Tiara was led to a large hut in the village by the small pygmy boy. He opened the doors for her to go in, then closed them shortly after she went inside. Tiara looked around the dark area. There were no tables or chairs to sit in. Two ‘beds’ made of hay lay on either side of the hut. And at the very back of the hut, in from of Tiara, was a light shining from the ceiling and onto a large man wearing the same clothing as the rest of the people in the village, but more decorative.
“Greetings,” he said. “You must be the leader.”
“Who are you? What do you want with me and my friends?”
“It is not a matter of what I want, but of what you want.”
“And what do I want?” she said raising an eyebrow.
“You want out of this planet, no?”
“What’s the catch?”
“You get items we need, we let you go and send you back to your world. Xenra.”
“Why can’t you get the items?”
There was a long pause between them. Then he spoke. “We too short to reach them.”
She sighed. “Figures. All right. What do we need?”
The man asked his servant behind him to bring him something. His servant came back moments later with three maps and a list of the items and their location. “First item, Diamond Crest, located deep in the jungle. Crystal main part of spell. Next item, Gargon Silver, located in mines of the forest. Last item, Eel Roots, located in the swamps. Silver and roots make the spell take flight. Need to make charms for it. Understand?”
Tiara took the items given to her. “Understood. I will need their help though.”
“Very well. But one stay behind so you no leave with everything.”
“All right. May I go back now?”
He waved his hand; two men opened the doors for her and she was led back to the hut. As soon as she was gone, the doors closed. “That all right for you, Master Dorchav?”
“Perfect.....” he said with an evil tone. “You did well, Chief.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Back at the prisoner hut, everyone waited for Tiara to return. Aenea sat at one side of the hut with Auri, who was playing around with a piece of string. Hans had taken out some paper and a pencil and tried to draw Auri as he played. Alissa was looking over Hans’ shoulder to see his work. She knew how good of an artist he was and enjoyed watching his work. Stephen was leaning against the wall near the doorway, waiting for Tiara to come back. Celestra and Kale stayed near each other mumbling about how much they hated the situation. A few times, she tried to hint at a date for him to take her on, but either he didn’t notice the hint or just didn’t want to be caught in it.
Finally, out of frustration, Celestra complained out loud. “This is all Decwyn’s fault!!!”
Alissa looked up from Hans’ drawing and glared at Celestra. “My fault?!! How is this my fault?!!!”
“What does it matter how it’s your fault? It just is. It’s always your fault!”
Oh no....., thought Hans. Here we go again.
“ExCUSE ME!!! For all we know, this could be your fault!”
Celestra laughed. “My fault?! Please! I’m a princess! How in all of Xenra could it possibly be my fault?”
“If you hadn’t chased me all the time, we wouldn’t have ended up in Xiatriz and we wouldn’t have been transported here!”
“And that’s your excuse?” She laughed again. “You’d like to believe that everything I do leads up to things happening, wouldn’t you, Decwyn.”
“It usually is. Like with all the magic experiments I performed in class. You were the one that sabotaged them! They would have worked if you didn’t do anything to them!”
“You had that accident-waiting-to-happen, Betz, helping you. It was bound to blow up anyway.”
“She’s not an accident-waiting-to-happen!”
“Oh, that’s right. You are.”
Alissa glared at her for a few moments, then sighed and calmed down, grinning. “Oh well! At least I was praised by the High Counsel for trying such an advanced spell. How many praisings have I gotten now? I’ve had so many that I’ve lost count now. Oh! And weren’t those the same spells you were attempting to cast, but failed? I do believe so. And you haven’t received anything from the High Counsel, haven’t you?”
Celestra glared and snarled at Alissa. Kale, watching, began to snicker. Hans moaned thinking, Here it comes. She brings in the praising, and Celestra will break in with-
“At least I left Vercile willingly! How many of the Masters wanted you out again? Oh that’s right. ALL of them!”
