Chapter 1: The Middle of Nowhere

"Okay, Avaron! The coast is clear! No townspeople in sight!"

Avaron Moon did not respond. She depressingly slumped on a rock, looking up at the sky despairingly.

A few steps away, her younger sister, Imala Moon, studied a map carefully, wiping sweat away from her shiny forehead, despite her bonnet shielding her face from the blazing hot sun. The youngest sister, Bella Moon, with closed eyes and a cheery smile on her face as usual took in the sunshine, in the face of their current situation.

"I cannot believe this is happening to me right now!" Avaron shouted towards the cloudless blue sky. "How, oh how, did I, Avaron Moon end up out here, lost and penniless?! O Fate! Why did you let this happen to your most beloved daughter?"

"It's your fault, you know," Imala reminded her. "Just remember that."

"So what if a couple of shady business deals went sour?" Avaron reflected. "That's no reason to kick the richest and most beloved Moon outta Moonville! I'm a leader! A shining pillar of moral strength!"

"Don't you mean, the ex-richest and most beloved Moon in Moonville?" Bella corrected. "The mayor declared a holiday just so everyone could come out and see you get put into the stocks!"

Avaron's cheeks flushed red, embarrassed at the memory of humiliation that day. "Yeah, yeah…"

"C'mon, sis! Don't be sad!" Bella said. "It's a beautiful day! There's not a cloud in the sky!"

"Good point. If I don't find some shade soon, I think I'm gonna melt!" Imala said, wiping off some more sweat from her forehead.

"Hey, I'm just trying to cheer her up, okay?" Bella whispered with a serious tone in her voice.

Imala studied the map and surroundings, looking at a vast mountain range in the distance, then the map, then the mountain range. "Huh. That mountain range isn't on my map…"

Avaron's pointy ears perked up. She walked over to Imala, extending her hands. "Gimme the map."

Imala handed the map over to Avaron. Avaron buried her face into the map, frequently looking back and forth. 

"Here's your problem, Imala," she began after what seemed like the passage of a long time. "We're off the map!"

"Off the map?" Imala asked, the possibility dawning on her.

"Yeah! Hurry up and get us back on track!" 

"I can't! We're in uncharted territory!"

"I have some more bad news, sisters!" Bella announced. "We're outta water! I don't see a lotta supplies 'ere, either!

Avaron collapsed on her knees, clasping her hands around her throat as if she was being strangled. "Oh noooo! Not only am I lost and broke, but I'm gonna die lost and broke!"

Imala sat down, closing her eyes. "Alright," she decided, trying not to lose herself to panic. "Give me some time to figure out where we got lost. I can get us back to town when I do."

Imala inhaled, trying to adjust her bearings in this dire situation. The sisters, for the past two weeks, had been traveling through the forest that bordered the southwestern part of Moonville. Some two days later, they switched their directions towards the southern part; after that, they might have continued for another four days, trying to run from the angry lynch mob, and then after that was…"

"Hey, look what I found!" Bella called out. "It looks like a compass!"

Avaron jumped up. "A compass?"

She gasped excitedly upon catching sight of a shiny silhouette glistening weakly against the blazing sunlight. 

"Yes! I'm saved! Give it here!"

Bella sidestepped Avaron's beeline towards the compass.

Almost collapsing, Avaron caught her fall, throwing out her hands just in time before her face struck the ground.

"Hey! What was that for?" Avaron scolded, her impatient anger resurfacing.

Bella outstretched her hand. "Gimme a dollar first."

"What?" Avaron dropped her jaw, confused and surprised

"Gimme a dollar first," Bella repeated.

"Give me that compass!" Avaron demanded impatiently.

"C'mon Avaron, we're lost in the middle of a canyon," Imala pointed out. "Give her a dollar."

Avaron grumbled furiously, digging into her dress pocket to retrieve a dollar.

"Here!" Avaron slapped a green dollar bill into Bella's empty palm. 

Bella gave her the compass, unfazed by her sister's angry and impatient temper.

Flipping open the rusted, worn down metal cover, Avaron firmly locked her feet into place, moving the compass around in various directions.

But the needle didn't point. It was loosely boggling around, not following the pole's path.

"Hey, wait a hot minute!" Avaron said, her eyebrows angrily furrowed. "It doesn't even work! The needle isn't pointing north!"

She collapsed on her knees, the compass falling from her hands, landing on the ground with a soft metallic clang.

"I am now, utterly, hopelessly, lost." Avaron concluded, speaking as if she was about to run out of air.

"Avaron…" Imala began, trying to comfort her defeated sister.

HISSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Imala felt the sting of neck hair prick up. "What was that?"

Avaron alarmingly sprang back to her feet. "Is it the townspeople?!" she panicked. "Quick! Hide me, hide me!"

