Magicae: Magic

Chapter One: Lily Peterson: Ten Years Later

Living on Magicae, is not fun anymore. Leila, the bitch of a tyrant who claims to be the rightful queen (fucking liar), has us all exactly where she wants us. Stuck, since I was one. Rumor has it that the painting of Evie in what was Evie's palace is actually Evie, but nobody has ever dared to steal the painting (because they have brains, unlike me). Until today. My friends and I—Lana, Nari, Snapdragon (which is her nickname, her real name is Alarya but nobody calls her that), Ally, and Holly—are planning to steal it. It will be difficult and life-threatening and blah blah blah but if we can steal it we'll be heroes, right?

Anyway, the plan is to meet at midnight under the palace (it's in the sky on a cloud), and we'll use my length changing ladder to climb up (I need it to deal with giraffes and other tall animals, since my job is to take care of animals). Anyway, I'm walking to the palace and I see all my friends waiting. I pull out a tiny ladder from my pocket and press the button, making it huge. We all climb up slowly, afraid to look down, and after Holly comes up last, I press the button again to shrink it down to pocket-size. We all slowly walk across the solid cloud towards the huge palace. Of course, Snapdragon just runs over, blonde hair bouncing, and pulls on the door.

"Locked," she whispers and we begin to search for another way in. I see an open window near the door and point up at it. Everyone else nods and I make the ladder the right size (there are three buttons, one feet one inches, that let you determine the exact amount of inches you want it to be. The other button makes the ladder immediately pocket-sized). I slowly climb up and peek through the window. Seeing Cassandra and Emira, Leila's twin daughters, I duck down again and climb down the ladder.

"Fuck, the twins are in there," I whisper and I push the button on the ladder again. We walk around to another side of the building where there's an open window close to the ground. We slowly walk in and see the painting. It's on a wall not too far from the window. Why is Leila's security so shitty? I think, suspicious of the painting. Nari, Snapdragon, and Holly run over to grab it while Ally, Lana, and I stay behind, just in case. Suddenly, just as Holly touches the painting, a beam of light appears on top of Nari, Snapdragon, and Holly. We watch as they and the light disappears and suddenly the rest of us hear Cassandra's voice.

"I could have sworn I heard somebody." 

My two remaining friends and I hide behind a plant as Cassandra opens the door and walks in. Behind her, follows Emira. I don't breathe, I'm too scared to breathe. I nervously run my finger over my family mark, a paw print, on my neck (a family mark just shows what a person's job is) Emira shuts the window as Cassandra starts to look around the room, any second she'll find us. As Cassandra begins to look behind the plant I panic, there's nowhere to go and Emira closed all the goddamn windows! I close my eyes, wishing that I hadn't come up with this really stupid—now that I think about it—idea in the first place. Cassandra sees us and yells,

"Mom! I found some people in the trick painting room!" 

I freeze, unsure of what to do, and knowing that Leila will teleport in here at any moment. I kick Cassandra by sheer instinct and she grabs my neck, almost choking me. 

"You'll regret that!" she hisses.

I gulp. In books most people know what to do in these situations, but this isn't a fucking book, it's fucking real and scary as fuck! I look behind me at Lana and Ally who Emira has grabbed. We're too scared to fight back after what I did, and nobody wants to even move. A few seconds later, which feels like hours, Leila teleports in, using her stolen dust from the rightful queen, and surveys the scene. She examines the painting, and must've seen Holly's fingerprint because she says,

"There was at least one other with them, most likely more, but they're idiots, and won't be coming back." 

I fight the urge to kick Leila, knowing my life is on the line. Why did I think this was a good idea? I think to myself, but I know I can't change the past. Wait, I remember why, because I'm a fucking idiot. Leila ties us all to a pole that she creates and now we physically can't move. She levitates the pole and brings it down the hall and down some stairs. She's taking us to the fucking dungeons! I realize as we begin to see some old, mossy stone and iron bars. She opens a cell door and levitates the pole in, bolting it to the ground. She magically ties my left hand to Lana's right, Lana's left to Ally's right and so on until we're all tied up. Then she ties our feet the same way and ties all three pairs of hands to each of three hooks accordingly and leaves. We sit in silence for a bit, the silence only broken by a couple of frightened sniffs.

"Why did we do this?" Lana asks after a few minutes.

"I think we just thought we would be heroes, we didn't take into account the actual danger part, aka the how-stupid-we-are part," I reply.

"At least we're together," Ally says, trying to be positive, but her voice doesn't sound like a positive one.

"Where did the others go?" I ask, hoping they're okay.

"Who knows, other than those stupid fucking Savvys, of course," Lana says, pointing out the obvious.

"We know that, captain obvious," I reply bitterly.

"Can you guys see a way to untie ourselves?" Ally glances hopefully at our ropes.

"No, not from here at least, but I do see something," I reply.

"What?" Ally and Lana reply in unison.

"Food! Bread crumbs, to be precise, but still food! Who knows if they'll feed us, so it's worth trying," I say quickly in my sudden excitement. I try to reach my head or something forward to get the food, but I can't go too far.

"OW! LILY FUCKING STOP IT! YOU'RE CRUSHING ME AGAINST THE GODDAMN POLE!" Ally cries and I stop grudgingly.

"Look, girls. We tried and we failed. We were brave, but extremely stupid. All we can do now is wait for help," I say sadly, my voice falling at the last part. We all bow our heads in submission. Is this my fate? To waste away in some dungeon in the sky? I think to myself as I try to fall asleep on the cold, dark, floor.