#The Mother Earth and Ice Queen angle are built right in!

[tresmontesentertainment]

You know what one of my favorite examples of "blatantly a coincidence but it's just too weird to ignore" is? The fact that both Pokemon and Bionicle have a history of associating both the color gold and female characters with psychic powers.

With Pokemon, this was chiefly an aesthetic trend back in Gen 01. You see it in the Abra line, Drowzee and Hypno, and the fact that we have Psyduck and Golduck despite neither ever actually getting typed Psychic even seven generations on, remaining one of the great curiosities of the franchise. Then there's Sabrina, Pokemon's most iconic psychic human character, who awarded you the Gold Badge in the Japanese version of the games. None of this was ever really A Thing beyond the first games, but it's still funny that it happened to begin with.

So proclaims Bulbapedia, it's possible that this was all a reference to parapsychology, which actually did see a surge of interest back in the 70's and 80's, not too long before Pokemon first hit the scene. Specifically, the color choice at play here might be referencing the ability to see people's auras, with people of a particular spiritual awareness often being described as having a golden aura. My own digging into the matter didn't really affirm this one way or another, but for my purposes it's still pretty neat!

With Bionicle, it gets a touch more involved, and necessitates I put on my storyteller cap a moment.

The time before time was still just dawning, and the first Toa, the defenders of this fledgling universe and it's people, were coming into being. Among them was the one named Orde, one of the first male Toa and the very first Toa of Psionics. Orde had been granted a vital task; he was to pacify the Zyglak, a primordial race of reptilian creatures whose existence was little more than an accident incurred by the Great Beings as they went about their work. Shunned by their creators and reviled by nearly all who learned of them, the Zyglak took refuge in the darkest places they could find, anger and resentment churning in their hearts until it eventually festered into a brutal savagery, leading them to lash out and torment the world that scorned them.

Though the details have been lost to time, it is known for certain that Orde failed his mission, succumbing to his own anger and losing control of his powers, in turn amplifying the Zyglak's aggression and rendering them an even greater threat than before. The consequences of Orde's folly would echo on even millennia later, as the Zyglak would go on to utterly decimate the Toa Cordak, the original Toa team, leaving only their leader alive, haunted by his indecision in a vital moment that would have made all the difference. The Great Being's, in all their wisdom, concluded that a female Toa would have possessed the gentler nature necessary to truly control such tremendous power. And so it was that all Toa of Psionics, along with the Matoran whose destinies would see them reforged into those Toa, would only ever be female from then on.

So that's a lot to unpack, eh? The thing to understand about Bionicle's power system is that there's always been this facet of gender exclusivity when it comes to which element a Toa could be associated with, and there's really no denying that the ratio was skewed pretty damn heavily towards the fellas. That is to say that of the 14 total elemental bags of tricks a Toa could come equipped with by the time the original incarnation of Bionicle came to a close, only 3 were the domain of female Toa; these being Water, Lightning, and, because old man Orde couldn't keep his shit together way back when, Psionics.

It is an actual, literal matter of lore for why Psionics was the only element to break away from that apparent rule of "one gender only," and keep in the mind that Orde was still alive by the time the story ended. By all accounts, nobody dies of old age in the Bionicle Universe, which means that he would have had to endure several hundred millennia of living with his failure and the stigma that surely came with it, and probably endured it mostly on his own since the story of his mission with the Zyglak doesn't seem to be common knowledge in the modern day. He was also all but certain to have been aware of what happened to the Toa Cordak, whatever weight it might have left on his shoulders given just how long that was after his ill-fated mission.

Not to imply that fate was especially any kinder to his successors, mind you, if the story of Toa Varian was any indication. I love it when a story explores the scope and consequences of power, but damn is it a shame when bad things happen to good people... Some things are just plain multiversal, I guess! And just to tie it all back around, blue was the central color for both Lightning and Psionics, just as it was for Water. The "team colors" for Psionics? Blue and Gold.

There is one thing else I feel compelled to mention, and honestly it's probably a touch weirder then the things I just went over. Inter-dimensional travel is just as much a thing in both Pokemon and Bionicle as psychic powers are, embodied in this case by Hoopa, a kleptomaniacal little gremlin able to nick entire buildings whose shiny variant is entirely golden, and the Konohi Olmac, a golden mask of power that allows the user to both jump around the dimension one is currently in and to entirely different dimensions altogether.

Uncanny, right?

[yourdeepestfathoms]

Baby Moon

(Read Anne as Courtney!Anne)

Word count: 2959

———————

The queens first found her outside in their backyard seven months after their reincarnation. It was the middle of the night, they were watching a movie, and the full moon was out, bathing the city in hues of sterling and glimmering grey. And there, in their backyard, stood a naked girl with her head towards the glittering black sky.

She was paler than any person they’ve ever seen, as if the moonbeams had zapped all the color out of her skin and then bleached her with its own light. Her hair was the color of washed out gold, with only a few brown roots weakly reaching out from her scalp. If you were to cut open her wrists, they were sure her blood would come out silver.

The queens watched her from the windows and back door for a long time. They theorized that this girl was another reincarnate, but they had all been clothed when they came back, along with the ladies in waiting. Plus, it had been raining and day time. The night was clear with not a single cloud in sight.

Where had she come from? Who was she? What did she want?

So many questions ran through their mind, but only one thing kept blaring in Kitty’s over and over and over again.

Monster.

The girl outside doesn’t move. She just stays very still and keeps her head angled up to the moon. Rays of light were cascading down her back and rear and legs like a silver and white waterfall, painting her entire bare body with the essence of the night.

“Should we call the police?” Cathy asked nervously. Her hands were winding in the hem of her shirt like they did when she was worrying over something.

“She is trespassing,” Cleves agreed.

“No, wait,” Aragon said. “She isn’t doing anything wrong.”

“Aside from being naked on our property,” Jane muttered under her breath.

“I’ll go see what she wants.” Aragon said.

The others protested, but she assured them everything would be fine. However, she still brought a kitchen knife outside with her just to make them feel a little better.

Slowly, so slowly, Aragon crept up to the stranger. When she got closer, she could see the moonlight dripping into her skin, sinking into her back, melting into her chest. The others might not have known yet, but Aragon knew just looking at this girl—she was moonborn, called out only by the power of the moon.

That word, moonborn, made no sense to Aragon at the time. She had never heard of such a thing before and it sounded like a silly title pulled right out of a children’s tale, but something in her head told her it was important. It was important, but it would soon become the cause of great pain nobody would ever be able to fathom.

Aragon took another step forward and gently touched the girl’s shoulder; her skin was as cold as ice.

“Hello?” She called out. “Who are you?”

The girl shuddered under her hand. She turned around very slowly and Aragon gasped at the silver moons that blinked back at her.

———

The moon child asks to be called “Joan.”

It is difficult to communicate this at first, but then Aragon allows her to write it. Even when the color she chooses is bright chartreuse rather than the standard black, she doesn’t stop her. She’s been allowing her much recently.

———

Music is not a foreign thing to the moon child, although she was always lost in a tangle of thoughts and objectives. It‘s easy for chattering and scratching and flipping of parchment to drown out a melody, but it‘s easier for a weary body to absorb it.

It’s not the moon. It does not heal; it doesn’t even provide the respite that a bed does. But it is soothing, and it makes a rumble of something warm rise in her chest.

(She likes to rumble and trill and coo along to music, not really singing, not really vocalizing, but just following with soft noises of her own.

Kitty called it “alien speak.”

She stopped soon after that.)

For that, it is enough. Joan bows her head in gratitude after every rehearsal, thanking whoever was singing for the moment of peace. Sometimes she says it out loud, in her weak, creaky lunar voice. Other times she just smiles gratefully.

Aragon and Anne don’t seem to mind her silence. The moon child thinks they might even like her, just as she likes them and their songs. Even when the dark matter of Joan’s being weeps through the cuts in her skin and her bow is more akin to a slump, they still sing to her, even though she cannot answer their concerned glances.

But Kitty and Jane think she’s broken.

“Why doesn’t she speak?” Jane would ask, pleasantly pretending like she wasn’t in earshot. “We all spoke pretty easily after reincarnation. It’s been a month and she’s spoken, what ten words? But for some reason, she can learn several songs on a piano easier instead?”

“I don’t think we left her out in the moonlight for long enough,” Kitty would titter, and she would know that Joan was nearby. That’s why she said those things—to make her feel bad. “Or maybe aliens aren’t just suited for life on earth.”

Joan starts talking more, after that. She says things like a normal person and not a reincarnated lady in waiting from five hundred years ago that was strangely born from the moon. She acts normal, acts how she should, and acts the way people want her to be.

———

The moon child understands how goodbyes feel now, even if she’s not accompanied by a headless corpse or a weeping mother that’s foaming at the mouth.

Beyond that, she understands what it means to be taken by something, be it sickness, or power, or fear. Or grief. That one, too, will make you its own. That one especially.

Is her entire being not proof of that?

In the end, it is not just the river’s waters lapping at lonely London shores, having foreshadowed this weight. It is not just the mist of essence fading in the place of a friend. It is not just her mother and father, warping and vanishing in a strange, confusing dance. Not just her queen that bore a gown as silver as her eyes, resisting in the face of her own realization that the lunar being belonged to her more than the hot pink fiend. Not just the moons that gave her life.

It is so much more.

It is everything she cannot have and everything she does not want to do. It is frustration and selfishness and bitterness. It is want.

The moon child wants so badly. She wanted for her brother, and so she took what she could of what he gave, and built herself a name out of a throwaway title. She wants so badly for more of him, even if it means fighting. She wants back the little moments of closeness with anyone at all, moments she hadn’t thought to hold onto back when she was still under the illusion that she could keep them, keeping getting more of them.

How easy would it be, to solve things without just the cry of a voice if she hadn’t been destined to be silent and unloved?

How much easier, to bring life to fading hope and provide friendship for others? For herself?

