A different beginning (school for good and evil)

The Art of Kidnapping

The sun was gone and all of the children were locked away, watching their family lining the dark forest with torches, daring the school master to try and cross their fiery barricade. While all the villagers feared that their children would be taken Luna who had changed into a blue off the shoulder dress(the one on the right) and a maroon cloak was getting ready to hop out of the window in her room. She was going to take a walk around the village but she saw her sister sneak out and wanted to follow her to see where she was going.

 Luna hopped out of the window and looked around the graveyard. She knew that there was a guard that stayed at the cemetery all night, lifting a broken headstone to stay awake. Luna looked out at the dark forest and saw shiny blue eyes looking back at her, she froze up against the house and closed her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes. Nothing was there. Including the guard. Then she found him, unconscious over the broken headstone, torch extinguished. Creeping away from him and towards her for she was still staring at the guard was a bony, hunchbacked human shadow. No body attached. Luna felt the neck of her cloak being pulled and then she was pulled off the ground and into the air by the school master. Flying through the sky away from the only home that she had ever had and towards the village was terrifying for Luna. She was scared and confused "why did he want me? Why not Belle or anyone at the matter." 

In the distance Luna could see Agatha rushing towards Sophie's house to try and hide her. Luna was in the arms of the school master being dragged through town towards Sophie's house. He crept into Sophie's room with Luna and waited for the perfect time to get her. In barged Sophie's father white as a sheet. "I saw something!" he panted, waving his torch. Then Agatha caught the crooked shadow on the wall stepping into his broad silhouette with Luna stuck in his arms. "There!" she cried. Stephan swiveled but the shadow blew out his torch. The shadow grabbed Sophie and flew out of the window toward the dark forest. Luna could hear Agatha shouting "Someone help the school master has Sophie and my sister!" Luna could only hope that someone would save her but it was an unlikely chance. As the villagers reached Luna and Sophie their torches magically exploded and trapped them in rings of fire. Sophie frowned with dislike and stuck her nose up. "I really thought there'd be footman," she said to the shadow. "Or a pumpkin carriage, at least." Luna looked at Sophie like she was crazy " You want this big extravagant thing. You are being taken somewhere and you will never be able to see your family again and all you care about is luxury?" Agatha tried to get to Luna and Sophie but they were dragged into the woods. Instantly, the fires around the villagers were extinguished. They dashed for the woods, but the trees magically grew thick and thorny, locking them out. It was too late. 

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" roared Sophie, shoving and scratching Luna as the shadow pulled them into pitch-black forest. Luna thrashed wildly, trying to wrest the shadow's grip on her and Sophie's grip on her arm. "YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!" Sophie howled, while Luna was trying to get out of the shadow's grip. They felt themselves leave the ground. As something spindly and cold wrapped its way around them, Luna fumbled for a match in her cloak, struck it against the bottom of her shoe, and paled. The shadow was gone. they were cocooned in the creepers of an elm, which ferried them up the enormous tree and plopped them on the lowest branch. The branch wobbled, coiled back like a sling, and shot them up like bullets. Before either could scream, they landed on another branch. Luna tried to find a new match, but the branch coiled and snapped the up to the next bough, which bounced them up to the next. "HOW TALL IS THIS TREE!" Luna shrieked. The girls were ping-ponged up til they reached the highest branch.

 There at the top of the elm tree sat a giant black egg. The girls gaped at it baffled. The egg tore open, splashing them with dark, yolky goo as a colossal bird emerged, made only of bones. It took one look at the pair and unleashed an angry screech that rattled their eardrums. Then it grabbed them both in its claws and dove off the tree as they screamed. All around, gangly trees snatched at the girls as the bird dipped and climbed to avoid them, until thunder exploded ahead and they smashed headfirst into a raging lightening storm. Fire bolts sent trees careening towards them and they shielded their faces from rain, mud, and timber, ducked cobwebs, beehives, and vipers, until the bird plunged into deadly briars and the girls blanched, closing their eyes to the pain-- Then it was quiet. Luna heard Sophie whisper "It's real." and opened her eyes to rays of sun. 

Far beneath them, two soaring castles sprawled across the forest. One castle glittered in the sun mist, with pink and blue glass turrets over a sparkling lake. The other loomed, blackened and jagged, sharp spires ripping through thunderclouds like the teeth of a monster. The School for Good and Evil. The bony bird drifted over the Towers of Good and loosened Sophie from its claws. Luna looked at her with horror, but saw Sophie's face, glowing with happiness. "Luna, I'm a princess." But the bird dropped Luna instead. The last thing Luna heard while plummeting through cotton candy mist  was Sophie screaming "No! I'm Good! It's the wrong one."