Book of Oneshots

The Squid Princess vs. The NewTubers

"You sure this is a good idea Nathan?"

"Of course Sara! Why shouldn't we trust a letter telling him to meet a mysterious person in the forest for a carnival?"

"That's exactly why! And I was asking for his opinion, not yours Seth."

"Shh. Be quiet." Nathan stopped walking, causing Sara and Seth to nearly slam into him.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Sara exclaimed.

"I said be quiet!" Nathan snapped. He looked around and then the others heard what he was trying to listen to. There was a faint rustling, though it seemed to be getting louder.

"W-What is that?" asked Sara nervously, backing away slightly. "Is it a monster?"

"Can we go home now Nathan?" Seth asked, nervousness also in his voice. Normally, Seth would've insisted that they go on. It seemed the forest was scaring them more than they thought.

"No!" Nathan snapped. "I didn't come all the way out here for nothing! Besides, you two were the ones that told me to come!"

Clouds suddenly passed over the moon, blocking it, turning the already dark forest even darker. The three young kids trembled in fear, not brave enough to go on but not willing to go back and face the consequences of sneaking out.

When the clouds cleared, a young woman with tan skin and brown eyes with a blue and black circus ringmaster costume on stood before them.

"Welcome my children! My name is Soleil Merius and I am who you'll be staying with during our little game." she said cheerfully.

The three kids glanced at each other and smiled slightly. This didn't seem too bad, though they couldn't shake the feeling that they had heard that name before.

"Oh, there's one thing that I need to mention. If you can't play, then you're dead."

Ok, that was bad. They started to back away, terrified.

"We'll just be going then-" Nathan started, but he was cut off by Soleil.

"If you turn around, there will be a cockatrice waiting for you."

Nathan froze, though his friends just looked confused.

"A cockatrice?" Sara said. "What's that?"

"I-It's a two legged dragon with a rooster's head that k-kills you when you look at it. My dad told me about t-them." Sara and Seth looked at each other and gulped.

"I-Is it really there?" Seth asked, glancing at Soleil, who was just smirking at them. Nathan nodded.

"I can feel it's breath."

It was then that Sara and Seth noticed someone, or something, breathing on their necks. They screamed, and ran towards Soleil.

"Alright, we'll play your game!" Seth exclaimed, clutching onto Soleil's leg. "Just get that thing out of here!"

Nathan felt the breathing on his neck stop and let out a sigh of relief, though he didn't dare look around.

"Oh, there's no reason to be afraid. I control all you see here, so they won't harm you if I don't want them to. But the reason I invited you is because I want more!"

The kids exchanged nervous glances and Seth squeaked "Can we just get moving?"

"Of course, of course! Look over there!" said Soleil, pointing to an old, rundown blue and white striped ticket stand. "There's the ticket booth! Feed it quickly please!"

Sara, now very grateful that her parents always told her to keep money on her, put three dollars into the stand and watched as they disappeared and three tickets took their place. She picked them up and handed two to her friends and kept one.