Round Table: The Centaur Rebellion

Book Two of the thrilling shitstorm written by Plasmaster in sixth grade. Buckle up, it is terribly hilarious. If you haven't read the first Round Table, do that first.

Chapter One: Encounter
My name is Lance. I’m pretty sure Brandon already set the rules about you not telling anyone about this, but if you didn’t know that, here’s your warning. I am a descendant of Lancelot, the only one whose essence is strong enough for the More Dread Gang to track. Together with my friends, Brandon, Morgan, Victoria, and Prescenan, we fight the More Dread Gang and any other monster scum that dares to cross our path. I’ll explain more later. Let’s begin.

My friends Brandon, Morgan, Victoria and I were in Washington D.C., searching for Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a former centaur chief, and is now a leader of the More Dread Gang. The More Dread Gang is an evil organization set on defeating the descendants of the knights of Camelot in order to create a new age where they rule the world. Ever since Jeremiah rescued Dwayne, another leader, from my friend Prescenan, we’ve been chasing after him. You see, I’ve kept in touch with the good centaurs since the battle to protect their camp, and they’ve reported that Jeremiah is planning something big. I don’t know what yet, but I’m going to find out. Anyway, we had tracked him to Washington D.C., and we had begun our search at the Smithsonian.

“You see anything?” Brandon said into his walkie talkie. Brandon is a descendant of King Arthur. He has Excalibur, the sword in the stone. But because the museum wouldn’t let him in with it, my friend Victoria had used magic to turn it into a pebble, which Brandon had put in his pocket. Brandon has brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a blue raincoat over a black T-shirt and jeans. Victoria is a descendant of Merlin, so she can do magic. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a leather jacket over a yellow T-shirt and jeans. She is a tomboy.

“No nothing yet.” a voice responded through the walkie. The voice came from Morgan, descendant of Guinevere. Morgan has brown hair and blue eyes and she was wearing a green long sleeved shirt and brown sweatpants. Morgan and Victoria were searching for Jeremiah in the right wing of the museum. Prescenan couldn’t come because he was a centaur, and a horse with a human from the waist up for a head is not something to display out in public.

“Okay well Lance and I are done here. We’re going to search at the Lincoln Memorial.” said Brandon.

“Okay.” said Victoria. Brandon and I headed for the exit, when we noticed the two guys that seemed to be following us. They were twins with dark blonde hair, thin faces and green eyes. They wore jeans and suspicious red hoodies. Did I mention that More Dread Gang members wear red hoodies? That would be important. They looked like gang members. One of them tripped and the other stopped to help him up. Brandon and I dashed out. We went around the corner to avoid being seen.

“How long have they been following us?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I saw them when we were at the Washington Monument but thought nothing of them.” Brandon said. The twins rounded the corner and spotted us.

“Hey! Guys, could you help us? We got lost from our gang and- Ow!” one said. The other had smacked him on the head before he could talk anymore.

“He means our- school group. We got lost and you seem to know this place well.” the other said. I shot Brandon a glance that said: ‘These are gang members. Play along, and then we’ll beat on them later once we get a better chance.’ He nodded.

“Sure guys, we’ll help you. Let’s start at the Lincoln Memorial.” I said.

“Okay.” they said together. We began to walk there. The journey was longer than it should have been because one of them kept tripping over his own feet, while the other stopped to help, occasionally calling him something like Sasquatch or Blind Barney. We had finally reached the museum when the two said that they had spotted their group and left. Brandon and I didn’t bother to go after them and continued searching for Jeremiah. That was our mistake.

The two rushed out from behind pillars and leaped on our backs. “Quick! Cuff ‘em!” one shouted.

“I don’t have the cuffs I thought you did!” said the other. I managed to get the one off my back. Brandon was still wrestling with his. I tried to run and help him, but the other one just tripped me. Then he ran and grabbed Brandon’s left arm, while the other grabbed his right. Brandon was in trouble. He couldn’t reach his sword when his arms were suspended. They started to walk down the stairs. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t.

I guess I had been hit by an orange orb. Gang members can summon magic orbs, different colors. Red is a standard damage orb, green is a sleep orb, and orange is a restraining orb; it keeps you from getting up off the ground or moving. Brandon got lucky. One of them tripped, and the other stopped, let go of Brandon, and helped his twin brother up.

“You klutz!” he shouted. Brandon made a run for it, but didn’t get far. A large figure hit him on the head with a club, and then lifted his limp body. It was Jeremiah.

“Jeremiah!” the twins shouted nervously.

“Can you two tell me why you had not gotten him earlier- by yourselves?!” he shouted in his Australian accent.

“It’s not because we stopped for ice cream!” one of the twins said. The other slapped him on the head.

“Idiots.” Jeremiah said. He put Brandon on his back and turned around. The two twins performed a spell and a doorway appeared in front of them. Jeremiah galloped through, and the twins followed him. “Good job, perhaps you aren’t useless after all, Alan and Kendall.” he said before the doorway shut. I struggled to get up. I finally stood, but my arms still felt like they were being constricted by some invisible force. I waddled to the bottom of the steps, where I found Victoria and Morgan.

“Did you find Jeremiah?” Victoria asked.

“Yeah, we found him alright. But he captured Brandon and escaped through some magic doorway.” I said.

“What?! He captured Brandon?! This is bad, really bad. We got a call from Prescenan. Whatever Jeremiah is doing, he needs Brandon for it. We need to find him.” Morgan said.

“Don’t worry, because I know where to start. Two gang members, Alan and Kendall, were with Jeremiah. If we find them, we find Brandon. Besides, one of them is very bad at keeping secrets.” I reported.

“Good, so we know who to go after. I’ll search Dwayne’s phone for these guys and then try to use my magic to find them. Oh, and as for that orange orb you’ve been hit with-” she snapped her fingers and my arms relaxed, though they were a bit numb.

“So, do you know what else Jeremiah needs for this big plan of his?” I asked.

“Only two of the things, uh, he needs some sort of precious gem and Excalibur. Good thing Excalibur is a pebble right now and Jeremiah doesn’t know.” Morgan said.

Victoria stopped scrolling through Dwayne’s phone. “They aren’t in there. We’ll have to find them another way.” she said.

“Well for now, we need to get back to the hotel or your parents will start to worry.” I said.

“Yeah, but they’ll also freak out because Brandon is gone now.” Morgan said.

“It’s okay, I’ll just charm my parents into thinking he didn’t come with us.” Victoria said.

We were back at the hotel. I had just fallen asleep, when in my mind a scene appeared. I saw Jeremiah standing in a throne room. The throne was much too big for a normal person to sit in and centaurs don’t sit. The throne had been built for something big. Stained glass windows showed scenes of a sorcerer striking at knights, dragons burning villages, and gang members leaping into battle. There was even one that showed Dwayne battling Brandon. The strangest part of the windows was that they all seemed to shift like holograms. Alan and Kendall were standing on both sides of Brandon. He looked awful. He was beat up. A metal pole was laid across his back and his arms were tied to each end of it.

“This castle shall be the start of a new age!” Jeremiah shouted. “And it all starts with you and your sword. Now where is it?!” he continued.

“I told you, I don’t have it.” Brandon replied.

“Then you shall rot in my- I mean the dungeon until you have given it to me. Alan, Kendall, take him away.” he ordered.

“Yes sir!” they said, saluting. Alan turned and immediately tripped while Kendall complained about how this reminded him of the time he forgot to take his ointment and a rash broke out right in front of his teacher. Alan stood up and then the two escorted Brandon out.

Jeremiah sighed. “Once my plan is in order, I should really fire those two.” he mumbled. He sighed. “Though I do need them to get that little brat Brandon some… motivation…” Then the scene changed, and I saw a dark room with several jail cells in it. A torch in a doorway was lit and the twins walked in with Brandon. They pushed him into the middle cell and locked the doors.

“Is the security system on?” Alan asked. Kendall took out a key and stuck it in a slot on the floor.

“Is now.” he replied. He took one step and laser appeared in front of him. “Whoa! He he. Got to be careful where you step.” he said. The two walked out, Kendall occasionally yelling in pain as he touched lasers. They exited the room and the torches went out. The scene changed once more and I saw a large pack of ogres leisurely walking through D.C., smashing police cars. I immediately snapped awake, and when I looked outside, there were the ogres, stomping through the city.

Chapter Two: Rampage
It was around midnight. The three of us were preparing to battle the ogres. I grabbed my sword and a knife that I kept for- emergencies. I helped Morgan load arrows into her quiver while Victoria rummaged through her bag looking for her spell book.

“I know I put it in here.” she said. Right then her parents began to stir in bed. Her dad mumbled something about pancakes in his sleep. She snapped her fingers and they immediately dropped back down to their pillows. “That was close. They’ll sleep for the next six hours and no sound will wake them. But we need to hurry.” she said. I finished loading the arrows and Morgan slung it across her back. She picked up her bow. Victoria found her spell book, and then we headed towards the door. Just as we left the room, we heard the sound of car alarms and police car sirens going off outside.

Ogres. Giant revolting creatures with smelly, muscular arms and feet, fat bellies and misshapen heads. Some get as tall as forty feet, but others are twelve. The ones storming through town were about sixteen feet, except for one who was twenty. We had just left the building when police started running to us. “I’m sorry, but you can’t be out here. We are under attack and-” he fell asleep before he could finish. I turned to Victoria, who had her book, open to a page titled: Sleep Spell.

“What?” she asked. I rolled my eyes and charged into battle. The ogres were being held back by a cluster of police cars blocking the road. The ogres were only slowed down though. They easily began tipping the cars and smashing them. A few ogres were actually picking up police and dropping them into large boxes. Victoria put the police to sleep to avoid being seen, and then tried to pull them off the road to safety. The ogres finally smashed through the blockade and continued down the road. Morgan tried firing arrows with ropes on them to trip the ogres, but no such luck. I tried to run to attack, but the ogres in the back were tossing police cars back, so it was difficult. I finally reached them. I hacked at the back of their legs to knock them down. I was starting to defeat ogres when the lead one saw me. He simply flicked me out of the way. I flew into a streetlight that had been dented by an ogre’s hammer.

I stood up, but my back really hurt. Victoria had finished dragging the police off the road and she started tossing blue orbs at the ogres. All it did was irritate them. Then the ogres turned right down another road. They seemed to be fixed on going to a certain location. I tried to keep up with them. I finally reached them when I noticed the big boxes they had been throwing people into had the word prisoners printed upside down on it. I went for the box to try and free the police. I leaped up and grabbed onto an ogre’s hammer. I did my best to crawl up the hammer to the head, but it was hard because he kept swinging it around. Morgan apparently had the same idea, because she was already trying to get the ogre to drop the box. I climbed onto his head and then slid down his left shoulder, right into the box. All of the police in it were asleep, affected by Victoria’s spell. I stabbed into a side of the box and cut a hole in it. Several police officers fell out. Once I got them all out I climbed back up to the ogres head and stabbed it. I leaped onto another one and tried to get a good view of where they were going. I saw, straight up ahead, was the Smithsonian. ‘A precious gem’ Morgan’s words echoed in my head. I realized now why the ogres were headed there. They were going to steal a gem from it. I stabbed the ogre in the head and dropped to the ground. I ran ahead where Victoria was creating a magic wall to keep them at bay.

“They’re trying to get into the museum. We need to keep them out.” I said. A boulder sailed over my head and smashed a mailbox.

“Keep them away. I’m going to try a spell to keep them from entering but I’ll need time.” she replied. I nodded and joined Morgan in battle. I was almost smashed by a hammer as soon as I left the wall. Morgan fired arrows at the ogres but they all fell short and impaled the ground. I stabbed the lead one but it only made him mad. He smacked me to the side and I bashed into a brick wall. I stood up. I shot a glance at Victoria and tapped my wrist. She shook her head. The spell wasn’t done yet. I ran back into battle. Morgan had begun to retreat, but after killing some ogres she regained her confidence.

I sliced an ogre’s hammer in half as he lifted it over his head, and it dropped on his noggin and knocked him out. The ogres continued to advance, but now more quickly. They passed by Victoria and ran to the steps of the museum. A few grabbed security guards and tossed them back. Victoria performed a spell to keep them from getting hurt, but it prevented her from concentrating on the spell for the magic barrier and it faltered. Now she had to start again. “Door.” the lead one said. The others began pounding on the doors. I ran up to the ogres and leaped into one of the boxes. Morgan did the same. The doors burst open and the ogres ran in. They began to scatter themselves around the museum, searching for some kind of gem.

“Okay, we’ll leap out and kill the ogre. Then we’ll search for the other ogres and kill them. We have to be quick though. We can’t let them find the gem.” I said. Morgan nodded. She fired an arrow into the ogre’s neck and he collapsed. Morgan and I tumbled out of the box. We ran into the main hallway where we saw the ogres tossing the security guards around as if they were playing dodge ball. The lead ogre walked in and shouted something like, “No play! Find gem!”

The ogres immediately snapped to attention and ran in different directions, leaving the beat up guards on the floor. Morgan and I dragged the guards over to the side and went after the ogres.

It took a while to find all of them, but we eventually defeated them. All that was left was the lead ogre and his two body guards. We found them in the left wing, the leader studying a gem, while the two body guards stood at his side, armed with long metal poles. I think the poles were busted up streetlights. Morgan and I hid behind a wall before crawling in and crouching behind an artifact. Morgan notched an arrow. “I’ll distract the guards, you get Big Ugly.” she whispered. I nodded and darted behind another display. The guard ogres looked around cautiously, ready for battle at a moment’s notice.

I crept past a few more displays before hiding behind the gem’s pedestal. I unsheathed my sword, but unluckily the guard ogres heard it. They had very keen hearing. Morgan quickly fired arrows at them to distract them from me. They turned and bashed a display aside. Morgan ran behind another and launched another flurry of arrows. Many of them bounced off the ogre’s streetlights, so the ogres took little damage. I ran out before the guard ogres remembered their search for me.

I stabbed the leader, who cried out in pain. He rose, concealed the diamond in his “jacket” and unclipped his hammer from his belt. I quickly pulled my sword out to parry his first attack. It took every ounce of my strength to hold it off because the hammer was so large. I kicked him in the shins repeatedly, hoping to knock him off balance. He pulled his hammer back and went in for another swing. I rolled under his hammer as it smashed a display about King Tut. I lashed back and sliced him in the leg. He kicked me down and prepared to smash me. Luckily Morgan shot his hand and he dropped his hammer, which landed inches from my face. I stood back up and continued to battle.

He hadn’t picked his hammer up yet, so he was fighting with his fists. He hit me with an uppercut that slammed me into a display about The Nile River. I looked over at Morgan, who was holding a streetlight away from her face with one hand while tossing displays with the other. I should probably explain that. Well, back in the fall Morgan had drank some magic water that granted her superhuman strength and agility. She actually had used it to save us. Big time. We had been captured by some crazy guy that lived in the forest and Morgan whooped his butt. She literally uprooted a tree and smashed him with it. Talk about awesome right? She continued to throw artifacts at one ogre and finally used the ogre’s own streetlight to slam him into the back wall. I leaped off of the pedestal and tried to stab the ogre again.

He picked up his hammer and easily parried and then swung again. Then I saw the diamond tumble from his jacket. I dove for it and held it up to the light. It reflected the light and temporarily blinded all three ogres. I put the diamond in my pocket. I slid underneath the ogre’s blind attack and hacked his arms up. He tried stomping on me. I rolled back and whirled around to kill a guard ogre. Now Morgan had only one to worry about. The lead ogre regained sight. I dove in between his legs while slicing his legs again. I wondered if this was how Brandon felt all the time, always knowing the right moves and when to use them. His sword, Excalibur, grants him sword fighting expertise.

His sword is also too heavy for anyone but him to carry. I became too distracted though and was hit by the ogre’s hammer. I flew into the wall. I regained my balance quickly to avoid being crushed by his foot. I rushed in and sliced off part of his jacket. He got really mad though. I could tell because his whole body literally turned red. Ogres tended to do that. He swung again with his hammer, but before I could dodge it he planted me to the ground with his other hand. I looked over at Morgan for assistance. She got my message and lifted the guard ogre off of his feet and hurled him into the lead ogre. They both crashed into the empty pedestal that once held the diamond. I saw Victoria at the main entrance. We both ran to her. “Did you finish the spell?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it will take a while to take effect. You need to keep those ogres busy so they don’t get out. The protection spell should disintegrate them as long as they stay inside.” she replied.

“Good.” I said, looking back into the other room. The ogres were tipping things over to find us. I ran into battle. I swiped at the lead and then quickly rolled out of the way before the guard pulverized me. I whirled back and sliced the guard ogre over his right eye. I ducked to avoid the lead’s hammer. Instead it hit the guard and knocked him into a wall. I stabbed the leader in the knee, but afterwards he simply smacked me aside. He walked over and prepared to smash me, but he dropped his hammer. I guess it was because his hand was gone, dissolved by the protection spell. But it didn’t stop him. He lifted me by my feet and shook. I had no idea what he was doing until he dropped me. He picked up the diamond, which had fallen out of my pocket, and dropped it into his jacket pocket. I rose to try and slice him again, but he smacked the sword out of my hand.

He snapped his fingers, or at least the ones he still had, and the guard ogre grabbed me. Morgan fired arrows at the lead ogre as he left the room, but he just ignored her. He stumbled, because just then his foot disappeared. He started to crawl instead. Victoria ran into the room and picked up my sword. The guard ogre tried to smack her down with his pole, but she stayed on his right because that was his blind side. She dove in and cut his head clean off. I ran out to avoid being crushed by the carcass. Victoria handed me my sword, which was completely covered in ogre blood. The lead struggled to get to the exit, all of his limbs gone. He squirmed like a worm. I slowly approached him and stabbed him in the heart. He stopped squirming, collapsed, and then disintegrated completely. I picked up the diamond, polished it off, and laid it in an unconscious security guard’s lap. With the protection spell, no monster could come here anymore.

Chapter Three: Locate
“Okay, so now that we’ve prevented the ogres from getting the diamond, now what?” Morgan asked. Good question, I thought. There are hundreds of diamonds out there, and we can’t just go around protecting them all.

“We need to remove something from the equation. If Jeremiah needs Brandon for his plan to work, then we just have to rescue him so Jeremiah’s plan will be impossible. Then, we defeat Jeremiah, so his plan will never follow through, and then we win.” I said.

“How will we know where he is?” she asked.

“I had a dream-”

“This isn’t another famous person speech reenactment is it?” she interrupted. I gave her my best shut up stare and continued.

“Anyways, it showed me the inside of a castle. Brandon is being kept in the dungeon with a high tech security system guarding him. And those two dim wits? Jeremiah said he was sending them to find some sort of motivation to get Brandon to talk.” I said.

“So the two are trying to capture us too?” she asked.

“I think so, so we’ll have to relocate.” I said.

“I’ll tell my parents that it’s time to go home.” Victoria said, rushing out the door.

“We’d better get packing.” I said.

“Okay, I have my toothbrush, my pillow, my hair brush, my hairspray, my coat, my toothpaste and floss, my book, my magic supplies, and my clothes all packed. Now I just have to find my ticket…” Victoria mumbled. It was an hour before the plane departed. I was starting to worry. Victoria’s parents were all packed and ready to go. Morgan was still searching for a few things, and Victoria couldn’t find her plane ticket. I was ready to go. I had everything packed, except my sword which wouldn’t fit, and wouldn’t make it past the security and metal detectors, so Victoria had turned it into a little block of wood. I had put it in my pocket. “Found it!” Victoria exclaimed.

“You know you could have just used magic to find it, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, but even though I’m a wizard it’s not like I’m going to use magic for everything.” she replied. I checked my watch. Fifty five minutes until departure.

“Okay, I have everything, I think.” Morgan said.

“Good enough for me, let’s go!” I shouted. We all hurried out and got a taxi to bring us to the airport.

We finally arrived there, with just enough time to spare. We had twenty minutes. I rushed up and tossed my luggage onto the conveyor belt and raced through the metal detectors. I stopped at the boarding gate for the flight to Philadelphia. Once our plane landed we would get back home via my mom’s car. I finally relaxed. I was about to step through when I saw a red card sticking out of the flight attendants’ pocket. Not only that, but he was wearing a red hoodie.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“No I was just wondering… where do you get a hoodie like that?” I replied. He looked down at his hoodie and I uppercut him in the face. He drew a knife out of one sleeve. Morgan and Victoria joined me right then.

“Whoa! How did he get that past security?” Morgan said. I grabbed his wrist and easily disarmed him. Then I punched him in the face and pushed him onto a luggage conveyor belt. He tried to get up, but he just kept tripping over luggage that he knocked over. I ran through the gate and onto the plane.

“Wow, the airport’s standard uniform is getting a lot more casual.” Morgan said as she ran in after me. Victoria’s parents finally caught up. They looked over at the gang member who was still rolling around in the luggage.

“Uh, he must be delusional.” Victoria said. Then they all ran onto the plane.

Once we made it onto the plane I relaxed. I ordered some peanuts. Everything was going great. I sat between Morgan and Victoria, which I knew would be a pain. But I was willing to put up with it. Victoria’s parents sat behind us next to some old guy who was snoring with ear buds in his ears. I could just make out from the faint music that he had conked out to the song Beethoven Concerto I. We sat there for about fifteen minutes before being told to fasten our seatbelts for take off. Once the plane took off we unbuckled. I ate a handful of peanuts. They didn’t taste anything like peanuts. They tasted more like rotten bananas with soy sauce. I put it in a cup holder and slumped back in my seat. The old man behind us woke up, took out the ear buds, and then ordered peanuts.

Boy is he in for a disappointment. He ate a peanut and then spit it out. “What is this?” he shouted. The waitress hissed at him. Literally hissed. She opened her mouth and revealed sharp fangs. She extended claws out of her fingers. Her ponytail transformed into a sharp crest extending towards her back. Her skin turned green and then she launched herself at the man.

The man rose and threw her back with a flick of his wrist. Victoria quickly charmed her parents so they wouldn’t see the goblin girl fighting ninja grandpa. The man took a wand out of his pocket and zapped the waitress with a green ray. She recoiled and then tried to bite him. Goblin bites can be poisonous. He performed another spell and then the plane tilted right a bit. He grabbed on to a seat while everyone else toppled over. He began to kick her in the head. She looked up and then leaped onto the seats. She jumped on him and tried to bite. Victoria finally performed a spell to help him. The waitress yelled and hissed and mumbled something about peanuts before flying through the ceiling.

The other waiters and waitresses and flight attendants all began to morph into different monsters. Most were goblins, but occasionally there would be a centaur gang member. The old man flicked his wand at some centaurs and they morphed into luggage. Victoria and I raced to help him in battle. I tackled several goblins while Victoria used a spell that blinded the others. The old man drew a circle in the air with his wand and put his hand through where the center should be. Then the goblin in front of him cried out as a hole the size of the circle burned through his chest. I finished off some goblins and then smashed some luggage over some centaurs. Morgan had joined and was now chucking goblins through the hole in the ceiling. Victoria and the old man both performed a spell that caused some centaurs to go insane.

Centaurs started smacking themselves and tossing themselves on the floor. A goblin picked up Morgan and tossed her through the hole in the ceiling. She had grabbed onto the edge though, so she was still okay. I put a goblin in a half nelson and then spun him into the wall. I leapt onto some seats and grabbed Morgan’s hand to pull her back in. Victoria created a force field around us. The old man put a spell on a few passengers who were watching the fight with disbelief. They then stood up and charged into battle. I finally pulled Morgan back in when Victoria’s force field failed.

“The smaller the force field the easier it is to break.” she said. I punched another goblin and then threw him into a centaur. A group of centaurs had lifted Victoria and the old man and were trying to throw them out the hole.

“Hey!” I shouted, throwing luggage at them. Some centaurs were starting to retreat, but the goblins easily intercepted the luggage and they regained confidence. Victoria and the man were being lifted closer and closer to the hole. Morgan was pounding on goblins. I ran into the centaurs that were lifting Victoria and rammed into them. Unfortunately, I was then lifted as well. The man still had his wand, trying to perform spells to disorient the centaurs. I saw Morgan being lifted up on my left. The centaurs threw Victoria and the old man forward through the hole. They grabbed onto the edge, but then I saw goblins with hammers climbing on the ceiling. They would smash Victoria and the man’s fingers and they would fall. Then I was tossed through. I landed on the hull and didn’t fall, though it was really hard to keep balance.

“Victoria, let go, or your fingers will be crushed by hammers!” I shouted over the wind. She let go and I caught her hand. I pulled her up onto the hull. The man cried out in pain as his fingers slipped from the edge. I grabbed onto him. I started to slide. Victoria helped me pull him up. We almost had him up when Morgan flew through the hole and knocked us all over. We slid down the hull and fell off the plane. As we plummeted, Victoria and the man were both trying to use a spell, but something kept the spell from taking effect. I could see treetops getting closer to us. We were about thirty feet from hitting the trees, when time began to slow. I saw birds flying by in slow motion. Eventually we fell through the treetops but, the branches scratched us really slowly and we were about three feet off the ground when time returned to normal.

Even though the fall wasn’t rough, the time spell left me dizzy and disoriented. I passed out just as we hit the ground.

“Okay, now, Alan and Kendall, I want you to figure out a way to capture the other three brats. Once we have them we will get Brandon to talk.” Jeremiah said. He was in the throne room again, giving the twins their new orders.

“Why, does he have a sore throat?” Kendall asked.

“No, you idiot, he just won’t tell us what we need to know.” Jeremiah shrieked.

“Oh, right. What do we need to know again?” Alan asked.

“Apparently, everything.” Jeremiah said. “Look, just go and do it.”

“Yes sir!” they said saluting. Jeremiah galloped out of the room.

“Okay, so we need to figure out a way to capture them. I have the perfect plan. We go to Washington D.C. and get them in their sleep.” Kendall said.

“No, they might be expecting something like that. We need to think big, and outside of the box. And I have the perfect plan. Okay, so we hire Miley Cyrus to do a fake concert in the woods, and they show up, and then, we get a van and we tie them up and throw ‘em in. How bout’ it?” Alan said. Kendall smacked his head.

“You idiot! One, we can’t hire Miley Cyrus, two, Jeremiah would hate it, three, who would fall for that?!?!” he shouted.

“How do you know Jeremiah would hate it?” he asked.

“Y’ know, just take it up with Jeremiah, okay?” he replied.

“Fine!” Alan exclaimed.

“Now, a better plan would be to put gang members on their plane home to Pennsylvania. Then, while those gang members keep them from escaping, we go to their hometown, waiting to take them to Jeremiah.” he said. Alan made a face, like he was unsure of the idea. Kendall sighed. He walked past Alan and went through a doorway. Alan stood there for awhile, still thinking about his Miley Cyrus idea. Kendall ran back out and pulled him through the doorway.

