by Patrick Hatt
“No. Friends like that will break us up. They have to go. It will just be you and I.” Dina erupted into a glow. Her rainbow eyes turned pitch black and then the world around them instantly changed.
“How are you this morning?” Dina kissed Max on the forehead after they awoke from a nap under a tree in a grassy field.
“Just fine with you here.” Max kissed Dina while running his hands through her rainbow hair. He then peered at the nearby pond. “We could build a small cabin right there and truly make a little home here.”
“Build? Don’t you mean imagine?” Dina giggled.
“You know me so well.” Max playfully rubbed his nose against Dina’s. “I don’t want to leave this spot, but I have to make the rounds.”
“I’ll come with you.” Dina hopped to her feet and pulled Max to his. “We can do everything together.”
“Fine by me.” Max took Dina’s hand and the pair strolled back to King Arthur’s castle. He peered up at the three statues above the drawbridge while they crossed it, fondly remembering his friends. He thought he saw a glimmer from the one of Trudesile but shook it off as a trick of the sun.
“How are my two favorite youngsters?” Bandaid asked.
“Don’t you mean, dearies?” Max questioned.
“That’s what I said. Is he all right? Didn’t go staying out in the sun too long, did you, dearie?” Bandaid laughed and then jumped out of the way as Mimi barreled toward them.
“Max! Auntie Dina!” She hugged them both and stared up at them.
“She’s not Auntie Dina yet. But maybe soon,” Evienne said after catching up to Mimi.
“Mom, I haven’t even turned twenty yet. Don’t go all wedding crazy.” Max rolled his eyes and bopped Mimi on the nose. “You ready for some training? It will be tough.”
“Bring it on. I’m going to be better than you.” Mimi skipped along in front of Max as he followed her to the training grounds.
“I have a feeling it soon will be Auntie Dina,” Dina whispered to Evienne, smiling, before catching up to Max.
Max eyed the trainees and caught glimpses of Slister and Vlad. He stared at them further and found them to be beings with no resemblance. He truly thought he had stayed in the sun too long, finding comfort in Dina’s touch after she wrapped her arms around him.
“I always enjoy watching your imagination at work. Our kids will be amazing.”
“How can they not be with you for a mother,” Max replied, almost feeling like he was forced to say it.
“One day soon we’ll know.” Dina ran her hand across his back before stepping toward the stands with King Arthur, Merlin, Lempilightess, and Pemestra.
“Everyone hold still.” Max nodded to Merlin and then glitter sprinkled down from the sky, proving that no Freleoms had breached Camelot.
“Can we train now?” Mimi asked.
“Pair up and…” Max eyed Mimi. Fear struck him after she turned into Dark Trudesile before his eyes. He jumped backwards, shoving the other recruits away. He bobbed his head side to side, finding everyone staring at him like he had gone crazy.
“Max, what is it?” Mimi asked.
“I can’t train you today. Something is off.” Max darted from the courtyard, trying to get his mind straight.
He ran up to his old room and sat on Trudesile’s bed. He recalled seeing Al for the first time as Lancelot and their dream. Such thoughts then faded from his mind as Dina entered the room and captured his sole focus.
“What is it, Maxy?”
“Something is off here. Very off.”
“Max, you are just being…”
“No. I know it’s not true. This all isn’t real. You!” Max crawled backwards across the bed and fell to the floor, glaring at Dina like she was a monster. “You did this. This is all your doing.”
“I had hoped my Maxy would be happy being home. It seems you aren’t. I guess I’ll have to try something else so you remain my one and only.” Dina grinned and went to grab Max but he jumped out the window.
He made a haystack appear beneath him and quickly pulled himself from it. He hopped to his feet and ran across the courtyard to the front stairs. He neared the statues and spotted the glow of Trudesile’s statue and Bazooka’s. He made a sledgehammer appear and went to swing when he found it extra heavy.
“Lover’s quarrel?” Adam yanked the hammer from Max and threw it to the courtyard below.