She wants painfully for the small things like the shinier markers at the store, like the odd affectionate touches John used to give the top of her head. Like Aragon’s humming or Anne’s hugs or Jane’s forehead kisses or being one of the players in the theater games Cleves will start up or someone that inspires Cathy to create a character after her in one of her books. She even wants to get one of Kitty’s weird head bumps just to know she was important enough to receive one. She wants to hang out with Anne and Aragon more often because they tell stories and she likes that, and she wants the other ladies to accept her as one of them and not shun her as a creature of night that just so happens to know how to play piano.

But just as with the rising of the sun, none of this want means anything at all.

———

This much is clear: the moon child is a being of wanting. And she is regret, too, born of night and darkness, tucked and shaped into a frame too small to hold all this need. It is no surprise when the hairline fractures grow into cracks, nor when the cracks widen into gaping holes where the flesh has begun to collapse.

Joan is collapsing.

———

It gets easier to speak and act like everyone else as the days go by, but the jealousy and longing grows with it. She’s talking normally, but she’s envious all the time. She laughs and smiles and does everything as she should, but she’s always itching for affection.

The moon child begins to do things. Not bad things, just—things. Painting, for one. She thinks that if she makes presents for people then they’ll start to like her more, and it works for awhile, but then everyone just gets used to her offerings. Nobody hangs them up, unlike the art of fans, which get to be put up regally on bulletin boards and the sides of mirrors and on tables. Jane and Cathy even had their Instagram profile pictures as drawings some fans made for them.

But all of Joan’s paintings and sketches and colorings were pushed aside, tucked away inside drawers and crumpled up in purses to rot away into nothingness.

Nothing. That’s all they’ll ever be. And it’s all she’ll even be, too.

———

A bassist was sitting by one of the windows, staring dejectedly at the rain droplets pattering on the glass. The moon child notices when she’s making copies of some sheet music. When the bassist notices the moon eyes drilling into her, she turns away from them.

“Go away, Joan. Allow me to wallow in my own misery in peace.” She mutters harshly.

Joan would have left, if it weren’t for a nagging feeling in the back of her head telling her to stay. She stands right where she was. Bessie raises her head.

“What are you doing? Leave. Go away. I have nothing for you. Go back to your music director business or whatever. Chase after Jane for the hundredth time for all I care. Just leave me alone.”

There was another job to be done, but Joan wasn’t sure what it was exactly. Bessie just repeated for her to leave the longer she stood. Again. Again and again and again. When the moon eyes refused to move, the bassist’s voice got increasingly more frustrated.

“Do I have to escort you out myself?” She hisses, standing and glaring deep into those pools of liquid silver.

Joan shook her head.

“Then what are you doing here?”

She doesn’t know.

“Let me be depressed in peace!”

Still there.

“Do you not understand what I’m saying?” Bessie opens her hands like they were claws.

Joan still stares at her.

“I am not going to fight you, if that is what you are looking for. This is hardly an appropriate place.”

Joan wasn’t looking for a fight. No, there is something else.

“If you are looking to gloat, just get it over with already!”

She isn’t there to gloat.

Even when Bessie drew her arm back, she still did not leave.

“Why are you still here?! It’s not like you care!” Bessie yells, flinging something nearby—a picture frame. It barely brushes Joan’s arm, and explodes into a cloud of glass against the wall.

Bessie was prone to aggressiveness and anger, but she would never attack so sloppily and so carelessly.

She wasn’t herself.

“Get…get out of here…”

Bessie’s voice cracks, crumpling to her knees. She hunches over on herself taking in a shuddering breath. Her shoulders began trembling as her entire frame was wracked with irregular shaking. High-pitched sobs emanate from her.

She wasn’t okay.

Joan took a small step forward. She wasn’t like Bessie, but maybe she could be like her for a little bit. There was quite a noticeable size difference between the two, but that wouldn’t be a problem.

Joan kneels behind her, wrapping her arms around the bassist. She felt Bessie freeze up, breath hitching for a second. She squeezes a little, rests her chin on the older musician’s shoulder, and closes her glittering eyes.

A hug. Would that make her happier?

The sobs became quieter. Joan remains crouched and hugs her, letting her grieve. She wants to say something, anything that might bring her more comfort, but the most she could do is hug her a little more and hope that it brought her some happiness like it did long ago.

After an unknown amount of time, she finally stops, slowly pulling back.

“Joan…?”

Joan responds in that silent way of hers, tipping her head in a form of recognition.

“Why did you do that…?”

“Affection makes people happier.” Joan verbally answers. She wants to ask if she was happier.

“You know...people—Jane and Kitty— said you’re just an empty monster...you’re supposed to leave. You’re not supposed to care.” Bessie mumbles, head hanging down. “You’re not supposed to care about anyone…so why did you stay? Why did you hug me? Why me? Why? I just-“

A tear was dripping down her left cheek, almost as silver as those moon eyes staring down at her with so much concern and longing. She rears back when Joan tries to touch her again.

“You’re not a monster, are you…?” Bessie whispers. Joan stares back in silence. “You’re not a monster at all. You’re none of those things. You’re...you’re good.”

———

“I know you're angry-” Jane was saying to the creature of night after yet another painful rejection. “But with how you were created-”

“Born.” The moon eyes burn. “I was born. And I've committed no crime by existing.”

———

Anne watches the moon child sitting at her side. She had come over to the queen’s house for a reason she couldn’t quite remember, but was now stuck inside due to a raging blizzard. She sat on the couch in the living room, on the opposite end of Anne, like she was afraid her presence would taint the queen with an infectious black matter.

What did she want?

The moon child brought her legs up and folded them against her chest slowly, as if through water, her joints stiff.

“It’d be better if I weren’t here.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

That made Anne blink. “Of course not.”

“You hesitated.” She brought her face close to her knees, letting her too light hair fall over her too shiny eyes.

Stop doing that. Stop reaching out and then pulling away. Can’t you see I’ll do anything you want, if you’d just tell me what that is? What do you want?

Anne lifts her head a few inches, stretching out the sore spots in her neck.

“Joan, come here.”

Joan remained curled into herself.

“I will not ask again.”

That seemed to work better. Joan shifts sideways, drawing closer to her former queen. Her shoulders jolted a little as Anne wrapped an arm around them, pulling the two against each other. And then, she was tugging the awkwardly scrawny and small moon child into her lap.

(Where she belonged.)

“I will protect you,” She chose her words carefully. “To the best of my ability.”

That didn’t seem like a good place to leave off. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I can’t be everything you want,” She continued, softer. “I can’t be Jane. But I’m here. And I want to take care of you, darling.”

She watched Joan’s head on her chest rise and fall with her breaths. A few beats pass before a small hiccup sounded from the lunar girl.

There were a few more hiccups that built up before they erupted into sobs, Joan’s shoulders heaving as they wracked through her. Loud whimpers and whines filled the air as Anne ran her fingers through the thick blonde tangles, rocking the poor, lonely moon child in her arms.

Joan cries steadily, head buried in her chest. Anne realizes that she didn’t even mind that a mess was being made down the front of her shirt.

Eventually the cries settle down, mixing together with the dull white noise of the television before fading off. Joan calms in her arms, snuggled up nicely, and it only gets better when Aragon joins their cuddle on the couch. Both queens hold the moon child, not caring about what anyone had ever said about her being wrong or weird or messed up compared to the other reincarnates. To them, she was perfect.

Their love filled Joan like the moonlight did. She had never felt anything so wonderful. She fit perfectly in their arms, like she had always belonged there.

And then, there was the gawker by the staircase. Joan could feel Kitty’s congealing resentment even from a distance. She could also feel Aragon and Anne’s love again, already half detached from everyone else, including the youngest of the bunch—Anne’s baby cousin. But Anne was just ready to give all her love to the moonborn pianist, not a distant family member born of daytime and rain.

Sorry, Katherine, Joan thought, settling back into the warmth and affection. Out there is my moon. And these are my mothers. And you will never be a part of that world.

[anikkis-fantasirealities]

“Misty Meets, the Valued Rocks and Seas”

② Travelogue ┊ ᵗʰᵒˢᵉ ʷʰᵒ ᵃʳᵉ ᵗʳᵉᵃᵗᵉᵈ ʷᶦᵗʰ ᵗʳᵃᵍᵉᵈʸ ᵃˢ ᵗᶦᵐᵉ ᵗʳᶦᶜᵏˡᵉˢ··· ᵗʳᶦᵖ ᵇᵘᵗ ᵇᵉᶜᵒᵐᵉ ᵗᵃᶜᵗᶠᵘˡ ᵗʳᵉᵃˢᵘʳᵉˢ ᵒᶠ ᵗᶦᵗˡᵉᵈ ᵗᵉˢᵗᶦᵐᵒⁿᶦᵉˢ·

꒰⁺˚₊·₍₍loading...₎₎ ✎...۪۫❁ཻུ۪۪ -ˏˋ 🗺 ˊˎ- ༘✶ ㊉ ㈦〘 ⅯⅯ 〙⋆｡˚𓆟 ༉ ║ Posted : ０６/１５/２１° ｡༄ ‧₊˚ ๑ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ •ଓ.° ｡❍ ㈩ ㊇

- - ——— ꒰ An article by Nicole “Nikki” Elaine S. Chua ꒱

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ₊·͟͟͟͟͟͟͞͞͞͞͞͞➳❥ ࿐ྂ—͙❬₊° ᶦ ᵃᵐ ᵃ ᵇˡᵒᵍᵍᵉʳ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ᵃˡˡ·“= ‹⸙͎

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ❐ · ⸰ㅤ ㅤ ⋇ · ◦ ㅤ ㅤ ⁕⸰ ㅤ ㅤ ☁

⊹ ㅤ ㅤ ⋇ ㅤ ㅤ ·⁕ ㅤ ㅤ ◦ ❏ ⋇

ㅤ ㅤ ◦ ⸰ ㅤ ㅤ ◍ ㅤ ㅤ ⊹ ⁺

· ㅤ · ⊹ㅤ ㅤ ⋇ · ◦ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ · ❏

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ · ⁕ ㅤ ㅤ ⋇ ⸰ㅤ ㅤ ❐ ⊹

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ❐ ⊹ ·

ㅤ ㅤ ❐ ⊹

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ · ⊹ ⋇ · ◦

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ · ❏

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ· ㅤ ㅤㅤ⁕ ⸰ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ⊹ · ⁕

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ❐ ⊹

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ.ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ .

