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“The Altered Adventure; Book 2 - Luck of the Guardians” First Chapter for free!

Chapter One

The Jungle Of Hope

 The sacred burial place for the king felt a lot farther away than both Gizzy and Benji could have ever imagined. After surviving a cyclone, transwolves, skeletons, and the seemingly evil guardians who ruled over Altered, Gizzy and Benji agreed to bring the king back from the dead. Only the Chosen One was capable of returning King Alpha to his former glory, and Gizzy was shocked when he found out that he was actually the coveted Chosen One.

Now, on a new quest to bring the king back from the dead, Gizzy was uncertain where this crazy, winding path would lead him. He kept asking himself why he’d agreed to revive King Alpha when everything in his heart told him that he really should be concentrating on getting to the Prophecy and unlocking his way back to Earth—back home.

Still uncertain about what the Prophecy actually was, Gizzy had been told that bringing the king back from the dead was his only chance at keeping the guardians at bay, but why had Voice, the Air Guardian, tried to help Gizzy to the Prophecy only to turn around and betray him? So much was happening behind the scenes that Gizzy could hardly keep up. Let alone properly deal with the deep sadness that he now carried with him after his best friend, Clayton (nicknamed Cib), was killed by the guardians. Gizzy was worried that there was no one he could truly trust anymore.

Except…well…maybe Benji.

The fourth day in Altered had felt so long, especially after Gizzy and Benji’s encounter with Witch, who’d promised to help them find the Prophecy and advised them on how to handle their escape from the guardians.

The green, misty moon was easing over the sky behind them, and the heroic duo needed to find shelter. They were heading in the opposite direction from Gizzy’s current “home” (or whatever one might call that dastardly shack). Luckily, along the way, they came across another similar shack to rest in for the night, although the cobwebs above them didn’t glow when touched, which took some of the fun out of it. Instead, Benji created a ball of light to help comfort Gizzy to sleep, and when Gizzy finally passed out, Benji turned off his light and snuggled alongside Gizzy. Eventually, a half-asleep Gizzy pushed Benji away because he was dropping too much fairy dust on him. Each of them settled back into the simple mattress with ample room between them, and they both fell into a deep sleep.

 The dark-red, shimmering sun brought about a new morning. Gizzy grabbed his red backpack, gave Benji a high-five, and checked the compass to make sure they were heading in the direction, toward the Jungle of Hope. They still needed to head east, but it shouldn’t be too far now.

As they traveled on, Gizzy wondered if he’d really be able to trust Witch, the ex-Earth Guardian, who’d been dethroned of his guardian role for violating the Code of the Guardians and had separated Voice from his body! Gizzy also worried about Witch because of his wonderful but dangerous powers, gifted to him because he was a Power-Born—one who carried the blood of those who held diverse and sacred supernatural abilities.

         “Hasn’t it all just been kind of a crazy few days?” Benji said.

         “It really has!” Gizzy said. “Totally crazy!”

         Gizzy looked down at the compass again, trying to sort out their direction. Benji flew up and bumped Gizzy’s shoulder.

         “Tell me again about everything you’ve been through. I want to remember it vividly, so I can retell your adventures around campfires lots of years from now. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even write a book about it!”

         Benji and Gizzy laughed.

         “Well,” Gizzy said, “there is this pack of transwolves that bit me and turned me into a werewolf. The leader was named Woof, and he had four other packmates who ran around with him. Two of the transwolves were gray, one was black and wore a red collar, and the final one was a golden blond wolf with bright green eyes and a magnifying glass tattoo on his leg.”

Benji giggled.

“I know, a magnifying glass of all things, right?” Gizzy said. “I still wonder what it symbolizes…”

Gizzy shrugged as they continued their trek. Scraggly brown vines crept down from the trees, weaving their way through the jungle. Gizzy had to push through the vines, touching their rough surfaces. Benji swerved as much as he could to avoid them too. The worst part of going through the jungle was having to breathe in the awful stench; it smelled like…death.

         Benji covered his mouth and nose as he flew near Gizzy’s shoulder. “What else, what else?!” Benji fluttered his little, strong wings at Gizzy to get his attention. “Tell me more of your stories.”

