Chapter 2: The Sword In The Stone
"A blooming feel, a call to fate. Struggle and fight the dream you can not wake. The steady stream that goes one path, alas all things can not last. A blooming feel, you can't change fate. The pure-hearted warrior is called to wake!"
Luminous jolted awake at the sound of the familiar voice, the book she was reading slid off of her face and onto the wooden work desk below her.
"Master mouse?"
She looked around her moonlit bedroom from her messy bed to the wardrobe and bookshelf that were beyond disorganized. But saw no one, not even that tiny old mouse.
"Had I dreamed it?"
Luminous had gotten dressed in her comfy black shorts and pink buttoned up pajama shirt, meaning only to wear it for a little bit before she had to get dressed in her ball gown. While waiting for the time to pass, she, of course, had to read a chapter of her new book, then the next, then the next after that until she fell asleep right where she was.
Luminous yawned, her eyelids becoming heavy. Her small body slowly sank into the desk until she glanced up at the clock.
"I'm late!" Luminous jumped up. Papers from her desk flying everywhere. "I'm late for a very important date!"
And just like that, Luminous, without thinking about what she was wearing, or whether or not her waist-long hair was brushed, ran out of her bedroom.
"Brend-bot is going to kill me!"
Luminous rushed down the red marble stairs. She was in such a rush to get to the ball; she didn't even notice that everything in the castle was eerily dark and quiet.
Her white socks thumped on the floor, running down the vast halls until she got to the wide double doors. Pushing them open, she ran into the ballroom.
"I'm sorry, I'm late." Luminous doubled over panting. "But I was stopped by a raven at a writing desk who told me that if I…" She looked up, but no one was in the ballroom. "That I.."
She slowly walked around the circular dance floor, noticing just how small she was in the spacious ballroom.
"Hello? Anyone there?" Luminous called out, surely there had to be a server bot somewhere in the castle at least. "Brenda-bot?"
But no one answered. The red banners depicting the anvil and hammer emblem of the kingdom were still. Even the piano was without one note on it.
"Maybe I could see where everyone went from the parapet."Luminous mumbled to herself. "But I'll need something to help me reach the roof ladder."
The patrol scoots always used the ladder themselves to get to the parapets, but since they were tall and the latter was a bit off the ground, it was never a problem for them to get to it, but because Luminous was so, well, short…
Luminous looked around to see if there was anything she could use to get up to the ladder. But the only thing she could move that was tall enough, was the queen's throne. Gulping, she took another glance around the room. If she so much as touched the queen's throne, Luminous knew that she would get the beating of her life. But then again, no one was around…
Adrenalin filled Luminous' Lungs as she dragged the chair across the red marvel dance floor. She got to the middle of the ballroom right under the chandler when she spotted someone moving in the hallway right outside.
"I didn't touch it!" Luminous yelled, letting go of the throne as if it burned her. "I..I mean I was brainwashed too! I mean I'm a doppelganger! This is... a dream?"
"Grr…"
A low growl sounded from the hallway. Curious Luminous got up on the throne, hand shading her eyes, peering into the darkness.
That's when a pitch dark hand reached out into the ballroom, and three other long dark hands pulled a big round creature forward, it's four slanted red eyes that sat on its body opened up instantly locking onto her. The creature's smile stretched out across its frame. It's sharp teeth glinting in the dim light.
Luminous leaned back on the throne, it fell, throwing her to the red marvel ground with a thud. She lay upside down watching as the monster crawled towards her, it's eight long arms dragging its fat body around with unnatural speed.
Luminous flipped over onto her hands and knees. Pushing herself off the floor, she darted towards the french doors that lead into the garden.
Her heart burned in her chest as she ran. Her small hands slammed onto the glass doors pushing them wide open. Not a moment after her sock touched the cobblestone pavement all the lights shut off around the garden. More dark creatures came out of the bushes, trees, and from around the pavilion, long dark hands wrapped around Luminous' body.
"Ahh!" Luminous' screams pierced the night sky. She reached out towards the air desperately, but there was nothing there to grasp.
"Underneath your bed, monsters are made, shine a light to make them fade!" An old gruff voice shouted out.
A beam of light shot through the night sky, hitting the dark creatures. They evaporated into smoke on impact like shadows.
Luminous squinted at the small light that lay low to the ground. It moved a little closer before talking.
"You're late, young lady." Scoffed Master Mouse, his wand illuminating his small body. "And what, I inquire, do you think you're wearing right now?"
Luminous looked down at her pink button pajama top with the little black shorts.
"But I...It's not like I could…I mean, I just..." Luminous stuttered before looking around the garden for answers. "What were thoughts things? What's happened to the rest of the castle? Where is everyone? The prince? Chasm?...May…?"
