Sierra's Story

Contest Extension

2011-12-29T17:58:00.001-08:00

Okay, so, due to a lack of entries and the fact that it WAS a pretty short period of time... The deadline for the contest will now be extended to February 1st. ;) I hope that helps out some of you a bit....Wow! I actually wrote a short post for once! :D

Fan Work Contest!

2011-11-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

...Well, okay then, Rowan.

Thanks for posting without telling me.

And mentioning this contest.

Because I wasn't going to mention it.

At least... not right away...

I mean, I kind of wanted to FINISH the series before that happened...

But... whatever...

Anyway! Sierra here (of course). It seems like, incredibly, some people might ACTUALLY enter the contest. Wow.

I've added a couple things to it that Rowan didn't mention, however. Not only can you draw fan art, but you can also write a fan fiction based on The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze. In fact, you can do any kind of fan work. You can do a... fan video! Or... fan... comic? Fan song! ...I dunno. XD I really don't care what it is, as long as it includes The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze characters. ;) Haha, I had to add this because I understand that some of us (including me) are artistically challenged.

Thinking about this has made me recall previous fan works that I've received. Granted, there aren't many - until about a week ago I had no clue that I had ANY fan art - but there were some. Moonfire on Central wrote me an AWESOME fan story for my birthday in 2009. I'd kind of like to post it here... but first off, I don't have her permission, and second, I think this post is long enough as it is without a huge story here. :P

The other awesome fan work that I wanted to congratulate was Sarah SpiritHeart's picture of all the Seekers. OMG, I love you Sarah. That. Was. Amazing!!! Seriously... just ask Rowan. I was freaking out over how beautiful all of the Seekers were! They're EXACTLY how I imagined them to be! IT'S SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

It was originally posted here on the main W101 website. Go to May 2010 at the bottom, and it's the 17th picture over on the top. XD

So... yeah. Thanks, Sarah. Like I said, you're fantastic. :) And, in case you're wondering, you can re-enter this picture if you really want to in the contest. XD

Here are the prizes again:

First place: Major Role in sequel (haha, sorry that you're going to have to wait forever for this to happen XD), meet Sierra and Rowan (and possibly other Seekers?) in-game, PvP

Second Place: Minor Role/Mention in sequel, meet Sierra and Rowan in-game, PvP

Third Place: Meet Sierra and Rowan in-game, PvP (and I might mention you too, because you're awesome enough to enter this contest :D)

ALL the entrants are going to be invited to a party at my Wizard101 house after the contest is over. It's going to be hard to me to choose just three... so I definitely felt like all entrants needed something special. If you're not chosen, it doesn't mean I don't love you - more than likely it means that I closed my eyes, picked an entry, and luck wasn't on your side. XD

Honestly though... I'm going to feel bad about picking winners. O_o

...I might change this around a little bit later. Just to let you know, nothing's set in stone yet.

This contest will end January 1st, 2012. ...I'm not sure if that's too soon, though. Is it? If it is, just let me know, and I'll extend it to February 1st. I just thought it was perfect, because January 4th is actually The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze's third birthday! ...No, I'm not kidding! I've been writing for two years, haha. And, yes, I first wrote it on New Year's Eve... or something weird like that. And then I sent it to them a couple days later, after re-reading it a thousand times and wondering, "Is it too long? Will they like it? It's probably horrible... oh, no, this part sounds bad... Wait, what if they don't let me post multiple chapters? What if they think I'm really an orphan? I'm not really an orphan!" XD Ah, the things I used to worry about...

Now, here's the different ways you can submit your entry:

First of all, you can post some kind of link to it or something in the comments. (I don't know where you'd post it, but you figure that out... XD)

Easier than that (and much more preferable) is if you send it to me on Wizard101 Central somehow - though remember, NO outside links on that website, so you'd have to put the picture or whatever in your album, or copy and paste the story into a PM. For those who somehow still don't know, my Central username is Windlilly. You'd of coruse have to make an account for this... but having a Central account is TOTALLY worth it! I love Central! (Even if I only use it to talk about Zelda.)
Another option is posting it on YouTube (or if you want, even sending me a link via YouTube). I check YouTube pretty much every day now. My YouTube username is TwilightWakerofTime.
Speaking of TwilightWakerofTime, that's also my fanfiction.net account, so... if you want to write a fanfic, you can post it on there and send it. ;)
And, lastly, if none of the options are available for whatever reason, you can send me an e-mail at heroineoftime@yahoo.com. Unfortunately, this is just a new e-mail I made specifically for this blog and other people I want to contact, so I don't check it very often. Please only use this as a last resort.

As for Part 15... well... I've got an idea of when it will be out, but it's going to be a surprise. ;) I'm working on it, though. Promise!

Anyway, if I don't get here on Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL! Good luck in the contest!

(By the way... if there are any Zelda fans out there... please read my new Skyward Sword fanfic, Awakening! It's on my fanfiction.net profile, where the link can be found on the right side of this screen.)

Hey Guys! Guess what? Sierra is lazy. Therefore I did artwork. It's ROWAN TIME~! 8D

2011-10-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ohohohohoh! Oh yus! I bet all of you guys forgot about me. But I'm still here! ...I just forgot my password. *Facepalms*

Anywho, Sierra is lazy (*Cough* Like always *Cough*) so let's do some fanart for her to (Maybe) get her back up and working on her story! Now who's with me? ^3^

....................................*Cricket Chirp*...................

... Nobody? Only me? Screw you guys, I guess I'm doing fanart on my own. :P

Sierra LOVES fanart, so if you're an artist, who likes the Tale of Sierra Winterbreeze, Do some fanart! Seriously, She'll love you forever and ever and ever!

Also, In other news related to Fanart, Sierra is debating whether to have a Fanart contest or not! The reason why she's against doing it is that she thinks that not enough people would enter and the prizes would be scarce. But if we had a fanart contest, it'd look like something like this.

First Place: A major roll in the Tale Of Sierra Winterbreeze sequel, meet Rowan and Sierra in game, and do PvP with them!

Second Place: Mention/Minor Character in the Tale of Sierra Winterbreeze sequel, PvP with Sierra and Rowan, And meet Sierra and Rowan in game.

Third place: PvP with Sierra and Rowan, and Meet Sierra and Rowan in game.

Sucky prizes, I know. But hey, what can I say? It's not about the rewards, It's the thought that counts!

....Yeah, It's about the rewards.

If you want this contest, post here and state so! Sierra doesn't know what I'm posting here so be sneaky about it! ~(owo)~

Anywho, have an awesomefulistical day!

Wait. One last thing! I made a new poll, make sure you vote! Or else I will murderize you with my butter knife and chainsaw at night. Eh? What's that? You're voting? Great! *Puts butter knife and chainsaw away*

I leveled!!!

2011-09-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!? I'm level 57 now!

I've been busy on Wizard101 this weekend. In fact, I completed Wysteria. Woo. It was fun, but... kind of boring. And very easy. I understand that it's supposed to be for, what, level 20? But still, it was pretty sad. Most of the time I was just walking around and talking to people - there were only a few major battles.

I mean, seriously, this guard told me to talk to his friend that was, like, five feet away from him. Five. Why can't HE do it?!

*sigh* Everyone just likes picking on poor Sierra WinterBreeze... (A.K.A. Young Wizard)

Okay, so there's bad news to. I... have no pictures. I mean, I do. But they're on the other computer. The other computer... that my sister is currently using. She says it's for homework, but unless her homework is watching anime on YouTube, I doubt that.

So! Yeah. I just felt like I should post. XD Next week (or earlier if I get the chance) I'll steal that computer from my sister and post pictures.

...Well, except... that computer won't publish my blog posts. It's. So. Stupid!!! I push "Publish Post" and nothing HAPPENS! O_o But whatever. I'll figure something out.

Ooh! I can have ONE thing for you that's different than a wall of text. This time it's... a video!

My friend Laura Raven wanted to start a "clan." I think we make music videos and stuff. :D Anyway, we're the Firegirls Clan. We have a TON of members already - Rowan WillowLeaf and Sydney JadeHammer are part of it. I took a picture of all of us in our epic matching outfits, but, of course, it's on the other computer...

But if you want to join, we'd be very happy. As long as you fit the requirements. :D (Must be a girl, level 30+, have the outfit, and have a mount.)

...Looking back at that video, it's kind of embarassing...

...Well, we tried. XD

EDIT: Ooh, by the way, I added a new chapter to The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze on fanfiction.net. Can you guys go review it again? I only got four this time around! XD I was amazed the first time by ten reviews, which was waaaay better than my 8 reviews per chapter "Shards of Time" for The Legend of Zelda, but this time I only got four, putting TToSW at 7 reviews per chapter. So... yeah.

GUESS. WHAT.

2011-08-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

I finally did the very thing I'd promised ever since January 2009 - ever since I began writing The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze...

I. FINISHED. IT.

I wrote "The End" in my notebook!

Part 15 is DONE!!!!

The only problem is now I have to type it... and then edit it... and that might take awhile, since the only time I have is weekends now for computer. (Except today... today's an exception. I finished it, and I was SO excited, I just HAD to let you know...)

Now... I have to go do homework. Sorry. BUT ISN'T THIS EPIC?!? (And hey, I also found out the Skyward Sword box art today, and even discovered I'm going to be paying 20 more bucks than I thought for the game! Yay!)

Fine, you win.

2011-08-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, I posted The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze on fanfiction.net. You convinced me. Out of the 29 people who voted on the poll, only three said that I shouldn't, and two of them didn't even bother explaining why. Also, six people said they'd read and review my story... so I'll be expecting six reviews on the first chapter! :P Seven, as a matter of fact, since I also put this profile on my ff.net account, and three people voted there said yes, one of them claiming they would read it.

You can still review even if you don't have an account, you know. Please do so...

...So CLICK HERE for the link. Yay! (And while you're there, read my Zelda story too, okay? Maybe? :P)

Part 15: Almost. Done. I swear. I wrote more on vacation (which I'm back from, by the way XD). I actually just got to the good part! I just have one somewhat random question. ...I hesitate to ask it, because... well... it COULD be a spoiler...

...Well, I'll just say it. Should someone die at the end of The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze?

...Yeah, I know. Weird question. But, seriously! Think about it! That would add the perfect amount of drama and seriousness. I've actually been planning to kill someone off the whole series . At first it was Liam, but now I think how OBVIOUS and expected that would be, so I'm not sure. Then I considered a few other characters dying... but I'm not going to tell you who - I want it to be a surprise.

Anyway, just tell me your thoughts. And yay, I'm happy to be back from Canada! :D

RANDOM: Okay, I spent the last few minutes trying to get this post to publish on the other computer. Finally giving up, I went on this one, and it published on my first try. What the heck????

I have time!

2011-07-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

So far, I've had LOTS of time to get on the computer. I don't know how long this will last, but I figured I'd take advantage of it while I could.

...Oh, wait. I have nothing to update. No Wizard101, remember?

...Dangit...

Um, well... I added a poll. I want to know if you guys think I should put The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze on fanfiction.net. My friend Wolf DeathBringer (he has an ff.net account: Ghost-Cow-Goes-Moo) was the first to suggest it, but I just brushed it off at first - at that time, I was still new to the website, and I thought that I had it already on both Wizard101.com and Wizard101 Central, so that should be enough. THEN Destiny SeaGem on the Duo of Death and Wizards United (I don't know which one she posts on more often... I only knew she had Duo of Death) told me to do it, too, since she has a fanfiction.net account (WritingBookworm). She has her wonderful fanfiction The Necromancer's Matter; I still need to finish reading it, but I know I really enjoyed what I did get to. Anyway... yeah. So now I'm considering it. What do you think?

Vacation!

2011-07-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

No more Wizard101 for a whole month. Like the previous two years I've been on this blog, I'll be away from home for July. I'll be in Canada, visiting my relatives. We have internet connection there, but we're usually pretty busy, so I don't know how active I'll be.

For my W101 fanfiction, this might actually be good news. Leaving home for a while will get me away from those HORRIBLE distractions (*cough* Wii * cough*). If I recall correctly, I did a lot of writing up there last year. However, this time I have my wonderful 3DS, and Ocarina of Time on it... so who knows...?

On the other hand, I'm now writing another fanfic. You can find it on Fanfiction.net. It's called Shards of Time, by me, TwilightWakerofTime. If anyone likes Legend of Zelda, please go and read it. Yes, it's random. It was supposed to be funny, but... heh heh... I kind of got a little... out of control with Zelda's personality. Anyway, the link is here. At least, according to my e-mail. I can't check... long story if you haven't heard it already. Also, there's one other story I posted yesterday (also Zelda related, but this time Wind Waker) that was also on my blog Medli's Messages. It's a romance called Duty before Love between Link and Medli, if you know who they are. There's two verison, since it was intended for a project called Across the Fandom. The versions are EXACTLY the same except one is on my profile, the other is on someone else's. I'd prefer you read the Across the Fandom one here, but if you want to review or something, read it on my profile here.

Now... I think that's all I wanted to say. No Wizard101, but possibly blogging. New fanfictions. Anything else...?

Nope, that's all. Thanks for reading, guys! See you August 3rd (if I can't get on the computer before returning home)!

The Wizard101 Creative Writing Section Returns!

2011-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to one of my readers, Sarah DaisyGarden, I've just been informed that the Fan Fiction section on Wizard101.com has just returned. Find it here!

At long last, Part 13 of The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze is uploaded. I don't know what they did to it, since there's a few odd things that were changed. It's nothing major, and I don't really care - they probably just look like simple typos or something. But they still exist...

For example:

But now, thanks to a ton of side-quests, I was finally ahead of Rowan, my level
39 sister!“YES!”

...That "yes" didn't used to be there. XD

And there's one more part where a paragraph was placed that didn't used to be there, and the period removed from the end of the sentence. But... whatever. Doesn't matter. I don't care. ;) I'm just so happy it's finally up!

You can find Part 13 here. I'll try to send in Part 14 sometime within a week, perhaps even later today.

Also, thanks for all your comments on the below preview. If you haven't responded yet, you can still do so. I'm still a bit undecided on what I'm going to do with that. It's gotten positive reviews so far... but we'll see...

Another Preview of Part 15

2011-06-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Just like the title says. This one contains even bigger spoilers than the last one. ...Okay, maybe not exactly spoilers, but hey... it's Sierra and Malistaire's big confrontation before their battle of epic proportions (which I have no idea how I'll write)!

However, unlike the last preview, this may not actually be in the final copy of Part 15! That's why it's here - I need your opinion, dear readers. Please tell me if you like where I'm going with this, or if it's awkward. It's setting up things for the sequel if I ever write one. If people don't like it or just don't care... I don't think I'll do it. It seems a bit odd to me... I'm not sure this fits with my current style of writing.

It's the darkfics, I swear. They're affecting me in different ways, even in my Wizard101 fanfiction.

Ooh! One last thing! While looking for errors (as I hope you do when you read this) please tell me if my references to the Wizard101 plot are correct. I didn't go into detail with the assurance that I'd probably mess it up entirely somehow with my limited memory of the game, but I did mention a few things. If someone wants to explain Malistaire's motives in a comment, I'd be very grateful.

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 15 Preview #2

One hallway later, and we entered a room even larger than the last. It was vaguely circular in shape, and the back of the room had no wall, allowing us to see out into the dark, clouded sky of Dragonspyre. Most of us froze in shock when we realized that part of that sky wasn’t actually sky – it was part of a massive dragon, whose single, closed eye that showed was bigger than the two of the largest Shadow Beasts I’d ever seen in my short encounters with them combined. And trust me; Shadow Beasts could be pretty big, at least equal to five times my own height. This dragon was just… incomprehensibly immense.

Our fear wasn’t helped by the fact that in the center of the room stood the very image that haunted every single one of our nightmares since learning of our destinies as Seekers of Light.

Malistaire, with eight ghostly Soul Servants, stared right at us. Mary and Liam also watched from besides their master.

All seven of us – me, Rowan, Sydney, Victoria, Mark, Hunter, and Vanessa – approached as slowly as possible. While our enemies looked confident and smug, we appeared apprehensive and, to be honest, rather pathetic. We were only a group of wizards-in-training, not even Grandmasters, let alone the Legendaries that should be fighting this fiend…

“We meet again, Seekers,” Malistaire boomed, his voice echoing across the great room. I thought I saw the sleeping dragon’s eye twitch. “So glad you could make it.”

I should have made one of my infamous sarcastic remarks, if only to encourage my friends. But my throat felt dry, and I could only croak, “Um, hello.”

He smirked. “All right. Where should I begin? Which one of you should I kill first?”

I swallowed. “Okay, uh… Malistaire… why don’t we just, like, you know… skip the fighting and do this peacefully? Like, just stop all this Krokonomicon and Dragon Titan craziness?”

Can’t blame me for trying.

His expression turned menacing – as though it wasn’t before. “Are you suggesting I surrender?”

“No! …Uh, actually, yeah. Pretty much. I would put it in those terms exactly, but…”

“You fools!” Everyone – including the Soul Servants – winced at Malistaire’s roar. “I am more powerful than you can imagine! Why give up now? After I bring Sylvia back, it will be easy to take over all the worlds in the Spiral. And the only thing in my way, the only thing fate could bother sending to stop me?” He looked at us and laughed. “Seven measly student wizards. How pathetic. The Spiral Guardians clearly underestimate me; they cannot comprehend how strong I have become.”

“In case you don’t remember,” I spoke up against all my better judgment, “we busted into your lair and broke out again. Twice. Well, the first time, we were kind of captured, but we escaped anyway. If you couldn’t kill us then, what makes you think you can do it now?”

His icy eyes locked on mine. I involuntarily shuddered and hoped no one noticed. “I have learned from my mistakes. You are Sierra WinterBreeze, correct?”

I didn’t reply out of fear my voice would shake.

Malistaire didn’t seem to need an answer. “Yes, I remember you. Very defiant, aren’t you? You have no respect for your betters.” He seemed thoughtful. “Though you’re rather resourceful too, if what you did to my Skeletal Pirate guard was any indication.”

Oh. Right. That time when I was trapped in that room and I used Death magic on the pirate…

“And don’t think I do not know about the spell you used.” I tensed. Oh, my gosh, he knew! He knew about the black lightning! How? I hadn’t told anyone about that. No one. Not even the Seekers. My friends gave me confused looks, but I provided no explanation. Malistaire smiled maliciously, knowing my shock.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammered. “That has nothing to do with any of this.”

“What a lie that is,” Malistaire chuckled. “Though everyone else in this room may be oblivious, you and I know the truth. You’re no stranger to dark magic.”

My heart was beginning to pound even harder than before. Surely Malistaire could hear it even from across the room. Everyone in the area was staring at me now. I didn’t know what else to do, so I laughed nervously. “Well, duh. I mean… you guys keep attacking us and everything, so I recognize the kind of magic you use by now.”

He gazed at me unblinkingly, studying my face. “Just keep telling yourself that, Sierra WinterBreeze. But know that even if you defeat me, there’s no escaping it.”

“Do I even want to know exactly what it is that I can’t escape?” I mumbled weakly.

He betrayed no emotion. “I don’t know. Do you?”

I hesitated for a moment, before finally saying, “Um, no.” I inhaled deeply, trying to calm myself. Finally, my new leader-skills kicked in. “You know what? I’ll probably ‘escape’ whatever it is anyway. Because… I’m a Seeker.” I grinned. “Seekers don’t give up.” I raised Megan’s wand. “Enough talking. Let’s do this.”

****

I'm very inconsistent when it comes to spelling Megan. Is it Meagan, or Megan? Someone want to tell me which way it is in the game? XD Perhaps even Megan/Meagan herself, if she's still on this blog. I think she corrected me in Part 13, but I don't know if I ever changed it to the right way of spelling.

Anyway, as you can see, I was thinking about Part 9 and the terrible mistake I made there, adding in that stupid black lightning for no apparent reason. I have a few ideas of where I can go with this in the sequel... but you need to tell me what you think first! At this point I'm half and half - I'd go either way, leaving it in or taking it out. I might leave it there out of laziness, or I might take it out because I'm concerned it's so stupid I'll regret writing it later. You tell me if you want it one way or the other.

Three Seekers (and some random guy) take on Malistaire!

2011-06-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

FOR ONCE I ACTUALLY HAVE A WIZARD101 IN-GAME POST.

Exciting, huh?

...Sorry for again crushing any hopes of Part 15 being out right away. STILL working on it. I'll try to finish some more tonight after writing this post - especially since later this week, my 3DS is coming and I'll probably be playing Ocarina of Time 3D non-stop (nonstop... is it one word, or does it have the dash? Ugh, spelling is so frustrating!).

But here's a nice long post for those of you who don't care about my fanfiction one bit and are just here for the epic Wizard101-ness (if there's any of you?). I have LOTS of pictures, so this should be satisfying.

First off, my traditional one-sentence topic starter:

Sydney JadeHammer, Hunter ThunderShield, Austin something-or-other, and I fought Malistaire today! :D

Of course, we had lots of randomness before it. I mean, this one aggravating bug happened to me where I couldn't move... and I ended up stuck NEXT TO MALISTAIRE. Seriously. Thanks a lot, Sydney. I'm blaming her entirely. At the same time, I leveled up! So did Sydney... and these other two guys...

SO! Pictures.

I got on Wizard101 at Sydney's prompting. She kept texting me irl, interrupting my peaceful Zelda fanfiction reading with an annoying vibration in my pocket every 5 seconds (exaggeration). And yes, Sydney knows my phone number. Considering she lives down the street from me, she has every right to. So I can't tell you freaky stalker readers my number. Or address. Or age. Or real name. Or... whatever other scary piece of information that has to do with real life too much. 'Kay?

Right.

So apparently, she wanted me to get on to fight Malistaire with her. Congrats to her, btw - she's level 51! And Hunter's level 50! Good for them. :) So she had the Malistaire quest now, and wanted help. However... we had to wait for Hunter. Sooooo... we went to her house first. With this other random dude named Jacob.

And something weird happened. We stood on this giant dirt pile, and I jumped just as Sydney picked it up. And........

...Uh-huh.

Sadly, the moment I took another step forward, the glitch broke, and I was grounded yet again. D:

And then... well... I found another word that apparently doesn't work with Open Chat, but works just fine in Text. O_o Don't you remember? ...Circumstances and Document? Those two words, when I tried them last, did not work in Open Chat! All we'd see is "..." but the Text Chatters could read it fine. VERY STRANGE!

And now "trapped" doesn't work, either.

So I was trying to say, "No! Trapped again!" or whatever. But I still couldn't see the word.

We were trapped by candles, in case you can't see. This is Sydney's Massive Fantasy Palace (which I don't even remember her getting!) and there's a secret room in that wall there. We came through it, and then she blocked us out. XD

So then we went to Celestia to do some quests! ...Some of my quests, of course. Sydney wasn't there yet - she still had to beat Malistaire, remember? We needed to get into the Lunarium. So we fought a BUNCH of bosses... with these two other random guys that were apparently Sydney's friends. Idk.

But one of the funniest things happened! After beating all those bosses, we completed the quest... and ALL leveled up! Every one of us!

Unless I leveled from the last battle, which seems unlikely. But it's either that, or I leveled up before I got my experience. Weird...

No one else seemed to think it was that funny. :(

So then, when we FINALLY made it into the Lunarium, we had to battle yet ANOTHER boss.

Yeah, it was fun. (YAY, SARCASM!)

Then Hunter got on.

MALISTAIRE TIME YAY!!!!

So, we went through the whole dungeon and everything. I wish Rowan could have been there (to make it fully Seekers), but no. Our other computer is kind of being stupid right now - and by stupid, I mean so frustratingly slow you nearly die from boredom waiting for it to load. We've ordered a new computer, but it's still on its way here. Until then... we really only have one computer for Wizard101. The other is just UNBAREABLE.

So instead of my sister, we got the help of "Austin JadePyre."

I guess I really shouldn't call him a stranger... technically, I know him in real life. Or I've MET him. He's Hunter's friend. I... don't really... know him well, though.... I didn't even know he played Wizard101. O_o

Anyway. We got to that one part of the dungeon with those two groups of Draconians that you have to defeat to proceed through the closed door, right? RIGHT before Malistaire's room? I went afk during that battle - mostly to check my e-mail - and... when I got back the battle was over, and my friends had ditched me.

That wasn't the problem - I wouldn't have expected them to wait for a person that's not there. The problem was that... I couldn't move. O_o

I teleported to them just as they were finishing up the battle directly before Malistaire, with those Soul Servants or whatever.

And I still couldn't move after.

So Sydney walked over to see the cutscene, and I teleported to her...

...ending up stuck next to Malistaire. Yay.

That made it quite difficult to enjoy the cutscene. O_o

And of course, I was one of the first to be pulled into the battle that started immediately after they finished talking! How unfair!

...okay, I ended up second... but still...

I know this is VERY disappointing to you all (sarcasm really is wonderful) but I have no pictures of the actual fight. Just the final blow (which I happily delivered... why the heck is it that every time I fight Malistaire, I'm always the one to finish him off?).

Yeah huh. So that's all I've got.

Yay for long post that has nothing to do with fanfiction! ...Unless you count the Seeker part of it, but I needed a captivating title.

Lastly: I'M LEVEL 56 NOW! WOOT!

No, this isn't Part 15.

2011-06-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry! I really wish it was... but it's not. -.-

I have an extremely random idea for a fan fiction that I wanted to share. Don't ask me how I thought of it, because I honestly have NO clue... we were walking through Wal-Mart, and thinking about TToSW... I mentioned something about how orphanages needed some kind of entertainment in them to my sister, and joked about it being a game system of some kind. And... yeah. XD

So I suddenly thought... I should write a crossover!

In other words, I should write a story that contains characters from two different fandoms. In this case, it would be Wizard101 and Super Smash Bros. At first I thought Legend of Zelda, because I know WAY more about it, but then my sister came up with this hilarious joke about Pikachu being a Storm wizard, and that spurred tons of new ideas for an SSB/W101 fic.

My question to you is... have you ever played Super Smash Bros.? Or, if not, at least most of the Nintendo games that the characters in it come from? Ultimately, of course, this all leads up to the question...

Would you read a crossover fanfic of Super Smash Bros. and Wizard101?

I'd probably post it on fanfiction.net, and maybe here, too. I just know I'd have SO much fun writing it - even if you say you won't read it, I might write it anyway for my own enjoyment.

Plus, one more question about this. Should I use characters from The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze, or brand new wizards? My sister really wants me to use Sierra WinterBreeze characters... but then it would get confusing, considering NONE of this will actually happen in The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze series. XD I'd rather make new ones, but it's also kind of nice to have characters that already possess a well-developed background, with personalities and everything.

Basically, the very, very, VERY rough outline for the plot is that the bad guys of Super Smash Bros. (Ganondorf, Bowser, and, um... maybe King Dedede or Wario or something...) team up with Malistaire, so the heroes of SSB have to team up with wizards to defeat them. Sound good?

...Okay, this is becoming a long post. Just post your answers to my questions in comments. This is kind of an odd idea, I know, so I don't know if this will actually happen. I just want to see your reaction to it. :)

And don't worry! This won't take away from The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze. In fact, Part 15 is ALMOST done! ...I know I've said that before, but I MEAN it this time!

Posting just to post.

2011-06-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Because I'm bored.

Because I feel bad about abandoning this blog for so long.

Because I don't think my blog is being fair to the people following it.

Because I wonder if people actually care about what I'm writing.

So! ...Uh... I don't know what to post. I really don't. So... how are you, reader? Are you doing all right?

What's that? You came to this blog to hear about The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze? Oh, you wanted to hear about Wizard101? Well, I'm sorry. But I haven't been writing Wizard101 fan fiction, nor have I played the game recently. I've been on Central PLENTY of times... does that count?

Oh my gods I'm so bored and anxious to hear E3 news...

Um...

You know what? I'm going back to writing TToSW. XD

You are free to label this post as "whatever" because that's definitely what I think of it...

Part 15 Preview

2011-05-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hiya!

Heh heh... yeah... hi...

...I know. Obviously, I broke a lot of promises.

But I have a preview!!! That's good, right?

Sorry, no Wizard101 updates... only been on once, and that was to admire my friend's new Sultan Palace thingy. I hate that place and love it at the same time. I love it because... it's amazing. I hate it because I know I'll never get it. :P

Btw, 61 Followers is AMAZING. :D

Here's the preview! I had to kind of take a few parts out, of course, to prevent spoilers. I decided on showing this one because... it's my first epic fight scene. Please tell me how I did, and what I need to work on - more detail, less detail... um... less fail... Idk...

This is the battle between Gurtok FireBender - that boss in the Great Spyre before Malistaire - and Sierra and Hunter. It's, um, not exactly that much of a fight to the death battle. Gurtok FireBender and Sierra are on somewhat friendly-ish terms. Hard to explain without giving you spoilers. ...You know, I might have already revealed it here somewhere, though, I don't know. Whatever. XD Feel free to guess on why their relationship might be a little nicer than most wizard-to-monster ones.

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 15 Preview

With a flash, Gurtok FireBender summoned a Sun Bird. I was so surprised, I didn’t even have time to move. The fiery, winged beast swooped at me, its beak and flaming feathers brushing my robes and blinding me. I shrieked, ducking out of the way, carefully creating a bit of ice to quench the fires burning through my robe. Groaning a bit, I fumbled with the cards of my deck, dropping a few when I tried to obtain a useable spell. That Sun Bird’s blow had a hurt a lot more than it usually did, when the battle was contained in a dueling circle. And my clothes had never caught on fire before. Nor did the pain last any longer than a few seconds, leaving me to feel only tired afterward.

“Sierra?” I turned to Hunter, who was looking at my pleadingly. “Can I summon my minion? Sydney never lets me.”

“Yes!” I said through gritted teeth. “We need all the help we can get.”

“Yay!” Instantly a Cyclops Watcher appeared, using the two pips Hunter had saved up. The first thing it did was cast a MythBlade – on me.

It took all my willpower to prevent myself from directing my next spell at it and screaming, “I. Don’t. Know. Any. Myth spells!”

I powered myself up with an IceBlade, again wishing that I’d already learned Colossus. Since I was still waiting for pips, I added an Ice Trap to the mix as well.

And of course, he just had to put up an Ice Shield.

I closed my eyes. This frustration was becoming too much. Opening them again, I used a Feint I knew from my Death spells. It would have to work until I could find a Steal Ward, which could take that Snow Shield away from Gurtok FireBender.

Then Hunter, standing next to me, said, “Um, Sierra?”

“Yes?” I snapped, looking at him. I was stunned to see the Cyclops next to him running toward Bender, club raised as he drew the triangular Myth symbol. “Wait!” I shouted. I could only watch as the Feint disappeared to power up the Cyclops’ most useless spell – Blood Bat.

I spun around, facing Hunter again, this time absolutely furious. “HUNTER!” I yelled. “You wasted my Feint on a Blood Bat? On a level ONE spell?”

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “You cast it just as my Cyclops was attacking, and–”

“I cannot believe this!” I fumed. Okay, it was all my pent up frustration that I was venting out on poor Hunter. The Feint wasn’t a big deal – there was still another one in my deck somewhere and I didn’t really need it if I got Steal Ward – but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I continued screaming, until I heard a small chuckle.

I directed my glare at Gurtok FireBender. “What?”

“I find your arguing amusing. You’re supposed to be partners, teammates – but you aren’t getting anything done. Besides the Blood Bat, you haven’t damaged me at all.”

“Well, if he stopped getting in the way–”

Bender sighed. “Fine. Don’t listen to me. Won’t be my problem in the Malistaire battle, if you even make it that far.” He pointed above his head. “Fortunately, while you were bickering, it gave me time to cast this FireBlade.”

With that statement, the battle continued, with Hunter’s minion casting a Ghoul to do a small amount of damage. I was still angry, but trying to cool down.

There! I triumphantly snatched up my Steal Ward, raising it above my head. I used it, praying it wouldn’t fizzle. Fortunately, it didn’t.

The Snow Shield dissipated in front of Gurtok FireBender, floating over to protect me instead. He frowned slightly, so I smirked, quickly casting Ice Wyvern. Just as I did so, he summoned a Firezilla.

The two creatures glared at one another, neither wanting to move and leave their master at the mercy of their opponent. Finally, the Firezilla roared and lunged at my Wyvern.

The blow to it felt like a blow to me. I felt the wind knocked out of my lungs as I staggered backwards, staring at the Gurtok in surprise. He smirked, raising his sword again.

The Firezilla attacked my Wyvern again, but this time I was ready. Using all the willpower I possessed, I mentally told my Wyvern to dodge. Amazingly, it worked.

From then on, it was a strange, deadly dance between the Ice Wyvern and the Firezilla. Being opposite schools, the battle was fierce; being both for four pips, they were more or less equally matched. This battle was taxing – not only was I harmed by attacks aimed at my Wyvern, but my mana reserves were beginning to dwindle. My energy was quickly draining, and a glance at Gurtok FireBender told me it was the same for him. One of us was going to tire soon, and for some reason, I had a feeling it would be me. I was level 40, and he was… what… Rank 9? He was meant to combat Grandmasters, or at least wizards who, oh, I don’t know… knew Colossus?

Fortunately, we’d both forgotten about one other participant in our battle.

The ground began to shake. At first, neither of us noticed, as occupied as we were with our battle. But when I took a step forward and tripped over a small fissure that opened in the ground, falling painfully onto my knees, it was hard to ignore. Bender stumbled a little too. We exchanged a brief look of confusion with one another before turning to the side to see Hunter proudly standing with a Treasure Card held out.

The cracked ground rumbled again, and then a particularly large crack shot across the ground near Hunter, heading toward Gurtok FireBender like a flash of lightning. With a jolt of horror, I realized this could be his end. I looked at his expression, and it stunned me to find him looking calm and serene.

Then the ground opened beneath him, and he dropped into darkness.

Must... hurry... to reach... deadline...!

2011-04-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't be posting here, considering I promised TToSW would be finished by tomorrow. Which it's not. I finally got everything before Malistaire out of the way, but now I actually need to write the action scene, which I'm DREADING. O_o

So... I guess I'll just have to start working on that.

I don't even know why I posted here.

Um, sorry? XD

Quick Part 15 update

2011-04-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ah! I have to do this QUICK! My computer is deciding to "automatically update" in less than six minutes! Okay, okay, so... I have good news for the people who read my fan fiction. I'm not quitting, first of all, if you didn't get that yet. XD But besides that... I'm almost done with my most recent chapter! And Part 15 is the LAST part in The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze! Isn't this EXCITING? Plus, I also have a sequel already planned out. It's a little vague right now, but that's just the way I like it. Mary RavenGem and Wolf DeathBringer helped me write this. They had some AMAZING ideas. Therefore, I PROMISE that by the end of this week, I'll have Part 15 completely written up in my notebook. And by May, I'll have it posted online, or at least a preview of it. Good? :)

APRIL FOOLS!!!

2011-04-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't that really all I need to say? ;)

To make things clear: I'M NOT QUITTING!

Honestly, it was a bad joke, my fail attempt at my first ever April Fool. Lol, I actually stole the idea from someone on fan fiction.net. XD You can give allll credit to "Author of Doom: Rin" in their story "Legend of Zelda: Child of the Sun". Which, btw, was updated yesterday with an awesome new chapter (Farore got so pwned, I was lol'ing). His April Fool's joke was funnier, though... because he wrote a "summary" of what he supposedly had planned for the rest of the story. The story didn't turn out ANYTHING like the summary... but it was funny...

I DID consider writing a joke fic about Sierra, but... I'm just not very creative. XD

Anyway. I'm going to try and get a preview of Part 15 ASAP to apologize for my epic fail. XD Hope you had a good holiday and enjoy your weekend. :)

Important Announcement on APRIL FIRST... April Fools' Day Joke

2011-04-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, everyone... I know this post will be very disappointing for many of you, but...

I just can't do it anymore.

I have too many other things to be working on - I'm failing some of my classes in real life, and at the same time, trying to write a story that I want to get published. I don't have time for the computer anymore. So let me make this clear, that today, April 1st, 2011:

I'm giving up.

No more The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze or blogging.

Again, I apologize. But on THIS day, APRIL FIRST, 2011... I am quitting. Remember: APRIL. FIRST. In some places, it's also known as April Fool's Day...

...Of course, that wouldn't be important, would it?

So. No more writing. I know I've come so far, but I just can't do it anymore. Who knows? Maybe sometime in the future I'll come back to this.

I can't say if I'll go on Wizard101 anymore. I just know that I won't be writing anymore. And I can't bare to look at this blog... it will bring up too many sorrowful memories...

Yeah...

Oh, and I DID mention it's April Fool's Day, right? Good.

Remember, check back tomorrow for an important post - most likely my last one.

OOOH! Creative Writing Section update!!!!

2011-03-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

...I really don't usually make two posts a day, but I had to. HAD. TO. Because this was too exciting to add to another post.

Wow. I get easily excited, don't I?

