Walking with human Seth was strange I was used to him being a dog only two feet tall with four legs, his tongue hanging out, drooling at my side. He walked upright on two legs with ease and when he talked instead of looking to the floor I looked up to the sky.
"I know this area, this way is much shorter," he said pointing to a path that led away from the real path.
If Seth had still been a dog, I would have questioned him, but Seth was now a man and for a kid like me to tell him he was wrong just didn't seem right. He was in his late twenties if not early thirties, he was my mom's age. As a dog he seemed like a child and for a while it was like we were the same age.
We took Seth's shortcut, and it led us through a very thick part of the forest. The light from the sky was crushed by the thick trees it was almost like night it was so dark. We wouldn't have been able to see our own two feet if it wasn't for the break between the branches that let in little strips of sunlight.
"I've got to pee," Seth said then he walked off into the woods.
I stood on the path alone waiting for Seth. He was taking an awfully long time. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and made me shiver. Not only did the trees block the light from the sun they also blocked its warmth. I was about to call out to Seth too see if he was alright when an eerie sound poured out from behind me.
I turned to see a bush rustle then the sound was back it was a growl. I backed away from the bush careful not to trip over my own feet. The growl was getting louder, what was that thing? The bush shook some more, and I caught sight of two yellow eyes poking out from behind its heavy green leaves. Could it be a wolf according to Ollie and Seth this was wolf country.
Too scared to stay and find out I ran with all my might. I ran as fast as I could forcing my way through the air as if it were water. I risked a quick glance at my shoulder and smiled once I realized nothing was following me. But while I was looking over my shoulder my foot caught on something.
I fell forward fast and hard hitting the ground like a stone. I picked myself up and hissed when I realized I had cut my hand. I held my hand as I looked behind me to see that my tennis shoe was stuck under a root reaching out from one of the massive trees.
I untangled myself and stood up dusting the dirt off of my clothes with my uninjured hand. I looked around and realized I was standing only a few feet from a house hidden behind the forest. I headed towards the house pulled in by curiosity.
It was a wooden house made from the same dark bark of the trees that surrounded it. A massive swing hung from a large tree in front of the house. It was two stories tall with colorful curtains in the many windows, the yard was way overgrown with four-foot-tall grass, there were cobwebs in the eves and windows, and the door was left open. The house looked strangely familiar, but I couldn't remember why, it was like I had seen a picture of it before. I carefully walked up a ramp built on the side of the staircase.
"Hello," I called out but there was no answer.
I stepped inside the open doorway and looked around curiously, the house was old and run down there were animals living in the corners and mold on the walls. The living room was big and comfortable. I almost screamed when I accidentally stepped near a skeleton laying across the floor. I wandered around the house with a strange air of familiarity. I went into the kitchen where I found a large oven the door had been left open and a little pink teddy bear was sitting in the corner covered in ash. The dining room was empty except for two shoes one turned upside down and the other had a small toad living inside.
Everything was getting really strange, I walked up the stairs with a special chair and pulley system built into them to carry someone in a wheelchair. I got to the top of the stairs and found some bedrooms, the first one I went in was the master bedroom, the closet was full of women's clothes and empty hangers where the man's clothes had been removed. Dresser draws were left open, and a broken suitcase had been left on the bed. There was a painted picture on the desk of a little blonde boy holding a baby girl, the picture looked so much like me and Brandy it was creepy.
The next room I went in belonged to a little girl with pink walls and little dolls lining the shelves of a bookcase. There was a crib in the middle of the room where she slept with the blankets and pillows removed. The name Sharon had been painted on the wall in tall block letters next to cute pictures of flowers and animals.
The third room belonged to a boy, it was a messy room with plenty of clothes and toys on the floor. A picture of a young boy who looked like me without the glasses and a young girl that looked like my mother sat on the dresser. I picked up the picture and traced over my mother she looked so happy. I heard footsteps behind me and almost had a heart attack. I whipped around and sighed with relief when I realized it was only Seth.
"What are you doing in here?" He asked his eyes red and puffy "what makes you think you can just come in old, abandoned houses what if a witch lived in here, I thought you knew better."
"I'm sorry," I said putting the picture back on the desk, I had completely forgotten about all the witches in this area.
Seth looked around the room and sighed "it's fine," he said solemnly. "I can't blame you for wanting to check this place out it was a wonderful house, I really loved growing up here."
"Wait you lived in this house," suddenly the puzzle pieces began to form in my head I reached for the painting and handed it to Seth.
"Is that you?" I asked my hand trembling.
"Yep, Hey I looked a lot like you as a kid."
"Is that your sister," he nodded, and I felt a huge weight lift of my shoulders.
