the floor had some dust and a few scratch marks, the shack was spotless. In the middle of the wooden shack sprang a tree. Its large trunk shot through the roof of the shack. Its branches spread out above the little shack. At the bottom of the shack, a door stood.

 Banana was huddled in the corner with a dwarf. Thea stood beside the large tree trunk and gazed across the room. She never turned to welcome or even acknowledge him and Swivel. Nice. Theo thought. Then he heard a growl from the corner. Now he understood this scenery.

          “Release me from this hold you fowl, disgusting child of Lady…”

          “What is that thing?”Swivel asked quickly before she let the lion finish.  She ran over to the trembling dwarf and Banana. Theo raced over to his sister.

          “That is a lion with wings. Duh!” Banana answered sarcastically.

          Thea turned from the lion, releasing the hold she had on him, grabbed Theo, and ran over to where the others were standing. As they all reunited, the lion silently crept away from the corner. He targeted Thea and Theo, who were huddled together, from the side. Theo saw the lion leap from the corner of his eye and pushed the others away.

          The lion caught Theo in a death grip by the arm!

          “Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!”Thea screamed. Swivel held her back against the wall. Midori and Banana attacked the lion. Midori started bonking the lion on the head with her fists while Banana tried to pierce his skin with his miniature sword. The lion ripped Theo’s arm off with anger and spun around to kill Midori.

          Theo passed out as blood gushed from his missing arm. Thea fell to the floor next to him with tears streaming down her cheeks. Swivel knelt down beside her. Thea rose to her foot. Tears no longer rolled from her eyes, but they now gleamed with hatred towards the lion. The lion, seeing that he was greatly outnumbered, turned to flee. He turned his head back.

          Glaring at Thea, the lion threatened,” I will return. And when I do, I won’t be alone. You will die, Thea Clambegue. So will your brother.” With that the lion leaped out of the shack and into the night sky.

Thea, Swivel, and Banana sat beside Theo. Midori walked into the room with a first aid kit, towels, water, and some cookies for the group. Since Thea wouldn’t move and Midori didn’t know what to do, Swivel started putting towels on Theo’s shoulder to stop the blood from flowing out. She opened the first aid kit and got out a bandage and syringe that had healing/cleaning stuff in it.

When Swivel took the towels away, she gasped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          “What?”Thea asked through sniffles. Swivel pointed at Theo’s missing arm. Thea, Banana, and Midori strained their necks to look at the spot. None of them could believe their eyes. Right before them Theo’s arm was regenerating.

          “How’s that possible?”Midori asked no one in particular. The others just shrugged their shoulders as they stared at Theo’s quickly regenerating arm.

The new arm was at the elbow. Then the wrist. And in no time Theo’s arm was completely regenerated. He twitched then his eyes flew open. No one said a word.

“Well, helllluuu hunn. Welcome back!” Theo sat up in alarm. He studied the four people surrounding him. Thea flung herself into her brother’s arms. They hugged for about a minute, and then Thea pushed away from her brother.

“Wh-what happened? Where’s the lion?”Theo asked timidly. He gazed around the small shack. The lion was nowhere to be seen.

“The lion’s gone. We scared him off, but he’ll be back. Do you remember what happened after the lion attacked you?”Swivel informed him.

“No. I only remember the lion biting my arm.”

“Let’s just say, you just regenerated you arm. You have another power to add to your list.”Midori laughed at Banana’s comment.

          “Cool!”

          “No, not cool, Theo!!!! You almost died!”Thea cried out.

“I’m fine. No need to scream at me.”

“Sorry.” The others rolled their eyes at the bickering twins. Midori gave a big yawn that started a chain reaction between the five. They laughed at the contagious yawn.

“I guess I better show you guys to your room.”

Midori led her guest over to the door in the tree trunk.

“You might want to duck when you go inside, “she suggested. She opened the tiny wooden door. It made a strange squeaky sound at first. Midori motioned for them to follow. She disappeared through the door and into the dark.

Thea followed with Banana sitting on her shoulder tiredly first. Swivel went in after her. Then Theo took up the rear. Thea entered the tree trunk with a low duck. Once inside, she could make out a steel staircase spiraling up through the trunk. Midori motioned at the top of the stairs, again, for them to follow her.

Thea led the way up the stairs. A couple of times she almost slipped on the slick steps. Some of the steps had some oily black substance on them.

At the top of the stairs, Thea got confused. It was so dark up there that she couldn’t figure out where to go. All of a sudden light streamed into the tree trunk. In a doorway to her left, Midori stood waiting.

“Well, ar’ ye coming?”Midori asked plainly.  Thea walked over to the door. This door was a little larger than all the others. They didn’t have to duck as low to get through this door.