Anyway, the Creative Writing section... is alive! ...No, they haven't posted new stories. No, they haven't really changed anything... except now they have a message for us! (Find it here)

"We are working on a whole new way to display our very popular Fan Fiction,
however until we make the transition, our Fan Fiction section only serves as an
archive."

YAY! At least they've finally changed something!

However... this now sounds eerily similar to the LAST time they decided the give the Creative Writing section a "new look". They added that submission form thing - the one that Part 11 was too large for, and that Part 12 would probably have to be split into fifths for. XD Well, we'll just have to wait and see what they do with it. I just hope Parts 13 and 14 can finally be added!

Remember to read the post beneath this too! :)

Happy Late Birthday, Row Row~!

2011-03-24T15:26:00.001-07:00

Hahaha. That squiggle next to Row Row was a typo, but then I decided I liked it. :D Squiggles are epic~!

So. On the twenty-first of March, Rowan WillowLeaf, my sister and the seemingly inactive alternate contributor to this blog, turned (insert age here) years old! Congratulations! XD

Meh. No new news. (heheh... new news...) I haven't been on W101 lately - I intend to by the end of the evening, though. I'm starting to miss it. :P

Oh, and I guess I'm going to go ahead and reveal something about my story. Well... not about The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze directly. Sorry, I don't even have enough typed for a preview yet, and... I'm holding a dog in my lap right now so it's hard to type... (don't ask)

But I'm writing a series called Seeker Secrets. It started as for fun - a story in Sydney's point of view about her life before she met Sierra. And now... I decided to do one for every Seeker. I did Victoria and Mark's stories, too. I'm working on Hunter's... but his is hard 'cuz he's such a minor character...

Anyway. Does this sound interesting to you guys? Would you read it? I might post Sydney's here or on Central if people like the idea...!

So, yeah. That's all I got for now.

See ya later people! Happy Thursday! (srsly, why did I post on a Thursday? It's so random, compared to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday... XD)

sniff

2011-03-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

That sniff means two things.

One, I'm sick. O_o REALLY sick. Ugh. In fact, I'm all lonely right now at home trying to complete some homework while my sister is at Sydney's house playing video games! Dang it! That homework is another reason to be sad - I have a D in language arts. LANGUAGE. ARTS! As in... ENGLISH! I've wrote a 250 page story! Why do I always do so poorly in my language arts classes? XD The first B I ever got was also in a reading class... sixth grade, I remember that...

Two, I FEEL SO UNLOVED! No one is commenting! -.- I guess it's PARTIALLY my fault, considering I haven't posted often, but still. That just means it gave you more time, more of a chance to comment on the last post. But I got only ONE response.

Well, whatever. Um... I gtg back to my homework. We're supposed to write these journal things; they will ultimately form an autobiography. But I haven't been keeping track of them. Now I have about thirty of them to write, and the WHOLE autobiography is due Monday. The one I'm stuck on now is about learning a new skill. You're supposed to describe, um... learning a new skill. XD The examples were riding a bike, skateboarding, skiing, etc. The problem is that I learned all those things FOREVER ago (except skiing - I've never skied. I've ice skated, I've slid down a snowy hill on a board, but never skied. Weird, huh?) and don't remember them.

Oooh... I'm so stressed...

No time for writing fan fiction. Sorry. :(

Trust me, I'd rather be writing fiction instead of this stupid stuff about ourselves. I won't CARE in the future what kinds of music I liked or my amazing accomplishments. O_o I mean... if it really mattered to you, wouldn't you REMEMBER that stuff?

Just saying!

Invisible Ninjas!

2011-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'M. SO. EXCITED. XD

New Skyward Sword trailer!

...Yeah, not what you were probably hoping for... but whatever... I just CAN'T wait for the next Zelda game... :P

Anyway. I don't really have time to write a full post - mostly since I have homework, lolz, and haven't been on Wizard101 lately anyway - but I'll give you a YouTube video! XD

I'm in it! If you don't feel like watching the rest of it, skip to around 4:05. Rowan comes in there. Rowan has more parts than me so far, lolz. My only line is "AH!" xD And I said it late, anyway.

Oh... yeah. So Avalanche on Central approached me and asked if I wanted to be in this, and I said yes. :D

You know, that's part 3... you might want to watch the other two parts before that... O_o

Part 1

Part 2

Yeah. :D

But I'm not in those ones, lol. Still. Give him some views, why don't you? ;)

Anyway... Part 15... ugh... SO HARD...

And trust me - I'm reminded every day now. Hunter ThunderShield finally read my story (in fact, he did a book report on it - I felt so honored! :D) and now he bugs me EVERY day for a new chapter! Well, whatever... I write, like, two paragraphs a day... slowly but surely, it's coming along!

Now, for that homework. 'Night, wizards!

%?%

2011-02-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

GUESS. WHAT.

Go on Wizard101 right now, then, type in %?%, exactly like that, with no spaces or other words after it. And see what happens. XD

I just found that out about ten minutes ago. We were in my house... Destiny SeaGem (Duo of Death and writingnecromancer on Central), Sierra ThunderShade (123DivineDiviner456 on Central), Victoria MythCaller (...she has a Central account, but Idk what it is), and Taryn WildHeart (Balance past Seeker :D). Yep. Victoria taught it to us. :D

Also, you can say squijax through the filter. Anyone know what that means?

But... yeah. I fully intended to do quests tonight, but I never did. :( I'm pretty close to level 56, too! Besides... Wolf lied to me. He teleported to me randomly and demanded I duel him, because apparently I said when he was a lower level that I'd duel him once he got to Grandmaster. Now he's Legendary.

Just for the record, I don't recall this conversation. The way I remember it... HE refused to duel until he was Grandmaster, not me.

Anyway, he said I promised. Of course, he's Legendary, with Skeletal Dragon and everything, and I'm on level 55 in the weakest school. He's got full crafted clothing on, too! And block chances and critcals and boosts in his school... and so on. And NOW he wants to duel me, because he wouldn't when he was lower leveled...

Doesn't that sound like he's taking advantage of me?

Well, whatever. He promised that he'd help me with quests as soon as we were done with our duel. So I accepted. He pwned me, as we expected, and later claimed that I "fail" more than him. And then he started showing off to everyone that ported to him his amazing items and Massive Fantasy Palace and wouldn't help me with quests.

Gosh. WHY do I remain friends with him? This isn't the ONLY time he's done stuff like this... he lied to me about that SSB fan fiction too...

SO.

After that, Matthew WinterBreeze (yes his last name is the same as mine) said that we could start filming! Yep! He made videos on YouTube about ninjas on Wizard101. :D I'm going to be in it now as his sister (since we have the same last name) and Rowan was too. Therefore, I had to get an epic ninja costume!

Whenever the video gets on YouTube, I'll DEFINITELY show it to you guys. It should be awesome, considering how many times we had to redo it. You can blame Rowan. Matthew was supposed to teleport to her after she said "Help! My friend is in trouble!" (the friend being me about to be pushed off a cliff by the villain, Victoria) but... first Rowan had ports off, then HE had house ports off, then Rowan said in the middle of his filming "You made Sierra die!" XD We were joking about how since he didn't come, I got pushed off the cliff and died. :P

Then, later, we teleported to my epiclatastical Ice house where we found out the %?% thing! ...Btw, if you can't actually go on Wizard101 to do that, it shows up as "Help", lolz. It's REALLY weird - you have to try it if you can.

Then something REALLY weird happened to Taryn...

...Idk. But she was frozen like that, even walking around like it. XD

Okay... the reason I got off was... well, originally, my computer freaked out when I tried to run Central and Wizard101 at the same time and got all weird, forcing me to exit out of W101 without logging off... (I wonder how that will affect things?) But now I have a science lab conclusion thingy I gotta write. Technically I had some language arts stuff too... but... whatever. XD

So goodnight! :)

This blog looks different, doesn't it? Don't worry, you're not insane. Probably.

2011-02-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

I GAVE SIERRA'S STORY AN EPICLATASTICAL (no stealing word!) MAKE-OVER!!!! :D

..."Makeover!" would have been the post title if I hadn't already used it on my Zelda blog. :(

Lol, anyway... yeah! New background, new color scheme, new header - everything (mostly)! This header officially marks the third header Sierra's Story has ever had. I kept that old one for a LOOONG time. And then before that was the pictures of all the Seekers that kinda failed, since I'd made it in MS Paint...

Sooo... new poll! It's sort of a tradition for me in my blogs to put up a poll every time I change my blog around a bit. So tell me how ya like it! After that, I think I should start putting up quiz-style polls again - such as, what's the best school of magic? Who's your favorite character in The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze? Yep. It was always interesting to see the answers.

Ooh... btw, I'm level 55! And I got an epic staff from some random quest! It's amazingly better than that Homonculus sword I took FOREVER farming for. It's pretty sad that I've found something better. I'm going to keep it around, since it was so hard to get.

Anyway, because you all care so much (I say that a lot, don't I? Sarcasm FTW!) here's a picture of my level 55 stats.

(Hmm... I guess my Reinforced Helmet and Master's Boots of the Dryad got in the way of my gold and training points, lol.)

Theeeen... since Mary and Wolf had helped me with quests... we randomly went to this Kraken head that you can walk through. Weird. (actually, I think this was BEFORE I was level 55, but whatever.)

Um...

Oh! If anyone wants to know about The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze? Still dislike Part 15, but it's coming along slowly! Finally, I got to say the epic line I've been waiting to write since Part 11... but, ugh, now I don't know how to lead away from that point. It's not like my edited version where I can put that epic line and then leave it as a cliff-hanger - the characters have to react! Dangit! XD At least I got past epic fight scene #1. Now I just have one more to write - unfortunately, that's with Malistaire. I'm a little scared...

So... uh... yeah! That's pretty much all I have to say at the moment. I'm going on game right now. Oh, and now I have 52 followers - so again, thanks for following, people! :)

EXTREMELY RANDOM QUESTION: How do you spell make over? Is it two words, like in the previous sentence? Or does it have a dash in between in, like "make-over?" Or is it one word: "makeover?" I spelled it two different ways in this post, and I'm too lazy to look it up myself... so...

Over 50 followers! Yayes!

2011-02-06T20:24:00.001-08:00

I have 51 followers! Thank you, people. This is awesome. I'm glad you find me somewhat entertaining, even if I don't post often. :)

...Yeah. That's pretty much all I have to say. I'm tired, so... I'm going to just leave this post at that. Sorry. I know that after almost a month with no word from me, you'd expect at least a LITTLE more than this, right? But it's all I've got!

Goodnight. Hope you had a good weekend.

FIRST post of 2011.

2011-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

I had a LAST post of 2010, so now let's go for a FIRST post of 2011! :D This one... I'll just post a bunch of screenshots. Some are REALLY old. Others are REALLY new! Just on the 13th I took a ton. So, let's see what randomness I can dig up here.

FYI: I've been working on this post for, what... Um, it has been over a week, that's all I know. So please enjoy it. :)

Also, you'll have to click on the pictures to view them clearly. I know, it's annoying. Idk why they're so small to begin with.

Let's start with a strange conversation I've had. I edited it on MS paint, because I took two screenshots of it. So that's why it's a little... odd-looking. :P You might have to click on it to enlarge it.

Allow me to explain:

I have Open Chat, right? I was at my friend's Massive Fantasy Palace (which I REALLY wish I had) and we were going to duel, so I needed a partner. I invited Rowan, and she said she'd come... until I told her Wolf DeathBringer was our opponent. She really hates him. I won't say why... it's a long story. Anyway, so I was trying to tell them, "I told Rowan the circumstances of the duel and she won't come anymore." However... circumstances, although it shows up as white, somehow ended up as "...". And it also does it to "document," as Alia LotusPetal and I discovered a while ago. However... if you have TEXT chat and type these words... they actually show up! Wolf demonstrates this, as you can see. How weird is that?

And this conversation was pretty funny, considering how I made myself sound like an idiot...

And now, possibly the bestest and most HILARIOUS picture EVER:

Taken by my epic sister, Rowan WillowLeaf. She was helping Sydney JadeHammer and Hunter ThunderShield in Marleybone a little bit... and she caught this at JUST the right time. Sydney's saying "No," just as the Cyclops looks about to chop the Dryad in half! XD I just love it...

Dryad just seems to do that. It stays up after you cast it. When Hunter's Cyclops minion went in for an attack... yeah... :P

MY. HIGHEST. DAMAGE. EVER. :D

17,000 with Colossus. That's pretty epic. For me. ;)

NEXT!

Haha... oh, right. My computer's REALLY slow. So the characters took forever to load in the Selena Gomez quest while it was out. This was the result - the golems marrying ghost Selena! :P

These two pictures were actually JUST a few days ago! :D We had a "Krok raid." And when I say we're "in a rock" it's because we fell down this place in Stormriven in Celestia and ended up inside of a rock. So yeah. :P

Lol, this was interesting. My friend Wolf made a new character and ALSO named it Wolf. And then his friend AUSTIN did the same thing. When TWO Wolf DeathBringer's showed up in front of me, but neither was my friend in-game, it REALLY confused me. I couldn't figure out who was who. :P So... yep. That's that.

INVISIBILITY! YAAAAY! :D This is my friend Mary RavenGem and me in my - oh, yes - NEW ICE SCHOOL HOUSE!!! O: Yep. I guess I forgot to mention that, lol. I got enough gold to buy it (nope, still no Crowns) so I did. I was REALLY torn between Ice and Storm houses... I just LOVE the Storm one... but I figured I should be loyal to my school. ;) So Wolf and Mary came over to celebrate the new purchase, and we went invisible by standing in a pile of jellybeans and teleporting to each other! ...Yes. I'm aware of how weird that sounds.

OOH! This has to do with The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze! Wolf and Mary came up with amazing ideas for a sequel and wanted to tell me them in their secret library. XD And then Rowan came, and half the time, we weren't talking about the story - we were just going crazy with randomness. It was a very fun night, though. :) And I'm SERIOUSLY considering their ideas...

...This was a day of epic randomness and hyperness. From me. Surprisingly, not Rowan... me. I was crazy. O_o

It all started when she turned into a Treant... and Rowan became named "Cocoa!" I started screaming, "COCOA! I LOVE YOU, COCOA! YOU'RE SO AWESOME! HERE! I'll GIVE YOU TRAPS AND BLADES! I WILL PWN THE BOSS FOR YOU, COCOA!"

I have SO many screenshots... so I remember well... but I decided you really wouldn't care for me to put them all up. :P So I just selected one.

This was a while ago. Me with Sarah SpiritHeart! :D She's that super epic author at this blog. Maybe you could check it out? :P Anyway, she didn't have text chat then, but we were dancing in my house surrounded by my pets, lol. She has text chat NOW, fortunately. ;)

Oh, this was something odd I found at the top of Big Ben tower. There's this random little invisible platform raised above the rest of the room that you can walk on - or let your pets walk on.

This was when I helped Wolf with Big Ben. Like he said, we broke it. XD The guy was defeated, but there was still an extra turn! Then my Colossus attacked nothing but air, and suddenly the battle was over. :P

...Idk what this is. My computer was taking forever to load, as usual... and this showed up in the middle of Wizard City.

Looks like someone used a tape measure to find the height to the sky. XD

...Idk HOW this happened. Destiny SeaGem (Duo of Death) just told me to port... so I did. Later, a TON of people started showing up because my friend invited them when I invited him. XD I have a video of it somewhere... but I don't feel like waiting for the upload...

THIS was fun. :P People shouldn't trust me when I offer to go "flying" in my house. See, I used that little platform glitch thingy to get people out of there, then ported to Donna (or something - can't quite remember) and took the platform away! So they were all stuck in the air. I'm so mean. ;)

AHA! The final pictures! This was an AWESOME day. :) Destiny SeaGem and Alia LotusPetal (Wizard101 Addict) were both there, along with others, lol. Idk THEIR blogs, though, if they have them (I think they do). It's a glitch - drag Wizard101 around the screen while walking forward and to other people, it will look like you're flying. It's hard to explain.

I made a video of this day, too, but I'm working on editing it. Maybe sometime I'll finally post it up.

...So that's the end of it.

I've been working on this post for over a WEEK, you know. >.< Oh, well, it was fun to type up! And it holds good memories for me, personally, even if you guys don't really care. ...That sounded mean. I mean, I CARE about you people - the readers - but, uh... ya know... XD

I'm going to try and give this blog a makeover soon. I've decided that I LOVE my new Medli's Messages layout (my other blog, in case you didn't know) so I'm going to try it on here. But I refuse to change the layout until I have a new header prepared. I haven't changed this header in a while - I'm excited to see what I can come up with this time! I doubt I'll upload a custom background like my other blog, since it was SUCH a pain - I had to do MATH on my WEEKEND to make it fit! So, yeah. But I will eventually use the new designer thingy. It increases the space that you have to write stuff on. That's why I like it, most of all. So, don't come to this blog and suddenly start screaming "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?" and close out or something if it looks COMPLETELY remodeled. ;)

Part 15? I'm TOTALLY stuck. I HATE WRITER'S BLOCK. Grrrrr! I wish I had someone irl to read this TERRIBLE nonsense I'm writing out. I'm just trying to get past what I feel is necessary before the Malistaire battle. And then... the Malistaire battle itself I am dreading. Ugh. Epic fight scenes are not my forte. I was reeeeallly tempted to write "Insert Epic Fight Scene Here" at some points. But I can't. This IS the last part, after all. It has to be AMAZING.

And... I think that's it! Thanks for reading, oh-so-wonderful Followers (and non-Followers: it would be great if you could get an account or, if you have one, click that niiiiiice little "follow" button up there in the corner. That would be awesome).

Good night!

~Sierra WinterBreeze, level 54 Thaumaturge (yay! 54!)

Final Post of 2010...

2010-12-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've really been neglecting this blog. You see... everything that was once reserved for Wizard101 now has Zelda to compete with... and LoZ typically wins. Even with fan fiction. The Tale of Sierra Winterbreeze isn't my only story anymore. I've been working on The Blade of Evil's Bane more than anything.

But... Zelda and TToSW aren't the topic of this post. This post is just here to say... Happy New Year!

Okay, I understand it's probably already 2011 where most of you live - I'm pretty sure only Hawaii and Alaska have an earlier time zone than me in the States and Canada. But where I live, it's 11:38pm. Still time for a final 2010 post...

Yep...

...

Um, hopefully, like, tomorrowor something, I'll give you updates on Sierra (because you obviously cared so much last post from ebullient comments I received - btw, that's SARCASM; just look at the amount of comments last post, lolz!) and, of course, Part 15 of The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze. I know I expressed my dream of it being completed before the new year... but that didn't happen. At least I can PROMISE to finish it before it's next birthday.

...OMG! That's RIGHT! TToSW is now two years old! *gasp* Yeah, so how many of you have followed it that long, huh? Huh?

...I thought there wouldn't be anyone... XD

Well, my DSi - yes, I typed this WHOLE THING on a DS - is just about out of characters and memory. So good night, and once more -

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SIERRA WINTERBREEZE! ;)

Merry Christmas from a level 54 Thaumaturge!

2010-12-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, I haven't posted in forever... but Christmas seemed like a good place to begin again.

First off, this time the reason I haven't been posting isn't because of Zelda. ...Okay, it KIND OF is. But I've ACTUALLY been playing Wizard101 now! I'm level 54! :D

...Unfortunately, I don't HAVE any pictures of me at level 54. -.- It's all because I JUST turned 54. I'm just surprised I'm leveling so quickly - and yes, this is QUICKLY for me. Remember? Year to Grandmaster? Yeah. I'm determined to make it UNDER a year for Legendary, though! :D

Um, I have NO MORE time... it's really late. It actually won't be Christmas for much longer. XD

So good night. I'll make a longer post tomorrow... or the next day... or something. O_o

What I did last night before - wait for it - CELESTIA CAME OUT! :D

2010-10-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Don't try and level up your Death character ten minutes before the biggest update since Grizzleheim (possibly even Dragonspyre) is about to come out.

...But I gotta admit, it was pretty fun... XD

Well, it happened last night when I was finishing up my homework (really late, I know), and then Rowan, who happened to be sitting nearby on the OTHER computer, said, "Oh, hey, Wizard101 is closing for maintenance in 15 minutes."

I had promised her help in the Labyrinth (WORST INSTANCE OF DRAGONSPYRE), so I had to get on quick if I wanted to help her...

But pretty much my whole idea of helping went out the window once I saw the front page. All I saw was "CELESTIA IS COMING OUT AFTER MAINTENANCE TONIGHT" and that's when I pretty much realized that...

...I still hadn't done the Selena Gomez quest. O_o

Okay, well, I DID, but that was on my GRAND. My Death Journeyman... actually NEEDS experience. Can actually GET experience.

...So we tried to do it in the ten minutes we had left! :D My sis is so awesome, helping me like she did.

We were HURRYING. I think I've NEVER gone through a quest that fast... even though in the end we didn't finish it. *sob* Every minute, we'd get another message. Here's the two-minute warning while my sister was attacking a Rotting Fodder! XD

Lol. Anyway, then I was JUST going back to the Storm teacher... JUST about to get to go to the underwater place thing (Crab Alley?)... AND THEN THE EVIL MAINTENANCE CAME. LITERALLY as I was walking out the door.

...Although it wasn't ENTIRELY evil, right? IT BROUGHT CELESTIA!

Okay, I got to stop writing this - I WANT TO GET ON WIZARD101. :D

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 14

2010-10-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

I AM SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!! I actually finished Part 14 within a decent amount of time! It wasn't a big, huge, long wait... in fact, Part 13 isn't even up on the website yet. Sooo awesome. I'm very proud of myself. :D

...Problem: PART 15.

I'm failing so badly at it... I have such a terrible case of writer's block...

...and for once, my notebook is caught up with my Word document.

You know I keep an irl notebook, and then edit it when I type it up, right? Well, that notebook has always been soooo far ahead of my typed version, that I've always had some idea on there to keep me going.

Not anymore.

*sigh* Weeeelll... enjoy Part 14, guys. Remember - you're my lucky beta readers, so you have to point out ANY mistakes you find. ANY. Even if they're small. Even if something feels rushed or doesn't make sense. Even if you just don't like that paragraph of the story, or the way that character spoke. JUST COMMENT AND TELL ME. I mean, I even made the effort to add the italics this time!

...So, hope you like it! :)

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 14

A remote part of me perceived little pieces of information that somehow I could not put together. Nothing gave me a clue at where I was. Nothing seemed definite. The floor would be cold one second, and then searing hot the next, and hard, then plushy and soft. There was some kind of sound around me, but each was different – I could have been in a thunderstorm as much as a peaceful forest.

I think I laid there for almost an hour, but there’s really no way to tell. All I know is that I didn’t stir until I heard a real sound – not the faint, ever-changing ones that I had been hearing thus far. In fact, it sounded like words. Talking.

I groaned – even though the last thing I remembered was teleporting, something else must have happened. I felt stiff, like I couldn’t move, and I was sore all over. A familiar voice instructed, “Stay still,” and I complied. Almost instantly I felt better and opened my eyes.

What I saw would have terrified me, if I hadn’t recognized the faces of the ghostly figures standing over me: Christopher BattleSword, Taryn WildHeart, and Zachary DreamMender, the Past Seekers of Death, Balance, and Life respectively. Zachary had his wand out. At least I thought it was a wand. It was very intricate, with many designs on it, looking awfully advanced. Still, most Masters and Grandmasters I knew used staves and swords, not wands.

Zachary sighed with relief. “Thank Bartleby. We didn’t think you’d make it.”

I scanned the room, and realized that it was the Spiral Tower. But it didn’t impress me like last time. Everything felt so dull and surreal, as if I were still unconscious.

“It really wouldn’t be good if we lost you,” Zachary continued. “Right now, you’re the only leader the Seekers have. And you might be your friends’ only hope.”

Now that I was beginning to become more fully aware of my surroundings, I knew something had to be wrong. Something wasn’t right; I was sure of it.
Zachary was looking at me with concern. “Are you all right? Can you speak?”

“I… I’m fine,” I managed. Another thing I noticed that was strange: the Past Seekers looked false, too. “What’s wrong?”

Zachary frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I think she’s wondering why we’re like this. Don’t you remember? I told you that the only place we can be solid is the Woods of the Past. Everywhere else we’re ghosts,” Taryn explained.

One question answered. But I still had loads of others. “Where are we?” I sat up. I tried blinking numerous times to make everything seem clearer, but it didn’t help.

“You have been to the Spiral Tower, right?”

I nodded. Oh, so then maybe I was just paranoid…

“Well, this isn’t it.”

“It isn’t?” I gasped, confused.

“No. This tower is made by dark magic. We must be careful,” Taryn said.

“It looks just like it, though!” I frowned. “But something is different.” I shook my head. “Never mind. I’m not making any sense. I think my head is still messed up from when I was knocked out. Everything seems so hazy.”

“It’s not only you. It looks that way to me, too,” Zachary uneasily agreed.

“And me,” Taryn added.

“Same here,” Christopher sighed.

“Did Mary send me here?” I inquired.

“Probably,” Taryn said. “I’m sure she teleported you here, but you were rendered unconscious by the dark power surrounding this place.” She frowned slightly. “It’s strange. We can leave and enter this place freely by teleporting, but when we tried to take you with us, nothing happened. You’re stuck here. You and the other Seekers.”

“I’m s-stuck?” I repeated. “But… why?”

She shook her head. “We have no idea.”

I groaned, and finally stood. “Could the reason that you leave be because you’re ghosts?”

“Maybe. But I doubt it.”

“What about the other Seekers? You mentioned them. They’re here, too?”

“Not exactly,” Taryn replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“They’re trapped in copies of… of the places you were awakened. Dragon Mouth Cave, Castle of Rain, Pyramid of the Moon… they’ve all been replicated,” Christopher said.
“I’m guessing Jasmine, Seth, and Scarlet are trapped there, as well, aren’t they?” I muttered, more to myself than them. Taryn nodded anyway.

“Well, this is just wonderful.” The sarcasm in my voice was quite obvious. I glared at my surroundings. Would this nefarious copy be my prison?

Then, for the first time I saw a flaw in this replica. The Spiral doors I had seen last time were not there, but there was one single, lonely window right where they had been. “What’s that?” I asked, striding over to it.

“I wouldn’t touch anything,” Zachary warned.

I ignored him and peered out the window. What I saw gave me a small hope that I wasn’t really trapped. Outside, it looked just like inside a Spiral door – nothing but emptiness, stretching out forever.

To my surprise, there was no kind of glass on the window. I leaned over and a thought crossed my mind. A crazy one, but it gave me hope…

“What are you doing?” Christopher demanded.

I climbed over the side of the window, my legs dangling perilously over the side. “This may be the only chance I get,” I said. I turned away, looking down at where I was about to fall. “If I don’t come back, will you, um… tell my family? Not just about this, but about being a Seeker, too.”

“Sierra! Don’t do this. There’s another way out of here. I’m sure of it,” Taryn reasoned.

I glanced at her pleading face for a moment before I said, “I’m sorry. I have to do this. I have to save my friends.”

With those words, I pushed myself off the edge and plunged down into nothingness.

----

Falling into emptiness isn’t nearly as exciting as you would think.

There was no way of measuring how long I fell, if time even existed in a place like this. There wasn’t any wind rushing around me, intriguingly enough, but I still could feel myself moving somehow. It was like I wasn’t actually seeing anything, but rather sensing it. Still, I was too stunned for the most part to think about any of this. For a while, the only thoughts I had were about how maybe this wasn’t as wonderful, heroic, and brave as much as it was stupid.

Eventually, I felt something approaching. It’s not hard to perceive something when there’s been a whole lot of nothing for so long. But it was still impossible to truly “see” anything beneath me. If it was beneath me at all. I’d lost all sense of direction quite a while back.

Before I knew it, I had slammed into something solid. I gasped, my breath temporarily stolen by the impact. But I wasn’t hurt.

I stood when I was able to and looked up from where I had fallen. There was a strange rocky ceiling, making me wonder where I could be.

When I scanned the area, I caught my breath, realizing this place was familiar. This was Dragon Mouth Cave.

At first I felt like jumping for joy. It worked! I was back in Wizard City!

Unfortunately, like everything else good that happens to me, it didn’t last long.

I rushed back to the exit of the cave, only to find that it was locked. It wasn’t even like when Sydney had been awakened, where everything was frozen; there was only blackness outside, like the nothingness I had fallen from. Surprised, I clasped my hands around the bars, then sighed and sunk to the ground. Of course. I was still trapped.

Now that I looked more carefully, I could still tell that everything looked unclear. I was getting used to it. Weird.

So I was still in some kind of fake world, apparently. Why was I in Dragon Mouth Cave though?

Almost at that exact moment, I heard a scream of terror, like someone feared their life was endangered. I knew the feeling.

I hurried back into the cave, only to find the same scene as before.

Except the dragon statue was gone.

My heart temporarily stopped. Images and emotions from Sydney’s awakening came back to be in a shocking wave. The petrified Golem Court; a roaring dragon statue; and my best friend’s limp body falling through the air.

This time, though, there was no rumbling, no roaring, no Sydney, and nothing but silence. Besides the scream I had heard earlier, the place seemed unperturbed.

There was another oddly different factor here. Where the dragon statue used to be, there was a small cave tunnel, just large enough for a person to crawl into.

Curious and really without any other options, I crouched and entered the narrow tunnel.

Bit by bit it widened, until I found myself in an enormous room. Torches lined the walls, lighting up the area with an almost eerie, flickering light.

Another scream resounded in the cavern. This time it was easier to determine where it was coming from. I sped toward it.

As I proceeded through another hallway-like part of the cave (which, fortunately, was much wider than the last one) I started to hear panting noises, and then speaking. Upon getting closer, they made words. They were muffled, shaky, breathless, and utterly terrified, but definitely words. “Stay… away!” the voice gasped, still breathing heavily. “I know… Fire magic… and I…” An odd growling cut off the voice, and there was another scream, causing me to wince.

Seemingly suddenly, the tunnel broke off into a room once more. In front of me was a perplexing scene – and by perplexing, I mean totally horrifying. Two girls were huddled in a corner. One had her wand held out protectively in front of her, and the other hid behind the first one’s back.

And I knew them.

Sydney JadeHammer… Jasmine IceFlame…

Worst of all, in front of Sydney and Jasmine were the most bizarrely appalling two monsters that I can barely begin to describe. They seemed to be always changing, shifting shapes all the time. Every time I thought I had identified what it was, it transformed again, making me wonder if I had really seen anything. Besides their shape, they were black – pitch black, as if every form of color and life in that area had suddenly been sucked away. The darkness was always coiling with the changing states, like a writhing, misty smoke, searching for prey. I wondered that if you got close enough, if it would drag you in and you’d be lost forever.

I wanted to call out to my friends, but I hesitated. No one had heard me enter – not the creatures, not Sydney, not Jasmine. If I called out, that would change. So instead of drawing attention to myself and facing the wrath of the enemies, I gradually made my way toward them, all the while searching my deck for the perfect card.

I was just coming up behind the monsters. Planning to attempt to catch them off-guard, I raised up my wand and the card I had selected.

“SIERRA!” Jasmine screamed with delight.

I jumped at the noise. The words echoed around the narrow cave: “Sierra! Sierra! Sierra!” I was startled enough that I stumbled backward slightly, and apparently that was enough to announce my presence.

They turned around and snarled, and for a moment one looked remarkably like a Wraith.

“Watch out!” Sydney called. The thing lunged for me. I only had just enough time to leap out of the way. Unfortunately I found myself colliding with the other one. It was unexpectedly solid, not a strange inward-sucking vortex thingy. Well, what do you know?

I started scampering in the other direction. With a quick scan of the room, I didn’t see Sydney or Jasmine. I sighed with relief – if they weren’t here, they were safe.

“Hey!” I glanced behind me and groaned. Sydney was there, and in front of her was an enormous bird made of fire – a Phoenix.

The monsters growled again and ceased chasing me, turning to Sydney’s Phoenix.

“No! Hey, big, ugly, whatever-you-are’s! I’m over here! Look at me!” I shouted, waving my arms to get their attention.

They registered the Phoenix as a larger threat, or maybe as more satisfying prey. Either way, they ignored me.

I watched a battle ensue. The Phoenix flew around the cavern, dodging the creatures’ wild lunges. After a while of a deadly game in which the creatures continuously jumped and failed to catch the Phoenix, the things transformed again. This time, instead of the constant, subtle changes, it was very obvious that their form was shifting. From its “back” sprouted grotesque, black wings, as black as the rest of its body. It leaped into the air and snarled. Realizing the danger Sydney’s Phoenix was in, I whipped out my own spell card and summoned an Ice Wyvern, the only thing I could offer.

My Wyvern lent aid by sending up beams of ice. It didn’t help much; the evasive creatures were good a dodging. While Sydney concentrated on sending commands to her Phoenix, Jasmine and I conjured up as many shields as we had – after all, weren’t Thaumaturges masters of defense? The only problem was that there was no way of knowing the creatures’ types – if they had one. Jasmine had a Death shield, and she put it up – but the thing went right through it, not even stopping. The only thing that seemed to work even moderately well was a Tower Shield, but that, of course, didn’t help beyond hindering the creatures.

Without any warning whatsoever, the creatures stopped. Both of them, right in mid-air. Just like that. One second they were frantically pursuing Sydney’s Phoenix and the next they were frozen. Its wings weren’t even moving, bringing up the question of how it was still in the air. The Phoenix turned around, hovering hesitantly next to its former enemies. The three of us on the ground were also surprised, staring in shocked. I opened my mouth to speak, probably along the lines of, “What the HECK just happened?” but I was interrupted by a whooshing sounds, as if a large gust of wind had just passed by. Right before our very eyes, the things began to disappear. Actually, they were disintegrating into little tan colored pieces. When they were completely turned into some sort of tan-ish blob, the pieces fell to the ground. I walked over its remains and picked it up. “It’s sand,” I said softly.

A voice boomed around the cave. “Is that the best you can do?” All three of us glanced around wildly, trying to find the source. The voice, which seemed to come from everywhere at once, chuckled. “Are you truly this foolish? You will not find me, until you are ready to face me. I would have expected more from the Seekers of Light, and one of their closest allies.”

“F-face you?” Jasmine stammered. “Like… fight you?”

“Perhaps,” the voice said. “It depends on how far you get. If you demonstrate the same lack of talent you have shown so far, I highly doubt that, even if you survive these challenges, it would be a fair fight.”

“But who are you?” I demanded. “How do you know about the Seekers?” I felt crazy, screaming at the walls.

I got an answer, but not the one I hoped for. “Maybe you will find out someday. But that’s not for right now.”

I felt another wave of anger. “Okay, fine,” I muttered. “We won’t see you. Can you please tell us where we are? Or what that thing was? Or how in the Spiral we can get out?”

To my surprise, I actually got a straight answer, not some cryptic riddle like you’d expect from a disembodied voice. “The thing that attacked you? That was a Shadow Beast,” the voice said quietly. “Quite ferocious, but easy to create and tame, if you know how. As for where we are? Don’t you know already? This is Dragon Mouth Cave. You were here for your friend’s awakening.”

I don’t know why, but this guy was really starting to bug me. “You haven’t answered my last question. How do we get out?”

“Ah, yes. I’d imagine you’d want to go now, right? Leave and sleep in your warm beds in your home? But you must remember – you still have your friends out there. To be specific: Seth GoldenBlood.

I gasped. “Yeah! Where?”

“Defeat the other four Shadow Beasts. You will save him if you can survive. This time you were lucky – I couldn’t bear to see you fail to soon. But next time I cannot help you.” Suddenly the voice was menacing, and I almost took a step back, despite the fact I couldn’t even see who I was speaking to.

“Okay,” I said, although nothing was making sense. He wanted us to defeat one of those huge black monsters? This was ridiculous.

“Very well. Then enter this portal.”

“What port–“

There was a flash of blue light in front of us. The light remained contained in a floating blue disk. I knew that all I had to do was step forward and I would end up someplace new. Maybe it would even lead to Seth. There was just one looming problem…

“Is it safe?” Jasmine put my thoughts to words.

“Who cares?” Sydney shot back, stepping forward. “From what I’ve seen, anything would be better than here.”

I smiled. It was good to have her back, even if she sounded like she was a little grumpy. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I agreed. “So I can assume you’re going first, Sydney?” I grinned.

Her shoulders slumped. “Um… no, that’s okay,” she said, backing down. “You can go first.”

“That’s what I thought. I know you’ve probably been through a lot and learned more about so-called ‘Shadow Beasts’ than you ever wanted to know, but it’s not like we’re having a relaxing vacation here. Don’t take it out on us, okay?”

She stared at me. “Um… got it…” She shook her head. “You’ve changed, Sierra.”

“Changed? How?”

“You’re more… mature? No, that’s not it. More problem-solving. I think you make a great Seeker leader.”

I grimaced. “Really?”

