Roxy demanded, “Tell me everything!”
Peter threw his arms up in a totally flummoxed manner. “I told you all I know! I was heading to class, and suddenly, I… was in the same exact spot! But it felt different! It was like I did manual labor or something! I’m glad I don’t remember any of it!”
“You have to remember something!” Roxy blocked his path to the hallway. “You were in the presence of my Day-Day darling! I need to find out where he is and what he’s doing! TELL ME!!!!!”
“Roxy, don’t make him late to second-period!” I warned her. “If he pushes you out of the way, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see anything!”
My statement steamed Roxy up enough that she marched right up to my desk without noticing that Peter slipped out! She glowered at me in a furious fashion, and she seethed, “I don’t know what you did, but I’m positive that you spoiled my poor Damon’s plot! Mark my words- I’ll figure out what you did and get revenge! Wait, why am I waiting? I should come up with a plan for vengeance since I already have the knowledge you’re interfering with his efforts again! Be afraid! Be afraid!”
I took out my cell phone during her tirade and purposely scrolled through it to show complete disinterest in her pathetic, little attempt to intimidate me. The bell rang after she finished ranting, so without glancing up from my screen, I notified her, “There’s a tardy sweep going on- you better run!’ Roxy glared at me as she backed out of the room, but once she was in the corridor, I heard her sprinting. I tittered at the concept that she probably had no inkling that Damon most likely instructed his ally to strike when she wasn’t around! Not that she would’ve recalled anything her “Day-Day” would’ve said or done, but she would have roiled to know he was intentionally avoiding her!
“I found it!” Mrithan popped in as the students settled in.
“Huh?” With all that transpired in the last twenty-four hours, I couldn’t drum up what Mrithan was referencing there!
Mrithan explained, “The paper I forgot yesterday! It’s a permit to hold your wedding here, and it doesn’t have any coffee stains this time!” He peered at the sheet, and he amended his sentence, “Well, not much anyway! This one is loads more visible!”
Inwardly, I weighed whether or not I ought to act with honesty and express my disinterest in tying the knot on Rosemary King High’s campus or display some kindness by thanking him for his effort, which would have ultimately been the fastest route to ending this interaction and starting my lesson. I hadn’t reached a conclusion yet when I saw a text from Fletcher in our group chat- it read, “S.O.S.!” That was short for “Save Our School” in this instance, and it meant he spotted a teen afflicted by the Rainbow Tektite!
“I gotta go!” I immediately jumped into action, but prior to me dashing out the door, I informed him, “They’re just watching a video- all you have to do is push play!”
“Okie dokie! I can handle that!” Mrithan avowed. As I hurried towards the gym, I wasn’t sure how he could screw that up, but I still doubted that he could adhere to his guarantee.
When I arrived at the gymnasium, I saw that Ellie, Aleck, Ginger, and Phoebe got there around the same time as me! I relayed to them, “Only one of us needs to respond to these things!”
Aleck concurred, “Yeah! So, if this happens again, the first person to respond with “O.M.W.” takes care of the rescuing! That stands for ‘On My Way’ incidentally. My son had to explain that to me when I was picking him up from band practice…”
“Uh, maybe this can wait ‘til later…” Fletcher interrupted as he indicated to a boy by one of the volleyball courts.
“Hey, Coach Jackson! Why is everyone staring at me?” George asked.
We tried not to flinch when we beheld his kaleidoscope-like eyes. Fletcher feigned as much cheer as possible when he answered, “Just your great form, buddy! Keep it up! And Jimmy, remember to keep your palms flat! Don’t forget how you broke your finger by attempting to pass it with your hands straight up!”
Jimmy didn’t seem to have heard Fletcher- he remained transfixed on George’s peepers. I recommended to the others, “Alright! Let’s move quick or Jimmy’s gonna get hit in on his skull or something!”
“Sure thing, babe!” Phoebe readily complied. “What do we do?”
“Uh…” I had to mull that one over. With Damon’s past dimwitted schemes, it was easy to eke out a solution. Well, eventually! In the past, merely encountering his monsters and ghouls for a couple of minutes made the key to solving the problem work itself out somehow. With the banshee, I simply had to ask her to leave, and with the walking pumpkin, we only had to bash it in the head. With the radioactive bunny, we defeated it by getting it stuck in a narrow ally, but the remedy for the Rainbow Tektite ingestion hadn’t become clear yet. It was maddening to be so close to the pending disaster and not have the ability to do anything to prevent it from occurring! There had to be something, but I had no clue how to find it out!
Ginger suggested, “What if we keep him away from the other students? We could isolate him until… I dunno! He consumed it, so sooner or later, it’ll pass through his system, right?”
We all agreed to separate him from the rest of the P.E. class, and we collectively beseeched the universe that we could uncover a cure for this strange ailment sometime afterward! Fletcher blew his whistle and decreed, “George! You’re out!”
“Aw! Why can’t I be out?” another guy whined. “I don’t wanna play this old-timey game anymore!”
“Old-timey?” Ellie balked at that notion. “It’s only been around since eighteen-ninety-five, which isn’t that old really! Lots of sports are loads over than that! Like tennis- that’s been around since medieval times, which is…”
Suddenly, George became stiff and started chanting, “Medieval times! Medieval times! Medieval times!”
Over his speech, I directed the rest of the children, “Run! Run! Run!”
Jimmy whined, “But we ran the track yesterday!”
I gritted my teeth, but I didn’t have a moment to spare in straightening out his misimpression. In a trice, the swirling vortex appeared, and all of the occupants in the gym got sucked inside!
As we stepped out onto a cobblestone road, I was preparing to canvass the others about whether or not they expected to float around in nothingness as we traveled between realms too, but we were immediately greeted by an overpowering odor! The stench was so awful that it caused us all to gag, and Phoebe remarked, “It smells like my stepdad multiplied! I forgot they don’t have underground sewers! Bleck!”