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ. ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ.

“Wait, it’s about to rain?” I can vaguely remember saying something similar to those impulsive thoughts, as I look up into the gray skies and those monotoned clouds steadily sailing in mid-air. I felt the raindrops on my face—the mix of awe and worry from my father, mother, and sister who were about to trek on those rocky grounded fields of the wild Yehliu. The other visitors, whose language I could not understand, fiddled through their belongings. They opened umbrellas and covered themselves in pastel-like colored jackets, transparent in design, as I observed their casual clothing for a supposed sunny adventure. This was about to be one of the greatest family travels out of the thousand places I’ve visited—one that was like no other.

Welcome to 𝙔𝙚𝙝𝙡𝙞𝙪 𝙂𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙖𝙞𝙥𝙚𝙞, 𝙏𝙖𝙞𝙬𝙖𝙣! For this article, I’d like to tour you around one of the most memorable and breathtaking travel destinations that my family and I visited during our second vacation in Taiwan. To be honest, the Chuas loves to stroll around new locations together—whether we linger the Pearl of the East, or the rest in the Heart of Asia. Whenever there is time to escape from the world of academics, we break out from that comfortable 3D box to walk to the outskirts of recreations, entertainment, and sights to behold. Dad, who was always our captain on the steering wheel of our adventures, would schedule the perfect itineraries during our summers. Mom tends to take pictures and post mementos of our times together on Facebook—as my sister and I enjoy the blissful moments noted in our own book of life.

This geopark, however, gave a different kind of atmosphere to our typical visits. The humidity has been thickening and the cold crisp air swept through the open area. A geopark is molded by nature’s wonders. There are no futuristic buildings, leaning towers, nor brilliant inventions of men standing uproot, rather, jaggy rocks and murky land persists in this long-cape landscape. It has 1,700 meters of earth carved from top to bottom—shaded by bland hues of brown and green. However, such a scenery cannot be underestimated just because there is nothing but bumpy stones, flimsy pathways, and barren holes on the crust. This is the sole reason why it is visited, for Yehliu Geopark is not only a tourist attraction, but also a habitat for rich ecological resources and thriving fishing communities. The entirety of Yehliu’s cape runs through a sea—yes, you read it right, a 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙚 of soothing waves that compliment the greenery of the mountains above.

╭⋟──────────────────────────────────────╮

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ❝dissolve into seafoam. ❞

╰──────────────────────────────────────⋞╯

Do you know the story of how Yehliu Geopark became to be in its present form? Each rock and stone structure in this site has its own character, as if they are interacting with one another. The locals here in Yehliu witnessed how nature refined itself with its own miracles. Hence, they are also the ones who shared the geopark’s origins to tourists like us. The landscape was crafted by marine erosion, because it so happened that the seashore’s layer is made out of limestone. Because of the scientific method of weathering and movement by the Earth, the limestone crumbled over time—dissolving slowly by the seawater bashing itself into land. It resulted into those eerie, yet interesting sea-water eroded holes on the ground. What’s even more amazing is the fact that because of the flurry winds, blinding sunrays, salty water, harsh rains, and dreadful northeastern monsoon paths, the rocks gained identity and almost became celebrities due to their unique figures.

It is truly a work of God, that these elements who continuously burdened stones to rapidly change and adapt to the impact they cause, made them into what they are today. It is like humans, who also tolerate, endure, and persevere from pain to transform into better people—tested by time, yet surviving with resolve. The day my family and I visited the geopark, the rain drizzled from the heavens. There was the thought that I could slip over wet ground and plunge into the sea if I was not careful, but looking around, I figured that this peaceful nature will not allow anyone to be taken by its mystical works. It embraces you, like there’s nothing to be scared about. Instead, it greets you hello with open arms—wanting us to continue our plans despite the misty dewdrops.

╭⋟──────────────────────────────────────╮

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ❝ bridge to terabithia. ❞

╰──────────────────────────────────────⋞╯

The chilly atmosphere was actually quite relaxing, especially when nature desires its visitors to breathe for a while after an industrious environment in the urban society. My family and I walked with our umbrellas on our heads with smiles on our faces—the waves from the sea yearning to approach us, only being stopped by the sturdy ground that we walked on. If ever you visit Yehliu Geopark, you must get ready to meet some of the rocks in this travel destination! There are candles, mushrooms, a cute princess, that arch-shaped gorilla, some kind of marine bird, ice cream, tofu, and the main attraction: the Queen’s head. Just like the other tourists, we did not hesistate to take home souveniers of our adventures from the unwinding views we’ve seen. Even though more than 1,000 meters is a big horizon to explore, we walked around—hoping to spot more rock formations.

╭⋟──────────────────────────────────────╮

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ❝ uniting the cynosure’s roads. ❞

╰──────────────────────────────────────⋞╯

Imagination is what created those rock formations’ attributes and parts in this still story of Yehliu. If you have tons of imagination of both the possible and impossible, then your sightseeing will be plenty of fun to commit to! The 𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 are like little children sitting on the seashore, except they were not just two but 180 of them all together in one area. After stepping with caution across the slippery rocks, you will notice a familiar figure that looks like a woman with a large headdress. She wears it with all honor and responsibility as the star of Yehliu. Oh! You guessed it, we found the 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙣'𝙨 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙! We captured a shot with her hazel beauty which you can see in my cover edit. Mission accomplished, now let’s look for the other rock characters, shall we?

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ㅤㅤ ❝ ephemeral angst, nefarious epiphany. ❞

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After walking for a while over bridges and stairways that connect the geopark together, we discovered the 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙡𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨. They were soaked in sea-water, so its usual beige color like all the rocks we’ve seen so far has dimmed to pitch black. Though, you will be surprised that they are shaped like short candles—with their wicks sticking out in the middle, as if it has already melted deeper into its center. According to the brochure we held before entering the tourist spot, these rocks were originally ball-like concentrations with softer surfaces, before they were completely scoured off. So, that must be the magic of Yehliu, huh?

Then, we noticed an unique rock formation that was not documented on boards or printed material by the management. It was like an animal, laying down on a rock—resting with pride and confidence. I wanted to call this the 𝙇𝙮𝙣𝙭 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠, because it looks like a feline who is about to hunt, perhaps the marine bird from meters away. It’s not the official name of the rock formation, though, I felt closer to it when I made the connection. I felt chills all over my body when I heard the tiny pitter-patters hit my navy blue umbrella. It was definitely a fateful encounter—the calm rain, the rushing of the sea ridges, and a new found friend. When you come over to Yehliu, do say hello to Lynx for me! I terribly miss her, after all these years that I haven’t picked up my suitcase for another trip.

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ㅤㅤ ❝ the serendipity of tranquil encounters. ❞

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There is apparently an anecdote documented in Yehliu’s history about a certain fisherman, namely “𝙇𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙯𝙝𝙚𝙣.” In 1964, a group of students were visiting the scenic charm of the rocks and sea, when one of them unintentionally fell into the sea. Without thinking twice, Lin Tianzhen showed his courage and jumped into the raging sea to save the helpless pupil. Sadly, none of them were able to come back to shore alive—devoured by the depths of the salt water, unaware of its crime. When the news came to the attention of President Chiang Kai-Shek, the first president of Taiwan, he quickly ordered for a monument of Lin Tianzhen to be built in Yehliu. That’s why if you would see a marble sculpture of a man in baggy pants, that is the heroic fisherman in the stories of the locals here.

Throughout the rest of the adventure we’ve challenged to carry on despite the moist surroundings, we faced the 𝘾𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 and her adorable figure, like she was posing her bent head to the camera. We found the arched-shape 𝙂𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠, who stood still, yet to our surprise, it was a literal arch! You can see the Gorilla in one angle if you do it correctly, though, you could also look at it in another angle to realize that it has a hole through its structure. We raised our peace signs in eagerness of the enticing discovery while the camera flashed. The 𝙄𝙘𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠 and 𝙏𝙤𝙛𝙪 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 made us hungry, because they looked like actual food enlarged and hardened in their positions—though, of course, they never expired! I could imagine that famous Taiwanese ice cream brand scoop on that jar-like rock, and the dream of tofu soup, for the Tofu rocks laid in two rows within the middle of the sea.

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ㅤㅤ ❝ a pluviophile soaked in hyperborean aqua. ❞

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Since we were hungry, we looked for a place to fill our tummies to satisfaction. Thankfully, Yehliu Geopark still has facilities to accommodate tourists’ basic needs. A visitor’s center is established for dining, renting of wheel chairs & baby strollers, and inquiries of guests to the staff of the geopark. You can also ask for assistance from the friendly tour guides of the travel destination—if you are able to speak in Chinese, that is! Don’t worry—they are able to understand and speak basic English. Just make sure to pack your skills in speaking the foreign language if you’d like to talk more with the locals here, then! They also have a nursing station & lost and found section in the center in case of emergency or urgency, which is useful for scenarios such as the unexpected rain when we visited.

Because Yehliu Geopark takes care of the reefs and water ecosystems nurtured in their location, they also have a oceanpark in the geopark! It is called “𝙔𝙚𝙝𝙡𝙞𝙪 𝙊𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙,” though we were not able to spend time taking a peak into the realm of sea creatures and corals freely living in the pictures of exhibits. There are diving performers in the oceanpark, too, that make visitors astounded by their splendid act. Oh, and how can we not forget the souvenier shop for merchandise from Yenliu Geopark? It’s always great to show your loved ones how much you enjoyed Yenliu, its stories, and the sights you’ve seen! It also supports the geopark’s operation, so that it can continue its goal and mission to keep sharing the wonders of this valued scenic area by the Heart of Asia.