“Don’t think of it like that,” she said, softly chuckling. “It’s a good thing.” She turned to the portal. “So I’m first, am I?” She took in a deep breath. “Then I’ll see you on the other side… I guess. I hope.”

She stepped forward and disappeared.

Jasmine looked at me fearfully. “After you,” I told her.

She gave me one forlorn look and shut her eyes and was taken away by the portal.

Just as I was about to follow, there was a sucking noise… and suddenly the portal was no longer there.

I didn’t panic at first. I blinked a few times, thinking I may be hallucinating. Then I spun around, scanning the cavern, like I thought the portal might have moved. But it was nowhere to be seen. It was gone.

This is where the “freaking out” part comes in.

Just when I was about to do something absolutely crazy, the same voice from before came back. “Do not fear. Another portal is coming.”

A wave of relief washed over me.

“It will take you to the next Seeker and your friend Seth. And the next Shadow Beast.” The voice paused. “You friends will be waiting for your return.”

That didn’t make sense. “My return?” I questioned.

“For you to come back. They will wait in the Spiral Tower.”

“You mean the fake one, though, don’t you? I knew it! I knew this was all some evil plot!” I growled, throwing my hands into the air with frustration. “Why don’t you just turn us in now? You’re working for Malistaire! You’re just trying to separate us!”

“Do not make false accusations, Sierra. I’m not working for Malistaire.”

“Then whose side are you on? I need Sydney and Jasmine, and they need me.”

“We are giving them protection. Is this not what you wanted for them?”

I was so upset and confused that I didn’t even notice the voice had said “we.” Meaning it had allies.

The voice continued, “There are more than two sides to everything. I am on no side but my own. You could say I am neutral, although that’s not entirely true. I have my own opinions on this matter. I have friends and enemies on both of your sides.”

“But why are you helping me? I’m not talking about the rest of them. Are you my friend… or enemy?”

There was silence, and I feared the voice had left me all alone. Then it spoke up, “A friend, I believe, but not for long.” A portal appeared in front of me. “Now go. Your other friends need you more than I do.”

So do Jasmine and Sydney, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. Instead, I followed the voice’s instructions and stepped through.

I appeared in another eerily surreal place. This time it was the Castle of Rain.

Or was it? I didn’t remember the castle having a mysterious hallway to the left. When I followed it, somehow, I ended up finding a Diviner running through the hallway, nearly passing me by.

“Oh!” she said with surprise. She was panting, like she had been running for a while. Then she recognized me. “OH!” This time it was a shout. “Hi, Sierra! When did you get here?”

“Not too long ago,” I told her. “Uh, is Seth here?”

Her expression changed so drastically, from bright and hopeful to desperate and… guilty? Was that guilt I saw? “He… he…” She almost sounded like she would cry.

“What happened?” I asked urgently.

Just then, a growling emanated from some unknown source that was not too far away.

“No time to talk,” she whispered. “We have to get out of here, or the bear thingy will get us. Seth’s gone.” With that rather abrupt explanation she resumed running from whatever it was she had been fleeing from before. I stared after her for a while, until a big, hideous Shadow Beast leaped out behind me. I gaped at it. Somehow, unlike our little friends at Dragon Mouth Cave, this one had a shape. It looked like a beast that stood upon two legs – a bear, Victoria had accurately described it as. Still, it lacked color other than black and the edges of its form still looked like coils of smoke ran off of it. Plus, it looked as blood thirsty as ever.

That was the only encouragement I required to follow Victoria in a mad dash.

With the monstrous Shadow Beast trailing too close behind me, I raced back into the main area of the Castle of Rain, where Victoria had been awakened, and the Triton slain by Malistaire.

I tried to remember everything I could about bears. I’d never had any interests in learning about animals back on Earth, and as far as I knew, there were no bears in the Spiral.

I had no time to ponder this any longer. With my limited knowledge of hungry bears, I hadn’t known how fast they were. A scream caught in my throat as ferocious hands grabbed me from behind and tackled me to the ground. I gazed weakly up at the Shadow Beast, now on my back with the bear on top of me. “Victoria?” I tried to call out, but it ended up like a squeak. Snarling, the bear (who, might I add, was not furry and in no way resembled a teddy bear) took it as a sign of defeat. So this is how it ends, I thought. No epic escape attempt, no daring rescue mission, no Malistaire. Just some stupid bear/Shadow Beast that decided I would make a good meal.

This thought fueled my anger and cleared my head a bit. Shoving my hands into my pocket, I withdrew my wand. Drawing the first card from my deck, I quickly cast whatever spell it was… and prayed it wouldn’t be something useless.

It wasn’t. In fact, it was not at all what I had expected. My hand, aided by the card, formed a triangular Myth symbol. Myth? Since when did I know any Myth spells?

I was past caring. I activated the spell (which is really hard to do pinned on your back, by the way) and amazingly, a Minotaur appeared.

It stood there, and I realized it was waiting for a command. “Help me!” I screamed at the creature as loudly as I could.

Snorting, it turned to the bear with ferocity in its eyes. With a grunt it heaved its gigantic axe at the Shadow Beast, striking it in the back.

An inhuman wail came from the Shadow Beast. Even so, the Minotaur wasn’t done yet. Again it swung at the bear-like monster with incredible power, and the wail increased in volume and pitch. Slowly, the bear’s color changed from the pure black it had been before and looked more solid. It turned a sickly brown, then faded into tan. Soon an unnatural gust of wind blew through the hallway, and the remains of the bear floated away in tiny specks. Eventually there was only a small pile of tan rocks on top of me. As before, the creature had turned to sand.

“Sierra! What happened?” Victoria cried, rushing over to me. I wondered how long she had been there. “Where did the bear go? Did you defeat it?”

“I-I think so,” I stammered. I still had so many questions. How did I summon a Minotaur? Why were the creatures turning to sand? And what happened to–

“Seth!” I gasped. “Where is he? You said he was here, didn’t you? Did something happen?”

“Yes! Um, wait, no. Kind of.”

“Which is it, Victoria?” I stood up and brushed the remaining sand off my robe, staring expectantly at her.

“The black thingy – the bear – it caught him, like it caught you. And… I…”

“You what?”

She burst into tears, which wasn’t quite what I had been expecting. “I’m so, so, so, sorry! Please forgive me!”

Usually I’m sort of an impatient person, and an outburst like that along with the fact that she wouldn’t explain anything to me would annoy me to no end. Instead, I felt a strange emotion – pity.

“I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not your fault,” I said soothingly, grasping Victoria’s hand. “Just let me know what happened. We can work this out.”

“It is my fault, though! I left him behind! I made him fend for himself. I’m no longer worthy of being a Seeker, if I ever was in the first place. Now we’ve lost an invaluable friend.”

I let out a long breath through my teeth. Even though on the outside I remained calm, inside I was screaming and panicking. “Now, listen,” I comforted, “we can’t be sure he’s dead yet. I’m sure he’s fine.” A lie. “I’m not upset at all.” Another lie. “We’ll all be okay.” Totally lying! Well, sometimes the truth hurt, and Victoria didn’t deserve to be hurt right now. “Come on, let’s go find him. Where did you leave him?”

“Um… I’m not sure.”

“Then let’s just walk around for a while–“

“There’s no need,” a booming voice said. We jumped.

“You,” I stated flatly. “You’re that voice from before, from the false Dragon Mouth Cave.”

“Ah, the leader of the Seekers of Light remembered me. What an honor for me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I muttered. “I still don’t know your name.”

“You may never know,” it replied.

“Whatever. We have to find Seth. Now. Or as soon as possible.”

Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a portal appeared. “Victoria RavenSmith, you may return and wait for your friends. As for you, Seeker Sierra… you may not.”

“Figured as much. But I wouldn’t leave anyway. I’m going to find Seth.”

“Same here!” Victoria agreed, although she sounded unsure.

“Seeker Victoria, are you positive? You could go somewhere you would be safe.”

Victoria’s expression changed, and she seemed to be thinking hard. “I’m pretty sure I want… to stay…”

Safe. That was the word that made her hesitate.

“I won’t be mad if you leave,” I promised.

“No.” I was amazed that there was defiance and confidence in her voice. “I will be here. For Seth.”

I paused for a moment, studying her face. Slowly, I began to grin. “Good to have you, Victoria!” I shouted. “Take that big, scary, echo-y voice! The Seekers stick together. They always have, and always will.” I stopped. “Um, besides Liam. But he doesn’t count.”

There was no reply for a while. I hope we stunned him with our dedication, I thought smugly.

The portal in front of us swirled and vanished. “Well done,” the voice said. Had I just heard a touch of pride? “That was a test, and you, Victoria, have passed. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say.” I rolled my eyes. “A test. Right.”

“Believe it or not, that is your choice.”

Oh, I had definitely chosen “not.”

“However,” the voice continued, “I will need to tell you this information anyway. Seth is safe.”

I froze. “What?”

“Seth. Is. Safe.” He drawled out each word as if talking to a young Novice.

“I heard that,” I muttered. “I meant… how?”

“We opened the portal for him when he was in danger. He is waiting with Sydney, Jasmine, and the few Past Seekers helping you.”

“And you could not have told me this?” Victoria cried. “You can’t even begin to imagine the pain and guilt I felt!”

“I know.” The voice sounded so hushed and sincere. This is so weird, I thought. Sometimes it totally lacks any kind of emotion, and I think it’s heartless; then, suddenly, it’s so sentimental! Even sarcastic!

“How can we believe you, though?” I all but screamed. “I don’t trust you at all. You don’t trust us enough to know your name. Where’s the proof that Seth is okay? How do we know you’re not in league with these darn Shadow Beasts?”

“I suppose you make a good point,” the voice chuckled. “Sadly, I have no choice. There is no way that I can tell you that much information and live…” I perked up, intrigued, but the voice trailed off. There was a cough, reverberating oddly in the Castle of Rain, as though it were over a loudspeaker. “In any case, Victoria may go back to see him. If you’re really worried, why don’t you use Whisper Chat?”

“…Whisper Chat?” I repeated foolishly, like I’d never heard the term before.

“Yeah. Whisper Chat.”

“And it works in here?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t it?”

Wow. Maybe I was still getting used to being a wizard. I was always forgetting about that convenient little ability I had to talk to people anytime across long distances.

Trying to sound casual, in case the voice was right and he wasn’t in trouble, I whispered, “Hey, Seth. What’s up?”

“Oh, hi Sierra!” I was relieved to hear his reply, and it sounded just as cheerful and Seth-like as always. It wasn’t the sound of someone in imminent danger. There was a pause on his end. “Did you know you have teleports off?”

“No, I don’t,” I muttered, checking. I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me. “Must be you. Or…” I glanced around the room. “…maybe it’s this place. Considering where we are, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Where are you? Oh! Guess where I am? You have to see this. It’s the beautiful tower with–“

“I’ve been there, and trust me; the real thing is ten times better.”

“Real? What do you mean? Sierra, is something wrong?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, no. Just fine.” I chose that moment to let relief into my voice, but also foolish bitterness. To be truthful… I was upset that the voice was right about Seth being all right.

“Fine,” I snarled, switching back to speaking aloud. “You win, whoever you are. Seth is in the fake Spiral Tower.” Victoria’s face lit up like a Fire Cat’s fur in the summer. “So what’s next? Crevice of Time?”

“No,” the voice said. “Only three remain. You couldn’t imagine going to every place of awakening for only six monsters, could you?

“I guess not,” I said reluctantly.

“If Mark’s place isn’t next, what is?” Victoria asked. “Hunter’s place? I’ve never been there.” She sighed. “Actually, I never go anywhere cool. You get all the fun, Sierra.”

“I can’t really call it fun…”

“Yes, Hunter’s place of awakening is next,” the voice said, ignoring me. “Two Seekers are being held there in captivity. Mark and Hunter.” I gasped. Captivity? That couldn’t be good.

Two portals opened: one in front of me, and the other in front of Victoria.

I turned to the Storm Seeker of Light. “Well, I suppose this is goodbye for now.”

She swallowed. “I don’t want to leave,” she whispered. “I want to stay with you. I’m useful. I can prove it.”

My voice turned gentle. “I know. You want to help. But you’ll be safe this way, and you can’t really help us if you’re dead, right?”

She grimaced.

“Please, go. I’ll help Hunter and Mark. They’re pretty good at taking care of themselves. Or Mark is. I don’t really know Hunter well.” I grinned slightly, but it faded quickly.

Finally, at length, she nodded ever so slightly. “Good luck,” she said.

And she disappeared.

With a deep breath (I did it so often, I hardly even noticed when I did it anymore – it was just my natural way of lessening stress by even a small bit), I stepped forward into the portal and instantly reappeared in a small, stone room…

…with a big, panther-like Shadow Beast staring straight at me with wide, stunned eyes.

“Um,” I said, “I think I took a wrong turn.”

The feline creature growled dangerously. I heard a gasp behind it, and I peered over the Shadow Beast to see Mark staring at me with a grim expression and Hunter looking wide-eyed. Both had their hands and feet tied up. How, I had no idea, especially since cats don’t have hands to bind rope with. I had no time to contemplate this, though. The cat pounced at me.

Screaming like the young girl I was, I jumped to the other side of the room. The cat missed me and smacked into the wall, much to my satisfaction.

This room was small. I could walk across it in just four big steps. Since there were no doors, windows, or much of anything in the room except for us, I was trapped.

I remembered casting a Minotaur last time. That had been effective. Only problem? I didn’t know Minotaur, and still wasn’t sure how I’d done it.

I reached for my deck and drew the first card off the top. I examined it carefully. “Thermal Shield.” I scowled at the card, as if it were somehow its fault I couldn’t attack with it.

I promptly discarded it and drew four more cards. Without a dueling circle, I wasn’t restricted like I normally would have been, and there were no “turns.” You attacked when you saw a chance. That simple.

This gave me some more spells to work with. I summoned my mana to try and gain pips more rapidly as I did my best to evade the Shadow Beast.

Finally, I spun around and put all my power into casting Ice Wyvern, adding an IceBlade and Ice Trap into the mix for good measure. The Ice Wyvern towered over the Shadow Beast, and I gazed upon it with pride. My creation. My power. My spell.

I expected the kitty to be obliterated into sand at my Wyvern’s roar… but nothing happened.

The Shadow Beast was equally bewildered. Recovering much faster than me, though, it grinned a predatory smile and leaped.

I attempted to dodge again, but… suddenly I found myself on the floor. Guess what? I slipped. Just like that.

Is it just me, or does the floor seem a lot more slick today? I thought to myself. It is almost like there is something spread across the surface of it…

There was no time to worry about that now. Due to my mistake, once more I found myself on my back, staring at the Shadow Beast’s hideous “face.” Do they eat people? I suddenly wondered. When it bared its pitch black teeth I immediately decided I didn’t want to know.

“Sierra!” Hunter cried weakly, and though I couldn’t look around, I could tell he was struggling with the bonds.

“Treasure Cards!” Mark screamed. “Sierra, use Treasure Cards! It’s how we defeated the other one!”

Too desperate to ask what the “other one” was, I grabbed my measly pile of about fifteen cards that passed for a treasure deck.

I drew one card. Pixie. Annoyed at myself for putting in such a useless Treasure Card – didn’t everyone over level ten know that spell? – I tossed it away.

I drew another. Dryad. Dang it, another healing spell. Well, I never had seen a need for attacked treasures when I had plenty of my own spells. Getting more frustrated and terrified by the second, the card joined its useless friend on the floor.

For a third time, I drew a card. I felt like screaming aloud, but I bit it back. Spirit Trap! Why in the Spiral did I put in a Spirit Trap? I didn’t use my Death spells often enough for that!

Just as I was about to pick another card, the not-too-bright Shadow Beast finally realized what I was up to. With its massive paw, it knocked the rest of the deck out of my hand, scattering the cards. Then it took the glowing Jade Oni sword in its mouth and I watched horrified, helpless as it broke it in half. I felt faint. I spent weeks farming the Jade Oni for that sword! The bluish-purple glow faded from it as the Shadow Beast unceremoniously tossed the halves away from me. I pushed back the tears in my eyes – it’s just a sword, I told myself. But all the effort I’d put into getting it, added to the fact that I no longer had a wand… things were looking bad.

The panther-like beast continued glaring at me. I could feel its rank breath on my neck, hear the small growl in the back of its throat, even see the terrible glint of predatory glee in its eyes.

Was this the end?

NO! I shouted to myself silently. Do something. Anything! My hand groped, and my heart nearly stopped as it grabbed something flat. A Treasure Card. One hadn’t been thrown far enough.

I had to catch the Shadow Beast off-guard, or it would kill me before I could do anything with this incredible stroke of luck. And since I really have no experience with animals… I could only think of “playing dead.”

So I stood still. My body stiffened, and I controlled my breathing, restraining it. The panther stared at me, puzzled. It’s working! I thought, struggling to keep still.

When the Shadow Beast was convinced I had stopped moving, it turned around and growled at Mark and Hunter. Hunter was crying softly. Oops. Guess I hadn’t informed them of my plan.

At least Shadow Beasts were dumb enough not to check their victims for a pulse after they died…

With an unexpected grace, speed, and efficiency that that stunned even me, I sat up and moved my hand through the motions of a spell. Whatever was in my hand… it had to be an attacking card. Had to. Or I was dead meat.

And I activated the Balance symbol…

In a flash of bright orange light, a Hydra appeared. It was large – even larger than my Ice Wyvern, to the point that its head was touching the ceiling. Even the Shadow Beast cowered.

I had developed a slight fear ever since Mary used her Hydra against me in the Pyramid of the Moon, but this one felt different. I knew it was only there to help.

At once all three heads of the Hydra let out a roar, although, to be honest, it was more like a high-pitched screech. I didn’t bother wasting time by allowing the heads to take turns at the enemy – so why not see what happened when they attacked all at once?

The same wail the bear Shadow Beast had filled the room, enhanced greatly by the small size. I winced at the volume.

Just like before… with the Shadow Beast’s defeat, it had turned into a hollow sculpture of sand.

“M-my gosh, are you guys okay?” I gasped, rushing over to Mark and Hunter who were still gazing at the dead Shadow Beast with amazement.

“I think we are now. What just happened? What was that thing?” Mark questioned.

“A Shadow Beast,” I explained grimly. “I’ve no time to explain further. The mystical voice guy might be speaking to you about it soon.”

“Mystical what-huh?” Mark said.

As he was saying that, a portal appeared in front of me in a burst of light.

“That’s my cue,” I said. I stepped forward, but Hunter grabbed my shirt and looked up at me with his curious blue eyes. I could tell he was back to his old self, and I knew what was coming next.

“Wait! What’s a Shadow Beast? It looked like a Fire Cat, but kind of different. And darker. Have you seen one before, Sierra? I thought it would eat us! Thanks for rescuing me by the way. I forgot to say that. So where are you going? Have you seen Sydney? I’m worried about her. I heard her scream to me in Whisper Chat… but I had my own situation.” His expression turned desperate. “You have to help her!”

“Already taken care of,” I assured him, grinning. “She’s fine. Like I said, the voice guy will explain everything. Probably. Hopefully.” I’m sure they caught the uncertainty in those last two words, but I was determined to leave as soon as possible. There was only one Shadow Beast left, but, if I was correct, three people still remained to be saved: Rowan, Scarlet, and Vanessa.

There was no way I was losing Rowan again.

Not to mention Merle Ambrose and Gamma were still missing…

I shook my head to clear it from such disheartening thoughts. “Are you guys over the shock yet? I really have to go. Vanessa, Scarlet, and my sister are still waiting for rescue.”

“Oh, Rowan! She’s still in trouble? I know how much you care about her, Sierra. Let her go,” Mark firmly told Hunter, who looked about to ask another million questions. He frowned, but didn’t say anymore.

“Thanks, Mark,” I said, relieved that he understood. “And, um, you guys can trust the voice, okay? I think he’s… a friend.” I almost scowled at myself. Was I really saying that? I was instructing Mark and Hunter to do something I couldn’t ever do myself. Maybe I was trying to reassure myself it was fine to leave them here alone…

“Oh, wait. One other thing.” I turned back in annoyance, but this time it was Mark speaking to me instead of Hunter. “I thought you’d want to know that there was another one of those things in here, before you came. Didn’t you notice the sand on the ground?”

I glanced down, finally spotting the tan rocks. It seemed like both Mark and I realized at the same time why I had slipped earlier and nearly killed myself. “Uh, s-sorry,” he stammered. “I really wasn’t expecting anyone else to show up, especially after we were tied up.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s absolutely fine. We survived, right?” Hmm. Perhaps I was, like, gaining better control of my emotions or something. This had been happening all day – I felt like screaming at him at how stupid he had been, but deep down inside, I knew it wasn’t his fault. I sighed, remembering what still had to be done. “And now… I believe it’s time for me to leave.”

Mark stepped back. “Oh. Right. Let me know through Whisper Chat or something when you save Rowan.”

I nodded slowly. Then, before I could lose courage or change my mind, I jumped into the portal.

Immediately I was overwhelmed by the desert heat. Oh, great. I knew this place all too well. It didn’t exactly hold warm and fuzzy memories for me.

Well, maybe warm. I was already sweating out here.

Still, it was more the whole meeting Mary, confronting Liam, arguing with Scarlet, and being accused of being Malistaire’s minion parts that bothered me.

We had awakened Vanessa here, though…

Like I expected, I spun around to see a huge figure looming in the distance. It had a wide body and slowly sloped upward to a point. The Pyramid of the Moon.

Recalling my mission, I sprinted toward it. I’d seen a Shadow Beast move. Who knew how much damage one could do in the few minutes that I stood here gawking?

I burst into the pyramid moments later… only to find it empty and utterly quiet. What had I expected? An epic battle? The triumphant faces of my friends?

Or the triumphant face of a Shadow Beast?

I shook my head. Ugh, thinking optimistically was harder than I thought. How did Mark do it?

Since there was no indication of where my friends could be, I had to choose for myself where to go. There were only two exits: the long hallway that led to the wide open room Vanessa was awakened in, or up the staircase Scarlet explored without us last time.

I realized that I had never been up there. What were the upper reaches of the pyramid like? Scarlet felt like leaving without us, so I didn’t get a chance to go up that way. I glanced uncertainly back at the tunnel. The lights were off, but I could easily picture them turning on within my head and I guarantee they would. At least, the Desert Colossus had told us they would for any Seekers. That was what happened last time.

Of course, all these buildings were fake, right? It was still blurry, like I was in a dream. Maybe I was in a dream. Now, wouldn’t that have been wonderful. But that hadn’t ever worked before; usually when I was aware enough to wonder if I was dreaming, I was awake. Nope, I wasn’t getting out of this that easily.

There was no light up those stairs, though. Scarlet had used Dryad. I did not know Dryad.

I glanced around the see if there was anything flammable, giving me déjà vu to last time…

But unlike my previous visit, my search paid off. On the wall I noticed a convenient torch, practically begging me to use it.

With my new light source I made my way up the dark steps. They seemed to wind up forever – how tall could this pyramid be, anyway? – but eventually they stopped, and I supposed this was some sort of attic room. Truthfully, I couldn’t make out much. The torch did not provide much light to see by.

It didn’t seem like I was need the torch much longer anyway. There was a small, flickering greenish-white light in the corner of the room, hiding behind a type of desk. It wasn’t very bright, but someone could see by it if they had no other choice.

Blinking to confirm what I saw, I tried to determine what it could possibly be. There were storied on Earth about ghosts using lights to lure in travelers, right? I doubted they were real, even in the Spiral, but it still gave me an eerie feeling. It sure looked like a ghost…

Time to take a crazy, pointless risk.

“I know you’re there,” I whispered. Okay, I didn’t know if anyone was there, but either I was totally correct and would startle someone into revealing themselves, or no one was around to hear. Either way, I had nothing to lose, right?

Wrong.

A growl erupted from behind me, and I spun around just in time to be viciously attacked and rammed into a wall by a Shadow Beast. This one resembled the one in Dragon Mouth Cave. Its form shifted, like it couldn’t decide what to look like. It stalked toward me, sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four – but always with malicious intent.

“Stay away from my sister, you, um, thingy!” a voice shouted. The light that I had been examining earlier shone even brighter. No, wait – this was a different green light. Someone was casting a Life spell!

Rowan WillowLeaf stepped out from behind the desk and activated the symbol, a Centaur leaping onto a suddenly leaf-covered ground. It aimed an arrow at the Shadow Beast.

It was only then that I remembered only Treasure Cards worked.

“Uh, Rowan?” I said.

The Centaur fired the arrow, and the Shadow Beast was enveloped in a tree trunk with a rumbling, cracking sound. It burst open, and as I expected… the Shadow Beast came out unscathed.

I sighed. “Regular cards don’t work.”

“Now you tell me,” she grumbled. “What a waste of mana!”

The Shadow Beast chose that moment to attack again. I had no time to reply as we scrambled out of the way.

Vanessa and Scarlet emerged from behind the desk, as well as a small Pixie. I realized the faint light from her wings was what I had been seeing.

“Use Treasure Cards, guys!” I ordered. “They’re the only things that work!”

“I don’t have any Treasures,” Scarlet said with a frown. “They’re unfair. I had a few Rebirths and a Spirit Blade, but that’s it.”

“I thought I didn’t need my Treasure Cards. I gave them to Victoria just yesterday!” Vanessa complained.

I glanced at my sister. “Rowan?”

She grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ve got…” She frowned down at the Treasure deck she took out and looked at three cards on top. “Um… never mine. I don’t have anything that can attack.”

“Do I have to do everything myself?” I murmured. I reached into my pocket to pull out my Treasure deck…

...and panicked when my hand received only air.

That’s when I recalled that I had left all my Treasure Cards scattered on the ground back with Hunter and Mark after they were whacked out of my hand by the Shadow Beast.

Oh, dang.

We’re doomed.

We have no Treasure Cards.

The world just hates me, doesn’t it?

The Shadow Beast attacked again, this time heading for my sister. “Rowan!” I screamed, diving toward them. All I found was a handful of air as Rowan flew from the impact of the beast’s blow I was too slow to defend her from.

Slamming into the wall – hard; the smacking sound was so loud it echoed – Rowan’s figure crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Or at least I hoped it was unconsciousness preventing Rowan from standing again.

My temper suddenly flared. This monster had messed with my sister – the person closest to me, the one who understood me best. Now this was personal.

But how could we even hit the Shadow Beast if we had no Treasure Cards? Everything else would go directly through it. Not to mention I still lacked a proper wand. The Shadow Beast took my sword and broke it last time I checked…

I cast an IceBlade, the feeling of icy power coursing through my body providing some comfort. Even without a wand, I was determined to make my spell hurt so much that the Shadow Beast would have to feel it.

As I dodged the incoming attacks, thankful the beast was focusing on my rather than Vanessa and Scarlet, I passed by Rowan and just so happened to catch a glimpse of the card she was still holding in her hand. It was a Treasure Card, since she had been looking and hers until the attack. It was a Strength card.

At first I really didn’t care – like she said, Strength couldn’t do any damage.

But when I thought carefully about what it did do, I realized something.

Strength made Treasure Cards.

And Treasure Cards hurt Shadow Beasts.

Feeling slightly guilty for stealing from my unconscious sister (even knowing she would forgive me for it), I took the card. Selecting my Ice Wyvern, I concentrated on combining the Strength with it. Soon enough, I had an extra-powerful Ice Wyvern, not to mention an IceBlade to boost it more. I smiled a bit. The Shadow Beast was so going to pay.

I moved my arms to form the Ice symbol and released my mana.

The Ice Wyvern materialized with a roar. Empowered by the Strength card and IceBlade, it was going to do a pretty decent amount of damage.

The Shadow Beast was blown away by the force of the Ice Wyvern all right, so much more than I could have even hoped for. Even though I used Minotaur and Hydra before, they hadn’t been my school, and the Ice Wyvern, being my most powerful spell since level 22, was my specialty. With a howl of the worst sort – pain, desperation, fury, anguish, and defeat in its tone – the Shadow Beast transformed into sand.

I was panting – casting spells without a wand was much more tiring, plus I’d been frantically dodging a few minutes ago. I sank to the ground with a stunning revelation.

I’d done it.

That was the last Shadow Beast!

“Can I be honest? I didn’t really believe you would make it,” the now-familiar voice said. “Now that you’ve done this, who knows what else you can accomplish united? Prepare yourself, Sierra WinterBreeze. The path ahead will not be easy, but you are ready for it. You can defeat the Spiral’s greatest evil with your closest friends as allies. You have proven yourself.” A pause. “Well, perhaps you may encounter one more test…”

“Another test? I can’t take it anymore! Who are you? I demand to know! I have done enough. My friends are safe, and I take no orders from you, whoever you are.”

Silence. I smugly wondered if I had somehow scared it off. Scarlet and Vanessa were in shock, looking around the room before staring at me with questioning eyes. I offered them no explanation.

Finally the voice returned. “Do not fear. Rest now. You have been on a long journey, but do not be hasty simply because you are nearing its conclusion.”

A portal appeared. “Join your friends. Lead them, Sierra, to your victory. Again, the Seekers of Light will prevail and Wizard City will be free once more. Go!”

“What about Row–“

My sister stirred next to us. Blinking blearily, she moved and groaned. I rushed to her side. “Take it easy, Rowan!” I commanded. “You’re not… you can’t be…” I watched in surprise as she stood and brushed herself off without any assistance. “But, Rowan–”

“I’m fine, Sierra,” she told me. “Just fine. Really. I mean… I have a major headache, but still. I’m Life, right? I’ll heal myself.”

She drew a card from her deck and cast Dryad. The green light encompassed her figure. I could almost feel Rowan slowly getting her strength back.

“Okay, time to go,” I said doubtfully. I really wanted Rowan to gather her strength a bit more. My older sister instincts told me to let her rest… but my Seeker leader instincts (if I had any – I haven’t been doing much leading) told me we couldn’t let one member drag us all down. Especially since she looked completely fine, and she had just been healed…

Scarlet stepped through the portal first, followed by Vanessa, then Rowan. I stood still for a moment, sweeping my gaze across the room. It felt strange to follow my friends after I had always taken a route different than them up until now. Finally, I gathered my courage and entered the portal.

I reappeared in the Spiral Tower – the fake one, of course. Everyone was there: Sydney, Victoria, Mark, Hunter, Vanessa, Rowan, Jasmine, Seth, and Scarlet. Everyone I had just rescued in a way. Every one of my friends.

It looked like all the Past Seekers were there, too. Christopher was speaking when I appeared, but stopped when he spotted me. “And there she is now.”

Everyone turned to stare at me.

I stared back, a sudden wave of stage fright overwhelming me. They all looked so expectant. What was I supposed to do?

“They’re waiting for you to say something,” a voice to my left said. I glanced there to find Taryn. “Chris used to do it all the time. Not so much lately… but we don’t have that many jobs anymore. If he convinced a distrustful, fearful, doubtful group of the first Seekers to unite as one, I’m positive you can do it with your closest friends.”

I still wasn’t sure what Taryn mean by “distrustful, fearful, and doubtful,” nor what the Past Seekers might have faced in their time; however, I was forced to ignore that part. She was right. These were my friends. I took a deep breath and began.

“Um, hi, everyone,” I unsteadily started. Stop, I told myself. Be motivational. Be inspiring! “So… it’s time to do what we were meant to do.” I paused. Not exactly inspiring… “So, uh, let’s do it… together. United. Yeah.”

Everyone was still watching me with blank expressions.

You know what? This was all wrong. I’m not “motivational.” I’m not a speech writer. Truthfully, I’m not even a leader. I’m here as a friend, now a Seeker of Light. I had to do this my own way.

“Okay, look,” I said. “I know that you don’t want to sit here listening to me going on about who-cares-what. You don’t need any big long pep-talk. Want to know why? You’re ready. Totally, completely ready. …It’s time. We’re going to fight Malistaire, whether you like it or not.” That got a reaction. Some of their faces hardened at the mention of our inevitable future opponent’s name, but most just got a nervous sort of look. “I know you can do it. I mean, think about what we faced today. Shadow Beasts. Shape-shifting creatures. Crazy, right? And we found them all, and won. If we can do that while fragmented and separated from one another, imagine what we can do together! Look around you. You know everyone here in one way or another. I’m sure you have worked in smaller groups on quests together, haven’t you? This is no different! This is who we are!” My voice in a crescendo as the speech reached its high point. “We are ready! Let us show Malistaire what it truly means to be a Seeker of Light! Let’s take our victory!”

At that conclusion, I let my voice resonate in the tower, echoing out that one, proud word. Everything was silent for a moment, and I wondered if I’d done something wrong. Then my audience burst into applause, cheering way louder than a group that size should have been able to.

I grinned. Maybe I wasn’t so bad at motivation after all.

----

“Now,” Christopher said, “it’s time to go.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “but how are we supposed to get there?”

“Um, we’re not entirely sure.” My eyes narrowed. If he didn’t know… “Wait! There is one way that we may be able to find Malistaire. How did you get into the Spiral Tower that first time, Sierra?”

“A door in the back of the throne in Gobblestone Castle. Why?”

He let out a long breath that sounded like it was in relief. “Good. As long as it’s a place linked to the Seekers, we should be able to… change the portal. So that it goes somewhere else related to the Seekers.”

“What do you mean?”

“Malistaire’s lair… is tied to your destiny as a team, since he is your enemy and you have proven yourself in there more than enough times. The Spiral Tower is also inevitably bound to you. We may be able to modify the portal in Gobblestone Castle to take you to Malistaire instead.”

“R-really?” I said, thinking about that carefully. “But… I thought we were still in the fake tower, and you said we couldn’t leave.”

“As you defeated each Shadow Beast, the seal on this place weakened. Perhaps not enough to allow us to completely leave on our own… but I believe we can now travel between the copies easily, and with the aid of a portal we should be able to make it out entirely.”

“Thank goodness,” I muttered. Louder, I said, “So is there a copy of Gobblestone Castle, then?”

“No.”

I stared. “Then how are we–”

“But there is a copy of the Tower of Lost Memories.” I was surprised that it wasn’t Christopher speaking. I looked to the side to see Megan BlueGarden, the Past Ice Seeker that had lost her powers, talking with a pensive expression on her face. “It’s where I was awakened too, you know,” she said softly. “The places of awakening never change, although their Spiral counterparts do. Colossus Boulevard wasn’t always overrun by Gobblers; Gobblestone Castle was originally built by the Creators of Ice to honor their school and symbolize their cool, defensive strength.” She took a deep breath. “I helped make it…”

I immediately sensed a shift in mood in all the Past Seekers, and most seemed lost in thought. “Does that mean you’re a Creator of Ice?” I questioned, picking up on what she just said.

She nodded slowly.

I gawked at her. “Really? But… you’re just…”

“We all are,” Taryn said. “Each of us had some part in creating Ravenwood and the schools of magic. I’m sure we would have succeeded entirely in uniting them if it weren’t for… Wolf.”

“Wolf?”

“The leader of the DeathBringers,” Christopher explained.

Like I knew what that was.

“Look, just… forget about it for the moment. We’re not here to deal with him, thank Bartleby. We’re talking about Malistaire. Everyone, prepare to teleport.”

Instantly, the world around me became a whirling hurricane. I gasped aloud with surprise. We appeared at our location and I stumbled. “You know,” I muttered sarcastically, scowling at Christopher, “when someone says ‘prepare’ they usually wait for you to do it.”

“Sorry,” he said, smiling. Somehow I doubted he was sorry.

But what I saw next made me forget all about that. I drew in a sharp breath upon recognizing where we were.

The Tower of Lost Memories. The area that I was awakened in.

Oh, my gosh. I hadn’t been here since, well… since my awakening, really. Everything looked just as I remembered it – white and blue checkered tiling, big, wide open space…

“It doesn’t look impressive,” I heard Vanessa whisper behind me. I shot her a furious glare, and she shrank back in alarm. Okay, that had been slightly harsh. But this place felt… like a part of me. It had made me all I was today. A Seeker leader…

But there were differences, too. I mean, this wasn’t the real Tower of Lost Memories. In fact, this resembled Gobblestone Castle more than the real one did. There was still a throne here. Sure, it was adorned with an Ice insignia and shimmered with a bluish glow, but it still didn’t belong in a place like this.

I strode to the other side of the throne. Sure enough, a door was there. “Here,” I told Christopher, pointing to it. “This is similar to the door I went to the Spiral Tower in. Why it – and the throne – is here, I have no clue, but it is. Isn’t that what matters?”

“Exactly,” Christopher agreed. “This will work great.” He opened up the door for me (to my irritation – I had to use a key to make it open! What made him so special, besides the fact that he was the first Seeker leader ever and dead?) and motioned for me to go inside. I looked back over my shoulder to see nine other expectant faces (and eight ghostly ones) looking at me. I suddenly realized three people who should be here at the moment…

“Seth. Scarlet. Jasmine.” They started as I stated their names, looks of something near guilt on their faces. “You guys can’t come.”

“But I want to fight Malistaire,” Seth whined. “It’s not fair.”