Yep! There it is! Next comes-
“I left Vercile about as willingly as you left Fierstyr. Oh! I forgot! You didn’t leave Fierstyr willingly, did you? Your father made you leave because of all the emotional stress you were causing the workers and the damage you were causing to the city. I’m sure even your brother, Brenton, was happy to see you go so that he would have a kingdom left to rule when he takes over.”
“Please. Father and Brent were so upset to see me go that they threw a party to keep their spirits up.”
Alissa laughed. “That was a farewell party! I was there, remember? They offered me a room and asked me to stay while you were gone!”
“They did not!!”
“Wanna bet? Whose room is it that has the lovely violet bedspreads and the dark blue pillows, along with the purple and yellow tilings?”
“That’s my room!”
“Who do you think they offered it to?”
“COME HERE!” Celestra jumped at Alissa but Kale grabbed her and pulled her back before she could have a chance to strike at her. “I’LL RIP HER HAIR OUT!!! LET ME GO!!!!” she yelled.
“That’s enough, you two!” said Stephen. “There will be no bloodshed until we are either in a more appropriate area or until Tiara returns. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” they said at the same time.
“And if either of you doesn’t keep their side of that bargain,” said Aenea, “I’ll see to it that you regret it. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Just then, the doors opened and Tiara entered. “Good news everyone!” she said.
“Great! She’s back!” said Celestra. “Now let me go!!!!”
“Calm down, Cele!!” said Kale. “This place is too small for a fight! And I’m not going to let you kill her while there are people around.”
“Don’t do me any favors, Mercenary,” said Alissa.
“Huh?? How did you know I was a-”
“Anyone stupid enough to work for this prissy brat must be getting paid a high price for it!”
“How would you know, Decwyn?! And he’s not being paid to protect me! He offered his services to me on his own!”
“Umm.... actually I uh-”
“Can we continue this conversation another time?” said Tiara in a stern voice. “Now listen up! The Chief said that we can all go free for a while. He told us to retrieve three items to cast a spell to take us all back to Xenra. If we split up into groups, we’ll be able to find them faster.”
“What is it that we are to retrieve, Tiara?” asked Aenea.
“Some kind of root, silver, and a crystal. We’ll get them in no time if we’re split up into three groups.”
“What’s the catch?” said Celestra.
“One person has to stay behind to ensure our safety. Now I know all of you would prefer to-”
“I nominate Celestra!” Alissa interupted. “She’d be perfect for the job!”
“I second!” said Hans.
“All those in favor?” Alissa, Hans, Aenea, Stephen, and Kale, and even Auri raised their hands. “All right! It’s settled then! Celestra, you stay here.”
“What?! Why do I have to stay?”
“I’m sorry Celestra, but it was a fair vote. If you have a problem with it,” Tiara came up closer to her with a deadlier tone in her voice, “you can take it up with the judge. Me. But I don’t think you want to do that, do you?”
Celestra gulped. “N-no ma’am.”
“Good.” She turn back to everyone else. “Okay then! We’ll all be in groups of two. I’ll be with Stephen.”
“I’ll take Alissa,” said Kale.
“What? Why me?”
“Because I called first. And I’m not for traveling with a mouse, or some weird lady and her bratty cat.”
“Hey! Leave Auri out of this!” said Aenea.
“Fine fine. But someone has to keep an eye on you to make sure you stay out of trouble.”
“That’s Hans’ job! And he was doing a good job of it!”
“It’s all right, Lissy. I’ll go with Aenea. You can go with Kale.”
“But Hans-”
“You trust me?”
She nodded.
“I promise, I’ll come back. Just go with him and make sure he doesn’t double-cross us.”
She sighed. “All right. But he comes near me, I’ll cut off every part of his manhood.”
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” said Kale.
“No.”
“Are we done choosing partners?” asked Tiara. She took out three pieces of string and held them in her fist, making them all look even. “We draw strings. Short one gets the swamps, medium one gets the forest, long one gets the jungle. Stephen, Hans, Kale, come up and take a string.”
The three men did as they were told and held the strings by their ends. By Tiara’s command, they each pulled a string out to see their fates.
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