The image became distorted, and then soon I saw a new scene. In this scene, I saw Prescenan, my good centaur friend. He was holding a council in his tent. The sound became clearer after awhile. The centaur at the head of the table was Prescenan. It seemed a bit strange seeing him dressed in the chief’s robes. They were white with gold trim. He also wore a crown that was a size too big and sat lopsided on his head. The centaurs around him also wore crowns, but their robes were all different colors. There was also a centaur wearing armor.

“Friends, please, calm down. We must get to the matter at hand. Ever since the last battle my men have kept Lance informed. I know of Jeremiah’s plan and I’m sure you received a letter from him. I, as the central tribe chief and representative, have decided to reject his recruitment. The East and North tribes have done this as well. The Sea Clan and the Sky Clan have joined him. I advise that you all reject it. The More Dread Gang and their savage ogre members attacked my encampment last fall. Not only that, but centaur members of the gang attacked as well. I hope this will help you realize that becoming a member will turn you on each other, including your own family and friends. I do not want to turn this into a civil war.” he said. He only talks that way around the council to sound like he means business. Well, he does mean business, but he still has fun when he gets the chance.

A centaur who wore a crown over a sun hat (which looked totally ridiculous) raised his hand. He said in a Southern accent, “I am goin’ t’ reject his letter, but I think we ought t’ be talking strategy here. Jeremiah was smart gettin’ those sky and sea centaurs joinin’ him. Those Sky Clan guys have some serious air force, while the sea guys are able to attack from the ocean with their warships.” he said.

“Yes, I agree we must talk strategy, but we must confirm the rejection of his letter from all clans in this room. Now, West Clan, what is your decision?” Prescenan asked. The scene shifted again but before I could see anything, I woke up.

“- and I got them out to safety just before- oh, he’s awake.” Victoria said. I looked around. I was in the woods around a small campfire. Some logs were arranged around the fire and my friends and the old man were sitting on them. I sat up. It was dark out, maybe ten o’ clock.

“Hey, Lance glad you’re awake. When you blacked out we carried you around through here for a while. We’re in New Jersey.” Morgan said. I eyed the old man.

“Oh, this is Ethan. He’s an old wizard who use to be in the More Dread Gang during World War II.” Victoria explained. The man threw some firewood on the dim flames and they roared back to life. It was a bit strange; I hadn’t thought that this old man could be a member, or at least a former one. “So, anyways, I guess I should tell him what happened. Well, sadly, one of those goblins smashed his fingers with the hammers, so now he can’t hold a wand or use his fingers too much. I managed to use a spell to heal them part of the way. Also, my parents, I transported them out of the plane to safety. They are back at home thinking I’m at a sleepover.” Victoria said.

"Good, so everyone is safe, right?” I asked.

“Well, actually, the centaurs took several people on the plane prisoner. Luckily, we’ll be able to find them once we find that castle you told us about.” she said.

“Which reminds me, I had some more dreams. Kendall and Alan are planning on capturing us as soon as we arrive back home. We need to set up a game plan. We need to be prepared for it. Also, Prescenan is convincing other centaurs to decline a recruitment letter from Jeremiah. I think Jeremiah is trying to create a larger group of centaur gang members.” I said.

“That isn’t good. You know how good those centaur members are.” Victoria said. I remembered. Last fall a whole bunch of centaur members had killed half an army of good centaurs, including a good friend of mine, Francis.

“I’m going to get some rest.” said Ethan, lying down. I couldn’t sleep. I had just woken up. Not only that, but my head really hurt. Victoria and Morgan lay down, and in no time they were asleep. I was on first watch.

It had been four hours. Nothing had happened, except a few wolves were dragging what looked like a dead deer across the path, but they paid me no attention. I sighed. One more hour and then I would wake up Morgan so she could go on watch, and I could get some sleep. Only thing, I didn’t want to sleep. Blacking out from a time spell and then waking up, it makes you more alert and awake then ever. Something rustled in the branches above. It was just an owl. I sighed again and looked at my watch. It was now two o’ clock. I unsheathed my sword and practiced. I hacked a few branches off a tree, but then the owl started giving me this look like ‘Hit that tree one more time, and I’ll rip you apart’, so I stopped. I heard some more noises come from down the path, and the wolves, who decided the middle of the path was the best place to eat, scrambled away. I looked up the path. I saw a faint light on the top of the hill. I looked back at our camp. I’m sure I can leave them for one minute… I thought. I looked back up the path and ran towards the light.

Chapter Four: Rescue
I got up to the top of the hill, but the light I had seen turned out to be a lantern hanging in a tree. I wondered who put it there. I pulled it off the branch, and I was yanked into the air by a rope trap. I looked down below and saw three centaurs walk out of the bushes. I unsheathed my sword. The centaurs took out spears, and lowered them. I parried the first swipe. It was so hard to fight upside down. I finally cut myself down and landed on my head. When I stood up I was really dizzy. I fell on the ground as a spear was about to stab me. I parried another attack. One of the centaurs grabbed me from behind and slammed me into a tree. He raised his spear and prepared to skewer me. I looked up. The branch I had been hanging from had snapped halfway from my weight. I swiped upward with my sword and sliced the branch off.

The branch fell on the centaurs head and he fell to the ground. The other two charged at me. I split one’s spear and stabbed the other. The other centaur with the busted spear was trying to use magic to fix it, but he just put himself to sleep instead. I ran back down to the camp. Ethan, Morgan, and Victoria were gone.

I felt so stupid. I was supposed to be on watch and I failed horribly. I had no idea where to find them. The fire been snuffed out and it looked like some battle had gone on there at the campsite. A few arrows were impaled in trees, and a centaur ice sculpture stood in the center. I figured they might have come from the east, because that was the direction the centaurs I had fought had come from. I turned and ran east. As I ran farther off the path I could hear drums becoming louder and louder. Soon I saw several lights ahead and the drumming was thundering. I wasn’t sure if the lights could be another trap. I warily walked to them. They weren’t traps, but instead they were torches in front of a large wooden wall. I went around the wall where I saw a few centaurs guarding a large wooden gate. I knew it wasn’t Prescenan’s camp because that was up in Pennsylvania. The centaurs were wearing different outfits too. They had baggy shorts and vestments that were torn in places, and then some wore hats or bandanas. They carried pistols and long curved sabers. One had a prosthetic leg. The one with the fake leg pranced inside. I unsheathed my sword, so if I needed to use it I’d be ready. I took out my knife and dug it into the wall. I used it to pull myself up and found a foothold. I started to climb up the wall. I peeked over the top. I saw the fake leg centaur standing atop a pedestal. He seemed to be lecturing the other centaurs.

Six centaurs came forward dragging along three figures. I couldn’t tell who it was because they all had sacks over their heads. They also had their hands and feet tied. The centaur on the pedestal yelled something, and the sacks were removed. It was Ethan, Morgan and Victoria. It was about three o’ clock. I had to rescue my friends quickly. I hopped over the wall and landed on a crate. I stepped down and stealthily made my way down the stairs. I hid behind a crate as a few centaurs with pistols walked by. I jumped back out and ran for the dungeon. They would surely escort my friends there soon so when they do I can free them without notice. I dashed into a grey tent, where prisoners were usually kept. I dove behind a curtain just as the centaurs walked in with Ethan. They threw him in the dungeon and locked the cell door. They galloped out. I walked to the cell door.

“Ethan. Ethan, it’s me Lance. Where are Morgan and Victoria?” I asked. He stood up.

“The centaur chief-“

“The guy with the fake leg?”

“Yeah.” he said. “He ordered that the other centaurs take them to his tent. I don’t know why. Remember what you said earlier about this Jeremy guy and a recruitment letter?” he asked. “Jeremiah.” I replied.

“Well, this is the sea clan, a group of pirate centaurs that dominate the oceans.” he replied. “They’ve joined this Drake guy’s club.” he said.

“Dwayne.” I said. “Now look, I don’t have the keys so I can’t get you out. But I will as soon as I find out what is going on in that chief’s tent.” I said. I rushed out. I snuck my way to the red tent. Strangely, his tent was on a small boat in the middle of a lake that was inside the camp. I dove under the water. The water was murky and not a whole lot of fish were swimming around there. I could see a crocodile swimming on the other side of the lake though. I hoped it couldn’t see me. I saw two centaurs in a canoe float above me. I swam up, grabbed the bottom and pulled it over. The two fell in. I poked my head up into the canoe for air and swam my way towards the boat.

I was aboard the boat and I was hiding outside the tent. I was peeking through the window to see what was happening. Morgan and Victoria had chains around their wrists and ankles, and they were holding trays of food. The chief was plucking fruit off of the trays and every once in a while would throw an apple core or a chicken bone at Morgan. I understood now. The chief was making them his slaves. I unsheathed my sword. I was about to go in when I heard voices getting closer. I looked out over the water and I saw two centaurs in a canoe that were sailing for the boat. I quickly lifted a small grate and went below deck. The ship was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. Maybe it was magic. Below deck, I saw four centaurs standing next to some cannons.

I cautiously walked around them. I found out later that they were asleep. I picked up a bow and quiver and realized they were Morgan’s. I searched for Victoria’s spell book. I rummaged through some cabinets and chests, but most were empty or had some really smelly fish inside of them. I searched some tables and found a cutlass. I put my own sword away and held the cutlass in my right hand. It was much better than the sword I had right now. I walked over to some stairs and searched a few chests underneath them. Nothing. I looked over at the centaurs to make sure they were still sleeping. I heard some hooves clambering against the wood above me. I looked up, and through some spaces in the floorboards I realized I was right below the tent. I could see Morgan and Victoria standing next to the centaur chief while the two centaurs I had seen in the boat were talking to him.

“- and we found boot prints on a crate near the wall. There must be an intruder in the camp.” one said. Uh oh, I thought. My cover is blown. They know I’m here. “Then double the number of guards on the outside and get everyone on lookout for that intruder. If you even catch a glimpse of him or find evidence of his being there, bring it to me.” the chief said. “I don’t want an intruder running around here while we are away.” he said. I stopped looking up and made my way to the stairs. I ran up to find a heavy grate at the top. And a centaur was standing on it. I knocked on the ceiling. The centaur looked down. “Oh, sorry about that, come on up.” he said, stepping off of the grate. I moved it to the side and stepped out. “Oh. You aren’t a centaur.” he said.

“Really?” I said, stabbing him. I walked over to the red tent. I peeked around the corner. The two centaurs were gone and the chief was happily throwing remnants of his food at Morgan’s head again. It sort of reminded me of the food fight Morgan and I had last fall. I shot Victoria a look and she nodded. She went behind the chief and hit his head with the tray. “Ow!” he shrieked. “Guards!” he yelled. I got back to the side as a centaur dashed into the tent and took out a taesar. Victoria performed a spell and the centaur’s hand burst into flames. He dropped the taesar and waved his hand in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames. I ran in and stabbed the centaur in the back. “What?! The intruder!” the chief yelled. Morgan smacked him on the head. I pointed my sword at his throat.

“Give me the keys.” I said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large ring of keys and tossed them to me. There must have been one hundred keys on there. He smiled. I lowered my sword.

“Guards!” he shouted. I turned to see a dozen centaur pirates standing in the doorway. I looked at Victoria.

“Any magic tricks?” I asked. She responded by freezing a wall of ice in the doorway. The centaurs pounded on the ice. The chief’s eyes widened. I pointed my sword at him again.

“Which key is it?!” I shouted. He backed up to the back of the tent.

“Which one are you talking about?” he asked.

“The one that will unlock their shackles and open the dungeon.” I said.

“Honestly, I don’t remember.” he said. I looked at him suspiciously.

“Let me see those.” Victoria said. I handed her the keys. She examined them for a moment. “Each key has different markings on them. I don’t recognize any of them except for a few letters that are Greek.” she said. I looked at the chief.

“What language is it?” I asked the chief.

“It is the ancient writing of the centaurs.” he said. I could hear the ice sheet starting to break.

“Do you know how to translate them?” I asked.

“Please, you can’t become a chief without knowing it.” he said. Victoria continued to examine them. A small hole was breached in the sheet of ice and centaurs began poking their arms through.

“Morgan, hold them off.” I said. She nodded and ran to the doorway with a knife that was on the tray. I looked back at the chief.

“Okay, I’ve got a few of them. Let’s see… there’s the chief’s bathroom, supply closet, trapdoor, armory, kitchen… you have your own private helicopter?!” Victoria exclaimed. The chief’s eyes lit up. He leaped over the desk. I ducked down to avoid being trampled. He pushed past Morgan and kicked the ice wall down.

“Take me to my helicopter!” he exclaimed. I stood up and dashed towards the exit. The chief pulled out a wand. “Glacier!” he screamed. The wall of ice reformed and trapped us inside. I struck my sword against the ice. Morgan tried chipping away the ice, but it would’ve taken too long.

“Uh, guys, it’s a tent, we can make another exit.” Victoria said. I turned around and saw that she had already ripped away the back of the tent. We all raced out. I heard the sounds of helicopter blades roaring, and the winds had picked up. I looked up and saw a large news chopper hovering above the lake.

The chief leaned out the door and yelled, “I hope you enjoy being slaves at my camp!” Several centaurs in canoes were rowing towards the tent. I hadn’t noticed that it had gotten darker. Lanterns hung from poles on the canoes. The centaurs were armed with bows. I readied my sword. Morgan picked up a chair that was lying on the deck and held it like a bat. She didn’t have her bow with her so she had to improvise. Victoria lit her hands on fire, which somehow didn’t burn her. The centaurs fired. Morgan shielded herself with her chair and Victoria incinerated the rest of them. The centaurs were reloading their bows when I saw the crocodile swimming below us. I looked at the helicopter, which was getting higher and higher by the minute.

I locked my blade with an oar. A few of the centaur boats had reached the boat and were beginning to battle us. Morgan smashed her chair over a few of them and then threw it at a few archers. I pushed most of the centaurs back, but right then another boatload of them docked onto the boat. Victoria ignited a few centaurs on fire. Morgan was tossing heavy crates onto nearby boats, and they would immediately begin to sink. I parried another oar and then threw a few centaurs overboard. The helicopter was at least ten feet above the water now.

“Victoria, boost me up!” I called. She nodded and then performed a spell. I saw a small portion of the water rise up and form a stairway to the chopper. I ascended upwards, looking back upon the battle. Morgan was being overwhelmed by centaurs but Victoria was holding her ground. I was at least halfway up when I heard a roaring sound. I turned and saw the crocodile crawling up the steps. My eyes widened and I began to run faster up the stairs. The helicopter continued to rise, but each time another step appeared. I looked back and realized every time one appeared ahead of me, one behind me vanished. I was about five steps away from the chopper. I darted to the top only to trip. I held onto the edge. The crocodile came closer and closer. I had to think fast. I saw a fish swimming inside the step I was hanging from. I reached in and pulled the fish out.

“Hey, Lizard Face,” I shouted. “Fetch!” I threw the fish just right. It flew just under the crocodile’s nose and fell into the water below. The large reptile turned and leaped in after its prey. I pulled myself back up and continued going up. Once I reached the top I turned once more to look down upon the battle. Morgan and Victoria were now finishing the last of the centaurs. I turned again and was knocked over.

“You shall not stop Jeremiah! His plan is full proof! And I intend on keeping it that way!” the chief shrieked. The stairs had stopped vanishing, but I was near the edge. The chief took out a long spear and pointed it downward. I lifted my sword to protect myself, though I doubted it would do much. The situation reminded me of the time my friends and I were stuck on the ground, effected by an orange orb. But then, Dwayne’s dad (who is against the More Dread Gang), saved us. The centaur chief lifted his spear, but when he brought it down found it broken. He turned and was smacked in the face. Standing there was Ethan.

He had a knife in his left hand. I stood and followed his example by smacking the centaur chief. The chief stumbled back again. I walked over to him and looked him in the eyes. “Go away.” I said firmly. He backed up, thinking he was going down the stairs. He instead tripped and fell into the water. I ran down the stairs, which began to appear again, to Morgan and Victoria.

Victoria jumped into a canoe and grabbed the oars. The rest of us got in and we started rowing back to the shore. A few centaurs on shore were firing at us, but they all missed. We made it back to shore. Victoria hopped out and slammed the centaurs back with an oar. We ran for the exit, though it was closed. But we didn’t care. We ran for it, dodging arrows and battling centaurs along the way. We made it to the gate and Victoria magically opened it. As I ran out of the camp, I heard the cries of the chief as he wrestled the crocodile.

Chapter Five: Hospitality
We had left that area and walked farther north. We were at least ten miles from the northern New Jersey border. I had set up a camp while the others scouted the area. We didn’t want to have another run in with the More Dread Gang or the enemy centaurs. They came back after a while.

“Nothing up ahead, except it looks like the More Dread Gang was here. We found a few arrows in some trees and knives and gang cards were scattered across the ground.” Morgan reported. I chucked a few logs onto the fire pit. Victoria lit the wood on fire, and soon a blazing fire was crackling in the pit. I sat down on my pack.

“So, Ethan, how did you get out of the dungeon?” I asked.

“Well,” he said, “I could see the keys hanging on the wall, but they were too far to reach. I had nothing to work with, no rope or stick that could get the keys. I tried using some simple magic, like levitating. I got them to fall to the ground, but with my broken fingers it was hard to do magic. I used the end of my wand to finally pull the keys towards me, and I unlocked the cell door.” he said.

“But if they had been on the wall I could’ve gotten you out already.” I said.

“They put it there after you left.” he said.

“Oh.” I replied. It got really quiet for a while. Everyone ate some bread and fruit from their packs. I gave some of mine to Ethan. Morgan looked upset.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Those centaurs took my bow.” she replied.

“Oh, that reminds me…” Ethan said. He pulled a glow stick out of his back pocket and threw it on the ground. It transformed into a bow and quiver full of arrows.

“Thanks Ethan.” Morgan said, picking up her bow and quiver.

“Alright, now, Victoria, can you translate anymore of these carvings on the keys?” I asked, handing her the keys.

“I don’t know. I can make out one more here… um… this one says chief’s mailbox. And I can only make out a few of the letters here… w, k, s, and p.” she replied. I sighed. Morgan and Victoria still had chains around their wrists and ankles, and it was slowing us down. It got quiet again until Ethan stood right up.

“I hear gang members.” he said. I got up and immediately threw some water on the fire. Victoria and Morgan got up too and we started moving. We finally left the woods and made it to the side of a road. Not too many cars were on it, but there were a few trucks that prevented us from crossing. I could hear the members too. There were shouts and sounds of twigs snapping and leaves crunching under the feet of the members. The trucks passed by and we quickly ran across. The shouting got closer until I realized- we were running towards them.

“Guys, we’re running the wrong way. We need to travel up the road instead of across it.” I said. They all nodded and followed me along the road. The noises got louder to my left. In fact, I could just make out members gathering on the other side of the road. They were pointing in our direction and shouting commands and loading arrows into their bows. They were halfway across when a truck almost hit them and they backed up. The truck passed by quickly and the group proceeded again. We had made it to a section of the street when I saw a small house on the side of the road. No lights were on so I was guessing either no one was home or they were asleep.

“C’mon, let’s get to that house. If we move quickly they won’t see us.” I said. We all ran across the street. An arrow whizzed by. We had just come out of the light so I was sure no more arrows would fly at us for a while. We made it to the front door of the house. “So what do we do now? Leave? Hide? Break in?” Morgan asked.

“I was thinking we could hide in the backyard.” I said. We all went around the corner when we heard someone scream. I turned and saw the gang members tackling someone. I drew my sword. “Hey!” I shouted. The others turned.

“Lance, what are you doing?” Morgan asked.

“Someone needs help.” I said. I dashed towards the group of members. Before I could get close enough a few members flew off the sidewalk into the road. I continued running towards the group. I soon realized that the others had joined me. I stabbed into a member and threw him into another. Ethan blasted one with an arc of green electricity. The figure who was being tackled burst from the dog pile and went to work with a sword. Victoria and Morgan were both shooting arrows at the members from the house porch. Victoria must have magically forged a bow. We soon defeated them all. I looked at the figure. Of course, its first instinct was to run me through.

A sharp pain flared up in my left side. I looked up at the figure. It was a girl, about fifteen with black hair and brown eyes like mine. She was wearing an orange shirt and jeans. She lifted the sword over her head and prepared to finish me off. “Whoa, wait!” Ethan shouted, grabbing the handle of her sword. “We just saved you.” he said. She sighed and helped me up. “Sorry, I thought you were gang members.” she said. Victoria and Morgan rushed over. The pain got worse. “I’m Jordan.” she said. “I-”

“Can we introduce ourselves later? I’m bleeding!” I yelled as loud as I could. Morgan and Ethan helped me over to the porch where Jordan kicked down the door. A woman in her thirties was standing behind the door.

“What in the-” she said. Jordan performed a spell before the woman could finish and she froze. She couldn’t move or speak. I don’t think she could even see us anymore.

“Hey, you can’t just break in and freeze people.” Victoria said.

“We have no choice. We need to heal him now.” Jordan said.

“But-”

“Look. My blade is enchanted. I put a spell on it so it would poison whoever was stabbed by it. If we don’t heal him soon he will die.” Jordan continued. Ethan and Morgan laid me on a fluffy sofa. Jordan walked over and took out a first aid kit and a wand. She inspected the wound before taking out supplies. She pulled out a cloth and some sort of liquid and then poured the liquid on the cloth.

“What are your names?” Jordan asked.

“I’m Lance. That’s Morgan and that’s Victoria. And that is Ethan.” I said.

“So, how did you learn magic?” Morgan asked. Ethan went up the stairs.

“I learned it from some little kid who knew it. I don’t remember his name.” Jordan said. She pressed the cloth onto the wound. I cried out in pain. It stung horribly. I looked at the label on the bottle. It read:

Ogre blood

“Why are you putting that on?” I asked.

“Ogre blood counteracts poison. It’s a good thing I know magic too.” she replied.

“Which leads to the next question. Are you a descendant of a wizard?” Victoria asked.

“No. Why?” she replied.

“Only descendants can perform magic.” Victoria said. Jordan smiled.

“Sadly, you have much to learn young wizard. Anyone can learn magic if they put in the time for it.” she said.

“Hey, who do you think you are? I am a descendant of Merlin.” Victoria replied. I expected Jordan to turn and bow and say something like ‘a thousand apologies great wizard,’ but instead she smiled again.

“A pleasure to meet you. So, I am guessing that she is Guinevere’s descendant and you are Lancelot’s.” she said, looking at me and Morgan. I nodded. Jordan took the cloth away and performed a spell with her wand. The wound closed up. The pain started to leave and I didn’t feel sick anymore, but the stinging hadn’t left yet.

“And as for whom I am, I’m afraid I’m not quite sure. I don’t even know if I’m a descendant of a knight. You see, I was in the ninth grade, in my world history class at about noon. We had just started a unit about King Arthur and Camelot and stuff like that. All of the sudden six guys in red hoods crash through the windows and freeze everyone but me. I didn’t know what to do. I ran for the exit, but it was like I was running through peanut butter. I could barely move. The six guys grabbed me and said not to struggle. They said they could tell me who I was. I had no idea what they were talking about but they brought me to a camp where I talked to some crazy guy.” she said. Jeremiah. I thought.

“Then they tied me up and threw me in a jail cell. I spent the night there, and in the morning they untied me and started training me. I learned how to use a sword and knife. That night they let me sleep in an actual room. I ran away that night. I had been running for three months when I met a little boy in a town in Pennsylvania. He taught me magic and trained me more. I haven’t seen him since. Soon I went out on my own again, but I had been found by the gang, who had called themselves the More Dread Gang. I have been running ever since for four years. And then I met you. So, who is Arthur’s descendant? The old man?” she asked.

“Not exactly.” I said. “We were searching for a gang leader Jeremiah to capture him, but in the process, the descendant of Arthur, Brandon, was captured instead.” I said. I went on to tell her everything that had happened until then, Morgan and Victoria occasionally taking over to save my breath.

“So, the old man is only a wizard?” she asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t say old…” a voice said. I looked up at the top of the stairs. Standing there was a twelve year old boy. Jordan stood up and grabbed her sword. I got the feeling she enjoyed fighting first and asking questions later.

“Guys, it’s okay. It’s me, Ethan.” he said.

“Ethan!? What happened to you?” I asked.

“I used a youth spell. I’m your age now.” he said. I was really confused. Not only was he my age, but he looked just like me. I mean, he was the same height, same hair color. The only thing that was different was that his eyes were still blue like usual. Jordan sheathed her sword. She sat down in a chair and curled up.

“Wait- we aren’t sleeping here are we?” Victoria asked.

“Unless you want to sleep outside and risk getting killed, you are.” Jordan said sleepily. Victoria sighed. I could definitely feel tension between those two. I lay back down on the couch again, and went to sleep.

Honestly, I’m tired of having these dreams. I don’t know why I have them, or if they even are dreams. But, I was in that dungeon again, and I saw Brandon in the center cage.

“Brandon!” I shouted. He looked up.

“Lance?” he asked.

“Yeah it’s me. I’ll get you out.” I said.

“Wait, Lance. The room is-”

Before he could finish I plunged through the floor. I kept falling until soon a new scene came into view. I was lying in some grass in front of a Burger King. Then I woke up.

It was morning. I rose from the couch. The others weren’t there. Jordan, Ethan, Morgan and Victoria were gone. I heard a crash upstairs. I walked past the frozen woman. I went up the stairs and walked past a man wearing pajamas who was frozen on the stairs. I looked into a room. It was a little boy’s bedroom. I went into a bathroom where I found Ethan’s wand. I picked it up and kept going. I found Victoria’s spell book lying on a bed in another bedroom. I continued going down the hallway. I heard another crash coming from a bedroom. I opened the door and saw Victoria pounding on gang members. I ran in to help her.

“Lance!” she said. “I’ve been calling you for a while now.” she said, kicking a member in the stomach. A member grabbed her from behind and smashed her into a wall. She kicked him and pushed him onto the bed. Another gang member picked up a toy chest and smashed it over her. She fell to the ground unconscious. I kicked the member and smashed a lamp into his back. That was the last of them. I dragged Victoria over to a wall and ran out. If Victoria was here, the others should have been too. I ran into a bathroom and saw Morgan firing arrows at members from her perch on a counter. I stabbed one and flicked Ethan’s wand at another, not sure what it would do. The member flew into the air and landed on the toilet.

She fired an arrow into another member and said, “Ethan and Jordan are across the hall. I nodded and ran across the hall.

“She is the one. She is the one that had run from us. Well, we won’t let it happen again.” a member said. I peeked into the room. Several members were in there. I saw Ethan lying on the floor, and a member was holding Jordan’s arms behind her back.

“So, now that you’ve got me, I bet you’re going to take me to your camp again, huh?” she said. “Yeah, that’s right.” the member said.

“Well, you’re going to have to stop and rest and eat along the way, right?” she said.

“Uh, yeah.” the member said.

