After Reena and Agatha forcefully (but somehow gently) managed to rip the fudge off Kiko's hand, they all split it into equal pieces ("It's like my hand and fudge became one!" Kiko exclaimed, causing Reena to snort with laughter).
"Right, I don't know about you two girls, but my hands are extremely sticky so I'm going to wash my hands." Agatha announced.
Kiko put her hand up. "Well I'm going last - I don't just need to wash my hands I need a shower - how did I get fudge in my ear?" Kiko's face scrunched up in pure confusion.
Reena poked her head through the bathroom, "You were scratching your ear whilst still holding the fudge you were eating in the same hand."
"My ear was really itchy!" Kiko protested immediately after remembering why.
Agatha fought the grin making its way to her face. "So does that mean you were eating ear fudge?" She said amusedly.
"EW NO!!!" Kiko swatted the back of Agatha's head. Agatha then swatted her back with water which turned into a fully fledged water fight.
Reena poked her head in again. "I would have come back in here but now I don't think I'm going to." Reena said, rolling her eyes fondly at the sight in front of her.
Agatha and Kiko looked at each other agape, sheepishly. "I'm going to clean up back at our room. You stay here and wash off any fudge lurking anywhere it shouldn't be." Agatha chuckled.
"Yes Ma'am!" Kiko saluted to her.
"I'll see you later?" Agatha turned to Reena.
"Uh, yeah. See you!" Reena responded with a smile.
**
Agatha lay on her bed, motionless. Her arms were eagle-spread to her sides as she looked up. One hand went to her necklace. "I really miss you Callis. I really miss you Stephan. And I really miss you Sophie, even if we're technically in the same place."
Agatha sat up. "If I can, I'll get you here Sophie. Just hang on in there." She murmured softly.
Then in the corner of the massive room Agatha saw it.
A ceiling tile with a smiling Cupid slightly dislodged.
The solution to her problem (though she didn't know it yet).
She put her brown boots on - she couldn't even climb up to the vent to see what was beyond it yet alone climb in without changing her shoes first. Though Sophie taught her how to wear heels properly, Sophie hadn't taught her how to climb or crawl in them.
So for now, Agatha ditched the high heeled pink shoes.
Climbing up her bed frame (Agatha hoped it wouldn't break), she gently fully dislodged the smiling Cupid's mouth-of-a-tile, which ominously revealed a dark vent above the girls' room. Praying and muttering to herself - Agatha swung her legs in and then her body.
And started crawling to whatever the next place was.
**
A few minutes later, Kiko waltzed in from her vigorous scrubbing but relaxing bath, tying her bathrobe firmly around her waist.
"Agatha you can use the bathroom now if you want! Freshen up before we go to the Welcoming, which by the way, is in the School for Good! Your journey may have made you slightly grubby but that doesn't matter. Oh, and Reena just totally left me! It doesn't matter though, she probably made tons of friends before us so maybe she went to go see them -"
Kiko finally looked up. "Agatha?" Kiko called. Then like the Prince out of Cinderella, Kiko grabbed the shoes of a certain Princess left behind.
But this time, it was a difference Princess who left not just one shoe, but two.
**
Agatha crawled along, trying not to make too much sound. How long had she been in here for?
Agatha had smiled so widely that it hurt when she heard Kiko in their room calling for her. She had said something about Reena leaving Kiko possibly (in fact most likely) to see some friends that she made before them, that she could use the bathroom to freshen up and that the Welcoming was in the School for Good -
The Welcoming! Alarms set off in Agatha's mind. She couldn't be late to the Welcoming! What would everyone think of her?
She had to turn round, she didn't have to freshen up but at least be on time for the Welcoming! She would sweep a brush through her hair, dust off her dress, wash her hands, shove her heels on then go! Agatha proceeded to do step one on this list.
Only to fail.
It's too tight! I can't turn around! What am I going to do? Agatha panicked. Then, in the dark vent, she took a few deep breaths (extracting a few sneezes in the process but that was unimportant) and calmed herself down.
It would be alright. She would crawl on to the next opening in the vent and get out, say she got lost. Then she would go back to where everyone else was and then she would be on time for the Welcoming!
Right. So keep crawling! Agatha thought to herself. Easy enough.
And that is what Agatha did, double-time! She knew she must not have been in the vents for so long - it had only been what, a few minutes since going in and a few more minutes after that when Kiko started calling? Perhaps 10-15 minutes at most.
But still, the Welcoming awaited - and that was something she could not be late to.
