by Patrick Hatt
“Adam had used what he had done to Eve on himself and split himself in two. He escaped Eden. We assumed his other half died, never realizing it went to Momentus until Sir Dreadvent escaped again and stole the first piece of the page from Death,” God paused, still wrestling with what he had done.
“He did his little rant, like you dearies know, and escaped shortly after you saved me and the rulers. We tried to track him down, but he was nowhere to be found. We didn’t want to worry you. You all had been through so much. But when we couldn’t find him, and Oberon told us Puck had escaped, we knew we had to act,” Bandaid added.
“And so, my son, we are leaving you this message. I hope you never see it, but should you, we are in need of your services again. Don’t dwell on your past mistakes or Mimi. Push ahead like you always do and stop Adam before he acquires the four pieces of the Scroll of Fate. With it in tact he can remake reality to however he sees fit. With only one piece he can only tweak fate from his current point in time and only for a little while. But the more he collects, the longer it lasts and the stronger his new reality takes hold.” Merlin paused as God stepped out between the pair and stood a few feet from Max and Dina.
“I’m sorry my cross to bear falls on you, Mr. Blizzard. But you are the beacon of Sir Dreadvent’s hatred and the changes will no doubt include you. Our saving grace is that he can’t change the past unless the Scroll of Fate is one. For if he tries to change it with one piece, it doesn’t have the power to make such changes. If it were so, he would change his fate and therefore he never would have sought it in the first place.” God reached out to Max, acting like he knew where he stood. “I wish I never created it. I was blinded and have forever regretted it.”
“Max! Stop smooching!”
Max opened his eyes to Lester’s yelling. He grabbed Dina and extended his cloak around them after spotting a rainbow beam coming toward them.
“Lester, get in there!” Trudesile shouted.
Lester crawled under the cloak and smirked at the pair.
“Sorry to interrupt your fake lovefest. By me pot of gold.”
Max grasped Dina and Lester grasped Max as they were pushed across the floor. They felt themselves jammed up against a statue and then heard nothing but silence.
“Wow.” Lester peeked out and saw Trudesile revert to herself from the whale form she had taken. “That’s how you clear a room. Turn into something too big for it.”
“Max.” Trudesile ran to him and hugged him, forgetting about her torn clothes barely covering her.
“It’s great to see you alive, Trudesile. You are so much better than that vampire version of you,” Max said.
Trudesile found nothing from his touch. She had expected him to be at least a little excited or overwhelmed with some emotion, but he only smiled and hugged her back for a few seconds, acting as if he never even missed her or knew she died.
“How did you get here? Why are you here? Where is here? This is so confusing.” Lester’s mind spun with scenarios as he tried to make some sense of things. “And what was that? Why are you all smoochy face with her? Who the heck is she?”
“They’ll be back. We can’t stay here, Max.” Dina’s eyes widened. “Dad! My father is in danger.”
“Let’s go,” Max replied.
Dina opened a portal and she and Max ran through.
“Is someone going to fill me in? This is like when we found that blasted rabbit but ten times worse.”
“Lester, she’s my sister.”
“Sister? I thought I was the only one with brothers and sisters out there I didn’t know.”
“Long story, Lester. Let’s go.”
“I’d probably get more out of Adam,” Lester grumbled.
Trudesile jumped through and Lester quickly followed. The pair stood over what remained of Dina’s home, finding it burnt to a crisp and only the robe of her father stuck in the ground with a wooden spike. Max rubbed her back while she sobbed at the marker.
“He killed him, Max. What kind of person is this? Where am I living? Slaves. Killing. Momentus wasn’t supposed to have this.”
“Dina, we will find him and stop him. It’s what we do.” Max turned to the others before turning back to her and wiping her tears from her cheeks. “And this time you’ll be there to help us with your abilities and love.”
“My love for you will always shine bright,” Dina replied.
“Gag me. What did he do to them? What was that thing?” Lester cringed at such talk.
“Scroll of Fate,” Trudesile and Max both said at the same time.
Trudesile hated seeing Max so docile toward her. She wanted to find the two torn parts and destroy them. She also tried to focus on the fact that she had a sister, something God had never told her.
Trudesile bit her lip while Max gazed at Dina, finding that even as he said Scroll of Fate it had never registered with him that he had been affected by it. She remained quiet as he helped Dina too her feet and kissed her cheek before taking her by the hand and strolling over to them.
“We have to find and stop Adam. There has to be a way.”
“If there is a way, we’ll find it,” Lester replied.
“And we’ll make him choke on that scroll,” Trudesile added.
“Wow, you’ve gotten nasty coming back from the dead and all.” Lester snickered.
“I wasn’t really dead.”
“Trudesile, how are you able to sense fates changing?” Dina asked.
“And why haven’t you aged a day?” Max questioned.
“Yeah. Now Max is probably older than you. Are you really a vampire unlike the one that the other Trudesile tries to be?” Lester rubbed his hand through his beard. “By me pot of gold, having two Trudesile’s who aren’t all dark or light is sure going to be confusing.”
“We have to find Adam. Answers later,” Trudesile stated.