"Grr grrr!"
Luminous froze, hearing a growling noise in the distance.
"All in good time." Master Mouse said. "I'm sorry Luminous, but I'm afraid I've been waiting for too long. You have to come with me now before it's too late."
She followed the small mouse. The dark green pine trees got more frequent until they covered the two completely, shrouding them even from the white moonlights' watchful eyes. It was so unrecognizable that if she lost the old gray mouse, Luminous felt that she would have been gone forever.
Master Mouse stopped in front of a giant willow tree. It's branches wrapped around an old wooden clock as if strangling it. The mouse ran up the clock, turning the hands of the clock until the clock struck one, and the mouse ran down.
The branches loosened their grip on the huge grandfather clock. It moved to the side to reveal a hole in the tree.
Master Mouse walked inside without a second thought. But Luminous hesitated for a moment, looking around the thick forest. She couldn't see the castle from where she was anymore, even if she wanted to go back. Taking a deep breath, she got on her hands and knees, crawling in after him.
"What is this place? What were thoughts monsters out there?" Luminous paused. "Is this a dream?"
"You inquire about too much, child." Said Master Mouse. "It's best to ask one question at a time."
Luminous stopped in the middle of the dirt tunnel for a moment, taking a deep breath.
"Is everyone okay?" Luminous got out, willing away the lump in her throat.
Master Mouse stopped, the soft red vest he was wearing became entwined with his fingers.
"We, best keep moving." Master Mouse smoothed out his vest. "I, I ahem have to get you out of here."
He continued down into the dirt tunnel without looking back at Luminous. Who just bit back her tears until a bright light caught her eyes.
"Huh?"
Luminous looked up. The white moonlight showing through the full french windows, casting on the tapestries that lined the walls on the other side of the hall.
Luminous stood up in the vast hallway, walking up to one of the tapestries. The first one was a picture of a short red-haired boy slaying a giant. He had a large buster sword with a dark blue hilt and bright orange glass blade. Luminous saw something written underneath it.
"Here is the tale of Tom the Tiny, out to search for something golden or shiny. In the mountain to treasure, he fled, packed up his bag, last time he made up his bed. The giants of the mountain didn't take kindly to the strangers from Kingdom Red, so Tom took the Dawn of Fate and cut off their heads." Read Luminous. "I've never heard of these guys before."
Curious Luminous glanced at the tapestry next to that one. This one had a picture of a muscular man with long white hair holding the orange sword that was in the last tapestry. He was standing on a hill with the sun rising above him, and vampires burning below. Luminous looked down at the caption.
"This is the story of Relic, the vampire slayer, with nothing to lose, he stormed the vampire layer. He killed all the creatures of the dark by ending eternal night, but bringing about the era of the sun ended his light."
Curiouser, Luminous ran over to the next tapestry. This one was of another little boy holding a sword that was way too big for him, the glass vermillion blade pointed to the ground, he had long braided hair, that was black like Chasms, but unlike Chasem he had big round apple red eyes instead of narrow blue ones. In the tapestry, he had a bunch of red strings wrapped around his snow-white body.
"The world rang out a tale of a gypsy boy from kingdom Black. He would go to new places and never look back. With the power of the sword and a given name, he can take back the free will people freely claim. The people who were caught by his power could not be swayed, for they must do what Simon says."
Luminous now stood in front of one that had a tall, handsome man with wavy brown hair with that same sword in his hands as the others. He was pointing it at a huge dark crow that towered over him. A wizard with long purple hair that matched his purple robes held a silver staff in his hands with lightning shooting out of it at the crow.
"The Crow King reigns over the corrupt in people's hearts, his monsters his work of art. But all has changed with this welder's one mistake…"
"Don't touch that!"
Luminous' finger slid across the lettering as she jolted. She had utterly forgotten about Master mouse until she found him underneath another tapestry taping his foot on the tile ground.
"Ohh, umm…"
"You should know better than to touch a one thousand-year-old tapestry without permission." Scolded Master Mouse.
"I wasn't... touching anything..." Luminous glancing around the hallway.
"Never mind that," Master mouse rolled his eyes. "Come along now. We have to keep moving." He pulled back the tapestry with care, revealing a good-sized hole in the wall.
Luminous got on her hands and knees and began crawling. When she stood up again, she got a good look at the round room. The white moonlight shone through the hole in the roof of the circular room, gleaming on a huge vermilion glass sword sticking out of a stone.
"It's that sword!" Luminous pointed at the sword.
"That sword?" Master Mouse quirked an eyebrow.
"Ya, it's one of the swords in the tapestry it's…"
But before Luminous could explain how she knew the sword, she spotted a group of mirrors behind the sword.
