Terribly Lottey Read online

To the masked ball I am wearing a perfect little blue gown. It’s fitted and tapered, and drapes down over my shoulders. I must say that I feel like a princess already. Mersades even gave me back my hair! Well, I suppose it’s mine… she used a spell for it. But I don’t really care, either way; I look like a breath of spring now. To look in the mirror is a lovely sight.

  I saw Ryse from my balcony while he was riding yesterday, but I don’t think he saw me. In fact I know he didn’t see me, because I waved and he didn’t wave back. Oh… what a divine being he is. It’s no wonder Theeeb wants to be young again. Trade bodies with him.

  I have my whole plan laid out. I won’t be able to talk to Ryse at all until the masked ball, so when I dance with him– which I know I will, won’t I?– I’ll tell him everything. He’s got to know that something is not right by now. It won’t be that hard to get him to believe me, I don’t think. And then we can elope together. Perhaps we should dispose of Mersades first, though, because she has the talent of tracking Ryse.

  Oh, I’m splitting open with the want to tell him all of this! I think I may die if tonight doesn’t come soon enough. Yes, tonight is the masked ball! I’m melting inside out!

  The only way I can write what happened without exploding is by story form. Thank you, brother Frederam.

  I stood in front of the mirror, looking beautiful. I can’t deny it I’m afraid, but I’m anything but vain. I’ll have you know that for the record.

  My hair was as golden as it’s ever been, piled in curls and everything beautiful all around my face. The blue was most accenting, setting of my beauty, my beautiful green eyes, and my beautiful little face. I have very beautiful features you know, very noticeable.

  To make a long story short, I looked just right for seeing Ryse. I was led downstairs as I held the train of my dashingly long skirt out to the side. I stood at the foot of the terribly long staircase that led down into the ballroom. It was a very classic scene I think.

  I tried to spot Ryse as my escort left me to fend for myself down the stairs. And finally I saw him, as I gracefully emerged downward. I tried to wave, but he didn’t notice me. I don’t really understand that, as I was very noticeable.

  As the night moved on, I spoke to some very important people in the kingdom, dance with a lot of them, and acquired some much needed over flourished attention. Theeeb was very gracious to me as well. But we know why, don’t we?

  “May I?” Lowly bowed, a dark, curly haired man offered me a dance, and I accepted. Ryse was dancing at the moment also, and I thought that perhaps he would see me as I spun in a whirl of color around him. And then he’d yell ‘Stop!’ and take me into his arms for our first dance as betrothed, seeing that I am the love of his life.

  As I danced with the man who didn’t take his eyes off mine (it was rather uncomfortable, penetrating might I add) I edged close to Ryse as best I could. He was dancing with a flaming redhead, who wasn’t pretty in the least. Not next to me, anyhow.

  “Ryse!” I finally screeched as I twirled past him. I saw him look up and around, as if he recognized the voice. But as his eyes grazed mine, there was not a mite of recognition.

  …I hiccoughed.

  Why couldn’t he see me??

  I knew I couldn’t be invisible because other people could see me, and I’m sure Ryse would notice if people were dancing with themselves when they were actually dancing with me, if I were only invisible to him. Was it the hair, maybe? He hadn’t seen me with it.

  And that’s when I realized… he hadn’t seen me with it. Not even when I waved at him from the balcony. It was stupid Mersades and whatever she did to me when she gave me hair. Oh, the little devious demon… what a conniving, witless thing…

  The next time I was whizzed past Ryse I yelled, since he could hear my voice, “You’re not real!” Because he had to know. But after I thought about what I said… it didn’t make much sense. “I’m LOTTEY!” I screeched at him. His head snapped around to look at me. He saw me, but he didn’t really see me. I shoved the man dancing with me off of me. “Ryse your stupid stepmother made me think that you were ignoring me but the truth is you didn’t even know it was me but now that you know, or at least I think you know there is something I have got to tell you before you’re–”

  I wasn’t able to finish talking because my voice stopped working. I tried to utter a sound, but it didn’t work. So I cursed Mersades as loudly as I could, and then started crying.