“Thea and Swivel follow me. Banana and Theo, you guys will have another room. It’s through that door on the right.”Banana jumped off Thea’s shoulder and onto Theo’s shoulder. Midori led the two girls down a small hall in front of them. They passed many different sized, shaped, colored, and wooded doors.

Finally, at the end of the hall, Midori stopped at a medium sized metal door. From a pocket in her dwarf jumper suit, Midori pulled out a set of at least twenty keys. She picked out one of the keys and stuck it through the key hole. The door popped open and Midori strode in.

Thea walked through the door, and Swivel followed behind her. The room opened up into a wide area. On both sides of the room, a twin bed stood where they would sleep. Each bed had a bedside table and lamp. They had matching bedspreads, pillows, and sheets. Thea couldn’t wait to fall asleep in a bed with nice, warm covers.

“Well, here’s where yull be sleepin. Goodnight. Make yourself at home.” Midori left the room and closed the door behind her. Swivel walked over to one of the beds and fell face first onto it. She immediately began to snore. Thea smiled and got into the other bed. She laid her head on one of the pillows, pulled the covers up to her neck, and fell sound asleep in the warm bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 16

 

 

 

 

Thea tossed and turned in her sleep. Memories swirled past her in a dream.

…

The forest cleared out and the path lead through a well-trimmed garden that was at least several square miles and in the center was a large 3 storied brick building connected to a smaller 2 storied building by an arching bridge. She trudged up to the grand door step of the larger building and crouched down over the doormat that said “Welcome to the one and only private boarding academy” Lady Death scowled at it and set down the two children, holding back tears she  placed a small envelope between them.

The envelope contained enough boarding payment for the children to stay till they were 18 years old, a letter to the headmistress of the school and a letter to the children.

“Goodbye my loves”

…

“It happened to you to!’ Theo said when he saw her. She looked at him slack-jawed, “I don’t know what happened but I don’t like it” she said “lady Truden is going to freak! She’ll think I dyed my hair!” Thea stood up and looked at Theo

“We need to find out who we really are” she said.

“Agreed” Theo said with a weak smile.

…

The creature shook his head “I dunno that either, I was just wondering around and now I don’t know where I am”

“Well you’re at green oak academy now” Theo said

A plan started to form in Thea’s mind “hey, we’ll help you get back to where ever you came from if you help us with something” she said

Theo looked at her quizzically, she winked at him and his mouth formed a silent “ohh”

 “Deal!” the creature said, “so what are we doing?”

“Oh not much! Just sneaking into our head mistresses’ office after curfew!” Thea laughed sarcastically.

“You’re a strange bunch, I like you guys!”The little creature chirruped hoping onto Theo’s left boot. He sat there as the kids walked back towards the dormitory building.

“So what should we call you?” Theo asked the creature sitting comfortably on his boot.

“I donno, either I don’t have a name or I don’t remember it” the green creature laughed. Theo raised an eyebrow at Thea, who just shrugged

“Well we’ll call you Banana” Thea said.

“Sounds good to me! What should I call you kids?” Banana asked them.

…

“Well, Um. Uhh. I dunno. I think I was on a mission. Or possibly exploring the world and traveling on a great adventure. Or maybe I was on the verge of uncovering a great unknown mystery. That would be cool.”

          “What about family and friends. You weren’t all alone, were you?”

          Banana hung his head down as he answered, “That I do remember.” Banana whispered,” My family died long ago when I was in my younger years. And I’ve never really had any friends.”

          “Really?  I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anyone else like you?”

          “No. Ooh. Wait. I did have a very close friend. Her name was Swivel. We were together before I ended up here.”

 

…

 

Theo grabbed Thea, pulled her in, and silently, but quickly, closed the door the door behind her. Thea stumbled into Lady Truden’s large, square office. She gazed around the office floor, which was covered in files and papers.

“Did you find ours yet?” Thea asked hopefully. Theo’s head dropped and he shook it. Thea sighed and walked over to Lady Truden’s filing cabinet.

“Have you gone through these drawers yet?”

“Nope. But you can while I finish searching Lady Truden’s desk.”

As Thea pulled open the top drawer, Theo began to rummage through Lady Truden’s cabinets and drawers on her desk. The scanned the names on the files. All the last names started with A. Thea closed the drawer and opened the next one. All the last names in it started with B. Thea guessed the drawers and files were in alphabetical order. Since their last name was Clabegue, Thea pulled open the third drawer. She went through the files till she found hers and Theo’s files.

“Theo! Theo, I found them!” Theo looked up from trying to yank a hidden drawer in Lady Truden’s desk.

…

Lady Truden starred at Thea’s purple eyes with her own wicked gray eyes. “You girl, Thea clabegue isn’t it?” she snarled.