         “Well, we met Dr. Shamas!” Gizzy turned to Benji and glared. “And the terribly, horribly, ever-awful Stryder.”

Benji went bright red. “Hehe. Sorry about that one, friend. That was totally my fault. But at least you have the morphing ability now!”

         “It’s true! And now I can morph into anything I kill or have killed. Being able to transform into an ant or a wolf is pretty cool, I guess!” Then Gizzy thought about the big downside to his morphing ability and turned to Benji. “It also gave me this awful split personality, and you know what happens when that kicks in…”

         “Maybe you’ll find a way to suppress it? Or maybe it won’t be so bad that next time it comes around? Or if it ever comes back around!” Benji was always trying to be positive and helpful. It’s why Benji and Gizzy got along so well.

         “Maybe so,” Gizzy said. “Anyway, so, I fought skeletons!” Gizzy made a fighting stance and put up his fists. It reminded him of the hammer in his bag. He reached into his red backpack and pulled out the reasonably heavy hammer by its sturdy brown handle. “And we have the Barath Hammer now, the first of the four keys to unlock the Prophecy. So that’s pretty cool!”

         “I wonder how hard it will be to find the three other items,” Benji said. “Let’s see…so that’s Elizabeth’s locket, Witch’s shield, and Voice’s aura, right?”

         “Yup, that’s the list. But I keep wondering about Voice’s aura. Like, what is it? What could it be? What really is an aura? Is that, like, something inside him? And how do we go about getting that?”

         “We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, let’s just focus on our current quest, and that’s to bring the king back from the dead! If Witch was being honest with us, then you, as the Chosen One, freeing the king should cause a big enough raucous to distract the guardians so we can easily make our way to the Prophecy!”

         “Right! And I hope it really is that easy…because we need to stop those guardians before they do any more harm to humans or Justments or any other beings living on Altered. That dreadful Inferno killed Cib, and he’s the one guardian I haven’t met and hope to stay away from now and in the future.”

         “The future!” Benji remembered. “That’s right, and we also met someone who can see into the future! What was his name again? The guy in the Lucky Ore Cavern. The same ore that your necklace is made of, right?”

Gizzy nodded. “That’s right. And Gypsy was his name! Don’t forget that we need to go see him again once we free the king.”

“Yes, we do. And thankfully, that ore keeps the guardians from being able to track you!”

         Gizzy clutched the necklace with the lucky ore as they continued on.

Just beyond several great, drooping vines that waved in the middle of the jungle, lied a forgotten ruin filled with forgotten statues, broken monuments, and deep-green sillimoss that covered everything and kept this holy place shrouded.

They’d finally made it to the Jungle of Hope.

Both Gizzy and Benji carefully crept into the airy lost temple to search for some form of a crypt, like how they got the Barath Hammer from Barath’s final resting place. Though, this time, they were hoping for zero skeletons coming back from the dead and chasing after them.

The duo looked around until Benji spotted a large statue, which was the bust of a king wearing his golden crown. The statue was made of slick stone, while it looked as if the crown was made of pure gold that cast a beautiful shimmer as the sunlight kissed its elegance.

They walked up to the statue, mesmerized, and stood gawking for several minutes. Finally, Benji pulled on Gizzy’s sleeve and pointed toward a staircase that spiraled down into what appeared to be a large crypt below. They were certain this was the king’s burial chamber.

Gizzy hesitated, seeing flashbacks of the crazy attacking skeletons that came to life in Barath’s chamber. Gizzy understood and feared how dangerous this all was. He was unsure whether or not he wanted to enter yet another spooky crypt, this time to possibly bring someone back from the dead. What if this fallen king tried to harm him, too, or what if Gizzy wasn’t really the Chosen One and only the prince could bring the king back from the dead? So many questions filled Gizzy’s quickly turning mind.

Eventually, Benji slapped him in the face.

         “Ow! Dude, why?!”

         “Come on! You can bring the king back from the dead! This is a super-huge, gigantic moment in history! The beings of Altered will sing songs about you for generations! They’ll call you the Hero of Altered. Or…something more clever than that, but you get the idea!”