“Yeah, Sierra,” Jasmine said. “Don’t we have as much of a right to be here as you do?”

“Um, no,” I said. “We’re Seekers. I think that gives us more right to face evil. We can’t ensure your safety, and I would not be able to live with myself if one of you died.”

“Hey, it’s kind of your fault that we’re here in the first place,” Scarlet reminded me. “Hate to break it to you, Sierra, but if you hadn’t told us all about Seekers than we wouldn’t have been targeted and captured.”

Man, I hated when she was right.

“You wouldn’t leave me alone!” I shouted at her. “You found out about Seekers on your own. That wasn’t my fault! I mean, who told you about them in the first place? How much do you really know about them? Yeah, not much.” I kept my expression stern. “You aren’t coming.”

“We’ll follow you,” Scarlet retorted.

“No, you won’t. That’s final.” I gave her one final glare before returning my gaze to the door…

…and remembered something else that needed to be taken care of.

I sighed. “One last thing. If we’re about to go into an epic battle… I kind of need a wand.”

“What happened?” Sydney asked me.

“Feline Shadow Beasts happened, that’s what,” I said under my breath.

Megan spoke up again. “Don’t worry. I think I can help with that.” She reached into her pocket and took a strange item out. “This is my old wand. You can have it.”

I reached out and took it from her, and was surprised to find that it was solid. Indeed it was a wand – not a sword or staff, which surprised me. Few high level wizards had wands any longer, but I supposed Zachary had one earlier. “Although I never made it past level 40,” she said, “wands from the older days are much more powerful than any type of magical conductor you can find today. I’m sure it will do much better than the sword you had before, Sierra. And it’s Ice, so it will probably work well with the spells you use. Will this be sufficient?”

“Y-yeah!” I grinned at her. “Thanks! Won’t this be interesting, using an ancient Seeker wand…”

She smiled at me. “Good. Now you must go. All of you must.”

I nodded. I scanned the room, examining my closest friends. I closed my eyes, tired out suddenly. They wanted so much from me… expected me to be strong, and it was just so… hard.

But who said being a Seeker of Light would be easy? If anything, I’d repeatedly heard the opposite.

I offered them all a wide grin, showing them that I wasn’t afraid (even though inside I really was). Some beamed back, some did not, but everyone felt slightly reassured by my attempt to cheer them up.

So, without another glance back, I stepped into the doorway…

…and reappeared at an enormous door, so achingly familiar. And not in a good way.

After being in a strange haziness for so long, it everything looked so sharp and detailed. Now the fortress looked ten times more foreboding than it did before.

The other Seekers of Light started to appear behind me, but my attention was held by the huge building ahead.

Like I said before… this was it.

It was time.

Time to face destiny.

Time to face fear.

Time to face the worst challenge of all.

Time… to face Malistaire.

****

:D

screaming dramatically WHHHHHHHHYYYYY????

2010-10-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

WHY CAN'T I GO ON THE TEST REALM?

(Note: This is a rhetorical question.)

It's because there's a SLIGHT possibility it might SLIGHTLY affect our computer! Grr! I WANT TO SEE CELESTIA! What are the new spells? Can someone tell me where I can find pictures of them? Ugh. THIS IS SO ANNOYING. I want to be level 60. >.<

Our computers are just too darn old. I want to get a laptop. I SHOULD get a laptop. All for myself. That way, not only can I download the test realm, but all those other things that will likely give my computer viruses - Fan Fiction.net... DeviantArt... etc.

*sigh* Um, well, I have nothing else to post about. But, hey, PLEASE go check out my other blog? I'm glad I got comments on here... but I want someone to review my story! Even if you don't like Zelda, follow this link! Read it! Tell me what the WRITING is like, if not the plot! Oh, and let me know how the new layout is. I just changed the header and background, and I'm finally trying out the new template thing. If people like it on Medli's Messages, I'll come up with something good for here. ;)

Okay. That's it. Goodnight, readers. Happy whatever-holiday-it-is-tomorrow. :D

Whoa! Waiiit! One more thing to add...

2010-10-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

I JUST REALIZED THAT MY BLOG HAS BEEN ONGOING FOR OVER A YEAR! :D

Wow. Thanks, Alia, for letting me notice that, and happy birthday to your blog, too. ;)

Guess what else that means?

Sierra WinterBreeze's birthday is in just over a week! O: Remember? Sierra WinterBreeze was created October 16th!

MEANING TWO YEARS OF WIZARD101! WOOOOOT!

And that's all I have to say. Be sure to read the post below this - it's new, I just HAD to add this, and didn't feel like editing anything. ;) Plus, it's a preview of Part 14, and I need feedback. XD

EDIT: Posted this below, too, but I'll add it here. Here's the link to that prologue I was talking about, to my Zelda fanfic. PLEASE at least look at it. Even if you don't want to comment (although that's HIGHLY encouraged).

Insert Epic Blog Post Title Here

2010-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

I'm running out of names for blog posts. Feel free to name this one in your comments if you want to. I'd be interested to see what people say, actually. XD

And it's not like I have much to say anyway. O_o Besides the Selena Gomez thing. I haven't really looked into it much... but do they really think that will help the game at all? Isn't Wizard101 rated 10+? Maybe I can understand ten, eleven, or even twelve year olds joining a online RPG game juuuust because their favorite pop star is in it... but thirteen and older... I can't imagine that. No offense to thirteen year olds out there who are still obsessed with pop culture. Guess I can understand, since I'm obssesed with Zelda. XD

It's not like Selena Gomez is a bad singer. It's just that Selena Gomez... is like... totally NOT supposed to be in a video/online game. It's not even a cameo, which I think I actually would enjoy.

OOH! OOH! I just thought of something. How about I give you... a PREVIEW OF PART 14? :D I know this doesn't apply to everyone. Still. Then I'm going to go on my OTHER blog and typing up the prologue for my Zelda fan fiction. Once I do, I'll post the link here. I really would like some advice on it. (EDIT: Link is here, don't feel like editing any more than this... XD)
Oh, wait, is Part 13 on the website yet?

*checks*

Ugh... nope. June 2010 Creative Writing... seriously? Four months without updating? >.<

Anyway... a few things you should know before reading this preview:

-This is officially my Zelda chapter. I used the classic formula of boss-fighting and rescuing. ...And I swear, I REALLY tried to think of another name besides Shadow Beast... but I've used it so many times in my document now I really don't want to change it.

-So... there's, like, six Shadow Beasts in all. I think. Idk, can't remember. I kept changing the number. XD The Shadow Beasts are black creatures, and each seems to either have an indefinite form (like shape-shifting) or they are black versions of animals.

-All of the Seekers were trapped in false versions of their places of awakening, created by dark magic. Right now, Sierra's rescuing Hunter and Mark from their imprisonment, in Hunter's place of awakening.

-Oh, and to rescue everyone... Sierra has to defeat the Shadow Beasts, but regular spells don't seem to work on them. She used a Minotaur to defeat the one in the Castle of Rain, but she doesn't even know Minotaur...

Geez, I'm so bad at summarizing. That's why my stories are so long. O_o

Okay, here's the preview. Enjoy. ;)

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 14 Preview

The feline creature growled dangerously. I heard a gasp behind it, and I peered over the Shadow Beast to see Mark staring at me with a grim expression and Hunter looking wide-eyed. Both had their hands and feet tied up. How, I had no idea, especially since cats don’t have hands to bind rope with. I had no time to contemplate this, though. The cat pounced at me.

Screaming like the young girl I was, I jumped to the other side of the room. The cat missed me and smacked into the wall, much to my satisfaction.

This room was small. I could walk across it in just four big steps. Since there were no doors, windows, or much of anything in the room except for us, I was trapped.

I remembered casting a Minotaur last time. That had been effective. Only problem? I didn’t know Minotaur, and still wasn't sure how I'd done it.

I reached for my deck and drew the first card off the top. I examined it carefully. “Thermal Shield.” I scowled at the card, as if it were somehow its fault I couldn’t attack with it.

I promptly discarded it and drew four more cards. Without a dueling circle, I wasn’t restricted like I normally would have been, and there were no “turns.” You attacked when you saw a chance. That simple.

This gave me some more spells to work with. I summoned my mana to try and gain pips more rapidly as I did my best to evade the Shadow Beast.

Finally, I spun around and put all my power into casting Ice Wyvern, adding an IceBlade and Ice Trap into the mix for good measure. The Ice Wyvern towered over the Shadow Beast, and I gazed upon it with pride. My creation. My power. My spell.

I expected the kitty to be obliterated into sand at my Wyvern’s roar… but nothing happened.

The Shadow Beast was equally bewildered. Recovering much faster than me, though, it grinned a predatory smile and leaped.

Once more I found myself on my back, staring at the Shadow Beast’s hideous “face.” Do they eat people? I suddenly wondered. When it bared its pitch black teeth I immediately decided I didn’t want to know.

“Sierra!” Hunter cried weakly, and though I couldn’t look around, I could tell he was struggling with the bonds.

“Treasure Cards!” Mark screamed. “Sierra, use Treasure Cards! It’s how we defeated the other one!”

Too desperate to ask what the “other one” was, I grabbed my measly pile of about fifteen cards that passed for a treasure deck.

I drew one card. Pixie. Annoyed at myself for putting in such a useless Treasure Card – didn’t everyone over level ten know that spell? – I tossed it away.

I drew another. Dryad. Dang it, another healing spell. Well, I never had seen a need for attacked treasures when I had plenty of my own spells. Getting more frustrated and terrified by the second, the card joined its useless friend on the floor.

For a third time, I drew a card. I felt like screaming aloud, but I bit it back. Spirit Trap! Why in the Spiral did I put in a Spirit Trap? I didn’t use my Death spells often enough for that!

Just as I was about to pick another card, the not-too-bright Shadow Beast finally realized what I was up to. With its massive paw, it knocked the rest of the deck out of my hand, scattering the cards. Then it took the glowing Jade Oni sword in its mouth and I watched horrified, helpless as it broke it in half. I felt faint. I spent weeks farming the Jade Oni for that sword! The bluish-purple glow faded from it as the Shadow Beast unceremoniously tossed the halves away from me. I pushed back the tears in my eyes – it’s just a sword, I told myself. But all the effort I’d put into getting it, added to the fact that I no longer had a wand… things were looking bad.

The panther-like beast continued glaring at me. I could feel its rank breath on my neck, hear the small growl in the back of its throat, even see the terrible glint of predatory glee in its eyes.

Was this the end?

***********
...Comments? What did you think? I had a lot of fun writing this chapter (yes, it's done, I just need to type it), so I'm wondering if anyone else enjoys reading it as much as I like to write it. ;)

I'm still here! (Kind of)

2010-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

My. Days. Are. SO. Busy.

And I still haven't sent in Part 13.

Oh, hey, I'm going go do that now. ...Or at least after I finish this blog post.

Anyway. Um. Yeah. So. ...I'm soooooo tired everyday now. The reason I used to be able to post before was because I used to take an online class in the morning, and then after I finished my work and such I'd come here on the blog and type away. But nooooo. Not anymore. I just had to get a NORMAL class in the morning. O.o No online stuffs for me this year. Not to mention Swim Team. Oh, man, it's SO tiring. I'm ready to DIE after one of those practices. And they're every night. EVERY. NIGHT. Except weekends, of course, lol. But, still...

...*sigh* I just don't have time for upbeat randomness anymore...

I hope you can forgive me. How about I promise you... at least once a week? Well, Idk what I'll blog about, 'specially since I don't play Wizard101 much anymore and now I have two other stories rivaling The Tale of Sierra Winterbreeze's writing time - one Zelda fanfic and one story that I totally made up on my own... isn't that called an OC? Except I have NO CLUE what OC stands for. XD I thought it might mean original... something or other... -.-

Well, that's all I got. I had an epic preview of Part 14, but you'll have to suffer just a biiiiiiit more until I remember to send in Part 13. XD Not that you're really suffering. I'm sure all your lives are moving on juuuust fine without me blabbering on about stuff no one even cares about on a blog, lolz.

Oops, almost forgot to post!

2010-08-10T20:28:00.001-07:00

But I didn't. Yay!

Guess who's back from vacation? ME! :D

Celestia didn't come out, did it? XD I noticed they got a new Celstia banner at W101 Central! (Speaking of which, I made myself a new signature! GO SKYWARD SWORD!)

So. Now what should I talk about...

Oh, I keep forgetting to send in Part 13, you know. Someone please remind me? XD

...I should be working on orders from my shop...

Okay, I gtg. Bye bye. :)

Off to Canada (again!)

2010-07-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sigh... You'll have to say bye-bye to my blogging for the rest of July. And the beginning of August. Why? I'M OFF TO CANADA, WOO! To see relatives. ;)

They have a computer... but I doubt I'll be using it much. I hope I'll get some inspiration for Part 14 up there... I'm so dang stuck, and my typing is starting to catch up to my notebook (if that made sense, because it's a looong story if I didn't mention it in other posts XD).

I guess it doesn't matter much anyway. I'm not constantly blogging anymore...

Well...

Bye bye. Can't answer comments today - I'm in such a hurry, and SO stressed. I have too much to do.

Ugh, I hope Celestia doesn't come out while I'm gone... >.<

Oh, hey... I just realized this is my hundreth post! Yipee... yeah... too bad it has such bad news...

Enjoy your summer, everyone! :D

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 13

2010-07-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling generous today. And I think I know just what would make a lot of you happy. How about... The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze, Part 13? :D

I just finished it, and I haven't done ANY editing. I also might change the ending a bit, depending on how Part 14 turns out. This is the third to last chapter in Sierra's story (lolz, the title of my blog XD). I hope you guys enjoy, and please point out any errors and feel free to make any suggestions.

Time for the Past Seekers! (temporary name for a lot of them, btw)

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 13

“YES!” I screamed. “Yes, yes, yes!”

“It’s not that great, you know,” Rowan muttered in an irritated voice.

I could see why. I’d been screaming excitedly like this for the last five minutes.

“You’re just jealous,” I teased.

“I am not!” she indignantly replied.

“Yeah, you are.”

“Stop fighting,” Mom (A.K.A. Angela UnicornRider) sighed for the thirtieth time.

The thing was that I was level 40. The point? First off, I was a Master. You know – one of the highest titles you can get in wizardry! Second, I’d been able to learn the spell I’d been waiting for as long as I could remember: IceBlade. Plus, well, who didn’t like leveling up? Lastly… I was finally ahead of Rowan.

Even since I had arrived in the Spiral (about seven months ago), I’d always been behind Rowan in level. Well, actually, behind most people my age. Thanks to Malistaire, I had started school almost a year late. The only other person I knew who was even close to my age and my level was Sydney JadeHammer. She had been going at a slower pace, too, because she used to not be able to cast spells outside Dragon Mouth Cave. Even she, however, was a bit younger than me.

But now, thanks to a ton of side-quests, I was finally ahead of Rowan, my level 39 sister!

Unfortunately, if you counted the main quests, we were actually about even. Both of us had quests to do in the Tree of Life.

I was thrilled – for once, when I helped my sister, I would be helping myself, too! Rowan and I had agreed we would meet this afternoon outside the Tree of Life area to go in together.

Sydney was coming as well. And, as much as she didn’t want him to, her rather aggravating little brother, Hunter ThunderShield, was also. Her parents had made her bring him. It had something to do with the fact that Hunter was in Marleybone, but desperately wanted to see MooShu, but Sydney wouldn’t take him there until now. I didn’t really know any details.

But that still wasn’t until this afternoon. While I’d been waiting, I had finally become a Master, officially making me higher in level than her.

I had come back home, then. Besides, I was finished with almost every single MooShu side-quest I had. I only had one in Hametsu Village, one in Cave of Solitude, and three from where I had been questing in Marleybone. Plus, it was almost noon.

When I found Rowan at home, I couldn’t help but brag… just a little!

“It’s so unfair,” Rowan complained.

“That okay, Rowan,” I said, grinning. “One day you’ll be as great as me!”

She gave me a warning look and then glanced anxiously at the clock. “Isn’t it time yet?”

“Tired of me already?” I laughed. I noticed her furious glare and I backed down. “Okay, okay. I’m just excited. Sorry.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I wish you were still not here!”

I paused. Even though I knew she was kidding, it still stung a bit. What if I wasn’t here? As in… back on Earth? Would I still be dealing with horrible John and facing his ridicule?

Now there was an awkward silence. “Um, you know I didn’t mean it like that,” Rowan hurriedly apologized. “I was just saying–“

“It’s fine,” I said tightly, and the look on her face let me know that she was very well aware that she had hurt me.

Fortunately, Sydney’s voice surrounded me, distracting me for a moment. “We’re at your front door. Ready to go?” she asked in Whisper Chat.

“Oh, sure,” I replied, the gestured to Rowan. “Come on. They’re here.”

Grabbing my wand and deck, I led Rowan out of the house and into the streets of Wizard City.

Rowan and I still both lived with our parents in their house right beside the Commons River. It wasn’t the quietest house, since the Commons was always flooded with students, but it was cozy, and we liked it much better than our old cramped dorm rooms at the school. Neither of us had gained enough gold for a castle yet (except Rowan, but she had to leave her gold in Malistaire’s lair), so we had to stay here for now.

Like she had said, Sydney was waiting with her brother, Hunter. Hunter’s face was lit up with enthusiasm. Apparently he was eager to get to MooShu. I stared enviously at Sydney’s necklace and wished I still had mine.

The group followed me to the Spiral Chamber inside of Bartleby. Sydney opened up the door and stepped inside. We teleported to her, ending up in the Jade Palace. “Wow,” Hunter whispered, and his expression reminded me of myself when I had first admired MooShu. And how it had led to Vanessa’s awakening, too.

Rowan led the rest of the way, because Hunter was spewing out a hundred questions a second. “Wow! This is amazing! Is this your favorite world? Were you really happy when you got in here? Is it hard? Does it take a long time to get here? How long? Am I close? What level are you? Do I have to be that level, too? Where are we going? A tree? Why are we going to a tree? Is the tree big? Is it pretty?”

Absentmindedly, I answered as many as I could, just to please him. I was thankful when we arrived outside the instance. “Teleport to one of us, Hunter,” Sydney instructed as she stepped onto one of the four glowing spots on the ground. Rowan and I took two of the others.

Now we were on our way to the Tree of Life – and, as I’d heard, Death Oni.

I had no idea what we would encounter there.

----

“Over here!” Rowan called, and I follower her voice to find her engaged in a battle with a Kakeda Spirit Slave.

“You got caught again?” I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling.

“Yeah. My bad,” she said sheepishly.

“Okay, let’s get Sydney and Hunter,” I suggested. “They might as well help us.”

“Yeah, but Hunter will just bring in another enemy,” she grumbled. “He’s not very helpful.”

I silently agreed. Yeah, Hunter was very inexperienced against MooShu enemies. Rowan was constantly having to heal him, so she wasn’t very happy. “We can’t have Sydney without Hunter,” I reminded her. “So he comes too.”

While we waited for them to arrive, I joined the battle – and nearly gasped. “Rowan, were the last monsters like this, too?” Their health was incredibly high. Plus, they just looked… smarter. Like they knew something. Something big. And, within a few turns, I discovered that they knew how to fight, too. They were not your average Ninja Pigs.

“The others were like them. They were the same enemy. Is that what you mean?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I mean, like them… as in… more intelligent. Don’t you see how they–”

“We’re here!” Sydney announced as she teleported to me with Hunter. I gave her an annoyed look. “Oh. Am I interrupting something?” Then she looked at Rowan. “Again? This is the second time.”

“I know,” Rowan said, smiling regretfully. “I could have sworn that I would going around them. I thought they were on the other side of the street.” She shook her head in confusion. “I guess they’re just out to get me!”

I stared at her. That was strange. In fact, I had been thinking the exact same thing when I had seen her get dragged in the first time. She was pretty far from the Kakeda Spirit Slaves, but they seemed to turn at the last second to get her.

“Whoa,” Sydney said, taking a sudden breath. “Since when do Kakeda Spirit Slaves have this much health?”

“Good. I’m not crazy.”

“I never paid any attention to their health,” Rowan said uneasily.

Fortunately (with a well-aimed Phoenix from Sydney), the battle ended, and we emerged victorious. We hurried out of the way into an area that was safe.

But something glinted in the sunlight on the street. For a second, I recalled my awakening – hadn’t I fought some unusually powerful Gobblers, then found my key? However, when I rushed toward the item, despite Sydney telling me to come back before the enemies reappeared, I saw that it was not a key. Instead, it was an oddly colored metal leaf.

I brought the puzzling object back to my friends. They crowded around me, staring at the leaf quizzically. Hunter inquired, “What is it?”

“Trust me, if I knew, I’d tell you,” I said, holding it a bit higher so the others could examine it.

“It’s a leaf,” Rowan whispered quietly. She reached out for it, and I let her take it. After it, it was a leaf: the symbol of the Life school.

She looked down at it in amazement. “I think it’s mine.”

“What?”

“Right here. It says my name.” We stared as she turned the leaf over and we spotted writing that for some reason the rest of us hadn’t noticed.

In fancy text, it read, To Rowan WillowLeaf. The key to open the portal is yours. How you use it is for you to decide.

It was almost like a small note, or letter. But there was no signature.

“Okay. That’s just weird. I really think that this is some kind of trick…” I muttered.

“No, it’s real. I know it is. Let me show you the portal and I’ll prove it!”

“Um, what portal?”

Exasperated, she said, “I’m working on that.”

I looked to Sydney for advice, and she shrugged. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but Sydney didn’t seem worried about it, and I trusted her. “Fine. Show us the portal. Whenever you find it. But at this point, all we can do is keep going. We’re supposed to deafeat Nomoonaga.”

We finished our task. It wasn’t too difficult, with Rowan’s Centaur doing plenty of damage against the Death boss. We hurried back to Yinshin Chen. Using the Dagger of Shadows we received from defeating Nomoonaga, we used it on the withering Tree of Life.

Amazingly, it began to glow. I mean, really glow. It became so bright that we were all forced to shield our eyes. With a whooshing sound like wind rustling through tree branches, the glow subsided and we looked at the Tree of Life once more.

It wasn’t the sorry sight it had been before. Now it was true to its name – bursting with life. It’s trunk was a deep, healthy shade of brown, and all its leaves were a wonderfully dark green. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the branches, filling the air with a fragrant aroma. The four of us stood there, staring in awe. “Um, was that supposed to happen?” Hunter asked at length.

“No! No, it definitely wasn’t!” We spun around to see Yinshin Chen behind us. “We’ve been trying to revive the Tree of Life for months. We thought the only way to do it was defeat Death Oni, but look here! You’ve healed it!”

“Thanks, I think,” I said slowly. “Only I don’t know what we did. What was supposed to happen?”

“The portal leading to Kagemoosha and the Oni should have opened.”

I glanced at Rowan in surprise. “Did you say… portal?”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“I told you!” Rowan exclaimed. She withdrew the leaf and held it up. “Maybe this is what healed the Tree of Life. I bet it will open the portal, too!”

As if it had heard her, the lead starting flowing bright green, the soft color of healing. Then in front of us, just as Rowan had said, a portal formed, glowing with the exact same shade of green as the leaf.

“Well, great,” I said, looking uneasily at the newly formed portal. “Does your leaf give any hints on where it could lead?”

She checked. “Nope.”

“Of course not.” I sighed, and stepped a bit closer to the portal. “Is anyone else coming, or will I have to do this by myself?”

Reluctantly, Sydney and Hunter stepped toward me. Rowan however, went right ahead and stepped into the glowing light without hesitation. I took a sharp, nervous breath, but reassured myself. Ever since Rowan had been kidnapped, I always overreacted when I lost her.

Instead of panicking, I tried my best to remain calm and allowed myself to vanish inside the portal.

Almost instantly, I was transported to another area. It looked like a small glade in a forest or something. It was shaded by trees, and soft grass was beneath my feet. Admiring its natural beauty, I thought about my sister and how much she would love this.

Speaking of Rowan, where was she?

“Rowan?” I called. “Sydney? Hunter! Guys, are you here?”

“Yeah. This way!” Sydney’s voice came from somewhere in the forest.

“Of course, it just had to be through the trees,” I murmured as I advanced toward her.

Just as I was busy fighting off a thorny branch, there was a flicker of movement beside me. I froze. Leaves rustled, but no matter where I turned, there was nothing there.

I slowly proceeded with moving the branch gently out of the way, and stepped in the direction of the rustling – in the opposite way from which I had been going.

No matter how far I went, the sound always seemed slightly ahead of me. Finally, I broke out into an enormous clearing, even larger than the one I had landed in. The noise abruptly stopped, as if I had left it behind in the bushes.

I momentarily forgot about it, though. My friends were all in front of me, looking on with worried expressions.

“I’m glad you found us, Sierra,” Sydney said, rushing over. “We were so scared! The rest of us all ended up here. I wonder why you didn’t.”

“You guys are so lucky,” I complained. “You end up in this beautiful glade, while I find myself going through bushes, thorns all over!” It was then that I remembered how I had gotten here. Realizing that I still couldn’t hear the noise, I asked, “Was that you guys, making all those rustling sounds?”

Sydney stared. “What rustling?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Rowan and Hunter were also giving me strange looks. I chose to drop the subject. Maybe I had been imagining it.

But there was something so… familiar about the noise! It almost sounded like a person. Someone purposefully trying to make sounds.

“Where are we?” I inquired, directing the question mainly to Rowan.

Sydney and Hunter turned to her as well.

“I… I don’t know!” she stuttered. “The leaf disappeared when I went through the portal.”

“Do you know what this means?” I said sternly. “This could all be a trap!”

“I know,” she moaned, dismally shaking her head. “I just wanted so badly to find out what could be here.”

“I don’t think it’s a trap,” Sydney said, “but something’s definitely wrong with this forest. Listen.”

We stopped talking for a while to follow her instructions, but the forest remained silent. “I don’t hear anything,” Hunter said.

“That’s the point,” she explained softly. “Forest’s shouldn’t be quiet. I haven’t been in many, but I know there should be animals scurrying around or at least birds.”

“She’s right,” Rowan said. She walked to a tree and placed her hand on its trunk and closer her eyes. “Most of the trees seem dead, but at the same time… more full of life than ever. It’s like they’re sleeping or something.”

“Really?” Hunter walked beside Rowan. “How do you know that?”

“Um, we don’t have time for lessons, Hunter,” I said. “We really should–“

All of a sudden, a painfully loud sound resonated around us, disrupting the silence. It almost sounded like an incredibly powerful gust of wind had just hit the forest, although I felt no breeze. It was followed by a cry of, “OW!” and a tree branch cracked somewhere in the forest not too far away.

“Was that a wizard?” Hunter asked.

“I don’t know,” I truthfully replied.

We carefully approached the noise. I cleared my throat. “Well, uh, is anyone there?”

There came a muffled grunt. “Depends on who you are.”

Wait. I knew that voice.

“Victoria?” I called out doubtfully.

Finally, the person emerged from the forest, her mouth a wide “o” of surprise. “Did you bring me here?” Victoria inquired.

“Don’t think so.”

“Then where are we?”

“We’re not sure.”

A sound similar to the one before came from the forest at that moment, but instead of someone ending up in there, I was blown of my feet by the force of someone teleporting too close to me.

Mark materialized where I had just been, the same dazed look on his face. He was in a dueling position, as if he had just been about to cast a spell. “Why am I…?” Without finishing his sentence, he looked down and helped me up. Giving an apologetic smile, he said, “I’m sorry. That’s the second time I’ve knocked you over.”

I guessed he was referring to when we encountered each other in Dragonspyre. “No, that was my fault. Now we’re even.”

Instead of grinning like I expected, he shook his head as if shaking his confusion off. “Can you give me a clue as to what just happened?”

He was interrupted by the sound of two more people teleporting: Vanessa, DreamHaven, the Balance Seeker, and her brother –

Liam GriffinBane.

It occurred to me that this could all be his fault. He had brought us here on some errand for Malistaire!

“You did this, didn’t you?” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

“N-no. Where…” He looked just as disconcerted as the rest of us, and for a moment I faltered. But I remembered all he had done to us in the past, and tried to assure myself that he was just acting.

In the meantime, Vanessa cried, “Liam!” She rushed toward him. Liam let himself be hugged, but halfheartedly. He was doing a really, really good job at feigning surprise.

Eventually, he composed himself and said, “I’m not responsible for this. I don’t even know how I got here.”

“Yes you do, liar.”

“Liam isn’t to blame,” Vanessa said protectively.

“I bet you anything that this was all his plan. Stop always defending him!”

“This was so not my idea. I was doing something important!” Liam finally seemed like he was back to his old self.

“Like arranging this?”

“No!”

“Then what?”

“Stop it,” Mark said, coming between us. “If we want to get out of here, we will have to work as a team.”

“There’s absolutely no way you’re going to make me work with him.” I stubbornly spun around and faced the other way, crossing my arms across my chest.

“Haven’t you guys noticed anything strange?” Sydney said, apparently trying to change the subject.

“Besides the fact that everything in this forest seems frozen in time, and almost all of my friends are randomly teleporting here for absolutely no reason? Nope, nothing,” I said drily.

“No. I mean… we’re all Seekers.”

I glanced around, and for the first time, I realized that she was right. In fact, all of the Seekers were here. Sydney, Victoria, Mark, Hunter, Vanessa, and, as much as I hated to admit it, Liam. And me.

And Rowan.

I remembered what Mark had said a while back about Rowan being the Life Seeker. I had been so sure that it was Scarlet, maybe I never saw the answer was right in front of me.

“Right in front of… wait!” I turned around to look at Rowan, my head spinning. She was closer to me than Scarlet. And… the Headmaster had said almost exactly something like, “The answer may be right in front of you…”

“What is it?” Victoria asked.

“Rowan… you’re not… you can’t be…” I couldn’t even make out a sentence.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Rowan said nervously.

“Rowan,” I managed, “I think you’re…”

Then I noticed there was someone behind Rowan.

It was a boy. He was a few years older than me, with black hair and brown eyes. I decided he was from the Death school and from his black and red Dragonspyre armor, probably a Grandmaster.

“Um, hi?” I said uneasily. It was kind of suspicious finding a random Death Grandmaster in a silent forest.

“Hi,” he replied. “Are you Sierra?”

Taken aback, I asked, “How do you know my name?”

“Well… would you believe me if I told you it is a long story?”

“I don’t know. I’ve got time. We’re obviously not going anywhere,” I muttered. Something seemed wrong. This guy wasn’t normal. The question was, was he a friend – or a foe?

“Then I guess I should introduce myself.” He smiled. “My name is Christopher BattleSword, and I’m the leader of the Seekers of Light.”

The whole forest was totally silent. Even more quiet than before, if that’s possible. My friends were all holding their breath to see what I would do. They all knew that I was their leader – not this guy.

“I’m not sure who you think you are…” I began.

“I just told you, didn’t I?”

That made me even more frustrated. “Well, yeah. But you’re not the leader of the Seekers. And I don’t appreciate you coming in here and pretending to be someone you’re not,” I growled.

“Who said I’m pretending?” he said, a slight tinge of annoyance in his tone.

“I did, just now. Because I’m the leader of the Seekers, not you, so…” My voice trailed off as others emerged out of the forest behind him. They all looked the same way – like something wasn’t right about them. But these wizards didn’t really scare me. I knew it was weird, but they wouldn’t hurt me… and I almost felt like I knew them.

“Perhaps I should have been bit more clear,” Christopher said, a taunting grin forming on his face. “I’m the leader of the first Seekers of Light.”

Dumbfounded, I looked at the new arrivals. Were these Seekers of the first generation?

“That’s impossible,” I declared, but even to myself I sounded doubtful. “You… you would be dead.”

“I didn’t know that these Seekers would be so stupid,” one girl remarked. “We are dead.” I turned to glare at her. She had purplish blue eyes, with light brown hair. She wore a golden robe, and her tan boots were lined with bright green.

Christopher, as he apparently was called, cleared his throat. “I think what Taryn is trying to say is…we’re ghosts.”

Now my gaze turned to disbelief. They looked so real!

“This is the only place we can be solid,” he explained. “These are the Woods of the Past.”

“What school are you?” I questioned.

“I’m Death. And Taryn is–”

“I can introduce myself, Chris!” Taryn said. I was surprised to hear a large amount of resentment in her voice. Evidently, she really didn’t like Christopher. I wondered why.

Christopher rolled his eyes, but the girl didn’t see it. She had already turned away and was looking straight at me. “I’m Taryn WildHeart. I’m the first Balance Seeker.” She turned to Liam and Vanessa, who were still side by side, and she smiled warmly at them. “I was so happy when I found out there would be two Balance Seekers!” Then gave Liam a disapproving glance. “If only you hadn’t disgraced our school.”

Liam looked away, appearing uncomfortable.

Another girl in the crowd stepped forward. I was surprised to see that her clothes looked an awful lot like mine – unlike the others I had seen, she was wearing MooShu clothing instead of Dragonspyre armor. Her robes were also colored blue and white, resembling mine. “I’m one of the past Ice Seekers, Meagan BlueGarden.”

“One of them?”

She looked away regretfully.

“Meagan can’t cast any spells,” a girl that also wore blue robes said. “It’s how her life was affected by dark magic. She had a curse placed over her by one of the Deathbringers.”

“The what?”

“Um… long story.”

“You’re her replacement, then?” Vanessa asked.

“Replacement? Oh, no. Don’t think of yourself like that, Vanessa! You’re as much a Seeker as anyone else.”

“Thanks… I think.”

I stared at all of these Seekers, particularly Meagan and the other girl in blue. Were they my ancestors? Hadn’t someone once told me that Seekers were all related, just skipped generations or something?

Then I remembered where we were. “Before any other introductions are made, can someone please tell us why we’re here?”

Christopher looked at another boy in the crowd, and the boy sighed, and stepped forward. I noticed he was wearing green. “I’m Zachary DreamMender. I… guess I’m here to awaken the Life Seeker.”

I stared in shock. “Isn’t it supposed to be a creature of the school to awaken them?”

“You mean a Spiral Guardian.”

“Maybe. What does that mean?”

“They’re the creatures to awaken Seekers,” Christopher said matter-of-factly.

“Right. Um, so, why are you guys here instead?”

“The Spiral Guardians have… problems to attend to. There has been an unusually high level of dark magic in the Spiral lately. Malistaire is gaining followers.”

“We kind of figured that out,” I said, glowering pointedly at Liam.

“Anyway, we were sent here instead. From now on we’ll be your guide.”

Guide… hadn’t I heard that somewhere?

“Oh!” I called out, the memory slowly returning. “The guys that awaken Seekers–”

“Spiral Guardians!” Zachary reminded me.

“Yeah, those. In the Spiral Tower, they said they might send a guide. But they never did.”

“Yes, they did!” Taryn spoke up. “I was there!”

“You were?” I said, confused.

“Well… yeah. And Chris. And Eric.”

I didn’t know who “Eric” was, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen him or the other two. “When did you guide us?”

“When you and Mark tried to enter the building, I opened the door,” Christopher informed.

“I was the one who led you up the ladder,” Taryn added.

“I was the one upstairs by the back door,” another boy said. I decided he must be Eric, and was probably Fire from the red color of his robes. “And in the forest a few minutes ago, I led you back to your friends. Sounds in here can get distorted and sound like they’re coming from directions they’re not, so I thought you might need some help.”

“That was you?” I gasped.

“Yep.”

“But… it was just movement. You only… you can’t be…” I shook my head.

“Um, can we back up a little,” Rowan said, and I jumped. I’d almost forgotten the other Seekers were here. “Can someone tell me – who’s the Life Seeker?”

“You are,” Taryn said.

She was silent for a while, and then said, “You know what? …I already knew.”

“Really?” I said.

She looked at her shoes in embarrassment. “Yeah. It’s why I was captured. Handy went weird, and that’s how I was affected by dark magic. And it’s why that person behind the door called me Seeker.”

I stared at her. She was right. I had even more clues than she did, and all of them fit Rowan perfectly.

“What about Scarlet?” I said weakly. I still had a faint hope that they were wrong. That Rowan wasn’t a Seeker.

“Scarlet who?” Christopher asked.

That alone should have proven that my faith in her had been totally wrong, but I persisted. “Scarlet MoonHeart. She was with us at Vanessa’s awakening.”

“Oh. Her.”

At least he knew who she was.

“She would have been a great Seeker,” Zachary said. “Her parents were captured by Malistaire because of their power. They were great wizards, but they were no match for Malistaire’s dark magic. Scarlet doesn’t know it yet, but they were killed.” He shook his head sadly. “She didn’t have the power to be a Seeker, however. Unlike you, Rowan.”

“But… what do I do?”

“Usually you would have to assist the others on their quest to find the other Seekers, but since you’re the last one…” Christopher began.

“It’s time,” Zachary said with finality.

“Time? Time for what?” Victoria inquired. Then she stopped and a fearful expression came over her face. “Oh, no. You don’t mean–”

“Yep,” Taryn confirmed. “It’s time for you to defeat Malistaire Drake.”