Max backed up into Bazooka’s statue, eyeing the frozen beings in the courtyard below and then Trinny, as she remained in Adam’s clutches, also frozen.
“Don’t tell me you have nothing to say? Love really doesn’t look good on you, Mr. Blizzard. You need more sleep. You look so old.” Adam snapped his fingers and Max turned back into his fifteen-year-old self.
“What is going on? Is this you?”
“No. I’d like to claim it, if only to mess with your mind, but this is all her.” Adam pointed to Dina leaning out the window. “These beings Eve and God created truly are remarkable. They have such power, yet until they believe they do, they are as powerless as a flea. The mind is a powerful thing, Mr. Blizzard.”
“You made me love her. This is all fake. But I really do love her.” Max eyed Dina, unable to distinguish between true and false feelings.
“The struggle over why. No matter what she does or how this goes, your feelings remain there in some form. And you’ll now never truly know. Welcome to my nightmare.”
“What do you want?”
“What I’ve always wanted. I want to right God’s wrong. I want my true love back.” Adam gazed at Trinny. “I’ll even make you a deal. You and most of your friends can live if you help me. God and the other rulers will have to go. A few of your heroes that won’t give up will need to follow them. But the rest can live. You can start anew, and Eve and I can. I’ll even wipe out any evil that tries to rise up. I have no love for one side or the other. Just her.”
“After all you’ve done, whether it was Sir Dreadvent or not, it was still you. No way do you win.”
“Am I really that different than you?” Adam snapped his fingers and the world around them returned to Max’s nightmare. He pointed to the courtyard as evil versions of his friends slaughtered beings. “We both have taken life in one way or another. I myself never did and you yourself never did, but something inside of us did. It wanted to. It loved it.”
“No! I had a nightmare that came true. I blocked that. My imagination power can’t hurt anyone again.” Max wiped the tears from his eyes while the world around them faded back to Dina’s made up reality.
“And I bottled up my nightmare. Sir Dreadvent is dead. Let’s end this futile battle and get what we both want. This latest piece will wear off eventually and then both our evil will be released again. Sir Dreadvent saw what you were about to do when they all attacked. Do you think they’d all turn out good? Do you think she will?” Adam pointed to Mimi.
“She will be fine. She has Mom and Dad.”
“That’s the tale you tell, but you don’t truly believe it, do you?” Adam grinned as Max refused to make eye contact with him.
“No one deserves that much power. We are going to find the Scroll of Fate and destroy it. And we’re going to do it without you.” Max slapped a device that he made appear, which resembled the holy water device, against Bazooka’s statue and the stone faded. He threw two more at Lester and Trudesile and freed them.
“Did you really think that would work? You have a lot to learn, boy. I guess I’ll let you get to it.” Adam grabbed Bazooka. “Without him,” he mumbled and then disappeared with Bazooka and Trinny.
“Max, where is she?” Trudesile yelled.
“There!” Max pointed to Dina.
“Can she do this?” Lester surveyed the busy Camelot beneath them, scared over the extent of Dina’s power.
“Yes. She can do it. Trudesile, block her out.” Max grabbed Trudesile’s hand and Lester did the same.
“My pleasure.” Trudesile caused a blue shield to
appear around them.
The three stood firm as the world around them shifted to many different realities.
“I won’t let you take him.” Dina’s rage erupted from her, creating a volcano reality where lava spurted up from the ground.
“Max, I’m not sure how much longer I can hold it.” Trudesile tried to fight her exhaustion as the heat from the reality left the trio drenched in sweat.
“Is she giving birth?” Lester asked.
“What is that?” Max eyed the huge bump on Dina’s head that appeared after she had reverted to her bald state.
“It’s growing. Could she have something inside of her?” Lester cringed as he thought about what might pop out.
“Maybe that’s how they started the realms.” Max tried to make sense of it as Dina’s head doubled in size.