Funny, Gizzy thought, he’d unwillingly killed an innocent troll by the claw of The Canine—a beast he’d become trapped inside when the split personality took over. He sure didn’t feel too much like a hero. Gizzy was a murderer, wasn’t he? He thought about Betsy, the poor troll who’d stolen goods from Cobblebury, a village that had perished through Clayton’s destruction. The guilt started to rise up again in Gizzy’s stomach, and he quickly shook his head and decided that he had to go down into the crypt. He needed to.

Once deep inside, they spotted the coffin on the far side of a long corridor. Stepping further into the corridor, they heard an activation switch below the floor—booby traps! Gizzy quickly stepped back just before the floor collapsed and fell, revealing terrifying bright-orange lava that would destroy anything it touched.

Gizzy and Benji ran back to the entrance of the crypt, wondering why there would be booby traps inside the king’s crypt. What were they trying to protect? Who were they trying to keep out?

         “This doesn’t make any sense,” said Gizzy. “Why would there be booby traps here? Unless it was a ploy, a trap, and this isn’t really the king’s crypt! It must be a fake!” Gizzy ran out of the crypt with the confused fairy flying behind him. Gizzy looked around the forgotten temple, searching for any possible clue about where the king was really buried.

          “This is called the Jungle of Hope, right?” Gizzy asked.

         “Yes,” Benji said, still unsure about what was happening.     “I think Jungle of Hope must just be the name of the temple.”

         Gizzy continued to look around the overgrown temple. He scraped aside sillimoss and looked under fallen-over stone columns. They were surrounded by all kinds of wavy trees, and Gizzy looked high and low to see if he could find anything at all with the word hope on it or anything about hope, but he had no luck.

Luck. Huh. This word had haunted Gizzy for so long. Ever since he saw the word written in blood at Ratchet’s kingdom in the snowy mountains and then again in the book about mystical creatures, he’d felt anything but luck. He’d felt the opposite of luck, whatever that was here in Altered. Ever since he’d arrived in this oddity of a world, the worst things had been happening to him. He was bitten and turned into a werewolf, attacked by a guardian, met a Justment who transformed into a beast right in front of him, was chased by bony skeletons coming back from the dead, and three of his old childhood friends had joined him in this world, one of whom was now…dead. So much for luck.

Then it suddenly hit him. “Luck…”

Gizzy ran back down the spiral staircase into the crypt. Benji, still having no clue about what was happening, just flew along with it. Soon the duo were back in the long corridor with the lava below, and Gizzy finally realized why it was called the Jungle of Hope.

         “Gizzy, what are you thinking?” Benji said.

“You have to believe in hope to get to the other side. That must be it. That has to be it!” Gizzy said to himself. “And, look, see? There’s a faint mystical light hovering over the chasm like…like some kind of enchanted bridge.”

Benji looked at Gizzy like he’d really gone off the deep end.

“Benji! Trust me, it’s not a booby trap. It’s here to keep monsters and evildoers away from the king while he rests!”

“Well, that sounds nice, but I don’t know…” Benji said. “How would you even get across?”

Gizzy stepped a foot out, slowly, moving only inch by inch toward the empty gap, where indefinite doom lingered below. The lava bubbled as he reached his foot over the gap, and Gizzy knew he had to believe in hope to get over. He had to believe in luck.

         Finally, Gizzy closed his eyes and leaned forward with the hope that the invisible bridge would lead him safely across…

But it failed!

Gizzy stepped forward, put his weight down, and fell through the gap and into the lava! Gizzy screamed, and everything flashed. All Gizzy could see was a bright light, and he could hear Benji screaming his name from above. Unsure of what was happening, Gizzy could only be certain that he had fallen into the lava and most likely died.

Yet…he wasn’t dead.

Gizzy opened his eyes to find that he was on the other side of the corridor, with Benji still at the entrance. Gizzy was wrong. The gap wasn’t enchanted, the lava was. The lava had teleported Gizzy to the other side! All Gizzy had to do was have a little bit of hope and a little bit of luck.

Benji flew over and hugged his friend, then slapped him for the second time. “Never do that again! You gave me such an awful fright!”

         “Slap me again, and I’ll throw you into the lava!”

Gizzy and Benji laughed.