Nobody spoke.

“We can’t do it,” Mark said. I was stunned. Usually he was our always-eager, always-optimistic member. If he didn’t think we were ready… I couldn’t imagine what was going through the others’ minds.

“Yes, you can!” Christopher argued. “The way you escaped from Malistaire’s lair proved that.”

“Well… we weren’t alone,” I admitted. “We had help.” I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at Liam. Even if the trapdoor had been destroyed, he still told us where it was.

“Who helped you?” he challenged.

“Well, the dragons did. You know, Mister Muffin and Lady Rascal,” I said. “And–”

“The point, Sierra, is that you had to rely on your friends. Besides, you won’t be alone in the final battle either, will you?” Taryn reasoned.

I scanned the room, full of my closest friends. There was Sydney JadeHammer, my best friend. I had a feeling she would risk her own life to save mine, or anyone else we knew. Standing next to her was Victoria RavenSmith. From what I had seen, she was sometimes a bit shy, and kind of pessimistic, but she would face anything if she needed. Mark DarkCrafter always knew how to cheer us up, no matter how annoying he became. Hunter ThunderShield… well, he wasn’t exactly your ideal teammate, but when he chose to use treasure cards, he could be unstoppable. Vanessa DreamHaven was very supportive, and I knew she would be an amazing ally. And my sister, Rowan WIllowLeaf… she always cared for everything, and I couldn’t imagine her fighting evil. But I knew she would still help us. All my friends had fantastic qualities.

…But what about me?

I wasn’t really good at anything. Ice wasn’t very powerful, so I couldn’t help with attacking. I had lots of healing treasure cards from my sister, but what use was I when a real healer was right there? My defense was my only benefit, and what good would that do for my friends? Even Liam had been loyal to his family, willing to sacrifice anything for them. But what would I do if it was a choice between me and my friends? I’d love to be all brave and say I would risk my life as long as they lived, but honestly… I wasn’t sure.

I realized that Taryn was still awaiting an answer. I replied slowly, “I guess you’re right.”

“Good.” She beamed. “That’s the first step. Another is realizing that you may have more allies than you know.”

“Yes, yes. Okay,” I said, nodding solemnly without truly understanding.

“Now go to the headmaster. He will know what to do. And I’m sure you will want to tell him what you have done.”

“Yeah, definitely!” I said, thinking about how proud the headmaster would be. I had finally completed my mission! My heart beat faster with excitement.

“Um, before we go…” Sydney began.

All fifteen pairs of eyes turned to her, and she blushed. “I was just, you know… wondering who the Fire Seeker was.”

“That would be me.” As I suspected, it was the boy dressed in red that had been one of my “guides”. “I’m Eric FireSword.”

“While we’re at it, I will introduce all of the past Seekers,” Christopher said. “Meagan BlueGarden and Victoria FireFinder are Ice; Maria StormForge is Storm; Ryan HexTamer is Myth; Zachary DreamMender is Life; Eric FireSword is Fire; and I’m Death.” He pointed to each person as he introduced them, but I doubted I would remember their names.

“What about me?” Taryn huffed.

“You said you didn’t want me introducing you,” Christopher said firmly, but he was smiling.

She glowered at him, but, like before, he ignored her, returning to us. He looked straight at me. “You don’t understand what an honor it is to be a Seeker leader, do you, Sierra?”

“I don’t know. Not really. Why?”

“I didn’t like it much at first, either. But if grows on you after a while. So do your teammates.” He grinned. “Unless you have someone like Taryn. At least she talks to me now. You should have seen it when we first met. She tried to push me off a cliff.”

“I said I was sorry,” Taryn grumbled.

This only made me more confused. For some reason, Taryn really hadn’t liked Christopher.

A girl in Myth school clothing declared, “Can we leave now? We’re done, aren’t we?”

“What’s wrong with us?” I asked indignantly. “Who are you?”

“Ryan HexTamer,” she said. “Weren’t you listening to Chris?”

I stared. “Isn’t Ryan a boy’s name?”

“Ugh!” she moaned, her eyes flashing with anger, but Christopher interrupted, saying, “Yeah, I think it’s time Sierra and her team leave. I’m sure you have a lot to think about. You need to prepare.

I nodded, but when I thought about “preparing,” I shuddered. I highly doubted I would ever prepare enough for what I was about to face.

----

We left the supposed “Woods of the Past” through another portal made by Zachary with a leaf identical to Rowan’s (though, for all we knew, it could just as well had been the same one since Rowan had lost hers). Though they hadn’t mentioned it, I had a feeling we would be seeing Christopher and the past Seekers again very soon.

The portal transported Sydney, Hunter, Rowan and I into the area where the original portal was supposed to take us – MooShu Spirit World, with Kagemoosha awaiting a fight. I guessed the other Seekers had been taken back to wherever they had been before. However, except for Hunter, who was fascinated by the new wonders of the Spirit World, we were all too worn out to fight. Everyone went home, besides me. I had to talk to Headmaster Ambrose.

I teleported to the Commons and walked to the headmaster’s house. With every step my anticipation grew, and I became more and more ecstatic. This was it! I was going to tell Headmaster Ambrose everything, then head to Dragonspyre, and defeat Malistaire, and everything would be okay again. I forgot about the fear and challenges and danger, it only for a moment. I saw my mission as just another simple quest, and I could enjoy it.

It didn’t last long.

I burst into the headmaster’s house screaming, “Professor Ambrose, I did it! I found all the Seekers! I–” I stopped as I realized how empty his office was. It was never like this – there were always some kids in here, even if the headmaster was out. Not today. Everything was eerily quiet.

“Headmaster?” I called again, walking a bit farther into the vacant space. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

I swung open the doors into the next room, where Gamma the owl usually sat. He wasn’t there either. That was strange, too. Headmaster Ambrose would never leave his office unattended, unless…

My heart pounding, I raced back into the cluttered office, hurrying to his desk. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but I started filing through papers and opening drawers, hoping for some clue at the headmaster’s disappearance.

It was then that I heard a sickeningly familiar voice say, “Looking for something?”

I looked up and gasped. “Mary.”

Mary RavenGem was standing there like a living nightmare, her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face. She shook her head. “Did you really think that you would ever win?”

“How did you–”

“–Know you were here?” she finished. “Well, your friend Liam certainly helped.”

Actually, I was going to ask her how she had made it through Ravenwood without anyone sensing her. Some of the Spiral’s most powerful wizards lived here, and one was bound to feel her dark magic. But her answer only infuriated me, and I forgot my inquiry. “Liam told you? How dare he! I… I trusted him! We let him attend such an important Seeker meeting, and… and…”

“He betrays you,” Mary said, examining her wand casually as though she didn’t care about the conversation at all. “Yes, that’s the one. Don’t you have more important things to do anyway, Sierra? Like tell the headmaster about your wonderful accomplishment?”

I just glared at her, stunned into a furious silence.

As usual, she pretended like she couldn’t see my bad mood, and smiled. “You know what? I think I’ll help you out. You do want to save your friends, right?”

“My… friends?”

“What, you didn’t know about them? Oh, what were their names? There was that girl in the Ice school who gave us quite a hard time, talking all the while about her friends Victoria coming for her.”

“Jasmine?” I whispered, a lump forming in my throat.

She snapped her fingers. “Right! And there was a Pyromancer and Theurgist as well.”

“Seth? Scarlet?” They were my closest friends, besides all the Seekers. If Malistaire had taken them…

Mary beamed again, but this time it was more taunting and menacing, like she was challenging me. “Aren’t you smart,” she said with mock amazement. “You’re phenomenal.”

“Where are they?” I demanded, taking a threatening step forward.

Mary didn’t even flinch. “I’m sure that when you see it, you will recognize it.”

“What? Just… just tell me where they are.”

She shrugged, and then pointed her wand at me. “You’ll have to find out.”

Flicking her wand, she smiled and waved.

Before I could stop it, I was teleporting.

I was SO CLOSE...

2010-07-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

First off: Thanks for the comments, guys! I got FOUR on my last post! Considering the fact that I don't visit this blog very often anymore, that's almost a new record! XD

Second: I STILL hate my DSi's internet. And yet I'm STILL using it, even as I write this post.

Third: This likely will be cut short due to the character limit on my DSi, like the last post (lol, I didn't even have room to explain that story about Rowan. If you didn't get it, she had to leave matches because of glitches, therefore bringing her rank down. But she's won every match that she's been able to enter.)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! The REAL point of this post!!!

It's mostly... about Seth GoldenBlood. Who is he? An absolutely AMAZING friend irl and on W101. Guess what? He is who introduced me to the game in the first place! *gasp* And he likes Zelda! *double gasp* And he's in TToSW! *triple gasp... even though most people knew that, already*

However, this is about what I did at his HOUSE... when I went over there a few days ago.

Idk if I've mentioned this before, but I can't download the test realm. My family is worried it will damage our computer. But... Seth can.

So, since I was the only one he knew irl that had completed DS, HE LET ME USE THE TEST REALM TO GET TO CELESTIA!

It was awesome! Plus, with the free Crowns you receive, I bought three things: One, the Ice house. Two, the GH house (which I never even ended up looking at xD). Three... WINGS!

They were so pretty. They even matched my outfit! If only I could return my broom. I'd trade them for wings any day!

Sigh...

Oh, um, back to Celestia. Here's where the title comes in.

I DIDN'T MAKE IT! *sob*

I was almost there! ...Maybe! I was fighting Shadow Weavers and various bosses. I found this funny bug with my Frost Giant, too. It gave them four stun shields, and didn't even stun them. O_o

I had to leave before I could make it. :(

...I'll never forget my beautiful wings... XD

Oh, what the heck. I'll just post...

2010-06-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Not that I have anything to say, lolz. But this poor blog needed updating.

I guess I DO have stuff to talk about... I have been on W101 lately... :) However, anything I post currently will lack screenshots. Gosh, this DSi is SO annoying...First off - Rowan is AMAZING at Pet Derby! She's won over twenty times - and never lost. She's a Veteran!

But that's the PROBLEM, you see. Row Row should be MORE.

She met a girl with, what, 17 first places? Oh, and five second places, three third, one last - or SOMETHING like that. Really, she showed me only briefly, and I'm still getting used to this pet stuffs...

Anyway, the girl was a Veteran. Even though Rowan had way more wins AND no losses, she was the same rank.

Why is that?

Glad you asked, because this whole pet ranking story has been leading up to what I REALLY want to discuss.

Bugs.

And boy, are there SO many of them, now! I'd love to show you screenshots of some of the funniest - and most annoying - bugs and glitches we've encountered... within the past month alone.

I really don't like the new update. It has caused endless frustration for my whole family. Suddenly, our computers are slower. Coincidence, perhaps? Then how do you explain the SERIOUSLY weird glitch that happened to my sister TWICE,causing her to be "stuck outside of the inside of a building," with black, glitchy parts covering the screen?

Now, I know glitches. I've done some good glitches in my Zelda games before (like making a postman disappear - lol, totally my favorite!). In fact, the glitch Rowan encountered really reminded me of one in Twilight Princess. The same black pieces were in the way, because the character had glitched up. And if you touched ANY buttons at all... your game would freeze, and you would need to restart (I found out the hard way xD).

Now, my character limit is running low, so let me sum this up: I really dislike what Wizard101 has become. It use to be a game I'd play, but now... it's a burden.

FORTY.... FOLLOWERS...gasp

2010-05-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!

How did I get forty followers? Man! And to think that when this blog first started, I had no one, absolutely NO ONE. It doesn't even feel like that long ago. THIS IS SO AWESOME! THANK YOU, GUYS!

(Btw... Michael WinterStone? If you read this, I have to tell you that I really, really, um... enjoyed... your comments. You're a little over-the-top, though, hehe. :D Anyway, I don't think I can fit you in - but I will try. I have too many Thaumaturges that want to be in; too many Thaumaturges and Necromancers. If you were a Theurgist in Life school, I could use you, but...) (Another thing: why am I not putting that into a comment? Uh, Idk. No one ever looks at the comments again, anyway. O.o)

OMG!

2010-05-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

I... WON... A NEWBURRY AWARD! O:

...ON WIZARD101CENTRAL! O.o

But it's still AWESOME. In fact... I won TWO categories! I can't believe it! Drama and adventure. I shared them both with someone else, but it's still epic. :D

Sadly... I am not the second most viewed story anymore. x sob x Children of Poseidon is, now. They have me beat by about 100 views. Oh well, I'll just go back to being third viewed, like I was when TwilightCrystalz was on Central.

Here's the Newburry Award thread. :)

YAAAAAAY!

2010-05-08T21:35:00.001-07:00

FINALLY! After nine weeks, PART 12 IS UP!

View it here! Now!

...Unless, of course, you read it on here...

Oh my gosh... they even did the italics! Yay!

Oh, and another thing. I have 39 followers! Yipee! One more and I have FORTY! :D

And... that's pretty much it. Hmm. That was a short series of one to four sentence paragraphs. I must be really excited to not be writing much... or maybe I'm just lazy. XD

This is SERIOUSLY starting to bug me.

2010-05-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

WHERE THE HECK IS PART 12? Really! After so long, you would think they would put it up! They don't even respond to my e-mails. Geez! Ugh.

Anyway...

I've seen other bloggers doing, "Blogger of the Week" and stuffs like that. In that case, you guys should check out The Divination Diaries. They're written by a fellow Creative Writing author, and I'm her only follower! You guys should give her some comments. :)

So. I'm a bit confused at what to do right now. Should I start writing Part 13? I haven't yet; I've been waiting for Part 12, first. I guess I'll just get on it. Maybe if I give them enough chapters, they'll finally start putting some up. XD

The down-side of blogging.

2010-04-20T09:33:00.001-07:00

When you have nothing to say... what do you blog about? I've been visiting this blog a lot, but I don't have any ideas for posts. I really don't play Wizard101 anymore - but there's NO way I'm saying I'm quitting, because I'm not. And I'm not QUITTING blogging, either. Just taking a break. I hope that's okay.

As soon as I start playing Wizard101 more often (which probably won't happen until I complete all Zelda games or finally get bored of them xD), I'll make another post. And then hopefully I can make this blog active again.

Part 12 STILL isn't up, and it's been six weeks. I just sent them ANOTHER e-mail reminding them to put it up. And I have writer's block on part 14, and part 13 turned out to be terrible, so I'll need to rewrite it.

My other blog is still VERY active... and if you like video games at all, or hearing crazy stories that I write about, please look at it. I try to make the posts as sensible as possible to non-Zelda fans, and I'd REALLY appreciate it if I got some comments.

Thank you for understanding, guys. And thanks for following/commenting, too! :)

The Tale of a Pyromancer AWESOMENESS!!!

2010-04-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

First of all: why don't I post often? Because I have NOTHING to talk about! Part 12 STILL isn't up (is it?) and I don't play W101 all the time anymore.

Now that that's out of the way...

I have something amazing to share with you! Actually, a better word is "hilarious". I have a super-exclusive part of my best friend's story (A.K.A. The Tale of a Pyromancer by Sydney JadeHammer)! I posted about it a while back. Anyway, I just LOVE this part. This is all her writing - I'm just typing it. ;)

Right now Sydney and her friend Taryn WildHeart are captured in Malistaire's lair with Sierra WinterBreeze (yours truly) and Rowan WillowLeaf. And NO ONE offends Rowan while Sierra's around. :P

***
"I'm Sydney JadeHammer," I said.

"And I'm Sierra WinterBreeze," said the older girl.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed the younger girl who was jumping up and down. "I'm Rowan WillowLeaf! Hi! Hi! H-"

She didn't get to finish.

"SILENCE!" shouted Malistaire in his deep, threatening voice. "You're giving me a headache."

"I'M giving YOU a headache?" Rowan said. "YOU'RE the one TALKING LOUD!"

"Oh, shut up," said Malistaire.

Rowan started to cry, and Sierra tried to comfort her. Then she gave Malistaire a look that said, "You are going to die."

"Don't you DARE talk to my sister that way!" screamed Sierra. "How would you like me to talk to you like that, Malistaire Male Duck? Yeah, that's right! I know the definition of Drake!"

***

XD

I LOVE the ending. "Malistaire Male Duck" is kind of an inside joke with us. It was when I was typing TTOSW one day and I was bored, then realized that "drake" was actually in the computer's dictionary. So I look it up... and it's a male duck, rofl!

I just thought that's hilarious, and I wanted to share it. If you liked it, I might be able to post her prologue or first chapter!

...Wow. I can't believe I just wrote all that on a DSi...

My Wishlist!

2010-04-06T09:26:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know I haven't posted in a while... the good news is that while I was gone, I wasn't playing Zelda games (okay, maybe a LITTLE)! I was on Wizard101 (most of the time)! Annd... there are a few things I REALLY want right now.

First off, I want THAT ICE SHIELD. I posted something about it earlier, right? In fact, here's the picture. (Click on it)

It's the housing item one (I've had the spell since level 10, lolz). I have shields AND plaques from EVERY school but my own! Has ANYONE ever seen an Ice shield in the Bazaar... or know where else I can get one? Ugh!

Secondly, well... this isn't an ITEM, but I'd really like Laura to get to Marleybone. I don't know why, but lately I've been having lots of fun fighting previous bosses there. I'd love to have some quests in that area again... and besides, I kind of want to be Adept. I'm still Initiate... I'm level 14. I should play on her more. But Laura's name isn't famous like "Sierra WinterBreeze", rofl. And I don't have very many friends on Laura. :(

Third? Um... Idk. There's not really anything else I need. But I REALLY want that Ice shield, lol. It's driving me CRAZY that I can't find it!

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 12

2010-03-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yay! I now have thirty Followers! 32, to be exacty! Last time I checked I had 29.... hmm, I guess I don't check enough. XD

Oh, by the way, I'm sick today. O.o Was yesterday, too. Sore throat, headache, that sort of thing...

Now... well, I should be posting up Part 12, huh? Um... okay. The original title for this post was all about the Follower thingy, but... if I'm sick, I have lots of time, right? Meaning I can post it up here on my blog, AND play my favorite Zelda game! Wait... I don't have a favorite. They're all so GOOD... -.-

Okay, here we go. But, remember: I warned you before about how sloppy this would be, right? To emphasize things, I use italics, but because when I copy and paste to here, this thing doesn't DO italics, I would have to do it myself. So... I'm too lazy to go through and fix all the italics things. Another thing: the paragraphs are going to be ALL messed up. It looks so awesomely neat on my word document, but on here, because there isn't automatic double spacing (darn it!), it will look like a big blob. This thing is 68 pages - I'm SO not going to go and put spaces between EVERY paragraph. Usually I would be doing it anyway for the Creative Writing people in my e-mail (they tend to mess it up when I let them do it by themselves) but I was feeling REALLY lazy... and this IS my longest part...

Okay, I think that's everything! So here we go (this is going to take up more than half my blog O.o)!

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze (Part 12)

No one could move. Vanessa, Sydney, and I were frozen. I don’t know if we even breathed. Even the Otomo Quartermaster was rather stunned and I doubted it had ever seen anything like this before.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, could compare to what I felt at that moment. My unfathomable anguish made me feel like I was falling through a hole, one that with every passing second I plunged deeper and deeper into it, until I was to inevitably crash to the ground…
Was this what Vanessa felt when her parents died? With my sister gone to who knows where because she was kidnapped by a mysterious hand along with her cute pet dragon Mister Muffin, Rowan was as good as dead.
Sydney’s Fire Cat, Sir Romeo, was the first one to move. He let out a heartbreaking meow and curled up into a mournful position on the ground with his adorable face on his striped paws. Sydney’s first instinct was to comfort him, so she impulsively reached down and grabbed him, clutching him close to her chest.
Then Vanessa moved, glancing around her, as if she had just awoken from a deep sleep. With a swiftness that annoyed me by the way it seemed as if she had just forgotten everything that had happened, she proceeded to draw the Balance symbol and cast the Elemental Blade on Sydney as she had been intending to before the incident.
Sydney was too busy petting and soothing Sir Romeo that she missed her turn anyway and didn’t use the Sunbird spell she’d been meaning to before.
After that it was my turn. As I expected, my failed attempts had counted as fleeing the battle, and my mana was gone. Now the duel, which a moment ago had seemed to be the most important thing to me so I could complete my quest, was trivial, silly, and pointless.
My poor sister. Where could she be now? All I could do was pray that she would survive long enough that I could figure out where she was. Poor, poor Rowan. I’d only known her for a few months, and yet I would go to the ends of the Earth (or the Spiral, in this case) to rescue her.
Oh, Rowan, where are you?

Rowan WillowLeaf
“She’s unconscious. I think she hit her head.”
I didn’t like the sound of that oddly familiar voice.
“She’ll come around eventually. We’ll get what we need soon enough.”
My eyes were useless. There was nothing around me. I couldn’t remember anything at the moment. Not even my own name.
I reached out my hands, trying to locate something to grasp – but there was nothing to touch. I wanted to cry, to scream, to panic and run around crazily, to do something that was normal for people when they were terrified, but I couldn’t. All I could do was lie there fearfully, waiting for something to happen.
When I thought really hard, I recalled vague bits of information. Wasn’t there a hand somewhere? And a dragon, a Life school symbol, some kind of disaster –
One solitary figure stood out in my memory. It was a girl dressed in blue and white, looking up at me, the desperation and exasperation quite clear on her face…
“SIERRA!” I screamed. Apparently I had my voice back.
Memories came flooding back in a dizzying second. The voice I had heard before stopped abruptly, then continued in whispers, but I hardly even noticed. I was too happy that I could remember.
My name is Rowan WillowLeaf. I’m a level 38 Magus Theurgist, with Pyromancy as my second. I had just been dragged off by some giant dragon-like hand with my pet, Mister Muffin.
Even to me it sounded like a ridiculous story. Who would ever believe that? For a second, I wondered if it was just a dream. I would even be entirely convinced of that if it weren’t for the fact that I had absolutely no idea where I was.
I sort of recalled the hand releasing me, but there was nothing after that except falling and hitting my head on something hard. I must have been knocked out.
So… now what? At this point I couldn’t even measure how long it had been since I’d woke up. I twisted my head to look around and groaned. Man, did I have a headache!
I just now figured out that I was lying on the ground. Actually, it wasn’t exactly “ground”. It was cold, hard, and uncomfortable. Tile, I guessed.
Shivering, I heaved myself up, sending another shot of pain into my head.
Still dazed from my pain, I couldn’t move. So I only listened.
“…so she can’t leave,” finished someone.
“But they will come for her, surely,” another person whispered.
“They don’t even know how important she is yet. They won’t send everyone.”
“How inconvenient that she had to be the leader’s sister,” the second person sighed. “If they hadn’t even met her yet, then perhaps we could get away with this.”
“The whole point of capturing her was to lure the others here!” the first one snapped.
“Yes, but… we could have made it impossible for them to get a Life Seeker if we killed her.”
That name… Seekers. I had heard Sierra mention them before. And Sydney. And once I had listened to a conversation Sierra had with Victoria, Sydney, and Vanessa right after they’d come back from being missing. I hated that my sister was keeping some kind of secret from me, but I’d never thought of it as a big deal. Besides, I had my secrets, too (like that I’d been the one who broke her wand that one day, not the Skeletal Pirate she’d thought…). Now I was curious. Maybe it was some kind of code for them. Or a game. A big, freaky game where giant hands kidnap people and weird voices talk about strange things when they think you aren’t listening.
I didn’t like this game.

Sierra WinterBreeze
“Sierra, this idea is just as good as if I said we should go to Dragon Mouth Cave and make the dragon statue come alive,” Sydney chastised.
“Or if you tried to go into the Balance school and make a rock cover the entrance and make the ladder disintegrate to find a Hydra there,” Vanessa added.
“Hey, it’s better than jumping into the Death school hole,” I muttered. Despite their complaints, I continued digging through the drawer.
“It’s not going to work,” Sydney said.
“What else are we supposed to do?” I shot back. “Sit around and hope the answer will come to us?” Finally I overturned a purple T-shirt (though I think it was actually the one I wore when I first came here from Earth, I was too focused to pay attention to that minor detail) and found what I was looking for.
I picked up the metallic object and held it in my hand, admiring its beauty. I traced my fingers over the intricate designs carved into it and remembered my first days here in Wizard City. I wondered why I hadn’t taken this out more often. I probably had been so upset about the whole Seeker thing that I threw this in the drawer because I just wanted to forget it all. It was true – this object had “Seeker” written all over it. But now that I was pasting hating my new destiny, I could enjoy the beauty more.
Carefully caressing the Key of Frost in my hands, I turned back to my friends.
“Look, it won’t be that bad,” I promised. “All we have to do it go to Colossus Boulevard, try the key on Gobblestone Castle, and ask the Frost Giant where Rowan is. We can also confirm that Scarlet is the Life Seeker while we’re at it.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” Sydney defiantly retorted.
“Then we come back and try something else,” I responded. I flashed a broad grin. “Or we could always jump into where the Death school was…”
Just as I was about to teleport to the Commons, someone else appeared in front of me in a gust of wind and a shower of sparks.
Scarlet MoonHeart stood in front of me. “You look like you’re going somewhere,” she commented.
“You think?” I didn’t have the patience for her attitude today.
“We’re going to Colossus Boulevard,” Vanessa informed.
“Oh, hey, Vanessa. Hey… girl,” Scarlet greeted, nodding once to Sydney.
“I have a name, you know,” Sydney grumbled.
“We’re in a hurry, Scarlet. My sister has gone missing,” I impatiently explained. “We have a plan to get her back that we think will work.”
“You mean, you think will work,” Sydney said. “I had no say in this!”
“You don’t have to come. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t. Your attitude is really starting to bug me.”
Sydney bit her lip, looking torn. “Well… I suppose I am a bit curious to see what will happen,” she admitted.
“Then let’s go.”
“Wait,” Scarlet said. “Can I come? I feel bad for you sister.”
“What? No!” I replied, astounded that she would even want to.
“Why not?”
“Because… because…” I couldn’t think of any reason, besides the truth. And of course I couldn’t tell her, “Sorry, I don’t want you to find out anymore about the Seekers.”
Then I remembered who I was talking to. This may be the Life Seeker of Light! “Okay, fine… you can come.”
Soon after, the four of us stood gaping at the enormity of Gobblestone Castle. I remembered when I had finally completed this place and become Master Diplomat. I had worn that badge everywhere until I received Mastermind in Marleybone.
I also recalled just as clearly the day that I had discovered I was a Seeker. It felt like centuries ago. Yet here I was, once more facing the castle that had magically transformed into the Tower of Lost Memories.
“So, this is where you were awakened, Sierra?” Vanessa asked.
“Yeah.” I was still caught up in my personal daydream. The floating images of my life as a baby, the Frost Giant, the Key of Frost –
“It doesn’t look like much,” Sydney huffed.
So much for pleasant memories.
She shivered. “Is it warmer inside?”
“I’m an Ice wizard, Sydney. How would I know? Go ahead and cast a Sunbird or something to warm you up.”
“I’m cold too,” Scarlet whined. “Can we just hurry up?”
“You were the one who wanted to come!”
“Oh. Yeah.” Scarlet looked incredibly grumpy.
I took one last look at the tower castle and sighed, “Okay. Let’s get this over with.

Rowan WillowLeaf
I jumped back from the door when the footsteps approached. They had cut off in mid-conversation and started coming this way.
“Rowan?” someone said. “Are you awake?”
Don’t I know that voice from somewhere…? I thought to myself.
“Where am I?” I inquired.
“Look, Rowan, we don’t want to hurt you.” Oh sure, so all the killing stuff that you were talking about before was pretend. Got it. “But will you please keep quiet? Don’t disturb us. Soon your sister will be here, and it will all be over.”
I contemplated that. “But where’s Mister Muffin?”
“Your dragon? He’s fine. Don’t worry.”
“That isn’t answering my question. And for the record, you never answered the first one, either.”
The other side of the door was silent for so long that I worried they’d walked away. Eventually, an icy voice that was different from the first replied, “If you stay quiet, your dragon will be fine. But if that proves to be difficult, well, we may have to put your dragon to sleep. Forever. Is that clear?”
I gulped. Whoever this was apparently wasn’t fooling around. Poor Muffy, I thought, thinking about the nickname I’d given him.
“I asked you a question, you useless Seeker!” the voice snapped. I could tell that it was a female voice. I wondered how she made it sound so terrifying.
“I understand,” I whimpered quietly.
“Good.” Footsteps faded away again.
I just cowered in the corner for a while, desperately wishing I was home.
I heard a slight shuffling noise from somewhere across the room, startling me, pulling me out of my thought of my warm new house and my wonderful family.
“W-who’s there?” I stuttered.
There it was again. There was definitely something over there.
“Um, uh, well, I don’t think you’ve come to the right place, whoever you are. I mean, I can’t get out of here, so –”
The shuffling stopped and there was a squeak of joy.
I gasped. “I’d know that squeak anywhere! Muffy, where’ve you been?”
I heard the swooping of dragon wings as my white and green dragon fluttered over to me jubilantly.
“How did you get here?” I grinned, giving Mister Muffin a pat on the head.
Mister Muffin lifted off the ground, flapping his wings. He flew up to the ceiling. He circled around that one spot over and over, letting out little dragon calls as he did.
I squinted in the dim light. When I looked very, very closely, I could tell that this area was a shade darker.
“What is that?” I whispered, moving directly underneath Mister Muffin.
He turned around and with a couple of grunts pushed up on the spot.
“I don’t think that…” I began, but then with a grinding sound Mister Muffin pushed the ceiling piece aside.
“Woah!” I exclaimed. I was now looking at a square entrance in the ceiling.”It’s a secret tunnel! Awesome! But, um, how am I supposed to get up there? If you haven’t noticed, Muffy, I can’t fly, and I seem to be missing my wand…”
Mister Muffin floated down to me. I glanced at his wings. “Hmm… Hey, Mister Muffin, I think I have an idea…”

Sierra
“Why… won’t… this… darn… key… work!” I grunted, pushing on the door to Gobblestone Castle with all my might, attempting to make the Key of Frost fit.
“Sierra, if it didn’t work the last twenty times it’s probably never going to,” Sydney told me, rolling her eyes.
“But… it worked when I was awakened!” I protested.
“I don’t get this. What are you trying to do?” Scarlet inquired.
“You be quiet,” I snapped at her.
“Seriously, Sierra, let’s go,” Vanessa said.
“No, please, no. I know I can make it work.”
“Perhaps it wasn’t the key. Maybe you did something when turning the key. Like with Victoria’s awakening, when she pressed the button. Did you do anything like that? Think carefully,” Vanessa said.
Sometimes I was stunned at how much she knew about the Seekers. I knew she’d been asking Sydney and I questions often, but still, her knowledge seemed limitless. “Uh, no. All I did was turn the key into the lock.”
“Who was with you?”
“No one.”
“Okay, you didn’t do anything before this? Are you sure?”
I pondered that. “I guess I tried the key on every building in Colossus Boulevard.”
“Then we should do that!”
“Are you kidding? It took me two days straight to finally get to Gobblestone Castle!”
Scarlet asked, “Why do you need a key? This door is unlocked.”
I didn’t really notice until later how she was talking as if she didn’t even know we had a key. “You don’t understand,” I said. “It needs to change. It’s supposed to –”
“Wait. Are you telling me you want this thing to somehow transform into something different?”
“Uh… yes.”
“That’s it. I’m out. You’re all crazy! Good luck finding your sister.”
“Scarlet, wait –”
She teleported away.
“That’s fantastic. You scared her off!” Sydney accused.
“Oh come on, Sydney. Don’t start a fight,” Vanessa scolded.
“I’m tired of you Sydney!” I shouted, ignoring Vanessa. “Today you’ve been in such a stubborn, dismal mood and I’m sick of it.”
“Perhaps I’m sad because you haven’t even considered going to Dragon Mouth Cave,” Sydney complained.
“Perhaps I’m upset because you haven’t been cooperative,” I shot back.
“What do you want me to do? ‘Oh, hey, Sierra. Why don’t I try to unlock the door for you?’ Is that what you want?”
“No, but I could do without the side-comments,” I grumbled.
“Fine! Then what do you want me to do?”
“How about you just go away! I’m leaving. I’ll get Rowan back myself!”
Without even one thought about what I was doing, I yanked open the door to Gobblestone Castle and didn’t look back as I stepped inside and unceremoniously slammed the door behind me.
I had now activated the instanced level. They couldn’t come in unless they teleported to me.
I peered around the room somewhat hopefully. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the Tower of Lost Memories. It was the same old, boring, ordinary Gobblestone Castle.
The Gobbler Prince was sitting in the center of the room, munching on a huge drumstick. Deciding that I might as well blow off some steam, I jogged over to him and made the dueling circle appear around us. Knowing I could easily defeat him, I passed every turn until I gained enough pips to cast a Blizzard. I defeated the minion, and finished off the prince with a wand spell from the O’Leary Jinxed Staff.
After he disappeared, I gazed around the room. As usual, it was full of crates of jellybeans and chickens and other random items. The tile was a boring checkered black and white and I could hear the Gobbler King’s incessant munching outside.
But something seemed wrong to me. I scanned the castle again. Everything was there. But – wait! There was a flicker of movement by the throne. When I turned to face that way, there was nothing.
Captured again in the clutches of curiosity, I cautiously tip-toed over to the throne. I saw nothing. I stepped back and instead walked behind the throne and to my surprise found a door.
A door in the back of the throne? I didn’t understand. It was a beautiful door, though, detailed and intricate in every way. There were so complicated patterns I couldn’t even begin to describe them. Intrigued, I twisted the door handle, but the door didn’t budge.
It suddenly occurred to me that the Key of Frost was still clutched in my hand. Shakily, I raised it up and put it in the lock.
It fit perfectly.
I turned it and hesitantly opened the door. Taking a deep breath, I stepped in.

Rowan
Again I found myself hitting the ground hard. “Oww… Muffy, you’ve got to try harder!”
My dragon flew down to me and nudged me in apology. Evidently, my brilliant idea wasn’t working.
“It only I had my wand,” I muttered. “I could make a tree or something grow so that I could just climb up it and out of here.”
Mister Muffin emitted a sad whine. I rubbed his scaly back absentmindedly. “Yeah, I know. You’re in pain from trying to carry me. Don’t worry, I won’t make you do it again.”
With a relieved sigh, Mister Muffin plopped down on the ground and allowed me to pet him.
I perceived voices outside the door, but I ignored them, as usual. They had been discussing things I didn’t understand for the last hour or so. Instead I gazed up at the little hole in the ceiling. To have freedom just a few feet away, but unable to reach it… it was torture!
Perhaps if I could see what was around me. If only I had light…
Light! When Mister Muffin had tried to carry me, I’d been too heavy. So if I made myself lighter…
I glanced up at the pouch hanging at my hip that had been filled with my cards, deck, wand, and spellbook. No use having that on if it was empty. I flung it aside. And the extra hat I had. Actually, why did I even need a hat at all? I added those to my accumulating pile. I took out my report for Pyromancy (Darn! I’d forgotten to turn it in!) and let it float to the ground. I looked at pile wistfully. It wasn’t much, and I didn’t think it would make a difference.
I dug through my pockets and felt around. Then my fingers touched something hard… and heavy.
I heaved it out and saw that it was my bag that held all my gold. Over 36,000 coins. I weighed it in my hand. It was really pushing me down… but I couldn’t just leave all my savings here!
Or could I? I realized that unfortunately, although I’d worked tirelessly for this money, it didn’t matter as much as my life.
I sadly set it on the floor. I glanced over my shoulder at my dragon, who was still lying on the ground, looking up with curious eyes.
“Okay, Mister Muffin,” I announced. “Let’s try this again.”