Thea only whimpered in reply, she could feel the blood rushing into her head, she felt weak and helpless.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes headmistress lady Truden’ and last time I had to speak to you, didn’t you have blue eyes?” Sneered lady Truden running a hand though her oily dark gray hair.

“Yeah and my eyes were green so what are ya goanna do about it!?” Theo growled from where he was hanging in the air.

Lady Truden caught sight of Thea’s purple streak of color in her hair and her eyes grew to the size of sauce plans. She dragged Theo out of the air by the arm; her sharp mails dug into his arm and drew blood.

…

“You-y-your one of those purple eyed-people!”He now seemed quite scared

“What do you know about the purple eyed people?” Theo said suddenly as if waken from a trance.

“Oh ha where do I begin? But obviously you and your freaky friends here don’t get out much, say if you can help me out, I’ll tell you all you want to know about anything, or everything” the dragon said, not frightened in the least bit anymore.

Theo glanced at Thea. She gave a quick nod. He turned back to the dragon that had shrunk down to a normal house size.

“We’ll accept your deal” he said cautiously

“Oh good in just enough time too! I feel I’ve just been summoned” the dragon started to shimmer and fade “oh and by the way my name is Trilogy, I work for this nasty little dork called prince Cade, he hosts the annual Fall Blood Games in a big city called New Sparta, its far away across the sea, maybe a month’s journey.” the dragons voice became quieter as it disappeared “oh and I must warn you the seasons there ch-”

…

“Why not, we need to learn who-what we are, and we don’t know where to go or what to do next sooooooooo why not? A little adventure might be fun like in some of those fantasy books I’ve read!” Thea reasoned

“Yes, your right but that Trilogy tried to warn you about something, I need to warn you about something-”

“OOOh yeah, it’s been drilling at the back off my head like a saw! Man! Whats wrong with our memories, it’s like they were temporarily wiped!”

…

Thea’s mind slowly peeled away the mysteries and found only empty confusion. Instead of waking up and tromping to the kitchen in search of answers Thea woke to a scream.

 

 

 

Chapter 17

 

 

 

Theo woke up with the sun and fumbled down the hollow-tree stairs to the kitchen. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and screamed.

There in the middle of the room stood the winged-black-lion.

“My allegiance has changed”

Theo took a step back, and finger where his arm had been ripped off and grown back.  Theo was about to run for it when he realized that he could fight this thing. He remembered Thea saying she had some kind of hold on it.

The lion looked at him expectantly “welllllllllll?” it said.

“Well what you nasty thing!”

“Oh yeah… i-ummm �"im sorry I ripped your arm off….Oh! Hey look you grew it back!” the lion stepped forward. Theo threw up his hand, pushing the lion back with an invisible force.

“Oh! Hey stop that!”

“Nope”

“……….Aghg!!!!”

He was flipped upside down and pressed to the ceiling. Theo turned around to see Thea entering the room with her arm stretched forward above her head.

“You said you weren’t coming back her alone” she said coolly as she walked towards the lion.

The lion grimaced “im not” he said

“Then who is with you?” Theo asked.

The lion shook his main and out fell a tiny tree frog with big berry colored eyes, orange feet, blue ankles, a white belly and a green body.

“I am lord Magnolia! Fear meee!” it squeaked.

Theo snorted. Thea couldn’t help but giggle.

“Hey! Whats so funny?” it demanded.

Theo walked over to the cabinet and rummaged around through the assorted foodstuffs and pulled out an empty jar.

Lord magnolia said “hey what are you doing with that”

He walked back and clopped it over lord Magnolia.

The lion chuckled from where it was pressed to the ceiling.

“Hey I demand you get me out of here!!!!!!!!!” He screamed from inside the jar.

 

Lord Magnolia pounded uselessly on the inside of the jar, one of his sticky feet suction cupped to the glass and he fell over trying to pull it off.

Thea couldn’t stop laughing. Theo grinned at her.

“Ten feet taller and you might want to run from that guy!”

“They aren’t the best bad guys are they?” Theo said.

“Nope not at all!” Thea laughed.

“Hey were not bad guys!” the lion protested.

Thea rolled her eyes and tied his front feet together using her belt. She lowered him to the ground “Then I suggest you tell us everything, starting with your name and species”

“My name is Nakaran; I am a Dynacacozo, more commonly known as Dynacazo. It means bad power, corrupted magic, or dark creature. Now listen up and no interruptions, this is a long story” The lion said struggling into a sitting position, which was difficult in the small room with wings and his front paws latched together with a leather belt.

Both Theo and Thea sat down, keen to hear Dynacazo’s story. Lord Magnolia, who had heard the story many times, and was in some parts of it, pouted.

Author's Note

completely unedited