BOOK ONE; The War Princess: Chapter Two

One Year Later...

Chapter 2

I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I knew why I had woken up so suddenly. After all, it was Choosing Day. Choosing Day was for everyone going on thirteen. You would take a test—half of it a written examination and the other half a practical test. The test would decide your future career, so it was essential that you be well prepared for it.

I got up and looked around the circular room that was the North Tower. Everyone was still asleep. I had always wondered how people could sleep so early yet get up so late. As soon as I had shook Robin awake, he dressed quickly, and went into the girls’ room. Soon, I heard the sound of a pillow being whacked against heads. I’d guessed he’d do it. Thunder dared him to last night. Robin was very predictable at times. I frowned a bit as I strolled to where I kept my scrolls.

“Robin! Stop that!” Snowstar groaned so loudly that I could hear her quite clearly from where I was, a short distance away.

“Alright, but only if you get up. Now,” came the response. I could feel pleasure just radiating from him as he whacked Snowstar unnecessarily with carefully disguised malice, probably payback for yesterday’s defeat. They were all so... violent. Even so, I couldn’t help smiling a bit as I grabbed a scroll from my bookshelf. One must always be prepared to study at the last minute.

Complaining loudly, the four girls, Moon, Snowstar, Autumn, and Sunset got up and dressed. Five minutes later, we were ready to go downstairs, although the girls were still yawning. Grumbling at the way Robin woke them up, we accompanied the girls as we marched down the stairs to our awaiting breakfast, which consisted of toast, milk from the milk-flower, and fruit jam. The milk-flower was one of the many plants created by Gem when Gem, Jim, and Poppy first came here. They looked a little like Earth's bluebells, and were bred from plants that originated from Water Island. Gem had brought them to Sun-City and most farms harvested the milk that they produced each morning. Each flower provided about half a bucket of fresh, sweet milk, each day. I’ve witnessed them dripping milk before. A trough is put under four milk-flowers. Then they drip milk down into the trough. When it’s full, the trough is replaced by another empty one, but only if there was still milk left to be dropped, which, of course, there usually was.

Fruit jam was imported from Earth itself, and we only received several jars a year. No one liked it very much, but Gem and Jim did. It probably reminded them of Earth- their old home. But, we did mash sun-pulp, a sweet yellow, round, and common, fruit, to spread over plain bread.

After our quick breakfast, the eight of us sneaked down to the castle grounds and into the nearby forest. On the way to the cave, we stopped to pick up the books we had stolen one year ago. We hadn’t kept them in our room anymore, since we might leave it outside accidentally, and Gem and Jim and Poppy might see. So now we hid them in a hollow tree log five minutes walk off the path, where it was nice and dry. We turned right when we saw the tree in the middle of the road.

Since that day when we had stolen these books, we had memorized them thoroughly and honed our fighting skills so much that we were now the best among our ages, and several grown men and women. We practiced all day and night, giving Sunset and Ash a chance to practice their healing skills by treating our sore muscles.  

The nurse that had been jailed the same time had also been released. She had been given ten emeralds and chased out of the castle. We had watched her leave the castle from our window. Ten emeralds were probably enough to get a job as a healer in a smaller town hospital.

The money system, the standard one in the Moonstone Galaxy, was that a ruby equals four emeralds, an emerald equals equals four diamonds, and a diamond equals four sapphires. Much more simple than the ones that humans use on Earth. A moonstone, of course, was the most precious gem. Priceless, it contained a specific type of magic. Except for one: Nature’s moonstone- it contained all four elements. All the others only contained one or the other. That was one of the reasons Nature was so powerful. She always wore it around her neck.

Robin kept checking the glow’s brightness, counting down the time when the test took place. “I still can’t believe we’re taking the test.”

“You guys are our friends, do you think we’d let you go off to some boring farm to work?” said Autumn.

“Well said,” I spoke up, “but don’t you think we should be getting ready for the test?” One could never overprepare.

“We are, and we already know everything. We can repeat these books by heart even when we’re asleep. We’ve been preparing for this for the past couple years! Especially this last year.” Snowstar added as an afterthought.

“Shouldn’t we choose jobs in a group first? You know the leader, the warrior, the healer, and the magic maker?” asked Ash. “After all, a group stays with the rest of their group for practically the rest of their life.” This custom was one of the oldest traditions, which is saying a lot, since Gem and Jim had only ruled for about seventeen season-changes. To people on Earth, a season-change was about a quarter of a year. So, probably five or six years?

“What’s a magic-maker?” asked Sunset.

“It’s the title for a person who is really advanced at magic-making,” I explained.

“Whatever! I call being warrior!” exclaimed Thunder.

“Wait. No calls. Not yet,” said Sunset. “How come these jobs are in groups of four, but there are eight of us?”

“Father is giving us a choice of being a group of eight or two groups of four, but we’ll definitely be in one group of eight, so there will be two of us for one job,” Moon said. Obviously, I thought.

“Well, that settles it then,” Snowstar said. She took out a piece of paper. Leaders, she wrote. “All right, who wants to be a leader?” Snowstar asked, staring around at everyone.

“Me, I guess. I don’t really like the other options,” Moon shrugged. Then, with a nasty glint in her eye and a smirk at her mouth, she continued, “Especially being stuck with a mindless nitwit who whacks people on the head only when someone tells them too.”

“Hey!” Robin protested.

“Calm down,” Ash said, laying a hand on both of their shoulders. He had to use quit a bit of force with Robin  before they get up that morning.”

