The youngest wizard in twisted wonderland

Chapter 18: Curious traditions!

Note: I DO NOT OWN TWISTED WONDERLAND: DISNEY!

A/N: Hello dear readers! After this chapter, I won't be able to update for a while again, since university has started and I need to focus on my studies. I'll update during my next break and stay safe, everyone!

Chapter 18: Curious traditions!

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Deuce concentrates on his pen and points at a white rose. "Red, red...There! Gaaaaaah! It turned blue..."

Grim glares at the one beside it, "Change colour...take that!" he says but the roses burst into flames instead. "Gyaaaa! The roses are on fire."

We all help to put out the fire, with Ace and Cater grabbing buckets of water.

Once the fire was put out, Cater twirls a lock of his hair: "You guys are really bad at this, worse than I could've imagined."

Ace gives Cater an annoyed look."Aren't the roses fine being white? They're pretty as they are."

"This is our tradition. Roses are red for the Unbirthday Party and we use flamingoes in seven different colours for croquet with hedgehogs as balls. But, y'know, the spring garden concert of the flowers uses white roses. That's an important point, too," Cater explains patiently to these newcomers.

Grim grumbles under his breath: "Those are all strange rules!"

Cater shrugs and speaks casually, "They say these rules were all decided by the Queen of Hearts from the Great Seven. Riddle is particularly passionate about following the rules compared to other strict dorm leaders. Though... I won't deny he goes too far sometimes..."

Ace's eyes widen to the point of almost popping out of their sockets, while pointing at his collar of punishment: "You think?!!!! I don't have time for this nonsense. I want to speak to the dorm leader. Is he inside?"

"Hm? I think there's still time before he leaves... By the way, Ace the tart thief, did you bring a tart of apology?"

"Ah? No, I came first thing... So I came empty-handed..."

"Aaaah noo. Is that so?"

"Wait Cater, don't tell me that is also part of a rule, is it?" I ask hesitantly.

He nods: "That means that he's going against laws of the Queen of Hearts, Number 53: 'One must return what they stole.' I can't let you in the dorm."

"Haa? The hell is that!?" exclaims Ace.

Cater's carefree smile changes immediately to a serious expression: "I'll lose my head too, if I knowingly let you in, while you're not obeying the rules. I feel bad, but you need to leave before Riddle notices."

With those words, Cater pulls out his magic pen and points it at us.

"Woah, his face got serious! Guys, help me out!" pleads Ace.

"Why do I have to?" protests Deuce.

"Please! I can't use magic right now... Wahh, here he comes!" Ace cries out before dodging a fireball.

I instinctively grab my candlestick, but come up empty. Oh right, Principal Crowley has yet to repair my candle stand. It's time to improvise. So I look around me to look for a long and strong tree branch. It didn't take long. Every tree branch in this magical garden is long and strong. I pick one up and call out to Grim: "I am ready! Do your thing!"

It turns out that Grim has other fire weapon variations under his belt. When he starts blowing a powerful cloud of fire, I know that my use of the tree branch as a baseball bat would not work this time around. Instead, I hurl it into the stream, transforming it into a fiery arrow that will ignite its target into a fiery ball of destruction. Good thing that there are a lot of these branches lying around.

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An hour into the battle, I collapse on the floor in exhaustion. Even though Grim and I would manage to knock Cater out with our fire weapon, Cater would just simply appear in a different location.

"Ugh! It's like he's in multiple places at once!" I groan in annoyance.

"At this rate, I'm gonna run out of firepower..." whines Grim tiredly.

In the meantime, Deuce and Ace have just been hurled back at the impact of Cater's fire whirlwind.

We are facing our first loss. It is devastating.

Cater dusts the dirt off his jacket and reminds us in a friendly manner before walking back to the dorm: "Now, go get a tart and then try again! Bye-bye!"

Once Cater is out of sight, we all walk to the exit of the garden and towards the mirror portal.

"What's his problem?!" explodes Ace in anger and annoyance.

But Deuce is not empathising with him. Rather, he is lost in his thoughts: "No matter how many times we take him down, he keeps coming back... I wonder if he was using illusion magic?"

"Maybe like a cloning sort?" I suggest. Deuce nods, agreeing with my suggestion.

"On top of that, we get turned away at the gate, just because we didn't bring a tart? After all, we hadn't brought anything to begin with. He just wanted to trick us into painting those damn roses even though he was planning to throw us out!" complains Ace, folding his arms in frustration.

"He's a shrewd one," Grim scrowls, as he commiserates with Ace.

"Then we just have to bring back a tart and try again. We can go after... Uh! Crap!!" exclaims Deuce, after hearing the sound of a bell echoing through the building.

I flinch slightly at his sudden outburst: "What's wrong?"

"This is bad, the warning bell has already rung! We're gonna be late!" Deuce explains.

Grim gasps, his face drained of colour: "Ffgna! My shining school life is going to be tarnished on Day One! Let's get a move on!"

Ace faces me. "What class are you two in? You're first years, right?"

"The headmaster told us we belong to class 1-A!" I reply.

Deuce's eyes light up: "Wow, we're in the same class. The first period is potions."

"Wooooooh! That sounds like fun!" cheers Grim, while I nod in agreement.

"I can't use magic, so I wonder how this'll go..." Ace mutters worryingly.

I pat his back gently, "You'll do fine for a day. Welcome to the club. Just hang in there till we apologize to your dorm leader."

Ace gives me a sideways smile before we all rush towards our first class.

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We finally finished painting the roses, but basically got kicked out of the dorms and was almost late for classes~ That's it for Chapter 18~ Thank you all of again for the lovely support ❤︎!

If you have any comments, questions, concerns or requests, just ask away~ See you in the next chapter~! Have a good day/evening!