“Maybe not.” Dina stepped beside Trudesile and whispered in her ear, “I always wanted a sister. Stand still.”
Dina took Max by the hand and placed him on the other side of her. She placed Lester between them and then took the open place in the circle.
“Are we going to sing?” Lester snickered.
“Everyone take a deep breath, count to three, and then release all at the same time,” Dina instructed.
The group shrugged before doing as she asked. The four breathed on one another and then toppled lifeless to the ground as their breath collided.
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Adam dragged Trinny across the hallway floor behind him as he held tightly onto her rainbow hair.
“Oh my pet. Come out and show yourself. I know you are here.”
“You sure sound like Sir Dreadvent. You act like him as well. Adam, this isn’t love. Whatever I felt for you faded long ago. If you can’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone.”
“I loved you. That was enough. My existence was futile, but I had you. Then he stole you and I was left alone. I will correct this. Stop squirming. We’ll be together soon.”
“Never. No fate will make me love you.”
“You will be given a choice with me. Unlike what God gave you.”
“What are you talking about? God never used the Scroll of Fate on me. I loved him for him. He did something with his existence. He didn’t sit around and grumble about his pointless life every minute of every day.”
“He used it on you. I know he did. Now shut up.” Adam snapped his fingers and a strand of Trinny’s hair flew from his hand and gagged her.
“You are only delaying the inevitable.” Adam spotted a shadow moving at the end of the dimly lit hallway. “I’ll even let you keep it for a while. The juice is gone anyway.”
“Fat chance, chap.”
“There you are.” Adam snapped his fingers again and then he strolled up to a frozen in place Bazooka. “I could have done this in the first place, but that is so anticlimactic. I had to make you think you stood a chance. Now hand it over. You have no pockets or cl
othes for that matter. Speaking of which, where the heck are your parts?”
“You’ll never find it.”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll save space to turn you back into a man on the next one if you let me use it to find the third piece. You really must have urges. Do you have hair covering things down there? How do you even go? You’re like one of those cartoons humans make up. Sir Dreadvent gave you immortality and neutered you. Perhaps he was a little brighter than I gave him credit for.”
Trinny used what energy she could muster and broke a strand of her rainbow hair free. She then wrapped it around Bazooka’s neck and snapped it, smiling through her gag as Bazooka vanished.
“This really is tiring. Your feeble creations don’t stand a chance, but you keep pushing through anyway. I am beginning to realize why my other half went so galactic bad guy. If I didn’t love you so much, I’d make you pay for that. But then the rabbit has no place to go, the others can’t go back to anywhere but to a battle they’ll lose, and no one else here can leave without my help. You’re all doomed and you just don’t know it.”
Adam tried to hide his frustration and suppress any of Sir Dreadvent’s traits from leaking through. He could tell by Trinny’s smirk that she could sense the conflict within him. He ignored her silent taunting and snapped his fingers. He quickly returned his focus to his plan as they vanished from view.
Chapter 6
Same Page
Lester sprang to his feet and stared out at the others as they woke up, each of them fighting through their bewilderment over what Dina had done.
“So Trudesile can use her connection to the realms to feel fate, she has a sister, her mother got split in two and is Trinny and Eve, God split himself in two, we’re in some out of sync place, and a bunch of rainbow heads are trying to kill us so they don’t get found and become slaves again. Just another day.” Lester laughed. He helped Trudesile up to her feet, noticing her still eyeing the loving gaze between Max and Dina. “Don’t worry, we’ll fix that. You’re alive. That is all that matters. Now where to find that blasted rabbit.”
“I think he’ll find us,” Trudesile stated.
“But in the mean time we have to find a way out of here.”
“Didn’t you hear what God told her?” Lester eyed Max, pretending to gag over his goo goo eyes at Dina.
“I know, Lester. We can only get taken back to the exact place and time we were brought here, which would mean we’d vanish like everyone else or have to take on that army alone. But there has to be another way.”’
“I’m sure together we can figure it out.” Dina kissed Max on the cheek. “After all, nothing is holding us back now that we are together. Trudesile opened my eyes to what I can do. She’s such a great sister.”
“Family bonding. Isn’t it fun?” Lester snickered while Trudesile playfully elbowed him.
“Any idea where we can go? We can’t stay here. They’ll be on us,” Trudesile asked.
“The courtyard might be a good place to start. If we can blend in we may hear something,” Dina stated.
“That didn’t work too well last time.” Trudesile tried to hide her bitterness, as she knew neither Max or Dina were at fault.
“Maybe we do what we did on Atlantis and make suits to cover us,” Max said.
“If I recall, that didn’t turn out too well either,” Lester stated.
“Well we can’t just keep running. The fate piece won’t stay in place forever and it will reset, making my Maxy forget me.”
“Not a bad thing,” Lester mumbled.
“She’s right, Lester. We can’t let it reset without all of us retaining what we know and finding a way out of here. It’s the only way we can save all those of Camelot before they disappear,” Max replied, sounding like his usual self again.
Lester almost thought he was reverting until he puckered up to Dina after running his hand over her bald head.
“Be nice if there were a reset button,” Lester mumbled, before turning his focus back to Trudesile, noticing her lost in thought. “What is it, Trudesile?”