“Also,” Moon said, as if Ash hadn’t said anything, “Being a warrior is too much like being a nitwit- a mindless one, mind you- being a healer is too frustrating, being a magic maker is too Jay-ish.” There! In one sentence, she had actively insulted everyone in the group. The girl was suicidal. She must have a death wish. If she did that to everyone- and she did, sometimes- I’m sure she’d be murdered in the middle of a night.

“Jay-ish?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Jay-ish. Like Snowstar is Snowstar-ish.”

“Snowstar-ish?” exclaimed  Snowstar. “I”ll show you Snowstar-ish!” She made to get up, fists raised, but Ash forced her down again.

After calming down, Snowstar spoke again. “Is that all? If so, then I suppose that I’ll be a leader too,” she replied, writing it all down on the paper.

“I want to be a warrior,” Robin said loudly, to make sure he was heard. “And I think Thunder would like that too.” He glanced at Thunder, who nodded.

“That’s settled then,” Sunset said. “I want to be a healer myself.”

After we finished, Moon read out the paper with the finalized jobs on it. Moon and Snowstar were leaders, Thunder and Robin were warriors, Sunset and Ash were healers, and Autumn and I were magic-makers. We sat there for a while, making idle chitchat.

“I think it’s time to go to the Great Hall for the test,” I told them. I surveyed the others’ faces to see how nervous they were. I could have sworn Robin’s face looked a little green. But if anyone thought he was nervous, I knew that he could blame it on the amount of bacon he had for breakfast- one and a half of those huge platters. Thunder usually dared Robin or Snowstar to do things, but occasionally selected someone else as his target.

We went back to the castle, enjoying the views of the forest on a sunny morning. Little sunlight filtered through the tops of the trees, but thankfully, it was enough to see by. The lush green of the leaves made it seem as though we were walking through a beautiful painting. Birds sang and chirped in nearby trees, and the leaves rustled as animals stalked their prey. I felt like I was in a dream, out of place among the quiet beauty of the forest, and the test would only wake me up, and I would never return to this moment.

At the Great Hall (the place where the test would be), we waited with the other palace children, which included our longtime archenemies, Crystal, Flame, Volcano, Shadow, Tornado, Hurricane, Tsunami, and Lightning, who also happened to be a group of eight. They were the sons and daughters of the Count, Countess, and the Duke and the Duchess. No one besides the Count, Countess, Duke, Duchess, Queen Poppy, Gem, and King Jim bothered to remember who their parents were. The Duke and Duchess were more well known than the Count, so everyone just said that they were the sons and daughters of the Duke and Duchess.

Moon’s, Thunder’s, Snowstar’s, Sunset’s, Ash’s, Robin’s, Autumn’s, and my rivalry with them had started at the age of eight, when someone had pulled a trick on me: a cruel trick. Even then, I had loved reading. The culprit had stolen some of my most precious scrolls, fully understanding that it would drive me crazy. The culprit had turned out to be Flame. We had gotten into a fight, and it had taken the combined efforts of Queens Poppy and Gem and King Jim too, and the parents of Crystal’s group, to pull us apart before we had started actually killing the other. To this day, both group held a grudge against the tricks we had played on them and them us.

“Alright everyone! Settle down, please,” a small man said in a squeaky voice. He was a Halfling, a former member of the Small Worlds, so he had to stand on his chair to be noticed. “Sit down with your group at a round table. Then, I will hand you the theory tests and you may begin. When you finish, raise your hand and you will begin the practical one with actual magic in a separate room. Remember, you will do this as a group. No talking.”

Then, we went to work on the tests, each one taking their own jobs’ questions and working in pairs. Once in awhile, we would whisper and talk about the questions with the other.

“How in Moonstone Galaxy do they expect us do it as a team when we can’t talk?” I murmured. My friends all nodded their heads vigorously.

Most of this is pretty easy, I thought. We didn’t need to research anything at all! This is just what we learned in classes.

“Are you guys done yet?” Moon muttered out of the corner of her mouth while keeping her eye on the paper in front of her.

“No, almost done though,” Thunder replied, still whispering.

“Just a little more…. done!” Ash said, putting his pencil down in satisfaction. We weren’t the first ones to finish, though. As we raised our hands, we saw Crystal and her group leave. The small man collected our tests and shooed us towards the exit, which, by the way, is the same doorway as the entrance. Several guards came toward us, dressed elegantly. Then they marched formally, with us sandwiched in the middle, to the Throne Room, where my father sat on the throne.

“Welcome to the last part of the Test,” he boomed, “where you will rely on magic and fighting alone to survive with your group. You must work as a team. One monster shall be released on you and you must rely on your wits alone to battle it.” On the last word, there was a sound of metal against metal and a monster slid out from behind a door.

I was totally unprepared. It was a huge creature with yellow eyes and wings, and a long mass of hair-like substance all along the back. The scaly hide looked impenetrable, and the claws were long and sharp, about the size of a regular sword. It breathed out, and a horde of arrows came shooting out of his mouth toward me. Luckily, I leaped out of the way just in time. The last few, I swept away with a burst of magic, and clattered to the ground beside me.

“It shoots arrows and has swords on the back and as claws! It’s a War Machine! The tail is also like a club, just so you know! It’s native to the Shadow Realms!” Autumn shouted, as the tail came crashing down on Ash’s shield. The shield buckled and splintered, and although they weren’t harmed, Sunset and Ash had to run as a horde of arrows rained down on them.

“Nice to know!” Robin bellowed back. “But not helping!” I rolled and dodged another volley of arrows. I got to my feet shakily, in time to run as yet another volley of arrows peppered the ground.

“How do you kill this thing?” yelped Thunder, backflipping as the club came down to smash him.

“I’m not sure! The books don’t say!” Autumn shouted back.

“If we can’t kill this thing by force, let’s try magic!” suggested Thunder.

