Way Back When: A Backstory Tale

8

Mephisto
Coming out into the Runic forest with Praxina has been the best fun I've had in a long time. Sure, learning new spells and how to fly was fun, but this was so much better! Learning was frustrating, this was relaxing.
Now Prax and I are on our way back home. Believe it or not we've been out for hours now, and she promised we'd be back before dinner.
"So, what do you think we're having?" I ask Praxina.
"Hmmm, I don't know. What do you think?" she replies.
"I don't know, that's why I was asking you."
She laughs as we start to walk up to the front door of our house.
When we reach the door, we hear an unfamiliar voice from inside.
I give Praxina a questioning look.
"Who's that?" I ask quietly.
"I don't know," she replies.
Then she quietly grabs her key from her pocket and goes to unlock the door.
She unlocks the door and looks at me.
I nod to show her that I'm ready. Then she nods back and opens the door.
When she opens it we're hit with a wave of the scent of blood and I look over at Praxina in alarm.
"What's that??" I whisper shout.
Praxina looks just as afraid as I feel.
"I don't know!"
We stay frozen in the doorway for the next few seconds. The voice we heard from outside has gone quiet. There's someone in our house and they're not leaving.
Now I'm really frozen with fear, my eyes widen and I reach up to touch my ear piece from Praxina. I've worn it everyday and for some reason it gives me comfort to have it with me.
I see Prax move to touch her butterfly clip from the corner of my eye. She must feel the same way about hers.
"Oh klatznik! What do we do?" I scream in fear in my head.
Neither of us have moved yet. Soon enough, Praxina is the first to move.
"Come on! Let's see what's going on!" she whispers to me.
"What?? No way!" I whisper back.
"Come on! I'm going!" she whipsers.
Then she walks quietly into the house.
"Praxina!" I whisper shout to her, but she doesn't listen.
"Oh hell no!" I cry in my mind.
"I'm not going in there!"
But after a few seconds, I force myself to go after her. Because if there's actually someone in our house and they may have hurt my parents, I have to protect Praxina.
I walk up to her and she turns around. Then she puts a finger to her lips, signaling me to stay quiet. I nod.
We make our way slowly and carefully through our house. So far everything looks untouched.
But then we make it to the kitchen. There's blood and crystal shards everywhere and the cabnits are ruined.
I clench my jaw to keep from screaming as my eyes widen again.
"What happened?" I whisper to Prax. She looks terrified and all she can do is shake her head.
"Well well. The twins finally show up!" a voice booms from the dining room.
If I thought I was afraid before, I'm ready to die of fear now.
Praxina grabs my arm in fear. I've never seen her so scared.
"It's okay," I whisper in fear. Even though I'm pretty sure it's not.
Then there are footsteps coming towards us.
Praxina and I are frozen to the floor. First from fear, then we were really frozen, with purple crystal. The intruder had frozen our feet.
We tried to escape by pulling our feet free, but it was no use. We were trapped.
Soon enough we saw who had intruded our home. And who it was shocked me more than anything I've seen in my life.
The intruder was Gramorr. And he has us trapped.