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ㅤㅤㅤ❝ iridescently frozen in an ethereal epoch. ❞

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There are also many earthy figures here that were molded by weathering. They are known as “𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙙 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨,” that possess an artistic style like that of a solidified sponge. Through these rock structures, Chinese culture is shown—an example being the “𝟮𝟰 -𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙡-𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙡” that presents the importance of superiority and inferiority relationships to Chinese people. The hill of rocks have 24 men-like figures standing nearby each other, revealing a picture of hierarchy based on the positions of each men.

Additionally, the geopark has fossils scattered across its long cape. We only found this urchin fossil in the picture above, plaqued like a prized possession with the proud mark of Taiwanese tourism. The words, “Tai Power,” reminded me of the rest of the adventures that my family and I had in the warmth of this country. Even though the distress comes, it fades away with the power of bonds to go against the negativity to be refined everyday—that’s Tai Power, the ability to touch hearts wherever you are right now!

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ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ❝ petrichor at selcouth midday. ❞

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Before I forget, if you’re looking for extreme activities, you can try tracking down the caves of Yenliu that were also crafted by nature’s power. They are placed in spots that are hard to reach by visitors—including me and my family who did want to risk getting harmed. Do try it out, however, if you’re looking for the thrill! There are other rock formations to uncover in Yenliu Geopark aside from the ones we were able to locate. You can trace down the footprints of a fairy in the 𝙂𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 and notice the 𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙮'𝙨 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙚 was left behind before it has taken flight again. The locals here believe in a legend that this fairy sent by the Jade Emperor, from Taoist beliefs, cursed a turtle elf who troubled the seas and caused many shipwrecks back in the day. So, if you see white smoke coming from the mountains, locals will exclaim that the turtle elf is taking its last breath. It’s a motivating tale to conclude this article, and our visit to the geopark.

Most importantly, I’d like to remind everyone who plans to visit Yehliu Geopark to obey and respect the guidelines given by the management of the landscape, as well as the North coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area Administration! If you observe red warning lines on the ground, do not pass that zone—always stay on the path, because it is for our own safety. Let’s 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩 these astonishing wonders offered to us by the beloved nature we owe daily. We need nature, but nature does not need us. We should not touch nor damage these creations of Mother Earth. Climbing & tagging on the rock formations, smoking, biking, wading, swimming, fishing, littering, or disturbing the plants in the location is strictly prohibited! Otherwise, you might need to pay for a fine when caught.

Our duty to look after Yehliu Geopark, while saving the environment in our own way, is for the sake of the next generations whose imagination will also be aroused by these treasured beings and narratives of this place. The staff would like more people to enjoy the unique scenery it offers to the world. The rock structures in this geopark are still actively developing and dynamically changing with the tides of our times today. So, it is only rightful if we give them the same amount of growth they need, as much as we do.

At the end of the day, the trip I had in Yehliu wasn’t too bad at all! It was beautiful, stunning scenery to keep in my memories as I move forward to the present. Through my travel to Yehliu Geopark, we were able to unveil the mist and take a glimpse of the true colors of ordinary rocks and common seas. We got to know many stories of still stones, and the amazing people who make the geopark the apple of the eye for more tourists. A part of nature—to witness its ability and wonders through an alleviating journey to find peace—Yehliu Geopark can surely be described that way. If you’re interested in travelling to Taiwan, Yehliu Geopark is a tourist spot that you absolutely must consider in your own bucket lists! Maybe not now while the pandemic is still ongoing, but someday, hopefully! I’d love to hear your own experiences in visiting the geopark in the comments!

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Yehliu Geopark is open from 8 AM to 5 PM. One entry ticket costs 80 NTD or New Taiwan dollars for one adult tourist. On the other hand, kids aged 6 to 12 can avail an entry ticket half its price. In the Philippines, 80 NTD is 139.54 pesos, while 40 NTD is 69.77 pesos, as of June 15, 2021. However, you can get a 20% discounted group ticket if you are a group of 30 or more people. The geopark is located in the Heart of Asia—Taiwan! Its exact address is No. 167-1, Kantung Rd., Yehliu, Wanli, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

If you are already in Taiwan, you can get to Yehliu Geopark either through bus or car. There are four routes that you can choose from if you will ride on a bus. Meanwhile, if you choose to arrive at the geopark by car, there are five dispatch options that are possible to use, depending on your starting point. You can check this link for more information regarding a planned trip. Safe travels, and thank you for reading! Let’s meet again in another blog where my fantasies become realities! A Nikki reminder: find passion in your work, and you’ll never tire from it! See you!

╚ ———————————————————————————— ╝

· * ✫ * ⊹ * ˚ . . 　　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · . * · . · · + . ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ��· ** ˚ . . + 　　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · . *

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ. . + 　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · .˚ ⊹ · * ✧ ⋆ · * . · . · · .. . .

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ· + ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ· * ✫ * ⊹ * ˚

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ · ** ˚ . . + ㅤㅤ　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · .˚ ⊹ · * ✧

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ⋆ · * . · ㅤㅤ . · · .. . . · + .

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ. · + . *

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ⋆ * . * . .

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ . · ·

ㅤㅤ﹙dedication. ﹚ ୨˚୧ ˚ ༘♡.↳ ₊˚‧

This blog is dedicated to heroes who stay to be ordinary, because they glisten the most when their humbleness is that of the rocks and seas. You are truly the ones who give Rising Hope to all of us.

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ﹋﹋﹌﹌﹌「 🌄 」﹌﹌﹌﹋﹋

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ┊彡 Credits

➥ Cover Edit

➫ Pictures captured by my mom, Helen Sy

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ Blog Dividers

➫ Pictures captured by my mom, Helen Sy

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ Source of Information

➫ Yehliu Geopark Bruisure

➫ Yehliu Geopark’s website

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ﹋﹋﹌﹌﹌「 end. 」﹌﹌﹌﹋﹋

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ⭆ Back to Homepage ⭅

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[hannahmcne]

Her Royal Highness - Chapter 25

Audrey wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to be feeling.

Her ex-boyfriend's wife who happened to be her mother's enemy's daughter had invited her into her group. Mal had literally tossed her a sword and said she'd need her. Now Audrey had no idea why. It was quite clear as soon as she joined the rest of the group that they were far, far different from her. They were mostly men who had been on various fencing teams and whose dads or uncles or grandfathers had taught them to spar at a young age. There were a couple of girls, like Lonnie, but all things accounted for, they were about seventy-percent men.

There was black upper-body armor for their use, though Audrey wasn't quite sure where they'd gotten it. It was placed alongside the walls of the utopia for everyone who would be entering the outside. The soldiers already had theirs strapped to their bodies.

It hadn't exactly occurred to Audrey that she might be doing dangerous things when she'd come. Truth-be-told, she'd heard Ben would be there and thought it'd be a great chance to hook up with her old boyfriend. Unfortunately, he and Mal seemed to be getting closer, and Audrey was beginning to wonder if maybe this wasn't just a bad-girl-infatuation after all. What were the chances that Ben might actually be in love with Mal, a villainess?

Audrey stood in line with everyone else, holding a sword in her hand that felt - oddly - one with her arm, even though she'd never held a sword before. She carefully observed her comrades and mirrored the way they held their weapons as they stood in unorganized ranks, awaiting the Queen of the Isle.

Mal had dressed for the occasion. She had on a sleeveless leather jacket made of a variety of purple and green shades, zippers, and other metal appliques. Attachable sleeves were currently stuffed into Mal's pockets at the shoulders. Long pants with the hems covered by her combat boots protected her legs from the sun. Her hair was down, and Audrey could see that the back of her neck was wet with sweat. Still, the area was protected from the sun. A large part of Audrey thought: 'How could Ben allow someone so closely associated with him to dress in such a fashion?' The other part of her felt silly and preppy. She pulled the armor on, which would cover her chest, back, and arms, and picked at her shorts where she'd cut off her jeans with intentions to show off as much as possible. Now, she wished she'd kept them longer so that she could pretend that fabric would protect her.

"Alright." Mal snapped to attention. Audrey looked up instinctively. A tall woman with grey hair had approached Mal and held out a large tablet. Mal took it with a smile. She turned it around to show the twenty-ish people who had chosen to join ranks in group one. On the screen was a map of the Isle. Mal pointed to a point on a pier closely surrounded by water. "These are the piers." She explained. "I know for a fact people are gathered there, but Isle rebels could be scattered all over the place, all on the villain's team." Mal pointed as she spoke. "People who waited to see if they wanted to come into the Utopia were taken captive by Maleficent and are now being held hostage. They're either subdued, held captive, or too ill to move. My goal is to bring everyone in unless they specifically tell you otherwise or try to hurt you. So, here's how this will work." Mal handed the tablet back and dug her sword into the ground in front of her.

Audrey tuned out most of what Mal was saying. Mostly, she was giving out tips for moving stealthily and keeping quiet. She carefully moved her sword from hand to hand as she evaluated Mal's stance and composure. Everything about Ben's wife was guarded, from the straight-mouthed expression frozen on her face to the way the muscles in her arms moved in the sunlight. Audrey was trying to figure out what seemed so ethereal and unreal about her until she realized that the small hairs on her arms were purple with the rest of her head. When she stood in the sunlight, she looked like she was glowing a slightly different shade.

Audrey looked down at her own arms. Small brown hairs were scattered amidst freckles, and her arms looked much less muscular than the Queen's. Probably from climbing the palace over and over. Audrey remembered what she had said almost a year ago: "Stuff like that helps me stay fit."

Climbing the palace walls, and probably running across her mom's forfeited kingdom had kept her in shape. Audrey had to bite down the bile rising in her throat.

