Chapter 21

          Nixie is a really amazing fairy and friend, don’t get me wrong, though she is definitely a hand full and quite strong for someone her size.  We bolted down the halls, past the balcony, and rode the ivy banister the whole way down the oak stairs. 

“Talk about fast travel huh?” Nixie asked me panting.

“Y-yeah, that was fun!” I laughed behind trying to catch my breath.

“Glad you enjoyed it, because that was just the beginning of what we have to do in order to get to my home!” Nixie smirked before dragging me again.  This time we went out of the tree and into the bustling crowd of people surrounding Gwen’s tree.

          There were several odd looking ‘people’ scrambling to get from one part of Nocotee to the other.  I began to observe what they all looked like as well.  There were women wearing skirts made out of leaves, vine corsets, and vibrantly colored flowers for hair on the tops of their heads.  There were men who were wearing suits made out of pieces pinecone, pine needle hats, and some had sap on their feet in which some were dragging leaves around if you know what I mean.  There were also little children running and frolicking through the midst of the commotion who wore leaf tunics and had flower buds for hair. 

          I quickly felt like a sore thumb as I noticed all the odd looks these people like things were giving me.

“Nixie, umm, how long exactly until we get to your home?” I whispered.

“It’ll be a while, which is why we have some fun along the way!” she replied with a wide smile upon her small thin lips.  I nodded as Nixie continued to drag me out of the midst of the craziness in front of Gwen’s tree.  After a half an hour fight to get through the crowd we arrived at a small stream where it was just me, Nixie, and the water.  Before I even dared to ask Nixie how we were going to get across I looked up to see her already flying up a tree.

“Nixie! What are you doing?” I yelled up to her.

“You’ll see! Climb the tree and meet me at the top!” She called back.  I sighed before gripping onto a piece of bark as I pulled myself up and began climbing the massive oak tree. 

Chapter 20

           Nixie led me out of the dining hall and into the small restroom like room besides the dining hall.

“So, what do you think about the ladies in waiting?” she asked handing me a leaf to dry my mouth off with.

“You mean those girls who made me drink that foul substance? Yeah, they’re just peachy…,” I said sarcastically while raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Marissa and Clarissa are two of the most interesting twins you will ever meet.  I’m surprised Gwendolyn allows them to be her ladies in waiting,” Nixie replied.

“You got that interesting part right,” I laughed while finishing the final touches on fixing my dress.  I smiled slightly at Nixie who had the look of concern on her face as she carefully examined my dress. 

“Umm, Nixie? Is something wrong?” I asked, shooting Nixie a small smirk.

“No, it’s just that your dress is kinda…well…not in style,” Nixie replied sheepishly.  I grinned, placing a hand on my hip.

“What? You don’t like it? B-but it was an original,” I said faking the sentimental part of the dress.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way! It’s just-,” before Nixie could finish rambling I laughed, interrupting her.

“Nixie calm down, it’s not sentimental or original.  I got it at a small thrift store for ten bucks a year ago,” I giggled as Nixie gave me a playful glare before smiling.

“Anyway, my point is that maybe I could help you design an original dress,” Nixie said, fluttering up straighter.

“You mean like one of your dresses?” I asked.

“You bet!” she squealed.

“And it will be out of flower petals?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Correct,” she replied.

“Are you sure it will be comfy just like cotton is?” I asked skeptically.

“I don’t know what that is, but sure,” Nixie said giggling. 

“Fine, but absolutely no pink,” I said sternly.

“Oh, all right,” Nixie sighed.

“Do we go get it now or do we wait a bit?” I asked curiously.  Nixie laughed before she playfully hit me in the arm.

“No, silly! We take you to my home where I can design a dress personally for you!” Nixie replied beaming with pride.

“Sounds good to me,” I answered.

“Good, now let’s go to my place!” Nixie squealed, grabbing my finger and began pulling me through the halls once again.

Chapter 19

          “That’s acorn sauce for on your berry surprise, which is the purplish gooey stuff.  Then you have mealworm morsels which are those tan slimy things with the leaf under them,” she replied.  I cringed at the thought of pulling goo covered mealworms out of my teeth.