“Good idea!” Snowstar yelled. “Drop your weapons, guys. We’ll need our hands free to do the magic.”

“Don’t you dare!” I shrieked. “The textbooks also say that you can’t use magic on another living thing, excluding your own kind, otherwise whatever spell you cast will bounce back on you and result in an unpleasant disaster!”

“What disaster isn’t unpleasant?” Moon screamed, rolling on the ground, as a razor- sharp talon scraped the ground where she had been a second earlier.

“Don’t worry about that now!” groaned Ash. “Stop arguing and let’s get to work! Distraction is a good factor in defeating a monster such as this.”

Moon got up and shouted, “I’ll distract it with my bow and the rest of you kill it! You’re going to need help with that!” Autumn joined Moon, “We’ll get it from the front!”

“Right!” Snowstar snapped, “Thunder, Jay, attack from behind! Robin, Autumn, pick a flank and injure it! I’ll help you if you need! Move it! Positions, people!”

I took up my position with Thunder. I quickly unsheathed some of my daggers and got the feel of them. I didn’t usually use weapons. I much preferred to solve arguments by talking or by magic. Unfortunately, you can’t just talk to a War Machine.

“On my mark!” Snowstar called. I exchanged a glance at Thunder.

“Cut off that thing’s tail, Jay. I’ll jump onto it’s back, and aim for the neck. Back-up plan: do it as it happens.” I rolled my eyes at that last part. That back-up plan wasn’t my favorite strategy. But in this situation, I could tell that there was no time to figure it out.

“How about I try to shield your fall with magic?” I said.

“Sure!” Thunder grinned. Then we lapsed into silence and waited for the signal.

“Go!” Snowstar shouted. Six warriors charged at the monster while Moon and Autumn kept it’s head busy. Ash was paired with Snowstar and Sunset with Robin. I nodded at Snowstar’s order. Very balanced and gave us a higher chance of survival.

Thunder vaulted onto the War Machine’s back, and after several very hard tries, I finally found a gap in its armor and, with difficulty, chopped it’s spike-covered tail off. It howled in pain and turned to face me. Holy Chaos! I cursed in my head. I ducked a blast of arrows and threw my dagger. That turned out to a mistake, because it knocked the dagger out of the way easily. The War Machine blew some more arrows at my face, and instead of jumping out of the way, I rolled forward. A giant claw came down on top of me. I closed my eyes, holding my shield up. When nothing happened, I looked up. Snowstar was there, holding the claw off with her sword. Then the Machine grabbed her and began to squeeze. Suddenly, Moon was at my side.

“Help me with this, will you?” she grunted. Ash and Sunset threw some knives desperately at it.

“Finishing blow!” Snowstar managed to yell with the last of her breath. Out of all of us, only Robin understood.

“All of you distract it!” He yelled. We ran to surround the monster and distract us as best we could. Robin dodged arrows and talons and finally got to it’s chest.

“Goodbye, ugly,” I heard him sneer. The sword worked it’s way through it’s armour and into it’s heart. Then just as suddenly as the battle started, it was over. We stood panting beside the fallen body, except for Sunset and Ash, who were frantically collecting the skin, which would make good armor if they managed to find out how it worked.

“Congratulations,” said King Jim. “You have finished your test and shall be getting the results back tomorrow. For now, try to get some sleep. It looks as if you need it.”

I sleepily nodded. Once we had reached outside, though, I breathed in the fresh air, and I wasn't tired anymore.

“You know, I’m not so tired anymore,” I turned to my friends. “Are you?” For some strange reason, my strength felt like it was being poured back into me.

“I’m with you,” added Autumn. “Anyone up for a treat? Let’s go to the main city.”

“We need to take this to our room. Then we’ll go,” Ash said, showing us the skin he and Sunset had collected.

“All right,” Moon said. “You guys ready to go?”

“Deal.” I agreed. We walked away, letting the fear and tension of the battle fade.

BOOK ONE; The War Princess: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Sunlight streamed in through the window. I opened my eyes. I carefully slipped the book from underneath my pillow onto the cabinet where I kept my clothes. I was reading it last night when I couldn’t sleep, and of course, it was underneath the covers. Then I looked around the room, at my friends, one of whom were siblings. I decided to let them sleep a little longer, and let my thoughts drift, thinking that it was lucky that we didn’t live on Earth- or anyplace in any non-magical environment. No, I live in Moonstone Galaxy, created at the beginning of time. Our kingdom was only created when King Jim and Queens Gem, Poppy, and Peach- who’s dead now- when they prevented Tim and Tom from taking the four powerful moonstones, created by Nature herself, for Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. There were a series of books entirely dedicated to the subject in every single library on Sun-City, my country.

Our galaxy, Moonstone Galaxy, had seven dominant kingdoms. Each element- Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth- are separate kingdoms, with different creatures, laws, and magic. Nature ruled the Star-Spirits on her island. Then there were the Shadow Realms and us: Sun-City. We were the only kingdom to speak English at least fluently. There were also the smaller kingdoms. They inhabited many of the smaller islands that bumped into us, like pirate ships on Earth. They would launch surprise attacks and raid our villages, which was the main reason we had to keep vigilant and our fighting skills sharp.

Some basic knowledge about our magic- the more magic on a kingdom or island, the harder it is to move around. For example, the seven dominant kingdoms were constant magic-users, so they are stationed in their places. Others islands had the ability to steer theirs, and used that advantage against us. They would ram into us, like I mentioned before, and raid our coastal areas. ‘Coastal areas’ is an expression, since there isn’t actually water surrounding us, but there is air. Also, no magic can be used on another living being that is not of your own species. So you can’t make crops grow. If you do, whatever magic you cast will reflect back upon you- and whatever the magic does to you, it’s never painless. I’ll bet that information would have shocked most humans to death.

