Rewriting the dictionary...

Hazel said iian yesterday...now she says divb

Day one, part four

“Aack!” Shrieked Mor as she was trampled by three CBers. To her mixed delight and surprise, however, none of them attempted to tag her.

She turned around and saw why.

A group of  all the winged guests were swooping down upon those below, all except for Wren. And Jwyn, whose fairy wings only allowed her to fly so far off the ground.  Plus, neither of them were big fans of all the craziness.

At first, Mor panicked. Then she remembered that she had her own wings. Inwardly smacking her forehead, she rose up and joined the skies, where Devin, Nymph, Soren, Darkking, and now Mor, circling the hill and, now that the players had spread out, the woods.

“THIS IS AMAZING!” Shouted Soren, “I’VE NEVER BEEN GOOD AT TAG BEFORE!”

Quill, Bean, Dewy, Viola?, Secret, Boo, and Hazel had all gotten tagged within the first fifteen seconds, but they enjoyed talking to each other on the hill and watching various people dive in and out of the trees.  Hazel ripped bunches of the perfect, thin blades of grass from the earth. Dewy thought about how she could grow it back once she learned how to use her life powers, but there was no need- before their very eyes, new blades of grass sprung up from the soil to replace the old ones, good as new.

Leafpool emerged from the forest, panting.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “This is intense! Reese chased me down. It was kinda weird, she transformed into a cat halfway through…” She flopped down next to Hazel.

“Don’t rip up the grass,” She commended to her CAPTCHA in a sort of motherly way.

“Bbut iitt grws back!” Hazel pointed out defensively. Everyone watched as new grass sprouted up again.

“Oh. Okay,” Leafpool said, surprised.

Inside the forest, chaos and mayhem raged on. Some, such as Reese, Devin, and Darkking, were trying desperately to win by tagging all the others before anyone else could. Some, like Leeli, Catsclaw, and Rouge, were trying to stealthily avoid anyone else by hiding deep in the woods and waiting it out. Rouge, however, took a different approach on this strategy- she hid somewhere secretive but close to the paths, then whenever someone walked, jogged, ran, trudged, skipped, galloped, flittered, or flew by, she sprang up like an insane kangaroo and tagged them, then ran to an entirely new spot. Others, like Wren, Jwyn, and Autumn, just jogged (or flew) around where they thought no one else would see them in hopes that everyone else would get each other- they just wanted to have fun.

As Autumn jogged at an even pace around a few sloping corners of her trail, Devin, who was circling an area of the woods like a vulture waiting for lunch, swooped down upon her and tagged her square in the back, screaming, “TAG! YOU’RE OUT! NA NA NA NA NAAAAAAAA!”.  Autumn gave him a weird look as he flew off again, then she turned around and started heading back. But she didn’t make it far before Rouge bounded out of a bush and slapped her palm against Autumn’s arm.

“Ouch!” cried Autumn. “I was already tagged!”

“Oh. Well. Sorry,” Rouge grunted as she sauntered off to find a new hiding place.

Autumn rolled her eyes once Rouge had gone and continued. When she was almost to the hill, Soren began to descend upon her. She flung her arms above her head, shouting that she was already tagged.

Soren slowed, but still gently tagged her arm (‘just in case’).

“Gosh,” whispered Autumn, “It’s just a game!”

Some, of course, were not treating it so. Devin had caught 5 people just 2 minutes in, and was trying to take down the others that could fly. Indeed, he caught his own sister flying under the canopy of the trees, celebrating noisily when he tagged Wren rather harder than necessary.

While devin was dominating the sky (Nymph wasn’t doing bad either; she got 3 people in all), Reese was prowling the ground, chasing after several people and never getting tired. She somehow managed to catch Rouge in her sneaking- up -on -people -thing. Rouge was not very happy about that, but still went dutifully back to the hill.

It soon came to a point where Devin, Nymph, Reese, and Nihil were the only ones left. Nihil hadn’t tagged anyone; she slank around in the shadows, never saying a word or coming close to anybody. Until she was down to the last four…

Nymph knew she might be able to win… but she needed a plan. Hide and make them think she got tagged until she was the last one? It might have been a good plan, but the thought of hiding from the final battle sickened her. She never hid. Should she shout and announce her position? No, she didn’t want all of them coming at once; that would be foolish. Whatever she was going to do, she had to be smart.