Sierra
The first thing I thought when I came through the door was, “Haven’t I seen this before?” And I had. In the Pyramid of the Moon, with that weird scene under the bell. This looked just like it, only the door remained this time, not a bell.
Bewildered, I frantically looked around me. I almost considered going back for a moment.
At length it ended, and I was in the most magnificent place.
Imagine the most beautiful tower you can think of, with gorgeous colors, glowing walls, and limitless heights – and multiply that by about a million. You’ve got this place.
Mostly, it was just a tower… but it was so tall, I couldn’t see the ceiling. It was so grand and large that you could have made five moderately sized rooms if you wanted. Plus, with all the space above my head, the possibilities were endless.
But besides that, it was still majestic; the walls were illuminated, it seemed, from the inside. It shimmered like ice, but glowed invitingly like a fire, then continuously changed patterns like lightning. It was also different colors – I’d look at it one time and it would be a midnight black, then would transform right before my eyes to a sandy tan color. I could go on for hours just describing the walls, but the best parts were still to come.
All the symbols of the schools were hanging above my head. The floor beneath me was some kind of polished material that was just a plain white, but still radiant.
Items looked like they were falling from the sky, and yet I never saw them touch the floor and none landed on me. I snatched one out of the air. A tingling sensation went through my body as if I’d just touched a lightning bolt, but I felt it crumple under my fingers like a leaf. But as I held it close, I felt it transform into a softer material. I looked down and I caught my breath when I found sand, which sifted through my fingers. Fascinated, I grabbed another one, but it was so hot I cried out. I opened up my fingers to glare at the item, but only found an ice cube. As I stared in surprise at it, it melted into water and dripped off my fingers, but never touched the ground – only disappeared.
When I looked at the objects in the air, they looked only like multicolored specks. The oddest thing was that when I tried, I could see right through them; they weren’t exactly invisible, because some remote part of my mind knew they were still there, but otherwise they could have vanished.
On one side of the room, there were seven doors. Each of them reminded me of a world – one was a plain wooden door that had to represent Wizard City, and there was a red door that looked like it was from Marleybone. I also saw one from MooShu, Krokotopia, and Grizzleheim – and two other doors I didn’t know where they could lead to.
With all these things around, the scene may sound hectic. Strangely, I didn’t feel disoriented or out of place. Actually, I felt like I belonged. It was a sense of peace and danger that had me frozen with delightful surprise. I was tranquil and thrilled at the same time.
The scene was so breathtaking I could only stand there in awe. I gaped at the room, not even noticing there were other beings with me. That is, until one spoke up.
“Seeker WinterBreeze?” said a voice to my left.
I was already so stunned that this almost seemed surreal. There was no way that voice could be who I thought it was.
I turned to look at the speaker, and it was.
It was the Frost Giant’s voice – I’d never forget it! The Frost Giant that had awakened me stood there, seeming especially small and insignificant in the grandeur of the tower.
“Wh… wh…” was all I could stammer. I couldn’t even make out the simple sentence, “Where am I?”
“This is the Spiral Tower,” the Frost Giant explained. “This is headquarters for the Seekers.”
I was still too dumbfounded to speak, but I was beginning to wake up from my dream-like state. I nodded.
I again gazed around me, more closely this time. I noticed all the creatures that had awakened the Seekers. There was Sydney’s Fire Dragon, the kind creature that had given us our necklaces; the Scarecrow from the Crevice of Time, on the night of the tower party; Hunter’s Cyclops, whom I remembered as the one who unpleasantly dragged Hunter, Seth and I into the tiny chest; the Hydra that had awakened Liam, which only brought up bad memories; Vanessa’s Desert Colossus, who appeared sheepish and even scared; and actually about six other friendly creatures who I didn’t recognize from any awakening. For a moment I looked for the Storm one, and then remembered – Malistaire had killed Victoria’s Triton when it had been about to give her memory back.
I finally got a hold of myself enough to talk: “Why am I here?”
The Frost Giant looked at me sadly. “I think that the Desert Colossus would be better suited at telling you that than I.”
I glanced at the Desert Colossus, curious, but fearful from the expression I had seen on its face earlier. Was something wrong?
“You must already know that your sister has been kidnapped,” it began.
I felt tears come to my eyes as I nodded.
“Well, it is important that you get her back, so we need to help you.” I’d never really noticed many human traits about the ones that awakened us, but this time I could distinctly tell that the Colossus was nervous. He seemed to be hiding something from me, and I didn’t like it.
“Um okay,” I said. “How?”
“We know where she is.”
My heart leaped in my chest. “Really? Tell me! Where? Where! I’ve got to know!”
“Malistaire took her away,” my Frost Giant said.
I felt myself deflate from my momentary excitement. “How can I possibly get her back if Malstaire has her?” I cried, dejected. “I don’t even know where he is.”
“Malistaire is in Dragonspyre,” informed the Fire Dragon in the same, kind, gentle female voice that I recalled. “Besides, you are a Seeker, Sierra. You are meant to fight him one day, anyway.”
“Oh yeah!” I exclaimed. “The headmaster told he was in Dragonspyre when I got into MooShu. So… Rowan’s in Dragonspyre? I can’t go there.”
“You can.”
“Uh… how?”
The Frost Giant turned to face the one of the doors I hadn’t recognized. With a rush of excitement, I saw it had dragons painted on the front of it. “Am I going to Dragonspyre through there?” I asked.
“Yes. This room is a separate Spiral Chamber as well, and you can access any world without a Spiral Key.” The Frost Giant opened the door wide. There was only darkness inside, but that was typical for a Spiral door.
“But how will I find Malistaire?” I inquired. “I mean, if Dragonspyre is anything like the other worlds I’ve been to before, won’t Dragonspyre be large? Especially since I heard it was like Wizard City – it must be immense!”
“Do not worry,” the Dragon said. “One of us will always be near if you need us.” The dragon hesitated. “And… we may also choose to send you a guide as well.”
There was a stir in the crowd. Murmurs were going around, such as, “But they are only sent out in emergencies!... This isn’t important enough… Some generations of Seekers never even meet them… Malistaire isn’t even that much of a threat! Compared to what others have had to face…”
I scanned the crowd, confused. Who was this “guide” that everyone seemed so upset about?
“I think you should get going,” the Frost Giant advised, gesturing to the door. “We have a lot to talk about.”
I walked forward. I took a final glance at the phenomenal Spiral Tower, and then stepped into the door. Next stop – Dragonspyre.

Rowan
“We were soooooo close!” I encouraged my tired dragon. “C’mon, I’m sure you’ll do it this time!”
Mister Muffin shook his head and defiantly thumped onto the ground, turning around, refusing to face me.
“Please, Muffy. Please!” I begged. “One more time! That’s all. I’ve got to get out of here!”
He didn’t even look at me.
I groaned. “This just isn’t my day, is it.”
Suddenly I was struck by an idea. “Muffy… what if… what if I bought you a… a… um… new toy? Yeah, uh, a new toy! Anything you want. And, how about a… house? Yeah, I’ve been thinking of buying a castle lately, and I’ll give you… however many rooms you want. You can even play on the furniture! I’ll even buy you that expensive pet food you’ve always wanted. Oh, come on, Mister Muffin. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty please with ice cream and sugar and… dragon food and… um, whatever else you like to eat? Please!”
He let out a little whine.
“I know it hurts you, Muffy, but I need you! We could die if you don’t do this!”
Mister Muffin slowly brought his head up and began to lift off the ground. Whining the entire time, he drifted over to me and grabbed my robes, preparing to attempt to carry me again.
“Thank you, so, so, so much, Mister Muffin!” I cried. “I’m sure you’ll make it.” He furiously flapped his wings, and I hovered slightly above the ground.
“Yes! Yes!” I called. “Keep going. You’re doing great!”
He beat his wings so quickly they were a blur, and I rose a couple more inches.
“YES!” I screamed. I reached up toward the opening in the ceiling. I was so close!
Mister Muffin heaved a long sigh. I knew what that meant. He was exhausted, and was about to stop.
“No!” To my dismay, I was already heading downward.
Desperate to finally reach my goal, I reached out, grabbing Mister Muffin. Using him a support, I pushed on his head to hoist myself up the last few inches and held on to that ledge.
“Finally!” I gasped. I climbed up the rest of the way.
When I was safely in the tunnel, I peered down to see my poor dragon struggling to get up from the floor. When I had pushed on him to move myself up, poor Mister Muffin was forced down.
“Aww, sorry, Muffy,” I called. “Can you fly back up?”
I felt terrible for my dear pet, but I couldn’t even go to down help him.
Just as he beginning to recover, the voices that had always been outside the door grew louder and louder. They had been speaking in whispers until this moment, and now I felt my heart race. Were we going to be discovered?
“Mister Muffin, hurry up!” I ordered.
He briskly fluttered his wings to rise into the air. At the same moment, the door swung open and a girl came in accompanied by someone I knew very well.
“Liam?” I shouted.
He stared back at me, shocked. Mister Muffin paused for a moment, distracted by the two new visitors.
“R-Rowan!” Liam finally stammered. “Why are you… up there?”
“Because…” I didn’t really feel like answering. Sierra had told me what happened to Liam, but I never really believed her. I mean, there always was something she was hiding from me, wasn’t there? But now that the evidence was right in front of me, I felt sick to my stomach.
“Well, I, um…” I stuttered, stalling for time, hoping Mister Muffin would fly up. With a glance downward I saw that my dragon was still staring at the guests though. “Uh, Muffy,” I whispered, “can we go now?”
Swiftly, my dragon flew up next to me.
The girl was staring at me, incredibly angry. Liam still just looked stunned. I smirked as I turned around and began crawling away as quickly as I could. Apparently no one had been expecting me to come up with such a brilliant plan.
However, my feeling of triumph and pleasure was soon overcome by the realization that they could easily follow me. It would be terrible if they caught me, especially after everything I did to Mister Muffin. Worst of all, there was no way I could give him any of the things I promised him – I had just left my money behind me to make myself lighter.
“Why couldn’t I just drink that potion?” I grumbled.

Sierra
It started out like traveling to any other world for the first time. The door didn’t appear for a while, so I just waited in the darkness.
Finally, a dragon crested door appeared in front of me. I felt a rush of excitement. I was going to Dragonspyre! Taking a deep, apprehensive breath and closing my eyes to add to the exhilarating feeling, I stepped forward.
With my eyes shut, the first thing I perceived was the smell… and it was familiar. I wasn’t sure where the scent was from, but it made me uneasy.
When I opened my eyes, I again felt déjà vu. No, it was worse than that. I knew where this was from! The sight made me want to back away, go home, and forget about saving Rowan. I knew Dragonspyre would be different, but I hadn’t been expecting to relive this horrible, chilling, nightmarish memory.
The ground was red – the same red as in Malistaire’s fortress. Above me, the sky was the same red with dark clouds. The air was dusty and stale; and it was warm, only adding to the misery of the musty atmosphere. On top of it all, I was faint with disbelief, and I furtively glanced around me, expecting an undead minion attack me at any moment. There wasn’t any lava, fortunately, only the Spiral door behind me – and, lying behind that, a single rose made of stone. Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew the lava was here. The heat alone proved that.
This stunning resemblance left me disconcerted. When I did recall what I was supposed to be looking for, I whispered to myself, “Well, I’m definitely in the right place.”
I strode down the pathway, which spiraled down like a staircase. Determined to not be distracted, I kept a steady pace, hoping that I wouldn’t get off-track.
As I reached the bottom of the staircase, a figure appeared in the doorway. Unable to stop myself, I skidded into the person, and I smacked into them, sending us both to the ground.
“Oh, um, I’m so sorry!” I apologized, helping them up.
“Sierra!” gasped the person, and I looked at their face for the first time. It was Mark DarkCrafter.
I hadn’t seen Mark since my last little Seeker adventure with Malistaire. As far as I knew, he’d been heartbroken by what Liam did. At least, that’s what Vanessa told me, because she now lived with him. He had been one of Liam’s best friends, so he was the most hurt out of all of us when the news reached him.
I stared at him in shock that surely mirrored his own. “S-Sierra,” he stammered again, “what are you doing here?”
“Geez, you’re saying that as if it’s a crime or something,” I mumbled, brushing myself off.
“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just… I haven’t seen you in such a long time! What a coincidence that I find you, especially here.”
“I’m, uh, kind of busy at the moment,” I hurriedly said.
“Oh, a quest?” He examined me. “Aren’t you a bit of a low level to be questing here?”
“It’s not a quest,” I told him, becoming more frustrated. I didn’t want my attention diverted again.
“Helping a friend?” he guessed.
“No, no! Actually, I’m… doing something for… for… my sister.”
“Rowan? Wow, is she in Dragonspyre now? I really should be keeping up with all of this.”
“No, she’s not in Dragonspyre. She... she… ask Vanessa! You live with her, and she knows everything just as well as I do – or almost as well, at least.”
“What’s going on? Sierra!” he called after me as I rushed away. “Wait, why don’t I help you? I learned Scarecrow yesterday!”
“It’s important Seeker business, okay?” I yelled at him. And then I stopped. In front of me was a fountain of lava. Peering around it, I only saw more rivers of lava and a ledge that led off into nothing. Zeke and the seamstress were standing there, but otherwise it was a dead end.
Mark came up next to me and grinned. “Still think you don’t need help?”
“No…”
“Hmm. Well, wouldn’t it be convenient if you had a Master Death wizard on your team who knows Dragonspyre like the back of his hand?”
“Remember? Seeker busi–”
“I’m a Seeker too.”
“Then it’s Seeker leader business.”
“I thought the whole point of the Seekers was to awaken one from each school and join together. If we aren’t supposed to be working together on missions like this, how will we defeat Malistaire?”
I wanted so badly to glare at him. I wished he wasn’t right, but he was. “Okay… fine. You can come.”
“Yes!” Mark jumped into the air in delight. “So, what are we doing?”
“My sister’s been kidnapped by Malistaire,” I explained. Admitting the words aloud still wasn’t easy, and it sent a pang of grief through my body.
“Ooh… that is bad.”
“Any chance you might know where Malistaire is?” I sighed.
He grinned. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
“What? Really?” I hadn’t been expecting that answer.
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Anyone who’s completed Dragonspyre would know that.”
“B-but, then… what’s the point of this? Really, I’m sure there’s someone in Dragonspyre who can defeat Malistaire besides us!”
Mark shook his head. “Nope. Many have tried, though. Few come back.”
I shivered.
“Only problem is that I can’t get there yet.”
“But you said–“
“Sure, anyone who’s beat Dragonspyre would know. And if you asked them, they’d tell you.”
“So, you haven’t completed Dragonspyre?”
“No.”
I groaned.
“Look, if we could finish making the Dragon Rider Staff, then we’d be able to get there. But it takes some time…”
“Mark, I don’t have time! Who knows what they’ll do to Rowan?”
“I suppose I can take you as close to his lair as I can go. But other than that, I don’t know what to do.”
“What I don’t understand is where the rest of Dragonspyre is,” I stated. “There’s a dead end down here, and nothing up there!”
“Don’t worry, Sierra! I’ll get you to the rest of Dragonspyre! Where did you want to go? Atheneum? Necropolis? The academy?”
“Academy? You don’t mean… Dragonspyre Academy, do you?”
“Of course I do.”
“Oh! I’ve always wanted to see it!”
“Um, the Dragon Titan destroyed all the schools except for Fire.”
“Aww. Darn. Okay, you’d better take me to where Malistaire is, then.”
“Actually, that would be Dragonspyre Academy.”
“Oh. But Mark, how exactly are we going to get there?”
He smiled mischievously. “I have my ways…”

Rowan
“Wow, this tunnel’s longer than I thought,” I said. I took another glance at Mister Muffin, who was trailing along behind me. “Muffy, you came into my room through this, right? Wow, how did you do it?”
I continued crawling, not really expecting an answer from Mister Muffin. Instead, he gave out an extremely sharp cry, making me jump. I glared at him. ”Geez! What was that for?”
He was flitting around this area excitedly, nearly bouncing off the walls. After a while of me just gazing at him in confusion, he sat down on the spot and looked at me expectantly.
“Oh! It’s a way out, isn’t it?” I noticed a miniscule handle on the bottom of the tunnel with the little light we still had.
Mister Muffin nodded and backed up, urging me silently to open it.
“Finally!” With a few failed attempts to turn in the narrow space, I eventually backed up the way Mister Muffin had and pulled up on the handle.
Cautious but anxious, I slowly opened the hatch. Upon looking down I saw absolutely nothing, save a few rough outlines of odd box-shaped figures. “Ugh. You’re sure this is the only way, Muffy?”
In answer, my dragon flew down a little, nodding, beckoning for me to follow.
“Oh, okay,” I sighed. I lowered myself carefully. When I dropped to the floor, I was relieved that it wasn’t a long fall. I even managed to reach up and close the hatch above us.
“The only problem,” I said to my dragon, “is that I have no idea where the heck we are!”
All I heard was the beating of wings against the air. Then, with a sudden whoosh, there was light.
Of course! Mister Muffin was a dragon. How could I forget that he could breathe fire?
Unfortunately, it couldn’t sustain for long. Already the light was flickering out. “No! Not yet! I need something to light, first!”
Hurriedly, I glanced around me – I had nothing! With no idea what else to do, I tore off a piece of my robe and thrust it into the fire. I burned my hand, but at least I had something lit…
“Uh-oh,” I said. Now I realized the huge mistake I made. My robe would be charred within a few minutes!
I frantically glanced around me again. It was some sort of storage room, with wooden boxes stacked all around me. I opened the lid to one of the boxes, only to find that it was empty. Not knowing what else to do, I threw the flaming cloth at the box. It immediately caught on fire. That would last for a while. I only hoped it wouldn’t cause too much damage.
If only my Pyromancy was working! I mused. The fire would be so easy to put out if I had my spellbook and deck.
Or maybe if Sierra were here, she’d freeze the fire… or something…
I wonder what Sierra’s doing now, I thought, walking over to a door that was on the side of the room. She was there when I was taken away. What does she think happened to me? Is she looking for me? Does she know where I am? Sydney and Vanessa, too. I doubt they know where I am, though. I don’t even know myself.
I peered out into a vacant hallway. I stepped outside, and Mister Muffin followed.

Sierra
“I still don’t understand how this will work, Mark,” I complained.
“Just trust me.” He still wore that silly grin that was beginning to get on my nerves. Couldn’t Mark take things seriously, just this once?
“This better work,” I warned.
“It will.”
He stopped in the center of the top square that I had first bumped into him in. “Dragonspyre Academy, right?”
I nodded.
“Okay.” He walked over to a corner. For the first time, I noticed that there were three arches all around us. What could those be for?
Mark took one look back at me, stepped forward – and disappeared.
I stared in partial awe, partial fear at the spot he had just been. Mark’s voice echoed around me through Whisper Chat: “Just teleport, Sierra.”
When I did, I found myself at the beginning of a little pathway. Amazed, I examined my surroundings, then rushed to the handrail on the side of the pathway. Looking down, I realized that we were high up. There was an enormous square with a giant statue of some man who must have been important. Actually, he kind of looked like Merle Ambrose…
“C’mon,” Mark said, beckoning me from farther down the path. “I’ll show you how Grandmasters get to Malistaire.”
We didn’t walk far until there was a big, circular opening to the side of the path. In the center stood a proud Drake.
Mark walked only halfway up to it, seeming nervous to get too close. “That’s a Young BattleDrake,” he explained. “You need to ride it to get to a place called Dragon’s Roost. That’s where Malistaire’s Lair is.”
“Well, why don’t we get on it, then?” I inquired, striding right up next to it.”
“Um, Sierra, don’t get too close. It doesn’t really like people–”
I tried patting its back, and unexpectedly it reared up and whacked me with its colossal tail. Caught by surprise, I was thrust backwards and landed hard on my back right in front of Mark’s feet. “Still think we can ride it?” he asked.
“No,” I breathed, the wind having been knocked out of me.
Mark helped me up, and I dusted myself off. “Before you can ride that, you have to complete the Dragon Rider Staff. There are pieces hidden in Obsidian Chests across the Spiral, and there’s a crystal in the Crystal Grove, and there’s, uh, something in the Forum, too, but I don’t remember what…”
“That can’t take too long, can it?”
“Believe me, it can. I’ve been trying to get the Dragon Rider staff for two weeks, and I’m still working on the crystal! Perhaps I shouldn’t have done those sidequests… or attended that house party… or helped Rowan with Plague Oni… or–”
“I get the point.”
“Anyway, there’s no other way through.”
“What about that building? Where does it go?” I indicated a house that lined the right side of the path.
He shrugged. “Who knows? I really don’t think it ‘goes’ anywhere. I always thought they were like the houses on the sides of the street in Wizard City. You know, private residences or whatever. They’re always locked. You can’t get in.”
“Hmm… anything you have that might be able to pick a lock?”
“You can’t just break into someone’s house!”
“Well, then, let’s knock.”
“Oh, come on, you’ve got to be kidding me–”
I strolled over to one of the houses. First I tried the handle. As Mark had said, it was locked. So, rather hesitantly, I knocked gently.
It was a considerable amount of time that we waited there. I was just about to give up when we heard the sound of someone unlocking the door. Surprised, Mark and I waited for the door to open. But it didn’t.
At last, I took matters into my own hands by grabbing the knob and easing the door open with a loud, high-pitched squeal that indicated that it hadn’t been used in a long time.
Inside, I found that it was frustratingly dark. I was so close to unraveling a mystery, and I couldn’t even see anything! “Don’t worry,” Mark said. “I started learning Pyromancy as my third school. I don’t know much, but I at least know how to light a fire.”
“If it’s dark we might as well turn back…” I protested. Peering into the unknown made me think this was a bad idea.
Mark lit his fire anyway. It revealed a tiny room, obviously some sort of sitting room. There were old wooden chairs surrounding a rotting wooden table. One bed stood in the corner, and there was a ladder leading up high into places Mark’s fire didn’t reach.
“See,” Mark declared triumphantly. “Private residence. I told you.”
“Why is it so empty?” I wondered. “It must be abandoned.”
At that moment, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked, there was nothing there. “I’m seeing things,” I mumbled.
“If you are, so am I,” Mark said. “I could have sworn something just scurried up that ladder.”
“Um, maybe we should go back.”
“Nah. This looks like it could be fun!”
I looked at Mark with horrified surprise. “You think this will be fun?”
The delight on his face faded. “Um, sure. Why not? I feel an adventure coming. What, you don’t like adventures?”
“Not particularly.”
“What about Rowan?”
Everything came flooding back to me in that overwhelming instant. Rowan! How could I have forgotten? Tears came to my eyes again. I wondered if I’d ever get over this.
“Well… Rowan wouldn’t be up there… would she?” I said.
“No one has ever been inside these houses for a long time,” Mark stated, suddenly serious, ignoring my question. “By the look of things, the owners must have abandoned this home a long time ago. Perhaps they fled when the Dragon Titan attacked? Or maybe they were eaten…” He grinned ominously.
“Oh, stop it. That wasn’t even what I asked.”
“It could be true, you know.”
We were silent for a while. Sooner or later, Mark spoke up. “I have a feeling that there’s something… something up there.”
I looked at him curiously.
“I’m sorry. It’s almost a compulsion. It seems like there’s something about this place that’s… I don’t know…”
“Magical?” I suggested.
“Yeah.”
“Funny how when you’re a wizard, you can still define things as ‘magical.’”
“Sorry. I can’t think of another word. It feels eerie and mysterious, but in a good way. Otherworldly, I suppose.”
“Otherworldly to you is surely different to me. Would you consider a box that shows moving pictures from thousands of miles away ‘otherworldly?’ Or perhaps machines that allow you to fly like a bird without magic? Or, I don’t know… the point is that these things were completely normal to me just a few months ago. And all this–” I gestured to my wizard robes, my spellbook and deck, the glowing MooShu sword Mark held in his hand – “would be bizarre and unreal. So, Mark, tell me. What is otherworldly to you?”
He stared at my blankly.
I sighed. Why was I getting so worked up about this? “Fine. If you want to go up the ladder of doom, go ahead. Let’s just get this over with.”

Rowan
My footsteps echoed grimly in the quiet halls. “I wonder where everyone is,” I mused aloud. “Then again, I suppose I don’t know what I’m looking for. They could be invisible for all I know.”
Mister Muffin ignored me, as usual. He was a few feet ahead, which also was quite ordinary. That’s the problem, I thought to myself. Nothing in this place ever changes!
“I wish I could find a way out of here,” I sighed. Then I glanced at my dragon. “Muffy, do you think I’m going crazy? I mean, I’m talking to myself. Isn’t that some sort of sign?”
Mister Muffin didn’t answer – just as always.
“Oh… am I getting annoying?” I guessed. “Sorry. I mean, I can’t really help it. I’m rather – woah! Wait for me!” Mister Muffin had turned down another hallway and his wings were buzzing in excitement and anticipation, putting a brief end to my soliloquies. He seemed impatient to get somewhere, and was thus moving much faster. “Just wait,” I pleaded. “I can’t fly, you know.”
He turned back around and looked at me with an irked expression that said, “Hurry up!” To show his petulance, he thumped his tail on the ground a few times.
When I caught up, he took off again, racing toward a single door at the end of the hallway. I placed my hand on the doorknob, not entirely sure what to do. I tested it, and it wasn’t locked. I looked at Mister Muffin again. He gazed back with anxious eyes. Apparently there was something behind this door that he really wanted me to see.
With trembling hands, I turned the knob and I opened the door, cautiously entering.

Sierra
“So… what do you think will be up there, Sierra?” Mark asked, trying for the zillionth time to make conversation.
“Nothing,” I churlishly replied.
“You sure? I mean, there would be something at least. Like air!” He chuckled to himself. “You know you can’t live without air.”
His jocose disposition was way past being annoying by now. I was bordering the point of teleporting away and leaving him behind. I’d like to see if he were as enthusiastic about this adventure then.
We’re almost to the top, I reassured myself. Just a little farther. I gritted my teeth and continued climbing.
I was incredibly relieved when I climbed off the ladder. It had seemed amazingly endless, especially with Mark joking the entire way. I was even so joyful that I turned around to pleasantly help Mark up. Anything would be better than being in the dark, feeling your way up a freakishly huge ladder with an irritating friend constantly making jokes in a hopeless attempt to get you out of your sullen mood.
At the top, Mark lit his fire again (which he had put out so he could climb). As I had thought, the room was empty.
“Aww,” Mark pouted. I only scanned the room. Mark had said he saw something climbing up the ladder, didn’t he? I uneasily gazed at the shadows that Mark’s light cast. Who knew what could be hiding there?
Almost as if my thoughts had summoned it, there was movement in the corner of the room. Mark whirled around to shine his fire there, but all is revealed was another door.
“Awesome!” Mark yelled, running over to the door and tugging on it. From the looks of his struggling, I guessed that it wasn’t opening.
I came to his side and motioned for him to move away. I placed my own hand on the doorknob to test it. As I did, a strange feeling overwhelmed me. A quixotic feeling, as Mark had described when he suggested we climbed the ladder. A compulsion… and otherworldly feeling…
Almost as if in a dream I reached into my pocket and withdrew the Key of Frost I inserted into the lock and turned it. The door unlocked with a click.
I stirred, as if I’d just woken, and stared at my hand holding the key as if it didn’t belong to me. I was just as stunned as Mark was that the key had worked.
“How did you..?” Mark began, and then shook his head. “Never mind. It worked, didn’t it? Let’s go.”
Although feeling paralyzed, I somehow managed to make my feet move and I followed Mark.
We found ourselves on another odd path. This one was arched like a bridge. I suppose it was a bridge, because it stretched across the red sky to a building floating out in front of us.
We walked across the bridge. I was being extremely cautious. I had no idea what happened when you fell off the side of a world, and I didn’t want to find out. When we reached the building, we found an enormous door. As we approached it, Mark exclaimed, “Sierra! Look at your necklace!”
It was glowing.
I immediately halted. “Oh, no, no, no,” I muttered. “Mark, we’ve got to turn back.”
“But what if it’s Malistaire’s lair? Rowan might be behind those doors!”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. I was considering it when I heard someone Whisper Chatting. “Woah! You’re in Dragonsprye and didn’t tell me? And in the Academy, too? That’s far!”
I recognized the voice. “Not now, Victoria. I’m doing something important.”
“Um, well, can I teleport? I want to show you something.”
“What?” I asked impatiently.
“Just… I leveled up.”
“Oh. Cool. Congrats on becoming… uh… level 31?”
“No. I mean I leveled a lot. And I finished Marleybone. And MooShu…”
“What! You finished MooShu?”
“Yep.” She sounded pleased with herself that I finally understood that this was important. “So can I come? You won’t believe what level I am now.”
“Uh…”
She didn’t let me continue. There was a flash next to me, and out of the light came Victoria, dressed form head to toe in Dragonspyre armor.
“Wow. You’re a Master.” Though I did my best to sound ebullient, I couldn’t help but sigh. Great. Another person who would want to come with me.
“Hey, Victoria,” Mark greeted. He examined her new clothes. “Wow, level 45? Cool. You’re almost to 48, where you’ll learn Storm Lord!”
“I’m excited for you, Victoria,” I said, “but I’ve got to focus on the task at hand.”
“Ooh! What task?” She looked at my solemn face. “Oh. Bad, huh?”
“Yeah, Rowan’s been kidnapped!” Mark exclaimed.
“No way! Really? Oh gosh, don’t worry Sierra! Mark and I are Masters. We’ll help you!”
“I’d probably already be there if you guys didn’t keep distracting me!”
“No, it was lucky you found me. Otherwise there would be no way for you to get into Dragonspyre Academy. Even if you did, I lit the fire for you in that house. You wouldn’t be able to see without me,” Mark pointed out.
“Oh, what does it matter,” I mumbled. “You’re here now, and that’s what counts. But if you are here, turn of teleports. I don’t want anyone else coming.”
Once they did, I asked, “So then, are we going through that door?”
“Um, I don’t know. What’s behind it?” Victoria inquired.
I rolled my eyes. “You honestly think I know that?
“Oh. Oops.”
“If we don’t know,” Mark said, “then I suppose we should open it.”

Rowan
Inside the room it was pitch black. Dark as night. Utterly terrifying.
Well, except for the light that flooded through the door Mister Muffin and I had come through. That certainly helped. It was also enough that, as my eyes began to adjust, I could see enough of the room to maneuver around in it.
Or so I thought. I stumbled into something cold and metal that I hadn’t seen, which tumbled over with a loud clank. I heard the familiar cry of a dragon. “I’m okay, Muffy! You can stop yelping like that.”
The noise didn’t cease. “Come on, Mister Muffin. It’s not a big–” I turned to glare at my pet, and he was still floating there with a pleased expression on his face. His mouth wasn’t moving.
At that same moment, there was movement at my feet. I shrieked and backed away.
The flurry of movement and rustling continued in front of me. Mister Muffin, to my surprise, rushed over to the spot where I had just been.
“What are you doing?” I yelled at him. But my dragon seemed not to be listening.
I examined the movement more closely. It was coming from the metal thing I had knocked over. I couldn’t be sure in the darkness, but it looked like it could be a –
With a flash, there was light in the room. Mister Muffin was breathing fire again, and all was revealed.
The metal thing was a cage. Concealed inside of it was a trembling yellow-and-white female dragon.
“Oh, Muffy!” I whispered, coming up next to him and kneeling in front of the cage. “The poor thing!”
By the light of Mister Muffin’s dimming fire, I could also see that there was another cage on the other side of the room, with a pile of charred Skeletal Pirate bones in front of it.
“I see!” I exclaimed. “Muffy, you freed yourself and burned the guard, but you couldn’t save your girlfriend, could you? So you came to find me.” I couldn’t help but giggle a bit. The thought of my dear little Muffy in love with a beautiful girl dragon amused me. But then my dragon gave me a dirty look, and I stopped.
“Hmm… how did you get out of your cage, Muffy?” I looked at the sturdy lock keeping the dragon inside.
Mister Muffin’s fire went out. He then flew over to the Skeletal Pirate’s remains. Lying on the floor next to them was a key. I imagined that the Skeletal Pirate had been attempting to unlock Mister Muffin’s cage, but Muffy burned him before he could take him to… wherever he had been going.
Carefully, I removed a couple of the bones (ick!) and under them I discovered another key. I turned around and inserted it in the lock, but it didn’t fit. “What are we going to do?” I whined. “There’s no way to save the dragon.”
I peered into the cage to examine the dragon again. She looked mortally terrified, huddling in the corner of the cage that was as far from me as possible. “It’s okay,” I soothed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll help you.” I cautiously reached my hand through the bars, thinking I could stroke her back. Instead, she snapped at me, and I drew my hand back. “Hmph. Not very nice, are you?”
Mister Muffin whined behind me and flew over to my side. He looked at me with mournful eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll help your girlfriend! Um, well, I would, if I knew how to.”
The dragon in the cage whimpered again, and it reminded me so much of Mister Muffin. “So what’s your name, sweetie?” I crooned.
She just looked at me with those same sad eyes.
“Maybe I should give you a name! Let’s see… what would fit you? Princess something, perhaps? Princess Chelsea? That’s cute. Do you like it?”
She continued staring. I glanced at my own dragon and was struck by inspiration. “Miss Muffin!” I shouted. Mister Muffin flitted around me with excitement. I could tell he liked the name, too.
“Okay, then, Miss Muffin!” I paused. “You know, I think you need a nickname, too. Muffy is already taken by Mister Muffin, so…” I snapped my fingers. “Got it! How about Missy?”
For some reason, I had the feeling Miss Muffin wasn’t listening, no matter how much she stared at me with her innocent, curious eyes.
“Now I suppose I’d better go back to trying to help you now that you have a name, right?” I sighed. “Let’s see here, then. How can I help...?”

Sierra
“So… who’s going to open the door?” I asked.
Mark and Victoria exchanged glances.
“Um, not me,” Mark announced. “I’m tired out from the fire I had to make. Sorry!”
“I, um, yeah… you should do it, Sierra! It’s your sister,” Victoria replied.
“Me? No! I’m not at all anxious to find out what’s really behind it.”
“Neither are we,” Victoria declared.
“Yeah, Sierra, didn’t you say you didn’t want us here in the first place? If we weren’t here, you’d have to do it yourself,” Mark reminded me.
“But you are here, and if you want to help me, you should open it,” I insisted.
“Why are we even fighting over this? I should just leave,” Victoria huffed.
I considered Victoria’s words. It was a rather silly argument. I was still extremely reluctant to discover what horrors the door may conceal. In my opinion, they should stay concealed.
“You know what? I’ll just do it,” Mark said, rolling his eyes. “This is just ridiculous.” Muttering something about us being incapable on agreeing on something for “just once,” he approached the door. Hesitantly, he turned the handle and pushed. We all held our breath, terrified of what might happen –
The door didn’t open.
“That was anticlimactic,” Victoria remarked.
Mark yanked the handle a couple more times, jerking the door, but he still was unable to change its position. “Sorry, but it’s locked.” He gave me and angered look. “We could have saved a lot of time if you’d just tried it, Sierra.”
“Oh, so now it’s my fault,” I complained. “Well, at least I have a plan.”
“What would that be?” Victoria questioned.
I took out the Key of Frost. “It’s been helping me quite a lot today,” I explained. “It thought it might work on the door.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“I’ll figure that out if it happens.” I walked over to the door and inserted the Key of Frost in the door.
Sure enough, the key worked.
“Huh. It actually fit!” Victoria said.
I beamed. “Of course it did! I thought so. Anyway… shall we go inside?”

Rowan
“Really, what can we do?” I moaned. “You got out because a Skeletal Pirate unlocked the cage and you defeated it. But… hey, do you think you could melt the lock? You know, with your fire breath?”
Muffy shook his head. He couldn’t do it. To demonstrate, he breathed deeply and heaved out a cloud of smoke. “Oh. Out of fire?” I looked at the frightened female. “I’m so sorry, Missy. I don’t think we can –”
Mister Muffin suddenly cried out urgently. I spun around and perceived footsteps approaching.
“Uh-oh…” I frenetically glanced around. Besides the cage there was nothing. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to go…
Hoping to buy at least a little time, I closed the door and leaned against it, panicked. Great, I thought. Now I’m going to be caught again! This is definitely the worst day of my life!

Sierra
The door slid open with an agonizing slowness that I’m sure all three of us hated. I stared into the darkness inside, hoping that my face did not betray my fear. Every time the opening in the door became a little wider, my necklace’s shimmer increased, and so did my anxiety.
Finally I opened a small crack wide enough for us to slip through. We entered, one by one.
First thing Victoria and I did was scan our surroundings. We exchanged worried, but partially relieved glances – this was definitely the right place. Every nightmare I’d had for weeks had bared some resemblance to this place.
Mark barely seemed to notice the appearance. He walked straight into the center of the room, which was circular. Three hallways led off in separate directions. “Which way?” he inquired, as if we should know.
“Well… this is Malistaire’s place, all right. Oh, wait. One more test.” I reached over and put my hand on the seemingly smooth walls. I ran my fingertips over them, jumping when it pricked me. I pulled my hand back to reveal a small cut. “Yes, this is the same rough wall I remember,” I reported. I rubbed my injured finger. It was bleeding just a little bit, but I would be fine.
“Rough? What do you – ouch!” Mark cried as it cut him too. He stared at the wall in awe. “Whoa. It looks totally smooth, but really it’s –”
“We know.”
“Oh. Right.” He looked down each of the hallways. “So, where to?”
“I don’t know.” I stared down them, too. I couldn’t see the end of any of them, because they all turned at an angle.
“Why don’t you use your necklace again?” Victoria suggested. “It got us out once. It might be able to do it again, except, well, the opposite way. Maybe if we go toward the dark magic, we’ll find Rowan.”
“Or trouble,” I added under my breath. “But still, it’s a pretty good idea. So far, it’s the best one we have, so I’m willing to try it. Mark? What do you think?”
“I don’t really have a preference,” he replied, still examining the wall.
“Then it’s settled. Let’s see here…” I took off my necklace so I could see it better. For a while I just admired its beauty, then tested the middle tunnel. The light dimmed a bit, so I ruled that one out. I turned to the left, and it dimmed more. Becoming exasperated, I spun right – and the necklace flashed so brightly that I had to look away, before dimming to even less than the other two tunnels. “Huh. That’s peculiar.”
“And blinding,” Victoria added, rubbing her eyes.
Hesitantly, I said, “I think we should go this way.”
“Isn’t it glowing least over there?” Victoria reminded me. “Aren’t we looking for a brighter glow?”
“I want to know what that flash was about.”
“It could have been a glitch. A malfunction.”
“Uh, no. I don’t think so. Really, have you ever heard of a necklace with a glitch?”
Mark remained silent while Victoria and I debated. How strange, I thought, that he had been so garrulous just a few minutes before. Now that he was finally muted, I kind of missed his unnecessary comments.
Just as I was beginning to worry about him, he said, “We should go this way.”
He was pointing toward the left tunnel, which made Victoria and I look at him in confusion. Neither of us had even considered that direction. “Um, why?” Victoria questioned.
“I just heard something… some kind of racket.”
“Malistaire has lots of undead minions. Maybe it was a Skeletal Pirate or a Draconian or something,” I suggested.
He shook his head. “No. It sounded like… the cry of a dragon.”
We stared at him, stunned. I thought about Rowan’s dragon that had disappeared along with her.
I glanced behind me at the right tunnel. The flash still intrigued me, but maybe Mark was right.
“There was also this shuffling noise, and a door closing,” Mark continued. For a moment we sat there, all three of us looking hard. I got closer to the tunnel to hear better.
There it was – a panting noise, like someone breathing deeply with panic. Also, a grumbling sound like a strange language, suggesting that it was a Skeletal Pirate. But they couldn’t breathe, could they? A sound from the hallway like the jingling of keys met us. I took a step forward, but Mark held me back. “Wait,” he whispered. “Let’s keep listening for now.”