Gizzy quickly touched his red backpack to ensure that it was still on his back, along with the Barath Hammer. Success!

The duo walked up to the coffin, and now that they were closer, they could see a strange decorative skull on top the shiny lid. The coffin was sealed shut, and Gizzy was entranced by the decorative skull. It had shiny green gems where its eyes were supposed to be, and Gizzy couldn’t stop staring at it. He could hear a voice emanating from the skull. A deep, mesmerizing voice that hypnotized Gizzy, making him unable to hear Benji.

         “Gizzy? Gizzy, can you hear me?” Benji said.

No response.

The mesmerizing voice lured Gizzy closer and closer to the skull, and the closer Gizzy came, the louder the voice got inside his head.

         “Let…me…out…,” the voice whispered. It appeared to be the king speaking from beyond the grave, trapped within the afterlife, feeling that whoever was hovering about the grave must be the Chosen One who could free the king.

Gizzy was so fixed on the hypnotic voice that he found himself slowly inching his open hand toward the skull. Behind him, Benji tried waving him off and warning him not to touch it, for fear of something awful happening. Inch by inch, Gizzy’s hand got closer to the green-eyed skull, with the voice getting louder and louder in his mind.

“Let…me…out…”

Until, eventually, Gizzy touched the skull.

         And nothing happened.

         “Didn’t you hear that?” Gizzy asked.

         “Hear what?” Benji replied. “I was trying to talk to you, but you didn’t answer me. You looked frozen, like you were in a trance.”

         “I…I think I was. Somebody kept telling me to let them out. Or was it just in my mind? You really didn’t hear anything?”

         Benji looked a little worried. “No. I didn’t hear anything, except the sound of my own voice, trying to get you to hear me.”

         Gizzy closed his eyes and tried to hear the voice again, but he knew the voice was gone.

Gizzy and Benji both looked toward the coffin, hoping something might come of it, anything at all, but nothing happened, and everything around them was completely silent and normal. Well, as normal as possible in an old, mystical crypt.

Maybe Gizzy wasn’t the Chosen One after all? Maybe they’d been misinformed? Maybe they were all wrong about who he was or what he was capable of doing?

Then Benji saw something sparkling on the ground beside the coffin. He flew over to it and hovered just above the object. It was an old, dark scabbard with golden crowns encrusted into it.

“Look at this,” Benji said.

Gizzy walked over. “What is it?”

“It’s a scabbard, meant to protect a warrior’s sword.”

Gizzy leaned down and reached out to pick up the scabbard. Benji quickly flew in front of him and slapped away his hand.

“No more touching things!” Benji said. “I think we’ve done enough here. Let’s leave things how they are for now.”

Gizzy stood and thought it over. Maybe Benji was right? The search hadn’t gone so well, really.

The duo looked at each other and accepted defeat. Gizzy nodded, agreed, and suggested that maybe it was best to return to their original quest of getting to the Prophecy, which then forced Gizzy to take another leap of hope and hop back into the lava to teleport himself back to the other side of the corridor. Benji easily flew over the lava, and they bid farewell to the unhelpful crypt.

Climbing up the staircase, back into the forgotten ruins of the Jungle of Hope, Gizzy couldn’t help but wonder what the voice inside his head was all about and why he was the only one who could hear it.

         It was almost nightfall again. Days were so random in Altered. Day four had felt so unbearably long, but day five, their current day, had felt so short. Gizzy wondered why it was like this here as the duo continued on.

Not long after, they found their path blocked by a shocking return that left both Benji and Gizzy uncertain about what to do next. A familiar face looked upon them, but one that wasn’t from this world…it was Brandon.

For some reason, seeing Brandon in this world made the Barath Hammer on Gizzy’s back feel much heavier, like it had doubled in weight. Gizzy could feel all his senses tingle with rage at seeing this pirate, and his former friend, in this world.

Lush, dark clouds soon covered the land, and the gleaming red sun disappeared, setting behind the wide horizon.

Coming face-to-face with Brandon, the evil one who had manipulated Clayton into becoming a pirate, ultimately leading to his all-too-soon death, was exactly the opposite of what Gizzy was looking to deal with right now. Clayton wouldn’t be dead if he’d ignored Brandon and Hugh’s illusions about “being cool” and becoming evil pirates. Gizzy had spent much of his recent time thinking about the full life Clayton could have lived elsewhere, best friends beside Gizzy, had he not been persuaded by those lowlifes. Now Gizzy was even more furious.

