The Skerlomian War

[videogamenerd101]

Chapter 1: A Frightful Encounter

Elizabeth

I am Elizabeth Alexa Sterlin. I don't remember anything of my past. All I know is that I ran away from home, all the way to the Big Apple. I live off of smuggling; without that, I would have died a long time ago. The people here in New York say that I'm mentally ill, whatever that means. It doesn't matter. I lost my reputation years ago. Kids of all ages laugh at me day and night. I'm wanted by the police. You could say that I'm a celebrity in my own special way.

But every night, I dream. I see me playing on a field with rolling green hills. I always see two other kids with me. We would play together all day and night, like nothing else in the world mattered. The boy's dirty blonde hair falls down to his shoulders, his clear blue eyes so light, they almost look white. His pale skin never seems to be tanned by the bright, warm sun. The girl has a light brown braid that falls down her back, contrasting perfectly with her lightly tanned skin. Then there would be darkness coming. Some foreign monster from another galaxy. Coming to haunt us. To scare us. I can never make out its face, but I know its evil. We would run. Run forever and ever, but the monster is faster. Then he grabs us. We scream for help. No one answers. Just when the monster is about to torture us, I wake up.

I wake up to see the white snow covering my dirty orange hair. A flyer flies past my face and I grab it. Another wanted sign with my picture on it. When will they ever give up, I think. Time Square is always crowded during the holiday season. People rushing from store to store, spending all their money on gifts for their loved ones. I see Toys R Us from here, its indoor Ferris wheel never stopping to take a break. Restaurants are busy day and night. Bars and clubs tend to create havoc at night, making it harder for me to sleep, considering that the cold winter wind is already enough to keep me awake.

I pick up the bottle of milk lying right beside me. I chug it down until there is nothing left, not even a drop. I put on my black, worn out sweater and head to the bakery. My sweater is not enough to handle the cold weather, but it's better than nothing. I reach the bakery and I
start digging up their trash can to find a newly baked loaf of French bread. It's a bit burned around the edges, but at least I found something edible. I gobble it all up as I stroll through downtown New York.

The rising skyscrapers keep the people of the city active day and night. Living in a city with a lot of people makes it easy for me to keep my identity, so police won’t be able to spot me that easily. I put on my hood just in case. I’m going to need more food for tonight so I
won’t starve. I don’t have any money, so buying food isn’t an option.

Being wanted by the police makes it impossible for me to live in a shelter, so that’s not an option either. I decide that I would have to stick to the same thing I’ve been doing since I ran away from home:
smuggle. That’s why the police want me so much. I steal food so well, there’s hardly any trace that I was there in the first place.

The hardest part about smuggling now is that almost every grocery store in the area knows who I am and what I’m capable of. It usually takes me around an hour to find a store that I haven’t smuggled from yet. Sometimes I wonder why I ran away from home in the first
place. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with being wanted and stuff. The way I do it is simple: figure out what I want to steal, take what I need and hide it, and make sure nobody catches me. It sounds simple, but it’s actually a lot harder than you think. I don’t know how I’ve been able to do this all these years.

Surprisingly enough, I find a Target store that I’ve never seen before. That’s weird, I think. I walk by this street almost every day, but I’ve never seen this store before. Oh well, it’s probably just new construction or something. I enter the store to find an odd
man standing by the door. Dressed up in a pitch black suit, dark shades cover his eyes, but I can tell that he’s watching me. Don’t make eye contact, Elizabeth. Don’t make eye contact. Luckily, he doesn't say anything to me.

Even after losing all of my self-confidence because of that strange man, I know that there’s no way I can get out of this store until I take what I need. I skip the bread aisle because I already had some of the French bread I found in that trash can. So I decide to head straight to the groceries section of the store. I was about to grab an apple when I spot the oranges. Oh, how I’ve been longing to try those ripe, juicy oranges. I put the apple back and rush to the oranges. But as I was about the put the orange in my sweater’s pocket, I hear a deep voice coming from behind me.

“Freeze!” yells the strange man I saw by the store’s entrance. He’s holding a pistol and he’s aiming at me. “Drop the orange. Now.

“Never!” I shout back. I don’t know what to do, so I throw the orange at him as hard as I can and make a run for it. The orange hits his shades, knocking them down. He has to stop and crouch down for a while to pick them up, and then he starts to chase me down.

I run as fast as I can, even though my feet were already sore. He gradually starts to catch up to me. He fires his pistol from time to time, but they never seem to hit me. I run and run. I don’t bother to stop to take a breath or two. Everyone in the store is watching us run around the store like we’re animals. Everybody is so transfixed on us; some people drop whatever they’re holding just to watch us. Then I hear something.

“Here! Here!” says a squeaky voice.

