The Mysterious Longhouse

My body was shaking as usual. It's what happened last time right. Except, I was inside a bedroom. I felt the pillows and comforter of the bed. I blinked a few times and saw an orb in front of me—wait—was I back home?!

No.

The orb was dressed as some man with a snowball head. He wanted to join us on the adventure. After all, he can do four-hundred things at a time. "Kai!" McKayla shouted. She hugged me, and broke a bone...I was just joking. "Kai, meet Orbix," she said. Then she went closer and whispered, "Also, it's the orb." I knew it by the time I saw him. He had a snowball face with a dad cap, with a big coat with pants and brown shoes. No orbal is like that—at all. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked. The Orb or Orbix's head was all the way pink. "This is someone's room," she said.

"So you literally went into a random person's property?"

"Ummm, yes?" Orbix said. He can talk...wow. We heard footsteps coming our way. "We gotta move now," I said. An old woman opened the door. Beneath her sunglasses, I knew she was scared. She got a lamp and ran towards us.

"Run!" McKayla shouted. We jumped out the window. Whoever knew that a grandma could be so protective. She got a shotgun and started firing. "Oh my Lord, help me!" I shouted. Orbix shot his hands dummishly out and there was a Lamborghini Urus. "Inside!" I shouted. He went into the back. I went into the passenger seat. McKayla obviously went into the driver seat. We started vrooming off in full speed.

"All right, where do we need to go to return the Orb?" McKayla said. Orbix walked to us and got out a map. He pointed to it many times. "So where are we?" I

asked Orbix. He got a phone which showed us heading there. We just had to turn to the right. "So when do we turn?" I asked him. We all looked upfront, and we were in the middle. "So....what do we—" A car crashed into us. We flipped like rubber duckies and grunted like squabbling chickens. Then, we landed onto our feet, the car's feet. "Well, we turned," said McKayla. "So it leads us to a longhouse. Not too bad right." Orbix didn't think so.

He started messing with his hands, showing creatures with wings and lions with two heads with mega eagle wings. I gulped. "Um, what exactly are we even

doing there?" He shaped a house, and pointed to the GPS. "Map house?" I said. Orbix kept doing the same thing.

"Maps of Houses?"

"Houses of Maps?"

"GPS house?!"

We didn't seem to get it right. McKayla's eyes raised. "They are the only ones who can give us a mythical map to home. Well, technically we have to kill them to get the mythical map."

"They're not easy. An orb weapon is just as vulnerable." I sighed.

Orbix walked into the wall. He bumped into it again, and again, and again. "Move the other way!" I shouted. He walked backwards and fell. I smacked my head in laughter. We weren't gonna make it alive. We reached our destination, I guess. Because, nothing was there. "Um, where's the longhouse?" I said. Orbix didn't move. "Hello!!" I shouted. We dragged him out of the van. He started walking. He didn't know where he was going, and then—he fell. "No!" I shouted. "How am I supposed to return the orb at this rate?!"

McKayla jumped into the hole. "No, wait!" I shouted. I dived into the hole too. Inside, there happened to be water. "This feels nice," I said. I don't think Orbix is feeling that way, because he was just drowning down into the water. "Someone, catch him!" McKayla shouted. I swam inside the water. You see, in orbschool, it's a requirement to swim. I thought it was useless—until now.

We all made it to save Orbix. And a door with certain picture hieroglyphics was there. "What is that?" I said.

McKayla looked closer. "It's a sentence." Did I ever tell you that McKayla was good at interpreting a bunch of hieroglyphical nonsense? Maybe not. "It says, 'many lives are on the line, whoever slays thee gets the fine,'" McKayla translated.

"Do we get money or something?"

"No, the money is the map."

Orbix started nodding. "Can he speak?" I asked. I looked at him. He nodded. He pressed the middle of his chest. But a bunch of bubbles was coming out of his mouth.

"Let's just open it," I said. McKayla went forward and put her hand on it. She started making shapes of the pictures and symbols with her fingers. The door opened, and it swallowed us up. Weird. The place was dark and a bit windy too. A bunch of voices were heard. "Aren't you guys kind of scared about this?" I asked. Orbix wiggled his head and McKayla nodded instead. "Can you make us a torch or something?" I asked.

Orbix fell flat onto the floor. A torch appeared in our hands. He got up and he fell again. What is wrong with this snowball head? He got up, and he fell again. Suddenly,

he got some sword out, and cut something. It sounded so slimy and wiggly. "What is that?" McKayla uttered. "Come, Kai."

"I'll rather stay here."

"Stop being such a baby."

"You know how much I hate slimy and wiggly stuff!"

I stayed where I was at.

"While we're young, Kai!" she shouted. All of a sudden, something was coming out of the water crack. A big head was seen and a few tentacles. Octopus.