         “Hi, Gizzy. What were you doing down there in that crypt?” Brandon said. He snarled at Gizzy, stepping a little closer.

Gizzy tried to step back, but he had nowhere to go with the crypt’s spiraling staircase just behind him.

“Don’t be scared, Gizzy. I know we didn’t see eye to eye at first, but I went into that cyclone with you, and we share a…special bond because of it, don’t you think? We’re in Altered together, so, why not help each other?”

Gizzy didn’t trust Brandon at all, even when he knew him back on Earth, and Gizzy was wary of anything that came out of his mouth. However, Gizzy had a soft spot for anyone he thought needed saving, and maybe if he could save Brandon from the bad life he was leading and this confusing new world, it might make up for him failing to save Clayton and giving him the life he deserved.

         “Brandon, listen. We’ve had our differences, and maybe we can work something out. If you want to get out of this place, then you need to get to the Prophecy. It’s our only hope to get back home! And that’s where me and Benji are headed right now.”

Gizzy stepped toward Brandon, but Benji quickly grabbed Gizzy by the collar and pulled him back.

         “Gizzy, wait!” Benji said.

Gizzy turned back to face the fairy.

“Altered. He said Altered…how does he know the name of where we are?”

Gizzy, blinded by seeing someone from Earth, missed a very important factor in this situation. Brandon knew this place was called Altered, but how? Had he already met and befriended someone from this world? Brandon must had done so much in the past 5 days…what was he up too?

Both Gizzy and Benji turned back to look at Brandon, who was now standing far too close them—dangerously close. Gizzy couldn’t go back another step or he’d fall down the stairs, into the crypt.

Suddenly, Gizzy was very aware of the powerful green moon rising in the night sky.

Brandon started lightly twitching.

         “I met someone who told me all about Altered,” Brandon said. A twitch here and a twitch there.

Gizzy recognized the twitching from when he’d seen Woof transform in the forest days ago, but he wasn’t able to put together that Brandon was the blond wolf with the magnifying glass tattoo on his leg.

         “You mean like Voice or Ratchet?” Gizzy asked.

         “Uh…yes. Exactly! Them!” Brandon lied. He had never met Voice or Ratchet or any of the guardians. He had only met the wolves who had turned him into a transwolf, though Gizzy didn’t know this.

Gizzy thought long and hard about having Brandon join their adventure to the Prophecy. He didn’t know if he could stand letting another human from Earth down. He wanted to avenge Clayton’s death in any way he could, and doing something good for someone who had lost his way seemed like the right thing to do.

The moon finally reached its peak in the sky, and Brandon’s twitching became worse.

         “Are you okay?” Gizzy asked. He was really starting to worry now. Gizzy would not change into a wolf because of Benji, but Brandon’s transformation was starting to begin. Then something caught Gizzy’s eye; there was a tattoo on Brandon’s leg. He could spot it through the human’s tattered clothing, and Gizzy suddenly figured it all out. Brandon had a tattoo on his leg. Gizzy had seen it when they were on Earth together but didn’t put the pieces together until now. It was a magnifying glass, just like on the blond transwolf!

         “You’re…you’re the blond transwolf!” Gizzy said. He grabbed the Barath Hammer from the red backpack to defend himself.

Brandon laughed. Gizzy couldn’t believe he didn’t put together the pieces sooner. Of course Brandon was a transwolf! A fitting sentence for such a bad human being.

         “Bravo! You figured it out…just before you fell into my trap…”

Woof and his pack sprang from the dense jungle and surrounded Gizzy and Benji, keeping them fully trapped now in front of the old crypt, as Brandon laughed and transformed into the blond wolf with his fellow pack.

         “I’m tired of this, Gizzy,” Woof explained, as he came closer to Gizzy and Benji. Brandon had now fully transformed into a wolf, like the others. There were five wolves in all, surrounding the duo with their razor sharp fangs out.