“Pardon the intrusion, but are you all ill? Do you need me to fetch a physician?” a young lady in a corset dress with a matching veil queried.
“No, thanks! We’re…” I got distracted from my polite refusal when I caught sight of the shift in my outfit- my slacks, polo, and loafers morphed into a loose, puffy shirt beneath a cloth vest that tucked into baggy pants with boots over the bottom cuffs! I glimpsed at the others, and we were all donning peasant garments! I confusedly gasped, “What the-? Why did our clothes change?”
The lady hesitantly addressed us, “I… I shall go fetch that physician for you!”
After she rushed off, Jasper filled me in, “The rules are different for each realm. Sometimes, the universe cares about us blending in, and sometimes it doesn’t. No one knows why!”
“Who are these guys?” Fletcher inquired.
“They’re my ancestors,” I replied.
Fletcher griped, “Oh, great! More people to keep track of! This is gonna be a disaster!”
Bearing the appearance of a feudal lord, Damon manifested before us and delightfully cackled, “Having fun already?”
The kid who took issue with playing volleyball chirped, “Yup! This beats exercising! And it reminds me of this video game I played called-!”
“Let’s see if you’re still having fun when you hear what your quest is gonna be!” Damon huffed with clear signs of getting miffed that the youths got some enjoyment out of his deranged arrangement.
“So, it is like a video game!” Jimmy reacted in glee.
Natalia briefed him, “Yes, but if you die here, you don’t get any more lives! You’re just gone forever!”
Damon became pleased at the juveniles’ worried visages, so I added, “Don’t sweat it! He’s a moron, and you can definitely outsmart him!”
My snide comment made his mirth sour, so I snickered. Damon ignored my merriment and dramatically revealed, “Your mission today: collect three feathers…”
“Done! Easy!” George espied a nearby chicken and began chasing it around the plaza.
“I’m not done yet!” Damon snapped. “I didn’t mean any old feathers! You must get the feathers of the Gilded Pheasant! It’s not a bird you’ll find hanging around the village, so good luck finding it!”
George chimed, “Thanks! This dude is so nice!”
Damon almost corrected him, but instead, he chose to emit an exasperated exhale and fold his arms as he disappeared.
“I got here as soon as I could!” A man in a robe and a bird-like mask arrived on the scene and set his bag down as he visually scanned over our group. “What seems to be the problem?”
“We’re fine! We…” I mulled it over for a second, and I realized he actually could provide us with some assistance. “Well, physically, we’re alright. But, we could use some advice… Can you tell us where the Gilded Pheasant is located? Please say it’s walking distance!”
The physician, who had begun digging into the trinkets he brought, dropped a wooden hammer in shock at my enquiry. “It is guarded in the Driscoll Cave centered in the Belician Forest, which is due north of our hamlet. But surely, you did not forget this! After the horror that has emerged from those woods, you could not have let that slip past your memory!”
Kendra pretended to recall, “Oh, that cave! Of course! Well, we best be off!”
With eyes bulging wide enough to see through his mask, the physician articulated, “Please, do not tell me you intend to seek it out!”
Aleck affirmed, “Okay, we won’t tell you…”
“Oh my!” The physician shook his head in dismay. “Wait here! I shall retrieve a priest to expel whatever demon that’s afflicting you!”
“Sounds great!” Aleck planted on a fake grin. As soon as he was out of sight, Aleck advised the boys, “Let’s get out of here!”
George catechized, “Hold on! What about the priest? Wouldn’t his blessing be beneficial to us?”
The boy who didn’t want to play volleyball posed to him, “If that’s what the doctors wore, do you really wanna see what the priests wear?”
“Huey’s right! Let’s go!” George stated with a harried expression on his face.
“I said that!” Aleck objected.
Ginger verbalized, “Who cares? Let’s go!” We all sprinted in the northern direction before it was too late.
After a while, we got tired and switched to a slower gait. If we weren’t in mortal danger, I would’ve savored the scenery quite a bit. The architecture of the structures in this neighborhood was quaint, and the games that the children played in the street were rather inventive. The bread displayed in the bakery window looked delicious too! I assumed everyone was relishing our surroundings until Ellie complained, “Ugh! That’s not historically accurate!” We all stared at her in confusion, so she illuminated us, “The addresses on the buildings! No one attempted to number any houses until fifteen-twelve!”
“Do you really want this place to be a hundred percent accurate?” Ginger challenged her. “They used to burn women as witches for knowing how to read!”
“We’re not in the exact era that occurred on Earth,” Osra filled Ellie in. “A lot of the traditions stayed intact, but not everything is a replica.”
Phoebe puzzled, “So, this universe had a modern postal system but not modern plumbing?”
Prior to anyone providing a reaction to that, we reached a vast expanse of trees behind a wooden sign that read: “Belician Forest. No trespassing! Surviving violators shall be prosecuted!”
“That’s new!” Eamon observed. “I used to do trade all over this land, and on the many occasions I traveled through these woods, I never once saw anything that warranted a cautionary message like that!”
“You probably never saw monsters lurking in the shadows either!” I shot back. “But, if you did, could you describe them? Please? That’d be great!”
Jimmy griped, “We gotta fight monsters?”
Kamali conveyed to him, “We gotta find the Gilded Pheasant or the Rainbow Tektite, and I doubt either of those would be free of perilous creatures guarding them!”
“It’s either that or go through a strange ritual with the bird man’s priest!” Kendra kidded. One boy made a bid for the village plaza, so she grabbed him preceding him from getting too far. “Woah! I wasn’t serious! If you want to see your precious video games again, we must do this!” And, with that, we set foot onto the murky path.
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