My Exploding Cat

Archive for the ‘Brian’ Category

Chapter 21

Nikki sighed. “Good, she’s still alive.”
“Oh, no, she’s not,” Leo said.
“But she’s breathing, and her pulse is back,” Maya said.
“No. That is NOT my little sister. No.”
“Looks fine to me. See, her eyes are getting blue again.”
“No. Lila’s eyes would never have even a hint of gray, and never red. No.”
“Come on, Leo. Nobody’s buying this.”
“She has a shadow.” Leo didn’t even look up from staring at Lila.
“Leo, everyone has a shadow. Get over it.”
“NO!” Leo spun around fast, fire in his own eyes. He’d reached the bottom of his element and his temper, and had more magic than any dragon could possibly hold. He bared his teeth. “She may be breathing, but a part of her is not living – or, it won’t be if we don’t heal her fast. The fate of the universe depends on it.”
“Leo, I think you’re the one who needs healing,” Jaymi said. “Seriously!”
Leo had met Lila’s gaze again, but he spun once more, this time so fast that his tail smacked Lila’s ankles. His nose was not even an inch from Jaymi’s.
“You dare to doubt a dragon’s prediction?”
“Well, what do we do?”
Leo thought for a moment. He sighed, his breath hot, making Jaymi step back. “There are… secrets, and beings in the forest and on the island. There are secrets that I found not a year ago. The secrets are the only thing that can save Lila, and the universe too. We’ll take care of the universe, but we can’t do it without Lila, and we need to take care of her first.”
Leo turned back to Lila, put a paw on her chest, and howled, “EXPEL!”
Lila’s shadow vanished – or, rather, it tried to dash away into the forest, but not before Leo took his paw off of Lila, stood on his hind legs, and shouted, “STAY!” Then he ignored Maya’s snickering at the dog command, and even more anger flashed in his eyes. The same – almost the same – creature that attacked Leo in his own home had attacked HIS little sister. HIS. When his own relatives had angered him, he could keep from casting magic. But Leo, as a dragon, was built for battle and could not hold back on a creature that attacked HIS little sister. He saw the creature, which looked like a spot of darkness creeping along…
… and killed.

Chapter 20

Finally, Nicolas asked the question that everyone had on their mind.
“WHAT THE HECK ARE WE STILL DOING HERE!?!?!?!?!?”
He asked it too late, however. He asked it at night, when no one could hear him, and it wasn’t that effective – he didn’t get an answer, of course.
But he still wondered. Why did Lila say we needed to stay nine days? It couldn’t have been because of the dreams. He hadn’t had one, and it had been six days already.
He didn’t take into consideration that that may be exactly why they were still there. It wasn’t, however. The orbs (except Hazel) weren’t going to have dreams, because their owners would handle that.
Nicolas didn’t go to sleep at all that night. He just didn’t. There was a certain aura around the village and he had to stay awake. With an aura like this, the dreamworld of the island was dangerous. Everyone knew that. But knowing that and not using the knowledge didn’t do anything. Nicolas woke everyone up so that no one would be in danger, but everyone ignored him and went back to sleep.
In the morning, Lila woke up, thankfully, at her normal hour. She felt completely normal and fixed everyone breakfast. Everyone ate, and Nikki was putting the paper plates into a garbage bag (thank you, Maya) and then they played kick-ball, because they had plenty of food, no goofy quests, and nothing else to do but enjoy the island. Then Lila turned to her cabin for a nap –
Lila stopped. Everything about her stopped, even her breathing and pulse. She stood there. Everyone rushed in front of her. Her normally turquoise eyes faded to gray, then flashed red, and she started breathing again, but she had a shadow.
Leo knew that Lila emitted light like nothing else. It was impossible for her to have a shadow, he knew, because a shadow meant…
…that she’d stopped emitting light.