She kept crawling, managing to he quick but quiet, until at last there was finally an opening.
However as soon as she thought that her feet suddenly met air as the vent have way and she fell, too fast to even scream.
She whizzed through chutes ping-ponged through pipes and slid down more vents until she somersulted through a grate.
And landed on a beanstalk.
Agatha clung to it for dear life, terror and relief rolling into one. After she felt that her heart wasn't going to burst out of her heart, Agatha slowly but surely inched down the humongous plant. As she scooted down the Beanstalk, she took in her surroundings.
Agatha saw she was in a dark room with high ceilings, paintings, sculptures and glass cases. Her eyes found a frosted door (a door she had run through several times placed throughout the entire Good Castle). Above it, she read:
"The Gallery of Good." She whispered to herself. Finally she was on the ground, boot meeting marble (with immense relief at that).
Now she knew where she was. Now she needed to get back to the dorms, to everyone else and back to the Welcoming on time.
Right.
Agatha squared her shoulders and with determination set off down the lengthy hall.
As she passed by though, Agatha couldn't help but see what she was walking by and what was in the Gallery of Good.
She spotted Snow White's Animal Fluency Exam in a glass case - and learnt she was actually called Letitia of Maidenvale. She spotted the blue cape of Cinderella's would-be Prince, Red Riding Hood's dorm pillow, the Little Match girl's diary, Pinnochio's pajamas, and those were only the ones that Agatha bothered to read before deciding she was wasting too much time and hurried on. All of these relics, ornaments of heroes and heroines of their Tales, encased to represent their success.
On one wall there was a mural of EVER AFTER, a School history exhibit, banners celebrating iconic victories and a wall labelled "Class Captain" stacked with several portraits of students from each Class who Agatha presumed became Class Captains.
Agatha hadn't realised but the museum was getting steadily darker, light the sun going down during the day and Agatha had to light lamp using a match.
That was when she saw the dead animals and a gasp of horror escaped her lips, her sense of urgency and haste forgotten.
They weren't dead as in fresh but it was still horrifying to see. Stuffed dead animals loomed over her head and the higher she shone her lamp the more animals appeared from out of the shadows. Not moving. No expression. Simply suspended in time, frozen in place and very dead.
What Agatah found barbaric was that they had labels too. The closest ones to her, she dusted the plaques off: the Booted Master's Cat, Cinderella's favourite rat, Jack's sold-off cow and that was when it hit her.
All of these dead, stuffed animals were children once. These animals, stamped with the names of children not good enough to be heroes, heroines, sidekicks or servants. No. Just hooks in a tiny part of a massive museum, where they were left alone undusted and unloved.
Then the irony of it all. She saw that there was a plaque on the Beanstalk too: Holden of Rainbow Gale.
The wretched plant had once been a boy.
In the total of 200 years since the kidnapping started, no children ever made it back to Gavaldon. Not one. So how could they? Most Readers turned into these plants and dead animals. What makes her and Sophie any different?
That was when she remembered. We have each other.
They had to work together to break this curse on Gavaldon, to protect anyone else from this twisted fate and they had to work together to stop this happening to them if they couldn't get back home.
Agatha turned around, taking in the rest of her surrounding.
Her eyes made its way to the corner of the room: hazy murals all by the same artist took up the space, always seemingly about children reading storybooks.
With a twinge of familiarisation, Agatha stepped closer and then stopped.
It didn't feel familiar, it felt the exact same.
Because it was.
It was Gavaldon.
The children in the paintings were in Gavaldon.
Her feet quickened as she passed by each painting, on their own accord. She saw reading children set against familiar hills and lakes, the crooked clock tower and rickety church, even shadows of a house on Graves Hill. Agatha felt stabs homesickness at each one - but the last painting was different.
Gavaldon was on fire.
Well, Gavaldon wasn't on fire. At its centre was a heaving fire in the Town Square, surrounded by raging children hurling storybooks into it as other children watched. Around them, the Woods Beyond went up in flames that filled the evening sky with violent red and black smoke. Agatha's body erupted into shivers of fear as dread courses through her.
Before she could mull over what this last painting possibly meant, Agatha heard voices. She ducked behind Heinrich of Netherwood; a giant pumpkin carriage but nevertheless ears piqued to listen in on the conversation.
Two women entered the room: one older in a chartreuse high-necked dress speckled with iridescent green beetle wings, the other younger in a pointy-shouldered purple gown that skunk behind her. The older women in green had a beehive of shocking white hair but dewy skin and calm brown eyes. The second clad in purple had her hair yanked tightly in a long braid, amethyst eyes and bloodless skin stretched over bones like a drum.