For the time being, she sat on top of a tall tree, wondering what to do and watching for Reese or Nihil below. Her body flexed, and she became an owl; maybe no one would see it was her. Then she could swoop down as an owl, then tag as a human… that might work. She stretched out her wings-

And something very strange happened.

Nihil popped up in her shadow, floating oddly in midair. She reached out she paw and quickly pressed down on Nymph’s side.

“TAGG!” Nihil shouted as she slowly fell down. She then teleported into the shadow of a tree.

Nymph cursed loudly, then transformed into a huge eagle and flew back to the hill to find Winter shouting furiously about how Reese had tagged her- her own AE! Just when she was going to tag Nihil and get in the top 4! Nymph rolled her eyes.

Nihil thought she was in the clear, and was very pleased with herself at identifying Numph correctly. In fact, she stayed by the tree she had teleported to, letting her victory sink in. Little did she know, Reese was prowling right behind her.

Reese had a brilliant plan- now it was time to execute it. She, in cat form pounced on Nihil before she could do some weird shadow thing and get away. As Reese predicted, Nihil was not pleased about that. Especially when Reese bragged about it loudly. As Nihil grudgingly dragged her paws back to the start, Reese made lots of noise about having caught her. This, of course, alerted Devin. He found Reese sprinting around as a cat. He dived.

Reese looked up at him and smiled- he played into her trick perfectly. She jumped backwards when Devin was very close and couldn’t change his direction.

He flung his arms up just in time- Devin crashed into the ground. Reese darted forward and slapped his arm, shouting, “HA! GOTCHYOU! IN YOUR FACE, SUCKA! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!” She did a victory dance in front of his face.

“YOU LITTLE-” Devin shouted, pointing a finger at her as he gingerly got up.

“Nea nea na boo boo, you can’t catch meeeee!” Reese singsonged, sticking her tongue out at him. Devin let out a stream of swear words, cheeks burning. He got up and headed back to the hill, because what other choice did he have?  

~~~~~~~~~~

As Caspian descended, the air seemed to get thinner and colder. He wasn’t sure how long he climbed down those stairs, but they seemed to be endless They kept going and going, and it kept getting colder and colder, scarier and scarier, and Caspian wanted to go back but something, something he didn’t like at all, made him drag his feet down over and over until they could not find another step to land on.

“Thank heavens,” he whispered, expecting to see his breath in front of him. He did not, but he did see a torch in a bracket on the wall close to him. It was amazing how it hadn’t burned down the whole castle by now- but then, he reminded himself, it was almost certainly controlled by elemental magic. He took it out of its place to light his way.

The torch filled he stretch of hallway in front of him with dancing orange light. He moved it slightly while he walked to see all of his surroundings. Soon, it fell upon… a prison cell? At first, Caspian was bewildered. But then he realized- a castle like this must have a dungeon. The thought excited and exhilarated him at the same time. He wondered if someone had been locked up here before… it sounded very morbid, yes, but intriguing. In all honesty, he couldn’t wait to see more.

So he continued.

Don't give up hope yet! I have a new part! 

Day one part five

Caspian became quickly mesmerized by the complex maze making up the dungeon, gawking at the remnants of a perhaps daunting past. Holding his torch high, Caspian daringly traveled down paths without even knowing where they led. Indeed, he surprised even himself with his boldness.

Caspian’s  mind wandered far and wide, bringing visions of what might be the past before his eyes. He had no memory of his feet carrying him all around, anywhere and everywhere until he ran right smack dab into a wall.

“Oof!” He moaned, muffled by the wall. He stepped back and righted himself, looking around. “Where have I gone?” His head swiveled every which way, searching for the clues that, yet again, never appeared.

“Dear me,” he breathed, “I do believe I am lost.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Reese was, to say the least, overjoyed at her heroic victory. She re-told her epic battles constantly the rest of the day, and each time they escalated in drama and close calls. For example:

“Devin was diving down right to me, glaring at me with evil in his eyes, awaiting the moment he took the win. Ha! I glared right back, and he was less than a millimeter away when I leapt back. He didn’t have any time to think- he slammed into the ground and just stayed there, realizing too late that I, of course, outsmarted him. Taking my sweet time, I tiptoed right up to him and, real slow, just put my hand on his arm, just so he could be all like, ‘I totally just lost’.” Then she would flip her hair away from her face and flash a winning smile. “And that’s how I won that thing.”

Devin, obviously, was not a fan of her storytelling. He made a big deal of stomping his feet on the stone floor before he sulked in the fire dormitory, slamming the door behind him in a very teenager-y kind of way, seething over his loss.

Dinner, facing the complications of Devin throwing Reese very hateful looks across the table, Reese retelling her epic battle with even more dramatization and fine details, Marigold standing up in the middle of the meal and shouting “Where’s Caspian? I haven’t seen him”, and Soren and Darkking starting a food fight, was very chaotic and left the air cloudy with shouts, awkwardness, and food spread about from the fight. Simul Stoicheo floated into the room as soon as her disgruntled guests streamed and/or stomped out and, with a dismal flick of her wrist, cleaned the room in no time flat, then danced out, humming Bohemian Rhapsody as she went.