In the distance, I heard the wake-up bell ring. Now it’s really time to get up. Every time I wake up first, which is pretty much almost every day, I wake up my siblings and friends: Moon, Snowstar, Robin, Ash, Sunset, Autumn, and Thunder. My name is Jay. I have a habit of waking up first. Moon wakes up before me sometimes, and then other times, Autumn, but that’s it.

Moon, Thunder, and I are triplets, and being King Jim and Queen Poppy’s sons and daughter, we are heirs to the throne. Moon is oldest, then me, then Thunder, born only a short while apart. Out of habit, and since everyone else did, we just called our parents King Jim and Queen Poppy. And our aunt, Queen Gem. But unless we were at a formal occasion, we used ‘Jim’, ‘Poppy’, and ‘Gem’.

Ash, Autumn, and Sunset are the son and daughters of a general that had died in the Battle of the Moonstones. He had saved Gem from a poisoned arrow, acting purely from instinct as it had hurdled toward her. He had stepped in front of if and shielded her from death. As a last favor to the general, his dying wish, they were allowed to stay so that Gem could care for them. Ash was oldest, followed by Sunset, and then Autumn.

Snowstar and Robin, however, are orphans Queen Gem had found on Moonstone Island, the one of which Moonstone Galaxy revolved around, literally and politically, and the place where the glow would radiate from the Island itself and fade later on, separating light from darkness. In other words, night from day. Rumor has it that the Star-Spirits had found them there and raised them for a while before Gem got there. They recognized Gem as a citizen of Sun-City and knew she was a kind person, so they gave the twins to her. No one knew who was older or younger, but many people suspected that Snowstar was the older one. She was often more responsible, although she loved to laugh and was in the prank gang with her brother and Thunder.

Since Moon, Ash, and I had become such good friends with Snowstar, Robin, Thunder, Autumn, and Sunset, and we worked well together, we became a group, an organized team of friends, who all worked hard and helped each other. Sometimes. Now all of us were technically heirs to the throne, although Jim (and some other people in and out of the castle) still had some doubts about Robin and Snowstar. Just the twins, because everyone knew about the fallen general and respected him. Some people still didn’t quite trust Robin and Snowstar to rule. It came from the fact that everyone was proud of their heritage and family lines. Not that I personally enjoyed it. I hated it. Nothing but memorization; no thinking. I loved the study of magic especially, and was considering some magical careers for the future.

Robin and Thunder and maybe Snowstar would say that I’m planning ahead, but one of Moon’s favorite cutting remarks was that ‘the future’s always coming, whether we like it or not, so if we plan ahead, so should you, because we are in the future of when I started speaking to you, therefore you must have planned that I was talking to you otherwise you still wouldn’t be standing here with your mouths open like fish out of water.’ Usually the aftermath of that situation wasn’t very good.

When everyone was finally awake, we went downstairs to our living room (seeing as we slept in the two towers that made up the North Tower). As usual, Thunder and Robin ate the most, shoveling food into the mouths that were always asking for more. They had the biggest appetites. And we constantly had to tell them to swallow their even bigger pride.

“Stop eating so much,” I complained. “You’ll eat up everything else and never let the rest of us take a single bite.” It had become habit for the rest of us to pile as much food as we could get on our own plates, while the two boys fought for every single crumb that was left. Thunder and Robin always seemed to be eating something. They were tall, strong, and sturdy boys, and had the makings of warriors. Thunder had blond hair with brown eyes. Robin was almost completely the opposite, with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes. To tell you the truth, Ash and I weren’t much into fighting. I was more of a scholar, reading books and performing magic, while Ash liked healing. I had blond hair and blue eyes and Ash had pretty much the same hair and eye color- something we inherited from Jim- Ash, Autumn, and Sunset were close relatives. We inherited from Poppy our ‘gentleness’. Autumn also liked to read books, like me. She had a pretty light brown hair color with the same shade of brown as her eyes. Ash preferred to experiment.

Once I started reading a book, you couldn’t get my nose out of it unless you forced me too, or there were more important matters to attend to, such as, say, there was a duel going on, or if a burglar had broken into the palace. As if they could. Security is always very tight.

“Why should I stop?” Thunder replied. “I get hungry, you know. It’s been an entire night without food.”

“Actually, half a night,” Snowstar pointed out.  She was identical to Robin except she had pure black-as-the-night hair. “We all heard you and Robin last night at midnight, robbing the food stores in our bedrooms and gobbling all our delicacies up. In fact, I checked the pantry in our bedroom this morning for a piece of cake, and absolutely nothing was left, not even a crumb.”

Robin and Thunder glanced sheepishly down at their plates, while the others smirked and helped themselves to more pudding and food.

“What were you doing in the morning looking for a piece of cake?” asked Sunset, frowning. Being a healer, she often kept us to a strict diet. Sunset had bright flaming red hair and light brown eyes that were so close to Autumn’s.

“Nothing,” mumbled Snowstar.

“Shut up about the cake.”  Robin and Thunder said simultaneously. I smirked playfully. We often got into group squabbles because we had a running joke about who was smarter and was able to talk down the other.

I was usually the first one done with breakfast, and I was in charge of thinking of our seasonal adventure. One adventure might not sound a lot to you, but most of them were pretty daring, like the one I had thought up for today. We were going to steal some books from the library. Many people like you might think that a library is supposedly a place that you don’t need to steal things from, but no. It was hard. The books we wanted were in the restricted section, and you had to ask my parents or Queen Gem for permission to go there, which they were definitely going to say no to, because we were still years away from starting training. That was a bit of an exaggeration, but really... we were smart enough to start, but there was an age restriction before we actually could, to ‘guarantee complete understanding of the course expectations and concepts’. So in order steal books, we needed invisibility powder, transparency dust, and a whole lot of other various items- formulas which I already figured out the concept of. Of course, I needed books from the Restricted Section before to figure that out, but the first time we stole books, we had to do it the old-fashioned way: Sneak around and pray they don’t see you.