How could Ben like her? How could Ben want her? Didn't he see all the awful things she was going to do to the kingdom?

"Alright, let's break!" Mal declared. Her eyes fell on Audrey and Audrey felt ice creep down her spine. "Audrey." Mal raised an arm and waved Audrey towards her. "You're with me."

Audrey looked left, and right, and stayed where she was. Instead, Mal came towards her with her sword slung over her shoulder. "I'll keep you safe." She promised. She turned to others in the group. "Lonnie, watch Carlos's back. Marin, you bring up the tail."

Audrey hadn't noticed before, but Islanders were beginning to mix with their groups. Marin, who was a large, imposing, dark-skinned man with tattoos and an upper ear piercing, moved to the back of the group under Mal's command. Other similar men and women were beginning to mix.

"Let's move!" Mal barked. She pressed a small hand to Audrey's back, in between her shoulder blades, and lead her in front of the group to the entrance of the Isle. Group two was following behind them. Audrey began to panic, but she kept her mouth shut as they moved towards the gates into the city. Mal readied her sword, and they flooded through, out of the city.

The air was disgusting. Audrey smelled things rotting; like the time she'd peeled an orange in her garbage and then not taken it out quick enough, resulting in a rancid smell that had filled her room for an entire day, but much, much worse. The city had been built in the middle of an uninhabited forest, where small, scraggly trees grew among large, towering trunks with knotted, uneven bark. The dirt was mottled black and grey with occasional piles of sawdust from where the builders had left it. As they continued, Audrey saw small, scorched places in the earth where fires had been lit. While the barrier appeared purple from inside the city, it now disappeared behind them, as if it wasn't there at all. Pollution and clouds had become trapped inside the barrier, resulting in an awful smog that clouded the sky from view entirely. The entire environment was made up of grey, brown, black and dirty blue.

Someone shouted in the trees "it's the queen!" and Mal raised a hand. The tips of her fingers were alight with green magic. There was a snap, and a shadow fell through the twigs and branches about twenty yards away. Audrey yelped as they thudded towards the ground. The other rebels who had been hiding in the bushes squealed and screamed, and footsteps thundered through the woods as people rushed to get away. Mal moved to stop only two more, and then continued marching her small force through the Isle of the Lost.

Her blood felt like ice and fire underneath her skin as she followed Mal onto the Isle. The group spread out and became sparsely thin. The purple-haired fae remained beside her, gently pressing her onward whenever Audrey slowed.

The forest gave way to a ditch with rotting, muddy water inside. Audrey saw defected frogs whose legs were splayed at awful angles, either from cruel Isle kids hurting them or birth defects and mutations caused by the dangerous chemicals Auradon sometimes sent with their trash. One small monster leaped past her foot with mottled purplish-green skin, a multitude of eyes spread across a sagging face, and warts bigger than her fingernails. There were no fish, and no birds flying anywhere.

A single bridge stretched across the ditch. Mal fingered the railing as she began to cross and stopped midway across to peer down through the cracks as if she were looking for anything down below. Audrey followed her and tried to ignore the cold settling into her bones and the imposing creaking of the bridge.

Across the bridge was a small collection of crumbling buildings with many different levels. Most were made of bricks with plywood roofs and tarps covering broken sides. Graffiti ran rampant. Audrey gaped at the intense slang splattered at great heights on the side of the buildings. Many of them appeared to have been done by the same hand, as they were all themed similarly. Audrey flinched when she spotted a mural of Maleficent, Mal's mom. It was beautiful, very intricate, and featured the infamous fae with her hands outstretched and bright green magic in her hands. The inscription 'Long Live Evil' was featured behind the fae woman. underneath the entire painting was the slogan 'There are so many ways to be wicked."

Ways to be Wicked. Audrey had to scoff to hide the pain in the irony of that statement. Two generations of wicked women ruining her family in two very different ways. One who cursed her kingdom, put her family to sleep, cursed her mom to a nearly-incurable fate, and the other who stole an entire country, her boyfriend, and her future.

Group one began to dissipate into the city. Mal and Audrey held their swords aloft as about four other people crept behind them. She peered behind corners as they walked, and carefully observed all her surroundings as they changed. For Audrey, it was all she could do to tear her eyes off of the buildings, where abandoned and trashed shops lined the alleyways. Audrey stepped over a dirty stuffed dog missing its left arm and leg with a large wooden stake driven through its neck.

As they rounded a corner, Audrey caught a whiff of something horrible. They'd stepped into a small square with uneven cobbling. Next to her was a shop that read: "Lady Tremaine's Curl Up and Dye" with a large pair of scissors for a logo. Hanging from the scissors was the body of a real dog, swinging back and forth. It was missing all its paws and its snout was tied closed as the poor thing swung back and forth. Mal stared at it for a few seconds.

"Cruella." She said after a few seconds. "Someone strung it up for Cruella. Probably a common villain trying to get into her graces." Mal shook her head a few times. "It's been a while since I've seen a statement like that." She muttered.

"Should we cut it down?" Someone asked.

"I don't want to waste time." Mal contemplated as she bit her tongue. "And it's probably been a few days since that thing was killed. It probably has maggots and lots of dangerous bugs. We shouldn't touch it without protection."

An Auradon man prodded the dog's side carefully with the hilt of his sword. Its entire side gave way like poking clay with your finger. Audrey gagged. "This is awful!" She hissed.

"Happens all the time, princess." A small boy in an isle vest drawled. He held two swords in his small hands. "People get strung up too." He added.

"This is barbarous!" Audrey protested. She whirled on Mal. "You're going to get us killed!" She accused.

Mal rolled her eyes. "Yes." She agreed sarcastically. "And I with you." She hefted her sword and cut the rope stringing the dog up. The body fell to the ground like a sack of cloth or cotton. Bugs flew up from where they'd nested into the body, and the fur split apart to reveal parts that were held together – not by skin, but by maggots and bacteria. An awful smell washed over them, and Audrey felt her breakfast coming up fast. She gagged again and turned to throw up her stomach.

When she came back up, the same short Isle kid rolled his eyes and said: "Nice," though the other Auradon volunteers also looked a bit green.

"Oh my gosh." Audrey began to shake. She turned to Mal. "I'm not comfortable with this. I want to go back. I want to be with group three. I don't like the Isle." She pleaded

Mal opened her mouth, and from the west came a sizzling sound of electricity, and a strangled yell. Audrey jumped. Mal closed her mouth. "Tranquilizer gun." She announced to her small group. "Team two must have found a scout." She nodded to Audrey. "Give it a few minutes. If you're still unsure, I'll find someone to take you back."

Mal's eyes suddenly focused on something behind Audrey. "Duck." She commanded and pushed Audrey's shoulders down as the group dropped to the ground. A gunshot echoed off the walls as a bullet ricocheted off Lady Tremaine's wall. Audrey screamed. She was going to die, she was going to die. She'd only come to show Ben how supportive she was of the crown, maybe sway him to at least unblock her on social media, and now she was going to die.

Mal jumped up and brought her sword up to guard herself. Audrey glimpsed the look of intense concentration on her face as she planted her feet, readied her legs, and leaped clear over Audrey's head. She whirled around as Mal rushed towards their assailant. A second bullet whizzed through Mal's hair and hit the building again. The shooter cursed.

The Isle boy behind her jumped up. "Give me a boost." He commanded Audrey and another Auradon man. They quickly got to their feet and grabbed the boys' legs as they carried him into the air. "Over there!" He pointing to Lady Tremaine's sign. The top of the rope was still coiled around one of the scissor's shears. Audrey held her breath as they carried him over the dog and towards the sign. The young man worked quickly as Mal parried their attacker, who had dropped his gun for a steel bar that had been leaning against a building. He loosened the rope around the sign and then looked down at them. "Pull away!" He commanded. Audrey and the Auradonian man quickly obeyed and put him back down a few feet away as Mal pivoted in an alleyway and began to force their attacker – a thin, bony man with tanned skin clothed in a thin, black, long-sleeved shirt – into the square. He fought valiantly, but Mal was just too quick for him to catch her. It almost reminded Audrey of when Ben had been Captain of the Swords and Sheilds team at Auradon Prep. No one had been able to catch him either.

The boy took the bar and blew it into the side of Mal's head a fraction of a second before she could lean away. It knocked her head back but hadn't caught her at an angle to do much harm - only hitting her cheek and nose a little. Still, she looked immediately offended. With a mighty swing, she knocked the bar out of this hand and quickly kicked him in the chest to send him to the ground.

The Isle boy threw an end of the rope to the man who had helped Audrey lift him, and together they rushed at the man, wrapping the rope around his arms and legs as he shouted and struggled. A small gash was in his cheek from where Mal had hit him, and his rifle was lying abandoned in the alleyway. Someone else in their group carefully walked forward and picked it up. "It's discharged." She announced. "The safety is broken on it."

"The question is where he got a gun," Mal said calmly. "Auradon is usually very careful not to send them over."

"It's not of your business!" The man howled on the ground. "We'll get you, Queen Maleficent!" He tried to spit at Mal but missed entirely.

"Mal." Mal corrected him calmly. "Maleficent is my mom."

"Do I hear a damsel in distress?" Someone chuckled from an alleyway. Audrey jumped and whirled around. King Ben – handsome as ever – was walking out of an opposing alley with a bright smile that somehow managed to make it seem like the sun was coming through. She felt an intense sense of relief to see something so normal and comforting. His collar was folded down and his clothes were clean and even on the Isle, he looked so... kingly. Audrey felt like melting into her shoes. The sword he was holding made him look even more the part of her knight. Behind him was a group of four others, including Mal's friends; the daughter of the Evil Queen and the son of Jafar.

"No distress here," Mal responded with a smirk. "But look, twenty minutes in and we've already caught our first crook." She prodded the screaming man with her shoe. "Care to assist him?" She asked sweetly.