  Ryse rushed to me and held me and it felt so right, so forlorn. He was never going to be able to hold me after tonight. Well, not him exactly. So I kept bawling without a sound. He looked at me with those beautiful eyes of his, with such sorrow, but I was much more sad. Because I couldn’t tell him. He would never even know.

  Feeling very weak, and not enjoying all of the millions of eyes on me, I stood and ran. I ran up the stairs, everything through my eyes streaked with awfully pitiful tears. I ran out into the hall, where I nearly tripped over Ivy. I didn’t know how he got there; he was still in his pot. But I was really too mixed up inside to even care.

  “What’s the matter, Lotts?”

  I shook inside with rage and fury for him calling me that. But I couldn’t scream at him. It was worthless.

  I had already told the potted plant about Mersades’ and Theeeb’s plan. So he knew that much, and the rest was guessing. I watched his leaves sort of droop, and noticed there was another plant beside him. “This is Rose,” he said eagerly. “Or–was, until Mersades got a hold of her.”

  Wow, I thought enthusiastically, what a pair. I opened my mouth to talk purposely as I tried to get through to them what was the matter with me. One of my problems at least.

  “Oh, dear,” Rose said empathetically. “Has Mersades gotten a hold of you, too?”

  Yes, I nodded. That was my first problem. But not my most important. I wouldn’t mind going through not talking–which is a big deal for me–as long as the rest of my life could be with Ryse.

  “Oh, I know how to get your voice back!” The prettier plant said.

  Impatience ran through my bones as she thought a while before telling me.

  “Mmm…You have to eat the first blue leaf of the season from the Bigiloo tree.” The rose looked as satisfied as a rose can.

  I let my mouth drop open.

  “Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be fresh.”

  I was about to shrug in despair when a wave of green lightning flashed over me and the two plants, knocking my weary self to the floor. I heard an awful and evil cackling noise, which sounded so dreadfully happy. I knew it was Mersades, just from the green mess. I shuddered to think of what could happen next.

  “Now you’ve done it!” She screeched at me, but I couldn’t even see her. “Where is he?” Her voice was loud an annoyed. A slight smile broke out on my part.

  Ryse had listened to me, and he didn’t even know what I told him.

  “He’s hiding in my pocket,” I said, and for the first few moments I thought I had simply thought it; but no, I had said it. Sarcasm always had a way of getting through.

  “If I can’t get it out of you, It isn’t as if I won’t be able to find him, you know.” She put her black boot on my stomach.

  “Don’t you think if I knew where he was I would be with him?” I smarted at her.

  She snarled. I heard her eyes roll back in her head. “You think you’re so brave.” And just like that, she was gone. I was left alone on the floor with the two plants, my voice, and the stillness of the fear of anticipation.

  I flinched when I heard, “Lottey!” But it wasn’t Ryse. It was Theeeb. Or does that actually make it Ryse? “Lottey, don’t worry, he’s safe. I’ve got him hidden.”

  “Theeeb!?” I shrieked. “As if I’ll trust you?”

  He just smiled, and asked, “How did you find out?”

  I assumed he meant how to I manage to eavesdrop without Mersades knowing. “I can listen in on conversations without being caught.”

  He chuckled, a happy su
btly little laugh, and didn’t look at all threatening.

  “I’ve gotten in trouble for trusting the wrong people before.”

  “Do you really think I want to rule forever?” He looked deeply into my eyes, telling me to think hard. “Can you imagine Ryse wanting to rule forever?”

  As soon as he said that I knew the answer. I could never imagine Ryse doing something deviously evil and conspiring. It isn’t his nature at all. It simply wouldn’t interest him.

  “I’ve already been young once. At first, you know, it was sort of appealing–when people go through stages where they aren’t as confident in themselves as they should be. But Mersades has really taken it to a higher level, and I’m no longer interested. Of course, I daren’t tell her that.” He laughed again. "She might kill me and inhabit the boy’s body so she could rule.”

  “How do you know that’s not what she’s planning?” Who could be stupid enough to marry a witch?