“Dad and I had been working on something before all of this.” Trudesile pondered to herself if she should try it, as she had never done it with more than one person. “Dina, create a portal to the courtyard and then everyone grab onto me and let your mind go.”
“I’m not going to like this. I can tell.” Lester hesitantly placed his hand on her shoulder as she grinned at him. “Are you sure that bad bit isn’t in control?”
“Have a little faith, Lester.” Trudesile waited until Dina opened a portal. She concentrated on herself and the souls of the three beings next to her. She opened her eyes, wanting to smile but unable, as she had turned them into rats.
Trudesile nudged Lester in the backside, knowing he was having a fit, and pushed him through the portal. Max and Dina scurried through and she followed behind.
The group ran behind some of the decorations that had been taken down, eyeing the hustle and bustle of the many Momentiums helping clean. They held still when Oxom came into view.
Oxom acted as if nothing was wrong while he strutted through the people. He tapped some randomly on the shoulder and they instantly donned armor and jumped through a portal that they created. He grinned as no one around them noticed anyone had left while each continued to carry out their given task.
The group scurried behind another pile as he grew closer. They remained hidden and listened to his conversation with members of the council.
“Oxom, maybe we should let everyone know what is going on. We could all pitch in and track them down.”
“No, Gold. We will not set off a panic and ruin what we have set up here. If all remain compliant, there will never be any questions raised and we will keep that status quo. We can’t have any wanting to associate with outsiders or know all that we teach is false.”
“What about Dina? She clearly knows now,” Mr. Lions asked, catching the full attention of the group.
“She will need to be neutralized or put into slavery.”
“I’ll make sure my men see to it,” Mr. Lions replied.
“But the two humans, the one human who is now a rabbit, and the leprechaun have fates that show their heroics. Surely they won’t try to enslave us.”
“Nertle, I admire your naïve outlook on the world sometimes, but as we know, even the best heroes break down when their so-called needs come into play. They will use us like the beings of the past and enslave us all. Maybe not them directly, but others surely will. They must all be destroyed.”
“Yes, Oxom. You are right as always,” Nertle said, not sounding very convincing.
“And if anyone else sees them before we find them? Mr. Lions questioned.
“I’ve enacted Momentus level five protocols. No one can leave or gain access to Momentus no matter how powerful and no Momentium can think beyond the task I assign them. We will come away from this stronger for it. Now let’s find them and Adam before they cause any more damage to our humble realm. I don’t want to have to enact level six.”
Oxom waved his arm and walked away, still playing with a moustache that was no longer there out of habit, as the other council members stepped into their own portals. Mr. Lions winked toward the group before leaving, giving them hope that his fate remained unchanged.
Trudesile scurried through the shadows and the others followed behind her. They kept an eye on Oxom until he reached the edge of the courtyard. They thought he was trapped until his head glowed and covered his body in a rainbow light. He then vanished without the need of a portal.
Trudesile heard Lester making plenty of noises toward her and then wrapped her tail around his leg. Dina and Max neared her and placed a paw on her. She concentrated and seconds later they were all back to their true form.
“By me pot of gold.” Lester covered his crotch, finding his ragged clothes no longer covering him. He quickly used his imagination and made fresh clothes appear over his ragged ones while the others did as well.<
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“Trudesile, that was amazing. When did you learn to do that?” Max found it exhilarating experiencing what Trudesile always did. He now knew how the life forms he created felt, making him all the more wary of bringing them forth.
“It truly was, sister.” Dina hugged her, enjoying the new experience as much as Max.
“You three can have it. That was so disturbing. I couldn’t talk. Maybe if she turned us into something cool. But rats? Really?” Lester shivered as he thought about it, keeping out of Trudesile’s reach.
“And we wouldn’t want you not to be able to whine, would we?” Trudesile grinned at Lester and the others laughed. “Dad and I practiced that while we waited to rid my dark side from me. He taught me the concentration needed to keep her at bay and be rid of her when the time came. Then one day I turned us both into bears by mistake and that was that.”
“That is a true skill,” Max said.
“Not unlike yours. The cloak really is impressive.”
“I figured at least one thing I could be good at.”
“Max, you have to let that go. You didn’t mean to. You could be the greatest of us all if you used your gift.” Trudesile hoped her words would ease his mind.
“Or I could create an even bigger disaster than before. I refuse to do that. I’m not God. I don’t want to create life and be responsible for it. It’s not a gift. It’s a curse.”
“Don’t pressure my Maxy. He knows what is best.” Dina clasped her hand within Max’s and turned him away from Trudesile.
“What’s best? Like us standing out in the open so these zombies can see us?” Lester peered at the beings all doing work in the courtyard.
“It is best.” Dina face scrunched up as a jealous rage took hold. She grasped Max’s hand tighter and then a rainbow glow erupted from her head.
“Dina, what are you doing?” Max asked.
“Grab her,” Trudesile yelled.
Trudesile and Lester both jumped at her after she opened a portal. They each grabbed her, and the foursome tumbled through the open portal, causing Dina to hit her head on the ground as they rolled. Her glow ceased, and the portal shut just as they fell in.