Instead of reflecting the room to her, they all had images of other places in them. One of them had a very recognizable white dresser room table, with a white cabinet and big pink bedspread.
"The red prince's room?"
In another instant, Chasm ran into the room, his side was bleeding, but he held the red prince's hand in a tight grip, with a sword in the other. A dark wolf with red eyes busted threw the door after them.
Chasm and the red prince hit a dead end when the wolf backed them up to the door of the closet. Two more shadowy wolves came into the room behind the lead one, growling. Chasm stood in front of the prince, his sword blocking the wolves from getting any closer.
"You can't fend them off by yourself." Said the prince. "Just let me help you."
The red prince reached for the knife around Chasms belt. Chasm opened up the closet door pushing the red prince inside. Causing the red prince to fall onto a pile of clothes on the ground.
"Sorry, my prince." Said Chasm looking back. "I can't just let you put yourself in danger. You're the crown prince and the only bloodline we have to take the future crown."
The wolves growled and snapped. The lead one jumped forward, his jaws opening wide. Chasm blocked the attack with his sword, the wolf bit the blade then immediately jumped back once he cut his mouth...
"But, you can't continue like this for much longer! You're already wounded!" Protested the prince.
"Ya, and how would you help?" The knight painted, holding his bleeding side. "You don't even know how to wield a kitchen knife!"
The wolf to the left jumped at Chasm's bleeding shoulder. He slashed the wolf across the face, the creature backed up.
Luminous continued to watch them through the mirror becoming fidgety. All three of the ink-black wolves continued to surround the knight.
Chasm held the sword steady, his narrow blue eyes darkened, daring them to come at him again. All three wolves growled taking the challenge. They all stepped forward. But Chasm stood his ground, blowing a strand of dark hair that fell out of his ponytail out of his eyes.
"Chasm!" Yelled the prince.
The knight looked back to see a man's hand reaching out of a portal, grabbing the prince's arm. The prince struggled to pull away from the mysterious portal man's grip.
Chasm dove for the prince's other hand. Gripping it, he tried to pull the prince back towards himself but the stranger was too strong. The wolves behind him growled, seeping into the closet. Chasm looked towards the wolves then back at the prince, frantic about what to do now. He could cut the man's hand off, but the blade didn't quite reach, if he leaned forward he risked losing the prince inside the portal.
"Chasm, just... let go." Said the prince shaking his head.
"What?!"
"Go to kingdom Brown, tell them kingdom Red has been attacked and we may all be in danger. I'll be fine, I can defend myself."
"I'm not leaving." Said Chasm sternly. "As I said, you can't defend yourself, you can't even weld a kitchen knife. You've had no training."
The prince swallowed hard, he didn't like to play this card but he had to.
"Chasm! I, Arthur, crown prince of the Red kingdom, order you to let go of me and go to kingdom Brown!"
Chasm wiped his head around staring at him, the prince glared back with his chestnut eyes. Between the wolves and the stranger on the other side of the portal.
"I can't believe it,"sighed Chasm. "I'm disobeying orders."
Chasm hugged the red prince tight, before diving into the portal to whatever awaited them beyond.
Luminous was left staring at the mirror that showed the prince's room where the prince and Chasm were just kidnaped. No one was in the room now except for the shadowy wolves.
"Where did they go?" Luminous slowly began walking up to the mirror, her legs feeling like lead with each step. "I have to, I have to get in there!"
When she got up to the mirror she began pounding on it like her life depended on it.
"Luminous! Stop that this instant!" Yelled Maser Mouse. "That won't do you any good! You're only going to break that!"
"I have to get in there!" Luminous shouted, continuing to hit the glass with her fist.
"I said desist!" Yelled Master Mouse.
"I have to find them!" Yelled Luminous panicked, the glass creaking beneath her fist.
"I said abstain!"
"They can't be gone forever! I have to save them!"
With one final blow, Luminous broke the glass mirror. It shattered away into tiny bits and pieces onto the gray sand below. But to Luminous dismay, there was no room behind the mirror, no way into the palace, no way back.
Tears began to run down Luminous' cheeks, she dropped to the sandy ground below. She began to pick up the tiny pieces of glass into her tiny fair hands. She shifted through the peace trying to peer through the glass into the room she saw before, but couldn't see anything but the ebony glass.
"But I don't understand." Luminous sobbed. "Why couldn't I go through? Why couldn't I do anything to save them?"
Master Mouse picked up one of the many glass shards on the ground looking at it. Dismay stained his face, he waited a little too late, but somehow wished he could have waited longer.
"There is only one way to get out of here your freedom, it stakes. Take up the sword, but seal your fate."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone