Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - In Which Zane-Ashburn Learns To Ask For The Rules
Zane-Ashburn made it back to the house but decided not to go in. Mother would ask too many questions and he couldn't explain if he didn't even know what he saw. He turned and walked down the street that led to town. He didn't like being around lots of people, but the Library required its sacrifices. He walked through the old wooden doorway and he was greeted with the smell of old books and the sound of silence. He calmed down a bit and soon felt as relaxed as he could for someone who had just been turned into a goose.
"Hello, Zane," The librarian said as he walked through the door
"Greetings, Miss Iris," Zane-Ashburn said with a little wave.
"What brings you here?
"Just the usual. Looking for something to read. Do you happen to know anything good about codes and mysteries?"
"I do. I think you might enjoy Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. It's in fiction, something I know you don't usually like to read but, it's quite like a guide to solving mysteries. But you can always look in the non-fiction for some information on codes
"Sure, thanks. I'll take a look," He said. Miss Iris was his favorite person, despite not liking people in general She was helpful and gave him interesting book suggestions. He stared at her soft features and curly brown hair that was tied half up in a messy bun. Her creamy brown skin was flawless and added to her beauty. Her face is so interesting to look at, Zane-Ashburn thought as he walked away. First, he went to the fiction. Here, he felt out of his comfort zone. He didn't like magic and strange phenomena, and he didn't particularly find the stories to be informative or helpful, so he stuck to non-fiction. Nevertheless, He trusted Miss Iris so he thought he should try it out. He scanned the shelves of books with authors whose last names began with D and soon found what he was looking for. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He picked it up and inspected the blue hard-back cover with shiny gold writing. He turned it over and read the back:
"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know."
Interesting. Zane-Ashburn thought and continued reading.
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes first introduced Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective to the readers of The Strand Magazine. The runaway success of this series prompted a second set of stories, The Memoirs. In these twenty-three tales, collected here in one volume, you have some of the best detective yarns ever penned. In his consulting room at 221B Baker Street, the master sleuth receives a stream of clients all presenting him with baffling and bizarre mysteries to unravel. There is, for example, the man who is frightened for his life because of the arrival of an envelope containing five orange pips (seeds); there is the terrified woman who is aware that her life is in danger and cannot explain the strange whistling sounds she hears in the night, and there is the riddle of the missing butler and the theft of an ancient treasure. In the last story, there is the climactic battle between Holmes and the act enemy, 'the Napoleon of Crime' Professor Moriarty. Holmes, with trusty Watson by his side, is equal to these and the other challenges in this splendid collection."
Zane-Ashburn finished reading and everything stopped. He analyzed the words in his head, and one could say that his curiosity was piqued. He took the book and went straight to his favorite spot in the library. There was a large leather chair in front of a brick fireplace. It was cozy and his small body could curl up and read for hours. He read the first words and was soon absorbed in the greatness that is fiction. Zane-Ashburn was so involved in reading that he didn't realize that the sun had started to go down. In that time, he had finished reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and, much to his dismay, the next book was checked out of the library so he wandered over to the non-fiction section and found a couple books on bird calls and their meanings. He had a very good memory. It wasn't as good as Sherlock's, but it was still good. If a memory was old enough, he had to search for it. He had found that Sherlock Holmes had to do the same thing. His "mind palace," as he called it. Zane-Ashburn memorized the meanings of the bird calls, but he had difficulty hearing the calls in his head. He needed to investigate further. But that meant playing more games. And that meant possibly getting eaten by Margarie. He didn't want that to happen, but his curiosity was endless. He supposed he would just have to learn to survive the games. His train of thought stopped suddenly. Hold on… how do these games even work? How in the world was I turned into a goose? What other games are played? What do they do? He thought. He searched his mind for an answer and a thought came to him. He ran to another section he never went into, the children's section. He just started looking when suddenly, there was a loud yell.
"AAASSSSHHH" It was the voice of Gill. Zane-Ashburn sighed and looked over the railing towards the entrance where Anabelle and Gill stood. His brother waved and Zane-Ashburn scowled at him and made a shushing gesture. He made his way down the stairs and out the doors, not waiting for his siblings.
"Ash-"
"Processing."
"What?"
"I'm still processing."
Gill looked down. "Oh."
His older brother reacted differently to the games than he expected. He, for one, actually enjoyed them. He was quick and rarely ever got hurt. He didn't appreciate it when Margarie ate Garrith, though. Maybe tomorrow will be different. He agreed with the group that they should play something more toned down tomorrow. Something like wax museum or mafia where they didn't run around in terror. That is, if Zane-Ashburn decided to come again. Gill knew his brother well. He knew that curiosity got the best of him, so he was likely to come outside again. They walked home the rest of the way in silence.
The next morning, Zane-Ashburn didn't wake up to his normal alarm of Anabelle. He got out of bed and looked around the small room. Both their beds were empty. He walked out into the kitchen It was silent.
"Mom?" he called. No answer. He found a note on the small wooden table. It read, "Zane, I have gone into town for the day and your siblings are outside. – Mother"
Zane-Ashburn quickly got dressed and walked outside. He walked through the woods, remembering the path he had walked yesterday. He eventually stumbled out on the soft green grass where the sun shone through a hole in the canopy. Gill and Anabelle were sitting on the grass, counting in sync. Gill opened his eyes and grinned his reckless grin.
"I told you he'd come," He said, stopping the counting. Anabelle's eyes opened and she looked up.