"Run!!!" I shouted.

The octopus chased us and it crashed into walls and the ceilings fell. "How are we possibly gonna get away from this ugly creature?!" I shouted.

"Talk to God then!"

Swords appeared in our hands. I stopped. "Guys! You need to continue on. I'll keep him away!"

"No!" McKayla shouted. "Please, don't go!"

"Move!"

She ran away, with a sword still in her hand. I looked at the octopus. "You are a very big octopus. I see that," I said. The octopus breath rained on me. "But, with the power of this orb sword—thingy. I must—"

The octopus smacked me. I crashed into the wall. I got up, and wiggled while doing it. "You seem pretty strong, for an octopus," I stammered. Did that even make sense?" The octopus pinned to the wall I just crashed at. It's slimy tentacles slithered around my neck. My neck started to feel more pressed. The slime started to slither around my neck and made my cheek drenched with it. I got my sword and slashed his tentacles. The octopus roared. Weird. Very weird.

I jumped from the wall behind me. I leaped heading right to the back.

The octopus swung its "arms" at me. I slashed it and another sword appeared in my other hand. Tentacles were slashed and I landed at his head. His head! I was supposed to go to his back. I climbed—touching his slimy eyes and skin—and stabbed him. The octopus shouted. I got on his back and he zoomed. My legs were in the air shaking like I'm bullriding. "Jesus!!!!" I shouted.

I held onto the ears. My fur was shaking like crazy. I needed to stab him in the heart. And I definitely don't know where the heart of an octopus is. I stabbed every space where it was at. The octopus stopped. I flew off the creature, hitting myself on the wall—again. The octopus started turning gray, which is very unnatural—even with humans. I looked at the octopus, terrified. The color began to surround the body, and it's eyes stayed open. I breathed heavily and sighed. "Oh my lord."

I managed to catch up to McKayla and Orbix. They didn't look so well. They were tied up in rope in a furnace.

"Hey—!"

McKayla hushed me quietly. "Anyway to get outta here?"

"Does it look like I know?!"

"I don't know, maybe you're good at these things."

I was very good at traps when I was little. Not freeing someone else's traps. "Well, who trapped you guys?" I asked them. They pushed their heads to the left. The lion with the wings trapped.

"Why didn't he eat you guys instead?" I asked.

"Does it look like we want him to eat us?!"

"No, it's just…nevermind, I'll—"

I ended up seeing myself with a claw through my chest. I fell down on the floor, breathing heavily. I screamed softly in pain. "Kai!" McKayla shouted. She started shaking the rope, and Orbix's head started to melt. I went onto my knees, and I stuck my sword on the ground. Blood splattered onto the floor, my own blood. I raised my sword and slit the wing. The lion roared and bit my arm. I screamed more louder than needed. Then, I saw the lion begin to bounce. It was McKayla, and I was so grateful.

I saw blood drop from my stomach and my arm was bleeding very badly. I was dizzy. I started to fall onto my knees and breathe my last breaths. "Kai!" McKayla said.

I managed to look up. "Stab it in the eye!" she shouted. But, her voice sounded so distorted. I was dying and Orbix's head was at the point of it not being Orbix anymore. The lion was close to my face. I weakly raised the sword. "Stab it if you can!" she shouted. I crawled closer to the lion and stabbed the lion's eye. He started turning gray, like the other one. Then, it turned into dust withering away. "So, where's the map?" I asked.

"Orbix!"

Orbix was not in good shape. I mean, literally, not in good shape. McKayla leaped to where she was trapped. She cut

the rope and held Orbix's head. So he was practically rescued safely. A blue flashing light appeared on my hand, and it was—the map. I leaped in joy, and I fell. I probably shouldn't have done that. I got up, and all I could see was grass. McKayla looked around. "Where are we?" Orbix shot out a MPV van. It was the Honda Odyssey. We got into the car and McKayla was driving like always. Orbix got himself a new snowball head and was taking care of my arm.

"Am I gonna die?" I asked him. He shook his head. I breathed heavily. "You're gonna be fine," McKayla inserted. "It's just—where are we going to go next?"

She looked at the GPS and took a far-up shot of the quest. "I don't see anything."

"Because you're looking at the wrong map." I handed the map to her. "Oh yeah," she mumbled. "So we next have to go to—RHL?"

"Robots to Help you in Life."

"Then they should've put RTHYIL."

"To, you, and in never count in abbreviations."

McKayla jested, "So, that's supposed to be—a robot factory?"

"It is perhaps true that they are trying to make robots."

McKayla nodded. For some reason, red and blue lights were reflecting on the mirror. "It can't be," I said. McKayla looked at her mirror. "Police and some other weirdo."

"Captain Dice."