“Good luck doing it without teeth!” she said. She head butted the member and escaped his grip. She drew her sword and swiped it across a group of members. The member she had head butted was spitting a couple teeth out. I ran in to battle. I stabbed a member from behind. I couldn’t get anymore kills. Jordan had already defeated the rest. She sheathed her sword and picked Ethan up off of the floor. We walked out of the room and into the hallway. Morgan was there, carrying Victoria.

“We have to get out of here. We were attacked last night and this morning. The members are attacking in a pattern. I’d say their next attack will be around eleven, but only if they catch up to us. We can’t waste any more time.” Jordan said. She took out some sort of bottle, opened it and held it under Victoria’s nose. Victoria coughed. She coughed a whole bunch before coming to.

“What is that smell?!” she cried.

“Griffin tongue. Why?” Jordan asked. Victoria turned green. Not literally like an ogre does, but she looked like she would throw up any second.

“Uh, Jordan, Victoria kind of has a pet griffin. Dead griffins really freak her out.” I explained.

“I see.” Jordan said. She sighed. She put it away and took out another bottle. “Drink this. It will make you feel better.” Jordan said. Victoria took a sip. Her eyes lit up. The green faded from her face. She handed the bottle back. Jordan then put the griffin tongue jar under Ethan’s nose and he shot awake.

“Alright, now that everyone can hold themselves up, let’s get out of here.” Jordan said.

Chapter Six: An Old Enemy
We had left the house and ran all the way to the New Jersey border. After that we relaxed and walked for a while.

“So then, I leaped off of the ogre’s cave roof and landed on him.” Jordan said. She had begun telling us some of her adventures. I thought I should probably tell of some of ours. I told her of the time we had fought a river monster, the time we had battled a baby ogre, and how we had joined forces with centaurs to defeat an army of gang members.

“And then we went searching for Jeremiah.” I said, finishing the story. “Now, I’ve been meaning to ask you, could this Jeremiah I mentioned be the crazy guy you had talked to when you were at the camp?” I asked.

“Well, the guy you mentioned was a centaur, right?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“That’s not him. The guy I talked to was human. Oh, and he had two sons. I think they were twins. I found out later that his sons took him out to the middle of a forest with his car, trapped him there and left him. The guy was eventually defeated, but I don’t know how.” she replied. My eyes widened.

“Morgan- you don’t think-”

“No, it’s not possible.” Morgan said.

“What is it?” Jordan asked.

“Morgan had fought a crazy guy in the woods last fall. He was trapped in the forest by the More Dread Gang, and he had a red car.” I said. “The guy we fought was the one that you talked with. And two More Dread Gang twins? Sounds like-”

“Alan and Kendall.” Victoria finished. I couldn’t believe this.

“Wow. That’s interesting.” Ethan said.

“But that means-” I was interrupted by a sound. I turned and saw gang members rushing towards us.

“Run!” I said. We all ran for our lives. We had to turn because then we saw centaur members and an ogre running towards us from the other direction. Unfortunately, we turned straight down an alleyway. We were stuck. Gang members descended from windows in the alley way and surrounded us, while the ogre and centaurs blocked the exit. Jordan and I drew our swords. Victoria readied her spell book. Morgan notched an arrow and Ethan drew his wand. The gang members drew knives and the centaurs loaded bows.

“Attack!” a member shouted. All of the sudden, instead of a battle, there was a blur. Everything was happening so fast, it was hard to tell what was going on. I could see arrows flying and hear swords and knives clanging. I soon came to my senses and began fighting. I slashed several members in front, and Jordan backed me up. Ethan and Morgan took on the centaurs and Victoria fought the ogre. I parried and swung and stabbed. But it seemed like it never ended. That’s when I found out that more and more members were leaping out of the windows and into battle.

I parried another attack. I heard the roar of an ogre and dared to look back. Victoria defeated the ogre. Ethan had been shot by a centaur and Morgan was covering him. I stabbed the member. I leaped on top of a dumpster and fought several more members. I leaped off of the dumpster and kicked off the wall. I grabbed onto a fire escape and struggled to pull myself up. An arrow flew by, and members below struggled to grab me. Jordan thinned their ranks quickly. She swung her sword magnificently. I was surprised she was that good.

I finally pulled myself up. I ducked a punch from a gang member and threw him off the edge. I slammed down the window as quickly as possible, but I closed it on a member. Victoria closed two more windows with a spell. Morgan launched an arrow at a member that was trying to open the window again. The alley was soon clear of members except for a few that were still coming out of a window. Jordan pulled the window shut and locked it down with some chains. I climbed down from the fire escape and joined the others at the bottom.

Jordan pulled a member off the ground. He was still conscious. “Who ordered your attack?” Jordan asked.

“A-A-Alan and Kendall.” he stammered.

“Where are they!?” she demanded.

“I don’t know. Some town in Pennsylvania. But I know nothing else I swear!” he said. She slammed him into a wall.

“Then tell them that they had better hide their faces because once I find them they are dead. Got it?” she said. He nodded. “Good. Now get out of here!” she shouted. He darted out of the alley and disappeared.

“Alright, so, now we’re going to Pennsylvania to smash their heads in.” Jordan said.

“Actually, we were already going to Pennsylvania to find them. Then we would capture them so they will guide us to the castle where Jeremiah is holding Brandon captive.” I said.

“Good.” she said. We walked out of the alley and down the street. Morgan had helped Ethan up and now was helping him walk. He had an arrow in his shoulder.

“Shouldn’t we stop and heal Ethan?” I asked.

Jordan looked back at Ethan. “Sure, but we need to do it indoors.” she said.

“Why don’t we do it in there?” Victoria asked. She was pointing at a Burger King.

“Yeah, that would work great.” Jordan said. We started walking to the restaurant.

“Wait, guys, I don’t think we should go in there.” I said, remembering my dream at the house. “Why not?” Victoria asked.

“I had a dream and in it, I saw a Burger King. I think it was a warning.” I said.

“A warning? Lance, the most dangerous thing in a Burger King would probably be the fat in the burgers. It’s fine.” Morgan said. The others continued walking. I hesitated, but when they went in I knew I had to follow them. I ran through the door. They had all sat down at a booth. No one seemed to notice the arrow in Ethan’s arm. There was no line at the counter and the cashier was sleeping at her register. I decided to buy something, because it looked like the place could use some money. I walked up to the counter.

I looked back at my friends. Jordan had pulled the arrow out and Ethan was biting on a cluster of napkins. I looked back at the register. “Um, excuse me?” I asked. She snorted and yawned.

“Hey, Alex! You’d better not be sleeping on the job!” someone yelled. She shot straight up.

“No, no, I’m awake!” she called. She looked at me. “Can I help you, sir?” she asked.

“Uh, I’ll just have a soda.” I said.

“Coming right up.” she said. She walked into the back room. I waited at the counter. Jordan was using her healing magic. The woman came back. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted so I got a Coke.” she said.

“Thanks.” I said. I gave her a five dollar bill and she put it in the register. I walked over to the booth. Ethan was laying back now and Jordan had put away her healing supplies. I sat down. No one else was there except for a man who was walking towards the door. Another employee was cleaning a table.

“So, are we going to leave now?” I asked.

“No. Ethan needs to rest his arm.” Victoria said.

“Oh.” I said. I was quiet for a while. The employee walked over to our table. I recognized him. He had black hair and brown eyes. I alerted my friends.

“Welcome to Burger King.” said Dwayne.

“Get off of me!” Dwayne shouted. I had tackled him to the ground.

“Why should I?” I asked.

“Because I can explain everything!” he said. I still didn’t trust him.

“You have three minutes.” I said. I let him up.

“After you drained me of my powers, I was forced to never show my face to the More Dread Gang again.” he said. “I would lose my authority in the gang if I ever did. And then my title would be handed to those two idiot twins. So, I tried to learn magic again. I could only learn the simple spells. But I could learn the more complicated ones if I had Merlin’s book. But, knowing it was too risky to try and take it from you, I decided to simply wait. I still needed money though. I came here, but it was not my intentions on working here. However, the store owner is mad. I mean crazy mad. He insisted I work here, and he convinced me. I was a fool. He won’t let us sleep. We can’t leave here or he will come after us.” he continued.

“Two minutes.” I said.

“So, anyways, I have tried to devise a plan to escape. But it just wouldn’t work. Of course, with you here, I can escape. If you would just help me…” he said.

“Why should we help you? You’ve tried to kill us yourself, with gang members, a dragon, ogres, centaurs, and water.” Morgan said.

“I know, but I hear you are on a quest to save your little friend, Brandon, and I have inside information.” he said. I drew my sword.

“Tell us now.” I said, pointing my sword at his throat. He laughed.

“Lance, you know that I’m a tough egg to crack and I’m not saying anything. You want the info? Get me out of here.” he said. I sighed.

“Alright.” I said.

“What?!” Victoria exclaimed. “After everything he has done?”

“Yes. Besides, if we are going to save Brandon we’ll need this information. And, his time is already up.” I said.

“Hey, Dwayne! Are you bothering the customers again?” someone said. Dwayne sighed.

“No, I’m just, uh, seeing if they need anything else.” he said. “Alright, now is our chance. Let’s get out of here.” he whispered.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” the voice shouted. A large man with an apron on stormed in. He had red hair and a red beard, and he had an Irish accent. He was wearing dirty boots and he smelled like greasy fries and rotten bananas.

“I didn’t say anything Dan.” Dwayne said.

“Nice try, but I am a lie detector. You cannot keep secrets from me. I heard you say that these customers were going to assist you in leaving here. Well, they will be customers no longer. I recognize that one.” he said, pointing at Jordan.

“Long time, no see, Daniel.” she said.

“You destroyed my McDonalds!” he shouted.

“Don’t forget, I also blew up your Chic-fil-a.” she said. He growled angrily.

“I don’t care! Now you will end up working for me for the rest of your days!” he shouted. “Dwayne! Cease them!” he ordered. Dwayne drew a knife. I drew my sword.

“You said you wouldn’t attack us!” I said.

“No, I didn’t. But the thing is, this knife isn’t meant for you.” he said. He turned and threw it at Dan. Dan caught it in the air and dropped it on the floor. He leaped back over the counter and grabbed some tongs that were lying in some flames.

“Alex! Cease them!” he ordered. He leaped over the counter as Alex grabbed a bow out of a cabinet. She loaded an arrow and fired it at me. I couldn’t move quickly enough. But Dwayne caught the arrow. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He had just saved me.

Dwayne rushed over to Dan and slid underneath his left arm, which held the tongs. Dwayne picked up his knife and jammed it deep into Dan’s left calf. Dan wailed in pain. Jordan drew her sword and went in to finish Dan off. Alex ran in front of Dan and splashed some Dr. Pepper in Jordan’s eyes. Jordan fell down. Dan recovered and tried to stomp on Dwayne. I ran towards Dan and slashed his apron off. He swiped at me with his tongs. I quickly ducked. Morgan and Alex were battling each other. Victoria used a spell and dozens of cups of soda flew from the counter and drenched Dan. He ran after her and pressed the tongs to her arm.

“What- what happened?” he asked. He examined his tongs. They had completely cooled down. Victoria’s soda spell doused the hot metal. Dan was really angry now. He picked up Jordan and threw her into the back of the kitchen. He leaped over the counter again and Dwayne and I followed. Jordan was parrying attacks from Dan, who was armed with a hammer.

He bashed her from the side and she flew into the side of an oven that was cooking hamburgers. It smelled like he had left them in too long. He opened the oven door and lifted Jordan. I swung my sword and cut off the top of his hammer. It fell and smashed his toes. He dropped Jordan and started hopping around holding his foot. It was the first time I noticed how big his feet were. In fact, his whole body seemed to be growing larger as we fought him. Jordan came to and grabbed a wooden spatula. She thrust it into the fire and then pulled it out. The tip was on fire.

“Start picking a new fast food restaurant, Dan.” she said. She tucked the spatula into his shirt pocket so the flames were sticking in his face. He seemed to shrink now. He shrieked as he threw the spatula onto a wooden counter.

“Why does it seem like he is growing and shrinking?” I asked.

“He’s an ogre. A southern ogre to be more exact. They’re better with weapons, are far more intelligent, and can grow as large as they want if they keep themselves wet.” she said. “Now, let’s get out of here!” she continued. We leapt back over the counter. Morgan was dragging Alex, who was unconscious, into a booth.

“C’mon guys, the place is burning down!” I yelled. Morgan dropped Alex and picked up Ethan. We got outside and ran across the street to a gas station. I called a fire engine on the pay phone and reported the fire before we continued going up the road. We stopped and rested after running at least half a mile.

I saw a fire engine drive past us. I was sure it was heading towards the Burger King.

I turned to Dwayne. “So, how are we going to make this work?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“We helped you escape. Now, what’s that bit of information you had about Brandon?” I asked.

“Okay, so I don’t exactly have it yet.” he said.

“What?!” I yelled.

“Hey, I know where to get it though. In fact, I’ll guide you to it.” he said.

“Nice try. This is probably a trap.” I said.

“Look, I know you don’t trust me and I’m fine with that. But I’m not going to betray you- this time. I still go by the code of the More Dread Gang, and it states that no promise shall be broken unless against an enemy. However, it says that if that enemy has paid you a favor, you are in debt to them. So, I am going to pay you back by getting you that information.” he replied.

“Still not enough. We need some sort of sign that you won’t attack us… give me your knife.” I said. He sighed and pulled out his knife. I took it. “And your sword.” I said.

“I don’t have it. I lost it in a battle against a dragon last winter.” he said. I hesitated. “Victoria, use a spell to make sure he has no more weapons.” I said. She performed the spell. “Nothing. He’s clean.” she said.

“Alright. So where are we going?” I asked.

Chapter Seven: Chase
Dwayne had led us west towards Pittsburgh. We stopped outside of a steel mill.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“We are resting here for the night.” he said. It had gotten dark out.

“How much farther is it?” Morgan asked. She tended to complain on long journeys like this, especially if we were traveling by foot.

“We are traveling to Cincinnati, Ohio, so we still have a long way to go.” he answered. He pulled a small thumb drive out of his pocket and threw it on the ground. It transformed into a sleeping bag and pillow. He unrolled the sleeping bag and laid it on a stack of steel lying outside the doors. He put the pillow on the steel next to the bag and lay down. I pulled a pillow out of my pack. Then I pulled out sleeping bags and blankets for everyone, including myself. I bet you’re wondering, ‘What kind of bag does he use? It has so much room. Where can I get one?’ Well, I actually got it from the centaurs last fall as a gift. Its magic and it can hold a whole truckload of stuff and still only feel as if there were only a feather in it. We all laid the bags out and laid on them. Dwayne was already asleep.

“I’ll take the first watch.” said Ethan.

“Are you sure? What about your arm?” I asked.

“It’s all better. Jordan is a spectacular healer.” he said. She was already asleep. I bet she would have loved to here that.

“Alright, if you’re sure you can handle it.” I said. I laid back and closed my eyes.

I woke up. It was morning. The air was warm but the sun wasn’t shining. Gray clouds were spread across a gray sky. I looked all around. There were many other steel mills spread across the field, and the closest tree could barely be made out on the horizon. Everyone else was awake except Ethan. Victoria and Jordan were cooking bacon and waffles on some hot slats of steel. It smelled good. Dwayne and Morgan were inside gathering supplies. I walked over to Jordan. “Rise and shine. Grab a plate. These are going to be ready any minute.” she said. I grabbed a plate. Victoria slapped a waffle down on it. I took some bacon and laid it on my plate. Morgan came out of the mill.

“Jordan, your turn.” she said. She still had the shackles on from the centaur camp, and so did Victoria. She grabbed a plate.

“What do you mean?” I asked, taking a bite out of the waffle.

“Ethan caught Dwayne trying to sneak away last night.” Victoria said.

“I knew it. We shouldn’t have trusted him.” I replied. Jordan grabbed her sword and walked into the mill. I put down my breakfast.

“I’ve got to see this.” I said, walking inside. The steel mill was a tight space. The sun shone brightly through the windows. Dwayne was handcuffed to a metal shelf.

“Why were you trying to sneak off last night?” I asked.

“Look, I haven’t been completely honest with you.” he said.

“No, really?” I replied sarcastically.

“I made a deal with a few goblins. If I bring them to you, in return they will teach me all of the magic I need to know. They said they would meet me at night in a city in New Jersey. I was going to go back to them and lead them here. I wasn’t sure what they wanted to do with you, but at the time I didn’t care. I made this deal before you helped me escape. I’m still in debt to you. I really do know about the information. But they said if I didn’t meet them on that night, they would come after me and kill me. I didn’t know what to do.” he said.

“Sorry, but you’ve ran out of passes. I do not trust you anymore. We might as well leave you here for the goblins.” I said.

“No, you don’t understand. Once those goblins kill me, they’ll know where you are. I’ve been around you long enough to get the scent on myself. They’ll just use it to track you down.” he said.

“We’ll manage.” I said. “Jordan, get some breakfast and then pack up your things. We’re leaving.” I said. Jordan walked out. I followed her. Dwayne yelled and struggled to escape. I closed the doors. I went over to where I had left my breakfast. It was gone.

“Who ate my breakfast?” I asked. Victoria pointed at Morgan.

“It was delicious.” she joked. I sighed. She pulled my breakfast out from under a metal slat, laughing. I laughed and took my breakfast. After finishing, I packed up the sleeping bags and pillows and put them in my pack.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah.” they replied. We started walking in the direction of our hometown. We had decided that it was just a trap and that we should keep on going to find Alan and Kendall. But we didn’t get far before we heard a loud noise like a truck’s horn. A massive truck smashed through the wall of the steel mill and drove towards us. We ran around the side of the mill.

“Guys, get in!” Ethan called. He hopped into the driver seat of another truck and used a spell to make himself appear twenty eight. We lifted up the trailer door and hopped in the back. We couldn’t reach the door handle to close it so it stayed open. Ethan started driving. We raced straight past the truck. I could make out two goblins in the driver seat and passenger seat as we passed by. The passenger seat goblin stuck his arm out the window and fired his gun. Most bullets bounced harmlessly off the truck’s hull, but a few went inside the trailer and almost hit us.

“Looks like you could use some help.” a voice said. Dwayne came up on my left and pointed a gun at the goblin.

“Dwayne?!” I shouted.

“In flesh.” he said, firing his gun. He was really bad at firing a gun. He sighed. “Have you ever used a gun before?” he asked.

“The closest to it was a Nerf gun.” I replied.

“Good.” he said, handing me the gun.

“Wait, but how did you get out of the mill? You should’ve been squished by that truck.” I said.

“Let’s just say I learned a lock pick spell.” he said, lifting a steel slat.

I turned and fired the gun best I could. The driver took a few hits, but a majority of my bullets missed. Morgan fired arrows at the gun goblin. Victoria was trying to blast the truck tires. Jordan was helping Dwayne lift metal slats.

“Why are you helping him?” I asked.

“Right now, we need to put our differences aside and get rid of that truck!” she exclaimed. Dwayne and Jordan walked to the edge of the trailer and threw the steel. It crashed on the ground and the goblin truck slowed down before driving over it. They soon recovered and continued chasing us. We were on a dirt road heading towards a group of large steel mills. We drove inside a steel mill. The truck followed us, though it was slowing down because Victoria had melted a tire. Dwayne and Jordan were having trouble lifting more steel.

Morgan handed her bow to Victoria. “Let me do it.” Morgan said. She lifted all of the steel with one hand and tossed it out of the trailer. Dwayne and Jordan stared in disbelief.

“Dang, she works out.” Dwayne said. I rolled my eyes and continued firing. The driver was still in tact. Victoria fired an arrow at the passenger, who had stopped shooting because the truck had to maneuver around the steel Morgan had thrown. The arrow hit and the goblin fell out the window. Now all we had to worry about was getting hit by the truck. Or so I had thought. I could see several more goblins climbing onto the roof of their trailer. They were armed with bows and maces and hammers.

“Cover for me.” he told Morgan. Morgan grabbed her bow. Dwayne lifted a steel rod and pointed it at the ground. Like the actual ground that isn’t in the trailer. We had finally exited the steel mill. He thrust the pole into the ground and leaped. He landed on the hood of the other truck. It was the first time I noticed how close the other truck had gotten. He climbed up the hood and began smacking the goblins. Whenever one got too close to him Morgan shot it.

Dwayne had killed nearly all of the goblins when Jordan told him to come back. Dwayne ran to the front of the truck and leaped back into the trailer. Jordan stacked steel against the wall to make stairs and had climbed up them. She could just reach the rope that would close the door. She grabbed it and pulled it down. I locked the door so it wouldn’t open again.

“I think we’ll be fine now.” Morgan said. There was a loud bang and the trailer door shuddered. “Maybe I spoke too soon.” she added. There was another bang on the ceiling. I looked up. I could see half of a mace sticking through the top. It moved in a circle about two feet wide, making a loud irritating noise, like fingernails on a chalkboard or a fork scraping against a plate.

The circle section caved in and clattered on the ground. A few goblin faces poked through the hole. Then they all jumped in. Dwayne smacked the first one sending it against a wall. Victoria used a spell to toss two more out. I unlocked the trailer door and opened it. Dwayne and Morgan pushed the goblins out the door and they fell on the ground, hit by the truck.

“I think that’s all of them.” Morgan said. I looked out the door. There was one last goblin, and he was the biggest. He looked like a mini-ogre. He had muscular arms and legs. He had a square jaw and a long crest coming out of the back of his head that extended all the way back to his waist. He was armed with an axe. “Oh, come on!” Morgan cried in disbelief.

The goblin hopped into our trailer. He lifted his axe above his head and swung at Morgan. Jordan quickly intercepted and threw him off balance. Victoria was in the back of the trailer trying to perform a spell. I parried the goblin’s next attack, but the axe was difficult to hold back and I ended up on the ground. The goblin stomped angrily. I felt a wave of force pass through me. I was pushed back to the wall. The goblin had now turned on Dwayne and they were fighting axe to pole. I tossed Dwayne his knife. He caught it and ducked under the goblin’s next swing. Dwayne then jumped straight back up and stabbed the goblin in the stomach.

The goblin roared ferociously. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I looked at my arms and legs and noticed that the metal floor seemed to be growing tentacles and wrapping around me. I ripped free and stood up. I ran towards the goblin, but the floor was making it difficult. Wherever I stepped the floor would cave in or melt away, and sometimes a metal tentacle would trip me. Victoria had finished her spell. She had forged a sword. Jordan, Victoria and I were all trying to swing on the goblin at the same time.

He parried Jordan’s attack and my attack with his axe. Victoria made a deep cut right in his head. He stumbled back and fell out of the trailer. The other truck jolted upward as it flattened the large goblin. Victoria melted the truck’s tires and it came to a halt, the wheels covered in hot rubbery goo. Ethan continued driving down the road. We had escaped the goblins.

It had been at least ten minutes since we escaped. “Alright, Dwayne, what are we going to do with you?” I asked. We were sitting on steel, Morgan, Victoria, and I on one side of the truck and Dwayne and Jordan on the other. Jordan sat closest to the entrance to keep Dwayne from escaping.

“I told you, you can trust me. We need to get that information.” he said.

“We have to?” I asked.

“Yes. I need it too. I can’t let Jeremiah’s plan follow through or I will lose my authority in the gang.” he said.

“So, you’re helping us now so you can kill us later?” I asked.

“Not exactly. My last assignment was not to kill you. It was to stop Jeremiah. It turns out; he isn’t really a gang member. He’s just using the gang as a disguise for his real plans.” he said.

“What are his plans?” I asked.

“Jeremiah is planning to hypnotize all of the centaurs in the world. Then he will lead an army of them to terrorize the mortals and any other creatures. Then he will make all of the mortals his slaves.” he said.

“That definitely isn’t good. But what does he need Brandon for?” I asked.

“Only a descendant of King Arthur has the kind of power it will take to hypnotize all of the centaurs at once.” he replied. “Excalibur will amplify the power, and a gem is needed to focus the hypnotism on one race: centaurs.” he said.

“Why doesn’t he just hypnotize the mortals in the first place?” I asked.

“He knows that the other centaurs will stop him. And he can only hypnotize one certain race because he wouldn’t have enough power. Once he hypnotizes the centaurs, Brandon will be dead, all of the energy and life sucked out of him.” he continued.

“We’ve got to keep that from happening. Now we know what Jeremiah’s plan is, and we know what we’re up against. Now we can take action appropriately.” I said.

“Yes, so you understand why we must get that information. We must travel to Cincinnati in Ohio to get it.” he said. Ethan had been driving north so it was going to take a while now to get to Ohio.

“Oh, by the way, you said you had learned a lock pick spell?” Victoria said.

“Yes.” Dwayne replied.

“Could you unlock these?” she asked, lifting the links of the chains on her wrists.

“I should be able to.” he said, walking over. He knelt down and began fiddling with the lock on the ankle chains. The chains soon dropped to the ground, making a loud clinking noise. He went to work on the other chains.

“I thought you said you learned a spell.” I said.

“It’s not really a spell, I can already pick locks without magic.” he said. The shackles dropped to the ground and he began to pick the lock on Morgan’s chains. In two minutes the chains were removed. He sat down again.

“We should probably tell your ‘chauffer’ to turn around and head for Cincinnati.” he said. Right then the truck pulled to a stop. I looked outside. We had parked in front of a fancy looking restaurant. The air had grown cooler and the sky was now completely covered in gray clouds. A layer of fog hovered just above our heads. We all hopped out of the truck. We met up with Ethan at the front of the truck. He was wearing a white T-shirt now that was smudged with grease and oil, and he was rummaging with machinery inside the hood of the truck. He came out and slammed it shut.

“We are low on gas and there seems to be a problem with the engine. Well, as long as we’re here, lets get some lunch.” he said. It was still quite early, at least eleven o’ clock, but the bumpy and rough truck chase drained my energy. I held the door open for the others and they all walked in. The place was amazing! Not as good as my house, which is lavish and I get food from my butler Thomas with a snap of my fingers, but it was still well decorated. The whole place was dimly lit. We walked up to a desk at the front.

“Table for six.” said Ethan.

“Do you have a reservation?” the woman asked, a bored expression in her tone. She had red hair tucked up in a cap and pale white skin with a thin face. Her face was covered with lots of freckles.

“No.” Ethan replied. The woman looked at me and her eyes lit up. Uh oh, I thought.

“Well, that’s okay! Follow me!” she said, cheerfully. We followed her to a table all of the way in the back of the restaurant.

“Here are your menus.” she said in her cheerful voice. “Can I get you anything Mr. Harris?” she asked. I slid down in my seat and put up my menu.

“I’m fine.” I said.

“Okay! Be right back to take your order!” she said, walking away.

I put down my menu. “Lance, what was that about?” asked Morgan asked. I sighed.