Chapter 19

Cherry told everyone what the shadow told her.
“And there’s a reason why it told me, not Lila or anyone else. What makes me different? Well, I was in a faerie form for so long, and I was considered to be the faerie of wisdom. I did help found Faerie land, but I myself am a Shapee. So that means that there is yet another founder that we haven’t… um, found.”
“That’s convoluted,” sad Maya, emerging from the forest.
“Oh, the old times show through,” said Hazel.
“The farthest a dog can run into a forest is until he reaches the middle,” Emma said. “After that, he’s running out.”
“True,” Hazel said. “I’m guessing that the stories of how you guys got back to your owners are pretty long ones, so I won’t ask.
“You got that right.”
“Well, what do we do now? It’s been six days.”
“We leave for Faerie Land. I think I know who the other faerie is. But we travel by Jaymi’s magic. Mine isn’t working right. I can’t trust myself to do any battling right now. It’s because of what the wind told me.”
“I haven’t seen the wind’s magic yet,” said Nikki. “Are you sure we should leave now?”
“Yes,” Leo said. “You haven’t seen the wind, but you didn’t need to. You saw your own element, it just didn’t talk because you knew what you were doing, sort of. Sort of. No one really knows what they’re doing in a dream.”
Lila is the little miniature celebrity. Pah! Leo thought. Of course wind and light will talk to her. She’s Little Miss Magic and any problems she has are all, “Oh, noooo! Oh, such an inconvenience! Oh yes, I’m going to defeat the enemy by SINGING! LALALALALALALA!” Of course her magic has been messed with by whatever we’re fighting. She can’t ever have a weak point, because she’s just perfect.  Leo sniffed, then looked the other way to hide the anger in his eyes.
I wish I had Leo’s role, Lila thought. He doesn’t have to deal with all this stupid chosen one crud.
Lila sighed, then slumped a bit before standing up straight again. Maya, knowing what each was thinking, died laughing.

Chapter 18

Maya woke up with Hazel lying on the ground above her head.
“Uggggghhh. Stupid dream. Tried to end before I got in. I told it otherwise, though. Caught it off guard. It’s very sensitive to improper contractions. Of course, I coulda split an infinitive, too, but I just blurted out the first thing popped into my head.”
“What are you talking about?” Maya asked.
“Don’t ya know? You used to be very big on English when you were little. Always telling on your brothers for ending sentences with the word “to” and correcting all their spelling errors. I thought it was funny, just this miniature English teacher trotting around, screaming grammar rules at people,” Hazel laughed. “You were cute.”
Maya blushed in slight embarrassment with a hint of teacher’s-pet pride. She wondered, slightly more embarrassed…
“Yes, I can see the slight pride,” Hazel said. “You’re not going to hide it. Your expression says it all.”
Maya blushed more and said, “Hazel, we’d better get back to camp now.” There was something in the way she said the word now.
Hazel subconsciously grinned to herself.

One person had been ignored. Cherry had sat in Lila’s handbag for too long. She turned into a gnat and flew out, wondering if Lila was in trouble and had left her bag somewhere. But no, she hadn’t caused any trouble at all and was forgotten. Now she made herself reappear. She’d had a dream, too. She’d watched Lila converse with the wind and the light, and a shadow had spoken to her.
There is one more.

Chapter 17

Maya was not going to come back to camp without her orb. She slept by the plant, expecting to have another dream like the other two, but she didn’t. There was just this light, and a sound, like a musical note that she couldn’t quite describe; it was like when you pulled the branches apart in the oak she traveled in – warm but cool, windy but still, light but dark – this was a soft note, but loud and high-pitched, and very low, all at the same time. It wasn’t even as… neat as the oak. It was all messy, the opposites were jumbled, and you had to look for it, or listen, or maybe both…
And the wind! The wind knocked the wind out of her! Or something! And every oxymoron that could ever have been was THERE! (Maya ate the jumbo shrimp. It was good.)