"Hello," she said happily with a smile. "We're playing Hide and seek!" Her voice became quiet and her eyes went wide.
"Watch me seek," She stood up and her hands rose to her mouth to let out a loud bird call.
"Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee." Zane-Ashburn recognized it as the chickadees' danger call. It basically meant that something was hunting them down. Suddenly, large foxlike ears grew out of Anabelle's skull and a small amount of blood dripped down her blond hair. She grimaced but it was quickly covered with a grin of excitement.
"Ready?" she asked Gill.
Gill pulled out a pocket watch. "Go."
Anabelle sprinted off through the forest making yipping noises as she went out of sight.
"What the-," Zane-Ashburn said, mystified. "Ears...?"
"Yeah," Gill said. "They help you hear. You get massive headaches after the game though."
Zane-Ashburn looked at him, concerned. "So, how do things like this happen? I'm pretty sure it's not normal for ears to grow out of your head or to turn into geese."
"Honestly, I have no idea. I don't even remember when we started playing the games. They seem to only be magical if I'm around. Sometimes they go wrong though. Milly and Mia get the worst of it. Poor Mia still coughs up feathers from duck, duck, goose. That's why she didn't play yesterday. It's like... the games punish them for losing or something. They are bad at a lot of them. Now that I think about it, I should probably give them some pointers..."
Suddenly, there was a loud scream that came from the woods behind them and a giant flock of birds flew up from the trees.
"What was that?" Zane-Ashburn asked, worried.
"Oh, that's probably just Margarie being dramatic again. She likes to disturb the forest animals. That's one of the reasons bears and things don't come after us. Anabelle must've found her." Moments later, Margarie came out of the woods, looking annoyed and holding her arm that had a 6-year-old bite mark on it that was bleeding.
"The little savage bit me too hard this time," she grumbled under her breath. She tore a bit off her dress and wrapped the bite. "Well, that's the first time I have been out this quickly."
Gill grinned, clearly proud of his little sister. "The only one who can get you out."
She glared at him and sat down near a tree.
"Now we wait," Gill said. One by one, more kids came out of the forest, starting with a slightly annoyed Tucson, who was closely followed by a fuming Phoenix. He hated losing. They also had bite marks somewhere on them. They weren't as bad as Margarie's, but they were still pronounced. A while later, Mira came out, her long hair had leaves in it as if she had hidden in a tree. She looked like she was about to cry as she tried to investigate the bite on her shoulder. Then she looked around.
"I lasted this long?" her face broke out into a wide smile. "Wow, this is rare." She sat down a little way away from Gill and Zane-Ashburn, looking proud of herself. It was a long time before anyone else came out, but eventually, Arizona revealed himself, with a condescending smile. He looked over at his brothers, raised both arms in the air, and said, "I am superior!" Phoenix and Tucson rolled their eyes and laughed. Phoenix stood up and whacked Arizona upside the head, to which Ari gave a look of mock surprise before dragging him to where they were sitting. Mira had a look of realization and stood up suddenly. "Milly won!" she said in disbelief and soon after, Milieta and Anabelle walked out, both laughing. Anabelle's big ears had disappeared, and she looked tired from her senses being sharpened. Mira ran up to her sister and hugged her tightly. "You won! I'm so proud," she said happily.
"And because you won," Gill said, looking at Milieta. "You get to choose the next game. So, what say ye?"
Zane-Ashburn worried that Milieta's moment of pride might lead her to choose a… not so safe game. Nonetheless, he was going to play these games and figure out what was making these children turn into animals and such.
"Well, there are so many options! Does anyone have ideas?" Milieta took her hands out of her huge sweatshirt. Everyone took a moment of contemplation.
"How about Fox at Midnight?" The triplets chanted together. Their smiles growing like the Cheshire Cat's. They all huddled together with their fingers crossed, hoping that their vote might count for more since they were in 3's.
Everyone's eyes lit up at the idea of this game. As per usual, Zane-Ashburn had no idea what this game entailed and so he opted out of voting.
"All for Fox at Midnight, say aye!" Gill announced.
"Aye!" cried the triplets, unsurprisingly.
"Aye!" smiled Milieta and Mira.
"Aye!" Margarie's eyes connected with Zane-Ashburn's as she grinned her evil grin.
"Aye!" Annabelle's voice was the most recognizable. She sounded like a high-pitched, joyful fairy.
"Zane-Ashburn?" Gill faced him, and everyone else followed suit.
Zane-Ashburn froze. He had no idea what this game was and what the danger level could have been. Uneducated guessing had led to many bad choices in history. He wasn't about to join that monumentally stupid group.
"C-Can someone describe it first?" he nervously stuttered, his awkward smile appearing. Milieta and Mira both giggled, as did Margarie, but of course Margarie's smile was in a completely different tone.
"Fox at Midnight is like Red Light, Green Light, but instead, the person at the front is not a traffic cop, but a fox. The goal of everyone else is the touch the fox without them seeing you move. If they do see you, the prey, move, they deserve the right to punish you in a form of their choice, ranging from them letting you go to eating you. Margarie is barred from eating anyone," he shot a glare in her direction and she gave a toothy grin, "but, everyone else can choose their punishment. If you touch the fox, and they do not catch you, you become the fox and the new round starts. We play for as many people as we have. Not everyone will get a turn."
Zane-Ashburn soaked in the information, knowing this was a terrible idea deep in his gut. Regardless, he said it:
"Aye."
"Let the games begin!"
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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