“My mom and dad are really rich, and they own a few restaurants and this happens to be one of them. In my family, I’m highly misunderstood. I don’t want to be filthy rich; I just want to be a normal kid. My mom thinks that money will fix everything, and it drives me crazy. So when she saw me she sat us down right away. Our food will probably be free. They work really hard to impress my parents and that means serving me too.” I explained.

“Well, we already knew you were filthy rich, but not wanting to be? What is wrong with-” she was stopped by Jordan. The woman came back with a notepad and pen.

“What would you like to drink today Mr. Harris?” she asked.

“I’ll just have some Pepsi.” I reply.

“Okay.” she says, walking off. I look at my friends.

“Did you see that? She’s treating you like your invisible.” I said.

“It’s okay; I’m sure she just wants to serve you first.” Ethan said. She came back minutes later with a tall glass of Pepsi.

“What would you like to eat Mr. Harris?” she asked.

“Um, actually, can you get some drinks for my friends, first?” I asked.

“Of course. What would you like to drink Miss Rockett?” she asked Morgan. Now it was getting strange. The woman had never met Morgan and Morgan hadn’t mentioned her name.

“Just water.” Morgan said.

“And you, Miss Charming?” she asked Victoria.

“Dr. Pepper.” she replied.

“And-”

“Water.” Dwayne interrupted.

“Okay. Uh, Mr. Mendell?” she continued. She kept doing that, calling us by our last names without us having to tell her. She walked away after taking my friends’ order.

“That was really weird.” I said. Dwayne looked at me like I was an idiot.

“She’s a mind reader. She just tries to hide it, though she isn’t too good at doing it.” said Dwayne.

“How do you know this?” I asked him.

“Because I trained her. I actually trained several wizards. She just happens to be one of them. But the power of mind reading is only given to certain wizards, most of them unlucky. Mind reading is a curse, because you can’t turn it off. You are constantly hearing the thoughts of others around you in your head. In fact, it has driven some wizards insane. Only a descendant of Merlin,” he said, gesturing to Victoria, “can actually learn and teach mind reading and has the ability to stop.” The waitress returned. She set the drinks down and looked at me.

“The chicken tenders?” she said. She slapped herself on the forehead. “I am sorry, I mean-”

“It’s okay. Yeah I actually did want some chicken tenders.” I said, trying to keep her calm. She really could read minds.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” she said.

After she left, I asked Dwayne, “You trained her?”

“Yes. She is one of three students that succeeded. Another one had blonde hair and I taught her mainly magic focusing on summoning or levitating objects. Today, she owns a hair salon. I’m not sure if she chose the right business to use her powers in. But this one, I taught how to levitate objects, summon fire, summon water, hypnotize, and teleport. I think that this was one of the few places she could use her powers in.” he said.

“How old were you when you started training wizards?” Ethan asked.

“Well, I didn’t train just wizards, I trained warriors too. I was at least ten when I did it.” he said. Jordan’s eyes lit up. She turned to him.

“You trained me.” she said.

Chapter Eight: Traveling
I couldn’t believe this. If Dwayne is evil, and he trained Jordan, doesn’t that mean she is evil too? I asked my question to get the idea out of my head.

“I trained her four years ago. I joined the More Dread Gang when I was thirteen, three years after training wizards. And I am not evil.” Dwayne answered. I sighed with relief, but I sort of rolled my eyes at that last part about Dwayne not being evil. The waitress came back and put my plate down in front of me. On the plate was an arrangement of chicken tenders neatly laid out, and there was lettuce and cheese on the sides with a quintet of dipping sauces displayed in the center.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get your food in one minute.” she said to my friends. She rushes off to go and get the food they hadn’t ordered. I’m guessing they had thought of ordering it though. She comes back soon holding two full trays of burgers, small pizzas, steaming hot pasta and macaroni, and several other dishes. She was levitating one of the trays but quickly set it down on a stool to hide her magic. She sets down all sorts of dishes on the table, along with several dipping sauces and a large tray of fries. I instantly begin eating the fries, dipping them in the sweet, creamy ranch dip.

Morgan had gone to work on her small pizza and Victoria was slowly eating some salad that she had ordered, though she hates eating vegetables all by itself. She poured some mustard and added some chicken and beef before eating it. Everyone had finished when I had looked over at the door and saw six large, muscular men walking in. Their skin was an olive green and they had long ponytails dropping down their backs.

Dwayne rose out of his seat and picked up a knife. “Prepare yourself.” he said. The six men were greeted by our waitress. The largest one said something and she shook her head. He grabbed her wrist and flung her out of the way.

“Dwayne! Where are they!?” he shouted. The large men ripped off wigs where underneath there were green skin and long crests. More goblins.

They all pulled out weapons. One had a mace, another had a gun. The two smallest ones had a bow and two knives, and the largest one had two long swords. The other one had a six foot spear. They all charged towards our table. Dwayne leaped over the back of the seat and engaged in battle with the knife goblin. I drew my sword and followed his example, only I went after the goblin with the mace. Ethan went into combat with the spear goblin. The one with the swords called to the smallest ones, “Flurgh, Naygoz, attack the descendant of Guinevere.” I’m guessing Flurgh and Naygoz were their names.

The knife one pushed Dwayne back into a booth and left him to battle the gun goblin. He was saved by the waitress who used a fire spell to keep the gun goblin away. The smallest goblins were battling Morgan with their knives and bow against her bow. She had fired several arrows into the bow goblin. Victoria had begun battling the swords goblin. I barely dodged a swing of a goblin’s mace. I dove back in and stabbed him, and he dropped his mace on the spear goblin’s foot. Ethan disintegrated both of them with his wand. Jordan had started fighting Flurgh, the one with the knives. Dwayne, Victoria and I had moved on to fighting the largest one with the swords. He moved quickly for a big guy and his swords moved fluently. Morgan finally shot down Naygoz and started blasting at the gun goblin.

“Tak, we’ve got to get out of here!” the gun goblin shouted to the swords one, who was apparently Tak.

“No! We have a mission to do, Sayquith! Stand your ground!” Tak replied. Dwayne finally made a good sized cut in Tak’s crest. Tak yelled out in pain. Dwayne turned to me. A goblin’s crest is what holds all of its energy.” he said. Tak crumpled to the floor, drained. He began to crawl towards an abandoned table full of uneaten food. He touched the food, and his hand glowed. The food seemed to shrivel up, and soon it disappeared all together. He raised again, full of new energy. Jordan sliced off Flurgh’s crest and then pushed him into a wall before stabbing him to death. I ducked at Tak’s next swing, but wasn’t ready for his next one. I took a bad cut in my right shoulder. Morgan shot Sayquitch in the forehead and he fell to the ground, dead.

Tak stabbed Dwayne a few times and then spun around and kicked Victoria to the ground. He stabbed her and then jumped onto Morgan, pinning her to the ground. Victoria and Jordan raced towards him. He stabbed Victoria about ten times before Jordan finally got one good swing in on him.

“That is not enough to defeat me!” he boasted.

“Of course it is. My sword is poisoned.” Jordan said. Tak’s eyes widened for a split second before they closed forever. Jordan helped Victoria up and brought her into a booth. Ethan helped Dwayne and I get into a seat too. We all got hurt really bad, but Victoria got it the worst. Jordan inspected my wound.

“It isn’t severe, you should be fine with a small healing spell.” she said. She performed the spell and the stinging went away. She moved onto Dwayne. “This is worse than his, but the same treatment should be enough.” she confirmed. She used the same spell and Dwayne relaxed a bit. She moved on to Victoria. “Oh, this isn’t good.” she said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“These wounds are too severe for me to cure. I’ll have to take her to Gordon.” she replies.

“Gordon?” Morgan asked.

“Yes. He’s an old friend of mine. He’s a great healer. He lives in Columbus, the capital of Ohio.” she said.

“Luckily, we are heading in that direction.” Dwayne said.

“Yes, but it might take a while. The truck has no gas and I don’t think I can fix the engine. We will either have to walk or find a different form of transportation.” Ethan said.

“That’s bad news. If we don’t get to Columbus in time…” Jordan said.

The waitress walked over to our booth. “You… are the descendant of Lancelot?” she asked. I hesitated to answer, but then I remembered she was a wizard and telling her would be alright. “Yes.” I replied. “And she is Guinevere’s,” I said, gesturing to Morgan. “And she is Merlin’s.” I continue.

“What? She is Merlin’s descendant? Then we must get her to a healer quickly. Jordan, put her here on the floor.” she said. I wondered how she knew Jordan’s name. Then I recalled that she could read minds and Jordan was trained with her so they probably already knew each other. “Alright, now the rest of you come into the middle too.” she continues. We all gathered in the middle in a circle, Victoria crumpled on the floor in the middle of us. The waitress came over to us and performed a spell. There was a bright flash and then the room started spinning. A blue cylinder formed around us. At first we could see through it, but over time it became opaque.

The room stopped spinning, or at least I think it did, because my vision was a bit blurry. The cylinder disappeared. I looked around, and saw several cars going through a long street and tall buildings were surrounding us. Jordan was now supporting Victoria and the waitress was gone. Morgan was passed out on the ground from dizziness and Dwayne was leaning against a pole to keep himself up. Ethan had hit his head on something and had a gash on his right temple. “We are in Columbus.” Jordan said.

“How is that possible? We were just in a restaurant about a hundred miles from here!” I cried. “We were teleported here. By Ashley.” she continued. I was still a bit confused, but I decided to not worry about it. “Gordon’s house is this way. Let’s go.” she said. We all followed Jordan down a cobblestone sidewalk up to a small apartment building. She knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern and the door opened. A short, stout, brown haired man answered the door. He had green eyes and some whiskers on his chin. He looked like he might be in his twenties and he had several pizza stains on his green T-shirt. He was smiling. His teeth looked like they had just been whitened, and he had a sort of friendly essence in the air around him. “Jordan!” he said, smiling as big as ever. He gave her a big hug. “How are you?” he asked. “I’m doing great, thanks. How are you?” she asked.

“Oh I’m fine. I was just packing a few more things.” he said. “Hey, do you know what day it is?” he asked. He had that tone in his voice that showed that he obviously already knew the answer.

“Oh my gosh. It’s the twenty ninth of April, right?” she replied.

“That’s right!” he replied. She gave him another hug.

“Happy birthday!” she said.

“Thanks. So, who are they?” he asked.

“Oh, just some friends. We’re on a quest. Yeah, uh, that’s Lance, descendant of Lancelot, that is Morgan, descendant of Guinevere, and this is the descendant of Merlin. She is badly wounded, and I was wondering…” she said.

“Oh, uh, sure. We just got to do it quickly because I’m not going to be in my apartment ever again after tonight.” he replied.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I’m being evicted.” he replied. I found it strange that he was still smiling.

“On your birthday? That isn’t right.” she replied.

“Yeah, but I’ve got to do it.” he said. “Well, we’d better get to work then if we’re going to heal her before my time is up.” he said. He invited us inside. We all followed him through the doorway. I looked off to the right and saw an empty room, except for a small chair in the middle of it. On the left was nothing but wall. We continued down the hallway until we entered a kitchen. There was still a refrigerator, oven, and dish washer there but that was it. He brought a cake out of the fridge and set it down on the oven. He snapped his fingers and a table and four chairs appeared. He set the cake on the table. The cake was vanilla with chocolate frosting and about four pieces were missing. “Please, sit down, have some cake. I already had a few slices earlier when my brother Frank came to visit, so there is really no need to sing Happy Birthday.” he said, still smiling. He has been smiling the whole time. He seems like he tries to make the best of everything.

He half guided half carried Victoria into another room. It was silent for a long time. No one touched the cake, except Dwayne who was trying to dig the cream filling out of the center. We could only here Gordon, who was occasionally mumbling or a question for Victoria. After at least thirty minutes a boom box came on in the other room and started playing music by The Beatles. After a few songs the radio turned of. Then, a new voice could be faintly heard.

Morgan was the first to rise from her seat. She dashed into the other room, her right hand on the butt of an arrow. She sensed danger. We all followed her example and made our way into the other room. When we threw open the door, I was surprised of how magnificent the room looked. The octagon shaped ceiling was at least twenty feet high with a crystal chandelier hanging from the center. The walls were painted a sky blue color and were smoothly sanded and they appeared to be polished. A soft peach carpet was spread on the floor. There were a few areas where imprints were made in the carpet where chairs or other furniture used to rest. A large oak table with a bundle of blood stained blankets on it was below the chandelier. Victoria was wrapped in the blankets.

Gordon was lying on the floor unconscious, a nasty, bleeding scrape in his left temple. A figure covered in a dark, black cloak stood by the table holding a bloody brick. The figure looked up, and then leaped back before vanishing into the shadows. I ran over to where the figure had run to and stabbed into the wall where it should have been, but it was no where to be found. I walked back to where Victoria was laid. Her wounds were gone, except for a few white scars from some that were more severe. Jordan and Ethan helped Gordon back up. “Gordon, what happened?” Ethan asked. Gordon’s eyes were barely opened. He struggled to show at least a small smile on his pained face.

“I had just finished healing her when this figure in dark cloaks lunged out at me from the shadows. I turned to blast it with my wand, but the healing had temporarily drained its power, and I was knocked out with a brick that the figure carried. I do remember the figure whispering something. I could faintly hear it after being hit.” he said.

“Do you remember what it said?” Morgan asked.

“I…I don’t remember. It said something about a trap, and Merlin, and… something else. It was a little foggy.” he stammered. “But I finished healing Victoria and you should take leave quickly. The amount of magic I used will probably attract more dangerous things than whispering, cloaked figures.” Just as he said that, there was a pounding on the door. I ran to a window and brushed the curtains aside to see who it was. There were a few gang members, some muscular goblins with guns, and an ogre standing at the door. The goblins aimed their guns at the door, ready for any sign of attack. The gang members pounded furiously on the door, while the ogre stood by patiently, waiting for an order to smash something. I turned back to the others.

“There are some gang members, trucker goblins, and an ogre at the door. Do you think we can take them?” I asked. The group shot nervous looks at each other.

“I don’t think so.” said Dwayne. “Victoria is still too weak, I’m banged up, Ethan can barely think straight ever since he hit his head, and you are just as bad as I am. We’ll have to retreat.”

Gordon stood up. “I have a secret passage way leading towards Cincinnati. It doesn’t go all the way there, but it should lead you a good distance. By then the gang members should have either left or got inside and followed you. But even then, the path is too dangerous for them to pass through. It floods with water every two hours and I have laid several traps down there. But don’t worry, you guys should be able to pass just fine.” he said. His tone of voice wasn’t so reassuring, but that big, constant smile on his face always seemed to brighten the situation. He limped over to a bookshelf.

Morgan laughed. “That is so cliché! The secret passages are always behind bookshelves!” she said. Gordon looked at her strangely, and then grabbed a book off the shelf. He opened it and read a spell from it. The floorboards shifted to reveal a large gaping hole in the center of the room. Morgan stopped laughing. “Oh.” she said, embarrassed. The walls of the hole were slimy, so I couldn’t really climb into it. It was more of a slide. It was pitch dark for a while. The tunnel changed directions and was now going horizontally. I slid right into a small puddle of water. At least I hope it was water. I could still hear the banging coming from above, and I could faintly hear a high pitched sliding noise as Ethan came down after me. Soon we were all down except Jordan and Victoria.

I heard Jordan shout, “Thank you so much! Happy birthday!” Soon Jordan was down too, Victoria in her lap. A loud crash could be heard as the floorboards reconstructed themselves. Dwayne had found a torch and lighted it with a spell. With the tunnel now illuminated, I could see that it stretched off in two directions. I could hear a faint growling coming from the right, so I suggested that we go left. After walking a while, there was another fork in the tunnel. “Remember when Gordon said the tunnel would flood?” asked Victoria.

“Yes.” I replied.

“How are we going to know when that will happen?” she asked. I pondered this for a while, unsure what to say. Luckily, Jordan came to my rescue.

“Gordon gave me this watch. He set it so an alarm would go off whenever the tunnel would flood. He also said there were some air pockets in the sides of the tunnels that could prove useful to us. The tunnel will flood for five minutes before draining again.” she said. “He also drew up a map that will lead us through the safest way to get to the exit.”

“That’s a relief.” said Victoria. For the first time since the battle with the trucker goblins, I got a good look at her face. Her eyes were wide and alert, with a hint of fear in them.

“Are we going the right way?” asked Ethan.

“I’m not sure.” said Jordan, studying the map. “Bring the light closer.” she ordered. Dwayne let the torch hover just next to the map so she could easily see it. Um… yes, I think we’re headed in the right direction. We need to turn right at the next fork.” she replied. We continued walking and turned right at the next fork as the directions told us to. Soon I started hearing a constant hissing noise. Then, another new noise found its way to my ear. I realized that the newest noise was the sound of our shoes on a cast iron floor. It made sense that the noise changed because before we had only been walking on concrete. The hissing noise still bothered me though.

“Does anyone else hear that?” I asked.

“Do you mean the hissing sound? Yes. I heard it a while ago. It’s probably some steam or gas coming off of a pump in a house above. It shouldn’t bother us.” Jordan said. I liked having Jordan with us. She always seems to know what she’s doing, and is calm and tries to make the best of things. She’s actually a lot like Gordon. My thoughts were interrupted when the hissing got louder.

“Jordan… Jordan… I don’t think that it’s above us!” I said. I looked at Jordan. She had a worried look on her face and she seemed to be moving faster. All of the sudden, the ground below felt hot and a red glow came from below. I looked down and saw a column of flame rushing towards the tunnel’s ceiling… and us.

Chapter Nine: Traps
“Run!” Jordan shrieked. I dove ahead of the flames before they erupted through the cast iron floors. But it was only the first of the fiery columns. I hadn’t realized that I had pulled someone along with me. Morgan, Dwayne and Ethan were just in front of us while Jordan had already made good distance, even while carrying Victoria. Another blast came up from a few feet behind us. I shifted my feet carefully to avoid tripping over the holes in the floor. Morgan was following in my steps.

I leaped, pulling Morgan just out of reach of another eruption. Soon we had moved fast enough that the flames had only become flashes in the distance. Soon the flames stopped completely, sensing that their targets had escaped. I breathed heavily. Everyone else had made it, and they joined me and Morgan at the end of the fiery pits. We were once again standing on concrete, and the hissing noises had fallen silent.

“What… just happened?” I asked between breaths.

“Gordon told us that there were going to be traps.” Ethan said.

“Well… I remembered that. I just thought that… the map would lead us through a safe path.” I said.

“Yes. This is the safest path. It has the smallest number of traps on it.” Dwayne said, looking at the map. I looked up at the ceiling, and saw more cast iron.

“Uh oh. More cast iron means another trap.” I said.

“What do you mean? The ceiling has always been cast iron.” Morgan said. I noticed she hadn’t let go of my hand. Apparently she had too and finally released her grip. A loud beeping noise nearly blocked out her statement. I looked at her.

“Are you sure it isn’t another trap?” I asked.

“It’s the watch! The tunnel is flooding; we need to find an air pocket, now!” Jordan shouted. Ethan quickly performed a spell that ripped off a section of the ceiling.

“Everybody in!” he ordered. “Now!”

Jordan boosted me up, with Morgan following after. Dwayne came up next.

“Dwayne, pull up Victoria!” Jordan shouted. I heard the rush of water as it got closer to the tunnel we were in. Dwayne pulled in Victoria and then offered his hand to Jordan.

“Jordan, come on!” he said. Jordan shook her head.

“I couldn’t reach anyway.” she replied simply. I saw Ethan, who was behind Jordan, take out his wand and perform a spell on Jordan. She began floating up towards the opening. Dwayne grabbed her leg and pulled her in. Before she could protest, Dwayne shoved back away from the hole.

“Okay Ethan, now-”

A loud roar swept across the tunnel below us and slammed into Ethan. The dark water shrouded my vision from Ethan. I frantically looked for any sign of him in the murky water that swept through the tunnels. Four minutes later, the water drained from the tunnel as quickly as it flooded it. We dropped down from our perch and scouted the area for Ethan.

“He’s got to be here somewhere… he’s got to!” I shouted, hysterically searching along the wet walls.

“Lance…” Dwayne said. I turned and saw a foot long, silver stick in his hand. It was broad at the bottom but narrowed as it came closer to the crystal that was mounted on its tip. It was Ethan’s wand. I should have been embarrassed by the river of tears tumbling from my eyes, but I wasn’t. I felt the same way when the centaur chief died last fall and Francis when we were battling gang members at his campsite. I took Ethan’s wand and held it delicately as if it were as fragile as glass. I sighed and walked over to Victoria, who had known him the best out of everyone else in the group. I handed her the wand.

“Take it. It amplifies your magical abilities, and you need that now. Besides, you’re a great wizard.” I said to her. She had been crying more than me.

“He… he said that someday he… he would get me a wand too and… and teach me how to use it.” she said, sniffling. Jordan was standing nearby, looking angry. She stomped over to Dwayne and started talking to him. After a while they started arguing. Morgan finally urged us to keep moving. Victoria could walk by herself now, but Jordan still walked nearby to give her any support. Victoria was clutching the wand to her chest as she walked, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

New puddles of water were strewn across the tunnel floor, and some streams of water were running in the direction we were headed. Jordan bent down and studied the ground.

“We’re going downhill right now. If this is the direction that the water runs when it floods the tunnel, that means the drainage area should be somewhere up ahead.” she said. Dwayne relit the torch, as the water had snuffed it out. We had walked at least a half a mile when Morgan told us that she heard more water rushing.

“Should we find another air pocket?” she asked.

“No, you only hear it because we have reached the drainage area. All of the water goes here, and sticks around a while before beginning to slowly drain from the room.” Jordan said. According to the map, we’ll have to make our way through here.” she said. There is supposed to be an opening on the other side that will lead us to the final passageway. The exit is near.” she said. The ground was steep and slippery, but we all managed to make it to the edge of a large lake. The water didn’t fill the room completely, only enough to fill it up to where the bottom of our doorway was. I strived to see another door on the other end, but it was too dark. “So… what now, are we supposed to swim?” Dwayne asked.

“Precisely.” Jordan replied, hoisting Victoria on to her back. Then she jumped into the water. Jordan went under, but Victoria stayed on top, her arms around Jordan’s neck. Jordan resurfaced and began paddling towards the other side. The lake was at least a football field length across, so swimming to the other side was no easy feat. I jumped in next, and after swimming out a few feet heard two splashes as Dwayne and Morgan leaped in after. Jordan was halfway across already. I thought everything would be fine. Until Jordan was pulled underwater by something. Victoria quickly backfloated to avoid being pulled along with her.

“What was that?!” yelled Dwayne.

“Jordan sunk under!” I shouted back. I heard bigger splashes behind me as Dwayne swam quicker. Soon he was next to me.

“Where is she?” he asked. I pointed to where she had gone under. He dove under and kicked furiously towards where she had sunk, and then he went underwater. I swam over to Victoria.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just-” she began to thrash around. “Something’s got my leg! It’s pulling me under!” she cried. I swam closer to try and grab her, but then I felt that same tugging sensation on my leg. Victoria was about to be pulled under when she quickly performed a spell. A loud shriek like a cross between a hawk and a bat went off, and then a blue glow came from the water. The pulling stopped and I floated back up. I looked around, and saw Morgan swim up next to me. Then at the other end of the lake, I saw two figures rise out of the water. One was being dragged by the other. We swam over to investigate. It was Dwayne and Jordan. Jordan was fine, while Dwayne was unconscious.

I was confused because I was pretty sure it should have been the other way around. “What happened?” I asked.

“Mermaids.” Jordan said with disgust. “Some are good, some are bad. These were bad. Bad mermaids eat people, good ones help people. Of course they only eat boys, so when they found out I was a girl they let me go. Of course I had to save Dwayne then.” she said.

“What do they sound like?” I asked.

“Underwater, bad ones sound beautiful. Above, they sound like a rabid mutt. Why?” she asked.

“Because Victoria performed a spell and I heard a loud shrieking noise.” I replied.

“Oh. That was repellant spell. It repels all nearby monsters, but it works best on mermaids. Most likely it will kill them.” she said. Dwayne finally came to and coughed up some water.

“I had a dream that you guys ordered seafood from a restaurant, and then the tray had me on it and you guys turned into fish demons.” he said. I laughed. Jordan helped him up.

“Alright, the exit should be right down this hall.” she said. We all followed her down the hall until we she stopped below a hole in the ceiling that a ladder dropped from. “This is it.” she said. She grabbed hold of the ladder and pulled herself up, opening a grate on top. She climbed out and the others followed. I climbed up last. After pulling myself out I looked around to see where we were. All I saw was a ring of gang members surrounding the hole I had come out of. My friends… and Dwayne, were being held by some members, tied and gagged. I reached for my sword, but a member behind me clubbed me over the head before I could reach.

I woke up in what looked like an abandoned warehouse. As my vision cleared I saw that it was an abandoned Wal-mart. I was tied back to back with Dwayne. I had a gag in my mouth. I looked around. I saw Victoria and Morgan chained together on the other side of the room while Jordan was tied to a chair in the corner. Two gang members stood next to Jordan, both holding whips. Jordan had some welts on her head from being whipped. A gang member walked in with an axe. The gang member guards nodded and untied Jordan. She stood up, and the gang members cuffed her wrists. They pushed her over to a table and laid her down on it.

The one with the axe walked over and prepared to kill her. I was thrashing and kicking, when Dwayne shushed me. He had gotten his gag off and had his knife. He was quickly trying to saw through the ropes. Jordan kicked the axe member in the stomach and he doubled over, dropping the axe. Dwayne cut the ropes and leaped up. He threw the knife into the member’s back and he fell over, dead. The other two flicked their whips and charged at Dwayne. I tripped them and stood up, head butting them in the face as they fell. I ripped my gag off and unsheathed my sword. I cut Morgan and Victoria free and they joined the battle.

Victoria performed a spell with Ethan’s wand and light bulbs shattered all over the store. Everything was dark until a fiery form appeared. It looked like a flaming goblin with bat wings. The goblin thing flew over to gang members and started attacking. The lights went back on and the gang members were on the floor, knocked unconscious. The flaming goblin had disappeared.

“What kind of a spell was that?” I asked.

“It was a Death Flame spell. It was only supposed to make flames but Ethan’s wand increased it and created a flaming creature instead, so it would do more damage. That was amazing!” Victoria replied.

We were in Cincinnati after taking a bus.

“We are getting close to the information.” said Dwayne.

“As long as it isn’t in an evil Burger King, a flooding tunnel, or an abandoned Wal-mart, count me in!” Morgan joked.

Chapter Ten: More Stupid Goblins
Dwayne rushed through the revolving door of a hotel, the rest of us following close behind. We had to wait a while because Morgan got stuck in the revolving door. After she got out we followed Dwayne into a fancy restaurant. It was completely empty, so Dwayne just picked up a menu. He spoke magic words and the letters shifted, showing a message.