  He shrugged honestly. “I don’t. The problem is that there is only one way to stop her, to make her human, virtually powerless. I could never go after it, because she’d know, she tracks my every hunt. But if you could go–of course, you’d really have to hurry, if you want to save your boy. You only have a matter of days before she’ll start the transformation.”

  “So what do I do?” I said without a second thought. If he were lying, things would be absolutely no worse; and I had my voice back. I was going to have to take a leap–which isn’t uncommon for me, as you know. It was the only thing left to do.

  So he handed me a map and the two flower pots and shoved me out the door. He did, however, give me a mode of transportation. It’s one of those winged donkeys that I saw back in ParKesh. This one talks, however, in a series of low whispers.

  So that is where I am right now, in the air. I managed to write all of this while balancing the book on my lap and not falling off and plummeting hundreds of feet to the ground.

  The map Theeeb gave me has directions on one side, and the actual map part is on the other. It’s a map of the Deserted Forest. The directions say not to be deceived by the name. So I’ll expect the worst?

  Oh, by the way, Ivy and Rose turned into rabbits. They are sitting in little pouches on the side of the Peagass. As soon as I saw the transformation, I screamed, “Oh no! Bunnies in love! There’s going to be more than two before I can blink!” But I think they’re going to be good little bunnies for right now. These are important moments. They mean life and death for several people – including me. And if something happens to Ryse, I just might end up killing Ivy and Rose. If it ends up their fault.

  Oh, by the way – the bunnies are pink and blue.

  I am sitting in the desert again. But I’m not stuck here, as I was last time. And so the sand and nothingness doesn’t bother me.

  The Peagass began whispering in the middle of the night, and I woke with such a start that I thought I would kill it! But I slept well anyway. I don’t know how, really; just in the middle of a crisis, that’s all. I suppose the stress puts me into a deeper sleep?

  We’re almost to the Deserted Forest. Every time I think of it, I get anxious, and wish we could hurry and get there to get it over with. But nothing ever goes my way. Ever ever ever ever.

  I really wish Ivy could turn back into a human being. It’s startling to say, I know. But I do. Then maybe I wouldn’t so much succumb to the vast loneliness I feel.

  Well, I must report that the forest is in front of me. The entrance. Without the map, however, I would never know that on my own. It just looks like a foggy place in the desert, about equivalent to the size of a middle-class doorway. A hazy little patch, sort of like the air of that above a fire. The directions say to walk through that, and I’ll be there, in the Deserted Forest.

  I do wish I knew what to expect once I hit the other side. But all the map-directions say, after the part that tells me to go through the fog-door, is that I am looking for the part of the forest where there is water, and in the middle of the water is a stand, and on the middle of the stand there is a glove. It is the Variworm glove, which when I pronounce, sounds like “Very warm”. And, actually, is exactly what it is. It is the warmest glove in the world. I must touch Mersades with it, because her witch’s soul is too cold to be mortal, and therefore warm it, making her mortal. It sounds very complicated. But I must do it, and I had probably better hurry. The map doesn’t say that; but I do.

  Wish me luck.

  I stood before the door. Everything through it – it was as if I were looking through imperfect glass. I wasn’t sure if it would be okay for me to simply put my hand through and withdraw it, or if it would get stuck. So I concluded that the best thing to do would be to caper through it rather quickly. Ivy and Rose stood behind me, their little noses wrinkled as if they hadn’t a clue. Which may have been the case.

  The map was securely tucked into the waist of my dress. Which, by the way, if you didn’t remember, is still that beautiful and fancy darling blue thing I wore to the ball. I can’t say that I look quite the same, though.

  And: I didn’t think of this at the time, by the Peagass wasn’t by my side. Thus, no ride on the other side. Ah, but I can use the exercise, no?

  No.

  I held my breath and leapt through. It was a startling transformation; I felt rather distorted for a few moments, until I came through on the other side. What I saw before me… it was a forest. And it seemed, as though, it was nothing more. There were trees, and dirt, and vines, and leaves, all nice and brown and green as they should be, and there was even patches of flowers in some places. It looked anything but deserted, but that was, of course, what I was to expect. It’s not all the time that I get exactly what I expect.