“And what’s that…?” I asked hesitant, pointing at the white liquid substance in the hollowed out acorn top.

“That’s-,” before Nixie could finish the blonde haired lady in waiting stuck herself between me and Nixie.

“That’s the best stuff! You’ll love it!” the girl laughed.  Gwen sighed and placed a hand on the side of her head.

“Are you sure…?” I asked skeptically.

“Positive!” she exclaimed before scurrying over next to the other brunette girl.

“Okay then…,” I sighed as I nervously picked up the cup.  As I held it, moving it closer to my lips, I gently shook the cup expecting it to spill but instead it jiggled! Food doesn’t jiggle unless it’s Jell-O! Let alone a drink!  I finally managed to gather enough courage, and taste the drink.

           The second it touched my lips, I immediately dropped the cup on the floor, spit out the wad of white goo, and gagged.

“What the heck was that?” I exclaimed, gagging between words.  The blonde girl was over in the corner laughing until her face turned blue and she was gasping for air.

“That wa-,” she stopped between breaths and burst out laughing hysterically until she fell over with a thump.  Still laughing!

“That’s curdled spider milk, Annabelle!” Nixie exclaimed before handing me a cup of water which didn’t take me long to gulp down.  Gwen then stood up from her chair, walked over to the blonde girl, and then…snip! Gwen cut off a bit of the girl’s hat’s stem!

“Clarissa, what have I told you about giving guests the curdled spider milk! On purpose!” Gwen reprimanded.

“Sorry your highness! But I just had to!” Clarissa replied laughing.

“I give up,” Gwen sighed before walking over to me.

“Annabelle, are you okay?” Gwen asked, offering me a hand.

“Yeah, I’m so sorry about the mess,” I coughed as I wiped saliva off of my chin and standing up.

“Its fine, Clarissa at this rate won’t have any stem left for me to snip,” Gwen grinned.

“Now then, Nixie why don’t you take Annabelle to clean up?” Gwen asked Nixie softly.  Nixie nodded as she took my finger and led me out of the room.

 

Annabelle illustration by Kristen Strutt

Chapter 18

          The next day I was awoken to someone shaking me and calling my name.

“Annabelle! Annabelle!” I stirred knowing that voice was none other than Nixie.

“Nixie? What do you want?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“Get up! I’m your tour guide today but first we need to get you to breakfast!” she squealed.

“Fine, I’ll be down in a minute…” I mumbled sitting up and noticing Gwen was missing.

“Gwen!” I yelled before quickly jumping out of bed and running down to the dining hall nearly slipping and tripping as I ran.  I hung onto the wall for dear life as I snapped myself around the corner and to my relief, there was Gwen, Nixie, Liliana, Azura, and two new girls in the dining hall.

            The two girls were a tad shorter then Gwen, and both looked very similar to the other.  They had very long torsos but their body shapes were very beam like, with not many curves.  One girl had golden blonde hair and the other was a brunette, they both also had their hair up and tucked away inside of their pink buttercup hats.  As I looked closer I could notice both of them had different length stems on their hats, the blonde’s being shorter than the brunette’s.  They had bright green vine corsets which were attached to a bright pink petunia skirt which flared out from their tiny bodies.  The girls both had paler skin which was a clear sign they don’t get out much which accented their twinkling eyes.  The blonde had gorgeous emerald green eyes and the brunette had sapphire blue.  As for personality, I could already tell these two were a handful.

            “Annabelle?” Gwen asked aware as she stood to her feet.  I sighed a sigh of relief before slouching my shoulders soon finding myself standing there awkwardly in the door way.

“I-uhhhh, I just wanted to make sure that you were in the dining hall already,” I laughed nervously.  Gwen looked at me for a brief moment with a confused look on her face, but she finally sat down.  I causally made my way over to the empty seat at the opposite end of the table where I found myself in between Nixie and Liliana.  Within minutes of sitting down the two girls behind Gwen’s chair snuck out of the room giggling and returned moments later with trays full of interesting looking foods.  I wrinkled my nose as the interesting smells, and leaned over to Nixie.