Florida

“Brandon is in Florida?” Morgan asked. “And in a castle? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she said. I spoke her next thoughts for her.

“No, they are not holding him captive inside of Cinderella’s castle in Disney World!” I replied. She sighed.

“Yes, he is in Florida and so is Jeremiah. I just don’t know where and it won’t say.” he said. “That’s okay; we’ll just get Alan and Kendall to tell us.” I said. I rolled my eyes.

“Alright, but when they are with you, I am not going to stay near. I’ll follow in hiding close by but if they see me I lose my authority.” he said. I “Okay, so now I guess we’re going home.” said Victoria. We left the restaurant and headed down to the lobby to leave. We stopped at a corner.

“Goblins. In the lobby.” Jordan said. I sighed.

“I am really starting to hate goblins.” I said. Dwayne took out a set of knives.

“I swiped these from the restaurant.” he said.

“Dwayne, you can’t just take from a restaurant, especially in a hotel.” I said.

“I didn’t take it from this restaurant. I took it from yours.” he said.

“Oh. Hey!” I said. He threw them at the goblins at the doors. All of the guests and employees had fled, except for a few that happened to be goblins in disguise.

After those two dropped dead, another one noticed. “There they are!” he said, pointing at us. “It isn’t polite to point, you know.” Morgan said, loading an arrow. She fired at the one who was pointing. I unsheathed my sword and swung it at the first few goblins. Jordan killed some goblins that were dressed in doorman uniforms. Victoria was working on a teleportation spell. After we defeated the goblins, two large ogres lumbered in holding huge wrenches. They looked at us inquisitively for a while before realizing who we were. They each swung their gargantuan wrenches at us. Dwayne rolled under the first wrench and then tossed a dozen knives into the ogres’ throats. They collapsed on the ground.

“C’mon guys, I can teleport us home!” she said. We all ran over to her and then a blue cylinder appeared around us. The room spun, and before I knew it, I was back at home, in the Honeysuckle Woods. I could see Dim Lantern Drive stretching a good distance before intersecting with my street, Wounded Fox Lane.

“I have to check on my brother.” Morgan said. “My mom isn’t supposed to be home today, so I have to.” We all followed her to her house. After she opened the door, I could smell burnt cookies and chicken. Morgan found a note on the kitchen table. It said:

Dear Morgan,

Your brother is upstairs and I baked you some cookies before I left for my special conference with your dad about coping with our problems. It went well, in fact, the other day your dad had stepped down from hitting me with a lamp and hit me with a heavy bag instead! Anyways, there’s a chicken in the fridge and one in the oven. Of course, the oven’s off… I hope. Oh well, you know where the phone is and I won’t be back until tonight because I have another meeting at one. OKAY BYE!!!

Morgan’s mom and dad were planning on divorcing, so they had a lot of fights. Morgan’s mom isn’t very organized upstairs if you know what I mean. Morgan pulled the chicken out of the oven and set it on the table. The other chicken would be saved for dinner. I took a leg and was about to bite into it when I heard someone from upstairs shouting.

“Oh no! No, this can’t be happening! Oh my gosh!” the voice shrieked. I dropped the leg and unsheathed my sword, darting upstairs. I ran into the room and saw Kevin, Morgan’s little brother. He’s only ten, and he was adopted by Morgan after his dad, a gang member, died when Brandon had burned down Dwayne’s mansion. He is the descendant of the knight Galahad. He is a short kid with brown hair and green eyes. He usually wore glasses but right now he was wearing contacts. He was in to video games, and he played them as much as he could. He was sitting on his bed holding a game controller. The TV was on and on it there was a knight slaying a group of gang members.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I almost died in the game.” he said, rapidly tapping buttons on the controller. The knight on screen ran into a goblin camp and started hacking at the inhabitants.

“Really? That was it?” I asked, putting my sword away.

“Yeah.” he said. The others joined me.

“What’s wrong?” Dwayne asked. Kevin looked up from his game. He stared at Dwayne for a while before tackling him to the ground.

“Morgan, quick! Hand me my knife, I think it’s under the pillow!” said Kevin. Dwayne threw him off.

“What are you doing?” Dwayne asked.

“Sorry about that, I trained him to recognize when a gang member was nearby.” said Morgan.

“Yeah, and I’d recognize you anywhere. Morgan made this video game for me so I can practice fighting gang members. You’re the final boss in my game and I was about to defeat you in it!” Kevin added. Dwayne looked at the screen at the computerized version of himself.

“I don’t really look like that does do I?” he joked. We all laughed except for Kevin.

“Kevin, Dwayne is our ally… for now.” I said. Kevin looked suspiciously at Dwayne before nodding.

“Alright, but if anything fishy is going on around here I’m pulling my knife out on you.” Kevin said. Dwayne laughed.

“Anytime.” he said. Kevin looked at Jordan.

“Where’d you pick up the hot one?” he asked. Jordan’s jaw dropped while the rest of us laughed. “I’m sixteen and clearly way too old for you.” she said.

“You’ll come around.” Kevin replied. I laughed even harder than before. It felt good to get some humor out of this and take some time away from stupid gang members, stupid goblins, and stupid ogres.

“So Kevin, where is everyone? On our way over here there wasn’t anyone playing or mowing their lawn. What happened?” Morgan asked.

“Oh, that’s simple. Two stupid twin gang members went to Brandon’s house with other gang members and attacked Troy and Brandon’s parents. They got away with Brandon’s parents and Troy was knocked out. Ever since then, the news on TV has informed everyone to stay indoors.” he said. My eyes widened.

“Guys, we didn’t show up early enough for Alan and Kendall to capture us so they got Brandon’s parents instead! Now they’re probably on their way to Florida! We need to get there quickly.” I said. We stepped outside Morgan’s house to head to the airport when we heard someone yelling. It was Troy and he was in trouble.

Chapter Eleven: Beast
We ran to Brandon’s house as fast as we could. There we saw Troy. Troy is a descendant of Perceval. He has blonde hair and an intimidating shade of green for his eye color. Brandon’s parents adopted him because he was so far from home and his parents were always traveling. His weapon of choice was a six foot long spear. He was seventeen. He was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans. He had five nasty cuts all in a row going down along his left arm, and he had several cuts on his face. The creature he was fighting was unlike any I had ever seen. Imagine a cross between a human and a wolf, with five razor sharp claws on each hand. It has white fur and a dark purplish color for its eyes. To add more to the description, it has a white tail with sharp quills on it. It also has fangs that looked like they had just been whitened a couple hundred times. Troy was battling this creature.

He stabbed and cut and swung the shaft of his spear in hopes of hitting the monster. But the ‘werewolf’ was too quick for him. The wolf made quick attacks in the places that Troy kept the least defended.

“Jordan, what the heck is that thing?” I asked.

“I have no idea.” she said.

“I do. That is an albino hunter wolf. Gang members in the snowy weather use them to camouflage themselves and hunt enemies that are good at hiding. They are relentless hunting wolves. That is probably an alpha wolf because of its quill tail and human-like properties.” said Dwayne. Troy’s spear was split in half by the wolf’s sharp claws. Luckily, Troy pulled out a stone and threw it on the ground, his hand reaching out to take hold of the new spear that was sprouting from the stone. He jabbed the creature twice in the chest to make it look down and then smacked it in the face. I unsheathed my sword.

“We have to help him!” I said, rushing in.

“Lance, don’t!” said Dwayne. But it was too late. The creature was so intent on killing Troy that it tossed me aside, right into a mailbox. I started seeing little black dots floating in front of my face. Jordan quickly stuck some griffin tongue under my nose and I instantly snapped out of it. That tongue smelled awful.

“Slow down, there. The creature will only fight Troy until he is dead. It’s as if the wolf thinks that it and Troy are the only two in the whole world.” Dwayne said. Morgan was firing arrows at the monster, but it swatted them aside as if they were flies. Troy began to retreat. “Guys, run!” he said. We all followed him down the street.

“Okay guys, we’ll have a better chance killing it if we stick together. So-” they ignored my comment and all scattered. Troy vaulted over a fence, Morgan took to the trees, and Victoria simply transported somewhere. Dwayne, Jordan, and I were the only three that stuck together. “I’m a gang member, so I think I can tame it.” said Dwayne. He ran over to it. He stroked its white fur and talked in soothing tones, which looked a bit strange because the wolf was at least three feet taller than him. The wolf snarled and threw Dwayne through the window of a house. Jordan and I drew swords. The creature pounced on me and was about to rip my throat out when Jordan saved me with a repellant spell.

“Griffin Cry!” she chanted. A loud shrieking noise rang out and Jordan’s wand glowed with blue light. The wolf retreated a few yards before catching Troy’s scent and darting off in a new direction. I guessed from the command that made the spell work, the shrieking noise was sort of like a recording of a griffin’s shriek. My eyes widened.

“We have to go to Victoria’s back yard, now.” I said.

Apparently, Victoria had the same idea.

“Now, Pepperoni, Troy is in danger. He is being hunted by an alpha albino hunting wolf.” Victoria explained. Pepperoni is what she named her pet griffin. Dwayne accidentally made it when he shot a bird with a red orb. She named it- sorry, I mean him- Pepperoni because he had a red spot on the back of his neck. Last fall Pepperoni and Troy formed a friendly bond when Troy had to take care of him for two weeks. Pepperoni perked up at Troy’s name but ruffled his feathers when the wolf was mentioned.

“You’re going to help save him right?” Victoria said. Pepperoni wagged his lion tail and flapped his wings, which I guess meant yes.

“Good boy.” Victoria said, tossing him a slice of pizza. The griffin leaped and snapped up the pizza in midair, landing again. The landing made the ground shake a little. Pepperoni turned around and Victoria climbed on. “C’mon guys!” she prompted. I climbed on behind her, but Jordan hesitated.

“I don’t know, I’ve never- whoa!” she said as I pulled her on.

“No time for excuses.” I said. Pepperoni leaped off of the ground with his incredibly strong lion-like hind legs. We soared over roof tops until Pepperoni spotted Troy battling the wolf. Pepperoni dove down. Right when he was about to hit the ground, Pepperoni spread his wings and glided along the ground. His sharp beak was raised, ready to spear the wolf. The wolf sensed it and quickly rolled out of the way as the griffin flew by. Pepperoni shot back up to try for another hit. After making a loop in the air that nearly made me hurl, Pepperoni dove in again for another strike. The wolf tried to dodge it again, but Troy made sure it didn’t get too far. Pepperoni’s tail caught the wolf in the stomach, causing it to double over. Pepperoni turned around and sailed towards the wolf for a final hit. This time the wolf didn’t dare try and dodge. It waited until the last second before leaping straight up and firing quills off of its tail. The timing was perfect.

One of the quills impaled itself in my neck and I toppled off of Pepperoni. The last thing I saw before blacking out was one of Morgan’s arrows sticking out of the beast’s chest. She had shot him from behind. My eyes closed and I had another dream.

Chapter Twelve: Idiot Twins Take Over
I saw the throne room in the castle again. Jeremiah, Alan and Kendall were there. “Which one of you idiots came up with that idea? Three things. One, we can’t hire Miley Cyrus. Two, you knew I would hate it. Three, who would fall for that?” Jeremiah asked angrily. Alan, the one who had actually thought of it, pointed at Kendall.

“He did.” he said simply.

“What? I-” Kendall sighed. “I’m sorry!” he said angrily.

“You see? This is why you two can’t be trusted on a task such as this. You couldn’t even capture four children!?” Jeremiah said.

“It’s not our fault! There was an old wizard and some hot girl with black hair and and… oh, what’s the use?” said Kendall.

“But don’t worry, Jeremiah. Kendall and I have found other ways to motivate Bennett! See?” said Alan, gesturing to the door. Two gang members came out, Brandon’s parents being pushed along by them.

“Who the heck are they?” Jeremiah said.

“His parents.” said Kendall. “And, we left an alpha hunting wolf behind to keep the other rascals busy. In fact, we left a whole bunch of gang members at their school, sir! They will never make it in time to free Brandon. By then, we’ll have the sword, he’ll be dead, the centaurs would have been hypnotized and his friends would be our slaves! Right Jeremiah?” Jeremiah smiled evilly.

“Oh, yes! Well done, Alan and Kendall. You are definitely improving.” he said.

“Yeah! And, we got a gem for you to use! It’s right… right… Kendall you dolt! You dropped the gem back at their school!” said Alan.

“What? I did not! You were carrying it. You must have dropped it when you tripped. Oh wait, that’s just about every other step you take! You could’ve lost it anywhere!” accused Kendall. “Mom did always like you best!” he said.

“Maybe it’s because somebody told grandma that mom broke that million dollar vase!” said Alan. “You did not just go there! Oh, it’s on!” said Kendall, raising his fists. Jeremiah pinched both of their ears. They yelled out in pain.

“I don’t care… who dropped it… just go… and get it… NOW!” shouted Jeremiah. He released the boys’ ears and pushed them away. The two rushed to the door, but Alan tripped on his way and provoked Jeremiah’s anger again. “GO!” he yelled, as Kendall pulled Alan through the door.

I woke up in Victoria’s house. The others were all sitting on the sofa. Dwayne had cuts all over him from where he had glass shards hit him. Troy had several bandages all over him and his left arm was in a sling. The others sat there watching television. I think it was Looney Tunes.

“Look who finally decided to wake up!” Morgan joked. I sat up. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, and when I opened them, I saw my legs were in casts.

“What?!” I yelled.

“Sorry Lance. I couldn’t heal them all the way. I used the last of my healing potion on Dwayne and Troy. Don’t worry though, I just need more ogre blood and then they’ll be all healed up. Until then, you’ll be in a wheelchair.” Jordan explained. I looked at the wheelchair that was parked next to me. I sighed.

“I can’t fight in that thing.” I said. “And our school is overrun by gang members and Brandon’s parents are already at the castle. Brandon could be giving them the sword right now. All they’ll need left is a gem and Alan and Kendall had one. They just forgot it at the school.” I said.

“Fine, then we’ll go to our school, kick monster butt, heal your legs, capture Alan and Kendall and take the gem. Easy as pie. Of course, I don’t like pie. So, I guess it’ll be easy as… cake? Or cookies?” Morgan said. While she went down her list of baked treats, the rest of us made a game plan. After figuring out our strategy, we headed down to the school.

The front doors were guarded by two ogres. Victoria gave me the power to summon a goblin servant, so I had one pushing me in the chair and another at my side armed with a sword. I was wheeled up to the ogres as I commanded the other goblin to attack the ogres. He didn’t do too well, but Victoria lit one on fire and Jordan stabbed the other to death. She collected the blood and healed me right on the spot. The goblins vanished as I rose from my chair. Miraculously, my legs felt good as new. We all went inside and confronted a few gang members that had been in the main hallway. Then we entered the gymnasium, where several ogres inhabited. A few in the corner were eating or sleeping, two others were impressively swinging their swords or maces, and the rest of us were shooting basketballs that had been thrown into the air by another one. It was an ogre’s playground.

Once we entered though, it became a battlefield. Jordan and I defeated the closest ones while Troy and Dwayne speared and sliced the ones swinging their weapons. I heard a loud shout come from the hallway. I turned and saw Alan and Kendall walking down the hall.

“Hey, it’s them!” said Alan. Dwayne hid himself from them behind a rack of baseball bats. “Let’s attack them!” said Kendall. “Wait a minute. Does that guy have a spear? I think he has a spear!”

“You know what I think?” said Alan.

“Nothing.” replied Kendall.

“Ha-ha. No, I think we should- take Kendall! He’s the stupid one!” said Alan, pushing Kendall towards us and running. Kendall grinned slightly and managed a fake laugh.

“My brother… he is so funny.” he croaked. Troy pointed his spear at his forehead. Kendall went cross-eyed looking at it. He gulped nervously.

“Troy, stop. We need him alive.” I said.

“Alive is good.” said Kendall. Jordan tied his hands behind his back. I looked over at the ogres. They were still fighting Morgan and Victoria.

“Don’t worry! We’ll stay here and hold them off!” Morgan said. Then she gasped. “Easy as muffins!” she cried. I rolled my eyes at the fact she was still thinking about that. We left the gym just as Victoria used a spell to toss volleyballs into the ogres’ heads. We ran down the same hallway Alan had gone down. It led straight into the library. Of course, Dwayne stayed hidden back in the gym, so it was just Jordan, Troy, and me. Alan was standing on a table holding two books open. One of them was titled mythical creatures and the other was Paul Bunyan. He read some lines from the mythical creatures book and then performed a spell. Out of thin air a monster appeared.

“Attack them, East Dragon!” he commanded. The monster turned towards us. It was a sickly gray color and had a large torso with short legs. Its eyes glowed red in that ‘Prepare to die’ sort of way. Its long tail had an axe-like blade on its tip. It had two horns extending from the temples on its head. Large and glistening fangs the size of swords filled the creature’s large mouth, except for two longer fangs that stuck out over its bottom lip. The leathery wings were spread out to their full limits. The wings were also grey with a bluish trim on the tips. They reminded me of bat wings. To complete the horrifying description, the beast had a slimy orange tongue that dripped corrosive liquids. It looked like a flying saber-toothed tiger. I drew my sword, but Jordan pulled me back.

“You can’t fight that thing. This kind of dragon is from Asia. Asian dragons tend to be the most dangerous kind. This one has the ability to spray poisonous gases and liquids from its mouth. It’s too dangerous for you.” she said, pushing me behind a bookshelf. Troy vaulted over the monster’s head and landed on its back, stabbing into it. But the dragon’s armor was too thick and it merely threw Troy off with its tail. Alan laughed.

“You can’t possibly defeat it. My father taught me only the best animation spells. I can bring any picture to life, any words to reality, as long as I focus.” he said. He then blasted a poster with a picture of a carton cowboy riding on a flying book. The book then actually flew off the page and the cowboy steered it into Jordan’s head. Troy stabbed the cowboy and he fell off of the book, bleeding ink. The book flew into Alan’s head since its driver was gone. Alan dropped the Paul Bunyan book and the dragon melted it with a ball of acidic goo. Jordan stabbed into the dragon’s left eye and the dragon was blinded on that side, ink gushing out of the socket.

“Stay on its blind side!” said Jordan. The dragon breathed a cloud of poison at Jordan. Luckily Alan had animated a bull from another poster and it rammed her out of the way before disintegrating in the poison. Kendall was on the floor near the door, struggling to free himself from the bonds on his wrists and ankles.

I walked over to him and hit him on the head with the butt of my sword because he nearly had gotten free. I snuck around to the edge of the room and crept along there to get Alan from behind. As I walked I heard the roaring of the ferocious dragon, the sound of Jordan and Troy calling to each other, or Alan reading another spell. One time I even saw a bookshelf next to me melt. I ran up behind Alan and threw a book at him while he was trying to animate a giant porcupine. His voice trailed off as he turned towards me, leaving a translucent porcupine motionless on the floor. He threw a wall of red energy over me and I was instantly frozen in a net of magic. I couldn’t move anything.

“Now where was I?” said Alan, searching the book. “Oh yes. And then, the chicken fled the coop as it erupted in flame.” he said. Then a flash of red smoke filled the room, and after it was done, a chicken-porcupine hybrid was standing next to Alan. Let’s call it a chicorcupine. Sorry, but I don’t have the translation for that. Let me describe it. It had the feet of a chicken, the torso of a porcupine, including the quills and short arms, chicken wings, and a chicken head with a few quills sticking out of its head. Alan blinked before sighing. I would have laughed if I weren’t paralyzed in the web of energy. The chicorcupine looked at Alan and then leaped up, pecking at Alan’s head. Alan fell off of the table, making his magic trap fail. I ran over to him, being sure to steer clear of the chicorcupine. I tied Alan’s hands behind his back as Jordan and Troy joined me. Luckily, they were unharmed by the acid but took some damage from the other cartoons that Alan had bought to life.

“The dragon is gone.” said Troy. I sighed. Morgan and Victoria joined us then.

“The ogres are all gone.” said Morgan. “A lot of stuff is gone.” I said. “We’ve established that. Now we need to find that gem before anyone else does and then find somewhere to drag these two off to.” I replied, gesturing to the twins.

“Yeah, well we aren’t telling you anything! Right, Kendall?” said Alan. Kendall mumbled something about an enchanted path in his sleep. I raised an eyebrow at Alan. He giggled.

“He… he sleep lies. Lying in his sleep, it’s actually a bad condition… ha-ha, Kendall, shut up!” he said nervously. Troy pulled Alan to his feet.

“So, where are we taking them?” he asked.

“We’ll figure that part out later. First we need to find the gem.” I said. We left the library, or at least what was left of it. Melted bookshelves and craters were found all over from the battle that took place there. Before I closed the door I heard the loud wailing and clucking noises from the chicorcupine.

The last gang member crumpled to the floor from Morgan’s arrows. I had the gem in my hands. We had spotted a group of members with it and fought them for it. However, the gem seemed to vibrate in my hands. Soon the buzzing stopped and an envelope appeared out of the air above it. I opened it carefully with my knife. The letter was from Jeremiah. It said:

Lance,

I know that you have the gem in your possession because I know that Dimwit number one and Dimwit number two would fail. However, I know you will give it to me if you value Brandon’s life. He has just given me Excalibur. Even though I need a descendant of Arthur for my plan to work, I will kill him with it. His parents are still descendants even though their essence is not as strong. I can always use them afterwards.

Jeremiah

“Aw, he didn’t even trust us to get it for him in the first place!” said Alan. “I guess he pinched our ears for nothing.” he said.

“He’s actually a bad writer. He didn’t write ‘Dear Lance’ and he didn’t even acknowledge the rest of us! That just seems rude.” said Morgan.

“Alright, now let’s get Dimwit number one and Dimwit number two to a place for us to interrogate them.” I said.

“Just for the record, Kendall is Dimwit number one.” said Alan.

We had taken Alan and Kendall to Brandon’s bedroom. They were both handcuffed to the table legs so they couldn’t escape. Jordan, Morgan, and I sat on the bed while Troy and Victoria were sitting at the table. Troy slid a map across the table towards Alan. “Alright, so this enchanted path Kendall mentioned leads to that castle. Where is it?” he asked.

“Look, if you think simply asking me will work, you’re horribly mistaken.” said Alan. Troy grabbed his spear and pointed it at Alan’s chest. “But that might work.” he whimpered. He sighed.

“Okay, so this path is very long, spreading all across the country. In fact, it has many sidepaths. However, only one of them leads to the castle from here in Pennsylvania.”

“Where?” asked Troy, pointing his spear closer.

“I’m getting around to it. Now, first you will have to travel through New Jersey. Then, to Delaware, and from there you will take the underwater tunnel through the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia. Are you following me?” he asked. Troy nodded. “Okay, so then you go to North Carolina and over the bridge to the Outer Banks. You will have to travel through Jockey’s Ridge and then take the other bridge to mainland. Then, travel through South Carolina and into Georgia. Then just go through Atlanta, into Florida, through Disney World and you should find the castle in a small town south of Orlando.” he said.

“That seems like a strange path. Going through the Outer Banks seems pointless since it will just lead us straight back to North Carolina anyway. I think you’re trying to mislead us.” said Morgan.

“No. That is the only way. A descendant of Morgan le Fay actually set this path. He put a spell on it, so that if anyone trying to find the castle that went astray could not see it. Traveling on this path is the only way for you to see through its magic cloak.” he said. “The information seems legitimate. I remember detecting an invisibility shield in that area when I was there one time, but I was unable to go through. It must be sealed off to people who aren’t members of the More Dread Gang.” said Jordan.

“You guessed it. Oh, and as long as we’re guessing, I should probably try and guess your phone number, eh?” replied Alan. Jordan smacked him across the face. “What’d I say?” he asked. Kendall came to and shot straight up yelling, “Cowboys, books, spears, ogres, gems, centaurs, and dimwits! Ah! Where am I?” he said.

Alan rolled his eyes. “Okay, you’ve got the info, so Kendall and I will be on our way if you’d just unlock us…” said Alan. I shook my head.

“No. You two are guiding us there or Troy here will spear you in the head.” I said. Alan and Kendall tensed up.

“But that’s not fair! It wasn’t part of our deal!” said Alan.

“There was no deal. There was only a plan. That plan is for you two to guide us to the castle.” said Victoria.

Kendall sighed. “Alright, fine. We’ll do it. To avoid being speared.” he said. Troy unlocked them from the table legs and latched their cuffs around my belt.

“You can each take shifts hauling the dimwits around.” he said.

“You’re not coming?” asked Jordan.

“No. I need to stay here and protect the neighborhood from other attacks. And I’ll keep an eye and Kevin and Pepperoni for you.” he said.

“Thanks.” said Victoria.

“We’ll try and return before the week is out. That means we have five days. If we aren’t back by then, mount on Pepperoni and take Kevin with you to the castle. We’ll draw a map out and then teleport it to Brandon’s house.” I added. Troy nodded.

“Sounds like a good plan.” he said.

“Alright then, we’d better start packing.” said Morgan.

We all ran downstairs and out the door. We had agreed to meet back there in fifteen minutes once we were all done packing. I trudged down Dim Lantern Drive. The journey was long because Alan kept tripping over his own feet. I did however hear an interesting story about Kendall and his vacation to France. It wasn’t exactly his most favorite one. It involved croissants, a French poodle, a golf cart and a merry-go-round. I’m not going into further detail.

Anyways, once I did get to my house I packed a change of clothes, a flashlight, a few arrows and stones for Morgan, and some magic seeds Victoria had given me. I didn’t know what they did, but they might come in handy. As I walked out my door I swiped ten thousand dollars in cash off of my counter. Hey, we can’t just sneak in to Disney World, we’ll need money. Besides, my parents are filthy rich, ten thousand dollars is no big deal. Once I was done I dragged the twins to Brandon’s house. Jordan and Victoria were already there. Morgan was late, as usual. Jordan had packed a knife, a magic stone, a change of clothes, and the gem.

Morgan finally showed up. “Hey guys. Why are you so early?” she asked. I sighed. She was trying to be funny, but still, we had a deadline to beat.

“Alright, Alan, Kendall, show us the way.” I demanded. A phone went off. Victoria answered it. After talking with someone for a while, she hung up.

“That was Mr. Freeman. He wants us to go and see him.” she said.

Mr. Freeman, if you haven’t yet guessed, is Dwayne’s dad. He divorced Dwayne’s mom years ago, and then Dwayne went to live with his mom in a mansion. That mansion was the same one we burned down, resulting in Kevin’s dad’s death. Sorry, I’m getting off topic. Mr. Freeman is tall with brown hair. He has blue eyes. He has white skin and his house smells like cigars and alcohol. He lives on Shallow Pool Lane, the saddest part of the neighborhood. Lazy men and women would sit on lounge chairs and read horror novels and smoke cigars. Some drink alcohol too. It smells horrible, like smoke and overheated meat on the grill. We were in his kitchen. He was sitting at his table drinking a glass of beer. Alan and Kendall were chained to the porch railing outside where Jordan was guarding them.