Praxina
When the intruder walked around the corner and revealed himself, I couldnt believe what I was seeing. It was Gramorr, the same Gramorr who had taken over Ephidia years ago. The Gramorr with long blond hair, dark draping clothing, and that terrifying white mask that he wears over his face.
And what's more terrifying is that I realize that he is the man from my recurring dream. It was him all along.
"Oh klatznik," I think in fear.
I keep my hand firm on Mephisto's arm and he doesn't seem to notice.
"I have been waiting for you two to arrive," Gramorr says to us.
Neither of us take our eyes off of him.
"What's going on?" I wonder in fear.
"Where are mother and father?"
Just then an Ephidian tiger comes from behind Gramorr. It stands beside him and stares at us menacingly.
"You must be wondering what is going on here, why I'm here, and what I want," he says.
Mephisto and I stay frozen. We don't say a thing, but we are wondering these things.
"Quiet are we?" Garmorr says exasperatedly.
"No matter."
Then he raises his hand and shoots at our feet. Mephisto and I cry out and I close my eyes. When I open them, I notice that we are both free.
I look up quickly at Gramorr, he is watching us with amusement.
"Praxina," he calls me.
How does he know my name? Does he know Mephisto's too?
I freeze up but force myself to speak.
"Y-yes?"
"Step forward."
At first I don't move. But then I remember the damage and blood we discovered when we came home and I obey him.
I take a few steps forward then stop.
I resist the urge to look back at Mephisto.
For the next few seconds no one moves.
Until Gramorr poises to hurt me.
I gasp and step back. Then there's a flash of green and Gramorr has been hit. He staggers back but quickly regains his balance.
I whip my head around to see that it was Mephisto who shot out. He had his hands up and he looked furious.
"Don't touch her!" Mephisto cries furiously.
At first Gramorr is still and I'm not sure what's going to happen. But suddenly, Gramorr begins to cackle. "See Banes! I told you they were perfect!" He exclaimes to the tiger.
The tiger called Banes swips his tail around, clearly unconvinced.
"What do you want from us?" I dare to ask. I say it as stongly as possible to show him that I'm not afraid. Even though my heart feels like it's going to leap out of my chest out of fear.
"I'm so glad you finally asked," Gramorr says.
He looks at me, then at Mephisto. Then he starts talking.
"As you both should know, I took over Ephidia many years ago. Since then, the princesses Iris, Talia , and Aurina have escpaped to a planet called earth. I need those princesses back here, but I can not leave Ephidia, there is a force keeping me here."
I glance at Mephisto and give him a confused look.
"What's going on?"
"That is why I have chosen you two to help me. Over the past couple days I saw great potential in you two. I know you will be perfect for capturing those princesses for me."
Mephisto looks surprised, but I feel furious.
"What makes you think we'd help you? And where are our parents?" I demand.
"Ah yes. Your parents. Well you see, your parents have been kidnapped."
"What??" Mephisto and I gasp.
"It's true. And you know who took them? Those princesses."
Mephisto and I stare at Gramorr in disbelief.
"You're lying!" Mephisto cries.
"No Mephisto. I'm not," Gramorr replies.
Mephisto recoiles.
"When I came here, I could hear those princesses fighting with them. I tried to help but by the time I got there, they were gone."
I can't move. What's going on? Is this true?
"Why should we believe you?" I ask.
"Because I have proof," Gramorr says.
He holds up a pink shard of crystal for us to see. At first I'm confused, but then he casts a spell that shows us an image of the princesses kidnapping our parents.
My eyes widen with surprise and I hear Mephisto gasp.
Soon enough Gramorr finishes the spell and the image fades away.
"See? Exactly what I told you two," he says.
Suddenly I feel the same anger I felt when Mephisto and I fought yesterday. Only today the anger is stronger.
"So what? We wouldn't help you anyway, we need to find them!" I exclaim.
"Oh but that's the thing Praxina," Gramorr says in a sweet, knowing tone that makes my anger boil.
"I know exactly where they are."
At first I'm thrilled to hear that. That is, until I realize there's a price to pay.
"Then tell us!" Mephisto exclaimes angrily. He sounds just as angry as I feel.
"I'll tell you on one condition," Gramorr says.
"You have to help me capture those princesses and bring them back to me."
"Forget it! We'll look for our parents ourselves!" Mephisto exclaimes.
"But you'll never find them. Not without my help."
Mephisto stiffens up while my hands clench into fists.
"What are we going to do?" I think frantically.
Then, I know the answer. I look over to Mephisto to see if he agrees with me. When he looks at me he looks determined. So I guess we're in an agreement.
We look at Gramorr at the same time.
"We'll help you," I say.
"Excellent. We must hurry. I have much to teach you," Gramorr replies.
Mephisto and I begin to follow him out and I take one last glance at my home.
"I'll be back soon," I promise myself, even though I don't believe it.
Then we walk out the door and I don't dare look back.
Becoming evil here we come.