Of course, we didn’t pray to the same gods as Earth people did. We prayed to Nature, the most powerful person in the universe. Nature was created, not born- Chaos, Law, Good, and Evil, because the four ancients couldn’t decide who would rule, and often fought over it. Nature took her place as ruler and was kind and fair, also punishing those who were guilty. Chaos fell in love with her, and Law left the group, furious, and was never found. Because the partners needed the other balance, Chaos, and we expect Law did too, both died, but not before Nature gave birth to Earthquake and Sky. Earthquake married Good, and Sky to Evil. All of them knew the consequences, of course. Good gave birth to Fire, Wind, Peach, and Poppy. Sky had Water, Earth, Tim, and Tom. Thus, four of the five ancients were gone. Only Nature remained. Earthquake and Sky stayed with Nature in her cottage and were never heard from again. They were said to become Star-Hoppers, spirits of dead ones that came and went as they pleased, going from galaxy to galaxy. Then, Peach and Poppy went to Earth to find the twins who were prophesied to do great good to the galaxy. Gem, Jim, Peach, and Poppy became a group against Tim and Tom to find the Moonstones and restore the balance. The entire tree was also very complicated, considering the little branches going off in different directions. I was part of the strongest and most powerful family known, galaxy or not. Others might not know it, but I was much more powerful than almost anyone, although I might not look like it.

Finishing off the last crumb on my plate, I got up from the table. “Meet you in the forest, guys,” I called, swinging my bag over my shoulder. The forest was our meeting spot. We went there to spend some time alone, play games, swim in the river, plan things, and study. The forest was very peaceful. The forest had also helped us in many ways. We had trained in clearings, camouflaged in the mud, dodged arrows in the leaves, gathered useful plants and herbs, and learned to climb trees and swing from branches. It was my favorite place to be, and also true for nearly everyone else.

“Going already?” Thunder called from behind. I nodded without turning. I stopped by the North Tower to get the powders that I had made from the secret storage room underneath the boys’ staircase. I also stored up extras, just in case the powder wore out while we were in the middle of our mission.

After grabbing them and stuffing them into my satchel that I always wore, I went outside into the forest and, after identifying the trail, began the long trek of several miles. Luckily, we all knew our way well, and we could all run for many miles at a steady pace- it was a required part for us to have a certain amount of stamina, being a kingdom that was constantly at war. The path was unnoticeable unless we pointed it out to you, since no one came here often enough to make a wide, clear path, and we liked it this way. After a while of steady jogging, I arrived at our meeting spot, a dry cave, unclaimed by any living creature or plants, thankfully. Surrounding it were an endless- or so it seemed- lush, green forest. Directly outside the cave was a large, deep, and slow-moving river. There were no rocks or fast-moving currents, only soft sand at the bottom, so it was safe to swim in. This place was our special spot. On days we would spend hours here, swimming, playing, or just relaxing.

I spread out the drawings and diagrams I had made about sneaking into the library and set the powders aside next to my cushion of moss and reviewed the diagrams. Soon I heard a rustling noise. As I looked up to see what it was, I saw my friends enter the cave. Well, most of them anyways.

“Where’s Robin and Thunder?” I asked.

“Still stuffing some food into their pouches. They claim that they'll need it for later,” replied Moon, looking annoyed.  Moon had dark brown hair and light brown eyes. Moon and Autumn were naturally opposed against Thunder and Robin, for some strange reason. I was a scholar, yet even I had no idea why.

“Oh.”  Of course. I knew that.

“What are we doing today, Jay?” asked Ash.

“I’ll wait until Thunder and Robin get here. They can’t be that far behind.”

Autumn snorted. “When it comes to them and food, they’ll be very far behind.”

As it turns out, she was right. After a few moments of impatient shuffles between their feet, Moon and Autumn went out to practice their archery skills. Soon, I could hear the whack of the bowstrings and the thud of arrow after arrow. Awhile after that, Snowstar went to practice with her sword, and Ash and Sunset and I started reading.

Quite a while later, Moon and Autumn sneaked up on us. Well, not really sneaked, but their hide boots were soft on the dirt and stone floor so they hardly made a sound. So I was like, concentrating on the scroll, and all of a sudden...

“They’re coming,” Moon said loudly, standing over me. I practically threw my scroll into the air as I jumped.

“Gah!” I shrieked. “You didn’t have to say it that loudly! I was reading!” I replied furiously. Now that I had gotten over my surprise, I was angry. I didn’t like being scared, and she just interrupted me from reading my scrolls!

“Yes, yes, yes, you and your scrolls.” Moon sighed, rolling her eyes, knowing exactly how I felt. This was sometimes a problem, when your friends knew you so well you didn’t have any secrets. I stood up. The sunlight from the entrance to our cave was suddenly blocked.

“So, what’s our adventure today?” Thunder questioned me as he came in with Robin right behind him. Both were carrying huge pouches that were probably stuffed with food. I must have given it a strange look, because Robin saw, and asked me why I was looking at the bags with such a weird expression.

“Do you really need all that?” I responded, eying the pouches.

“Yes, and anyway, you didn’t answer my question,” snapped Thunder.

“Well, we are sneaking into the library today.”

“And the purpose of that is…,” said Sunset.