Mr. Freeman took a swig of beer and said, “You kids have no idea what you’re getting into, do you?” he asked.

“Of course we do. We are going to the castle in Florida to rescue Brandon from Jeremiah.” I said. He shook his head and took another sip.

“It’s not that simple, kid. You see, that path you’re traveling on is just flooded with hazards. Of course, it’s only designed to attack descendants. But I feel that you should get some background on it first.” he said. He opened a book that was lying on the table titled, “More Dread Gang Handbook: Your Guide to Spreading Dread to Descendants of Knights!” He opened to a page titled “Enchanted Paths”. “Okay, so if you look at these pages here, you’ll see a few ‘poems’ hinting at hazards you will face. I’m not sure what they are, but they will definitely prepare you for the unexpected.” he said. I looked at the ‘poems’.

This is the start of your journey To find the castle And rescue the one who is worthy Your first obstacle, of course Is a creature, half man, half horse.

I guessed that the obstacle was Jeremiah, but Victoria said it wasn’t likely because it was talking about the start of our journey. The next one said,

Be thankful that you have made it this far Go now to the door that is ajar There you will run, do not linger Or you will face the deadly stinger

I wasn’t sure what anything in that last one meant. The final poem said,

Your final trial before finding the castle Is a challenge that is quite a hassle Here you will need to fight your very best To defeat the lizard from the west

I blinked, unsure what to make out of the poems. “We need to know this to succeed? I don’t even understand it.” I said.

“You will when the time comes. Now write these down for you trip.” he said.

“So, Liam, where did you get this exactly?” a voice said. Mr. Freeman rose and turned towards the door. Dwayne was leaning against the door frame, looking angry.

“Dwayne.” Mr. Freeman grunted. “You said you wouldn’t come to this house ever again.” he said.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been helping these guys out. So, you got that info from that book you stole, eh?” said Dwayne, strolling in. “And I see you really let yourself go once mom and I moved out. As I perceived.” he said. Dwayne had that evil feeling flowing around him again, but I knew it was mostly because of his dad. Mr. Freeman’s fists clenched.

“Get out.” he said angrily.

“Alright, as soon as they’re done.” he said.

“We are,” I said, in a rush to get out before things got out of control.

I raced to the door. “Hang on just a minute! I’ve still got a few things for all of you!” Mr. Freeman called. I crept back nervously into the kitchen. He brought four items out of a closet and laid them on the table. “Lance, this shield is for you. It can protect you, but the defenses will increase if you say the words written on the armband.” he said, handing me a shield. The shield was sort of shaped like a triangle with rounded edges. The leather strap fit snugly around my arm. I looked closely at the strap and saw golden words on it. “What will the words do?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It varies depending on the situation.” he replied. “Now, Morgan, this is for you. It is a metal armband. You see that blue jewel on the bottom of it? If you push down on that it will make a crossbow pop out. It has small arrows, more like darts if you ask me. They can stun enemies, and, if you hit the enemy in the right place, it could possibly kill them.” he said. Morgan slipped the armband onto her left arm and pushed on the blue jewel. A small disc that had originally seemed to be part of the band’s design popped up and two short curved sticks flipped out on to each side. The sticks had a bowstring strung between them, and a small groove with a miniature arrow appeared just below the string, ready to fire.

“And, all you have to do is say the word fire and it will fire for you. It’s also enchanted so you have an unlimited supply of arrows.” he continued.

“Sweet!” said Morgan.

He handed Victoria a test tube full of blue liquid. “You will probably need that on your trip. It can melt through solid rock, but only use it when you feel the time is right.” he said.

“And finally, give this to that girl out front. She’ll need this too.” he said, handing me a bag. He ushered us out quickly while Dwayne exited through the back door. Once we were out, I handed Jordan the sack.

“He said you’d need this.” I said. She peeked inside of the small bag.

“Yes, this could be useful. So, shall we begin?” she said.

We had left our neighborhood at least an hour ago. We were nearing the Southern border of Pennsylvania. Alan was stumbling and Kendall was trying to keep him up. Morgan had taken over the job of hauling them around, so she was in the back of the group.

“So, Alan, earlier you had said that your dad had taught you most of your magic. So why did you ditch him in the woods with nothing but his shiny red car?” I asked.

“Well, you see when Kendall and I were five years old, our mom died. I remember her telling us to resist everything our dad taught us, but I wasn’t exactly sure of what she meant. Until later, when we were ten. It turns out our mom and dad got into an argument over whether or not our dad should join the More Dread Gang. He had joined when we were nine and started training us to join too. Our mom didn’t want him to train us to do bad things like that, but he disagreed. So he murdered her.” he replied.

“Oh.” I said.

“So then, we decided to get even by ditching him in the woods and then trapping him there with no food. He’s probably already dead.” Kendall added.

“Then why are you guys still in the gang if you know that your mom didn’t want it and hated your dad?” I asked.

“Because otherwise, we’ve got nothing. We don’t know how to live on the streets. For now, Jeremiah is sort of like our step-dad. Even though he yells a lot has a bad temper and smells a little funny.” said Alan. We had just crossed the border.

“Alright, enough small talk. Where are we going next?” asked Morgan.

The twins looked around cautiously. “That way.” Kendall answered. The path led into a dense forest.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” asked Victoria. She was drawing the map out so Troy could use it later.

“Positive.” said Alan. “Hey wait a minute, how did you about our dad?” he asked. I sighed.

“Because we killed him.” I said. He raised his hand.

“Up top, my man! Great work!” he said.

I ignored him. Morgan stopped, but the twins didn’t know it so they ended up smacking into her. “Stop rolling on the ground you idiots!” she said. “I hear something.” She pushed on the sapphire on her armband and the cross bow unfolded. She aimed it straight forward. An arrow flew out from behind a tree to the left. It landed in a tree trunk just inches from my nose. I looked over at the tree and saw a large. A bulky centaur emerged from behind it. He had a long bow and a quiver full of arrows. He had a tight black shirt on him that was a few sizes small. His hair was fashioned into a Mohawk. He had an angry expression on his face. He also had an assortment of knives in his belt as well as a wand.

“Who goes there?” he ordered.

“Hi, um, I’m Jordan and this is Lance, Morgan, Victoria, and…” she looked over at the twins rolling on the ground. “The dimwits.” she finished.

The centaur nodded. “Those two dimwits wouldn’t happen to be Alan and Kendall, would they?” he asked. His voice was deep and loud, but at the same time it was raspy too.

“Um… yes.” Jordan continued. The centaur reached back towards his quiver. He loaded an arrow into his bow and aimed it at my chest.

“Die trespassers!” he exclaimed.

Chapter Thirteen: Tony, Dan, and Alex
The centaur never got the chance to fire his arrow. Morgan shot him with her mini-crossbow. He pulled the small dart out of his neck. “The next one will be much closer to your forehead.” she said. His bowstring relaxed.

“Aw, c’mon Tony, you can take them!” Alan said. Jordan punched Alan and Kendall in the noses.

“I didn’t say anything!” Kendall cried.

“I know.” she replied. The centaur turned towards me.

“You are trying to find the castle?” he asked.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Well, I’m your first obstacle. If you want to pass, you must fight me.” he said, reloading his bow. Everyone drew their weapons.

“You really think that you can defeat the four of us?” I asked. He laughed.

“I have bested armies! You four are no challenge.” he replied. I raised an eyebrow.

“Then you obviously haven’t met us yet.” I said. He fired his arrow at me. Victoria disintegrated it with a spell.

“I see you are powerful magicians. It may serve you well if you manage to surpass me.” he said. I swung my sword at him. He leaped back and kicked me in the chest. He would’ve trampled me if Morgan hadn’t fired an arrow into his hind legs. He buckled from the pain, but quickly recovered and uppercut Morgan in the face. He threw Jordan off to the side and reared up again, preparing to flatten me. I raised my shield and shouted the words that were on the armband. All of the sudden the shield folded back over my arm, and then more metal plating grew around my body. In seconds I wore a full set of armor. I rolled back out of the centaur’s path and hit him on the head with the flat of my blade. It made his Mohawk stick out sideways, which looked really funny. Jordan stabbed him from behind. He sunk to his knees. I stood up.

“Yes, I can see from your skill that you have definitely bested armies.” I said sarcastically. He grimaced. Then he stood up quickly, an arrow already in his bow and pointed at my throat. He nodded. He pulled the bowstring back, ready to fire. But then he was shot in the back with an arrow. I looked at Morgan, but she didn’t have any arrows ready and her crossbow was already contracted. She shrugged and pointed at the Burger King employee roosted in a tree. The employee swung down and crouched on the ground, another arrow ready.

“I found ‘em Dan.” she shouted. A large man with red hair blasted from the bushes.

“I knew you would eventually come back! Now you will work at my new Wendy’s franchise opening in one month! Until then you can sit in my closet back at my apartment. Of course, I’ll have to make sure it’s locked…” said Dan. I rolled my eyes.

“Does this guy ever give up?” I asked. Dan’s face grew red.

“I can do without you, smart mouth. Alex, kill him!” he ordered. He looked over at Alex, who was lying on the ground unconscious, Victoria standing over her. Victoria flicked her wand at Dan and he flew back into a tree. Tony stood there, confused.

“Old ‘friend’ of ours.” I explained. He nodded. Dan had already recovered from the hit, and was now rushing at Victoria. Victoria performed a spell and vanished. Dan ran head first into another tree. Victoria reappeared next to me.

“I love that trick.” she said. Tony and Jordan had already continued battling. Morgan was firing arrows at Dan, Alan and Kendall was still squirming on the ground where Morgan had left them. Alex rose and leaped up into the tree above. I searched the canopy but she was no where to be found. Until I saw her swing down and kick Morgan in the head. Tony had turned his attention to me. We battled sword to knife. I had the advantage having a longer blade, but his knife was good at making quick slashes in the areas where my defenses were weak. Alex swung down to kick me, but I sprawled on the forest floor while she swung off the branch and crashed into Tony.

“Guys, c’mon, we’ve got to keep moving!” I said. Jordan grabbed Alan and Kendall by the back of their shirt collars and hoisted them up.

“Let’s go!” she announced. We ran for the entrance. I ducked the grabbing arms of Dan and escaped from the forest. An arrow flew past me. We were out on the street.

“Are we still on the path?” I asked the twins.

“Yes.” replied Kendall. I turned and saw Tony galloping down the hill, Alex following close behind. Morgan loaded an arrow into her bow. Tony barreled onto the street and threw one of his knives. I ducked under and uppercut him. Alex fired several arrows in Jordan’s direction, but Jordan used a spell to deflect them. Dan slid down the hill and landed on the sidewalk, his face redder than ever. He grabbed a mace off of his belt and swung it ferociously. I leaped out of his range. The large mace handle caught Jordan in the neck. He pulled her inwards and raised her up, blocking her escape with the mace handle.

“Surrender to me or she will be strangled to death!” he threatened. Victoria quickly used a spell to turn the mace into a lamp, which Dan lost his grip on easily. The lamp shattered on the ground. Jordan spun around and backhanded Dan across the face. He stumbled from the hit. Alex helped him back up before blasting us with more arrows. We all took cover behind a mailbox.

“Jordan, didn’t you say that Dan was an ogre?” Victoria asked.

“Yes.” she replied.

“Then let’s use a repellant spell on him. If we both do it, it’ll scare him out of his pants. Then he’ll learn to leave us alone… for a while.” Victoria added.

“Let’s try it.” said Jordan. They both performed the spell simultaneously and Dan vanished. “What happened? Is he dead?” I asked.

“No, he just used a teleportation spell to make a quick getaway.” Victoria replied. Alex’s arrows harmlessly bounced off of our mailbox shield. I ran out from behind, trusting my armor to protect me from harm. I spun around and kicked Alex in the stomach, causing her to drop her bow.

I cut the bowstring before she could reach it. She raised it at my face, but without the bowstring the arrow dropped to the ground. I punched her in the face with my hard metal hand and she slumped to the ground. Tony and Morgan were battling bow to bow. While Tony was distracted by Morgan, Victoria used a spell that made his bow snap. He went to throwing his knives instead. Three caught Morgan near her shoulders and two more got Victoria. Tony pulled a wand from his belt and blasted Morgan with an arc of green electricity. Morgan crumpled to the ground behind her cover. Victoria, although hurt by the sharp knives, used a spell to toss a large pile of leaves at Tony. They blinded him temporarily, giving Jordan the chance to attack him. She stabbed him in the heart, and the punk centaur dropped to his knees and collapsed on the ground, lifeless eyes staring up at his killer.

She sheathed her sword. “Alright, let’s keep moving.” she said. She walked over to Alan and Kendall, who were eating sandwiches while sitting against the damaged mailbox, which was now tipped on its side. My bag sat next to them, open and strangely, missing two sandwiches. “What?” said Kendall, his mouth full of ham and cheese. Jordan yanked him up, causing him to drop his- sorry, I mean my sandwich. “Hey!” he complained, struggling to grab the sandwich. My armor unfolded back into a large shield, leaving me back in my jeans and T-shirt.

“Where are we going next?” Morgan asked. She was holding a cloth up to her three knife wounds. The cloth was soaked with red blood.

“We need to go down this road, and then take a right onto the interstate. Then we follow that road all the way down to the Delaware border.” said Alan. We followed his instructions.

We were walking alongside the interstate Alan had mentioned. A foul smell floated in the air. “What is that smell?” Morgan complained.

“I don’t know, but it’s pretty bad. I guess that’s why New Jersey is known as the stinky state.” said Alan. I took a bite of a sandwich from Victoria’s bag since the twins had already eaten mine.

“So, Morgan, your mom said in that letter she had left for you that she had a meeting?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah, my mom and dad have been going to this couples counseling thing.” she replied.

“Our parents could have used that. Although the counselor might find it strange that my mom and dad would be arguing about the More Dread Gang.” said Kendall.

“How was your mom murdered?” I asked.

“Stabbed. By a knife. My dad’s knife to be exact.” he confirmed.

“That reminds me. We should probably heal these wounds.” said Victoria.

“Yeah, if only there was a pit stop somewhere! All there is along this road is forests and fields.” Jordan exclaimed. “Hopefully there will be one near the border.” she said. Then, Morgan screamed. I turned and saw that she had fur growing on her skin.

“What’s happening?!” she demanded.

“That ray Tony hit you with was probably supposed to turn you into an animal of some sort. I wonder what it will be this time, a dog, a cat, a chicken, a bull, maybe a fish! A fish would be cool!” Kendall said casually. I slapped him across the face.

“Do you think you can cure it?” Morgan asked. Jordan shook her head.

“I might be able to, but chances are slim. Of course, we could always go and see an expert wizard healer.” she said.

“Are we going to see Gordon again?” I questioned.

“No… I think there might be someone else who could help… but it could be dangerous.” she replied.

“Danger? My middle name.” I said. I turned to Morgan. “So, should we, get a leash? Maybe stop by a Petsmart?” I joked.

“It isn’t funny!” she protested. I smiled. “Alright, so where is this wizard healer?” I asked. “He lives in the Outer Banks.” she said.

“Luckily, that’s where we’re headed.” said Victoria. We continued down the road. Morgan put a hoodie on and put the hood up to keep drivers from crashing because they’re staring at her in bewilderment. We neared the northern border of Delaware after about four more hours. Morgan was hunched over.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I pulled her hood down and saw why there was no reply. She had the head of a beagle. My eyes bulged at the sight.

“Put the hood back up!” Morgan barked. Her voice wasn’t the same, it had gotten a little deeper and in between words a growling sound would come out. I put the hood back up like she asked. We entered a small coffee shop located on the border. Jordan healed Morgan and Victoria’s knife wounds, but she forgot to keep Morgan’s hood down and everyone in the coffee shop saw her dog head.

Jordan laughed. “Morgan you’re so funny! Do you get it? She put the dog on her head and stuck its head out the hood so it would look like she had a dog head!” she explained. The other customers relaxed and smiled at Morgan’s ‘joke’.

“Nice save.” I commented.

“Thanks.” Jordan replied. After the healing was finished we left the coffee shop in a rush to get to the wizard Jordan was talking about.

Once we were on the road again I asked Jordan, “What is this wizard’s name?”

“Melvin.” she answered.

“Melvin? Why is he dangerous?” I asked.

“Because I sort of used to date him, and he’s really mad at me now.” she said.

“Oh. Sorry, is it getting awkward?” I asked.

“You ask a lot of questions. But no, it isn’t awkward. Let’s just not talk about it anymore.” she said.

“Okay.” I replied. We had made it well beyond the border of Delaware. I half expected a centaur or an enraged Dan to pop up out of nowhere and attack us. The twins continued to guide us against there will. Jordan kept them at her sword tip as much as possible. We soon reached the capital city of Delaware. Dover. Alan and Kendall said that the path through Dover was designed to be incredibly long. It practically went in zigzags.

“We don’t have time for that.” I said.

“Too bad. If you set one foot off of this path, you’ll have to start all over again. One foot off of the path and the magic borders that are cloaking the castle reinforce.” Kendall said. I sighed. We followed the path. It took forever to get off of that path and part of it was because of more trouble. The group of gang members took us totally by surprise. Morgan had no time to load an arrow or unfold her crossbow as she was swept off her feet into a net. In fact, it was nearly impossible for her to because by then her hands had become paws with no thumbs. Jordan tried to cut Morgan down but blacked out after having a wet cloth shoved in her face. It was probably chloroformed.

Victoria tried to conjure a force field, but the gang members used a spell to freeze her in time. I deflected an orange orb off of my sword before being thrown into a garbage can and blacking out.

The first thing I saw was the ceiling of a cage. Oh great, I thought. We’re probably off of the path! We’ll have to start all over and by then, Brandon will probably be dead and I’ll be serving trays of lemonade to Jeremiah while he shouts at me!

I sat up. My head hurt from the impact and my left arm was bleeding. I looked around but saw no sign of the others. My hands were bound behind my back and a gag was carelessly stuffed into my mouth. I searched for an exit, but none were visible. Suddenly, a trapdoor in the ceiling opened up and a gang member poked his head in.

“He’s awake.” the member announced. I saw that my ankles were bound as well and they were connected to a sort of leash. A sudden tugging sensation came to my ankles. I was being pulled towards the trapdoor. A small crane-like object was hoisting me up. The member cut the leash and I fell on the ground. I looked at my surroundings. I was in what looked like a circus tent. I saw the others across the room in… what do you call them? Stockades. Stocks for short. Morgan however was now completely transformed into a dog. She was restrained by a leash connected to a post. An empty stock remained there, reserved especially for me. In no time I was locked in the stockade. My gag was still in and my ankles still bound, but my head and hands were stuck in the holes of the wooden trap. A few gang members were talking in the center of the ring. A man that looked like a ringmaster was talking with them. He soon nodded and was guided over by a few members.

“So, this ringmaster cover is working for you?” one member asked. The man nodded in reply. He pointed at Jordan. The members let Jordan out of the stockade. They dragged her over to the ringmaster and ripped the gag off. He started questioning her. She lashed out at him, but the gang members were ready and yanked her back. She struggled to escape their grip. She was really close when the ringmaster whistled and called “Jamal!” A large muscular gang member dashed in and slammed Jordan into a chair. The other members tied her to the chair.

“Are you sure that you can hold these four until Jeremiah’s plan is through? They’re still on the path to the castle. Maybe they’re too squirmy for you to take care of.” a member said. “No, no! They will be no problem at all! I have ways to keep brats like them in line.” the ringmaster said in his Italian accent. He demonstrated his method by flicking a whip through the air a few times. The gang members smiled with relief as they walked off.

“Your ‘method’ is pretty darn stupid.” Jordan said. The man’s face flushed with anger as he flicked the whip at Jordan. She leaned to the left to avoid the whip. The whip got tangled around the back of the chair and Jordan leaned back on it to keep it there. Then she tilted the chair back, yanking the man forward. She kicked him in the stomach and he fell back. “Lance, Morgan’s crossbow is near your foot. Push the button and fire a dart at the hinges on your stock and push up!” she ordered. I strived to reach the button with my foot, and aiming it was hard too. Somehow the dart wedged itself in the hinges and I pushed up. The top half snapped off and I was free. I took off my gag and cut the ropes. I did the same with Victoria and then let Morgan off of her leash.

“Wait, where’d the twins go?” I asked. I looked into a corner, where the twins were unconscious. I walked over to them. “How come the gang members didn’t let them go?” I asked.

“Because they thought that those two were just two more guys in our group who were disguising themselves as gang members.” Victoria said. Our packs were gone, but luckily I still had ten thousand dollars in cash in my pocket and my knife in my boot. I picked up a sword off the floor. It wasn’t my old sword, but hey, I needed a weapon of some sort. The man was lying on the floor, awake, but winded. He rose steadily, spinning around to attempt to whip Jordan again. I protected everyone with my shield, and said the words on the armband. Instead of becoming armor like I thought it would, the shield unclipped from my arm and clattered to the ground. The man laughed, pulling his whip back for another strike.

The shield rose off of the floor and grew. Then the sides of a car dropped down from around the shield and produced wheels. Jordan hopped into the driver’s seat. The rest of us got into the back. The man stood there, confused. He whistled for the large gang member to come but by then Jordan was driving the car through the fragile tent wall. Alan and Kendall were in the back, bumping into each other and other supplies that were produced with the shield’s magic. Jamal and the ringmaster were hot on our trail mounted on two motorcycles. The man brandished his whip. Jamal’s motorcycle was the fastest.

He caught up to us quickly and was already firing orbs at the back of our car. Luckily one of Jamal’s orbs was an orange one and it bounced off of our rearview mirror. It hit him, and his motorcycle came to a rough stop before unmercifully tipping over on top of Jamal’s large body. The man flicked his whip but tangled it in his own wheels. His vehicle toppled over and caught fire. Victoria phoned the authorities and fire department to take care of them. We stayed on the path in our car until we exited Dover, when the shield’s magic wore off.

“Are we getting any closer to the border?” asked Morgan. It was harder to understand her now because she was a dog. But she was a magic dog, so she could still use some English. Her armband had become too thick to fit around her beagle paws so it hung loosely in her mouth. Her quiver could barely hang on to her arched back and her bow lay at her side.

“We’re getting closer.” confirmed Alan. With the twins’ guidance we eventually made it to the southern border of Delaware.

“Okay, now we need to go down this road. It will lead us to the underwater tunnel across the Chesapeake Bay.” Kendall said.

“Underground? I don’t do underground places.” Morgan barked.

“Not underground. Underwater.” Victoria corrected.

“Underground, underwater, same thing!” Morgan complained.

“Well, yeah, but you’re a dog.” said Kendall. Morgan sighed.

“You know what, once I’m human again I am starting a petition for dogs’ rights because this is not cool!” she said.

“If you become human again.” Alan taunted. Morgan punished him by pouncing on his chest and growling in his face. We walked to the side of the road and dashed onto it where the wall that was keeping the water out started. We entered the tunnel, staying alert so we could get safely out of the way of cars. About halfway through the tunnel, cars stopped coming through.

“What’s going on?” I asked. Jordan’s answer was drowned out by the roar of rushing water. I couldn’t hear what she said next, but I’m guessing it was ‘run’. We ran away from the water coming from behind us, but it seemed as if the ceiling were breaking too because water was raining down on us. I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, because a large red painted truck was blocking the way, the trailer door facing us. That was our only escape route. Victoria busted the lock on the door with a spell and we all quickly leaped inside, slamming the door behind us. The truck lurched forward away from the crumbling tunnel. Inside the truck, a small chest sat in the corner. Everyone raced to it to see what was inside. After opening it, we found two gas masks. I raised an eyebrow. The twins pushed us out of the way and fit their faces into the masks. A small vent in the wall of the truck opened and a hissing sound emanated from it.

“All part of the plan. The ringmaster knew you would head here. So he arranged for you to escape but then trap you again here so you can be killed with carbon monoxide. Luckily, he put these gas masks in here just for me and Alan.” Kendall explained. Victoria formed a force field around us to try and keep the deadly air away from us. I slammed against the door of the truck in an effort to escape. Alan and Kendall, although still in their bonds managed to tackle me to the ground.

“Hold him there!” Alan ordered Kendall. He turned to attack Victoria but was stopped by Jordan. She ripped off his gas mask and punched him.

“Turn it off. NOW!” she exclaimed.

“I can’t. That’s up to the driver.” he responded. She punched him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. She threw Kendall off and helped me up.

“Let’s try to get this door down with some help from my wand.” she said. “Stand back.” she ordered, aiming her wand at the steel door. A blue orb of energy formed on the tip of her wand and flew off, ripping the door off. She looked out. “The driver is still on this road because there aren’t any roads to cut off to right now. If we stop here we’ll still be on the path.” she said. We all jumped out, which isn’t easy to do from a moving truck on a busy road. We quickly got to the side to avoid getting hit by any other cars and continued on.

“Every time we try to escape, we just mess it up.” said Kendall. “This reminds me of Uncle Ricky’s annoying cat, George Washington. No matter how many times I try to feed him, he always scratches me up!”

“Is his cat named after the first president of the United States?” Victoria asked.

“No, after the guy that discovered peanuts. I always forget the last part. Carver.” Kendall replied.

“Oh.” she said. We reached the end of the bridge.

“Here we are at Virginia beach!” said Morgan. “Too bad the first time I ever saw it I was a canine.” she said, scratching behind her ears. My eyes went to a sign with a picture of a dog with an x through it.

“No dogs aloud.” I said. “We’ll have to sneak you in.”

“Aw man, but I want to chase seagulls and eat other people’s lunches! As long as I’m a dog I should have some fun with it.” she complained. Jordan eventually coaxed Morgan into her bag with a piece of hot dog. She zipped it shut part way so Morgan could still breathe, and we headed down the beach. Some of the path was on a boardwalk and some required us to go into the water. The beach was crowded with people. People were swimming, lounging in chairs, and eating. A little boy’s sandcastle collapsed and Victoria secretly used as spell to rebuild it.

“This beach is massive!” Victoria exclaimed. We had all packed our weapons into our bags to prevent chaos. “How much longer does the path go through here?” she asked.

“It goes through here for about a mile before straying off to the west and bringing us back into the main area.” Kendall replied. A group of eight year olds came and kicked sand at us, laughing.

“Hey, kids, stop that.” said Jordan.

“Make us.” the biggest one said. She snapped her fingers, turning them into worms. “Now they’ll stop. They don’t have feet.” she said. She turned them back into eight year olds and stared at them. The biggest one was half buried up to his waist in sand because as a worm he tried to burrow into the sand.

“We’re done.” he said quietly. We continued on.

“Jordan, you shouldn’t have done that. Those were innocent kids, and you turned them into worms!” I exclaimed. She sighed.

“Sorry, it’s just that we’re in a hurry and they were slowing us down. I’m just easily provoked to anger when it comes to annoying runts like them.” she explained.