Then dawn came, but it was hard to tell. It came when you were beginning to think that it might not after all. All of Maya’s dreams ended that way – dawn came, and she was in the light and woke up. But in this dream, right before dawn came, the light – and everything else – turned Maya’s favorite shade of green, very familiar… and right before it all turned green, she heard a voice:

“Oh, no, you ain’t!”

Chapter 16

Searching, searching, searching…
Maya was looking for trees that looked like the ones in her dream. Right near the middle of the forest, she heard a groan, and Jaymi popped up from the undergrowth.
“What happened?” Maya asked.
“Long story,” Jaymi said. “Why are you out here?”
“Long story,” Maya said. “But I’ll tell you anyway. You’ll think I’m weird, though, so I’m warning you now.”
“Everything on this island is weird,” Jaymi said. “Go right ahead, it’ll make sense compared to the rest of this place.”
Maya told her.
“Well, you say the ground was gritty, but you could barely see anything? When the sun came up, which side of the island was it on?”
Maya thought a minute, then pointed.
“Then it’s on that side of the island, where the sand meets the forest. Let’s go look,” said Jaymi.
The plant was there, but it didn’t talk. Maya stared at it. Jaymi stared at it. Without taking her eyes off the plant, Maya said, quietly, “Jaymi, you can go ahead and start on back to camp. Don’t come looking for me. Don’t let anyone come looking for me. I have to stay here. Don’t ask questions, just go. There are secrets here, not just right here, but on the entire island. I’m still piecing it all together.”
Jaymi’s eyes got big, then she whirled on her heels and left, obediently, without a word.

Chapter 15

Jaymi woke up feeling extremely tired. Which was funny, because she was usually almost hyper in the mornings and she usually woke up at 6:00. But what she didn’t know was that it was already 9:00. She felt very groggy, and wondered what happened. When she went to wash her face, her hair dropped over her shoulder and it had been gray. The dream, she figured out, had been a partial reality. She had to find her youth again. She should have just jumped right into the whirlwind as soon as it formed.
But now? Now she had a bit of a problem. Then she had the ability to solve it, but not anymore. With the orb, she knew somehow, would come the youth. Of course, she still had the magic bit. There was a cloud hovering over the very middle of the island, so she tried to go there.
However, her magic was weaker than what she was used to and dropped her, just like Lila’s spell, right below the cloud.  Her orb, following its natural element, had gone right beneath this cloud because that was where there was wind blowing at the moment. Regardless, Jaymi touched it and regained her youth. She hadn’t expected it to happen so soon, but she took advantage of the fact that she had both her youth and her orb now, and was flowing with energy and alertness. Her wings caught her very easily.
And dropped her into the middle of the forest.

Chapter 14

It is that night that Maya tells the plant her plan. It can’t speak English – but can it speak Chikian? Yes, it can! It tells Maya her quest: She must find the plant in the real world.
“But you must remember,” the plant says in Chikian, “that this island’s dreamworld duplicate is more dangerous than you think. The evils are released in the dayworld, but they are bound to the night and to dreams. This island is full of magical things, good and bad. Beware the Lurking Spirits. You don’t want to meet one of them. Be ready to protect the entire group from fire attacks and plague. Imps and Lurking Spirits, along with the gruesome Deathwolves, well… they make a pretty freaky island. You notice, of course, that nobody lives here except them.”
“And you,” Maya adds.
“I don’t live here,” the plant replies. “Or, I’m not supposed to. I haven’t seen you since you were a child.”
“Ohhh… of course!” Maya realizes who she is talking to. “You’re… Honey? No, that’s not right.”
“Hazel. No, we haven’t met for a long time.”
“Dawn is coming. I need to find your duplicate. I’m going to make a run for it.” Maya runs for the horizon.