Gizzy held the hammer close to his chest, hoping it might protect him and Benji from the ensuing attack. Benji flew as close as possible to Gizzy, scared about what might happen next.

         “What do you want, Woof?” Gizzy asked, anger in his voice, as he tried to keep a close eye on all the hungry wolves. It was dark, and though frightened, Benji was astute enough to create a ball of light to help Gizzy see and hopefully fend off the coming attack. Gizzy looked around at the jungle surrounding the temple; he could see many colored eyes watching, but he knew they wouldn’t dare come near, as the creatures had to have been very afraid themselves.

“I don’t want to fight, I just want you to join me and my pack.” Woof stared at Gizzy, confused as to why Gizzy hadn’t yet turned into a wolf.

“Master, why didn’t he transform? You told me you cut him!” Brandon howled, as the blond wolf with the magnifying glass tattoo.

         “It’s that fairy!” Woof explained. “It must be because of that little flying waste of space! That fairy being by his side must keep him from becoming a transwolf, even though the wolf blood runs through his veins.”

Gizzy and Benji shook behind the Barath Hammer. They were utterly surrounded and helpless.

“Boys, looks like fairy is on the menu tonight!” Woof said as the two heroes gulped in fear.

         “No!” Gizzy shouted, and he swung the Barath Hammer at one of the gray sibling wolves that crept too close, knocking the wolf to the ground and giving Gizzy and Benji a chance to escape from the pack. But being chased by wolves was an uneven match. Gizzy ran as fast as he could through the Jungle of Hope, between the broken ruins, and past the destroyed monuments with Benji flying beside him as fast as his little wings could flap. They both knew what needed to happen if they wanted to survive the onslaught—Gizzy would have to become The Canine.

         While running, Gizzy quickly put the Barath Hammer back inside his red backpack and settled it down beneath a broken arch surrounding the temple. Gold dust swarmed around Gizzy, confusing the frothing pack of transwolves, and within seconds Gizzy morphed into a black muscular wolf. He howled at the sparkly green moon, which brought a tear to Woof’s eye, because The Canine was perfect in his mind, and he wanted his strength and endurance to elevate the power of his pack. Alas, Woof knew he couldn’t accomplish this with the little fairy in the picture. The fairy needed to go…

         “You’re so beautiful…and perfect,” Woof complimented The Canine, expressing his love, but The Canine spat on the ground in disgust. The transwolves snarled at each other as Benji hovered beside his wolf companion.

         “Back off! Nobody touches the fairy! He’s mine!” The Canine wanted to protect Benji as well as he could, unaware that Benji was actually very moved and excited about what The Canine was saying. For the first time, Benji felt like they were truly a team and that The Canine, with Gizzy trapped inside, truly cared for him. Benji, knowing there was little he could do, hid next to the red backpack, thinking of a way to help.

         The wolves howled, and the epic wolf battle began. The Canine was greatly outnumbered. Brandon and The Canine ran at each other, butted heads, and battled fiercely, until the collared black wolf snatched at The Canine and bit his leg. The two gray sibling wolves jumped at The Canine as well, pinning him down, as they tore at his fur. Blood started pouring from The Canine as he howled in pain. Benji couldn’t just sit there and watch his friend die; he knew he needed to help, but how? He worked up all his courage and recklessly flew into the brawl, creating a giant ball of light, momentarily blinding Brandon and the gray siblings. Brandon wildly swung his head and knocked the fairy to the ground. Woof set a paw on top of the fairy and gave out a great howl, ordering his pack to cease attacking.

The Canine was badly hurt and needed help. His fur was torn, and blood dripped from his body all over and his leg; it was in bad shape after the bite. The Canine tried to get up but was only able to hobble a few steps, enduring the terrible pain.

Woof had Benji hostage. Brandon walked up with the red backpack in his jaws. The transwolves howled and circled around The Canine, trapping him again.

Benji, stuck under Woof’s paw, found himself being picked up by the leader and put in between his claws. Benji began to cry, unsure what was to come.

         “Gizzy…come on…. You know what we want!” Woof howled. Brandon still had the backpack in his mouth. “I’ll make this really simple for you. Join our pack, or say goodbye to both the hammer and your friend.”

