The Forbidden Side

Lizzie

Lizzie didn't know whether to grab it or to stay back. She knew the crown if King Z was a powerful, magical object, but the stainless, shining, gold surface called to her. She looked over to see what Erin was planning to do. Lizzie saw that her sister was backing away from the crown, and the look in her eyes told her that Erin was planning on running out of the forest. But Lizzie couldn't let her. Not yet.

"Look," Erin whispered. On the other side of the tree stump, the creature, Lazo, was grabbing at the crown. The little monkey was running forward and reaching out with his arms, but surprisingly strong gusts of wind kept blowing him backwards. It was as if there was some kind of barrier around the stump that was protecting the crown.

"I wonder," Lizzie murmured under her breath. She slowly stretched out her trembling fingers and reached toward the crown. She broke through the barrier and felt the cold metal contact her finger tips. Lizzie wrapped her fingers around the object one at a time, and then she attempted to pull the crown off thee stump and - she succeeded, the crown was in her hands, but she didn't have long to enjoy the moment. Lazo was coming after them, and the odd little creature moved surprisingly fast. "Erin!" She called, but her sister was gone. Lizzie then looked at the artifact in her hands and realized it was gone too. Well, half of it. Lizzie was standing in the middle of a clearing holding half of a crown and being attacked by a monkey. Wow, what had her life come to?

Her first instinct was to run, and since Lizzie didn't have time to come up with a better plan, she bolted. As Lizzie ran, she tried to make some sense of what was going on. "Ok, so if I have half of the crown, then Erin must have the other half," Lizzie smiled. But the smiled soon disappeared. "But, I don't know where Erin is." She sighed, and she sprinted ahead.

-

Lizzie felt like she had been running for hours. She felt cold sweet clinging to her forehead, and she took one hand off the crown to wipe it away. The crown immediately became heavy, and Lizzie quickly put her right hand back in the surface. Two hands on the crown, two girls. If you, Lizzie Z, take your hands off the crown one more time, you will never see your sister again. You will run this forest for all eternity, with no crown to help you.

Lizzie recognized the voice immediately. It had told them every single riddle Lizzie and Erin had to figure out to free the citizens of Home. She recognized the voice, and it chilled her that it was here now. Lizzie knew it was time to find out who owned the body that the voice flowed out of. "Who are you?" Lizzie shouted, and she heard her voice echo all around the forest. "Who are you?" she asked again.

"I," it said. Lizzie jumped, not expecting a response. "I, am sound of this forest, the mouth of the trees. I am The Voice."

-

Where am I? What kind of name is The Voice? Does he have something to do with Lazo? Are they good? Are the evil?

Where am I? was the first question Lizzie needed to answer. She was in some kind of leaf cage with a force field around it, similar to the one that was around the crown.

"Where am I?" Lizzie asked aloud. "What's going on?"

"It all started years and years ago, when the first of the Crown Holders appeared in this very forest," The Voice explained.  "This was K.Z."

"You mean King Z?"

"NO," The Voice started to shout, "I AM KING. K. was just a wannabe, so he stole the crown from myself and took it back to Home! No, no," he mumbled. "No, he didn't take it back to Home. He started Home. So since you are  his ancestors you must PERISH!"

Well that's unsettling, Lizzie thought. I have to get out of here.

"I don't know what your talking about," Lizzie told The Voice. "I am not an ancestor of King - I mean K Z. My last name is, um, Brimer, and I do live on The Forbidden Side, but I have simply wandered into this forest with my sister. Though, I am not sure where she is." Lizzie realized that as she spoke, she slipped into an articulated accent. She lightly slapped herself on the head for acting so stupid. 

"Foolish little girl," The Voice boomed. "I know all, and I see all."

He sees all, Lizzie though, then he must know where Erin is. But how am I going to trick him into telling me? 

While Lizzie thought, she went back to something The Voice had said earlier. He - she - it? - had said that King Z started Home. But how could that be? I thought King Z and his ancestors existed to destroy Home, not to start it.

About an hour later, Lizzie realized The Voice had left, and she was alone. She was alone with her own thoughts, and that was not a good thing. Lizzie got up from the dirt floor of the leaf cage. She had to contact Erin somehow. "We have to join our pieces of the crown!" Lizzie shouted.

"I know!" A voice shouted back. "Where are you?" Erin.

Lizzie was so happy to hear a response from here sister. She felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. At least she knew Erin wasn't dead.

Lizzie had a sudden burst of thought power. Her telekinetic waves broke the leaves and branches surrounding her in the cage. "Finally," she sighed. Lizzie took a step outside the broken branches and fallen leaves and got thrown back inside it again. Wow, Lizzie thought, someone really doesn't want me to leave this spot. She tried using her telikanieses to break through the barrier. No luck. Lizzie looked around for something, anything to break down the force field. Her eyes landed on the crown in her hands. Lizzie, using both hands, swung the crown over her head, and rammed it into the invisible barrier. The crown went through flawlessly. Lizzie was free.

"Erin!"

"Yeah?"

"Hold tight!" I'm coming to find you.