“Hey, Nixie, what exactly is this?” I whispered, pointing to the plate full of interesting concoctions in front of me.  Nixie smirked slightly before smiling and pointing to every object on the plate.

Chapter 17

          “Gwen, what’s this?” I asked picking up the book, blowing dust off of it.

“That’s what I need to discuss with you,” she replied, sitting on her bed.

“I’m listening,” I said softly as I took a seat next to her.  Gwen sighed before taking the book from my hands and gently opening it.

“This is my journal, Annabelle.  Every chapter holds a new adventure, but recently things haven’t been the best,” Gwendolyn spoke softly before pointing to a picture on the page.

“Ah!” I screamed at the picture before toppling over backwards on the bed and onto the floor with a loud thump.

“It’s a bug! Gwen is it dead?” I squealed, peering over the edge on the bed.  She gave a small smile before looking at the picture again,

“It’s not a bug Annabelle, it’s a Crognard,” Gwen said softly.

“A w-what?” I asked cautiously as I slowly made my way onto the bed again.

“A Crognard.  Annabelle I will tell you right now, you have no idea how much damage these horrible things have caused up,” she added with tears forming in her sparkling eyes.

“What damage…?” I asked shyly.

            Gwendolyn placed her hand over the Crognard before she began to talk,

“The Crognards are the sworn enemy of our kind Annabelle, we have lost several of our kind to them, including my parents.  They have been trying for years to attack and destroy us, but all that the king wants is this-,” Gwen stopped as she lifted up a small pendant necklace which was around her neck and held it out to me.

“This pendant holds every dream that is occurring right now, and I have the power to make the new dreams every night and send my dream carriers, the fairies, to deliver those new dreams and bring back the old ones which are in the leaves.  However, if Varkus, the evil king, gets ahold of this pendant he has the power to change those dreams to nightmare.  Thankfully it’s just him who can do that, not his Crognards.”

“Why do they want it if all it does is control dreams?” I asked.

“It doesn’t just control dreams, if they get this necklace and if they kill me, they will officially have the power to destroy the entire forest.”

            I immediately felt my face flush white of fear as I swallowed hard,

“T-they want you d-dead?” I choked out the words.

“Unfortunately…,” Gwen sighed.

“What now…?” I asked.

“I’m going to let you spend the night with me, and tomorrow I will send you off with Nixie for some fun activities,” she replied before snuggling under the petal and shutting off her lamp.  I sighed before soon falling asleep at the foot of Gwen’s bed.

 

Illustrated by Kristen Strutt

 

Chapter 16

          I sat there motionless in the crystal wing of the dragon, our eyes locked upon each other. 

“Help?” I whispered timidly.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Help with what?” I asked as I sat cross-legged, getting comfortable in his wing.

“Protecting this entire civilization,” the dragon said calmly.

“From what?” I asked, at this point I was beginning to feel like a nuisance to the dragon for asking so many questions, but I couldn’t help it! He wasn’t giving answers!

“Has Gwendolyn here told you about the Crognards?” he whispered as he gave a cold glare over at Gwen.

“First off, no.  Second of all, how many unknown creatures live here?” I exclaimed as I rose to my feet.

            Without a word The Keeper placed me on the ground next to Gwen, looked intently at both of us, and then vanished in a spiraling whirlwind of crystals and fog.  Gwendolyn stood there silent with her hands placed gently against her soft petal skirt as she stared at the ground.

“Gwen…?” I whispered quietly.

“Annabelle?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“There’s something I need to explain to you,” she said quietly. 

“Okay,” I replied.  Gwendolyn took my hand as she lead me past the trolls, up the slide, and back into the tree. 

“Where are we going?” I asked looking around at the gold wooden ceiling.

“My room,” she replied and took me up a pair of ivy stairs.  As we walked up the ivy I noticed the slight look of concern on some of the people and creatures in the main entry.  Within seconds two men dressed in clothes made of leaves carrying a piece of wood with a dead leaf on it walked in the room.  Several of the people wept, hugged, and whispered amongst each other.

“Gwen, what happened?” I whispered.  Gwen turned around to see the people and sighed.

“Another great warrior has been lost…those Crognards won’t give up on destroying us,” she choked, holding back tears.