         “Gizzy, don’t do it! Just run! Get away! Free yourself!” Benji, crying behind the sharp claws, was trying to sound noble and brave, but in all honestly, Benji was very afraid to die, but if he had to, he wanted it to be a meaningful sacrifice that would save lives.

         “Benji… I don’t know what to do!” The Canine cried. He didn’t want to become like Brandon and be just another mindless transwolf taking orders from Woof. He wanted to find a way back home to Earth, go to his mother, and be there for her. But he needed the Barath Hammer, one of the four keys to the Prophecy, which Brandon was holding in the backpack between his jaws. Suddenly, Benji let out a scream, as Woof closed his sharp claws on the innocent fairy.

The scream was so unbearable for The Canine. “Okay!” The Canine said.

“Okay, what?” Woof released his grip but still held Benji.

“You win. I’ll join your pack.” The Canine lowered his head. The wolves laughed and cheered around him, knowing they’d finally won.

“Good boy,” Woof said, and laughed. “Now…in order for you to join our pack, the fairy needs to go!”

“What?! No! Please, I beg you, don’t hurt him! Please!” The Canine tried to plea with Woof, but he wasn’t listening. Woof squeezed his claws tighter and tighter as Benji cried out in pain. The Canine tried to run up to Woof and stop him from killing the fairy, but the rest of the wolves tightened their circle and held him back until they’d dragged him to the ground. Pinned down by the wolves, The Canine could only look into Benji’s eyes with a look that showed how much he cared for the little guy. Benji looked back, incredibly weak and closer to death than he’d ever been.

“Gizzy…” Benji whimpered, as he closed his eyes.

It was done. The innocent fairy was gone.

Thump.

         The wolves looked around in confusion at the strange noise coming from below. The ground began to shake, and no one knew what was happening. Woof dropped the fairy to the floor and ran up to The Canine, still pinned down by the pack.

         “Come with me, boy. We need to leave now. Back to your new home.”

         Thump.

         The transwolves were frightened and backed away. At first, The Canine, exhausted and having lost a good amount of blood, thought it might be Ratchet, saving him with his earth powers, but then he realized that made no sense, because Ratchet wanted him dead.

         Thump.

         Now, even The Canine grew scared of what was happening. Gold dust scattered all around The Canine, and he slowly transformed back into Gizzy, the boy who was lost in a cruel and unusual world. Gizzy looked over to see Benji’s lifeless body on the ground, and he went over to pick him up. Gizzy looked over at the pack and saw his red backpack on the ground near Brandon, who was cowering behind Woof.

         Suddenly, the ground below them collapsed, causing three of the transwolves to fall through the cracks below. Brandon, the collared wolf, and one of the gray siblings fell through. The strap of the backpack, luckily, caught on a rock and remained above ground. Now it was just Gizzy, Woof, and the other gray sibling who remained.

         “Get your brothers out of the ground, now!” Woof commanded. “I need to take Gizzy to the caves so he doesn’t escape!” Woof jumped Gizzy and pinned him down, while the gray sibling who was on solid ground tried to help his packmates. Woof snarled at Gizzy. “You’re not going anywhere!” Gizzy felt helpless, pinned down next to Benji’s lifeless body. The red backpack was still clinging to the rock. He could see it up ahead. Gizzy knew this was his last good chance to escape, but how?!

         Thump.

The three wolves tried to climb out of the great hole in the ground and were shocked to the see the temple behind them explode! Giant pieces of heavy rocks hurled through the air, which would lead to ultimate death if only one fell on you. The gray sibling atop the ground screeched in horror as the rocks came down. Woof also panicked and decided that saving his own life was more important than kidnapping Gizzy, and quickly ran away and took cover in the jungle that surrounded the temple.

Gizzy got to his feet, picked up Benji’s lifeless body, and ran toward the jungle, only to stop, remembering the red backpack. He had to have the Barath Hammer if he wanted to unlock the Prophecy.

As the three transwolves found their way out of the broken earth, they all quickly ran toward their leader. The four wolves in total were stuck in the middle of the raining rocks. A giant rock fell in front of Brandon, knocking him unconscious into yet another dark hole.

Woof looked desperately for his pack from the jungle, as the black collared wolf made it across to safety. The two gray sibling wolves were left in the fray.

