Don't even think about it
I was running as fast as I could to the place where the portal is, and I'm fully prepared for Captain trying to intervene.
Come to think of it, when we first discovered it, I was truly scared, since it all looked dark and scary in the portal room. Juliette had to promise me that nothing bad would happen if we went inside, alongside the others, but as soon as we did, it turned into my worst nightmare. After a whole week of eating chocolate and hugging my teddy bear under my bed, while mom rubbed circles on my back as I was about to go to sleep, I finally calmed down enough to try it again and this time it was much better.
The second dimension was Wonderland, and I could not believe that we were actually there. Alyssa was obviously Alice, while I and my sister took the role of the weird twins which I cannot remember the names of; but we had so much fun there that I wanted to go travel through dimensions again and again. Sometimes we ended up in a scary dimension, but it was expected, although sometimes it was disguised as a nice-looking one.
Then there were the ones that I adored, which were calm and nothing dangerous was coming for you if you did not go in harm's way. For example, Hogwarts, which was truly the best school I have ever gone to, or my sister's favourite, Warrior cats or Murder most unladylike (These are the ones we liked as children).
Can you see where I'm heading with this? Well, you're right if you guessed that the portal could turn any book into a dimension; even better, if you guessed what I'm going to do with this knowledge.
I stopped midway to catch my breath because even though the building is relatively close to my house, it was still enough to make me exhausted. I looked up from my crouched position, straightened up to my full height of 5'10, and smiled upon seeing that Captain is nowhere nearby. 'Looks like it's my lucky day.' I thought as I took a few steps towards the entrance.
"Don't even think about it, Lucas." I heard an irritated voice behind me. When I turned around, I saw Captain with his hands folded on his chest and he did not look happy at all. More specifically, my friend Miles Lippert, who everybody accepted as the leader of our group. There was no vote or whatever, it just came naturally. The wind was playing with his light brown hair, but he did not seem to mind, as his cold blue eyes were looking at me as if he wanted to take me by my ear and drag me back to my house, though I highly doubt that he won't do that any time soon.
"Captain," I said, putting on an act. "What are you doing here? You're not going to the portal, are you?" I said as if I did not intend to do the same. "Stop acting, Alyssa already told me everything."
'Dammit, Lissy, why did you have to snitch on me?' I muttered under my breath. "Fine, I was going to the portal, happy?" I scoffed, crossing my arms the same way he had. "Very, but let's stop the act, shall we?" Miles said and smiled. 'Wait, I know that fox-like smile, don't tell me that she tricked me again.' I thought as the boy in front of me turned into a twenty-something woman with dark orange hair and green eyes that always reminded me of pine trees. She started laughing at my dumbfounded expression and it kind of ticked me off.
"Stop it, Spottedleaf, just because you can turn into other people in this world doesn't mean that you can scare me like this!" I yelled, embarrassed and she put her index finger to her lips. "Shh, it's night-time, you don't want to wake the whole neighbourhood, do you?" she asked in a hushed tone, and I put a hand over my mouth. Spottedleaf smiled, making her show her teeth with fangs. One could mistake her for a vampire if they saw this, but she's nothing cool like that; she's just a regular fox that could turn into a human.
"Well, back to the topic," she said, and I felt relieved before she added: "but I could tease you because your reactions are adorable." I wanted to say something, but she got the hint and motioned with her hand for me to follow her. We came to the entrance of the kindergarten -yes, you heard right, a kindergarten, that's where the portal is- and pulled out her key.
"Juliette was the one who told on you, by the way, not Alyssa." Spottedleaf commented when the door swung open. "Geez, she thinks that I'm still a toddler or something." I rolled my eyes as we walked through the hallway. "She just wants you to be safe, besides, I'll just watch over you in case somebody wants to kill you or something, I'm not at the age to be all mother-like, saying things like: 'Don't climb that tree, you'll fall.' 'Don't jump in the mud, you will get dirty.' Seriously what's with that." She said, annoyed.
We finally got to the door labelled Storage room, which looked as dull on the outside as it did on the inside, but a good eye could spot a red curtain in the back of the room. Strangely enough, it always looked as if it was brand new, even though it was hanging there for more than a decade.
I pulled the curtain aside, letting the light fall on the stairs hidden behind it. They led down to thick darkness, that could scare even the toughest person, but we hadn't even flinched, since we were used to it. Both of us pulled out our flashlights and I motioned towards the staircase. "Ladies first."
"Oh, thank you very much, young man, you really are a gentleman," Spottedleaf said in an old lady voice and we both chuckled as we started descending. "What are you, sixteen, Leafy?" I asked and she waved her hand in the air. "I am - that is if you don't count those ten years you left out."
We got to the bottom of the stairs, turned the handle on the door, leading to where we were heading, and finally got to the portal room. "Well, lover boy, go put in the code, and let's save that boyfriend of yours." Spottedleaf said as she leaned on a wall, her lips curling into a smile she tried to hide." "You-he-he's not my boyfriend!" I yelled and turned around to meddle with the mechanism so she wouldn't see the blush that spread on my face. It was just from shame, I swear.
The chuckle behind me signalled that she did notice. "Done, let's go," I informed her and wanted to enter the portal hole -which lit up with dark blue mist filling it- but Spottedleaf's voice held me in place for a little longer. "Wait, who are you going to be?" She asked, curious, and I smiled, thinking my decision was brilliant. "Prince of the Moonlit kingdom, Frellius."
"I see that you've chosen very well." We exchanged mischievous looks before I dashed into the portal with her closely behind.
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As I opened my eyes, I found myself laying on a liberty-blue bed, the moonlight from outside, seeping through the curtains, indicating that it was nighttime over here as well. 'Seems like we have good timing.' I thought as I got up from the laying position and Spottedleaf woke up on a sofa in the corner of the room, dressed as one of the servants.