“Crognards…?” I asked softly, placing a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.

“I’ll explain when we get upstairs,” Gwendolyn replied.  Before we made it up the stairs Gwen gently moved her index finger in a spiral motion which swiftly covered the leaf in vines and pink rose petals.  The people looked up at Gwen and slightly nodded their heads at her with tears on their faces before resuming crying and talking.  After a silent walk up the stairs Gwen slowly creaked open the door which led to her bedroom.

            The room had tiny white crystals all around, buried in the cracks in the wooden walls.  The floor was a light maple wood color, and perfectly polished.  There weren’t any windows, but there was a small glowing mushroom sitting on a carved out nightstand which provided light to the room.  There also was a violet colored orchid in the corner of the room with two rolled up leaf pillows and a white rose petal blanket on in.  Then I noticed a small book on her floor.

 

Chapter 15

          As Annabelle, Gwendolyn, and The Keeper prepared to go into conversation, across the forest there were others preparing for certain matters.  Deep into the blackened emerald heart of the forest roamed a colony of unusual human like creatures known as the Crognards.  These so called Crognards were controlled by their evil king, named Varkus.  Anything he says goes.  Yes, Varkus is the evil king of the forest, but his appearance is very pleasing to the eye.

            He stands a little over three inches tall, with a muscular and broad twenty-eight year old body frame.  Though he looks twenty-eight; just like Gwendolyn, he too is ageless.  A wide smirk is seen slurred across his grim jaw line.  He looked up from the ground with a mysterious glimmer deep within his gorgeous dark grey and silver eyes which were complimenting his devious smirk flawlessly.  He rested his back up against the inside of the Stenwitch Sycamore Tree’s blackened and decayed walls.  He placed his right arm on his stomach, wrapping his hand around his waist while using his left hand to wonderingly stroke the ghost of a beard upon his handsome face.  Varkus sighed deeply before then running his left hand through his midnight black hair which also had a violet tint to it making it shine softly in the moonlight seeping through the crevices in the tree bark.  His hair was shaved short the whole way around his head with perfectly trimmed sideburns lining seamlessly in front of his ears, framing his face beautifully.  His bangs however where roughly tousled from the back but were spiked to a peak in the front. 

            Varkus’s clothes consisted of several emblems.  His shirt was tank top styled, open chested shirt made up of black crow feathers and dead leaves which were also black, and all sewn together with black spider silk thread.  He wore pants made up of the molted skin of a black snake, however he went barefoot.  Last of all he wore a cape which was made up of crow feathers and the furry carcass of a dead rat. 

            For Varkus and his colony of Crognards destroying the Queen and Nocotee was and still is their number one priority, however they have failed every attack they have launched on the enchanted forest.  Little did they know victory would be the hardest to win not because of fighting, but because of something a million times stronger than fighting ever could be?

Illustrated by Kristen Strutt

 

Chapter 14

          “How dare you reprimand me like that?” Gwen yelled, her voice sounding like a teapot about to whistle.

“Gwendolyn Sephora Keeper of Nocotee!” the dragon’s voice grumbled like the sound of a volcano about to erupt.  Immediately Gwen froze.  A minute ticked by.  Two.  Three.  After five heart wrenching minutes of nothing but grueling silence Gwen took a step back.  She had the look of anger in her hazel eyes, the green around her pupil soon began to overtake the brownish tint in her glaring eyes.

“You have been proven unworthy Gwendolyn Sephora.  Unworthy of the title of The Keeper’s Daughter.” The Keeper’s voice boomed, rattling my ears like wind chimes. 

            My heart had crashed through the ground at what The Keeper told Gwendolyn, and that’s when I knew I needed to step in.  No matter the risk.  I grabbed onto the edge of the leaf trying to make a graceful and casual entrance, however that wasn’t going to happen.  As I pulled myself up onto the leaf I crawled closer to the tip of the leaf, planning to slide down without a problem.  I sat down and scooted closer to sliding down, but the moment I prepared to slide, the leaf’s stem broke.  I felt as if my life had flashed before my eyes as I found myself on the ground wrapped up in the oak leaf.  I felt like a humiliated leafwich. 