Ben turned green. "No thanks." He said, shaking his head.

Evie rolled her eyes at him and stepped forward. "With pleasure." She purred, leveling her tranquilizer. She pulled the trigger, and bright blue electricity raced out of the barrel. Audrey felt her hairs rise up on end as every nerve ending in her body screamed: "Danger!"

It only lasted a second, and the man didn't even look harmed. Instead, he looked as if he'd suddenly fallen asleep. Evie blew off the tip of the barrel for dramatic effect, even though it wasn't smoking. "If only we'd had these to protect us before you were queen." She mourned. "Think of how we could have ruled the Isle."

All of the villain kids, including Mal, laughed. "Yeah." Mal snorted. "I wouldn't have even become queen. Auradon wouldn't have even been able to pull me off."

Audrey tensed. This was something she'd never heard before. Auradon had pulled Mal off the Island? Why? Perhaps there was truth to her rumors after all.

Ben glanced at the dog under Lady Tremaine's sign and at the man on the ground. He put an arm around Mal and used a hand at her hip to pull her towards him. "Looks like you had a party."

"Not even." Mal rolled her eyes as she put her arms around Ben's neck briefly and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Tonight, when we get back, we need to have a real party. With strawberries and everything." She kissed Ben's cheek. Audrey felt sick. She and Ben had never done that together.

Ben laughed. "Can't have a party without strawberries, huh?" He asked.

"Nope!" Mal declared. "Oh!" She gave Ben a wicked smile. "We could totally break out Auradon's 'grown-up drinks' and get drunk together." She winked at him as everyone exchanged looks at her light-hearted, sarcastic attitude.

Ben snorted. "Sorry Mal, you're still not of the age of consent yet." He told her with raised eyebrows.

Everyone in their little circle laughed. Mal rolled her eyes. "By Auradon's standard, maybe, but on the Isle, I can do whatever I want." She spread her hands wide to accentuate her point.

"Don't even give me that crap." Ben cut her off with a roll of his eyes. "I'd be willing to place money on the fact you've never had a stronger drink than orange juice in your life."

Jay and Carlos began to chuckle and elbow each other as Mal glared. "What are you doing here, again?" She snapped.

"Heard trouble," Jay answered as he composed himself. "What should we do with the people we knock out?" He gestured at the sleeping man on the ground.

"Leave them," Mal said, bending down to untie the attacker. "I don't want any of them in the city. After we get the rest of the innocents out, I'm closing borders. The original evil villains and anyone who gets kicked out of the city will have to survive out here. The blast will keep them out until tomorrow morning, at which time we'll be done."

"I like these things, but they're really noisy and they don't shoot very fast," Jay remarked as he studied his tranquilizer.

"They do their job." Mal shrugged. "Okay, we better keep going." Her eyes landed on Audrey. "Audrey, are you still interested in going back? If you go with group two, you can return to the city as soon as they find someone who needs to go back. I'm going to keep pushing through."

Ben frowned. "Back already? We just started." He asked.

Audrey glanced between Mal and Ben, and then straightened her shoulders. "I think I'm okay." She lied. "I was just a little thrown off by that dog, is all."

Ben nodded in agreement, looking a little green. "Yeah, that thing is nasty." He agreed and shuddered. "You're good to stay here, then?" He asked, holding out his fist for her to tap.

Audrey forced a smile as she fist-bumped him. "Yeah." She nodded. "Let's keep moving." She felt like she had a year ago, walking out the front door after being broken up with and sworn to secrecy by Ben.

"Bye Babe." Mal blew an air kiss to Ben as she picked up her sword from where it had been abandoned on the ground. Ben immediately tugged her closer and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Audrey heard him whisper: "Bye sweetheart," before group two divided from group one and began to walk down the alleyway their crook had come from. Evie and Jay high-fived Mal as they walked past, and Audrey watched the man she loved, the most important person to her, walk away with an irremovable ring on his finger and a new name on his lips. And at that moment, she'd never hated Mal more.

When they were gone, the Isle queen prodded the man on the ground with her foot.

"Do you know him?" One of the Auradonian recruits asked.

"Clay Clayton," Mal answered. "Strange to see him so angry like this. We used to go to school together. Got paired together for our Evil Schemes final in Year Nine." She shrugged. "Oh well. Let's move on."

Audrey lagged behind for a few minutes to examine Clay. He was actually quite handsome, with a square face and curly dark hair. He couldn't have been more than a bit older or younger than her. In another time, she might have dated him.

It was hard to imagine a younger Mal on the Isle of the Lost, teaming up with him to complete a school project. Audrey wasn't sure what to do with the information Mal had just given her. She swallowed, bent down, and moved Clay's head so he wouldn't get a crick in his neck. Then she picked up her sword, which was forgotten over by the dog, and continued on.

The Isle chill was starting to feel familiar to Audrey. She still couldn't get used to the way every breath felt like she was heaving as her lungs struggled to find the oxygen in the polluted air though. Her leg brushed against something sticking out of the side of a collapsed wall and when Audrey leaned down to wipe away any grudge that had come off onto her leg, she discovered that the bar or beam or whatever it was had actually wiped away a layer of grudge that was coating her skin. She had had no idea her legs were suddenly so dirty. It was the air, she realized. The pollution was so heavy that some things would solidify when your body heat came near, causing thin layers of... gunk to freeze onto your bare skin. It was... horrible. She didn't understand how anyone, villain or not, could live in an environment like this.

Mal stepped over a grate and down a narrow passageway, and some disembodied voice called out: "Queen Mal?"

A hand appeared out of a small hole near the base of the building, dirty and grimy. The skin on the person's fingernails was shredded with small, pointed rocks like splinters sticking out. "Help!" They cried, and more voice cried out from... inside the wall? "Help! Help! Help us, please!"

Mal crouched down and took the person's hand. "How many are you?" She asked in a hollow tone.

"Twenty-four," The first person replied in a wavering tone. "The entrance has collapsed and we're trapped. The villains left us because they didn't want to bring the entire place down."

"Left you?" Mal asked. "Left for where?"

"The piers," The person explained. "Everyone deserted when your armies appeared last night. They're holding everyone around the Jolly Roger and in Ursula's shop. The only people they didn't take were people who couldn't move, like us."

"Left for dead," Mal exhaled. "I'm going to get you out of there." She took her hand back from the person and examined the building. It was one that Auradon had left for the villains thirty years ago, and black mold stretched up the sides of it. Relatively tall, and about to crumble. She exhaled. "We'll have to work fast," She decided, tossing her sword to the ground. Several Auradon folks followed her example, but the Islanders frowned and exchanged uneasy looks.

"Mal," One of the Islanders frowned. "We can't do anything. If we try and make an opening, the building will come down on their heads. There's nothing we can do to help them."

Mal leveled her gaze. It was clear she knew this, and she was doubtful, but she still had to try. Audrey swallowed. "Can we find where the entrance collapsed and try to clear it from there? The stones will be looser."

"It'll be unstable there," the same Islander protested. "Where one collapse happened, another can occur."

Mal chewed on her cheek and considered both ideas. Then she jerked her head to the side and mumbled: "Audrey, come with me." Mal got back to her feet and began to walk around the perimeter of the building. Audrey hesitated, then followed carefully. They turned the corner and discovered a mostly intact wall, and then, on the opposite side, a pile of rubble. Mal crossed her arms and exhaled. "They're at the back of the building. We could clear the rubble, but we'd be here all day. And they're right, the more we clear... some of this mess could be keeping the rest from falling. We could be crushed if we move it."

Audrey examined the awful spread of rock and beam. She swallowed. "Are you just going to... leave them?" She whispered.

Mal shook her head. "I can't do that," She whispered. "There's got to be something... something magic."

Magic. Audrey's blood felt like ice. Mal exhaled and rubbed her fingers together. "Let's walk back," She mumbled. "I'll think of something... a rhyme." She turned and began to walk back the way she'd come. Audrey stayed in place, examining the wreckage with a thumping heart. She turned to follow Mal, and then something wooden stuck out to her.

"Mal?" She called, and then stepped into the mess. She heard Mal take a quick gasp and began hurrying back, and so she clambered over another, larger rock before the Isle Queen could pull her back.

"Audrey, that's unstable!" Mal gasped. Audrey furrowed her brow and pointed. "There's something wooden. Right there, see? I think it might be a door."

Mal paused and then carefully stepped atop a rock to see where Audrey was pointing. She shook her head. "It's covered by boulders, Audrey. We have the same problem as before. If we move too much, the rest of the building will crumble."

Audrey balled her fists up. There were people stuck down there in that horrible air who would die if they left them behind. She had to try something. "You can use your magic to hold it together," She declared, continuing her trek through the crumbling rocks. Black mold and a thick, oily layer of grime stuck to her hands and legs. She tossed her sword to the side and then used both hands to navigate around a portion of rectangular rock that was twice the size of her entire body. Her foot slipped and the ground gave way underneath her. She yelped as she felt her entire leg fall into a mini sinkhole and clamped her mouth shut to keep from screaming as she felt something slithering.

A wave of green magic washed over all of the rocks and the entire building as if the entire premises had suddenly been covered in glowing green plastic. Audrey looked back to Mal. Her eyes were lit up and her hands were outstretched as she worked to hold the entire building together. Shouts came from the other side. "Hurry!" Mal urged through gritted teeth. "I'm going to try and hold it all together."

Audrey pulled her leg back up. A small, bloody gash had formed underneath her kneecap, but she was otherwise unharmed. She got to her feet and hurried over to the door as voices came around the side of the building. The rest of their group appeared. Audrey watched Mal's Isle friend, Carlos, take in the situation and began clambering over rocks to help her.

