Issue #6-Chapter 9: The Stranger, Part 1

"Is she the one?" I asked when staring at her.

"Why, of course, she is," the stranger answered. "She's wearing the crystal necklace. She has to be the one!"

Thinking about the crystal necklace and Melonia, more questions were forming inside my mind: was she the missing princess all along? Or was it someone else? Then I was thinking about the woman from my dream. Could that be Melonia? Would she be kidnapped? I just hope not. I would be ashame if that would be the case.

I turned back to the stranger. "Hey, I think I've seen that necklace before. But what does the crystal necklace make her a princess?"

The stranger raised his eyebrow back at me. "Were you raised in a cave or something?"

"You see, Mike," Gideon explained with his hand on my shoulder. "In this world of Mysteria, only the royalty wears crystal necklaces. They contain special powers."

The stranger gave Gideon and I his confused look on his face. "Wait a minute." He pointed at me. "He's not from this world?"

"No, not at all," Gideon said, "He came from Ashville, Texas."

"Ashville, Texas?" The stranger looked me in the eye. "I've never heard of a place."

"She's getting away," Gideon warned when he pointed at the missing princess. The stranger and I saw her cast a magic spell on the wall and the hole formed itself into a square.

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" The stranger asked. "No time to chit chat. Let's go after her!"

"Right!" Gideon and I agreed as we and the stranger went after her.

The missing princess turned around and checked for any more incoming person while we hid behind the corridor and peeked from there. After a while, she turned around and sighed quietly, taking a deep breath, leaving the kingdom for the woods.

"Alright, she's leaving. Let's go," I said.

"Right!" Gideon and the stranger agreed as we snuck our way towards the princess.

"Look, I have a plan on how to capture the princess," the stranger whispered while he viciously smiled at her without us noticing it.

Gideon and I turned to him.

"Yea? What is it?" I asked in a low voice.

"You two distract her while I sneak around her in the woods and capture her from behind," the stranger explained.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Uh, how are you going to do that? She's clearly taller than you are."

"Simple, I'll use my magic spell on her to capture her back into the kingdom, like I did with the uglier one earlier. What do you say?"

"Oh, alright. I don't see why this plan wouldn't work," I finally understood him and Gideon shook his head in agreement there.

Once we exited the kingdom as well, the stranger shook his head at us and headed into the woods. After we shook our heads back at him though, the stranger stepped on a tree branch on the ground and broke it, creating a cracking noise behind the missing princess.

"Huh?!" The missing princess asked when she quickly turned around. She aimed her palm at us while it was glowing white.

She saw us standing there and crossed our arms, giving us her serious face. "And just who are-?" The moment she looked me in the eye, she gasped all the sudden. "You!"

I recognized that woman's face. It was Melonia. Melonia was the missing princess and the woman from my dreams all along. "Melonia? Is that you?" Now I needed to hurry up and capture her back into the kingdom, before she gets kidnapped by that monster.

Melonia glared at me and pointed her palm at me and Gideon. "It was you from earlier. What are you doing here?!"

Gideon smirked at Melonia. "Well then. You must be Melonia. Mike told me all about you. It's a pleasure meeting you."

"Hi…Gideon..." Melonia said, sounding like she was annoyed or something.

Now I didn't care what her reasoning was for running away from her castle, all I cared about was getting out of poverty and nothing else mattered to me as far as I was concerned. "We're here to take you back to your castle, so that"-I pointed at me and Gideon-"us two can get some money to get out of here, lady princess."

Melonia then glared at us even further. "Oh? Is that so? Is that why you saved my life, Mike? Is that why you've been following me?! Well, I'll make sure you and Gideon will never, ever get me and take me back to that castle."

The stranger stood there and watched us chat, viciously chuckled a bit and grinning at us and her. "Excellent, now's my opportunity to kidnap the princess and take her necklace for the dark lord," the stranger said to himself when two swirls of darkness stood near and behind him, revealing themselves as demonic monsters-some were skinny, some were large, some were fat and others had wings.

"Yes, my demons, come! While I kidnap the princess, you all will attack the kingdom. Those two men here are all yours, so make the dark lord proud!" He continued when he turned to the demons.

"Yes, sire!" The demons responded as they chuckled viciously with the stranger.

"Look, little princess," I said when I began to walk towards her in my impatient voice. "If you want to-"

The princess glared at me and took a step back. "Oh, no you don't!" The white light radiated from her palm with some white swirls around her hand. "Stand back! Don't make me cast a spell on you! And trust me, you wouldn't want me to cast a spell on you!"

Then the monster's roar vibrated from the forest so loud, the entire kingdom was awakened. The princess, Gideon and I turned to the forest and moved our eyes sideways.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"It's some sort of strange beast," Gideon assumed.

Then a few seconds later, a few demonic monsters-a fat monster and a large one-jumped out from the bush and roared at us while the rest of them entered Basilia, either through the hole or climbed on the kingdom walls to terrorize the kingdom. Roaring at us, those same demons only went after Gideon and I, never the princess.