Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🦁The Usurper from the Wild🦁 Chapter 22

While the two were sleeping, the mirror glows, ripples forming as a picture forms in her dreams.

(The smell of...earth?) Angel thinks as she opens her eyes, seeing that she is inside of a cave, with the lion from before laying on his back on a rock and...a bird inside a...cage? Upon closer inspection, it looks like the skeleton remains of a ribcage, making Angel shudder at the idea. The bird is moving, thankfully to Angel's relief since she didn't want to see a dead bird in her dream, trying to get out of the impromptu cage.

"Oh Zazu, do lighten up and sing something for me with a little bounce in it," the lion says as he looks at his paw.

Zazu only looks at the lion and sighs. "Oh...I would never have had to do this for Mufasa."

The lion only glares at him and growls. "What? What did you say?" The lion asks as he approaches Zuzu. "I...am...the KING!" He roars.

A hyena walks into the room, with an angry expression on his face. "Hey, Boss! We got a bone to pick with you," he says to the lion.

"Scar, there's no food, no water...We're hungry!" Another hyena says, walking in with another hyena in tow, voicing her complaints to the lion named Scar.

Scar only look at the three hyenas and move to another rock in the cave, glaring at them. "What are you complaining to me for? Eat Zazu."

"I thought things were bad under Mufasa..." the male hyena whispers to the two, in which Scar overheard.

"What did you say?!" He says angrily. "Get out!"

"But we're still hungry!" The other male hyena says and the three of them walk out, giving a glare at Scar, who only glares at them back. The vision fades, leaving Angel with a thought as he looks at Scar, who only look at the hyenas' backs. (What happened to all that motivation he had before he was king...?)

Angel's eyes flutter open, waking up from the dream. She looks at her phone to see that morning is here, meaning it was time for Riddle's plan to go into fruition.

"Hey, wake up," a voice says, and Angel turns around in alarm to see that Jack is at the doorway in his P.E. uniform, which instead of red like the others was black with yellow tones, a yellow undershirt under his jumpsuit. She sees the label of "NRC 1-B11" on his left.

"Was that just a dream...?" Angel mumbles as she gets out of bed, relaxing after knowing that it's Jack who came in the dorm. How did he get here to begin with?

Grim starts to wake up, jumping at the fact that Jack is in the dorm. "Huh? What are you doin' in our dorm?"

"I'm on my morning run. Today's the day of the Spelldrive tournament, and I wanted to make sure you didn't mess everything up by oversleeping," he explains. Angel just sighs at his explanation, at least a bit thankful someone check up on her and Grim but also didn't like the fact that he called her incompetent.

"Oh! Yeah, you're right!" Grim says as he gets out of the bed. "We gotta catch the bad guys so they'll squeeze Ramshackle House into the tournament as a reward!" Grim cheers.

Angel only looks at the two with a smile. "Let's give it our best shot!" She cheers along with Grim, giving his a double high five, in which he happily obliges.

Jack only sigh at the two. "I'll see ya at the tournament ground. Don't you dare go back to sleep!" He says as he's about to leave.

"Ah, wait!" Angel says, making Jack look at her. She runs to the bathroom and comes out, something in hand. She grabs Jack's hand and open it, putting the cream he let her use in his hand. "Here. I said that I would return it. Thank you again for letting me use it."

Jack only look at the tube of cream in his hand and look at her arm, which has healed nicely since only a faint bruise is shown. Jack only rubs the back of his head, not really expecting her to return the cream. He blushes and turns away. "...Thanks." He says as he heads off, continuing his morning run. After Jack leaves the dorm, Angel looks at Grim.

"Alright, Grim. Let's do this!" She says and Grim nods as she starts her morning routine getting ready to head out. Grim heads off and leaves the girl alone, making Angel look at the mirror. A cold feeling went through her body. Nothing bad will happen...right?

At the festival grounds, three figures in black suits and grey and purple undershirts walk down the street, looking at the people walking by. "Hm, excellent attendance again this year, I'll have to check how the kiosks are doing," Azul says as he look at people stopping by stalls to buy goods and food. "After all, now that I'm head of the planning committee, we can't have merchants underreporting their sales, now can we?"

"Housewarden, everything's ready at the coliseum. They players will begin arriving in ten minutes," Jade announces to Azul.

"Jade, Floyd, excellent work," Azul praises.

"Hey, Azul, what's the deal?" Floyd asks. "Why do you have the players' procession starting at the east building this year? The paths are so clogged with attendees that it'll be real hard for the players to get through 'em!"

Azul smirks. "That was a special request from a certain client. I'm not privy to ALL the particulars."

"Ah, I understand," Jade says. "So this is related to that magic-boosting potion you were making yesterday."

"Wait, you understand WHAT? What does rerouting the players have to do with magic potions?" Floyd asks.

Jade only puts his finger to his mouth, a sly smile on his face. "Shhh. Someone might overhear us. Lower your voices."

Floyd looks at Jade and a smile breaks out. "Ooh! Is something shady about to go down?"

"That potion is only going to last for about thirty seconds. What could he possibly be plotting, I wonder?" Azul says with a slight smirk.

"Azul, you needn't feign ignorance. You know exactly what he's planning, don't you?" Jade asks amused.

"Do I? I wonder! Heh heh heh," Azul chuckles.

"Aw, come on! Tell me too!" Floyd says.

"Hee hee. And I was thinking I wanted to refurbish the lounge, so this offer came at a most opportune time, but that's enough chit-chat. Time is money! Let's go see how concessions sales are going," Azul says with Jade and Floyd following in tow, smirks on all of their faces as they anticipate what will happen.