  I stood for a few long moments, because although I had made it, I had to take a well observation of my surroundings. Why? I don’t know. My head hurt and I felt like it.

  Ivy and Rose were soon by my side, and they startled me heavily. They weren’t bunnies anymore. I’m not sure if it is better or worse; they are donkeys.

  I assure you… I said not a word. I’m not the one to make fun, anyhow.

  I took the map from my skirt and unfurled it. “Well, it says to walk. A long ways. In a straight line.” I sounded so reassuring, to myself leastways. I couldn’t help by adding, “The first one to give me any trouble becomes my ride.” And we began walking.

  The path was narrow and kudzu overflowed the sides. It looked well worn, which made me wonder what had worn it. So far I hadn’t seen any sign of life besides plan life, and that can hardly wear a path through a forest.

  Ivy and Rose followed behind me. Donkeys have quite short legs, or at least the specimen they had turned into had. I listened to them for a second, and realized they sounded different. I started to think that maybe they had transformed again, but the sound was more than four legs. And they sounded… porcelain.

  I stopped for a second, rather abruptly, and the two ran into the back of my legs. They were still fuzzy. But that meant…

  I held my breath. “Who – or what – is behind us–” I took my courage and spun.

  There were six porcelain gnomes just sitting there in the dirt, as if someone had placed them there. I looked around for the culprit.

  But there was nobody there.

  I began walking again, but this time the two donkey’s treading in front of me, glancing back nervously. But every time I time I turned around, there was no one there, but the gnomes. Always at my heels.

  My breath began to get fluttery, after all, I am somewhat of a nervous person when porcelain gnomes are following me. Were they following me? Was there anybody moving them up? I heard clangs, and clinks, and finally I spun around for the last time.

  “Who is following me?!?” I hollered, my voice cracking. I looked around, and when no one even so much as snickered, I got down at eye level with the gnomes. “Who are you?” I whispered.

  The one in front, he… shifted his eyes… and blinked.

  I scream
ed and stumbled back in the dirt.

  Before the rest of them could blink at me, I jumped up and ran. The poor donkeys tried to keep up. But I couldn’t think about them, not then, because this was strange, stranger than Ivy being turned into a plant. Stranger than Ryse being a clone. Stranger than me not being a Devingrole.

  “Wait!” The gnomes called out, in a simultaneous squelched voice.

  I stopped. I stood very still, my arms clenching my skirt. I didn’t look behind me, I just waited. What if I need to talk to these freaky porcelain gnomes that blinked? What is they would help me save Ryse? I had to stop. There was nothing else for me to do. Even if I was feeling… as if my insides were being sucked out through a straw.

  “We were waiting,” said one impatiently as they tottered up behind me.

  “Yes, we were waiting!” Another agreed.

  I swallowed deeply. “For what?” My voice was rather small. Which is sort of an ironic phrase for the instance.

  “For you to ask us for directions!” The impatient one sounded as if I should know exactly what he was talking about. And of course I hadn’t a clue.

  “Um… can you give me directions?” I asked.

  “Of course, that’s what we’re here for! We’re the Garden Gnomes!”

  “What Garden?” I spewed.

  “Why, the Garden of Batba, of course!” Again with the ‘I should know this already’ tone.

  “Why would I want to go there?” I was no longer as scared as I was, no more trembling in my sparkling gown; but I was terribly annoyed at being held up and confused all at once when importance was on the line.

  But I wouldn’t say, on the other hand, that I was at ease.

  “Because that’s the only place where you can find the glove to kill Mersades, of course!”

  My chest tightened. I was sick of the words of course and beginning to get frightened again at their extensive knowledge. “How do you know what I’m here for?” I said slowly and confidentially.

  “Garden Gnomes know everything,” it or he rolled his eyes and took a hold of the edge of my skirt. “Stop asking stupid questions. It’s starting to annoy.”

  I let my body frame slump and eyes relax almost to a closing point. How droll, I wanted to scream. Droll and absurd.