            The dragon’s eyes quickly went from glaring at Gwendolyn to staring directly at me.  Aw shoot, I thought as I scrambled to get to my feet but my feet punctured the leaf and I went from being a leafwich to wearing a leaf diaper. 

“Annabelle?” the dragon called to me, his voice not cracking once,

“Y-yes?” I stuttered.

“We need your help,” The Keeper whispered before scooping me up in his wing and holding me up until we were nose to nose.

Chapter 13

          There.  Before my eyes.  He stood a mighty dragon as tall as the heavens.  He didn’t have scales, no, but he did have millions of jagged crystals covering him from the tip of his lip to the very end of his serpent like tail.  His eyes held the vicious glare of Medusa, glowing, yet never turning anything to stone.  He wore a crown of ten golden, perfectly pointed stain glass spears with a twinkling oval shaped sapphire holding them together.  The sapphire was surrounded by more gold stain glass which was built into his crystalized skull.  He had wings at least a sequoia tree in length per wing.  Each wing also had a pine needle length crystal spine on their tips, held by the thinnest of glass wings.  There was none, if little color to the dragon.  His body was completely clear with no veins, muscles, bones, or heart, as was his head.  How could he be alive?  

“G-Gwen?” I asked, shaking.

“Yes?” she replied.

“What do I do?” I whispered, my voice cracking underneath my breath.

“Nothing-only he does what he wants,” Gwen sighed, curtsying slightly.  I too followed her lead and curtsied, but instead I found myself with a mouthful of ground.  I sat up immediately, rubbed my face, and stood next to Gwen who had her stomach sucked in and chest broad.

“Don’t even try Annabelle,” Gwen whispered to me, folding her hands neatly across her skirt.  I nodded, knowing I had obviously embarrassed Gwen.  Heaven knows what she was thinking of me at that moment.

            The dragon growled slightly before letting out a deep groan, sounding of disappointment.

“My daughter,” The Keeper growled again, specifically at Gwen, eyes cold.

“H-huh?” Gwen asked in nervous confusion.

“My daughter, give her to me.  Now!” He roared, like the winds of a hurricane.  Gwen quickly blinked back tears which the dragon’s short temper had brought to her eyes.  That’s when her fists clenched and her face turned scarlet.

            I backed up into the bush again knowing something was going to go down and I didn’t want to be in the midst of it.  I peered out through a hole on one of the leaves as Gwen walked over towards the dragon, her head held high.  Then that’s when things went downhill.  Fast!

Chapter 12

          I quickly clung to Gwendolyn’s arm for dear life before looking out from behind the safety of our bush. 

“Wh-what is that?” I exclaimed, springing to my feet.

“That’s The Keeper,” Gwen replied, cautiously standing up and placing a completely still hand upon my shoulder.  I didn’t add onto Gwen’s reply, instead I stared long and hard at the moving trees while waiting for something to appear. 

“Where is it?” I asked, cowering back slightly.

“I don’t know, He never shows up unless it’s serious,” Gwen answered sternly, hazel eyes keen.  I wanted so badly to know what it was, but at the same time was kind of intimidated by this unknown keeper, or so Gwen calls it.

            We waited for a second more,

“Is it goi-,” before I could finish, I was cut off by a roar like the agonizing cry of the sky.  The wind picked up faster and stronger until Gwen and I had to cling onto a rock to prevent being blown away.  As we hung on for dear life that’s when the crystal trees began to rattle and clash together like rivaling tribes at war.  The trees parted by a powerful stomp slamming into the face of the earth, making the dirt arise.  I looked out of the bush once again but this time my mouth dropped.

“Umm, Gwen? Is that The Keeper?” I asked, eyes wide.  She nodded, grabbing my hand in hers and looking me in the eye.

“G-Gwen?” I whispered softly, knowing this was serious.

“Annabelle, meet The Keeper,” Gwen replied, placing her hand on my face and turning my head to the sky.  That was the moment my whole world had changed-for good. 