I stop to observe my surroundings, but I see nothing unusual. So I keep running, but I know that I’m going to have to take a break soon. I run by the toys department and I accidentally knock down some dolls. A little girl starts screaming at me and crying, but that’s the least of my worries. I take a quick glance behind me, and I see the strange man. He’s getting a lot closer. He gets his pistol ready and takes aim. I start to panic. I can feel my heart racing, like it was about to explode. Then I hear it again.

“Come here! Over here! Here!” the voice says again.

I don’t stop running. I’m in an aisle full of holiday and Christmas-related objects: ornaments, Santa Claus dolls, and snow globes. But that’s not what catches my eye. In the back of the aisle, I see a door that says: DO NOT ENTER. I see something sticking out of the door, though. It’s a small mouse-like creature, but its fur is forest green, it has eyes that seem too big for its face, and has a tail that could possibly be used as a lasso. “Here! Here!” it says. “Jump in here!” Its tail points to the door. I look behind me, and the man is
catching up. I know I have no choice. I open the door, and I jump in.


The cold wind blows my hair back, making my fall seem more dramatic than it’s supposed to be. I feel the fur of that green mouse on my shoulder. As I continue to fall, there is a weird change in the atmosphere. Like the oxygen level dropped dramatically, but my breathing is still normal. I continue to descend until I see a table and a group of people surrounding it. A hologram of a man is in the middle. I land on a lady with a snow white dress and pearl earrings. She’s beautiful, I think. She has an astonished look on her face.

“How dare you hurt me, Queen Clara, the queen of Baloria?!” she screams angrily. She talks in a funny accent; it’s very close to British, except something is a bit different. I can’t really determine it, but it has something to do with their consonants. “Security! Take her to
the prison! And don’t bother to take her to the Interrogation Room.

A bunch of men in armor start to drag me out of the room. I try to squirm out of their grasp, but they’re holding me too tightly. I notice one of them is a bit hesitant about dragging me out. But then Queen Clara shouted, “Toby, help your fellow nights out!” On the other side
of the room, I see a young girl in a bright pink dress. A gold hair pin holds up her hair. She runs up to me and tries to free me, but then the king stops her. “Mimi, please don’t.” She lets go of me and lets the knights drag me. Right then and there, I stop trying to escape,
because I realize something.

The boy who hesitated before dragging me out and the girl in the pink dress are the exact same kids I see in my dreams.

I would love to know what you think! Chapter 2: Plan of Escape will be coming out soon.

[PrincessVictory1]

I absolutely LOVE this!!! So beautifully written I couldn't hope to describe things so well by the way, I edited the two chapters I posted....they're only a bit different, so you don't have to read it Like chapter 1, Sonic can talk but they can't hear him, and chapter 2 the ending few paragraphs are slightly different, and I mention that the headset has gone missing...otherwise, just the same But i can't wait to hear more!!!

[videogamenerd101]

Chapter Two: Plan of Escape

Toby

We drag the girl to the prison cell, just as Queen Clara ordered. As we drag her, I still have to wonder. Why did I have to stop and think before grabbing that girl? It's not like I've met her or anything. Or have I? No Toby, you haven't, I think to myself. But something tells me that she's innocent… that I need to protect her, no matter the cost. We throw her into the cell and Derek, the Head Knight, locks the door so no one can enter. 

When that's done, he turns around and focuses his attention on us and says in his deep voice, "So who wants to take first shift?" 

"Not me!" shouts all of us knights at the same time. 

"You do it, Derek!" I shout from the back of the crowd. "You've never done it before!"

"Yeah, I agree!" says another knight. 

I think I got Derek angry, I think. And I'm right. Derek pins me down on the wall as hard as he can and starts to choke me. "How dare you tell me what to do!" 

"Hey, it was only a joke," I say innocently. 

"A joke?! As Head Knight, I won't let anyone tell me what to do! You're gonna take shift for the whole night as your punishment!" He finally lets go of me. I drop to the ground and gasp for air. I look up to see all the knights laughing and pointing at me except for the one knight who came in my defense. "C'mon guys, let's go." Derek and the rest of the knights leave the room. That one knight approaches me and offers me a hand. I accept it. 

"Hey man, are you okay?" the knight asks. 

"Yeah, I guess I'm fine," I reply. "Just hard to breath."

"I'm sorry that you have to take guard for the whole night."

"It's okay. I totally deserved." And that's when I get to take a good look at this knight. Something's different about this one… I think. Knights don't usually wear gold earrings, don't they? "Mimi? Is that you?"

"Shh!" She places her finger on her lips, telling me to keep quiet. "You'll reveal my identity! I have something urgent to tell you, but we must talk in private. Meet me in the balcony of my room before the sun sets."

"Is it about that girl?" I ask. 