Meanwhile…
In the mind of Jaymi, a lot is going on. It seems that on this island, everyone knows when they are dreaming. It seems real. That is because, in a way, it is…
Jaymi is in a round room, with a breeze in it, and although there is no way in and no way out, there are people there and wind, and nobody feels trapped. Jaymi finds herself in a dance she can barely control. The wind picks up a little, and it turns into a small whirlwind that would go around the room, and every once in a while, one of the dancers would freeze and fade away.     Jaymi stayed in the dance, and after a while, she was the only one still whirling through the room. Her hair was graying, and she realized that the whole dream was a metaphor for life. There was only one way to get out…
She jumped into the whirlwind.

Leo was dreaming something like this; there was an opera house, and it seemed that everyone was claustrophobic in there. He knew he would be trapped in there forever listening to the singer hit the same high note and hold it for much, much longer than was humanly possible. There was one solution, as, like Jaymi’s dilemma, there was no door: He burned the place to the ground, but he made the flames turn only the building to ash. Poof! The dust settled, and everyone left.
Right where the very top of the building used to be, there was his fiery orb, just sitting there, He flew up and as soon as he touched it, was sent back to the “real” real world.
Leo woke up without a quest.

Nikki dreamt of a pirate ship on which she was trapped, and she had been on this ship for over 24 hours and was water-deprived. But right next to her was a little space where he ship’s rail had gone missing. She bumped her cage over to it, and slid off the ship and into the water. She sank into the bottom of the shallow waters in which the ship had been docked, and there was an oyster. She opened it by instinct; Nikki loved to search for pearls. There wasn’t a pearl, but there was her orb, which woke her up. Nikki also left without a quest.

Brian was in his favorite game, LostSword. The game actually did give him the health of his character and he actually did have to win the game to survive. But he did. Of course he did. The faerie appeared again (it was Lila, the same faerie from earlier, in case you were wondering) and gave him his orb again. So he, too, woke without any quest. He was actually expecting one, and felt a little disappointed. Oh well.

Chapter 13

There was a chest in the middle of the room. It was covered in cobwebs and had a dusty, thin cloth wrapped around it. Leo sliced the cloth open with a claw. Spiders went scurrying out of it. Maya gave a shriek (it reached about 95 decibels) and the spiders scuttled away. Leo lifted the lid and one more spider came out. Brian turned into a frog and ate it before Maya could scream again. Light bursted from the chest and made each SMC back up. Their eyes were wide as things come out of the chest… they had found the orbs! Geraldine and Tika (who had gone with Maya and Jaymi, who had decided to go together because they didn’t want to follow the boys and get all muddy) got their own orbs back, but it surprised everyone when the orb that came to Maya said, “Hello, Lila. Long time no see!”, Nikki got an orb that changed color, and told her that this wasn’t the time to try new forms, and turned her into a gryphon, apparently to try to help out, Brian got a little pink orb that spoke in riddles, Jaymi got an orange orb with an adventurous look about it, and Leo got an orb full of swirling water.
“I can’t do anything with fire magic!” wailed Jaymi.
“Yeah? Well, try an orb that’s exactly the opposite of your element. Watch this.” Leo blew fire, and the orb he got – Nikki’s – freaked and doused it.
“Gotta agree here! I got a girly orb! I can’t even understand the thing!” said Brian.
“I can’t fly! I’m a water creature!” Nikki said, testing her wings “I have no clue how to do this – eep!” The wings lifted her off the ground and she started to panic. She froze and was grounded once again.
“What am I to do with this? Oh, I know. Take us to Lila, please, Emma?”
“Ha ha! You’re funny, Lila.”
“Um… take us to Maya, then.”
“Well, why don’t you follow her orb?”
It was true. Maya’s orb was out the cave exit. They ran after it.
The orb took them to the far shore of the island. Lila was lowering her sunglasses and trying to recognize the handwriting on the scroll. She turned, and everyone was trying to read over her shoulder at once. Jaymi spoke up at once.
“That’s the wind’s writing! I’ve never seen that before! It’s supposed to be so rare that only those who are the most powerful will ever see it!”
“You’re seeing it now,” Lila pointed out. “And you must have seen it before, because you recognize it.”
“No, I haven’t,” Jaymi argued. “I’m a pixie. I’m kinda supposed to know my own element’s handiwork when I see it.”
“You’ll see it. We’ll all see it. I just happen to be first. The time will come. All I have to say is pay attention to your dreams tonight. I came here because I just somehow knew I was… supposed to. It’s hard to describe. And we’re supposed to stay on this island for eight more nights. No… not eight. Nine. There’s a reason. Dreams are more real here than anywhere else.” Lila glanced oddly at the scroll. “Something has passed here recently, and it has to do with the fate of the universe.” The others were staring at her like she was mad. Lila had an expression that said, I’m dead serious.
“And I thought I was the only one who could predict the future,” Leo muttered. “But she’s right. It’s a fuzzy prediction, though. Probably none of us will know more until… until… tonight. More will happen at night than is thought about right now.”
“Yes. Do not anticipate an early leave. Things will be revealed soon.”
“Out of curiosity, can you control plant magic? By the way, to save time, all the orbs think you’re me, I’m you, Jaymi’s Leo, Nikki’s Brian, Brian’s Jaymi,” she giggled, “and Leo’s Nikki. But we’re not exactly opposite elements like Leo and Nikki, so you might be able to use mine.”
Lila pointed at the ground and said, “Pepper plant.” A pepper plant was growing so fast that they could visibly see it moving.
“Um, I’m thinking that’s a yes,” Leo said.