 

Chapter 11

            I didn’t quite get why Gwendolyn cared so highly for these trolls though they were quite interesting to look at.  The little trolls Gwen was now holding in both of her arms were about seven centimeters tall with skin made of tree bark.  Both had only one leaf on their heads with no visible eyes but an emerald green glow came from underneath their bark instead.  They had pudgy little fingers made of twigs, though their feet were small stumps of wood.  Upon their backs was a tree knot that was actually a backpack according to them.

“What jobs do they exactly have?” I asked.

“They are the keepers of the forest, each with a different job,” Gwen replied.

“Like what?” I asked curiously.

“Well, there are a variety of them.  The light oak wood trolls are in control of changing the colors of the leaves according to the seasons.  The dark oak wood trolls are in charge of replacing any rotten leaves by making a green paste in their mouths then spread it out over the rotting spots on the leaves.  Then you have the moss covered oak trolls, they do exactly as they look; they put moss on the trees.  The spruce trolls go around and make sure that all the rocks are freshly dappled and shinned before anyone else sees them, then within a day they go on display for all of us.  These little guys have quite the responsibility, but not as much as the-,” Gwen paused before looking into the sky which was rapidly turning bone white.

“What’s happening?” I stuttered as I felt the wind begin to blow.

“He’s coming,” Gwen replied sternly before the trolls quickly scampered over to a nearby tree, soon vanishing into nothing but a knot on the tree. 

“Who’s he?” I asked before nervously looking over at Gwen.

“Him,” Gwen replied again before grabbing my hand, pulling me into a bush, and put a hand over my mouth. 

            Within seconds of Gwen pouncing on me I heard the sounds of the wind howling like the howl of the scream of a wolf, hail like objects crashing to the ground like tears of the sky, the glass leaves rattling like a thousand wind chimes. 

“He knows when something is wrong,” Gwen whispered before going silent then peered slightly out slightly from behind a leaf.  I didn’t respond but by the widening of Gwen’s eyes I could tell this wasn’t good.  Then that’s when the ground began to shake.

Chapter 10

           “Annabelle! Can-you-hear-me?” I heard Gwendolyn calling to me, but I still saw nothing but darkness. 

“Mhm!” I mumbled through what tasted like berry juice.

“Keep-calm! You-are-in-a-berry!” Gwen shouted.

“Um muh?” I gurgled.

“Hang-on!” Gwen yelled again before I felt tugging on my head.  Within a few seconds of Gwen pulling on the berry, which I had just found out was on my head, I heard a licking noise.

“Mmm mh?” I said, trying to ask her what was that.

“Ummm, ha ha…,” Gwen laughed nervously.

“Mmm mh?” I asked her again, but louder.

“Ummm, yea….Annabelle? There is a small, tiny, maybe, possible chance that there are trolls on your head licking the berry which is on your head right now,” Gwen quickly rambled before taking in a deep sigh.  I didn’t even bother asking about how a berry and trolls both ended up on my head, so I just remained silent as Gwendolyn pulled on the berry.

            I waited anxiously for about five minutes before I heard the sound.  Plop! I was free, but my hair was a wreck.  Gwendolyn laughed, placing her hand on her hip and handing me a shiny pebble so I could see my reflection.  I picked up the pink pebble and as I went to see my reflection and immediately broke out into a scream.

“Ah! Gwen what are they? Get them off!” I shrieked while struggling to toss these creatures off my head.

“They’re trolls, hang on!” Gwen replied before extending her hand to them which was soon a playground for the trolls. 

“Annabelle this is Patience and Sprout, the tree trolls,” Gwendolyn said smiling as she looked up at me.

“Tree trolls?” I asked perplexed.

“Yup, tree trolls,” she replied.

“How do you know that’s what they are?” I asked.

“I found them a while back as stray and misunderstood creatures so I took them in and gave them a name,” Gwendolyn said smiling.

“So you named them tree trolls?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yup,” she giggled, stroking the little troll’s head leaf.

“What’s the leaf for?” I said wonderingly, looking at the troll’s leaf.

“Each troll has one, they basically represent their ranks upon their jobs in the forest.  Since these two little ones have only one leaf on their heads they are little kids around the age of two or three judging by the looks of the number of rings they have on their stumps.  Excuse my language,” Gwen replied, looking at both trolls’ rear ends where I also saw the rings.