“I could tell. Turning them into worms is way over the top.” I replied.

“They shouldn’t have dared me to make them stop kicking sand. I taught them a lesson, didn’t I?” she said.

“So the lesson is do not kick sand at sixteen year olds or you’ll end up as a legless animal?” I asked.

“Precisely.” she answered. Some sixteen year old boys passed by us.

I shook my head. “Obviously I don’t understand logic like that.” I said sarcastically. We followed the path off of the beach and into the city. After traveling through Virginia, we found the bridge to the Outer Banks, where more trouble waited for us.

Chapter Fourteen: Outer Banks
I had rented a room from a Days Inn so we could rest and recollect ourselves. Alan and Kendall were already sleeping on the nearest bed, because they were exhausted after an hour of jumping on it. I took a look outside. The view was perfect. I could see the ocean and beaches of Outer Banks.

Jordan was cleaning her sword in the bathtub, and Morgan was being groomed by Victoria.

“I’ve always enjoyed doing your hair at sleepovers, but now you’re a dog and we’re on a dangerous quest.” she said. I was over by the window when all of the sudden, a light tap came on it. I turned around and saw Dwayne standing out on the balcony. He had several cuts and a black eye. He opened the window and motioned for me to come out. I climbed through and shut the window.

“You do know I could’ve gone through the sliding glass door.” I said. He rolled his eyes. “Listen, I’ve been scouting ahead. I don’t know what it is, but I’m pretty sure your next major obstacle is on Jockey’s Ridge. Also, Jeremiah has the sword now, and his next goal is to get a gem. I’m pretty sure I know what gem he’s going after next.” he informed. “I was eavesdropping on some of his men when I was discovered. I made a narrow escape and came here to tell you. But when I was listening to their conversation I heard them mention a sapphire. This sapphire in particular was discovered in pyramids in Egypt. It is currently in a museum in Cairo.”

“Cairo? But we can’t go there! We’ll get off of the path and most likely won’t make it in time anyway!” I replied.

“I know. That’s why you need to hurry. It will take a very long time for Jeremiah’s men to reach Cairo and make it back, but if you keep lying around like you are right now, you’ll never make it in time and next thing you know, Jeremiah will be plucking finger sandwiches off of a tray you’re holding.” he said. I nodded and was about to climb back through the window when I remembered there was a door. I came in and announced to everyone that we had to leave as soon as possible. Jordan through her sword into her pack and Victoria concealed Morgan in her bag. The hotel didn’t allow dogs so we had to sneak her in. We made our way to the library and checked out.

“Aw man, I never got to go into the indoor pool.” Morgan complained as we left.

“Yeah, you could’ve worked on your dog paddle.” I commented. She looked at me angrily. “Sorry, bad word choice.” I added. We were dashing along the path, Alan and Kendall complaining because they hadn’t finished their nap. Jordan stopped us at a convenience store.

“Stop! Melvin works here. Maybe this is his shift.” she said, walking in. We followed her to the cash register where a man with a blue apron on was stationed.

“Hello valued customers! How may I be of service?” he asked.

“Is Melvin Quincy working right now?” Jordan asked.

“I’m sorry, his shift just ended… permanently. He took too many breaks so he could flirt with the girl customers, so I told him to find a different job.” the man replied.

“Tell me about it.” Jordan mumbled.

“What was that?” the man asked.

“Oh, um, I was just wondering, where does he live?” she asked.

“I thought you said you used to go out with him, so shouldn’t you know where he lives?” I asked quietly.

“I’m not sure if he moved or not.” she replied.

I nodded. “He lives in an apartment at the inn across the street.” the man replied.

“Thanks. C’mon guys let’s go.” Jordan said. We darted across the street and asked the woman at the front desk which apartment he lived in. She quickly said apartment 26C without even looking up from her magazine. We took the elevator up to the 26th floor and knocked on the door of 26C. An eighteen year old boy answered the door. He had dark skin and green eyes, and brown hair clipped short. The moment he saw Jordan he started to close the door again, but Jordan pushed it open and lead us in.

“Hey! Get out of my apartment!” he shouted.

“Look, Melvin, I don’t care if you hate me, because the feeling is mutual. We both agreed to each other after we broke up that we owed each other one thing. You used yours to get a goblin servant, which you afterward tried to kill me with. Now, here’s what I want.” she told him. He sighed and crossed his arms.

“Perhaps another time, Jordan.” he said. “Right now, I’m working on cuing my security team.” he said. I raised an eyebrow but what he had said became clear very quickly. Ten goblins leaped out of a closet and tackled us to the ground. I threw one off of me and slashed at another. Jordan wasn’t ready for the sudden attack and was pinned down by five goblins. Victoria used a spell to hurl a coffee table into the other three. Morgan had taken on Melvin and was now biting his leg.

“Ow!” he shouted. He kicked Morgan off and slammed her into the closet. Whimpering and scratching noises came from behind the door. He barreled into me, tossing me back into his large kitchen. He pulled out a wand and used a levitation spell, which made all of the food in his pantry fly out at me. By the time they were through with me I looked like a club sandwich. He lifted me and tossed me onto the table. “I’ll let my goblins eat you later.” he said. Victoria used a spell causing all the glass in his apartment to shatter. The shards of glass formed a sword that Victoria swiped at him. He used his wand to make a picture appear in the air. The picture showed Pepperoni, her pet griffin, dying. She got distracted and Melvin knocked her out.

His security goblins dragged Jordan over to him.

“You owe me Melvin. I gave you what you wanted, and you nearly killed me for it!” Jordan shouted.

“Yeah, well I already know what you’re going to ask for.” he said.

“You do?” she asked.

“Yes! You want me back! Well, that’s one thing you can’t have.” he said. Jordan laughed.

“I don’t want you back! Breaking up with you was one of the best decisions of my life! I wanted you to turn that dog back into a human!” she said.

“Oh.” said Melvin, embarrassed.

“Can we still eat the sandwich boy, master?” one of the goblins asked.

“No.” he replied. The goblin sighed. The goblins dropped Jordan on the floor and let Morgan out of the closet. Morgan bounded over to us.

“So is he going to change me back or what?” Morgan said.

“Or what.” I joked, brushing food off of myself.

“Follow me.” Melvin said.

Morgan had been healed by him. Her fur was falling out and she was beginning to look more like her old self. Without even thanking him Jordan left. I thanked him on her behalf and darted after her, the others following close behind. I found Jordan outside the inn, waiting for us. Alan and Kendall were in her tight grasp.

“Where are we going next?” Jordan asked.

“Jockey’s Ridge.” Kendall replied. I sighed. That was the place Dwayne said was dangerous.

“Hey guys, I should tell you, I talked to-” I stopped because I remembered I wasn’t supposed to mention Dwayne around the twins.

“I talked to one of our scouts and he told me that our next major obstacle was at Jockey’s Ridge, so we should stay alert.” I informed.

“You have scouts?” Alan asked.

“Yeah, um, the kid with the spear is one of them.” I lied. Alan nodded. We traveled to Jockey’s Ridge on foot. A small visitor center was stationed there. The door was held ajar by a small stone. We went inside and asked the man at the front desk if the grounds were open. He nodded and told us to go along the wooden path up to the grounds. We were about to step onto the path when Alan and Kendall told us the enchanted path requires us to go through the trees. The path through the trees was quite short. When we exited the trees, I saw a large sand dune stretch over yards of land. We followed a small tour group up the sandy and unstable incline. I looked around for danger, but none seemed likely to take place here. A small collection of trees was off to the right, but other than that the area was completely covered in sand. “I don’t see anything dangerous.” I finally said.

“Any danger would most likely prefer to be concealed until it was time to attack, so the trees seem like the most dangerous place right now.” Victoria said. All of the sudden, my phone went off. I answered it. It was Morgan’s brother, Kevin.

“Hey guys! Where are you right now?” he asked. “Mom is getting really stressed out. I don’t know how long I can keep her from finding out you guys left. She’s already called the police and now they’re searching my room! I can’t win Knights Conquest or The Lord of the Rings Video Game if there are policemen searching my room!” he complained.

“Hey, Kevin. We’re in North Carolina in the Outer Banks right now. On Jockey’s Ridge. Look, I’m sorry that you’re having trouble covering for us.” I replied.

“Jockey’s Ridge? Isn’t that a giant sand dune?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“And did the door to the visitor center happen to be ajar?” he asked.

“Yeah. How did you-”

“Look, Troy showed me those riddles that Mr. Freeman had given you. I’ve been trying to decipher them. I got the first two. The first one is a centaur named Tony.” he said.

“Yeah, we fought him in New Jersey.” I explained.

“The second one is-” his answer was drowned out by terrifying screams from people all around us. A large tree stood in the center of the dune. It was scaly and had a round top with no leaves. A sharp spike curved down from the top. Then, the large armored hull of a scorpion emerged from the sand. It had six large quick legs, three on each side. Its large pincers were raised, ready for battle. But the worst part was the scorpion’s fangs. The fangs were dripping with spit and blood, and two mandibles were on each side of its mouth so it could pull food in easily. It raised its poisonous barbed tail, perhaps to show off.

“A scorpion?” I said.

“Yes.” Kevin replied.

“Okay then. Look, I’ve got to go.” I said, hanging up. I pulled my sword out. The scorpion, although mostly blinded by its poor eyesight and bright sun, heard me move and saw my glistening sword.

It sprung towards me on its six legs; pincers opened and ready to tear me apart. Jordan intercepted its attack with a repellant spell. The scorpion backed up, but was hardly scared by Jordan’s spell. It leaped back towards me. I got it in the left eye with the flat of my blade, but its armored shell was hard to penetrate. Morgan managed to fire darts into the chinks in the scorpion’s armor. The scorpion turned on her and launched its barbed tail at her. She took evasive action to avoid it. I charged the beast, in hopes of distracting it from Morgan. It worked. The scorpion grabbed me by the waist and began to squeeze its pincer shut. Victoria used a spell to cause the pincer to become intangible, making fall straight to the ground. The scorpion’s claw became tangible again as it crawled towards me, tail raised. Luckily Jordan sliced one of its legs off and the scorpion fell back. The twins were trying to make a run for it, but Victoria kept them in a telekinetic grasp.

She then uprooted a tree with the same spell and hurled it at the scorpion. It missed the scorpion’s head, but it landed on the tail and stuck the scorpion in place. I moved in with my sword, but the scorpion’s large pincers made me rethink that. Morgan took on it with her arrows, being sure to keep a safe distance away. The scorpion lifted the tree off of its tail and lashed at Jordan. The barb on the end of the tail scraped Jordan’s ankle as she leaped out of the way. I quickly slashed the end off of its tail without thinking. A mix of scorpion blood and venom spilled out onto the sand.

The scorpion glared at me with disgust and knocked me aside with its left pincer. Morgan fired an arrow into the scorpion’s left eye, blinding it on that side. Victoria performed a spell to cause the sand around the scorpion to collapse, sucking the monster into a deep hole into the ground. But the right pincer grabbed Morgan and began pulling her under as well. Jordan lay on the ground, and Victoria had begun to help a few confused tourists to escape. That left me. I jumped onto the pincer and dug the tip into the claw and pushed on it, hoping to pry the claw open. It didn’t work. I stumbled off of the claw and fell into the loose sand. I tried to swim to the surface, but the sand was too unstable and I was being suffocated. Sand poured into my mouth and nose, filling my eyes and causing them to sting.

A hand pulled me out. I soon found out it wasn’t a hand, but a foot. Morgan had hooked her leg around my waist and pulled me out, as the claw of the scorpion still had her arms restrained. I dumped some sand out of my ear and brushed it out of my eyes and climbed back up onto the claw. We had sunk pretty deep, as all I could see was a swirling wall of sand all around me, only a square foot of sky being visible. I hacked the scorpion’s claw ferociously. I was not going to die like this. I wasn’t going to let Morgan die like this either. The claw toppled off of the scorpion, leaving a bloody stump in its place, Morgan dangling off of the edge of the scorpion’s arm. The tip of the scorpion’s tail and the claw we stood on was all that was still visible of the scorpion. I pulled Morgan up.

I looked around for… what was I looking for? A blinking red exit sign? There was no escape. At least I had saved Morgan. The claw sank under, leaving us slowly sinking into the sand. Just then, the vortex slowed and finally dropped. Now Morgan and I were in a deep hole of sand, Victoria standing above.

“I’m sorry, you want a little time alone?” she joked, hoisting us out.

“Thanks.” I said. Alan and Kendall were passed out on the ground and Jordan was picking herself up. I shook myself loose of sand, though a salty taste was in my mouth and sand stuck in my hair. We all walked over to Jordan.

“Hey guys we should probably-” she started. She turned and vomited on the ground.

“Yuck.” said Morgan. Jordan crumpled back on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Jordan struggled to answer, as her throat was very dry. “My ankle was scratched by the stinger. Venom got into my system. It only takes a little bit of scorpion venom to have horrible effects.” she said. Her face contorted with pain as a headache rose. Then, anger replaced pain and she swung her sword at me. I stepped back to avoid it. Victoria and Morgan grabbed her and held her back from me. Jordan’s face abandoned the anger and she fainted. Victoria performed a spell.

“She was hallucinating. She thought you were a gang member.” she said. “The venom is working on her fast. If we don’t cure it soon she’ll die.”

Chapter Fifteen: Good News
“Are you Jordan Loraine’s brother?” the doctor asked me.

“Uh, yes.” I lied.

“Well, it seems she is going to recover, but it may take a few days.” he said.

“A few days? Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive.” he replied. “You may stay in a hotel next door if you’d like.” he suggested. I nodded. We all left the hospital and went to the hotel. After checking in, we went to our room. “I hope Jordan will be okay.” said Victoria.

“Yeah I know you do. I mean, even though you two used to have your arguments when you first met, I can tell that you’ve been as close as sisters.” I said. Morgan was already on the bed, and Alan and Kendall were surfing the channels on the TV.

“Hey look Kendall! It’s your favorite show!” said Alan. Kendall sat down on the bed and watched NCIS with his brother.

I went over to the refrigerator and got out a Dr. Pepper. “Hey guys, we never actually got to see Jordan when we were at the hospital. Don’t you find that strange?” I asked.

“No, not really. I mean, if she’s trying to recover, they might want her to rest, and having us there might get her a bit excited.” Morgan said. She was combing her hair over the sink. “Ugh, this is so gross. How come these stupid fleas haven’t left yet?” she muttered to herself. I went over and sat down to watch NCIS.

“Oh, here’s the part where the team finds the killer’s sister in that closet. She’s dead.” said Kendall. Alan flicked him in the head.

“Wait to go, you spoiled the ending!” Alan shouted. I stood back up.

“I’m going to go back over to the hospital and ask if I can see her.” I said.

“I’ll come too.” said Victoria.

“Aw man, you’re leaving me with the fleas and these two dimwits?” Morgan complained.

“Yep, that’s right. Glad we’re on the same page.” I said, closing the door.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in.” said the security guard. “The hospital is closed.” he said. I sighed and walked out of the building, when I caught sight of a schedule of the hours that the hospital was open. Victoria and I raced back in.

“You lied. The hospital is still open. Can we see Jordan now?” I asked. The man grumbled. “No.” he said sternly.

“Why not?” Victoria asked.

“Oh, uh, well, Yeah see, um, uh…” he stammered.

“What’s wrong? No reason? Or maybe you just can’t come up with a good lie.” I said. The man’s face flushed with anger and his face turned red. Then I realized his whole body had turned red. He grabbed his pistol, which quickly turned into a crossbow.

“Don’t make me shoot.” he said.

“That’s okay. You can’t anyway.” Victoria said. He looked down to see that Victoria had turned his bow into a brick.

“I can still brain you with this!” he said, lifting the brick over his head. Victoria used another spell, and next thing the ogre knew he had hit us with a small flower. He looked at it, confused. I took out my sword and slashed him with it, and he crumpled to the ground.

“At least he had a flower when he died.” Victoria said. I struggled to pull the door open but it didn’t work.

“It’s locked.” I confirmed. Victoria rolled her eyes and pushed the door open.

“You push it open, not pull.” she said. Feeling embarrassed, I followed her into the room, where we found Jordan.

Chapter Sixteen: Bad News
Jordan was dressed in a patient’s gown. Funny, she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a dress. Good news was, she wasn’t dead, and the venom had left her system. The bad news was, the doctor turned out to be a gang member who had been assigned to keep her here so we wouldn’t make it to Jeremiah’s castle in time. She was gagged and tied to her bed, and she was sleeping. We closed the door and walked over to the bed. I stepped on a tile that was three feet away from the bed, and that’s when everything went wrong. A loud siren went off as the tile sunk deeper into the ground.

Right then, several doctors and nurses, who were also gang members, entered the room and surrounded us. Jordan was awakened by the siren and was now struggling to get free. A doctor walked over and untied her from the bed, and stood her up. He pointed a dagger at her throat. “Stop. You will give up on your foolish quest and return home, never to interfere with us again.” he said.

“Or, just a thought I’m throwing out here, we do the exact opposite of what you just said, and meanwhile save Jordan and kick your sorry behinds.” I said lashing towards them. Victoria caught me.

“We can’t kill them. They’re doctors and nurses.” she said.

“Really?” I said. She looked around, and for the first time she noticed that several nurses had horse legs, some had goblin skin and others had the yellow skin of an ogre.

“Oh. So, they’re just imposing doctors?” she asked.

“No, they just happen to be main events in the circus too.” I said sarcastically. The centaur nurses galloped towards us, taesers and pistols ready. I ducked a taeser which ended up zapping the doctor that held Jordan. He dropped to the ground, writhing and trembling.

Victoria used a spell to the centaurs with taesers to get muscle spasms, accidentally zapping their own allies. Jordan had ripped her gag off and was now fighting a few goblin nurses. The doctor had recovered from his shock and was now lashing towards me. I turned to intercept him, but an ogre nurse pulled my leg off of the ground and I flopped on the ground.

The ogre nurses lifted me up and held me there. Victoria and Jordan were in the same position. The doctor grabbed a scalpel and raised it up to my face.

“I’m going to enjoy cutting your eyes out!” he exclaimed. He placed the blade’s tip on the bridge of my nose, and that was as close as he got to my eyes. He pulled a dart out of his neck. He crushed it under his foot and stared at me. “Lucky.” he said, and then he fell to the ground, dead. Behind him Morgan loaded another dart into her crossbow.

“I got some venom from that scorpion and dipped my darts in it.” she explained.

“Now isn’t the best time for explanations.” I said. Centaur nurses surrounded Morgan, pistols loaded. Just then, another doctor ran in.

“Stop! I just received a call from Jeremiah!” he exclaimed. An ogre took the phone and listened to it.

“Yes… yes sir, but- I know. Okay. Are you sure? Okay, okay, just making sure. Alright.” he said. He hung up.

“He said to let them go.” he said. The centaurs and goblins hesitated and murmured amongst themselves, unsure if the ogre knew what he was talking about.

“Let them go!” he shouted. The yell sent the doctors and nurses into a panic and they dropped us onto the floor and hysterically fled the room.

We were back in our hotel room. Jordan was back in her regular outfit, and was now sleeping on the bed. The rest of us were watching the news. The screen showed an airplane that had crashed in the Mediterranean Sea while it was flying for Cairo. That was the plane that had gang members on it. “How come they’d just let us go like that?” asked Victoria.

“Maybe the ogre was on our side and was just posing as a gang member. Or maybe the member that had brought the phone in is on our side and he faked the call to rescue us.” suggested Morgan. “No. No, that isn’t it. There is some reason that Jeremiah let us go. Maybe it’s just so he can capture us later.” I said.

“No, because he already had us held captive at that hospital. He wouldn’t let us go just to get us again. There is something else going on here…” said Victoria. I stared at the screen for a while.

“That’s it! I know why he let us go! He did it so that he could get the gem we have. His Cairo plan didn’t go so well, so now he is relying on us! Remember the letter we got at the school?” I said. “Yeah. It all makes sense now. I remember that his letter said we have to give him the gem, or he’ll kill Brandon and use his parents instead. But couldn’t that mean that he already killed Brandon and he is just waiting for us to play right into his trap?” Morgan said.

“It could mean that, but his parents are still descendants of King Arthur, they just don’t know it, and they aren’t powerful enough to use Excalibur’s powers. All we have to do is rescue them, and tell them that they are descendants of Arthur. It’ll protect them.” said Victoria.

“That’s right. But let’s not forget, if Brandon were dead, Excalibur’s powers would be totally cut off. It needs two things in order to function. The descendant of Arthur that found it and the stone that it was found in. So, that means that if Brandon were dead, the sword wouldn’t work and that big rock we found it in would be completely demolished. I’ll call Kevin and ask him to check on it. That way, we’ll know if he’s alive.” I said. The rest of them nodded at the idea. I dialed Kevin’s phone number. After a few rings he picked up. The sound of virtual guns firing and swords clanging could be heard through the phone.

Sounded like Kevin got his videogames back.

“Hey Kevin, its Lance.” I said.

“What? Sorry, I’m no good at dancing.” he said. “Who is this?” he asked.

“It’s Lance!” I shouted.

“I already told you I don’t dance! Now you’re asking me if I can prance. Is this some kind of survey? Who is this?” he asked. I rolled my eyes.

“Kevin, turn down the volume on your TV!” I shouted. The sword noises stopped.

“Who is this?” he asked.

“It’s Lance!” I yelled.

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to shout. What’s up?” he said.

“Hey, we survived the scorpion and we just found out that Jeremiah is counting on us getting to his castle. And we had a feeling that Brandon may already be dead. But there is a way to see if he isn’t. Can you go into the woods and check on that big rock that is there?” I asked. “Yeah sure.” he replied.

“Oh, and make sure that you call me once you get there.” I said.

“Okay. Talk to you later.” he said.

“Let’s hope.” I said. I hung up.

“Kevin is checking on Camelot.” I said.

We had nicknamed the rock Camelot because that was the kingdom Excalibur had first been found in. “Good.” said Victoria. Jordan had just woken up and the twins were jumping on the bed again. I threw a pillow at Kendall who toppled over on top of his brother as the twins tumbled off the bed.

“No more monkeys jumping on the bed.” said Morgan.

“You’re one to talk! You’ve still got fleas in your hair.” said Kendall, standing up. I threw another pillow at him.

“Alright, where are we going next?” I asked.

“We’re going to South Carolina!” said Alan.

We had left Outer Banks and the border of South Carolina was close nearby. Jordan was back to her normal self again, all of the paleness having left her. We were in the woods again, the path leading us there. Up ahead, a Burger King came into sight. “Hopefully Dan didn’t decide to move to South Carolina.” I said. I looked up at the Burger King and saw employees banging on the window, screaming. I ran up to the door and saw a dragon had cornered the cowering employees. I opened the door and the sound of the bell distracted the dragon. The dragon was red with jet black eyes and grey, drool covered fangs. I rolled under a burst of flames, which burned the door down.

“How come danger follows us everywhere?” I asked myself.

“Heel, Rover.” a familiar voice said. The dragon stopped, not moving a muscle. Dan came out of the kitchen.

“Aw, c’mon! I was just joking when I said Dan moved to South Carolina!” I shouted. Dan furrowed his large bushy brow and used a spell that made the dragon vanish. The others caught up with me then.

“Wow. I thought you were joking when you said Dan moved to South Carolina.” said Jordan. “I was.” I replied. Dan ran towards us. I rolled under his attack, Victoria and Jordan copying me. Dan grabbed Morgan, but he was running too fast and fell on the ground outside. With Morgan lying next to him, he stood back up and charged at me again. This time we retreated back into the drive-thru station. Dan ripped the door off and flung it aside He ran in, cornering us in the back of the room. Victoria grabbed some soda and splashed it in his face.

“What are you doing?! I told you if he got wet he’d get bigger!” said Jordan.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” she said. Dan grew larger, taking up the whole room until he was tightly plastered against the wall. He laughed.

“You can’t escape now!” he exclaimed.

“Yes we can.” said Victoria. She rolled under his legs and came out on the other side. He tried to swipe at us but the room was too small and he was too big, so he could barely move. Jordan and I rolled under his legs and followed Victoria to the exit. After finding Morgan, we fled the restaurant, employees running away in different directions.

After yet again escaping from Dan, we traveled a long journey through South Carolina, and we were now a few miles across the Georgia border. It had been a whole day since we had escaped Dan. Night had fallen, so Victoria suggested that we rest in an abandoned warehouse. Even though a lot of bad things tended to happen to us in warehouses, we all agreed that we would stay there for the night.

It was nine o’ clock. We had all spread out sleeping bags, and used some fabric we had found in the warehouse as pillows. “Hey guys, do you find it strange I haven’t heard from Kevin yet? He should have called back about ten minutes later.” I said.

“Try calling him. Something must be wrong, unless he started playing his game again and subliminally forgot about ever going to check on Camelot.” said Morgan.

“I’m going to call, and remind him.” I said. In thirty seconds, I had him on the phone.

“Sorry, I tried to go out to check on it, but mom isn’t letting me leave the house. She thinks that I’m just going to run away like Morgan did. Of course, I know that Morgan never ran away… but seriously, my mom won’t let me leave the house. Unless she is with me, I’m not going anywhere. I can’t even take the bus to school, she has to drive me there.” he said.

“Sorry that you’re having trouble. But you can’t even sneak out?” I asked.

“I can’t think of any good plans.” he said.

“Well, you could set your mom’s alarm clock so it goes off later, and while she sleeps in, you sneak out.” I suggested.

“I can’t. She’s completely Kevin-proofed the door. It has one of those plastic door handles on it, but I can open that. It’s the magnets between the door and the frame that I’m worried about. It sets off an alarm if the magnets get separated. And, she’s rented a guard dog. It sits outside the door all night long.” he said.

“Okay… then do this. Set the alarm clock for an hour later. Then to take care of the dog, call Troy and tell him to use a dog whistle and a steak to get the dog away. Then, with the magnets, take a refrigerator magnet and slip it into the place the other magnet used to be to prevent the alarm. It’s that easy.” I said.

“Well… okay, I’ll give it a shot. I’ll call you tomorrow morning.” he said.

“Okay. Bye.” I said. I hung up.

“What were you doing? Planning a bank heist with him?” asked Morgan.

“Nope. Your mom has gone crazy about you ‘running away’ and now she won’t let Kevin out of the house. It’s okay though, I helped him out.” I said. She nodded. Jordan, the twins and Victoria were already asleep. I laid my head down and did the same, Morgan following short after.

CLANG! I shot up. That loud noise had woken me. I heard several more clanging, but it sounded faint like it was coming from outside. I also heard shouting. I couldn’t make out any of the words though. I looked around. Everyone else was asleep, except for Kendall who was sleepwalking and smacking into walls repeatedly. I woke up the others. Alan slapped Kendall, who woke up freaking out. I guess that is why you shouldn’t wake up a person that is sleepwalking. The warehouse had gotten very cold, so we all slipped on some hoodies to keep warm.