  “Follow us,” it said, and in an instant they were all clinging to my skirt and dragging me off the path. I yelped with sudden fright but they completely disregarded it. I nearly tripped over the lot of them numerous times, but they never showed signs of ceasing their grip and allowing me to continue at my own pace. So after too many seconds of this, I let myself go limp and fell flat on my face. It hurt somewhat, but they stopped.

  “That scares me.” I exclaimed affirmatively. They all looked at me as if they were solid porcelain. But who’s to say they weren’t?

  Not taking my eyes from them, I held my tattered skirt daintily and brushed passed them brusquely. Wild creatures had absolutely no manners.

  “Lottey!”

  I dropped my skirt from my hand and screamed tremulously out of annoyance. I was tired gnomes talking to me! But when I turned around, there was no gnome. “Oh, it’s only you Ivanm.”

  Ivanm?

  He was a person again!

  “Oh, Ivy! You…” I studied him for a second, “You’re not a donkey anymore.” Although I might beg to differ in some instances. I continued walking. “Where’s Rose,” I threw rather carelessly over my shoulder. “Oh, and what is she.”

  “I don’t know,” Ivy said, and his voice sputtered confusion. “I mean, she’s right here, but I don’t know what she is. She’s… some sort of gloves or something.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Gloves? Was it THAT easy? Rose was the Variworm gloves?

  “Give her to me,” I wrenched the gloves (or, girl) from his hands.

  “Um…”

  “Well this didn’t take very long. Now all we have to go is get back to the Peagass. Where is that map?” I yanked it from my skirt.

  “Lottey…”

  “Ah, here we are, near… the garden of gnomes. How appropriate.”

  “Lottey?”

  “All we have to do is cross that little bridge over there and jump into that black spot in the water and…”

  “Lotts!”

  “Will you shut up!!” I exclaimed, throwing him the map. “And don’t call me that you plant brain.”

  “I don’t think you should put those on.”

  I halted my mind and turned to give Ivy a look. “Why not?” I said inquisitively.

  He returned by looking at me as if I were the crazy one. “Hmmm… let’s see… maybe because Mersades is the one who has been morphing our appearances, obviously she can do it from afar, and she’s most likely the one who changed Rose into the gloves. So you, being the feeble minded gentlewoman you are, would think that you could put them on a save you’re true love.”

  I stared at Ivy. Aghast. Who knew he could work his little mind like that? “Yes, and I suppose she morphed you back into your tragically original form so you could warn me?”

  Ivy looked worriedly speechless.

  “That’s what I thought.” I turned from him and slipped the gloves on.

  The biggest mistake of my life.

  I watched slowly as the sky turned red and all disappeared, except me and the gloves. The ground split in one huge crack and swallowed me up with black vines that were squeezing the air out of me. I squeaked and gasped, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up on seven small beds lined up to make one long enough for me.

  “What happened to me?”

  It turned out I had been hallucinating.

  Ivy handed me a mug and sat down next to me. He shrugged slightly after a moment. “You were thrashing on the ground as if you weren’t getting any breath to your lungs, so I did the only thing I could think of.”

  I took a sip of the hot… whatever it was. “What’s that?” I asked meekly.

  “Jerked the gloves from you.” He paused a moment. “It was scary.”

  “What I saw was much scarier, I'll wager my life.”

  Ivy patted me on the back. “Why don’t we lay off on the life wagering for a while?” And he walked away.

  We were in the gnome’s house. Well, hole in the ground. They were fairly hospitable. Ivy told me later that they had almost hadn’t let me in their place because I looked so rough, they thought maybe I was too close to being dead. And they didn’t want their sheets to get dirty. But that was fine, I didn’t care for them a whole lot either. The gnomes and I had gotten off to a bad start.

  Then suddenly, “Hah!” I thought out loud. Loudly. Ivy peeked his head around the corner. “Do you know what,” I announced. “First I was Rapunzel, and now I’m Snow White!” Yes, I had studied literature some in my days as a lady. I wasn’t entirely stupid.

  Ivy and I ate a hearty meal and thanked the gnomes. Well, I didn’t thank the gnomes personally, but I was thankful. We left their home that really was too small and began walking again in the forest that really was alive. And get this, when we left and had been walking for about a quarter hour, I said, “Ivy, where’s the map?”