~~~~~~~~~~

Caspian, thankfully, made it out of that dungeon, using the strategy of leaving small trinkets he produced to mark the places and routes he had explored already, so as to find the way out faster. He wasn’t even bothered by the long walk back to his temporary bedroom- he was just glad to be there at all.

“Whew,” He breathed as soon as he got back to his room.

“Oh, there you are!” exclaimed Leeli, looking up from her sketchbook. “Where were you? Marigold was about to tear down the Palace looking for you.”

“Just wandering about,” Caspian muttered in reply.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was late. So late that the sky was a piece of paper that had a gigantic ink bottle spilled across its surface. So late that the only sources of light were the moon, the stars, and Simul’s rainbow hair. So late that all of the guests were asleep…

Except for one.

This particular guest was seeking some time alone. They wanted to feel like their thoughts could fly far and wide, stretch out to the very corners of their knowledge. So the guest took its thoughts with them as it sauntered out of the castle doors and into the forest.

It felt spooky at night, with the trees acting like black pillars about to erupt with ghosts and phantoms, casting shadows and turning everything a shade darker. But the guest noticed none of these small details as their mind flew upon wings of thrilling possibilities, as well as impossibilities. Leaves and low-hanging branches tickled their nose. They didn’t notice, though it would have rather annoyed them if they did. No paying the least bit of attention, they stomped through the forest without checking to see if it was a path or not. What did make them stop, however, was when their feet didn’t find ground underneath them.

The guest caught themselves before they fell, thank goodness. They had reacted in the same way any of us would have- gasped sharply, had a sensation as though their stomach had been torn out of their body. Then, after they straightened, an exhale of relief, a droop of their head to their chin. Their eyes darted around curiously- why was there a cliff out here? They scanned the area through the dark…

The world stopped abruptly right here on all sides, and there was nothing across from them. Just dark, stretching as far as the eye could see, and even farther. The guest examined the cliff- the soil it was composed of was packed down perfectly, no loose bits hanging out, no rocks interrupting the smooth expanse of earth. It was like the grass covering the hill- it was unrealistically perfect, to the point of being comical.  

Suddenly, the whole scene playing out in front of the guest’s confused eyes began to swim and sway, rocking back and forth as the world warped and even the darkest parts of the forest at night grew darker still…

Waves of pain crashed on the sides of their skull, sending them back to their brain once more. They worry they might pass out, forgetting about the cliff altogether, willing themselves to cry out, but no sound escapes their lips.  Strange visions pass through their heads, but never in front of their eyes, and people murmured, whispered, and shouted thing to them… what was happening to them? Snatches of things, voices with anger biting into them, scenes of things that made no sense and made them shudder at the thought of them ever really happening…

And suddenly, it all stopped. The guest stumbled back slightly, and everything that they needed to know and far, far more, so much more than they should have known filled their minds, there and so easy to comprehend it was like they were born with the knowledge. And they knew what they had to do. And, though the thought of doing it had never crossed their mind before, they itched to do it. Desired to.