Rowan
I wanted so very, very much to hold my breath in terror. Instead, it came out in deep, noisy, frantic bursts that probably anyone could hear from a mile away. Hyperventilating was not really the best thing to start doing when you’re trying to hide, but I couldn’t help it.
It surely was a Skeletal Pirate. First of all, no wizard’s feet could make such a loud, hard, crackling sound when they hit the floor. It had to be a much harder substance – like bones. Secondly, whatever pushed on the door didn’t push with much force. Because Skeletal Pirates have no muscles, only bones, they aren’t very strong physically. Still, the thing that really gave it away was the frustrated muttering that came when the door didn’t open in Skeletal Pirate language.
I almost felt like laughing when I heard the pirate take out keys. He thought the door was locked! Yes, that had to be a pirate. Obviously, he didn’t have any brains.
There was the click of the lock and a shove again. After some more murmuring, footsteps started fading away.
It was only when the footsteps were almost completely gone that I reflected on what had just happened – and realized something crucial. If the door was locked, how did it click…?
Oh no. I quickly turned around and yanked on the handle. It didn’t budge. “That stupid Skeletal Pirate!” I grumbled, tugging on the door with all my might. “When when he was trying to unlock it, he did the opposite – locking it, with me inside!”

Sierra
I started when I heard footsteps coming our way. “We just got here!” I whispered to my friends. “I don’t want anyone to see us yet.”
“I agree,” Victoria said. “But where should we go?”
“Choose a different tunnel,” Mark suggested.
While I proclaimed “Right,” Victoria at the same time called, “Forward!”
We glanced at each other with contempt.
“Oh, come on, guys!” Mark said. “Just pick a way!”
“Well… fine,” I finally agreed. “We’ll go Victoria’s way, just this once.”
Unhappily, I led my friends through the tunnel as the clicking sound of footsteps on the floor disappeared behind us.

Rowan
Now I was in complete darkness.
It was impossible to see. Miss Muffin’s terrified shrieks began again, just as they had when I’d knocked her cage over. I sensed Mister Muffin moving somewhere to my left. At least I hoped it was Mister Muffin.
I pictured the room in my mind. If I was at the door, Miss Muffin’s cage should be a little farther to my right.
“OUCH!” I exclaimed as I whammed into a wall. “Geez! Why do I keep getting hurt?”
This time I put my hands in front of me as I felt my way along the wall to Miss Muffin’s cage. It was when I was pretty sure that I’d been walking a while that I wondered if I had miscalculated things. I had been walking for quite a while, and there was still no sign of Miss Muffin.
Then a small crunch came from beneath my feet. I flinched when I heard the noise at first, startled, but then I curiously picked the odd item up.
I noted that it was thin a flexible, almost like paper, but stronger. It also seemed rectangular, and there was a slight tingling in my fingertips as I touched it…
I caught my breath. Could it be? Was it even possible? Something like this being here was so unbelievably luck it seemed almost inconceivable.
Could I be holding a spell card in my hand?
The Skeletal Pirate must have dropped it! I thought gleefully.
Wait. How did a spell card get all the way over here if the pirate dropped it? I had to be pretty far from the door at that point.
Worrying that I was about to find myself wrong once more, I reached out – and found a door handle. Groaning, I realized that I’d just circled the entire room and gone back to where I’d started, somehow missing Miss Muffin’s cage entirely. “Oh, come on! Can’t I just have one break?”
Then I remember the spell card and smiled. Maybe I already had one.

Sierra
Just as I had feared, there were more intersections to come. I didn’t even bothering checking them this time. I allowed Victoria to lead us wherever she pleased.
We traveled through so many corridors that I wondered if we were going in circles. After a while, I started wanting to decide on a direction, too, and it soon became a strange competition between Victoria and I to choose the way we went. Soon enough, our controversy grew into something so great that Mark had to intervene before we hurt each other.
“Hey, guys –” Mark said, but then he was cut off from a roar just a bit farther away from us.
“That can’t be good,” I muttered.
Before I had even finished the sentence, there was a terrified shriek and a frightened, high-pitched inhuman wail. The three of us looked at each other with alarmed expressions as a stomping sound and another roar resounded through the hallways.
“That sounds like a Helephant,” Mark remarked.
“Actually, it does,” I agreed. “But why–”
“And that wail was almost the same thing I heard earlier,” Mark continued. “You know… that dragon call.”
“That was too high-pitched for Mister Muffin,” I pointed out sadly. “It had to be a female dragon.”
“What about the scream?”
I shrugged. “A Banshee?”
“No, it was definitely human. And where exactly did the Helephant come from? I think, maybe, just maybe, Rowan cast it.”
“She’s not a Master!”
“Doesn’t matter. You have Treasure Cards, don’t you?”
Suddenly, a large piece of the roof broke above us and crashed to the ground inches away with a force that easily could have killed all three of us. “Forget it!” Victoria shouted. “Let’s get out of here!”
Without protest, I started to follow her, but Mark stayed put. “I’ll go find Rowan myself,” he angrily huffed. Before we had time to react, he dashed off in the direction of the roaring.
“Mark!” I cried, but an exceptionally large piece fell to the ground in front of me. I would have been crushed if Victoria hadn’t yanked me back at the last second.
Now the pathway Mark had taken was blocked. I wanted to cry. This place was so big. How would we ever find him again?
“Well,” Victoria started, her voice shaking, sounding as dismayed as I was but doing a bit of a better job at hiding it, “there’s… nothing we can do at this point. All we can do is go another way.” She looked at the crumbling roof. “We’d better hurry.” She helped me up, and together we scurried away.

Rowan
“I have to do it,” I told myself. “I have to try to cast this card.”
What if it’s something dangerous? a nagging voice at the back of my head told me. It could be something that is impossible to control.
“But I have to do it!” I said aloud. The only problem was that I didn’t even know how to do it. I couldn’t see the card. Each spell had its own special way to cast it. The worst part was that some of the magic came simply from visualizing what you wanted to happen – and I couldn’t visualize what I couldn’t see!
“Mister Muffin, do you have your fire back yet?” I inquired.
There was a disappointed grunt that I understood as a definite “no.”
“There’s got to be some way to get some light. Or at least another way out of this room.” I looked at the card again, straining my eyes, trying my hardest to see without success.
Another whimper sounded from across the room. It likely was Miss Muffin. She always did that when the room got too quiet.
“Oh!” I shouted excitedly. “I have an idea! Muffy isn’t the only dragon here.” I faced the general direction of the cage. “Miss Muffin… could you breathe some fire for me? Please?”
There wasn’t an answer.
“Um, Muffy, could you tell her the same thing I just said?”
Mister Muffin grunted his consent, and with a flapping of wings and some kind of hushed dragon conversation, Mister Muffin reasoned with Missy.
When I was least expecting it, the room lit up. “Agh!” I cried as I was temporarily blinded. “Gosh, Muffy! How many times do I have to tell you, warn me before you do that!”
My sight returned soon enough, and I glanced down at the card and emitted an audible gasp.
It was a Helephant…

Sierra
We didn’t stop running until we couldn’t hear the stomping anymore. My lungs were on fire. When Gamma had found me on Earth and I discovered I was a wizard, I never expected to have to run so much – especially since I’d always thought wizards flew on broomsticks or something. Which, apparently, some did. But I didn’t have a mount yet.
While we were resting, there was an odd muttering of voices that began growing louder. Victoria and I tensed.
But the voices passed us by and started fading away in the other direction. Both of us heaved out a breath of relief.
I motioned for Victoria to follow me. I wanted to see who it was. Perhaps, if we were incredibly lucky, it was even guards heading to Rowan. Then again, there was still Mark somewhere…
Don’t think about that, I told myself. He’ll be fine.
In a desperate attempt to distract myself, I focused on the task at hand. I made my footsteps silent so that I could get as close as possible to hear what they were saying.
“…and now I really don’t want to go!” one voice was saying. It was gruff and earthy-sounding, if that makes sense. From my experiences on Triton Avenue, I guessed that it was a Rotting Fodder of some sort. “But we have to. We promised to inform him of anything important happening in the fortress.”
“That girl’ss completely worthlessss, anyway,” another voice with a Draconian accent agreed bitterly.
Girl? Could they, by some miracle, be talking about Rowan?
“I just don’t understand why he cares about her so much,” the first voice continued. “She’s just one person.”
“That isss the point,” the Draconian said. “Ssshe isss suppossed to lead the otherss here. And I guesss as long as don’t know ssshe esscaped, they sstill might come.”
Escaped…
Rowan escaped! I was totally overjoyed. I hadn’t heard any of the other words they had said. Only that one mellifluous word that continued echoing in my head, over and over: escaped, escaped, escaped...
Then it hit me.
My face instantly fell. This place was so large. If Rowan was lost in here somewhere, we would never find her!
My spirits dampened, I halfheartedly continued to follow the unseen pair.
Soon there were other voices in the background, and the Rotting Fodder and Draconian fell silent. There was some kind of angry yelling coming from up ahead, and I knew that if it were me having a conversation, I would stop when I heard that, too.
As we got closer, I realized with a jolt that there was only one person that that cold, cruel voice could belong to. And I knew him.
Malistaire.

Rowan
To my amazement, casting the Helephant really wasn’t that difficult. I was trained second in Fire, after all. The only hard part was controlling it.
When the mighty Helephant appeared, I hadn’t been able to do anything but stare in awe. It lit up the blackened room as if it were glowing on the inside. It towered above me, at least fifty feet tall, and just one of its massive fingers was larger than my entire body.
It blinked at first, as if getting used to its new surroundings, and then let out a roar. It started stomping around, nearly crushing me, and I couldn’t help but let out a scream and back away. Miss Muffin’s wild calls rose again. The Helephant raised its sword, and I closed my eyes, expecting to feel it slice through me at any moment.
As it turns out, the blow wasn’t aimed at me. Instead, with a blast, the locked door was blown off its hinges and flew into the wall outside. Bits of rubble tumbled around me.
Among the chaos, I thought I heard other people yelling, but I couldn’t be so sure with so much going on.
With the pathway free, I hurried out the new entrance, picking up Miss Muffin’s cage and checking that Mister Muffin was following me. Behind us, the Helephant bellowed again and knocked another gaping hole in the wall.
Then I heard someone furiously say, “I’ll find Rowan myself!”
I was startled by the sound of my own name. Was someone looking for me? And if so, was that good – or bad?
I contemplated this for so long that I didn’t have a chance to decide. The person rushed around the corner and spotted me. Skidding to a stop, they gasped, “Rowan!”
“H-hi, Mark,” I stammered.
“You… you are here!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, which really wasn’t all that loud in the pandemonium of the Helephant. He turned around. “Sierra! Victoria! I found her!”
“Uh, what are you… Wait, Sierra’s here? And Victoria? Where!”
“I left them, back there.” He looked over his shoulder and a peculiar expression – a mixture of anger, annoyance, fear, and sadness – washed over him.
Realizing that it must be a touchy subject, I said, “That’s fine. You don’t need to tell me.”
“We have to find them!” he said vehemently.
“Um, but–”
“Come on. This way!” He started running the way he came and I hesitantly followed.
At this point I was really, really confused. Mark had just appeared out of nowhere, demanding I come with him to find my sister and friend who were apparently lost. Then again, he hadn’t really said he wanted me to come. “Maybe I should stay here,” I called, halting.
“No, it’s fine. You can come,” Mark said, misinterpreting my meaning.
“I really think I should stay,” I insisted.
Finally, he stopped to look at me. “Why?”
“Um, err, uh… if you get lost, you can teleport back to me.”
“TELEPORT!” Mark loudly repeated. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?”
“Um…” I watched as he made the motions to teleport. I waited as he squinted eyes and just stood there. Apparently whatever he was trying to do wasn’t working.
“Oh no!” he groaned eventually. “Sierra made us turn of teleports earlier so that no one else would come. I just wonder if Whisper Chat works…”
“Mark, just give up,” I sighed. “Don’t you think they would already have teleported to me if they could?”
All of a sudden, it hit me. “Wait! How are you on Sierra’s list? My parents forced you to take me off mine, remember?”
“Oh. Well, um, your parents don’t know we’re friends.”
“Obviously. I didn’t even know!”
“We meet in secret. Kind of like you and me.”
“So how come you don’t add me to your list secretly?” I complained. “I’ve known you longer!”
“Sorry. We just had to do it because we’re both Seekers.”
At the sound of “Seekers” I instantaneously perked up, and felt waves of anger, betrayal, and jealousy. Mark knew about these Seekers, but he had never told me! Sierra obviously knew about them too…
“Why does no one trust me!” I whined. “It’s not fair!” I glared at him. “What is a Seeker? You’d better tell me. Now.”
He stared at me with shock. “You mean you don’t know?”
This confused me as well. “No. Should I?”
“Well… yeah! I think so! I can’t believe Sierra didn’t tell you. You’re her sister, for goodness sake! I’d tell me family, if they’d listen to a word I said.”
“What are they?” I repeated, more calmly this time.
Mark sighed. “Ugh, I really hate being in this position, but you have to know. Besides, Sierra was probably hiding it to protect you. She never knew you’d be kidnapped and trapped in the Seekers’ arch-enemy’s lair. Okay then. Let’s see here. Uh, remember the first day I met Sierra, at that party we held in the Life Tower? Well, if kind of had something to do with that…”

Sierra
We crouched around a corner to watch the frightening scene unfold. Malistaire was in the center of a room that reminded me of my own prison while in here, except the door was open the time. Mary RavenGem was there as well, but, to my relief, Liam was not.
The Rotting Fodder and the Draconian, visible to us now, cringed when they heard Malistaire boom, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘SHE ESCAPED’?”
“Exactly what I said I meant,” Mary replied, showing absolutely no fear. “She flew out with that silly dragon of hers. Besides, it’s that idiot Skeletal Pirate of yours that got itself burned by the dragon and allowed it to get away.”
“You were supposed to be watching her!”
“No, I wasn’t. Liam was.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, it’s not my fault that you put a hole in the ceiling.”
Malistaire was shaking with fury, glaring at Mary. I couldn’t but respect her. Anyone who could stand there, staring at Malistaire so utterly calm when he was so enraged was someone that you simply had to admire for their bravery – or senselessness.
The Rotting Fodder and Draconian were standing in the doorway still, looking worriedly at each other. Mary noticed them and asked them, “What do you want?”
“M-master,” the Rotting Fodder stammered. “There was a H-Helephant in the… the…”
“A Helephant?” Mary repeated.
“Y-yes…”
I looked at Victoria. “So it was a Helephant!” I whispered.
She nodded and, appearing annoyed, put a finger to her lips. I gave her an apologetic look and returned to the scene.
Mary turned to Malistaire. “Why do you think there would be a Helephant?”
Malistaire, his composed demeanor returning, looked at the nervious Rotting Fodder and Draconian. “What did you do about it?”
They exchanged glances. “Um, nothing, Massster,” the Draconian hissed. “We came to tell you right away…”
“So,” he said with a completely false-sounding sweetness, “can you give me a reason why I shouldn’t dispose of you now?”
“Um…”
With one wave of his staff, two ghostly pairs of arms reached out of the ground and lunged for the Draconian and Rotting Fodder. Before they could react, they fell to the ground with terrified shrieks, limp.
I was horrified. They’re only enemies you find everyday, I told myself. Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Plus, I shuddered when I thought of Victoria or any of the other Seekers being there… or even me…
I shut my eyes and began backing away, gesturing for Victoria to follow me.
However, Victoria stayed put. Her eyes went wide with fright and she silently shook her head and pointed behind me.
Confused, I turned around –
And found myself face to face with a Skeletal Warrior.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” he said, smiling as if he had just won the lottery. Which, I suppose, in his case, he had. Capturing two Seekers would be exactly what Malistaire would want.
Unfortunately, the two Seekers… were us.

Rowan
Mark finished his explanation at length. Even after he was done, I stood there, leaning against the wall for support. All of it was just so fantastic, so surreal.
Indeed, it felt surreal. I had to be dreaming. My sister… she just didn’t seem capable of doing anything more than defeating some minor bosses with me in MooShu. How could that very same sister be the leader of a group of wizards destined to save the Spiral?
Why didn’t she tell me?
The anger bubbled up again. She didn’t tell me! I had a right to know. She had been hiding so many things right under my nose and I hadn’t even noticed until now!
Unable to hold it back, at long last I started sobbing. Mark just stared at me sympathetically, but that only made matters worse.
At least now things were a bit clearer. Sierra had told me about the first day she met Sydney and Hunter, and how Malistaire’s minions had come to steal her necklace. When I’d asked her where she bought the necklaces, she only said a friend had given them to her. Even before that, there was the day on Colossus Boulevard with that peculiar key she found. Hadn’t she been acting strange? Come to think of it, we never went looking for the door it fit ever again. I tried to recall the first time I heard the word “Seeker”. Wasn’t that when we met Jasmine? Yeah! Sydney said something about them. Something like, “She doesn’t know about Seekers.” Ugh! They were probably having some discussion that said something that teleported us to Sierra’s old world!
I was sure there were other references that I had never seen before.
“How could I have been so stupid!” I hollered.
“You’re not stupid, Rowan. You shouldn’t say things like that,” Mark reasoned.
“I’m ignorant, then. Whatever word you want to use. It was right in front of me! How did I miss it?”
“I didn’t see anything different in Sierra when I first met her,” Mark said.
“You don’t live with her!” I countered.
It was then that Mister Muffin emitted an alarming cry. We looked at him. “What is it, Muffy?”
He looked pointedly down at the direction the Helephant we’d left behind was still raging. I had forgotten all about it. I then understood what Mister Muffin’s yelps were about. The Helephant’s roars were a lot closer now…
Mark was thinking the same thing. He said, “Let’s go this way,” and we headed in the direction opposite from the stomping.

Sierra
“You could have warned me!” I accused Victoria, whom, even though I could no longer see her, I knew was there.
“I’m sorry,” she answered gently.
I supposed it wasn’t her fault, anyway, but in situations like this it was just easier to blame someone else. The Skeletal Warriors were coming up behind us, so we would be caught even if I hadn’t backed away. Besides, even if Victoria had cried out, it may have attracted the attention of a much, much worse evil that had been just around the corner.
We tried our best to fight, but it was useless. They were just so much more powerful than us. After stealing our decks, wands and spellbooks, they dumped us in this room and locked the door.
I recalled how much I loathed the darkness of these rooms, but at least I had Victoria with me this time to keep my company.
“What should we do, Sierra?” she asked quietly.
“Ask me later,” I replied, “because at the moment, I’m clueless.”
As I was trying to form an escape plan, my mind wandered to Mark. He was still out there somewhere, wasn’t he? Maybe he had found Rowan. I thought about what he might do if he had. Would he teleport to us? In fact, I would try teleporting to him if I didn’t need a spellbook to do it.
Plus, if Mark was out there, he may be our only hope for escape.
Finally, after a while of simply sitting there, Victoria spoke up. “Um, Sierra, I think I have a plan. But to do it, I should probably tell you what Vanessa and I were doing last time when you weren’t with us…”

Rowan
Mark led us aimlessly through winding tunnels and seemingly random corridors. Although every once and a while he glanced at me to get my consent for going a certain way, he ignored me for the most part. I imagined he was letting me alone to my thoughts. Good. I had a lot to think about.
We passed through a few hallways that wandered into rooms, but there wasn’t anything special in them. There were a few cages in one, some boxes in another, and a few Skeletal Pirates in even another whom Mark quickly took out with a hurriedly cast Ghoul card.
However, it was the fourth room that we found something interesting in.
Just as we were about to enter, some Skeletal Warriors from across the room began saying things in their Skeletal Pirate language. Mark had to pull me back to prevent me from nearly entering the room in plain sight.
I stood there, away from the doorway, my heart pounding in my chest, listening to the sound of their senseless speech. When I looked at Mark, he looked startled and thoughtful. Then he gasped aloud.
“Um, Mark? What is it?” I questioned.
“Shh!” he accused, signaling for me to be quiet. He crept closer to the doo and peered inside the room. I desperately wanted to look too, but we were more likely to be spotted that way. Instead, I waited petulantly.
At length, he turned and looked over at me. “You don’t have your deck?” He sounded surprised.
Wondering why he was deciding to ask me that now, I said, “No.”
“Where did the Helephant come from, then?”
“I think a Skeletal Pirate dropped the card.”
“Oh. Ugh, without your deck, you…” Then he stopped suddenly in mid-sentence and turned around.
“Mark, this is driving me crazy!” I hissed. “What are you looking at?”
“Just a second, Rowan. I’ll translate for you.”
From my side, Mister Muffin flew up and over by Mark. He looked out too, and I groaned. “Is everyone going to look except me?”
Mark shooed Mister Muffin away without even bothering to glance at him.
After an agonizing period of time that felt like it would stretch on forever, when I least expected it Mark swiftly spun around, looking alarmed. “Get back!” he urgently whispered, throwing me against the wall behind him. He had out his wand and looked ready to fight. Mister Muffin hurried behind my back with a small, scared yelp.
“Wha…” I began, and four Skeletal Warriors came through the entryway. I immediately quit talking and my eyes grew wide.
The warriors looked stunned that we were here. One of them said something in their language.
“Mark, what are you doing? Attack them!” I ordered in a whisper. I had never felt so helpless before. I was sure that with a carefully aimed arrow from my Centaur, these guys would be defeated in an instant.
But I didn’t have my deck, and I had no choice but to take cover behind Mark.
“Wait, I think I can reason with them,” Mark replied.
“What!” I groaned.
Without answering, Mark began to say something to the warriors.
And I didn’t understand a word of it.
With a jolt of shock, I realized that Mark was speaking in the Skeletal Pirate language.

Sierra
I stared at Victoria – or at least in the direction her voice had come from. “What do you mean?”
“Well, when your necklace told you to stay but we left… remember that?”
I nodded.
“Yeah. Well, I think I should probably tell you what happened then.”
Truthfully, I had been wondering about that for a while now, but I’d been too nervous to ask.
Victoria hesitated. “You know, it’s kind of a long story.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got time. We’re obviously not going anywhere.”
Victoria took a deep breath… and began.
“When we left you, Vanessa told us to retrace our steps the best we could. Somehow, we miraculously found our way back into the room that Vanessa had been trapped in. It wasn’t where Vanessa wanted to end up; she wanted to go back to where our stuff had been, but we ended up there.
“So I asked, ‘What is behind that door exactly?’” Victoria continued. “Because, I mean, don’t you remember that door we mistook for an exit? Well, I couldn’t believe it, because it just looked like a totally normal door, with no sunlight seeping out of it anymore.
“Vanessa said, ‘I can explain it best if I show you.’
“I followed her in the door. Surprisingly, it was dark. Almost pitch black. So I couldn’t see the shape of the room or anything. But then Vanessa used a Fire Cat treasure card, and I found that the room was really small. The walls were all white. In the center of the room there was a little dragon.”
I gaped at her. “Are you talking about Mister Muffin?”
“No!” she hastily said. “No, it was a different dragon. Rowan wasn’t there that day, remember? No, it was a female dragon. She was really sweet, and her scales were the most beautiful shade of yellow and pink. And just the way she looked at us..! I knew she was a prisoner, too.
“Vanessa explained that the dragon had been forced to breathe fire to light up the room last time. That’s why it looked like sunlight. Since I felt sorry for her, I scooped her up and embraced her in a hug. I tried to think of a name. I really wished she were a boy, because I would have named her Timothy after her timid personality. In the end, I got Lady Rascal. I don’t really know why. We just thought it was cute.”
“What happened to the dragon?” I inquired.
She shook her head sadly. “I’m not sure.”
“How did you get separated? She wasn’t there when I teleported to you.”
“I’m getting to that part. Um, where was I?”
“You named the dragon Lady Rascal.”
“Oh, right. So, Vanessa and I went back out into the room with the dragon and we walked back through the halls. When we’d spent about twenty minutes looking for an exit, Lady Rascal cried out a warning. I’ve heard that dragons have a special ability that allows them to sense danger. We knew we were in trouble when the sounds of a huge army of enemies met us. Remember, the one we told you about?”
Victoria paused, as if this memory were painful. “Then… we didn’t know what to do. But before we could figure out a plan, Lady Rascal zoomed off, back toward the army. And… she must have stopped them, because they didn’t follow us. But we never saw Lady Rascal again.”

Rowan
Mark and the Skeletal Warriors spoke quietly for quite a long time. In fact, it was so long that I grew tired of trying to decipher their senseless conversation.
I wished Mark would stop talking. I had so much to ask him! How did he even know Skeletal Pirate language? What was he saying? Why did the warriors keep looking at me as if I were something terrible?
After Mark stuttered over a few words, the warriors glared at him. I closed my eyes, expecting them to attack. “Mark, don’t just stand there! Do something!” I nearly screamed, not caring that the warriors would hear me.
Then one of the Skeletal Warriors made a strange amused chortling sound. I looked up in terror. Was he laughing?
“Are you afraid, little Theurgist?” he asked, staring straight at me.
I wasn’t sure how to answer, or why he was even asking in the first place. I choose to tell the truth, so I timorously nodded.
He grinned and looked back at Mark. “Very well. We will fulfill your request.” He chuckled again. “But you have to give some credit to us, then, for capturing this one here.”
I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.
The warrior motioned for Mark to follow him. Mark started to go, but I refused to leave the wall. I didn’t know where they were taking us, and I didn’t really want to find out.
However, the Skeletal Warriors had other plans. When I didn’t move, one roughly grabbed me by the arm and pushed me forward. Getting the message, I hurried to Mark’s side. I tried to grab on to his arm for some comfort, but he pushed my hand away.
I looked up at him, confused and hurt. Mark had been my best friend for a long time now and I had always been able to count on him to cheer me up.
When I looked at his face, it was as hard as steel. I had never seen him look like that before.
Fortunately, he saw me staring and he gave me a weak smile. I saw in his eyes the same Mark I had always known – all the fear, nervousness, and helplessness I expected him to feel, and even the friendly gaze that said, “Don’t worry Rowan. It will be fine,” even though I knew he didn’t believe it himself.
That was my Mark.
Because it was the only familiar thing I had left, I hung onto that image and closed my eyes, letting him lead me.

Sierra
“Wow. That’s… awful.” It was an extreme understatement, but it was all I could think of to say. Lady Rascal was likely dead by now. If she was, she surely had died a hero. Her sacrifice had saved two of my closest friends.
“I know,” Victoria agreed. “And she was the cutest dragon ever! I wanted to keep her so badly. I wonder why she was even in here in the first place.”
We didn’t speak for a while. Then I said, “After that, you found that room and I teleported to you. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you even bothering to tell me this?”
“Oh, right! It’s actually how we found that room that I wanted to tell you. After Lady Rascal ran away, Vanessa and I continued fleeing. When Vanessa leaned against this one wall to rest, it opened like a trapdoor. It’s just like what Vanessa did to make us fall, I think. There’s trapdoors all over the place.”
“So you’re saying that if we could find one of these trapdoors in here…” I said excitedly.
“… we could possibly escape? Exactly!” Victoria finished.
“Great!” I looked around myself, and then my spirits fell when I realized that I was surrounding by only darkness. “Uh, Victoria… how are we ever going to find anything in here?”

Rowan
“I don’t understand what we’re doing,” I said to Mark in a voice barely above a whisper, just quiet enough that the Skeletal Warrior didn’t hear. “And since when do you speak Skeletal Pirate?”
“It’s something they teach Necromancers at Master level. It is only for true Death wizards. They won’t even teach it to you if it’s your secondary. Even so, few Necromancers can actually speak it fluently, because it’s such a difficult language. I’m one of the only ones,” Mark bragged proudly but quietly.
“But what did you say to them?”
“Um, well… apparently you’re my prisoner and I work for Malistaire.” He smiled weakly.
“Mark!” I groaned a bit too loudly.
The Skeletal Warriors turned to glare at me and I snapped my mouth shut.
“Is there a problem, Theurgist?” one asked me. It said the word “Theurgist” as if were something horrible.
“N-no.”
“Good.” We proceeded with walking. Mister Muffin whimpered behind me. Turning around, I scooped him in my arms and held him close, trying to console myself as much as him. I looked down at Miss Muffin in the cage sympathetically. There was no way for me to cuddle with her.
When our footsteps returned to the same steady rhythm we had been in before, I whispered, “Where are we going?”
“They told me that Sierra and Victoria are… here. We’re going to them.”
Just then the warriors stopped. One said something to Mark, and he cringed.
“Mark? Mark! What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He took out his wand solemnly, and the warriors backed away in fear and confusion. “Sorry,” he said, shaping the Death symbol, “but no one messes with Rowan, or any of my friends. Not even Malistaire.”
Mark summoned a Wraith. Though I knew it was on my side, I couldn’t help but back away. Even though I had a Death wizard as my best friend, I hadn’t gotten over the fact that it was my opposite element.
Apparently, though the warriors looked tough to me they were no problem for Mark. With a single blow the warriors broke apart and became a pile of bones.
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” Mark remarked, grinning.
I, on the other hand, was stunned. “What did you just do that for?” I yelled.
“We’ve reached our destination. We didn’t need them anymore.” He paused. “And they were going to lock you up.”
“Oh…” So that’s why he had cringed. Now I saw Mark as a hero who had just saved my life.
“Mark, you said we had reached our destination. What is it? Why is this spot so special?”
At that moment, a noise emanated from a door a short ways away. I jumped, but oddly, Mark beamed.
“So, Rowan,” he said, “are you ready to be reunited with your sister?”

Sierra
“I feel really, really silly,” I complained.
“Same,” Victoria agreed. “But you want to get out of here, don’t you? We have to keep looking.”
We were patting the ground and walls in an attempt to find a trapdoor. Victoria had created a small lightning bolt that provided a limited amount of light, but with the amount of flashing it tended to do it just made everything worse.
“Imagine what someone would think if they came in here right now,” I said sulkily. “They would see us crawling around on the ground like we’re searching for something we dropped.”
“We can use that as an excuse if someone does come,” she suggested.
“What could we have dropped? They took everything we have!”
“Well, maybe–”
Almost instantly, a hush seemed to fall over the room, and Victoria cut her sentence short. The room was chilly for some reason, even for me. It was as if all life had been sucked out of the area.
I knew this feeling. Someone was casting Wraith.
In a few moments, we sensed that the Wraith had disappeared. Everything felt normal again, except there were voices outside the door that couldn’t be the raspy voices of Skeletal Pirates.
“That sounds like Mark!” Victoria exclaimed.
“Oh my gosh… you’re right!” I rushed over to the door and, pounding my fists against it, I screamed, “Mark! We’re in here!”
In reply I heard a voice whisper, “Sierra?”
I froze, stunned. It wasn’t Mark.
“Rowan…?” I answered.

Rowan
I couldn’t believe my ears. Sierra was on the other side of that door!
Without really thinking it through, I reached for the handle. When the door wouldn’t budge I yanked it back and forth in desperation, hoping to move it, until Mark said, “Um, Rowan? It’s locked.”
I glared at the door, wishing I had my wand or deck for the millionth time that day. I would have taught the door a lesson.
“You mean you don’t have a key?” Victoria said from the other side of the door.
“No.”
“If only I could somehow give you the Key of Frost,” Sierra said wistfully. “After all it has done for me today, I wouldn’t be surprised if it worked.”
“Maybe I should just knock and it will open,” Mark said partially drily, partially playfully.
“Oh, be quiet. I was lucky that that house just opened when I knocked. I’ll admit it.”
I wasn’t really sure what they were arguing about. I was still stumped on what the “Key of Frost” was.
I felt something nudge my hip. I looked down to find Mister Muffin digging through my pocked. “Muffy…” I began, but then he took out the item I had forgotten was in there – a key.
“Oh! Right! Great idea, Muffy!” I grasped the silver key and showed it to Mark. “Do you think it will fit?”
“Where did you get that?” he questioned.
“A Skeletal Pirate was holding it. Mister Muffin took him out, and I took the key to try and unlock Missy’s cage, but it didn’t work.”
“Missy?” Sierra inquired, her voice muffled by the door.
“I’ll show her to you when you get out,” I promised. “Anyway, Mark, does it fit?”
Taking the key from me, he examined it. A small smile played on his face. “It just might!”
“Try it then!” I insisted eagerly.
He inserted it into the lock. With a click, it swung open.
Sierra emerged, tears of joy in her eyes. “Rowan…” she said in a whisper. “I… you can’t imagine how much I… missed you.”
I felt the tears rising in my eyes, too, but I fought them down. Instead, I managed a grin. “And where in the world have you been?” I demanded. “I was waiting for you! Instead, I had to get Mister Muffin’s help. A dragon is more heroic than you. A dragon!”
Sierra flashed me a smile. “What? No thank you? At least I came all the way to Dragonspyre to save you!”
I started laughing, and Sierra joined in. Then Mark and Victoria couldn’t help but begin, too. Soon enough, the four of us were crying from giggling so hard. It wasn’t so much that Sierra’s joke had been funny. No, we were laughing from relief. Finally, I was back with my friends.
However, when the laughter subsided, I realized we were faced with one more challenge.
“Um, guys?” I started.
The three turned to me.
“Uh… anyone know how we’re going to get out of here?”

Sierra
“If this is the same place we were in last time, I might be able to find the exit again,” I offered.
“If you can find a place that looks familiar,” Victoria said, “then that might work. But how are we going to recognize any of this? It all looks the same.”
“I could try my necklace again.” I slipped it over my head to show them how it was glowing.
“NO!” Mark cried, snatching it out of my hands to suddenly I had no chance to react.
“Mark! Why–” Then he threw it on the ground and stepped on it, breaking the sapphire in the middle.
“Mark!” Victoria gasped. “How could you do something like that?”
I stared at the shattered remains of my former necklace. At first I was furious. But then I scrutinized the pieces. Actually, how did it break in the first place? Sapphire is an incredibly hard substance, nearly impossible to break. Besides, weren’t these pieces black? My sapphire was blue…
“Wh-what was that thing?” I stammered.
“I had totally forgotten about it until this point! The Skeletal Warriors told me about this, too. Well, as you can see, that wasn’t your necklace. It was a fake Malistaire made.”
“But… I was wearing it!” Disgusted, I backed away from the shattered gemstone.
“How come it helped us last time, then?” Victoria pointed out. “Didn’t it lead you to the exit, Sierra?”
“Y-yeah.”
“It doesn’t look like a sapphire necklace,” Rowan commented.
“You know, it didn’t actually help us out,” I recalled. “When we teleported back, we found Malistaire with his undead army.”
“Oh, that’s right!”
I looked at the necklace’s remains ruefully. “I really hope I can find my real one.”
“Same,” Rowan agreed. “It was always so pretty.”
“That’s not the only reason,” I said. “I’m not sure if you knew this, Rowan, but my necklace can sense dark magic.”
She gaped at me. “Really?”
“Yeah…” For the first time, I looked long and hard at my sister. I couldn’t quite figure out why, but something was different. Maybe it was because she wasn’t wearing her cap.
I tore my eyes away from her appearance and looked down at the item she held in her hand. Indicating it, I inquired, “What’s that?”
“Oh!” Rowan lifted it up proudly, displaying a small cage with a dragon concealed inside.
Before I could comment, Victoria cried out, “Lady Rascal!”
Without glancing at her, she rushed over and snatched the cage out of a startled Rowan’s hand and began to speak to the dragon. “Oh, no! I’m so sorry this happened. You’re not hurt, are you? Who did this? I still need to thank you for saving us! I’m so glad I found you again. Don’t worry; I’ll get you out, somehow!”
The dragon in the cage – who apparently was the audacious Lady Rascal – was probably the most excited dragon I had ever seen. She beat her wings and stretched, trying to get closer to Victoria in the cramped cage.
“She seems to like you, Victoria,” Rowan said flatly. I couldn’t help but notice that she looked very offended.
I felt sorry for her, and wondered what had hurt her feelings so much. “Rowan, what’s wr–”
“Sierra.” Victoria hastened toward me before I could finish my sentence. “Where’s your key?”
“My… key?”
She rolled her eyes. “The Key of Frost!”
“It’s right here.” I took it out of my pocket and handed it to her, who, without a thank you, hurried back to the dragon’s cage.
Victoria turned my fantastic key into the lock, and the dragon was free.
Lady Rascal leaped out at Victoria with joy. While they were catching up with each other, Rowan huffed next to me, “It’s not fair.”
At first I didn’t pay attention to her. I had heard this statement multiple times when she thought I got something she deserved more. It was just the type of thing sisters always seem to do. I probably even said it once or twice.
However, I gave her a single glance and realized that she was very upset. “What’s up?” I asked.
“It’s just that… I was the one who rescued Miss Muffin from being locked up in that room! Why does she like Victoria so much better?”
“Miss Muffin…?” I said questioningly. I looked down at Mister Muffin on the floor by Rowan’s feet. He, too, looked rejected.
“Oh! I see. You like that dragon, don’t you, Mister Muffin?”
“Yes, he does,” Rowan replied unhappily. “For the record, I did, too.”
“Aww…” I watched as Victoria hugged Lady Rascal – or was it Miss Muffin? – and hold her tightly, as if there was nothing more important in the world.
A smile came across my face. “We still need a way out of here, don’t we?”
Rowan soberly nodded.
My smile grew wider. “I think that maybe the two dragons can help us.”