"Why do you ask?"
"Seth that girl is alive she lives in the human world. Your dad is alive too."
"What?"
"We're related, your sister is my mother and she's alive. Seth she wasn't eaten by the wolves she hid in the oven and your father he's alive too he got there after the wolves left, they're both alive and they're back in the human world safe and sound."
"Are you serious?" Seth asked jumping up and down, if he still had his tail, I knew it would be wagging, Seth grabbed me and spun me in the air he licked my face then instantly pulled away.
"Sorry habit," he apologized wiping off my forehead with his sleeve.
"They're alive, they're alive," He cheered then suddenly he stopped "If they're alive then why did they leave me?" he asked sad and confused.
"They didn't leave you my grandpa fled to the human world to keep his daughter safe, he thought you were dead he told me himself that when he came home you were gone, his wife was dead, and his daughter was hiding."
Seth wiped more tears from under his cheeks this time tears of joy.
"I can't believe you're my nephew, I've been an uncle for years now and didn't even know it?" He squeaked he pulled me into a hug and cried all over me, I had never seen a grown man cry and I have to admit it's not pretty.
"You have a niece too, and she's going to die if we don't rescue her soon," I said looking up at the setting sun in fear, Seth let go and wiped the tears out from under his puffy eyes.
"Let's go save her," Seth said stuffing the picture in his pocket.
. . .
Me and Seth made it to the village by night fall we tried to rent a room, but everything was full, apparently people from all over Luminari had come to see the new princess and they had grabbed all the hotel rooms in town. Me and Seth were forced to sleep under a bridge, the ground was made of rock and very uncomfortable nothing like the soft grass in the forest. I woke up just as the sun was starting to rise to a man in a police uniform telling me we couldn't sleep here. I woke up Seth and we headed for the castle.
"Boy, I forgot how cold it is without fur," Seth said shivering in the cold morning air, he stuck his hands into his pocket to warm them up and pulled out the little bag Olivia had given him.
"What's that?" I asked and he opened it up pulling out a small box no longer than an inch.
"It's a party favor, I bet it's a curse or maybe some goat eyeballs, who knows witches suck like that."
"What if it's something helpful?" I asked and he tossed it to me telling me that if I wanted it open, I had to open it.
I slowly opened the corner of the box holding it away from my face, but after it didn't explode, I opened it to find a small blue bottle with a little cork and a little note covered in loopy cursive. Seth took the note and began to read it.
"This is for you, after the human spell ends you may take this earth potion and stay a human forever P.S. make sure you take it within sixty seconds of the human charm ending," Seth read aloud.
"That's awesome, you'll be able to come home with me as a person, your dad is going to be so excited to see you," I cheered, I couldn't wait to see the look on my grandpa's face when Seth came home with me, everything was finally going as planned.
"Bailey it's an earth potion?"
"So? What's wrong with earth potions?"
"An earth potion connects you to the earth, that means if I leave Luminari there will be terrible consequences," Seth explained sadly.
"Like what?"
"Like death."
My heart dropped into my stomach.
"If you can't leave Luminari then you can't see your family," I mumbled and he nodded.
"Then just don't take the potion, you can come back to the human world as a dog."
"Do you know how miserable it is to be a dog to have to walk around on your hands and feet eating out of garbage cans, having to rely on your nose to get to places, dogs live very short lives if I stay a dog I won't last another five years," Seth complained and I nodded to show I understood trying not to cry.
Suddenly the air was filled with the loud sound of ringing bells and people started running around dressed in fancy dresses and suits. Carrying presents and flowers, wrestling naughty spoiled children into carriages and trying to get lazy horses to move.
"The wedding is starting hurry up and take that potion," Seth ordered.
"But?" I asked as he pulled the potion out of my pocket and pulled the cork out, he held the bottle up to my lips and poured it down my throat.
I started getting bigger and my arms and legs turned into long horse legs with large round hoofs at the bottoms. A long purple tail grew out of my butt and long purple hair from my head, a giant horn poked through my head and large wings sprouted from my back. I had lavender blue hair all over my body and a long horse face. I tried talking to Seth but all that came out was a bunch of snorts and other strange horse sounds.
Seth laid a blanket over my wings to cover them and put a rope around my neck. Seth pulled me with him through the village. It was strange being at a horse's eye level I was taller than Seth and almost everyone else in the village, everything smelled stronger, and the intoxicating stench of apples filled the air around me. The smell was much more intense than I remembered.
We came up on the lake and saw the castle it had landed in the water and a long silver bridge was connecting it to the mainland. One side of the bridge was strictly for guests, people in fancy clothes with large presents, and the other side was for regular commoners wanting to give their gifts to the new princess. Seth stood in the line of commoners, and everyone praised him for having such a beautiful horse.