  And he said, “Um, I don’t know.”

  So now, as one might imagine, we are trekking rather helplessly through a jungle of a forest. I’m doing as well as can be expected of remembering where we were going last, but I daresay it would be going better if stupid old plant-head hadn’t lost the map.

  We’re camping right now. Ivy is holding Rose close to his heart, making sure no one else puts her on.

  We walked today. I know that must shock you. We walked and walked and got basically no where.

  I have decided to not speak to Ivy, because he lost the map. If we can’t get back to the castle in time it will be entirely on his head, and I will loathe him forever more.

  But I must say, this isn’t the worst place to be lost in. It’s a queer sort of jungle, but better than the desert. And at least I have hair this time around.

 
So, we were walking some more today, and we stumbled upon this bridge. We thought maybe it was the bridge we had been looking for, but seriously doubt that now.

  It was a short bridge, quite dainty, faded oak built into a roundabout fashion bridge that led over a simple brook. The water couldn’t have been more then ankle, maybe knee deep; it was cold and clear, and crisp… I went to cross, and the moment I set foot on the bridge I heard:

  “Who cares to cross my bridge without asking?”

  I screamed and leapt backwards onto Ivy saying, “It’s a troll!”

  The voice was deep and gruff, and he sounded as if he meant business. I wanted rather badly to peer under the bridge to see what exactly it was, if it were a troll, or perhaps just a wicked little garden gnome. But I was rather stiff with surprise.

  The a ripple in the water under the little oaken bridge began to grow, and immerged this strange little man… he had a full length peppery beard the grew at a tapered point, a dirty green hat that held a single feather, and his back slouched over as does and old person being punished for bad posture. I looked into his eyes, seeing something familiar… he simply stood there for a moment, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to eat us, yell at us some more, or invite us to cross. He just stood.

  Something swirled around in my head… the old man’s glare, his poignant stare and vicious air…

  Then I knew. “Visel!?” My scream was far from heroic. I began to tremble where I stood, no longer stiff. Now I felt goopy enough to melt into the ground. “I thought I had defeated you!” I exclaimed protestant. My hands began to sweat and itch, trembling almost as bad as they had the second night I went to his castle.

  “What do you think I’m doing here?” He gave an annoyed, sarcastic chuckle, sniffled arrogantly and held out his hand as if to present our whereabouts.

  “Well…” I wanted to turn tail and run, never see him again, but knowing he was in the same forest, trapped as I was, it didn’t seem to be the wisest thing in the world to do.

  “When you defeated me, as it were, you banished my soul here. And here I am. I am being punished for arrogance and vanity, therefore I have no powers and no looks. Thanks a lot.”

  His voice was strangely the same as I remembered it. But it was the oddest thing ever to hear him say what he did. “So, if you have no powers, I have nothing to fear from you?” I said warily.

  He chuckled unpleasantly, “My dear, I said nothing of the sort.” And with that he lunged from the water straight at my throat with his teeth bared; before I could even recognize what was happening I was on the ground flailing and screaming. But somehow– some way– Ivy was also on top, on the very top, saving me. I saw in a rush of meshing color that he took rose and put it on his hand, and then pushed him off.

  I laid there in the dirt, and we both watched as he wriggled and screamed in terror, scratching his own skin, pulling his own hair. It was frightening. As if demons had inhabited his body and he could do nothing to fight it.

  “Perhaps we should take it off now, and see if he could be of some use…?” I stood, but Ivy grabbed my wrist, never once taking his eyes off of the wriggling fiend of an old man.

  When at last he stopped moving, Ivy knelt down and slipped it off quietly. “I’m sorry,” I heard him whisper, but I realized that he was speaking to the glove, not the dead body.

  I really don’t understand it fully, how I killed Visel once and then Ivy did it again. I was a bit jealous of him stealing the glory, but at least I wasn’t dead.

  No sooner had this happened the earth began to shake, tremble, and move beneath us. It was so violent in fact we couldn’t stay standing. I don’t know what brought it about; if the forest was angry we killed Visel again, or thankful, because we both fell into what we thought to be a terrible hole.