A small smirk playing across their lips, the guest- or rather, the murderer- turned and sauntered back to the palace.

While all of this was happening, two young women in the folds of reality, there but never seen, felt all of it… and felt it all go wrong. They felt the same pain that guest did. And they, in-between what is real and what is not, in-between the laws of science, in-between imagination and the truth outside of their realm, became part of one of the sides for a moment. A flicker. A fraction of a second.

Once they returned to their rightful spot, they didn’t have to speak a word- they both understood the severity of the situation at hands. Something had gone terribly wrong here… why did it have to choose them…?

Without even confirming with each other, both woman knew they had to keep a close watch on this one…

~~~~~~~~~~

The murderer, on their respective mission, slunk around the castle in the dark. They searched the closets for what they knew would be there, if this place was really what they knew it to be… and after excavating 7 different storage units, they found it. It was a small black electronic device with only one button. It wasn’t necessary, but would certainly be helpful. They surely could not make any mistakes. They tucked it behind their ear and turned it on.

“At last…”

~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, and the fun begins. 

Top! Top! Top! tiptap top! Top! Top!  

C'mon! First page! Top!

Okay, diary entry. 

(Date)

Okay. So this was a weird day.

Early dismissal, so I got home a little before four. (Stuff about school)

And then when I got home, I sat down on the couch and found a form for a school? Like, a magic school, but not Hogwarts—Magicae Palace. I mean, I think it’s a school. There are instructors (I’m with a guy called Aqua, but we’ll get to that later), but the letter also called it a vacation... Oh yeah, and it also said I have elemental magic. And Sea Glass and Nymph do, too. I’m water (surprise surprise), Nymph is air (didn’t expect that) and SG is fire (actual surprise, like seriously, what the heck). So yeah, as I said, my instructor is this guy named Aqua and he’s reeeeally nervous. I’m probably going to have to encourage him. Or maybe not, who knows how he is in class. In his element, ha. 

There are also themed rooms, but I’ll start at the beginning. Right when I finished filling out the forms, this... blast of water came out of nowhere, and kinda dragged me off, I guess? When it receded, I was standing at the bottom of a hill, and Nymph was a bird for some reason, and Sea Glass had fire disappearing around xyr. There was a palace at the top of the hill. Prettiest piece of architecture I’ve ever seen, and I’m sorry to every building I’ve ever loved before. It was awesome inside, too—this lady, uh, Simul Sto-something...? Invited us in. They—she, I guess—are/is the hostess. Oh, and she has crazy magic. She made an entire banquet appear for is when we went for lunch at 12:14 (when we finished unpacking, all of our watches and clocks said 12:14) and then cleaned it all up afterwards, each with just a wave of her hand. She also told us our elements and professors. Instructors. I like the word professors, though. 

So yesh, the rooms and oh my gosh but first the stairs. There are soooo many stairs. I went up to visit Sea Glass just now (Nymph is on the same floor as me) and it took forever. I think I’m in love. I got a little nervous when they were at their steepest, but I survived. It’s a lot of stairs, even more than there would be in two or three overpasses, so it wasn’t easy, but by heck I will do this every day I love stairs I love stairs aaaaah. I don’t think Sea Glass shares in my love of stairs, the poor thing. Xe’ll manage. 

Anyway! Rooms. Finally. Okay. I’m in the water room with Secret, Marigold, Faranor and Wren, Nymph is with, uh. I think Rogue, Nihil, Leafpool, AW, Reese and one other whose name I forgot. And Sea Glass is up with Devin, Artimerrx, Autumn Artist, and... gosh, I am bad with names. Wendy! That was one of them, but who was the other? Ah, well. I’ll say if I remember tomorrow.

Reese won at tag, which we played after lunch. I very much did not win at tag. I was one of the first ones out. I cannot say I didn’t expect this. It was sort of like hide-and-seek tag, actually. The grounds are pretty big. There’s miles of woods. Nymph is going to be happy. I wonder if there’s any kind of pond or stream for us water people? Maybe somewhere out there... 

Sunny and weirdly warm today, especially here. That’s about it.  

i'm supposed to have left but i couldn't help saying that i know who you are. i'll keep it a secret ;)