“No. Dad said they became and stayed. I think this is too much for her brain. She’s growing uncontrollably. All these new fates she creates are expanding her mind. She can’t focus on what’s true and fake any longer.”
“In other words, she’s going nuts,” Lester added.
“We have to stop her. Trudesile can’t hold this forever,” Max said.
“One step ahead this time.” Lester grinned and held up what resembled a holy water device. He stuck it to himself and let go of Trudesile, still fully covered in a shield. “I call it the wacko reality stopper.”
“That will do.” Max laughed as Lester created one and placed it on him.
“Thanks, Lester.” Trudesile sighed after he placed one on her “Now to fix this.”
“Don’t hurt her,” Max mumbled, still trying to make sense of his feelings.
“We’re going to fix her.” Trudesile marched toward Dina, going straight through all the realities she created and the many forms of severe weather erupting around her.
Max and Lester stayed behind her, each surprised when Trudesile stepped right through the many foes Dina began to create.
“Fake elves are so much easier.” Lester poked fake Puck and then trotted through him.
“You can’t have him.” Dina tried to blast Trudesile with a rainbow beam, but Lester shoved her into a portal he created, taking the brunt of the blow.
“Lester!” Max caught him and kept him on his feet.
“By me pot of gold, that hurts.” Lester stood up wobbly.
“Let go!” Dina let loose dozens of strands of rainbow beams from her head and they twirled around above her.
“Lester, give me a pot of gold.” Trudesile held Dina’s arms behind her in gorilla form while waiting for Lester to make a pot of gold appear before them. She then shoved Dina into it.
“Max, we need a cover.”
Max used his imagination to make a version of Davy Jones appear. It leapt up to the pot of gold and created a cover over top. It sprung up and down as Dina used all of her strength to bash against it.
“Is that a real one?” Lester asked.
“It was the only way. I couldn’t make it fake or semi-normal or she’d kill it right away. I don’t like this, but I will do anything for those I love.”
Max and Lester both watched on, each aware of what Trudesile was attempting. They both grew less skeptical after Dina’s cries ceased and she fully sunk into the gold.
“So the head wound made her go full crazy?” Lester tried to peek into the pot.
“I think it set her off. She already had some jealousy and then her emotions and the whole universe in her head just went to work.” Trudesile pitied Dina, realizing how hard it must be for one being to have so much inside of them.
“Good plan. Thank you, guys.” Max gazed into the pot.
“Just don’t go making a habit of ticking your girlfriend off. I don’t want to be a statue ever again.”
“I’ll try not to.” Max smirked until he spotted the worry in Trudesile’s eyes. “We’ll get through it. We always do.”
“Max, this isn’t like Sir Dreadvent or Eve or Puck. Adam and these first beings are immensely powerful. Here they can do anything. The realms are different, they have been programmed to mold to whatever realm they settled in. But the ones that escaped their programming and bred, they are like her, Max. How can we win?” Trudesile felt little comfort as Max strolled to her and rubbed his hand across her back.
“Sir Dreadvent was greater than us, but we beat him. Eve was powerful, but we beat her. Anything can be done as long as we work together. And anyway, you just said how we beat them. We ship them out of here.”
“Can’t be done, remember?” Lester mumbled as they stared at him. “Am I the only one getting this? We three can leave and go back to where you snatched us, but no one else can. Adam did something.”
“Then we undo it. He’s not going to win. We’ll find the third piece and use it to force him to tell us what he did. Then when we find the full thing, right this wrong and tear it apart, we’ll know how to save those that want to be saved and deal with those that don’t want to be. And if any realm thinks they can use anyone as a slave, they’ll have to deal with me.”
“And me and me pot of gold,” Lester added.
“What?” Max asked, as Trudesile gazed at him.
“You’ve sure gotten wise. What happened to that boy who talked about mermaids all day?”
“Five years is a long time. We’ve done much with the realms since then,” Max said, as despair filled Trudesile’s face.
“I’ve missed so much.”
“At least you won’t miss any more. Coming back from the dead will fix that.” Lester laughed and then peeked into the pot when the coins started to move.