I, on the other hand, was dressed in a silver-looking robe that ended by my knees and I bet that it was made from silk.
"Perfect landing, huh?" She asked. "Definitely, and as you can see, Frellius likes expensive things, but we need to change quickly because if I'm guessing right, this is the night when the Sherwood gang will try to rob the royal chest." I thought as I changed into more appropriate attire with a snap of my fingers. "Could you explain that please? We're not all bookworms like you. Oh, and btw, what the heck is that guy, Robin hood?" She commented with a chuckle. I mock-frowned at her and began explaining the lore of this world.
"Right, so, Sebastian's parents were the ones who made Moonlit kingdom and Sunshine kingdom enemies, because Sebastian's father is an older brother of the king of Sunshine kingdom and was supposed to be crowned as the king, but their father denied him that right, saying that he would only cause damage and despair. It was also the wish of the Sun goddess, the one who was worshipped by everybody there, thus nobody dared to complain.
"And so Galex II. -his younger brother- sat on the throne, his wife, Raphaella, beside him, and after a year or so, she gave birth to a boy called Angelo, which yes, that's the main protagonist of the story.
"Well, back to the problem, Sebastian's dad, who was mentioned only three times in the book so far and doesn't even have a name. But like, maybe it's because I have not read it to the end." I trailed off and Spottedleaf snapped her fingers in front of me.
"I need to stop rambling, get it. So, he sent a letter to the Moonlit kingdom- mere two months before Angelo was born- saying, that he was declaring war on them and signed it with his brother's name. He did the same thing with his brother, acting shocked when he was delivered "the news". The problem is that those two used to be good friends and Galex wanted to talk it out, but Sebastian's father burned that letter, sending a fake reply from the king of Moonlight kingdom, Jenesiel, refusing to meet up. It is not known what was written in it, but it was enough to enrage the king, gather his army, and in a month meet his ex-friend on the battlefield. Jenesiel tried to argue with him but received insults instead of wise words.
"Well, while the war was happening, the queen was appointed to rule until her husband would return. The sad thing was, that Galex was killed on the battlefield, and he never returned home to meet his son. Raphaella tried to stay strong, but when she gave birth to Angelo, the queen did not have enough strength to rule the kingdom and take care of a son, who looked so much like her deceased spouse, so she handed the throne over to Sebastian's dad, who planned this from the beginning...somehow.
"A month in with him ruling the kingdom, the queen went to speak to him, enraged because she had found the letters Sebastian's dad wrote and recognized his handwriting - again, a big plothole because Galex should have recognized it too, but didn't-. He thought that nothing bad would happen to him, since he was the king but oh, was he wrong. The queen let him be beheaded alongside his wife, thanks to the help of her knights and servants. But Raphaella took pity on his son, seeing that he was only five years old, and she also had a child of her own, thus she understood he was innocent.
"Sebastian was told to run and never return and so he did. Nobody knows what happened to him after that, but we could assume that he travelled to the Moonlit kingdom and met his gang there.
"Now we switch to our main protagonist, Angelo. So, when he was seven, Angelo somehow met Frellius, who was three years older than him, in the middle of the woods when he was running from some of the bad people that knew Sebastian's father and wanted to take 'revenge' for their leader. Because of their friendship, the two kingdoms became friends again.
"More years later, when he grew up to be a man, Sebastian became the leader of bandits, who were known all across the kingdom. He cared for only one person and that was his adoptive mother, who sheltered him when he needed it because everybody else turned their back on him. He planned to steal all of Moonlit's kingdom's money from the king's chest, but the problem was, that they were caught since it was a trap made by the protagonist, Angelo, and his best friend Frellius, which is currently me. They knew about each other before this event, because they were the only ones who could rival Angelo's and Frellius' powers-or more specifically, Sebastian could-because not so many people could summon light or dark powers.
"Btw, canonically, dark powers aren't the sign of evil and vice versa." I trailed off before I noticed that I was rambling.
"Ahem, the king, Jenesiel, almost immediately recognized that- after taking his mask off- Sebastian looked exactly like his dead friend's brother, and being overwhelmed, he handed his fate into the hands of his son, telling him his observation, which was not known to Angelo up until now. It was a shock for him to hear that the guy he was fighting against for almost a year was the son of the asshole who took his dad away from him. Thus you can guess that it wasn't the right decision, because Angelo felt wronged since he never got to meet his dad, thanks to Sebastian's father. He felt that if Sebastian died, he would finally be relieved and so he asked Frellius to let him be beheaded and- because they were friends and he only knew the bad things about Sebastian and thought that he was exactly the same as his dad- Frellius agreed, causing Sebastian to end just like his father, beheaded.
.
"Spoiler alert: It did not help Angelo feel better about his father's death." I ended the explanation and Spottedleaf looked puzzled. "Dude, you explain things as if we had stopped the time, which I very kindly did when I heard footsteps in the hallway." She said and I groaned. "Sorry, Leafy, I can't help it." I apologized and she patted my head. "It's ok but tell me what to do now."
"Alright, please return to that sofa and pretend you're asleep. From what I read, somebody will come and check if everybody is asleep because they think that we all swallowed the pills that one of Sebastian's subordinates slipped in the tea." I said and she nodded. "Oh, by the way," I said, and she paused because she already wanted to make time flow again. "That servant is you, so I guess that you chose well, too?" I questioned. "Oh, that does give us an advantage." She smiled a fox-like smile and went to lie down just like she was told to. "Then goodnight, young prince." Spottedleaf said and the time started flowing again.
The last thing I heard, before closing my eyes, was a faint creak of the door.