         “Brother! Move! We have to make it to safety,” the elder wolf said to his sibling. The youngest trusted his brother and ran with him to the jungle. Rocks continued to fly as pieces of the temple of the king fell from the sky. A giant rock fell between the two siblings as they ran, and the eldest brother made it to the jungle. “Brother, we made it!” Silence. The gray wolf turned around to see that the giant rock that had fallen between them…didn’t, in fact, fall between but instead on top of his younger brother. He was surely dead. Woof knew this would break his packmate’s heart, and he pulled at the remaining gray wolf’s fur—they needed to retreat. Brandon was nowhere to be found, and Woof knew he had no choice but to leave him behind. Woof, the black collared wolf, and the remaining gray wolf left the Jungle of Hope, blaming Gizzy for the death and destruction.

         Meanwhile, Gizzy needed the Barath Hammer if he wanted to go home. As the rocks dropped from above, Gizzy tried to avoid the holes in the earth by jumping across the chasms, then remembering he was still able to glide! Even with Benji gone, Gizzy still had his powers, and he was successful at scooping up the red backpack and putting it on.

         Suddenly, the blond wolf jumped at Gizzy, pinning him down! Brandon was still alive and at the destroyed temple!

         “You can’t leave, Gizzy! No one can leave Altered!” Brandon howled as he leaned in to rip Gizzy’s throat. Gizzy was sure this would finally be his end…

“Hey!” A familiar voice startled both Brandon and Gizzy, and as they turned around, a bright blue dust flashed in Brandon’s face, temporarily blinding him. As Brandon dropped Gizzy to cover his eyes, Gizzy looked up to see Benji, laughing away. “We’ll hug later, let’s go!” Benji spoke heroically.

Gizzy nodded, and they sprinted out of the temple as fast as they could.

         Brandon shook the blue dust from his eyes, realizing he needed to return to his pack and that he failed to bring Gizzy home. What would Woof do to him? Afraid of the wrath of the pack leader, Brandon decided to run in the opposite direction, away from the pack and Gizzy and everything he’d known in Altered. He decided he’d make a new life for himself somewhere else. He had failed his master, and for that, he worried he might be executed…unaware a fellow packmate had died from the falling rocks.

         Gizzy and Benji escaped the Jungle of Hope and found shelter below high jungle trees. Gizzy and Benji caught their breath and hugged each other, then laughed. Gizzy couldn’t believe that Benji had survived, but then he also remembered what that creature book had said about Colossal Fairies, that they can’t die unless the book was destroyed. Benji and Gizzy looked at each other after their horrific and challenging ordeal, knowing that after all the horrible things they had just gone through, their friendship was stronger than ever.

         Gizzy opened his backpack to find the Barath Hammer, the two books (the fairy one and the creature one), and the two compasses. One compass was the one Brayden had left for him and the other was his own. He remembered that he’d set his own compass with the coordinates for Higher Rank. He picked up the compass, and they began walking to the village, which was the home of the Rebellion, where they would reunite with Brayden once more. Both Gizzy and Benji were uncertain about why the earth had shaken so violently and the Jungle of Hope had collapsed. They weren’t even sure if going to the Jungle of Hope had any reasoning since they failed to bring the king back.

Suddenly Gizzy stopped, as he could hear something. He was unsure if it was the wind or some unknown creature in the jungle, but it sounded like someone was saying, “Thank you.” Gizzy, having been hypnotized at the crypt, didn’t realize that the same voice he heard just now in the wind was the same voice he had heard in the crypt. There was a reason why the temple was destroyed, because the myth was true…Gizzy was the Chosen One. The temple was destroyed because something was awakening…

         Deep inside the crypt of the dead, far past the magical lava and at the grave of the king, the voice whispered again…

         “I’m…alive…”

         The grave broke open, and the tomb grew suddenly colder. Little purple fireflies escaped from the tomb and scattered through the crypt and eventually out into the world. Then a hand forced itself out of the coffin, where the body of the king, who was once dead, was dead no more. The hand was covered in rot, and roots had grown over the corpse. A brown glove covered the dirty hand as it reached up…

The king of Altered…was back.