"Nope!" Bella said, looking down at the cliff. "Just a buncha snakes! Pretty cool, eh?"

Slithering up the side of the ravine, a massive horde of snakes twisted and wriggled en masse, ratting their tails, flicking their pronged tongues in and out of their mouths, seemingly sampling the sisters' fears. Their yellow eyes, glistening intimidation towards their targets frighted faces, their black slitted pupils staring through them, piercing their souls.

"RUN!" Imala cried, swiping her backpack as she stood up and began to flee.

Avaron and Bella followed suit, pumping their legs as fast as they could take them.

"Hah…hah…WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!" Avaron yelled, vaulting over a rock.

"A BUNCHA SNAKES!" Bella responded loudly, lifting up her dress to make room for her feet to run.

"Just keep running!" Imala ordered, narrowly tripping over a rock, but regaining her balance in time.

Avaron looked down. The shadow below her was getting bigger. Her heart raced as she looked back, sweating nervously. The snakes were just centimeters away from her, wiggling closer and closer at an alarming rate…

"It's getting closer-!" Avaron was quickly cut off by slippery scaly bodies wrapping their long bodies around hers, dragging her into the horde.

"Avaron!" Bella cried out, her despair quickly silenced by the snake mass dragging her in.

Imala didn't look back. She kept running, running, running, not daring to slow down or risked being pulled into the collection.

The snakes almost had her, their tongues flicking in and out excitedly, eyes glistening evilly at the prospect of catching the last of their prey.  

Imala's face froze in fear, too scared to pay attention to her surroundings. Those yellow, slitted eyes instilled in her fear she had never known, fear that pierced more than her gaze, her soul. 

Give yourself to us, those eyes seemed to command. Let us take you.

Imala's gaze quickly thawed, refusing to let the snakes take her along with her sisters.

It was too late, though.

The hot, solid-stone ground vanished beneath her feet. Gravity took over, pulling her towards the deep ravine bottom.

Imala's heart raced, her entire body quickly falling towards the bottom without steady ground to keep her upright. She was too scared, too scared to close her eyes so that she wouldn't see herself get splatted into a pancake, too scared to have her life ended in such a way.

This is it, isn't it? She contemplated, sad and scared tears welling up in her eyes. I'm going to turn into a massive splatstain in this canyon.

Poof!

For a moment, Imala was still, not moving. But then, something, no, many tiny, grainy things stung her eyes and tickled her nose.

Achoo! 

Sand flew everywhere, unearthing her face from a pile of sand. 

Imala sat upright, noticing that while she was fortunately very much alive and well, she was now at the bottom of the ravine, having landed on top of a pile of sand. 

Her sack and the compass, a few steps away from the sand pile, lay deflated and in disarray, the bag's contents having spilled out on impact.

Shaking off as much sand as she could, trying to make the prickly itch disappear, Imala stepped out of the sand pile, coughing dust. 

"Avaron? Bella?" she called out. "Where are you guys?"

There were no replies, nor any of their belongings scattered around.

Imala scooped her belongings back into her deflated backpack, and picked up the old compass.

Focusing her gaze on the crags and ledges, Imala leaped up, clutching some jagged rock. 

"Not even a day into this adventure, I get attacked by snakes, separated from my sisters, and now I have to climb my way out of this ravine!" Imala fumed, precariously placing her foot on a medium sized crack. "Thanks, Avaron. You and your con artist ways…" she paused to pull herself up the wall. "...are always getting us into all sorts of trouble!"

At long last, she hoisted herself up to the top. She pulled herself to the top, rolling over, tiredly sprawling out her arms and legs like a rag doll.

There wasn't time to rest though. Upon sitting up, she immediately noticed that there was sand blanketing the ground as far as her eyes could see. Dry, withered clusters of plants rolled idly by, the wind pushing them along. This wasn't the sandy orange canyon she was in a few hours ago.

Uh-oh. Did I climb up the wrong side of the ravine? Imala realized.

"Avaron?! Bella?! Where are you guys?!" Imala called out into the deep ravine.

But then, something on the ground caught her eye. A small, pinkish blob lay discarded in the sand, covered in dull yellow dust.

Imala picked it up, feeling the wrinkly, wet surface of the blob. "Bella's gum," she muttered, recognizing the blob. "So you are still alive. And knowing you…"

Imala studied the open area carefully. She then spotted another pink blob laying discarded on the ground a few feet away. "Just as I thought." She discarded the gum.

I just hope Bella doesn't run out of gum before I find her, she thought, taking a deep breath before the open yellow blanket in front of her.

She then walked forward, out into the open, out into the unknown.

Unknown to Imala, in the skies above her, a figure intently observed her. He gazed down at her, with a studious and worried look. 

"Imala Moon…" the figure muttered. "You and your sisters have come at a bad time…You must prepare for a great conflict…for the three of you are the catalysts for it…"