  Until of course we reached the bottom and fell into a gentle pond. My eyes were closed for the initial shock, but I hurried to open them once I realized I was underwater. For, if you remember my history, I am NOT a swimmer, terrified of water, although I did learn that I wouldn’t die. Bubbles swirled around my head, and I struggled to decipher the direction of up. Eventually I floated to the top, and I slung my hair backwards and gasped as if breathing for the first time.

  “Ivy!?” I hollered, because obviously I was speaking to him now. I wanted to know where we were. I propelled myself with my legs and arms, which were moving almost mechanically, impelled with the vision of staying afloat. The sky above me was night, but seemed to close to be the real sky, and yet too far. I looked around for land, and saw giant rocks strewn about, a third of the way from a sandy shore. I began swimming for one.

  On the sandy shore there was stone platforms, and I couldn’t quite tell what was on those, although I saw that they were moving so they were most definitely alive. Actually, I thought I heard a baby cry.

  “Ivy!” I yelled again, and saw him thrusting his wet body onto the slippery boulder in the water. I swam until I thought I would drown and then he helped me up. I shivered, knees to my chest, wet hair plastered to my head.

  “Don’t ask me where we are, because I haven’t a clue. I don’t know any more than you do. But I have to say I don’t recall the map every mentioning anyplace underground,” his eyes dodged nervously.

  “Nor I.” I began to get an uneasy feeling. “Perhaps we should make it to shore?”

  He nodded in approval, so we did. The beach wasn’t as far off as it seemed. My toes clutched the sand, as if to tell it they would never leave again. I walked behind Ivy, who was beginning to show extraordinary courage.

  I then realized I had heard a baby crying. Several, in fact. Maybe even more than several. There were at least a dozen women or more, strewn about busily, making fusses and laughing and giving love pats. There were, I then saw, at least twenty babies. I stood in awe at the sight.

  “Um, excuse me?” Ivy tried to get someone’s attention. We had lost the fear of being eaten or tortured, they didn’t seem like the type. “Pardon me, but could you please be so kind as to tell us where we are?”

  He caught the attention of a plump looking, friendly woman with a baby on her hip. Actually– that’s not really a good description, because all of them looked somewhat like that. She turned to us, but looked past Ivy at me as if he had never spoken at all.

  “Oh! You must be Lottey.”

  I dipped a curtsey, feeling important enough. “Yes.”

  “Alright. Been expecting you.”

  Surprised, I cocked my head to the side, wondering if I’d heard her correctly. She began walking off in another direction, and I don’t know if I was to follow her, but I did.

  “Can I ask you where we are– what exactly this is?” Of course I meant the babies.

  “Oh,” she chuckled happily, “these are future prince charmings. We give them special treatment here before they are born so they turn out correctly.” She stopped and turned to me. “Isn’t he lovely? His name will be Egor someday.” She sighed happily.

  He was indeed lovely. Eye’s like Ryse’s and light blond hair.

  “Yes, splendid. But… why was I expected?” This was all extremely strange to me.

  The happy lady bent down and opened a little box that was built in to the stone platform and pulled something out.

  “Here you are!”

  And she handed me…

  A…

  Can you believe it?

  A glove!

  And with that, we were it the middle of the desert. There standing in front of me was my wonderful Peagass.

  She made it through the desert

  She made it through the woods

  She made it through the water

  ‘Cause she knew she could!

  When all is said and done, having a difficult time staying alive and happy isn’t all so bad when you can brag about it later in life when it’s all behind. I’m not saying that I’m there yet, but it’s all documented. So when I’m queen I’ll have everyone in the kingdom know what exactly I’ve been
through.

  I suppose that sounds a bit… ahead of myself? Perhaps I should focus on defeating Mersades before I begin planning my life with Ryse? Ivy and I are flying right now, flying back to doom’s door. I pray we make it. I have confidence. But perhaps it’s fallacy. I just know that when I see the horrible green lady again I’ll lock up–my joints will freeze, she’ll take back my voice and my hair–but then I’ll touch her with the gloves. And everyone will be saved.

  I hope.