“To take some books out for the Choosing Test. So we can get better scores. So we get into Camp Purple-Spirit.” The test results sort of decided our future careers. There were two parts; one was a written theory test and the other was a practical test, where we had to fight something or other. Camps were color-coded. Purple-Spirit was the best, obviously, followed by Blue, Green, Yellow; you get the idea. The Camps ended with White-Spirit.  

“You know we can’t get into the Restricted Section,” Robin complained.

“Do we really need to? I mean, they say that it's just a review of what we have learned in the classes they gave this year, and we know that by heart. Why do we have to do extras?” asked Ash.

“Just in case. I mean, Camp Purple-Spirit wants the best, right? So we have to be prepared for the unexpected! They will have questions that we didn’t learn yet, so we need to prepare!” Autumn said, rising to her feet so that she towered above all the others.

“Sit down, Autumn. We can’t see anything with you blocking the light,” snapped Snowstar.

“Don’t snap, it’s not polite.” Sunset frowned.

“Like you’re not snapping,” retorted Moon.

“Get out of it, it’s not your argument,” Sunset said.

“Well, it’s my business to make it my argument,” Moon snapped.

“And how is that?” Snowstar raised an eyebrow.

“Well, since no one else is bothering, I’m making it mine.”

“Stop arguing,” Ash sighed. “Everyone sit down, and stay cool. Breathe in, and out.” Snowstar snorted as she heard the last part, and I scowled at her. I had to agree with Ash. Fighting wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

“We already are,” muttered Moon darkly. I had no doubt that she was talking about the statement ‘breathe in, and out’.

“Autumn’s right, we will need to know extras,” Thunder agreed. Everybody looked at him with surprise, besides me, of course. I had turned back to my diagrams and only vaguely heard what he said next. “What? I do care about my studies, you know. And not just about food.” Robin groaned as Thunder mentioned food, and massaged his stomach. I rolled my eyes.

“Just sit down, Autumn,” Sunset said, “No need to stand.”

“Anyways,” I said, calling the attention back to myself so I could properly explain the mission. “We’re going to steal books from the library. So everyone, take a look at the charts and diagrams I drew for today’s mission. Here are the powders we are going to use,” I ordered. Then we all split the powder. I set out eight glasses with exact measurements on the table. Then, I filled the glasses up with water I had prepared earlier, shook the powder, then let go and watched it drift into the cup.

“Everyone, come and take a glass of water. Be careful and don’t spill any, or you won’t have enough to last,” I ordered. We all disappeared, but we could still just barely see each other. Our outlines were the most visible. It took me a long time to come up with the proper ingredients. Several years, in fact, with help- a lot of help- from other books and my friends- and a lot from Poppy. She was the best magic-maker of Sun-City, and although she hadn’t specifically wanted me to use it for this purpose, she had given me a nudge, all right, a couple of nudges, and a few pushes as well, in the right direction. After that much time, I was still working on it, although I wasn't particularly annoyed about that specific fact; I loved experimenting and mixing ingredients with Autumn, and sometimes Ash.

“Nice job, Jay,” Snowstar said, looking down at herself, a pale and an almost nonexistent figure. “That’s really advanced magic.” I shrugged the compliment off, saying it was nothing.

“Poppy helped me. But, of course, she didn't realize it was for this purpose,” I said.

“Come on, follow me,” whispered Moon, as we got close to the library, since she walked this way with me most often, as Moon was also a scholar. However, she preferred fighting to reading.

“It’s okay,” said Autumn.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“We not only put on invisibility powder, but transparency and soundless powder. No one can hear us, or bump into us. Only we can hear and slightly see each other.”

“Why are they all powders?” asked Thunder curiously. I shrugged. I don't really know. Then I guessed. “Maybe because it’s easy to carry?”

“Wow! That’s so cool!” Robin exclaimed.

“But what about the books we're going to get?” Sunset wondered aloud.

“Oh…. that I’m not sure about,” Autumn replied, looking at me.

“If we want a thing to become invisible, it will turn invisible. I think,” I stated aloud.

“You think?” asked Snowstar, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sure it would work, but theoretically, it wouldn’t make sense if you’re the one drinking the powder, not the thing you’re carrying, but I actually tried another spell on the powder that I think should make the thing you hold have the properties as yourself. I think. Test it if you want,” I responded. She picked up a stick, and it immediately turned paler and definitely more transparent.

“Cool!” Thunder, Snowstar, and Ash said simultaneously.

“Yes, it is. So let’s go before we waste more time.” As we drifted toward the library, we noticed that the door was bolted shut.

“Oh no! What will we do now? Should we find another entrance in?” asked Ash.

“Are you really that dumb? What do the words ‘transparency powder’ mean to you?” hissed Autumn.

“Hush! Let’s not fight now. It would break up our friendship,” pleaded Sunset, as she headed toward the bickering people.

“No! Let them fight,” Snowstar blocked Sunset’s path. When she looked curiously at Snowstar, all previous fights forgotten, she added, “Sometimes it is the only way. They’ll figure it out. I think.” She looked at me and smiled. I rolled my eyes. I preferred to talk out an argument, while Snowstar, Robin, and Thunder all preferred to fight. Moon preferred to be by herself for a few hours, or with Autumn. Sometimes our group fights were pointless.

We passed through the door, and the eight of us headed toward the forbidden part of the library.

“Just walk toward it,” I instructed. Although we had been here already, the sight still took our breaths away. The large and obviously carefully built dome was filled to the brim with books.

“How will we know which books to get?” asked Thunder.