We all ran in the direction of the noise, and soon it had stopped. We had finally defined that the noise was coming from inside the warehouse. We decided to return to camp.

“What happened?” Morgan asked. The sleeping bags were shredded up and our bags were missing. Luckily, we had taken our weapons with us to investigate the noise.

“Guys, look.” said Jordan. I looked at the floor and saw a trail of crumbs and strips of sleeping bag. I began to follow it.

“Uh, guys, usually when you find a trail of something in an eerie warehouse in the middle of the night, you don’t follow the trail and you leave instead.” said Morgan. Everyone ignored her, following the trail. Morgan hesitated before running after us. The trail ended in a dead end. “Doesn’t this spell trouble for anyone else?” Morgan asked.

“It does now. This could be a trap.” I said. Right then, my hood went up and the drawstring pulled shut, shrouding my vision. I was pushed to the ground by something and hit my head on the hard floor, causing unconsciousness.

I know, you’re probably thinking that this whole getting captured by gang members thing is getting redundant. But this time, that isn’t the case. I woke up on the floor in the same place as before. My hood was down and I was lying on a sleeping bag. The others were sitting in a circle around a hovering fireball that was providing warmth. I got up and walked over to them, and sat down. Two people, a boy and a girl, were sitting with them. The boy looked about fifteen and the girl was fourteen. The boy had black hair and eyes that glinted like silver. The girl had red hair and green eyes. The boy had a large hammer lying at his side and the girl had an ensemble of throwing knives clipped onto her belt and two hatchets slung over her shoulders.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“He is Robbie and she is Patricia.” said Jordan.

“And…” I said.

“Oh, they’re descendants of knights.” said Morgan. “Robbie is the descendant of Gawain and Patricia is the descendant of Tristan.” she said.

“Sorry for attacking you. We thought you were more gang members.” said Patricia.

“No, what made you think that?” I asked.

“Well, you were wearing hoodies.” said Robbie in a deep voice. I nodded.

“So, how did you find out you were descendants of knights?” I asked.

“Well, I found out when my dad told me that I was one as soon as I learned how to use a hammer… the defensive way.” he said. “You see, my dad and I went on a trip, and gang members stopped us on a street corner. My dad handed me a large wooden hammer. I was only seven, but I managed to lift it. He drew a sword and then he told me that if any of the gang members got close, for me to swing the hammer at them. Hard. We fought them off, and then he told me. The problem is, he was captured in another attack the next week. I’ve been searching for him ever since.” he said.

“And then he ran into me.” said Patricia. “He was ten and I was nine when we met. I saw him in the schoolyard, battling gang members. He didn’t attend my school, and I had never seen gang members before. I went straight up to them and told them to stop bullying him. The members pushed me on the ground and laughed, telling me that I had no reason to interfere. I got mad. I took a tree branch off of the ground and defeated them within seconds.” she said.

Robbie stared at her. “Okay, so I may have exaggerated that last part. Really what happened was Robbie defeated them and saved me, and we became friends. He told me all about what was going on, but I was young and thought it was some sort of game he was playing. I found out ten minutes later that it was much more than that. So then, I started researching Arthurian legend, and then it clicked. I found out in that moment that I was a descendant of Tristan.” she continued.

“So, you guys have been traveling the country looking for Robbie’s dad?” I asked.

“Yes.” said Robbie. “Patricia’s dad was a lumber worker, but also a gang member. So she ran away from him in fear that if he found out she knew, he would kill her.” Robbie said. I shook my head.

“No. That isn’t what they’ll do. They’ll just try to train you to be gang members. Gang members that are also descendants of knights can be very powerful.” I said. “But it is still bad. Gang members do some pretty horrible things.” I said.

Patricia nodded. “Like capturing Arthur’s descendant.” said Robbie. I nodded.

“We want to help you rescue him. Robbie hopes that this castle may also be where his dad is.” said Patricia. I nodded.

“Okay, so welcome to the quest. Now, we should really be on our way.” said Morgan. My bag was at my side. Apparently Robbie and Patricia had given them back. We all stood up. Morning had come while we were talking. We all walked out of the warehouse. The light was blinding, for we had been in the dark warehouse for a long time. Alan and Kendall directed us to the southern Georgia border. There, we stopped at a fast food Dan-free restaurant. Robbie had left to go to the bathroom, when Patricia got serious.

“Okay, you guys, I’ve got to tell you something. Whatever you do, don’t tell Robbie.” she said. We all nodded. Except for Victoria, Alan, and Kendall who were ordering some more fries and napkins.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Robbie’s dad isn’t at this castle that you’re going to.” she said.

“Well, that makes sense, since there are probably a lot of places that he could be at.” I said.

“No. He isn’t at any More Dread Gang camp. He’s… he’s in a graveyard in a small town in Nevada.”

Chapter Seventeen: Disney World
“You mean you haven’t told him that his own dad is dead?” I asked.

“No, I’ve told him several times. But he won’t listen to me. He told me to stop trying to depress him or he’ll leave me for the More Dread Gang. I- I can’t… I wouldn’t survive gang members or goblins or ogres all by myself. I need a partner.” she said.

I felt bad for her. Robbie needed to accept the fact that his dad is dead. The twins did… although; they aren’t a good example since they never really liked their dad in the first place. Robbie came back. Patricia wiped her tears on a napkin to hide them. The rest of us laid slid down in our seats to look casual.

“What’s happening?” he said.

“Nothing.” Morgan said.

Florida. Orlando. Disney World. It was all so nice. Florida is one of the nicest places to go for vacation. It’s warm, it’s sunny, and it’s beautiful. I handed the toll booth guy the money to get into Disney World. My shield was in car mode, so we cruised straight through. We didn’t bother renting a hotel. Instead we went straight to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World, where the twins had told us to go.

Sadly, Robbie and Patricia didn’t last long on our quest. They still lived, but something else happened. We were on the enchanted path when we passed by one of the rides. Robbie had gone on it with his dad when he was younger and wanted to relive the experience. Patricia followed him, trying to stop him, but next thing we knew they were off of the path.

“We’re sorry; you went off of the path. You have to stay on it or you won’t be able to find the castle.” Victoria explained. She handed Patricia the map that she had drawn out. “I will teleport you guys to my hometown. Troy, the descendant of Perceval, lives at this address.” she said. She wrote the address and zip code on the back of the map. “Go see him and then stay there until we return.” she said. Patricia nodded. Victoria performed the spell, and soon they were gone.

Alan told us that even though the Magic Kingdom had one entrance, which was also the exit that we would have to exit it by going straight through it and going through a hidden path in the back. Apparently the hidden path had been created there as a rendezvous point for gang members there ever since the old one had been destroyed in the ogre attack of ’09. I wasn’t aware of any ogre attacks in that year, but I believed him.

Pretty soon I noticed that the guy that was in the Mickey suit was following us. I tried to pretend that I hadn’t seen him. He tripped at one point and the head fell off. I turned and ran back to him. The rest of the group followed. I looked down at the man. Then I realized it was the ringmaster from the circus. I wondered how he caught up to us so quickly, and how he managed to get the Mickey costume. I imagined the real Mickey man unconscious in a bathroom or costume shop. I lifted him up. The left hand of the Mickey costume fell off, allowing the man’s whip to uncurl. People all around were staring in horror at the whip-wielding Mickey. Parents hurried their children along, blocking their vision in order to keep them from being scarred for life as one of their favorite cartoon characters flicked a whip. He lashed out at me with his whip. A large hammer came down on his back, bringing him to the ground.

I looked at Robbie, who was standing above the winded Mickey.

“Don’t worry, Patricia still went, but I just couldn’t miss out on the fun.” he said. We all turned and ran to escape the ringmaster, who was now being dragged away by the security guards.

Victoria finally managed to teleport Robbie away, even though he was begging to stay. We were just outside of Disney World now. We had gone through the hidden path and we were now on our way to rescue Brandon. Finally. How long did it take us just to get to this point? A week? Maybe more than a week. Anyways, after leaving Disney World we followed the twin’s instructions to a small town that was just north of Jeremiah’s castle.

We had finally made it. But, of course, we aren’t getting away with it that easily.

Chapter Eighteen: The Final Riddle
We were still in the small town. A tall Korean man stepped out onto his front porch and stared at us for a while. We were about to pass by his house when he ran out to block our path. He held a broom in his hands. He was probably planning on sweeping until he saw us. “Where are you rushing off to, now?” he asked.

“Oh, um, we’re just going to, um, visit our grandmother.” I lied.

“Without your parents? And with no vehicle? Preposterous! Come, now. Let me show you Margaret.” he said. We followed him to his garage. He opened the door with a small remote and behind the door was a shiny, green car. I blinked.

“Where’s Margaret?” I asked.

“She is Margaret.” he said, pointing at the car.

“Oh.” I said.

“May I give you a lift to your grandmother’s house? Where does she live?” he asked.

“Um, thanks for the offer, sir, but we aren’t supposed to talk to strangers and our grandmother lives far away from here.” said Jordan.

“No problem. I will give you a lift. You kids are too young to be out here traveling with no vehicle and no parents.” the man said.

“No, no, we should really be going, right guys?” said Jordan. We all nodded in agreement, except for the twins who were rummaging through my bag for more sandwiches.

“Oh, but you must! I can take you to Jeremiah and-”

“Whoa! Hold up there, bud. We never mentioned anyone named Jeremiah.” said Victoria. Sweat trickled down the man’s forehead. He sighed.

“Margaret, sick ‘em.” he said. The car immediately backed out of the garage and turned into a dragon.

“Cool! A West Dragon! I thought I’d never see one of these! They only live in Asia!” exclaimed Alan.

“And what do they do?” I asked, backing away from the monster.

“They have a poisonous bite and blast a tarry substance from their mouth. The tar solidifies quickly, trapping and smothering enemies.” said Kendall.

“Well, that is not good.” I said. The dragon turned on us and locked its eyes on me.

“Oh yeah, and they are special hunting dragons, so they can only see in front of them.” said Alan. Kendall smacked him.

“Don’t tell him that or he’ll gain the upper hand.” he warned.

The dragon roared and puked up a large black blob of tar. I leaped to the side and spoke the words on my shield, hoping for extra protection. The shield shuddered and tripled in size in response to the words. The shield became too heavy for me to carry, so I rested the bottom half of it on the ground to form a large barricade. The others rushed behind it, except for Morgan who was firing arrows at the monster’s green, scaly armor. It stared at Morgan with its yellow eyes and barfed another glob of tar. It hit Morgan dead on. She was knocked to the ground and soon, it looked like her head and feet were sticking out of a small mountain.

She was stuck. Jordan performed a spell, causing a manhole cover to blast off of the ground. The water snaked out of the hole and homed in on the dragon. The dragon blasted it with tar, but the tar couldn’t solidify the water. The water burst through the blob and drenched the dragon. Jordan smacked her own head.

“How could I have not thought of it before!” she exclaimed. She took out the small sack that Mr. Freeman had given her and opened it. A first aid kit with a picture of a dragon head on the side came out. The sack was obviously magic, since that whole kit couldn’t have fit in there without magic. On the back of the kit it said, ‘Dragon Survival Kit: For All of Your Dragon Slaying and Survival Needs!’ She opened it and took out its contents. The dragon’s head peeked around the side of our barricade. I attacked it with my sword to keep it away.

Jordan picked up what looked like a tennis racket with no mesh on it.

“A dragon leash. All we have to do is get it around the dragon’s neck and it will be paralyzed until the leash is removed. And here is the bait.” she said. She picked up a small notepad with an arrow drawn on it. She held it in a way that it pointed at me.

“Oh, that’s just cruel.” I said. I sighed before running out from behind the shield. The dragon locked its gaze on me. Jordan used an invisibility spell and snuck around the other side of the shield. Since the leash Jordan was carrying wasn’t invisible, the man saw it and unsheathed his dagger. Victoria kept him busy though. I rolled out of the way of a blob of tar and struck the dragon’s nose. Jordan was on top of the dragon now, trying to fit the leash around its neck. She would have been better off bull riding. The dragon thrashed and flailed about in an attempt to get Jordan off.

She got the leash around the dragon’s nose and was beginning to pull it around his neck. Soon the dragon was frozen and the man was unconscious on the ground. We went to investigate Morgan’s predicament. “How are we going to get her out of there?” asked Victoria. I looked at my shield, which had returned to normal. “Hey, didn’t Mr. Freeman give you that vial? The one with the stuff that melts through rock?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah. Let’s try that.” said Victoria. She poured the vial out onto Morgan and all of the tar corroded and crumbled off of her. She stood up and brushed some rocks out of her hair.

“Yuck.” she said. With that, we exited the neighborhood, the dragon having returning to car mode.

A strange rippling sensation passed over me as we made our way through the magical barriers that were surrounding the castle. As soon as we entered I got a call from Kevin.

“Good news! Camelot is okay. The bad news is I spotted several gang members attempting to destroy it. The rock’s magic was too strong for them, so they haven’t made any progress yet, but who knows how much longer the magic will hold. Troy and I are going to take care of it though. Oh yeah, and did you happen to meet a girl named Patricia and a boy named Robbie on your quest?” he asked.

“Yeah, we met them. They are descendants of knights. We sent them there with the map.” I said.

“Good, because I suspected they were More Dread Gang spies. But it’s okay now. Anyways, have you fought the West Dragon yet? I just figured out the last riddle.”

“Yeah, we just defeated it about an hour ago. We have just entered the magic borders surrounding the castle.” I reported.

“Alright, good. Be sure to keep me posted on your progress. Kev out.” he said. I hung up and looked at the castle. It was gargantuan! It was late afternoon, so the grey rock was reflecting the sun strangely, making the castle appear to be a faint hint of gold. A drawbridge was in the front, and it was up. A moat ten feet deep and twenty feet across was below us, as we were standing near the edge. Gang members with crossbows were up in towers that were stationed on the corners of the castle. A few windows could be seen here and there. The door was not visible at the time because the drawbridge was up.

“So, how do we get in?” Victoria asked. The wind was rushing loudly. I thought for a while. “Stand back. I want to try something. I said. I set my shield down and spoke the words on it. The shield grew and the sides folded inwards. Then a large pole appeared in the center and grew a sail. A boat. I pushed the boat steadily at first, but soon it slid straight in to the moat. I leaped in.

“C’mon guys, it’s safe!” I called. Morgan was the first to jump in. She was always so quick to act, funny, and care-free. Well the last one wasn’t always present in her. The others got in next.

“Okay so what now? The sail isn’t high enough to catch the wind, because now we are too far below ground.” said Jordan. I pondered this. Morgan had already devised a plan though. She took some tree branches that had been floating in the moat and began rowing forward with them. We made it across pretty fast thanks to Morgan’s strength. Once we made it to the other side Victoria slipped some rope out of her bag and tied it around one of the tree branches. Morgan flung the branch up and it hooked onto the edge. We pulled ourselves out of the shield boat and then the shield returned to normal, floating back to my hand. I latched it back on to my arm. Morgan used her strength to pull the drawbridge down, and then the door was revealed. A portcullis, (those special cage-like doors that were used on medieval castles) was blocking the way in. Jordan used a spell and the portcullis rose up.

We all crawled under the tight space that the portcullis left, since it didn’t rise very high. After defeating a few guards, we made our way down the hall.

“Wait, where’s Jordan?” asked Victoria. I turned to see that Jordan was still on the other side of the portcullis.

“You guys go, I can’t fit underneath it. I’ll find another way in.” she urged. We all ran back down the hall up to the door to the throne room.

“The throne room is through here. Inside, there is another small door that leads to the dungeon.” I said. I pushed the door open. The throne room was exactly as I had seen it in my dreams, minus the angered Jeremiah. The large throne, the small table and the shifting stained glass windows were all here. I walked over to the door that would lead to the dungeon. I slowly began to push it open, when a trapdoor below us opened, sending us plummeting into darkness.

Chapter Nineteen: Maze
So, I woke up to find myself in a dimly lit tunnel in the depths of the castle. I was alone. I looked around for Morgan and Victoria, shouting their names once or twice. I called Kevin for help.

“Kevin, I’m in a tunnel and I can’t find Morgan or Victoria.” I said.

“What about the hot girl?” he asked.

“Stop hitting on her Kevin, you’ve got no chance with her. She isn’t here either she said she’d find her own way in.” I said.

“Oh, an independent and feisty one. I like it.” he said. I rolled my eyes.

“Anyways, can I have some help?” I asked.

“Well Troy is here too. Maybe he can help.” said Kevin. Soon, Troy’s voice was on the phone.

“Hey, Lance. I think I can help.” he said.

“Good, how?” I asked.

“I’m going to use a spell to send one of us to where you are.” he said.

“You know magic?” I asked.

“No, not really. Jordan taught me this one though. Okay, here it goes.” he said. All of the sudden, Patricia appeared next to me.

“Whoa! Where’d you come from?” I asked.

“Troy used a spell.” she replied.

“Oh.” I said. Troy had hung up. We both walked down the hallway. There were several twists and turns, but soon we made it to what looked like an armory.

“Wow. This is so cool.” I said, admiring the room. Gang members suddenly appeared and lashed out at us. I stabbed a few while Patricia threw a knife at another and killed the rest with her hatchets. We made our way towards the exit, and as soon as we were out we found more tunnels. At the end of one tunnel was a ladder.

“I bet that this will lead us out of these tunnels.” said Patricia. We both climbed up, and found ourselves in the throne room again. Jeremiah was there standing in front of the throne. Alan and Kendall were standing in front of him, and Morgan and Victoria had poles across their backs, hands tied to each end, just like Brandon had been. Gang members were guarding the doors.

“I can’t believe that you two idiots brought me these two, but not Lance, who has the gem!” exclaimed Jeremiah.

“No, he was here! He fell through a different tunnel when the trapdoor opened. He is still in the castle, in fact, we have men searching for him right now!” exclaimed Alan. Jeremiah rolled his eyes. Patricia and I attempted to sneak up on Jeremiah. Kendall saw us and burst out in alarm.

“Look, Jeremiah! He’s right behind you!” he shouted. I tried to duck behind the throne but got hit with an orb. Patricia ran forward and got a few gang members with her hatchets. The twins hit her with a green orb, causing her to immediately fall asleep. Jeremiah shook his head.

“You have definitely gotten worse at this Lance. Hand over the gem.” he ordered.

“You want the gem? Okay!” I said. I ran over to the center of the room. “Come here and get it.” I said. Jeremiah trotted over and reached for the gem. At the last second, I held the gem straight up and the light in the room reflected off of the gem, temporarily blinding everyone, except for me since I didn’t look at the light. I dashed into the dungeon and searched for Brandon. He was still in the cell, and two other cells were now occupied. One held Brandon’s parents; the other had Jordan in it. I ran over to Brandon’s cell.

“About time you got here.” he said quietly. I began to kick on the cell door, when a laser blasted my way. It seared off part of my sleeve. It distracted me and a gang member grabbed me from behind. Jeremiah removed the gem from my hand and placed it on a pedestal. He then performed a spell and then a light shot out from Brandon. The light hit Excalibur, which was also on a pedestal, and reflected off, going towards the gem. The light hit the gem.

“There is nothing you can do now.” said Jeremiah. Then, the gem shattered. “What? What happened?” said Jeremiah. He looked at Alan and Kendall.

“I told you that he needed a real one!” said Alan.

“I didn’t know it would make a difference!” said Kendall.

“YOU IDIOTS! Now my plan to hypnotize all of the centaurs in the world and enslave all of the mortals is ruined! In fact, it will never work now, because the other brats have shown up! I can’t believe I wasted all of this time pretending to be a gang member! It was just a cover!” he shouted. He breathed heavily from his tirade before realizing he just blew his cover. Several gang members gathered around him, knives ready.

“What!? No! Stop, I command you to sheath your knives and kill the brats! No stop! Augh!” he shouted as they attacked him. Seconds later, the gang members dispersed, revealing a dead Jeremiah on the floor. He would no longer pose a threat to us, the centaurs, the mortals, and even the More Dread Gang for that matter.

Chapter Twenty: Explanations
We all watched the TV in Brandon’s house. The More Dread Gang let us go… just this once. We were back at home in Philadelphia. The twins stayed in the castle. Morgan, Victoria, Jordan, Troy, Kevin, Robbie, Brandon, Patricia, Brandon’s parents, and I were sitting in the living room. On the TV, a news reporter said, “That’s right; the four missing children from Avalon Estates have been found.”

A picture of Brandon, Morgan, Victoria, and I appeared on screen.

“Um, so, son, could you tell us what happened with this whole centaur, castle, rescue, Washington D.C. thing?” Brandon’s dad asked. I sighed. We had all come here to explain to Brandon’s parents that they were descendants of King Arthur.

“Mom, dad, this is going to be a long story.” said Brandon. “You guys and I are descendants of King Arthur.” he said quickly.

“Lance is a descendant of Lancelot, Morgan is a descendant of Guinevere, and Victoria is a descendant of Merlin. Troy is Perceval’s descendant, Kevin is Galahad’s, Robbie is Gawain’s, and Patricia is Tristan’s. All of them are from Arthurian legend. Dwayne Freeman is on the wrong side, because he is a leader of the More Dread Gang. The More Dread Gang is an evil organization of guys with red hoodies that want to either kill or recruit descendants of knights of the Round Table so that they can take over the world.” he explained. His parents blinked, unsure of what he was saying is true.

“Its true.” said Victoria. “Also, mythical creatures do exist. I have a pet griffin in my backyard named Pepperoni, and I can do magic. Also, dragons, mermaids, goblins, ogres, centaurs, sea monsters, giant scorpions, and wizards, exist.” she said.

“And that centaur, Jeremiah, was an evil centaur. But most centaurs are good! Like our friends Prescenan, Jonah, Ian, and Darren!” exclaimed Morgan. “You’ve got to meet them.” she said. “Are you kids feeling okay?” asked Brandon’s mom.

“We’re perfectly fine. Here, I’ll introduce you to Pepperoni.” said Victoria. She snapped her fingers and we all appeared in her backyard. The griffin was in the area that had more trees right then. Victoria whistled and motioned for him to come over. Pepperoni flew over to us, shaking the ground as he landed. She petted him. “Good boy.” she said. He wagged his tail. Brandon’s parents stared at the beast in astonishment.

“What a magnificent creature!” exclaimed Brandon’s dad. He is a biology professor at a college, so he became quite fascinated with Pepperoni. He walked over to Pepperoni, attempting to pet him. Pepperoni snarled and got ready to pounce.

“Pepperoni, no! Stay! Mr. Bennett will not hurt you. He’s Brandon’s dad. He only wants to pet you.” she assured him. Pepperoni backed up. Victoria gave him some fried chicken and then the fear was gone.

“Wow.” said Brandon’s dad. I sighed. I couldn’t believe we had convinced them that they were descendants of Arthur.

Chapter Twenty One: Ending the Alliance
A knock on my window pane. I shot up in bed. I looked outside and saw Dwayne perched on the balcony. I opened the window and climbed out.

“Hey.” he said.

“Hi. Uh, what are you doing here? And in the middle of the night?” I asked.

“You saved Bennett. Good for you. And now, Jeremiah is dead. So, I wanted you to know that now that he is dead, I don’t have to hide from the More Dread Gang anymore.” he said.

“Okay.” I replied.

“And, that means, that this alliance is over. My debt to you has been paid. Now I may continue being a gang leader.” he said.

“What? You don’t really want to do that, do you? We make a great team!” I said.

“Yes, and I’m sure if you ever get the chance to team up with me again, that it may last longer. But not right now. Not this time. The More Dread Gang is entering a crucial phase. Without me, the phase means nothing. Perhaps once the gang creates a new era, we can discuss plans so that you won’t be enslaved full-time. Then perhaps we could get some Burger King. Yeah, that’s right; there will still be Burger Kings around once my plan is complete. My plan doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?” he said.

“Um…”

“Whatever.” he said.

“Yeah, the thing is, I’m kind of tired of people planning to have me enslaved or possibly destroyed, so…”

“Shut up! The point is we are no longer allied. I cannot allow those two idiots to take over the gang! Which reminds me…” he said. He dropped a large black bag on the ground. Whatever was inside was heavy, because there was a loud THUD.

“A farewell gift. Use it to your advantage. Until next we meet.” he said. He jumped over the railing and vanished. I dragged the bag inside and opened it. Inside was the last thing I expected.

Kendall.

Chapter Twenty Two: End
The next morning I brought the unconscious Kendall over to Brandon’s house. When Brandon answered the door, I no longer saw his normal front hall. His house now held several guests. Robbie, Troy, and Patricia were all bunking here. Jordan had actually stayed at Victoria’s house. It didn’t surprise me much.

His house had been turned into a training area. Well, mostly the backyard. I walked inside. “Why do you have him?” Brandon asked.

“Dwayne knocked him out and brought him to me. For two reasons, one, so that way Alan couldn’t take over the gang because he needs his brother to do that. Two, so we can hold him prisoner and find out what the gang is doing next.” I said. Brandon nodded. I passed by Brandon’s dad. He was building a bed for Robbie to sleep in.

“Hi, dad, I’m going to bring an unconscious dimwitted gang member to our basement to hold him prisoner, okay?” said Brandon.

“Yeah, sure, son, go have fun.” he said. We brought Kendall down to the basement. Then, we both trained in his house for the rest of the afternoon.

After all of this, Victoria continued going over to other kids’ houses after school, for reasons unknown. Brandon recovered from his traumatic experience in the castle, as his parents did as well. Morgan continued to train Kevin. In fact, she updated his video game, with new bosses like a goblin doctor, a West Dragon, twin gang members, Jeremiah, and a giant scorpion. She even threw in Dan. And, for some reason, she added this spell where if the character is hurt by it, they turn into a dog. Strange, huh?

Pepperoni continued to happily feed on mice and fried bird meat. Jordan helped Victoria with her magic, as well as training Robbie, Troy, and Patricia. Oh yeah, we also got Excalibur back. Prescenan and his men kept me posted on gang member activity. They seemed to have gone quiet for a while.

That’s okay though, because I can wait a while before going on another long, dangerous quest.

Chapter Twenty Three: What Happened Later
I stepped out of the door on my way to school, and smacked head first into a sign. The sign was wooden with black paint on it. A message was written on it:

Great work- Lance.

But you are not done.

The More Dread Gang will be back. In three months, tell your friends that another quest is offered. To find out the More Dread Gang’s biggest secret, you must follow the instructions. They will arrive once you are ready.

The signs were back again. Last fall, several signs showed up to help us in our quest. This one was offering a quest. But, again, I can wait. I’ve got three months.

In the next two months, two new descendants arrived; the descendant of Dagonet, Luke, and the descendant of Gaheris, Chandelor. And now, I have reached the end. I’ll talk to you later. Time to pass the story on to Morgan.