Audrey reached the door and brushed the pebbles away. She pulled a rather sizable stone away from the edge of the frame and peered underneath. The door had fallen on top of a staircase going down, effectively protecting it from being covered with rubble. "There's an entrance here!" She announced and began trying to lug boulders off of the edge of the frame so that she could try to get inside. Carlos jumped over a large stone and, squeezing his frame in-between two large stones on top of the door, used his feet to push them off. He forced his fingers underneath the splintered frame and pulled up, creating about a foot's worth of space that Audrey added to by shuffling around the small pebbled on the ground to create a depression big enough for someone to be lifted through.

Carlos huffed with the effort of keeping the door lifted and turned to Audrey. "They're probably locked in a room down there. Maybe the villains left the key. You need to slip down and see if you can find them."

"Go... down there?" Audrey gasped, staring down into the depths of the dark staircase. There could be all sorts of spiders and bugs and... things. Climbing rocks was one thing - she'd gone hiking with her mom before(Hated it, but she'd done it) - but exploring the scary staircase? "Why can't you go?"

"You can't hold up the door and I can't fit through that hole." Carlos rolled his eyes. "Go on, hurry!"

Audrey looked down at the hole and swallowed. She carefully put her feet in and shimmied forward. Her feet found a solid step and she carefully maneuvered her body until her head went under and the world became very, very dark. The air became infinitely harder to breathe. Audrey tried to inhale and abruptly began hacking so hard she had to sit down. The air pollution combined with the musty underground air made for a deadly combination.

"Is there enough light for you to see?" Carlos called down from above.

Audrey couldn't respond as she looked all around. Barely, was the answer. She could see the faint outlines of the steps and the walls, but almost nothing else. She used the wall to stand back up, still coughing, and began the trek down the stairs. The hallway was fairly narrow and with the ceilings stopping about ten inches above her head. She hit the base of the staircase with a stumble and then began feeling the walls for a door. "Hello?" She managed to choke out. "Marco?"

"Hello!" Someone called. "Hello, hello?"

"I'm coming!" Audrey called, hurrying a little through the hallway until her fingers found the rough pattern of a thick, wooden door. She felt around for a handle and, as Carlos had predicted, it was locked. She rammed her shoulder into it experimentally, and her entire side went numb. "I'll be right back!" She called, and then hurried back to the staircase, narrowly avoiding tripping and busting up her hurt knee again. "Carlos!" She yelled. "I need something to pry the door open!"

There was a hesitation, and then Carlos called back: "Can you do that?"

'We're about to find out.' Audrey thought. She climbed up the staircase and shoved her hand up through the hole. "Hand me a sword!" She demanded. After another brief pause, she felt someone put a leather guard in her hand. Immediately, she turned and felt her way back down the stairs. She found the door again, felt for the handle, and then carefully used the tips of her fingers to feel the blade on the sword. The first thing she realized was that it was backwards, so she had to hold it the correct way. The second thing she figured out was that the very tip was sharper than the blade itself. "Keep away from the door!" She called to the people on the other side before feeling for where the door latched and then sliding her sword into the place where the door and the frame latched. She pushed, hard, and heard something crack, but then the blade stuck fast. She jangled the door handle and found it was loose, but she hadn't broken the handle yet.

"Audrey!" Carlos yelled from up above. "Mal says she can't hold the building together forever. Can you get them out or not?"

Audrey turned to cough into her shoulder from exertion and then put her back against one wall and her feet up on the other. Calling on every ounce of strength she had, she forced the blade into the doorframe. Something snapped, and the door slumped awkwardly to one side. Audrey dropped back to the ground and then carefully pulled the handle. The door swung open on one rusty hinge, revealing a small room packed full of people. She huffed in surprise and leaned against the wall. She'd done it. For several seconds, no one spoke. Audrey was puffing too hard, and the Islanders were so shocked by her appearance they couldn't say anything. She watched their eyes skim her bare legs and her long hair in surprise. It was clear they'd never seen a girl like her before.

"Can you walk?" Audrey finally gasped. "Mal says she can't hold up the building for much longer." At her words, the ceiling rumbled. Everyone jumped into action, pulling each other up. Those who could walk helped those who couldn't and Audrey stayed out of the way as the prisoners walked out. Then, when there were only a few people left, she stepped inside.

The room was smaller than her closet at home. Audrey couldn't understand how they'd fit twenty-four people in here, even though she'd seen them all with her own two eyes. It smelled horrible and the only light came from two or three small holes in the wall. Deep depressions were in the rock where the prisoners had been trying to escape, and there were dark stains on the floor that Audrey didn't really want to think about.

"Maren?" a woman called, leaning down by a small girl who was curled up in a corner of the room. "Can you walk? I can carry you."

There was no answer. Audrey suddenly felt a pit of dread open up in her stomach as she and two other people stepped forward to examine the small child.

"Maren?" The woman asked, confusion lacing her tone as she pulled the girl's head up, only for it to flop there uselessly. A man reached forward and felt along the little girl's neck before taking the woman by the shoulders and pulling her away.

"She's gone, Carol. She's been gone for a while. We have to leave her. The building could come down soon." He told her, pulling her towards the door. "We have to go, now."

Audrey watched the scene, feeling like a knife had been put through her chest. She stared at the little girl in the corner and swallowed as tears filled her eyes. She hadn't been quick enough. They hadn't been quick enough.

The last of the survivors left the room and Audrey brought up the tail, guiding everyone down the hall and up the stairs. Carlos and another Isle boy held the door open while Auradon volunteers helped pull people up to safety, one by one. Last of all was Audrey herself, who handed Carlos his sword and then kept a blank expression as they guided everyone off the rocks and rubble. Mal was shaking from the exertion of holding up the building as they hurried to bring everyone to a safe distance from the pile. Then, she counted backwards. "Three... two... one." She released the magic keeping the building up, and the rocks around the doorframe slid and plummeted into the ground. Like a chain reaction, the walls around the area crumbled to the ground. A wave of dust kicked up and Audrey heard everyone around her taking deep breaths before the dust hit them like a wall. She squeezed her eyes shut as the sounds of the crumbling building echoed around them.

When all was quiet, Audrey forced herself the open her eyes. The dust was still settling. The building was gone and a giant heap of rubble was in its place. Carlos took a few steps forward to head the group. "Mal?" He called.

Audrey watched a figure rise up from the ground and turn around, and she exhaled in relief. Mal's purple hair shone through the dust and her skin gave off a soft, milky glow as she examined the group with a tactful eye. "How many?" She asked. "All twenty-four?"

"Twenty-three," Audrey announced in a hollow tone. "One casualty. She was dead when I got down there."

Mal's face twisted a little in pain, but she nodded. "We need to take them to the city. Who can do that?" She examined the group. Audrey considered going back to the city, but the thought of Ben's expression came to mind. 'Already'? She kept her hand down as other people raising their hands and volunteered to take people back. Mal picked people out and organized groups, and when all was said and done their group was down to less than twenty. Those headed back to the city departed, and Mal's squadron continued in the opposite direction.

They stalked inwards. It wasn't long before Audrey could hear water. They came to a place where the uneven cobbled streets ended and were suddenly facing some old wood planks. Mal tested one skeptically.

"Should be safe to walk." She announced. "Uma and her crew usually do a good job keeping the wharf safe." She looked around. "I wasn't supposed to come down here much." She admitted. "Uma and I had a fight when we were younger and banned each other from our turfs." She stepped onto the boards and began to walk away. Audrey took her first few steps and quickly realized that the planks were actually bridges, and they were floating. Looking over the sides, she realized that the water was so black and polluted, it didn't reflect anymore. It looked like dark ground from a distance. She leaned out a little, and one of the Isle boys pulled her back.

"If you fall in, it'll be one of the last things you do," he warned. The warning made Audrey's skin cold.

They took a few turns and began to walk past a cluster of holes in a rock face that the bridge stretched in front of. As they passed, they heard a low voice singing: "Tick-tock, tick-tock."

Mal stopped. She was already at the front of the group, but she and Carlos moved so that they were guarding the rest of the group behind them. "Tick-tock, tick-tock." Mal slurred. "I haven't got all day."

There was a shadow, and then a pirate with black charcoal around his eyes appeared. He was wearing a ripped white shirt and a long red overcoat. Clutched in his hand was a curved hook.

Mal tilted her head and ran a nail over her lip. Audrey was amazed by how nonchalant she could look despite obviously guarding the Auradonians behind her. "Still running errands and delivering messages for Uma, Harry?" She asked. "Or, do you actually get to call your own shots now?"

The pirate blinked slowly at her. "Well, well, well." He said in a husky tone. "Look wha' the tide pulled in." He smiled. Bits of black lined his gums like he had brushed his teeth with charcoal. His hair looked like it hadn't been washed in days. He walked towards Mal until he was so close, they were almost breathing the same air and Mal was looking up. "Jus' wait till Uma hears you finally wandered in!" He smiled. "We were beginning to wonder if yer king was gonna let his trophy go wandering." He smirked at Mal, and his eyes roamed her body in a way that made Audrey shrivel just imagining his stare on her. He was like a predator planning to ravage her. Carlos stiffened beside Mal and carefully placed himself to run Harry through with his sword if he tried anything. Despite all this, Mal didn't seem to care that he was acting like he was about to force him on her. She was putting out a toxic force all her own as she guarded her squad against his poisonous gaze. "You know she'll never let you have yer old turf back." Harry slurred like a drunken man. "Queen'er no queen."

Mal blinked as if the idea genuinely surprised her. "Oh!" She said, eyeing the hook as if its presence was offending her. "Well, that's okay." She shrugged. "Because I will be taking it."

For a few seconds, the air intensified as Harry and Mal stared at each other. Then, Harry moved his hand and hooked a long lock of her thick hair. "I could hurt you." He threatened in a low tone. Carlos grew tense, and for a second Audrey was sure he would attack, but then Mal's hand jumped to action and seized Harry's wrist underneath the hook quicker than Audrey could follow.

Mal tilted her head and blinked innocently. "Not without her permission, I bet." She said, staring unblinkingly at him.

