Olwyn's Bike

Chapter 2: Scarlett being modest

Author's Note: Just to warn you, the chapter is a bit slow.

"So, you had it chained on to this one here, then you went away for around twenty minutes, and then it was gone."

"Yes."

"All right, I think that's all I need. I'll just ask if there are any witnesses."

"OK. Thank you so much, Sir."

The policeman walks away, leaving Olwyn sitting on the steps with cold tears rolling down her cheeks. Riza sits next to her with her MP3 player screaming notes into her ears and Scarlett is sitting with her hand on Olwyn's back. There are long plasters up Olwyn's leg which are stained red.

"They'll find your bike, Wyn, don't worry."

"I wish I wasn't worrying, but I just love my bike! It's like who I am. There are memories on that old teal paint and that black foe-leather seat."

"OH YEAH! Cause I--" Riza trails off as she realizes she's in public. "Oops."

"We've given the policeman your contact info so we could go now. You can ride on the second seat of my bike."

"OK..."

They headed towards the two bikes next to the empty space which used to hold Olwyn's. Riza's bike was read while Scarlett's was a cheerful yellow with purple, red and blue flowers. Olwyn watched enviously as Riza and Scarlett got onto their bikes. She followed Scarlett and sat on the second seat. Scarlett's bike is longer than the average adult's bike, and to fill up the extra space on the top it has an extra seat which is soft but lumpy and stiff.

The ride to Olwyn's house is un-eventful with Olwyn feeling depressed and Scarlett and Riza feeling sorry for her. When they got to the tall house and rung the doorbell, a tall man with dark hair and a salt-stained shirt came to the door. 

"You're back sooner than expected." he says simply.

"Hi, Daddy. I've got some bad news." says Olwyn. Her father looked at her with a disappointed look in his eyes. "Someone stole my bike."

He looks at her in disbelief for a few seconds then says sternly, "I can't believe you lost a whole bicycle!"

"Actually, pa," she says, mockingly. "I can't legally be responsible for anything for another six years. So, technically, you lost it." Olwyn starts smiling as the expression on her father's face turns to something you may call-

"Priceless!" says Riza as she takes a photo on her phone. "That's goin' on the internet."

Olwyn's father turns to go inside and grunts something as he slightly closes the door.

"My-oh-my, your father is fussy today!" chirps Scarlett in her happiest-person-in-the-world-whether-you-like-it-or-not voice.

"Never mind that. Come on." Olwyn runs inside, throws her shoes at the shoe box and jumps up the stairs and opens a blue door. Behind the blue door is a dark red one, which is slightly smaller. She opens that one to a yellow one, again, slightly smaller; then a green; then a purple. The purple one is the smallest one, and she opens that and crawls through. The room is colourful, with a large bed with a canopy at one side, a desk with a computer and lots of art supplies at the other side, and to the back the wooden floor rises up onto a sort of platform which stretches all the way along, from the right to the left of the end of the room. On the wall there is a round window surrounded by pages and pages of writing and sketches.

"When are you going to let me move in here?" asks Scarlett as she squeezes through the door.

"Yeah, me too. I asked you about five years ago." says Riza.

"It's not that amazing. Come on, we need to add this to the wall." Olwyn opens the curtains to an enormous window which lit up the room completely, ignoring the others' protests. "So, here is where we left off. Right here, where they go to the Goblins' Den. So, my idea is that they could find a ring in the mud which gives Lily the power of invisibility. But it's hard to use, so it starts and stops at all the wrong times. That means that the only ones who only have their natural powers are Angelica and Draco, but they can get their specials in the following chapters. Do you like the idea?"

"Yes, but," says Scarlett, pointing to a sketch of a gryphon, "Maya already has the power of invisibility, and Lily needs something that will enhance her other skills. Maybe something like charming, which would mean that she could make people do her bidding, which would enhance her truth-telling skill."

"That's good. And I had an idea for a new potion for Lydia which is basically a sleeping potion. It puts both Goblins and Recklests to sleep. The only cure is to dip the Goblin's/Rechlest's fingers in ice-water which has been touched by a Royale." says Riza.

"Great. So, this is what we've got so far." says Olwyn, handing a notepad to the others.

Chapter Thirteen: The Goblin's Den - Focus on Lily

The ground below hummed as the twelve feet walked along. It was getting dark and petrichor flew around with the midges and kults. They were nearing the Goblin's Den.

"This place is dark..." said Lydia.

"I think I just stepped on a snail!" said Lily. She hated snails but what she hated even more was stepping on them. They leave a gooey mush on your shoes and it's hard to get off. But she knew worrying about her shoes didn't matter. After all, they were probably going to get eaten alive by goblins any moment now. Unless, of course, Maya decided to show up. Which Lily knew was very unlikely around goblins.

"Awesome so far! But I wonder why we never mentioned the snails before." Scarlett says, taking a drawing out of her bag and passing it to Olwyn.

"Mostly it's our made-up animals that we mention, I suppose. This sketch is really good, Scarlett! It looks exactly how I imagined it!" she says, pinning it onto the wall. It was a sketch of six children heading towards a big structure with spikes all around. It had a very large, round exit which climbed to the top, and inside was the faint glow of green.

"I was going to use red for the glow, but I thought since the sky is greenish it would look slightly Christmas-y with red as well."

"It looks good like this. But in editing we can try it in red, just to see. This is the chapter beginning illustration, isn't it?" says Riza, pushing her orange glasses up her nose and examining the sketch.

"Yes. I'm also working on the cover, but I can't get Lydie's cloak right. Velvet is really hard. I asked Mam to help but she is too busy with her exhibition and everything right now." sighs Scarlett, looking down at her sketch book. Olwyn and Riza crowd round her to see. What they see is six children and a gryphon, looking at something in the distance.

"That looks like a photograph and you're not even gloating? Either you're under-estimating your talent or you're being really modest. Right, Wyn?" Riza bites her hair. She always does that when she's jealous... Olwyn thinks. 

"Of course you're right! Scarlett, you really have talent. And here you are, designing book covers for free?"

"I-I... I don't have any talent! Nobody would buy my work. I mean, I'm only a ki-I mean child!" Scarlett doesn't like saying she's a kid ever since she found out that a kid is a baby goat.

"Come on. I'll show you something." Olwyn goes to her laptop, opens it and opens up a page with a header saying "Scarlett's Artwork". "I scanned in some of your sketches and posted them here. So far you have got more than sixty thousand positive comments and a hundred negative ones. And you can tell by their grammar and punctuation that the negative comments are written by idiots. And over thirty per cent of the positive commenters asked if any of them were for sale. So, I put some of your goblin designs on sale for ninety-nine P each, and you have, so far got a total of-" Riza starts a drum roll on the desk as Olwyn clicks on a button saying "Total" "-six hundred pounds. The website prints and sends copies of the artwork for sale, and they took a quarter of the profits. But you have six hundred pounds to claim any time you want."