That night, Maya had a dream.
“Hello?”
Maya turns around. The voice comes again.
“Hello?” It sounds small and meek, but Maya knows from experience that things like that can be devastatingly ferocious. Lila was a pretty good example.
“Hello,” Maya said, keeping wary.
“Help me…”
Maya rushed to the source of the voice, her auburn hair flying behind her. There was a plant talking to her, but it did not appear to be hurt.
“What? Looks like you’re fine.”
“There’s magic… a spell put on by unfriendly flarkneazer snabadabrrrrrr…”
“Sorry, what was that?”
“Snarideflaritosis braaarrrrrrrrrrrr…”
“What?”
The plant waved two leaves in the air and desperately tried to talk, failing all the while.
“Feaererdkjieihvner gerabrensnakent despintanarro shontanixiiieeee!”
“Kujifrednesstoronnn adeflaaabbbaaaneees barinitararararana ieniftsojarinass sharana!”
“Harinarothiknederink! Carrotanitosis speaeelkfrthns? Raaaaraah!”
It whimpered a little bit and tried to get Maya to understand Confused Plant.
“Ohhh, a spell was put on you to mix up your speech?”
The little flower nodded furiously.
“So, you can’t speak English?”
It shook its head sadly.
“I have an idea,” Maya said…
…but dawn was here.
“I will be back!” she called, but she found herself lying in bed just after saying this.
She wondered if the plant had heard her. A voice of gibberish babbled on in her head, however, and it was somehow incredibly reassuring.