It was quite scary actually to see such a pair together.
However it was extremely relieving to see faculty still wandering around buildings.
Because it meant the Welcoming was yet to begin.
"He's tampering with the tales, Clarissa." The one in purple spoke.
"The School Master cannot control the Storian, Lady Lesso." Clarissa returned.
"He's on your side, and you know it." Lady Lesso seethed.
"He's not on anyone's side - " Clarissa stopped short. So did Lady Lesso. Agatha saw what they were looking at.
The last painting.
"I see you've welcomed another of Sader's delusions," Lady Lesso said.
"It is his gallery," Clarissa sighed.
Lady Lesso's eyes flashed. Magically, the painting tore off the wall and landed behind a glass case, inches away from Agatha's head.
"And that it why they are not in your Gallery."
"Anyone who believes in the Reader Prophecy is a fool," Lady Lesso hissed. "Including the School Master."
"A School Master must protect the balance," Clarissa said gently. "He sees Readers as part of that balance. Even if you and I cannot understand."
"Balance!" Scoffed Lady Lesso. "Then why hasn't Evil won a Tale since he's taken over? Why hasn't Evil defeated Good in two hundred years?"
"Perhaps my students are better educated." Clarissa said.
There was a silence that Agatha had to assume was filled in by Lady Lesso scowling or glowering. Just seemed as the type of thing this Teacher was to do. Then Lady Lesso started to walk away.
Agatha then thought that Sophie would have loved Lady Lesso's shoes though - dark purple high-heeled boots that Agatha even dared to call stilettos.
Swishing her finger, Clarissa moved the painting back to its original pace before hurriedly walking to keep up with her fellow faculty Head.
"Maybe your new Reader will prove you wrong." She said.
"I hear she wears pink."
Sophie!
Agatha listened to their footsteps slowly recede until she was now alone in the Gallery for Good again.
Her eyes drifted back to the last painting.
She didn't have much time. But what does that painting mean? Why was Gavaldon on fire? Why would the children willingly burn their storybooks, the ones that were cherishingly read and loved?
Twinkly flutters echoed through the air. Before she had anytime to process anything, fairies burst in and spread throughout the room, glowing and scanning every corner and crevice.
Far across the museum, there were the two doors that the Teachers left from! So with that, Agatha leapt up from her positions just as the fairies almost saw her and ran for the doors.
Agatha heard squeals of surprise and oh-so-many trills, squeaks and flapping as she shoved three bears out of the way, opened the doors -
Pink-dressed classmates streamed through the foyer in two perfect lines. As they held hands and giggled, the best of friends, one girl stood out to Agatha as she was alone.
"Kiko!" Agatha breathlessly sprinted up to her. "Agatha!" Kiko screamed in what seemed to be happiness and relief at once which was so loud everyone stopped talking for a second and turned around to stare at them.
"Sorry, continue on your conversations, fellow ladies." Kiko said cheekily, causing Agatha to crack a smile. Kiko turned back to Agatha. "I would hug you but you're covered in dirt and dust." Just as she said this she took off a piece of dust that was in her hair.
"We can fix this," Kiko said fondly and with that being said, whistled.
Six familiar little fairies popped up behind Kiko's head comically. When they saw the state Agatha was in, they practically sqeaked their outrage and immediately started fussing over her like grandparents over their grandkids.
Soon, Agatha's dress was in the same condition it was when she first wore it and her hair was dust-free, dirt-free and shining again. "Thank you!" Agatha beamed at the fairies and with that, the fairies jiggled in response before flying away.
"There you go much better!" Kiko grinned. "Now - are you ready for the Welcoming?!" Kiko screamed excitedly, but this time somehow quietly and just to Agatha.
Agatha put her arm through Kiko's. "Yes." She grinned widely as the line proceeded to move forward again.
But first she had to see Sophie.
Hey guys! I woke up bizarringly early to an hour I never thought I would ever see so I decided to post today! What's going to happen when Sophie sees Agatha, when Agatha sees Tedros and when Tedros sees Sophie? Tagatha finally meet! In the actual books it happens in chapter 5... we don't talk about it, haha. And finally, thank you to solangelo_fan_07 for commenting, your comment was so sweet! See you at the next chapter, Happy Reading! LYSM, Hannah_bsf <33
Word Count: 2584