Harry blinked his charcoal-rimmed eyes at her. "You better watch your step." He warned, gesturing at the planks below their feet. "Maybe I can't hurt you on… trophy terms, but you've got a lovely little gang behind you." His eyes flickered upward and began to skim Audrey's body like he had Mal's. Audrey shivered, and Harry smiled. "I could always take advantage of yer untrained mates." He threatened

Mal hummed. "Well." She said tersely. "I'll give you a message to take back to Uma since you sound so desperate for one." She hooked her fingers around his hook. Her eyes lit up with a scary green tone that gave Audrey PTSD to when she'd had that stare fixed on her at Beast's Castle. "You lay a hand on any of my mates, especially in any sort of perverted, provocative way-" Mal set an arm on Harry's shoulder and leaned in. He began to lean away with his eyes growing wide. "And I will turn you into a clock." Mal finished. She withdrew from Harry, who took a half-step back, gasping for breath.

Harry snickered. "Is that all you've got?" He asked in a raspy tone. "You don't scare me, Daughter of Maleficent." Though his actions certainly didn't mirror his words.

"Well, you don't have to be scared if you keep your hands to yourself," Mal replied. "You've been warned."

Harry chuckled, but he sounded like he'd been forced into a higher octave. He walked backwards into the rock face and vanished.

After several seconds, Mal turned to face her group. "We need to move quicker now." She announced. "He knows these places better than I do."

Everyone nodded, and they began again at a fast pace along the wharf. After a while, they came to several dirt paths that stretched along the edge of the waters. Mal took them up onto the land and they began to make their way to the head of the pier. Around them were buildings, but these were not the buildings of stone like in Mal's turf. These were made of wood and were slowly falling apart from termite damage and wood rot. Audrey had never seen places like this in her life and she couldn't deny that it was fascinating.

As they skirted through buildings, they heard a sudden crash from about forty yards away. Three more subsequently followed. Mal, Carlos, and the other boy from the Isle exchanged looks. "We need to split up and check that out," Carlos whispered.

"It may be a trap," Mal warned.

"It'll become an ambush if we don't." The last boy decided.

"Kay." Mal nodded. She examined everyone. "You three with him, you two with me, and you and Audrey with Carlos." She decided, pointing to different people as she spoke. She patted Carlos on the shoulder. "Take care of them." She told Carlos. Audrey was sure that Mal meant: 'take care of Audrey, who did not dress for the occasion and who may lose her stomach again.' "Try and head to Uma's ship as soon as you're done," Mal commanded.

They divided, going down three separate paths and soon Mal was out of sight and out of earshot.

"So," Carlos started. There was one other Auradon boy in their group. "You're Aurora's kid, right?" Carlos prodded Audrey lightly.

Audrey swallowed. "Yeah, I am." She would have curtseyed, but she was too busy walking. "Princess Audrey."

Carlos nodded. "Mal's mentioned you." He whispered. "Ben's old girlfriend?"

Audrey's shoulders slumped. What an awful title. "Yeah." She admitted. "He broke up with me when they brought Mal over."

"That must have been hard." Carlos nodded. "I'm not sure what to think of Ben." He admitted. His voice had a sudden guard in it, as if he was talking, but wasn't sure if he should be. "We were all convinced she was being tortured and taken advantage of over here."

"Tortured?" Audrey blinked. The Auradon boy behind them seemed equally surprised at that revelation. "Auradon doesn't torture people."

Carlos laughed. He turned and stared at her incredulously. "Auradon doesn't- yeah, good one." They continued walking as Carlos chuckled.

"What?" Audrey asked, cross. "They don't."

Carlos gestured to their surroundings. "And what do you call this?" He asked.

Audrey was taken so off guard she slipped in her flip flops and slid on her butt. Her sword clattered to the ground. She had no answer. Carlos grew cross.

"Yeah." He snapped. "Auradon definitely doesn't torture people. They definitely don't lock kids away all their lives and starve them for the crimes of their parents. God forbid they send ordinary criminals to fend their way with the villains! And they'd never send people actual trash to live off of!" Carlos drove his sword firmly into the ground at Audrey's feet. "Auradon is full of liars and people who will only take advantage of you! They discriminate against anyone they don't like and push people to villainy only to-"

An arrow whizzed over Carlos's head, nicking his scalp. Everyone's attention shot to where an archer in black stood on top of a crumbling dwelling.

Audrey scrambled to her feet and picked up her sword. Carlos tried to yank his blade out of the earth, but it had stuck. He paled. "Oh no." He whispered.

"It's an ambush!" The Auradonian boy yelled. Seconds later, a second arrow was loosed and went straight through his calf. He fell with a yell.

People appeared from the shadows of the crumbling buildings as Carlos tugged at his sword with a renewed fury. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he yanked to no avail. Audrey watched in growing horror as she slowly recognized the people appearing. A tall man with a feathered hat and a curly beard… Captain Hook. A dark-skinned shadow player… Dr. Facilier. And a large, imposing man with more muscles than she could count. Gaston.

Audrey screamed, fumbled her sword, and dropped it.

"Oh, for god's sake, woman!" Carlos yelled at her. He gave up trying to yank his own sword and seized hers off the ground. He gave it a wide test swing as Captain Hook unsheathed his own gleaming weapon. He readied his sword, and Carlos rushed him. It was a quick battle. The Captain and Carlos locked swords for a few seconds before the Captain's strength forced Carlos to give in. He tried to swing for Hook, but Hook caught his sword mid-swing with his own, and the weapon flew out of reach. Meanwhile, Gaston and Facilier were approaching Audrey with menacing smiles on their faces.

Audrey let loose a cry of despair and leaped out of their reach. She heard footsteps following her, and Carlos swearing like he was the sailor instead of Hook. She dashed down the wharf and towards the water. Gaston and Facilier remained hot on her heels as she turned a corner and sprinted desperately for where she'd last seen Mal. If she could make it there, Mal had another group. She'd protect her.

Unfortunately, she'd never reach Mal. She felt Gaston reach for the nape of her neck, could feel his breath behind her when suddenly something pale and blue appeared on the left side of her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking it was Facilier, and something with the force of a speeding bull slammed into her shoulder. She was shoved clear off her path, out of Gaston's hands, and off her feet.

Audrey rolled in between two buildings and underneath a small cardboard lean-to, which shuddered and shook above her: Gaston, who was thrown off by the new arrival, tripped and skidded face-first into the dirt. Facilier slipped in the dirt beside him and tumbled to the side of the road.

Audrey watched the newcomer brace himself for an attack. He was tall, dressed in dark blue, and holding one of Mal's Isle swords with a trained, precise hand. His face and head were covered by a black knit scarf. He looked as strong and imposing as all the knights in her dreams or any of the Auradon Knights. She watched him brace his feet and her heart fluttered - just a little bit. She could see the outlines of his jaw through the scarf as he held his sword aloft and watched Gaston get to his feet. Neither Gaston nor Facilier had a sword, but Gaston growled as he wretched a wooden beam support right out from underneath the awning of one of the surrounding establishments. This he readied in his hands.

The masked man attacked. He brought a swift blow down on Gaston's head and immediately took a chunk of wood out of the beam. He used his arm to force the beam - and Gaston's arm - to the ground and then jabbed at the older man's arm. Gaston barely got away with a deep slice stretching across his bicep. The masked man continued, forcing Gaston back onto his knees and then his back. The older man was forced to use the beam primarily for defense. Facilier couldn't get close enough to help as the flash of the sword swinging came down over and over, taking chunks and leaving divots in the large beam. Audrey was in awe. The only person she'd ever seen fight remotely similar to this Isle warrior was Ben in his Auradon Prep days, but even his best fighting couldn't hold a candle to what she was seeing now. There was a snap, and the beam split into two above Gaston's head. The splinters flew into the villain's face, and Gaston abruptly kicked out, trying to take out the man's legs. A sword came down in his path, and Gaston's boot was cut open.

Audrey carefully tried to move and flee. In the event Gaston looked around, it was entirely possible he'd see her where she'd fallen. The lean-to structure above her head shuddered and promptly collapsed on top of her head, effectively shielding her from view and filling her vision with stars. Before Gaston or Facilier could ever look over to the crash, the masked man dropped his sword grabbed Facilier and flung him down a small slope. He reached down to snatch his sword back up, but Gaston has used the distraction with Facilier to seize the hero's weapon and now jumped to his feet and held the sword to the man's throat. Facilier scrambled to his feet and balled his fists up as the masked man tried to retreat a few steps.

Audrey watched in horror as the two villains forced him to his knees and Gaston seized the man's hat and flung it aside. He seized the man's sandy blonde hair and wrenched his head back. The man's disguise was jostled aside. Audrey had to clamp a hand over her mouth.

It was Ben

Gaston stamped on Ben's legs to keep him from moving. Ben's face twisted in pain, but he refused to call out. "You son of a Beast!" Gaston yelled in his face, spit flying everywhere as Ben leaned away. "How dare you –"

"Gaston." Facilier purred, drawing the older man's temper away as he held Ben's shoulders and pinned Ben's knees under his feet. Ben groaned as his head arched back and his knees were driven into the ground at uncomfortable angles.

Gaston calmed down enough to see who he'd caught. There were several long seconds where there was nothing except Audrey praying that they wouldn't recognize him.

No chance.

"Son of a Beast." Gaston purred, hoisting Ben to his feet and wrapping a hand around his throat. "Son of a Beast." He began to laugh.

They were distracted. If Audrey hurried, she could use the same scare tactic Ben had used and push Ben out of their grasp. Ben might lose a bit of hair, but he'd be free and alive.

Then Facilier joined in, laughing with Gaston, and Audrey shrank. What could she do? She was a small, tired, useless girl with no previous Isle experience. It took all of her strength to hold back a few heartbroken sobs as the two villains hauled Ben away, heading to the end of the wharf. She buried her face in her hands and broke into silent sobs.