“Yeah! There are so many to choose from!” gasped Sunset. Autumn turned and murmured a quick chant. As she did so, green magic swirled around her body. As she finished, all was silent except for the chewing sounds of Thunder and Robin’s loud crunches. It turns out that they had gotten hungry again and were eating the food that they had taken from the table this morning. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Snowstar sneak a cookie from Robin’s bag. Robin slapped her hand away, and Snowstar balled her fist and punched him in the nose. It started bleeding. Glaring at her, he tore away two strips from his shirt to stuff it in his nose. Snowstar turned away after patting him on his head, which looked weird, because Robin was a good inch taller.

“Um… what was that supposed to do?” asked Thunder, breaking the silence with his loud  chomps as well as his voice.

“Shut up!” Autumn growled. “You’re breaking my concentration!” After a few more moments of stunned silence at Autumn’s outburst, Autumn turned around and, without hesitation, walked to the left side of the library. I knew the simple spell that she was using: it was a finding spell, useful at times such as now. “Here,” she said, shoving several large healing books at Sunset. Then, she stalked over and used a nearby ladder to go up. When she found what she was looking for, she dropped it onto Robin’s head. Luckily, he caught it, or it would have passed through him and created a loud noise, most likely drawing the attention of guards outside, which, of course, we didn’t want, even though they couldn’t see us. But we had moved the ladder, and they were bound to notice that it had been moved, or wasn’t there anymore. Autumn grabbed a few more books and I caught them with my bag. Several more books fell to the ground with a soft thud, and we all looked around warily.

Suddenly, the ladder wobbled. It started swaying back and forth until finally, Autumn lost her balance and dropped like a stone. We froze in shock.  Robin was the first to recover, and he tried to catch her. I tried to conjure a cushion to block her fall, but I hadn’t really aimed correctly, and out of panic, my burst of magic ended up cushioning Robin’s fall as he tripped over Autumn’s bag. Not my best day with aiming spells. She hit the ground with a nasty crack that only we could hear. The guards didn't notice anything but Autumn was hurt, and badly.

I quickly grabbed the fallen books Autumn had sacrificed her strength for, stuffed them into my satchel, gave everyone another powder drink, and helped hoist Autumn onto Robin and Thunder’s back. In case Autumn fell, I decided to use a large board to put Autumn on and use it like a stretcher. I duplicated the board just in case they discovered it was missing, but it was only half as strong as the others that I saw there; and so was the one carrying Autumn.

Quickly, I put the two flimsy ones down and used a strong one, so nothing seemed out of place. I gave it to Robin, Thunder, and Snowstar and we paraded solemnly and silently to our cave. The powders wore off as the march and day continued. Finally, we arrived to our trusty hideout.

“Let me through,” Sunset said. She and Ash could heal the best, so they took care of Autumn while the rest of us filed out of the cave. Soon, Ash came out to tell us about Autumn’s injury. He looked very pale and worried.

“We can’t heal her. We don't know how. Her ankle and wrist are both broken, and we don’t have the right medicine and...,” he trailed off, not sure what to say.

“What?” we all asked simultaneously.

“We’ll need Jay’s help. We can’t just leave it like that. We need a cast or a splint.”

“What do you want me to do?” I questioned. What could I do was more like it.

“We need you to confirm what we think.” That was it? Okay then.

I went into the cave, with Ash following close behind. I focused and stretched my hands so that they hovered above her. I watched dark purple magic flow from my hands into Autumn. I could see no magic inside her, none at all. That was reasonable, since her magic had all gone to heal her other parts, but I had never seen it this bad before in anyone, not that I’ve examined many people. But as I reached deeper inside her, I saw a little orange magic form. I used my own magic to help it grow, until I thought it was enough. My magic subsided, and Autumn’s breathing slowed a little.

“Can you guys heal her broken ankle and wrist?” I asked, dusting my pants off.

“Yeah, but we don’t know if it will work. I think we should take her back to the palace.”

“Hey guys, you done in there?” called Snowstar from outside.

“Yeah. We’re going back to the castle,” I called back.

We set out in our formation. Snowstar and Moon in front, Robin at Snowstar’s left, and Thunder at Moon’s right. I went in the back so I could help in case Autumn fell. We left behind the wooden board, and instead used a giant net that Ash and Sunset had woven a long time ago, so it was steady. Luckily, we didn’t meet anyone and so avoided awkward questions. As we approached the castle, Moon told Thunder to carry Autumn and go to the hospital wing, or the South Tower, then go to our living room. It was underneath our bedrooms, but for some reason, still part of 'our bedroom'. Confusing, huh?

As Thunder was leaving, I called back to him.

“What?” he asked.

“I think that we should all go together, do you agree with me?” The others were nodding, so we went together to the South Tower.

“How in the name of Moonstone Galaxy did she get like this?” the nurse on duty there asked after she did an examination. “It’s a bad break. Nearly all her magic’s gone, spent trying to heal it.”

“Um…,” Snowstar said, unsure of what to say.

“Go on, tell me! There’s nothing to be ashamed of!” Clicking her tongue impatiently, she set Autumn on a sickbed, propelling her foot up into the air.

“She fell off a tree!” said Moon, a little too quickly. She had always been a fast thinker. “We wanted to have a picnic in the forest, and she climbed a tree to look for a good picnic spot, but she fell off! It took us a long time to help her get back- that’s why we’re so late.”

I gulped. That excuse was not going to work. Lunchtime was long gone. It was now late afternoon. We couldn’t have possibly taken that long to get her back. The nurse narrowed her eyes and looked at us.

