Kingdoms

29

{Millie}

"Ow." I wince.
"Stop moving." Violet says
"Have you lost control in recently?" I ask
"Mi, you know I don't like talking about that." She says
"I know, and you know I worry about you." I wince again.
"Sorry, you're almost done." She says
"Are you sure you're ok?" I ask
"Mi, I'm fine." She says, "Can you please let it go?" I look at Donnie.
"Has she been ok?" I ask. She whimpers quietly.
"When did it happen last?" I ask
"A couple nights ago." She says
"V..."
"I'm fine Millie." She says, "You're done." I flap my wing and wince.
"It still hurts."
"Of course it's going to hurt," She says, "Your wing got ripped off and you back is all scratched up, I told you to stop touching it."
"But it hurts." I say
"It's gonna keep hurting if you keep touching it."
"I know," I say, "You don't have to mom me."
"I'm not." She says, "I'm just-"
"Worried." We both say
"Yeah, I know."
"How is Mom anyways?" She asks
"I don't know, I haven't seen her in a while." I say
"You just left her? If she forgets-"
"I didn't have a choice." I say, "I left her with someone I could trust and if I didn't her life would've been put at risk."
"When did you grow up?" She asks
"You won't know, you left." I say
"To protect you guys." She says
"From what, Vi?" I ask, "You weren't a Guardian at that point. What were you protecting us from?"
"Me." She says, "Even before I was a Guardian I was still wild."
"But you were still under control." I say
"As far as you knew." She says, "I snuck out at night and ran wild in the forest, Dad made sure we always stayed by a forest."
"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask
"Because I didn't want you to be scared." She says
"You're a year older than me." I say
"And I was seven." She says, "I don't wanna talk about this anymore."
"Do you have fangs yet?" I ask jokingly.
"I'm part animal, not vampire." She says
"So are you coming with us?" I ask
"No." She says
"But Donnie was excited to go." I say
"You don't know what Donnie is-" Donnie says something, "Well no one asked."
"Oh come on, don't you want to see the source?" I ask
"My family died because of the source." She says
"Family?"
"My pack." She says
"Well you could help us." I say
"More like put you in danger." She says, "If I loose control I could hurt you guys."
"If you lose control." I say
"When I lose control," She says, "It's inevitable."
"No it's not, Lilly loses control too and she can kinda control it." I say
"Lilly isn't more than half of every wild animal." She says, "Get some sleep."
"At least think about it." I say
"I have and I'm not going."
"Please? For me?" She sighs.
"Fine, I'll think about it."

{Callum}

"Are we all ready?" Ari asks
"Wait." Violet walks up to us, "I'm coming with you."
"Yay!" Millie says
"The second I start to lose control you guys get as far away from me as possible." She says
"Lose control?" Lilly asks
"I'm wild." She says, "Millie would be too but I got it all and now she's soft."
"I am not!" She says
"Yeah whatever, let's go." Alex says

"When do you think our copies will be back?" Shelby asks
"Hopefully not soon." I say
"Like they care about what we want." Liam says.
"Guys-" Everything goes black.

"Where are we?" We all get up and look around.
"An archery range?" Shelby says. Scott picks up the bow on the table and shoots at the three targets. After he hits the middle of the third target a door opens.
"Easy enough." Lauren says
"It always gets harder." I say. We walk into the next room, the door closes behind us.
"The door's up there." Shelby says. Will waves his hand, stairs appear leading up to the door.
"Could you always do that?" Shelby asks
"Not until recently." We walk up the stairs into the next room, everything's on fire.
"Easy, I put it out." I say
"Wait." Shelby says, she waves her hand and clouds form. Heavy rain falls and puts out the fire.
"This isn't real." Lizzie says, "There's pouring rain and we're still dry."
"That's good to know." Em says
"There's the door." We walk into the next room. Almost immediately we're showered in arrows. We duck behind a building and look at each other.
"The door's over there." I say
"As soon as we step out from behind the building we'll be shot at." Lizzie says
"Lauren, we need an illusion." Scott says. Copies of us appear and run out.
"They're gone." We run across the street and into the next door.
"Woah." Em says, "That's a lot of code." The walls of the room are lined with strands of code. We all look at Liam.
"Write a code to open the door." He walks up to one of the walls and types something in. The door opens. As soon as we walk into the next room the door closes.
"It's a timed door." Will says. We all look around.
"There's no way to open it again." Shelby says
"There's a clock." I say. Em draws a symbol and actives it. The clocks goes back and the door opens.
"Hey you did it!" Shelby says. We walk into the next room, wolves appear around us, ready to jump on us.
"Lizzie please do something!"
"We're not going to hurt you." She says. One of them says something.
"I can't understand them." She says
"So they can't understand you." Scott says, "So how do we get out of here?"
"All of the other rooms required one of our powers or skills to get through." Lauren says, we back into the wall.
"If it's not Lizzie then it's Callum." Scott says
"Fire, the element of destruction."
"That means we have to kill them..." Lizzie says
"Just remember, they're not real." I wave my hand, all the wolves disappear.
"At least we didn't have to watch them die." Will says. We walk through the door the wolves we guarding and look around the room. There's a door, a small hole, and a bunny.
"Hey little bunny." Lizzie says. The bunny looks up at her, "Can you go through that hole and open the door for us?" The bunny says something.
"There's a carrot up there." Scott points up to a ledge. Shelby flies up, gets the carrot, and gives it to the bunny. The bunny takes in and hops through the hole, the door opens.
"Thanks bunny." Lizzie says. We look around the room, there's seven doors.
"Embers, Blooms, Bolts, Shadows, Phantoms, Rays, and Waves." Shelby reads
"The other Guardians." Em says.
"Everyone take a door." Lizzie says. I stand in front of the door labeled Embers.
"There's only seven." Lauren says. Scott stands next to Lauren.
"There's only three Phantoms." Scott says
"And Chase is a Phantom." Lauren teases
"You're the worst." The doors open, we all walk through.