Rowan
Sierra left me confused. How could my dear Muffy and the unfaithful Missy assist us in any way?
Although I felt betrayed by Miss Muffin, I knew that Mister Muffin must be feeling even worse. He had loved her, I was pretty sure. Now Victoria, a complete stranger, comes along and Miss Muffin totally abandons us.
I watched my sister and she dashed over to Victoria, Miss Muffin, and Mark. The way she said “help us” had given me an uncomfortable feeling – as if she were about to make the dragons do something she knew I wouldn’t like.
While Sierra was speaking with Victoria, I glared at Miss Muffin. How dare she to this to us!
Soon my three companions headed toward me. I resolved that I wouldn’t talk. I would wait until they begged me to forgive them.
“Sierra has a plan,” Mark announced cheerfully.
“Yeah, but we need Mister Muffin’s help,” Victoria said.
Sierra said, “I was thinking that Lady Rascal and–”
“Her name is Missy!” I shouted, interrupting my sister.
So much for not talking.
“Uh… okay,” Sierra nervously agreed. “Missy and Mister Muffin can go up ahead of us by themselves – I mean, by themselves, together,” she hurriedly added as she saw my eyes flash with anger. “Then they can search for an exit, or at least find out where the dead ends are.”
“You’re saying that you want to make the dragons scout ahead,” I checked.
“Pretty much.”
“Why do the dragons have to go? Why can’t you go?”
“I was thinking that the dragons are faster with their wings, and pretty agile, too. If they run into trouble, they have the best chance out of all of us to–”
“No. You don’t care about them. You would send them to their deaths if it helped you out!” I turned away from them. “I don’t even know why you came to rescue me. Just get out of my sight!”
“Rowan…”
I wasn’t listening. Scooping up Mister Muffin and leaving the treacherous dragon there, I sprinted down the hallway. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I was getting away from them.
When I rounded I corner, I unexpectedly found someone already standing there. I crashed into them, and I flew backward and landed on my back with a thump.
The wind was temporarily knocked out of me. For a few seconds I lay there, trying to get my breath back. Then I heard someone say, “Rowan?”
Startled at the sound of my own name, I raised my head, and in a small, terrified voice just above a whisper, I squeaked, “Liam!”

Sierra
“Rowan’s really ungrateful, isn’t she?” Victoria huffed. “We should just leave her.”
“She’s my sister!” I reminded Victoria, appalled that she would even suggest such a thing.
“If we don’t go after her, she’ll get caught again,” Mark pointed out.
“After all this work, we wouldn’t want to lose her,” I agreed. “Not that we would want to in the first place, but…”
“Oh, I guess you’re right,” Victoria said. She looked around. “Anyone remember which way she went?”
“I think she went this way.” I indicated a hallway.
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Victoria sighed.
The three of us hurried the way Rowan had headed, Lady Rascal trailing behind us. I only hoped we could calm her down. After only six months in Wizard City, I wasn’t really an expert at the “older sister” thing yet.
However, when I turned the corner, I saw Rowan was already with someone.
And that “someone” happened to be Liam GriffinBane.
“Rowan!” I gasped. “Get away from him!”
“I wasn’t–” she began, but I roughly grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her away.
“Don’t you dare touch my sister,” I growled at Liam.
“Is this the way you’re always going to react when you see me?” Liam asked bitterly.
“Yeah. Pretty much,” I replied with equal acrimony. I faced my sister again, turning at just the right angle that I could look at her and keep an eye on Liam. “Don’t you remember what I told you when I came back last time? Liam is evil!”
“I know that, but–”
“See? I leave you alone for just a few minutes and you find him.” I glared at Liam to prove a point. “In fact, why are you down here? Probably coming to execute Victoria and me!”
“Um, well… I actually was coming to see you…” He eyed us suspiciously. “How did you get out, anyway?”
I ignored his last question – had he really expected a truthful answer, anyway? “As you can see, Rowan, he was just going to add another indelible mark on his already diminishing reputation. We’d better leave before he calls on some of his new Draconian buddies.”
“Me? Friends with a Draconian? No way. They’re idiots. And… I wasn’t coming to kill you. That’s Mary’s job. I… wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh, right. Talk to us,” I scoffed, smirking. “Then, go ahead. What did you want to say? You’ve got my attention.”
“I, uh, wanted to ask you about Vanessa.”
I just stood there, too stunned to speak. That certainly hadn’t been what I had expected to hear.
“Please tell me if she’s okay,” Liam begged. “I’m really worried about her. I can’t go a few minutes without wondering if she is doing all right.”
The first thing I thought was, How sweet! He still cares about his sister, even now.
Then I remembered who I was talking to.
“And why should I tell you?” I challenged.
“Because I’m her brother… and you’re not really in a position to argue.”
I let out a frustrated huff of air. Unfortunately, he was right.
“Besides, Vanessa would want it. She wouldn’t want me to worry,” he added.
That, at least, was true. “Well… you might as well ask Mark instead. He has been living with her.”
“Oh! Mark!” he said, as if just noticing he was there. “She’s staying with you? That’s a relief. I thought she might be with Sie–” He stopped himself just in time, but not before I understood what he was saying.
“What’s wrong with me?” I furiously asked. “At least I would take care of her. Unlike you! You’re the reason your parents are dead!”
He winced as if I hit him. He replied, “I’m also the reason Vanessa is alive.”
“No you’re not. Victoria and I were the ones who saved her. You were too busy with Malistaire to even care about her.”
“Y… you saved her?” He sounded surprised, which only made me more angry.
“Did you think Malistaire had freed her? As if!”
“I..” I felt slightly pleased that Liam was confused. Maybe it would show him what he had done wrong.
“Just… tell me if she’s okay. That’s all I want,” Liam said to Mark.
“She’s, uh, fine,” Mark said. “She just finished the Tree of Life.”
“What level is she?”
“Uh… I think it was 38.”
Liam sighed with relief. “Good. Is she working on her spell quest for Spectral Minion?”
“Yeah. Is that what she’s getting? She’ll be happy when I tell her!”
“Okay, you’ve got your answer, Liam,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
“But… wait! I wanted to know more about Vanessa. Is she safe? She’s always with a friend when questing, right? I told her to keep someone with her who can heal, in case she get hurt.”
At first his concern had been touching, but now it was just becoming annoying. “We’ve been on the same quests ever since she helped me get to MooShu. She is always with me. If I’m not available, she’s with Sydney, Rowan, or Victoria. Is that all?” I said in an irritated tone, glaring at him.
“Well, I was also curious about–”
“This is a waste of our time!” I shouted. “Vanessa is a Seeker now. Don’t you get it? If you’re working against the Seekers, you’re working against your sister.”
Liam stared at me in shock. “Vanessa’s a Seeker?”
“Of course she is! What did you think we were in the Pyramid of the Moon for? We…” My voice trailed off as I realized that Liam had no idea what I was talking about. I decided if he didn’t know, perhaps I shouldn’t tell him.
“That’s what you were there for?” Liam gasped. “When the Colossus told us who the Life Seeker was, we thought that was the only reason you had come.”
“Well, now you know,” I sighed. “Vanessa is a Seeker, and she–” I abruptly stopped as his words sank in. “Wait… YOU KNOW WHO THE LIFE SEEKER IS?”
“You don’t know who the Life Seeker is?”
“I… I might.”
He looked at me skeptically. “So that wasn’t why you came to save Rowan?”
“What wasn’t? To… find the Life Seeker? No, not at all!” I glanced at my sister, whose arm was still trapped in my grasp from when I had pulled her away from Liam. I released her and said, “No. I care about Rowan. I haven’t been with her for a very long time, but it’s been long enough to make me realize that she’s the best – if not the most unique – sister that anyone could ever have. I wouldn’t leave her behind for the world.”
Rowan looked at me, and I held her gaze. Slowly, she grinned. I beamed. I knew I was forgiven.
“What about them?” Liam said in a way that made him sound like he hadn’t cared that my sister and I were sharing a special moment one bit.
Mark and Victoria looked at each other. “Liam… we’re Rowan’s friends too,” Mark pointed out.
“Besides, we’d never let Sierra do something dangerous alone,” Victoria added, grinning. “We’d miss out on all the fun, and we would never hear the end of it from her.”
Liam stared at the four of us for a while, and then he closed his eyes thoughtfully. “You know what? I think you’re right.”
I hadn’t really been expecting that answer. “About what?”
“Vanessa will be safe with you. I should stop worrying.” He turned around, no longer facing us. “Look… tell Vanessa I was wondering about her, okay?” He started walking back in the direction he had come from. Just as he was about to round the corner, he stopped and slowly turned back to us. He hesitated for a moment. “Um… you know, I can’t tell you that there is a trapdoor down that hallway to your left that leads to the outside.” He looked at us nervously. “Good luck.”
Before I could thank him, Liam sped around the corner and vanished.

Rowan
At first, we were all so stunned that no one could speak. Even when I found I could, I remained silent to allow my companions to gather their own thoughts.
Sierra was the first to voice the exact thing all four of us had been thinking. “Should we trust him?”
“I think we should,” Mark said.
“That’s because you weren’t there when everything horrible happened! Sierra was there. We shouldn’t believe anything he says. Right, Sierra?”
“Um…”
“Personally, I think it’s safe to at least give him a chance,” I put in.
“You weren’t there either, Rowan,” Victoria reminded me. “I’m sorry, but you really don’t understand what’s going on.”
For some reason, this brought up all my anger back from before. “No, I don’t!” I shouted. “Can’t someone explain?” Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but I signaled for her to stop. “No, not you.” I turned to my sister. “You had better give me some answers.”
“Me?” Sierra said with an annoyingly ignorant and astounded tone.
“Yes, you! Why didn’t you tell me about the Seekers?”
The color drained from Sierra’s face. Her eyes darted away from mine as she tried not to meet my accusing gaze. “I didn’t want you worried.”
“Well, heck yeah! I’m worried!”
“I’m sorry. It’s complicated. I mean… it was selfish of me.”
“No kidding!”
“I just didn’t want you mixed up in all of this. I suppose I was only thinking about what I would feel if I lost you. Not once did I consider how betrayed you would feel if you ever found out.”
I paused for a moment. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Was if possible that if she had told me sooner, I would have been injured… or worse?
“Please forgive me,” she begged. “I’ll tell you about it now if you want.”
“Actually, I already told her a lot,” Mark explained.
“Really? How much do you know, Rowan?”
I decided that, although I would like very much for my sister to tell me about her adventures, now was not the right time. Instead, I returned to my original point. “I know enough to know that Liam wasn’t lying, and we should try to exit the way he told us to.”
Looking totally torn, Sierra glanced at Mark and Victoria for their input.
“I still agree,” Mark said. “What’s the worst that could happen? …No, don’t answer that. Anyway, Liam said that he wanted us to protect Vanessa. I’m sure he is anxious for us to get back and ensure that she is all right.”
“You’ve got a point,” Sierra agreed.
We all looked at Victoria.
“When you put it that way… I guess we can at least see if the area looks risky,” Victoria reluctantly consented.
I grinned. “Then we’re all in agreement?”
They nodded – Sierra slowly and unsurely; Victoria grudgingly; and Mark eagerly.
“Great!” I declared. “Then let’s go find that trapdoor!”

Sierra
Rowan led the way as we trooped down the hallway to our left, just as Liam had suggested. Anyone could tell that there was tension between us. Victoria appeared anxious and helpless and I knew she still didn’t believe that we were really going to leave the fortress. Then again, I wasn’t so sure myself. Was this the right decision? Rowan seemed to think it was. However, I wasn’t entirely positive she was educated enough on the subject to make a decent decision.
The two dragons clung to their preferred master’s side. Miss Muffin/Lady Rascal was currently in Victoria’s arms while Mister Muffin chose to fly lugubriously next to Rowan. My sister seemed to have completely forgotten about the Miss Muffin incident, and was now content to lead our party.
Eventually, the hallway split into two ways. I groaned inwardly. Liam had only said “a hallway to our left,” and not much else. He had never mentioned anything about having to choose a direction.
Rowan stared at the wall in dismay. Victoria said, “Well, even if he was trying to help us, Liam obviously can’t give directions very well.”
“He mentioned a trapdoor,” I said hopefully.
“Why bother looking? It can still be a trap.”
“Do you think we can teleport?” Mark offered.
I shook my head. “I doubt it.”
“Maybe the dragons can sniff something out?” Victoria suggested.
“They’re not dogs!” Rowan huffed.
“At least I’m trying to include them! I don’t make my dragon sit around and do nothing because you’re too afraid to let it have excitement for once!”
“I think we should calm down a bit,” I proclaimed, sensing an argument. “Maybe if we work together, we can locate this door.”
“If it’s really here,” Victoria reminded me.
Pretending that I couldn’t hear her, I pondered over our situation. Glancing around a bit, I saw, of course, the same scene I had seen upon reaching the wall. “Why don’t we try pushing on the wall or something?” I inquired. “Maybe there’s a hidden door.”
“That wouldn’t make sense,” Rowan said. “How about I go and check each way to see if there’s something down one of them?”
“We shouldn’t split up!”
“I might be able to find something. A clue of some sort.”
“Let her go,” Victoria said. “I’m just glad it’s not me having to look.”
Victoria sure could be pessimistic when she wanted to.
“That could be a good idea,” Mark agreed. “I’ll go the other way. We can communicate with Whisper Chat. How about that?”
“Again, splitting up is never a good idea. Are you sure Whisper Chat even works in here?”
“It’s seems to,” he replied. I jumped as his voice echoed in his head. Apparently, it worked just fine.
“I… I guess Victoria and I will wait here.” I looked at my sister. “Rowan…” I hesitated as I tried to think of a way to say what I wanted to.
Without letting me continue, Rowan surprised me by reaching over and giving me a hug. “I know, I know,” she said. “I’ll be careful.” She pulled away and grinned. “I’ll have Muffy with me at all times. Try not to worry too much, okay, Sierra?”
I nodded unwillingly.
With those final words, Rowan and Mark disappeared down their hallways.

Rowan
“Alone again,” I sighed, clutching Mister Muffin closely in my arms.
Mister Muffin grunted sadly.
I looked down at him, and remembered Miss Muffin. “You’re still not over her, huh?”
He shook his head, and then leaped out of my arms, deciding to fly beside me.
“It just wasn’t meant to be. If she ditches you in an instant for someone else, it wasn’t true love!”
At that moment, I heard Sierra’s voice. “How are you doing, Rowan?” I sensed a slight edge of anxiety in it.
“I’m just around the corner,” I reminded her.
Her answer didn’t come for a few seconds, making it feel oddly delayed. “Something’s wrong with Whisper Chat,” she said. “Apparently the farther away you get in here, the longer it takes for the messages to transmit.”
“That’s just great,” I murmured aloud to myself sarcastically.
Muffin stared at me curiously, and I remembered that he couldn’t hear the conversation. “Whisper Chat doesn’t work properly,” I groaned. Just then I looked up, and abruptly stopped, for I had been about to run into a large pile of rubble. “What the…” I looked up, and I spotted a large, circular hole in the ceiling. It must have caved in for some reason. Through the hole, I saw what could be the sky… except it was red.
“Wow! What could have done this?” I furtively scanned the area. There were odd black marks on the wall, different from the usual black that mixed with the red. When I approached one, I examined it and exclaimed, “This is soot!”
Almost as if on cue, there was a strange trumpeting sound coming from farther down the hallway. Then it all came flooding back. My Helephant! I’d totally forgotten about it!
Going farther down this hallway would be a bad idea, then. I didn’t think running into a wild Helephant would be a very pleasant experience.
I was about t turn back, and I prepared to use Whisper Chat to inform Sierra of what had happened, when something glinted in the pile. Turning Whisper Chat back off, I bent over to examine the shiny object. It was an odd, rounded piece of metal. I tried to pick it up, but it seemed attached to the piece of debris. Strangely, it would rotate left and right when I tried.
“If… there’s a round piece of metal… Muffy! This must be… a doorknob!” I gasped again. “What if this is the trapdoor?”
Glancing up again, I realized that I could imagine that the one area had been slightly lower than the rest if it were reconstructed – the perfect height for someone to reach up and, let’s say, open a door?
“We found it, Muffy. We found the trapdoor!” Excitedly, I switched back to Whisper Chat and screamed, “Sierra! I found it!”
As expected, there was a pause. Eventually, though, Sierra’s relieved voice said, “Thank goodness. Stay there. We’ll teleport.”
I laughed aloud with joy. At long last, we would get out of this terrible place.
We were safe.

Sierra
I eagerly told Victoria the fortunate news. Rowan had found the exit!
When I teleported, it took a while. Almost two minutes, in fact. Luckily, soon enough I felt myself disappear and, with beautiful snowflake surrounding me and the rushing wind, I reappeared in front of Rowan. Mark was there, too, but he was facing a wall. “Guess what?” Rowan said. “Mark has a surprise for you!”
“What is it?”
Mark moved his hands in front of him, and all three of us brightened up immediately. There were three decks of spell cards, two wands, a Dragonspyre sword, and three spellbooks. He was struggling to hold it all, since there were so many things.
“You found my deck!” Victoria cried, snatching it.
Mark handed the other two decks out to their respective owners. Then he passed out our wands and Victoria’s sword, then spellbooks. I thanked him profoundly. “How did you find these?” Rowan asked. I had been wondering the same thing.
“When I went down that hallway, I stumbled across this huge room. I found your stuff, but a Draconian was guarding it. I took care of him.”
“Wow! You defeated a Draconian all by yourself in that short amount of time?” Victoria said, impressed.
“Uh, yeah. Wraith helps, believe me. And when there’s no dueling circle, the normal dueling rules don’t apply. You don’t even have separate turns. As long as you have enough pips and mana, you can just keep casting spells.”
“Still, it’s pretty amazing. Uh, anyway…” She glanced around. “Where’s the trapdoor?”
“Look up,” Rowan instructed.
We all did, and I saw a gaping hole in the ceiling. I stared at it in shock, wondering why I hadn’t seen it before.
“I thought we could climb up the pile of rubble and outside,” she sheepishly explained. “The roof’s not too high up if we stand on something–”
“It’s perfect, Rowan!” I promised. “We can do it.”
Mark tried climbing the pile first. His attempts kicked down quite a large amount of loose rock, diminishing our pile’s height by a decent amount. Still, he managed to reach up and hoist himself outside. He then proceeded with helping Rowan and Victoria.
I was the last to try and ascend the pile. Honestly, my job was the hardest. The others’ attempts had reduced the pile to half its original size. Somehow, with Mark’s aid, I stumbled outside.
My friends greeted me with enormous smiles. “We made it out!” Victoria screamed.
“We’re not safe yet,” I reminded her. “We still have to get far away to teleport.”
We started walking. Every once and a while, we would find another large gap in the roof that we were forced to avoid. Something large and powerful had obviously come through here.
Every time I spotted another hole, I shuddered. I really, really hoped we wouldn’t find what made it.

Rowan
I cringed every time we ran into a new crevice my Helephant had created. I shouldn’t have let it free. I probably should have made it go away first.
Besides, thinking about the Helephant made Miss Muffin come back to mind, stirring up mixed emotions. I’d taken so many risks for her! Didn’t she know that casting a spell above your level could kill you?
It didn’t help that the roof seemed endless. It sloped at a slight angle, although it varied in height at some points. We tried to move in the general direction of the downward slope, but it was difficult. We were just fortunate that it wasn’t so steep we would fall off. Still, even after traveling for a considerable amount of time, we hadn’t seen any indication that the building would end.
It was so strange, I remember thinking. It seemed like such a large building, but it was out in the middle of nowhere.
Sierra began talking, distracting me. “Rowan, exactly how much do you know about the Seekers?”
“Not much,” I admitted. “I’ve connected a lot of things together, though. Who are all of the Seekers? I know Mark, Victoria, and I’m guessing Liam, but who else?”
While she told me, I wondered why Handy had kidnapped me, anyway. Actually, that voice… whoever had been behind that door had been calling me “Seeker.”
Could that mean…?

Sierra
My sister looked very thoughtful all of a sudden. Rowan asked, “Who is the Life Seeker?”
“Oh, well, I’m not actually totally sure yet. It might be Scarlet, though.”
“Who’s Scarlet?” Victoria inquired.
“I forgot that you wouldn’t know that! We met her at Vanessa’s awakening. It is probable that she would be the Life Seeker. Don’t we always meet the right Seeker before their awakening?”
“I was thinking it might be Rowan,” Mark said.
“Her?” I objected, while Rowan, astonished, cried, “Me! Why me?”
“She’s just as good a candidate as that Scarlet girl.”
“I… I don’t know. Maybe...”
“LOOK!” Victoria called out. Just a little farther ahead, behind a rise in the roof, the top of a different colored building peeked out.
“That might be where we came from!” Mark declared, following Victoria, who was rushing toward it.
I glanced at my sister. “Aren’t you happy to be leaving, too, Rowan?”
“Oh… yeah! Sure I am!” Still, her ebullience seemed forced.
“Well, I’m not so sure what you’re upset about,” I said. “Does it have to do with Seekers?”
She didn’t answer. I took it as a “Yes.”
“Don’t lose sleep over it, okay, Rowan?” I assured her. “You’re involved with Seekers now, whether you like it or not.” That sounded a bit negative. “Um, I mean, even though that might sound like a bad thing, it can actually be quite… rewarding. Even fun, sometimes.” I grinned, but the look on my sister’s face made it fade. “I could do without the life-threatening moments, of course.” I was attempting to make her laugh, but Rowan remained stoic. “Oh, come on, Rowan. Just tell me what’s wrong. Please?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” she answered at length. “I don’t think I’m fit to save anyone.”
I paused, thinking. “You know what? You’re right. You’re not fit to save the world. But, really, do you think I’m any better?”
She pursed her lips, and, staring at the ground, muttered, “I suppose not.”
I beamed. “Besides, who ever said anything about you saving the Spiral? You’re not a Seeker, Rowan. That honor goes to us!” I remembered Mark’s suggestion, but I put it out of my mind. I truly hoped it wasn’t Rowan. The last thing I wanted was for my own sister, the only person I cared about more than myself, to be risking her life for millions of wizards we didn’t even know. I was not all that happy with my position in the first place, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Well, except for maybe Liam. I’d like to see how he would deal with finding a special Life student he didn’t even know, keeping his friends and sister alive, sneaking in and out of the most evil man in the Spiral’s lair, twice, and on top of it all, trying not to break down into tears of frustration every five seconds.
Yep. That’s me.
“There is something I should probably tell you,” Rowan said eventually. “Something I overheard.”
“What?”
“Um, just…” She stopped. We had reached the edge of the roof. A tall building rose in front of us, and smaller buildings surrounded it. This wasn’t where we had come in from, and I didn’t know Dragonspyre well enough to have any clue where we were.
It was a rather long drop down, so we had to rock climb the sides. Instead of all four of us scrambling down the building, Mark had gone down alone. The only thing we needed to do was teleport.
When I appeared next to Mark, I saw his face flushed with excitement… but also something else. Fear, perhaps? I hoped not. “I know where we are,” he said breathlessly. “This is the back of the Athenuem, I’m sure of it! That building there is the library, and the smaller ones are the shops.”
“What’s an Athenuem?” I inquired. “You said something about it before…”
“It’s like the Shopping District, but for Dragonspyre,” Victoria explained. “But… we just came from Malistaire’s lair. Would it really be bordering the Athenuem?”
“I know. That’s what I was thinking too.” Mark shook his head. That explained the odd expression. “It’s kind of creepy. What if it was there the whole time, but we never noticed it?”
“We’d better inform Headmaster Ambrose,” Victoria concluded solemnly.
We all decided that Mark and Victoria would go to notify the headmaster by themselves, because they understood the situation best. After a brief goodbye, they teleported away, leaving Rowan and I alone.
“We should go home,” Rowan suggested. “Who knows how long we were in there?”
“Yeah, good plan,” I agreed. I looked at Rowan and again was struck by how different she looked. Before she’d been my crazy, childish younger sister, and now…
“Do you think… think it’s possible that I’m a Seeker?” Rowan abruptly blurted.
“Uh, I suppose,” I said, caught a bit off-guard. “Anything could happen.”
“Yeah, but do you really, really think it might happen?”
“I’m not sure.” I was still curious about the details on what happened while Rowan was alone. Mister Muffin was still at her side, and he didn’t look so sad anymore, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about Missy/Lady Rascal.
“Sierra?” I blinked and returned back to the present. I looked at my sister, and – oh man, I’d never seen her so scared before! “I’m really worried about you.”
“Rowan…”
I stepped forward and gave her a hug.
“Don’t be.”
I could feel some tears staining my robe, but I didn’t care. I wanted to cry, too, but I didn’t, to be strong for Rowan.
“Just promise me you’ll be okay,” Rowan sobbed.
“I promise,” I said softly. “I promise I won’t die. Okay? We’ll be together forever.”
“Forever?”
I smiled and ruffled her hair. “Forever.”
That was the biggest promise I had ever made in my whole life.
I only hoped I could keep it.

*******

So there it is! Oh my gosh... it's so long it's making my typing laggy. O.o

If you seriously ever manage to read ALL of that within even an HOUR, I admire you. xD

The paragraphs still look so ugly outside my word document... :(

Happy Birthday, Row Row!

2010-03-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Rowan WillowLeaf's birthday! She's my sister, and contributor to this blog, in case you didn't know. ;) She got Pokemon HeartGold for her birthday... (lucky.)

So, annnyway! Her birthday was also the last day of Spring Break! So... I'm not on break anymore... And I played no Wizard101 at all - oh, wait. I did. I met Sarah SpiritHeart on Friday. :D It was annoying, though, because Hunter wouldn't stop sending me messages. xD He didn't know who you were, Sarah, in case you read this. I'll post a picture soon. I only got one. I wasn't really thinking. :( We did some instance level, but I can't remember which it was. I had a really small deck for it, too. All I had was two Frost Giants (which I couldn't find anyway), two Colossus, one IceBlade, one Elemental Blade, three Ice Traps (my amulet gives me two), two feints, and a reshuffle (wouldn't be good to run out of cards!). Compared to what I USUALLY have as my deck, it's a miracle that I can even list all my cards here. I just didn't want to be hindered from using powerful spells because a darn Banshee or something got in the way.

...I just reread that. Why does it sound incredibly choppy?

Ah, well, doesn't matter.

Now for Part 12! I sent it in to Wizard101 a week ago. Wait... it's not up, is it? *checks* Nope. I wonder why? They're really neglecting the Creative Writing right now, I suppose. :(

I'm sorry I haven't posted it up here, yet! As you know, I haven't been on computer much (must... find... Heart Piece... on... LttP...). Please note that if I DO post it up, the paragraphs will be TOTALLY messed up and all my italics gone. I wish you could see it in my word document. It looks SO organized on there, with all the indents and neat paragraphs and bolded words and italicized parts. Ooh... well, I could, if I took a picture. xD

Good news, great news, and AWESOME news!

2010-03-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

Good news: I got a 95% on my Midterm! I get computer this Spring Break! WOO-HOO!
Great news: I'm going on Wizard101 tommorrow! And I'm gonna take LOTS of screenshots!
Awesome news: I FINISHED PART TWELVE! O:

I'M NOT KIDDING!

I'd post it here, but... do you REALLY want me to? I'm dead serious. It's 68 pages, 24,544 words, 133,013 characters ALONE -.-

NOW do you think I should split it into two parts?

Well, if I get enough people wanting me to post it here, I might. Ugh, the italics and stuff won't be there, though, and all the paragraphs will be screwed up.

For people not following my story - I'll have some good ol' adventures with Laura DarkGlen tommorrow! That is... if I remember. xD

Guess I'm alone now, huh?

2010-03-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

No one's commenting! Sarah's the only one who's commented in FOREVER! Where IS everyone? Geez! I feel so lonely, haha. ...Well, if I weren't supposed to be doing homework, I'd post screenshots! But I AM supposed to do homework, so... :(

Guess I'd better study for that Midterm! If I don't pass it, my mom said no computer for all of Spring Break. :(

So if I don't post again... that's why!

Yeah. Been kind of busy.

2010-03-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

If anyone noticed, I haven't been online in a while. I have SO much more to post on my other blog than on here. I wish I remembered my blog when I was at home, and I could post screenshots! Ugh. Well... um...

I have a question to ask you guys who read my Creative Writing story. Would you think it weird if I split up Part 12? Meaning, I would release Part 13 as well, with Rowan's view in half? The rest of the series won't have her PoV in there, though. If you DO want two parts, then I can release part twelve NOW. It will be shorter in that case. So? What do you think?

...OOPS...

I JUST remembered that I promised someone Part 12 would be done by March! Oh dangit... xD So, maybe I will HAVE to split it up so that I don't break my promise!

Another thing: My Word Document is officially 200 pages long. Yayes!

For once, I have LOTS to say!

2010-02-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

RANDOM SCREENSHOT TIME!

That was fun...

Lolz, I have LOTS more... but I think that is enough randomness for one day!

Did you see that one when I have open my bank, with Spike's Amulet of Smitting or whatever? That's the glitch I talked about forever ago! It was no trade, no auction, no sell, no... a lot of stuff...

Anyway...

NEWS FLASH!

Guess what guess what guess what?!?!?

I FINISHED PART THIRTEEN!

Yeah... in the Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze, I already finished Part 13 irl... but according to my Word Document, I'm not even halfway through Part 12... xD

Ooh, I LOVE the ending of Part 13. But I don't like how the Past Seekers turned out. They sound weird...

OTHER NEWS!

Um... I learned Text Art, like Sarah SpiritHeart was talking about! Well, KIND OF. I taught it to myself, so it's not very good. xD I spelled Zelda, though, because I remembered someone else doing it for a walkthrough. I can't put it on here, for some reason - it looks a WHOLE lot different in a Word Document than on a blog post!

OTHER OTHER NEWS!

Hmm. Well, how about the poll? I DIDN'T PUT PART 12 AS AN OPTION SO EVERYONE WOULD CHOOSE IT! xD I just find it really, really funny that everyone seems to like Part 12 EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T PUBLISHED YET! Oh well. If you like it... I guess you just like it. And for the six or so people who haven't read my story? DO IT. NOW. *waits* ...Nvm. Don't feel like waiting. At least you voted on the poll. xD

And... I have no other news. But I'm going to post more screenshots on my next entry.

...Maybe...

Am I missing something here?

2010-02-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

First of all: no comments? Where did everyone go? I haven't had comments for... three days? Or was it two... or one... O.o

Second: What are all the other bloggers talking about? Destiny said something about all the bloggers meeting in one spot. How come I wasn't invited? :(

Third: I don't have people bothering me about Part 12 anymore! Yayz! Wait... but they're my motivation. People who annoy me are the only reason I write... xD

Fourth: I am NEVER going to get Laura to Grandmaster...

Fifth: Uh... I guess there is no number five, lol. Just trying to think of something to add...

So. Yeah. I think Alia's back to blogging, from the looks of it. Haven't checked yet... ugh... I'm so bored... xD

I need Crowns!

I want wings, and a house! SOOOO BADLY! I hope they fix the drop rates soon... unless they already have... O: I am SO outdated.

I is bored....

2010-02-23T08:17:00.001-08:00

I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING TO POST!

I literally haven't done much lately, lol. I'm not feeling well. O.o My computer time has been neglected, replaced by Wii, DSi, or piano. So... I have nothing to write... Um...

Oh!!! I gots an idea!

I'll post random screenshots!

When I get home!

Yeah...

I still have nothing to talk about right now. O.o

And whoever puts "awesomeful" on this post is really weird... xD Then again, that's just inviting "whatever's". Btw, who keeps putting "whatever" on every single post? Geez! If you hate my posts so much, STOP VISITING MY BLOG! I mean, some I could understand... but when I posted my preview? Don't put whatever on it. It hurts my feelings. xD

...So.........

Bored again. -.-

Poor Vanessa...

2010-02-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

I just checked on the results of the poll. Yayz! I won! xD Rowan's second (tied for it, actually, if "um, um" counts). Sydney, Mark, Liam, and Mister Muffin/Sir Romeo are in third. All the other Seekers got one vote, I think. Everyone... except Vanessa.

I feel bad for her! I just talked with her tonight on the phone! And I convinced her that it wasn't too bad - Victoria didn't have any votes, either. But now she does... and poor Vanessa is in last. Along with Seth, Scarlet, and Jasmine.

Annnyway... I was thinking that my next poll would be what your favorite part of TTOSW is. I'd be curious to know which part everyone likes the most. Then, after that, it will be back to totally unrelated-to-story polls! Like... favorite color? Idk...

...Btw, who did everyone vote on for the last poll? I mean... who votes for Hunter? Geez! He has, like, no parts! I don't even like him much irl! xD Jk... or am I?

My first image on Photoshop!

2010-02-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

Guess what? I finally got to download Photoshop on the computer I use, just like my sister has on her computer! I've seen her do it enough times that I knew the basics, so I tried to make a header for my other blog! I, um, did TERRIBLY though. So, Rowan kicked in and decided to help me! Look at the amazing header we made together!

Is it good, great, or awesome? ...Or bad. I hope it's not bad!

I'm sorry. I'm sure none of you have any idea who the people in the picture are. That's because they're from my favorite video game series (Legend of Zelda - I've mentioned that, haven't I? xD). The girl that's enlarged on the right is there because she's who the blog is named after - Medli. Yes, she DOES have a beak. You're not imagining it. She's a bird person (long story).

So... yeah! I just spent a good hour browsing through renders on Planet Renders.net. I had LOTS of fun picking out pictures to put on there. So if it looks crowded... it's because I put on every single picture I spotted, and didn't even get on all the ones I wanted.

For those of you who are curious to see how this looks on a blog (or who just want to do me a really, really nice favor by commenting on one of my posts), please visit my other blog, Medli's Messages, at www.medlismessages.blogspot.com!

Seriously? WINGS?!?!

2010-02-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

I... can't... believe it...

They added WINGS to the game!

At least, according to other bloggers they did. Unless it's on the test realm... grr, I would be SO mad if it were...

I can NOT believe they add wings right after I run out of Crowns! I only have around 100 something. That's a LONG way away from the 7000 they're on sale for...

Ugh. I. NEED. CROWNS!

I need them not only for wings, but for a HOUSE! I'm DYING to buy the Storm house! It's so beautiful. Or the Myth house. Or just the Ice. Or even Death, for Laura. I really wish you could buy Crowns with gold, lol.

WAIT!

I wonder if you can buy the wings with gold? O: I hope so! And if it IS so, then I hope it's for less than 20000 gold, cuz' that's all I have now!

Well... I'll have to go on tommorrow to check, because I'm typing Part 12 now. I can't wait for tommorrow to tell Sydney that the wings came out on her birthday!

Oh, right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYDNEY JADEHAMMER!

Hmm, I thought you used to be able to make text bigger... but I guess not...

You know, Sydney is my BEST friend in real life. And she's the Fire Seeker. So... wish her happy birthday! :D