Chapter 12

“It’d be best if we just start moving. It doesn’t matter if they goof off if we’re on our way. If they want to stay here and doodle around, we don’t need them,” Nikki whispered. Maya nodded, and they just walked into the forest, leaving Brian and Leo behind.
After five minutes, the boys stopped joking around and caught up with Maya and Nikki. Then they started laughing at each other again. It went on like this until they got to the cave. Maya trotted in, and Nikki jumped into the stream. They split up, and so did Brian and Leo.
Maya went through a few long halls of dank, dripping cave and then saw a clearing. An expert on nature, Maya knew that when a cave wall is wet, it usually means that nobody has ever touched it. All of the walls were wet, so more than likely nobody had been here before. Or was too smart to touch anything. Maya felt like this was the route she was supposed to take. Like it was a destiny.
Or a setup.
Leo, in the middle of the first room he entered, saw a torch, just waiting there for him, like it knew he was going to pass that way. However, he knew better than to light it. In a cave, there were little places to let out smoke. Lighting it would be foolish. Leo felt like this was the route he was supposed to take.
Nikki did not enter a hall – she followed the stream until it was very deep and dipped into the ocean a little. It was a very large cave. No one else could possibly follow this route. There was a slab of rock that reached down too far for a swimmer to reach without a submarine – and no submarine could possibly ever fit into so narrow a spot. Only a mermaid could ever go through. Nikki felt like this was the route she was supposed to take.
Brian did not enter a hall either. He turned into a mouse and darted into a small hole in the wall the size of a basketball. He came to a place where he couldn’t move more; there was a wall that covered half the opening that the mouse couldn’t reach. He turned into an ant and continued along, finally coming to a clearing. The path he took would not be followed by any other life form that had the brains of a plant. Even if they traded said brains for grape bubble gum. Brin felt like this was the route he was supposed to take.
In the clearing it was large enough for Leo to reach, if he had a pathway. In fact, there was a pathway. He scurried into the clearing and turned into a human again. Wait a minute… Leo was IN the pathway! And Maya was in another pathway! Nikki was in the stream! They might as well have never split up. They stared at each other until Maya broke the ice.
“Hey, anyone else feel like they were supposed to go along the path they took?”
Nods all around.
Nikki asked the question burning on everyone’s mind. “Was this planned?”
Now you’re probably asking, where’s Lila? She’s probably off on some thingy, but what about the weird message? That message was creepy! What happened?
Lila was relaxing on the far side of the island, getting magic from the sunlight. SMC tended to need to use their elements a lot more in survival mode. Lila had learned to absorb magic while asleep. Little did the others know that Lila was a mile away, dreaming on the beach. The magic in the natural sunlight was influencing her dreams. She was dreaming about…
“Hello?” Lila calls. She is in an empty field, with few trees and long grass. It is a starry night, but now the stars are fading. A wind picks up and blows Lila’s hair into her face. She brushes it away and looks to the navy blue field of fading stars adorning the sky. The wind writes in the sky.
Hello… good evening…
“Who are you?” Lila whispers into nowhere.
I am… the magic on the wind… the ocean breeze that caresses this island…
“And I am not a pixie. Why are you here?” says Lila, still speaking softly.
So you are not. The pixies, however, use the most magic. They rely on the winds to keep up their lifestyle. That is why I am here. There has been… something… and I sense that a strong magic has been meddled with. A magic that is not the meddler’s own.
Don’t mind the wind, Lila, another voice says, not in sky writing but instead one of the nearby stars speaking. He tends to speak in a giant riddle. Only the pixies can truly understand him. You, Lila are one of great magic. Wind magic does not understand you. But you know who I am, of course. We’ve met before.
Lila nods. This is her own, her light power speaking. The light took the stars to talk with, but wind does not have a home as light in a star, such as the Sun, and instead uses writing.
This is not to be taken lightly, the wind says. Show your power level and your cleverness  first. We will allow you to pass only then.
Then the light says, I’ve seen you do magic. You’re past my test. The wind expects something, though. Do that thingy again. The one where you got all that fanmail. That one that was a pain in the you-know-where. Don’t expect this guy to send you a bajillion cards, though.
So Lila sings the Song of the Six and impresses the wind with magical ability.
“And about the cleverness. You know the star over there, the one talking? The light energy? Well, do you know her name?”
We have a thousand names. You cannot possibly guess them all. The wind looks as doubtful as ever wind can look.
“Yes, but the one bit speaking in this particular star I know personally. She is glowing yellow, and her name is Emma. She is my orb, my source of magic power. You have thousands of names, for you are thousands of different orbs.”
Incredible. You may pass. You shall have the information you seek.
A scroll appears. Lila takes it.
Lila woke up with it in her hand. It said:
Your magic has been messed with.

That was all it said.