“They are basically like walking tree stumps then?” I asked, poking the troll’s tiny wooden feet.

“Depends which way you look at it,” Gwen replied calmly before returning to her task of cradling the baby trolls.

 

Illustrated by my dear friend, Kristen Strutt.

Chapter 9

          I stared down the passage as Gwendolyn stood on a small platform right above a slide like object.

“I-is it safe?” I asked, looking Gwendolyn in the eye.

“Of course! I go down it several times a day, trust me?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Fine,” I sighed, taking her hand and stepping down to the platform with her.

“Ready?” Gwen asked me, letting go of my hand and staring down the dark carved out tunnel.

“I guess so,” I grinned nervously trying not to show my nerves.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Gwendolyn laughed before shoving me down the tunnel, which turned out to be more of a slide.

I was engulfed in a quick blur of darkness before being spit out of the slide and was rapidly whipped and lashed back and forth while Gwendolyn laughed and smiled behind me. 

“This is insane!” I shrieked, desperately trying to grip onto the tunnel’s walls with my fingernails.  I spread out my legs and pressed my feet and hands against the walls, still trying to stop. 

“Keep going slow poke!” Gwen giggled from behind, giving me another shove until I was finally slowing down enough to open my eyes and when I did, it was amazing.

            I saw leaves made of glass and in a variety of color ranging from the darkest blue to the brightest white, however there wasn’t any black.  I looked closer and harder at the inside of the leaves, noticing that they each had a glowing gold sparkly ball in each individual one.  The balls were about the size of a raisin compared to a regular sized human which glistened due to the gold glitter and light spiraling around them. 

“There’s the end!” Gwendolyn yelled to me, wrapping her arms around my waist as we were thrown from the tree slide, landing on another branch. 

“O-oh sweet ground!” I sighed in relief as I hugged the branch and kissed the ground.

“Thank goodness that’s over, I mean what else could have happened?” I added, laughing jokingly under my breath.  Gwen gave me a small smirk before she laughed as she placed her hands on her hips.

“At least the trolls didn’t show up,” she said softly, looking around at the bushes and trees.

“Trolls?” I exclaimed.  Then all went black.

Chapter 8

          “Come,” she said softly extending her hand to me.

“Where are we going?” I asked her skeptically.

“Somewhere special, you’d be one of the few to go to this place,” Gwendolyn whispered, opening a small hidden flap of bark on the side of the room’s wall.

“O-okay then,” I replied shyly as I took her hand.  She smiled at me, locking door and dragging me to the entrance of the tunnel which was behind the piece of wood.

“What’s that your majesty?” I exclaimed and backed up slightly.  Gwendolyn giggled slightly and placed a finger to her soft lips,

“It’s Gwen, now shhhh,” she said behind laughter.  ‘Gwen’ looked back at me briefly before letting go of my hand and began messing with the skirt of her dress.

“Ummm, what are you doing?” I said raising an eyebrow. 

She continued to ruffle and tug at the rose petals on her dress’s skirt before the seams started to tear off the bottom of the dress.  After a few minutes of tugging, heaving, and huffing and puffing, she tore off the bottom of the dress until the dress was right under her knees. 

“Gwen, wh-,” I was cut off when Gwendolyn handed me over an armful of rose petals from her dress, which literally pulled me to my knees.

“Hold those,” she said laughing under her breath while fixing her skirt.

“H-how do you wear this?” I panted while trying to stand up from the floor, practically drowning underneath Gwendolyn’s skirt.

“It’s easy you just suck it in, keep your head up, and try not to fall,” Gwen giggled, staring down at me and offered me her hand.  I felt embarrassed having to take her hand again, but I reluctantly grabbed it, leaving her skirt on the floor.

“C’mon umm, what’s your name?” Gwendolyn asked.

“Annabelle,” I replied. 

“Okay Annabelle, let’s go,” Gwendolyn said softly as she gave me a mysterious smirk.

“What was that for…?” I asked skeptically.

“You’ll see,” Gwen giggled once more before jumping down the passage.