Mimi nods and walks away. 


The sun is setting so I decide to head to Mimi's room, just like she asked me to. Her butler arrives in my dorm and escorts me to the princess. We walk through the usual castle corridors until we reach a door that says OFF LIMITS. Queen Clara keeps telling us not to go into an off limits room unless we are told to. 

As I step into the room, I am in awe. This is truly a room meant for a princess, I think. I can see my own reflection on the gleaming white marble floor, even though it's about to turn into dusk. The translucent pink curtains used to decorate Mimi's bed and the windows are glittering, contrasting perfectly with the orange sunset outside. Fake red roses are placed all over the wall, making this room not just girly or beautiful, but also a bit romantic. I look forward to see the balcony. Mimi is already there, and it seems like she has provided food and drinks. I hope this doesn't take too long. I walk to the balcony quietly. After a few minutes of awkward silence, I finally speak up. "So what is it that you need to tell me?"

"It's about that girl…" starts Mimi. 

"You want me to kill her, right?" I assume, balling my hand into a fist. "Because she hurt your mom. Well, I won't do that. I feel like she's important somehow. Killing her would be a stupid decision. I don't care if it means losing my job as knight. I won't—" Then Mimi slaps my cheek as hard as she can. Ow… what was that for?" I think to myself. 

"Are you really that much of an idiot?!" shrieks Mimi. "Now I understand why you haven't been promoted to Head Knight, even if you've been working here for three years! Toby, you have to think positive sometimes." She sighs. 

"I-i-i'm really sorry, my highness. It is a bad habit of mine. Please forgive me."

Mimi thinks for a while and finally says," You don't have to sound so formal, but I accept your apology. Now back to the point. About that girl… I can tell that she's from a different planet because of her strange smell. I would usually ask Mother to execute her immediately, but something stopped me from doing so."

"And what's that?"

She hesitates for a while. "There was something on her shoulder… I think it was a Loshimere."

"But that's impossible! The Loshimere race was abolished during the Evil Ages when Baloria was still under the reign of Skerlome!"

"That's what I thought too… But I guess we were wrong." She sighs. "I have a feeling that she has something to do with the Prophecy of Three."

Then for some reason, I start to laugh. It's unconditional, of course, but I can tell that Mimi is annoyed by it. "You're kidding, right? It was proved by scientists long ago that it was just a joke."

Mimi starts to ball her fists in frustration. "Just listen, okay! Just because scientists proved it's wrong doesn't mean that, like, wizardry and witchcraft doesn't!"

I put my hands in my pocket, trying to look cool and collected. "Do you even know anyone who knows how to brew potions or cast spells? Because I don't." 

"Well… I don't either. But that doesn't mean that there isn't anyone in this world who can!" 

"Sure…" I say sarcastically. I check my watch. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Mimi. I gotta go now, or else I'll be late for duty and then Derek will report me to Queen Clara and I'll end up in prison forever!" 

As expected, Mimi slaps me again. "Stop daydreaming, you dork! Here, take this." She gives me a piece of paper that's been folded at least five times. Her skin is so soft… and she's really pretty, too. I push the thought out of my mind. No… there's no way Mimi will fall for a mere castle knight like me. I want to tell Mimi how I feel about her, but I'm afraid that she'll say something nasty. I decide to lock my feelings away… but not forever. Maybe I'll tell her one day, just one day. "When you start duty, read this and follow the instructions."

"What's this about?" I ask her. 

"You'll see." She winks at me and leaves for the Throne Room. 


I hate doing guard duty, especially since I have to stay here the whole night, I think. I take a look behind me. The girl is curled up in a ball and she's lying on the floor. She's probably sleeping. I check my watch. 1:50 AM. Ten more minutes until I can carry out the plan. So I wait. And I wait. And I wait. 

After a long ten minutes of sitting down on the cold, metal chair and watching my watch, it's time to take action. I take the cell key and open up the door. She wakes up in surprise. I place my finger on my lips, telling her to keep quiet. I motion to her to get out, and she follows. I take her to the back entrance where Mimi would be waiting. 

"Go through this door and continue going straight until you find a pretty girl in pink dress, then—" I stop myself from talking. "Did I say pretty? I meant… uh…"

The girl stares at me for a while. "You like her, don't you?" 

"No! I don't! I mean I do! I mean I don't!" I ball my fists in anger. 

The girl starts laughing at me. "You like the princess!" she says playfully. "Aww… you should see yourself right now. Your blushing! How sweet."

"Grr… can we just get to the point? Go past that door until you see the princess!" 

Right then, I hear the Soul Bell ringing. This isn't good. "Go, now! Before the other knights catch you!" She nods and follows my instructions. I watch her run through the corridor. "Stay safe."