“Max. Trudesile,” Dina mumbled.
The pair helped pull her out and as they did anything remaining of the world Dina created instantly vanished. She sat between them, trying to force what happened out of her mind, as nothing but darkness once again surrounded the group.
Chapter 8
Order Down
Dina grew further discouraged with herself, taking the blame for their predicament, after she kept failing to open a portal to Momentus. She tried every plot that her mind could grasp, but nothing happened. She took little solace in Max’s words of comfort while Lester paced in front of her and Trudesile tried to home in on anything she could.
“Stuck in who knows where thanks to some lovey dovey curse. By me pot of gold, we have the worst luck.”
“We won’t be stuck forever, Lester. The scroll piece will wear off sometime,” Max stated.
“And that is supposed to be any better? We’ll go back to fighting everyone we’ve come up against while Adam gets the third piece and brings us back here again.” Lester sighed and then stood still, focusing on a portal home. He opened one that led to the darkness behind them and sighed again, closing it. “Nope. Still not working.”
“I can’t sense anything. I think we are stuck in some sort of limbo. Maybe in the place Oberon trapped Puck,” Trudesile said.
“Between those realities again?” Max questioned, realizing she was probably right. “Maybe Oberon can sense us somehow. Lester did save him.”
“That could work.” Lester titled his head upward. “Hey, elves! Get your butts in gear and get us out of here.”
“It’s no use. I’ve left us trapped with all the reality shifting. This is my fault. I don’t deserve you, Max.”
“Dina, sometimes our actions get out of control, but we can’t let them define us. We will find a way through this.” Max smiled and helped Dina to her feet. He found his love for her still there, yet it had waned after everything he had seen her do.
“You’re right. You’ve always beat fate. Maybe together we can do this.” Dina stepped up to Lester and grabbed his hand. She then reached for Trudesile’s. “I’m sorry, Trudesile. I promise to be a better sister.”
“This isn’t on you, Dina. It’s on him.” Trudesile grabbed her hand.
“Think of only the courtyard,” Dina whispered. “Now focus each of your abilities on it.”
The tri
o concentrated and when they were ready to give up, they heard Max cheer them on. They peeked open their eyes to see a small portal forming.
“Keep it up.” Max stood before them, sensing it would not remain open long. “Everyone hang on.”
Max grabbed Trudesile and yanked her toward it. Dina and Lester followed behind. They each fell into it just as it closed. Dina hit the blackness beneath her and tears filled her eyes after she found that the others had gone through and she remained left behind.
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Lester jumped up to his feet, grabbing Max and Trudesile as a beam of water shot toward them. He shoved them aside and each searched for the threat while stuck among a familiar sight.
“This figures.” Lester waved his hand in front of the face of a few beings as they all stood still, leaving very little room for anyone to move between them.
“How did we get back in the sandwich place? We aren’t that strong. Are we?” Trudesile asked.
“Maybe not alone. But you three are powerful and together maybe even more so. Where is Dina?” Max searched for her among the traffic jam of beings awaiting their fate.
“And why aren’t they moving? We couldn’t stop them from doing so last time?” Lester shoved his way through, helping Max search.
Trudesile kept watch for their foe. She grew confused as Atlantis pushed through the beings with an army of other beings following him.
“I’m sorry, my friends. I wish you no harm. I only thought you brought the mongrel with you and I wanted to save you.” Atlantis stepped forth while the rest of his army pushed the lingering beings aside.
“How are you here? You’re supposed to be in the top half, all happy and such,” Lester questioned.
“Death and Ra are no more. Everything here is in chaos. No rules apply any longer. We want to go back. We figured out the portal and brought you here. We hoped the mongrel would come with you. It is our ticket.”
“You mean Dina?” Max asked, not liking the tone Atlantis took toward her.
“If that’s its name, then yes.”
“What do you want with her?” Trudesile signaled for Max to remain calm, not wanting to get into a fight with so many beings.