“Lunchtime, eh?” she said, squinting some more. For some reason, this nurse always seemed to be squinting. Maybe some problems with her eyes. Or maybe she was just plain nosy and snobby. “You're lying, little brats. Lunch was a long time ago. It's already late afternoon.” Brats? That seemed a little harsh. She waved her hand vaguely toward the window. “In fact, you are in trouble right now. King Jim looked everywhere for you six, and Queen Poppy is frantic with worry. As for you two,” she added, as she glared at Snowstar and Robin. “What do you think you are doing with royalty, you stinking little peasants? King Jim should never had allowed you to be mixed in with royalty.” Robin and Snowstar’s fists form into a ball, and I thought, This is not good.

“They are not peasants,” said Moon, both warningly and commandingly, “but you are. For your information, they are our friends. They have every right to be with us. And if you don’t believe me, ask my mother and Queen Gem!”

Instead of being scared or annoyed, like Moon had probably expected, she started laughing. I don’t think she took us very seriously, since we were only twelve, but she wasn’t scared at all at the thought of talking to people with so much power, which is the complete opposite of what I would have done.

“Ask Queen Gem?” she asked, laughing so hard tears began to form in her eyes. “As if Queen Gem would have the time to question me!” Doubling over, she started choking.

“Excuse me,” asked a cold voice. “I believe that I have every right to question the well-being of my nephews, nieces, daughters and son of my savior, and their best friends.” Queen Gem stood in the doorway, looking like a demon in her anger. The nurse cowered in fear. “I also want to know why you didn’t send them to me directly, like I requested everyone to do,” she continued, frowning. “You will be punished, of course, and fired immediately from your work. I shall have another, more trustworthy nurse come tend to Princess Autumn, and I’m sure that my brother and my sister-in-law will agree with me.” She stressed the word ‘princess.’

“All of you, follow me,” she commanded, so my sister and brother, and friends, not including Autumn, who stayed behind, still unconscious and lying on a bed, and the nurse followed her as she walked down the hall to the Throne Room. The trails of her long, pink gown made a swishing sound and our footsteps echoed down the long hallway. As she walked, her dress billowed out like a flower. I accidentally almost tripped over it. It wasn’t my fault! The dress just swept up from under me and I nearly fell. Ash grunted slightly as he caught me and helped me up.

“Thanks,” I whispered, my eyes never leaving Gem’s retreating back. Soon we entered the throne room, where there were four thrones. Only the tallest one, the third from the left, was occupied.

“Jim? I found them,” she said to the person sitting on the throne. Sitting down on the slightly smaller throne on the right of King Jim, she stared down at us all, frowning. Uh oh.

“Guys, bow down,” Moon whispered. As was the custom, we knelt down on our knees, keeping our heads down until we heard the word ‘rise’, spoken by the King almost immediately. Our father was not one to linger about in a situation like this. Luckily. At least we never had to wait.

“For the nurse, or if I can call her that, shall be thrown into jail immediately. I want full loyalty from my subjects. You have disobeyed direct orders from your ruler and laughed at the heirs to the throne. I will not look weak by letting you free. Guards!” he called suddenly. Two men appeared in the doorway. “Take her into jail, lock the cell, and give her food. Keep her there for two season changes.”

In Sun-City, every lock was the same. But there was only one key. No one had ever escaped, so many subjects thought that it was impossible to break in or out of jail. Except, of course, if you were let out, or if you had a time limit, like for the nurse.

The guards handcuffed her, then took the still wailing nurse by each hand and dragged her away.

“Well, that takes care of that. Now,” he said, turning his attention back to us. “Why didn’t you come when the lunch bell rang?”

“We were busy, and we didn’t hear it,” I muttered, avoiding my father's gaze.

“Oh? Surely not busy enough to avoid lunch?” he said as he raised an eyebrow.

“We brought lunch with us,” murmured Sunset quietly, which was half-true. Robin and Thunder did bring enough food to keep us full until the evening meal.

“Is that so?” Jim asked us again. “You could have, at the very least, told us.”

“We’re very sorry, your majesty,” Robin said. “It won’t happen again.”

“Seeing as I can’t really punish you…,” Jim’s voice trailed off.

“Thank you, King Jim, for not punishing us,” Thunder said. He was, as always, quick to judge others, usually by one or two sentences.

“Quiet! I did not say I wouldn’t punish you. However, you will be confined to your room for the next few days. Your room will be searched for any offending items that I wish you not to have. You may leave.”

We obediently left, after bowing once again to Gem and Jim, following the path to the tower. I wasn’t worried, however, even if my friends, brothers, and sisters were. The guards would not be able to find our secret potions and books. Those wouldn’t appear unless one of us wanted it to. This was because our room used to belong to a group of very well-trained Magic Makers. They had a high security. The secret room they had also built was just underneath the staircase, and it was pretty small, so we used it as a storage room. Thankfully though, this confinement to our room would allow us to study the books Autumn had gotten for us in our trip to the library.

“Should we have some food sent up for us?” asked Robin. “We really should eat, you know. You guys haven’t eaten anything yet since breakfast, and it’s nearly time to eat the evening meal.” I noticed that he had said 'you guys', and not 'us', probably since he and Thunder had eaten a lot at the library.

We nodded, so he sent a bell ringing, and soon, a boy came up to deliver the snacks Robin had ordered. We sat there almost in complete silence, eating the food. At least, being the heirs to the throne, no one ever kept you waiting with trivial matters like food. Night fell, and complete darkness was all that you could see outside the window. Finally, Ash broke the silence.

“I’m going to sleep,” he yawned. “It’s been a long day.” I hadn’t realized that I was tired until now, what with so many different things going on. Everyone else, including the girls nodded, so we went up to our separate bedrooms. Without bothering to change my clothes into clean ones, I practically leaped into bed. I quickly rearranged the blankets and pillows, then lay down. Almost as soon as my head touched the pillow, I felt my eyes begin to close. There was no need to read tonight, I thought as I yawned one last time.