"How can you give away such a magnificent beast?" an angel woman asked, she was holding a beautifully weaved basket she handmade especially for the wedding.
"I really wanted to show my appreciation for the royal family," He lied stroking my long snout the woman petted me too looking deep into my eyes.
We made it to the front of the line and Seth handed my leash to a servant waiting to bring me inside.
"Thank you so much for your gift, it's wonderful," she said petting my head.
"Goodbye, Bailey I don't know if we'll ever see each other again but I want you to know that-" he stopped himself then wrapped his arms around my neck.
He walked off waving at me, the uncle I never knew I had was walking out of my life for the last time.
The servant walked me down the silver bridge it had been polished so nicely I could see my reflection in it. I really was a beautiful horse Brandy was going to be so shocked when she saw me if she was even alright. The servant brought me to the castle surrounded by tall stone-gray walls with a large metal draw bridge. The bridge had been laid down for the wedding and was guarded by several men with swords.
The servant led me across the draw bridge and through a beautiful garden, she then led me through the back door of the castle and into a kitchen. She brought me through the kitchen full of scrumptious looking food and two dozen chefs running around like scared chickens trying to prepare everything by the time the wedding was happening. She led me into a large banquet room stuffed with thousands of presents wrapped in colorful paper with streamers and bows. The servant pulled a large red bow out of a basket and tied it to my horn, then she tied my leg to the table and left.
. . .
I was a horse trapped inside a room full of presents, I had to think of a way to get to Brandy they probably weren't going to give me to her until after the wedding and that would be too late. All day long more servants brought presents into the present room, and it slowly began filling it up.
"I wish this was what my birthday looked like?" one of the servant women joked to her friend "all I got was a new handkerchief," she complained.
"My family never remembers my birthdays and I didn't get anything for my wedding, I didn't even wear a white dress just plain brown like always."
"Did you see the princess's dress?"
"Oh, I know she looks amazing, and she's so young?"
"Well, you have to keep in mind that the prince is also very young, he can't be more than seven years older."
"That's still a large gap," the servant woman said as she pulled an apple out of a basket and gave it to me stroking my nose while I ate it.
Eating with a massive horse tongue and massive horse teeth was weird I crushed the apple in my mouth like it was a grape and swallowed the whole thing including the core.
"When is she getting all these presents?"
"After the ceremony, boy I sure hope we don't have to carry them all out to her," the servant said with a sigh eyeing the tall heaps of presents with a frown.
"When's the dance, I can't wait to see everyone dancing," the servant said with stars in her eyes twirling around happily the skirt of her dress flying out like she was a ballerina.
"After the ceremony if everything goes okay."
"What do you mean?"
"Weren't you here the last time the prince was married?"
"No, he was married before?"
"Yep, but when the queen was performing the ceremony, something went terribly wrong, after she drank the poison, she didn't turn into a ghost."
"What did she turn into?"
" A corpse."
"How awful, I wonder what went wrong?"
"Who knows, the prince was devastated. But it was over ten years ago, so he probably doesn't remember."
"I've never seen anyone turn into a ghost before what time is the ceremony?"
"Around noon."
The two servants left giggling and chatting with each other. I frantically searched for a clock and found one hanging high on the wall, but it was too far away for me to see. I chewed through the rope holding me to the table, then climbed up the mountain of gifts like they were a set of stairs crushing them as I went. I made it to the top of the mountain and saw that it was already half past eleven. My heart skipped a beat I only had half an hour to get out of here.
"Hey you!" I heard someone shout from below two men were carrying a large dresser into the present room and one had spotted me on top of the tower.
"We have to get him down from there," another shouted pulling out a loaded cross bow, he pulled the trigger and shot the arrow.
I jumped from the pile and spread my wings out from under the blanket, I had never flown before and I didn't know what to do. I crashed face first into another pile of presents. The men began running towards me kicking presents out of their way and shouting for me to come out. I carefully pulled my large awkward horse body out from the present pile and hid behind it. I waited until the men passed me by then ran for the door flapping my wings all the way, but I wasn't picking up enough wind to fly.
"There he goes," one of them shouted pulling the trigger and shooting another arrow.
The arrow zoomed by my ear and implanted itself in the still open door.
I quickly ran through the open doors and kicked them shut trapping the two men inside. They ran up to the door banging on it with their fists and demanding I let them out. I looked around in a panic I was trapped inside a castle, and I didn't know where to go. Then suddenly the air was filled with the sound of cheering and ringing bells. I ran towards the noise at thirty miles an hour my horse hearing was sharp, and my stamina was incredible I would be there in no time.